Good lord, Benedict Cumberbatch is trying to kill me! I mean, I’m actually sort of grateful that Harvey Weinstein has orchestrated The Oversaturation of The Batch, because it gives us something to talk about, like, every single day. But it is TOO MUCH, you know? I’m worried. Anyway, everything that I said yesterday was wrong. Bendy was only in LA for less than 24 hours by my count. He was back in London last night for the Moet British Independent Film Awards. Sophie Hunter, his lover and fiancée, was on his arm. Because she’s super-supportive, you guys.
What else? Well, I’m glad to see that Sophie did not wear another floral gown for this red carpet. That proves to me that she’s actually reading some of the comments on Twitter and on the blogs, from people complaining about her over-reliance on floral dresses (especially given Bendy’s specific name-check of certain groups of female fans as “The Florals”). Sophie’s dress last night was Emilia Wickstead. It’s leather and that collar is too much, I think. Her little box-clutch is super-awkward too, and I wish she would change up her hair game, but whatever. Does she look pregnant? Or is she just carrying a very small pasta baby?
Anyway, Bendy had to come to the awards show because they announced a month ago that he would receive the Variety Award for “helping to focus the international spotlight on the UK.” It’s a good thing he won that, because The Imitation Game was completely shut out of all of the other awards! TIG was nominated in most of the major categories and… nothing. No awards. As for Bendy’s speech for the Variety Award, here’s a partial transcript:
“Oh holy crap. Thank you so much, it’s a very strange experience to be in your own audience. It’s a ridiculous honour to be here, not least because of the output and the standard of previous recipients. I feel this is a very premature way to acknowledge mine, but it will inspire me to work harder to feel like I deserve it, and that won’t really be difficult because I love my job. I love my industry, I love the people I get to work with, a lot of whom are in this room, I love the communities and the families that each job brings together, and I love how proud we can all be in taking stock of moments like this, and how proud we can be as filmmakers in the UK who in spite, or maybe because of not having a studio system, is a world leader.
“And it’s not just the people in this room we should be celebrating, it’s the armies of craftsmen who are the envy of the world and keep the world coming back for more business here. Chippies, electricians, riggers, drivers, security men, location scouts and managers, costume assistants, runners and camera and sound crews, casting directors, a few of whom are here tonight, and thank you very much for my career, costume assistants… I’ve said that already, but they really are amazing, they do the worst hours of any of us and do deserve a shout out, even if it’s twice, in the same speech… yes, and even our caterers deserve a shout out. So no matter how lonely or scared or ‘independent’ I feel standing up here, there are legions of people who supported me to a point where I can just get up in the morning and do my job.
“My home team: my mother and father and my fiancée Sophie. This belongs to all of you. Making you proud is a wonderful engine to do what I do.”
“My god, I don’t think I’ve ever been more nervous in my life. [No one wrote his speech] this is all my own mumbling outpourings. All of us as freelance artists and filmmakers crave autonomy, and to be independent and free from outside controls, anything that makes us dependent on politics or money or an outside authority. For me some of the most exciting moments in cinema are always when the odds are against you and authenticity is still achieved, the work triumphs in a spirit of independence. I’m thrilled to have had my success in some of the goliaths of the film industry, and I’m very happy with some of what you’ve seen tonight, but I owe coming into that sphere to the Davids of this world…in that overstretched analogy. Congratulations to everyone here, and happy Christmas.”
Good lord that man can talk. I don’t know what else to say except that Bendy puts Sophie with his parents in his laundry list of thank yous. I really do wonder if Wanda wholeheartedly approves of this mess?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Try Hard!
Nippledarts!
Now we know why Benedict’s been scratching his eyes out recently!
Trying so hard. He must want that Oscar REAL bad.
She is pretty, but my god, she has terrible taste in clothing. It’s aggressively awful.
They’ve got that in common. It would have been an edgy, nice dress without the nipple pockets and that horrible collar.
This is the ugliest dress I have ever seen. Ever. Brrr. The cut, the fabric, the pseudo pockets at this weird spot, the whole thing overall looks outdated and somehow stinky. Reminds me of a Nazi uniform. ugh.
I had a college classmate who wore leather pants somewhat regularly, and she said she’d SWEAT while wearing them. I would imagine it would be the same for a leather dress?
In fairness, though, I think BC is attracted to women who don’t really know fashion.
Oh damn, now I’m laughing out loud because you reminded me of that episode of Friends where Ross is wearing leather pants, and he gets so sweaty that he takes them off in his date’s bathroom, only to find that he can’t get them back on.
@granger
LOL I can just imagine this scene with Benedict and Sophie…
Ross: They’re still not coming on, man! Aand the lotion and the powder have made a paste!
Joey: Really? Uh, what color is it?
Ross: What difference does that make?!
Joey: Well, I’m just… If the paste matches the pants, you can make yourself a pair of paste pants and she won’t know the difference!
As a former goth I used to wear a lot of PVC/Lether outfits and even if that stuff is lined on the inside with other materials. It sticks to you like a second skin after a night on the town. Sometimes I needed a friends help to get out of my corsets/tops because I was unable to do so myself.
It looks cool generally but a pain to get on/off!
All of her dresses have been awful so far. And the red nail polish she always wears is horrible too.
its not even RED. Its a hideous maroon color or smething. yucky anyway
My first thought when I saw the dress is why is she wearing a cheap PVC sofa?
Also, girl needs to do something about that hairstyle. I’m getting 1980s mom who wear jazzercise tights vibes.
@Beth Oh, you got! But let’s give it some credit, I think it’s PU, at least it’s a bit more expensive than PVC and toxic free.
Sorry it’s my job, I just can’t help it LOL.
Heheh what’s PU??
Both PU and PVC could be used to make faux leather, only PU is better quality, softer and less toxic, most of the furnishing use PVC while PU is usually used to make garment. LOL
Heheh I see – thanks for the explanation! 🙂
Her fingers are like ravens’ claws ready to rip the eyes out of nasty cumberbitches. She will pull out a fight with her english rose dominatrix dress.
I miss the days when there were rumours he was going to be in a Bananaman movie.
Simpler times….simpler times.
His pants are too long.
Wow, long time no see, Benny’s posts… how art thee???
@Leigh, they both have terrible taste in clothes… that makes them a good match…
As if anyone really needs to ask what the majority opinion here will be. 😛 Hope you all have a lovely Monday. I will be in 9 hours of meetings today (whoop whoop) so really look forward to catching up on comments this evening.
Stay strong, trooper! you have my sympathy
Claire I am trying to read cmoments here because I cannot deal. My attention span has been deleted. Nothing should last longer than 2 hrs at a time with no breaks. And monotone voices. Lulling you into numbness.
Her dress is bad, really bad. I like her clutch.
Designers, stylists, and red carpet attendees all need to join together and stop trying to make the faux leather (or real leather) dress happen. It’s not going to happen. The material is unforgiving for fit, it doesn’t fall well for a long skirt (and this dress has a SUPER awkward skirt length – should definitely stop before the knees), weird camera flash glares off the fabric, etc. Also makes for a super stiff Peter Pan collar on this particular dress – and why fake boob pocket flaps?? They just end up like arrows pointing to the nipples which are clearly going to pop due to the darting and material.
I agree. I cannot with leather dresses. A leather jacket? Perfect. A leather dress? A mess.
I have to admit I do like Monica Bellucci’s leather dress in The Matrix movies but that’s only when you have a va-va-voom figure like Ms Bellucci.
@Beth, I will have to look that up. Monica is a goddess. I just wanted to say that.
That’s the kind of dress that might look cool on a hanger in those very edgy shops. But that’s it. Awful on anyone with breasts.
@Beth I think that dress benefited from 1) MB’s figure 2) being a costume in a film that was fit specifically for her body 3) being filmed in optimal lighting, etc, conditions.
this dress was intentional to provoke pregnancy rumours
Can we also talk about how even last night, when talking about the engagement on the red carpet, he looks and sounds like he’s bsing everyone?
What and How did he say this time?
Sorry I don’t exactly watch his interview anymore. I mean, I watch them just to see his face but I put it on mute coz I don’t wanna hear what he has to say.
I do the SAME thing. Actually I usually wait to watch whatever the interview is until other people report what he says and then I mute/FF it when I know what’s coming next 🙂 I have successfully NEVER heard him speak of her. You do pay more attention to body language though, when you’re not distracted by the voice!
The first thing I noticed from the video was his heavy eyebrow raising game.
So out of boredom I googled that (“raising eyebrows while talking”) and the first article (Telegraph) was “How to spot a liar: the hint of a smile and raised eyebrows” *snort*
And the video from last thread (Thanks Soothy!)
http://www.itv.com/news/2014-12-08/benedict-cumberbatch-triumphs-at-bifas/
While you’re on the subject of body language, I thought it was worth mentioning that people have discussed her hair tossing. In body language I believe that is a flirtatious gesture. Who she is flirting with is up for debate.
I said this on the last thread. In this ITV video clip when he is discussing how his engagement is the best part of 2014 (or something like that), his eyes go down and left. That is a sign that he is lying. Body Language 101. If he really meant what he was saying, he would have looked directly into the interviewer’s eyes (or face, for that matter). We see him in interviews where he is discussing his work or discussing other people and he looks right into the interviewers face (and sometimes directly into the camera, which is truth +100). Plus, he sounds dead and like someone with a gun to their head.
He looks pained every time he talks about it. The thing is though, he doesn’t need to. He could just keep it to ‘getting engaged’. Watching him draw it out is kinda agonising. For whatever reason, he’s clearly not keen to do it. At all.
Just love reading the comments on Sophie and Benedict.
They make me think,”Some people *really* need to get their priorities in order.”
What does that mean? It’s a celeb gossip board and you’re here too, sooo..
I really get irked when people come on to these places and try and shame people for what they’re chatting about. I think most of us here seem levelheaded and normal enough to realise that we probably could be doing something more productive but you could also level that at the people sitting on their arses watching soaps for hours on end too.
I think people shouldn’t be sneered at if they want to talk at length about any given subject they want.
I’m unable to tell people what their priorities should be.
It sort of disgusts me, honestly.
This woman, and Amal, they’ve done nothing wrong but get attached to these celeb men and they’re getting ripped to shreds for it.
I think the same thing as well. Everyone is really mean for no reason. She and Amal are perfectly fine. There is nothing to warrant such abuse.
I am being positive because *love* so I will say that the color of the dress is very good on her and they look like a very nice couple.
I will not say anything about the collar and the ?pocket flaps? I won’t. I just….won’t.
The dress really is awful, faux leather is just bad.
Is she holding a cheese grater?
Well some people are saying her and Benedict’s relationship is rather “cheesy” so it makes sense
Oh snap! 🙂
Of course it’s a cheese grater… Kaiser said she just ate a pasta baby! And did you see those burgers on her chest pockets?! LOL
It does seem like she is oddly holding it from the end when it seems more natural to hold it from the middle. I do empathize though. I hate carrying a purse! It’s just one more thing for me to either be burdened carrying around or for me to put down and accidentally forget. I love pockets. I don’t understand why women’s clothing either has insanely small or even worse fake pockets. I try to avoid buying clothes since I hate how thin flimsy and impractical women’s clothing has become.
I kept reading Moët British Awards as Most British Awards and was really excited for a minute. Then I realized, “nope.”
Did you think they were handing out awards for good champagnes at first?
I thought it was for the most British of the British. Like, Emma Thompson and Ian McKellan politely standing in a line, or something.
Sixer would WIN!
Oh, I’m too plebtastic for Moet. I only like Prosecco.
(That’s meta-level British snobbery going on. Otherwise, I’d have said Lambrusco).
With such a high collar, her hair up would have been better. Not better than changing the outfit completely but hey, I’ll take what I can get (seriously, black and brown, they look like a sultana and a raisin standing beside each other)
I actually like the collar on her. Not sure if up-do hair will look good on her coz it would emphasize her long neck, plus they might mistake her for BC in a dress.! But this is a good look on her, better than the previous ones. Only thing I don’t like are the see through nipples and chest pockets.
Have you seen a pic of BC dressed as a woman compared to SH… it’s hilarious…
OMG! Yes!! The one with him in that LBD and red scarf. Somebody should put side by side photos of them. They are practically twins!!
BC dressed as a woman was quirky and charming. I liked it
@Mikasa, they have put them side by side, but I can’t post it here, sicne it’s on twitter (personal from someone… )
He was so fierce in drag.
The collar is fine in itself but there’s just too much material in it for me when you add the sum of it’s parts. High neck, near elbow length sleeves and the length of the skirt.
I’m not even starting on the boob flappy things.
Knockerpockets are never a good thing
And why is she holding that clutch like it’s a G&T??
The upper part is quite bad, try too hard, put too much detail on it, it doesn’t look good on the model either.
And as I work in the textile industry, I really don’t like faux leather, it’s cheap, stiff and even stink sometimes.
Also, why dark brown dress with black shoes??
the clutch looks like a vegetable grater
@Angie The top half is a mess. I mentioned this above, but the combo of the darts and the fake pocket flaps just seem like they’re working together to point directly to the wearer’s nipples – not a good look for anyone.
If you were going to try to pick out a dress to make her look pregnant, that would be it: pockets over breasts, shiny fabric, stomach pleats, darts to emphasize the nips. They are preggo trolling us
@ PrettyBlueFox Hv no idea how could people make a design *eyeroll* like that let alone choosing to wear it.
There r good designs, but hv to use genuine leather and the person need to have a very good figure.
Well, I’d rather them go back to floral LOL
These articles are complete oversaturation and bore me to tears. However the comments sections always fills my catty, gossipy, laugh of the day quota. It’s a love hate relationship 😛
I’m back for another day pleading for more Jason Clarke AND/OR Michael Keaton.
I STILL do not get what women see in this bloke. She looks smug or maybe I am just grumpy today.
Less Cumbertwat would be good, but making up the space with those uggos? No thanks.
Cumbertwat – hilarious!
I’m here for the same reason. Like a quarter of your posts right now are about this guy, and I find him so, so boring. I can’t be the only one. He seems like nothing but a nice guy so I want good things for him and this Sophie woman we’re hearing too much about, but I just don’t see why he makes such good gossip fodder.
Nope, you’re not, smug is her default setting.
@LOUISE
Oh yes!!! I would LOVE to see a post dedicated to Mr. Michael Keaton! So much YUM in so many areas!! *THUDS*
That is a very confused dress. Leather and a peter pan collar. Tsk. Clutch looks like a cheesegrater ( it might be a pretty clutch, is she holding it lengthwise? It looks so awkward!). She has the figure to wear better clothes… Ugh.
They look so awkward. And Benedict needs to shut his pie hole about the engagement and wedding. Enough.
There was a lot of “love” in that speech. None mentioned in the same sentence as “his fiancée, Sophie” (why does he keep doing that? Stop qualifying it! pr should hire me. Seriously).
It was nice to hear shout outs for the crews, though.
No love for Emily though. Poor girl.
Emily needs a long, all expenses paid, tropical vacation more than she needs a perfunctory thank you in a speech. (Karon deserves one, too.)
SoGo posted Karon’s London office address a while back for people who would like to send her spa gift certificates, etc. It is also available on Eddie Izzard’s website under contact info
@PBF – true; but for as much as she does for him as his PA, I can’t believe he didn’t think to include her when he had written down his speech. He had time to think it through and include the important people to him.
