I usually do not comment on Hollywood stars and their disconnected reality. However, since I first thought this was a joke meant to amplify his brilliant performance in Joker, it appears that Joaquin Phoenix is serious in announcing that he will wear the same tuxedo in all of his award ceremonies this year to reduce waste. It seems a declaration that preceded the statement from the movie that “I used to think that my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it’s a f**king comedy.” Nevertheless, the sacrifice was met by breathless support from British designer Stella McCartney, who declared that she was “proud to join forces” with the “Joker” star.
I just saw the movie and thought it was one of the darkest films that I have watched. I also considered it one of the most brilliant performances that I have ever seen.
However, there often seems like Hollywood stars are as disconnected from reality as the main character. Saving the earth one tuxedo at a time is likely to leave most people less inspired than incensed at the size of the response in comparison to the problem. I get that we should “wear our clothes longer” but that might be a bit lower on a longer list of responses. As many of you know, I am a diehard environmentalist and favor major reforms to address climate change, species loss, and environmental pollution. However, this does not help us in that effort to suggest that not changing tuxedos is a meaningful effort to stop climate change.
McCartney exclaimed “this man is a winner” and noted that “wearing custom Stella because he chooses to make choices for the future of the planet.” Her tuxedos are advertised as a “sustainable luxury fashion brand” that never uses leather, skin, fur, or feathers. If that is the measure, I have been saving the planet for decades by forgoing any impulse for featherer, leather tux with fur trim.
I am left with the same question from Joker: “Is It Just Me Or Is It Getting Crazier Out There?”
How much you wanna bet that Ms McCartney’s part in this is “zero-ing out” the award tuxedo with new this and new that and pinky-swearing to the press it’s the same tuxedo.
It’s how the Air Force keeps bombers flying that rolled off the assembly line in 1959. Sort of a “Ship of Theseus” thing.
Wearing the same suit more than once saves the planet? Here, I thought it’s what you did till it wore out. Who knew?
Phoenix is already known for his small garderobe anyway!! And not very careful about his outfit!! So nothing to brag about!! Perhaps just a clever marketing stunt to market his movie and himself!! Smart joke!!
“…Hollywood stars and their disconnected reality.”
– Professor Turley
______________
Wait!
Academia just declared Hollywood insane.
I LIKE it!
A chink, I dare say. Perhaps we are making some headway.
It could, however, require a substantial amount of time to transform them into actual, manifest-tenor-constitutional and patriotic
Americans.
So, designer Stella McCartney advertises that her tuxedos are a “sustainable luxury fashion brand” that never uses leather, skin, fur, or feathers. That means absolutely nothing because tuxedos are ordinarily not made from leather, skin, fur, or feathers. The finest tuxedos are made of wool, the same as suits, and may also feature certain man-made materials. If you want, you can spend $10,000 or more for a top-of-the-line tuxedo, such as the Kiton brand, but it still won’t contain leather, skin, fur, or feathers. Ms. McCartney’s advertising is as bogus as an apple seller advertising that its particular brand of apples contains no cholesterol, no transfats, and is gluten and lactose free.
Wait a minute. You mean most of them are not wearing the same tuxedo every time. It’s a tuxedo. None of us even noticed if they wore a different one, unless it was in lime green. Well, OK, everyone noticed that Jason Momoa wore a black tank top under his velvet tuxedo jacket, which he gave to his lovely wife during the show. Ahhhh, so sweet.
The couture on the red carpet is beautiful, elegant, and wasteful. It seems like a sin to get such an expensive, beautiful dress, and then only wear it once to avoid being “seen” in it too many times. Over a hundred years ago, people had hand made clothing that they had to make last. It would be wild extravagance for a gown that took thousands of hours to make, and then wear it only once. But this is normal now. There is so much effort that goes into making couture, yet it often is worn once and then put away. Once in a while, it will get taken out decades later and called vintage for perhaps one more wear.
Ricky Gervais is right. Who are any of these people to woke scold any of us on how to live? As Rene Russo said in Get Shorty, “Most of these people don’t even know their own zip code.”
