Gawker - Was Jesus a Method actor?

Aww

How else would Mr. Ben and Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck celebrate their recent nuptials? The two jetted off to Paris this weekend for a romantic honeymoon trip, where they toured the Louvre, chartered a love boat down the River Seine, and hit up the most expensive restaurants in town. Their children were in tow, as well, making this trip not only incredibly romantic but also a blended family affair. While J.Lo made time to get a little work in on the trip — she launched her $65 JLo Body by JLo Beauty Firm + Flaunt Targeted Booty Balm on her birthday yesterday — Ben was fully focused on his new wife and family, practically beaming in every photo. Continue reading

The Republican party is against society

When I think of Margaret Thatcher, a series of ghastly associations flits through my mind: her passionate hostility toward unions, the time she spanked Christopher Hitchens with a rolled-up  batch of papers (punctuating the blow with “naughty boy!”), and her infamous claim that “there is no such thing as society.” To put it in the grating parlance of the Trump era, the last of these has always struck me as saying the quiet part out loud — not a confession, exactly, which would imply Thatcher might have been embarrassed or ashamed by what she said, but a moment of unusually blunt honesty. Her defenders insist, of course, that the line is usually presented out of context, and it’s true that she followed it with the somewhat gentler, alternative language of a “living tapestry of men and women and people” — conceding that we might have some kind of connection to others, however frayed and threadbare.

Fair enough, I suppose. But Thatcher’s broader point was that there are only “individual men and women and families” — the people who blame “society” for their problems are accusing a non-entity, an abstraction without agency, only to turn around and demand the government take care of them. In place of personal responsibility, the environment we grow up in is taken to determine our fate, and the shiftless dropout, the deadbeat dad, and the welfare queen are all handed an excuse for their layabout ways. This perspective helps explain the right’s various phrenological fixations. Continue reading

An ode to Hollywood's sexiest doofus 

For ten long years I have been haunted by a set of paparazzi photos taken of actor/pit bull enthusiast Jon Bernthal walking one of his dogs in Los Angeles in the spring of 2012. Elements of these images I can recall instantly: the Champion sweatpants pulled up to his navel, tucked into calf-high mustard yellow socks. The mismatched Adidas sneakers. The absence of a phone, wallet, keys, headphones, and shirt. The photos are unsettling and intriguing at the same time, like a painting by one of the Dutch masters, or making prolonged eye contact with a wild animal. More than anything I believe this uniquely hideous outfit paired with Bernthal’s  totally unbothered smile acts as a visual metaphor for the trials and tribulations of adoring one of America’s preeminent hot, goofy fellas: slightly embarrassing, strangely alluring, and hard to explain to anyone who doesn’t spend their entire life on the internet. Continue reading

Jojo Siwa unleashes Billie Eilish right back

After revealing on TikTok that Fuller House’s Candace Cameron Bure is the meanest celebrity she’s ever met, Gawker Person of the Year Jojo Siwa has been targeted by the power of prayer.

In direct response to Jojo’s confession (at least according to Us Weekly), Bure posted a suspiciously timed and sufficiently enigmatic Bible verse on her Instagram story. “Trust the lord always,” the floral graphic reads. The actual Isaiah 26:4 verse is “Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength,” but we’ll allow loose interpretations for Canva graphics.

Jojo, meanwhile, has continued posting remarkable TikTok content, apparently unbothered by Bure’s vicious response. In one video, the singer glued gemstones onto her face to look like a Minion.

Later, she posted a cathartic series of clips covering Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” in the front seat of her parked Lambo, shouting along as a strong alto to the lyrics, “I don’t talk shit about you on the internet,” even though I guess she sort of did. Continue reading