Newsletter Wednesday, September 07, 2016

[LaineyGossip.com - Calling all smuthounds!] Wednesday, September 07, 2016 [Intro for September 7, 2016] [Leslie Jones] Dear Gossips, Today is Leslie Jones’s birthday. And she came back to Twitter this weekend to celebrate her birthday week. Leslie took a break from Twitter for almost two weeks after her website was hacked. Leslie’s first posts upon her return were about the Golden Girls. Then she thanked her fans for their support: Thanks to my fans and friends! I'm soooooo ok really. And I will always be funny been through a lot in my life and I ALWAYS GET BACK UP! — Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) [September 4, 2016] That’s what you do, right? That’s how you tell them to f-ck off: by getting back up. But what still bothers me is the fact that she was knocked down at all. And that the getting back up is an act that’s incumbent upon her, a solitary endeavour that happens only after the wrong has been committed, thus doubling down on her isolation. Prevention and protection, however, is a community enterprise and requires participation from more than just Leslie, the victim. The question is…where do we start and/or how do we continue? I’m too stupid to know or figure that out but I wonder if that would be the ultimate gift. Leslie spent her birthday eve at the Kanye West show last night. Check out how happy she looks: One of the best concerts ever y'all can say what you want about Kanye that Muthafucka is the business!! [pic.twitter.com/3ZZodO5S5t] — Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) [September 7, 2016] What makes Leslie the best of course is not just her enthusiasm but her randomness. Like after all this Twitter time she still can’t figure out where the actual camera is: [pic.twitter.com/QzEo6OzI8E] — Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) [September 7, 2016] Happy Birthday, Leslie Jones. As she would say, #LJSlayAllDay Yours in gossip, Lainey [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 1:30 PM [Smutty Social Media, September 7, 2016] [Chloe Grace Moretz in New York for New York Fashion Week, September 7, 2016] This is a couple of days old but an Enquirer cover with an out-of-contex “gotcha” picture and George Wallace’s caption is so simple and perfect. Yeah join the club, buddy. [pic.twitter.com/Z7ZVmqzbEg] — George Wallace (@MrGeorgeWallace) [August 31, 2016] Wait, did Kelly Rowland go to Beyoncé’s birthday party in a costume inspired by Beyoncé’s Foxxy Cleopatra from Austin Power’s Goldmember? ["Love to love ya baby"] A photo posted by kellyrowland (@kellyrowland) on Sep 6, 2016 at 9:27pm PDT This movie is going to educate so many people. Thank you to "when the bough breaks" for teaching me it isn't "bow" — christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) [September 7, 2016] Like many 80s movies, Taylor Swift’s video director (that’s the only thing I know him by) wants to explain to you why you shouldn’t date good looking guys. Stay in your lane with the homely nerds if you wanted to be treated right, ladies. Girls at some point face the horrible fact that the best looking guys usually suck and good boyfriends look like me. Sorry. Life is shit. — Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) [September 5, 2016] Ya 19-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz playing a reporter sounds like Oscar bait. [#tiff2016 here we come #brainonfire] A photo posted by Chloe Grace Moretz (@chloegmoretz) on Sep 7, 2016 at 4:56am PDT James Wilkie is so grown up! Who do you think arranged this meet and greet, SJP? I think so, Mrs. West loves her. [See he smiles!!] A photo posted by James Broderick (@w1lkie) on Sep 6, 2016 at 5:14pm PDT I like Zendaya’s stripes but I have a shirt like this and I look like a referee when I wear it. [#blackoutday] A photo posted by Zendaya (@zendaya) on Sep 6, 2016 at 1:26pm PDT I wonder if in 5 months Amy Schumer is going to talk about how much she hated this party. [Learning my best angles] A photo posted by @amyschumer on Sep 6, 2016 at 1:41pm PDT [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 7:18 PM [Ryan Coogler, artist above competition] Earlier this year the Academy made good on its promise to become more inclusive by inviting an [unprecedented number] of new members, many of whom are women and minorities working in film. Among these was [Ryan Coogler], writer/director of Fruitvale Station, Creed, and the upcoming Black Panther movie. Coogler is undoubtedly a huge talent, and someone destined for Oscar nominations—should have gotten a couple for Creed already, but