Kristen Bell was at Comic-Con over the weekend promoting her upcoming TV sitcom with Ted Danson. It’s called The Good Place and premieres in September. You can watch the trailer on YouTube. It looks goofy and is about a Heaven-like environment where people get sent to live out their days. Only Bell’s character is bad and was mistakenly sent there instead of Hell/The Bad Place. I think I’ll be skipping this one. She’s also in Bad Moms, which is out this weekend and similarly looks goofy/raunchy. That’s one I’ll see on demand.
As part of promotion for her shows, Bell gave an interview to CBS, where she opened up about her marriage to Dax Shepard and shared photos of their civil ceremony. These two got married at the Beverly Hills Courthouse in October, 2013 (After DOMA got struck down, they were true to their word) and she’s only letting people see the pics now. For all you can say about these two, they don’t pimp out their kids or their personal lives. (Although they do shill products which make it look like you’re getting a glimpse into their life at home, even if that’s entirely manufactured.) Here’s some of what she told CBS, and you can watch the interview on their site.
On her success at 36
“I don’t deserve to be here. I worked hard, but I was also in the right place at the right time. And I’m really, really grateful for the jobs that I’ve had.”On what she gets insecure about
“I feel stupid sometimes. That’s a truthful insecurity. I am around so many talented artists and intellectuals and creative people. I spend a lot of time with people that are smarter than me. So one of my truthful insecurities is that I feel stupid a lot.”On her early career
“I wasn’t homely or awkward enough to play the awkward girl, but I wasn’t pretty enough to play the love interest. I was somewhere down the middle.”On Veronica Mars
“Veronica Mars was the advice that high schoolers needed: ‘If you don’t fit in, make your own category.'”On the importance of her family
“I always think, if I’m on my deathbed, what am I gonna be thinking about? And it won’t be some random movie I participated in, or some TV show. It will be my family.”On her husband, Dax Shepard
“He’s a wonderful father.” [gets teared up]“What makes him a wonderful father?”
“He knows the value of things. He was an addict for many, many years and he pulled himself out of it, and he’s been sober for 11, 12 years now. … And he knows how many times he’s messed up and how many times he’s been really closing to losing everything.”On her wedding with Dax
“We got married in a tiny room in the Beverly Hills courthouse, and it was still one of the best days of my life.”Maybe you’re not the biggest fish, but that’s okay?”
“Those big fish sometimes have a real hard time. They can’t — I can still go to the grocery store. So I think I’m really happy with the size fish that I am.”
Both Kristen and Dax have talked about Dax’s addiction and how that shaped who he is. I like that they’re open about it and that she’s also trying to reduce the stigma around depression and anxiety, which she admits she has. They’re trying to be vulnerable and while they’re just as calculated as other celebrities at least they’re championing good causes. Plus they got married in a small civil ceremony. She wore a black skirt and top with a statement necklace. That’s cool! Here are photos that Kristen shared on CBS. Sorry they’re a little blurry. (Also, Kristen’s hair is a weird shade of blonde in these Comic-Con pics right? It doesn’t suit her.)
photos credit: FameFlynet and via CBS
I can’t bring myself to like her
I go back and forth myself, sometimes I find them cute, sometimes TOO CUTE BY HALF ( see Africa Video) some other times incredible disingenuous and sanctimonious? I also sometimes read her as shrill Type A but sometimes she comes off better? I still find them as an odd pair but eh what do you know, seems to be working for em
However that Mom Movie looks like a hazily shot disgrace, i was just talking to my BF about how is sad these three perfectly young chicks are already sorta in Hollywood’s Discard pile of “Mom” roles then I also remember they are middle of the pack actresses at best? ( though on that note seems a wee bit unfair that the Wachowski sisters and Mila seem to be the only ones wearing The Jupiter Ascending stank)
Yes I have such mixed feelings about them. She was so great in Veronica Mars and I love that they talk about mental health issues, addiction, and his childhood sex abuse…that’s huge and generates so much goodwill from me. But they are also hypocritical re using their home life and can be very annoying and twee.
Exactly KK that’s my thing too sometimes is like Oh Good something of subtance but then they are making press for themselves complaining about Paps that aren’t following them and fussing about how their kids didnt choose to be actors but stay implying them in their Samsung shill or whatever?
Every single person (admittedly only two in person and one on the internet) I’ve spoke to who has met her say she’s absolutely terrible in person; really stuck up and rude. I get that vibe from her too.
That’s it right there, I’ve met her once and she was rude but I brushed it off…you never know when people are having a bad day. But a close friend who work in production told me that that’s how she always is, she has a rep for being rude, dismissive and unpleasant
“Every single person (admittedly only two in person and one on the internet)”
LMAO
She seems to lack awareness of it though. When she talks about her depression, she once said “It’s hard to think that people don’t like you.” But then you hear all those rumors that she’s genuinely unpleasant and rude and you start to think “Maybe people have good reason to dislike you, and maybe you should take a serious assessment of yourself before you project that onto others.”
