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Jennifer Hudson

Keanu Reeves Remains Dreamy

Keanu Reeves wears a striped suit on the cover of Esquire

-My only requirement for a Keanu Reeves profile is that it doesn’t ruin the idea I have of Keanu in my mind (which is, admittedly, a high bar). Luckily, his new Esquire profile certainly doesn’t. I love how he repeatedly laughs off the notion that movie making is hard work (“I mean, ‘hard’? Come on, man. We’re making a movie!”),  and won’t complain when he wakes up feeling crappy and sick during his current routine of travel and constant night shoots (“So? Drink some hot tea with some lemon and honey in it. I don’t know. Slap yourself in the face. Stretch. Concentrate, man”). The part that’s going to get the most play is undoubtedly Sandra Bullock’s story about how he once brought her champagne and truffles because she had offhandedly mentioned never trying them — and when he dropped them off she was painting her nails so he let her paint his, too. All in all, the whole article is worth your time — even though the writer describes the upscale Toronto neighborhood of Yorkville as “bohemian.”

-The splits keep coming: Kaia Gerber and Jacob Elordi have reportedly split after a year of dating, and Batsheva Haart and Ben Weinstein of Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life have broken up after nine years of marriage.  As Jezebel says, the end of the pandemic cuffing season for famous people is here.

-Bucking the trend are Jaden Smith and Phoebe Dynevor, who may be dating. The age difference seems big but she’s actually only 3 years older.

Adele hosted another televised special — this time in the UK, and the audience was even more celeb-packed than the US one. Stars in the crowd included Idris Elba, Emma Thompson, Hannah Waddingham, Emma Watson, Bryan Cranston, Mel B, Naomi Campbell, Josh Gad, Samuel L Jackson and Richard E Grant.

-My favourite part was when Emma Thompson was urging everyone around her to get up and dance. I have been that person at concerts…

-Another great moment was when Adele’s former English teacher surprised her.

Britney Spears praised Lady Gaga for speaking out on her behalf and chided Christina Aguilera for refusing to do the same. Everyone’s blaming Xtina’s publicist, but look at her face before he even jumps in — this was clearly a “no-go” topic.

Taylor Swift has topped both the Billboard 200 album chart and the Hot 100 singles chart. Say what you will, but she’s managed to dominate the charts with songs that are a decade old.

-Meanwhile, there’s renewed chatter that Jake Gyllenhaal runs the Instagram account of a cat named Ms. FluffleStiltskin, who has started scolding about cyberbullying.

-This is neat: Jane Campion used a Jungian dream coach – who is also Sandra Oh‘s mentor – to put the unconscious on screen in The Power of the Dog.

Ridley Scott is blaming The Last Duel bombing at the box office on apathetic millennials. “What it boils down to [are] the audiences who were brought up on cell phones. The millennian, [who] do not ever want to be taught anything unless you told it on the cell phone. This is a broad stroke, but I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook. This is a misdirection that has happened where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think.” There’s a few reasons I didn’t see it in theatres, and they had nothing do with age: the marketing and trailers were abysmal, Matt Damon was promoted much more than Adam Driver and Jodie Comer, I’m still not back to my full in-person theatre-going schedule, AND I had zero desire to watch the same sexual assault repeatedly play out from different perspectives. But go off, I guess.

-For non-ridiculous director talk, here’s Paul Thomas Anderson eating vegan Mexican food and chatting with the NYT.

Kristen Stewart, Jessica Chastain, Tessa Thompson, Kirsten Dunst, Jennifer Hudson and Emilia Jones open up about their respective films already gathering Oscar buzz in THR’s first roundtable of the awards season.

Oscars’ best-actor category is shaping up to be this year’s stiffest competition, with Will Smith, Andrew Garfield, Leonardo DiCaprio, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joaquin Phoenix, Bradley Cooper and Mahershala Ali all being bandied about already.

Jason Reitman’s reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise made a respectable $44 million from 4,315 theaters this weekend.

Eddie Redmayne is courting controversy yet again by playing the Emcee in Cabaret — a character that is often played by LGBT actors. While he admits past mistakes (“I made The Danish Girl with the best intentions, but I think it was a mistake”), he says of his new role “Of all the characters I’ve ever read, this one defies pigeonholing. I would ask people to come and see it before casting judgment.”

-We Are Lady Parts has (finally) been renewed for a second season at Peacock. The first 6-episode season was a blast.

-This is a really good example of how dark and grimy TV looks nowadays. It’s everywhere!

-Three autistic roommates try to conquer their fears in the trailer for As We See It, from This Is Us creator Jason Katims.

-Here’s the trailer for Shonda Rhimes‘ latest Netflix show, Inventing Anna, starring Julia Garner as a grifter who infiltrated the NYC socialite scene.

Jennifer Hudson Talks Playing Aretha

jennifer hudson blows a bubble with gum on the cover ofinstyle

Law Roach is on fire right now. He styled pregnant Halsey’s Allure cover, as well as InStyle’s Jennifer Hudson one. In the interview, JHud talks about stepping into Aretha Franklin’s shoes for her new biopic Respect, and how her dogs predict success. “I got the dog Oscar before I won my Oscar for Dreamgirls. And then I said, ‘Oscar needs a wife. So how about I get a dog and name it Grammy, and maybe I’ll win a Grammy.’ And then I got the dog Grammy, and I won the Grammy.”

