Hollywood Q&A

Q: I know this sounds crazy, but I noticed a lot of plot similarities between the romantic comedy “Two Weeks Notice” and the spy thriller “A Most Wanted Man.” The latter came out much later — is it possible it was sort of based on “Two Weeks Notice”?

A: I understand your reluctance to even suggest a link. Tonally, the two movies couldn’t be further apart. In fact, it seems like the similarities are just chance, with a bit of help from storytelling stereotypes.

I assume the similarities you refer to are based around the fact that the main female characters in both “Two Weeks Notice” (2002) and “A Most Wanted Man” (2014) are crusading lawyers working for charitable agencies who become the inappropriate object of affection of a cynical rich guy — an affection that drives at least some of the film’s plot.

Put like that, they sound like the exact same movie, except that one plays it for light laughs and the other for grim thrills.

In short, the two have no direct link: “A Most Wanted Man” was released 12 years after “Two Weeks Notice,” but it was based on a novel by the great spy-fiction author John le Carré, written in 2008 (still later, but not as much). Le Carré wasn’t the sort of guy to plagiarize, and he certainly didn’t give any credit to “Two Weeks Notice” in the book’s acknowledgements.

Instead, he credits the lawyer character (or at least her fictional charity, Sanctuary North) to reallife journalist Carla Hornstein, who really was trying to help a wrongly detained Muslim man living in Hamburg, Germany.

It’s likely she became a lawyer instead of a journalist because the crusading lawyer is a stereotype we’re all familiar with and le Carré wouldn’t have to spend as much time explaining her motivations (the book is a classically twisting spy thriller, so he needed to save pages for plotting).

Q: I really enjoy listening to all the current hosts on Turner Classic Movies, but whatever happened to Tiffany Vazquez, who was the Saturday afternoon host in 2016?

A: Being the Saturday daytime host on TCM was only ever a side gig for Tiffany Vazquez, and, sadly, the gig eventually cast her aside. There’s no gentler way to put that. She joined the classic-film cable channel in 2016, but her contract wasn’t renewed.

She was a good sport about it, announcing the end of her tenure on Twitter in January 2018, closing with, “This experience has changed my life and I’m forever thankful for it.”

(I say “closing with,” but she commented on her own post later to say, “Robert Osborne liked me! That’s all I ever could have asked for.” Osborne, of course, was a film historian and the longtime face of TCM who died in 2017.)

After her brief dalliance with TCM, Vasquez continued and progressed in her main gig as senior editor of film content for Giphy. com, the animated GIF-sharing service that posts a lot of film clips. She has since been promoted to director (according to her various highly active social media accounts).

Her time at TCM may have been brief, but it was also momentous. She was the first woman and first person of color to be a host on TCM, which means she blazed the trail followed by current hosts Alicia Malone (“Movie Juice”) and Jacqueline Stewart (“The Butterfly Effect,” 2004). Not a bad legacy to leave from a side gig.

Q: Is “Avenue 5” coming back?

A: When last we heard, yes, but a lot has happened since HBO made that commitment. The show was only a few episodes into its first season when HBO announced a second-season renewal on Feb. 13, 2020.

HBO hasn’t given any news yet about this second season, but of course, they’ve been a bit preoccupied since then, as have we all.

Some shows were able to go into production during the pandemic, but most, it seems, have been biding their time and waiting for the industry to get back to something like normal. “Avenue 5” seems to be one of these, as it hasn’t announced filming yet, meaning the actual release could still be a long way off.