Hey everybody! Just a few more 50 Shades of Grey related things for all of us to shake our heads about this lovely Saturday evening.
A 50 Shades of Grey fan has doxed an anti-fifty blogger. @Kaydeelex has had to choose between her professional career or her blog, which points out the abuse in 50 Shades of Grey. You can read more here. I am not at all surprised to see a 50 Shades of Grey stan behave so abusively, for obvious reasons.
Miss Quin and I talked about 50 Shades of Grey…for like almost an hour. If you’re interested in hearing our somewhat bewildered take on the movie we watched the night before, you’re in luck!
The images in the 50 Shades of Grey posts will soon be fixed! There is a crack team ready to roll on this. They are not unlike the Avengers. PS. I was in this total state of crushing anxiety, like, how am I going to meet my deadline and fix this and I’m letting everybody down, etc. and then so many of you emailed me to help out with this. When I told Mr. Jen, he said, “I knew they would have your back.” So thank you, thank you, thank you for having my back.
E.L. James is fixin’ to tank her sequels. Variety reports that James is demanding more control over the sequels (including writing the screenplays, despite having no experience), and Vanity Fair reports that Universal is actually entertaining the idea. Meanwhile, notoriously accurate Hollywood gossip peddler @EntyLawyer had this to say (thanks, @Katiebabs, for bringing this to my attention)
Jamie Dornan has out clause for 50 Shades sequel if production does not start by certain date. EL James will delay it beyond that date
— Enty Lawyer (@entylawyer) February 21, 2015
@katiebabs No script. No writer. No director. No start date. They wanted sequel V’Day 2016. Shooting won’t start until at least then.
— Enty Lawyer (@entylawyer) February 21, 2015
@LindsTR There are huge delays and right now it is 50/50 that you will be looking at a new Christian Grey.
— Enty Lawyer (@entylawyer) February 21, 2015
No matter what happens, it’s surely not great news for the franchise if the sequels are in this much trouble just a week after the first movie opened.
Thought you would like this:
“50 Shades of Grey is romantic only because the guy is a billionaire. If he was living in a trailer it would be a Criminal Minds episode. ” -Sara Elliott Hernandez
Haha, nice.
My mom shared a picture with that quote on Facebook. It really is only “romantic” because the guy’s rich.
There is a meme of this. I know because three people in a row posted it to my FB wall yesterday. lol
I believe my hatred of this series is well-known.
LMAO! Tis true. Being swept off your feet by some wealthy dude is a big part of the fantasy. Also him being handsome or conventionally attractive is also what makes it a romantic fantasy. If he had been unattractive it wouldn’t be a romance novel it would be a Law and Order SVU storyline.
I just don’t understand why they are so swept up in claiming it is just a fantasy, I mean wouldn’t it be an even better fantasy if he was nice and rich and beautiful all at the same time? That would get me a lot more excited.
I JUST said that at dinner on Monday! It is so very true, they are really drawn to the money, if he was a redneck people would swiftly label this abuse.
I was kind of hoping the actress who plays Ana would get out and they’d recast with no fanfare and leave the audience wondering if Christian had made the first Ana disappear, and I’m not sure how to explain away a new Christian to myself. If that makes sense.
That out-clause thing is really interesting. I think the current trend is really to maintain actor continuity as much as possible, at least for the main cast. I can’t think of a single big franchise in the last several years that didn’t do so even though in some instances the studios took a hit in the wallet during renegotiations. Granted I haven’t seen the movie but from what I’ve heard Dornan’s acting was the weakest so I guess it’s possible his departure would actually be a positive thing.
However if EL takes over the script-writing, I can’t think of a single actor who could save that shit show. I understand being a bit possessive of your own work and you certainly don’t have too look far to see awful adaptations but if your writing quality is the walking punchline of your work maaaaaybe you should let someone else be the driver.
Thing is he is actually a brilliant actor, I just think that he didn’t have a lot to work with. Christian’s character is the weakest character, cause E.L James refused to flesh the character out.
I would actually love if he got out of the movies because I do love him as an actor and he is a decent human being so being tied to all three of these movies would probably hurt his career in the long run. I could see him using the get out clause as an excuse to get out of the project. But I do think that it would be difficult to find a replacement given how many other actors were planning on playing him and then dropping out citing other reasons for doing so.
IUgh! This woman isn’t just possessive of her work she is full on in love with it and herself. Her stans have inflated her ego so much she thinks that she can do no wrong.
Since ELJ is such a narcissist, maybe get her to write it and get spike jonze to direct a “being john malkovich” style sequel where she plays all the parts as well?
I’m in favour of having her write it (I love to watch a train wreck), but act out all the parts herself? Now I have a mental image of EL as Christian going down on El as Ana. Thanks for that.
Sure, why not direct the train wreck?
She looked over the directors shoulder, driving her crazy, sure that’ll qualify her to direct herself. Just think of it, no one could change her great visions!
That would make a really good movie *cough*
I am truly sorry to hear about the blogger’s troubles. My thoughts are with her, and others who experience the vitriol. Just goes to show the lunatic and her fans are as abusive as the book.
I wanted the movie to fail as much as anyone here, but I’m surprised Universal didn’t seem to have a plan in place JUST IN CASE the movie based on a inexplicably popular book series was a hit. And they wanted the sequel out next Valentine’s Day. And that article DID NOT just compare E.L. James to Gillian Flynn.
I was not a Gone Girl fan, but Flynn’s writing quality is leaps and bounds above James’. I had the exact same reaction when I read that.
OTOH, I feel like if James writes the sequel, it might actually be incredibly (unintentionally) hysterically funny and worth watching.
I think the attack on the blogger is really awful and I theres a clear parralell to James’ sending that awful reaction gif to an abuse survivor; overreaction to criticism. In the end I suppose, you get the fans you deserve, and while whomever is behind this maybe celebrating the fact they closed down one source of critique the fact of the matter is this does little to forward the cause of those arguing that the books aren’t exactly what they are; abusive.
As for the movie I’m all for letting James have at it. It was pretty clear from this movie that the changes Sam Taylor Johnson made managed to humanize Ana and get rid of the more ridiculous plot points. If James thinks her work is all out perfect that it simply needs a scene by scene transfer (something implied in the commentary over the fights that both Johnson and Kelly Marcel the other screenwriter seem to have had with her) then great; the world can always benefit from more long, loud belly laughs. On a more serious note I can’t think of anything more likely to suggest to people that you geninuinely believe that your Master of the Universe and that your ego has grown rampantly and unstoppably than insisting on taking over where others are clearly better qualified is definitely the way to go. So EL James, if you were hoping to show us that your ego is the size of the sun and you think you know better than literally everybody; job done!
I’m so glad you found people to help you get the illustrations back into you posts Jen. They really added to the reading experience and it would be sad if the work you ploughed into finding the perfect gif etc. we’re lost. I’d have offered to help but my techno numptyness is legend and had you let me near them, the site would probably have exploded or rewritten itself or both!
Ya know, through the course of reading the recaps and keeping up with how EL James reacts, I truly wonder if she’s a Narcissist. Not just egotistical, but if maybe she actually has Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
I don’t like to armchair-psychoanalyze someone, especially someone I don’t even know, but with the way she reacts to things it feels like it’s the only way her thought processes make sense.
I’ve read reviews from people unfamiliar with the books and that liked the books say that the lines that were taken direct from the book felt stilted and unnatural. Also that it seemed obvious that they were kind of shoehorned in there, like the movie would have benefitted from cutting those lines altogether.
Jenny said it really well in the video review that there’s some things that work in writing, but just do not work at all when spoken. There are tons of critics out there, both professional and amateur, that are saying EL James’ writing doesn’t transfer directly to the screen well unless you make changes. Heck, how many of us were saying that before the movie was even in the works?
But James is so convinced of her superiority as a writer that she’s certain that all those people, including the people that make movies for a living, are just plain wrong. That her vision is the only proper vision for this series.
And then the way she just attacks anyone that criticizes her and sometimes tries to turn the criticism back on them, it all just screams Narcissism to me.
But who knows, maybe she wasn’t like this much before all the popularity went to her head. Maybe she was normal, with a good balance of self-esteem, modesty and acknowledging reality, then when Master of the Universe started getting popular on fanfic, something snapped and turned her in to an egomaniacal monster.
One thing is for sure, I’m not religious, but I am praying that Sam Taylor-Johnson is able to write a tell-all book about making this movie and what a nightmarish shrew James was. Hell, I’d settle for an article about it. I’m just dying to know which horrible things she put her foot down on despite everyone else being able to see that it would make the film worse, not better.
I think we all know that Dornan’s contract is legally unenforceable. 😉
i just find this whole thing completely bizarre….how does she have so much clout? every other book adaptation – no matter how popular the source material – the author seems to get shown the door before the cameras even start rolling. but what the hey! i’m all for it. let her write the screenplay. hell let her direct it if that’s what she wants. let us finally get the hilariously incredibad mess that we denied the first time around because a decent writer and director actually managed to elevate the film to mediocre. how boring.
