@siennahubertross Everyone deserves a chance to fly #arianagrande #wicked #comedy @caroline ♬ original sound – Sienna Hubert-Ross

President-elect Donald Trump appears to be throwing in in the towel as far as Matt Gaetz‘s chances of becoming Attorney General are concerned.

On top of which the N.Y. Times is reporting than an unidentified hacker has gained access to a file shared in a secure link among lawyers with clients who have given damaging testimony related to Matt Gaetz.

Excerpt: “The file is said to include sworn testimony by a woman who said that she had sex with Mr. Gaetz in 2017 when she was 17, in addition to testimony by a second woman who said that she had witnessed the encounter. The material does not appear to have been made public by the hacker.”

There are seven states in which the legal age of consent is 17: Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, Texas, Wyoming.

There are quite a few more states in which the legal age of consent is 16: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, etc.

In short, there are roughly 35 states (more?) in which an adult male having sex with a 16- or 17-year-old, however distasteful or odious this might be if the male is significantly (more than ten years) older, is not illegal.

There are 12 states in which the age of consent is 18 — Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

HE’s personal view is that a woman is obliged to examine and scrutinize for herself when she hits 20. Once she’s experienced two full decades on this planet, she’s on her own. Before that age her judgment may not be what it could or should be.

Three significant films will open on Wednesday, 12.25 — Christmas Day — minus the sound of jingle bells, joyful carolers and deer hooves on the roof. Which is interesting.

James Mangold‘s A Complete Unknown, first and foremost — Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz, Scoot McNairy.

Nosferatu, a jolting vampire film from Robert Eggers and costarring Bill Skarsgard, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin and Willem Dafoe.

And Hailja Reijn‘s Babygirl, an allegedly worthwhile pervy relationship film with Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde and Antonio Banderas.

That’s a fairly nifty-sounding holiday trio!

Two other noteworthies are opening on 12.25 — Rachel Morrison‘s The Fire Inside, a fact-based female boxing flick with Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry, and Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz‘s Los Frikis, which no one will flock to.

Don’t hang out in the woods near the facility that you escaped from, bruhs! Run for it and keep running!

If I were in the area I’d invite some of you to jump into my car so I could drive you south to Key West. We could listen to music, stop for occasional meals, etc,

The escapees are rhesus macaque primates. They were being held in the Alpha Genesis Sing Sing Primate Research Center in Yemassee, South Carolina.

11:50 pm: What an absolute tragedy. We’re all heading to hell. A louche, indecent, fascist-minded sociopath will be running the country between January ‘25 and January ‘29, and the damage to our democratic system will be considerable. Is there a chance Harris can eke out a win? Not much of one. She’s almost certainly lost. I feel so drained and deflated I can’t even cry.

11:15 pm: Harris will probably lose Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and that’s all she wrote. This is the beginning of a second national nightmare under Trump. I’m disgusted by the corroded moral values and lack of common sense among the rural voters who brought this about. I’m ashamed to call these degenerates fellow citizens. Good ole Joe Biden is back in the villain’s circle — he brought this about. If he’d bailed in late ‘23 or early ‘24 a better candidate might have emerged from a primary system. Thanks, Joe!! Remember how Frankie Pantangeli died in the bathtub at the end of The Godfather, Part II? Think it over!

10:37 pm: Trump is slightly ahead of Harris in Pennsylvania, and if he wins in the Buckeye state he’ll win the Presidency. The Pig Beast may actually bring about a second national tragedy! I’m devastated. But maybe Harris will eke out a slight Pennsylvania win…maybe. Please? But right now she’s also behind a point in Wisconsin. I feel weak, bruised. This is AWFUL.

10:26: Selzer got it wrong…booo!

10:16 pm: I’ve said all along that Harris would probably squeak through. Barely. That seems likely as we speak. I’ve been studying the returns for about three hours, but it feels like five or six. I’ve aged about three months. I’ve grown four or five new gray hairs.

