BSR

If those 2 hotties are selling kisses for just a buck, they're selling themselves awfully short.

Aberrations aside, as a general rule, yes, moviegoers do need to identify with the protagonist. Straight women go to rom-coms with female protagonists to feel the thrill of falling in love; men see action/adventure movies with male leads to fantasize about feats of derring-do. Exceptions of course, but the exceptions have to be particularly well done to hook in an audience. By the way, I heard the marketing for Bros was $30 million, not $40m. Still, an eye-popping marketing budget for a movie that cost only $22 million to make. $30 million to make just $4.8 million in its opening weekend? Oy. I don't think America is a homophobic country. Yes, some people here are homophobic, but as a general rule, no. Of course, the Cult of Victimhood disagrees.

How does he switch hands yet still maintain perfect balance? That doesn't seem humanly possible, but he makes it look effortless.

Yikes, the studio spent $40 million on marketing! No wonder Billy Eichner is so upset by the opening weekend bomb. I agree that the movie has limited appeal beyond gay men. Straight women are the biggest audience for romantic comedies because they want to identify with the protagonist and enjoy the romance fantasy. Since few will identify with a gay male lead, they won't bother to see Bros no matter how big the marketing budget. It's not that the movie-going public is homophobic; it's that the studio execs simply lacked common sense.

Back in 2005, Brokeback Mountain took in $83 million in the US and $178 million worldwide. I'm not buying Billy Eichner's charge of homophobia for the movie's flop at the box office.

Hopefully I have better luck with this one:

Sorry, I can't recover the tweet. It was a hamster running furiously on his exercise wheel for ~10 seconds, then lying down in the corner for a nap.

While not a bottom, I still think a nick cock is sine qua non. Mind you, "nice" does not necessarily mean large, although decent girth is a must. The nicest cock I've ever played with was ~5", decent girth, but what mattered most and made things so much fun was he stayed rock hard the whole damn time. So my favorite cockhound experience was not with the biggest or longest, but the hardest.

Three balks in one at-bat?! Most pitchers don't rack up three balks in a whole career.

Monday at 8 a.m. Monday at noon.

Have you watched it? I admit I am morbidly fascinated yet repulsed at the same time.

Good news for Élite fans: Season 6 will launch November 18! The just-released promo could pass for softcore porn ...

RTVE (Spain's public TV network) just recently added Spanish captioning to the original Merli. If you can read Spanish half-decently (and have a VPN), it's definitely worth watching. I've never been one for twinks, but both Pol and Bruno were so damn cute as youngsters. Don't worry, it's OK to lust after them since the actors were both (barely) legal at the time of shooting. Maria Pujalte starred in a very popular series, Los misterios de Laura, the first Spanish series that Hollywood picked up and re-made into a series for American TV (starring Debra Messing and Josh Lucas). Note that her daughter in Sapere Aude is named Laura, in a nod to her old show.

Yes, obviously, but note the fan support in the 2015 US Open and 2019 Wimbledon finals. The Arthur Ashe and Centre Court crowds are rooting for Roger as passionately as they would any American/Brit. I agree with @Charlie. Had Roger also made the 2022 USO his farewell tournament, the commentators would have been so preoccupied with tributes and homages to the two retiring legends that the tennis public might have forgotten there was a Slam going on.

I do not work for T-Mobile nor am I paid to promote them (ha! if only), but I switched to T-Mobile because of their special 55+ rate. I was able to share a plan with my mother even though we don't live in the same residence. Unlimited data for 2 lines was $121 (including taxes & fees) with Verizon but just $63 with T-Mobile. Despite all Verizon's boasting about their superior network & coverage, T-Mobile's has so far (8 months) been just as good. But if you're under 55 *EmilyLitellavoice* never mind.

As much as Roger wanted to come back (multiple surgeries, endless rehab), I pretty much knew this was coming when the news came out that fluid was accumulating in his knee, always a horrible sign. I wanted Roger to have a proper farewell, whether it was in his hometown tournament Basel or Wimbledon next year like Serena did this year. He'll compete in Laver Cup, but I don't take that event seriously. No one sells tickets or boosts ratings like Roger Federer. Outside of Spain and Serbia, Roger plays with home court advantage at every tournament around the globe. The sport will sorely miss him.

