Billy Wilder: Hollywood Comedy’s Caustic Social Chronicler

Compound Adjective Practice

Billy Wilder, who died on 27^th March 2002 at his Beverly Hills home at the age of 95, was the most pungent and literate creator of movie comedy in mid-20^th century Hollywood. As a writer and director, he helped shape an evolution in style and taste from the pre-war innocence blended with verbal sophistication of screenplays like Midnight and Ninotchka, via the satirical tragicomedy mixed with resonant one-liners (“I’m ready for my close-up, Mr DeMille”) of Sunset Boulevard (1950), to the hectic, irreverent slapstick of his best-known comedy Some Like It Hot (1956).

That the same man directed the hardboiled thriller Double Indemnity, a classic of film noir, the archetypal Hollywood drama about alcoholism The Lost Weekend and the Oscar-winning sweet-sour romantic comedy The Apartment made Wilder a caustic social chronicler almost without peer in western cinema in the last century.

A European refugee who fled Germany in 1933, he showed a fondness for fish-out-of-the-water tales. In Ninotchka, stern Bolshevik Greta Garbo falls for pleasure-loving American Melvyn Douglas. In Ball of Fire mild-mannered linguistics professor Gary Cooper tangles with goodtime girl Barbara Stanwyck. Both these movies were scripted, for other directors, by Wilder and his then regular collaborator Charles Brackett. When Wilder himself began directing, in 1942 with The Major and the Minor, the same misfit themes recurred in films as diverse as Ace in the Hole, his hard-hitting satire on newspaper reporting; the prisoner-of-war drama Stalag 17; the wistful Audrey Hepburn romantic comedy Sabrina; and the strident but fiercely idiosyncratic comedies he made from the mid-1950s with new screenplay collaborator I.A.L. Diamond.

Wilder’s cinema reflected, albeit in a comical distorting mirror, the life of a man tossed about from country to country since his teens. Born in Vienna in 1906, Wilder first flirted with law studies and journalism in Austria. He soon migrated to Berlin, working variously as a reporter, as a so-called taxi dancer and finally as a script collaborator in half a dozen German films.

As one of a legion of refugees from Nazism in Hollywood, Wilder soon became the most American of immigrant film-makers. His brash, wisecracking style set a pace few natives could equal. He used favourite actors over and over —Fred MacMurray, Shirley MacLaine, Walter Matthau, above all Jack Lemmon— to help shape his world of abrasive dialogue, astringent romance, hapless physical comedy and defiant optimism. The final line of Some Like It Hot became the most famous in screen comedy history —when millionaire Joe E. Brown’s “fiancée” Lemmon (in drag) confesses that he is a man, Brown shrugs, smiles and says “Nobody’s perfect”.

After The Apartment won Oscars for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay, Wilder’s work declined in vitality and inventiveness. The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes, Avanti! and Fedora were ambitious but thinly scripted whimsies. The Front Page and Buddy Buddy tried to re-ignite the spark of the Lemmon-Matthau partnership Wilder himself created in the 1966 Meet Whiplash Willie (aka The Fortune Cookie), which won Matthau an Oscar.

In the 1980s and 1990s Wilder toyed with projects that never saw the light, including directing Schindler’s List. He also gave his time to befriending younger directors, one of whom, Cameron Crowe (of Jerry Maguire) published in 1999 a definitive book-length interview with him, Conversations with Billy Wilder.

As a movie artist, Wilder left no one indifferent. Detractors included Pauline Kael, the New Yorker critic, and David Thomson, who in his Biographical Dictionary of Film called Wilder “a heartless exploiter of public taste who manipulates situations in the name of satire. He prefers dialogue to character, sniping to structure”. For others, Wilder combined a classical command of craft with iconoclastic courage in confronting taboo subjects. 

© NIGEL ANDREWS, Financial Times, 2002

Task 1. Look up the underlined compound adjectives that you did not know.

Task 2. Learn the expressions highlighted in pink.

It is possible to respect the believers but not the belief

By Timothy Garton Ash

Last weekend I went and sang a lot of words that I don't believe. Do I think an angel appeared to a woman called Mary roughly 2007 years ago and told her she had become pregnant without sleeping with Joseph? I don't. Do I think Good King Wenceslas tramped out into the snow to bring "yonder peasant" food and wine? Not likely. Yet the words were beautiful and familiar, the medieval church was candlelit, my family was with me, and I was moved.

