#sexiest american man - british

[thankstothe]

[riverlarking]

we are holding the world’s sexiest man contest and by ‘world’ we mean american and british actors

[rawiswhore]

Steve Regal x Fem Reader- "Red Negligee"

"Three's Company" was the highest rated show on television in the late 1970's.

It was a sitcom notorious for featuring women walking around wearing short little negligees and nighties as well as sometimes wearing these lingerie teddy rompers and other skimpy outfits.

Despite that 1980 was the beginning of a new decade, "Three's Company" was still on the air even though Suzanne Somers had left the show and the sitcom was still fresh in our minds, not to mention still featured women bouncing around in short nighties and negligees.

Because of the show's popularity as well as teddies (not bears) and babydoll nighties being popular lingerie at the time, in 1980 you invited wrestler Steve Regal to a hotel room.

This isn't the same "Real Man's Man" Steve Regal during the Attitude era who would later on be William Regal, this Steve Regal was American with long blond hair.

As Steve lounged in the hotel room's bed, he had his long blond hair hanging down.

While Steve Regal laid on his back on top of one of the beds in the room, you slowly sauntered further into the hotel room dressed in a short feminine nighty/negligee where the bottom of it reached your upper thighs.

You couldn't decide if you wanted to wear a short nighty/negligee or a teddy/romper that was a mixture of a spaghetti strapped chemise with short shorts attached to it, or even wearing a spaghetti strapped camisole with matching short shorts that weren't attached to the top.

Steve's mouth spread and formed into smile as he watched you slowly stroll further into the hotel room dressed in that babydoll negligee.

You had a grin on your face as you slowly walked into the room to show off your negligee.

"I couldn't decide what to wear" you brought up to him. "A teddy or a negligee"

To quote the movie "Road to El Dorado": "both is good!".

Or even better...if you shed your negligee off to reveal that you're wearing a teddy, and you don't mean teddy as in bear. (come to think of it, this would be a good idea for a fanfiction!)

"And I mean teddy as in one of those teddy rompers" you explained "with short shorts attached to the chemise"

He knows what you're referring to.

With a grin on your face, you slowly crawled on top of the bed Steve was laying on, where you slowly crawled closer to him.

"As a valet, I'd love to shed my dress off to reveal a short negligee to your opponent" you told him when you laid right next to him. "Or I'd shed my dress off to reveal a teddy underneath as a distraction"

You could wear a negligee or teddy romper to the sexiest male wrestlers like Michael P.S. Hayes in the early 1980's (who I almost wrote this fanfiction about), Paul Orndorff/Mr. Wonderful and eventually wrestlers like Tommy Rogers from the Fantastics, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Terry Taylor, Marty Jannetty and even the British Bulldogs Davey Boy Smith and the Dynamite Kid.

Steve enjoyed hearing those ideas for sure, but professional wrestling was mostly family entertainment during the majority of the 20th Century.

"Or even better" you added excitedly with a smile on your face. "Walking to the ring wearing a short little negligee or a teddy romper, like what those women on 'Three's Company' wear!"

Underwear as outerwear.

"I hope I wouldn't be arrested for wearing underwear on in public!" you said, which made Steve chuckle. "Some teddies look like outfits people could wear in public, like spaghetti strapped camisoles with short shorts not attached"

Really, there are worse things than you being in a wrestling arena wearing a babydoll nighty or a teddy romper and you even said that to him.

Not to mention, there was the sexual revolution of the 1960's and 1970's, where people supported birth control, abortion, sex before marriage, pornography and even public nudity and sex in public places.

Professional wrestling has always been a reflection of the times, just look at the Attitude era reflecting the late 1990's and even early 2000's, the Ruthless Aggression era having the 2000's written all over it, and Women's Extreme Wrestling hypersexualizing the women during the 2000's as well as filled with edgelord commentary objectifying the women and saying things that were rather racist.

You actually thought of having a "Three's Company" related wrestling gimmick when the show was on the air, but cartoonish sports entertainment wrestling really didn't start taking off until the 1980's, when the World Wrestling Federation blew up in popularity.

Your "Three's Company" gimmick you brainstormed could involve you being like Chrissy Snow, wearing pigtails or a ponytail while the rest of your hair hangs down and you bounce around in babydoll negligees, teddies and even sometimes wearing nothing but a towel, as well as wearing strapless rompers and denim short shorts and a top with no bra underneath and your breasts jiggle under your top.

Another idea could have 2 female wrestling valets who have a male wrestler they lead to the ring.

The possibilities are endless.

Rowdy Roddy Piper was a rising wrestling star in the late 1970's and early 1980's who resembled John Ritter, "Three's Company"'s star.

[wolfieloveswade]

Get To Know Me Tag Game

1.) who do I want to be in 10 years:

+ a famous writer, director, musician, activist/etc

2.) what are my life goals:

+ to heal myself and others in the process

+ to be happy

+ to one day get married and possibly have kids

+ to be a recognized artist and activist

+ to travel the world

+ to have a dual citizenship(I'd like remain an American Citizen but to also be a British Citizen)

3.) 10 Fun Facts About Me:

1.) I'm a Vegan-Tarian(Vegatarian, half Vegan)

2.) I believe in life on other planets

3.) I think tobacco should be illegal

4.) I hate cold weather

5.) I love ice cream

6.) I hate mustard

7.) I love scented candles

8.) I find European Men to be the sexiest

9.) a man's voice is one of the sexiest things for me

10.) I wish everyday's weather would be 60 degrees

4.) Favorite Music:

New Wave, Classic Rock, 90s Alternative, 90s Britpop, all of it really

5.) Favorite types of tv shows:

Crime Dramas, Super Hero Adaptations, Cartoons, Parodies

6.) 10 Things I Love Eating:

1.) Tofu/Plant-Based Food

2.) Pizza

3.) Fries

4.) Pastas

5.) Bread

6.) Crackers

7.) Ice Cream

8.) Chocolate

9.) Cheeses

10.) Vegan Gummies

7.) how I view the world:

we're not the only world in this galaxy, we're not the center of the universe, yet we are important, everything we do matters/effects others because everything is connected, life is worth living, healing takes time but it's worth it, love and other good things and people still exist

8.) 10 Things I Believe:

1.) I believe that we are all here for a reason

2.) I believe that God is Love Energy, I don't believe in some old bastard that sends people to hell, it doesn't make sense to me

3.) I believe that Love is really the only thing that matters in life

4.) I believe in life on other planets, and even on our own planet

5.) I believe in Karma

6.) I believe in Reincarnation

7.) I believe in Angels

8.) I believe in Ghosts/Spirits/etc

9.) I believe that Animals have Souls

10.) I believe we are all playing a role here and when it's over, we go back to where we came from, like life is a show or movie or play and we forget that we're in it

@spookycheesestick

[heavenboy09]

Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 To You

The Most Iconic &  Legendary All American Blonde 👱‍♂️ Haired Top Actor & Influential Of The Entertainment Industry 👏 Of The 20th Century On The Planet Today.

William Bradley Pitt was born on December 18, 1963, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to William Alvin Pitt, the proprietor of a trucking company, and Jane Etta (née Hillhouse), a school counselor. The family soon moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he lived together with his younger siblings, Douglas Pitt (born 1966) and Julie Neal (born 1969).

He is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. As a public figure, Pitt has been cited as one of the most powerful and influential people in the American entertainment industry.

Pitt first gained recognition as a cowboy hitchhiker in the Ridley Scott road film Thelma & Louise (1991). His first leading roles in big-budget productions came with the drama films A River Runs Through It (1992) and Legends of the Fall (1994). He also starred in the horror film Interview with the Vampire (1994), alongside Tom Cruise. He gave critically acclaimed performances in David Fincher's crime thriller Seven (1995) and the science fiction film 12 Monkeys (1995). The latter earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and his first Academy Award nomination.

Pitt found greater commercial success starring in Steven Soderbergh's heist film Ocean's Eleven (2001), and reprised his role in its sequels. He cemented his leading man status starring in blockbusters such as the historical epic Troy (2004), the romantic crime film Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), the horror film World War Z (2013), and the action film Bullet Train (2022). Pitt also starred in the critically acclaimed films Fight Club (1999), Babel (2006), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Burn After Reading (2008), Inglourious Basterds (2009), The Tree of Life (2011), and The Big Short (2015). Pitt received Academy Award nominations for his performances in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Moneyball (2011), and he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a stuntman in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

In 2001, Pitt co-founded the production company Plan B Entertainment. He produced The Departed (2006), 12 Years a Slave (2013), and Moonlight (2016), all of which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, while others such as The Tree of Life (2011), Moneyball (2011), Selma (2014), and The Big Short (2015) were nominated for the award.

