Monthly Archives

January 2018

George Clooney Recounts His First Meeting with Amal

George Clooney gushes about wife Amal in David Letterman‘s next Netflix interview. On their first meeting, he says, “It was the wildest thing. A mutual friend of ours said, ‘I’m stopping by and can I bring my friend?’ And I was like, ‘Of course!’… The funniest thing was my mom and dad were visiting so my parents were there. And we just talked, we stayed up all night talking. And I got her email address, because she was going to send me some pictures of my parents. So we started writing. I didn’t know if she wanted to go out with me — I just thought we were buddies.” Oh George, you sweet summer child.

Tiffany Haddish says she once wrote a treatment for a show where she takes celebrities on Groupon excursions, and now that’s all I want to watch.

-Here’s the trailer for Mindy Kaling’s new NBC show (which she produced and stars in), in which she drops off her kid to live with his dad in New York City, where the teen wants to go to art school.

-Oh ffs. Director David Yates confirmed that the Fantastic Beasts sequel will revolve around Dumbledore and Grindelwald, but will avoid addressing Dumbledore’s sexuality. Yates said “Not explicitly, but I think all the fans are aware of that,” which is such a copout. Why can’t a character who’s gay in canon be depicted as such onscreen?

Keanu ReevesSuper Bowl commercial for Squarespace is oddly beautiful.

-I stopped watching House of Cards very early in its run, but suddenly the no-Kevin Spacey season sounds awesome. Robin Wright is the lead, and now Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear will play siblings.

-Speaking of shows that are getting major cast overhauls in their final stretch, Katherine Heigl is joining Suits for Season 8. I feel like she’s one of those people that we all have to rethink our treatment of. Sure, there are lots of stories about her and her mom’s behaviour on set, but really the reason everyone turned on her was because she dared to imply that Knocked Up had some problematic portrayals of women…and she wasn’t wrong. And Hollywood crucified her for it and labelled her “difficult.” We’ve given male actors a free pass for behaving much, much worse.

-Along those lines, Kathy Griffin is plotting her comeback in the new THR cover story, eight months after torching her career (and friendship with Anderson Cooper) with a photograph of a decapitated Trump. “I didn’t rape anybody. I didn’t assault anybody. I didn’t get a DUI. I mean, my God, there are celebrities that fucking kill people.”

-In a new interview, Hayley Atwell apologized for working with Woody Allen (and casually mentioned that Ewan McGregor was in the film, too).

Chrissy Teigen said she freaked out and acted weird when she met Beyonce at the Grammys last weekend. “It was like, ‘milady.'”

-Bless Kelly Clarkson, who chipped away at Grammy president Neil Portnow‘s comments piece by piece and kindly directed him to her “A-game album.”

-I really liked this article on how The Good Place went against the antihero-TV idea that people don’t improve, by showing that being good is damn hard work.  Also, these fan theories on what the finale means are great.

-Speaking of articles I liked, this profile on Amber Tamblyn (which the writer started in Oct, before the Me Too movement – in which she’s becoming an outspoken activist) is a fascinating read.

-Another good read: how much Sundance was judged as a “quiet” year had to do with it being a female-driven year.

-The CW just ordered six new dramas, including a Roswell reboot.

-I’ve never watched BoJack Horesman (I know, I know – I’ve heard it’s amazing), but this is a really thoughtful interview with the creator about how he regrets his part in animation’s whitewashing.

-The Revenant co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy made a bet around the 2016 Oscars and Hardy, who lost, kept his end of the bargain.

-As most late night comedians weighed in on the state of the union speech, Jimmy Kimmel focused last night’s show on more human coverage—with surreal results.

-Orange is the New Black star Taryn Manning was unhappy to learn that her SAG Awards dress is only $200 and widely available, but soon backtracked on her comments.

-Here’s the new trailer for the next Jack Ryan film. I guess John Krasinski is still trying to do the movie star thing, huh?

Glee’s Mark Salling Dead at 35

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-This is terrible: Glee’s Mark Salling is dead of an apparent suicide. He recently pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and was facing up to seven years in prison. It’s a complicated situation, and some of the cast and crew of the show have shared their mixed reactions.

-I’m so glad that the Black Panther reactions from last night’s premiere are glowing. “By far the best Marvel movie to date.” This makes me very happy.

-It was also the hottest red carpet I have ever seen.  (Everyone killed it, but my fave was Issa Rae.)

Mandy Moore talks about her divorce in her Cosmo cover story: “It emboldened me.”

-Suits’ Star Patrick J. Adams opened up about his decision to leave the show, saying of costar/onscreen love interest Meghan Markle: “There was this natural sense that we both knew that the time had come for both of us. It went unspoken and we just enjoyed the hell out of the last few episodes that we got to shoot.” That’s very gracious of him.

