Browsing Tag

James Gunn

Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard Facing Sexual Assault Charges

-Whoa. Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard was just arrested and charged with two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm and one count of sexual interference. It’s unclear whether these stem from the same allegations that surfaced in Feb, which he denied at the time.

-Guardians of the Galaxy’ stars Zoe Saldana, David Bautista, and Chris Pratt all jumped to James Gunn‘s defense on Twitter this weekend. I wonder if they all came to it separately or if this is a coordinated push?

-Meanwhile, Selma Blair and Sarah Silverman are supporting a petition to rehire him.

-Also, this is an interesting take on Disney’s bad faith argument. Of course people should face consequences for doing stupid stuff and I’m not convinced he should be rehired, but a lot about this smells funny.

–Pete Davidson reportedly proposed to Ariana Grande while smoking weed in bed. This just gets better and better…

-Tiffany Haddish and Common may be a thing, and I’m here for it.

-This pair surprises me: 2 Broke Girls star Beth Behrs married Mad Men’s Michael Gladis.

-I’m not sure that I believe this story about how Meghan Markle wanted to wear a Stella McCartney tuxedo-style suit to an evening event on the Australian tour, and it was vetoed by Prince Harry. That doesn’t sound very Harry-esque.

–R Kelly spends 19 minutes confessing that he is a terrible human being who does terrible things on his new song “I Admit It,” and his fans are still all “wow, great melody!” (The Onion’s take is the best take.)

-Meanwhile, could what he says in the song be considered evidence? It’s a grey area, but a lawyer says “If I was his lawyer I would have advised him not to write this song.” I’m guessing lawyers would advise him not to do a lot of the things he does…

-Jesus Christ. Charlamagne and his wife both admitted that the first time they had sex, he raped her.

–Lindsay Lohan‘s management style is something else.

-I love this praise for The Good Fight’s title sequence. It’s probably the only one that I never FF through.

-Ohhhh boy. A Buffy the Vampire Slayer series reboot with a black lead is in the works from Joss Whedon and Monica Owusu-Breen. I have a lot of feelings about this. On one hand, as problematic as Whedon is I still adore the original (I truly believe that watching Buffy Summers and Dana Scully kick ass every week when I was young and impressionable shaped who I am). But why retread old ideas? And if you HAVE to do a Buffy series, why not a sequel with new characters instead of a reboot? No series has ever ended with such a perfect sequel setup: Buffy’s actions prompted slayer powers to be awakened in girls all over the world. It’s *right there*!!

–Kanye West is “doing ok” after being hospitalized for the flu.

-Black-ish star Anthony Anderson is denying a woman who says he assaulted her after she catered one of his events.

-This is a good take on how Johnny Depp’s latest lawsuit reveals how Hollywood productions enable abusive behavior.

-Meanwhile, I was surprised that Warner Bros doubled down on Depp at the Fantastic Beasts panel during Comic-Con this weekend.

–This tweet about Chris Pine’s look at Comic Con pretty much sums it up for me: “Chris Pine styles himself like a middle aged woman who brunches and I’m profoundly into it.”

-The Halloween panel got surprisingly emotional when the Q&A portion started and a man stood up and told his story of survival during a home invasion. “I was scared out of my mind and out of nowhere this thought inside of me went, ‘Well, what would Jamie Lee Curtis do?’…To make a long story short, I’m here today because of the way that you portrayed Lauri Strode. I’m a victor today instead of a victim.”

-A young fan managed to out-sass a sassy Ryan Reynolds at Comic-Con.

-The Good Place didn’t show any new footage at their Comic-Con panel, but this cast interview is great. And they released bloopers!

-A ton of TV shows did release new TV footage though, including Arrow, The Walking Dead, Riverdale, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Better Call Saul, The Gifted, Roswell New Mexico and Star Trek: Discovery. Click here for my roundup.

-On the movie side, we got new trailers for Aquaman, Glass, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, Fantastic Beasts and more. I can’t believe I’m saying this but the one that won me over the most is Shazam (with Godzilla coming in a close second, which was also a surprise).

James Gunn Fired From Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 After Offensive Comments Resurface

-Ooh boy, this is a biggie. Disney fired Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn after a series of offensive tweets from years ago resurfaced. In a statement, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said, “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values.” In a series of tweets, Gunn apologized for the posts that made light of pedophilia and rape, saying “I viewed myself as a provocateur.” He’s been a questionable figure for a while (he had to apologize a few years ago for a homophobic blog post, and there was some drama about sharing writing credits), but the wrinkle in this story is that the tweets were resurfaced by alt-right personalities who are likely less concerned about the offensive content and more about taking down a celeb who frequently rails against the president. (It might also be payback for Roseanne, who was also a Disney star.) However it happened, he should have been fired, but man this is messy. Also, it remains *incomprehensible* to me that celebrities (and/or their publicists) don’t immediately scrub their entire digital presence of anything even remotely questionable the second they get a modicum of fame. It should be part of the Hollywood starter kit!

-Speaking of Roseanne, she “explained” the racist tweet that got her fired from her sitcom in a bizarre new YouTube video. She said she was fired because she voted for Trump (“That is not allowed in Hollywood”) and then screamed at the top of her lungs “I thought the b—- was white! Goddamn it! I thought the b—- was white! F—!” when talking about Valerie Jarrett. According to TMZ, the man asking Roseanne the questions is her son.

–Shonda Rhimes says she’s creating 8(!) shows for Netflix, including an adaptation of The Cut’s viral scamming story about Anna Delvey.

–Wiz Khalifa said straight men shouldn’t bite into bananas. [laughs for infinity]

–Ariana Grande is defending naming a song on her new album after Pete Davidson: “It’s a special song about the most special human being I’ve ever met.”

-I have to say I’m pretty impressed that they are casting an age-appropriate love interest for Tom Cruise in Top Gun 2. Jennifer Connelly in early talks.

–Aaron Paul dressed his baby in Breaking Bad gear for Comic-Con, and it was hella cute.

-Watch Andrew Lincoln get a little tearful at Comic-Con while confirming that he’s leaving Walking Dead.

-Meanwhile, I gave up on The Walking Dead years ago but it’s pretty neat that they landed Samantha Morton as their new big bad.

–Joe Manganiello recalled the time he was told to beat up James Franco in an audition. This man is living my dream!

-Paramount TV president Amy Powell was fired over inappropriate comments she made in a meeting. They didn’t say what the comments were, but they must have been rul rul bad for her to be fired instead of reprimanded.

-Hush Hush is being adapted into a movie? Seriously?! I read that book ten years ago (TEN!) and was horrified by how the “romance” basically consists of a woman being being worn down by her stalker. It was bad enough back then, so how the hell does this get picked up in the #MeToo era?

-DVR alert: Canada is finally getting Killing Eve, which starts airing on Bravo this Sunday.

-I dug this piece on how TV’s need to consume more of our time has led to a frustrating deterioration in quality, even for good shows.

-Conan got Jodie Foster, Hilary Swank, Nick Offerman and more to “audition” for Batgirl.

-I was certain that this story about Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden and Ian McKellen signing on to do a movie adaptation of Cats was a joke — but I don’t think it is?

-This thread, which summarizes every Shakespeare play with a Parks and Rec quote, is brilliant.

–Elle Fanning goes on the run in the trailer for Mélanie Laurent’s Galveston.