The Squeee

Last night, Nora Ephron was trending on Twitter, because an obituary had been posted on a website, and then removed. Her people said she was alive. Other tweeters said that she's alive, but not expected to live through the night. Well, it seems the latter was right. :( It's now been confirmed that Nora Ephron, screenwriter and director, has died, aged 71, from acute myeloid leukaemia. Sorry to see her go. My thoughts and condoleances are with her friends and family. One of her best known films, and perhaps also most loved, is When Harry Met Sally . I've not yet (re-)watched and reviewed that, but here are a couple of other Nora Ephron films you can read my take on: Sleepless in Seattle (1993) You've Got Mail (1998)

No words needed, just watch this:

Ah, sometimes Facebook ads are actually useful. It showed me a t-shirt site called Meanfellas.com, which I immedately had to investigate: Lowood t-shirt Lowood Charity School. :D It's £15 (or more, depending on size/style) and comes in white or pink. Free shipping to anywhere in the world.

I was going to write a post, but then ... then someone posted a link to this video and a description seems sort of superfluous! ...Okay, maybe some things need explaining after all.

There are some people that you see on TV, and then you see someone that looks just like them. Except unlike the topic of yesterday's post, they're the other gender. And they're not even related. Ever had that? There's one I've been thinking about for a while, and while looking for photos in order to make this image, found that Google Images actually suggested I search for the two of them together. For anyone in the UK, it's rather obvious: John Sergeant and Jo Brand , of course! Jo Brand & John Sergeant. Or is it the other way around? Brand is a very deadpan, snarky, and - in my humble opinion - hilarious comedian. Sergeant is a journalist or something? These days he's on The One Show and has danced (badly) in Strictly Come Dancing . Could be twins! Don't know the age difference between the two, but gosh, they do look very similar. Another one I didn't think of until today, when I watched The Prestige . I saw the judge and thought &quo

Please tell me I'm not the only one who keep seeing people that remind me of Richard Armitage? Surely you keep seeing people that remind you of him as well? Anyway, here's the one that gets me every time we watch Grimm : Sasha Roiz .

Just saw that the Queen's Birthday Honours have been made public. Kenneth Branagh may now call himself Sir, as he is to be knighted. Gary Barlow and choir boy Gareth Malone got an OBE each, and  Kate Winslet a CBE, just like Mary Berry from The Great British Bake-off . Another Knight of the Realm is Richard Stilgoe, who's worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber a lot. Congratulations, one and all! The full lists are on the Directgov website and a summary is available on BBC News .

The subject of a gay actor playing straight parts has come up in the comments before, but I think for me personally, that's more to do with the actor's skills than anything else. For instance, if a certain actor we all love and are really devoted to would turn out to bat for the other team, as it were, some people would argue that it would be too weird to watch him play straight relationships on screen. For instance, wouldn't it be weird if Thornton was gay in real life? Don't look like no limp wrists to me, sonny. I think it's more to do with how the actor portrays the character. With Thornton, I'd say "whoa boy, you sure could've fooled me!" for instance. In Serenity , we finally see Kaylee and Simon get together. The actor playing Simon, Sean Maher, came out last year. Him and Kaylee? That seems genuine enough to me.

Peter Jackson and pals in New Zealand post production diaries from The Hobbit every now and again. The seventh one in the series has just been released. Was happily surprised to realise Billy Connolly has been cast as Dain, and the surprise cameraman in the end is pretty cool. :D There's no interview of Richard Armitage, and we only see him briefly, but oh, those moments are worth their weight in gold. Feast your eyes on this:

6 June is the national day ( Nationaldagen ) of Sweden. It didn't use to be a holiday, but a few years ago, after I moved to Britain, they decided to scrap Whitmonday as a red letter day and have the national day off instead. When I was in primary school, we'd perhaps gather around the flagpole in the school grounds and sing the national anthem and that was pretty much it. On the other hand, roundabout now, Swedish schools finish for the summer, so most kids and teenagers will be kind of preoccupied with other things ...

Apparently, although I'm a little late in joining the funeral, BBC4 will not be making any more Dirk Gently . Very disappointed to hear of this. The show's star Stephen Mangan said on Twitter fairly recently: It gives me no pleasure whatsoever to report that the BBC have decided not to make any more Dirk Gently. Sadface. I was hoping they'd do more of it, now that they got the formula right. But alas, it didn't get as many viewers to make it sustainable, I guess. Still, sadface. Was cancelling Dirk Gently the right decision? You can cast your vote on the Radio Times website , or simply head over to AVAAZ to sign the petition to bring it back.

Happy Diamond Jubilee, Ma'am! Yeah, I've totally seen the Queen in real life! And all the best to the Duke of Edinburgh - hope you're feeling better soon, sir!

No more worries for a month or three. Fun and laughter on a summer holiday, to make our dreams come truuuuuuue ... Or, as I am finally finished with 5 Weeks - 5 Themes , and with summer (hopefully) pounding at the gates, I've decided to change my posting frequency. Or I say that, but what I actually mean is that I'm planning on halving (roughly) the amount of reviews posted. Starting tomorrow, instead of posting one review every day, Monday through Friday, I will instead limit myself to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for the duration of June, July and August. I might go on with that indefinitely, I don't know yet.

My friend Leffe found this on YouTube, and it's a good giggle for any Pride & Prejudice fans out there. The Diaries of Lizzie Bennett , a vlog for a modern version of Lizzie Bennett. Enjoy! (Rather different from Jack Nicholson, wouldn't you say?)