My Sylvester Stallone Story And My Frank Stallone Story

It's Thursday, finally, which means it's time for another installment of "May the Bridges I Burn Light the Way," in which I air grievances or tell stories in which I embarrass only myself. Today, you get both.

But, before we start, I do want to point out that my interview with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, for their wonderful new film Project Hail Mary, published today. (Also, I'm fairly sure I annoyed them with some of the topics, but I was genuinely curious about their mindset going into this movie after what happened the last time they directed.)

And as with all the "May the Bridges I Burn Light the Way" entries, they fill my weekly obligation to all The Hard Pass paid subscribers, who I do want to thank any chance I get, but I also don't want to be annoying about it. They are the reason this newsletter exists (admittedly, for better or worse).

I do love Sylvester Stallone movies. I don't feel quite the same about Frank Stallone, but I do find him humorous in both Sly's Staying Alive and the Bruce Willis vehicle, Hudson Hawk. And I think he's legitimately pretty good in Barfly. I had two very different experiences with Sylvester Stallone and Frank Stallone.

In 2023, I was invited to the premiere party for The Family Stallone, a reality show to this day I still have not seen. I went to this party because I have never met Sylvester Stallone and I thought I might get to meet Sylvester Stallone. In my head, I had it all planned out how this meeting would go. Sly would be dazzled by my knowledge of his movies. I did meet Sylvester Stallone. This is not how it went.