Laura Bradley

Tig Notaro seems to be everywhere lately. The comedian has been a household name for years, but lately her career has swerved in ways few could have predicted. There was the time she popped up in a Phoebe Bridgers music video out of nowhere last year, and more recently, thanks to a quick casting substitution in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, the self-described “low-key” lesbian has become 2021’s sexiest action star. “Especially after turning 50, it was a real curveball,” the comedian told The Daily Beast during a recent interview. “But I’ll take it.” Tig Notaro: Drawn, which debuts Saturday […]

Five members of Tekashi69’s private security team—including a former NYPD officer—have been indicted after they went on a 20-block car chase in Harlem in pursuit of a fan who tried to capture video of the rapper on his cellphone, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The New York Supreme Court has charged the defendants with robbery in the first and second degrees, as well as criminal impersonation in the first degree. A press release from Manhattan D.A. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., states that the security crew chased a 34-year-old man down in three SUVs equipped with flashing lights and sirens. […]

This post contains spoilers for Black Widow. For the casual viewer, Black Widow will likely prove all kinds of confusing. But it’s hard to blame anyone who’s confused as to why Marvel is just now releasing its first standalone film dedicated to Natasha Romanoff. After all, she is technically dead. Black Widow, which joined Phase Four of Marvel’s sprawling cinematic universe Friday, takes place after the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. (The former debuted in 2016; the latter, in 2018.) Natasha died in 2019’s Endgame after sacrificing her life to secure the Soul Stone, which the […]

As of this week, all of us have the opportunity to see culture at its peak: In F9, the ninth installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise, Vin Diesel drives his franchise to the moon. Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson’s forever bickering characters Tej and Roman are the ones who make the giant leap into the cosmos—and as they do, the film taunts us with its audacity. “As long as we obey the laws of physics,” Tej says, “we’ll be fine.” Oh, really? In boldly bringing this franchise where no drag racer has gone before, director Justin Lin made sure to […]

Rachel Lindsay is getting candid about her time with The Bachelor. Just weeks after Chris Harrison made off with a reported eight-figure golden parachute, the first Black Bachelorette has published a broad and damning account of her experience with the franchise for New York magazine—outlining in devastating detail the difficulties she was forced to confront, and the degree to which producers abandoned her to navigate them alone. Lindsay’s essay dissects Bachelor Nation’s ongoing struggle with race in great detail; she illustrates not only the way Harrison and producers’ decisions contribute to the issue, but also the broader, systemic forces that perpetuate […]

From the moment The Bachelorette began airing Katie Thurston’s group date with guest star Nick Viall, you could tell something was going to be different. The candles, rose petals, and jewel tones disappeared in favor of a stark circle of chairs inside what looked like a darkened studio space. But if the setup felt awkwardly self-serious at first, it soon became clear why. The Bachelorette began to lead a conversation about vulnerability, in which (most of) her suitors disclosed the darkest moments from which they’d grown. The men spoke about the divorces, betrayals of trust, and drunken outbursts of which they […]

Kevins of the world, watch your backs. On Sunday, AMC will debut its genre-bending, deeply meta series Kevin Can F**k Himself, in which Schitt’s Creek star Annie Murphy plays an exhausted woman named Allison whose boorish, inconsiderate husband has driven her to the edge. The series derives its title from Kevin Can Wait—which abruptly killed off leading lady Erinn Hayes after one season to reunite Kevin Smith with his King of Queens flame Leah Remini instead. And things only get more meta from there. Television has long been a medium obsessed with itself, rife with fourth-wall breaks and self-referential humor. Sitcoms, […]

Chris Harrison might have promised to keep his lips sealed about the behind-the-scenes debauchery on The Bachelor, but he didn’t exactly go quietly. Soon after Katie Thurston’s season of The Bachelorette debuted on Monday night, news broke that Harrison would exit the franchise after a months-long indefinite hiatus—with an eight-figure golden parachute. Harrison’s camp reportedly came to the table with two sources of leverage. According to Deadline, Harrison’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, vowed to drop “the Shiva of lawsuits” on the franchise, should Harrison’s settlement prove insufficient. Variety, meanwhile, reports the team also brought up Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss’ wife Laura’s request […]

Given that there are already several Ted Bundy films floating around in the world (including two released last year) and that all of us have a finite amount of time on this planet, it seems fair to ask why we needed another. But when asked that very question during a Refinery29 interview, Amber Sealey—whose Bundy-centric film No Man of God premiered at Tribeca Film Festival on Friday—said that previous projects have missed the mark. “They always glorify him,” she said. “They make him out to be a male model—so smart, so charismatic, a master of disguise. I don’t see that. When […]

Kevin Ware Jr., a former NFL tight end whose girlfriend, Taylor Pomaski, has been missing for months, was arrested at a Spring, Texas strip mall on Friday after missing his bond supervision hearings in April and May. Police told Houston’s KPRC 2 they want to question him about Pomaski’s disappearance; she was last seen at a house party on April 25. “There could be others that were around the house that night,” Eric Zuleger, a former boyfriend of Pomaski’s for six years with whom she remained friends, told KPRC 2. “I’m not for certain, but Kevin knows exactly what happened.” Ware, […]

It appears The Bachelor has given Chris Harrison his final rose. The longtime host will exit the ABC franchise he has hosted since 2002, Deadline reports, after defending a contestant’s racist behavior in an Extra TV interview with the first Black Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay. In return, the trade reports, Harrison will walk away with a mid-range eight-figure settlement in exchange for his silence. Harrison’s representatives have, according to Deadline, “been in increasingly intense negotiations over the past few days with WBTV and, to a lesser extent, the Disney-owned ABC,” with Monday’s Bachelorette premiere serving as a quasi-deadline for negotiations. Harrison’s lawyer, […]

