Dejana

Thank goodness we got the studio recording of "Feel It Still" instead of the house band's rendition! Maybe TPTB weren't entirely sure how all the players in a Maks/Vanessa, Peta/Nick Bottom 2 would react, so they decided against staging the results that way. Danica McKellar with her (blonde) mom in the audience reminded me all over of how it blew my mind to learn that Winnie and Becky Slater were sisters in real life! (Wonder Years trivia for the uninitiated).

October 20–22, 2017 Estimates: 1 (N) Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween $21,650,000 | 2,388 Theaters | $9,066 Avg. | $25M Budget | $21,650,000 2 (N) Geostorm $13,300,000 | 3,246 Theaters | $4,097 Avg. | $120M Budget | $13,300,000 3 (1) Happy Death Day $9,375,000 | 3,298 Theaters | $2,843 Avg. | $4.8M Budget | $40,683,365 4 (2) Blade Runner 2049 $7,155,000 | 3,203 Theaters | $2,234 Avg. | $150M Budget | $74,005,203 5 (N) Only The Brave $6,010,000 | 2,577 Theaters | $2,332 Avg. | $38M Budget | $6,010,000 6 (3) The Foreigner $5,450,000 | 2,515 Theaters | $2,167 Avg. | $35M Budget | $22,844,253 7 (4) It $3,500,000 | 2,560 Theaters | $1,367 Avg. | $35M Budget | $320,234,616 8 (N) The Snowman $3,442,000 | 1,812 Theaters | $1,900 Avg. | $35M Budget | $3,442,000 9 (6) American Made $3,162,000 | 2,559 Theaters | $1,236 Avg. | $50M Budget | $45,503,735 10 (7) Kingsman: The Golden Circle $3,000,000 | 2,318 Theaters | $1,294 Avg. | $104M Budget | $94,568,932 11 (5) The Mountain Between Us $2,750,000 | 3,151 Theaters | $873 Avg. | $35M Budget | $25,528,885 12 (N) Same Kind of Different as Me $2,560,000 | 1,362 Theaters | $1,880 Avg. | $2,560,000 13 (8) The LEGO Ninjago Movie $2,226,261 | 2,102 Theaters | $1,059 Avg/. | $70M Budget | $54,709,763 14 (10) Victoria & Abdul $2,126,115 | 1,060 Theaters | $2,006 Avg. | $14,836,649 15 (9) My Little Pony: The Movie $1,945,000 | 2,301 Theaters | $845 Avg. | $18,474,599 Marshall $1,509,821 | 821 Theaters | $1,839 Avg. | $5,461,812 Golmaal Again $1,008,752 | 265 Theaters | $15.4M Budget | $3,807 Avg. | $1,008,752 The Florida Project $636,615 | 112 Theaters | $5,684 Avg. | $2M Budget | $1,375,238 Breathe $155,925 | 315 Theaters | $495 Avg. | $187,718 Goodbye Christopher Robin $153,000 | 61 Theaters | $2,508 Avg. | $232,505 The Killing of a Sacred Deer $114,585 | 4 Theaters | $28,646 Avg. | $114,585 Wonderstruck $68,762 | 4 Theaters | $17,191 Avg. | $68,762 Jane (2017) $55,712 | 3 Theaters | $18,571 Avg. | $55,712 Tragedy Girls $10,677 | 2 Theaters | $5,339 Avg. | $10,677 International Box Office: DESPICABLE ME 3: $765.4M Overseas Total | $1.028B Global Total IT: $331.4M Overseas Total | $651.6M Global Total WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES: $343.4M Overseas Total | $490.1M Global Total CARS 3: $225.4M Overseas Total | $378.4M Global Total KINGSMAN:THE GOLDEN CIRCLE: $250.3M Overseas Total | $344M Global Total ANNABELLE: CREATION: $201.2M Overseas Total | $303.1M Global Total THE EMOJI MOVIE: $121.8M Overseas Total | $207.3M Global Total BLADE RUNNER 2049: $120.1M Overseas Total | $194.1M Global Total AMERICAN MADE: $75.8M Overseas Total | $121.3M Global Total CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE: $45.1M Global Total | $118.9M Global Total THE FOREIGNER: $94.9M Overseas Total | $117.7M Global Total THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE: $51.5M Overseas Total | $106.1M Global Total ATOMIC BLONDE: $45.1M Overseas Total | $96.6M Global Total GEOSTORM: $49.6M Overseas Total | $62.9M Global Total HAPPY DEATH DAY: $12.9M Overseas Total | $53.6M Global Total VICTORIA & ABDUL: $31.3M Overseas Total | $46.1M Global Total MOTHER! $24.8M Overseas Total | $42.5M Global Total THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US: $14M Overseas Total | $39.5M Global Total MY LITTLE PONY: THE MOVIE: $17.2M | $35.6M Global Total THE SNOWMAN: $19.2M Overseas Total | $22.6M Global Total

