That Thing Johnathon Does

I have two reasons for writing this post. The first reason is I was looking for an excuse to post the above recent photo of noted hunk Johnathon Schaech, and writing this post gave me that excuse. And the second reason is that, as I stated in my previous post, I'm out of sorts today and I'm just trying to get my fingers tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard to get myself into practice -- I have a lot of shit to do this week and my foggy brain ain't helping anything. Now neither of those reasons are what this post is actually technically about, you see...

... what this post is actually technically about is that the soundtrack to the beloved 1996 musical That Thing You Do!, written and directed by Tom Hanks and starring Mr. Schaech alongside Tom Everett Scott, Steve Zahn, and Ethan Embry as a 1960s boy band, is being put out onto vinyl this week for the very first time! It's coming from Mondo and it goes on sale on Wednesday, click here for all the assorted sordid information. Now here's the kicker -- I have never seen this movie. Isn't that crazy? I should fix that, right? I think at the time I had little interest in Schaech all cleaned up and bubblegum -- I was deep in my Xavier Red fantasies. Looking back now... I was a fool to limit my options. Every flavor of Schaech is welcome. 

When We Were White

I think this news got a little lost in the mix with the exciting Emmy wins for the series stealing the spotlight, but Mike White's phenomenal HBO series The White Lotus was released on DVD last week, so if you don't have HBO and missed what all the hullaballoo was about this is your chance to be hip like us hip kids in the know. Buy it at this link for a measly 20 spot. It's only 20 bucks to be hip? What a bargain! To think of all the money I blew on piano key ties. Anyway this is a good moment to also share the teaser trailer for the second season of the show, which will premiere in just a few weeks, some time in October. Cannot wait!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

The fact that half of the cast got an Emmy nomination yesterday wasn't the only good news that we got about Mike White's great The White Lotus -- and I've seen some people grumbling about all of the praise being heaped on it, saying its overkill, to which I say pooh, pooh on you! Mike White is finally having his moment after years upon years of delivering weird-ass delight into our lives, we will cherish all of this run dammit. Anyway Emmy pile-up aside the other good news is that the show is getting released onto physical media! Weirdly only DVD not blu-ray, but we'll take what we can get since we're physical media + Mike White obsessives. The six-episode set will hit on September 13th and the press release says it will include "bonus content" but they're not specific as to what that means. Well if it's an hour of set-footage of Steve Zahn trying on boner prosthetics we all win. I'll update this post with a link once it's actually on Amazon, but for now below is the DVD's box-art - set your darn calendars!

Austin, Formerly of Swallow Fame

Some might say that two posts about the menfolks of Mike White's show The White Lotus in a row might be too much, but to those people I say fuck you. Git atta he', see!! Sorry don't know why Edward G. Robinson just took over my body, but the sentiment remains. Git! Especially since as seen above we're talking about Swallow actor Austin Stowell -- and yes no matter what Austin does for the rest of his career he will be forever referred to by this site as "Swallow actor" -- this time, as shown in the teaser for this weekend's finale (watch it below), and that's an extra special little gift. And I want to have a post at the top of the site for y'all to tell me your thoughts and feelings on the finale, when it happens. And since it's now time for my three-day weekend, y'all can do that in the comments here. Austin Swallow I mean Stowell approves!

Quote of the Day

Top tier human, MNPP longstanding beloved, and creative genius Mike White has been enjoying some well-earned success this summer thanks to his HBO series The White Lotus, which y'all know I loved -- I wrote about it at AwardsWatch -- but that usually means nothing; I always love things that flop! So I am pleased as pleased punch that this one seems to be a hit! I mean I have no idea what its ratings are but I've seen people talking about it, with enthusiasm, all over the internet the past few weeks, and that's as important a metric as any now right? Whatever, let me have this. So with good buzz comes write-ups, and White's given a big interview to The New Yorker this week (thx Brad) that I can't recommend highly enough if you've ever been a fan. He talks Lotus, he talks being on Survivor, he talks future projects and then about how he's been putting off doing a third season of Enlightened even though HBO has expressed interest (I KNOW). But my favorite section comes when he describes the gloriously-deranged-sounding show he wanted to make with Aubrey Plaza, and what he then says about the current state of TV alongside it, so that's today's quote:

