As a former ballet dancer, (not professionally, of course, but my whole life, and even as a Dance Major at UCLA until I ruined my knee,) you would think that I would be among the gazillions who have piled on Timothee Chalamet. But I’m far from that—I’m actually against all these holier-than-thou people who have been dreadful to, and about, the guy. The inane pre-Oscars “Stop Timmy” movement was just insane. Grown-ups in show business basically made him their “cootie,” which I’ll explain in a minute. (And by the way, I’m not a Timothee Chalamet fan—I’m simply a fan of fairness and humanity.)

Matthew McConaughey and Timothee Chalamet doing the “town hall” where the controversy began.

So I’m here to break it all down for you. At the end of February, Timothee was doing a “town hall” discussion with Matthew McConaughey at the University of Texas at Austin. I don’t quite know the purpose of it, but I’m assuming it was just one piece of the publicity puzzle for his Oscar run at Best Actor for his nominated starring role in Marty Supreme.

The two guys were talking about that they hoped that people would still choose to see films in actual theaters, as opposed to on TV, computers, or phones. Timothee said, “I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, who go on a talk show and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to keep movie theaters alive, we’ve gotta keep this genre alive.’ I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or you know, things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,’ even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore.” He said that last part lightheartedly. Then he quickly added, “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost fourteen cents in viewership. I’m taking shots for no reason.”

Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme.

It definitely was not smart to say that. It was one stupid statement, but it was said with no malice. He’s thirty-years-old, and that’s his opinion of arts that he and most likely his pals, (who include the very uncultured Kardashian-Jenners,) don’t care about, so he erroneously think they’re dying. And remember—he was talking to college kids that day!

Chalamet’s mother and sister had both attended the School of American Ballet, and his grandma was actually a dancer with the New York City Ballet. So I doubt he hates the art. As he stated, he just thinks that no one cares about it anymore.

As a matter of fact, in my own life, growing up, (including up through my twenties!,) I honestly never knew anyone else who loved ballet!!! Never. Girls I danced with loved dancing themselves, but outside of my mother, there was not one person I ever met back then who cared even one whit about the art. And even now, out of my plethora of pals, I have only a couple who want to see it. As a matter of fact, even as a dance major at prestigious UCLA, out of a class of two hundred incoming dancers, only two of us were ballerinas—everyone else was a contemporary, (or modern,) dancer! Even my fellow dancers made fun of ballet! Crazy.

And to this day, I don’t get opera, except for maybe one-off songs that are sort-of in the genre, such as Time To Say Goodbye by Andrea Bocelli. Actually, I’ve always loved a lot of the music from famous operas, and even some of the full songs. But I could not sit through a full opera, especially because they’re all so depressing. (Operettas are the happy ones, where nobody dies at the end.) And even though I fully appreciate the mad talent that all opera singers possess, I really do understand why a young-ish guy would consider it to be dying art.

Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, for which he did most of his own amazing ping-pong playing!

So I’m not against Timothee—I’m totally against all those people who have been ragging on him for voicing his opinion, as erroneous as it might be. So none of them have ever had an unpopular stance, even privately?

To me, all those peeps are just like the mean kids at school. I assume that in every elementary school classroom, (and, very sadly, also many high school ones,) there are rotten people like that, and it’s disgusting. In my sixth grade class, someone decided that we should all call E.S. the “cootie.” It was horrible. And heartbreaking. Of course I would not do that, and one day, when the bow on the back of her dress got undone, I re-tied it for her. She started crying, and to this day, I still hear her saying, “I can’t believe you’re not scared to touch me,” and it breaks my heart. When I think of that, I always hope that E.S. has the happiest life. (And strangely, the idiot who began the “cootie” pointing was actually a very creepy nerd!)

Getting back to these current idiots who decided they’d try to ruin Timothee Chalamet’s life and career because he thinks that nobody cares about ballet and opera—what is wrong with them??? His dislike of anything should not have ruled him out of winning a deserved Academy Award. As I tweeted right before the show, “Regardless of who I think deserves to win the Oscar for Best Actor, all winners should be voted on for the merit of their work, not if they said something stupid leading up to the vote. I would not want to win by default. The world is crazy now. Ballet has always been my favorite art form, but I can’t get angry at a young ’un for thinking it’s a dying art.”

As to the people who gleefully celebrated that he lost what was supposed to be his Oscar to the absolutely undeserving Michael B. Jordan, (who played twins in Sinners, but there was absolutely no distinction between the two,) you should be proud of yourselves. And how does that make your life better???

Timothee Chalamet sitting in the front row at the Oscars, enjoying jokes made at his own expense, accompanied by his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner.

I really hope that, with a bit of hindsight, some of those creeps see the error of their ways, and would not have been so mean to begin with, except that they were emboldened by the pack mentality.

