Inside Cara Delevingne's Fantastical L.A. Home
June 29, 2021 6:32 AM Subscribe
Architectural Digest takes a tour of her exuberant and fantastically decorated Los Angeles home. After Stephen Colbert joked about it in his "Meanwhile" segment, I had to go check it out. Possibly NSFW, but they did show it on TV.
Eat the rich, and steal the scooters they use to get around their too-large houses.
posted by Klipspringer at 7:13 AM on June 29, 2021 [22 favorites]
posted by Klipspringer at 7:13 AM on June 29, 2021 [22 favorites]
Where are the stripes, Cara. WHERE ARE THE FUCKING STRIPES, CARA.
posted by phunniemee at 7:24 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 7:24 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
I'm obsessed with these AD videos! I think I've seen nearly all of them. I think my favorite is Bretman Rock, a person I had not heard of before watching that video. The Lenny Kravitz one is another contender.
posted by theodolite at 7:28 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by theodolite at 7:28 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
She has a James Turrell piece. In her house.
*watches a few more minutes*
Wait, this video is some sort of conceptual art piece, right?
posted by gwint at 7:29 AM on June 29, 2021 [8 favorites]
*watches a few more minutes*
Wait, this video is some sort of conceptual art piece, right?
posted by gwint at 7:29 AM on June 29, 2021 [8 favorites]
Oh wait, I left out the one where Jimmy McNulty married into the Irish aristocracy and now lives in a literal ancient castle
posted by theodolite at 7:34 AM on June 29, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 7:34 AM on June 29, 2021 [8 favorites]
Secret passage! I love that, and the bunk beds.
But yes, this house is too big. Just think of the dusting!
posted by jb at 7:38 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
But yes, this house is too big. Just think of the dusting!
posted by jb at 7:38 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
There’s another one with her and her sister who had a cute (smaller) place together. “And here’s the BBQ we’ve never used, maybe someday.”
I watched this one and was contemplating jumping in to the oeuvre but I’m just finding it sooo hard to enjoy the previously fluffy entertainment of these opulent lives. What I did enjoy was the many flip comments she made about how much the house is designed for entertaining and yet, pandemic. Rough.
posted by amanda at 7:50 AM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
I watched this one and was contemplating jumping in to the oeuvre but I’m just finding it sooo hard to enjoy the previously fluffy entertainment of these opulent lives. What I did enjoy was the many flip comments she made about how much the house is designed for entertaining and yet, pandemic. Rough.
posted by amanda at 7:50 AM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
Her whimsy will definitely make her tastier than the other rich.
posted by kokaku at 7:51 AM on June 29, 2021 [25 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 7:51 AM on June 29, 2021 [25 favorites]
Every day I think about how important it is to have somebody in your life who isn’t that impressed with you, and can reel you back in when you start thinking stuff like this is a good idea.
posted by mhoye at 7:54 AM on June 29, 2021 [14 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 7:54 AM on June 29, 2021 [14 favorites]
@jb Yeah, what jumps out to me is that the people in these homes cannot and do not care for them beyond paying for them to be cleaned, etc. I appreciate the art and the aesthetic but there is a disassociation from what I consider to be life. Interesting to see...
posted by zerobyproxy at 8:00 AM on June 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by zerobyproxy at 8:00 AM on June 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
how much the house is designed for entertaining
I got the impression that several of the rooms were designed for sex.
posted by Bee'sWing at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2021 [11 favorites]
I got the impression that several of the rooms were designed for sex.
posted by Bee'sWing at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2021 [11 favorites]
She has a James Turrell Wide Glass. Am impressed.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
I have a friend who is a... I don’t know what the correct term is here... circus person? Whatever word you would use for a non-transient carny who has all their teeth and no meth habit. She and a bunch of her fellow circus people moved into a warehouse together and turned their living space into the version of this you can make on a budget of like $250.
They even had the ball pit. I think the balls were stolen from a nearby McDonalds but I never got a straight answer on that. It definitely contained much weirder things than a shoe.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:10 AM on June 29, 2021 [13 favorites]
They even had the ball pit. I think the balls were stolen from a nearby McDonalds but I never got a straight answer on that. It definitely contained much weirder things than a shoe.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:10 AM on June 29, 2021 [13 favorites]
I got the impression that several of the rooms were designed for sex.
I mean, she flat-out says at one point she was inspired by the Playboy Mansion, so....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:11 AM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
I mean, she flat-out says at one point she was inspired by the Playboy Mansion, so....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:11 AM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
She has a James Turrell piece. In her house.
Is that a Lucien Freud above the piano in her bedroom?
posted by Klipspringer at 8:14 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Is that a Lucien Freud above the piano in her bedroom?
posted by Klipspringer at 8:14 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
We all laughed at Terence McKenna. Said he had done too many mushrooms. Who's laughing now?
posted by ob1quixote at 8:16 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by ob1quixote at 8:16 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
I got the impression that several of the rooms were designed for sex.
... sure, but... do you not get the sense that it's all gone unused? Guitars and pianos going unplayed, sex rooms never occupied, that brief glimpse of the pantry fully staged and its contents fully pedestrian... even that Jenga game is stood up to be looked at and I'd wager it's never been touched once, a metaphor that I've gotta think lands pretty hard. That concluding bit with her holding a half-empty glass of champagne glass, noodling through an off-key Moonlight Sonata was sad as hell.
She seems incredibly lonely.
posted by mhoye at 8:18 AM on June 29, 2021 [14 favorites]
... sure, but... do you not get the sense that it's all gone unused? Guitars and pianos going unplayed, sex rooms never occupied, that brief glimpse of the pantry fully staged and its contents fully pedestrian... even that Jenga game is stood up to be looked at and I'd wager it's never been touched once, a metaphor that I've gotta think lands pretty hard. That concluding bit with her holding a half-empty glass of champagne glass, noodling through an off-key Moonlight Sonata was sad as hell.
She seems incredibly lonely.
posted by mhoye at 8:18 AM on June 29, 2021 [14 favorites]
I mean, it's no Redman's crib, but the real question is how does she feel about limes?
posted by mstokes650 at 8:22 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by mstokes650 at 8:22 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
Brilliant of her to combine the ball pit with the poker room. I don't know what I was thinking, keeping them separate in my house.
posted by adamrice at 8:22 AM on June 29, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by adamrice at 8:22 AM on June 29, 2021 [12 favorites]
She seems incredibly lonely.
I mean, we've all been incredibly lonely this last year, especially those who weren't in relationships. And honestly probably a lot of people who are. I'd much rather be lonely in a 7,000 square foot house with sex rooms (even if they're just masturbatoreums at the moment) and fountains and a swimming pool and a ball pit than a 900 square foot apartment that's lucky to have access to a shared back yard.
