Let’s say you’re the new boyfriend of a recently divorced woman (Sarah Jessica Parker), and you’ve both been invited to dinner with her ex- (Thomas Haden Church) and his current live-in girlfriend or wife.

Question: Would you sit on your side of the dinner table with your arm protectively draped over the back of your girlfriend’s chair and perhaps with your hand resting between her shoulder blades? Isn’t that a bit much? Wouldn’t this fall under the heading of “overly protective” or “needlessly defensive body language”?

If I’d invited my ex to my home and her new fella pulled this arm-draping shit, I wouldn’t say anything but inwardly I’d be thinking “dude, what is your issue?”

I’ve had a reasonably engrossing time with Divorce over the past couple of seasons. It’s very well directed, written, acted…it moves right along without any false or cloying steps. It’s been running since 7.1.19 but for some reason I haven’t yet tuned in, but I will this weekend.

Side comment: Thomas Haden Church, whom I still look upon as the randy Jack Cole in Sideways, is suddenly looking really lined and gray. Is this for the part or…? As recently as eight or nine years ago he was dark haired. I don’t like to think of Jack as a getting-older guy. I want him to hang in there and keep it up.