Child Brides, Old Teens

For reasons I don't even remember I looked up Joshua John Miller/the weirdo kid brother from River's Edge not so long ago. Along with Melissa McBride, Shane West, Billy Morrissette and Ashley Peldon, his photo is still peering at me from the bottom of IMDB as a reminder of recent searches.  Maybe I wanted to see if turned out hot or ugly? Kind of neither?

He hasn't done much with himself lately. That's why it was jarring to see his name called out in New York's week of 1998 coverage (a perfect year to focus on really; recent enough to seem rememberable, yet far enough in the past for perspective–it was actually quite a long time ago). He was part of Leonardo Dicaprio's "Pussy Posse?!" That article is really great, by the way. I then looked up the author because I couldn't place her and, oh, she also wrote the Bling Ring and was married to a Puerto Rican/Peruvian activist-priest. I wonder how her socialite, celebrity profiling meshed with his social work?  Marriages are weird.  

On Homeland Sunday it was mentioned that Saul's rocky marriage was a 35-year relationship. Mandy Patinkin is 60. Sarita Choudhury, the actress who plays his wife is only 47. I know child marriage may be viewed differently in India, but really? No one could find a suitable actress in her 50s? Maybe the House of Sand and Fog lady wasn't available (ah, and even she's too young).

April on Eastbound & Down is also confusing age-wise. I assumed she was a classic MILF, somewhere around my age, tan and foxy, when in reality Katy Mixon actually an old looking 32, if her IMDB profile is to be believed. I'm still not convinced. And on this week's series finale her gravestone put her birth year as 1974, vindication, even if it was a fictional year for a fictional character.

Is actresses playing older the new 24 year old pretends to be a teenager?

Son's reaction at seeing James Dean in "Rebel W/o a Cause" shortly after seeing "East of Eden": "He's not as messed up in this one." #True

— Robert O. Simonson (@RobertOSimonson) November 17, 2013

I watched Rebel Without a Cause for the first time this weekend and I'm having a hard time picturing how such a weirdo movie could've been mainstream.  I can't tell if James Dean is a peculiar actor or if he makes the characters peculiar? He was much more so in East of Eden (next Saturday is Giant, naturally). A stranger/cocktail writer I follow on Twitter's son even said so. I won't deny that he's attractive as an overgrown teen, but the storyline is nonsensical and no one's motivations are remotely logical. Was it meant for teens? Did it make more sense in 1955? Would James Dean even be a household name if he stuck around longer?

Roger Ebert summed the film up superbly:  "Seen today, Rebel Without a Cause plays like a Todd Solondz movie, in which characters with bizarre problems perform a charade of normal behavior."