A smart, seasoned, socially attuned Washington Post journalist re–tweets a demeaning joke about women, and he doesn’t realize that he’s poking a hornet’s nest and literally asking to be harshly disciplined? How does this happen?

How could the respected Dave Weigel (who looks like an overweight member of a Moody Blues tribute band) not understand that if you say or do the “wrong thing” these days (i.e., if you offend or agitate college-educated Millennial & Zoomer-aged #MeToo wokesters in a business environment) that you stand an excellent chance of being professionally assassinated?

Weigel immediately apologized to the initial complainer, Felicia Sonmez, both on Twitter and Slack, and had earlier defended Sonmez in a dust -up over a condemning Kobe Bryant tweet immediately following his death…and it doesn’t matter. The Post has suspended Weigel for a month without pay.

Weigel is only 40 (DOB: 9.26.81) and therefore technically a Millennial, but he looks like a guy who over-indulges and, as noted, the moustache conveys a Justin Hayward in the late ‘60s identification of some kind. A boomer in a Millennial’s body. If Weigel looked like Neil Patrick Harris the Post probably would have only suspended him for a week.

What did Michelle Pfeiffer’s Elvira say when she first saw Tony Montana’s “cream puff” — a beige Cadillac convertible with zebra-striped upholstery? “It looks like somebody’s nightmare,” she said.

For her and husband Seth Gabel’s Los Angeles home, Bryce Dallas Howard has approved an interior design that complements her own redhead colors — pastel pinks, light greens, creamy beiges. Her house, her design, her call.

But c’mon…what kind of dude would live in this girly-girl’ed, dollhouse environment? Ernest Hemingway would scoff at such a proposition. Where are the empty beer cans and half-eaten bags of pretzels? Where’s the man-cave? Where’s the HD flatscreen tuned to ESPN?

…that nearly a half-century later Richard Nixon, deeply loathed by the left from the early ’50s until his resignation on 8.8.74…who would’ve thought that Nixon, ruthless and consumed by his own demons as he was, would appear by today’s post-Trump standards as a relatively decent fellow…governed by practical political considerations, of course, but at the end of the day respectful of the basic governmental processes that keep this country in order…a man who said “okay, I’ve been cornered by my enemies and there’s no way out…I could defy everyone and everything until my terms ends on 1.20.77, but I’m going to be an adult and accept the situation.” A scrappy politician tainted with the attitude of a conniver and a scoundrel, yes, but he left the White House with a semblance of honor. Certainly when compared to the behavior of former president Donald Trump, who’s just a flat-out animal. Nixon, at the very least, submitted to procedure.

Fairfield County is abundantly, lavishly green now…a nice, settled, soothing vibe. The NYC Metro North train is only a hop, skip and a jump away.

Please lock me away / and don’t allow the day / here inside where I hide with my memories / I don’t care what they say, I won’t conform to a world that regards a neo-noir bullshit action comedy thriller from David Leitch…I won’t sit for a film that wears its own cartoonish emptiness like a proud badge.

What a lotta shit this year has been so far. World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy is conducting a mid-year ’22 poll, but telling respondents to keep their lists of faves to five, unranked.

Here are my seven: 1. Watcher (BEST), 2. Dog (NOT BAD, ANTI-WOKE), 3. Top Gun: Maverick (HIGHLY EFFICIENT POWER PUNCH), 4. Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (WARM, AGREEABLE), 5. The Northman (A SLOG THAT I RESPECTED, and what about that Nicole Kidman?), 6. The Batman (HIGHLY RESPECTED, ALL OF A PIECE), 7. Crimes of the Future (DIDN’T ENJOY IT BUT IT’S “GOOD”).

Note: I deliberately haven’t seen Everything Everywhere All at Once — I refuse to pay to see it in a theatre. I have a streaming version, however, and will watch it soon. A little voice is telling me that EEAAO is going to top the list.

Stephen Frears and Christopher Hampton‘s Billy Wilder & Me, set to film next spring, will be film-maven catnip. The story will have to be sad, given the gradual downturn of Wilder’s career when he hit his late 60s. It’ll be one thing for serious Wilder devotionals, and another for casual viewers who might know him from Some Like It Hot or The Apartment.

Set in 1977, pic will star Christoph Waltz as the masterly Austrian-born director, the ultimate cynical romantic or vice versa, as he directs his commercially ill-fated Fedora. Hampton’s script is based on Jonathan Coe‘s “Mr. Wilder and Me.”

Wilder’s legendary directing career peaked from the mid ’40s to early ’60s, but went south after Kiss Me Stupid (’64). He rebounded with The Fortune Cookie and held his ground with The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Avanti!, but the glory days were over. His last three films — The Front Page, Fedora and Buddy Buddy — finished him off.

Official synopsis: “In the summer of 1977, an innocent young woman begins working for Billy Wilder and his screenwriter Izzy Diamond on a Greek island during the filming of Fedora. When she follows Wilder to Germany to continue the shoot, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the heart of his family history.”

Fedora Wiki page excerpt: “Allied Artists dropped its deal to distribute Fedora after it was screened at a Myasthenia Gravis Foundation benefit in New York City and the audience response was unenthusiastic. The film was picked up by Lorimar Productions, which planned to sell the screening rights to CBS as a television movie.

“Before the network could agree to the offer, United Artists stepped in. After cutting 12 minutes of the film based on studio recommendations, Wilder previewed it in Santa Barbara. Halfway through the audience began derisively laughing at all the wrong places. Dejected by the response and despondent from all the problems he had encountered up to this point, the director refused to make any more edits.”