Interlude: Call Me By Your Name
I thought the “Call Me By Your Name” press tour would be over by the time of the Oscar nominations, but the day of the nominations found Armie and Tim-o-tay back in Crema, Italy where they filmed “Call Me By Your Name” for the official closing of the press tour, and the start of Tim-o-tay’s Oscar press push.
During the Crema tour they held an impromptu dance party for the fans reminiscent of the one that takes place in the film.
Tim-o-tay slow danced with a male fan to Tim-o-tay’s favorite song from their soundtrack: Joe Esposito’s, “Lady, Lady, Lady”, Armie, whose hatred of dance is legendary, danced with, drunk with and hugged fans as his time with Luca and Tim-o-tay wound down.
~As you can tell by his tweets, while in Crema, Armie Hammer returned to Twitter after shutting down his account for two months.
Not that he didn’t have any regrets.
~While he didn’t deactivate his account, Timothee went on a Twitter hiatus. According to a fan who met him at one of the gazillion Q&As he’s done, when asked when he would get back to tweeting, Timothee said that he deleted the Twitter app from his phone because it was getting “too crazy”. This was the time frame where he was getting abuse from people for working with Woody Allen and being pushed to denounce Allen. Eventually Timothee made a statement of regret in working for Woody Allen in the, what is reportedly likely to be shelved film “A Rainy Day in New York”, and donated his salary to the Time’s Up Foundation and a LGBT charity.
Someone who has remained silent on Woody Allen is Timothee’s “Rainy Day in New York” costar Selena Gomez. But you know who isn’t silent? Selena’s mother who instead of just ignoring tweets, responded to fans who were urging her to push Selena to denounce Allen. Selena’s mother tweeted that she urged Selena to not work with Allen in the first place but Selena and her team ignored her. Her comments proceeded Selena unfollowing her mother on Twitter, some say to her mother’s disapproval of Selena reuniting with ex Justin Bieber.
~Bringing it back to Tim-o-tay, who at this point is being treated like a Make-A-Wish Foundation kid since publications have worked to make his dreams come true. A rap fan (clips are available on Youtube of his rap days as L’il Timmy Tim at his performing arts school LaGuardia where he met/dated Lourdes Leon (Madonna’s daughter) and became friends with classmates Ansel Elgort and Jherrel Jerome (Moonlight, Mr. Mercedes), he’s gushed about his love for Frank Ocean (during an interview he became giddy at the prospect of Ocean seeing “Call Me By Your Name”) and Kid Cudi so Interview magazine had Ocean interview him and GQ invited Kid Cudi to the party celebrating Tim-o-tay’s GQ cover.
Self-proclaimed fanboy, Tim-o-tay met Cudi a few years ago
And he got much love at the Oscars nominee luncheon where Meryl Streep took him around introducing him to people and he got his selfie game on.
Tim-o-tay’s GQ party was also attended by the Hammers and Nick “Niki” Delli Santi, the childhood friend of Armie Hammer and the godfather of his children.
Young!Armie, Armie's brother Viktor and Niki
And because fandom is so fun, due to sheer proximity, liking each other IG posts, and Tim-o-tay attending an early birthday party for Niki shippers began to speculate that Timothee and Niki are a lowkey item. The theory was further exacerbated by this bs Crazy Day and Nights blind item.
Balony Blind Item
This closeted very well off best friend of this married A list mostly movie actor with the very interesting sex life is the sugardaddy to this closeted B+ list mostly movie actor who is in a movie that is odds on favorite to win Best Picture next month at the Oscars.
Plot twist: All the time Timothee has been spending with the Hammers was just to get to Niki!!
*I LOVE THIS FANDOM!
**What’s hilarious is that the blind (if it is a made up one about Niki and Timothee, it refers to him as closeted. I had always assumed Niki was openly gay until Elizabeth kept making posts about how he was single and is a great catch for the right woman. ::what’s the truth gif::
But people quickly jumped from Timothee/Niki to Timothee and his friend Stephane Bak who was Tim-o-tay’s plus one for the BAFTA/Vogue party and the BAFTA Awards.
6’0 foot tall Timothee likes ‘em just as tall
~Whether it’s rumors of him dating Stephane or Niki or photographer Petra Collins (who is rumored to be Justin Theroux’s new girlfriend) or being in a polyamorous relationship with the Hammers, people don’t know what to make of Timothee’s open fondness for people, especially Armie. So unnerved that they try to make it something it’s not. Even GQ had a headline of “Timothee Chalamet Has a Weirdly Close Relationship with Armie Hammer” because Timothee related a story of how, while hanging out in their hotel room, he got into bed with Armie and his wife Elizabeth. I mean, this is why toxic masculinity exists! They’re just bros being bros! He’s just being a good friend. He’s Armie’s own personal hype man!
Just a bro being a bro!
Third wheeling
Just your average dude thought
Armie has told this story 300 times and has enough restraint to not use the word "steamy" or "getting into it"
From the CMBYN DVD commentary
Timothee: “Armie might take up a hundredth of the frame, he’s tiny in that shot and yet he’s everything”
Um…bro thoughts?
~"I don’t think I’ll have an acting experience as immersive as that (making CMBYN) I came of age as an actor during my time with Armie. The relationship that blossomed out of it is the most precious gift.”
~(From the DVD commentary which is out in the UK whereas CMBYN is just now getting wide release in L.A thanks to Sony Pictures Classics ridiculous slow roll out of the film) : I remember the ground outside was so hot because of the sun, and I'm barefoot in this scene, and before takes I'd be standing on Armie's feet and they'd say, “ Action” and I'd say, “Thanks for letting me stand on your feet, brother, let's go do this scene.”
Look, Timothee, I’m trying to help you out here. Did you not think to ask for a towel or shirt to put down? How about flip-flops considering you did wear shoes in the film? Standing on Armie’s size 15 feet actually felt like the most logical thing to do? Do you want people to think you and your married costar are smashing?
~(winning the London Film Critics Award): “Armie Hammer, who is my tongue wrestling partner: thank you for being here.”
~(VMan interview): I wish everybody could hang out with Armie, because the nature of our relationship, the way it blossomed when we first met, was so conducive to what it is in the movie and so helpful. … I knew seconds after meeting Armie that I was in the best hands. He’s an instinctual caretaker, which is so helpful to his incredible performance in the film…It’s best epitomized in this scene where I’m sleeping in bed towards the end of the film…Oliver sits on the bed next to Elio and you see about 6,000 emotions go across Armie’s face: love, empathy, regret, and fear. There’s so much Armie in that moment; so much love there.
I give up
~For every end there is a beginning and Crema wasn’t only the end of the “Call Me By Your Name” press tour, but the beginning of Armie’s sartorial rebellion. What Armie would later explain as a case of the “fuck-its”, Armie entered the last stage of the press tour wearing Adidas tracksuits like he was a flipping assistant coach for Little Leaguers. Initially, I was offended that he would go to Italy, the height of fashion, wearing trackies but I soon succumbed to the appeal of #tracksuitnation.
*A fan asked Elizabeth if Armie was being sponsored by Adidas and she said she wished that was the case; he just liked the tracksuits. Since he wasn't pushing an endorsement Fila and Hugo Boss have both gifted Armie with their ugly tracksuits.
~Besides setting the interwebs aflame with his athletic wear choices and his Instagram likes (he's careful on Twitter, but his Instagram is another story), Armie fans gained a new sense of fondness for him during the never-ending press tour when Armie admitted to Andy Cohen that his mother, Dru, would not watch "Call Me By Your Name" due to her "Christian" Conservative views. Cohen, and later Peter Travers who also asked if Armie's parents would see the film, kept pressing him on it as if they were trying to get him to cry like how Mike Wallace made Barbra Streisand cry on "60 Minutes". Thus began the woobi-ficationing of Armie Hammer because during the unrelenting press tour time and time again Tim-o-tay and Michael Stuhlbarg spoke of their parents support for their careers and Armie had nothing to offer. At one event when Armie demurred on the question the moderator joked that he could bring a therapist's couch out and Armie replied that there wouldn't be enough time.
