–Regina King‘s victory lap for her directorial debut One Night In Miami continues with an InStyle cover. She also appeared on last night’s Kimmel, talking about what happened in Washington yesterday.
-It’s over for Shia LaBeouf and Margaret Qualley. Us Weekly is reporting they split on Saturday (making me wonder if their “source” is DeuxMoi, who posted a tip earlier with the same info). In any case, I’m happy she’s free of him.
-According to Page Six, who broke the divorce story, Kanye West’s presidential run was the last straw for Kim Kardashian.
-Here’s a look at every studio film directed by female filmmakers expected to come out in the next two years.
–Taylor Swift quietly released an evermore deluxe edition on streaming platforms, with bonus tracks “right where you left me” and “it’s time to go.” Of course, everyone is assuming the latter is about Karlie Kloss.
-Speaking of Kloss, who’s the wife of Joshua Kushner and sister-in-law to Jared and Ivanka, she’s speaking up against Trumpsters. But Tavi Gevinsonis not impressed her Kloss’ comments. (Gah, I adore Tavi!)
-Quelle surprise: Britney Spears‘ ex hubby Jason Alexander is an anti-masker who attended the Trump riot.
–Sir Ian McKellenexpressed support for his former X-Men costar Elliot Page, and recalls a time he criticized her on set for speaking softly. “I’m so happy for Elliot. And so disappointed in myself that I didn’t detect what their difficulty was with communicating.”
-There’s nothing like kicking off the new year with a romantic pairing none of us saw coming. Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles are apparently dating. They were photographed hand-in-hand at his manager’s wedding over the weekend. The Daily Mail then published photos of Wilde and Styles arriving back at his home in Los Angeles with their luggage on Monday, while a source tells People they’ve been dating “for a few weeks.” Just imagine; if she hadn’t fired Shia LaBeouf from her movie and replaced him with Styles, we would have been deprived of this deliciousness!
-Well, this is weird. TMZ is reporting that Tanya Roberts, a former Bond girl and That 70s Show star who was reported dead yesterday, is apparently alive, despite statements to the contrary from her husband and PR rep.
–Zoe Kravitz and Karl Glusmanhave split up after 18 months of marriage.
– I don’t watch the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, but everyone seems to be super pissed by the series finale. I don’t understand this enduring trend. It’s not “fan service” to give your audience what they want at the end if that’s what your entire show has been building towards.
-Speaking of Bridgerton, I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of Jonathan Bailey doing Broadway tunes on Youtube. His character was a jerk in season one, but if the show follows the books, than everyone’s going to love him in season two.
-In order to play a boxer in his latest video, Justin Bieber had all of his tattoos covered up.
–Blake Shelton really needs to learn how to read the room.
-Don’t expect Zac Synder to have a bright future with DC Films/HBO Max after the release of his cut of Justice League. A Warner Bros exec called it “a storytelling cul-de-sac — a street that leads nowhere.”
-This sort of flew under the radar because of the holidays, but it’s messed up: A judge ruled that Danny Masterson and the women accusing him of sexual assault must resolve their lawsuits through Scientology arbitration. I’ve never heard of mediation for criminal charges.
-I feel bad for Vanessa Kirby, who’s award-baiting performance in Pieces of a Woman is now being overshadowed by costar Shia LaBeouf’s assault accusations.
-Here’s the new trailer for One Night In Miami, coming to Amazon Prime next week. I adored this movie.
-If you were online at all over the last few days, you’ve probably caught up with the Hilaria Baldwin drama, in which it was revealed that Alec Baldwin‘s wife was actually born in Massachusetts and has faked a Spanish accent for years. This is my favourite kind of end-of-year scandal: a harmless saga featuring random celebrity cameos (hello, Amy Schumer) and a couple who keeps digging a deeper hole after getting caught up in their own lies.
–Constance Wuwelcomed her first child with her boyfriend, musician Ryan Kattner — and they did it 6 months ago and managed to keep it under wraps.
–Emma Roberts and Garrett Hedlund also had their first child, a boy named Rhodes.
–Nick Cannon and his girlfriend, Brittany Bell, also welcomed their second child together over the holidays.
-Personally, I adored Bridgerton on Netflix, even if it’s not without its flaws (the showrunner insists it’s not just colour-blind casting but the show barely engages with race at all). Also, a lot of people’s favourite book is the one focused on Penelope (which I haven’t got to yet), but the reveal at the end of this season makes me wonder how much the audience will still be rooting for her when it’s time for her love story. In any case, if the show follows the books the next season should focus on Anthony and his new love interest, who’s the best character. Like, so good she makes him tolerable.
-We can’t talk about Bridgerton without talking about THE SCENE. Perhaps because I just read the book I was expecting it, but I was surprised at how vocal the reaction to it was. The scene in the book is even *more* problematic but it does a better job with Simon’s POV in the aftermath than the show does. In the book, he more clearly resists, his reaction stutter is worse, it explores his feelings of betrayal more deeply, she’s way more repentant, and he physically separates from her until he can sort out his feelings. Still, I can’t help but wonder why the show didn’t just drop that scene altogether, or at the very least focus more on Simon’s reaction than Daphne’s.
-Speaking of dubious sex scenes in this week’s pop culture, this is a very, very good piece on both Wonder Woman 1984 and Bridgerton’s missteps when it comes to the lack of male consent.
-Speaking of WW84, this review nails it. I still can’t believe that they made Wonder Woman a secondary character in her own sequel, and that her main storyline was about how she’s spent the past 70 years pining (ha!) for a guy she once spent a week with.
-In movie news that actually sounds good, Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum will star in The Lost City of D; she as a romance novelist and he as a romance novel model. Together they’ll be entangled in a “cutthroat jungle adventure.”
–Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have released a holiday podcast special on Spotify. They had Stacey Abrams as a guest and she talked about #BlackLivesMatter and the importance of voting which helped turn Georgia blue.
–Halsey is taking a social media break after apologizing for sharing a photo depicting her eating disorder without adding a trigger warning.
-Netflix is introducing a new weekly chat show about its trending shows. I wonder how this is going to work, seeing as you can’t really have aftershows for series when all your audience is at different stages of their binge?
-Speaking of Netflix shows, the cheerleading drama Dare Me debuts today and critics love it.
–Michael B. Jordan will make his directorial debut with the upcoming third installment of the Creed franchise.
–Lori Loughlin has been released from prison after her 2-month sentence following her college bribery scam.
–Justin Bieber‘s (or Justin Bieber’s PR firm’s) response to his wife on social media is very funny.
–Variety apologized to Carey Mulligan for its “insensitive language and insinuation” after she says its review of Promising Young Woman was “basically saying that I wasn’t hot enough” for the role.
-Speaking of Variety, they had a deep dive into Shia LaBeouf’s career that seems to have gotten overlooked in the holiday rush. It includes a couple of interesting tidbits, like how Harry Styles replaced him in Olivia Wilde’s upcoming film Don’t Worry Darling because Wilde has a “zero asshole policy” on her sets.
–Regina King‘s victory lap for her directorial debut One Night In Miami continues with an InStyle cover. She also appeared on last night’s Kimmel, talking about what happened in Washington yesterday.