Roundtable

Jim: Roundtable time again. .  Remember our e-mail address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com.  Participating in our roundtable are  The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report;  Wally of The Daily Jot;  Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.

 

Jim (Con't):  So GLAAD announced their GLAAD Media Award nominees last week, C.I. posted it at THE COMMON ILLS and then we got: "Candace Cameron Saddle Burr and GLAAD's nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series," "GLAAD's nominees for Outstanding Documentary," "Thoughts on WSWS and (good going) GLAAD's Outstanding Drama Series nominees." "GLAAD's Outstanding Reality Program - Competition," "TV and streaming grab bag" -- which notes the nominees for the talk show category, "GLAAD's Outstanding live action Kids and Family programming, Graham Elwood, Woah Joe Biden," "GLAAD's nominees for Outstanding film -- streaming or TV," "glaad's nominees for outstanding new tv series," "GLAAD's Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series" and "GLAAD's Outstanding film nominees."  This was an attempt to really get the word out so check those out if you haven't already.

Elaine: And give Ann and C.I. credit because they talked about it and decided that the awards and GLAAD could be amplified, it was their idea.

Jim: Thanks, Elaine.  Ann, how did that come about?

Ann: Stan, for example, was highlighting various award nominations and I think I highlighted one myself.  Then C.I. and I were talking about BROS and it getting a nomination from GLAAD.  We talked about how GLAAD would probably be lucky to get a write up or two and how we could highlight in the community and do our part to make sure it got more than just a little attention.  Be the change you want to be and all of that.  So we ended up grabbing categories and highlighting.

 

Jim: Alright then.  THE DAILY SHOW is trying out new hosts.  Among those competing to be host?  Chelsea Handler, Kal Penn, DL Hughley, Leslie Jones, Wanda Sykes, Hasan Minhai, Sarah Sliverman, Marlon Wayans and John Leguizamo.  Any thoughts?  Leslie Jones went last week. 

Wally: Al Franken is awful and he's way too old.  He was part of the team writing SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE back in the 70s. He's 71 years old and needs to buy a clue.  

Betty: I wasn't following on COMEDY CENTRAL.  But I did stream the clips that C.I. posted at THE COMMON ILLS.  I thought DL was surprisingly good and had a real energy.  I thought Leslie Jones was fantastic and I've quoted, at work, some of her stuff from THE DAILY SHOW.  I could handle it if Chelsea Handler got it but, for me, if it's anyone other than those three -- Leslie, DL and Chelsea -- the wrong person has been selected.

Rebecca: Those are three strong choices but, for me, it's really got to be Leslie Jones.  I've been surprised at how good she's been.  She'd funny, absolutely, but she's been on point and just wonderful.  When she was the chicken -- is that one you've talked about at work -- giving the demands if people want eggs?

Betty: Yeah, that's one I've mentioned at work.  I love it when she says they have to get rid of Sally in that skit, "Sell Sally to Popeyes" is one of the demands.

Cedric:  She really has been hilarious.  DL was as well.  With Chelsea, too much is going to be about her signaling.  I just want to laugh people.  And what about when she went off the correspondent?  Wally and I were talking about that.  Wally?

Wally: The bit in that skit was that her best friend had dated him and he'd dumped her.  And she just went to town.  Even though it was her friend's fault.  It was so funny.  

Betty: I loved that.  They need to put that skit in its own YOUTUBE clip.  I'm going to post her this week regardless.  

Ty: Not tonight? 

Betty: Not tonight.  We're doing this roundtable on a Monday and I've got to hurry and post after we get done.

Isaiah: I've been watching THE DAILY SHOW and, listening to everyone talk, I think my vote's for Leslie Jones as well.  She's so funny.  And I've laughed repeatedly watching her but hearing Betty, Rebecca, Cedric and Wally talk about it, it really is obvious that she's the best choice.  She has taken it elsewhere and that's what the show needs.  Trevor Noah never worked for me because he was just a copy of Jon Stewart.  Leslie has really made it her own each time she's gotten behind the desk.

 

Ann: Yeah, I'd agree. She really has made it her own, more than anyone else who has attempted it.

Jim: Okay, new topic, Carson is upset that we didn't do a piece on Barbara Walters' passing.  

Ava: Is Carson the same Carson that's your cousin?  We shared our thoughts on Barbara repeatedly over the years.  There was no coda required.  Carson, Jim also wanted us to write about her.  We didn't see the point.  Enough people were covering her and most were doing so in a good way -- covering her career.  

Dona: On THE VIEW, I do want to stress that Star Jones married a gay man and divorced him.  I want to stress that because Star Jones was opposed to gay men marrying -- each other.  She was firmly against marriage equality.  Apparently, she wanted to save all the gay men for herself.

