Post-credits scenes are a tradition for superhero movies at this point, and while it may be because of the MCU's example, the modern DCEU has reliably followed suit. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam all teased upcoming movies with their after-credits scenes, so it's only natural to assume that Birds of Prey would include one as well. But, in typical Harley Quinn fashion, sometimes it's better to expect the unexpected. Let's take a look at the ending of Birds of Prey and break down exactly what happened after the credits finished rolling.
Obviously, massive spoilers from here on out. Please proceed with caution!
The final act of Birds of Prey see the members of the titular team coming together for the first time, mostly on accident. Harley, in a bid to save her own life, has arranged a meetup with Black Mask at the Booby Trap, an abandoned funhouse, to hand over Cassandra Cain, who swallowed the encoded Bertinelli diamond he's so desperate to own. If Harley hands her over, Black Mask will let her go--or, that's what he says, at least. The odds of her surviving the exchange, she soon realizes, are a lot lower than she'd like. Things get more complicated, however, when both Renee Montoya and Dinah Lance catch wind of the meeting and show up at the Booby Trap to arrest Black Mask and save Cass respectively. Dinah arrives with Roman's right-hand man, Victor Zsasz, in tow, which in turn leads the final piece of the puzzle to the funhouse--Huntress, who doesn't actually care about Harley, Cass, or Roman, but wants Zsasz dead for his involvement in her family's murder, shows up. Finally, all five protagonists are in the same place at the same time.
After dealing with Zsasz by shooting him in the neck with a crossbow and stabbing him over and over with a tranquilizer dart (which may or may not have actually killed him--although Huntress clearly thinks it did), the team realizes that their only real option is to work together to take Roman down. But Roman, who surrounded the Booby Trap with heavily armed henchmen, doesn't plan on making it easy. What ensues is a massive fight through the Booby Trap, ending in a car chase with Huntress driving a motorcycle, towing a roller skate-wearing Harley behind her. It's Cass who ultimately saves the day by planting a grenade on Roman and pulling the pin, causing him to explode into a million tiny chunks over Gotham harbor. Zsasz may have a chance at surviving, but Roman definitely does not.
With the dust settling, the women find themselves taking stock of their situation at a Mexican restaurant, day drinking and actually getting to know one another. But before anyone can become too buddy-buddy, both Harley and Cass make a break for it, sneaking out to drive off into the sunset and leaving Renee, Helena, and Dinah to figure out their next steps. The three of them, as Harley narrates, go on to become a vigilante team of their own--calling themselves the Birds of Prey--after Renee quits the force, Dinah gives up trying to stay on the sidelines, and Helena is satisfied with her quest for vengeance. Harley and Cass's ending is a bit more open, but it's heavily implied that Harley intends to take Cass under her wing as a sort of protege, at least for the time being. Of course, this may mean Cass will have some role in the upcoming James Gunn Suicide Squad reboot, but we can't be sure, especially given how fast-and-loose the DCEU tends to be with shared universe continuity.
As for a proper post-credits stinger? Birds of Prey offers only an audio gag and no real scene. If you sit through the credits, Harley breaks the fourth wall to speak over the final seconds, promising that she's going to share a super-secret detail about Batman. But she only gets as far as saying "Batman f--" before the screen and her audio are cut off completely. What does Batman "f---"? The world may never know.
Harley's next big-screen outing will be The Suicide Squad, due out August 6, 2021.
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Harvey Weinstein’s lead lawyer claimed in court Friday that a controversial interview she gave to the New York Times was “taped a long time ago” — but it was actually recorded last week.
The New York Times podcast “The Daily” aired the piece about attorney Donna Rotunno Friday morning, and drew criticism because she claimed she had never been sexually assaulted because “I would never put myself in that position.”
The lawyer also discussed Weinstein’s criminal case and his accusers — but stopped short of using their names.
