Helen Mirren is not ONLY living the dream because she is snuggled up to Idris Elba on the hood of a sports car. Helen Mirren, primarily, is living the dream because she is Dame Helen F’ing Mirren, intelligent sharp-tongued warrior (on drunk drivers: “shortsighted, utterly useless, oxygen-wasting human form of pollution”), icon, badass of my heart who played an assassin in her sixties. But this photo does UNDERLINE the dream that she is living, and highlight it, and circle it in red pen and draw little stars around it. I love this photo. She is coy, he is staring intensely right at her. He looks like a dude who’s hitting on the hottest woman at the party, trying so hard to convince her to come back to his hotel room, and she’s glowing with the knowledge that she could have her pick and maybe she’ll agree and maybe she won’t but he’s gonna have to work a lot harder than this. You know that phrase BDE (“big dick energy,” which I first heard in reference to Pete Davidson and how he swaggered around with Ariana Grande, but may have predated that)? I prefer BME. Big Mirren Energy. That’s what she’s projecting, and I want it.
I suppose the full outfit would be appropriate to see:
It looks a bit like she interrupted a giant spider who was making cobwebs across her chest, but otherwise, it’s summery and delicious. And who could blame that spider? Even an arachnid knows BME when it sees it.
