Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Cele|bitchy

Cele|bitchy


Jessica Simpson shows off Maxwell on baby’s first People Mag cover (update)

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:50 AM PDT

After gestating for what felt like a year and a half, Jessica Simpson finally gave birth to her daughter Maxwell Drew Johnson on May 1. Almost immediately, there were reports that Jessica had cut a deal with People Magazine for the first, exclusive baby photos – at a reported price tag of $800,000. Well, here you go. Baby Maxwell's first magazine cover. I swear, Jessica is wearing the same nightgown that Angelina Jolie wore in twins' first baby photos too.

Since Jessica Simpson and her fiancé Eric Johnson welcomed their daughter Maxwell Drew on May 1, “life has completely changed,” Simpson, 31, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “From how I sleep to what I think about, Maxwell has definitely taken over everything!”

In this week’s issue, Simpson and Johnson give an exclusive interview, plus share the first photos of their little one, who’s inherited her mom’s eyes and her dad’s calm demeanor.

“We stare at her all the time,” says Simpson. “We can’t get enough!”

But becoming new parents hasn’t been without its hardships. Recovering from surgery – Simpson delivered via C-section – isn’t easy, she says, and nursing, which she does throughout the day, has become “a full-on job.”

Still, “It’s the worst if I have to pump and give Eric a bottle to give her,” says Simpson. “I miss holding her and having that closeness.”

For more exclusive details about Maxwell’s first few weeks at home – including all the details of her birth, Simpson’s plans for a wedding and more children, and first photos of the new family – pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

[From People Magazine]

I'm glad that Jessica talks about having a C-section and how hard it's been. Once again, Jessica's pregnancy and post-pregnancy seems in stark contrast to Beyonce's "I gave birth naturally and I was back to stretching and working out within weeks" story.

As for little Maxi Drew… she's a cutie. Chubby cheeks!! I like that Jessica put a little hair band on her, and I like that Maxi isn't even awake, it seems. So cute.

UPDATE: Here’s the Today Show’s exclusive look at the People cover:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Cover courtesy of People Magazine, Jessica's Twitter.
jessica simpson people mag jessica 1 people magazine jessica simpson

Sharon Stone, 54, makes out with her 27 year-old model boyfriend. Go Sharon?

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:49 AM PDT

Sharon Stone
I just saw these photos of Sharon Stone making out with her new boyfriend, a 27 year-old model from Argentina named Martin Mica. There are some portfolio photos of this guy below, from his Facebook. He’s amazing, and can you imagine his accent? I’m swooning a little and picturing myself in Sharon’s place, but the fantasy has some holes for me. I’m not yet 40 and I can’t imagine finding much in common with a guy under 30. Although I can easily see what Sharon finds in common with this hottie.

These photos are so demonstrative that I might dismiss then as a publicity stunt to distract from the story that she’s getting sued by an ex nanny. They might be, but she’s been with this beefcake for at least a month. The lucky bitch. I’m not as shocked by this hookup as I would be if the guy were as young as Madonna’s early-20s lovers. 27 seems like it’s just old enough not to be skeevy. Am I turning into a cougar now? I hate that word. Here’s the description of these photos from The Sun:

The actress, 54, looked in the throes of passion as she locked lips with 27-year-old Argentinian model Martin Mica on a public beach.

Casino cougar Sharon lay on her back as Martin climbed on top for a close smooch, but it wasn't all about the passion.

The happy couple were in stitches as the catwalk fella appeared to be throwing the screen star onto the sand at Venice Beach, Los Angeles.

Arriving at their chosen spot, Sharon spread out a picnic blanket for them to relax on – and they didn't seem short of conversation as they shared chat and giggles in the sun.

The actress paraded her pins in tiny shorts while her shirt-clad man opted to keep his undoubtedly rippled body under wraps.

Sharon also found time for a bit of exercise, impressively balancing on her head at one point.

However, their tomfoolery soon turned steamy courtesy of a back and neck massage that Martin gave to his girlfriend.

Midway through the body rub, Sharon succumbed to the urge to kiss her boyfriend – and didn't seem to care about prying eyes.

The movie star's romantic day in the sun must have been a welcome distraction following reports she's being sued by her former nanny.

