The party has no idea how negotiations work

Happy 13th anniversary to this pair of matching news headlines.

Chris Rufo's wardrobe consists entirely of hot dog costumes

Every so often I’m reminded that Extremely Woke and Gay Hollywood made a movie that sanewashed her and Gretchen Carlson by dint of their being women in the vicinity of Roger Ailes bsky.app/profile/mike...

This is literally what CURRENT LAW requires. It’s in the Constitution! www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

One of the most miserable things about living in this era is having to watch the stupidest & most arrogant people in the world have to relearn The Why of literally everything good that we collectively do the hard way. The answer is always ‘Because a bunch of people died, fuckwit.’

Yay!!! (I played Sheridan Whiteside in my high school's production of this show, lol)

It would be hard to summarize what has happened to the GOP this last decade more succinctly than this pic.

On this day in 1979, 'The Warriors' was released. We discussed it (with insights from the lovely Walter Hill) on our FUN CITY CINEMA episode on the great subway movies:

On Alan Arkin's 'Little Murders,' released on this day in 1971:

Happy birthday to the great Joe Pesci. Still like this piece I wrote for Flavorwire during his semi-retirement:

Always amazing to see in real time the absolute failure of the conservative cultural movement, whose existence is only recognized at all thanks to billions in astroturfing money and years of gaming recommendation algorithms. They know it's all fake too but can't help but be frustrated by that

current Oscar nominee Elle Fanning in a mayonnaise commercial is how you know the entertainment industry is kinda fucked

I ask this genuinely but also knowing the answer: why are the millions and millions of dollars these people have never enough? have some self-respect!

WB coulda had this money if they hadn't dropped the damn ball on the Looney Tunes!!

"During In Living Color’s first season, a marketing impresario approached Fox with an idea that would stick it to CBS, the NFL rights holder and Super Bowl carrier that Murdoch had in his sights: a special episode of In Living Color that would air opposite the Super Bowl intermission."

I doubt this has happened before: 11 of this weekend's top 15 movies were made independently, inc. 4 of the top 5. There is nothing holding down overall grosses and attendance more than the fact that studios have forgotten how to do what they used to do, which is to fill the pipeline with movies.

Scream 7 like girl who gives a fuck

Shout out to my fellow nerds on the best day to run errands 🫡

It's almost as if you should, what's the phrase I'm looking for, do shit like this yourself

Holy shit victim blaming and a half. Calling those trafficked girls aspiring sugar babies is some real nasty work

'Taxi Driver' was released FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY, so here's me talking about it (and other stuff) with Scorsese on the FUN CITY CINEMA podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

This is the ur-grift: it’s not the get-rich-quick scheme that makes you rich, it’s teaching other people how to sell it to someone else.

Just saw a post with George Clinton citing the Beatles as his favorite band, which reminded me of this quote he once gave me

I’m not a fan of either teams today and didn’t know who to root for until I saw a segment that showed the Patriots have adopted the “Warriors…come out to playyyyyaayyyy” as their pregame pump up. They even did the bottles on the fingers so respect.

P R E A C H

This this this. I've posted about it before but *multiple* AI slop James Gandolfini biographies appeared on Amazon in the days after GANDOLFINI was published, and any money those jagoffs made should have gone in my pocket. I did the work, I did the promo, they ripped people off.

crickets from the free speech crowd, of course

"Tell me you know nothing about the Muppets without telling me you know nothing about the Muppets."

Am I having a fucking stroke?

Saturday nights are for side-eyes

Wait, THIS is young Anton Chekhov? This? Good lord. Let that gun go off, daddy

Just go ahead and call it photo of the year, folks.

Charles Chaplin debuted his iconic Little Tramp character in the short film “Kid Auto Races at Venice,” which premiered on this day in 1914. One of my favorite Flavorwire pieces, republished here:

There's a candy-man quality to Rob Lowe himself. He has no weight, no density. It's not that he's a bad actor—it's that he doesn't suggest a real person. (1986)

I didn’t have access to WiFi on the plane and got more work done in three hours than I ever have in my entire life. I will learn nothing from this.

Wrote about this (checks dateline) 12 years ago (turns to dust) www.flavorwire.com/479889/stop-...

Just hire all the laid off reporters. Call it the Washington Citizen or something. Doesn’t seem that hard.

These motherfuckers are beyond saving

This reminded me to go subscribe to Drew's site and you should too: www.drewmcweeny.com

My favorite kind of piece to write: when I file it and the editor replies “You made me want to seek these out.” My report for the Marquee about the V-Cinema retrospective in Rotterdam.

When TPUSA decided to do this show last fall they were sure that Kirk would be a beloved national martyr by February of 2026, but in the ensuing months Kirk and Mandatory Mourning of him has become a huge internet joke to children. TPUSA is grimly moving ahead with this broadcast out of pure spite

It is super weird whenever someone sets up a new Substack and I can't say I have regrets about ditching the platform at all

Albert Finney died on this day in 2019. He had such a good time making Miller’s Crossing that he turned up on his day off to appear in drag when Gabriel Byrne bursts into the ladies room.

Mel Brooks’ ‘Blazing Saddles’ debuted in theaters on this day in 1974. Some thoughts on its brilliance, from the archives:

This is probably my favourite pic of Welles, taken by Nicolas Tikhomiroff in 1964, during the shoot of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT and used on the cover of the third volume of Simon Callow's biography of this artistic giant, 'One Man Band'.

production of The Muppet Show should not be dependent on petty vulgarities like “ratings” or “revenue.” it should be preserved as a vital function of american culture. it should have a taxpayer-funded budget rivaling the CIA

MASH is back on Hulu a month after they pulled it. This is rare good news from a streaming service that's been on full retreat from 1960s and '70s TV in recent months. #TVSky #ClassicTV