Random Friday Thoughts — May 27, 2022

The weekend is here and it’s Memorial Day weekend! Thank you for taking the time to check out my random thoughts.

Some of you have a three-day weekend, so enjoy the “unofficial” start to the summer season.

MEMORIAL DAY

However, let’s not forget the reason for this federal holiday — to mourn the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the armed services.

Memorial Day used to be called “Decoration Day”. From 1868 until 1970, it was on May 30th, but since 1971, the holiday has been on the last Monday in May.

THE SLAP HEARD (almost) AROUND THE WORLD!

I was in Costa Rica during the Oscars and I wasn’t watching.

The next day my sister told me about the drama of Will Smith walking up on the stage and slapping the hell of out of comedian Chris Rock after he made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith!

And, two months later, I still haven’t watched it. However, I’ve heard ALL of the follow-up stories and I’m over it!

Of the Best Actor nominees, I’ve seen three of the performances and I think Smith deserved the win (I still haven’t seen Javier Bardem in “Being the Ricardos” and Denzel Washington in “The Tragedy of Macbeth”.)

Do I think the Academy should take back his Oscar? NO. If they want to ban him from attending future Oscar ceremonies, so be it.

The bottom line is Chris Rock is a comedian (let me stress “comedian” because I saw his lackluster acting performance in the fourth season of “Fargo”) and comedians make rude comments about people. It’s just what they do.

Was Will Smith wrong slapping him in front of millions of people across the world? YES!

Does Smith deserve to lose acting jobs because of his actions? Let me simplify Isaac Newton’s third law — for every action, there’s a reaction.

So, Will, deal with it!

AND, THE REAL SMACKDOWN!!!

“It’s on you!”

Your opinion: O’Rourke out of line? Or, just pointing the honest truth?

FOR THE RECORD

Texas Governor Greg Abbott after the Uvalde school shooting that left, at least, 21 dead: “never again”.

Since he took office in January 2015, there have been six mass shootings in Texas!

AND, THIS…

NBC News: Governor Abbott says the Uvalde school shooter had a “mental health challenge” and the state needed to “do a better job with mental health” — yet in April he slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs.

I’ll now get off my soap box!

“PAM & TOMMY”

I’m probably one of the few across the world that never saw the scandalous Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape back in the 1990s when it blew up the internet. (Okay, I didn’t even have the internet in 1995. That’s probably the reason.)

However, I finally got around to watching the eight episode Hulu original series with Lily James and Sebastian Stan.

Both were amazing in their roles and they could earn Emmy nominations next month.

“Pam & Tommy” was great when it focused on Pam.

It’s likely that many creative liberties were taken in the series. But, if only a portion of the degradation Pam went through in the deposition happened, those lawyers were appalling!

Who cares if she had posed for magazines and made a fortune running on the beach in a bathing suit on “Baywatch”? It was shameful!

In this series, Tommy Lee was very annoying and unlikeable. If he’s like that in real life, yikes!

Whether you approve of people recording or photographing intimate or sexual moments or not, Pam & Tommy Lee were victims of having their private moments exposed to the world.

GRADE: C+

P.S. In full disclosure, after watching the series, I MAY (or may not) have done a Google search and saw the images!

“FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE”

On August 19, 2022, three days after legendary music icon Madonna turns 64, she’s giving fans a birthday present. (Okay, it’ll cost us!)

Madonna is the only artist in music history to score 50 #1 hits on a single Billboard chart — hers is on the Dance Club Songs.

The 50-track, three disc collection, “Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones” is a 40-year retrospective and is remastered with some remixed songs.

“Frozen” is listed as “(Extended Club Mix Edit) [2022 Remaster]”. Please, please, please let it be this new collaboration with Sickick.

Madonna recorded new vocals for the track and it includes a brand-new verse “remaking the iconic single into an ecstatic trap collaboration”.

You’ve just got to see and listen to this new version!

