Browsing Tag

David Benioff

Ellen Goes as Cardi B for Halloween

-I’ll give it to Ellen — she does a mean Cardi B impersonation.

-I did not expect Courteney Cox‘s Halloween video to go there…

-There are reports that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss walked away from their Star Wars project in part due because they didn’t want to deal with another “toxic fandom” after their Game of Thrones experience. Something tells me it would have gotten a hell of a lot more toxic under those two.

–Kelly Clarkson‘s Hocus Pocus tribute is something to behold.

–Aaron Sorkin wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg in the New York Times: “This can’t possibly be the outcome you and I want, to have crazy lies pumped into the water supply that corrupt the most important decisions we make together.” It’s kind of ironic that Sorkin’s Social Network is a big reason people viewed Zuckerberg as a scrappy underdog instead of someone in over his head for wayyyy longer than they should have.

-Ah boo. Meg Ryan and John Mellencamp have reportedly called off their engagement after eight years together.

–Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Cox are in the Broadway play Betrayal, and last night they switched costumes from their individual superhero franchises: Tom was dressed as Daredevil and Charlie was Loki. My Twitter feed went berserk.

-I’m late to the game but I finally saw Jojo Rabbit last night and wow. Loved. Here’s a cute video of Taika Waititi and Stephen Merchant breaking down a scene from the film.

-Here’s our first look at Normal People, the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney‘s book (which people loved way more than I did).

-A snippet of Eminem‘s new song leaked and apparently it’s called “What If I Was Gay?” which, based on his previous history, has everyone bracing themselves.

–Cuba Gooding Jr has been charged with six counts of forcible touching and 3rd degree sexual abuse. He pleaded not guilty.

-HBO/BBC’s adaptation of His Dark Materials is getting mixed to good to great reviews. I’m confused.

-Radiohead’s Thom Yorke‬ released a hand-illustrated video for “Last I Heard (…He Was Circling The Drain)” composed of 3,000 hand-drawn frames.

–John Krasinski talking about his super impassioned father-in-law is adorable.

–Emilia Clarke and Jimmy Fallon played the “Box of Lies” game and she was hilariously bad at it.

-This is another good thread in response to David Simon‘s Rolling Stone interview.

-The trailer for Netflix’s The Witcher, the streamer’s upcoming fantasy adventure based on the Polish novels and video games and starring Henry Cavill, has landed. It hits Netflix on Dec. 20.

The Game of Thrones Empire is Collapsing

-Woof, there was a ton of drama surrounding Game of Thrones-adjacent stuff today. First, it was announced that GoT showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would NOT be making three new Star Wars movies after all. Their excuse is that they’re too busy. There’s a lot of talk today that maybe their public acknowledgements this weekend that they had no idea what they’re doing got them fired, but I think Kathleen Kennedy‘s passive-aggressive statement indicates that maybe Star Wars didn’t have their full attention after they inked a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix. She said: “We hope to include them in the journey forward when they are able to step away from their busy schedule to focus on Star Wars”.

-In even more shocking GoT-related news, HBO is not moving forward with the prequel pilot starring Naomi Watts. Fan enthusiasm for Game of Thrones cooled considerably in the final season (this thread spells it out well), but the GoT brand is still so massive for HBO internationally. The truly sucky thing is that Benioff and Weiss drove the brand into the ground, but this show (which was going to have a female showrunner) is paying the price.

-Judging by this clip, Meghan McCain pushed Whoopi Goldberg too far today on The View during a discussion about the treatment of veterans.

–Kanye West said a lot of crazy and exhausting things yesterday, including that God rewarded him with $68 million tax refund for becoming born-again Christian.

-How did I have no idea that Stranger Things’ David Harbour is dating singer Lily Allen?!? Well done, you crazy kids.

-I’m hearing so many good things about Hulu’s Looking for Alaska, but I especially enjoyed this piece that looked at the show through the lens of Tumblr’s love/hate relationship with John Green, the author who wrote the book the show is based on.

-In an new interview, Selena Gomez talked about her “toxic” first love whose name everyone is pretty sure rhymes with Wustin Meiber: “You’re in a phase of life where you experience love for the first time, and I think that can just be just a little toxic. You have this codependency that you think is love, and then you have this addiction to the passion and the frustration with each other that you think, ‘Oh, that’s love,’… and I believed that for a long time.”

-I can’t believe I want to watch a show about a twerking Emily Dickinson, but the reviews for Apple’s new series are so good!

