ancslove

I thought this was a good opening. I really liked the Charles/Elizabeth scenes. She was doing everything she could to let them all maintain the polite, kind fiction that she's unable to attend Camilla's birthday due to prior commitment, but Charles just would not take the hint! He knows why she's never going to agree to attend that party! I don't really blame him for making her come out and say it directly, but I also don't blame her for trying to avoid that conversation. I also think that (at least in the show's universe), Elizabeth may love her son as her son, but finds herself not really liking him as a person or as the heir to the throne. And that may well be why real Charles did famously feel very distanced from his mother, when his sister Anne never did. (If so, I think real Charles settling with Camilla did really help him mature.)

I liked that they mourned the passing of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, before segueing into the human In Memoriam, but it is kind of funny.

Yep, and considering Cleopatra was the last of a family of imperialist conquerors, she’s an odd choice to cling to. Plus the Ptolemies were infamous for marrying each other because they didn’t want Egyptian blood “tainting” their power. Cleo’s younger half sister Arsinoe would’ve been a better choice, because her mother likely was a concubine of mixed race. Plus Arsinoe was cool and tragic and needs to be more known!

I hate that this has become a cultural flashpoint. Historical fiction dramas can cast whom they want, and I’d have no problem with Adele James’ casting in something like a Starz series. (Please, Starz, make a Cleopatra series!). But as for JPS’ stated purpose here, there are so many Egyptian queens who really were Egyptian and whose stories deserve to be known. Couldn’t she have picked Hatshepsut or Tiye or Nerfertiti or someone whose name I don’t even know?!

Oh Diana the Musical! I do like a couple of the songs and it’s a good showcase for women (or it would be, if it were a better show). But I still don’t know why each male role is the same voice type. Condolences to Andrew Lloyd Webber and his family over the death of his son. https://ew.com/celebrity/nicholas-lloyd-webber-andrew-lloyd-webbers-eldest-son-dies-cancer/

Ryan Murphy is threatening a Glee jukebox musical stage show!

I’m a way though, this would make it better. Because then it’s not really a Show Cast Chat that’s leaving one person out, it’s just a friend group.

I still hold Garcelle largely responsible for the whole Crystal “dark” debacle. Last year Sutton said enough extremely dodgy and even offensive comments on race and white privilege that I can understand Crystal getting a very bad vibe that colored her view on everything Sutton said. Garcelle is the one who accused Crystal out of nowhere of having “are you that girl?” in her back pocket and saying that Crystal had made up her mind with no reason to hate on Sutton. Garcelle put Crystal on the defensive and Crystal explained herself badly, but I understand her annoyance that Garcelle can understand and recognize microaggressions from Rinna, but not see how Crystal was responding to microaggressions from Sutton.

Holy hell, she is exhausting! I also take great issue, as a non-Japanese Asian person, with her implication that violent supremacy is “assimilating into whiteness”. But beyond that, it must be exhausting to be around her and exhausting to be her in her head.

Crystal and Sutton need to be on something like old school RHONY, where you’re allowed to move on (because the next big blowup is right around the corner, after you all party for a night).

About the whole “dark” debacle, yes “dark” may be the wrong word choice. (Her use of violated was more clear to me.). But I think the hot tub anecdote, even just the fact that Sutton felt the need to tell such a story, and some of Sutton’s other very Southern White Lady sayings and reactions did give Crystal a very off, “dark” vibe that I can understand. Sutton’s thoughts on racism last season weren’t her most shining moment. But they discussed it and reached an understanding before this season even started filming. I blame Garcelle for resurrecting that fight, because I still don’t see why she’d accuse Crystal of being ready to go “are you that girl?” as a premeditated attack on Sutton instead of a reaction to what Sutton was saying in that moment. Garcelle can stir shit and manipulate, too.

