"Far Right Environmentalism" is a Thing?!, Is the Next #MeToo About Toxic Celebrity Behavior?, Society Needs this Marvel Movie to Win, Gen Z Feels "Bullied" By Smartwatches (The Five for 01/31/25)
Plus, a Great Depression vampire movie? The best "prison album" since Johnny Cash. This is Us stars in the next great spy/thriller/espionage show. Netflix reboots this 1970's kids western.
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Ugh, I hate writing about celebrity crap, but this may be #MeToo 2.0.
To quickly catch you up, Blake Lively filed a complaint that her co-star/director Justin Baldoni on the movie It Ends With Us. Baldoni then sued the New York Times for allegedly cospiring with Lively to defame him.
In defense of themselves, the NYT released a podcast (which I’m not linking to, lest they get a red cent of ad revenue from this readership) in which they interviewed their own reporter, about the story, on why the story is true.
Journalist Ari Jacob, who’s covering the story, posted to X:
The NYT Interviews Itself Like It’s the Final Word on Truth They literally had Megan Twohey, the author of the hit piece, come on their own podcast to “report” on the very article she wrote. Not a single critical question. No pushback. Just 30 minutes of self-praise and pretending they did nothing wrong. Imagine being that unserious.
The NYT is in deep here, as Baldoni is suing for $250M, and the evidence appears to be tipping in his favor.
Why this matters:
A). The NYT, once the “paper of record” has little credibility left, and this hurts it more.
B). There’s solid evidence that Lively enlisted her husband Ryan Reynolds and close friend Taylor Swift to bully Baldoni into altering the movie script to fit Lively’s unsolicited re-writes.
C). Many A-List celebs are terrible people…I’ve met/interviewed several…who abuse their staff and are horrible to everyone around them. This may lead to a lesser #MeToo movement in which celebs finally pay for their bad behavior.
D). The relative popularity of Swift, Reynolds and Lively may be tarnished, which could change everything from music charts to the direction of Marvel movies, if Reynolds becomes “too hot to handle.” Ryan’s last Deadpool made $1 billion, so you have to assume parent company Disney is sweating pretty hard.
[two]
New York Magazine ran a cover story about the “cruel kids” celebrating Trump’s victory, writing repeatedly claiming in the article that it was a “whites only” event.
Cropped out of that image of schmoozing TikTok influencers celebrating amid an open bar at Sax Restaurant and Lounge in downtown Washington on the Sunday night before Trump’s second term began was the evening’s Black co-host, CJ Pearson. The co-chair of the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council does, however, appear in the full image that accompanies the article, along with two other Black attendees at the event; the full uncropped image also appears on the article page on the magazine’s website.
“Almost everyone is white,” Colyar wrote in their cover story as he described both the new set of Trump supporters and the events like the one at Sax. “The men look like Pete Hegseth, in bow ties and black suits, with clean-shaven faces. The women are almost all out of their league.”
On Monday, conservative commentator Christopher Barnard was quick to point out the offending crop job on X, noting that the reporter states a woman turned to them to ask if they’d noticed that “[the] entire room is white.”
Pearson replied to Barnard’s X post to complain about his erasure from the cover, the false angle of the article and the fact that rapper Waka Flocka Flame and pro boxer Gervonta Davis, who are Black, were both in attendance at the event on Jan. 19.
The actual event looked…like this.
This would have worked 15 years ago…and the media is still acting like it’s 15 years ago, before everything was rapidly fact checked.
In the end, this does little to nothing to the “Young MAGA” movement…except perhaps give it more credibility. But the corporate press? Another blow to our trust in institutions.
[three]
In the most obvious case of “the mainstream media is essentially committing suicide at this point,” caring about the environment was branded “far right extremism” this week.
Kennedy was a longtime Democrat, and his migration to the far right has shocked many of those who have known him. But he’s not alone in this journey. It’s part of a much broader shift in the environmental movement.
For decades, most mainstream green advocacy groups and top environmental scientists have been largely aligned with Democratic policies and leaders. Now, however, many people who are advocating for conservation, including clean water, air, and soil, have fallen into the far right and voted Trump into power. It’s not uncommon to hear right-wing influencers talk about regenerative agriculture or Kennedy supporters raising concerns about environmental pollutants. While it’s not clear how much power they will ultimately wield in the Trump administration, they represent a new and increasingly visible right-wing environmentalism — or what sociologist Holly Jean Buck has called para-environmentalism.
“Kennedy’s rightward trajectory and new position within the MAGA movement are the latest indication that ideas that were once a core part of environmentalism are veering in a strange direction,” Buck, an associate professor at the University of Buffalo, wrote in Compact magazine in November. “Call it para-environmentalism. Like other para-phenomena, such as paramilitaries or the paranormal, para-environmentalism exists outside of the realm of official institutions and structures — at least for now.”