10:04 pm: Decisive battleground numbers still not in…still hovering.

9:47 pm: Okay, Wisconsin is looking okay for Harris. Ditto Michigan, Pennsylvania. No longer freaking the fuck out, but I still don’t like this.

9:28 pm: Harris has won New York State…expected. Pennsylvania is looking good for Harris, but Wisconsin sort of isn’t. (Right now) What is this? I’ll tell you what it partly is — Harris and the progressive Democrat party has pretty much written off the dude vote, and right now they’re feeling the terrible result of that prejudice. That plus garden-variety misogyny, I’m thinking.

9:04 pm: Aacckk! Aaacckk! I’m so on edge about the drip-drip-drip uncertainty that I haven’t even felt the effect of that Oxy I dropped an hour ago. Harris isn’t pulling in votes like Biden did four years ago, and Trump is doing a little better than he did in ‘20. Trump is five points ahead in North Carolina…yeesh. Millions of people are knowingly voting for a monster. My stomach is flooded with acid.

8:48: I feel nothing but nerves, anxiety, tension. This is as close of a race as everyone has been predicting. No unexpected Harris surge…that’s for sure.

8:41 pm: How many days is this going to drag on? Will it be finally decided on Thursday or Friday?

8:36 pm: Florida independent voters have gone bigger for Trump this year than in ‘20. A concerning sign?

8:20 pm: Harris obviously isn’t going to prevail in Georgia. Oh, dear God…I feel so scared. All the usual patterns are kicking in, exactly as presumed. Bumblefuck states going for Trump, etc. I’m just not feeling the “phenomenal surge of women voters” thing. I’m scared, Auntie Em…I’m scared.

8:14 pm: Kirk Douglas in heaven: “Ladies and gentleman, there have been times when I’ve been ashamed to be a member of, for lack of a better term, whitebread American dude nation, and this is one such occasion.”

This is one of those photos that people will be contemplating for decades to come. I saw it on Facebook yesterday. Somewhere in western North Carolina. Your heart breaks, and I don’t care if it’s AI.

Last night I finally went to see Matt Walsh‘s Am I Racist?

Walsh’s low-key manner, gravelly-gurgly voice and logical trains of thought make for an engaging package. And the film certainly comes to the right conclusions, of course — since ’19 or thereabouts and certainly since the George Floyd summer of 2020 many of us (wealthy liberal women in particular) have been prodded and besieged by maniacal race-hustlers.

But the amiable Walsh struck me as being a little bit afraid of sounding too snippy and smart-ass.  I could have punched up Matt’s narration if asked.  I got a distinct feeling that he didn’t want to let his inner white guy off the leash.

Am I Racist?, in short, plays it a little too gently. It seems to skirt and soft-pedal — it’s a little too low-key.  Too much respectful listening and not enough eye-rolling.  

Matt’s strategy is to let the race-hustlers hang themselves, which mostly succeeds as far as it goes. But I wanted more of a Ricky Gervais or an Adam Carolla or a Bill Maher-like attitude.  Why couldn’t Matt just say what the woke cultists seem to believe, which is that POCs are generally angelic figures with halos and white males (especially the older ones) are more or less demonic Trumpies who need to be shunted aside?

Friendo responds: “But that’s the whole point. It was the same with What is a Woman?. Walsh made it in such a way as people could not write it off as mocking or vicious. People expected it to be a Bill Maher thing but it wasn’t. That was the brilliance of it.”

Kamala Harris delivered a good, frank, well-sculpted speech last night — no question. She made me feel proud and stirred and revved up. But we all know that the general narrative of wokeism since the mid teens has been about “straight white guys bad” — about the diminishment and to some extent the demonization of straight white males, as they are generally regarded by wokesters as odious symbols of the institutional racism that has permeated this country for a long, long time.

