is it even possible to diss a ‘person’ who, beyond the written page, doesn’t exist? it seems pattinson is a bit weary of playing or being identified as edward (the vampire) cullen, a character in the highly popular twilight book series created by mormon extraordinarie, stephenie meyer.
just about any male actor would love to be in a room filled with thousands of hormonal females screaming ‘we love you.’ that is, unless the actor’s not into women.
but robert pattinson has gone on record as calling edward cullen a weirdo. what a revelation. i mean, not only is he a ficticous character, but edward cullen’s a teenage vampire who sucks the blood of animals instead of humans. what’s so weird about that?
pattinson thinks the tweenaged girls are confusing him with edward who he thinks, if he really existed in real life, would most likely be an axe murderer.
not really sure how he picked this up from the books. maybe he’s not really read them and his assistant has only given him the notes. meyers wrote the cullen coven as being ‘good vampires.’ or rather ones that try to be good. and talks about how they feel that everyone has a choice in life.
the great thing about reuters, the original news outlet that ran this article, is at the end, the journalist wrote: ‘cullen told OK magazine.’ he/she later corrected this error after this was pointed out in the comment section.
despite the books being, you know, poorly written guilty pleasures that are undeniably poor mistakes for authentic fantasy fiction, the books have found a humongous audience so much that they have evoled into a huge cultural phenomenon on par with the velveta cheezieness that made the original star trek popular. as stated in the comment section of reuters, these moments are rare. but i’d also like to add that they are fleeting. the whole thing could disappear as quickly as it started. just ask ex-vampire rachelle lefevre.
that headline is no revelation. but if you read reuter’s criteria for moderating comments in their blog area, you will see the following: that blog comments are only posted if they further the conversation.
what does that mean? so if you repeatedly write you know, robert pattinson sucks or bryce dallas howard gets all her acting jobs through nepotism and 10 people post ‘yeah, you’re right:’ then reuters will probably decide to only let one ‘yeah, you’re right.’ get through.
chris weitz, the director of the testosterone driven ‘american pie’ and ‘about a boy’ films and the absolutely useless ‘golden compass’ was hired for some inexplicable reason to direct the sequel to ‘twilight’ (called ‘new moon’).
in this interview with time magazine he admits that he forgot to put the author of the wildly successful book series in the film. ‘But I had kind of forgotten that she had a cameo in the first one, and she never asked, she’s very quiet and gracious about it. I don’t know if she wanted to or not. I probably should have.’ that is what some women would say is a typical guy response ’she never asked.’ i guess those tween-aged girls are wondering what sort of stuff david (i wouldn’t know how a girl thinks if she was feeding me the info on a plate) slade will forget in this next film.
it seems he’s already made his first mistake by throwing rachelle lefevre under the bus.
fiesty candian redhead rachelle lefevre was lured to comic con last weekend to promote the twilight series. the vampiress the tween-agers love to hate was abruptly replaced by a real red head yesterday. bryce dallas howard, aka ron howard’s daughter (nepotism, yes.) known more for dragging productions down (see terminator: salv and that weird m. night shyamalan mermaid movie) than bringing anything remotely similar to star power to one.
lefevre just released a statement. it’s on e! and we know how the studios like to twist their arms and force them to delete stuff. so i’ll highlight a few things in rachelle lefevre’s official statement.
“”I was stunned by Summit’s decision to recast the role of Victoria for Eclipse. I was fully committed to the Twilight saga, and to the portrayal of Victoria. I turned down several other film opportunities and, in accordance with my contractual rights, accepted only roles that would involve very short shooting schedules.” the link above has the full statement.ation
this is hilarious. it’s kevin smith’s take on tweens and their twilight obsession. gotta go seek out ‘clerks’ again. what ever happened to kevin smith?
here’s footage of peter (lord of the rings/i got screwed by new line cinema) jackson and james (i haven’t made a film since that sucky underwater movie ‘titanic’) cameron on a panel at comic con.
the tabloids have been having a field day with kristen stewart and her unfortunate joan jett mullet haircut. in this photo, kristen stewart stirkes a pose with a mid-drift revealing minor threat t-shirt as if to see, not only, ian mackaye i love you but also, f-you people magazine, i’m neither pregnant nor fat.
