I kept waiting for people to post a fuller version of the clip (particularly since the one that circulated literally began with “…and”).
The context concerns keeping movies viable organically before the audience erodes and you have to go out hat in hand and beg the Kochs and Geffens for it.
Imagine thinking that your little nests of herbs and fruit leather insects and pickled kelp or whatever are worth ruining people's lives and literally beating up a generation of restaurant workers for.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/d...
I think April was traditionally better for when the network wanted big ratings.
Olympics
Timothée's opera and ballet blowback and Jessie Buckley pissing off cat lovers is proof that Oscar season should be at least two weeks shorter.
We just did this with Babe Paley’s granddaughter! The NY Times needs a Rebuttal to Ryan Murphy section. www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/o...
For Talk of the Town, I brought Oscar nominee Wunmi Mosaku, who plays a hoodoo healer in "Sinners," to the Sacred Vibes Apothecary in Flatbush, and we learned what herbs are good for awards-season stress. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
She went to the choreographer's studio and had to crawl around "like some slinky cat," but was "a lead box of terror, un-cat-like in so many ways. So, anyway, that’s as far as my catting went, which I’m pretty glad about for everybody’s sake, including my own." I told her she dodged a bullet.
Jessie Buckley's very silly cat controversy (as a cat person I forgive her!) reminds me that when I interviewed her in 2020, she talked about auditioning for the "Cats" movie after getting her start on a reality show with Andrew Lloyd Webber. "It's one of the most embarrassing moments of my life." /
Got to talk Elvis and more on this week's Slate Culture Gabfest. Love this podcast!
Welcome to the Actor Awards (née SAG), where everyone is PROUD and GRATEFUL to be an actor.
Remmick from Sinners
Paramount right now.
Brazil’s once legendary soccer prowess, meanwhile, has seen better days. Teixeira—one of several people I spoke to who brought up that 2014 loss to Germany—theorized that the nationwide enthusiasm for the Oscars has filled the gap left by the World Cup. “Cinema is replacing soccer in the soul of the Brazilians, and that’s beautiful,” he said, beaming. “It’s a proud moment. Brazil is good in something. We are not bad anymore. We are good in films. We are good in art, and we are winning!”
Rodrigo Teixeira, a producer of "I'm Still Here," summed it up pretty well. A feel-good story about national pride!
Feliz aniversário, Beatriz!
What's going on with Brazil and the Oscars? I took a deep dive that brought me to some unexpected places, including: "Big Brother," the 2014 World Cup, shoe emojis, and a song called "The Bahian Has the Sauce." With thanks to @biaizumino.bsky.social. www.newyorker.com/culture/note...
Of course, Dree Hemingway, like John-John, is multi-generational nepo. Combining the Kennedy and Hemingway dynasties is some very dangerous witchcraft by Mr. Ryan Murphy. (She's very good but poor Daryl Hannah is NOT coming off well.)
Just realized that "Love Story" has Meryl Streep's daughter as Caroline Kennedy, Mariel Hemingway's daughter as Daryl Hannah, and Jack Lemmon's granddaughter as Lauren Bessette. That's a triple nepo baby in a show about a nepo baby!
In college I attended one day of a filmmaking class taught by Tom Noonan (no idea why I didn't take the whole semester). I remember exactly one thing he said, on choosing what subjects to write about, which was: "What are you fucked up about?" Honestly, helpful.
Watching "Twice in a Lifetime" (1985), starring Gene Hackman—the first movie Amy Madigan got an Oscar nomination for—and its message is, basically, "Hey, married guys of America, why not have an affair?" Which is funny, because two years later "Fatal Attraction" was like, "Actually, DON'T."
It’s easy to think writing is mainly the transcription of ideas you already have—that is, until you try to write something worthwhile, and you find what you thought were saying transform into something far more interesting in the process. This skips that last step, and that is *not* an improvement.
Rachel Aviv pieces should always be read. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
It’s crazy how Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette looks exactly like the young Meryl Streep…because Grace Gummer is also on this show.
I am five episodes deep on the JFK Jr. show and it is very good and glamorous and sexy BUT why is there no cameo of Elaine Benes seeing John-John at the gym and wandering off lustfully to lose the contest?
I get it, headlines need to be good. But it "most people read the headlines" is a self-fulfilling prophecy if they're all we talk about. Sometimes headlines are lures for complicated subjects with layers beyond eliciting rage. If you want to know how to feel about a story, read it.
Do YOU read past the headlines? Do you encourage others to? As someone who writes 6,000-word pieces that employ deep reporting, ironic humor, and contrasting viewpoints, I prefer to encourage literacy than rage all day about headlines.
Or people can try reading the articles and engaging with the ideas. 🤷♂️
Bad Bunny on power line
Infrastructure Week! 🇵🇷
I swear, sometimes people seem to want every headline to end with "...And That's Bad!"
