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Friday, Dec 7, 2012 1:27 PM UTC

“Presidential pleasuring”: NYT review of “Hyde Park” sounds like horny teenager

The paper of record makes a handful of happy ending jokes in the first two paragraphs of its FDR biopic review

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Topics: Movies, Sex and love, New York Times, Manohla Dargis, Media critic, Hyde Park, Bill Murray,

Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt in "Hyde Park on Hudson"

Here’s one they don’t teach in journalism school: How do you describe the president getting a hand job, in the New York Times? On the front page of the Arts section.

In today’s review of “Hyde Park on Hudson,” the new Franklin Roosevelt biopic starring Bill Murray and Laura Linney, film critic Manohla Dargis goes for alliteration, calling it “presidential pleasuring.”

And then it gets awkward.

Dargis notes that FDR has taken to driving his cousin, Daisy Suckley, in a car designed for him, which he “operates only manually.” Before you can wonder whether you’re already supposed to be snickering, Dargis bangs the point home. “Daisy,” she notes, “will soon have something to occupy her hands with …”

Want to know how that goes? “The violins surge, the flowers bob, and, alas, so does the president.”

Alas! Dargis does, alas, pass on a joke about Daisy’s last name. Oh, come on, you can’t do that in the Times!

David Daley is the executive editor of Salon. More David Daley.

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