methodwriter85

One more attempt at a Palisades cast photo. This vibe feels like the cast is promoting a fall American Eagle line. LOL

Using Grok to create a cast photo for Palisades has been fun but a bit frustrating. Still, I like how this one turned out.

Alright, here's another attempt at my Palisades cast photo. God, this was fun. LOL

I do think it's telling that aside from the beginning of the story, we really haven't seen Travis have all that much interaction with his castmates aside from Kendo. Kendo is pretty much aways on Travis, which probably turns off the cast. Travis is singled out as the star; Travis is doing movies on his hiatus; Travis comes from a rich family and therefore he might be pretty intimidating to those who meet him. Not to mention that Travis is desperately trying to stay closeted because he wants the A-list and he doesn't trust anyone on the cast. I did think he was going to befriend the girl playing Maya but that seems to have completely not happened at all. Sometimes you get t.v. shows where the cast is the best of best friends (the Riverdale cast), and sometimes you get a t.v. show where the set is extremely toxic and everyone is off on their own entourage and nobody talks to each other. This show seems to be the latter. Anyway, Mark, I decided to have some fun with Grok and did a cast photo. Grok was able to get Paul Walker and Olivia Wilde fairly close but the other fancasts didn't quite turn out right. Still, I think it looks great. LOL

Ryan Murphy is dropping a new show that's set in 1981 Los Angeles. This one (he's the lead) makes me think of Cary, who later showed up as a villain in a later story. (Right? That was Cary who teamed up with Brad's evil half brother and evil ABC?)

What I do find interesting is that the Danfields are pretty much the opposite of that. In no way are Elizabeth Danfield or Mary Ellen Granger (?) on a pedestal, and both are more than capable of scorched earth tactics. Riley Danfield and Bobby Carrswold are being raised by Tiffany, as well, and I can't see her nurturing the patriarchal Crampton/Schluter example with her kids. I don't see her getting bowed over like Jeanine was by Brad and Robbie. I'm really hoping that Tiffany gets back into coaching soon. Riley and Maddie are currently 5 years old, which means they should be in school. Bobbie should be 3 years old, which means school is coming in soon. Of course, it helps that I believe Tiffany has her own inheritance money from her grandparents. I mean, not billions, obviously, but as she put it, her grandparents "did alright."

I remember feeling outraged during the events of Paternity (that was the emancipation storyline, right?) at how it seems like Will gets away with murder but I've since mellowed on him. Will won me over during his Zach/Will romance storyline. I think it helps a lot that Mark has had characters in the story actually pointing out Will's Golden Child status and how much that seems to annoy Will when they do. More of that please, Mark. I was kind of hoping that Mark would take a cue from Love Story and have Will fall in love with a beautiful scholarship student who called him "Preppie" and played hard to get, but so far no dice. I'm like Private Tim longing for the Alisdair/Will storyline that will never come. LOL Speaking of Alisdair...hello, 30-year old Alisdair! I've also got Jamie Bell as a 40-year old Alisdair because they really do look like they could be the same person at two different points in their lives. LOL

Chapter 39 -When Will walks with Travis on campus, and he notes how much more popular Travis is now that Palisades is airing. "Fame" by David Bowie -When Will and Travis have reunion sex, but something is just somewhat off, and Will can't figure out why. "The Shoop Shoop Song" by Cher (It's In His Kiss) -When Travis and Will have an afterglow discussion where he talks about the difficulty he's having in acting out his scenes on Palisades, but it's worth it because of how good his performance is. "Sleepwalker" by Santo & Johnny -When Will brushes aside his suspicions about Travis to engage in another session of energetic love-making. "SOS" by Rihanna SOS. Feels really apt, right? -When Will and his volleyball team win their game. "Poppin' My Collar" by Three 6 Mafia -When Will gently tries to ask Travis about his pill popping in the middle of their after-glow, and gets shut down pretty quickly. "Sweet Jane" by the Cowboys Junkies

Llama or broccoli or Roman curls.

It's a consequence of fancasting with current hot young studs, Mark. A lot of them roll around with curly hair these days, to the point of some of them even getting perms. In the 2000's guys tended to wear shorter straighter hair, unless they were feathering (think Zac Efron who is currently the It Boy as High School Musical just came out) or spiky bedhead.

Niko fancast, Mark? Thoughts?

It reminded me that we can now start to use the term "hipster." Although I don't think either Will or Jeremy have run into that species just yet. They really begin to flourish once the Great Recession starts to set in. Joy Division was your time, but I get the feeling that they didn't really take off until the mid-80's after the remnants of the group made it big as New Order. I'm really fascinated by child star/teen idol stories. That is why I was so excited when Mark told me what the plot of this book was. It's been a thing for one hundred years at this point and there are still so many throughlines and similarities in all of the stories. It really comes down to that you need to have someone guiding you who actually gives a shit about you and not what you can give them. I have noticed that if someone comes into fame later (say the age of 25 or older), you tend to see better outcomes. Austin Butler took a loooonnnngggg time to break through as a star but it's probably going to be much better for him in the end that he became famous at 30 rather than at 19. KJ Apa is technically not a child star (he started acting at 17 and got his big breakthrough at 19 with Riverdale) but he's been sharing his story with a podcast co-hosted by Dylan Sprouse and it's been a wild ride. Dude came to America from Australia all by himself to become a star and it sounds like things got wild for a bit. At one point KJ crashed his car after he fell asleep at the wheel and it was blamed on a long work day but now I'm wondering if that may have been a cover up.

