#AND CHRIS WON BEST DIRECTOR

[s-n-o-w-p-i-e-r-c-e-r]

Well done to the Oppenheimer cast, crew, directors and producers for absolutely sweeping the board clean at the BAFTAs!!

[randomshyperson]

Best (Girl)Friends - Wanda Maximoff x Rogers!Reader

Summary: Wanda sympathizes with your willpower. 70 years on ice is a long time to wait for an intimate touch. And being the good friend that she is, Wanda offers you some help.

Warnings: (+18), some vague plot, smut with virginity loss, Rogers!Reader following all Wanda’s wishes, power bottom!Wanda, kissing, friends to lovers, mutual pining, explicit consent but Wanda being a tease and a bit possessive. | Words: 4.893k

A/-N-> I’m pretty sure this was a request, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. 

General Masterlist | AO3 | Wattpad |

-&-

Shield acted as if they won the lottery.

In a way, it felt like that. Two Rogers siblings found on the same day would probably yield some promotions within the teams responsible, and a nice image bonus with the US government. 

But while Captain America was found in a negative temperature on the other side of the planet, his sister destroyed an entire building with her sudden appearance inside a blue explosion a few hours later.

In your defense, you had no idea what was about to happen. 

One minute, you were inside a Howard Stark-designed marine suit at the bottom of the ocean. But in Shield's defense, you were disobeying the orders of your director, that is, Margaret Carter on the phone, who five minutes earlier insisted that she would not risk losing another Rogers and that reaching the cube was not worth the risk to your safety, but you still put on the prototype underwater suit and dived in search of the item, which, to you, was the key to finding your brother.

You were right, in a way. Touching the cube with the determined idea that you would like to see Steve again really worked. The problem was how it happened. 

The explosion was all around you, and you saw nothing but the beam of blue light that forced you to close your eyes. One moment you were deep in the sea, and the next you were in the middle of one of the Shield Secret Bases, a thousand of bricks flying around with the force of the explosion.

Your presence in the secret room of Project PEGASUS caused Shield to be on high alert, and a dozen rifles to be pointed in your face.

But it was all cleared up in no time and ended with your figure handcuffed on the seat of a government Jet on its way to New York.

Unlike Steve, you were awake. And not the least bit in the mood to follow Nick Fury's theatrical demands.

"That's to avoid shock, Miss Rogers-"

"Absolutely not, Nicholas." You cut him off impatiently, your hands-free since Shield had clarified exactly who you were. "The first thing I'm saying to my brother won't be a lie."

Nick sighed. "I understand it's a delicate situation, Miss, but Captain Rogers has been frozen for too long. An innocent fantasy is meant to lessen the shock of the truth."

You skirted Nick without caring about the speech. "There's no way to lighten news like this one. We're both in the future, for Chris’s sake! That it's absurd enough. No more lies, and let me see my brother for once. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for that." 

Fury didn't have the heart to insist, not only because he had another supersoldier getting him out of the way, but because of the emotion in your voice. He waved in dismissal to any soldier more curious about your determined walk, and no one interfered as you made your way to the room where they placed your brother.

Shield had begun to create a scenario around him that made you chuckle in irony. You dismissed the agent posing as a nurse with a look, and Nick allowed you to be alone in the room, and without wasting any time, you made your way to the bed.

Steve looked the same as he did the day he disappeared, and you felt a sob break in your throat. Maybe the sound woke him up.

He opened confused eyes at you, and unlike him, you had aged a lot since the last time he had seen you when you were still a child. 

"Hey, Stevie." Your greeting came hoarsely, laden with emotion. Steve took a moment to recognize you.

"Y/N?" He asked, tense and startled. You could almost see the gears of his brain working, the way he tried to recognize his surroundings as well. "God, how long have I...?"

"Longer than you can imagine, big brother. Much longer." You replied before hugging him tightly. 

This must have been the last entirely friendly interaction you had with your brother, a reunion bittersweet for its peculiarities that was unable to conciliate years of differences between the two of you. Nor did the ice erase your hurt over Steve sending you away from the war when your parents passed away, or make you forget the years of training and working for Shield in search of him once you were back in Brooklyn. Nor did it change Steve's view of how he wanted to protect and keep out of trouble - which included superhero work - his younger sister who he had vowed to take care of.

But it was indeed an undeniable amusement to the rest of the team that the personalities of the Rogers siblings were so blatantly different, and it caused some apprehension every time Steve had to witness you leaving the tower in some sports car borrowed from Tony Stark while dressed in leather jackets borrowed from Natasha Romanoff.

The apex that you were entirely corrupted for all that he expected from a proper 1950s girl came in the addition of a certain angry witch to the team a while later.

Of course, the close age - if one ignores the years between the time jump and your arrival - you and Wanda had made your friendship an inevitability. But this doesn't mean that witnessing your clear crush on the new Avenger wasn't giving your older brother a headache.

Natasha thinks he deserved some credit. Considering he was a white man from the 1950s who was frozen before appearing in a new century, Steve was pretty open-minded. She was pretty sure this was due to the closet years of keeping a secret crush on his best friend, but she wouldn't be mean enough to torment Steve with that. 

And besides this, you were also getting used to the new century. And with the possibility of being able to have feelings for Wanda in an open and free way, so different from the world you lived in before.

The witch, on the other hand, had the greatest of fun tormenting you as much as she could while she waited for you to be ready.

And these teases came at every opportunity Wanda could take, from summer days at the tower pool where she had an excuse to wear bikinis around you and make a complete mess of you with the "friendly cuddling" which is how she came to justify the fact that your room was hers now and that there was nothing more platonical than sleeping cuddled up to your best friend.

With each passing moment, you grew comfortable and certain in your own feelings, parallel to which you became more confident in your powers and Wanda began to feel that the tables were turning on her every time a tickle war ended with you using your super-strength to pin her to the bed or you could effortlessly carry her away from a training session or conflict.

It didn't take long for the situation to become unbearable - Wanda was sure she would combust in the next cuddling session if she felt your body against hers again without that leading to what she really wanted, so now she had to take drastic action.

Communication was always the key to everything.

"Have you ever had sex?"

Your cell phone fell hard on your face. Wanda giggled at the mirror reflection: she was on her back brushing her hair and stealing glances at your figure lying on the bed, still learning to use the current technology but definitely loving the whole thing.

Snorting in embarrassment, you pushed the electronic device down onto the mattress and massaged your sore face. "I'm beginning to think you enjoy seeing me like this."

"What do you mean?" She asks innocently, turning her attention to the ring drawer. 

"Disconcerted."

Wanda chuckles mischievously, running her fingers through the options and trying to decide between the items as you stare at the ceiling. "I know you're like 100 years old, but won’t you tell me that it never happened? Not even when you became a hottie super soldier?"

You grunted in shame, covering your face with your arm. Wanda giggled again, this time putting on one of the silver rings. You were too far away to notice how her fingers were slightly trembling, giving away how she was equally affected by the conversation. But unlike you, Wanda knew how to keep it cool very well.

"Wandaaa." You grumbled, and she almost dropped the subject when you added. "No."

"No, what?"

With a sigh, you removed your arm from in front of your face but didn't risk looking at her. "Back then...I just, I didn't have the courage I guess. You know, girls were supposed to be virgins to marry, in theory. And well, I wasn't going to marry anyone because I was too busy working. And when I got into the army, the vast majority of the guys I knew started looking at me with contempt and indignation, and then came the serum I just...didn't know how to handle the attention."

Wanda spun the stool she was sitting on toward you, listening closely to your words. 

You sighed shyly. "I mean I had opportunities, but I just didn't feel comfortable following them. I wanted... to be with someone who liked me. Not the super serum, you know? Most people were only talking to me because of it. They hoped to gain some kind of benefit from meeting the American Soldier. I don't know, maybe it's just me trying not to sound so... cowardly."

Wanda stood up with a sigh, and you swallowed dryly, keeping your gaze on the ceiling until her face appear in your field of vision.

"Detka, you are literally the bravest person I know." Reminded the witch, bringing a small smile to you. "And there's nothing wrong with not being ready, or waiting for the right person. Sex is intimate, it makes sense that you want it to happen with someone you like and who likes you back."

"Thank you for being understanding." You muttered, swallowing dryly when instead of returning to her previous activities, Wanda sat down on the bed next to you. With a sigh and shifting your gaze to the ceiling again, you ventured, "Have you?"

Wanda's teasing giggle brought a deep color to your face. "Have I what?"

Snorting, you retorted, "Come on, you're the one who brought this up."

Wanda pinched you gently on the belly, smiling at your complaint. “A few times, actually.'"

It made no sense at all to feel jealous of a time you didn't even know her, and that you were somehow in the past, but still, a bitter burn filled your stomach. Wanda, the telepath that she was, seemed to know exactly what you were thinking, and without caring whether it would make your heart stop or not, approached you to use your torso as her personal pillow. With two legs on which side of your hips, she stared down at you.

"But it was nothing outstanding." She began, using her fingertips to wander all the exposed skin of your neck and shoulders through your pajamas and having the best time in the world in watching every single hair of you shiver. "I kept making the same mistake in settling down for mediocre sex. No real feelings, no passion, much less love. Always end up frustrated and having to finish the job alone."

You frowned in confusion. "Alone...?" But it only took one look from Wanda for you to understand what she meant and choke, your face pink again. The younger girl giggled, leaning her elbow on you to rest her chin on her own hand and take a closer look. 

"Eyes on me, baby." She asked, hoping you would overcome your own shyness to do so. When you follow her request, Wanda was ready to risk everything. "You know I love you, don't you?"

You sighed, nodding. "I love you too, Wanda." Your confession was huskier than hers, and she had to ignore the sincerity of what that really meant in order to stay focused on that afternoon's goal. "Kind of the essential thing on the best friend package, isn't it?"

Wanda chuckled, rolling her eyes. 

Of course, you would make a joke to lessen the intensity of the moment, if she was nervous in all her confident glory, she could have sympathy for you, who was literally having to deal with your long-time crush practicing lying over you.

