Saturday, February 23, 2013

In Defense Of Anne Hathaway

There seems to be a fair number of people who dislike Anne Hathaway for no discernibly valid reason.  They claim to dislike her looks or find her boring or think she is fake or feel that she’s too perfect and therefore contemptible.  I can’t understand where this comes from because I find her to be charming, sincere, polite, talented and hard-working.  She also seems intelligent and concerned about the world around her and I think she is fairly attractive.  She sort of reminds me of someone I play poker with too and since I have a little unrequited crush on that person, I can’t help but to transfer that feeling to Anne Hathaway when watching her movies. 

It makes Becoming Jane, Love And Other Drugs and One Day feel like romantic wish fulfillment while Dark Knight Rises, Get Smart and Alice In Wonderland make me appreciate Anne’s geek friendly attitude and displays her bad-ass credentials.  Despite her steamier, sexier, edgier side on display in Havoc, Brokeback Mountain and Rachel getting Married, I can pretend that I’d have a shot at her, as confirmed by how the protagonists unjustly ignore her appeal in Ella Enchanted, Princess Diaries, Valentine’s Day and Bride Wars while I am swooning for her the whole time.  I have decided to be an unapologetic supporter of Anne Hathaway and will defend her whenever I get the chance.  I’m starting off this campaign by reposting some stuff that has recently been written about her so you can see the baselessness of the snarkiness. 

If you read through this, maybe you’ll see her true nature come out, you’ll appreciate her personality and realize that her detractors are either jealous or wrong since they have no concrete basis for disliking her.  It really boils down to her cheerfulness, enthusiasm and desire for excellence and success.  If your kid displayed these traits in school, you would be thrilled with your honor student, not mock them for trying to achieve something.  Also, in order to help negate some of the millions of hits about disliking Anne, I want to say that I really like her.  I do like her.  Seriously.  Ever since I saw her in Becoming Jane I decided she was worthy of appreciation.  I can honestly say that I support Anne, I heart Anne, I defend Anne, I crush on Anne.  Whatever I can do to negate those 25 million negative Google hits. So, here’s the summary of Anne Hathaway.





Anne Hathaway Finally Admits She Sucked At Hosting Oscars, Offers Advice For Seth MacFarlane
(By Cassandra Hough, Crushable.com, 22 December 2012)

Two years after the worst Academy Awards telecast I’ve ever seen and one year after a desperate attempt to make Billy Crystal relevant again, Seth MacFarlane better live up to the impossible expectations I’ve set for him during this year’s Oscars.  Recently, Anne Hathaway offered him a little hosting advice while simultaneously admitting that she and James Franco sucked a big bag of dicks when they ruined my favorite awards show for me in 2011:

“This is my advice to Seth – based on my own experience,” Hathaway tells EW. “You have to try to strike a balance between keeping the people of the room entertained and keeping the people at home from thinking you’re nuts. The instinct is to play to the room, because otherwise the audience there gets really bored and restless. Me with my theater background, I played to the back row of the Kodak, which has 3,500 people. To the people at home, it could come off as a little over-the-top. I’ve never seen [the whole thing],” she says of her ill-fated hosting gig. “But I felt like I made a rookie mistake.”

The rookie mistake being, of course, that over-compensating for your co-host’s complete lack of enthusiasm and comedic timing by being Miss Sunshine McChipperson will backfire.  The only positive thing I have to say about that ill-fated gig was that Anne Hathaway can pull off a tux and a ponytail.  When Entertainment Weekly asked Seth MacFarlane for his response to Anne’s advice, he answered very Seth MacFarlane-y by being polite and using big words in his best NPR voice (I imagine):

“That’s interesting. That shows a lot of successful self-analysis. I wouldn’t have quantified it in exactly that way, but she’s showing a really intelligent response to that,” MacFarlane said. “That’s why Johnny Carson was truly the greatest. It was in his bones to play to a television audience. The audience in the room, you have to be aware of them, but it’s a balancing act.”

I happen to be really good at reading between the lines, so here’s what I think Seth is really saying: “Anne totally blows goats as an Oscars host but she’s too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to publicly insult.”  That being said, I do think she had her work cut out for her with the co-host they paired her with. Hopefully James Franco won’t be allowed anywhere near the Oscar stage this year unless he’s accepting an award for Best Squinter, and Seth MacFarlane keeps his Stewie voice to a minimum.

http://www.crushable.com/2012/12/22/entertainment/anne-hathaway-james-franco-oscars-seth-macfarlane/#ixzz2LlV7055O

 
 

Matt Lauer Owes Anne Hathaway An Apology
(By Ashley Cardiff, The Gloss.com, 13 December 2012)

By now you probably know all about the press frenzy that is Anne Hathaway‘s “wardrobe malfunction” (or lip slip, as genuinely gross people prefer). If you don’t, here it is in brief: Anne Hathaway dropped by the premiere of Les Mis wearing slinky Tom Ford and, while exiting her limo, the paparazzi managed to nab a few intimate shots featuring a hint of pubis. A hint.  This is a big deal because Anne Hathaway is a beautiful, wholesome, talented actress and not some lowly cooch flasher like Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton (not our rules, people). Hence, lots of coverage, from multiple angles.

Yesterday morning, Hathaway went on the Today Show to promote Les Mis and, unsurprisingly, host Matt Lauer brought up the images.  …But not nearly enough people are talking about how Lauer introduced the subject:  “Anne Hathaway, good morning, nice to see you. Been seeing a lot of you lately.”  He basically just said, “Good morning, I recently saw your vulva” on TV.  Hathaway goes visibly rigid, but pauses a beat and lets out a movie star-caliber chuckle to keep things from getting awkward. She even says, “Sorry about that.” She then jokes–though it’s sad–that she’d rather be home but she has to promote the film.  Lauer then gets more direct:

“Let’s just get it out of the way. You had a little wardrobe malfunction the other night. What’s the lesson learned from something like that? Other than that you keep smiling, which you always do.”

This is also pretty gross. Is the “lesson learned” really “keep smiling“? Isn’t the lesson actually “some people are scumbags”? If Hathaway weren’t a movie star, wouldn’t we call this sexual harassment? Why are the paparazzi allowed to jockey for photographs of her genitals?  Hathaway’s response was the very articulate, sane, circumspect quote that follows:

“It was obviously an unfortunate incident. I think — it kind of made me sad on two accounts. One, I was very sad that we live in an age when someone takes a picture of another person in a vulnerable moment and rather than delete it and do the decent thing, sells it. And I’m sorry that we live in a culture that commodifies sexuality of unwilling participants, which brings us back to Les Mis. That’s what my character is, she is someone who is forced to sell sex to benefit her child because she has nothing and there’s no social safety net.”

Good on you, Hathaway (++ remarkable segue).  But back to Lauer: in what world was any of this an acceptable thing to say to someone?  Apparently some people feel Hathaway deserved it. We noticed on The Gloss‘ Facebook page one commenter who was disgusted she “[went] commando in an evening gown” and added, “Ew.” As if, somehow, that meant it was her fault (nevermind the fact a movie star is painfully aware that visible panty lines on the red carpet will make her a Fashion Disaster all over the internet the next day) (ie, she probably wasn’t freeballing for the illicit thrill of it).  In summary, forgoing underthings in evening dresses 1) isn’t that weird and 2) doesn’t justify a strange man shoving a fucking camera between your legs. …Much less going off and selling the subsequent photos.  Ugh.  Look, everything about this story is horrible–except Anne Hathaway, who is a class act.

As for Matt Lauer, he owes her an apology. That “seeing a lot of you lately,” comment wasn’t just inappropriate and unprofessional, it was downright gross.


 
 
 

 
Why Do You Hate Anne Hathaway?
(By Jennifer Wright, The Gloss, 07 December 2012)

According to Buzzfeed: Her career may be on the rise, but public opinion of Anne Hathaway is at an all-time low. Why all the hate? Huh. I remember, once, years ago, Anne Hathaway gave an interview regarding her role in The Devil Wears Prada that made me hate her a bit.  It said something about how, at one point, during the scene where her character goes to the Met Ball they wanted to do a makeover where they put a tiara on her. But she was sick of that after all the Princess Diaries stuff, and said that she would only do that if her character then tore the tiara off her head and began tearing it apart.  And I thought “well, you know, that seems somewhat ungrateful towards a franchise that really put you in the public eye.” And, fine, I loved The Princess Diaries. I will still probably watch it every time I stumble across it while flipping channels on TV (other movies I find this to be true of are Casino and Goodfellas ,so I think it evens out).

But then years passed, and I realized that if I was in my early 20′s that’s exactly the kind of thing I would have offhandedly said to an interviewer, too, and, well, that is not really a reason to hate Anne Hathaway.  And she went back to being my favorite actress, pretty much. She seems warm and accessible. I thought it was vaguely bizarre when she protested at Occupy Wall Street considering the fact that movie stars are paid a salary very disproportionate to everyone else in the world, but, well, I’m okay with that. Maybe she was just really feeling her role as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises.  Other than that I think she does an excellent job in virtually every movie I’ve seen her in. I think Brokeback Mountain was a pretty bold choice. I thought that Catwoman was the best part of the Dark Knight Rises (the hats alone!) and I know I’m not the only person who feels that way. I think she’ll be great in Les Mis. I even liked her dress, yesterday. I thought the sleeves were neat.

