Recently, I was listening to an old hollywood musicals cd in the car (I find classic film songs incredibly soothing in times of stress) and Gigicame on and I nearly went off the road. There’s a lesson here, folks: don’t swoon and drive. See, the thing is, I’d not - all those years ago when I got that particular album - fallen prey to the charms of Louis Jourdan. I know, I know, it’s odd, right? He’s beautiful, swoony, has the sexiest accent, is a great actor, etc etc etc but sometimes you can go along knowing a person for ages and then suddenly BAM! they are super hot and you don’t know how you didn’t see it before. (This has happened to me a lot, you think I’d be used to it by now.)
So. Louis. Wow. He’s a swoonster alright. What magical thing is it about the french accent that makes it irresistable? (I generalise, but you know….guh). He is also one of those special people who clearlyhad a portrait in the attic, I mean he’s nearly sixty in the Columbo ep he’s in (and is great in). Mind boggling. But he’s not just a pretty (very pretty) face and swoony voice. He’s a fine, fine actor, and he turns his hand well to comedy, drama, pathos, lighthearted romance, stoical angst, and of course, singing. There’s a wonderful truthfulness to him - as well as playing the stereotypically worldy continental with ease he has a naive honesty that is incredibly charming. He can play villains, of course (that’s what continentals do in american/british films, obvs) but he is adept at sincerity too. Really, he is very lovely.
Favourite Role: Dr Nicholas Agi in The Swan [1956] which is a gem of a film, wonderfully written and cast (Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Jessie Royce Landis, etc etc). It’s funny and sad and rather intelligent, and it’s the film that made me fall in love with Louis.
Another Good Place to Start: Gigi[1958], because he’s soooo swoony and charming, and once you get past the squickiness of Thank Heaven for Little Girls (I swear it took me years to watch this film) and dive into the opulent Vincente Minnelli/Cecil Beaton world of the film it’s a delight. Leslie Caron is adorable as ever, and it’s glossier and less seedy than its origins, but that’s okay. Also The VIPs (1963) which is one of those looks-good-on-paper films that actually is: a sixties outing for Rattigan and Asquith, with some of my very faves in (Richard Burton, Orson Welles, Margaret Rutherford, Maggie Smith). Liz Taylor is choosing between Louis and Burton, so you get all the great voices as well as romantic angst, and comedy Orson, and just people being damn good at their acting.
fundamentally i am a petty and mean-spirited person who is also a chill, laidback guy. basically everything is cool with me except for the fact i am irritable and hold grudges. so i’m kind of a weird standoffish dude but yeah i think i’m pretty approachable and friendly
Ok but I would love to hear more stories about the beginning of Garrett and Andrews friendship. That story of Garrett just going up to Andrew randomly and assuring him about Los Angles was so friggen SWEET. I feel like they’re friendship early on was just Garrett going up to Andrew and being helpful and just trying to make him as comfortable as he can and Andrew was so grateful that he knew he had to be best friends with him. I JUST LOVE THINKING ABOUT 2016 THEM OK
(side note; garrett is that friend i really wish i had but i don’t so instead i just try to be the garrett for people)
“Opinions on abortion have been remarkably resistant to change for the past 50 years. The antiabortion movement’s attempt to convince the public that abortion is murder was a failure, and that likely won’t change in the post-Roe world. Conservatives know that perfectly well. But the whole point of building the apparatus of minority rule was for moments like this. You don’t have to twist the system in knots and eliminate democratic accountability to do popular things. You do it to stop popular things you don’t like, enable yourself to do things the public doesn’t want, and hold on to power no matter what. every state, so 40 million Americans in California, most of them Democrats, get the same representation as 580,000 Americans in Wyoming, most of them Republicans. That is then levered into the electoral college, which is why the past two Republican presidents took office despite having lost the popular vote. That (plus unprecedented ruthlessness in refusing to allow a Democratic president to fill an open seat) gets you a conservative Supreme Court supermajority — appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote, confirmed by GOP senators who represent a national minority — enacting a conservative legal revolution the public never asked for.”
I wish all Republicans a very pleasant die in a fire.
I wish a Democrats a very pleasant grow a motherfucking spine. I wish white women a very pleasant wake the fuck up. I wish conservatives of color a not-so-pleasant die in a fire. I wish…
I wish Strip Search Sammy Alito a highly unpleasant somebody’s right getting deeply rooted in his history. (This might hurt a little, but it’s something you’ll get used to. Relax, and fade away…)
