#TV and film industry podcast

[esonetwork]

A Conversation with Deborah Rennard and Al Sapienza | Tales From Hollywoodland

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A Conversation with Deborah Rennard and Al Sapienza | Tales From Hollywoodland

Don’t miss this exciting episode of the Tales From Hollywoodland Podcast as we sit down with talented entertainers Deborah Rennard and Al Sapienza! Known for their iconic roles in hit shows and films, Deborah and Al share stories from their dynamic careers in Hollywood, insights into the entertainment industry, and the creative journeys that have shaped their lives. From memorable roles to behind-the-scenes experiences, this conversation is filled with inspiration, laughter, and insider perspectives. Tune in for an unforgettable chat with these two Hollywood stars!

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We want to hear from you! Feedback is always welcome. Please write to us at  talesfromhollywoodland@gmail.com and why not subscribe and rate the show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora, Amazon Music, Audible, and wherever fine podcasts are found. 

#deborahrennard #alsapienza #podcast #talesfromhollywoodland

[wellcomeoneileen]

Why does Randy Harrison deserve compensation? What happened to him? You can DM me if it's not okay to be public

Hey! No it’s totally okay.

⚠️disclaimer - I am a NEW fan and so I am NOT the most informed at all. Other people like @brian-kinney-apologist like really know shit. I initially found things bc watching S4 made me go oh there is bts shit going on for sure and googled, and then when I got on tumblr I saw a bunch of posts talking about it, too.

Lots of older sources are harder to find now bc they didn’t do a digital preservation or the website is expired, but here is what I’ve found, from heated Advocate articles whilst the show aired and then from more measured reflections from podcasts around 2016.

Randy was young and it was his first TV show - when he started he didn’t even have an agent, and really didn’t know what he was getting into. He had done sex scenes on stage and thought that he was pretty prepared for what was to come.

However, he has stated he ended up feeling pretty objectified, such as hearing “we need more shots of Justin’s ass” regularly or expressing a desire to not to go-go dancing type scenes (King of Babylon upset him) and then even more go-go dancing being added (S2 Sap scenes). He was also told to act less gay by casting directors for the show, and to “try to be more butch because Justin isn’t out of the closet”

The show pre-dates intimacy coordinators and there have been allusions, including from the actresses Thea and Michelle, that the sex scenes could be uncomfortable to film.

There was BTS clashing, with producer Tony Jones !!reportedly!!! Saying that Randy was a bitch to work with and “showrunners” “reportedly” saying they would never work with Randy again. There are two interview clips, one from when the show was airing, and one from 2016, when CowLip say they wanted all actors to be comfortable on set, and in BOTH clips , like 15 years apart, Randy kinda like laugh/roll his eyes and Gale looks at him very bemusedly. They had bigger reactions in the ~2003 clip.

He was openly pretty angry as the show went on. He told the Advocate that he would never be friends with or respect Justin if real. He disapproved of the Britin relationship. He said he had to fight to include the scene of Justin topping Brian, which was very important to him. Leading into season 5 he stated he hoped Justin was killed off by getting hit by a truck (obviously being glib, but like he was mad lol)

He has said that lots of scenes needed to be reshot because he struggled to do them so much, like the Cody sexy gun scene that made him so uncomfortable, and then either he or Gale said S5 sex scenes were reshot a lot because they just couldn’t stop laughing at that point anymore.

Peter and Scott recently have said the only time anyone asked for actors’ opinions was right after season 1 ended, and to ME they sounded kinda cheeky about it, all these years later, so perhaps it was a cast sticking point? Unsure, and it wasn’t even Randy who said that. Fat grain of salt.

He has more recently reflected on this time period and expressed regret he went out the way he did, and he understands things better and honors his craft more (heavy paraphrasing!) bc he was mentally checked out by the end and wishes he had finished strong instead.

Also, the cast didn’t realize when signing on how isolated they would be from The Industry. Randy has spoken about this in an unrelated podcast, as have the actors who play Ted and Emmett. NYC or LA are where you want to be for networking, and then signing on to spend the majority of the year in Toronto negatively impacted their careers, they feel. Randy has said he had to start from scratch after the show ended, and Peter and Scott have said Showtime had no idea how to market the show nor their stars, and so they had to just watch as all the initial hype fizzled and nothing was done with them. They were contracted to work too much to seriously be involved elsewhere, while simultaneously not getting good exposure, which I IMAGINE created a dire sort of mood and morale on set. < personal interpretation and fictionalizing history.

Meaning, Randy probably at the very least FELT like he had spent five years on a show that didn’t respect him and it was largely for nothing. He has since stated he appreciates the opportunity and it is the reason he was finically secure, for which he is deeply grateful.

And then finally the fans! He had stalker(s?) and tons of creepy people and was heavily typecast and people would come up to him frequently, which made him uncomfy, and would furthermore act like he was actually Justin, which made him super uncomfy. He was kinda like Chappell Roan!! He was like hey I’m not Justin I’m a person and y’all are freaks. He has publicially declined to speak on the stalking issues, which given his vocal responses to other issues, indicates to ME that it’s pretty personal and upsetting (I mean it’s stalking it’s obviously horrible but you know what I mean). During the show he had a boyfriend that fans like tormented online and even on posters (that bit comes from Tumblr or another forum, so not like verified info on my part at all) because they shipped “Gandy” so hard. I know I’ve read on tumblr about the insane Gandy people but all I remember is they were intense and insane and negatively impacted Randy’s actual real life. Again, that’s info from fans that I haven’t read in article or heard from out of his mouth. Secondary source lol.

This point is PURE speculation, but early interviews with the whole cast were super excited, and they all talked about how excited they were for something ground breaking. By the end, people were angry or giving fluff responses, or in Peter’s case; calmly stating the show was a soap opera and that’s okay. I FEEL like everyone thought they were signing up for something more real/gritty/positive impact to society and then were like oh I’m here to look hot in this show that only moms watch to get them turned on to have sex with their husband. Cool.

