Hello Partiers!

I know I said I was going to do a poll this week so you can vote on what moniker I use to refer to you, but I’m going to push that to next week for boring back-end reasons. Apologies! 

It’s been a hectic week here at Premiere Party HQ! I saw a play and went to a party. On two different nights! That’s a lot. The play, a British import called 2:22, hasn’t formally opened yet, so I don’t think I should write about it too much. But I can say that it stars, among others, Anna Camp and the guy from Iron Fist (who was also a gay guy on Game of Thrones) and is about spooky ghosts, just in time for Halloween. The show has been running on and off in the UK for a while now, and the big hook there is that British huns like Lily Allen, Cheryl (née Cole), and others have played roles. The US ensemble isn’t quite as stunt-cast, I’m afraid, but if it’s a hit maybe eventually we’ll see, like, Willa Ford or Ashlee Simpson taking a crack at it. Here’s hoping! 

The party was a little affair at an Irish pub in the East Village, held in honor of Elsinore and its star, Andrew Scott. Who, yes, I did speak to for a little bit, maintaining the very cool, calm composure for which I’m famous. No, in truth I probably made too many jokes or something, but wasn’t a complete disaster. Scott is a very charming guy, and I think will have an edge on his main Oscar competitor, John Malkovich, when it comes to schmoozing at parties. It’s hard to say if that glad-handing ultimatley has much of an effect on voting, but it certainly can’t hurt. So, I’m glad to see Scott out on the campaign trail—all while he’s also doing a play in town, no less. 

Because I was too busy partying it up with Moriarty and getting scared with one of the Bellas, I unfortunately missed a couple of this week’s new releases. Clayface? I’m sorry, my dear, but I’ll see you on an airplane someday. Wildwood, on the other hand, I am seeing this weekend, and will be covering it on next week’s episode of Critical Darlings, the most popular podcast in America. A confession, though: I’ve never seen a Laika movie before—no ParaNorman, no Kubo, not even Coraline—so I feel like I should watch at least a couple of those to have any hope of understanding where Wildwood fits into that ecosystem. That’s a weekend goal of mine, I suppose.

Otherwise it was a normal week— Oh who am I kidding. I can’t keep up the pretense anymore. Yes, I did go to that play and that party, but the real reason my week was hectic was that I had a major backslide and started looking at Twitter again for the first time in months. Foolishly, it was anxiety about the impending midterms that sparked my return to the world’s worst website, and it has been absolutely hellish and all-consuming. At least, the For You page has been. What a horror show it is over there, and I am confessing this lapse in judgment, putting it out there in public, so that I can hold myself accountable. This is my solemn vow to you, and to myself: this error will not be long lived. I’m not getting sucked back into that vortex, even if I am curious what people are saying about the election. I can listen to NPR or something if I want information about that. 

Okay, I feel better. I suppose we all take a little stumble from time to time, right? I just happened to trip and land facedown in a pile of bizarre and uniquely awful takes about Vivek Ramaswamy. But I’m done now, I swear. To prove it, here are some weekend viewing recommendations that have nothing to do with Twitter.