Pop Culture

The Paparazzi Are Making Treasures Out of Armie Hammer’s and Ben Affleck’s Trash

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. We know this to be true because it’s in the Bible or Shakespeare wrote it, or it’s on one of those Instagram photos attributed to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Not to use another cliché, but these things are clichés for a reason. Examples are everywhere! Here’s one about New York’s “golden age” of street trash that fits the bill (off to the side, there I am screaming, “YOU’RE GONNA REGRET THIS!”). And here’s another example: Outside of Armie Hammer’s former residence, which he moved out of in the dead of night, there was a trash can, and in that trash can was a mannequin tied in rope. 

The trash? It’s literally the celebrity’s. The treasure? It’s the paparazzi’s. Hammer’s story has gone dark and murky for some time now, but this bondage mannequin hearkens back to a more innocent-appearing time, when Hammer didn’t realize everyone could see his “likes” on Twitter and kept liking photos of shibari bondage. Now he is going through a divorce, losing work, and defending his reputation against allegations of cannibalism and coercion, which he has denied. The paparazzi might not have been able to get a shot of the man himself during their stakeout, but at least that trash is gold. 

It’s surely the biggest moment in celebrity garbage since that time in January when a landscaping professional tossed a life-size cardboard cutout of Ana de Armas in a bin outside of Ben Affleck’s house. They had broken up! The message was disarmingly clear! 

I tried to find one other instance of paparazzi making the most of trash pics because the other cliché that Dr. Anthony Fauci, I think it was again, said is, “Three’s a trend,” but when I started Googling around, all I got was a stock image of a paparazzo in a trash can. That surely is a treasure to someone

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