"Friends help each other, don't they? Especially best friends." She retorted, and you frowned in confusion.

"Yeah, I guess… why, did something happen?" Before your confusion could turn to worry entirely and you could finish the movement of getting up, Wanda pressed her hands on your shoulders and pushed you back on the mattress.  "Hey." You chuckled puzzledly, but the laughter died into an affected sigh when Wanda simply shifted in your lap completely, in a very non-platonic way.  "Right, whatever makes you comfortable." You mutter, very aware of the heat radiating from the girl's body on top of you, who just chuckled mischievously at your shyness.

"Relax, dorogoya." Wanda reasserted in a low, dangerously seductive voice. Her hands were on your shoulders still, rubbing your loose pajamas and somehow pushing them down to the limits, exposing as much skin as Wanda could manage. "We don't have to do anything you don't want to...but I also need you to tell me exactly what you wanna do and how ready for me you are."

Your throat went dry, and Wanda's dilated pupils were not helping the words to form. She bit her lip, seeming to have the best time with your clumsiness.

"I-I... god, Wanda..." You gasped and she leaned in completely until her breath was hitting your cheek.

"How about a kiss? Don't tell me you never got one?" She mocked and you had to chuckle dryly.

"You can be quite an ass, Maximoff." You murmured with your eyes closed, risking moving your hands to her thighs around your hips, the action making you both hold your breaths for a second. "I've kissed before."

"Hmm, I see." She hits back, deviating from the original path and letting her mouth tease your jaw, feeling your hands squeeze her thighs gently with every kiss across your skin. What Wanda wouldn't do to see you lose control...

"I like kissing." You confess hoarsely, mostly because she’s making you so nervous that the words are simply spilling. You kept your eyes closed and your neck stretched to give her more room to don’t stop. Aware of your words, Wanda hums again as she keeps depositing chaste kisses on your collarbone. "I like...kissing girls."

It should be a heartfelt confession, one that Wanda theoretically knew about but that you've never put into words before. But suddenly, Wanda bit down on you, hard enough for you to grunt in pain, opening your eyes. She grabs your cheeks with one hand, a hot fury in her eyes that makes you shudder.

"Rule number one, don't talk about other girls when you have one on top of you."

You open your mouth like a fish, babbling nonsense for enough time for Wanda to make a motion of leaving. But that makes you react. "I didn't mean to upset you!" You try quickly, hands moving on an instinct to hold her by the waist on top of you. Wanda has to bite her lips hard to keep from letting out a much more submissive sound than she would like when you just squeeze her firmly to keep her there. "Wanda, please forgive me! I-you caught me off guard, alright? I’m nervous… We’re friends and suddenly… you’re so close and I’m talking nonsense! Please, just… tell me what you want to hear.”

She huffs impatiently, crossing her arms and turning her face away as you sigh in defeat. Wanda wants to be annoyed, but you're so lovely when you lean your face into her, trying to ease her anger with chaste kisses on her cheeks and neck until you manage to get from her a stubborn smile. She has no choice but to uncross her arms to slide her hands up your shoulders, wrapping herself around your body again. 

She feels you smile and relax completely, the kisses getting firmer on her neck until they tickle and elicit a husky giggle from her. Still, Wanda settles a hand in your hair, and the slight tug to bring your faces close together again draws a deep sigh from you.

"I don't want to hear about other girls, detka. This is your last warning." She says seriously with eyes glowing red for a moment. Wanda had hoped to have a direct effect, but to her surprise, a teasing smirk began to form on your lips.

"Wow, you're totally jealous." You accused and she grimaced, trying to pull away once more. But that only made you burst out into a teasing giggle, while your strong arms wrapped around her torso, bringing her back to you effortlessly while keeping her locked into you. Wanda was clearly aware of how shaky her legs were with the motion, and trying to walk away again would only result in her falling to the ground. "Wanda, darling, the girls I kissed must be a hundred years old by now."

Reluctantly and with a rosy tinge in her cheeks, she mutters, "Honestly, I was hoping to be your first."  Her confession makes you rise your eyebrows in surprise, only to smile fondly next. Your hands moved again, caressing her back in an attempt to relax her as well. 

"Hey, look at me." You call out gently, waiting for the girl's stubbornness to subside with the help of your caresses. Wanda has a stronger color on her face when she finally raises her eyes to you again. "I didn't imagine this was anything of relevance to you. But I haven't lied before, I've never been with someone intimately. If you still want to, you can be my first... everything else."

She twitches her nose softly. "You’re making it sound like it’s a favor for me. I only want to... if you do too." She retorts with a certain determination in her gaze, and though you feel your cheeks burn with the ultimatum, you nod foolishly before breaking the distance.

It catches Wanda by surprise, the sudden kiss, and you're despairing when she doesn't respond immediately, pulling away at the same speed you approached. "Sorry." You say mortified and breathless, your lips tingling. "I like you, Wan. I really do. I just thought you should know before..."

She places a finger over yours, shushing your nervous anticipation. Her free hand goes to your cheek and Wanda pulls you close again, her eyes darkening in a way that makes you shiver entirely.

"Like I said before, just relax, baby. Stop overthinking." She whispers before she firms her mouth over yours. It's a sensual, intense kiss unlike any you've ever received. Wanda seems determined to drive you to complete insanity. She kisses you unhurried, waiting for permission to slide her tongue into yours, and giving you no room to breathe properly, head spinning with those new yet so familiar needy feelings. She kisses and kisses you until you're restless beneath her, your body burning and your hands curious testing limits that she doesn’t impose, only encourages you to break. Her taste and smell intoxicate your every sense, the feel of her body molded to yours, teasing your reactions and almost making you lose control of your strength. The tight squeeze you give her when she sucks your tongue earns a whimper from her that sticks and echoes in your mind, making you dizzy with lust. When she finally breaks the kiss to breathe, her lips are swollen like yours, and her pupils are so dilated that there is no green left in them. Your face burns for the matching fire you find in her gaze.

You are unable to find any words to describe this moment, so you only stare at her, blushing over the smirk that starts to form on her lips once she catches the adoring look you’re giving her.

Licking your lips to try to gain some focus, you dare to ask: “Was it…good?” You would have added “Did you like” or “Was I enough” if Wanda didn't break into a giggle that shut you entirely, your cheeks burning. Before the shame could surface, she grabbed your cheeks again. “You’re too cute, darling.” She says, kissing you again more quickly than before. Her hands move to yours then, intertwining your fingers together to drag them on her thighs, down, and then back up, this time under her skirt. Your heart stopped, and Wanda turned her dark eyes back to yours, her voice so low you wouldn't have heard it if you weren't so close. “Don’t be shy, see for yourself how much I like kissing you.” She whispers darkly.

When she kisses you again, her hands guide you under her skirt until you're in her front. The mere contact of your fingers with the wet spot on her panties makes you groan and break the kiss, needing a moment to just take a breath and calm your nerves. Wanda doesn't wait long, releasing your hands to move hers to your shoulders, needing firm support now that you're so close to where she needs it so badly. She gasps in surprise when your hand gives a quick tug that rips her panties off at once, a wave of new wetness running down her thighs in the same second.

You don't say anything about it, just turns your face to kiss her again, the same way she did before, and somehow even dirtier and more sexual, drawing gasps with every flick of your tongue against hers.

Because Wanda's your best friend, she wants to taunt you - tease you about being better at this than you let on, but all the words fall away at once when your fingers fill her in one go. All Wanda can do is moan, choking on the kiss as she feels you slide into her with such ease. 

"Fuck, detka." She moans with her eyes tightly closed, just as she pulls away to breathe. Your response is to just continue your movements, in and out of her without haste, feeling every mention of her warm walls squeezing your fingers. Wanda is burning on top of you and the sound of her drenched pleasure echoes low. You hum contentedly, nipping at her neck as she can no longer match the kiss, so close to her own climax. Your hand adjusts, increasing its reach, and when your thumb gives her clit the attention it needs, Wanda lets out an affected squeal. "W-wanna cum, baby. Please!"

You bite back a smile, surprised and impressed by the question hidden in the statement. You adjust to face her and wait for Wanda to feel the change to look at you too. The dark, lust-filled pupils leave you breathless.

"You can cum, sweetheart, you don't even have to ask." You assure her softly, never stopping your movements inside her. "I'm here to please you." You whisper, and it's enough for Wanda to break into an affected moan, hips thrusting helplessly against your hand until she arches her back and lets out the longest, dirtiest moan you've ever heard. 

Her eyes flutter shut as she rides her high on your soaked hand, until she finally opens scarlet pupils for you, a long groan leaving her lips as the last sensations of the best orgasm she ever had fade away.

Wanda turns her full attention to you in the next second, stealing quick but intense kisses until a husky giggle leaves her lips and tickles yours.

"You're too good at this for your own good." She prompts, and the compliment takes a heartfelt giggle from you. You try to relax under her gaze but Wanda's dilated eyes have a different twinkle as she holds your cheeks more firmly. "I think I want to keep you all to myself. Without sharing with anybody else. What do you say, baby?"

You swallow dry, suddenly quite vulnerable "H-hm, like... dating?" You retort in a weak tone of voice because you need to confirm and well the idea that someone as unbelievably awesome as Wanda Maximoff is actually asking for exclusivity with you seems too freaking surreal not to confirm. As many times as necessary.

Wanda giggles mischievously, settling herself on top of your fingers that never left her and sighing as she feels you even deeper than before. "Yeah, just like that." She moans, and you're not sure if she's answering your question or guiding you through the motions, but you get the impression that the answer goes both ways. 

It's not like you will contradict your new girlfriend any further.

Before Wanda could indulge in the sensation again, however, she stopped you with a gentle grip on your wrist. Raising curious eyes to the breathless flushed girl on top of you, your first reaction was to check if you had done something wrong, and by god, hurt her. But Wanda bit back a smile, her other hand going down to your belt.

"We're overdressed, honey." She whispered against your lips, red sparkles playing with the edge of your shirts, teasing them upward. " Strip."

Moaning low against her mouth, Wanda almost didn't let you pull away. In record time, your clothes were off and so were hers, between stolen panting kisses you fell to the mattress again, curious hands urging together.

