Britney Spears has never truly been free and our entire culture is to blame.

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

It’s Impeachment Twosday!

I regret to inform you that the pelicans are still trying to eat the capybaras:

How this began:

#MeToo

Framing Britney Spears, a new documentary produced by The New York Times and currently available on Hulu, explores the pop star’s life, career, and the conservatorship run by her father that prevents her from having control over her own financial life and the fortune she’s created, and it has become quite the topic of conversation.

The documentary has opened up discussions about how legal conservatorships strip people of their civil rights, specifically individuals with physical and mental disabilities.

But it has also turned a harsh light on Britney’s meteoric rise to megastardom as a teenager and how abusive the media was to this young woman, especially and particularly about her sexuality. She was hounded about her virginity and attacked for being “too sexy” by even the likes of Diane Sawyer. Then her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake used slut-shaming her to further his own huge solo career. Then she marries a dingdong and has two children and the media ruthlessly attack her mothering and the paparazzi hound her day and night. It all pushes her to her 2008 breakdown and the eventual lack of ownership over her own life, some 13 years later.

And honestly, it feels like EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE GHOULS OWES BRITNEY AN APOLOGY.

In fact, the only person who doesn’t owe Britney an apology? Craig Ferguson. He was right:

This Marilyn Manson/Evan Rachel Wood abuse story just keeps on going:

Even before Wood’s revelation last week, a California senator asked the FBI to investigate the singer after multiple rape allegations were levied against him.

More women came forward accusing him of abusive behavior, but his ex-wife Dita Von Teese posted that the accounts do not match her experience with him, assuring people she left him because of infidelity and drug abuse:

Manson’s ex-girlfriend Rose McGowan also says he was not abusive towards her, but that it has no bearing on how he was with others. She, like Von Teese, supports the survivors:

Trent Reznor also released a statement saying that he has been estranged from Manson for more than 25 years now. He was Manson’s mentor and producer on his first three albums and in his book, The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, Manson claimed that he and Reznor assaulted a woman together. Reznor, for his part, has consistently denied the story.

Last Wednesday, cops made a welfare call on Manson after a woman told them she was worried that she hadn’t heard from him in the days following Wood’s accusations went public. He’s fine.

Wood then revealed in her Instagram stories this weekend that she had to file a police report against Manson and his current wife after she threatened to release underage photos taken of Wood at one of Manson’s concerts. Wood also alleged that Manson attacked her for being Jewish and would draw swastikas on her furniture when he was angry with her, and frequently used the N-word.

The New Yorker writer Amanda Petrusich wrote about this story in a piece called “The Marilyn Manson Reckoning,” that I think gets at something fundamental about Manson and artists like him who present themselves as dangerous iconoclasts offering a safe space for young people who feel misunderstood.

T.I. & Tiny: Friends & Family Hustle has suspended filming in the wake of allegations against the stars, Tip “T.I.” Harris and his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Harris. They’ve been accused of drugging, trafficking, and coercing a number of women.

Two more cheerleaders from Cheer have been arrested on charges of sex with minors. Ugh. I wouldn’t be surprised if this story reveals more rot in the competitive cheerleading world in general.

Armie Hammer has been dropped by his management company.

Andy Mills, a New York Times podcast producer, has resigned after being accused of sexual harassment.

Jamie Tarses, the first woman to ever be the president of entertainment at a major network, was held to completely insane standards and set to fail by a misogynistic system, as shown in this 1997 New York Times piece about her (which repeatedly referred to her a “girl.”) Just look at this bullshit:

The fact that Tarses is a woman, the first woman ever to be an entertainment chief at one of the big three networks, did not concern ABC, although, not surprisingly, her being a woman has turned out to be a complicating factor. ‘’It colors everything,’’ says one agent who insisted on anonymity because he knows Tarses well. ‘’This may sound sexist, but women are emotional and Jamie is particularly emotional. You think of her as a girl, and it changes how you do business with her. We’ll have a meeting and I can tell if she’s hurt by something, like I’ve wounded her personally. That doesn’t happen with Les Moonves at CBS’’ — that network’s entertainment chief — ‘’or Warren Littlefield at NBC. It’s just business with them. With Jamie, it’s more like dating.’’

And it’s this kind of macho nonsense that women are still fighting against in the business. Here is Olivia Wilde explaining her “No Assholes” policy as a director:

“Someone, who’s a very established actor and director in this industry, gave me really terrible advice that was helpful, because I just knew I had to do the opposite,” Wilde said. “They said, ‘Listen, the way to get respect on a set, you have to have three arguments a day. Three big arguments that reinstate your power, remind everyone who’s in charge, be the predator.’ That is the opposite of my process. And I want none of that.”

Wilde continued, “I think that it is an unfortunate part of the kind of the paradigm, that has been created over the last 100 years, the idea that great art has to come from a place of discomfort and anxiety. That the pressure cooker has to get to a point where it can be something intense and valuable in that way. I do think it may be a uniquely female instinct to say, ‘Look, we can be nurturing. And we can multitask.’ It doesn’t mean that anyone needs to be uncomfortable. And it doesn’t mean that I have to constantly remind you of my position, because I don’t think anyone on a set has ever forgotten who’s in charge. It’s in fact, an incredibly hierarchical system.”

Also related: Natalie Portman says that director Mike Nichols was the only male mentor she had who wasn’t a fucking creep. 

