About 8 years ago, Mark Burnett convinced us to sign up for this show where you sit in a big red chair with your back turned away from the singers on the stage. First thank you must go to Mark. ❤️ We had no idea what… https://t.co/XjbaOu55PR
-In other couple news, Leonardo DiCaprio, 44, invited his 21-year-old girlfriend to Cannes. And he’s reportedly known her since she was a child. Not creepy at all.
–Harvey Weinstein is still awaiting his criminal trial and faces life in prison if convicted. In the meantime, he reached a $44 million settlement, $30m of which will be divided among his victims. (It’ll be paid out by Weinstein Co. insurance.)
-Celebrity chef Mario Batali will be arraigned on a criminal assault charge in Boston Municipal Court.
–Cardi B is denying rumoursshe’s getting her own TV show, which sucks because a show about her drinking while interviewing celebs sounded great!
-If, like me, this week was a straight up garbage fire for you, then feel free to cleanse your palate with this hilarious blooper reel from The Good Place.
-I love how everyone’s freaking out about how good Seth Rogen looks in his new GQ spread. He talks about Kanye West’s influence on him and why he and his wife don’t have kids. “We very much like our lives, so we will continue to put it off, it seems like, for a little while…I’ve had my friends be like, “Yeah, it really was hard on our relationship.” I’m not saying we couldn’t overcome it, but, again, we really get along and have a very good dynamic. She works very hard, and a lot as well, so when we’re together, we really try to enjoy each other and hang out.”
–Rihanna’s NYT interview is a must-read: “I love being black. So, sorry for those who don’t like it.”
–Celine Dion‘s episode of Carpool Karaoke aired and she was even more extra than we could have hoped for!
–Johnny Depp accused ex-wife Amber Heard of having “painted-on bruises” to allege abuse, saying “She was the perpetrator, and I was the victim.” For crying out loud, her police reports had medical records in them!
–Scarlett Johansson and SNL’s Colin Jostare engagedafter two years of dating. This is going to be husband No. 3. (I always forget she was once married to Ryan Reynolds.)
-The Jonas Brothers are on the latest episode of Billy on the Street. “The measles are back and so are the Jonas Brothers!”
-In their new Esquire interview, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio talk about getting butterflies when meeting Luke Perry on the set of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and it’s very sweet.
-Also, I’m sure Brad and Leo like each other — but this clip of them on the Cannes red carpet makes it look like they really, really don’t.
-Also at Cannes, Nicolas Winding Refn said his new TV show isn’t actually a TV show. “It’s a 13-hour movie. It’s not TV!” Sigh. If movie directors don’t respect TV, maybe they should not attempt TV?
-This is a good explanation of Hulu/Disney/Comcast divorce. Basically, I’m expecting to look back at my cable bill as “the good ole days” when we’re all paying twice for all the streaming services we’ll end up getting.
-The endless Keanu Reeves love that has come out of the John Wick 3 promo tour has been such a treat. I especially love this video of him with puppies. There’s also this great storyof him making a teen theatre employee’s day. And of course, his Ellen interview where she questioned why he and Sandra Bullock never got together when they both admitted to crushing on each other at the same time, and he responded “We were working.”
-I don’t watch The Big Bang Theory, but people are really upset by the Penny twist.
-It sucks that Mayim Bialik had to shut down an Instagram commenterwho ogled her for wearing a t-shirt — but do you remember the time she wrote a NYT op-edabout how she escaped harassment in Hollywood by not dressing provocatively?
-On a new podcast, Julianna Margulies said she’s done ‘protecting CBS’ over the real reason she hasn’t gone on The Good Fight — because they wouldn’t pay her what she was making on The Good Wife. “I thought, Why am I protecting CBS? I said yes. They said no. And you know what? I need to pave the way for the next one coming up…I also know for a fact that any male star who is asked to come on a spin-off of their show would’ve been offered at least $500,000…If they were to ask me to go back on The Good Fight, paying me what my salary is, [I would be there] in a heartbeat.”
–Joshua Jackson has been cast as the male lead in Hulu drama Little Fires Everywhere, joining a cast that includes Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. I LOVED that book!
-People may have hated it, but Game of Thrones’s finale set HBO’s all-time ratings record.
-Speaking of GoT, Jason Momoalive-streamed his reaction while watching the show and was NOT happy about Dany’s fate. Meanwhile, Emilia Clarke said of Dany’s turn “It comes out of f—king nowhere. I’m flabbergasted.”
–Celeste Barber appears on the final webisode for Gay of Thrones and it’s perfect.
–Oprah Winfreycovers the latest THRand her interview is delicious. She reveals that an annoying fan at an airport convinced her to buy a private plane (“She says, ‘Cause on TV you always giving people hugs. I want a hug.’ So I stood up and I gave her a hug and then I went to the phone and called my lawyer and I said, ‘I’m going to do it, I’m going to get the plane. This is going to be my last time waiting four hours in the Chicago O’Hare Airport'”) and was pretty blunt about her time at 60 Minutes and CBS (“How should I say this? Never a good thing when I have to practice saying my name and have to be told that I have too much emotion in my name…They would say, ‘All right, you need to flatten out your voice, there’s too much emotion in your voice.’ So I was working on pulling myself down and flattening out my personality — which, for me, is actually not such a good thing”). Imagine hiring Oprah and then not letting her be Oprah?!?
-It somehow escaped my attention that Moby and Natalie Portman used to date but this excerpt about it from his book is great.
–Jesse Williams‘ messy divorce continues its messiness. He’s asking a judge to deny his ex’s motion that he pay $200k for her legal bills.
-Variety has released some of the salaries Hollywood movie starswill make on their latest projects. Netflix is pushing up the paydays with Ryan Reynolds getting $27M for Six Underground, and Will Smith getting $35M for Bright 2. For studio films, Margot Robbie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gal Gadot and Brad Pitt are all reportedly raking in upwards of $10 million for their latest flicks.
-It looks like Randall Emmett has finally paid 50 Cent the $1M he was owed because the Instagram posts about it are now deleted, depriving us of the best clapbacks of all time.
-Buckingham Palace released a statement shutting downthe Baby Sussex name speculation.
-The Game of Thrones cinematographer is defending the latest episode, telling TMZ“I know it wasn’t too dark because I shot it” and Wired“people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly.” That may be true (and I’ve certainly seen lots of spirited and technical defenses of him), but at a certain point — don’t you have to understand the limitations of the technology that most people are going to consume it on and work around that? If the majority people can’t see the thing they were supposed to see, you pooched it. Though I still maintain that the editing was worse than the cinematography. Like that scene with Sansa and Tyrion when he raises their clasped hands and kisses hers I went, “Wait, they were holding hands? When did that happen? Show that!” And then they moved from their spot in the crypt and did…something. Did Sansa battle some wights with that dagger? Or did they just reposition?
-Empire was just renewed — but Jussie Smollet‘s future on the show remains in limbo. Said Fox in a statement: “By mutual agreement, the studio has negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett’s option for season six, but at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to Empire.”
-When Netflix aired 13 Reasons Why, experts warned that it could to cause an increase in suicides especially among adolescents. A news study finds that’s exactly what happened.
