Jezebel
Over on the gossip blog "A Socialite's Life," editors are asking if Paris Hilton is "pulling a Yoko" with her new relationship to Good Charlotte's Benji Madden. First off, mentioning Benji Madden and John Lennon in the same sentence is borderline blasphemous. But even more gratingly, for years "Yoko" has been a shorthand for a "controlling" girlfriend or wife whose association with a rock star broke up a band and ruined everything. Not only is the maligning of Yoko is sexist, since it's not really her fault that the Beatles dissolved, it needs to be said that women aren't the only significant others who muck up creative production. Which is why I think there needs to be a male "Yoko" equivalent. I nominate "Bobby Brown" as in, "Bill Clinton really needs to back off on Hillary's campaign trail or he's going to be a total Bobby Brown."
Whitney Houston was an apple-cheeked, church-going baby diva before hooking up with Bobby B, which turned her into a profusely-sweating, cocaine-snorting, reality television brawl having mess. Other famous examples of Bobby Browns include Amy Winehouse's drug-addled fool of a husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, Roseanne's moron of an ex, Tom Arnold, and of course, Kevin Federline. Can you think of other Bobby B.'s littering the pages of history?
Is Paris Hilton Pulling A Yoko? [A Socialite's Life]
Comments
WOOOO! I second this nomination!
A Charlie Manson? Because it didn't work out too great for those ladies, either.
Ooh! Ooh! A Joe Simpson!!!
This picture rocks my socks.
And honestly, does anyone give a shit if Good Charlotte breaks up? I thought they broke up 5 years ago.
Oh yes. Whiteny had so much going for her...damn crack.
Yeah me too!! Pulling a Bobby Brown!
@hortense:
'A Joe Simpson'??!! But he's her dad! Eww.
Ted Hughes? Diego Rivera?
I love your "as in" example. I think you're spot on with Bobby Brown. Well done!
Also, the whole yoko thing is just an example of how people never want men to ever grow the hell up and move on. John apparently felt he wasn't going creatively any further in that group, and the the rest of her life, she gets begrudged for inspiring him? Bitch, please. GROW UP PEOPLE>
@hortense: *in posh British tone* "hear hear!"
::sticks two hands way in the air::
DONT BREAK UP GOOD CHARLOTTE! PLEASE PARIS, ANYTHING BUT THEM!
David Gest or whatever his name was totally Bobby B'd Liza Minelli... although she was already a little-- okay, a lotta-- crazy before they "married."
Who was Bo Derek's hubs? Someone google that shit. He gave it to her the wrong way.
@hortense: ah! jinx!
@rantmagazine: I don't think he knows that, 75% of the time. He is pure skeeve. If anything has ruined the Simpson brand (beyond lack of talent, of course) it's him.
I think Bobby and K-Fed brought out the inner freak in Whitney and Britney. They just didn't care to control their image or let other people manage their lives after a certain point. I think it was more about the woman, the men were interchangeable.
K-Fed seems to be a pretty decent person, after all. Bobby? Well, he is just a total mess.
Would it be fair to say, Blake Fielder-Civil?
No Bobby Brown is a total fuck up train wreck in his own right. So, no with the Bill Clinton thing.
I think the men who try to manage are the ones that fuck up careers and shit, like Alan Hamel with Suzanne Sommers in the 80's or Jessica Simpson's dad, Joe. More along those lines.
If we get out of this decade and the only damage Paris Hilton does is the demise of Good Charlotte, I will consider it a victory for America.
Howard Stern? Although, Anna was pretty effed up before he came along.
As much as I find Yoko Ono's "art" and "music" to be pretentious crap, I've always hated how they pinned the Beatles break up on her. Everyone, by now, has read how much tension existed between the band members, and that tension had to do with actual creative differences, as happens in bands with very strong personalities and talents.
And it is very true that men are much less supportive of women artists. We are seen as selfish loners, as opposed to the romanticized male ideal of the "artiste". Ever noticed how women are cooks, but men are chefs? Women are semastresses, but men are designers? It goes on and on.
@ineffable.me: Liffffffffffestylezzz of teh rich and the famooooooous!
@JessicaLovejoy: Backstairsly: BRILLIANT
Sam Lutfi?
Is it possible to read this without picturing Maya Rudolph doing her "I'll get you Bobby B!"
@hortense: That just made me think of Just Friends:
"You and I are gonna be the greatest musical manager team since Jessica Simpson and her father only you and I get to 'mreow' and they can't, 'cause it's illegal. I looked it up."
@Rhody: and penicillin
Carl Andre?
"Bobby Brown" is perfect. Carry on.
@myrtlebeachbum: This is completely not related, but she is currently dating John Corbett, who I find incredibly sexy for a reason I can't explain.
Poor Benji...he just wants to live!
Okay, I have said this before, after seeing Bobby Brown on "Gone Country" I heart him..I can handle any abuse from these comments!!
A Richie Sambora?
@PICKLES_IN_MY_TUNA: Wow, I thought I was going to be the only one who thought of Alan Hamel. Did you watch the TV movie aboutThrees Company too?
@hortense: I think he gets his own category.
I think J.Lo and Ben Affleck Bobby B'd eachother, and as a result Gigli was birthed.
Pete Doherty
Everybody's talkin all this stuff about Bobby. Why can't they just let him live? Tell me why-ai?
A Tom Cruise? I used to think Katie Holmes had promise.
@PinkSoxHat: I was thinking the same thing.
An Andy Warhol (Hi Edie!)?
Marc Anthony BB'd J Lo. I'm sure we could argue the relative merits of the disappearance of J.Lo, but that marriage stopped her cold.
Tom Cruise is another good one. Sure Katie still works, but you read everywhere that he approves her scripts before she takes them and is a total Stage Mom.
@Jerseylicious: I think that movie is totally underrated. "He's Jersey, he skis in his jeans!"
@janna: True. Career ending and (possibly) life ending are two different things I suppose.
Yeah, but in retrospect, Federline would appear to have actually been some kind of stabilizing influence.
Yoko's one slight input on the end of the Beatles was actually a positive one -- fully convincing John he should be doing something more avant-garde than he was. He was never quite as good at the avant-garde as she was, but there are a whole lot of Wings songs that explain why it suited him to try it anyway.
I'm calling bull on this. Bobby Brown pulled a doody bubble from Whitney's ass. Only a man in love would do that.
absolutely dead-on, let's call it a bobby brown.
@angryblackgurl: i think he is a far nicer person to deal with when he's sober. the minute he starts drinking, it's over. plus, the alpha male antics annoy me.
@sabbaticalplease: Ahhh, she totally got Cruised.
@stacyinbean: Aw, good for Bo. I even rooted for her in that terrible NBC series about riding horses in Hawaii or whatever.
Yoko has/had no real artistic ability and totally mooched off of her connection to John Lennon. (Try listening to her music, I dare you.)
At least Bobby Brown had some success with New Edition and his solo work.
Jason Preston