Scooter Braun has issued a statement on AMA-gate (click here to refresh on the details). He says he was compelled to make it because of death threats to his wife and kids (which he has a screenshot of) and a particular threatening phone call they received. Beyond that, Scooter’s clients (like Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande) have received all kinds of cruel messages from Swifties, after Taylor specifically asked her fans to appeal to artists he represents. The position he lays out here is that he is ready to talk, he has always wanted to talk, there are many options for her masters (translation: he is open to selling them back to her or reconfiguring the deal). He also says it seems she has no interest in resolving the conflict. This feels familiar, doesn’t it? Taylor might be someone who is fuelled by feuds and needs an enemy. And that’s understandable: she works in a combative and vicious industry and maybe that is how she protects herself and her work. It is the way she executes her strategy that is muddying a pretty clear cut issue: who should own an artist’s work. After Scooter’s statement hit, her fans started proclaiming victory, but what has she gained?
The AMAs and even the Netflix documentary are a battle. The master recordings are the war. The headline on PEOPLE right now is, “Scooter Braun Pleads with Taylor Swift to Find ‘Resolution’ After Receiving Death Threats Against Wife, Kids.” I don’t think this is going the way she intended it to go because this Lover album cycle has been so much about access, and that will continue with Cats. These are not the headlines she wants from the celebrity-sanctioned magazine of record. The AMAs on Sunday are the perfect time to reset the strategy. Don’t give any more oxygen to the feul story. Let the holidays pass, then slide over to them in 2020 to negotiate just as you are legally allowed to re-record your albums. By then, everyone will be happy to come to the table and ready to make a deal.
I was hoping to hear an audio recording of Elsa Pataky (Thor’s wife) talking about Liam Hemsworth because I want to her the inflection in her words – the exact quote is: “My brother-in-law, well… After a relationship that you've dedicated ten years to, he's a little bit down, but he's coping well, he’s a strong boy and he deserves the best, I think he deserves much better.”. The “much better” is what we are all focusing on – like much better than Miley Cyrus? Have you heard her song "Slide Away"? It’s really good, a slow banger. My favorite line is, “Don’t want your whiskey and pills, just want my house in the hills….”
Anyway, is this is the most press Elsa Pataky has gotten in a while?
David Beckham’s fangirling is the only appropriate response here. And Stevie Nicks’s disinterested side-eye is killing me.
Kerry Washington is directing Insecure, so we could get a premiere date soon. (And her tracksuit is Tory Sport – it appears to be sold out.)
The Victoria’s Secret show is no more (which I thought had already happened?). It’s official now, it’s not coming back in its current iteration, but I have no doubt it will be back. In honour of that pink cloud of feathers, here’s a throwback to the best ever Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show post.
