Laura Bradley

When Manhattan’s new Hudson Yards development finally touched the sky in 2019, The New Yorker commemorated its completion with a review. Writer Alexandra Schwartz leveled the place with one withering compliment: “It would be a great setting for a breakdown.” How fitting, then, that on Sunday night’s Succession, the $25 billion monument to commerce also became the venue for Kendall Roy’s 40th birthday party. You can smell the disaster coming from the moment we open on Kendall’s preparations for the night. His warbling rendition of Billy Joel’s “Honesty” would be too on the nose if that weren’t exactly the point: He’s […]

As one of Hollywood’s loudest proponents of Method acting, Jared Leto has long been one of those performers who loves “disappearing” into a role. In House of Gucci, he finally succeeds—for better and for worse. For most of his career, Leto’s shapeshifting has been more conspicuous than chameleonic. But Ridley Scott’s fashion epic uses the actor’s zeal for over-the-top “transformative” performances to its advantage. Somewhere between the prosthetic nose, the “it’s-a-me!” accent, and the hideous corduroy jackets, Leto does become unrecognizable. The trick only becomes funnier once you realize this floundering, narcissistic Fashion Wario is actually Leto—an actor defined, increasingly, by […]

It’s a sorry state of affairs when Connor Roy starts to look like a decent option for president, but Sunday’s Succession at least treads pretty close. This week’s episode centers around a bleak convention called the Future Freedom Summit, a gathering of the nation’s most terrifyingly wealthy, terrifyingly red Republicans. It’s giving “Berlin bunker vibes,” as Shiv describes it—just before Roman asks how his sister likes “spelunking in the elephant’s asshole.” Greg, who doesn’t realize Hamilton is not the show to bring up in this crowd, is dismayed to get called a “soy boy”—until his story about suing Greenpeace makes him […]

Tiger King 2 does not acknowledge the death of Erik Cowie, a former zookeeper at Joe Exotic’s Oklahoma zoo who also appears in the series, until the very end. He gets a brief memorial photo just before the credits roll after popping up just a couple times in preceding episodes—including, at one point, to call a joke about Donald Trump anally penetrating animal-rights activist Carole Baskin “fabulous.” Cowie became a household name last year, alongside others who appeared in Netflix’s original Tiger King. He was found dead in a Brooklyn apartment this September; the cause of death was later determined to […]

Swifties around the world are enjoying something of a Holy Week. Taylor Swift’s version of Red just dropped, everyone’s dunking on Jake Gyllenhaal, and the videos are rolling out. Last week there was the “All Too Well” short film starring Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink, and now there’s Blake Lively’s directorial debut—a music video for “I Bet You Think About Me.” (“(Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault) (Official Video).” Parentheses… So Hot Right Now.) One question, though—just a teeny, tiny inquiry: What’s Miles Teller doing here? Did he finally get vaccinated? Lively, a longtime friend of Swift’s, directed the six-minute video for […]

It takes a heaping dose of hubris for a person to presume they’re above the laws of science, but if there’s one thing we know about Kendall Roy it’s that he’s never been one to underestimate his own grandeur. And so, this week’s Succession begins with our deluded prince insisting to a skeptical babysitter that despite what Google says, his children actually can feed the pet rabbit a piece of bagel. Those rules, he says, are for those dummies who would leave the bunny at home with a Big Gulp. The rabbit, a gift Kendall bestowed on the children he rarely […]

Just after watching this week’s Succession, I read an article about a nightmare billionaire named Charlie Munger who is helping to fund a residence hall at UC Santa Barbara in exchange for creative control over the design. Despite holding no degree in architecture, Munger has helped design multiple projects like this, including a reviled Michigan University dorm. The Santa Barbara building will force most students to live in dorms without windows. Common spaces will hoard the natural light in the building, which Munger and the school claim will encourage students to leave their prison cells—er… rooms. Munger’s response to the backlash […]

