Hollywood Handbook is definitely having a great year! This column was intended to feature only series that debuted in 2019, or so close to the end of 2018 that they might have missed their window for end-of-year coverage.

You see, ladies, there’s the fake meeting/conference and the real meeting/conference.

“[O]ne of the most enjoyable aspects of . . . Men in Black: International . . . is . . . the death of . . . a couple of . . . kittens.”

2. As a guest, I would conduct myself accordingly and recognize that the onus fell on me to not make anyone else feel uncomfortable in their own sanctuary.

I’M JUST HERE TO SAY YOU’RE WRONG ABOUT NIC CAGE.

Maybe because they don’t really need to be, because they are more prominent and known. If the most we can say is that they’re big and queer, what else is there to say that hasn’t been already?

I really enjoyed One Day At A Time. It’s a liiiittle forced and overeager at first, but I sobbed my way through the S1 finale, and spent S2/3 alternately crying or laughing my ass off.

You think all those people get into Harvard based on merit?

This comes off as anti-merit, not pro-diversity.

is it that bad that a lot of TV comedy writing jobs go to the alumni of the most selective comedy writing club at one of the most selective schools?

Not for nothing, but believe Rife stated that she was an Ohio native. You can also be right-leaning and believe that small-town America’s going down the shitter - hell, that’s the whole schtick of late from any politician veering red. 

I agree that it would be cool, but good luck getting Warner Bros. to give you $200 million for that. That was the point I was getting at.  

The thought process almost certainly goes like this: “This is crazy dangerous! What are all these idiots doing up here? They never should allow so many people to congregate on this narrow, deadly trail in this cruel, life-averse environment! Also, I paid $75,000 to get this far so I’m going to sit here cursing…

oh man, that scene with Sutherland is hilarious. You wonder why he’d bother with dross like this, and then you see that, and you realise, he got paid to sit and talk crazy for a morning, with a director too intimidated to rein him in. So, why not? No-one is going to see it, and the cheque cleared. Score.  

I found a framed photo of Michael McDonald in my former father-in-law’s garage, and that fucking thing was even autographed. Given the kind of guy that my former FIL was, I have no reason to think he didn’t sign it himself.

A friend of mine once found a professionally framed movie poster for the original Backdraft at a Goodwill and was so amused/astonished that someone went to the trouble and expense of having the poster for fucking Backdraft framed (and then dumped it at Goodwill only a handful of years later) that he had to buy it. I…

I worked at a video store that was across the street from a fire station, and those guys thought Backdraft was HILARIOUS. We gave them the life-size promotional standee.

Probably because it’s bad!

Meh. I was the target audience when this film came out and all i remember is being bored.

Only thing I remember about this movie is that there’s fire in it and there’s a Redman lyric about it. Wait, was there fire in it?