Browsing Tag

Lea Michele

Mariah Carey and the Schitt’s Creek Cast Sing “Hero” to Graduates

-There were so many awesome moments in the Obamas ‘Dear Class of 2020’ celebration. Beyoncé delivered a powerful 10-minute speech, Taylor Swift told a story about missing her own graduation, and Lady Gaga also contributed a video. But my fave part was when the characters of Schitt’s Creek sang a song — with a surprise cameo from Mariah Carey!

J.K. Rowling is once again facing allegations of transphobia after she publicly took issue with a headline that used the inclusive phrase “people who menstruate” and then, when she faced pushback on Twitter, dug her heels in even further. (Seriously, is it that hard to understand the difference between sex and gender? She seemed to get it when she wrote the scene in which Hermione takes the form of Harry.)  Plus, of all the times for her to stir this up again — at the start of Pride and when the world is already on fire.

-Here are 8 fantasy novels by trans and non-binary authors, in case you need some new reading material.

-It is just me, or are The CW superhero shows imploding? On the heels of the Batwoman shakeup, The Flash’s Hartley Sawyer, who plays Ralph Dibny/The Elongated Man, has been fired for old tweets he made featuring racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments. (I stopped watching a couple of seasons ago but I do remember that character used to refer to a female scientist by her measurements instead of her character’s name, so this might not be a great loss for the show.)

-Meanwhile, Batwoman’s showrunner explained why they’re creating an entirely new role rather than recasting the main character.

-In other CW news, Riverdale’s writers have vowed to do better when it comes to their Black characters.

-Do we really believe Trump watches Insecure? Really?

Alexis Ohanian and wife Serena Williams spoke out about his resignation from the board of Reddit.

-Even Bryce Dallas Howard, who starred in The Help, doesn’t want you to watch The Help right now.

John Boyega thanked his fans and colleagues for having his back after his speech at a London protest.

Lea Michele‘s Broadway understudy says she was already monster when she was only 12.

-Federal prosecutors in New York have formally requested access to Prince Andrew as part of their ongoing criminal investigation into the abuses and sex trafficking of Jeffrey Epstein.

-K-pop continues to come through. BTS and their management company donated $1 million to Black Lives Matter. As soon as the band announced it, a team of stans called One in an Army vowed to match it and ended up raising $1,026,531 in just over 24 hours thanks to 35,609 donors.

Jennifer Aniston has also quietly donated nearly $1 million.

-Meanwhile, Terry Crews is facing criticism after posting some nonsense about “Black supremacy.”

Amanda Seyfried and Kevin Bacon try to have a peaceful vacation in the trailer for horror flick You Should Have Left.

 

Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas Join the Fight

Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas took a break from pap walking to protest.

John Boyega joined the protests in London today and told the crowd “I’m speaking to you from my heart. Look, I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this, but f*ck that.”

-Speaking of the protests, Keke Palmer confronted the National Guard.

Lea Michele has issued an apology for her past behavior — and I feel like her PR people should probably have taken one more pass at it. Saying things like “I don’t remember” tormenting costars and talking about how her behavior “was perceived by them” ain’t it.

-Spring Awakening’s Gerard Canonico fired back: “You were nothing but a nightmare to me and fellow understudy cast members. You made us feel like we didn’t belong there. I tried for years to be nice to you to no avail. Maybe actually apologize instead of placing the blame on how others ‘perceive’ you.”

-Glee’s Heather Morris also commented, saying she doesn’t want everyone to assume Michele is a racist. “With that said, was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so; for Lea to treat others with the disrespect that she did for as long as she did, I believe she SHOULD be called out.”

-Quibi execs are taking pay cuts. With some shows with huge stars still in the planning stages, I wonder if they will go forward, seeing as the platform doesn’t seem to be catching on at all.

-Fandoms get a bad rap, but this is the second time in a week that K-Pop fans have mobilized to fight racism and protect protesters.

-Have you watched Hannah Gadsby‘s new Netflix special Douglas yet? It’s a nice break from reality. In Vulture’s podcast, she talks about how she structured it like a fugue.