The discourses… they’re converging! We all knew Saturday Night Live was bound to address Aaron Rodgers’ “woke mob” anti-vaxx meltdown, and it turns out their cast member of choice was none other than the one whose hotness is making headlines once again. On Saturday night, Davidson channeled the NFL player in a sit-down with SNL’s “Jeanine Pirro,” Cecily Strong. “It’s your body, your choice,” Strong’s Pirro told her guest, “and please don’t use that quote for any other issue.” “It’s my body and my COVID,” Davidson responded. “I can give it to whoever I want. But suddenly the woke mob is […]

Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” had a lot of ground to cover this week—especially given that Ice Cube, a celebrity whom Kenan Thompson has perfectly impersonated before, lost out on a $9 million acting gig in the Sony comedy Oh Hell No! because he refused to get vaccinated. (“My loss? Your loss!” he insists. “Oh Hell No! was gonna feature the greatest comedy duo of all time—Ice Cube, Jack Black.”) But the real stand-out was Goober, a clown played by Cecily Strong and styled to look a lot like Loonette from the childrens’ series The Big Comfy Couch. The reason for […]

Ego Nwodim has been impersonating Dionne Warwick on Saturday Night Live’s its recurring Dionne Warwick Talk Show, but this week’s audience finally got to see the real legend in the flesh. The legendary singer and TV host, whose Twitter account is one of the site’s pure delights, has been lobbying to make her way onto the show for a little while now—and it’s only fitting that she marked her debut with a serenade. “I am sick and tired of interviewing people who are not icons!” Nwodim’s character said partway through this week’s segment. “Please welcome… me!” “Let me ask you something,” […]

Siobhan Roy’s brutality has always lingered just at the edge of the frame in Succession, and in Season 3’s “The Disruption,” Logan’s only daughter demonstrated just how vicious she’s become after a lifetime of exclusion from Daddy Roy’s inner circle. The episode opens, however, on Kendall. Seated at a pristine lunch spot with a journalist, Ken is flying high. “The DOJ and I are in contact about the terms of my immunity deal, so yeah,” he tells a bemused journalist. “It does not look good for them!” When asked about how he and his siblings’ relationship has fared since he refused […]

William Crain recalls being surprised by the amount of autonomy he enjoyed while working on the beloved Blaxploitation film Blacula—but he still faced plenty of frustrating arguments along the way. The film’s original title, Count Brown’s in Town, was not an encouraging start. “With that name you can imagine what they had in mind,” Crain told The Daily Beast during a recent interview. “When I read the script, I kind of put it down. My parents said to me, ‘If you have the chance to do this movie, you need to go do it—do the best you can.’” Blacula made bank […]

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty A limited series about Joan Rivers has stirred controversy once again. When news first broke of the project last month, discussion emerged about casting Kathryn Hahn, who is not Jewish, to play the legendary comedian. Now the project has been canceled, Variety reports, after its producers failed to secure its subject’s life rights, held by Rivers’ daughter Melissa. Lifetime’s vast selection of unauthorized biographies demonstrates that one does not necessarily need permission from one’s subject to go forward with a production. But as Variety points out, Joan Rivers’ jokes and catchphrases—recognizable markers of her […]

Gwyneth Paltrow’s first Netflix series, The goop Lab, stirred controversy from its debut. Scientists were frustrated with the streaming giant for spreading misinformation—and even worse, the show was also boring. Now, however, Paltrow returns with a new series, Sex, Love & goop. The show observes a handful of couples (most but not all of whom are straight) as they meet with sex therapists to address various issues in their relationships. While The goop Lab felt like a well-produced QVC ad for expensive quackery, Sex, Love & goop takes an earnest, emotionally driven approach to a topic that remains embarrassingly taboo in […]

Marcia Cross was not exactly enamored with Netflix’s You when she first discovered her husband watching it. “I was like, ‘Oh, he’s just watching some guy prey on beautiful women—I don’t know if I’m interested,” the Desperate Housewives star told The Daily Beast during a recent interview. But then she started watching and, like Joe Goldberg himself, became a little bit obsessed. When the opportunity arose to join the show as a guest star, the veteran actress seized her moment. “I actually put myself on tape for it,” she said. “It wasn’t a very big part, but I wanted it.” Alongside […]