Now, do I agree with that - no. But, the show audience was vastly different than expected, and the artistic direction might have been too, both of which might have really disappointed people. Esp Randy and maybe Gale. Randy was a capital T theatre person, and Gale was too and had lots of experimental work and like performance art. Randy has ALSO expressed displeasure with some theater work he did because he didn’t think it was fresh and the audience was only older wealthy white people, so we do know that this sort of thing does matter to his sense of fulfillment at work.

TLDR; had to shoot scenes he didn’t want to, several times, felt objectified on set, disagreed with his character’s direction, maybe felt like he wasn’t being listened to artistically, was cut off from other work opportunities, didn’t appear to get along with leadership, had bad fans, was young and in deep over his head, and at the very least *started* with no career or social support system.

Again!! Am not the most knowledgeable person !!! I do NOT want to spread misinformation so hopefully I’ve tagged where I’m reading into things vs actual quotes but also people who have actually been around pls feel free to say 🙋um actuallllyyyyy

[alonelywaterbottle]

*EDGE OF SLEEP SPOILERS*

Still spoilers…

You can’t complain if you got spoiled now

Bullet points cause I think I had a point but I clearly lost the plot at some point

I’ve seen some people complain about the differences between the podcast and the show, and I just wanna say that I love it! I like the friends grandma better than the weird homeless guy cause she brought more world building for the implications of what that world would look like.

There was absolutely a bunch of people that were forgotten about. Teens pulling all nighters, babies who probably woke up in the middle of the night just in time for no one to be awake to care for them. All the dogs awake but confused as to why their owners doors never opened again. It’s sad, it’s horrible, I made myself sad thinking about it just now. There were people left behind that never knew what was happening

I was so incredibly happy that Mateo survived. He was my favorite and I was so sad watching the show knowing it was coming, but it pleasantly surprised me. And in the podcast when it was just Linda and Dave it made me go “ah… great. Ooo only a girl and a guy left, how shocking.”

I am sad that the funniness of the guy in Dave’s dream asking for cigarettes was cut. But I likes the more monster vibes rather than the ‘mysterious jungle tribe and spirits’

(I know that we will probably get some of that back if cleared for season 2 but still)

Ultimately, I’m glad it wasn’t a 1 for 1 remake with no changes. And it never was going to be. Television and podcasts are two very different mediums and it’s wrong to expect it to be.

I also wish we could have had some more horror elements but I know the budget was limited (Dave’s dream sequence in episode 8 would have been cool but so hard to do effects for) and hopefully we get a season 2 with a higher Amazon budget.

I also really hope that people know that it isn’t only popular cause hot YouTube man was in it. I personally would have watched it even if Mark wasn’t in it, I’ve been following its production as much as I could ever since the tv show was announced and Mark was flown out to Canada to film. It’s popular cause hot YouTube man is a good actor, it was made by very talented people, and it’s a great story.

I don’t know what I’m saying anymore, I really liked the show and I binged it while at work. If we don’t get a season two I will be sad and disappointed that The Plan™ didn’t work. (I think it will work but I’m afraid of big daddy Amazon nuking it like Netflix-does-actual-good-original-series just because the industry is scared of anything outside their status quo)

Edge real hard Sleep real good

Watch the edge of sleep all day and then also at night horray

[d-targaryenshoe]

Asked And Answered - Luke Newton

Word count: 1237

Summary: When questions are being asked, the only thing left to do is answer, no?

"Hi, y/n! Thank you for having us here. Do you mind if we come in and ask a few questions?"

"Oh hi! No, not at all, come on in." you smiled, closing the door and leading Joe Sabia through the hallway of your house.

"How did you get into acting? Was it something you always wanted to do?" he asked, following you into your living room.

"Well, I have always loved performing. When I was a kid, I used to put on plays for my family in our living room. But it wasn't until high school that I got into acting." 

You took your cup of coffee from your coffee table, turning off your TV.

"Tell us about your journey to becoming an actress?"

"Well, it wasn't easy. I auditioned for countless roles and faced a lot of rejection. But I never gave up and finally got my big break in an amazing Netflix show called Bridgerton." 

You smiled at the male taking a sip from your coffee, opening your blinds, and inviting in the sunlight.

"How did you land the role of y/c/n in Bridgerton?" The man questioned.

"It's quite a funny story. I was in the middle of filming for a different project when I received a call from Chris Van Dusen about an audition for a new period drama." You chuckled.

"At first, I was indecisive as I had never done a period piece before, but my agent convinced me to give it a go. So, I went for the audition, and the rest, as they say, is history." 

 "Speaking of Bridgerton, you act alongside your boyfriend, Luke Newton. Can you tell us more about that?" The interviewer followed you toward your kitchen.

"Yes, we're always together but we try our best to hold our distance on set, but we know each other so well, which made filming even more fun and natural." You answered, tearing off a piece of paper from the 

tear-off calendar.

"What was your favorite scene to film in Bridgerton?"

"That's a tough one as I genuinely enjoyed every scene. However, I think my favorite would have to be the ballroom scene where Colin and y/c/n share their first dance." You placed your cup of coffee in the sink and took a bottle of water from the fridge. 

 "Are you both supporters of each other's careers?" he asked, walking behind you towards the dining room.

"Absolutely. We both understand the demands of this industry and always support and motivate each other," you say, shoving one of the chairs under the table.

 "Can you tell us about your first date?" The male asked.

"Our first date was funny. We went to a Mexican restaurant, and I accidentally spilled my entire and very expensive margarita on his lap, but we look back on it and laugh now." You chuckled, leaning your arms on the chair.

"What is one thing that you're obsessed with at the moment?"

"Commenting on fans their fanart, they're incredibly talented." You said, opening the door towards your master bedroom. 

"If you had a podcast what would it be called?" Joe asked, stepping into the room.

