deerstalker
https://www.themarysue.com/let-malia-live/
Some selfish opportunist recently leaked a video of Malia Obama smoking on Instagram, thereby officially getting themselves uninvited from every future party at Harvard, and of course the conservative and tabloid mediaverse soon picked it up. This came just days after garbage outlets like The Daily Mail tried to hunt down the identity of a dude she made out with at the Harvard-Yale game, and I worry that this is just the start of an exploitative cottage industry focusing on her very normal college student life.
So let’s say it right now: STOP. If you go to school with her, stop leaking these videos. If you are tempted to click on these stories, don’t. If you come up with a “funny” tweet to make about these pictures, don’t post it. If you are offered this material for publication, write an article about tax policy instead. Honestly, I hate drawing attention to these stories at all, which is why I’m not linking to any of the articles, but I feel like it’s also important to speak out against this repulsive “reporting” and all the chatter it engenders. Let the girl live and find something else to talk about.
Luckily, both Chelsea Clinton and Ivanka Trump took to Twitter to defend Malia’s privacy. This is one of the few sincere and decent tweets I’ve ever seen from Ivanka, but it’s also an indicator of how repugnant these stories are. I mean, when even Ivanka Trump doesn’t want to stoop to be complicit in your behavior, you need to a take a serious look at yourself.
Malia Obama’s private life, as a young woman, a college student, a private citizen, should not be your clickbait. Be better.
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) November 24, 2017
Malia Obama should be allowed the same privacy as her school aged peers. She is a young adult and private citizen, and should be OFF limits.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 24, 2017
And yes, it goes without saying that other first children who are not actively involved in public life should also be protected from this brand of coverage. It was disgusting when the media followed the Bush twins to parties; it was gross when they made fun of Chelsea Clinton. And it’s still repulsive today. Nobody wants to read your ignorant speculation about whether Barron Trump is neurotypical, or your comments about his physical appearance; the kid already has to grow up with Donald Nightmare Trump as a father, so please show a little compassion and decency. (Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka are all grown-up adults with high-profile positions who put themselves in the spotlight to give speeches and media interviews, so they’re therefore totally fair game. Same with Chelsea Clinton.)
Malia Obama deserves to live her life in privacy, with room for all the fun, mistakes, and messiness that college is supposed to bring. She had to be impossibly poised and perfect when her father was in the White House, a gig she did not sign up for, and a gig that no teenager should have to deal with. And yet she still represented the U.S. with far more grace and dignity than about 65% of the current administration and Congress. So please let her enjoy finally having time for herself.
(Via The Chicago Tribune)
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Some selfish opportunist recently leaked a video of Malia Obama smoking on Instagram, thereby officially getting themselves uninvited from every future party at Harvard, and of course the conservative and tabloid mediaverse soon picked it up. This came just days after garbage outlets like The Daily Mail tried to hunt down the identity of a dude she made out with at the Harvard-Yale game, and I worry that this is just the start of an exploitative cottage industry focusing on her very normal college student life.
So let’s say it right now: STOP. If you go to school with her, stop leaking these videos. If you are tempted to click on these stories, don’t. If you come up with a “funny” tweet to make about these pictures, don’t post it. If you are offered this material for publication, write an article about tax policy instead. Honestly, I hate drawing attention to these stories at all, which is why I’m not linking to any of the articles, but I feel like it’s also important to speak out against this repulsive “reporting” and all the chatter it engenders. Let the girl live and find something else to talk about.
Luckily, both Chelsea Clinton and Ivanka Trump took to Twitter to defend Malia’s privacy. This is one of the few sincere and decent tweets I’ve ever seen from Ivanka, but it’s also an indicator of how repugnant these stories are. I mean, when even Ivanka Trump doesn’t want to stoop to be complicit in your behavior, you need to a take a serious look at yourself.
Malia Obama’s private life, as a young woman, a college student, a private citizen, should not be your clickbait. Be better.
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) November 24, 2017
Malia Obama should be allowed the same privacy as her school aged peers. She is a young adult and private citizen, and should be OFF limits.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 24, 2017
And yes, it goes without saying that other first children who are not actively involved in public life should also be protected from this brand of coverage. It was disgusting when the media followed the Bush twins to parties; it was gross when they made fun of Chelsea Clinton. And it’s still repulsive today. Nobody wants to read your ignorant speculation about whether Barron Trump is neurotypical, or your comments about his physical appearance; the kid already has to grow up with Donald Nightmare Trump as a father, so please show a little compassion and decency. (Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka are all grown-up adults with high-profile positions who put themselves in the spotlight to give speeches and media interviews, so they’re therefore totally fair game. Same with Chelsea Clinton.)
