Newsletter Thursday, April 07, 2016

[LaineyGossip.com - Calling all smuthounds!] Thursday, April 07, 2016 [Intro for April 7, 2016] [Yara Shahidi attends BET Black Girls Rock! 2016 at New Jersey Performing Arts Center on April 1, 2016 in Newark, New Jersey] Dear Gossips, I have pre-set recordings for probably a dozen shows. Mostly I try to catch up on all of it on the weekend. There are exceptions though. Game Of Thrones I always watch on the night. And Black-ish has become a show I watch as close to the air date as possible. Last night I was out at an event until 9pm or so. And I still had to catch up on the new episode before bed. Because it’s been a long, long time since a sitcom has given me that nostalgia from when sitcoms used to be my religion as an adolescent. This week’s Black-ish was about Dre and Bow deciding who should be the guardian of their children if something happened to them. At one point they decided to “interview” both their mothers at the same time – funniest scene of the episode, especially when Ruby, Dre’s ma, hilariously (and hopefully) asked if Rainbow was sick and might die. In the end, it was their oldest, Zoe, who stepped up and told her parents that, duh, why would they even consider leaving the kids with anyone other than her? SHE knew her siblings best. SHE knew how to love and care for her siblings best. SHE would be the one. And that’s why Black-ish gives me so many feels. It’s the perfect sitcom for the internet age (snarky over corny) without compromising the one element that a family sitcom should have – in the end, it has to feel good. Also, it was one of Yara Shahidi’s strongest performances. Here she is at Black Girls Rock from the other night. Yours in gossip, Lainey [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 1:25 PM [Gilmore Bait...and switch?] This week’s Entertainment Weekly [has exclusive photos] of the upcoming Gilmore Girls movies coming to Netflix later this year, and I am curious. I am excited. I am very, very much aware that I’m being teased. There’s nothing in these pictures we don’t know. Lorelai and Rory still love coffee! Rory is fond of a dress when she lectures students! In the VERY SUNNY square of Stars Hollow, Miss Patty and Babette are still hanging out, and providing opportunities for Rory and Lorelai to dress in capital-O Outfits. And Lorelai and Luke are holding hands! Fantastic! They’re great, they’re fine, no worries there. Are you worried? I would be worried, if I didn’t know better. Why would you revive a whole show if everything was fine? If there were no stories to tell, and things for the characters to go through? Remember, they’re not just reading us a history of what they’ve done the past nine years. Stuff is going to happen in the here and now. The other reason Gilmore Girls is so beloved? All those sunny town-square events and la-la-la music (God, I can’t wait for the la-las) were the pretty, happy decoration on much more complicated stories of class and wealth, and women’s ambitions and dissatisfactions with their partners, and the supposed definition of happiness. The show wasn’t a hit because they drank a whole lot of coffee—the show was a hit because of how complicated and unpredictable and, at times, unlikeable Rory and Lorelai were. That was trailblazing back then. Still trailblazing now. So take the beautiful glossy big-smile pictures with a grain of salt. Think of them as the 2016 version of those amazing WB Promos , which still make my pace quicken a little bit—but know that beneath the on-trend dresses, big smiles, and improbable cultural references (foremost in my mind: what slang has Lorelai picked up in the past year, and how do we not cringe at her using it?) lurk the actual, awesomely un-pretty, tricky and complicated stories that made the show work and endure. [Click here] to see more photos. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 7:54 PM [Scarjo’s 3 major answers] [Scarlett Johansson in Cosmo] In the hierarchy of fashion and beauty magazines, where do you rank Cosmopolitan? Not above VOGUE or ELLE, right? Probably below Marie Claire and Flare and Harper’s Bazaar? How about Glamour? I was all about Cosmo when I was 17. And I probably haven’t picked up a Cosmo since I turned 20. [Scarlett Johansson], one of the biggest movie stars in the world, definitely on the highest level, covers the newest issue of Cosmo. And this surprised me, seeing her today in the magazine. Because, well, when Scarjo’s on promotion, in this case for The Jungle Book and Captain America: Civil War (the junket is this weekend, the Avengers are coming), I can’t imagine that she’d have a hard time landing a top tier magazine cover. But. But. We already know that Beyoncé's taken over ELLE for the May issue. Who could possibly have taken over VOGUE for May 2016 that would be a bigger get than Scarlett Johansson? So anyway, it’s Scarjo and Cosmo and the magazine has released a preview of the piece with Scarjo taking on big subjects ranging from Planned Parenthood to the gender pay gap to when she hit “rock bottom”. Let’s start with the conversation that seems to be making her angry – as it should: On cutting the budget for Planned Parenthood: "There are countries at war, there's terrorism, global warming, and we're like, 'We should definitely cut the budget for Planned Parenthood. Let's take away the availability of women's health initiatives!'