Christopher and Eric wrap up their special month of Pride Pairings by serving up a boisterous biopic of the great Oscar Wilde that didn’t age quite as well as they’d hoped. In WILDE, Stephen Fry’s excellent performance as the title subject is hypnotic, and Jude Law scorches a hole in the screen as his manipulative young lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. But does this sprawling film truly capture the magnetism, wit and appetites of the iconic literary figure at its center? Or is it held back by the constraints of late 90’s cinema? And, of course, most important in a Dinner Partners Pairing, do the facts hold up?

As Christopher and Eric continue their month of special Pride Pairings, they launch their two-episode exploration of literary great Oscar Wilde with a True Crime TV Club installment they assumed would be focused on the young lover many blame for Wilde’s personal destruction or at the very least the young man’s father. Turns out this documentary assigned that role to someone entirely unexpected. Who knew? (The Irish did, apparently but they forgot. You’ll see what we mean.) In the BBC Select documentary, THE MAN WHO DESTROYED OSCAR WILDE, your hosts meet an unexpected and astonishing host and take a surprising journey into the “recently” rediscovered transcripts of a trial that brought about the ruin of one of England’s greatest authors and playwrights and one of the wittiest and most brilliant queer men to ever walk the planet. It’s a nice warm up for next week’s serving of the 1997 biopic, WILDE, starring Stephen Fry.

We have a new rule here at Dinner Partners. Every Pride celebration should involve a stunning performance by Coleman Domingo. As Christopher and Eric continue their special Pride Pairings, they explore how Netflix biopic RUSTIN compares to the facts of the iconic civil rights leader Bayard Rustin’s life as revealed in last week’s documentary. Your hosts are largely impressed by this sweeping, sumptuous and star-studded treatment of one of gay culture’s and the civil rights movement’s most overlooked figures. Also, Coleman Domingo. Always. In everything. And watch out for that sweet, sweet Netflix money!

Christopher and Eric kick off their Pride Month celebration with a series of special Pride Pairings in which documentarians and dramatists alike illuminate the personal lives of two of gay culture’s most towering figures. In this episode, we begin a two-part exploration of one of the civil rights movement’s greatest – and previously unsung — heroes, Bayard Rustin, whose indefatigable nature and awe inspiring commitment to non-violence set the stage for one of the defining events of the entire civil rights era, the March on Washington. The documentary BROTHER OUTSIDER: THE LIFE OF BAYARD RUSTIN takes us inside his once secret relationships with other men, his mistreatment at the hands of some of his fellow civil rights activists and the causes to which he gave his heart after the Civil Rights Act became law due in no small part to his tireless efforts. It’s a nice preparation for next week’s serving of RUSTIN, the starry Netflix biopic based on his life and directed by George C. Wolfe.

In this episode, Eric’s wit, wisdom and incisive commentary on life take center stage. More so than usual. Why? Because those are the things you told us you wanted to hear more of. (That and Christopher messing up his own notes during installments of True Crime TV Club.) We hope all of you aren’t living entirely according to the life lessons Eric serves up in between commenting on gruesome murders and morally bankrupt real life villains. (If you are, please sign this release and review our disclaimers.) How does he measure up to the other fancy queen of advice giving, Miss Manners herself? We decided to find out. We also presented him with some of the questions on life you submitted through our Facebook page. (Again, please sign this release.)

You can’t have Homecoming Month on a true crime-centric podcast if you don’t include an episode of true crime television that actually has the word homecoming in the title. Homecoming queen, no less. Such is the case with the thirty-fifth episode of the twenty-fourth season of the always in a class by itself DATELINE entitled “The Hometown Hero and the Homecoming Queen.” If the match sounds too good to be true, congratulations, you’re suspicious and jaded enough to enjoy this podcast! This tale starts with an Olympic Gold medalist (well, bronze, actually, but you get the idea) and ends with a hail of gunfire in a peaceful Oxnard, California neighborhood, and Eric’s got big opinions about the final judgment.

Christopher and Eric have identified many recurrent and grievous sins when it comes to the world of true crime television, but the first episode of season 22 of CRUISE SHIP KILLERS entitled “Nadia,” might have birthed an entirely new but nevertheless jaw dropping transgression. You’ll have to listen to find out what it is. But we’ll warn you. If this tale of murder and betrayal during a floating high school reunion sounds too twisted to be true then…We’ll stop right there. Set sail with a new installment of Homecoming Month. Google the details in this episode and you might be as shocked as we were.

Homecoming Month begins with a Dinner Partners style house tour. You’ve been asking for the final chapter of Eric’s home renovation saga, and it’s high time we blew the drywall dust of ourselves and delivered it to you. And this raised a very important question. Our beloved premier party person Anne Rice passed away before Eric started his journey into headaches and hot water heaters. Would she have approved of the end result? To find our answer, we travel back through time to discuss the homes Anne lived in throughout her career, from the classic and understated elegance of the San Francisco Edwardian where she wrote “The Vampire Lestat” to the gothic splendor of the Garden District mansion where “The Witching Hour” exploded onto the page. Take a very special peek behind the heavy velvet curtAnnes.

Sometimes the rankest easter eggs during Easter Eggs Month are the ones buried in the basement. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. To close out this month devoted to all the things that didn’t survive the growing season, Christopher and Eric serve up both installments of the recent HBO Max documentary MURDER IN GLITTERBALL CITY. Some of the subjects feel uncomfortably familiar. (Did we date any of these guys?) And many of the houses on display are charming. But is this expose of two addicts moving murderous mayhem into a quaint historic neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky a new ‘Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil’ or a cautionary tale of filmmakers losing focus? And are we still in a place where owning bondage gear for private sexual acts is enough to implicate you in a murder? Christopher and Eric debate these and other questions as Easter Eggs Month rolls to a stop.

Christopher and Eric are the proud inventors of the term “recincrapments” – actually, we think it was Eric, but Christopher likes to steal half the credit — and they feel justified in bestowing this dubious honor on the absolutely hideous re-enactments smeared all over this week’s serving. If there was ever an episode of television for which the term “reincraptacular” was invented, it’s THE PERFECT MURDER (OK. Eric really did invent that one.) As Easter Eggs Month continues, we include those who honor the Passover season by serving up the first episode of the second season of this badly acted masterclass in slut shaming and condescending detective work, “The Kosher Killer”.