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Britney Spears and Colin Farrell Went to a Premiere Together 15 Years Ago Today, FYI


Very few moments in our culture actually achieve transcendence. When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969, for example, the world stopped. As it did when Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. And when Barack Obama became the first Black president of the United States. These were watershed events: moments that changed the course of history, and life, as we know it. They’re documented in academic journals and books. Teenagers learn about them in high school—as they should, because it’s important for them to know who fought for their lives.

But there are two freedom fighters the history books are omitting: Britney Spears and Colin Farrell, who, on one night 15 years ago, did something so radical—so extreme—that American life changed for the better. They attended the premiere of the greatest film of our time, The Recruit.

It happened on January 28, 2003 at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles. On that sacred ground, Spears and Farrell singlehandedly replenished American culture, which had been left barren by From Justin to Kelly and George W. Bush.

Their charity was silent but mighty. The maybe-couple didn’t really say anything on their red-carpet pilgrimage: Instead, they just smiled, stuck out their tongues, and later feverishly made out. That was enough to water the nation’s crops and reenergize the stock market, though. The Recruit went on to gross over $100 million at the box office, too, ensuring that white, straight men—the most underrepresented demographic in film, by far—could keep working in Hollywood. Britney Spears and Colin Farrell’s benevolent caresses did all of that.

The reason behind Farrell and Spears’ one-night mission trip is unknown. It’s unclear how they met or if they even officially dated. Either way, it just took this one moment for Americans to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Thankfully, photographers were on site to capture this groundbreaking exchange. Below, a few pics:

Here, Spears takes a brief break from spreading the peace and enjoys a massage from Farrell.

PHOTO: Getty Images

See Farrell’s bruised knuckles? Battle scars from the fight for justice.

Los Angeles Premiere of "The Recruit"

PHOTO: Getty Images

Frankly, it’s incredible that we even have this footage.

Los Angeles Premiere of "The Recruit"

PHOTO: Getty Images

I shudder to think what our country would look like had this night not happened. We should all be eternally grateful.

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60 Years of Female Nominees at the Grammys in 4 Staggering Charts


The 2018 award season has already been markedly altered by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, from actors wearing black at the Golden Globes to the SAG Awards’ decision to have only female presenters. At the Grammy Awards this weekend, the spotlight will shift to the music industry, which has seen its own share of sexual harassment scandals during the past year—from Kesha to Russell Simmons. Musicians, producers, and managers will be wearing white roses on the red carpet to support Time’s Up, and Kesha’s performance will reportedly speak to the #MeToo movement.

Much like the award ceremonies that spotlight the year’s noteworthy performances on the big and small screen, however, there’s a deeper story to be told around how women are represented at the big award shows for music—and there’s no bigger music award, arguably, than a Grammy.

For this awards season we’re eschewing some of the standard fare of previous years—consistent “Best Dressed” roundups, for example—to focus on spotlighting the ways women are changing the entertainment industry, from record-breaking awards to the perspective-shifting performances. We’re also digging into the data behind key categories at all the major award shows. Just how often do women get nominated? And how often do they win? And are we getting better at being truly representative of the people listening to music or watching shows?

Our reasoning is simple: We believe that better representation—in all areas of the entertainment industry—means healthier workplaces and better storytelling.

2018 marks 60 years of Grammy Awards, and we looked at the data in major, gender-neutral categories all the way back to 1959—including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. (Note: Across all of these categories, we excluded groups of more than 10-12—the ensemble cast of a musical, for example, or the various artists that worked on a movie’s soundtrack—totaling 13 exclusions in all since 1959.) It wasn’t an enormous surprise that musicians and songwriters who identify as female are underrepresented here—as they are across other entertainment award stages—but the percentages are truly staggering. In an industry where artists like Cardi B and Taylor Swift have dominated headlines, the lion’s share of the accolades are still consistently awarded to men in these categories.

Across the field, only 21 percent of the nominees since 1959 have been women and only 23 percent of the winners.

Only 24 percent of artists who identify as female have been nominated for Record of the Year, and only 22 percent have been winners.

