Sarah Jessica Parker is still in London, living it up and promoting I Don't Know How She Does It. I haven't seen any red carpet photos of SJP in London, so I guess there hasn't been a UK premiere yet? But we're still getting a daily fashion show. This charcoal metallic number is Antonio Berardi, a designer I know little about, but he's growing in popularity. It seems like half of Hollywood is wearing him these days. I think the suit is really pretty, and very flattering on SJP's thin figure. It covers up what needs to be covered up (her arms), and the shimmer is lovely.
My only complaint is the hair. Jesus, SJP, STOP. She had a good hair day at the photo call, so why does it look like such a disaster in these photos? I feel like SJP thinks that this is "high fashion" - probably because designers send their models out on the runway with this kind of screwed up half-fro. File this hair under: Things That Only Work On The Runway.
And here are some more photos of SJP today - I love her coat in these pics:
I’m really getting burnt out on the Kardashians. It’s like a constant barrage of inane news about these twits, all converging to push their latest crappy products in our weary faces. So I’m torn on whether to even report on them today, but part of me still yearns to mock them. Kaiser calls them “gossip junk food,” and that really captures the sick-to-my-stomach feeling I get when I read too much about them, but here goes.
First we have a photo shoot they did with Annie Leibovitz to promote their new clothing line with Sears. The resulting lingerie promo photo, above, looks pieced together and Photoshopped to hell. They look like plastic dolls, basically. It also looks like someone did something to Kim’s face to highlight it so she stands out from her sisters. There’s a video of the moments they captured the raw footage for some of this mess. (Also above.) My favorite part is when Khloe looks sexy-scared. Here’s a screenshot of that moment.
Also, in the video Khloe looks like a total giant compared to her sisters. She towers over them and is about a head taller than Kim. Here’s a screenshot of that:
The ad photo shows Khloe as only a smidgen taller than Kim though. Ridiculous.
This is just what they do every day. They show up for stuff, try to act like they know fashion and styling, and put on their best sexy faces to sell stuff. Then some kid works some heavy-handed, very obvious Photoshop magic to try and make them look like “models.” It would be funny if it wasn’t so predictable.
In news about the Kardashians that’s easier to cover, Kim’s new husband-of-the-moment, Kris Humphries, had an awkward run-in with her sex tape partner, Ray J, in the first class cabin of a recent flight. Kris tried to act like he didn’t know who Ray J. was, but Ray J. called him out on it.
Also, yesterday I mentioned Kim’s really obnoxious cliche honeymoon photos in US Weekly. It gets better. There’s video, in which Kris plays grab-ass. The comparisons to her sex tape just write themselves.
Here’s Kim out yesterday in a hideous belted shirtdress in a jarring pattern that I wouldn’t even display as a hand towel. Kourtney looks slightly better in that full cobalt skirt and lace shirt, but check out her makeup!
I don't even want to discuss what is NOT happening in these photos. But I will, because I am a mangy Fassbender-loonie, and this morning has been severely depressing. There has been a distinct lack of Fassbender photos! Someone did send in a blurry Twitpic photo of my Fassie (here), and WENN only has two photos so far of my guy at the Venice Film Festival photo call for A Dangerous Method (the movie with Fassbender spanking the hell out of Keira Knightley). In one photo, it's only Fassie in profile, and the other is a group shot. So… let's talk about Keira. CB thinks she looks great, and healthier than she's looked in the past. I think she's gained a little weight too, and it looks good on her. But I dislike the flat-ironed hair on Keira - she looks prettier with her hair up, or fluffy, or just done some way where it's not laying on her face.
Keira's dress is Mary Katrantzou - I like it too. Keira can pull off this kind of style really well - she doesn't have much of a bust, and she works that like Audrey Hepburn, in high-neck, fitted bodices. I kind of think the dress would have looked prettier if the entire thing was made up of the skirt fabric.
The following photo is just for the ladies. The ladies who love some homoeroticism and the idea of Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen doing dirty things to each other (mm… biscuit tingle… now throw Fassbender in there… OH GOD).
