It’s that time. Hold onto your hats pants.

– Sometimes you can see Natalie backlash coming, other times it’s a surprise. It didn’t even occur to me that the NY Times article would kick up a fuss but it seems that it did. So we have musings about where Natalie’s pants are, or more importantly why her interview partner, Foer, isn’t also appearing pantsless.

– Then we have the personally salacious angle focused on a rumour that Foer had a marriage-ending crush for Natalie, putting a creepy spin in the exchanges in the NY Times piece.

– Not to be outdone by the (I think) tongue-in-cheek criticism of Foer’s story about losing his old emails to Natalie.

– But there is some appreciation out there, The Daily Beast absolutely loved the piece.

And so, the Portman-Foer letters buck a negative trend: it is heartening, with the modern twist of email rather than quill and guttering candle, to at least see an attempt to return to the art of letter-writing, of connection, and elaboration.

– And now for something completely different, it seems as though Annihilation has wrapped filming. Now the long wait till the first trailer.