How did everyone's summer go? Plenty of drama for you?
If you are rendered helpless (like moi) when following a closeted celebrity couple (or individual), drama and angst automatically come as part of the package. 😉 Expect it.
One increasingly used occurrence that management teams use is what I like to call the garlic necklace, a deceptive tactic which is used to deter fans from criticizing or raising an eyebrow at their client while behind the scenes, the team is in the midst of:
• selling a gaslighting stunt
• selling a client or couple's heterosexuality
• distracting fans/general public prior to their client taking a hiatus from public view
And the garlic necklace has taken on all kinds of prohibitively sensitive forms:
• the death of a family member
• an alleged vehicular accident or arrest
• mental illness
• race
• an alleged sexual assault
• an actual staged physical "assault"
• LGBTQ+ rights
• a forced closet (this does not apply to Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles or other One Direction members, but because of their situation & huge fan support, it has become a noticeable new trend of manipulation & abuse by celebrities like Misha Collins and Taylor Swift)
• alleged miscarriage / abortion
• domestic abuse or assault
• death of a pet (and this is even if ownership of the pet really existed to begin with)
Seems pretty unimaginable, right? Who would lie about or use such tactics just to advance a straight narrative? Well, when you look at Twitter trends or a garishly splashy story on Just Jared, People, a national news television show, or TMZ, you will notice that many of these stunts will involve a celebrity who is closeted.
With a more media savvy audience, there is nothing that PR or management teams won't resort to these days and Narnia Dispatches has seen many of the above strategies used with some of our favorite subjects. Here's a few examples to illustrate the trend:
• Jake Gyllenhaal's team using the passing of real-life husband Austin Nichols' mother (and grandmother to their children) in September 2015 to peddle the fauxmance of Austin and Chloe Bennet. They staged a phony trip to Mexico which resulted in Austin allegedly needing to Face Time with his family during her passing, a very unlikely scenario. But, who can forget:
The tawdry theatrics were also designed to cover for what had to have been Jake's eventual presence in Texas with his in-law family during their painful loss and included the participation of Austin's brother-in-law, Rowdy Stovall. Narnia covered the situation in our post "One Year Later - Remembering Kay Vermeulen Nichols", including a timeline in the comments section.
• Jared's alleged arrest for the physical altercation (supposed assault and public intoxication) outside his saloon (covered in this March 2020 post), was widely covered by tabloid sites, but mysteriously has still never resulted in an actual sentencing or court hearing for that matter. The whole story now swept under a rug, only to be brought up by social media intern accounts to use as a constant narrative reminder of Jared's "temper" and "mental fragility".
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Hearing for the "arrest"? What hearing?
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• Jared's alleged "very bad car accident" earlier this spring and covered in this post, used as an excuse to cancel him from the New Jersey Supernatural convention so that the whole Misha Collins "coming out as bi - coming out as straight" stunt could take place and Jensen Ackles' people could use the weekend to highlight and promote him and his debut'ing show, The Boys.
• Danneel Ackles, Jensen's beard and photo-shopped "mother" to the Ackles children, with a rainbow avatar on her Twitter account.
• Jared's alleged mental breakdown/exhaustion (they couldn't seem to decide which it was), causing him to miss Jus In Bello in Italy in 2015. The alleged breakdown was exploited a year later by his co-stars and "bodyguard" Clif Kosterman on social media, just one of several strong signs that the whole episode was yet another JibCon scam.
• Long-time meard Misha Collins deeming his character of Castiel as the "gay angel", staging a bisexual "coming out" at an opportunistically-planned Friday night dinner event, followed by a lengthy apology and retraction, professing instead to be a "straight" ally. (Can you even keep up with that?) Prior to that NJ Con weekend, Collins and the J's team had used Castiel's "profession of love" towards the end of Supernatural's final season, to feed a Destiel/Cockles frenzy which would last and benefit them for an entire year.
• alleged assaults - Yolanda Hadid claiming Zayn Malik assaulted her in 2021, a claim that doesn't merit believability knowing Zayn's peaceful character and reverence for his fellow humans and animals. Let's put it this way, the wrong kind of "crime" was picked for a lead-up to the "break-up" of Zayn and her daughter. It was laughable.
And can I include the whole staged "Oscars Slap" melodrama with Will Smith and Chris Rock, complete with People cover?
