Tue, May 13, 2008

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DAILY SHVITZ
Give Linsday A Break
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Leave it to the New York Times to offer a smart take on Lindsay Lohan's drama. Leave it to the GoFugYourself girls to anxiously project the replacements this past weekend proved the media will need, likely sooner than later. In case you spent the past six days living amongst glow in the dark sea creatures, LaLo fucked up a lot last weekend in L.A. Early Saturday morning, she drank, drove, crashed her Benz into a tree, and cops recovered purported cocaine from her car. Less than 48 hours later she got so fucked up she couldn't stand to walk on her own from the Roosevelt Hotel's Memorial Day party in L.A. and pictures of her conked out nabbed front-page tabloid coverage the next morning. The consensus by news outlets: She just can't stop herself and it's just so sad.

The Times waited until the day after the tabloids' Lohan vomit to run their analysis of her behavior on the front page of the Arts section. It said she has to pay her own insurance now, and studio execs don't want to hire her because she's so unreliable, having fucked up a lot of productions' shooting schedules. All the same, she's such a gem on screen and isn't it just so sad?

The Fug girls can't bear to see Linsday like this either because, with Paris on her way to jail and LaLo now possibly cell-bund, America's gossip and--as the Times story proved--news consumers face starvation that may hit sooner than expected. They predicted the likeliest replacements. Their article, running on New York magazine's blog, is great. I love them, I love gofugyourself, and I enjoyed reading this post. But at the same time, it makes sick to think this is what's become of female celebrity.

I fail to see why partying is so interesting. A lot of us have spent a lot of time fucked up. It's neither wonderful nor fascinating. In the end it just induces bad feelings. But when you see video of Linsday running around fucked up, she's laughing and talking normally. She's 20, she's having fun, and she's too immature to realize life is way more rewarding without all that shit. Any city like New York or L.A. is rife with shenanigans like hers. This behavior is not new nor news, so why are we glorifying it now? Why does the public, myself included, find it so intriguing? Can't we just leave her and the rest of 'em alone so they can stop?

I don't want to be sucked in by this anymore. I think I am because there's nothing else to read about female celebrities like Lindsay. As vivacious as she is on camera, the studio exec quoted by the Times noted, she's a delight to watch. And I want to watch her. Leonardo DiCaprio gets props for making an environmental docuementary. But his lady peers probably wouldn't do something like that anyway because that's not the kind of thing that earns them attention. For them, getting fucked up while pantyless is the best way to get noticed.

We're only teaching young girls being slutty, druggy, and dumb is cool and glamorous. And we're reducing the fairer sex to the lowest standards possible. The FugYourself piece says girls are not worthy of massive publicity unless they're as slutty, druggy, and dumb as possible. Young women have a lot more to offer. Maybe if we glorify those that do, Lindsay will emerge from rehab and join their ranks.



Amy Odell is a writer living in New York City. She is New York magazine's fashion blogger. Her work has also appeared in the New York Observer, where she got her start in journalsm interviewing celebrities at parties and writing about


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FabFagFreddy


I'm over it

I saw a headline about her relapse last week and I immediately decided to discard it from my consciousness like it was student loan bill.  I really hope she gets some help for her substance abuse but I'm no longer going to follow this calamity like its REALLY important.  





François Blumen...


Virtue and gender

You make a very interesting point, Amy. Of course most icons of female virtue/generosity in our Christian world must be tagged as virgins (Mother Theresa -yes, yes, I know what Hitchens would say, I'm just pointing out that she got good media coverage and, well, there are few pictures of her cavorting around). If they're not, what happens? I was trying to think of counter-examples, and the only one that could come to mind was that of Diana, Princess of Wales. And there was the slutty/druggy/dumb coverage next to that of her charitable actions. So indeed it is clear that men aren't held up to the same standards, and a bastard who gives his time for charity will still be covered as a great guy (speaking of which, do those standards also apply to philosophy, where one is willing enough to ignore the dark sides of men -e.g., Heidegger?). However, I'm curious to know how much you think this is due to excessive and inappropriate coverage by the media. The argument that this is what the readers want is ridiculous -the readers would also want the Circus games if offered- so why don't we just have a responsible press stop the coverage of the dumb stuff (impossible dream, I know) -I think CNN tried not covering Hilton for a day or something like that? The reason I'm asking this here is because I'm curious to see what people like Joey have to say about this -being that he is thoroughly opposed to any limitation on the so-called freedom of the press (yes, so-called, because I'm ready to argue that giving yourself limits is not restraining your freedom but instead the very definition of being autonomous). And it's early on a Sunday morning, so sorry for the rambling. 





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