Pitt was named People's Sexiest Man Alive in 1995 and 2000. His personal life is the subject of wide publicity. He is divorced from actresses Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie. Pitt has six children with Jolie, three of whom were adopted internationally.

Please Wish This Incredible & Top Academy Award Winning & Favoriteable Actor Of The Acting World 🌎 

YOU KNOW HIM.

YOU LOVE HIM. ESPECIALLY THE LADIES. CALM DOWN NOW.

& YOU CANT HELP BUT NOT LIKE HIM FOR HIS CHARMING CHARISMATIC GOOD LOOKS

THE 1 & ONLY

MR. WILLIAM BRADLEY PITT AKA BRAD PITT 👱‍♂️

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 TO YOU MR.  PITT & HERE'S TO MANY MORE YEARS TO COME

#BradPitt

Something tells me alot of women are going to be Liking and Reblogging This post by the time I wake up in the morning lol 😆 Keep your Pants On Ladies.

[twigg96]

Do you think the boys (Plus Charles and Magnus, if you wouldn't mind) would have any particular reactions regarding a British love interest?

Absolutely my dear Anon! Ps. Please forgive me for making Austin Power jokes and references 😂 I just really love those movies.

Nathan would love the sound of his British lover’s voice. He gets shivers anytime they speak his name. He is a person who apricates the sound of accents and his partner has the sexiest in the world to him. Although he truly doesn’t understand why the British have to use strange words for things that should be simple. A cookie is a cookie not a biscuit. 

Pickles finds himself picking on his British lover all the time whenever they’re high and smoking together. Pickles would lie on his back laughing uncontrollably as his lover tried and failed to imitate an American accent. “Oh yeah, says the one who needs to use the loo! Oh I’m so sorry mum! Pip pop and all that.” Pickles would laugh as his partner would smack him over and over again with a pillow. 

Murderface would both would worship his British partner and tease them mercilessly. On certain days he treats them like royalty, parading them around, buying them the best of everything, on other days he is making Austin Powers references trying Desperately to get laid. “So, Shall We Shag Now, Or Shall We Shag Later?” 

Toki tries and poke fun at his British lover as well but in a more... innocent way. He tries to make puns and (not so funny) jokes to make his partner laugh. In reality it just annoys them more than anything. “Whys don't England haves a designated kidnies bank? They have a Liverpools.” 

As an immigrant himself, Skwisgaar could understand and appreciate the struggles that his Brittish lover went through just to live with him in Mordhaus. He understood the Citizenship process. That test they both had to take. Learning the Pledge of Allegiance which neither of them understood why it was important but they learned it anyway. Skwisgaar was so happy to have someone else to share that experience with.

Charles is one of the more level headed of the bunch. He doesn’t mind that his partner is British. To be honest it started as a business venture but ended in love. Various word discrepancies do come up but he normally lets them pass unless he’s annoyed then he uses it in arguments he regrets later. He however does not understand the devotion to a royal family that obviously has no more power over the land. But at the same time his partner could hardly understand what he was doing working as a CFO of a Death Metal band.

As a first generation American, Magnus could relate to a lot of his partner’s struggles moving to a new country. The struggles with money and identity. He’d seen how his mother, who moved from her birthplace in Egypt to live with his father a military man from Brooklyn had given up absolutely everything to raise him. She gave up her home. Everything she knew. Just to be with the one she loved. It was hard for him to understand at first. But as he looked upon his lovers face, he knew exactly why his mother did it.

[lolopluslogan]

Ah yes, I’m craving Karasuma x Irina head cannons PT 2

Their offices are together. Like in the same room and same desk. When they first moved in with each other Irina bought one big table so they could do their paper work together. Karasuma thought it was just to conserve space, but Irina ofc thought other wise.

They got a dog, like a month after Irina moved in. They were walking away from a wear house and had just completed a mission. It was nighttime and they both hear whining coming from the shed. They inspect it and it’s a puppy! (German sheaperd idk) Irina has never been a dog person so she’s kinda grossed out since the dog was all scruffy and dirty. Karasuma…. He was ready to do what ever it took to keep the dog, it didn’t have a collar and it looked rlly Malnourished. the dog actually rlly liked him for some apparent reason, and for once Karasuma was the one pleading Irina for permission. He rlly wanted them to keep the dog, like he was full on whining, grabbing her arms, he was willing to have sex with her just to keep the dog 💀 man was on his knees, maybe even throwing a fit. Irina was reluctant but they ended up keeping the dog and Irina ended up loving her, they definitely named her katelyn or something.

Babe, baby, and bubs are regular things you call ur significant other. But you can not convince me otherwise that Karasuma calls Irina his queen. Like 😭😩 I just feel like he whispers. ‘Love you queen.’ In like the sexiest voice ever omg or he calls her princess 😭he also probably calls her darling on a regular occasion AHK

Speaking of queens and crowns, I just saw this video of a rlly fire handshake on tik tok and it ends with one of the ppl bowing their head and having the other person put a fake crown on their head, I’m telling you that this duo has a little handshake they do after missions, Irina got excited when they completed a mission in the past and gave Karasuma some kind of excited high five, slowly they made it a natural thing to do after missions or after some kind of achievement, ever since then they’ve added like 5 other steps creating some cute handshake.

Ok Ik traditional Japanese weddings look different from American ones… but if they did have a traditional suit and tie wedding… it would be black red and silver themed 😩 (yk assassin vibes idk) think of how powerful Irina would look in a black dress with like silver jewelry then red embroidered flowers on like her mesh thing isk what it’s called but OMFHDJSBSJ😩🥵 then Karasuma with the FULL black suit and black tie AHHH

Karasuma’s English got so good because of Irina, and Irina rlly likes it when he reads to her while they’re cuddling. Irina tried reading in a British accent which sounded pretty good, so then Karasuma mocked her in attempt to make her laugh… but like the British accent was lokey hot on him like 18 hundreds gentlemen she felt like the main character 😩

These next few aren’t head cannons, more like songs that remind me of them.

Miss independent- ne-yo

Here’s your perfect- Jamie Miller

Falling for you- peachy

Too good to say goodbyes- Bruno Mars

Trouble-Hazel bloom

Because of you- ne-yo

Double take-dhruv

Paper rings- Taylor swift

When he sees me-waitress (the characters fit them so well 💀)

Let me love you- Mario

Safety net- Ariana grande and ty dollar $ign honestly any Ariana grande song

Pretty boy- the neighborhood

[90sstuffidk]

POP MUSIC : In Love With Courtney : She may be married and expecting, but Hole’s Courtney Love hasn’t toned down

(Rare? Courtney Love Interview August 16, 1992, Los Angeles Times)

An hour with Hole’s 1991 “Pretty on the Inside” album might be one of the most harrowing experiences in rock ‘n’ roll, a black, labored, twisted hour that is closer to a gruesome-sex Mary Gaitskill story than to anything you might think of as popular art, a slack, grinding hour that imprints itself on your consciousness like an extended fingernail-screech.

Most of the songs are about bad sex, bad drugs or a bad day at the abortion clinic. The most famous song from the album begins “When I was a teen-age whore. . . .” If “Pretty on the Inside” were a horror movie, it would be all the parts that you have to look at through your fingers.

Sometimes it is good to experience excruciating things.

On a quiet back street of Los Angeles’ Fairfax District, a quick walk from Canter’s and a stone’s throw from the hippest record stores on Melrose, Hole auteur Courtney Love sprawls in the living room of her groovy railroad-flat apartment, smoothing the week’s British music tabloids around her on the floor, listening to the new Pavement CD, tugging at her tight, black skirt.

At one end of the room, a line of well-worn books leans against the wall; on the floor by the couch, an exquisite thing in cream Atomic Age Naugahyde, is a vividly colored textbook chart of the female reproductive tract. Love looks up only occasionally, to say something snotty about the blaring music or to read a particularly juicy notice aloud. She puts down the copy of Sounds and picks up a New Musical Express.

Her new husband, Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, has spent the afternoon straightening up. Sprawled on her clean living-room floor, Courtney Love is happy and in love. The British music tabloids have all mentioned her, she has a baby on the way, and she’s been signed to Geffen Records for a lot of dough. Love has more money than she can count and a husband the world desires, a singing voice that could crack glass, and cool pads in both Los Angeles and Seattle. She loves the British music tabloids almost as much as they love her, which is more than plenty.She reaches over to the coffee table and leafs through a packet of letters that teen-age girls have written to Sassy magazine about its recent Kurt & Courtney cover, half of which are admiring and half of which say that she’s a skank. Love is obsessed with people who are obsessed with her.

