I agree that Paul's treatment highlighted the worst of ASP's characterization; some people are *special* and thus universally beloved like Rory, the untouchable indigo child of Stars Hollow, whereas others like Paul are just arbitrarily unworthy of attention despite being an apparently decent person. Actual character…

Like I said, I'm aware of the existence of the PR machine and its workings. I'm just reaching back to the central point that assuming public civility/empathy is one and the same with disingenuous self-interest is counterproductive and often inaccurate. Just because a statement is meant to serve some sort of purpose…

I've no doubt that his handlers circled the wagons when this came up. But you don't think there could be some middle ground between unvarnished earnestness and pure mercenary construct?

Yeah, that was an ugly moment but for the sake of clarity, they were talking about Black Widow, not Scarlett Johannson herself.

Not that you don't have a point but I think it's honestly as simple as the internet not being nearly as developed as it is now. Social media, especially, is so omnipresent it's easy to forget how new it all is. Twitter as we know it only really emerged in 2014. Current-day Facebook and Youtube are considerably…

this is the most punchable comment of the year, by far

OMG YES thank you. When did people start buying into this trollish line of thinking that expressing political correctness or even basic decency online is probably “white-knighting” or “virtue signalling” or trying to score “internet points” (from who?? to be used where???) or just padding for a public persona?

Same. Just reading the synopsis / watching the occasional clip always made my skin crawl a bit. Now I'm very glad I steered clear.

Good god, every single thing about this is blood-curdling. Bertolucci's bullshit about "a girl, not an actress" is genuinely stomach-turning. You fucking hired her to be in your movie as an ACTRESS. You have no liberties to any other part of who she is. Fuck everything.

With bonus Buster!

The trans-dimensional Questlove interlude was amazing.

This show is so strange. It's underwritten and schmaltzy and the acting isn't always up to scratch (except for SKB, who kills it all the time always). Yet the absolutely barreling momentum of its emotional power kind of wipes out all those flaws when it matters. I haven't seen all the episodes, but all the ones I have…

Exactly, the reluctance towards grad school/teaching, poorly prepared interviews, outsized self-importance, naive entitlement to the jobs she wants are all things you deal with at the beginning, not ten years into your career.
Those are misguided but fairly typical attitudes at 24, seriously unfortunate ones at 32. To…

Others have said things to this effect but in retrospect, it seems a lot like ASP just went ahead with the storylines she had originally planned for a last season without actually accounting for the 9-10 years that passed. Rory's career woes and bad relationship choices make a lot more sense for a 23/24-year-old than…

Finally got to see Arrival. By itself, I thought it was good and even great in some moments. In comparison to the source material, I expected it but was still a bit disappointed to see how the changes they made somewhat undercut the message of the story.

Oh no, I didn't mean to imply that it'd actually work. It'd just be nice if there was some thought process behind it other than raging, infantile id. Oh well

I almost hope that he actually is trying to distract from his lawsuit/settlement/cabinet appointments if the alternative is him genuinely pitching a bitch fit over a Broadway cast cordially disagreeing with him. These are the sort of things I hope for now.

I wish I had something pithy and insightful to say about the fact that the country was ideologically 'won' by dumbasses who find their own white supremacy symbols too geometrically challenging.

Lily Collins would have my vote. Physically she is spot-fucking-on.

For real, that may be the most cathartic scene Disney is ever going to do.