-In his new GQ profile, Jason Sudeikis says he still doesn’t know why Olivia Wilde left him after nine years together. “I’ll have a better understanding of why in a year, and an even better one in two, and an even greater one in five, and it’ll go from being, you know, a book of my life to becoming a chapter to a paragraph to a line to a word to a doodle.” He added, “That’s an experience that you either learn from or make excuses about. You take some responsibility for it, hold yourself accountable for what you do, but then also endeavor to learn something beyond the obvious from it.” He also confirmed they split “in November 2020” (so months after their rumoured split in March 2020, but before she was spotted holding hands with Harry Styles in January 2021).

-The Crown, Mare of Easttown, The Queen’s Gambit, and the recently cancelled Lovecraft Country were some of the shows leading the Emmy nominations this morning. I’m glad that Ted Lasso scored 20 nods, including 6 for Supporting Actor/Actress (all but Phil Dunster, who plays Jamie), that The Boys snuck into Best Drama category, that Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You got some love, and that Jean Smart was nominated for both Hacks and Mare of Easttown. But it sucks that Girls5Eva didn’t make it into the Best Comedy section.

-I agree that these five nominees are among the top to root for. Roy Kent!

-Eyewitnesses claim that video of Justin Bieber appearing to yell at wife Hailey Bieber is misleading.

Britney Spears’ personal conservator Jodi Montgomery claims her dad, Jamie Spears, used $2 million of her funds for his defense.

Scarlett Johansson chatted with Seth Meyers about her pandemic wedding to Colin Jost. “Obviously we wanted to take all the precautions, every precaution that we could, so we had the masks [with ‘Jost 2020’ on them] made. It definitely was a weird party favor that could only happen now, but you just gotta go with it.”

Drake‘s girlfriend has been revealed to be 40-year-old model Johanna Leia, who he’s reportedly been dating for several months.

-Seems like Olivia Rodrigo is over that guy she wrote “Driver’s License” about; she’s dating Adam Faze.

-I always worry that Joshua Jackson is going to end up disappointing me, but not today! His Esquire interview is excellent, especially the part where he talks about having a home birth because “the American medical system has a horrendous track record with Black women.” The accompanying video is also great, including when they ask why he’s turned his Instagram into a stan account for his wife. “I think it’s important to celebrate women in media where they want to be, rather than the objects that we want them to be.” Gah! Perfection!!

-I liked this love letter to the bad girls of 90s teen dramas. Justice for Rayanne Graff, Kim Kelly and Jen Lindley!

-A video appears to show Mel Gibson saluting Donald Trump as he arrived at UFC 264 on Saturday evening. How is anyone at all surprised by this?

-Tilda Swinton and Timothée Chalamet were all kinds of cute together at Cannes.

-For the same premiere, Owen Wilson (who I’m convinced will end up being the bad guy in this week’s Loki finale, because the person behind the TVA can’t just be some random dude, right?!) also looked great.

-Meanwhile, here’s a clip from the movie (Wes Anderson‘s The French Dispatch), featuring Chalamet having a bath in front of Frances McDormand.

-I’m very ready to watch Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, and Carla Gugino kick butt in Netflix’s Gunpowder Milkshake this weekend, which is getting decent reviews.

-Here’s the trailer for Netflix’s conversion therapy documentary Pray Away, from producers Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum, and directed by Kristine Stolakis.

-Disney/Pixar’s new movie Turning Red takes place in Toronto!

 

The One Where Friends Reunited

-The first full trailer for the Friends reunion has arrived. This actually looks quite good (there seems to be at least three venue changes, including a table read) but it’ll be interesting to see if they follow Fresh Prince’s lead and have some warts-and-all conversations.

Billy Porter opened up about his HIV-positive diagnosis  (which he’s kept secret since 2007) in an interview with THR. “My purpose, my calling, my ministry is about this conversation we’re having. Because the world needs to know what HIV-positive looks like.”

A$AP Rocky confirmed that he’s in a serious relationship with Rihanna. “[She] amounts to probably, like, a million of the other ones … I think when you know, you know. She’s the One.”

Demi Lovato surprised fans with an early morning announcement: they identify as non-binary.

Prince Harry will reportedly drop more ‘truth bombs‘ in his new Apple series with Oprah. I just listened to his podcast with Dax Shepard and was surprised at how candid he was, especially about how his father’s parenting style messed him up.

-Johnny Depp is at it again. He’s now asking the courts to order ACLU to show proof that Amber Heard donated her divorce settlement​ to them like she said she would.

-I’m surprised how underwhelmed I am by the Lollapalooza lineup. It’s in July, making it the first full capacity music festival we’ve seen in ages.

-Wow, I wasn’t expecting to love Ashton Kutcher and Mila KunisLA farmhouse as much as I do. Those ceilings!

-Bless Variety for breaking down all the Erika Jayne drama.

-One of Danny Masterson’s accusers delivered nearly six hours of tearful testimony at a preliminary hearing to determine if a trial will be ordered. She claimed the actor drugged and raped her at gunpoint.

Marilyn Manson faces new a lawsuit, this one from his former assistant alleging sexual assault.

-The reviews for Netflix’s Master of None Season 3 seem to indicate it’s slow and boring.

-Wouldn’t it be great if Happy Endings being on Netflix leads to a resurgence for that show?

-I liked this profile on John Krasinski, which follows the making of the much-delayed A Quiet Place Part II.

-Here’s Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in the Respect trailer.