In the next few days, hundreds of millions of people will, like me, go to sing, often with gusto and delight, lines they do not believe or, at best, only half-believe. According to a recent Harris opinion poll for the Financial Times, only one in three people in Britain say they are "a believer". In France, it's less than one in three; even in Italy, it's less than two thirds; only in the United States does the figure exceed three quarters. And it would be interesting to know what proportion of that minority of true believers in Britain and France are Muslims.

That set me thinking - in this extended festive season of Bodhi Day, Hanukah, Christmas, Eid-ul-Adha, Oshogatsu, Guru Gobind Singh's birthday and Makar Sankranti- about what it means to say that we respect someone else's religion in a multicultural society. It seems to me that the biggest problem many post-Christian or nominally Christian Europeans have with the Muslims living amongst them is not that those Muslims are believers in a different religion from Christianity but that they are believers in a religion at all.

This baffles the intellectually significant minority of Europeans who are, so to speak, devout atheists, proselytising believers in the truths discovered by science. For them the issue is not any particular religious superstition, but superstition itself. It is also what worries the much larger number of Europeans who themselves have some vague, lukewarm religious beliefs, or are mildly agnostic, but put other things first. If only the Muslims wouldn't take their Islam so seriously! And, many Europeans would add, if only the Americans wouldn't take their Christianity so seriously!

Now one can argue about whether the world would be a better place if everyone became convinced of the atheistic truths of natural science, or at least took their religion as lightly as most part-time, demi-Christian Europeans do. (Myself, I'm agnostic on that point.) But clearly this can't be the premise on which we build a multicultural society in a free country. That would be just as intolerant as the practice of those majority Muslim countries where no other faiths than Islam are allowed.

On the contrary, in free countries every faith must be allowed - and every faith must be allowed to be questioned, fundamentally, outspokenly, even intemperately and offensively, without fear of reprisal. Richard Dawkins, the Oxford scientist, must be free to say that God is a delusion and Alistair McGrath, the Oxford theologian, must be free to retort that Dawkins is deluded; a conservative journalist must be free to write that the Prophet Muhammad was a paedophile and a Muslim scholar must be free to brand that journalist an ignorant Islamophobe. That's the deal in a free country: freedom of religion and freedom of expression as two sides of the same coin. We must live and let live - a demand that is not as minimal as it sounds, when one thinks of the death threats against Salman Rushdie and the Danish cartoonists. The fence that secures this space is the law of the land.

The interesting question is whether there is a kind of respect that goes beyond this minimal law-fenced live-and-let-live yet stops short of either a hypocritical pretence of intellectual respect for the other's beliefs (the currency of much inter-faith polylogue) or unbounded relativism. I think there is. In fact, I would claim that I know there is - and most of us practice it without even thinking about it. We live and work every day with people who hold, in the temples of their hearts, beliefs that we consider certifiably bonkers. If they seem to us good partners, friends, colleagues, we respect them as such - irrespective of their private and perhaps deepest convictions. If they are close to us, we may not merely respect but love them. We love them, while all the time remaining firmly convinced that in some corner of their minds they cling to a load of nonsense.

Routinely, almost instinctively, we distinguish between the belief and the believer. To be sure, it's easier to do that with some beliefs than it is with others. If someone is convinced that 2 + 2 = 5 and the earth is made of cheese, that will impede everyday coexistence a little more. Yet it's amazing what diverse and even wacky beliefs we do, in practice, coexist with quite happily. (The widespread popular faith in astrology is a good example.) That said, the conduct of the believers can affect our judgment of the belief irrespective of its scientific truth-content. For example, I do not believe there is a God and therefore assume that some 2007 years ago a couple called Joseph and Mary just had a baby. But what a man he turned out to be! Like the great Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, I can't get anywhere with Christ as God, but as a human being Jesus Christ seems to me a constant and wonderful inspiration - perhaps even, as Burckhardt put it, "the most beautiful figure in world history". And some of his later imitators didn't do so badly either.

