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Archive: Highbrow
Highbrow: Parsing Roseanne's Anti-Brangelina Stance
Brangelina basher Roseanne Barr in 2003. (AP) I'm not sure what's more annoying: Roseanne Barr's initial acid volley at Brangelina for apparently being undecided voters, her subsequent back-pedal or her nasal whine. One thing's for certain, though: Barr's latest statements have inspired a veritable crit-storm of commentary across the Web. For the benefit of anyone out there who might have missed why it is we're talking about Barr, a woman who hasn't been relevant since Bill Clinton was president and Billy Crystal was still hosting the Oscars, the former sitcom staple leaped back into the pop culture landscape this week when she accused Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of being no more than poseurs when it comes to their reputation as humanitarians: "Angelina Jolie and her vacuous hubby Brad Pitt make about $40 million a year in violent, psychopathic movies and give away three of it to starving children,...
By Liz | August 20, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (198)
Highbrow: Monitoring the Paris-Britney Ad Fallout
After Monday's discussion, I didn't think I'd be talking politics again so soon, but Paris forced my hand. By now we're all familiar with the ad: in an attempt to diminish opponent Barack Obama, John McCain compared him to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. And despite the fact that it may not make the best Friday List inspiration, there has been some meaty opinion-making over the past week -- weighing the ad's effects on the presidential race and the bleeding of celebrity into the campaign. As expected, the comparison drew outrage from Paris's mom, Kathy Hilton, who called the ad "frivolous" and a "waste of time and money." (And quite possibly her money, since it turns out Hilton had contributed funds to the McCain campaign in the past). Slate's Christopher Beam even asked if Paris could sue the McCain campaign. Probably not, since "political speech is so highly protected...
By Liz | August 7, 2008; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (190)
Beyonce's Bootylicious Kid Ads: Over the Line?
(Image via PopGumbo.com) Yep, we know Beyonce Knowles is bootylicious, but suddenly the pop diva turned designer is at the receiving end of a torrent of criticism for marketing that image to the second-grade set. The latest from Beyonce's House of Dereon -- the fashion label she runs with mom Tina -- is "Dereon Girls." And while the clothes themselves may be innocuous enough (if trite and trendy), it is the advertisements featuring seven-year-olds in full makeup and high heels that has critics lining up to charge Beyonce with contributing to the delinquency of minors. Though the ads debuted last fall, they've been the target of a resurgent flurry of comments in the blogosphere: Asks (NSFW) blog PopGumbo: "What is the next ad going to look like? Babies wearing gold metallic bikinis while five-year old boys throw Monopoly money on them." Conservative critic Michelle Malkin, invoking JonBenet Ramsey's image...
By Liz | May 14, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (116)
Highbrow: The Dumbing Down of Barbara Walters
There was a time when Barbara Walters was considered a gold standard example of a female journalist -- a woman who had made her way to the top of a male-dominated field in an era when women in TV news were more likely to be weather "girls." She was the flesh-and-blood, boots to the ground version of Mary Tyler Moore's struggling, unsinkable Girl Friday makes good. She interviewed Castro, she co-anchored the evening news and she developed a reputation for scoring interviews with tough nuts to crack -- Saddam Hussein, Hillary Clinton (mid Starr Report release), Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin together. Now, not so much. She's a celebrity interviewer -- a white Oprah, a female Larry King, a Barbara Walters. Barbara Walters arrives at a New York bookstore to sign copies of her new book, 'Audition.' (Helayne Seidman for The Washington Post) Walters was already teetering close to...
By Liz | May 8, 2008; 10:50 AM ET | Comments (0)
Highbrow: Marion Cotillard -- Once Sound-bitten
In a scene from the 1950 Bette Davis classic, "All About Eve," Davis is chastened by an irate playwright who -- reacting to a diva-esque monologue from Davis -- asks (and I paraphrase) "what happens when actors start thinking that the insightful words coming out of their mouths are their own?" The implication was, of course, that actors are nothing without words being fed to them and that the actor who confuses adulation with respect is treading on dangerous ground. A mural in Los Angeles. (Getty Images) As dangerous ground goes, Marion Cotillard should win some kind of long jump award for jumping clear from the Olympian heights of a lead actress Oscar win all the way to the shifting ground of public opinion in just one short week. I hesitate to write about this because it takes us out of our safety zone of light celebrity mocking and into...