Last night I was muttering to myself “there’s something happening here.” For the well-produced Chicago DNC show was a four-day extravaganza that served to mostly emphasize (be honest) the energy and promise of well-heeled. emotionally confident and highly articulate women of color. Along with their seemingly obedient husbands.

I feel zero allegiance with white male Trumpies, but this is a huge country with tens of millions of polite, well-mannered, relatively well educated fellows of European descent. Just under 60% of the population is white and African Americans total around 14%, but you’d never know that from watching the DNC show over the last four nights.

We all know from Scott Galloway that younger, not-as-well-educated white males who might be incels…these shlumpy, poorly dressed, porn-site-frequenting guys have been largely told by progressive urban women that they are not all that sexy or valued or even respected as urban women are better educated with far more positive outlooks and engaged attitudes.

We all know from having watched Twisters that traditional white-male energy and initiative is fine in limited doses but that Glen Powell-ish guys cannot bring their traditional macho strength and servings of old-school honor and saving-the-day heroism, and they certainly don’t warrant a kiss inside the airport terminal at the finale.

It’s all tied together, all part of the same unified urban-blue message — white guys are okay for corporate gigs and construction jobs and being actors and film critics and auto mechanics and legislators and running hardware stores and managing CVS outlets but they need to more or less stand off to the side as America gradually evolves into a woke 21st Century matriarchy, and fortified by a new kind of power structure — a new country led by well-educated women, people of diverse backgrounds, LGBTQs and a slice of the Ru Paul community for flavor.

Have I become Dylan’s Mr. Jones? I don’t think I am (last time I checked I was a cosmic, well-travelled Bhagavad Gita soul man and hepcat) and I certainly don’t want to be but…

Wealthy, independent minded whiteys like Galloway, Joe Rogan, Bill Maher and Adam Carolla have their own deals and fiefdoms and that’s fine, but white guys are somehow not seen as vital to the country’s cultural & political future as they once were. They seem to represent the recent past and/or a way of thinking that no longer quite fits or applies, certainly not like it did in the ‘90s and early aughts.

The new progressive social deal seems to be more about women who look and sound like Ella Emhoff (what was up with those godawful glasses and ugly arm tats and zero makeup and granny-bun hair and that generally de-sexualized appearance?) and even poor 17 year-old Gus Walz, who has a disability or two. Where are all the cool, regular, well-built, nicely-dressed dudes who own baseball mitts and know how to throw a football and can handle themselves at poolside cocktail parties? What are we? Who are we? Where are all the X-factor, well-read samurai jazz cats who wear Italian lace-ups?

All this aside, Kamala’s speech last night made me feel good and energized and hopeful for the most part. But at the same time I understand why many straight white males, especially the hinterland variety, have allied themselves with the right. It’s because they’ve been repeatedly told by progressive lefties that they arent rated all that highly.

I’ve long regarded Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone as an exceptionally brilliant and perceptive diviner of the human condition and especially political behavior in both the Hollywood and Washington, D.C. realms.

She’s also an excellent, true-blue human being — certainly among the most loving and supportive friends I’ve ever known. We’ve had our spats over the years and I certainly don’t agree with her about certain political matters, but she’s made of fine, honorable, gold-bullion stuff

Sasha’s political views began to lean right around four years ago, which is fine. But alas, she’s concurrently developed a curious affinity for…I can’t say it! I can’t say the name!

And within the last year this affinity has allegedly caused her…well, a few minor political problems within a certain branch of the Hollywood community, particularly the progressive totalitarian thought police brigade…you know, the Robespierres who’ve been controlling the proverbial conversation since woke theology began to take hold around the mid teens, and who have thereby inserted a climate of fear among filmmakers (woke casting criteria + the Clayton Davis lobby + celebrate and certainly don’t offend women, POCs, LGBTQs or trans, especially with Emilia Perez coming down the pike!) and have generally caused certain Hollywood films to become vehicles for woke talking points and social instruction (Killers of the Flower Moon, Disney’s forthcoming Snow White, etc.).

It’s common knowledge that The Hollywood Reporter‘s Rebecca Keegan has been researching what sounds like a Sasha hit piece over the last couple of weeks. The idea (i.e., rake her over the coals) apparently began in response to Sasha having satirically or facetiously tweeted “white power” when discussing “White Dudes for Harris”, but also for having expressed certain MAGA-ish viewpoints that have rubbed some in the skittish Hollywood community the wrong way.

Keegan has spoken to Sasha as well as Variety columnist Jazz Tangcay, who used to write for Sasha’s site, Awards Daily contributor Megan MacLachlan, and, I’ve been told although I haven’t confirmed, THR award season columnist Scott Feinberg.

I’ve been using the term “hit piece” because Keegan hasn’t spoken to me (Sasha told her about our devout friendship) or longtime associate and friend Clarence Moye, who’s been writing Awards Daily TV commentary for ten years and is about to launch www.the-contenders.com, largely because Sasha has been urging him to do so in order to thrive without having to cope with the smoke that Sasha’s viewpoints have apparently generated among the Orwellians.

Earlier today I spoke to Moye, who intends to launch The Contenders on Monday, 8.26, about what’s been going on, Sasha-wise.

Moye: “Sasha has encouraged us (myself, Megan, Joey Moser) to consider breaking out on our own for several years, but we haven’t considered going out until this year. I know that a few years ago Sasha was getting attacked by pro-trans activists for questioning the hate bombs thrown at J.K. Rowling. We stood by her and fully support her when it comes to being against left bullying and cancel culture. As long as what she says isn’t hurtful.

“But Sasha has been encouraging us to do this for four or five years now. She wants us to be spared. I for one have not heard any advertisers say they are uncomfortable with this messaging. I have heard publicists say ‘what’s going on with Sasha?’ Fellow awards contenders have also said this from time to time. They don’t get the embracing of MAGA culture, which for some has been the tipping point.

“Sasha is free to say what she wants. I think if she only focused on woke and anti-cancel culture rhetoric, most of the feedback would be manageable. It’s mainly the MAGA commentary, and it’s really just been [happening] over the past year. Somebody will come up and say ‘what’s going on?’ She doesn’t represent my opinion. She has her own voice. The only thing I and Joey and Megan have objected to was politics being tweeted via the Awards Daily brand…we were concerned about the Awards Daily brand becoming toxic. This is what seemed to be the tipping point for many.

“I am not a social media person. I don’t care about being ridiculed. There have been a few tweets about ‘the Awards Daily writers must be horrible people because they support her.’ But Twitter is a cesspool. The anti-woke culture stuff, I don’t think, would have been seen as all that bad, considering the worm has started to turn.

“I am looking at a place where I need to make a name for myself. Sasha has given me so much, and I feel like it’s time to fly the nest, and to put my own voice out there. I’ve been writing for Sasha for ten years, I saw that ‘white power’ tweet and I knew it was a joke. But an unwise joke I would add, given the insane asylum that is Twitter and the fact that informed conversations are a rarity.”

Keep in mind that Clarence Moye isn’t the first journalist to graduate from the Sasha Stone academy. 15 and 20 years ago Sasha’s site (formerly known as OscarWatch.com) served as an opinion and Oscar-handicapping platform for Feinberg, Kris Tapley, who couldn’t be bothered to reply to an inquiry I sent about this history or even acknowledge that I was reaching out, and Awardswatch.com‘s Erik Anderson.

Sasha quote (8.13.24): “It is strange that we live in a time in which someone thinks this is a story. I wonder why there aren’t more interesting things to write about, and then I remember how paralyzed everyone has become in this climate of fear. One thing I’ve tried to do is become more tolerant by humanizing the accused witches, and I have paid a price for that. But you have to live a truthful life as best you can, stand up for what you believe is right and that is what I’ve done.

