Joss Whedon Whitewashed Casting Apologies – and an innovator I’m cranky and I’m officially over retroactive creative decisions – the ‘clarifications’ people make, years or decades after the fact, about what creatives wanted to do in the name of inclusiveness or diversity, but couldn’t, because of The Pressures. Specifically, I’m referring to the headlines running around By Duana • Jun 15, 2020 02:09 pm
Show Your Work Podcast Show Your Work: How Hollywood Can – And Must – Change Anti-Black Racism On Set Thank you so much for your comments and thoughts on our last episode featuring Kathleen Newman-Bremang, ‘Working While Black’. We’re glad it resonated with so many of you, and we intend to continue doing the work of unpacking and dismantling the embedded policies, procedures, and assumptions that have fueled By Duana • Jun 11, 2020 02:19 pm
Dumbass JK Rowling isn’t just Transphobic – she’s a Troll Let me raise my hand as one of those who was shocked by JK Rowling’s tweets on Saturday evening. Not because of her transphobic views, which erase, diminish, and harm the trans community – though it’s important to be clear that they do, especially since Rowling has such an By Duana • Jun 08, 2020 01:56 pm
Equality Issues Dick Wolf Fires Writer. This Is News It shouldn’t be news. ‘Man [or woman] behaves abominably, loses job as a result’ is a narrative we know very well – one that’s been playing out in fast-forward over the last few days, a cold comfort relative to the atrocities we’re seeing every single time we open By Duana • Jun 05, 2020 03:23 pm
Mad Men Mad Men, Imperfect but Prescient Mad Men is leaving Netflix next week, on June 9. I knew this, and Lainey and I talked about me commenting on it, earlier this month. Then, of course, after the death of George Floyd, trying to find something to say about a show that was accurately criticized for focusing By Duana • Jun 03, 2020 03:44 pm
TV Updates Normal People is Sexy, Bookish Vindication First of all, let me be clear – here in Canada we’re still in the first sweaty, horny blush of consuming Normal People. We know the rest of you have had it for weeks and we were frustrated and jealous. Now the first two episodes have finally been released here By Duana • May 29, 2020 03:08 pm
Name Nerd Duana Names: Update – Poultry In The Time Of Coronavirus Once again, I can’t possibly improve on the title that appeared in my inbox – here is the exciting conclusion to the saga of Chicken Matilda. In case you missed it, this story – nay, this case – already had an update so entertaining I’m considering hiring this letter writer as By Duana • May 27, 2020 03:30 pm
Baby and Bump Obsession That ISN’T BETTER, Grimes! You know what’s a tease? Reading that Elon Musk and Grimes have ‘changed’ their baby name, after the inexplicable X Æ A-12 failed to crown them as the visionaries of the future they obviously hoped they’d be. So, a name change. Relatable! Human! ….or not, given that the By Duana • May 25, 2020 02:36 pm
Theatre Nerd SMASH, as it was meant to be I have no emotional reserves anymore so it could be that I’m just extra in general, but I got absolute goosebumps when I discovered that SMASH, the ridiculous, inexplicable television spectacle of 2012 which I and everyone else wrote about ad nauseum, which confounded an entire television-watching generation, like By Duana • May 22, 2020 03:25 pm
Name Nerd Duana Names: The Name Is(n’t) Ajar Hi Duana, Long-time listener, first-time caller! We're expecting baby 2 in two weeks - the first was a boy and this one's a girl. My husband's last name is quite long/Slavic and starts with an O. So we're looking for names By Duana • May 13, 2020 03:21 pm
SD Recommendations Get Happy With Geeked-Out College-Bound Teens on YouTube A few years ago, when Dr. Pimple Popper and her imitators suddenly became famous, I developed a theory about ‘popping videos’ that I’d tell to anyone who would listen (so what else is new?): I think people are addicted to popping videos – and popping zits in general – because they By Duana • May 08, 2020 03:43 pm
Name Nerd Duana Names: Eyerolling THAT Name, and Puff Daddy Energy Okay. Before we get to today’s letter writer, yes, I have to address that baby name. I kept wanting to write ‘alleged’ because I really don’t believe it, but they’ve both confirmed it’s true – their baby is named X Æ A-12, which I would wager is By Duana • May 06, 2020 03:42 pm
TV Updates Amazon’s Upload Is For… Who, Exactly? I am unreasonably fond of the expression ‘our people’. As in, ‘she’s our people’. Once I was really nervous about joining a particular group, and after a couple of people one of the guys there said he’d told someone else about me that, “she’s our people”. As By Duana • May 04, 2020 01:10 pm
TV Updates Parks & Recreation Reunion was Perfect – And Not Enough Last night’s brand-new, shot-from-home reunion episode of Parks and Recreation was the first time in a long while that I can remember sitting down to watch something live, on broadcast, as soon as it was released (that’s not counting the number of times I’ve refreshed to see By Duana • May 01, 2020 02:49 pm
Name Nerd Duana Names: ‘TV Names’ are NAMES Hi Duana, We really need your help. Our daughter is due in less than 2 weeks and my husband and I are at an impasse. We are desperate and I’m frustrated, because we have not been able to agree on a name despite being in complete agreement on style By Duana • Apr 29, 2020 03:03 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Whitney Houston Prestige Biopic Is For Real Headline writing is an art, you know? When I saw the bold text at the top of the Deadline piece, ‘Whitney Houston Biopic Crystallizes’, I thought it was strangely appropriate. The biopic has ‘crystallized’, or set; hardened – because I guess we all kind of knew somehow that there would be By Duana • Apr 27, 2020 12:05 pm
