#covering the hand-phone to say 'that's his lawyer jerome'

[babymadeofbones]

this is definitely one of my fav performances of raúl's. it's such a hard song and he does it so well and his acting is just 💋🤌 i love how unhinged he gets

[bumblingest-bee]

a non-comprehensive list of details in merrily we roll along productions that i adore:

when frank and charley pick up mary and swing her back and forth in the 2013 london version of old friends and she yells "FRANKLIN!!!"

that silly hand thing jason alexander does really seriously when he sings "you need a tune to go bum-bum-bum-ba-dum"

the cute little three-way waltz in the OBC old friends and when they all collapse into a pile on the floor at the end

raul esparza covering the receiver of his imaginary phone to say "that's his lawyer, jerome"

frank giving charley a piggyback ride in broadway revival old friends

jonathan groff's deeply ashamed "i saw my fair lady.... i sort of enjoyed it"

lonny price's "WELLLLLL WHAT'S THE POINT OF DEMANDSYOUCANMEET??"

similarly, his "they're always popping their corks - i HATE that line"

the goofy grin danrad gives the audience when charley meets evelyn on the rooftop in the broadway revival

the 2002 kennedy center production when frank does the little teasing toe-tap thing with charley at the beginning of old friends

[the-messedup-priorities-so-far]

"I hate to interrupt." Says Rowena, interrupting. "What the hell is this?" She looks appalled. Perhaps she's realized she just interrupted.

"Shut up!" Dean yells over his shoulder. He fixes her with an offended stare - as if not shutting up would be offensive on her part.

He's excellent at delivering backhanded insults like that. The author is proud of his newfound subtlety.

Rowena purses her lips, ending up with dimples of discontent.

"Balls!" Bobby cries out. Then he takes off his cap for some reason before adding, "Were you ever nice?"

"Gun. Mouth. Now." Dean simply reaffirms Bobby's accusation - because he's awesome like that. "Shut your face." He also says, pointing at them all, to further illustrate his paternal figure's point.

Crowley plants his chin in his palm, and looks at the floor with an unreadable (the author swears she tried) glint in his eyes. "Kill me." Perhaps they're tears.

"Oh, they don't miss me." Cas lets out, matter-of-factly, as he sips from his teacup of coffee.

"I think this was just a minor misunderstanding." Sam steps in, and brings puppy bangs with him to solidify his statement.

The author tries and fails to survive staring at them.

Dean clicks his tongue, and manages to resemble a squirrel to a T. Or an S. Everyone's entitled to spell words differently, English is a weird language.

Sam looks at Dean, irritated. "Make it stop." He grits out, clenching his jaw. He's replaced the bangs with sideburns. They have more potential to seem irritated.

"Maybe." Cas pouts, inexplicably.

"What?" Dean sounds positively aghast - but it's toned down from the years of practise from being in the poetic kind of love with the only angel in the world for him - and thus, only shows up in his eyes.

"You don't understand." Cas picks up a salesboy by his collar. He's so whimsical, the author completely gets why Dean's head over heels for him. Cas keeps everyone - especially salesboys who don't get him pie - on their toes.

"You look like a baby." Dean informs him, all laugh-lines and dimples. "Okay, all right." He says next, gruff, trying to smoothen out the curve of seeming like a goner for Cas.

Cas shoots him a discouraging look. "Ouch." He bites his bottom lip, and closes his eyes - and everyone in a seven mile radius ends up pregnant.

True story.

Also, Narendra Modi shows up, namaste-ing the phenomena that is Cas.

"Shhhhit!" Cas squints. He knows a thing or two about horrible, prejudiced political leaders, from an alternate universe Cas's experiences.

"Oh god." Sam adds, regrowing bangs really quickly.

Modi whispers into his phone, eyes trepidly on everyone in the room, and a hand covering his mouth.

Dean stares, unimpressed. Or so it seems until he says, "You gotta teach me how to do that."

Modi shoots the universal gesture for OK at him.

"I will stab you in your face." Dean declares, with parted hair and an office tie. "I'm gonna get my gun." Now he's got sleep-floofed hair and the dead guy robe. Threatening Dean Winchester sure is impressive like that.

(Maybe he'd wanted to learn right away, and took Modi's OK as dismissal.)

(Meh.)

"Maybe you could be a little less... Lord-ly?" Sam cuts in, with his best lawyer impression. Nobody's sure who it's directed to - Dean, the Indian PM, Cas even? - but it doesn't matter because his eyebrows curve like parentheses of reasonability, hair tucked completely behind his ears - and everyone listens to this Sam.

"OKAY." Dean mumbles, sticking a needle in a doll. Or so, the author assumes he's doing.

