There is an interesting debate taking shape online this week surrounding the perils of social media, the privacy rights of celebrities and theatre etiquette all at the same time. On Wednesday, a Twitter user by the name of Jaye Hunt sat down to watch a screening of Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty, only to have Greta Gerwig walk into the mostly empty theatre with some friends and sit down in front of her. She proceeded to live-tweet the experience with a blow-by-blow of Gerwig’s reaction to everything in the movie, at times pointing out how loud she was being. It would seem her intention was not to shame Gerwig but rather to share her excitement of this otherwise endearing celebrity encounter. Unfortunately, her tweets went viral and the reaction has not been kind. Here are some of the tweets:
um I’m in a movie theater about to see I feel pretty alone and greta gerwig just walked in and sat down in front of me
— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
her friends keep coming in to join her and I’m terrified that saoirse is on her way
— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
no one is sitting behind me so I might live tweet this experience
— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
she’s drinking the biggest movie theater soda I’ve ever seen!!!! I always thought no one ever ordered the extra large but GRETA GERWIG DOES
— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
there was just a bit where a baby saw amy schumer and started crying and greta LOVED it. she was the only person here who laughed
— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
“ugh” – greta at the end of the opening credits
— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
I’m… not 100% sure why but greta is CACKLING at amy schumer falling off the soulcycle bike? she’s still laughing and it happened a full minute ago
— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
someone just fully left because of how loud she and her friends are being I’m CACKLING
— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
she’s checking her phone! greta if you see this don’t stop the commentary I love it
— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
just to get out ahead of this:
- there were like 10 people in the enormous theater
- no one was behind me
- everyone was on their phones because it’s a BAD MOVIE
- she was being so loud that I didn’t even have to lean forward to hear her clearly; I wasn’t eavesdropping— jaye hunt (@hayejunt) May 9, 2018
While some people have expressed disappointment that a well-known actor and director would talk loudly during a movie, the vast majority of people seem to have a bigger issue with the live-tweeter in this situation. Obviously Greta Gerwig did not know she was being watched and many see this as an invasion of her privacy. On top of that, the fact that she was using her phone to tweet throughout the movie is also an issue (even though she did claim that no one was sitting behind her). I should say that it is still unclear if this is even true and some people believe it may be fake. Do you think this live-tweet session was harmless and amusing or was it a major violation of theatre etiquette (in more ways than one)?