[From The Sun]

So could you get with a guy young enough to be your son? Judging by Madonna’s lovers, I would say “no,” but Sharon is making me come around gradually. Maybe when I hit menopause I’ll understand. Is that terrible to say? Because the guys still seem a little young to me now. Not that I would say no to that. Holy crap.

Sharon Stone

Sharon Stone

Sharon Stone

Sharon Stone

Sharon Stone

2FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134273 6FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134304 3FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134273 5FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134337 4FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134291 FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134173 FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134262 FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134276 FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134302 FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134310 FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134328 FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134341 1FFN_Stone_Sharon_Boyfriend_FF7_052912_9134321 mica1 mica2 mica3

photo credit: FameFlynet

Peaches Geldof looks really skinny just a month after giving birth, right?

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:48 AM PDT

Peaches Geldof

Peaches Geldof her baby daddy, Thomas Cohen, have made their first couples-only (in a post-birth sense) outing at the Tunnel of Love event in London. Peaches is looking rather thin, isn’t she? It seems like just yesterday — in fact, it was only just in late April — that Peaches gave birth to baby boy Astala, which means that Peaches has lost this weight in just over a month. Kaiser and I both think that Peaches is looking far too thin for only giving birth a month ago, and she’s actually looking pretty close to her weight last summer before she got pregnant. Of course, that particular dramatic weight loss reportedly occurred thanks to a braindead juicing diet. So what’s her secret weight loss weapon this time?

Peaches Geldof

While it’s completely possible (although not entirely probable) that Peaches has burned a significant amount of weight from breastfeeding, perhaps it’s just her loose dress at this event that’s leading me to believe that she might be up to a few old habits. I’ll just leave it at that. Also, it must be pretty difficult for Peaches to be in a relationship with a very skinny guy like Thomas without worrying about her own weight. Naturally skinny dudes are difficult like that.

Peaches Geldof

Peaches Geldof

Photos courtesy of WENN

wenn3914866 wenn5854285 wenn5854283 wenn3914867

Duchess Kate repeated the same pink dress for a garden party: just fine or tacky?

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:47 AM PDT

Duchess Kate made another public appearance yesterday in London, at a garden party for the Queen's Jubilee. Note her dress – it's the same $1500-2000 Emilia Wickstead coatdress dress that Kate wore less than two weeks ago, at the Buckingham Palace cocktail party for international royalty - go here to see the photos from that event. For yesterday's event, Kate only changed up the shoes and she wore this fruity hat. You know I think Kate has a face for hats – she can pull off hats like few women. But this hat is WAY too frilly and little-girl-ish for my taste. I'm surprised it's not covered in buttons too.

So, should we even discuss the whole "Kate repeats a dress" issue? I don't even think it's an issue, really. She's repeated clothes before, and it's fine. She spends a lot of time shopping and planning out her outfits, and she spends a lot of money on this stuff – why shouldn't she wear some pieces more than once? The only thing I object to is the timing – I don't think she should do repeats so quickly in succession. I mean, this garden party was only her second public appearance in two weeks' time, and she's wearing the same dress that she wore for the last appearance. So while it's fine with me if she repeats a look, don't do it so quickly. Why not wear a dress that she wore for one of her February public appearances?

Anything to say about her makeup? Too much eyeliner for a day event, in my opinion. But she loves that eyeliner so much. She loves it so much she'll wait around for nine years to marry that eyeliner. Something nice: I love her pearl-drop earrings.

Photos courtesy of WENN.
wenn3915455 wenn3915444 wenn3915449 wenn3915461 wenn3915463 wenn3915443

Kristen Stewart in Stella McCartney for ‘SWATH’ screening: lovely or awful?

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:47 AM PDT

These are some new photos of Kristen Stewart at two events yesterday. The red carpet photos are from an industry screening of Snow White and the Huntsman, and the photos where Kristen is wearing the red jacket are from a Q&A session at Universal with Sam Claflin (sidenote about Sam: WORST PANTS-WEARER EVER). Kristen's screening outfit is Stella McCartney. Thoughts? I kind of hate it, as I almost always hate Stella's hideous designs. I really don't know why Kristen does anything with a high neck. High neck + bad posture = slouchy, uncomfortable.

As for that red jacket – it's Balenciaga. Also kind of rough. It looks so dated, like it belongs in a Michael Jackson music video. I tend to think Kristen is still learning, still trying out different looks, but I also think she's getting some bad advice sometimes, and she doesn't know her own strengths.