but the real question is, where did she get the minor threat t-shirt and does she even know what it means? does she wear it because she’s still sort of a minor. well, not really, isn’t she 18? or is she a minor threat/fugazi straight edge kinda gal?
but it’s good to see that she apparently has got better taste in music than her vampire co-star, robert pattinson ,whose been known to way poetically about the greatness of van (gag gag) morrison. we won’t even include a tag for van morrison here as that would be far too painful.
but the real story at comic-con is that ashley greene told e! that chris weitz was great and there was no screaming on the set. was she alluding to catherine hardwicke? was she a screamer? well, what about MICHAEL BAY? guess greene won’t be getting cast in hardwicke’s next movie.
if you look at the youtube comic con page for hall h, you’ll notice that stephenie meyer is not there. she was there in 2008 to push her baby twilight. so what’s happened?
has chris weitz destroyed new moon to the point at which stephenie meyer has gone underground? she’s probably not interested in pulling an anne rice and thereby destroying the rest of the franchise. so better to keep her lips zipped, right?
but this new film looks like the lost boys on steroids minus corey feldman and kiefer sutherland. the successful gothic fairy tale has been replaced by a rock n’ roll movie minus robert pattinson crooning on the soundtrack.
will the film stay true to the books? well, the books sort of suck on an artistic level. so if the film sucks too, then maybe that’s okay. but the books suck you in like a lollipop. then afterwards you feel all guilty for eatting a tofu-frutty lollipop.
does chris (i destroyed the golden compass) weitz get what makes 12 year old girls love these books? because you know, some girls don’t hit puberty until 16 or 17. so they might be into the romantic jane austen love thing with holding hands and stuff but they don’t hang out at home having masturbatory dreams about ripped muscles. me thinks those screams in hall h at comic con on thursday were those of twilight moms who should know better than to lust after such young things.
has the whole underlying religious theme been squeezed out of the film? chris weitz did an outstanding job of reducing the golden compass to absolutely nothing to the point in which it no longer even resembled a kid’s book. of course it’s sort of a good thing that people avoided that film like the plague.
but the beauty of twilight is that it’s not really a vampire/werewolf/shape shifting book. it’s a lyrical allegory grounded in traditional morals and values in the judeo-christian sense. and that kids are responding to this. if you’re an atheist/agnostic like brad pitt who recently declared this in bild zeitung, then that sentence probably just made you wretch.
but everyone has to admit that the most fascinating aspect of the twilight phenomenon is that it goes against everything that the mainstream media has been feeding tweens since the 80s. you know. sex.sex.and more sex. and perhaps that’s why zines like teen people, cosmo girl, and sassy have all closed down within the past few years.
comic con coverage on youtube. hall c. the clips up now are primarily for new moon. when i find stuff on avatar, alice in wonderland, james cameron or tim burton, will post asap. this is a super cheesie clip from new moon. it just smells terrible. chris weitz has turned this into a beefcake movie. and the whole gothic look and feel of the original is gone. whats with all the warm tones and earth colors. this is a frickin vampire and shape changer (not werewolf) movie.
looks like new moon director chris weitz couldn’t keep ashley green from the cheetos. or she’s been making loads of mcdonald’s runs with taylor lautner. in ‘twilight’ she looked petite and angelic, despite portraying a vampire. now she looks more like stephenie meyer’s.
here kristen stewart is talking to e! at comic con along with taylor lautner and she just can’t stand still. is she jonesingn for a fag or a bong (here’s kristen stewart smoking a bong)? who knows. but whenever you see the 3 main actors from twilight it’s always amazing that the young’un, taylor lautner who is like what 17 or something like that, is totally composed and unphased and never says stuff like ‘that’s a trip’ or ‘um’ ‘uh-huh.’ his parents must’ve raised him well. or he’s got the better publicist.
comic con kicks off today. james cameron unveils bits of his ‘avatar’ 3-d (snooze) movie. his first film since (snooze) ‘titanic. tweens are out in force to support the new twilight movie new moon. here’s a look at the press conference with robert (i couldn’t act my way out of a paper bag) pattinson, kristen (i’m a little fat ‘cuz i’m playing joan jet) stewart, and taylor (the adventures of sharkboy) lautner.
we’ve got about 20 or 25 years until black gold runs out. what’s next? the european union is looking to africa for answers. the last time this happened we had this thing called colonialism.