-My fave running joke on Keep It is when the make fun of podcaster (and Ronan Farrow‘s fiancee) Jon Lovett, so this bit in Farrow’s Catch and Kill book slayed me.

–Idris Elba and Liam Hemsworth are both in Montreal right now and everyone’s getting the vapors.

–Kurt Sutter says he was fired from FX’s Mayans MC because of simmering tensions with his new Disney bosses, which he says came to a head because he turned in scripts too late to allow them to give notes, and because he wrote a raunchy Disney joke into one episode. “I want to be clear about this. I was dismissed for being an abrasive dick. But there was no improper behavior and no one picked up the phone and complained about me.” (Even though in the original reporting, it was alleged he was fired following an investigation after writers, producers, cast and crew reported a hostile work environment on the show.)

-The final Knives Out trailer has arrived. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

 

John Legend and Chrissy Teigen‬ Talk Family and Politics

Chrissy Teigen John Legend

–John Legend and Chrissy Teigen‬ cover the latest issue of Vanity Fair, in which they talk about getting together (“It got serious pretty quickly. She just entertained the hell out of me, texting me. What people respond to in her tweets today was the same energy in those texts. I didn’t know that I wanted someone funny until I was actually with someone funny”) and why they’re supporting Elizabeth Warren (“She’s the best candidate running today and she comes at it with joy and with sincerity and with a wealth of knowledge and experience”).

-Oof, the video of Ben Affleck stumbling out of a Halloween party this weekend is a hard watch. He was spotted outside Jennifer Garner’s house yesterday, where he told paps “It was a slip but I’m not going to let it derail me.”

-Speaking of celebs who seem like they might need help, Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki was arrested in Austin late Saturday night and is reportedly facing two counts of assault and one count of public intoxication after he allegedly struck both a bartender and the general manager of a club in the face. Terrible timing, especially since he just landed a new show.

-Halloween hasn’t even happened yet, but Gabrielle Union has already won it this year.

-Apple+ lifted the embargo on the reviews of their new TV shows, and Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon‘s Morning Show is not getting good reviews. Critics only saw the first three episodes so far, but do not seem impressed. Surprisingly, the one people seem to like most is Hailee Steinfeld’s Dickinson.

–James McAvoy and production assistant Lisa Liberati (who he started dating in 2017 — two months after splitting from his wife of 11 years) are reportedly married.

-I guess I wasn’t the only one this morning who was surprised/revolted to learn that they’re still subscribed to Louis C.K.’s newsletter. I have never hit an unsub link faster.

-Game of Thrones creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff appeared at the Austin Film Festival this weekend, and someone live-tweeted their panel answers — a thread which quickly went viral because their admissions of incompetence were jaw-droppingly candid. They acknowledged that they made “basic writing mistakes” on the pilot, had no idea how to work with costume designers, didn’t feel the need to delve into the books to learn about the characters, and called the whole process an “expensive film school.” Talented female and POC writers are out there sweating in the trenches for their big break, but these two unqualified dolts were given $6 million an episode to learn on the job. And they’re not too embarrassed to openly talk about it! (I mean, why should they be? They landed Star Wars trilogy despite of it.) White dudes will always fail up…

-In the bossiest boss move, Jane Fonda accepted her BAFTA award while being arrested!

-Netflix might be planning to roll out a feature that allows users to binge at higher speeds, which might be the worst move ever. Tighten up your damn shows through writing and editing, not with fast-forwarding. (Aaron Paul also has strong feelings about this.)

-I love that Revenge costars Emily Vancamp and Josh Bowman still going strong eight years later.

–Trent Reznor addressed the Nine Inch Nails sample in “Old Time Road” — and his response is a pretty damn awesome example of lifting up smaller artists: “I said [to my manager], ‘Look, I’m fine with it. I get how stuff goes. They’re not saying they didn’t sample it. Just work it out, but don’t be a roadblock to this.’…Those guys should be the ones the spotlight is on. It was flattering, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I don’t feel like it’s my place to shine a light on me for that.”

–This Paul Rudd video is amazing because: 1) splitting an apple with your bare hands is a killer party trick, and 2) I learned that his new Netflix show costars the amazing actress from Hulu’s This Way Up.

-The CW is in a spinoff frenzy right now. The latest is a new Superman & Lois Lane series from Greg Berlanti, following their life as parents. I’m not mad about it. Tyler Hoechlin was so, so good in the crossover last year, and I liked what little we saw of Elizabeth Tulloch‘s Lois.

-There’s a new sneak trailer for Ford v Ferrari, starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale.