Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has given the heave-ho to The Beast, at least as far as her state’s Republican primary ballot is concerned. Bellows’ decision comes a week after Colorado’s supreme court disqualified Trump from appearing on the ballot there.

From Bellows written decision:: “I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”

A message is now being telegraphed to other states that are pondering whether or not insurrectionists deserve to be disqualified from appearing on state ballots: “Safety in numbers, bros! Jump in, join us, the water’s fine”, etc.

On the opening day of Philip Noyce‘s Fast Charlie, costar Morena Baccarin (Homeland, Gotham, The Endgame, the Deadpool franchise) naturally wanted to see the just-opened thriller, in which she costars with Pierce Brosnan, in a proper setting. And so two days later (Sunday, December 10th) she had quite the theatrical encounter. It happened on the third day of Fast Charlie‘s only NYC-area booking.

The bayou-based thriller was berthed at the Kent Theatre (1170 Coney Island Ave.), which is in the Kensington district.

Morena and actor-husband Ben McKenzie had decided to catch a screening over dinner on Friday, 12.8. They invited three family members but soon after discovered that only a single noon screening was scheduled for Sunday — the only showing that Fast Charlie was afforded that day. That’s correct — no late afternoons or evenings.

So come Sunday they all trouped out to the Kent, which is located, Morena says,”in a very old-school Brooklyn neighborhood…not a lot of people hanging around.” It was fairly rainy. They arrived around 11:30 am, and encountered a 15 year-old employee who was just opening up.

Morena: “Hey, we’re here to see Fast Charlie!”

15 Year Old Kid: “Uhm, whut?” (recovers from shock, collects himself) “Uhm, I’m not sure we’re showing it because Fast Charlie has not been a popular film so far. I’ll…uhhm, I’ll have to ask the manager.”

The manager said okay and so Morena, Ben and the gang entered the lobby, bought loads of candy and popcorn and settled into the film. Except the Kent staff had forgotten to turn the theatre lights off when the film began. Ben asked if they would mind doing so. The sound was fine, Morena recalls.

The film was great and they all had an excellent time, and the Kent staff was very polite. No, neither the 15 year-old kid or the manager realized that Morena was Brosnan’s top-billed costar. Or if they did they didn’t let on.

Morena and Ben would’ve preferred it if Vertical had booked Fast Charlie into the Cobble Hill Cinema plex, which is close to where they live. Or at one of the nearby Alamo theatres.

Fast Charlie team to Vertical Distribution: Thanks for an immersive last-exit-to-Brookyn experience that we’ll never forget!

Eight months hence Hollywood Elsewhere will celebrate 20 pounding years in this dog-eat-dog racket. (25 if you count the Mr. Showbiz, Reel.com and Moviepoopshot iterations.) But now is the time to pay respect to the bold and brave Sasha Stone, who’s been plugging away for more than 24 years. And who may treat ys all to a recollection of these 20 years of struggle.

Over the last several weeks I’ve somehow picked up on the notion that Nikki Haley is a sensible, non-wacko Republican.

But this afternoon the N.Y Post‘s Diana Glebova, filing about a town hall meeting in North Conway, New Hampshire, reported that Haley “affirmed that she would pardon Donald Trump for any alleged offenses he’s committed ‘in the interest of the country.'”

Nine-year-old questioner to Haley: “Chris Christie thinks you’re a flip-flopper on the Donald Trump issue, and honestly, I agree with him…you’re basically the new John Kerry. How can you change your opinion like that in just eight years, and will you pardon Donald Trump?”

Haley said she would pardon that fucking animal.

And that’s it — Haley has stated in so many words that she’s an enemy of decency and sanity. To hell with her. No more mild-mannered, “hey, she’s not so bad” Haley posts.

Shirley Knight passed three and a half years ago (4.22.20), and in my brief obit I wrote the following about a chat I had with her in ’15 or ’16:

“I spoke to Knight at a party four or five years ago. I told her I wished I could re-watch The Lie, a 1973 live-TV drama that was written by Ingmar Bergman and dealt with a stale upper-middle-class marriage. It was captured live and on videotape at the CBS Television Center on Beverly and Fairfax. Running 98 minutes, it aired on 4.24.73.

“Bergman’s Swedish teleplay, initially performed in ’70, was originally called Reservatet. The U.S. adaptation was directed by Alex Segal (no apparent relation). It wound up being nominated for five Emmy awards.

“Knight told me she’d never seen The Lie (captured on videotape but never re-broadcast), and didn’t know if it had been offered for rent or sale or anything. Apparently a cruddy-looking MUBI version was viewable not long ago.”

Last night I discovered a decent-looking, recently posted YouTube file of The Lie. It was only posted two months ago and has only been viewed 181 times as of today.

As far as Bergman-penned marital downers go, it’s excellent — okay, a little hesitant at first but it soon picks up steam, and the last 35 or 40 minutes are quite invasive and powerful.

Knight plays Anna, the well-tended, 30something wife of George Segal‘s Andrew, a moustachioed, slightly older architect. (In fact Knight and Segal were only born two years apart.) Anna and Andrew live a sedate but regimented and hollow life. Segal is vaguely unhappy about something he can’t put his finger on, and Anna is in the eighth year of an affair with Robert Culp, whom she was involved with before her marriage.

The Lie ends with a huge devastating argument between Anna and Andrew over infidelities and whatnot — a meltdown that leaves them both gutted.

The fact that The Lie included a discreet nude scene (i.e., Knight removing her nightgown, seen from the rear) was striking for mainstream television back then. Before the nude scene the presentation stops for a few seconds, and an announcer and a title card state that viewers should be aware that The Lie deals in mature subject matter, etc.

The costars include Victor Buono, William Daniels, Dean Jagger, Louise Lasser, Mary Ann Mobley, Elizabeth Wilson and Allan Arbus.
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It’s definitely worth seeing.

During a New Hampshire town hall meeting yesterday, Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley was asked about the fundamental cause of the Civil War. Right away she paused and turned and smiled nervously and indicated this was a tough question. In other words an alarm bell was going off in her head. Haley clearly decided right away that she didn’t want to offend any hard-right, states-rights bumblefucks in overalls with pieces of hay between their teeth, and so she omitted mentioning the world “slavery.”

Instead she blathered on and tap-danced like Fred Astaire, saying that the war was about “how the government was gonna run…the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do“. Haley’s mention of “freedoms” couldn’t be interpreted as anything but an allusion to the mid-19th Century belief in the right to own slaves. Her questioner (possibly a Democratic party plant?) expressed surprise that she’d dodged the word “slavery” in her response, and Haley responded, “What do you want me to say about slavery?”

Today Haley tried to walk this awkard episode back by telling a New Hampshire interviewer, “Of course the Civil War was about slavery.”

But think about this. Before she answered yesterday Haley had calculated that saying the War Between the States was triggered by slavery — i.e., the alleged right of Southern plantation owners to own slaves and thereby save on labor costs — a boilerplate analysis that any third-grader would sagely agree with…Haley was actually afraid of angering any hard-right yokels who might still theoretically believe in the concept of slavery as a metaphor for states rights…imagine!