Vee

I also had no idea they cut Elaine May and Sam Jackson's awards but managed to make time for Twitter polls and Zack Snyder's Justice League. This whole year seems like a disaster.

Poor Liza. I didn't know she was in that rough shape these days. She was even more discombobulated than I remember, I suspect not all there, and Gaga was very kind to her. I don't know if Scorsese was there, but I imagine how he must feel seeing her like that - they were together for a time. Spielberg and other contemporaries who remember her heyday, too.

Apparently Bradley Cooper was the white dude hugging Will in the clip from the break (where he's with Denzel and Tyler Perry initially).

I have no particular hot takes to offer on all this nor should I, but the look on Denzel's face as Will spoke about him after Denzel took him aside during the break was touching.

The one time I skip the whole ceremony!!

I can't see this being the network's idea of a gripping story (and they've got to be pretty disinterested in the show as is). This feels personal to the writers to me due to their admiration of JT (who is talented but miscast). Anyway, we're OT.

Case in point: The Y&R writing team, ensconced in very financially comfortable positions, believing Jason Thompson monologuing about vague 'wellness' and self-actualization is a viable and compelling storyline just because they enjoy a) JT and b) podcasting about upper middle class problems.

Rey and Chelsea sounds more boring than I can imagine.

Cory Booker rejects Tuck Chodd's [sic] framing:

I think that's more about the constant fussing over 'inflation' and the just relentless negativity overall to try to handicap Dems. The specific tone is what got him down in numbers, while the polling reflected that no one actually gave a shít about the substance of leaving Afghanistan - something I vividly remember CNN or MSNBC grudgingly acknowledging on-air, admitting, to paraphrase, 'journalists have a different viewpoint than the public about this issue'.

Like others, I do wonder if a lot of what's happening now with Allie/Keemo and Diane is rather hastily added on. It's got actual, potential life to it unlike most of what Griffith does. The Ashland story could very easily fizzle out too. Y&R today is simply cruising on its audience loyalty and a very thin budget, marking time. There doesn't seem to have been any compelling interest in shaking anything up or out of moribund torpor for a long while. The attempts to turn it into a Fronsian ABCD soap didn't really take off, but the echoes of that are all that's really left. So these recent changes (while nothing particularly spectacular so far) are surprising.

Yes, but the question is how the public will feel about that line. They didn't care about leaving Afghanistan, the shame of our century according to DC press with lots of friends at the Pentagon. Which is part of why the press has doubled down on trying to catch Biden in gotchas over Ukraine.

Walters' comments about daytime having more complex roles for older women at the end of that posted article are very true about the medium historically, though sadly not nearly as much now as in the glory days. I can't fault her for still finding value in reclaiming Diane and having a purpose of her own on the show vs. primetime guest spots though.

A potentially hot take: Biden's "Putin can't remain in power" gaffe today will help him in polling, which remains predictably confused and muddled due to a public which is unclear of what our involvement in Ukraine can safely involve. That confusion has largely been because of a media still resentful of Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal (and the public's lack of interest in their anger), and eager to score points against him and look non-liberal, by criticizing the Ukraine relief efforts and urging him to 'do more' while failing to acknowledge that that could lead to open war. As Obama and Clinton knew and Trump manipulated as well, a lot of public sentiment is based on gut feeling vs. logic and facts about inflation or war or 'doing more'. What Biden said today 'feels' right even if it was, by the textbook, a potentially perilous messaging blunder.

Now that they are not presenting Taggert like an ailing chump, they are nice together.

I hope NuTrina doesn't stay as retiring or demure going forward, but I did see more layers. I do think she needs to bring the heat against Esme. If they make the character passive it won't matter how good the actor is.

Tabyana Ali is really cute. I thought she was adorable with her parents (who looked good together). I think this is going to work.

The feature article in Errol's OP has Sean Blakemore explicitly indicating he left for other opportunities/scheduling conflicts.

That works, and Courtney Hope (who as a gamer I admittedly love from Control) can certainly play it. The IRL Shultz family conflict is also straight out of soaps, but can be even more salacious on daytime.

I absolutely believe his health scare is real. I also know he would rather die than step down with a Democrat in office. He will never do so. So it's either death or we're stuck with him for now.

Meanwhile:

If this was ten years ago I think they would be able to keep it a secret much longer. Not anymore. DC always talks and it still hasn't fully acclimated to the social media age. TMZ alone would find out, because it doesn't have that Sally Quinn-style deference.

Tyler is giving me late stage Boogie Nights tbqh. I hope he's well.

Either way, he's discharged now so either he's going to survive and continue to spite us, or he's dying at home and Ginni, Mitch and the gang will go to extraordinary measures to prevent that from leaking for as long as possible. (Yes, I am waiting to pull out the Weekend at Bernie's material)