My quarrel with the Dawkins school of atheists is not anything they say about the non-existence of God but what they say about Christians and the history of Christianity - much of which is true, but leaves out the other, positive half of the story. And, as the old Yiddish saying goes, a half-truth is a whole lie. In my judgment as a historian of modern Europe, the positive side is larger than the negative. It seems to me self-evident that we would not have the European civilisation we have today without the heritage of Christianity, Judaism and (in a smaller measure, mainly in the middle ages) Islam, which legacy also paved the way, albeit unwittingly and unwillingly, for the Enlightenment. Moreover, some of the most impressive human beings I have met in my own lifetime have been Christians.

"By their fruits ye shall know them." There is a respect that flows from the present conduct of the believers, irrespective of the scientific plausibility of the original belief. A multicultural society can, at best, be an open, friendly competition between Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, atheists and, indeed, two-plus-two-equals-fivers, to impress us with their character and good works.

Meanwhile, there's the vexed question of the all-purpose multicultural midwinter salutation. "Happy holidays" is impossibly twee and anodyne. I'm afraid I have resorted to "season's greetings", but that's pretty tiresome too. Ideally, one should customise according to recipient - "Merry Christmas", "Happy Eid", "Jolly Oshogatsu", etc - but that is not always possible. Yesterday, I received a card from the British ambassador to Washington which contains an excellent solution. "Yuletide greetings", it said, evoking the Pagan winter solstice (Yule is tomorrow, December 22) but with the hint of a warm-hearted Dickensian Christmas. Perfect.

Good Yule to you all.

Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist. He is also professor of European studies in the University of Oxford.

timothygartonash.com

TOGETHER WE ARE AMERICA

 

Urban artist Alberto León's graffiti in favour of peace on a street in Barcelona

Berlin Blossoms

In the December 1995 issue of Gay Times travel writer Stuart Linden looked at the post-Wall Berlin of the 1990s and asked what had been lost and what had been gained in the reunification process. I had kept this article in my paper archive since then and decided to type it up and post it online as it offers today's readers/travellers a new insight into what those analogical times were like as compared to our smartphone-centered digital age.

Die Löwenbrücke im Tiergarten / The Lion Bridge at Tiergarten Park

In the Stiller Don bar you can still find a huge painting of Lenin on the wall, although recently it's been moved from pride place into a dark corner , where it now gathers dust and a creeping nostalgia. Stiller Don is typical of the gay venues which you find in Berlin's former eastern sector. It's a small cafe bar with wooden furniture and low-hung, metal lampshades. On the pavement outside there are tables and chairs which become filled with men and women of all ages, deep in conversation. All of them quite happy to talk to a stranger, and share the secrets of where to find the best of gay Berlin. They are an intriguing, welcoming, un-westernised group of people.

For those into catching cultural change, there is perhaps no better time to visit Berlin. Six years after The Wall came down, the commercial differences between the west and east sectors of this city are quickly vanishing and, eventually, so too will the still-noticeable them and us differences in outlook. The former eastern sector houses one third of the gay scene and can still boast of a charm that is reminiscent of the gay scene in Prague, another former eastern block domain. Stiller Don is just one of the many gay bars that open at 6pm and close... well, when the last person goes home.  In contrast, the western sector bars are more like other pink-packaged venues of the civilised world --specialised, interior-designed, efficient and, above all, predictable.

In the months that followed the removal of the wall, there was an initial two-way flurry of mixing between east and west. But unfortunately, whereas former east Germans are till keen to visit West Berlin bars, the former west Berliners are not so interested in the bars of the east now they have tried them out. With this one-way ticket in operation, it may only be a matter of time before the scene of the east is forced to conform with the styles of its wealthier neighbours.

According to gay folklore, the colourful history of Berlin alone sets it alongside other European "gay capitals" such as Amsterdam, Paris or London. Times may have changed, but Berlin is still a happening place. Since reunification, both the eastern and western parts of the city have once again started to blossom. Berlin is to be the administrative focus of all German life once more, with the country's Parliament relocating to the rebuilt Reichstag by the year 2000. Money is being invested in buildings and infrastructure and, with this, the population is bound to increase. Whilst no German truly expects Berlin to continue as the avant-garde gay Garden of Eden that it has been in the past, there is a renewed air of excitement and daring found on the gay scene. This is a city set on maintaining its liberal traditions and the unified Berlin now has over 50 gay and lesbian bars, clubs and restaurants --all eager to suit every taste, no matter how bizarre.

The main hope for east Berlin is that it retains an architectural heritage mostly lost in the west of the city. After the Second World War, the west Germans brought in architects to rebuild their share of the city, whereas in east Berlin, the Communists slowly restored the bomb-damaged buildings or left them as they were. The result is that there remains and old-fashioned air about the east which seems to be reflected in the attitudes of the people too. East Berliners still value the art of casual conversation and their bars rely less on loud music and noisy architecture and more on one-to-one conversation, although you are still likely to hear Boy George crooning away in the background. In the west sector bars, cruising tends to be faster, and people seem shallower. 

Curiously, the reunified Berlin is now a city of not two but three distinct gay areas because the bars in the former west are themselves focused around two separate areas. Kreuzberg is the cheaper part, being alternative and almost hippy-like in decor and people. Here you will find the punks and the new bohemians of the gay scene, loitering in weird and wonderful places such as Cafe Anal (there are clear perspex partitions in the toilets, and flirtatious glances over chilled beers and frothy coffees are almost guaranteed). Bar Drama, a larger and very popular drinkers' bar, and Roses Club, a tiny bar to meet in and mellow the night away, both pull regular crowds which spill out onto the pavement on busy nights. 

It is in this area that you will also find an excellent mixed restaurant. The Last Supper serves a splendid mixture of vegetarian and fish dishes, divine to eat and each with delightful names like Madonna Duet (or how about Der Koch Auf Saude Maso Trip?). For me, the whole experience was made complete by the background music which included Marlene Dietrich singing Lili Marlene, followed by Liza Minelli belting out highlights from Cabaret. As with everything else with Berlin however, food does not come cheap, and a meal for two with a bottle of wine will set you back £50 or more. But, without doubt, the busiest gay district of Berlin is Motzstrasse. After taking the underground to Nollendorfplatz, you will find yourself in the Berlin equivalent of Soho, and here you are bound to stumble across somewhere to suit your personal taste. A useful starting point is the Berlin Lesbian and Gay Centre, which includes both a cafe, Man o Meter, and a dropping centre where they supply an excellent gay map covering the whole city. The information service also includes help to find budget accommodation.

This area is also home to Tom's Bar, a strictly men-only haven. A loing narrow bar with two rooms on the ground floor leads to a very popular room in the basement, which appeared to be lacking in ventilation as everyone who came out was blinking with blinking and perspiring somewhat. Next door to Tom's, Hafen is a very similar bar which attracts a younger crowd, but again one popular with the leather and tattoo brigade.

If you are interested in a more modern vision of gay Berlin then, just across the road, Lentz is possibly the busiest cafe bar in the city, oozing with Calvin Klein-clad bous of all shapes and sizes. The music here is up-beat and loud, the waiters are even louder and the crowd is youngest and the loudest of them all. The atmosphere is reminiscent of London's Village Soho or ManchesterManto --great fun, but bar prices that can sting at around £4 for a beer. 

In the Motzstrasse area, nobody hits the main gay bars much before 11pm because the clubs are open from midnight until 6am. But early evenings (and lunchtimes) can be spent in Cafe Bar Connection, a modern street cafe bar that makes excellent sandwiches too. The crowd is varied and, if you get there early enough, you can grab an outside table and get an eyeful of the kind of guys and gals you will be seeing later on in the clubs. 

Curiously, Berlin's main gay disco is called Club Connection, although there is no connection between the two. Surprisingly, the place is only open on Friday and Saturday, probably because the scene is very weekend-oriented. Five quid gets you in and buys your first drink. Music-wise, Techno is currently big in Berlin, but dancing is awkward  because the dance floors tend to be small and cramped. Only a quarter of Club Connection is given over to drinking and dancing, with the rest of the venue being more like a giant sex supermarket. There is a well-stocked shop selling all kinds of boy toys, two floors of cabins and video screens,  and the cellar provides a variety of naughty rooms with some lovely soft leather swings in one and a smelly bath in another.

In the daytime, the best place to find gay life is at the (in)famous Tiergarten, Berlin's answer to Hyde Park. A huge section of the park is known to all as Queen's Meadow if only because, in summer at least, you seem to find the entire resident gay and lesbian population of Berlin here --nude sunbathing, playing volleyball and riding around the many secluded pathways and ponds on bicycles. Should you visit Berlin in warm weather, relaxing with a picnic in the Tiergarten is a must, if only to soak up the atmosphere of the gay space. Cruising is blatant in the park and goes on all day and night. Whilst daylight is safe enough, caution is advised at night. Walking to the park past the Zoo, for example, you see reminders of the seedier side of Berlin night life in the form of of used needles carelessly discarded amongst the (more welcome) used condoms.

For another daytime pursuits, Berlin offers space and an element of calm that is lacking in most other cities. The city is comparable in size to London yet has a considerable smaller resident population, which means less traffic and less stress. The public transport system is extensive and has won many awards in Europe for its design and reliability (although I found it particularly difficult to master the underground due to the lack of sign-posting in the stations, often fining myself heading in the wrong direction). A trip on the underground (U-Bahn) or trams (S-Bahn) will cost around £1.75. If you are as hopeless as I was, then just throw yourself in the back of a taxi, wave a map in the driver's face and he will magically transport you to your destination. The only flaw in this approach is the cost. Taxi drivers in Berlin are honest to the point where they will even knock money off your fare if they have taken a wrong turn or got lost, but a taxi still costs £2.50 just to sit in, and from the Brandenburg Gate to the Stiller Don bar will cost a stonking £12.

Other methods of transport include rickshaw taxis and riverboat cruises but, if serious sightseeing is your thing, then try catching the Bus 100, which will take you through the Brandenburg Gate and past the Tiergarten. You can hop on and off this bus at will to get a closer look at places such as the Reichstag and Unter den Linden. The walk from Juni 17te Strasse (where there's an excellent flea market on Sunday mornings) and the Victory Monument (as seen on the U2 video) to the Brandenburg Gate and on down Unter den Linden, is well worth the shoe leather for the architecture alone.

If you go looking for The Wall, Check Point Charlie or the remains of Hitler's Bunker, then disappointment is almost guaranteed,  because [some of these landmarks] have been swept away by a country more keen to look forward than to dwell on its past. The Führer Bunker is actually buried under a children's playground (behind a record store at Wilhelmstrasse 92); the feeling is that to dig this up and open it to the public is more likely to create a place of pilgrimage for neo-fascists, than to simply remember an era of Berlin's history. There are plans to mark where the Berlin Wall once stood , but the city has other forward-looking priorities. One nod in the direction of history is the current rebuilding of the legendary Hotel Aldon to its original designs and on its original site, next to the Brandenburg Gate. 

I was in Berlin for just four days which proved to be fine for a first visit, allowing ample time to sample both the former east and west of this huge city. There must, however, be many intriguing gay haunts here that I never had time to discover and, if you really want to get a feel for where Berlin has been or where it may be going, you would be wise to stay for at least a full week. After all, Berlin may soon be the gay capital of mainland Europe once again. (Gay Times, December 1995)

Related articles:

Behind the shimmering 90s and Berlin’s great divide

Berlin, the 90s. An insight from the OSTKREUZ photographers

Reclaiming Conversation

Renowned media scholar Sherry Turkle investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships, creativity, and productivity—and why reclaiming face-to-face conversation can help us regain lost ground.

We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.

Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over thirty years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence: at work, at home, in politics, and in love, we find ways around conversation, tempted by the possibilities of a text or an email in which we don’t have to look, listen, or reveal ourselves.

We develop a taste for what mere connection offers. The dinner table falls silent as children compete with phones for their parents’ attention. Friends learn strategies to keep conversations going when only a few people are looking up from their phones. At work, we retreat to our screens although it is conversation at the water cooler that increases not only productivity but commitment to work. Online, we only want to share opinions that our followers will agree with – a politics that shies away from the real conflicts and solutions of the public square.

The case for conversation begins with the necessary conversations of solitude and self-reflection. They are endangered: these days, always connected, we see loneliness as a problem that technology should solve. Afraid of being alone, we rely on other people to give us a sense of ourselves, and our capacity for empathy and relationship suffers. We see the costs of the flight from conversation everywhere: conversation is the cornerstone for democracy and in business it is good for the bottom line. In the private sphere, it builds empathy, friendship, love, learning, and productivity.

But there is good news: we are resilient. Conversation cures.

Based on five years of research and interviews in homes, schools, and the workplace, Turkle argues that we have come to a better understanding of where our technology can and cannot take us and that the time is right to reclaim conversation. The most human—and humanizing—thing that we do.