whatever—and a place among the most recognizable working filmmakers today. Coogler is the future, and exactly the kind of person and filmmaker the Academy would like to hold up as a representative of their more inclusive membership. Except he turned them down. The Hollywood Reporter published just this morning that Coogler has yet to send in his acceptance letter, and sources claim he’s “not interested in joining” the Academy. THR cites sources that claim Coogler isn’t motivated by politics, but instead is “uninterested in judging other people’s art”, which could be read as super pretentious, or Coogler just doesn’t f*cking care. If ever there was a guy who just wouldn’t fuss much either way about Academy membership, it’s Ryan Coogler, one of the chillest dudes in the director’s chair. But will the Academy fuss back at him? I can just as easily see a lot of the older members, especially, taking this is as a slap in the face. They don’t have a sense of humor and they’re enraged that they’re being blamed for the membership crisis (which is entirely their f*cking fault for not seeing how the world was changing around them). To have a superstar young director like Coogler—who represents everything the Academy wants to be about in the 21st century—refuse to join and refuse to play by their country club rules? Why that ingrate! Who does he think he is?! Who does that little… Well, you can imagine where that rant ends. And if you think I’m exaggerating, within minutes of the story hitting the web, I got a text from an Academy connection that simply said, “You know who won’t like this.” And I do. They’re old, they’re men, they’re exclusively white, and most of them don’t even work in the industry anymore. But they did, and they’re not names you’re going to know. They’re not the studio heads and press men. They’re the lawyers, investors, and board members that fueled Hollywood booms in previous decades. They golf together, they own ranches in northern California and Nevada and they have estates in Montecito. They nurtured some of the most excessive, abusive moguls to ever run a studio into the ground, and when their boys wonder failed, they bought them out and gave them production funds to manage. They stay out of the press and don’t draw attention to themselves, but they can still make their power be felt. They’re the old guard, the ones to whom everyone currently running a studio or major distributor, and many of the top filmmakers, are indebted, for an internship or a break, or an investment when no one else would take a chance. They’re the grandfathers of the baseball cap brigade. And now Ryan Coogler, intentionally or not, is directly challenging the last, shiniest gate they keep. Because if the hottest filmmaker is black, that’s one thing. They’ve learned to live with that. But for that filmmaker to then refuse to kiss their rings? That’s something else entirely. It shouldn’t be a big deal. Coogler can decide what groups he wants to join. But the Academy is a highly fetishized group with a lot of masturbatory rituals, and young filmmakers are expected to participate in the circle-jerk. Ryan Coogler is declining that invitation, but he’s just one man. What happens, though, if a new generation of filmmakers decides they’d rather not play, too? [Source] [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 6:34 PM [Bond did not kill Swoki] [Daniel Craig/Tom Hiddleston] Radar Online came out with a story earlier this week about [Daniel Craig] being offered $150 million to reprise his role as James Bond and now that Swoki is dead, people are all like, oh [Tom Hiddleston] exited Swoki because he can’t use Taylor to be Bond anymore… BULLSH-T. Please consider the source. And also please consider Drew McWeeny’s [thorough analysis] of the business of Bond and why this Radar report is full of ass because EON, which produces Bond, is still working out a distribution deal. Which means they are nowhere near making the next movie since they’re still lining up the money. If they’re still lining up the money, how the F-CK are they going to offer Daniel Craig $150 million of it? As Drew points out though, that Radar headline was so delicious that it ran all over the place, even in legitimate outlets, like [The Guardian], so everyone bought it as fact. It’s not fact. Which means it had nothing to do with why Swoki ended. Bond did not kill Swoki. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 5:17 PM [Taylor’s tumultuous summer] [Taylor Swift] It started out great, didn’t it? Swoki happened with a romantic Rhode Island kiss on the rocks. Seems appropriate to use the word “whirlwind” to describe what followed the next few weeks with trips to Nashville, New York, LA, London, Rome, back to Rhode Island, and Australia. #Taymerica took over social media. And then… And then she had to deal with the receipts. And now… Now [Tom Hiddleston] [may have outplayed her] in their breakup rollout. The headlines are out there already, either As IF-ing Taylor on the angle that she wasn’t into how public Swoki became or making a point that she can’t find a lasting boyfriend and is unlucky at love, because she’s too needy and/or because she’s too controlling and/or because she’s a bitch. So how does [Taylor Swift] reset? And does she have the imagination to reset unpredictably? This is what I was hoping to see after the Reckoning of Mrs West. That having been exposed to be more calculated than she’d ever admitted to before, Taylor would drop the need to be perceived as an innocent wholesome and instead embrace her inner schemer. What will be the reinvention? There’s always a reinvention. It’s a celebrity trademark. And Taylor Swift is due for one. Her fan plane-trackers observed that she spent the weekend in Rhode Island, returned to NYC for a [convenient set of smirk shots] taken on Tuesday and by Tuesday night was back in Nashville. Nashville, where she describes herself as a “songwriter”. Is that the reinvention? Like Joni Mitchell/Carly Simon styles? Just Taylor and her guitar. The love of the music is all she needs. It’s the relationship that will never end. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 4:31 PM [Tom has friends too] [Tom Hiddleston accepts TV Choice Award in Twitter video with Idris Elba and Chris Hemsworth] As we’ve seen the Swift Squad knows how to rally. In good times and bad times, Taylor accessorises with friendship. Her friends have become her armour. They also keep her newsworthy and they enhance her “fun” factor. Look! So many people want to hang out with her, she must be the best! Now that Swoki has ended though, it’s not Taylor who’s giving us her friend face. At post time – and this could change by the minute because celebrities are best at tit-for-tat – it’s [Tom Hiddleston] who’s borrowing this move. On Monday, the same day that the [Daily Mail] led with that report that Swoki was in crisis because Tom wanted Taylor to be with him at the Emmys, beating Taylor to the first move in their breakup rollout (see previous post for my analysis of how that went down), Tom accepted his TV Choice Award via video…with help from his friends [Idris Elba] and [Chris Hemsworth]. Taylor has supermodels on her side. Tom has superheroes on his side. Tom Hiddleston gets help receiving his TV Choice Award [@twhiddleston] [@chrishemsworth] [@idriselba] [#tvchoiceawards] [pic.twitter.com/Fbq4aCnLAp] — TV Choice (@TVChoice) [September 5, 2016] He lets them tease him. He’s good with them mocking him. He’s basically showing us here that he’s being overshadowed by two formidable stars …and he wants us to see, to know, that he’s OK with it. And all of that underscores the masterful play made in presenting himself to us as the famewhore who loved the spotlight he lived in when he was part of Swoki, as if to say, yeah, so I’m not Idris and I’m not a Hemsworth so I didn’t mind when people were paying attention to me as [Taylor Swift’]s boyfriend and if I say it before you do, I have the power. OK Tom Hiddleston, I see you. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 3:40 PM [Swoki dreams, ripped at the seams] [Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston's split covers US Weekly] A long sigh for the end of Swoki summer, one of the best summers in recent gossip history. But when two famewhores break up, how do you score the split? [Taylor Swift] is a lot of things but she wasn’t alone in the spectacle. There were two willing participants in the Swoki situation and now that that situation is broken, there are two players trying to outplay each other. So please, please let’s not waste our time blaming just one of them when, as has been super obvious, nobody was being forced by gunpoint, both during the relationship and even as it ended. Because this weekend just past was a holiday in North America. If Swoki had wanted to bury the news of their breakup, they could have easily made it happen on Friday afternoon, what I call the late Friday gossip dump, when outlets and agencies have packed up for the day and fewer people are paying attention. Instead, Swoki decided to wait until the weekend was over, when people were getting back into the work and news and gossip cycle. THAT’s when they decided