Good for her on spending the money outfitting that place. It's fun, everything's different so there weren't any bulk discounts on using the same furnishings everywhere, and a lot of craftspeople got paid to build the custom stuff out so some money trickled to normal people.
posted by mikesch at 8:26 AM on June 29, 2021 [14 favorites]
I mean, we've all been incredibly lonely this last year, especially those who weren't in relationships. And honestly probably a lot of people who are. I'd much rather be lonely in a 7,000 square foot house with sex rooms (even if they're just masturbatoreums at the moment) and fountains and a swimming pool and a ball pit than a 900 square foot apartment that's lucky to have access to a shared back yard.
Good for her on spending the money outfitting that place. It's fun, everything's different so there weren't any bulk discounts on using the same furnishings everywhere, and a lot of craftspeople got paid to build the custom stuff out so some money trickled to normal people.
posted by mikesch at 8:26 AM on June 29, 2021 [14 favorites]
... sure, but... do you not get the sense that it's all gone unused?
FWIW, it appears she bought this one in late 2019 after she and her sister decided to sell their other, smaller mansion. So odds are good that just about the time this place was ready for entertaining, the pandemic put the kibosh on entertaining. She basically says as much when she's showing off the double bunkbed at 3:45, and again by the barbecue at 12:42. I wouldn't be too worried about her social life, at least once we're comfortably post-pandemic.
I'm really a bit curious how much of this is decorated by other people and ad-libbed by her as she sees it for the first time, though, ala Dakota Johnson. My leading candidates for "this is an ad-lib to explain something she didn't expect" at the moment: the Chanel surfboard, the stripper heels, the wall of hats. A lot of the weird stuff was clearly, genuinely her picks, though, so, uh, good for her on that I guess. If you're going to have a ridiculous amount of money the very least you can do is to be wildly eccentric.
posted by mstokes650 at 8:55 AM on June 29, 2021 [6 favorites]
FWIW, it appears she bought this one in late 2019 after she and her sister decided to sell their other, smaller mansion. So odds are good that just about the time this place was ready for entertaining, the pandemic put the kibosh on entertaining. She basically says as much when she's showing off the double bunkbed at 3:45, and again by the barbecue at 12:42. I wouldn't be too worried about her social life, at least once we're comfortably post-pandemic.
I'm really a bit curious how much of this is decorated by other people and ad-libbed by her as she sees it for the first time, though, ala Dakota Johnson. My leading candidates for "this is an ad-lib to explain something she didn't expect" at the moment: the Chanel surfboard, the stripper heels, the wall of hats. A lot of the weird stuff was clearly, genuinely her picks, though, so, uh, good for her on that I guess. If you're going to have a ridiculous amount of money the very least you can do is to be wildly eccentric.
posted by mstokes650 at 8:55 AM on June 29, 2021 [6 favorites]
can reel you back in when you start thinking stuff like this is a good idea.
Seconding mikesch, the feel of the video isn't haute couture, it's "I had the chance to build the fantasy playland I want, and I took it." "Taste" is an aristocratic quality that money or opportunity can't bestow, while Ms. Delevinges's home is all about realized opportunity.
Which shouldn't save her from being dinner one day.
posted by fatbird at 9:07 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
Seconding mikesch, the feel of the video isn't haute couture, it's "I had the chance to build the fantasy playland I want, and I took it." "Taste" is an aristocratic quality that money or opportunity can't bestow, while Ms. Delevinges's home is all about realized opportunity.
Which shouldn't save her from being dinner one day.
posted by fatbird at 9:07 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
It’s ridiculous AND I like it. Also for any other olds/Americans out there, she is a British model who has branched out into acting. She was new to me. If I was rich, my house would probably be heavy on the heart of a child/fun stuff and light on the chrome and glass/10 car garage/golf guy stuff. Secret passageways for sure. Now do a butt tunnel!
posted by freecellwizard at 9:08 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by freecellwizard at 9:08 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
Eh...? Places like this always look too "designed" and impersonal to me. Like, I don't believe for a minute she personally acquired those hats, ever plays that pinball machine or spends any real time going through the vagina tunnel, etc. It's all so empty and it looks cold. Where is the stuff? Where is a nice comfortable place to curl up with a book? Where are the books, for that matter? It's looks more like some sort of art hotel than a place where a real person actually lives.
posted by slkinsey at 9:14 AM on June 29, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by slkinsey at 9:14 AM on June 29, 2021 [12 favorites]
I feel so weird that I am seething with jealousy about....the doors. The front doors, the interior doors-- all obviously well made, heavy, beautiful hardware; you can hear how smoothly they swing open and that heavy click from top-of-the-line latches....
Oh, and stuff, there's loads of stuff. Fun wallpaper, yay large birds.
posted by winesong at 9:20 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Oh, and stuff, there's loads of stuff. Fun wallpaper, yay large birds.
posted by winesong at 9:20 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
For each of these videos, all I can imagine is what it and its owner will be like in 40 years...
posted by chortly at 9:23 AM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by chortly at 9:23 AM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
Seeing houses like this reminds me of going through Graceland, and musing that the decor, frozen as it was at the time of Elvis' death, is really the sort of house that I would have wanted in 1977... when I was thirteen. Everyone has that dream home of their future, I think, their own private House on the Rock, and part of growing up is either outgrowing it or simply coming to peace with the fact that it will never be realized in reality... but what if that peace is broken by actually having the means?
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:28 AM on June 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:28 AM on June 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
I don't care how inspired you are by Playboy, if you have that much money, you get the Addams Family pinball table.
posted by explosion at 9:41 AM on June 29, 2021 [16 favorites]
posted by explosion at 9:41 AM on June 29, 2021 [16 favorites]
Yes to the Addams Family pinball table! OMG I am having a burst of nostalgia right now.
My thought is that this house is the sort of thing that happens when you give somebody an unlimited supply of money, the option to build whatever house they want, and no one around to say to them that perhaps this particular choice isn't the best.
She has made some, um, eccentric choices, but I think that a different rich person would make other eccentric choices. This sort of thing goes with the territory of being insanely rich.
The waste of resources is tragic - but, hey, it's her house. I don't get to live there - she does.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 9:49 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
My thought is that this house is the sort of thing that happens when you give somebody an unlimited supply of money, the option to build whatever house they want, and no one around to say to them that perhaps this particular choice isn't the best.
She has made some, um, eccentric choices, but I think that a different rich person would make other eccentric choices. This sort of thing goes with the territory of being insanely rich.
The waste of resources is tragic - but, hey, it's her house. I don't get to live there - she does.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 9:49 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
"Taste" is an aristocratic quality that money or opportunity can't bestow, while Ms. Delevinges's home is all about realized opportunity.