By Liz | March 4, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (0)
Highbrow: Lindsay Lohan's Bombshell Bid
(Reuters) Lindsay Lohan roared back onto the pop culture landscape earlier this week when (NSFW) pics of the 21-year-old rehab grad aping Marilyn Monroe's iconic "last sitting" photo shoot appeared in the latest issue of New York magazine. When we said back in January that Lohan was ripe for career reinvention, mimicry of a drug-addled icon was hardly what we had in mind. Which is probably why the spread is so effective. It is at once profane and provocative, sad and seductive. But is the 21-year-old "Mean Girls" star merely basking in the reflected mystique of the long dead Monroe or conjuring some mythology of her own? Mom Dinah described the pictures as "tasteful" and "artistic." Though taste is subjective. One woman's tasteful artistry is another's gimmicky, naked play for relevance. L.A. Times blogger Monica Corcoran asks why it is that starlets insist on "channeling" Marilyn to prove they've...
By Liz | February 21, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (0)
Highbrow: Tom Cruise's Straight-to-Video Hit
Cruise in an image from what celeb-tracking Web site Gawker calls his 'Indoctrination Video.' (YouTube) In one of the feverishly earnest videos that surfaced last week in which Tom Cruise extols the virtues of Scientology, he says something to the about the duty of that group's members to stop at car crashes because, see, only a Scientologist is capable of truly understanding the situation and providing help. In that spirit, today's Highbrow attempts to shed a little light on Cruise and his recent ramblings. Proving the old saw that there's no such thing as bad publicity, Cruise's IMDB Star Rating (I'd link, but it's behind a pay-for-play wall) has spiked since the release of the videos last week. He's nowhere near list toppers Ellen Page ("Juno") and Johnny Depp ("Sweeney Todd"), but Cruise's Scientology vids have given the actor the kind of profile bump he sorely needed when "Lions...
By Liz | January 22, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (0)
Highbrow: Weighing the Oprah Effect on Politics
Barack Obama and wife Michelle (left) with Oprah at an August Fundraiser. (Reuters) "My money isn't going to make any difference," Oprah Winfrey told Larry King prior to an August fundraising party where the daytime talk show queen helped to raise $3 million for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. "My value to him, my support of him is probably worth more than any other check that I could write." Last week, Winfrey formally declared her intention to hit the campaign trail in support of Obama. First in Iowa, then New Hampshire and South Carolina -- all key states early in the election run-up. Mused The Post's own Gene Robinson: "Now we're about to see whether the "Oprah effect" can do for Barack Obama what it did for Leo Tolstoy." If Yahoo stats are any indicator, the Oprah factor may already be moving the needle for Obama. Searches on the...
By Liz | December 5, 2007; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (33)
High Brow: Sarah Silverman -- Funny Girl?
(Photo Illustration by Liz Kelly/Photo: AP) Does Sarah Silverman Suck? alternet.org/TheNation.com. Sarah Silverman -- the thinking man's pin-up, the angel with a dirty mouth -- may deliver shock value, but does she make us laugh? I'm not so sure. Neither is writer Kera Bolonik. Bon Mots: Sarah Silverman is like sushi, a raw delicacy that people either love or hate -- and too much will make you gag. Just One More Before Bedtime! New York Times. Dubbed "Pipsqueak Paparazzi" by David Spade, two tweeners armed with $6,000 cameras ditch school to cash in on the tabloid picture game. Bon Mots: In an era when even the most mundane images of the marginally famous are fodder for magazines and Web sites, almost anyone with a camera, it seems, can make a living as a celebrity photographer. Even a couple of kids who haven't started shaving. What is Pop? Guardian Unlimited....
By Liz | October 10, 2007; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (31)
Highbrow: The Beehive Buzzes Again
Amy Winehouse. (AP) The Beehive: Amy Honey, How Do You Stand It? Telegraph.co.uk. One intrepid reporter gives Amy's top-heavy tangle a go (on tape) and finds it's more work than pleasure. Crucial Nugget: Winehouse's hairdresser, Alex Foden, uses furballs made from part-synthetic, part-real hair stuffed inside hairnets to pad out the singer's barnet, but top stylist Hari -- who teases the most famous tresses in London -- assures me that the same effect can be achieved with backcombing. Not That Innocent Slate.com. Can Britney Spears get her kids back? Slate's Emily Bazelon handicaps Brit's odds of tipping the scales of justice back in her favor. Crucial Nugget: K-Fed is hardly looking like the ideal long-term alternative here -- his drug use has also concerned the court in the recent past. Maybe he only looks good now because Spears looks so infuriating. Dream Role New York Magazine. Brother Jake talks...
