Welcome to the March 17, 2015 edition of Outrage Watch, HitFix's (almost) daily rundown of all the things folks are peeved about in entertainment. So much anger today! Top story: Daily Beast TV writer Kevin Fallon has a big problem with NBC's “One Big Happy.”
“As a sitcom, it”s as retrograde as it gets – a 'Three's Company' retread where instead of getting starkly different personalities, the characters get different sexualities. (Or, in Prudence”s case, an accent),” writes Fallon of the new Ellen DeGeneres-produced sitcom, which stars Elisha Cuthbert as a gay woman who decides to raise a child with her straight best friend (Nick Zano) — only to have his hot new wife (Kelly Brook) move in. “Hijinks barely even ensue, replaced instead by broad lesbian clichés and stereotypes that are only recognized as jokes when the unsettling, maniacal laugh track kicks in.”
Fallon continues: “If there”s a milestone achieved by 'One Big Happy,' it”s that we”ve reached the point where shows spotlighting gay characters, relationships, and issues can finally be as lazy, occasionally offensive, and unfunny as shows about straight people have been for decades now. Heh. And here we all thought 'it gets better.'”
It's a pretty brutal takedown for a show that hasn't exactly been beloved by critics. Read our own Daniel Fienberg's review here.
Want more? There's plenty of indignation to go around. See below for a full roundup of today's kerfuffles.
Outraged: Stefano Gabbana
Target: Elton John
Why: Gabbana (one-half of the billion-dollar fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana) has hit back at John, who called for a boycott of D&G over the weekend after the designers came out against gay adoption and in vitro fertilization in a recent interview. Said Gabbana to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: “I wasn't expecting it from a person like Elton John whom I considered – I underline considered – intelligent. You preach understanding, you preach tolerance and then you attack? Just because someone thinks differently to you?…He's ignorant, in the sense that he denies ways of seeing things that may not be his but are just as deserving of respect.”
Meanwhile, here's a photo of Elton holding a Dolce & Gabbana shopping bag on…Monday. As in yesterday.
[The Wrap]
Outraged: Ashley Judd
Target: Twitter misogynists
Why: Not long after lashing out at Twitter users over threatening comments made in response her tweet calling out the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team for their “dirty play,” the “Insurgent” actress told “Today” show correspondent Craig Melvin that she's “pressing charges” against those who harassed her. “Everyone needs to take personal responsibility for what they write and not allowing this misinterpreation and shaming culture on social media to persist,” said the actress, who added: “A significant part of my day today will be spent filing police reports at home about gender violence that's directed at me on social media.”
Hope it was worth it, trolls!
[The Wrap]
Outraged: Salon writer Anna Silman
Target: Meghan Trainor's “Dear Future Husband”
Why: Fair to say Silman isn't a fan of Trainor's new single, which is, in her estimation, a “literal garbage pile of horrible retrograde gender stereotypes.” Oh, is that all?
[Salon]
Outraged: Fans of the Glastonbury Music Festival
Target: Kanye West
Why: After the “Yeezus” rapper was announced as a headliner at the upcoming U.K. fest, a petition was started on Change.org calling the rapper to be removed from the lineup in favor of a “rock band”: “Kanye West is an insult to music fans all over the world,” the petition states. “We spend hundreds of pounds to attend Glasto, and by doing so, expect a certain level of entertainment. …Let”s prevent this musical injustice now!”
As of this writing, the petition has been signed by over 19,000 backward-thinking people.
[NME]
Outraged: Daily Beast writer Tim Teeman
Target: The fashion industry
Why: Dior's announcement that Rihanna would front its spring campaign — making her the first black woman to do so in the company's history — “is to be celebrated,” writes Teeman — before chastising the fashion industry for its slow progress on race: “That it has taken this long for Rihanna to make this particular slice of history is shocking, and it is a shaming comment on the racism still prevalent within the fashion world.”
Dior, meanwhile, is elated they've filled their “Other” quota for the next four decades.
Outraged: Salon writer Arthur Chu
Target: Hollywood's white male-centric remake culture, remake culture, nostalgia culture
Why: Though Chu gives the Hollywood establishment guff here too, he characterizes Tinseltown's remake/reboot/nostalgia obsession (particularly remakes/reboots of films centered “around white male protagonists”) as a reaction to fan demand:
“It”s hard to tell at times if the people making 'gritty reboot' trailers are parodying Hollywood or unironically creating something they want – the sheer volume of excited fans who crowd around various gritty reboot projects seems to imply the latter,” he writes, before taking aim at Sony's second “Ghostbusters” reboot (i.e. the one not starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones): “Naturally, nostalgia-addicted pop culture being what it is, the all-female 'Ghostbusters' got blasted with incredible vitriolic hate, until the haters were mollified by the announcement of another, separate 'Ghostbusters' remake that is exactly the shallow 'Ghostbusters' rehash they were apparently hoping for.”
This one's difficult to sum up in a paragraph. I recommend reading the full piece.
[Salon]
Outraged: Conservative pundit Ben Ferguson
Target: Rapper Trinidad James
Why: “Young people look up to you, and you're rapping about the [n-]word and making money on it and they think they should be rapping the word and saying the word as well,” raged Ferguson at James on Monday's episode of “CNN Tonight” hosted by Don Lemon.
“I'm making money off of doing music and being creative, sir,” responded James, best known for the 2012 single “All Gold Everything.” “I'm not making money just because I use the n-word. Nobody goes to buy an album because it's full of the n-word.”
Retorted Ferguson: “Trinidad, you wouldn't be on this show tonight if it wasn't for using the n-word in your rap music. Let's be honest.” And then his head exploded.
[Mediaite]
Outraged: Azealia Banks
Target: America
Why: “I hate everything about this country,” says the rapper in a new Playboy interview. “Like, I hate fat white Americans. All the people who are crunched into the middle of America, the real fat and meat of America, are these racist conservative white people who live on their farms. Those little teenage girls who work at Kmart and have a racist grandma-that's really America.”
Hey look, she's a sexy cat!