Monthly Archives

January 2021

Katherine Heigl Is Done Being Shunned

Katherine-Heigl-difficult-james-marsden
Chad Kirkland/Washington Post

-This is an interesting interview with Katherine Heigl, in which she talks about how her “difficult” label crushed her career. On one hand, she made some valid points about Knocked Up at the time and the world owes her an apology about the backlash (same with Megan Fox re: her comments about Michael Bay). On the other hand, rumours about her and her mother’s behaviour on set were legendary.  In any case, her 27 Dresses costar James Marsden has her back, saying in the article: “She has very strong convictions and strong opinions on certain things, and she doesn’t back down from letting you know if she feels like she’s been wronged in any way. I’ve always seen that as just strength of character.”

Machine Gun Kelly is performing on SNL this weekend and Megan Fox joined him on his way to rehearsals — where she was spotted wearing what looks like an engagement ring.

-Whoever is doing Mariah Carey‘s social strategy continues to crush it.

T.I. and Tiny are denying the rumours that surfaced on social media this week, alleging the couple drugged and assaulted women. They released a statement: “Mr. and Mrs. Harris want to be on record and more importantly want the public to know they emphatically deny in the strongest way possible the egregiously appalling allegations being made against them by Sabrina Peterson. The Harrises have had difficulty with this woman for well over a decade. They are taking this matter very seriously.”

Amy Schumer still doesn’t really understand how she ended up in the drama involving Hilaria Baldwin.

-The two stars of Pen15 are both pregnant, which should make for an interesting new season.

Anne Hathaway has joined Jared Leto in a new Apple TV+ series about the spectacular rise and fall of WeWork. Let’s hope he doesn’t welcome her to the cast by sending her a dead rat.

-In today’s Actors on Actors interview, Amanda Seyfried tells Vanessa Kirby: “I wish I could redo ‘Les Miz’ completely, because the whole live singing aspect just — I still have nightmares about it”.

-This is a great tribute to Cicely Tyson, who passed away yesterday. Lenny Kravitz, who was her godson, also posted a lovely tribute.

-Vanity Fair has gotten wind of Jessica Mulroney’s interview the National Post from last week. Unlike most Canadians, they seem unaware of the columnist and her, um, reputation.

-This oral history of the Super Bowl episode of Friends is packed with juicy tidbits! Brooke Shields‘ then-boyfriend Andre Agassi yelled at her after her dinner scene with Matt Leblanc (“I see him come down, pull Brooke aside and eviscerate her because he’s crazy-jealous. She’s reduced to tears! I broke the show for awhile, and the girls took Brooke aside and loved her, took care of her and got her back on that stage. She did great because of the support of those three. He was a jackass”). Matthew Perry flirted over fax with Julia Roberts. (“She was giving him these questionnaires like, “Why should I go out with you?” And everyone in the writers room helped him explain to her why.”) Chris Isaak couldn’t really act (“Such a swell guy. But his scenes with Phoebe? It was like working with a salmon”). Jean-Claude Van Damme showed up hours late and was too aggressive in his kissing scenes (“Having completely blown up our shooting day, we had to scramble. Then he’s unprepared and arrogant!”)

Tim Robbins has filed for divorce from Gratiela Brancusi — whom no one knew he was married to.

-The Armie Hammer stories continue to be messed up.

-I actually didn’t believe this was Demi Moore in the Fendi show until she posted the clip herself. But she’s since been photographed not looking … like that. Was it just contouring?

-Cyberpunk developers are asking players to please stop having sex with the Keanu Reeves avatar. What’s the point of playing, then?

Nick Robinson plays the founder of the darknet website Silk Road in a new trailer.

The Weeknd Talks Grammy Snub

the weeknd billboard

The Weeknd is still all up in his feels about his Grammy snub. Calling it “an attack,” he tells Billboard: “I use a sucker punch as an analogy. Because it just kind of hit me out of nowhere. I definitely felt … I felt things. I don’t know if it was sadness or anger. I think it was just confusion. I just wanted answers. Like, ‘What happened?'” He added that the three previous Grammy Awards he’s won “mean nothing” to him now.

Taylor Swift fans are feeling a little duped today: a rumour of new music turned out to be re-packaged previous releases.

Armie Hammer has exited the upcoming TV series The Offer, which tells the behind the scenes story of the making of The Godfather. This was a really buzzy project — one wonders if he’s just laying low because of what’s already being talked about, or if he’s bracing for more.

-Wow. Call Me By Your Name’s Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet are eyeing a reunion for the coming-of-age horror story Bones & All, which is — wait for it — a cannibal love story. I’m not joking.

-The latest installment of Variety’s Actors on Actors features Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun, who discuss language and what it was like expressing themselves in American Sign Language and Korean, respectively, in their most recent films.

-I don’t watch Snowpiercer, but this interview with Daveed Diggs is a delight!

Miley Cyrus did a NPR Tiny Desk concert and covered Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You.” It’s a bit hard, but I’ll allow it.

Wendy Williams says she hired a P.I. to follow her husband when they were together and he discovered a mistress. “The P.I. followed her to her GYN appointments. The P.I. ended up finding out that the girl was pregnant.”

-I don’t watch RHOC, but Rick Leventhal‘s daughter seems to be reading her new stepmother for filth on social media.

Chris Martin and Dakota Johnson‘s new Malibu estate looks less palatial than I was expecting.

Daisy Ridley and James McAvoy are among the stars appearing for charity in Celebrity Bake Off, but McAvoy has clearly already won in every way that counts.

Joshua Bassett released a new video, but posted on Instagram “hiiii, i wrote this song half a year ago, and this release has been scheduled for months!” — just in case you thought he was trying to wade in on the Olivia Rodrigo vs Sabrina Carpenter diss track drama.

Zendaya is defending the 12-year age gap between her and her Malcolm & Marie costar John David Washington: “People often forget — which is understandable because I’ve been playing 16 since I was 16, you know — [but] I am grown. I knew that, as I grow and as I evolve, there would be that moment where I could play someone my own age.”

Zendaya also let it slip that her Spider-Man 3 character will be “running from aliens.” Sigh. How has MCU not yet grasped that the beauty of the Spider-Man movies is that they’re about a high school kid dealing with neighborhood baddies. The smaller stakes is why Homecoming was so great.

-This is a very good piece on how the MCU has conditioned its audience not to accept change. There’s a great show to be had in WandaVision if the whole thing is a construct she’s created to cope with her grief, but I’d be surprised if it goes that way. And we barely got three episodes of “what the heck is going on?” weirdness before they’re feeling the need to shift into explaining.

Trevor Noah explained the GameStop stock drama as if he were a bubbly Margot Robbie in The Big Short.

-Netflix confirmed that Lupin’s remaining 5 episodes will debut this summer.

This is a good piece on how when it comes to onscreen diversity, quality is just as important as quantity.

Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo play BFFs in the trailer for Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

Halsey Announces Pregnancy

Halsey-Is-Pregnant
instagram.com/iamhalsey

 

Halsey, who has been open about suffering multiple miscarriages over the years, has announced she’s expecting her first child with Alev Aydin.

-The first image of Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in the upcoming film Spencer has landed. I was skeptical of her initial casting, but the resemblance is remarkable. And if anyone can play a person reluctant about their sudden fame, it’s her.

Kim Kardashian West reportedly has her divorce exit plan “ready to go.” A source tells Us Weekly: “Kim has had all of her and Kanye’s financials and properties ready to be split, it’s a very fair deal for everyone.”

-Movie theatres have had a rough go of it lately, but AMC just erased its 20220 pandemic losses — because of Reddit.  Basically, a subreddit has decided to take down hedge funds by inflating the stock of shorted companies like AMC, Gamestop, Bed Bath & Beyond, and a few others. This thread is probably the simplest explanation of what’s going on that I’ve see so far.

Christa B. Allen will be invited to the Revenge reunion after all now that organizers said they’ve changed platforms so now they no longer have a tech-based limit of four castmembers. Um, they know we all know how Zoom works at this point, right?

Dakota Johnson says she’s used George Clooney’s name to get dinner reservations. She eventually told him and he was cool with it.

Pamela Anderson secretly tied the knot with her bodyguard on Christmas Eve — 11 months after her nonlegal wedding to Jon Peters.

-Conservatives are big mad over Alyssa Milano being cast in a Nora Roberts adaptation.

-Netflix says it has a new most-watched series in Bridgerton: a record 82 million households around the world tuned in in its first 28 days, making it the streamer’s biggest series ever. I still side-eye all of Netflix’s “ratings” releases, but hopefully this will usher in a bunch of romance adaptations.

-The first images from Netflix’s Shadow and Bone adaptation are here and I’m excited. I don’t usually read fantasy but a friend recommended that series and I devoured it.

-Who in the world in Lindsay Lohan‘s camp is trying to suppress the first bit of good press she’s gotten in years?!

Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci’s new film Supernova, in which they play a couple dealing with illness, is getting rave reviews.

-On the flip side, Netflix’s Malcolm & Marie, starring Zendaya and John David Washington, is not getting good reviews. “A screechy and solipsistic debate about identity politics that was made because Zendaya was bored during lockdown.”

-Top Gun: Maverick is still holding out for a summer release, which seems wildly optimistic.

Paul Bettany says Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon “really, really wanted” Vision to have a penis in his “birth” scene. “And everyone, [Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige] and [Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito], I mean everybody was like ‘I don’t know, Joss…I mean…I’m not sure…'”

Kate Moss and her daughter walked the runway together.

Cloris Leachman has passed away at 94.

-Sloan’s Chris Murphy has been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy.

-The Bold Type will end with an abbreviated fifth and final season this year.

Selena Gomez announced she’ll be releasing a whole EP in Spanish, Revelación, on March 12.

Gary Oldman and Armie Hammer star in the trailer for Crisis, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage follow-up. The timing of this is bad on so many levels.