Mailbag for April 26, 2024
Gossip gremlins and dinosaurs, favourite junket interviews, on Guy Ritchie being direct to Prime Video, pre-junket rituals, and the Min Hee Jin/ Hybe /New Jeans situation
Dear Squawkers,
A couple of months ago, we posted a newsletter here for paid subscribers, “When the Gossip becomes the gossip” about all the controversy surrounding the person who runs the blind gossip website Crazy Days and Nights (CDAN), aka “Enty”. This week Vulture published a profile about him, “The Man Who Gossiped Too Much”, so we’re kicking off the mailbag with a question that was posted in one of the daily chats about this excellent piece by Lila Shapiro.
Question from Emily G: What a wild ride. Was Lainey Gossip contacted for comment about this story? CDaN was not really in my rotation back in the early aughts, but the items there would show up on other blogs I read.
I was contacted for comment and due to scheduling we couldn’t make it work. Now that I’ve read it though, I’m not really sure what I could have added to the story. If you’ve read it, you would have seen that I’m namechecked alongside Perez Hilton, who did give a quote. I did however find it interesting what he said in the article about “wanting to be part of the group”, referring to the group of gossip blogs in the 2000s that were considered popular – and I suppose, since we are mentioned in the profile, that LaineyGossip.com is included in that. I say this because “the group” that he wanted to be a part of…does it still exist? Is “the group” still as influential?
In that newsletter I wrote back in February that I just linked to above, Sarah said my best line was this one:
“Sometimes it feels like people want the blind more than they want the truth.”
And as Lila Shapiro notes in her piece, after Enty’s identity was exposed, after he was accused of sexual assault and harassment, and even though he’s admitted that he has just made shit up, he has not lost followers. He might actually be more popular than ever. Per Lila Shapiro:
“Despite all that talk of his Me Too heroism, people never went to [Enty] because he stood for truth or justice, and that is why they are not abandoning him now.”
Again, sometimes it feels like people want the blind more than they want the truth. Maybe it’s not even “sometimes” anymore. Maybe it’s MOST of the time.
And I guess there’s nothing else to do but laugh… bitterly? LOL. I lose followers when I write a critical review of Taylor Swift’s album. Enty GAINS followers after he’s exposed, is alleged to have abused a woman, and admits to not reporting truthfully. It’s funny! Sad, yes, but also funny! That Enty may not have felt back then like he was part of “the group” but what he’s done might be bigger and more consequential than what “the group” ever did. (Note from Jacek: Hardly surprising in an era when an Orange Buffoon can lie through his teeth 24/7 and attempt to steal an election, and his support rises)
Because to me, as a gossip columnist and, even if some don’t agree, as someone who deeply cares about the accuracy of gossip, which depends on HOW we gossip, the most essential and concerning part of the Vulture piece isn’t the story about Enty the person but CDAN itself and what’s looking a lot like a legacy that he’s inadvertently created. Lila Shapiro’s piece ends on this note:
“On TikTok, a place where falsehoods and conspiracy theories are circulated so widely and indiscriminately that experts warn of its eroding our ability to distinguish truth from fiction, his work has been embraced by a new generation of content creators. Watching their videos, you sense that Enty Lawyer, though only modestly successful, was in some ways a man ahead of his time. One rising star of the gossip world, “Celebritea Blinds,” a pretty young woman with blonde ombré hair and glossy lips who speaks in a robotic monotone, has built her audience of 337,000 followers by simply reading aloud from a website that pairs Nelson’s blinds with guesses. Recently, she proudly announced that she had received her first cease-and-desist letter. The person who sent it, she said, “has been accused of being a predator and abusing many people.” She paused, then added a caveat reminiscent of the one Nelson posted on his site all those years ago. “You guys know that all of what I read is alleged,” she said. “I don’t claim that any of this is fact.”
CDAN gave birth to gossip babies who suckled from contaminated teats, like mogwai feeding after midnight, the gossip gremlins have taken over. In our current timeline, the sprawling spawn of CDAN lives on TikTok, the megachurch of bad gossip.
Question from Bentia (also in the April 24, 2024 daily chat): He asked for this interview, so what do we think his angle is here? Is this guy trying to curry favor with the public without dismantling his site which has done measurable harm to people?
Does he need to curry favour though? The angle here is… he no longer needs to be part of “the group”. He’s the founding pope of his own religion.
As for the rest of us, I suppose we’re dinosaurs now? If that’s the case, we love our little dinosaur cave here at The Squawk. And we are thrilled that you’re bunking down with us. We’ll keep the lights on as long as we can.
More questions!
Question from Betts: In honor of the junket post today, what are your top three favorite celebrity junket interviews you’ve had (so far) and why?
