A couple of folks sent me essentially the same question Scott Reboul asks in this message…

Your comments on Cosby all make sense and put the matter into perspective clearly and realistically. And your unspoken words on the matter find their way to the reader through the discerning questions you ask. One thing you haven't mentioned much — but something I believe most of your readers would like to know — is your perspective of Camille Cosby and how she has seemingly stood loyal behind her longtime husband over the many years of their unusual marriage. I recognize that an easy answer to this question is that a wife in that position can put up with a lot of strife to continue living the life of luxury and status that being Mrs. Cosby affords, but I'm wondering if you have opinions beyond the norm on what she must be thinking and how she maintains an apparently sound relationship with her husband. Is this a matter you'd consider addressing on your website? (I surely hope so, but I recognize this subject may be considered "too personal" to suit your site).

I think my answer is that I don't know Camille Cosby…or for that matter, Bill, whom I only spoke to briefly, most recently in 1981. I have however been close (or close enough) to a number of marriages where the husband was "cheating" with the wife's consent.

I put that word in quotes because it's not really cheating if it's with consent. In some cases, the wife was "cheating" (with permission) as well and in some cases, she wasn't but — well, I'll give you three examples…

1. He was a TV producer who at age 55 had a yearning to sleep with young women. His wife of many, many years was not a young woman and not all that interested in sex with anyone any longer. He cheated (no quotes) on her, she found out but (a) she still loved him, (b) he was a great provider and protector who still loved her, (c) he was not going to stop, (d) she didn't want to divorce him and start dating again at her age and (e) she didn't want to be alone the rest of her life. So she proposed a deal: He got his own apartment and could pursue his hobby three days a week as long as he was discreet and didn't embarrass her…too much.  The rest of the time, he slept in the home they made together and was a perfect hubby.
2. He was a famous comic actor who at roughly the same age had a yearning to sleep with young men. His wife of many, many years was unlikely to turn into a young man and she loved him, didn't want to live without him (etc.) so they worked out a similar deal. A couple days a week, he could go out and explore that long partially-repressed end of his bi-sexuality. The rest of the time, it was business as usual.
3. He was a comic book artist, a bit younger than the above. One of the more surprising moments of my life came when the woman who'd been his spouse of around fifteen years (and still was) began coming on to me, assuring me that they had always had an "open" marriage and that he'd be fine with it. And when I politely declined, she had him phone me and assure me that indeed he'd be fine with it and that I'd really, really enjoy it. That was an even more surprising moment…and no, I did not act on his recommendation but I knew others who did.

These were all true cases and these were also, insofar as I could tell, arrangements that worked well for those couples. None of them got divorced or separated, and when I was around them, they seemed no less devoted to one another than any married couple I've known, and more devoted than many.

Don't write and tell me you'd never tolerate anything of the sort in any marriage of yours.  This isn't about your marriage.  And don't write me that you can't believe it worked for them.  You don't know them.  I also know a husband-wife duo where the two of them scream throughout all waking hours at each other — and it's not the cute Don Rickles style of insults. It's the kind of attacks where you know the person's areas of vulnerability and you go right for them. I wouldn't put up with that from a mate for five minutes but this one couple I know has been married five decades.

Not that I haven't also seen plenty of storybook happy-ever-after marriages. My parents had one. I'm just trying to make the point that there are many possible arrangements in the union of two consenting adults…and if an odd-to-us one makes those adults happy, I don't think outside opinions matter much, nor do we probably even know enough about them to have opinions.

The temptation is to try and view the Cosby marriage as similar to one of the above configurations…probably #2 except you substitute unwilling, unconscious women for willing, wide-awake men. But the truth is we don't know. We don't know what Mrs. Cosby knew. Since half of show business heard at least rumors of Bill's unfaithfulness, it's reasonable to assume she knew about that and maybe it was a little like Arrangement #1 above. But we don't know. Might she also have known of the drugging and raping? We — and I know I'm repeating myself here — do not know.

My feelings about Dr. William Henry Cosby Jr. (The "doctor" may be surgically removed shortly) are morphing from anger to a powerful, powerful disappointment. I keep hearing Al Pacino's voice in And Justice For All when he yells at the scumbucket judge played by John Forsythe, "You, you son-of-a-bitch, you! You're supposed to stand for something!"

But let's admit this:  We don't know really why Cosby did it or why his wife backed him and I doubt we'll ever know with any true sense of understanding.  Hell, there was a time when we didn't know he did these things at all and wouldn't have believed it if someone had told us. That's why it took fifty women showing the courage to stand up before some people decided maybe they didn't know the real Cliff Huxtable. We know even less about Ms. Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby.

Outsiders, perhaps projecting something about themselves, might assume that the money and the resultant lifestyle made it easy to look the other way about some or all of it. But maybe she just promised to love him in sickness and in health and sees raping as the sickness part.  We — and I'm telling you this for the last time — don't know.

There was a time I never thought I'd type the sentence, "I agree with most of what Jonah Goldberg says in this essay" but I do. And I think it makes more sense to talk about "coalition instincts" than "tribal instincts" because a coalition is something you may join for a short time to achieve one immediate goal, whereas tribalism flows more from religion, race or some other circumstance of your birth.

Hypocrisy aside, two things bother me about the objections to Michelle Wolf's speech. One is the misreporting that makes it sounds like she trashed Sarah Huckabee Sanders' looks. That is a misreporting of facts worthy of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. And then there's this complaint that she was not funny.

About "not funny": First off, even in that badly-miked room with a self-conscious audience that rarely guffaws at anything, Wolf got a lot of laughs. I sometimes go see a performer or film that fails to amuse me but all around me, others are howling. Two of many examples would be the movie Borat and the current Broadway play, The Play That Goes Wrong. With others voting audibly to the contrary, I feel it would be an act of sheer arrogance not to differentiate between "It wasn't funny" and "It wasn't funny to me." It is not the job of any comedian in any venue to make every single person who is watching or listening laugh.

I didn't find all of Ms. Wolf's act funny. I can't think of anyone who ever did the White House Correspondents' Dinner who didn't have some lines land with a thud. I mean, it's not like you can go to other, less visible White House Correspondents' Dinners first and test out your material on other gatherings of prominent politicians and media figures so you can discard or rewrite the clunkers.

When Michelle Wolf says today as she has, "I wouldn't change a word of what I said," that's a bit disingenuous. She would have cut or rephrased a dozen or so of the lines that got the weakest responses. She might have made some of the harsh lines harsher. Heck, now that she's being pilloried for insulting the press secretary's appearance, she might even figure she's got nothing to lose by doing so. She could even steal some of the fat jokes Donald Trump used to make about Rosie O'Donnell. Welcome to the Trump Era, where some people hold comedians to a higher standard of taste than we expect of the President of the United States.

My favorite performers of all time are and probably always will be Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy…and I'm sure you're quite familiar with Mr. Hardy's famous catchphrase. It was "Well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into!" Right?

No, not right. What he actually said in their films was "Here's another nice mess…" He did say "fine mess" in one radio appearance but you probably never heard that. And they did make one film called Another Fine Mess but even in that one, he said "nice mess." He also said in other films, "Well, here's another nice kettle of fish you've pickled me in" and "Well, here's another nice bucket of suds you've gotten me into."

But the line was "nice mess." Here's a compilation of every time it was said on screen…

When I read that Stormy Daniels is suing Donald Trump for defamation, what comes to mind is a joke I once heard…

"How do you insult a porn actress?"

"You tell her you have all of her movies — on Beta!"

Comedian Adam Conover writes a (pretty much) on-target defense of Michelle Wolf's performance at the Correspondents' Dinner. A lot of folks who should know better are attacking her, saying she didn't do well. Trump tweeted that she "bombed" and of course we all know that Trump would feel that way about any speech that didn't have as its central thesis, his greatness and unprecedented success. I think a lot of journalists are pissed because she said this to them…

You guys are obsessed with Trump. Did you used to date him? Because you pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you. He couldn't sell steaks or vodka or water or college or ties or Eric, but he has helped you. He's helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster, and now you're profiting off of him. And if you're gonna profit off of Trump, you should at least give him some money because he doesn't have any.

And a lot of them are showing that they aren't very good journalists because they're falsely reporting that Ms. Wolf disparaged Sarah Huckabee Sanders' appearance.

People keep referring to the whole soirée as "Nerd Prom" but I think a better nickname, which I've also heard, is "The Sycophants' Ball." There is much worry these days about Trump's cries of "Fake news" whenever he doesn't like what's being said. People fear it will harm journalism and the First Amendment. I'd be more concerned about reporters getting too comfy-cozy with those they're supposed to be covering.

And to those who say she "crossed the line," I say that Trump destroyed that line ago. I do not believe that every comedian "speaks truth to power." I've known too many comedians who knew how to get cheap laughs in truth-free acts. But the argument against one kind of comic is exactly the same as the argument against letting politicians and pundits say what they want to say. When you start restricting one, you're gunning for the other.

• During a staff meeting, White House chief of staff John Kelly referred to Donald Trump as an "idiot." Michelle Wolf complains, "That man is stealing my act!"

• During a staff meeting, White House chief of staff John Kelly referred to Donald Trump as an "idiot." Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson defends Trump, says "He's not an idiot. He's a moron!"

• News outlets are reporting that during a staff meeting, White House chief of staff John Kelly referred to Donald Trump as an "idiot." Looks like the White House Correspondents' Dinner has found its entertainer for next year.

Here's a thought I had the other day: Once Donald Trump became President of these United States, he had at his disposal the greatest array of investigators in the country as well as access to darn near every state secret and file in the government.  Did he say to someone, "Find me proof that Barack Obama was born in another country and that the birth certificate he released was a forgery"?

Granted, if Obama was born in Kenya and did have someone whip up a fake document, that might be unprovable…but maybe somewhere in some file previously unavailable to Trump, there is some evidence.  Did D.J.T. order a search for it?  Why the hell would he not?  His base would love it if he even hinted there is such proof.

• Our top story tonight is Frank Rich's long, long essay that flows from the new Broadway production of Tony Kushner's long. long play, Angels in America.  It's about Roy Cohn, who might not be the worst human being who ever lived but he's still not too far from the bottom of the species.  Cohn was a mentor of Donald J. Trump and Mr. Rich finds stunning and obvious similarities between the two men.
• Trump says that the White House Correspondents' Dinner ought to be discontinued.  Any time I find myself on the same side of an issue as that man, I naturally must question my own wisdom…but no, I still think it's a pernicious institution.  I just think that for different reasons.  I think the press and politicians should not be intermingling as if the different roles they play are just make-believe they engage in for the public.  Trump just thinks it's treasonous to make fun of the President unless, of course, it's not him.
• Laura McGann says that the reason some people are so outraged about Michelle Wolf's jokes about Sarah Huckabee Sanders is that so many of them were accurate — unlike, say, a Huckabee Sanders briefing.
• Matt Yglesias reminds us that impeaching Donald Trump does not poll well and could easily backfire on Democrats.  Personally, I think…well, you know what I think of the guy currently squatting in the Oval Office but I have no stomach for the trials and legal machinations of impeachment, especially if there is no reasonable expectation of success.  I also don't think Mike Pence would be that much better for the nation.  All that could, of course, change with future revelations…and does anyone think there won't be future revelations?  Trump wouldn't be working overtime to discredit the press if he wasn't expecting future revelations.
• Nathan M. Jensen asks, "Do Taxpayers Know They Are Handing Out Billions to Corporations?"  I think the answer is no…and for some reason, when you tell them that, they kind of shrug and say, "Whatever."  They aren't quite so indifferent when they think their tax dollars are going to help poor people buy groceries.
• Daniel Larison explains why it's stupid to try and rewrite the nuclear deal with Iran.  But hey, it's an Obama accomplishment and in Trumpworld, deals are just things that obligate the other guy, not us.

So what would it have been like if Trump had shown up at the White House Correspondents' Dinner? Well, it might have gone something like this…

Some of the jurors in the Cosby trial speak out. It sounds like they did their duty by-the-book, just the way a jury is supposed to function. It also sounds like Cosby's own words in his deposition was the single biggest factor that did him in.

The other day, a friend said that it will all be for naught if Cosby doesn't spend at least some time behind bars. I kinda disagree. I think he should be locked up but if he isn't, it won't be like he "got away" with his crimes. His career and reputation are in ruins. He's spent a fortune on legal fees and that's not over yet. He has probably had a very miserable, depressing couple of years watching as most of America has gone from loving him to hating him. That's not the complete punishment he deserves of course but it's also not nothing and it's already a pretty solid deterrent to some other powerful men who might have thought they could prey on those of lesser power and not get spanked hard for it.

I'll have a longish post about Cosby up here in the next day or so.

Here's someone's list of The 18 Best Things to Eat at Disneyland. I could or would actually eat eight of them.

I forgot to mention that I have been announced as a Special Guest at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego.  It runs July 19-22 with a Preview Night on July 18.   Manuele Fior, Richard Friend, Jim Lee, Lonnie Millsap and I join a list that includes Rafael Albuquerque, Marc Bernardin, Thi Bui, Aminder Dhaliwal, Cory Doctorow, Emil Ferris, Brian Fies, Andy Fish, Veronica Fish, Alex Grecian, Elizabeth Hand, Deborah Harkness, R.C. Harvey, Nalo Hopkinson, Larry F. Houston, E.K. Johnson, Lynn Johnston, Jeff Lemire, Paul Levitz, Richard Liniers Siri, Jason Lutes, David Mack, Larry Marder, Scott McCloud, Mike Mignola, Terry Moore, Ann Nocenti, Daniel José Older, Randy Reynaldo, Jeff Smith, Maggie Thompson, Peter J. Tomasi, Tillie Walden, and Jen Wang, with more to be announced tomorrow.

I will be hosting some double-digit number of panels and hopefully, the first of those numbers will be a "1."  I will also be presenting the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing to this year's recipients and one of my panels will be an interview with this year's "alive" recipient.  The names of both recipients will be announced shortly and I am very proud of this year's selections.

In the months before Comic-Con, I get three questions over and over again and the answer to all three is "no."  Let me list them and elaborate…

Can you get me into Comic-Con?  No.  Your best bet here may be some exhibitor or dealer.  They get a certain number of passes for the folks who work their booths and may have extras.  Also, folks who want you on a panel or presentation may be able to get you in.

Can you help me get a hotel room?  No.  I really know nothing about that.  I don't even book my own hotel room.  All I can do is suggest is that you study the Comic-Con website and also check in at an unaffiliated site called the The San Diego-Comic Con Unofficial Blog.  Although these folks lean heavily on the aspects of Comic-Con that are of little interest to me — movie and TV celebrity sightings and autographs — they do a Herculean job of providing info and it's absolutely free. This article by the ever-helpful Kerry Dixon will tell you all anyone can tell you about hotel availability.

Can you help me get a panel or other program item on the schedule? No. I just do mine. I can tell you though that the schedule gets firmed-up much farther in advance than most people think. I've had folks write or call me in July to ask about this and I have to tell them the schedule's not only locked but it's already at the printer. It may already be too late to add an item to it for this year.

I'm sorry.  I'd like to help everyone but I can't.  The hall only holds so many people, there are only so many hotel rooms, and the schedule has to be set months in advance.  Nothing I can do about any of that.

I thought some of Michelle Wolf's material at the White House Correspondents' Dinner was very sharp and funny but the good stuff was buried amidst too many lines that were mean without being amusing.  When I start feeling someone's being nasty to Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, something is wrong.  It's like watching someone make inappropriate advances on Harvey Weinstein.  Maybe the targeted person deserves it but it's not pleasant to watch.

Yes, it's a tough assignment in a tough room.  The audience is there to shmooze and "be seen," not to be an audience, and the comic kinda has to hit all the targets.  They have to do a Sean Hannity joke and then balance it with a Rachel Maddow joke even if they or their writers couldn't come up with a good Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow joke.  Still, others have been able to manage it.  Seth Meyers, a few years ago, was pretty good.

No, I don't think it'll hurt Ms. Wolf's career.  I think a lot of people who never heard of her before know who she is now and as most of the late night hosts have shown, there's a big market out there for Trump-bashing.  A lot of loot was raked-in by comics saying stuff just as bad about Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and the last George Bush or two.  If you didn't condemn that, it's a bit late to come out against bad-taste jokes about those in power.

• Michelle Wolf's speech last night is being criticized by people who say that kind of thing doesn't belong at a White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Unfunny, rude remarks should be kept where they belong: In presidential tweets.

The Turner Classic Movies Film Festival concludes today in Hollywood. Friday evening, I took Amber — who had never seen the film (or for that matter, the play or TV show) — to see The Odd Couple. Yes, I've viewed it many, many times on home video but this was only my second opportunity to enjoy it on a big screen with a live, laughing-out-loud audience. The first was around half a century ago when it played at the old Palms Theater in Culver City.

I was struck by how different it was to see it in a movie theater — in this case, a module of the now-mutiplexed Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. And I do remember seeing another Jack Lemmon movie — How to Murder Your Wife — there in 1965, back when the place only had one screen. Lemmon and Matthau were actors who were acting with their faces every second they were on the screen. Unless you have a TV the size of a billboard, you can't see how good they were on home video.

You also miss something else. This movie is filled with funny lines and because most of its cast performed them in the Broadway version, they knew the timing. They say something hilarious and not until the laugh from it dies down do they say the next line. Matthau on screen takes all the same pauses he took on stage and they're the proper length without the editor inserting them by cutting to another shot.

The Odd Couple is basically an eight-character play and movie.  (One of the few other people with a line is Joe Palma, the legendary actor who played Fake Shemp in some Three Stooges shorts. He's the butcher when Felix goes out to buy meat.)  All eight main players are terrific and two of them were present for the screening.  For those of you curious about such things, one other principal — David Sheiner, who played Roy the Accountant — is still with us.

My longtime pal Michael Uslan did the intro at the Turnerfest. After the pic, film historian Eddie Muller interviewed Carole Shelley and Monica Evans who in 1965 were the first actresses to play The Pigeon Sisters. That was for the play and they later reprised their roles for the film and even played them a few times on the Tony Randall-Jack Klugman TV version. The audience was thrilled to be able to applaud them in person and moved to hear that it was the first time they'd seen each other in 19 years. Carole lives in New York and still acts. Monica is retired from acting and residing in Great Britain.

Both spoke of the honor/joy of being in such a fine play with such fine co-stars. Carole said that during the shooting of the film, Jack Lemmon — the only one of the eight who'd never done it as a play — kept asking how certain Felix lines were delivered on stage and how long a laugh they got.

It may not be generally known that the Cecily and Gwendolyn Pigeon sorta saved the play. In outta-town preview performances, the first act was hilarious, the second act was even funnier and the third act sent the audience out sullen and unamused. Playwright Neil Simon rewrote furiously. Director Mike Nichols staged new scenes several times a week. Nothing worked…

…until in Boston, those two men, Matthau and Art Carney (Felix on the stage) appeared on a local TV show hosted by local theater critic Elliot Norton. Simon, preoccupied with why his play wasn't working, didn't really want to do it and was paying only partial attention when Norton said something like, "I really loved the Pigeon Sisters in Act Two and wondered why you didn't bring them back in Act Three." Simon later explained it lit up a giant neon sign in his head and sent him dashing for the typewriter. Cecily and Gwen hadn't been in the third act but within a few days, the play had a new ending where they were and The Odd Couple was finally a success.

It's still a success. It certainly was with all those at the screening, Amber included. She's still chuckling over the scene where Oscar flings Felix's pasta into the kitchen. You can see it and other highlights here in the trailer for the film. I'm pretty sure Lemmon's line here — "It's not spaghetti, it's linguine" — is from an alternate take. That's how well I know this movie. If you've only seen it on home video, try someday to see it they way God intended it to be viewed: With a lot of other human beings around.