For Album of the Year, one of the most distinctive awards at the Grammys (not to mention hotly contested: see Beyoncé’s much-discussed snub in 2017), only 20 percent of the nominees have been women and only 21 percent of the winners. There have been 11 years during the Grammys’ 60-year history where no women were even nominated.

Song of the Year, which is awarded to a songwriter (or songwriters), has the fewest female nominees of all the categories we looked at. Only 17 percent of overall nominees were women and only 16 percent of the winners. Since 1959, there have been 14 years where there were zero women nominated in this category.

The Best New Artist category fares slightly better than the others, with 24 percent of the nominees being female and a whopping 32 percent of the winners. (It’s still low, but significantly higher than the others.) This presents a question, however: Why the drop-off from ‘Best New Artist’ to the other categories? Why are women more routinely heralded as promising newcomers, but not necessarily industry heavyweights?

It’s also worth noting that this data presents just a limited window into women’s representation in the overall business and doesn’t factor in the gaping inequality that women of color, for example, face. This limited window, however, does already offer a pretty stark portrait of how far we have to go. The good news is that music—and the entertainment industry broadly—has a long legacy of artists speaking up and getting loud. Change is sure to follow.

You can explore the data in even more detail below, where you can hover over any of the many individual bubbles to see each nominee, male (in gray) or female (in peach), the work for which they were nominated, and the year—all the way back to 1959. You can also filter the data by gender and by winner.

Graphic: Condé Nast Data Visualization

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Minnie Mouse Just Got a Star on the Walk of Fame—40 Damn Years After Mickey


Disney didn’t say why they were finally giving Minnie Mouse a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, but it could be because her longtime partner, Mickey, got his 40 years ago. In 1978, to be exact. Whether they’re “woke” enough to realize the symbolism here or not, Minnie’s treatment is an uncanny example of an industry relying heavily on women but pretending not to. Her story is every woman’s story

Minnie’s treatment wouldn’t be such a big deal if other mediocre make-believe males —Donald Duck, all the Rugrats, Woody Woodpecker—hadn’t already received their stars decades before, despite having substantially lower value to their parent company. Even dogs get stars before Minnie. Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, and Strongheart have had theirs for 60 years now. In what kind of upside down world does a woman, who’s been serving her boss for over 90 years and is pretty much the face of a billion-dollar media company, not get as much credit as dogs who couldn’t even talk and nobody under the age of 40 has even heard of?

I realize this is a anthropomorphic rodent we’re talking about here, but Disney’s disregard for Minnie and her importance to their global success perpetuates a larger world view that doesn’t value women’s work, both paid and unpaid. What makes it all the more ridiculous is the fact Disney relies on its female characters even more than its male ones. In fact, some might say Disney’s shift to princess culture is behind their takeover of the entire industry.

This push towards princess-driven stories was intentional after Disney struck gold with The Little Mermaid. Before then, Mickey and Minnie were the characters we’d stand in line to get a hug from.

PHOTO: Jean Baptiste Lacroix

Now, it’s all about princesses. To put things in financial terms, everything these princess touch turns to gold. The toy manufacturer, Hasbro, saw a 14.2% quarter-4 increase in 2016 sales once they started carrying Disney princess merchandise. And, until Disney took over the Star Wars franchise, princess stories were almost always their top grossing films. In fact, princess culture is one of the entertainment industry’s biggest successes of all times, drawing in billion from films, merchandise, theme parks, and everything. My nieces use Frozen toothpaste. Disney World’s onetime symbol of innovation, Epcot Center, was all but dead until they turned Norway into a Frozen-themed ride.

So where is Elsa’s star? Will she have to wait 40 years too?

What women in Hollywood, real or animated, want, deserve, and are finally demanding is money, recognition, and protection. Whether it come in the form of pay, Oscars, or Hollywood stars, time is most certainly up on this industry that makes boatloads of cash off women, but still doesn’t want to pay up for the privilege.