These are the same people who gave Roman Polanski a standing ovation for his awards in absentia…after he was convicted of brutally raping a teenager. The casting couch route to get rolls was well known. Maureen O’Hara was famously kept from rolls as she refused to sleep with anyone to get them. She took out a newspaper advertisement to blister readers’ ears about what was going on in Hollywood decades ago. As Harvey Weinstein shows, it only got worse.
These people have some of the highest carbon footprints on Earth. Designers rush to loan them couture and jewels for free for the advertising. Then they are bequeathed with luxurious grab bags for attending. They are wealthy, yet they get so much for free. So many loathe the capitalist economy that made them wealthy in the first place. Socialists outside of the government ruling class don’t tend to have any money to go to the theater.
They have no moral high ground to stand on to lecture anyone else.
So Karen, your comment is just a broad, condemnation of Hollywood in general?? And you’re even citing Maureen O’Hara as a source? How old are you, anyway?
Anyone who loves classic Westerns would know Maureen O’Hara. My son knows who she is, and he’s nine.
Do you have a problem with condemning Hollywood in general? I greatly enjoyed Ricky Gervais doing so.
Apparently, all you have to offer is to get personal with me. Pity.
Karen’ I’d broaden your comment to include anyone who loves classic films. Maureen O’Hara was also in two wonderful Non-Western movies, How Green Was My Valley and Miracle on 34th Street (original version).
jamescfeldman – Maureen O’Hara was never more beautiful than in The Quiet Man with John Wayne.
Yes, thanks. That’s another excellent Non-Western movie, though featuring the work of some of the kings of the Western genre, including John Ford and, of course, John Wayne.
That is the best version of Miracle on 34th Street!
It’s funny that you say that. I just watched “Miracle on 34th St” with my son last week.
My father got to meet her in person as a young man at a premiere. He said she was absolutely stunning, even more beautiful than in the movies.
Karen, I like Maureen O’Hara. She still looked great in her 40’s. But that was 60 years ago! The leadership of Hollywood keeps changing on an almost annual basis.
Yeah, Hollywood really moved on from the times when Maureen O’Hara raged that she’d been black listed for refusing to sleep with producers to get parts.
Oh, wait, Harvey Weinstein, et al…
‘I am so upset with it that I am ready to quit Hollywood. It’s got so bad I hate to come to work in the morning,’ she told the paper.
‘I’m a helpless victim of a Hollywood whispering campaign. Because I don’t let the producer and director kiss me every morning or let them paw me they have spread word around town that I am not a woman — that I am a cold piece of marble statuary.’
‘I guess Hollywood won’t consider me as anything except a cold hunk of marble until I divorce my husband, give my baby away and get my name and photograph in all the newspapers. If that’s Hollywood’s idea of being a woman I’m ready to quit now,’ she continued.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5053871/How-Maureen-O-Hara-called-Hollywood-sexism-1945.html
Could have been written in 2020 instead of 1945. Yet Hollywood is peopled with some of the shrillest woke scolds in the nation. I think they should clean up their own act before judging anyone else.
I applaud these comments by Karen, it is so true, and so accurate.
Anytime I see a young ingenue get married, who is climbing the ranks in Hollywood, I say, “Oh, death sentence to your career …..girlfriend.”
Sometimes, they call it off, engaged, and then single again…just so they can be available for the “directors” and “producers.” Available for whoever actually, it could be your married agent on the side, it could be a married director.
Speaking of Harvey, back in the day, when I was in Hollywood, they called them “Harvey’s Girls” and here is a link that someone wrote about it all the way back in 2010, before it broke. And yes, everyone in Hollywood, including the lowest ppl on the totem pole knew about the “Harvey’s Girls.”
https://www.pajiba.com/think_pieces/harveys-girls-the-wouldbe-ingenues-where-are-they-now-and-what-happened-then.php
Then earlier, we had Grace Kelly, notorious for sleeping with all her co-stars, so much so, that Jimmy Stewart’s wife came to set every single day to “watch” things, and make sure Grace didn’t make any moves on her husband.
https://www.ranker.com/list/grace-kelly-scandals/veronica-walsingham
We have Marilyn Monroe calling the place “an overcrowed brothel.”
inquisitr.com/4548829/marilyn-monroe-branded-hollywood-an-overcrowded-brothel-long-before-harvey-weinstein-reared-his-head/
Nothing changes in Hollywood, it is an industry run off of nothing but connections, favors, looks (depending), and talent (optional)…they’ll just film it 20 + times, with the actor yelling “LINE” when they forget for the 10th time today, and then the best shots are picked from dailies, and post-production merges them all together into one movie, where ah hah…..the person is so “talented,” and receives an award for it.
