It took three years for legendary journalist and social mores chronicler Tom Wolfe’s first work of fiction The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) to be adapted for the silver screen. Unfortunately, the 1990 Brian De Palma film starring Tom Hanks,…
Recently, in an article about the latest Netflix outing featuring the spectacularly unfunny comedienne Hannah Gadsby, I wrote the following: “The best 10 or 20 or 30 stand-ups in the English-speaking world could never get anywhere near the stage of…
Six years have passed since Hannah Gadsby, the plus-sized lesbian stand-up from Tasmania, became world famous. Her debut Netflix special, Nanette, had the critics salivating. The premise was brilliant — not comically brilliant, mind you, but politically brilliant. After serving…
Reno 911! actress Niecy Nash made all the headlines for her impassioned speech after winning an Emmy for her supporting role as Glenda Cleveland in Netflix’s Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story last week. The award was well-deserved, in my…
Fox News is reporting that the talented Denzel Washington is scheduled to play Hannibal in an upcoming Netflix movie. (We’ve seen Denzel on a horse, but on an elephant?) The identity-obsessed in Hollywood doubtless celebrate this ahistorical but with-it casting,…
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies. — William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra The expression “Get woke, go broke” increased in cachet…
I don’t have kids, but for several years I’ve belonged to a Facebook group for people who absolutely despise Norwegian Child Welfare Services, known in Norway as Barnevernet. Many if not most of the group’s members are parents whose children…
Hannah Gadsby’s new Netflix special, rather literal-mindedly entitled Something Special, comes five years after the chunky lesbian stand-up comic from Tasmania skyrocketed to international fame with her first Netflix outing, Nanette. Like Something Special, Nanette was billed as a comedy…
You know how they pitch a project in Hollywood: “It’s a cross between The King’s Speech and Top Gun: Maverick!” Well, the pitch for The Diplomat — the new eight-episode series that, at this writing, has been the most-watched offering…
