Pop Culture Fix: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” Team Protest Polanski’s César Award Win With a Walkout

What’s this! A Pop Culture Fix on a Monday? Yes, indeed. Pop Culture Fix is moving to a twice-weekly schedule. Mondays and Wednesdays. See you here!


+ Portrait of a Lady on Fire actor and writer/director Adèle Haenel and Céline Sciamma walked out of the French César awards this weekend when Roman Polanski won Best Director. “Bravo, pedophelia!” Haenel called out.

+ Speaking of Portrait, over at IndieWire: Portrait of a Lady on Fire Cinematography: The Perfect 18th Century Digital Painting

+ Also, at Vanity Fair: The real life love story of the scorching film.

+ Alex Newell chatted with GLAAD about Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.

+ Related: That Laura Dern song somehow got gayer.

+ All Rise‘s Simone Missick talked to Variety about rarely seeing “messy, fragile Black women on-screen.”

+ Stephanie Beatriz also chatted with Variety; she spoke about In The Heights and bi erasure (not related).

+ Bi erasure, you say? Li Shang won’t be in the Mulan live-action film.

+ Gemma Whelan — known to you as both Yara Greyjoy and Marian Lister — loves being typecast as a lesbian.

+ Clifford the Big Red Dog got some lesbian moms!

+ Beanie Feldstein has joined Grey’s Anatomy? As an intern?  🕵️‍♀️

+ Janet Mock and Ryan Murphy are tag-teaming again; this time on a Netflix biopic about journalist Janet Cooke.

+ Well. Vida season three sure is shaping up.

+ Ryan Murphy’s bringing back the regulars for American Horror Story season ten: Kathy Bates, Billie Lourd, Angelica Ross, Sarah Paulson … Macaulay Culkin?

+ Lorraine Toussaint has joined Queen Latifah’s Equalizer reboot.

+ Wynonna Earp is getting ready for season four with a favorites marathon coming to Syfy in March.

+ Marla Gibbs will be in the Halloween episode of One Day at a Time this season!!!

+ Hillary Duff thinks Disney+ is too tame for the Lizzie McGuire reboot and would prefer it to be in Hulu thank you very much.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1719 articles for us.

10 Comments

  1. I’m sure it’s coming but will we see a recap/review of Gentefied soon? I have SO many thoughts about the way they addressed the intersection of culture and sexual orientation.

  2. I’m still mourning the loss of Li Shang. It supposedly has to do with weird power dynamics in fucking your ex army boss, but it all happens once they’ve left the army! He was into Mulan before knowing Mulan was a woman! I can’t believe they’re taking it away, I’m AGHAST.

    Also I really can’t wait for In The Heights

  3. Adele Haenel is a Total. Fucking. Badass. Not that Portrait wasn’t enough, but count me a fan for life.

    I highly recommend this excellent, hour long interview, in which she speaks with insight, passion, and candor about her own experience with sexual violence, her journey through regaining her sense of self and fighting back, and her thoughts on Old Man Polanski. The letter to her father at the end is the most powerful part.

    https://youtu.be/QFRPci2wK2Y

    (Apologies for cross-posting, for anyone who might notice.)

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