And I think she also seems like someone who – and I know I am not basing this off of anything, really – works very hard at her roles. She doesn’t seem like a diva. She seems like someone who shows up and does her job with a reasonable amount of good cheer, and I like this quality.  So, I’m a huge fan. I think she’s great. She’s probably one of the rare actresses whose presence in a movie would make me more likely to go and see it.  But you hate her, I guess, because you are an abject monster. Why? Let me know! Don’t say anything about her physical appearance!


 
 

Anne Hathaway Is Ashamed Of Her Obsession With Being Skinny, So Maybe We Can’t Be So Glib About Her Weight Loss
(By Natalie Zutter, Crushable.com, 04 December 2012)

Ever since those first set photos surfaced of Anne Hathaway looking terrifyingly gaunt and stomach-clenchingly miserable on the Les Miserables set, we’ve been against her drastic weight loss for the role. After all, she’s not in the movie long enough as Fantine to justify eating dried oatmeal paste squares to lose twenty pounds. (It’s not like Uma Thurman did so in the 1998 version.)  In addition to deriding her ridiculous diet, we’d also scrutinize video interviews, like this one where in the middle she creepily defended her drastic method acting. She was very aware of what she was doing to her body, but also seemed very matter-of-fact about losing the weight as a necessary part of her job. But I don’t think I grasped just how much it affects her emotionally until I read her review with Glamour.

Like in other interviews, Anne tackled head-on the issue of her startlingly skinny frame while shooting Les Mis. But she also provided more context for how her career shift (from Disney movies to darker fare) and relationship issues (scam artist/ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri has since been deported) affected her body insecurities.

Eve Ensler: This is Glamour’s Self-Expression Issue. When did you feel like you began to express yourself in a way that was authentic to you?
Anne Hathaway: I had that moment after I finished making 
Rachel Getting Married. I realized that the life I’d been living [was not authentic] and that I had to make a change. Then I found out that my trust had been betrayed quite massively. So for me, that call came at the end of 2007. Who was I going to be? There’s no magic bullet; there’s no pill that you take that makes everything great and makes you happy all the time. I’m letting go of those expectations, and that’s opening me up to moments of transcendent bliss. But I still feel the stress over “Am I thin enough? Am I too thin? Is my body the right shape?”

Eve Ensler: And is that an everyday obsession?
Anne Hathaway: If I’m honest, yes. There’s an obsessive quality to it that I thought I would’ve grown out of by now. It’s an ongoing source of shame for me.

Eve Ensler: Because you should somehow be different than the rest of the human race?
Anne Hathaway: I just think about the ridicule you get if you have an off day. If people weren’t watching, I’d be so much more eccentric. I know it makes me sound weak, but rather than make myself happy and wear the silly hat and say, “Oh, I don’t care,” I actually really don’t feel like getting made fun of. So I put on something boring and navy and go out and try to disappear.

At first I wondered if Anne felt obligated to talk about her body image issues since she was being interviewed by Eve Ensler (she of The Vagina Monologues) and because actresses have to play the whole “I’m just as insecure as you!” act. But I do believe that this is an actual problem that plagues her.  Now I’ve been going over our Les Mis coverage and wondering if we were one of the sites making fun of Anne. For the most part our criticism and confusion came out of genuine worry for an actress slimming down at an alarming rate. But I think that I was also sometimes glib about her weight loss, writing it off as merely part of the job. However, I applaud Anne for sharing insight into how much of a struggle it really has been and likely will continue to be now that the movie is over and everyone wants her to gain some weight — but not too much weight — back. And I’m gonna think twice before the next time I point out a candid photo of her looking shockingly thin.

http://www.crushable.com/2012/12/04/entertainment/anne-hathaway-ashamed-obsessed-skinny-quote-les-miserables-diet/#ixzz2LldIGD6l

 

Real Talk: I Don’t Much Care For Anne Hathaway
(By Alexis Rhiannon, Crushable.com, 04 November 2012)

Saturday Night Live is all new tonight, with host Anne Hathaway returning, and musical guest Rihanna. It’s set up to be a very popular show, as they’ve both been on before and done well. I really shouldn’t say anything at all, but the celebrities have been oddly quiet today amidst the devastating fallout of the Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber breakup and the Petraeus scandal. So I guess this is as good a time as any to admit something terrible: I don’t much care for her. I know that’s heresy in a world infatuated with all things Anne Hathaway. We let her host our Oscars, and be the best thing in The Dark Knight Rises, and get a pixie cut. Things that normal celebrities aren’t allowed to do, but that we throw at Anne Hathaway like so much confetti. She’s America’s Sweetheart, for god sakes, you don’t have to tell me that what I’m saying is blasphemy.

I’m sorry, I can’t explain it. I’m the odd one out, I know, but there’s something about her that rubs me the wrong way. I really like her movies, and even her performances in them. I loved The Devil Wears Prada, and I found her actually Oscar-worthy in Rachel Getting Married. Oh and let’s not pretend like I didn’t watch The Princess Diaries 85,000 times growing up. But when I see Anne Hathaway out in the world, I’m not into it. She’s like…too good. She’s too nice, too attractive, in too good of shape, too humble, too talented. With all those things, I should be obsessed with her. But instead I’m just not. I’m oddly disconnected.

I watch her beautiful face do its talented acting and go — my my, what a large beautiful mouth. I don’t like it. Look at those dark beautiful eyes. I don’t like them. Listen to her skinny beautiful words. I don’t like them. Shut up. Shut up, Anne Hathaway. I honestly don’t know what it is. Maybe I’m jealous, but I don’t feel jealousy. I watch her in outtakes, and I feel like she’s not a real person. She’s always putting on accents and flittering around apologizing for mistakes that she didn’t make, and I just don’t get it. I don’t find her perfection charming. I find it annoying.

Especially with Les Miserables coming out, everybody’s hopping aboard her train even more than usual. But, like, I see those trailers, and all I think is, “Oh good, we’re letting her sing now. I bet she’ll be real fucking good at it, too.” And she is. Just like when we let her be Judy Garland. Like, look how bitter I am! I honestly don’t get it.  And after all that, you’d think I’d cut my losses and just stop watching her in stuff. Like, not turn on my TV tonight to watch SNL. But you know what? I’m going to. Because I’m determined to find out what it is about her that has me so skeeved. I won’t like it, but I will watch it.  Stay tuned.

http://www.crushable.com/2012/11/10/entertainment/anne-hathaway-hosting-saturday-night-live-snl-les-miserables-the-devil-wears-prada-princess-diaries-528/#ixzz2LlehdMHg

 

Anne Hathaway Giving Off A Pregnant Bliss Vibe Says Friends And Family
(By Jenni Maier, Crushable.com, 19 December 2013)

Looks like Anne Hathaway will take her weight from one extreme to another this year. On the slight chance that you’re Rip Van Winkles and you just awoke from a 100-year nap, let me be the first to tell you that Anne Hathaway lost clinically unhealthy amounts of weight for her role as Fantine in Les Miserables. That story dominated the headlines for approximately 25 weeks, one week for every pound she lost by starving herself.

And now, it appears she’ll be gaining weight for her new role as a mother. Not in a movie, but in real life! According to Star, she not only wants a baby, but she’s already pregnant. with one. Which works out beautifully, because it would be horrid if she went around being all like, “I hate babies and I never want one! Oh, also I’m pregnant and I’m registered at Babies R Us.”   A pal of The Devil Wears Prada star told Star the brunette beauty has been dropping “subtle hints that she may already be pregnant.  She’s been avoiding alcohol, talking about nursery colors and decorations and inquiring to close friends who recently gave birth about the best pediatricians,” the pal said. ”She and Adam are definitely giving off the pregnant bliss vibe, leading loved ones to believe they might have a little one next summer!”

If we’ve learned anything from The Kate Middleton Pregnancy Rumor Mill of 2012, it’s that everything’s a sign of pregnancy. Especially the classic pregnant bliss vibe. If you’re shaking your head in confusion about this vibe, then you’ve clearly never seen a pregnant woman before. While I can’t pretend it’s possible to sum up the vibe with mere words, I’ll try. It’s that thing when a woman rides around the countryside on the back of a magical stork while saying things like “sonogram! diapers! wet nurse!” You’d know it, if you saw it.  Her pal goes on to also add that she’s excited thinking about ”how great a father Adam will be. He can’t wait until their baby is born.”  Like I said before, this is marvelous, marvelous, marvelous! There’s nothing more dreadful when an anonymous pal tells the media that a prospective father’s not excited for the birth of his child.  While this pregnancy’s still in early rumor stages, we expect it to be in full-blown  face-bloat speculation mode by the time the new year rolls around.

