Can Tom Sturridge Try On the Catsuit At Least?

It took me a little while to totally warm up to the Tom Sturridge thing, but he knew the way to my heart -- make out with both Garrett Hedlund (see here) and Douglas Booth (see here) in movies, check! Grow the world's sleaziest mustache and prance about in a redcoat uniform, check! Oh and then give a tremendously excellent performance on stage in a show that also starred Jake Gyllenhaal, guaranteeing I'll see said show more than once -- check and check. Honestly he was SO GOOD in his half of Sea Wall / A Life on and off Broadway, so deeply moving and emotionally affecting, that I'll now follow him anywhere, even if he doesn't press those gorgeous ruby lips onto any pretty menfolk ever again. (Although what a waste that would be, right?) 

Anyway I have warmed to the Tom Sturridge thing and then some now, and so today's news that our boy's joined the cast of Olivier Assayas' new HBO series adaptation of Irma Vep, Assayas' own 1996 film, is a welcome thing to me! Since Assayas himself is making this series I have high hopes for it -- in case you hadn't noticed that man is still churning out excellence. Alicia Vikander in the series' lead role might not be Maggie Cheung, but measuring any human being by Maggie Cheung standards is unfair to literally every person on earth not named Maggie Cheung. There is only one Maggie Cheung, unfortunately! 

And after the excellence of The Green Knight (reviewed here) I will admit me and Alicia are on good terms right this minute. On that note did y'all see the rumor going around that her husband, one Michael Fassbender, was spotted HOLDING A BABY on the set of this exact series, which is now being filmed??? Is Fassy a daddy? (I mean besides my daddy, which he, at three months younger than me, has always nevertheless been.) Congrats to them if the rumor is true!

MNPP's Sweet 16

Two things that have been very important to my life are celebrating their birthdays today -- firstly the actor Dominic Cooper is turning 43, and if you haven't kept up with our long love affair then I recommend you click through our Dom archives. (For one there's more of the above 2008 photo-shoot, one of my faves, here and here.) If you were to ask me "The Moment I Fell For... Dominic Cooper" (which is a real series here on the site, although I haven't done one in a bit) I'd tell you it was the scene where he comes on to his teacher in The History Boys...

... and I wouldn't be lying! But equal weight would have to be given to the deleted Mamma Mia scene where we first learned of the junk Dom was carrying in his trunk -- an epochal moment in human existence, that. 

(Then he wore that speedo in The Devil's Double and forget about it.) Anyway checking to see what Domi is up to right now -- it's been kind of quiet since Preacher, my beloved Preacher, ended -- he's doing a UK miniseries called That Dirty Black Bag (which is described as "A steampunk spaghetti Western series" on IMDb) that co-stars his fellow Brit-boys Douglas Booth and Christian Cooke...

... and yes I will surely have people commenting here that they cannot tell these three white boys apart, and that's fine. I get it. I can but that's my job, to mentally rolodex such stuffs. On that note we come to the other thing celebrating a birthday today, which is My New Plaid Pants itself! HAPPY 16 TO MNPP!!!

I started this here website on June 2nd 2005 on a whim of boredom, and I took that whim and I stretched it out for sixteen ridiculous years of nonsense. We just passed 30,000 posts recently? Truly, mind-bogglingly insane, that. Anyway before I send myself off to the Glue Factory I'll do what's become an annual tradition of sorts here at the site for our anniversary -- I'll ask for money! I try not to do this too much (although there's always a PayPal donation button over there in the right-hand column) but our anniversary feels like the correct place for a wee bit of coin begging. If you've enjoyed MNPP at all why not throw us a dime or two? I make basically no money off of this site and all my hard work -- haha forget about the pennies per year the "ads" bring me. Today's as good a day for supporting a writer you like as any, says me, your favorite beefcake pauper. You can donate right here. Thanks, y'all!

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather...

... Matthias & Friends hit the top button.

Those "friends" just happen to be the very fine actors Numan Acar and Mathieu Kassovitz, so shame on me for not properly crediting them right off the bat -- these three beards have joined together for Terrence Malick's next flick The Last Planet, which I've told you about previously. Schoenaerts is playing Saint Peter in the flick, which is some sort of religious fable and which also stars Mark Rylance as Satan and the great Géza Röhrig as Mr. Christ (some call him by his first name). 

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I would topple entire governments for Matthias Schoenaerts' attention and approval pic.twitter.com/nT81olKicm

— His Name Was Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 28, 2019

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Anyway Acar shared that top shot on his Instagram today -- he and Matthias have clearly hit it off since that picture immediately above on the left was also one he took -- giving me the first confirmation of some other actors cast in Malick's film besides the three we'd heard about; and now I check IMDb and there's actually a ton of actors listed...