After Weinstein’s rape trial broke for the day, Assistant DA Joan Illuzzi-Orbon told Justice James Burke that Rotunno is “calling our witnesses liars and celebrity victim-hood status, and it is completely in contradiction to your order.”
Rotunno insisted that the interview was taped a long time ago. “[I] have not spoken to anyone since we started this case,” she said. She added that she didn’t even know the piece was airing Friday. “I had no idea,” she said.
The judge did not address the prosecutor’s concerns on the record. Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha appeared to contradict Rotunno’s account. “The interview was taped January 28 and aired on Feb. 7. Donna Rotunno was made aware of the air date,” Ha wrote in an email.
When reached for comment, Rotunno said, “The days are bleeding together. There was absolutely no intention to make any misrepresentation whatsoever.”
The day before the trial started Jan. 7, the judge ordered Rotunno not to discuss the victims in the case in any way after a complaint from the prosecution. “Leave the witnesses alone,” Burke said. “Don’t talk about them in any capacity. Just excise the witnesses from your communications going forward.”
In “The Daily” podcast, Rotunno spoke directly about complainants in Weinstein’s case. “These are consensual encounters,” she told Times reporter Megan Twohey. “I believe the actions of the women after the fact prove that they were consensual encounters.”
In a clear reference to accuser Jessica Mann, Rotunno said she had given Weinstein her new phone number after she alleged he raped her.
Twohey asked Rotunno what reason these women would have to lie. “We have created a society of celebrity victim-hood status,” the attorney responded. “We have created a society where women don’t have to take responsibility for their actions.”
The Times reporter — along with her colleague Jodi Kantor — exposed the allegations of sexual misconduct against Weinstein in a bombshell 2017 story that helped lead to the criminal charges against him.
Post-credits scenes are a tradition for superhero movies at this point, and while it may be because of the MCU's example, the modern DCEU has reliably followed suit. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam all teased upcoming movies with their after-credits scenes, so it's only natural to assume that Birds of Prey would include one as well. But, in typical Harley Quinn fashion, sometimes it's better to expect the unexpected. Let's take a look at the ending of Birds of Prey and break down exactly what happened after the credits finished rolling.
Obviously, massive spoilers from here on out. Please proceed with caution!
The final act of Birds of Prey see the members of the titular team coming together for the first time, mostly on accident. Harley, in a bid to save her own life, has arranged a meetup with Black Mask at the Booby Trap, an abandoned funhouse, to hand over Cassandra Cain, who swallowed the encoded Bertinelli diamond he's so desperate to own. If Harley hands her over, Black Mask will let her go--or, that's what he says, at least. The odds of her surviving the exchange, she soon realizes, are a lot lower than she'd like. Things get more complicated, however, when both Renee Montoya and Dinah Lance catch wind of the meeting and show up at the Booby Trap to arrest Black Mask and save Cass respectively. Dinah arrives with Roman's right-hand man, Victor Zsasz, in tow, which in turn leads the final piece of the puzzle to the funhouse--Huntress, who doesn't actually care about Harley, Cass, or Roman, but wants Zsasz dead for his involvement in her family's murder, shows up. Finally, all five protagonists are in the same place at the same time.
After dealing with Zsasz by shooting him in the neck with a crossbow and stabbing him over and over with a tranquilizer dart (which may or may not have actually killed him--although Huntress clearly thinks it did), the team realizes that their only real option is to work together to take Roman down. But Roman, who surrounded the Booby Trap with heavily armed henchmen, doesn't plan on making it easy. What ensues is a massive fight through the Booby Trap, ending in a car chase with Huntress driving a motorcycle, towing a roller skate-wearing Harley behind her. It's Cass who ultimately saves the day by planting a grenade on Roman and pulling the pin, causing him to explode into a million tiny chunks over Gotham harbor. Zsasz may have a chance at surviving, but Roman definitely does not.
