Browsing Tag

Steven Spielberg

SZA Makes It To The Other Side

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-I know she seems to hate it for some reason, but SZA’s Rolling Stone cover story is really good! She tries to temper expectations about her next release (“Music is coming out this year for sure. An album? Strong words”), talks about coming to terms with fame (“I’ve been in the airport on the way to see my grandmother on life support and [fans] are like, ‘‘Aw, girl, what are you doing here? Can I get this picture now?'”) and addresses the devastating loss of her grandmother (“I didn’t want to make music. I didn’t. I was just trying to not kill myself, and not quit, period. Because it was really fucking hard, and lonely as fuck”).

-She also released the video for “The Other Side,” her collab with Justin Timberlake for the Trolls World Tour soundtrack.

-The Johnny Depp apologists who were all over Twitter a couple of weeks ago seem strangely silent today. According to text messages read out in court this week, Depp once texted actor pal Paul Bettany: “Let’s burn Amber [Heard]…Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f–k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead.” Depp is in London for a preliminary hearing in his libel suit against British newspaper The Sun over an article that alleged Depp had been abusive to Heard. The texts were revealed in court after previous lawyers for Depp had accidentally shared 70,000 messages from and to the actor with The Sun’s legal team — by mistake!

Prince Harry spoke at a conference for his sustainable travel initiative Travalyst in Edinburgh today and asked to just be called Harry.

BTSappearance on Carpool Karaoke was super cute. Dammit, I’m going to have to learn all their names and pick one to stan, aren’t I?

-Not surprisingly, Jennifer Garner‘s boyfriend John Miller is reportedly “uncomfortable” with Ben Affleck‘s candid interviews in which he keeps talking about how his biggest regret was their divorce.

Adrien Brody is reportedly dating Marchesa fashion designer Georgina Chapman, who is Harvey Weinstein’s ex-wife.

George Clooney said he was “surprised and saddened” to learn of the investigation involving Nespresso farms and child labour. “Clearly this board and this company still have work to do.”

Ryan Murphy‘s American Horror Story is not my jam, but that series has the best casting on TV today. Season’s 10 cast was just announced, with Macaulay Culkin joining Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates and Evan Peters.

-The latest Quibi trailer gives us blink-and-you’ll-miss-it looks at their new shows starring Anna Kendrick, Liam Hemsworth, Idris Elba, Sophie Turner, Will Forte, Bill Murray, Rachel Brosnahan, Laurence Fishburne, Chrissy Teigen, Don Cheadle and Lena Waithe.  The AV Club has a list of all the major offerings (so far).

Steven Spielberg won’t direct Indiana Jones 5, with James Mangold in talks to replace him.

-The This Is Us cast is out here doing TikTok challenges.

Hilary Duff shaded Disney+, implying the Lizzie McGuire revival is on hold because it was considered too mature for the streaming service.

Taylor Swift is releasing a new video tomorrow for “The Man” – which she directed. It’s my least favourite song on the album because it’s so very on the nose but I’m interested in what she does behind the camera.

-I have no interest in watching Amazon’s Hunters starring Al Pacino so I read this spoilery review. The big twist sounds hella dumb.

-The people behind Invisible Man created a bunch of scary stunts for the junket. I hate this. These things are stressful enough; journalists are just trying to do their jobs.

-This whole thread about nice celebrity encounters made me happy.

Octavia Spencer plays a millionaire in a new trailer for the upcoming Netflix series Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker.

Game of Thrones Teases the End

-Entertainment Weekly dropped 16 collectible covers for Game of Thrones’ final season. The story details the biggest battle sequence the show has ever done as an “uneasy collection of allies” will fight the Night King and his army at Winterfell, and there’s talk that one on the final six episodes will be “a calm-before-the-storm entry” with “play-like intimacy” that features closed-door scenes between pairs of characters.

Luke Perry is dead at 52 after suffering a stroke. This one is a heartbreaker. Twitter is now flooded with celebs and journalists telling stories about how he was more lovely and grounded than you could ever expect from someone who got so famous so fast so young. 90210 was super important to me and people my age, and I crushed on Pike from the Buffy movie hard. And he had just gained a whole new generation of fans with Riverdale. Tragic.

-I really liked this tribute to Perry and his ability to play the ultimate fantasy boyfriend.

-As if this day couldn’t get worse for gen-xers, The Prodigy frontman Keith Flint was found dead at his home in Essex today of a suspected suicide.

-I guess I’m having an emotional day or whatever but the Queer Eye season 3 trailer made me tear up.

Pete Davidson and Kate Beckinsale were all over each other at a hockey game. That’s a lot of tongue.

