Monthly Archives

August 2021

Priyanka Chopra’s Entrepreneurial Spirit

Priyanka Chopra in a red dress on the cover of Vogue India

Priyanka Chopra covers Vogue India and talked about opening a restaurant and launching a beauty label despite the pandemic. “When the pandemic started, I was sleeping in, vegetating on the couch, binge-watching, not working out, eating whatever I wanted. I was like, ‘This is going to be a vacation.’ But when there was no end in sight, I understood that people were going to figure out how to work in spite of that.”

-It took weeks but it finally happened: Mike Richards has been fired as executive producer of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Michael Davies, the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire executive producer, will take over production duties in the interim.

Stephen Amell said on a podcast that he’s “deeply ashamed” of being kicked off a flight for drunkenness in June. I can’t believe this didn’t come up during his recent Heels promo tour but it was likely a banned topic. Regardless, it’s a good apology. Of course, he previously screwed up and gave a good apology — only to take it back years later on this very podcast!

-Survivor favourite Parvati Shallow is requesting a temporary restraining order against her estranged husband for domestic violence protection.

-There are a lot of ugly and dangerous conspiracy theories floating around the world right now, but the only one that tickles me is the people who are convinced that Ted Lasso’s Roy Kent is entirely CGI.

Van Jones is laughing off rumours that he’s dating Kim Kardashian.

Drew Barrymore joined TikTok and revisited Grossy Josie.

Will Smith surprised young actor Jabari Banks by telling him he’d be the new Fresh Prince in Peacock’s dramatic reboot of the ’90s sitcom.

-I haven’t been able to bring myself to listen to Kanye West‘s album yet, but this article on the misogyny of it isn’t making me want to rush out an do so.

Lil Nas X’s album cover for Montero is art.

-Here’s our first look at Ariana Grande on The Voice.

-This is a great round up of  music supervisors from The O.C., Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, Euphoria, and more teen TV shows, talking about what it takes to elevate a scene from good to legendary through song choice.

Sarah Paulson says now she regrets wearing a fat suit for her role in American Crime Story.

-DC has announced dates for their online convention the FanDome, where they will debut new trailers from The Batman, The Flash and more.

Simu Liu’s tweet about Sandra Oh and Michelle Yeoh attending his premiere made me laugh.

-The Power of the Dog trailer did nothing for me, but there’s already talk of Kirsten Dunst being an Oscar contender.

Jeremy Renner and Kyle Chandler break bad in the Mayor of Kingston trailer, a new Paramount+ show.

-The final No Time To Die trailer dropped this morning — and then was quickly taken down. But it’s back up! It leans into the fact that this is (supposedly) Daniel Craig’s final Bond film.

Succession’s Bad Billionaires Are Back

the cast of succession on new york magazine's fall tv preview issue

-I’m going to share a lot of Vulture profiles today because there were so many good ones, but none better than Hunter Harris’ cover story, in which she went on location in Italy with the cast of Succession.

-All the boldfaced names in Italy this weekend for Dolce & Gabbana’s show made it clear that celebs and their stylists are back to being totally cool with D&G now despite their alleged racist, homophobic and fatphobic behaviour, especially if it involves a (free?) trip to Venice.

-Not only am I wondering what Jennifer Lopez was thinking by attending, but I’m also wondering why no one took the price tag off her cape?

-Also regrettable was her overdrawn top lip line. Billie Eilish has tried to make this a thing too, and I hate it.

-Rumour has it that a very rough cut of The Batman screened this weekend and the reaction was positive. It’s apparently horror-level dark, and Pattinson and Kravitz are great.

Patty Jenkins says the hybrid release of Wonder Woman 1984 was “detrimental” to the film’s success. I mean, it was also possibly because the film was…not good?

Emily VanCamp is leaving Fox’s The Resident after 4 seasons. Isn’t she the co-lead? There’s no official word why yet, but she’s back in the MCU — not to mention she and her husband, Revenge costar Josh Bowman, recently welcomed a baby girl.

-Manifest has been saved. Netflix is bringing back the cancelled show with a final, 20-episode season. Apparently NBC also made an offer, but Netflix’s had more episodes and a bigger budget.

Drake will release his next album this Friday (which he weirdly announced on Sports Center).

Kanye West‘s new album is out (after a bizarre listening party where he “married” Kim Kardashian and featured Marilyn Manson and DaBaby). He’s now claiming Universal released the album without his approval and that they blocked the DaBaby track.

-The album reviews are decidedly mixed.

John Cho talked to Vulture about getting superhero fit for Cowboy Bebop. “The biggest fear that I had was I was too old. I knew people were gonna have issues with my age. And I had to get over it.” Who has issues with his age?!? Point me at ’em!

-Is this why Tom Cruise was so yell-y on the Mission Impossible 7 set? Paramount sued its insurer today for refusing to cover the vast majority of its losses due to pandemic-related shutdowns on the film.

An IG account features crew members begging for more rest periods amid complaints that they are working dangerously long hours to meet streaming production schedules. I’ve been following this account for about a month now and the stories are horrific. Lowly PAs who have to pick up the food being expected pay the tip out of their own pocket, crew not being allowed meal or bathroom breaks, and department heads fudging crew’s hours so they don’t have to pay overtime.