I mean, who else makes sure that Drunk Uncle Cumby gets home safe and sound?
As for the dress, she has very pretty skin.
I agree, she does have lovely skin. Fashion sense …not so much.
This is so fun. Seeing people upset by a couple in love is hilarious. I hope she is pregnant with Benedict Jr.
Wow, half an hour and the first troll puts in an appearance. I’m guessing troll as the alternative explanation would be to assume you were hard of thinking.
First – they don’t look like a couple in love and he doesn’t talk like a man in love. At all.
Second – Thats kind of the point.. People are mystified by the whole thing, not ‘upset because they think he’s in love’.. Obviously. But seeing as this response has to be wheeled out every day, then I have to assume that there are some people who are hard of thinking.
And why do you hope she’s pregnant? Bit weird to want someone you don’t know to be pregnant isn’t it? Although if she was it may go some way to explain why he’s looked like hell for the last two months..
Thank you, Soothy for your response. Some of these “super nannies” must like seeing him miserable. If they can’t have him, let him be stuck in a loveless situation.
Of course I am trolling.
I can’t wait to see the twins,Benedict II and his unnamed sister.I haven’t settled on a name for her yet.
The sister? Katharine Wanda Cumberbatch, after their mothers of course. 🙂
In love?? Hey, I’m more affectionate to my dog than these two are with one another…
I agree Kim1. Its hilarious people are in love with an upset looking couple. So much fun to gossip about.
Will you pick a side and stay with it?
If it’s a girl I sincerely hope they think twice about calling her Benedict Jr.
Clearly you’re not from this island.
Jr???
Yep, in the UK he’d (the baby) probably be Benedict Cumberbatch II (the second) ..ihihiihhi
The dress could be nice. I wish the little pocket flaps weren’t there, and the dress should be a little shorter.
TIG was shut out in the LA film critics awards too (Congratulations to The Bloke!) and the Boston Film critics awards (congrats to Keaton!)
The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Nominations came today:
Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
Oscar Isaac, “A Most Violent Year”
Michael Keaton, “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)”
David Oyelowo, “Selma”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”
+ screenplay nom for TIG.
The results have been announced. Best Actor went to Keaton. TIG won nothing again.
http://www.dcfilmcritics.com/awards/
I think this will be the trend: BC and TIG are among the top 5 but won’t win any.
I’ve seen TIG and didn’t like it at all so I’m good with it not winning anything. But the LOLs at Harvey would be delicious.
@Ingrid I think a nomination could do, I don’t really think he could win tbh.
I’m rooting for Eddie Redmayne. I think he deserves some love.
I posted this as a separate comment below but will repost it here (sorry didn’t spot this earlier):
There have been a rash of awards results (NY Critics, Boston Critics, LA Critics, Washington Critics, NY Online Critics, British indie awards) and I don’t think I saw TIG win anywhere, not even as runner-up.
Even Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor with the NY Online Critics awards, though it may not mean much. Glad to see Timothy Spall get some love too. Keaton is emerging as frontrunner, I think.
I’m stoked Pride won big at the BIFAs!
Sadly I’m in another part of the world, yet to see any of the films tbh, but I like Keaton in a short TV series years ago, Birman is the one I want to see the most right now, and there’s also Norton.
Well, just wondering, seems the PR isn’t working at all, will they stick to it anyway? But the real test are SAG and GG, right?
I’ve seen TIG. Didn’t like it – conventional, boring, too obvious and reductive and the dialogue is cheesy at times. I did like the boy who played young Turing though (Alex Lawther).
I’m not sure about PR – I just read these threads for entertainment cos the comments are funny. But I do think SH is pretentious and uptight and agree he can do better. 🙂
Yep SAG and GGs are bigger tests. Though the Golden Globes are notorious for lacking credibility and prone to being “bought”, so I dunno, maybe Harvey’s influence may net TIG some awards there. It’ll also be interesting to watch the BAFTAs to see where the loyalties of the British contingent lie, given that there are multiple British actors (Redmayne, Spall, BC, Oyelowo, O’Connell) vying for the coveted 5 spots for Best Actor nominations at the Oscars. The BAFTAs may not give it to a British actor of course, but I think Spall stands a good chance – he’s respected, a veteran, never won before and was excellent in Mr Turner and BAFTA affirmation would really boost his chances of a Best Actor nom at the Academy Awards.
But I wasn’t expecting this utter drought for TIG at the critics and indie awards. I thought some of the less edgy critics associations like DC may at least throw it a bone.
He has a better chance at a GG than anything else I think (wasn’t the GG the only one JLaw won over Lupita for American Hustle and people were quite shocked if memory serves). Harvey seems to have more influence there, plus with the actor/actress gongs sorted into comedy/musical and drama it splits the votes a bit, they tend to fluff the categories to fit winners sometimes.
I think at this point, Harvey may need to do something? If TIG gets nothing in SAG or/and GG, it would be oh so bad…
So sad missed Mr.Turner, only if I could have had one more day on my last trip to London. But yes, take everything into consideration, Spall has good chance in BAFTA.
@Beth: I haven’t seen it and won’t until it comes on Netflix (which could be years). I predicted this meh response to TIG a long time ago. Who wants to go out to the cinema and shell out $12 for a movie that is better suited for a BBC/Masterpiece Theatre production? Since the film maker did not want to go deeply into Turing’s homosexuality, what else makes this film worth of any attention at all? A period piece about a code-breaker in WW2 Britain *who just happens to be gay*? Again, better suited for BBC/Masterpiece. Now, had they made a film about a man who was persecuted for being gay, who also happened to be a high-level WW2 codebreaker, then that character arch would be something much more interesting.
@Lindy79: Yep JLaw won the GGs in January this year, though American Hustle was not a Weinstein vehicle (it was distributed by Columbia). Harvey’s horses for the last Oscars race were Philomena and August Osage County, and both won nothing. So he must be extra desperate for the current awards season. 🙂
JLaw did win the Globes in 2013 too, and that was for a Weinstein film – Silver Linings Playbook.
@Angie: Mr Turner is a very “slow burn” kind of movie – it doesn’t have much by way of plot but it’s a fascinating portrait of a genius. What I love about it is that it is unafraid to show the less savoury aspects of HMW Turner – he’s crude, off-putting and callous as much as he’s talented, tender, filial. The critics loved it; the general public doesn’t really like it I think (I read a lot of comments that it is “boring” and “nothing happens”) but I adored it. 🙂
@Beth Yeah, actually it doesn’t get high score in our sort of local small imdb (people who are abroad and have been able to see it come to the site for discussion), as far as I’ve read, the general public may not understand the way the story was told? I’m looking forward to it and thx for the input <3
@Green Eyes
The movie’s take on Turing’s homosexuality was one of the things which bothered me most about TIG. To be fair, they didn’t straight-wash him (it’s very clear that he’s gay) but I was very disappointed they gave such a fleeting treatment of his homosexuality. The third act of the movie (which supposedly deals with his prosecution) is reduced to:
1) a lengthy interrogation scene between Inspector Nock (Rory Kinnear) and Turing (and that is largely used as a narrative device to frame the movie as it launches into flashbacks); and
2) a breakdown scene where Turing cries when Keira Knightley’s character visits him in his home (you see this in the trailer). An overhyped scene if I may add.
Nothing is depicted directly about the humiliation and injustice he suffered; the chemical castration and the effects (BC has mentioned Turing grew breasts and gouged out some device from his thigh out of desperation), etc.
I understand if time constraints are a concern but they could easily do away with superfluous elements like the John Cairncross sub-plot (which The Guardian reported as not only historically inaccurate but also undermines Turing’s integrity) that to me is a cheap and clumsy plot device to introduce some manufactured tension into the film.
I’ve read interviews with the filmmakers (or maybe with BC, cannot recall) where they defend themselves by saying TIG is primarily a thriller and not about Turing’s sexuality. But Turing was not just any gay mathematician. Yes he has had tremendous achievements and the movie should celebrate these, but he’s also a tragic example who shines light on the shameful prejudice in the 1950s (and even today), a genius whose life was curtailed by paranoia, injustice, and discrimination – the very things the filmmakers claim to rail against. That is a huge, HUGE lesson from his life – and they are hardly given much treatment in the movie. I also find it a bit disingenuous of them to defend the film’s inadequate treatment of Turing’s homosexuality when they are equally happy to hail Turing as “a gay icon” or shill loudly about fighting homophobia on the TIG promotional circuit.
Ha, I got the opposite, Beth. Everything that made him different back then is what mattered (for lack of better phrasing), and that is what people destroyed him for. It’s a three-split narrative with that as the overarching theme, and more or less just a Turing primer rather than an exploration of his personal life.
His chemical castration is in there, however. It’s mentioned and why he looks so sick in the scene with Joan.
I didn’t get the hubbub over the Caimcross mini-plot, as he turns the guy in immediately, and no one way is anyone left feeling he’s committing any sort of treason.
Hi KT
“… more or less just a Turing primer rather than an exploration of his personal life.”
If Turing was a genius who helped win WWII but didn’t suffer horrible consequences for being gay, I’ll be fine with TIG as it is. Movies about gay characters don’t necessarily have to emphasise their personal life/sexuality.
But my point is (and sorry if it didn’t come across clearly cos my earlier post was kinda rambly) that Turing suffered mental humiliation and physical degradation for being gay, and to have a biopic that glosses over this injustice doesn’t sit well with me. To be clear, there are some who criticise TIG for not showing him flirting or having sex with another man – I’m ok with omitting those scenes. What I’m not ok with, however, is the movie giving little treatment to the injustice he suffered. In interviews BC repeatedly talks about the physical ailments that plagued Turing due to the chemical castration. TIG could have been much more emotionally powerful and honest if it tackles this injustice (and by this I mean depicted directly, not just mentioned in the short conversation he had with Joan Clarke). This part before Turing’s death which the film glosses over goes beyond the realm of just his personal life – it is an important and very unfortunate period in Turing’s life, which even led to his alleged suicide. That the movie reduced this to just two scenes (interrogation scene with Nock and the conversation with Joan), with the unsavoury parts of his chemical castration always indirectly depicted, is confounding to me.
On Cairncross, I agree I didn’t feel Turing was treasonous. Though I’d very much rather they just do away with this fictionalised sub-plot altogether and spend the time fleshing out the circumstances leading to Turing’s death. There is so much potential for TIG to be an emotionally arresting movie there – and its omission is a large part why I feel it is too safe and sanitised for my liking.
@Beth the Bafta’s are not Benny’s best friend-he has not won an award since Hawking. He was nominated for Sherlock twice and he did not receive a nomination for Parade’s End. No mention of film nominations either .He has never won a BIFA awrd for a performance either.
@icerose
Yep I know the BAFTAs have not been hot for BC. That’s why I’m predicting Spall for the BAFTAs. If I’m not wrong Spall has never won before too, but he’s respected, a veteran and his movie has gotten more critical acclaim.
BC can wait his turn as far as I’m concerned, I don’t even like him in TIG. 🙂
Pride was fab, and Andrew Scott got a well-deserved award for it. TIG was good as was Benny in it but I wasn’t absolutely blown away. Mr turner seems sooooooo slooooow.
I really want him and this film to get the accolades and recognition they deserve. I’d hate to see it unjustly ignored. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.
As far as I’ve heard, his performance is good, but the story itself isn’t that great?
I will have to wait for at least another two months before m able to see it in the cinema. *sign
I agree just because of Alan Turing. But no one has mentioned him in a long time. The campaign is focusing on the little woman which I find so repulsive. I’m in a point where I hope this sort of disgusting PR stunt doesn’t get rewarded.
Maybe Hollywood is seeing through all of this as well? They know how Harvey operates and maybe they are done with him.
I would absolutely agree Turing deserves greater public recognition so I’m glad to see TIG do well at the box office – the movie is getting his story out to people, and that’s important. However after having seen it I do think it is a very disappointing and formulaic movie (reflecting my personal taste of course), so I don’t really want it to win awards. Sure the Oscars are more about who runs the better campaign than about artistic merit, but I’d hate to see this mediocre movie beat other more deserving candidates at the awards.
In other words, I’m happy for TIG’s good box office so far cos it means Turing’s story is getting recognised. But as for awards, I’d rather more deserving movies take the gongs.
That is what disgusts me about this PR sham and I am sure Benedict is not happy about it either. He said from the beginning that he wanted to tell Turing’s story and now it is all about TWILTWIPT. Thanks for nothing, Harvey
Turing deserves a better film with out silly spy scenarios added in to try and sell it.
The Turing and Cairncross Interaction in TIG is complete fiction. bTW, I found it odd that it was never made clear in the film that at the time Cairncross was passing secrets to the soviets, the soviets were on ” our” side. Lots of younger people don’t seem to know that. That’s not to say it was justified but it was hardly treason. Anyway, it’s not a documentary, and there is always artistic licence…
She’s a pretty girl with a great figure, i can’t understand it why she hides it all with fug dresses and boring hair. Someone please get her a stylist, please!
Oh and Bendy if you want to have a ‘private’ engagement and wedding please speak to Eddie R for pointers on how to do that. Stop with the whole ‘its private’ thing while shilling it like the rents due. Oh and the same thing goes for SH, stop trying to make like you are above all the media attention and own that you love it all and are desperate to use it to get yourself a public profile – you know you want it.
If TIG doesn’t get any Oscar or GG noms, HW will blame these 2 and rightly so, cause the PR master plan is going horribly wrong and no one will take BC seriously after this, esp as he can’t sell his ‘happy’ personal life.
Yes, I read he mentioned wedding planning in an answer to a Q&A question that had no direct relation to his wedding, Sophie or engagement.
That’s odd, if he’s going down the “its private” narrative.
I can’t believe he’s even pretending he wants to be private. I’m still reeling over the odd soundcloud comment from NPR. I mean, that was….so odd.
And like I said on the last thread, even though of course he would thank her, it still irked me that she was acknowledged as his ‘home team’ with his mum and dad and adam when she’s been knocking around for a few months and only last week thought nothing of having a chilling strop and embarrassing him in front of press. And I’m still annoyed that emily and tracy got nothing.
This x 100000!
I think “it’s private” is PR code for “this is my main talking point”.
I don’t have a problem with him not thanking his sister or his niece. He never has before. People usually stick to parents and partners. And of course you’re going to thank your “partner”, even if they’ve only been around for a few months (and it’s in the script). I do think it’s hilarious that he keeps qualifying her as “my fiancee”. It isn’t just Sophie, or my fiancee. It has to be her name (script) and MY FIANCEE!
um, yeah, we got that part because you keep bringing it up constantly, despite the fact you are oh so private.
Sighs,
He did thank emily and tracy (tracks he called her) when he got his britannia award last year.
Soothy & Sighs – Yes, he did thank them. But he was way more relaxed then (and at HFA), why he was so nervous last night? It’s hardly a big award…
What is going on with you, BC?
I wouldn’t mind him saying “my fiancee” anytime he mentions her, if his face and body language matched what he was saying.
sorry. didn’t know that. which is sad because I watched the Britannia awards. guess i wasn’t paying much attention.
SPOT ON.
and as the awards results are coming I don’t see much hope!!
@Betti – I totally agree.