The rumors are official...I figured it would take at least 20 years before the NFL invited him back for another halftime show.

Hmmmm, Jamie telling Claire about Willie is a huge deviation, but since the writers decided to elevate Frank's behavior compared to the books at every turn, extending the courtesy to Jamie at least once isn't the worst thing. However, the focus of the scene ended up being more on Jamie than Claire, male-centeted as opposed to female-centered...this is a worrying trend throughout the season so far.

Diana explains the UK/US title difference in her website's FAQ. It's actually the reverse of what I thought:

The UK publisher considered the Outlander title unsuitable for the market, for some reason.

Alumni alert--Nina and Dax were in a newsroom segment on the Friday episode of Access Hollywood. She's shown up on AH for several months, but I don't think I've seen Dax there before.

The Academy came up with the Oscars to award achievements in film and also to generate positive publicity for the movie industry. If it ever happens one year that they are compelled to kick out multiple nominees for being predators, having to cancel an awards show category wouldn't be the biggest problem for AMPAS by a long stretch... Some believe in separating the art from the artist, but AMPAS isn't operating that way anymore, otherwise Harvey Weinstein would still be in the Academy--if kicking him out was really about setting a new standard going forward and not just a PR move.

Not so much a wishlist item but a question about general TV viewing patterns... Are cable/satellite/streaming less prominent in the UK compared to the US? Whenever I see articles that mention the ratings of popular British shows, it's clear TV in the UK has retained much more of the broadcast audience compared to the US. Strictly Come Dancing 2017 destroys X Factor in ratings: The US has about five times the population of the UK, but even at their peak in the aughts, well before streaming and DVRing everything, the idea of American Idol or Dancing with the Stars getting 51 million viewers would have been sheer fantasy. That's Friends finale territory! Here's another night in British primetime earlier this year: I'm multiplying those numbers by five to kind of translate the size of the audience to US terms. "Antiques Roadshow wins the night with 30 million viewers" as a headline would have everyone here checking the calendar to make sure it's April 1st. It's just so interesting to see the differences and wonder if it's a cultural thing, or that UK Netflix doesn't get the top homegrown shows?

Right, Casey Affleck was accused of sexual harassment and settled with multiple women, the number of allegations are not on the scale of Weinstein, but where is AMPAS going to draw the line with others? Will it be the number of accusers, the seriousness of the allegations, how high up the Hollywood food chain the accused happens to be, how old the allegations are--all of the above? When other big names get called out, figures who are more personable than Harvey, I have my doubts that AMPAS will find it as painless to bounce them.

An old article—obesity has only increased in the US—but from "Too Fat and Pregnant", The New York Times Magazine, July 13, 2008: I feel it will be hard for the writers to resist the angst and drama of Kate having a daughter. Since Rebecca got pregnant with triplets naturally, I'm mildly surprised that Kate wasn't scripted as conceiving twins, at least!