Denis Villeneuve and Dune’s marketing team gave us time to prepare for Oscar Isaac going full bearded space daddy. The trailer that made Isaac’s face go viral (again) dropped months ago, and the film itself has been delayed several times. But much like staring at a candle flame cannot prepare our eyes for the burning intensity of the sun, promotional materials for the sci-fi epic captured only a hint of the gravitas, the swaggering commitment, the brutal hotness that Isaac commands as Duke Leto Atreides. It’s not just the Dune beard—although the immaculately trimmed face shrub certainly doesn’t hurt. The power […]

I know this might sound a little premature, but you know what? I’m gonna say it anyway: Michelle Young is already the best Bachelorette in years. Granted, I was a little biased as I headed into the elementary school teacher’s season. She was one of the few bright spots in Matt James’ train wreck of a Bachelor outing last year, self-assured and straightforward in a way that’s become painfully rare in Bachelor Nation. (What else can we expect when we continually cast people in their early to mid-twenties?) But in a premiere replete with what one can only describe as absolute […]

Succession is back, and the insult of the day is “disingenuous little fuck doll.” Any guesses on which of Logan Roy’s children this refers to—and which of them yelled it at the top of their lungs when a meeting didn’t go their way? This season opens right where we left off. Kendall—Logan’s second son and, now, Waystar Royco Public Enemy No. 1—shocked everyone last season by refusing to play the sacrificial lamb for his father, instead throwing Logan to the wolves at a press conference. This season’s premiere finds Ken locked in a bathroom as a nervous Greg asks him to […]

Where does a fugitive go once he’s stalked and murdered his way through both New York and Los Angeles? In You Season 3, Penn Badgley’s misanthropic bookworm Joe Goldberg is stuck in a new hell of his own making: Suburban life with a serial killer and their unborn child, whom he’s desperate to protect from his wife. (Because her murderous tendencies are totally worse and more villainous than his.) Madre Linda, where newlyweds Joe and Love Quinn make their home in Season 3, is You’s first fictional location. Creator Sera Gamble says the gossip-obsessed town was inspired by several bedroom communities […]

Over the years, director Ry Russo-Young has explored the custody battle that upended her childhood through multiple mediums—including a play inspired by Little Red Riding Hood, in which she and both her mothers, Robin Young and Sandy Russo, are the cloaked damsels and her mothers’ sperm donor, Tom Steel, is the wolf. A powerful attorney in the gay community, Steel had seemed like a perfect choice to be Russo and Young’s sperm donor as they tried to conceive their second child. When Russo-Young was 9 years old, however, tensions arose over visitation and Steel sued her parents for paternal rights—effectively wielding […]

After more than a year mostly spent in a shoebox-sized one-bedroom apartment, the opening scenes of Lamb, A24’s latest slow-simmering horror film, felt like a much-needed breath of fresh air—specifically, a crisp Icelandic breeze. María and Ingvar, married but childless, run a farm together and raise sheep. Their existence seems idyllic at first, dyed in appealing shades of indigo and white and set against sweeping plains of fresh grass. But it doesn’t take long for this agrarian utopia to lose its luster. Director Valdimar Jóhannsson builds his tension slowly, undermining the sentimentality outsiders might associate with agrarian life via quietly unsettling […]

It’s hard to imagine being more in need of a hobby than the members of a group called Friends of Marconi Plaza. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the local group has taken up the most noble of crusades—fighting to defend a statue dedicated to Christopher Columbus. And on Friday a judge who was once allegedly on the speaker’s list for a QAnon-linked event ruled that the plywood box covering the statue must be removed. City officials covered the Columbus statue in Marconi Plaza with plywood last year, the Inquirer reports, as protests for racial justice galvanized efforts to remove it. Mayor […]

Andrew Yang might be pitching himself as the guy to head up a new, more “inclusive” third party, but Jim Acosta had some questions about the entrepreneur-turned-politician’s methods during a CNN interview on Saturday afternoon. Specifically, he asked Yang to answer for his decision to appear on Tucker Carlson Today. “Tucker Carlson… I mean, let’s just say he’s a bad person,” Acosta told Yang. “And he represents so much of what is wrong in television news these days. You know this all too well; he spouts off white nationalist talking points. So why would you even go on his show?” During […]

