Dear Gossips,

I don’t understand the BAFTA Rising Star short list. It’s ONLY men. Which... fine. But here are the women who were on the long list and didn’t make the final five:

Jennifer Lawrence, Felicity Jones, Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain took a seat for Thor, Chris Hemsworth.

Per the Huffington Post, Simon Pegg, who was on the panel that put forward an initial list of 8 names, expressed his disappointment and clarified that the panel had nothing to do with determining the short list. The list was shortened from 8 to 5 by public vote. And that’s the downside of a public vote. They’ll always vote for the hot guy with the hammer, the funny guy in that funny movie, and the quirky boys with the small rabid following who’ll spend all day mobilising support online.

How is that any different from how the Clooneys and the Branges of the world campaign? Very good question. If I were the Dean of the Faculty of Celebrity Studies at a liberal arts university somewhere in New England, this would be the final exam question in a second year course called Fame & Strategery. It’s a take home paper.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey