I don't often recommend celebrity profiles in this newsletter because so few of them are revealing in any way. We all know the basic beats of the genre by now, don't we? If the...
| |  | | | | Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics | | | | | | Brendan Fraser as Gunther and Dominic West as Noah in "The Affair." (Phil Caruso/Showtime) | I don’t often recommend celebrity profiles in this newsletter because so few of them are revealing in any way. We all know the basic beats of the genre by now, don’t we? If the subject is a woman, the writer has a meal with her where it’s noted that she eats like a relatively normal person, and they do some other activity that’s intended to indicate that this goddess is, in fact, relatable and down-to-earth. If the subject is a man, there’s a little more wiggle room. Depending on what his publicist wants to convey, we might see him interact with his dog, his kids, his friends from back when he wasn’t famous, or he might take the writer on some sort of activity intended to indicate that he is either cerebral or adventuresome. | | But every once in a while a celebrity profile gives us a glimpse of something authentic and discomfiting. Such is the case with Zach Baron’s wonderful piece about Brendan Fraser, an actor whom I’d be willing to bet a lot of you once saw as ubiquitous, and whom you probably haven’t thought about in years. | | There are two big insights in the piece. | | | The first explores how Fraser became a star, or, more precisely, how the entertainment industry made use of his good looks and ability to project absolute sincerity. This section of the story is well worth reading in part because it’ll give you a sense of how Hollywood’s idea of what makes for a leading man changes over time, and how easy it can be for someone who fit that mold perfectly in one era to be discarded in another. These shifts may not be as brutal or as systemic for men as they are for women, since they’re driven by something more ephemeral than an arbitrary age cutoff. But they’re still a reminder that the movie business is highly fickle and not built to deliver long careers to most people. | | The second looks at how Fraser says an incident of sexual harassment has affected him over the course of his career. Once again, the number of women coming forward under the banner of #MeToo to tell their stories has generally been higher than the number of men who have spoken out. But listening to Fraser and to Terry Crews, who has also said he experienced sexual harassment, I’m struck by the particular ways in which being harassed and assaulted has affected men, especially those who are primarily known as action stars or physically powerful. There’s a unique vulnerability there, in part because it’s hard for the public to understand how these men could be victimized at all. | | I don’t want to say too much more lest I discourage you from reading Baron’s piece. But if the past five months of reckoning have taught us anything, it’s that when a star seems to have disappeared, there’s often an uncomfortably revealing story that explains why. I’m glad we’re getting to hear so many of these stories. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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