Monthly Archives

February 2018

Proof That George Clooney Was Always Awesome

–Julianna Whelan‘s story about George Clooney on the set of ER is everything.

-If Roxane Gay ends up writing the Batgirl movie because of Twitter, I’ll stop complaining that it doesn’t have an edit button.

-The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is reportedly investigating Brendan Fraser’s claims that the former president sexually assaulted him.

-Here’s a explainer about why we’re all in love with Michael B Jordan right now. (Personally, the pushup challenge is doing it for me. Anime helps, too.)

-Speaking of the Black Panther cast, I don’t know how I missed this video of Letitia Wright and Lupita Nyong’o rapping, but I love it!

-Supermodel Emily Ratajkowski just married a guy she’s been dating for a couple of weeks. That’ll go well.

-I woke up to a lot of tweets about how Janelle Monae “did the damn thing” with her new music video, in which she answers all those rumours about her bisexuality with a big YUP!

-I’m glad that Dominic West is being vocal about how Ruth Wilson, his costar on The Affair, should be getting paid more than him.

-I always forget that Bradley Cooper has a kid now.

-This makes me want to listen to Taika Waititi’s director’s commentary on the Thor: Ragnorok DVD.  “It’s like a MST3K episode, only with the director making fun of his own hit movie.”

-There’s so much new TV coming up in the next couple of weeks, it feels like fall used to. On Monday we get iZombie, UnReal (which is reportedly better than last season, but still messy), and Good Girls (which is getting good reviews). Atlanta is back on Thursday, and The Good Fight returns March 18.

-Speaking of new TV, I have a feeling I will be binging a lot of David Chang’s new food show on Netflix this weekend.

–Jared Leto is doing a Yakuza movie, for some reason.

Brendan Fraser Alleges Sexual Assault Derailed His Career

Brendan-Fraser-GQ
PHOTO BY MARTIN SCHOELLER/GQ

-I honestly didn’t think I could ever be gutted by a Brendan Fraser interview, but here we are. Everyone’s focusing on his allegations that former Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Philip Berk groped him in 2003 (“Am I still frightened? Absolutely. Do I feel like I need to say something? Absolutely. Have I wanted to many, many times? Absolutely. Have I stopped myself? Absolutely. And maybe I am over-reacting in terms of what the instance was. I just know what my truth is”). But the entire article is worth your time. He talks about buying a horse for his autistic son and recalls having no one in his life tell him that if he kept working the way he was his body would fall apart. He also takes a break from talking to go shoot some arrows.

-Did Rachel McAdams sit out of the Game Night promotional duties because she’s trying to hide a baby bump? First she was spotted looking like she might be expecting, and E! News is now reporting that she’s seven months along. I like her so much and I wish her only the best!

-The guy who played Smith Jerrod on Sex and the City seems to be firmly on Team Sarah Jessica Parker, implying that Kim Cattrall wasn’t very nice to him.

-This is terrible: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had an Anthrax terror scare and police are treating the incident as a racist hate crime.

–Joss Whedon has exited the Batgirl movie, saying “it took me months to realize I really didn’t have a story.” I’m so glad. As much as I loved Buffy, I’ve since found him to be … problematic. Here are 100 female directors DC can choose from instead.

–Quincy Jones‘ kids, including Rashida Jones, staged a “family intervention” in which they lovingly told him to stop shitting on everyone in interviews.

-This clip of Ellen surprising Tiffany Haddish by introducing her to Oprah made me tear up a bit. Seriously, it’s the most wonderful 2 minutes you’ll ever see. They also did a cooking segment together.

-God, I would have paid cash money to see Leonardo DiCaprio realize that Oprah didn’t recognize him. “Is it Justin Timberlake?” I’m laughing forever…

-Grownish’s Yara Shahidi may star in the adaptation of The Sun Is Also a Star. This book. My god, if you haven’t read this book then you need to drop everything and go read it now!

–Meryl Streep is not having Harvey Weinstein using her to dismiss a sexual misconduct lawsuit, calling it “pathetic and exploitative” to use her words in his defense.

-The Big Sick’s Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon offer tips on how to be heard when no one listens to you, and they’re great. “I think, with ladies in rooms, it’s all our jobs to watch out for each other. If anyone is being spoken over, I think it’s our job to go back and be like, ‘You were saying something.'”