... Aidan Turner is playing Saint Andrew! Uncle Benjen from Game of Thrones (aka Joseph Mawle) is playing Saul! Ben Kingsley and Joseph Fiennes and Douglas Booth are all playing... well, somebody, we don't know who yet! Oh, and...

... second most excitingly for me (after Matty obviously) is the word that Malick has hired Martin McCann for an unspecified role; if you don't know who McCann is he starred in a movie called The Survivalist in 2015 and gave one of my absolute favorite performances that year there -- he's worked steadily since then but not in anything big and not in anything I've seen and I keep checking on him, hoping he'll get a role worthy of his talent. There's no indication whether this will be that -- lord knows Malick loves to cast a billion people and then edit seventy percent of them out by the time the finished product rolls around -- but I can hope!
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Pic of the Day

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Remember that story Dominic Cooper told that one time about how he was working as a waiter and his penis fell out because of how he was wearing his pants? I bring it up because I am glad to see that he didn't learn anything from that experience, and refuses to pull them up still all these years later. Never let The Man box you in, love! And Douglas Booth's satisfied face clearly agrees. (pic via)

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Good Morning, World

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I've had Iwan Rheon on my brain ever since Sansa gave her controversial little "hooray for rape" speech on Game of Thrones last week, mostly because I had to re-explain who the hell Ramsey was to the boyfriend, which is how I spend about 50% of every episode. Anyway when I saw it was Rheon's birthday today I thought I might check in with him, since it's been awhile (you should definitely check out our archives on him though because per our usual routine with horrific villains we were totally into him while he was in the process of being horrible). 

I guess he was on that Inhumans show that I never bothered with? And he was in that Motley Cru bio-pic called The Dirt for Netflix, that also starred Douglas Booth, which I also haven't watched. Any of this stuff worth checking out? Anyway a happy birthday to Iwan and here after the jump are a few more gifs from his, uhh, premature appearance on the show Secret Diary of a Call Girl...

Good Afternoon, Gratuitous George MacKay

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I can't remember what it was I was watching with the boyfriend the other day but he expressed a wish for more movies set during in World War I, and I immediately knew just what he meant - he meant that the military uniforms of WWI are really fine and don't get utilized on-screen by having attractive young actors wear them nearly enough. And I concur. Anyway today's news...

... that George MacKay here is going to star in a WWI movie for director Sam Mendes reminded me of that. It's to be called 1917 and MacKay will co-star with Tommen himself (aka Dean-Charles Chapman from A Game of Thrones) as "two young soldiers who have to trek across dangerous terrain." Certainly not a new story for a war movie, but what matters is execution, of course. And I tend to trust Sam Mendes' execution.

If you're wondering what you know MacKay from he was the oldest son in Captain Fantastic with Viggo Mortensen, and he was the oldest son in this year's horror film Marrowbone (read my review right here) and he was the ostensible lead (as much as the film had a lead) in Pride, the very good small-town gay-movie from 2013. It's felt like MacKay has  been waiting for his break-out year for a bit now, and maybe this'll do it.

(That photo is not from Pride but it should have been. Dammit.) But anyway even besides starring in the new Sam Mendes movie he's also co-starring opposite Charlie Hunnam and Nicholas Hoult in The True History of the Kelly Gang from Snowtown director Justin Kurzel, so yeah, it's gonna be a big couple of years for George MacKay, it seems. Although really it's all downhill from that time he did a super homoerotic photo-shoot with Theo James and Douglas Booth...

... where does one even go from there? Kidding aside I think MacKay has proven himself to be really very talented already, and I'm glad that casting directors seem to have noticed that as well. The best of luck to him and let's all hit the jump for over eighty (yes indeed, over eighty) more pictures as a way of communally celebrating his good fortune...

Goth Poet Gay Stuff

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I know I linked to my review of Mary Shelley over at The Film Experience just a couple of weeks ago, but I can now link to it again this time using gifs of the moment in the film where Tom Sturridge (playing the poet Lord Byron) kisses Douglas Booth (playing Percy Shelley) and I think we can all agree that this, hark, is a worthwhile endeavor. Indeed! Forsooth! Et cetera! Happy Pride!

Dougie Fresh Meets Frankenstein

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I know I said my goodbyes for the four-day weekend yesterday but I have one more thing to share - my review of Mary Shelley, the bio-pic of the Frankenstein author starring Elle Fanning and Douglas Booth here as her saucy poet husband Percy, went up at The Film Experience this afternoon and you can read it right here. The film is out in theaters today but I saw it several weeks back at the Tribeca Film Festival - unless I'm randomly inspired (which is always a possibility given my haywire brain) this will probably be my final review from this year's fest and so next week I'll try to do a round-up where you can see everything I reviewed this year. For now though go read that one, and then come back and hit the jump for a few fresh pictures of Dougie to keep you company over the holiday...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Gods and Monsters (1998)

Clayton: The monster's lonely. He wants a friend.
A girlfriend. Somebody. What's so sick about that?