"Dearest Listeners, as a wink to Lady Whistledown." You replied while adjusting the sheets on the bed. "And Nicola Coughlan."

 "what's your favorite playlist you have?"

"Romancing Mr. Newton, sorry not sorry." You laughed, leaving your master bedroom.

"what song have you had on repeat for the past few weeks?" The man asked.

"Spinning out, waiting for ya to pull me in" you softly sang, walking towards your bathroom before looking behind you. "Satellite by Harry Styles."

"what's the hardest thing you ever had to do for a role?"

"Learning how to dance a Quadrille without stepping on my dancing partner's toes." You snorted, closing the bathroom door that was still open.

"do you ever get nervous when being on set?"

"Of course, it means you care and you want to do it good." You shrugged at the man, walking to your walk-in closet.

"Who is your go-to person when you need to talk to someone?"

"Ruth Gemmell, Mother Bridgerton, really knows how to comfort you." You smiled, walking into the room that was filled with clothes and shoes.

"how many awards do you own?"

"One Academy Award for Best Actress, One Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, and an Oscar for Best Actress," you replied while inspecting your dresses.

"What is something that recently moved you?" Joe asked

"Last month, Luke and I had a chat with a fan in London and spoke about how essential Mental Health is, that truly touched me." You strode out of your walk-in closet and shut the door behind Joe. 

“Who is the most famous person on your phone?” 

"Meryl Streep? Taylor Swift? Both?" You slightly laughed, pushing the screen of the smart thermometer in the house.

“what's your favorite time of the day?”

"Nighttime, just silence and quality time, it's heaven." You opened the door to your home office.

“Vintage or new?” The male asked.

"Vintage," you answered as you sat down behind your desk.

“What are three things you can’t live without?”

"Acting, friends, and Luke." You leaned back in your chair, smiling at the man.

“When was the last time you were starstruck?”

"I'd say, the table read for Bridgerton, season 3." You said, getting up from the chair and getting out of the room. 

“Best gift you’ve ever received?”

"All of this, Bridgerton, everyone I got to know, the fans." You answered, adjusting a painting that hung in the hallway.

“Best advice you’d give your teenage self?” He asked`

"Dare to take the risk, no matter how scary it may seem." walking into your home theatre, you took a seat on one of the huge pillows.

“What’s your wakeup ritual?”

"Sunny weather, the smell of coffee, and a lot of food." You chuckled, running a hand through your hair.

“who’s someone you’d like to work with again on set?"

"There's no good answer to that, anyone from the Bridgerton family." you got up from the chair and walked towards the giant black screen.

“What’s your current TV obsession?”

"The Originals." You smiled, walking out of the room.

“Rate your met gala outfit 1 to 10.”

"A decent 9." You winked at the camera, coming to a halt in the hallway. "You will see."

“Do you have a favorite room in your house?” 

"I surely do! Let me show you." You walked up to the black-colored door, revealing your wine cellar.

“you have 4.2M followers on Instagram, is there something you'd like to say to them,”  Joe asked, while you were inspecting the dusty bottles of wine.

"Never think twice when you want to do something, take a leap of faith." You wiped off the dust from the bottle and placed it back.

“Have you ever googled yourself?”

"Multiple times, the first time was when Bridgerton was being released." You answered, getting closer to your garage.

“Diamonds or pearls?” Joe asked

"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" You winked at the camera, chuckling to yourself.

“Favorite accent to do?”

"British, everything just sounds better in British," you answered, opening your garage gate, and stepping outside in the sun.

"Then this was all we've wanted to ask you today, thank you for having us, Y/n."

"Thank you for being here today." you waved one last time at the man before closing your garage gate.

[thefanficwriterscraft]

S4E1. Canon Compliance (Or: AO3, Written By People Who Can't Write, Read by People Who Have Bad Taste)

Hello! Happy New Year! Our new episode is here!

In this episode, we kick off 2025 with an exciting new chapter for The Fanfic Writer’s Craft! This marks our first episode with my new co-host, Blayne (@btelling, aka Nargles15 on AO3), who you may remember from her fantastic guest episode in Season 2 on writing dystopian hellscapes. We chat about what’s ahead for the podcast, our evolving format, and introduce a brand-new segment: fanfiction news!

In this discussion, we dive into a hot topic in the fanfiction community: the removal of Manacled by SenLinYu from AO3 and its transformation into Alchemised, an original novel published by Penguin Random House. We explore the broader implications of fanfiction-to-original transitions, the publishing industry’s growing interest in fanfic authors, and the tension between creative opportunity and commercial trends.

We late dive into our main discussion on canon-compliance, discussing what it means to different fandom spaces, and how we each navigate staying true to canon while crafting original, compelling narratives. This episode is packed with insights on publishing, fandom culture, and our personal approaches to writing so we hope you enjoy! Please let us know your thoughts, and feel free to send us topic suggestions—we love hearing from you.

This week, we mention:

Books: Alchemised by SenLinYu; After by Anna Todd; Divergent by Veronica Roth; Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Fandoms: Harry Potter; Star Wars; The Good Wife; Peaky Blinders; One Direction 

Fics: we only make tsunamis by disOrderly; castles by pebblysand; Knowing Where to Look by Ala_baguette; Manacled by SenLinYu; The Squib by Nargles15

Films & TV: The Vampire Diaries

Podcasts: [The Fanfic Writer’s Craft] S2E4. Writing Dystopian Hellscapes with @Nargles15; [The Fanfic Writer’s Craft] S3E8. 2024 Wrap-Up (Or, Stop Treating Fanfic Like Social Media)

Other: Victoria Aveyard’s TikTok on fanfiction & publishing ; Vampire Diaries video by Jenny Nicholson; West Side Story

Our recommendations this week are:

Blayne: Severance (Apple TV+)

Jo: Silo (Apple TV+)

You can find us online at:

The Fanfic Writer’s Craft: tumblr ; spotify ; ko-fi

Blayne (@btelling): tumblr ; AO3

Jo (@pebblysand): tumblr ; AO3

[thoughtroomba02]

TS Film Thoughts Masterpost

As promised.