I’m only seen one episode of “Toddlers and Tiaras” on TLC, but the clips I’ve seen online and on The Soup have been outrageous. There are mothers who shave their daughter’s legs, get their daughter’s eyebrows waxed, and who bleach the teeth of their kindergartners while they scream in protest. This latest stunt seems less personally invasive and painful to the child, but just as inappropriate. A mom on Toddlers and Tiaras was shown dressing her four year-old in a gown and a curly blonde wig, and putting padded fake breasts and a padded butt on the child for a “Dolly Parton” costume. The mom explained that she wore the same costume as a child in pageants.
The little girls who compete in beauty pageants usually get spray tans, wear makeup and glitzy dresses, but one toddler took it to the extreme – strapping on fake boobs and a fake butt for her talent competition!
In the Toddlers & Tiaras video Maddy Jackson, 4, dresses up like country star Dolly Parton for pageants, and her mom gives her the costume complete with small fake boobs and a fake butt.
"I want to show the judges how beautiful I am," little Maddy says. "I love dressing up like Dolly!"
"When she wears the fake boobs and fake butt it's an added bonus," her mom Lindsay says about the costume. "It's really funny when she comes out on stage they think it's hysterical. They realize not only is she Dolly but she has the added enhancements just like Dolly has."
Some viewers have been outraged by the fake enhancements, but they're not the ones who get to vote.
So do the pageant judges like the little girl with the grown up body?
"We tend to score really well with it," Maddy's mom says.
This is definitely not ok, but it’s not as bad as the mom who insisted on waxing her crying daughter’s eyebrows, after the daughter once had the skin ripped off around her eyes from too hot wax. (The little girl’s eye area had since healed, but she was of course terrified of going through the same thing again.) So do these shows encourage child exploitation or do they just shed light on the really obnoxious goings-on behind the scenes of the tot pageant circuit? When clips like this get the most exposure, I think the answer is clear.
Did you know that Kellan Lutz has a new Kellan Lutzy girlfriend? She's very appropriate for The Kellan Lutz. Kellan Lutz knows how to pick women for Kellan Lutz. Kellan Lutz demands beautiful women because Kellan Lutz knows how Kellan Lutz should roll with arm candy. But you non-Kellan Lutzs should know that it doesn't really matter what Kellan Lutz's girlfriend's name is. The only name you need to remember is Kellan Lutz.
Which brings me to Kellan Lutz's epic, Kellan Lutzy interview with GQ Australia. I don't even have words for how WRONG Kellan Lutz is. Even Towleroad is calling out Kellan Lutz for the Kellan Lutzy strangeness and the Kellan Lutzy Closet.
The Twilight juggernaut might be reaching its epic climax but the gazillion dollar-grossing film franchise's other sexy vampire, Kellan Lutz, isn't about to slow the pace for anyone. And conquering Hollywood is just the start of this ripped Renaissance man's ambitions…
Someone obviously missed a few classes at celebrity training school. Famous people are supposed to show up 10, 15, even 45 minutes late for a meeting of this sort, but Kellan Lutz is waiting around outside when I arrive 10 minutes early. His two hapless-looking dogs, Kola and Kevin ("I got Kola at the pound when I broke up with my first girlfriend, and Kevin we found on the street.") are sniffing at their master's ankles. Oh, and we're at his house. The famous never let you come to their house.
Lutz, 26, gives the first impression not so much of a movie star or A-list model, even though he appears as the god Poseidon in the sabre-clanking 3-D epic Immortals, and on billboards as big as your apartment building for Calvin Klein's X underwear line (he also plays a vampire in the moderately successful Twilight film franchise, the final installment of which opens in November).
Rather, at 6'1" and resplendently rippled, Lutz looks like a guy sent from some super-race of humanity to kick your arse. Well, mine specifically. He's quite affable but his black sleeveless tank top fits so tightly against his sculpted torso, it's a wonder the material holds. He's wearing fingerless black lifting gloves. His black mesh shorts flex around thighs that bulge like rotisserie chickens. His calves, under black knee-high tube socks, are bowling pins stuffed into size-12 Nikes.
