Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
Lindsay Zoladz examines the rise of pop music super-producer Jack Antonoff for the Ringer this week. Photo: AFP
The Cure for Dr. Luke?, by Lindsay Zoladz, The Ringer
“From Phil Spector to Dr. Luke, modern pop music has been built on a foundation of powerful men who sought to control and diminish the creative credit given to the women with whom they worked. But now, in this moment of widespread reckoning, age-old power dynamics between female pop stars and male producers are quickly reorganizing themselves into something that at least appears more equitable and humane. And this year, through a combination of savvy, talent, and sheer luck, Jack Antonoff was in a position to benefit greatly from this shift.”
Ten Long Years of Trying to Make Armie Hammer Happen, by Anne Helen Petersen, Buzzfeed
“According to this logic, it’s not that Hammer’s a bad movie star. It’s that movie stardom isn’t for Hammer: He’s too quirky to fit into the mainstream roles available to him, and so much more than the sum of his handsome parts. He might look, as Mirror Mirror director Tarsem Singh put it, like who you’d draw if you were going to draw a prince. But Singh also pinpointed his deeper appeal: “I’m not talking about a Disney Prince,” he told Details. “There are undertones.”’
When Your Skin Condition Becomes Viral Content, by Sarah Harris, Jezebel
“Lee is different than other celebrity doctors—what she offers is noticeably more intimate, and noticeably grosser, too. The pimple pop video is the perfect overshare: it allows us to indulge our armchair voyeurism, get just grossed out enough, and experience a satisfyingly pus-filled narrative climax.”
Matt Lauer’s Firing and NBC’s Theatre of Accountability, by Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker
“We have witnessed a theatre of accountability insidiously refine itself, quite quickly, in the past few months. Louis C.K.’s statement, for example, following the exposé in the Times of his sexual harassment of female comics, was not as passionate as, but was more coherent than, Harvey Weinstein’s ramblings about Jay-Z and the gun lobby. The opportunistic finesse of Kevin Spacey’s coming-out certainly tripped some social alarms, but he nonetheless garnered some sympathy. Power brokers like the Pixar animation baron John Lasseter have even scooped long-labored-over articles by preëmpting them altogether. (Lasseter is taking a six-month leave of absence.) No display was savvier than NBC’s orchestration on Wednesday.”
A woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore. She appears to be part of undercover sting operation, by Shawn Boburg, Aaron C. Davis and Alice Crites, The Washington Post
“Project Veritas, founded in 2010, is a tax-exempt charity that says its mission is to “investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud and other misconduct.” It raised $4.8 million and employed 38 people in 2016, according to its public tax filing. It also had 92 volunteers.”
Trixie Mattel Is for Men (and Women and Kids), by Caity Weaver, GQ
"You know that when you walk into the room, you take the air out of the room. In a good way. People are like, Your waist is beautiful. I'm like, It feels beautiful. It feels like my ribs hurt if I sit down. I don't dress up as a woman, I dress up as a caricature of a caricature of a woman. Out of drag, I'm full witness-protection program—like I witnessed a murder, nobody knows who I am—because I look so different. I look like Forrest Gump. The body shape is different. The face is different. The hair. The height."
