The instagram post from Armie Hammer announcing that he and his wife are moving on from their marriage will no doubt create a flurry and a fury in the fandom and to a lesser extent in the entertainment media. Speaking strictly for me, i am deeply saddened to see the dissolution of a family, any family really, but especially a family that I foolishly imagined I somehow knew through their posts, the YouTube videos during the CMBYN tour, etc. The charmie fandom has been a great addition to my life, introducing me to fun fan fictions, many photos and videos i would have never discovered on my own, and the guilty pleasures of lurking about, reading impassioned posts from various anons and named contributors.
My guess is that we find ourselves at a major inflection point for the fandom. My mother’s lifelong admonition to me and my siblings (she being Irish by genes and inclinations) has been “Be careful what you wish for, cuz you just might get it.” I did not, and still do not, understand the animus toward Elizabeth Chambers, who was by Armie’s own account, an early supportive friend who accompanied him to auditions, ran lines with him, and all this before he had one iota of fame. Granted, he was still drop dead gorgeous. Many Charmies leveled vicious charges against this woman, for unsubstantiated charges of various types, but mostly because she was married to Armie and bore him two beautiful children.
Time alone will reveal whether the Charmie dream of a public romantic relationship between Timmy Chalamet and Armie Hammer will materialize now that the much wished for Hammer divorce is apparently afoot. My personal guess is that THIS, like the longed for sequel to CMBYN, is a mirage, a product of heat, air, and imagination, hovering just beyond the horizon, a creation that cannot withstand reality.
This, too, makes me very sad.