Wow The Imitation Game has really gotten no love from the critics and indie awards so far. There have been a rash of awards results (NY Critics, Boston Critics, LA Critics, Washington Critics, NY Online Critics, British indie awards) and I don’t think I saw TIG win anywhere, not even as runner-up.
BIG FAT ZERO.
But yay for Pride! <3
Honestly except BC performance the movie on itself is no amazing comparing to Bird or Boyhood…
Heheh I didn’t even like BC in it. He overacted, IMO. The movie itself is kinda bland and the dialogue is pretty bad.
Another movie I’m excited about is Whiplash. JK Simmons is doing well at the critics awards so far for Best Supporting Actor so I hope he goes all the way for an Oscar win. 🙂
Cumberbatch’s performance in TIG is award-worthy to be quite honest, in my opinion. But it ceased to be an ‘indie’ movie once Weinstein got his hands on it in the general view, and I’m not surprised about critics awards avoiding a Weinstein association.
Oscar will go to Keaton (who was also excellent in a disappointing movie).
Hi KT
“But it ceased to be an ‘indie’ movie once Weinstein got his hands on it in the general view, and I’m not surprised about critics awards avoiding a Weinstein association.”
I’m not sure if I understand you correctly (?), but indie awards are different from critics awards. Indie awards are given to independent films, and it’s arguable whether TIG is an indie or not (there was some debate about its eligibility for the Indie Spirit noms and some websites stated it was eligible). There is no requirement, however, for critics awards to go to only indie films. Even big budget ones like The Lego Movie, Inception, Gravity, to name a few, have won critics awards.
And critics awards do not necessarily shun Harvey Weinstein vehicles – The King’s Speech and Silver Linings Playbook (both under Weinstein) have won multiple critics awards. This year alone, both The Immigrant and Snowpiercer (again, Weinstein films) have also scored critics awards.
Bloody Nora! It’s cometology meets Cruella de Ville! GENIUS!
Oh @Sixer.. you always make me laugh….
Save the puppies! And the fish-heads!
Im waiting patiently for the day she wears a scaly dress of fish heads with little comet tassles
HAHA. I think the dress is a sheild for outer-space radiation. You know, like that thing they toss over you at the dentist.
Truly. I love this dress. I think she was going for an anti-Marion Cunningham look. I keep expecting Henry Winkler to show up and tell Mrs C she’s looking GOOD.
I think that’s a fic somewhere…
She just needs an apron.
Horrible dress! They made more of an effort to smile but Ben’s smile never seemed to reach his eyes. But he plays so eagerly along with this PR game that I don’t pity him anymore.
He’s playing the fans for the pregnancy news. Its disgusting. MOre disgusting even its tru. cringing all the way m
Yep. Earlier he said he wanted to be coy about it. The whole thing is so beneath him, or so I thought.
Why did the transcript omit that he mentions adam as part of his ‘home team’, even befor sophie?
Yeah, that annoyed me. I’m thinking whoever typed it may have been drunk judging by all the typos too. But yeah, it would be adam they leave out, wouldn’t it? *rolls eyes*
This is one of the most ugly, frumpy dresses I have ever seen. She looks completely engulfed in it. I think he dresses have gone from passable at a pinch to awful.
The three wonderful wins for Pride made my night.
I do not know why he said he was too young to get it.
It usually goes to someone who has brought international attention to the UK Jude Law ,Kenneth Brannagh , John Hurt, David Thewlis, Bob Hoskins, Jim Broadbent, Daniel Day-Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon and Julie Walters..
Most of them may have had a bigger international CV but some were around the same age when they got it. In fact Jude Law was two yeas younger
Other wise it was nice that he thanked all the techie people.
Make you wonder who all the press is really for, him/the movie or her. So far with the UK media its ALL been about her. There desperately trying to sell her as the next best thing and no one is buying hence all the desperation and stroppy behaviour from her. She wants the profile that comes with being the other half of a celebrity. She picked the wrong guy – BC is only TV and internet famous, he’s not yet Hollywood famous and if this campaign keep going down the tubes he never will – if he can’t sell his personal life then how can he carry and sell a movie where he’s the leading man in a multi million dollar movie.
In the States where he’s not well known outside of sherlock fandom (or Trek), he’s being sold as “happy, newly engaged, serious actor man” and it’s going well for the middle america demo but a lot of others are side eyeing or going “uh, still, who?” or they dgaf about his PR and want to see TIG because Turing. (Yes, that’s a bit simplified but that’s the broad strokes of it, it looks like from here.) Every article I’ve seen in U.S. based media is about the engagement, about how classy it was, about how SH is “like Amal” or “like Diana”. It’s not good *movie* PR. It’s not selling the film at all.
I think its meant to sell him, not the film.
Wellllll, actually…something is selling the film.
It’s done incredibly well in limited release so far, averaging over 150K/screen.
I’m not knocking the film–I hope it does well consistently, after this first blush and it hits wide release Stateside as well as the UK. But the PR that’s going on isn’t doing much in the way of promoting the film itself, so much as it’s focused on BC and the image they want to promote. It’s drawing some folks to the film but let’s see how it does in wider release and if they change tactics.
TIG it doing okay for an independent film but that does not make you famous but reviews in the UK were mixed despite all the media hype and the New York Times was not over impressed as well. And since those reviews other films have ben picking up momentum. To be honest I think it has more chance of winning awards in the States just because of the whole British thing.
Big spread on Benny in People mag, they call him a Cumberstud at one point. The poses are a bit studiedly eccentric I think.
I like them!
Me too!
Me too. They seem like a low key couple in love, trying to navigate the Harvey Weinstein circus.
Really? Low key? How low key is it to be making these very, very weird statements to the press about her at very turn? And how low key was it to announce it in the press two days before the biggest media tour of his career?
How low key was it of her to parade through photographers at LFF and get her very own car onto the middle of the red carpet?
As for the ‘in love’ part, you’ll have to be clearer on where you’re seeing that too. I’ve had work colleagues I’ve hated and wouldn’t show them up the way she did to him last weekend at the ESAs.
Meh. Call me when he stretches the wedding out to a four-day gondola ride through Venice.
@Soothy – IMDBer’s here, don’t feed the trolls.
I really don’t get his appeal. IMO he has what I call fetus face (see also: Ryan Reynolds and JLaw). Something about his face just looks not fully developed, to me. It’s the eyes, I guess. I can’ never pinpoint exactly what it is about those 3, but something about their faces turn me off or freak me out slightly because they don’t look fully “cooked.”
Anyway, I guess I don’t find him attractive in any way, shape or form and don’t think he’s so much more brilliant than some other actors…so I just don’t get the craziness about him! I keep trying to catch the Bendy fever…but just can’t. Oh Well.
“Fetus face”!!!! LOL
A friend of mine used the exact phrase – fetus face. It must be trending. #fetusface
LOL, I think I get what you mean by fetus face.
That’s wonderful. Like their eyes are puffy little raisins in a slightly undercooked face? I can totally see it, although Jude Law is a beautiful man regardless.
I used to call Ryan Reynolds “p*nisman” because… well… that’s what his face looked like to me. He also reminds me of a hamster – really don’t see the appeal in that one.
LOL I think inthekitchen is referring to Jennifer Lawrence and not Jude Law?
I can see the undercooked baby thing with Jennifer Lawrence. But Jude Law, as oily a personality as he is, is gorgeous. 🙂
Yep, as Beth says, I meant Jennifer Lawrence, not Jude Law. I don’t find Jude Law attractive either, but he’s definitely not a fetus face!
They’re both a hot mess. Red carpet fakery. Notice how she only shows up in his life if they roll out the red carpet for her. Her dress is hideous and I really hope she’s not pregnant even though I suspect she might be. He’s lost any authenticity he had, IMO. Along with some IQ points.
They look so much alike.
The same head shape, the same mouth… Ugh. Creepy.
The is the ugliest dress I have ever seen in my entire life. That is uglier than anything Lena Dunham has ever worn, Bjork’s swan dress, Whoopi Goldberg’s formal attire, Kate Hudson’s horrible Oscar Saloon dress, and Cher’s showgirl Oscar dress combined.
She does look pregnant right? That would explain the quick engagement
Also, yay to Brendan Gleeson winning!
I like her dress. Yes, it surprises me. But I also liked that flowery dress she wore. She is very pretty girl and they actually make a cute couple. Ina cold british way obviously. But I actually think it’s the real deal.
All the ‘she is pretty’ and ‘I like the dress’ are totally subjective. For every person that says it, I can name 10 who disagree but when it comes to the facts, can we please stop painting us as the ‘the cold British’. I find it super annoying and it borders on xenophobia at times.
Where has this ridiculous false notion come from? Jane Austen novels? Downton Abbey?
We are not starched, stiff upper lip, bowler hat wearing, repressed stiffs. We are as warm with people we love as anyone else. And if you want to compare BC with all the other people he is close to in his life, then obviously so is he.
Pfft, British hothead! *(just teasing you)*.
Lol. See? We ARE passionate.
*smashes plate*
Hey, sorry! I meant it as a joke! And of course her looks and clothes are a matter of personal taste. I happen to like her appearance and her dress. It is a personal observation. Is that okay with you??? Jeez…
EDIT: Sorry Soothy, I just realised i probably read you comment wrong. I didn’t mean to offend any Brit. I love and admire your country. I meant it as a joke, I promise. British people have the most wonderful sense of humour and actually I still think that in terms of generalisations you still have it pretty good 🙂 P.S. I love Jane Austen, hate Downton Abbey.
It’s not about her dress or her appearance, I just get irked with the ‘Sokay ‘cos the Brits all sleep in a suit and shake hands with their loved ones’. I get your probably meant it in a lighthearted way but I’ve just heard it soooo much of late and a lot of people do really mean it.
Oh, okay then. Sorry again, really. But I really like this image of British gentleman in my head though I KNOW it’s not like that in GB at all. When I visited your country it actually was very nice and pleasant experience and nobody shook hands with me at all!
@anny
No worries! Thanks for the compliment! I can be a bit on the snappy side sometimes, anyway. ..now that *is* a Brit thing. 😉
And thumbs up for the Downton Abbey hate.
Well apparently I am on the roll today too. Guess that combination of diploma thesis and flu makes me extremely bitchy. I am glad that we sorted it out.
P.S. I just wish for Downton Abbey and Monthy Python mix – they should hold The Upper Class Twit of the Year competition next season (my bet is on Lady Mary)
The thing is, though, Soothy, we DO still have that silly remnant of privilege left over from the days of yore, and they are polite, they do shake hands, and they are quite reserved in comparison to a stereotypically ebullient American. And this silly remnant is typified by Benny the Affianced.
I have to concede this for our American Celebitchy friends.
The only time I get a bit toothgrindy is with the prevalent (well, probably not that prevalent; I just notice it when it’s there) accompanying assumption that the huge mass of Britons who AREN’T part of that tiny privileged minority are somehow deferential and subservient, when nothing could be further from the truth. I hate the picture of us as a nation of forelock tuggers!
This thread is actually more interesting than the whole engagement business. In my country we stereotypically view Britons as those impeccably mannered, stand-offish and well spoken people and if they are not their name must be Basil Fawlty 🙂 But don’t worry – usual stereotype for my country is “they drink A LOT of beer” (we actually do).
Brits stereo type for American’s is brash confidence and self promotion as opposed to the UK stereotypes which is reserved with a mannered politeness. But do not confuse that type of politeness with the politeness that comes out of genuine kindness which can happen across all classes and cultures.
The reason we love Basli Fawlty is because he is the antithesis of the cultured polite upper class reserve which is actually a mask for Basil’s bigotry and snobbishness.
I like the dress on her. *I’m contractually obligated to love all things Sophie, as she is our new overlord.
Sophie only accepts genuine devotion, madam.
@Sixer I doubt she could recognise genuine devotion because she sees it as an automatic recognition of her intelligence and talent.
Of course they are the real thing. He must really love her to let her get out of the house dressing like a dominatrix prairie doll.
LOL!!!
Wow, if Harvey W. is responsible for your PR, you know there will be no rest. If Lawrence could have got an Oscar, I think Cumbersnatch will get one too.
I really hope this is a real relationship. In this day and time it would be such a shame if he felt the need to be typical just to raise his stock and gain validation.
Octopussy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Dress.
I mean, that is just awful.
My first two impressions:
1) That’s an awfully big torso gap. Still.
2) Ms. Hun-turd is looking awfully brown.
the pics from inside the event aren’t much better. though compare to pics with him with friends like Andrew Scott inside the event…no torso gap. Like they might respect and like one another or something.
Well, he kissed (or got kissed by) Andrew. That’s something we have never seen with Sophie Hunter, Theatre Director.™
Shhhh! Now we may have to witness awkward PDA!
though ngl, if BC ever did come out as gay and AS was single, they’d be adorable together.
She’s now an Opera Director, Green Eyes. Get with the program, guys.
Oh no, now PDA will have to ensue next appearance…Benedict will implode!
Apparently (based on twitter accounts), they didn’t came in the same car. SH was already there when he arrived.
OK, maybe he came straight from airport? Maybe he went to home to change quickly (in that case they don’t live together)? Maybe something else? Well that doesn’t really matter.
The most interesting thing is: these photos are from the first time they saw each other in days. And he was off to RIII set right after the event.
So my point is: #CanYouFeelTheLove
HEH, very true, Ingrid. maybe it’s how they get down, but if I hadn’t seen my fiance(e) in days and we were in mad love, I’d sure look happier to be next to them.
@ingrid u should write books. u r so precise n to the point. They don’t live in the same house is my assumption too. Did not he say that he needs to live with the person for some time and build a trust levell before making the commitment?? the same thing his mum taught him. boy the man has Oedipus complex.
@Lucifer -Thank You *blushes*. I do. Sort of. They are boring research papers that no one reads. #RomanceNovelsWouldMakeMoreMoney #SoHappyWithMyLifeChoices
we r job mates thn 😉
“Hun-turd”!!!! LMAO I knew the BC-SH threads would not disappoint. Slay!
“I’ve obviously had the most important news of my life as far as my life goes. But that’s also sort of private, I don’t want to talk about that too much, but my engagement to the woman I love is obviously the most important thing of 2014 for me.”
Umm…that important news of his life: Is she pregnant??
That would be very telling and given he’s completely shut up about cumberbabies…hmmm… I’m still on the pregnancy train.
I thought that at first. Maybe he’s just playing with the press, as he’s not averse to that of late. But I think they’re not two separate things he’s referring to, they’re the same but in a very odd and clumsy way as usual.
I think I was thrown off also by him claiming privacy when since the announcement itself to now, he’s done everything BUT be private.
But I do hope she’s not. That would clearly point to an accident and a proposal out of duty and if he knew he was going to be a dad I’d want him to not look like he is carrying all the world’s troubles, which he has done for a while now.
It legit sounded like wafflebatch was back. He fumbled what he wanted to say, what he knew he’d be asked b/c they were asking other celebs that, too.
It’s impossible to tell. Either he doesn’t know what to say or there is something else, as we’re obviously not privy to everything.
But IF that bit of waffling would translate to ‘she’s pregnant’, then how press – and fan baiting would his comment be?! Like I’m saying ‘she’s pregnant’, but ‘hey privacy everyone, I won’t say she’s pregant’. That’d be worse imho.
