Lainey and I have been emailing and texting about the Armie Hammer piece in Vanity Fair. Have you read it? It’s a deep dive and very Vanity Fair in that there’s a Fabergé egg, art fraud, lawsuits by the dozen, and a sex chair of ill repute. It traces the Hammer’s journey from Russia (“The family’s first brush with scandal was in 1919” – they are like bad press pioneers!) and it’s very detailed. And yet, something didn’t land for me. 

 

I don’t know if my threshold for scandal is too high or if we followed the story so closely when it came out on social media that there’s not a lot that could shock me here, but I got a weird vibe from it I can’t place my finger on. For people who didn’t follow at the time, there is a clear timeline of the events (which is useful to disentangle the allegations) and a conversation on consent and kink (something that has been glossed over in many media outlets). But for those of us who did follow it when it was trending, there’s not a lot of new information about the specific allegations around him. I’ve never cared about Armie Hammer enough to care about his great grandfather now. Maybe the disconnect is that usually social media dissects these stories after they are published, but in this case, the story is dissecting things we’ve seen on social media. And the language and shorthand we use there is very different from a legacy publication like Vanity Fair.

 

Sofia Vergara posted this TBT and you know what it reminded me of? When she briefly dated Tom Cruise in 2005. Everything we know about Tom Cruise tells us he’s a relationship guy and doesn’t do casual. This is probably the shortest public “relationship” he’s had.  

Emily Ratajkowski has had her baby, Sly (Sylvester) Apollo Bear. You don’t see the name Sly a lot and I’m into it. It’s a mix of unique (there won’t be a lot of Slys in his class) but not super random either. Also a great monogram name – three letters, SLY or SAB.  

 

Candace Cameron Bure feels “sick to her stomach” with pressure when her new Hallmark movies come out in November because she’s always been #1 and she’s scared one day she will slip, which of course happens to everyone. Question about Candace: do you think she has Mary-Kate and Ashley’s number, or a way to get it? If not, do you think anyone in the Full House cast does? I think Bob Saget and John Stamos do. Like their real phone numbers.  

 

Lainey mentioned that George Clooney went on the Smartless podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. I listened to it yesterday (to answer Lainey, George’s joke about Amal giving him sh-t while watching ER didn’t go beyond that, there was not a lot of context). I love hearing about the small interactions celebrities have in LA (not as friends, but acquaintances) and this podcast is full of them. John Krasinski invited Will Arnett for sushi with George when they were making Leatherheads and Will dropped George off at home and got his gate code. George struggled a lot as a young actor while, at the same time, Jason was a sitcom star and the two would play basketball together on the lot. There’re some inside baseball observations about Jason taking a lot of time off and coming back, and the rise and fall of people they’ve worked with. The three hosts are funny but the brunt of the joke is they are losers and George is the winner in every way. And George is so relaxed and so on point (he recalls everyone, by name) that there’s a reason he’s the “mayor of Hollywood.” Usually when celebrities interview other celebrities it’s kind of boring and there’s a veneer of protection, but this was instead like three fans getting to interview a movie star and it was pretty entertaining.