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Woman Accuses Jesse Lacey of Soliciting Nude Photos From Her at 15

Brand New
Jason Tate

Last night Brian Keith Diaz, who was in the Long Island band The Reunion Show and guitar tech for Fall Out Boy and a variety of other bands, called out on his Twitter and Facebook feed asking:

So while we are on the topic of outing famous and semi-famous creeps, anyone want to speak up about Jesse Lacey from Brand New?

At that point a woman alleged that when she was fifteen Jesse Lacey solicited nude photos from her, stating:

He solicited nudes from me starting when I was 15 and he was 24. Manipulated the hell out of me, demanded specific poses/settings/clothing, demeaned me, and made it clear that my sexuality was the only thing I had to offer. He knew what he was doing was shitty so he wouldn’t touch me until I was 19. I should’ve known better by then, but he had screwed me up so much psychologically that all I wanted was his approval. It fucked me up to the point that I STILL have nightmares and wakeup in a sweat. I still breakdown and have panic attacks when people play Brand New in a bar.

And:

Oh and yes he made me watch him masturbate on Skype. Apparently that’s a common thing with sexual predators. I took screen shots at some point, they’re probably on a computer in my basement if I ever really wanted to rehash my past that much (I don’t think I do).

I’ve reached out for comment from the band and management, but so far have not heard anything back.

Update #1: Pitchfork have ran an article detailing two alleged victims’ accounts:

Another woman, Emily Driskill, was 16 years old when she first met Lacey in 2002; she’s now 32. A concert photographer, music journalist, and Brand New fan, Driskill says she was given Lacey’s instant messenger screen name by a mutual friend. The first time they met in person was for an interview, during which Lacey stared at her chest and made “lots of comments about [her] body and breasts,” Driskill tells Pitchfork. “He was the first person to ever tell me that I was hot. In hindsight as an adult woman, I know I was preyed on.”

Update #2: A woman has written about an alleged relationship with Jesse that started when she was 17:

Reading the accounts from other women has been heartbreaking, as it has forced me to confront that Jesse used many women for his own selfish, and as he put it, “narcissistic” needs. I felt special and I wasn’t special. I had been duped. What has been more difficult that realizing that I was not the only one who was harmed by his behavior, has been reading the comments of his fans. I have felt so proud and empowered by those who have thanked the women for stepping up and out, which I was too afraid to do alone. After all, he wanted me to keep the secret and I did not want to disappoint him.

Update #3: More details have emerged via Vulture:

A year ago, a friend from Boston reached out to Garey with a similar story. That woman told Garey that Lacey had allegedly masturbated in front of her when she was 19 and that she considered the incident “borderline” nonconsensual because she and Lacey had been talking since she was underage. “It was a similar kind of grooming thing,” Garey says, “in that [it] came off like she did give consent but didn’t really feel like she had a choice, which is how I see my situation too. Of course we all have a choice, but with societal norms and the culture, at some point, you don’t feel like you do in the moment.

Pandora Has Lost $1 Billion in Four Years and Is Worth Less Than Ever

Pandora
Jason Tate

Tim Ingham, writing for Music Business Worldwide:

Pandora has posted net losses of $473.6m so far in a ‘transformative’ 2017 – which has seen it part ways with CEO Tim Westergren and other top execs, as well as the sale of its Ticketfly business to Eventbrite.

Although this figure includes a one-time Q2 goodwill impairment write down of $132m related to the net assets of Ticketfly (and other one-time expenses), it’s a very alarming indication of the firm’s long-term sustainability.

As it, it doesn’t have any sustainability.

It now looks almost guaranteed that Pandora, which lost $90m in Q4 2016, will post net losses in excess of half a billion dollars in this calendar year.

That seems bad.

Rian Johnson to Create All-New Star Wars Trilogy

Star Wars
Jason Tate

Star Wars:

Lucasfilm is excited to announce that Johnson will create a brand-new Star Wars trilogy, the first of which he is also set to write and direct, with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce.

As writer-director of The Last Jedi, Johnson conceived and realized a powerful film of which Lucasfilm and Disney are immensely proud. In shepherding this new trilogy, which is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga, Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.

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Louis C.K. Crossed a Line Into Sexual Misconduct, 5 Women Say

Louis CK
Jason Tate

The New York Times:

Now, after years of unsubstantiated rumors about Louis C.K. masturbating in front of associates, women are coming forward to describe what they experienced. Even amid the current burst of sexual misconduct accusations against powerful men, the stories about Louis C.K. stand out because he has so few equals in comedy. In the years since the incidents the women describe, he has sold out Madison Square Garden eight times, created an Emmy-winning TV series, and accumulated the clout of a tastemaker and auteur, with the help of a manager who represents some of the biggest names in comedy. And Louis C.K. built a reputation as the unlikely conscience of the comedy scene, by making audiences laugh about hypocrisy — especially male hypocrisy.

His movie premiere and upcoming appearances have been canceled.

Christopher Plummer to Replace Kevin Spacey in ‘All the Money in the World’

Jason Tate

The Hollywood Reporter:

In a monumental and expensive move, Ridley Scott will remove embattled actor Kevin Spacey from his finished thriller All the Money in the World just weeks before the film’s release.

Christopher Plummer will now play J. Paul Getty in the story about the infamous 1973 kidnapping of his grandson, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III.

The movie, which was pulled as the closing-night screening of AFI Fest at Scott’s insistence, is scheduled to hit theaters Dec. 22 via Sony’s TriStar. As of now, the release date remains unchanged despite the reshoots, but insiders say that if anyone can pull off reshoots and still make the holiday release date, it’s Scott.

Woah. I’ve never heard of anything like this.

Snapchat Redesign Coming December 4th

Snapchat
Jason Tate

Snapchat will be releasing a redesign of their app on December 4th. Alex Heath has the scoop over at Business Insider:

With the company seeking to kick-start stagnant user growth, CEO Evan Spiegel on Tuesday publicly said the app would be redesigned to make it “easier to use” but didn’t specify when the redesign would be released. Snap employees were internally notified of the planned December 4 release date this week, according to a source familiar with the matter.

I don’t have a good feeling about Snapchat’s future.

The Women, People of Color, and LGBTQ Candidates Who Made History in the 2017 Election

Vox
Jason Tate

Ella Nilsen, writing for Vox:

Barrier-breaking candidates won races across the country on Election Day this year. The results were a parade of “firsts” from New Hampshire to North Carolina to Montana as women, people of color, and LGBTQ candidates became the first to win elections in their respective contests.

Cities in Minnesota and Montana elected their first black mayors, and Charlotte, North Carolina, elected a black woman as mayor for the first time. Virginia elected its first Latina and Asian-American delegates. Transgender candidates won races in Virginia, Minnesota, California, and Pennsylvania.

Tuesday was a big night for Democrats — and these historic “firsts” show that the party can run a diverse slate of candidates and win.

Last night was a good start and a good reminder that when young people vote, they can decide elections.1 In the lead-up to 2018’s mid-terms I’d encourage everyone to hold your representatives accountable to the progressive policies they campaigned on and check out Swingleft, Flippable, Indivisible, Run for Something, Let America Vote, or any number of local organizations to get involved.

It was nice to feel a little hope after an election for once. Now it’s time to prepare for the next fight.

  1. I get to pretend to be young for one more year.↩

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The Unearned Mel Gibson Redemption Tour

Film
Jason Tate

Scott Meslow, writing for GQ:

I’m sure Daddy’s Home 2 thinks it’s clever to cast Gibson, an actor widely known for his bad behavior off-screen, as Wahlberg’s bad-boy father. And with John Lithgow playing Will Ferrell’s cuddly teddy bear of a father, it’s easy enough to see where this is going: Lithgow will teach Gibson to be a little warmer, Gibson will teach Lithgow to be a little cooler.

But if Gibson’s character in Daddy’s Home 2 actually learns a lesson about the downsides of bullshit macho posturing, it’ll be one more lesson than Gibson seems to have learned in his actual life. You can argue, convincingly, that someone with an open track record of racism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism can eventually earn a second chance. But while Gibson has gone to rehab, what’s most striking about his return to the spotlight is his apparent lack of remorse.

Twitter Rolls Out 280-Character Limit to Everyone

Twitter
Jason Tate

Twitter has announced, after their initial testing, everyone is now getting 280 characters to tweet with:

During the first few days of the test many people Tweeted the full 280 limit because it was new and novel, but soon after behavior normalized (more on this below). We saw when people needed to use more than 140 characters, they Tweeted more easily and more often. But importantly, people Tweeted below 140 most of the time and the brevity of Twitter remained.

I’ve found my brain just skips over most tweets that look “long.”

Disney’s Vindictive LA Times Ban Prompts Critics and Media Boycotts

Disney
Jason Tate

Adam Rosenberg, writing for Mashable:

Four major film critic organizations released a joint statement, directed at Disney, that sends one blunt message: Enough with this bullshit.

The statement in question is a response to Disney’s media blackout of the Los Angeles Times, a retaliatory response to what the Lucasfilm and Marvel owner has characterized as “biased and inaccurate” coverage of the company’s business dealings with the city of Anaheim, California. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle, Boston Society of Film Critics, and National Society of Film Critics all joined together to send the message early Tuesday.

Dear Disney, here’s your crash course in the Streisand Effect.

Update: Amid backlash, Disney has ended the ban on the LA Times.

Something Is Wrong on the Internet

YouTube
Jason Tate

James Bridle, writing at Medium:

Someone or something or some combination of people and things is using YouTube to systematically frighten, traumatise, and abuse children, automatically and at scale, and it forces me to question my own beliefs about the internet, at every level. Much of what I am going to describe next has been covered elsewhere, although none of the mainstream coverage I’ve seen has really grasped the implications of what seems to be occurring.

This entire story is jaw-dropping.

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