Earlier today I felt honestly unclear about Karla Sofia Gascon’s situation. I asked around but no one gave me any answers of any kind. So I searched around on my own.

In Emilia Perez, Karla’s titular character submits to full-on surgical transitioning including, one gathers, the removal of male genitalia. I realize that a specific question to Karla Sofia’s reps along these lines is considered gauche or insensitive in certain circles, but here goes anyway: has Karla Sofia Gascon submitted to the same Emilia Perez-type procedure? Or is she walking around with a package?

I know questions of this type sound disrespectful to wokesters, but Gascon’s Best Acress Oscar campaign is far more identity-driven than performance-based, so why can’t we just lay it out on the kitchen table?

Karla Sofia began life as a man, and has worked as an actor/actress for quite a while. Her dead name is Juan Carlos Gascon, which she went by until 2018.

I honestly think that Juan Carlos Gascon, with his once-slender face, blonde-ish hair and bro whiskers, looks more fetching in his original biological state than Karla Sofia Gascon does as a woman now. Karla’s face is rounder. She seems larger somehow.

Karla was born 52 years ago in Alcobendas, Spain, but since 2009 has been a resident of what I’m presuming is Mexico City. A shamelessly softball profile of Gascon by Deadline‘s Antonia Blyth, posted this morning, only says that she lives “in Mexico.” If Blyth were to run an interview with Angelina Jolie, would she report that Jolie lives in the United States?

It would appear that Karla Sofia is, after a fashion, “straight.” Gascón is married to Marisa Gutierrez. They met at a nightclub in Alcobendas when Juan Carlos was 19, or in 1991. Together they have a daughter, who was born in 2011. It’s not my place to speculate about Karla Sofia and Marisa’s marriage, but if they were to split up Karla would presumably still be into women as a rule. Her trans sexual behavior is apparently the same as Lana Wachowski‘s…she enjoys being a lesbian.

If I’m wrong about any of this, please inform.

The first time in my life that I heard the term “fascist rally” was during my first viewing of The Manchurian Candidate, sometime in the early ’70s. I seem to recall it being shown at the Leo S. Bing theatre at the L.A. County Museum of Art, which was quite a score by Ron Haver as John Frankenheimer‘s 1962 thriller had been commercially withdrawn for some years at that point.

The term was used hy John McGiver, portraying the ultra-liberal Senator Thomas Jordan. He was speaking to James Gregory, who was playing Senator John Yerkes Iselin, a reactionary conservative who was modelled on the real-life Senator Joseph McCarthy.

The scene happens at a loud, raucous party at Iselin’s vacation home…a party to celebrate the engagement of Laurence Harvey‘s Raymond Shaw and Jordan’s daughter, Jocelyn (played by Leslie Parrish).

Iselin: “Tom! Tom, boy! So great you could come!”
Jordan: “I am here at this fascist rally because my daughter has assured me that it was important to her that I come. There is no other reason.”
Iselin: “Good old Tom!”

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Aaron Schimberg‘s A Different Man opened around five weeks ago and promptly bombed. I can’t imagine why. If there was ever a dark comedy made for Joe and Jane Popcorn…a film that’s partly about a pretty, sexy theatre director (Renate Reinsve) falling in love with a modern-day Elephant Man (i.e., a guy afflicted with neurofibramitosis, played by Adam Pearson)…talk about a date movie!

The theme, as you might presume if you’ve seen the trailer, is basically “you are what you are inside” or, if you will, “ignore the physical in order to concentrate on the interiors.”

I was initially resigned to watching it last month, but at the end of the day I couldn’t go there. I wimped out.

A majority of critics, possibly fearful of being labelled as brusque or cruel or insensitive by shrieking neurofibromatosis wokies, bestowed thumbs-up reviews (92% Rotten Tomatoes, 78% Metacritic).

I didn’t want to see it for obvious reasons (one of them being that I didn’t want to be reminded of nature’s random cruelty), but now that I’ve read the Wiki synopsis I’m stunned to learn that Renate’s character enters into a full-on, fucking-and-fellatio relationship with Pearson’s Oswald character.

On top of which before hooking up with Oswald, Renate’s Ingrid is sexually involved with Sebastian Stan‘s Edward, another victim of neurofibromatosis who is magically transformed into a normal-looking fellow through surgery.

A friend explains that A Different Man is presented as a tongue-in-cheek fable or fairy tale. I don’t care whose tongue is in what cheek…there’s no buying Renate Reinsve fucking a charming Elephant Man…no!

We all understand the necessity of expressing kindness and compassion in our lives, but I’m not sure I can do this…cue the neurofibromatosis wokies…”you slithering bastard…you need to commit suicide!”

A Better Man will begin streaming on Tuesday, September 5.

…when using non-attributable quotes for a serious state-of-things piece was considered journalistic malpractice? Or at least it was 26 years ago. In the minds of David Poland and Peter Bart, I mean.

In an Indiewire piece posted earlier today, producer, industry consultant and former Fine Line production executive Liz Manne outed herself as a major anonymous source for a controversial, once-heavily-criticized 1998 Premiere story that described a culture of sexual harassment at New Line Cinema, which at the time was run by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne.  

The article, written by John Connolly and fact-checked by Premiere staffers (including then-editor Jim Meigs and senior film editor Glenn Kenny), was called “Flirting With Disaster.”

The article asserted that all kinds of nasty shenanigans (drinking, drugs, sexual harassment) were happening at New Line, and that Shaye and Lynne ran the place “like a college dorm,” according to a producer who spoke anonymously to Connolly. The piece began with a story about a boozy New Line party that happened the year before (1992) at a lodge in Snowmass, Colorado, and about how Lynne made an aggressive sexual pass at an unnamed female executive. 

That executive, according to Manne’s Indiewire piece, was Manne herself. As noted, she flat-out admits to having been one of Connolly’s anonymous sources.

In hindsight, the Connolly piece can be appreciated as a tough expose that described a predatory climate that sounds all too familiar by today’s understandings. But because it depended on anonymous sources (when she left the company Manne signed an exit agreement that forbade her from talking to anyone about anything in any context) the article was strongly attacked as an example of reckless or irresponsible journalism.

Two of the attackers were Movie City News’ David Poland and Variety‘s Peter Bart. Coincidentally, there was also a “Reverse Angle” article on page 51 in that same issue of Premiere, written by Harvey Weinstein of all people, that complained about “the reckless use of unnamed sources.”

From Poland’s 6.17.98 MCN article: “Can you say ‘hatchet job?’ I know for sure that Premiere magazine can. It had to be the phrase of the day when it decided to print its story, ‘Flirting With Disaster’” on alleged sexual and drug-related misconduct at New Line Cinema. I am often disgusted with the state of entertainment journalism, but usually it’s because we throw softballs in exchange for access to the talent that sells magazines, newspapers and TV shows. (And yes, some Web sites.) This time, it’s the opposite. 

“What was Premiere thinking when it ran the results of John Connolly‘s eight-month ‘investigation’ which added up to little more than a handful of gossipy accusations by unnamed sources that any reporter working this beat on a regular basis could have come up with over a three-day weekend?”

Full respect and affection for the late Phil Lesh, who famously and joyously played bass for the Grateful Dead for 30 years (’65 to ’95) and then kept playing with The Other Ones and one or two other groups into the early teens.

Lesh was 84 when he passed on 10.25.24, apparently from cancer.

This may sound off but when I heard of Lesh’s departure, the first thing I flashed on was that Altamont footage from Gimme Shelter (’70)…that brief discussion between Lesh, Dead headliner Jerry Garcia and Santana drummer Mike Shrieve about the Hells Angels beating people up, etc.

I remembered it because the very first time I saw this 1970 Alfred and David Maysles documentary I was struck by Lesh’s slight hesitancy in condemning what had reportedly happened.

Jerry Garcia: “Oh, that’s what the story is here?”
Mike Shrieve (Santana): “Yeah.”
Garcia: “Oh, bummer.”
Shrieve: “Really, man. I mean, like…it’s scary.”
Phil Lesh: “Who’s doing all the beating?”
Shrieve: “Hell’s Angels.”
Lesh: “Hell’s Angels beating on musicians?”
Shrieve: “Marty [Balin] got beat up. Hit in the face.”
Lesh: “It doesn’t seem right, man.”
Shrieve: “It’s really weird, man. It’s really weird.”
Garcia: “Oh, man. Really?”

Doesn’t “seem” right? My immediate reaction way back when was “hey, Phil, don’t go out on a limb!”

Obnoxious Eco-terrorists afraid to commit vandalism after Museum Director discovers this one trick…

“What’s more important, Art or life?”pic.twitter.com/G4tWF5JuLT

— Ammon Jefferson (@AmmonJefferson) October 26, 2024

I watched this 11 times and I can’t stop!!

pic.twitter.com/6Hlbl2D2Bf

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) October 25, 2024

The word around the campfire is that Paul Mescal may be a bit of a problem in Gladiator II.

Friendo: “Critics are going to be too scared to say he’s terrible in the movie but two [fellows] I spoke to tell me he has zero range and is incredibly miscast.”

HE: “Because he’s…what. too dweeby or peculiar? Not macho enough?”

Friendo: “They’re telling me Mescal is not as muscular or intense a presence as Russell Crowe was. [They’re also saying that] Denzel is far and away the best in show.”

I asked a certain thorny and contentious film guy, whom I assume has seen Gladiator II (although I don’t know this for a fact), whether or not this assessment is fair. His response: “Fuck off.”

Film guy #2: “NOT. AT. ALL. I was actually surprised how good he was, immediately putting him in the Best Actor race when I didn’t expect to. Talked to a few Oscar voters there who loved it and him. I know you don’t like him so you may not go in with an open mind. He is strong in this, even reminding me in a couple of shots of Spartacus-era Kirk Douglas.”

Paul Mescal tells the story of meeting Denzel Washington for the first time on the set of ‘GLADIATOR ll’

(via @TheGNShow)
pic.twitter.com/YihFw1mbUy

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) October 26, 2024

The reason she hasn’t yet agreed is almost certainly because her people don’t trust her unscripted abilities…they’re afraid that she’ll somehow misspeak or put her foot in her mouth.

I think Kamala needs to step out of the scripted arena and let her hair down. She could finally address how woke insanity took over the progessive left in 2020. She could candidly state that the Biden administration, reacting to the cruelty of Trump’s resrictive border policy, arguably leaned a bit too far in the other direction for three years. Why hasn’t she said the obvious about the vice-presidency, which is that it’s essentially a ceremonial, rubber-stamp job that has no independent agency? (Ask Lyndon Johnson and John Nance Garner.) Chris Christie said the same thing yesterday on The View.

As we all know, Kamala flubbed it when Anderson Cooper asked if the Biden administration had made any mistakes and, if so, whether those mistakes taught her anything.

What she should have said: “As you know, Anderson, that’s a ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ question. If I admit to mistakes I’ll be trashed for throwing President Biden under the bus, and if I say there were no mistakes I’ll be called a delusional liar and a fantasist.

“It’s part of human nature to make occasional mistakes, and hopefully to learn from them, and c’mon…there’s never been a White House administration that didn’t screw up here and there. I could acknowledge rhetorically or admit that some believe Joe’s team tactically screwed up on the Afghnistan withdrawal. I could acknowledge rhetorically that some maintain we were too liberal in our border policy for two or three years. But I’m not going to say that because it’s a no-win. To be human is to be fallible. I believe in learning, growing and improving our game. I’ll leave it here.”

Trump: Can you imagine Kamala doing this show?

Rogan: I could imagine her doing this show.

Trump: She'd be laying on the floor.

Rogan: She was supposed to do it. And she might still do it. I hope she does.

Trump: She's not gonna do it.

Rogan: I will talk to her like a… pic.twitter.com/KNv2bjDPmz

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) October 26, 2024

How many of the 3678 recipients of gender-affirming bottom surgery, kids between the ages of 12 and 18…how many of these kids changed their minds in the aftermath?

How many minors have had bottom surgery between 2020 and the present?

“The number of people seeking gender-affirming surgeries such as breast and chest operations or genital reconstruction nearly tripled during the three years before the coronavirus pandemic, a new study shows.

“The number of patients getting these operations nearly tripled from 4,552 in 2016 to 13,011 in 2019” — the Trump years — “before decreasing slightly in 2020 amid the coronavirus restrictions that postponed or halted many types of non-emergency operations, according to the study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open.

“Gender-affirming surgeries were most popular with young adults; more than 25,000 people ages 19 to 30 received these procedures. Fewer than 8% of patients — a total of 3,678 — were 12- to 18-year-olds, a group scrutinized by lawmakers pursuing restrictions mainly in conservative states.” — USA Today, 8.23.23.

Why didn’t Megyn Kelly stick around for the Overtime segment?

Megyn Kelly stuns the Bill Maher audience by laying out the facts about transitioning. After they recoil in disgust, Bill Maher corroborates Megyn Kelly 'We are definitely doing that':
Megyn Kelly: "What we're doing to our children with this trans insanity. We are chopping off… pic.twitter.com/3ZIVKPFkim

— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) October 26, 2024