–Janelle Monae‘s cover story for The Cut was written by Roxane Gay, so you know it’s good. Monae talks her fear of the 2016 election results feuling her Dirty Computer album (“It started with who don’t I mind pissing off. I don’t mind pissing off conservatives. I don’t mind pissing off white men. I don’t give a fuck. This is about celebrating. I wanted to celebrate queer black people living outside of what it meant to be American”), and her method approach to shooting her new film Antebellum (“I want that spirit to always stay on-camera so I don’t break. I don’t talk on the phone a lot … I don’t want that to take me out of my space).
-Meanwhile, Roxane Gay also shared her thoughts on American Dirt and the West Side Story revival.
-Oscars are this weekend! The big acting awards seem locked (Joaquin Phoenix, Renée Zellweger, Brad Pitt, Laura Dern) but can Parasite’s increasing recognition mean it’ll cause an upset in best picture? God, I would love that.
–Joaquin used his BAFTA acceptance speech this weekend to call out the ceremony’s lack of diversity, adding “I think that it is the obligation of the people that have created and perpetuate and benefit from a system of oppression to dismantle it so that’s on us.” This is a very, very good speech (especially since in the last few years of award shows, it’s only been actresses making this kind of stand). But it’s also very much like…ok, now what? At this point, Hollywood needs to start taking concrete steps to dismantle the system. Inclusion riders? Refusing to work with only white male directors? What’s it going to be?
-Meanwhile, Prince William, who is BAFTA’s president(!), revealed that the academy has “launched a full and thorough review of the entire awards process” following the #BAFTAsSoWhite controversy.
–Joshua Jackson and Jodie Turner-Smith went to the BAFTAs and remain the cutest thing.
-People didn’t love Rebel Wilson’s speech but I dunno — I laughed at her Cats jokes.
–Hugh Grant made Bridget Jones’s Diary references when he presented after Renée Zellweger at the BAFTAs, and it was perfect.
-12 days after reportedly getting married, Pamela Anderson is single again.
–Megan Thee Stallion is apparently dating G Eazy and people have a lot of opinions about it.
-Speaking of new relationships, Lady Gaga is dating a CEO named Michael Polansky.
-The reviews for Hulu’s High Fidelity, starring Zoe Kravitz, are good. Really good.
-I binged the last six episodes of Bojack Horseman and I still can’t believe that an animated show about a horse makes my ‘best TV in the last decade’ list, but there it is. It’s also weirdly the third series finale I’ve seen this week with a door-to-death concept.
–David Schwimmer is walking back his comment about “Maybe there should be an all-black Friends or an all-Asian Friends.” In a lengthy response to a post from actress Erika Alexander, he explained “I didn’t mean to imply Living Single hadn’t existed or indeed hadn’t come before Friends, which I knew it had.”
–Jennifer Lopez and Shakira‘s Super Bowl performance was fire! In case you missed it (or just want to relive the glory) it’s on YouTube.
-Coach dropped their perfectly timed campaign with JLo hours after her performance.
-As per usual, the Super Bowl brought with it a bunch of new movie and TV trailers. On the TV front, Marvel gave us a peek at The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision and Loki, while on the film side we have our first Bond trailer, a new look at Mulan and the Top Gun sequel, and a new Black Widow trailer.
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