The Nanny Attraction

"Nurse and Child" by Mary Cassatt

The local CBS TV station in New York City recently ran “The Nanny Attraction,” (“Moms Taking Steps to Defend Families From ‘NannyAttraction,’” CBS-New York, 2/15/16) The segment aired on the ll:00 o’clock news anchored by Maurice Dubois and Kristine Johnson, a news program that recently broke the bank in the area of insipid news by running a segment on a postman who was chased by dog. An example of their medical coverage is a story reported by their resident authority, Dr. Max Gomez entitled “New Lip Implant Offers Natural, Soft Look” (CBS-NewYork, 2/11/16). But cutting to the chase any woman stupid enough to hire a good looking young nanny deserves what she gets. Don’t they read ("The Curse of the Celebrity Nanny," The Daily Beast, ll/11/15)? Ben Affleck, Gavin Rossdale, Jude Law, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robin Williams and Mick Jagger are all pointed to in in The Daily Beast expose as examples of  celebrities who had or were suspected ot have had affairs with their nannies. Investigative reporting? The brunt of the in-depth examination by CBS's Hazel Sanchez had to do with various consultants who help prospective parents to profile nannies in order to make sure they’re stable. But this again misses the point. We assume any good-looking nanny is a gold digger. So the one doing the profiling should not be the parents, but rather the nanny who, before spreading her legs, should analyze the spreadsheet of the man whose affections she may end up stealing. ‘Watch out what you want for you may get it” is the homily that should be emblazoned on the consciousness of nubile nannies looking for Mr. Right. A fetching nanny is going places and the last thing she needs is to book passage on a sinking ship.

Side Effects

What was Steven Soderbergh thinking? Roman Polanski Repulsion was a classic about madness. Soderbergh’s movie has a similar fascination with objects (in this case a model boat)--and blood. But the subject is feigned madness, something Ophelia was once accused of, that is now presented in what is nothing less than a Elizabethan/Jacobean revenge tragedy about the pharmaceutical business. The plot is a failed cocktail of news headlines that goes as awry as all the failed combinations of SSRI’s that are supposed account for the erratic behavior of its central character Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara). Still the bald-faced contrivance is rather shocking in a filmmaker of Soderbergh’s stature, though some of the blame could fall on the shoulders of the screenplay writer, Scott Z. Burns.You have hedge fund trading and a new anti-depressant called Ablixa, which may have suicidal and homicidal effects on the wrong patient and also a doctor on the payroll of a big drug company. Sound familiar? Lines from William Styron’s memoir of depression, Visible Darkness are quoted in the service of a supposed suspense plot, in which Jonathan Banks, the well-intentioned British psychiatrist (Jude Law) is driven so crazy by the ludicrous criminality he’s caught up in that he picks ups a Thorazine loaded dagger. Soderbergh has announced his retirement from film, having made 26 films by the age of 50. Too bad a pharmaceutically oriented psychiatrist couldn’t have offered him some sort of a drug that makes once talented film directors stop before they go over the edge.