“When Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post more than a decade ago, journalists inside and outside the newsroom were cautiously optimistic. But those hopes were dashed on Wednesday, when the paper carried out widespread layoffs. The Post has jettisoned more than 300 journalists…a bloodbath. The Post also eliminated its sports section, one of the last bastions of great sportswriting.” — from “Bezos Guts The Washington Post,” posted on 2.6.26 by N.Y. Times.

“The Washington Post is dying not in darkness but by the light of noon, and by its own hand. Over the past few months, the Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, has shed a large part of the paper’s workforce, asserted control over the management of its newsroom, spiked a presidential endorsement for the first time in the paper’s history, and driven out some of its best writers and editors. On Wednesday, Bezos announced that the Post’s opinion pages will exclude views that contradict his own libertarianism.” — The Atlantic‘s George Packer, 3.1.25

“The American way….pay as you go…everyone contributes”.

There was no joy in Trans-Mudville yesterday when the news broke about two major medical groups — the American Medical Association and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons — backing limitations on gender-related surgical treatments for minors in the U.S. Tough shit, they-themmies!

Ashleigh Banfield appears to be onto something in the matter of the recent Nancy Guthrie disappearance, and the thing she appears to be onto is the possible involvement of Rolo Tomassi….sorry, Tomasso Cioni, Nancy’s son-in-law and the husband of Annie Guthrie, the older, shorter, dark-haired sister of TODAY‘s Samantha Guthrie.

Annie and Tomasso also live in Tuscon, about four miles from Nancy’s home. They reportedly went to dinner with Nancy last Saturday night and then dropped her off, shortly before her home was invaded and she was abducted. Blood drops were found inside the home and just outside the front door.

Yesterday the Tuscon cops were all over Annie and Tomasso’s place, reportedly grilling them hard for a couple of hours. The cops also towed and impounded their vehicle and who knows what else? The walls are closing in, and if this bizarre caper is reminding anyone of anything, it is surely Joel and Ethan Coen‘s Fargo**.

Cioni has stated that he studies “lizards.” Also that he plays electric bass (as opposed to an old-fashioned stand-up bass?), makes homemade pasta and writes “when I get the chance.” HE lowdown: A person who claims to write “when they get a chance” is obviously not a writer — he’s a dabbler, a doodler, a dreamer, a mental wanderer. HE is guessing that Tomasso Cioni’s life is a leaking rubber raft upon heaving seas.

Best guess: Real-life Tuscon counterparts of the characters played by Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare in Fargo may be the culprits here. Guys who know or have at least conversed with Cioni. Perhaps Cioni worked out the kidnapping with them in advance or maybe they did it on their own after listening to Cioni talk about his mother-in-law, etc. But the two security cameras in Nancy’s home were smashed, which suggests they were told to do so by someone with inside knowledge.

** Full disclosure: I stole the Fargo analogy from Sasha Stone.

HE salutes Kristen Stewart for having recently bought the century-old Highland theatre (5604 No. Figueroa in Highland Park). The post-pandemic slump closed the place down in early 2024, but soon it’ll be a going concern…great!

Stewart’s plan, naturally, is to spruce the place up (it’s actually a triplex) and start showing movies there again. Decades-old movie theatres are obviously nutritious for L.A. culture and a nice boost to whatever particular neighborhood they’re located in. A good thing all around.

David Fincher filmed portions of The Adventures of Cliff Booth in the Highland Park area last summer, and Stewart’s theatre was part of the landscape…also cool.

But if I was still living in WeHo I would never drive all the way to effing Highland Park to do anything, much less see a film.

Highland Park is popular with Millennials and Zoomers because of cheaper rents, but driving there from, say, Sunset and Doheny is a grueling experience. Roughly 40 to 45 minutes but only if you stay well clear of rush hour…it’s a 12- to 14-mile drive through traffic-congested streets (Hollywood, Silver Lake) or, alternately, north on Laurel Canyon to the 134 east, and then halfway to Pasadena and then south on a major boulevard or down the Hollywood Freeway (101)…God!

I feel worn out just thinking about this. Driving to Highland Park dilutes your blood and drains the soul.

On top of which Stewart has said “we want to make it a family affair, something for the community…it’s won’t be just for pretentious Hollywood cinephiles.”

In other words she’s going to show a fair amount of popcorn crap.

We can at least be thankful that Lee Kline, Criterion’s very own in-house teal monster, had nothing to do with the forthcoming Ben-Hur 4K UHD Bluray. Thank God Almighty for that!

Last weekend CNN’s White House correspondent Kaitlin Collins attended the Grammys with a dude she appeared to be entwined with — photographer Emilio Madrid. The problem (for me at least) is that he looks like a combination of a Spanish bullfighter and the late Richard Kiel (aka “Jaws”). A roundish, too-wide face. A way-too-low hairline. A too-wide mouth. Okay, that’s enough.

Kaitlin Collins should be with a guy who looks less like Kiel and more like a young Terrence Stamp.

The long-awaited 4K UHD Bluray of William Wyler‘s Ben-Hur finally pops on 2.17.26. Thank God WHE execs didn’t feel obliged to wait for the 70th anniversary of the multi-Oscar-winning film’s theatrical debut, which happened on 11.18.59.

It would have been a somewhat bigger deal if the WHE guys had gotten the lead out and released a 4K UHD Bluray on 11.18.19 (60th anniversary) or, better still, on 11.18.09 (50th anni). Physical media hasn’t been a big deal for a good 15 years, but the Ben-Hur UHD is still an important event in this diminished realm.

Ben-Hur was shot on 65mm film (Camera 65), which was then printed on 70mm film for reserved-seat exhibition with an aspect ratio of 2.76:1. (The rubes were shown 35mm prints with 2.39:1 or 2.55:1 aspect ratios.) Ben-Hur was not filmed at 30 frames per second (fps) but at the standard industry speed of 24 fps.

For decades the standard Ben-Hur synopsis has stated that the narrative begins in Judea and more particularly in Jerusalem in AD 26. The 4K UHD copy is different, calling the film “a classic adaptation of the Lew Wallace story of Palestine in the time of Christ.” Palestine? I’m not 100% certain, but I don’t think anyone uses the word “Palestine” in the entire film. I’m guessing that the WHE copywriter used “Palestine” instead of “ancient Judea” or “Jerusalem” because of contemporary anti-Netanyahu leftist politics.

“Wherever there is greatness — great government or power, even great feeling or compassion — error also is great. We progress and mature by fault. Perfect freedom has no existence. The grown man knows the world he lives in.” — written by Gore Vidal and spoken by Frank Thring (as Judea governor Pontius Pilate) in Act 3 of William Wyler‘s Ben-Hur.

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