Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
Brad Pitt talks to GQ's Michael Paterniti this week about his post-divorce life. Photo: AFP
Brad Pitt Talks Divorce, Quitting Drinking, and Becoming a Better Man, by Michael Paterniti, GQ
“For me this period has really been about looking at my weaknesses and failures and owning my side of the street. I'm an asshole when it comes to this need for justice. I don't know where it comes from, this hollow quest for justice for some perceived slight. I can drill on that for days and years. It's done me no good whatsoever. It's such a silly idea, the idea that the world is fair. And this is coming from a guy who hit the lottery, I'm well aware of that. I hit the lottery, and I still would waste my time on those hollow pursuits.”
Ivanka Trump Wrote a Painfully Oblivious Book for Basically No One, by Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker
“On page one hundred and four, she finally lays out a woman-specific suggestion: we should be more like men and apply for jobs for which we’re not completely qualified. Given the circumstances, it’s almost funny. In a later section on work/life balance—a “myth,” according to Ivanka, who nonetheless advocates finding a “work/life rhythm that’s optimal for you”—there’s quite a bit of advice about working through and around pregnancy and motherhood, mostly in the form of quotes from Rosie Pope, an entrepreneur who briefly had her own Bravo show called “Pregnant in Heels.”’
Alex Jones Will Never Stop Being Alex Jones, by Charlie Warzel, Buzzfeed
“Talk to enough people who know Alex Jones and a clear portrait emerges. Dozens of interviews reveal him as distractible, prone to foul moods, fiercely loyal until crossed, and extremely vindictive. Someone whose outward confidence has a kind of gravitational pull, and who thrives in the spotlight. A guy who’s thin-skinned but constantly picking fights. A man obsessed with advancement of the brand he’s been building since long before anyone took him seriously. You get the sense that he truly is a singular human being. That is, until you recall Donald Trump.”
We Strive To Please: An Interview with Pop-up Globe's Miles Gregory, by Kate Prior, The Pantograph Punch
“I understand the topicality of gender and I think it’s an important debate, but we’re all human, and our shared humanity must come before anything else. I think there’s a danger that we forget our common humanity and we perhaps begin to think that people of different genders or races or creeds can’t talk to or understand each other. But then we are denying ourselves an incredible opportunity as humans to connect with others and to work as collaborators.”
The Dark Decline of ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’, by Kate Knibbs, The Ringer
“If the show’s thorniest moments involved navigating divorce, it’d be one thing, but the behind-the-scenes story lines have gotten much darker. As a 17-year-old, Kylie Jenner began dating the adult rapper Tyga; another one of the show’s secondary cast members applauded Tyga for getting “in early.” The questionable legality of their relationship never became a plot point, although Rob Kardashian’s relationship with Tyga’s ex-girlfriend Blac Chyna did. “We have the best lives and the most fucked-up lives at the same time,” Khloe said last season, in the episode where 18-year-old Kylie learns her brother has impregnated her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.”
Elisabeth Moss Is the Queen of Peak TV, by Jada Yuan, Vulture
‘“People keep asking me, ‘Why do you pick these strong, feminist roles?’ and it’s a question that I’m grappling with,” Moss says about being prodded to put a tidy frame around her body of work. “So I actually talked to Margaret Atwood about it and tried to get her to answer it for me. I was like, ‘Just tell me what you would say.’ And she said, ‘It’s just human stories.’ The real answer is, I’m not picking feminist stories; I’m just looking for interesting human stories. And because I’m a woman, that’s considered slightly unusual. Whereas with a man it wouldn’t be.”’