There’s a saying, “If you’ve met one asshole today, you’ve met an asshole. If you’ve met ten assholes today, you’re the asshole.” Or something like that. Those rumors make me think of that.
Back in the days of VM, she was a horrible person. Entitled, stuck up, narcissistic. She believed she was a GOAT and that she was deigning to do VM . Not sure if she’s changed that much since then, but that impression has stuck with me. Hence, why me & my friends call her KowBell.
That line made me laugh.
Though, I can also believe that when you’re dealing with mental health issues – you might not a) realize how you’re coming off or b) be less than friendly as a defense mechanism. It’s hard to say. I don’t want to think she IS just a crap person – but it’s still a possibility. I know personally there have been times where I’ve looked grumpy or been disengaged but ultimately it’s because my anxiety was super high, and being in a social situation was genuinely hard at the time.
I am very paranoid about lashing out at people. When my bipolar disorder was not well controlled, I could be that way. Eventually, I learned to apologize and also to be very open with people about it. It’s easier to say “I struggle with a mood disorder and I am very sorry if sometimes I come off as rude or short or uninterested. Please understand I am just having a rough day and I do not mean it.” People will understand that. If Kristen has serious mood issues, I feel for her. But the rumors seem to suggest it’s more an attitude issue. If that’s the case, don’t hide behind a mental health concern for bad behavior. It’s one of my peeves.
I’ve dealt with her as a part of one of her charitable causes and found her to be a total delight. And this was just something she was doing on her own (not a gala or something that would be documented on internet later where you might think a celeb would be on best behavior). I got the sense that she is living an authentic life if that makes sense.
Hahahaha, @Sam that was from Justified :). And is very true!
I love them both, they are awesome. Good luck you too.
but she does shill her personal life, just when it suits her. which whatev – I find her unlikable.
What do you find unlikeable…. that she is grateful for the thing she has and deservingly of what she works hard for? And you think of her unlikeable, I think she is humble and that’s what I like about her.
Hahaha, oookkkkaaayyyy.
i loved her in veronica mars
Those are sweet pictures! I like them as a couple.
My girlfriends and I have already got our Bad Mom tickets for 7/29 and I can’t wait. They were selling quickly, weren’t many left when we bought them Friday. I know it might be too ridiculous or silly but the major theme completely draws me. The mom pressure is real, even when we put it on ourselves. I’m looking forward to some laughs!
Completely agree with you! I love them as a couple, and I think her new movie will be ridiculously silly but funny, I can’t stand the helicopter sanctimommy BS that goes on these days and I think I’ll relate to the movie.
Hopefully she’s not stuck up or horribly rude in person, I’ve never gotten that vibe from her but I’ve never met her in person either. They seem down to earth, their wedding pics seem to show that side as well.
I love Ted Danson. So I hope this is a success for him.
As to the wedding snap – I think SJP wore black on her wedding day too.
I like her. I find him irritating on talk shows. They seem very happy together which is more than most people get on this planet. Good for them.
I love them both. I was absolutely in love with Veronica Mars. It was the first tv-show girl that I felt like I could relate to a little bit. She was tough, and cool, but she also had her hangups, and her own problems. She didn’t need to be popular. She hated injustice. She was just all around amazing, and I have probably watched all of the episodes and the movie far too much. When she spoke out about her anxiety/depression issues – it was the first person who I really really got. I’d struggled with the same sort of thing in my late teens and early twenties. I still do sometimes. But the part about being empathetic to the point where it became kind of crippling – that’s what got me. I like to think I’m a mostly level headed person, but on the inside I’m just an emotional wreck when it comes to seeing other people suffer, or be in pain – even if the people suffering are ‘bad’ people. I used to think that being that kind of sensitive was a bad thing … but you know what? In the world we are living in, being sensitive to others’ is something we need more of.
Dax, I never disliked or anything. I found him funny enough, but I really got attached listening to him talk on the Jason Ellis show on Sirius Radio. Both he and Jason had pretty awful childhoods with abuse and addiction issues. Just hearing Dax talk about his girls, and why he was so fierce about the pap photo stuff- it really just made sense. He wanted his kids to have as absolutely normal of a childhood as he could provide them with because his own wasn’t normal in a lot of ways. Finding out that he was abused as a kid really made the whole thing make so much more sense. It wasn’t just a case of “oh here we go, celebrities who aren’t huge are making a big deal of how often the paps show up” it was really just someone else who’d been broken down wanting to do anything and everything he could to prevent that from happening to his own kids.
