Welcome to the March 20, 2015 edition of Outrage Watch, HitFix's daily rundown of all the things folks are peeved about in entertainment. Today's top story: Ashley Judd is taking a stand against online misogyny.
The “Insurgent” actress has published a lengthy essay Thursday that took aim at a round of misogynistic and threatening attacks directed at her on Twitter earlier this week.
“What happened to me is the devastating social norm experienced by millions of girls and women on the Internet. Online harassers use the slightest excuse (or no excuse at all) to dismember our personhood. My tweet was simply the convenient delivery system for a rage toward women that lurks perpetually,” the actress wrote. She goes on to relate that she was the victim of two different rapes and “systematic molestation from another adult” that occurred in the summer of 1984, before concluding:
“I am handing it back over to those of you who are unafraid to speak out against abuse like I have faced, and those of you who are righteous allies and intervening bystanders. You're on it. Keep at it – on the Internet, at home, at work and in your hearts, where the courage to tackle this may fundamentally lie. We have much to discuss, and much action to take. Join me.”
Read it in full over at mic.com.
Want more? There's plenty of indignation to go around. See below for a full roundup of today's kerfuffles.
Outraged: Jay Leno
Target: P.C. college culture
Why: During an appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” Thursday, the former late-night host called out our nations young people for being too P.C. “College kids now are so politically correct,” said Leno, who went on to relate a story about a former intern who called him “a little racist” for saying he wasn't a big fan of Mexican food.
“College kids now are so politically correct,” said Leno, who went on to relate a story about a former intern who called him “a little racist” for saying he wasn't a big fan of Mexican food.
“Being anti-guacamole is not racist,” he continued. “You have no idea what racism is. That”s not racist, you idiot! You moron.”
Look who's suddenly edgy.
[The Wrap]
Outraged: Comedian Bo Burnham
Target: An invasive audience member, a security guard named Larry
Why: “You're gentle, and you're lost, I wish you the best, I really want you to kill yourself, but in theory I wish you the best,” Burnham told an audience member who climbed on stage during his Atlanta stand-up appearance Wednesday night. He also laid into a security guard named Larry over his seeming failure to prevent the interruption: “This is you f*cking up,” he said. “This is you not doing your job. In human form.”
Burnham actually comes off remarkably cool in the clip, but the suicide comment? Not sure that's worth applauding.
[Uproxx]
Outraged: Conservative radio host Wayne DuPree
Target: Azealia Banks
Why: “So it seems you did a spread in playboy, hate white people and can”t wait to leave the US? What”s taking you so long 2 leave?” DuPree tweeted at the rapper Thursday, in reference to controversial comments she made in a recent Playboy interview. “Waiting for my reparations,” responded Banks. As we could have predicted, things escalated, Banks called DuPree a “house n*****” before telling him to “sweep the floor,” and DuPree retorted: “Fly in on that broom so I can sugabritches.”
Are we having fun yet?
[Twitchy]
Outraged: Justin Bieber's former neighbor Jeff Schwartz
Target: Justin Bieber
Why: The pop superstar and Comedy Central roastee is being sued by Schwartz (the same man whose house was egged by Bieber and his friends, an incident for which the singer was forced to pay out $80,000 in repairs) for emotional distress, claiming, among other things, that one of Bieber's bodyguards called him “little Jew boy” and that the singer at one point spit something on him, a claim Bieber has denied.
[TMZ]
Outraged: “Top Gear” host Jeremy Clarkson
Target: The BBC
Why: The host of the popular U.K. reality series blasted the network at a London charity event Thursday night, after he was suspended from the program over an incident in which he's alleged to have punched “Top Gear” producer Oisin Tymon in the face. Stating that he would take “one last lap” around the “Top Gear” track before being “sacked” by those “fucking bastards,” he went on to rant: “To be in the audience at 'Top Gear' there was an 18-year waiting list, but the BBC's fucked themselves…It was a great show and they've fucked it up.”
“They.” As in the people who didn't do the punching.
[Mirror]
Outraged: The lawyers for Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams
Target: The Marvin Gaye family
Why: Following a judgment that saw Thicke and Williams ordered to pay the Gayes $7.4 million over claims that they plagiarized Gaye's 1977 song “Got to Give It Up,” Thicke's lawyer slammed the family in a new court document, accusing them “improper” and “unfair” tactics and promising: “This case is far from over. It is merely entering a new phase.” He also refers to the judgment as “an abject miscarriage of justice, unsupported by the evidence and contrary to law.” This one's gonna live for awhile.
[The Wrap]