(Image via Twitter)
HUFF POST: You've got to be killing me. I mean, kidding. Seriously, though, a false alarm about a missile heading for Hawaii happens now, in the context of Trump's saber-rattling over North Korea? How does this happen? Or dare I ask, why?
A mesmerizingly powerful speech in a painfully beautiful film (GIF via Sony Pictures Classics)
THE FILM EXPERIENCE: Michael Stuhlbarg was sublime in Call Me by Your Name. Why's he not getting awards attention? Once called a sure thing for an Oscar nom, is he even semi-likely to get a nod now?
NYT: More than a dozen male models claim Bruce Weber and Mario Testino engaged in sexual harassment on shoots. This one is probably not going to be a bombshell for most readers. How do you feel? Tom Ford said he was sorry for anyone who feels abused, but noted that shots are often taken in sexually awkward confines, which is true. However, it's pretty ridiculous that the system in place obviously requires models to have sex with or pose nude for top-tier gatekeepers before getting better jobs, no?
EXTRATV: Ashley Judd, one of Harvey Weinstein's umpteen accusers (he still denies all accusations of non-consensual sex), is praising James Franco for his thoughtful response to multiple allegations of sexual impropriety. Franco was accused of some stuff that is comparable to what Weber & Testino have been accused of, but I still can't get over the woman who had a fling with him and felt it was newsworthy to tell people he flashed her his dick and asked for oral sex, and that she did it. (Again, where is the abuse in that case? She went on to publicly demand an apology.)
Zeffirelli & Schaech on the set of Sparrow (Image via Johnathon Schaech)
HOMORAZZI: Johnathon Schaech claims he was subjected to aggressive come-ons and, eventually, sexual abuse at the hands of then-septuagenarian film-directing legend Franco Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli, incidentally, is still alive, and is weeks away from turning 95.His daughter vehemently denies Schaech's allegations in a way meant to suggest he could not have done what Schaech alleges based on his age at the time and the vagaries of how the film they were shooting — Sparrow — was made:
It is alleged that 25 years ago an actor, who was then in his early twenties, was the victim of alleged verbal abuse and alleged attempted sexual abuse by my father during the filming of The Sparrow in Sicily, Italy. [He] would have been 70 at the time. It is also alleged that my father drank alcohol and may have been drunk on set. Mr. Zeffirelli and all our family were living in a villa, whilst actors, production and staff were staying in a hotel in Catania; all these allegations are not credible. At the time Johnathon suffered from a throat type of obstruction which made his speaking difficult. Directors have different styles and some time they could be much more demanding on inexperienced actors. My father is in poor health and not able to understand this attack and to respond to the allegations made by Jonathan Schaech. This would be an attack to a great director, an artist and to a man at the end of his life that he is not able, nor he will be in the future able to respond. This will be an incredible damage to his image and reputation on the basis of allegations which are not credible and cannot be proved.
GR8ERDAYS: If you're a fan of Lana Turner ... you're old! (#MeToo) Check out Rick's latest review of one of her classics, the immensely entertaining The Bad and the Beautiful.
Kirk Douglas & Lana Turner were the bad and the beautiful (GIF via MGM)
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