Thursday, August 24, 2017

Let them eat Hermes scarves!

If you were, say, the wife of, say, the Secretary of the Treasury. Which would make you fifth in the line of succession to become FLOTUS, if, say, the rapture occurred and the current POTUS, VP, Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore of the US Senate, and Secretary of State were all swept away to the great beyond. And if, say, the man you had recently married was exceedingly wealthy, so that you didn’t have to do much with your time other than shop for designer duds. And if, say, you’d been a C-list actress in defunct TV shows and movies no one had ever heard of, and, say, that C-list of your acting jobs was out there easily accessible by anyone with Google fingers. And if you lived, say, in a country where there was increasing class-based tension that was pretty noticeable, even though a lot of said tension was side-channeled into racial tension. (Phew! We’re getting out of that one easy!) And if, say, you were accompanying your husband on official business that was taking him to Kentucky to visit Fort Knox…

So just saying that if any two of the above conditions held, let alone all of them, would you be out there on Instagram hashtagging the luxury designers you were wearing. Especially given that three (Hermes, Valentino, Roland Mouret) out of four (Tom Ford) of those designers weren’t American. And, thus, probably weren’t doing much to MAGA the way your husband’s boss wants to happen.

Anyway, if you missed the story, Steve Mnuchin’s June bride, Louise Linton was building her brand on Instagram,letting all her friends/fans/followers know what she’s up to, and what she had on when she was up to it:Louise Linton 

“Great #daytrip to #Kentucky! #nicest #people #beautiful #countryside #rolandmouret pants #tomford sunnies, #hermesscarf #valentinorockstudheels #valentino #usa” 

I have no idea how many followers Linton has. There are only 10 likes for her post. But she sure got a lot more shares and notice for what followed her initial designer-name-dropping bit.

An Insta user, one Jenni M, responded by posting “Glad we could pay for your little getaway. #deplorable”. Creepily, Linton did a bit of research on Jenni M – enough to figure out the Jenni M has kids – and had a response of her own:

“@Jennimiller29” cute!....Aw!! Did you think this was a personal trip?! Adorable! Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol. Have you given more to the economy than me and my husband? Either as an individual earner in taxes OR in self sacrifice to your country? I’m pretty sure we paid more taxes toward our day “trip” than you did. Pretty sure the amount we sacrifice per year is a lot more than you’d be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours. You’re adorably out of touch. Thanks for the passive aggressive nasty comment. Your kids look very cute. Your life looks cute. I know you’re mad but deep down you’re really nice and so am I. Sending me passive aggressive Instagram comments isn’t going to make life feel better. Maybe a nice message, one filled with wisdom and hunanity [SIC] would get more traction. Have a pleasant evening. Go chill out and watch the new game of thrones. It’s fab!” (Source: Huffington Post)

Where to begin with this one?

We pay more taxes. (Royal “we,” by the way.) We are sacrificing.

Yikes!

No doubt Steve Mnuchin took a pay cut to work in the administration. Big deal. He can afford to take a couple of years off, no doubt doing good and strewing goodness. And I do have to wonder just what sacrifices Linton made. She was in a Cold Case episode, but that’s been off the air for years.

Anyway, the exchange has gone viral, and Linton ended up issuing a wishy-washy apology.

But you’d think she would know better.

Just last year, Linton was caught up in a mini-scandal when she self-published a memoir of her gap year in Zambia that was, apparently, full o’ misrepresentations and outright lies. In the aftermath of that episode, and the blowback she got, Linton – at that point not yet married to Mnuchin, but his girlfriend – ended up getting rid of her Twitter account.

Insta, of course, is so much cooler. Or prettier. Or whatever.

But it apparently didn’t get through to Linton that social media is not always your friend. Thus the instant Insta fiasco.

Seriously, folks, how absurd is absurd?

Well, as it turns out, it gets even better. As it turns out, one of the bit parts Linton had in the course of her illustrious career was that of a character (the show was CSI NY) - who attends a costume party dressed as no other than… Hey, I think I’ll make this a multiple choice:

a) Eleanor Roosevelt
b) Mother Teresa
c) Marie Antoinette

I don’t want to give the answer away too soon, especially if you’re leaning Eleanor Roosevelt. So I’ll give you a bit of a visual clue:

LL-MA

That be Linton in the powdered wig.

Let them wear Hermes scarves!

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