- I love reading articles by Bill Simmons, aka the SportsGuy. He writes from a fan's perspective, throws in a lot of random pop culture references, and constantly makes fun of things. Perfect reading, as far as I'm concerned. And on his weekly football picks, his wife writes a little blurb and makes her football picks as well. Her writing's still new to me, but I'm pretty sure I'd like her if I met her...
- I have a love-hate relationship with the melding of names of celebrity couples, such as Bennifer (versions 1 and 2), Brangelina, TomKat and Vaughniston. I love anything that allows me to cut out syllables*, but I hate that we now have to do it for every couple and that it's a little, well, smarmy, I guess. Just a weird thing for fans to do. But, the saving of syllables, and in the case of typing, keystrokes, is enough to warrant my using Brangelina in the title. Just know that I hate myself a little for doing it.
And now for the post - I just read this in the SportsGal's comments for the week, and I thought it was great. Totally true for me, too. And I really hope I'm not breaking any copywrite laws or anything by reposting - but I found this at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/061221 on 12/24/06. Maybe that semi-citation can keep me from getting sued. Here goes:
"I used to really like Angelina Jolie. Ever since she starred in "Gia," I admired her flawless natural beauty, as well as the many character flaws that made her more likable and less threatening overall. Maybe she was a recovering drug addict, a cutter, a brother kisser, and a blood vial-wearing skank who looked like she showered once a week, but she didn't care what others thought and was totally comfortable going out in public without tons of makeup on. So that made her likable, at least to me. Even when she married Billy Bob Thornton, who's absolutely disgusting, I didn't hold it against her.
Then everything changed: She adopted Maddox, became a goodwill ambassador, started making normal movies and slowly made everyone forget that she was crazy. Next, she seduced and stole the husband of one of the most likable female celebs, adopted another baby with her stolen man, then had his biological child months before his divorce was even done. Now she travels all over the world in private jets wasting fuel and pretending to do nice things when we all know she's really a husband-stealing witch. But what really turned me into a full fledged Angelina hater was this month's Vogue article about her, with Angelina smugly pushing for peace talks between her and Jennifer Aniston, even having the gall to say, "That would be her decision, and I would welcome it." If I were Jennifer Aniston, I would welcome it, too. Then I would meet Angelina for lunch and repeatedly smash a chair over her head."
Yay, SportsGal!
*My friends would tell you that the syllable thing is true. I pronounce DSW (the shoe store) dis-wuh and routinely refere to GWU, or the George Washington University, as gwoo. Much easier.
3 comments:
Seems like a no win situation. If she remains crazy she is a bad mother and role model. If she tries to turn her life around and becomes the uber mom then she is a sell out. I'm not above ranting at the stars, but I do hesitate when I've left them no recourse of approved acts. To do so just makes me a pawn to the public desire to critisize. We love our stars because they are falable... and pointing out the flaws in others (especially those on pedestals much higher than our own) for some reason makes our own dull lives more fullfilled.
Whoops - messed up on that last comment.
Anyways, I'm sorry if this comes out brusk, but you did imply that I'm on a pedastal lower than Angelina Jolie, which is kind of an insult.
Now, a few things. One, I thought it was an interesting piece of writing from the SportsGal. Truthfully, I don't usually give Angelina much thought as a role model either way - I usually hold everyone up to the gold standard (my mom) and few people measure up. And I probably make the same judgements of "stars" as I do of regular people, including my own friends. I figure if I spread it around evenly, I can remain on my high horse. After all, I'm a blogger now, and that's what we do, right?
Actually, with me being a TV addict and such, I tend to focus on the roles that actors play, more than their actual person. Like, I watched the movie Prime the other night because I like the character that Bryan Greenberg plays on One Tree Hill (Jake Jagielski). Go figure.
Last, but not least, you had at least two misspelled words in there. "Critisize" should be criticize and "falable" is actually spelled fallible. I know that spelling and punctuation have gone by the wayside in the text-messaging world, but not for me. I suggest reading the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.
I doubt you'd give me the grief on spelling if I dropped the Anon label... My spelling woes are long established. But the point of language is communication, and I think the point was communicated. As for the pedastal, it is from public opinion, not my own. Being on a lower such pedastal shouldn't necessarily be considered demeaning.
-M
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