Monthly Archives

February 2021

Hollywood Brightens Up for Vanity Fair

vanity fair hollywood issue 2

-The 27th Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue is a splash of candy-coloured craziness this drab February desperately needed. (Watch the video cover to get the full effect.) It features Zendaya, Michael B. Jordan, Charlize Theron, Michaela Coel, Sacha Baron Cohen, Maya Rudolph, LaKeith Stanfield, Dan Levy, Awkwafina and more.

–Tiger Woods has been seriously injured in a car crash in California. He’s undergoing surgery for leg injuries after having to be removed from the car by the jaws of life.

–Tavi Gevinson‘s essay on the Britney Spears documentary is so, so good. The doc positions society/the media of tearing her down because they were uncomfortable with her expressing sexuality, but did Spears as a teenager really have any control over the image she was projecting? Tavi gets to the heart of why there’s way too much focus on a young girl’s “agency” about her appearance/attitude. “Even young women who are not megafamous have typically picked up on what makes them appear valuable by the age of 15. Their capacity to perpetuate these standards doesn’t mean they are not also victims of these standards.”

–Gerard Depardieu has been charged with rape and sexual assault in connection with a 2018 case involving an actress in her 20s.

–Shailene Woodley confirmed that she’s engaged to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, telling Jimmy Fallon: “I never thought as a little girl, ‘Yeah when I grow up I’m going to marry someone who throws balls, yeah!’ But he’s really just so go good at it. I’m very impressed.” She also added “For us, it’s not new news, so it’s kind of funny everybody right now is freaking out over it. We’re like, ‘Yeah we’ve been engaged for a while,'” leading to more questions about the timeline.

-Part of me is confused by these photos of Lucy Hale kissing Skeet Ulrich during a lunch date in L.A., but another part of me totally gets where she’s coming from.

–Drew Barrymore revealed to Howard Stern that her mother placed her in a “full psychiatric ward” for a year and a half when she was 13. “I was going to clubs and not going to school and stealing my mom’s car and, you know, I was out of control…I think after, you know, 30, years of therapy, and a lot of soul-searching and having kids myself, you know, I think she created a monster. And she didn’t know what to do with the monster.”

–George Clooney says his wife Amal will not allow him to go near their daughter’s hair with his Flobee. Smart woman.

-What a shock. The publisher of Woody Allen‘s memoir is facing accusations of a history of workplace toxicity and inappropriate behavior.

-Man, this podcast interview with Ethan Hawke is great. He talks about everything from learning from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Denzel Washington, to joining the MCU,  to Saint Francis of Assii’s quest for sainthood.

-Also great: Vulture has compiled the 101 greatest endings in film history.

-Here’s our first look at HBO’s Tina Turner doc.

-Speaking of HBO, the limited series Beartown premiered last night to strong reviews. I haven’t read the book it’s based on, but I just read that author’s latest (Anxious People) and adored it.

-Superman & Lois premieres on the CW tonight, and THR calls it thirtysomething with superpowers, which intrigues me.

-Ginny And Georgia on Netflix is being promoted as the next Gilmore Girls, but critics are saying it’s more than that.

-Here’s the latest trailer for The Mauritanian. I found this movie really bleak, but Tahar Rahim‘s performance is astounding.

Gwyneth Paltrow Strikes Again

-Remember when Gwyneth Paltrow pretended to be responsible for the yoga trend? Now she’s trying to claim the same about face masks. Sit down, lady.

-People really had Megan Thee Stallion‘s new Harper’s cover — but she’s into it.

-We always heard that the people behind the votes for the Golden Globe Awards were susceptible to um, influence, but a new Los Angeles Times report about the shenanigans behind this year’s nominations is especially eye opening. That much ridiculed nomination for Emily In Paris makes a lot more sense when you read “Paramount Network treated [more than 30 members] to a two-night stay at the five-star Peninsula Paris hotel, where rooms currently start at about $1,400 a night, and a news conference and lunch at the Musée des Arts Forains, a private museum filled with amusement rides dating to 1850 where the show was shooting.” Oh, and the HFPA also has no Black members!

–Meghan Markle and Prince Harry surprised a Texas women’s shelter by giving them the funds to replace their roof damaged in the brutal winter storm.

-Meanwhile, the royal family may be trying to steal the spotlight from Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah by airing their own TV address.

-A settlement deal has been reached in a 2019 lawsuit alleging that James Franco intimidated his students into sexual situations at the acting school he founded.

–Daft Punk’s publicist confirmed the band has split up.  We really are living in the darkest timeline, aren’t we?

–Chris D’Elia broke his silence on those allegations of pursuing underage girls in a long YouTube video. He says he was a sex addict — which doesn’t explain or excuse the underage part.