With the dust settling, the women find themselves taking stock of their situation at a Mexican restaurant, day drinking and actually getting to know one another. But before anyone can become too buddy-buddy, both Harley and Cass make a break for it, sneaking out to drive off into the sunset and leaving Renee, Helena, and Dinah to figure out their next steps. The three of them, as Harley narrates, go on to become a vigilante team of their own--calling themselves the Birds of Prey--after Renee quits the force, Dinah gives up trying to stay on the sidelines, and Helena is satisfied with her quest for vengeance. Harley and Cass's ending is a bit more open, but it's heavily implied that Harley intends to take Cass under her wing as a sort of protege, at least for the time being. Of course, this may mean Cass will have some role in the upcoming James Gunn Suicide Squad reboot, but we can't be sure, especially given how fast-and-loose the DCEU tends to be with shared universe continuity.
As for a proper post-credits stinger? Birds of Prey offers only an audio gag and no real scene. If you sit through the credits, Harley breaks the fourth wall to speak over the final seconds, promising that she's going to share a super-secret detail about Batman. But she only gets as far as saying "Batman f--" before the screen and her audio are cut off completely. What does Batman "f---"? The world may never know.
Harley's next big-screen outing will be The Suicide Squad, due out August 6, 2021.
Click To Unmute
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Harvey Weinstein's lawyer Donna Rotunno said in court that an interview the New York Times podcast The Daily, which aired Friday, was recorded "a long time ago" before the criminal trial began and that she was not aware of the day it would go live.
But a spokesperson for the New York Times confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the interview was in fact recorded last week, on Jan. 28 — while the trial was well underway — and that Rotunno was made aware of the airdate.
In the podcast episode, Rotunno was interviewed by Megan Twohey, one of the investigative reporters who broke the Weinstein story in 2017. In the interview, Rotunno said she was never sexually assaulted "because I would never put myself in that position."
While the interview was wide-ranging, prosecutors argued it violated Judge James Burke's previous order directing lawyers to not discuss the case and the witnesses in public.
"Leave the witnesses alone," Burke said on the first day of the trial in early January. "Don't talk about them in any capacity. Just excise the witnesses from your communications."
Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon addressed Burke on Friday after the jury had been dismissed.
"Apparently this morning Ms. Rotunno went on a live broadcast for the New York Times. I think it is called The Daily," Illuzzi-Orbon said.
"She's calling our witnesses liars and celebrity victimhood status, and it is completely in contradiction to your order," she added.
Rotunno told the court that the interview was recorded "a long time ago."
"I have not spoke to anyone in the media," she said. "Have not spoke to anyone since we started this case. That was taped a while ago, and I did not speak about any witness individually. I talked about a multitude of issues with regard to questions that were asked of me. It was done — it was really me going into the lion's den, not the other way around."
When Illuzzi-Orborn told the judge that Rotunno knew the interview would be broadcast today, Weinstein's attorney said: "I had no idea. I got a call this morning from a friend who heard it. I was not told by them, I have no idea."
If you’re looking for an edge on your office Oscar pool before the 92nd Academy Awards this Sunday on ABC at 8 p.m., there are three things you should know: the favorites win the majority of the time, the guilds representing the various branches of Academy voters usually know best, and no one truly knows what’s going on with the Best Picture category.
Since expanding the field to up to 10 movies for the 82nd Academy Awards in 2009, the Academy Award for Best Picture has become significantly harder to predict. Unlike the other 23 awards, the Academy also began using ranked choice voting to determine the Best Picture winner in 2009, with voters able to list up to five of the nominees in order of preference. That’s led to some surprising wins in recent years, from “Spotlight” besting “The Revenant” to the chaos that ensued when “Moonlight” upset runaway favorite “La La Land.”
This year, it feels like a two-movie race between “1917” and “Parasite,” with both movies winning a number of the earlier awards that typically bode well for Best Picture nominees. But because awards balloting is secret, we can only make educated guesses on the movies that consistently finished second or third during awards season, which could indicate a dark horse candidate on a ranked choice ballot.