If you wondered how The Bachelorette would address longtime host Chris Harrison’s absence during Katie Thurston’s Season 17 premiere Monday night, know this: the show handled it with all the grace of Hannah Brown attempting to give a toast. The Bachelor franchise is still charting its course through a reckoning over its longstanding struggles with diversity and inclusion. Earlier this year, the first Black Bachelor, Matt James, unwittingly selected a winner whose past racist behavior fans uncovered before the series even aired. Harrison, who is now on an indefinite hiatus from the series, landed in hot water when he defended Rachael […]

The past year has been a wild ride, but Cecily Strong’s Jeanine Pirro wants you to know one thing: “I’m still here,” she told Saturday Night Live’s audience during the season finale. “My show on Fox is on every Saturday at 9—a full hour before the nursing homes turn off the TV in the lobby!” Strong’s impersonation of the Fox News host has become a fan favorite in recent years, and as Season 46 comes to a close, she closed things out with a bang—and one last, completely bonkers rant, in which she described, among other things, a recent trip to […]

It was a dull Saturday Night Live finale until Lil Nas X took the stage in pants emblazoned with flames on the crotch. The rapper, shirtless and covered in oil, performed his single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” with a crew of chiseled backup dancers in latex cut-out chaps. Just minutes after appearing in a pre-recorded musical celebrating the start of Pride Month, Lil Nas X was pole dancing, grinding on his backup dancers, and enjoying a tongue on his neck. Happy Pride, everyone! Not even a wardrobe malfunction could slow him down. Midway through through “Montero,” those flame-embroidered pants […]

The news snowballed quickly on Wednesday morning: First came the Daily Mail report that Ellen DeGeneres has decided to end her talk show after 19 seasons, thanks at least in part to her ratings downfall (DeGeneres’ rep vehemently denied the report). Less than an hour later, The Hollywood Reporter published an interview with the comedian, who claimed she was leaving the show because it isn’t “a challenge anymore.” In the hours that followed, the interview shot across Twitter, often accompanied by stills of Dakota Johnson moments before she famously gutted the comedian on air with five little words: That’s not the […]

Lolly Adefope and E.R. Fightmaster might only play a couple on TV, but that doesn’t stop the Shrill stars from engaging in a good flirt. When asked toward the end of our interview if either of them had anything to add to our conversation, Fightmaster didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, thank you for asking,” Fightmaster said before going on to name their favorite outfit that Adefope wore this season—an olive green ensemble that is, admittedly, striking. “She shot that and then came on to set and I literally stumbled backwards,” Fightmaster said. “I was like, ‘Wow, you look so hot!’ So, […]

Ziwe Fumudoh always lets her interview subjects know when they’ve messed up. She might bulge her eyes, or she might tilt her chin ever so slightly, offering an encouraging grin that belies the predatory gleam in her stare—but either way, those with any hint of self-awareness usually realize they’re either in trouble or about to be. The 29-year-old comedian, known professionally by the mononym Ziwe, has spent years perfecting the art of putting people on the spot about race with her web series, Baited with Ziwe. The show became a must-watch last year, when COVID-19 forced its creator to shift her […]

Sure, competing on a reality show through a giant TV screen from a tiny, meticulously accessorized apartment is already pretty surreal—but The Circle’s DeLeesa St. Agathe found herself in an even crazier situation than she bargained for when, just before the series began filming, she found out she was pregnant. “I think it was the goodbye sex,” DeLeesa told The Daily Beast during a postmortem interview for the Season 2 finale, in which she took home the grand prize. “I had to leave for a while, and we had to, you know, try to get it in one last time before […]

It’s a riddle that’ll never make it into the books: What do a gaggle of viral cats, a three-legged French bulldog, and a performing chicken have in common? Answer: They’ve all worked with Colleen Wilson and Melissa May Curtis, whose animal talent agency, Pets on Q, is now the subject of Netflix’s cutest new series, Pet Stars. With five episodes that each clock in under 30 minutes, Pet Stars is a quick, breezy watch, as Wilson and Curtis scour the web—and the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest, and a reptile convention, and other wild outlets—for creatures that exude that certain je ne […]

Lucy the Chimpanzee’s story is an animal rights nightmare. As told in the new documentary Lucy the Human Chimp, psychologist Maurice Temerlin and his wife, Jane, bought the fuzzy primate from a roadside zoo in Florida that trained chimps to box human opponents when she was only two days old. (The zoo drugged Lucy’s mother by spiking a Coca-Cola with a tranquilizer.) From then on, the Temerlins raised their new “daughter” as human, teaching her to dress herself and use silverware. She even knew how to make her own gin and tonics. The Temerlins’ famous experiment, in which they raised a […]

On Friday, Oprah Winfrey will interview Elliot Page on Apple TV+. Speaking with Vanity Fair about the sit-down, the actor said that he saw the interview as “an opportunity to use a wide-reaching platform to speak from my heart about some of my experience and the resources I’ve been able to access—whether therapy or surgery—that have allowed me to be alive, to live my life.” Page, who rose to fame after appearing in Juno and now stars in The Umbrella Academy on Netflix, came out as transgender last December to widespread support from the entertainment industry. He’s given interviews since, both […]

In one of the most harrowing scenes from The Handmaid’s Tale’s debut season, Elisabeth Moss’s June Osborne and the handmaids of Gilead surround and beat a man to death. In the dystopian theocracy of the books, these ceremonies are called “Particicutions”—a portmanteau of “participation” and “execution.” They’re reserved, nominally, for men who rape and assault handmaids—but as author Margaret Atwood makes clear, the government often uses these ceremonies to execute its own enemies. The women’s blows never really stand a chance of landing on their oppressors. The handmaids’ participation is perhaps even more important than the execution. Gilead incites these women […]