-With all the awful clips of interviewers like David Letterman treating young female stars like crap, this old clip makes me appreciate Strombo even more.

–Gillian Anderson is finding a niche playing 20th century female political icons. She’ll follow up her turn as Margaret Thatcher in The Crown by playing Eleanor Roosevelt in Showtime’s upcoming anthology series The First Lady.

-SNL is hit and miss at the best of times these days, but Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page certainly showed off his chops this weekend. He sang, he danced, he did accents, he smoldered. It was basically an audition reel for casting directors. I’m not mad about it.

-Here’s our first look at Claire Danes in Apple+’s Victorian-era drama series The Essex Serpent, based on the Sarah Perry novel.

–Hope Davis is joining the Succession cast in season three. She’ll play Sandi Furness, not to be confused with her mom, Logan’s long-time rival, Sandy Furness.

-Meanwhile, Succession’s Nicholas Braun heard about Kim Kardashian‘s divorce filing and is shooting his shot. “Would you be down to meet a new person, totally just kind of different guy? One who could, you know, make you laugh a little bit or make you feel small cause he’s so tall.”

-This lawyer explained why Kris Jenner would have wanted to make it it clear in the press that Kim and Kanye separated days before Kanye’s class action suits were supposed to hit in January. And now the date of separation wasn’t listed in the divorce filing — because the press articles from January will be used to prove the date. That’s both diabolical and impressive.

–Zack Snyder wanted to add a romance between Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne and Amy Adams’s Lois Lane in Justice League. “The intention was that Bruce fell in love with Lois and then realized that the only way to save the world was to bring Superman back.” I’m not sure what’s worse – the total misread of Bruce’s character, or using a female character as complex as Lois just to motivate a dude.

-Meanwhile, the final trailer is here.

-Modern Love season two is going to feature a ton of familiar faces, including Kit Harington, Anna Paquin, Minnie Driver and Garrett Hedlund.

-I really liked Nomadland but I understand the criticisms it’s getting, especially it’s oddly gentle treatment of Amazon and the gig labor economy.

-Netflix’s The Irregulars, about teens who assist Sherlock Holmes and Watson, premieres March 26. Here’s the first trailer.

Kim Kardashian Finally Files for Divorce

-After months of speculation, Kim Kardashian made a Friday afternoon news drop and officially filed for divorce from Kanye West following nearly seven years of marriage.

-Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have informed Queen Elizabeth that they will not return as working members of the Royal Family. Their honorary military appointments and royal patronages will be redistributed, and a statement from the palace says that “all are saddened by their decision” but the couple “remain much loved members of the family.” Harry’s also been asked to return his honorary military appointments, which seems like a low blow since he’s an actual combat veteran who continues to do lots of work with veterans.

–Harry and Meghan have pushed back on the Queen’s statement, saying “As evidenced by their work over the past year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain committed to their duty and service to the U.K. and around the world and have offered their continued support to the organizations they have represented regardless of official role. We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.”

–Regé-Jean Page tested out a new nickname in the first promo for his SNL hosting debut. (Also, Regé has a hard “g”? Feel like a very bad fangirl for not knowing that…)

-Weeks after nearly a dozen women, including actresses Evan Rachel Wood and Esmé Bianco, accused him of assault, Marilyn Manson is being investigated for domestic violence by the L.A. Sheriff’s Department.

–J.J. Abrams is creating another TV series — this one is called Subject to Change and follows a desperate college student who signs up for a clinical trial that begins a wild, harrowing, mind- and reality-bending adventure.

–David Letterman brought Drew Barrymore to tears with an in-person birthday surprise.

-This is a very sweet video of director Andy Muschietti telling Sasha Calle that she landed the role of Supergirl in the upcoming DC films.

-Here’s the first promo for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler about hosting the Golden Globes. I can’t believe it’s next weekend.

-So is CBS just going to try to revive all their major procedurals? The latest is Criminal Minds — which only went off the air a year ago today.

-Do not click on this if you have not already seen Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. But if you have, enjoy reliving the best 2 minutes and 20 seconds from that movie. Jamie Dornan needs all the award for this.

–Katherine McPhee plays an aspiring country singer/nanny to the children of a cowboy, played by Eddie Cibrian, in the trailer for Netflix’s Country Comfort. Multi-cam sitcoms aren’t my thing, but this looks especially bad.

-Here’s the trailer for Shiva Baby, which I saw last TIFF and really enjoyed.

–Josh Lawson, Jessica McNamee, Hiroyuki Sanada star in the Mortal Kombat trailer … because apparently we’ve learned nothing about the success of video game adaptations.