Good Morning, Gratuitous Jeremy Pope

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I'm sure one of you theater fans can tell me more about the actor Jeremy Pope, who made a splash I guess on stage with the one-two punch of Choir Boy and Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations -- enough of a splash anyway that he just landed a big role in one of Ryan Murphy's forthcoming seeming dozens of Netflix series that've been announced this week. 

Specifically Pope will star in Hollywood, which Murphy calls "a love letter to the Golden Age of Tinseltown" -- he'll be playing a "gay, aspiring writer in writer in 1940s Hollywood" where he'll supposedly come face to face not only with screen legends like Rock Hudson and Spencer Tracy, but also as an actor he'll be face to face with a slew of Ryan Murphy Regulars in those roles, people like Darren Criss and Patti Lupone and Dylan McDermott and that hot boy from the trailer for The Politician that we already posted about. (His name is David Corenswet and honestly I could see him playing Rock Hudson.)

But we're getting distracted! We're like Ryan Murphy in that way. We're here for Jeremy Pope right now. Hollywood will mark only his second screen role, after playing a character called "Jerk" in last year's basically ignored horror flick The Ranger (I only recognize it because it had a terrific poster). Did anybody see that? I doubt a character named "Jerk" had a lot of substance, so Hollywood will mark our true introduction to Mr. Pope I guess. Well that plus the couple dozen photos I've gathered up this morning, which you can see after the jump...

No Really Hooray For Hollywood

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There's a nice chat with Hollywood star Jeremy Pope up at Interview Magazine that accompanies this photograph, click here for that -- and if that ain't enough I recommend this big ol' "Gratuitous Jeremy Pope" post I did back when Hollywood got announced. Anyway now that the embargo's lifted I can admit I've already watched all the episodes of Hollywood myself, I been done with it for weeks now, and well...

Just watched the premiere of [redacted] and [redacted] is so [redacted] I [redacted] in my tighty-whities

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 7, 2020

... let's just admit that that tweet was about this show. It's Tighty-Whities-riffic! I'm sure by the time I get up tomorrow morning at 8 or 9 or whatever is time anymore o'clock some diligent internet person will have already put all of the gratuitous scenes in the series onto this here 'net, but hot damn there are a few moments of the gratuitous sort to be excited about. Pope and David Corenswet...

... are absolute stars in the heavens in the making. I've only skimmed a few of the reviews about and they seemed fairly negative but they also seemed, to me, to mainly miss the point -- you can't criticize a show this purposefully cornball for being cornball. Cornball is the point! It's as broad as any Busby Berkeley "We're gonna put on a show!" cheese-fest, and in these dire times and dark days that we're in the midst of this here cheese and corn platter really hit the spot.

It was impossible, for me anyway, not to get swept up in its yee-haw vim and vigor -- when they made this show they can't have known they'd be dropping it smack-dab straight into a new Great Depression, but it feels exactly of that old-fashioned ilk anyway; if there'd been chapter breaks where Shirley Temple came out and did a lil' number it would've fit right in. Sure that gee-whiz-whillikers tone makes for an occasionally awkward smash up against the Sexism and Homophobia and Racism and Sexual Abuse that it's addressing but I think that's what makes the show interesting and funny and surprising. It's super duper silly, but it's big and openhearted and I, goddamnit all, was thoroughly entertained.

Good Morning, World

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Hollywood actor -- as in he starred on the Netflix series called Hollywood, not just he is an actor in the town called Hollywood -- Jeremy Pope is one of Ralph Lauren's models for their Pride Collection this month, and with good reason... the reasons being he is pretty and gay, which are reasons enough for me. You can check out the collection at this link which includes looks at the other models -- Dan Levy and Indya Moore caught my eye as well -- and you can check out more of Mr. Pope posted here at MNPP previously at this link. And once you've done all that hit the jump for the rest of this specific rainbow-bright photo-shoot...

11 Days Til Hollywood

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The latest trailer for Ryan Murphy's new Netflix series Hollywood has arrived today and it's a whopper of one, pulling in at over three minutes long and giving us flashes of... well as you see above most importantly giving us flashes of a naked David Corenswet, for one. But also...

... oh right also flashes of gay Rock Hudson! And also...

... flashes of what are clearly one of George Cukor's

infamous, legendary pool parties full of boys. My god.

I know I said this when the show was first announced and then again when Jeremy Pope got cast and then again when David Corenswet got cast and then again when Jake Picking got cast (as Rock Hudson) and then again when I posted the first batch of images from the show but I don't know if ever a show has been more squarely aimed at my interests than this one. I've read all of the books it's stealing from -- the ones about Tab Hunter and the ones about Rock Hudson and the ones about their pervert agent Henry Willson and the gas station prostitute Scotty Bowers, on and on. I love Closet Case Hollywood History. Here's the trailer:

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Hollywood premieres on Netflix on May 1st!

Hit the jump for a few more gifs of note...

