My first book in five years is out now, in case anyone doesn’t know! Surly Roy Kent-ish ex-footballer hero. Curvy sunshiney ghostwriter heroine. Fake dating! Only one bed, only one car, only one kitchen counter! Get it now, from the links below!
Every time I watch The Mummy I think the same thing: Brendan Fraser was really just the whole package. Not only shockingly handsome, tall, well built and somehow not bland at the same time, but also full of charisma, natural and able to both seem vulnerable and throw a punch.
Look man. That Ted Bundy trailer? With him seeming like a sexy anti-hero? Almost a loveable rogue? They’ve done that on purpose. It’s on purpose, just like with You. They want to normalise/romanticise men doing terrible things, and they know that many women will buy into it too.
‼️attention‼️
we need your help to report an article that directly attacks Nicola Coughlan.
the idea is to ask shonda and nic's agent to take action about this.
we cannot allow people to continue talking in 2024 about the appearances of others or despising them.
I keep saying this but the fact that Colin isn’t more overtly rugged and take charge, that he’s softer and kinder and essentially has the same friends to desperately wanting more journey that Pen has, is the actual reason he gives people the “ick”.
the bad boy archetype is so common that people can't imagine some find a down bad and desperate man sexier. colin bridgerton was on his knees, tears in his eyes, begging for a chance. that to me is the sexiest thing a man can do.
He’s actually a really good actor. Never wooden. Smooth as a marble slab. And even more astonishing: not one scandal or gross blunder to his name. Seems like a decent person, and has done for *thirty years*.
People yammer a lot about who is the new Harrison Ford, why is there no new Ford, who could play Indiana. But it was him. It was Brendan. He was right there.
You start the film and think wow this dude is really funny and sardonic, really great comic timing. Plus so handsome. And then he starts the physical stuff and you’re like wow, he also has the nerve to be amazing at that? He really smacks people convincingly.
As dreary film snobs are starting to turn up I should probably add just for them: lol I don’t care about your tired old concepts of what constitutes quality I’m just gonna block you, godspeed with whatever you think you’re doing
Please tell me they didn’t try it again. THIRD attempt at a phoney picture? Ok I’m gonna need journalists to start leaking what’s actually happened here now.
Oh god looooooovvvveeedd All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. It gave me that same gleeful, heart bursting feeling Love, Simon did. Just so fun and full of eighties teen movie warmth and trope-ness.
Only without the garbage.
It’s all guillotine this and guillotine that until billionaires bizarrely guillotine themselves via a tin can they voluntarily climbed inside and plunged to the bottom of the ocean, then weirdly it’s have some sympathy.
Think about it. He essentially has a journey more typically reserved for women onscreen. He writes to her and she doesn’t write back, and he openly admits that hurt him and he missed her. He slowly starts to realise he’s in love with his best friend. He offers to help her.
He likely murdered more than a hundred women. Then denied it. Blamed everyone and everything he could for it. Used promises of revealing more victims to stay his execution. He was the worst man to ever exist. And they’re trying to make him sexy.
He’s very kind and gentle and encouraging towards her. He “fixes” her. *She* asks for a kiss from *him*. HE is the one flummoxed by it. He is the one who then dreams about it, in a sexy, lushly romantic, idealised way. And then he begs her to consider him.
And you know what? He wasn’t handsome. Not really. If he was anywhere close to a Zac Efron, people would have remembered him more. Part of why he got away with it so long is because he was *invisible*.
He does not for one second believe she feels the same way. He only hopes. When she touches him, he comes completely undone. And then when he does something sexual to her, it’s entirely to please her.
Hey I have masters in english literature, so I guess I have the right to tell you all that this is nonsense garbage that only someone with worms for brains would believe
The idea of his handsomeness is constantly exaggerated, when really he was just sly and charming. He could talk people into things, including into believing he was a sexy guy who was just being wronged.
I continue to maintain that What We Do In The Shadows is the most accurate depiction of what vampires would actually be like. You’d never actually get some five hundred year old vampire who’s a master seducer.
You’d get Nandor.
So here it is. My first ever one of these. Five years of doubting I was worth it. Twelve years of working hard but never getting close. Thirty plus years of dreaming about it. I was sure it would never be me, but somehow it is. The birthday of my life!
So lemme get this straight, the only thing that happened here is she has cancer. But they repeatedly put out phoney pictures, and then *had her take the blame for one of them*. And at no point could she tweet, or say anything, even just I’m doing well thanks.
Please.
Not that anyone needed it, but her agent and illumicrate dropping her is confirmation that she did it. Review bombed, inflated her own book, pretended to be a victim of it, and then tried to make up a person to blame it on.
And now they’ve made a film about him, where he’s a sexy guy who gets to tell you repeatedly how wronged he is while the air of him being wronged hangs over everything.