Lainey’s Answer:
I know I mentioned the other day on the main site that I’d be writing about two junkets in today’s mailbag. That changed, however, because of the CDAN piece in Vulture. I wanted to address that first so next Tuesday’s newsletter (for paid subscribers) will be about The Idea of You junket with Anne Hathaway and the Challengers junket with Zendaya.
My top three favourite junket interviews…
OK so before I answer this, I’ll preface by saying that junkets are not my favourite way of doing interviews. I can do a four or five minute interview, no problem, but my strength is in a long-form interview. I’m telling you with my whole chest, no modesty, that I am a great long-form interviewer. Because I’m a student, because one of my best skills is being able to access the information I’ve read about or a scene from the film or series I just watched and react with it at exactly the right time in a conversation.
I did this recently during The Sympathiser junket interview with Sandra Oh. She was paired with the series lead, Hoa Xuande (he is gorgeous and has the most gorgeous name – pronounced HWAH SHWON-DAY – and he is SO good on this show), and we were talking about how her character, Sofia Mori, identifies as an American woman of Japanese descent living in the US in the 60s and 70s. She was telling me that Sofia has a complicated relationship with her ethnicity, and I jumped in and referenced the “insistence” she imbued in a line that Sofia says in episode two: “I’m an American”. Sandra immediately seized upon this:
“Yes! That’s right! The INSISTENCE!”
She knew that I knew what she was doing with her delivery, and the layers of meaning she put into those three words. I’m telling you this because I’m proud of it, and because Sandra Oh is tough. She’s not mean, but she approaches interviews with the expectation that the person she’s talking to isn’t going to waste her time. She can smell it on you if you’re unprepared, not engaged, or just going through the motions.
Sandra, then, is one of my favourites, because interviewing her is like a test – and passing her tests means that I belong here. By the way, Sandra is also one of my favourite long-form interviews. I interviewed her in 2019 for a half-hour special and I studied my ass off for that one.
Next…Angelina Jolie. For Maleficent, the first movie. I think I’ve told this story before, so I’ll keep it short. She’s also not an easy ride in an interview. Angelina is polite and professional, but she’s not gonna give it up without you working for it. I was able to make her laugh, we talked about lipstick, and then I got her to give me a quote about the wedding (she and Brad Pitt hadn’t gotten married yet and obviously I didn’t know then what we know now so our intention with the show was to bring back something about their upcoming ceremony). She knew what I was after, and she appreciated how I got there, so she gave me what I needed. That was a good day.
Finally, Lin-Manuel Miranda. And this was virtual which surprises me more than it probably surprises you because I muuuuuch prefer in-person interviews over virtual ones but it was during the pandemic and what happens on these virtual junkets is that you’re just sitting there on Zoom and they control the app and move you over from room to room; but the wait before you get into the virtual room can be quite long. It was a Friday night, like 6pm. Winter. I was sitting at the dining room table waiting to be transferred into Lin’s room and I think it was one of those junkets where there was a big cast so in total, I was there for two hours, and I spent that time reading a book. At one point my neck was tired from looking down so I had my elbows on the table, the book open in both hands in front of my face. They didn’t turn his audio on right away, which means I didn’t know he was up on the screen until I heard him laughing. He’d been staring at my book for I don’t know how long and that was how we started the interview. And he was great about it, he was asking me about the book, we talked about what he was reading, and we all know by now he’s a big reader, so it was just the best nerdy conversation, and he was every bit as kind and considerate as his reputation was back then. I don’t know what it is now, and someone somewhere is always mad about something so if you think he’s a dick, I’m sorry, it’s just that he was the opposite of dickish to me.
Honourable mention: I had such a fun interview a couple of weeks ago with Nicola Coughlin and Luke Newton for season three of Bridgerton that it made me enjoy their season so much more.
Question from Laura: For Sarah: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is not getting a theatrical release in New Zealand or the UK. How on earth does that happen? There are releases in Australia and in the Philippines for pete sake. How does a Guy Ritchie movie, with big stars, miss the UK??? (and NZ!! Which I am more upset about because I live there now)
Sarah’s answer:
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare isn’t MISSING the UK, or New Zealand, it’s a Prime Video streaming exclusive in those countries. Guy Ritchie’s last FOUR movies haven’t played in UK cinemas. The Wrath of Man came out in 2021 (starring Jason Statham and is actually quite good). Distributor Lionsgate intended to release it globally, but ended up selling international distribution rights to Amazon in a COVID panic as that summer’s box office wasn’t as strong as hoped, and Amazon made it a streaming exclusive outside of North America. Ritchie’s next film, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, went the same way. It was retooled after Russia invaded Ukraine, then distributor STX ended up in some corporate upheaval which put the film on even shakier ground. Once again, Amazon swooped in to buy up international distribution rights, and once again, they made a Guy Ritchie movie a streaming exclusive in the UK.