this time around one might call it economic colonialism. the european union has a plan. they want to harness the energy of the sun above and below the sahara and transport it to the 27 member countries. more details to come in a later posting about the sahara energy project. but the long and the short of it is, this could become economic colonialism.
unlike the chinese government, which is willing to invest in african countries and assist in building infrastructure (like roads, etc.) in exchange for locking in reasonable rates on natural resources, the european countries look set to just you know do like they’ve done for the last 300 years. set up shop, bring their own people in to do all the work, rape the countries of their natural resources and hire random locals to do work of ‘driving miss daisy’ proportion. let’s just hope that’s not the case this time around.
this article appeared the day before michael jackson bit the big one (or started hiding out in his mom’s basement). it’s from the guardian newspaper and it talks about the brad pitt/angelina jolie/jennifer aniston industry. apparently these 3 have been keeping the weekly rags afloat for the past what 6 years. or how ever long ago that pitt dumped aniston to hang out with his own blood sucking bisexual vampiress. aka billy bob thornton’s ex-wife.
apparently reese whiterspoon and jake gyllenhaal (or however the world you spell his name. at the moment i’m too tired to check it in bing or google). don’t sell newspapers. neither does (surprise! surprise!) kate winslet.
but it seems as the box office numbers for the trio continue to tank (–i mean, when was the last time pitt/aniston/jolie were in a successful film?and we know quintin tarantino’s ‘inglorious basterds’ will sink the weinstein company the way ‘heaven’s gate’ sunk united artists.) they’re days as tabloid fodder are soon over. jen is now in her 40s and brad pitt is pushing 50 and angelina is almost middle-age as well. the trioka has been replaced by a much younger and plastic surgery free (so far) duo (see present cover of OK, us weekly, people, ew, and so on and so on).
is it the anit-smoking laws that’s killing business or the recession? or combination of the two? why go out with friends when you could invite them over, by a 6 pack that costs as much as 1 pint in a pub and hey, you can even smoke away.
in part 3 we’ll discuss how to reverse overexposure without going MIA, which leads to underexposure of jared leto and colin farrell proportion –which is basically career ending.
would this entail avoiding all publicity for one’s films except for junkets? should robert pattinson turn down the looming ‘vanity fair’ cover? should his publicist actively lobby for him to NOT be declared people’s ’sexist man alive.’ should he avoid the teen choice awards and all comic book related conventions let alone the ‘twilight’ fan conventions and the upcoming ‘twilight’ cruise? we say pattinson should let someone else play edward cullen in the third ‘twilight’ film, ‘eclipse.’ like that’s ever gonna happen.
what would public relations expert recommend? well, if you look at actors as brands (which they are) anyone studying brand management would tell you that you have to reclaim your brand. like mcdonalds forgot who they were, but now they’re back on track.
at the moment, if we speak in terms of robert pattinson, who is ever so overexposed, we might have to take a more specific approach. because he’s not been on the market for too long.
if we go to imdb and take a look at his filmography, we can see that he’s got a short one. he was sort of a blip on the screen in two harry potter films, but every tawanda, doreen, and hermione remembers that he’s the one who DIED. beyond that, he’s got one gay film under his belt (little ashes, aka little asses) which perez hilton totally loves, then there’s this quirkly little indie british film called how to bethat is still rolling out around the world. and there’s at least one other. and we know that he was briefly a teen model.
well, if you look at his films, they’re a bit all over the place. gay. quirky. fantasy flicks. so we can see that maybe he’s not headed in a jean claude van damme direction. looks like pure action flicks won’t be coming his way.
then we have the endless stream of interviews he’s done. which with a quick look through E!, entertainment weekly, us weekly, and any random twilight fan site by any random 12 year old girl, all his interviews seem to have come out around the build up to the opening of ‘twilight’ last year. and he has seemingly only done one or two interviews (TV or print) since the. during that time, he mentioned things like ‘rarely washing’ ‘not washing his hair for 6 weeks’ (which is okay if you have a fro, but not for white folks b/c little things tend to grow), having problems getting dates, and basically coming across as a shy sensitive guy.
we would tell him to stop. stop. if you want the kiddies to quit chasing you down madison avenue and hanging out in front of the chambers hotel or the soho grand (or wherever the ‘h’ ‘e’ double hockey sticks) he’s been staying. it seems that 21st century hormonal pre-teen american girls love their guys dirty, shy and with a british accent.
