No One Wanted to Hear What Rosanna Arquette Had to Say About Being 'White and Privileged'

It would behoove celebrities to recognize the universal truth that August is the worst time to wild out on social media, because nothing else is happening, so everyone is paying very close attention. That’s what brings us to this “controversy,” featuring Rosanna Arquette (’memba her?), a medium-bad tweet, and backlash.

Earlier this week, Arquette tweeted, “I’m sorry I was born white and privileged, It disgusts me. And I feel so much shame”— a tweet I’d love to show you for your own eyes, but cannot, because Arquette has locked her Twitter account after days of harassment. The FBI (?!) apparently told her to do this, but not a single media source has been able to corroborate this with the federal agency. The attacks, according to Arquette, have been worse than the attacks against her during the Weinstein reckoning. “But that’s what they want to put me in a state of fear,” she told the Wrap. “And I say no. I will not be afraid so I will protect myself and I do have people around me who are ready to protect me if someone goes after me. Don’t fuck with me is where I’m at.”

All… right. In any case, Arquette’s statement is the kind of statement made with the best of intentions, but the delivery—as always!—needs work. Is Twitter the correct medium for a personal or public reckoning with one’s own whiteness and privilege? Doesn’t seem like it! The careful and delicate dance performed in and around the idea of privilege is too nuanced a discussion for Twitter’s blunt force. Arquette has been an active member of the Hollywood #Resistance, so it’s not surprising that she feels the need to atone for her sins of being alive, white, and wealthy.

Maybe it would’ve been better if she had kept this one to herself instead of acting like a college freshman who just discovered Peggy McIntosh’s invisible knapsack. Just my two cents! [Page Six]

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Time to indulge in a heaping spoonful of secondhand embarrassment, courtesy of this anecdote from Kristen Bell about the time her husband, Dax Shepard, tried to talk to Jay-Z at the Met Gala.

As the story goes, they were seated next to Beyoncé and her lil’ man at Anna Wintour’s prom a couple of years ago and Dax made it his goal to talk to Jay-Z. Dax talked a lot! Kristen felt excited, thinking, per Us Weekly, “Ugh, this is gonna be great, finally, after tonight, we’ll have ’em in our phones, we’ll be best friends.” Sure, Jan. Anyway, other stuff, more talking, all good, Dax and Jay just chopping it up as one does and then, uh, this:

“At one point he also hit him with a lyric, which I was like, ooo, oooo, ooo, ooo,” the actress said while shaking her head no. “I think he was like, ‘Real recognized real,’ and I was like, ‘Dax, Dax, don’t, don’t.’”

“Dax, Dax, don’t, don’t”—I could NOT agree more. [Us Weekly]

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Howard Stern is either good or bad or a little bit of both, but his new kitten, Helen Rose, is so stinking cute I cannot stand it!!! [Page Six]

• Tarek El-Moussa, one half of my least favorite HGTV ex-couple, has made it “Instagram official” with his girlfriend Heather Rae Young. [Hollywood Life]
• The other half of the aforementioned couple, Christina, who is married to a man named Ant, is going to have a baby, thus completing this update about two people you might not care about. [People]
• Aaron Carter is fine. [Us Weekly]
• Oops, Mike Posner got bit by a rattlesnake, but he, also, is fine. [People]
• Armand Hammer would like you to consider boycotting Marvel as well as Equinox… [Twitter]
• Shep Rose, that smarmy lil’ weasel who is unfortunately a Would, is sorry for saying terrible things about a woman collecting cans and has deleted his Twitter. [People]