Given that Sunday’s Oscars ended on an Anthony Hopkins headshot and a genuinely shocking Chadwick Boseman snub, I won’t say that Wolfwalkers losing out on Best Animated Feature was the most egregious oversight of the evening—but it’s certainly up there. Going into Sunday night, Soul’s win already felt inevitable—so unavoidable, in fact, that pre-emptive pieces explained why such a decision would be disappointing. Soul, like most Pixar releases, is a gorgeous visual work, but its premise, in some ways, outdoes the execution. It’s the first film from the studio to feature a Black lead, but in a continuation of a pernicious […]

Glenn Close might not have taken home Best Supporting Actress at Sunday’s Oscars, but she did just win the night. After a solid but generally straightforward ceremony, the show took a break to allow Lil Rel Howery to play a trivia game in which he asked attendees to listen to a song (played by DJ Questlove) and guess whether it was an Oscar winner, nominee or neither. Andra Day went first with “Purple Rain.” “It’s a brilliant song,” the United States vs. Billie Holiday star said. “But it probably wasn’t—” … A long bleep followed, but the gist would be “get […]

Youn Yuh-Jung just became the first Korean to bring home Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars—and as she took the stage to accept her gold statuette, the Minari actress took a moment to tease executive producer Brad Pitt, who was on stage to present her with the award as last year’s Best Supporting Actor winner. “Mr. Pitt, finally!” Youn said. “Nice to meet you. Where were you while we were filming?” Awards shows have a long history of erasing performers of Asian descent, and on top of her history-making Oscars win this year, Youn is also the first Korean actress to […]

I cannot tell you the precise moment when Wahl Street, HBO Max’s new Mark Wahlberg reality show, broke my brain—but I’m pretty sure my soul left my body right around when someone sincerely uttered the words, “We’re elevating the henley.” HBO Max’s new reality series zeroes in on Wahlberg’s many, many business pursuits—and, although this was not the intention when filming began, it documents all of these enterprises grinding to a halt due to COVID-19. But Wahl Street, produced by one of Wahlberg’s own companies, Unrealistic Ideas, is too close to its subject to offer any insight beyond what he wants […]

Jimmy Tatro knows that playing a dad is not exactly an expected move for him. At 29 years old, he’s primarily known for his frat-tastic YouTube channel, and for playing “bro”-y characters in movies and on TV. (See: Grown Ups 2, 22 Jump Street, and American Vandal for a few salient examples.) But on Home Economics, ABC’s delightful new family comedy, the YouTuber and American Vandal actor has taken to fatherhood like a fish to water—or, perhaps more aptly, like a middle-aged man to New Balance sneakers. “A lot of people, my age would be worried about getting aged up by […]

On Wednesday morning, a former Bachelor appeared on Good Morning America with a big announcement. “Obviously this year’s been a lot for a lot of people,” Colton Underwood told host Robin Roberts. “And it’s probably made a lot of people look themselves in the mirror and figure out who they are and what they’ve been running from or what they’ve been putting off in their lives.” “I’m gay,” he said, “and I came to terms with that earlier this year and have been processing it.” Underwood has dealt with rumors about his sexuality for years, and it’s gratifying to see the […]

Shonda Rhimes is no stranger to fan rage—but nonetheless, the fan upset over Regé-Jean Page’s exit from Bridgerton has apparently caught her by surprise. It’s not as though Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy, has never born the brunt of fan rage—or the specific ire that tends to follow when you write off a beloved character. Still, in an interview published Tuesday—alongside the announcement that Netflix has granted Bridgerton two additional seasons, bringing the total count up to four—Rhimes told Vanity Fair that fans’ heartache over the Duke of Hastings’ exit has her “really shocked.” Bridgerton arrived just in time to […]

For years, any time LeVar Burton would run into Alex Trebek—at the Daytime Emmys or elsewhere—he would pester the Jeopardy! host with one idea: do a celebrity tournament. “I was completely and totally selfish and self serving in my desire,” the Star Trek: The Next Generation actor and Reading Rainbow host admitted in an interview with The Daily Beast. He just really, really wanted to find a way to appear on Jeopardy! Eventually, it worked. The first star-studded tournament premiered in 1992, and in 1995 Burton finally got his turn and won. Now, he’s on a slightly different pursuit—one that, although […]

Alexander Lofgren, a caseworker in the office of Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva and a former U.S. Army combat engineer, was found dead after going missing with his girlfriend on a camping trip in Death Valley. Authorities began searching for Lofgren and his girlfriend, Emily Henkel, on Tuesday after the two, described as experienced campers who often traverse remote areas, did not return from their trek Sunday as expected. The Inyo County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday that authorities had been able to locate Lofgren and Henkel the day before using aerial reconnaissance. They were in a “very remote area of Death Valley […]

It’s never a good sign when the subtext of a series somehow rings clearer than the story itself—but given that the central characters of HBO’s The Nevers come with names like “Miss True,” “Penance,” and “Maladie,” perhaps it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The Nevers starts from a relatively simple premise: A cluster of “touched” women in Victorian England acquired supernatural powers three years ago, and are now working to find their place in society. Some Londonites are fascinated by the Touched; some immediately look for ways to turn a profit off of them; and others, primarily the white […]

ABC might have found its next big family comedy—and its secret weapon is a guy best known for a show about dick graffiti. Home Economics, premiering Wednesday, starts from a simple premise: Three siblings, each in a very different income bracket, navigate their complicated financial relationship to stay bonded as a family. Topher Grace, echoing his run as endearing dweeb Eric Forman on That ‘70s Show, anchors this new series as wet blanket older brother Tom Hayworth. The impossibly likable Jimmy Tatro, best known for his side-splitting turn as Dylan Maxwell in American Vandal, plays Tom’s insanely rich kid brother Connor, […]