Good Morning, World

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I was going through the photos on my phone this morning when I stumbled upon this old shot off Hollywood star Jeremy Pope's Insta-stories -- I suppose I must have screen-shotted it some night weeks ago and then forgotten about it by the next morning, and there it sat, silently, waiting, for its time to shine. Well shine on, photo. Shine on. You can see plenty more o' Pope at this link. What do we think -- will Hollywood get a second season? I know feelings were real mixed on the show -- I certainly saw its faults but they didn't bother me as most of the complaints I read seemed intentional; tonally it felt to me like a feel-good throwback to those "Let's put on a show!" Depression-era musicals, and as such it worked for me. I felt good, or at least distracted, which is good enough these days.

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Good Morning, World

Way back in November of 2021 I told y'all about a movie called The Inspection from the director of the LGBT doc Pier Kids that was set to star Hollywood actor (as in the Ryan Murphy series) Jeremy Pope alongside one of our faves, American Honey actor McCaul Lombardi -- well the above photo is not from the movie but it was taken of Lombardi by Pope during the making of the movie, says McCaul on his Instagram, and that feels like a moment worth marking! McCaul describes the photo as "Taken in bootcamp when I was playing the most toxic dude in the Marine corp" which I guess gives us a hint of the movie's plot, since we don't know a lot except it's an autobiographical story from the director. Anyway we are always happy to see actors bond in such ways! We encourage this behavior!

Pics of the Day

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The first batch of official photos from Ryan Murphy's forthcoming Netflix limited series Hollywood have dropped today -- see our previous posts about the show right here -- and they have made it clearer than ever that Mr. Murphy is going to be leaning in to the version of Tinsel Town history that we heard from the juicy (and possibly made up) autobiography of Scotty Bowers, the supposed gas station gay pimp of the Golden Age.

On the left there is the gorgeous David Corenswet (who is probably the only takeaway from Murphy's series The Politician) and on the right that's Murphy stalwart Dylan McDermott -- neither's character according to IMDb is named Scotty but one of them (David, really) oughta be. That said most of the main characters seem to be made-up, while they'll be surrounded by people playing Rock Hudson, Rock Hudson's creepy super-gay agent Henry Willson (who's being played by Jim Parsons), the gossip writer Hedda Hopper, et cetera so forth.

The seven episodes of Hollywood -- which also features Patti Lupone,  Darren Criss, Jeremy Pope, Samara Weaving, Laura Harrier, Holland Taylor, Jake Picking, and Joe Mantello -- will premiere on Netflix on May 1st. So just try to survive for four more weeks, y'all! Then we'll have a new show to binge while we're trapped in our houses still. A silver lining, that. Silver... like nitrate film, or whatever! I'm clever! Oh god get me out of this house, I am losing it. Hit the jump for a few more pictures...

McCaul Lombardi Two Times

Here are a couple of snaps of note that American Honey actor McCaul Lombardi has shared on his Instagram over the past week -- you cans ee plenty more of McCaul in our archives, of course. Checking his IMDb page he has a few projects lined up -- most interesting is one called The Inspection from Elegance Bratton, the documentarian behind the 2019 doc Pier Kids that followed three homeless LGBTQ youths; this new fiction-based movie will be a retelling of his own story (he was also a Marine) starring Hollywood actor Jeremy Pope; also in the cast besides McCaul are Raúl Castillo, Bokeem Woodbine, and Gabrielle Union. Good cast! We'll have t keep an eye out for that one.

I Am Link

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--- Blood Lovers - Stephen Moyer says that he and Alexander Skarsgård have been trying for ages to get the makers of True Blood to give them a sex scene, but they're not having any of it. I want every single one of those assholes fired right this second. It'd be so easy too - that's what flashbacks are for! Bill and Eric lived through the Seventies, man.

--- Give Our Best - Over at The Film Experience the lot of us, contributor-wise, have started sounding off on an unlikely FYC campaign - that is, we're advocating for the our favorites from 2013 that're likely to be totally ignored when actual nominations for the Oscars start happening. Some good ones right off the bat!

--- John Boy - Our pal Nathaniel Rogers got to interview adorable (and shockingly un-shy, ahem) Jonathan Groff about his voice-acting in this weekend's hit cartoon Frozen as well as the upcoming gay HBO series Looking - you can see most of the interview at Towleroad, but Nat dropped a few extra bits over at TFE. Oh and Nat also chatted with Julia Louis Dreyfous. Exclamation points!

--- Spook Shows - I hate how much I'm forced to still pay attention to Harvey Weinstein and his brother, but whatcha gonna do, they stick their grimy hands into everything - in an interview with the New York Times the brothers say they're planning on turning both Frank Miller's Sin City comics and Stephen King's excellent short story The Mist into some sort of television miniseries type events. Frank Darabont, who made the mostly very very good Mist movie not too long ago, is apparently involved in this would-be ten-part series.

