Bridge Noland

Creative Producer : creator & screenwriter. Si-Fi, Adventure, Action, Romance, Mystery, Erotic Thriller. Founder & Editor of @girlyFStories

[Bridge Noland @BridgetNoland]

THE DANGEROUS DESIRE | NOLA DARLING & OPAL GILSTRAP — SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT (2017)

WHEN YOUR BREAK FROM MEN COMES WITH ONE VERY SPECIFIC EXCEPTION

Let’s talk about Nola and Opal.

Because when Nola Darling decides she needs a break from men, naturally the solution is not celibacy.

It is Opal Gilstrap.

An ex.

A woman Nola already knows.

A woman who knows Nola right back.

And suddenly the cleanse becomes considerably less cleansing.

Nola spends so much of her romantic life defending herself.

Her freedom.

Her body.

Her refusal to belong to anyone.

Jamie wants permanence.

Mars wants devotion.

Greer wants to understand why being Greer is somehow not enough.

Everybody seems to want something from Nola that requires her to explain herself.

Opal feels different.

With Opal, Nola does not have to fight to remain Nola.

She can simply want.

Which, for a woman who has turned autonomy into both philosophy and armor, is dangerously seductive.

DeWanda Wise plays Nola like desire is never the problem.

The problem is what people try to attach to it.

Expectation.

Possession.

Definition.

Ilfenesh Hadera gives Opal exactly the kind of confidence that makes all of that noise disappear.

She does not need to conquer Nola.

She already knows what being with her feels like.

And that history changes everything.

Their attraction does not begin with discovery.

It begins with recognition.

The ease of touching someone whose body is not entirely new to you.

The confidence of returning somewhere you already know you like.

Very inconvenient for a cleanse.

And very convenient for us.

That is where the desire becomes dangerous.

Because Nola initially treats Opal like freedom.

A refuge from the exhausting politics surrounding the men in her life.

Sex without the same battle.

Intimacy without immediately feeling claimed.

Except Opal is not an escape hatch.

She is a person.

And people have a nasty habit of developing feelings.

Opal says she will not.

Nola certainly does not arrive looking for commitment.

Naturally, both assumptions age beautifully.

Because underneath all that physical ease is something Nola does not encounter very often:

safety.

She relaxes with Opal.

She talks about her.

She returns to her.

She meets Skylar.

And suddenly the woman who was supposed to represent uncomplicated desire begins looking suspiciously like something much more intimate.

By the time we see them again, eighteen months have passed.

And Nola Darling — patron saint of romantic compartmentalization — is actually in a committed relationship.

With Opal.

Of course, the chemistry has not exactly suffered.

If anything, now the desire has something it did not have before.

History.

Domesticity.

Love.

The sex is no longer a detour from Nola’s life.

It is part of the life she has built with Opal.

And that is what makes them so compelling.

Nola spends so much time insisting that desire should not automatically create ownership.

Opal may be the clearest proof that she is right.

Because their attraction works precisely when neither woman is trying to erase the other inside it.

Opal does not make Nola less free.

She makes freedom feel safe enough to share.

Some dangerous desires are dangerous because they make you lose control.

Nola and Opal?

Theirs is dangerous because Nola discovers something much more frightening.

Sometimes the person who lets you feel most free…

is the person you start wanting to come home to. 💋

[Bridge Noland @BridgetNoland]

THE LEADING LOVERS | VIRGINIA WOOLF & VITA SACKVILLE-WEST — VITA & VIRGINIA (2018)

WHEN THE WOMAN IN YOUR LETTERS BECOMES THE WOMAN IN YOUR BED

Let’s talk about Virginia and Vita.

Because apparently writing someone a beautiful letter was once allowed to escalate considerably.

Vita Sackville-West knows how to pursue.

Virginia Woolf knows how to observe.

One moves through the world with confidence and appetite.

The other watches it, questions it, and turns what she sees into words.

Naturally, Vita is fascinated.

Virginia is more careful.

So before they become lovers, they become correspondents.

Letters cross the distance between them.

Admiration becomes flirtation.

Flirtation becomes confession.

And somewhere between the ink, the waiting and all those words meant for one woman alone, correspondence starts feeling suspiciously like foreplay.

Very literary.

Entirely respectable.

Obviously.

But Vita is not interested in remaining safely on the page.

She wants Virginia.

