Cygnet Theatre

Almost a decade ago, Dylan was reviewed in the Reader, appearing in Sons of the Prophet at Old Town’s Cygnet Theatre. Last week, she drew support from talk show host Howard Stern after Kid Rock made a video of himself shooting up a case of Bud Light with a semi-automatic rifle.

Cookies and beer

Controversial Budweiser-pitching transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney is deeply rooted in San Diego’s Republican old-boy network, reports Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post. “Her grandfather, James Mulvaney Sr., who died at age 87 in 2010, was a lawyer, investment banker and president of the old San Diego Padres baseball team. He later was vice-president and general counsel of the Padres when they entered the National League,” says the paper’s April 6 account, linked to a January 2005 interview and profile of Mulvaney here by Don Bauder. “Mulvaney Sr. also worked as a banker and businessman for the controversial financier and industrialist C. Arnholt Smith at Westgate Corporation, who was one of Richard Nixon’s earliest supporters as well as friend to mobsters like Moe Dalitz. Smith’s empire collapsed in 1973 when his bank, the U.S. National Bank, where James Mulvaney Sr. was president for a while, collapsed. At the time, the Wall Street Journal called the bank collapse “the largest in the nation’s history.”

Cookie-Man’s kid Dylan Mulvaney turns suds-slinger.

Per the Post, “Dylan’s father James Jr., one of Mulvaney Sr.’s seven children with his wife, Ruth, is a San Diego-area philanthropist known for baking and handing out cookies all the time — for free. In 2020, James Jr. said that that he’d had issues with drugs and alcohol and gave them up for good when Dylan was a baby so he could be a better father. ‘He makes 500 [cookies] a week, and he’s never sold any of them,’ Dylan explained in a 2021 TikTok video. ‘He just gives them out to random strangers on the street or the beach.’”

Insurance-man Mulvaney Jr. is set to be married May 12 in Milwaukee, according to the wedding website Zola.com. “Jimmy was at a restaurant in Del Mar, California where he approached 3 girls (my friends — not me) and asked them if they wanted a cookie,” writes his betrothed Jennifer Bolton about their first encounter. “A few days later, I met the girls out for a night of fun and they mentioned they met a guy who gave them cookies and thought he was a good match for me. I at first thought that was weird but was intrigued by the fact that a guy was out handing out his business card and his ‘world’s greatest chocolate cookies’ and identified himself as the cookie man. Being that I loved cookies, I became interested.” After a round of texting, “Jimmy nicely invited all of us to meet up for dinner that next Saturday and the rest is history. Later that week, I invited him to another friend’s birthday to realize that she was Jimmy’s sister-in-law...who was not planning on having any family as it was supposed to be a girls night out. Oh well that is what happens when you forget to put 2 and 2 together especially when they share the same last name, Mulvaney. :-)”

Dylan’s uncle, Brian Mulvaney, a San Diego commercial real estate broker, told the Post, “that the family ‘loves her.’ ‘We always knew she was gay. She comes from a good family who loves and supports her. She really loved her grandmother who completely supported her.’” Meanwhile, an April 6 Washington Post account notes, “after a recent video promoting Bud Light beer, Mulvaney, a trans actress and comic, became the subject of anti-trans attacks. Right-wing media figures also called for a boycott of Bud Light and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch. Mulvaney’s situation highlights the growing visibility of trans figures in popular culture who are fighting for representation and inclusion at a time of growing anti-trans bias — including in state legislatures throughout the country — from many on the political and ideological right.”

Almost a decade ago, Dylan was reviewed here, appearing in Sons of the Prophet at Old Town’s Cygnet Theatre. “Young Dylan James Mulvaney brings talent and timing to Charles,” opined Reader Theatre Critic Jeff Smith. Last week, she drew support from talk show host Howard Stern after Kid Rock made a video of himself shooting up a case of Bud Light with a semi-automatic rifle. Said Stern, “You wanna be a woman? Be a woman. You wanna be a dude, be a dude. Be whatever you fucking want. As long as you ain’t hurting anybody, I’m on your team.”

Big megaphone

State senator Toni Atkins, continuing to fortify her 2026 Lt. Governor campaign war chest with special interest money, picked up $5000 on April 10 from the California Water Association political action committee. Meanwhile, Jennifer LeSar, who is married to Atkins, has joined a burgeoning list of bidders for a city consulting contract to grease the wheels of Democratic mayor and Atkins ally Todd Gloria’s high-cost downtown redevelopment project.

Water association makes it rain for Toni Atkins.

With a footprint including the city’s scandal-plagued 101 Ash Street building, “the City of San Diego is embarking on a public process to maximize the opportunity and value” of city-owned downtown real estate, according to the March 24 request for proposals, with a deadline of April 21. Contractor tasks include “fostering public awareness and understanding of the goals and benefits of the project,” thus committing a yet-to-be-disclosed level of tax dollars to hyping the project over critics’ complaints. Other assignments include “creating and implementing a successful communications campaign that will drive engagement and participation by the public in the redevelopment process” and “effectively using and monitoring social media.” Also: “using other communications vehicles and platforms as needed to ensure that information reaches as broad an audience of San Diego residents and other stakeholders as possible.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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