Alright If We're Gonna Talk About It, Let's Talk About It.

Alright if we're gonna talk about it, let's talk about it.

Austin worked his ass off. That's really the crux of the issue.

If Sophia Coppola was so disturbed by the lack of salacious detail in the Elvis film (which is an educated guess based on her other works, notably the Bling Ring and The Virgjn Suicides) then speaking to Priscilla personally about it would have been the thing to do. She may have done that. But it seems very unlikely that Priscilla would have agreed to run over the triumph of the film she loved so much, about the man she loves even more, with a film based on a book she wrote when she was in a completely different place. She loves him still. She was angry. She's not so much, anymore. And, the most important detail in this news cycle, she LOVES Austin.

The two options we are left with in that case, are these;

1. Priscilla, and possibly Lisa, are not the people the world has known them to be for decades.

2. Sophia Coppola did not ask permission, get consultation, speak with anyone from the family, or do any of the things needed to be done to make this process respectful for the Presley family, Baz Luhrman, or Austin Butler.

Although the irony is obvious to everyone, let's steer the conversation away from the dating life of Kaia Gerber. If not for her sake, then for the sake of Austin, who hates paparazzi and enjoys being as private as possible, let's leave that side out of it. Do him the credit to know that this would be weird news for him no matter who was cast to play Elvis Presley. The truth of this matter is far more insidious than who's ex did what to whom and made this or that movie and why. A film maker took liberties with the life of a living person, who already loved the portrayal offered of her husband. Coppola then decided she knew better.

The less said about the timing of this, the better. The announcement comes before Oscar nominations are announced, one of which will surely go to Austin for his incredible work. This might change the nominations; the academy may hold out and nominate a Coppola film instead. It's not impossible.

The announcement comes the day after the anniversary of the loss of Lori Butler. Without infantalizing a grown man, it is not a stretch to imagine that this is a blow to the actor who's love for his mother bonded him to Elvis and perfected his audition tape.

Maybe Austin doesn't care about all of this.

I think he does, but we shouldn't assume.

If he doesn't care, that's okay. We do. We love this movie. We love Elvis, or at the very least we love Austin portraying him, and we don't want the legacy of this film to be disrupted or harmed.

If you're a longtime Austin fan, the concern might be his first really big acting role wherein he got to show what he could do might not be all it might have been without this direct competitor. It's no longer, "who made the better movie, though our films are about different things?"

Setting aside the fact that Baz Luhrmann also deserves recognition for this masterpiece and Sophia Coppola could take away from that too, this part is relatively simple, at least for me.

The question has become, "Who is the better Elvis?"

My answer, besides Elvis himself, is Austin. No matter who will play him in however many movies over the course of my lifetime, my answer is Austin. I know many of you feel the same. I hope the next few months, and award season, reflects that we are right.