Mariska Hargitay to Direct HBO Documentary About Her Mom Jayne Mansfield: ‘Mother I Never Knew'
'This movie is a labor of love and longing. It's a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I'd never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother's story and my own truth,' Hargitay said of the project and opportunity, which comes 60 years after her death in 1967. 'I've always believed there is strength in vulnerability, and the process of making this film has confirmed that belief like never before.'
The film, which will serve as Hargitay's directorial debut, will also be produced by Hargitay and Trish Adlesic ('I Am Evidence'). Lauren Bromley will executive produce.
Here's the official synopsis: 'Mariska Hargitay was three years old when her mother, Jayne Mansfield, tragically died in a car accident at the age of 34. The film follows Mariska as she seeks to know, understand, and embrace her mother for the first time. Through intimate interviews and a collection of never-before-seen photos and home movies, she grapples with her mother's public and private legacy and discovers the layers and depth of who Jayne was, not only to her audience but to those who were closest to her.'
Born on April 19, 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Mansfield is best known for her work as an actress and Playboy Playmate, and was one of the most notable sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s. Though she had a brief stint in the motion picture business, she starred in several success Hollywood box office successes, including 'Too Hot to Handle,' 'The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw' and more. She starred in 'Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter' and 'The Hercules' with her ex-husband, actor and Mr. Universe winner Mickey Hargitay. She took home a Golden Globe for 'The Girl Can't Help It.'
Mansfield and Hargitay divorced in 1964, but welcomed three children together. Two years later, Mansfield died at age 34 after a car accident. At the time, Hargitay was just 3 years old.
'My Mom Is Jayne' will debut on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.
The post Mariska Hargitay to Direct HBO Documentary About Her Mom Jayne Mansfield: 'Mother I Never Knew' appeared first on TheWrap.
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4 hours ago
American Eagle's 'good jeans' ads with Sydney Sweeney spark a debate
NEW YORK -- U.S. fashion retailer American Eagle Outfitters wanted to make a splash with its new advertising campaign starring 27-year-old actor Sydney Sweeney. The ad blitz included 'clever, even provocative language' and was 'definitely going to push buttons,' the company's chief marketing officer told trade media outlets. It has. The question now is whether some of the public reactions the fall denim campaign produced is what American Eagle intended. Titled 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,' the campaign sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to 'woke' American politics and culture. Most of the negative reception focused on videos that used the word 'genes' instead of 'jeans' when discussing the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor known for the HBO series 'Euphoria' and 'White Lotus.' Some critics saw the wordplay as a nod, either unintentional or deliberate, to eugenics, a discredited theory that held humanity could be improved through selective breeding for certain traits. Marcus Collins, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, said the criticism could have been avoided if the ads showed models of various races making the 'genes' pun. 'You can either say this was ignorance, or this was laziness, or say that this is intentional,' Collins said. 'Either one of the three aren't good.' Other commenters accused detractors of reading too much into the campaign's message. 'I love how the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney ad has only resulted in a beautiful white blonde girl with blue eyes getting 1000x the exposure for her 'good genes,'" former Fox News host Megyn Kelly wrote Tuesday on X. American Eagle didn't respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. The ad blitz comes as the teen retailer, like many merchants, wrestles with sluggish consumer spending and higher costs from tariffs. American Eagle reported that total sales were down 5% for its February-April quarter compared to a year earlier. A day after Sweeney was announced as the company's latest celebrity collaborator, American Eagle's stock closed more than 4% up. Shares were volatile this week and trading nearly 2% down Wednesday. Like many trendy clothing brands, American Eagle has to differentiate itself from other mid-priced chains with a famous face or by saying something edgy, according to Alan Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce. Adamson said the Sweeney campaign shares a lineage with Calvin Klein jeans ads from 1980 that featured a 15-year-old Brooke Shields saying, 'You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.' Some TV networks declined to air the spots because of its suggestive double entendre and Shields' age. 