After the Oscar winning success of Juno, 2011 gave us the reunited creative force of screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman, but in a different mode that that heartwarming crowdpleaser. Young Adult cast Charlize Theron, an author and former prom queen who returns to her hometown to win back her high school boyfriend, played by Patrick Wilson. After Reitman’s Up in the Air peaked early in its Oscar season, this film skipped the festival route and performed modestly, earning an immediate reputation as a mean and caustic movie. With brilliant supporting work from Patton Oswalt, Collette Wolfe, and Elizabeth Reaser, the film has earned ardent fans since, despite missing out on Oscar.
This episode, we discuss the film’s cutting observational humor and the thorny wit that makes Mavis Gary such a memorable character and performance by Theron. We also discuss the Best Actress and Original Screenplay field of 2011, the film’s use of Teenage Fanclub’s “The Concept,” and long-suffering Pomeranian, Dulce.
Topics also include KenTacoHuts, gay people liking mean women, and hating the 2011 Oscar lineup.
2000 Tony Awards - Toni Collette, Mandy Patinkin, Eartha Kitt and Company perform a medley (Queenie Was a Blonde / Wild Party / Welcome to My Party / When It Ends / Wild) from the musical The Wild Party
Happy Holidays for more than one regency couple can be read about and enjoyed at any time of year! I have not completed all the stories yet, but plan to do so and update my review over time.
I started Tracy Sumner’s THE DARING DEBUTANTE because I have read and am invested in The Duchess Society series that precludes this charming story. Nigel Streeter and Arabella Macauley have known each other since childhood. Arabella is a bit like her mother in that she knows what she wants, is willing to go after it, and she wants Nigel. Fun story that made me smile
Bree Wolf’s story came next. In ONCE UPON A NOT ALL INNOCENT KISS Charles Beaumont, Viscount Hawthorne is back in England with his family attending a party and Beatrice Hartley catches his eye. He sees her sadness and wants to provide succor and is persistent as he feels he fell in love immediately. Beatrice has a big secret and delicate issue to deal with but will Charles be the one to help her and perhaps also claim her heart.
The final novella read is by Collette Cameron and titled A YULETIDE TOSS OF THE DICE. Aubrielle Penford considers herself on the shelf, a bit awkward, and kept from pursuing her dreams due to being a woman. Jackson Matherfieild, a friend of her brother’s, has been in her life for years but more as a pain in the patoot than anything else…until one day…things begin to change. This was a great story that had me wanting to see how the two would find their way to a happy ending. I also want to know about the side story of Shelby Tellinger and Roxina Danforth. I wonder if their story will show up in the series this author is starting in 2024.
I enjoyed the stories read and look forward to reading the remaining five stories in the near future.
Thank you to Wolf Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.
4-5 Stars
BLURB
Can you hear the Christmas Bell(es)?
It's that time of a year..
Step back in time to the enchanting world of Regency-era romance this holiday season. In “Christmas Belles," join eight extraordinary couples as they navigate the glittering ballrooms of London and the snow-kissed landscapes of the countryside, where love blooms amidst mistletoe and the promise of a yuletide happily ever after.
From stolen glances beneath twinkling chandeliers to secret rendezvous by the roaring hearth, these timeless tales of passion and desire will warm your heart and leave you longing for your own Regency romance. Surrender to the magic of the season and discover love that transcends time in this captivating anthology.
Celebrate this Christmas season with 8 brand new holiday Regency romances by some of your favorite USA Today and bestselling authors: Bree Wolf, Tracy Sumner, Collette Cameron, Charlie Lane, Jennifer Monroe, Meredith Bond, Shannon Gilmore, and Rebecca Paula.
1. The Draconic (Modern AU! Aegon Targaryen x Y/N)
2. Kiss, Marry, Kill? (Tom Glynn-Carney x Y/N)
3. Me and the Devil (Freddie Fox x Y/N)
4. Unscripted (Fabien Frankel x Y/N)
5. Out Of It (Ewan Mitchell x Y/N)
6. Big Bad Wolf (Cregan Stark x Y/N)
7. Birds of a Feather (Ewan Mitchell x Y/N)
8. Kismet (Modern AU! Jace Velaryon x Y/N)
9. Last Friday Night (Modern AU! Cregan Stark x Y/N)
10. Scaly Tales (Modern AU! Aemond Targaryen x Y/N)
11. Campaign Trail (Modern AU! Gwayne Hightower x Y/N)
I can write for these characters:
- Aegon II Targaryen
- Aemond Targaryen
- Jacaerys Velaryon
- Cregan Stark
- Gwayne Hightower
Got any ideas or requests? Send them my way—I'd love to hear what you're into!