Celebrities do not typically email in advance, but Lutz had written to ask me to bring workout gear. This was rather amusing since (a) magazine writers are well known to be unsporty, bookish types and (b) it sounded like he was inviting me to actually work out with him.
"Maybe we should check out the beach," he says, performing a kind of knees-up march-in-place move that one might do before, say, a run. The dogs start sniffing each other and Lutz looks antsy. "I get bored working out inside, so the beach has been my place lately," he says. "I run, I swim, I play paddleball, basketball, do some mixed martial arts. I like mixing things up." And clearly it's working for him. He looks down at me. "You into fitness?"
It's not that I'm not. It's just that any mortal man in the presence of a towering powerhouse like Lutz can't help but feel like a yellow-billed oxpecker on the back of a great hippo. Which is why I'm relieved when Kevin the chihuahua suddenly scampers off to bark at something inside. "That must be Dick," Lutz says, following Kevin into the house. "Dick's one of my room-mates." Lutz isn't dating anyone at the moment, but still. Room-mates? "I like being around people," he explains, "so I posted an ad on Craigslist saying I was looking for new blood." He looks to see if I get the joke. "Dick came by and we liked him, so, yeah, now he's one of my boys."
"My boys" is a term Lutz uses a lot, as in, "My boys all want to go to Vegas to watch the Super Bowl with me, so I say, 'Great. I'll provide the rooms and whatnot. All you have to do is buy a $400 plane ticket.' That's when my boys start moaning, 'Oh, we have no money.' But then I'll catch them spending $200 a night getting drunk with a girl. What's up with that?"
First, it's nice that Kellan Lutz shows up early for appointments. I like that in a person, because I am that kind of person. Second, "He's wearing fingerless black lifting gloves. His black mesh shorts flex around thighs that bulge like rotisserie chickens. His calves, under black knee-high tube socks, are bowling pins stuffed into size-12 Nikes." So, basically, Kellan Lutz has little chicken calves. We knew that!
But really, why are we talking about anything other than the "Dick" interlude? Kellan Lutz posts ads on Craigslist looking for new Dick. Basically. Is it weird that International Movie Star, Heartthrob, Male Model Kellan "Kellan Lutz" Lutz goes on Craigslist to get a "roommate". I wonder what Kellan Lutz's Kellan Lutzy "girlfriend" thinks about all of this.
These are photos of Kate Winslet at last night's premiere of Carnage at the Venice Film Festival. I've also included some additional photos of Winslet at the end of the post from earlier Thursday, at the photo call. For this post, my intention was merely to discuss the red carpet fashion, but I don't think I should just ignore what happened yesterday.
Sigh…
Okay. Yesterday, I wrote this post about Kate Winslet's face at the Carnage photo call in Venice. I thought (as in, it was my opinion, my disorientation at seeing what I perceived to be her tweaked face) that she looked "worked on" and "pulled". Her eyes in particular look very different - TO ME. In retrospect, I think I probably went overboard in my description of the work I "thought" Kate had gotten "done" - partly out of an effort to be funny, partly out of a real anger that I have when any celebrity seems to lie so blatantly (once again, in my opinion). A lot of you yelled at me, and some of you agreed with me. The split was maybe 70-30, maybe 65-35, with the majority of you thinking that I was a lie monster who simply had a hate-on for Kate. Lainey at LaineyGossip weighed in too, and she thinks that Kate is un-tweaked. All of this is fine, everyone is free to disagree. I'd like to offer an apology to those of you who were genuinely offended by the post. I still think Kate has been worked on, but I could have approached the issue better, I think. I shouldn't have been so strident.