I think it’s because some of the biggest money making franchises have been movies adapted from popular books. It’s now a thing. EL waited until her books were so popular that the studio was willing to make many concessions to get their hands on the movie money. I’m guessing they probably did not realize she was an intractable narcissist until after it was too late.
very true. and also i seem to remember that she’s worked in TV, so she knows how the industry works and how to play the game. if she didn’t seem so deeply unpleasant i’d probably admire her hustle tbh.
Unlike my brother, I’m not a lawyer and I don’t know what the details of any contract or maybe multiple contracts that E.L. James may have signed when she sold the rights to make the Fifty Shades trilogy into movies to the movie studio. That being said, I can’t help but wonder if there’s any kind of clause in the contract or contracts that the movie studio signed that would allow them to basically fire E.L. James from the movies’ production team and get her out of the picture, so she can’t continue to cause problems with the production of the Fifty Shades movies. I know it probably sounds mean to even think about shutting an author of a book out of the production process of a movie adaptation of their own book, but at the end of the day, I think movie studios have to do what’s best financially for their business. I just can’t imagine the studio not at least considering the possibility of trying to find a way to nullify any contracts that give E.L. James the right to be involved with the production process, such as writing the script for Fifty Shades Darker, if her diva antics cause them to lose money.
I know J.K Rowling had a good bit of say in the Harry Potter Films. However she negotiated hard for that and was able to get it because of how popular the books were, and how badly the studio wanted the books. Most if not all of the HP directors said that having J.K involved added to the experience, not took away from it. They also commented that she was open to them changing some things to adapt it to film. Clearly E.L James didn’t get the memo. I’m also trying to figure out how she got as much clout as J.K who books are far more popular(even though FSOG possibly outsold HP) and is much better writer. Then again I’m still trying to figure out how FSOG outsold HP.
Although J.K. doesn’t have a massive ego and the way she has behaved since her fame has shown that over and over again. For example she keeps her country address in the UK so she can pay taxes because she is grateful for the dole she received when she was struggling and wants to support the country that didn’t let her die from homelessness. She also donates a lot of money to causes she is passionate about.
I haven’t heard anything but bad things about E.L. and I don’t even pay that much attention to what authors get up to (the J.K. information is also something that I know despite not really knowing much about the author because I pay so little attention, but fans have spoken a lot about how much they love her). I think because her ego isn’t so massive she was/is willing to listen to those who mentioned ideas that would improve her movies and not hurt the characters people had come to love. J.K. is actually a good person and it shows.
Because every other writer didn’t sell so many books and become so famous as to become a question on Jeopardy! !
No matter if you like her or not, you can’t deny the brilliance of marketing and hype surrounding the books!
I’m very confused by the blogger being doxxed. Why would she have to post any identifying information on an anonymous personal blog? That makes no sense!
Because I was giving opinions based on my professional experience. In my home state, if we’re doing so we need to post our registration information. It’s for accountability.
Clarify* sorry!
Alexis, if I am able to offer your blog’s content a good home, I will be more than willing to do so. I started one of my own (great minds, eh?) along similar lines: http://www.workthegreymatter.com It’s still young, but it’ll grow. You can get hold of me on the contact form there.
To further clingy it’s because I’m an intern rather than a licensed MFT. Basically, I’m out of school working on my license. We have tougher standards.
That still seems so strange to me! but it is SO shitty that someone ratted on you, I’m sorry.
Thanks <3
That’s so shitty, Alexis. And you’d think that in that line of work it would be understood that some situations call for anonymity.
I’m upset that I didn’t find your blog before you were forced to take it down. I would have liked to read your take on these books and their popularity.
It’s a shame that you can’t just transfer the blog to someone else and simply not contribute to it from here on out. But I suppose since it’s known by your state that you wrote the articles in the blog, that transferring your blog to someone else wouldn’t help the problem any.
I admire you for your determination not to stop educating people about abuse and the abuse depicted in these books. I truly do. These kinds of tropes are popping up more and more in Young Adult fiction and it seems like with each new popular book/series the troubling aspects and the normalization of abuse gets harsher and more and more blatant, yet they seem increasingly celebrated.
I’m honestly terrified that my son will become an adult in to a culture that has moved gender equality progress backward 50 or even 100 years. The more these things are normalized, the more women are at risk. The more we will end up turning our girls in to victims just waiting for a perpetrator. And the 50 Shades books don’t just normalize abuse, they *celebrate* it. They hold it up as the model relationship that every woman should want.