Jess: We actually quoted the e-mail she sent out after people criticized her for that on THE VIEW -- when she was saying that she voted God and that God didn't want two men to marry and all her other nonsense.  

Ty: It's hilarious and telling and justice that she ended up married to a gay guy.  And she turned that sham wedding into a gimmie-gimmie as she got companies to pay for this or gift her with that.  She was a grifter and then some.  Okay.  Sam Smith is a great singer.  Smith is also non-binary.  He was calling for the Brit Awards to go genderless on categories.  They did.  And now?  Best Artist has five nominees and not one is a woman.  Gale e-mailed wondering Ava and C.I.'s thoughts considering they wrote "Hard Pass on one Best Acting Academy Award (Ava and C.I.)."

Ava: C.I.'s pointing to me to start.  Okay.  First, I have no opinion on The Brit Awards.  It's a UK award organization.  It should represent the UK and they should make the decisions about their categories.  I have no comment regarding British awards or how they are determined.  Now hold for me, I'll take notes and C.I. can speak.

C.I.: What Ava said 100%.  In terms of what we wrote, we were referring to the Academy Awards.  

Ty: Summarize it for any who didn't read it.

C.I.: There is a push by some -- including THE LOS ANGELES TIMES editorial board -- for Best Actor and Best Actress to become one award.  In our piece, Ava and I spoke about how the nominees for Best Actress, for example, could be for any performer who defines as a woman and, for Best Actor, any performer who defines as man.  The role of actress has historically been different from that of actor.  Best Actor isn't about acting.  It's about what you represent and do you make the country feel good.  That's how really bad actors -- John Wayne, Gary Cooper, etc -- have won the award.  For Best Actress, a woman has to actually act -- generally a wide range of emotions.  Due to societal conditioning, a man wins for suppressing emotions while a woman wins for exploring.  Due to this, you really can't lump the two categories together at this point and see it as being in any way fair.  The two awards come with different expectations of the type of performance.  We are opposed to them being put into one role.  Back to Ava.

Ava: We've talked to Ty about what we wrote before because it resulted in a lot of e-mails.  We didn't touch on non-binary performers.  There aren't a lot of actors in lead roles using that definition currently.  If we work on this issue -- societal expectations -- and move towards one category, this could be done in around five years -- if the industry was serious about it.  By that time, it could be single category and incorporate binary performers.  At present, there are not that any who could garner a leading acting nomination. 

Ann: I don't know though, I think the points you both made are important ones and I don't see how the historical roles of women can 'compete' against men when they're being judged by different criteria. 

Betty: You are right.  Especially if the actor isn't a method actor, they're doing little more than stone faces and people -- voters -- are responding to their character and their character's meanings, not to the actual performance.  A Marlon Brando or a Dustin Hoffman is the exception in the actor category.  In the actress category?  Bette Davis is expected to pull out all stops, for example.  Jane Fonda's performance in KLUTE explores everything.  I think that's why we see that performance as the finest acting in film of the 20th century.  We expect so much more from the actress.  They have to grab us and rip our emotions from us.  A male actor just has to be a tour guide through the better parts of our nature.

Ty: Well said, Betty!  

Elaine: If I could, Sam's album GLORIA comes out on Friday.  In addition, this Friday sees the release of Carly Simon's LIVE AT GRAND CENTRAL -- the first time the album -- audio -- has been released.  And Diana Ross' SURRENDER, from 1973, gets a re-release.

Kat: Elaine and I have ordered our copies.  Noting that because Diana's album is a limited edition release.  You have been warned.

Jim: Betty, did you order as well?  

Betty: I did a three way sweep as well: Carly, Diana and Sam.

Jim: And you all used AMAZON.  Why?

Kat: Because we did not want to order from Carly Simon.  That's not me being mean.  Holly Near enraged people when they wanted to buy her album with Emma's Revolution.  That was a digital purchase but, even so, it left a bad taste in my mouth.  People were e-mailing me about it and they were upset because it was paid for but did not arrive.  That really ticked me off -- I'd promoted and reviewed the album.  So since then, it's just AMAZON for me.  Yes, Carly is selling physical copies at her website.  But I don't want to order from artists' websites after the Holly Near debacle.  I don't want to be mad at the artist.  So I just use AMAZON, sorry.  I will say, for anyone who wants to order from Carly, she does have two different versions of the vinyl.  One may be clear vinyl, I can't remember.  

Ann: There are two different kinds of vinyl -- one is "color" and the other is "black."  It's also available digitally.

Jim: Alright.  TV watching.  Did anyone catch anything good last week?

Elaine: Stan and I are both big fans of WILL TRENT which airs Tuesday nights on ABC.  