Since the #MeToo movement pushed women’s abuse to the forefront of our cultural dialogue, women have felt empowered to speak up about all forms of power imbalance. We’re calling out the Oscars, who refused to nominate Wonder Woman for a single award despite its massive success. We’re calling foul on Lady Bird’s female director being denied a Golden Globe nomination despite critical acclaim and massive success.(Luckily, the Academy saw the light—she was nominated for an Oscar this week.) Whether it’s Michelle Williams or Catt Sadler, the pay disparity between women and their male equals is not business as usual anymore.

The women’s Olympic gymnastics team is trying to gut an industry that made them sacrificial lambs to a sexual predator while they brought them home gold medals. The women’s soccer team, who won the world cup and are far more talented than their male counterparts, are suing for compensation. NFL Cheerleaders, which reportedly make less than minimum wage, are telling their stories now too.

Whether it be Hilary Clinton, Natalie Portman or Simone Biles, women are tired of having to tap dance backwards to be successful. In fact, we’ve been doing far more than tap dancing in heels or hugging little kids in the Magic Kingdom wearing kicky polka dots. Our labor is what makes the world turn.



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Judge Sentences Larry Nassar to 40 to 175 Years in Prison, Says, 'I've Just Signed Your Death Warrant'


Former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.

On Wednesday Judge Rosemarie Aquilina who has been presiding over the entirety of the Nassar hearing since its inception, made the announcement in a Lansing, Michigan, court on Wednesday after hearing statements from more than 150 women and girls who have come forward with sexual abuse allegations against Nassar over the past two decades.

“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Aquilina said, while delivering the former Olympic doctor’s sentence. “I find that you don’t get it, that you’re a danger. That you remain a danger.”

Despite the staggering number of accusations and the overwhelming evidence against him, Nassar has throughout the trial vehemently defended his practices. According to a letter he wrote to the court last week, parts of which Judge Aquilina read aloud in advance of today’s sentencing, the doctor maintained that these accusations were unfounded, and that his accusers were merely lying for media attention in the expectance of financial payoff.

“I was a good doctor because my treatments worked, and those patients that are now speaking out are the same ones that praised and came back over and over,” he wrote in the letter. “The media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad. They feel I broke their trust. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” The judge tossed it aside.

The victims of Nassar’s heinous crimes—many of whom were minors at the time of assault and had been scheduled to seek Nassar’s “treatment” due to various sports-related injuries—include some of the most famous Olympic gymnasts in American history, including gold medalists Simone Biles and Aly Raisman, who read her victim statement at Nassar’s hearing, as well as athletes at Michigan State University and from USA Gymnastics.

“We, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force, and you are nothing,” Raisman said during the trial. “The tables have turned, Larry. We are here. We have our voices, and we are not going anywhere.”





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Lena Dunham and Jack Antonoff Have Broken Up After Five Years of Dating


Lena Dunham and longtime boyfriend Jack Antonoff have ended their five-year relationship, reps for both confirmed to People. Though the breakup was reportedly “amicable,” E! News sources say the couple actually called it off in December and have kept it quiet until now.

There’s no bad blood, however. “It was mutual,” the source claims. “Jack and Lena were growing apart and it just made sense for them to end their relationship where it was.”

The pair, who began dating in 2012 after meeting on a blind date, made their last public appearance as a couple nearly a year ago at a Grammys pre-party. And though they were rarely seen in public together, their affection for one another was always evident. In October, Dunham wrote an essay about her love for Antonoff for Variety to celebrate his entry in the publication’s “New Power of New York” list.

“It’s safe to say that before Jack my life was full of far fewer sights. He showed me the importance of making political statements using your public platform,” she wrote. “He showed me the joy of collaboration. He showed me the magic of his home state of New Jersey and turned the butt of my snotty New Yorker jokes into a glimmering fantasyland. I know he does the same for all the artists he produces for, the fans who come to his shows and the recipients of his love. I try and share nicely.”

For his part, Antonoff told Vulture in 2014 that he felt an instant connection to the actress, activist, and director. “I told Lena everything about my whole life, because when you really like someone, you want them to know everything about you,” he said.

Dunham and Antonoff last appeared on social media together in October, when Dunham shared a photo of the two hugging with the caption, “Since I dyed my hair blue he sings a song about how I am a troll looking for some trolls snacks and troll friends and he’s not wrong.”

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This Staggering Graphic Will Remind You That the Golden Globes Haven't Honored a Female Director in 25+ Years


In the wake of a year in which Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo dominated the entertainment headlines, this year’s overall awards season has—rightly—centered more on change in Hollywood than any red carpet predictions or accolade-worthy performances. This year, the spotlight is on worthy initiatives like Time’s Up, an ambitious initiative backed by 300 powerful women in entertainment with the goal of ending systemic inequality and harassment in the workplace.

And here’s the thing: One of the most meaningful ways to combat systemic inequality—and harassment, for that matter—is to ensure that all workplaces have a better gender balance. Most importantly, that women are visible in leadership positions and recognized for their achievements.

In the entertainment industry, for example, that means taking a hard look at areas like directing, where women are particularly underrepresented. Even in 2017—a year that saw Patty Jenkins crush box office records with Wonder Woman—just 11 percent of the directors of Hollywood’s top-grossing films were women. Looking ahead to the Golden Globes as an early indicator of how we’re honoring these female directors’ achievements, we see more bad news: Not a single female director was nominated for a Golden Globe award this year, despite heavy praise for Dee Rees’ work on Mudbound and Greta Gerwig’s first directing work with Ladybird. (Gerwig received a nomination for Best Screenplay.)

In the 75-year history of the Golden Globes, a woman has been given an award for Best Director exactly once: Barbra Streisand won for Yentl in 1984. Worthy women have since been nominated—including Ava DuVernay and Kathryn Bigelow—but none have won. (The Academy Awards haven’t fared better: Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to have won—for Hurt Locker in 2010—in nearly 90 years.)

We looked at the data on female Golden Globe nominees in four clearly gender-neutral categories over the past 25 years and found that in categories like Best Screenplay and Best Score, women (meaning nominees who identify as female) are staggeringly underrepresented. Take a look at the data, below. You can filter the results to “Best Directing” or “Best Original Score” by clicking on any of the categories at the top, and you can also hover over any of the individual squares to see the nominee—male (in gray) or female (in peach)—and the work for which they were nominated.

In 2005, there were zero nominations for women in these four categories, full stop. In the Best Original Score category, men have outpaced women 143 to 7 over the past 25 years. Overall, female nominees represent just 12 percent of the overall nominees in these categories over the past 25 years. Twelve percent!

In the October 2017 issue of Glamour, cover star Reese Witherspoon elaborated on the problem female directors face: “It’s definitely easier for a male director with a few flops under his belt to get another job directing; that’s not the case for women. Shouldn’t female filmmakers get as many shots as men do? Or how about a shot, period? Women directors, writers, and producers still face considerable challenges just getting hired in the first place. Only about one in four people working in those roles in TV are women; in film it’s even worse—17 percent.”

The statistics inspired Witherspoon to start her own production company, and they also inspired us to launch the #NewView film competition to showcase how young female filmmakers see the world. (Watch the incredible winning films here!)

For this award season, we’re eschewing some of the standard fare of previous years—consistent “Best Dressed” round-ups, for example—to focus on spotlighting the ways women are changing Hollywood, from record-breaking awards to the characters redefining how woman are portrayed on-screen. (TV, for example, finally seems to be getting mothers right. Or at least more right.)

We’ll also keep digging into the data behind key categories at all the major award shows. Just how often do women get nominated? And how often do they win? And are we getting better at being truly representative of the people watching TV and film?

To be sure, this data is just a limited window into women’s representation in the overall business—and also doesn’t factor in the inequality that women of color, for example, face—but even this limited window offers a stark portrait of how far we have to go. The good news, at least, is that we’re speaking up and getting loud. Change is sure to follow.

Graphic: Condé Nast Data Visualization

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