Thread to talk about the actor Tom Hiddleston
What TS was saying with the LWYMMD video, according to one of her official organs, People: http://people.com/music/taylor-swift-look-what-you-made-me-do-slams-haters-criticism/
I had to laugh, after the paragraph claiming they were relentlessly mocked about the shirt and I was thinking "that's disingenuous to think that viewers wouldn't see that segment as mocking Tom" - then the next section of the article talks about her addressing her rep for being disingenuous!
>>999 The nannies said the same when he actually wore the shirt, that they were mocking the media and being oh so clever and meta. It didn't apply then and doesn't now.
>>994 This will die down but the possible diss track scuttlebutt will flare up right around TR promo and release time. I wonder if Marvel will give him a pass given the situation and after Thor 2 promo. He shouldn't hide away but maybe let CH and MR do the vast majority, it seems this might be their approach anyway.
Here's the cold hard truth for the nannies on Tumblr and Celebitchy: nearly a year after their breakup (contract ended) their names are still attached, their relationship is still media fodder, he's still being mocked as a result of it.
That's the bottom line the nannies can't deny.
And the DM picks up the story....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4828736/Taylor-Swift-mocks-Look-Do.html
>>2 God, she is unspeakable, and explaining it in People makes it no better. I was wondering when the litany of "people who vaguely criticised Taylor" was going to end. Will we get a video about the person who took the last space in the elevator when she had heavy shopping?
>>7 Best shade of her on tumblr - "immature poop star." Whether deliberate or typo, it sums up her video and general level of classlessness.
>>5 Fans are annoyed that the video mocked TH and K Kardashian's robbery at gunpoint in the tub w a gun.
>>9 Based on the top comments, I'd say it's the opposite. They seem to support it, going so far as to accuse the DM of disliking her for the negative headline.
Again she plays the victim and then the empowered female taking revenge, and it works, not fully, but works. Blurgh.
Quick run down of twitter.
This is from a search I set up last night after the video aired. I blocked her name and Hiddleswift and limited it to only English language tweets. Even then there are 3,000+ this morning.
Sample of the latest 100 or so.
Captcha: Tire...yep.
I'm more appalled at how she's monetizing every single thing, from the collab deals to the merch to how she's using Reputation paraphernalia to generate higher album sales. Ugh talk about the revolting side of naked greedy capitalism. She's basically pulling a pyramid scheme on her fans and they don't see it at all. That's how she makes it to these top selling lists and makes her fanbase appear bloated. Lucky she has her financially cunning mom and dad who are the ones coming up with these schemes while she sits and draws in her burn book surrounded by her cats.
>>13 She's even selling pieces of the wooden floor that the male dancers danced on wearing the TH heart tank tops, with her signature on them! The good news is that dlisted came through!
>>14 W o w...floorboards, wow. Is she gonna market the air from the studio during the shoot next? I really believe her fans are too sense to see what she's doing. It's the exact same formula as her previous albums with amped up visuals (yes that includes all the new work she got done) with just as an aggressive promotion as 1989. There's no new Taylor lol
>>11 She's definitely coming for Tom, he was a mark from the beginning but judging by the general public and media's reaction so far she's gonna end up burning herself more than Tom. She knows it, she knows her act is on shaky ground outside of her staunch base hence all this aggressive monetizing of everything, even LITERAL FLOORBOARDS.
E! Online using Tom's GQ article statement that he chose to wear the I heart TS TS shirt as fair game for TS selling the heart tops. Playing along with TS in the puppy dog article by taking the high road only hurt his rep. Her name must never cross his lips again. Why doesn't he have a crisis PR team? I fear that tv and online series and theater will be the only jobs open to him in the near future unless he has some unknown career strategy planned.
An OP on ONTD called them 'Tom Hiddleston Shirts' and I'm howling. Not the marketing TH wants.
It all looks to me like she doesn't give a fuck anymore. She's on the bridge, she's burning the bridge, she's torpedoing the bridge, she's trying to sell the bridge. Which must make TH nervous. If she DGAF, well then she isn't really thinking about who's on the bridge and what might happen to them.