keanu reeves was a heart throb for years as was the late john f. kenndy jr. i can’t recall ever having seen footage of keanu reeves being hounded by fans. but maybe that’s because he’s canadian. i recall an article i once read when john john was still kicking. and he said that the paparazzi and ‘fan girls’ (aka stalkers) never bothered him (and he used to ride his bicycle around manhattan) because he didn’t run away from them. once you start running, you’ll be running for the rest of your life.
pattinson could of course pluck his bushy unibrow and see either bruce jenner’s or michael jackson’s plastic surgeon. becuz when they’re finished, _nobody_ will be able to recognize him. so we’ll frame this directly to r-patz.
1.) don’t run when the paparazzi run after you
2.) try to come across as being as boring as possible
3.) follow jude law’s lead and do an endless string of bad movies followed by a stint on broadway where you bear all. (daniel radcliff did the same) then nobody will have anything else to say (especially if there’s nothing worth seeing). did we mention that you’ll also have to marrie sadie frost and somehow become linked to sienna miller? sorry to mention that. and just make sure the ushers confiscate all those mobile phones at the door.
4.) find a girlfriend –or a boyfriend. preferably from russia with an unpronouncable name. make sure she’s the daughter of an oil tycoon, then when your career goes belly up, you can crash at her pad with the solid gold bathroom in londistan.
5.) record an album. put it out on interscope. or better yet, warner brothers. that will simultaneously end your singing career and put a nail in the coffin of your acting one.
6.) only do ‘r’ rated movies. then the tweens can’t see them, but make sure there’s no nudity, or perez hilton will post it on the internet.
7.) don’t do ‘breaking dawn’ unless you’re hard up for cash
8.) go to all the twilight fan conventions and speak with an american accent. those girls will get bored with you quick.
9.) come out of the closet. even if you’re not in the closet. even if you’re not gay. men will never ever chase you down the street begging for your autograph. then you can have anonymous sex for the rest of your life.
10.) limit the number of interviews. don’t let people do one-on-ones with video cameras like this one. they will be edited and re-edited and respliced for the rest of your life.
we all feel sorry for beckham for having (volunatarily) banished himself to the hinterlands of football (aka soccer) also known as north america (yeah, we include canada in the mix too). he tried to get back to playing ball with _real_ football players by figuring out of getting himself loaned out to ac milan. but apparently, now he’s back. and not feeling warm and fuzzy about heckers in los angeles.
loads of people disliked george w. bush and his approval rating hovered around 36 percent or less when he left office. but despite starting 2 wars of epic proportions, there’s one thing the bush administration somehow managed to avoid. and that’s getting a GI kidnapped in afghanistan or iraq. you can bing ‘g.i. kidnapped afghanistany new york post’ if you want to watch it. we won’t link to it here because it’s an AP story.
so currently who are the most overexposed actors in hollywood? well, tom cruise and katie holmes were at the top of that list, but now it seems they’ve gone into hiding. or they’re careers have taken a u-turn of ben affleck proportions.
when tom cruise was with his boyhood publicist pat kingsley, she kept him on a tight leash and forbad journalists from asking him about his, um ‘religion.’ or so the story goes. his image was carefully managed. then he tossed his p.r. person under the bus and hired his sister, whose also a member of his, um ‘church.’ that’s when we got the image of tom cruise jumping on oprah’s couch declaring his ‘love’ for katie holmes as he did a michael jackson and found a ‘host’ –um , surrogate mother for his alien love child.
now this brings us to robert pattinson. can you not enter a supermarket or pass by a kiosk without seeing his fangs and uni-brow? this goes to show actors– be careful with those tween films. and prior to agreeing to be in an adaptation of a novel, do your frickin’ homework. tom cruise didn’t prior to bullying his way onto another vampire film, ‘interview with a vampire,’ and this most likely left lasting damage on his career.
but anne rice fans are far less intense than ‘twilight’ ones. perhaps because after 10 or 15 years of having read her books they had come to the realisation that well, vampires just don’t exist.
or perhaps this is due to the writing style. any tom dick or harry –or basically, tina, doreen or hermione can pick up a 500 page stephenie meyer novel and read it on a flight between london and berlin, except perhaps for dakota fanning. this in turn leads to perhaps a form of rabid fandome and screaming hormonal teens not seen since duran duran and wham (before george michael came out of the closet).
