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Don’t Be An Instabragger

OK, so you’re having a great time. Or some great food. Or you’re on a great beach, showing off your impossibly great tuchus that looks like some sort of prank involving beach balls (cough, Rhianna). And you post a picture of it. Not the most attractive human quality to display, but there’s no logic in admonishing the bragging braggarts of Instagram, because everyone on Instagram is a bragging braggart from the moment they thumb “Join.” It’s kinda the point. You don’t get eleventy billion “likes” by sharing kool-aid-filtered snapshots of your Grandma’s toenails.

But over the last few months, we’ve noticed an insidious brag form make its way onto Instagram. Basically: the Humblebrag, in visual form. Instead of outright boasting, the self-promotion is sneakily tucked into the mise-en-scene of this shot. Example? Girls’ creator Lena Dunham recently posted a ‘gram of a new mattress pad on the floor of her bedroom, which also happened to include Dunham herself lounging sexily on the bed in the background. Or take The Heat’s Dwayne Wade, who posted a pic of the toy car he bought his son, conveniently parked next to his gagillion dollar human-sized vehicle.

I must shamefully admit to Instabragging myself a couple months ago when I uploaded a shot of the cocktail I was drinking that featured my acoustic guitar subtly perched in the background. A friend called me out on it in the comments. Because friends don’t let friends Instabrag. And a secondary lesson? Beverages really aren’t worth bragging about. —LAUREN BANS

Judd Apatow: “The Best Idea I’ve Ever Had.”

Is the reigning king of comedy jumping from the silver screen to…Broadway? Amy Wallace sits down with Judd Apatow and hears all about his (surprisingly mature) plans for the future.

Now, as the cameras roll, Fox and Mann chitchat with the hockey studs while Apatow calls out funny lines for them to say, many of which are being scribbled on Post-it notes by a circle of women who sit around him in director’s chairs: Annie Mumolo, who co-wrote Bridesmaids, Paula Pell of Saturday Night Live, and Jenni Konner, who co-produces Girls. When it is discovered that one of the players has fake front teeth (and can remove them), Apatow yells out, “Do you miss your teeth?”—and Fox spits the line right back.

Though Rudd and Mann are reprising the roles, Pete and Debbie, that they played in Knocked Up, This Is 40 isn’t a sequel exactly. It’s more like a spin-off—”like Rhoda off of Mary Tyler Moore,” Apatow says—in that it drops back in on the lives of two characters who played supporting roles in the first film. Ask Apatow why he has returned to familiar territory, and he says, “I want to do the sequel of all of the movies I’ve made. Why wouldn’t you do ten Superbads? Forget another one. I’d follow those guys every year for the rest of their lives.”

Read On

IMPT: Do Not Delete An Email With The Subject Line: “From Judd Apatow”

GQ: I read that you and Lena first talked after you sent her an email about Tiny Furniture, the 2010 movie she wrote, directed and starred in. Do you remember what you wrote to her?
Judd Apatow: That’s a very good question. I don’t remember what I said. [To Lena, who is in the room with him.] Lena, what did I say in my e-mail?

Lena Dunham: The title of the e-mail was “From Judd Apatow.” I thought it was my friend Isabel pranking me. He said, “I saw your movie. I cried, which is not rare for me. But I laughed out loud, which is rare.” Then he said a few things he liked that were really nice. Then he said, “If you ever want someone to give you a lot of money and screw everything up, we should talk.”

GQ: That’s awesome. I love that you have it committed to memory.
Lena Dunham: Oh my God. I have an e-mail called Very Important Work E-mails. All that’s in there is Judd’s and another email where somebody wrote something really mean to me. Okay, I’m gonna give you back to Judd.

Judd Apatow: I don’t remember being so witty.