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Let’s Call Bullshit on Jim Carrey’s Twitter Apology to Assault Rifle Owners

By Jason Bailey on

Trying to make sense of Jim Carrey’s Twitter feed is a rather exhausting enterprise to begin with; it’s an all but unreadable word salad of New Age platitudes, inscrutable emoticons, and the kind of insular navel-gazing that you can only get from someone who’s been bagging $20 mil a picture for the better part of two decades. And over the past year, he’s thrown gun control advocacy into the mix, with the kind of clueless, impractical advice (“Revise the second amendment”) that’s bound to send those who actually want to get something done on the issue into bouts of eye-rolling. He takes his role as the anti-Charlton Heston so seriously that last month, he made headlines for deciding not to promote Kick-Ass 2 because of the film’s violence. But yesterday, he apologized — not for that move, of course, but for offending assault rifle owners. To repeat: he apologized for offending assault rifle owners. … Read More

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Books

Did Joyce Carol Oates Mean to Blame Islam for Rape in Egypt?

By Jason Diamond on

Who doesn’t sometimes sit around and wish that they could be half as prolific as Joyce Carol Oates? The 75-year-old author falls just after Philip Roth on the list of America’s most decorated writers (both are equally Nobel Prize-less), but unlike the now-retired 80-year-old Roth, Oates hasn’t shown any signs of stopping anytime in the near future. She even shares whatever thoughts pop into her head on her popular Twitter account. Earlier this year, Andy Boyd at PolicyMic extolled the “sublime joys” of following Oates, saying her tweets were like a “parody of the implied author of her stories,” and most of the time it is a total treat for all of us to see an iconic writer writing for us in real time; we get to know what Oates is thinking at that very moment, and we should all be thankful for that. … Read More

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Celebrity

43 Great Tina Fey Quotes for Her 43rd Birthday

By Jason Bailey and Chloe Pantazi on

One of Flavorwire’s favorite people, Tina Fey, turns 43 years old today, so we’re marking the occasion in the best way we know how — by rounding up some of the funniest witticisms and best advice from the brilliant and funny writer/comedienne. We’ve got one for every year, so click through for her thoughts on working motherhood, celebrity, homophobia, strip clubs, and Mark Wahlberg’s… Read More

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Film

15 Great Filmmakers to Follow on Twitter

By Jason Bailey on

Film fans on Twitter have known for a few weeks now that Steven Soderbergh has what he calls “sort of a shadow name” where he’s “posted a few things” on the social networking site; over the past 24 hours, that feed got a lot busier, as Soderbergh (under the unverified handle @bitchuation) started tweeting a novella. Semi-anonymous or not (and even if confining his tweets to novellas and absurd observations), Soderbergh joins a growing body of terrific filmmakers using the medium for film conversation, self-promotion, and peeks behind the curtain. Flavorwire rounded up some favorites back in 2010, but three years is an eternity in Twitter time, so here are a few more recommendations to add to your “following” list. … Read More

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Web

Is will.i.am’s ‘#willpower’ the Death Knell for the Hashtag?

By Tom Hawking on

There should be a law that adoption by the ghastly will.i.am immediately signals the absolute official end of a phenomenon’s cultural credibility. As such, it’s interesting in a mildly queasy way that he’s chosen to bless his fourth solo album — working title: Black Einstein — with the oh-so-hip moniker #willpower. And, just in case you didn’t get the fact that he’s down with the Internet kidz, its lead single is called “#thatPower.” Oh yes, dear readers, will.i.am is all about the hashtag. … Read More

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Celebrity

Celebrities as Media Critics: How Grimes and Jay-Z Are Dictating Their Own Mythology

By Tom Hawking on

If you’re a Grimes fan, you’ve probably already read her fantastic Tumblr post about how she’s tired of the way she’s portrayed in the media. If not, it’s definitely worth a look, because it’s basically everything we love about Claire Boucher — it’s articulate, intelligent, and heartfelt. Given her ambivalence about her Tumblr posts being reported as news, it’s not clear how she’ll feel about the response to the post, which is being reported everywhere. Still, it’s a pretty fine example of how today’s celebrities — for want of a better word — are using their Internet presences to push back in a meaningful manner at how they’re portrayed in the media. … Read More

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Film

Awesome Vine Trailers for Modern Classic Movies

By Jason Bailey on

As you may or may not have noticed, your Flavorwire didn’t bother covering this week’s maddening, seemingly frame-by-frame unveiling of the trailer for The Wolverine, a movie we’re not all that worked up over to begin with (seriously, didn’t we already do that once?). It was bad enough when we started getting 30-second teasers for movie trailers — an item that is, when you break it down, a commercial for a commercial. But Wolverine director James Mangold went a step further, first putting out a six-second Vine “tweaser” (yep, that’s what he called it), then the teaser, then the trailer, meaning that the Vine was a commercial for a commercial for a commercial and good God make it all stop please. But one good thing did come out of it: trailer editing house Tokyo got the nutty idea of recutting the trailers for eight modern classics into six-second form and posting them on Vine. The results are oddly captivating; check them out after the jump. … Read More

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Books

The Funniest Twitter Reactions to Elizabeth Wurtzel’s ‘New York’ Magazine Piece

By Emily Temple on

Yesterday evening, New York Magazine’s The Cut published an essay by Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation and a lot of pretty controversial articles over the years, entitled “Elizabeth Wurtzel Confronts Her One Night Stand of a Life.” It’s a rather rambling and entitled affair, though not completely without its moments, we’d say. Twitter, by and large, hates it. In case you’re not following along, we’ve collected the funniest responses to Wurtzel’s piece (as of this morning) after the jump — check them out below, and let us know whether you agree, and what you thought of the article in the comments. … Read More

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