Browsing Tag

Nicky Minaj

Jean Smart on the ‘Jeanaissance’

jean smart on the cover of variety

Jean Smart, who is nominated at Sunday night’s Emmy Awards for both Hacks and Mare of Easttown, covers the new issue of Variety. She talks about her character on Designing Women (“I always felt like she was my actual core person, kind of gullible and trusting and believes that everybody’s basically good. And I’d like to play a character like that again”) and losing her husband while she was shooting Hacks (“Him passing away was just not ever even a thought. And it’s changed every moment of my everyday life; every atom of my existence I feel like is altered”).

Andrew Garfield revealed his mother died while he was preparing to film Tick, Tick… Boom! and says “every frame, every moment, every breath” of his performance in the musical is in honour of her. “We lost her just before COVID, just before we started shooting, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. So, for me, I was able to continue her song on the ocean and the wave of Jonathan [Larson]’s songs. It was an attempt to honor him in his unfinished song, and her in her unfinished song, and have them meet.”

-Real Housewives star Mary Cosby has been accused of running a cult. What is up with all the shady activity and criminal investigations overtaking this franchise lately?

Timothée Chalamet dined with Larry David in NYC and everyone is wondering what in the world that convo sounded like.

Zoë Kravitz and Channing Tatum may not have officially commented on their relationship yet, but they did allow Vogue to take a photo of them at the Met Gala featuring him holding her purse.

-An ex Grey’s Anatomy exec producer says that leading up to Derek’s death, Patrick Dempsey was “sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him. He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people…I think he was just done with the show. He didn’t like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and Shonda were at each other’s throats.”

Natalie Portman‘s new Dior ad is very, very pretty. (I coulda done without the whale shot, for my own mental sanity.)

-Also pretty is JLo‘s video from Venice for Dolce & Gabbana (though I still can’t believe everyone seems to be giving that  brand a pass).

-Smallville’s Allison Mack has begun her three-year prison sentence related to her involvement in the NXIVM sex cult.

-This is an interesting take on how Nicky Minaj‘s vaccine tweets are distracting us all from the fact that her husband is facing 10 years in prison.

-One of the multiple sexual assault lawsuits against Marilyn Manson has been dismissed due to statute of limitations.

-Following all the pushback against CBS’ proposed reality show The Activist (this was my fave reaction to it), they’re backtracking and re-imagining the show.

Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman talked about the horrible racist cyber-bullying he received when judging Canada’s Drag Race. It’s awful obviously, but fan fave contestant Jimbo had a different take on it: “It was just not the right fit with the [early pandemic] times, that stereotypical harsh judge — the Simon Cowell, tough-love judge. I don’t think him playing up that campy bitchiness was the best way to go about it all.” (And I’m guessing his judging had more to do with the producers than him.)

-There won’t be new rotating guest hosts this time around on Jeopardy. Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will split hosting duties for the rest of the season.

-Ted Lasso led the winners at the 37th annual Television Critics Association’s 2021 Awards.

-This is review of Hulu’s The D’Amelio Show paints a grim view of the two teen TikTokers’ lives. “Charlie and Dixie D’Amelio seem truly distressed about the expectations they labor under, but to be famous and to continue working at the pace that they do seems to be their only mode of being.”

-Here’s the trailer for Love Life season 2. I really liked the first season with Anna Kendrick, and am very much looking forward to this one with William Jackson Harper (The Good Place’s Chidi).

Christopher Nolan’s demands to secure the rights to his next film, a movie about J. Robert Oppenheimer, included total creative control, at least a 100-day theatrical window, around a $100 million budget, equal marketing spend, 20 percent of first-dollar gross, and a blackout period where the studio would not release another movie for three weeks before and after the feature. Look, I don’t begrudge him for trying to get the most control and money possible. But for someone who talks a big game about how streaming is killing theatres, him demanding the studio can’t release another movie within three weeks of his has nothing to do with the health or future of theatres.

-Following the box office success of Shang-Chi, Disney will debut the rest of the movies on its 2021 schedule in theaters only.