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To help you make sense of this year’s Academy Awards — as well as give you some of my own personal picks as Boston.com’s chief movie scribe — here are my thoughts on the biggest categories at the 2020 Oscars, including who I think will win, who I wish would win, and who was snubbed of a deserving nomination.
Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix in a scene from “Joker.”—Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP
The nominees: Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”), Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”), Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”)
In my personal ranking of the Best Picture nominees, “Joker” is on the lower half of the list. It’s repetitive, reductive, and offers trite social commentary you might hear from a nihilistic freshman philosophy major or your least favorite friend on Facebook. None of that is the fault of Phoenix, however, who pours every ounce of himself into tormented clown Arthur Fleck. If “Joker” wins just one of the 11 awards for which it’s nominated, it should be for Phoenix’s performance. And based on his sweep of the four awards traditionally most relevant to the Oscar acting categories (Screen Actors Guild, Critics’ Choice, Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards), it’s Phoenix’s race to lose. Consider this a makeup award for an actor who remains Oscar-less despite deserving performances in movies like “Her,” “The Master,” “You Were Never Really Here,” “Inherent Vice,” and “Walk the Line.”
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In a strong group of nominees, I still wish the Academy had found a way to nominate Adam Sandler for his outsized performance as Manhattan jeweler Howard Ratner in “Uncut Gems.” Even as you cringe with each ruinous life decision Ratner makes, you can’t look away from Sandler, who hits a career high in the Safdie Brothers film.
Will Win: Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”)
Should Win: Phoenix
Was Snubbed: Adam Sandler (“Uncut Gems”)
Best Actress
Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland in “Judy.”—Roadside Attractions
The nominees: Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”), Scarlett Johansson (“Marriage Story”), Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”), Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”), Renée Zellweger (“Judy”)
In another stacked category with no weak links to speak of, Renée Zellweger’s take on Judy Garland at the end of her career in “Judy” is this year’s rightful frontrunner. Zellweger, who like Phoenix won every major award so far this winter, is utterly captivating from the moment she first appears on screen. She doesn’t shy away from the ugly truth of Garland’s final months, showing how the impulsive, needy, and unreliable screen star was left penniless and utterly broken by the Hollywood studio system that chewed her up and spit her out as a teenager.
Missing from the crop of nominees is Awkwafina, who was a revelation in “The Farewell.” As an aspiring young Chinese-American writer living in New York who must travel to China when her grandmother is diagnosed with cancer — and then must accept her family’s decision not to inform her grandmother of said diagnosis — the actress is alternately defiant, heartbroken, and ultimately accepting as she copes with her grief.
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Will Win: Renée Zellweger (“Judy”)
Should Win: Zellweger
Was Snubbed: Awkwafina (“The Farewell”)
Best Supporting Actor
Brad Pitt in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”—Andrew Cooper
The nominees: Tom Hanks (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”), Anthony Hopkins (“The Two Popes”), Al Pacino (“The Irishman”), Joe Pesci (“The Irishman”), Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
Brad Pitt is less of a supporting actor in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and more like a co-lead with Leonardo DiCaprio. That said, this is Pitt’s award to lose: he swept the aforementioned prerequisite awards, he’s never won an acting Oscar, and America will likely never tire of seeing him playing slight variations on his bemused and effortlessly cool persona. If I had my way, I would love to see Joe Pesci take this award for his uncharacteristically reserved performance in “The Irishman.” Instead of leaning into the blisteringly angry energy he cultivated in films like “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” and even the “Home Alone” movies, he leaves the scene-chewing to his fellow nominee Al Pacino. As Pesci shuffles back into unofficial retirement, it would be nice to send him on his way with some hardware.
Speaking of scene-chewing, it would have been nice to see the Academy show some love to Daniel Craig hamming it up as detective Benoit Blanc in “Knives Out.” The British actor clearly relished every syllable of country-fried dialogue he was given in Rian Johnson’s film, adding yet another element of fun to this endlessly enjoyable whodunnit shot in Massachusetts.
