This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by editor Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.
Before everyone discovered just how problematic and potentially disastrous production for the new HBO series The Idol has been, the show already seemed exhausting. Now, after a tumultuous day involving a damning Rolling Stone investigation and a cringe-inducing, petulant reaction from a celebrity who should know better, the Weeknd and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s HBO collaboration has become the most reviled project on the internet—which is impressive, given no one even knows yet when it might be released.
Hollywood typically trades in controlled chaos: firestorms, tornados, and avalanches of potential calamity caused by outsized egos, amplified by ungodly amounts of money. Miraculously, all of that is reined in by the army of publicists, handlers, and crisis managers, who work frantically to make sure that the public only finds out what they want us to know. When that typically shrouded havoc sees the light, the way it has with The Idol, it’s alarming to a point that approaches unsettling.
As the week comes to an end, I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s not just one of the worst PR nightmares I’ve seen in recent memory, but perhaps across my entire career.
Things like this aren’t supposed to happen. Production insiders aren’t supposed to speak so freely to the press (even if they do so anonymously); powerful Hollywood players’ malfeasance isn’t meant to be exposed this nakedly; and the petty narcissism of certain celebs is supposed to be kept from us. That not just one but all of these things happened in this case is shocking and embarrassing.
On social media, both industry professionals and pop culture fans are still shell-shocked by all of these developments, especially by the video that The Idol’s star released in response to the drama.
To bring everyone up to speed, The Idol is an upcoming HBO series from Sam Levinson, the polarizing creator (and writer and director) of Euphoria. Over its two seasons, that series has been as celebrated for its gritty look at the sordid lives of a group of high schoolers as it has been criticized for its sensational, exploitative content. In fact, there have been several reports over the years of a toxic work environment as well as an unorganized set, while several of the show’s female stars have talked about feeling it necessary to push back against demands for nudity and explicit sex scenes.
Nonetheless, Euphoria has been a ratings hit for HBO and won several Emmys, including two Best Actress in a Drama trophies for star Zendaya. When HBO announced The Idol in 2021, there was tangible excitement—even if it was tinged with exasperation from those who have found Levinson’s approach to storytelling hollow in its provocation. To make matters more exciting, chart-topping recording artist Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye co-created the series, which stars Lily-Rose Depp (daughter of Johnny; nepo baby alert!) as a disgraced pop star, who relies on a burgeoning cult leader (Tesfaye) to help her mount a comeback.
HBO marketing materials hailed the series as being from the “sick and twisted minds” of Levinson and Tesfaye and called it “the sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood”—a level of braggadocio that is sad and irritating more than it is appealing or attractive. That’s especially true in the wake of the bombshell Rolling Stone investigation, titled, “The Idol: How HBO’s Next ‘Euphoria’ Became Twisted ‘Torture Porn,’” which followed a Deadline report of the series overhaul last spring.
Among the allegations is that the production has been in a state of turmoil that’s disturbed even those in the crew, who are the most seasoned in dealing with Hollywood bullshit. Director Amy Seimetz exited the series with 80 percent of it filmed, as Levinson apparently took over with plans to rewrite and reshoot the already $54-75 million project.
The budget is now, according to Rolling Stone, “untold”—something that certainly smarts for many creators and fans, who are all dismayed by the sudden and depressing cancellations of dozens of TV series as HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, consolidates costs.
Making things more unpleasant is the report that, after he took over, Levinson imbued his version of the show with even more sex and nudity, so that it would out-shock even Euphoria; one source called the new direction a “rape fantasy that any toxic man would have.”
This summary became more than the CliffsNotes we intended, but the details are just too wild. They also give context to why what happened next is so preposterous (and is the thing that I truly can’t stop thinking about).
After seemingly the entire internet buzzed over the salaciousness of what’s alleged in the article, Tesfaye posted a clip on social media that is apparently from the series. The caption reads, “Rolling Stone, did we upset you?” In it, a manager (Dan Levy) pitches Tesfaye’s and Depp’s characters an interview with Rolling Stone, but they disparage the magazine as “irrelevant.” (Watch it here.)
Maybe whoever was involved in the decision to post this thought it was more of an edgy response than the peevish outburst it actually came off as. What I’m sure they did not expect the ridicule that even the Rolling Stone article didn’t inspire: It was dreadful, featuring some of the most atrocious acting I’ve seen in a while.
Even days later, we’re reeling from the near-unanimity there is online over how asinine it was to post that video. When was the last time the internet agreed on anything? Discord is social media’s whole thing. Presumably, the clip was meant to own Rolling Stone. Instead, Tesfaye owned himself.
A tweet from writer and podcaster Jordan Crucchiola: “This is a very glib way to respond to corroborated accounts of an unprofessional and possibly compromising work environment where the crew says they’re being mistreated. On a show where you’re the co creator, star, one of few credited writers and probably also an EP. Gross.”
From The Hollywood Reporter critic Daniel Fienberg: “When an article comes out about the toxic workplace environment on your creatively troubled set, the correct course of damage control is *probably* not to suggest that the publication reporting on said situation was just upset about a 50-second scene from a show nobody has seen.”
From meme account Saint Hoax, with a corresponding gif of celebrities pointing at each other: “Lily-Rose and The Weeknd fighting over who bombed harder in that scene.”
From The Atlantic culture writer David Sims: “This is plainly embarrassing, but also, the hubris to think that this will serve as a response to a story like that.”
From the account The King of Burbank: “Dan Levy absolutely fighting for his life to make this scene feel like it takes place on planet Earth.”
And from my colleague Allegra Frank: “Is this the dialogue y’all fired Amy Seimetz for?”
I can’t remember another time when so much ill will toward a project materialized this quickly. What I hope, though, is that this doesn’t translate to some sort of “hate-watch” phenomenon, if and when this series finally sees the light of the day.
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