Raising awareness of awareness and also, awareness

In honor of the 'Amsterdam' trailer coming out

David O. Russell is famous for a few things: Being a pretty good director, getting Jennifer Lawrence her Oscar, and, most importantly, being a huge piece of shit. He’s cruel to people on his sets, he’s gotten into physical altercations before, and by his own admission he groped his niece and then blamed her for it.

But he’s got a new movie coming out called Amsterdam, and there are a lot of famous people in it! Is a cast with Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, and Taylor Swift enough to clean up his image? Well, let’s take a look at some of his greatest hits, and then you can decide.

1999: Fighting with George Clooney

Clooney starred in Russell’s 1999 movie Three Kings while simultaneously shooting ER. According to producer Charles Roven, tensions regularly ran high on the set, with Clooney forgetting lines and Russell going over schedule. One day, Clooney saw Russell yelling at a crewmember (Roven claims he was “yelling to be heard”) and the actor decided enough was enough.

According to Roven, Clooney stormed up to Russell and said, “I told you, motherfucker, if you’re going to pick on somebody, pick on me.”

To which Russell responded, “Why don’t you just f—ing remember your lines for once?”

And then they were “tussling.” Clooney would go on to tell Playboy that Russell “yelled and screamed at people all day, from day one.” Continue reading

We are long past the “raising awareness” stage of this fight

When the news broke last month that the Supreme Court had actually overturned Roe v. Wade, my initial reaction was fear: fear for the millions of people — particularly those who are currently pregnant — in states with trigger laws; fear for the new and crafty ways technology would make it easier to criminalize those seeking, as well as those providing, an abortion; and fear over what would come next.

My second reaction was that I should brace myself for how unbearable people were going to be about it on the internet.

Alongside many well-meaning messages, genuine expressions of anguish, and the useful sharing of resources, June 24 cracked open new territory for people to make claims on social media that were either absurd, completely untethered from reality, or some combination of both. Many of the most pervasive arguments sounded like an echo of something correct, despite being practically unhelpful or simply wrong — like this declaration that, because it affects disabled, trans, and working-class people, abortion is not a “women’s issue”; or the insistence that wealthy white women will have “zero” issues with abortion access in a post-Roe world. These types of arguments are now everywhere online, usually borne of some convoluted inclusivity-minded impulse and followed by vague instructions about how the privileged demographic in question should subsequently behave in light of this unearthed truth. Continue reading

Doesn't Bravo appreciate a big swing?

Former Yankees and Mets pitcher David Cone and his wife Taja Abitbol have been named in a lawsuit that claims Abitbol set fire to the couple’s apartment in order to look like a more interesting choice as a possible cast member on an upcoming season of The Real Housewives of New York. For me — it worked!

The suit was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday by their former downstairs neighbor Daniel Rice. Rice claims the fire, which occurred on Nov. 6, 2019 in their Lincoln Square luxury high-rise building, caused the building’s sprinkler system to significantly damage his apartment. He’s suing for $320,000 in damages and claims he was unable to move back into his apartment until early 2022, after a full gut renovation. More importantly, the suit claims Abitbol set the fire on purpose to enhance her chances of being cast in The Real Housewives of New York. “Abitbol’s desire for fame and notoriety is well-known,” says the suit, according to the New York Post. Continue reading

Boris Johnson's goons interrupted her Holyrood Week recovery getaway

Sigh. It’s Wednesday, which means there’s another British constitutional crisis while the Queen has been trying to recover from the non-stop trials and tribulations of the all-consuming Holyrood Week. Will these cunts ever give her some rest? Have they no respect for her new job description, for fuck’s sake?!

Lilibet Sr. was spotted looking “pensive” as she left Sandringham Estate’s Wood Cottage, original home of her late husband’s stick, to be helicoptered back to Windsor Castle to deal with the Boris Johnson of it all, according to Express UK. On Tuesday, Will Quince, Britain’s minister for children and families, resigned over PM Johnson’s appointment of Chris Pincher, a little-known conservative lawmaker who made a drunken, disgusting, possibly pinchy ruckus at London’s the Carlton Club last week. Pincher has been accused in the past of “inappropriate behavior,” and Quince believes that Johnson knew about it all before bringing him into his hard-partying fold.

Later on Tuesday, two more of Johnson’s cabinet members resigned, Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. This puts pressure on Johnson, who underwent a no-confidence vote in June (to which former British PM Theresa May wore a ball gown), to resign. Continue reading

Music to my buds

Imagine: a hot day, the sun beating down on the back of your neck, the contours of your prosthetic nose melting off, your sweat pooling under an old-timey wool suit. What could be more unbearable? This is summertime in New York City, and you are none other than Bradley Cooper playing Leonard Bernstein in the Bradley Cooper-directed Bernstein biopic Maestro. Continue reading