Will Win: Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
Should Win: Joe Pesci (“The Irishman”)
Was Snubbed: Daniel Craig (“Knives Out”)
Best Supporting Actress
Laura Dern, left, and Scarlett Johansson, right, in “Marriage Story.”—Netflix via AP
The nominees: Kathy Bates (“Richard Jewell”), Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”), Scarlett Johansson (“Jojo Rabbit”), Florence Pugh (“Little Women”), Margot Robbie (“Bombshell”)
If the Supporting Actress Oscar covered a years’ worth of performances, Dern would be my pick based on the combined strength of her turns in “Marriage Story” and “Little Women.” And she’ll almost certainly win, as she swept the SAGs, Globes, BAFTAs, and CCAs just like the other three frontrunners. That said, my single favorite supporting actress performance this year came from Florence Pugh, for her covetous, cantankerous Amy March in “Little Women.” Saoirse Ronan’s Jo is rightfully the focus of the film, but Pugh ultimately steals the show.
Easily the most stunning snub when the nominations were announced last month was the lack of a nomination for Jennifer Lopez in “Hustlers.” The singer/actress completely outshines nominal lead actress Constance Wu in the strippers-gone-bad film, and earned nominations from the Globes, CCA, and SAG. What gives, Academy?
Will Win: Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”)
Should Win: Florence Pugh (“Little Women”)
Was Snubbed: Jennifer Lopez (“Hustlers”)
Best Director
George MacKay in “1917.”—François Duhamel/Universal Pictures
The nominees: Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), Todd Phillips (“Joker”), Sam Mendes (“1917”), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), Bong Joon-ho (“Parasite”)
Part of me hopes that the Academy gives this to Scorsese, an all-time great director who faced a torrent of criticism for his assertion that superhero movies aren’t cinema and only has one Best Director Oscar to his name, for “The Departed.” The likely winner here is Mendes, who has taken home wins from the Directors Guild, Globes, and BAFTAs. For the Critics’ Choice directing award, Mendes tied with “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho, who would get my (non-existent) Oscar vote. The South Korean filmmaker is a master of twisted class parables, and the number of shots that stick with you well after the credits roll in “Parasite” can’t be counted on two hands.
Or maybe I wouldn’t cast my hypothetical ballot at all, to protest the fact that Greta Gerwig’s incredible work on “Little Women” went unrecognized by the Academy. Gerwig somehow managed to make significant changes to Louisa May Alcott’s novel while still preserving the spirit of the book in every way. In a less-capable director’s hands, the narrative jumping back and forth in time could have been muddled and confusing. Gerwig not only made it work, but enhanced and refreshed a story that has been told many times before.
Will Win: Sam Mendes (“1917”)
Should Win: Bong Joon-ho (“Parasite”)
Was Snubbed: Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”)
Best Original Screenplay
Choi Woo-sik, Song Kang-ho, Jang Hye-jin, and Park So-dam) in “Parasite.”—Neon
The Nominees: “Knives Out” (Rian Johnson), “Marriage Story” (Noah Baumbach), “1917” (Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns), “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (Quentin Tarantino), “Parasite” (Bong Joon-ho, Han Jin Won)
The four major awards for original screenplay were split between “Parasite” (Writers Guild Awards, BAFTA) and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (Critics’ Choice, Golden Globes). When in doubt, it’s best to follow the lead of the Writers Guild in matters of screenwriting, so I suspect “Parasite” will pull this off. That said, I’m a sucker for a good mystery, and Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” had me hooked from the first minute. What began as a simple line graph scrawled in Johnson’s Moleskine became a twisting narrative chock-full of punchlines and one-liners that had me leaving the theater positively giddy.
As for a movie that I wish had made the field, New Hampshire natives Robert and Max Eggers’ script for “The Lighthouse” reads like Herman Melville’s long-lost attempt at playwriting, with Willem Dafoe embodying the mad seafarer Captain Ahab in every line. (A24 was kind enough to post the script online, and it’s worth a read if you have the time.)
