Monthly Archives

June 2020

Michaela Coel for GQ

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-Are you watching HBO’s I May Destroy You? I shied away from it at first because the premise sounded so bleak, but I’ve now caught up on all four episodes that have aired so far and it’s remarkable. Yes, it’s about a woman trying to figure out if she was sexually assaulted when her drink was spiked so it’s dark, but it’s also funny and charming and unpredictable. No wonder it’s already ending up on best TV show lists. Series creator and star Michaela Coel talks about the show in the latest issue of British GQ.

Kylie Bunbury and Mark-Paul Gosselaar shot a new, socially distanced promo to celebrate Pitch being on Hulu. Rumours keep surfacing about execs wanting to bring the show back and I don’t want to get my hopes up again, but why would Disney spend money on shooting a new promo for an old show?!

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds continue to step up. They donated $200K to a Nova Scotia Indigenous women’s program.

-The latest round of Actors on Actors videos feature Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman (she told him “[Chris Nolan] doesn’t allow chairs, and his reasoning is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working. I mean, he has these incredible movies in terms of scope and ambition and technical prowess and emotion. It always arrives at the end under schedule and under budget. I think he’s onto something with the chair thing”), and Chace Crawford and Penn Badgley (bless Penn for saying “we can debate about whether or not that even makes sense” of his character being Gossip Girl).

-What the hell is Terry Crews doing? Someone change his Twitter password already.

-The first chapter of Quibi’s star-packed Princess Bride remake dropped yesterday. It’s an insanely fun four minutes.

Mel Gibson has three upcoming movies booked despite those anti-Semitism comments the actor allegedly made to Winona Ryder resurfacing. Tell me more about “cancel culture.”

Lena Dunham agreed with that viral tweet that went around earlier this week, saying that she agrees the “Hollywood system is rigged in favor of white people and that my career took off at a young age with relative ease.” Ok, I get that she had an easy ride and benefited from being a white indie movie darling with famous parents. But Girls was good (sometimes great!). How come we’re not calling out white male showrunners who get chance after chance and keep making bad shows? I know Dunham is an easy target but come on.

-365 Days star Michele Morrone confirmed that a sequel is in the works. God help us all.

Kim Kardashian-West shared photos from daughter North’s 7th birthday, which they celebrated on their $14 million ranch in Wyoming. Is she the only little girl who’s ever asked for a pony and got it?

Dr. Dre‘s wife of 24 years, Nicole Young, has filed for divorce.

This photo of Chris Pine walking out of an indie bookstore with a big bag of books while wearing a mask has sent Twitter aflutter.

-I love that Mae Whitman and Jane Levy are BFFs IRL.

-“Hi guys I’m in my gym today and yes it is the gym that I burned down, it’s still not fixed yet but I’m getting there” is the best intro ever to an Instagram video.

Adele shared some flirty exchanges with British rapper Skepta on Instagram.

JK Rowling continues to show her true colours.

Alison Brie says she regrets voicing Diane Nguyen on BoJack Horseman: “We missed a great opportunity to represent the Vietnamese American community accurately and respectfully.” I mean, ok, but this was a repeated criticism of the show while it was airing and it’s weird to position it like this is something that never occurred to her.

-Family Guy’s Mike Henry will no longer voice Cleveland. He also had a four-season spinoff on which he was an executive producer; is he giving back his royalties from that?

-Speaking of hollow, performative gestures, Hulu pulled a “blackface” episode of Golden Girls that featured Blanche and Rose in mud masks. Instead of all this virtual signaling, wouldn’t it be great if the television industry focused on the work that actually has to be done.

Paul Walker‘s daughter snapped a selfie with all three of Vin Diesel‘s children — including Pauline, who was named after Walker.

-Ozark is coming to an end on Netflix, but it’s doing so with an expanded order for its fourth and final season.

-So now Justice League actor Ray Fisher is taking a swing at Joss Whedon? What a mess.

-HBO beat out 16 other bidders to turn Brit Bennett’s novel The Vanishing Half into a limited series. I just finished it and yeah, it’s worth the hype.