Across even the farthest stretches of the political spectrum are shared environmental goals: healthier land and healthier people. Everyone wants that. What stands in the way of a more unified environmental movement is that different political blocs have wildly different approaches to making the planet healthier. People on the far-right tend to distrust institutions including science agencies and big green groups, which form the backbone of the mainstream environmental movement. Members of this group also oppose action that centers on carbon and climate change; their concerns are more local, whether about water quality or immigration and grocery prices.
This is a movement when the political left and right could join arms to immediately embrace changes like the banning of Red 3, a dye that was just banned 35 years after it was connected to cancer, and banned from cosmetics (but Industrial Food could still throw that crap in kids breakfast cereal).
Instead, Vox is declaring that caring about the environment to be rrrrrrrracist:
Ideas around purity and nature have also been used over the years to justify racism and abuse. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the US government, in the name of protecting nature, forcefully removed Indigenous people from their lands to establish national parks. The very definition of “wilderness” areas promoted the idea that an unpeopled, wild landscape was pristine, pure, and unspoiled, even though Indigenous people lived on such lands for tens of thousands of years.
These racist perspectives — that people, and especially brown people, are an impediment to achieving the ideal nature — were popular even among mainstream environmentalists in the 20th century. And they’ve lingered. Trump’s racist remarks about immigrants, such as saying in 2023 that “illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation,” is merely another iteration of a purity-pollution dichotomy that has long been present among environmentalists.
Record scratch…back that up.
So, people on the right (and the left) who don’t want petroleum based dyes in KIDS BREAKFAST CEREAL and that’s “racist”…because President Benjamin Harrison displaced native tribes to create Yosemite National Park in 1890? And those two things are somehow connected? That’s the argument?
This is why we can’t have nice things.
[three]
Controversy boiled over this week when Anthony Mackie, who is taking over the Captain America mantle from actor Chris Evans,
For me, Captain America represents a lot of things, and I don’t think the term ‘America’ should be one of those interpretations.
To me, it’s about a man who keeps his word and has honor, dignity and integrity. Someone who is trustworthy and dependable.
You may not care about the MCU, but these movies matter for social cohesion.
Marvel movies were once “four quadrant films,” the rare movie theater experience that was drawing
A). Men under 25 (who like action, horror & slapstick/edgy comedy)
B). Women under 25 (rom-coms, coming-of-age-dramas, movie musicals)
C). Men over 25 (Serious dramas, thrillers, prestige action flicks and historical films).
D). Women over 25 (Character-driven dramas, romantic movies, period pieces, book adaptations).
There are very few “four quadrant” films that appeal to nearly everybody, like:
Jurassic Park
Indiana Jones
Star Wars
Titanic
Pirates of the Caribbean
Forrest Gump
The online right was quick to jump on a call to Boycott Captain America: Brave New World, despite the fact that Mackie has promised the return of “the old Marvel,” before all the politically/socially divisive messaging:
“I feel like it’s just as important for black kids to see a black Captain America as it is for white kids ... Growing up one of my favorite superheroes was green ... it wasn’t about race or anything ... It was about him being a good guy trying to do the right thing"
“It’s very important for kids of all races to be able to watch something and have someone to look up to no matter what they look like, and see that that package comes with a good human being as opposed to what they’ve been perceived as by everyone else”
That…is a dang good way for an actor to “get butts in seats.”
Mackie’s “American” comment is kinda dumb, but it’s quite possibly due to the fact that he was in Rome, Italy and trying to sell the movie to an international audience.
Will I make it to the theater to see Captain America: Brave New World? Shrug. Probably not. But I hope this movie is good, and people see it…because a divisive culture heals a little when grandparents, parents and children can all walk into the same movie and have a great time.
[four]
Traditional watch sales are back up, which I initially wanted to cheer, as I’m a fan of analog timepieces.
However, it’s not because people love the art and design of the non-smart watch, but because Gen Z feels “bulied” by their technology.
After much frustration, Ryann Nicole decided to break off her eight-year relationship—with her Apple Watch.
When she first got it, she loved having access to all the data about how many calories she was burning, her heart rate, and her step count.
But over time, she realized that her days were revolving around those numbers entirely, and whether or not she had “closed her rings”—a goals-based feature through which users aim to hit certain numbers of calories burned, exercise minutes, and stand hours.
Nicole says it reached a point where if she hadn’t closed her rings by the end of the day, she’d pace her living room late at night to hit her goals.
