“As the pandemic rages out of control and millions of Americans suffer the pain of loss and economic hardship, the president of the United States has apparently decided to make his closing message: the TV lady was really mean to me.” Yes, all week President Trump has been whining incessantly about his interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, claiming that her unfair questions are to blame […]
Marlow Stern
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The Mehdi Hasan Show on Peacock is fast becoming a must-watch. Just days after thoroughly embarrassing John Bolton over his complicity in the Iraq War, Hasan welcomed comedian Jon Stewart and John Feal, a demolition supervisor at Ground Zero who was injured in the September 11 attacks, onto the program to discuss their tireless work fighting for benefits for 9/11 first responders. Now the duo is […]
On Monday night, a clearly-fired-up Seth Meyers dedicated the latest edition of his “A Closer Look” segment to Trump’s desperation moves of the past week-plus—namely, trying to distract from the godawful way he’s handled the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed 220,000 American lives and counting, by redirecting the focus to his opponent’s son, Hunter Biden. “Trump and the GOP clearly do not care how many Americans […]
If The View were a horror movie—and sometimes it’s not that far off—Joy Behar would be the final girl. The comic, who looks better than any 78-year-old has any right to, is the only original panelist left on the daytime talk show, which is currently in its 24th season. When I reach Behar by phone, there’s audible commotion in the background. After telling the background noisemakers, […]
On Sunday night, John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight took on a truly chaotic week. President Trump sweated and bellowed through an unhinged NBC town hall where he voiced his support for the baseless QAnon conspiracy-theory crowd, who allege that Democrats and Hollywood are trafficking and murdering babies. He resumed his COVID superspreader rallies and shared a batshit-insane conspiracy theory that Barack Obama and Joe Biden did […]
On Friday night, Real Time host Bill Maher weighed in on Trump’s unhinged, sweaty, hour-long ragefest on NBC Thursday with Savannah Guthrie, wherein the president defended the batshit-insane conspiracy theory QAnon, which claims that the Democrats and Hollywood are killing and raping babies (and extracting their fear for medicine), as well as his decision to retweet another wacky conspiracy theory about the bin Laden raid. “The […]
On Thursday night, Jimmy Kimmel escalated his feud with NBC over their questionable decision to give in to President Trump’s demands and air a town hall with him at the same time as Joe Biden’s over on ABC. Given that Trump’s interview would also air on MSNBC and CNBC, the ratings-obsessed commander-in-chief would surely garner bigger ratings and also siphon viewers from his opponent. “Presidential debate […]
We are now 20 days from the 2020 presidential election, and, thanks in large part to his historical mishandling of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed 215,000 American lives and counting, President Donald Trump is trailing his Democratic opponent Joe Biden in the polls. One other reason is that the media—in particular the cable-news media—has learned some valuable lessons from the way they covered candidate […]
On Friday night, Bill Maher kicked off the latest edition of his HBO show Real Time by addressing how President Trump got COVID-19—after doing pretty much everything in his power to get it. “I’m telling you, this getting COVID thing, not good for him,” said Maher. “The way he handled it, I think the final blow is that, you know what, we’ve seen that he gets […]
Amber Rose is on the move, weaving through L.A. traffic to squeeze in a quick gym session—she says she’s still shedding the baby weight from her second child, Slash, delivered late last year—before picking up her little ones from childcare. “This mom life, you know!” she exclaims, with a chuckle. The 36-year-old has, over the last decade-plus, done just about anything and everything in the realm […]
On Wednesday night, after Kamala Harris swatted a fly-infested Mike Pence in the first and only vice presidential debate, Maya Rudolph appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to discuss her SNL version of the California senator and returning to Studio 8H to film the late-night sketch show for the first time since the start of the pandemic. “It was nuts. You and I were […]
On Tuesday night, The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah took a break from clowning on first lady Melania Trump’s hatred of the White House Christmas to address the more serious news wafting from its walls: President Trump’s made-for-TV return to the White House, even though he is still battling the novel coronavirus (and surely contagious). Trump made a big show of his premature return from Walter Reed […]
George Takei remembers his lowest point vividly. It came on November 11, 2017. The Star Trek actor was in Tokyo, Japan, for a gala screening of Allegiance, his Broadway passion project about Japanese internment, when his phone began buzzing like crazy. “It was right after our screening and we were celebrating, and then… we heard,” he recalls to The Daily Beast. “It was horrible.” The Hollywood […]
On Monday night, The Daily Show focused on one rather hilarious story that’s been overshadowed by President Trump, first lady Melania Trump, as well as several U.S. senators and Republican staffers contracting the novel coronavirus, likely during a superspreader event at the White House—this after ignoring social-distancing guidelines, refusing to wear masks, and generally downplaying the severity of the virus for a number of months. “He […]
“It has been a genuinely extraordinary week for the White House,” said John Oliver at the top of Sunday night’s Last Week Tonight. There’s been so much chaos this past week that the HBO host said they didn’t have time to even address the $750 Trump paid in income tax for two years (as revealed by The New York Times), Melania Trump “essentially saying ‘fuck Christmas’” […]
On Sunday night, Desus & Mero, the most underrated late-night hosts in the game, opened their show with a round of laughter. “Trump got that ‘rona!” exclaimed The Kid Mero. The duo then filled their audience in on how President Trump and first lady Melania Trump came down with the novel coronavirus this week—and this after The New York Times revealed that Trump was not only […]
On Friday night, Jimmy Kimmel was one of the few late-night hosts on to address the total chaos that’s transpired in the last 24 hours—wherein the president, the first lady, several of their advisers, a number of Republican senators, a trio of White House journalists, and Kellyanne Conway all came down with COVID-19. President Trump is currently at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center under observation, […]
