Browsing Tag

Rihanna

Adam Scott Talks Soul-Killing Jobs

ADAM POWELL/GQ

-I really hate this new trend of big, glossy magazines doing photo shoots that look like they were shot on a disposable camera after a rough night out, but I’ll read any interview with Adam Scott. In his new GQ profile, he talks about his new Apple TV series Severance (which I’ve only seen one episode of but am intrigued by, though I could definitely use less 3-minute shots of him walking down corridors).

-This exposé on music manager Scooter Braun is a very good, very juicy read. He apparently interfered with Justin Beiber‘s relationship with Selena Gomez, and rapper Lil Twist says he believed Braun repeatedly planted negative stories about him in the press back when he was friends with Bieber. The writer of the piece tweeted “this was one of the hardest stories i’ve ever reported. many were afraid to go on the record, citing braun’s rep for litigiousness. for months insider received threatening letters from braun’s lawyer marty singer — including one claiming i had “deep ties” to the taylor swift camp.”

–Rihanna is redefining pregnancy style at Paris Fashion Week. (Also, her deadpan “no shit” response when someone tells her she’s late kills me.)

-HBO abruptly pulled Larry David documentary hours before its scheduled premiere tonight — because David reportedly asked for it to happen “in front of an audience”.

-What a bummer. Sam Elliott was on Marc Maron‘s podcast and he called The Power of the Dog “a piece of shit” because it’s … homoerotic? He complained how the male characters looked like Chippendales (Kodi Smit-McPhee wishes!), saying, “They made it look like — what are all those dancers that those guys in New York who wear bowties and not much else. Remember them from back in the day? That’s what all these fucking cowboys in that movie look like. They’re all running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the fucking movie.” When Maron pointed out that the movie is all about Benedict Cumberbatch‘s closeted homosexuality, Elliot then took a shot at Jane Campion, saying, “What the fuck does this woman — she’s a brilliant director by the way, I love her work, previous work — but what the fuck does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American west? And why in the fuck does she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say, ‘This is the way it was.’ That fucking rubbed me the wrong way, pal.” You can listen to that part here.

-Dancing With the Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy confirmed on his Instagram story that he has made it out of Ukraine and into Poland, and described his “traumatizing” train ride.

-Disney+ US is following Canada’s lead. All six former Netflix-Marvel series will begin streaming this March in the US: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher and The Defenders.

-I really like this piece on the clips that the Oscars should show of each of this year’s nominees before the winner is announced.

-Multiple women have spoken out about being allegedly harassed by actor Christian Kane (who I only know from Angel) while working with Portland-area production company Electric Entertainment that oversaw Leverage and The Librarians. Another said she was assaulted by actor Timothy Hutton during an indie movie production, also in Portland. (Hutton is currently suing Electric Entertainment over being dropped from the Leverage reboot. Alleging a breach of contract, he is seeking at least $3 million.)

–Jake Johnson’s new “raunch-com” Minx is getting rave reviews. I miss him on my TV.

-Futurama star John DiMaggio, who voices the robot Bender, has officially joined the show’s Hulu revival after successful contract negotiations.

-The new stills from Bridgerton appear that Anthony is really leaning to his Mr Darcy vibe, and I’m here for it!

-Somebody Somewhere is an HBO show that I started watching to cleanse my palette after Euphoria, and I ended up liking it so much more. It’s so charming and the finale was beautiful. And now I’ll watch anything Jeff Hiller is in forever.

-I love Sandra Oh but I will not be watching her new horror film Umma because the trailer alone freaked me out.

Rihanna Is Pregnant

-There is no other news today that matters more than Rihanna‘s pregnancy. I adore the way she announced it too, with a DIY snow-themed photoshoot. Though I’m a little surprised she didn’t release the images on her own social media, or do a mag exclusive with proceeds going to charity. Instead, she used a paparazzo and the pics are on a photo agency’s site for $1,500 a pop.

–Nick Cannon sparked rumors that he is expecting his eighth child after he hosted pregnant Bre Tiesi’s baby shower.

-Is Cara Delevingne now dating Sienna Miller? Colour me intrigued.

–Andrew Garfield and Rachel Zegler are today’s Actors on Actors pairing, and she couldn’t handle his gushing about her performance in West Side Story: “I cannot even believe those words just came out of your face towards my face.”

-Party Down’s revival added some new cast members: Jennifer Garner, Zoë Chao, Tyrel Jackson Williams, and James Marsden. I assumed they’d all be playing versions of themselves who hire the catering crew for their parties, but Garner is playing Adam Scott’s love interest! She’s no Lizzy Caplan but I’ll take it.

-Aw man, I knew the purity of Wordle couldn’t last. The NYT just bought it for seven figures. (I do love that the guy who invented it is getting paid so much, and that part of his agreement to sell was that they must keep it free.)

–Eric Dane sat down with THR to discuss “the absolute dumpster fire of a meltdown that is Cal Jacobs” in Euphoria season two. Despite episodes three and four giving viewers more insight into who Cal Jacobs is, Dane insists it doesn’t justify who he is — or the things he’s done. “You’re not going to walk away from this thinking, ‘Oh, Cal, what a great guy.”

-Netflix’s latest South Korean zombie drama All Of Us Are Dead has dethroned Euphoria from the top spot in this week’s Twitter TV buzz rankings.

-Hollywood’s obsession with making movies about toys has gone overboard.

-Vulture did a hilarious deep-dive into what Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers may have “agreed to disagree” on. “It’s my belief that the men who punched Miles Teller in the face while on vacation with Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers were sent back in time from the future, à la 12 Monkeys, to save the world.”