Sam stares at him blankly for a beat, and then sighs into a smile. His hair's now long enough to curl magnificently at his neck. "You're too precious for the world." He strangles out, basically choking on the sentiment as he grabs Dean, and smushes him into a hug.

Cas smirks, smug.

"Oh, you." Sam pulls back enough to suddenly be in a maroon cardigan as he gazes at his brother through spectacled eyes of adoration.

Dean pulls him in then, bringing Sam down to his height - and Sam's hair escapes the ponytail grandly enough to fall over his face in perfect, messy locks.

The author's already weak heart stutters in her chest, and proceeds to give up entirely.

"Oh. No." Cas exclaims. Probably not for the author, but it's a sweet, borderline necromance-y coincidence. And then, unexplanably, he tilts his head and furrows his brow. "The whore."

Dean sighs, and facepalms. Sam changes into a grey button-up, and looks away into the distance.

The author daydreams too hard about being looked at like that, and loses it entirely.

Fin.

there ya go, jerome huggyboop "cupcake-cloak "@xojo" dibble-dandelion. i - wrote this. thank you for creating it with me 🌈

[ncfan-1]

Gotham 04X11, ‘Queen Takes Knight’

Mid-season finale. Finally. Let’s see if it introduces a level of drama suitable for a mid-season finale. This is Gotham.

- As with the last time they showed up, I am probably gonna have mute on through Bruce and Alfred’s scenes. I’ve lost interest. I’ll turn the mute off if something interesting happens.

- Poor Mr. Penn is surrounded.

- And we have Gordon and a bunch of cops heading… somewhere? There’s a person on a gurney. Pyg’s handiwork, apparently. Blood-writing on the wall; apparently PYg’s getting out of town. With a new face.

- Poor Mr. Penn is being tortured off-screen while Barbara and Sofia talk (Did... Did Mr. Penn die?). Sofia apparently likes to talk about being a Falcone. She gets a phone call, and from the context I’m assuming her father died.

- No, he’s not dead. Poor Barbara looks positively sick to see him.

- Her glassy face when she says “Likewise” breaks my heart.

- And now Falcone is dressing down his daughter. Carmine, you’re setting yourself up for your daughter to kill you in a fit of rage.

- Carmine calls Sofia out for sleeping with Jim… in an extremely slut-shamey way. Thanks for reminding me again why I hate you.

- Oh, wonderful, Carmine made a deal with Oswald against his own child. Wonderful.

- Is… Is Bruce supposed to have had sex with the girls in his bed? I don’t need this. I don’t want this. I don’t care if he’s legal or not

- Carmine does a little “Don’t thank me for not killing you; you have no idea what you’ve unleashed” with Gordon. Well, I’m glad someone had that moment with him. I just wish it wasn’t this guy.

- Sofia goes for the roses… and pricks her finger. Why do I feel like she was just poisoned?

- Oh, look; black van.

- Drive-by shooting. Carmine gets shot; good riddance. Sofia’s (I think; it wasn’t framed well) shot too. Or maybe not.

- I feel sorry for Sofia because her father (however shitty a father he was) was murdered right in front of her and she has no family left. I do not feel even remotely sorry for Carmine Falcone. Rest in pieces, asshole.

- Apparently Oswald didn’t kill Falcone. And for some reason he doesn’t understand the problem with people thinking he did, because he’s got a death grip on the Idiot Ball this week.

- Zsasz actually looks kinda sad at the funeral.

- Oswald decided to show up at the funeral because he’s really got a death grip on the Idiot Ball this week.

- Sofia’s in a wheelchair now. Apparently it’s gonna be vengeance, vengeance, vengeance.

-Zsasz goes up to the bier and lays a casket in Falcone’s breast pocket, and leaves without Oswald.

- And Bullock’s at the funeral, too. This is shaping up to be the most uncomfortable funeral in the history of everything. And Bullock’s getting his “You’re eating your humble pie” moment. I’m happy for him. This is the least Bullock deserves. The least Gordon deserves, too. Bullock’s a pretty fitting person to deliver that speech to him, too.

- Oswald goes up to Sofia because he wants to prove that he has the Idiot Ball in a death grip this week. I was half-expecting Sofia to tell him something like “Get out of this church now or you’ll never leave”, but nope.

- Quick question. What happened to the Sirens?

- And now we’ve got Oswald in the precinct, calling for Gordon, once again. Oswald sounds deeply, personally offended at the idea that Gordon would value Sofia that much.

- Oswald is “escorted” out of the building.

