I’m talking about a remake of The King and I, costarring a bald Cynthia Erivo in the Yul Brynner role (King Mongkut of Siam) and Ariana Grande in the Deborah Kerr role (Anna Leonowens). I’m not suggesting that Erivo’s king should be transformed into a bald lesbian, mind — she could portray the actual Mongkut but in the same way that Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. And they (Erivo + Grande) could fall in love in a straight hetero sense, except the audience would process their affair as a whole ‘nother thing.
Jeff Wells
Finally Diving into “Juror No. 2,” “Blitz”
The first 12 hours of Tuesday, 11.5, will be such a nail-biter, I won’t know what to think or do. No encouraging or discouraging numbers will appear until 8 pm eastern, right? To alleviate my anxiety I might burrow into all kinds of non-political topics…I’ll be going quietly nuts.
But I’ll definitely be tapping out an HE live blog starting sometime in the early evening.
Today I’ll be catching a 4 pm screening or Clint Eastwood‘s Juror No. 2, which I’m excited about due to a reportedly unconventional ending, and an early evening showing of Steve McQueen‘s Blitz.
All Quincy Jones Wrote
We all have to go sometime, and yesterday the bell tolled for the great Quincy Jones.
I don’t know how awake or aware he was at the end or how politically minded he may have been, but I feel a little bit sad that he didn’t get to witness the election of Kamala Harris as the nation’s 47th president.
Posted on 9.23.18: “I admire and respect Quincy Jones as much as the next guy. He hasn’t done much since the ’80s, but he’ll always be cool.
“Jones’ musical score for Richard Brooks‘ In Cold Blood (’67) is a standout…in my mind, at least.
“I was intrigued when I read that Jones’ ancestors include Betty Washington Lewis, a sister of president George Washington, Edward I of England, and Jane Fonda even. And I loved that Vulture interview he gave earlier this year, and particularly an implication that Jones had enjoyed some kind of intimate contact with Ivanka Trump.
“But I had no interest in seeing Alan Hicks and Rashida Jones‘ Quincy, as I don’t enjoy kiss-ass portraiture as a rule. The first 44 seconds of the trailer are suffocating in this regard.
“I would love to sit down with the 85-year-old Jones for hours and hours and listen to his stories, but his friends need to give that ‘oh my God, what an awesome, genius-level talent!’ shit a rest…no offense.”
Son of Opposite Peas in Polish Travel Pod
With Jesse Eisenberg‘s A Real Pain finally playing commercially or at least about to open in suburban locations, here’s a refresher of my 9.25.24 Telluride review:
Jesse Eisenberg‘s A Real Pain (Searchlight, 11.1), a quirky, shifty dudes-travelling-through-Poland thing, is going to connect because of Kieran Culkin‘s richly eccentric and occasionally unhinged character, Benji Kaplan…one of those hyper, live-wire guys whose irreverent, unfiltered energy most of us can’t help but enjoy or even get off on in short bursts.
But Culkin’s stoned-jumping-bean manner is also a bit much after repeated exposures. And knowing that Benji is doomed to some kind of arduous instability later in life…a poet who’s fated to “die in the gutter,” as Bob Dylan might put it…Benji is, of course, quite sad.
Everyone has encountered a Benji or two in their life, and this is the film’s big irresistable draw. A Real Pain has to be seen for the Culkin effect. I had heard quite a lot about his firecracker turn, and yet Culkin didn’t disappoint in the least. God, what an amazing, infectious asshole…love his shpiel! And I adore the fact that he loves to sit in airline terminals and study the travellers.
Pic is basically about a pair of tristate-area Jewish cousins, crazy Benji and anxious, straightlaced, somewhat dull David (Eisenberg, who is strangely being campaigned for Best Actor with Culkin going for a Best Supporting nom) embarked on a group holocaust tour in Poland. The usual intrigues and complications ensue.
On top of which Dirty Dancing‘s Jennifer Grey, 63 years young when the film was shot in mid ’23, is also a participant. (The others are like lumps of mashed potatoes.)
This, trust me, is an excellent trailer:
Costas Knows All, Sees All
Bob Costas on LeBatardShow three days ago: “Kamala Harris is not an ideal [presidential] candidate, and [she] may have to grow into the job if she wins it. But this is not a political question — it’a a moral question, and it would be [this] no matter who opposes Donald Trump.
“There is nothing wrong with being a Republican or a conservative. Nothing wrong with that. I read George Will on a regular basis, and Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal. I’m like Bill Maher. I’m a center-left guy, a classic liberal, who is troubled by the distortions of [woke] leftism, which is different than liberalism, and some of that is an anchor around Kamala Harris’s neck now. Because she can’t distance herself from the worst of it, even if she doesn’t fully embrace it. Over the years excessive [voices] on the left have handed Fox News their talking points on a silver platter. Or, in this case, the Trump candidacy points.