Anyway, if you couldn't tell, there are about a million Kristen stories and Charlize Theron stories – because SWATH is opening up this weekend, so it's the final push. You can read excerpts from Kristen's Interview Magazine piece here – she actually impressed me a bit in that magazine. She came across as bright, although lacking in eloquence perhaps. The only other story of interest (to me) is Kristen's "review" of her sparkly lover's latest film:

Memo to Kristen Stewart: If this whole movie-star thingy doesn’t work out, maybe you can give film criticism a shot. The Snow White and the Huntsman star, who recently took Cannes by storm with a PDA-filled romp with Robert Pattinson, was asked by MTV News to weigh in on his new flick, Cosmopolis, which received a splashy premiere at the fest. So did the famously private star pull a Roger Ebert and get those movie thumbs ready for critical action?

“He’s so good in it! Really, really,” K.Stew raved.

“I don’t even know how he…,” she continued, clearly at a loss for words. “I couldn’t even understand it. It’s so good, it’s so cool. I’m so proud of him.”

The couple has slowly started to loosen up about their discreet romance. Earlier this month, Stewart chatted with Elle magazine about Pattinson’s other 2012 flick, Bel Ami, and the two publicly supported each other in Cannes, where her own film, On the Road, premiered. The duo were later spotted locking lips at the flick’s after-party.

No surprise, then, that K.Stew copped to having a blast at the glamorous French film fest.

“It’s the ultimate celebration,” she said. “I was so oddly placed in my body, which I’m very unable to do. I was so not nervous. I had the greatest time—it was, like, so cool.”

[From E! News]

I have something nice to say about Kristen and Sparkles… Twihards, pay attention! I like that both Kristen and Sparkles support each other's careers. I think it's incredibly sweet that Pattinson always talks up Kristen as an actress, and it's clear that he thinks she's very talented. It's nice that Kristen is his cheerleader too. I like that there doesn't seem to be any drama about competing careers and "who has the bigger film" and all of that stuff.

One last nice thing: Kristen's makeup person is AMAZING. Something bad: whoever did her hair for the screening should be fired.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
FFN_KMFF_Snowhite_Screening_052912_9134727 FFN_KMFF_Snowhite_Screening_052912_9134691 FFN_KMFF_Snowhite_Screening_052912_9134695 FFN_KMFF_Snowhite_Screening_052912_9134720 FFN_KMFF_Snowhite_Screening_052912_9134726 wenn3915537 wenn5854510 wenn3915534

Anne Hathaway sings in the first ‘Les Miserables’ trailer: how does she sound?

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:47 AM PDT

The trailer for Les Miserables just leaked – I don't think it was supposed to come out for another few weeks, maybe. So hopefully the video will hold and everybody will be able to see it (if not, I'll try to find another video). The trailer is… uuuuuhhhhh. Les Miserables isn't my taste, okay? I like musicals just fine, but I'm way more interested in Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair and Rent. Les Mis is just so depressing, and I think the songs are… emotionally cloying. Anne Hathaway (as Fantine) sings "I Dreamed A Dream" throughout this first trailer, and at first I thought, "Wow, her voice kind of sounds weak" – but if you listen to the whole thing, the emotion does get to you. The film also stars Russell Crowe (as Inspector Javert), Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette) and Samantha Barks (Eponine). Here's the trailer:

It just feels like manipulation. And I always dislike Hollywood's mindset of "We're in a recession now, so people will be interested in a film about economic hardships." No, we won't. It's STILL depressing. It really looks like Annie is going for that Oscar, though. We'll see, Annie. We'll see. My guess is that she puts herself up for Supporting Actress and the studio puts a lot of money behind her, and we'll get interview after interview about her weight loss and hair loss. Transformation!!! The Academy loves a physical transformation.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, stills courtesy of Cinema Blend.
FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Hathaway_Jackman_exc_041812_8993727 anne FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Hathaway_Jackman_exc_041812_8993699 FFN_FlynetUKFF_Crowe_Russell_exc_032312_8903453 FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Hathaway_Jackman_exc_041812_8993697

John Travolta is in settlement talks with an accuser, will he ever escape this scandal?