Awesome. Good job, humanity.
Yeah I think the people who routinely complain about things like already de-stoned avocados are gonna be pretty shocked to learn that steaks don’t start out as neat flat round shapes that you can fry immediately.
The whole Peloton/Rolex thing really just underlines how little people grasp what is working/middle class and what is rich now.
Rich people don’t have Pelotons/Rolexes. They have personal trainers. They go golfing at exclusive clubs. They have watches we have never heard of.
Here’s the thing about all the “HEA as a genre convention must be challenged” people: it comes from the thing a huge chunk of us are taught from birth, by most media and the response to it:
That work is only good if it’s miserable somehow.
Oh also - I see quite a few people suggesting that Colin only starts to realise his feelings after she asks for a kiss. But that’s not true. He clearly starts to realise while away, when she doesn’t write back and he’s busy thinking what I really want is an emotional connection.
Next time you wanna come out with those “women don’t crave casual sex like men” kind of hot takes, just ask yourselves if men would be so eager for casual sex if they only had a 16% chance of orgasm.
Man, it sure is a relief to see how many people understand making a sexy trailer about that loveable rogue Ted Bundy was a terrible, terrible move. A million high fives to you all! If I don’t respond it’s not because I don’t care, it’s because this convo is now muted!
It’s really well done by the show. They went to great pains to subtly and not so subtly suggest that he doesn’t arrive at these feelings out of pity or anything like that, he arrives at them out of his own desperate need and his own deep valuing of Pen specifically.
I can’t believe how many people think buying a bunch of Le Creuset stuff is the Worst Consumerist Over Consumption Crime ever.
It’s lifetime guaranteed. You will never have to replace anything due to wear and tear.
That’s the reason why you have Pen read his journal and see he’s written that. To show that he’s already started to think he wants something more at the same time as he’s thinking wow I really miss Pen. He just hadn’t quite accepted it.
I’m not interested in any takes that suggest Sandra Bullock is too old for a fortysomething love interest. And by not interested I mean leave before I punt you into the sun.
In a way it shouldn’t be surprising that a lot of people are idealising managing a man’s home while he goes off and does manly business, complete with the expectation that you not so much as look at another man, in an era of rising trad wife propaganda.
I NEED THESE PEOPLE TO NEVER WATCH BRIDGERTON AGAIN. maturing is realizing penelope deserves to be in a LOVING marriage with someone who's going to put HER first before anything else. how does this have 78k likes????
‘ANYONE BUT YOU’ starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell rises to
#1
at the domestic box office on its 18th day of release.
The film has made $45M at the domestic box office so far.
I wish people understood that you’re vastly more likely to get corona because of some rich white dude banker who jets off for holidays and business, or a football game, or a pharmacist, or on a cruise, than you are from a Chinese takeaway.
@DelDryden
Truly! The tongue in cheek of that film, a delight. Feel like he was ahead of his time. Would have absolutely smashed now in a way he didn’t then.
Lol lol holy wow. One of the things that’s scariest about this whole business is not just that she did this, but that she so meticulously planned it, right down to knowing how to make it look like she would NEVER.
There are some people I think who find him ick because of book Colin, who from what I’ve heard sounds like a complete prat lol. But definitely not all.
Also interesting to think of this in light of the whole “actually Bridgerton is low quality/poorly done that article was right” thing. Because sure you can think that. But in order to do it you have to place zero value on the skill it takes to construct a romantic arc.
So many replies are either “omg stop trying to force us not to like things” which is not even remotely what this piece does, or long lists of woobifying excuses and demonising of the writer, proving the point.
"The second you decide all villains are secretly the heroes — and heroes are actually the bad guys — chances are that what comes next isn’t going to be all that great for continuing (or starting) nuanced conversations about them in fandom."
Acting like librarians hate kids because they don’t want playgrounds in libraries and the enormous extra responsibility that should be shouldered by separate dedicated amenities is ridiculous, honestly.
Look
Just because you were wrong, does not, in any way, mean Libraries hate kids. Nope nope nopeitty nope. We said a Playground does not belong inside a Library. We gave reasons. We said that we have interactive learning centres. Most everybody does, but it depends on the Branch.
FIRST LOOK: She's not a real adventurer. He's not a real hero. But that IS Brad Pitt. The first trailer for
#TheLostCity
is here! Here's what we know about the film so far >>
Dunno who needs to hear this but “the enemies to lovers trope” isn’t generally a fascist genocidal dictator who tries to kill you and all your friends, and the person trying to stop him doing that.
It’s like. Rival book shop owners.
Like I always say enjoy your actor crushes, but always remember: it’s actually really their characters you love. You don’t love them. You don’t know them. Most of them are garbage nightmares. Internalise that and you’ll never find yourself defending some shitbird.