So I hope he’s just waffling. Otherwise I might need to go and kick The Great Secret Keeper’s behind! Ugh…
He’s playing the press.
most important news signing a marvel franchise!! wat else. wafflebatch.
I posted the video up-thread. After that quote he goes on to say “it’s hard to pick one. I don’t do favorites” or something like that. And like I said in the previous thread, he doesn’t know either apparently.
This is literally the sort of quote people give when they lie/don’t know what to say. I used to work in HR and saw this constantly during job interviews.
Benedict is usually very verbose but always very clear and consistent. Only the engagement talk seems to be a challenge.
so the transcript and the video says different things? how is it a transcript if is not verbatim?
@Lucifer -This is literally what the press does. They take quotes out of context to make headlines. This is especially bad in BC’s case because he talks and talks and talks.
Last night a reporter tweeted that same quote and it was only “engagement to the woman I love is obviously the most important thing” part and even then it was paraphrased.
From The Daily Fail:
“I’ve had the most important news of my life’: Benedict Cumberbatch gushes about his engagement to Sophie Hunter and says she’s ‘proud of his work'”
“Benedict Cumberbatch has admitted his engagement was the ‘most important news’ of his life.”
Why is it news to him? It’s almost like he’s saying he didn’t know he was gonna get engaged! Or was it SH who proposed? Or did he find out when he read the Ad in the London times?!
Also why can’t he talk about, if its about the engagement he’s had no trouble mentioning it in every interview!!
If they are expecting maybe he can’t talk about it yet? Until Harvey tells him its the right time.
I’ve also been wondering, if it wasn’t Awards season and he still got engaged, do you think he would be talking about the engagement just as much??
It’s news to him cos Harvey decreed it and BC got the memo through Karon. Stop blowing his cover people! Boy is trying his best. 🙂
From The Sun ShowBiz:
“BENEDICT Cumberbatch has opened up for the first time about his engagement to Sophie Hunter, describing it as the most important thing to happen to him in his LIFE.”
I kind of like her dress. It’s like Pinhead’s from Hellraiser. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/Hr3-pinhead2.png
Another reason why it’s worthwhile to click on a BC-SH thread. Despite finding BC exceedingly tiresome, the comments he inspires are truly a thing of beauty. 🙂
Looking like twinsies here. While Benny looks sharp, she’s earned another F for the dress.
If I was wearing that sh*t of dress, I would be sweating like a pig. I don’t know how celebrities deal with those fabrics (leather, for example). I feel sweaty just by looking at it.
Anyway, this is all just so boring. She looks bored so he does. I feel bored too. Bring the drama, for gods sake!
sheena did you missed last weeks episode when she walked off the Evening standard awards?? This is just pr clean-up.
What did she do at the ES awards? I didn’t hear about it – just a vague reference.
She threw a tantrum on the red carpet and stormed off, then treated his PR lady like s***. Also ignored his niece.
The first bit is on video on ITV.
The dress would have been ok but those breast pockets are distracting!
awkkwarrd…..we all would be okay with it if they looked like they LIKED each other at the very least.
In all the pics he’s leaning a bit in cause he’s thinking: they watching…but still you see how akward and just more akward they take pics.
great pr team, tho with the old engagement story.
and these people get paid, you would think they could come up with something….not this.
Why would this be try hard?? He seems, to me, to really be in love with her, which I think is very sweet…
What about his behaviour makes you think he seems to be really in love with her? I’m genuinely interested?
Hi…because his eyes soften when he is with her; in pictures where he is by himself his eyes have another kind of look, more “hardened”, perhaps; that’s all I have…
Do you think so? That is fascinating to me, because I see exactly the opposite.
I’d love him to be in love but I just don’t see it at all.
I think whatever anyone’s opinion is on here I do know that most people seem to have genuine affection for him and want to see him have that glow.
I see him get more tense and he never looks at her when they are directed on the carpet.
He looks miserable and when you add his odd behavior during the past two weeks, where he couldn’t even let her name pass his lips, I can’t see where you are coming from.
Here is my obligatory “she is pretty” comment. She is. Its her attitude and prior behavior that are ugly and make me still dislike her. As for the dress, I like the bare structure of it, but the fabric, collar, and pockets did nothing for me. The shape of the dress in a different fabric would have been very pretty and appropriate.
Ben looked lovely in all black, and I liked the photos of him (without her) where he looked happy. His speech was also adorable until the end.
If the dress had been *any* other fabric, it could’ve looked really cute and retro, esp if the pocket plackets had been smaller or nonexistent. But the naugahyde or pleather or whatever made it look really stiff and poorly styled (at least for her/the event).
Exactly! A few tweaks to that dress and she would have looked great. Im still not a fan of HER, but I’m not going to take cheap shots at her physical appearance (saying shes ugly, etc.) Her fashion choices are fair game. This one was better than the Erdem stuff, but still a miss
I quite like her hair, not for red carpet mind you but mine just blow dries poker straight, I wish I could get some body and wave into mine without hours of effort.
*DUCKS*
I think she’s average. She’s not offensive looking, but there’s something very dreary and perpetually pained about her look that makes me go meh. She is dour most of the time. And the frumpy dresses and 1980s hair don’t help.
I do tend, though, to associate the word “pretty” with someone with a brighter, perkier, more pleasant demeanour. Like Naomi Watts, Jennifer Lawrence, – not great beauties and can look average if the make-up is light, but definitely pretty (to me).
@Beth I agree. She’s average and she comes off smug and snooty so I don’t find her to be pretty.
Beth, isn’t there a British word to describe this look? When I look at her, I think, she’s pretty, in a “Mumsie” kind of way. Is that word still used? What I mean by it is that she is pretty–nice skin, nice figure, nice coloring–but for all her supposed edgy and experimental work, she doesn’t pack a lot of personal punch. She just seems “safe,” maybe because she doesn’t think she has to try. And her proud, standoffish attitude only contributes to that.
Hmm mumsy, dowdy, matronly?
There’s minging, but that means ugly, which I don’t think SH is. She just looks frumpy and boring to me heh.
Thanks, Beth. I don’t mean matronly, just basically pretty but unexciting. I always think of Kanga from the A.A. Milne “Pooh” stories when I look at her. She seems like the kind of person whose presence kind of spoils the fun.
Is it just me or does someone else (anyone!) think that reaction from BC’s fandom was a little bit similar to reactions of Twihards who found out that Rob is dating that British singer FKA Twigs? (meaning “denial, denial, denial, it MUST be just for an Oscar or he is just playing the press, he will dump her, he CANNOT obviously be in love with her)
Please, tell me I am not the only one who finds it ridiculous.
Jesus lord.
Is that the best you can do? Concoct a twihard comparison? Yes, I’d hope you were the only one to think that but then I’ve seen some crazy surrounding this, so you probably aren’t.
Despite your lazy and ridiculous comparison to a bunch of teen weirdos reacting to Pattinson dating someone, I’m guessing you perhaps haven’t bothered to actually read anything anyone’s been saying here? There’s actually a LOT that doesn’t add up and has been purposely done for publicity timing. That’s for sure. Why? Nobody knows for sure, but to compare people who are (largely) intelligent and sceptical of anything the media offers them on a plate to a bunch of raving loon superfans is more than a little offensive.
Out of interest, do you venture on to imdb or tumblr to compare them to twihards and ask them why the hell they’re so obsessed with congratulating, buying presents for, baking cakes for people they don’t know?
Oh and btw, I’m not in ‘BC fandom’ I’m an autonomous individual with no desire to align myself with anything collectively ‘cumber’ related and a keen eye for BS.
*applauds Soothy* Always fighting the good fight against those who feel the need to insult and belittle others for having an opinion different from the multimillion PR conglomerate known as the Oscar campaign. AHEM. Sorry. Meant the true-love-train. Choo choo!
Okay, maybe the comparison was a bit lazy – I actually really do think that most commenters here are actually really intelligent people (that is what made me like this site in the first place). And yes, I did realise afterwards that comparing those two fandoms is unfair due to racist remarks FKA Twigs suffered for daring to date Rob the Sex God.
But really. Some comments (not all, of course) really do sound like people are really in denial about this whole engagement thing and over eager body language analysis and criticism is sometimes really…too much.
Not denying BC’s comments are laughable and a bit embarrassing (sometimes I am only able to sigh, chuckle and shake my head). But some people take it wayyy over the top.
But it’s not just about body language, anny.
People have had qualms long before this engagement announcement and it’s really reductive and unfair to lump them as deluded fans, not to mention completely wrong. The word ‘denial’ makes me balk too. It’s suggests that anyone not weirdly overexcited and actually questioning things is nothing more than a weeping fan. I’m sure that people like that DO exist, but you won’t find them here.
Most people are intelligent, questioning and won’t accept everything he does without question. How does that make them the crazy ones?
Nobody is saying they’re right and nobody has to agree but to suggest that they have an issue with him having a relationship is barmy in itself.
Please don’t think everyone on Tumblr is crazy. There are a few blogs that are disputing this HARD, and have the same opinions as here.
@Whovian
Sorry, yeah, that’s not fair. I know there are some really sane and intelligent blogs on there, but it’s so hard to find them amongst the crazy. I’ve all but given up in tumblr tbh.
Okay thanks. I don’t really consider myself a fan of anything…maybe Harry Potter but that is part nostalgy. Fandom may sound a bit juvenile but I did not mean it like that.
Can you please direct me somewhere where I can read about those qualms about this relationship and maybe try to understand where you all are coming from?
Crikey, I don’t know, really. It’s all spread out over many threads. I guess you could read some of them back but that’d be pretty time consuming.
Aaah, I do like it when the regular trolls return.
Mathilda, so knowledgeable on everyone’s ages here? Wow, that’s some talent you have. Oooorrr, maybe you’re an obsessive tumblrer who thinks that anyone over the age of 22 is ‘middle aged or more’ and anyone not joining you in your scrapbook making and ‘gross happy sobbing’ is ‘crazy’? Well take some advice from a 29 year old grown up who knows that while the TV and magazines are all shiny, they do tell porkies.
Next time you have an insight, try not to be as offensive and ridiculous as to try and paint a bunch of faceless people as the crazy old crones you’ve concocted in your dreams..
Til we meet again..
She got it from La I ney. Honestly, the nannies are out in force these days. What is in it for them to protect this disaster anyways?
I don’t really care one way or another, really. I like BC only as Sherlock (okay, I love Sherlock!) and I don’t really know his fiancee. I was bored and decided to read a Cumberbatch thread and I was quite surprised by the amount of theories, dislike towards him/her/relationship. It actually reminded me of Twihard reaction (albeit more mature). So I asked. I only wish HW would pay me for supporting his Oscar horses. I would even wear Marchesa!
I don’t really know Tumblr or how it works. But from what I saw it’s often occupied by apparently insane fangiling people. But maybe I just happened to visit terrible and wrong Tumblr pages. By the way I hate the spelling of “Tumblr”.
Anny, you’re more than welcome to join me ‘on the fence’ about the whole relationship. I have tea and crumpets if you like (or something stronger, lol). I’m getting lonely up here.
I love these threads. While I don’t agree with everything that’s been said, I find the posters here funny, intelligent and yes, genuine fans of BC. They’re just not *ss-kissers. 🙂
Maybe it’s true, who cares.. but the gossip and the comments are hilarious, so …keep them coming…. 😛
@Soothy, leave her alone,her loss not being able to laugh…
Likewise. Some very clever and funny people here.
But that dress has got to go. Pullease.
Is FKA Twigs up for an Oscar?! :O
FKA Twigs for the win!!
You’ re not alone, Anny. I said the same thing and they called me troll. Join the club!
How you dare to compare us with Twilhads?We are nothing like them except for the fact we cannot possible understand why our Lord and Saint and Sex God has choosen HER over us. Why a grown up man is in a real relationship (unlike us who fancy a complete stranger)? Why her? Why not us?
We will believe everything is a PR move or HW’s deed.
Actually, I think you’ll find that most of us are actually in real relationships too.
Although, you’re bring ironic again, yeah? Yeah.
Mathilda, now you were dealt with already. Shh.
‘Whose that jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tucker bag?
You’ll come a waltzing ageist Mat(h)ilda with me.’
Mathilda, the majority of people here are not spewing hate toward SH or wearing sack cloth and have ashes on their foreheads because BC is engaged. We are however pointing out the PR bs that is going on with the awards campaign for TIG and how this relationship is being used for media purposes.
“Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time.” MP
@Mathilda dear…
“They are middle aged women dreaming about Benedict and denying any possible relationship.” Are you looking at your own reflection in the mirror when saying this? Careful, the mirror might give back an answer you don’t like….
Yes!
Two weeks ago I posted that I hope that couple has a baby on another site.People went crazy.It was hilarious.
If she gets pregnant, they will say it’s HW’s baby.
Or a baby BC has with his Oscar statue. Damn, now I wish they had a baby.
@Anny,I said the same thing and they called me troll. Join the club!
Oooo! My first club here!
Luciano and Anny,
For me, my doubts about the timing of the engagement announcement came when I saw SH’s heavily polished and revised CV PPP up. There was one project of hers-Enron-that I had followed and her claimed role in the project did not match up with memory. Researched and found discrepancies. And the discrepancies multiplied.
Polished CVs might be “normal ” or accepted in some spheres, but for the fiancée big a man who claimed to desire to keep the relationship private, and her desire to stay out of the public eye, it made no sense.
From that point onward I have been doubtful. And started to pay more attention to the timing of certain statements in the press by BC and how they seemingly correspond to criticism on multiple Internet sites and Twitter.
I am an auditor. Discrepancies attract my attention. That is why it pains me when I post things that aren’t technically correct.
So, my stance and why I joined others on the PR train-if your words and actions consistently contradict each other, there is usually a reason. Maybe the two wacky kids are hot for each other. But up until last night, body language and words have been painful to watch.
And I am trained in that kind of thing to be able to spot when I am being lied to. Now in fairness, the job is a hard one to drop and it is hard to drop the High Inquisitor attitude in personal life.
But knowing how corporations and law enforcement use social media to their advantage and monitor activity-well, not far fetched to me that an actor who is known for an active internet fan base uses it to manipulate image and respond to criticism during awards season.
And now, back to my meetings.
I think all fandoms react the same when their fave finds a significant other. Its pretty much the norm, but with social media the fandoms view and opinion are magnified.
Mikasa,
I’ve got a bit of an issue with being lumped in with crazy ‘fandoms’ who are just reacting because their ‘fave has found an SO’. I think that’s really dismissive and reductive. I just think it’s all to easy to buy into facile media BS and see non fawning weirdos as butthurt fans. It also suggests that there’s no reason for people’s questions and that’s just not true.
Soothy, I used the word “fandom” first and I used it because I didn’t know any better way how to express myself. I wasn’t aware of negative connotation it might bring. Can you please (and I meant it in a non-ironic and genuine way) tell me how to describe it better? English is not my first language so sometimes I am a bit limited in the ways I can express my thoughts.
Anny,
Many people don’t have an issue with ‘fandom’, it’s just a personal thing for me really, but it always strikes me as a bit childish, prescriptive and organised. I don’t consider myself part of any fan club and I don’t like the notion of being a collective amorphous identity.
I just feel it inappropriate for someone like BC, too. Maybe it makes more sense for a scifi show or a band, but it’s too much for one actor, I think.