Wanda pinned you beneath her with no effort despite your super strength, and feeling her naked against your skin drove you to the brink of insanity. She swallowed each moan with her mouth, appreciating the increasingly needy sounds as she fit against your hips, and began to move hers.

Soon, the friction became unbearably arousing and you had to clutch at the sheet, and the headboard. A hot, tight knot at the tip of your stomach left you breathless, every movement of Wanda's hips into yours, the perfect fit between your cunts was enough to make you choke. 

You practically meowed when she got the rhythm right. "O-oh god Wanda! T-there's something... fuck, I can't-"

"I know baby, just let go for me." She panted, her hands clenching the sheet on either side of your head, her hips frantic against yours. "Fuck, you feel amazing" She moans a confession, smiling satisfied at your expression of pure bliss beneath her.

Suddenly the knot bursts, and you're blinded by the pleasure of your first orgasm for a full moment. The headboard snaps in your left hand and Wanda cums in a loud, animalistic moan, spilling herself down on you before collapsing heavily onto your torso, your panting breaths mingling like your juices.

You try to recover together from the intensity of the climax, your hand finding her back on instinct to stroke her as Wanda nestles closer against you, an exhausted, satisfied smile on her lips.

She barely had a chance to lift her face to kiss you when the bedroom door suddenly opened.

"Kid, is everything all right in here I heard something breaking-'" 

You nearly knocked Wanda off the bed in an attempt to cover the two of you with the comforter - and the mattress lost a few springs in the process.

The two Avengers who'd entered the room covered their faces with their hands, but unlike your brother, Natasha was holding back her laughter.

"I'm sorry. We... I... you-"

"Come on Captain, we're leaving." Natasha cut Steve off with a pat on the shoulder, leading the way backward. "Sorry girls, lock the door next time. And well, use protection!" She burst out laughing, ignoring the embarrassed grumbles from you and Wanda, and closing the door.

With the safety of a locked door, you hid your face in your pillow.

"Great, the best day of my life might be ruined because my brother is going to have a stroke."  You grumbled, getting a hearty laugh from the other.

Wanda adjusted herself, stroking your hair until you looked at her again. "Best day of your life, huh? I'm flattered." She teases, smiling at the red that appears on your cheeks.

"As if you weren't cocky enough." You retort in the same tone, adjusting to hold her by the waist and pull her to you, getting on top now. Wanda sighs softly, even warmer with the addition of the blanket now, she finds it kind of hard to concentrate, much more talk. "Thank you, Wands."

Your line surprises her. "For what?"

"For being my first time." You clarify with a shrug, though your gaze was intense. "I've always wanted it to be with someone special, someone I like and trust. And there's no one I love more than you."

Wanda kisses you because she doesn't want to be the type to cry during sex, and she's pretty sure she would. You don't mind, she transmits the feeling through action and well, there are other things you're dying to do other than talk.

There will be time for confessions later.

[starkwlkr]

Hi anon with missing cillian request this side!!!😅😅

I just wanted to say ur work on cillian with nolan!reader was soooo good and was wondering if u could write one where she attends the award shows with him and chris and they include her in their speech

(Maybe nolan reader had given the book to her father🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️)

And if u could include some sweet couple and parents moment that would be AWESOME!!!!!!

what a night | cillian murphy (nolan!reader)

when you heard cillian’s name being called at the 2024 oscars, you felt like a tearing up, but you promised you weren’t going to cry. eh, some promises were meant to be broken.

the audience stood up to applaud for your husband. he turned to you and kissed you. you made sure your lipstick didn’t get on him like it did before. “i’m so proud of you.” you whispered to him as he gave you a hug.

when he released you, he stepped aside and saw his father in law, christopher, ready to give him a hug. you were sure twitter was going to make memes about the hug. it was something you discovered recently about how your father was always casting cillian in his work. you saw many jokes about it that it made you genuinely laugh.

finally, cillian made it to the stage to receive his oscar. in a room full of people, he found you staring at him with eyes full of love and proudness.

“i’m a little overwhelmed. thank you to the academy. um, chris nolan and emma thomas it’s been the wildest most exhilarating most creatively satisfying journey you’ve taken me on over the last twenty years. i owe you more than i can say. thank you so much. and thank you for not firing me after you found out your daughter and i were dating.” he said as the audience laughed.

the camera showed chris and you laughing at his joke.

after thanking the crew and cast, he looked at you. “thank you for being my partner in life, the mother of our beautiful children, my best friend, you are my person. i love you.” your father watched as you teared up.

after cillian finished his speech, you were tapped on your shoulder by your father, who offered you a tissue. “thanks, dad.” you chuckled as you took it.

next it was time for best director, a category you were nervous for your father.

“and the oscar goes to . . . christopher nolan, oppenheimer.” steven speilberg announced. your father had done it, finally. he was an oscar winner. after eight nominations, he finally got his golden statue.

after he hugged and kissed emma, he walked to your direction. cillian was still backstage, but he was watching close by. your father hugged you for a few seconds then kissed your cheek.

“you did it!” you cheered.

“it’s yours too, love.”

when he got to the stage, he was greeted by steven and got handed his oscar. it was truly a surreal moment. he first thanked the studios and several people who helped make the film.

“to my daughter, you are the reason for this.” he held up the statue. “you have a brilliant mind and a kind soul and i’m extremely proud to be your father. you gave me the book that this film is based on and you helped create a masterpiece. thank you forever. i share this with you.” his words made you cry even more.

you blew a kiss to your father then wiped away a tear. it was a dream come true.

shortly after, cillian got back to his seat, golden statue in hand. “did i do okay?”

“you did it perfectly, my love.”

when it was time for best picture to be announced, you were a bit confused. you weren’t sure if al pacino was didn’t care or if he was joking, but your father’s film had won best picture. it was a weird way to announce it, but your father and the oppenheimer team walked to the stage to receive the award.

it was definitely a perfect way to end the night.

[d-criss-news]

How Sondheim and Burnett Got Darren Criss to Provincetown

Provincetown hasn’t been compared to The Godfather or Star Wars very often, but those are the examples actor and singer Darren Criss names in acknowledging that his July 21 town hall appearance will be his first visit here.

“Provincetown is like that movie that you haven’t seen but you don’t want your friends to know you haven’t seen, so you don’t incur their wrath and ridicule and disbelief,” he says, noting that several of his good pals visit often. “I don’t bring up that I haven’t been there because my friends will give me crap. I haven’t avoided it — I’ve really wanted to go. Finally, the stars aligned quite nicely.”

Maybe the stars had a little help from Carol Burnett.

Host and accompanist John McDaniel, a Grammy and Emmy award-winning musician, says he invited Criss to be part of his summer Broadway series here after Criss performed on 2023’s Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Love + Laughter TV birthday special. McDaniel was the music director.

Criss’s best-known roles are his breakout portrayal of Blaine for five seasons (2010 to 2015) on Glee in a milestone-for-mainstream-TV gay romance with Chris Colfer’s Kurt, and his 2018 Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning turn as spree killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. (Both roles came thanks to producer and Provincetown part-timer Ryan Murphy.)

In addition to acting and singing — including Glee’s “Teenage Dream” cover that climbed the Billboard charts — Criss is a songwriter. He first won notice for co-writing and starring in 2009’s A Very Potter Musical parody for the Chicago-based StarKid Productions, which he co-founded. Criss’s A Very Darren Crissmas generated national holiday tours.

Shortly after Criss wrote the opening number for the 2022 Tony Awards, his friend Paul Miller, director of the Burnett tribute, asked him to refashion Stephen Sondheim’s “Side by Side” from Company into an homage to Burnett’s famous duets with celebrity guest stars.

In what he called “one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to be a part of,” Criss performed “Burnett’s Duets” for the star-studded birthday-party special with Broadway’s Sutton Foster. That came after he meticulously dissected Sondheim’s music to fit new lyrics and fine-tuned the arrangement with McDaniel.

“When I was doing this,” Criss says, “in my mind, I was going, ‘What would the ghost of Sondheim be OK with?’ ”

More Broadway music will be on Criss’s mind in Provincetown for what he says will be an unusual program because it likely won’t include original work or him playing guitar or piano; McDaniel will accompany him. Criss prides himself on not performing the same live show twice and plans to include Broadway songs he’s not yet sung in public.

That said, he recognizes fans might want to hear something connected to his own Broadway star turns. Those include — besides the nonmusical American Buffalo in 2022 — How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2012 and 2015’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Plus, earlier this year, Criss starred in off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors.

In September, he’ll originate a Broadway role for the first time, headlining Will Aronson and Hue Park’s musical Maybe Happy Ending. Criss plays an outdated, retired robot in futuristic Seoul who explores the nature of love with another retired robot (Helen J. Shen). To try to help boost its U.S. profile, Criss is also a producer of the musical, which has been a hit in Korea, China, and Japan. Its Broadway debut will be directed by Michael Arden (2023 Tony Award for Parade, Spring Awakening), a longtime Criss friend who directed the English-language debut in 2020 in Atlanta.

Criss is excited but nervous about the piece; he says it’s intimate and epic at once. “There’s an excitement about the uniqueness and specialness of this show that I’ve never encountered before,” he says. “So that’s either going to crash and burn and blow up in our faces or catch on. I don’t know, but the prospect is very thrilling.”

Criss, who is straight, made headlines this spring for comments at a Chicago expo about being “culturally queer” because of his admiration for the LGBTQ community. “The things in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from, and be inspired by are 100 percent queer,” he said then, later adding that “it was in queer communities that I’ve found people that I idolize, that I want to learn something from.”

“That had to be the slowest news day ever,” Criss says about his comments getting attention — especially because he’s talked many times before about similar things, including how much it meant to be part of Glee’s Blaine-Kurt relationship story.

Beyond Provincetown and Broadway, in August Criss’s voice will be heard in an unusual spot: on season 10 of Netflix’s Gabby’s Dollhouse, a children’s show, as the new Marty the Party Cat, magical host of the Party Room. It’s a voice role Criss says was planned long before his two-year-old daughter and seven-week-old son were born to him and his wife.

