Wasting my life on pop culture blogs and gossip sites, so you don't have to.
Possibly you aren't particularly blown away by US magazine's claims that 22-year-old Twilight star Kristen Stewart has cheated on boyfriend and Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson with the married director of her most recent flick, Snow White And The Huntsman. Me neither. We normal folk have ill-advised flings with university lecturers (or simply inappropriate crushes, if we're lucky) at the age of 22, but Stewart happens to be the world's highest paid actress, so she has to make do with 41-year-old film directors, the Hollywood equivalent of corduroy-clad academics. This sort of fling no great shakes, even given Pattinson's status as the world's pre-eminent lust object. (We give him another six months with the crown, before he's rudely usurped by whoever gets cast as Christian Grey.)
But bear with this story. Because much more interesting than the did-she-or-didn't-she-cheat intrigue is the alarming violence of the Twilight fanbase's response to the incriminating snap. It's mere hours since the story surfaced, but already, as Hollywoodlife reports, an ugly Twitterstorm is brewing. Some hysterical fans are tearfully tweeting "Robsten is unbroken!" whilst others are hurling barbs at Stewart far too vile for me to type here.
This week we are going to get all the proof we need that something sinister has happened to the nature of fandom lately. Sure, it's nothing new for people to get carried away in their appreciation of an individual or a work of art. (Lord Byron wrote that he "woke up and found himself famous", and was rapidly besieged by hysterical female fans and groupies. You could say the same about Robert Pattinson after the first Twilight movie. That's what happens when you study Romantic Literature and go on to write for Grazia magazine.) What's new is that social media outlets, in addition to enabling fans from around the world to bond over a shared interest, has made it eerily straightforward to mobilise angry fans into an aggressive online army, capable of mounting disturbing and effective hate campaigns.
If this sounds melodramatic, consider that last week review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes was forced to suspend all comments when a critic received death threats after giving The Dark Knight Rises a negative review.
Trust me, some regions of the internet are going to be very ugly places this week. And with the ever-trusty Gossipcop.com claiming that there is some credence to the Kristen cheating story, it's only going to get uglier.
Christian Bale Visits Shooting Victims
Back in February 2009, the world was very cross with Christian Bale for this onset outburst. (Warning: Very sweary. As sweary as Malcolm Tucker, but nowhere near as funny.) This week, the world is impressed with him for visiting victims of the Aurora cinema shooting in hospital. And fair play to Bale; when he signed up for the role of Batman, he could never have imagined, not in his worst nightmares, that this grave obligation would arise.
Ain't No Thing
Last up, cast member of The Wire are throwing a fundraiser for fanboy President Barack Obama, who once stated that Omar Little was his favourite character in the series. Impeccable taste as ever, Mr Obama.