#lepqueen

So I just wanna ask u just does this look like a real happy healthy relationship and in love with each or just put on for show for the fans and why do I feel like she making it all about her again and reminded everyone who she with it feels micheal was forced in the pictures taking with her the red carpet photo she looked bored and annoyed cos michael not paying any attention he just look miserable but I bet if it was David standing there instead of anna his face would be beaming like the one Georgia posted of them 4 together micheal face is electric and see how he lean toward David that best friend goals and I just love seeing them together cos that when he at his most happiness place

Also I find it strange that Anna was left out in staged scene but David wife gerogia made appearance doesn't that strike u as odd and gerogia brought the plus one date a girl could have and it wasnt anna yet they call each other wife clearly not as close etc then David and Michael are it seems.

And did u notice in the scene with David and Tom hiddleson about the dog sitter initially could present as benign and then he and the dog get up to all kinds of hijinks and ultimately disrupt stuffy old Michael sheen boring life but for the better like why put that in the script maybe his life with anna is boring and only staying cos he feels he needs too for the young children what do u think of all this

From @amata-haan along with a screenshot of the group photo:

(Grouping all of these together since it seems we've got a bit to talk about here.)

So, the biggest point of discussion seems to be the group pic that Georgia posted, and I will put up a larger size of that for us to discuss:

When I saw that Georgia had posted this in an Insta story, of course my first thought was "Finally a picture of Michael and David together!" I think that was what we were all hoping for all night, to where it was almost glaring that we hadn't gotten one when the event ended (until Georgia's post, that is).

The second thing that came to mind is what you alluded to @moriarty-sisters, about this being a near repeat of what we've seen a few times before (first at the NTAs in 2021, and then the group photo Georgia posted on Michael's birthday, that appears to have been taken after Michael went to see Macbeth):

Every time, Georgia is on the right. Every time, she and Anna have the same tight smiles while Michael and David have huge grins on their faces. At this point, it feels intentional, because twice might be a coincidence, but three times is a plan. There are slight differences to the vibes in each picture--although Georgia looks like she knows a secret and Michael and David look like a very happy couple in every one of them--but last night's group pic was...something.

Which takes me to your comment @phantomstars24 about how Michael is holding AL. I was under the impression that he had his hand on her waist, but if he is touching her breast, I'm perplexed at that being her reaction. She looks stiff and like a deer caught in the headlights, and regardless of where Michael's hand is, it doesn't seem like that's a great way to look when your own boyfriend is touching you. Adding to the strange optics is the fact that Michael is actually leaning toward David in the picture and away from her. It looks like his arm/shoulder is pressing into David and there isn't a millimeter of space between them, yet he seems to be a mile away from Anna despite having an arm around her.

(And none of this is even touching on Georgia using the theme song from Friends in the Insta story for the group pic, which she had to know we would all notice...)

So yes, a lot of thoughts on the group pic, but overall delighted to see Michael and David looking so happy next to each other. Especially Michael, in stark contrast to how he looked in some of the other pictures.

Speaking of which...I briefly talked about Michael and AL at the BAFTAs yesterday here and here, so I will try not to repeat myself too much in this part of my answer. But what I think we are seeing is two things: Anna's fantasy of what she thinks her and Michael's relationship is, and the reality of what we saw at the BAFTAs.

I think in AL's mind, she and Michael were like Georgia and David. But if we are going to say that Georgia and David were very loving and sweet together on the red carpet yesterday--which they absolutely were, with the kiss they shared and David comforting Georgia when she was experiencing anxiety--then there is no way you can look at the pictures of Michael and Anna and see the same thing. Even without bringing GT/DT into it, there is a massive, marked difference between pictures of Michael with AL vs. pictures of him with literally anyone else (such as this pic with Hannah Waddingham).

Looking at Anna's pictures that she posted, every one of them seems to be about ownership, right down to the Insta story with the #mine hashtag (which again seems to be her copying Georgia, also on the night of an award ceremony). The vibe that I got was of a teenager who'd won a date with her favorite celebrity and took him to the prom. Ultimately, though, she looked out of place, and he looked uncomfortable with her, both of which are a remarkable feat after five years of a relationship.

