Monthly Archives

August 2020

Tom Cruise Thinks Tenet’s Worth Dying For

–Tom Cruise posted a video about going to see Tenet in a crowded theatre and saying “Welcome back to the movies everybody.” I know this was shot in London, but this still feels wildly irresponsible. It doesn’t help that he’s wearing a vented mask.

-I agree with this take on how Christopher Nolan has handled this whole thing has really soured my view of him.

-Some major film publications are refusing to review The New Mutants because Disney did not make screening links available or offer socially-distanced press screenings to film critics.

-In a new interview Jon Hamm says he’s already seen a cut of Top Gun: Maverick and gives it two thumbs up: “It just has that amazing Tom Cruise, tentpole blockbuster, summertime thing. It’s so good. Obviously, Tom knocks it out of the park and all the young kids are great in it. It’s the movie equivalent of a fist pump. You’re just like, ‘Yes!’ It’s exactly what it’s meant to be.”

–Meghan Markle and Gloria Steinem sat down to record a backyard chat to talk about representation, women’s rights, and voting. In the preview video, their dogs make a surprise appearance.

-I loved Fringe and am seriously considering a quarantine rewatch, but actress Jasika Nicole is right about how terrible the show’s running joke about mispronouncing her character’s name was. She also tweeted that at the beginning, she wasn’t given rides to work despite all the regular cast members getting it, and that one director refused to learn her name. “It was so bad that josh [Jackson] found a name tag, wrote the phonetic spelling of my name on it, and put it on his shirt, knowing the director would pay attention to HIM, might show me some respect that way. josh was trying to use his power/clout for good. Still didn’t work tho.”

–Jennifer Garner posted a cute video making fun of herself for crying over the finale of The Office.

-Great interview with 51 comedians on the jokes they’d like to steal if they could get away with it.

–Soleil Moon Frye pieced together hundreds of hours of footage she shot in the ’90s while growing up in Hollywood and cut it into a documentary that Hulu just picked up called KID 90. Look at these photos of her with baby Leonardo DiCaprio, Jared Leto, Tobey Maguire and Cuba Gooding Jr!

–Jake Johnson reading thirst tweets about himself is a good time.

-This is a good review of Lovecraft Country.  I was blown away by last week’s premiere, but the follow up episode was surprisingly shaky.

-Here’s Brendan Gleeson as Trump in the trailer for HBO’s limited series The Comey Rule.

–Natalia Dyer says she feels protective of her younger Stranger Things costars: “I generally feel like, to me, it’s oversexualizing them. I feel protective over the younger kids even though they’re not kids anymore, they’re teens. They’re all great people and all having to grow up in very crazy circumstances.”

-In the first Enola Holmes trailer, Millie Bobby Brown is on the case. Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, and Helena Bonham-Carter costar in the upcoming Netflix film. This is a *very* good trailer!

–Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan fall in love in the trailer for Ammonite. It will premiere at TIFF — which, thanks to the fact that the festival will be mostly digital this year, anyone in Canada can get tickets to! Digital screenings are $19 each and you get the movie for 24 hours. Tickets go onsale to the general public on Sept 5.

Vanity Fair’s The Great Fire Issue

vanity fair Breonna Taylor

–Ta-Nehisis Coastes guest edited the Vanity Fair September issue, which features acclaimed artist Amy Sherald‘s painting of Breonna Taylor, and LaToya Ruby Frazier‘s photographs of Taylor’s mother and sister.

–Drew Barrymore appeared on Hot Ones and confirmed a long-standing rumor that Errol Flynn and W.C. Fields stole the body of her grandfather, John Barrymore, from the morgue and brought it to a poker game. She added: “I hope my friends do the same for me… That is the kind of spirit I can get behind. Just prop the old bag up, let’s have a few last rounds.”

–Jennifer Garner hosted an adorable Q&A with the cast of Schitt’s Creek.

-Glee star Lea Michele and husband Zandy Reich welcome their first child, a son named Ever Leo.

–Britney Spears’ conservatorship, which was set to expire this weekend, has been extended to Feb. 1 of next year. The judge asked her lawyer to file a petition with the court to remove her father as conservator by Sept. 18.

-In her upcoming YouTube documentary, Paris Hilton breaks her silence about the physical and verbal abuse she claims to have suffered at Provo Canyon School she attended as a teen.

-Charmed co-stars Rose McGowan and Alyssa Milano spent the weekend feuding on Twitter.

–Chrissy Teigan has offered to buy Amazon wishlists for teachers.

-Teen Wolf’s Tyler Posey took to Instagram to decry the attacks on three trans women in Los Angeles last week. “I’ve been with trans women before. I’m confident with my sexuality…I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks about me. I’m not making this about it. It just pisses me off. To the people who were laughing and filming it, I don’t know. This is a sad day. Maybe my share will help people get the f*ck over whatever they’re holding onto.”

-I don’t watch Selling Sunset but feel like the rest of the world does? In any case, Mary Fitzgerald and Romain Bonnet were actually married two whole years before their TV wedding.

–Meghan Markle was hugely criticized this weekend for *checks notes* encouraging people to vote.