David Chase is not happy that his Sopranos prequel is also streaming on HBO Max. “I don’t think, frankly, that I would’ve taken the job if I knew it was going to be a day-and-date release…People should go see it in a theater. It was designed to be a movie. It’s beautiful as a movie. I never thought that it would be back on HBO. Never.” I don’t know that an audience who fell in love with a show on TV is really interested in watching this any place but on TV. Also, the next time a director bemoans their project going to streaming during a pandemic because they care about which medium is displaying their art (which I’m sure is true), they should also be asked if some of their anger is coming from missing out on box office points and backend profits. Which would be understandable! But maybe it’s just not all about the art?

Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man has been chosen to represent Germany at the Oscars. I saw it this week and I loved it. Who knew Dan Stevens spoke perfect German?

-Here’s a new TV spot for The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson.

Regina King Brings Back the Buzz

regina king wears a red dress on the cover of vanity fair

Regina King graces the October cover of Vanity Fair. I feel like she got robbed of lots of Oscar buzz last year because the awards circuit was so quiet, so I’m hoping she gets to make up for it with The Harder They Fall. (“It won’t be like One Night in Miami….” She pauses, and I hear tears in her voice. “We never got the opportunity to see our film with an audience. I’m grateful to be healthy. I’m grateful that all of our crew and cast are healthy. We got to be in so many different festivals…but we didn’t get a chance to share that, except through this,” she says, indicating the virtual realm. “That was disappointing. But everything is for a reason. I try not to question God’s will.”) Also, this photoshoot is awesome. That gold skirt!!

-In THR’s new cover storyBenedict Cumberbatch discusses staying in character as a meanie while shooting Netflix’s The Power of the Dog. “[Director Jane Campion] introduced me to the crew as Phil and said, ‘You’ll meet Benedict at the end. Benedict’s really nice. Phil is Phil.’ And it just gave me carte blanche to say, ‘No.’ To be Phil, really. To stand in his shoes.”

-Congrats to Jennifer Lawrence and Cooke Maroney, who are expecting their first child.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have arrived in Venice for the premiere of his new movie.

Jessica Chastain laughed off the hysteria surrounding Oscar Isaac‘s arm kiss. “We have all been locked in our houses for so long. When this video went viral, I was like, people just need to see people touch and hold each other.”

-Gossip Girl got renewed for season two, which is genuinely surprising to me. I felt like the buzz (and any critical admiration) fell off a cliff after the first few episodes.

-The Met Gala is Monday night and there’s still rumours about the guest list. One star who won’t be attending: Zendaya.

-Netflix will be bringing a Bridgerton fan experience to select cities next year. I want it!

-The is an interesting look at how the depiction of suicide on TV is changing.

-I think I would actually love this outfit on pretty much anyone else but Katie Holmes. It’s just not her.

Rebel Wilson and some of her Pitch Perfect costars reunited to celebrate her birthday.

-TIFF starts today! Here are my picks for the 10 buzziest films, most of which are hitting theatres or streaming very soon.

Keira Knightley’s dark holiday film, which I’m seeing next week, has already sold at the festival.

-I’m not going to be able to watch any TV for the next week, but it feels like everything is debuting, including Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac‘s HBO show Scenes from a Marriage, FX’s long-awaited Y: The Last Man, and the VMAs.

-Speaking of the VMAs, Nicky Minaj just pulled out.

-Aw man. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has left the Mr & Mrs Smith project she was going to do with Donald Glover for Amazon.

-Netflix must have been more impressed with Addison Rae’s performance in He’s All That than critics were; they just signed her to a multi-movie deal.

-Watch Demi Lovato and friends search for UFOs in the trailer for Peacocks’ Unidentified.

-The Princess Diana content keeps flooding in. Netflix released the first trailer for Diana: The Musical, which will premiere in October ahead of the show’s return to Broadway.

Jason Sudeikis is doing a Ted Lasso-y accent in the South of Heaven trailer while playing a very non-Ted Lasso character, and it’s breaking my brain.

-The Matrix Resurrections dropped its first trailer early Thursday morning. I have no idea what’s happening in it but I’m in!