–Kareem Abdul-Jabbar‘s take on Three Billboards is worth your time.

-I love Vulture’s piece on how Get Out is the first great movie of the Trump era. This bit from Bradley Whitford is hilarious: “I was at a strip mall in L.A. and I didn’t have any cash, and someone said there was a cash machine in the barbershop. So I went into the barbershop and I opened the door and there were 15 African-American guys getting cut — and they all screamed.”

-Comedian and actor Michael Ian Black wrote a really compelling opinion piece for the NYT on school shootings: “America’s boys are broken. And it’s killing us.”

-Shit. Those blind items about Lorde and Jack Antonoff might have been right after all.

-I certainly don’t expect Amber Tamblyn to take responsibility for everything her husband says, but as someone who’s profile has grown considerably because of #MeToo, this isn’t a good look either.

-Here’s Saoirse Ronan in the first trailer for Ian McEwan‘s scripted drama On Chesil Beach.

Oprah Joins George Clooney In Donating to March For Our Lives

–Oprah and Steven Spielberg have vowed to match George & Amal Clooney‘s donations to March for Our Lives. Which is wonderful and praise-worthy — but is also leading some to wonder where this support for kids was during the Black Lives Matters movement?

-I feel like Angelina Jolie has worn a version of this dress over and over.  It’s definitely got an Oscars 2014 vibe, with a dash of Critics Choice Awards 2015.

-I don’t understand this Us Weekly story about how Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton are putting their baby plans on hold.Why is her camp even putting this stuff out there? To what end?

-If you’ve seen Black Panther — and it seems like everyone in North America has — then you’ve probably debated with your friends just how villainous Killmonger is.  (I think that he’s sympathetic but ultimately is an oppressor just like the system he’s trying to fight against.) Ira at the Daily Beast probably has my favourite take on it so far: “Yes, Killmonger makes some really good points. But as [director Ryan] Coogler shows, we ought to look toward black women for morality in this world.”

In a new interview with the New York Times about the Me Too movement, Minnie Driver took another dig at ex-boyfriend Matt Damon, saying his comments “represented every intelligent, nice white male who feels it is their job to comment on the way that women metabolize stuff.”

-Speaking of MeToo, this cinematographer’s speech about how he wants to change the industry is amazing.

–Megan Fox had some frank words about what it’s like to be an actress in Hollywood: “You’re a commodity. As long as you survive filming and they’ve gotten what they need from you they don’t really care if you drop dead afterwards. It doesn’t matter if you break an arm or you break a leg.”

–David Cross says the cast of Arrested Development “stands behind” Jeffrey Tambor. I’m not sure this is a good look right now…

-This is terrible: Karla Souza, who plays Laurel on How to Get Away With Murder, says she was raped by a director while on a set in Mexico early in her career.

–Eminem‘s “Till I Collapse” came out ages ago and still remains popular on Spotify — mostly because people still listen to it when working out. Mine remains Moby’s “Flower” — only because I keep stupidly attempting the Sally Up challenge.

–Ryan Reynolds has no time for people who criticize his work with the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

-And Jennifer Lawrence has no time for your criticisms of her dress at Red Sparrow’s London photocall: “This is sexist, this is ridiculous, this is not feminism.”

-Meanwhile, Jennifer says she’s coming for Timothée Chalamet when he gets a bit older. “[I’m] buttering him up like a pig for slaughter, and then I’m going to swing right in there as soon as he’s, like, 30.” Uh, there may be a flaw in this plan…

-I follow Colton Haynes on Instagram (because he’s adorable!) and his IG Stories about his mom’s wait for a liver transplant have been heartbreaking.

-Nothing amuses me more than Americans slowly finding out that Tessa Virture and Scott Moir had a Canadian reality show.

–Aaron Paul and his wife Lauren have named their daughter Story Annabelle and I kind of love it.

-If you dig behind-the-scenes peeks at TV shows, this is a very good look at how Crazy Ex-Girlfriend mapped out their most recent season.

–Ellen had billionaire Bill Gates on and quizzed him about the prices of everyday items at the supermarket. He clearly never does laundry or buys pizza rolls, but he’s totally down with floss.