Let's start things off -

Breaking News - Headlines about the film

Dec 9 2022 - her film contract makes headlines

From what I can find, this is the first that anyone knows she is producing a film. There are no details released other than it's a script she wrote and she will be directing the film.

The next we hear is Dec 7, 2023 from the Tennessean --

It's been crickets, essentially. There are no public details I can find about the film anywhere including cast list, release date, content, ETC.

Interestingly, two days ago -- though uncertain of validity of source -

I don't have access to puck so cannot confirm what the article says; but this was recent! So; in theory, she finishes her Eras tour and moves directly in to film.

More on how Disney+ ties in our next section...

Who is Searchlight Pictures?

Created April 29, 1994 - formerly known as Fox Searchlight/under 20th/21st Century Fox

Biggest success: Slumdog Millionaire 187 Academy Ward Nominations with 46 wins; 5 Best Picture since 2009 117 Golden Globe Nominations; 51 wins 66 Screen Actors Guild Award Nominations; 55 wins 137 Independent Spirit Awards, 54 Wins

Other Notable Films: 12 Years A Slave; Black Swan; Napoleon Dynamite;

20th century fox, prior to the creation of Searchlight, was prominent in the specialty and independent films market in the 1990s; it carried this interest into Searchlight, at least initially.

In 2012, it was incorporated into Murdoch's 21st Century Fox. Barf.

On Dec 14, 2017 Disney put their first bid out on 21st Century Fox/Fox Searchlight. On March 19, 2019 the companies merged and Disney acquired Fox Searchlight; Fox News notoriously split independently. Disney dropped the name Fox; so now we have just Searchlight Pictures. There is also a Searchlight Pictures TV and shorts production, which for the sake of time I will not get into.

For Funsies, here is a short film (Jun 18 2019, after Disney acquired) produced by them called....LAVENDER. About a gay man who has a relationship with a married gay couple. Can't make it up.

Anyway, since merging with Disney especially, the company seems to be LGBTQ friendly.

And yes, Joe Alwyn has worked with Searchlight, with tweets I found dating back to 2018 with Searchlight UK. Make of that what you would like, I have no real objective commentary on the matter.

Taylor as a Director

She also directed the Long Pond Studio Sessions and Miss Americana.

Most of her directorial work has been since the Lover debut. Most of which is very queer coded/sapphic.. and again, make of that what you will.

Appearances/Pap Walks, ETC

Since her split from JA, we have seen her with multiple friends in the film industry. Among these: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Selena Gomez, Keleigh Teller, Miles Teller, Sophie Turner, Emma Stone...

And dare I say.... Travis Kelce, who seems to want to break his way into the entertainment industry?

(aside from this headline; his failed dating show, his podcast, his multiple PR deals like with ZenWater... etc. I rest my case).

We also know there has been some B roll footage taken at the Chiefs Games.

Additionally, the media coverage of this relationship has been an absolute f*cking circus; with constant headlines of the two and their "engagement" / relationship dynamics. On Taylor's end, we have had constant references to Bejeweled (where she Ghosts); including Keleigh Teller giving her the opal ring.

The Speculation

Yall, this is my opinion - you can agree, disagree, etc; but I have no insider information. Just thoughts.

She makes her film directorial debut with Searchlight - recently acquired by Disney, who is pro-LGBTQ; and is clearly in deep with business deals with them, as seen on Taylor Nation and her Eras Tour Film.

We have rumors of her beginning her film production at the end of the ERAS tour, along with knowledge of her currently with B roll footage from chiefs games. We have multiple highly papp'ed appearances with her + TK; but also with multiple film stars, including Blake Lively (still not over that photo), Sophie Turner (I do think there's altruism here tbh on TS's end), and Keleigh. If you believe Keleigh is her stand in invisible bride.... Holy shit. Between the opal ring shutdown of the media circus as well as her and TS literally taking a page out of TSHOEH and dressing in character...

My ultimate suspicion is that she's using actual experiences of her current life-highly papp'ed - to tell her story. And that Keleigh is her stand in muse in this film.

I also think the @spade-riddles we've been getting about a final act ending, etc, pertain to her film. I don't have evidence aside from speculation.

I rest my case. Enjoy this post and make of it what you will.

[friendshiptothemax]

hi i bet you get this all the time and you dont have to answer if you dont want to BUT what was your journey to being an Actual Tv Writer like? im looking into becoming a writer but im so out of my depth on how to do it

My journey to being a TV writer is incredibly regular -- it's kind of the template of how it should work. That being said not everyone goes this route, and not everyone who tries it is as lucky as I was! But it's kind of the most "basic" method.

I moved out to LA in 2011 to go to grad school. I don't think grad school is necessary for everyone -- the two biggest things I got out of it were time to write and a close group of friends, so if you can obtain that in other ways you might as well save yourself the $$. While I was in grad school, I worked a little in the industry, freelancing as a script supervisor on a number of student films, vanity projects, webseries, and commercials. I also worked at a couple of internships, where I met more people than just my classmates.

Once I graduated, I kept doing the un/underemployed thing (I read and reviewed self-published novels for rent money) until I was lucky enough to get a job as a production office production assistant on an NBC show called Aquarius. I spent a season getting lunches and running copies for the production office (which includes the accountants, art department, locations, and general office staff). I did that on two more shows before I got hired as the writer's production assistant for The Blacklist. I was still getting lunches and running copies, but for the writers! Woohoo!

After two years of that, there was an opening in the writer's room for script coordinator. The script coordinator is kind of between assistant and writer. I read every script about 1,000 times, proofreading, looking for continuity errors, and keeping up the entire writer's room, cast, and crew all on what was the most current copy of the script. It was an amazing job that was hard as fuck but I really enjoyed because I got to really get into the heads of my bosses. In my second year of that, they told me I could pitch them ideas, and I pitched an idea that became episode 618. I wrote it and it went really well, I think in part because I was so familiar with their voice. After that, they brought me on as a writer full time for season 7, and I was a writer there for the next four years.

