Vee

I didn't realize Nathalie Emmanuel's role in the last Fast & Furious film was now recurring - those deceptively bombastic movies don't get enough credit for being multi-cultural franchise pix that retain the massive casts as a family. She's in the upcoming film which means she's a lifer now. I'm glad for her.

Speaking of: NYT on l'affaire Manafort and other scandals:

I don't think CNN does, though they're pretty bad. I do think Jeff Zucker is starstruck by Trump and Lewandowski in a vapid and apolitical way. I know there's been a lot of talk that many at the network are disgusted by the hiring since Lewandowski is still basically on the Trump payroll and that some were near open revolt.

I think what they really want is a horse race narrative for ratings vs. a win, which is why they're giving him the room. (A few like Halperin definitely want the latter, though; he's become Trump's Baghdad Bob.) Allowing Trump to 'rehab' a little gives the race a little more juice and gooses the numbers, until his next massive gaffe. Which is coming. Many of the old guard also despise the Clintons and always have, or at least Hillary. But in the end they'll take her over Trump. The Beltway press will just always try to finger-wag to make sure any Democrat 'knows their place.' But Hillary won't care anymore than Obama did, in fact she'll care even less.

I think it was both. She wanted more money and probably more freedom, Uncle Frank didn't give it because she was not one of the chosen few (he shafted most of the women and vets like that, frankly). But I think she was shrewd enough to move on eventually regardless.

Inside the fall of Paul Manafort

And here we see Softer, Hopeful Trump collide with Actual Freewheeling Trump:

He's tried it before and it hasn't worked. The press will once again, just like the last 'pivot', breathlessly declare this 'the moment' and go all in for a horse race narrative the race has been sadly lacking for the past few months, but Trump will blow again. He can't not. He hates being on-message, he hates apologizing, he hates not just Being Himself. As Josh Marshall from TPM says, this is who he is. I give it five days, tops. The media will try very hard to keep it going though. They need the numbers of a closer race.

Oh, my lord. I thought that was JPL for a minute. But Eddie looks okay for a feeling-his-oats college kid. (Hair makes me wonder a little.) Annie Wersching (Amelia, GH; 24, etc.) is doing the audio version of the upcoming Twin Peaks tie-in book, The Secret History of Twin Peaks.

The Washington GOP is horrified by Trump's latest hires. And at least one of them is onto the same hunch I am:

Holy cats! Interesting: Chris Mulkey (Hank) is not in the new show, but will do the audiobook.

The Unhappy Campaign of Paul Manafort

I think that canned speech he clearly hated to give was all Manafort. And I think it's his last, or one of his last.

Oh my sweet lord:

I just

marceline and I had a private conversation about Renee not long ago along some of these lines. Hewing back to the post above about the "Storm of Change", I remember that I was incredibly excited when the casting notice went out for the Evangeline character in either late '02 or early '03, because to me the character sketch - ambitious young black professional - was emblematic of the characters the Malone/Griffith/Gottlieb regime had trafficked in in the '90s when I started out with the show. I felt certain this meant the black canvas was going to become a real thing again. But they didn't use her enough, and later on I was frankly down on the character and the performance. (As per what DRW50 said, I think the blame for what became of Malone/Griffith II is likely an equal or near-equal split between Fronsian micromanagement and Malone having just plain bad ideas mixed in with mostly scrapped good ones.) I always thought Renee was beautiful and very talented, but after the first six or so months I never thought much of Van on the show. I thought the character became a cardboard saint very quickly after starting out somewhat duplicitious and driven (with no major airtime), when I felt that ambition was much more where REG's energy lived and breathed - I thought making her a stock heroine neutered the character, like so many black characters on soaps, and I didn't like how R.J. was thrown under the bus for her (among others). And I didn't think Goldsberry was able to imbue the bland writing for Evangeline with much more beyond the schlock she was given. But everyone knows how I feel about that. I honestly didn't really have a dog in the John McBain wars because I had soured on Michael Easton almost immediately after the tiresome stopgaps, triangles and quads began with John, Natalie and the various women they hurled at him over the years before and after Evangeline. My issue was with the character and how they wrote her. But what is undeniable looking back though, what took me longer to appreciate, and what marceline and I talked about recently and what I think REG touches on a little bit here, is that today it would be absolutely unthinkable for them to give a black woman the kind of major exposure and centralized airtime and story they gave Evangeline. Part of the reason I didn't appreciate it then is because it's somehow even worse of a problem in the industry now than it was in the early 2000s - and not just because there are fewer soaps. I mean, you look at the difference between how hard they played REG in 2004-2006 or so vs. the scraps given to women of color on OLTL later on (who can forget the recurring Evans family's whiteface piefight?), or on Frank Valentini's GH today, or really any soap standing today, and it's stark. They pushed her hard. Whether or not I cared for the character's storylines, that was a major push for an actress of color, and daytime never bothered again. Today - a decade later! - it would be seen as dangerous and radical. They'd never put Vinessa Antoine (or whoever) with Roger Howarth or Billy Miller, etc. on GH. They'd never put Mishael Morgan with Jason Thompson. And the beautiful, charismatic Donnell Turner playing Curtis has been reduced to white Rebecca Budig's platonic hand-holding friend/servant for a reason. And what she says about Black History Month is so true. Remember the godawful One Pure People white supremacist storyline right before she left, where they trotted out every black recurring player to hang out and do some photo shoot with the Banner or something. It was godawful. They couldn't commit to any longstanding characters of color but here's, uh, Shawn, Vincent and Vincent's entourage posing with Nora, Bo and Matthew. Give me a break. I'm so glad she's doing well. I just wish she'd been used better when she was with us. But I wish a lot of things when it comes to daytime, OLTL, and the characters of color.

The New Yorker investigates the really dangerous people on Team Trump who, fortunately, can never really control the man who allegedly trusts them most: Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner. The Kushners are a NY story if ever there was one.

Incidentally: One of the key retweeters of the above article was Manafort nemesis and Trump's still-confidant, Corey Lewandowski.

A stray wind depresses turnout on the left. And yes - Manafort has been a Putin lackey for years. It's absolutely true and Politico and/or the NYT - can't remember which - just picked it up too. Here:

NYT takes an inside look at Trump's self-immolation:

Good luck, buddy. Meanwhile:

Edgy.