“I am too careless on social media. No one ever interacts with my tweets. It’s been a ghost town since years ago when the bullying began. So I guess I didn’t realize the Eye of Sauron was watching me. If I’d known it would lead to this of course I would not have posted it. I thought it was a funny joke. My friends and I used to say all the time ‘white rights!’ because it was so ridiculous. Now, of course, if you say it people think you mean it literally. And therein lies to answer to why American culture has collapsed into itself.

“There are a lot of people who feel like I do but they are too afraid to speak out. I hear from them in DMs.”

Christian Toto, HollywoodinToto.com: “Sasha Stone is an old-fashioned Hollywood success story. A single mother whose love of film became a full-time career. Her political evolution has been both fascinating and unexpected, and her industry colleagues would be wise to at least listen to what she has to say and write. She’s been able to roll with industry changes via her sly Substack account while other journalists have been understandably caught up in the industry’s seismic makeover. If only Celebrity Nation mirrored her passion for free expression, one of her signature passions.”

A well-connected fellow says he’s “heard very casually and very second-hand that someone is talking to studio/streamer campaign types, but beyond that I know nothing about [Keegan’s article]. Over the past few weeks I did hear from a couple of people at studios expressing concern about advertising with someone who might be regarded as politically toxic from a certain perspective and how that might be a question, but at least one told me they really like Sasha’s awards site and so are somewhat perplexed. Either way I’m sure this hubbub will make Sasha a hero in MAGA-land for sticking it to Hollywood.”

Personal aside: Ever since Hollywood’s woke thought police began to target me in late ’18 or thereabouts and especially since the Great Awokening of 2020, I’ve been increasingly enamored (or at least open to the opinions) of varioue sensible, plain-spoken, anti-woke headliners….Sasha, Bill Maher, Bret Stephens, Bari Weiss, Adam Carolla, Joe Rogan, Chris Gore, Dennis Quaid…even the tart-tongued Megyn Kelly from time to time. Kelly is an out-and-out-Trumper, but she hates the Orwellian left and that’s music to my ears. Otherwise you could call the other seven or eight “independents” or “center-right contrarians”, but I regard them as voices of the new counter culture.

I draw the line, however, at odious MAGA theology and bowing down to that hideous, corpulent, felonious, flatulent one-man plague who’s running against Kamala Harris. In my book he’s a despicable, low-rent, mouth-breathing animal from Queens who, trust me, will be going down hard when he loses the election come November.

Added note: The thought police seriously damaged my ad income between ’21 and the present, and it was never about Trump. It was about nothing but scurillous bullshit. This history exposes these monsters for who and what they are.

Kai Madison Trump plays golf?

The correct self-intro would have been “at 17, I am Donald Trump‘s eldest granddaughter.” Instead she said “I am the granddaughter of Donald Trump,” and in so doing brushed aside her sister Chloe, and her cousins Arabella (daughter of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner) and Carolina (daughter of Eric Trump and Lara Yunaska).

She thinks Donald’s “success” in business is “obviously” a high bar?

The only part of her speech that I personally related to was “[Grandpa Donald] gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking.”

From The independent‘s Gustaf Kilander: “President Joe Biden’s polling numbers have begun to fall in key swing states following his dismal debate performance last week.

“That’s according to a confidential polling memo obtained by Puck News. It reveals that states where Biden was clearly ahead, such as New Mexico, Virginia, and New Hampshire, may now be winnable for former President Donald Trump.

“The data from OpenLabs indicates that if the election were held today, the 81-year-old Biden would not only lose all seven of the swing states thought to hold the key to the White House in 2024 — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — but also states he won convincingly four years ago.

“Those include New Hampshire, which last voted Republican in 2000; Virginia, which Biden won by 10 points in 2020; and New Mexico, which has gone Democrat in seven of the last eight presidential elections.

“Biden is now behind other possible candidates in the polls looking at possible matchups with Trump, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the memo from OpenLabs shows.”

Take this data and shove it, Lady MacBiden.