Monthly Archives

October 2019

Ellen Goes as Cardi B for Halloween

-I’ll give it to Ellen — she does a mean Cardi B impersonation.

-I did not expect Courteney Cox‘s Halloween video to go there…

-There are reports that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss walked away from their Star Wars project in part due because they didn’t want to deal with another “toxic fandom” after their Game of Thrones experience. Something tells me it would have gotten a hell of a lot more toxic under those two.

–Kelly Clarkson‘s Hocus Pocus tribute is something to behold.

–Aaron Sorkin wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg in the New York Times: “This can’t possibly be the outcome you and I want, to have crazy lies pumped into the water supply that corrupt the most important decisions we make together.” It’s kind of ironic that Sorkin’s Social Network is a big reason people viewed Zuckerberg as a scrappy underdog instead of someone in over his head for wayyyy longer than they should have.

-Ah boo. Meg Ryan and John Mellencamp have reportedly called off their engagement after eight years together.

–Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Cox are in the Broadway play Betrayal, and last night they switched costumes from their individual superhero franchises: Tom was dressed as Daredevil and Charlie was Loki. My Twitter feed went berserk.

-I’m late to the game but I finally saw Jojo Rabbit last night and wow. Loved. Here’s a cute video of Taika Waititi and Stephen Merchant breaking down a scene from the film.

-Here’s our first look at Normal People, the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney‘s book (which people loved way more than I did).

-A snippet of Eminem‘s new song leaked and apparently it’s called “What If I Was Gay?” which, based on his previous history, has everyone bracing themselves.

–Cuba Gooding Jr has been charged with six counts of forcible touching and 3rd degree sexual abuse. He pleaded not guilty.

-HBO/BBC’s adaptation of His Dark Materials is getting mixed to good to great reviews. I’m confused.

-Radiohead’s Thom Yorke‬ released a hand-illustrated video for “Last I Heard (…He Was Circling The Drain)” composed of 3,000 hand-drawn frames.

–John Krasinski talking about his super impassioned father-in-law is adorable.

–Emilia Clarke and Jimmy Fallon played the “Box of Lies” game and she was hilariously bad at it.

-This is another good thread in response to David Simon‘s Rolling Stone interview.

-The trailer for Netflix’s The Witcher, the streamer’s upcoming fantasy adventure based on the Polish novels and video games and starring Henry Cavill, has landed. It hits Netflix on Dec. 20.

Nicki Minaj Shows Off Her Giant Wedding Ring

–Nicki Minaj’s wedding ring is valued at over $1 million. It’s so big it looks like costume jewelry, but good on her, I guess.

–Kevin Hart shared an intense video about his recovery following his car accident.

-This is a very good read: the writer who called out David Letterman for sexual favoritism a decade ago sat down with him recently to talk about it.

–Andrew Garfield is going to star in Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s Netflix adaptation of tick, tick…boom, from Rent playwright Jonathan Larson. I like all the words in that sentence!

-As someone who hasn’t read the comic, this perfectly captures my entire thought process while watching HBO’s The Watchmen.

-Critics are starting to talk about the High Fidelity series with Zoe Kravitz and the buzz is GOOD.

-HBO Max announced its lineup yesterday. The good news: it sounds like all their original shows will be available on Crave here in Canada.

-TV critic Alan Sepinwall spoke with David Simon (creator of The Wire and The Deuce) about those allegations against James Franco and their parallels with stories depicted on The Deuce, and wow did Simon not come off well. He scolded Sepinwall (and other journalists) for not distinguishing Franco from others accused of #MeToo misconduct, saying “the fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone.” Yes, it’s important to deal with each individual case differently but for him to be the arbiter of what is and is not a fireable offense, while also claiming that Franco didn’t understand his position of power over the other actors on set, is really disappointing. Especially because Simon is known for being an advocate for journalists and a commentator on systematic discrimination.

-Vanity Fair’s Sonia Saraiya wrote a very good rebuttal thread, and then got into it with Simon on Twitter.

-It’s Halloweeen week, which means Ellen scared the crap out of Saoirse Ronan not once, but twice.

–Shia LaBeouf says he was diagnosed with PTSD due to his child stardom which doesn’t sound so far-fetched to me.

-Huh. Amazon Studios’ chief says that despite the industry calling Mindy Kaling‘s Late Night “an example of a failure from Amazon,” the film has “been watched in the U.S. more than any other movie in the short time it’s been on” their streaming service.

-Speaking of movies starring Emma Thompson, Lainey loved Last Christmas and that’s good enough for me!

-I binged the six new episodes of Bojack Horseman on Netflix this weekend and it was so, so good.

-Speaking of Netflix shows, the trailer for The End of the F***ing World indicates the new season begins with a time jump.

 

The Game of Thrones Empire is Collapsing

-Woof, there was a ton of drama surrounding Game of Thrones-adjacent stuff today. First, it was announced that GoT showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would NOT be making three new Star Wars movies after all. Their excuse is that they’re too busy. There’s a lot of talk today that maybe their public acknowledgements this weekend that they had no idea what they’re doing got them fired, but I think Kathleen Kennedy‘s passive-aggressive statement indicates that maybe Star Wars didn’t have their full attention after they inked a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix. She said: “We hope to include them in the journey forward when they are able to step away from their busy schedule to focus on Star Wars”.

-In even more shocking GoT-related news, HBO is not moving forward with the prequel pilot starring Naomi Watts. Fan enthusiasm for Game of Thrones cooled considerably in the final season (this thread spells it out well), but the GoT brand is still so massive for HBO internationally. The truly sucky thing is that Benioff and Weiss drove the brand into the ground, but this show (which was going to have a female showrunner) is paying the price.

-Judging by this clip, Meghan McCain pushed Whoopi Goldberg too far today on The View during a discussion about the treatment of veterans.

–Kanye West said a lot of crazy and exhausting things yesterday, including that God rewarded him with $68 million tax refund for becoming born-again Christian.

-How did I have no idea that Stranger Things’ David Harbour is dating singer Lily Allen?!? Well done, you crazy kids.

-I’m hearing so many good things about Hulu’s Looking for Alaska, but I especially enjoyed this piece that looked at the show through the lens of Tumblr’s love/hate relationship with John Green, the author who wrote the book the show is based on.

-In an new interview, Selena Gomez talked about her “toxic” first love whose name everyone is pretty sure rhymes with Wustin Meiber: “You’re in a phase of life where you experience love for the first time, and I think that can just be just a little toxic. You have this codependency that you think is love, and then you have this addiction to the passion and the frustration with each other that you think, ‘Oh, that’s love,’… and I believed that for a long time.”

-I can’t believe I want to watch a show about a twerking Emily Dickinson, but the reviews for Apple’s new series are so good!

-My fave running joke on Keep It is when the make fun of podcaster (and Ronan Farrow‘s fiancee) Jon Lovett, so this bit in Farrow’s Catch and Kill book slayed me.

–Idris Elba and Liam Hemsworth are both in Montreal right now and everyone’s getting the vapors.

–Kurt Sutter says he was fired from FX’s Mayans MC because of simmering tensions with his new Disney bosses, which he says came to a head because he turned in scripts too late to allow them to give notes, and because he wrote a raunchy Disney joke into one episode. “I want to be clear about this. I was dismissed for being an abrasive dick. But there was no improper behavior and no one picked up the phone and complained about me.” (Even though in the original reporting, it was alleged he was fired following an investigation after writers, producers, cast and crew reported a hostile work environment on the show.)

-The final Knives Out trailer has arrived. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.