–Larry King said Saturday that two of his children have died within roughly three weeks of each other. His son Andy passed away of a heart attack in late July, while his daughter Chaia died last week after recently being diagnosed with lung cancer.

–Carol Burnett is seeking to become the legal guardian of her teenage grandson as her daughter struggles with substance abuse.

–Russell Crowe‘s road-rage thriller Unhinged made a decent $4 million this weekend. Playing in roughly 1,823 theaters, it’s the first new wide release to hit the big screen since cinemas went dark in March.

-Meanwhile, Warner Bros says Tenet can only play in drive-ins if indoor theatres in that particular market are open, and they want to hold back the movie “from areas where traditional venues are closed in order to help preserve the twists and turns of the plot.” Um, who’s gonna break the news to them about a little thing called The Internet?

-Here’s an interview with the creator of DeuxMoi, an Instagram account that has blown up over the last few months because it posts anonymous DMs about celebrity encounters. They usually post way too much for me to keep up with daily, but I enjoy dipping in. These past few weeks have been mostly about negative encounters with Lauren Graham, Ben Stiller and Katy Perry, and nice encounters with Snoop Dogg, Steve Carell and Michelle Monaghan.

-Check out Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader in the first trailer for director Matt Reeves’ gritty The Batman.

-Here’s the trailer for Steve McQueen‘s Mangrove, which tells the true story of the Mangrove 9, a group of Black activists who clashed with London police during a protest march in 1970 and their highly publicized trial that followed. It stars Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes, and Malachi Kirby.

Megan Thee Stallion Says Tory Lanez Shot Her

-On a new IG live, Megan Thee Stallion confirmed that Tory Lanez shot her. “You shot me. And you got your publicists and your people going to these blogs and lying and shit. Stop lying. Why lie? I don’t understand. I tried to keep the situation off the internet, but you dragging it.”

-Meanwhile, JoJo removed Lanez from the upcoming deluxe edition of her album Good to Know.

–Lori Loughlin was sentenced today to two months of prison, two years of supervised release, 100 hours of community service and a $150,000 fine. Her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, was sentenced to five months in prison, two years of supervised release, 250 hours of community service and a $250,000 fine.

-Congrats to Rachel McAdams, who is pregnant with her second child.

-The first reviews for Tenet are very positive (though critics keep using words like “confounding” and “head-scratching”). I like this piece from a critic on the struggles of covering a movie that’s trying to get people back in theaters in the U.S. during a pandemic when health experts say it’s the last place to be.

–BTS has made history with their new video “Dynamite,” which dropped at midnight and surpassed 10 million views on Youtube in just 20 minutes.

-Golden State Killer James DeAngelo sentenced to life in prison. I just finished HBO’s documentary series I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and I wish Michelle McNamara was alive to see this day. Her widow, Patton Oswalt, tweeted “The insect gets none of my headspace today. I’m thinking of the victims, and the survivors, and the witnesses and crusaders and investigators. And of course Michelle. Go forward in peace, all of you.”

-The X-Files cast reunited for a charity music video and it’s delightful how many one-off guest stars they pulled in.

-Tonight’s Fast Times at Richmond High live read, which was set to feature Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, has been postponed due to “insurmountable” technical issues.

–Aniston posted a cute video of getting her butt handed to her at pool by Courteney Cox.

–Jake Johnson says there’s a chance of a New Girl reunion and I’m here for it.

-Cuties, a Sundance favourite that is now on Netflix, is from a French Senegalese Black woman who is pulls from her own experiences as an immigrant and condemns the hyper-sexualization of preadolescent girls. However, the way Netflix marketed the movie (with a risqué poster and description) has led to calls for a boycott of the film. Netflix has since apologized, and people like Tessa Thompson are standing up for the movie, but it looks like the damage is done.

–Taylor Swift started a frenzy at a multitude of indie record stores across America when shipments of signed Folklore CDs “just showed up” on their doorsteps. “Phones rang off the hook in every store. Folks took road trips to try to get one.”

-WarnerMedia has reportedly launched an investigation into the production of Justice League based on Ray Fisher‘s allegations of misconduct against Joss Whedon.

–Pharrell Williams dropped a new video for “Entrepreneur ft. Jay Z”. That line where Jay criticizes Black Twitter can go though.

-Also, Jay Z was spotted hanging out with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in the Hamptons yesterday.

–Netflix has cancelled The Society and I’m Not Ok With This due to covid-related issues.

–Chi Chi DeVayne, who was a fan favorite on RuPaul’s Drag Race and Drag Race All Stars, has died. The performer was recently hospitalized for the second time in as many months after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

-I like this piece on how cancel culture, for lack of a better term, is good. I think there increasingly has to be distinctions made between celebrities who face consequences for doing and saying bad things, and normal people who get fired for viral videos, but when it comes to Hollywood, yeah I think this take is about right.

-Speaking of good takes, I like this one about what the Ana de Armas Updates account tells us about modern fandom.

–Diane Lane and Kevin Costner reunite for the Let Him Go trailer, playing a couple trying to get their grandson away from his abusive stepdad. Lesley Manville steals this trailer.