Last year, I was commissioned by Double Elvis Productions to write the script for a true crime-esque podcast on one Armie Hammer:
It was an … interesting challenge, for sure. And I think I did a pretty good job navigating the, err, complexities of the situation.
Which, for those unaware, essentially boils down to the generically handsome scion of a billionaire family being accused of rape after a deluge of revelations about his flesh-eating sex fetishes. While he never actually barbecued anyone's ribcage to eat while using their blood as anal lube, that is certainly a thing that he proposed to several women (including one upon whom he ultimately carved his name with a knife into the skin above her labia, and then licked the blood from the wound).
Now, after a brief stint selling timeshares in the Cayman Islands, Armie is ready for the inevitable redemption arc that is his birthright as a generically handsome white guy born into a billionaire family. AirMail of all places has published a lengthy interview with Hammer, along with a bizarre accompanying piece explaining why they opted to give Hammer a platform for said inevitable redemption arc.
To be fair, there's certainly something there. Hammer was ultimately never charged with any crimes (including the aforementioned rape allegation). His proclivity for, say, fucking someone between the hemispheres of their brain may have also just been his way of sexting, which the whole world did unfairly kink-shame. There is a legitimate argument to be made there — and Hammer certainly makes it, while also opening up about sexual trauma from his childhood that may have had some psychological impact on his particular gruesome sexting kinks.
What's strange, however, is how much column space the Armie Hammer Justified piece commits to the woman who leaked the aforementioned text messages. Air Mail goes out of its way to paint the eponymous Effie as a mental unstable maniac — an insecure stalker, desperate for attention from a Hollywood Pretty Boy and eager to explore her own ideas of consensual non-consent sex play.
The kink-shaming angle here is certainly valid. But I find it very odd that AirMail — by their admission! — essentially to do an anti-#MeToo piece for their captive airplane audience, to the benefit of someone who already comes from a family of billionaires. Furthermore, that you could certainly accomplish an Armie Hammer redemption story without focusing half of your piece on a smear-campaign targeted on his detractors.
But I digress. I'm just here to plug that podcast I did, because I thought it was pretty good, and I frankly don't think it needed any addendum.