Timothee was a great sport to sit there in the first row of the audience, and laugh at jokes about his faux pas, and act happy for Michael; he was basically resigned to the outcome. I never cared about the kid before, but now I have respect for him.

And to remind everyone of what happened with the Oscars last year. Transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón, who starred in and as Emilia Pérez, became reviled for old very disturbing discriminatory tweets after she had already been nominated for many acting awards, including the Oscar. So she didn’t even show up to the ceremony. What she had said was a zillion times worse than anything Timothee said.

I do feel awful for Timothee, but it is a lesson to everyone in show biz. And that is that there’s a fine line between doing the necessary publicity and keeping your true thoughts to yourself. Just keep everything light, laud every single person and activity that you can, and then politely shut it down.

This how the new Dune movie is being promoted. Will they change it now because of all the high-and-mighty idiots?

So the many questions now are: Is Warner Bros. going to cancel their big film Dune: Part Three because of the Chalamet backlash??? Or are they going to be normal and let the controversy die down? And perhaps not send Timothee out to do publicity for the movie?

And to those of you who were soooo offended by someone thinking that no one cares about ballet and opera, when was the last time you went to performances of those arts? And did you spend your own hard-earned money on the always-expensive tickets?

And most importantly, is your life better now that Timothee Chalamet didn’t win the Oscar, that wasn’t even guaranteed to him, anyway? I have a serious feeling that it is not.

Ahead of the Golden Globes telecast this coming Sunday, I’m finally making time to discuss the show’s horrendously offensive host, Nikki Glaser. She should have been blackballed from the entire industry after she did that supremely sickening monologue on Saturday Night Live a couple of months ago, on November 8th. (But it’s led to me giving you some important potentially life-saving information, so please read to the bottom to receive it.)

Nikki Glaser.

In her painfully-long opening monologue, (it was a record nine minutes of this garbage!,) Glaser made evil supposed “jokes” about rape, pedophilia, human trafficking, slavery, and incest. Lovely woman. I’m still shaking my head over her nerve as I write this!

Those are all topics that should never—I repeat, never!—be joked about! I’m not the only viewer who was horrified by what I was hearing; in addition to people I know mentioning it to me personally, I noticed many on social media calling Glaser’s monologue “vile,” “tone-deaf,” “gross,” “ugh,” “disgusting,” and “an all-time low for this show,” among other descriptive words of that ilk. Someone wrote that “her set felt sad and slimy in its desperation to be edgy,” which is spot-on. (This one comment made me laugh: “I think she’s great at being exactly what men want a female comedian to be. Unimpressive.”)

You know it’s bad when even the usually very amused band members are appalled! (I’m not the only one who noticed their appallment—many people mentioned it to me.) And I hadn’t even noticed this other situation at first, but I read in several places that at the very end of the show, during the “thanks” and “goodnights,” as one viewer put it, “the cast stood back and collectively refused to embrace her on stage.” I don’t think that’s ever happened in the over fifty years of SNL! So I checked it out myself, and they are all correct—the cast stood waaaay back from Glaser, and just hugged each other. They usually all rush to embrace the host, but I guess they were disgusted with her, as well. (I read that some even rolled their eyes at her.)

The SNL cast distancing themselves from the offensive Glaser woman at the end of the show. Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the one at the top of the page of the band’s blank faces during Glaser’s unfunny monologue.

Perhaps even worse than her monologue itself is that, instead of profusely apologizing when the backlash began, Glaser defended what she had said! I’d love to see how funny she thinks those subjects are if they ever happen to her or her friends or family. Will she still be foisting those rotten thoughts on the public then???

I’m also ashamed of Lorne Michaels and anyone else at SNL who was responsible for allowing her to perform such crap. Basically, anyone who hires her now is telling the world that they’re okay with her level of complete offensiveness.

One more view of the SNL cast completely ignoring guest host Nikki Glaser at the end of the show. Good for them! Photo by Karen Salkin.

The Golden Globes organization had already hired her to host this year’s show months before her SNL debacle, so I assume they had no choice now but to keep her. But I’m hoping that those people, (who have already been in hot water with the public, and with Hollywood, in particular, in recent years,) will monitor what she says on their show. I’m sure she’ll make some Jeffrey Epstein jokes, (which are getting a little long in the tooth, in general, at this point,) but that better be it for the pedophile category. (And her very annoying voice makes everything she utters even worse.)

This is basically what you do if someone is abducting you, but the video shows it best.

But one good thing came out of her diabolic monologue. To make sure that no one ever goes through something as horrible as being trafficked, I did research to figure-out a way to counteract the vile things that dreadful woman said in the guise of humor. So now I’m sharing this video that will show how to ask for help in similar situations to what that idiot was making jokes about! Please watch it, commit it to memory, and share it with as many people as you can: www.x.com/Gradjanin5/status/1987997911322341731?s=20. I hope you never have to use it, of course.