Malia Obama deserves to live her life in privacy, with room for all the fun, mistakes, and messiness that college is supposed to bring. She had to be impossibly poised and perfect when her father was in the White House, a gig she did not sign up for, and a gig that no teenager should have to deal with. And yet she still represented the U.S. with far more grace and dignity than about 65% of the current administration and Congress. So please let her enjoy finally having time for herself.
(Via The Chicago Tribune)
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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
When Star Wars: The Force Awakens was in production, much was made of the movie’s commitment to honor the feel of the originals by using practical effects and puppetry when possible. There was still plenty of CGI, but the added touch of actually building something like BB-8 went a long way towards generating the right feel for the movie. The Last Jedi is set to do the same thing with some new additions, and it’s not the only movie showing off some impressive visual effects.
But here, first check out this video that details how the “vulptex,” the “crystal fox” from the Last Jedi trailer, came to life:
Of course, not every scene with the vulptex (Vulptexes? Are we doing same-word plural for this one, or what?) is practical to do with puppetry, and they digitized the physical models to make those happen, but did you catch the animatronic movements? Here, this is what I’m talking about:
How in the Hell? And how dare they call the CGI scan the “perfect version”? (OK, OK, that’s probably not what they meant, but still.) I just want to pet it and play with it and snuggle with its probably-too-pokey self forever. It’s better than porgs (fight me), and it’s a physical things that exists in the world. That’s amazing, and totally worth the extra effort on top of just doing a CGI creature. There’s definitely a place for both technologies in modern movies, and I only wish more of them would make room for them.
Which brings me to the Jurassic World sequel. Jurassic Park was a visual effects spectacle for its time that still holds up relatively well today (much like Star Wars), especially in how it blended CGI with animatronic dinosaurs. Today, debate is raging in a Twitter thread of new Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom footage posted by Colin Trevorrow, in which Chris Pratt lets a baby velociraptor snuggle his finger. Take a look:
From our Jurassic family to yours. @FilmBayona @PrattPrattPratt @BryceDHoward @LeDoctor #FALLENKINGDOM pic.twitter.com/KiR3et9Vx1
— Colin Trevorrow (@colintrevorrow) November 22, 2017
There’s a lot of talk about how it could easily pass for animatronics, as well as speculation that its some blending of animatronics and CGI. Or maybe it’s entirely CGI, which would be pretty impressive on its own when people are having trouble telling the difference (although, admittedly, Twitter video compression would probably cover some CGI flaws).
It’s great to see both of these franchises continuing to push movie magic forward. We all need a bit of wonder in our lives right now.
(images: Disney/Lucasfilm, Universal Pictures)
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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
There’s at least one thing to be thankful for this Turkey Day that doesn’t even count eating a metric tone of potatoes and bread products. Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return, otherwise known as the revived version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 made possible by crowdfunding that launched on Netflix, has been renewed by the streaming service giant for a second/12th season! That means more of Jonah Heston, Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, Gypsy, Kinga Forrester, TV’s Son of TV’s Frank, and every other weird and wacky character from Moon 13: The Moon.
The announcement was made at the end of MST3K‘s 2017 Turkey Day marathon on Shout! Factory by creator Joel Hodgson and new series stars Jonah Ray and Felicia Day.
It seemed a gargantuan, unfathomable prospect for MST3K to come back after an absence of 18 years following its cancellation in 1999, after 197 episodes on Comedy Central and Syfy (nee The Sci-Fi Channel), but return it did, thanks entirely to a majorly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2016. The campaign raised so much money, the team was able to make 14 new episodes, which were eventually picked up by Netflix for distribution. This was followed by a nationwide “Watch Out for Snakes” live tour.
There was some worry that Netflix might not pick up the series, despite receiving 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and almost uniformly good fan reaction, because, unlike most Netflix original series, it’s not super easy to binge a season of Mystery Science Theater. Lucky for us MSTies, though, the response was enough to warrant making more, and long may the new Satellite of Love reign.
As of now, the release date given for the next new season is “the not-too-distant future” but we hope that means late 2018. Hope, hope, hope.
Let us know your thoughts on more MST3K in the comments below!
Images: Shout Factory/Netflix
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
Get a look back at MST3K season 11!
- Why we think the new MST3K didn’t lose a step!
- Creator Joel Hodgson on making the show the same, but different!
- How the new season was made!