Will Win: “Parasite” (Bong Joon-ho, Han Jin Won)
Should Win: “Knives Out” (Rian Johnson)
Was Snubbed: “The Lighthouse” (Robbert Eggers, Max Eggers)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Roman Griffin Davis and Taika Waititi in “Jojo Rabbit.”—Kimberley French/Twentieth Century Fox
The nominees: “The Irishman” (Steven Zaillian), “Jojo Rabbit” (Taika Waititi), “Joker” (Todd Phillips, Scott Silver), “Little Women” (Greta Gerwig), “The Two Popes” (Anthony McCarten)
In case you couldn’t tell from the preceding paragraphs, I adored “Little Women,” which has a fighting chance in this category thanks to winning two significant screenwriting awards (Critics’ Choice, USC Scripter Awards) this season. The other two have gone to “Jojo Rabbit” (WGA, BAFTA), the Hitler youth dramedy from New Zealand writer-director Taika Waititi, who also plays the film’s imaginary Führer. The WGA is usually the strongest indicator of Oscar success, so I suspect the Academy will favor “Jojo” over “Little Women,” unfortunately.
I’m not sure any screenplay was truly “robbed” by being omitted from this category, but a sixth I wouldn’t have minded seeing was “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster took what could have been a safe, by-the-numbers biopic of a beloved figure and tried something new, adding fourth-wall breaks and trippy dream sequences throughout. It doesn’t always work, but it is an admirable effort to shake up a staid genre.
Will Win: “Jojo Rabbit” (Taika Waititi)
Should Win: “Little Women” (Greta Gerwig)
Was Snubbed: “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” (Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster)
Best Picture
Jo Yeo-jeong in a scene from “Parasite.”—Neon
The nominees: “Ford v Ferrari,” “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Joker,” “Little Women,” “Marriage Story,” “1917,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Parasite”
Before dissecting this category, I’m going to stump once more for “The Farewell” as the movie most deserving of a Best Picture nod that didn’t receive one. The understated but powerful studio debut from Lulu Wang gave American viewers a window into a culture not well-represented in American film, but told a story that is universally resonant.
As noted above, Best Picture is widely seen as a two-film race between “1917” and “Parasite.” Sam Mendes’ World War I drama is the presumptive frontrunner after wins from the Producers Guild Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs. But “Parasite” has also won its fair share, winning top prizes from the Screen Actors Guild and top foreign film awards from the Globes and BAFTAs.
Beyond their respective wins, both “1917” and “Parasite” have data points that support and detract from their chances. “Parasite” has won the top awards from the vast majority of critic groups, but of the 12 foreign language movies that have been nominated for Best Picture in the past, zero have taken home the trophy. “1917” has won nearly every award expected of Best Picture frontrunners, but it would also be the first Best Picture winner in 88 years to not receive any acting or editing nominations, joining 1932’s “Grand Hotel.”
Oddly, “Parasite” actually fits the profile of a ranked choice Best Picture winner better than “1917” in terms of box office. Since 2009, only “Argo” and “The King’s Speech” grossed more than $100 million in domestic box office (DBO) among Best Picture winners. Every other winner in that timeframe except for “Green Book” ranks among the 15 lowest-grossing Best Picture winners of all time, adjusted for inflation. That would seem to favor “Parasite” ($33.2 million DBO) over “1917” ($121.5 million).
“Parasite” was my favorite movie of 2019, so I will be over the moon if it wins the top award. But “1917” has so much going for it, I find it hard to bet against. I’ve changed my pick four times now, and would probably keep flip-flopping until the night of the ceremony if my editor let me hold off on publishing this article until 7:59 p.m. on Sunday. I’m a cynic at heart (aren’t most critics?), but I’m going to try to use positive thinking to manifest my desired reality: “Parasite” makes history with an upset win.