'It's the same playbook: a very hot model saying provocative things shot in an interesting way,' Adamson said. Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers told industry news website Retail Brew last week that 'Sydney is the biggest get in the history of American Eagle,' and the company would promote the partnership in a way that matched. The campaign features videos of Sweeney wearing slouchy jeans in various settings. She will appear on 3-D billboards in Times Square and elsewhere, speaking to users on Snapchat and Instagram, and in an AI-enabled try-on feature. American Eagle also plans to launch a limited edition Sydney jean to raise awareness of domestic violence, with sales proceeds going to a nonprofit crisis counseling service. In a news release, the company noted 'Sweeney's girl next door charm and main character energy – paired with her ability to not take herself too seriously – is the hallmark of this bold, playful campaign.' In one video, Sweeney walks toward an American Eagle billboard of her and the tagline 'Sydney Sweeney has great genes.' She crosses out 'genes' and replaces it with 'jeans.' But what critics found the most troubling was a teaser video in which Sweeney says, 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.' The video appeared on American Eagle's Facebook page and other social media channels but is not part of the campaign. While remarking that someone has good genes is sometimes used as a compliment, the phrase also has sinister connotations. Eugenics gained popularity in early 20th century America, and Nazi Germany embraced it to carry out Adolf Hitler's plan for an Aryan master race. Civil rights activists have noted signs of eugenics regaining a foothold through the far right's promotion of the 'great replacement theory,' a racist ideology that alleges a conspiracy to diminish the influence of white people. Shalini Shankar, a cultural and linguistic anthropologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said she had problems with American Eagle's 'genes' versus 'jeans' because it exacerbates a limited concept of beauty. 'American Eagle, I guess, wants to rebrand itself for a particular kind of white privileged American,' Shankar said. 'And that is the kind of aspirational image they want to circulate for people who want to wear their denim.' Many critics compared the American Eagle ad to a misstep by Pepsi in 2017, when it released a TV ad that showed model Kendall Jenner offer a can of soda to a police officer while ostensibly stepping away from a photo shoot to join a crowd of protesters. Viewers mocked the spot for appearing to trivialize protests of police killings of Black people. Pepsi apologized and pulled the ad. The demonstrations that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis pushed many U.S. companies to make their advertising better reflect consumers of all races. Some marketers say they've observed another shift since President Donald Trump returned to office and moved to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies. Jazmin Burrell, founder of brand consulting agency Lizzie Della Creative Strategies, said she's noticed while shopping with her cousin more ads and signs that prominently feature white models. 'I can see us going back to a world where diversity is not really the standard expectation in advertising,' Burrell said. American Eagle has been praised for diverse marketing in the past, including creating a denim hijab in 2017 and offering its Aerie lingerie brand in a wide range of sizes. A year ago, the company released a limited edition denim collection with tennis star Coco Gauff. The retailer has an ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion program that is primarily geared toward employees. Two days before announcing the Sweeney campaign, American Eagle named the latest recipients of its scholarship award for employees who are driving anti-racism, equality and social justice initiatives. Marketing experts offer mixed opinions on whether the attention surrounding 'good jeans' will be good for business. 'They were probably thinking that this is going to be their moment," Myles Worthington, the founder and CEO of marketing and creative agency WORTHI. "But this is doing the opposite and deeply distorting their brand." Melissa Murphy, a marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, said she liked certain parts of the campaign but hoped it would be expanded to showcase people besides Sweeney for the 'sake of the brand.' Other experts say the buzz is good even if it's not uniformly positive.
