James Chalmers

My Twitter account had the gold-standard explanation of why WASPI women enrage.

Definitionally they cannot produce a sympathetic case study. Follow along with me:

> The supposed injustice and grounds for their campaigning are that they were not informed, not the change in age itself. So:

Sure! My point is only that multiplexes have lots of screenings with low attendance, which is why I don't think there is necessarily a vast hit in (weirdly, of course, given that this is a new film) having low attendance screenings here.

That said, I just remembered that Vue said a couple of years ago they had started using AI for film scheduling and it would be very funny to know whether they had to manually override their in-house version of ChatGPT suggesting "maybe one screening at 10am on Wednesday if you really must".

I am not going to research this fully but although it's rightly funny to point out e.g. "only two people have bought a ticket for this screening of Melania on release day", right now only two people have bought tickets across the two screenings of Marty Supreme the same evening in that cinema.

No, although I wonder if the hit is as big as it might seem. In multiplexes there will often be screenings with only a handful of tickets sold, even if it's unusual for those to be a brand new release. There still must be some incentive to do it, of course!

My local Vue has 20 (!) screenings listed from Friday to next Thursday; a mix of afternoon and evening ones. They seem to be scheduling it as if it were an entirely normal mainstream popular release.

But did they ask you what the badminton players attempted to name themselves? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badmint...

(The docuseries actually sounds like a much better idea if only because no-one has to know how few people watch it.)

In January 2025, Amazon MGM Studios announced that Brett Ratner would direct a documentary film about Melania Trump, the first lady of the United States.[3] Disney and Paramount Pictures bid for streaming rights to the film, as reported by Matthew Belloni of Puck News, but Amazon outbid both and agreed to pay $40 million to license the film and produce a follow-up docuseries on the first lady.[4] Filming for the documentary began in December 2024, following the U.S. presidential election, with Trump serving as executive producer alongside Fernando Sulichin.[3][5]

Not just a film. I hope you’ve added the docuseries to your watchlist.

Offering unprecedented access to the 20 days leading up to the 2025 Presidential Inauguration — through the eyes of the First Lady-elect herself — step inside Melania Trump's world as she orchestrates inauguration plans, navigates the complexities of the White House transition, and reenters public life with her family. With exclusive footage capturing critical meetings, private conversations, and never-before-seen environments, Mrs. Trump returns to one of the world's most powerful roles.

Amongst much else I’m baffled by the premise. There is probably a film to be made (surely such films have been made!) about the role of the First Lady. There might be a film to be made about the shock of starting the role for the first time. A film about starting the role for the second time?

A sentence I never thought I’d have to write, but: no, Keir Starmer has a perfectly normal number of fingers in that photo, what are some of you on about?

Out 1 at the BFI! Not bad once it stopped being comprised overwhelmingly of experimental theatre rehearsals. (But I wouldn’t watch it again.) whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/defau...

As someone who saw a 743 minute film in the cinema earlier this month, I say: amateur.

I see when I look at the Vue website to check how popular it is in my local (not very but there have been some tickets sold) there is a banner ad for the film. Fascinated by what the promotional deal might be here!

I think from the explanation suggested in the article they must have more leeway than that but I suspect it’s not far off that: something like “if it makes commercial sense we’ll play it, but I am not going to go into why this makes commercial sense”.

What is going on here? If Vue had a policy of showing 99% of BBFC approved films I would be delighted but I do not believe it does. That’s well over 1000 films a year!

Keir Starmer celebrating Burns Night with a can of Irn Bru and assorted Tunnocks products.

I do not say this lightly when I tell you, as a proud Scot, that this is the funniest thing Keir Starmer has ever done.

Given the way YouGov ratings work (you'd be giving the rating with no context other than the name and a tiny photo, where in this case you can barely see the face) I think it must be that. I hope so!

The most popular Conservative politicians in the UK | Politics | YouGov Ratings The most popular Conservative politicians in the UK according to YouGov Ratings. Popularity is based on millions of responses from the British public and YouGov's innovative survey methodology.

Wait until you find out who the most popular Conservative politician is. yougov.co.uk/ratings/poli...

They’re not blocking anyone, according to Clearsky. I think you’re blocking them!

I have no problem with the idea that Burnham might be better than Starmer but everything about this was stupid: forcing a mayoral by-election; turning the Gorton by-election into a psychodrama (and possibly losing Labour both); implausible claims about wanting to back the government by doing this.

Ok, this is bad if you know what it’s referring to but what on *earth* would you make of that graphic if you didn’t?

Behold this Swedish stage production from a decade ago, broadcast nationwide. youtu.be/EPxyrZEZ80w?...

Wondering whether glasses with very thin/minimal wire rims will become de rigueur in future years as people try to reassure those around them that they’re not being filmed. (Possibly not; for all that people are rightly worried about these products on here I suspect the wider public may just shrug.)

Just to avoid sounding as if I’m going all Four Yorkshiremen, baths in front of the fire were something my parents talked about but I think I missed entirely!

With our home it wasn’t because it was an old building but because it was lived in by a housebuilder who had only ever half-finished the place before he moved somewhere bigger. But that implies he was happy enough living there for years with just the fire, which nowadays would be thought mad.

Now I think about it my parents’ house (Aberdeenshire!) and my grandfather’s (further north!) then were reliant on a coal fire and I have no memory of it being an issue other than sleeping under industrial quantities of blankets when we visited north. I suppose we just accepted low temperatures?

Around that time a flat near me in Aberdeen was advertised for sale as one of the city’s last remaining “unconverted” tenement flats, meaning a bed recess in the kitchen and no toilet/bathroom. I slightly regret not viewing it just out of curiosity. (Of course it might have been empty for a time.)

“I keep removing clothes and adding extra blood and it doesn’t seem to help.”

But actually I can read all your posts? This seems to mean the label is specifically for your profile only and not your account or its content. What is *in* that profile picture?