Rich Heldenfels, Pop Culture Wanderer

You may recall an item here some months back where I talked about an anti-gay email I had received and how I wanted to respond to it.  My editors chose not to include it because they did want to give a platform to homophobia. Unfortunately, homophobes are finding plenty of platforms and the megaphones to shout from them. The ad above was taken off Hallmark Channel when viewers complained about seeing a same-sex couple in the ad, with one anti-gay bunch of bigots threatening a boycott of Hallmark over the ad. Because, to them, LGBT people -- including those who are loving, who marry, who raise children -- cannot be family-friendly. What crap. ( Hallmark has now reversed its decision.) But not the only crap. In my Q-and-A column, I recently included an item about Shepard Smith leaving Fox News. And in the email came a note about Smith that was so nasty and vulgar about Smith and his private life that I can't bring myself to quote it here. (This week, another letter al...

It's that time of year when people binge on Hallmark's Christmas movies, and the House of Heldenfels is not immune. (There are limits, though. This is an unlikely addition.) That said, the movies are such easy viewing that sometimes the mind wanders. And this mind has wandered toward the idea of ... a Hallmark Christmas movies book. Sometimes the idea morphs into three books: the Christmas movies, the non-Christmas Hallmark Channel/Hallmark Movies & Mysteries films, and the classic, broadcast Hallmark Hall of Fame productions. Not that I have time to do any of these. But I have been thinking about what I would want in a Christmas movies book. Including: 1. A map of America with all those fictional small towns where the movies are set. 2. A list of the Canadian houses used most often for movie locations. 3. A list of noteworthy other roles by actors in the films.  Nyssa al Ghul! The Maytag repairman! 4. The time of the near-kiss in each movie. (The near-kiss, f...