One week after Law & Order: Organized Crime kicked off with a massive SVU crossover event, Dick Wolf, showrunner Ilene Chaiken, and star Christopher Meloni are finally ready to reveal a little more about NBC’s latest big procedural. For months, details about Organized Crime have been kept largely under wraps. But during a press conference Wednesday, the trio answered reporters’ questions about what kind of cop Elliot Stabler will be in 2021—and what it was like to finally reunite him with his longtime partner, Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson. Last summer, as Black Lives Matter protests spread across the nation in the […]

NBC This post contains spoilers for Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime. Reunited, and it feels so… well, not good, really. On Thursday night, Law & Order finally reunited NBC’s most beloved platonic couple: After a decade apart, Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson and Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler are back on the case. Unfortunately, it took the death of Stabler’s wife, Kathy, at the hands of a mysterious, high-level criminal to make it happen. Read more at The Daily Beast. Source link

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jennifer Shah and her “first assistant” Stuart Smith have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Federal prosecutors allege that Shah and Smith, who has also appeared on RHOSLC, drummed up victims for a telemarketing scam that ran for nine years. A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York states that both Shah and Smith were arrested Tuesday, and will appear in Salt Lake City federal court this afternoon. According to the release, the alleged telemarketing scam ran from 2012 through March of […]

Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival hits a little differently after a year of isolation. With the Oscars set to air April 25, it felt fitting, as we chose one streaming gem to surface for this month, to select the film that should have won Amy Adams her first gold statuette. (Or, at the very least, a best actress nomination.) Adams was long overdue for an Oscar nod by the time Arrival debuted in 2016; by then, she’d already turned in several meticulously calibrated performances in films including Doubt, The Fighter, and The Master, all three of which scored nominations but never won. Arrival, […]

It’s been almost a year to the day since Ina Garten made the big cosmo. Last April, the Barefoot Contessa shared a cocktail tutorial with her freshly quarantining fans. She mixed together some of her favorite cocktail ingredients—including “good vodka” and “very freshly squeezed” lime juice—in a giant pitcher before transferring the mixture into what might be the world’s largest tumbler. The orange twist on top? She then poured it all into a super-sized martini glass. The mixture of delight and anguish that traced across Garten’s face after her first sip—along with comments like, “You never know who’s gonna stop by; […]

Jessica Walter, the beloved actor whose decade-spanning career never slowed down, has died at age 80. The Emmy winner and four-time nominee passed in her sleep, Deadline reports. In recent years, Walter has offered side-splittingly sardonic performances in both Arrested Development, in which she played the sharp-tongued Bluth matriarch Lucille, and Archer, in which she voiced the titular spy’s delightfully impossible mother, Malory. But her career encompasses six decades, and began on the stage before she transitioned to television and film. A New York native, Walter appeared in a number of Broadway productions when she first began performing—and as Deadline notes, […]

As Matt James sat down with Emmanuel Acho during The Bachelor’s “After the Final Rose” finale special, the toll this season had taken on him became immediately clear. James’s eyes alternated between vacant and teary as he described his break-up with Rachael Kirkconnell—who won this season but only after viewers surfaced her troubling past behavior, including attending an Old South-themed party. (Kirkconnell has apologized both on air and on social media.) James sighed deeply and took numerous long pauses—especially when his conversation with Kirkconnell and Acho turned toward reconciliation. More than anything, it seemed the first Black Bachelor was still processing […]

Going into Monday night, all eyes in Bachelor Nation were on Emmanuel Acho. The former NFL linebacker, sports analyst, and Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man host stepped in to host the “After the Final Rose” special following Matt James’ Bachelor finale after Chris Harrison temporarily stepped away. For most of this season, ABC and Bachelor producer Warner Bros. have refused to address the racism scandal that’s consumed online conversations about this season. As Acho put it Monday night, “Some of these conversations here tonight might make people a little uncomfortable. They won’t be easy. But my hope is that if […]

Going into Monday night, all eyes in Bachelor Nation were on Emmanuel Acho. The former NFL linebacker, sports analyst, and Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man host stepped in to host the “After the Final Rose” special following Matt James’ Bachelor finale after Chris Harrison temporarily stepped away. For most of this season, ABC and Bachelor producer Warner Bros. have refused to address the racism scandal that’s consumed online conversations about this season. As Acho put it Monday night, “Some of these conversations here tonight might make people a little uncomfortable. They won’t be easy. But my hope is that if […]

In South Park, like the rest of the country, the hottest place in town is currently a COVID-19 vaccination site. On Wednesday’s “South ParQ The Vaccination Special,” Cartman and the gang struggled to protect their “broship” despite pandemic-induced isolation—while the rest of the town is caught in a Hunger Games-ian scramble to get their hands on that sweet, sweet Pfizer. (Or Moderna! or Johnson & Johnson! At this point, who’s picky?) But just like in real life, there is one group of people in South Park, Colorado, who seem wary of the vaccine: QAnon supporters. We last visited South Park before […]

Since the very beginning of this year’s Bachelor, we’ve known two things about our hunk du jour, Matt James: After 25 seasons, he is (finally) the franchise’s first Black Bachelor and, as touted extensively in promotional materials ahead of the premiere, he’s never been in love before. For most of this season, Matt’s so-called “amazing journey” toward discovering what love really means to him has taken a back burner, as bullying consumed the story on-screen and a racism scandal embroiled Bachelor Nation off-screen. But on Monday night, as Matt and his women took to the “Fantasy Suites,” it finally became clear […]