“DR. DEATH”

This eight episode, 2021 Peacock original series, was great and is terrifying because it’s based on a real case!

Joshua Jackson plays Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a young and brilliant doctor in Dallas building a thriving neurosurgery practice.

All of sudden, patients coming in for routine, yet complex, spinal surgeries begin leaving his operating room dead or permanently disabled.

As the victim count rises, two other doctors, neurosurgeon Robert Henderson (Alec Baldwin) and vascular surgeon Randall Kirby (Christian Slater), set out to stop Duntsch with the help of Dallas prosecutor Michelle Shughart (AnnaSophia Robb).

“Dr. Death” was nominated for three Critics’ Choice Award — the series for Best Limited Series, Jackson for Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television, and Slater for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television.

All three may get Emmy nominations this July!

I’ve gone 57 years without any surgeries (other than my wisdom teeth pulled) and after seeing this series, I hope I never have to have a surgery!

GRADE: B

“THE REACH OF A CHEF”

Subtitled “Beyond the Kitchen”, this is Michael Ruhlman 2006 follow-up to “The Making of a Chef” (1997) and “The Soul of a Chef” (2000).

In February 2021, I featured several insights from his phenomenal 2017 book, “Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America”.

Here are a few interesting notes from “The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen”:

• While good for the chef and culinary business, Tim Ryan, head of the Culinary Institute of America says this about celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, “I also often hear chefs criticize Emeril’s culinary techniques, but television is entertainment… I like Emeril and respect him. I do wish that he could move away throwing raw spices on his plates”.

• And, Ryan adds, “Anyway, it could be worse — he could be screaming profanities at someone, or acting unprofessional, and thankfully Emeril has never done that.” Hello Gordon Ramsey! 🙂

• When Emeril Lagasse was starting out in television, he would fly to New York from New Orleans and tape as many as seven episodes a day at $300 each.

• As he became famous, the critics’ (chefs and writers) claws came out. Lagasse says, “Everybody’s so critical today. Nobody criticized Julia [Child] for dropping swordfish on the floor and then picking it up, brushing it, and continuing… These days you’ve got the chicken police, the frog legs police, hamster police, they’re coming after you.”

THAT’S IT

With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!

Anthony

Random Friday Thoughts — May 20, 2022

As May chugs along, we’re getting closer and closer to Memorial Day and the “unofficial” start to the summer season.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my “Random Friday Thoughts”.

FOOD NETWORK

I’m captivated by the Food Network. What’s surprising is that it debuted in 1993 as the “TV Food Network” and adopted its current name “Food Network” in 1997 and I never paid any attention to it until now.

It started with flipping channels in hotel rooms and catching the always classy Ted Allen on “Chopped”.

In the past six months, Food Network became my default channel. Now I have to be very careful when I turn on the TV not to fall “down the rabbit hole” of watching episode after episode of whatever cooking show is on — just like I do with Kylie Minogue and 1980s music videos on YouTube!

My favorite show is “Beat Bobby Flay”. He’s so charming, witty, and snippy!

I really enjoy Guy Fieri’s “Guy’s Grocery Games” and his goofy humor. He also has “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” and I admire the man’s appetite! (I love to eat, too!) Now, I’m going to have to visit his restaurant on my next visit to Las Vegas!

I find Ree Drummond (“The Pioneer Woman”) so warm and inviting and I’d love to spend a day in her kitchen when she’s baking desserts, and Alex Guarnaschelli is so intelligent and incredible, but I’d be so afraid to cook for her. 🙂

But, the person I love the most on Food Network is Aarti Sequeira. I’m totally mesmerized and I could sit and listen to her read the phone book all day! Well, okay, maybe a cookbook!

I’ll post this delightful video of her making Tikka Masala. Even if you don’t plan on making it, click on it just to hear her beautiful voice!

Could you just imagine sitting down to a delicious, authentic home-cooked Indian feast? I definitely can!