I think Crystal has some of Sutton’s problem in confrontations, clumsy or surprising word choices that can obscure what she’s really saying. That’s why she does better when she can just stare someone down and let them hang themselves with their own words, the way she did with Sutton last year. I also think she seems way more Online than the others, even Garcelle, and that’s just going to keep causing issues. And she seems to go to the Meghan Markle school of “my truth is more important than objective fact”. But I do like Crystal. And her Very Online Millenial outlook can be a more interesting and organic contrast and conflict. If everyone can have a discussion and not a drag session, which is debatable. About the timing of the friends dropping her, I believe it started after Crystal announced she signed on, but before it aired. Possibly even before she started filming. Crystal’s problem is that she worded “after I did the show” to mean “after I signed/did the agreement”. And the other women all use “did” to refer to filming.

I have to say, Erika’s apology to Garcelle was one of the better Housewives apologies I’ve seen. To the point, no real deflection, and because I think in this case it’s true, I don’t mind Erika trying to explain that she didn’t mean it maliciously. She acknowledged that that still didn’t make it right or harmless. Garcelle shouldn’t try to talk to Erika about a slippery slope to alcoholism in front of everyone else, if she’s really meaning to help. Other than that, and the general jumping to alcoholism (instead of just showing concern over mixing pills and alcohol), I liked Garcelle this episode. Oh Sutton. She needs to let go of the idea that everyone needs to like her and consider her a good person. Even when I think she’s in the right, her need to state her own goodness starts to grate. And the whole telling someone else “I need you to say X verbatim” is also annoying, even when I’m otherwise on her side. Diana is the wrong type of asshole for a show like Real Housewives. Because once no one can believe her, there’s nowhere to go with her. And the mocking is one of the big things that got Dorinda fired. (Sorry, “put on pause”.). So she should watch out.

No, the English county really is pronounced NOR-fuck. (Spelled Norfolk.) Diana is a supreme asshole. I still think she was more in the right during her initial blowup with Sutton. But she’s also a supreme asshole. It is funny to me, though, that Sutton was upset about being called boring. Considering one of the first things she said on this show is that she originally thought Teddi was boring! Sutton was also wrong to initiate this conversation at Garcelle’s party. Pick another time and place!

But Diana was correct in that instance and Sutton was flat wrong. It’s ok to correct someone!

I can’t speculate about Crystal’s pattern, but Sutton’s is pretty clear by now. She’ll blow up about something that often isn’t a huge deal (although this time it’s more serious), growl an order two or three times at the person upsetting her, and then spiral into tears. Crystal backed herself into a corner with “dark”, when the other description she once used (problematic) was probably the safer and more fitting term. But Sutton was a mess during that entire conversation last year and I really don’t blame Crystal for being put off by the whole thing. Even if I think Crystal’s standards for canceling are much, much lower than anyone else’s.

Sorry, but I honestly think Garcelle is as manipulative as Erika. She’s as much a shit-stirrer as Erika and Kyle. And none of this would be happening if she hadn’t accused Crystal of always planning to say “Are you that girl?” no matter what Sutton said. And I still don’t know where Garcelle got that idea. And now she’s accusing Crystal of projecting a false demeanor to gain sympathy. Diana maybe shouldn’t have got involved, but she was correct about the instance she weighed in on. Sutton did say about Crystal “I like you but I hate you but I like you” and didn’t water it down with “I hate what you’re doing”. Sutton’s an odd one. She’s quite fragile emotionally, but goes about it so aggressively that she can I think seem more threatening than she intends. The way she growls out her statements when pushed to the brink is a very similar tone to Erika’s more intentionally aggressive growls.

I have sympathy for all of them. Camilla might not have been madly in love with Charles all that time, but I think he’s always been deeply in love with her. And sure, maybe some of that is because for over a decade, she was “the one who got away”, but I think the emotions were still real, even if not maybe the most mature. Of course Diana’s position sucked, but I have to say so did Charles, just because it always sucks to be married to someone either you don’t love or who doesn’t love you. Diana was too immature to deal with it all in the most ideal way, and I maintain she never really understood him any more than he understood her. They weren’t a good match for each other, and she wasn’t a good match for the job of being royal. If she’s been born a generation or two later, she could be a model and activist and philanthropist with the Spencer money and title behind her, just like her niece Kitty is doing now. I can’t say any of them dealt well, but I sympathize with all of them.

