-The question of the day is whether Nicki Minaj calling out “bitch” Miley Cyrus during her VMA acceptance speech for talking about her in the press was real or staged. My immediate assumption was that it was as fake as Miley’s dreads, mostly because she had *just* made up with Taylor Swift and was on a feud-ending roll, and the camera work was so quick to get Miley’s reaction shot (this on a night where the camera operators kept losing The Weeknd during his performance, and didn’t cut back to Selena Gomez ONCE during Justin Beiber‘s act). But now sources claim to EW and Us Weekly that the beef was legit. Damn. I was hoping it was some kind of meta performance art.
-Meanwhile, in a sea of think pieces written today about Nicki‘s behaviour, this one stood out.
-It was the weirdest (therefore best) VMAs we had in a while, but nothing — not even Justin’s embarrassing breakdown or Taylor Swift maybe farting or Miley’s trainwreck of a hosting job (you smoke pot, we get it already!!) — could compare to Kanye West’s bizarre speech. And why is everyone covering his statement that he’s going to run for president in 2020 as legit? I mean, he also called himself a “millennial” so clearly nothing he was saying could be taken seriously.
-On the other hand, props to whoever set up the Kanye West Wing Tumblr five minutes after the show ended.
–Justin Timberlake has responded to Kanye’s assertion that he bawled at the Grammys when FutureSex/LoveSounds lost Album of the Year. Aww, muffin!
-Also at the VMAs, Britney Spears‘ face was what it was, but at least there appeared to be some personality (dare I say sass??!) in her delivery.
-So how pissed is Miley’s music label today?
-Also coming out of the VMAs is Taylor Swift’s new video. The styling is great but Scott Eastwood has the charisma of wet bread. Plus, I just unfollowed a ton of people on Tumblr when I realized they were trash shipping (which, I quickly learned, is when people ship real life costars. Like, married to other people, actual human beings), and this video is trashtastic.
-I’m just going to stick with this Hannibal Reimagined As Dad Jokes Tumblr instead.
-Also, is it weird that Hannibal’s series finale just aired and the only thing anyone seems to be talking about is how the showrunner keeps telling us how to interpret it? Not exactly making me rush to the DVR…
–Andrew Garfield complained about his role in The Amazing Spider-Man, but in a very polite, Andrew Garfield-y kinda way.
–Chrissie Hynde made a lot of dumb comments about rape and consent this weekend. Sigh.
-Poor Zac Efron. His new movie We Are Your Friends had one of the worst openings of all time.
-RIP, Wes Craven.
-CBS’s Under the Dome just got cancelled. You know what that means? Under the Dome WAS STILL ON! How? Why? How?
–Anna Kendrick live-tweeted cleaning her house and it was more entertaining than Under the Dome ever was.
–Lena Dunham is now a short story writer.
-Here’s the first trailer for Will Smith’s new movie, Concussion., which manages to turn a movie about NFL head injuries into a thriller. I’m getting a Michael Clayton vibe with this one..