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Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell are working together in Boston on their third collaboration, Joy (the Miracle Mop biopic). JLaw’s been spotted walking her dog in the snow, and she flipped off the paparazzi. We talked on Friday about the reported screaming match between JLaw and Russell, who also kicked Harvey Weinstein off the set. I referenced a NSFW video of Russell screaming at Lily Tomlin. The video was filmed on the I Heart Huckabees (2004) set. Russell was blacklisted for years after that disturbing tirade but came back with The Fighter (2010). George Clooney, who worked with Russell on Three Kings (1999), went on record saying the director pushed and humiliated people on the regular.

Page Six had a different take on the situation, which their source described as a “meltdown” on JLaw’s behalf: “He was screaming at her. She was screaming at him. It was loud.” A studio publicist said, “There was no fight. David is very passionate.” The scene in question was heavy, and JLaw was holding a crying baby. Assuming this wasn’t a fake baby scenario, a young child was subjected to this mess. Jennifer got wind of these stories and defended Russell on Facebook. Several aspects of this note feels “off” to me, so let’s discuss:

Hey guys!

It’s Jen! I know I don’t go on here a lot because I can barely work email but there’s been a terrible rumor going around the last 24 hours so I wanted to clear it up.

David O. Russell is one of my closest friends and we have an amazing collaborative working relationship. I adore this man and he does not deserve this tabloid malarkey. This movie is going great and I’m having a blast making it!

[From Jennifer Lawrence on Facebook]

Here are my issues: (1) This statement doesn’t deny anything about the screaming match. It only raves about Russell. (2) This doesn’t read like anything that would come out of Jennifer’s mouth. It sounds like a PR person (a fan of Joe Biden) trying to sound like JLaw, who has probably never used the word “malarkey“; (3) The statement comes from Jennifer’s official Facebook page, but JLaw has previously gone on record to say, “If you ever see a Facebook, Instagram or Twitter that says it’s me, it most certainly is not“; (4) “Jennifer” claims not to understand email, but she enjoys it enough to craft “peanutbutt” as her handle (as revealed in the Sony hack).

JLaw has a big enough career that we can assume she chose to work with Russell again. Perhaps she feels like she owes him after winning an Oscar for one of his films. Maybe she’s wary of speaking against a rage monster, who was welcomed back into Hollywood despite his bad behavior. George Clooney got away with telling the truth about Russell, but could an actress do the same without being seen as “difficult”? That’s an actual question.

Another bit of JLaw news. This week’s issue of Star has a little blurb about her waning friendship with Bradley Cooper. BCoop will also appear in Joy, but he and JLaw are acting “quite frosty” towards each other, and “nobody knows exactly why.”

View image | gettyimages.com

View image | gettyimages.com

Here’s some photos of JLaw on set as Joy Mangano. This movie comes out on Christmas, which means it’s Oscar bait.

Photos courtesy of Getty, Fame/Flynet & WENN