IMHO, if I want to see talent, I go to theatrical shows & Broadway shows, not the movies (aka show biz).
WW33 – you missed my two favorite books on Hollywood, Hollywood Babylon and Hollywood Babylon II. Talk about dishing the dirt. And it had pictures. 😉
I haven’t read those books, but your comment reminded me of a movie I liked, LA Confidential. “Hush hush and on the QT.”
Karen S – those books let me know that Joan Crawford was a sexual predator. She make Weinstein look like Mr. Rogers.
There was actually someone I knew who I worked with (just as an intern) who was swept up in all the scandal of predators in Hwood….he was essentially doing a K.Space deal, but on the talent agent side of things, screening before they get screened by the directors/producers later on (that could actually be an awful euphemism, but moving on…) The talent agency did fire him.
In hindsight, I should have known/ as well as everyone else working there (I am sure some did know), his assistant was told to only keep the random submitted headshot photos to the talent agency of “hot” and “young” boys/men, and do not even open the rest of the submissions, straight into the trash….sorry ladies….
I’ll check them out and get back to you…should be interesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/25/john-cusack-hollywood-maps-to-the-stars-interview
W33,
Your quote of M. Monroe reminded me of John Cusack’s opinion of Hollywood.
Hey, I had dinner right next to him in Malibu, random side note. He is rather tall guy, I was surprised how tall….
And yes, his quote does follow Monroe’s quote.
Same ole, same ole…I assure you in say ~ 10 years, it will be all the old tricks, just a temporary clean up via the recent scandals.
I think that Hollywood is so seedy, that the truly good people who happen to be long term actors really stand out. Gary Sinise, for example. It is possible to hold onto your soul in Hollywood, but I think you’ve got have a good strong grip.
I grew up in the era when the Corey Feldman scandal about predator pedophiles in Hollywood came out, and it’s regularly been rocked by abuse catastrophes. I think I can understand why Kelley Rippa once said that if her husband ever worked in a movie alongside Angelina Jolie, she’d be showing up every day on set, saying hey guys, what are we shooting today? I’ll be right here, watching you Angie!
You know the person is actually a good actor (e.g., talented) when they don’t climb the ranks super fast….e.g., “It took me 15 years to break….” Whenever I hear someone has come out of the blue with zero experience, or very little, into a lead role….well, then you know. it is also very true starting earlier is better, e.g., at say ~ 10-15 yo, but then you subject a child to Hollywood, and the parents cannot watch them 100 % of the time, hence a lot of child actors “gone wild.”
Same ole Hollywood, same old games.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1987-05-11-8701300210-story.html
https://filmstarfacts.com/2015/02/06/grace-kelly-1929-1982/
Grace Kelly: “Sordid Affairs with Co-Stars, Married Men, Directors, Producers, Princes (that’s plural), Professors, and well, et al.
https://news.sky.com/story/an-overcrowded-brothel-hollywoods-infamous-casting-couch-11074983
Marilyn Monroe: “Hollywood = the overcrowded brothel.”
Harvey’s Girls (Blog: from 2010)”
pajiba.com/think_pieces/harveys-girls-the-wouldbe-ingenues-where-are-they-now-and-what-happened-then.php
So Karen, your comment is just a broad, condemnation of Hollywood in general??
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
I quite like British serials and look up the biographies of British performers. As far as I can tell, they’re roughly normal adults who’ve settled on a trade where they do a great deal of what s/t contract work. We should be skeptical of the proposition that it’s an iron law that theatrical subcultures are a stew of corruption.
British TV, etc. runs differently…in fact, they do a better job over there with actors, who do have talent…and then bring them here….
