Anne Hathaway On 'Hathahaters' For Harper's Bazaar November 2014

I missed the whole damn episode called the ‘hathahaters’. Surely the interview with Anne Hathaway in November’s Harper’s Bazaar takes some artistic license, aka exaggeration in discussing a widespread, pop culture pushback against actor, who won Best Supporting Acress for her role in Les Miserables.

Hathaway is lensed by Alexi Lubomirski and styled in red and black by Joanna Hillman.  Laura Brown’s interview with Anne Hathaway unveils all the dreadful details of the public dissection of the actor, but I must investigate first.

The NY Times bared the ‘hathahaters’ issue in April, 2013.

“There’s something about her that rubs me the wrong way,” Alexis Rhiannon wrote in a screed against the Oscar-winning actress in Crushable, the celebrity blog, last fall, adding later, “I feel like she’s not a real person.”

A writer for The New Yorker’s Culture Desk blog, Sasha Weiss, explored the question: “Why are you so annoying?”

And then there was the contest on The San Francisco Chronicle’s Web site, which anointed her “The Most Annoying Celebrity of 2013.”

The cyberhaters even have their own catchy name, “Hathahaters,” which James Franco and Howard Stern dissected on Mr. Stern’s SiriusXM radio show two weeks ago.

“Everyone sort of hates Anne Hathaway,” Mr. Stern said, speculating that it was because she comes off as “so affected and actressy.” Mr. Franco did not strain to defend his 2011 Academy Awards co-host. “I’m not an expert on — I guess they’re called ‘Hathahaters’ — but I think that’s what maybe triggers it,” he replied cagily.

Sandra Weiss’ New Yorker piece In Defence of the Happy Girl enlightens.

This question was posed repeatedly in the days after Anne Hathaway’s Oscar win for her role as the destitute-prostitute mother Fantine, in “Les Mis”—and various answers have been offered: she’s too actorly, and reminds us of the show-tune-belting nightmare we knew in high school; she’s polished, successful, and driven, and people still find this distasteful in a woman; plump faces are the vogue and her face is too thin; the public every so often elects a random celebrity victim for vitriolic hatred—every generation needs one, and she is ours; her sunny persona is a coverup for steely ambition that catapulted her out of youthful stardom into a mature career that runs the gamut from eccentric indie to big-franchise blockbuster. To these reasonably convincing propositions, I’ll add one more: she represents the archetype of the happy girl, which is one that many people resist.

In a different, but perhaps very compatible way, the Hillary-haters come to mind. All the women who answer surveys saying they would rather work for a man come to mind. Why is it after all these decades of trying to move women forward in America, that we can’t seem to bear a woman with her life together and a genuine smile on her face?

Anne Hathaway shares a sentiment that I’ve been hearing with greater frequency in our digital haters world. Rett Butler said it best: “Frankly, My Dear, I don’t give a damn.” Take that haters. ~ Anne

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