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In the News

Stories I'm Obsessed with Right Now:

(1) We suddenly know what the big revelation about Adnan will be tomorrow night. His DNA wasn't found on or near the body. Fine. But maybe he used gloves. Also, it would be so much more satisfying if the DNA that *was* found did actually match another human being. And it sounds like we're not going to get that kind of wrap-up. Why no more information about Don? What was he doing on the day Hae went missing? (Not that I actually think Don is the killer. I think it's Adnan.)

(2) There's speculation about Lupita Nyong'o possibly getting an Oscar nomination out of "Us." That would be unusual because (1) the movie was released so early in the year, (2) it's rare to get an acting nomination out of a horror movie, and (3) it's rare to get a nomination for playing two roles in one movie. (Scenario III is rare, yes, but not unheard of. Someone got a nomination for the same thing--and actually won--for an early Jane Fonda movie called "Cat Ballou.")

If you go down the Lupita and Oscars rabbit hole, you find there's a site--Gold Derby--that actually tells you who may get nominated and appear at the 2020 ceremony. 2020! Expect Meryl, Amy Adams, and maybe even Anna Paquin. Also: People who win Best Actress tend to be in their twenties. (Though Olivia Colman has bucked the trend.) People who win Best *Supporting* Actress can really be any age they wish to be. Jessica Tandy won Best Actress when she was a million years old--which was rare. Katharine Hepburn won when she was young, then she won twice much later, and her final (fourth) Oscar was toward the very, very end of her career. ("On Golden Pond.") For "Pond," Hepburn was approaching the Tandy age bracket.

(3) I'm following, with fascination, the response to Maddie Corman's "Accidentally Brave." Corman is married to a man who once possessed child pornography--Jace Alexander, who is also the son of Oscar nominee Jane Alexander. (Jane once lost a big prize to a famous co-star, Meryl Streep, for "Kramer vs. Kramer." Anyway, Maddie is now telling the story of her husband's kiddie porn past in a play--"Accidentally Brave.")

Here, both sides in a debate seem insufferable. The side that wants Corman to silence herself and live in a convent seems insufferable.  Corman herself--who is possibly very entitled and living in a bubble--seems like she might be insufferable. Still, I'll defend Corman's right to write about the thing she wants to write about. There's chutzpah there. And while it may seem like narcissism to insist on telling such a personal story, it seems equally likely that Corman is sincere when she says she's doing this work to help other people who have been ravaged by the sinister world of kiddie porn, in one way or another. It's possible that--when we talk about taboo things--we can make the world a slightly less mysterious and frightening place. Maybe. What do you think?

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