Jacob Sartorius: Femme teen idol into heterosexism, cowboys, and frontal nudity
Asa Butterfield: A dozen "boy meets girl" movies, a dozen nude photos, and a boyfriend
I keep thinking that Asa Butterfield is American due to his old-fashioned name -- maybe Moravian or Amish -- but he's actually British, born in Islington, 30 minutes by underground from the British Museum. It has pubs called The Earl of Essex, The Duke of Cambridge, and the Pig and the Butcher. Can't get more British than that.
He got his start in horribly depressing movies like After Thomas and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, 2007, which of course were on my "run away fast" list.
Then came Hugo, 2011, a fantasy with an ending that made me cringe -- the photo looks like two boys have the adventure, but it's actually a boy and a girl. When Hugo announces that he's got a girlfriend, the adults throw confetti, high-five each other, and scream with joy. That happened to me every time I mentioned a girl, no matter how casually: "A girl in my class did a book report on Finnegan's Wake." "Hallelujah, he's straight! He's normal! We don't have to worry anymore! Here, have some money and the keys to the car!"
I didn't see Ender's Game, 2013, because the original novel was written by the horribly homophobic Orson Scott Card, or A Brilliant Young Mind, 2014, because the brilliant young math prodigy gets a brilliant young girlfriend.
The novel version of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children contains no heterosexual romance, but in the 2016 movie version, there are three of them. It's boys and girls gazing into each other's eyes all the way down.
Are you noticing a pattern here?
Then Came You, 2018: A boy falls in love with a dying girl. This seems to be quite a trope. Why do girls never fall in love with dying boys? Of course I'm not seeing it.
Time Freak, 2018. At least Asa has a gay-subtext relationship with Skyler Gisondo en route to winning the Girl of His Dreams.
Your Christmas or Mine?, 2022. Isn't Asa a little young to graduate to Christmas romcoms?
Asa's biggest role to date is in the tv series Sex Education, 2019-23. He plays Otis, a boy whose mom is a sex therapist, so he and his friends get the idea of opening a clinic to solve teenagers' sex problems. There are some gay characters, but Otis is straight. And naked a lot.
More after the break. Caution: Explicit
Aaron Goldenberg: Former fundamentalist, Cousin Karl's boyfriend, Mean Gay. With some underwear bulges.
Aaron Goldenberg is an Atlanta based comedian with 41.000 followers on Facebook, 294,000, on Instagram, and 1.2 million on Tiktok.
He is best known for his series of "Mean Gays" videos with Jake Jonez: they make snarky comments at your wedding, your baby shower, by the pool, at your dinner party. The "hookup" video, where the Mean Gays invite you over for "some fun" and discover that you're a little older and huskier than your profile photo, has gone viral, with over 4 million views on Twitter and Tiktok.
Aaron also riffs, or rather comments, on his fundamentalist childhood -- hiding in plain sight, parents in denial, friends saying "Hate the sin but love the sinner," coming out to his pastor. It did not go well.
Aaron has 21 acting and 9 writing credits on the IMBD, beginning in his fundamentalist days with the short "Witnesscylin," about a drug that can help you win souls. He has played Confused Bellhop in Burn Notice, Emaciated Vampire in So Dark, and the Host of Rap Shit.
He has a scene in Season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones, as Percy the Interior Designer, who is working on the siblings' new executive board room. Kelvin is nice to him,so I interpreted this as an attempt to form social connections with other LGBT people.
Skyler's Hot/Hung Photos, Part 3: Basketball, beach boys, wrestling, giving a guy his leg
3. Why not? Is the dude homophobic, or does he want you to lie on your back so he can see your abs?
4. Obviously they've been wrestling. I have absolutely no idea what else they could be doing that leaves them on the floor, out of breath.
5. But we're not playing shirts vs. skins, buddy.
6. I dig the lesbian haircut, Sky Baby, but your sweater shrank in the wash.