-The Critics’ Choice Awards were last night, but I only caught the last 20 minutes. From what I saw, the red carpet was more exciting than the show itself. Allison Janney and Saoirse Ronan continue to kill it fashion-wise.
-The Mark Wahlberg story continues to unfold in horrifying ways. A source told USA Today that his contract included costar approval and “what he said was, ‘I will not approve Christopher Plummer unless you pay me.’ And that’s how he (expletive) them.” Also it also seems like the initial justification circulating that Michelle Williams was contractually obligated to do reshoots and Wahlberg wasn’t isn’t even true, so it just gets worse and worse. This isn’t about how’s a better negotiator; this is about who’s a garbage person and who isn’t.
-He’s not the only one benefiting from the Me Too movement. Hollywood publicists are charging up to $30,000 in “project” fees to handle clients accused of harassment.
-Sources say James Franco is “in a bad place” following the allegations. Aw, muffin!
–Oprah Winfrey interviewed a few of Hollywood’s most powerful women—including Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman, America Ferrera, Shonda Rhimes, and Tracee Ellis Ross—to discuss the impact of Time’s Up.
–Daniel Radcliffe broke his silence on the Johnny Depp casting controversy in Fantastic Beasts. He very diplomatically praised his Harry Potter producers, while wondering why his costar Jamie Waylett was dropped from the franchise for a weed offence.
–George Clooney will return to TV. Well, Hulu anyway. Close enough.
-Wait, Taylor Swift‘s new video is for End Game?, that crappy song with Ed Sheeran? Seriously, did everyone just forget that Gorgeous is also on that album?!
–Issa Rae might have turned down Drakeat a Golden Globes party and now that’s all I want to talk about!
-There’s more talk that Proud Mary being buried. A Thursday night screening in Detroit with 80 tickets pre-sold was reportedly cancelled by the studio an hour before showtime. That’s bananas.
-Here’s the first trailer for Hulu’s The Looming Towerstarring Jeff Daniels and Michael Stuhlbarg.
-And here’s the first trailer for Alan Ball‘s Here and Now, starring Tim Robbins, Holly Hunter, Sosie Bacon, Jerrika Hinton. Vulturecalls it “HBO’s version of This Is Us.”
–Zendaya looks stunning on the cover of Vogue’s July issue, in which she talks about making demands to Disney execs when she was only 16, and learning trapeze for her new movie.
-THR’s TV Comedy Actress roundtable features Emmy Rossum, Issa Rae, America Ferrera, Pamela Adlon, Minnie Driver, and Katherine Hahn. Among the best bits: Rossum says William H. Macy supported her most during her equal pay fight, Adlon remembered having a similar battle on Californication, Driver talked about directors building ditches for her to stand in when kissing shorter costars instead of just making the actor stand on an apple box, and Hahn talked about always getting typecast as the BFF and pitched a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-type movie where she and Judy Greer are the leads, and every so often you see Kate Hudson running around in the background. (I would watch that.)
–Beyonce might be having her twins right now and the internet is melting down.
–Jessica Chastain would like everyone to stop looking at her wedding photos, which were taken by paps in a helicopter. Fair enough (though I’ll be interested to see if she shares them herself eventually, or sells them to a pub).
-I posted a few days ago about Jake Johnson‘s awesome story about Tom Cruise being the nicest guy ever. Here are 18 more.
-On the flip side, did he have too much say in The Mummy script?
–Elizabeth Banks really stepped in it yesterday when she used an acceptance speech to call out legendary director Steven Spielberg for failing to make female-lead films. Shari Belafonte pointed out The Color Purple, but Banks simply “moved on.” This white feminism bullshit is getting worse.
-Update: Elizabeth tweeted an apology. She’s a producer and a director now; lets hope she learns from this and hires all types of women for her next projects.
-Speaking of famous white women being woke-light, the NYT profile on Katy Perry did her no favours. The writer calls her out repeatedly, saying “in our interview, she proclaimed herself devoted to dialogue but spoke in a near uninterrupted monologue.” It’s like when DeRay Mckesson asked her about cultural appropriation during her live-stream and she talked for two minutes straightbut never actually apologized.
-This is depressing: the Cosby jury is deadlocked. They deliberated for 30 hours over 4 days before telling the judge they couldn’t reach a verdict. He’s ordered them back for more deliberations.