We must be thinking of different Cara Delevingnes... This one went to Bedales, one grandmother was lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret and the other was a socialite, and her great-grandparents were Viscounts and Baronets. It's true that her money comes largely from her modelling, but she's a blue-blooded aristo through and through.
posted by Klipspringer at 9:52 AM on June 29, 2021 [20 favorites]
We must be thinking of different Cara Delevingnes... This one went to Bedales, one grandmother was lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret and the other was a socialite, and her great-grandparents were Viscounts and Baronets. It's true that her money comes largely from her modelling, but she's a blue-blooded aristo through and through.
posted by Klipspringer at 9:52 AM on June 29, 2021 [20 favorites]
I stopped when it seemed like everything cam with a brand name. I stopped at the Gucci Walpaper, to be exact.
posted by dfm500 at 10:06 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by dfm500 at 10:06 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
So Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was apparently a biopic.
posted by srboisvert at 10:12 AM on June 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 10:12 AM on June 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
Well, it's an architectural tour, you're supposed to say where things are from. I thought both of the crane wallpapers were gorgeous.
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:13 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:13 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
How come Wurlitzer was misspelled on the transparent piano?
posted by dywypi at 10:24 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by dywypi at 10:24 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
Definitely has a dungeon, and dear god, don't take the Luminol down there.
posted by FallibleHuman at 10:29 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by FallibleHuman at 10:29 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
We at the Robots household have been taking great delight in Zillowgonewild. Oh, to have an owner-guided tour of the Pesci residence!
posted by No Robots at 10:35 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by No Robots at 10:35 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
Oh wait, I left out the one where Jimmy McNulty married into the Irish aristocracy and now lives in a literal ancient castle
You didn't mention how hilarious the first 3 seconds of that video are!
posted by chortly at 10:37 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
You didn't mention how hilarious the first 3 seconds of that video are!
posted by chortly at 10:37 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Chanel surfboard
No. No. No. The thing will be never be used but on the off chance that someone decides to take it out then there will finally be a use for localism.
You can spend ridiculous amounts of money on a hand crafted balsa core surfboard that will look pretty hanging on a wall. Why go for a mass produced board from a company that has negative brand value in the surf world? I can understand a Chanel branded board as an ironic possession for someone who actually surfs but for someone who doesn't surf it immediately brands them as someone completely outside the world they are referencing. I guess that makes sense as a commentary on the use of the idea of surfing in the wider culture but I don't believe that Chanel's customers are in on the joke.
posted by rdr at 10:42 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
No. No. No. The thing will be never be used but on the off chance that someone decides to take it out then there will finally be a use for localism.
You can spend ridiculous amounts of money on a hand crafted balsa core surfboard that will look pretty hanging on a wall. Why go for a mass produced board from a company that has negative brand value in the surf world? I can understand a Chanel branded board as an ironic possession for someone who actually surfs but for someone who doesn't surf it immediately brands them as someone completely outside the world they are referencing. I guess that makes sense as a commentary on the use of the idea of surfing in the wider culture but I don't believe that Chanel's customers are in on the joke.
posted by rdr at 10:42 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Seems like living in an art museum, which I get would be exciting for some people, but seems stressful to me.
posted by GuyZero at 10:54 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by GuyZero at 10:54 AM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
How come Wurlitzer was misspelled on the transparent piano?
Wurlitzer ceased trading in 1984
Wurletzer is a modern niche brand who seem to be selling generic digital keyboards wrapped in an oversize case, very much style over substance.
posted by Lanark at 10:56 AM on June 29, 2021 [6 favorites]
Wurlitzer ceased trading in 1984
Wurletzer is a modern niche brand who seem to be selling generic digital keyboards wrapped in an oversize case, very much style over substance.
posted by Lanark at 10:56 AM on June 29, 2021 [6 favorites]
I am much much happier in my 550 sq foot apartment full of books. If I want more, I just go outside into the city with its museums, the hugely diverse population of people, and the parks. This all strikes me as someone frantically trying to create a self by using their money in having other people buy things.
As to the vagina tunnel and it’s symbolism, we all came into the world through one, except cesarean births. Crawling back in is usually construed as trying to go back inside and avoid the world. Coming out through a fake washing machine? As much as I appreciate real surrealism, this just seems dumb to me. I do not believe that there was any real thought put into this. Just another slapped together thing for no other reason than it’s there. Like everything else.
posted by njohnson23 at 11:07 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
As to the vagina tunnel and it’s symbolism, we all came into the world through one, except cesarean births. Crawling back in is usually construed as trying to go back inside and avoid the world. Coming out through a fake washing machine? As much as I appreciate real surrealism, this just seems dumb to me. I do not believe that there was any real thought put into this. Just another slapped together thing for no other reason than it’s there. Like everything else.
posted by njohnson23 at 11:07 AM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
Even poshos are supposed to live in a small flat without air conditioning before they're 30. I'm getting a lot of guillotine energy from this video.
posted by dis_integration at 11:12 AM on June 29, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 11:12 AM on June 29, 2021 [7 favorites]
Oh wait, I left out the one where Jimmy McNulty married into the Irish aristocracy and now lives in a literal ancient castle,
You know that Jimmy McNulty went to Eton, don't you? As did Gregory House, John Steed and Loki.
posted by Grangousier at 11:14 AM on June 29, 2021 [9 favorites]
You know that Jimmy McNulty went to Eton, don't you? As did Gregory House, John Steed and Loki.
posted by Grangousier at 11:14 AM on June 29, 2021 [9 favorites]
Love to direct all my hatred and spite against the tiny fraction of rich people who are young women rather than the thousands of anonymous finance/c-suite/investor people who hoard vastly greater wealth while contributing even less to society!!
posted by theodolite at 11:18 AM on June 29, 2021 [17 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 11:18 AM on June 29, 2021 [17 favorites]
You're seriously underestimating our reserves of spite if you think we used them all up on this video.
posted by Klipspringer at 11:38 AM on June 29, 2021 [48 favorites]
posted by Klipspringer at 11:38 AM on June 29, 2021 [48 favorites]
What strikes me as odd about this interior is that it seems like it has nothing to do with a 28-year old's life. James Turrell? A hat collection? Inspired by Playboy mansion? Sure. I guess. I mean, if I had that kind of money and an interest in having an art collection that she appears to have, I would be spending my time hanging out with contemporary artists and purchasing their work. Everything that she has seems so safe, and to have already been stamped with that official this is good and valuable stamp and it just seems a bit...lazy. For a young person. But I guess she does need a scooter to navigate her own house, so, yeah.
posted by nanook at 12:02 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by nanook at 12:02 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
Ha! I was in the live-vaccinated audience of Colbert last night, and he had such a hard time keeping a straight face that we had to tape this segment multiple times.
posted by functionequalsform at 12:16 PM on June 29, 2021 [22 favorites]
posted by functionequalsform at 12:16 PM on June 29, 2021 [22 favorites]
Colbert after catching glimpse of the vagina tunnel can clearly seen doing the sign of the cross on the table to try to keep a straight face.
For those complaining about the sterility of this video, there's a certain AD staging aesthetic that they use in all their videos. Much like the Dakota Fanning video, Cara Delevingne clearly was surprised by how some things were staged and just rolled with it.
