Dejana

You have to wonder what interview Diana would’ve given if Martin Bashir hadn't manipulated her. Charles had already gone on the record with his side, and other TV networks were wooing her. The tapes for Diana, Her True Story covered much of the same terrain, showed the same lack of consideration to her sons, and that predated Bashir. He was wildly unethical, but I can picture Diana giving the same sort of emotional, relevatory interview to Oprah or Barbara Walters as well, which surely would’ve aired in the UK eventually.

In real life, the decommissioning ceremony happened in December 1997. At the time, I remember people saying it proved how out of touch the Queen was, that she could so openly weep about a thing (her yacht) but not a person. Which isn't totally fair, because the Britannia held decades of happy family memories for her as well.

Right, but what else was Charles going to say? He couldn't totally deny an affair, thanks to the phone call, but could try to put the best spin on it. I wish we'd seen more of his team deciding how the Camilla issue was going to be addressed and what timeline of affair would be the most plausible for public consumption.

John Major is one of those famous figures from my childhood whom I thought of as "really old" at the time, but now I can see it was just the white hair. I'm really enjoying Jonny Lee Miller in the role so far. I've watched a show where the timeline spanned several decades, This Is Us, which used a mix of aging up/down the regulars and strategically casting lookalike actors, to varying degrees of success. Even if that approach was an option for The Crown, I'm not sure they'd have wanted to take it. They seem to use the recasts to bring out whichever personality traits the writers want to emphasize at the moment. Emma Corrin was shorter than the real Diana, when the show wanted to emphasize her youth/vulnerability and portay how overwhelmed she felt by the system. When the story reaches the years where Diana truly took on The Firm and found her voice, they get the 6'3" Elizabeth Debicki and revel in it. Similarly, when the story portrayed Charles as awkward, insecure and cowed by authority, they got an actor (also IMO more handsome than the real deal) who could bring out those qualities. I'm sure Dominic West wasn’t really the only actor The Crown could find for Charles, but he probably fits in with this season's vision of the character. Whether viewers believe that image is compatible with real life, is another thing...

Charles really did breakdance with the youths, but in 1985, so the show should have done that scene with Josh O'Connor last season:

I thought the Try Giys sketch was lampooning how a manager/employee affair of niche YouTubers became this story that dominated social media for days and got covered by The New York Times/NPR/etc. From the fan reactions and the video of the remaining guys processing their trauma about it all, the uninitiated briefly wondered if the exiled Try Guy murdered someone or committed some other terrible crime. But no, apparently a boss and subordinate were consensually involved. That was it? A messy workplace situation that happens every day, a fireable offense to be sure, and it sucks for their romantic partners. The extent of fan outrage/anger, the response of the "surviving" coworkers and how viral the story went, that part was baffling to everyone else wondering who the hell the Try Guys even were. Lots of YouTube channels have imploded over internal strife and I don't remember the drama straying so far beyond its own little D-list bubble before now. This is the video being parodied: The SNL sketch was in a weird place where viewers who know the story might disagree with their approach to the comedy, while people who hadn't heard of the story figure these "Try Guys" have to be made up and they don't get the joke.

They will probably just pause for the mourning period. The story will still end in the aughts, but maybe they will tweak the scripts a bit to add some subtle nods to the future.

The couple in Jailbreak Lovers was so stupid, but the story is "ripped from the headlines", so you can't even blame the screenwriter. Buying a pet bird while you're on the run with a felon? Giving out the address of your hideaway? Good call to script the authorities as literally laughing at them. They really did glamorize Toby onscreen with Catherine Bell, but they didn't bother with the husband character, so it was an odd match. Whereas in real life, the real Toby would 100 percent be married to some dull, grumpy fire captain and you'd understand why he would never suspect his wife of having an affair.

I usually watch via Showtime On Demand and the tenth episode ("Victory Dance") is already available.