- Gordon gets a speech. Blech. You’re corrupt, you scumbag; you don’t get to make speeches like the one you just made when you’re as incredibly corrupt as you are. Especially when that little confrontation with Oswald was deliberately to provoke a gang war where people will die, you little twerp. People are going to die because you did this, and you don’t care.

- A shootout goes on in front of tied-up Sirens. This was actually a pretty funny scene. Nice to see Barbara and Tabitha quasi-getting along again, even if I don’t like Tabitha.

- Sofia tells Gordon about Martine. And the cover-up comes back to bite him right about now!

- Zsasz “guesses” Gordon has great leadership skills. Yeah, “guesses” because there’s no actual evidence of it.

- And Zsasz sells Oswald out… for some reason. It’s not very well-explained, like, at all.

- And Oswald is back in a crowded lockup cell.

- Clapping. For someone who patently does not deserve it. Blech.

- This is all being wrapped up way too neatly. Especially considering it’s only the half-hour mark.

- And apparently Zsasz sold out Oswald because he’s still loyal to the Falcones. The foreshadowing, what foreshadowing there may have been, was lousy.

- The Sirens are safe. Good. I don’t care much for Tabitha, but Barbara and Selina being safe makes me happy.

- The Sirens have the club back. Tabitha’s been assholish to Barbara, because of course.

- Bruce and Alfred duke it out. Predictably, Bruce gets his ass handed to him. And Alfred flubs it by socking him in the face. (I’m presuming this came about as the result of Alfred’s much-alluded to unresolved issues and probable PTSD.)

- Ed yelling at Bad Ed.

- Grundy has a surprisingly good understanding of what’s going on. Unfortunately, downstairs a gramophone is playing a very familiar tune. And someone, presumably Tabitha, has come to pick him up. Yeah, it’s Tabitha. Because they just couldn’t let this awful, boring ship die in the furnace where it belongs.

- Well, thank you for not doing the “kiss makes him remember.” But then they follow up with Tabitha promising to either beat him up until he remembers, or until he dies. Which, while not entirely out-of-character for Tabitha, is hardly going to make me support this ship.

- YES, PYG WAS WORKING FOR SOFIA THE WHOLE TIME. YES.

- And Sofia was the one who had her father killed.

- And Sofia is staring down Gordon with a gun. And she is acquainting him with some unpleasant truths, which he is refusing to accept. He’s refusing to accept responsibility, as per usual. And she’s pointing out that he’s brought everything on himself. To the pain, Gordon! To the pain! And all as revenge for her brother. Mother of God, this is everything I’ve ever wanted. Thank you, Gotham. Thank you for this gift. I’m so happy, I can almost excuse how stupid other parts of this episode have been. Make him eat shit, honey; I believe in you!

- I’m so happy I want to roll around on the floor. I’m rolling around in my chair instead since I need to sit up to type.

- You don’t understand; this is perfect. Someone’s finally making him understand just how screwed he is, and just how thoroughly he’s screwed over the city he claims to want to protect. I’m so happy.

- And Bruce has gone to his lawyer and had him draw up emancipation papers. I’d say I feel sorry for Alfred, but he’s been kinda shitty as a guardian, and he did just sock Bruce hard enough to leave a bruise. So yeah, Alfred could definitely be jailed for child abuse.

- And we’ve got Tabitha beating up Grundy. So many times that his brain really ought to be mush by now, if she’s really wondering why he isn’t saying anything. And then she just walks off and leaves him tied to that chair, because she “cares” for him. I guess.

- Bruce does look pretty dead-eyed in that club.

- And we’ve got a scene with Bullock congratulating Gordon, just to twist the knife further. And it turns out Bullock quit, to twist the knife even further. Excellent.

- Grundy wakes up in that chair, apparently perfectly remembering that he’s Butch. I’m so underwhelmed.

- And now we’ve got Oswald raging in Arkham, only for his neighbor to engage him in conversation. His neighbor being Jerome. Jerome, why didn’t you break out when Jonathan took over the place? You probably had ample opportunity.

- Thus ends the episode. The trailer shows us Jerome, Bruce looking at a mark, Barbara looking fabulous, Sofia targeting Leslie, Oswald possibly going over the deep end in Arkham, and one of Bruce’s friends possibly (hopefully­) turning out to be Talia al Ghul. (Where’s Jonathan?)

- Well, it had drama. It had Gordon eating humble pie till he metaphorically threw up. Maybe the next half of the season will have Gordon drown in his guilt and thus start on a redemption arc. And maybe there’ll be pigs in the treetops come morning.

[political-fluffle]

Robert Mueller's Secret Memos, Part 3: The Documents The Justice Department Didn’t Want Congress To See

BuzzFeed News sued the US government for the right to see all the work that Robert Mueller’s team kept secret. Today we are publishing the third installment of the FBI’s summaries of interviews with key witnesses.