I'm surprised no one else picked up on the cringeworthy forced sexuality of some of the comments. "I'd be naked now if you weren't here... I play the piano naked... I give the gardner quite the shock when I forget to close the blinds." For some reason that came off as less empowering as a vagina tunnel, or sex room and more, eh sort of a weird cry for attention.
posted by geoff. at 1:00 PM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
For those complaining about the sterility of this video, there's a certain AD staging aesthetic that they use in all their videos. Much like the Dakota Fanning video, Cara Delevingne clearly was surprised by how some things were staged and just rolled with it.
I'm surprised no one else picked up on the cringeworthy forced sexuality of some of the comments. "I'd be naked now if you weren't here... I play the piano naked... I give the gardner quite the shock when I forget to close the blinds." For some reason that came off as less empowering as a vagina tunnel, or sex room and more, eh sort of a weird cry for attention.
posted by geoff. at 1:00 PM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
Also Serena Williams also had the fake transparent piano, it retails for $20,000 so not exactly cheap. I think it is cool looking, we can act snobby about it but the fact it is in high dollar celebrity homes almost certainly cements this as costing $120k in 30 years.
posted by geoff. at 1:10 PM on June 29, 2021
posted by geoff. at 1:10 PM on June 29, 2021
If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.
John Waters
posted by Omon Ra at 1:24 PM on June 29, 2021 [9 favorites]
John Waters
posted by Omon Ra at 1:24 PM on June 29, 2021 [9 favorites]
It looks like the piano is a rebadged Steinhoven SG 170 which does have real strings etc, they are made in China and considered 'Entry Level' for this style of piano.
posted by Lanark at 1:34 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Lanark at 1:34 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
Well, it's an architectural tour,
Well, it is but it isn't. Expanding on nanook-
One doesn't really get much a sense of what the original 1930's architect was going for. Which is a problem, to my mind. I prefer that decor share billing with architecture, the one complimenting the other, a room acting as a harmonious (or possibly deliberately discordant) setting for furniture and artwork.
This place, I get no sense at all of the original architect's vision or intention, I just see a bunch of rooms filled as if they were part of an oversized box of curiosities. The individual rooms remind me of those warehouse show rooms where they've made mock ups of How Your Room Could Look In This Style, but with no expectation that the client will take them all. Consider the ceilings, the lattice work room flowing to a room with beams next to a coffered ceiling flowing to a strange circular plasterwork dining room. No natural sequence of style or color or fixtures from room to room, just a bunch of whims tossed into a mixmaster and set to puree.
Seems to make her happy, but to me, the place calls to mind the old English phrase, desperate levity.
(From the one brief still early on (0.19), the building itself doesn't look all that remarkable. Location and size, I guess. In any event, I'd like to see the place without all the foofarah, just to get an idea if it was ever all that interesting, or just an otherwise unremarkable large house from a more leisurely period in LA history. Who lived there, I wonder?)
posted by BWA at 1:57 PM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
Well, it is but it isn't. Expanding on nanook-
One doesn't really get much a sense of what the original 1930's architect was going for. Which is a problem, to my mind. I prefer that decor share billing with architecture, the one complimenting the other, a room acting as a harmonious (or possibly deliberately discordant) setting for furniture and artwork.
This place, I get no sense at all of the original architect's vision or intention, I just see a bunch of rooms filled as if they were part of an oversized box of curiosities. The individual rooms remind me of those warehouse show rooms where they've made mock ups of How Your Room Could Look In This Style, but with no expectation that the client will take them all. Consider the ceilings, the lattice work room flowing to a room with beams next to a coffered ceiling flowing to a strange circular plasterwork dining room. No natural sequence of style or color or fixtures from room to room, just a bunch of whims tossed into a mixmaster and set to puree.
Seems to make her happy, but to me, the place calls to mind the old English phrase, desperate levity.
(From the one brief still early on (0.19), the building itself doesn't look all that remarkable. Location and size, I guess. In any event, I'd like to see the place without all the foofarah, just to get an idea if it was ever all that interesting, or just an otherwise unremarkable large house from a more leisurely period in LA history. Who lived there, I wonder?)
posted by BWA at 1:57 PM on June 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
From what I assume is the companion Architectural Digest article:
“My work requires me to put on many different hats and costumes. I love slipping into these various characters, so I wanted my home to reflect lots of different themes and moods,” says the unapologetic voluptuary.posted by kirkaracha at 3:44 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Architect Nicolò Bini of Line Architecture, Delevingne’s accomplice/enabler in decorative extravagance (see AD, September 2019), fulfilled his client’s mandate with gusto.
I am not big on the celebrity home thing. Actually, I had never heard of Cara Delevingne until this post. Too old and too sheltered I guess. Anyway, I briefly saw the Colbert thing while changing channels. Then I saw this post. I tried to watch the entire video. I got to about 4 minutes. When she climbs out of the other side of the vagina out of what looks like a faux washing machine. I just kept asking myself why am I watching this. Who cares? I looked her up on Wikipedia (She is a descendent of high society?) and then did a "What is she worth" search ($28 million is the guess I found). Then I waited for the comments to see what this was all about. I am still at a loss as to why the world needs to see this person's eccentric tastes and their house. The best guess I can come up with is what someone said up thread. Is this some sort of performance art piece? I am settling on that because I rarely get the meaning of those too.
posted by AugustWest at 4:33 PM on June 29, 2021
posted by AugustWest at 4:33 PM on June 29, 2021
i am more impressed by folks who can do a lot with a little. it's much easier to do a lot when you have a lot to do with.
posted by rude.boy at 4:39 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by rude.boy at 4:39 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter: it definitely contained much weirder things than a shoe.
posted by chavenet at 4:41 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 4:41 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
I really can't judge. If I were rich, my mansion would have a Tiki bar and a bowling alley.
posted by Beholder at 4:43 PM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Beholder at 4:43 PM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
"Well, it's an architectural tour,
Well, it is but it isn't. Expanding on nanook"
The "architectural" part of "Architectural Digest" is definitely misleading. I don't know if it was ever really about architecture, but it definitely seems to focus far more on interior design than the actual structure of a house. So, it makes sense that she's mentioning the Gucci wallpaper.
The house certainly isn't my taste, but the vagina tunnel is clearly just an offshoot of her goofy sense of humor (and too much money, of course). She has a ball pit. I don't think we need to ascribe too much meaning to the tunnel, especially when it ends in a fake washing machine.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:24 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Well, it is but it isn't. Expanding on nanook"
The "architectural" part of "Architectural Digest" is definitely misleading. I don't know if it was ever really about architecture, but it definitely seems to focus far more on interior design than the actual structure of a house. So, it makes sense that she's mentioning the Gucci wallpaper.
The house certainly isn't my taste, but the vagina tunnel is clearly just an offshoot of her goofy sense of humor (and too much money, of course). She has a ball pit. I don't think we need to ascribe too much meaning to the tunnel, especially when it ends in a fake washing machine.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:24 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
What the interior looked like before. (Also not to my taste, but less not to my taste.) 8,100-square-foot home, gated estate in Fryman Canyon near Studio City, former home of Vons supermarket magnate Wilfred Von der Ahe. Listed for just under $8 million.