Can we talk about the fashion now? Kate is wearing Victoria Beckham! Generally, I dislike blondes in shades of beige - it usually washes them out. But this shade is just dark enough so that Kate doesn't look like a piece of toast. And like most VB dresses, that sucker is TIGHT. I think it must have a built in support system, because Kate's girls are hoisted up in that dress. But the coolest thing is the back:
I really like the zipper detail. I like the shawl collar too, and I like that Kate wore a cocktail dress to the red carpet instead of a gown. It still looks glamorous even though it's not full-length. Oh, and the shoes are Jimmy Choo - meh on the glittery feet. More photos from the red carpet and photo call:
For whatever reason, Jessica Simpson continues to make headlines for her upcoming wedding even though the date is still very much in question. In Touch recently published a story that Jessica was reportedly considering pushing back her wedding date because’s been gaining weight despite her adherence to the Tracy Anderson Method. Now, In Touch has added to the story with details that Jessica is so desperate to look thinner that she’s considering “drastic action,” i.e., smaller boobs:
Most women would kill for killer cleavage. But not Jessica Simpson. The singer is so distraught over her fuller-than-ever figure, she’s telling friends that she’s going under the knife. “She thinks that if she downsizes her breasts, she will look smaller,” a friend of Jessica’s tells In Touch.
The only question in Jessica’s mind, says the friend, is when. “She hasn’t decided if she’ll get it done before the wedding,” says the pal. “She wants to, but she fears being laid up for a week or more so close to the date.”
As In Touch has reported, Jessica and fiancé Eric Johnson, 32, had asked friends and family to reserve November 11, but she’s reconsidering. “She’s in such limbo about what to do,” says the friend of Jessica, who another insider tells In Touch is terrified of being a “plus-size bride” (even though she’s not really even plus-size!). Says the insider: “Jessica wants to waltz down the aisle — not waddle.”
However, despite attempts to slim down, she’s heavier than ever. “Jessica used to never be able to resist looking in mirrors, but now she avoids them like the plague,” says the insider, who puts her current weight at the “wrong side of 140 pounds.”
Even a pre-wedding escape to Mexico (on August 25) did nothing to boost her spirits. Jessica, 31, who packed flowing caftans in place of sexy bikinis, “is at her wit’s end,” says the insider. “If the weight doesn’t come off soon, she might either call off her wedding or get surgery. She’s that desperate.” Predicts the friend, “If she does postpone, breast reduction is on her to-do list.”
[From In Touch, print edition, September 12, 2011]
Okay, I can sort of identify with Jessica here because not only do boobs physically add to a woman’s weight, but (if they’re big enough) they can sometimes also require going up a size or two on a dress, which is frustrating when it happens to say the very least. Still, Jessica can obviously afford professional alterations that would negate such a consideration. Otherwise, I don’t know what to think about this story because I cannot imagine why Jessica would voluntarily downsize two of her only claims to fame. Other than that, she carries around very large purses and claims to be a fashionista, and the world inexplicably indulges this latter facade in spades.
Also, boob reductions aren’t necessarily a permanent thing either — they can actually “grow” back (in rare cases) after a few years to their previous size. Creepy, right? Sort of like a Hydra monster.
I vividly remember seeing Return of the Jedi in the movie theater with my older cousin and her date. I was ten and was more interested in checking out whether she was holding hands with the guy than seeing the movie. Of course I’ve since seen all the Star Wars movies and enjoyed them, but they were never my thing. I’ve had boyfriends, though, that have seen the original films over a dozen times and can recite all the lines. (I’m a geek lover, what can I say?)
These are classic science fiction movies that were groundbreaking and showcased the best in special effects at the time. So there are people that are understandably upset that the massive Blu-ray release of the Star Wars saga, featuring over 40 hours of extras, messes with the original movies to make some noticeable changes. It’s not out in stores until September 16, but I guess the Blu-ray editions leaked and that’s how people noticed the differences. To me the differences seem relatively minor and cosmetic, but I’m not a Star Wars fan, and that series has some pretty hardcore fans. Here’s more, and I’ve linked the noted changes to YouTube videos that show them:
So George Lucas is coming in for some heavy criticism for altering several scenes in the Blu-ray edition of ‘Star Wars: The Complete Saga,’ which is scheduled to hit stores on Sept. 16.
