Notes on a Scandal with Sasha Stone

Jeff Wells and Sasha Stone for a quickie chat about recent events. What happens when someone’s career ends overnight after a hit piece in a Hollywood trade? Tune in to find out. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heplus.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.comThe free version of the first half of Misfits #6 is also at www.hollywood-elsewhere.com.

During the pod I mentioned the likelihood or advisability of John Cena wearing a “sock” during his nude moment at the Oscars.  Nobody bit (one or two of my colleagues vaguely shuddered) so the subject fell by the wayside.  But the Hollywood Reporter has done the reporting.  [See below link.]Just like my having also mentioned the obvious about the advisability of Lily Gladstone, who has grown significantly since filming of KOTFM in ‘21, trying Ozempic route going forward.  Others have obviously done this but only a bad person (and I mean someone deserving of condemnation) would mention it. Lily will never be Emma Stone, but elemental logic tells us she’d be more employable if she could at least return to her KOTFM weight.   Do you think Amy Schumer could have played the lead in “Trainwreck” at her current proportions?  Directors and agents and casting directors don’t tiptoe around this topic (or dodge it).  Tom Hanks didn’t dodge it.  Everyone understands that Brendan Fraser lost his star luminosity when he got fat and lost much of his hair.   Just saying. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heplus.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heplus.substack.com/subscribe

Greetings to HE fans and Oscar Poker loyalists (posted on Sunday, 2.25):Podcast-wise longtime HE partner & soulmate Sasha Stone and I have decided to politely and graciously part company, at least for the time being. HE’s “The Misfits” is the new deal — a Zoom video group discussion thing as opposed to the two-person audio chat that “Oscar Poker” was— it’s now three or four revolving participants per weekly episode, discussing the usual ebb and flow, twists and turns, etc. HE founder and relentless author Jeffrey Wells is, as you might expect, a locked-in, never-say-die fixture. Today’s trio was Glenn Kenny, author of the forthcoming “The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface”, “Exit Interview” author Kristi Coulter, and Manhattan & East Hampton movie hound, comedy writer and co-host of “Talking Pictures” co-host Bill McCuddy.Others will join in as things evolve. We’re just playing it by ear for the time being. Perhaps Jeff Sneider and Eddie Ginley will jump in next week or down the road. The door is open. I would love it if I could persuade Sasha to drop in from time to time, but that’s up to her, of course. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heplus.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.comIs Taylor Swift a high-maintenance handful or not?  Is anyone paying any attention to that slanderous Nikki Finke /James Mangold 15 Year-0ld bullshit about Jeff?  How doomed is Joe Biden, and is there any way out of the coming Binary From Hell?  Is the fix really and truly in?  And why isn’t Sasha interested in talking about “The Seven Year Itch”? They’…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com[#image: /photos/54cc039b0a5930502f5f6ec7]|||View more images of Kate Winslet from the pages of Vanity Fair. Above, photograph by Annie Leibovitz.|||Without an agenda or any sense of urgency, Sasha and Jeff acknowledge that there’s nothing to discuss about the Oscars other than the Best Actress situation (i.e., Emma Stone vs. Lily Gladstone) and that no…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.comYou know something’s up (or down) when your conversational energy keeps sputtering. One thing’s for sure and it’s this: things have changed big-time since 2009. Tech community-wise. Attractive movie star-wise. Culturally, politically, every which way.007:00 - He’s Just Not That Into You, movies they don’t make anymore. 009:00 - History of the internet…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.comWhat happened to poor Greta Gerwig?  How did Sterling K. Brown and Colman Domingo slip into their respective elite nominee rosters?  What happened to poor Alexander Payne?  What is the deal with everyone doing backflips over “Anatomy of a Fall,” which is a relatively decent courtroom film, but come on…what IS this?Well, mostly Sasha’s with Jeff piping i…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.comThe usual political and cultural factors in Oscar balloting are evaluated by the brilliant Sasha Stone, who knows Oscar statistics like few others.  Plus, there is the matter of  Eric Roth’s original “Killers of the Flower Moon” script, which was written seven years ago.  Plus the coming horror of the Presidential election.  Sasha gets angry at Jeff for…