And Virginia becomes increasingly unable to pretend she does not want Vita too.

Virginia kisses Vita.

Then Vita kisses her back.

A correspondence becomes a courtship.

A courtship becomes a love affair.

The woman in the letters becomes the woman in her bed.

But love does not make either woman simple.

They have marriages. Other attachments. Different appetites.

Desire brings them together without magically making them belong to each other.

And perhaps that is why Vita leaves such an extraordinary mark.

Virginia does not need to possess her forever to transform what Vita awakened in her into something that can last.

She writes.

And Vita becomes part of Orlando.

She passes through Virginia’s imagination and emerges as literature.

Their affair changes.

Their lives continue.

But the page keeps what time cannot.

Some leading lovers leave behind photographs.

Virginia and Vita?

They left behind letters, a love affair…

and a novel. 💋

[Amazon MGM Studios @AmazonMGMStudio]

Hey, it’s Verity. Only in theaters October 2. #VerityFilm

[Law & Order SVU @NBCSVU_fans]

Christopher Meloni returns for the SVU 600th episode.

[Bridge Noland @BridgetNoland]

THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS | LUCY DIAMOND & AMY BRADSHAW — D.E.B.S. (2004)

WHEN ARRESTING THE SUPERVILLAIN TURNS INTO RUNNING AWAY WITH HER

Let’s talk about Lucy and Amy.

Because apparently the greatest threat to national security was never Lucy Diamond.

It was lesbian chemistry.

Amy Bradshaw is everything a D.E.B. is supposed to be.

Brilliant. Disciplined. Decorated.

The girl with the perfect score and a future already waiting for her.

Lucy Diamond?

International criminal.

Professional troublemaker.

And, inconveniently, exactly Amy’s type.

They are supposed to be enemies.

Amy is supposed to arrest Lucy.

Lucy is supposed to be the villain.

Then they meet.

And the entire premise starts falling apart.

Lucy becomes fascinated with Amy almost immediately.

Enough to rob a bank just to see her again.

Subtle.

Amy tries harder.

She has a career. A reputation. A boyfriend.

And absolutely no business falling for the woman she is supposed to capture.

Unfortunately, Lucy makes being a supervillain look considerably more appealing than following the plan.

Because beneath the guns, secret lairs and criminal record, Lucy gives Amy something nobody else does.

Permission to admit that the perfect life everyone designed for her is not the life she actually wants.

Amy wanted art school.

Lucy wants Amy.

Barcelona suddenly sounds pretty good.

That is where enemies become lovers.

Not when they stop standing on opposite sides.

But when Amy realizes she may have been standing on the wrong side of her own life.

Of course, reality eventually catches them.

Amy goes back.

Lucy gets blamed.

The D.E.B.S. get their perfect heroine again.

For approximately five minutes.

Because when Amy is supposed to publicly condemn Lucy, she finally stops performing the role everyone wrote for her.

She chooses her.

And D.E.B.S. gives them the only ending this ridiculous, wonderful romance deserves:

Guns drawn.

Everyone watching.

Amy walks straight across enemy lines and kisses Lucy.

Then they run away together.

Some enemies to lovers spend an entire story wondering whether love can survive being on opposite sides.

Lucy and Amy?

They simply decide they would rather be on the same one.

Preferably in Lucy’s car.

Under the moon.

On the way to Barcelona. 💋

[Netflix France @NetflixFR]

Bravo les lesbiennes.

[Pop Base @PopBase]

Lucy Hale says she has “heard rumours” of a ‘Pretty Little Liars’ original cast reboot:

“We’ll see, I would love to. I feel like I’m at a point now where I’d absolutely be so down, I think everyone else would be as well”

(via ‘On Purpose with Jay Shetty’)

[Film Updates @FilmUpdates]

Anne Hathaway will officially be campaigned in Best Supporting Actress for ‘THE ODYSSEY.’

[NBC News PR @NBCNewsPR]

"The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.” — White House television pool members: ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News Media, NBC News

[Bridge Noland @BridgetNoland]

THE DANGEROUS DESIRE | LORRAINE & DELPHINE — ATOMIC BLONDE (2017)

WHEN THE WOMAN YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING BECOMES THE ONE YOU CAN’T STOP WANTING

Let’s talk about Lorraine and Delphine.

Because apparently Berlin, espionage, double agents and the Cold War were not enough tension for one mission.

