Los Angeles Times Column Scolds Billy Eichner for Reaction to Film’s Failure at the Box Office
Los Angeles Times entertainment and arts deputy editor Matt Brennan penned a column taking aim at actor Billy Eichner for his reaction to his film’s failure at the box office. The piece was titled, “The real lesson of…
Los Angeles Times Entertainment and arts deputy editor Matt Brennan penned a column taking aim at actor Billy Eichner for his reaction to his film’s failure at the box office.
The piece was titled, “The real lesson of ‘Bros’: It’s OK to let gay art bomb.”
Brennan opened his piece by explaining he did not want to write it in the first place.
“I certainly didn’t want to attack the star of ‘Billy on the Street’ and ‘Difficult People,’ two of the most successful screen adaptations of the gay sensibility in recent memory. But Billy Eichner forced my hand,” Brennan wrote.
He continued, “No one wants to support a movie at the point of a bayonet.”
Over the weekend, Eichner blasted “straight people” for not showing up for the film, as IJR reported.
Commenting on Eichner’s remark, Brennan wrote, “It’s not just straight people who failed to show up for Eichner’s rom-com ‘Bros’ on opening weekend who might be feeling the pinch. As Variety pointed out in its autopsy of the film’s box office flop, its dreadful $4.8-million take ‘means many LGBTQ viewers didn’t show up to see the comedy in theaters either.’”
He added, “Does that make us too the ‘homophobic weirdos’ of Eichner’s confounding post-bomb tweet spiral or simply the silent Benedict Arnolds of his self-proclaimed march into the history books?”
The editor suggested Eichner could “be forgiven for throwing a misplaced elbow or two in the aftermath of such a crushing disappointment. But the sense of self-importance and, yes, entitlement in his response dovetails with the film’s rollout.”