I started to think about embracing sobriety in late 2010 or early 2011…somewhere in there. I didn’t have a huge “problem” outside of occasionally drinking too much wine at parties, but I wanted to re-experience life as I had in my tweener and early teen years. A cleaner system, better sleeping habits, more productivity and no morning hangovers.

But Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, which I’d sampled at my father’s suggestion, had always left me feeling somewhere between depressed and horrified, and particularly by the reliance on the King James Bible and the general philosophy of being powerless. My basic attitude was that “powerless” can blow me. I still feel that way.

And then I read Pete Hamill‘s “A Drinking Life” (’94), an account of his boozing decades and his late-in-life decision to leave it all behind for the sake of clarity and increased brain cells. I read the book in the fall of 2011. It gave me confidence to quit without those tiresome AA people in my life. If Hamill could do it, so could I. I finally ditched wine and beer on 3.20.12. I’ve always felt hugely grateful to Hamill for helping me get there.

From Kate Erbland’s 8.5 Indiewire piece, “Tenet Unlikely to Screen for U.S. Press in Major Cities Ahead of International Premiere”:

“Two sources close to Warner Bros. confirmed that press screenings will take place for the film, but it will not screen in markets in which theaters are not currently open. For the moment, that means that Tenet won’t be shown to press in major markets like New York City or Los Angeles, where both theaters and smaller screening rooms remain closed.”

How does this square with what Indiewire‘s Tom Brueggemann posted on 7.31: “In the U.S. today, 45 states permit indoor theaters to operate (with safety precautions) in all or most locations. Because of lack of new product, most have yet to do so. To preclude the September 3 opening, governments would have to shut them down — and that’s much more difficult to do than delaying permission to open.

Brueggemann “spoke to exhibition sources in some of the riskier regions who question whether they will make the date, but it’s clear that most of the nation’s cinemas will open as allowed. They are not irresponsible people, but their companies’ survival depends on this. And they will play Tenet.”

So WB will screen Tenet for journos who reside in markets outside of NY and LA?

Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo are not going to reopen their respective states until late in the fall.

The massive Beirut explosion looked like an A-bomb detonation in early 1950s Nevada or Utah, or somewhere in the South Pacific. Apologies to Variety‘s Manori Ravindran, but it reminded me of the montage of nuclear blasts at the end of Dr. Strangelove. We think we have it bad here in the States. Well, actually we do, but not as bad as those poor people who were covered in blood and stumbling around in Beirut yesterday. Ghastly.

In Episode 2 of Spotify’s “The Michelle Obama Podcast,” the former First Lady says that she’s “dealing with some form of low-grade depression” because of the pandemic, racial strife and the “hypocrisy” of the Trump administration.

That’s me — I’ve been low-grade glooming since last March.

Obama tells NPR‘s Michele Norris about her “emotional highs and lows,” and how “exhausting” and “dispiriting” it is to assess endless episodes in which people of color has been hurt or killed. Her depression is “not just because of the quarantine but because of the racial strife…spiritually, these are not fulfilling times, [and] this has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life, in a while.”

But not a single word about the increasingly annoying Portland and Seattle protests (to what end?), or about cancel culture or the unwillingness of Democrats to stand up to the Khmer Rouge. Wokesters are not universally admired out there. There’s more to what ails this country than what Michelle mentioned,

Deadline‘s Justin Kroll is reporting that in the wake of playing Mr. Rogers, a Naval Commander in Greyhound, a 19th Century news carrier in News of the World, an ailing inventor in BIOS and Colonel Tom Parker in Baz Luhrman‘s Elvis, Tom Hanks is “zeroing in” on playing Geppetto in a Robert Zemeckis’ live-action retelling of Pinocchio for Disney.

My first thought was that this is like the 70-year-old James Stewart (to whom Hanks has often been compared) starring in The Magic of Lassie (’78).

HE advice to Hanks: I realize Zemeckis isn’t a hack, but never default to family-friendly stuff in your emeritus years. You were doing so well with Greyhound, News of the World and Elvis, and now this. Life is short — keep it hard and real and tell the truth. Play William S. Burroughs. Play a randy university professor who’s sued for sexual harassment by a student. Use your best-liked-actor reputation to play misunderstood “bad guys.”

Kroll: “Although insiders say negotiations are very early, we hear that after reading the script, Hanks has reached out to Zemeckis to let him know he wants to do the film. Disney has always longed for Hanks to play the woodcarver, having approached him years ago when Paul King was attached to direct. That deal was never made, but given Hanks and Zemeckis’ long-standing relationship going back to when they both won Oscars for their work on Forrest Gump, this seems more likely to move forward.”

Startling currents of denial and obfuscation are contained in an 8.5 Hollywood Reporter piece by Lacey Rose, “Jurnee Smollett Is Ready to Own Her Power With HBO’s Buzzy Lovecraft Country: ‘I Don’t Apologize’“:

For the first time Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country, Birds of Prey) has spoken about the “2019 controversy” swirling around her brother Jussie Smollett.

That’s actually fudging things as her brother’s “controversy” isn’t a matter of unfair gossip or shaky allegations but a six-count indictment of Jussie by a Cook County grand jury, which pertains to Smollett making four false police reports about a hate crime that he allegedly enacted against himself on 1.29.19.

Jussie and Jurnee Smollett.

The “controversy” also includes a 6.12.20 decision in which a judge struck down Smollett’s claim that his February charge violated the principle of double jeopardy.

Jurnee maintains her brother’s innocence in the THR interview. She says “it’s been fucking painful, one of the most painful things my family’s ever experienced — to love someone as much as we love my brother, and to watch someone who you love that much go through something like this, that is so public, has been devastating.”

Jurnee’s implication is that Jussie’s difficulties aren’t of his own making. Life is so unfair, she’s saying, but thank God Jussie is strong enough to handle it — strong enough for the whole family! Or words to that effect.

“I was already in a very dark space for a number of reasons, and I’ve tried to not let it make me pessimistic,” Jurnee continues. “But everyone who knows me knows that I love my brother and I believe my brother.”

Note the sequence — Jurnee (a) loves Jussie and therefore (b) believes him.

Jurnee contends that her support for her brother hasn’t hurt her career. “We are blessed to have a community of people who know him, and know that he wouldn’t do this,” she says. “I mean, fuck, man, I look at him sometimes and I’m like, ‘He’s so strong.'”

Jurnee translation: “Industry people understand that family loyalty always comes first, and that I have no choice but to say I believe Jussie. They get it. They know what I have to say and do. And at the end of the day, none of this shit is on me.”

Ok. Who made this? It's genius. pic.twitter.com/EkwG2RlDel

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) August 5, 2020