The pictures also repeated themes we've seen before (AL has previously posted a picture of her kissing Michael's cheek where he looks equally withdrawn; the photo in the car on the way to the event is a copy of pictures Georgia has posted of her and David in the car on the way to events) and speak to that idea of pushing a certain narrative, despite neither one of them appearing to sell it very well.

To that end, and to your comments @lepqueen and @turquoisedata, I would agree with you that it looks like AL is trying to mark her territory. The problem is that Michael had more chemistry just talking with David in that opening BAFTAs sketch than he did with Anna the entire night, and she was frequently left looking like she had no idea what she was doing or why she was there. Another example of this is an Insta story she posted earlier today that again demonstrated her main interest in the relationship:

What's particularly noteworthy is the follow up Insta story on the right, which I couldn't believe she actually posted. I think that if you are fine and happy with the narrative you've put out, you are not going to be bothered by or salty about a comment like that, and AL clearly was. And all of this then casts at least some doubt that the pictures she posted are really telling the whole story. Just a recap of what we do know about last night (and if I am forgetting anything, someone please let me know):

- Anna was the only principal member of the cast who was not in the Staged-themed opening sketch, despite being in all three seasons of the show. - Anna was not seated next to Michael during the in person part of the opening sketch, despite there being no reason the producers couldn't have put her next to him even as a seat filler. - Georgia brought her friend Daisy Aitkens as a +1 and sat with her instead of Anna, leaving us with the above picture of AL sitting alone and staring straight ahead while in the background of a Michael J. Fox picture (that she is acting like is a picture of her with him, instead of her photobombing a picture of MJF with his wife). - During the show, the camera repeatedly cut to Michael in the audience when there was no reason to do so, but did not show Anna on camera once.

So yes, I think that if last night at the BAFTAs was somehow AL's attempt to mark her territory/assert her place in the UK acting industry, it did not seem to go over well. I think David and Georgia's relationship and Michael and David's relationship emerged even stronger than before, and unfortunately AL and Michael's relationship did not and does not compare.

Aww, thank you so much! This is very lovely and I appreciate you saying such kind words. I don't know that I always find it easy to be levelheaded, especially because I tend to have strong, passionate feelings about things and have to make a conscious effort at times to really get my thoughts in order. But I have been in fandoms for a long time and I've seen some of the awful things that can happen between fans and creators/people adjacent to or who work for creators, and the personal agendas that those people often have.

So for me, keeping a level head is largely about not wanting to see people get hurt, because I have seen that too many times and been hurt in fandoms myself. It's also about the balanced perspective that I try to provide in all of my posts. It's about knowing that I have a right to my instincts (instincts that took me a long time to listen to, as for most of my life I've been made to feel that my instincts are always wrong) and to believe what I believe, but that I also don't have to shut down other perspectives or refuse to look at things from a different angle. I've always been a strong believer in dialogue and discussion, because I think hearing each other out--even if we don't agree, even if we never see eye to eye--is a far better way to go than shutting all that down entirely.

Anyway, that's my long-winded way of over-explaining myself (again), when I probably could have just said "thank you." Truly, though...thank you for this lovely message, and my thanks to you and everyone else who follows my blog, including the bunch of new folks who have recently come aboard. I'm very grateful indeed that you are all here...❤️

Someone mentioned in a comment that Michael got ‘downgraded’ to boyfriend, so my tinfoil (again, could be wrong/insane) is that AL & GT referring to each other as wifey is to downplay the previous MS ‘wife’ jokes, since people keep commenting about a poly thing going on, moreso than the past. Also since MS is in London rn, he’s with DT more, so I think there’s a bit of insecurity going on. a lot of (doomed) poly couples have an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ rule, or think the swinging being gay 'doesn't count/isn't a threat,' which could be why the posts feel forced. (parasocial, creepy, bad person, etc., whatever, I calls it as I sees it and have seen it before 🤷‍♀️ )

lepqueen replied to your post: 

My biggest question on this was actually about the song choice, given that I am reasonably sure Sting said at some point Every Breath You Take is a stalker song.

