I have to be honest: When I read earlier today about Amber Heard’s alleged personality disorders, I immediately wondered if I suffer from any such maladies. Or if some of the HE regulars do. I don’t think I have any debilitating personality issues, but I had to look in the mirror and ask myself “well…do you?”

Guardian story: Shannon Curry, an expert in intimate partner violence, testified that her evaluation of Amber Heard revealed two psychiatric diagnoses –– (a) borderline personality disorder and (b) histrionic personality disorder.

“Curry said that Heard, 36, displayed a “reactive”, “overly dramatic presentation” and used words like “magical” and “wonderful” to describe events. Heard, she said, flitted between “princess and victim”.

“As sophisticated, “cute and girlish” as such people may present, Curry said, they “may in reality be very destructive”, “dramatic, erratic and unpredictable” and possessed of an “underlying drive to not be abandoned but also to be [the] center of attention”.

“Curry said borderline personality disorder represented an unstable personality, alert to rejection, with little access to self-regulation and marked by “a lot of anger, cruelty toward people less powerful, concerned with image, attention-seeking and prone to externalizing blame, a lot of suppressed anger that may explode outwards”.

All I know is that if I was handed a “cold” gun for a scene that I’d be performing in, I would say to the armorer “are you 110% certain that this gun is cold?” After he/she confirms that it’s cold, I would then take the gun outside and fire it into the ground, just to make double sure. If the gun shoots a bullet, I’d know the armorer is an unreliable, unprofessional fool. If the gun shoots a blank, I’d know it’s safe and cool and there’d be no harm done.

The View‘s Sunny Hostin on Elon Musk‘s Twitter takeover: “When Elon Musk says this is about free speech, [he seems to be saying] that this is about the free speech of straight white men.”

Are you listening to this? Hostin is more or less saying that free speech for straight white men shouldn’t be a concern because we’re in a revolution right now, and straight white men need to sit their asses down in the back of the bus and shut the eff up…because they need to listen and learn. The world was run by straight white men for centuries, Hostin is more or less saying, and they’ve had their chance. Now it’s time for women, LGBTQs and people of color to reshape the world into a fairer, more considerate social environment, and if straight white men don’t agree with the new woke program that’s too damn bad.

Imagine the reactions if a famous straight white guy were to complain about free speech for women, LGBTQs or people of color.

Hats off to THR critic Daniel Fienberg for a great lede in his review of Paramount TV’s The Offer:

Plus:

Another view:

Released just shy of 50 years ago, Michael Ritchie’s Prime Cut is primarily a diseased sexist fantasy (poor Sissy Spacek), and secondarily about conflicting gangster values — a violent standoff between a relatively urbane, moderate mannered Chicago enforcer (Lee Marvin) and a beastly, intemperate Kansas City gangster named Mary Ann (Gene Hackman).

We’re encouraged to side with Marvin, who is presented as more refined and civilized than the slovenly, low-born Hackman. But despite the pastoral Midwestern vistas, the package is too weird and perverse. I saw Prime Cut theatrically back in the day, and had an immediate urge to take a shower.

My Trump-access concern (posted yesterday) remains paramount, but otherwise I’m less in league with your pearl-clutching, sky-is-falling wokesters and more willing to let the chips fall and see how the Musk experiment plays out.

Cribbed from Fox Business, but otherwise quoted everywhere by everyone:

Glimpsed during Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel monologue..

I’ve just finished watching episode #1 of David Simon and Reinaldo Marcus Green’s We Own This City, and it is so believable, so genuine, so densely (but not turgidly) plotted and so well-threaded…all I can say is “wow.”

And that’s all I have right now. I’ll elaborate tomorrow. Right now [9:55 pm] I have to pedal over to Pavilions for strong floor cleaner and a bottle of Pine Sol in order to eliminate the odor of kitten pee.

I was surprised by the first episode of Robbie Pickering‘s Gaslit (Starz) last night. Surprised because I hadn’t realized the tone of this five-part limited series would be…well, vaguely farcical. I wouldn’t call it a comedy series (except for the Gordon Liddy portions), but it certainly seems to highlight the dopey or absurdist aspects of this tale of Watergate cloak-and-dagger foolery.

Gaslit is a fairly vigorous ensemble piece (John and Mo Dean are prominently featured) and therefore not just the story of the colorful Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts), the flamboyant wife of RIchard Nixon‘s Attorney General John Mitchell (Sean Penn).

Mitchell was renowned as a Southern belle chatterbox (“the mouth from the South”) who had repeatedly been warned about sharing Watergate suspicions with journalists, and yet she refused to zip it. She paid the price for that.

What is Gaslit saying? It’s saying “if you’re married to a taciturn, pipe-smoking Richard Nixon loyalist and you have no inherited wealth or marketable skills above and beyond your relationship with this guy, you’d be wise to shut the fuck up about your Watergate suspicions. Because if you start shooting your mouth off life will become quite difficult for you. So don’t be a truth bomb…it’ll bring you nothing but grief.”

Roberts’ Mitchell performance is fully charged and 100% immersive; Penn’s Mitchell (covered under pounds of latex) is a hoot.

One thing that hit me the wrong way was Dan Stevens‘ portrayal of White House attorney and Watergate snitch John Dean. I’ve never liked Stevens anyway (he tends to play assholes, weird guys and also-rans) but he doesn’t look much like Dean, and he plays him as some kind of smarmy, simpering, run-at-the-mouth opportunist. Dean (whom I’ve spoken to once or twice) wasn’t like that — he speaks with a dry, laid-back, matter-of-fact attitude.

Betty Gilpin‘s performance as Dean’s wife (Mo or Maureen) has the most pizazz; Mo is wise and frank — the sharpest and best written character.

I have nothing more to say.

…all bets are off. He really, really can’t let Donald Trump return to Twitter. I’m not kidding. There are some manifestations of evil that absolutely can’t be tolerated — that would just be too injurious to the social fabric. Trump on Twitter would be CATASTROPHIC.

Forbes: “After rebuffing Elon Musk’s initial overtures, Twitter’s board on Monday said it will take Musk’s $44 billion offer for the company, ending a weeks-long saga over whether the company would accept his unsolicited bid.

“’The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing,’ Twitter chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement. ‘The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.'”