Chapter 37 -When Travis is starting season 2 filming of Palisades and is having an anxiety attack about his upcoming scene. "Transmission" by Joy Division -When Travis is reluctantly convinced by Kendo to add Xanax to go along with Ambien. "The Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen -When Will talks to Marie about how Caroline is trashing her behind her back over the Fab of it all. "Stupid Girls" by Pink -When Kendo hangs out with Travis at his house, the two go surfing, and Travis manages to sleep like a baby with some chemical help. "There She Goes" by the La's

It is funny though because I remember at the time Mark was shaping Will as a character during Poor Man's Son/Paternity, I totally pictured him ending up as a hippie dippie trustfaraian who was low-key and you would never really realize was rich until you went home with him or something. I think Brad's alpha male genes are just too strong for that, though.

Brad Renfro. Man, that one hurt. I'm really glad that Wes Bentley (who I ABSOLUTELY LOVED in American Beauty) was able to get out of it.

Will balances that out though by being fiercely loyal to his loved ones and willing to go to bat for them even when he's pissed off at them.

Chapter 35 -When Will, Travis, and Austin get it on. "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie -When Travis and Marie put on a show for the paps after she explains her reasoning for being the beard. "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" by Frankie Valli

Could he work for Wade, too? Its been so long since I read Bloodlines that I no longer have a clear picture of what you wrote him to look like.

It's funny because I don't even read Bridgemont but I was thinking Cavendish, too. LOL.

I think the star of Young Washington is really cute in that British boy way. Any fancast ideas, folk? I would lean towards him having to be a Bridgemont series fancast over a CAP fancast, but open to ideas. Mark has written so many characters as having this particular hair color (brown with red highlights) that he would have to work as someone. LOL

I was looking at this current new hunky actor getting pushed (this time for the Amazon romantic drama Every Year After) and it occurred to me that Michael Bradlow actually looks really close to how I pictured Joey, Carullo's doomed firefighter boyfriend that Will sees just before he dies in 9/11. Dude has even played a firefighter on T.V.

I noticed a hot jock with thick unruly brown hair, a nice tan, and puppy dog friendly eyes. Shocking, right? All that's missing is a lacrosse stick. How was Ryan Crawford supposed to look, anyway? I just pictured him as a friendly frat boy type with a shady side. Hmm, I thought he was a set one but hmm. The new Draco Malfoy aka Lox Pratt as kid Jeremy, and bleached to the gills Lucky Blue Smith as the adult one?

1.) The Sprouse boys are 1990's/2000's child stars best known for starring on the Suite Life of Zack and Cody on the Disney Channel. It was a very popular show for them. They also had a role as Ross's son on the mega-hit show Friends. They both took breaks from the movie industry to go back to school and lead more normal lives. They both came back to the entertainment industry, although neither became A-list movie stars as adults. (I don't think they care, though. Trust that those boys have plenty of money for the rest of their lives.) 2.) One of them, Dylan Sprouse, is my fancast for JJ/Jeremy Schluter. Basically how I picture Jeremy Schluter to look, except he would have blonder hair than Dylan's natural dark honey blond hair. 3.) Entourage was a 2000's drama that aired on the HBO channel. It followed a guy who was a famous actor. As he's famous, he gets what is called an entourage. Basically, those are people who hang around someone that is a celebrity but they themselves aren't famous. However, because they're hanging around someone famous, they get the benefits that the famous person gets by hanging out with them. Occasionally, someone in an entourage will manage to hook a role and start their own climb to celebrity. 4.) This ties back into my comments about the "entourage" that the Sprouse boys have. An actor I mentioned who is part of the "entourage" that the Sprouse boys have- his name is Tanner Zagarino, has been grinding his way trying to get into the acting world since he was a teenager. You would definitely not know who he is, as he's not famous. However, he recently booked a role on a popular Amazon series called The Summer I Turned Pretty, which helped him book a role on a Hulu football series. So the guy is on his way! 5.) I was mentioning this guy as a possible fancast (meaning how I see the character) for one of Mark's characters, Ryan Crawford. (I think it's Ryan Crawford?) They had a vibe that I thought was similar.

I was thinking they were weird in the hipster sense, but yeah. They both seem to be making a concerted effort to avoid the cliches of child stars. They're pretty quiet on social media for the most part. Although there is this guy in their entourage that I follow on insta, Tanner Zagarino. He's kind of like if Johnny Drama from Entourage was a real person. Dude recently got his break playing a frat boy with a heart of gold on the last season of the Summer I Turned Pretty. I kind of had him as a fancast for the loveable hanger on to the Schluter clan- was his name Ryan Crawford? Kind of shady but not shady enough for them to cut ties with him. And just really damn likeable.

Funnily enough, my Jeremy fancast actually ran a mead brewery for a bit. Yes, mead. The Sprouse twins are so fucking weird, as are most child stars. LOL I think Dylan was going through his "I want to be relatable phase!" before he went back to Hollywood and started churning out straight to streaming action movies with his buddy Mr. Cuba Gooding Junior Junior. I've always kind of seen them as the male answer to the Olsen twins, just not quite as clearly fucked up by Hollywood as they were.