“This is what our penny-colored president is up to,” offered Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday night. “While racial injustice is tearing our country apart, he’s going to war with Twitter.” Indeed, instead of calming the nation in the wake of the death of George Floyd—an unarmed black man suspected of committing […]
Marlow Stern
15 posts
Leave it to Netflix to drop a Jeffrey Epstein docuseries in the midst of a global pandemic that’s left many Americans trapped indoors with lots of free time to binge. On May 27, the four-part series Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich will premiere on the streaming behemoth. Based on the book […]
Grant, a History Channel miniseries airing over three nights beginning on Memorial Day (May 25), is an overt—and timely—reclamation project. His reputation having faded over the past century because, as many here assert, the South’s “Lost Cause” rewriting of Civil War history invariably downplayed his accomplishments, Ulysses S. Grant is […]
On Thursday night, Seth Meyers dedicated the latest edition of his “A Closer Look” segment to President Trump’s and the conservative media’s war on mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Conservatives have decided to turn [wearing masks] into yet another dumb culture-war issue. Some have even theorized that it’s a media […]
Norma McCorvey never knew who to trust. She was declared a ward of the state at 10. Then her father walked out, leaving her in the hands of an alcoholic mother and first cousin once removed, who she said raped her numerous times. By 16, she was married to Woody […]
On Sunday night, after briefly touching on immunologist Rick Bright’s whistleblower testimony in front of Congress, accusing the Trump administration of ignoring his warnings about the novel coronavirus and their lack of preparedness, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver tackled “a major scandal brewing in Washington”: the curious case of […]
The denouement of Drive sees Angela White fixed to a cross, her Rubenesque body suspended high above a sea of sweaty, writhing figures. It is an arresting image—one of many comprising this porn epic that, at 3 hours and 29 minutes, clocks in one minute shy of The Irishman. Unlike […]
Bless Robert Pattinson. This week, Da Vinci’s “most bellissimo man in the world” became the apple of the internet’s eye with two words: Piccolini Cuscino. During an interview with GQ’s Zach Baron, the Twilight star and future Caped Crusader unveiled a series of hilariously saturnine selfies, along with the recipe […]
Comedy Central After a softball interview with Time magazine this week, news outlets breathlessly reported that Jared Kushner told the publication the presidential election may be delayed until after November 3rd provided there’s another outbreak of COVID-19. “Oh. My. God. Jared Kushner might delay the election?!” exclaimed The Daily Show’s […]
In the early hours Friday, those braving tourist-free Times Square were treated to an arresting sight: a white billboard projecting the words ‘Trump Death Clock’ in big black letters; underneath, a counter in red reading ‘44,809.’ These are the deaths that, according to two of the world’s leading epidemiologists, could […]
In the feature documentary Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics, now streaming on Netflix, celebrities ranging from the Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz to comedian Ben Stiller recount their experiences tripping on drugs, ranging from the wild (rapper A$AP Rocky claims “a rainbow shot out of my dick” while having […]
When Rosie O’Donnell first appears in I Know This Much Is True, it takes a few seconds for your brain to adjust. We’ve been inundated with two sad Mark Ruffalos, one depressingly horny Juliette Lewis, and a horrifying act of self-mutilation (this is from the Blue Valentine guy, after all). […]
“Refreshingly, one of the biggest pieces of news was not actually coronavirus-related,” offered John Oliver on Sunday’s edition of Last Week Tonight. The comedian then cut to coverage of Attorney General William Barr’s Trump-friendly Justice Department dropping its case against Michael Flynn. “A crime cannot be established here,” Barr told […]
Adele posted a message to her social media channels this week thanking those on the front lines fighting COVID-19. In the process, the celebrated singer unveiled a thinner frame—and the internet had a lot of thoughts about it, almost all trash. Enter Bill Maher, noted #MeToo skeptic, with perhaps the […]
For the MTV Generation, the Beastie Boys occupy a special place in the cultural imagination. They were hip-hop anomalies—three Jewish boys from New York City who, through their relentless creativity, imagination, and sheer force of will, grew to become one of the greatest rap groups of all time. You followed […]