It’s no secret that Jimmy Kimmel is (most definitely) an asshole. Okay, that’s probably too harsh, so let me rephrase: There is a large amount of evidence that suggests Jimmy Kimmel, late-night host and longtime comedian, has behaved in ways that people find revolting. The #CancelKimmel hashtag has plenty of examples. That resurfaced blackface sketch from The Man Show—which prompted Kimmel to take an extended summer hiatus—was just the beginning of his worries.
In a past clip from an interview with Megan Fox in 2009, she attempts to share with Kimmel how she’d been sexualized in Hollywood as a teenager. In response, Kimmel openly laughs at her and makes a joke suggesting that all men feel the way Michael Bay does about her and her body:
In 2009, there were already public displays of sexism surrounding Fox’s starring role in Transformers, both on and off the internet, and around its director Michael Bay, with whom Fox famously clashed. Removed from its context, it might be easy to miss that specificity in this clip. Kimmel’s response was already cringe-inducing. Knowing that he made it, with full knowledge of the conversation surrounding Fox’s career, is nigh unimaginable, considering how this conversation has progressed in the nearly 11 years since.
Clips like this are brought back around constantly, and usually, celebrities ignore them. But Megan Fox, in a rare move, responded to the tweet, adding her own perspective as the woman at the center of it. It began:
“While I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support, I do feel I need to clarify some of the details as they have been lost in the retelling of the events and cast a sinister shadow that doesn’t really, in my opinion, belong. At least not where it’s currently being projected. I was around 15 or 16 years old when I was an extra in Bad Boys II. There are multiple interviews where I shared the anecdote of being chosen for the scene and the conversations that took place surrounding it. It’s important to note however that when I auditioned for Transformers I was 19 or 20. I did ‘work’ (me pretending to know how to hold a wrench) on one of Michael’s Ferrari’s during one of the audition scenes. It was at the Platinum Dunes studio parking lot, there were several other crew members and employees present and I was at no point undressed or anything similar.”
Later in her open letter, she states that “these specific instances were inconsequential in a long and arduous journey along which I have endured some genuinely harrowing experiences in a ruthlessly misogynistic industry.” The real baddies, she claims—notably not Michael Bay or Jimmy Kimmel—fully “deserve to be going viral in cancel culture right now.” However, Fox says they are “safely stored in the fragmented recesses of my heart.”
Who those men really are, it seems like Fox might never share. (Which is fully within her right, to not publicly air our her traumas and experiences for mass consumption.) Anyway, let me not lose the plot too much. Because of clips like this and more—including the use of both blackface and the n-word—Kimmel is taking a break. But does he really need to come back, if ever? I don’t think so! [Us Weekly]
Billions actor Asia Kate Dillon, whose work on the Showtime series has made it an absolute must-watch, has lost ground in their fight with organizers of the SAG Awards. Last month, Variety posted an open letter from Dillon calling on the awards show to “erase” gendered categories to create spaces that “[endorse] the gender binary at large.” Now, Variety reports that the organizing committee has responded to Dillon’s demands, claiming that “larger conversations” need to happen before they’re willing to make any drastic changes. Typical!
In its response, Variety reports that organizers for the SAG awards believe eliminating gendered awards categories “raises significant concerns in terms of gender parity as well as racial and ethnic diversity.” Dillon, in their own response, explicitly asked whether “having female and male acting categories has done anything to ensure racial and ethnic diversity.” It clearly hasn’t! Even with categories for women, awards shows are rife with obvious (and often) severe discrimination. Besides, what does it tell women, or people of color, that they would be robbed of nominations if categories like “Best Female X” couldn’t ensure them?
Dillon continues:
Since their inception in 1995, the SAG Awards’ nominees for all individual acting awards have been 88% white, while only 12% of nominees have been BIPOC. BIPOC women have fared worse than BIPOC men. Yes, the overall trend has been toward increased diversity, yet the reality is that the SAG Awards remain overwhelmingly white. I don’t have all of the answers; all I can do is expose the problems and commit to working toward their solutions. I continue to believe that abolishing gendered acting categories, in tandem with putting in place new regulations to ensure a significant increase of BIPOC nominees, is a key part of the solution.
You can read Dillon’s full response here.
Isn’t it weird to watch mass news media rush to support a re-opening?
Kourtney Kardashian’s kid Reign is a better photographer than she is:
Thankfully, Britney Spears knows how to wear a mask!
Cardi B and Offset, meanwhile, did not wear masks while out to dinner: