Because it was not that long ago, we all remember when we still liked actress Jennifer Lawrence. At 19, she knocked us all out in 2010’s Winter’s Bone. The following year she was the best thing in the box office hit X-Men: First Class. The year after that she went certified platinum when The Hunger Games topped off a domestic gross of $408 million.
And we still liked her.
At this point it seemed as though Lawrence could do no wrong. Even the junky horror film House at the End of the Street, something she probably signed on to before becoming a star, opened to number one and eventually grossed $32 million, despite all those horrific reviews.
From there it was Oscar time with Silver Linings Playbook, another ($132M domestic) smash, especially for a quirky drama. Lawrence’s zenith was such that the second Hunger Games out-grossed the first ($424M); American Hustle out-grossed Silver Linings ($150M), and X-Men: Days of Future Past out-grossed First Class ($233M).
And we still liked her.
And then Lawrence met rape-hoaxer Lena Dunham and started shooting off her big, fat, insulting, ignorant mouth…
Oh, sure, Lawrence had done interviews and public appearances in the past, but that was when she was still awesome, unaffected, relatable, grateful for her success, funny, a bit overwhelmed but still poised, and even cool. But after whatever meet-cute occurred between Jen and Len, that all changed — and with it went her box office appeal.
The epic fall began with Lawrence writing a column for Dunham’s feminist website Lenny Letter, where she addressed the wage gap between the gajillions she makes and the gajillions her male co-stars make. Rather than attack the (leftwing) Hollywood system, she attacked — wait for it, wait for it — men, and did so in the most arrogant, self-regarding way imaginable:
I’m even the asshole who didn’t do anything about the ice-bucket challenge — which was saving lives — because it started to feel more like a “trend” than a cause. I should have written a check, but I fucking forgot, okay? I’m not perfect. But with a lot of talk comes change, so I want to be honest and open and, fingers crossed, not piss anyone off. …
I’m over trying to find the “adorable” way to state my opinion and still be likable! Fuck that. I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard.
The hot air could float a zeppelin.
As the Dunham-toxin made its way quickly through Lawrence’s bloodstream, just a few weeks later Lawrence would be spewing the kind of hateful poison that seemed impossible just a few weeks earlier:
All those people holding their crucifixes, which may as well be pitchforks, thinking they’re fighting the good fight. I grew up in Kentucky. I know how they are. …
My view on the election is pretty cut and dried: If Donald Trump is president of the United States, it will be the end of the world. And he’s also the best thing to happen to the Democrats ever.
And then the bottom fell out.
Just days after launching the hate campaign against Christians, the opening weekend of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2 stunned Hollywood. This, the closing chapter in what had been one of the most successful franchises ever, opened to a weak $104M, well below the expected $124M. The eventual domestic gross petered out at a sorry $281M, or $56M below its predecessor.
It was not supposed to work this way. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, the final chapter of that monster franchise, out-performed its predecessor (by $85M) and all the previous entries. The final chapter of the Twilight series more than held its own.
About a month later came Joy, a reunion with her Silver Linings/American Hustle family. Despite tons of publicity, Joy went down in flames with a humiliating gross of just $56M.
Moving right along… Lawrence could do nothing to help X-Men: Apocalypse ($155M), one of the biggest disappointments of the year. What was supposed to be a comeback vehicle, Passengers — a splashy, $110 million sci-fi/romantic thriller powered by her and Chris Pratt’s starpower — barely squeaked over the $100M mark.
And now comes her latest test, this week’s mother!, which has won solid reviews and a wide release on nearly 2,400 screens. It is Lawrence’s face on the poster and Lawrence’s presence in the trailers. But it is also Lawrence’s ignorant and bigoted mouth getting most of the attention.
Just last month the insufferable dolt decried America’s “divide and anger,” and did so just after she had gone on the record telling Trump “F*ck you.” And then Lawrence hit a new bottom.
Just last week, Little Miss Pro-Science appeared to blame a couple of deadly hurricanes on Trump.
Tuesday night, in an apparent panic regarding the box office prospects of mother!, Lawrence took to Facebook with the claim that she wasn’t really blaming Trump for the hurricanes, and then she went on to say all the correct things about “first responders” and “donate” and “my publicist actually wrote this statement but I did add the word really to the word important.”
All the audience goodwill she had built up just by being her awesome self is now gone, *poof*. Now she is full of herself; just another Borg, another moralizing scold, another humorless finger-wagger, another elite Hollywood asshole.
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Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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