My advice to you is twofold --

Work on your writing. I really like Pam Douglas' book "Writing the TV Drama Series." There are some good podcasts, particularly by John August and Craig Mazin, though I'm sure there are others. Read as many scripts as you can. When you have a script, enter contests to get feedback. Here is a great list of the most reputable ones, so you can get feedback and hopefully a little credit to your name if you place highly in one.

Make friends. I find that "networking events" are stupid, but HAVING a network is invaluable. Every TV job I've ever gotten is because I knew someone already working there. Move to LA and start meeting people. For me, besides my grad school classmates, it was improv classes, D&D, and working on the low-budget sets as a script supervisor (different from script coordinator, I know it's confusing), but you can find your own thing. The more friends I made in the TV assistant world, the MORE friends I made. As they say, a rising tide raises all ships, and that has been very true for me. Be nice and cool to everyone -- you never know when that construction PA you worked with on one show might be the in to your next.

Good luck!! Let me know if you have any more questions! :)

[jaggedjot]

"THERE CAN BE a huge range of reasons why a show in 2024—this one or any other—doesn’t have the reach it deserves; endless pixels have been spilled on streamer fatigue and fractured audiences in the past few years. AMC, a darling of the prestige-TV-on-cable era, is in an especially strange position: Even when Interview’s first season was a hit on its streaming service, AMC+, it was still held up as an example of a troubled industry in transition. Two years and two Hollywood strikes later, the situation is even more complicated. As the industry restructures and changes who can watch what where, a disconnect has emerged between what viewers like and what critics do. At the same time, social media platforms—the loci of 21st-century word of mouth—continue to implode, fracturing the conversation of an already dispersed audience. Amidst this, IWTV faces specific hurdles due to the nature of the show. An adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1976 novel that pulls heavily from the many Vampire Chronicles books that followed, the show racebends many of its leads—its titular vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac, is now Black—and goes all in on the queerness of the books. And it is, of course, about vampires—specifically, vampires who do terrible things. “IWTV has so much that a modern audience could want from a series but, unfortunately, some people won’t receive it solely because it’s a queer horror show with majority BIPOC leads,” says Bobbi Miller, a culture critic who recaps the show on her YouTube channel. “Genre TV is always going to have to jump through more hoops for success than a standard drama.” For the converted, the idea that more people aren’t watching Interview is maddening. One could certainly argue that the show, with its dark, twisted Gothicness and emotional maximalism, isn’t for everyone. But in an era of unceremonious cancellations—even of shows that execs touted as hits—and with an absence of information about the show’s future, it’s understandable that its most dedicated fans would be pushing for more viewers. Interview isn’t the only show whose fans question its marketing efforts; it’s a common accusation leveled at streamers of all sorts, especially when a show is canceled. But in this conversation, Interview fans pointed at specific decisions made by the network that many feel have made this season’s rollout feel so much more muted than the last. “It’s been a conversation that fans have been talking about for a while now, but I think what really set them off was the comment made by Film Updates,” says Rei Gorrei, a fan who dubs herself the “Unofficial Vampire Chronicles Spokesperson.” A pop-culture aggregation account with nearly a million followers, Film Updates revealed they had been denied interview requests with the show’s talent—and since fans were worried no one was hearing about IWTV, they couldn’t understand why that reach wasn’t being capitalized on. “I think the combination of these things along with little marketing leaves fans in a word-of-mouth scenario where we now feel like it’s up to us to campaign for the season three renewal,” Gorrei says. Many questioned the promotion the network had been implementing, too, like the decision to never have Anderson and Assad Zaman, whose characters’ romance is one of the main focuses of the season, interviewed together. Episode five in particular, with its explosive fight scene between the two, would have been a prime opportunity. (AMC did not respond to emails seeking comment for this story.) Other fans raised concerns about the unceremonious cancelation of the widely admired official podcast, whose Black female host, Naomi Ekperigin, felt like the perfect interviewer for a show with Black leads and nuanced racial storylines. Then there was the fact that too few episodes would air in time for Emmy consideration—not the fault of marketing, but yet one more source of fan worry."

Interview With the Vampire Fans Say the Stakes Have Never Been Higher by Elizabeth Minkel

[shesnake]

halfway through and 🤒 can't believe I'm saying this 🤢🤢 but I'm actually really enjoying westworld season 3 🤮🤮🤮 most likely because having seen person of interest I now understand what they were truly going for with rehoboam 🫡🫡🫡 (not to say that their failure to convey this properly in westworld without previous knowledge is not still very much a failure ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾) and I am more familiar with jnolan and lisa joy's work and very much in love with their interests 😳😳😳 and how all their work together really achieves the truest most faithful form of video game adaptation even the ones that technically aren't like ww and peripheral 😯😯😯 and of course given what I know of my most beloved season 4 and also the finality and brutality of cancellation I am of course going to recontextualise everything to how it fits the ultimate narrative despite its incompletion 🧐🧐🧐 and I am now a different person now that I was 4 years ago 😭😭😭 and have since developed new but also pre-existing tenets and theories on things like their exploration of humanity 🫀 and the importance of memory to one's own humanity 🧠 as well as the importance of Ownership of one's memory 👁️ and prescient issues of privacy 👁️‍🗨️ and intellectual property 📝 and controlling one's own narrative 🦾 and how through my work on the podcast and exercising my ability and reflexes to see things through a queer and very personal lens I have connected all those things to my experiences as a trans lesbian living with all my other various marginalised identities 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️💊🤕 almost like another thing reinforcing and strengthening my love and connection to stories like the matrix films 🤖 and thereby understanding why and how the shows death managed to pain me so much despite how furious it always made me feel for the past 5 years 🫠🫠🫠 and how the television industry's landscape has changed so vastly that I mourn how shows on this scale of this conviction can't exist anymore but I am so so grateful for that brief golden moment when it really did seem like tv could be the new cinema 🤧🤧🤧 but also at the same time I know I'm gonna eat these words when I once again witness what happens to maeve 💀💀💀

[leighlew3]

What’s the latest on your projects?

