A community in reckoning reaches day four of The Slap

Chris Rock speaks, Will Smith faces repercussions, and Daniel Radcliffe is bored

No one knows more about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock than I do. I’ve read every single thing written about it. I’m considering getting a PhD in the events of the 94th Academy Awards, and I could finish early and with honors. As an expert in the subject, I am here today to provide you with all the updates from day four of slap coverage. Here we go.

Chris Rock Speaks

At his first stand-up show since the slap, Chris Rock walked onstage in Boston to thunderous applause. Variety obtained audio of the show, where Rock said, “I don’t have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point I’ll talk about that shit. And it will be serious and funny.”

Serious and funny? Now I’ve heard it all. Continue reading →

And they want the bar's permits rescinded

On Sunday night, the hospitality workers union UNITE HERE Local 11 staged a picket line outside the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles during Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s post-Oscars “Gold Party.” Now, they claim the afterparty violated the hotel bar’s conditional use permit. The union is requesting an investigation into the party to rescind the bar’s permit, according to a letter obtained by Gawker. They plan to file the request Thursday morning.

For nearly two years, UNITE HERE Local 11 has been leading a boycott against the hotel. During the summer of 2020, the Chateau’s owner, alleged groper Andre Balazs, laid off 248 of his long-time employees, leaving them without income or health insurance during the pandemic. When Balazs announced the layoffs, the Chateau hospitality workers had been in talks about unionization, and they saw the staff cuts — ostensibly due to Balazs’ decision to make the venue a “members-only” lodge — as a form of preemptive union-busting. That summer and in the years since, the ex-staffers began to protest regularly outside the hotel, calling for the right to return to their positions, while lambasting the Chateau’s working conditions, which they claimed involved persistent racial discrimination and sexual misconduct. Around the same time, two former employees filed civil lawsuits against the hotel over similar allegations. Sources told Gawker those lawsuits are now in private talks to reach settlements. Continue reading →

Between Keith Phipps's new book and the forthcoming 'The Massive Weight of Unbearable Talent,' it's a great time for Nic Cage fans

Nicolas Cage lives in pursuit of what he calls “the Super 8 feeling.” It’s the feeling of being a kid, of loving movies so much that you can’t help but run into the backyard, Super 8 camera in hand, and reenact what you just watched. It’s the exact feeling a Nicolas Cage performance often inspires in me. When he bugs out his eyes like a silent film actor, or shouts RANDOM words in the middle of SENTENCES, or quietly sputters out an apology, I feel like I’m in that idyllic backyard with him, playing along.

I’m not the only one. The Cult of Cage spans the globe, its adherents quoting lines and posting reaction gifs in honor of our patron saint. A new text of the faith now appears: Age of Cage by Keith Phipps, the onetime editor of A.V. Club, is an entertaining and informative book that tracks the arc of Cage’s career over the course of the last 40 years. It also serves as a thumbnail sketch of Hollywood as a whole during the same period, detailing the window when a performer as idiosyncratic as Cage could bestride the box office like a colossus.

Cage, to use a contemporary term, is a nepotism baby. Born Nicolas Coppola, his uncle is Francis Ford Coppola, world-famous filmmaker and vintner. This pedigree caused Cage anguish early in his career. When he landed a small part, under his real name, in Fast Times in Ridgemont High, some of the other actors ridiculed him, saying he was only there because of his famous uncle. Phipps, in one of the book’s many great details, notes that Eric Stoltz was the most merciless. (Boo to you, Eric Stoltz! Have fun getting replaced in Back to the Future!) The experience compelled him to change his name to Cage, citing as inspiration Luke Cage, the comic book superhero he loved as a child, and John Cage, the avant-garde composer beloved by his father August, an avid listener of classical music. Cage’s very name is a marriage of high culture and low, presaging the approach his entire career would take. Continue reading →

The word you are looking for is "photographed"

Here are some sentences I have read on social media recently:

“Poet, activist and style icon Amanda Gorman covers the May issue of VOGUE, lensed by Annie Leibovitz.”

“New @ChicagoMusical photo drop: Pamela Anderson as Roxie Hart, lensed by the iconic Ellen von Unwerth.”

“Today belongs to Oscar Isaac’s new ESQUIRE editorial lensed by Guy Aroch.”

Do you see the problem? People — by which I mean social media influencers and fashionistas — are saying “lensed” when they simply mean “photographed.” Why is this happening, and how can we make it stop? Continue reading →

Two gay guys discuss Oscar Night... and more

WELCOME TO TALK HOLE, A MONTHLY TOPICAL CONVERSATION BETWEEN COMEDIANS ERIC SCHWARTAU AND STEVEN PHILLIPS-HORST. TALK HOLE BEGAN IN 2015 AS A STANDUP SHOW IN CHINATOWN, THEN A SERIES OF PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGNS AND ART ACTIVATIONS, AND NOW THIS COLUMN.

INT. BACKSEAT OF A LYFT

ERIC and STEVEN, two lanky gays in their early-to-mid thirties, bounce violently over New York City’s uneven streets, their increasing nausea a result of decades of underinvestment in public infrastructure. Eric anxiously pulls at the hairs on his chin. Steven swipes Eric’s hand from his face.

STEVEN: Stop pulling!

ERIC: My ex is gonna be at this Oscar party. I’m nervous.

STEVEN: Just remember — that article he wrote about “vibe shifts” has completely dissipated from the discourse. He can’t hurt you now.

ERIC: Gays always find a way to stay relevant.

STEVEN: Like how Andy Warhol got shot.

ERIC: Then latched on to the next generation of artists.

STEVEN: That reminds me, we should really hire an intern.

ERIC: To keep us up to speed on Gen Z art?

STEVEN: No, to shoot us. Continue reading →