The problem with Jon Stewart’s new show, The Problem with Jon Stewart, is not that it’s a cash grab—but its opening credits preempt that notion anyway with a joke. In a visual brainstorm of the show’s title, we observe increasingly cheeky suggestions like “The Weekly…” “Monthly…” and “Annual…” Words like “program” and “product” intertwine, alongside ideas like The Cash Grab with Jon Stewart. TK OR WHATEVER IT IS. Only six years have passed since Stewart stepped down from his genre-shifting Daily Show run, but it feels much longer. Perhaps that’s why it appears, from his new show’s first two episodes, as […]

Demi Lovato wants you to believe. Unidentified, the singer’s four-part documentary (“documentary”), has premiered in full on Peacock—and while the series might have all the journalistic rigor of Syfy’s Ghost Hunters or Animal Planet’s Mermaids: The Body Found, Lovato’s charisma is hard to resist. Unidentified feels, in some ways, like a strange Franken-show—a spiritual hybrid of celebrity documentary and paranormal explorations like Finding Bigfoot and BuzzFeed Unsolved. Lovato, who recently came out as nonbinary, explains at the top of their show that while at Joshua Tree on their 28th birthday, they saw a UFO and now believe they might have experienced […]

Controlling Britney Spears, the New York Times’ latest documentary about the pop icon, observes that one could tell the story of her conservatorship through two Rolling Stone covers—Vanessa Grigoriadis’ unforgettably comprehensive 2008 profile which documented her situation as a capital-T “Tragedy,” and a more empathetic feature from 2011 that trumpeted the Princess of Pop’s return to her throne but simultaneously wondered, “What has the comeback cost her?” Jenny Eliscu, who wrote the latter story, appears in Netflix’s own documentary on the subject—Britney vs. Spears. In several scenes she and director Erin Lee Carr pore over court testimony and photographs of various […]

It’s a paradox we all accept because, frankly, it’s kind of the point. Despite the genre’s name, “dating” shows are generally not interested in capturing the mundane magic that can spark between two people who met, say, waiting for a bus. Instead we get mansions stocked to the brim with champagne; private phone booths in which hot suitors decide which random stranger sounds like marriage material; F-boys and girls making out on the beach. (Or trying not to make out in a beach house.) It makes sense that most dating shows are allergic to sincerity; our collective fear of vulnerability makes […]

Whatever one might think about that musical Emmys opening—a parody of the late Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” starring some poor, unfortunate soul in a Daft Punk-esque TV head—it was hard to ignore just how full the room looked. Host Cedric the Entertainer noted that given COVID-19, there might have been an impression going in that this event would be “Emmys Lite.” Instead it appears they invited every celebrity who’s ever been on TV to convene in an “outdoor” ballroom. It didn’t take long before one presenter spoke up about how strange the packed gathering seems, given the rising toll of […]

When Framing Britney Spears took over the news earlier this year, another female celebrity’s conservatorship lingered on the edge of public conversation. Is Amanda Bynes, whose conservatorship began in 2014, stuck in a similarly demoralizing battle? And if so, is #FreeAmanda next? The terms of Bynes’ conservatorship remain largely unknown; as similar as her case might appear to Spears’ on the surface, they also differ in crucial ways. But it appears public concern for the Nickelodeon star is growing nonetheless. In a statement, Bynes’ attorney David Esquibias told The Daily Beast, “There is no comparison between Britney and Amanda’s conservatorship. Britney’s […]

If one phrase could summarize popular sentiment toward celebrities last year, it might be, “Open your purse.” Faced with pandemic-induced lockdown and protests against racial injustice, America’s glitterati started acting… weird. Performative gestures abounded (lots of awkward singing and earnest speeches) but they all fell flat, crushed under the weight of all the money celebrities could donate to the cause if they just stopped talking and… well, you know. And yet it appears the entertainment industry has found a new way to make activism all about itself. Usher, Priyanka Chopra, and Julianne Hough are set to co-host The Activist this fall. […]