- The big film project is currently seeing a bit of a delay. They’ve decided to go in a creative direction that is uhhhhhhh… anyway. I won’t get into it right now. I’ll circle back on this one. But it’s still chugging along! It’s just taking a bit more time. And draining my soul in the process. Gotta love Hollywood! �� But for now the plan is to be filming by Q3/Q4 of 2025.

- My fictional podcast episode was supposed to come out at the end of this year, but now the podcast company is really wrapped up in a big new streamer TV show that they launched based on one of their other podcast shows and are trying to figure out what to do with the anthology series that my episode is a part of because of recent changes to their slate and schedule. So I don’t know when that’s gonna come out yet.

- I have a horror spec that my team is pretty excited about, and it will be going out to producers at the start of the year.

- We also have a pilot that my producing partner on it is shopping around anew so who knows what could happen with that at any point.

- I’m currently waiting to hear back on a couple different assignment opportunities which could be really exciting. Fingers crossed there.

- I’m currently spitballing back-and-forth with my team on some new ideas I’ve recently had, in terms of figuring out what they feel is strongest for my next big spec that we’d take to market after the horror movie next year.

In the meantime, I’m really trying to churn out my first novel. I wanted to write a couple different books over the years and never really got started. But since everything is taking its sweet time on other fronts now while the industry is in shutdown mode for the holidays / end of year… I figure it’s as good of a time as any. 🤷‍♀️

I will say 2025 feels like it could start being another exciting time for the industry (and myself) again. It’s been a long time coming after the pandemic and strike and such, but buyers are finally buying again and big spec sales are starting to happen in ways and for amounts that haven’t happened in years. So we are all pretty pumped about the outlook. At least from a business perspective. I’m bracing for what’s gonna happen over the next 4+ years in terms of continuing to try to bring LGBTQ and/or women-lead stories to the forefront, for obvious reasons.

But at least for right now, it looks like the industry is finally starting to bounce back in terms of sales and work availability and things of that nature for us writers. Finally. 😩

[lavender-twilight23]

✨ Hi! I'm Madalyn, welcome to my blog!

I'm an avid movie lover, a big reader of fanfiction, and when I'm not in classes or doing homework, I'm religiously binge-writing fanfiction!

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Here is my AO3 dashboard and profile.

Right now, I write for the X-Men fandom! But I have written for a few other fandoms too, like Ted Lasso and Agents of SHIELD.

Here is the page to my full list of works.

-----------

As for other creative stuff, I have 3 podcasts as well, all on Spotify, all of which either feature or are co-hosted by the lovely @amethystgoldenwind:

Film Podcast Name: Let's Check The Gate On...Films!

TV Show Podcast Name: Let's Check The Gate On...TV Shows!

Writing Podcast Name: Writers From Hell-vetica

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Random fun facts about me if you want them!

-I have an insane love of wolves– I have shirts, framed pictures, a mug, little figurines set up in my room/dorm, a crystal ball with a wolf suspended in it, etc.

-I occasionally do a hobby called rock balancing, which is exactly what it sounds like– balancing rocks! I'm not super advanced, typically three rocks max is what I do, but I've spent anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 hours making a balance! Here are some of my past balances:

-I love love love dressing up and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because of that. I love comic cons and have been to three so far! The first one, I went as Bucky Barnes, the second, as Frodo Baggins, and the third, as Charles Xavier!

-I am in college for film, and my big career ambition is to someday work in the film industry as a screenwriter/director! I have written four feature-length screenplays over the years, one of which is on its sixth draft, and I have a limited fantasy TV series in the works! I also have 3 novel ideas I'm fleshing out, I self-published a fantasy novel when I was 11, I've taught a creative writing class to middle schoolers, and I have a poetry book on Amazon!

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And there's my intro! Asks are open, eyes are open, I’m ready to rock and roll! ❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🩷

[britt-kageryuu]

Leo and Donnie are streaming. Their models are in onesies, Leo a Unicorn, and Donnie a Dinosaur, with matching slippers, their models are sitting in beanbags. A low table between their models has a tea cup, mug, and Shelldon on it. They're attempting a live podcast, though not sure how it's going. There is a chat asking questions, but only a handful are answered.

Leo: So we don't really mention Pops much do we, so let's talk about him.

Donnie: Papa was once a celebrity, at the very least in the martial arts world, and because he came over from Japan he often went by a stagename, so not many may know his real name. He does pop up on random YouTube videos of 'Where are they now?' Kind of stuff.

Leo: What we knew about him growing up was mostly believing he had some odd obsessions with some actors, only to learn he looks very different after being out of the spotlight for, what, 20 years?

Donnie: Give or take. Papa was very popular amongst a wide variety of people, he went to and left many events with different people if you get what I mean, It wouldn't surprise me if we had some long unknown Half-Siblings out there.

Leo: Yeah, though you'd think they would go to the media, or someone to try getting child support back pay, or something. But really I wish Dad had told us more about his time in the industry.

Donnie: Even if some of his media related advice wouldn't work in the age of social media, and the internet. He mostly told us about the on set stuff, like actor drama, the stunt coordinator not explaining things well.

Leo: A stunt guy that almost cost the production alot of money for a bad move. Typical movie/TV film set gossip stuff. Do you think Pops would ever get back into the movie industry?

Donnie: While it would be amazing thing to happen, Papa would need to get back into shape, badly. While he may still be able to pull of his old moves, he has thrown out his back trying to show off before.

They segued into talking out some of Splinters ex's, and but avoiding mention off who their mothers were, they said it's to complicated to cover, and wouldn't make sense trying to put together the timeline of events.