5 hours ago
American Eagle's 'good jeans' ads with Sydney Sweeney spark debate on race, beauty
NEW YORK -- U.S. fashion retailer American Eagle Outfitters wanted to make a splash with its new advertising campaign starring 27-year-old actor Sydney Sweeney. The ad blitz included 'clever, even provocative language' and was 'definitely going to push buttons,' the company's chief marketing officer told trade media outlets. It has. The question now is whether some of the public reactions the fall denim campaign produced is what American Eagle intended. Titled 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,' the campaign sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to 'woke' American politics and culture. Most of the negative reception focused on videos that used the word 'genes' instead of 'jeans' when discussing the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor known for the HBO series 'Euphoria' and 'White Lotus.' Some critics saw the wordplay as a nod, either unintentional or deliberate, to eugenics, a discredited theory that held humanity could be improved through selective breeding for certain traits. Marcus Collins, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, said the criticism could have been avoided if the ads showed models of various races making the 'genes' pun. 'You can either say this was ignorance, or this was laziness, or say that this is intentional,' Collins said. 'Either one of the three aren't good.' Other commenters accused detractors of reading too much into the campaign's message. 'I love how the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney ad has only resulted in a beautiful white blonde girl with blue eyes getting 1000x the exposure for her 'good genes,'" former Fox News host Megyn Kelly wrote Tuesday on X. American Eagle didn't respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. The ad blitz comes as the teen retailer, like many merchants, wrestles with sluggish consumer spending and higher costs from tariffs. American Eagle reported that total sales were down 5% for its February-April quarter compared to a year earlier. A day after Sweeney was announced as the company's latest celebrity collaborator, American Eagle's stock closed more than 4% up. Shares were volatile this week and trading nearly 2% down Wednesday. Like many trendy clothing brands, American Eagle has to differentiate itself from other mid-priced chains with a famous face or by saying something edgy, according to Alan Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce. Adamson said the Sweeney campaign shares a lineage with Calvin Klein jeans ads from 1980 that featured a 15-year-old Brooke Shields saying, 'You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.' Some TV networks declined to air the spots because of its suggestive double entendre and Shields' age. 'It's the same playbook: a very hot model saying provocative things shot in an interesting way,' Adamson said. Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers told industry news website Retail Brew last week that 'Sydney is the biggest get in the history of American Eagle,' and the company would promote the partnership in a way that matched. The campaign features videos of Sweeney wearing slouchy jeans in various settings. She will appear on 3-D billboards in Times Square and elsewhere, speaking to users on Snapchat and Instagram, and in an AI-enabled try-on feature. American Eagle also plans to launch a limited edition Sydney jean to raise awareness of domestic violence, with sales proceeds going to a nonprofit crisis counseling service. In a news release, the company noted 'Sweeney's girl next door charm and main character energy – paired with her ability to not take herself too seriously – is the hallmark of this bold, playful campaign.' In one video, Sweeney walks toward an American Eagle billboard of her and the tagline 'Sydney Sweeney has great genes.' She crosses out 'genes' and replaces it with 'jeans.' But what critics found the most troubling was a teaser video in which Sweeney says, 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.' The video appeared on American Eagle's Facebook page and other social media channels but is not part of the campaign. While remarking that someone has good genes is sometimes used as a compliment, the phrase also has sinister connotations. Eugenics gained popularity in early 20th century America, and Nazi Germany embraced it to carry out Adolf Hitler's plan for an Aryan master race. Civil rights activists have noted signs of eugenics regaining a foothold through the far right's promotion of the 'great replacement theory,' a racist ideology that alleges a conspiracy to diminish the influence of white people. Shalini Shankar, a cultural and linguistic anthropologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said she had problems with American Eagle's 'genes' versus 'jeans' because it exacerbates a limited concept of beauty. 'American Eagle, I guess, wants to rebrand itself for a particular kind of white privileged American,' Shankar said. 'And that is the kind of aspirational image they want to circulate for people who want to wear their denim.' Many critics compared the American Eagle ad to a misstep by Pepsi in 2017, when it released a TV ad that showed model Kendall Jenner offer a can of soda to a police officer while ostensibly stepping away from a photo shoot to join a crowd of protesters. Viewers mocked the spot for appearing to trivialize protests of police killings of Black people. Pepsi apologized and pulled the ad. The demonstrations that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis pushed many U.S. companies to make their advertising better reflect consumers of all races. Some marketers say they've observed another shift since President Donald Trump returned to office and moved to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies. Jazmin Burrell, founder of brand consulting agency Lizzie Della Creative Strategies, said she's noticed while shopping with her cousin more ads and signs that prominently feature white models. 'I can see us going back to a world where diversity is not really the standard expectation in advertising,' Burrell said. American Eagle has been praised for diverse marketing in the past, including creating a denim hijab in 2017 and offering its Aerie lingerie brand in a wide range of sizes. A year ago, the company released a limited edition denim collection with tennis star Coco Gauff. The retailer has an ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion program that is primarily geared toward employees. Two days before announcing the Sweeney campaign, American Eagle named the latest recipients of its scholarship award for employees who are driving anti-racism, equality and social justice initiatives. Marketing experts offer mixed opinions on whether the attention surrounding 'good jeans' will be good for business. 'They were probably thinking that this is going to be their moment," Myles Worthington, the founder and CEO of marketing and creative agency WORTHI. "But this is doing the opposite and deeply distorting their brand." Melissa Murphy, a marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, said she liked certain parts of the campaign but hoped it would be expanded to showcase people besides Sweeney for the 'sake of the brand.' Other experts say the buzz is good even if it's not uniformly positive.