But like I say, that’s just my opinion. I don’t expect people to not use it just because I don’t like it, but I do speak up when the context particularly doesn’t sit with me well.
They are not his fans but they know every single move, word and even thought BC had, has and will have. They don’t hate his future wife but they call her names and despise her in every possible way.
Denial is wonderful place to be.
Sheena,
What exactly are you doing? Because from where I am, it just looks a significant mess.
@ Sheena, excuuuuuseeee me, it’s a raft on the river Denial thankyouvermuch. *Jumps from crocodile to crocodile*
What happened while I was way? Why is everyone arguing? What happened to the happy people who used to post here when I started..? I only see names that didn’t exist here a couple of months ago…..
Go troll somewhere else… This invasion started when those sites on tumblr appeared… Haven’t you read the rules?? RESPECT other people’s opinions…
I think that they are fooling us with this relationship (just like a politician would do)…Maybe to some extent they are real, but it’s being used for PR, that’s undeniable… For all I care, BC can do whatever he pleases, he can even be gay… I don’t care, but him mocking and being rude to people as he’s been in the last few months? Give me a break…
He neds to come down the pedestal, and so does SH…
Anny, yes I agree, you’re not the only one 😀
However I do find the comments entertaining nevertheless.
Inevitably, any woman who ends up with BC or TH has a vicious backlash coming to her, that’s just the way it is.
But hey, as long as it’s all harmless commenting, who cares. If they really are happy and in love, then they don’t give a rat’s ass either way. And if they’re not, then the comments are right. Whatever the case, shouldn’t matter in the real world.
There’s no vicious backlash here, though. Opinions that aren’t all rainbows and farting stardust don’t equate to viciousness. That’s just dismissive of what anyone has to say if it’s written off as a ‘backlash’ just because of being his partner. It just drives me nuts when people make these statements. Makes it even easier for the media to slant their BS articles on the mythical ‘heartbroken fans’.
See, this is why I said the other day we should write up a timeline of this madness.
because to an outsider or casual viewer we sound batty. But when you look at all the facts, verified with video and times, it comes across as PR-driven, tightly controlled for image making, and contrived.
Why argue with IMDB trolls upset that their idol’s story isn’t swallowed whole by anyone who has a brain? Don’t blame them because they can’t figure it out. Let them collect their $10.00 and call it a day. They’ll find a new site.
I agree, I’ll help with the timeline.
moodgirl, excellent! shall we start a new post down thread and start compiling things by memory?
Let’s keep it painfully factual; the point is to convince people who think this is unhingedness or denialism.
@Amy You aren’t alone. I’m seeing the same movie you’re seeing.
They are so quick to call you a troll just because you are calling out their (incredibly transparent) behavior. The comments on every Benedict post are all bashing this woman incessantly, nitpicking every tiny detail of their interactions, building on conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory and attacking anyone who says she is pretty or insinuates that they could possibly (gasp) have a non-PR relationship!
No opinion on Benedict as a person really but the reaction from fans here has been like watching a trainwreck – 3 parts horror, 1 part entertainment.
No one has ever been called a troll. Melancholia please see my post way down below. It was written as a question to other posters with differing viewpoints, such as yourself.
@ scarf girl: which thread are you reading? It doesn’t appear to be the same one I’m reading. On this thread alone I count 5 posts directly accusing someone of being a troll (that’s not counting the one where someone actually was trolling and admitted it), plus more that imply it without using that specific word.
Or were you being sarcastic? Implying that it’s okay to call people who disagree with you trolls? If so, why the lengthy post below, complaining about “nannies” attacking those on the conspiracy train? It’s either okay to attack those who disagree or it isn’t. (Personally I think it’s not okay, and I’d be much happier if everyone – on both sides – stopped. I miss the old days when we just shanked and poisoned each other in BC threads.)
I just don’t understand – enlighten me.
Lucrezia,
I stand corrected. 5 posts out of 490.
The long post was to give some perspective as to why myself, and others, side eye this relationship. And I agree, it is more mature to have a discussion. But most people who I see posting on this thread, stating if you disagree you will be called a “troll” aren’t really interested in having a discussion, or engaging in some very enjoyable conversation that resulted from many posts below. They want to paint a very one sided picture of posters.
So if you have a different point of view, that is cool. Truly. In the great scheme of life, none of us are impacted by the story of the Otter and the Octopus. It is a fun distraction. If you want to approach the fun from a different view point, and throw in other tidbits about different aspects of pop,culture, cool. But for the people who come to this board and spew vitriol about these posters being middle age ladies crying into their pillow cases about the engagement, well, yes, they are trolls.
Thanks for replying. I absolutely agree that “you jelly?” type remarks are uncalled for. I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid if you’d just said something snarky at Melancholia. (You started it Melancholia, so I’ll assume you can take it in return.)
As a fence-sitter (so pretty objective), what I was taken aback by was your sensitivity to insults to your side, while simultaneously dismissing the insults your side was dishing out to others. That’s just not cricket. But if you recognize that some people (not you!) on both sides are out of line then we’re cool.
senyorita/benophidaily tweeted about the engagement party. SO IT MUST BE TRUE> *sarcasm alert*
Yay! Now the media will pick it up and Uncle Harvey’s gonna have to get Hello and People exclusives!! Oh joy to the world… **vomits**
*hands out barf bags*
If they’re smart (no evidence of that yet), they won’t have any party before ER’s wedding. Esp if they want to keep playing this is not PR and they’re not trying to steal his thunder. They’ll wait and see if he’s nominated before going forward with any shenanigans.
they’re NOT smart. WE smart ppl r savinf thr f-ing a$$es by criticizing it
i don’t know who that nutter is, but if it turns out to be true, she’s definitely on the payroll. fool me once, shame on me…
Convinced those accounts on someone’s payroll.
On a slightly related note, I watched Wreckers last night. It wasn’t his best work, but hes still painfully gorgeous, and the red hair is on display. Recommended strictly for the prettiness of Ben
He looks so good in Wreckers, his hair and scruff, a slight tan, everything on point.
agree! The movie itself is alright, its not award quality, but he really can play the tenderness so well, even if the character is pained. Amazing he shows more love in a film than with his own “love of his life” Heartbreaking really
Did anyone notice they’re now interlocking fingers when holding hands, (there is a pic floating around from the red carpet, they’re both laughing, I saw on Instagram, have no clue where it came from). I did laugh when I saw that since so many people commented on their limp hand holding.
She seems to be leading to me. I also noticed in that gif from nyc where karon is telling them to keep posing, SH has her arm behind his back and pushes him back into position to pose again. But the difference her demeanour is very jarring. All the toothy smiling.
So I feel she’s really enjoying this, of course she does, how else could she get so many RC and posing.
While Ben just seems to want to get it done asap, poor man ; (
Maybe I’m reading too much, it seems to me that Ben is the one directing the position while posing and when they think it’s finished but r asked to do some more shooting, he usually looks more miserable and she smug.
Harvey probably told SH that none of her future projects will ever get green-lighted if she doesn’t succeed in making this whole thing believable. You see, when BC’s future roles/jobs were at stake, SH did not care how ridiculous she made him look; but now that *her* future is on the line, well, all of a sudden the girl can act!
Yeah, pass me a barf bag…
Saw one at SoGo, I think it was taken after that one they r laughing towards someone/something out of the picture.
It’s just awkward tbh. Is it me or, I think they are just never in the same page, different direction, either one is constantly one step forward. And don’t make them try PR, thank you very much, too stiff and awkward and embarrassing to watch.
It’s awkward-looking, just like everything else about them.
She seems to really be enjoying herself now. Some of the pics, she looks a bit smug.
I love the pic from last night where she’s leaning her head (not entire body) towards BC and he just stands there straight and stoic like before. The same kind of thing happened at TIG NY.
To recap last night:
Karon: jawseyes
Benedict: jawseyes
Sodious: smile, laugh, lean. I’m fabulous. Look at me.
Which one of these doesn’t belong?
@Ingrid: *singing* One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just isn’t the same…
I saw that pic. He’s wrapping his fingers around but she isn’t. Her fingers are just hanging out. Normally I wouldn’t notice that but it stuck out to me when I saw that photo.
I’ve been out for a week on vacation with the Mouse but just took a look at her ring. I would have expected a solitaire from the Otter. I think they will make cute babies and beyond that I will feast on the gossip.
*The* Mouse?! I’m there in THREE weeks. So excited!
This is a genuine and earnest question:
A majority of comments on this board believe BC’s engagement is for PR, to (1) shore up his Oscar chances and (2) get people, especially middle America, into theatres to watch TIG. I understand (1) cos Oscar voters are mostly a bunch of old male fogeys and they may prefer someone with more “gravitas” and a conventional, settled-down personal life instead of “Internet boyfriend with legions of screaming Cumberbitches”.
But (2) doesn’t make any sense to me? Do average Americans really care if an actor is engaged, divorced, married, etc when considering whether to watch a movie or not? I just go by whether the film’s premise is interesting, and couldn’t care less if the lead actor is shagging six different men and women on the down-low. I suppose BC’s engagement would help raise his visibility in the US, but the articles I’ve read are mostly about “devastated Cumberbitches” so I don’t know how that improves his image one bit towards more serious leading man.
Sadly, a lot of viewers DO care if the actor they’re watching is gay, straight, a womanizer, etc. And a lot of people will get up in arms if a gay actor or one they perceive to be gay is lauded, esp if it’s for the role of a gay person. Pathetic but true. Not all viewers, obviously, but a very vocal minority of them. Pandering to that demo, saying “Look, he’s straight and he’s legit loved up because they’re engaged! He’s not a modelizer like Leo or ambiguous like whomever! He’s romantic! He’s serious!” gets butts in seats and appeals to the more conservative academy voters. In the long run, HW doesn’t give a flip what happens to BC after the movie is out of theatres and after awards season is over. If he has to rebuild his image to fit his old one, or start anew, HW doesn’t give a flip. He’s done, he’s appealed to the market that gets “his” film votes, and the season is over.
That’s why I really hope Karon sticks with him, because she has been his PR for a long time and will have his longterm interests in mind after this circus is over. Weinstein will not give a sh*t on February 23.
Thanks MissMary. I’ve heard about the US far-right or conservative wing but don’t really have a clue how large or influential they are when it comes to box office numbers. It’s both ridiculous and interesting to me that people would factor in an actor’s personal life when thinking about what movie to watch (I mean beyond heinous stuff like sexual abuse allegations a la Woody Allen and Roman Polanski).
From my perspective as someone who is most definitely NOT right wing, I tend to think “eff ’em, if they don’t like it, they can watch something else,” but producers and people who are behind the box office stats care and want numbers to be high and want controversy to be low or “safe”–like a movie about battered animals: safe controversy because it’s not controversial to want to save them. About an out and proud lesbian? Controversial because some people will rage to the skies about their rights being trodden upon because the movie came out (though no one forces them to see it).
I can’t imagine people in my country would care if an actor is bi, straight, gay, has babies out of wedlock or anything like that. Maybe that’s why I am so puzzled by all this “it’s just for PR” movement. It amazes me that in this age there are still people who wouldn’t watch a movie because an actor is gay. Do they also believe that homosexuality is contagious and could be transmitted through screen?
Anny: By and large, no. Don’t get me wrong: People here aren’t all ignorant and homophobic. It’s like any other country –there’s a vocal group of people who are hateful and ignorant. Sadly, some industries listen to them, or some sub-sections of industries do. I can walk up and down my street and ask strangers if they’d see a movie with a gay lead, or about a gay protagonist, or with a lead who had a kid or six out of wedlock, and I can guarantee everyone would say “Yeah, what does their personal life matter?” BUT… the big “but” here…is that the academy is largely older conservative types, by all accounts, and they are sketchy about things like that. And it’s dumb as fuck. PR relationships are old as H’wood, if not older, and done for more reasons than supposed sexuality or pregnancy–wedding bells sell, even if they’re never rung. Just the idea of them seduces people who want to “see the romance” into buying mags and movie tickets. So there’s a lot of reasons this could be PR. The bare bones of it, though, is because it wouldn’t be the first time and it is keeping his name in the media when, at least stateside, he wouldn’t be getting nearly as much or as big press.
@Anny:
Heh I find it quite puzzling too. And I thought the fact that TIG is about a gay mathematician – and the filmmakers including BC have been vocal about their anti-homophobia message in their promotional campaign – would automatically mean the far-right crazies would already boycott the film anyway, regardless of the actor’s personal life. Hence I didn’t quite understand this engagement-for-PR ploy to get bums into theatres to watch TIG. But I guess I don’t understand the cultural dynamics of the US movie-going public well enough.
@MissMary:
Whoops I missed your latest reply before I posted. But PR for Oscars, that makes more sense to me. The Oscars voters do like to come across as mildly progressive and may not reject a film like TIG despite its content (and provided it doesn’t push the envelope too far like having explicit gay sex scenes). But they may not go as far as giving Best Actor to a gay actor.
No, no, no, I certainly didn’t mean my comment as “Wow, awful, bad America”. It is just so sad. This powerful conservative Hollywood clique sounds like a nightmare. I know a couple of Americans IRL and they are incredible, open minded and very positive people. But then I turn on The Daily Show and I am just shocked. Some people are just so incredibly ignorant (and yes, we get ignorant politicians here too). But I am glad I understand how HW and the awards work better now. It is really dumb.
@Anny you’re being so naïve (no intention to offend you on my part).
Conservatists exist everywhere, will always exist, narrow-minded people who think their way is the only right way… Anywhere, Europe, USA, anywhere, people’s rights are run over because of certain ideologies of that minority that rules the world…
just read about what happened in Marseille, South of France, and the homeless people and the yellow triangles on their clothes… It was like seeing the ghost of Nazism being brought to life… And trust me, it is scary to watch this conservationism still existing, certain ideologies so much alive…
Freedom is an illusion…I used to be utopic a few years back… used to.. not anymore….
So yes, an actor who plays a gay part, it’s better to have a gf, wife or something or people will think he’s also gay and condemn him for it…
My brother (who is in his 30s, straight, white and married with kids) WILL NOT watch any TV show or movie where there is a gay actor or gay character. He WILL NOT listen to music if the artist is gay.
He used to watch The Big Bang Theory until he found out the lead actor was gay.
THAT is the kind of prejudices I abhor (even if he is my brother) and why sexuality in Hollywood is such a big thing. And its those kind of people that PR tries to pander to when it comes to homosexuality.
@Curioser: Really? Really??? That is really terrible attitude. Well his loss, that actor that plays Sheldon is wonderful. I don’t get attitude like that.
@Solanaceae: No offence taken. Yes, it is a bit naive. I mean my country has issues with homophobia too but it doesn’t extent to culture. But our president is a real piece of work. As for Marseille – now that is truly horrific. I agree that issues are everywhere. For people in my country America was the land of freedom and equality for many years under oppression for communist regime and my parents’ generation imagined that everything is good and rosy over the Atlantic. Sadly we found out in last 25 years that not even democracy can guarantee equal rights for everyone. So yeah, I agree that even though me and my fellow citizens learned a lot it is still quite unsettling for me to discover that in the USA a gay actor has to have a beard to be successful and more marketable. Just the mere idea of it is disgusting.