Then, Amazon, now merged with MGM, footed half the bill for The Covenant, the Afghanistan war movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal. They released it theatrically in the US, but again it went straight to streaming in the UK on Prime Video. Amazon must have data showing that Guy Ritchie pulls numbers on their UK platform, so they keep sending his movies straight to streaming, even if they release the movie in other global territories, as they did with The Covenant and now Ungentlemanly Warfare. I wish there was a sexier answer, but it’s just business shit. Ritchie appears to be a big draw for streaming—The Gentleman has been a big success on Netflix—perhaps because he’s a recognizable director and people generally like his work, but his work is also kind of B-grade, so it feels like the high end of direct-to-streaming. It’s not dogshit, but it might not be something people prioritize in theaters, either. Ungentlemanly Warfare isn’t setting the box office on fire. It’s probably just a matter of time before a Guy Ritchie film debuts as a Prime Video exclusive everywhere.
Question from Monika T: How does Lainey prepare mentally/hype herself up before a junket? Any eclectic rituals etc? Or momma on the phone reading you tarot? 👀
Lainey’s Answer:
I never call my ma before a junket, she is the last person I want to talk to. I do however call her before big live shows, like the Oscars. Live television is a whole other energy field – my ma’s crazy ass energy is perfect for that. Junkets are different, they can be hype, but not livewire hype.
Many of the reporters socialise at the junket before their interviews. I don’t usually do this because for some reason, my introvert side is stronger at junkets, which is a weird thing to say considering the point of a junket is that you’re there to TALK TO PEOPLE. But it’s a switch I turn on once I get into the room. Before I get into the room, I prefer mental stillness. These days I get that stillness from word games or Duolingo (for Mandarin). That’s what I do right before the interviews, it’s what I consider brain exercise.
Prior to that my rituals are more beauty related, because she’s a vain bitch! There’s a certain face mask I use before interviews and before big live shows that I now consider my lucky mask. My nickname for it is the cumshots mask because while it’s not made of semen, the way it goes on looks like, um, you know, and also when it dries it feels like a similar consistency. Then it peels off like a layer of skin and my pores are tight as fuck.
Question Laura (in the April 25 daily chat thread): I’d love to know Lainey’s thoughts on the Min Hee Jin / Hybe / New Jeans situation happening at the moment. So much show your work/ work politics intrigue.
Lainey’s Answer:
HOLY FUCK this mess!
So just a really quick probably incomplete summary for the uninitiated. HYBE is the biggest entertainment company in Korea. They are BTS’s company, and the chairman of HYBE is Bang Si-hyuk. He was originally a music producer who put together BTS under the label Big Hit Music. We all know about the success of BTS and from there, Chairman Bang was able to build HYBE – to the point where HYBE bought out Scooter Braun’s Ithica Holdings and Scooter is now the CEO of HYBE-America.
HYBE has several subsidiaries. One of those subsidiaries is a label called ADOR. HYBE owns 80% of ADOR and another 18% of shares belongs to Min Hee-jin. She’s had experience developing many successful girl groups, including Girls’ Generation and Red Velvet and her most recent success is NewJeans. As I have said at LaineyGossip, I LOOOOOOOOOVE NewJeans, I fucking love their sound and their vibe, and I’ve been waiting for them to go to the next level – which was supposed to happen soon as they have a comeback planned for next month and a tour that is scheduled to start by the end of the year. At least that was the plan. Until earlier this week.
News broke that HYBE was auditing ADOR. Accusations have emerged that Min Hee-jin was doing corporate shenanigans and attempting to wrest control of ADOR away from HYBE and Chairman Bang. HYBE is supposedly going to report her to the police. Min Hee-jin responded by counter-accusing HYBE and its chairman of plagiarism, among other things.
She’s alleging that they undermined NewJeans by insisting that another group, Le Sserafim, debut first even though NewJeans, a few years ago, was supposed to drop before them, and she’s saying that another new girl group that HYBE launched last month, ILLIT, under another subsidiary, was a copycat of NewJeans. There are also some rumours about her running her mouth about Bang Si-hyuk ripping off her ideas to launch BTS.
(Just an aside about K-pop group names? I think it’s obvious how much I appreciate K-pop and I do love the name NewJeans, NewJeans is a great band name, but some of these other names are… not it.)
Then yesterday Min Hee-jin held a press conference, a CHAOTIC press conference. Like at one point she projected text messages from Bang Si-hyuk and other HYBE executives onto the screen. It was a receipts show. But she also said some super cringy shit about a few of the female artists she works with. And she apparently kept talking over her lawyers who were trying to stop her from saying shit she might regret later. Then there was something about her seeking counsel from a shaman for business advice. If you watch Korean dramas, you know that the shaman thing isn’t coming out of nowhere. Here’s an article about how often Korean politicians are consulting with shamans. Like I said, this press conference was bananas, and if you want a play-by-play, click here.