>>16 You've said this before, Sosorry, but I wonder what good a 'crisis' PR team can do. If, as we suspect, he's somewhat limited in what he can say or do by a contract/non-disclosure, then any PR strategy is equally limited. He certainly can't fight fire with fire (as much as he may wish), she has the victim act down to a science.
If you're only talking about a career PR crisis team, I wonder if that is limited too, for all the reasons NewAnon has mentioned. I fear Tayto and his GG speech (that room would have been filled with directors, producers, studio heads) have taken the rudder out of his hand. There may be nothing that he can do except do the work he has on the books while hoping his agent can secure him auditions, roles, etc. And if tv and theatre are the only jobs on offer, well a job is a job, those grey boots aren't going to buy themselves.
>>16 And here I was thinking earlier that the press coverage of this was fairly neutral towards him (USA Today even called him "poor T. H." For her dragging of him)....
Her mouthpiece People continues selling that this was a job at those who mocked Tom last summer. From what I've seen, there are about as many people who believe that as believe the snogging on the rocks pictures weren't prearranged.
>>15 I agree that her money grabbing around this smacks of getting while she can, because she's about to have a forced break in her career.
Did the Independent like Tom before Tayto? Because they just called him "that poor git" for getting "tangled up with her": http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/taylor-swift-new-video-vmas-made-a-video-everyone-talk-about-it-a7916921.html
I wonder if he'll start getting pity jobs from his directors friends - cameos - until he can rebuild his reputation?
>>18 Its just that I'm just a little sad, from a distance. There probably is no short term PR solution, now. Sosorry to repeat myself. Tom made the most foolish mistake he could make in Hollywood, that is the easiest mistake not to make in the world. He either needs a miracle offer from a director or a producer with whom he's worked before, or a Heath Ledger-like or Colin Farrell-like gradually rebuilding of his film career, brick by brick. Or maybe just do theatre for 2.5 to 3 seasons, and win back the critics in London. My dear.
>>20 The Independent has been favourable of TH since they first wrote about him in 2006.
>>21 I had been thinking a Colin Farrell rebuilding, he who came back from far worse, a sex-tape scandal and some drinking/brawling incidents, but did so before the current celebrity Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/tumblr social media landscape. Tom's best bet is to keep is mouth shut. No comments to anyone, anywhere. Same advice to anyone who gets a mic shoved into their face about Taylor - let her drown in her own immaturity and ridiculousness. Rise above her antics.
Captcha: slave
>>21 I didn't mean to suggest that you're babbling on! Far from it. I just meant to say that you've mentioned it before as a possible step or solution for TH but that I didn't know if it was really a viable option given the situation. Certainly no need for apologies. It could be an option, maybe he's done it and we'll see something from him.
I can't say I feel sad but then I'm a hard-hearted bitch. I understand what you're saying however. I'm stuck at secondhand regret and amazement. From the heights of Oscar talk and could-be-Bond (misguided as they were) to the lows of being a figure that seems to attract mockery (July 4, GGs, GQ, 'Tom Hiddleston shirts') and pity (poor old git) in about 15 months. The bottom fell out.
Are we in the seven steps of fan grief?!?
>>21 >>22 My FIL recently gifted me the McCullough John Adams bio and the HBO series based on it. I said a quick NO to the book, which is a doorstop. We've been watching the mini-series and teaching the little one to be a patriot (That's how you throw tea into the harbour! That's how you sign the Declaration of Independence!). Paul Giamatti did this work after his nominations and awards for Cinderella man and other 'big' movie roles. It's genius work, he's genius in it. He then went on to do a mix of movies and tv.
Maybe TH doesn't need to make a comeback per se. Maybe he needs to reevaluate what he wants from his career and take a different path.
>>21, >>23 When crisis PR management could have helped the most was during Tayto and right after the GGs, I think, but Tom probably didn't see the need or was resistant to the idea. I do get the feeling that some intervention was staged before the KSI promo tour because he behaved so differently than his usual exuberan/extra self. And RadHam was a savvy move (especially because the ballot approach to ticketing is now in such contract to TS's money grubbing).
We may not be in one of the seven stages of grief, but Tom may be! Let's see: Shock and denial (check). Pain and guilt (pain, yes; he wasn't acknowledging guilt, at least at the time of the GQ article). Anger and bargaining (anger, yup). Depression/ loneliness/ reflection (the first two, yes; again, don't know how much self-examination he's done). The Upward Turn (he's likely either here or in Reconstruction and Working Through). Acceptance and hope (someday, one hopes soon).
