Celebrities Falling Is the Best Genre of Viral Video

This Week

Madonna fell down, and it sent me down a spiral.

The best movie of last year is now streaming.

Are you watching Real Housewives of Miami?!

Casting that made applaud.

A trailer that made me cheer.

My Favorite Kind of Videos

The thing about objects on pedestals is that they’re far more interesting when they’re toppling down. What’s more exciting: staring at a statue on display at a museum, or being there the moment someone accidentally knocks it over, shattering it and making global news? I’m just saying: I would be thrilled to one day go to the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa. But I’m gonna be a helluva lot more excited if, when I’m there, I spot out of the corner of my eye some granola-looking people with cans of soup in their pockets.

I’m not, of course, promoting vandalism or rooting for the destruction of art. Just as I’m not, as will hopefully become clear, rooting for the injury of famous people. But I do think that celebrities falling down is the greatest genre of viral video. That so many people have camera phones now to capture the (harm-free only!) carnage is one of the only great things to come from today’s “film every goddamn thing” culture.

I was reminded of my love for this canon this week when footage went viral of one of Madonna’s dancers dropping the chair that was carrying Madonna, sending Madge crashing to the ground. Specifically, I was reminded of this love when I watched this particular video roughly 87 times.

On Monday night, Madonna was performing a concert in Seattle when, during “Open Your Heart,” her dancer tipped back a chair she was sitting on and dragged it across stage, with her in it, as part of the choreography. The chair, unfortunately, slipped out of the dancer’s hand, plummeting to the ground—and taking the icon with it. Madonna quickly made it clear she was OK, laughing it off and shaking her head in good-natured disbelief to several other dancers.

Her reaction is a huge piece of why I find these videos to be so rewarding. Even at live events like concerts, the entire act of being a celebrity is the performance of polish and perfection. It’s to the point now where, at some major concerts, “Hello, [insert city name here]!” is the only moment that differs from night to night.

But it turns out that having your life flash in front of your eyes is a humanizing moment. The guard is let down. Authenticity comes out. Something new from the pre-programmed, manicured plan emerges. These are astonishing moments because there is so much effort put into ensuring every celebrity moment—be it a red carpet appearance or musical performance—goes off flawlessly. When there is a mistake, it’s shocking.

That, and these are the rich, famous, and glamorous—there’s a bit of ghoulish delight in the schadenfreude of seeing them fall down.

Last week at a concert in Tokyo, Taylor Swift wobbled. She didn’t fall. But she almost did!

“I almost fell off the Folklore cabin, but I didn’t, and that's the lesson,” she told the crowd. “My life flashed before my eyes. It’s all good, everything's fine, everything's great. I'm just so happy that I didn't fall off the Folklore cabin—you know what I mean.”

Two days before, she almost fell off a chair. Swift was very charming in response to both of these close calls. But close calls aren’t cutting it. You’re edging me, Taylor! I need to see celebs fully eat dirt!

Madonna has been historically generous in this regard. Before this week’s chairpocalypse, she starred in what ranks among the most viewed “Ah! That Celebrity Just Fell!” videos of all time. This one only qualifies for this innocent, fun genre because we know that Madonna didn’t get seriously hurt; otherwise the drama and the violence of the incident would be too upsetting to include.

At the 2015 BRIT Awards, Madonna’s matador-themed performance was interrupted by audience gasps when her dramatically long cape, which was supposed to tear away when yanked by dancers, got stuck. Instead of flying off, it clung around her neck, sending Madonna careening backwards off a platform and down a flight of stairs. The sheer distance she traveled was almost cartoonish. It’s mesmerizing. I watched it seven more times (adding to my tally of hundreds over the years) while writing this paragraph.

But is that the most famous falling clip?

Every person has film or television moments that are formative, that change how they look at the medium, the world, and even themselves. For me, it’s the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz, Ryan Phillippe’s butt in Cruel Intentions, and Michelle Williams falling during a Destiny’s Child performance on BET in 2004, while Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland don’t even deign to glance at her and keep dancing like nothing ever happened.

This Destiny’s Child clip is foundational to me. Falling is inherently funny—the whole “slipping on a banana peel” thing is one comedy’s classic bits—but there is something so dark about two of Destiny’s Children completely ignoring their prone sibling that strips the moment of all humor and transforms it into a psychological study. I have thought about this video incessantly over the years. It is my Roman Empire.