The virtues of person-to-person conversation are timeless, and our most basic technology, talk, responds to our modern challenges. We have everything we need to start, we have each other.

Torture Is Not Culture!

"AT SCHOOL THEY HAVE REPLACED THE SUBJECT OF CIVIC VALUES FOR
BULLFIGHTING VALUES"

British comedian Ricky Gervais has called for bullfighting to be banned after learning of the death of 29-year-old Miguel Ruiz Pérez, who died after being gored during summer festivities in the town of Lerín, in the northeastern Navarre region.

“Poor terrified bull. Ban cruel sports,” he wrote on Monday in a retweet of a Daily Mirror video showing Ruiz Pérez attempting to outrun the animal in a makeshift bullring while hundreds of people looked on.

Gervais has since posted a video on his Facebook page in which he says: “If you decide to torture an animal to death, I hope it defends itself.” Describing the people who watch bullfights as morons, he adds: “If you choose to fight a bull for fun, fuck you.”

The comedian, who shot to fame a decade ago in The Office, dismissed arguments defending bullfighting on the grounds that it was tradition, noting that slavery, witchcraft and child sacrifice were also once regularly practiced: “We’ve moved on… it’s about fucking time you stopped.”

Men attacking and terrorizing the Toro de la Vega in 2017

Gervais tweeted several times about bullfighting over the day: “A matador being killed by a bull is not the tragic bit. Torturing the bull for fun in the first place is the tragic bit.”

The video has since been shared around 10,000 times, with most people supporting Gervais’s position and calling for an end to bullfighting. Gervais is an active defender of animal rights, and recently joined a number of Hollywood stars in condemning the killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe last month by a US dentist. “Animals don’t have a voice, but I do. And it’s a big one. My voice is for them and I will never be quiet as long as they are suffering,” he has said.

Growing numbers of Spanish celebrities are also calling for an end to bullfighting and the use of animals in festivities. La tortura no es cultura (Torture isn’t culture) is an awareness drive initiated by PACMA, a political party that supports animal rights. Its campaign to ban the Toro de la Vega, an event dating back to medieval times in which a bull is ritually killed by residents of the town of Tordesillas, Valladolid province, each September 15, has been backed by actors and television personalities such as Dani Rovira, Jorge Javier Vázquez, Eva Isanta and David Muro.

“I find it abhorrent that people can enjoy the suffering of animals,” says Dani Rovira, star of last year’s hit Spanish comedy Ocho apellidos vascos. A demonstration is planned in Madrid for September 12 to call for an end to the Toro de la Vega.

Musicians and other artists have thrown their support behind a planned music festival in Tordesillas to coincide with the Toro de la Vega. 

El País in English, August 19th, 2015

"AND THAT PATRON SAINT, DOES HE KNOW WHAT YOU DO?"

Volcano by JUNGLE: The Music and The Dancing of Our Time

Volcano is a hypnotic dance film by London-based company Jungle, now on YouTube. Not only is Shay Latukolan’s choreography mesmerizing, but also the dancing, the styling, the lighting, the camera work, the cinematography are pure joy. People are comparing some of their dance movements to Bob Fosse. Although the group’s striking series of 14 one-shot music videos has gone viral on social media, you may call Jungle a band, or a music collective — just don’t call them famous, as they are not interested in notions of celebrity. Sill, Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland’s electrifying electronic mix of funk, hip-hop and jazzy/techno beat will get you hooked. Sit back and watch the 49-min. film on your computer or on your TV screen. You are bound to flip out. It's simply a masterpiece of modern dance. Brilliant beyond words. Enjoy it! 

Heated Rivalry_ TV series

Smash hit Heated Rivalry offers 'reprieve' for LGBTQ+ community, creates conversation among hockey fans.

By Shireen Ahmed · CBC Sports · January 10, 2026

Two men sit down for a press conference. Both are wearing black blazers with white dress shirts underneath. Behind them is a series of logos. A screenshot from Heated Rivalry, a TV series based on Halifax author Rachel Reid’s novel of the same name that follows the love affair between two professional hockey players.

To say it has scored in unprecedented ways would be an understatement. Last week, my friend and colleague, Dr. Amira Rose Davis and I were chatting and she said “I can not believe you haven’t watched it yet!” Admittedly, I was behind on this riveting series.

