Still reeling a bit from the news about Gilbert. Here's one interesting thing about him. When he first came upon the stand-up scene, his act consisted of clever bits that he (I assume) wrote. Some of them were brilliant and quite unlike anything anyone had ever done…but his performance of that material was at least as funny as the material itself. At some point, he did a one-eighty and switched to just telling dirty jokes…material that he didn't write and that others had done. And again, because of the performance, he was just as funny. He wrote new stuff for those Comedy Central Roasts and other special occasions but if you went to see Gilbert at a comedy club, you heard — and enjoyed the hell of — a lot of old dirty jokes with some embellishment. Most comics couldn't get away with that.
Folks are writing to ask me what I think of the "punishment" the Academy has decreed for Will Smith — banning him from the Oscars ceremony for ten years. The fact that I put the word in quotes should tell you what I think of it. It will be interesting to see if/when he gets nominated again if they make an exception that time. Otherwise, I think I'm past discussing that matter.
Some also asked me why I wasn't complaining about the omission of certain people from the "In Memoriam" reel. I'm already past that. It happens every year and it will continue to happen and no matter who they put in, someone will be mad they left someone out. What's interesting — and it might be maddening if I took that segment more seriously — is that when people bitch about So-and-So being "snubbed," they're only talking about actors and performers. They can leave out all the directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, set designers, composers, costumers, film editors, animators, studio heads, agents, etc., they like. No one even lists those omissions. But it's an outrage when they omit someone who was ever on a movie screen.
Lastly: Here's something I recently learned. I buy a lot of things from Amazon and sometimes, something has to be returned…like I bought some sweat pants and they sent me the wrong size. Amazon has always been good about taking things back but they've gotten really good about it as follows. If you have a return, you no longer have to wrap it up, find a suitable mailing bag or box or anything of the sort and maybe get some bubble wrap or padding. Instead, you can have them send you a QR code and then you take the item(s) to any Whole Foods Market, find the Customer Service desk and someone there will take the merchandise, scan the QR code on your phone and they'll wrap up the return and ship it back. I sent my assistant over to do it today and she said it couldn't have been easier. Good to know.