It’s not the ignorance — that can always be corrected. It’s the casual presumption on the part of these women that the male version of perfume has the same spelling as the Panamanian seaport. Nobody googled it…brilliant.

In a recent discussion between Firing Line‘s Margaret Hoover and Chinese artist-activist Al Weiwei…

Hoover: “In your book, you describe the directive of Mao Zedung during the Great Cultural Revolution…that would be distributed publicly every night. And then you write — this is your quote — ‘these messages served a function similar to Donald Trump’s late-night tweets while in office. They were a director communication of a leader’s thoughts to his devoted followers, enhancing the sanctity of his authority.’ So do you see Donald Trump as an authoritarian?

Ai Weiwei: “Certainly [in] the United States, with today’s condition, you [could] easily have an authoritarian. In many ways, you are already in the authoritarian state. You just don’t know it.”

Hoover: “How so?”

Ai Weiwei: “Many things [are] happening today in the U.S. can be compared to to the Cultural Revolution in China.”

Hoover: “Like what?”

Ai Weiwei: “Like people trying to be unified in a certain political correctness. That is very dangerous.”

In other words, wokester terrorism is just as bad as any other oppresive mindfuck movement…that it’s the same thing that created the French Terror in 1793 and ’94.

"Certainly the United States, with today's condition, you can easily have an authoritarian," says artist and activist Ai Weiwei — @aiww — who challenged China and became a political prisoner.

"In many ways, you are already in the authoritarian state. You just don't know it." pic.twitter.com/TODgkHaolp

— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) November 12, 2021

The still-unnamed granddaughter (I’ve been urging Hadlee or Wave) is expected to emerge four days hence (Thursday, 11.18). HE will fly to NYC on 11.26 and pay a visit a few days later. I’ll be in the NYC, New Jersey and Connecticut region for 16 days.

All my life I’ve been an existential mystical jazz cat samurai poet warrior Bhagavad Gita mescaline X-factor rumble-hogging be-bop Dharma Bum in a leather motorcycle jacket, slim jeans, Italian brown suede lace-ups and a black cowboy hat. In just a few days all of that will take a back seat to “don’t drop the baby, grandpa” and “you remember how to change diapers, right?”

Yesterday afternoon I finally saw Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, the justifiably acclaimed Norwegian relationship drama that led to star Renate Reinsve winning the Best Actress trophy at last July’s Cannes Film Festival.

A side observation shared by Tatiana and myself was that Reinsve bears an unusual resemblance to HE’s own Svetlana Cvetko (Show Me What You Got, the forthcoming One Nation Under Earl). They’re of different generations, of course, but with Svetlana being a younger-looking ex-model type you might almost think “older sister-younger sister” if they were to stand side by side at a cocktail party.

Reinsve will be in town soon for interviews and industry schmoozers, and I’m determined to at least try and get the two of them to pose before HE’s iPhone 12 Max Pro.

Here are some comparison shots — one of the Reinsve snaps was taken during an accidental fire alarm intermission at the Soho House screening room; the others were taken in Cannes. The Svet shots (wearing a cap, accepting an award at the Messina Film Festival, etc.) speak for themselves.

Variety’s Clayton Davis is shaking his woke turkey feathers at Javier Bardem’s Desi Arnaz portrayal in Being The Ricardos. Bardem’s big shortcoming, Davis feels, is his Spanish ancestry, which is an OUTRAGE because Arnaz was Cuban. Joe and Jane Popcorn (not to mention your average Academy and SAG member) don’t and won’t give a shit, but Clayton has a solemn duty to raise high the woke, ethnic-identity, social-casting-justice flag. (Thanks to Jordan Ruimy for the nudge.)

Today, I mean. Via Showtime app. In addition to (sigh, exhale) Rebecca Hall’s Passing.

The Netflix guys offered me a ticket for last night’s AFI Fest VOIR screening, but I had to catch Being The Ricardos in Westwood. The David Fincher-David Prior film-worship doc debuts on “the service” on 12.6.

But in the meantime, consider this verdict from Smart Critic Friendo: “Most overpraised movie of the millennium. For all the obvious reasons.”

Photos, I mean. Out of thousands. Chiesa di San Rocco. Taken in early June of ‘14. The tallest person in the group of six is my son Dylan.