At the center of the controversy is the addition of audio to the scene at the end of ‘Return of the Jedi,’ when Darth Vader throws Emperor Palpatine down a shaft; in the original, Vader was silent, but now he cries out “No!” foreshadowing the end of ‘Revenge of the Sith.’ There’s other changes, too, that are bothering fans, such as CGI versions of Yoda and the Ewoks (their eyes now blink) as well as audio changes for Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Krayt Dragon howl when he rescues Luke Skywalker from a Tusken Raider attack.
One of the major beefs has to do with the fact that the original versions of the first three ‘Star Wars’ have not been released since the days of VHS — the first DVD versions already had been altered by Lucas, who added scenes and spiffed up some of the special effects. (Most notoriously, he added in Jar Jar Binks and Hayden Christensen prequel references; clearly merchandising efforts for the new films). You would think that — like other directors who have tinkered with their work with director’s cuts — Lucas would at least include the originals along with his new cuts on DVD? Not so.
Now the folks over at SaveStarWars.com have reprinted a speech given by Lucas before Congress, on March 3, 1988, to argue for the preservation of films and to condemn those who would change films without the creator’s permission (this was at a time when the studios were colorizing black and white films to increase catalog sales).
Here’s some of what Lucas said: “The destruction of our film heritage, which is the focus of concern today, is only the tip of the iceberg. American law does not protect our painters, sculptors, recording artists, authors, or filmmakers from having their lifework distorted, and their reputation ruined. If something is not done now to clearly state the moral rights of artists, current and future technologies will alter, mutilate, and destroy for future generations the subtle human truths and highest human feeling that talented individuals within our society have created.
In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.”
Of course, Lucas was lashing out at corporate entities, not directors such as himself who want to change their original vision (or product) to make it better (or re-merchandise it).
The videos I’ve seen as evidence of the edits just show these changes and not the originals. In one the Ewoks have eyes, in another there’s a cheesy cheap-looking light emanating from Han Solo as he emerges from a suspended animation thing in carbonite. (Apologies to fans for having no clue about this.) However, the list of changes from the originals to the earlier releases are very massive.
SaveStarWars.com has more information about it, and apparently Lucas has been tinkering with these films with every release and “has refused to have the original versions of the films be seen in high quality.” Even Steven Spielberg has mildly called him out on it.
I understand the urge to make changes when you’re a perfectionist and new technology makes it possible, but it does sound like Lucas is a hypocrite for speaking out for film preservation on one hand, but messing with his massively well known classic films on the other. Still, I don’t have a dog in this fight and I probably won’t see the films again until my seven year-old is old enough. He just loves Lego Star Wars and can’t wait to see the real movies. I told him to wait until the 3D versions come out. You know Lucas is going to mess with those versions even more.
Vader cries out “no!”
The Ewoks have eyes:
This song is overdone, but this parody version of the Blu Ray changes cracked me up:
George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, are shown in Cannes in 2010. Credit: WENN.com
Back in June, Lady Gaga appeared at the CFDAs, where she was given a "style icon" award. For her appearance, Gaga appeared in vintage Versace - Donatella Versace had opened up the archives for Gaga, not only for the CFDA appearance, but also for Gaga's video for that Karate Kid song. New York Times style critic Cathy Horyn took both Gaga and Donatella to task for their collaboration, calling Gaga "embalmed" and saying Donatella should be "choosier" with opening the archives. Well, Gaga has responded to Horyn in her monthly column for V Magazine. We've covered Gaga's previous columns for V Magazinehere and here - Gaga is especially crazy when she's writing. So, here goes nothing:
Date: September 2011 Re: Extreme Critic Fundamentalism From: M†SS. GAGA To: Stephen Gan Copy to: Ms. Vreeland, Haus of Gaga, Nicola Formichetti, V Collective, Little Monsters, The World, Art Historians, Intellectuals, Journalists, Columnists, Cathy Horyn
Doesn't the integrity of the critic become compromised when their writings are consistently plagued with negativity? When the public is no longer surprised or excited by the unpredictability of the writer, but rather has grown to expect the same cynicism from the same cynic? When we can predict the same predictable review from the same predictable reviewer?