And I wish you true safety from everything she mentioned!

By the way—I’ll remind you of this again on Friday, but I will try my best to tweet my thoughts on the Golden Globes on Sunday as they go along, because I may not have time to review them officially in my upcoming birthday week! However, the show is on against the football play-offs, so I haven’t yet decided which to give up watching live. Just in case, my Twitter handle is still @MajorCelebrity.

Since I wrote so much about Hallmark’s holiday movies in my Christmas column, I figure this is the perfect time to follow it up with my major complaint about almost all of them. And that is…they never portray passage of time right!

I honestly began writing this article…a year ago! And now, after watching so many this season, I’m upset about the topic all over again!

The movies will state something like this, but then have scenes with TWENTY days left until the holiday!

It happens every year. Well, at least since 2017, when Mr. X and I began viewing them. He initiated our new-ish tradition of watching tons of Hallmark holiday movies because we don’t decorate or have get-togethers anymore. We never seem to have enough time, (nor energy!,) these days for everything we used to do for decades. Some of those movies are good, most are pretty bad to awful, and a very few are actually wonderful! So that latter group make seeing them a worthwhile activity. (I lauded the recent best ones in that previous article, which you can still read right here: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/holiday-merry-christmas-2025.)

But what drives me crazy in almost all of the films is that usually-erroneous portrayal of time in them.  They never seem to know exactly how many days it is till Christmas! I’ve never seen one movie do it right! Can no one count in these movies? A character will say something like, “Well, we have only three days to do our shopping for Christmas morning,” and then we’ll see them do activities for at least five more days!

It seriously happens in just about every TV movie that we see at this time of year. And trust me—we’ve watched at least two hundred of them over the years! And it’s not just Hallmark who does it wrong—we’ve noticed those errors on other channels, as well, such as UP, GAF, the CW, and even the obscure Bounce TV.

The weird thing is that…sometimes they even have the days written out in a scene or two! At first I thought that revelation was really helpful because the timing just had to be correct in those, right? But even then it’s usually at least a bit wrong.

But they’ll show us the characters doing NINE days worth of activities!

Would it be so difficult to just get those numbers right? If they have to mention the days or weeks until Christmas, why can’t they just number them correctly? I’m beginning to take it personally, because many other viewers would just let it go. But I cannot. It’s such a little thing to have the dialogue be mathematically correct that I feel they’re doing it wrong on purpose at this point.

Someone—the writers, proofreaders, script supervisor, continuity person, editor, director, producers, and even the actors themselves—should catch all these mistakes! (On my very first guest-starring role on a national TV show, I caught something like that in the script, and even as we were shooting the scene, I told the director that my character wouldn’t be in it! I now sort-of regret causing myself that omission, but how was I the only person on such a professional production to have realized it?! Leave it to the newbie. I think that Hallmark needs me on their productions, in any capacity, don’t you?)

And why is the deadline for everything—stories, newspaper articles, pictures, payments, buying a new house, getting a job, you name it—in most of these stories exactly on Christmas Day??? Who does that? The only Christmas deadline in real life is for the gifts! They must be bought, wrapped, and delivered by then. Dot, dash, end of story.

And, actually, that’s the end of this story, as well. You get the drift. Now, please excuse me while I go start working on a believable holiday romance screenplay, so that we’ll all have something correct time-wise to see in a couple of years!

I’m making this one short and sweet because it’s of the utmost importance: I’m begging my California readers who are registered to vote—please vote YES on Prop 50 tomorrow! It’s known as the “Election Rigging Response Act,” which basically says it all.

Photo by Karen Salkin.

I’m sure that many of you have already cast your ballots, as Mr. X and I have, (we didn’t want to take any chances on being too busy tomorrow, actual Election Day, to fit in a visit to our polling place,) so I hope you did the right thing.

In case you’re not in the know about this situation, this is the basic statement about why Prop 50 is so important: “Donald Trump and Texas Republicans are making an unprecedented power grab to steal congressional seats and rig the 2026 election before voting even begins. Other Republican states are following suit. They want to steal enough seats to control Congress regardless of how the people vote. If Californians don’t act now, Donald Trump will seize total power for two more years.”

As the people in Nazi Germany must have felt about the original Hitler, we now must defeat our times’ evil Orange Hitler. I can’t think of how to do that, (it appears that no one can,) but voting Yes on Prop 50 is at least a minuscule start.

Photo by Karen Salkin.