Given some of the figures I've seen described as handsome/beautiful by the Daily Mail, there seems to be a very different bar for attractiveness among the British horsey aristocratic set. It's all subjective, but with him it's not a total headscratcher like some of the great beauties of the 1700/1800s. Anyway, here is the real Philip in motion at 26:

It was 2003 and the makeup of the Academy has changed since then (a lot of the people who wouldn't watch Brokeback Mountain weren't with us anymore to complain about Moonlight), not to mention society. Then again, they just nominated Mel Gibson and gave an award to Casey Affleck last year. I suppose it's easier for AMPAS to react to a new round of accusations than older ones, but I have to wonder if his ouster is really more because voters lacked any sort of lingering personal sort of goodwill to him. There are people who may be horrible monsters in one area in their lives but were kind/funny/interesting with someone, so if you met this figure in a non-monster context you could at least think, "Well, I never saw anything bad and he was nice to me." A selfish, but human way to think. With Harvey, many people whose dealings were strictly business also seemed not to care for him as a person. Another big thing with respect to AMPAS is that the sort of campaigning he brought to awards season was very controversial and disliked in many corners.

Apparently, it was a joke involving Harvey Weinstein. Stick to stealth comments about gambling odds, Al! The league's defense will be that all the teams independently decided not to sign Kaep given the controversy about him taking a knee last year. Yes, teams have signed rapists and killers or players worse than him, but those hirings didn't turn into national political controversies. The kneeling issue became exponentially bigger this year but wasn't a non-story in 2016 and was often cited as a reason the NFL ratings went down. And teams will just find some legal-ease way to say, "He's good but not good enough for us to want to deal with all the drama attached to signing him," and they'll deny there was some league-wide cabal about it. I feel like that's probably what happened (for different reasons obviously) with Michael Sam. The CBA being nullified would be something else, though, total chaos for the control freak NFL and the end of Goodell for sure.

People definitely noticed her frostiness when presenting Casey Affleck with awards vs. Denzel at the SAGs during awards season, there were side-by-side .gifs and everything. She's pretty vocal about social issues on her Twitter account. AFAIK, I don't think she's just come out with a statement about clapping or not clapping for Casey Affleck now or anything, in the wake of the Weinstein allegations. OTOH, Kate Winslet revealed just yesterday that she purposefully refused to thank Harvey in her Oscar speech: She goes on to discuss more of what she calls Harvey's "disgraceful" dealings during The Reader (though nothing of a sexual nature) and that led her to refuse working with him in the future. Of course, when she released her initial statement about Weinstein earlier in the week, she faced criticism for working with Roman Polanski and Woody Allen. It's just as well for her that Wonder Wheel is not looking to be a critical juggernaut, so she'll be able to sidestep all the awkward questions she'd inevitably face during an extended awards campaign.

Strong precedent being set here...if more Academy members are hit with multiple allegations, are they getting kicked out of AMPAS, too? Is this just a going forward thing, or are they willing to look back at other members who've faced similar allegations, not to mention convictions? Do they give Adrien Brody get a warning for forcibly kissing Halle Berry at the podium (the same year that *oof* Polanski won in absentia and the Weinstein-backed Chicago took Best Picture)? Does Casey Affleck's winner's invite to present Best Actress next year get "lost in the mail"? BAFTA merely suspended Weinstein, the direction I thought the Academy might take. He's American and largely based here, so a UK organization probably faces slightly less pressure about taking a stand against him than some British producer caught in the same way. Awards season is going to be very interesting and quite the roller coaster, I suspect... Short roundtable about the Weinstein allegations and Hollywood culture but some have an issue with the representation (or lack thereof)...

