SL 732

~ Laura

I did a lot of reading at the beach. We’re back now and I’m parked in front of my computer. I’ll be here for the next two days finishing draft one of a long article. Let me prep my brain for writing with a quick link-fest blog post:

How businesses should accommodate parents of children with special needs.

Check out the second more expensive house for sale in New Jersey right now.

They’re turning the Julia Quinn Bridgerton series into a Netflix show. I discovered those books about six years ago on the $1 shelf at the bookstore, while on vacation at the Jersey shore.

I’m hearing lots of pushback on the latest Ronan Farrow article on Les Moonves.

I’ve got a blog post in my back pocket about the Gwyneth Paltrow article. Next week… It’s a good article, btw. Worth reading just for admiring a good profile.

Published by Laura

14 thoughts on “SL 732”

  1. What pushback are you hearing on the Les Moonves article?

    “They” are not making the Bridgertons into a Netflix series. SHONDA is. I have very high hopes.

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  2. Moonves, like Weinstein, seems to be an appalling asshole, and one on whom the rules have changed. Now, these guys were getting huge pay checks because they were doing a good job getting interesting and desired entertainment in front of people. As was Roman Polanski. Woody Allen, who can know? Crazed and furious woman scorned, thirty years ago, division among her children about what happened. Contemporary cops investigated and brought no charges.
    Guys can be brought down with an accusation. Garrison Keillor – seems from what I read more likely than not to have been at least a jerk. Bill Clinton skated for years because he was useful to the correct causes – though one of the many things which hurt Hillary’s candidacy was Trump’s ability to bring Broaddrick, Jones, Willey to the debate, and now no one wants him to come campaign for them.
    I am personally sorry to lose the sensibility and ability to recognize talent which got me the movie, “King’s Speech”. And I don’t doubt that a large number of Weinstein’s conquests were [as he claims seeking exculpation] of willing and eager casting couch-ers, along with his viler and rapey-er conquests.
    Where am I going with this? I think the overall goal ought to be that we change men’s behavior going forward. “when Mark Antony, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Gaius Octavian (the man who would go on to become Caesar Augustus, first emperor of Rome) revived Sulla’s proscriptions after the formation of the second triumvirate, they also brought back the classic old Rostra decorations [heads on pikes]. Probably their most famous victim was Marcus Tullius Cicero, the famous advocate and orator, who had not only his head but also his hand displayed in this way, ostensibly because it had written the Philippics, a series of scathing polemics against Mark Antony.” Here is London Bridge with heads on pikes prominently displayed at the entrance, about 4:30: http://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/interiors-images/9781250033888.IN03.jpg Well, that gets a man’s attention!
    Now, I think it was kind of a regrettable waste to lose Cicero, and that it is a regrettable waste to lose Weinstein. Moonves – meh. But others like him, so okay. I would sort of prefer to see public humiliation and the company hiring minders, no alone meetings with starlets and all hiring decisions made by a committee of three. The Mike Pence strategy, imposed on someone who is plausibly claimed to be a bad actor.

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  3. “I am personally sorry to lose the sensibility and ability to recognize talent which got me the movie, “King’s Speech”.

    False premise that only Weinstein would have recognized quality of and been able to distribute King’s Speech.

    Also, really? King’s Speech is, to you, the epitome of Weinstein’s producer skills?

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  4. It was space opera reading during the bike tour this year: Axis by Robert Charles Wilson and The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, plus the first half of Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee. The odd book out was Pacific Fire by Greg van Eekhout.

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  5. I’m curious too, about what pushback anyone might hear on the Moonves article. It didn’t seem to come up this past weekend among our social circle. My own reaction was that some of the women had more legitimate complaints than others, but some of them were plenty legitimate and should get him fired unless they are total fabrications.

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    1. “…though THR notes that Moonves will remain active at the company while the proceedings are underway.

      “All allegations of personal misconduct are to be taken seriously,” CBS told The New Yorker. “The Independent Directors of CBS have committed to investigating claims that violate the Company’s clear policies in that regard. Upon the conclusion of that investigation, which involves recently reported allegations that go back several decades, the Board will promptly review the findings and take appropriate action.””

      This guy is the general in their war against Shari Redstone, AND their most proven programming talent. It’s kind of like the circling of wagons around Bill Clinton, back when he was useful and before he had become an embarrassment. Pass the popcorn!

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  6. I’ve wondered who’s minding the store, during this whole #metoo sea change.

    I also wonder who’s investing in Hollywood, given the legendary ability of Hollywood accountants to make any profit disappear. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/how-hollywood-accounting-can-make-a-450-million-movie-unprofitable/245134/

    The old system worked as long as the victims (i.e., the recipients of unwanted advances) kept quiet. It does not work when the victims do not keep quiet. Weinstein, Moonves and others were powerful men who could make or break careers at will.

    I wonder about the people who would be able to make the change stick–the legions of assistants, witnesses and bystanders who kept quiet, and/or made victims keep quiet. Will they change their behavior? All the people who made the appointments, cleaned up the messes, and were bound by NDAs?

    NDAs should not be enforceable for witnesses to criminal acts.

    I would limit the number of corporate boards any one person could serve on at the same time. Two? One? Again, I wonder who’s been minding the store. It’s nice to have lots of impressive names associated with an institution, but if you had real supervision, these sorts of “open secrets” wouldn’t be happening.

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  7. Was it just me or what anybody else expecting Manafort’s $15,000 ostrich jacket to involve feathers?

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  8. In from Twitter: new data shows 75% of college faculty “fired, resigned or denied promotion” due to political speech in 2017 were politically left. Note NYT coverage of campus free speech during roughly the same time period focused on threats to conservative speech 7 to 1

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