(This article says the house was built in 1971 instead of the 1941 in other sources, but I think that's a typo. The structure of the kitchen in the slideshow matches the kitchen in a tweet about the giant purple dildo she left on the counter during the photo shoot.)
posted by kirkaracha at 5:27 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
(This article says the house was built in 1971 instead of the 1941 in other sources, but I think that's a typo. The structure of the kitchen in the slideshow matches the kitchen in a tweet about the giant purple dildo she left on the counter during the photo shoot.)
posted by kirkaracha at 5:27 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
It is obscene that people have this much money to spend on gigantic houses when there are people living on the street.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:28 PM on June 29, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 5:28 PM on June 29, 2021 [9 favorites]
Per my earlier comment, I am VERY DISAPPOINTED that no one is helping me make the butt tunnel be a thing. Maybe it comes out in a washing machine that’s next to the dryer! If the vagina tunnel is for creativity, what’s the butt tunnel for? Reflection?
posted by freecellwizard at 5:47 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by freecellwizard at 5:47 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
Love to direct all my hatred and spite against the tiny fraction of rich people who are young women rather than the thousands of anonymous finance/c-suite/investor people who hoard vastly greater wealth while contributing even less to society!!
To be fair this is brimming with kindness compared to the scorn dripped on the tastes of the anonymous investors. I remember one thread where the house had a candy dispenser wall or something and no one said one kind word about the whimsical tastes of the owner. Heck, the annual Williams-Sonoma thread exists to mock people who spend disposable income on a fancy waffle iron or cocktail shaker, here we have a house with built in never used rotisserie chicken "thing" and it hasn't even come up.
I admit I turned off the video that point. I think when I opened the comments I was planning to mock the video (though not her), but people have that covered. Instead I'm finding the thread more interesting as a sociology of metafilter thing--people like weird stuff but not "lifestyles of the rich and famous" puff pieces about rich celebrities. The disparity comes through in the reactions.
posted by mark k at 6:08 PM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
To be fair this is brimming with kindness compared to the scorn dripped on the tastes of the anonymous investors. I remember one thread where the house had a candy dispenser wall or something and no one said one kind word about the whimsical tastes of the owner. Heck, the annual Williams-Sonoma thread exists to mock people who spend disposable income on a fancy waffle iron or cocktail shaker, here we have a house with built in never used rotisserie chicken "thing" and it hasn't even come up.
I admit I turned off the video that point. I think when I opened the comments I was planning to mock the video (though not her), but people have that covered. Instead I'm finding the thread more interesting as a sociology of metafilter thing--people like weird stuff but not "lifestyles of the rich and famous" puff pieces about rich celebrities. The disparity comes through in the reactions.
posted by mark k at 6:08 PM on June 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I thought the house was quirky and overdone and crazy rich, but the biggest thing I noticed was how many people on Metafilter think it's perfectly reasonable to suggest murder and/or cannibalism in response to it. (At least four so far!)
posted by mmoncur at 7:48 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by mmoncur at 7:48 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
NOBODY TELL MY HUSBAND ABOUT THE $400,000 CASTLE IN INDIANA (from zillowgonewild) OR I'M GOING TO HAVE TO LIVE IN A $400,000 CASTLE IN INDIANA, and look man, I already lived in Indiana, and under Republican leadership it's NOT GREAT and you have to REPAIR YOUR CAR A LOT because the roads suck and have no stripes on them.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:02 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:02 PM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
I feel so weird that I am seething with jealousy about....the doors.
Unhappy girl
Left all alone
Playing solitaire
Playing warden to your soul
You are locked in a prison
Of your own devise...
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:57 AM on June 30, 2021
Unhappy girl
Left all alone
Playing solitaire
Playing warden to your soul
You are locked in a prison
Of your own devise...
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:57 AM on June 30, 2021
To be fair this is brimming with kindness compared to the scorn dripped on the tastes of the anonymous investors.
Possibly so, but it is surely a bit noteworthy that the two AD tours that have gone viral enough to reach Metafilter are Delevingne's and Dakota Johnson's, two sexually forward women who don't abide by the norms of social attitude, even considered in light of their celebrity.
While I grant people who comment in one thread on Metafilter aren't necessarily the same as those who comment on others, which can create some site contradiction on some matters, what people want from Delevingne is hard to figure. We tend to celebrate the kinds of big budget projects celebs like Delevingne star in, call some celebs "national treasures" or otherwise talk about them as exceptional beings, but somehow separate those careers from their money.
Is it Delevingne herself that bugs people, would a tour of, say, Elizabeth Olsen's house be more acceptable thanks to so many binge-watching Wandavision, thereby making the money feel more "earned"? Or is it that people want to love celebrities and the blockbusters and modeling jobs that make them but hate to be reminded that the money they spend on those movies or magazines actually goes to the "unneedy"? It surely can't be that people think the major corporations deserve the money more than Delevingne or other stars, but maybe the notion that our tastes have high prices may create some dissonance in our co-desire to see a more equitable system? Is it that Delevingne isn't modest enough in her tastes and would be more acceptable were she to live somewhere that didn't appear to cost as much, even though the amount she's worth would be the same? Is it that money is an abstraction, but seeing people with things we can't have annoys us, especially perhaps if we don't care for their taste? Do we expect celebs like Delevingne to be leading the revolution and we're just watching Netflix until the ball gets rolling?
I think I've expressed as much dislike of celebrity as anyone here, but that's as celebrity a value, not a status I hold against any one of them individually given the world we live in. It sometimes feels though that the overall attitude about celebrity is quite counter to that, where the value of the ideal is celebrated, but the real world reward for that status is what's hated and I have a hard time getting a grip on how that works.
posted by gusottertrout at 2:16 AM on June 30, 2021 [7 favorites]
Possibly so, but it is surely a bit noteworthy that the two AD tours that have gone viral enough to reach Metafilter are Delevingne's and Dakota Johnson's, two sexually forward women who don't abide by the norms of social attitude, even considered in light of their celebrity.
While I grant people who comment in one thread on Metafilter aren't necessarily the same as those who comment on others, which can create some site contradiction on some matters, what people want from Delevingne is hard to figure. We tend to celebrate the kinds of big budget projects celebs like Delevingne star in, call some celebs "national treasures" or otherwise talk about them as exceptional beings, but somehow separate those careers from their money.
Is it Delevingne herself that bugs people, would a tour of, say, Elizabeth Olsen's house be more acceptable thanks to so many binge-watching Wandavision, thereby making the money feel more "earned"? Or is it that people want to love celebrities and the blockbusters and modeling jobs that make them but hate to be reminded that the money they spend on those movies or magazines actually goes to the "unneedy"? It surely can't be that people think the major corporations deserve the money more than Delevingne or other stars, but maybe the notion that our tastes have high prices may create some dissonance in our co-desire to see a more equitable system? Is it that Delevingne isn't modest enough in her tastes and would be more acceptable were she to live somewhere that didn't appear to cost as much, even though the amount she's worth would be the same? Is it that money is an abstraction, but seeing people with things we can't have annoys us, especially perhaps if we don't care for their taste? Do we expect celebs like Delevingne to be leading the revolution and we're just watching Netflix until the ball gets rolling?