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:47 AM PDT

John Travolta
It’s hard to recap all the Travolta madness, but I’ll try and I have to thank Radar for making the case a lot clearer in their latest story. There are seven men who have accused Travolta of harassing and sexually abusing them. Two are currently suing him, and both are represented by Gloria Allred. The first accuser, an anonymous masseur known as John Doe #1, went over to Allred after his lawyer dropped him for getting the date of the alleged incident wrong. The second accuser, John Doe #2, went over to Allred and dumped his original lawyer. The lawyer that represented John Doe #2 at the point of his his defection to Allred is suing Allred for allegedly pilfering his client.

So now there are two men who are lawyered up with Allred and seeking restitution from Travolta. Radar lets us know that one of the men is “quietly” discussing a settlement with Travolta, one that will be sealed and ill forbid the man from revealing details of his encounter with the predatory creep, under penalty of being sued. (And having men in dark suits from Scientology visit his house and follow him around, although that has probably already happened.) Here’s more, and this incident occured within the last two years, which is withing the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits:

John Travolta’s attorney is currently in settlement talks with one of the men who has accused the actor of sexually groping him, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.

As we previously reported, a total of seven men have come forward accusing the married star of various unwanted sexual advances. Two of those men filed lawsuits against Travolta, which were subsequently dismissed when they fired their former attorney, Okorie Okorocha, and hired famed civil rights attorney Gloria Allred.

“John Travolta’s lawyer is currently in settlement talks with one of the accusers. The goal is to have a settlement reached very quietly and quickly because John just wants this scandal to go away,” a source close to the situation tells RadarOnline.com. “No money has been paid yet, but it’s almost a done deal. It will be an out of court settlement and John Travolta’s name won’t even be in the agreement to ensure complete confidentiality, along with a clause that states if the man ever goes public with his story, he will be sued for at least twice the amount of the settlement.”

John Travolta Second Sexual Assault Accuser Documented Alleged Attack In Emails To Bosses

Travolta’s team has vehemently denied all of the allegations to date.

Three of the seven men accusing the Pulp Fiction star of sexual misconduct are masseurs. The accuser who's currently in talks with Travolta’s lawyer alleges that the actor groped him in the last two years, which is within the statue of limitations to file a civil lawsuit.

“If the accuser who is in talks with John’s lawyer right now is unable to reach a settlement, he is absolutely prepared to file a lawsuit against him,” the source says. “The man isn’t intimidated by John’s celebrity status and just wants the actor to be held accountable for his actions.”

[From Radar Online]

As Kaiser reported last week, along with the two men represented by Allred, there’s also one more Travolta accuser who has lawyered up, a gym employee. So that makes three men who may either get settlements from Travolta or who may go on to sue him. Whatever amount he pays and stipulations he makes to keep these victims quiet, this story is out there. He’s never going to escape it, and for good reason. He hurt a lot of people, and he got away with it for way too long. We’ve heard the details in the National Enquirer for years, and now we can be assured they were based on real stories, and real people who were hurt.

I would love it if Kelly dumped John finally, but she knows what she signed up for. Even if she’s no longer living with him as The Enquirer reported, I doubt she’ll file divorce papers.

According to Rob Shuter in the Huffington Post, John Travolta is “the most sought after interview among top TV journalists.” Do you think he’ll give an exclusive to his good buddy Oprah? She’ll go easy on him, but he’ll probably owe her a lot more than he’s comfortable with.

John Travolta

John Travolta and Kelly Preston

Kristen Stewart & Charlize go dark & glam for Interview Mag: beautiful or awful?

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:46 AM PDT

Words cannot even describe how much I loathe this Interview Magazine photo shoot. I guess I'm just disappointed because I always held up Kristen Stewart's 2009 Interview Mag cover shoot to be one of her best and prettiest photo shoots ever. Her styling was gorgeous and dark and glam, and it worked beautifully on her. For this July cover, Kristen is paired with Charlize Theron, her Snow White costar, and once again the magazine tries to do "dark/glam". They fail. If it was just Charlize alone… maybe this could have succeeded. But putting Charlize and Kristen together, styling them like extras in Cabaret… it's just bad. In my opinion. Kristen's look easily slips into androgyny, and the whole vibe seems very "An older dominatrix and her lithe boy-toy." As for the interviews – they're epic and long and you can read both of them here. I'm just going to do some excerpts from Kristen's piece:

Working with male versus female directors: "In personal conversations between director and actor, the male directors that I’ve worked with are just as emotional [as women]. Maybe it’s because I had to start having very intimate conversations with adult men at a very young age in order to get the work, but I’m really comfortable with dudes. I mean, we push boundaries in this business in terms of getting to know people. There are things that directors know about me that people shouldn’t know. But everyone’s really different. I’ve worked with women who I’ve never wanted to tell anything about myself to, and I’ve worked with guys who have been pouring wells of emotion. So emotional availability is not a gender-specific thing."