"O.K., so, I wrote a script that I was really into, for Aubrey Plaza and for me to be in. We were playing ourselves, but it was this weird sex comedy set in Sweden. My character was basically a very predatory version of myself. There were some MeToo elements. The script was definitely poking the bear. And so we went around to all of these streamers, and I could tell people really liked the script. But everybody was kind of afraid to do it. There are all these streamers right now, and there’s all this business. It does feel like there’s a lot of places to go and take the meeting. But then, when you go into the rooms to have the meeting, you realize they all want the same thing. There’s not a lot of incentive for them to try something that feels like they might get criticized for it. There’s a very corporatized thing going on. There’s not that big of an upside to taking on something that would cause more problems than it’s worth. 

 It was always hard to make stuff for me. But, back in the early two-thousands, I just felt like there were more people running places who were individuals and had their own individual taste and would take different types of risks. It’s not to say there aren’t cool, risky things being made. But, when they type my name into the algorithm at Netflix, it must come out zeroes or something. When I go to their offices, I get no sense that they have any idea who I am or what I’m doing there. You really feel like it’s some kind of Terry Gilliam “Brazil” version of futurist entertainment."

Don't Fear the Fred

A fresh obsession in my household is the actor Fred Hechinger, who's had a big few months popping up unexpectedly in front of me with Joe Wright's (rightly-excoriated) The Woman in the Window, Steven Soderbergh's Let Them All Talk, an episode of Barry Jenkins' The Underground Railroad, Paul Greengrass' forgotten Oscar-contender film News of the World, the Tribeca film Italian Studies (which I reviewed right here), and finally the biggest ongoing two-fer real reason for this post -- the Fear Street horror trilogy on Netflix and Mike White's HBO series The White Lotus (which I wrote about over here). This is an astonishing run, y'all -- most of us only saw him for the first time in Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade just three years back...

... and now he's everywhere! And I'm great with that! Most of those roles I just rattled off were small but those last two especially, Lotus and Fear Street, have proven him a delight. He played such a fun weirdo in Fear Street: 1994, far and away my favorite thing going on in it, and in Mike White's hands he's... well he's also a fun weirdo there but the performance is dialed down and surprisingly introspective, and I found his whole arc, without getting spoilery, pretty moving. 

Anyway he is very much somebody we should all be keeping our eyes on, and learn his name if you don't know it already. He's good stuff! In related news here's the trailer for the final part of the Fear Street Trilogy, subtitled 1666, which premieres on Netflix this Friday. Have y'all been watching these movies? I think they're a lot of fun -- don't take them seriously, just enjoy the ride. 

Jake Lacy Six Times

Thank goodness, I was hoping a photo-shoot of an attractive gentleman would appear before the end of the day so it could be the top post on the site as I head off for the three-day weekend, and here right under the wire is Jake Lacy for Esquire Mexico -- I don't actually have a link to the magazine, as I got the photos via here after Mr. Lacy shared them on his Insta. These are of course timely though, what with Mike White's show which features Mr. Lacy -- and psst I mean a lot and I do mean a lot of Mr. Lacy, wink wink nudge nudge -- called The White Lotus premiering this weekend on HBO. Didja see my review of The White Lotus I posted earlier? It's right here. Spoiler alert: the show is friggin' amazing. So watch the show, have a great weekend, and hit the jump for more Mr. Lacy...

Paradise Loused

I hope you all know by now that a new Mike White project is a thing to savor -- they don't come nearly as often as they should, and they never last as long as we want them to, but every second of every one has been a blessing and a gift. And that score ain't changing with his new limited-series The White Lotus, which is premiering on HBO Max this weekend. (Watch the trailer here.) And so, out of sheer thirst I had intended to plow through my screeners of the show in the span of an afternoon when I first sat down with them a few weeks back... but couldn't, I just couldn't. The show was again too good, too much to rush through, and I took my time with it -- and I'm glad to see that HBO is similarly doling out the series on a weekly basis, because it benefits from that breathing space. Anyway I only finally finished watching the entire series last night and I wasn't sure I'd write anything, but as it does when it wants to be said the words just came pouring out of me today -- head on over to AwardsWatch for my review of the show. It's as great as anything Mike White has ever done, which is, uhh, some high praise I'd say.