Julie Montagu sounds so outraged and disgusted and personally hurt for some weird reason that divorced Diana wasn’t part of the royal family anymore and “would have to curtsy to these other minor royals! Just think about that!”. I can’t take her seriously, why is she even Talking Head here? I’d rather have the Marchioness of Bath that’s always photographed in every issue of Hello magazine. She at least might have an interesting perspective.

Can Chris Pratt even sing? The list of potential Fiyeros is endless, I feel. Depending on who wants it, you have so many possible candidates: Aaron Tveit and Andrew Rannels (both who I believe played the role on stage), maybe George Blagden, Billy Magnussen, Jonathan Groff, Matthew Morrison, Elijah Kelley, maybe even Adam Lambert.

Camilla had no right. It should have come from one of Diana’s friends. Diana wasn’t wrong to want her husband to love her, of course not. But there was a time when both of them were having love affairs, that maybe they could have worked out some sort of arrangement where they carried on separately but still loved their sons and their duties together. Nothing could make Charles love Diana, because they just weren’t compatible. I’m not even sure that Diana loved Charles by that point, but she was fixated on a romantic marriage that just wasn’t reality. It’s not her fault, but it’s sad that it took her so long to let that fantasy of a loving marriage with Charles go. And I do think if the genders were reversed (or if Camilla had been more conventionally beautiful), people would have more sympathy for a royal pressured into an unwanted marriage, who continued to see their true love.

Ok, Montagu added nothing but a strong dose of hero worship. I think the show might have benefitted from a couple more commentators who weren't such huge admirers of Diana. Or to have some more people who supported Charles' point of view, who didn't directly work for him? Something, to feel a bit more balanced, as the show covered the years of their marriage. I definitely agree that Diana was very drawn to the press, and the adulation she received from both the press and the public. Interesting to speculate that she ramped up her summer fling with Dodi because of Camilla, and not to win back Hasnat Khan. And I know that the show made such a big hero worship moment of Diana telling Camilla "I want my husband," but I think Camilla made a fair point. Diana was adored by everyone except Charles, their tragedy was that that wasn't enough for her. Charles may not have "gotten" Diana ever, but did she ever understand him? The entire debacle of putting on a public dance performance at the Royal Albert Hall as a gift to Charles makes me think no. They really were just completely incompatible. And maybe if they'd gone on more than a dozen dates, and maybe if Philip had talked face to face with his son instead of writing him a letter, the marriage never would have happened.

Interesting news about Wicked! I like Cynthia, but she looks IMO older than her age, while Ariana looks younger. I know they aren't that far apart, but they just don't seem like classmates. But acting can do a lot to seem older or younger. I worry more about Ariana's acting. I was rooting for Dove Cameron, Kristin Chenowith's other musical theater protege. So will Meryl Streep or Emma Thompson be Madame Morrible?

Kyle throws Andy under the bus when he asks if anyone had heard of the Girardis' money troubles! And interestingly, Andy won't say Bethenny's name, but does put up the headline screenshot that names her clearly. I guess he didn't want to cross the streams too directly?

I can't stop being obsessed with the Diana musical! It's so bad! And yet. And a lot of things were taken from previous interviews and (auto)biographies, from little details like Charles and Sarah Spencer's relationship ending after she talked to the press, to Diana dancing at the Royal Ballet and pissing Charles off (I really want to know what she was thinking there, because I feel like anyone who knows Charles at all would know he would not appreciate that), to the big face-to-face confrontation between Diana and Camilla at someone's birthday party (that I've seen many reviews call fabricated, but it did happen). But the lyrics are still so bad! Also, they made no mention of Diana pushing her stepmother (i.e. Barbara Cartland's granddaughter) down the stairs. Missed opportunity there!