Digest 2/8/2021

The GameStop intellectual property race, celeb mags as PR, Bon Appétit and more.

MEANWHILE, IN HOLLYWOOD

At the end of the day, the value of the GameStop fiasco is in the IP. Mere days after a bunch of bored day traders and Redditors pushed the stock of the ailing video game store to dizzying heights, fucking over hedge funds that were attempting to short the stock, the unlikely tale had already become content fuel. Author Ben Mezrich, who wrote The Accidental Billionaires, the book that was adapted into The Social Network, wasted no time in getting a book proposal on the market, which was quickly bought by Hachette and optioned by MGM. Netflix marshalled a team including Zero Dark Thirty screenwriter Mark Boal to turn the drama into a movie with Noah Centineo set to star. And the founder of WallStreetBets, the subreddit where the amateur traders conspired, sold his life rights to production company RatPac Entertainment, which is seeking to turn his role in the saga into a movie. 

We skipped a crucial step in the intellectual property race: a magazine writer turning the drama into a literary longform narrative. IP has become a reliable moneymaker for cash-strapped outlets over the last few years amid plummeting ad revenue; Condé Nast even established a studio for its film and TV projects. I guess it takes longer for the New Yorker to publish a 6,000-word deep-dive than it does for a studio to option a book deal, or for a Redditor to sell his life rights, for that matter. But I’m sure it’s coming! 

When the GameStop news broke, I thought that it was only a matter of time before production companies and streaming services bought up rights to dramatize the irresistible underdog story. I have to admit I was a little surprised by the speed at which it happened!! The event is still happening! It’s like the rush to tell the story has been inserted in the middle of the story as it unfolds, so I’m curious what that could mean both for the dramatizations and for real life events. Will scripts written over the next few months be rendered obsolete by later developments? Will traders and Redditors be motivated to make choices based on this flurry of interest from Hollywood? 

Does Variety work for Carey Mulligan? Why did it attach this PR-speak apology to its review of Promising Young Woman? Critic Dennis Harvey’s review of the feminist dramedy deeply irked the star, who complained in a New York Times profile that a paragraph making note of her appearance insinuated that she “wasn’t hot enough” for the role. The critic defended his review, claiming that he was attempting to comment on how the (in his view) unexpected casting choice contributed to the overarching themes of “role-playing” and “narrative misdirection.” In any case, Variety publicly sided with Mulligan by asserting her rightness in a follow-up piece — not only that, but the outlet affixed an editor’s note to the review apologizing for “minimiz[ing] her daring performance.” Mulligan then responded to the apology, opining on the role of criticism: “I feel it’s important that criticism is constructive. I think it’s important that we are looking at the right things when it comes to work, and we’re looking at the art, and we’re looking at the performance and the way that a film is made.” 

But Mulligan is not a critic, and though she is part of the same media ecosystem — which does have a long history of sexism and racism — I’m not sure how much of a say actors should have in the business of criticism. This is not to say that Mulligan shouldn’t mention when she finds a review chafing, or that her objection to Harvey’s choice of words was completely unjustified. But for Variety to be so deferential in its response indicates a shift in relations between celebrities and the press. As stars have taken control of their brands and have been emboldened by online stan culture, there have been several high-profile cases of celebrities speaking out against journalists who write bad (or even ambivalent) reviews. BuzzFeed culture writer Scaachi Koul took note of the trend in 2019 — Lizzo slamming a disappointing Pitchfork review by saying such writers should be unemployed, Ariana Grande calling bloggers “purposeless” when an E! host made fun of her Coachella performance, Olivia Munn writing a frankly unhinged Twitter essay comparing criticism of her outfit to the abuses of #MeToo; after an album review earlier this year, Halsey unwittingly called for a second 9/11 when she wished for the destruction of the Pitchfork offices at One World Trade. 

This shift is understandable given the cruel paparazzi culture of the era that preceded it. And what makes the Variety episode so concerning is not that Mulligan took issue with a review, which is her prerogative, but that Variety capitulated to her displeasure so completely with a statement that reads like it was written by Mulligan’s representatives. Variety chose to publish the review as it was written, then essentially threw the critic under the bus and sided with the subject. I have to wonder if it all adds up to a less-than-ideal climate for criticism.

THE BON APPÉTIT SAGA CONTINUES

The latest project by Gimlet’s Reply All podcast is a four-part investigation into the food magazine Bon Appétit led by Sruthi Pinnamaneni, looking at the bias, racism, and mismanagement that led to a very public implosion at the publication last year. The first episode is a great listening experience — the production is perfect — but also deeply disturbing as several people of color describe their personal experiences working at Bon Appétit, mostly as temps in the magazine’s test kitchen. Their ideas are passed over; they work around the mostly white full-time editorial staff; and they aren’t offered chances at promotion. The episode illustrates how bias works at a prestige publication, where divining what’s cool serves as an excuse for only working with your friends.

It’s rare to get this level of media reporting in podcast form. What Reply All reports about isn’t unique to Bon Appétit though: every magazine has its hierarchy, mercurial editor-in-chief, and opaque selection processes. It’s depressing that the same episode could be made about almost any glossy publication. I hope the later episodes of the series show how these are systemic problems in the media industry. — Kyle Chayka

COMINGS AND GOINGS 

— Some changes over at the New York Times Styles section: Tracy Ma, the designer responsible for many of the section’s successful interactives, has been promoted to assistant editor, indicating investment in the Styles brand of visual journalism. Sandra E. Garcia is moving over to the section from the paper’s Express desk.

— The Atlantic announced two big hires: Tim Alberta, a chief political correspondent at Politico, and Jennifer Senior, a columnist at the New York Times, will both join the magazine as staff writers. 

LONGREAD OF THE WEEK In the Oxford American, Joe Purtell reports on the unexpected connections between conservation, development, and systemic racism in Wilmington, North Carolina’s long history of Venus flytrap poaching. “We post on Craigslist ‘seeking flytrap stories’ and get a message back with a phone number,” Purtell writes. “I call that evening and speak with a man who introduces himself as Max…‘Let me put it this way,’ the man says. ‘When I needed school clothes, that’s what I did.’ He says he plants flytraps in the swamp as a kind of rainy-day fund.” — Erin Schwartz

EVERYTHING ELSE

— The newsletter boom continues! After both Forbes and Twitter announced their own plans to launch newsletter platforms, software company HubSpot has acquired The Hustle, a newsletter service aimed at entrepreneurs and small business owners. 

— Vanity Fair profiled beloved gossip Instagram account @deuxmoi, who has gotten the attention of fans and celebrities alike by posting salacious blind items about, say, an unnamed celebrity with a pregnancy fetish. Here’s another shift in the celebrity coverage terrain: anyone can be a gossip columnist if they have a social media platform!

— Here’s an evergreen statement: The New York Times is once again in a state of upheaval. Two of its journalists have left the paper over criticism of their past actions — Donald McNeil for making racist statements on a student trip to Peru, as reported by The Daily Beast, and Andy Mills for his behavior towards women in the workplace (one of his former coworkers alleged that he poured a glass of beer over her head at a karaoke night). Mills was an audio journalist who worked on the disgraced podcast Caliphate, which the Times recently announced had been based on unreliable sourcing. 

— Fox News has had to reconsider its reckless proliferation of lies about voter fraud now that there are financial stakes! Smartmatic, the voter technology firm that has been wrongfully accused by Donald Trump and pundits of fraud, brought a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and host Lou Dobbs. Though “Lou Dobbs Tonight” was Fox Business’s highest-rated show, it has now been cancelled.