Monthly Archives

July 2018

Jennifer Lopez Celebrates Birthday with Champers and Abs

–Jennifer Lopez turned 49 and celebrated like this. Not all superheroes wear capes.

-Once I realized the writer of Gwyneth Paltrow’s NYT profile was Taffy Brodesser-Akner, I knew it was going to be good — but it’s so, so good! Sure, there’s topical quotes on the backlash to her “conscious uncoupling” announcement (“I think that was an instance where it really hit me that an insouciance with language from me is different than from somebody else”) and her relationship with Harvey Weinstein (“The one time that Harvey propositioned me was really almost the least of it in terms of how onerous that relationship was’). But the real meat of it is Brodesser-Akner’s examination of her strategy. Paltrow talks about getting more blog hits every time someone criticizes Goop’s ludicrous advice and products (“I can monetize those eyeballs”) and how she parted ways with Condé Nast when it came to publishing the Goop magazine because they had “old school”  rules like insisting articles be fact-checked.

-Meanwhile, Dr. Jen Gunter, one of Paltrow’s most vocal critics, had some thoughts on the article: “Paltrow monetizes the vagina, which is what I have called her out for. Women are harmed by the perpetuation of vaginal myths. It’s internet traffic for her. It’s women crying to me.”

–Demi Moore and Ed Helms might be dating? Really????

–Natasha Rothwell (who plays the amazing Kelli on Insecure and stole the entire movie in Love Simon) just signed on to Wonder Woman 1984.

-This deep-dive into Leonardo DiCaprio‘s new obsession with beach volleyball slayed me.

-There’s a new Netflix show that’s being called Gossip Girl meets Big Little Lies and it’s like they’ve crafted it out of my brain’s source code.

-People titled their latest cover story “Inside the Mysteries of Tom Cruise’s Life at 56″ but they really don’t delve into any mysteries, instead opting for a softball profile.

-A Frasier revival with Kelsey Grammer is in the works? For real? Come on, Hollywood. At least pretend to try.

-Comic-Con behind-the-scene videos always offer fascinating glimpses on how castmembers react when they are together offset. The Flash ladies seem a little, um, tense. On the other end of the spectrum, the Arrow cast is super touchy-feely.

-AMC had cleared Chris Hardwick to return to Talking Dead on Aug 12 after their investigation into sexual assault claims by ex-girlfriend.

-At the first day of the TCAs, HBO confirmed that the long-awaited Deadwood movie is finally happening: “It’s been a logistics nightmare getting all the cast members’ schedules together, but we are there. It is greenlit.”

-Meanwhile, the HBO boss defended Westworld after the critical backlash: ‘It’s not for casual viewers.’ (He probably could have dropped the word ‘casual’.)

-Also at the HBO panel, Jenni Konner addressed her split from producing partner Lena Dunham after they ended an eight-year partnership: “There’s no drama.”

-At the Facebook on-demand panel, things got combative when reporters pressed them to defend their decision to include Fox News and Infowars on their platform.

–Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning star in the apocalypse drama I Think We’re Alone Now.

-Here’s the trailer for mid90s, which is written and directed by Jonah Hill. It’s got a Florida Project vibe, but more brutal.

–Hilary Swank struggles with a parent suffering from Alzheimer’s in the trailer for What They Had, which is coming to TIFF.

 

Demi Lovato “Stable” Following Reported Overdose

demi-lovato-cosmo

-I’m so glad to hear that Demi Lovato is “stable” following her reported OD. (Initial reports said heroin, but sources close to her insist it wasn’t that. She was treated with Narcan, which apparently one of her friends had on hand, which is used in overdoses of heroin, oxy, and other narcotics.) She’s reportedly awake and recovering. I’m rooting for that girl. She’s always been admirably candid and transparent about her struggles.

–Beyoncé’s team is reportedly in the middle of negotiations to debut her next visual album on Netflix. Not Tidal? Hmmmm…

-TIFF’s announced its first round of films. I love that they got The Hate U Give and Widows as world premieres, as well as Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell‘s Beautiful Boy and This is Us creator Dan Fogelman‘s Life Itself. (There will also be an interesting rematch: TIFF will premiere new films from both Damien Chazelle and Barry Jenkins, who were neck-and-neck last year with La La Land and Moonlight).

–Karlie Kloss is engaged to Joshua Kushner. But how is she going to marry Taylor Swift now?!

-Yet another TV critic has turned TV creator: TVLine’s Michael Ausiello is making an 80s dramedy based on his childhood.

-Community’s Dan Harmon may have been one of the first male celebs to get caught in #MeToo, but it’s an old Adult Swim video that might really hurt him. The Rick and Morty co-creator made a parody pilot of Showtime’s Dexter in 2009 that featured Harmon’s character traveling back in time to stop serial killers by sexually assaulting them when they were infants. And yeah, that’s pretty damn offensive. But Harmon is the only guy in the Me Too movement so far to give a decent apology and actually seem like he’s actively trying to change. Another wrinkle: much like James Gunn, this offensive stuff resurfaced thanks to 4chan and far-right subreddits. In recent days, this same types have also gone after Michael Ian Black, Trevor Noah and Patton Oswalt.

-This is a great piece about how black women have been calling out R. Kelly for years and nobody listened.

–Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell are teaming up for a Fosse-Verdon series at FX. I like all of those words!!

–ATX’s Felicity reunion is now available to watch IN FULL on YouTube. There goes my next hour…

-On Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast (which I’m finding oddly endearing), Mila Kunis says she did something bad to end her eight-year relationship with Macaulay Culkin. “I f**ked up. I was an asshole in my 20s and I’ll be the first to admit it. And that’s something that took me a long time to come out and be like, ‘Yeah, you know what, I was a dick,’ and accept it and I own it. And it’s f**ked up what I did. It’s f**ked up what I did, and it’s f**ked up how I did it.” She didn’t expand on what exactly she did, though.

-This might be the most surprising split of the summer: Girls duo Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner have parted ways as producing partners. Sources tell THR they’re in talks for individual overall deals with HBO.

-After a rough same-day premiere, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America?’s series debut has doubled its audience after seven days. Per Showtime, most of the added viewing came via on demand and streaming. But I’m still not entirely sure who this show is aimed at. Like, the people who would watch already know that his targets are dumb. Also, I hate that Cohen and his all-male writing staff thought that a “prank” against The Bachelor’s Corinne Olympios (who was the centre of the reality show’s sexual assault investigation) would be funny. It was not.

–Alita: Battle Angel from James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez has its first trailer.

 

Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard Facing Sexual Assault Charges

-Whoa. Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard was just arrested and charged with two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm and one count of sexual interference. It’s unclear whether these stem from the same allegations that surfaced in Feb, which he denied at the time.

-Guardians of the Galaxy’ stars Zoe Saldana, David Bautista, and Chris Pratt all jumped to James Gunn‘s defense on Twitter this weekend. I wonder if they all came to it separately or if this is a coordinated push?

-Meanwhile, Selma Blair and Sarah Silverman are supporting a petition to rehire him.

-Also, this is an interesting take on Disney’s bad faith argument. Of course people should face consequences for doing stupid stuff and I’m not convinced he should be rehired, but a lot about this smells funny.

–Pete Davidson reportedly proposed to Ariana Grande while smoking weed in bed. This just gets better and better…

-Tiffany Haddish and Common may be a thing, and I’m here for it.

-This pair surprises me: 2 Broke Girls star Beth Behrs married Mad Men’s Michael Gladis.

-I’m not sure that I believe this story about how Meghan Markle wanted to wear a Stella McCartney tuxedo-style suit to an evening event on the Australian tour, and it was vetoed by Prince Harry. That doesn’t sound very Harry-esque.

–R Kelly spends 19 minutes confessing that he is a terrible human being who does terrible things on his new song “I Admit It,” and his fans are still all “wow, great melody!” (The Onion’s take is the best take.)

-Meanwhile, could what he says in the song be considered evidence? It’s a grey area, but a lawyer says “If I was his lawyer I would have advised him not to write this song.” I’m guessing lawyers would advise him not to do a lot of the things he does…

-Jesus Christ. Charlamagne and his wife both admitted that the first time they had sex, he raped her.

–Lindsay Lohan‘s management style is something else.

-I love this praise for The Good Fight’s title sequence. It’s probably the only one that I never FF through.

-Ohhhh boy. A Buffy the Vampire Slayer series reboot with a black lead is in the works from Joss Whedon and Monica Owusu-Breen. I have a lot of feelings about this. On one hand, as problematic as Whedon is I still adore the original (I truly believe that watching Buffy Summers and Dana Scully kick ass every week when I was young and impressionable shaped who I am). But why retread old ideas? And if you HAVE to do a Buffy series, why not a sequel with new characters instead of a reboot? No series has ever ended with such a perfect sequel setup: Buffy’s actions prompted slayer powers to be awakened in girls all over the world. It’s *right there*!!

–Kanye West is “doing ok” after being hospitalized for the flu.

-Black-ish star Anthony Anderson is denying a woman who says he assaulted her after she catered one of his events.

-This is a good take on how Johnny Depp’s latest lawsuit reveals how Hollywood productions enable abusive behavior.

-Meanwhile, I was surprised that Warner Bros doubled down on Depp at the Fantastic Beasts panel during Comic-Con this weekend.

–This tweet about Chris Pine’s look at Comic Con pretty much sums it up for me: “Chris Pine styles himself like a middle aged woman who brunches and I’m profoundly into it.”

-The Halloween panel got surprisingly emotional when the Q&A portion started and a man stood up and told his story of survival during a home invasion. “I was scared out of my mind and out of nowhere this thought inside of me went, ‘Well, what would Jamie Lee Curtis do?’…To make a long story short, I’m here today because of the way that you portrayed Lauri Strode. I’m a victor today instead of a victim.”

-A young fan managed to out-sass a sassy Ryan Reynolds at Comic-Con.

-The Good Place didn’t show any new footage at their Comic-Con panel, but this cast interview is great. And they released bloopers!

-A ton of TV shows did release new TV footage though, including Arrow, The Walking Dead, Riverdale, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Better Call Saul, The Gifted, Roswell New Mexico and Star Trek: Discovery. Click here for my roundup.

-On the movie side, we got new trailers for Aquaman, Glass, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, Fantastic Beasts and more. I can’t believe I’m saying this but the one that won me over the most is Shazam (with Godzilla coming in a close second, which was also a surprise).