About a year ago, Everett True, the American-underground correspondent for Melody Maker, found something deep and unsettling in Love, and the English weekly ran a full-page article on Hole at a time when the band was still third-billed at small club shows in Los Angeles, its own hometown. True called Hole “the best . . . no, scratch that . . . the only rock ‘n’ roll band in the world,” and positioned Love as sort of the underground’s answer to Madonna. The rest of the British press followed suit.

Love, who does not think of herself as a beauty, was named the third sexiest woman in a recent Melody Maker readers poll, just behind Madonna and Kylie Minogue. Overseas, she is a paradigm of damaged slutty glamour. Over here, within the very glamorous world of underground rock, Love is notorious, and people who barely know her often gossip about her for hours.

But happy as she might be, at the moment Love is miffed. She shuts the latest issue of NME hard.

“All of a sudden,” she whines, “all these boys from all these papers are turning into New Man Feminists. Until they turn into something else next month, in which case they’ll take it out on Patti and Debbie and Chrissie and meeee . I was reading one of these last week, and every single article had my name in it. And it’s not like I’ve written a ‘Brass in Pocket’ or anything. It’s all because I took a couple of pictures with my eyeliner smudged.”

Love is to smudged eyeliner what Karen Carpenter was to denim leisure suits.

“This whole ‘underground’ thing is really scary,” she continues, twisting around her finger a platinum strand of hair, “because there’s such a frenzy going on right now, and the industry thinks they can purchase it and make it pay. People are offering a million dollars to these scruffy little dirty stoner bands. And--I can just see--it’s going to be like new wave: ‘Get that kid into an old sweater!’ What’s going to happen is that these underripe bands are going to put out these underripe records that nobody is going to buy, and it will ruin it for the rest of us.”

She stifles a yawn.

“I think there should be a standard, almost like socialism, where bands that deserve to get as big as the Pixies get as big as the Pixies and not any bigger because money will ruin everything. All the pomposity, all the crap . . . all the creme brulee.”

The phone rings, and she trips in her hurry to get to it. She says hello; her face contorts into the most remarkable fright-mask expression. She covers the mouthpiece, and yells out to her husband: “It’s Kiii -iirk from Me- tallll -ica, darling. How in the hell did he get our phone number?” before hanging up the phone and sinking back down to the floor in a slump. She puts her face in her hands.

“I’ve always been comfortable with notoriety,” she says, “but I feel like I married Bobby Sherman. It’s like that bad, you know what I mean: ‘She keeps him locked in the closet, and she doesn’t let him take his phone calls, and everybody knows they’re sitting around shooting smack.’ Y’know. Please. I’m pregnant, and it’d be my baby sitting around doing smack, my fetus, about eight inches, and it’s got little legs and hands. I am not stupid.”

(Then again, she recently admitted heroin use after she got pregnant to Vanity Fair. Or did she? See article on Page 54.)

She sighs: “You know, I think the worst thing about L.A. is how I’m somehow considered accomplished because I nailed a rock star. You know what I mean; that makes me scary, that makes me dealable with people. . . . Now Kirk Hammett knows who I am. And that makes me sick.”

*

Love, 25 or so, grew up near Eugene, Ore., spent some time in Los Angeles, hung out in Liverpool with cult new-wave singer Julian Cope, spent time in San Francisco and fronted an early version of Faith No More, all the while studying British music papers as if they were the Scriptures.

She auditioned for the Nancy Spungen part in “Sid & Nancy"--she ended up playing a minor role in the film--and director Alex Cox built an entire movie (the megaflop “Straight to Hell”) around her dark-star punk charisma. She heard the Replacements’ “Let It Be” and moved to Minneapolis for a while in the mid-'80s.

Minnesota was a place that she had always thought about.

Still on the floor, Love blushes. “I had a Bob thing,” she says. “People are ashamed of their Bob things, but I grew up on Bob. When I went to Minnesota, I went to Hibbing right away. It’s right near Duluth. I totally went to Hibbing . . . isn’t that scary? I went to the house, they had a little museum there, a Bob museum. I went to dinner a couple times with Jesse Dylan, Bob’s son--I was about 19 at the time.

“And then his uncle, Bob’s brother, owned a theater in Minneapolis. Me and my friend Lori decided to put on a show at that theater with the Butthole Surfers and like nine bands, and we overpriced the tickets and nobody came, and we lost a whole bunch of money. Biggest disaster of my whole entire life: I got on the outs with the Butthole Surfers and the Dylan family in one evening.”

Denied a career as a rock promoter, Love supported herself as a stripper, was in a series of all-woman bands, including one in 1986 with guitarist Kat Bjelland, who went on to form Babes in Toyland, and bassist Jennifer Finch, who helped start L7.

She moved back to Los Angeles in 1989 and formed Hole, settling on the eventual lineup of Eric Erlandson on guitar, Jill Emery (formerly of the Hollywood death-goddess trio Superheroines) on bass and Caroline Rue (ex-Omelets) on drums. (Emery and Rue recently quit the group; the band is more or less on hiatus until the baby comes in September.) Hole recorded the well-regarded “Retard Girl” single on the Long Beach indie Sympathy for the Record Industry, and the harrowing “Dicknail” seven-inch for Sub Pop.

Love talked Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon into co-producing Hole’s album, thereby ensuring her entree into that in-group underground cool sort of vibe, which she surfed like an expert power-floating six-foot peelers.

After the British music tabloids got through with her, Hole became the subject of a major-label bidding war, eventually won by Geffen. Love seemed to particularly enjoy spurning a personal offer from Madonna to become the very first artist on her brand-new Warner Bros. custom label, Maverick.

(A representative for Madonna confirmed that the company did pursue Hole, among other acts.)

“Madonna has a clipping service send her everything about me,” Love says with a sneer, “and I totally figured out what it is--it’s like Madonna wants to be the goddess of everything blond. She wants to own any piece of the blond experience she may have forgotten about--in my case the rape victim/battered child persona--and she wanted to swallow me whole.

“I could never have worked for Madonna, because she’s too short, and she’s never been a fat girl, and she has like this Napoleon thing going. I could never deal with a boss that has never been fat. But Madonna has got good taste in art. And she also, like, knew some of my lyrics by heart. To me, that was amazing.”

Love lifts herself off the floor and walks over to the CD player in the next room, where she takes off Pavement and puts on the Tori Amos piano-ballad version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Cobain appears from the next room, wearing a moth-eaten fuzzy sweater, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, and imitates high-voiced Kirk Hammett trying to persuade him to go on tour with Metallica and Guns N’ Roses. “We’ve gotta wipe the stage with the Gunners, maaaan ,” he whines, and then dissolves into smirking laughter.

She reads him some of the better items about them that have appeared in the week’s tabloids. He grabs Melody Maker and reads some back to her. They share a perfect, quiet media moment together, man and wife and newsprint. Then Cobain leaves to have supper with his friend Mark Lanegan of the Screaming Trees, and she takes off the Amos album and replaces it with the new one from Teenage Fanclub. “Have you heard this band?” she asks. “They’re trying to sound exactly like my husband.”

Love settles onto her Naugahyde couch.

I have this thing about me, this catalyst, that brings out hate in people, and I wonder about it,” she says. “I think I may have always worn it around me, I think it is why I was always picked on, which is why I don’t blame anybody. No matter where I go, or what context I’m in, I seem to provoke people, and I enjoy it. I was the ultimate Christ of the schoolyard. “One night at the Underworld in London, on our first English tour, there was this entire contingent of guys who kept yelling, ‘Slut, whore,’ and I dived on them, and they just shoved their . . . it was intense. I got (groped) by the crowd, and it was very insane. And I got back up on stage with nothing on, and then they rushed the stage and started grabbing us, and Jill and Caroline just couldn’t deal with it. That’s why they’re not in the group anymore. . . . I want a bass player who will be like Elvis Presley. I want a bass player who will stand on stage in front of 80,000 people with her shirt off.”

Bigger than the Pixies, then!