I think I've expressed as much dislike of celebrity as anyone here, but that's as celebrity a value, not a status I hold against any one of them individually given the world we live in. It sometimes feels though that the overall attitude about celebrity is quite counter to that, where the value of the ideal is celebrated, but the real world reward for that status is what's hated and I have a hard time getting a grip on how that works.
posted by gusottertrout at 2:16 AM on June 30, 2021 [7 favorites]
A mansion in a city with as many unhoused people as LA will always be disgusting on some level but this house is mostly unimaginative instagram backgrounds.
posted by zymil at 3:14 AM on June 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by zymil at 3:14 AM on June 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
Lol as if this was the ONLY mansion in LA? The city with the highest concentration of rich celebrities on earth? I bet it’s not even one of the biggest or most ridiculously over the top ones.
Honestly even if I’m no fan of the celebrity house showing thing, I’m also not particularly impressed with some of the "guillotine energy" (to quote another commenter above) on display in this thread. This is a young woman who has worked as a model and actor, not some billionaire with a company known for exploiting its workers and banning them from unionizing. A little bit of perspective and proportionality instead of indiscriminate "eat the rich" kneejerk reactions would be nice for a change...
posted by bitteschoen at 5:31 AM on June 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Honestly even if I’m no fan of the celebrity house showing thing, I’m also not particularly impressed with some of the "guillotine energy" (to quote another commenter above) on display in this thread. This is a young woman who has worked as a model and actor, not some billionaire with a company known for exploiting its workers and banning them from unionizing. A little bit of perspective and proportionality instead of indiscriminate "eat the rich" kneejerk reactions would be nice for a change...
posted by bitteschoen at 5:31 AM on June 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Frankly I have no problem with being brutally unpleasant about the childlike playhouse of one of the most privileged people on earth.
If she didn't want to be mocked why put it on the internet?
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:56 AM on June 30, 2021
If she didn't want to be mocked why put it on the internet?
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:56 AM on June 30, 2021
I remember one thread where the house had a candy dispenser wall or something and no one said one kind word about the whimsical tastes of the owner.
That would be Markus "Notch" Persson, creator of Minecraft, and kind of an asshole.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:05 AM on June 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
That would be Markus "Notch" Persson, creator of Minecraft, and kind of an asshole.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:05 AM on June 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
it's perfectly reasonable to suggest murder and/or cannibalism
To be fair, these were expressions of a desire for open class warfare, not murder/cannibalism simpliciter.
eat the rich
posted by fatbird at 7:22 AM on June 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
To be fair, these were expressions of a desire for open class warfare, not murder/cannibalism simpliciter.
eat the rich
posted by fatbird at 7:22 AM on June 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
It sometimes feels though that the overall attitude about celebrity is quite counter to that, where the value of the ideal is celebrated, but the real world reward for that status is what's hated and I have a hard time getting a grip on how that works.
I can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse here or if the concept that popularity, fame and celebrity could easily be divorced from world-destroying levels of wealth inequality is really genuinely just something that never crossed your mind. Cara Delevingne could still be Cara Delevingne perfectly well in a world where the USA has a wealth tax, a functioning social safety net, and millions of fewer people trapped in suffering and misery.
posted by mstokes650 at 7:54 AM on June 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
I can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse here or if the concept that popularity, fame and celebrity could easily be divorced from world-destroying levels of wealth inequality is really genuinely just something that never crossed your mind. Cara Delevingne could still be Cara Delevingne perfectly well in a world where the USA has a wealth tax, a functioning social safety net, and millions of fewer people trapped in suffering and misery.
posted by mstokes650 at 7:54 AM on June 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
I don't think it's intentional, but "other rich people are worse and escape scorn" strongly resembles Whataboutism.
I despise the underlying wealth inequality as uniformly as I'm humanly able, but I do have particular ire reserved for those who make internet videos flaunting the inequality. I would very much be in favor of reducing this abomination into dust were it feasible to do so.
posted by FallibleHuman at 9:53 AM on June 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I despise the underlying wealth inequality as uniformly as I'm humanly able, but I do have particular ire reserved for those who make internet videos flaunting the inequality. I would very much be in favor of reducing this abomination into dust were it feasible to do so.
posted by FallibleHuman at 9:53 AM on June 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I don't think it's intentional, but "other rich people are worse and escape scorn" strongly resembles Whataboutism.
Pretty sure this wasn't what theodolite's comment was saying.
It's an era I've moved into myself over the last few years. In the big wide world of people who do things I don't agree with, I've simply decided to target my ire at the ones who are men and leave Britney alone. Simple as that. I am presented with so many options when it comes to people I can eat/burn for fuel when the revolution comes. So I'll start with the men, thanks. And if that makes you feel bad.
posted by phunniemee at 10:38 AM on June 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Pretty sure this wasn't what theodolite's comment was saying.
It's an era I've moved into myself over the last few years. In the big wide world of people who do things I don't agree with, I've simply decided to target my ire at the ones who are men and leave Britney alone. Simple as that. I am presented with so many options when it comes to people I can eat/burn for fuel when the revolution comes. So I'll start with the men, thanks. And if that makes you feel bad.
posted by phunniemee at 10:38 AM on June 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
To be fair this is brimming with kindness compared to the scorn dripped on the tastes of the anonymous investors.
Y'know, I don't know if "Hey, we can be even be bigger assholes here!" is ever really a defensible position.
And yeah, the internet definitely has a vendetta against successful young women. It's not more than a few weeks when there was that ugly episode of some people dismissing Naomi Osaka's problems because she's a highly paid athlete.
posted by FJT at 10:40 AM on June 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Y'know, I don't know if "Hey, we can be even be bigger assholes here!" is ever really a defensible position.
And yeah, the internet definitely has a vendetta against successful young women. It's not more than a few weeks when there was that ugly episode of some people dismissing Naomi Osaka's problems because she's a highly paid athlete.
posted by FJT at 10:40 AM on June 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
FWIW, my previous post was not intended to be directed at a specific post or author. It was a response to what i perceived as a general theme. If the author in question felt called out, I apologize.
posted by FallibleHuman at 11:16 AM on June 30, 2021
posted by FallibleHuman at 11:16 AM on June 30, 2021
Ha! I was in the live-vaccinated audience of Colbert last night, and he had such a hard time keeping a straight face that we had to tape this segment multiple times.
That explains why the audience didn't seem too impressed with the reveal in broadcast, they'd already seen it repeatedly.
posted by JHarris at 3:33 PM on June 30, 2021
That explains why the audience didn't seem too impressed with the reveal in broadcast, they'd already seen it repeatedly.
posted by JHarris at 3:33 PM on June 30, 2021
Y'know, I don't know if "Hey, we can be even be bigger assholes here!" is ever really a defensible position.