Congrats Anne! Once you hit baby bump watch, you’ve really made it in this town.

http://www.crushable.com/2012/12/19/entertainment/anne-hathaway-pregnant-rumors/#ixzz2LlgmWnjd




The Cult of Hathahaters: Will It Hurt Anne Hathaway’s Oscar Chances?
(By Kevin Fallon, Daily Beast, 20 Jan’ry 2013)
 
The blogosphere is teeming with snark about the Les Miz star’s polarizing personality. Where did all that animosity come from—and could it keep her from Oscar glory?  Run a Google search for “Anne Hathaway” and “annoying,” and 1.5 million search results are returned. Try “Anne Hathaway” and “hate,” and that number spikes to a mere 28.5 million.

 Somewhere between breaking out as the spunky, frizzy-haired Princess of Genovia to belting her way through the Les Misérables score to her second Oscar nomination, the 30-year-old actress has found her public persona morph from endearingly goofy Disney starlet to, apparently, insufferable A-list movie star. “Of all the actresses in her generation, I can’t think of someone as polarizing as her,” Dave Karger, chief correspondent for Fandango and longtime Oscar guru, tells The Daily Beast. The growing perception—an attitude only fueled by an ever-growing, ever-snarkier army of entertainment bloggers—came to a head Sunday night when she won the Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as doomed Fantine in Les Miz.
 
It was a speech carefully crafted to come off as surprised and humbled, but was instead so carefully rehearsed that it was branded contrived and a tad pretentious. She feigned false surprise: “Woo. This is happening,” she panted. The phrase “Thank you very much for this lovely blunt object that I will forevermore use as a weapon against self doubt” was used.  The cult of Hathahaters responded with, at this point, expected vitriol. Twitter measured 19,685 tweets per minute during her speech—second only to Jennifer Lawrence’s. A sampling of the reaction of Twitter: “Can’t watch the Golden Globes anymore b/c Anne Hathaway called her award a ‘weapon of self doubt’ and I threw my pizza at the TV and shattered it,” said @JuliaMat. Joked parody website someecards.com the next morning, “May your Monday not feel like one prolonged Anne Hathaway acceptance speech.”

It’s a typical reaction from the group. Even those who objectively acknowledge her talent still can’t get past her personality. “The best performance of 2012? Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables,” tweeted @ivancommajoseph. “The worst performance? Anne Hathaway in Faux-Surprise Golden Globes Speech.” But where did this community of such passionate distaste come from? And, as tuberculosis claimed poor, desperate Fantine, will the intensely negative reaction to Hathaway’s award-circuit appearances ruin her chances at what was once considered her sure-thing Oscar?  The arc of Hathahate is like one of those U-ish parabolas from algebra class. Her star-making debut in The Princess Diaries introduced the world to a young, ceaselessly peppy, eager-to-please ingénue—the real-life incarnation of Rachel Berry from Glee. The overly theatrical demeanor that she’s so often zinged for now was present then in full force, but was quickly overshadowed by a series of interesting career moves. Quickly, Hathaway became cool.
She appeared to toss her Disney roots out the window to star in an shrewd mix of gritty, adult projects—Brokeback Mountain, Rachel Getting Married—and more mature, commercial hits—The Devil Wears Prada. Then, in 2008, the rug was yanked out from underneath her when she and then-boyfriend of four years Raffaello Follieri split after he was arrested for allegedly scamming investors by lying about ties to the Vatican.  She was conned by the con man—and splashed across tabloid covers as Hollywood’s latest tragic heroine. She was sympathetic, breaking into tears over the whole ordeal during an interview with W magazine just three weeks after the scandal broke. Putting on a brave face and dutifully hitting the publicity circuit to promote her stunning turn in Rachel Getting Married, public perception was that Hathaway was tough and strong and a bit of a badass.

Then that off-putting, desperate theater girl came back—only this time she was more famous. She’d host SNL, guest on talk shows, or storm the Oscar stage like a whirling dervish of borderline maniacal energy to co-emcee the 2011 ceremony. With each public appearance, her detractors found her more and more irritating, with loathing hitting overdrive following the Oscars stint. Gone was Hathaway the survivor; back was the chipper aggravator.  As Crushable.com’s Alexis Rhiannon puts it, “She’s always putting on accents and flittering around apologizing for mistakes that she didn’t make, and I just don’t get it. I don’t find her perfection charming. I find it annoying.”  It’s hard not to wonder whether the girl who was a lock to win is now talking her way out of the Oscar.
To those who already hold that opinion of her, Hathaway’s done nothing to ingratiate herself during her big Les Miz Oscar push and trophy domination. She uses phrases like “I felt like I sprouted a pair of wings and lifted off of the ground,” to describe her experience shooting the film. At the National Board of Review Awards, the cast of Les Miz won Best Ensemble. Co-star Amanda Seyfried managed to sputter a few words before Hathaway commandeered the microphone to accept, leaving poor Eddie Redmayne fidgeting in the background. After winning Best Supporting Actress at the Critics Choice Awards, she spent the first portion of her speech chastising the organization for misspelling her name in a clip reel.

Her spontaneous dash to the microphone when Les Misérables won Best Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes to thank people she forgot to mention in her already two-minute-long Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech already may have rubbed viewers the wrong way—but they may not know that directly before she did, the award show’s producer told the audience to keep speeches short because the show was running late. “I haven’t forgotten to thank anyone because I haven’t started yet,” Les Miz producer Eric Fellner said after, throwing his star under the bus.  The attitude toward Hathaway is a publicity nightmare, and it’s spun so out of control that it’s become spoofable. Satrical news site The Onion said it best in a parody article that ran last September—showing how far back the Hathahate extends. “Area Woman’s Baseless Hatred of Anne Hathaway Reciprocated,” the headline reads, with made-up quotes from Hathaway reflecting back the Internet hatred toward her: “You can tell Cathy Lerro’s totally in love with herself, even though she’s really just fucking annoying.”  When buzz over her performance in Les Misérables was at its peak in December, Buzzfeed published a post naming all the reasons people hate Hathaway—her face, she looks stupid, she ruins everything—but, tellingly, the last item on the burn list was, “More often than not, there’s no real reason.”
Ms. Hathaway certainly has her fans, too. It even looked like the tide against her was turning with a celebrated turn as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises—President Obama, for one, called her the best part of the film. And not everyone was turned off by her Globes speech—Karger says many in the ballroom were touched by her tribute to Sally Field, and awards aficionado Charles Bright of Goldderby.com thought the moment was among the night’s highlights. On Twitter, one @notoriousbanana said her “speech at the Golden Globes made me a fan.”  But with almost instantaneous disgust flooding the Internet with every awards stop she makes, it’s hard not to wonder whether the girl who was a lock to win is now talking her way out of the Oscar.

Karger, for one, isn’t so sure. While it’s likely that Oscar voters are aware of the backlash to her personality, the phenomenon is clearly far more potent in the blogosphere than it is in the Academy. In really tight Oscar races, any little thing can count for or against a contender; he says Hathaway is so far and away the Best Supporting Actress frontrunner that “I don’t know what she’d have to do to screw up her chances.” Look to the case of Mo’Nique’s Best Supporting Actress win in 2010. She was asking to be paid for appearances during Oscar season, which was unheard of, and the media and industry insiders were raking her through the coals for the behavior. But she still won- and likely by a large margin.  An aversion to an Oscar contender’s personality or even a bad speech does have the potential to hurt a vulnerable actor, Karger says, but Hathaway’s performance has been so lauded that her frontrunner status is Teflon at this point. “She’s so far out that her haters are just going to have to accept it.” 
Hathahaters gon’ hate.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/18/the-cult-of-hathahaters-will-it-hurt-anne-hathaway-s-oscar-chances.html






Why Do Women Hate Anne Hathaway (But Love Jennifer Lawrence)?
(By Ann Friedman, New York Magazine, 26 February 2013)
I can’t figure out why I don’t like Anne Hathaway. Or rather, why we don’t. In all the social-media fallout from the Oscars, the Best Supporting Actress winner also almost won Most Detested Figure of the Night, finishing just behind Seth MacFarlane and the idiot at The Onion who tweeted a slur about 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis. “And what the Onion missed is that it's Anne Hathaway who's the real cunt. Right EVERY WOMAN ON THE INTERNET?” tweeted Buzzfeed’s Jack Moore.

Unlike most strangers I claim to dislike (most conservative politicians, some friends’ ex-boyfriends, and the aforementioned MacFarlane), Hathaway and I would probably get along swimmingly. She seems smart and self-possessed, savvy and successful. She’s a spokesperson for Eve Ensler’s anti-violence organization, One Billion Rising. And have you seen the clip of her shutting down Matt Lauer’s creepy questions about her upskirt moment with a
measured response about the commodification of female sexuality? It is on point. Yet she leaves me cold.

