dispatch from carol part II
and something about how someone spooky is gay now
Welcome to this week’s dispatch from the lesbian internet, a mid-week news roundup from Paging Dr. Lesbian. If you like this type of thing, subscribe.
On Friday, the trailer for Guillermo Del Toro’s new film Nightmare Alley premiered. This is important for our purposes because the film stars both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, also known as the stars of Carol. When the initial stills (above) from the film came out, it depicted Cate and Rooney in period costumes in the winter and people understandably flipped out. (This describes the entire aesthetic of the film Carol). It turns out the film is really about a fucked-up circus, but we can still dream!
I also wanted to post an addendum to something I said last week. When discussing the new Suranne Jones vehicle Vigil, I noted that Rose Leslie (who also stars in the series) has played a lesbian cop twice. This is in fact true, but I forgot that Rose Leslie has actually played a lesbian three times, the third instance being her role in The Good Fight. I’m all about accountability here. (Thank you to roselesliesource on Instagram for jogging my memory).
On Friday Lil Nas X dropped his debut album, Montero. Read Coleman Spilde on the Remarkable Emotionality of the album and its focus on queer pain and joy. Also, watch Lil Nas cover Dolly Parton’s Jolene (a lesbian classic).
According to some Instagram sleuths, (and a not-so-subtle Instagram post, below), Broad City star Abbi Jacobson has a new girlfriend. Her apparent new boo is South African actress Jodi Balfour, who you might know from the Canadian series Bomb Girls (Balfour played one of the straight characters in this show, unfortunately). Cheers to the happy couple.
On Sunday night The Emmys took place. I tuned in just in time to see Kate Winslet win Best Actress in a Limited Series, which I of course responded to by yelling “MAAARE” at the top of my lungs. The most important news to come out of the Emmys, of course, was that Sarah Paulson arrived on the red carpet in a red dress and her girlfriend Holland Taylor exclaimed on Twitter “Am I breathing ...!?!” Will someone go check on Holland, please?
On Monday night, our favorite teen celesbian JoJo Siwa became the first woman on Dancing With The Stars to dance with a female partner. She apparently had the highest score of the night. And that’s on sapphic supremacy!
On Tuesday, The Advocate published an article revealing that Cassandra Peterson, known for playing Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, is queer and has been in a relationship with a woman for the past 19 years. In her new memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira, Peterson recalls seeing her partner at the gym and thinking he was the hottest trainer she had ever seen. It was only later, in the locker room, that she realizes the trainer was actually a woman. Just in time for spooky season!
Once again, Megan Fox is trying to kill us. Megan and her good friend Kourtney Kardashian recently did a campaign for the underwear brand Skims, and the photos are certainly something. (Megan has joked that she and Kourtney are “in love” in the past, but unfortunately they are both dating heavily tattooed skinny white men at the moment). Bobbing for apples indeed.
That’s all for this week, folks! Happy fall and stay tuned for next week. I will leave you with this famous photo of someone freaking out at a Beatles concert, which also features some undercover vintage lesbians.
Jodi Balfour is currently playing a wlw character in the apple tv+ series For All Mankind.