@cloud-based-and-rainpilled I had a similar thought about the insecurity. I think Georgia and AL trying so hard to give the appearance of everything being "fine" and everyone getting along only makes it feel more like things in reality are not exactly what's being presented on social media. I personally did not see "boyfriend" as a downgrade (because from my perspective, "other wife" reads as more jokey/unserious, but boyfriend is...softer, somehow), but I can see why some folks could interpret it as a downgrade when it's actually a readjusting of whatever the dynamic is between all of them.

Going back to the insecurity, I had also wondered how things would play out while Michael was in London for such a long time during the run of Nye, and it makes all the sense in the world that things would change with Michael and David being able to see each other in person frequently. And you make a salient point about the gay swinging being seen as less threatening (which I think is why it's been easy for Georgia and AL to start up with that, and why we have never seen even one reference to David/Anna or Michael/Georgia and swinging). It could be that shipping Michael and David was also seen as less threatening and easier to play along with a few years ago, when it was all still new and Michael and David hadn't gotten as close as they have now. So yes, I do think something has changed, and though we may never be privy to what specifically, we can still see its aftereffects and reverberations in a variety of ways.

(I also wish the antis/people making vitriolic posts in the tags would understand your final point, which is that some of us have seen these things before and are speaking from a place of experience--unlike their assertions (and I have actually seen someone say this) that we have never had any close friendships or relationships like these, and therefore know nothing.)

To your comment, @lepqueen, I also found myself raising an eyebrow at the song choice. You are correct that Sting has described the song as being creepy, and I found one quote from him in particular attesting to this:

I’m assuming you’ve seen this already?

Oh yes, I have indeed seen that. It's interesting, because it immediately made me think of a moment in the third season of Staged where something similar happens, except it's David who presses a hand to Michael:

It really is something seeing them side by side, isn't it? That in both cases, the touch looks so natural, so completely fluid as to give the impression that this is not the first time it's happened. I also love that the recipients of both touches (Crowley/David on the left, and Michael on the right) are so comfortable with the touch that it seems to speak volumes about their relationship.

It's interesting, too, because when Staged 3 first came out, I had a few Anons messaging me saying they thought David touching Michael's arm was scripted, and that I was reading too much into it. Which of course could be the case, but it's a curious thing to have the same kind of touch happen not once, but twice between the same two people, and for it to be as soft the second time as the first.

(This is also not even getting into the fact that Staged 3 was filmed after GO 2, and all of the implications contained in that touch after filming such an emotionally charged scene in episode 6, which I swear I am going to write about in detail in another post...)

Is it sad that I immediately thought of AL when I saw this? I don’t know if it’s the fact that the 3rd year of my husband’s passing is quickly approaching, or what, but it infuriates me how AL treats Michael.

Hi there! Still playing catch up on Asks here, but first my most heartfelt condolences on the loss of your husband. To lose someone you love dearly must be incredibly painful, and especially near to the date of their passing. I'm so sorry.

As for your question, it's both sad and not sad at all that you thought of AL, because I actually had someone send me this exact cartoon just days before I got your Ask, also in reference to her. So you are definitely not the only one who had that thought, it seems.

I'm grouping your Ask along with the one from @phantomstars24 because today we got another new post from AL on Instagram that merited discussion. Probably everyone has seen it by now, but for those who haven't, the post contains a cute picture of Michael with a puppy:

But when we look at AL's caption on the post, that is where things take somewhat of a turn:

The caption seems to be referencing what is in the pictures she posted, but one word in particular stands out: "Trolls." In the pictures, we see deer, the girls, other family members, puppies. But if you Google pictures of "Scandinavian trolls," this is what they traditionally look like:

So if we consider those images and then think of AL's pictures, the only thing in them that seems to fit this description is Michael, which would mean she is calling him a troll. It's actually not surprising or out of character for her, as it does fit with her long-running pattern of making snarky/mean comments about Michael's looks.

