Greetings, dearies! There’s something for everyone this week! I got stuff about Ida Lupido, R. Kelly, and Friends!

On the 30th, K. Austin Collins discussed Ida Lupido’s pioneering career as director and the new box set devoted to her work, for Vanity Fair:
“Her career as a director began quietly. When Ray became ill while making On Dangerous Ground, she’s said to have taken over (without being credited). She married the producer Collier Young in 1948, and together they formed the Filmakers, an independent film production company that sought to specialize in quickly made, cheap, socially conscious independent films, including Not Wanted, which became Lupino’s first full-time directing gig—again uncredited—after director Elmer Clifton had a heart attack not long after shooting started.”

Also on the 30th, Adam Wears of Cracked, talked about how the media made light of the allegations against R. Kelly for decades:
“There’s no better example to illustrate the media’s soft-handedness on Kelly than how they covered his 1994 marriage to singer Aaliyah … who at the time was only 15 (Kelly was 27). They first met in 1993 while recording her debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number (good lord). Within a year, they were married in a secret ceremony attended only by a few members of Kelly’s entourage. It wasn’t until 1995 that someone got ahold of the marriage certificate, and found that the only reason the ceremony was allowed to go ahead was that Aaliyah forged her age.”

As part of Film School Rejects series on film tropes, Mary Beth McAndrews analyzed the “final girl,” on the 30th:
“The Final Girl is still a prevalent figure in horror film. However, she has become much more complex and nuanced, no longer just a two-dimensional foil to the villain. Horror directors have taken audience expectations of the iconic female character and subverted them in increasingly fascinating and creative ways. They try to look past virginity and male identification with the character to create a commentary on traditional gender representation in the genre. The Final Girl also has grown into a figure of many subgenres. No longer is she confined to the slasher but can be seen in supernatural films, possession films, and more.”

Garin Pirnia reported on how Friends helps people learn English, for Mental Floss, on the 1st:
“Friends is far from the only television show people use to learn English, however. In 2012, a Kaplan International survey found 82 percent of respondents said TV helped them learn English. Although 26 percent—the highest percentage—said it was Friends that helped the most, that was followed by The Simpsons with 7 percent.”

On the 2nd, Tatiana Tenreyro shared an oral history of the Freaks & Geeks episode “Beers & Weirs” over at TV Guide:
“‘Beers and Weirs’ served as a second pilot of sorts, filmed after the show was picked up by NBC. The crew faced the challenge of making sure the network would not regret the decision of giving Freaks and Geeks a chance, proving how it was the perfect vehicle for stories that could be hilarious and simultaneously heartbreaking. This episode is the first one where the freaks and geeks’ worlds collide with a premise that sounds ludicrous but is absolutely genius. The geeks — Sam (John Francis Daley), Neal (Samm Levine), and Bill (Martin Starr) — grow concerned about Lindsay’s (Linda Cardellini) plans of throwing her first party while her parents are away. So the geeks come up with a plan: they’ll swap the freaks’ keg with fake beer so nobody will get lit — as the kids say these days. But it turns into a hilarious placebo effect experiment, with a night filled with awkward singing, beer bong funnel mishaps, scary old men, and crying.”

Finally, Michael O’Connell and Lesley Goldberg gave us the famous The Hollywood Reporter list of TV’s most powerful showrunners, on the 3rd:
“The Hollywood Reporter’s annual rundown reveals who’ll be making the series (and the paydays) that define the industry’s next era — as these MVPs disclose what they watch when they aren’t working (‘Succession’), what they think of life without agents and the peer they’re most envious of (Surprise! It’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge).”

Enjoy!