in part 3 we’ll discuss how to reverse overexposure without going MIA, which leads to underexposure of jared leto and colin farrell proportion –which is basically career ending. would this entail avoiding all publicity for your films except for junkets? should robert pattinson turn down the looming ‘vanity fair’ cover? should his publicist actively lobby for him to NOT be declared people’s ’sexist man alive.’ should he avoid the teen choice awards and all comic book related conventions let alone the ‘twilight’ fan conventions and the upcoming ‘twilight’ cruise? we say pattinson should let someone else play edward cullen in the third ‘twilight’ film, ‘eclipse.’ like that’s ever gonna happen.
bella swan –we mean kristen stewart, is a tad overexposed too. but since she’s been acting since at least ‘panic room,’ and guys tend not to chase girls down the street seeking autographs and she hasn’t got big boobs (so the male contingency of the paparazzi aren’t interested), she’s probably okay for the moment.
there is a huge disconnect between the music and the film industry in terms of how the publicity machine helps or hurts as we can see by contrasting the death of michael jackson with that of farrah fawcett. while fawcett’s was a drawn out ‘is she dead yet’ affair that included a well watched made for tv documentary and michael jackson’s death happened pretty suddenly, both died on the same day.
since the death of MJ, he’s sold (collectively) more than 9 million albums wordwide. and that’s just solo albums. he’s continued to capture the cover of newspaper after newspaper and magazine after magazine around the world. his family organized a public memorial so fans could get a look at his 25K gold platted casket and sunkissed kids and the albums keep selling and the family continues to court the fans.
on the other hand, actors actively hide from their fans and would never have a funeral of princess diana proportion. people haven’t run out to buy old fawcett films like ‘the burning bed.’ and even if someone could find it, would anyone be interested in a poster circa 1976 of farrah fawcett with feathered hair?
why the disconnect. because in the music industry, there’s no such thing as overexposure. because you’re selling a product. yeah, there’s a person attached to the product but in the end every t.v. appearance or mention helps a label to move more units.
it sort of doesn’t work that way with film. maybe because the actors themselves are products. we see angelina jolie everywhere. but this hasn’t helped her put more bodies into chairs at her films. her opening numbers get dismally worse. but she and brad pitt, which the guardian newspaper recently labeled the jolie/pitt/aniston industry, help sell newspapers and magazines.
but since the dynamic duo are everywhere 24-7, why shell out $12 to see their mediocre films when you can spend (in some countries) 50 cents for the ‘privilege’ of getting saucy inside information of princess diana proportion. and there in lies the problem.
how much is too much? when does overexposure set in? is it a good thing or a bad thing to be written about and talked about dailyon on E! and Eonline and perezhilton.com? it helped j.lo get down with ralph (i’ve lost my looks with male pattern baldness) fiennes in ‘maid in manhattan’ –the last j.lo film anyone bothered to see. her being on the cover 24-7 of u.s. weekly with ben affleck –spawning the bennifer industry sure helped her get more money for her acting roles (at the time) and got her a number 1 album, but it snatched ben affleck’s film career from him while he wasn’t even looking.
but hiding out doesn’t help. now affleck is totally MIA when it comes to the press and the paparazzi. nobody cares. and when nobody cares and you’re not like a character actor like dennis hopper, that’s even worse than people caring too much.
back in the 90s, i had a friend who worked with michael jackson’s publicist and she said that he actually liked being in newspapers like the national enquirer, weekly world news, and so on. he didn’t really care what was being written. he knew that that meant he still mattered.
the red prada shoes, cartier watch and the gorgeous personal secretary nickenamed gorgeous george have had the italian press twittering (pre-twitter) and teetering for the past couple of years about whether or not pope benedict the something or other is gay or merely sparkley. well it seems that now that he’s broken his wrist, this rumor has most certainly been cleared up.
you know an actor is overexposed when magazines like OK start coaxing information about tips from restaurant workers and asking movie crew members about an actor’s personal hygiene. although the ‘fact’ that robert pattinson is hygienically challenged actually originated with him. shall we rerun the film? as heidi klum, who is blond, but wise, told him at the time ‘that story will follow you for the rest of your life.’ but shouldn’t the media be reporting on other things. you know, like the iraq war? or perhaps even the afghanistan war, which actually isn’t going very well. we know ‘e’ isn’t concerned with any of that. but what about michael jackson’s kids. and whose gonna pay latoya’s rent? that stuff is you know, important too.