I shouldn’t be so broad, some actors, American ones, are talented too, but a nice chunk at not at all….its just editing in post.
And overall, British actors are better trained…also generalizing.
Among the first people to start the tradition of very costly garments only worn once was the serial murderer and child rapist Gilles de Rais. Not for himself, so much, as for the actors in his morality play Le Mistère du Siège d’Orléans
The Marshal of France during the time of Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais (also known as “Bluebeard”), after attaining as much celebrity as St. Joan herself, and a comparable fortune to the French King, decided to produce a play on the Siege of Orléans with more than 20,000 lines of verse, requiring 140 speaking parts and 500 extras – each wearing costly, lavish costumes, only once – each costume was discarded after the end of each performance of the play.
Le Mistère du Siège d’Orléans was presented many times, requiring Rais to sell or mortgage almost all of his property to finance his productions. According to most accounts, Gilles de Rais, desperate for income to settle his crushing debts, began to kidnap children to serve as sacrifices to the Devil, as well as unwilling victims of molestation and rape. This he did at the suggestion of his court alchemist,who claimed to be able to convince Satan to help him make gold from base metals, given the correct human sacrifices.
One main difference between then and now, is that awards ceremonies are annual events, not presented once or twice a week as Gilles de Rais’s Mistère du Siège d’Orléans was. A modern movie star or other performer need buy new attire to accept an award no more than for each award ceremony. Rape and/or molestation are optional, these days – actors, producers and directors can afford to buy their finery without resorting to alchemy or traffic with Satan.
It is getting crazier!
Phoenix is one of many who recognize the environmental impact of making clothing. McCarthy isn’t the only fashion designer/clothing manufacturer who is environmentally aware. Phoenix isr part of the reduce group. Others are part of the reuse group as they recycle used clothing by buy the cast offs of others and by finding new uses instead of buying new. When we were less consumerist, quilters would recycle old clothing into quilts. Today there is a whole industry of providing new fabrics for quilters. There are quilters today who reversing the trend by buying cast offs at thrift stores (large sizes with lots of fabric or unique prints in smaller sizes are personal favorites). https://truecostmovie.com/learn-more/environmental-impact/
I’m part of a reduce group too. I have been donating to good will for many decades. I have also purchased clothing from second hand stores
Now i mostly did that to say money on taxes and expenditures, but now I will virtue signal it to the world
under my fake name of course.
Joaq Pheonix is an excellent actor, anyways
He is indeed an excellent actor.
I am on the fence about Good Will. I’ve donated to them many times, but it bothers me that they are a 2nd hand store that turns around and sells that stuff. I want to give it directly to people in need instead.
Mostly they provide jobs and retraining. And there’s got to be a mechanism for sorting things and people who are paid to do it.
Goodwill is fantastic at recycling old books. If you look on amazon, a lot of the resellers are goodwill outlets. I’m a big fan of Goodwill.
We can also see that they offer lower prices than other for-profit second hand stores, like Plato’s closet and so forth. Yes, I have had to purchase a lot of clothing for women and girls over the years, and learned the ropes.
I am the beneficiary of one or more military historians who donate regularly to a Goodwill store close to where my oncologists practice.
For a dollar or two a piece I’ve bought such prizes as a first edition of William Manchester’s The Arms of Krupp (the Krupp industrial empire was the world’s first diversified defense contractor in the General Dynamics or Lockheed tradition), and Richard Rhodes’ books on the invention and manufactre of the first atomic and hydrogen bombs. I’ve also found a nice selection of very good reference works on 20th century war there.
I expect my wife, when I pass on, to donate my personal library those volumes my grandson the budding historian doesn’t want to Goodwill, in the hope another amateur historian.makes use of them – if only to discover that he or she is also an historian.
So take in your old clothes and pick out something new-to-you. You aren’t helping much if you just donate your old clothes and then buy new.
Just dropping off your old clothes is a good start. Do you look for your new-to-you next outfit? A better choice than Good will is the Salvation Army. There are communities that have set up a donation site where all clothing is free. I recently gave them three or four large totes from my brother.
