It's a bizarre minor miracle that the most regressive, low-key sexist comic franchise of all time reinvented itself in the twenty-first century as one of the most diverse and progressive franchises. Apparently Archie is whatever you want it to be.

I'm from Pittsburgh, and "Fences" (along with "The Piano Lesson" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom") is a high school curriculum standard like "Romeo and Juliet." It wasn't until years later (having gone to college and grad school in the Pittsburgh area as well) that I learned August Wilson is not a standard part of the…

Cumming is great, but… maybe I'm being too pedantic here, but he's almost too charismatic and "leading player" for the role. Too strong of a presence, I suppose. Prunesquallor should feel like a minor character who comes out of the woodwork to become the surprise hero, despite being a weird little gay guy who lives…

The fact that Aaron Paul and Rami Malek did a dumb racing movie together never fails to amuse me.

Remember when "Gigantic," which is literally about having sex with a black penis, was an advertising jingle?

It's more of a Randy Marsh thing.

Would "Radioactive" be better or worse if instead of "radioactive" they sang "kill my ex-girlfriend?" That's taking a stand of some kind, and it's certainly specific, but…

Is she voiced by Mara Wilson too?

Is that a threat?

I rank Burger King lowest of the big three, but their random specialty items outrank the random specialty items of the other two. (I still miss Cheezy Tots.)

This isn't a True Showbiz Tale, but one of the places the cast of one of my resident theatres likes to go after shows for a late-night dinner if they're not looking to drink is IHOP. The night porter at our IHOP is this strange, greasy Asian-American fellow who kind of looks and moves like a praying mantis, and speaks…

Martin Short's book "I Must Say" covers a pretty similar trajectory in its last third.

He would be great, but possibly a little young for the part in the eighties. Tony Kushner (author of "Angels in America") talked about how culture has yet to "redeem the f*ggot," and spoke about how he hoped his play would prove revolutionary for making a hero out of a character who is not only gay, but embodies much…

Go tell it on the mountain!

Marilyn Manson, and Alice Cooper before them both, were the same way. You don't really see lunkheads becoming shock rockers.

Rape Ape

I can't help but read this in the voice of Uncle Chan from "Jackie Chan Adventures." One moooore thinggggg!

You guessed it, Frank Stallone.

Now imagine with me: imagine that David Lynch had directed a giant, epic-scale film of Gormenghast instead of Dune, starring Kyle McLachlan as Titus with Sting as Steerpike (reprising his radio role), featuring Jack Nance as Barquentine and Sherilyn Fenn as Fuchsia. Patrick Stewart could play Mr. Flay, and in an…

"Because Scotland already has David Tennant, so I've gotta go where the work is."