On Sunday night, John Oliver took a break from dunking on Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson’s racist news coverage to address what was sadly one of the biggest stories of the past week: President Donald Trump’s continued spreading of misinformation surrounding the novel coronavirus, which has killed over 157,000 people […]
Marlow Stern
40 posts
On Sunday night, the almighty Desus & Mero—two of the funniest late-night hosts who were foolishly shut out of the recent Emmy nominations—roasted the hell out of one of Trump’s more embarrassing fanboys: Charlie Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA. Turning Point USA recently recently made headlines because its other […]
For the past six decades, Serge Klarsfeld has dedicated his life to hunting down Nazis and bringing them to justice. There was Klaus Barbie, the infamous “Butcher of Lyon,” whom Klarsfeld and his wife, Beate, tracked down in Peru; René Bousquet, who ordered thousands of Jews to their deaths in […]
On Monday morning, while doomscrolling past the news of the day, I came across a rare, non-portentous item: a photo of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. The Hollywood couple was captured awkwardly balancing Greek passports, alongside the prime minister and first lady of Greece, accompanied by the caption: “@ritawilson @tomhanks […]
On Sunday night, John Oliver kicked off the latest edition of his acclaimed late-night show Last Week Tonight by addressing the ongoing brutalizing of Black Lives Matter protesters by Trump’s federal agents in Portland, Oregon. “The protests in Portland have actually been going on daily for nearly two months now, […]
On June 17, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office announced that actor Danny Masterson had been charged with three counts of rape. Masterson, 44, best known as the star of That ’70s Show, is accused of forcibly raping three women at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. He […]
On July 6, the Trump administration released federal data revealing which “small” businesses were awarded Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans because of the COVID-19 shutdown. In addition to the Kushner family, Trump’s fundraising pal Joe Farrell, and Kanye West, one name stood out among the recipients: the Church of Scientology. […]
Paul Feig will not let a once-in-a-century pandemic slow him down. He’s balancing far too many plates. There’s the two features in pre-production that he’s planning to direct—This Country, a U.S. remake of the famed U.K. mockumentary about rural life at the margins, and an adaptation of the bestselling novel […]
After several weeks away from the steaming pile of shit that is the news these days, John Oliver returned to Last Week Tonight to recap our present hellscape. First, he aired a short segment focusing on President Trump’s insane proclamations concerning schools reopening amid a pandemic that has claimed over […]
Unlike J.K. Rowling or Donald Trump, Reza Aslan knows what it’s like to be “canceled.” On the evening of June 3, 2017, a van barreled into a crowd of pedestrians on London Bridge before its passengers emerged, stabbing onlookers in nearby Borough Market. Before their blood was even dry, or […]
In lieu of mocking President Donald Trump’s embarrassing rally attendance in Tulsa or continuing his war on the “racist” Fox News troll Tucker Carlson, John Oliver kicked off the latest edition of Last Week Tonight by addressing the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the nation. The numbers are at record highs nationwide, […]
I’m an immigrant—and I’m not alone. Padma Lakshmi opens each episode of her new Hulu series Taste the Nation with that mantra, and it’s one that’s powering the food author and TV host during the Trump administration’s all-out war on immigrants, from the “Muslim ban” and separating children from their […]
On Tuesday afternoon, TIDAL, the Jay-Z-owned streaming service that announced its arrival with one of the more embarrassing public displays in recent memory, provided a millions-strong platform for an alleged serial rapist. In since-deleted social media posts, TIDAL hyped the latest episode of its podcast Drink Champs, hosted by the […]
On Sunday night, John Oliver took a break from his ongoing flame war with “racist” Fox News host Tucker Carlson to roast President Trump over the embarrassingly low attendance at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday night. Prior to the event, White House officials—along with Trump—boasted repeatedly that over […]
In the weeks since the Minneapolis police killed George Floyd—an unarmed, restrained Black man—in broad daylight, as he begged for his life, there has been a sort of cultural atonement for the myriad ways white power structures have routinely exploited people of color. Some white folks have resigned; other have […]
On Sunday night, John Oliver took some more shots at his new favorite target: Tucker Carlson, the white nationalist-adjacent Fox News anchor, former bow tie enthusiast, and heir to the Swanson TV dinner fortune. Two weeks ago, when Carlson claimed that the protests in Minneapolis were worse than “police brutality,” […]
In 1986, Ricky Powell was selling Frozade lemon ices on the streets of New York City, he never imagined he’d become a legendary hip-hop photographer. But that year, Powell ditched the cart and joined opening act the Beastie Boys on Run DMC’s “Raising Hell” tour across America. He eventually became […]
On Friday night, Bill Maher spent the bulk of his HBO show Real Time railing against Trump and his Republican flunkeys. During a Zoom panel with comedian Larry Wilmore and libertarian pundit Matt Welch, the late-night host criticized Trump’s decision to hold his first rally since the pandemic shutdown on […]
On Thursday night, The Daily Show’s team of correspondents spoofed the incredibly cringeworthy “I Take Responsibility” (for Racism) Hollywood PSA that was rudely foisted upon us like a U2 album with one of their own. Only theirs was a bit…different. “What if I told you about a country in crisis…a […]
On Wednesday afternoon, amid a global pandemic that’s killed more than 400,000 people, a civil rights movement for black lives hitting all 50 states (and beyond), and a billionaire author’s childhood-shattering campaign of hate, the rapper Ice Cube apparently decided it was the perfect time to unleash a torrent of […]
On Tuesday night, Trevor Noah addressed the Democrats’ kente cloth fiasco as only he could. “While the movement in the streets has been building up steam, Democrats in Washington have been scrambling for a way to respond. And yesterday, I think they’ve figured it out,” offered Noah. The Daily Show […]
On Sunday night, after one of the more chaotic weeks in recent memory, John Oliver returned to the stripped-down set of Last Week Tonight to recap the madness. “All week long, protesters have continued to fill the streets in all fifty states in the wake of the horrific murder of […]
Earlier this year, a Facebook post spread like wildfire through the Texas film community. It was the account of a young actress, alleging that Adam Donaghey, a rising producer in the region, had raped her when she was 16. Donaghey, who has denied the allegation, was subsequently arrested in late […]
On Friday night, Bill Maher returned to his HBO show Real Time and offered solidarity with protesters during his monologue, conceding that the police had clearly gone too far not only when it comes to brutalizing black bodies but their aggressive, violent, escalatory tactics against protesters. Later, the political satirist […]