Dona: I thought we could do a book discussion. Thank you first off to Ava and C.I. who are taking notes for this transcript piece. Thank you to Betty and Ruth and Stan for participating. I want to start with Ruth because she read a book ("IF WE BREAK") that is actually in the news. IF WE BREAK is written by Kathleen Buhle who is Hunter Biden's ex-wife, his first wife, the mother of three of his children. Over the weekend, THE WASHINGTON POST suggested/insisted the book was not needed. That's what I mean about in the news. Ruth, would you like to reply to that.
Ruth: It is funny because my review, that I wrote4 on Thursday, reads like a reply to that review.
Dona: I thought so too.
Ruth: The book is not about Hunter Biden. He is in the book, he is part of the book. He destroyed his family. Yes, all that is true. But this is not about that. This is about Ms. Buhle hanging onto her sanity and raising her daughters and loving them in a deeply troubling period. That is what the book is about. I did not focus on Hunter in the review because he is not the story.
Dona: I thought of your review when I was reading THE POST's attack on the book. And I thought how strange that they are attacking the book as unneeded. Seems there are a ton of books that come out each year which are unneeded and that's not really the focus of the review from THE POST. Why this book?
Ruth: Because they did not cover Hunter Biden in real time in terms of his scandals. They ran with the 'leave him alone, he's a kid trying to recover from drugs.' No. He was a man of 50 when his problems were exposed by THE NEW YORK POST. He was a man of 50 with three daughters by his first wife. He left his first wife to sleep with his brother's wife. He was a crack head who was using and active in his disease. He lied to purchase a firearm. The Secret Service got involved -- though they lied to POLITICO and insisted that was not the case. He had strippers sodomize him. He got one stripper pregnant, kept her on the payroll for a year and then, when sued for child support, tried to deny that the child was his and insisted that he did not remember the woman. He was forced by a court to pay child support. He didn't want to reveal his finances to the court. That is because he had not properly paid the IRS. He is under grand jury investigation for that currently though his 'sugar brother' is saving his 'sugar ass' by paying millions in debt for him.
Stan: Which we are not supposed to note or comment on. As Ruth noted in "IF WE BREAK," if this were Roger Clinton getting millions while his brother was in the White House, the news would be all over it. Instead, they pretend like it is no big deal. It is a big deal.
Dona: And I'd argue a huge ethical violation.
Betty: I would agree but I want to back up Ruth's point. Hunter Biden is a character in his ex-wife's book. His actions cause tremendous pain and upheaval -- I'm less than half way into the book. But Ruth's correct, it's not about Hunter. "You're So Vain," the classic song written and recorded by Carly Simon, is not about James Taylor or Warren Beatty. It's about the way a man's vanity impacts one woman, almost destroys her, but she survives. I would argue the same is true of IF WE BREAK.
Dona: Gotcha. Now we're up to Colton Haynes' new book MISS MEMORY LANE: A MEMOIR. Betty covered the book in "Colton Haynes" and Stan did so in "My girlfriend is very happy." Who wants to set up the book?
Stan: I'll do it. Colton Haynes is an actor. He was popular on TEEN WOLF -- which I did not watch. Then he played Roy on ARROW, which I did watch. Early on, some photos of him leaked and he rushed to deny that he was gay, early on while he was on ARROW. Then, a few years later, he came out. The book is about his life growing up and how, when he gets into the acting business, he is encouraged to stay in the closet. You could even argue he is forced to stay in the closet.
Betty: I would agree with that, forced. There was a lot of homophobia that he encounters. It's there early on with a manager saying he's coming off gay and that's not meant to be a good thing. But it's present even once he's a hit on ARROW. In fact, one of the reasons that he leaves is because someone in the cast is very homophobic to him.
Stan: And I wonder who that is?
Betty: I do too.
Dona: He doesn't name the person?
Betty: No.
Stan: There are a limited number of people it could be. First off, it's not Greg Berlanti who was the show runner. Greg is gay. It's not Stephen Amell who played Arrow -- read the book and that's obvious.
