It’s a fun film marathon. Interesting how similar Dietrich and Bergner’s performances are (neither was copying the other; they were filmed the same year but in Hollywood and London, respectively, and each under auteur directors - accounting for the visually dramatic differences in the production design). Dietrich…

Agree with you 100% on that one. But, as I mentioned elsewhere in this shit show of a comment section, the point of “Bring a bible to school day” isn’t to quietly read it on their own time. I have zero issue with that. The point of “bring a bible to school day” is to proselytize, which I have a huge issue with.

Her husband deserved the coup. He was completely nuts, everyone hated him, and it started to seem pretty damn likely that he’d murder Catherine.

The Dietrich/Von Sternberg team was all about style, and Lodge was very sexy indeed, but Douglas Fairbanks Jr in the Elisabeth Bergner version is about as sexy a man as ever graced the screen (he had just left Hollywood and 1st wife Joan Crawford to make this film in London)

If you have Amazon / Amazon Prime, there is an excellent mini-series that focuses on the rise of Catherine and her eventual coronation. It is a Russian production so, subtitles. As a Costume Drama fiend, I loved it and, can ‘t wait to see Mirren do a turn as well. 

But...by the end of her reign she no longer was having an affair with Potemkin. He was very wily and kept himself close to her side by steering beautiful young (adult) men her way, knowing she rewarded them with manors and serfs (and taking a cut from said grateful young men.) He knew she’d tire of him sexually so he…

Yeah, just looking at the Wikipedia page for it, her early life is basically “imagine if Cersei Lannister actually was the heir to Tywin Lannister that she thought she was”. She literally came to power through a coup that deposed her husband, and her early years were technically supposed to be a regency, just like…

Scroll down...I’ve recommended three good Catherines. The Elisabeth Bergner one (available, IIRC on YouTube) is a fairly straightforward telling of the story. The Marlene Dietrich (dir Josef von Sternberg) is the most high style, and the Tallulah Bankhead is the most fun.

For those film fans who are interested, two great Catherines - both worth seeing; both very high style - were Marlene Dietrich in The Scarlet Empress and Elisabeth Bergner in The Rise of Catherine the Great (both 1934).

SNL blocked this on youtube but you know what it is, and its Fantastic!

I’d love to see a treatment of the early years, which strike me as way more interesting.

When thinking about who would star in a Catherine the Great biopic, Helen Mirren always seemed like the inevitable choice. 

Jamie Spears is her dad. Jamie-Lynn Spears is her sister.

“Convicted sex offender” puts it mildly. Kenneth Perry abducted and forcibly raped his victim at knifepoint, the kind of rape that even most rape apologists can recognize as a crime. He’s also killed a man, was charged with second degree murder, and served time for manslaughter after pleading down. 

“she can’t be that good of a friend if she’s letting Andrew walk around with his hair parted like that.” I actually laughed out loud, bless you.

Something also tells me he’d waste no time in telling you all the times he’s been discriminated against because of his (apparent) sexual orientation, but yet he won’t use that experience to extend empathy to others.

The Stars and Bars has been adopted by shitkickers from sea to shining sea as a middle finger raised to decency. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it flying from the beds of pickup trucks on US 2 and in the front yards of houses five miles from the Canadian border.

As someone who lives in Chicago and has to travel through the middle of the state semi-regularly, lemme tell ya: the Confederacy may not be their “culture” but the racism and general xenophobia? Cultural as fuck.

Word.

and Confederate flags