White, Boys, Summer

When I posted last October about Enlightened creator and beloved MNPP hero Mike White developing a new show for HBO and then I didn't hear another whisper I figured it was a thing delayed by, you know, the world. Fuck the world! But wait, unfuck the world! Because it's not delayed, it's here, really here -- HBO just dropped the trailer for The White Lotus, White's limited series about the residents of a wellness type resort in Hawaii (god he's smart, writing himself into a vacation in Hawaii during a goddamned pandemic), which will premiere on HBO and HBO Max on July 11th. The show stars... well a lot of people, but most importantly Murray Bartlett (seen up top) of Looking, adorable Jake Lacy and Steve Zahn... 

... oh and Molly Shannon and Jennifer Coolidge and Connie Britton, oh my! Britton in particular looks to be doing a hysterical variation on the clueless privileged white lady character she played in White's brilliant and underrated 2017 film Beatriz at Dinner (White wrote the script; his oft co-conspirator in cringe Miguel Arteta directed). And now for the trailer! Watch, live, laugh... but seriously WATCH. I am so tired of everything White does being called "underrated" and then being canceled.

Jake Lacy Getting Lei'd By Mike White

Oh this is some hot damn happy news for a Monday afternoon wasteland -- HBO is getting back in the Mike White business! They've just given the Enlightened creator slash genius the green-light for six episodes of The White Lotus, a "social satire" (I mean it's Mike White, what else would it be?) set at a Hawaiian resort that follows a big bunch of guests and employees. Names attached already via Deadline (thx Mac) are here at the start the great and somehow still under-utilized Jake Lacy seen up top (not to mention in all of MNPP's many Jake Lacy posts), Connie Britton (who was really terrific in White's 2017 film Beatriz At Dinner), the wonderful Steve Zahn, Jennifer effing Coolidge (!!!!!), and Looking hunk Murray Bartlett, he of the hirsute Butt-hued queerness seen below. Unless a helicopter crashes on Donald Trump's head (fingers crossed) this is the best news we'll hear this week! 

Gay Uncles Incorporated

And speaking of True Blood slash Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball (I just mentioned how he was supposed to direct the Chippendales movie in my earlier post) here's what he has coming up -- it's called Uncle Frank and it stars Paul Bettany as a lit professor in the 70s whose country-fied niece (It star Sophia Lillis) comes to the big city to attend his college, where she uncovers, gasp, he's a queer. 

The two then take off on a road-trip home for a funeral and bonds are made and broken and so forth. I literally just watched this movie last night! It's screening as part of NewFest, so I'll have more on it in a couple days. (I have previously posted a clip from the film, right here.) For now they've just released the trailer, and I dutifully share it with you, tender readers...

Amazon is releasing Uncle Frank (which also stars Judy Greer (who gets the film's funniest moment, of course), Steve Zahn, Margo Martindale, Peter Macdissi, Stephen Root, and Lois Smith) on November 25th and that's super perfect timing -- it's totally a Thanksgiving movie even though there's no Thanksgiving in it. Awkward family reunion type movies are always perfect for that holiday. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Reality Bites (1994)

Vickie: You don't understand. Every day, all day, it's all that I think about, OK? Every time I sneeze, it's like I'm four sneezes away from the hospice, and it's like it's not even happening to me. It's like I'm watching it on some crappy show like Melrose Place or some shit, right? And I'm the new character, I'm the HIV-AIDS character, and I live in the building and I teach everybody that it's OK to be near me, it's OK to talk to me, and then I die. And there's everybody at my funeral wearing halter tops or chokers or some shit like that.
Lelaina: Vickie stop, OK? Just stop.
You're freaking out. And you know what?
You're gonna have to deal with the results.
Whatever they are, we're gonna have to deal with
them just like we've dealt with everything else.
Vickie: This isn't like everything else.
Lelaina: I know that, all right? But it's gonna be OK,
you know? I know it's gonna be OK.
Melrose Place is a really good show.