“I realized, This is not healthy. This is something that I’m consumed by,” she tells Fortune. “I didn’t work out to enjoy it. It was all about, what did the Apple Watch say?”
I try to avoid stories where I simply dunk on a group of people…but how are you going to accomplish anything meaningful if you feel “bullied” by the health goals YOU set on your own smartwatch?
If you do want to go analog, I’m a big fan of Boderry these days, who make a nearly-invincible titanium automatic field watch…aka it never needs a battery, and you probably can’t break it…$99 gets you a watch you’ll hand down, and will always be in style.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup.
MOVIES: As Marvel looks to rebuild, rumor is Ryan Gosling will be joining the cast as Ghost Rider, a character played to…mixed results…by Nicholas Cage back in 2007. ||
TV: Apple TV+ comedy hit Ted Lasso, about an American Football coach taking over a soccer team in England, might be making a return. The series kinda-sorta ended in 2023, with the door cracked open to continue. || Not my thing, but a cultural moment—the Legally Blonde prequel TV series starts filming in March. Fellow Millennials, prepare for the nostalgia memes. || Netflix is adapting the Little House on the Prairie books into a new TV show. The original ran from 1974-1983.
MUSIC: Looks like Montreal pioneers Arcade Fire are back after going dormant circa 2022 when co-founder Will Butler (brother of vocalist Win Butler) left the band. It’s the 20th anniversary of the band’s breakthrough freshman effort, Funeral, so a “playing the album in it’s entirety” tour is probably coming. || Bluegrass legends Allison Kraus & Union Station are also back after a 14 year hiatus. || Country artist Charley Crockett just signed to a major label, and announced his next album will be available on CD, Vinyl…and cassette, the latter of sells for a whopping $25. Gen Z is loving tapes…which are apparently far less threatening that smart watches.
MEDIA: Mega-popular YouTuber Brett Cooper, who split with The Daily Wire, returned for the first time since December, and racked up 122,000 likes no the video within the first hour. This is too fresh to write about yet (it was posted yesterday afternoon), but worth noting.
Hoooly cow. Writer/Director Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan are behind one of my favorite movies of all time, CREED, as well as Black Panther.
The duo are at it again, this time with a vampire movie…set during the Great Depression?!
In 1932, twin brothers return to their hometown in order to leave behind a life of crime…only to find that dark spiritual forces have taken over. This one reminds me a LOT of Lawless, a moonshine/gangster flick that holds the title of my favorite movie of the 2010’s. Oh yeah, and Hailey Steinfeld (True Grit, Into the Spiderverse) plays a vampire. Cool. In theaters 04/16.
Wow. Netflix obviously said to themselves, “what if we made Ted Lasso, but about the NBA and blatantly ripped off the life story of real life Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeannie Buss.” The leads here, Kate Hudson (Almost Famous, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), and Max Greenfield (mostly known as Schmidt from New Girl) could make this one a hit.
Sterling K. Brown and This is Us creator Dan Fogelman are reuiniting for a political thriller streaming on Hulu (out today), in which a secret service agent is accused of killing the President.
The game plan is for the show to run three seasons…it certainly looks interesting, although there are a LOT of spy/espionage/thriller options at the moment. Fun Fact, Sterling is a St. Louis native, and his brother lives down the street from me…so I feel somewhat compelled to watch it, just in case I’m asked if I’ve seen it.
[new music].
Before Jelly Roll transitioned from hip hop to become a country music superstar, he frequently collaborated with Struggle Jennings, the grandson of outlaw country legends Waylon Jennings and Jessi Coulter.
Struggle has moved from straight hip hop to something more…difficult to categorize. He’s clearly pulling in family influences here. The rapping has mostly been dropped or slowed down to a spoken-word cadence in favor of a gravelly Johnny-Cash-esque singing register, with a bit of classic Blues mixed in.
The younger Jennings doesn’t just sing in the same range as Cash, he copied the prison album blueprint, recording Live from Rikers Island in one of the most notorious penitentiaries in the U.S. On the interludes, Struggle shares his own story of being in prison and deciding to choosing to build a better life for his children upon release.
Please, give this album a shot.
[read & learn]
Since the hearings around RFK Jr. were all the rage this week, and much of the topic was on food safety, let’s dive into some materials around that topic.
Ben Hewitt’s account of how Hardwick, VT, once a boomtown from Granite mining, fell on hard times for decades, and was reborn through local food businesses.
It’s one of the best, and most practical, reads on how local areas can feed themselves and create jobs in the process. Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible
Ag podcaster Vance Crowe has a pretty wild, and engaging, episode about windmills damaging livestock, raw milk, and a farmer who found himself in the middle of a lawsuit…where only the lawyers were going to make money.
Until the next one,
-sth