It’s funny that people were worried about John Mulaney’s sobriety after he appeared on Late Night last year, the comedian said upon his return to the NBC show Tuesday night. “I had been under the influence the day before—and the day after, I was probably under the influence,” he told Seth Meyers. “But on the show… at your insistence, I was more sober than not.” After that old episode aired, the comedian remembers just how many people online seemed to think something was wrong with him. “And I was sitting at home going, ‘Indeed, something is.’” There’s little mystery to why […]

Mike Richards is officially no longer a part of Jeopardy!—and a source tells The Daily Beast that the short-lived Alex Trebek replacement did not leave of his own accord. Richards stepped down as host of the show earlier this month amid reports of his alleged history of harassment and discrimination, as well as his penchant for crude and offensive humor. But the New York Times reported last week that Sony’s top TV executive said the company intended to keep Richards as executive producer. Jeopardy! champions, meanwhile, told The Daily Beast that they felt “betrayed.” On Tuesday, however, Suzanne Prete, the executive […]

It’s a philosophical question for the ages: If you make a Candyman movie without letting Tony Todd purr some terrified white woman’s name, imploring her to “be my victim,” have you really made a Candyman movie? Nia DaCosta, who previously directed Tessa Thompson in the quietly gripping crime thriller Little Woods, decided to find out. In 1992, Todd’s seductive performance as the hook-handed phantom of lynching victim Daniel Robitaille made him a horror icon. Robitaille doesn’t command much screen time in any of the Candyman films (Todd doesn’t show up in the original until 45 minutes in) but the character never […]

In January of 2019, less than two months before Alex Trebek revealed his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Anneke Garcia made her Jeopardy! debut. Beyond joining a community she’d longed to join for so much of her life, part of the thrill of being a four-time champion was the rare feeling of recognition that it gave her as a self-described “non-model woman” on television. Disappointment has corroded that memory. After all, Mike Richards produced Garcia’s episodes—and as Jeopardy! fans recently learned from his old podcast, he doesn’t have much use for women who don’t double as set decoration. Richards fired himself as co-host […]

Just when it seemed all of the pleasures of the Before Times were lost, American Horror Story gave us an overstuffed premiere for the ages—and wasted no time in giving Sarah Paulson her latest nickname. Hypodermic Sally, who? This year’s haunted half-dead with a heart of gold heroine is called “Tuberculosis Karen.” The theme of the season is Double Feature, and on Wednesday night we got a two-part taste of Part One: Red Tide. (I know, it’s confusing.) It goes down salty at first, and ends on heavy notes of iron. We open on a family driving into Provincetown, Massachusetts, and […]

Mike Richards, who since his announcement as presumptive Jeopardy! host has faced a series of damning revelations about his past on shows including The Price Is Right, has stepped down. The search for Alex Trebek’s replacement has begun anew. Jeopardy! had spent months “auditioning” a steady rotation of famous guest hosts before news broke earlier this month that Richards would split hosting duties with Mayim Bialik, who will host the franchise’s primetime and spin-off series. A person familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast on Friday that Bialik is not in a position to take on Richards’ gig owing to […]

The morning before her lawsuit against Nicki Minaj and Kenneth “Zoo” Petty went public, Jennifer Hough was crying hysterically on the phone with her lawyer. Petty was convicted of first-degree attempted rape in 1995 after he sexually assaulted Hough at knifepoint. As Hough told The Daily Beast this spring, associates of the couple began pressuring her to recant her story last March after Petty’s arrest in California for failing to register as a sex offender as mandated by his plea deal. Last week a friend sent Hough a video that an acquaintance, a man named Barry, had posted on Facebook Stories […]

Why is Alec Baldwin so upset that Andrew Cuomo resigned from his post after an investigation found that the now-former New York governor had sexually harassed 11 women? New York Attorney General Letitia James released the findings of a months-long investigation on Tuesday, which concluded that Cuomo had violated federal and state laws by repeatedly sexually harassing colleagues. In addition to unwanted physical contact and inappropriate comments, James said, the investigation found that “the governor and his senior staff took actions to retaliate” against at least one former employee who had come forward to accuse him. As harrowing as the stories […]

