Even though she's basically the anti-christ of the world, Rebekah Brooks is a little bit cool, isn't she? Isn't she though? She's brilliant but evil. Talented but ruthless. Relentlessly successful, she conveys remorse without feeling the slightest shred of it. Possibly a domestic abuser, homophobe, racist, and/or sexist. I'll say it for her, her brand of villainy has panache. If wearing a T-shirt saying 'I heart Rebekah Brooks' wasn't the public equivalent of wrist slitting, I'd probably do it.
Phone hacking is only the icing on the cake of Brooks' malevolence. As Chief Exec of News Corp, she was perfectly happy to oversee the hate-n-prejudice projectile vomit that is constantly spewed out by The Sun, The NOTW, and their ilk. I heard that she had once complained about page 3, but as editor of The Sun, let's face it, she only had to stretch out her little finger to eradicate it to the folder marked 'embarrassing blights on World history'. She didn't give a damn. Instead she picked an enemy; peodophiles, and whipped up a national preoccupation; scaremongering about peodophilia.
Even when sitting in front of the Select Committee to answer for her crimes this week, she exuded an untouchable superiority that Murdoch-squared could only dream of. She combines not giving a shit with the skill of understanding just how to tap into public hysteria. It's lethal.
In fact, she's the perfect film baddie. Cast your mind up to the 130th floor of News Corp Towers. Imagine a black leather rotating chair, a gigantic semi-circle desk, and Brooks holding a massive ginger cat. You have the scene.
Except, I have a sneaking suspicion that if/when any major film company gets their dirty little hands on this story, everything I like about Rebekah Brooks will be written out. Its just too obvious that instead of a powerful evil badass, Rebekah Brooks would become a shrieking harridan straight out of the Glenn Close school of female stereotypes. Possibly played by Mick Hucknall, if the spoof videos floating around are anything to go by.
One of my favourite artworks by the Guerilla Girls sums up this trend perfectly >>
Its true. Not that Hollywood would ever do a film about one of the most important human rights movements ever, but if they did, it would look like this.
And though real life female baddies exist, in Hollywood they invariably become a: sexy skin-tight leather aficionados (not that I have anything against skin-tight leather, just, you know), b: (sexy) psycho bitches who just want to be loved by a man or c: ugly, two-dimensional objects of pity.
That's not to say that female actresses haven't, over the years, put in unspeakably strong performances as villains. Kathy Bates in Misery is incredible, for example. But she still falls under category b: evil psycho man-love-needing bitch. I can't think of any proper female film baddies who get to be powerful, where their power isn't their sexuality. Where are the female villains who get to do the awesome speech at the end about how extensively they've planned for this moment? What about the female masterminds who work out convoluted schemes for world domination? We've got real life female villains, how about celluloid ones? If Hollywood are stuck for inspiration, I suggest starting with our friend Rebekah.
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