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mel gibson

Jada Pinkett Smith Is Ready for “Healing”

-It’s been a busy week for Jada Pinkett Smith. First she called out Youtuber Shane Dawson for talking about masturbating to a poster of Willow Smith when she was 11. And now she’s once again denying those long-standing rumours of an open marriage after singer August Alsina gave an interview in which he seemed to confirm he’d had an affair with her — with Will Smith‘s blessing. Alsina said: “I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation … due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership they’ve spoken on several times…He gave me his blessing.. And I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life, and I truly and really, really, deeply loved and have a ton of love for her, I devoted myself to it…I just always stayed silent because I never want to be the person that causes confusion, I love these people. I have literally never been in love in that kind of way so much so that being intertwined in that way, walking away from it butchered me.” The age difference (she was in her 40s and he was 21 when this rumoured relationship allegedly started), plus the fact that she’s previously said she mentored him, is giving people pause.

-Today, Jada seemed to imply that she’ll be talking about this on Red Table Talk, tweeting “There’s some healing that needs to happen…so I’m bringing myself to The Red Table.”

–Christina Ricci was granted an emergency protective order against her husband, film producer James Heerdegen.

-According to court documents filed for her lawsuit against the Mail, Meghan Markle felt “unprotected by the Institution [the royal family], and prohibited from defending herself” during her pregnancy with Archie.

-Meanwhile, in a new video Prince Harry says institutional racism is “endemic” and is “committed to being part of the solution.”

–Brie Larson filmed a socially distanced episode of Hot Ones.

-This is a good look at CBC Gem, the best streaming service in Canada that no one seems to know about. It’s free and has shows like Normal People, Pen15 and Freaks and Geeks.

-A bunch of people in the industry — both supporters and detractors of Mel Gibson — talk to Variety about how his career in Hollywood seems to survive.

-Justice League’s Ray Fisher expanded on his thoughts on Joss Whedon, tweeting “Joss Wheadon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable.” This is a very good recap of all the Justice League bts drama, including reports that Gal Gadot refused to film a scene Joss wrote where The Flash falls into her boobs. It also touches on other problematic Joss stories, like Charisma Carpenter saying he fired her from Angel for getting pregnant, and his ex-wife accusing him of using her as a “shield” so no one would question his feminism or relationship with women.

–Khloé Kardashian is potentially back together with Tristan Thompson.

–Ricky Gervais, Ramy Youssef, Kenan Thompson, Kumail Nanjiani and Dan Levy are featured in this year’s THR comedy actor roundtable. Levy says of Schitt’s Creek’s total lack of homophobia: “My feeling was if I were to include homophobia or bigotry of any kind in the show, it would be giving power to those people who see themselves on TV…I don’t ever consider our show to be very political, but I suppose that decision to just say, ‘We’re never going to show the dark side,’ is the quiet politics of our show.”

-Variety’s latest Actors on Actors video is with Homeland’s Claire Danes and Damien Lewis. Why did he take this call in his car?!

–Alicia Keys did Vogue’s 73 Questions  and her house is gorg (it was filmed back in Feb).

-Welsh singer Duffy, who earlier this year revealed she had been drugged, kidnapped, trafficked and raped, has publicly called out Netflix for showing Polish feature film 365 Days, because it “glamorizes the brutal reality of sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape.”

-Netflix is shifting $100 million to Black-owned banks.

–Jeffrey Epstein’s confidante and alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell has been arrested by the FBI. It’ll be very interesting to see if she names names.

-Hulu has renewed The Great for a second season. I’m still not done the first but am loving it!

-This is such a good piece on the Golden Girls on why it’s weird the mudface scene is what the show is getting criticized for when the entire series is mired in racism and rape culture, and how it’s important to critically unpack all the messages we receive every day in pop culture and think deeply about how to reduce the harm in them.

-The Hamilton movie drops on Disney+ tomorrow and the reviews are glowing. It’s 100% fresh on RottenTomatoes with 82 reviews counted.

–Charlize Theron, Kiki Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, and Chiwetel Ejiofor star in the new trailer for The Old Guard.