some cardinal fans took the time to either boo obama or his white sox jacket as he threw out the first pitch at the all star game in st. louis. curious that the t.v. stations failed to cathc his slow low one-hop ball that didn’t get over the plate. is obama incredibly lucky. or is the media really really in the bag for him. we would’ve expected more from fox. but to produce a shot that doesn’t even include home plate. we’re just waiting for the mobile phone images to surface.
while looking at the catherine hardwick, noticed that the jilted twilight director had revamped everything. the site is now built around, or rather is a social networking area. using ning fans of the auteur (well, maybe we’ll just mereley say director), can add videos and images to the site, join forums, set up groups. and within this space, or rather, on the periphery of this space one can find the director’s blog and information about her current and former projects.
no idea how old this company is. but ning looks pretty worthwhile. while reading this. you might take a look at this morgan stanley report which the guardian entitled, ‘teens don’t do twitter.’ as opposed to directing you to the guardian article, you’re being taken to financial times site which also includes a link to the original morgan stanley research paper –written by a 15 year old.
the paper is quite fascinating. twitter isn’t popular with tweens and teens (according to this admitedly unscientific report) because they don’t want to put their information out there for all to see. makes sense, right. and what about with facebook? –apparently they check in about once-a-week. but with twitter, they sign up once and due to the cost of texting to update tweets, they tend to avoid it. we could slag the whole thing off by saying, these are merely the observations of a 15 year old. and yeah, we should ask what kind of 15 year old is he? is he a trendsetting, fashion forward kinda guy? i mean, what 15 year old does an internship at morgan stanley? you know what i mean?
i think this report has something to do with the sun valley meeting of media moguls. and the fear they have in their eyes regarding disruptive media. and as we see that all things lead back to ‘twilight’ we’ve gotta wonder why all the actors from this decidedly tween film and book series and why peter facinelli, who plays the character carlise has almost 500K followers. yeah, it could be all those twilight moms, but that is doubtful.
it seems quite obvious that the jackson family and the promoter of the michael jackson memorial had final approval on which photos made their way out of the staples center event. because that’s the way things work in the entertainment industry. control access.
that the family tossed paris michael jackson –or whatever her name is, to tear up at the end of the service not only broke some people’s hearts, but confirmed that the jackson clans are masters of media manipulation. that image was sent around the globe and made the cover of 99% of most major (and minor) newspapers. to veil the kids for the first few years and then push them out on the world stage. but also (temporarily) squashed the, what nancy pelosi might call, ‘the contrary views’ of michael jackson.
but the jackson family must’ve set the kids out by the pool for a bit or used lindsey lohan’s spray tan prior to the event. cuz the kids on stage didn’t really resemble these kids.
yahoo geocities has just bit the big one. well, as of late october, the area that too many people used to meet up and connect in the 90s wird vorbei sein. as social networking sites from the now defunct friendster, to the dying myspace, to the presently popular facebook have phased in over the past 8 years to replace this once worthwhile service.
i was born the son of a black man (well, sort of) and a donor egg. i grew up in the lap of luxury. my father unveiled me to the world with a blanket about my head. it’s okay that he nearly dropped me from the balcony, because at least we were holed up in a 5 star hotel in the ‘bestest’ city in europe. he was the best father a kid could’ve ever had.
when he spoke to me –which was only after having watched loads of hours of disney movies on our monstrous flatscreen TV in his bedroom (and just prior to his loading up on jesus juice), he never ever talked down to me. he wasn’t like those dads on TV. no. you see, he was just like me.
