Kim Kardashian Should Be Shamed. Don’t Let Her Off the Hook.

Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. [View in Browser]( [Subscribe]( [Image] with Kevin Fallon Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. This Week: - Kim Kardashian sucks. - I miss watching shitty movies on planes. - A teeny Supermarket Sweep rant. - Bracing for Election Night. - Good riddance to Halloween. We Retire From Defending Kim Kardashian The news cycle these days is like me when the doorbell rings with the pizza that I ordered. It moves fast, and is upsetting to watch. That’s why it’s important to remind everyone of a scandal that unfurled earlier this week so that it doesn’t disappear in the next blizzard of distracting horseshit. What [Kim Kardashian did](—whether it was tone-deaf, whether it was an innocent mistake, whether it was calculated and dastardly, whether you think it’s superfluous—was absolutely vile. Internet shaming is crass and typically useless and there’s almost never a reason to do it. Lo, we have encountered the exception. Shame away! [Alternate text] What did she do? She engaged in a grotesque flaunting of privilege, spat on the people struggling to make ends meet and stay safe during a pandemic, and gave a middle finger to the well-being of service workers who must risk their lives for her ego. Specifically, she flew dozens of people from her “[closest inner circle](” to a private island to celebrate her 40th birthday, and then posted photos of it on social media, characterizing the whole operation as a relatable jaunt anyone craving to feel normal, like in pre-COVID times, could rationalize. “After 2 weeks of multiple health screens and asking everyone to quarantine, I surprised my closest inner circle with a trip to a private island where we could pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time,” [she captioned one series of photos]( of guests partying, spawning a [torrent of memes]( exposing the lunacy of such a statement in these times. It’s no secret that the rich and famous have been able to escape the brutalities of the pandemic in ways that us mere peasants can not. But most also know better than to boast about it. When people are saying “eat the rich,” it’s not exactly wise to serve yourself and your “closest inner circle” up as the buffet. Part of it is the “high of social media,” as [Rachel Bloom pointed out on Twitter](. Kardashian knows the kind of response posting these pictures would get from people who are unemployed, unable to leave their homes because it’s unsafe and they don’t have access to testing, or because they otherwise have a fucking brain and know that this is egregious behavior. “But she also knows how cool the pics look and how many likes she'll get from posting,” Bloom writes. “Critical thinking can't compete with the surge of dopamine.” This is how Kardashian makes a living; it is her brand. Posting about her life is what she does, so perhaps it's an overreaction to complain about it now. But that’s giving her too much credit, especially when there is still actual danger in this instance. There’s danger in glamorizing the justifications she lists to explain that the trip is safe at a time when too many people do the same rationalizing—albeit on a much more plebeian level than a trip to a private island—when they’re actually unable to ensure those get-togethers are safe. This just normalizes that behavior. And what of the servers who are seen in the background of the photos, wearing masks as they wait on Kardashian’s party? What of their safety? [Alternate text] We’ve performed a veritable Olympic gold medal-winning figure skating program over the years, doing complicated triple-jump combinations and spinning until we were dizzy to [defend Kardashian]( as a worthy, legitimate public figure. You can’t ignore and shouldn’t dismiss, we’ve argued, someone who has actually changed the world. She and her family expanded the discourse on exploitation, sexualization, agency, feminism, family, and power. They birthed a new age of reality TV that sutured together social media and influence with on-screen branding. Kardashian has become a [warrior for social justice]( and prison reform while being the actual poster person for women who aren’t taken seriously because of how they look, carry themselves, or came to their positions of power. Set all of that on fire. Those photos and captions are that bad. She followed them up the next day with an infuriating “Now that I have your attention...this a reminder to VOTE” [tweet](. NO. With that offering as a pseudo mea culpa, she’s resumed posting photos from the trip sans any caveat. Thursday night, the party was joined by a [hologram of Kardashian’s late father](—in case things weren’t already surreal. I don’t believe this whole scandal was an orchestrated ploy for attention to then push out a voting PSA. I don’t believe that any crisis manager really thinks this does any damage control. And I don’t believe we should pay attention to the inevitable glossy magazine cover story where she talks about this controversy and the journey it took her on to understand her mistakes and then brush it all under the rug. It’s all too gross. It’s not the first time something Kardashian related has been that way. But it’s the first time against the backdrop of a global pandemic. Comparisons are unfair and unwarranted, but it is worth noting that Kardashian made those 40th birthday tweets the same day that [Chrissy Tiegen published]( her emotional, candid, brave (in the way it actually means, not how we too often bastardize it), and beautiful essay about losing her child, sharing the photos of it publicly, and internalizing both the positive and negative reactions to that. These are two women who, for different reasons, have been dismissed because of how they got their platforms and then criticized for the ways in which they’ve shared their personal lives on them. But there’s such a resounding difference in how Teigen proved (again) the value of a celebrity using her megaphone to normalize, destigmatize, and beg compassion—and then Kardashian being the world’s biggest jackass. Anyway, [Kim has six toes](. [Alternate text] Anne Hathaway Deserves an Airplane Second Chance Where do airplane movies go when we don’t travel? I ask this as I have watched the most airplane movie of all airplane movies this past week, the [remake of Roald Dahl’s]( The Witches from the comfort of my home, and it just did not feel right. [Image] It is not that I wish that I had seen the film, in which Anne Hathaway plays a witch who wants to turn all children into mice and then squash them (and is basically Melania Trump, but that is a whole other article), in a movie theater. Oh, I would have been annoyed to have spent time and effort doing that. It is not a film that is good, nor is it bad. It is neither silly nor scary enough to be worthwhile, but Hathaway is just campy enough to make it not a waste of time. It is precisely the movie that would be elevated by elevation. Give me a tiny bottle of chardonnay, a vague altitude high, and the lowering of standards when there is nowhere to go and nothing to do but stare at a 5-inch screen less than a foot from your face. A list of movies I have ADORED through this viewing experience that I am unsure deserved the breathless accolades I showered them with upon landing/may actually have been bad: Little, Good Boys, How to Be Single, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Wife, The Meg, Tag, Overboard, Peppermint. These movies, of course, are spiritual cousins to “it came on a cable channel on a rainy Sunday afternoon and was only 20 minutes in so I watched anyway and enjoyed” genre. (See: Jennifer Lopez’s Second Act or A Quiet Place, for example.) Everyone’s all worried about the effect [the closing of movie theaters]( is having on the industry which, fair concern. But what of the severe drop in airplane movie viewing? A mile-high second chance is what Anne Hathaway as a witch deserves. The Fatal Flaw With Supermarket Sweep Now that the usual balm of watching HGTV before bed has been torpedoed by the realization that the couple that can’t possibly move into the craftsman home that is somehow both five bedrooms and only $110,000 because it has no third garage nor a designated wrapping paper room is almost/definitely MAGA supporters about to decorate their new lawn with Trump 2020 signs...I’ve had to significantly alter my “brainless television” viewing habits. On the off-chance that one of National Hero Guy Fieri’s shows is somehow not airing on the Food Network, that’s meant, for many of us over the summer, a binge through [old episodes of Supermarket Sweep]( on Netflix and, now, finding delight in the Leslie Jones-hosted reboot that’s recently begun airing Sundays on ABC. [Alternate text] In the reboot, Jones’ fangirl enthusiasm is infectious, the grocery-related trivia games are just as peculiar as before, and the [contestants’ sweep strategies]( are as infuriating as ever. (Why are they not going right for the turkeys???!!!) But because I can’t ever just let nice things be, here is one huge gripe: The contestants are too poised! The bliss of Supermarket Sweep reruns is how embarrassingly normal the contestants were then, from their terrible hair to their ghastly clothes and their plethora of teeth shapes. The reboot’s competitors are as camera-ready as if they were walking from the grocery store set to a casting for their own reality TV show as soon as production wrapped. Their personalities are through the roof, which certainly brings energy. But it’s too much. Bring back the Supermarket Sweep magic. Bring back the frump. Wine and Cheese and Rachel Maddow and Anxiety Now that the celebrities are down to their last days of screaming at us on Instagram about having a voting plan, it’s time to move on to the next vital concern: What is your Election Night TV watching plan? Is your therapist joining you for the night via Zoom? How many bottles of wine did you buy and is there an actual answer to the question, “How many is enough?” What food will you be stress-eating? Or are you someone who can’t eat when the world might be ending, in which case who will be there to make sure you remain nourished enough to survive the potential apocalypse? [Alternate text] Are you the type who stays glued to the TV no matter how many days or weeks it takes to get this sorted? Are you the type who scrolls through Twitter until your soul leaves your body in protest? Or are you the type who needs to avoid the news entirely as self-care? (In which case, steer clear of House Hunters...it can be triggering!) Me? I’m going to print out [this announcement]( and hang it on the wall as a reminder of what’s waiting on the other side of all this. It’s what will get me through: [Alternate text] So Long, Halloween Season Halloween is happening this weekend! [Gross](! In any case, if there’s one good thing about this horrible holiday it’s the occasion to revisit [the best New York Times correction]( there has ever been. [Alternate text] [Alternate text] - His House: The most original, and maybe the best, horror movie I saw this year. (Friday on Netflix) - Mom: This has slowly become one of my favorite comedies on TV. (Thursday on CBS) - Race in America: Our Vote Counts: Bravo stars, surprisingly, deliver one of the most interesting voting specials this season. (Sunday on Bravo) [Alternate text] - Truth Seekers: It’s not that good. (They asked for the truth!) (Friday on Amazon) - Holidate: About as amusing as that pun. (Now on Netflix) Advertisement [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( © Copyright 2020 The Daily Beast Company LLC 555 W. 18th Street, New York NY 10011 [Privacy Policy]( If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, [click here]( to view this email in your browser. To ensure delivery of these emails, please add emails@thedailybeast.com to your address book. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, or think you have received this message in error, you can [safely unsubscribe](.