This post is for me, and not just for me to look at Brendan Fraser in this movie - this post is a reminder for me to watch G&M over my long holiday weekend (starting tomorrow we're off until Tuesday, by the way) because a re-watch has been burning us up at the back of my brain but I keep forgetting. And it's a good weekend to watch it, what with the Mary Shelley movie now out in theaters...

(Sidenote: My review of that will be up tomorrow, I'll link over when it is.) This is a big weekend for Elle Fanning Fans though - not only is Mary Shelley out but so is John Cameron Mitchell's new film How To Talk To Girls At Parties starring Elle and Nicole Kidman - we reviewed that last week, read our thoughts right here. Quick gist: I had a lot of fun with it but your mileage may vary depending upon your mood; it is very silly. In a good way though!

Good Afternoon, Gratuitous Sam Claflin

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It's the great actress Marie Dressler who's credited with the quote "You're only as good as your last picture," and it is that quote springs to mind when I think of Sam Claflin today - I had basically given up on him after the miscasting debacle that was Finnick in the Hunger Games films, but then the last thing I saw him in was Their Finest, Lone Scherfig's tremendously lovely and old-fashioned WWII movie (easily the best of the Dunkirk Triad that came out last year) - have you guys seen it? - and now I suddenly care enough to pay attention again? (His shirtless scenes in My Cousin Rachel didn't hurt either.)

Which is good because his next movie out this year might be The Nightingale, director Jennifer Kent's long-awaited follow-up to The Babadook. (Follow-up as in second movie, not a sequel, alas!) Okay okay I would have cared about this film no matter how crappy Claflin's career was going, it's true. But it's good to think maybe! Anyway after that Sam has a few things lined up, like that boating movie with Shaileene Woodley called Adrift...

... which just got a trailer last week which you can watch right here. We previously took notice of his shirtless Instagram moments on the set of that. And just today he just lined up a crime-thriller called The Corrupted that's got a pretty fine cast.
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Anyway that's all preamble to the fact that I just noticed a big pile of over forty Sam Claflin pictures sitting in a folder on my computer that I haven't gotten around to posting before (although if you look through our archives there is plenty to be had from several years back, before that Hunger Games mess) so let's go ahead and post 'em after the jump...

Good Morning, Sort Of Gratuitous Sam Reid

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I almost kind of don't even want to do this post, wishing the actor Sam Reid a happy 29th birthday; I have held out on him for a very long time because he should not be rewarded for bad behavior -- he's been around for five years now, pretty much since starring in Roland Emmerich's William Shakespeare flop Anonymous, and after taking a more-than-cursory glance (more of a scouring, really) of the places where such things would be it appears that Sam Reid in those five years hasn't doffed a single bit of clothing. Not a bit!

Please, I beg of someone to prove me wrong. Was there a bit in Belle I am forgetting? That Hatfield & McCoys miniseries didn't seem to have any trouble getting at least one dude half-naked -- maybe Sam's bared torso was floating around there too? Tumblr seems to be infatuated with his unrequited bromance with Max Irons in the recent film The Riot Club...

... but it would appear that stayed snog-free. I mean really, Sam Reid. You get your career jump started by Roland Emmerich for god's sake and this is how you treat us? There's one thing making me do this post, then. Well there are two. #1, goddamn Sam Reid is gorgeous. But #2: goddamn he is gorgeous and goddamn he and fellow actor slash pretty boy Douglas Booth seem to be inseparable.

INSEPARABLE. As you'll see, after the jump where I've collected all these gorgeous fully-dressed (sigh) pictures, he and Douglas Booth sure do seem very... tight. Hit the jump for the rest...

Douglas Booth Twenty Times

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Did any of you see Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? My interest in it waned with all the delays but if anybody wants to make a case for it I could probably be sold. I skipped even reading reviews so I have no idea. Anyway during last week's lead-up to its release a pair of photo-shoots of co-star slash beautiful boy Douglas Booth showed up (one on JJ and the other in Interview Magazine) and I am just now getting around to posting them, whoopsie. Whatever there's never a bad time for beauty! Hit the jump for the remaining shots (plus a couple of nice talk-show bulge gifs that I found on Tumblr)...

I Am Link

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--- Flame On - I'm behind on news (too busy posting butt-cheeks, I guess) so some of these stories are a little old, like this - Crimson Peak is already a week-old and declared a flop (even though it's absolutely fabulous and you all need to see it) but while making the press rounds Jessica Chastain geeked out over meeting Austrian provocateur (aka beloved dickhead) Michael Haneke, proving Jessica Chastain remains the coolest. Also the coolest her Crimson director Guillermo Del Toro, who gave his Top Ten Horror Movie list to HitFix. It's a good list!

