Daily Archives

June 8, 2018

Amal Clooney Pays Tribute to Husband George

https://twitter.com/AndreaMandell/status/1004955019165044736

George Clooney was honoured at Thursday’s AFI Life Achievement Award gala with tributes from Jimmy KimmelJennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox, Cate Blanchett, Don Cheadle, Julianna Marguiles, and Bill Murray. But it was Amal Clooney‘s heartfelt speech that brought the house down.

-Man, the news of Anthony Bourdain’s suicide has hit me hard. His advice was so ingrained into the planning all of my trips that I feel like I lost a friend. Many of my most memorable meals while travelling can be traced directly back to his recommendations, whether it was eating raw chicken in Barcelona, indulging in the most expensive meal I’ll ever eat in Copenhagen, or having the best Thai food of my life in a Vegas strip mall. His attitude of losing all pretension and enjoying meals to the fullest carried with me on each of those experiences, which is why we asked so many questions at Noma that we ended up getting a private tour of their food lab, it’s why we ate so much at Tickets that a rude old man stopped by our table to snipe “my wife and were just wondering if you actually ordered everything on the menu,” it’s why a British waiter at the Michelin-starred Bar Boulud sniffed “Ladies don’t usually order this much” before we’d even gotten halfway through our order. His shows and books made my life better. I will miss him greatly.

Val Kilmer can keep his thoughts on how Bourdain‘s suicide is “selfish” to himself.

-There are some wild rumours floating around this week about David and Victoria Beckham, but the couple’s spokesperson says the divorce whispers circulating around are “all very bizarre and an embarrassing waste of time…it’s a crock of sh*t.” Bless British publicists for putting out the bluntest denials!

-Congrats to Hilary Duff, who’s expecting baby No. 2.

-I like The Star’s Peter Howell. I think he’s the best movie critic in Canada, I almost always agree with his opinions (and even when I don’t, I understand where he’s coming from), he and his fellow Cdn reviewers took me under their wing the first time I went to Cannes, and he’s always been very lovely whenever I see him out and about. But questions like “and what of the men?” are exactly why I mentioned yesterday that I don’t want to read any Ocean’s 8 reviews by male critics.

Brandon Routh is the best, so I’m tickled he’s featured in the new Sugarland/Taylor Swift music video.

-ABC has apologized for a Quantico episode in which Indian terrorists plotted an attack in Manhattan with the goal of blaming Pakistan for it.. Yikes.

-The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil continues to be awesomely outspoken. She criticized the casting of Emile Hirsch in the new Tarantino film: “So many other actors who haven’t attacked women to choose from.”

-After Variety’s announcement of an all-male TV drama writers panel, screenwriter Liz Hannah reached out to female writers and showrunners on Twitter and within 24 hours she’d organized a counter-panel with 19(!) women, enough for two separate panels.

-Showtime released the trailer of Kidding, its 10-episode, straight-to-series comedy starring Jim Carrey.

-In an interview with Vanity Fair, Pusha T says his feud with Drake is done: “I’m ready to be back to the music for real.”

-My day job is in social media and I always tell my clients facing negative reviews or an sm crisis: say you’re sorry, listen, and learn. Even if in your heart of hearts you don’t feel like you did anything wrong, you don’t get to decide if and why someone else is offended. So after his earlier snafu this week, I expected Stephen Amell to make nice in the days leading up to his next cash cow fan convention. I did NOT expect him to post a video (FF to the 11 min mark) in which he refused to apologize for offending people during Ramadan, told everyone to “just relax” and not “take the world so f*cking seriously,” claimed that the person he responded to had been disrespectful in the past (sure, maybe, but context is key — he didn’t clap back to a harassing post; he clapped back to a polite, respectful post explaining the significance of the mosque he was joking about), insisted he’s very nice to people at conventions (where they’re paying to meet him), and THEN urged everyone “to be better to one another.” What in the halfpenny f*ck is that?! Seriously, no one expects actors to be good at everything, including handling a social media crisis. But they have the money and power to hire someone who is.

-Sadness: Sons of Anarchy star Alan O’Neill has died at the age of 47.

Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her iconic role as Laurie Strode in the new Halloween trailer.