-Speaking of Vulture, I liked this article on stan culture in music fandom. “Lana and Doja learned the lesson Taylor Swift uncovered in the Reputation era, that you can only control your narrative inside your constituency. Outside the castle walls, the wolves are hungry.”

-For some reason I seem to follow every actor who’s ever been on the CW on Instagram. I’ve been pleasantly surprised how they’re using their platforms to amplify Black voices and show their support, so whenever someone makes a misstep it feels bigger. The latest doozies: Katie Cassidy was getting criticism on her silence so she … painted a hashtag on her wall? At least she wasn’t afraid to use the hashtag. Stephen Amell posted a video and gives the strangest explanation for his silence. He says he was quiet over the weekend because he wanted to give space to Black voices. But he posted like 7 videos on Facebook and some of them were nearly an hour long? In the video he also talks about how cops should get paid more and how white privilege didn’t get him where he is, hard work did. It’s a LOT.

-Speaking of the CW, the network are reportedly not going to recast Ruby Rose’s character on Batwoman — they’re just going to introduce a new actress to take over the cowl. It’s so strange. All of the major supporting characters are connected to Kate Kane (Kate’s sister, Kate’s dad, Kate’s cousin, Kate’s stepsister, Kate’s ex).  And if any show could recast the main character, it’s the one that has plots about literal face-swapping and a multiverse.

Lori Loughlin‘s daughter Olivia Jade stepped in it again.

-Paper scripts, including sides and high-fives, will go away when Hollywood resumes production.

-I’ve started watching Anna Kendrick‘s new show Love Life and am kind of charmed by it, despite critics seeming to be down on it. Not all critics, though.

Gwyneth Paltrow actually called out her followers who say “all lives matter” and I’m shook.

-Here’s the trailer for the Jon Stewart-directed political comedy Irresistible.

Lea Michele Loses Gig Following Accusations of Racism, Harassment

-Today in karma: Glee star Samantha Ware responded to Lea Michele‘s #blacklivesmatter tweet last night with accusations of how terribly the Glee star treated her on set, which led to a whole bunch of other black performers who’d been on Glee sharing their stories of torment, which led to a bunch of costars from Michele’s other shows liking tweets about it, which led to Michele losing her endorsement deal with HelloFresh.  And that’s what you missed on Glee!

George Clooney wrote a column for the Daily Beast on George Floyd’s murder: “This is our pandemic. It infects all of us, and in 400 years we’ve yet to find a vaccine. It seems we’ve stopped even looking for one and we just try to treat the wound on an individual basis.”

Seth Rogen went on a spree last night, replying to comments from trolls and “all lives matter” racists on his post and it was awesome.

-I saw some TV writers starting to work a story on Twitter about the social media posts by Craig Gore, a writer on Dick Wolf‘s new Law & Order spinoff who posted a disturbing image of him holding a gun with the caption “curfew” and commented that he was ready to “light motherf—ers up who are trying to f— with my property.”  Wolf didn’t even wait for the article to drop before cutting him loose, saying “I will not tolerate this conduct, especially during our hour of national grief. I am terminating Craig Gore immediately.”

-Speaking of Law & Order, this is a very good piece on how cops, more so than any other profession, have always been given nuanced and sympathetic portrayals in pop culture.

-Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz and The Tick’s Griffin Newman have each donated $11k to Community Justice Exchange, and are urging other actors who play cops on TV to do the same.

-Riverdale actor Vanessa Morgan has called out the show’s writers for not giving black characters prominent story lines.

-If you had asked me last year if Axl Rose would be making more sense when talking about politics than a member of Nirvana, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Kehlani, Tinashe and more are calling Lana Del Rey out for posting a looting video.

-Not surprisingly, Lana‘s latest post about solidarity is not going over well.

-This is a very good thread about the racial gatekeeping that happens at Hollywood studios.

-Here’s an incredible list of 45 black YA novels. I just finished Opposite of Always and it was wonderful.

Jimmy Fallon started last night’s show addressing the time he wore blackface on SNL.