Marty is described by Netflix as a lovable, “exuberant goofball” who has a big heart and the ability to laugh at himself.

“He’s a fun guy,” Criss says. “I’m aspirationally Marty the Party Cat.”

[chicademartinica]

2023 Favorites

Come play favorites with me.

Favorite Korean BL: The Eighth Sense. / Runner up: Our dating Sim

Favorite Thai BL: Never let me go / Runner up: Moonlight Chicken

Favorite Japanese BL: The end of the world with you / Runner up: My Beautiful man eternal (Show +Movie)

Favorite Taiwanese BL: Kiseki Dear to me / Runner up: Stay by my side.

Best director(s): Inu Baek & Werner du Plessis for The Eighth Sense (Korea and Germany) EX AEQUO with Jojo Tichakorn Phukhaothong (Thailand) for FIVE SHOWS (BL or not everything Jojo does is QUEER): Never let me go / Never let me go Our Skyy 2/ The Warp effect / Only Friends / Dirty Laundry. To be noted and congratulated: OG Thai BL director Tee Sintanaparadee with his best work to date: I feel you linger in the air.

Best cinematography: Never let me go by Rat Rungruang (Thailand) / Runner Up: Moonlight Chicken ALSO by Rat Rungruang EX AEQUO Never let me go Our skyy 2 ALSO by Rat Rungruang.

Best use of color theory : The eighth sense GREEN.

Best score /musical moment (instrumental): “Save you from the Death” by Ruiqi Zhao. This song is so good it was used in two shows, airing at the same time, produced by the same man, on the same channel. We first hear it in Never let me go (episode 05) as Palm ravenously kisses Nueng (for a long long long long time) for the first time. AND THEN it’s back in Moonlight Chicken (episode 01) as Uncle Jim and Wen do everything but kiss under the moonlight. Aof and Jojo really said we both using it to be desperate and erotic and what of it. 10/10 no notes.

Runner up: “Refined enlightenment” by Howard Harper-Barnes in I feel you linger in the air (episode 07): The soaring strings that perfectly follows Jom’s arousal as he masturbates to the memory of the most erotic oil massage ever. Refined INDEED. // “Bleeding Signs” by Chris Shards in Never let me go (episode 05): Dark and moody indie rock rumbles as Nueng reels from his brutal outing, homophobia, and Ben’s betrayal before collapsing in Palm’s arms in the yellow of Bangkok polluted twilight.

Best score/ musical moment (with lyrics): “I can’t lose it all” by Ben Goldstein in The Eight Sense (episode 06) The singer belting “I’m losing my mind (…) I can’t lose it all” are the only words we hear for the last minutes of a great, hazy fugue of an episode. (Last spoken line: “To give you trauma” before the lovers start kissing.) Jae Won and Ji Hyun make love and when the song stops, I was left with greys waves, panic, and a burning “JAE WON WERE YOU OR WERE YOU NOT HIGH OUT OF YOUR MIND FOR ALL OF THIS? Was that song a call back to “Where is my mind” of Fight Club fame just to play with our nerves? Good times. //Runner up: “Monsoons” by Johannes Bornlöf and Le June in Never let me go. This song plays for two minutes straight as Palm sways drunkenly in his lover’s arms as he reels from his mother’s violent death. “Monsoon rain and chest pains”, blurry lens and sloppy, tear-soaked kissing. Peak lakorn.

Favorite couple: PalmNueng in Never let me go. // Runner up : KingUea in Bed Friend.

Favorite chemistry: PondPhuwin as Palmnueng, GMMtv true hidden gem. Runner up: Nat Chen and Jiang Dian as Chen Yi and Ai Di in Kiseki Dear to me.

Favorite individual performance: Film Thanapat in Laws of Attraction// Runner up: Mix Sahaphap in Moonlight Chicken.

Most beloved actor this year: Mark Pakin.

Favorite Ensemble: Moonlight Chicken // Runner up: The Warp Effect

Favorite mother figure: Grandma in Laws of Attraction. Amazing actress, well written (Grieving!) character. // Runner up: Ji Hyun’s boss in The eighth sense.

Favorite friendship: Pat and Chot in Step by Step! Pat’s whole friend group! // Runner up: Alex and Army in The Warp Effect.

Favorite siblings: The Gu siblings in Stay by my side. // Jeng and Jaab in Step by Step.

My hatred for you knows no bounds: Uea’s "mother" in Bed Friend. // Runner up: Phupha in The Promise EX AEQUO Tae Hyung in The eighth sense.

Most beloved character: Palm! My sweet boy! // Runner up: King! MY King!

Favorite “I love you”: “I LOVE YOU UNCLE JIM” Li Ming in Moonlight Chicken.

Favorite proposal: Charn being a lawyer and a marriage equality advocate while Tinn is just trying to marry the nutjob in Laws of Attraction.

Favorite wedding: TinnCharn and the baby’s doll on the chair (Tears!). Runner up: Palmnueng marrying by proxy while being guests at a gay wedding.

The category is “Boohoo snot bubble I’m dazed and crying”: The eighth Sense. Runner up: Moonlight Chicken.

The category is “I’ve watched this scene without breathing.”: Ji Hyun’s reaching for Jae Won’s hand in The eighth sense ep 09 // Runner up: Ki Tae confronting Lee Wan in episode 04 of Our dating Sim.

The category is “My cheeks are hurting I’m smiling so much”: Our dating Sim // Runner up: Love tractor.

Punchline: “Have you been well? Without me?”  Ki Tae to Lee Wan Our dating Sim / “I miss you so much. I miss you so much” Fan Ze Rui to Bai Zong Yi Kiseki Dear to me.

Funny punchline: “You only love me when you do me.” Cher to Boss in A boss and a babe. // Runner up: “We can continue as a throuple” Rando in Laws of attraction.

Erotic honorific: “Call me Hia Win. Hia Win.” In Between Us. // “Can you tell Nong Cher what your present is Phi Gun” or “Phi Jeng” for “The kinkification of Phi” in A boss and a Babe and Step by Step.

The category is ‘What is this?!! A 90’s Yaoi Manga ?!!”: Kim Jong Chan’s (Korean actor Kwon Hyuk) Yaoi hands holding his lover’s whole head in his palm as they kiss in The New employee. // Runner up: Cho Jun’s ( Ki Hyun Woo) in a an all-black suit in Jun & Jun.

The category is "Whew why was this so hot ?" : Charn obscenely rubbing Tinn's arm up and down while Tinn is trying to punch him in Laws of Attraction// Runner up : Jae Won manhandling Baby Mouse by the straps of his backpack in The eighth sense.

Best smile: First Kanaphan as Sand in Only Friends // Nat Chen and his dimple as Chen Yi in Kiseki Dear to me.

Unfathomable eyes: Pond Naravit and his under-eye mole in Never let me go EX AEQUO Net Siraphop in Bed Friend.

Favorite dream sequence: Baby Ye Chan’s first erotic dream in Love Tractor.

Favorite kiss (on the lips): Palmnueng last kiss on the beach in episode 12 of NLMG. It’s soft and super erotic, there’s a bit of tongue, a bit of teeth and they are both shivering like crazy. Pondphuwin killed it and the magnificent Thai scenery finished it// Runner up: Bostonnick against the wall at the back of the store. Surprisingly Nick was the aggressor but was still moaning loud as hell. Neomark punched me in the face with their chemistry and hunger. Give them a good show and let them kiss. A lot.

Favorite kiss (not on the lips). Nueng burying his face between Palm’s shoulder blades to kiss his tattoo in the finale of NLMG. // Ze Rui rubbing and kissing Zong Yi’s beauty mark every chance he gets in Kiseki dear to me.

Favorite sniff kiss (special Thailand): Uncle Jim inhaling Wen’s face in Moonlight Chicken. Possibly the most erotic sniff kiss I have ever seen, shout out to Earth. // Runner up: Winteam having a HEAVY ratio of sniff kisses in their make-outs in Between Us.

Favorite neck kiss: Bed Friend’s King is the BL best neck kisser, licker, biter ever. Net being shorter than James made this even more enjoyable. // Ray being obsessed with Sand’s neck in Only Friends.

Favorite make out: JengPat car make out in Step by Step. Whew. // Runner up: WinTeam locker room make out. Whew.

Favorite erotic moment: Win seducing Team and making sure he is sober, single, and horny while fogging up the room in Between Us. // Runner up: I feel you linger in the air oil massage than orgasm to the memories of said oil massage.

Favorite O scene: Songkhram and Ai making love in Destiny Seeker. Who knew 69ing could be so cute? // Runner up: Ritsu and Masumi, I quote “going at it like monkeys” in The end of the world with you. Ritsu was a fuckboy from space but also like, a Japanese sex God.

Favorite cuddles: Winteam. In bed. Every single scene in Between Us // King clinging to Uea, dead asleep in the crook of his neck in Bed Friend.

Favorite hug: Li Ming hugging a sobbing Heart in Moonlight Chicken.

Favorite tears: WinTeam devastating sobs after Win saves his boo from drowning.

Favorite lift off: Ai Di spending one third of the show being carried by Chen Yi. // Runner up: Joke carrying Zo like he is not also 6ft1 in Hidden Agenda.

Favorite food : Love Mate's orgasmic post sex burgers and fries in episode 04.

That's my too long list of 2023 favorites. Hope you enjoy. @absolutebl and all of you booes are welcome to use the categories you like, please tag me in your lists. To a very bisexual (AND VAMPIRIC) 2024 together.

Chica.

[uhlikzsuzsanna]

The BBC and Prime Video have announced further cast joining Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager, which was recently announced to return for two new series. Made by the award-winning London and LA-based independent studio The Ink Factory (The Pigeon Tunnel, The Little Drummer Girl) in association with Character 7, Demarest Films and 127 Wall, and in co-production with Spanish partner Nostromo Pictures, series two will star Diego Calva (Babylon, Narcos: Mexico) and Emmy Award nominee Camila Morrone (Daisy Jones & The Six) alongside Indira Varma (Obsession, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Paul Chahidi (Wicked Little Letters, The Serpent Queen), and Hayley Squires (Adult Material, Beau Is Afraid).