Jessica Simpson reveals her personal struggles in Open Book.Photo: James Devaney/GC Images
For decades, tabloids wrote Jessica Simpson’s story for her. But little did we know, she had been chronicling her own history in her diaries. In a new memoir, Open Book, Simpson unearths her emotions from the past 15 years. Starting with the devastating day she realized she had a problem and working backward, Open Book looks at Simpson’s life from her childhood to her burgeoning career to being a household name. It’s not all about the glamour. Simpson writes about her most vulnerable moments, the times she felt the most “nekkid” — not just naked. She lays out her relationships, her body image, and her trauma for everyone to read, since the tabloids always seemed so curious. Here are some of the heart-wrenching details from Open Book, out now, that will let you get to know Jessica Simpson a little bit better.
Starting when she was 6 years old, a young family friend sexually abused her. Whenever Simpson and her family visited a family they were close with in another town, the daughter sexually abused Simpson in their shared bed, Simpson claims. “It would start with tickling my back, then going into things that were extremely uncomfortable,” she remembers. “Freezing became my defense mechanism, and to this day, when I panic, I freeze.” Eventually, Simpson says it progressed to a point where the girl would lead Simpson into a closet or “linger” until they were alone. As her little sister, Ashlee, grew up, Simpson felt it was her responsibility to protect Ashlee from the abuse. After shouldering the secret for six years, she finally found the courage to tell her parents. “I feel like you guys might know that this has been going on, but if you don’t know what’s been going on, she’s been touching me for years and it makes me really uncomfortable and I don’t ever want to go back there,” Simpson recalls saying on the way home from the girl’s house. They never visited that friend again, but they also never discussed the sexual abuse.
Her marriage to Nick Lachey was fraught from beginning to end. While it’s true that Simpson’s father wasn’t happy with her engagement to 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey, she reveals that she was the one against a prenup — not her father, as the tabloids may have suggested. “No, this was an intimate discussion between a man and his soon-to-be wife,” she says. “Which is to say that I exploded.” By the end of the relationship, they didn’t even need a prenup (although it might’ve been helpful). After long stretches of not speaking, Simpson asked for a divorce and Lachey hesitated, trying to get her to stay with him. They slept together one last time before the divorce was finalized, while Lachey was promoting his “divorce album.” Then Simpson had to end it. Since they had no prenup and she was tired of going back and forth, when Lachey asked for “a certain number” as part of the divorce agreement, Simpson relented, figuring she’d make it back. “And then I did,” she cheekily writes, referencing her Jessica Simpson Collection. “Give or take a billion.”
During this time, she had an emotional affair with Johnny Knoxville. Who knew the set of the Dukes of Hazzard remake was so romantic? Filming the movie was a refuge from Simpson’s marriage in more ways than one. During this time, she began an emotional affair with Johnny Knoxville, or, as she called him in her diary, “the boy from Tennessee.” “I could share the deepest authentic thoughts with him, and he didn’t roll his eyes at me,” she writes. “He actually liked that I was smart and embraced my vulnerabilities.“ With her marriage to Lachey crumbling and the knowledge that she and Knoxville were never going to run away together, Simpson let her relationship with him fizzle out. (Oh, but that “Let Him Fly” cover on her album A Public Affair? It’s not about Nick Lachey. It’s about Johnny Knoxville.)
She took diet pills for 20 years after Tommy Mottola, former CEO of Sony Music, told her to “lose 15 pounds” when she was 17. “Okay, you gotta lose 15 pounds,” Simpson remembers Tommy Mottola telling her right after she signed to Columbia Records, which is part of Sony. She “immediately” went on an “extremely” strict diet and started taking diet pills, which she would do for the “next 20 years.” Throughout her book, Simpson details anxieties about her body, her weight, her size, and the ways she tried to change herself. For readers and for her daughters, she writes, “You are perfect as you are. But at the time, this is what we thought we had to do. I say ‘we’ because I was about to become the family business, and there was a lot of pressure to be what the label needed me to be.”
