Happy mid-week, my friends! I hope you’re feeling cozy today! Here’s your Wednesday Pop Culture Fix!
+ This does not look particularly queer, but I thought you might like to know about Suranne “Gentleman Jack” Jones’ new Scrooge-y Christmas movie called Carole. I’m going to watch this back-to-back with Cate Blanchett’s Carol and decide, once and for all, who’s the best Christmas Carol(e).
+ MovieWeb has ranked the best LGBTQ+ holiday movies.
+ At Glamour: The Sex Lives of College Girls‘ Renée Rapp on break-up songs, queer identity and the patriarchy.
+ Jenna Ortega on why Wednesday Addams is a gay icon.
+ Angel McCoughtry is NOT retiring from the WNBA, thank you very much.
+ At NYT: Adeem Bingham has wrestled for decades with their identity as a Southern, Christian, queer songwriter. Can modern country music make space for them and their experiences?
+ Jimminy Forking Crackers! Helena Bonham Carter is out here defending JK Rowling AND Johnny Depp.
+ Lindsay Lohan’s comeback continues, and she’s bringing rom-coms with her.
+ At IndieWire: Chloë Grace Moretz talks about older men infantilizing her on set: “Having to even advocate to an older man on behalf of your 14, 15, 16-year-old self is a really, really crazy kind of mind fuck.”
+ AT AV Club: Janelle Monáe on Glass Onion, Grace Jones, and “forecasting what the culture needs.”
+ At Variety: Strange World crew on the film’s Jules Verne nod, the environment and queer representation.
+ Is Aubrey Plaza’s blonde era part of an elaborate prank?
+ Well this new queer Rebel Wilson movie, The Almond and the Seahorse, looks depressing and lovely! It’s about two couples who live with one partner who has anterograde amnesia. Wilson told People: “When I started acting over two decades ago, I started as a serious actress. So I really wanted to be the next Dame Judi Dench and was performing on stage doing classics like Shakespeare and Marlowe. It was only in 2003 when I won a scholarship from Nicole Kidman that I got to ‘specialize’ in comedy and went to comedy school in New York. So to now do The Almond and the Seahorse felt like a return to what I was doing right at the start of my career. I know it’s very different to the glossy Hollywood comedies I’ve been doing in the past decade, but I had to dust off my serious acting chops for this role and I’m so proud of the film and the performances in it!”
– Gay love is very much there in “Willow”.
– “Wednesday” gives me a very gay ship, but I also want to say that I see a lot of aroace people claiming this version of Wednesday.
– I just want to say that I did the best Carol(ing).
Helena can also eat shit.
Disgusting take from her. So you know who’s trauma excuses her constant attacks on trans women?
The way she dismisses Amber’s trauma shows what a massive hypocrite she is. There is mountains of evidence against Johnny Depp and no evidence that trans women are what you know who says they are. A minority of outliers do not change that.
I’ve lost a lot of respect for HBC. Defending JK Rowling is akin to agreeing with her.
Agree about HBC.
I was v disappointed but on the other hand, I am not sure why I even had expectations to begin with.
People trying to keep to the “middle, neutral” ground really never do they just end up on the shitty side.
On a whole other note, that seahorse almond movie is intriguing.
Helena Bonham Carter was my queer awakening. I knew when I saw her in Fight Club at the glorious age of 10 that I was very much a Homosexual (the rest of the movie is always a blur: I only ever had the concentration for her). Going to the transphobic, hyper-Establishment British paper of record was always going to be her move for a moan. Disappointing but unsurprising as I’ve had the (dis)pleasure of knowing members of her clan and their flagrant bigotry (esp to those who are marginalised AND of low social standing. Yes, in the 21st century, still).
On the subject of her reaction to MeToo, I’m unsurprised she’s attacked women so quickly when you consider her own deeply rooted misogyny (I aspire to have the same level of tolerance and self-restraint that Emma Thompson has, even still to this day, whenever they share a room/scene). Going to bat for her children’s godfather just makes it even easier for her.
So I’ve had a long time to prepare for this reckoning. I’ve weaned myself off her for the last few years, but I certainly won’t admonish 10 year old me and how I felt. If there’s any good of her existence, it’s that a fair amount of us realised we were ragingly Queer at a time when the world was much more insular and I hadn’t even heard the word lesbian.
As always, I stand shoulder to shoulder with my trans siblings. Queer solidarity, forever.
Ouuuh Charlotte Gainsbourg (starring in The Almond and the Seahorse) is a huge celebrity in France, so glad to see her in a lesbian role!