I just noticed that the "voice of a generation" Reality Bites is turning 25 a week from today, and since I'm not going to be here a week from today it seemed a good idea to wish the movie a happy 25 now, while I am here. (PS I will be off-line both Friday & Monday, so adjust yourselves accordingly.) So happy 25, Reality Bites! This remains the best thing Ben Stiller has directed -- yes it's better than Tropic Thunder and The Cable Guy. Well maybe it's not better than the "Legend of T.J. O'Pootertoot," skit on The Ben Stiller Show, but that's a close one.
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I suppose I might be biased about Reality Bites since I was a junior in high school when it came out and it was perfectly timed to shape (read: warp) my idea about imminent adulthood, or thereabouts -- it does certainly have its faults, both of them squarely aimed at Winona Ryder's love interests; Ethan Hawke's "Troy" was unbearably smug in every single frame from where I stood, even back then, and Ben Stiller himself gives a sort of flat and lifeless performance as "Michael." He should've just focused on directing, I think.

online survey

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But I love everything having to do with Winona & Janeane & especially the adorable and relentlessly underrated Steve Zahn, whose coming out sequence (which I've posted about previously) was indispensable to this closeted teen. Turn up The Knack and tell me what are your thoughts or memories on Reality Bites?

Pete Gon' Lean

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A24 just dropped that, the pretty first poster for Lean on Pete, the new movie from the great Andrew Haigh, he who made 15 Years and Weekend (not to mention Looking). Lean on Pete got fairly ecstatic reviews when it played at Toronto earlier this year - it stars Charlie Plummer (who was so wonderful in the movie King Jack, which I reviewed at Tribeca in 2015) as a teenager taking care of a horse, I guess? I'm probably simplifying that but I don't want to know too much before going in. The movie also stars Steve Zahn, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Travis Fimmel, Amy Seimetz... really a whole bunch of good people. A24 says the trailer will be released tomorrow, stay tuned for that - the film's out on March 30th.

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I Am Link

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--- Knick Of Time - I didn't realize that Steven Soderbergh's The Knick is back for its second season this Friday (in my old age I've gotten bad with dates; I had no idea that Fargo was back until yesterday afternoon right before it aired) but back it is, and there's a nifty piece from the set over at Vulture. I was a big big huge fan of the first season, and I'm looking forward to more shooting up via penis shaft and noseless ladies and hopefully they'll find a way to get Michael Angarano to show that hot little bum of his.

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--- Fake Fur - I was psyched to see that the gloriously underrated Steve Zahn (speaking of hot little bums) had gotten cast in the next Planet of the Apes movie (called War of the Planet of the Apes) but then is aw that he's going the motion-capture route for it and will be a monkey. (Ape, whatever.) That's a loss of a hot little bum, dammit. They have cast some dude named Gabriel Chavarria as a human though, and he's a looker (see below) so I guess that Damn Dirty Monkey Movie won't be totally eye-candy-free thank goodness.

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--- Filth Forever - Next week would've marked the 70th birthday of Harris Glenn Milstead, aka the divine Divine, and Baltimore Magazine got to chat with John Waters and Pat Moran about their friend - love the bit where they talk about what he'd be doing now and how totally into gay marriage he'd have been since it was an excuse to throw a lavish party.
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--- The Boy Wonder - Everybody's fighting over Taron Egerton's hot little bum (I wonder if I can work "hot little bum" into nearly every single one of these stories...?) and it almost led to a stand-off between two studios, but they worked it out and he will star in both the Kingsman sequel as well as a new Robin Hood movie, both filming next year. Phew, bum crisis averted.
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--- Queen's Subjects - I love this story - our pal Murtada got to ask Cate Blanchett a question at the New York Film Festival this past weekend! I was there at the same screening of Carol and I heard all of this and he tells the story wonderfully, go read it at his site. It was a lovely little moment. And make sure you read Nick Davis' comment because he pinpoints one of my favorite moments in the film, Blanchett specific, that struck me both times watching it.