(When Beyoncé teetered for milliseconds, on the verge of a mishap, during the 2016 Halftime Show, I imagined Williams dressed all in a black in a dark tunnel off the field, cackling to herself with a can of grease in her hand.)

What are some other famous examples? Jennifer Lawrence tripping up the staircase on the way to accept her Oscar in 2013 became such a sensation that our cynicism-poisoned brains began conspiracy theorizing that it was staged to make Lawrence seem more endearing. Katy Perry swan diving into a giant cake and then slipping on the icing trying to leave the stage is a classic. Jennifer Lopez ass-planted during a 2009 American Music Awards performance of “Louboutins,” but played it off flawlessly. Nick Jonas falling in a hole on stage earlier this year had delightful Mr. Magoo vibes. (Because he’s OK!)

There’s a treasure trove of these, folks. The internet has entire listicles dedicated to them. (Bless those curators.)

The genre has subsets, too. If you catch me staring at my phone, wheezing with silent laughter, it is likely because I have just watched a TikTok of a model falling on the runway during Fashion Week.

On America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks used to, like, put models in 8-inch stilettos made out of toothpicks and have them walk down vibrating runways suspended 10 feet in the air while firehoses blasted at them, and then would act aghast if they ever stumbled. But genius-menace that she was, Tyra knew what she was doing. Each time a model fell, I’d hoot, holler, and wail, like I was drunk at a cage fighting match and not a teenager seven hours deep into a Top Model marathon on the basement couch. Models falling! Models!

(While fictional, Carrie Bradshaw becoming “fashion roadkill” while walking a runway on Sex and the City is a chef’s kiss version of this.)

I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these falling videos. What are your favorites that I’m missing? Email them to me. Send them to me on social media. Times are tough. I need some lightness in my life. I need to see famous people eat shit.

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Get Ready to Cry

Award seasons are strange. There are movies that are nominated for everything, then swiftly forgotten once the last trophy is handed out. In three months, will any of us remember that Maestroexists? (A fun game to play at the end of each award season is to try to name the actors who actually won the awards the previous year without Googling.)

Then there are the movies that spent the season championed by a contingent of cinema fans and awards enthusiasts who cheered for them, begged for voters to pay attention to them, and just plain wouldn’t shut up about them. Oscar nomination morning is a deflating experience when, despite the films’ worthiness and the passion of their fans, they’re passed over for the typical Academy-friendly fare that was rubber-stamped at every precursor award show.

The thing is: These are the movies that last. Because they’re so good—so special—that the word of mouth never ends. People discover them when they hit streaming. They’re revisited, sometimes often, whereas the litany of snoozy biopics that did get awards attention essentially disappear. (On Mar. 11, Nyadswims off into the abyss, never to be heard from again.)

There are a few titles that I predict this will be true for from the 2023 award season. I’ve already noticed in my social circles that people are starting to check out—and then rave about—Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. The movie that the most people in my life have watched and wanted to talk with me about is Theater Camp. And then there is the film that I, personally, feel is the best movie of 2023, a gem that I think a lot of people are going to be talking (and crying about) in the coming months:All of Us Strangers.

The poignant, haunting romance, written and directed by Andrew Haigh, is available to stream on Hulu as of this weekend. I can’t recommend enough that you go to the store, pick up a jumbo-sized box of tissues, and then return home to watch the movie.

Andrew Scott plays Adam, a lonely writer living in a near-empty skyrise in London who is working on a screenplay about his childhood. After a fire drill one night, he meets Harry (Paul Mescal), who seems to be the only other person living in the building. Despite Adam’s early resistance, they spark a connection, which develops into a passionate romance that cracks Adam open emotionally, seemingly for the first time in a long time.

He travels to the house he grew up in to reconnect with his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), but there’s a strange twist: His parents died in a car crash 30 years before. How is it possible that they can see each other? None of them are sure, but they seize the opportunity to get to know each other again, this time with Adam as a grown, successful, gay man.

The relationship with Harry dovetails with the interactions with his parents’ ghosts, allowing Adam to heal old wounds and come into himself in ways that his past pain had stalled. The process is as gorgeous as it is heartbreaking, creating a viscerally cathartic viewing experience; just as Adam’s feelings are finally unleashed, so are yours. At least that’s what the Kleenexes that are suddenly soaked suggest.

