The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Monday, August 26

Hello, everyone!

In case you were wondering: they’re changing the New York state license plate (again) and I’m willing to cast my vote based on whichever the Hoddle likes best. (I’m undecided because they all kind of suck!) Here are the nominees.

Ramble of the Day

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m a pretty distracted viewer of films and television. I suppose I could redefine it as being extremely detail oriented, because I tend to get distracted by little, sometimes inconsistent details. A little slip up of an accent, I hear it (though I’m forgiving — it doesn’t seem like an easy thing to maintain). An imperfect wig, I see it (I’m less forgiving, but I suppose I get it). I also tend to easily spot other things, like aging in films.

My older sister watched The 15:17 to Paris on the plane back from Paris (funnily enough), and I was kindly asking her about it as we got closer to New York. The quick summary is that the movie didn’t need to exist, but she ended up telling me that Jenna Fischer and Judy Greer were cast as some of the protagonists’ mothers. Considering the protagonists are mostly adults, I wondered if they were just their mothers during scenes from their childhood. Not really, my sister told me, so I asked if they aged them properly for those later scenes. Again, the answer was: not really.

It’s not just that bad aging is distracting. That’s pretty insulting to the actresses considering they almost definitely do not look old enough to play the mothers of 20- to 30-something men. I’m pretty particular about this, and it’s partly because I wonder if it is too difficult to ask the makeup department to do it convincingly. (They’re really good, but I wonder if it’s a doomed task from the start.) I personally think it’s probably best to cast older actors if you have older characters (I applaud The Crown for its approach). Again, though, I’m starting to understand some of the logistics behind making the choice of casting people who are too young for certain scenes.

I guess my strong opinion is one I can easily reason with, or perhaps I’m getting soft because I’m already approaching 400 words and need to go to sleep. (It’s not late, I just need to wake up earlier than usual.)

tl;dr: I think it’s probably not worth the work/risk to cast younger actors in older roles (but I kind of get it.)

Links of the Day

Nigerian forward Ifeanyi Chiejine has died aged 36.

Bury has been given until Tuesday evening by the Football League to complete an ownership takeover.

Rangers has been handed a partial stadium ban by UEFA after fans were heard singing racist songs.

Actor Matthew McConaughey has been named a part owner of MLS side Austin FC.

Transfer updates: Lille has signed Renato Sanches from Bayern Munich; Napoli has signed Hirving Lozano from PSV; Celtic has signed Fraser Forster from Southampton on a season-long loan

Today’s longer read: Nick Blackman on the story of former Tottenham player Walter Tull, one of the first black professional footballers, for The Guardian