I wasn't defending the behavior, I personally hate the eat the rich & guillotine "jokes." I also wasn't condemning the behavior, merely because it seems so entrenched as to be pointless. People even tag their own posts with those jokes.
I was responding to a comment that said "we" (I assumed metafilter) don't act that way towards the other rich, and clicking on the links makes it clear that that's true: We act a lot worse.
We tend to celebrate the kinds of big budget projects celebs like Delevingne star in, call some celebs "national treasures" or otherwise talk about them as exceptional beings, but somehow separate those careers from their money.
I found your whole post interesting gusottertrout, and it's interesting to think about someone who's work was beloved by a fanfare crowd the reaction would shift friendlier, at least somewhat.
But separating the career from the income seems trivial to me, not some mystery: I mean, you care about inequality but like movies; the salaries top stars get (and a lot of crew don't get) aren't written in stone so it's not like "oh, we couldn't have movies without this." It doesn't seem fundamentally any different than liking an iPhone but criticizing Jobs' wealth.
posted by mark k at 10:50 PM on June 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
I wasn't defending the behavior, I personally hate the eat the rich & guillotine "jokes." I also wasn't condemning the behavior, merely because it seems so entrenched as to be pointless. People even tag their own posts with those jokes.
I was responding to a comment that said "we" (I assumed metafilter) don't act that way towards the other rich, and clicking on the links makes it clear that that's true: We act a lot worse.
We tend to celebrate the kinds of big budget projects celebs like Delevingne star in, call some celebs "national treasures" or otherwise talk about them as exceptional beings, but somehow separate those careers from their money.
I found your whole post interesting gusottertrout, and it's interesting to think about someone who's work was beloved by a fanfare crowd the reaction would shift friendlier, at least somewhat.
But separating the career from the income seems trivial to me, not some mystery: I mean, you care about inequality but like movies; the salaries top stars get (and a lot of crew don't get) aren't written in stone so it's not like "oh, we couldn't have movies without this." It doesn't seem fundamentally any different than liking an iPhone but criticizing Jobs' wealth.
posted by mark k at 10:50 PM on June 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
And yeah, the internet definitely has a vendetta against successful young women. It's not more than a few weeks when there was that ugly episode of some people dismissing Naomi Osaka's problems because she's a highly paid athlete.
The cum town listening bros who make ugly jokes about girlboss feminism and get really upset at female politicians and athletes for reasons they never quite get around to articulating are human garbage and a lot of what is wrong with online leftist discussion right now.
It is an improvement that a young queer woman owns that mansion, but it would be better still if it housed several families who can't afford apartments instead.
posted by zymil at 12:04 AM on July 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
The cum town listening bros who make ugly jokes about girlboss feminism and get really upset at female politicians and athletes for reasons they never quite get around to articulating are human garbage and a lot of what is wrong with online leftist discussion right now.
It is an improvement that a young queer woman owns that mansion, but it would be better still if it housed several families who can't afford apartments instead.
posted by zymil at 12:04 AM on July 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
" It doesn't seem fundamentally any different than liking an iPhone but criticizing Jobs' wealth.
In a sense it isn't any different, that's kinda my point. Celebrity isn't just merit based recognition, where Delevingne would still be "Delevingne" under a fairer tax structure. Celebrity in the US is a multi-billion industry unto itself. I don't mean the Hollywood or the music industry in that, though they obviously feed from and into the same system, but simply the act of being famous or associating with or reporting on that fame becomes a way to generate wealth in itself. Celebrity is inherently inequal and distorts the society way beyond anything an adjustment to the highest tax bracket would fix. (And, please, let's not pretend that the negative reactions to the video are based on concerns over Delevingne's tax rate, as if people wouldn't begrudge her the ball pits and sex swings if she were taxed at 70%.)
A society that places such import on the value of celebrity cannot be a fair one. Of course there can be notice for talent, recognition of skill, or beauty, and that is a fairly constant thing over many countries and eras, but mass media allowed this to grow to unhealthy proportions and the internet has completely metastasized into something truly malignant. We are torn by the twin senses of desire and resentment over celebrity, repulsed by the displays of the "wrong" celebrities, those who don't fit our tastes or values, but are continually drawn to the spectacle of those who fit our tastes and/or the properties they are associated with. Reaching a certain level of fame or, god help us, "influence" becomes its own money making venture. Celebs attach their names to products and earn millions for the "brand" recognition. Reporting on, gossiping about, or just showing celebrities generates enormous amounts of wealth for media sites absent any purpose save notice of their fame. Celebrities are given money and goods just for being famous in the hopes their "brand" will get linked to those providing. Inordinate amounts of time are spent watching "influencers" and internet stars just talking or doing relatively mundane tasks or, to complete the vicious circle, commenting on other media and media stars.
Blaming the Delevingnes of the world for this and singling any one of them out for hate based on their fame and wealth misses the point, not that there's any reason to "like" them necessarily, but the problem is systemic and comes from the culture that places such a grotesque value on celebrity as a status. It's certainly good to want better taxation, a social safety net, and all the rest, but that isn't dealing with the problem of a society so hooked into unnecessary and unhealthy representations of gain and success. Hate Jobs wealth, but if you feel compelled to keep buying every iteration of the iphone just cause its shiny and new, then you are denying your own part in the system the perpetuates the Jobs'. Likewise singling out "this" celebrity as bad or tacky for not fitting your tastes, "No bookshelves!", but fawning over another for being a "national treasure" or being drawn to 200+ million dollar movies and all the most expensive spectacle money can buy also reinforces the system one claims to deny and posits the non-celeb self as powerless as we keep looking to be entertained while we wait for someone else to create change.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:35 AM on July 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
In a sense it isn't any different, that's kinda my point. Celebrity isn't just merit based recognition, where Delevingne would still be "Delevingne" under a fairer tax structure. Celebrity in the US is a multi-billion industry unto itself. I don't mean the Hollywood or the music industry in that, though they obviously feed from and into the same system, but simply the act of being famous or associating with or reporting on that fame becomes a way to generate wealth in itself. Celebrity is inherently inequal and distorts the society way beyond anything an adjustment to the highest tax bracket would fix. (And, please, let's not pretend that the negative reactions to the video are based on concerns over Delevingne's tax rate, as if people wouldn't begrudge her the ball pits and sex swings if she were taxed at 70%.)