6 hours ago
On 'Bite Me,' Reneé Rapp punches back
NEW YORK -- Reneé Rapp was clear on her intentions for her sophomore album, 'Bite Me,' from the start. 'I wanted to love this,' Rapp says. 'I wanted to be able to walk away from this and be so proud of myself and impressed, no matter what anybody else thought.' Her first album, 2023's 'Snow Angel, ' had been an experiment in figuring out her sound (a mix of pop, R&B and heart-wrenching ballads), and assembling a collection of songs that worked together. This album, out Friday, offered the chance to do it again, with an eye toward the way her life had changed in the intervening years. 'That intention, and also wanting to prove it to myself, was really grueling,' Rapp told The Associated Press. 'And also really fun.' The writing process gave Rapp, 25, an outlet to work through the burnout-inducing whirlwind that was her career in those two years. Uncharacteristically restrained in its vocal styling, the album's lead single, 'Leave Me Alone,' is strikingly open — clever zingers allude to her departure from HBO's 'Sex Lives of College Girls,' the media frenzy that surrounded her turn as Regina in the 2024 remake of 'Mean Girls,' and the external pressure she felt to put out more music after the positive reception of 'Snow Angel.' Basically, anything that's been said about her in the last few years? She reframes it, poking fun at her reputation and the industry. 'Leave Me Alone' felt like a proper introduction to the album, Rapp says, and 'Bite Me' — both a warning and a tease — the appropriate title. Paris Hilton and Monica Lewinsky were among the famous faces that teased the album upon its announcement, donning merch emblazoned with the title in bold print. Rapp herself posed in front of a newsstand filled with mock tabloids depicting her as a diva, concealed behind big sunglasses and a fur coat, to promote the second single, 'Mad.' ('That's a Rapp!' the headline read.) 'It really feels just like a time capsule of those two years of my life, a lot having to do with the business and the industry and people's expectations of me,' Rapp says of the album. 'And then also me wanting things for myself and being confused where those two roads diverge.' Rapp's confidence and humor is evident across the album, just as it is on stage — 'I write lyrics in the way that I talk,' she says. Many of the tracks tackle the destabilizing emotions that accompany the beginning and end of relationships, whether platonic or romantic, and how her now-very public career has amplified the challenges of creating, and maintaining, those connections. 'I'm so surrounded all the time, but I feel so lonely, and it feels really heavy and isolating. And I think a lot of that is just being an artist. And I also think a lot of that is just like the nature of like the business, for better or for worse," she says. The can't-be-bothered attitude heard on 'Leave Me Alone' is countered by the ache of 'That's So Funny,' which recounts the end of a deeply affecting, but ultimately toxic friendship in Rapp's signature soaring vocals. That doesn't mean Rapp isn't also having fun. The cheeky 'At Least I'm Hot' features Rapp's girlfriend, the singer and guitarist Towa Bird. 'I love when artists give you a clue into their lives, and the people who make their lives full,' Rapp said. The track, she says, is also just funny: 'Who better to put on that than like the funniest person alive?' The album's mix of emotions — heartache followed by the rush of a new crush, the impostor syndrome that accompanies the thrill of success — is something the AP Breakthrough Entertainer alum has been exploring since her 2022 EP, 'Everything to Everyone.' She wants listeners to feel the conflict, too — and know that they aren't alone in experiencing it. In June, Rapp served as a grand marshal of the World Pride parade in Washington, D.C., alongside Laverne Cox and Deacon Maccubbin. 'It can be difficult to feel resilient and empowered as a queer person,' Rapp said. 'Because World Pride was in D.C., I was like, well, I can't not be there.' She recalled a conversation with Cox, who dispelled some of Rapp's fears of coming off as self-important in the role by emphasizing the power of showing up, and showing face. 'Right now, when everything is so under attack, which it pretty much always is, it feels like that's the time to be really loud.' Rapp will launch the North American leg of her 'Bite Me' tour at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater in September before making stops at New York's Madison Square Garden and as a headliner at the Toronto stop of the All Things Go Festival. She'll tour Europe in March. As she readies for fans to hear the album, she hopes it offers them some reprieve. 'I hope that the weight of the world doesn't feel as massive,' she said. 'It's really easy to obsess over everything and be constantly lost in your head.' Giving them a glimpse into hers, she hopes, is empowering — and fun: 'It's just, it feels like a big party that like everybody wants in on.'
