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?”
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.”
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.
On his latest Netflix special Armageddon, Ricky Gervais throwing spears and javelins at the wokester terror network is completely expected and quite satisfying. I don't know what to add to this. His brand of humor is shocking no one because it's so well defined.
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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!
On 11.19.67, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour featured the Smothers Brothers and George Segal singing Phil Ochs‘ “Draft Dodger Rag“.
WWII-era veterans and patriots were presumably outraged that a folk song about weaselling out of the draft was being performed on a major network in prime time.
The first truly good film in which Segal starred, Irvin Kershner‘s Loving, wouldn’t be seen for another two and one-third years.
Cream‘s “Disreali Gears” had been released two and a half weeks before this broadcast (11.2.67).
The Chicago debut of Martin Scorsese‘s Who’s That Knocking On My Door had happened four days earlier (11.15.67) and Mike Nichols‘ The Graduate would be released roughly a month later (12.21.67).
Two days after this performance, on 11.21.67, Gen. William Westmoreland told the National Press Club in Washington, “I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today heiscertainlylosing…we have reached an important point…when the end begins to come into view.”
If you’re unfortunately tethered to an unhappy and dysfunctional family and can barely stand your siblings during holiday gatherings, you can at least take comfort in the fact that the battlingO’Nealswerealwaysworseoff.
The father of all this misery, of course, was the late Ryan O’Neal, who apparently insisted on disliking his children, never apologizing and blowing them off repeatedly.
Respect and praise for the late Tom Smothers, whose provocative views and attitudes in the late ‘60s made TheSmothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which aired on CBS for two years and two months (February ‘67 to April ‘69), the hippest mainstream show on television.
If you were youngish and dropping acid, listening to progressive rock (Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, TheWho), loving films like TheGraduate, BonnieandClyde and ThePresident’sAnalyst and generally hating the Vietnam War, you almost certainly watched this intensely spiritual (in a Nehru jacket sense of the term), anti-establishment show on a fairly regular and reverent basis.
CBS finally cancelled the SmothersComedyHour over regional complaints that it had pushed the counter-culture envelope too far.
Just so we’re clear, Carl Reiner‘s Where’sPoppa? and Peter Yates‘ TheHotRock delivered the one-two punch that made George Segal into a marquee brand.
Segal was a respected, well-liked, plugging-away actor throughout the ’60s, and he definitely elevated his stock rating with his lead performance in Irvin Kershner‘s Loving (’70 — 3.4.70).
But Reiner-Yates added the boldface, above-the-title stardom factor to Segal’s guilt-ridden, self-flagellating, Jewish-guy thing, and he was offtotheraces.
Poppa (a cult film, not a hit) was released on 11.10.70, and TheHotRock (a silly ensemble caper comedy for guys) arrived on 1.26.72 or 14 months later.
Pre-Poppa and post-HotRock Segal were entirely different entities.
With these two in the bag, Segal landed the titular role in Paul Mazursky‘s BlumeinLove (6.17.73), and thereafter he wasn’t just a star but a complex ’70s soul man — the highest rung of the realm.
And then, 14 months after Blume, came Segal’s Bill Denny in CaliforniaSplit (8.7.74) — another grand-slammer.
And then God lost interest and Segal’s hot streak ended, just like that. Segal kept working for another 40 years after that, and good for his spirit and tenacity. But what a rude jolt.
1970through ‘74: “You’re finally really hot, George…you’re totally cool and everyone digs you.” 1975andonward: “Okay, you’re still good but time to cool things down.”
