Ryan Gosling Saves Woman From Death Cab: Laurie Penny Says, 'I Am Kind of An Idiot' and 'Everybody Needs to Calm Down'

A journalist named Laurie Penny was crossing Sixth Avenue in Manhattan wearing a bright pink wig when she was saved from a speeding cab by none other than buzz-worthy Hollywood heartthrob Ryan Gosling. Penny, a writer from England, says she was looking the wrong way crossing the street when she was pulled to safety from what was likely her demise.

With a sadistic force, the internet exploded with this news. Ryan Gosling superfans everywhere were enamored of another superhero feat by the star of Drive and Crazy Stupid Love. Penny, however, encouraged everyone to take a chill pill.

EVERYBODY NEEDS TO CALM DOWN ABOUT RYAN GOSLING NOW . . . No seriously. My phone and email have been going crazy with media requests all night and all morning and it's getting silly now, Penny wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning.

But even after her own downplay of the event, there was too much furor for Penny to handle, particularly in how she was being cast in the media. She took to popular gossip and opinion website Gawker to try and put an end to the fervor. In a piece titled Ryan Gosling Saved Me From a Speeding Car But There’s War In the Middle East So Everyone Calm Down, Penny writes of how trivial it is, though she was the one initially to hype the event on her Twitter:

Look, I am kind of an idiot. I am constantly walking into things, losing my phone and keys, and wandering into traffic because I'm thinking about something else or have spotted something interesting in the sky, and that's when I'm not in a country where all the cars come in the wrong direction. Friends and complete strangers prevent me from taking the fast-lane death walk in New York City on a regular basis, and the reason that this happens is that people are actually surprisingly decent when you get down to it. If Ryan Gosling hadn't happened to be the nearest person at the time, I'm sure the girl standing next to me, who confirmed Gosling's identity, would have prevented me from meandering into an early grave.

Penny's essay on the topic takes a stance of British exceptionalism, observing the celebrity culture of incidents like this one in the United States as Americans [...] can and do hyperventilate about the most everyday happenings as if they are the most important thing in the world, and then they act completely normal when public conversations are had about war on Iran and war on women's bodies [...] In her opinion, the real heroes in America are those fighting for equal opportunity and civil rights. Her essay takes an interesting theatrical turn by casting this is terms of a narrative. Penny writes:

But as a feminist, a writer, and a gentlewoman of fortune, I refuse to be cast in any sort of boring supporting female role, even though I have occasional trouble crossing the road, and even though I did swoon the teeniest tiniest bit when I realized it was him. I think that's lazy storytelling, and I'm sure Ryan Gosling would agree with me.

You can check out all of Penny's Tweets here.