MEETING CELEBRITIES!

My career has given me the opportunity to meet many celebrities (Reba McEntire, Lionel Richie, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Madeleine Albright, Carol Channing, and more).

Also, there have been chance encounter meetings (with a lot of luck) — Hillary Clinton, Shania Twain, and President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter.

Those celebrity encounters were amazing and they were all so gracious.

And, I’ve been in the orbit of two other celebrities that I didn’t approach. (There was a third, but I did get to talk to her from across the room. I’ll elaborate on that below.)

In September 2012, I was next to Florence Welch at the baggage terminal at the airport in Houston. I was there to relax and see the city for a week and Florence was frantically trying to get her bags for a concert hours away with her band, Florence + the Machines.

The other was Carson Kressley.

OH, CARSON KRESSLEY!

Now that I’m a huge Food Network fan, I realize I have an ax to grind.

I didn’t realize how much of a grudge I’ve held for years against Carson Kressley until having to watch his promo for “BBQ Brawl” on repeat this spring.

This goes back to December 2014.

We took a Holland America Caribbean cruise. It just so happened that the “Dancing with the Stars: At Sea” Champions competition was taking place on our ship.

Kressley was one of the celebrities set to perform.

We saw him several times around the ship that week with Kym Johnson and Artem Chigvintsev.

Not once did he even fake a smile to acknowledge our existence when he’d be just several feet away!!! I didn’t need (or want) to carry on a conversation, but some warmth goes a long way.

He might be a great guy, so I’ll give him the benefit of a doubt now that I’m venting. I know that the ship holds close to two thousand people and he may have been overwhelmed by people, but every time we saw him!?

So, now when I hear him rattle off “We’ll be BBQ BFF ASAP OK” in the “BBQ Brawl” promo, I try not to cringe and think “NO WAY” instead of “OK”!

If we ever cross paths again and our QUEER EYES meet, maybe we can say hello socially!

It may not be a delicious Strawberry Basil Bellissimo (vodka, strawberries, basil infusion, and fresh basil) from that cruise, but champagne or wine works for me!

Cheers Carson!

MAMMA MIA, MISS ABBA!

Pug 20-something* is still in the cards. I just don’t know when those cards will be dealt.

(*Pug2020 became Pug2021, then Pug2022 and now it’s Pug20-something!)

I can’t believe it’s been ten years since I had a dog!!!

Miss ABBA, my golden retriever, was born this weekend 22 years ago on a llama farm near Canton, Ohio.

We had a good run for 11.5 years and traveled the country together.

I know Pug20-something will bring me the same joy in my senior years!

“THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE”

I finally got around to seeing “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” which won Jessica Chastain her first Oscar this year.

It was an enjoyable movie, but it was pretty much a “paint by numbers” production. Andrew Garfield, as Jim Bakker, was great, too.

And, like Kristen Stewart in “Spencer”, Jessica Chastain’s performance in “Eyes” is better than the movie itself.

I’ve now seen three of this year’s best actress performances (I still need to watch Nicole Kidman in “Being The Ricardos” and Penelope Cruz in “Parallel Mothers” aka “Madres paralelas”).

Until seeing Jessica Chastain’s Tammy Faye, my pick for the Oscar was Olivia Colman in “The Lost Daughter”.

GRADE: B-

MORE TAMMY FAYE

After reading Tammy Faye’s touching book, “Telling It My Way” in July 2014, I posted a blog and in the first four years, it was read 350 times.

In 2019, when future Oscar winner Jessica Chastain signed on to a movie about Tammy Faye, the number of people reading the blog doubled to more than 700 in 2019 and 2020 combined.

When the movie came out last year, it became my most viewed blog of the year and it’s already the most viewed blog, so far, this year, too! I guess my blog pops up in a Google search for “Tammy Faye”!