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--- Camp Horror - I hadn't read much beforehand about the slasher-comedy The Final Girls, which was released last weekend - it's one of those movies I knew I'd watch being so right up my alley that I didn't feel the need to spoil it. I will probably review it shortly but for now, now that I have watched it, here's a little chat with the film's creators Joshua John Miller and M.A. Fortin, a gay couple. (Thanks Mac) Miller is also the son of the actor Jason Miller, aka Father Carras from The Exorcist, and wow this all makes so much sense now.
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--- King Cobblepot - I refused to watch the first season of Gotham because I have a deadly allergy to Jada Pinkett Smith (only the Scream sequel offered a momentary immunity that one time) but I think her character (Fish Mooney hahahahahaha) is maybe dead now? With that in mind the casting of Paul Reubens as the Penguin's father in the show, bringing him back to the role he played in Batman Returns, might definitely get me on-board.
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--- And Finally I wish every day included a lengthy conversation with Toni Collette for me to read, but since that's not the case getting one today at least is a treat -- here she is talking to the New Zealand Tribune, mostly about her new role opposite Drew Barrymore, Dominic Cooper, Dominic Cooper's Kilt, and cancer. (thanks Mac) There is a little bit about Krampus too, which cannot get here quick enough. Miss You Already is out at the start of November, while Krampus is out in December. Toni Collette World Domination! Took the damn world long enough.
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Who Wore It Best?

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Raise your hands if you're nude?

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poll by twiigs.com

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I know I know what a cheap way to ogle butts. Whatddya want from me, everything can't be golden, there are only so many ways to pun our way ass-wards. (Which is clearly always the place to end up.) Anyway Steve Zahn's turning 47 today while Gerard Butler's turning 45, and celebrating their birthday (suits) seemed (always always) apt. Right, Steve?

Steve agrees.

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The Moment I Fell For... Janeane Garafalo

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Sammy: I have something to tell you. 

I am... a homo... homosexual.

Vickie: [beat] Oh, Christ.

(inspired by this) The undersung heroes of Reality Bites! The way that Janeane delivers that "Oh Christ" still makes me laugh so hard tears spill down my face til this day. And then after that how she says "Oh pah-flag. I'm beginning to like the sound of that!"

And Steve Zahn is just adorable, so you can count this as the moment I fell for him too. (Let us forget how horribly depressing all this gets in like thirty seconds.) And then he went and did naked yoga (that's one of MNPP's most popular posts) and walked around naked with a naked Paul Walker and cemented my affection for eternity.

Today's Mood

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Make sure to take a moment today to do this dance
in honor of Janeane Garofalo's 46th birthday.
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Good Morning, World

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Steve Zahn's Aptly-Named Plow Position

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Reader request! A few weeks back I did a nice hefty gratuitous post on the adorable actor Steve Zahn. Then just earlier this week it was brought to my attention by commenter Michael that there is a scene of gratuity in Zahn's film-work that has gone unattended to by the internet-machine so far! Quelle horreur! Apparently in the 2001 comedy (and I use that word broadly here) Saving Silverman (which also stars Jason Biggs, Amanda Peet, and Jack Black), Zahn is shown doing some "naked yoga." Well I could scarcely let such a thing go undocumented, now could I? So here tis, in all its glory: Mr. Steve Zahn elucidating the glory of the imagination-revving-ly named "plow position" in the film Saving Silverman...

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I Can't Believe That None Of You Told Me...

... that Timothy Olyphant dropped his trou in A Perfect Getaway.

This is what the deepest sort of betrayal feels like. (pics via)
Y'all are like my Judas! Thirty-piece-of-silver whores!

Ahem. Here are some more pics of Timmy (and gratuity Steve Zahn)
in the movie. Not that you deserve them! You monsters.

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Still no word on when the movie hits DVD. Siiiiiiigh.
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