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courtesy of the checkout counter at my local Hy-Vee
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Specific names won't be used on the use of a life-changing loss like a miscarriage as a garlic necklace, but let's say that it has become far too commonly used in Hollywood for the last several years. Not only happening too often, but accompanied with heavy social media coverage, Just Jared posts, and Instagram oversharing. That kind of a devastatingly personal loss is one so deeply felt, it has broken up marriages and forever affected many parents. Yet, some celebrities share details and emotions for the whole world to see - not just once, but multiple times via different avenues of media. Like, 'oh, you didn't hear the story? Let me go over it again, and provide even more personal details.' - type frequency. It's so mind-boggling of an over-sell, that the "heartfelt" confession is simply not believable.
Simply put, these seemingly off-limit topics are used by publicity teams to prevent malleable fans from doubting their stories. For the fans who are skeptical and more analytical, the off-limit topics are used to intimidate them from questioning out loud. Who's going to want to be seen doubting a drinking problem (as has been used with Liam Payne)? Who's going to want to be seen doubting talk of a broken arm/shoulder? Or a mental breakdown (both having been used with Jared Padalecki)?
Or how about masculine sensitivity? Like crying? Narnia has dubbed Creation Entertainment with the name 'Creation Theater' for a reason. Here's a melodramatic example that appeared allll kinds of scripted, from the recent Supernatural Toronto convention. Jared Padalecki becomes "overwrought" while on stage because he had just talked on the phone with his oldest son Tom, who was at summer camp.
We're not referring to a misting up or watering of the eyes either. We're talking about a theatrical delay with Jared unable to talk, and having to step away (so he could work himself up as though he were filming a scene?) for a few moments. When the moment came, he brandished his prop, I mean his handkerchief/Kleenex in hand, which he proceeded to use for an extended time because I guess the tears just wouldn't stop. Of course, Jared's outburst prompted the consoling body pat by Jensen, this particular one coming on Jared's knee.
After all, Jared is known for being emotional, right? Nothing wrong with that. But in all these years of convention panels and interviews, how many times has it been brought up by these two men how they were tucked away in Vancouver filming Supernatural for nine months out of the year, away from their families? In fact, many J2 fans delighted in believing that the children were desired by the beards, were for the beards, and primarily cared for by the beards. As Odette and the twins were added, a narrative held tightly to the hearts of many Spn Gos commenters was that these guys didn't want those last-born children. Remember this convention panel from 2017? Because both Jared and Jensen fed that narrative, along with the help of interns on twitter and in group chats.
Nor was Jensen excluded from this narrative.
"I don't know why they agreed to it then. They didn't have to. Jensen hasn't once seemed happy about having the twins and Jared couldn't even remember his daughter's name." - April 2017
"Check this out
Jensen's face how could anyone think that
these two men wanted all these kids" - April 2017
Or both men:
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Getting back to present 2022, wasn't that Jared and the beard Genevieve allegedly over in Italy for some kind of romantic "getaway" leading up to the Toronto convention? Where were the children at the time? Then, Jared comes "home" and promptly has to leave for the convention? No separation sadness anywhere in sight.
Sell your "heartbreak" somewhere else, Jared. Narnia's not buying one second of the display, one which was designed to hide that he was actually with Jensen, along with the children for summer break, just like Jake and Austin do every summer with their kiddos. Tale as old as time.
And what was this display at the same convention? For what it's worth, the fan does sound like she was jesting and Jared looks as though he's somewhat kidding as well, which would then increase the chances that the theatrics were scripted and the fan, a likely plant. Let's put it this way - Narnia would not be surprised at all. If Sony can plant fans in the audiences of concerts, fans can be planted at conventions and I think this has been going on with Creation Theater and the J's for who knows how long.
Is Jared trying to act like Louis Tomlinson here? Even in jest in this situation, it's a tired look. And the cowering behind Jensen like a four-year-old running to Mom, even more unappealing for a 40-year-old who's making good money from these meet & greet's, photo ops, and Gold/Silver packages. Not sure who came up with this lousy idea...
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"Oh, look how Jensen is scowling at the fan! He is not kidding!" *eyeroll*
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Oh, but it's "Protective!Jensen"!! And J2 fans love "Protective!Jensen"!
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Protective!Jensen, which is all just a part of the narrative of minimizing Jared and enabling his "fragile", "problematic" (i.e. the flipping off) narrative, while elevating the narrative of "tough-guy protector" Jensen Ackles to the rescue.
Because who on earth would question smoke and mirrors going on where there was crying concerned? Or the death of a
parent or pet? Accusations of sexual assault or harassment? What fan is willing to stick their neck out on such suspicions? Why, it would make the fan out to be
some kind of heel, right?
"No one ever believes the victims!"
Who wants to defy the existence of "toxic masculinity!"?
I am for human rights. If they openly profess to be an LGBTQIA ally, it's highly doubtful they would be a member of the community, right? They would say so!