Relating to Snow White: "There’s so much that Snow White has been deprived of in terms of having the proper time to really develop and hone who she is. She’s put in jail at the beginning of her life, so she’s a stunted person. She has a really idealized concept of what the world is, and how people should live, and how wonderful things all can be, and there is this debilitating isolation that she feels because she has been locked away in a little cell for seven years. And I can kind of relate to that. There is something . . . It’s not the reason that I wanted to do the movie, but the fans and people who loved Twilight, they do put you on this sort of different plane where you’re not real."

Snow White is not a ninja: "I think [the physicality] really helped define the character in a lot of ways. I liked not having to fake it, because in the original drafts of the script, Snow White kind of became this ninja person overnight who was just able to, like, own this six-foot armored man, which would never happen. We wanted everything to be, like, “Oh, f–k. She barely made it through.” Somebody my size couldn’t go into a man war and come out alive with only a sword. That just would never happen."

On Charlize: "She is unlike anyone I’ve ever encountered. She is one of those people who walks into a room and everyone knows it… She’s a fucking movie star. It’s funny, too, because she always says, “I’m not really a performer.” But I’m like, “Yeah, not at all.” [laughs] She’s an actor and a performer."

How she defines success: "I feel so extremely successful—and not just because I can greenlight a movie now. It’s because I’ve really only worked with people that I truly love, and I’ve only had bad experiences with one or two directors…[What was bad about those experiences…] I think it always boils down to people not being there for the right reasons, and not being there for the same reasons. It’s a miracle when things come together. But sometimes it just doesn’t happen—and when it doesn’t happen, you still have to finish the movie.

Playing an abused woman: Playing a character like Mallory [in Welcome to the Rileys] is tough. Not to discredit anyone’s personal situation or actual life, but there are so many examples of girls like that, and a film can very easily become an almost clinical rundown of what leads someone to a certain position. It’s hard to play a part like that because you want everyone who has ever walked in those shoes to be like, “Yeah, I mean, that’s the way it goes . . .” Pity is a really odd thing with abused women. You don’t want anyone to think that you feel bad—even though you might. So it was just interesting to play that part and to work with James. I went down to New Orleans to do the film and lived by myself and trudged around the city. But walking away from that character . . . It probably still hasn’t gone away completely, but for the first little while afterwards, I was so sensitive and touchy in a way that my character would never be. I was so protective and defensive of young girls, and sex in general.

She doesn't want to talk about acting: "I think people are used to seeing actors be wide open and desperately giving of themselves, and while I do that on a movie set as much as I can, it’s so unnatural for me to do it on television, in interviews, in anything like that. I also don’t find that my process as an actor is really anyone else’s business. A lot of actors have felt like that. I mean, there’s that awesome quote where Joanne Woodward said, “Acting is like sex: you should do it, not talk about it.”

[From Interview Magazine]

If you couldn't tell, these interviews are extremely verbose and Elvis Mitchell (the interviewer) pretty much lets Charlize and Kristen talk as much as they want in their separate interviews. I have to say… Kristen comes across a lot better when you can read all of what she has to say in context. She talks a lot about how much difficulty she has being entertaining on talk shows, and how she's not good at delivering soundbytes, which… at least she's self-aware, you know? She's also not a stupid girl, in my opinion. She's bright and she's neurotic and she's twitchy, of course. But she really does think about her work and how she promotes her work and… she's more interesting than I give her credit for most of the time.

Photos courtesy of Interview Magazine.
kristen 7 cover kristen 4 kristen 6 kristen 3 kristen 5 kristen 2 charlize 1 kristen stewart 1

Katie Price’s most glamorous photo op ever: hilarious perfection?

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:45 AM PDT

Don't even start yelling at me about these Katie Price photos. These photos are my gift to you, and if you don't like them, I will cry. These photos are glamorous. They are beautiful. They are hilarious. They are magical. They are epic. They are PERFECTION.

