On life with Blake Shelton – recently named People’s Sexiest Man Alive – and how they spend their time on Shelton’s ranch in Oklahoma: “It’s very tribal. Blake has a sister, she comes with her kids. We cook and get muddy and dirty. There are ATV’s. Being a mother of three boys, it’s kind of the perfect place. Everything is real now, whereas before, things didn’t seem so real.”So the subject is: What is reality and can you picture it? It's possible that her claim of getting to what is real is a con. But certainly all that wiggery and makeup is a con, except that it's real in the context of the cover of a fashion magazine. It's frankly fake.* It's the cover of a magazine, exactly what it is, and not some pretense of the "natural look" (achieved with subtle makeup and hair styled into "windblown" strands or faux "bedhead").
Stefani invites you to picture her getting dirty riding ATVs on a ranch in Oklahoma, but she doesn't give you pictures of that. The pictures would necessarily be posed. You have to use your imagination, and you will be very much grounded in the reality that what you are seeing is your mental picture.
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* "Coco Chanel is credited for having coined the phrase 'frankly fake' and igniting a craze for high wattage, oversized baubles set with obviously faux pearls and gems...."
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28 comments:
Palin got there first.
Got where?
Is it intentional that her pose is pretty much Munch's "The Scream"?
Maybe that is her showing us her reality.
-jj
Kinda looks like they pasted Ariana Grande's face on Gwen Stefani.
Tom & Lorenzo - who & who?
Marie Claire - who?
Gwen Stefani - who?
Blake Shelton - who?
Though I've heard of the 1st pair (on this blog), I'm pretty sure I'm glad that I don't have any idea who any of these people are, and that I couldn't pick them out in a photo.
Got where?
Wholesome outdoorsy family type/glamour babe
There is something wrong, fundamentally, with a career in posing - acting, performing in public, being a photographers model, being a professional beauty. Or, probably, being a public figure.
There is I think a tendency to ingrained falsity. This probably leaks through to personal relationships. The mask of false familiarity made possible by modern anonymity and modern technology.
This is impossible in the natural human environment, of the small community. Everyone has seen everyone else in their natural state, knows them and their character from childhood.
I hope they're careful and not too far from emergency services. ATVs are very dangerous.
Keep your kids out of public careers, its almost always a bad thing, regardless of the rewards. The risk of psychological and moral harm outweighs anything else.
Magazines sell the fantasy.
You can get real for free just looking out your window.
It’s like they used to say about James Brown: “Every moment fake and every moment real.”
Or maybe it was Bernini’s sculptures.
Did the photographer use a fan, or did he use the wind comes sweeping down the plain?
Forget the ATVs, with Jud hiding in the root cellar and Ali in the reeds when she's tryin' to skinny dip in the cattle tank, it just aint a suitable place for a proper city girl.
"So the subject is: What is reality and can you picture it?"
True. But that is always The Subject.
I was acquainted with Gwen back in the 80s when no Doubt was just a local band. She was down to earth back then. Just another ska/punk girl from California. Even flirted with her one night. Real before becoming unreal... do I have another chance now she is real again?
Palin didn't get there, she comes from there. It's part of what makes her so terrifying.
Funny and kind of lame that the best they thought to do here is make her look like a bleached blonde version of Ariana Grande.
She used to have her own look. This cover and photo spread, though, the make-up and facial expressions are all Ariana.
And Ariana's a far better vocalist.
Gwen should've stuck to her quirky niche.
Yes, magazine covers, awards presentations, and the set of your television show are not the places to see these people in their natural state. I believe pretty much everything Stefani claims to do on the ranch, and I would be surprised if she didn't look like someone who had done a day of ATV riding in on a Oklahoma summer day after doing so. It is a pity there were no such photographs, but I am sure they exist- they are just held privately and not for publication.
Aren't most people on t&l fake anyways?
"Comments on a Tom & Lorenzo blog post"
tl;dr.
As in: Tom and Lorenzo; didn't read.
I figure Althouse posts the good stuff here.
-jj
So you're saying performers aren't allowed to get out of costume?
Adam Levine, on The Voice, has been giving Blake incredible grief over the sexiest man alive cover and he's taking it all in good fun.
I don't care how 'fake' she looks. She's nice to the little people, admits her singing voice isn't the greatest, takes her sons to weekly Mass.
That cover is a crime. Gwen S. is a very cute, attractive woman. That picture looks like a mannequin.
Blake Shelton has the reputation of being a man’s man. That can help a woman feel as though she’s all woman. Married to Meade, I imagine you understand.
I think if you put one of those blood flow meters they put around guy's Johnsons to measure arousal, on a group of men, that cover wouldn't move the needle.
Maybe the person on the left just wants her privacy and this is one way to get it.
FWIW, I've seen a completely unstaged photo of them relaxing in a small boat on Lake Texoma, where they frequent and where one of my employees has a lake house. They both look completely natural, and she looked perfectly comfortable sans makeup.
I have little use for celebrities, but they both seem fairly down to earth, they both make music I enjoy, and neither of them spends a lot of time hectoring me about my life choices or who I vote for. And I can related to finding happiness in a midlife marriage after an earlier one went bad. So as far as that goes, I wish 'em all the best.
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