In this video mash-up wedding the Buffy the Vampire series and the Twilight movie, editor Jonathan McIntosh presents “a critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior” in order to expose “the more patriarchal gender roles and sexist Hollywood tropes embedded in the Twilight saga.” I’m all for Buffy smacking down anybody. Still, aren’t we forgetting all the stalk-y dudes she’s dated over the years?

Read More “Buffy Vs. Edward Cullen: A Feminist Mash-Up” »

* FOX News is concerned that the inauguration will just be one big, gay party. In a sea of boring inaugural coverage, it’s S.E. Cupp for the win! Drink this in, sinners:

But the gay-themed events have some conservative critics expressing concerns that while the celebration may be gay-friendly, it won’t be family-friendly.

Read More “The Morning After: “Decadent” Gay Lifestyle Edition” »

Variety is reporting that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke will not return to direct the sequel to the breakaway abstinence only tween vampire hit, New Moon. Does this mean that the next movie in the series will make any fucking sense? Say it ain’t so:

… in an unusual move after the successful launch of a franchise that has already generated $138.6 million, the upstart distrib is not bringing director Catherine Hardwicke back to direct the picture. Summit and Hardwicke cite Summit’s wish to rush the movie into production as one reason for their split. Summit wants to release the picture, which will demand substantial CGI work, by the end of 2009 or the start of 2010. A former production designer, Hardwicke wanted more prep time.

Oh, you mean it’s going to be even more rushed and shoddily produced than the first one, but this time with rushed and shoddily produced “substantial CGI work” on top of it? Whew.

Did I mention I’m totally free to direct a major studio adaptation in 2009? Call me!

Welcome back to another edition of Five Minutes* You’ll Never Get Back, City Paper’s sex and politics podcast. This week, City Lights Editor Mike Riggs and I discuss the pros and cons of cinema’s most recent abstinence-only vegetarian tween vampire phenomenon, Twilight. (Our usual cohort, Intern Bobby, gets a pass this week).

Topics discussed: Jane Austen, morality, ballet studio, Pootie Tang, Edward Cullen, Zac Ephron unlike Edward Cullen, Mike Riggs unlike Edward Cullen, feasts of flesh

* okay, ten minutes.

Much has been made of the “true love waits” aspect of current tween blockbuster Twilight, a pseudo-Christian, vegetarian vampire romance composed largely of aching stares of longing betwixt vampire and human, and capped by an anti-climactic prom scene (based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer). For the uninitiated, the abstinence part comes in when comely vampire Edward Cullen can’t have sex with awkwardly gorgeous high school human Bella Swan because his lust for her blood is simply too difficult to deny. If they fuck, it might kill her.

Read More “In Defense of Abstinence-Only Vampirism” »