Hopefully the trend of reusing clothing will catch on with the actresses who drive the fashion industry.
Did you ever read the Quilting series of books by Jennifer Chiaverini? They are wonderful. I particularly liked the one where a slave sewed a quilt that was a secret map.
I’m old enough to remember seeing my Mom and elder sisters quilting – it’s not a simple process, and requires a frame from which the work is suspended. They bought and used new batting and cloth, not so much to consume conspicuously – but to create quilts that were comfortable to sleep under and durable enough to clean regularly.
My aunt made me a quilt using scraps from clothing that she made for me when I was a child, also scraps from my grandmothers aprons. Lots of memories in that quilt.
“As many of you know, I am a diehard environmentalist and favor major reforms to address climate change, species loss, and environmental pollution.”
Wow! Jonathan Turley has bought into the vast left-wing climate conspiracy! Now it is CERTAIN that he doesn’t read his comment section where so called “climate science” has been thoroughly and repeatedly exposed as junk science. It seems that he’s been beguiled by the 97% of scientists who have concluded that global warming is occurring and is anthropogenic. Doesn’t he know that scientists can be wrong?? Doesn’t he know that 97% of scientists are also Democratic Socialists??? Oh, what a noble mind is here overthrown!
YYY, let me get this straight: ‘Climate Change has been thoroughly exposed as Junk Science by commenters on this thread’??
So we’re supposed to ignore the science community and defer instead to rightwing commenters ‘here’..????
One would as almost think you’re really a cool liberal dissing the commenters here. But eerily I dont think that’s the case.
That’s the case.
YYY, well I’m relieved to hear that. But just so you know, comedy is confusing here. Some of the craziest posts are meant to be serious.
I don’t think the warming trend is junk science. I think it’s been pretty well verified, whatever the bumps in the road.
Causes of global climate are very complicated. Solar radiation is obviously a significant factor if not the most significant factor. To what extent is the solar cycle causing the warming trend? This is a subject which is consistently downplayed by climate change activists who call it “denial.” They have a political agenda which insists upon “anthropogenic” cause as a primary cause and that is far from certain or clear. This unfortunately discredits the entire issue of climate change which certainly is a very real and emerging situation.
The political impasse caused by the climate activists dogmatic insistence on their narrative, which dismisses the complexity of the causes of climate, also unfortunately has lead to a neglect of attention to feasible and constructive remedial measures which can and should be lead by government action.
Let me flesh that out a little. Let’s just say that the warming is not caused by anthropogenic causes. Let’s just say it’s all on the solar cycle. Well it appears to be a warming trend nonetheless and one that will increase. Accordingly coastal flooding is a likely trend. And things like improving seawalls and dikes and levees and so forth is pretty much a no brainer when that is the likely upcoming trend. So is that happening?
Is proper funding and support for development of new carbon efficient energy industry happening? No, the Democrat leadership has consistently opposed new nuclear plants coming online and Obama was bragging about a handful that finished on his watch as the PRC was completing scores of them. Figure that one out!
And the current Democrat leadership is even dumber than Obama, instead they sensationalize emotional charades like putting a teenager before the UN when more constructive energy could be directed at critical needs.
And then they blame Republicans and climate deniers etc. Well, how about you figure out how to communicate effectively and engage in constructive bipartisan initiatives, instead of just trying to score more likes on Tweeter?
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php
People who wear tuxedos are dorks.
Al,
I must disagree. I find that men who wear tuxedos or nice suits are far more attractive than those who habitually wear t-shirts, baggie shorts, and flip-flops.
I agree that men clean up nice. It’s putting in that effort that makes you feel special, especially if they normally wear Wranglers and a work shirt. I can’t believe how many people don’t dress up at all for Church anymore.
Most of our communication is non verbal, and that includes our clothing. What we wear is like a flag we fly – whether it be conservative clothing, fast fashion, dripping with over priced brand labels, well made, gang colors, or baggy pants with underwear showing.