(…) In the documents released Thursday, the FBI and Justice Department withheld vast swaths of information under a number of FOIA exemptions — including one that says the disclosure of information would interfere with ongoing investigations. They also withheld information from these records claiming disclosure would threaten national security.

The documents also include a 31-page interview that is completely redacted — including the name of the person who was interviewed. (…)

New details about Stephen Miller's involvement in drafting a letter firing Comey

Stephen Miller's FBI interview summary offers considerable narrative detail about an eventful visit at the Trump country club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Miller was at dinner with Trump on Friday night, May 5, 2017. Jared Kushner was there. According to Miller's recollections, Trump told people at the table that he wanted to fire James Comey, one of the key events during the FBI's Russia investigation that Mueller investigated as part of the obstruction portion of his probe. Trump said he needed a “well honed” letter to explain it — and that he already had a “great concept” to make the announcement. The reasons are redacted. (...)

K.T. McFarland talked to the FBI under an agreement generally given to people under criminal investigation

A summary of a December 2017 interview with K.T. McFarland, who served as deputy national security adviser under Michael Flynn earlier that year, reveals that she provided information to the special counsel's office under a proffer agreement. Generally, prosecutors offer proffer agreements to people who are under investigation to allow them to speak without fear that what they say will be used against them later. McFarland was first interviewed by the FBI that summer but reportedly revised her statement after it was contradicted by Flynn's guilty plea. (…)

Conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi told the FBI "he had been lying to himself to believe his own cover story"

The conspiracy theorist and Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi told investigators that his interviews as part of the Mueller investigation made him realize he had been lying to himself “to protect his own cover story.”

Corsi came under investigation for his communications with Roger Stone about WikiLeaks and, specifically, the release of stolen documents from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“The Special Counsel’s office interview was the first time he came to terms with the truth,” his 302 says. “He had been lying to himself to believe his own cover story. Corsi apologized it had taken him so long to come to terms with the truth. He needed to admit to himself that he was lying.” (…)

Michael Cohen googled the number to the Kremlin — then tried to set up a Putin–Trump meeting

(…) “Cohen recalled that in 2015, the news reported that [former President Barack] Obama refused to meet with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin at UNGA [United Nations General Assembly]. Trump said it was stupid of Obama to say that,” the interview summary said, noting that Trump had said many times he thought he would get along with Putin. “After Trump's comment, Cohen told him that if Trump wanted, Cohen could reach out to Putin's office and try to arrange a meeting between the two of them. Cohen suggested it would be funny for the two men to meet at Trump Tower and have a burger. Trump agreed it was a good idea, and would be funny, and to go ahead and reach out.”

Cohen then went on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show and said Trump might meet Putin. Trump asked Cohen “a handful of times for updates” about it. But it appears Cohen had no idea how to reach anyone at the Kremlin. He told the FBI he conducted a Google search for a phone number there. (…)

Cohen said Putin sent Trump a letter about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant near Moscow — Trump was unhappy about the ratings

Cohen told the FBI that he thought Putin would attend the 2013 pageant because it took place in a Moscow suburb and Trump wondered out loud if the Russian leader would attend. He said Trump had no intention to meet with officials from the Russian government while at the pageant.

“Cohen recalled Putin sent Trump a nice letter, but Cohen had never seen it. He had heard general mentions of the letter in conversations in Trump’s office,” the FBI wrote. (…)

Manafort believed Trump was sending him messages through Sean Hannity

In the months before Mueller revealed a host of charges against Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chair used popular Fox News personality Sean Hannity as a "back channel" to the White House, according to a 2018 interview summary.

Manafort told the special counsel's office that after FBI agents raided his home in July 2017, he spoke with Hannity, whom he understood to be passing along messages from Trump.

"Manafort knew Hannity was speaking to Trump around then because Hannity would tell Manafort to hang in there, that he had been talking to Trump, that Trump had his back, and things like that," the October 2018 summary reads. (…)

Another witness to the Trump Tower meeting said Trump Jr. asked about dirt on Clinton

Ike Kaveladze, a business executive who lives in California, said his boss, Aras Agalarov, called him on June 6, 2016, and asked him to attend a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan. Kaveladze told the FBI he was “puzzled” why he would be meeting with top campaign officials including Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner.

He was told two different reasons. At first, Agalarov explained that they would be discussing the Magnitsky Act, far-reaching sanctions that the Kremlin wanted to be overturned. But a second man, business partner Roman Beniaminov, told him that a lawyer would be at the meeting who had negative information about Hillary Clinton. (...)