Does EVERY WOMAN ON THE INTERNET baselessly hate Anne Hathaway? I took a quick straw poll. “She is that theater kid with good intentions but secretly annoys the shit out of you,” said one friend, adding, “You want to be excited for her and you are but deep down you are kind of rolling your eyes.” Another replied, “I think someone told her she was America's sweetheart and she believed it.” One friend placed her in the category of “really affected drama queens,” saying, “I can imagine her non-ironically yelling ‘Acting!’” In other words, she’s always on stage, always calculated — not someone you’d want to party with, or share your deepest secrets. “I am an Anne Hathaway supporter,” said a friend who sidestepped the question of whether or not she finds the actress likable. “Sure, she's kind of needy, but so are all actors.”

What does it really mean when we say an actress "annoys the shit" out of us, anyway? That we hate the roles she chooses? The paparazzi'd version of her life we see in US Weekly? Her insufficiently funny quips on the red carpet? Or, as Salon
asked today, is it her face? In some ways, the point of sitting on the bleachers of celebrity culture is the thrill of judging with impunity. Unlike our neighbors or co-workers, we convince ourselves that famous actors, by dint of making their living entertaining us, have chosen to be judged. And judge we do. (This isn’t just a byproduct of our Twitter-enforced instapundit culture, either: “Let's get Entertainment Weekly and play my favorite new game: Love Her/Hate Him,” exclaims Will in a 1999 episode of Will & Grace.)

For someone who’s managed to win our seemingly arbitrary love, look no further than Hathaway’s fellow winning actress from Sunday night, the universally adored Jennifer Lawrence. She’s self-effacing and funny. She seems like an excellent party companion, taking just about every opportunity to mention how many shots she’s had (
before appearing on Jimmy Kimmel, before the red carpet, after winning the Oscar for Best Actress). She doesn’t seem overly serious about Hollywood, and gently chided Hollywood royalty Jack Nicholson, “You’re being really rude,” when he interrupted a post-win interview. She doesn’t pretend that punishing body standards are anything but horrible. When she jokes about sucking in her stomach on the red carpet or her publicist hating her for eating a Philly cheesesteak (“There’s only so much Spanx can cover up!”), it feels real, not designed to fool her fans into thinking she’s not one of those salad-but-hold-the-dressing girls. Lawrence said she ordered McDonald’s on the red carpet at the Oscars.  Hathaway is a vegan.

At first blush, though, the two actresses have much in common. They’re both incredibly driven, making several films a year, and knew from a young age they wanted to be actresses. Much of what we love about Lawrence should also translate to love for Hathaway. When David Letterman asked Hathaway how she lost 25 pounds for her Les Miz role, she
replied, “You don’t want to know. It would just make you worry.” J.Law drew props for confessing “I’m starving!” on the red carpet, but Hathaway has also described how she and Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt “would clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry." Are these really that different?

The biggest difference between them is their interview and red-carpet persona. Hathaway doesn’t have the same down-to-earth delivery. She’s charming, but not funny. Meanwhile Lawrence manages to
exude a best-friend vibe even at a behind-the-curtain Oscar press conference. Anyone who’s frozen up in front of the camera or in front of a crowd knows how hard it is to play a version of yourself and seem “natural” with all eyes on you. That Hathaway struggles with this should make her more relatable to us. Yet “I watch her in outtakes, and I feel like she’s not a real person,” writes a blogger at Crushable.

By contrast, even though she’s now an Oscar-winning actress, Lawrence still seems fresh. Hathaway, who has been acting for a decade and was a clear favorite for the Best Supporting Actress award, seems to fit the broader cultural pattern (I’ve called it the
Hillary Catch-22) in which we simply don’t find successful, “perfect” women very likable. Lawrence is well aware that it serves her well to stay the underdog. She told Chelsea Handler about being in the grocery store and seeing her face on magazine covers. “I was like, I’m going to be that person that everybody hates because it’s like, ‘Here I am!’ all the time.”

And she’s probably right. “Young women in Hollywood cannot win, no matter what they do,” writes Roxane Gay in a searing
takedown of the racist and sexist humor that pervaded Oscar night. “There are more than a few smart jokes that could illustrate this rock and hard place women in Hollywood are crammed into.” True, for actresses, cultivating a public personality is part of the job. And irrationality is part of being a fan. (See: the fact that Meryl Streep picks her wedgie and we love her all the more for it.) But it’s worth examining whether our biases have any basis. "It does get to me," Hathaway said of all the hate she has to deal with. After all, imagine what it would feel like to know that thousands of women are passing judgment every moment you open your mouth?  “Ladies,” began a Monday night tweet from Lena Dunham, someone who knows something about the hate of strangers, “Anne Hathaway is a feminist and she has amazing teeth. Let's save our bad attitudes for the ones who aren't advancing the cause."

 
Hathaway Explains Low Profile Post-Oscars: 'People Needed A Break From Me'
(By Allison Takeda, US Weekly, January 23, 2014)
Anne Hathaway can take a hint. The star, 31, has kept a relatively low profile since winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Les Miserables in February 2013. With the exception of a brief cameo in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon, she didn't appear in any movies last year and was a rare presence on the red carpet. But as she revealed in a new interview with the Huffington Post at Sundance, where she's promoting her film Song One, the break was as much for the public as it was for her. "My impression is that people needed a break from me," she quipped, reportedly with a laugh. (Hathaway faced backlash last year after her dress drama with Amanda Seyfried at the Oscars; she was also criticized for her many acceptance speeches.)  Not that the time off was bad. With less on her plate, the Dark Knight Rises actress got a chance to spend some quality time with husband Adam Shulman, whom she married in September 2012. Earlier this month, the pair enjoyed a romantic getaway in Hawaii.
Now, though, she's back to work. In Song One, she plays an anthropologist who returns home to New York City after her brother is injured in a car accident. She also has a role in Christopher Nolan's new movie Interstellar.  "I think there's a common misconception about actors -- that we have a lot more control than we do about when things happen," she told HuffPost of her busy-again schedule. "We met on this [movie] in 2011 -- I was working on Batman -- and then we developed this script and the music for two years, and we shot it in June. We had been planning on shooting in the fall and then Chris Nolan called with an offer for a part in his new movie... So, we would either have to wait and push until after that -- which nobody wanted to do -- or move it up and have a truncated pre-production, which is what wound up happening," she explained. And it actually turned out to be pretty good timing. "I am not complaining about how it's working out," she added


 
Anne Hathaway Leaves Longtime Stylist Rachel Zoe After a Decade
(By Merle Ginsberg, Hollywood Reporter, January 24, 2014)
When Anne Hathaway showed up at Sundance last week looking perfectly chic and understated, we started to wonder if she was taking her usually girly style in a new and more sophisticated direction, flavored with structured menswear influences. An oversize cream Max Mara coat with an ASOS scarf was her outerwear of choice for arrival at the Salt Lake City airport. For a Harvey Weinstein football watching party at the film fest, she wore tattered jeans and an oversize funky graphic print Givenchy sweatshirt. Then there was a slouchy hunter green pantsuit paired with a black J Brand camisole.
All of those looks were for her promotional appearances on behalf of the new indie Song One. Another ensemble, which she wore to do interviews in the THR Sundance suite with Facebook and American Airlines, was a Nonoo quilted oversize sweater over a cotton pima tunic from pre-fall, all over skinny black leather pants. During the day, she accessorized with a two-tone Marni Trunk bag and Carrera by Jimmy Choo leopard-print shades. 
From whence came the funkier side of Ms. Hathaway, we had to ask. Sources in the know tell THR that veteran stylist Penny Lovell, who also works with Rose Byrne, Taylor Schilling, Bella Heathcote and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, has been quietly pulling pieces from showrooms for Hathaway. Sundance reportedly was the duo's first time out the gate together -- meaning that the Oscar-winning actress has called off her long-term relationship with celebrity stylist-turned-designer Rachel Zoe (whose current clients include Jennifer Lawrence, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Garner and Isla Fisher).
Lovell is best known for having a knack for taking smart risks, like Byrne's groundbreaking white Elie Saab jumpsuit on the SAG Awards red carpet, leading the way for jumpsuits as eveningwear. We hope this means something new and exciting for Oscars, where Hathaway will present on the heels of her win last year for Les Miserables. If you recall, the normally impeccably dressed Hathaway showed up at the last minute in a pale pink satin Prada dress with unfortunately placed darts that became the most tweeted moment on the Oscar 2013 red carpet.  Hathaway worked with Zoe for roughly a decade.
 
