Posted eight years ago: One of the healthiest things you can say about anything that’s over and done with is “okay, that happened.” Unless, of course, you’re talking about a stretch in a World War II concentration camp or something equally ghastly. Otherwise you have to be accepting, past it.

Especially when it comes to ex-girlfriends. We went there, it happened, nobody was right or wrong, that was then and we’re here now…let’s get a coffee and catch up.

All my life I’ve been friends with exes, or have at least been open to same. And they’ve been open to ease and friendship with me. Except for one.

She was (and most likely still is) a whipsmart blonde with a great ass, a toothy smile and a kind of young Katharine Hepburn vibe. She’d been raised in Brooklyn but always reminded me of a Fairfield County gal.

She’s married now and living in Pasadena; her husband — a slightly stocky, gray-haired guy of some means — doesn’t resemble me or her first husband (a doobie-toking small-business owner who owned a Harley) at all. Whatever attributes or nice qualities he’s brought to the table, he’s clearly a swing away from the past.

I gave up trying to be in touch with her toward the end of Barack Obama’s first term. She really wants to erase that part of her life — the first marriage (which began in the summer of ’96) and the affair with me that began in early ’98 and lasted two and two-thirds years, ending in late September 2000.

We last spoke in ’12. The most emotionally significant thing that happened before that was her friending me on Facebook, but what is that?

Our thing began at the ’98 Sundance Film Festival and finally ran out of gas in late ’00 when her husband found out.

Do you want a truly affecting parable about otherness and suffering derision for being different?…a sad, affecting, human-scaled drama about a young person bullied and ostracized for having shamrock green hair? Watch Joseph Losey’s The Boy With Green Hair (1948).

Idina Menzel and Cynthia Erivo? Meet 12-year-old Dean Stockwell.

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“The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you touch with your hand, and the kind you feel in your heart, your soul…the spiritual side. And you know, the worst of the two is the spiritual.”

I used to constantly argue with myself which parent was the worst, dad or mom. They were both punishers, prison wardens…”no” was their mantra, their middle name.

Imsgine seeing Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master for the first time, and just blurting out tweets as you walked home…just pouring it out, fast and unrefined.

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I’m planning on seeing Paris Barclay‘s Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It, although not today. (Screening conflict with Wicked.) Recapping Preston’s glory years is worth the ticket price, but I’m wondering to what extent, if any, the film will get into how Preston’s heavily Christian background led to intense inner conflict over being gay, and how that seemed to usher in a pattern of drug abuse.

Preston’s highly charged performance of “That’s The Way God Planned It” during George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh is easily the highlight of Saul Swimmer’s 1972 doc.

DocNYC boilerplate: “Mega-talented keyboardist and songwriter Billy Preston was often referred to as “the best musician in the room.” Stylistically influenced by the Black church, Preston’s illustrious career includes collaborations with Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, the Beatles, etc.

“A private man who turned to drugs to dull the pain of personal trauma, Preston’s poignant story unfolds through insights from Billy Porter, Eric Clapton and whomever, complemented by rare footage and an original score by Robert Glasper.”

Wiki excerpt: “Preston had become close friends with musician Sly Stone around the same time he was engaged to actress and model Kathy Silva. Preston was devastated when he came home one day to find Stone in bed with Silva (who later married Stone on stage at Madison Square Garden). According to Preston’s manager Joyce Moore, Silva’s affair with Stone was the trigger that led Preston to stop having relationships with women. It was after this incident that he began using cocaine and having sex with men. Moore saw his drug abuse as his way of coping with the conflict he felt about his sexual urges.”

How about “some the Gold Derby gangbangers aren’t cool enough to be part of the Gate Crashers“? How about them apples?

Jeff “insneider” Sneider posted this last night:

Halfdan Ullmann Tondel’s Armand will enjoy a qualifying theatrical run in New York City on 11.29.24. A limited theatrical release will kick off on 2.7.25 with a wide theatrical break slated for 2.14.25. It runs 117 minutes.

Posted from Cannes on Sunday, 5.19: “Armand” — Best Film of the Festival So Far, Hands Down

Scott Feinberg’s Awards Chatter podcast interview with Horizon maestro Kevin Costner begins in a few minutes so distraction levels are high, but there’s no question whatsoever that Halfdan Ullmann Tondel’s Armand, which I caught early this morning, is the finest film here, and I mean way, WAY above the level of Emilia Perez.

All hail the lead performance by Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World)!

…are set for New York and Los Angeles on 11.25, and in damn near every major city across the country in early December. The review embargo lifts on Tuesday morning, December 10th.

…I immediately flashed on this legendary clip from Conan’s talk show, which was taped on 5.15.97 — 27 and 1/2 years ago. Conan, Courtney Thorne-Smith and Norm McDonald. The comedic back and forth was between Norm and Conan, of course, and Thorne-Smith was the tennis ball. Conan wasn’t the instigator, of course — Norm was. Conan mainly tried to protect Thorne-Smith, but he quickly gave up.

Thorne-Smith is now 57 or 58 years old, married to Roger Fishman, and mom to a 16 year-old son, Jacob Emerson Fishman.

“Democrats became the party of ‘you can’t say that’…” Look where they are now.

…through the second half of Brady Corbet‘s The Brutalist, and I would be…well, not happy but accepting of a chance to attend a Manhattan screening of same at the earliest opportunity. (Or obtain a streaming link.) But if I can’t manage this I’ll have to wait until Corbet’s morose, torture-chamber flick opens commercially on Friday, 12.20, or nearly five weeks hence.

I recognize that Wicked‘s appeal is primarily to under-40 women (right?), but what kind of box-office is it likely to earn? I’m sensing it’s going to connect big-time but what do I know?

@thedejonreid Replying to @shhhhhh Happy Halloween Eve ‍♀️ #wicked #movie #fyp #theatre #play #halloween #arianagrande #cynthiaerivo #viral #trending #xyzbca #popular #debate #film #wizardofoz #greenscreen #greenscreenvideo ♬ Love You So – The King Khan & BBQ Show