Oh, and I also write for the actors themselves: Tom Glynn-Carney, Ewan Mitchell, Harry Collett, Freddie Fox, Tom Taylor, and Fabien Frankel. So feel free to drop those requests too😉
I have a sneaking suspicion that they're not going to kill off [redacted] and instead sacrifice another character.
I think Aegon III dies instead of Jace in the Battle of the Gullet. For some reason, they've aged Aegon III and Viserys II down, so Stormcloud isn't big enough to rescue Aegon III. Plus, as a showrunner, it's just better to kill off younger characters so you won't have to deal with the complications of bringing in child actors but still get the emotional punch of having a character lose a child.
On the one hand, I do like looking at Harry Collett and I would like to keep looking at him. On the other hand, Jace surviving and continuing to be part of the Dance just interferes with too many plot points. Will he be the one who watches his mother be devoured? Aegon keeping Jace alive as hostage makes less sense than keeping a child alive (but they could still make it work). What's the Hour of the Wolf going to look like if Jace and Cregan reunite in King's Landing? Is Jace gonna be the Dragonbane? How's he gonna solve the civil war and marry Jaehaera then when he's so much older than her and Baela is still alive? If he does become king with Baela as queen, then that just a creates a whole new branching timeline in general because it creates a universe where one faction decidedly won the civil war.
I mean, I'm interested in seeing it because, as I've said, I love looking at Harry Collett serve face, but...it's gonna take good writing chops that I'm not entirely confident HotD can deliver on.
-They start with the Stark theme, that theme is my fav by a mile and great character introduction for Cregan.
- So...they really want me to feel bad for the scumbag that's Aegon? I feel bad for Haelena and her kids who were born in this evil ass family
The worst of all is Otto, this bastard destroys his daughter's life over his own greed. And because of that, Alicent raised her children with nothing but anger, resentment and envy.
And there's Viserys, the weak ass king who let himself be played by Otto.
-Emma D'arcy...damn they is amazing. I could feel Rhaenyra's pain in every scene of hers. Harry Collett too, him comin back from his mission and first telling his mom, the queen, he was successful and in the middle of the speech starting to break up 😭
I hate the greens so much man.
-I know they want to make Daemon sound more like a villain, an evil guy and all, and I know he is not a good guy which is fine but i still hate they made him a domestic abuser. Anyway, blood and cheese was brutal? Yes but if Aemond wasn't such a cowardly bitch, none of that wouldn't happen
I already said I hate the greens? Lmao
And it wasn't worse than the Red Wedding
Being serious now, the whole sequence was so well done, damn. The acting, the tension, was palpable.
And poor Haelena , if losing her son wasn't bad and traumatizing enough, she caught her mom and Incel Cole having sex.
-Cant wait for the winter wolfs to kill Incel Cole. Bruh took one "no" and made his life porpoise to destroy Rhaenyra's life
- Overall it was a good episode. We could see how Greens are a mess, full of distrust and resentment amongst each other and the Black's pain (that can and it turns into revenge). It also sets the tone for the season that seems to be full of politics and action, which is great. And I already know they will try to make the audience sympathize with the Greens since we didn't have Aegon's party celebrating Luke's death and it feels like they will treat Aegon as if he was Joffrey Baratheon, just a spoiled asshole who doesn't know what to do and let people rule for him, which it sucks.
Tom Taylor is taking his role as Ned Stark's ancestor quite seriously.
Tom Taylor feels the weight of what it means to play Cregan Stark on House of the Dragon season 2, both in a proverbial sense and a rather literal one.
"It's heavy," the actor, 22, from The Dark Tower and The Last Kingdom tells Entertainment Weekly of the leather costume he wears to portray the current Lord of Winterfell in the timeline of the Game of Thrones prequel. "And it was hot. It was maybe 25, 30 degrees [celsius] in England, and it was boiling. But I was blown away. I felt cool. I did feel like a bit of a gangster, to be honest."
Taylor's Cregan (pronounced "kray-gan"), known as the Wolf of the North in his youth, arrives on House of the Dragon in the season 2 premiere, which airs on HBO and streams on Max Sunday, June 16. In the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) sends her son, Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), to treat with Cregan at Winterfell and secure the support of the North for their side.
Embodying an ancestor of Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) from HBO's Game of Thrones, Taylor confirms he looked to these figures from the original series for inspiration. "I did use Sean Bean a lot," he says. "For some reason, I felt like I needed to because he's Sean Bean's great, great, great, great, great-granddad. I wanted him to have the same presence because the voice tells so much. When they speak, you can hear the weight on all their shoulders."
So apparently Cregan is pronounced ˈkreɪ ɡən – using the IPA.