Q&A: The Force is With Reader Questions

by Nathaniel R

I got a little verbosely carried away whilst answering reader questions so you get two Q & A columns from your last batch of questions. Thanks for playing. This week I asked for a few Star Wars Questions but that's just three of the six questions answered here. Ready, let's go! 

TROY: Within the past year Cynthia Erivo has won a Tony, Grammy, and Daytime Emmy for her work in the recent Broadway revival of The Color Purple, making her only one step away from completing the EGOT. Which type of project do you think would giver her her best chance at winning an Oscar?

NATHANIEL: I hate to get nitpicky but technically should Daytime Emmys even count with the EGOT? If you count any old Emmy as towards the EGOT than about 100,000 people you've never heard of who have local Emmies (seriously they give those statues out like candy) are 1/4th of the way to that showbiz goal. It's only Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Lopez, and their fans that would argue that Daytime Emmys count. No shade!

Anyway my dream for Erivo is that they give her either the film version of The Color Purple musical, though I fear they'd just hand it to a bigger less worthy star (like, oh, Jennifer Hudson, who she and Danielle Brooks, the other Tony nominee from that show, both ran circles around onstage) or a film version of Caroline or Change (if they won't rehire the incredible Tonya Pinkins) as those two roles are powerhouse vehicles for a black woman with giant pipes. But any musical role would be dreamy. That voice!

 PEDRO: What is your favorite Star Wars character? And your favorite Star Wars actor?

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Drag Race S9E7 - 9021Ho No She Better Do

by Chris Feil

[a large cardboard giftbox rolls in and after a few confusing seconds, Chris emerges] I’m back, bitches!

Forgive my Shangela moment, I’m just that excited to be back on the Drag Race beat after Nathaniel kindly took over in my absence for last week’s fantastic Snatch Game. But while that episode felt like a real return to form, this episode was the show at its peak, serving full talent, drama, and emotion the way its best episodes do. The 90210 challenge and big hair runway concept were relatively unfussy, proving that RuPaul’s Drag Race excels by keeping its focus on the queens...

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Tweetweek: Pfans, Met Gala Madness, and Handmaid's Dystopia

More tweets after the jump including the healing power of Michelle Pfeiffer, the Met Gala, Face/Off and The Handmaid's Tale...

Never forget the exact moment Nicole Kidman decided — at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party — she was DONE with Tom Cruise's bullshit pic.twitter.com/TtX9s5aOto

— Russell (@RussellFalcon) May 2, 2017

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Beauty Break: A National Treasure in National Parks

Brad Pitt recently opened up to GQ in a lengthy interview about divorce, drinking, therapy, and his new film War Machine. Interviews like this, which get so personal, are always a a bit of a strange experience if you love movie stars. Should you voraciously read everything about your favorite stars or let the work speak for itself and give their mystique some space to work? 

I've never sold that question for myself so I read lengthy profiles/interviews quite erratically.

But one thing that offers pleasure without any such confusion is looking at photos of beautiful stars. So here are some gorgeous pictures of National Treasure Brad Pitt in three of our National Parks, along with a few key quotes from the interviews. Did you know what Brad's favorite among his own films is? It's not what I expected.

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Links: Born Sexy Yesterday, Acting as Self-Actualization, and More...

Pajiba gird your loins - Dan Stevens is in everything
Tracking Board Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, and Candice Bergen to co-star in a comedy about a book club reading 50 Shades of Grey? This could be awesome or terrible...or both. Whichever way it turns out, we're there!
Coming Soon Focus has acquired the new Jason Reitman / Charlize Theron collaboration Tully but we'll have to remove it from the Oscar charts. It's not coming until Spring 2018 now

AV Club NBC greenlights its first two series of the new year, one of them that used to be called Drama High (and sounds like it has potential) is now called Rise. Why does Hollywood love to go from specific to generic titles? Are their studies that show that generic titles do better or is it fear of specificity?
/Film the first cast photo of Marvel's The Inhumans has been released and boy is it underwhelming. I've always loved Medusa but you really shouldn't be able to tell that it's such an obvious and stiff looking wig since the character is so tied up in her hair! I mean, couldn't they have gotten RuPaul's wig designers to do it if they wanted something both outlandish and real looking?

Tony Season
Theater Mania hoping to dominate the original play Tonys next year, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has announced an opening for the tail end of eligibility in 2018
Playbill did you know that Audrey Hepburn won her Tony Award the same WEEK as her Oscar? Isn't that crazy? She won the Oscar for Roman Holiday on March 25th, 1954 and then the Tony for Ondine on March 28th!
Deadline Amélie, a New Musical, based on the Oscar nominated French classic, is the first casualty of the Tony nominations, announcing its Broadway closing date for May 21st after a short run and zero nominations.
Broadway World Despite a disappointing Tony showing (2 nominations) Anastasia, based on the 90s animated movie musical, announces a world tour. It helps to have that known "brand" going in. (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was savaged by critics and received zero Tony nominations, is still doing well and the box office and is already working on the tour)
THR Tony nominee anecdotes including Laurie Metcalf on the proposed Roseanna revival and Sally Field discussing the release she felt when she found her calling as a young girl:

It isn't something that I just decided one day or backed into it one day. I found a stage when I was 12 when I was lucky enough to be in a school that still had a theater arts department. And something inside of me changed, woke up, I could hear my own voice for the first time when I was onstage, and then when I would get offstage I had to be all the things that little girls in the '50s had to be, and all of that went back in the box. But when I got onstage I could be all the things I wasn't allowed to be anywhere else, so I could hear my own self.

Love ya Sally!

Exit Video
Got 18 minutes? That might seem like a lot but this video essay really is compelling. It names a sci-fi fantasy trope that I haven't personally seen named before but which is as familiar as they come. He calls it "Born Sexy Yesterday" and it's all about the way genre fiction infantilizes women so that men are their natural superior.

At the very least it will make you rethink mermaid and sexy android movies, The Fifth Element and Splash a little bit.