I think they’re both kind of broken people (who isn’t, really) who happen to be really really good for eachother. I know the can be cloying at times, but I do think it’s genuine. I think that maybe they might work extra hard at being happy, and carefree because they have spent so much time not being able to be. I think they really don’t care if people don’t buy into their relationship – and in a weird way, it just makes sense. It’s nice to see two people who seem to genuinely be in it for the long haul, and through the dark bits, and who are willing to discuss things that aren’t usually open for discussion.
This is why I love them both. They are imperfect human beings who are making it in the world of Hollywood and that is refreshing to me and I love it.
“For all you can say about these two, they don’t pimp out their kids or their personal lives. (Although they do shill products which make it look like you’re getting a glimpse into their life at home, even if that’s entirely manufactured.)”
This is what bothers me about them. They campaigned heavily to outlaw paps taking pictures of celeb kids, then they make money off selling their family life (talking about but not showing their kids).
At least they didn’t do a showmance like Bradley Cooper and Irina Shanik.
That bothers me too. There are plenty of celebrities who do not talk about their kids – the extent that we don’t even know their names, sometimes (Christian Bale, for one). They give their kids total privacy, which I respect. These two want to be able to get the good PR and deals that come from the “family” image but they don’t want the additional public interest that come with it. That’s a little bit of “have my cake and eat it too.” If you don’t want your kids in the public eye, awesome. But then really do that. Don’t go halfway.
That is my problem with it. If they just fought to keep paps away from their kids, more power to them. But they turn around and make money off their family image.
I don’t understand this complaint at all. I have plenty of friends who share pictures of their children on facebook, but if someone else took a couple hundred pictures of their baby without their consent and posted them, of course they would be upset about that.
As a parent, you are responsible for making decisions about your kids’ safety and privacy until they’re old enough to make those decisions themselves. Just because you’ve chosen controlled ways to share your kids with the world (whether “the world” is a few hundred facebook friends or millions of Americans, depending on your situation) doesn’t mean you are or should be comfortable with ceding all control over the situation to a bunch of strangers who definitely aren’t asking themselves if what they’re doing is what’s best for your kids.
And yes, some celebs share nothing at all about their kids (though you’ll notice it’s a lot easier for male celebs to get away with that than it is for women). But a lot of the time making that choice just increases the demand for a glimpse of them, and is used as an excuse to justify privacy invasions from paps. And celebs shouldn’t have to choose between the extremes of never ever mentioning their kids or letting it be open season on them.
But what you’re citing is actually a non-issue. The law is very clear that if you share photos of your children on a public forum, and somebody else takes those images and re-posts them, there is nothing you can do. Nothing illegal has been done. That even counts if the images are being shared among people with a prurient interest in them. Most internet experts DO advise not posting kids’ pics to social media – and if you must, do it on a secure website that people would need a password for or some other “invite only” service. That way, you have a legit argument that you meant for the images to be private. The parents who post publicly and then get mad have no grounds to complain and I don’t pity them, since the law is very clear on it.
And there are plenty of female celebrities who protect their kids’ privacy. Evan Rachel Wood (who did confirm she has a son, but that’s it). Carrie Ann Moss did it, Maya Rudolph did it (the sexes and names were only found out because birth certificates are public info), Adele (who confirmed the sex and name, that’s it), etc. So you’re just not correct there.
It’s not a choice between “mentioning your kid” and never doing it. Adele will, on occasion, mention her son in passing – like when she noted that she was inspired to get healthier for him. That’s cool. Kristen and Dax, however, have built a brand around their kids – they talk extensively about their kids and even have an ad campaign based around their family life. There’s a difference.
My phrasing was unclear. I’m not talking about people reusing pictures you’ve posted, I’m saying that you posting one picture doesn’t mean you’ll be okay with someone else taking their own unauthorized pictures of your baby and sharing those far and wide.
And yes, I’m well aware some celebrities have been able to keep their kids (almost) completely out of the public eye (though it absolutely more common and easier for men than women to do so). But I don’t think that should be a pre-requisite for objecting to unauthorized pap pictures of children. I get people rolling their eyes when, say, Jennifer Garner complains about it, because it’s very clear she has called paps to take pictures of her kids. But Kristen and Dax have never done that, and I don’t think talking about being parents or doing commercials about being parents (in which you notice their kids do NOT appear) means they are obligated to be okay with paps following her around trying to get shots of her infant.
It’s obviously exactly not the same (and I want to be very clear that I a NOT saying being pap’d is like rape), but it reminds me of people responding to sexual assault cases by saying “well, she was okay with going home with him and making out and and taking off her shirt, so I’m side eyeing her saying she didn’t want to have sex.” Being okay with certain information being shared because you are choosing to share it in a controlled way doesn’t mean you’ve given blanket consent to all privacy violations on related subjects.
