DINNER PARTNERS with Christopher & Eric

Deep in the You Tube vaults lurks this authoritative and impeccably reported takedown of one of the worst lies ever told about the Kennedy assassination. FALSE WITNESS, adapted from the groundbreaking non-fiction book by Patricia Lambert, responds to Oliver Stone’s preposterous blockbuster JFK with a hail of hard truths. The fact that it enjoys a fraction of the audience of that odious film is just one more injustice offered up by the deeply strange story of deranged New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and his baseless hunt for a homegrown conspiracy to kill the president — made up entirely of homegrown homosexuals. This is just one of the injustices about this story Christopher and Eric are determined to correct. Conspiracy Weary Month’s final pairing goes out with a loud wet bang — the kind a truth bomb makes when it goes off on a pile of conspirapoo.

There’s fact, there’s fiction, and then there’s movies about true crime stories written by David Mamet (and possibly a long list of studio notes.) As Conspiracy Weary Month continues, Christopher and Eric serve up Hollywood’s big screen treatment of Jimmy Hoffa’s complex legacy. It’s the second in a true crime pairing about the notorious labor leader’s still unexplained — if you don’t buy Eric’s theory (see Ep. 245) — disappearance. HOFFA is a big movie. With big stars. And even bigger crowd scenes. But does it illuminate its subject? And is its theory of the last day Hoffa was seen alive remotely credible? And before you accuse us of getting tangled in our ball of red string, does our discussion leave us pointed squarely in the direction of next week’s subject, the JFK assassination? Is everything connected or should we just drink less tea?

Welcome to Conspiracy Weary Month, where your skeptical hosts, Christopher and Eric, add some of their typical adverbs and spices and a dash of their signature saltiness to the sacred cows of online speculation while serving them up on a hot takeaway platter. The disappearance of notorious labor leader Jimmy Hoffa in the mid 1970’s inspired rafts of conspiracy theories and a host of aging mob guys to issue suspicious confessions to the alleged murder late in life so they could rake in book and movie deals while avoiding consequences (or prosecution). While the frenzied documentary, KILLING JIMMY HOFFA, drowns us in factoids, title cards and meandering interviews, its final menu of possible suspects leaves Eric hungry for more. Who killed Jimmy Hoffa? Our fresh take on this old mystery may surprise you.

Sex Scandal Summer draws to a close with this second serving in a “true crime pairing” about much maligned royal Prince Andrew and the epically disastrous BBC Newsnight interview in which he tried — and failed — to distance himself from one of history’s worst sex scandals. Christopher and Eric have served up plenty of true crime inspired films that veer off into la la land in their dogged effort to avoid anything that looks like a fact. But the Netflix produced SCOOP adheres very close to the truth, and it does so with beautiful direction, a tight script and Oscar caliber performances from Billie Piper, Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell. This fine film inspired a larger discussion between Christopher and Eric about the disturbing after effects of the Jeffrey Epstein case and the many victims it left in its wake.

Sex Scandal Summer goes royal as Christopher and Eric head across the pond — and then back again — with “PRINCE ANDREW: BANISHED”, a snarky takedown of the House of Windsor’s possible connection to convicted sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, streaming on Peacock in the US. It’s the first in a long overdue “true crime pairing” that continues in our next episode with a True Crime Movie Time featuring SCOOP, a recent Netflix film. Despite being Queen Elizabeth’s favorite, Prince Andrew never showed an aptitude for much beyond flying helicopters and carousing. And sweating. And then, in his later years, lying about sweating. Was rank entitlement to blame for the colossal PR mistakes the prince made while trying to convince the world he had no connection to one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most credible and high profile accusers? While Christopher and Eric enjoyed watching this bevy of journalists and royal watchers make the case, they were disturbed by this tale of entitlement run amok.

After Eric unleashes a tirade against Pinterest, his winner for Most Homophobic Social Media Platform In Existence, he and Christopher kick off the next chapter of Sex Scandal Summer by serving up an hour of television that makes its host look worse than the scandalous subject. In episode 2, season 1 of THE UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL, entitled “Mark Sanford”, the notoriously unfaithful conservative Southern politician pales in comparison to host Jake Tapper, who, while making the story largely about himself, reveals distressing political biases hiding behind a strange soft-pedaled apology. In the end, Christopher and Eric are left craving some real journalism on this iconic political sex scandal — or maybe just a long hike on the Appalachian Trial with their favorite international reporters.

Pool boys and Evangelicals and cougars, oh my! Christopher and Eric kick off Sex Scandal Summer by serving up the spicy Hulu documentary GOD FORBID: THE SEX SCANDAL THAT BROUGHT DOWN A DYNASTY. When twenty-year old Miami pool boy Giancarlo Granda is invited to take part in a night of taboo busting sex with a wealthy older woman he met at the Fontainebleu Hotel and her (at least) voyeuristic husband, little does he know he’ll eventually find himself at the center of a scandal that helped remake American presidential politics. It’s a seemingly no holds-barred expose of con artists and blackmailers, and the culture war politics that attacks minorities while enriching sanctimonious hypocrites. But Christopher and Eric still have questions about what’s not being said in this otherwise steamy tell (almost) all.

Your hosts wrap up Sapphire Cove Summer, their celebration of Christopher’s steamy new gay romance novel, SAPPHIRE DAWN, with a warm and delicious serving of one of Eric’s favorite movies, BIG EDEN, an open hearted, wonderfully acted and beautifully shot rom com set in mountainous Montana. And the romantic leads are both men! The perfect antidote to last episode’s foray into reality show hell, it’s also another case of “Christopher should have watched this movie when Eric first recommended it fifteen years ago” and a great opportunity to talk about the special ingredients that can make romantic stories so swoon worthy and uplifting.

Orange County is once again the setting of Christopher’s steamy new Sapphire Cove novel, so your hosts decided to take a fun and frivolous trip to the region by way of a popular Netflix reality show. Big mistake. Huge. Sapphire Cove Summer was supposed to be a much needed break from dark and disturbing true crime stories, but when your hosts decided to sample the first four episodes of the third season of SELLING THE OC, they found themselves relentlessly tortured by a gilded coterie of witless malignant narcissists. The venomous cat fights, sexual manipulation and rank unprofessionalism on display here might not be criminal — but they should be. At the very least, these so-called real estate professionals should lose their licenses. And did we mention the show used queer baiting to promote its latest season? There’s little Eric hates more, save for everything else about this dreadful train wreck. You might want to turn the volume down on this one. Or up, if you hate this kind of soulless reality television as much as they do.

As Sapphire Cove Summer, their celebration of Christopher’s steamy new gay romance novel continues, Christopher and Eric serve up a controversial slice of sexy Hollywood history. In SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD, documentary filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer deftly explores the relentlessly cheerful Scotty Bowers, Tinseltown’s most famous male escort. The former sex worker’s tell all memoir blew open closet doors and shocked readers upon its release a few years ago, but it was Scotty’s frank and unashamed accounting of his wild sex life that left an indelible impression on Christopher, who made him the basis for one of his new novel’s central characters. But is there a darker side to Scotty’s story that the man himself isn’t hearing? It’s all on the table in this wide-ranging discussion of sex, secrets and celebrity.