“A few months ago I went to Martin Luther King Day at my old junior high in Eugene, which used to be an ass-kicking, Led Zeppelin, evil, stoner high school,” she says. “Now all the girls are like Sassy readers with Nirvana shirts and little dreadlocks and nose rings. My God! No matter what has happened, no matter the order of being, if the charts were just and fair and the Pixies and Nirvana and Hole were the most . . . I’d probably start listening to Poison. I don’t want utopia, I want cacophony.”

[catboygretzky]

not to uhhhh ………… take focus away from the heresy and lactation, but, what are your thoughts about the worlds rosters we've seen so far? how are we feeling? any pre tournament Hot Takes?

NOT TO TAKE FOCUS AWAY FROM THE HERESY AND LACTATION I LITERALLY CANNOT FUNCTION BC OF MY ASK

to note: i am indeed american with a quebecois mother, so that’s what i’ll be focusing on. ALSO i’m a british citizen (it’s a lot)

umm well i’m excited to see jason robertson on the US roster, and i love the fact that i have NO idea who the fuck is on team usa (ok that isn’t fair to the US, there are some players that i know, but the team IS relatively unknown and unestablished). i’m also curious to see what brian boyle is going to be like, but not to the extent that hockey media seem to be? i think he’ll help a lot in the room. also jake oettinger was having a pretty good season all things considered!

i understand WHY they aren’t going, but there are a handful of american players i’ll miss very much or wish would have come, but probably won’t see at worlds again unless they win the cup and olympic gold.

but honestly for the usa it feels like a learning experience for some young kids (which is common for NA rosters at worlds). i can’t imagine them doing too well, but i never want to underestimate a team and also they are to win gold at every international competition. obviously.

canada i have a LITTLE more faith in, even if their goaltending is a little sus (but honestly, there wasn’t much to choose from). as a devs fan, i’m excited to see adam henrique, the sexiest man alive and have a feeling he’ll be captain? regardless, he’s sexy.

it certainly isn’t the 2015 roster, but i’m reallllly excited to see some of these guys! i love that there are players still in juniors because i just think they’re neat.png! i think troy stetcher and brandon hagel will both have a BIG impact as well, and i don’t want to underestimate connor brown (i got yelled at by leafs fans for forgetting to talk about him, happy now leafs fans?)

again, it’s obvious they’re treating worlds like a learning experience (again) which is totally fine and valid, and honestly young guys/guys that didn’t just play an nhl season are way more likely to decide to come.

BUT I’M ALSO VERY EXCITED TO SEE TEAM GB BECAUSE THEY’RE SO BAD BUT THEY’RE MY BAD TEAM AND WHILE NONE OF THE ROSTER IS FROM MY NUMBER EIHL (THE BRITISH HOCKEY LEAGUE) TEAM THERE’S FOUR FROM MY SECOND FAVOURITE. also to note for nhl fans: coyotes prospect liam kirk will be there! they’re the most underdogs of underdogs but it was the best thing in the world to see them beat FRANCE of all teams to stay with the big boys.

anyway

this was..............very rambly, and if you got to the end and understood this at all, bless u

[superman86to99]

Superman #84 (December 1993)

Superman takes a short Paris vacation! Like, one day short. What's the worst that could happen?

Oh, man.

So, for the past few issues, we've been hearing about children being abducted in Metropolis. Now we see that they're being kept inside a giant toy house by some creepy bald man in Quasimodo clothes who seems to be obsessed with toys -- a "Man of Toys," if you will. Side note: no wonder the children haven't been found... all the articles about them are just gibberish! (See clip below.)

The kidnapper thinks that these kids' parents don't deserve them, and that they're much better off here, in an underground hideout with a man who threatens to starve them if they don't play with him. (And I do mean literally play, with action figures and stuff.) Meanwhile, as these children cry for help, Superman is having the time of his life. While helping move a stranded ship with some huge-ass chains, Superman spots a sunken galleon with a treasure chest inside and fantasizes about keeping the booty...

...before turning it over to the authorities anyway, the big boy scout. Then, he wakes up Lois at 6 AM and tells her they should go to Paris right now, which usually means your significant other is having a mental breakdown, but in this case they can actually do it. And so, after deciding that he deserves to use his powers for fun every once in a while, Superman and Lois drop everything and fly to France with super-speed for the rest of the day/issue.

Anyway: back to the child abduction! Cat Grant and her son Adam attend a Halloween party at Adam's school, but there's a disturbed weirdo in a hideous costume lurking among the crowd. Yes, I'm talking about Jimmy Olsen in his Turtle Boy suit.

Shortly after that, a guy in a dinosaur costume (see, all the creeps are dressed as reptiles) lures Adam out of the party with the promise of "superb video games." What child could resist that? Of course, that turns out to be the kidnapper and Adam ends up in his hideout along with the rest of the missing children and, worst of all, not a single "Lextendo" console.

The kidnapper gets angry at Adam when he refers to the toys at the hideout as "old-fashioned junk" (he was REALLY looking forward to those video games), and even angrier when Adam tries to free the other kids. Adam is brave and puts up a good fight, but...

And those were Adam Morgan's final words. "Uh-oh."

Next, we have a pretty harrowing scene of Detective Turpin letting Cat know Adam’s body was found, and Jimmy and Perry White taking her to the morgue to identify the body (most people probably wouldn't bring their former boss to something like that, but Perry sadly knows more than most about losing a kid). As for Lois and Clark, they were gone so long that the Daily Planet had time to print a headline about the murders. The issue ends when the lovebirds walk into the office smiling like two people who just spent the night fooling around in Paris... only to feel like jackasses when they find out what happened.

To be continued!

Character-Watch:

And that's it for little Adam Morgan who, unlike the also tragically diseased Jerry White, didn't even get any post-death appearances. Adam went from a little kid scared of Superman, to a huge brat, to a character who was approaching likeability as of last week. That's why I hate it when DC kills off young characters like Adam or Liam Harper: in long-form storytelling, children represent potential. Look at how much Wally West or Dick Grayson evolved over the years compared to their mentors! Sure, there's a huge probability that Adam would have ended up disappearing from comics for 25 years anyway, but who knows, maybe we'd now know him as Teen Gangbuster or something. GangbusTEEN.

This issue also represents a turning point for the kidnapper, who is never named or seen clearly in the story itself but I don't think I'm shocking anyone by spoiling the fact that he's Toyman (it's in the cover, for one thing). In his last two appearances before this storyline, Toyman helped Superman save some kids from Sleez and looked genuinely sad to learn about Superman's death, so this is a pretty dramatic change for the character. We'll find out why he went from big softy to child killer in Superman #85 (but don't get your hopes up).

Plotline-Watch:

The most disturbing part of the issue, all things considered, is still the part where Toyman climbs into a giant crib and hugs a huge stuffed bunny. Look at serial killer Tommy Pickles here:

Don Sparrow says:  “Even with the upgrade, Toyman is still just a man in a suit, a common complaint about Superman’s rogues gallery.” Funny you should say that, because I JUST shared an old Wizard interview in our Twitter in which Dan Jurgens talks about how Doomsday came out of his frustration with the fact that most Superman villains are dudes in suits (plus other interesting tidbits from the era, like how it was actually Roger Stern’s idea to bring back Hank Henshaw, so check out that link!).

Don again: “The entire Superman storyline of this issue feels like filler. Diving for buried treasure and soaring off to Paris -- it all feels like wasted time next to the Adam storyline.” I have a theory that the entire ship sequence is there as an excuse to put Superman in those big chains and make that Spawn joke (which I didn’t get until now, since I’ve always read this issue in Spanish).

Superman says that pulling that big ship was "a little easier than expected" -- that's either another hint that there's something going on with Superman's powers since he came back, or a subtle dig at the state of American ship manufacturing.

Another adorable "window tap" scene for the books, and this is the sexiest one so far. Is it me or has Jurgens started copying more than just Teri Hatcher's hairdo from Lois & Clark? (For anyone who thinks Lois has gotten implants, I refer you to this clip.)

While in Paris, Lois asks Clark if he's ever wondered what would happen if his rocket had landed in other countries. Don: “Clark’s conversation with Lois sounds like a bunch of concepts for Elseworlds stories. We eventually would see a Russian Superman, and a British Superman, but not yet the French Superman. (Hire us, DC!)” Yep, got my French Superman pitch ready, Jim Lee. Or just let us do Russian Superman again, since Red Son wasn’t even the first time you published that idea.

Don once more: “Another thing that makes no sense about the ‘new’ Toyman is his resentment of technological toys—when in previous appearances he himself had deadly high-tech toys to vex Superman over the years.” I especially resent his hatred of video game consoles. Incidentally, I wonder what types of games are available for Adam’s beloved Lextendo. Star Lex 64? Mega Man Lex? Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles & Lex?

No one is more upset at Lois and Clark for going AWOL than Whit. NO ONE. He's so furious that his usually grey mustache turned black.

Patreon-Watch:

As always, shout out to our patrons, Aaron, Murray Qualie, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Samuel Doran, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush and Raphael Fischer! Last month’s exclusive Patreon article was about the recently unearthed sequel to Superman 64 for the PlayStation, featuring Metallo, Parasite, and Lois looking even hotter than in this issue:

Hot damn. Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99!

And believe it or not, Don Sparrow has even more to say about this issue. Read his section after the jump:

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

I should start off my section with a big caveat:  I flat out hate this issue. There were several weird decisions made in the post-Death-and-Return era (most of them along the same lines of making the Superman titles more grim-and-gritty), and this story was one of the worst of them.  My theory is that, despite the praise and record-breaking sales of the Death and Return storyline, the Superman creative team felt pressure to have more extreme storylines, perhaps in response to the wildly successful Image books coming out at the time.  Between this story, and the upcoming “Spilled Blood” storyline, the Super books take a hard—but temporary--turn into more violent and upsetting storytelling—even though these stories are by the same writers as the previous few years. While death has always been a part of comics, and Superman comics was no exception, there is a jarring glibness and unfeeling toward the way violence is handled in these pages that is quite different from the stories that preceded it.  It’s made all the more jarring by the fact that well-established personalities suddenly veer wildly out of character, Toyman chief among them.  

We start with the cover, and while it is technically well-drawn (by the familiar team of Jurgens and Breeding) it’s also a very upsetting visual.  I think they should have gone with the pieta type pose with Adam and Superman, OR the scary badass bowie-knife Toyman (who apparently has a Cheshire cat smile now) but not both.  But the cover is a good hint at the tonal dissonance of the comic within.

We open with a splash of the now-extreme 90s looking Toyman, with his serial killer shaved head and spooky cloak, ignoring the pleas of hungry kids he has locked up in a tiny jail cell for days at a time (if that sentence doesn’t ring alarm bells for how wrong this is for a Superman story, I don’t know what will). For much of the issue Toyman’s eyes are obscured by glare on his lenses, further de-humanizing a character who was once one of Superman’s more empathetic bad guys.

We cut to Superman tugboating a huge tanker with giant chains and it’s a cool visual (one repeated in the Batman V Superman film).  It feels especially out of place to focus on, given how upsetting this issue is otherwise, but throughout the whole comic, Lois is drawn smoking hot, especially on the two page spread on pages 9-10.

The scenes depicting the actual murder, while still wildly out of place in a Superman comic, are well done, and give a real sense of darkness and menace, which I suppose is the intent.  Perhaps my least favourite visual is the Big Bird stuffie, silently bearing witness to what’s about to occur.

The edges of the panels on get more slashy and off-kilter (to me, looking very much like the layouts more typically seen in Image comics of the day) and I suppose I appreciate the restraint of how little Dan Jurgens shows of the death of a child, showing only a bloody slash on a black background.  This is still a pretty baroque image for a Superman comic, but certainly less violent than it could be, given what is happening.

Cat Grant’s silent horror is well staged, and powerful in its way.   Lastly, Clark Kent bending in sorrow and regret is a powerful image.

While this issue is handled marginally better, and more maturely than other comics on the shelf at this time, I still believe it is one of the biggest mistakes of the era.  Giving a long-established character an unceremonious death for shock value is gross on its own, but making it a child definitely crosses a line for me.  Making it worse is that, while the Toyman is a criminal and a killer, he has shown in past issues (a similar kidnapping storyline involving Sleez) that he genuinely cares for the well-being of children.  So for a long-time reader, this also felt like a betrayal of a long-established, fully developed character.   Adding to the ugliness of this is that Adam dies heroically, trying to free the children who have been caged, unfed, for days, but even in that regard, he fails.  The headline at the end of the issue confirms all the children are dead.  Adam’s death did not buy the other kids enough time to get away. It was all for nothing. Had Adam died, but the other children lived, maybe this issue wouldn’t leave quite as bad a taste. [Max: It’s weird because it’s all told in a way where it’s told in a way where it would make sense, narratively and within the story universe, that the other kids survived, but then it’s almost casually revealed that nope, they died too. A scene of one of the kids relaying Adam’s heroism to Cat in a future issue would have gone a long way.]

Superman doesn’t come off well in these pages, either.  It’s honestly the type of story they should just stay away from, because the more you think about all the calamity that is going on around the clock, the less defensible the whole Clark Kent persona becomes. Superman carving out time to romance his fiancée directly led to the preventable deaths of innocent children—how do you come back from that?

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

I’m always looking for hints that perhaps Jimmy or Perry know Superman’s secret identity deep down, and Jimmy’s anger at Lois and Clark on their return to the Daily Planet offices would seem to give that theory some credence, as he’s as angry at them as if he knew Clark really were Superman.  Either that, or he’s ticked that it fell to him, and none of them to escort Cat into the morgue. [Max: Has this issue finally converted you to the “Jimmy is terrible” side now, Don?]

I don’t think I’m the only one who disliked the new Toyman—SPOILERS BE HERE: years later, in Action Comics #865, Geoff Johns retconned this whole story, reverting Schott into the criminal who over-relates to kids, rather than the child-killer of this story.  Apparently the infantile Schott, who speaks to “Mother” a la Norman Bates, is a robot so lifelike it fools even Superman, and the “Mother” he’s constantly replying to was the real Winslow Schott trying to recall the malfunctioning robot. [Max: That’s one Geoff Johns retcon I really didn’t mind, even if it felt kind of derivative of his similar “all the Brainiacs are robots made by the real Brainiac” reveal.]

[tabloidtoc]

People, May 3

Cover: Prince William and Prince Harry: Brothers United in Grief

Page 3: Chatter -- Steven Yeun on being asked about the Oscars never having had an Asian American Best Actor nominee before, Jessica Biel on her and Justin Timberlake's kids Silas and Phineas bonding, Viola Davis on finding success later in life, Justin Bieber on growing from previous drug use and other mistakes, John Stamos on understanding why the Olsen twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen didn't return to Fuller House, Catherine Zeta-Jones on her and husband Michael Douglas discouraging their kids from pursuing acting

Page 4: 5 Things We're Talking About -- Courteney Cox puts her inner Monica on display, there's a bubble tea shortage, Downton Abbey returns, Indiana Jones chooses wisely, Serena Williams aces a TV deal

Page 6: Contents

Page 8: The Academy of Country Music Awards -- Carrie Underwood, CeCe Winans

Page 9: Mickey Guyton, Thomas Rhett, Maren Morris and her husband Ryan Hurd, Elle King showed off her growing baby bump on the red carpet with pal Miranda Lambert

Page 10: Stars on Set -- Adam Driver sported a pair of statement glasses as he biked around Rome while filming the fashion biopic House of Gucci, Patrick Dempsey stayed in character while filming the thriller series Devils in Rome, Gabrielle Union flashed a peace sign as she left the L.A. set of the upcoming reimagined Cheaper by the Dozen

Page 11: Nicole Kidman embodied Lucille Ball while shooting the new Aaron Sorkin film Being the Ricardos, Reese Witherspoon brought her dog Minnie Pearl to work while filming the next season of The Morning Show in L.A., Anya Taylor-Joy wore a black jumpsuit to film a Tiffany & Co. commercial under NYC's Manhattan Bridge, Niall Horan and British pop star Anne Marie goofed off in a vintage convertible while shooting a music video in Essex, England

Page 12: StarTracks -- Pretty Little Liars star Brant Daugherty and actress wife Kim welcomed their first child together -- a son named Wilder David, Saweetie performed at the Triller Fight Club: Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren boxing match in Atlanta, Christian Bale showed off his newly shaved head during a run on the beach in Sydney where he's filming Thor: Love and Thunder, The X-Files stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny reunited in a selfie shared on Instagram with her dog Stella who photobombed the longtime friends

Page 14: Jennifer Lawrence and her husband Cooke Maroney made a rare public appearance together to grab an early dinner in NYC, Ricky Martin performed at the Latin American Music Awards in Sunrise, Florida, Julia Roberts as the new ambassadress for luxury brand Chopard

Page 17: Scoop -- Controversy after Colton Underwood comes out

Page 18: Pete Davidson's romance with Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor

Page 19: Heart Monitor -- Ashley Benson and G-Eazy back on?, Christian Siriano and Brad Walsh divorcing, Harry Connick Jr. and Jill Goodacre happy anniversary, Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian heating up

Page 23: Scarlett Johansson on life and love in lockdown

* Baby Boom -- J Balvin and Valentina Ferrer are expecting a baby together, Tan and Rob France on the way to being parents through a surrogate

Page 25: Ken Jeong fighting the pandemic and Asian hate

* Scott Foley on his big new moves

Page 26: Open House -- Jimmy Fallon's quirky and colorful NYC penthouse

Page 29: Wedding -- Raven Gates and Adam Gottschalk -- after postponing their wedding three times, the Bachelor in Paradise couple tie the knot in an intimate ceremony

Page 30: Passages, a Harry Potter star dies at 52 -- acclaimed British actress Helen McCrory, who played Narcissa Malfoy, died of cancer at her home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family, said her husband Damian Lewis

Page 31: Anguish and renewed pleas for change after a fatal traffic stop -- yet another unarmed Black man, Daunte Wright, is killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, sparking more protests nationwide

* Why I Care -- as chairman of the Motion Picture Television Fund (MPTF), award-winning producer Jeffrey Katzenberg helps raise millions to support colleagues in the entertainment industry

Page 32: Stories to make you smile -- a baby girl and her puppy double up on cuteness, a 12-year-old raises money to buy laptops for kids in need

Page 35: People Picks -- Shadow and Bone

Page 36: Home Economics, One to Watch -- Kung Fu's Olivia Liang

Page 37: Things Heard & Seen, Life in Color with David Attenborough

Page 38: The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Couples Therapy

Page 39: A Black Lady Sketch Show, Eric Church -- Heart & Soul, Q&A with Chelsea Frei

Page 41: Books

Page 42: Cover Story -- Prince William and Prince Harry united in grief -- after a difficult year apart, the brothers come together to honor their grandfather Prince Philip

Page 50: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez -- why they couldn't make it work -- after four years together, the power couple are officially split. What went wrong, and what's next for the stars

Page 52: Vanished: Help Us Find These Kids -- the families of these missing children desperately hope to find them, and authorities could be just one clue away from bringing them home

Page 59: Tom Jones -- life is more precious every day -- the music legend opens up about healing after losing his wife of 59 years to cancer, and why he never wants to slow down

Page 62: Julianna Margulies -- what I know now -- from a tumultuous childhood to fame and fortune (and crushing on George Clooney along the way), the wife, mom and Emmy winner, now out with a memoir, reflects on her lucky life

Page 66: Cindy McCain -- love, loss and life after John -- three years after John McCain's death, his widow shares the ups and downs of life at his side, and how she's finally coming into her own

Page 70: Michael B. Jordan -- I'm in a great place -- halfway into his reign, the Sexiest Man Alive is living his action-movie dream, and he's in love

Page 75: Why I'm Grateful for the Vaccine -- a double dose of destiny -- their 1955 polio vaccinations made the local news. Now they're married, and celebrating their COVID-19 vaccines

Page 77: Mother's Day Gift Guide -- celebrity moms choose perfect presents to give (and get) -- Kate Hudson

Page 78: Ayesha Curry

Page 80: Amanda Kloots

Page 83: Spring's Big Jewelry Trend -- beaded pieces are everywhere right now

Page 88: One Last Thing -- Elizabeth Perkins

[47burlm]

BOND JAMES BOND

“Connery set the style of how Bond looked, dressed, made love, smoked ... drank, handled a gun, drove a car — even what type of car he drove. ... Every Bond since Connery can't help but be compared with him.”

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer. He is best known as the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again) between 1962 and 1983.

Sean Connery, the ruggedly handsome Scottish actor who shot to international stardom in the 1960s after introducing himself to movie audiences as “Bond. James Bond,” has died. He was 90. Connery, who two decades later won an Academy Award playing a Prohibition-era Irish-American cop in “The Untouchables,” his family confirmed to BBC. A commanding screen presence throughout his long career, Connery came to define British novelist Ian Fleming’s dashing and deadly secret agent who preferred his vodka martinis shaken, not stirred. Other actors have officially portrayed Bond in films — David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig — but for many moviegoers, there was only one 007. A tuxedo-clad Connery famously introduced himself as Bond to a beautiful young woman — and to the audience — while playing chemin de fer in “Dr. No,” the 1962 action-thriller that launched one of the most successful movie franchises of all time.

Connery began acting in smaller theatre and television productions until his breakout role as British secret agent James Bond garnered him international recognition. Although the Scotsman did not like the off-screen attention the role gave him, the success brought film offers from famed directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and John Huston for dramatic roles, which made him a successful actor and major film star. Those films included Marnie (1964), The Hill (1965) Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), and Finding Forrester (2000). Connery retired from acting in 2006.

His achievements in film have been recognized with an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (including a Fellowship Award), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award. He was also a recipient of the US Kennedy Center Honors lifetime achievement award in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama.

Connery was polled in a 2004 Sunday Herald as "The Greatest Living Scot" and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". He was voted by People magazine as both the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century" in 1999.

[monicalorandavis]

The Crown is back: Colman’s rule.

Olivia Colman is so good we’re all like, “Claire who?“

And slow your roll. I stan The Crown. I gobble up all things British royal family. My favorite house in Game of Thrones is House Windsor. And y’all don’t even know about it because in spite of it being the most vicious, it is also the most secretive. The Windsors are horrible and seductive and, above all else, secretive, and now you’re beginning to understand, that I truly ride for The Crown and those shady goofballs of Buckingham Palace (though Prince Andrew can kick rocks TODAY).

So I know The Crown. I know how good Claire Foy was. I left season 2 in shambles. How dare she leave us? We’d just come around to Elizabeth! Her life, with all her dull, unfashionable, yet dependable ways were imbued with a tenderness that Claire Foy brought. The young Queen that so many of us know is a portrait that Claire Foy created during her two astounding seasons. Peter Morgan struck gold with the first cast. And, as everyone will tell you, as good as Claire Foy was, we shall not forget to give Matt Smith his props. Oh baby, can he act.

Prince Philip, by all estimations, should be an insufferable, entitled man-child. And while he is all of that, he is so, so much more. Meticulously researched, The Crown delved into Philip’s childhood of abandonment and isolation. His air of indignation was as much with the world who’d let him down in his early years as it was indignation with himself.

And from there - from the personal insecurities that tie us all together in this fabric of humanity, did we find the heart and soul of Elizabeth and Philip. We fell in love with Matt Smith and Claire Foy as they seemingly fell in love with each other and embarked on their path as husband and wife. Something about them, actors and royals, just works. A natural chemistry emerged. Even when Philip is horrible (and he’s horrible sort of a lot), I rooted for him. I even rooted for Philip when he screwed around. But how he begged Elizabeth to take him back still remains one of my favorite moments of the entire series. Not very “I am woman, hear me roar” of me, but nonetheless, I rooted.

And while the first two seasons took place nearly 60 years ago, you’d think I’d be bored to death by the predictability of every story line. Yet, I know nothing. (We’re still decades from Princess Di and the crash that turned everyone’s attention onto Buckingham Palace.) The public eye should make the show predictable. And yet, we only know their public personas. (What would someone know of you if they’d only seen photographs?)

They live behind a window of double paned secrecy. We think we’re looking in, or rather, being let in, but we’ve never been privy to their private conversation. We’ve never heard who they really are.

Enter season 3. The middle age years.

Not the sexiest time frame, admittedly, but it does provide a new element into the royal marriage to which we can all relate - informality. These are people who have been through some shit. They’ve let go of pretending in their marriage and, too, to some degree, in their public personas. Long gone are the days of wearing makeup to bed and only eating salads. These are two grown people who have settled into marriage for the long haul. Yes, they nearly called it quits, but they fought through it, had some kids, and now they’re suffering through the normal bumps of having children - Are they normal? Will they fit in? Are we screwing them up? (For those keeping track at home: no, no, and yes.) But the gift of middle age could also be a curse for the actor portraying the royals during their “regular” years.

However, a curse it is not. 

Left in the hands of Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies, the characters of Elizabeth and Philip have never sizzled with such lived-in chemistry and humor. And I am using “humor” here very, very loosely. These are not people who take to spontaneous fits of giggles. Instead, the tight-lipped chuckles Colman’s Elizabeth elicits from Menzies’ Philip ring loud, brightening the face of a man who, at any moment, looks like he’d rather be anywhere but where he has the misfortune of finding himself.

