Celebrity Idiots

By now, you will have heard that Bruce Springsteen fans have been apoplectic over the news that tickets for his 2023 tour are in some cases going for $4,000 to $5,000. Ticketmaster, which is at least one corporation that the cultural elites do not seem to oppose, has defended the move by stating that it is part of its “dynamic system” allowing it to price “platinum” tickets on a system based on supply and demand. No need to find a scalper outside the venue. You can find one in just a few clicks. But as Bobby Olivier pointed out at NJ.com, back in 2009, Springsteen and his manager were opposed to a merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation because said merger would create a monopoly. And as Olivier says: “Yet 13 years later, here we are again.”

Whatever you may think of Springsteen one thing is certain Springsteen is not the Springsteen he thinks he is.

I liked him but playing Hillary’s concert extinguished whatever remnant of fandom remained.

Now I just wanna stick it to the man.

Actor and director Rob Reiner spurred another hearty round of “Meathead” rebuttals on Twitter. But this time, it isn’t one of his furious proclamations that Trumpers are a “cult.” Instead, Reiner sounded like he was in a cult. He tweeted on Friday that President Biden’s “record of accomplishments so far” is unmatched in modern history.

At one point, Samantha Bee was hailed as Jon Stewart’s heir at The Daily Show — and quite honestly she probably should have gotten that job. Instead she ended up bolting Comedy Central for TBS, where she injected her sardonic brand of faux journalism into a format largely dominated by men. But just as with all late-night “comedy” shows, the Trump years turned her and her fellow hosts into progressive scolds and their audiences into clapping seals.

I suspect that there were more than a few youngish New York Times readers who, on July 14, were baffled to turn a page and encounter a 2,500-word think piece about Janeane Garofalo.

Jane who? Perhaps you’re too young to recognize her name, too. But if you’ve seen Seinfeld reruns, you may remember her from an episode in which she played a woman whom Jerry dates because, like him, she eats plenty of breakfast cereal, reads comic books about superheroes, and is dry and sardonic. But he comes to dislike her, and the relationship ends with them exclaiming, simultaneously at a dinner table, “I hate you!”

… Will’s violent outburst at the Oscars wasn’t because of that stupid G.I. Jane joke that Chris Rock told. This is a man whose existence is synonymous with being publicly humiliated by his wife over and over again. Last night was no exception. Jada’s anger prompted Will to act in an outrageous way, leading to more humiliation.