Stan: Huge fans.  And I will catch NIGHT COURT.  I've got it in the cloud but didn't have time to catch it.  This edition, Ava and C.I. praise it -- and THAT 90S SHOW -- so I'll catch them both as soon as I can.  

Ty: A question about the snapshot.  Today's "Iraq snapshot" went up later than usual.

C.I.: I dictate those and it was all done but it was mistakenly posted to post this evening and not this morning.  At lunch, I had friends calling asking where it was.  "It's right there."  Oh.  It's not.  So I went in and posted it.  Sorry.  Things happen.  

Jim: Including that you and Ava wanted this week off and said you were going to take it.  You didn't write anything Sunday.  Then, when we were getting ready to do the roundtable, it turned out that you had written the review that Stan's read.

Ava: Stan got a copy of it e-mailed to him.  We wanted his take because we didn't think we had anything.  Then, this morning, before lunch, we worked on what's going up this edition.  We copied and pasted it into an e-mail and sent it to Stan.

Stan: And I said this is excellent, you have to post it.  And it is excellent.

Jim: Alright, Mike and Ruth wanted to talk about Joe Biden's documents that keep turning up -- over the weekend, a fourth discovery, another trove of classified documents.  Who wants to go first?

Mike: Ladies first.

Ruth: Thank you, kind sir.  So President Biden has a classified problem.  He was attacking former President Donald Trump last fall over Mr. Trump's document problem.  Turns out, he was residing in a glass house.  Four discoveries.  Who knows how many more are going to turn up?  Could be none.  Could be many more.  He is the President of the United States and he does not know how to handle classified documents?  This is deeply troubling.  

Mike: For me, it comes down to the point C.I. made.  Donald took documents.  Donald refused to turn them over.  Donald knew where they were.  If Joe's to be believed, he had no idea he had those documents.  They were not secure, don't pretend they were.  If you don't know you have them, they are not secure.  Donald at least had his documents secured.  Donald also refused the request to return them based on his understanding of presidential powers.  

Ruth: Right.  You may agree or disagree with Mr. Trump on his belief that, as president, he was able to declassify those and, therefore, take them with him when he left the White House.  Again, you can agree or disagree but, like Mike said, Mr. Trump was arguing presidential powers.  Mr. Biden does not have that excuse.  These were documents he obtained before he was president.  He was vice president and may have even taken the documents when he was a senator.

Mike: So there is no excuse for this.  Joe should have returned them long before he ran for re-election.  His refusal to do so goes to the fact that I do not believe Joe Biden should be allowed to handle classified documents.  This is another example of something he is just not up to.

Ruth: There is no question that President Biden mishandled classified documents.  They were not returned and they were not secured and he did not even know he had them.  By the definition, he mishandled them.

Jim: Okay.  So what do you two think should happen?  Ruth, you first?

Ruth: I have no idea.  I am not convinced that more documents are not going to pop up.  I am also not convinced of the stories the press has run with.  We have heard what Mr. Biden's attorneys want us to hear.  Whether that is the truth -- let alone the whole truth -- I have no idea.  I think a Congressional investigation is warranted.

Jim: Okay.  And Mike?

Mike: I think Ruth's right but what I zoom in on is that Joe doesn't need to run for re-election.  He's an embarrassment.  He's senile and now we know he cannot even be trusted with secure documents -- and this goes back many years, meaning he's probably much worse today.

Elaine: Dona, we were talking earlier today about how if this hadn't come up, Joe's latest scandal, he would have already announced that he was seeking re-election.

Dona: Right.  And we were of the shared opinion that the Democratic Party can do much better than Joe Biden for 2024.  He is senile.  He assaulted Tara Reade.  He and his family are corrupt.  

Elaine: And don't get us started on Navy Joan and how Hunter is trying to prevent her from having his last name.

C.I.: (singing) "They say he gave her his child, he wouldn't give her his name."

Elaine: Exactly.  That's "Unwanted Number" from the film GRACE OF MY HEART.  And he won't allow his own daughter to have his name and he's trying to get out paying child support again.  What's a matter, Hunter, your sugar bro won't give you anymore money?

Ruth: It is disgusting.  And do not talk to me about family values when he has now spent two years in the White House, President Biden, and he has never ever had his granddaughter Navy Joan to the White House.  That is disgusting.  That is appalling.  Do not pretend you care about family values as you ice an innocent child out of your lives.  It is disgusting.  We would have, as a people, crucified Ronald Reagan if he did that.  Or Bill Clinton.  Any of our past presidents.  But somehow it is okay for Joe Biden to do it?  It is outrageous and offensive.

Jim: And on that strong note, we're going to wrap up.  This is a rush transcript.