Others who are way smarter than I, (such as Barack Obama, Gavin Newsom, Hakeem Jeffries, and Elizabeth Warren,) can explain the proposition better than I can, so here’s what it’s about, in the words of people in the know, as stated on their website: “Prop 50 makes sure the 2026 mid-term elections are conducted on a level playing field without an unfair advantage for Republicans.” That’s it! All normal people just want things to be fair. How can those Republican degenerates disagree with that concept???

If you want to learn more for yourselves, here’s the link: stopelectionrigging.com

But no matter what, please, please, please be a decent human being and vote YES on Prop 50 tomorrow!

While watching my usual ton of sports this Summer and Fall, I have continually gotten annoyed at just how many cliches, especially modern ones, broadcasters use. And how many mispronunciations and misuses are in the mix, as well.

And it’s not just people in sports—it’s soooo many people on TV along with many in real life, even, unfortunately, some I know personally. So I started making a list, and it has just kept on growing. So, before it turns into a tome, I figured I’d better share what I have already.

Most of them need no extra explanations. And I’d love to hear the ones that chap your hide, too! So please share them in the Comments below.

THE MODERN CLICHÉS

“I didn’t have that on my bingo card.” (When was the last time anyone uttering that line has played bingo???)

“Amazing!” (Most things are not at all amazing—that word basically means “something so rare that it truly amazes us!” It’s definitely not for the number of things people feel the need to use it for.)

“The two best words in sports,” said about every Game 7 in an important seven-game series. And the people who say it declare it as though there can be no dissension about that concept. But I can think of several much better two words in sports, such as “You won!,” “The Champion!,” and “Olympic gold!”

The winner will be “whoever wants it more.” Trust me, all athletic vie-ers want it the most! (Unless it’s me—I always just wanted to look cute in my competition outfit. And I’m not kidding about that, not even a little bit.) So no one wants it more; they all desire the win the same. (When a Seattle Mariner was being interviewed last week after losing Game 7 to get into the World Series, a teammate’s very painful bloodcurdling scream could be heard in the background. No one wanted it “more” than that guy, yet his team lost!)

“Trigger.” Everything these days seems to “trigger” someone about something! Enough already! They need to start stating what they really mean.

“I have to find ‘my person.’ ” Ugh. Just state what kind of person you’re talking about!!! Is it a boyfriend or girlfriend? Or not even a love interest at all, as “person” can be any kind of human. Maybe a house cleaner, (which is the kind of person I’d love to find!)

“Color me…” impressed, happy, surprised, whatever. I find it annoying, even though I adore colors!

Such-and-such, (usually failure,) “is not an option.” Of course it is! It’s a major one. And if it’s used for an athletic competition, as it often is, there’s usually a fifty-fifty chance of failure!

“I’m not gonna lie.” Why would you? Do you think you have to let us know that? Really?!

“Holding space for…” What does that even mean???

“That’s so random,” when it’s totally not random! Does no one know vocabulary definitions???

“You got this!” First of all, the proper first word of that statement is “You’ve,” but I hate it either way. How do you know what’s going to happen to/for the person to whom you’re speaking???

“Hidden gem.” None of them are hidden and few are gems!!! For example, people on my local Next Door keep saying that a certain neighborhood eatery, Trattoria del Sole, is one. But it’s far from hidden—it’s right out there on major Ventura Boulevard, and attached to a much-used alley! And the food sucks, so far from a gem.

THE TOTALLY INCORRECT

“Irregardless,” when they actually mean “regardless.”

“I could care less,” when they actually mean “I could not care less.”

“I mean…,” (to start sentences.) How did that one even start? The first time I heard it, from former tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, (back when she was playing,) I kept going back, trying to find her previous sentence that I assumed she was explaining what she meant by it. But, of course, there was none. She began her only statement with that idiotic, “I mean…” Grrr.

“Gaslighting.” As I explained in a play review this past June, to “gaslight” someone means to manipulate them into questioning their own reality. All of a sudden, many people have started using the term for a plethora of ways their significant other is mistreating them, none of which are actual “gaslighting.” I hate when not-too-bright peeps think they’re being intelligent and/or profound when they are far from either!

THE WORDS PEOPLE OFTEN MISPRONOUNCE

[Note: I hear a lot of dreadful mispronunciations on individuals, but these are a few I’ve heard from multiple people. It just blows my mind that so many can be so wrong! They must have been absent on more than one day!]

“Bought” for “bRought.” This is the most egregious to me. They’re totally different words, people!”Bought” is the past tense of “buy,” while “brought” is the past tense of “bring!” If you’re guilty of this vocab error, and would like to educate yourself, I explain it in depth right here: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/karens-lessons-the-difference-between-bought-and-brought.

“EKspecially” for the correct “especially.”

“AsteriX” for the correct “asteriSK.”

“NucULer” for the correct “nuCLear.”

“CUrismatic” for the correct “chARismatic.”

