-The Succession season 3 trailer has arrived and it’s got everything: fake cyanide pills, Logan in “full fu*king beast” mode, Adrien Brody looking cold, Alexander Skarsgard using his real accent.
–Anya Taylor-Joy is on the October cover of Vogue Mexico.
-Here’s the You season 3 trailer. (The noise I made when Scott Speedman showed up…) Twitter buzz from TV critics suggest this is its strongest season yet.
–The Humans trailershows Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun, Richard Jenkins and Amy Schumer trying to survive a family dinner in a horrible NYC apartment. This is my closing TIFF film this weekend so I’m hoping to end on a high.
-Here’s the first teaser for Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, starring Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett.
-I missed Melissa McCarthy‘s Instyle cover but I love the photoshoot. In the interview, she talks about anti-maskers (“I truly didn’t think people hated each other that much or hated the idea of people who they don’t even know”) and quarantining with her mom (“She stayed five months, which was amazing. I haven’t lived with my mom every day since I was 18 years old. To have that time with her again was unbelievable”).
–Gayle King keeps breaking royal family news. She says: “Meghan [Markle] has documents to back up everything that she said on Oprah’s interview. Everything.”
-Also, Prince William reportedly signed Harry’s name to the 2020 ‘bullying’ denial without Harry’s approval.
–Billie Eilish ditched her green and black hairstyle for a new blonde look. I love it.
–Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez are still engaged, a source tells People.
–Demi Lovato‘s YouTube doc is filled with sad revelations, including that she lost her virginity in a rape by a costar in her Disney days, and she was sexually assaulted by her drug dealer the night of her overdose.
-Youtuber David Dobrikresponded to allegations of sexual assault against Durte Dom, a member of his Vlog Squad, saying “consent is super, super important to me.” He added, “With people in my life that I don’t film with anymore, like Dom, I chose to distance myself, because I don’t align with some of the actions, and I don’t stand for any kind of misconduct. I’ve been really disappointed by some of my friends.”
–Kevin Feigeshut down rumours that Chris Evans will reprise his role in Captain America in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. I think WandaVision has taught us not to expect huge MCU cameos.
-Justified’s creative team is reunited to develop a Elmore Leonard novel for FX, and Timothy Olyphant is rumoured to be reprising his Raylan Givens character for it.
-Even Michelle Obama couldn’t get Jimmy Kimmel’s daughter to eat her veggies.
–Matthew McConaughey confirmed he’s considering a run for Texas governor. “I would be a fool not to… As I’ve said before and I’ll say again now, I have to decide for me what is my category where I can be most useful in life from here?”
-Here’s a blast from the past no one asked for: Garth Brooks says he’s reissuing his Chris Gaines album with bonus material.
–Steven Yeun and Ali Wong will be co-starring together in a new limited series from Lee Sung Jin, who is behind FX’s Dave — a show I haven’t seen but people rave about.
-This is a great piece in Variety about how Hollywood is complicit in the violence against Asians in America: “Reducing Asians to flat, heavily accented caricatures is a favorite pastime in this country, and has been for decades.”
–Bruce Lee‘s daughter also spoke out against the increasing violence, tweeting “This is where ‘kung flu’ leads. You think it’s a joke and that we shouldn’t be so serious about it. But then there are those who latch onto it with hatred and xenophobia and use it to fuel their fear and contempt until it explodes into heinous acts.”
-I just finished Allen v. Farrow and I don’t know how he comes back from this. The series takes the idea of separating the art from the artist and turns it on its head.
-Minari star Steven Yeun gets the GQ cover star treatment, which feels long overdue. The interview is great but I don’t know why they used that photo for the cover when this shot was right there!
-We knew Oprah‘s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was going to be good based on the promos, but this was a rare instance where the promotional material actually undersold the finished product, which went broader and deeper than anybody expected. Here are the 10 biggest revelations.
-I liked Lainey’s piece on how strategic it was to have Harry be the one to dunk on his family.
-Honestly, I’m most happy that they revealed they had a secret ceremony before the big wedding, which is a plot twist straight out of the Fug Girls’ novel – which is loosely based on them.
-CBS This Morning released more clips from the interview. Highlights include Meghan talking about her father’s betrayal, Harry calling the UK press racist, and how the Queen was pressured to rescind her invite to the couple to visit her. Meghan also said she hadn’t seen her half-sister in nearly a decade, but she “changed her last name back to Markle only when I started dating Harry. So I think that says enough.” But the biggest post-interview revelation was Harry’s clarification that the skin colour conversation did not happen with Queen or Prince Phillip (leading to lots of speculation it was Charles).
-The ratings were huge – 17.1 million people watched it. I’m guessing a lot of west coast people tuned in after seeing us east coasters lose our minds on Twitter.
-Oh, there was also an award show last night! The Critic’s Choice Awards, which led to some excellent moments, including the kid from Minari suddenly sobbingduring his acceptance speech, Jason Sudeikis thanking his ex Olivia Wilde, and this perfect picture from when Ted Lasso won.
-Kim’s Convenience, which found a global audience on Netflix, will be concluding its run with its current fifth season.
–Camila Mendes said she started having panic attacks while filming Riverdale amid covid. “When we first started shooting season 5, I started having panic attacks, which was strange for me. I think it was because I was in Vancouver and borders were closed—no one could visit us. You start to miss your home and your life, and you don’t have your friends or community with you.”
–Charisma Carpenter wrote a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter on how to be an ally for victims of abuse.
-I mostly liked the WandaVision finale (coulda done without the action scenes but Marvel is gonna Marvel), but I especially liked that the show stuck to its guns about what it’s really about.
-I also very much agree with this thread about how mystery box shows have ruined audiences’ abilities to understand what the narrative is trying to tell us.
-The fact that the big cameo Paul Bettany was teasing was actually himself is the best trolling ever.
-A guy from Mumford & Sons is in hot waterfor praising a controversial right-wing author.
-There is a lot of conversations happening about colourism and Lovecraft County. The show has apologized after an extra claimed that the show’s makeup artists darkened her skin for an appearance on the series.
-Netflix released a promo for the next batch of Lupin episodes.