And the gorgeous Priyanka Chopra reveals that a director suggested she get plastic surgery, and her manager agreed with him:

“After a few minutes of small talk, the director/producer told me to stand up and twirl for him,” Chopra Jonas writes. “I did. He stared at me long and hard, assessing me, and then suggested that I get a boob job, fix my jaw, and add a little more cushioning to my butt. If I wanted to be an actress, he said, I’d need to have my proportions ‘fixed,’ and he knew a great doctor in [Los Angeles] he could send me to. My then-manager voiced his agreement with the assessment.”

The time Chelsea Handler went to a dinner party at Jeffrey Epstein’s house and asked Woody Allen how he met Soon Yi. Hero.

Vice Media Group, which was co-founded by a piece of shit White supremacist and Proud Boys leader, Gavin McInnes before his ass was kicked out of the business, is now majority women and in 2020, most of their hires were Black, indigenous, or people of color. GOOD FOR THEM. FUCK YOU, GAVIN.

All Other TV News

The Critics Choice Awards have announced their nominees for film and television. The full list of nominees can be found here.

Best drama series:

Better Call Saul (AMC)
The Crown (Netflix)
The Good Fight (CBS All Access)
Lovecraft Country (HBO)
The Mandalorian (Disney+)
Ozark (Netflix)
Perry Mason (HBO)
This Is Us (NBC)

Best comedy series:

Better Things (FX)
The Flight Attendant (HBO Max)
Mom (CBS)
PEN15 (Hulu)
Ramy (Hulu)
Schitt’s Creek (Pop)
Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

I can endorse this.

AARP has created a “TV for Grownups” award, and I feel personally attacked.

The first nominees for TV series are:

Perry Mason (HBO)
Succession (HBO)
Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
The Crown (Netflix)
This Is Us (NBC)

In limited series/movies, the nominees are:

Mrs. America (FX)
Small Axe (Amazon)
The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
Unorthodox (Netflix)
Watchmen (HBO)

As for the acting categories:

The Television/Streaming nominees for Best Actress are Jennifer Aniston (The Morning Show), Cate Blanchett (Mrs. America), Regina King (Watchmen), Laura Linney (Ozark), and Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek).

In the Best Actor category, Jason Bateman (Ozark), Ted Danson (The Good Place), Hugh Grant (The Undoing), Ethan Hawke (The Good Lord Bird), and Mark Ruffalo (I Know This Much is True).

I can’t argue with these, but I do want to know what the calendar for nominees is, seeing as Watchmen aired entirely in 2019.

Here is someone overthinking The Falcon and the Winter Soldier trailer that was recently released.

Superman & Lois — which will originally air on The CW — will be re-run on TBS and TNT. And TBS’s Go Big Show will be rerun on The CW. WarnerMedia making that synergy work for them. 

Yes, Claudia Conway will be on American Idol this season.

You can buy the Schitt’s Creek mansion for $15 million.

No one wanted to watch the Super Bowl for some reason.

Congratulations, Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley!

Going Viral

We are continuing to tick down in the number of cases, dropping some 36% for the past two weeks, which is terrific.

After researching the issue, W.H.O. has said it is unlikely the virus came from a Chinese lab, and that it most likely came from a “natural reservoir.”

Well, this isn’t great. PAY YOUR WORKERS, GROCERY STORES:

Brookings found that 13 of the largest retail and grocery companies in the United States earned $17.7 billion more in the first three quarters of 2020 than they did a year earlier, but most stopped offering extra compensation to their associates in the early summer. At the same time, some opted to buy back shares and gave big sums to executives. The United Food and Commercial Workers union said that at least 28,700 grocery workers around the country had been infected with or exposed to the coronavirus and at least 134 of the workers have died from the virus.

An Iranian cleric is claiming that the vaccine turns you gay. SCIENCE!

Renewals

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

  • The Bridge will premiere on HBO Max on February 11.
  • Own the Room will debut on Disney+ on March 12.
  • Beartown will premiere on HBO Max on February 22.

R.I.P.

Billy Brown, Star of Alaskan Bush People

Mary Wilson, Supremes co-founder

Jean-Claude Carriere, Oscar-winning screenwriter

Giuseppe Rotunno, Italian cinematographer who collaborated with Federico Fellini

WATCH THIS

Black Art: In the Absence of Light: This film explores a number of contemporary Black artists and their contributions to the art world. 8 p.m., HBO

This is Us: This Is Us is finally back after a pandemic-related break and it seems Kevin is on a road trip. 8 p.m., NBC

Queen Sugar: Season five premiere. 7 p.m., OWN

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, LaKeith Stanfield, Joy Oladokun
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers: Casey Affleck, Anthony Atamanuik
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: ohn Oliver, Ingrid Andress
  • The Late Late Show with James Corden: Elle Fanning, Sabrina Carpenter
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live: Wanda Sykes, Lucas Hedges, Waxahatchee
  • The Daily Show: The Daily Social Distancing Show
  • Watch What Happens Live: Vanessa Bayer, Fortune Feimster
  • A Little Late with Lily Singh: Jagmeet Singh

TUES. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC To Tell the Truth

(new)		 black-ish

(new)		 mixed-ish

(new)		 Big Sky
(new)
CBS NCIS
(new)		 FBI
(new)		 FBI: Most Wanted
(new)
CW Two Sentence Horror Stories
(new)		 Two Sentence Horror Stories
(repeat)		 Trickster
(new)		 Local
FOX The Resident
(new)		 Prodigal Son
(new)		 News/Local
NBC Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
(new)		 This Is Us
(new)		 Nurses
(new)

One thought on “Britney Spears has never truly been free and our entire culture is to blame.”

  1. I personally feel like stock by backs should be outlawed. Its the easiest way to raise a companies stock and it has no risk, so that’s all they do. No investment in employees or the future.

    Reply

Leave a Reply