“Estatic” for the correct “eCstatic.”

“SawL” and “drawL” for the correct “saw” and “draw.” Idiot tennis host Chris McKendry does it all the time, and now I’ve noticed a few others doing it, as well. How are people so stupid???

And the one I detest the most:

“MischEevIous” for the correct “mischievous.” Can they not read???!!!

END NOTES

The SNL skit.

On last weekend’s Saturday Night Live, there was a skit of four young boys doing a podcast where they kept repeating the same words that I guess are cool with kids now. They kept saying “lowkey,” “chopped,” “fire,” “pause,” and “goated”—I actually had to look up that last one. So it appears that I’m not the only one who is annoyed by stupid words that everyone says now. Good for SNL!

If you have any others that you hate, (which I know you all do,) please let us know in the Comments below. Even those of you who have told me some of them in person and on the phone, let it all out here so that everyone can see!

A friend of mine recently wanted to have a discussion on the topic of if the Menendez brothers should be let out of prison, and we disagreed so vehemently that I decided it’s time to weigh-in on it here.

In case you’re the one person in the world who doesn’t know about the infamous murderers, the Menendez brothers, or just forgot because their case began so many decades ago, here’s the brief background on the situation: In 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez shot and killed their father and mother, Jose and Kitty, in cold blood in the family’s Beverly Hills living room while the parents watched TV. The boys claimed intruders did it, and then proceeded to live it up on their parents’ money for a while until the truth was discovered. (I’ll tell you how in a few minutes.)

The Menendez brothers and their parents whom they murdered in cold blood.

After two trials, they’ve been in prison since 1996, having been sentenced to life with no possibility for parole, which most of us totally agree with for such heinous crimes.

Fast-forward to now, and, (although I don’t understand why,) they were recently re-sentenced, and might get out on parole this month!  I think that would be a disgrace.

First I’ll give you my friend’s arguments, and then share my own. He believes their claim that their father did sexually abuse them when they were younger. Period. That’s his argument. So, he feels that Jose deserved to be killed and his wife did, too, because she knew about the abuse and didn’t step in to protect her sons.

While I agree that the abuse is a genuine possibility, there doesn’t seem to be much proof of it, except for perhaps a letter one of the bros wrote to his cousin, (which was found several years after the trials,) and that a former member of the singing group Menudo, (whom Jose managed,) said the same thing happened to him. And if true, Jose definitely deserved to be imprisoned, (where perhaps he would have gotten a taste of his own medicine!)

BUT, killing their parents was not even close to the self-defense that they claimed it was!!! No one was abusing them right at the moment. The murders were wholly premeditated!!! The brothers went to another city to buy guns, for goodness sake! And the younger one, Erik, had even taken a friend’s ID to make sure he would be able to purchase the firearms. And then the brothers practiced with their new weapons at a shooting range.

And here’s the kicker: Lyle was twenty-one and already out of the house and in college, (so he wasn’t even around to be the subject of abuse at the time of the murders,) and Erik was eighteen, making him very capable of leaving the home and living elsewhere.

To my mind, they wanted their parents’ money. And to be rid of their rule. Period!

Lyle and Erik Menendez.

As promised, this is how the brothers got caught, with their real motive exposed: In post-crime sessions with his therapist, Erik confessed to the murders! And said their motive was wanting to be free of their controlling father who set standards that were too high for his sons! Lyle later joined in the confessions, and guess what? Neither of them ever mentioned sexual abuse. There are tapes of a bunch of their admissions.

On one of those tapes they told the therapist that their dad “deserved to die” for having an affair that upset their mother to the point of despair, and that they then killed their mother to “put her out of her misery.” Ri-ight.

And, oh yeah, there’s this little peccadillo: In high school, a few years before this horror show, Erik and a pal wrote a screenplay about a young guy who…kills his parents to inherit their money! Talk about prescient.

So I don’t care that many of Lyle and Erik’s relatives are politicking for their release. And I can’t understand why they’re doing that at all. I’m scratching my head over their motives. I just want evil murderers to stay in prison.

And oh, there’s a new little wrinkle on the topic.  Erik was recently admitted to a local hospital with what his very creepy attorney, Mark Geragos, described as a “serious medical condition.” So that might garner some sympathy for the murdering bros.

The Menendez brothers during one of their trials. Lyle doesn’t look bothered too much. And in the image at the top of this rant, they both look pretty happy to be serving life in prison. So I hope they continue all that mirth by staying there for the rest of their lives!

But definitely not from me! If they’re crazy enough to kill their own parents, who provided a life of major privilege for the boys, who’s to say what they’ll do to other people for money. I’m incredulous that so many of their relatives want Lyle and Erik out of prison. If the convicts do get out, I hope that one of their aunts or uncles will take them in. Then let’s see how much sleep those hosts will get!