“So I can understand people having serious misgivings about Biden’s record, and about how the Dems kinda gaslit the public about Biden’s fitness, both as a candidate and [his ability to handle] a second term as president. There are some policies that can’t be defended. You cannot defend what has gone on for a long time at the [Mexican] border. You can certainly defend attempts to reform the police and the justice system, which has historically been tilted against African Americans and other people of color.
“[But] the Trump candidacy is about a man who is a liar, a lunatic and an ignoramus. So it’s a moral question such as we have never seen, not in my lifetime and maybe ever…a presidential candidate with so many of those who are rock-solid Republicans and conservatives, and who worked closely with him and whose credibilty and credentials cannot be questioned…all of these [veterans of the 2017 to 2021 Trump administration] saying the same word — unfit. He is unfit to hold any position of public trust, let alone the presidency.
“So there are millions of people who may have misgivings about aspects of Kamala Harris’s candidacy, but at the same time cannot stomach the idea that somebody whose entire being is antithetical to actual patriotism, to American principles, to common sense and common decency…that, to me, is the deciding factor.”
HE to Domingo: Kim Never Did Nasty with Sammy
Late to this but bear with me: Colman Domingo will reportedly make his feature directorial debut with Scandalous, a late 1950s period drama about an alleged romance between Kim Novak (Picnic, Vertigo, Bell Book & Candle) and singer-dancer Sammy Davis Jr., and the brutal, bigoted intimidation (Harry Cohn, Johnny Roselli, Mickey Cohen) that the pair faced once their relationship made the gossip columns.
Sydney Sweeney and David Jonsson are “in talks” to play Novak and Davis.
Just one problem: In March ’21 Novak told THR‘s Scott Feinberg that she and Davis never actually got down. Davis had the hots for Novak and certainly pursued her, an effort that resulted in at least one special date when Novak attended a Thankgiving dinner at the home of Davis’s parents, followed by Davis paying an impromptu visit to Novak’s family home in Chicago a few weeks later.
But there was never an “affair” to speak of…no sliding salami action, no D.H. Lawrence-level passion, no heavy breathing, no splendor in the grass, no making out in the car…nothin’.
Why would Novak, now 91, lie to Feinberg? In 2021 the Davis boogaloo had happened 64 years earlier.
Novak told Feinberg, in fact, that Davis may have done a Bill Cosby on her (i.e., fucked her while she was unconscious) after Tony Curtis, a close Davis pal, slipped her a Mickey Finn.
Davis was pressured by Columbia honcho Harry Cohn, or more specifically by mobsters Johnny Roselli and Mickey Cohen at Cohn’s request. Wiki excerpt: “The one-eyed Davis was threatened with the loss of his other eye or a broken leg if he did not marry a black woman within two days. Davis sought the protection of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana, who said that he could protect him in Chicago and Las Vegas but not California.”
In 1960 Davis and actress May Britt (still with us at age 90) not only had an actual interacial affair but got married. Like Jim Brown, Sammy obviously had a thing for white women.
Britt’s and Davis’s late daughter Tracey Davis (’61 to ’20) alleged in a 2014 book that the marriage to Britt resulted in President Kennedy‘s staff refusing to allow Davis to perform at JFK’s 1961 inauguration. The snub was confirmed by director Sam Pollard, who revealed in a 2017 American Masters documentary that Davis’s invitation to perform at the inauguration was abruptly canceled on the night of JFK’s inaugural party.
Davis and Britt divorced in 1968 after Davis admitted to an affair with singer Lola Falana.
And then, of course, Davis hugged Richard Nixon on the Republican National Convention stage in 1972.
I chatted with Davis at a late-night party in 1983. No charm or smiles, dark mood, not a happy camper.
John Updike’s “Wabbit Won”
Posted on 2.9.15: “Doggone, you wabbit…waaaahhhh!”
“Elmer Fudd was one of my first impressions. I wasn’t great at it but I wasn’t half bad.
“I was just remembering that one of the first big laughs I got from classmates was when I recounted a chat with a 7th-grade substitute teacher, whose name was <strong>Mr. Hilse</strong>. He was Swedish- or German-looking…slim, fair-haired, medium height. Kind of a dweeby type. Had a reedy, crackly voice and a very slight speech impediment — he had trouble with the letter “r.”
“Anyway the kids in Hilse’s class were all walking down the stairs one day and I, ever the exhibitionist, decided to hop down. Hilse: ‘Walk like a human being and not like a rabbit.’ Later that day I entertained my pallies by doing Hilse as Fudd: ‘…and not like a wabbit.’
“This was one of the most glorious moments that happened to me in seventh-grade, as I was pretty bad at paying attention or getting decent grades, and I was a complete failure with girls. I had begun to find my voice. Diminish authority figures with derision, jokes…anything that made them seem small or petty.