The chili cook-off mom-jeans fiasco did not help. Supermarket-tabloid connoisseurs will remember Simpson’s “mom jeans,” a pair of high-waisted bell-bottoms that were just a few years away from becoming the norm again. She wore them to Radio 99.9 Kiss Country’s annual Chili Cook-off in 2009, at a time when she was feeling confident. “I swear, I thought I looked beautiful,” she opens the chapter titled “Death By Mom Jeans.” “I had always been in on the joke, and that gave me power,” she writes. “Now that it was everybody else making it, I didn’t think it was funny. I was insulted for myself and all women.” But as more and more headlines and interview requests rolled in, her confidence dwindled and “a dysmorphia set in.”
Her relationship with John Mayer escalated her dependency on alcohol. John Mayer’s history of treating and speaking about women disrespectfully is well recorded, but the effect it had on his exes has really been talked about only in Taylor Swift songs. In Open Book, Simpson details her tumultuous on-again-off-again relationship with Mayer. She would agonize over text messages to make sure everything was grammatically sound and wouldn’t upset him, spent “hours decoding a basic fact” to respond properly, and drank to fight the anxiety. “It was the start of me relying on alcohol to mask my nerves,” she admits. She adds that Mayer was “obsessed” with her, and his insistence even while they were separate led to Tony Romo’s breakup with her. Eventually, she realized Mayer had been using her for inspiration. “All this time, all those years, he was breaking up with me to torture himself enough to get good material,” she claims, while also taking responsibility for her part in the back-and-forth. But she kept seeing him until Playboy happened: Mayer’s infamous Playboy interview is full of chaos, such as his saying he isn’t attracted to black women. He also talked about sleeping with “girls” in the plural and called Simpson “sexual napalm.” “When he reached out to me, I changed my number and changed my email,” she writes. “Delete.”
She admits to being drunk while appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2017.
While hanging out on Ellen, Simpson joked and slurred her words, quickly becoming the talk-show host’s punch line. “I admit I drank beforehand and was also on steroids for a chest infection that made me hoarse,” she confesses in the book. “I was nervous, but I’d always been able to turn it on for talk shows. Instead, I couldn’t find Ellen’s rhythm, mumbling, and second-guessing everything I was saying.” The show was just one obstacle on Simpson’s slippery slope.
She “needed a drink every morning” to combat “the shakes.” Early into the autobiography, Simpson admits to drinking vodka early in the morning to combat shaking and anxiety. She would mix vodka with flavored Perrier sparkling water in a glittery tumbler and bring it with her. When she decided to become sober, she says her last drink was from her faithful “glittercup.”
After confronting her father, she had a breakdown that forced her to get sober. Halloween is typically a fun event at Simpson’s home with her husband, Eric Johnson, but in 2017, she started the day with that glittercup. Already anxious from an event at her daughter’s school, Simpson came home and opened up to her father, who had been her longtime manager. By this point, she had painfully fired him and was nervous to play him any of her new music, which had been inspired by him. “All the feelings I had been suppressing washed over me in a rush, and I was drowning in them. My world was rotating around me so fast that I didn’t have any clue as to how to control it,” she writes of her panic. Her close friends, employees, and husband were all at the house for an annual Halloween party and were there for her when she admitted she was “not okay.” She spent the night drinking in her room, listening to her kids trick-or-treat. The next morning, she decided to stop drinking alcohol for good.
Her friends were prepared to stage an intervention. Simpson’s friends Koko, CaCee, Stephanie, and Lauren (all of whom have either worked with or currently work with the star) had been planning for Simpson to “hit rock bottom” for six months before she finally decided to go sober. “Lauren already had a doctor lined up, one who specialized in getting celebrities in-home treatment for addiction,” Simpson explains in the book. Initially, she had “the nerve to be offended,” but soon she was ready to do the work to change for the better. “To walk forward through my anxiety,” she writes, “I first had to look back to understand what pain I was running from, and what I was trying to hide.”