 


Anne Hathaway 'Took A Beating From The Internet' After Oscars Win
(1 January 2014, Just Jared)

Anne Hathaway steps out of a studio after reportedly partaking in a singing lesson on Thursday (January 30) in Los Angeles.  The 31-year-old actress recently opened up about keeping out of the spotlight after her Oscars win.  “We had been working on the script for two years before we actually started shooting,” Anne said to MTV about her Sundance film Song One. “All of the elements came together in that moment. I don’t want to bring up a sore subject or anything—I think my publicist is probably like, ‘No, no no’—but I had just taken a little bit of a beating from the Internet,” Anne added about her 2013 Oscars win for Les Miserables
 
Do We Really Hate Anne Hathaway?
(By Alex Williams, New York Times, 05 April 2013)
Will they ever stop hating on Anne Hathaway?  “There’s something about her that rubs me the wrong way,” Alexis Rhiannon wrote in a screed against the Oscar-winning actress in Crushable, the celebrity blog, last fall, adding later, “I feel like she’s not a real person.”   A writer for The New Yorker’s Culture Desk blog, Sasha Weiss, explored the question: “Why are you so annoying?”  And then there was the contest on The San Francisco Chronicle’s Web site, which anointed her “The Most Annoying Celebrity of 2013.”  The cyberhaters even have their own catchy name, “Hathahaters,” which James Franco and Howard Stern dissected on Mr. Stern’s SiriusXM radio show two weeks ago.  “Everyone sort of hates Anne Hathaway,” Mr. Stern said, speculating that it was because she comes off as “so affected and actressy.” Mr. Franco did not strain to defend his 2011 Academy Awards co-host. “I’m not an expert on- I guess they’re called ‘Hathahaters’- but I think that’s what maybe triggers it,” he replied cagily.
So why does the perky and supremely talented actress inspire such froth? Ms. Hathaway could simply be a victim of what the British call “tall poppy syndrome” — the bloom that pokes above the others is the first to get cut. With her too-perfect mouth, flawless skin, doe eyes and svelte figure, Ms. Hathaway is certainly one of Hollywood’s most visible blossoms of late, particularly after scooping up a best supporting actress Oscar and Golden Globe for her turn as Fantine in “Les Misérables.”  But in recent months, the Hathahating has moved beyond garden-variety snarkiness- as seen with Gwyneth Paltrow, say, or Taylor Swift - and become a meme with unlikely stickiness. Hathahaters have spawned a Twitter hashtag (#hathahaters), a portentous debate before the Academy Awards about whether Hathahatred would hurt her chances for an Oscar, and a high-minded cultural discourse seeking to deconstruct Ms. Hathaway’s alleged powers to annoy. (Did we mention The New Yorker — or a blog post by Ross Douthat, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, in which he invokes Hathahaters to illustrate a new Pew study saying that the Twittersphere offers a skewed snapshot of public opinion?)
No one, it should be noted, accuses her of doing anything wrong. Rather, Ms. Hathaway seems to have become a mirror for our own inadequacies.  “It’s not really Anne Hathaway I ‘hate,’ ” said Sarah Nicole Prickett, a writer for Vice and The New Inquiry, a culture and commentary site. “It’s all the lesser, real-life Anne Hathaways I have known — princessy, theater-schooled girls who have no game and no sex appeal and eat raisins for dessert.”  Indeed, for some nonfans, Ms. Hathaway seems to embody the archetypal high school drama geek who cannot turn off the eager, girlish persona, even away from the stage. “We love authenticity, that’s why we have a billion reality shows,” said Neal Gabler, an author of several best-selling books on Hollywood culture and history. “And here comes Anne Hathaway. Everything she does seems managed, calculated or rehearsed. Her inauthenticity — or the feeling of her inauthenticity — is now viral.”
Fine, write her up for misdemeanor phoniness. But when has that ever been a crime in Hollywood? But it does not end there.  “Why Do Women Hate Anne Hathaway (But Love Jennifer Lawrence)?” Ann Friedman asked on New York magazine’s fashion and women’s issues blog, The Cut. “We simply don’t find successful ‘perfect’ women all that likable,” she wrote, adding that women prefer sassy best-friend types like Jennifer Lawrence, with her Oscar-night podium stumbles and self-effacing jokes about Spanx and cheese steaks.  One might think that Ms. Hathaway would have an adoring fan base in the gay community — what with her outspoken support of gay rights, her star turns in “Brokeback Mountain” and “The Devil Wears Prada,” her fashion sophistication, a gay brother and her reported plans to play Judy Garland in a biopic. But gay people, too, have failed to embrace her, according to Derek Hartley, a talk-show host on SiriusXM’s gay issues channel, OutQ. “Anne Hathaway practically demands that we love her,” Mr. Hartley wrote. “I’ve seen less aggressive bids for our attention on Grindr.”
But what if the hatred is less about Ms. Hathaway and more about how social media has amplified the echo chamber of celebrity blogs, reducing cultural commentary to a series of innuendos, like high school gossip. That was suggested in a recent BuzzFeed thread on “Why Do People Hate Anne Hathaway.” Among the piercing insights offered (“She has a huge horse mouth”), the blog post offered this theory: “She brings people together in their hatred.”  P. M. Forni, a founder of the Civility Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, which focuses on manners and social behavior, agrees that piling on can be fun, in a perverse sort of way. “The sensation of belonging to a group of like-minded people activates the pleasure centers of the brain,” Dr. Forni said. “So at a certain point, something like what has happened to Ms. Hathaway acquired momentum, and people were willing and eager to be part of that momentum.  The psychological dynamics at work are, at least in part, the ones at work in cyberbullying,” he added.  Jack Goncalo, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University, who studies group dynamics, goes further and argues that the Hathahaters might not actually harbor negative feelings about Ms. Hathaway, but are merely following a mob mentality. Psychologists call this “informational social influence.” “ ‘If the majority has done my thinking for me, I can move on to something else,’ ” Dr. Goncalo said. “People don’t want to think.”
In that sense, Hathahating echoes the emergent online sport of “hate reading” — following a blog regularly for the express purpose of ridiculing it, or “hate watching,” the bad-television-show analog, as chronicled by Katie J. M. Baker, in Jezebel.  “It’s like we’re in middle school,” Ms. Baker said. “The easiest way to bond is to talk smack about someone else, whether you’re online or at a party.” 
It is a safe bet that the real-life Ms. Hathaway is not enjoying the sport. Her spokesman declined to comment for this article, and the actress herself has steered away from the issue, although she was quoted after the Oscars as saying that the endless barbs about her emotional awards-show acceptance speeches do wear on her: “But you have to remember in life that there’s a positive to every negative, and a negative to every positive.”
Her perfect smile notwithstanding, the cyberhating has got to take a toll. Last week, Britain’s Daily Mail published paparazzi shots of Ms. Hathaway, her newsboy cap pulled low, on a book-buying spree in New York, where she snatched up titles involving balance, health and harmony.  Her karma might be looking up. After an onslaught of nasty Twitter messages mocking Ms. Hathaway’s emotional Academy Awards acceptance speech, for example, Lena Dunham took a stand in support. “Ladies: Anne Hathaway is a feminist and she has amazing teeth,” she wrote on Twitter. “Let’s save our bad attitudes for the ones who aren’t advancing the cause.”
 