The new series of The Night Manager will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK, and, outside of the UK, globally on Prime Video, in a deal negotiated by FIFTH SEASON, which is handling global distribution of the series.

Inspired by the characters in John le Carré’s best-selling novel, the upcoming second series will once again be written by show creator David Farr and will be helmed by BAFTA winning director Georgi Banks-Davies (I Hate Suzie, Paper Girls). Tom Hiddleston (Loki, The Essex Serpent) reprises his celebrated role as Jonathan Pine, eight years after the explosive finale of series one.

Series two director Georgi Banks-Davies says: “I wrote my dream list of actors to join The Night Manager, and I can’t quite believe that I am now welcoming that list of talent to the show. What an incredible cast joining the brilliant Tom Hiddleston for this next chapter… I cannot wait to get them in front of the camera now and see the magic come to life.”

The acclaimed first series of The Night Manager was nominated for more than 30 awards and won multiple BAFTAs, Emmy Awards, and Golden Globes – including Best Actor for Tom Hiddleston. Commissioned by the BBC, in the UK it was watched by more than 10 million viewers, making it one of 2016’s most watched TV shows.

The Night Manager series two is created and executive produced by David Farr, based on the characters created by John le Carré. Further executive producers include lead non-writing EP Stephen Garrett for Character 7, Georgi Banks-Davies, Hugh Laurie, and Tom Hiddleston; Joe Tsai and Arthur Wang for 127 Wall; Stephen and Simon Cornwell, Michele Wolkoff, and Tessa Inkelaar for The Ink Factory; Adrián Guerra for Nostromo Pictures; William D. Johnson for Demarest Films, Nick Cornwell, Susanne Bier, Chris Rice for FIFTH SEASON and Gaynor Holmes for the BBC. The series is produced by The Ink Factory in association with Character 7, Demarest Films and 127 Wall, and in co-production with Nostromo Pictures.

The Night Manager series one is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Platoon (1986, Oliver Stone)

24/03/2024

Platoon is a 1986 film, written and directed by Oliver Stone, which deals with his time in Vietnam as a volunteer during the war and is inspired by the real experiences the director had between 1967 and 1971 during his military service.

The film won 4 Oscars out of 8 nominations and Oliver Stone was also awarded the Silver Bear in Berlin as best director. In 1998 the American Film Institute placed it in eighty-third place in the ranking of the one hundred best American films of all time, while ten years later, in the updated list, it dropped to eighty-sixth place. In 2019, it was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress.

The bloodiest episode, as in many other films dealing with the Vietnam War, is inspired by the most atrocious event of that conflict, known to history as the My Lai massacre, in which American soldiers committed atrocities including rape of very young girls, indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians, destruction of the homes and resources of the inhabitants, believed to be allies of the Viet Cong, despite there being no evidence. From this perspective, the figure of the platoon commander, Lieutenant Wolfe, both for his inability to control his men and for other characteristics, can be traced back to the main person responsible for My Lai, the then US Army Lieutenant William Calley, convicted to several years of military detention for that very affair.

Due to an error by Lieutenant Wolfe, who gives wrong coordinates via radio, the platoon is decimated by friendly artillery.

In the last war action of his volunteer service, Chris escapes a deadly ambush by the Viet Cong who almost completely annihilate the platoon and the subsequent American bombing with napalm.

Initially Hollywood snubs the script as many producers are of the opinion that what three is to say about the Vietnam War has already been reported in highly successful films such as Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter, however the strength of Stone's script still attracts some producers who see enormous potential in him. He was then assigned to write a screenplay for another film, Stone accepted and wrote Midnight Express in 1977, thanks to which he won the Oscar for best non-original screenplay (first statuette for Stone) a fact that made all of Hollywood understand the Stone's enormous potential; it was therefore not difficult for him to find the producer to begin work on Platoon.

The film was shot, following the great example of Apocalypse Now, director Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece, on the island of Luzon, in the Philippines, starting in February 1986. The film's production was almost canceled due to the political upheavals in country, due to Ferdinand Marcos, dictator of the country. Upon arrival in the Philippines, the cast members underwent a two-week course of intensive training by Dale Dye (former Marine captain during the Vietnam War and interpreter of Captain Harris), during which they had to dig trenches and suffer forced marches and night "ambushes".

[nanowrimo]

A Fond Farewell to NaNoWriMo Technical Director Dave Beck

We’ve got some truly bittersweet news: after almost 10 years as NaNoWriMo’s Technical Director, Dave Beck is moving on. Dave joined NaNoWriMo in 2014 and since then has overseen all things site and tech-related for NaNoWriMo and Young Writers Program. In addition to his considerable technical skills, Dave is a true Renaissance man with a remarkable range of skills, interests, and hobbies. Thanks to Dave and our other long-time Software Developer, Jezra Lickter, both our websites are currently in very stable places for this transition. 

Before we say goodbye, Dave shares some thoughts about his time at NaNo:

Q: What are some of your proudest achievements at NaNoWriMo?

I’d say it’s the redevelopment of the Young Writers Program website, which started in 2015. The first version of the website didn’t have many participants. I worked with Marya and Chris [Angotti] for the redesign. However, the biggest risk was creating a writing space for the kids. This feature did not exist before, so we built it from scratch. When we first launched it, 40% of the kids were writing on the site. The number is still going up. It’s 84% at the moment. I didn’t expect it to be this successful. Last time I looked, 20 billion words were written! The second achievement: we haven’t lost a single word ever since the writing space was created. It was very important to me that we did not lose any of the kids’ novels. 

In general, the YWP site was the most fun.

Q: What are some of your fondest NaNoWriMo memories?

The design is the best part. Not the coding itself, but deciding what things we should do and how to get there. When you figure out a design and then develop it, it’s very satisfying when it works well.

It’s also fun being able to creatively collaborate with people, especially with the YWP. I’ll miss Marya and Jezra a great deal, it was very productive.

Q: Tell us about one of your NaNoWriMo novels.

I’ve never won NaNoWriMo! Not even close to it. The closest I’ve gotten is 5k. It was a nonfiction book about ADHD. The funny thing is, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. But I didn’t want to write books! I just wanted to be F. Scott Fitzgerald and go to cocktail parties. I do NaNo every year though. It helps me understand the website and see if everything is working as it should be. So instead of writing, I see the problems and go and fix them.

Q: Fun fact about you that people might not know?

I’m a veteran career changer. I’m leaving programming and coding to become a winemaker. Before this, I was an attorney. I’m still a member of the California Bar actually. I was also a reporter for the LA Press, a fancy sous chef in Boston, and an exhibit designer at the San Francisco science museum.

If you can’t tell, I have ADHD. I liked this job the most since it’s so complicated being a full stack developer. It works well with ADHD because I’m constantly switching what I’m doing.

Q: Are coding and noveling at all the same?? Inquiring minds want to know.

A little bit? There is an element to understanding narrative within a code. You want to understand the order and how the code does certain things. It’s kind of like plotting a novel.

Designing code is also a creative process. But the coding itself shouldn’t be, which is the biggest difference. Coding is standardized so it won’t cause problems, especially when multiple people are working on the code.

With novel writing, you can do whatever you want. You can even break rules to prove a point. You don’t want to do that with coding or you break the whole thing!

Q: What will you miss/not miss the most at NaNo?

I’ll miss the creative relationships I had with Marya and Jezra. It’s interesting and fun work. NaNoWriMo also had a lot of creative lunches before COVID. Once, we all created our own cocktails!

I won’t miss how sometimes, it feels like I’m reinventing the same wheel over and over. For example, we’re trying to refine the system that makes challenges for existing novels. It’s still not completely working right in the way we want it to be, so we end up spending a lot of time on it. It’s like Sisyphus. You think you’ve finally completed something and then we’re back at the bottom of the hill.

Q: Any advice for a developer working at NaNoWriMo, or any aspiring tech developers?

Learn all seven parts of full stack developing as fast as possible. You will need it. Rely heavily on Jezra too. He knows a lot.

For aspiring tech developers, you should only spend 10% of your time actually coding. The other 90% of your time should be spent planning, scoping, and user testing. One of my issues is jumping into a code without a plan, which leads into problems I could have avoided. You should plan for things ahead of time. It’s like scoping your whole novel before writing words down. I’m a pantser coder which isn’t necessarily the best thing.

Q: Since you’re so fond of the YWP site, how about advice for any young writers?

Think for yourselves and write what you want to write. If it’s what you’re interested in, you’ll have fun.

Interested in learning more about open positions at NaNoWriMo? Sign up here to be notified of job postings. Just as we celebrate the diversity of our creative community, we want our staff to reflect that same spirit of inclusion, and we will encourage candidates of all races, genders, cultures, class and educational backgrounds, abilities, and orientations to apply.

[denimbex1986]

'On Tuesday, Cillian Murphy was at his parents’ home in Cork, Ireland, drinking a cup of tea when his phone started buzzing. A glance at the dozens of texts revealed the news: For the first time, Murphy had been nominated for the best actor Oscar, for his performance as the title character in “Oppenheimer.”

“It’s very, very humbling,” Murphy, 48, said in an interview by phone on Tuesday. “I’m kind of a little in shock.”

“It’s just a real honor to be involved in a film that has connected so powerfully with people in a way that we never expected,” he added.

In “Oppenheimer,” a stunning biopic by the director Christopher Nolan, Murphy plays the American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, a brilliant, enigmatic figure known as the father of the atomic bomb, a man consumed with ambition and haunted by his past. After opening alongside “Barbie” on July 21, “Oppenheimer” quickly became beloved by critics and fans alike, grossing just over $950 million at the worldwide box office.

Murphy had collaborated with Nolan before, taking supporting roles in movies like “Batman Begins” and “Inception,” but his latest work for the director became a breakthrough moment, with Murphy winning praise for the intensity and emotional complexity he brought to the role. At the Golden Globes, he won best actor in a drama; he also was up for a Critic’s Choice Award (losing out to his fellow Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti); and he’s in the running for a Screen Actors Guild Award, punctuating what has been an exceptionally busy awards season for Murphy.