Michaela Coel for GQ

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-Are you watching HBO’s I May Destroy You? I shied away from it at first because the premise sounded so bleak, but I’ve now caught up on all four episodes that have aired so far and it’s remarkable. Yes, it’s about a woman trying to figure out if she was sexually assaulted when her drink was spiked so it’s dark, but it’s also funny and charming and unpredictable. No wonder it’s already ending up on best TV show lists. Series creator and star Michaela Coel talks about the show in the latest issue of British GQ.

–Kylie Bunbury and Mark-Paul Gosselaar shot a new, socially distanced promo to celebrate Pitch being on Hulu. Rumours keep surfacing about execs wanting to bring the show back and I don’t want to get my hopes up again, but why would Disney spend money on shooting a new promo for an old show?!

–Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds continue to step up. They donated $200K to a Nova Scotia Indigenous women’s program.

-The latest round of Actors on Actors videos feature Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman (she told him “[Chris Nolan] doesn’t allow chairs, and his reasoning is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working. I mean, he has these incredible movies in terms of scope and ambition and technical prowess and emotion. It always arrives at the end under schedule and under budget. I think he’s onto something with the chair thing”), and Chace Crawford and Penn Badgley (bless Penn for saying “we can debate about whether or not that even makes sense” of his character being Gossip Girl).

-What the hell is Terry Crews doing? Someone change his Twitter password already.

-The first chapter of Quibi’s star-packed Princess Bride remake dropped yesterday. It’s an insanely fun four minutes.

–Mel Gibson has three upcoming movies booked despite those anti-Semitism comments the actor allegedly made to Winona Ryder resurfacing. Tell me more about “cancel culture.”

–Lena Dunham agreed with that viral tweet that went around earlier this week, saying that she agrees the “Hollywood system is rigged in favor of white people and that my career took off at a young age with relative ease.” Ok, I get that she had an easy ride and benefited from being a white indie movie darling with famous parents. But Girls was good (sometimes great!). How come we’re not calling out white male showrunners who get chance after chance and keep making bad shows? I know Dunham is an easy target but come on.

-365 Days star Michele Morrone confirmed that a sequel is in the works. God help us all.

–Kim Kardashian-West shared photos from daughter North’s 7th birthday, which they celebrated on their $14 million ranch in Wyoming. Is she the only little girl who’s ever asked for a pony and got it?

–Dr. Dre‘s wife of 24 years, Nicole Young, has filed for divorce.

–This photo of Chris Pine walking out of an indie bookstore with a big bag of books while wearing a mask has sent Twitter aflutter.

-I love that Mae Whitman and Jane Levy are BFFs IRL.

-“Hi guys I’m in my gym today and yes it is the gym that I burned down, it’s still not fixed yet but I’m getting there” is the best intro ever to an Instagram video.

–Adele shared some flirty exchanges with British rapper Skepta on Instagram.

–JK Rowling continues to show her true colours.

–Alison Brie says she regrets voicing Diane Nguyen on BoJack Horseman: “We missed a great opportunity to represent the Vietnamese American community accurately and respectfully.” I mean, ok, but this was a repeated criticism of the show while it was airing and it’s weird to position it like this is something that never occurred to her.

-Family Guy’s Mike Henry will no longer voice Cleveland. He also had a four-season spinoff on which he was an executive producer; is he giving back his royalties from that?

-Speaking of hollow, performative gestures, Hulu pulled a “blackface” episode of Golden Girls that featured Blanche and Rose in mud masks. Instead of all this virtual signaling, wouldn’t it be great if the television industry focused on the work that actually has to be done.

–Paul Walker‘s daughter snapped a selfie with all three of Vin Diesel‘s children — including Pauline, who was named after Walker.

-Ozark is coming to an end on Netflix, but it’s doing so with an expanded order for its fourth and final season.

-So now Justice League actor Ray Fisher is taking a swing at Joss Whedon? What a mess.

-HBO beat out 16 other bidders to turn Brit Bennett’s novel The Vanishing Half into a limited series. I just finished it and yeah, it’s worth the hype.

-Amazon Prime Video has launched a Watch Party feature which allows for up to 100 people to stream movies and TV together. I can’t believe Netflix hasn’t launched something like this yet.

-The hot priest met the hot couple from Normal People. So much hotness!

-Disney+ released a new clip from Hamilton featuring Renée Elise Goldsberry singing “Satisfied”.