The most maddening thing is Emily Henry is genuinely brilliant. But she’s not brilliant because she’s doing anything wildly different. She’s brilliant because she’s doing what all the best Romance writers do, respectfully and passionately and affectionately.
The reason romcoms went away is down to a lot of things, but primarily it was a bunch of people deciding that romance, love and sex isn’t cool, that it’s cringe and tired, and at the same time hearing “we would like better female characters” as “women aren’t allowed love now.”
Period dramas that go full on romance have always been hugely popular, especially on television. Execs not wanting to make them is stuff like personal preference and misogyny, plain and simple.
I could be wrong but I feel like in all the mandates not a single Network wants to look for "their Bridgeton." It's like no one wants to acknowledge the reasons that show is successful:
- Diverse
- Female skewing audience
- Soapy
- Young Adult
Okay so…last week I had author photos done. My first time ever having them done. The first time I’ve been with a publisher/had a book deal where they become a thing it would be good to have! And so here it is. My official one:
The thing I find frustrating about these changes is I get shifting trends. I understand that man chests fell out of favour long before illustrated covers came on the scene. But the one on the left is objectively gorgeous. Replace it with something gorgeous! I know it can be done!
Kate Middleton’s team have issued an official statement to Page Six regarding the internet’s concern for her health:
“Kensington Palace made it clear in January the timelines of the Princess’ recovery and we’d only be providing significant updates. That guidance still stands.”
If you’re thinking this issue going on over at booktok is some new thing that’s only just emerged, hi hello welcome to what I’ve been saying goes on in fandoms, standoms, and book communities for the last twenty years.
People really need to stop reading a book by Sally Rooney and then imagining there are almost no other books like hers when she’s basically just using very common Romance genre tropes and characters and making them palatable to litfic readers by removing quote marks.
A lot of the confusion about why certain movies haven’t done that well this/last month makes sense when you realise that filmbros were not factoring in the possibility of Barbie being an event film people were saving their money for.
Romcoms almost died out as a genre because hollywood decided joy was uncool and that feminism and women being empowered meant no love ever for anyone, instead of just diversifying and getting better at the love they presented us with.
My Mary Sue is all my characters, because they’re all female wish fulfilment and I have no problems owning that. I ain’t even sorry.
You think I’m gonna sit on the sidelines while men just freely and unashamedly jizz out Batmans and James Bonds and Jack Reachers?
Lol no
If you’re ever thinking “wow Romance has uniquely terrible batshit things happen” lemme just remind you that the litfic community almost destroyed itself over a woman donating a kidney. And it’s prob one millionth the size of Romance.
I have no hope that a certain crowd will read this far, but just want to stress, none of what I’ve said has anything to do with silly ship wars or crushes on actors, and me trying to prove one is better than the other. I loved season two as much as I’m enjoying this one.
For anyone wondering too, even after I’ve patiently explained:
If you think the HEA requirement, or similar, is limiting and means you can’t write flaws, human messiness, etc, that is distinctly a you and your weak skills problem. The HEA demands no such thing.
Every time I see “the mentally ill shouldn’t have guns” I think well if it has to be only one category of people could it not be domestic violence perpetrators, instead? You know, a group that actually is proven to be 100% violent and likely to use guns in escalation.
“Sex scenes need to further the plot” discourse is going to make me lose my entire mind
YES they need to further the plot but in a romance that doesn’t mean “find the lost map” that means “personal and emotional character growth”
It also revealed fully to me that a requirement like that - essentially a HEA requirement - does not ask less of you. It demands more, a good deal more. It makes you work harder, it opens you to more possibilities, it takes you in directions you would never have gone.
Gonna need everybody to really process the fact that they could literally show a picture or a video of her anywhere doing anything, super clearly. If she was actually available to do that.
That happy endings are trite, cheap, easy, rubbish. That too many good things happening in a piece of work means it’s not quality. Characters who are basically decent, or even very flawed but in a “minor” way, are boring.
You might have seen it about, because today is the cover reveal tour for my next romcom, My Big Fat Fake Marriage! You like Clark Kent/Ted Lasso? Moustaches? Every night is only one bed? Sassy fun loving heroine with a secret nerdy kindness loving core? This one is for you!
Oh my god. Oh my days. Just had one of the most wonderful, incredible experiences of my life. I went to my Waterstones in Leeds, and my book was on. A table. Right in the door.
If you don’t understand the difference between what a genre Romance is and what newspapers and literary types deem romantic, prob shouldn’t jump into a conversation Romance authors are having.
This may not be the case for everyone, but it very much is for me:
I do not care if authors want to write romance novels that pretend all this never happened.