 
From Jersey Girl To L.A. Lady
(By Robert Strauss, New York Times, 05 August 2001)
At age 19 and on the cusp of stardom, Anne Hathaway has that just-so mix of self-confidence and self-effacement that embellishes her girl-next-door good looks.  ''A star? said Ms. Hathaway. ''No, I don't think so. But it really is good to have an acting career. Who could have thought it? I am, after all, a suburban Jersey girl.''  But Ms. Hathaway -- who graduated from Millburn High School last June -- has already put some distance between herself and her alma mater. For now she is ensconced in Los Angeles and sharing top billing with another former teenage actress, Julie Andrews, in ''The Princess Diaries,'' which opens nationwide this weekend.
Ms. Hathaway plays Mia Thermopolis, a run-of-the-mill San Francisco prep school student who suddenly learns that the late father she never knew was the prince of the Monaco-like country of Genovia and that she is now the crown princess. The 65-year-old Ms. Andrews plays her grandmother, the queen, and the movie also stars two other young entertainers: Heather Matarazzo, Ms. Hathaway's best friend, and Mandy Moore, her school nemesis.  The plot in this movie is not unlike Ms. Andrews' ingenue role on Broadway in ''My Fair Lady,'' but this time Ms. Andrews has to shape Ms. Hathaway into a proper princess. Along the way there are crowd-waving drills, dance lessons and an ugly-duckling-to-swan makeover that transforms Ms. Hathaway from an unkempt young woman to a radiant beauty.  
The Andrews teaching magic apparently happened off-camera as well.  ''What I learned from her is this,'' Ms. Hathaway said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. ''You are not a star when you come in and demand things and want people to know how special you are. The only time you become a star is when you treat everyone alike. Being a star is acting appropriately. She is magnificent that way.''  During her years at Millburn High, Ms. Hathaway said she was hardly a star. ''I was not in any most-popular clique,'' she said. ''I did normal things. I played soccer and studied a lot and did some acting and had good friends. Things were just fine.''  Yet there were also differences. For one, when she was 16, Ms. Hathaway was cast in the Fox Network program ''Get Real.''   In ''Get Real,'' Ms. Hathaway played Meghan Green, the oldest of three children in a somewhat dysfunctional family. There was a lot of explicit sexual content and language in the show. In the pilot, Meghan's 16-year-old brother is found naked in bed with a girlfriend by his mother. And one of Ms. Hathaway's lines, said about a potential home wrecker, was, ''My God, you could hide Anne Frank in that cleavage.''
The show -- and Ms. Hathaway -- were well-received by critics, who compared it with another critically acclaimed television show, ''My So-Called Life.'' One critic for Variety in fact compared Ms. Hathaway to Claire Danes, the star of that seminal teen-angst show, calling her performance ''sizzling.'' Nonetheless, the show was cancelled after one season, and Ms. Hathaway returned home to finish her senior year.  ''Get Real'' was Ms. Hathaway's only on-screen appearance before ''The Princess Diaries,'' but she was somewhat of a local celebrity even earlier. She trained at the Paper Mill Playhouse, the 1,200-seat state theater in Millburn, and appeared in several productions there.  ''Annie always had this beautiful luminous quality about her,'' said Robert Johanson, the artistic director of the Paper Mill. ''There are certain indescribable things that indicate star quality, and Annie has got it. You notice it best when they are up there on stage in front of 1,200 people and it shines across the footlights.''
Ms. Hathaway said her mother, who was in a national touring company of Les Miserables, and her father, a stagehand in college and now a lawyer, actually tried to discourage her from acting at a young age.  ''They so wanted me to have a normal life as a kid,'' she said. ''They, of course, were right. And I, of course, wanted to be an actress.''  Her family still prefers normalcy, and indeed values its privacy. For instance, neither her parents nor her two brothers consented to an interview -- or even wanted their names mentioned in a newspaper article. In fact, Ms. Hathaway referred to her college only as an Eastern liberal arts school, though Ms. Andrews, in the promotional interviews for the movie, disclosed that it was Vassar College.  Ms. Hathaway, who is about to enter her sophomore year, concedes that she hopes to continue pursuing an acting career while she majors in English and minors in women's studies.  ''I didn t think all that much of it in 'Get Real,' '' she said. ''There the actors seemed like actors and it was work.  ''But doing 'The Princess Diaries' and meeting people like Julie Andrews and, especially, Hector Elizando, I realized you could be an actor and an advocate for things and have a full life as well,'' she said, noting that Mr. Elizando was a advocate for civil rights and other political causes.
For now, she is enjoying the rest of the summer and getting ready for school.  ''I don't have any projects going right now; there are some in the works, but none that are greenlighted,'' she said, already comfortable with the Hollywood patois.  She did another independent movie before ''The Princess Diaries'' that has not yet been released called ''The Other Side of Heaven,'' about Mormon missionaries, in which she has a small part as the wife of a Mormon leader.  As for her role in ''The Princess Diaries,'' she said she chose not to go to see movie with her friends in Millburn. ''I think it would be kind of icky to see your own movie, like saying, 'Wow! Aren't I great up there?' '' she said.  But she said she hoped her friends noticed her father, whose photograph was used for that of the prince, her dead father, in the movie. It is those friends, she said, who keep her grounded.  ''I want to keep my life as normal as possible, and the way to do that is to keep close to those friends,'' said Ms. Hathaway.
Still, for now she has given up her first sporting love, soccer, which she played for 12 years beginning in the Millburn kiddie leagues. She also said she hoped she could make the time to take part in her family's traditional summer vacation in Cape May, though she is looking forward to her first trip to Europe in the fall, where she will primarily be promoting the movie's release.  ''Other than that, I will be glad to be in New York, where they know how to make a good bagel and good pizza,'' she said. ''L.A. is nice for the weather, but, really, they have got to learn to make bagels and pizza. I finally couldn't eat them and I lost 10 pounds. But I was just as happy to be back and gain it all back stuffing pizza in my mouth.''  With a decidedly non-princess giggle, she said: ''See, still a kid. Being from the New Jersey suburbs, you never get too Hollywood.''
 
 
 
Anne Hathaway Talks About Her Husband, Her Haters, And More
(By Glamour, 04 December 2012)

Newly married and hearing Oscar murmurs for Les Misérables, Anne Hathaway preps for her next role, as a face of One Billion Rising, the global movement to end violence against women. Talking to its founder, Eve Ensler (author of The Vagina Monologues), Hathaway, 30, opens up about her husband, her haters, and why she wants you to just dance.


A day after Superstorm Sandy tore through the northeastern United States, Anne Hathaway and I sat down to talk in Glamour’s offices high above Times Square. I’ve known Anne for years, as a friend and an actor in my plays. As New York struggled to right itself, we talked about all the exciting things happening in Anne’s life. She looked adorable with her pixie haircut (left over from her role as Fantine in the new film version of Les Misérables) and radiated love-happiness—she’d married actor-jewelry designer Adam Shulman a few months before. And I thought, Anne epitomizes all things rising: She’s fierce and vulnerable, unusually beautiful, and someone you feel you’ve always known. She’s constantly asking questions but knows her mind. And I’m thrilled that she’s representing One Billion Rising, a world action culminating on February 14. We’re inviting one billion people—representing the number of women on the planet who’ve been raped or beaten—to walk out of their jobs, schools, and homes and dance. We want to shake the globe (literally!) and announce that it’s time to end violence against women and girls. I hope you’ll join Anne and me and dance, wherever you are.
Eve Ensler: You were evacuated during Sandy. Can you talk about what this storm means to you?
Anne Hathaway: Eight million people across the nation are without power; dozens of people in the New York area have lost their lives. We can’t be in denial [about climate change] anymore. And I’m just making sure that everyone I love is OK, and trying to offer help wherever I can.


Eve Ensler: Tell me about One Billion Rising.
Anne Hathaway: It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that a billion women have been raped or beaten, just the enormity of that. When I was in college, I’d heard that one in four women would be raped, and I thought, God, that means I must know someone who was raped. Sure enough, I found out a week later that a friend had been. A billion is too big because one is too big.
Eve Ensler: It seems to me that celebrities are kind of the new ruling class—they have all the money, all the power. What’s that like?
Anne Hathaway: You realize certain things. At this stage in my life—and this moment will not last forever—me walking my dog is news. And because I take very seriously the idea that I can make an impact in the world, I hold back my voice so I can make more of an impact when I do use it. A cause like One Billion Rising is something I want to scream about, and I want you to take that scream seriously because I don’t fall out of nightclubs. I don’t have photographers capture me spending untold amounts on a handbag. Of course, in the court of celebrity, if you try to be serious, you may look like a fool. In One Billion Rising you have activists and thinkers and “celebrities.” But I’m an actress. The celebrity thing just happened.


Eve Ensler: We’re calling on one billion people to rise up and dance on February 14. Why do you dance?
Anne Hathaway: When I think back to some of the most fun nights of my life, it was just me out dancing without a care in the world. It’s a release, an outlet. And I’m a firm believer that we can tap into a collective energy and consciousness; on the 14th, even if you’re in a field dancing by yourself, you’re going to know you’re not alone. That’s something I hope we can carry forward as we resolve to protect ourselves and our sisters.
Eve Ensler: So talk about the specific day. Do you have a vision of where you’ll be dancing?
Anne Hathaway: I think we need to have a big party in West Hollywood, and I’m going to get the head of every studio and talent agency to commit to dancing, because L.A. is filled with people who are passionate about women’s issues. And I’m psyched because Valentine’s Day has become stressful for people and we’re giving them something positive to look forward to, a reason to be proud of themselves. And not just women: Last night my husband and my father both said, “Can we dance?” I was so happy! My husband’s a good dancer too.


Eve Ensler: What music do you want to dance to?
Anne Hathaway: Right now I’m totally into David Guetta and that song that he has with Sia, “Titanium.” I also love Rihanna’s “We Found Love.” On the theme of girl empowerment, I think “Firework” by Katy Perry is really good.
Eve Ensler: This is Glamour’s Self-Expression Issue. When did you feel like you began to express yourself in a way that was authentic to you?
Anne Hathaway: I had that moment after I finished making Rachel Getting Married. I realized that the life I’d been living [was not authentic] and that I had to make a change. Then I found out that my trust had been betrayed quite massively. So for me, that call came at the end of 2007. Who was I going to be? There’s no magic bullet; there’s no pill that you take that makes everything great and makes you happy all the time. I’m letting go of those expectations, and that’s opening me up to moments of transcendent bliss. But I still feel the stress over “Am I thin enough? Am I too thin? Is my body the right shape?”


Eve Ensler: And is that an everyday obsession?
Anne Hathaway: If I’m honest, yes. There’s an obsessive quality to it that I thought I would’ve grown out of by now. It’s an ongoing source of shame for me.
Eve Ensler: Because you should somehow be different than the rest of the human race?
Anne Hathaway: I just think about the ridicule you get if you have an off day. If people weren’t watching, I’d be so much more eccentric. I know it makes me sound weak, but rather than make myself happy and wear the silly hat and say, “Oh, I don’t care,” I actually really don’t feel like getting made fun of. So I put on something boring and navy and go out and try to disappear.


Eve Ensler: And liberation would be getting to a point where you just didn’t give a sh-t?
Anne Hathaway: That would be the technical definition of liberation, yes.