--- Slash To The Stars - Noted Horror Expert slash our pal slash Final Girl Stacie Ponder put the emphasis on the slashes when talking to The New York Times (!!!) about slasher movie final girls -- reason number one billion to love Stacie: She gets love for Friday the 13th Part 2's leading lady Ginny (played by Amy Steel), considered by those in the know to be the premiere final girl of all the final girls. We just love her so. Oh and if you haven't been over to Final Girl lately, do! Stacie's been reviewing a movie a day for "Shocktober!" and she's covered a bunch of great ones.

--- Hot Iago - Great, another expensive theater experience that I won't be able to go see because money sucks -- Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo are starring in an adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello in the Spring. Well it's "off" Broadway so maybe it'll be affordable...? And maybe while I'm dreaming up things that won't happen maybe they'll turn the entire play into the sadistic homoerotic fuck-fest that it's always cried out to be.

--- Liquid Eyeliner - Famous 90s Club Kid James St James apparently wrote a memoir called Freak Show and it's being turned into a film that Sting's wife Trudi Styler is directing? Okay. I only mention it because Bette Midler's been cast as the lead character's mother, and my Beaches-raised ass will forever adore Miss M. I wish something would come out of her publicly clamoring to play Amy Schumer's mother in her next movie but I think Bette's burned an awful lot of bridges in Hollywood so I have my doubts...

--- The Original Fancy Man - Not to be all "Pshaw I already knew all of this!" but I was indeed very familiar with the story of William Haines, the so-called "First Out Gay Leading Man" from the 1920s who became an interior decorator to the stars when he refused to pretend he was straight - I've got a book about his design filled with pictures of Joan Crawford because I'm an A+ Homosexual thank you very much. But still Slate did a great job telling the story, it's worth a read if you don't know it.

--- Love Me Murderer - Over at The Film Experience Manuel beat me to reviewing You're Killing Me, the gay serial killer comedy that's showing at NewFest - well he beat me because I haven't watched it yet, I will watch it this weekend. But it looks fun; I do love Drew Droege, the comedian who's most famous for his Chloe Sevigny web-videos; I saw his one-man show Bright Colors and Bold Patterns and he is no one-trick pony, he is straight-up amazing.

--- Of Which She Is Very Proud - I can't remember what the context was but I went on this rant about the awesomeness of Jan Hooks this past weekend (rant's not really the right word since it was a happy expression of love - a happy rant!) and how awful it is that she's gone, so clearly I put it into the ether and inspired this long piece on her awesomeness at Grantland. Anyway we would be anxiously awaiting her cameo as Tina the Alamo Tour Guide in the new Pee-wee Herman movie in a decent world, sigh. Tortilla! (Thanks Mac)

--- And Finally I haven't even watched this yet but I will after I post it (I'm always bent backwards, you know this) -- the trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has arrived, which stars blah blah a whole bunch of ladies and also the super sexy Douglas Booth and he's what I am there for, if I am there at all, which is just a maybe. But I know the general consensus on Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is not good but the consensus is wrong and if this is fun like that I'll have fun? Fun.

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But Can Ya Blame Ben Whishaw?

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That is the first picture of Ben Whishaw in the upcoming BBC series London Spy, about a young homosexual who falls for a dude only to have said dude subsequently go missing, which gets our Ben (he'll be playing the young homosexual) summarily sucked into a world of espionage and intrigue. Sounds, dare I say, INTRIGUING. (Sorry.) Apparently there was some kerfuffle in the fall because the BBC loudly proclaimed that they were looking for "an immensely talented non-Caucasian actor" to play the role of the prospective boyfriend of Ben's only to end up casting a non-non-Caucasion in the form of  Edward Holcroft, who is very very white.

But he's also terribly hot! It's a conundrum! I just actually took a mental note of Mr. Holcroft two nights ago while watching Kingsman: The Secret Service...

...  that this dude is definitely going places, and whaddya know, here he is. He could suck me into intrigue any day of the week. Insist on lots of kissing scenes before he disappears, Ben. So I gathered up a few more pictures (including shots of him with his Kingsman co-star Taron Egerton as well as with his good friend Douglas Booth) and you can hit the jump for them...

Quote of the Day

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"I had this space orgy.

I’m floating pretty much naked with all these

spliced half-human, half-animal beautiful women all over me."

That's the supernaturally pretty Douglas Booth (via) talking about Jupiter Ascending... why why why have I not gone out to see Jupiter Ascending yet? I gotta see this crazy thing before it's gone, dammit. 

PS did you see the pictures of Douglas & Dominic Cooper I posted at the Tumblr the other they? I think they have probably most definitely done it. It being the deed. The dirty dirty sex deed.

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