The flag that men fly who wear baggy pants or trashy clothes is that they are going nowhere in life, and if you get with them, you’ll go nowhere, too.
baggy pants come from jail-wear, as belts are not allowed. and yet —
the irony is that some homosexual predators in jails consider baggy pants, inviting
i doubt the morons who sport baggy pants on the street have thought very much about that
most ex cons who have pulled a lengthy term will tend to like wearing belts upon their release
smart ex cons will avoid anything which reveals their status like the plague
of course jails are filled with idiots which is how a lot of them ended up their in the first place
and so any fool showing a “fashion sense” which identifies with incarceration is himself a candidate if not a volunteer-
and they wonder where “profiling” comes from!
I, too, lament that people don’t dress up for church much anymore. I think black churches typically have very nicely dressed congregants (and the ladies at Easter have awesome hats).
Button-down work-shirts look better than t-shirts. A fellow in Wranglers and a plaid button-down looks fairly put-together, too.
This guy even has suspenders (though I like a guy in a nice three-piece suit, too). Wish my husband had to wear a suit more often…
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7b/95/52/7b9552d40bc1bbb5557a26b3ab3b13bb.jpg
I’ll take a slob off the street walking the talk of his faith in my Church over the well-dressed hypocrite outraged his seat in his country club (Church) was taken by that slob.
Olly,
I agree.
The clothing of the hypocrite is not the problem; it is their attitude.
When real piety and dressing sharply are combined it is an extra special treat. My grandma was like that; she was one of those people who was beautiful inside and out.
Dressing up helps reflect the specialness or important of an event. The more importance you place on an event, the more likely you are going to want to dress well, though I agree the two do not always (or have to) align.
though I agree the two do not always (or have to) align.
Prairie Rose,
I agree, how one dresses is not necessarily a reflection of what is in one’s heart. All should be welcome regardless of appearance and certainly without judgment of that appearance.
But it is the well-dressed hypocrite that needs to be in that seat.
🙂 Needs, being the operative word.
TURLEY PRESUMES TOO MUCH
The announcement by Mr Phoenix that he will wear the same tuxedo to every award ceremony may not be intended as a grand, sweeping gesture. It just means that Phoenix is giving a plug to sustainable fashions. As Turley notes, Designer Stella McCartney is championing a trend to make clothes durable and timeless enough to last many years.
Therefore it’s hard to imagine that this trend is somehow an ’empty gesture’ by ‘overpaid celebrities’. But one can spin it in that context if they’re writing a column for angry Trump supporters who naturally hate Hollywood. And that appears to be Turley’s very cynical purpose here.
you never tire of hassling Turley huh? even when it’s a trivial point either way., sad! surely you have a contribution of substance that you can make today which will elicit stimulating discussion? because that was not it
https://youtu.be/qNQ85xouyes
Joaquin Phoenix, Space Cadet.
He’s a brilliant actor.
He is a very talented actor. He survived terrible abuse as a child in a cult, lost his brother to drugs at a young age. The man has overcome a lot.
“walk the line” about Johnny Cash was a really fantastic movie and soundtrack.
The entertainment and fashion worlds today, are as far out there as MACS J1149+2223. In other words so far removed from earth, that they’ve almost become irrelevant. Pity, because they used to be so dazzling!
Literally, the commentary I’m here for.
In high school using the same shower towel after practice all season without washing the towel was the mark of manliness…by the third game the towel stood by itself…
Wore the same tee shirt at practice for a couple months without washing and it stood on its own too, FOW. True feat requiring dedication and commitment. Just saying.,
I’m gonna guess neither of you were wrestlers. You’d have some kind of nasty skin funk if you did that. 😉
Do they normally get a new tuxedo for each event? I thought they just had them dry-cleaned.
Again, Mr Turley commentary is either opportunistic or disingenuous. Your disregard for accuracy is a stain on your pulpit.
” … it appears that Joaquin Phoenix is serious in announcing that he will wear the same tuxedo in all of his award ceremonies this year to reduce waste.”
***************
And he’ll wear it in every limousine and private jet he arrives in. Quite the martyr. Gervais had it right: hypocrites, pervs and poorly educated. That line about Greta Thunberg was as classic as David Nivens’, infra:
But, Mespo, maybe he wears it around the house like Daddy Warbucks! 😉