During the Andy Cohen interview when the topic of his mother came up, Timothee said she wouldn't see it because Armie was "possessed" and it seemed like it was a reference to something Armie must have told him, even Stuhlbarg looked at Timothee in confusion. In defense of Dru Hammer if she did ever tell Armie he was possessed it's likely because he's the guy who, as a kid, sold Playboys and lotion to his classmates and who was expelled for writing his name on the school wall in lighter fluid and setting it on fire. Not to mention dropping out of high school, not attending the UCLA extension classes they paid for. And while younger Viktor is a businessman, big brother Armand gets arrested for pot and deported from India when he was filming "Hotel Mumbai". So...Armie is A LOT.
~Didn't watch the Olympics. Don't know a darn thing about skiing but I am all about Gus Kenworthy's body and CMBYN reference.
Let me see that dooooonnnk, that donk donk donk donk donk!
Game Night
A Jason Bateman film that is actually funny? The hell you say!
Yes. Finally, years after showing his greatness in "Arrested Development", Bateman has a film worthy of his skills. It's not on the level of "Arrested Development", but "Game Night" is certainly a outlandish and fun-filled funny action-comedy that serves the ensemble cast well.
Directed by writing team Jonathan Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldenstein, and written by Mark Perez; "Game Night" stars Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams as Max and Annie, a super couple whose love of games has them holding a weekly game night with their friends: Married couple Michelle (Kylie Bunbury, "Pitch") and Kevin (Lamorne Morris, "The New Girl") and their dim-witted friend Ryan (Billy Magnussen, "Ingrid Goes West") who lovelife is like a game of musical chairs.
When Max's older, successful brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler)
comes to town, Brooks plans a game night of his own. Forgoing the usual board games, he arranges a mystery game night where one of the players will be abducted. When Brooks is actually abducted Max, Annie, Kevin, Ryan and Ryan's date/ringer Sarah (Sharon Horgan, "Catastrophe") play through thinking that they are still in a game. When they realize Brooks is in real danger, the gang must use their wits to bring him to safety.
There are so many monumentally funny moments due to the film's sharp, unexpected turns. Bateman and McAdams are a perfect pair with Bateman's dry takes and McAdams' perky, giving-it-her-all delivery.
Jesse Plemons ("The Post") offers up quite a bit of laughs himself as Max and Annie's neighbor Gary, a weird cop who Max and Annie stopped inviting to their game night after his divorce.
The film also features appearances by Jeffrey Wright, Danny Huston, director John Francis Daley (briefly returning to his acting roots) and Michael C. Hall who is looking surprisingly handsome nowadays. I guess it took some time and distance for me to get over how much I hated his character on "Six Feet Under" and how pale he looked in "Dexter".
-Plemons has been in appeared in four projects in recent months ("The Post", "Hostiles", "Game Night" and "Black Mirror") but he's gearing up for a new role: dad. Meth Damon and fiancee Kirsten Dunst are expecting their first child.
The press picked up on it when Kiki was seen with an obvious baby bump two months back but it was only confirmed when an ad campaign for Rodarte was released.
Yep. She's pregnant.
The two of them look like Clark Griswold's cousin's family in "Vacaton"
~Talking about Olympians and peaches...
Yes, Tom Daley and husband writer Dustin Lance Black are having a baby and to me, Tom looks absolutely terrified. The two began dating when Tom was 19 and fresh out the closet after doing the baby steps of denying he was gay, to stating he was bisexual. They have been together for years, likely the only lover Daley had when they got together, Tom cheated for months, got exposed, they broke up and got back together, married. I kinda feel it's a fix-it baby so that Lance can keep Tom. But who knows, maybe they just needed time to find each other again. Pink and Corey Hart split up before reuniting and starting their family. Same with writer/director Greg Berlanti who had a child via surrogate while dating Robbie Rogers, they split for a while, before reuniting and getting married.
Know who else is starting over? Our Clark Kent!
**Now hopefully he'll get back to work full-time. He'll have a family to support soon enough.