to make this sh-t public. Let’s closely analyse the timing of all of this. It *seemed* to start late Monday/Tuesday morning with a [Daily Mail article] about how Swoki was in crisis because [Tom Hiddleston] wanted Taylor to go to the Emmys with him and she wasn’t into it. That story lived for 24 hours, making gossip headlines everywhere. Then, before the close of the business day on Tuesday, [US Weekly] comes out with an exclusive that Taylor and Tom are over. [PEOPLE] followed shortly after with their exclusive. And then, Taylor, who’d not been photographed all weekend (she was in Rhode Island) stepped out in gym clothes for a set of [exclusive pap shots, smirking]. Coincidence or conspiracy? US Weekly actually has this on the cover of their new issue. They only posted it online yesterday. But they had to have gone to print on this by Monday. So they would have been readying the magazine on the weekend to hit newsstands today with an online lead yesterday. And then the Daily Mail beats them out with that report about Taylor not wanting to be at the Emmys on Monday, taking the air out of their exclusive. So… should Taylor really be smirking? My sources tell me that the Daily Mail report was allegedly originated by Tom’s team (his publicist is UK based), who’s apparently learned something from the mistakes of the DJ4Names School of How To Become Taylor Swift’s EX Boyfriend. Accusing her of being all about the spotlight wouldn’t look right when he wasn’t exactly miserable during all their public outings. So, a more sympathetic route might be to play like he was in the game with her, and wanted to keep playing, at an awards show where he was nominated, and she was the one who didn’t want to tap in when it wasn’t about her, and her nomination. That way, you can’t call him an asshole for pulling a cut and run on her and you can’t call him a dick for being embarrassed about being dumped. It’s not a bad move at all. No one’s going to believe him if he claims he wasn’t in it for the press, right? So, in leaning in to that angle instead, and positioning himself as someone who wanted the press but who’s been shut down by someone who loves being in the press but who claims to not want any press, he can’t be called the hypocrite. And it would appear that Tom Hiddleston seems to well appreciate that it’s celebrity hypocrisy that people can’t tolerate, perhaps more than anything else. He voluntarily admitted to and owned his thirst – subtly, but it’s there. And that strategy put Taylor in an awkward position. Because in putting it out there himself that he was the one who wanted her to come to the Emmys and taking away her ability to front first like she’s the publicity-shy superstar, she can’t say he broke her heart, she can’t accuse him of cheating on her, and she definitely can’t imply that he was afraid of her notoriety and not strong enough to live in the shadow of her fame. All Taylor can do now is co-sign his version – that he wanted the attention more than she did. Which...well… probably only the most hardcore and naïve of her fans believe. So that has become the version she has to commit to – that he was all about the love flaunt and that’s just not her style. Which may be true, to a point, since she doesn’t typically walk red carpets with her boyfriends, but the fact that she wasn’t the first to say it and, more importantly, the fact that he’s not denying it, calls into question if she really means it. And that’s the conversation right now. You read the US Weekly and PEOPLE articles with quotes like this… "She was the one to put the brakes on the relationship," a source close to the couple tells Us. "Tom wanted the relationship to be more public than she was comfortable with. Taylor knew the backlash that comes with public displays of affection but Tom didn't listen to her concerns when she brought them up." …and instead of focusing on Tom, you’re As IF-ing Taylor. As IF she wasn’t comfortable with a public relationship. As IF she wasn’t comfortable with the public displays of affection. As IF we all didn’t see her smiling and larking around on the beach, in his arms, in Italy, in England, in Australia. As IF Taylor Swift. There is no As IF Tom Hiddleston. Tom Hiddleston already called himself a famewhore. What worse could we possibly say about him? Nothing. That’s why nobody is talking about him. Are you impressed? This is pretty sophisticated gossip gamesmanship. Not bad, Tom Hiddleston. Well done. More on the Swoki split to come later today or tomorrow. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 2:52 PM [Privacy Policy] - [Unsubscribe]