Was there any doubt as Jane Fonda prepared to accept the Cecil B. DeMille Award at this year’s Golden Globes that one of Hollywood’s fiercest activists would use her platform, once more, to voice her beliefs? On Sunday night, she did not disappoint—urging Hollywood to do better on diversity moments after the Hollywood Foreign Press Association responded to the outcry that emerged over the weekend over the fact that it does not have a single Black member within its ranks. “I’m so moved to receive this honor, thank you,” Fonda said. “We are a community of storytellers, aren’t we? And in […]

Negan better watch his back, because Maggie Greene is back in town. On Sunday night, The Walking Dead returned to close out its super-sized penultimate season with six more episodes—and kicked things off by giving Maggie a chance to explain what she and her son, Hershel, have been up to, and why it’s been so long since she touched base with Team Family. But the real question of this week has less to do with where Maggie’s been, and more to do with who the hell she’s managed to antagonize. It seems we’ve got a new villain on our hands, and […]

The Bachelor might still be pretending that the uproar surrounding this season’s frontrunner, Rachael Kirkconnell, and host Chris Harrison off-screen doesn’t exist—but Matt James, this season’s lead and the franchise’s first Black Bachelor, has spoken out. Monday’s episode continued the pattern set by weeks past, ignoring the backlash that ensued after fans discovered images of Kirkconnell attending an Antebellum South-themed party, wearing offensive Halloween costumes, and “liking” social media posts including MAGA hats and Confederate flags. There was also no mention of Chris Harrison announcing he would not be a part of the season’s “After the Final Rose” reunion after fans […]

It feels fitting that the patron saint of Dickinson Season 2 is a dancer whose performances and radical ideas astounded and scandalized people across the world. Season 2 of Apple’s wild literary comedy has found Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld) grappling with the question of fame while her sister, Lavinia, played by Anna Baryshnikov, realizes she might have a lot more in common with her unconventional sister than she’d previously thought. At the center of these two journeys, thematically at least, is the legendary, scandalous real-life dancer Lola Montez. For Emily, Lola represents a case study through which one can examine what […]

Claudia Conway, like everyone else who auditioned on Sunday’s American Idol premiere, wants a golden ticket to Hollywood—but unlike most of her peers, everyone already knows who this teenager is. Kellyanne and George Conway’s daughter first announced she’d auditioned for the singing competition series in November on TikTok, where she’s gained a massive following over the past year. Claudia’s social media presence has exposed strife within her family, especially between her and her mother, including allegations of abuse. Perhaps that’s why judge Katy Perry asked immediately upon Claudia’s arrival, “Are you okay?” “No,” Claudia replied. “No but yes.” When judge and […]

After weeks of controversy, Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell has released a statement apologizing for images that have surfaced of her attending a plantation-themed party, donning insensitive Halloween costumes, and “liking” offensive social media posts—including one in which two people are posed in front of a Confederate flag. And in a surprising, unprecedented move, the season’s entire cast has posted a shared statement to their social media denouncing racism. “While there have been rumors circulating, there have also been truths that have come to light that I need to address,” Kirkconnell wrote in a statement Thursday night. “At one point, I didn’t […]

Sia’s new directorial debut, Music, has yet to actually premiere—but it’s already caused the singer-songwriter quite a mess. Music finds Kate Hudson playing a newly sober woman who assumes guardianship of her autistic half-sister, played by Maddie Ziegler. Critics from the autism community began speaking out against the film last November—and Sia, apparently defensive, largely treated them with dismissiveness and disdain. On Tuesday, however, Sia struck a different tone after a pair of Golden Globe nominations reignited the controversy. Rather than lash out at her critics, the singer apologized, and vowed that a warning label will now appear at the beginning […]

On Wednesday morning, movie lovers enjoyed an annual celebration of chaos: the Golden Globe nominations. True to form, this year included several wild snubs and surprises—including the complete exclusion of Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, one of the year’s most gutting dramas as well as one of the last films Chadwick Boseman shot before his death last year. And to make things more awkward? Spike Lee’s children, Jackson and Satchel, are this year’s Golden Globe Ambassadors—so they’ll still be handing out the trophies and escorting winners off the stage at the show. (Having your kids hand out gold statuettes shouldn’t entitle […]

What does it take to topple a villainous monarch? If the women of The Bachelor just taught us anything, it’s that sometimes the solution is as simple as calling her crappy attitude out to the right person. Matt James finally took the reins Monday night, after Katie Thurston tipped him off last week to the relentless bullying that has pervaded this season. It appears our Bachelor was ready to clean house. First he sent home Anna Redman, who last week started a ridiculous scandal in which she gleefully accused one of her fellow contestants of being an escort. (As if there’s […]

Months after a fatal hit-and-run took the lives of two boys in Los Angeles County’s Westlake Village, former Major League Baseball pitcher Scott Erickson has been charged with a misdemeanor count of reckless driving in connection with the crime. Investigators told ABC7 that Erickson was racing socialite Rebecca Grossman moments before she fatally struck 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother Jacob on September 29. Grossman allegedly kept driving her Mercedes Benz for about a quarter mile before the engine stopped working, the Orange County Register reports. Police arrested her that night, and in December she was charged with two felony […]

Tom Hooper’s Cats might forever haunt countless moviegoers (and the VFX crew behind it), but Amanda Seyfried’s nightmares come from a different Hooper film entirely: Les Misérables, in which she played Cosette. While Seyfried did not bash the 2012 musical adaptation itself during her Variety “Actors on Actors” sit-down with Vanessa Kirby, she did get candid about her performance. Specifically, she wishes she could re-do all of her singing, which Hooper recorded live on camera—a technique the director used once more in Cats. “In my career I’ve had a lot of moments where I just felt complete regret,” Seyfried told Kirby […]