On Sunday night, John Oliver returned from a brief Emmys-timed break to the Last Week Tonight desk. And the Emmy winner began by addressing the news of President Trump nominating Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late, great Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Barrett, a disciple of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, is anti-LGBT, anti-reproductive rights, and anti-immigrant. She belongs to a fringe Charismatic […]
On Friday night, Bill Maher took a victory lap. For years, the Real Time host has predicted that Donald Trump would refuse to step down from the presidency should he lose re-election—and this past week, Trump publicly announced that he would not commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose. “This week, the president fuckin’ flat-out said it—what I’ve been saying he’s going to […]
Leonardo DiCaprio loves having sex with his headphones on. A Real Housewife runs a NXIVM-style diet program. Jay Cutler is dating “White Power Barbie.” Vince Vaughn is quite rude to his fans. And Senator Lindsey Graham goes maskless in airports. I owe all of this juicy gossip to Deuxmoi, a highly addictive Instagram account that’s become the go-to source for celebrity tea-spilling during the ongoing coronavirus […]
On Tuesday night, Avengers star Mark Ruffalo joined a socially distant version of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. After exchanging some light pleasantries, the two got down to business, discussing the shooting of Jacob Blake—by a police officer, seven times in the back; the ongoing protests and riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin; and Trump’s divisive rhetoric in the wake of it all. You see, the Oscar-nominated […]
On Tuesday, the unthinkable happened: Fox & Friends, the Trump-toadying morning show where the president gets his daily ego-stroke (and policy advice), dissed their biggest fan. And naturally, The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert couldn’t get enough of it. “Trump gets plenty of free airtime. This morning he phoned it in to his friendly friends on Fox & Friends,” offered Colbert by way of introduction. First, the […]
In October of 2006, the FBI released an intelligence assessment titled, “White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement.” Though the document—culled from FBI investigations and open sources—was heavily redacted, it reached a number of disturbing conclusions. The assessment revealed that white supremacists “have historically engaged in strategic efforts to infiltrate and recruit from law enforcement communities”; that many of these white-supremacist infiltrators are known as “ghost skins” […]
For months, the Conway family’s drama had played out in aggressively public fashion. There was George Conway, the attorney and co-founder of The Lincoln Project, launching daily Twitter barbs at President Trump; Kellyanne Conway, the president’s fiercely loyal counselor, defending his increasingly unhinged behavior; and in the middle of it all Claudia Conway, the couple’s teenage daughter, creating TikTok videos about how hellish all the sniping […]
On Friday night, Bill Maher returned to his Real Time studio for the first time since the lockdowns started. He performed in front of a tested, masked, scaled-down, and socially-distanced crowd—in lieu of his giant L.A. backyard. “Boy, I picked a good week to get back to the studio with people because the forecast on my phone today said: smoke. Tomorrow’s forecast? Blade Runner,” Maher said […]
On the night of June 24, 2009, Michael Jackson finished rehearsing for a set of comeback performances and returned to his rented mansion in Holmby Hills, a posh neighborhood on Los Angeles’ Westside. The King of Pop’s personal doctor, Conrad Murray, arrived at the residence shortly after midnight. Around 14 hours later, Jackson was pronounced dead—with no evidence of foul play. Two months later, the Los […]
In late March, the lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, did the unthinkable. During a Fox News appearance, the Republican politician—and Trump water boy—said that America’s elderly should be willing to sacrifice their lives to help boost the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “No one reached out to me and said, ‘As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in […]
On Sunday night, John Oliver dedicated all of his HBO show Last Week Tonight to two stories: the Republican National Convention and the events in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The portion of the chaotic, low-rated RNC that Oliver seemed to take particular issue with was the testimony of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a couple who were there purely because they pulled guns on non-threatening, unarmed Black Lives Matter […]
There is a story that Andy Serkis loved to tell during the press tour for Black Panther. In March of 2017, over 700 crew members—and 150 vehicles—had assembled in Busan, South Korea, to shoot the film’s big chase sequence, with T’Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) in hot pursuit of Ulysses Klaue (Serkis), an arms dealer smuggling precious vibranium. It ends with Black Panther snaring Klaue, and subduing […]
On Friday night, after several months of filming in his luxuriant backyard, Bill Maher returned to the Real Time studio—sans guests, of course. In lieu of trolling Trump’s wacko QAnon followers, and before welcoming The Daily Beast’s Rick Wilson onto the program, the comedian took a few shots at Jerry Falwell Jr., the disgraced evangelical and former president of Liberty University who is alleged to have […]
Stephen Colbert opened his show Wednesday night with a confession. “Now, full disclosure: I did not watch much of the convention tonight. And fullest disclosure: I did not watch any of it,” the Late Show host said. “Because right now in America, we’re facing a global pandemic that has killed 180,000 Americans, heavily armed Rambo wannabes are murdering people in our streets, the strongest hurricane in […]
“This is like Scientology. It’s a cult where the leader is keeping people through fear and dependency and now, blackmail,” offers Sarah Edmondson in The Vow. Edmondson, 43, is one of several former members of NXIVM, the Albany-based sex cult masquerading as a self-help group, whose testimony illuminates HBO’s nine-part docuseries. Before serving as a whistleblower, she was indoctrinated into the secretive NXIVM sect DOS, standing […]
On Sunday night, John Oliver dedicated the opening portion of his Emmy-winning HBO series, Last Week Tonight, to the Democratic National Convention—a star-studded four-day affair filled with the Bidens, Obamas, celebrity emcees, Billie Eilish, and Diplo DJing in front of a CGI White House. Curiously, the 2020 DNC also featured a number of #NeverTrump Republicans voicing their opposition to the president, including Cindy McCain, wife of […]