–Charlize Theron recently told her 5-year-old daughter that she is in a relationship with herself at the moment. “Her mind was blown. But, I know that was the day that she realized there’s a different possibility.”
–Rihanna talked about her new Fenty Skin campaign and says she cringes at the idea of inclusion as “a narrative” and that she wants us to reach a point where it just…is.
–Brad Garrettcalled out Ellen DeGeneres on Twitter, saying “it comes from the top” and he “knows more than one who were treated horribly by her.”
–Brian McKnight confirmed rumours that Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake “had a new baby.”
–This article detailing everything that went down on the 1999 set of Bryan Singer‘s X-Men is insane. Michael Jackson wanted to play Professor Xavier. One of the film’s actors (Alexander Burton, who played Pyro) filed a civil suit four months after production wrapped, claiming that he was raped by three of Singer’s friends and business associates. Rebecca Romijn would undergo hours of body paint to play Mystique, and then on a whim, Singer would decide not to use her in a scene. Despite a lineup of A-list writers, Singer’s assistant secretly wrote much of the script. Producer Tom DeSanto fought with Singer when he discovered the director and some crew members took drugs before shooting a stunt that left Hugh Jackman bleeding. The next day, most of the main cast descended on Singer’s trailer and threatened to quit if DeSanto left (leading to Halle Balle‘s infamous “You can kiss my black ass” quote).
-Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston revealed that he has recovered from a mild case of covid and is now donating plasma.
–Ryan Reynolds has committed to taking on 10 to 20 trainees from BiPOC communities for his upcoming film in an effort to promote diversity and inclusion in Hollywood.
–Evan Rachel Wood discovers the limitations of growing up with grifter parents in Miranda July’s Kajillionaire, which costars Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger and Gina Rodriguez.
-For the first time ever in O’s 20-year history, Oprah Winfrey is not on the cover of her magazine. Breonna Taylor is.
–Taylor Swift and her team have moved quickly to respond to accusationsthat she copied the logo for the merchandise that goes with her new album, and has changed the design.
-She has remained silent though as fans continue to harass and dox the Pitchfork reviewer who gave the album 8/10. Sadly, with the toxic nature of some stan culture, this is only going to stop when she tells them to.
–Jacob Elordi talks about working out seven days a week, twice a day when shooting the first Kissing Booth movie: “At the time, I was super young and got thrown into a world where everyone wanted to talk about my body…it really f*cking bothered me. I don’t identify with that whatsoever. I was trying to prove myself and be known as an actor. It was so much working out and I hated every second of it.”
-This list of questions raised by The Kissing Booth 2 is very good (though I still thought it was miles away better — and less problematic — than the first).
-According to People’s excerpts of Finding Freedom, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were actually engaged a lot sooner than we initially thought.
-The promos for Drew Barrymore‘s new talk show are kinda wild, y’all.
–Julianne Moore is not sure she would star in The Kids Are All Right as a straight woman if it were made today. I love that movie — but she’s not wrong.
–Alanis Morissette and Liz Phair were supposed to tour together this summer. The two met for a Zoom conversation with the L.A. Times that had them swapping horror stories about men in the ’90s.
-Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which topped many people’s Best Movie of 2019 lists, is now streaming on Crave.
-This profile on rapper Flo Milli is great — and not just because she lays out a really sneaky way to grow Instagram followers.
-Australia’s Today Show executive Neil Breen opened up about his own experience with the Ellen Degeneres‘ staff when the talk show host was there to be interviewed. “The producer called us aside and said, ‘Now Neil, no one is to talk to Ellen. You don’t talk to her, you don’t approach her, you don’t look at her. She’ll come in, she’ll sit down, she’ll talk to Richard and then Ellen will leave…I have no idea whether she’s a nice person or not, I wouldn’t have a clue. But I can tell you the people who work with her walked on eggshells the whole time.”
-Meanwhile, in a letter to employees obtained by THR,DeGeneres apologized to her staff and vowed to “correct the issues” — though she seems to place the blame on her producers: “As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done. Clearly some didn’t.”
-Happy Endings star Damon Wayans Jr. is reuniting with the series’ creator David Caspe and and two of the show’s writers for a half-hour bounty hunter action comedy on Peacock. Not exactly the HE reunion I wanted but I’ll take it.
–David Lynch‘s daily videos often feature unexplained props and it’s kind of amazing. “What is the purpose of this jar? Why did I paint it this certain way? Here in LA [proceeds to give a weather report and never mentions the jar again…]”
–George RR Martin isn’t the only author testing our patience. Patrick Rothfuss’ failure to deliver the third book in his Kingkiller Chronicle series led his editor to lash out on Facebook.