-Amazon Prime Video has launched a Watch Party feature which allows for up to 100 people to stream movies and TV together. I can’t believe Netflix hasn’t launched something like this yet.

-The hot priest met the hot couple from Normal People. So much hotness!

-Disney+ released a new clip from Hamilton featuring Renée Elise Goldsberry singing “Satisfied”.

Jennifer Hudson shines in the new trailer for the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect.

Liam Neeson and his real-life son star in the Made In Italy trailer.

Adriana Grande Goes Instagram Official

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Adriana Grande posted a sweet selfie with boyfriend Dalton Gomez ahead of her 27th birthday.

Alia Shawkat‘s new Vulture interview is very, very good. She talks about Brad Pitt, who she was introduced to by Spike Jonze (“We’re not dating. We’re just friends..To [tabloids] it’s like, ‘We don’t get it! This girl is weird! She’s so different! Why are they hanging out?’ You get too close to the prom king, and all of a sudden, everyone’s like, ‘Well, who is this bitch?'”) and she talks about regretting using the n-word when quoting Drake lyrics (“Was I using this because the idea of Black culture seems cool? And I was just like, ‘Well, that’s just part of it!’ It’s not intellectually understanding that the words you use are really powerful. I think that’s a lot of what this reckoning is for all of us who are not Black”).

-Speaking of very good Vulture interviews, Almost Famous director Patrick Fugit talks about his crush on Kate Hudson, Philip Seymour Hoffman giving him shit, Frances McDormand refusing to use her trailer, Brad Pitt almost playing Russell Hammond.

Gabrielle Union was photographed by Zaya Wade for SELF.

-I’m very curious about which white producer/showrunner once said she only writes shows about families so she’s not forced to cast POC actors. I have a guess.

Justin Bieber has filed a defamation lawsuit seeking to collect at least $20 million in damages filed against two Twitter users who alleged in posts on the social network that the singer sexually assaulted them.

Jason Reitman recruited Hugh Jackman, Tiffany Haddish, Jennifer Garner, Chris Pine, Sophie Turner, Joe Jonas, David Oyelowo, Andy Serkis, Jack Black, Diego Luna, Common, Sam Rockwell, Neil Patrick Harris, Leslie Bibb, Josh Gad, Taika Waititi and a bunch more to help him craft a shot-for-shot remake of The Princess Bride that will be available in chunks on Quibi starting Monday. I saw Reitman’s live-read of TPB at TIFF a couple of years ago, and the video clips in that article make me so excited for this. Guess I won’t be cancelling my Quibi trial just yet.

-Video from THR’s drama roundtable was posted on YouTubeJennifer Aniston‘s first comment is even more awkward than it was in print, and Janelle Monáe’s rebuttal about “checking your perspective” is even more powerful.

-THR’s TV directors roundtable features Anna Boden, Deborah Chow, Jon M. Chu, Alex Garland, Janet Mock and Jonathan Nolan.

-I’m so glad Scaachi wrote a takedown on Buzzfeed of the movie 365 Days. It’s been trending on Netflix for weeks and it’s so, so bad. The premise is awful, consent is addressed and then promptly ignored, there’s tons of random music drops, and it should have just been subtitled instead of having the actors with English. Plus, it makes no sense that the kidnapped woman would [SPOILER ALERT] fall for her kidnapper in just two months despite his character never being granted a second of vulnerability or softness. There’s an entire genre of romance novels about alpha bad boys being reformed by love — had they just followed the tried-and-true template, it might have been a fun guilty pleasure instead of a rapey mess.

-Tenet’s premiere has been pushed again – this time to August 12. Now everyone’s expecting Mulan’s July 24 release date to move.

-Due to all the postponements, Cineplex in Canada is scaling back its reopening plans.

-I don’t believe this story about Meghan Markle being done with Jessica Mulroney, but I am surprised it took this long for someone to write it.

Victor Garber tweeted a photo from Happiest Season, a lesbian romcom starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis and directed by Clea DuVall. Get in my eyeballs!

