DramatistDreamer

This pretty adorable photo of Marisa Tomei (Marci Thompson, ATWT) and Cree Summer was taken at the rehearsal dinner for Zoë Kravitz (daughter of Lisa Bonet & Lenny Kravitz) in Paris last month. Both Marisa and Cree are Zoë's godmothers. Too bad we never got to see all three on ADW at the same time, I have a feeling that Cree and Marisa would've been a riot!

I forgot that in this country, only white men are allowed to get mad.

I was born on the end spectrum of GenX but GenX I am and I most certainly agree with this statement! Also, studies have been done that concluded that GenX gave the most (charitable works, volunteer) yet got the least back (predatory loans and school debt, predatory school loans, etc., dot-com bubble bursting just as careers were getting off the ground, etc.). These companies forging ahead with an agreement with California (that has the strictest regulations in the country) definitely is a rejection of the forthcoming Trump/E.P.A. rules (that are, of course trying to undo the Obama-era rules). The new agreement would be slightly less strict than the Obama era rules (about .5 mpg less strict) but still much stricter than the lax Trump E.P.A. proposal. The automakers say that the CA agreement would offer certainty across the board, while the Trump rule proposal would be chaotic and piecemeal, only offering uncertainty from state to state. It will be interesting to see whether other auto companies join onto the CA agreement or not.

Ha! A fake presidential seal for a pretend president.

Meanwhile GOP is imagine criminality in the Democratic party, they've got their own bonafide criminals all through their party.

I wonder how many non-U.S. players could get caught up in this issue.

As I understand, impeachment proceedings are set to begin soon for Rosselló.

I knew a long time ago that it would come to this--U.S. citizens being detained and held by ICE. I expected that some U.S. citizens would be detained just for looking foreign.

No worries.

Supposedly, there's a 'war of words' over healthcare being exchanged between Biden and Sanders, with people scolding both men for being nasty. I have heard nothing of this, although I admit to not paying much attention to either of them lately. I can't get too far into the election weeds so early.

I did say Southern African, which also includes Botswana and parts of Zimbabwe, not just South Africa but yeah, I know Wakanda is fiction although Xhosa is a real regional language. There certainly ought to be more than one movie about Tubman. Why it's taken this long is an embarrassment in and of itself.

There were a few mumurs about Oyelowo playing Dr. King but there was more criticism of Selma (and by extension DuVernay) in general. You're right, there was basically little to no complaining about Ejiofor perhaps because Steve McQueen, the director is British as well but I think the criticisms seemed to crystallize more after those movies had already been made. Get Out really brought those criticisms to the fore when Samuel L. Jackson did an interview in which he complained about the matter, so now it seems to be at the forefront of casting ever since. No one seems to recall the instances when American actors play African (Will Smith, Concussion) or Caribbean (the Jamaican characters in Luke Cage) characters and do a horrendous job of it. South Africans were pretty pleased when Idris Elba portrayed Nelson Mandela (even though the two men don't look alike). South Africans were also pretty over the moon when Black Panther came out (with Chadwick Boseman playing a Southern African character T'Challa). It's a pretty complex issue having to do with representation and the still paucity of roles for Black actors. Also, coming from the theater world, I never hear these types of complaints unless someone is doing straight up blackface or if the actor sounds really bad (accent is piss-poor, e.g.).

Because she's British. In a way, I understand it because I hate it when people mangle accents but I don't remember any hue and cry when she played Miss Celie on Broadway. Is it because Tubman was a historical character and not a fictional one? I think Erivo may have pushed back on the criticisms in an interview some time ago, which made her critics even more upset. I can't remember what she said but I do remember that, at the time, even I was like "she should've just said nothing". Honestly, she looks and sounds good in this trailer though.

While some may be quibbling about this being Oscar bait due to it fall release date, I really do believe that this was a passion project for director Kasi Lemmons (Nella Franklin #3, ATWT). Though the selection of Tony award winning actress Cynthia Erivo had been a controversial one but the trailer looks solid.

The thing to keep in mind is that, unlike Trump, 99% of the British public did not choose Johnson because they did not vote, therefore had no say. Johnson's appointment could actually force nationwide elections. Also, Scotland and Northern Ireland might get the final word in terms of whether there will be an actual United Kingdom after all of this. I know that because Johnson and Trump are of similar personalities who seemingly share the same low I.Q., it's easy to conflate one with the other but the situations are far from identical. In the U.S. we're obviously dealing with a slow-moving disaster. Reckoning for the U.K. may start after October 30th with the Brexit decision. Also, Johnson has been poisoning British politics since way before Trump made a run for office. He's been diminishing the European Union almost from the beginning of the EU. The seeds of anti-EU were planted a long time ago. I doubt that the likes of UKIP were looking to the U.S. for any type of blueprint. With organizations like Cambridge Analytic starting in the U.K., it was likely that it was the other way around (of course, the U.S. has its own history of poison politics) this time. Of course, at times, the two have been known to feed off each other, in some sort of craven right-wing synergy.

IMO, one reason why Molly and Jake had become so popular was because the show's standards had dropped and frankly, so did the viewers' standards. The late '90s was mostly a dull as dishwater period for the show, so when the HW introduced some storytelling that seemingly breathed some life into the show, desperate viewers held onto it with both hands, so eager were they to watch something of interest. Another aspect, I think, was the popularity of the actors and to some extent, their characters. AW had just been cancelled and disaffected viewers of that show were likely happy just to see one of their own on another P&G soap--there were viewers who watched both shows and no doubt, those were the happiest viewers. Also, I think some viewers were relieved to see Molly get her own man, and not taking somebody else's, LOL. When I try to watch ATWT in its last decade, I can barely watch. I can watch episodes from other decades and enjoy the show (sometimes immensely) but that period from the late 90s to the series end, I find myself FF through A LOT of material. There were also some very unfortunate casting choices during that period too- Craig, Paul, Dusty (sorry but McCouch was miscast), Adam (too many times), Casey had two good actors toward the end but some of the storylines were terrible, not to mention that ending...ugh! I won't even get into how badly the writing screwed up some very promising storylines (I've done it in the past). I knew the final years were bad but when you get some distance and you're watching the 1980s and early 90s on YouTube and you get to compare it to the late 90s/early 00s, you realize how big a drop off the quality truly was but forcefed on a steady diet of supercouples since the mid-1980s, viewers were probably super eager for a couple that hadn't been over-written with ridiculous storylines and with Molly and Jake viewers could almost start fresh with a new couple--they had no idea what was to follow.

Boris Johnson has been chosen by his party to stand as Prime Minister of Great Britain. Let the Tory resignations and defections commence!

There's an episode from 1993 where Harley and A.C. are named as Marina Coopers godparents. A.C. is pledging to be there for Marina as he would if she were his own child. I wasn't watching when they were a couple but are you telling me that Marina was with her godfather?!! Oh how disgusting! These soaps could really write some terrible material especially in their later years.

Puerto Ricans not just talking or tweeting about wanting to change their government, they are out on the streets making themselves seen and heard today!

Per usual, conservatives and the MAGA crowd are using this as a way to try to bolster Kavanaugh even more and accuse "the media" of sloppy reportage regarding well-established/famous men and sexual harassment allegations.