Maybe I should put “Tammy Faye” in every blog title! 🙂

If you haven’t read it, here it is:

https://anthonypeoples.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/remembering-tammy-faye/

CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH KYM SIMS

The S.O.S. Band, which reached #3 with “Take Your Time (Do It Right)”, in 1980, was my first celebrity encounter. In 1984, at Murray State University, they granted me an interview for a music show I’d be producing and anchoring called “Music Visions”.

In 1993, my best friend, Steve and I were visiting our friend, Paul, and we were having lunch at Planet Hollywood in Chicago. Remember that restaurant chain?

I told them I believed that Kym Sims was sitting a couple of tables over with her family. Our server overheard me and confirmed it was her. He told her and she said “hello” from her table and thanked me for loving her music.

Most of you probably don’t know the name since her only Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 peaked at #38 in 1991 (it reached the Top 5 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart in the U.S.)!

It also made the Top Ten in several European countries and even topped the chart in Zimbabwe!!!

The following summer, I made the biggest and boldest move of my life moving from small town America (Mayfield, Kentucky) to Chicago and have never looked back! 🙂

THAT’S IT

With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!

Anthony

Random Friday Thoughts — May 13, 2022

It feels like the seasons jumped right from winter to summer this week across Illinois with highs 90°-95° and heat indices around 100°!

Yuck, is it fall yet? 🙂

Have a fantastic weekend and thank you for taking the time to check out my random thoughts.

Oh, Happy Friday the 13th!

THE PANDEMIC AND COVID TESTING

The COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. We’re seeing another surge in infection rates and deaths.

Since masks and mandates are coming down, there’s still one change I hope happens soon.

I want the Biden administration and the CDC to drop its mandatory testing for American citizens returning from foreign countries by air. Currently, you have to have a negative COVID test one day before returning to the U.S.

This is from the State Department’s website: “The order relates to boarding a U.S.-bound aircraft and is meant to protect and preserve human life, as well as prevent further transmission of a highly contagious and often deadly virus.” 

This made more sense early in the pandemic when there were more uncertainties and no vaccine.

But, it doesn’t make sense to me now that foreign travelers have to go through the expense of being tested before returning. (Last October, it cost me 10 Euros in Greece and $40 in Costa Rica in April to be tested.)

This is silly because people can travel freely on domestic flights in the U.S. without being tested and this could just as easily transmit the “highly contagious and often deadly virus”.

Drop the testing policy now for Americans traveling internationally and just bring back the flight mask mandates!

I’ll still be wearing mine! Your thoughts?

MY COSTA RICA SOUVENIR

While I’ve been back from my spring trip to Costa Rica for over a month, I finally have the souvenir I bought myself on display.

It’s now part of my memorable mementos’ wall in my bedroom — my photo with President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter and with Hillary Clinton; the Moulin Rouge in Paris where I turned 50 at midnight sipping champagne sitting at the stage; one of my all-time favorite meals at Benny The Fisherman in Tel Aviv; and Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean from Old Jaffa, which I visited during the same birthday trip to Paris.

SHOCKED AND NOT SHOCKED…

When it was announced that Naomi Judd, of the iconic country music duo The Judds, died at the age of 76 at the end of April, it sounded suspicious. In the back of my mind, I suspected suicide because she had battled mental illness for years.

On Thursday, her daughter, actress Ashley Judd, told Diane Sawyer on “Good Morning America” that Naomi did take her own life. What shocks me is it was from a self-inflicted gunshot wound!

May is “Mental Health Awareness Month”. If you (or someone you know) are overwhelmed and thinking of taking your life, please make this call and talk!

FREE PREMIUM CABLE

Recently, I had free premium channels from my cable company, so I was able to watch “The Flight Attendant” and other series and a movie to take advantage of the free week!

“THE WHITE LOTUS”

If you need to recharge, but you can’t get away or don’t want to spend the money, there are two series you can check out covering relaxation (and drama) — one in Hawaii and the other in California.