Mark Ruffalo offered his theory about why more men aren’t speaking out about #MeToo and #TimesUp: “I think maybe they’re afraid of being accused, I think they may be afraid of feeling like they didn’t do enough or say enough. I’m not sure, but I don’t know why they’re not being asked more.”

Kirsten Dunst showed off her belly bump in this new Rodarte photo shoot.

-Despite this viral photo, Dakota Johnson insists she wasn’t looking for trouble between Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie at the Golden Globes.

Nicole Eggert expanded on her accusations against Scott Baio in a new interview with Megyn Kelly, alleging “sexual touching and abuse.”

Joel Kinnaman says he wasn’t surprised by sexual misconduct allegations against his House of Cards co-star Kevin Spacey.  “I have five or six friends I know who have told stories about Kevin about when they were young and had just arrived in Hollywood.”

-Here’s the trailer for Mute, Duncan Jones’ spiritual sequel to his indie hit Moon (which I ADORED), starring Alexander Skarsgard and Paul Rudd.

-Speaking of new movie trailers starring Paul Rudd, here’s the first one for Ant-Man and the Wasp. Michelle Pfeiffer, y’all!

Females Take a Backseat at the Grammys — Except for Blue Ivy

-The Grammys were last night and they were…weird. The red carpet was strangely subdued, the show’s best moments were from women but they were generally overlooked as the trophies were being handed out, and Kesha’s performance was transcendent but it highlighted just how much the music industry has ignored the Me Too movement. And then came the interview with Recording Academy president Neil Portnow who, when asked why there were so few female winners, had the gall to say that women have “to step up.” (Pink has already taken to Twitter to slam that comment.) He also said of the lack of Lorde performance: “There’s no way we can really deal with everybody.” Um, you had a Shaggy and Sting duet. But ok, then.

-The Grammys did, however, gift the world with this amazing GIF of Blue Ivy trying to get her parents to stop embarrassing her, and it was glorious. This photo of a bystander looking freaked out by being in Beyonce‘s presence is a close second.

Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx looked very couple-y at a Grammys pre-party.

Kate Winslet now says she has “bitter regrets” about working with Woody Allen.

-Oh god. Diane Keaton just took to Twitter to defend Woody.

-Oh god, squared. Julie Delpy reportedly implied that blackness is easier than womanhood. Nope, nope, nope.

-Former Charles In Charge star Nicole Eggert has accused Scott Baio of unspecified impropriety when she was a teenager. She tweeted “Ask @scottbaio what happened in his garage at his house when I was a minor. Creep” and then added “It started when I was 14. Wasn’t a one time deal.” He’s denied any wrongdoing.

-I keep forgetting that Kirsten Dunst is baking a baby Landry!

Oprah is rocking a Gucci coat for the cover of InStyle’s March issue.

-The fact that Busy Phillips spent a large portion of her weekend trying to recreate the karma’s a bitch meme makes me love her even more.

-I only watched 10 minutes of Stana Katic‘s new show and though it seems good, the water tank scene freaked me out too much to continue. While doing press for the show, she broke her silence about ABC’s terrible treatment of her when Castle ended (after eight years as the female lead she was let go from the show at the end of the season, only for it not to get renewed anyway a month later). “I’m actually still not clear on the thought process behind the way that it went down… It hurt and it was a harsh ending.”

-The CW announced its Charmed reboot and original star Holly Marie Combs is not here for itShannen Doherty was a bit more positive, but hated that they’re calling it a “feminist” reboot as if the original wasn’t. She’s got a point.

James Franco was photoshopped out of Vanity Fair’s Hollywood cover at the last minute.

-Mark your calendars: Game Of Thrones’ next season will premiere in April 2019.

-Wait, so Justin Timberlake has already released three singles from his upcoming album? How did I miss two of them?

-This article about Dawson’s Creek’s anniversary and how the show redefined teen romance by moving away from the unquestionable belief that women belonged to men.

Nicole Kidman‘s hidden talent is eating bugs (which isn’t really a hidden talent at all. I can eat bugs — and have. I can’t recite all the US presidents in order like Dakota Fanning. Or fence like Greta Gerwig. Vanity Fair is getting really lax with the criteria for this series…)

-This Matthew Broderick story is perfect.

Tom Cruise watching slow-motion video of his own ankle breaking is oddly compelling.

-Just when I thought that I couldn’t like Black Lightening any more comes news that Jill Scott is joining the show as a supervillain.

Will Smith on YouTube is making my life. He buys fancy equipment for it! He spends his trip to Australia looking for Hugh Jackman and Margot Robbie (who aren’t there)!

-Speaking of Hugh Jackman, I haven’t seen The Greatest Showman because I once had to write an essay on PT Barnum for school and that guy was problematic af, but this video of Hugh crying during the rehearsal of the show’s big number is pretty swelling.

Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy fall in love in the Submergence trailer.

-Here’s the trailer for Unsane, Steven Soderbergh’s new psychological thriller starring Claire Foy. I’m sufficiently intrigued and/or freaked out.