This Week:
- Suddenly I’m a huge basketball fan.
- I’ve always been a huge Rosie O’Donnell fan.
- Same with Pink.
- What’s the deal with Dorothy?
- They’re trying to gaslight us about Scooby Doo.
Paint Me in Orange
There’s only one choice for the best television of the week. It’s the Knicks games, obviously.
For the sake of the team and sports fans with high blood pressure, do I wish that every game wasn’t a nail-biter decided by one point? Of course. Does that make for the most dramatic and thrilling TV that I’ve seen in a long, long time? Also yes.
It’s not a novel observation, but so much of our recreation time—aka TV watching—is splintered across a million streaming services and myriad series vying for our attention. It’s rare that everyone, especially everyone in New York City, has their attention tuned into one singular thing. The New York Knicks have accomplished that.
The number of people I’ve talked to in the last week who have told me a version of, “I’ve never watched an NBA game before, but I’m watching the Knicks as if it’s my own son playing for the finals,” has been astounding. Everyone is rapt. The communal experience hasn’t just been fun. It’s been really moving.
Having covered pop culture for a long time, I’ve long noticed a phenomenon where people who don’t follow sports regularly are often the biggest fans of sports movies and TV shows. Ask the biggest fan of Friday Night Lights you know when the last time was that they went to an actual football game. There’s something about the inherent drama of sports that even fairweather fans find irresistible.
What I’ve noticed about the Knicks craze since they’ve been in the Finals is how inclusive the experience of watching them has been. It seems like every bar and watch party knows the audience is a mix of diehards who have been following the whole season and people who have heard the buzz about the games and want to see what the fuss is all about. And the fuss has been more than warranted—these games have been so much freaking fun.
Is it good for anxiety-prone people that the games are decided in the last minute, twice now by the matter of one point? Let’s just say cardiologists are about to be shopping for vacation houses after this series. But, wow, has it been a blast to see so much drama happening on TV. Widow’s Bay is good television. The Summer House reunion has been great. But nothing can compete with a last-second layup being swatted away and the greatest city in the world’s team heroically claiming victory.
The really great thing about this happening for New Yorkers is that the Finals have been a call to be with each other again. I don’t know if it’s my age or my geriatric millennialness, but I’ve noticed that, frankly, people don’t do things anymore. Or at least I don’t. We don’t have patience for how many thousands of dollars it is to buy tickets to concerts or games. We don’t want to be up late watching things. We don’t want to deal with crowds, or loud people. Yet, with this Knicks run, we’re desperate to be a part of it.
I had a really funny interaction with a group of friends recently, the afternoon after Game 2, and we were all just catching up about what we did the night before, and each one of us had the same answer: “So, I never thought I would do this, but I was curious and went to the bar on the corner and watched the Knicks game. It was so much fun.” All five of us in different neighborhoods of the city.
If you’re not in New York, the games are still electric and amazing television. (Again, one point!!!?!!!????) But what you’re not experiencing is the glorious moment that happens when the buzzer sounds in the fourth quarter, and the Knicks pull off the win. The entire city is cheering. You can hear it on the streets. The sound of the yelling and the clapping pours out of the bars and into the open air. I’ve truly never experienced anything like it.
It’s such a pleasure to be here, at a time when the impulse is to isolate, to be something so communal. There are few things all of us can shake hands on these days, but we can all agree how ludicrous it was for Donald Trump to shut down midtown Manhattan just to take a nap at Madison Square Garden. I don’t think even MAGA enthusiasts wanted him there.
Will the Knicks take it in five? I hope so. But part of me wants this to stretch out to seven games, just to prolong the exhilaration and fun this stretch has been. This last week, I’ve seen so many New Yorkers walking around in the ugliest shade of orange imaginable. It’s been a beautiful sight. Over 20 years in, I’ve never loved the city more.
It’s Time to Praise Rosie
Rosie O’Donnell is in the headlines for getting a facelift after spending decades saying that not only is it something she wouldn’t do, but she also doesn’t really respect it. Kathy Griffin said as much in the latest episode of her Talk Your Head Off Youtube series.
But here’s the thing that my friends and I have been talking about this last week. (You know you’re cool and hip when your group texts are about Rosie O’Donnell’s facelift.) She looks amazing. Whatever procedure she got done, it was worth the money.
Rosie was on my mind for other reasons this week besides her plastic surgery.
It was brought to my attention that it is the 30th anniversary of the premiere of The Rosie O’Donnell Show. As is the case for so many gay men my age, there is something about that show that just spoke to me, woke me up, and made me feel seen. As a TV critic, it’s in the Top 3 of series that inspired me to do what I do.
She was simultaneously a fan of the people she brought on the show and serious about talking to them and understanding who they are as people more than professionals, which is something I bring to my work. (At least I like to think so.) As a fledgling little musical theater gay, her spotlighting of each season’s big shows was like a passport for me to a land that I knew I’d one day want to live in. When she interviewed Britney Spears for the first time, it was like the Super Bowl for middle-school me.
So congrats to Rosie on the facelift, but also on this occasion to look back at what her talk show really meant to people.
Gitchie Gitchie Kevin Fallon
As I enter the era of my life that I think is my true calling—the spirit of a middle-aged soccer mom—I have no qualms expressing how much I love Pink.
I was blown away by how great she was hosting the Tony Awards. It was a perfect showcase of her enthusiasm—she did such a good job representing theater fans—and also her talent; at one point she was dangling from the rafters of Radio City Music Hall while holding Neil Patrick Harris in her thighs and belting the iconic Elphaba riff from Wicked.
The opening number was like a fever dream. A spoof of the hit song “Lady Marmalade,” it centered all of the actresses who were a part of the year’s Broadway season. That meant viewers got to hear lyrics like “gitchie gitchie Laurie Metcalf” as a kickline was happening.
If you’re a theater fan, that’s just plain hilarious. I’ve spent this last week with the parody song stuck in my head. Vacuuming my apartment while mindlessly singing “gitchie gitchie Carrie Coon” to myself. It’s been blissful.
Friends of Dorothy, Rise Up
The movie It’s Dorothy is available to purchase on VOD this week, just in time for Pride Month. The film explores how, in the 125 years since L. Frank Baum’s book first released, the character of Dorothy Gale has become an indelible icon to the gay community.
Actresses who have played her in different incarnations of The Wizard of Oz are interviewed, and they all have the same assessment: the brain, heart, and courage of the girl in blue gingham with pigtails has an undeniable hold on us. When the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, I interviewed three of them. You can read about their trips to Oz here.
Someone Is Not Getting Their Scooby Snacks
The first image of Scooby Doo from the upcoming live-action movie was released, and, I’m sorry, what in the hell is this?
More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed
Legendary director Adam Shankman told me the secrets of working with John Travolta on Hairspray and Tom Cruise on Rock of Ages. Watch here.
Bravo’s latest toxic man got what was coming for him in the finale of the Summer House reunion. Read more.
I interviewed the winner of Top Chef about the dramatic (and incredible) season. Read more.
What to Watch This Week:
The Furious: Definitely the wildest movie of the summer so far. (Now in theaters)
Stop! That! Train!: The new movie starring RuPaul is basically gay Airplane!, and I mean that as the highest compliment.
Best of the World With Antoni Porowski: See the best sights of the world and his impressive biceps. (Now on National Geographic/Disney+)
What to Skip This Week:
Disclosure Day: Not every Steven Spielberg alien feature is going to land. (Now in theaters)