This is a huge story, not just in Korea. Billboard and Variety are following it. It’s all over social media because of the popularity of all of the artists involved. My thoughts? Frankly I don’t know what to think. The patriarchy exists in Korea, too, despite the country’s economic advancements. In fact, “Korea had the biggest gender wage gap among 33 OECD countries” according to a recent study. So as a woman existing in a male-dominant nation and working in a male-dominated industry, Min Hee-jin has seen and been through some bullshit. A LOT of bullshit. Her accusations are entirely plausible. You cannot get to where Bang Si-hyuk is (he owns Scooter Braun!) without being ruthless.
At the same time, some of the things Min Hee-jin said today, it wasn’t a good look. She herself sounded misogynistic at times, and if she’s saying these things at a press conference, I don’t want to think about what she’s saying to female artists. Also, should she be waving off the advice of her lawyers in front of the cameras?
Then again, she’s up against a literal conglomerate, she’s feeling desperate, she’s desperate to get her story out there, she hasn’t slept in days, she’s under a lot of stress, and under this kind of duress, she may not at her sharpest. Should we hold that against her? Like I said, I’m confused, and I don’t know what to believe. I don’t speak the language, I have to rely on translated text, but also, more importantly, I don’t know the ins and outs of the Korean media ecosystem. Here in the west, we have seen conglomerates, giant media companies, trying to control the narrative and bend it in their favour by manipulating the press…so much of which they own. Remember the strikes less than a year ago? Remember what Sarah wrote about how AMPTP was trying to undermine the writers and the actors and leaking stories about fractures within the guilds and trying to get the public to think that these were spoiled greedy artists who just wanted more for doing nothing? It didn’t work, but they tried it. And you can’t tell me that shit doesn’t happen in other countries, you can’t tell me that HYBE doesn’t have sway over Korean media, that’s too naïve of a position to take.
So, since I don’t understand the language, and I’m not sure how much influence HYBE has over the media, it’s even more challenging to really get an accurate read on the situation. Social media isn’t helpful either because of the various fandoms and the competition between them. Fans of groups who hate BTS, for example, are siding with Min Hee-jin, because they want to see BTS lose some of that shine. Some fans, not all, but some fans of BTS are against her because, well, BTS. They don’t want BTS to look bad since HYBE is their company.
As for where this leaves NewJeans? I’m WORRIED. Unless this gets resolved amicably – and it’s not fucking looking that way right now – there are going to be lawsuits and countersuits and contract disputes. Which could jeopardise their immediate goals. Minji, Hanni, Haerin, Hyein, and Danielle are reportedly very close to Min Hee-jin. A lot of people are wondering if they’ll side with her. If they do, and there’s a prolonged dispute between Min Hee-jin and HYBE, which owns 80% of their label, they could get blocked from carrying on with their careers over breach of contract. FIFTY FIFTY had a huge hit last year (“Cupid”) and then they got into with their label and now that group doesn’t even exist anymore. But then again, if NewJeans decides to cut Min Hee-jin loose and stay with HYBE, they could be losing one of their biggest champions, perhaps their biggest champion.
And, like I said off the top, this is just a simplification of the situation!
Did I just spend a thousand words telling you that what I could have said in three? I DON’T KNOW. Basically, we are where we started today’s mailbag: the truth is getting more elusive, no matter what your entertainment stream or where it is.
I’ll leave it on a happier note – my favourite NewJeans song “Hype Boy”. This choreo! Please, please, please, one day, let me see it live.
Keep squawking and keep gossiping,
Lainey and Sarah
Love, love, love all the behind-the-scenes stuff, thanks for sharing it! In an interview a million years ago, David Duchovny said something about how his lawyer was an asshole, "but he's MY asshole." I feel the same way about Lin's people. He himself is an absolute delight, but his people? Another thing entirely. I have a theory that the nicer the celeb, the meaner their people. I see it in upper management all the time too--the nice boss seems to always have a number two who is willing to be the bad cop, so to speak, and say the unpopular things, etc. so that the boss can keep being the nice one. I'm not saying it's disingenuous (though it can be)--I personally find it very difficult to be an absolute jerk even if I need to be, and to have someone willing to advocate for me and be the jerk for me would be nice, I imagine. On another note entirely, my parents raised me with a real sense of fairness and so injustice/people lying, etc. drives me INSANE. I'm aware that the "truth" is manipulated all the time, but we used to have a base level of truth we could all agree on, and I fear that is going the way of the dodo.
Excellent writing regarding CDAN! I tried to read his blog years ago, and even then, I thought it read like QAnon conspiracies. To me, Lainey Gossip is the gold standard. We all used to be cruel about gossip in the early 2000s, but we've grown together.