Betty: I would argue it's obvious who it is if you read the book.
Stan: I'd agree with that. I hope I've interpreted that wrong but it does seem rather obvious and there are a limited number of people it could be.
Dona: Care to share?
Betty: We'd hate to implicate the wrong person. But who we both think it is? It's very disappointing, if accurate. It does go to why ARROW didn't really get spin offs, however.
Dona: Has Colton been in anything since ARROW?
Stan: AMERICAN HORROR STORY in 2017. But then he returned for ARROW from 2018 to 2020. Since then, he did an episode of DOLLFACE on HULU this year.
Dona: We could argue and agree that writing the book took up some of his time. I also believe he got married --
Betty: And divorced. He and Jeff Leathem divorced in 2019 and their relationship is covered in the book.
Dona: Okay. My question was, has coming out hurt his career?
Stan: I don't know that it helped and I don't know that it hurt. He was a good looking guy on a comic book show. Justin Hartley? He was the same on SMALLVILLE where he played Aquaman. I believe he's straight, by the way. He went on, several years later, to play Victoria's gay son on REVENGE -- and was great in the role. A few years after that, he's a lead on THIS IS US. That took time. Tom Welling was the star of SMALLVILLE and he's not really had a trailblazing career -- again, he's straight.
Betty: And then there's Alan Ritchson -- again, believe he's straight. He played Hawk on TITANS and Hawk on some other shows in the DC universe. He's now playing REACHER, the title role, on AMAZON. He looks like Reacher should, per the book, not the movie with the shrimp Tom Cruise. He's tall and muscular. If Colton were going to be an action actor, he'd need to bulk up some more.
Ruth: I am reading the book. Almost to the end. I would also point out that whether or not he himself was being 'dramatic' offline, there were people who thought he was -- especially in the lead up to the wedding.
Betty: I remember that. Was that homophobia? It's a question I wondered at the time. A straight couple can share as much on INSTAGRAM in the lead up and that's treated as normal and people go 'oh' 'ah' and more in delight. There was a huge backlash to Colton and some of that was homophobic. And some of that came from the gay community, to be honest. Gay men calling him various insults like the s-word that rhymes with "rut." Did that hurt his image or standing? I don't know.
Dona: Stan, how about this, where is the ARROW cast today?
Stan: Amell stars as a wrestler in a new show HEELS on STARZ. David Ramsey has directed episodes of SUPERMAN AND LOIS. The only thing I've seen Emily Bett Rickards do is discuss that ARROW might come back. That's all I know.
Ruth: Katie Cassidy, David's daughter, has been announced as the director of DADDY ISSUES. That is a feature film. My friend Treva was a David Cassidy fan and she passed that on last month.
Dona: So, except for the star, no one's really landed any big acting opportunities. Although Katie Cassidy being set to direct a feature film is big news. But I'm reminded of Rebecca's "." In it, she called out Tom Hanks for arguing that if PHILADELPHIA were made today an out gay man would be cast in his role. That's not the case. Rebecca points out how HULU wanted credit for doing LOVE VICTOR but wasn't pro-gay enough to cast a gay actor in the role of the lead character, a gay man named Victor.
Betty: I don't get that. I really don't. And that actor is awful. They should have cast it with a gay actor -- an out gay actor.
Stan: Until that happens, I think we're going to see a lot of actors and actresses who come out suffering.
Ruth: Which is why Julianna Margulies should not have taken the role she did on THE MORNING SHOW.
Stan: But, on that show, they also have the closet case playing a straight woman. Maybe that balances it out?
Dona: True. And maybe someone should ask executive producer Jennifer Aniston what she has against casting lesbians? Okay, we're going to wrap up. Thank you all for participating. Thank you to Ava and C.I. for taking notes. This is a rush transcript. If you want to comment or have a suggestion or slam, e-mail us at common_ills@yahoo.com.