The six episode HBO series, “The White Lotus” was interesting.

A group of Americans arrive in Hawaii and they bring all their drama with them. Geez, after watching this series, I really feel for those in the hotel industry!

While the series was great, there were only two likeable characters — a guest and one employee! Jake Lacy and Sydney Sweeney successfully make their characters very unlikeable! 🙂

Out Australian actor Murray Bartlett (“Looking” and the Netflix revival of “Tales of the City” in 2019) was incredible as hotel manager Armond. While dealing with the guests, he falls off the wagon after being “clean” for years.

And, when he falls off, some very interesting things happen. One scene was totally incredible (adult) and the other was nasty (yet, the person it’s directed at totally deserved it)!

Bartlett and Jennifer Coolidge both won the Critics’ Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actor and Actress in a Limited Series or Movie made for Television, respectively. Both were also nominated by the Screen Actors Guild.

I expect both to get Emmy nominations in July!

“The White Lotus” was renewed as an anthology series and Jennifer Coolidge will reprise her role as Tanya McQuoid in “The White Lotus: Sicily”.

GRADE: B

“NINE PERFECT STRANGERS”

This eight episode Hulu series is based on the book by Liane Moriarty (“Big Little Lies”).

While my girl crush Nicole Kidman was great (when isn’t she?), the standouts I expect to get Emmy nominations are Melissa McCarthy, Bobby Cannavale, and Regina Hall.

And, I was totally mesmerized by Manny Jacinto as Yao and I wished he had a larger role.

After watching the series, I read the book. Both were enjoyable, but neither were “Big Little Lies”!

GRADE: B-

“THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT” — THE BOOK

It was a year ago this week that I wrote about Chris Bohjalian’s 2018 bestseller, “The Flight Attendant”, and stated, “it’s incredible.”

I went on to say, “An alcoholic flight attendant wakes up in Dubai after hooking up with a hot man in first class on her flight.

The one night stand or doing the walk of shame would be the least of her problems. She wakes up and the bed is covered in blood! His throat has been slashed and she can’t remember what happened!

Did she do it????”

“THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT” — SEASON ONE

Well, I finally got the watch the first season and it was fantastic. While the book was very bleak, which was fitting with the subject matter, the series took a more comedic-dramatic approach. It worked perfectly.

Kaley Cuoco (“The Big Bang Theory”) was incredible as the alcoholic Cassie Bowden (she’s in denial about being a drunk). And, the men, (soon to be murdered) Alex (Michiel Huisman), Buckley (Colin Woodell), Max (Deniz Akdeniz), and Van (Nolan Gerard Funk) are all beautiful to look at.

And, Zosia Mamet, as Cassie’s best friend and lawyer, was amazing.

The second season is now airing on HBO Max.

GREAT SEEING BANGKOK AGAIN!

While the pivotal murder scene in the book takes place in Dubai, it’s Bangkok, Thailand in the television series.

I was in Bangkok in the spring of 2019 and it was absolutely stunning to see the Chao Phraya River again and the city aglow in lights at night.

The top left photo above is “Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan” (try saying that!), also known as the “Temple of Dawn”, and in the bottom left is Iconsiam, a $1.5 billion mixed-use complex including a high end shopping mall, hotels, and residences.

“FROM HARPER VALLEY TO THE MOUNTAIN TOP”

“Harper Valley P.T.A.” was one of my favorite songs as a kid and it’s still one of my all-time favorites. Recently, I read Jeannie C. Riley’s 1978 autobiography, “From Harper Valley To The Mountain Top”.

Even if it was the late-1970s when the book was published, I was still shocked that she used a quote with the n-word in referencing the blues — a title her father used!!!!

