Celebrity Twitter Watch

Steven Moffat deletes his twitter account. Fandom explodes:

http://www.hypable.com/2012/09/09/doctor-who-showrunner-steven-moffat-deletes-twitter-account/

It's not quite clear what happened. If there was harrassment and threatening going on, that's really shitty of...anti-fandom, I guess. You can criticize someone without getting personal and ugly about it.

Apart from that: I always thought that Moffat with his trolling ways and his general inability to take criticism of any kind was not very well-suited to twitter. Many celebrities aren't. I'm happy that Cumberbatch stays away, there would be loads of rambling and pretentious, privileged nonsense. Brealey (she plays Molly Hooper) didn't exactly do herself any favours by calling the casting of Lucy Liu "gimmicky". But then I don't want to know too much about the people whose work I enjoy because it generally leads to disappointment. Twitter is kinda made for killing crushes and fanship.

Trying to imagine Benedict Cumberbatch keeping his thoughts to 140 characters is a fun mental exercise.

Arabella wrote:Simon Cowell drunk tweets from 35,000 feet

How did he manage to tweet travelling from London to LA? How do these tweets exist? I need to know because when I get on the plane from Shannon to Boston, all you hear is how you have to turn off your phone and anything remotely wireless connected. And if you're not using wireless, then how much would that data plan be costing you on the next bill?? These are practicalities of my life, people, and others seem to be completely free of such burdens!!

(Though it's probably as well I don't have internet access on the phone. My tweets would all be along the lines of "Bored". "Still bored". "Not there yet". "Would love a burger." "Miss my dogs." Nobody wants to be reading that).

Probably one of the "pay $15 and you can has Internets for the next fifteen hours" plans they have on planes nowadays.

Apart from that: I always thought that Moffat with his trolling ways and his general inability to take criticism of any kind was not very well-suited to twitter.

I think even people who are able to take criticism well would have hard time putting up with the sort of entitled whining I saw directed at Steven Moffat on twitter. It would get very tiring very quickly.

punkysdilemma wrote:Probably one of the "pay $15 and you can has Internets for the next fifteen hours" plans they have on planes nowadays.

I see. The cost of putting internet availability on their planes would probably nearly bankrupt poor old Aer Lingus and/or set up flight prices by eleventy billion euro. It's nice to know such things exist though.

Poubelle wrote:Trying to imagine Benedict Cumberbatch keeping his thoughts to 140 characters is a fun mental exercise.

"Good morning everyone! I woke up excited to start working on the latest production of Star Tr"

"Oh bugger. I'm no good at this at all. I just wanted to say that it's grea fun working with Si"

ETA -- I think that it makes sense and it's good for him. There is nothing wrong with removing things that are hindering you from doing work. Social media is exhausting sometimes. And even people adept at it take breaks at times.

And this is from someone who isn't a fan of his. Sometimes it's just not worth it to be online.

ActonBell wrote:

Apart from that: I always thought that Moffat with his trolling ways and his general inability to take criticism of any kind was not very well-suited to twitter.

I think even people who are able to take criticism well would have hard time putting up with the sort of entitled whining I saw directed at Steven Moffat on twitter. It would get very tiring very quickly.

IMO Moffat writes some really problematic stuff and then gets defensive when people suggest that some of the things he's done are sexist, heteronormative or have racist implications. And if you use social media like twitter and make yourself somewhat "available" you're bound to get all sorts of "feedback".

Where I totally agree is that these things too often get mixed up with thinking that celebrities owe something to fandom: Making this or that plot or ship happen, trying to dictate what they need to write etc. And then of course the personal attacks. I've seen quite a bit aimed at Moffat. Yeah, he's written questionable stuff, that doesn't give anybody the right to harrass him. Ah well, social media has so many fascinating and useful features and effects, but it also has serious drawbacks. The Hive-mind mentality it creates is one of those negative sides IMO, it's easier to feel strong when you're anonymous and loads of like-minded people on the internet validate everything you do.

IMO Moffat writes some really problematic stuff and then gets defensive when people suggest that some of the things he's done are sexist, heteronormative or have racist implications.

He was doing this way back before Twitter. My husband wrote a piece criticizing the final episode of Coupling -- way, way, WAY back in the day -- for a small TV criticism website a group of us ran as a hobby. Within 48 hours, Moffat had somehow found the piece and sent a vicious email which basically ignored every measured argument my spouse made and focused, instead, on his presumed (and imagined) mental and emotional character flaws. So I am fairly comfortable suggesting that Moffat has a thing about defensiveness.