There’s no doubt about the heinous crime the Menendez brothers committed, in definitely not self-defense. They need to serve their original sentence, and rot in prison for the rest of their lives. Dot, dash, end of story.

As I was lying in bed waiting to see the clock on my phone turn from 1:59AM to 3AM on March 9th, an event I always get a kick out of, I started thinking about how there are many people out there who complain all year about the two time changes this country experiences; we “fall back” and “spring ahead.”

This is what people act like in the Fall!

And then it hit me—I am so sick of the whiners complaining about those two tiny time changes! It’s enough already!

I get it—you want more daylight later in the day. I like that, as well. But how about the poor people who have to get up at the crack of dawn to get to work, get their kids to school, or just have somewhere they have to be, such as perhaps medical appointments? Do the naysayers not care at all that the early birds would prefer to have more daylight in the mornings??? Let’s all spare a thought for them!

And also think about the people who live in those crazy Arctic Circle places, including parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Canada, where it’s continuously dark for half the year and then bright light out for the other half!  We all need to adjust to conditions we may not be fans of, and an hour of daylight on one end of the day or the other is not a major hardship.

A visual about the little inconvenience of life that people complain about.

So get over it already! If you really do suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD,) get yourself a sun lamp. (If you don’t know, SAD is a type of depression that is linked to reduced exposure to sunlight.) I had one friend who said she had it and could not wait for the summers to roll around, so she could sit in the sun for long periods of time. And she looked like a piece of leather by the time she was forty!

I try to appreciate all four seasons—they each bring something new to appreciate. And I do get a bit of a kick out of having to change the (manual) clocks twice a year. It’s just a little inconvenience for every single person in America, (not counting Hawaii and, very crazily, Arizona,) to have to deal with for a few minutes. I actually feel like it brings us all together for a little bit, reminding each other to do it, and of the time change for brunch that Sunday morning.

Growing up in Brooklyn, I usually liked it when we turned the clocks back in the Fall; it was cozy that way, especially on Sunday evenings when the family was all together. I loved that. (Except for this scary-yet-amusing tale when I was just fourteen: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/holiday-happy-halloween-2022.)

This looks so simple, but I think it’s a complicated effort to demonstrate “springing ahead.”

And then I came out to L.A. alone one summer when I was an older teenager, and decided to stay, which was a major move for a young, sheltered, scaredy-cat such as myself. And then I noticed that I started getting a tad depressed when it got dark so early in my beautiful, sunny new home. But guess what? I bucked-up and got over it! Which is what I suggest you all do now, and every season!

I have to end with one funny thing:

Being that my mother was a high school English teacher, and my father was a Speech professor and Chairman, literature and poems were basics in our house. So, of course, I knew this one by Robert Louis Stevenson, Bed In Summer, very early on:

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

It is so apropos of what I’m talking about, but the funny thing about it is that when I was about four or five, I thought the word “grown-up,” (which is one of my favorites now,) was actually “groan of,” and I thought it meant that people’s feet were so upset by the time change that they were actually groaning! Which is what so many of you are doing currently about the time changes!

I hate when people and publications invoke the pat plea to “VOTE!” They think they’re being civically-minded, but what they all really mean is, “Vote only if you’re on the same side as I am!” So that’s what they should just say.

Whenever I hear someone utter that foolishness on TV, I always have to add aloud, “Only if you’re a Democrat!” Why would I be telling MAGA idiots to vote?! If it was up to me, I’d give them the wrong date for Election Day! Anyone who’s voting for Orange Hitler is dumb enough to believe it.

So I am begging everyone to please, please, please vote for Kamala Harris for President tomorrow.

It’s not even about her. Nor is a vote for Harris against the Republicans, in general. It’s about making sure to not have an absolutely dishonorable creepy moron leading this country.

I honestly cannot understand how anyone with even half a brain could vote for Orange Hitler. What could be in those people’s minds??? Have they never listened to him? Nor watched his inanity at his rallies? Nor even just looked at him???

Besides everything wrong with him physically, (his nauseating voice, his disgusting hair, his fake-tanned face,) and his absolute insensitivity to life, (mocking that disabled man; giving his detractors immature and derogatory nicknames; and perhaps worst of all, sending that dangerous crowd to kill his Vice President,) I really don’t want a President whom I’m a zillion times smarter than! I want a leader who’s a thousand times smarter than I am!

And Trump the Lump, (see?—I can do it, too!,) is evil. I’m really worried about what will become of this country if he’s elected. All normal people may really have to leave, which I do not want to do.

This says it all.

I’m loath to list all the sickness of his Project 2025 because I choose not to participate in even putting it out into the universe. But, if you are undecided about for whom to vote, I beg of you to check out that manifesto, which is very akin to the fictional The Handmaid’s Tale, before casting your vote. Unless you don’t mind losing your liberties, of course.