In case you don't already know, Katie Price ("Jordan") is an English "glamour model" and somewhat of a reality star and budget business tycoon. She tried to make a career happen here in America but it didn't take. Maybe she needed more photo ops like this. For real. These are photos of Katie promoting her new lingerie line in London. The dude in these photos is her latest boy-toy, Leandro Penna. They're already engaged!! Because Katie Price never just dates a man. She gets engaged to men on the first date. And by "first date" I mean "exchanging the phone numbers of their STD specialists."

Seriously, though. How can you not enjoy these photos? You are an awful person if these photos don't bring a smile to your face. The "garter" tattoo. The orange-brown skin. The butt shot. Leandro in bed, making faces. The curlers. Katie constantly checking her orange biscuit to make sure nothing fell out. These photos are maybe my favorite photos ever, in the world. Forever.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Price_Katie_052912_9132272 FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Price_Katie_052912_9132261 FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Price_Katie_052912_9132260 FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Price_Katie_052912_9132263 FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Price_Katie_052912_9132267 FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Price_Katie_052912_9132270 FFN_FLYNETUKFF_Price_Katie_052912_9132277

The 100k ‘Birkin’ that Francesca Eastwood ruined was fake? (update: video)

Posted: 30 May 2012 08:44 AM PDT


Update: E! Online sent us this video clip from “Mrs. Eastwood and Company” of Tyler presenting Francesca with the bag and telling her it’s real and that she has to destroy it. On the video, the bag looks SO FAKE to me. It’s shiny and cheap looking. He goes on to denounce it as “just a bag.” This is a publicity stunt for the show, and it worked.


One of the big stories yesterday was about a series of photos of Francesca Eastwood, 19, taken by her 30 year-old boyfriend, celebrity photographer and fameho extraordinaire, Tyler Shields. In the photos, Tyler and Francesca were shown destroying what they claimed to be a Hermes Birkin crocodile bag, which retails for $100,000 and up. In a post to his blog with the photos, Tyler wrote that “Destruction is a beautiful version of freedom” and asked people if they would want the bag, and if they were “sad to see me destroy it.” People were understandably outraged at the stunt, and pointed out all the good that could have been done with the amount of money the bag was worth. Francesca supposedly told TMZ that she didn’t understand the fallout from the photos, and that she felt that people “didn’t understand art.” A lot of people countered that she didn’t understand how hard it is to make ends meet in the real world.


It turns out this little stunt might have been done with a fake Hermes Birkin. Reader “thatsh*tcray” points us to this post on The Purse Blog forums that claims the bag is fake, and gives a little more insight as to whatever (tired, obvious) point they were trying to make/provoke:

Two things to note:

1. It’s a fake bag.

2. The statement they are wanting to make, I guess, is this: People who can afford to buy a croc Hermes have “money to burn”. That would be the literal interpretation!

Ergo, it’s just a point of view. One could ask the same of Damien Hirst’s sliced up animals, and many other works of installation or performance art. What was the point of all that?

[From The Purse Blog]

I don’t think that dissecting a cow or filling a room with oil is equivalent to torching a $100,000 item, but what do I know? There’s expense associated with everything, and some of Hirst’s art has been outrageously expensive.

Also, I never knew the story of how 90s British band The KLF burned a million pounds in real money as part of an “art” exhibition in 1994. That’s much more outrageous to me, and you can read about it here. (Thanks to Tapioca for pointing this out.)

Getting back to whether the bag is a cheap replica, now that I’m looking at it closely I believe it is. Here’s a link to a website where you can buy a knockoff red “crocodile Birkin” for $279. It looks shiny and cheap with fat seams, just like this bag. The difference is that the gold “lock” on the bag is a cheap looking crocodile print instead of a more realistic lock on the real version. In the bag that Tyler and Francesca are destroying, there is no lock that I could see. Also, there are higher end knockoffs made with real crocodile leather that sell online for around $9,500. So it’s possible it’s just a copy.

If it was a fake, does that make this stunt less offensive? I hope I don’t sound callous when I say I’m impressed by it on some level. I still find it obnoxious, though. They destroyed a $300 item and got press for destroying a $100,000 item. That’s what this Tyler Shields character is all about, controversy.

Knockoff Birkin Bag, $279:

Real Birkin Bag. Retails online for $69,000. This bag is more matte than shiny.

No comments:

Post a Comment