*this post is copyright ‘a blog about whatever’ 2009.* but plz by all means, send it around.
kristen stewart, aka isabella (just call me bella) swan should fire her agent immediately. what is up with her wearing hip hugging jeans with a kelly osbourne body? and one has to wonder how any actor could be tricked by a movie studio (see summit entertainment) into signing on for 3 sequels prior to seeing the screenplays and before the second sequel has even opened. and plz kristen, don’t let dakota fanning and her washed up career hitch herself to your star. you’ll end up like the teen versions of nicole ritchie and paris hilton.
but this post isn’t really a critique of kristen stewart’s figure, relationship with dakota fanning, or even stewart’s fashion disaster. no, it’s about young actors with clueless agents. did the first contract she signed for ‘twilight’ tie her to the sequels? many questions. lots of rambling. if stewart wants to smoke up and chow down, that’s her business, isn’t it? but it could only lead to a bod of peaches geldof proportion.
one story feeds into the michael jackson/2pac/elvis conspiracy theory. the other into the robert pattinson coverup.
we know michael is alive and well and hanging out at graceland. gotta wonder about that closed golden casket. we know his brain was removed for tests not to preserve. yes yes. but maybe other tests could be a good idea. a tragic life. but well, should the u.s. congress be considering passing any sort of motion honoring you know, the man who really really loved children?
will the twilight duo of kristen stewart and robert pattinson give birth to a baby vampire. there are photos of stewart everywhere with her belly hanging out due to those super tight joan jets pants she’s been forced to fight her way into for the movie she’s currently filming. or maybe she’s just phat. but me thinks this is a rock hudson cover up scenario with stewart as pattinson’s doris day. what say you guildenstern? put out as many unsubstantiated-able (not a word, i know) rumors just to keep the tweens and teenage girls happy and clueless until pattinson gets pushed out of the closet. don’t you wonder why summit films is rushing all 3 sequels out?? it’s not just because these bloody vampires in real life actually age pretty quickly considering the caucasian love of sunbathing with and without suntan lotion (oh the wrinkles). kristen stewart already looks like she’s at least 30 sometimes. and if pattinson doesn’t wash his hair soon, it’ll all fall out before ‘breaking dawn’ starts filming.
berlin fashion week has ended. highlights rom the saturday runway shows include kaviar gauche and scherer gonzalez.
the summer 2010. the collection was solidly elegant yet vibrant in a subdued way. nine of the outfits, including most of the highly ornamental formal gowns included swarovski crystalized elements.
a more complete roundup will be added later one of the highlights of the event was the ‘green showroom’ event at the adlon hotel.
yesterday was an eventful day at berlin fashion week what with the gala magazine bruch, the esther perbrandt drinks/drums/ice cream event in which media wonks gathered in front of the designer’s store to watch models wearing the designer’s outfits sauntered down almstadt strasse accompanied by a mini brass band and drummers. it was a compelling way to show case the designer’s new collection. her handbags (in general) got a big thumbs from a WWD writer. photos will be added later as well as information on the scherer gonzalez summer 2010 collection, which was absolutely fabulous.
the death of michael jackson has caused strange people to resurface like corey feldman to give statements on the king of pop. but the real question is where is macaulay culkin. who michael jackson presumably wanted to portray him in a movie about his life (when back in the 90s he suggested a white kid play him in a film).
news of the world (yes, that newspaper) has a interview with michael from 1996 in which he is interviewed about his relationship with kids. one of whom reportedly slept in his room for 1 year.
so let us deconstruct the michael jackson media cycle. first there was the shock of his death. so the journalists report the facts. ‘michael jackson. dead at 50.’ then the story becomes a little sentimental. ‘michael jackson. king of pop. dead at 50.’ then the music blares on the street and the little shrines begin to pop up around the world in places like london, berlin, and of course los angeles. the celebrities who knew him (liza minelli, liz taylor, diana ross) give statements about what a great talent he was. that is the end of the first news cycel.
then the weekend papers hit. and publications like ‘the guardian’ do stories about ‘michael jackson the self-loathing black man.’ and magazines like ‘us weekly’ and ‘people’ in the u.s. begin running photos of michael jackson through the ages san commentary. because you know, one wouldn’t want to bring up the fact that he went from being a cute little brown skinned boy with a cute button nose to a caucasian man without one. and janet jackson cries at the BET awards which is one long tribute to a musical genius. that is the end of the second news cycle.
then ‘news of the world’ runs an interview with debbie rowe (or whatever her name is) the former dermatology assistant jackson allegedly paid 750K to stay away from the children she gave birth to who may or may not have actually been hers but who definitely weren’t his. then there’s talk about who would get the kids. why debbie hasn’t seen them in how many years. and what would michael’s 79 year old mother and his 80 year old father do with 3 young kids. meaning you know, those people are old and michael didn’t like his father. that’s the end of the third news cycle.
