Not familiar with either Paley or her film, but I do like Annette Hanshaw.
I’m sorry to hear about this. I met Nina in the late 1990s, but haven’t been in touch with her for decades, and hadn’t heard about this development. Back then, the most unconventional position of hers (that I knew about) was as a proponent of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.
It’s always disappointing to learn that people you respect or admire for one aspect of their lives are despicable in other aspects.
Speaking of which, news from Le Monde about the connection between Jeffrey Epstein and Woody Allen.
Primetime
I’ve never seen the To Catch A Predator show this is (sort of) about, but I came out of the film feeling distinctly ooky. It takes the “outing pedophiles is morally righteous” theme of the show and leaves you feeling that everyone in the film is both predator and prey, manipulating and being manipulated by someone else for all the wrong reasons. In the end everyone is swimming in the same filth.
Robert Pattinson delivers another strong performance, but what I noticed was that a lot of the “predators” were played by actors that started young - Jonathan Lipnicki, Tony Revolori, Alex Winter (who was unrecognisable) etc. It made me wonder.
There were assorted other Easter eggs and subtle jokes scattered throughout the film that went over the head of the younger and more British audience we saw it with, but on the whole it was a solid if not particularly pleasant film.
Finally got around to seeing it. It was down to one showing a day so I went before it was pulled all together..
Meh. It’s not a bad movie but wait until it streams. Sally Owen tries to protect her two daughters from the family curse by casting a spell on them to forget they’re witches then forgoes all her powers. It doesn’t work of course.
I was about a half hour into the movie before I recognized Maisie Williams as one of the daughters. She’s more mature now than in GOT but when she was concerned about something I recognized the eyebrows,
By the way, I noticed that when I was watching Primetime (a dramatized film version of real people making a real television show), there were also trailers for Elsinore (a dramatized film version of real people doing a real theatre production) and I Play Rocky (a dramatized film version of real people making a real film).
I hope this is just a brief trend, or the entertainment industry is going to disappear up its own backside before long.
A biopic of Jimmy Stewart opens this weekend.
“A brief trend”?! 
Biographies of Hollywood/theatre/celebrities have been around for 100 years.
They’re not just biopics, though. They’re films about productions. Which are not new in themselves but there sure seem to be a lot of them right now.
Ghostbusters (1984) - on Disney+
I watched this Halloween night. It’s a classic. Three scientists lose their cushy university jobs and decide to take their paranormal expertise to the private sector. Supernatural activity spikes in New York City and they hire a fourth Ghostbuster, clash with Walter Peck from the EPA, and fight a demigod. It’s fun, it’s funny. There are great lines and some neat ghost-busting action. The effects are mostly good with the exception of the Zuul and Vinz Clortho dogs. Bill Murray’s character is a bit problematic, I think, but he’s the guy with the sardonic wit that holds the team together.
Films about filmmaking are perennial Oscar bait. They are literally about the judges’ favorite thing.
Good point.
Heck, films about productions of Hamlet alone may be in the double digits by now. Let’s see, there’s the forthcoming Elsinore, and there was the 1964 Richard Burton’s Hamlet movie which was a filmed dress rehearsal so about halfway between filmed-production and film-about-the-production, and The Tongo Hamlet also in 1964, and the 1973 One Hamlet Less (Italian), and the 1995 In the Bleak Midwinter/Midwinter’s Tale, and the 2005 The Hobart Shakespeareans, and the 2009 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (more or less), and the 2024 Grand Theft Hamlet. If you throw in the 1973 A Performance of Hamlet in the Village of Mrduša Donja and stretch a point for 2025’s Hamnet, there’s the ten.
And that’s not even counting films about productions of other Shakespeare plays, like Kiss Me Kate (Taming of the Shrew) and Shakespeare in Love (Romeo and Juliet), etc. etc. etc.
Yup, showbiz people are endlessly fascinated with making movies about the showbiz experiences of other showbiz people. Unsurprisingly, since that’s the world they know best.
Given that it’s just six episodes long, there’s a case for counting Season 1 of Slings and Arrows.
Does Tom Hanks play him?
I guess Jim Carrey wasn’t available:
The first time I watched No Highway In The Sky, with Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, I thought “if they made this film now, they’d cast Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.” Then I realized, that’s more or less what they did!
I prefer the SNL with Stewart on Schprokets mit Dieter. I think Dana Carvey does a much better impression.
But you have to admit Carrey’s impression of Stewart’s impression of Carrey is dead-on.
True dat!
“I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results."
“Back off man, I’m a scientist.”
Ghostbusters, the original.