--- Pope Of Filth - John Waters' yearly top ten for ArtForum is online now... although I don't think there's a direct link to where he talks about his choices in the magazine, I'm just finding the list itself for now. As always, he's more interesting than most. I wish the girls were less indistinguishable from each other in Spring Breakers; that's what keeps me from totally being on board with it. Also - Sight and Sound's top ten is pretty great too.

--- Candy Dammit - SYTD has the first official (bloody) picture from the new movie by the director of the wonderful yet under-appreciated film Pontypool, which is called Hellions and is about a woman terrorized by a trio of trick r' treaters. (Everybody immediately thought of Lock Shock and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas, right?)

--- Ha Ha Her - Here's seventy minutes of Greta Gerwig and some other people talking about having a "breakthrough year" for The Hollywood Reporter. I don't know where they've been, just now recognizing onto Greta. She should've been on their proper Actress Roundtable. Whatever!
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Jeremy Pope Two Times

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(via) See more of the Hollywood star here!

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Sir Yes Sirs

Giving off some major Moonlight meets An Officer and a Gentleman vibes the trailer for The Inspection is here this morning -- the Closing Night movie of this year's New York Film Festival, the drama from Pier Kids director Elegance Britton stars Hollywood actor (I will be happy when I no longer need to clarify that I mean the Ryan Murphy show in this context) Jeremy Pope as a street kid whose mother rejected him who decides to join the Marines, and it's based on Britton's own story. I have posted about this movie a couple of times previously, after I found out it co-stars American Honey actor (and big time MNPP crush) McCaul Lombardi -- he can be seen...

... in the trailer punching the main character in the shower, because of course I'm attracted to the homophobic bully type haha. What's new? (Lombardi himself seems anything but, for the record!) Anyway also seen getting some steamy action in the shower (and I too would include lots of shower scenes in my military movie), and this of a less violent sort at least, is Looking hunk Raúl Castillo...

... which seems all sorts of promising (even if Raúl seems like he might be ten years older than the rest of these actors -- am I nuts?) Anyway A24 has their hands on this movie so expect it to get some real push beyond the fests, and it's in theaters on November 18th -- here is the trailer:

5 Off My Head: It's NYFF 2023, Baby!

My beloved New York Film Festival has today announced its Main Slate for this the year 2023, and included are the three movies I am most looking forward to for the rest of the year -- and we'll get to what those are in a second, although if you listen to my rambling even just once in awhile you can probably guess. (Since Luca Guadagnino's Challengers moved itself to unknown pastures because of the SAG strike we have to count that one out for the time being.) But per usual it's a tremendous gathering of potential, given the filmmakers included -- Wim Wenders, Catherine Breillat, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Marco Bellocchio, Agnieszka Holland, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Alice Rohrwacher... and that's ignoring the Opening and Centerpiece and Closing night films which were already announced, those being Todd Haynes' May December, Sofia Coppola's Priscilla, and Michael Mann's Ferrari. Check out the entire line-up at this link or down below, but first as I do every year here are the five movies from the Main Slate that I'm most excited about...

The 5 NYFF Main Slate Movies I Want Right Now

Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos

Yorgos is a man I will follow to the ends of the earth and further at this point, so this should come as no shock -- the only thing that's shocking is it's not my most anticipated movie of the year, but there's one below that's beating it by an inch. The trailer (seen here) makes this look like everything Yorgos does best wrapped in one psychedelic package, and a big-time showcase for Emma Stone's strangest impulses. Bring it on!

All of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh

I just shared that first image from the film yesterday the second it dropped, and I've been all over news of this movie since minute one. Weekend director Andrew Haigh with a maybe-gay movie starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal? Of course I have. 

Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet

This won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this spring and its story of a riddle-like murder mystery sounds right up my alley anyway, but it's the fact that it features what is by all accounts an astonishing turn from German actress Sandra Hüller that's got my attention. Like most people who saw Toni Erdmann I have been Team Hüller ever since, and she's wowed me every chance, and this sounds like her biggest showcase since that marvelous earlier film.

The Beast by Bertrand Bonello

Bonello hasn't made a movie I've loved as much as I loved as Saint Laurent since Saint Laurent, but Nocturama came close. And this one stars George MacKay, so hope remains alive. Set in three distinct time periods it's about a woman (Le Sedoux) who discovers her existence has been forever intertwined with MacKay's character. Would that we are all so lucky!

The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer

This is my most anticipated movie of the year, just beating out Yorgos as mentioned above, and probably only because Glazer works so infrequently that we must properly pop the champagne whenever he shows up to keep encouraging the man to keep making his wondrous movies. Add on the facts that this also stars Sandra Hüller (from Anatomy of a Fall above), it has a score from Mica Levi, and it sounds like it's working on a very Michael-Haneke-type of register -- it focuses on a family of Nazis living an idyllic life right outside of a concentration camp -- and how could I not be all in on this?

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Passes for NYFF are on sale right now -- single tickets go on

sale on Sept. 19th. Hit the jump for the entire press release...