For whatever reason Prince Philip only becomes more charming the more bristled he becomes. Whether this forever annoyance is a natural trait of Tobias Menzies or not is of no importance because, boy, he does it well.

The ungodly rich perform disinterest like it’s an Olympic sport and Menzies’ Philip is an all-time gold-medal winning champ. His face holds entire chapters of stories he refuses to tell. But just under the surface, Menzies shows us the tiniest flickering of light behind the eyes. You see, to be enthused is to admit interest, which is basically announcing that you care, and to care is just so, so dreadfully middle-class. No, no. These are people who wouldn’t care if their house was on fire. They’d buy a new one...a bigger one!

We should hate them. But, we don’t, and, we won’t, I fear.

I fear it because I hold onto the idea of democracy. Fair elections. Proper representation. All of that. We’re Americans. We fought the British. We should rule ourselves.

But then again, should we?

Trump got elected in a democratic America (if you count all that voter suppression and constant meddling from Russian moles it starts looking less so). And I think even the knuckleheads who elected him regret their decision.  We’ve shown the world that democracy is a weapon in the hands of fools.

But tabling the larger political conversation for now, I push on. This, so far, has been a seamless transition from cast 1 to cast 2. And I would be remiss if I did not sprinkle a few words of praise onto Helena Bonham Carter’s portrayal of Princess Margaret. Talk about a revelation. (To be fair, I find Carter to be one of the most underused actresses of today so for her to have found her way onto one of my favorite shows, I could not be happier.) She is an actress that enlivens every role with a unique strangeness that never feels fraudulent.

Princess Margaret, ever the counter to her sister, grows even further from Elizabeth in middle age. Desperate for her place in the royal family, and her marriage, she flounders in excessive drinking. Her husband is distant, running off to corners of the world without any notice, leaving her to her own devices where she finds herself regretfully unfulfilled.

In a lesser actress’ hands, a rich, bored, drunk lady would come across a whole lot more Real Housewives of Orange County, but this is a woman that Carter has sunk her teeth into. Margaret is the role of a lifetime. The tragically younger, thus, forgotten sister to Elizabeth. Margaret always craved the spotlight and reveled in it. As queen, she would’ve made waves. She would’ve reinvented the entire monarchy. It’s the exact reason she was pushed to the margins. And Helena Bonham Carter does not exist in the margins. Ever the rebel, like Margaret, these are women who were born to perform. The parallels don’t stop there.

Carter herself is a woman that’s perhaps never been taken seriously enough in Hollywood. Yes she’s won BAFTA’s but stateside she’s never garnered the praise I thought she should. Has she, like Margaret, grown tired of living in the shadows? Could it be that through the role of Princess Margaret, Helena Bonham Carter has found the perfect disguise to finally get the proper recognition from Hollywood? I think yes. I think we’re watching the start of a second act for her.

The royals, though they possess a treasured space in pop culture in the States, also represent an old-timey class system that is deeply un-American. The Brits have their complicated feelings towards the royals, too. But we can look on at the royal family as these glamorous, bored robots. They affect none of our political decisions. They don’t even seem completely human. They aren’t on our currency, our stamps. So we can remain distant and removed. We can watch the stories about them, true or fictional, and restrain judgment. And that feels very...British.

[welcometothebookreport]

(Note: rating scale for 2020 is out of seven. 1 being ‘don’t touch with a 39 ½ foot pole’ and 7 being ‘I’ve likely screeched into the void so loud and excitedly that I summoned a demon’.)

3. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston 

Rating: 7

Warnings: Discussion of attempted non-con assault, forced disclosure of sexuality

Favorite Line: I HAVE SO MANY. Sorry not sorry.

“Henry is still in his full polo regalia, gloves and all, and Alex can’t decide if he is pleased or wants to brain him with a polo stick. Polo bat? Polo club? Polo … mallet? This sport is a travesty.”

“Listen,” Henry is saying, heated, over the phone on a Thursday night. “I don’t give a damn what Joanne has to say, Remus John Lupin is gay as the day is long, and I won’t hear a word against it.”

“The phrase “see attached bibliography” is the single sexiest thing you have ever written to me.”

“Did that man just say ‘sweat drop down my balls’?”

“I’m having my entire life haunted by a deranged American Neanderthal and a pair of turkeys, apparently.”

“Let’s see. Dog’s name?” “David,” Alex says. “He’s a beagle. I remember because, like, who does that? Who names a dog David? He sounds like a tax attorney. Like a dog tax attorney. Drink.”

“You do realize America is a genocidal empire too, right?” “Yes, June, but at least we have the decency not to keep a monarchy around,” Alex says, throwing a pistachio at her.

Thoughts: Alex and Henry, complete with a supporting cast, discover that their long-standing rivalry was actually something much deeper. While Alex’s mom (the first female President of the United States) campaigns for re-election, Henry is just trying to get through scandals the UK paparazzi continue to throw at the British Royal Family.

Sharp, clever, witty, timely. This book is perfect and that’s a hill I’ll die on.

[fuckyeahjamieandclaire]

There are great reasons to watch Starz’s period romance drama “Outlander,” starting with the sex and sometimes ending with the sex. But for now, I’d like to praise what happens between the show’s main characters when they are clothed.

Okay, that’s only a small lie. Even the most serious-minded “Outlander” fan is at least partly tuned in/turned on every Sunday night in hopes of seeing more of the enthusiastic lovemaking (glowingly demonstrated by stars Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan) that propels this epic. It’s difficult to think of another cable series that wields its adult content — and the chemistry between its co-stars — so maturely.

Anyway, this is meant to be a piece about how “Outlander,” now in the middle of a satisfyingly strong fourth season, is the only show around in which a man and a woman — an 18th-century Scottish Highlander named Jamie Fraser (Heughan) and his time-traveling wife, a 20th-century English doctor named Claire Randall Fraser (Balfe, who just got a Golden Globe nomination for her work on the show) — have found a way to truly communicate. What more could we need from a TV series in 2018 than to see two adults persist against all odds by listening to one another?

For the record, other discerning viewers find plenty to dislike about “Outlander,” particularly around its handling of sexual violence — or the constant, close-call threats of it. For such a dumb-looking show, “Outlander” manages to start a lot of conversations and arguments.

Yet the show’s heart, I’ve found, is almost always in the right place. Despite a rocky and even abusive start to their relationship, Jamie and Claire found the kind of love that benefits from talking, from sharing information as well as their deepest feelings. It’s the one show where two people will actually stop in the middle of the action to check in, emotionally, and bring one another up to speed.

Not that they get a lot of time for that. Each week Claire and Jamie endure every possible calamity that can befall a white, heterosexual, married couple in the 1770s — at least one life-threatening crisis per episode. Together and separately they have so far survived the culture-shock of time travel along with war, torture, imprisonment, attempted sexual assaults, a rape (in a provocative twist, Jamie was the rape victim, not Claire), parenthood, separation, ocean crossings, palace intrigue, disease, grave injury, pirates, bandits, robbers, smugglers, witches, a hurricane and a shipwreck. 

In Season 4, Jamie and Claire establish a small settlement in the mountains of North Carolina, just before the American Revolution. In addition to dealing once more with sneering redcoats and the stirrings of anti-British rebellion, there are other, uniquely American problems to face: angry mobs of aggrieved slave-owners out for a lynching; tentative relations with the Cherokee tribe across the creek; and a neighboring houseful of Lutherans with a deadly case of the measles. The list goes on — sometimes laughably so.

“Outlander’s” best moments are found in those smaller, more insular moments in which Jamie and Claire see the world through one another’s perspectives. TV is full of couples who misconstrue, raise volumes, ignore key issues, assign blame, gossip to outside confidants about spousal shortcomings, disappoint in the bedroom and storm out of the house a lot. The technical term for that is conflict and most writers of relationship stories would be lost without it.

Which is why, the more you watch “Outlander,” the more you see just how intentionally it veers from prestige TV’s frustrating parade of toxic, temperamental couplings — everything from “You’re the Worst” to “The Affair” to “Camping.” Jamie and Claire deal with all sorts of external melodramatic dangers, but together they might as well be gorgeous unicorns. They don’t bicker. They don’t interrupt one another. He doesn’t ramble on about battlefield heroics; she doesn’t start in with monologues about electricity and indoor plumbing.

Their presence within a shared present asks the viewer: When was the last time anyone really heard what you were saying?