“It’s been new enough for me, but I gotta say, I think I’m getting good at it,” he said, chuckling. He marveled about a recent ceremony where he was stuck in a line with Meryl Streep.

“That may never happen to me again in my life, and it’s just a wonderful feeling,” he said.

In a phone interview, Murphy also discussed what fascinated him about Oppenheimer the man, how he prepared for the role and the cast’s group chat. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Were you watching the Oscars announcement?

No, I was at home in Cork with my mom and dad and my wife. And my phone started popping, so I figured it was good news. Everybody started texting. You know, you can’t really avoid good news or bad news, but it’s better when it’s good news.

Oppenheimer is a different role than what you’ve done in the past. What drew you to this character?

Well, he is, in Chris’s words, the most important man that ever lived. He changed the course of the 20th century, and we are all living in Oppenheimer’s world. He was complex and contradictory and flawed and vain and arrogant, but he was still immensely charismatic and fascinating. It was a huge responsibility. But the sorts of roles I enjoy are the ones where you think, I have no idea how I’m going to play this.

What steps did you take to prepare?

Oh man, I had six months. From the moment Chris called me, I just started working — from the inside out and from the outside in. I did an awful lot of reading and research and watched every single archival footage about him. Then I immediately started conditioning my body because he was very interesting how he carried himself physically and how slight his frame was. But a lot of it was just walking around my basement in Dublin talking to myself and practicing, practicing and practicing.

As you did that research, was there anything surprising to you about Oppenheimer?

He was an absolute contradiction in so many ways. He could have been an artist or a writer or a poet. But he was also this freakishly bright human being. A lot of his contemporaries would say he was the brightest man in the room at all times. But he was also very temperamental and fragile emotionally and mentally, particularly in his youth. If you were writing a fictional character, it wouldn’t add up to a character people could identify with. But in fact, he was just like the rest of us. He was just a human being. So that’s what I really identified with — his humanity.

What was it like for you to work with such an all-star cast?

A total gift. Every single cast member was fearless in the film, like they had done so much research and could improvise on the spot about their character and the real-life events. I felt really held and carried by everybody on the movie. We’re still all really close. There was a really good bond on this film, and it remains very very strong.

Is it true there’s an “Oppenhomies” group chat?

That is true, yes. Olivia Thirlby came up with that moniker.

You and Nolan have a long history of working together. How did that impact your work with this film?

Oh, it’s crucial for me. I don’t think I could have made this film with anyone else, without that level of trust that goes back six movies and 20 years. He really, really pushed me and I wanted to be pushed. He expects excellence from you because that’s what he delivers himself every single day.

Is there something distinctive about a Nolan set or film that’s different from other projects you’ve been involved in?

I think it’s the level of focus. It’s quite remarkable. It’s laserlike, the way he uses time, because time, I’ve realized, is your most valuable commodity when you’re on a film set. So much of it gets wasted. When you come on a Chris Nolan set, you come on to work. There’s no phones, there’s no chatting. There’s no video footage, there’s no monitors. That’s not to say it’s not a pleasant environment. It’s a private, focused environment. That’s how you get the best out of people.

In terms of time, you didn’t have much of that at all right?

No, we filmed in 57 days, and three of them were a preshoot. So it was insane, the pace of it, but it never felt rushed. We never left a scene behind.

Some people have criticized the film for the inclusion of nude scenes. What do you make of that critique?

Well, I think those things are essential for the story. If you’re familiar with the story, it was his relationship with Jean Tatlock which was the thing that really made him lose his security clearance and ultimately kind of cost his career. I think it was vital to highlight the intimacy and closeness of their relationship.

Besides the Academy Awards ceremony, what else is in the future for you?

I have a film called “Small Things Like These,” which I produced and acted in and that’s opening at the Berlin Film Festival in February. I’m really proud of the movie. It’s produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. They paid for it and we produced it together. So I’m juggling that and attending all these events at the same time.'

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Well, THAT's definitely big...

Jennifer Lee has stepped down as Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, following two genuine box office losses in STRANGE WORLD and WISH, in addition to several directors and staff leaving, some of which criticizing what the studio's output and workflow has become...

A decision she was apparently largely behind, herself, as she wants to continue her career as a director/writer/filmmaker and not lead a studio's creative process...

Taking her place is Jared Bush, who was a co-director and writer on ZOOTOPIA with Byron Howard and Rich Moore (both of them were considered to lead Disney Animation in 2018 when John Lasseter was being ousted), then graduated to director (no "co") on ENCANTO, and is confirmed to be the director of ZOOTOPIA 2. In addition to that, he did some script stuff for MOANA, and served as part of the studio's creative leadership for about a decade, his earliest WDAS credit being BIG HERO 6. Elsewhere in the Mouse domain, he co-created Disney TV Animation's PENN ZERO: PART-TIME HERO with former WDAS staffer Sam Levine, who was at one point set to direct the video game adventure movie that later evolved into WRECK-IT RALPH.

A lot of his prior work, curiously, was in network TV. Very little in animation, though. He got to WDAS when BIG HERO 6 was in the works, and immediately became part of the leadership there. Contrast that with Lee, whose only film/TV media credit prior to arriving at WDAS in 2011-ish to work on WRECK-IT RALPH's script was... A 2004 short film called A THOUSAND WORDS, which another RALPH writer - Phil Johnston - wrote and directed. Must've been a real referral! Soon after, Lee found herself writer and director on FROZEN, directing alongside veteran Chris Buck of TARZAN and SURF'S UP fame. That movie was a troubled-as-hell production, stuff was changed and re-arranged at the very last minute, it goes on to become the highest grossing animated movie (holding the title for nearly 6 years) and a worldwide phenomenon... And Disney Animation's first Oscar for Best Animated Feature winner.

So after that, after her story work on ZOOTOPIA, and after her exec roles on other movies, they made her CCO while she was deep in production on FROZEN II. Which despite being an equally troubled production where many last-minute changes were made, was still a huge box office smash... COVID-19 definitely hit her run as CCO like a freight train, as I do think RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON and ENCANTO would've fared well at the box office w/o a pandemic going on. The latter won the BAF Oscar and was a monster success on Disney+ in addition to having a 2x Platinum-selling soundtrack in the U.S. alone. I myself also feel that those two films are the strongest movies released during her tenure.

But even the good seemed to be marred by a lot of the things that were evident in Lasseter's tenure: Last-minute changes to things and upending whole movies the closer they get to the finish line, director removals and swaperoos (RAYA, particularly)... and much more caving to the focus groups. I also feel that Lee's storytelling instincts seemed to translate to "Well let's do every movie like FROZEN. The same kinda tone, art style, dialogue, etc." When it doesn't fit every movie, especially when they're going for genres that aren't what FROZEN is. I'd imagine it's the rest of the leadership too, and who she has to answer to and work with. Lasseter seemed to know how to skirt around focus groups for the most part, which could explain why some of the Lee-era movies just lack any kind of bite or even any kind of distinct directorial vision. When I hear stories like "The WISH co-director's 7-year-old kid got scared by the original ending, so they changed it", I do not approve. I don't think that's a good way of doing things. I kinda got the sense that she was unsure of herself being the leader and maybe trusted others over her own instincts... Thus her choosing to step down and focus on FROZEN III & IV and other projects checks out honestly.

The structure there has to change, really, no matter if Lee or Bush are leading the filmmaking charge. WDAS needs to worry less about living up to their legacy, and think more about creating new and dynamic kinds of movies that build a legacy in the first place. Like the way Walt himself and his crew did. That being said, Bush I think is a decent choice, with his experience and whatnot, he may do the leader thing just fine. MOANA 2 is likely the end of the Lee era then, as it's only two months away from release. ZOOTOPIA 2 is already in full production, as evidenced by the scene shown at D23 last month, so is that bridge to the Bush era? Or does little change under his role as CCO? Sometimes a filmmaker being CCO means the movies made by multiple people end up suiting that person's vision. And can lead to things being homogeneous.

We'll have to see, but it's a huge development nonetheless.

Lee has only lasted 6 years in charge, Lasseter lasted 11-12 years. His ouster was awkwardly prolonged when word got out about his inappropriate behavior, first going on "sabbatical leave" for half a year, and then being in some "consultant" role at the company before leaving altogether over one full year after the accusations got out.

Another cool detail about this change... Lee's directing partner on FROZEN III & IV is Marc Smith, not Chris Buck like the first two movies. Buck also directed WISH, and I wonder if - since he's free of FROZEN duties - he's staying at WDAS or he packs his bags and directs somewhere's else? WISH didn't seem like a particularly rewarding production for anybody, in addition to becoming a critical dud (a rare one for WDAS, with a low Rotten aggregate) and box office disaster, sooooo... That remains to be seen. As is what the 2026 original movie is... Maybe that's why Lee was weirdly quiet about it at D23...

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

“The two paths for an Oscar is weird and quirky or historic and biographical." 

As someone whose best friend won best Foreign film Oscar 2006 - Totsi, i can tell you that those categories are only true in terms of what gets or is more likely to be nominated rather than what wins. 

The best predictor of Oscar win is The Golden Globes. With extremely rare exception, everyone who wins the drama awards at the Golden Globes also wins the Oscar. 

Occasionally, they’ll throw in a pity nomination for the winner of the comedy/ music category, but that person rarely wins.

It was harder to predict the year the Globes was cancelled, but then they used DEI biases to pick the Oscar winners. I felt so bad for everyone who was nominated and more pity for the winners because that entire ceremony / awards was to appease DEI. A case of getting nominated and or winning the award because you tick the DEI box. 