Haigh is no stranger to this kind of film, one that was small, cut championed at its release, but which would eventually capture more and more attention—and be truly cherished—as years pass. His 2011 romance Weekend is a foundational film for LGBTQ+ millennials, especially, while his once polarizing HBO series Looking is, 10 years after its premiere, experiencing a cultural reexamination. All of Us Strangers doesn’t need to be reconsidered—it’s already beloved—but expect its impact to only continue to grow as more people get to watch it. (Which, again, you can do right now on Hulu!)

The Real Housewives of MiamiIs *the* Show

We’re a broken record when it comes to screaming about howThe Real Housewives of Miami is the most slept-on city in the Bravo franchise. But we consider it a civil service—a public duty—to inform society what they are missing if they do not start watching and appreciating this show. Don’t you want nice things in your life?

The season finale aired Wednesday night, showing off how the series balances intense personal storylines and explosive cast feuding with equal parts hilarity and empathy—and does that better than any other Housewives series. That the women can fight with the violent volume of feral cats being dropped in hot water and then rally to cheer on a cast member who is debuting a new song at a party is exactly how these shows should work!

But the moment from the finale that I really want to point to is when Guerdy Abraira, who is about to start chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, decides to shave her head, asking her husband, Russell, to do it. It goes without saying that I was sobbing during this scene. But what struck me about it—especially as we learn at the end of the episode that Abraira is now cancer-free—is how remarkable Abraira’s willingness to show her cancer journey on the show was, and how production handled it.

She was candid, allowing cameras into every part of the journey, but it never felt exploitative—or, in the dark world of reality TV thirst for fame, like she was capitalizing on her illness for attention. We saw how sick it made her, but we also saw how vivacious she remained in the face of it: going on cast trips, attending parties when she could, and still looking glamorous.

In the grand scheme of Real Housewives, the whole arc was something you don’t normally associate with these shows: extremely classy.

This Is Perfect Casting

It was announced this week that Vanessa Williams will play Miranda Priestly in the musical version of The Devil Wears Prada debuting in London later this year. Rarely is there a casting that is this undeniably perfect.

Of course, real ones know that Williams was preparing this for years. On Ugly Betty, she played Wilhelmina Slater, a ruthless but secretly compassionate editor of a fashion magazine with a wardrobe that would be at home on the glossy’s cover and a scorching, judgmental wit that she’d shoot like poison darts. Williams should have an Emmy for her work on the show. Maybe a Tony for Prada will be the long overdue consolation prize. if that sounds outrageous or absolutely right. Nonetheless, Shah commemorated (?) the occasion with an exclusive People essay, as one is, I guess, wont to do when they’re a celebrity who has spent a year in prison.

There’s some interesting stuff in her piece, which could be viewed as inspiring self-reflection or cynical PR, depending on the reader. You can read it—and see the first official photo taken of Shah since incarceration, while participating in a Barbie-themed hair pageant (?!?!)—here.

Now to the most important matter: Who is going to fly me to London to see this?

This Is a Perfect Trailer

When the opening notes to The Corrs’ “Breathless” first dropped about midway through the trailer for the new Lindsay Lohan rom-com Irish Wish, just know that I ascended to a higher plane of existence. (The vibes up here are great.) Perfect song. Perfect trailer. Perfect hype for what will be a mediocre movie that I am going to love.

Watch the trailer here.

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

Actor David Krumholtz went viral spilling his wildest Hollywood stories. Turns out he had a few more—and told them to us. Read more.

What in the world was going on with all the Pepsi product placement in Madame Web? Read more.

Raff Law (Jude Law’s son!) broke down Masters of the Air’s most devastating episode yet. Read more.

About Dry Grasses: Spend three hours with a real prick. It’s a good time, we swear! (Now in theaters)

Ordinary Angels: They finally made a good faith-based movie. (Now in theaters)

Drive-Away Dolls: Ethan Coen should stick to making movies with his brother. (Now in theaters)

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Why can’t they make a good live-action adaptation of this?! (Now on Netflix)

Constellation: The multiverse meets outer space, and we just have a headache. (Now on Apple TV+)

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