So many people have put this argument against Trump much better than I have, so I implore all of you “undecideds” to research the topic before Tuesday.

One last quick thing—I admit that I agreed with everyone who thought that Joe Biden is too old and possibly too infirm to be President for the next four years. I had been worried about that possibility since months before the debate. So how about you MAGA people person-up and admit that Orange Hitler is also waaay too old, and much more infirm, to even be running! If you need proof of his burgeoning insanity, I suggest you watch his recent Town Hall where after the speaking, he just stood there and attempted to bop to random music…for forty minutes!!! That was beyond worrisome! I think that proved he’s absolutely losing what little mind he had to begin with. And then his not being able to open the door of a garbage truck, which he proceeded to sit in to talk to reporters, was even more craziness. And just yesterday, he thought he was in Pennsylvania when he was actually in North Carolina! The man is not just evil—he’s very confused.

Please heed this.

So, if you’re a Republican, please, please, please heed the warnings of your own party’s smarter leaders, such as Geoff Duncan, (who wisely explained when he spoke at the DNC, “Republicans—a vote for Kamala Harris does not mean you’re a Democrat; it means you’re a patriot,”) and Adam Kinzinger, (who implored, “We must put country first,”) and then mensch-up and do the right thing—vote for intelligence and sanity, and especially democracy, by casting your vote for Kamala Harris!

And if you’re a Trump blockhead, don’t forget to vote…on Wednesday!

If you’ve been reading all of my recent movie reviews–mini and otherwise–you know by now how upset I am by soooo many of the nominations, for all the movie awards. (If not, just scroll through the pages, or look for them in the “Search” boxes on the right.)

But now the granddaddy of them all, the Oscars, is upon us, and then it will finally all be over. Yay! You would think that I could calm down after that, but you’ll be wrong—I’m always upset by what I consider to be unfairness.

The ten Best Picture nominees.

Before I mention some of the head-scratching choices the various voting bodies have made over the past few months, let me tell you that Mr. X and I rarely agree on anything. But we both feel the same way about everything I’ve been saying about the films this year. He’s a really good, successful actor, with no professional jealousies whatsoever, so I’ve always respected his opinion. And that makes me even more confident in what I’m writing here. I love when he and I are of the same mind! (You can also weigh-in, in the Comments section below.)

And even though none of the nominations and awards impact my own life, of course, I’m still pretty upset about them! Many of them are just not right.

I’ll get into a few specifics in a minute, but first I have to remind you that no one was “snubbed!” I don’t want to get my blood boiling by getting into the definition of the word again, so if you’d like to understand what “to snub” means, here’s the link to my recent column about it: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/karens-rantskarens-lessons-does-no-one-in-hollywood-know-the-meaning-of-the-word-snubbed.

Now, let’s discuss the nominations and winners of other awards this season that are still making my blood boil.

I haven’t seen many special performances this season, and I’ve seen *almost all of the movies! The absolute most special one belongs to Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon, and he hasn’t even been nominated for an Oscar nor a SAG! I wish I could have written him in when I voted for the SAGS! *[Note: I have yet to see Best Picture nominees Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest, though. I can’t find the former, and I can’t bring myself to watch a film about Nazis that is basically about an absolutely horrendous true setting.]

A few of this year’s deserving nominees, (although I have no idea who that cartoon character over Bradley Cooper’s shoulder is!)

The other two best performances that I’ve seen this year weren’t nominated, either. Fantasia Barrino deserved a nod as Best Actress in The Color Purple, and her co-star, Colman Domingo, definitely should have received one for Best Supporting Actor in the same film. He did get a nod as Best Actor for his starring role in Rustin, but he deserved both!

Conversely, the absolute head-scratcher nominees, (who are all good enough in their films, but that’s what every employed actor should be!,) are America Ferrera and Ryan Gosling in Barbie, Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon, and DaVine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers. And those latter two will probably win! Oh wait—the popular Emma Stone may beat Native American Lily out for Poor Things, although her sex-filled performance is basically just porn!!!

There have been other strange nominees and winners over the years, so why would I think that 2024 would be any different? (One can always hope, though.)

For example, how did Peter Sellers not win Best Actor for his ingenious turn in Being There over the victor, Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer? That was a true shonda!

Of course, there’s so much more to the Oscars than just Best Picture and best performances. And I am interested in all of it. But I doubt that many of the rest of you are, so I’ll just leave it here. But if Billie Eilish wins for Best Song, I’ll scream! [Note: I have no idea how Diane Warren’s song goes, but, after more than a dozen nominations with no victories, I’m really rooting for her once again.]

The 2023 Oscars telecast.

