Renee Zellweger has had it with ‘snark entertainment’ in mainstream media

Renée Zellweger, like Jennifer Aniston not long before her, has written a strongly worded essay lambasting celebrity gossip.

Unlike Aniston, who specifically targeted tabloids that report incessantly on whether she’s pregnant or getting a divorce, Zellweger set her sights on the outlets that bring tabloid topics into mainstream discussions.

“[W]itnessing the transmutation of tabloid fodder from speculation to truth is deeply troubling,� the Oscar winner wrote in a piece titled “We Can Do Better,� published by the Huffington Post. (Aniston wrote her essay published in July for the Huffington Post as well.)

“The ‘eye surgery’ tabloid story itself did not matter,� she continued, “but it became the catalyst for my inclusion in subsequent legitimate news stories about self-acceptance and women succumbing to social pressure to look and age a certain way. In my opinion, that tabloid speculations become the subject of mainstream news reporting does matter.�

A double standard to diminish societal contributions by women “is perpetuated by the negative conversation which enters our consciousness every day as snark entertainment,� Zellweger wrote.

And by the way, she noted, she didn’t get her eyes done.

Referencing a column by Variety’s chief movie critic, Owen Gleiberman, Zellweger said she wasn’t speaking out “because the value of my work has been questioned by a critic whose ideal physical representation of a fictional character originated 16 years ago, over which he feels ownership, I no longer meet.� Gleiberman had shared his observations, he wrote, after he was “caught off guard� by a preview for “Bridget Jones’s Baby.�

“Watching the trailer, I didn’t stare at the actress and think: She doesn’t look like Renée Zellweger,� he said in his column. “I thought: She doesn’t look like Bridget Jones! Oddly, that made it matter more. Celebrities, like anyone else, have the right to look however they want, but the characters they play become part of us. I suddenly felt like something had been taken away.�

Alas, Zellweger said, perpetuation of tabloid topics isn’t harmless but rather “takes air time away from the countless significant unprecedented current events affecting our world� and “standardizes cruelty as a cultural norm.�

In closing, echoing the sentiments of cranky commenters across the Internet, she observed: “Maybe we could talk more about our many true societal challenges and how we can do better.�

Hmm. Anyone know if Clinton and Trump had their eyes done?

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.

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