Browsing Tag

Tessa Thompson

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, ZoĂ« 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, Ă  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.

Keanu Reeves Remains Dreamy

Keanu Reeves wears a striped suit on the cover of Esquire

-My only requirement for a Keanu Reeves profile is that it doesn’t ruin the idea I have of Keanu in my mind (which is, admittedly, a high bar). Luckily, his new Esquire profile certainly doesn’t. I love how he repeatedly laughs off the notion that movie making is hard work (“I mean, ‘hard’? Come on, man. We’re making a movie!”),  and won’t complain when he wakes up feeling crappy and sick during his current routine of travel and constant night shoots (“So? Drink some hot tea with some lemon and honey in it. I don’t know. Slap yourself in the face. Stretch. Concentrate, man”). The part that’s going to get the most play is undoubtedly Sandra Bullock’s story about how he once brought her champagne and truffles because she had offhandedly mentioned never trying them — and when he dropped them off she was painting her nails so he let her paint his, too. All in all, the whole article is worth your time — even though the writer describes the upscale Toronto neighborhood of Yorkville as “bohemian.”

-The splits keep coming: Kaia Gerber and Jacob Elordi have reportedly split after a year of dating, and Batsheva Haart and Ben Weinstein of Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life have broken up after nine years of marriage.  As Jezebel says, the end of the pandemic cuffing season for famous people is here.

-Bucking the trend are Jaden Smith and Phoebe Dynevor, who may be dating. The age difference seems big but she’s actually only 3 years older.

–Adele hosted another televised special — this time in the UK, and the audience was even more celeb-packed than the US one. Stars in the crowd included Idris Elba, Emma Thompson, Hannah Waddingham, Emma Watson, Bryan Cranston, Mel B, Naomi Campbell, Josh Gad, Samuel L Jackson and Richard E Grant.

-My favourite part was when Emma Thompson was urging everyone around her to get up and dance. I have been that person at concerts…

-Another great moment was when Adele’s former English teacher surprised her.

–Britney Spears praised Lady Gaga for speaking out on her behalf and chided Christina Aguilera for refusing to do the same. Everyone’s blaming Xtina’s publicist, but look at her face before he even jumps in — this was clearly a “no-go” topic.

–Taylor Swift has topped both the Billboard 200 album chart and the Hot 100 singles chart. Say what you will, but she’s managed to dominate the charts with songs that are a decade old.

-Meanwhile, there’s renewed chatter that Jake Gyllenhaal runs the Instagram account of a cat named Ms. FluffleStiltskin, who has started scolding about cyberbullying.

-This is neat: Jane Campion used a Jungian dream coach – who is also Sandra Oh‘s mentor – to put the unconscious on screen in The Power of the Dog.

–Ridley Scott is blaming The Last Duel bombing at the box office on apathetic millennials. “What it boils down to [are] the audiences who were brought up on cell phones. The millennian, [who] do not ever want to be taught anything unless you told it on the cell phone. This is a broad stroke, but I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook. This is a misdirection that has happened where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think.” There’s a few reasons I didn’t see it in theatres, and they had nothing do with age: the marketing and trailers were abysmal, Matt Damon was promoted much more than Adam Driver and Jodie Comer, I’m still not back to my full in-person theatre-going schedule, AND I had zero desire to watch the same sexual assault repeatedly play out from different perspectives. But go off, I guess.

-For non-ridiculous director talk, here’s Paul Thomas Anderson eating vegan Mexican food and chatting with the NYT.

–Kristen Stewart, Jessica Chastain, Tessa Thompson, Kirsten Dunst, Jennifer Hudson and Emilia Jones open up about their respective films already gathering Oscar buzz in THR’s first roundtable of the awards season.

–Oscars’ best-actor category is shaping up to be this year’s stiffest competition, with Will Smith, Andrew Garfield, Leonardo DiCaprio, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joaquin Phoenix, Bradley Cooper and Mahershala Ali all being bandied about already.

–Jason Reitman’s reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise made a respectable $44 million from 4,315 theaters this weekend.

–Eddie Redmayne is courting controversy yet again by playing the Emcee in Cabaret — a character that is often played by LGBT actors. While he admits past mistakes (“I made The Danish Girl with the best intentions, but I think it was a mistake”), he says of his new role “Of all the characters I’ve ever read, this one defies pigeonholing. I would ask people to come and see it before casting judgment.”

-We Are Lady Parts has (finally) been renewed for a second season at Peacock. The first 6-episode season was a blast.

-This is a really good example of how dark and grimy TV looks nowadays. It’s everywhere!

-Three autistic roommates try to conquer their fears in the trailer for As We See It, from This Is Us creator Jason Katims.

-Here’s the trailer for Shonda Rhimes‘ latest Netflix show, Inventing Anna, starring Julia Garner as a grifter who infiltrated the NYC socialite scene.

Paul Rudd is the Sexiest Man Alive

Paul Rudd on People's Sexiest Man Alive cover

–Paul Rudd was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive. What a swerve! His accompanying video was predictably charming. “It’s going to change a lot [about my life]. I’m hoping to get invited to some of these sexy dinners with Clooney and Pitt and B. Jordan. I figure I’ll probably be on a lot more yachts. I’m exciting to expand my yachting life. And I’ll probably try to get better at brooding, like with really soft light.”

-Meanwhile, the fact that Page Six’s scoop about Chris Evans turned out to be not a scoop at all is delicious. And look, Evans is fine, but Rudd is a much more interesting choice, no?

–Shailene Woodley made it very clear that the paps misidentified a random man as Aaron Rodgers and seriously, this feels like the least of her problems right now.

–Benedict Cumberbatch got nicotine poisoning three times while filming The Power Of The Dog. I didn’t even know that’s a thing.

–Jack Black did a Bowie cover with a bunch of cute kids to celebrate the “original school of rock”.

-Lawyers for Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed are claiming she was framed. “We are convinced that this was sabotage and Hannah is being framed. We believe that the scene was tampered with as well before the police arrived.

–Mariah Carey is partnering with McDonalds — but the tweet about it has everyone confused.

-Speaking of fast food partnerships, Justin Bieber is working with Tim’s.

-I really like Avril Lavigne’s new song “Bite Me.” It’s a pop punk throwback.

-Here’s a clip of Andrew Garfield singing the opening song “30/90” from Tick Tick Boom. I’m seeing it this weekend and I’m hoping the Rent vibes hold strong.

–Peter Jackson sold the visual effects studio behind Lord Of The Rings for a monumental $1.6 billion.

–Rebecca Hall‘s Passing, starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, dropped on Netflix today. The reviews are quite good.

–John Cleese has cancelled a scheduled talk at Cambridge University over “woke rules“. Charming.

-The new trailer for Being the Ricardos no longer hides Nicole Kidman — but maybe it should?