and so on. then the cross-examination of his strange life begins. and the speculation about his debts. and now the conspiracy theories have started, because you know, michael jackson is alive and well (well as well as he ever was) and hiding out with elvis (who must be pushing 100 by now) and tupac in tupelo mississippi eatting fried banana sandwiches and taking copious amounts of drugs. and that would have newscycles four, five, and six.
was the soon to be former governor of alaska run out of office? was the woman, who at one point last year had an approval rating of 80% and presently leads one of the few states in the u.s. that’s not bleeding from the economic recession, totally trashed by the right coast (meaning left of course) media?
what with david letterman basically encouraging baseball player (you know, the game nobody else in the world understands) alex rodriguez to accost her 14 year old daughter followed close on the heels by levi johnston (father of bristol palin’s kid) getting himself inserted into as many tabloid zines as possible, and then there’s of course the vanity fair article (the u.s. one, remember, the german one closed this year) questioning her mental states and suggesting she was suffering from you know, post baby depression during the 2008 elections.
this is sort of a trend. tends to happy to successful women. look at carly fiorina from HP and well, the list is short because of you know, that glass ceiling thing. but are the dems so afraid of sarah palin that they have continued thrashing her despite the presidential election being almost 1 year old. and despite the fact that um, barack obama, whose got less experience than palin (who was incidentally only running for vp) is now president of the united states running the country in the middle of a depression that some believe is the result of the democratic party having talked the economy down for 2 years in order to win the white house in 2008 so that they could you know install a charismatic dictator and push the country into the 21st century version of socialism (given that the 20th century version failed). but enough with the run on sentences.
will write an overall review later. this streetwear tradeshow, after a few seasons in barcelona has moved (back) to berlin. as their logo is ‘BBB’ it’s assumed they could only relocate to cities that begin with ‘B’ otherwise their whole corporate identity would have to be changed. these cities would presumably include bangkok, birmingham, boston, beijing, or something like that.
bread and butter finishes up the week in berlin
the event takes place in templehof, an old airport hanger originally designed by albert speer. funny that albert speer jr. is also a famous architect in germany. well, we hope it’s not all ‘like father like son.’
during bbb in barcelona, the whole 3 days felt incredibly intense. but berlin is a far more laidback city. which is ironic since barcelona is a beach city.
it seems the fashion labels are still quite married to aligning themselves with music and the music industry. the whole lifestyle thing seems to scream music and skateboarding to them. but hasn’t it been screaming this to them for the past 10 years? isn’t there something else out there? of course there is. there is a plethora of other outlets but sometimes people (especially those who tend to work in marketing) are limited by their utter lack of creativity. mind you, this doesn’t include _all_ marketing people. but loads of people are more interested in picking up a paycheck as opposed to making a difference.
is it just me or does kristen stewart, who is barely 18 solidly look like she’s pushing pushing 32? the photo in the link was taken on the set of the joan jet film she’s starring in. who like actually cares about joan jet. yeah, ‘i love rock n’ roll’ was an 80s anthem for mtv. but that song is for beer chugging frat boys. kristen stewart and her agent must really know her audience.
but this brings us to the question. why do teens cake on so much make up and try to look you know 25 or 30. and when these same people turn 30 they start trying to look you know 18.
this post is coming a bit late. –24 june, caught an updated version of ‘a doll’s house’ at the donmar theatre (warehouse) in central london. the henrik ibsen play had been somewhat updated and is now set in the uk. nora is the wife of a politican whose a member of parliament. the cast includes tobey stevens, christopher eccleston, and gillian anderson as nora. more details about the play later. the donmar warehouse is an intimate, relaxed place to catch a play. ‘a doll’s house’ has gotten good reviews which are highly deserved. even tobey stevens, whose sort of a terrible film actor (emphasis on film) was good.
gillian anderson signs autographs following her performance at the donmar theatre in london
the lac et mel show at the ellington hotel was a total surprise. incredibly different from designer gregor clemens’ previous collections. the colors were completely alive and geometric with lots of bright and exciting tones. the barbecue (grill auf Deutsch) after the catwalk show was well attended. –will post images later.
this blog is about a bit of this and a bit of that. a sort of ‘for the moment’ blog. and at the moment, it’s more about politics and less about other stuff. my byline has appeared in wired, l.a. weekly, s.f. bay guardian and i blogged about the film ... Continue reading »
