Discussions / Live Q&A’s

I'd like to see him go straight to hosting a talk show. Lots of personality, that guy. Oh, and have you heard? Apparently there's now a lot of dispute about whether that song of his was actually all that anti-American depending on which translator you listen to.

They don't look any stranger than normal to me today.

Bring them on. I've got a couple air mattresses they can crash on in the basement, and they go over my tax deductions and monthly bills to see how much cash I'm (not) rolling in. Life in the 99%, baby! On the plus side: My gingerbread cookies and my cats, who will donate their cat hair to the federal deficit.

Amy always gets cookies -- and a gift. I like to keep her happy.

Yes indeed -- omnimedia juggernaut Jenna Bush Hager is now a contributing editor for Southern Living. She was teaching at charter schools in D.C. and later Baltimore before they relocated to Manhattan, and last we checked, he was still working for Constellation Energy. She recently joked about that famous sticking-her-tongue-out photo. Her twin sister Barbara has been running a non-profit, Global Health Corps and doing some celebvocacy about overseas development. Seems like I saw some hazy conflicting reports about her dating someone interesting but I can't recall or find the details now.

Oh, he's looked like that for years.

Josh Lucas do you mean? Hmmm, with the right hair dye, that could actually work. Any other casting ideas? Or any ideas at all about whether there's enough story in this election to make a movie from it?

Dave may be sour grapes, but a smart girl knows reality shows are never real. By now, every treasure in storage units has been discovered and yet the show goes on. Bring on the Lladro!

I vote for a razor.

The Post does a big company-wide party this time of year -- in fact, it's today, at which they present the Eugene Meyer Awards to worthy longtime employees.  But the individual departments do their own holiday parties, usually at someone's house. Dan Zak was Style's host this year, and quite a good one he was.

Aw, hell. Me too.

You know how I celebrated? By looking at the clock and hitting "start" on this chat. 

Good question. How much would you pay? Is it even possible to put a price on such an experience?

Unless you are writing your doctoral dissertation on the career of Tom Cruise, do not even bother with "Jack Reacher." . . . . Meanwhile, I feel like I've already seen "Les Miserables," thanks to that trailer that keeps telling me that they're singing live! And this has never been done before! And we didn't want to go for the pretty version! And if you don't appreciate how groundbreaking this movie it, then the problem is with you!

Let's separate your modern monarchy issues with the baby issue. If you don't like royals, then anything (weddings, babies, rehab) will irk you. If you love royals, then a royal baby is thrilling -- even in this day and age.

Royals hang on -- for the most part -- because a majority of the country's citizens like them or, at least, tolerate them. I don't begrudge royal babies -- these people are just trying to have something of a normal life. Then again, I'm not footing the bill for any of it.

Point taken. Life is not fair.

Her mother was a concert producer named Sue Jones. Norah was born when Shankar almost 60, and the parents separated when she was little -- in fact, he had another daughter, musician Anoushka Shankar, with another woman just two years after Norah's birth -- and they were not particularly close, from what I've read.

One of our colleagues was saying, "How can someone who is serious about her Washington job do a reality show?" And we said, "well, who says she is?" Indeed -- you make a splash on "The Bachelor," you potentially have a TV afterlife of three or four years.

It's timing. The Dixie Chicks dissed the president and the war in real time; Psy's insult was years ago and he's not an American. Also, the nerves are less raw now, I think.

That is a BRILLIANT idea.

Joe! I love Joe! Joe can stay at my house any time he wants and I'll give him the couch!

I'm going to have you and the next chatter step outside to talk this one through.

You two work this out, okay?

Never, ever, be jealous of people on Twitter.

No, she interviews people and does feel-good stories . . . I honestly don't watch enough to tell you what she does.

Hmmm, counter-intuitive, but I like it.

And a trombone plays: Wah, wah, wahhhhh. 

Good question. Apparently he's currently on probation for securities fraud. Does that make him more or less affordable, do you think?

Upstairs as an Asiann prince in England? Or downstarirs as a stable boy?

Oh, no, if she'd going to announce on TV, she'll do it on NBC, not cable. Ball's in your court, now, Chelsea.

Um, I think they're going to stick with stuff that actually  happened.

Me neither.

Yeah, but a short-term gig.

Oppan Downton style! Op op op op -- oppan Downton style!

I think we already established that Life is Not Fair. That should be the theme of today's chat.

He'll be 70 next summer. How do you think he should look? This is no longer an option.

In fact, Chelsea is far too serious to be a TV personality. Smart doesn't mean good on TV.

More proof.

Not having read the book, I can tell you that Tom Cruise's stature was not a problem at all. The flimsy plot, the banal car chases, the unimaginative fight scenes, Rosamund Pike's uncomfortable accent, the general made-for-TV cheapness of the whole production -- except, what was Werner Herzog doing in this movie??? -- those were the problems.

Hey, there are worse things in the world.

Ha.

I think they will both be fun in their own special ways.

I don't think she'll want to take the pay cut.

