| HILLARY BUSIS,
SENIOR HOLLYWOOD EDITOR |
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An oyster-farming former Marine from Downeast Maine who vocally supports LGBTQ+ rights, could plausibly be played by Tom Hardy in a biopic, and is just itching to challenge Susan Collins for her Senate seat? Sounds like something dreamed up by a pool of leftist political strategists or a Hollywood writers room. (Are those two things redundant?) But Graham Platner is all too real—and until about 72 hours ago, he seemed like he might cruise all the way to a win in Maine’s upcoming Democratic primary. Then his own campaign dropped a bombshell: Platner has a tattoo of a Totenkopf, a symbol associated with the Nazi Party. Or at least he had that tattoo; just this morning, Platner told VF’s Keziah Weir that he has now officially had it covered up, with “some kind of Celtic knot with a dog on it.” In conversation, Platner swears he didn’t know the tattoo’s connotations until very recently.
Elsewhere, Savannah Walsh chats with Greta Lee about a particularly momentous episode of The Morning Show, while Elise Taylor visits a particularly appealing celebrity closet sale, and Erin Vanderhoof ponders the real meaning of the new CBS country music competition series The Road. More tomorrow… |
Graham Platner is currently running to unseat Republican incumbent Susan Collins and he has had a hell of a week—and it’s only Wednesday. Days after he faced backlash over controversial social media posts that were resurfaced, and Platner’s political director, Genevieve McDonald, resigned, his campaign revealed that Platner had a stylized skull and crossbones tattoo on his chest that appeared to be a Totenkopf, or “death’s head”—a symbol associated with the Nazi Party and white supremacy.
Since launching his campaign, Platner has had a meteoric rise: He’s raised more than $4 million in donations, and earned the endorsement of fellow New Englander Bernie Sanders. He’s already been the subject of extensive profiles in outlets including The New Yorker, The New Republic, and GQ. But news of his tattoo has stopped his momentum in its tracks. “There are some ‘Man, maybe Platner could be president someday’ texts in my phone that I’d like to take back,” one Slate staffer wrote. |
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Taylor Sheridan’s partnership with Keith Urban and Blake Shelton brings the principles of Yellowstone to a tour bus. |
Famed celebrity stylist Haley Wollens mined her fashionable network to curate a designer closet sale for The RealReal with hand-me-downs from Julianne Moore and Chloë Sevigny. |
As Greta Lee bids farewell to the longest role of her career, she gets emotional about the state of the world as reflected on The Morning Show: “How do we reconcile all of our hopes and dreams from just a few years ago?” |
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Lindsey Halligan’s, Karoline Leavitt’s, and Pete Hegseth’s exercises in chest-puffery have something in common beyond how embarrassing they are—it’s their Trumpian bluster, a shared effort to bully the press into submission. These officials would have you think they’re so indifferent or contemptuous that they don’t feel compelled to respond with anything but threats and jokes. But Halligan’s “off record” take-backsies also underscores the desperation behind the bombast, while Hegseth’s ultimatum may come to show the strategy’s foolhardiness. |
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