Lorraine Broughton is trained to read everyone.

Every glance.

Every lie.

Every possible threat.

Then Delphine Lasalle walks into her orbit.

Young French agent.

Curious.

Bold.

And much more interested in Lorraine than professional distance would recommend.

Charlize Theron gives Lorraine absolute control.

Sofia Boutella gives Delphine the opposite energy.

Warmer.

More impulsive.

More willing to let attraction become obvious.

Which makes their chemistry dangerous almost immediately.

Neither woman enters the other’s life without an agenda.

Lorraine does not trust Delphine.

She probably shouldn’t.

Delphine has been following her.

Lorraine notices.

Naturally.

And yet suspicion does absolutely nothing useful to the attraction between them.

That is where the desire becomes dangerous.

The club gives them the spark.

Private rooms give them somewhere to stop pretending it is only curiosity.

And suddenly the woman Lorraine should be watching becomes someone she allows close enough to matter.

Very professional.

Obviously.

But Delphine is not simply a distraction.

She photographs Percival meeting Bremovych and realizes the game around Lorraine is much bigger than she expected.

By the time Lorraine warns her to leave Berlin, desire has already become attachment.

That is the cruel part.

Lorraine survives by keeping everyone at a distance.

Delphine gets close anyway.

Not because Lorraine suddenly becomes careless.

Because for once, she wants something that is not part of the mission.

And in their world, wanting someone can become evidence.

Leverage.

A weakness somebody else notices first.

Some dangerous desires are dangerous because you know you should stay away.

Lorraine and Delphine?

They know exactly what kind of world they are in…

and choose each other anyway. 💋

[Bridge Noland @BridgetNoland]

THE DARK REFLECTION | NINA SAYERS & LILY — BLACK SWAN (2010)

WHEN THE WOMAN WHO UNDOES YOU LOOKS LIKE EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO BECOME

Let’s talk about Nina and Lily.

Because Black Swan never gives Nina Sayers a safe distinction between desire, fear and self-destruction.

And Lily walks straight into that blur.

She is not just another dancer.

Not just competition.

Not just temptation.

She is everything Nina has been taught not to be.

Loose where Nina is rigid.
Instinctive where Nina is controlled.
Sensual where Nina is restrained.
Free where Nina is terrified.

That is what makes Lily so powerful in Nina’s mind.

She does not simply attract her.

She destabilizes her.

Lily becomes the face Nina gives to all the impulses she has buried too deeply to claim as her own. Hunger. Anger. Sexuality. Rebellion. Pleasure. Violence.

So when Nina looks at Lily, she is not only looking at another woman.

She is looking at the version of herself she both desires and fears.

And that is what makes them such a dark reflection of each other.

Because Lily is not framed as a gentle escape.

She is the double.

The shadow.

The fantasy of release.

The woman who seems to offer Nina a way out of perfection, even as everything in Nina’s unraveling turns that fascination into something increasingly dangerous.

Their connection is charged precisely because it never feels fully stable, or even fully real.

It moves like obsession.

Like projection.

Like desire filtered through panic.

And in Nina’s world, that makes Lily less of a love interest than a living trigger: the embodiment of everything she cannot control once the line between performance, identity and hallucination begins to collapse.

Nina and Lily are not about comfort.

They are about seduction through fracture.

About the unbearable intimacy of seeing your own darkness take shape in someone else’s body.

And once Nina does, she cannot look away. 💋

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

All five major networks, including Fox News, are standing together against Trump’s press ban and refusing to provide TV pool coverage.

Never thought I’d see the day Fox News stood up to Trump.

[Buzz Crave @BuzzCrave_]

Emilia Clarke when asked if she’d ever return to the ‘GAME OF THRONES’ universe as Daenerys:

“Of course I would. Who knows where Drogon took her? Maybe there’s more to her story.”

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

Fox News is boycotting the president. That’s how much of a first amendment violation Trump just made in banning the media.

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: Major TV networks — ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC — agreed to suspend their pooled coverage of President Trump after the White House blocked CNN from its duties. https://t.co/pyHbL9VwwD

[CNN Breaking News @cnnbrk]

The Trump White House has removed CNN from its Monday assignment as the TV pool representative for the entire White House press corps, deepening the dispute that began when the president said he was "banning" CNN, MS NOW and Politico. https://t.co/4kh53jYdzK

[Third @thirdmetax]

Tom Cruise reveals he never reads scripts himself, he has the writers read them to him out loud

"What I do with directors and writers is I don't read the scripts, I have them read it to me.”