Accomplished creators of fashion and music have a visceral effect on the world, which is consequently why they are publicly distinguished. So why do so many notable critics seem so impervious to the emotion of the work? Why such indifference? Does intellectualism replace feeling? It's so easy to say something is bad. It's so easy to write, "One star, hated it, worst show of the season." It's much more challenging to reckon with and analyze a work. It requires research, but maybe no one does their research anymore.
So my question, V readers, is this: when does the critique or review become insult and not insight? Injury and not intellect?
I'm going to propose a term to describe this movement in critical journalism: Extreme Critic Fundamentalism. I define this term as instilling fear in the hopes and dreams of young inventors in order to establish an echelon of tastemakers. There is a difference between getting a B- in Biology with a series of poignant red marks from your teacher and being given a spanking with a ruler by an old nun. The former we can learn from, while the latter is just painful. The artist is the general and captain of his or her artistic ship, always ready and willing to take the first blow and drown if an iceberg is hit. But in reviews, should critics not reveal all the scientific, mathematical, and pertinent information to explain why the Titanic could not withstand the blow, or why other cruise ships were successful?
* The temperature of the water. * The construction of the ship. * The weight of the cargo. * The number of passengers. * The disorganization of the crew.
Where my argument leads is to the perspective space of art, which is subjective and not ultimately rooted in mathematics or physics. Is it not even more critical for fashion and art critics to be profusely informed not only in art history but in the subliminal? The public operates with the assumption that critics are experts in their respective fields. But are they? Does every critic have the soul to really receive a work in the transcendental sense? The out-of-body experience of art?
In the age of the Internet, when collections and performances are so accessible to the public and anyone can post a review on Facebook or Twitter, shouldn't columnists and reviewers, such as Cathy Horyn, employ a more modern and forward approach to criticism, one that separates them from the average individual at home on their laptop? The public is certainly not stupid, and as Twitter queen, I can testify that the range of artistic and brilliant intellectuals I hear from on a daily basis is staggering and inspiring.
In the year 2011, everyone is posting reviews. So how does someone like Ms. Horyn separate herself from the online pack? The reality of today's media is that there are no echelons, and if they're not careful, the most astute and educated journalists can be reduced to gossipers, while a 14-year-old who doesn't even have a high school locker yet can master social media engines and, incidentally, generate a specific, well-thought-out, debatable opinion about fashion and music that is then considered by 200 million people on Twitter. Take Tavi Gevinson. She's 15, and Rodarte created an entire project inspired by her. Her site is thestylerookie.com. I adore her, and her prodigious and well-written blog is the future of journalism. The paparazzi has similarly been usurped by the camera-toting everyman. That magical moment of the movie star posing in front of the Metropolitan Museum is no longer so magical. Now everyone has a f-cking cell phone and can take that same f-cking picture.
Why do we harp on the predictability of the infamous fashion critic? The predictability of the most notoriously harsh critics who continue writing their notoriously harsh reviews? Why give the elephant in the room a peanut if it has already snapped its trunk at you? That peanut was dead on arrival. To be fair, Ms. Horyn, the more critical question to ask is: when did the pretense of fashion become more important than its influence on a generation? Why have we decided that one person's opinion matters more than anyone else's? Of all the legendary designers I have been blessed to work with, the greatest discovery has been their kindness and their lack of pretense. They care not for hierarchy or position. They are so good, and so precise, that all that matters to them while they're pinning their perfectly customized garment to my body is the way it makes me feel. Perhaps the pretension belongs in formaldehyde. And the hierarchy is embalmed — for us all to remember nostalgically, and honor that it once was modern, but is now irrelevant. Peanut.
Dear Gaga: The only power critics have over you is the power you give them. By directing an entire column to a New York Times critic who called you "embalmed" (sidenote: you DID look embalmed), you just raised Cathy Horyn's profile and gave her more power. Wouldn't it have been smarter to ignore her? Or can you just not handle it when there is a major style critic who doesn't genuflect whenever you throw a steak on your head? By the way: professional, written criticism is ART too - didn't you say you would DIE for art? They give Pulitzers for professional criticism. Do they give Pulitzers for flashing your boobs at the CFDAs and then whining about it?