As for Emma or Lily winning best actress, Lily has the Globe for drama plus she’s a minority so she’ll definitely win. Further, Emma already has an Oscar ( 2017 for La La Land) which is another reason she won’t win this time even though her performance is pure oscar bait. People don’t like to think about the sentimantal/ political reasons people win, but it’s the unconfortable truth baked in. This year, Lily, RDJ and Chris Nolan will win for polittical/ sentimental reasons. RDJ’s win is the long overdue/ overlooked cherry on top of his career revival after early promise followed by spectacular downfall and then rise with the Marvel films. Nolan will win because it is time for him to win as opposed to being his best work. On the sentimental note, this is why Al Pacino and Scorcese finally won their oscars…..a case of long overdue/ overlooked, we better give them the oscar before they die as opposed to being their best work. Lily is going to win for the same reason Hally Berry won. Minority / diversity win which will be trumpted to the roof as if she’s Meryl Streep and then eveerything will go back to what they were doing having ticked a box. 

New DEI considerations aside, the process remains the same in 2024 as it was in 2005 when we did the awards circuit to win that 2006 oscar. 

Therefore i can confidently predict that best film will be Oppenheimer, director will be Chris Nolan, Greta Gerwig will win for screenplay, best actor will be Cillian Murphy, best actress will be Lily, best support actress will be D'vine Joy Rudolph and best support actor will be RDJ. 

*************

We’ll see. There’s always potential for an upset. (I agree with most of your predictions. I’m on the fence about screenplay. I don’t share your confidence that Greta has it in the bag.)

[daughter-of-sapph0]

just a reminder that the oscars suck and aren't necessarily a measure of how good a film is. it's a contest where all the judges are past winners. it values safe generic cookie cutter films that are the same repeated stuff over and over every year.

they don't give a shit about animation either. usually the people who vote in a category are previous winners of that category. people who've won best director vote on the best director. people who've won best score vote on the best score. the only categories where this isn't the case is the best overall film, and best animated film. also, best animated film is the only category where you don't have to watch all the nominations to vote. so you'll have people voting who literally admit "I didn't watch any of these movies. but my children watched frozen 2 and they really liked it. so I'm voting for frozen 2".

they also are racist and sexist as shit. it's predominantly a bunch of white men saying "hmm, yes. this movie made by my best friend is actually the greatest movie released this year. that's why I want him to join my exclusive club where we all say that movies made by us are the best movies ever. nepotism, who?" they intentionally exclude non-western films, and films made by people of color or women or queer people.

the banned Will Smith for over a decade because he slapped Chris Rock (which was reasonable and deserved). but they let literally pedophiles and abusers and sex criminals attend.

don't trust the academy awards. they are not the measure for what a good movie is, or what you should enjoy. the only person who can decide what films you like is you.

so if you favorite movie doesn't win tomorrow, remind yourself that the only reason movies win academy awards is because a bunch of rich out of touch snobs who are okay with pedophilia and racism and sexism all in a big club where the barrier for entry is being friends with a member of that club.

[sillyname30]

How Sondheim and Burnett Got Darren Criss to Provincetown

The songwriter and star of Glee makes his local debut in Broadway-centric concert

By Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll Jul 17, 2024

Provincetown hasn’t been compared to The Godfather or Star Wars very often, but those are the examples actor and singer Darren Criss names in acknowledging that his July 21 town hall appearance will be his first visit here.

“Provincetown is like that movie that you haven’t seen but you don’t want your friends to know you haven’t seen, so you don’t incur their wrath and ridicule and disbelief,” he says, noting that several of his good pals visit often. “I don’t bring up that I haven’t been there because my friends will give me crap. I haven’t avoided it — I’ve really wanted to go. Finally, the stars aligned quite nicely.”

Maybe the stars had a little help from Carol Burnett.

Host and accompanist John McDaniel, a Grammy and Emmy award-winning musician, says he invited Criss to be part of his summer Broadway series here after Criss performed on 2023’s Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Love + Laughter TV birthday special. McDaniel was the music director.

Criss’s best-known roles are his breakout portrayal of Blaine for five seasons (2010 to 2015) on Glee in a milestone-for-mainstream-TV gay romance with Chris Colfer’s Kurt, and his 2018 Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning turn as spree killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. (Both roles came thanks to producer and Provincetown part-timer Ryan Murphy.)

In addition to acting and singing — including Glee’s “Teenage Dream” cover that climbed the Billboard charts — Criss is a songwriter. He first won notice for co-writing and starring in 2009’s A Very Potter Musical parody for the Chicago-based StarKid Productions, which he co-founded. Criss’s A Very Darren Crissmas generated national holiday tours.

Shortly after Criss wrote the opening number for the 2022 Tony Awards, his friend Paul Miller, director of the Burnett tribute, asked him to refashion Stephen Sondheim’s “Side by Side” from Company into an homage to Burnett’s famous duets with celebrity guest stars.

In what he called “one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to be a part of,” Criss performed “Burnett’s Duets” for the star-studded birthday-party special with Broadway’s Sutton Foster. That came after he meticulously dissected Sondheim’s music to fit new lyrics and fine-tuned the arrangement with McDaniel.

“When I was doing this,” Criss says, “in my mind, I was going, ‘What would the ghost of Sondheim be OK with?’ ”

More Broadway music will be on Criss’s mind in Provincetown for what he says will be an unusual program because it likely won’t include original work or him playing guitar or piano; McDaniel will accompany him. Criss prides himself on not performing the same live show twice and plans to include Broadway songs he’s not yet sung in public.

That said, he recognizes fans might want to hear something connected to his own Broadway star turns. Those include — besides the nonmusical American Buffalo in 2022 — How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2012 and 2015’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Plus, earlier this year, Criss starred in off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors.

In September, he’ll originate a Broadway role for the first time, headlining Will Aronson and Hue Park’s musical Maybe Happy Ending. Criss plays an outdated, retired robot in futuristic Seoul who explores the nature of love with another retired robot (Helen J. Shen). To try to help boost its U.S. profile, Criss is also a producer of the musical, which has been a hit in Korea, China, and Japan. Its Broadway debut will be directed by Michael Arden (2023 Tony Award for Parade, Spring Awakening), a longtime Criss friend who directed the English-language debut in 2020 in Atlanta.

Criss is excited but nervous about the piece; he says it’s intimate and epic at once. “There’s an excitement about the uniqueness and specialness of this show that I’ve never encountered before,” he says. “So that’s either going to crash and burn and blow up in our faces or catch on. I don’t know, but the prospect is very thrilling.”

Criss, who is straight, made headlines this spring for comments at a Chicago expo about being “culturally queer” because of his admiration for the LGBTQ community. “The things in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from, and be inspired by are 100 percent queer,” he said then, later adding that “it was in queer communities that I’ve found people that I idolize, that I want to learn something from.”

“That had to be the slowest news day ever,” Criss says about his comments getting attention — especially because he’s talked many times before about similar things, including how much it meant to be part of Glee’s Blaine-Kurt relationship story.

Beyond Provincetown and Broadway, in August Criss’s voice will be heard in an unusual spot: on season 10 of Netflix’s Gabby’s Dollhouse, a children’s show, as the new Marty the Party Cat, magical host of the Party Room. It’s a voice role Criss says was planned long before his two-year-old daughter and seven-week-old son were born to him and his wife.

Marty is described by Netflix as a lovable, “exuberant goofball” who has a big heart and the ability to laugh at himself.

“He’s a fun guy,” Criss says. “I’m aspirationally Marty the Party Cat.”

[cozyaliensuperstar7]

Shelley Alexis Duvall (July 7, 1949 – July 11, 2024) was an American actress. Known for her collaborations with Robert Altman and for playing eccentric characters, she was the recipient of several accolades including nominations for a British Academy Film Award and two Primetime Emmys.

Born in Texas, Duvall was discovered by director Robert Altman, who was impressed with her upbeat presence and cast her in the black comedy film Brewster McCloud (1970). Despite her hesitance towards becoming an actress, she continued to work with him, appearing in McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Thieves Like Us (1974).

Duvall's breakthrough role was in Altman's Nashville (1975), and her leading role in his drama 3 Women (1977) won her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and a nomination for the British Academy Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She followed this with a supporting role in Woody Allen's satirical romantic comedy Annie Hall and hosted Saturday Night Live (both 1977). She became famous for her leading roles across the 1980s, such as Olive Oyl in Altman's live-action feature version of Popeye and Wendy Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's horror film The Shining (both 1980).

Through the 1980s, Duvall appeared in Terry Gilliam's fantasy film Time Bandits (1981), the short comedy horror film Frankenweenie (1984), and the comedy Roxanne (1987). She ventured into producing television programming aimed at children and youth in the latter half of the 1980s, creating and hosting the programs Faerie Tale Theatre (1982–1987) and Nightmare Classics (1989), and earning Primetime Emmy Award nominations for creating and hosting Tall Tales & Legends (1985–1987) and Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories (1992–1994).

Across the 1990s, Duvall acted sporadically, playing supporting roles in Steven Soderbergh's thriller The Underneath (1995) and Jane Campion's drama The Portrait of a Lady (1996). After Manna from Heaven (2002), she left acting until returning for her final role in the horror film The Forest Hills (2023). Her mental health in the interim was covered by various media, briefly turning her private life public.

In 1990, she played Little Bo Peep in Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme. In 1992, Think Entertainment joined the newly formed Universal Family Entertainment to create Duvall's fourth Showtime original series, Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories, which featured animated adaptations of children's storybooks with celebrity narrators and garnered her a second Emmy nomination. Duvall produced a fifth series for Showtime, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, before selling Think Entertainment in 1993 and retiring as a producer. She subsequently appeared as the vain, over-friendly, but harmless Countess Gemini — sister to the calculating Gilbert Osmond (John Malkovich) — in Jane Campion's 1996 adaptation of the Henry James novel The Portrait of a Lady. A year later, she played a beatific nun in the comedy film Changing Habits and a besotted, murderous, ostrich-farm owner in Guy Maddin's fourth feature Twilight of the Ice Nymphs. The same year, she played Chris Cooper's character's gullible wife who yearns for a better life in Horton Foote's made-for-television film, Alone.