A society that places such import on the value of celebrity cannot be a fair one. Of course there can be notice for talent, recognition of skill, or beauty, and that is a fairly constant thing over many countries and eras, but mass media allowed this to grow to unhealthy proportions and the internet has completely metastasized into something truly malignant. We are torn by the twin senses of desire and resentment over celebrity, repulsed by the displays of the "wrong" celebrities, those who don't fit our tastes or values, but are continually drawn to the spectacle of those who fit our tastes and/or the properties they are associated with. Reaching a certain level of fame or, god help us, "influence" becomes its own money making venture. Celebs attach their names to products and earn millions for the "brand" recognition. Reporting on, gossiping about, or just showing celebrities generates enormous amounts of wealth for media sites absent any purpose save notice of their fame. Celebrities are given money and goods just for being famous in the hopes their "brand" will get linked to those providing. Inordinate amounts of time are spent watching "influencers" and internet stars just talking or doing relatively mundane tasks or, to complete the vicious circle, commenting on other media and media stars.
Blaming the Delevingnes of the world for this and singling any one of them out for hate based on their fame and wealth misses the point, not that there's any reason to "like" them necessarily, but the problem is systemic and comes from the culture that places such a grotesque value on celebrity as a status. It's certainly good to want better taxation, a social safety net, and all the rest, but that isn't dealing with the problem of a society so hooked into unnecessary and unhealthy representations of gain and success. Hate Jobs wealth, but if you feel compelled to keep buying every iteration of the iphone just cause its shiny and new, then you are denying your own part in the system the perpetuates the Jobs'. Likewise singling out "this" celebrity as bad or tacky for not fitting your tastes, "No bookshelves!", but fawning over another for being a "national treasure" or being drawn to 200+ million dollar movies and all the most expensive spectacle money can buy also reinforces the system one claims to deny and posits the non-celeb self as powerless as we keep looking to be entertained while we wait for someone else to create change.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:35 AM on July 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
For the record, I like Cara Delevingne a lot, since seeing her in Paper Towns. Also, she has some excellent girlfriends. But, she could be paying a lot more taxes and still be as cool and entertaining. And nobody needs an 8,000 sq. ft. house.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:52 PM on July 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:52 PM on July 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
But... just imagine how many bookshelves could fit into an 8000 sqft home. I could finally take my books out of storage!
posted by Justinian at 12:56 PM on July 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 12:56 PM on July 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
The cum town listening bros
Is that a....podcast?
posted by thelonius at 2:10 PM on July 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
Is that a....podcast?
posted by thelonius at 2:10 PM on July 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
Seems like an incredible amount of handwringing in defense of a woman whose
I've met a few aristocrats (hiding out in the ivy league as if they were just normal overachievers) and in general you can expect that they wouldn't lift a finger in /your/ defense. Guillotines were built for such people, and while she wouldn't be first in line, nobody can ever convince me it isn't healthy and good to keep a hearty reserve of animosity for anyone and everyone in the transnational oligarchy, our weird and wild masters luxuriating in their hyperborean realms (complete with vagina tunnels).
posted by dis_integration at 2:15 PM on July 1, 2021
godfather is Condé Nast executive Nicholas Coleridge, and her godmother is actress Joan Collins. Her maternal grandfather was publishing executive and English Heritage chairman Sir Jocelyn Stevens, the nephew of magazine publisher Sir Edward George Warris Hulton and the grandson of newspaper proprietor Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet. Her paternal grandmother was the socialite, the Honourable Angela Margo Hamar Greenwood. Her paternal great-grandparents were the Canadian-born British politician Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood and Margery Greenwood, Viscountess Greenwood, and her maternal grandmother Janie Sheffield was lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. Through one of her maternal great-great-grandfathers, Sir Lionel Lawson Faudel-Phillips, 3rd Baronet, Delevingne descends from the Anglo-Jewish Faudel-Phillips baronets; two of her ancestors on that line served as Lord Mayor of LondonI'm pretty sure she'd have a fancy mansion whether she'd had a minor film career or not. But of course, prestigious and successful lives are simply of matter of course for someone with such decorated ancestors.
I've met a few aristocrats (hiding out in the ivy league as if they were just normal overachievers) and in general you can expect that they wouldn't lift a finger in /your/ defense. Guillotines were built for such people, and while she wouldn't be first in line, nobody can ever convince me it isn't healthy and good to keep a hearty reserve of animosity for anyone and everyone in the transnational oligarchy, our weird and wild masters luxuriating in their hyperborean realms (complete with vagina tunnels).
posted by dis_integration at 2:15 PM on July 1, 2021
I've met a few aristocrats (hiding out in the ivy league as if they were just normal overachievers) and in general you can expect that they wouldn't lift a finger in /your/ defense. Guillotines were built for such people, and while she wouldn't be first in line, nobody can ever convince me it isn't healthy and good to keep a hearty reserve of animosity for anyone and everyone in the transnational oligarchy, our weird and wild masters luxuriating in their hyperborean realms (complete with vagina tunnels).
Well first, a lot of people wouldn't lift a finger to help me, but that doesn't mean they should be executed. And as someone against the death penalty, any form of execution is not really "healthy" or good to me. And on the point that it was originally built to kill aristocrats, it's probably been used to kill just as many anti-fascist fighters and political dissidents by the Nazis and other totalitarian regimes. Which means it's like being pressed to death or the firing squad, except it's just got better PR.
posted by FJT at 3:52 PM on July 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
Well first, a lot of people wouldn't lift a finger to help me, but that doesn't mean they should be executed. And as someone against the death penalty, any form of execution is not really "healthy" or good to me. And on the point that it was originally built to kill aristocrats, it's probably been used to kill just as many anti-fascist fighters and political dissidents by the Nazis and other totalitarian regimes. Which means it's like being pressed to death or the firing squad, except it's just got better PR.
posted by FJT at 3:52 PM on July 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
The cum town listening brosYeah its a podcast. I haven't listed to much cum town, but they clearly gave up on getting ads from razor manufacturers and bed linen companies long ago and leaned in to being as toxic as possible.
Is that a....podcast?
posted by zymil at 6:35 PM on July 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
Cara and two of her dogs featured on the latest Fiona Apple album, so I vote we don't send her to the firing squad just yet.
posted by Lanark at 12:59 AM on July 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Lanark at 12:59 AM on July 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
Reminds me of that old Rolling Stone feature on Ike and Tina Turner's then home: writer mentioned something along the lines of "a Hollywood mansion entirely decorated with stuff from Woolworth".
posted by Chitownfats at 11:32 AM on July 2, 2021
posted by Chitownfats at 11:32 AM on July 2, 2021
Someone like this is essentially a lottery winner, she was born into wealth and born with great beauty, so much that she has created an entire career and tens of millions of dollars from it. I can't get too worked up over the size of her house or the expense of her furnishings.
I reserve my scorn and proclamations of superior morality and taste for those rapacious capitalists who have sucked the lifeblood of the proletariat and continue to siphon vast wealth from the bottom to their own pockets.
posted by chaz at 2:44 PM on July 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
I reserve my scorn and proclamations of superior morality and taste for those rapacious capitalists who have sucked the lifeblood of the proletariat and continue to siphon vast wealth from the bottom to their own pockets.
posted by chaz at 2:44 PM on July 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
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posted by fatbird at 7:08 AM on June 29, 2021 [8 favorites]