Yesterday we heard that Chaz Bono’s mom, Cher, had defended him against some critics who were going overboard in trashing Dancing with The Stars, and Chaz, for the fact that he is transgendered and has been named as a new competitor. Cher promised us that Chaz would win us over, and I think she’s right. In the interviews I’ve seen with him, he’s come across as very down-to-earth, likable and in fact a little shy about speaking to the press. So it must be very brave of him to not only come out as a transgender person but to compete on this very popular show.
Enter comedian Chelsea Handler and her dumb-ass minions, mocking Chaz and making all sorts of ignorant comments about him. GLAAD has asked for an apology and that Chelsea invite Chaz or another transgender person to appear:
Last night's episode of Chelsea Lately repeatedly made a mockery of Chaz Bono's transgender identity when discussing the transgender advocate's upcoming appearance on Dancing With the Stars. Host Chelsea Handler herself started the discussion off with a joke about Chaz Bono's identity and anatomy, but was joined a few moments later by two members of her all-comedian panel in using transphobic humor to mock him.
Handler's introduction:
Chelsea Handler: The Dancing with the Stars cast has been announced and, this is season 13, it includes Chaz Bono, otherwise known as Chastity Bono [laughs] before she got her penis [laughs]….
Out comedian Fortune Feimster soon said that she was personally most looking forward to watching Bono on the program, saying:
Fortune Feimster: I'm, I'm like you, I'm excited about Chaz Bono. Cause I used to watch the show…
CH: I wonder why. [laughs]
FF: It's like reality gold, he's like four reality shows in one, like who doesn't love that?
This was immediately followed by jokes from comedians Bill Bellamy and Jo Koy, who has previously apologized for using anti-gay language:
BB: I mean who do you vote off? Him or her? I don't know which one you want to do. [laughs]
JK: Does, does he/she have both parts? Like, like he's like 'I don't want to use my penis, let's use the vagina tonight.' Like [laughs] I don't know.
Of the four people onstage, Feimster was the only one to make a joke about Bono that didn't simply mock his transgender identity. The "humor" utilized by the others hinged solely on using both male and female pronouns to describe Bono and reducing his identity down to anatomy in order to ridicule him. In doing so, they are effectively making a mockery of anyone who identifies as transgender and contributing to the already dangerous and hostile climate many transgender people face.
This is especially disheartening coming from a show whose host has made a point of being publicly supportive of the LGBT community, though the content of her show has skirted with crossing the line on more than one occasion. After learning of the incident earlier today, GLAAD reached out to the show, which has yet to respond.
GLAAD calls on Handler and the show to apologize for the jokes, and asks them to invite Bono, or another transgender celebrity like Top Model's Isis King, to make an appearance and offer viewers the chance to get to know them beyond a few hurtful punch-lines.
I don’t know much about transgender people apart from reading Middlesex (which was fiction) and seeing a documentary on HBO called Southern Comfort. (I saw part of Chaz’s documentary on OWN but it was kind of slow so I didn’t watch the whole thing.) I also used to work with a transgender person, although I didn’t know him well apart from work. It just seems like we should treat and address people by their preferred gender. The way I make sense of it is to think of it like a medical issue. It’s not someone’s fault they were born in the wrong body and it’s wrong of me to judge them or tell them how to live, just as I would expect the same. It’s hard to look at this issue logically and with compassion, though, when it’s the first time that someone semi-famous has really come out as transgender in America. I think it’s important that we try, though. It’s not like jokes about Chaz should be off limits, but there are ways to make jokes that are actually funny and don’t mock his gender identity. The dude’s mom is Cher for God’s sake and let’s face it, he’s huge.
Here’s Chaz outside DWTS rehearsals on 8/31/11. Chelsea and her Botox forehead vein are shown on 8/26/11. Credit: WENN.com
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