I’m aware of the url mishap with the dolls and vaguely aware of the poster controversy but I’ve also seen people online call it a PR disaster and I’m entirely out of the loop on that
“I heard that this media campaign directed kids to a porn site and made the star seem insufferable while alienating hardcore fans of the musical before the movie is even out, but what’s the disaster?”
I mean I am sure there is more, OP, but does there even have to be?
Digital Cat Buttholes. It’s not a musical controversy worth discussing if it doesn’t involve digitally animated cat buttholes.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is laughing at this lil dust up.
There doesn’t have to be, but there certainly can be!
What’s the poster controversy? I guess I’m more out of the loop than you are. I’m still looking forward to the movie though, I love the musical.
Apparently a fan shaded the green witches face to make the movie poster look like the broadway poster. The actress who plays the green witch complained about it online, saying (among other things) that it “erased” her. While I did understand her point, I also thought at the time that it was an overly defensive response, and the worst possible take on something that was probably made by a loyal fan. Importantly, she later apologized for her initial reaction. I respect that. We all get carried away sometimes.
Sorry I haven’t provided any links. I’m at work.
Edit: just search “wicked poster controversy” and several stories will pop right up.
Edit 2: This seems to be a good one. It covers the bases well enough, while not going into exhaustive detail.
a fan edited the official movie poster that erased half of the star’s face and added lipstick and tweaked a bunch of stuff, the star got really upset and tweeted that the poster was offensive and her erasure hurt her and she wanted people to know that it hurt her.
so a bunch of people attacked her.
she wrote more than necessary, maybe, but she didn’t attack the fan or ask the fan to take the poster down or anything like that, she was just letting people know that she felt hurt, and she was rabidly attacked for expressing herself.
I can understand where she’s coming from, but it isn’t about her. It wasn’t edited to eliminate her. It was edited to reflect the original 2003 poster, which it nailed.
https://www.today.com/popculture/cynthia-erivo-wicked-poster-controversy-rcna175772
Agree with this - the fan just trying to make the movie poster imitate the older poster.
But I can see where the actress is coming from as well - these feelings are almost certainly part of the reason why the original movie poster from the studio decided to show the full faces of the actresses instead of imitating the 2003 poster in a more direct homage. It’s a tricky balance, but at the same time it’s hard to blame the fan for wanting to celebrate Wicked in art.
What gets me is that the reason they changed was to “communicate”, but her expression is essentially blank. What’s being communicated? If anything it’s far less expressive than the wry knowing smile.
I thought the fan edited poster looked terrible myself, but I’m apparently in the minority there and it’s a fan at it, so who cares.
" it isn’t about her"
it is literally about erasing and replacing her image with a different image.
that’s fine if you or other people like the new image better, and it’s fine for Cynthia to express her upset at her image being erased and replaced.
both of your feelings are valid, especially since neither of you are making demands of anyone else.
wellllllllllllllllll, maybe, but a great deal of scuttlebutt has been made publicly by the racists about her casting, so anything that detracted from her full person being accepted and celebrated, especially hiding the majority of her face, when the studio had already made the decision to highlight it, can very easily be understood as being triggering and upsetting
clearly the audience is not siding with her on this… she is forgetting what her job is, right or wrong, audience pays so they can vote with their feet not matter how valid her “feels” be
Here’s an opinionated article on the subject that includes a copy of the modified image contrasting it to the original (and also the poster for the musical), https://worthitorwoke.com/wicked-star-cynthia-erivos-reaction-to-a-fan-made-poster-is-everything-wrong-with-celebrity-entitlement/
What the fuck is wrong with that article author? The blanket admonishment of celebrities hides the lack of critical thinking or analysis the author was required to do for the story. Such lazy “news” is just a polarization vector to hate on celebrities and is not worth the time or energy to read.
The site has a clear mission of “fighting the woke.” It’s main purpose is to rank movies and games on a scale from “Woke👹” to “Based😊” so that users don’t have to be triggered by wokeism. So yeah, I wouldn’t expect high quality reporting.
Do I need adblock for tinfoil hats now?
It’s never a bad idea.
Did you expect a decent take on a site called “Worth it or Woke”?
The article really did the line up of the three posters so well though …
But I am certainly troubled by those attacking the actress online for having these feelings. That’s not right.
I’m similarly troubled and am observing an ever growing inclination towards this kind of behavior, like also everywhere irl.
The way US is going there is going to be a lot of that… plebs are restless while regime and their whores are tone deaf.
People realize that these celebs are trash humans and are regime whores… why should working class feel any other way about them esp when they show their ass like this?
yep, that sort of manipulative dog-whistling is the sanitized version of what I’ve seen online.
they make it all cynthia’s fault, and blame her for being too “woke” and “virtue-signaling”.
she’s a public figure, and so she apparently must accept any and all criticism and is not allowed to share her own feelings.
you can read more honestly offensive anf virulent versions of those criticisms floating around on social media.
That doesn’t sound like the movie studio dropping the ball or anything. If it was a fan edited poster, that’s completely out of their hands.
The problem was not the fan, it was the actress reacted.
the row had nothing to do with the movie studio, or the movie, really.
a fan edited the poster, the star said her feelings were hurt in too many words and too dramatic a fashion, and the internet en masse told her to shut the fuck up and she was so selfish for sharing her feelings, she should stop attacking people (she didn’t) and she should silently accept whatever was coming to her since she was a public figure (she shouldn’t) but as a public figure she wasn’t allowed to express herself(she is).
I loved the Broadway musical, though I never got to see it in person.
Personally I don’t see what the big deal is with the poster. Yeah, it wasn’t the same as the original. It seemed fine to me. And yeah, they changed it to match. Also seemed fine to me.
And guess what? The woman being upset that they changed it? Seems fine to me. If my face were essentially Mike Wazowski’d off the cover of something, I’d be a little upset. Maybe not enough to make a public stir, but I’d privately bitch to people for quite some time.
I can definitely see some people considering it a PR nightmare, and do know some people who were pissed about the poster… But I just don’t get the same feelings. It’s just meh.
I’m sure plenty would say I’m just not an artist/into musical theater/whatever. Maybe that’s true.
Now let’s have this same conversation if they ever redo Fiddler On The Roof (1971), I’ll probably have much stronger opinions since I was in that one multiple times…
I think the fan made poster looks amazing and is superior to the official one. There is a sense of mystery to it. So much more expression. It makes me want to know more about the exchange that is happening.
In the official poster she is just blankly staring at the camera. It makes me feel nothing.
This has nothing to do with “hiding” someone’s face and everything to do with art eliciting emotion.
In my opinion it would be wise to pay the fan to use their poster as the actual poster. It would probably be better PR as well.
I thought the whole issue with the poster was she was claiming it was racist even though people were just wanting something classic looking.
So they did something wicked?
nothing is more of a pr disaster than america voting trump back in. a movie adaptation of a musical forgetting their own website address or an actress getting mad over people putting a bigger had and an attempt at a devious grin on her are nothing in comparison
Fuck off with u.s. politics where it doesn’t belong.