October 12–14, 2017 Estimates: 1 (N) Happy Death Day $26,500,000 | 3,149 Theaters | $8,415 Avg. | $4.8M Budget | $26,500,000 2 (1) Blade Runner 2049 $15,100,000 | 4,058 Theaters | $3,721 Avg. | $150M Budget | $60,578,387 3 (N) The Foreigner $12,840,000 | 2,515 Theaters | $5,105 Avg. | $35M Budget | $12,840,000 4 (3) It $6,050,000 | 3,176 Theaters | $1,905 Avg. | $35M Budget | $314,929,521 5 (2) The Mountain Between Us $5,650,000 | 3,259 Theaters | $1,734 Avg. | $35M Budget | $20,502,922 6 (6) American Made $5,423,000 | 3,098 Theaters | $1,750 Avg. | $50M Budget | $40,152,865 7 (5) Kingsman: The Golden Circle $5,315,000 | 2,982 Theaters | $1,782 Avg. | $104M Budget | $89,652,040 8 (7) The LEGO Ninjago Movie $4,315,000 | 3,053 Theaters | $1,413 Avg. | $70M Budget | $51,577,689 9 (4) My Little Pony: The Movie $4,000,000 | 2,528 Theaters | $1,582 Avg. | $15,513,434 10 (8) Victoria and Abdul $3,115,000 | 900 Theaters | $3,461 Avg. | $11,341,944 11 (N) Marshall $3,039,070 | 821 Theaters | $3,702 Avg. | $12M Budget | $3,039,070 12 (9) Flatliners (2017) $1,500,000 | 1,983 Theaters | $756 Avg. | $19M Budget | $15,627,971 13 (10) Battle of the Sexes $1,375,000 | 1,394 Theaters | $986 Avg. | $25M Budget | $10,389,198 14 (N) Professor Marston & the Wonder Women $737,000 | 1,229 Theaters | $600 Avg. | $737,000 15 (11) American Assassin $525,000 | 820 Theaters | $640 Avg. | $33M Budget | $35,607,509 American Satan $132,000 | 55 Theaters | $2,400 Avg. | $132,000 Goodbye Christopher Robin $55,800 | 9 Theaters | $6,200 Avg. | $55,800 Human Flow $47,000 | 3 Theaters | $15,667 Avg. | $47,000 Breathe $26,254 | 4 Theaters | $6,564 Avg. | $26,254 WASTED! The Story of Food Waste $15,552 | 11 Theaters | $1,414 Avg. | $15,552

In following the news coming out of Hollywood this week, one gets the overall sense that perhaps professionalism isn't a strong suit of the entertainment industry... In general, though, this show (along with most others) is happy to sacrifice mundane realism for the sake of grand, swooping gestures and drama. So many TV (or book) writers say they've plotted out the story years in advance but these claims don't really hold up to close inspection. It's more like they have a vague outline but fill in the blanks based on whatever whim they're feeling from week to week.

Jimmy the Footman/Eragon as Stephen Bonnet? I don't know about that, as much as I've never found the character to be interesting at all, even by evil villain standards. I guess we'll just have to see.

Vanity Fair is updating a list of women who have made allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein accused of threatening actresses into wearing his wife's fashion label

I could buy that Jack was depressed and not quite in the mood when Rebecca put the moves on him in the car, but also wondered if he was experiencing E.D. at the moment and didn't want to say?

I was surprised by the juxtaposition of those two, they were both 90s singers but not in the same age bracket or same realm, really. Mariah vs. Toni Braxton wouldn't have seemed as jarring. Then again, IDK if a teenage boy really puts a great deal of logic into hotness comparisons.

Box Office Mojo's info international data can be a bit more limited about 1970s but the movie wasn't a huge hit in America at first. Wikipedia's article on Mad Max 2 has info about that:

Sharon Waxman tweeted to "endorse" his version of events. Could have mentioned that in the original story, but hey, gotta boost those clicks for your site! Gretchen Mol on the Weinstein rumors (denies anything ever happened, says she thought rumors about other actresses were also false as a result): His wife's leaving him, his brother's not defending him, reputation in tatters...what else does he have left? Whatever one thinks of "sex addiction" and whether it would be a factor with a person exhibiting a flagrant disregard for consent over the course of decades, surely there are facilities claiming to treat this "malady" in the US? For the record, People is only reporting that he's "headed to a residential treatment facility" but not its location, and it's TMZ who says he's headed to another continent, tonight. That's not suspicious at all! In watching the Weinstein story unfold, Terry Crews felt moved to recount being sexually assaulted last year at an industry event by a "high-level Hollywood executive" .

In this scenario, the power player making the offer probably doesn't have much of a reputation to begin with? So there's nothing left to smear, as such. Especially in the case of someone like Harvey. I see it all the time on social media and the awards or gossip forums I've visited, people cutting down actresses they don't like by implying that they only made it due to the casting couch. During the big photo hacking scandal of 2014, I saw so many comments that this or that actress must have been sending those pics to directors to get roles. It isn't like male actors are never discredited for not earning their roles the "right" way (and I've heard a few names thrown around, but I won't go on), but given that the vast majority of executives and directors are male and heterosexual, plus misogyny, it leaves young actresses far more likely to face accusations like that.