-This was a good interview with Miley Cyrus, which is getting buried by the attention surrounding the trashy cover.
-Black Panther star Letitia Wright defended her decision to share a video questioning the use of vaccines after facing backlash from her followers and celebs like Don Cheadle and Roxane Gay. Look, I get why people (especially Black and indigenous people) don’t trust the medical industry because there is some horrific history there. But if you have a huge platform, this YouTube guy isn’t the one to promote. I at least appreciated that Wright was trying to understand why people were so upset, but yikes.
-There was another HUGE return on Grey’s Anatomy last night. (Don’t click if you don’t want to be spoiled). I wonder if Katherine Heigl or Sandra Oh is next?
-Critics are saying David Fincher’s new movie Mank is a finely-tuned Netflix drama about the co-writer of Citizen Kane is about the power of movies.
-The reviews for the Euphoria christmas episode are glowing – despite it sounding very stripped down. Aside from an opening fantasy of life with Jules, the entire special is just Rue and Ali talking over cold pancakes about drugs, sobriety and the exhausting struggle of feeling suspended between the two extremes.
–Tom Cruiseposted a video about going to see Tenet in a crowded theatre and saying “Welcome back to the movies everybody.” I know this was shot in London, but this still feels wildly irresponsible. It doesn’t help that he’s wearing a vented mask.
-I agree with this take on how Christopher Nolan has handled this whole thing has really soured my view of him.
-Some major film publications are refusing to review The New Mutants because Disney did not make screening links available or offer socially-distanced press screenings to film critics.
-In a new interview Jon Hamm says he’s already seen a cut of Top Gun: Maverick and gives it two thumbs up: “It just has that amazing Tom Cruise, tentpole blockbuster, summertime thing. It’s so good. Obviously, Tom knocks it out of the park and all the young kids are great in it. It’s the movie equivalent of a fist pump. You’re just like, ‘Yes!’ It’s exactly what it’s meant to be.”
–Meghan Markle and Gloria Steinem sat down to record a backyard chat to talk about representation, women’s rights, and voting. In the preview video, their dogs make a surprise appearance.
-I loved Fringe and am seriously considering a quarantine rewatch, but actress Jasika Nicole is right about how terrible the show’s running joke about mispronouncing her character’s name was. She also tweetedthat at the beginning, she wasn’t given rides to work despite all the regular cast members getting it, and that one director refused to learn her name. “It was so bad that josh [Jackson] found a name tag, wrote the phonetic spelling of my name on it, and put it on his shirt, knowing the director would pay attention to HIM, might show me some respect that way. josh was trying to use his power/clout for good. Still didn’t work tho.”
–Jennifer Garnerposted a cute video making fun of herself for crying over the finale of The Office.
–Soleil Moon Frye pieced together hundreds of hours of footage she shot in the ’90s while growing up in Hollywood and cut it into a documentary that Hulu just picked up called KID 90. Look at these photos of her with baby Leonardo DiCaprio, Jared Leto, Tobey Maguire and Cuba Gooding Jr!
-This is a good review of Lovecraft Country. I was blown away by last week’s premiere, but the follow up episode was surprisingly shaky.
-Here’s Brendan Gleeson as Trump in the trailer for HBO’s limited series The Comey Rule.
–Natalia Dyer says she feels protective of her younger Stranger Things costars: “I generally feel like, to me, it’s oversexualizing them. I feel protective over the younger kids even though they’re not kids anymore, they’re teens. They’re all great people and all having to grow up in very crazy circumstances.”
-In the first Enola Holmes trailer, Millie Bobby Brown is on the case. Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, and Helena Bonham-Carter costar in the upcoming Netflix film. This is a *very* good trailer!
–Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan fall in love in the trailer for Ammonite. It will premiere at TIFF — which, thanks to the fact that the festival will be mostly digital this year, anyone in Canada can get tickets to! Digital screenings are $19 each and you get the movie for 24 hours. Tickets go onsale to the general public on Sept 5.
-This is a straight-up day-maker: Schitt’s Creek star Annie Murphy recreated her character’s iconic song “A Little Bit Alexis”on Kelly Clarkson‘s show, with the host adding a verseas the befuddled stars of 1917 looked on. (Also, I had no clue Murphy is married to the lead singer of Hollerado.)
-This is an interesting look at why this awards season, more events have been closed to press and stars have been scarce with red carpet sound bites.
–Jessica Simpson says she once kissed Justin Timberlake, but the timelines are very wonky considering both of relationship statuses at the time.
-A ton of Super Bowl commercials are already out: Bryan Cranston and Tracee Ellis Ross recreate The Shining for Mountain Dew, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen shill for Genesis’s new SUV, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Charlie Day and Schitt’s Creek’s Emily Hampshire go through their dirty laundry for Tide, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi promote Alexa, and Jimmy Fallon and John Cena work out for Michelob Ultra.
-This is a fascinating read on Brad Pitt and how his looks and charm belie real creative talent. “Pitt has alternately rejected and embraced the dreamboat role, though he seems consistently game when asked to play that part in photo spreads; maybe because he knows it so well, he is also adept at sending it up.”
–Charlie Hunnam is walking back those shitty comments he made about not wanting to marry his girlfriend.
-Oh man. Sebastian Stanposted drama about the ending of Endgame on his Insta stories, and John Boyega tweeted about it. The both have negative f’s left to give.
–James Corden said he needed therapy in 2009 after his fame in the UK went to his head: “I started to behave like a brat that I just don’t think I am. It’s so intoxicating, that first flush of fame, and I think it’s even more intoxicating if you’re not bred for it.” If blind items are to believed, he might need a little tune-up.
-The American Dirt controversycontinues: the publisher just cancelled its book tour. My favourite line in their statement is “We should never have said that [the author]’s husband was an undocumented immigrant while not specifying that he was from Ireland.” And before anyone complains about cancel culture, the book just hit number 1 and the author has sold another novel.
-I really like this piece on The Good Place, BoJack Horseman, and the audacity of committing to decency.
–Kelis says that Pharrell Williams cheated her out of money from her first two albums.
–Lakeith Stanfield wants to play the Joker and god yes. This is literally the only way I’d be interesting in watching anything new about that character.
–Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan say they want to “be old ladies together making movies about old ladies.” And I want to be an old lady who watches them all.