–Jennifer Hudson shines in the new trailer for the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect.

–Liam Neeson and his real-life son star in the Made In Italy trailer.

Nicholas Hoult Talks Son and Sex Scenes

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–Nicholas Hoult‘s interview with GQ Hype is great, but the photo shoot is so odd. Why do his feet look dirty?! In the article, he breaks his silence about being a dad (“I remember there was a scene in The Kelly Gang where I had to hold a gun to a baby’s head. My son was around the same age and it was really difficult in many ways”), and talks about how his sex scenes in The Great are much different from the ones he did on Skins (“We had a few intimacy co-ordinators who would come along and help out with that, which is a great thing. This is the first job I’ve had that on and it’s a very positive change in the industry. It’s almost like having a stunt co-ordinator. They make sure everyone is comfortable in terms of what’s happening and agreements of what can happen, but also choreograph it in a way that makes sense for the story and what it is you’re trying to tell”).

–Mel Gibson was trending today because Winona Ryder gave a new interview and said “Mel Gibson was smoking a cigar, and we’re all talking and he said to my friend, who’s gay, ‘Oh wait, am I gonna get AIDS?’ And then something came up about Jews, and he said, ‘You’re not an oven dodger, are you?'”  I’m not sure why everyone is shocked by this, since Ryder told the same story a decade ago. Of course, his camp released a statement today denying it.  I mean, he’s on record saying “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world” and telling his girlfriend “If you get raped by a pack of n******, it will be your fault” … but sure, deny it.

-In the same interview, Ryder also talked about working with Francis Ford Coppola on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and how he directed her male costars to yell mean things at her when she was required to act in terror and shock. “To put it in context I’m supposed to be crying. Literally, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu [Reeves] … Francis was trying to get all of them to yell things that would make me cry, but Keanu wouldn’t, Anthony wouldn’t. … It just didn’t work.”

-In response to an old interview about her time on Bad Boys II that was trending this week, Megan Fox responded by calling her interactions with Michael Bay “inconsequential” compared to her other “genuinely harrowing experiences in a ruthlessly misogynistic industry.”

-In a new interview with Variety about submitting her Black Mirror episode for Emmy consideration, Miley Cyrus talks about getting sober (“I’ve been sober sober for the past six months. At the beginning, it was just about this vocal surgery…It’s really hard because especially being young, there’s that stigma of “you’re no fun.” It’s like, “honey, you can call me a lot of things, but I know that I’m fun”).

-I love how Britney Spears is confusing/delighting everyone with her Instagram posts.

–Elizabeth Hurley took to social media to pay tribute to the late Steve Bing, with whom she shares a son: “I am saddened beyond belief that my ex Steve is no longer with us. It is a terrible end.”

–This story about The Ringer’s staff being frustrated about the lack of diversity is a real bummer, as I’ve followed a lot of those people from the Grantland days. Bill Simmons‘ response when asked why the podcast hosts weren’t more diverse was “this isn’t Open Mic Night,” which is pretty damn rich considering his 14-year-old daughter is a regular contributor to the Ringer Dish pod.

–Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, and over 300 more artists signed an open letter calling on Hollywood to divest from the police and anti-Black content.

–JJ Abrams‘ production company Bad Robot released a 20-page guide to dismantling white supremacy at work.

-Streaming services are pulling four episodes of 30 Rock that featured characters in blackface at the request of creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. While they’re at it, they might also want to look at some truly problematic episodes of Kimmy Schmidt.

-Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel apologized for his blackface impersonations of Karl Malone and other celebrities.

–Chris D’Elia has been dropped by his agents.

-Netflix had initially planned to end Lucifer after its upcoming fifth season, but it just renewed it for another season — though it vows the sixth installment will be its “FINAL final” one.

-Everyone noticed in yesterday’s Actors on Actors interview with Lisa Kudrow that Jennifer Aniston appears to have a new tattoo on her wrist that reads “11 11.”  It’s likely a reference to her birthday, which is Feb 11.

-Wow. Freaks and Geeks is finally going to be available on streaming. You can watch it for free on CBC Gem starting July 17.

-Here’s the trailer for Netflix’s Unsolved Mystery reboot.

-Speaking of new Netflix series, here’s a look at the new The Baby Sitters Club.