-I can’t believe I somehow missed this last week: Tobey Maguire and ex-wife Jennifer Meyer attended their daughter’s school production of Beauty & the Beast, and all their A-list friends came, including Leonardo DiCaprio (with his wolf pack), Courteney Cox and Gwyneth Paltrow. I bet the other kids felt like crap when only their grandparents showed up for them.
–Gwyneth Paltrow says she’s moving away from acting to focus on Goop. So I guess I’m moving towards ridiculing her full time.
–DeMario Jacksonbroke his silence over those Bachelor In Paradise allegations, saying “my character has been assassinated.”
-Also, this article on drunken hook-ups on reality TV is unnerving. “There are implied incentives available to cast members who are down to fool around.”
–Ryan Seacrest is on the cover of THRwith the crazy story of the secret, heated negotiations to bring him back to the rebooted American Idol. After blowing the record-breaking $25 million to hire Katy Perry, producers went back to Seacrest with half of their original offer and things got tense.
-I watched The Leftovers series finale a week ago and avoided articles/podcasts up until now because I wanted to have time to digest it. (I’ve changed my mind three times since then about whether or not I believe Nora’s story, but I’m holding firm in my first impression that it was a near-perfect finale.) Now that I’m looking up what was written about it, I’m astounded by Vulture’s deep dive. Their writer was basically embedded with the show for months to create this feature. It verges a little into ‘how the sausage is made’ territory, but even if you’ve never seen the show, this is a great read for anyone interested in how TV works.
-Rough Night is only at 55% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it got good reviews from two critics I usually agree with, so that’s promising.
-This is an interesting look at how much Netflix is paying for new TV shows (word is that they’re investing $4 per subscriber on original content.) Basically, they “must spend like a drunken sailor to compete with TV networks.”
–Aisha Tyler emotionally announced on today’s show that she’s leaving The Talk: “I just realized I had to let something go”. Can’t say I’m surprised. She’s at Seacrest-levels of work, with Criminal Minds, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Archer, her podcast, her cocktail company and hitting the festival circuitwith her directorial debut. I don’t even know if I’ve ever watched an episode of The Talk but when she started sob-heaving in that clip I got teary.
-“It doesn’t float my boat,” Jamie Dornansays of S&M. I’m guessing answering invasive questions about his sex life probably doesn’t do much for him either…
-Wow, Orlando Bloom is still really proud of those paparazzi nude pics, huh?
–David Beckham and James Corden‘s new underwear ad is pretty damn perfect.
–Bryce Dallas Howard wasn’t great at playing Pyramid on The Tonight Show – much to the chagrin of teammate Michael Strahan.
–Jennifer Aniston and Kate Hudson go to a “movement guru” and I need to know everything about this STAT.
–Matthew McConaughey says Camila Alves rejected him at the start of their relationship. She was probably just remembering his performance in The Wedding Planner…
-Wonderfalls’ Caroline Dhavernas is in a new TV series? Yes please!
–Jessica Biel also landed a new TV series, which seems like the right career move for her.
–Drew Barrymore goes full zombie in the first full trailer for Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet. I really like the campy tone of this, but am hoping they don’t go too overboard with the gore.
-Speaking of Netflix’s trailers, here’s the new one for Bob Odenkirk‘s Girlfriend’s Day.
–Riz Ahmed, Matthew Rhys, Tracey Ullman, Corey Stoll, Rita Wilson and pretty much everyone else in Hollywood will appear in Girls’ last season.
–Lena Dunham debuted a animated film about Planned Parenthood’s history called 100 Years, narrated by Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, America Ferrera, Constance Wu, Mindy Kaling, and more.
-Meanwhile, as much as I’m not always a fan of Chelsea Handler, I really liked her essay on why she’s leading the Women’s March in Park City this weekend. I’m marching. Are you? For sister march information in your city, click here.
-I dig that the AV Club is paying tribute to Popular, Ryan Murphy‘s first (and best?) series. I needed this reminder since Arrow has somehow managed to dull my love of Carly Pope.
-This is nice: if No Tomorrow and Frequency end up getting canceled, the CW promises they’re wrap up each show’s stories with webisodes. I don’t watch either, but I like this trend.
-Like many, many TV costars, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman probably don’t like each other very much. Whenever I read anything about Freeman I’m reminded of this terrible EW interview. I probably wouldn’t like him very much IRL either.