----------------

Masterpost

I just wanted them to toss out the canon of Splinter pretty vaguely, if only to cause chaos in the chat, and because I couldn't think of a more fitting podcast topic that I could write for a good amount without lots of research.

[panelshowsource]

the way the 'the rest is entertainment' podcast has a vicegrip on me...maybe it's the combination of my interest in film + my working in the film & tv industries (the episode about FAST distribution a few weeks ago!!! hello!!! they are speaking TO ME) + my unrelenting love of celeb gossip = this is just the perfect podcast for me...but in this day and age when our attention spans are shrinking by the day and we all have internet brainrot...nothing keeps me sat and paying attention like this fuckin pod. and i know i complain about marina. she is so stuck up and she hogs the mic and sometimes i just need to pause in the middle of her ten-minute-long rants and do a lap. but she also speaks at x2 speed and she will say the meanest shit lmfaooo idk anyways i'm just listening to the new ep about the emmys and thinking about how it's actually cute how engrossed i am lmaooo

[a-bucket-in-the-void]

just watched the wild robot. my faith in movie making has been restored

if you are not planning on watching it please do

if you are planning on watching it i have some suggestions for you:

watch it in the theater. watching any movie in the theater will never have the same effect as watching it with you're family on the tv or in your room on your laptop, plus support movie theaters!

do not look at anything related to the movie before hand. movies are art, good or bad, and an important part of art is how you perceive it. humans are social creatures and we tend to mold our thinking around what others think so i would suggest giving your brain nothing to mold around. allow yourself to form your own thoughts about this movie before encountering others thoughts. some of you will have a great time and some of you will have a bad time, most of you will have something in between, all of these perspectives are good and important and should not be discarded for whatever the general public thinks

consume a marathon of minecraft movie slander. this is slightly related to the point above, as i'm writing this i am trying my hardest to give a passive perspective on this, but as i am human i will fail at that, to combat that i suggest this. my hope is that my 'unrealistic' opinion of the wild robot and your 'realistic' perception of the film industry will cancel out to give you a fairly neutral viewing. if you are unsure if it has had the desired effect consider watching more minecraft movie slander, the lower your expectations the more it will exceed them, this is not a promise of this movie's excellence, just a fact of life. please note while you are doing this that filling you're life with hatred or just generally bad feelings can and will have an effect on your life. anger is a very powerful thing and is easily manipulated so please be conscious of yourself and your emotional state

read the book! if you don't know, the wild robot is a movie based off the book by peter brown. i would recommend it and if you also enjoy it you will be happy to hear that it is a trilogy! if you are concerned that reading the original material will spoil or ruin the movie then you might want to reconsider watching it. an adaptation should enhance your view of the story and if it does not than its not very good at its job and any love you have for it should be directed at the original work

watch it with a friend. it doesn't have to be a friend but i would suggest watching it with someone else. part of the movie watching experience is to bond and if nothing else you'll have someone to talk to afterwards

and before i leave you i would just like to remind you that a majority of my blog is based off of a dnd podcast by four white men or minecraft youtubers and i write in all lower case so take everything i've said here with a grain of salt

if i have any mutuals who have also seen it please talk to me about it :]]]

[killian-whump]

Sorry to ask, but who’s this Rothberg guy? It’s been a while since I last checked up on Once or Colin stuff since the show ended.

Oh boy, Nonny. Have I got a tale for you...

Okay, so during the recent pandemic, a lot of folks started doing podcasts and interviews on Zoom and stuff like that. During this time, it was announced that Colin was going to be hosting a podcast with Jason Rothberg and Rose Ganguzza, where they interview musicians and people who work in the music/film industries. There were tentative plans to one day turn it into a Space Ghost style animated TV show.

Then the N/F/Ts started. They were animated tokens, using Colin's voice and likeness, sold for cryptocurrency. Rothberg was pushing them pretty heavily, using all the usual crypto bro sales tactics and "fireside chats" to do so - and also doing so through Colin. There were posts on his social media (obviously written by someone else, but presumably approved and posted by Colin) acting like NFTs are great and encouraging people to join Rothberg's fireside chats about them.

Needless to say, his fandom didn't like this. That's putting it mildly, actually. Most of them hated it. Some quietly ignored the whole thing, some spoke out pretty angrily, some just flat out left the fandom altogether. All but a few were deeply disappointed.

Colin tried to fix whatever he could, but it was largely too late since the project (and the N/F/Ts) was already underway and he was likely contractually obligated to continue with it. Still, he made an obvious effort. He stopped reposting Rothberg's spammy used car salesman posts. He made sure the N/F/Ts were responsibly minted to mitigate environmental concerns surrounding them. He addressed the concerns in an animated video that was intended to educate and inform those who didn't know anything about N/F/Ts, but also acknowledged and validated the concerns some fans were voicing about them.

But it wasn't anywhere near enough to stop the train wreck of those N/F/Ts. It turned out there wasn't a handful of them, but thousands of them made - and they weren't being sold for $10 a pop, but $180 at the lowest tier and $23,000+ at the highest. It was sheer insanity, and predictably, the release was a complete disaster. They sold, like, 10 of them.

Throughout the course of this debacle, some of Colin's fans were very, very vocal about how much they disapproved of this project, how much they hated N/F/Ts in general, etc. etc. I was one of them. Rothberg never confronted any of us; he just ignored us or made snarky comments about haters that we ignored.

Then Pip (@pirateherokillian) said something critical about it. She wasn't even being loud or obnoxious or extra vocal. She was just chatting in untagged tweets with her friends about her concerns with the project. Now, Pip's social media is more personal in nature than, say, mine is. She posts about her life and topics other than Colin. And something in her posts made Rothberg decide that she was vulnerable and he attacked her. He said she only disliked the N/F/Ts because she was too poor to afford one and implied that there was something wrong with her mental health.