Some of the other things I found interesting about her. I laughed when she talked about not wanting to be noticed one day when she doing something “undercover”, yet she was driving around in a lavender Cadillac. 🙂

Jeannie talked about her own hypocrisy and summed it up, “Not only was I Mrs. Johnson with her miniskirt, but I was philandering Bobby Taylor. I was the widow Jones with her window shades up, I was Shirley Thompson with the nip of gin on her breath. No one was as big a hypocrite as I was. But now, praise God, things are different.”

Jeannie was one of the celebrities welcoming President Jimmy Carter to Nashville in October 1980 at a “Town Hall Meeting” at the Grand Ole Opry House.

“HARPER VALLEY P.T.A.” (JEANNIE C. RILEY) (1968)

In a ranking of my 100 favorite songs in the first era of my life, “Harper Valley P.T.A.” was my #5 song.

“MY LIFE: THE FIRST 35 YEARS”

If you’d like to know the 13 biggest events of my first 35 years and take a walk down memory lane with my 100 favorite songs in those three-and-half decades (1964-1999), just click on the link below.

I had so much fun researching this blog and writing it. Obviously, many of you did, too, since it was one of my most viewed blogs over the past two years.

Click here: https://anthonypeoples.wordpress.com/2020/09/11/my-life-the-first-35-years/

THAT’S IT

With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!

Anthony

Random Friday Thoughts — May 6, 2022

Welcome to May!

With all of the heavier rain many of us saw in April, I hope that means a lot of beautiful May flowers.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend and thank you for checking out my random thoughts.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

The last one I celebrated with my mother, Dessie, was May 13, 1990.

Instead of going out to the local Golden Corral, which my mother loved to do, we took a little road trip two-and-a-half hours away to Nashville, Tennessee, to have champagne brunch at my favorite restaurant, the 101st Airborne.

This was a big deal for my mother because she never got to do much traveling.

We enjoyed our brunch with everything from caviar to prime rib to desserts.  The funny thing about the day is that my mother didn’t drink and champagne is one of my favorite spirits. 

I would drink my glass of champagne and start drinking my mother’s.  Every time the server would come around, my mother’s glass would be empty and they would fill it and top off mine.  I didn’t keep count of how many times this happened.  All I know is that they probably thought my dear mother was a lush! 

Mom, I hope you’re smiling about that now.

And, by the way, my sister, Tammy, was pregnant and didn’t go. But, she eventually got to experience the 101st Airborne brunch.

“FREE” COVID TEST KITS

While we’re dropping mandates and masks across much of the country, we’re seeing another surge in the number of COVID-19 cases.

The other morning while shopping at Kroger, I was baffled by the high price of the at-home COVID-19 testing kits.

I’m definitely not bashing Kroger for selling them for $17.99. I’m mystified that people would actually pay that because you can get free test kits from the U.S. government mailed directly to your home — again, for free.

The first four I received were these exact tests, but the second four I got were a different brand.

“OZARK” FINALE

Well, as with everything, the world is divided and I’m sure there are those that are pleased with the way “Ozark” ended (raises hand) and those that aren’t pleased.

I hate knowing that the four-season run is behind us and I won’t see the incredible Laura Linney playing the cold-hearted, but loving Wendy Byrde!

Give this woman her first “Ozark” Emmy (she’s won four from other series).

Linney made her directorial debut in the 11th episode of the final season (“Pound of Flesh and Still Kickin'”).

It’s this episode that could very well earn Jason Bateman his first acting Emmy (he’s won two Screen Actors Guild Awards for acting for “Ozark” and won an Emmy for “Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series”).

No spoilers please for those that haven’t watched the ending yet!

“HOLLYWOOD BABYLON: IT’S BACK”

I probably would never have read this book, but one of my friends loaned it to me and said that I had to read it.

This 2008 book by Darwin Potter and Danforth Prince is “Hot, Unauthorized, and Unapologetic!” — their words, not mine.

Also, in their words, “All Those Celebrities! All Those Scandals! All That Nudity!… and All That Sin!”, it’s all there.