It’s incredibly dangerous and harmful and I’m so glad that people like you, Jenny and so very many others are willing to stand up and tell the world “this is not okay! This is not right! It is dangerous and it is glorifying abuse.”
ELJ seems like such a control freak. She’s prob just delaying production so she can cast herself as Christian Grey.
YAY for the people who are going to help out with the pictures and stuff! I wish I could, but Queen Elizabeth is probably more technical than I am. And, I am so sorry to hear about that blogger who has been bullied into giving up her blog. A really shitty thing to do. Why do these people think they have to defend it to that extent? They should just understand that not everyone likes it.
I for one am loving that this narcissist thinks she can have 100% control. You just know that the movies are going to filled with Ana’s “subconscious” and “inner goddess” doing their various dumb shit in the background. I wouldn’t be surprised if ELJ insists on playing one of both of Ana’s headmates.
I’m actually surprised they didn’t have little cartoons of those two running around on the screen. Though from the sound of it this movie is already an lol fest.
Little animated Ana’s piping in and our Lizzie Maguire-style would have been the only thing that could’ve convinced me to see this in theaters. I mean I would’ve give to the theater that serves alcohol but I still would’ve gone.
*popping
*gone
ugh this is what I get for doing this on my phone
Yeah, if that happened I probably would have driven 3 hours to the nearest booze-serving theater to see that. That’d be fantastic! Well worth the ticket price and the cost of gas.
I would love to hear Mr. Jen’s take on this movie.
…guess E.L. James was just SUPER MAD they cut out the tampon scene, huh?
Thanks for mentioning what happened to me over the blog. I just want everyone to be safe. Getting doxxed is super freakin creepy.
Alexis, I just want so say that I’m super sorry you had to go through/are still going through this experience. It sounds like an absolute nightmare. The person/people behind it are beyond reprehensible.
I’m glad the images will be fixed! I’m rereading the recap right now and have been a very sad panda over the pics not appearing, but figured it was something to do with my netbook (not for any technical reason, just because I like to assume that I am the cause of all problems).
I honestly thought at first my computer was just blocking the images in the FSOG recaps, and then I realized they were certainly pictures in the mix that wouldn’t have been. I’m glad they’re people willing to help fix this, though. I wouldn’t have known where to begin.
I remember coming across the news that E.L. wanted to write her sequel script, and it will forever make me chuckle. Oh the fun we’ll have reading and/or viewing how she recreates her masterpiece that must absolutely be exactly the same as the books. Never mind script writing is more than just a “lesser” form of its cousin the novel.
Wow, Dakota wasn’t forced to wax, as per Christian Grey’s ridiculous contract? For being such a Diva, I’m surprised EL James allowed this deviation from the source material.
Good luck Alexis.
I hope I am not alone in hoping this thing gets Riff-traxed ASAP.
Thanks! <3
[…] you were wondering if EL James’s loyalest fans are less terrible than she is: they are not. At least one of them doxxed a blogger who explored the domestic violence in Fifty Shades. The good news from that roundup, though, is […]
So, for years I’ve been avoiding making a Twitter account. I just don’t want yet another social media platform that I need to keep up with. But then I keep finding awesome people that make me want to be able to read their musings and keep up on what they are doing, when new blog posts are up, or when a new book, video, article, etc, etc, etc is posted.
I’ve never heard of Miss Quin before this video, but I like her. I like her style. And of course I adore Jenny. So, watching that video might force me to finally get a twitter account simply so I can keep up with such amazing people.
Man. As a young blogger that talks about stuff that people mightn’t agree with (like 50SoG), doxing scares the bejeezus out of me. Like, that people are THAT dedicated to being assholes to complete strangers just because they don’t like a thing they like. Just… ugh. I always feel I’m trying to tread the line between speaking my mind honestly and *not* having my life ripped apart by random internet folks.
I cannot express how much I admire you, Jenny, for speaking openly about a lot of this stuff.
I read that Dornan wanted out anyway.
I also found a favorite youtuber of mine made a video that was perfect about 50 shades, it a sort of parody. [It is from Jacksfilms.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTDIMpmzu9M)
And of course there is the Cracked responds series where they responded to the ipad interview with the actors. It is pretty amusing.
Sorry my comment hyperlink failed miserably buy you get the idea…lol.
I don’t know, Jenny if you’ve heard this, but I read on HP today, that E.L. James is considering writing the script for the next installment of her masterpiece. I honestly hope it’s true, because I feel like the whole thing would just implode from the E.L. James overload. They should hire somebody like Brett Ratner to direct it. That would be a perfect trifecta of doom.