By Liz | October 3, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (17)
Highbrow: O.J. Revisited Edition
O.J. Simpson in 2001. (AFP/Getty Images) Inspired by columnist Gene Robinson's thoughtful op-ed column, today's Highbrow focuses on O.J. Simpson -- one-time football star and Americana hero who in the '90s transformed into acquitted murderer and cultural lightning rod. For anyone out there who might have spent the last week somewhere this sort of news doesn't permeate immediately, like for instance Ua Pu, a brief recap: Simpson was arrested on Sunday in Las Vegas on suspicion of armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and burglary after an incident in which the former NFL-er says he was merely trying to take back some memorabilia that rightfully belonged to him. The tale of the tape (the alleged victim recorded the entire incident), though, reveals a tense situation in which guns and plenty of profanity figured. And, suddenly, we are re-glued to the news, trading "remember whens" about white Broncos,...
By Liz | September 18, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (0)
Highbrow: Lindsay Lohan Zeitgeist Edition
(Joe Hadley for washingtonpost.com) Sure, we all claim we're sick of Lindsay Lohan and her made-for-reality-TV antics, but what does her very existence say about our culture? I'm curious and would like to get your thoughts in the comments section -- but first, read what some other publications are saying: Psychologist Harris Stratyner says in the NYT that Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are "making a mockery of rehab." But is Lohan the victim of a permissive culture, shameless parents (registration required) or merely a typical addict, prone to relapse? Who cares? When it comes to celebs, the uglier the better, right? When it comes to predicting Lohan's future, though, look no further than the bottom line. More Good Reads: The Stiles Ultimatum (New York Magazine) The Simpsons Go to Paris (Harper's Bazaar) The Fug Girls See the End Times Coming (New York Magazine) L.A. Confidentiality (Los Angeles Times)...
By Liz | July 26, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (38)
Highbrow: Are 'Faux-lebrities' Taking Over Hollywood?
(Joe Hadley for washingtonpost.com) The Pisher Kings New York Observer. With a dearth of fame-worthy men, overhyped youngsters like Shia LaBeouf and Pete Wentz are taking over our culture, our thoughts, our lives. Where are you, Johnny Depp? Well Written: "In the earlier days of cinema it was the big, hunky, male stars that got the names of those pretty starlets clinging to their arms into gossip columns. These days it seems the opposite. Would we really care about this Joel Madden fellow -- he's in a band called Good Charlotte, by the way -- if he didn't date tween-kitten Hilary Duff before reportedly impregnating Nicole Richie (whose origins of fame are almost as mystifying)?" Can Nicole Richie Get Pregnant? Slate.com. When arrested in December for suspected DUI, Nicole Richie weighed in at 85 pounds. A half a year later, she's rumored to be expecting her first child. How...
By Liz | July 19, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (7)
Highbrow: Checking in With the Cognoscenti
(Joe Hadley for washingtonpost.com) Today we christen a new feature, Highbrow, which will take a somewhat regular look at the world beyond (dare I say "above") the tabloids and paparazzi-driven blogs we normally frequent here in Celebritology (though, we do love them). From our own Style, Op-ed and Outlook sections to sister pubs like Slate and Newsweek and trusted tastemakers Salon, The New York Review of Books and the U.K.'s Guardian, Highbrow hopes to provide you with a little more meat for your daily diet of celebrity culture. Featured: Brand It Like Beckham Slate.com Slate's latest Primary Source document is a six-page ad agency storyboard detailing plans to promote David Beckham's arrival on ESPN, set to the Beatles' "Hello, Goodbye." Best line: "Cut to a middle-aged Spanish woman at a newsstand in Madrid, crying as she reads tabloid articles about Beckham's move. Mascara runs down her cheeks." Beyond the...
By Liz | July 12, 2007; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (20)
Are the Pixar Movies an Animated Boys Town?
'Sup, big guy? Remy of "Ratatouille" makes the rounds. (Walt Disney Pictures) Pixar has done it again. With "Ratatouille," the studio has created another dazzling, clever, uplifting adventure, this time about a French rodent with a flair for food preparation. But Pixar also has done something else again: It's delivered yet another kiddie-centric piece of entertainment with a male in the starring role. Aside from the Harry Potter books, the Pixar films may be the most influential children's narratives of our time. With their bright, digitally rendered colors, winning heroes and stories of triumphing over considerable odds, they are the quintessential fairy tales for the text-message generation. Strangely, though, not one of them features a female as its main character....
By Jen Chaney | June 29, 2007; 08:33 AM ET | Comments (0)