This post contains spoilers for The Bachelorette finale. Things got tense the minute Katie Thurston arrived on stage during The Bachelorette’s three-hour finale. Her ex, Greg Grippo, had just finished his interview with co-hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe; as Katie sat down, she pointedly refused to hug him. Greg had been the frontrunner throughout this season but sent himself home last week after a perfect “Hometown” date took a sharp left turn. It was a colossal breakdown in communication: Greg needed Katie to tell him exactly how she felt, but rather than say so he released a passionate declaration of […]

Jeopardy! executive producer and hosting frontrunner Mike Richards has responded to a series of old complaints from his tenure on The Price Is Right. In a memo to staff shared with The Daily Beast, Richards brushed aside a series of old lawsuits from his tenure with The Price Is Right in which female employees complained of harassment and discrimination, which allegedly took place during and after their pregnancies. Late last week, news broke that Richards, one of several guest hosts to take a turn on air as Jeopardy! searches for Alex Trebek’s replacement, was in advanced negotiations for the job. (At […]

Can a man not throw a 60th birthday bash at his summer home in Martha’s Vineyard with 500 of his closest friends anymore? For months, Barack Obama had planned to welcome roughly 475 guests—former White House colleagues, Jay Z, Chrissy Teigen, etc—for a birthday party on the island. Then the Delta variant happened, yada yada, and now guests including Larry David and a slew of Obama administration officials have been uninvited from Saturday evening’s bash, which the former president scaled down to close friends and family. Friends who did make the cut, meanwhile, include Beyoncé and Jay Z, Don Cheadle, Eddie […]

Sorry, Reading Rainbow fans, but it appears LeVar Burton will not be the new host of Jeopardy! Neither will franchise stalwart Ken Jennings, Big Bang Theory alum Mayim Bialik, or Anderson Cooper—all of whom enjoyed popular runs as guest hosts in the late Alex Trebek’s stead. According to Variety, the long-running game show is eyeing an in-house replacement for its 36-year emcee—executive producer Mike Richards. Richards has not been officially named yet; Variety reports that he is in advanced negotiations, and a source told The Daily Beast that discussions with potential hosts remain ongoing. Still, Richards’ selection has proven frustrating to […]

Bachelorette frontrunner Greg Grippo seemed bound to make it to the end, but now it seems he’s left for good. Katie Thurston’s obvious feelings for the floppy-haired marketing sales rep have made him a frontrunner from the first episode, but on Monday night the two finished their dream date with a fight that bordered on surreal. Greg spent the night essentially begging Katie to blow up the show for him—while Katie steadfastly refused to tell the man she’s said she’s falling in love with that she is, in fact, falling in love with him. In the end, Greg told our Bachelorette […]

Seth MacFarlane has taken another swipe at his longtime corporate overlord. On Sunday the comedian fired off a frustrated, if vague, tweet about Fox host Tucker Carlson’s “latest opinion piece,” which he said “once again makes me wish Family Guy was on any other network.” “Look, Fox, we both know this marriage isn’t working anymore,” MacFarlane wrote. ‘The sex is only once a year, I don’t get along with your mother, and well… I’ve been having an affair with NBC.” It’s unclear which specific Carlson take MacFarlane might have disliked, and there are far too many possible answers for us to […]

As a trash TV connoisseur, I have to say: There’s never been a better time to love reality dating shows. The Bachelor might be in a bit of a tailspin, but over the past couple of years, several series have taken the genre in fun, fascinating, often inventively vapid directions. Netflix’s Dating Around ushered in a lower-key approach in 2019, the same year that MTV debuted a deliciously messy, loud, and completely queer season of its long-running show Are You the One? And HBO Max just launched FBoy Island, a deliciously shallow Bachelor in Paradise–Love Island mash-up from former Bach producer […]

Jayce Jurado is pretty sure she is the only person to make it to Hollywood from where she grew up. The 30-year-old Filipino American hails from Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands. Given that Saipan houses only 48,220 people, Jurado is probably right. For years, everyone Jurado met in the industry seemed to have the same backstory—a friend or family member who had some connection that landed them a job. She, meanwhile, found herself networking with strangers who often struggled to understand basic facets of her identity. (Yes, she’s a U.S. citizen; the islands from which she hails are […]

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 […]