Moffat may make good TV, but he'd probably do well to avoid the Internets.

WOW. Now that's next-level defensive.

I agree there are some really problematic things about his writing and he should probably avoid social media if he's so thin-skinned he actually emails people with abuse if they write something critical of his work, but in general I also have a problem with people on twitter messaging showrunners and telling them their shows are awful or asking them to fix x, y & z. Moffat is far from alone in this, and I always wonder what the end goal is -- I doubt someone like Moffat or Julie Plec is going to read a twitter message and think "You are so right, random tweeter! I'm going to change everything about my show to please you."

My husband wrote a piece criticizing the final episode of Coupling -- way, way, WAY back in the day -- for a small TV criticism website a group of us ran as a hobby.

Hey! I'd love to read this, is the website still around? I loved Coupling, though of course I had my own criticisms.

That much thin skin amazes me. How the fuck did he survive in show business with that skin?

I'd love to read this, is the website still around?

If it is the website I remember and the writer in question is Phil than I hope so! It's driving me nuts I can't recall the name. It was my go to Fall TV review site for the longest time before it left me with only TWoP to turn to.

Moffat seems like a thin skinned asshole.

If it is the website I remember and the writer in question is Phil than I hope so! It's driving me nuts I can't recall the name. It was my go to Fall TV review site for the longest time before it left me with only TWoP to turn to.

Yes! We used to be part of the Vidiot collective* at teevee.org. Every fall, we'd do the TV Deathpool. We'd also review pilots (friendly TV critics would pass them along) or write same-night reviews of shows.

And then several things happened at once: There was a marriage boom, followed by a baby boom, several Vidiots' careers began taking off, some of us got paid to write about TV (did you all know I was a TV critic for the Mpls City Pages? I was.), and writing for free on Teevee slipped off people's to-do lists. Several of us are still active at The Incomparable, but there's nothing like Teevee, alas.

ANYHOODLE. The archives are kind of hideously tangled at the moment so I can't find the piece. All I remember is that Phil thought "Jeffina" was a serious misstep in the finale, and evidently, that opinion was enough to let slip the dogs of email.


(*We actually were a collective -- legal papers drawn up and everything. This becomes more amusing when you know that one of the Vidiots went on to become a speechwriter for George W. Bush and another runs a well-established conservative academic publication.)

Ah, the Vidiots and teevee, yes I loved the work you all did. Hee I remember the first time I ever heard about Tivo was your site and how excited the writer was about watching whatever you want entirely on your own schedule.

Even now in a thoroughly glutted tv reviewing/recapping market I still think teevee stands out as one of the best, that ever covered television. I will now have to check out The Incomparable!

And in other insane news:

Amanda Abbington, Martin Freeman's wife, has gotten death threats for defending Moffat.

Also me going: WHAT THE FUCK? You can disagree with the man all you want, disagree with his friends on his writing, but seriously? Death threats? Some people need to get a life.

Danneel Harris mentioned getting death threats on Twitter recently too. If there's one thing the internet has taught me, it's that there are far, far more psychos out there than I ever even dreamed.

Or people don't seem to realize the weight of their words. Either way, this is why I have a dim view of humanity.

From Misha Collins:

Misha Collins ‏@mishacollins
For those joining @hatersofdanneel in wishing death and cancer on @danneelharris, stop. You are definitely peeing into the wind karmically.

Do these people realize how creepy and disturbed they sound? Their behavior definitely isn't going to impress any of the actors on Supernatural.

WHAT THE HELL PEOPLE? Who says that to another person?

Death threats for what? Just for daring to be married to Jensen Ackles? Goddamn, that is scary.

whatthedeuce wrote:Death threats for what? Just for daring to be married to Jensen Ackles? Goddamn, that is scary.

Yeah, I always want to shake them and say "Even if he wasn't married to her, he wouldn't date you. Or Jared."

I would be really interested in seeing the age distribution of the people sending the threats.

vwlphb wrote:I would be really interested in seeing the age distribution of the people sending the threats.

I would bet money on it not skewing as young as you might think. It's no secret now that many fandoms are made up of people well over the age of majority who should freaking know better but instead choose to carry on like 10 years olds.

53.
Wrote Supernatural fan fiction.
Shut up.