#brutish gq

[mrchalamet-mrstyles]

Reputation Management and the Rot at the Heart of Celebrity Journalism: How Armie Hammer Tried to Get Ahead of the Story—with Help from a GQ Writer

On September 30, 2020, GQ UK published an interview with Armie Hammer. The headline: Armie Hammer wants you to pick up the phone and call a friend. Like, now.

The interview was packaged as a rare, candid conversation with a movie star about his mental health struggles. A man who supposedly had it all—looks, breeding, a successful career on the silver-screen—was admitting that appearances can be deceiving. And he wanted the whole world to know he was having a hard time. Why? So that others in a similar position would feel inspired to seek help.

So humble. So brave.

Looking back, it's clear the interview represented a calculated attempt by a well-oiled publicity machine to prop up the 6'5" oil heir as a hero, lest he be exposed as a monster.

By September 2020, many of Armie's alleged DMs were already ricocheting across social media. In fact, they'd gone somewhat viral on July 15, following his divorce announcement.

What Armie's reputation needed, asap, was a good old-fashioned scrubbing—something to show that, whatever his demons, he was addressing them. Armie was doing the work.

And boy, did GQ UK come through for our leading man. It even put him on the cover of the November 2020 issue, all broody and soulful and wanting to open up about his pain, man.

But why did Armie's team go all the way to the United Kingdom in search of the ideal publication through which to launder his image?

This is where things get interesting.

Armie's mental health cover story was written and packaged by GQ UK's Chief Content Officer, Jonathan Heaf. It marked the second occasion both men worked together in less than two years: Armie had graced the March 2019 cover of the magazine—the accompanying profile of the actor was written by Heaf.

It's not exactly unheard of for celebrity coverage to be cloyingly sycophantic. But Heaf's 2019 article? Never before had a glossy magazine printed a rim job quite like this one.

He takes great pains to let the reader know that he really likes Armie Hammer:

It’s easy to want to be friends with Hammer. You can kind of tell, right? I swooned, plus he’s terrific company.

He really, really likes Armie Hammer:

"Did I tell you how much I like Armie Hammer? Well, let me tell you again: it’s very easy to like Armie Hammer."

It's a familiar experience—you become infatuated with someone, and you want to talk about how great they are to anyone who will listen.

"I am compelled to tell Chalamet what I feel compelled to tell you: about the sheer decency of Hammer as a human being."

Anything else you told Armie's co-star about Armie, Jonathan?

"I tell him that I believe there is something noble about his friend, mentor and colleague. Not noble as in a sense of hierarchy or blue-bloodedness, but more in a decent, gallant, chivalrous way."

Geez, man. It sounds like you started to worship Armie Hammer. I hope you didn't go even further overboard with the compliments, because they might look embarrassing in retrospect.

Ah, well. Nevertheless.

You should've listened to your role model, Jonathan. He wasn't wrong.

The question is, Why? What the hell happened to make a journalist become so chummy with his interview subject? (Beyond the obvious lack of professionalism, of course.)

Unfortunately for Jonathan, he might not be in a position to answer this. There's that pesky lack of professionalism, for one. While the interview with Armie Hammer was technically supposed to be a "work" thing, Jonathan ended up getting drunk. Very, very drunk. So drunk he doesn't remember how he got home. So drunk he barely recalls the evening he spent on the company dime, "interviewing" Armie Hammer.

I'm not making this up. Jonathan Heaf, Chief Content Officer of GQ UK, spent half the article talking about how hungover he was the day after the interview. Half the article. Surely, nobody who leafed through the March 2019 issue of GQ UK looking for the Armie Hammer profile gives a rat about Jonathan Heaf's hangover. I'm not sure anybody in the world would be interested in reading these many words about Jonathan Heaf. Not even his mother. Yet here we are.

There's another reason we are unlikely to ever get an answer for why Jonathan Heaf loves Armie Hammer so much. The reason is because the two men share a secret. A salacious secret. A secret so juicy and hilarious, the two men can't help joking about it on Twitter.

Oh man, you really had to be there. It was a bonding moment between two dads. (Yes, both men are fathers.) It even got immortalized in a very funny photo! Jonathan loves talking about "THE PHOTO." But he won't let you see it. No, sir. It's a secret photo. A secret photo related to an even secreter secret shared between Jonathan Heaf and Armie Hammer.

And let him tell you, Jonathan Heaf is very, very relieved that his secret is safe with Armie Hammer. So safe he can play coy about it in the pages of the magazine that employs him.

If you see Armie Hammer out on the street, looking tall and noble, ask him. Ask Hammer the actor what happened to him and the British journalist after the Martini session in the Sunset Tower Hotel bar in November last year. Walk up to him. Say hi. Smile. Wave. Talk. Engage in a conversation. He’ll like that. Be nice. Be civil. Be a bit more, well, be a bit more Armie. I mean, he probably won’t tell you. Why not? Well, he’s Armie Hammer, isn’t he? It wouldn’t be gracious. It would make you laugh like hell, sure, but it wouldn’t be loyal. It wouldn’t be decent. And, you know, we could all do with being a bit more Armie Hammer sometimes. Right, Armie?"

If you've made it this far (first of all—thank you), you may be wondering whether I'm being too harsh on poor old Jonathan Heaf. How was he supposed to know his utterly decent, supremely loyal friend Armie Hammer would turn out to be a sadistic psychopath? Jonathan Heaf is probably just as freaked out as we all are. Right?

On Thursday, Heaf uploaded a photograph to his Instagram grid, of himself wearing a flashy tracksuit. If the tracksuit looks familiar, it's probably because you've seen Armie Hammer wear it on the pages of GQ UK.

And in the comments of his dapper tracksuit insta pic, Jonathan Heaf, Chief Content Officer of GQ UK, wrote, "cut me, I bleed breakfast wine 🍷"

(X)

[rubisaurus98]

I just had a realization:

So, early on, Paris’ impression of Akras Summoners is that they’re all basically inferior to someone in the Imperial Guard like her; a bunch of brutes one way or another. Granted, Lugina being the first of the Mains that she meets did nothing to give her a different impression/opinion, but still. But, of course once she’s interacting directly with Grahdens, she’s not as haughty.

Thing is, there’s supposed to be a break between the end of Mirvana and the start of Lanara, and that hang time contains Karl’s and Seria’s GQs. There’s still a bit of time where Paris has a bit of her initial attitude.

What I’m trying to say is that Paris most likely hasn’t actually interacted with Summoners older than the Mains until actually talking with Grahdens in Lanara. And, I’m planning on including certain OCs in Ren’s GQ as well as all the Mains. Mainly Zura and Alastor will serve to give her an entirely new perspective on Akras’ so-called “brutish” Summoners.

[willyoulovemeh]

Feelin’ like a brutish thug in my sheep hoodie. 🐑 It’s like I pull up feelin’ soft but actin’ real tough 👊🏼💥Who’s excited for fall? • • • • • #british #filipino #mensstyle #fallfashion #england #pinoy #fallstyle #menswear #britain #english #brit #greatbritain #dapper #uk #sexiestmanalive #menwithstyle #fall2016 #mensfashionpost #unitedkingdom #britishstyle #britishcars #igerspinoy #menstyle #gq #menwithclass #ootdmen #newarrivals #winterfashion #gentleman #guyswithstyle (at New York, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo_lXpvnod_/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=e6vw9hm80tzy