–Rolling Stone’s new video gifts us with nearly four perfect minutes of Normal People’s Paul Mescal dancing and lip-syncing around an empty hotel.
-Speaking of new videos, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion kicked off the weekend early by dropping the NSFW video for “WAP.”
-This is a good take on why the “clean” version of that video feels so much more dirty than the “explicit” one.
–Megan Thee Stallion is having a moment. She also just became Revlon’s newest brand ambassador.
-Not surprisingly, Justin Hartley is reportedly unhappy that estranged wife Chrishell Stause has been dishing about their divorce on Netflix’s Selling Sunset.
–This wine thing that celebs are doing is the first TikTok challenge I’d actually consider trying.
-HBO’s Lovecraft Country — about a black family in the ’50s battling monsters both mythical and real — is getting glowing reviews. Lots of critics are also praising Jurnee Smollett’s performance and predicting it’s going to make her the breakout star she deserves to be.
-Now Molly Baz has quit Bon Appétit’s Test Kitchen, and Gaby Melian has also posted that she will no longer be appearing in videos because Condé Nast “is not meeting my expectations regarding the plans to have a more diverse and inclusive video program.” It’s wild that Condé Nast is allowing a media property that is beloved by so many burn to the ground instead of just paying their BIPOC employees fair wages.
-Dirty Dancing is getting a proper sequel, with Jennifer Grey reprising her role and exec producing it.
-If Angelina Jolie‘s facemask costs more than $100, why does every picture of it look like it’s been photoshopped onto her face?
–This video of teens listening to “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins for the first time is a treat. It sent me down a rabbit hole on their channel, and their first listen of “Jolene” is also worth watching.
-This is an interesting take on why Disney’s choice to release Mulan straight to VOD is not the right one. This bit about the inevitable discourse that will surround its release is especially strong: “For some movie fans, Mulan is just another summer blockbuster, albeit a highly awaited one. For Mulan’s target market, however, this was poised to be a Black Panther-esque behemoth. A wide-release property with a majority Asian cast and a woman in the director’s chair is extremely rare, and given the likely strong box office and critical success that (based on early reactions) was surely coming its way, Mulan could have been a game changer. Instead, once Mulan comes out, the conversation about its merits and foibles will be competing with the circumstances surrounding its release. A film as rare as this should never be hampered with that burden.”
-A federal judge just approved the end the Paramount consent decrees, which have dictated the movie industry’s licensing rules for over 70 years. This opens the way for a studio like Disney to start buying up blocks of theatres and only showing their own movies.
-Speaking of stuff that’s a little inside baseball, this TV exec shakeup is wild.
-The Friends reunion was supposed to shot in August, but it’s reportedly been delayed again. I remain unconvinced that this is a good idea, especially the actors are getting paid millions to participate, while we’ve spent the last four months being inundated with charity-based TV reunions.
-Here’s the trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah, in which Daniel Kaluuya plays Black Panther Party Chairman and Rainbow Coalition founder Fred Hampton. It costars LaKeith Stanfield and Jesse Plemons.