If there’s one thing The Bachelor really wanted to get across Monday night, it’s that Matt James’s most frustrated prospective wife, Anna Redman, really has feelings about women “entertaining men for money.” Promotional clips that ran ahead of (and during) this week’s episode made clear that a woman in the house—one of several new contestants dropped into the resort weeks into the production—would be accused of being an escort. The original cast members, these clips made clear, are out for blood. When The Bachelor producers first introduced Matt James as their next leading man, some fans wondered how he would fare. […]

Harry Vanderspeigle, the hero of Syfy’s newest comedy, Resident Alien, is a totally normal guy. The local doctor for the tiny, sleepy town of Patience, Colorado, he likes to spend his time fishing and going for treks out on the nearby frozen slopes, and watching Law & Order re-runs. There’s just one catch: He’s actually an alien on a mission to kill all of humanity. He’s fishing for the corpse of the actual Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, which accidentally fell into the lake after Alien Harry murdered him to assume his likeness. He hikes mountains because he needs to find his spaceship, […]

The most ambitious, stunning moment from Euphoria’s second special episode came from one of its most beloved performers. Hunter Schafer, who plays Jules, shared a poem she’d written with creator Sam Levinson—which became the inspiration for the HBO drama’s second standalone episode, the colorfully titled “F— Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob.” In December, Euphoria debuted the first of two special episodes produced during the pandemic—“Part One: Rue,” which finds a relapsed Rue sharing pancakes and a wrenching conversation about life with her sober sponsor, Ali (the great Colman Domingo). The stripped-down episode proved that substance always lurked beneath that glittery […]

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that the porn sites are at it again. According to The Sun, adult entertainment sites are once again pilfering sex scenes from a steamy prestige drama—this time, Netflix’s Bridgerton. And the show’s cast is reportedly far from pleased. A source told the tabloid that Phoebe Dynevor, who plays the show’s romantic lead Daphne Bridgerton, is devastated. “Raunchy set-pieces have contributed to the buzz but it is a prestige drama based on best-selling novels,” the source told The Sun. “To peddle scenes as pure smut is beyond the pale. Dynevor and her […]

More than a week has passed since screenshots of those frightening alleged DM’s between Armie Hammer and a series of women first surfaced—and now, the actor has reportedly issued an apology, although not for the reason many might think. For days, pop-culture obsessives have been aghast over the screenshots, which have not been confirmed by any official source but appear to show that the actor once described himself as a “cannibal,” and harbors slave and rape fantasies. Beyond that, other messages and on-the-record interviews from one of his exes allege that Hammer was also, at the very least, mentally and emotionally […]

The celebrity scandals that often prove hardest to ignore are the ones that seem to align with the subtle contours of the embattled star’s public image—arranging those small eccentricities that have accumulated over the years into something more legible and, often, more lurid. Example: Read just about any vintage profile of Armie Hammer right now, and you’ll give your eyebrows the workout of a lifetime. Last week, a series of bizarre and alarming screenshots of messages allegedly between Hammer and a mistress emerged online. Those purported messages, none of which have been verified, encompassed slave fantasies, cannibalism fantasies, blood sucking, and […]

The writing was on the wall even before The Bachelor’s self-coronated “Queen” Victoria Larson first stepped off her palanquin to greet this year’s sample of man meat, Matt James. Regardless of how much would be her doing versus the show’s producers—who know just how to capture everyone in their worst possible light—it was clear that Victoria would be a royal pain in the ass. Despite this troublesome monarch’s obnoxious performance on Night One—which included stealing our Bachelor away from one of the horniest groups of contestants this show has seen yet not once but twice!—Matt kept the “Queen” around for a […]

Diehard fans know that there’s a Sex and the City quote for everything. For instance: When HBO Max announced its SATC reboot, And Just Like That…, would debut without Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones, I couldn’t help but wonder why they would ever attempt such a foolhardy plan. But then I remembered a quote from the sex-positive sage herself. “Men cheat for the same reason that dogs lick their balls,” Samantha once told her friends. “Because they can.” As teased in a short video clip, And Just Like That… will reunite SATC fans with Sarah Jessica Parker’s famed New York Star columnist […]

This post contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 finale. As Star Trek: Discovery ended its third season Thursday, Starfleet medical officer Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) made a big promise to Gray, a young deceased Trill boy who still appears to his partner, Adira. “We’ll help you to be seen,” Culber said. “Truly seen.” Gray and Adira became historic additions to the Discovery cast last year as the first explicitly trans and nonbinary characters in the franchise’s history. Gray joined with a symbiont shortly before his death, linking him with all of its past hosts stretching back generations. When […]

“I don’t need my eyes to see,” Dickinson’s titular poet tells her worried family at the start of the Apple comedy’s second season. All she needs, she says, is her soul. “That’s what I see the truth with.” It might seem odd to begin Emily Dickinson’s journey back to our TV screens with a trip to the eye doctor (who her father later decides is a quack). But as this season unfolds, it becomes clear that Emily’s iritis is a poetic device in its own right—and that comment about her spiritual sight is more than a fanciful proclamation from a young […]

Rowan Atkinson, the British comedian, actor, and writer known for sitcoms including Mr. Bean and Blackadder, is apparently not a fan of “cancel culture.” Speaking with the U.K. outlet Radio Times, as reported by Deadline, Atkinson decried the polarization online algorithms create. “The problem we have online is that an algorithm decides what we want to see, which ends up creating a simplistic, binary view of society,” he said. “It becomes a case of either you’re with us or against us. And if you’re against us, you deserve to be ‘cancelled.’” “It’s important that we’re exposed to a wide spectrum of […]

Maybe it’s the months of quarantine, or maybe it’s the fact that Matt James is, if we’re being honest, the first genuinely swoon-worthy Bachelor we’ve had in years—but whatever the reason, this season of the dating franchise is already off to a very promising (and sexually-charged) start. This season transports us from Palm Springs—the site of Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams’ recently closed joint Bachelorette season—to Pennsylvania’s Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. (So at the very least, we can look forward to less back sweat this season.) But that doesn’t mean things aren’t set to heat up. In fact, it looks like some […]