-The first male to speak publicly with allegations against R. Kelly took the stand today, describing sexual abuse when he was just 17.

Nia DaCosta is the first Black woman filmmaker to open a movie at No. 1 at the domestic box office with Candyman. Good for her, but also how depressing that it took this long.

Halsey says she was turned down by some publications while promoting their new album while pregnant because “they didn’t want a maternity cover.”

-Meanwhile, I like this look back into how Halsey spent a lot of time on the internet during their teenage years — specifically Tumblr, and even more specifically, One Direction Tumblr.

Jon Stewart has something wrong with his face in the new teaser for his AppleTV series.

Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke are teaming up to play brothers in Apple TV’s Raymond and Ray.

-Speaking of new AppleTV duos, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson are reteaming for a romantic action-adventure film at Apple.

-Joe isn’t happy he has a son in the season 3 teaser for Netflix’s You. Meanwhile, Penn Badgley talked to Vulture about the new season and says he doesn’t want viewers to root for his character; he wants to push them toward a deeper consideration of You’s themes and the societal myths that allow men like Joe to get away with violence toward women.

-AMC has renewed Kevin Can F*ck Himself for a second season, a show that got much better as it went on.

-Last week’s episode of Ted Lasso was the best of the season so far. Brett Goldstein’s episodes always crush me.

-There’s a lot of speculation about which celebs are invited to the Met Gala, but it sounds like Addison Rae is in.

Camila Cabello is a good singer, so why is this clip of her singing in Cinderella so not good?

-Here’s the trailer for Jake Gyllenhaal’s The Guilty, which is making the festival rounds before hitting Netflix.

Doja Cat Chats with Missy Elliott about Pop Superstardom

Doja Cat laying on a white bed with one leg raised on the cover of Interview Magazine

Doja Cat is on the September cover of Interview Magazine. She chats with Missy Elliott about writer’s block, rapping vs singing, and pulling back from social media.

-In their Billboard cover interview, BTS responded to questions regarding allegations that their fans’ activity amounts to chart manipulation. “It’s a fair question,” BTS member RM said. “But if there is a conversation inside Billboard about what being No. 1 should represent, then it’s up to them to change the rules and make streaming weigh more on the ranking…Slamming us or our fans for getting to No. 1 with physical sales and downloads, I don’t know if that’s right…It just feels like we’re easy targets because we’re a boy band, a K-pop act, and we have this high fan loyalty.”

Beanie Feldstein and Monica Lewinski teamed up for THR’s new cover story.

-Hacks costars Paul W. Downs and Meg Stalter recreated classic TV duos (including Mulder & Scully, Don & Peggy, Walt & Jesse, and Buffy & Giles) for their Esquire photoshoot. I love everything about this!

Zoe Kravitz and Channing Tatum are buying toilet paper together, so this might be more serious than we thought.

-Also, the fact that he follows a bunch of her fan accounts on Instagram is hilarious.

-This is a good look at how Ryan Reynolds (and undoubtedly a team of social media strategists) marketed Free Guy to keep it fresh in audiences’ minds throughout its many delays.

Letitia Wright was released from the hospital after suffering minor injuries while filming a stunt on the set of Black Panther 2.

-ABC’s reboot of The Wonder Years now has a trailer... with a little help from Don Cheadle.

-I liked this piece about how the Ted Lasso backlash “is the fault of the out-of-season, mega-sentimental, momentum-halting Christmas episode,” and the (undeserved) criticism would be much quieter if the series dropped all at once, because we’ve all forgotten how to watch serialized TV. “This is what serialization has always been about! That’s the whole deal! It’s what TV always was! But once we get used to the have-it-all model, the absence becomes distinctly uncomfortable, especially when the show itself is toying with occasionally uneasy mixes of TV structures.”

-I also liked this article on why romance readers are responding to the show. As I mentioned yesterday, it’s got all classic the tropes.

R. Kelly allegedly said he was a ‘genius’ and therefore he should get to date young girls.

Lil Nas X‘s debut album is dropping Sept 17.

-Meanwhile, he (rightly) questioned why Tony Hawk’s new skateboard with his blood on it is not getting the same reaction Lil Nas X’s shoes with blood in them did.

Tom Cruise screened the first 13 minutes of his new Top Gun movie at CinemaCon, and the audience loved it. It included his motorcycle cliff jump that required a year of training.

-Time’s Up CEO Tina Tchen has resigned over her connection to Andrew Cuomo.

-This is a good article on how The Other Two (returning tonight!) was set for an encore after coming off its critically acclaimed first season. Then came the pandemic.

Rosie O’Donnell answered every question Vulture had about Sleepless in Seattle.

Kristen Stewart‘s Princess Diana film Spencer just released its first trailer. It’s like the studio knows the thing we want to hear most is her accent, so they held it back.

Tilda Swinton plays a woman who begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia in the trailer for Memoria.

-Here’s the first trailer for Jane Campion‘s The Power of the Dog, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee. It hits Netflix December 1 after making the festival rounds.