Khloe Kardashian swiftly changed her tune about Jordyn Woods.

John Mulaney’s SNL monologue about New York was very, very good. Also, the “What’s That Name” skit  was legit funny.

-It’s lovely that Gwyneth Paltrow attended Chris Martin‘s bday party and all, but um…is she wearing pajamas?

-This is an interesting look at how Esquire lost the Bryan Singer story.

Sir Ian McKellen just gave a master class in apologizing.

-Good on Jaden Smith for helping bring clean water to Flint.

-This profile of Rob Delaney is both hilarious and moving. He’s incredibly open about the death of his two-year-old son and his worries about having another child soon after (“I knew that I would ‘love’ him. But I didn’t know if I would like him or bond with him, ’cause I didn’t know if I would be too afraid to”).

-Steven Spielberg ramped up his case against streaming sites like Netflix from being eligible to win an Oscar and people went after him HARD. And I get it; Spielberg’s statement came off as incredibly elitist (I especially hate the part where he seems to consider an Emmy Award as insubstantial as a Teen Choice — “Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie. You certainly, if it’s a good show, deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar”), it’s a really weird year to be praising Oscar-quality movies when crap like Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody did so well, his insistence of needing to see movies in theatres is undercut by the knowledge that most Oscar voters watch the nominees with screeners at home, and you can’t really deny that Netflix is opening up more types of movies to more types of people — including those who can’t go to the theatre due to expense, disabilities, etc. On the flip side, Speilberg’s critics are holding up Roma and Mudbound as movies Netflix was responsible for bringing to life but that doesn’t really track (both of those movies were bid on by numerous distributors and Netflix won), Netflix spent $50 million campaigning for Roma’s Oscar chances, and I am very concerned about the kind of monopoly Netflix is building and remain skeptical about how sustainable their business model is. The whole issue is incredibly thorny, and maybe giving Oscar-campaigning movies a limited theatrical run for a few weeks before it hits Netflix is the best of both worlds? I don’t know the answer but I do know that the blind stanning of Netflix during this debate surprised me.

-I cannot wait to watch HBO’s documentary on the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her scamming blood-testing company Theranos.

-The new trailer for Shazam has dropped. I’ve been in a theatre twice now when a trailer for this has aired and the audience didn’t laugh once. Not a peep.

Beyonce Just Gave An Actual Interview and It Was Awesome

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Beyonce hasn’t given a sit down interview in three years, but she just made it worth the wait. In her new Elle cover story,  she discusses self-care, stands up for feminism (“I don’t understand the negative connotation of the word, or why it should exclude the opposite sex”), addresses the backlash to her “Formation” video (“If celebrating my roots and culture during Black History Month made anyone uncomfortable, those feelings were there long before a video and long before me”), and talks about being a business woman (“Power is making things happen w/out asking for permission.”) It all feels very controlled and rehearsed (maybe even emailed?), but that’s all part of why we love her.

Melissa McCarthy killed it during her lip sync battle against Jimmy Fallon. Her flying props beat his fake rollerskating.

Amy Schumer very rightly criticized Glamour magazine for putting her in their plus-size issue without telling her.

Joel McHale is going to play Chevy Chase in a Netflix movie. I want this in my eyeballs right now!

-In his Reddit AMA, Johnathon Schaech said it was “an honour” to be Ellen’s beard in the 90s. How great would it be if everyone who’s ever bearded in Hollywood dished the dirt?

Aaron Paul says three Breaking Bad fans crashed his wedding and he didn’t realize until he saw the photos later.

Charlize Theron actually had the audacity to complain in her GQ cover story that she’s too pretty to be cast in meaty parts. “How many roles are out there for the gorgeous, fucking, gown-wearing eight-foot model?”  Stahp!
Heather Matarazzo had the best reaction to Charlize.

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka celebrated their 12th anniversary together in Canada because we’re awesome and not passing ridiculously unbelievable laws.

-Oh look. The Walking Dead showrunners are lying to fans again. That’s swell.

-Woodworking extraordinaire Nick Offerman handcrafted a lovely end table for Stephen Colbert, making him the best guest ever.

Emilia Clarke wants Game of Thrones to end with “close-ups of all the boys’ penises.” The line forms behind me, sister.

-Also, she dated Seth MacFarlane?!  How does this guy keep pulling famous beauties?

Elizabeth Banks’ new site showcases female comedians and looks amazing.

-This is good news: Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien is on the mend.

Daisy Ridley rapping about Star Wars for John Boyega is all kinds of embarrassing.

-Here’s the first full trailer for Disney’s adaptation of The BFG by Steven Spielberg.