This Can't Be Broccoli

Whenever somebody tells you that Cancel Culture is running rampant, just remind them that, as of now, Woody Allen is still allowed to make movies. Not only is he allowed to make them, he has been celebrated for a whole slew of them even after he married his stepdaughter. Just saying that so plainly feels liberating, because for years, you weren't allowed to put it that simply. Even mentioning Woody Allen and his marriage to his stepdaughter would result in some slovenly mansplaining, film student rushing to his defense by explaining that it was all okay, because she wasn't really his daughter, or even technically his stepdaughter, and who are we to judge, and gosh, wasn't Annie Hall  so brilliant, and sometimes they would toss in that Mia Farrow is kind of nuts as well, and somehow, that all makes it okay. And it was all bullshit. But what could you do? The media had decided that while Woody Allen was absolutely ripe for dragging and late night jokes for a period of time in...

Two years ago, I started interviewing people in the theater world about the problems within that community. All the subjects of the interviews remained anonymous to encourage people to speak directly and plainly without worrying that there would be consequences down the line. (Of course, even then, some people felt like outing themselves and getting in hot water, but we're going to leave that water under another bridge.) When I decided it was time to bring the series to a close, it was partly because I thought it had run its course, and partly because I had a new topic I wanted to tackle. While I've had my issues with theater and the people who do it, I've never felt like I didn't belong there, whereas from the moment I came out, I've never truly felt like a part of the gay community. To be clear, that probably has way more to do with me than the community, but it's something I wanted to explore, and I knew how I wanted to do it. The theater interviews were alwa...

You know a show has been around for awhile when you can't remember if you've already written a long-form hot take on it, but either way, it's worth revisiting the cultural juggernaut/problematic fave that is RuPaul's Drag Race . Specifically because of its latest UK season. Now, before we start, there are a myriad of reasons you could drag, um, Drag Race  lately-- - They were filming the current U.S. season at a time when we weren't even supposed to be going to the mall, let alone hosting the essential work of putting together RuSicals. - The UK version was suspended midway through filming, and then Ru and Michelle went back at, I'm pretty sure, a time when traveling to England was not allowed. - We have to suffer through yet another round of "The fans are bullying me on Twitter" as though being on Twitter and compulsively checking comments is a requirement for being on the show. Violet had the right idea when she said she uses the platform to post and...

Two years ago, I started interviewing people in the theater world about the problems within that community. All the subjects of the interviews remained anonymous to encourage people to speak directly and plainly without worrying that there would be consequences down the line. (Of course, even then, some people felt like outing themselves and getting in hot water, but we're going to leave that water under another bridge.) When I decided it was time to bring the series to a close, it was partly because I thought it had run its course, and partly because I had a new topic I wanted to tackle. While I've had my issues with theater and the people who do it, I've never felt like I didn't belong there, whereas from the moment I came out, I've never truly felt like a part of the gay community. To be clear, that probably has way more to do with me than the community, but it's something I wanted to explore, and I knew how I wanted to do it. The theater interviews were alwa...

  One of my favorite shows this year so far has been WandaVision . Subsequently, one of my least favorite parts about being on social media this year has been watching people react to WandaVision . So I thought I'd rank how irritated I am by the various responses to the show. Here we go-- People Who Actually Thought the First Two Episodes Were Going to Be What the Show Was Like the Entire Time There is now a new litmus test for intelligence, and it's called-- Did you watch WandaVision and think the first two episodes were going to be what the show was like the entire time? I guess the follow-up question would be-- Before you hopped on social media to complain about it, did you bother to Google the source material to find out you were wrong? The fact that there are people in America who I am connected to on various digital platforms who are so bad at reading context clues they thought Marvel would spend millions of dollars and launch a content onslaught on a fairly new streamin...

Two years ago, I started interviewing people in the theater world about the problems within that community. All the subjects of the interviews remained anonymous to encourage people to speak directly and plainly without worrying that there would be consequences down the line. (Of course, even then, some people felt like outing themselves and getting in hot water, but we're going to leave that water under another bridge.) When I decided it was time to bring the series to a close, it was partly because I thought it had run its course, and partly because I had a new topic I wanted to tackle. While I've had my issues with theater and the people who do it, I've never felt like I didn't belong there, whereas from the moment I came out, I've never truly felt like a part of the gay community. To be clear, that probably has way more to do with me than the community, but it's something I wanted to explore, and I knew how I wanted to do it. The theater interviews were alwa...

Okay, now they're just trolling us. The Golden Globes have never been without controversy. In fact, controversy is sort of their brand. And one way they perpetuate controversy is with who they nominate. Some of it is unapologetic, celebrity-courting by nominating people strictly based on wanting them to show up at their ceremony (Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist ) and some of it is picking bizarre movies, shows, and performances to nominate just to look different. That's how the awards went from being an Oscar indicator ended up being out-of-line with the final results at the Oscars and the Emmys, and how they ended up being very predictable despite their best efforts to surprise. The number of awards for Best Lead Actress in a Drama series that went to an actress in the first season of her trendy television show is somewhere in the high teens (Jessica Alba, Toni Collette, Laura Dern, the list goes on) and there were moments like the underrated and underappreciated...