Eve Ensler: I want to talk about work. You played so many good girls—in The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada. Then came the troubled lead in Rachel Getting Married. Was that a departure for you?
Anne Hathaway: I never thought of it in terms of a dichotomy—good girl versus bad girl—I was just trying to think of myself as a whole person. Of course, after Princess Diaries, I was labeled a good girl, and for the first eight years of my career I had to fight to get any other kind of role. But I like fighting for a job, actually. Once you get it, you feel like you’ve emerged victorious from the scrap and you’re like, “OK, this one’s mine. Did it. Done.” And it’s not based on how many Twitter followers I have: zero. My acting got me this role. So it feels pure to me.
Eve Ensler: Let’s talk about married life. How is it?
Anne Hathaway: It’s wonderful. I feel like I’ve found my other half, and I’m so excited about getting to love him for the rest of our lives.


Eve Ensler: You used to be critical of marriage. What changed?
Anne Hathaway: Him. I would never have gotten married if it weren’t for him. You have to want to be married to someone. You have to feel that reciprocated. Marriage for marriage's sake doesn't make any sense to me, and I found someone with whom I could put my money where my mouth is, I guess.
Eve Ensler: What is it about him?
Anne Hathaway: He's a good man. He's beyond intelligent. He loves fearlessly. His beliefs are beautiful.
  He's my best friend. I love him. I just feel that I have the greatest husband in the world for me. You know, we get a lot of pressure to define ourselves as women by how wild we are: How many guys did you sleep with? How drunk did you get? And we all bow to that. We've all done that walk of shame at one point or another.

Eve Ensler: I wouldn't call it shame. I had a good time.
Anne Hathaway: Well, I was always kind of proud of myself! But there’s not a lot of positive information out there about marriage. It’s the old ball and chain, the seven-year itch, the divorce rate. Still, my parents have been married for 30 years; his parents have been married for 40 years. Mine had great moments and some really sh-tty moments. But they couldn’t have been married to anyone else, and they make each other better.
Eve Ensler: And you gave the money for your wedding pictures to support gay marriage. Why?
Anne Hathaway: I really didn’t want the paparazzi at my wedding, and I thought that I’d outfoxed them. The plan was to release a photo to my fans on Instagram. But when some paparazzi got aerial shots and I realized that they could make money off them, I wanted to prevent that, to make the money go somewhere else. So I released four photos, and every time they’re printed, in perpetuity, the money goes to a corresponding charity.


Eve Ensler: Let’s talk a bit about your hair. I’m relating because I was attached to my bob, and then when I got cancer, all my hair went away. Since then I’ve kept it short. Was cutting it liberating?
Anne Hathaway: I was faux Zen about it. I’d resolved to cut my hair for Les Mis and to do it on-screen to make it feel real. And then the morning came, and I was shaking like a leaf. I almost couldn’t do my job. When it was over, I went to the darkest corner of my trailer and I looked in the mirror, and I saw my little brother! But eventually I felt like the coolest girl in the world.
Eve Ensler: Has it changed how people act toward you?
Anne Hathaway: People are warmer to me. Also, I’m a fairly shy person, and [in the past] on days when I didn’t want to deal with the world, I’d wear a hat and pull my hair around me and hide. I can’t do that now. I have to be me all the time. And it’s changed my habits, because if I was having a bad skin day, I could have a good hair day. Now I have no hair, so I have to take better care of myself because I’m all face!


Eve Ensler: Did it help with the role of Fantine in Les Mis?
Anne Hathaway: It helped. I also lost 25 pounds for the role. It was visceral and painful and beautiful to play a woman who sacrificed so much for her child.



Jenny Lewis, Anne Hathaway Embrace Masculinity In 'Just One Of The Guys' Video
(By Colin Joyce, Spin, 15 July 2014)
Jenny Lewis first shared "Just One of the Guys," her rambling single about the perils of aging, about a month ago and as we get closer to the release of her third solo LP The Voyager, she's released a star-studded clip for that cut that manages to take the subject a little more lightly.  Casting Academy Award-winner Anne Hathaway, Kristen Stewart, and Brie Larson as her barefooted backing band, the Lewis-directed clip runs through a straight-faced performance of the easygoing track. Things get a little more silly when the band takes the title of the song literally and tries on scuzzy facial hair and monochromatic tracksuits.
Check out the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irvcf6dCk-k&feature=player_embedded ), via GQ, and for more on the follow-up to 2008's Acid Tongue in advance of its July 29 release, read our recent interview with Lewis about the insomnia and loss that inspired the new record.
 
 
 
Kiss & Make Up With Anne Hathaway: We Dare You
(By Laura Brown , Harpers Bazaar, 09 Oct 2014)

We've all done it. Watched an awards show—red carpet, speeches, audience reactions—and judged, and judged, and judged. And it's fun, right? Sitting on the couch, captivated by our own cleverness. Occasionally someone comes up with a catchy term, like Brangelina, or Robsten (circa 2010). Or Hathahater. It just trips off the tongue, doesn't it? You could practically trademark it.  The problem is, there's an actual person, Anne Hathaway, at whom this brutally jaunty phrase is directed. A woman who is sincere to a fault, as earnest as quinoa. A woman who is warm and funny, who has a laugh as big as her personality. Hathaway somehow attracted this "hate" during the 2013 awards season (when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her portrayal of Fantine in Les Misérables) through her perceived inauthenticity, her very actress-ness.

Almost two years later, Hathaway is the first to admit that public speaking isn't her strength. "I really struggle with it—it makes me incredibly anxious," she says, scooping up some eggs and sausage (no more veganism, but more on that later) at New York's Greenwich Hotel. She also enjoys a heavy-handed metaphor. "I'm really good at those in my acting," she adds wryly, "and in my life."  One thing Hathaway's not into, however: a pity party. It's rare that an actress will admit an image problem to her publicist, let alone the general public. Cut to a conference room at Bazaar this past summer, where the legendary art director George Lois collaborated with Hathaway on the concept for this cover story. "So some people don't like you, right?" Lois asks. "Yep," she replies.

So here we are, kissing and making up. "What are we supposed to do—pretend like it didn't happen?" Hathaway asks. It happened all right, a steady lava of invective that began after her Golden Globes acceptance speech and continued for six weeks, all the way to the Oscars, with "Hathahater" echoing around social media for a year after that. "People treated me a certain way," she says. "But I've grown from it. This whole thing has made me a way more compassionate and loving person. And I don't feel sorry for myself."  As she was preparing for the Golden Globes, Hathaway had just come off a wave of press that focused on her losing weight and shaving her head to play Fantine. "I damaged my health during Les Mis, which I didn't want to mention in case it seemed like I was courting sympathy," she says. She was exhausted, flu-ridden, and frustrated about the lack of interest in the character and in the issue of sexual slavery.

So when Hathaway won the award for Best Supporting Actress, she was "weirdly presentational. One of the things I've been accused of is being inauthentic. And they were right—but not for the reason they thought.  "I couldn't tie this moment to what I really wanted to say," she continues. "And that's on me, because Lupita did it," she observes of Lupita N'yongo's graceful speech on winning Best Supporting Actress earlier this year for 12 Years a Slave. Hathaway "fumbled through the end," got offstage, and realized that she'd forgotten to thank her manager of 15 years, who was battling cancer. "One of my most regretted life moments," she says. When Les Misérables won for Best Musical or Comedy, Hathaway asked the film's producer Eric Fellner if she could say something else. "While everyone was still getting onstage, I spoke. I should have gone after everyone else. I own that; it was rude. People saw that as grabby, I guess. I don't know."

The next day, Hathaway had some friends over to brainstorm a Funny or Die video about celebrity pregnancy rumors, "like, could we get Jen Aniston to talk about how long she's actually been gestating, according to the tabloids." While Googling her own pregnancy rumors, it popped up in an article asking, "Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway?"  Hathaway had also just turned 30 and gotten married, to Adam Shulman, two life-altering moments that got mixed up in a roiling pot of bad PR. "I was in crisis," she says. "Now I'd be fine. I really would be. I'd let it roll off my back, but at the time I was still partly Fantine. I was still identifying with being a victim."  Victim or no, it sucked. Abuse was thrown at Hathaway as regularly as borrowed jewels.

And on top of that, there was Dressgate. For the Oscars, "I found a dress, like a month before," she explains. "It was the most beautiful, reflective, shimmery dress—rainbows were going to dance off me." However, the day before the ceremony, Hathaway was called by a tearful stylist's assistant saying that the dress had already been worn. So she regrouped, choosing a gown by Valentino. "I love the house, and he's my buddy," she says of the famed designer, with whom she has been friends for years. "One of my favorite people in the entire world. It all made sense." But that night, at Oscar rehearsals, her Les Misérables castmate Amanda Seyfried showed Hathaway her Alexander McQueen dress. "And it's a lilac version of my dress. Two completely different designers." At 10 o'clock the night before the Oscars, "I didn't have a friggin' dress, which I normally wouldn't care about …" Long pause. "But I really needed a dress, and everybody hates me, and I just really needed a dress."