What kind of person would I be to question this out loud?
Who would even lie about such off-limit topics? What kind of person would lie about an assault?
These kinds of thought processes are precisely why garlic necklaces have become a popular deterrent used by management teams against fans.
🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹
While we're on the subject of Jared, Jensen and Crew, never has there been such longevity in blaming of the fans than in their fandom. On July 18, long-time benefactor and enabler Richard Speight tweeted this podcast promo which focused on an attention grabber: Jensen talking about Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The tweet involved an alleged typing error on Speight's part (on the left) and correction by a fan (on the right).
So, Speight came back with a snarky reply to her biting, correcting tweet,
In other words, he was accusing her of being accusatory towards him. And amazingly, this exchange then inspired the Stands account to go on this over-the-top, multi-tweet rant, which started off with this one:
Continuing with these,
Stands' tweets came twenty-seven minutes after Speight's snarky one. Just 27 minutes. While that kind of quick timing is not entirely questionable, this is: all of Stands' tweets were identically time-stamped at Jul 18, 2022 at 09:22 CT. There were five (5) tweets, all lengthy. So to have the exact same time stamp, are we to believe that @Stands immediately began typing them as soon as Speight tweeted so that he could release them all at once?
Or were they prepared in advance and scheduled for release all at once?
And as for Speight, he claims his tweet involved a simple typo. But as one part of the Narnia team pointed out in a tweet, when you're transcribing, you have to stop/start an audio several times so that you can get an accurate caption. If it's simply a typo, how does "defense to" become "offense to" when the 'd ' is on the left side of the keyboard and the "o" is on the right?
And not quite sure who says that they take "a defense to". Usually, one "defends" something, not "takes a defense to". It was a very odd way to phrase that sentiment.
How far in advance was this whole scripted escapade planned? And what would be the purpose, besides just gaslighting the fandom? Perhaps it was in the last tweet by ol' @Stands:
"Over the last few years, I've watched the cast drop off one by to protect their own mental health from it."
Was that a cryptic tweet to help explain the gradual dismantling of the Supernatural fandom as a J2-centered one, so that later on, fans can look back and talk about how the "toxicity of the fandom" caused their own demise?
"The fans are literally destroying the thing they love and replacing it with lies."
Yet, with a Winchesters prequel in the works, that's hard to say, particularly as both Jared and Jensen continue to recycle former guest stars of the original show because they're already safely in the fold of knowing who the real couple is.
So whether it's teasing glimpses of an easily-misinterpreted and controversial tattoo or it's the intentional exclusion of Jared from a Random Acts T-shirt campaign in mid-February 2016, or it's a take-your-pick of any of the Jib-Con conventions with all of their heller-peddling antics, fans are told that it's their fault for misinterpreting...over-reacting...driving off the actors...
Let's not forget yet another fan scolding/blaming tirade by none other than "bodyguard" Cliffie Kosterman. Remember this one from 2019? I mean, it starts out right away with, "To the haters out there",
I mean, does Mr. Kosterman really want us to dissect that fib-filled rant, starting with the endorsements of the beards? LOL! They're beards, Kosterman, just knock it off. We don't have time for these theatrics today. Kosterman's old post is just Exhibit Y at this point. 😏
But hey, here's my podcast I still need you to listen to.
My jewelry to buy.
My video.
My T shirt.
My saloon to patronize.
My brewery.
My book of poetry.
My sibling's book. On and on and on. Which are fine, if those goods/services bring a fan satisfaction. But the power that the salesmanship brings, to the point where these folks feel like they can lie to their customers every which way with stunts and "wife" stories at conventions, and then turn around and rip their customers (fans) up one side and down the other for reacting to a daring behavior, is not fine. It's a two-way road between vendor and customer, don't ever forget that.
Here's a little advice. Don't let TPTB gaslight you, the fans. Believe what your gut tells you the first time around. Believe your eyes when it comes to this whole group because they've been manipulating fans since the early days of the show, when the network and show-runners realized they had a real-life couple with a serious relationship on their hands, and had to figure out how they could continue the show with all its money-making conventions, yet keep that couple closeted.
In fact, the blaming of fans has become a very popular tactic of management teams to try and keep voices contained. And yes, not so dissimilar to all the One Direction dramatics we here at Narnia have grown accustomed to as well. Two very different fandoms, with one big thing in common:
Hint: Where you hang your clothes at the end of the day.
pic sources: criminalelement, tzr, communitypearljam, abord deImpala
our playlist: Shame - The Motels
Hands Clean - Alanis Morissette
Blame It On Me - George Ezra
Blame - Calvin Harris (feat. John Newman)