Oh Anny, I wish I was making it up, but unfortunately, no. My brother has 3 beautiful kids and what frightens me the most is him passing his prejudices onto them. And yes, he is missing out on some wonderful work by being a close minded douche, but you cant tell him that.
I see it less about PR for TIG specifically, but for Benedict in general and therefore, about the movie. The timing of the announcement, one week before his big press tour of America, put him on the cover of People, major websites, newspapers etc. US press likes a good “love” story as well (maybe not to the degree that they do in the UK). It gave them something else to talk about and got his name continually in the media conversation. Then he shows up with her 2 weeks later, for the first time, in the US- more pics and press. The timing is well orchestrated, the rest is a FARCE.
Question: How many BC things have gone viral(or -ish)?
Pre-enGAGment?
7 (Photobomb, Darcy, Drunk Speech, Out interview, Wax Figure, GN Show (Beyonce&JarJar), Sherlock Sex)
Post-enGAGement?
1 (Impressions which was done pre)
The enGAGment is *literally* the cut point. Who says this isn’t part of strategic image building? #SeriousOscarMan
i think this is part of the strategy. Serious Oscar Men don’t do silly things like photobombs. this is what i’m concerned about for his future after the oscars. it may work for now, but what about later on (and he isn’t going to win the oscar, that’s for sure). i think he’ll be fine, and the dr. strange promo will give us lots of viral moments. but i still wish he would reconsider what made him popular in the first place-his sense of fun.
I read on SoGo (I think) that between shooting R3 and the trip to LA, BC and SH probably hadn’t seen each other in days. I would’ve had my paws ALL over my partner, or at least would’ve been standing much closer especially being newly engaged. Ugh, these two are confusing as hell. He looks so happy with Andrew Scott and Brendan Gleeson, and then with her he’s like…ok, here we go, save for that laugh he gave her on the red carpet which looked genuine.
And now tumblr is inundated with posts about SH being SO hot they’re ‘starting to question their sexuality, wanting to have bc/SH threesomes, “move over Ben and let me get a piece of Sophie” type of fawning. Blegh.
Erm, those poor dears haven’t been around much, have they? Hope they are young teens, because otherwise it’s very sad. She’s hardly Monica Belluci or something…
Oh dear god
It’s like they went on every fan blog and read the comments and corrected it. It’s not very natural and very fake.
I bet if for example we talked about Benny wearing yellow ties because it’s Sophie’s favourite color and next time he turns up he’s wearing a yellow tie. (Like Sophie and her flower power dresses) or we want to see some kissing action between them and bamb! PDA all round.
If they’re in love they have nothing to prove to anyone or themselves
You know, if they were REALLY in love and a legit couple, he’d wear more leopard print. It’s on trend this season for engaged couples to do that. Yep. A full on leopard print suit.
Make it happen, PR.
I hear top hats for daywear are a “must” this season for the engaged gentleman. They symbolize the formality and commitment of plighting your troth to another. If Benedict doesn’t wear one, we’ll know this engagement is a humbug.
Leopard print and top hat. How come they don’t know about this??? Everyone is wearing them. Teaming them with nice pointed boots..
I kind of want her to wear the leopard print and Benedict to wear zebra stripes. *Prays to the PR god*
I’m still waiting for a good ole’ couch jump. You know. To *normalize* it a bit.
Are you there, PR Gods? It’s me… MissMary. If you’re listening, please let PR send them to a red carpet event dressed like mid-70’s pimps from Starsky and Hutch. Thanks. No pressure or anything.
MissMary: do you think they could mime an entire Starsky and Hutch episode down the red carpet? Oh please let that happen. Please.
Oh, wow! Looks at that dress! I guess she has an edgy style to add to her class and sophistication. Kind of a perfect touch, otherwise she would’ve been too… classy? Like too boring. But this is excellent!
Anyway – I approve!
oh wow! Look at this comment! Its dripping with so much irony I’m going to need some hip waders to get through it. Heaven forbid Sophie look too classy, because then her rep as a SERIOUS THEATRE (and “Opera”?) director may be compromised.
And thank god you approve, I cant imagine the internet could stand it if you stopped licking a** for 5 seconds.
Here’s your $10, go buy something nice
Ladies, it’s best to avoid feeding and replying to the troll. This is the only way they’d go away, and this one can’t go away soon enough.
True enough, I’ve just hit critical mass with this one
how do I get this job. could use the money. I’ll be good. look
Oh my good soph is so pretty and her hair is shiny like a moon and how much he adores her looking her into the eyes oh my god cumberbabies. DID i do it right?
love you, may23! 🙂
keep ’em coming!
May23 makes me smile. I love the optimism.
Miss Mary- the leopard print- YES. Like Aldo Nova in his Fantasy video. If you have not seen it, please do so. Immediately.
On it!
The cmnts in the latest DM article are pure gold!! Classic.. Read the best rated ones. And tell me here. GOD LOLing
that’s saying something: i remember DM comments always being supportive of him. sad.
Everyone is thinking the same… People aren’t believing any of this… So sad…
When DM comments change, then you know things are starting to crack.
They went from gushing to bashing in no time.
The DM comments are changing because they are being written by posters from this site. There are two or three repeat commenters, on the DM site, who are using the exact same phrases and the exact same conspiracy nonsense that is being said here.
It is a shame that a good man’s reputation is even being slightly sullied by a small group of so-called fans.
Oh c’mon Maggie, thats a liitle conspiracy theorist to me! It’s not just people here that are questioning the show, so why assume that they are posters from here? God, really? Maybe they are reading here or the tumblr sites, so that’s why the theories and phrases sound the same? I think that is much more likely than having them be posting at the Fail.
And so what if they are? There is no law to state that we cant post our theories elsewhere. The nannies are allowed to gush wherever they want, but god forbid the ‘deniers’ do the same thing.
And if it wasn’t for Ben’s behaviour and actions and words, there wouldn’t be anyone questioning it. Saying he wants to be private, but bringing the engagement up at every damn opportunity (without prompting in some cases) reeks of hypocrisy.
2 or 3 out of a total of 66 in one piece of news and 127 on another?? Ok… I guess people only post in one site,never in more than one….not here, IMDB, the tumblr , etc… simultaneouly, never… ever…
I really do believe BC has saturated the media, has been repeatedly saying one thing and doing the other, and more people are starting to notice.
IDK if those commenting on the Fail are the same posting here… I can’t see how that matters.
@ Maggie:
*falls off her fence laughing*
That’s one of the dumbest things things I’ve seen posted. Sorry, I know that’s mean to say, but it’s true.
*crawls back onto her fence, chuckling*
whoever said that was 2 or 3 people needs to get a cataract operation and learn how to count..
People who post the exact same wording on both? How many, do teach how to count, please…Plus… reading everything, everywhere is too dull, BC and his fiancée SH are getting boring… I stick to just one place… Saves a lot of time… Plus you read over there and tell here, so why should I bother… or anyone for that matter..?Too many to read them all, really…
The nominations for the Online Film Critics Society Nominations are just released. TIG got zero nominations.
This is not a powerful group but TIG’s dud status with the critics awards really came as a surprise. I wonder if Harvey had some premonition that TIG would get no love at the critics awards so he got it to screen at a million film festivals and snapped up all the minor film festival awards he could muster, to create some momentum and sales narrative before the SAG/Globes noms.
Well, I think it’s better that BC doesn’t get nominated or win this year. I just dont feel it’s his time yet. I would love for him to be successful but I do believe he could do with some healthy perspective, if what all of you are saying is true. (And if you think SH looks smug now, just imagine how she’ll be if he does win.)
hell that thought gave me a shudder
I still think he would get an Oscar nomination though. Harvey would pull out all the stops to get BC in, to avoid a repeat of the “failure” that is his previous Oscar campaign (Weinstein films won zero Oscars last season if I recall).
The good news for BC is that apart from Keaton somewhat streaking ahead with several critics wins, the other Best Actor hopefuls haven’t garnered a significant number of wins individually to emerge as another frontrunner. Spall won Best Actor at New York Film Critics Circle awards (one of the more powerful groups); Eddie won at some online NY critics group. Other awards like LA critics went to Tom Hardy, who is unlikely to be an Oscar contender. Steve Carell and Foxcatcher, another contender, is nowhere to be seen at the critics awards.
If BC misses out at SAG/Globes/BAFTAs, then the alarm bells will start ringing and he may miss out on an Oscar nom. But right now, I think he is fine.
@Toodles – I completely agree. He needs to get perspective. The desperation is truly off-putting at the moment. He has the Emmy and TIG is successful. I don’t think he could actually handle anymore. He needs a few disappointments as well to keep grounded.
But major award voters are more conservative than critics so I would think TIG will have some success there. It’s just too generic for critics.
@Beth – GG nom is certain. They have 10 spots (comedy and drama). SAG and BAFTA are more unpredictable. But I think he will get the noms.
@Ingrid
Yep I agree GG nom is certain. More prone to being bought, and more spots (Birdman and Inherent Vice could go to the comedy category etc).
I think he should just dump Sophie. Seriously. She has so much bad energy around her and has made BC look so stupid that I think he should just cut his losses and be rid of her.
(R U reading, PR?).
@Green Eyes
Oh, I think BC has already dumped her. The question is, when will Harvey?
@Ingrid
Do you really think he’s dumped her already?
I always had the feeling that if she threatened his career in a bad way, he’d cut her loose. Quick.
Regardless of how he felt about her.
The way she behaves in public, including red carpet events, is astounding. It appears as if she was never taught as a child how to conduct herself in public OR she is too “important” to care. I only wonder if she conducts her own affairs with the same bad attitude or is it only his career that she doesn’t give a shit about.
She went to a posh school: she has more than the proper breeding to behave herself like her age, not her shoe size. She knows.
There are several possibilities. She’s smug in her newly found social status she couldn’t get herself through talent or hard work. She knows she has the upper hand in the relationship and can manipulate him and make him look bad as much as she wants (which would mean his feelings for her are genuine and deep). She has a severe inferiority complex and feels the need to make up for it with arrogance (I know a bully at my work who displays just this type of behaviour all the time but only to people she knows she can get away with it). She’s emotionally unstable and can’t control her behaviour even if she knows within it’s mean/inappropriate/anti-social. Or she has some kind of personality disorder. None of the above are exclusive of one another.
@Ingrid @Green Eyes
I think he has dumped her mentally, at least that’s what I’m taking away from this according to body language on his part. Can’t hide that no matter what you do.
I agree, now I wonder if he will get rid of her for good before she puts him in a ditch.
I wasn’t expecting it to win big, but absolutely zero wins is shocking to me. And if I recall correctly it didn’t even feature in the critics’ runner-up choices.
I just noticed they kind of match here: she is in leather and he is in all black 😀 😀 They look nice together.
😉 😉 😉
She’s in BROWN ‘leather’ though.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Brown faux leather with black shoes.
Her MUAH game is improving but she’s still doing her own styling.
wearing a handbag actually
May, as the Irish say, God love ya.
Hahahaha, bless ’em.
Hey May23, why do you only comment M-F during normal working hours? I don’t see you around with the others after hours or on weekends.
No OT?
OT? What’s that? (out of curiosity…)
overtime 😉
Overtime?? Lol
Oh, overtime…. yep.. Got it… 😉
I guess $10.00/hr is enough for her. No need for time and a half.
Apparently someone asked SoGo about the teacher engagement thing item Moodgirl says she saw there weeks ago. SoGo says she never posted anything like that before the tweets. Weird cause I was pretty certain I saw it too.
No, I don’t think so. I also don’t think ‘conspiracy’ is the right term for anything here, really. I keep seeing it pop up.
I was just kidding, still it’s strange because I swear I saw it too last week or the week before. Harvey’s Pr hanging out at SoGo? Maybe? Pr can be sneaky that way.
Benny if you know you saw it and moodgirl also saw it, it was there. One person you can discount, two? Nah. Do you remember the wording, even approximately?
It was either deleted at someone’s request or SoGo planted it and removed it herself. I said this about eggs a couple weeks ago: the person who runs that blog popped up at a convenient time, and disappeared at a convenient time. Are the people who run these obsessive gossip blogs just fans, or are they setup to publish information that always incidentally ends up in tabloids a few weeks later?
I also pointed this out in the last CB post: the tweets mention “celebratory attire”: this is not an actual dress code. It’s meaningless. You’d think people who take their social standing seriously enough to announce in the Times would know actual dress etiquette terms.
Too much coincidence, I know, plus the amount of time running these sites is not small. You can’t do that unless it’s your full time job. I think one of them said worked as a teacher? Isn’t that a full time job?
I don’t remember the exact wording though, just something about an engagement party.
Did the sogo post mention a drama teacher?
There’s a new tumblr post “My dad’s friend’s friend (mission impossible cast or crew) got invited to the engagement party by SH”. Please do be skeptical about this one though.
But a lavish engagement party is perfect PR at a critical moment. If they can fake an engagement, surely they can fake a party. It doesn’t prove anything.
It’s also interesting that the invites (if they actually exist) happened after the ESA gate. They really are on a crisis management mode.
And boy does SH’s side blab if these are legit.
Wouldn’t the tumblr poster know if the person was MI cast or crew definitively?
If all these posts are cropping up now it sounds more likely to be true, sadly.
Can it be faked? Yeah but faked to include a wide net of friends and associates? I’d think not.
Sadly my chips are drifting to the “odious and cold but real couple” corner of the table.
Benny if it was just reposting up to 300 posts a day, not really. You can do it on a lunch break if you worked or studied FT. But posting with commentary? That’s a bit dedicated. Either an obsessed fan or someone associated with him who wants to closely monitor what people say and think of his love life. No one skeptical of this sham is really overprotective of their tumblr identities. Kazlock here is kazlock there for example. But those gossip outlets never make mention of coming here or any other outlet.
His or her teacher? Now that you mention I recall hearing something secondhand on here about it maybe? I knew it sounded familiar.
Moodgirl are you around? Can you shed any light?
I can tell you with *cough* quite some authority that SoGo is in no way associated with anybody’s PR lol. And some people are maybe obsessed fans, with jobs where they work from home and maybe start projects that turn out to be more work than they imagined. Hypothetically speaking of course.
@gg Um, wink-wink?
I may end up eating my words (with that big grain of salt I keep offering) but I think this is still PR, no secret wedding, etc. If they did marry, I’d lose both eyes from rolling them so hard, then join the “told you so” parade when the divorce comes by 2016. It *IS* awfully convenient how a.) the leaks all seem to be from her side (maybe because his side is too easy to check? Too publicly known by fans?) and b.) this popped up after Stomp and Flail and a lot of “they look so unhappy”. Hmmmm.
What I saw was a post from “my friend’s friend told her that an invitation was received, by a adult/teacher, to the engagement party.” The response was “friend of a friend” posts are always BS. I knew it was nonsense when I read it and never gave it a second thought.
Well, if the tweet was real, it most probably means a ‘surprise’ wedding. I have the feeling that they’d want to be don with the engagement pretty fast.
@ Claire – I think I remember a mention of a teacher but not a drama teacher
I doubt a surprise wedding if only because it’d look so so so bad for BC in terms of trying to steal the spotlight. ER, his big competition, has a wedding? Well, BC will have a SECRET wedding! ER plans to sing to his bride? Well, BC will serenade her on the piano! They pull a knife, you pull a gun–oh, wait, sorry, wrong script.