According to Amira, it’s the perfect “Canadian hockey story” and automatically she thought of me. She and Dr. Jessica Luther even did a special segment on the show for our podcast.

But my interest is not only around this compelling series — shot, produced and created in Canada with Canadian talent — that is based on a book series by Haligonian Rachel Reid. Heated Rivalry follows the love story of two gay hockey professional players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, on fictional NHL teams who hide their affair because of, well, hockey. I am fixated on the discussions in the media around it, and the progress.

The Canadian streaming sensation Heated Rivalry — which centres on a gay romance between two professional hockey players — has been a big hit with viewers, who have ranked it among the highest-rated episodes of all time on IMDB. Jacob Tierny, who wrote and directed Heated Rivalry, is no stranger to Canadian media. Despite the reaction to the series, men’s hockey remains as plain and unprogressive as usual. It is not a bastion of inclusion and diversity.

Over two years ago, the NHL banned Pride Tape then unbanned it. It was handled so poorly that even players decided to act against the policy that was meant to regulate theme nights. It reminds us that although there may be communities and players who care about the cause, the boardrooms and decision makers are not rooted in justice in sport, but rather swayed by reputation and powerful opinion.

Sure there are movements and organizations that seek to change this, but on the whole, men’s hockey is not a delicious space of uniqueness.

At the moment, there are no out players in the NHL. Is it because hockey may not be an environment where sport feels safe for those who refuse to conform? Can you really be your true self when there is no actual example of someone in professional men’s hockey being successful after coming out? According to reports, the NHL is the only pro league that has not yet had a former or active player come out.

Meanwhile, Heated Rivalry has become Crave TV’s most-watched original series ever. It has also become quite a fodder for discussion in traditional hockey spaces. The popular hockey podcast Empty Netters, hosted by two white, straight, male and former junior players, have not only done reaction videos to every episode, it has delved into plots, characters and deeper meaning within the show.

Last month, the Montreal Canadiens showed the trailer during a game. And the Boston Bruins even made reference to it in a social media caption after a charged game against the Habs. 

One might consider this a win-win situation. Gay hockey plots in mainstream media?! 

But could it be argued that those jumping on the Heated Rivalry bandwagon may not be as culture-altering as we have hoped? There are certainly new fans coming from the show interested in hockey, which is the backdrop of the show. 

I spoke with Harrison Browne, the first professional trans hockey player — now actor and author — about the show and the intentionality of the fandom.

Browne, who has a role in the series, admits that he didn’t expect the show to be the global pop culture phenomenon it has become.

“The resurgence of [positive] attention to trans people in sports has been exciting,” he told me during a phone call. “The amount of love has been on par with [or more] than I got when I came out.”

Exposing audiences to untraditional stories

He says it has been a "cool shift" to see himself in a queer hockey story in a way that he can be recognized but also be helpful to others in the wider community. Tierny selected him for the role because he is a great actor not because he’s great at hockey.

Browne says that exposing new fans to a story they may not see in a traditional hockey space has benefits. And he admitted that his following on social media has doubled and gotten him a lot of attention, hopefully leading to more opportunities.

But I can’t help but feel like hockey players and individuals with power ought to do more.

Soon on Movistar+

Paintings by Andrew Fullwood

The FedEx Van, Mulberry Street, Little Italy, New York City, 2021

Noon, Downtown Street Corner, Manhattan, 2020

BARE_nude dance

Our society is losing the space of freedom. The tendency in the world is right-wing, neo-liberal, and people are more controlled. We have less liberty even if we think we have more. The last territory where we can be ourselves and where we can have full freedom is our own body. "BARE" documentary focuses on male nudity in modern dance. The story follows a well-known Belgian choreographer Thierry Smits through a process of building his new creation with a group of eleven male dancers performing bare naked. 

Directed by Alexandr Vinogradov. 60 min.

Dancers: Linton Aberle, Ruben Brown, Davide Guarino, Michal Adam Goral, Gustavo Monteiro, Oskari Nyyssölä, Emeric Rabot, Nelson Reguera Perez, Eduard Turull, Duarte Valadares, and Paolo Yao.