–Beyonce shared a new trailer for Black Is King, her movie that drops at midnight tonight on Disney+.
–Kendall Jenner offers a look inside her Los Angeles home in the September issue of Architectural Digest. I’m surprised by how much I like this.
–Meghan Markle has agreed to pay more than £67,000 in legal costs after losing the first round of her legal battle against the Mail.
–Armie Hammer is tweeting again. Not surprisingly, it’s not going well.
-Man, I’m really digging Seth Rogen these days. His new movie that’s dropping on HBO Max/Crave next week looks great, he’s repeated slammed people who comment AllLivesMatter on his posts, and in Marc Maron‘s podcast, he said when he was younger he wasn’t told Palestinians lived on land that became Israel. “I also think that as a Jewish person, like I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life. You know, they never tell you, that oh by the way, there were people there. They make it seem like it was– just sitting there. Oh the fucking door’s open! … Literally they forget to include the fact to every young Jewish person: Basically, oh by the way, there were people living there.”
–Megan Thee Stallion showed off the flowers she got from Beyonce and Rihanna following her shooting.
-Meanwhile, Vulture’s piece on the reaction to what happened to her is well worth your time. “Try to recall another time when a rapper went into surgery for multiple gunshot wounds and it became instant gag fodder.”
–Taylor Swift stans continue to go after the Pitchfork reviewer. This is insane. Not that ANY review would justify this kind of reaction, but she liked the album! She gave it 8/10!
-Speaking of disturbing fan behaviour, Kate Beckinsale used IG stories to document getting an “unsettling” gift — someone anonymously dropped off a rabbit in a cage along with a basket of rose petals on her front door.
–Post Malone appeared on Joe Rogan’s show (ugh) and talked about masks. The singer, whose lifestyle brand donated 40,000 N95 masks to frontline medical workers, doesn’t think masks should be mandatory. “It’s like me in school having to tuck in my shirt or else you get detention. It’s weird to be forced to wear something … At the end of the day, it all comes down to respect for other people. It’s not a government thing. You shouldn’t be forced to wear a mask — but you should. And that’s because I respect you as a follow human.”
–Marti Noxon and Kater Gordon, who previously called out Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner for harassment, wrote a column about how the industry can better protect staff from toxic showrunners in light of the news that Weiner has a new development deal with FX.
–Cameron Diazchatted with Seth Meyers about quarantining with her husband, Benji Madden, and their 7-month-old daughter, Raddix. She was doing promo for her new wine line — which might have gone better had she not poured herself a glass over ice.
-The Emmy Awards have confirmed the ceremony will be completely virtual in a message to nominees, in which they note: “If you want to be in formal wear, we’d love that, but equally if you’re in the UK and it’s 3am, perhaps you want to be in designer pajamas and record from your bed!” Aw man, this is going to be so weird.
-But no one — I mean no one — does an Emmy reaction better than Glow’s Betty Gilpin. This year’s statement might be her best yet: “To the Television Academy — how dare you. I really can’t stress enough how much of a threat this nomination is to my current quarantine brand of pasta and sad. In the Time Before, being born with a healthy protective emotional wall missing meant I got to channel that into pretend time in exchange for health insurance and claps. Until today, apparently here in the apocalypse, these skills were about as meaningful as a worm’s hymn in a canyon. I’d like to thank the cast and crew, and the Academy, and seasonal depression, and honestly Nathan Lane, and before this nomination phoenixes me out of mediocrity and I explode into ribbons just real quick the cops who killed Breonna Taylor still have not been arrested.”
–Kieran Culkin saying he’ll punch Succession costar Nicholas Braun ‘in the balls‘ if he beats him is also a pretty great reaction.
-Meanwhile, Nicholas Braun released a pandemic track called ‘Antibodies’ to encourage people to donate to Partners in Health and The COPE Program, two organizations working to help those most vulnerable and affected by coronavirus. The song is both hilarious and incredibly catchy. Go, Cousin Greg!!
–Tracy Morgan and his wife, Megan Wollover,are splitting after five years of marriage.
–Annie Lennoxcalled out Madonna for posting some BS covid conspiracy theories on her Instagram.
-The first photos from Netflix’s Ratched, Ryan Murphy‘s prequel to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Sarah Paulson, looks predictably kooky. Is that Sharon Stone with a … monkey?
-Rapper Malik B, a founding member of The Roots, has died at 47.
-Netflix announced it will be adding seven classic Black sitcoms to its library in an initiative lead by @StrongBlackLead. The shows are: Moesha, The Game, Sister Sister, Girlfriends, The Parkers, Half & Half, and One on One. I’m definitely due for a Girlfriends binge, but so far this looks like it’s US-only.
