Browsing Tag

Olivia Rodrigo

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!

 

Olivia Rodrigo’s In The Driver’s Seat

Olivia Rodrigo on the cover of Billboard Magazine

-It’s a big week for Olivia Rodrigo. She finally met Taylor Swift IRL and now she’s on the cover of Billboard Magazine.

-Well, this is unexpected. John Mulaney and Olivia Munn are dating, says People.

-In other surprising couples news, Kat Dennings and Andrew W.K. confirmed that they are engaged.

-Are Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker the horniest famous couple? Their social media interactions point to “yes”.

–Gal Gadot had a chance to redeem herself. She did not.

–Josh Duhamel says he sent Armie Hammer an email after replacing him in Shotgun Wedding. “I know Armie a little bit, and when I knew I was gonna get the part, I emailed him and said, ‘Listen, I know you are going through it right now, I don’t like to get roles like this and I just wanted to let you know that I am thinking about you and good luck, get through it.'” I wonder if he sent similarly supportive notes to Hammer’s alleged victims?

–Tom Cruise is not apologizing for his rant on the Mission: Impossible 7 set: “I said what I said. There was a lot at stake at that point.”

–Prince Harry appeared on Dax Shepard’s podcast and said he and Meghan Markle would pretend not to know one another when they went shopping in the U.K. in the early days of their relationship.

–Colton Underwood says he was ‘blackmailed’ into coming out.

–Chloé Zhao, Issa Rae and Emerald Fennell are among THR’s 2021 Women in Entertainment Power 100 list.

-I’m surprised NBC agreed to end This Is Us since it seems to be one of the few legitimate network hits left, but good for them for going out on their own terms.

-Yesterday Ellen DeGeneres alluded to cancel culture when she announced her show’s ending, and today she said that the toxic workplace complaints were “orchestrated”. She told the Today Show: “I really didn’t understand it. I still don’t understand it. It was too orchestrated. It was too coordinated. People get picked on, but for four months straight for me. And then for me to read in the press about a toxic work environment, when all I’ve ever heard from every guest that comes on the show is what a happy atmosphere this is and what a happy place this is.” Right, because celebrities guests who pop in for two hours would have similar experiences as fulltime crew members.

-Meanwhile, her former employees are happy that she seems to be facing consequences.

-There’s talk that Tiffany Haddish might fill Ellen’s shoes.

–John Barrowman has been removed from the Doctor Who Immersive Experience in the wake of allegations of inappropriate onset behavior.

-Another showrunner (this time the guy behind All Rise) reportedly made everyone’s life miserable before getting fired.

-I never thought I’d say this, but the long-delayed Friends reunion special might actually be worth the wait? It will feature guest stars David Beckham, Justin Bieber, BTS, James Corden, Cindy Crawford, Cara Delevingne, Lady Gaga, Kit Harington, Mindy Kaling, Tom Selleck, Reese Witherspoon, Malala Yousafzai and more. BTS alone will make it a ratings monster.

–Jennifer Garner and Édgar Ramírez visited a migrant shelter at the U.S.-Mexico border.

-The Knives Out 2 cast keeps expanding. Yesterday we heard about Janelle Monáe, and today’s addition is Kathryn Hahn (who’s clearly going to be the murderer, ’cause it was Agatha all along).

–Grimes says she was hospitalized for a panic attack after appearing on SNL.

-I’m assuming Channing Tatum has a social media manager who posted this comment on Jonah Hill‘s post, but it’s hilarious and he should take all the credit.

-A massive flagship Harry Potter store in New York City is being planned. Read the room, guys!

-I adored this look back at A Knight’s Tale, which turned 20.

–Pink is getting in on the documentary action. Here’s the first trailer.

-A new trailer has dropped for Hitman’s Wife Bodyguard.

 

The Weeknd Talks Grammy Snub

the weeknd billboard

–The Weeknd is still all up in his feels about his Grammy snub. Calling it “an attack,” he tells Billboard: “I use a sucker punch as an analogy. Because it just kind of hit me out of nowhere. I definitely felt … I felt things. I don’t know if it was sadness or anger. I think it was just confusion. I just wanted answers. Like, ‘What happened?'” He added that the three previous Grammy Awards he’s won “mean nothing” to him now.

–Taylor Swift fans are feeling a little duped today: a rumour of new music turned out to be re-packaged previous releases.

–Armie Hammer has exited the upcoming TV series The Offer, which tells the behind the scenes story of the making of The Godfather. This was a really buzzy project — one wonders if he’s just laying low because of what’s already being talked about, or if he’s bracing for more.

-Wow. Call Me By Your Name’s Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet are eyeing a reunion for the coming-of-age horror story Bones & All, which is — wait for it — a cannibal love story. I’m not joking.

-The latest installment of Variety’s Actors on Actors features Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun, who discuss language and what it was like expressing themselves in American Sign Language and Korean, respectively, in their most recent films.

-I don’t watch Snowpiercer, but this interview with Daveed Diggs is a delight!

–Miley Cyrus did a NPR Tiny Desk concert and covered Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You.” It’s a bit hard, but I’ll allow it.

–Wendy Williams says she hired a P.I. to follow her husband when they were together and he discovered a mistress. “The P.I. followed her to her GYN appointments. The P.I. ended up finding out that the girl was pregnant.”

-I don’t watch RHOC, but Rick Leventhal‘s daughter seems to be reading her new stepmother for filth on social media.

–Chris Martin and Dakota Johnson‘s new Malibu estate looks less palatial than I was expecting.

–Daisy Ridley and James McAvoy are among the stars appearing for charity in Celebrity Bake Off, but McAvoy has clearly already won in every way that counts.

–Joshua Bassett released a new video, but posted on Instagram “hiiii, i wrote this song half a year ago, and this release has been scheduled for months!” — just in case you thought he was trying to wade in on the Olivia Rodrigo vs Sabrina Carpenter diss track drama.

–Zendaya is defending the 12-year age gap between her and her Malcolm & Marie costar John David Washington: “People often forget — which is understandable because I’ve been playing 16 since I was 16, you know — [but] I am grown. I knew that, as I grow and as I evolve, there would be that moment where I could play someone my own age.”

–Zendaya also let it slip that her Spider-Man 3 character will be “running from aliens.” Sigh. How has MCU not yet grasped that the beauty of the Spider-Man movies is that they’re about a high school kid dealing with neighborhood baddies. The smaller stakes is why Homecoming was so great.

-This is a very good piece on how the MCU has conditioned its audience not to accept change. There’s a great show to be had in WandaVision if the whole thing is a construct she’s created to cope with her grief, but I’d be surprised if it goes that way. And we barely got three episodes of “what the heck is going on?” weirdness before they’re feeling the need to shift into explaining.

–Trevor Noah explained the GameStop stock drama as if he were a bubbly Margot Robbie in The Big Short.

-Netflix confirmed that Lupin’s remaining 5 episodes will debut this summer.

–This is a good piece on how when it comes to onscreen diversity, quality is just as important as quantity.

–Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo play BFFs in the trailer for Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar.