Bret shares his reason for not releasing a podcast last week, discusses the highs and lows that led to a personal tipping point and complicated clarity revealed as he responds to questions from Platinum listeners on the air.
2024-02-28 03:18:37 +0000 UTC View PostHello Platinum Posse, Golden Gangsters and Silver Stallions. As you know, movies, books, television and music are crucial distractions from life’s bleak dungheap. You also know that sometimes the dung piles so high that you can’t outrun the stench. This week is that stench. We can’t give you a show. We will give you a show next week. We love you.
A statement from Bret regarding Todd's arrest:
"What happened to my partner last week here in West Hollywood affected a lot of people and I want to provide some clarification and perspective.
For a long time I was simply blind, not grasping the severity of Todd's situation and how ill he actually was. Mental-health issues and drug addiction have seemingly affected every family I've known, including my own.
I lost my youngest sister to a combination of both last August (she died at 53) and my father's struggles with alcoholism led to his death at 50 in 1992. And my partner of fourteen years has been in its increasing grip for the last decade culminating in a full blown drug-induced psychotic breakdown last week.
He was arrested and is now in lockdown in a psych ward still, days later, unaware of where he is or why he's there.
There is a thin line between loving someone and enabling them - you don't realize it fully until it smacks you in the face. The tough love approach you dread as the partner of an out-of-control addict happened to us first in 2021 when I kicked Todd out of the condo we shared and demanded he place himself in a recovery facility for three and a half months, which he did -grudgingly, forced by me because he had no other financial options left.
But recovering addicts have told me that THEY had to make the decision to get help and being forced by others never worked. Maybe a little but not fully.
Todd had always been someone who I thought was eccentric and erratic but functioning. Due to our age difference we lived semi-separate lives even though we lived together - he had his life and I had mine and they would intersect for long conversations about books, watching movies, having meals. I often wasn't aware that there was another Todd.
People would tell me about his social media rants, worried, and as the enabler I would say 'Oh that's just Todd' or 'That's just performance art' and shrug it off not knowing how unhinged he could get.
The feelings you have for this person who is so obviously in pain blind you to getting them the help they need and if you're a couple YOU become the problem as well by not facing the reality of the situation and getting them that help.
With Todd sometimes it was apparent there was a mania present and then weeks when there wasn't. Days where he would quietly sit at his desk or read Thomas Mann and drink tea and watch movies with me. Where he seemed not only sane and utterly normal but fun and engaging. That was the Todd I sometimes lived with. Until I realized, too late, I wasn't anymore.
After he got out of rehab the first half of 2022 was OK - he had a job, he was taking his meds, he was seeing a therapist, he was calm. But then 'something' started creeping back in and in 2023 it built and built until, like the summer of 2021, was impossible to enable anymore, leading to his meltdown and arrest.
The mania - caused by both mental health issues and drugs - finally blew up in OUR faces. Yes, I had heard from people earlier, years earlier, that Todd was becoming a problem. But I was also a problem by deflecting and not taking action, lost in my own world.
He has a support team and once he is released from the psych ward he will automatically be placed into a long term dual psychiatric-rehab facility.
It is a complicated dance when you're living with an addict with mental health issues and you love and care about: they CAN convince you that everything is fine, and YOU are blinded because you want to believe it too and avoid the pain and stress and heartbreak that comes with your ultimate understanding of the situation - that awful clarity you don't want to face.
There are those of you who reached out and told me how much they loved and cared about Todd and saw the Todd that is loving and funny and intelligent and has so much potential and talent and that's the Todd I mostly knew - and not the 'crazy' and 'vindictive' and 'insane' Todd lashing out at everyone on his videos and livestreams - which I never and still haven’t watched.
I don't think it's too late for him and I hope to know that Todd I first met in 2010 again."
2024-02-20 06:53:59 +0000 UTC View Post
As Valentine's Day rapidly approaches, Bret recalls traveling his own rocky romantic road before fielding questions of love from Platinum listeners on the air.
2024-02-13 07:23:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Bret mysteriously vanishes from a party at the Chateau, reveals the secret to dismantling ideology in art and recalls Emilio Estevez carrying a film for the first time as he responds to questions from Platinum listeners on the air.
2024-02-06 05:23:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Bret reappraises one of 2023's biggest movies after a second viewing and discusses other hits and misses from last year as he turns the page to 2024 with some help from Platinum listeners.
2024-01-30 07:34:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Film/TV executive Roy Price and Bret discuss Amazon Studios clipping its own tail, the convenient centrality of Hong Kong and the dangers of making art in the middle of the road. Part 2 of 2.
2024-01-23 03:51:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Film/TV executive Roy Price and Bret discuss soaking in rare generational wisdom, avoiding Candy Cane Lane at all costs and crafting Amazon's maiden slate of original shows as television changed its form forever. Part 1 of 2. Patreon Season 8 premiere.
2024-01-16 03:04:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Comic book writer/illustrator Brandon Graham and Bret discuss awkward pinup calendars, getting lost on the unmapped road to redemption and the dangers of becoming someone's online project. Patreon Season 7 finale.
2024-01-09 05:02:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Actress Drea de Matteo and Bret discuss winning an Emmy for The Sopranos, venturing out late at night to Save the Robots and the challenge of raising curious children in a world of unquestioned belief.
2024-01-02 09:07:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Author Sam Wasson and Bret examine Francis Ford Coppola's relentless pursuit of a dangerous dream and how he won and lost his new utopia gambling on the chase. Part 2 of 2.
2023-12-26 07:15:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Author Sam Wasson returns to the show and talks with Bret about a movie legend's perilous path to paradise, why Harvey Keitel fled Apocalypse Now and chasing the dream of working within the Hollywood studio system as an outsider. Part 1 of 2.
2023-12-19 07:30:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Quentin Tarantino and Bret discuss the frightening Legend of Boggy Creek, the elements of a perfect movie and the motivation behind Brian De Palma's desire to thrill. Part 2 of 2.
2023-12-12 04:34:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Quentin Tarantino returns to the show and talks with Bret about generating Cinema Speculation, the pleasures of reading an ominous movie novelization and grappling with Deliverance at a tender age. Part 1 of 2.
2023-12-05 04:37:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Bret discusses a fallen angel's treacherous trip, an illuminating new documentary about a legendary rock band and finding his own DVD machine out of commission as he fields questions from Platinum listeners on the air.
2023-11-28 05:30:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Back in Los Angeles after his latest European tour promoting The Shards, Bret discusses two different Roberts tackling the same famous role, his one degree of separation from Kevin Bacon and making sure the white meat is moist on Thanksgiving as he answers questions from Platinum listeners on the air.
2023-11-21 09:02:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Guest host Bruce Wagner talks with actress/singer Beverly D'Angelo about changing seats on a fateful flight and the unexpected journey that followed as they continue their conversation from last week. Part 2 of 2.
2023-11-14 01:37:02 +0000 UTC View Post
As Bret Easton Ellis nears the end of his latest tour promoting The Shards overseas, Bruce Wagner guest hosts and talks with actress/singer Beverly D'Angelo about altering time and space through self-expression and navigating the consequences of her love. Part 1 of 2.
2023-11-07 00:36:25 +0000 UTC View Post
With Bret Easton Ellis far away in Europe promoting The Shards, author Sam Wasson covers this week's hosting duties and talks to actress/producer Colleen Camp about the human elements of the Hollywood machine and how she came to be the industry's prime party maven.
2023-10-31 03:10:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Comedian/Author Kat Timpf and Bret Easton Ellis discuss the perils of paying attention, humor as a reliable healer and whipping a whole lot of science fiction fans into a fierce online frenzy.
2023-10-24 02:53:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Writer/Translator Max Lawton and Bret Easton Ellis discuss foreign fiction as a sanctuary for experimentation, sparking fierce debate in the Turkish tabloids and drowning stage fright in noise as they continue their conversation from last week. Part 2 of 2.
2023-10-17 02:35:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Writer/Translator Max Lawton and Bret Easton Ellis discuss collaborating with Vladimir Sorokin, publishing fiction in contemporary Russia and the crucial part diligence can play in creating genius. Part 1 of 2.
2023-10-10 04:57:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Bret Easton Ellis rejoices in the glow of the recently resolved WGA strike, recognizes genius for the first time in a very familiar movie and reveals life's true meaning as he answers questions from Platinum listeners on the air.
2023-10-03 04:57:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Bret Easton Ellis discusses reports of an imminent end to the WGA strike, the horror of Magic Mike's Last Dance and the joy of watching Gene Wilder as he answers questions from Platinum listeners on the air.
2023-09-26 05:05:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Novelist Alex Kazemi and Bret Easton Ellis discuss early home video cameras igniting the future explosion of social media, giving up a piece of the authentic self for financial gain and the black and white beauty of Leonardo DiCaprio's forbidden fruit. Part 2 of 2.
2023-09-19 02:06:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Novelist Alex Kazemi and Bret Easton Ellis discuss keeping the internet from contaminating your fiction, losing interest in the boring culture war and ruffling feathers with Marilyn Manson. Part 1 of 2.
2023-09-12 01:24:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Bret Easton Ellis shares a festive Labor Day gift he received, talks about a terrible TV show he cannot look away from and recalls enjoying an unexpected treat at an unlikely location as he answers questions from Platinum listeners on the air.
2023-09-05 05:07:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Fiction editor Robert Asahina and Bret Easton Ellis discuss unexpectedly entering an unreliable mind, American Psycho running into corporate complications and the end of editing literature without external interference. Part 2 of 2.
2023-08-29 04:20:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Fiction editor Robert Asahina and Bret Easton Ellis discuss surrendering to the magnetic pull of literary life in New York City, writing film criticism before it became tarnished by publicists and cultivating a marketable myth at a fateful photo shoot. Part 1 of 2.
2023-08-22 04:36:06 +0000 UTC View Post