More information:http://baremovie.com/

Cambridge Dictionary names "parasocial" Word of the Year 2025

By BECCI KNOWLES, 18th November 2025

The year was marked by interest in the one-sided parasocial relationships that people form with celebrities, influencers and AI chatbots.   

 Several AI-related words were added or updated in the Cambridge Dictionary this year, including, ‘slop’, as parts of the internet became awash with low-quality AI-generated content.  

 New entrants to the Cambridge Dictionary included ‘skibidi’, ‘delulu’ and ‘tradwife’. 

 But it’s ‘parasocial’ that took the Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year crown.  

 When Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement, many fans felt a deep connection to the singer and American footballer, even though most had never met them.  

Millions of fans related to Taylor Swift’s confessional lyrics about dating, heartbreak and desire, leading to what psychologists describe as “parasocial” bonds with stars.  

 Lily Allen’s ‘breakup album’ West End Girl leant into parasocial interest in her love life.  

 The spontaneity, imperfection and confessional nature of podcast hosts have been said to replace real friends and to catalyse parasocial relationships. 

The emergence of parasocial relationships with AI bots saw people treat ChatGPT as a confidant, friend or even romantic partner. These led to emotionally meaningful – and in some cases troubling – connections for users, and concerns about the consequences.  

The term dates back to 1956, when University of Chicago sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl observed television viewers engaged in “para-social” relationships with on-screen personalities, resembling those they formed with “real” family and friends. They noted how the rapidly expanding medium of television brought the faces of actors directly into viewers’ homes, making them fixtures in people’s lives. 

 In 2025, the “chronically online” developed unreciprocated parasocial relationships with YouTubers and influencers who they feel they know, becoming invested in all the twists and turns of their personal lives.  

 The global mania around The Summer I Turned Pretty finale saw fans dissecting every romantic relationship in the show on TikTok and Instagram, as they encamped into “Team Conrad” or “Team Jeremiah”.   

 As streamer IShowSpeed blocked an obsessive fan as his “number 1 parasocial”, the Cambridge Dictionary experienced another surge in lookups for the word.   

When Chappell Roan called out some fans’ “creepy behaviour” last year, psychologists noted the resurgence of “parasocial relationships”.   

Colin McIntosh of the Cambridge Dictionary said: “Parasocial captures the 2025 zeitgeist. It’s a great example of how language changes.  

“What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream.  

“Millions of people are engaged in parasocial relationships; many more are simply intrigued by their rise.    

 “The data reflects that, with the Cambridge Dictionary website seeing spikes in lookups for ‘parasocial’.  

 “The language around parasocial phenomena is evolving fast, as technology, society and culture shift and mutate, from celebrities to chatbots, parasocial trends are fascinating for those who are interested in the development of language.” 

Matthew Ellman, an English teaching expert at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, commented: “Learning a new language is all about engaging more closely with the world around you, and our latest Word of the Year is a great example of how English enables learners to do that.  

“Even before they encounter this word, many learners of English will relate to, and be able to recognise, the relevance of parasocial to contemporary life. 

That should be what happens in every English lesson: learners recognising the relevance of English to their lives and lived experience and seeing the potential for it to help them engage with the world more broadly and deeply.” 

Simone Schnall, professor of experimental social psychology at the University of Cambridge, said: “Parasocial is an inspired choice for Word of the Year. The rise of parasocial relationships has redefined fandom, celebrity and, with AI, how ordinary people interact online.  

“We’ve entered an age where many people form unhealthy and intense parasocial relationships with influencers. This leads to a sense that people ‘know’ those they form parasocial bonds with, can trust them and even to extreme forms of loyalty. Yet it’s completely one sided.  

 “As trust in mainstream and traditional media breaks down, people turn to individual personalities as authorities, and – when they spend many hours consuming their content – develop parasocial bonds, treating them more like close friends, family or cult leaders. When an influencer has so many followers, people assume they are trustworthy.  

“There’s a more traditional and healthy manifestation of fandom as people develop parasocial ties with stars like Taylor Swift who are exceptionally good at what they do, but this can also lead to obsessive interpretations of lyrics and intense online discussions about their meanings and what they mean for fans, as well as Swift herself.   

“Parasocial trends take on a new dimension as many people treat AI tools like ChatGPT as ‘friends’, offering positive affirmations, or as a proxy for therapy. This is an illusion of a relationship and group think, and we know young people can be susceptible for this.” 

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