Patty Jenkins might have turned Wonder Woman into a landmark success for Warner Bros.’ DC cinematic universe—but she is not mincing words about how hard it was to get there. In a recent interview with Marc Maron for his WTF podcast, Jenkins recalled that for years after she directed the critically acclaimed film Monster, which won Charlize Theron the Oscar for best actress, Hollywood was blowing up her phone—but their interest in hiring her always seemed to come with a condition. “Everybody in the industry wanted to hire me,” Jenkins said. “But I felt like they wanted to hire me like […]

This post contains spoilers for Bridgerton’s Season 1 finale. Netflix’s steamy new romance series, Bridgerton, might not necessarily have much interest in teaching its audience any big “lessons”—but if there’s one takeaway from its debut season, it’s that one should never underestimate a wallflower. Fans of Julia Quinn’s original romance novels already knew what viewers of the TV series have just (or will soon) find out: The notorious gossip columnist at the center of Bridgerton, whose pen can make or break the reputation of anyone she likes, is none other than Penelope Featherington. How fitting that her nickname this whole time […]

2020 has been the best of times for celebrities, and perhaps the worst of times for a number of their publicists. On one hand, our wealthiest stars certainly enjoy better quarantine habitats than the “little people.” On the other, the struggle to understand how dire the pandemic has been for many has also led some stars to expose just how out of touch they really are. Before the pandemic sent millions across the world into quarantine, some of our juiciest celebrity scandals had already broken. Days into the new year, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced they were breaking from their […]

To speak with Colman Domingo is to realize that every move the actor makes is deliberate. Whether he’s explaining the roles he chooses, the clothes he wears, or the way he’s responded to this surreal year, the seasoned actor always seems to have a meticulously thought-out answer right off the cuff. He shares his reasoning candidly, and with no shortage of hearty laughs that boom down the phone, brightening up a dim living room on a dreary winter afternoon. A multi-hyphenate whose titles include actor, playwright, and producer, Domingo is a performer who seems to elevate whatever he’s in—including, most recently, […]

It’s the kind of pitch that seems designed to raise eyebrows: Fran Drescher in a Christmas movie? Perhaps that’s why the former Nanny wasted no time during our call before she explained how, exactly, this came to be. The Christmas Setup is Lifetime’s first holiday rom-com to center on a gay couple—and as someone who’s championed gay rights for years, that’s something she wanted to be a part of. “It’s not just [about] the angst of coming out, and the agony of rejecting parents, or the fear,” Drescher told The Daily Beast during a recent phone interview. “It’s more about just […]

Seventeen years ago, a Waste Management employee was emptying trash bins in Cook County’s Stickney Township when she found a pair of newborn twins. The infants were dead, and their umbilical cords were still attached, according to Chicago Tribune reporting at the time. During the course of their investigation back then, police spoke with neighbors and pregnant women in the area, but never managed to solve the case. On Saturday, however, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office announced a breakthrough: They’d charged the infants’ mother, Antoinette Briley, with two counts of first-degree murder. Back in 2003, authorities ruled the newborn boys’ deaths […]

There’s a certain irony to the fact that Euphoria, a series known above all for its over-the-top aesthetics, just delivered a Christmas special about two people sitting in a diner eating pancakes. After the haunting musical sequence that accompanied Rue’s relapse, it was difficult to know what would come next—both for our hoodied antihero and the series as a whole. And although the look of Friday’s special episode might feel out of character, the direction it charts is promising—and the delivery proves that despite what some detractors of the series might think, its power amounts to more than flash and glitter. […]

Who knew a man in a dress could still get so many twerps’ knickers in a twist? Well, a lot of us, probably—but nonetheless, it was still fascinating to watch conservatives clutch their pearls as Harry Styles became the first man to grace the cover of Vogue, blowing a balloon in a gloriously ruffled dress. Leading the charge was Candace Owens, with the battle cry “Bring back manly men!” Now, Styles has responded to the absurd attacks both in an interview and, more amusingly, in a mischievous Instagram post. On Wednesday Variety published a cover story with Styles as its Hitmaker […]

One thing we can say for Bennett Jordan: He knew his Bachelorette brand from the start, from the moment he stepped out of a Rolls Royce into the balmy summer night in Palm Springs wearing a crisp white scarf. Any seasoned Bachelorette fan could have told you from the beginning that Bennett, a Clark Kent-Patrick Bateman face morph who seems to derive his greatest pleasure in life from “casually” mentioning he went to Harvard, was never going to win this thing. (Although his Bachelorette run is not over, it’s not looking good—but more on that later.) Still, over the past few […]

It’s been a harrowing couple of years in the Fast Family. First came the Great “Candy Ass” Saga of 2016—a matter feuding beefcakes Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson managed to settle years later. But that controversy basically bled into a new bout of bad blood between Johnson and Tyrese Gibson, who called The Rock “selfish” in 2017, as Fast 9 faced delays to facilitate the Johnson- and Jason Statham-starring spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. But today is a new day, and evidently all is well in the Toretto dominion. On Tuesday, Gibson shared on Comedy Central’s Stir Crazy with Josh Horowitz that […]

I Hate Suzie lives inside a feeling most of us, if we’re lucky, only experience for a few panicked seconds at a time. It’s that moment after you hear a bit of Earth-shattering news—when a vacuum seems to form at the back of your throat and the atmosphere around your head seems to thin, leaving you to float in space inside your own body. Everything is too close but also exceedingly far away, and even though your mind is spinning, your feet feel permanently glued to the floor. Here, the inciting incident is a photo hack. We first meet Suzie Pickles—yes, […]

