Joe Jonas: The World's Most Famous Christian, flirting with Keefe and showing a bulge

 

Joe Jonas, "the world's most famous Christian" (sorry, Pope Francis), was an ideal celebrity guest star on The Righteous Gemstones  In Episode 2.2, he appears at a party held by the Lissons, the Texas megachurch pastors who are trying to woo Jesse and Amber into investing in a new Christian-themed resort.  

He returns in Episode 2.9, a guest at the ground-breaking party.  He and Keefe have a "charged moment" when they both reach for the port-a-potty handle at the same time, and touch hands.

It is unintentional, of course -- Keefe's fault for watching the hot guy who just vacated the port-a-potty instead of paying attention.  But the guys do look and act as if they are shyly flirting as they wait outside for Tiffany to have her baby. Wouldn't they start getting desperate after awhile?  

They both have other partners, but who cares?  It's just an innocent flirtation.

This photo does not appear in the scene, but Cavalero is still in character.  

In my headcanon, the two become friends.  I have stories about Jonas fixing him Keefe with his publicist (when Kelvin and Keefe aren't official yet), and with Elmo the Muppet (during the breakup):

Keefe's date with Joe Jonas: A Kelvin/Keefe romance

Jonas, the son of an Assemblies of God minister, rose to fame as the lead singer of the Jonas Brothers band.  Their series of top charting albums in the 2000s led him to roles in several teencoms, like  Hannah Montana, Camp Rock, and Sonny with a Chance,  as well as many reality shows featuring his brothers.  In the 2020s, he continues to perform and release new albums, alone or with his brothers.

Time Freak: Skyler Gisondo and Asa Butterfield play boyfriends who get girlfriends

 

Time Freak (2018) stars Asa Butterfield as mild-mannered physics student Stillman, who is so oviously in love with his gay-subtext life partner Evan (Skyler Gisondo) that one wonders why he wants a girlfriend at all.  Oh, right, this is Hollywood.  Boy meets girl, and all that. 

Stillman is also in love with the Girl of His Dreams.  Problem: she just dumped him.  Does he man up and move on?  Stand outside her window with a boom box?  Nope, he and Evan build a time machine and go back to see where things went wrong. Dude, maybe you're just not compatible.

Maybe it was that double-date where you insulted the Girl's bffs (she has one of each, girl and gay guy).  So they relive the moment, and other similarly prescient moments, a bazillion times. Every argument, every mior disagreement has to be ironed out.   Wait -- he's basically conning this girl. How would you like it if someone kept re-arranging your life events without your permission?

Meanwhile, Evan meets the Girl of His Dreams and keeps using the time machine to redo every less-than-perfect moment.  Guess what?  They're all less than perfect.  

Stillman finally realizes that going back in time was a bad idea: people get hurt, they hurt others, life is life.  How profound!  He wants to destroy the time machine, but Evan wants to keep it.  They argue, break up, and reconcile.

They end up stuck in the past, having to relive the events that they've been playing all over again.  But if they let life happen and not worry about making it perfect, maybe they can relax and have fun.  Fade-out boy-girl kiss. Darn, I thought Stillman and Evan would finally recognize their love.

Beefcake: None.  These Asa Butterfield nude pics are from other movies.

Heterosexism: A double-dose of 1980s teen nerd Girl of His Dreams, completely drowning out the gay subtext romance.

Gay Characters:   Remember the Girl's gay bff, Ryan (Will Peltz)?  He gets a boyfriend, too, and he doesn't even have to use a time machine.

My Grade: C.  But here's a rear pic of Asa Butterfield. 

I'm not sure about this next one, so I'm putting it under a jump break

Cousin George: "Only fools wear pajamas"

I'm starting a new series of autobiographical stories with a Gemstone connection, mostly South Carolina or megachurch-related.  First up: Cousin George:

 
My Cousin George, son of my father's older brother, was just my age, tall and blond, with a hard chest, a thin belly, and a Southern drawl.  He lived in Walterboro, South Carolina, about 50 miles from Charleston but a thousand miles from Rock Island, so we visited only a few times during my chiildhood.  Usually my Grandma Davis took me down on the train.

What I remember most about my visits: the sizzling heat, the humidity, and the beefcake.  No one in South Carolina owned a shirt. I had never seen so many  muscular bodies.

And the racial diversity: Cousin George had friends who were Native American and Chinese, and even black (I never saw anyone black in heavily-segregated Rock Island).

We went fishing and crabbing, and  Cousin George warned me to avoid the "dead man's fingers" inside the crab shells that would turn you into "a goon."

We went swimming in the warm salty Atlantic Ocean.

At night Cousin George and I took our baths together together in scalding-hot water, and then slept naked together under thin sheets -- "only fools wear pajamas," he insisted.

When I was 13, Grandma Davis got sick, and the train-visits stopped.  We didn't stay in contact.  Occasionally my father would tell me something about his three older sisters, but he never mentioned Cousin George.  Apparently my uncle never mentioned him. Was he dead, or disinherited, or a disappointment?