Lady Bird published a diary of her time as First Lady, after LBJ's presidency. It's long but offers a unique perspective on life in the White House. She'd make a great subject for a future season (if there is one). It was so upsetting to relive Sandy Hook this week. With the Hadiya Pendleton story, the show highlights that "smaller" incidents of gun violence are also senseless and terrible. Seeing Rahm Emanuel and Michelle make peace at the funeral was an interesting contrast to Betty and her nemeses, Rumsfeld and Cheney. I would say they were unrealistically, cartoonishly evil, but... I have to look up why Ford couldn't just shuffle them off somewhere, but they were probably too powerful, even then. I've looked up Eleanor Roosevelt speeches and I don't think Gillian is that far off from reality. Like Jackie Kennedy, Eleanor's way of speaking has fallen out of favor over time, to the point where it seems like a parody. Viola, though...*sigh*

Chrissy was the lead of faith-based film Breakthrough (2019). It was successful for the genre and a song from the movie got nominated for an Oscar. Chrissy performed it at the ceremony (and other award shows):

I thought the dorkiness from Young Obama was somewhat intentional, to show he wasn't quite the polished politician who hit the national stage. The actor is Robert De Niro's son, so I'm sure that didn't hurt in the casting process. Are they going to circle back to how Eleanor changed her mind about Franklin eventually? She didn't even want to dance with him, and the next thing you know, they're married?

Dear John, I ain't reading all that. I'm happy for you tho, or sorry that happened. Seriously, why that whole dissertation for Reddit and nothing for Blake? John should have viewed "12 Days of Messy" as a close look at how Katie treats exes and has the next option already lined up, but John probably thinks their love is so pure and different. For what it's worth, Blake says he hopes to find love again in the real world, not on another Bachelor show:

Blake appeared on Talking It Out podcast yesterday: part of the interview was done before the Katie/John news hit and part of it was taped after. Blake says he found out via social media like everyone else. We've had multiple Bachelors dump their final pick and immediately pursue someone else from their cast. Jason, Arie and Peter all got slammed to some degree for pulling the switcheroo, and Katie's really not so different. Maybe she's worse because Blake and Katie were long distance after filming, all while she was being "just friends" in San Diego with John. Blake still says he doesn't think anything physical happened between them before the breakup, but even if it didn't, she's moved on pretty quickly. I always clowned on Pilot Pete for dating Kelley the longest of anyone from his season, when he'd met her before the show and she came in fifth place. Katie kicked off John in Week 2! Messy is right...

Every day, it's a new shocking revelation: I think her pageant bio mentioned a childhood illness, and she's done charity stuff for the Children's Miracle Network before, but she hadn't publicly discussed the specifics until now. And today, I learned that pediatric pancreatic cancer tends not to be fast-growing type that is so lethal in adults. When everyone was wondering how she got picked as lead, I'm surprised TPTB didn't push the tragic childhood angle vs "goofy Hannah Beast". Not that a reality dating show is really the best venue to navigate past trauma, but it's never stopped them before. Blake is blindsided by the news, or is at least publicly positioning himself that way. They were engaged less than a month ago., to be fair. https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/inside-blake-moynes-reaction-to-katie-thurston-john-hersey-romance/ Reality show contestants probably shouldn't read about themselves on social media but The Bachelor subreddit has been speculating about the Katie/John "friendship" for months.

It's about how he got interested in aviation as a kid: https://www.parents.com/fun/entertainment/books/the-bachelor-alum-peter-weber-writes-a-new-childrens-book-to-encourage-kids-to-follow-their-dreams/ Madison also released a book last month: https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/madison-prewetts-book-everything-she-said-about-bachelor-peter/ * Peter discussed Hannah Brown's book revelations on his podcast: https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/peter-weber-confirms-hannah-browns-post-bachelor-hookup-claim/ He wanted to leave with Hannah Brown when she returned to his season but TPTB wouldn't let him. I guess they changed their minds with Clare...

Peter hooked up with Hannah B when his season was airing; it's revealed in her upcoming book: https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/hannah-brown-peter-weber-had-sex-during-his-bachelor-season/ They went back to his house, and Hannah B had an awkward breakfast with his parents the next day! I wonder if Barb made pancakes? Anyway, this happened after Peter split with Hannah Ann and started talking to Kelley at the Super Bowl, but before he "reconnected" with Madi. And that producer Julie was there at Peter's recent book launch (apparently, he's "written" a children's book), but he's continued to deny anything romantic with her. I bet that time that Chris Harrison had a surprise visitor for Peter, he really thought it was going to be Hannah B instead of Madi!