Freddie Munoz? Or Frankie Muniz? Who are we talking about here?

No details to give, but I'm guessing he was everything Erik ("host friendly") was not. I'm imaging fights about airline tickets, cars, hotel, etc. etc.  

Depends what happens at today's hearing. I am continually surprised by her ability to wiggle out of jail time. But the girl is in serious trouble -- again. Shocked, shocked. Even Charlie Sheen -- who gave her $100K for her taxes -- is mad at her.

The movie "The Butler," based on our colleague Wil Haygood's story about Eugene Allen (if you haven't read it yet, go do it now), wrapped up filming in New Orleans earlier this fall; it's scheduled for release sometime during next fall's prestige-film/awards-bait season. Here's a good story about it:

'The Butler’: A labor of love becomes an unlikely A-list production

Hello. I'm Roxanne. I am a terrible typer. Have we met?

No.

Especially a 25-year-old-newbie. But I'm not g0ing to make any blonde jokes.

I'm very sad about Rihanna. It's not going to end well for her.

You mean, besides Jim Vance and Joe Biden? Let me think about it. How about you?

I want that adorable monkey wearing the sherling coat in IKEA.

Good question, I was wondering if he's headed back here. Looks like he's got a couple of film/TV projects in the works, though.

I can't remember -- what did we do last year for 11/11/11?

He's mad at Lilo for not saying thanks for the $100K. Which I assumed she had. Bad, bad, bad.

A shearling coat like that monkey was wearing.

I kind of like this...

Royal debates about breast feeding and nappies!

Hold your horses, lady. Who says we don't care about the Nationals? We're drowning in unrelated questions here, but we answer your questions about the Nats every week! But in the meantime, I apologize -- with the sheer cavalcade of Nats weddings this season, we kinda sorta forgot about Ross Detwiler's wedding coming up so soon after Morse's. And also didn't hear a word of buzz about it. Presumably it happened. And congratulations to him!

Or Lifetime, which does holiday marathons every weekend in December. Happy Endings all around. Good for wrapping presents. 

I'm sure this new look of his is just for a movie role. Now, maybe you're concerned about his recent activities (i.e., urinating in the aisle of an airplane, falling off his scooter drunk). But in terms of  "letting himself go" -- that's just how Gerard Depardieu has looked since about 1974.

Oh, now that's magical. How did you celebrate?

I still don't know which one you meant originally, but we'll happily bring them both in for readings.

Back atcha!

Your XXX-mas party. Ha.

"Blogs"?

Like, a mariachi band? Awesome.

Fortunately there are broadcast jobs available for all political scions to fall back on these days.

Joe deserves better.

Ha. I guess that's kind of what I did, though, isn't it?

(If the paywall gets you, the Social Qs advice columnist responds to a question by saying: "Given the number of times you submitted this question (three), and your rejection of my informal advice to let it go, I get it.")

Hey, pass that box over.

It's been haunting me the past two days, and the only way to get it out of my head was to put it into yours.

Honestly, I would want a rider in the contract in which he promises to be difficult.

Where were you an hour ago? This is an excellent question. But honestly, I don't really need much time for this. The answer is obviously the POTUS of my heart, Bill Pullman.

(Tony Goldwyn is the worst president our nation has ever seen, worse even than David Palmer's unimpressive younger brother, but he is pretty buff.)

Hope so. Just so that the Humane Society has an excuse to send its watchdogs to the set.

I think the ballerina dream was a kid thing, so it doesn't count. But if serious is her thing, why not hunker down in an NGO/academic/think tank job? I suspect $$$$$$ is part of the answer.

I've never heard of a rule like that -- and it seems like I've known of many people who do real estate on the side. Maybe some jurisdictions have rules like that?

Well, isn't that always the case? You only click on the things you want to read. Or are you suggesting we send you a rebate if you read something and don't like it? (Whoops, I shouldn't have planted that idea in anyone's head.)

Woody Harrelson?

Yeah, probably.

No one. The era of stars is over.

Yo, CHANNING! I'm talking to YOU!

I can't remember how long she stayed with ballet. But you know, it's a nice hobby. I took piano all through high school with no illusions of going pro.

I'll be more careful in the future.

How about next week?

Some men are better boyfriends than husbands. Good to remember.

Hey, no one's crazy here, just passionate. But yes, thanks for directing to that nice story, which was just one topic on the chatter's list; in an earlier question, the one I hadn't gotten around to posting yet, she chided us for not delivering news of Detwiler's wedding; sorry that probably wasn't clear from the exchange we did post.

And to the original chatter -- keep coming back! We love your contributions, Nats-related or not. Just be patient if we're not answering you right away. Lots of good questions here that we won't get around to answering at all on any given week.

No, actually -- you're just that good.

Or Grinch, since it is the season. Besides, that's what girlfriends are for.

Less than two weeks to Christmas! Sent your tips, sightings (VIPS shopping would be really good), and other holiday cheer to reliablesource@washpost.com. Next week, same time.