It is interesting isn’t it? The timing of these sites, some Twitter accounts specifically devoted to the Octopus and the Otter and harassing of people who spot them?
Conspiracy is far too harsh of a term, but suspect PR involved to some degree. If corporate America pays lobbyists to post on boards, tweet fake positive customer reviews, well, why wouldn’t PR is a high profile relationship is marketing agenda? I mean, PR pays web sites and paparazzi to snap photos in a positive light. Why are gossip boards, tumblr postings, and Twitter accounts different?
listen I agree, but I think Occam’s razor is also a relevant measure as well.
Claire I will dutifully take my medicine with a spoonful of sugar.
@gg I just want to throw hypothetical apologies out there.
I need a vacation big time.
£ 1500 for that BDSM Granny outfit? Lol.
The fact that she didn’t wear floral proves nothing. It definitely doesn’t prove that she’s reading comments on Twitter and on the blogs because what does that even mean? That if she didn’t read Twitter and blogs she would wear floral for the rest of her life? Likewise, the rest of the article is lots of conclusions based on nothing.
I agree. You can easily see PR coming here and adjusting scripted answers, but the dresses were nothing more than proof she had some kind of arrangement with the designer.
Have you lovely ladies seen Amal bump photos? She looks like 7 months pregnant. Rep already denied that she’s pregnant and last week she didn’t look pregnant at all.
Just goes to show what clothes can do re last night’s SH bump gate.
let’s not forget that people were convinced keira’s pregnancy announcement was imminent. kk didn’t look even a little pregnant last night.
I have to admit that kk’s pregnancy was announced on an entertainment show, can’t remember which one but it was one of the smaller, less known outfits.
I mean maybe it was possible that she was but something unfortunately happened. I really hope she never was because that would be a really tragic thing to go to during an awards campaign.
Maybe she had chipotle before those overall pictures were taken.
I think “loose” is a trend the designers are trying to make happen right now and finding it doesn’t work, even on the super slim celebs “gifted” with the new designs. too many pregnancy rumors coming out for too many ladies lol.
I wonder if she had an attitude like she was doing him a favor when it all began and she didn’t have to play along with Karin because she was Harvey’s friend. Then the tiff on the red carpet happened and the tide started to turn. What we are really seeing is a dose of humble pie.
@ Ingrid – do you have link for the tumblr post?
just wanted to say to those of you who said up thread you can’t bear to listen to the interviews recently due to the bs that he has to spout: I was getting just the same because it’s all so ugly and vulgar and the words are not him at all, but I made myself listen to those BIFA interviews and his speech yesterday. Honestly you should listen to them as you can tell that the real Benedict is still underneath thank god. Desperately trying to maintain a shred of decency and authenticity whilst having to be party to the biggest lie in his entire life. When he has to talk about anything other than work, you can see that he is a sad and lonely person stuck in this nightmare. He knows it’s awful, he knows it’s wrong and he knows it goes against everything he has ever valued in himself and others, and he knows it’s partially his own fault as this is what happens when you want to be successful in Hollywood. He is a small fish in a big pond and the price you have to pay in this game is a costly one. IMO The mistake he made was underestimating how far this PR game would go and now he has no choice but to stick it out until the oscars. If not for him, for all the people who have worked on the film who really deserve the attention for their hard work. I am sure that the sick irony of this hypocrisy, as well as the real integrity of Alan Turing is not lost on him. The main message of his speech (whilst fighting back the tears) was that (despite appearances) he does still believe in integrity, authenticity and an independent spirit – and he is still there underneath. The media are being ridiculous with their unbelievably ludicrous headlines such as ‘he gushed’ about the ‘engagement’ being the highlight of the year and that he ‘dedicated his award’ to her. It’s boll***cks. He didn’t do that in the slightest and he didn’t even say it was a highlight. He said it was ‘important’ – in a completely grim way. Yeah we know why. In more ways than one. Take it from me if you can’t bear to listen, don’t worry he won’t be managing to say this s**t half as much as you would think from the written quotes and in fact half the time he probably won’t have even said those words, in that order, in that context at all. It’s hard for us to believe that he hasn’t sold out, but he is literally just hanging on until the end is in sight, concentrating on the work and doing what he is told – grudgingly at best, choking on it at worst (or best!) We’ll just have to wait a bit longer whilst this vulgar debacle continues. Although a warning: you will feel sorry for him if you listen to some of his interviews..which you may not want to at this moment in time… Or at least until you see the next hilarious photos!!
agree with everything. also i agree that he seemed a bit choked up at points in the speech; he attributed it to nervousness.
What a beautiful post. I agree with you, Lightbulb.
When you listen to him talk about the engagement, you just want to hug him and say ” it’s all going to be OK”. That’s not usually the way you feel about a newly engaged man.
Blended, he really has been very emotional lately. Poor boy.
ITA fwiw gt post
Dear god I hope you are right! And I really wish the rumors that HW were there had been true, so he’d been giving that speech with him right there in the room. I can’t wait to get the old Benedict back….
Seriously, look up HW’s letter to Errol Morris. He pays attention, he critiques, and he demands. In Morris’ case, he told him he was boring and he’d better liven up or he’d hire an actor to portray him for interviews. 0_o He’d absolutely tell BC to act loved up and damn near write a speech for him or have it written to be succinct (another HW demand on his stars) and to hit the talking points to fit the narrative.
I’ve never seen him take out a piece of paper and read from it while accepting an award until yesterday.
I apologize for placing HW at the event, I truly thought that I had read it from a reliable site.
Remember the ex stage hand that either presented or won something? This isn’t verbatim, so please forgive me.
He talked about how he used to be in the back watching these things take place and now he’s on the stage. How he saw Keira go from a breakfast at tiffanys type to a mousy self after. He meant audrey hepburn, but couldn’t remember the name. He mentioned something about seeing a bloated? Harvey W there too with his wheeling and dealing. It was during the livestream. Not sure if it can be found now.
Immediately I thought, that guy isn’t going to go very far by revealing the personas behind publicly crafted images.
Thanks for this perspective, Lightbulb. I love and miss Ben. Its so easy to look right past the obvious, even when its screaming at you.
Hahahahaha! Oh sweet Lord! And one of you has actually the gall to ask why you’re thought as a joke.
“It’s hard for us to believe that he hasn’t sold out, but he is literally just hanging on until the end is in sight, concentrating on the work and doing what he is told – grudgingly at best, choking on it at worst (or best!):
Pray tell, Bulb, do you think Benny is groaning and choking while he’s doing the deed and trying to impregnate Sophie Hunter, all for higher reasons? And if so, what does that tell you about your little otter? Yeah, I’m sure he’s shagging and crying at the same time. Touching.
Harvey,
I have never really given this much thought-it is a little base-but if he is at least he is getting something out of this.
Please be nicer next time.
By the way, if this is a repeat post apologize to all but Harvey. First one didn’t go through and I know it wasn’t offensive.
Oh dear harvey – harvey?????
Your comment makes me sad. You sound so unhappy and bitter about all this – like your world is full of nothing but the image of bc groaning and fornicating. I really don’t think focusing on such things will make you feel better or ease the obvious pain you’re feeling at imagining such things. Don’t be so hard on yourself or on poor bc. I’m sure if you focused on trying to spread a bit of positivity and hope – like lightbulb did – you would not feel so miserable.
Tbh I just can’t read or watch him talking right now, because it’s either infuriating/embarrassing or sad/heartbreaking, one thing I got from BIFA and for sure is that he is exhausted, worn out, both physically and mentally I presume.
So all I hope is the filming of THC goes well and he could get as much sleep as possible. Just hold on, there’s no other way.
Nice post Lightbulb. I agree with most of what you say. He looks so sad lately, all is not well in the state of Cumberbatch. What you say about BC feeling an obligation to the rest of the cast and crew of TIG makes a lot of sense. He may also feel obligated to HW. Afterall, he did sink 7 million bucks into it, supposedly the most he’s ever paid for distribution rights. I also think he’d sooner lie about himself than let Harvey start a smear campaign about the other contenders.
that red carpet interview where he was asked how he stays grounded since he’s so busy, is telling. he says he stays grounded by working. that’s a very odd thing to say. i think the expected answer was ‘by being with family and friends’, which he just tacked on after. so 1) he’s very much a workaholic. 2) he doesn’t have much incentive to be at home with the woman he proposed to. 3) work is a refuge for him right now.
i think this is really sad. if he did have someone at home who he was crazy in love with, he would have said so in the answer, and he wouldn’t run himself ragged with all his various projects.
I really hope he writes an autobiography one day.
yeah me too, but i doubt we’ll get the truth about this particular phase of his life. no celebs admit to PR relationships. but i’d love to know about the other facets of his life. he’s a very interesting guy.
@Felice: do you think he’ll ever fess up about this? I don’t. Because if he does, it’ll only make him out to be a desperate liar who, on a certain level, makes him untrustworthy as hell.
@Green Eyes
No. He won’t. He will say the pressure of Hamlet and Dr. Strange strained their relationship. I respect that though. I think that would’ve happened anyway if this were real. He’s made it perfectly clear that work is his one true love.
I just think he has a lot of layers to him and I think an autobiography at the cusp of his retirement would be amazing.
With a likely engagement party on the way, I think you lovely ladies need to brace yourselves for a cruel reality, even if it makes little sense and is not ideal or worthy for an actor we admire.
I just said that his work is his one true love so either way I doubt it will last long. I would love to eat a large helping of crow someday.
@Claire
Ye of little faith. You should have more. He’s a lot smarter than you think.
@Felice
Yes, he does love acting. But I believe that if he met the right person, he’d love her just as much.
@claire I strongly suspect there will be an engagement party, even if I don’t credit Twitter sources for veracity.
And if there is a wedding, good luck to them. Do not wish anything one ill will. Now, does that mean I think, if real, this is the healthiest relationship in Christendom? Hells no. But not my problem.
I also want to say, for those of you who believe he will marry her… how can he marry someone he can’t even look in the eye?!? Someone where he looks at the ground in DESPAIR when he talks about her? COME ON. Think.
And if he looks miserable now, how do expect him to look on his wedding day?!?!? God help him if he actually goes through with it. I know I wouldn’t marry a man who looks sad and miserable standing at the altar with me. I wouldn’t care how rich and famous he was. I’d bow out gracefully.
But then again, I’m not a gold digging fame whore. So who knows.
I’m older than he is, I can’t wait until he retires for a bio! Besides, hasn’t Ginger Spice already written, like, two memoirs?
Anon, I think he’s a book smart guy. I don’t know him, but there is at least the moderate possibility he acts before he thinks when it comes to love and the prospects of family. Unfortunately book smarts don’t count for much in a case like this.
If you meant he’s more STRATEGIC in this relationship than I think: well. I don’t know.
@Anon – I think he will marry her because I just don’t see a way out of it unless SHE jumps ship but she is benefiting far too much from the situation. I think he is stuck.
Perhaps he wants his wedding to be private because he knows it will be a hot mess. Because, you know, he really doesn’t want to be there and all.
Do you think that she would be okay sitting on her bum knitting onesies while he is doing Sherlock, Dr. Strange, and Hamlet all of next year?
Why would a party necessarily lead to an immediate wedding? Hasn’t Jennifer Aniston been engaged to Justin T. for what seems like ten years with no marriage? Have the party, too busy with work to stage wedding, drift farther apart, schedule conflicts, finito! Get out of it unscathed.
i still don’t think they’ll marry. is a broken engagement worse than a divorce, and we all know celebrities get divorced all the time. if anything, it will make him look like more in line with other celebrities. i still have faith that he will do the right thing.
Someone on SoGo said that “etiquette” dictates that there should be 6 months between the engagement party and the wedding. Although lord only knows if the bride is knocked up?
hahahaha when did he say this? yes that is telling. but ultimately doesn’t mean much in terms of whether he marries her
I just want to add my 2 cents into the mix about genuinely wanting BC to be happy. I consider myself a fan of his work and am sort of smugly proud to say that when I heard he got engaged, I didn’t get all sad because I wasn’t the one he was engaged to. Don’t like him like that. (Now Tom Hiddleston, THAT’S another story.)
What I AM sad about (and this isn’t denial) is that he doesn’t seem to be a man in love. We’ve all read the iterations in the post above and previous posts that explain evidence for this, and I agree with all the weird conspiracy sh_t people are spouting. I just really like this guy as an actor, he seems to be a decent person, and for someone who desperately wanted to be a father several years ago, I hope he can still find a lady whom he is crazy about and who gives him beautiful babies.
I just hope it’s not Sophie Hunter. She seems cold and rude.
That is all.
Thanks so much for posting this Kate, proving it’s not just us regular “crazies” here who see this to be as plain as the noses on our faces.
Its interesting that people are gradually taking the initiative away from newspaper reports and learn to think for themselves.With social media and other sites we can do our own digging and certain newspapers start to look very silly.
I just hope that the next generation of actors fight against prejudice in the business and take on the bullies
I have a question: why is it so offensive for people to question this relationship? I do not understand. As many posters have pointed out, this is an older demographic than the Twitter/Tumblr folks (with exceptions and you know who you are). Doesn’t logic imply that we have more experience, both personal and professional, than teenagers and twenty something’s who have not grown out of the hero worship? Now, some might be unnecessarily jaded (like myself-I acknowledge the Occam’s Razor comment has validity in my case but yes I do blame my occupation to a degree). But for those attacking posters here and insinuating we are posting on DM site and others because we are voicing these opinions, I ask yo this: why do our opinions frighten you that you feel the need to attack?
Why do you assume that middle age women sit at home with nothing to do but pine for actors who we will never meet? Do you not think we have outgrown the Prince Charming phase of our life? Are you afraid you will never meet your own prince, and are fearful that this actor, who you have cast as a prince in your storyline you have created for him and his seemingly chosen princess, might not exist? And if it doesn’t exist for them it might not exist for you?
I might be making assumptions, but the other posters-the regular ones I have read (Ingrid, Miss Mary, Lucifer, MtnRunner, Claire, GG, Soothy and too many others to list) appear to have lives. Real lives. I know I have one. And I have a career and have a successful career. Bet they fit that bill too. So if you have a different view point on this situation, why is your first approach to attack and tear us down?
Did you stop to think our observations are based on our experiences, and we are applying them to what we observe? That these posts get the comment volume because we see patterns and warning flags that show something is off with this relationship and the signs are there that is driven somewhat by PR? Now, are we over invested. Maybe. But it is darn good gossip and entertaining. We don’t moan and groan 24/7.
Hear hear!
Cheers @scarf girl!!
We do have lives… Speaking of which… I’m going to bed… I do work tomorrow morning… so see you in 18 hours or so.. 🙂
LOL I like to think I have a semblance of a real life. And, it may surprise some nannies to know, it doesn’t revolve around BC or SH, together or apart. What’s that saying? Online, no one knows you’re a dog? Online, no one knows what you’re doing IRL. Like having a career, responsibilities, and a, you know, life that leads us to form our own thoughts and opinions and not drink Kool Aide.