Kanye West has signed a 10-year deal with Gap. Yeezy Gap promises to deliver “modern, elevated basics for men, women, and kids at accessible price points.” No sneakers, tho.

-Disney announced this week it’s re-themeing its popular Splash Mountain attraction around The Princess and the Frog and retiring its characters from Disney’s notorious “Song of the South.”

G-Eazy seems to be shading ex Halsey in his new song.

-This is a very good piece on how male victims have been grappling with consequences after speaking out about MeToo, from mockery to job offers drying up.

Adele won’t be releasing her new album in September, as first rumoured. Come on, we need this!!

-Here’s the trailer for The King’s Man, the prequel to the Kingsman movies.

Lucy Hale tries to get over her hangups about sex in the trailer for A Nice Girl Like You.

 

Avengers’ Paul Rudd and Chris Evans Re-Assemble

-The latest Actors on Actors interview is out, and it’s with Paul Rudd and Chris Evans. Needless to say, if you want to be charmed for 43 minutes this is for you. The best part was watching Evans fanboy over Rudd, asking “Why don’t you age? Are you drinking baby blood?”, recalling making him dance on video the first day they met, and saying “you’re like sorbet. You’re a palate cleanser – an always welcome addition.”

Emma Roberts and Garrett Hedlund are not only still together, they’re having a baby!

Jodie Turner-Smith calling Joshua Jackson a daddy (because “I made him one”) is social media perfection.

-Citing her own “pervasive privilege,” Kristen Bell has announced she is leaving her role as a biracial character on the Apple TV+ animated series Central Park. I would love to know the timing of this and if she made the decision before or after Jenny Slate. (Also, it was only back in January where the Central Park creator strongly defended the casting during the TCAs.)

Naomi Campbell covers the new issue of Vogue Spain and says it’s the first time she’s been photographed by a black Photgrapher for vogue / condenast and it was a woman of color.

-I pity the poor PR person who has to clean up Chris D’Elia‘s latest mess. In a misguided effort to prove he’s not a creep, he released a bunch of emails — which make him sound like a creep.

Demi Lovato seems content and in love, and I’m so happy for her.

-She also just signed a new deal with YouTube for a docuseries following the last three years of her ups and downs.

-Netflix will premiere a new show on July 10 called Down to Earth With Zac Efron in which the actor “searches for healthy, sustainable ways to live.” This is a different show than his upcoming Quibi one called Killing Zac Efron — which sounds like the total opposite.

-I get what this Variety article on the Television Critic Awards’ history of picking white winners was trying to do, but I’m not sure “submitting a more consciously inclusive ballot” is the only answer. (People much smarter than I am are talking about this much better than I ever could.)

Lisa Rinna claims the Karens at QVC is trying to silence her political views.

Celine Dion released a Pride-themed playlist and it is as cheesy and fun as you’d expect.

The Dixie Chicks are changing their name: The trio is now called The Chicks.

Cardi B was trending today because people thought she was trashing other female artists on a fake account. “These people must think I’m a 15-year-old girl … Stop trying to make this fake s**t up… don’t make lies about me. it’s tiring. It’s annoying.”

-Normal People stars Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones are reuniting for a pair of comedic shorts for Ireland’s Comic Relief. It’ll be set 40 years in the future — though I’m not sure older versions is really what people want to see from these characters.

-Meanwhile, following the success of Normal People, Hulu has ordered an adaptation of Sally Rooney‘s other novel, Conversations with Friends — a book I liked a lot more.

Sharon Choi, best known as director Bong Joon-ho’s interpreter during last year’s award season, interviewed Sandra Oh about Killing Eve.

Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible tells the story of the Blackfeet Boxing Club, which was set up to teach young women of the Blackfeet Nation boxing and self-defense.

-The trailer for Muppets Now on Disney+ features RuPaul, Taye Diggs, Aubrey Plaza and Seth Rogen.

Gerard Butler tries to run from a comet in the Greenland trailer.