–Tessa Thompson says the new Thor movie will include a romance for her character. “It’s totally exciting. We talk so much about representation and obviously, in terms of the LGBTQIA community, there’s still so much work to be done. But if you look at the comics in the canon, there are so many queer characters! It’s hard because Taika [Waititi] and I would’ve even liked to go further, but in the context of the movies, there’s only so much we can do.”

-Spotify said that it will add content advisories before podcasts discussing the pandemic (which doesn’t solve the problem at all). Meanwhile, Joe Rogan defended himself on IG, and promised to “try harder to get people with differing opinions on” and “do my best to make sure I’ve researched these topics.” Yes, because the “doing my own research” thing seems to be panning out so well for everybody who says it…

-Meanwhile, I wonder if Brené Brown removing her podcasts from the platform will hurt Spotify even more than the musician exodus?

–Drake asking his son a simple question about how big he’ll grow up to be, and his son getting all existential about how his dad is going to die and his body will wither back into the universe is quality content.

-This is interesting: new viewer data suggests that Netflix shows often start strong but fizzle out super quickly.

-Poor Zac Efron sounded like he had a crappy time on the set of 17 again.

–Quentin Tarantino is not only selling Pulp Fiction NFTs, he’s been accused of using stolen artwork to do so.

-Leatherface returns in the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre trailer.

–Jim Sturgess plays a man with an eye condition who suddenly starts seeing the true motives of those around him in The Other Me trailer.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Lady Gaga’s Mutual Appreciation Society

lady gaga jake gyllenhaal variety cover

–Jake Gyllenhaal and Lady Gaga interviewed each other for Variety and I ended up watching the whole damn video because I was pretty interested by their chemistry. (She started off a little standoffish, while he went in hot with the charm.) If you just want to see some short clips, here’s her gushing about Donnie Darko, and him gushing about House of Gucci. (Also, is Jake here for The Guilty? I liked that Netflix movie a lot but is it really in the awards convo?)

-Meanwhile, a photo from this shoot has already turned into a meme. This one is my favourite so far.

–Courteney Cox nabbed a People cover to promote her new home-care line, and she talks about her boyfriend of eight years, Johnny McDaid. “He’s just so smart, and I find that really sexy. And then he is gorgeous.”

-Less than a year after Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song welcomed their first baby together, the couple got engaged.

-This story is so weird. Someone tweeted this week that Dakota Johnson once locked customers inside of a café in 2016 (there’s even a pic), and it turns out someone else had tweeted about the same incident last year. Vulture did an investigation to determine if it really happened (and it seems like it did!), which includes this amazing line: “How does one live with the knowledge that at a moment’s notice, a star of Suspiria could spontaneously lock you in a coffee shop? Do you live in fear that Mia Goth might padlock you into a La Colombe?”

–Prince Andrew is demanding a jury trial in Virginia Giuffre’s sexual assault case. He also denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

-It’s a bad week to be a racist on a reality TV show. Alina Kozhevnikova has been fired from 90 Day Fiancé after offensive social media comments surfaced.

–Rihanna may not be making music, but she is making a $15 million donation to climate justice organizations.

–Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers reportedly ‘agree to disagree‘ about politics. Like…how?!

-A vocal minority of fans are taking issue with comments from The Batman’s Robert Pattinson, who confirmed his version of the character does not kill — even though that’s been the rule in the comics for decades.

–Mandy Moore rewatching A Walk To Remember on its 20th anniversary makes me want to see it again. The first hour of that movie is perfection.

-Also, she and Shane West reminisced about their mutual crushes when shooting the movie.

–John Leguizamo talked about about colorism and Hollywood: “I stayed out of the sun so I could work. I definitely would not go in the sun for years. It was a conscious thing…All the Latinos that made it so far, a lot of them were light-skinned.”

–Cardi B wants to chat with Megan Markle and I want that too!

-Spotify has confirmed that Neil Young’s music will be removed from their platform at his request after he said he didn’t want to share a platform with Joe Rogan.

–This is an amazing look at the making of John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus (the 2006 movie that featured real sex and is being re-released in select theatres) and it wonders whether it could be made today? My guess is no — not just because of the challenge of getting it financed, but also because it feels like the pop culture has shifted a bit puritanical lately. The young ‘uns in the fandoms I follow and BookTok are always clutching their pearls about something or other…

-Of course, the outlier is Euphoria, which is all excess all the time. I do find myself exhausted by this season, not because of its over-the-topness, but because it seems more aimless than the first season. This HuffPo review nails it: “Euphoria needs an actual, enthralling plot. Instead, the series is shrouded in sensationalism and shock value, utilizing trauma as the sole vehicle for a shoddy storyline and lackluster character development. Its greatest pitfall is the absence of an objective.” (I’ve also been thinking a lot about TV shows using trauma as a signifier of prestige).

-Season two of Starstruck comes out Feb 7 on the BBC! (I have no idea when Crave will pick it up, but hopefully soon after.)

-This thread about strange celeb encounters is a treat!

-The reviews for Hulu’s Pam and Tommy miniseries are good, with critics especially praising the performances from Lily James, Sebastian Stan, and Seth Rogen.

-Speaking of reviews, Apple’s The After Party is getting lots of buzz. The stacked cast includes Tiffany Haddish, Zoë Chao, Ike Barinholtz, Ben Schwartz, Ilana Glazer and Dave Franco.

-Abbott Elementary just became ABC’s first comedy premiere to quadruple ratings since its original airing.

–Claire Danes has joined Jesse Eisenberg and Lizzy Caplan in FX’s upcoming limited series Fleishman Is in Trouble. I loved that book and am increasingly looking forward to this show.

-An outcast’s wish comes true in the Supercool trailer.