“Because I don't want my ideas to invade it yet. I want to understand what is their communication, they've been working on it, they have things that are just there. So they come to me and I just sit there and I'm like, I want you to read it to me"

"And then we get to a place where I start to understand, and I'm like, I know how to contribute to that now. It sparks ideas. I have certain ideas, certain things I'd like to play with, and then I don't necessarily talk about it, I just do it.”

[Variety @Variety]

MS NOW, CNN and Politico are filing a lawsuit against the federal government following a decision by President Donald Trump to ban them from the White House.

“We are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the three news organizations said in a statement. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.” https://t.co/Wf1pVCWAVd

[CSPAN @cspan]

Former President Barack Obama on President Trump's White House press ban: "I’m trying to think what would have happened if I had said, you know what, Fox News, you’re out of here! It’s unimaginable!"

[Bridge Noland @BridgetNoland]

THE DANGEROUS DESIRE | ALEXANDRIA & JO — EASY (2019)

WHEN THE WOMAN YOU COULD START SOMETHING WITH ARRIVES BEFORE YOU’VE FINISHED ENDING SOMETHING ELSE

Let’s talk about Alexandria and Jo.

Because apparently breaking up with your long-term girlfriend, dismantling your apartment and pretending you are functioning normally at work was not enough emotional activity for one month.

Jo also needed Sophia Bush.

Fair.

Jo and Chase are over.

Technically.

Their lease is ending.

Chase wants more experiences, more freedom, more time to figure out who she is before committing to a future she is not sure she wants.

Jo is devastated.

But Jo is also Jo.

So she gets up.

She goes to work.

She edits.

She meets deadlines.

She puts a Band-Aid over the emotional crater and keeps moving.

And waiting on the other side of that workday is Alexandria.

Her boss.

For now.

Alexandria already knows Jo is talented.

Funny.

Smart.

Beautiful.

She has also apparently been trying very hard not to make the whole “boss secretly checking out her editor” situation weird.

Very considerate.

Very inconvenient.

Because the moment the project ends and Alexandria is no longer technically Jo’s boss, she finally asks her out.

Jo says yes.

Immediately.

That is where the desire becomes dangerous.

Not because Alexandria is bad for her.

Almost the opposite.

Sophia Bush plays Alexandria with this ridiculously attractive combination of confidence and restraint.

She knows what she wants.

She tells Jo she has had a crush on her for ages.

She flirts.

She makes the first move.

But she never pushes.

Jacqueline Toboni plays Jo like someone desperately trying to discover whether moving forward and being ready to move forward are actually the same thing.

Spoiler:

they are not.

The date works.

The chemistry works.

The flirting works.

They go back to Alexandria’s place.

They kiss.

They start undressing.

And for a few minutes, Jo gets exactly what Chase said she wanted for herself:

something new.

A different experience.

A door opening instead of closing.

Except Chase is still sleeping on Jo’s couch.

And then Jo’s phone starts vibrating.

Once.

Again.

Again.

Paragraphs.

Lots of paragraphs.

Suddenly there are three people in the room.

Alexandria notices before Jo can pretend otherwise.

And here is the thing that makes Alexandria so damn appealing:

she stops.

No guilt.

No pressure.

No “but we came all this way.”

She likes Jo enough to understand that having access to her body is not the same thing as having her attention.

When Jo admits her mind is somewhere else, Alexandria does not compete with Chase.

She simply tells her that when this happens, she wants it to be just them.

Which is almost offensively emotionally healthy for this account.

And Jo cannot give her that.

Not yet.

Because Alexandria is not really a rebound problem.

She is a timing problem.

Jo wants her.

That part is obvious.

What Jo cannot do is separate wanting Alexandria from still loving Chase.

And when Jo goes home, there Chase is.

Still occupying the apartment.

Still occupying the relationship.

Still occupying Jo.

Some dangerous desires are dangerous because you know you should stay away.

Alexandria and Jo?

Theirs is dangerous because Jo has absolutely no reason to stay away.

Except the one woman she has not actually let go of yet.

Alexandria arrives at exactly the right moment to prove Jo can move on.

And exactly the wrong moment for Jo to actually do it. 💋