Like reading a Kitty Kelley biography, which is also not authorized by her subjects, this book is full of outrageous dirt on Hollywood legends — most of which are dead and can’t fight back!

Also, like a Kitty Kelley book, I know it has to be based (somewhat loosely) on factual information or interviews to avoid lawsuits. But, I’m sure in Potter and Prince’s book, there is A LOT of “he said, she said” and “I heard this from a friend of a friend of a friend”.

Now, if only a fraction of these salacious stories are true, Hollywood, then and now, especially then, was full of tramps, a very active “casting couch”, prostituting, “homosexual” marquee names, lesbians, and for sure, “size queens”.

And, for there to be size queens that gossiped freely, the book claims that many of the legendary leading men were you know what! (Insert eggplant emoji!)

Was it fun and gossipy at first, yes! Did it grow tiresome and become a lot less credible the more you read? Yes, but what a read! 🙂

So, take this with a grain of salt. Since it’s already in print, so it must be true (right?), I’ll throw out a couple of names that shocked me the most to be in the list above: Lucille Ball and Nancy Davis (who became Nancy Reagan)!

And, Tom Cruise. (Well, this part was not shocking because we’ve all heard the rumors!)

Oh wait, those rumors about him are absolutely not true! Definitely, most certainly not true, never was a homosexual, never had an affair with a gay porn star — never, never, never.

So, that validation of him being straight should keep me from being sued. He likes to do that, you know, if you make accusations.

In case you don’t remember: In 2001, in a $100 million lawsuit against the porn star, the “Risky Business” star’s lawyer stated, “While Cruise thoroughly respects others’ rights to follow their own sexual preference, he is not a homosexual…”!

“TOP GUN” SEQUEL

Can you believe that “Top Gun”, with star Tom Cruise, came out, oops, strike that, hit theaters 36 years ago this month? Geez, I was barely old enough to drink!

It made an astounding $357.3 million on a budget of only $15 million! (That $15 million would be about $39 million in today’s world.)

The long-awaited sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick”, will blast into theaters this Memorial Day weekend. Boy, have times changed. This movie’s budget is $152 million!

Are you interested in seeing it?

While I went to “the movies” and saw the original, I might watch this one on DVD one day????

LADY GAGA — “HOLD MY HAND” & “THE CHROMATICA TOUR”

Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away”, with music by Giorgio Moroder and lyrics by Tom Whitlock, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song from the original “Top Gun”.

The theme song in the sequel by Lady Gaga, “Hold My Hand”, could follow in Berlin’s footsteps down the red carpet and up on the Oscars stage.

The song was released Tuesday morning and is slowly gaining airplay at Top 40 radio. Slowly!

This summer, Gaga, will embark on her pandemic-delayed 17 date “The Chromatica Ball” Tour. She’ll play in fifteen cities across the world (two dates in Tokyo, Japan and London, England).

“THE 355”

This crime caper was panned by critics, but I really enjoyed it!

Was it totally realistic? No, but most movies are not. Just look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC Comics, etc.

Oscar winner Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”) is a total bad ass in this movie and leads an all-star cast including Penelope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o, and Sebastian Stan.

Having been to Marrakesh, Morocco, and Shanghai, China, I especially loved those parts of the movie.

GRADE: B

“THE GREAT” FUNNY

This Hulu original dramedy is too funny and crazy!

While I’m finishing up season two (it’s been renewed for a third season), I have to share this funny interaction between Catherine The Great (Elle Fanning) and Lady Marial (Phoebe Fox), my two favorites on the show.

When a very pregnant Catherine was picking out her dress for the coronation, she clearly chooses a dress that didn’t suit her friend and former maid, Marial.

Marial replies, “It’s what our grandmothers used to wear before they were beaten to death for wearing something so ugly.”

Okay, when I said that Catherine and Marial are my two favorites on the show, there’s also Nicholas Hoult. He’s very sexy and funny, as Peter III of Russia. 

THAT’S IT

With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!

Anthony