🚨 An Important Mike Faist Alert 🚨
Plus, Apple's Scrapped Gawker Series
NOTE: I’m producing my first comedy show since 2023 on May 27th at PubKey in Greenwich Village. If you’re interested in attending, please reference Shameless Self-Promotion below or click here for details.
🚨 Mike Faist completed a project alert 🚨
This is not a drill: Mike Faist’s first project since 2024’s Challengers is premiering this fall, and we officially have a teaser. He portrays Charles Trask in Netflix’s mini series adaptation of East of Eden. I repeat: Mike Faist’s first project since 2024’s Challengers is premiering this fall.
Faisties rejoice! Mike’s been laying low since the press blitz surrounding our foremost romantic sports drama soundtracked by Nine Inch Nails (Golden Globe winners — lest we forget). In a devastating blow to my theatergoing plans, he dropped out of Anna Christie at St. Ann’s Warehouse last year. His slate of professional commitments has been looking pretty light. But he’s got this one in the can, and in trying times, I can always return to that clip of him absolutely dominating a wedding reception:
Still holding out hope for a romantic comedy co-starring him and an Ego Nwodim-type (funny, beautiful, charismatic) or another classic musical à la West Side Story (2021). Fingers crossed!
Gawker’s Legacy Endures
If you’ve ever thought, “Damn, the rise and spectacular fall of Gawker Media could be a scripted series,” well, Apple TV agreed with you — up to a point. Gawker alums Cord Jefferson (American Fiction) and Max Read (now on Patreon!) sold such a series to the streamer and were working on it alongside fellow former Gawkerites Emma Carmichael and Leah Beckmann before Apple’s then-CEO Tim Cook put the kibosh on it. Seems he’s still smarting from the 2011 Valleywag post entitled “Meet Tim Cook, the Most Powerful Gay Man in Silicon Valley.” (Cook would not officially come out until 2014.) I realize that Gawker’s legacy is complicated, but can we admit it was nice having a digital outlet that ultra-rich tech freaks were terrified of? Now, Peter Thiel’s greatest fear is probably his sex robot killing him or… something. Gawker wasn’t perfect, but it was for me and other members of the creative underclass with something to rage against. Its legacy endures in various forms, but I think it deserves additional consideration — and I think its trajectory could’ve made for a compelling watch. Alas!
Recommendations
WrenHouse Atelier candles
To address the rumors head on: I am, in fact, a white woman who loves candles. And some of my absolute favorite ones come from WrenHouse Atelier, located in Sandy Hook, CT. You can find them at local retailers throughout The Nutmeg State or place an order online. I adore these hand poured, eco-friendly soy candles, and they make great gifts, too. So…am I ready to host a primetime QVC slot or no? Be honest.
(RIP I Love That for You, the one-season wonder featuring Vanessa Bayer as a pathologically lying home shopping devotee. We hardly knew ye.)
Boy Band Confidential
N*SYNC’s own Joey Fatone produced this Investigation Discovery docuseries, which aired last month in 4 parts (I streamed it on HBO Max). It details the boy band phenomenon of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s with sit-downs from members of Boyz II Men, All-For-One, N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys, LFO, 98 Degrees and more. Like The Boy Band Con, it discusses Lou Pearlman’s shady business dealings and outright exploitation of talent, including sexual predation. It also provides important context regarding some of the biggest non-Orlando based groups — including the fact that Motown Records essentially pushed out Boyz II Men to make way for 98 Degrees — and the commercial realities of creating and marketing such acts. Justice for JC Chasez’s solo career, which never stood a chance :(
Shameless Self-Promotion
I’m thrilled to be producing Ned Arnold’s solo show, Introduction to Student-Teacher Affairs, in NYC 5/27! As seen at Edinburgh Fringe 2025. Last summer I called it “both hilarious and emotionally wrenching” — come see for yourself. It’s about Ned's years-long, secret affair with his college professor. He did get an A.
Admission’s free/pay-what-you-can and PubKey boasts some notably good bar food. Full details are on Eventbrite. Here’s a little taste of the show c/o The Moth. See you there <3
One Last Thing
I recently co-starred in another Harris Alterman joint satirizing viral media, this time alongside Napoleon Emill (Flatbush Misdemeanors, now streaming free on Punchup Live c/o Dan Perlman), Jon Rudnitsky (SNL) and the mastermind himself.
Harris has a knack for absurdly highlighting the most maddening aspects of our modern media landscape, in the vein of Clickhole and Conner O’Malley. He keeps casting me so I’m biased, ofc, but would I lie to you? Would I lie to you, honey?
Until next time…