And the fandom collectively lost its shit. Because for starters, Pip is one of us - and we don't take kindly to bullying in this fandom. But also, the things Rothberg said were ableist and specifically targeted to hit her where he felt she was most vulnerable. And the man is a fucking coward. He didn't say BOO to those who were loudly and vehemently criticizing the project for months, but he attacked Pip the moment she opened her mouth, simply because he thought he could get away with it.

Well, he couldn't. We kicked up a stir, and next thing we knew, he was apologizing (albeit an obviously forced and insincere one) and sulkily saying he was no longer "allowed" to interact with Colin's fans.

Gee, I wonder who told him that...? ❤️

Anyway, he's mostly left us alone since then - but the damage has been done. As a fandom, we collectively hate this guy. We feel like he suckered Colin into the TSR project with the intent to use his likeness and name to gain attention for the project, and with the plan to tap into Colin's fandom's pocketbooks to sell us N/F/Ts and empty promises. We think he's a predatory, insincere, and opportunistic scam artist and all-around douchebag. And seeing as he's abused us individually and collectively, none of us have any respect for him - and we're not going to "play nice" and sugar coat our thoughts on the topic.

Unfortunately, Colin's still working with him on the TSR project. Whether that's because he wants to or because he's contractually obligated to do so, we don't know - but we all have our guesses. Regardless, most of us ignore this project of Colin's, due to our hatred of Rothberg, and Colin often doesn't post about or promote the project, likely because he knows how we all feel about it.

[mariacallous]

Gather, comrades. We need to talk about boning. Actually, we don’t; a lot of other people are already deep in discussion on this topic, but if we don’t there could be a lot less sexuality in film and television and, frankly, that’s unfortunate.

First, let’s take it back to Penn Badgley. Earlier this week, comments the actor made about no longer wanting to do sex scenes on his Netflix show You took over the internet. On the surface, Badgley’s request was reasonable enough. Every actor should be able to decide what they do and don’t want to do in a role. But what he said also reignited a long-festering online debate about the necessity of nudity and sex scenes in movies and TV—and the comfort of those who watch them. “Think about every male lead you’ve loved. Are they kissing someone? Are they doing a lot more than that?” Badgley said on the podcast Podcrushed. “It’s really not my desire to.” 

This would likely not fly on House of the Dragon. But at the same time, Dragon’s copious sex scenes still don’t seem as intense as those on Game of Thrones, which Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) later described as terrifying to film. There has been a movement in recent years, post-Me Too, for every set to have “intimacy coordinators”—people whose job it is to make sure everyone is comfortable with what’s being filmed and how it’s being acted out. The presence of these coordinators has made productions safer places to film sex scenes (House of the Dragon has one), but at the same time the prevalence of these scenes has led to discussions about whether such sex scenes are necessary. 

The short answer is: They are. Sometimes. The long answer is that they have a history so fraught, it would take 10 more columns (at least) to get into all of them. But the short (please understand these are very broad strokes) version is that at one time, starting in the 1930s and stretching into the ’60s, Hollywood—in an attempt to rehabilitate its image and be permitted to show its wares all over the US—censored itself. The Hays Code, named after Will Hays, the former postmaster general who developed it, listed 36 “Don’ts and Be Carefuls”—guidelines that, while they extended beyond sex and sexuality, had a stifling effect on what intimacy filmmakers could put on screen. No nudity, no “perversion” (generally understood to mean no queer stuff), no “first-night” scenes (you know, like in Romeo and Juliet). The idea was that if movie productions followed these rules, the government wouldn’t get involved.    

As adherence to the Hays Code dissolved, largely because the film industry was facing stiff competition from the emergent medium of television, the Motion Picture Association of America began instituting the kind of ratings systems we know today, and more explicit content found its way into mainstream movies. While this gave filmmakers more leeway to show honest depictions of sex and sexuality, it also led to questionable situations for actors, who found themselves in potentially compromising situations (see: Last Tango in Paris).

By the time the ’90s came around, so had the idea of the erotic thriller: Body of Evidence, Basic Instinct, Disclosure. Without making a qualitative judgment on these films (OK, many are bad, but some are also bad in a fun way; watch artist Leo Herrera’s series on the subgenre on Instagram to learn more), many of them reinforced the idea that sex in movies was mostly about titillation. Butts on screen will get butts into seats. It might make you uncomfortable if it comes on while you’re watching with your parents, but you’re still definitely going to rent it at the video store. 

It is this kind of sex scene, if not this kind of movie, that seems to be the focus of the current debate. The people who are voicing upset at nudity and sexuality in movies and TV now seem to be doing it under the presumption that it’s gratuitous. Anyone can dislike any kind of scene, of course, but saying sex scenes have little to no place onscreen gets dangerously close to saying sex is not a necessary part of the human experience, and that’s just not true. 

To that end, it’s not that nudity and sex scenes should be censored or considered unnecessary, it’s that they need to be thoughtful and intentional—to tell stories of intimacy, heartbreak, healing, joy. They would do well to be collaborations between filmmakers and actors (with intimacy coordinators!) that show how sex intersects with the emotional and physical lives of actual people. They have the power to, in queer cinema especially, be images of representation and rebellion. They can even demonstrate thoughtful moments of people deciding not to have sex. Most already do these things, and focusing the discussion around those scenes on the comfort levels of every viewer misses the point. Film and TV need more authentic representations of sexuality, not less. Look no further than The Last of Us for proof. 

For whatever reason, this recent debate reminded me of a Saturday Night Live bit from 2021: “Lesbian Period Drama.” The joke was that too often films in the genre follow a similar playbook of slow-mounting tension that builds up to “a sex scene so graphic, you’ll think, ‘Oh right, a man directed this.’” It was a keen observation. There have been several lesbian romance films in recent years—period dramas or otherwise—that have fallen into these traps (think: Ammonite, Disobedience). But many of these films, particularly the ones not directed by men, like Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, were deepened by the intimacy onscreen. This intimacy may be uncomfortable for some viewers, but it’s liberating for others. And it should be.