On the morning of the Oscars, a pale pink satin Prada gown arrived at Hathaway's house. "I was like, 'Wow! I can do this. It's beautiful. It's appropriate. It's modern. It's minimal.' "Minimalism needs tailoring, and tailoring took time Hathaway didn't have. "  I look in the mirror, turn to Adam, and say, 'It looks like my nipples are hard.' He says, 'You look beautiful. Your nipples look pointy. The red carpet's about to close. We gotta go.' "

Anyway, yes, "it came true." Hathaway won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for a performance that was a true feat of commitment and physical extremes. And she lost, for committing the crime of public earnestness.  After winning an Oscar, they say that a girl's phone rings off the hook. For Hathaway, it was the opposite. "I had directors say to me, 'I think you're great. You're perfect for this role, but I don't know how audiences will accept you because of all this stuff, this baggage,' "she recalls. Then Christopher Nolan called. Hathaway had last worked with Nolan on The Dark Knight Rises, in which she played Catwoman. He wanted to take her into space. "Once it was announced that I was doing Interstellar," she remembers, "thankfully the phone started ringing again."
 
In Interstellar, out this month, Hathaway plays an astronaut who ventures into space alongside Matthew McConaughey to save an endangered Earth. "She's very serious, very prickly," she says. Very non-Hathaway, and, at the time, very necessary. "I watched my first scene the other day and I was like, 'Oh, my God! Chris, I'm such a bitch!' And he said [she puts on a droll British accent], 'Yeah, but you grow quite fond of her.'"  The shoot entailed several weeks in Iceland, with Hathaway spending most of her days in a 40-pound space suit. That's where she bid veganism adieu. "I just didn't feel good or healthy," she says, "not strong." Cut to a Reykjavík restaurant and an adventurous costar who said that they should try everything: She caved with a fresh piece of fish—"from a stream I could see from where I was sitting." The next day she "just felt better." So now, when she needs chicken soup for the soul, she'll have chicken soup.  More recently Hathaway has been back in New York, shooting The Intern with Robert De Niro (he's the intern), and contemplating what daring means to her. "It's easier to think about the way I'm least daring. When I meet people for the first time, I'm friendly but shy. I'm much less outwardly nervous than I used to be, but I still get anxious sometimes." What else? She looks down at her clear brogues. "I'm not very daring in my street style, usually because there's a photographer around!" Today she's wearing her "favorite shirt in the world," an Iro tank that reads, NO BAD VIBES. "I am getting more daring now—I'll wear my mom jeans in public that haven't been tailored 'just so' yet, just because they feel good. For a long time I was afraid of the harsh things people would say about me, but I might as well be happy."

One of the ways Hathaway is daring is with the menfolk. "I have no problem making the first move when I see a guy I like," she announces. Like with Shulman, her husband of two years. "I was in L.A. when I met him. I was told he had a girlfriend, and I backed off because I'm not that girl. Then when I found out six weeks later that he didn't have a girlfriend, I was like, 'We should throw a party. We should invite Adam.'"  And the rest is history."  From the very first second we knew it was a very powerful and exciting connection we had," she says. "And it just gets better." Shulman is widely acknowledged to be one of the nicest chaps around. "There's no pushing him around," she adds, "but he's so gentle and present."

Hathaway's other daring move: her career path. "Even though I've had great success, touch wood, it hasn't been easy. A lot of people have told me, 'You're not this and so can't play that,' and I can't tell you the amount of times I've been told I'm not sexy. I just go: 'I'm a lot of things. Just because I don't wear my sexiness overtly doesn't mean that I can't become that girl for a role. That's what I do; I become things. Use your imagination, buddy.' So in terms of not listening to what other people told me about who I was as an actress and then really pursuing it, I think I've been daring in that way."  Hathaway tips a daring hat to, number one, Tilda Swinton. "Tilda is it, but she's so cool about it. She's so cool, she'd be like, 'Oh, it's not daring. I just did it.' Hmm, Jonathan Demme"—who directed Hathaway to her first Oscar nomination, for Rachel Getting Married—"he's still my mentor and hero. And Matthew McConaughey is the most daring man I know. He never judged himself along the way, and it's all come together for him so wholly and deeply. He is totally himself."

When it comes to style, "Leandra Medine from [the blog] Man Repeller. I feel empowered by her. Not just her humor; she reminds me of Diana Vreeland. She wants girls to dress for themselves, be goofy, awesome girls. I have a Pinterest board, which is called Closet Crush, and it's just all her and Jane Birkin and a little Sophia Amoruso because I think she's fabulous too."  Ask Hathaway about her most daring outfit and the answer is swift: "I fucking think that pink Oscar dress!" She laughs. "Now that you know the backstory, that was by far in a way the most daring dress I have ever worn. It maybe didn't look it, but that was it."  Now that dress—and everything that came with it—is on the shelf. After The Intern, Hathaway is heading to London to reprise her role as the White Queen, in the sequel to Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass. And after that, a long break, some work with an initiative called the Girl Effect, and "being home. I don't want to hunt down jobs right now. I want to take it easy and explore other things," she says, smiling. "Other aspects of myself."
 
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/anne-hathaway-interview-1114

 
 
Hathaway Is Fighting An Impossible Battle Against Haters. It’s Not Worth Her Time.
(By Emily Yahr, Washington Post, 07 November 2014)
 
Oh, the case of poor Anne Hathaway. The Oscar-winning actress has received an avalanche of bad press over the last couple of years for that most polarizing kind of offense: Being herself.  She’s the kind of celebrity that inexplicably bugs people. She has “too perfect” of an image; a sunny personality that must be fake; a tendency to take herself very seriously. Things really heated up during the 2013 awards season when Hathaway took home many well-earned trophies for her role in “Les Miserables.” But to many, she came off as smug and self-important through the entire process. So despite winning awards, her reputation ended up being greatly damaged instead of enhanced.
 
Now, Hathaway’s back in the news as she makes the press rounds for the much-anticipated Christopher Nolan film, “Interstellar,” co-starring Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain. In the process, she’s addressed and defended her image, talking candidly about how people’s cruel comments have affected her self-esteem. It’s easy to feel sympathetic, but also tough to watch because she’s fighting a losing battle: When it comes to public perception of celebrities, it is extraordinarily difficult to change people’s minds.  In a cover story for Harper’s Bazaar, Hathaway took a defensive tactic, running down all of the moments people didn’t like. Viewers thought she was being “inauthentic” during her grandiose acceptance speech for Best Actress at the 2013 Golden Globes; Hathaway acknowledges the speech was awkward but only because “I couldn’t tie this moment to what I really wanted to say.”
 
People also felt it was tacky when on the same night as the entire “Les Mis” cast accepted the Best Musical award, Hathaway grabbed the microphone first to thank one additional person; turns out, that person was her manager of 15 years who was fighting cancer.  Hathaway also defended her Oscar night decision to switch to a Prada gown, which caused a minor controversy when she backed out of wearing a dress by Valentino, a close friend. (She found out last minute that co-star Amanda Seyfried would be wearing a similar gown.)  To the people that already don’t like Hathaway, her excuses still might not be enough. In the article she talks about stumbling across a story online titled something like “Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway?”  She told Harper’s that finding that story felt like being “Punched in the gut…Shocked and slapped and embarrassed. Even now I can feel the shame.” Hathaway added that her reputation started to cost her roles in movies since directors didn’t like her public image.
 
Beyond how her reputation affected her professional life, Hathaway expanded on the emotional consequences Thursday in an interview on Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show. DeGeneres asked how Hathaway deals with all the criticism, which amounts to “cyber-bullying.”  Hathaway paused for a long time before answering. “Well, I listened at first. And I couldn’t help it, you know? You try to shut it off and I couldn’t. And then I realized that why I couldn’t was I had not learned to love myself yet,” she explained. “I hadn’t gotten there. And if you don’t love yourself when someone else says horrible things to you, part of you is always going to believe them.”
 
She continued, saying she just wanted to figure out who she was and not feel dependent on what other people thought. “And it’s been a really cool great journey,” she explained. “I feel like I’ve arrived in a place where, you know, maybe not every minute of every day, but way more than I used to, I have a tremendous about love and compassion for everyone else. And best of all I have it for myself, which I never enjoyed before.”  The audience burst into loud applause, and DeGeneres commended her attitude as well.  If only it were that simple. While it’s a great answer and she sounds genuine, Hathaway shouldn’t bother addressing the haters with such a calm, mature attitude. Being reasonable is ultimately useless. The viewing public is strange — generally, the greater online audience tends to decide that they’re going to dislike someone until they’re good and ready to stop.
 
Also, Hathaway has already found the most valuable way to get back on people’s good side: Focus on what she’s undeniably good at, which is acting. She told Harper’s she started getting back in Hollywood’s good graces once Nolan cast her in “Interstellar,” which shows that the best way to shut everyone up is to prove it it doesn’t really matter what snarky Twitter users think — she’s still going to get roles because she’s talented.
Hopefully after this press tour, Hathaway will make these self-defense explanations a thing of the past. Because if there’s one thing everyone has learned, trying to convince angry Internet commenters they’re wrong is just a losing battle.