Brian Grubb doing the important work, as always, laying out a plan to get a new Nice Guys movie made by Christmas. In a just world, we’d already been on a third one of these, I can’t believe in the wake of the Kennification of Ryan Gosling, no one is looking to revive The Nice Guys and capitalize on his renewed popularity as a comic performer. Brian’s plan might seem a little extreme, but if no one else will do it, we must take it upon ourselves to ensure we get more Nice Guys. (UPROXX)
Chatbots have historically not been helpful with anything, but Charley has been designed with privacy in mind to help people access abortions in a post-Roe America. They say it’s secure, and it will HAVE to be, given that abortion access is criminalized in several states already, and even searching online for info can land a person in jail. I hope this works, like a 21st century “Janes” network, but data is a sieve and the risks of being caught using a function like Charley are very high in some states. (Popsugar)
Zendaya is dominating the fashion discussion today, but Julia Fox would like us to remember that she, too, goes places and wears things. (Go Fug Yourself)
Diane Farr penned an essay about age gaps on screen, particularly men of a certain age being cast opposite women who are much younger as romantic pairs. She’s right in that it deprives middle-aged women of a chance to “play themselves”, essentially, and that many of the best and most believable screen couples are normal ages apart. Like Coach and Mrs. Taylor, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton have a two-year age difference, very normal!
Ultimately, I think romantic casting should come down to best ability, best chemistry, and believability. Sam Rockwell (55) stars as a love interest for Bryce Dallas Howard (42) in Argylle, and 13 years is not a small difference, but you don’t feel it, either. Partially it’s that Sam Rockwell is aging incredibly well, and his presence is so light and bouncy, he scans younger on screen (they had to work so hard in Fosse/Verdon to make him look aged!). If the chemistry is there and the age difference isn’t visibly distracting, I worry less about it.
I think this conversation gets a LITTLE overblown, though, in a tone policing way—people are all over Jenna Ortega (21) for starring opposite Martin Freeman (52) in Miller’s Girl, but that movie is clearly on some Lolita sh-t and the age gap IS the (probably nefarious) point. Also, the people getting upset at Paul Giamatti (56) for dating Clara Wong (who is around 33, couldn’t find a rock solid age source for her) in real life. Judge him for being stereotypical all you want, but Clara Wong is a grown ass woman, at a certain point, you have to trust women to make their own choices, and the age gap discourse often presumes a woman can NEVER make that decision for herself in good faith. That’s what bugs me, rant over. (Celebitchy)
Humanitas did a survey of Hollywood writers before and during the strike of 2023 and found the TV/film writing industry is “inherently financially unstable”. I mean, yeah, but also, it’s good to have these things codified in cold, hard data, which can be used to most effectively illustrate the issue so that change can be made. Like I said last year, the strike was not about people getting rich, it was about making sure writers can make a living. That their bosses want to use AI to replace them because then they don’t have to pay ANYBODY is a huge problem, but it goes to the same point—the bosses don’t want this to be a viable career path. They see writers as disposable. As we get into another spate of award shows, I hope winning writers don’t waste a single goddamn breath thanking the heads of the studios who distributed their movies. Those people live for that gratification, deprive them of it. (THR)