The problem with that analogy is that in the case of rape, consent is needed at every stage of an encounter. With photography, consent is not needed as long as it happens in a public place.
Dax and Kristen were objecting to paps taking pictures of their kids in public. They were not complaining about specific things, like criminal acts or trespassing or harassment. Just the pictures themselves, which is hypocritical. If I were to walk outside today and somebody liked my outfit (or hated it) and snapped a picture to post online, that is legal. I might hate it, but I have no right to stop it. And if you are a public figure, it’s even more likely people will try to get your picture – with or without your children.
That’s my problem with it. You don’t get to set limits in public spaces simply because you don’t like it. Like I said, they are both free to choose a less public profession. This is not in any way analogous to rape, to me.
Because when they’re selling their image as a happy family, their family becomes the product and they’re the ones creating the demand for pictures of their kids.
Bingo! It’s hypocritical. They made a huge deal about paps and their kids when literally no one was trying to take pictures of their first daughter. No one was stalking them, but they made a huge issue, which served to put them front and center and elevate their status among celebrity parents. So, now, instead of pictures, we get their happy family schtick on those Samsung ads, implying their daughters are adorable little munchkins and she’s the perfect type A wife and he’s the quirky husband who likes to make gravy. So, how are you not schilling your family when you do stuff like this?
I dont know if you can authoritatively claim that nobody was trying to get their kids pics. Even if those baby sites or mags will only pay a hundred bucks for the Bell-Dax baby, its still an easy hundred bucks. Someone will try.
I like them, and I don’t really understand complaints about them shilling their personal lives. I think they’ve been trying to strike a balance between not overexposing their personal life but also not hiding away like hermits. They talk about their relationship and occasionally a bit about their kids, but they don’t overshare or make it a 24/7 thing. They’ve also both talked about mental health/addiction issues in their lives in a way that comes across as very sincere and that I think has the potential to do a lot of good.
They’ve been pretty open about how they’re trying to strike that balance and the difficulty of figuring it out, and when I think about what it would be like to be a celebrity I find it hard to be judgemental about their efforts because I can imagine how difficult it would be to try to get it right. You want to connect with fans and share your happiness about e.g. getting married or having a baby, and you also need to have things to say about yourself when promoting projects or people complain you’re boring and stuck up, but at the same time you want to make sure you aren’t giving away too much of yourself or especially your kids. There are some celebs I feel are disingenuous when they complain about media intrusion, but from these two I feel like they really are trying their best to work their way through that minefield.
And on a separate note, I still get enraged when people act like them so much as mentioning their kids means they aren’t allowed to have objected to pap pics of their babies. There is nothing hypocritical about wanting to have control over how much the world sees of your children and under what conditions. Choosing to share a picture you took or a story about your home life that you are comfortable with disclosing does not mean you are obligated to be okay with dozens of strange men chasing you and your infant child around, or even with one strange man taking a bunch of pictures of your children that you have no idea are being taken.
Except the problem is that there is generally nothing illegal about pap shots. If they take place in a public place, they’re legal. If they were arguing against allowing invasions of privacy – like paps trespassing on school grounds – or dangerous behaviors – like car chases – that would be one thing. However, they rail against paps taking any pictures of their kids. And…well, no. If your child is in a public place (street, park, etc.) it is totally legal for anybody to photograph them. The law is also clear that public figures (which they are) should expect interest in their lives, and children are an extension of that interest. If they do not want any public interest in their kids, they are free to pursue less public professions, goes the reasoning.
They’re not sharing an occasional picture, they’re doing a big ad campaign that’s literally a series of commercials about them and their family. They’re actively selling their image as a couple and as parents, and creating that interest in their children themselves. THAT’S the part that folks find disengenuous.
If you’ve read up on the subject much, paparazzi don’t just hang outside folks homes (unless something particularly newsworthy has happened). At this point, they’re usually tipped off (and of course that’s frequently by the celebrities themselves), or have a series of high traffic areas they frequent. It’s not that hard to limit children’s exposure, IF you want to.
They absolutely do pimp out their relationship, and for good reason.
She’s famous for a cult TV show and recognisable from a few bad movies and one good one where she was completely outshined. Her careers going nowhere, just onto more failed TV shows. He’s famous for Punk’d and a little watched NBC family drama. Given that, it’s amazing people still know their names, let alone write articles about them.
The sloth bit on Ellen got their relationship more attention than they ever got alone, even at their peak. They’ve been riding that wave ever since. I can’t remember the last time I saw either of them mentioned in a context that didn’t at least heavily reference their relationship. Without that they wouldn’t get any attention.