Duvall continued to make film and television appearances throughout the late-1990s. In 1998, she played Mrs. Jackson in the comedy Home Fries and Gabby in the direct-to-video children's film Casper Meets Wendy. Near the end of the decade, she returned to the horror genre with a minor role in Tale of the Mummy (1998), co-starring Christopher Lee and Gerard Butler, and The 4th Floor (1999), co-starring Juliette Lewis. In the 2000s, Duvall accepted minor roles, including as the mother of Matthew Lawrence's character in the horror-comedy Boltneck (2000) and as Haylie Duff's aunt in the independent family film Dreams in the Attic, which was sold to the Disney Channel but was never released. Following a small role in the 2002 independent film Manna from Heaven, Duvall took an extended hiatus from acting and public life.

After a 20-year absence, it was announced in October 2022 that Duvall would be returning to acting in The Forest Hills, an independent horror-thriller film directed and written by Scott Goldberg and co-starring Edward Furlong, Chiko Mendez, and Dee Wallace. The film, about a man (Mendez) tormented by nightmarish visions after receiving head trauma in the Catskill Mountains, was given an official trailer the following month.

Duvall married artist Bernard Sampson in 1970, but their marriage disintegrated as Duvall's acting career accelerated, leading to their divorce in 1974. While she was shooting Annie Hall in New York in 1976, Duvall met singer-songwriter Paul Simon. The couple began a relationship and lived together for two years. Their relationship ended when Duvall introduced Simon to her friend, actress Carrie Fisher; Fisher took up with Simon.[53] In the late 1970s, Duvall dated musician Ringo Starr.

Duvall was in a relationship with musician and former Breakfast Club lead vocalist Dan Gilroy from 1989 through the remainder of her life. The pair began their relationship while co-starring in the Disney Channel show Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme, which was also produced by Duvall. She had no children.

On July 11, 2024, aged 75, Duvall died in her sleep at home in Blanco, Texas, due to complications of diabetes

[sweaterkittensahoy]

So, about a month ago, I read about Matthew Lawrence from Boy Meets World and several other things talking on the podcast he does with his brothers about being sexually harassed by a male director in a hotel room, and the director in question promised him a role in a Marvel movie if he took off his clothes and let the director take Polaroids.

Lawrence left the room and says his agency fired him for leaving.

In terms of how the industry treats sexual harassment victims, this is not surprising. Especially for male victims, who are expected to act like it doesn't exist for them at ALL.

Anyway, when I first read the quote, I found myself noodling on "Marvel movie" and "Oscar-winning director." Because Matthew didn't--and is not required--to name names, but also, it's such a small pool of options.

There are three Oscar winners in the MCU director pool: Chloe Zhao. Taika Watiti. Kenneth Branagh.

Chloe is off the list immediately because Matthew said it was a man.

But then Taika and Kenneth have never been accused of sexual harassment as far as a quick google search tells me.

The other thing is, Matthew Lawrence in the modern day isn't an actor that would get offered a Marvel contract by having a private meeting with a director. You have to have a certain profile, a certain amount of box office under your feet. He doesn't have that. Not a judgement on him, just a statement of fact. Chris Evans was regularly employed and liked by audiences when he got cast. Same as Mark Ruffalo. Same as Cobie Smulders and definitely the same for Samuel L. Jackson. Same for Paltrow. And even despite his many struggles, the same for RDJ. People showed up either for movies these people were in or--in Cobie's case--the tv show they were on.

Matthew Lawrence joining Boy Meets World was a BIG DEAL. He came on as Shawn's half-brother. Our favorite little meow meow now had a new nemesis/family member. This was top-tier shit.

It was 1997.

In August 1995, The Usual Suspects came out. It won 2 Oscars. It was directed by Bryan Singer. The first X-Men movie came out in 2000.

Bryan Singer didn't win an Oscar for Usual Suspects, but the movie he is heralded for directing DID win two Oscars. Bryan Singer didn't direct an MCU movie, but he directed a movie from Marvel comics.

And this is Matthew Lawrence in the timeframe that he was gaining attention for his role in Boy Meets World and the time Singer would have been casting for Cyclops:

Bryan Singer has a long, awful history of being a sexual harasser at BEST and a sexual abuser at worst. While his reputation catching up with him around the time he failed to direct Bohemian Rhapsody seems to have finally derailed his career, he was literally untouchable for decades as he preyed on very young men.

To call him an open secret doesn't do it justice, okay.

I can't stress enough: NAMING BRYAN SINGER IS BASED ON ME KNOWING ENOUGH SHIT TO DRAW A LINE. MATTHEW LAWRENCE HAS NOT NAMED HIS HARASSER AND SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO DO SO. YOU WANNA HAVE THOUGHTS ON THIS TAKE, IT'S MY TAKE. LEAVE MATTHEW OUT OF IT.

[justforbooks]

In the late 1970s, Bo Goldman was researching a script about Melvin Dummar, the unassuming Utah factory worker, gas station owner and former “Milkman of the Month” who was named as a $156m beneficiary in a will supposedly written by Howard Hughes but later successfully contested in court. Slowly, a realisation dawned on the screenwriter: “This man is a failure just like I am.”

It seemed an unusual conclusion to reach. After all, Goldman had written the book and lyrics for a Broadway musical, First Impressions, based on Pride and Prejudice, before he was 30, and won his first best screenplay Oscar (shared with Lawrence Hauben) for adapting One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Ken Kesey’s novel set in a psychiatric institution, by the time he was 45.

A second Oscar later came his way for Melvin and Howard (1980), his humane and warmly funny script about Dummar, lovingly directed by Jonathan Demme.

But Goldman, who has died aged 90, was haunted at the time by his inability to sell one of his earliest scripts, Shoot the Moon, or to follow up that 1959 Broadway debut, and by the years he spent in poverty and debt, struggling to provide for his wife and their six children. “I can’t tell you what it does to a man,” he said in 1982. “You feel awful. I respected my wife so much, but felt lousy about myself.”

Hollywood was impressed by Shoot the Moon, the story of a brutal marital break-up that he wrote in the early 1970s, but no one wanted to make it. The writing was strong enough to earn him an $8,000 commission from the director Miloš Forman to re-write Hauben’s script for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. One of Goldman’s first suggestions – that the iconoclastic patient McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson, should kiss his admitting officers at the hospital – helped win him the job.

He also scripted the Bette Midler vehicle The Rose (1979), inspired by the life of Janis Joplin, but turned down offers to write Kramer vs Kramer and Ordinary People, both future best picture Oscar winners, because the terrain felt too similar to his unproduced script, which he still hoped would be filmed eventually.

It finally was. The British filmmaker Alan Parker directed Shoot the Moon in 1982, coaxing powerful work from Albert Finney and Diane Keaton as the warring couple, and touchingly natural performances from the four children cast as their daughters.

The critical response was positive. Even Pauline Kael, no fan of Parker’s, said she was “a little afraid to say how good I think [the film] is” and praised the script’s “theatrical richness.” Goldman was disappointed nevertheless by its box-office failure.

After his third Oscar nomination, for Scent of a Woman (1992), he said: “I’m always surprised when anything good happens to me.” That film starred Al Pacino as a blind, cantankerous ex-army officer who cuts loose when he is assigned a prep-school student (Chris O’Donnell) as his companion for Thanksgiving weekend.

Goldman based Pacino’s character on a combination of his father, one of his brothers and a sergeant under whom he had served. Pacino won an Oscar; on that occasion, the writer did not.

He was born Robert Spencer Goldman in New York City. It was at Princeton that he changed his name to “Bo”; the college newspaper, The Daily Princetonian, misprinted his byline, and it stuck.

His mother was Lillian Levy, a millinery model, his father, Julian Goodman, a sometime Broadway producer and the owner of a chain of more than 70 department stores, which went into receivership during the Depression shortly before Bo was born. That dramatic fall informed and even overshadowed the rest of Bo’s life, with its occasionally incongruous juxtapositions. He grew up, for instance, in a spacious, rent-controlled Park Avenue apartment yet the family was usually penniless. His father would leaf through scrapbooks from his glory days, even making annual visits to the stables in Chantilly where he kept his prize-winning race-horses.

Though this precarious economic situation was known to Bo throughout his youth, it was not until much later that he discovered his father had another estranged family, and that his parents had never married.

He was educated at the Dalton school and Phillips Exeter academy prior to Princeton. There he wrote lyrics for the college’s Triangle Show and developed an enthusiasm for writing for the stage. He was in the US army for several years, then made inroads into the television industry, starting in the CBS postroom before progressing to script editing and producing on shows such as Playhouse 90.

Though First Impressions, which starred Farley Granger, was poorly received, he devoted most of the 1960s to writing a civil war musical, Hurrah Boys, Hurrah, which was never staged. He took odds and ends of TV work, but was plagued by thoughts of his father’s ignominies, and bruised by his own. “The only thing which kept me going was my wife and the kids who never cared about my success or lack of it,” he said. “They only cared because it was causing me pain.”

Around the time Shoot the Moon was released, his wife, Mab (nee Ashforth), whom he had met at Princeton and married in 1954, and who supported the family financially through endeavours such as her fish and bread shop, Loaves and Fishes, reflected on the disparity between the bad times and the good: “People were so contemptuous of us … it’s remarkable how success has transformed us into acceptable people.”

Goldman became a sought-after script doctor, working uncredited on Forman’s Ragtime (1981), Demme’s Swing Shift, the coming-of-age comedy The Flamingo Kid (both 1984), Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy (1990) and the Arthurian adventure First Knight (1995).

Credited screenplays include Little Nikita (1988), an espionage thriller with River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier, and Meet Joe Black (1998), starring Brad Pitt as the pretty personification of death. Goldman also shared a story credit with Beatty on the period comedy-drama Rules Don’t Apply (2016). This was another Howard Hughes-related project, with Beatty playing the reclusive billionaire.

Though Goldman came close several times, his enduring dream of directing was never realised. “I think of myself as a filmmaker,” he said. “I’m a writer only because that is what they pay me to do.”

Mab died in 2017. He is survived by five of his children, Mia, Amy, Diana, Serena and Justin. A sixth child, Jesse, died in 1981.

🔔 Bo (Robert Spencer) Goldman, screenwriter, born 10 September 1932; died 25 July 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?