This Week in Gossip #33

Chet Hanks stupidity, AI inanity, creepy punditry, and living privately with Kerry Washington.

Chet Hanks Wants the Racists to Stay Out of White Boy Summer

Oh, Chet Hanks. You really are something. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s wannabe rapper son mostly exists in the celebrity sphere as a constant reminder that nepotism isn’t enough to make fetch happen. He seems eager to be in on his own joke but every move he makes only further emphasizes his staggering lack of self-awareness. Well, now he’s seeing that some of his dunderheaded nonsense has attracted a crowd he doesn’t want to be a part of.

After coining the phrase “White Boy Summer” in response to Megan thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Summer, a bunch of hardcore racists leaped onto Chet’s attempt at a meme and went full Nazi with it. This was seemingly a surprise only to Chet, as though the phrase “white boy summer” didn’t make literally everyone else immediately think of insurrections and goose-stepping. In an article published on their site on Tuesday, GPAHE revealed that groups including the Proud Boys and White Lives Matter have been using Chet’s slogan “to spread propaganda, recruit new members, and facilitate targeted hate campaigns including acts of vandalism and hate incidents.” Trump supporters have latched onto it, as have a number of groups associated with white supremacy. Again, this was always going to happen and everyone knew it, aside from Chet, apparently.

Well, Chet now wants people to back off his silly ode to pale dudes and stop using it as a hate group mantra. He took to Instagram to declare, “White boy summer was created to be fun, playful, and a celebration of fly white boys who love beautiful queens of every race.”

I mean, I respect the condemnation of hate groups, if only because it feels as though doing the absolute bare minimum has become impossible in the current political landscape. This coming from a dude who has repeatedly used the N word and was accused of verbal and physical abuse by his Black ex-girlfriend doesn’t exactly help things. Did Chet expect his weird racism and cultural appropriation to be seen as cute or a form of allyship just because he likes rap music? We’ve had that conversation before.

But the wider issue here is the ways in which Black speech and community just don’t get to exist without white nonsense trying to co-opt it. All Lives Matter didn’t exist until Black Lives Matter came along. Hot Girl Summer was Megan thee Stallion’s shout out to her fans and supporters but it was reverse sexism or whatever, according to the usual suspects. It’s always the same people whining, “why do you have to make it about race/gender/sexuality/etc?” who then make everything about identity, just to be even more exclusionary.

So, I’m glad that Chet drew a line in the sand but maybe he should take some time away from social media and read up on race relations as something beyond a rap beef.

Hallmark Teams Up with the Kansas City Chiefs for a Taylor/Travis-Inspired Holiday Romance

Honestly, I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner. Hallmark, the home of cozy PG-rated romance movies, usually holiday-themed, have teamed up with the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs to make a new film. Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story is set to premiere on the Hallmark Channel this winter during the 15th annual Countdown to Christmas celebrations. Tyler Hynes, Hunter King and Ed Begley Jr. will star in it, and it'll actually be filmed on-location in Kansas City, not Vancouver like every other Hallmark movie set in America.

In their press release, Hallmark chief brand officer Darren Abbott said, "With Hallmark and the Kansas City Chiefs both homegrown, rooted in values, tradition and community, there is a special alchemy between these two iconic organizations." Sure, okay. American as apple pie, football, and sexless holiday romances where everyone wears red and green. You'll notice that two names are absent here, and we all know why this partnership is happening with this particular team. The Taylor/Travis elephant in the room can be seen from space.