"Outlander" is faithfully based on Diana Gabaldon's best-selling novels, an appealingly cerebral commingling of the romance, fantasy and historical fiction genres, with just a touch of sci-fi thrown in and a refreshingly modern take on relationships that rejects the usual Mars/Venus dynamic. r

It’s not surprising that women make up most of the show’s fan base (even though the occasional “Outmander” finds his way in, and the series was developed by a male showrunner, Ronald D. Moore). I’ve seen groups of “Outlander” fans waiting outside news conferences for the show in Los Angeles, sitting quietly but excitedly in the lobby, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cast members or Gabaldon herself. It’s almost as if they are on security detail, making sure nobody mucks up their treasured characters and stories, which is perfectly understandable. Such devotion helped “Outlander” sustain relatively high ratings among cable dramas, with about 1.5 million viewers watching new episodes within the week.

Even with all its twists and turns and screen-steaming love scenes, “Outlander” continues to feel like a worthwhile progression. Jamie’s rebellious streak may tempt him to commit occasional (necessary) crimes, but his devotion to Claire has helped him evolve into a thoughtful gentleman of the Enlightenment.

And Claire is wise about what she tells Jamie about the future. As they take in a jaw-dropping western vista from a Carolina mountaintop, she speaks generally of just how far this new country will push forward — and the immigrant dreamers who will populate it. She helps him see the injustice of the slave trade that thrives all around them. She conveys the long (and correct) view of Native American rights. She asserts her own rights as a spouse and a professional; Jamie is quick to introduce his wife to strangers as an accomplished “healer.”

It’s easy to locate a feminist theme here, as many viewers already have: Jamie is a changed man because he met a smart, open-minded woman from the future who has challenged everything he once knew.

How could he not be improved by the experience — this giant, scarred slab of man-candy in a kilt, who once believed he owned Claire simply because he married her? And how can we not see the show as a lesson in brute reform?

Aye, but here’s the real beauty of “Outlander”: The exchange is mutual. She’s as much changed by him as he is by her. His masculinity is as instructive as her femininity. His wisdom complements hers. Even when their candlelit sex scenes are the main draw, the body parts that are most impressive are their ears.

Ask anyone who has traveled enough time with a significant other: Being heard as an equal partner is just as great — and sometimes better — than another roll in the hay.

[starlightinkwell]

Frank Sinatra. Foreward, Clive Hirschorn, Gene Kelly. 1974 If they ever get around to handing out Oscars for outstanding performance as a human being, you'll know where to find Ol' Blue Eyes - on the nominating committee for my old buddy, Gene Picturegoer.  September 14th 1946 W.H. Mooring. Gene Kelly Is Home Again “Don’t believe the stories they tell you in my publicity,” he says with a grin. Actually, if we did we would not go far wrong. Michael Coffey. The Irish In America. 1997 Gene Kelly was elegance and panache. Jack Wintz. St. Anthony Messenger. Catholic magazine. August 1980 Gene Kelly is something like the character he plays in Singin’ In The Rain. For he has always done his best to sing and dance his way through life’s storms, keeping his optimistic and disarming smile despite personal losses. He explains why he has tried to keep that singin’-in-the-rain spirit: “Cheerfulness and good humor have always been important values for me. Gloom doesn’t help anyone. My religious faith that God is good and doesn’t abandon his own – as well as my faith in life and in other people – sustains me in stormy times.” Picture Show. September 25th 1943 He would like to run the world on a ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ policy. Joe Pasternak on Gene: The two dirtiest words in the English language to him are “Second best.” Betsy Blair. The Memory Of All That. 2002 He was, for all his talent and intelligence, a man of the people. He never lost sight of his vision or succumbed to film star vanity. He fulfilled his youthful wish. He democratized the dance in movies. He gave me – and the world – an unforgettable legacy ofjoy... The Disney Channel Magazine. March/April 1988 Today the word star is used to describe any person – however humble – who has appeared in a motion picture. By that standard, Gene Kelly is more than a star – he is more than a legend. Kelly stands on a pinnacle, one of the supreme performers in American Film. As dancer and choreographer, actor, director and producer, he has left an indelible mark on American motion pictures. Movie Memos. Date unknown Gene has another gift...This one he gave to himself. It is his unassuming almost shy, modesty. He is very strong in his convictions opinions and ideas, but doesn't shout them from the housetops... Gene talks freely, fluently about anything and everything, except himself. But his admiring friends are always willing and ready to speak for him. Arthur Freed: Gene is one young man who will never have to worry about a job. He's a Jack-of-all-trades and master of them all. Movie Spotlight. August 1954 He is essentially a lone wolf. He confides in no one except his wife. On the surface their marriage would seem to be a casual affair. That’s because their understanding and accord are so deep they don’t need the usual outward manifestations. His soft, graceful manner on the screen is the real Kelly. He’s that way in his private life. He still takes off his hat in elevators when ladies are present. He has an instinctive appreciation for children. He treats them as equals and reserves a special grin and wink combination which never fails to put them at ease… He doesn’t complain about roles, and is completely without star temperament. He believes in the Biblical admonition to speak of one’s neighbor only if there is something good to say. He will perform at parties only if everyone else does… He is always pained when he hears people who have made their fame and fortune in Hollywood speak disparagingly about movies. Source unknown Whether you’re working with him or just being his friend, it ends up as your way of life. Carl Reiner One of the greatest entertainers of all time, always behind, in front and on the side of good causes. Edward G Robinson The most forthright and decent of citizens Patrick Sisam. News Of The World, British tabloid newspaper speacialising in sleaze! October 2008 I could try to find something snappy to say about Gene Kelly, but I’m not sure a more squeaky clean actor has ever walked (or danced) the face of the earth. Must be all that cleansing rain. Hedy Lamarr I think Gene Kelly is a marvellous entertainer, a friendly soul who’s a delight to watch or be with Walter Winchell …the most versatile in showbiz- an actor-singer-dancer-choreographer-film and stage director. Stanley Donen 1996 When one is down and wants to be cheered up, watch Gene Kelly Movieland. 1948 The thing that makes Gene Kelly unusual, he’s a generous person. He isn’t out to trample on the other guys while getting to the top himself. Christopher Walken. TCM tribute With his handsome face and his charismatic smile he was a natural leading man and that small scar added a rugged quality to his everyman good looks. The ladies loved him, he was charming, sure of himself. Toyah Wilcox. British actress Gene Kelly! I mean, the sexiest man. That behind...ooooh!! Avis Scott, English actress Gene Kelly was a darling man Bob Fosse. He’s like a guy in your bowling team, only classier. Hollywood columnist Joyce Haber (one time ?‘love interest’ of Gene) You have to go a long way to find a man who compares to Gene. He’s so outgoing and thoughtful. Newspaper quote, source unknown, possibly 1941, New York: Gene Kelly, dancer, director, singer, comic, choreographer and all-round ball of fire. Motion Picture. January 1943 …In short, he has “socko” appeal – the kind of appeal that women love. His trick? It seems from here that it’s his smile – the most ingratiating smile you’ll see in a long time…As screen heroes go, Gene isn’t one of your handsome heroes. He’s no Adonis in face or figure. He even has a very prominent scar on his face…”Everyone’s been trying to get me to cover that scar up,” he said, “but why should I? Just covering the scar wouldn’t turn me into a glamour boy.” His voice is not romantic either. It hasn’t the tone or timbre that make women dream of being with Boyer on a tropical island. “I’m going to try to change my diction, though,” Gene explained. “I want to get that New York twang out of me if possible.” Gene has dark, slick hair that makes you think he might be Italian instead of Irish. But he’s as Irish as the ould sod…He’s five feet, ten. ”I’m really five feet, nine,” he says, But Betsy, my wife, says to tell everyone I’m five, ten, so I’ll make her happy.” He weighs 165. “I’m really only supposed to weigh 157, but the sunshine and food here, and the waiting around on the stage, have fattened me up." ...Gene hates to dress up…His initial appearance in Hollywood society was anything but outstanding. He had come home late from the studio and was supposed to attend an elaborate party that night, a charity affair….he had nothing to wear. Thinking fast, he called up Richard Whorf and borrowed his pants. He had on the coat he had been wearing in Dubarry that day, so he kept it on. The only shoes he had, however, were the ones he had worn in New York in Pal Joey and they were practically falling to pieces. Then Tommy Dorsey completed the make-shift by lending him his studs. “I felt like a country hick,” Gene Laughed. “If anyone had asked me to dance, I’d have definitely lost my pants. I was hiking them up all evening – and praying that I’d get out without any embarrassing damage.”