What makes this all even stranger is that Michael went on a tweeting spree on the 8th and 9th (answering a lot of GO-related questions in particular):

And then AL posted an Insta story of him throwing an airplane with the caption of "Family holiday is going well," followed by this reply from her to a fan who shared the video on Twitter (to whom Michael had also replied during his Twitter spree):

To recap: Michael was on a family holiday in Sweden last weekend and spent most of it scrolling on Twitter, for which AL passive-aggressively called him out (suggesting that he was happier/paying far more attention to Twitter than to her), and now she posts the pics from the trip and calls him a troll.

I mean...you can spin things a lot of ways, but this doesn't come across too well from any direction, especially given how she made sure that she looks good in the picture of her (and because I don't think there is any flattering or complimentary way to call someone a "troll," as it's meant to describe something as ugly, unattractive, etc.). However if there is some other meaning or if I'm just reading too much into this, I welcome folks to comment on here with their thoughts, because I'd love to hear other perspectives.

It's ironic, too, that she used the caption "Family holiday is going well" when so much else seems to indicate otherwise. Thinking about Michael in that puppy picture among the other pics in that post, you can see how he just doesn't quite "fit." Not just because he looks different from everyone else (recalling AL's pointed mention of "curly blondes"), but because there is a community there that he is not part of, and for someone like Michael, for whom community is such an important thing, him being a stranger among these folks makes him stand out even more, and for all the wrong reasons.

Hi there! I know you sent this several days ago and I've been a bit swamped, so apologies for taking so long to answer.

You are not at all reading too much into things, as a lot of what you mentioned is what many of us have noticed over the last few years, too. Anna puts Michael on her Insta when it's convenient/when there is something to sell (their relationship, typically). The most recent thing (before today, at least) was a picture from Mabli's first birthday party in May. Though she also posted this photo in a story on the same day that GO 2 was released (again, something to promote/sell):

This was obviously an old picture (likely taken midway through filming season 2, during the holiday break--so December 2021/January 2022), but it's telling that this is what she chose to post, instead of something new. And this again continues AL's pattern of posting terrible pictures of Michael, where he looks miserable and she looks smug. It seems like he was caught off-guard, too, as if she wanted a picture before he could put on his "game" face. There were so many choices happening here, and I'm genuinely confused by all of them.

Which then brings us today, and the bunch of photos/videos AL just posted for her birthday weekend, to again brag/show her "celebrating" with Michael. She posted multiple things, but I'm going to highlight these two in particular, as they stood out to me:

For those who can't tell, on the left is video of Michael at a parking meter machine, going to pay for parking. AL is making fun of him (again, which she has done multiple times previously), likely in an attempt to mimic the way Georgia pokes fun at David, yet lacking any of the underlying respect or affection that Georgia seems to have for David.

This (and AL's other stories from today) also continue her pattern of filming Michael surreptitiously/from a distance in order to generate content. In the story on the right, Michael is shooting basketballs and AL is standing behind him filming, rather than actually being in the moment, which gives the feeling of her wanting attention for herself more than wanting to enjoy her birthday with Michael. What also struck me about this and the other stories she posted is how cold and distant they seem. Pictures of empty drink glasses, a table, her sitting on the floor alone. The vibes are just completely "off" somehow, in my opinion, and it's noticeable.

What really stands out to me as well is that it doesn't look like either one of them were having that much fun. One thing we can say for certain about Michael and David--whether you ship them or not, whether you think something is going on between them or not--they always have fun together. We see it in the interviews they do, the interactions they have, how both of them are constantly smiling/laughing and there is never the feeling of one person monopolizing the spotlight--it's them, together, genuinely enjoying each other's company. Making each other laugh. And I just don't feel like that is the case with Michael and AL, because what I get from those stories today is a sense of obligation, rather than fun.

(I also think it's very telling and worth noting that in all of the stories AL posted, the only face that is full-on visible is her own...)