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Teen Dating Abuse PSA Reenacts the Rihanna/Chris Brown Incident
***WARNING: This is the PSA in question. If you don't want to see it, then don't click play.***
In an effort to shine a spotlight on the serious issue of teen dating abuse, nonprofit organization DoSomething.org shot a public service announcement that reenacted the events that took place during the Rihanna/Chris Brown altercation. A male narrator reads the affidavit from a detective while two young white actors sit in a car and act out the scene described in the notes. As moving as the PSA is, I have to say that I am shocked and, quite frankly, appalled by the situation. DoSomething.org stated that their intent was to show people that there are more cases of domestic abuse and teen dating violence outside of Rihanna and Chris Brown. So, why then would they choose to reenact the situation that they are trying to work around? Why highlight the Hollywood incident even more rather than just making a PSA that states exactly what they wanted to say? I don’t see how they don’t feel as though a reenactment is 1. a ridiculous invasion of Rihanna’s privacy and BEYOND degrading and 2. bringing even more attention to the incident and thus losing their message in the process. The video does nothing to bring attention to the fact that other people are victims of the same sort of abuse and need help and a voice outside of Hollywood. I hope Rihanna sues their asses.
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Lindsay Lohan is That Girl from That Party
Because of the ceaseless headlines, I’m sure you all know that actress Natasha Richardson died Wednesday after succumbing to injuries sustained during a skiing accident.* When I woke up yesterday to read the headline that she had passed away, [skip over my feelings of sympathy for her family and friends] I thought to myself, “Oh dear gawd, Lindsay Lohan is going to find a way to make this about her.” Sure enough, less than an hour later while doing my regular internet surfing, I saw an article from E! Online with the headline “Lindsay Lohan Remembers Her ‘Parent Trap’ Mum Natasha Richardson.” Lindsay obviously made a few statements to the paps about what a tragic loss it is and how her heart goes out to the family blah blah blah. But, Lindsay, why not just say no comment or walk away or leave the subject alone? She said, “I didn’t see her much over the years, but I will miss her.” You probably haven’t seen her since the publicity tour for The Parent Trap back in 1998. It appears that Lindsay Lohan is that girl—the girl who cries forever about her friend who died tragically even though she didn’t talk to the person for years and years prior to their death, thus only using the death to get attention for herself (like the people who party with someone once and then hear that that someone ODed and then they make it sound as if they were BFFs). *Note: I don’t like to write about or make a big deal about celebrity deaths in general because plenty of people die every single day and there is no reason in my mind to make a famous person’s death more tragic than the death of anyone else since every person is someone’s loved one. The end.
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The Sci Fi Channel Likes to Mess with Success
In an effort to make their network more relatable and reach a broader audience, the head honchos of Sci Fi announced Monday that they are changing the network’s name to SyFy. I know what you’re thinking. How the fuck does that make the network more relatable? How does that not just make everyone think they can’t spell? And why would they do something as stupid as this after having the most successful ratings year they’ve had in the history of their channel? I have no idea. I can’t explain it. TV Week can’t explain it. Cinematical can’t explain it. But during a conversation in which TV historian* Tim Brooks, who helped to create the Sci Fi channel, discussed the name change, it came out that distancing itself from the stereotypical images of creepy geeks in basements (this is real) has always been the network’s aim. Apparently, this is why they were going by Sci Fi and not Science Fiction Network. That’s strange because to me Sci Fi is just an abbreviation for Science Fiction, not some cooler, unrelated terminology used to attract a wide demographic of television viewers. Let’s be real. SyFy is nonsense and it still sounds like SciFi, which is still Science Fiction. They aren’t doing themselves any favors by changing to name to something that looks stupid and is exactly the same phonetically. And, finally, it appears that SyFy President David Howe has absolutely no idea how many sci fi nerds there are in this world. We could have made him a billionaire. Or a bigger billionaire if he already is one.*Note: HOW DO I BECOME ONE OF THOSE?!?!?!?
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Facebook Group Fights James Franco for Commencement Speaker
There’s a new Facebook Group in town, people. Despite the fact that you can probably say that every three seconds and never be wrong, the group in question is called “UCLA Students Against James Franco As Commencement Speaker.” It appears that a select group of the class of 2009 is outraged by the fact that actor James Franco has been tapped to give their commencement speech this May. The group cites the fact that Franco has no worldly experience and wisdom to bestow upon them in a speech seeing as how he only graduated from UCLA last year, saying, “We are not attacking James Franco. He is a very talented actor, and clearly did well enough at UCLA to get into Columbia. We merely protest that he is not an appropriate choice for our graduation speaker.” Newsflash, UCLA students. James Franco is more successful than at least 93% of you will ever be, so why don’t you just sit back and enjoy the fact that a man who starred in an Oscar-nominated film last year is taking the time out of his busy Hollywood schedule to come talk to you guys.
And THAT is the Week in WTF!
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