>>24 I really, really like Paul Giamatti's work! But you're spot on that for TH to have that kind of career, he'd have to change his path. PG has never been the square-jawed leading man type that Tom seems to aspire to be.
Here's hoping that working with Sir Ken and being back at RADA, doing Shakespeare, reminds Tom that he used to love theatre and leads him to do more of it!
Captcha: theme
>>24 Perhaps he could get a WW1 period romance HBO movie, like Parade's end for Cumberbatch, or like Eddie Redmayne did in Birdsong for the BBC. Everyone would swoon. Easy Emmy nom. With a Shakespearean production on television in the US, he would walk away with a nom for sure.
>>24 Paul Giamatti is brilliant. Nuanced. Even more so than Tom Hardy. John Adams was fantastic. Please seek out and watch Billions if you haven't. I've always gotten the impression our TH has the range that he needs to dig as deep and as broad as his peers who have Oscar noms and wins (BC, ER, THardy). But his ego made him decide to take a narrow path into a tight leading man box that's so limiting and shallow. Paul Giamatti career is a fantastic example. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
I love Paul Giametti. Thought he was so good in Billions.
Either lead in that series would have been a great coup for TH - I've said before that he would be lucky to have made the tv choices that Damian Lewis made (Band of Brothers, Homeland etc).
Slightly OT (though slightly not) I have also always loved Rufus Sewell. He was in some ways the TH of his generation - unbelievably beautiful and therefore typecast in a lot of frock coat roles on tv and in movies. He never became a big star and I never understood why, but he has since broken out of the costume drama mould and been in some really interesting stuff (The Man in the High Castle for example). He's also had a very highly regarded theatrical career thoroughout (he got his big break playing Septimus in Tom
Stoppard's Arcadia) - though I have to say in defence to him as prior crush that he is a far, far better actor than TH. I've seen him on stage several times.
>>30 Rufus Sewell's name didn't ring a bell for me, but as soon as I googled him and saw his picture -- he is so good in Victoria! Yes, it's a frock coat, but a very classy one. (Now I have many more things to add to my to-watch list....)
>>30, >>30 And interestingly enough, he says "it was always films I wanted to do — but I've kind of changed my mind ... I prefer theater now to film, certainly, because I get much better roles." TH should pay attention! http://www.npr.org/2017/01/28/511886261/cast-as-brooding-leads-rufus-sewell-says-his-real-talent-is-comedy
Miss TS has just labelled TH as a past"high profile fling", and claims that she felt like her personal life was spinning out of control with him. Hmm...then she should stop calling the paps and fauxmaning for PR, in general. What a crock!
http://people.com/music/taylor-swift-felt-personal-life-out-of-control/
>>33 LOL! Why meet the parents if it was just a fling? Walks on the beach with the family but it was just a fling lol
My flings don't even know if I have a family much less meet them or hang out with them.
And what was all that gushy bogus shit Tom was saying about her to Josh and Taffy? Lol! A fling! HA!
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/mar/30/rufus-sewell-almost-famous
Here is a nice interview with Sewell from 2013, talking among other things about how he was gorgeous and curly haired and had razor sharp cheekbones, won an Olivier for Stoppard's Rock and Roll, and never made the big time. (sound familiar?!!)
I find it hard to imagine TH talking about himself and his career with such humour and objectivity ("as the hair gets thinner, the waist gets thicker"). I've always had a lot of time for RS as a person - he's got his head screwed on and seems to see life with a wickedly clear eye. He hasn't had the chances TH has had but he has made the best of what he has been given.
By the way, I just googled to see what he's been up to since The Man in The High Castle and it turns out he played Alexander Hamilton in the John Adams miniseries that Anon. mentioned. So there you are - you can watch Paul Giametti and Rufus Sewell in the same frame while pondering TH's bad career choices! One for my watch list, definitely.
>>33, >>34, >>35 Her only flings last summer were of Tom to the wolves, and general BS to the public. Doesn't a "fling" generally involve sex, specifically hot and frequent sex? The two of them projected about as much heat as a pair of flounder fillets!
