Name Nerd Duana Names: The Almost-Updates, And Updates-Plus! Welcome back to another round of name updates – I love how excited you guys have been to read these, and I especially want to thank people who have sent their own updates after seeing some of last week’s columns! One glorious thing that happens in the writing of this By Duana • Feb 12, 2020 04:14 pm
Style Janelle Monae: Oscars Best Dressed (Duana) Last year, at the Emmy Awards, Lainey and I made the difficult decision to retire Zendaya from competition in any sort of fashion capacity. It was this epic green dress that did it, but to be honest, she’d been problematically excellent for some time, and we risked a can’ By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 04:22 pm
Bad Style Saoirse Ronan: Oscars Personal Worst (Duana) This is going to hurt. Well, for me. It’s going to hurt me. I am, of course, a huge fan of Saoirse Ronan. I think she’s skillful, clever, and nuanced as an actress, and I like watching her play the red carpet game. I’m just going to By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 03:51 pm
Oscars 2020 Joaquin Phoenix & Renee Zellweger: Arrested Award Winners? Joaquin Phoenix and Renee Zellweger have had the dubious distinctions, this awards season, of being the de facto winners in their categories almost as soon as the season started. Like, everyone sort of agrees on the Golden Globes being a pace setter, but other shows having the ability to move By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 03:19 pm
Oscars 2020 Florence Pugh: Committed and Chill? You know the one awards show custom I totally don’t get? Changing into a totally different look for the after party – or parties. I mean, I do get it, of course: why limit yourself to one outfit if you could choose two? I would have so much fun if By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 02:16 pm
Aging Gorgessity Gal, Brie, & Sigourney: Oscars Superhero Sisterhood Points to the producers who put this grouping together; I don’t know which of these women was secured as a presenter first or last, and of course there don’t have to be obvious links between the celebrities who present an award – like, what’s the connection between Ray By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 12:59 pm
Oscars 2020 Lin-Manuel’s Oscar Mission: Usnavi Awareness The following account of Block… let’s say six, of the Oscars, reads like one of those brain-teaser riddles in logic puzzles, where you have to extract one piece of verifiably true information and use it to determine the rest can or can’t be true. (I think it’s By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 11:39 am
Oscars 2020 Kristen Wiig & Maya Rudolph: Oscar Pirates You know what we never really talk about, even when we talk about it? Televised awards shows have a built-in power imbalance – and that’s why they work. The Academies, hosting the shows, know they need talented performers, amusing enough to hold the audience’s attention. And those performers – actors, By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 10:13 am
Outfit of the Week Ray Romano Is Hot: A Scientific Proof Two things have been constant during this awards season – Ray Romano appearing on the red carpet, and my friends mocking me for thinking Ray Romano is attractive. Oh, and actually there’s one more thing that’s been going on for weeks: Ray Romano actually being hot as hell. Exhibit By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 08:33 am
Oscars 2020 Natalie Portman’s Red Carpet Flex History would not claim me as a Natalie Portman fan – which is something I’ve often felt bad about, because I like the projects she does, but somewhere between her acting and her interviews, I’ve just decided she’s just not my particular cup of tea. However, it may By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 06:40 am
Oscars 2020 James Corden & Rebel Wilson: Oscars Interlopers Okay, I’m gonna go ahead and say it – I might be a convert to the ‘no host’ method, because it allows more room for more stuff. The musical performances happened more spontaneously, for the most part, which actually made the show more like a musical… which is maybe why By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 05:38 am
Oscars 2020 Billie Eilish: Oscar Music Meme It was impossible to miss Billie Eilish last night on the show, and I am currently pouring one out for all of you whose parents called or texted to ask, “Who’s the one with the green hair? It’s green at the roots!” I’m not one of Billie By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 05:03 am
Oscars 2020 How To Oscar, with your guide Bong Joon-ho Parasite was an exceptional movie, by which I mean it was a literal outlier. I don’t know anyone who saw it who didn’t like it, including those grumps at the Honest Oscar Ballot – it was an actual feat in filmmaking. Which is why it won Best Picture, even By Duana • Feb 10, 2020 04:18 am
Name Nerd Duana Names: Friday Feeling The Updates You know, I’m considering just running updates, because frankly, the letters make us all feel so good. I mean, this is the beauty of what we do, the search for the perfect name becomes the person, who then becomes the embodiment of everything we love about the name… it’ By Duana • Feb 07, 2020 03:32 pm
TV Updates Jerry’s Gonna Mat-Talk You Professionally Certain people around these parts have not finished watching Cheer, and I have chastised said people, who are named Lainey, about it for several weeks now. (Lainey: I have 20 mins left! It’s just that I got caught up in some BTS hysteria.) Luckily, she’s not a baby By Duana • Feb 07, 2020 02:41 pm
Name Nerd Duana Names: The Update Parade Continues… Update week continues, and part of the fun is getting to see that the fun tone in letters continues in the updates, like this one from the writer of Astounded/Euphoric/Blunt/True: DUANA! Sincerely thank you for your incredible response. If you are ever in Nebraska, or Ann Arbor By Duana • Feb 05, 2020 03:58 pm