I want to say, “May the best [whatever category] win,” but it rarely does. And in this case, some are not even nominated! And we all know who and what will come out victorious, by all the previous erroneous wins this season, so we know fairness and good taste won’t start happening now.

And, with so many more Academy voters now than ever in history, (to keep up with diversity,) and many of them flexing their muscles by nominating and voting for very odd choices, thinking they’re reflecting the times, (when they’re really just ignoring the real quality work, and rewarding the mediocre–and in some cases less than,) movie awards seem to be going in the wrong direction.

But, of course, I’ll weigh in on all the proceedings next week, so keep an eye out for that. And I’ll try my best to live-tweet all of it on Sunday. So if you don’t already follow me on Twitter/X, this would be a good time. I’m at @MajorCelebrity on that platform. I’m often a little behind in my Oscars, and even the arrivals, watching, but so are many of you, so I doubt I’ll have any spoiler alerts on there. I write about their outfits and looks, not winners and losers. Until my full write-up next week! Then all bets are off!

If I hear the word “snubbed” used erroneously one more time to describe people who don’t get award nominations, I’m going to scream. Actually, I have, but only in my house, not publicly.

Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon.

So I figured it’s time to share my rant on the topic.

Idiots both in and out of the biz like to dub some of the nominations “snubs and surprises” for the alliteration. But—and I cannot stress this enough—they are not snubs!!! Some may be surprises, (like that Leonardo DiCaprio’s brilliant performance in Killers of the Flower Moon did not get nominated; in my opinion, he should always be nominated, even when he doesn’t make a movie!,) but no one is snubbing anybody here. To “snub” is to “rebuff” or “spurn” or even when it is used to denote being ignored, it means to do so “disdainfully.”

In the case of awards nominations, all that’s happening is that the voting bodies feel that a handful or so of other performances (or directors or creative works) are better than others! That’s it. No one is snubbing anyone. Example: the Oscars choose five Best Actor nominees by a vote of their Academy members. The top five vote-getters are in. Period. Someone else may come in a close sixth, even by one vote, but five is all they take, so that’s it for that category of nominees.

Plus, each awards body has a different system of voting, both for the nominations and the winners themselves. Sometimes it’s flat-out one vote a person, and the entity with the most votes wins. Period. At other times, each member has to list their Top Five, say, and there’s a point system. Someone who has all second place votes may win out over someone who had more first place votes, but also some fifth place ones! (If you’re really interested in exactly how each awards-bestowing group works, look it up.)

If the Academy Awards voters were truly snubbing someone, they would have to get together and decide that, no matter what, they were going to ignore what that artist had done. And, as far as I know, they’ve never done that. To have “snubbed” Margot Robbie, for example, (as all these morons keep saying they did,) that’s what they would have had to do, which, of course they did not.

Yes, some of the omissions for all the major awards have been questionable. I can’t understand how the Oscars voters found five performances that are better than Leo’s. Or how the Golden Globes voted Lily Gladstone’s one-note performance better than Annette Benning’s brilliant portrayal of Diana Nyad. A lot of choices are head-scratching for me.

But again, no one was snubbed! Please keep in mind that in the concept of the first five or six or seven works being nominated, (each awards body has a different number of nominees that is set ahead of time,) the others, no matter how good they are, just don’t get in. Don’t be a fool yourself just because some writers, pundits, creatives, and members of the public are.

Two people who did not deserve Oscars nominations, so, therefore, did not get them: Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie. (I adore Margot, by the way, but this was not an award-worthy performance.)

And, by the way, Barbie does not deserve inclusion in most of the awards nominations. (If you missed my thoughts on that movie last August, just click here: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/movie-review-barbie-movie-do-not-take-the-kids-and-stay-away-yourself.) It’s a travesty, and an insult to films, for it to have received any nods outside of Best Set Design, for the beautiful colorful sections.

I adore Ryan Gosling, and he provided the only fun in this stupid movie, but for him to have received any nomination, let alone one for a formerly-prestigious Academy Award, for playing Ken, is just pure nonsense.

And don’t get me started on America Ferrera getting an Oscars nod. I’ve never seen Mr. X be so disgusted over a nomination. He keeps asking me every day how that happened. I actually keep checking the nominations because I can’t really believe that she really got one. What America basically did in Barbie is read a political speech, not act. Compare that to Jodie Foster’s gut-wrenching performance in Nyad. Ridiculous.

I actually feel that the voters for this 2024 awards season bestowed any nominations on Barbie because they felt pressure from the public. And the box office! They would look like a bunch of old out-of-touch fogies if they had ignored the financial success of the movie. And they also need the viewers to tune-in to their TV presentations, so they figured what the heck.

So, to sum-up, all the voting entities actually snubbed my feelings on all the film nominations this season! And that’s how you use the word “snubbed!!!”