The movie is an adaptation of the short story The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern. It's less than 50 pages long and the audiobook is pretty short, less than a half hour. They really expanded the story for the movie. The wife character (Mary) is married to someone else in the book's alternate universe. It always cracked me up as a kid, when Clarence melodramatically tells George that AU Mary is about to close the library. It was just so ridiculous and over the top that I couldn't get around to being offended by the not-great message about ummarried women. I can totally believe that movie audiences of the time wouldn't like seeing Mary married to (and presumably having offscreen sex with) another guy, or that it crossed some sort of nebulous line of the Production Code in how a "nice girl" was supposed to be depicted. It also makes George and Mary bigger soulmates, to show that it was either George for her, or no one. I also take the story to be saying that we all have an impact and that kindness/generosity to others will end up being reciprocated, even if it's years down the line. The movie takes it to extremes for dramatic purposes, but I do think there are individuals who can have an outsized impact on the world. George's mental health issues seemed more acute and situational to me, as opposed to someone who dealt with depression as a life-long issue. I don't think a movie having a happy ending means that the characters wouldn't ever have any more problems or difficult times, if the story went on. I watch a lot of movie reactors on YouTube, people in their twenties or younger, and It's a Wonderful Life can still resonate with newer audiences. They know it's a classic title but are too young to remember it as a ubiquitous staple of holiday TV. The showings on linear TV have been pretty limited for a couple of decades now.

As far as I know, you can discuss any Christmas TV movie in this thread, whether it's Hallmark or not. It leads to a bit of an overlap, but some people watch Hallmark all year long and are used to discussing the channel's holiday movies in the network thread. That doesn't happen so much with the Lifetime movie thread, I guess because their holiday movies are so different from what they show the rest of the year (thrillers, stories ripped from the headlines, etc). This thread is a good catch-all to discuss, recommend and compare different movies in the genre, wherever they air.

Urban Meyer's about to send Jon Gruden a fruit basket...

At this point, it's not like Dancing with the Stars would be above casting someone whose claim to fame was being on The Real World two decades ago, but The Miz has been in the WWE for 15 years or so. Next to Olivia Jade and the Peleton instructor, he counts as one of the bigger stars in this season's cast. He's got to be way up there in the list of most successful ex-Real Worlders, along with Karamo and Jamie Chung. Re: the John Mulaney/Olivia Munn news, that's a lot of upheaval/change for them in such a short time, but the kid's on the way, so I'm hoping for the best. My heart aches for his ex-wife, though. * In other celebrity baby news, JLaw:

For some of these, I'm almost sure they come up with the title first and back into a plot/script. Once they run the cheerleader theme into the ground for good (i.e. the ratings fall off), it'll be on to the next thing.

Fear the Cheer runs from Aug. 28-Sept. 5.

She grew up in a White immediate family, save her sister. It's a different experience than being someone who had an Asian parent/extended family as a steady influence in their lives. Also, I don’t know if the show forbid Abigail from talking about being biracial, but reality shows like to box people into one thing, and for her, it was being deaf. There were other women of color who were shown discussing their racial identities with Matt, sometimes, so it wasn't like that was off the table altogether.

The former, I've always known as "passing for white" and is something I personally associate with crossing the color line in older times, like during slavery or Jim Crow. "White passing" is more about the way a person looks vs. someone actively hiding their non-White background. Some prefer to call it "White presenting" because of the negative associations with the word passing. IMO, it can be a nebulous concept because everyone's idea of "looking white" isn't the same. There was a contestant on The Bachelor last season who was the subject of much speculation about her racial identity. Some fans simply looked at her and immediately thought she had to have some Asian heritage, while others stalked her social media, saw a White mother and father and little brothers, with no mentions of being adopted, and noted that her name was Abigail Heringer. Her "storyline" on the show was about her having a cochlear implant, so that didn't settle the issue, either. After the season, Abigail did end up confirming that her biological father was Korean, but her mom remarried and her step-dad has been the real father in her life. Even after her racial background was confirmed, the arguments about whether or not she was "White passing" continued.