In March 2023, she noted in her diary that potential acting jobs were few and far between, if at all really. She rarely heard from her agent, and she didn't want to get in touch with him just to hear how different the business has become, how they just aren't looking for a woman my age, with my stereotyped abilities. As an actor, and one who had been particularly typecast, she was used to rejection, she wrote, but this is getting a little scary.
I met John Tottenham in LA because we have the same publisher, Semiotext(e). I was intrigued to read his first novel, Service, because I'm interested in first novels written by middle-aged people. In sport, it's good to be young, but not always in literature. You have to go through some kind of trouble before you can write a book. Service is about a character called Sean - a double of Tottenham - who is in his late forties
Is This Thing On? is much more about a relationship than it is about comedy, which is probably a good thing, given how difficult it is to make movies about stand-up. Fictional comics on screen tend to skew toward being tortured truth-tellers or delusional sociopaths or both, but Alex Novak, played by Will Arnett, is neither. He's a finance guy who recently split from his wife of 20 years, and who stumbles into an open mic night on a whim
The Real Housewives franchise captures a specific sort of midlife reinvention, showcasing women navigating divorce, grief, success, self-discovery, and the pursuit of fame.