I made the mistake of doing a BC SH search on Twitter while I was walking on the treadmill. And that was a mistake for two reasons: 1) I cannot walk and read my iPad at the same time and 2) never really realized how young and invested the fan base is in the Otter and the Octopus until tonight. When I was young, I just never cared who actors I liked were dating. And don’t really now: from an artistic and creative output perspective, not a fan of the Octopus (or her fashion choices). But if there is a marriage, my world doesn’t end. These girls are hysterical. The posters here who are supportive aren’t bad in comparison.
I remember being a fan-michael hutchence was my crush and he dated helena Christensen at the time. But never got hysterical about it, or wrote journal entries praising undying love of a couple I would never meet.
However, my friends and I did dissect the Winona Ryder Johnny Depp romance to smithereens, so…
edited to avoid duplication
I was a fan of A-Ha singer and he was married… Still had a major crush on him…
While we’re playing true confessions: I can *still* recall the names of all the Duran Duran girlfriends/wives back in the 80’s when I last followed them as a band. I was only jealous of Renee Simonsen, since I had the hots for John Taylor. I remember wanting to learn all about her — not feeling critical about him dating her, just thought she was sooo lucky. I had no idea that he was addicted to everything under the sun or that he was a playboy, the way the teeny bopper mags made them out to be. Oh the naivety…
@MtnRunner: You should Google Julie Anne Rhodes if you get a chance, what a cool and interesting woman she turned out to be! Now her I was deadly jealous of…..when I was seventeen years old.
@GG, just looked her up. It’s nice to see the SO’s making a name for themselves. She looks like a cool lady. I can’t believe the Simon is still married to Yasmin after all these years. I think he should be knighted just for that!
There does seem to be a fear of having their beloved actor called out for doing something douchey, making an error in judgement or otherwise shown to be a flawed human. Why are they so afraid of criticism? Why are any of us? I purposely choose friends who look at things from a different angle so I can gain a broader perspective than my own point of view. I may not agree with certain viewpoints, but I always find someone pointing out a facet that I didn’t see myself. That’s why this is the only site I go to each day, around my busy family, social and job hunting life. There are some smart and funny ladies who make very valid points out of their life experiences and I benefit from them.
Unfortunately, too many women think that supporting someone means you never criticize them. If you actually want to see someone do well, then you care enough to point out what may beholding them back from achieving their goals or happiness. Thats what I see going on here with our reaction to Bendy’s behavior the past couple of months.
great post, mtnrunner
Thanks Claire. I just get tired of women trying to gag other women for sharing a negative opinion they don’t agree with. If they can counter the criticism with a thoughtful rebuttal or bring something new to light, then great. But to just come on and say you don’t like someone’s opinion doesn’t add anything to the discussion. Just empty, emotional and useless words.
Great post MtnRunner.
Do you think so many women and girls are conditioned to not voice an opposing opinion?
BTW, I had a major flashback on your Duran Duran post. Going to have to bust out my vinyl Rio while working out this morning.
Nighy I really hope this post comes around yours otherwise it will make no sense: I like him when he was a cartoon in the video.
Bye all! Off to work. Stay logical.
@Scarf Girl, yes. I think he’s inherent in our makeup to seek approval and conform with others. When men state an opposing opinion, they’re called discerning or astute, but women are thought to be confrontational or disagreeable.
I know of no woman under the age of 50 that can hold their opinion with confidence or embrace their uniqueness and I think that’s part of our deep desire to fit in and be a part of a larger group. No one likes to feel on the outside.
I peek at the DM from time to time when someone mentions an article here and I too have noticed the shift in comments to the negative. I think there were plenty that were skeptical of the BC/SH engagement, but it wasn’t until people began stating how stiff or miserable they looked that the rest began to feel brave enough to add their two cents.
@MR
Yep. There’s a ton of misogyny around this. Whenever a woman has a critical opinion, particularly of another woman, she’s accused of being a bitch and often a jealous one. It infuriates me no end that women are subjugated in this way. Disregarding their less than smiley, flowery cutesy opinions as nothing but superficial bitterness, usually based on rather superficial elements.
This’s my 2 cents, as I said before I’m from another part of the world, we have this site that people could visit to discuss the books/movies/music and have groups for different topics.
It used to be the main source of BC news to me, we have BNFs, really big ones. As far as I’ve read, most of them are in mid-twenties, from middle/upper middle class, I used to like them as they’re well educated, independent, albeit a bit aggressive and over protective to BC most of the time. But have to unfo most of them after the announcement as I like that site and visit a lot and can’t bear to read their words on my dashboard.
Actually I just talked with a 40-year-old male friend, who works in the media, last Sunday about this. As far as I’ve read, most of these girls probably don’t have much experience in personal relationship in RL, especially intimate relationship, AND, they don’t seem like people in RL, dislike the social interaction even. An important part of their lives depends on the internet and BC is sort of GOD to them, he is all good, you could never question his choice. Since the announcement, they’re nothing but fussing over what a good couple the two make, how pretty she looks and how excited they (the girls themselves) are because BC would probably have what he wants next year, a child and an Oscar.
The RL is too complicated, people are too sophisticated to them, they choose only to see what they want to see, to believe what they want to believe.
Ah Angie you’ve not only said so well what I’ve long said and thought but you’ve articulated the situation on the ground.
Yes, just one look at the women who are preoccupied by this engagement and you can tell their headspace is preoccupied by fantasies of them as a couple. Perhaps as a defence mechanism to the fact they’ll never have him? The cupcakes, the gooey comments that sound like they’re written by 12 year olds, the messages that sound like personal messages directly to him as if he’ll read them: these are signs of people with very infantile notions of what a real relationship consists of.
Thank you Claire 🙂 , as you probably already knew English is not my first language, it’s nice to know that I am able to make my thoughts clear.
I think it’s a world wide phenomenon that younger generation (oh, I don’t really want to use this kind of words, we’re not that old actually LOL) tend to live on internet. And some of them are rich I presume, that they’re able to minimize the real life social interaction. The thing is, the more you live in your own little world, the more you feel people in real life intolerable, thus even more difficult to establish relationship in real life.
I actually feel a bit sorry for them, as you said that they may not have much idea what a real relationship is like.
@Angie, as an American I can tell you that your English is quite understandable. I’m always surprised when commenters apologize for their poor English as I’m often surprised to find out that it’s not their native language. I’m curious as to where you live.
I agree, that the lack of real life experience causes them to idealize their celebrity idols and hence why they get defensive when we older, more experienced women can spot the cracks in the persona or call them out on their douchey behavior.
@MR
I’m in CN ; )
I travel a lot both domestic and overseas due to my job and speak English a lot actually, but the way we r taught isn’t really practical tbh.
And the people I mentioned visiting that site are from everywhere, majoy CN cities and CN people who study or live overseas, sometimes it’s very interesting to find that despite of the cultural differences, people are not that different : )
@Angie, I guessed Asian due to the anglicized username. Yes, it is interesting how similar our perspectives may be, despite cultural, religious and sociological differences.
Well, I see there’s a new Bendy post, so I guess I’ll be heading over there now. 🙂
U know , we have a proverb in our native language which goes like this if I translate ,” who is in the kitchen??? ohh i did not eat the cheese”Meaning they are getting defensive even b4 the accusation is not directed towards them..
I do have a life,career and a pretty husband(prettier than BC) 😀 who asks me whats the latest movie dominic cumberbatch is starring in?This posts come when m having a break @ work or in between cooking. I think I have made some grt anonymous frnds with u guys. And I really like the fact that our fault finding with BCSH relationship is pricking in the nannies pants.. Oh what a joy!!
I say dnt get bothered with haters and keep voicing our opinions. Coz that’s all we can do, we’ll never know the truth. Just have to be PATIENT & IGNORE the bullies. 😀
I also think they want to believe the fairytale exists. Some of the posts I read last night….I can’t imagine being a parent to one of these girls and have to listen to the constant hero worship, or a friend in RL who isn’t interested.
Oh, how I appreciate this site and the excuse to delay the morning workout but sat most of the day yesterday and have meeting butt.
Sorry I missed so many interesting posts yesterday. I, too, have a life–demanding job, aging parents to worry about, a husband who loves me despite my silly obsession with certain celebs, LOL…I come here many times as a respite from my job and I’ve been critical of BC’s douchiness regarding this situation. I can’t believe this is real, true love. Too much life experience to convince me otherwise. If the bullies in his fandom don’t like critiques of this situation, that’s too bad, I suppose. I can’t engage in blind hero worship. I’ve been a fan of many different celebs, rock stars, etc in my life. I never engaged in the kind of mindless worship I’ve seen in BC’s fandom.
I just realized I’m quite late for work..LOL…
Looks like I’ll have to take one for the team: I admit it. I have no life.
But on a serious note (but not really) I may take a page from datalounge and just post the monty python spam skit whenever one of these whiny girls comes on here.
I do agree with Lucifer that it is best not to engage (because they are not open to reason) I will always be open to more Monty Python in my life.
I second the Monty Python suggestion.
yes, this!
I, unlike 90% of the world it seems, likes the big floral dress she wore to whatever that ever was. This one is horrific.
I actually loved that floral dress. It definitely isn’t something I personally would wear but she looked good. I don’t mind this one (and as I said numerous times I know I should because it is awful but somehow it works for me).
I hated that orange/red/whatever dress she wore. Now that one was awful.
I liked the first dress — the one she wore twice. The others I didn’t care for.
after that leather dress I love everything
I even like the red/orange floral now.
For those who are wondering if PR really does pay attention to social media, there’s an article linked via SoGo’s page about just that, specifically about the new programs being used to parse and cull the info for PR groups to read as far as a year in advance of movie releases. It’s a New York Times article called “Hollywood Tracks Social Media Chatter.”
WOW, PR really is working their a**es off.
There’s a new footage, they did talk and look at each other.
Unfortunately, I’m in the some-sort-of-weird-relationship-but-definitely-not-true-love camp, I’m quite relieved actually that at least they’re not fighting/feeling one the other disgusting, LOL.
All I want to say is this kind of internet monitoring, an interaction footage after a throwing tantrum footage? makes me sad. As has been discussed in other thread, aren’t they supposed to promote a movie? What’s the point of this attention on personal life? Or they’re actually promoting Ms.Hunter? Ridiculous.
Would be interested if anyone can find any footage of continuation of angry body language like slapping hands away or dropping hands like dead weight the moment the paps are out of view.
And there’s a post on sogo where a lady who sat some rows in front of them at RIII with Andrew Scott said there was absolutely no affection between them then either. That’s two pre-engagement theatre sightings by two people, one (the daily fail comment on 5.11) from a non fan, saying they show not the slightest sign of closeness or intimacy.
The chemistry is simply not there.
And that’s why I said, it would be so very interesting to see how things would go if we suddenly pretend not to notice the lack of chemistry, not giving the attention they want, the instructions on how to make it more convincing (not really), just let it roll, LOL
yes i thought of that too
If my theory is right, that footage is from the moment they saw each other for the first time in days.
They didn’t share a car and he had just landed from LA and/or made a quick trip to home to change. Either way, #CanYouFeelTheLove
@Ingrid My thoughts exactly, I don’t believe the s**t that she is shy or anything, when people are truly in love, they care about each other, they take care of each other, it’s the nature. And so do close friends. He was obviously exhausted and that? They always look like some people barely know each other.
WUVV WUVV 😀
But of course they’re going to look at each other and talk to each other. That would be utterly ridiculous otherwise.
Maybe we will get a break. I would like BC silence until the SAG awards. My Twitter feed is full of the happy couple, who appear to be on every fashion mags best dressed list for the weekend. And while they are not, you know, Iced T and his wife CoCo, I just question if they are one of the best dressed. (Sigh). Is this a harbinger that manufactures and disposable fashion stores are going to make grown women wear Peter Pan collars? I thought only Madewell was trying that trend.
Cannot procrastinate any longer. Off!
Utterly utterly bizarre. What is it that’s making some people act like such crazed lunatics? The inane grinning of SH is chilling and he still looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. She really has got over her distaste of celeb dos and red carpets, hasn’t she? You can’t keep away from every single one, tossing her hair with aplomb.
The whole thing is weird AF. And if he hadn’t announced that engagement in the paper and she wasn’t sashaying her way onto every red carpet photo opp she can, his private life would still be private. And he wouldn’t be having to answer the questions that are clearly agonising him so much.
@scarf girl I find it sad that she has become so much of a focus. The media is trying to make her a celebrity. It’s quite distasteful that BC/SH went this route. Think of how many male celebs there are and we don’t even know they’re wives/SO’s. If I hear one more person say she’s shy, I’ll scream. She is definitely not shy. She’s loving her 15 minutes of fame.
@scarf girl – I agree with you that everyone (including BC) needs a break but I’m afraid that’s just wishful thinking. The campaign is only starting.
I truly think Alan’s tragic story would have been better (and more gentle) selling point alone than this Sodious mess. It has taken so much focus off from TIG and Alan, people (and voters) are are forgetting the main voting reason for BC and TIG. F*cking Harvey.
unfortunately, focusing on the movie will not create buzz. it’s just not a film that people will immediately gravitate towards. they needed the focus to be on ben, since cult of personality is what sells (and it seems to be working in the greater world). they don’t want a potential box office bomb, no matter how good the film is. plus it’s never been HW’s strategy to be subtle.
I find it “interesting’ that they are finally showing interaction after the stomp and flail lead to so much “what’s wrong with them?” speculation, and weeks of “why won’t they even talk to each other on the red carpet?”.
@MissMary: are you referring to the clip of him arriving at the BIFAs? When they hadn’t seen each other for days? That was so laughable. I have greeted my bosses back from a trip with more warmth than these two “love birds” did.
Green Eyes that’s the one. I *think* it’s over on Sogo or simiar that the clip is extended and you can see her doing her “and I’m done” walk after those pics.
Not liking the Leather dress but I think these two are really in love and they really really LIKE each other too! I am happy for them.
I long for simpler times when Sharon Stone was able to wear a Gap top paired with an Oscar de la Renta or Valentino skirt.
Cool-hope you are right because if they don’t like each other, they are in for a miserable award season. I have a differing opinion, but to each their own.
ahhh 90s red carpet fashion…..
The more they fake being happy, the more I want to see the PR tale in shambles.
deleted. wrong post.
To be honest, I watched the clip on SOGO of them meeting in the carpet and they look normal.
She whispers something to him and he smiles at her, right behind him (and to my disbelief) you could even see Karon smiling.
Also, when I watched another video of them posing together they stop to move down the carpet and she says something that makes him laugh. There’s a screencap of it on SOGO, I believe.
I am the last person to come to her defense, trust me, but even I had to admit that whatever was bothering them before doesn’t seem to be now. Regardless of how weird, hasty, and awkward they seem I do think it’s real and I do think they will get married (of course, my opinion of him has changed drastically since seeing he is exactly as posh and boring as the rest of them).
Just needed somewhere to say that. whew.
There were two really interesting posts on SoGo today; first the quote of Matthew Goode about working with Weinstein on A Single Man. So he knows exactly how this works, and so the ‘We both have Sophies’ now makes more sense to me. It seemed overly cute for someone like him. But he was taking the piss a bit I think. He knows the spotlight is on the engagement and what BC has to do.
And second, the thing about Joaquin Phoenix pretending to be engaged. Lainey brought Dr. Strange into it, saying he wouldn’t have been able to be play along when working for such a PR machine as Marvel. (Implied: Not like BC…)