What, exactly, is going on with Sia? On Thursday the singer shared the trailer for Music, which debuts in February. In the movie, Kate Hudson plays Zu—a newly sober woman who assumes guardianship of her autistic half-sister Music, played by Maddie Ziegler. By Friday frustrated Twitter users had inundated Sia’s replies. Many wanted to know why Ziegler, who is not on the spectrum and has never acted in a feature film, was cast over a performer who’s actually autistic. Rather than take the criticism to heart, as celebrities like Lupita Nyong’o and Anne Hathaway have in the past when faced with […]

After more than a decade and a half’s worth of tear-jerking deaths and miracles, it feels fair to say that most Grey’s Anatomy twists feel like par for the course. Sure, their details surprise—but do they really shock us anymore? (That’s a sincere question; I have not felt true emotion since they axed Denny Duquette.) But last week, the long-running medical drama’s 17th season premiere dropped a veritable stunner: Derek Shepherd, dead for five years now, has returned. And as Patrick Dempsey told Ellen DeGeneres Wednesday, he’ll be around “throughout the season.” At the end of Thursday’s premiere, we saw Meredith […]

Megan Thee Stallion has shared a new allegation from the night Tory Lanez allegedly shot her in the feet: In a GQ profile, the rapper said Lanez tried to pay her to keep quiet. This summer Megan Thee Stallion was shot in both feet after a pool party—a crime for which Lanez has been charged with felony assault. (His arraignment is set for this week.) Megan told GQ that instinct had told her to find another ride home that night as an argument began to stir in the SUV she shared with Lanez and two other people. She exited the car […]

This post contains spoilers for the Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 premiere. Uh, did that really just happen? On Thursday night, Grey’s Anatomy returned for its Season 17 premiere, which promotional clips have promised will both address the COVID-19 pandemic and leave us gasping. Well, it worked—because at the end of the episode, we’re faced with none other than McDreamy himself, Patrick Dempsey. The circumstances that bring about Derek Shepherd’s return are somewhat distressing: Cormac Hayes finds her Meredith collapsed in the Grey Sloan parking lot. We see Meredith in a dream on the beach, staring at the love of her life. […]

Longtime Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fans likely had an inkling of what to expect when they tuned in for its Season 22 premiere Thursday night. After all, how could a show known for its ripped-from-the-headlines zeal resist the dystopian cornucopia of 2020’s news cycle? Within its first five minutes, the premiere episode, “Guardians and Gladiators,” tackled “Central Park Karen” Amy Cooper, who called police on a Black bird-watcher in Manhattan; the protests against police brutality that emerged after the murder of George Floyd; and, of course, the novel coronavirus pandemic. And things only got busier from there. As overstuffed […]

Alton Brown is not making many friends online this week. On Monday, the celebrity chef, author, and onetime Food Network host landed himself in hot water on Twitter with a miscalculated post about his conservative leanings—and days later, he cranked things up to a boil with a couple even more misguided Holocaust tweets. Brown appears to have removed all of the offending posts and has apologized for the Holocaust tweets. But at this point the controversy has grown into something larger, dredging up troubling comments the chef has made (and allegedly made) in the past. At this point he seems poised […]

Looks like Paris’s most annoying tourist will not be bidding the city “au revoir” just yet. On Wednesday Netflix announced that it had renewed Emily in Paris for a second season—just over a month after its surprisingly controversial premiere. (What can we say? The algorithms don’t differentiate between those who watch and those who hate-watch.) But what will Emily do for 10 more episodes in good ol’ Paree? After all she already became an overnight social media star thanks to brilliant turns of phrase like “#OhCrepe,” had an affair with one of her only Parisian friends’ boyfriends, befriended someone who once […]

What was it about Alex Trebek? For more than 35 years, the dry-witted Jeopardy! host beamed into living rooms across America with a simple but precious goal: celebrating knowledge for knowledge’s sake. In doing so, he became something of a paternal figure—a wonk with a dry sense of humor who, for 30 minutes each weeknight, really wanted us to remember our European history. On Sunday Jeopardy! announced that Trebek had died after a long, public battle with stage IV pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old, and had been open about his grueling health struggles. Even so, he filmed 35 new […]

After years of controversy and carefully written statements, Johnny Depp has been fired from the Fantastic Beasts franchise. The embattled actor recently lost his libel suit against National Group Newspapers over an article in British tabloid The Sun that called him a “wife beater”—and that, apparently, was all it took for Warner Bros. to finally cut ties. Depp announced his departure Friday—in a statement dripping with false martyrdom. “In light of recent events, I would like to make the following short statement,” the actor wrote. “Firstly, I’d like to thank everybody who has gifted me with their support and loyalty. I […]

Sacha Baron Cohen and Borat Subsequent Movie Film are not done trolling the White House just yet. On Friday morning the actor and his co-star, Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, appeared on Good Morning America—where Baron Cohen revealed Bakalova has been staying in character since the film wrapped. And one prank already went off without a hitch. As Cohen told GMA, Bakalova “recently got taken on a tour of the White House about a week before the super-spreader event by people who believed that she was a real journalist.” Soon enough, Cohen posted a clip of that ruse on Instagram. The actor […]

The UK’s History channel is getting taken to school. On Monday, Sky HISTORY—the History channel’s counterpart across the pond—posted a promotional clip for its competition series The Chop: Britain’s Top Woodworker on Twitter. Featured contestant Darren Lumsden, a heavily-tattooed joiner from Bristol, was portrayed as good-natured and folksy; contemplating the competition ahead, he described himself as “patient, to a degree.” But Twitter users quickly noticed some troubling ink on Lumsden’s face—although Sky HISTORY initially seemed to brush the controversy aside, the network announced Tuesday that it would conduct an investigation. The most prominent of Lumsden’s controversial face tattoos is the number […]