I just finished binging the 2nd season of Merli Sapere Aude. I loved it, even more than Season 1. Now that Bruno's gone and with Rai hopelessly straight, Pol finds a new love interest, Axel, a hot restoration artist in charge of returning the UBarcelona assembly hall to its former glory. Axel likes Pol, Pol likes Axel, so what's the hitch? Unfortunately, Pol discovers that he has HIV (not a spoiler, he finds out in the 1st or 2nd episode). Most of the 2nd season deals with how Pol deals with his HIV status, as if school, family, and financial issues weren't challenging enough for our young protagonist. We also see how Professor Bolaño deals with her alcoholism and get some insight into why she drinks. Pol quits his parking garage job and starts bartending at a drag nightclub. Oddly enough, María, not Pol, ends up making a very close friend with one of the nightclub staff. Some of last season's characters disappear or fade into the background. Bruno is gone obviously, but also Minerva, who stays in Argentina. Rai is reduced to a peripheral character, as is Silvia (María's only friend at UB). While Biel, Oti, Arnau, and Amy get some more screen time, this season is Pol's story. One big plus is that Carlos Cuevas & Jordi Coll (Axel) have great chemistry. Their sex scenes are hot! hot! hot! The only downside is that there aren't enough of them. I really wish that the series had been renewed, but unfortunately, we won't see a third season of our sexy Catalan philosopher. The final episode comes off as a bit frantic, like the scriptwriters found out last minute that the show got canceled & they had to scramble to wrap up all the storylines. But that's a minor complaint. Overall, I highly recommend Season 2.

Carlos might be tempted to spend more time abroad to avoid being besieged every time he goes out in public in Spain. Ruud actually played really well, but Carlos simply has too much firepower. It's scary that he's only 19 and will only improve from here. His coach Juan Carlos Ferrero says that Alcaraz has tapped only about 60% of his potential.

Brad Gilbert once said about both Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul that they were both great talents who simply weren't willing to work hard enough. Sure, they trained in the gym and hit the practice courts, but they didn't put in the hard yards like the top players did. Tiafoe hired a coach who is a stern taskmaster and started working harder than he ever had before. And whaddya know ... as disappointing as his loss to Alcaraz was, Tiafoe must be happy to know that he can compete with the game's best. Crossing my fingers that Tommy Paul is inspired by Tiafoe's success and puts nose to the grindstone as well. In a second consecutive Slam final, Ons Jabeur wasn't able to play her best. I felt awful for her when the camera caught her post-match sitting on the floor crying. But who knows maybe even had Jabeur played her best, Swiatek was just too good.

I busted up laughing at your description. In the immortal wisdom of Bart Simpson: "It's funny because it's true." After a very disappointing Wimbledon, this 2R loss against #73 Ivashka must have dealt another body blow to Hubie. Apparently the USO courts are quite a bit slower than Cinci, even though the USTA owns both tournaments and tries to make the court speed identical. Unfortunate for Borna because he wasn't getting the same payoff from his new big serve, and once in rallies against Brooksby's depth + lack of pace, he was a bit lost out there. A tough loss for Brandon Holt too, 5th set tiebreak against Pedro Cachín, who plays almost exclusively on clay outside of the Slams. The loss is even more heartbreaking because #112 Moutet is a 3R opponent like you dream about. Ah well, still a great run for him.

Good news: Netflix will start streaming the 2nd season of Merli Sapere Aude on September 9.

The big upsets continue. Last year's surprise winner Emma Raducanu lost in the 1R to Alizé Cornet. After last year's fairy tale run, Raducano has struggled to win matches at any level, and today was no exception. At least my favorite Borna Coric survived, despite being 3-5 down in the 5th set. Phew!

Brandon Holt had a rough start to his pro career. He turned pro in 2020 during the worst of Covid when tournaments, especially the Futures and Challengers, were getting canceled everywhere. Then in 2021 he needed surgery on his hand that sidelined him for 7 months. He was struggling in mostly Futures & Challengers, and he couldn't get into the main draw in the 2 ATP qualifyings he played. So to make it into the main draw of the USO then to beat the #10 seed is a "pinch me I'm dreaming" moment. Taylor Fritz did indeed have high hopes of winning this US Open. How much that messed with his head, I don't know.

I was a bit worried for Nick because he does struggle when playing against a friend. Despite all his surliness while on court, Nick is apparently a much nicer guy off court and has plenty of friends on tour: Kokkinakis, Andy Murray, and of course his new BFF Novak. But Nick was all business against his buddy TK, and the result was very much as expected.