That label is so silly that so far none of the rags or gossip sites have pounced on it.
>>36 Sewell has the advantage over Tom of about 15 years' worth of experience to give him that clearer perspective. I hope Tom will handle the vicissitudes of his career and challenges of aging in public so gracefully.
There were a couple of RadHam-related tweets today, one from a staff member saying they did the photo shoot (but she doesn't know when the pix will be released). The other was from the agent of one of the supporting actors saying that they were seeing the show tonight. So RADA is having some invited audiences for the dress rehearsals. (From the #radahamlet tag.)
>>38 I can't wait to see how Hamlet turns out! Hopefully a reviewer won tickets, and we get a balanced and fair review, and not just swooners. Hollywoodlife is trolling Tom to deny to gossipcop. HL claims that Tom thinks being in the video is great because now he is a part of legendary music history...sure Jan. Tom is probably getting his mind and body prepped for Hamlet by running up and down the stairs, backstage at the theater : )
##39 A different rag and source for TH's reaction to her video: "he feels like an idiot for going anywhere near her" - http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/taylor-swift-feuds-140672
Looking forward to anything we hear about RadHam!
>>40 Is this rag friendly to Luke or anti-Taylor in general? Even though it's cool to say out loud that he's made a mistake, that's a hell of a dig at her.
>>38 The fling statement she made: if I'm not mistaken this is the first time she's said anything remotely referential to sex.
>>39 And here's the Gossip Cop response to that HL story. Dancing around the " the shirt was a joke" content by referring back to the GQ article. They're more righteously announced by the rag making up a source. https://www.gossipcop.com/tom-hiddleston-reaction-taylor-swift-look-what-you-made-me-do-video-made-up/
Tonight's RadHam final dress had people from the industry/ supporters of the RADA campaign in attendance. So far, a couple of favorable tweets from some actors (see the #radahamlet tag).
>>41 It was the one plugging that the Tayto twins were talking marriage, so not anti-Taylor or pro-Luke/Tom's PR. Yeah, having an "industry source" quoted as saying that "Now he sees her as a desperate attention-seeker” could rebound on Tom. Be interesting to see if Gossip Cop addresses it.
The reviews are coming in from Thursday night's dress rehersal and they're good:
@StephenGreif : Terrificly vibrant , Pacey production of Hamlet at RADA, directed by Ken Branagh with Tom Hiddleston and great company in every dept. Bravo.
@JillWinternitz : Strikingly impactful and beautifully realised, @twhiddleston is extraordinary as Hamlet. Congrats all! @RADA_London @KBTCLive #radahamlet 💀
I am glad he had good "reviews".
Interesting though that they have managed to get the theatrical great and good in for free tickets somehow (though no space for critics, strangely!!). I had wondered whether/how they would do that. The dress rehearsal is the answer. Looks like it was a gala evening with canapés laid on. Not really a true dress rehearsal where the gravedigger finds someone left the skull backstage. It's effectively free ticket night by another name and the real dress rehearsal was the night before.
>>47 It might have been iwith paid tickets, though, for existing or potential RADA donors. They could even have charged extra for the tickets, especially if the attendees were ablle to meet the cast and Sir Ken. But yes, it' seems they shut out the critics.
>>47, >>48 Found this quote on the crazy clever one from the FB post of someone who attended last night - sounds like a donor event indeed: "FB: Oh wow! What an evening I've had. [...] Thank you Derek Smith for inviting me to a wonderful evening and a fantastic production of Hamlet. The evening started with champagne and nibbles and short talks in the building that used to be the Drill Hall. Then we all trouped across to RADA and another drink and thenthe play. The after party with deserts back at Drill Hall with members of the cast amidst drinks and exciting sweet concoctions. Chatted with Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hiddleston."
I'm not willing to call a tweet which employs a skull emoji a 'review.' And the phrase 'beautifully realized' is as hackneyed as they come.
I don't doubt it's very good, and I don't doubt he's very good in it. It's breadbasket for both KB and TH, and tailor made for their respective talents. That was never the issue. The issue, at least for me, was the calculated nature of this in terms of his re-creding process. The evening of nibbles, champagne and chats with the talent but minus actual professional critics does nothing to address that issue.
Alas, poor Yorick! I still find this dodgy.