… It's nuts. We're talking about preventing cervical and breast cancers. Growing up, I used [PP's] services. All my girlfriends did—not just for birth control but for Pap smears and breast exams. You read about the rise of back-alley abortions, women having to mutilate themselves and teenagers having to seek help in unsafe conditions, and for what?! We're moving backward when we're supposed to be moving forward." Yes. A thousand times yes. And I’ll take it a step further in my outrage because, to me, diminishing Planned Parenthood is an attack on women. These are services supporting women. And any time someone decides to take away resources that provide women with knowledge and safety about and around their health, it’s an assault on a basic right for women to care for themselves. So I appreciate that Scarlett isn’t restrained in her response here. Because it’s infuriating. It’s beyond infuriating. As for her position on equal pay, the issue that has been dominating not only her industry but every industry: "There's something icky about me having that conversation unless it applies to a greater whole… I am very fortunate, I make a really good living, and I'm proud to be an actress who's making as much as many of my male peers at this stage… I think every woman has [been underpaid], but unless I'm addressing it as a larger problem, for me to talk about my own personal experience with it feels a little obnoxious. It's part of a larger conversation about feminism in general." Smart. Acknowledging that she’s not exactly in a position to complain. But don’t let the second point slide either – that Scarlett Johansson, in the prime of her career, makes as much as her male peers in the prime of their careers. You’ll recall, not even Jennifer Lawrence could say the same, at least not until recently. That should give you some idea, again, of Scarjo’s status in Hollywood. And yet she too can be stupidly self-destructive in love: "Long, long ago, I had someone in my life who was forever unavailable...but, like, so attractively unavailable. You have to get to your breaking point… rock bottom is the moment when you're like, 'I've lost myself. Why am I standing outside this bar at 1:30 in the morning texting while my friends are inside? Or taking a taxi to see him at some ungodly hour? This isn't me.' That is the moment you've gotta cut it off. Otherwise, it will keep coming back, suck your blood." Oh MY GOD, you’ve been there, right? And she described it so perfectly. Don’t we all have that f-cker in our past who turned us into someone else? You know, you KNOW when you’re parked outside his place at 3am, knowing he’s not home, but needing to be there anyway because it’s as close as you’re going to get, and your shame in that still isn’t enough to point you somewhere else, you know in that moment you’re no good. Hopefully, though, you’ll figure out eventually that neither is he. So. Who? Jared Leto or Josh Hartnett? [Click here] for more of Scarjo in Cosmo. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 7:40 PM [Louis CK’s career high] [Louis CK at the 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party] [Louis CK]’s experimental-ish Horace and Pete ended its season—maybe the whole series?—after ten episodes. It’s been an [incredible] run, and alongside American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, has been the best thing on TV this year so far, although Horace and Pete isn’t technically on TV. (They’re very different shows, so I don’t want to pick one or the other, but I’ve enjoyed both immensely.) The final four episodes are strong, but the finale is extraordinary. In the buildup we learn that Sylvie will get better, and that Pete will get worse, as her chemo is working, but his medication is being discontinued, forcing Pete back into an institution. When Pete, despairing, disappears, no one but Horace is really surprised. For a show that felt thrown together more often than not, the finale episode ties the whole thing together in a calculated way that speaks to CK’s care as a writer. We go back in time, to the 1970s, and see Horace, Pete, and Sylvie as children, living with their abusive father, Horace VII, and their terrorized mother, Marianne. In a in interesting touch of continuity, CK plays Horace VII, Edie Falco plays Marianne, and Steve Buscemi plays Uncle Pete, Alan Alda’s character. Even Steven Wright pops in as a seventies-era barfly, which should feel like community theater, but instead works to establish that all this has happened before, and that Sylvie’s monologue railing against tradition was dead on—the bar and their family is a nightmare of abuse, repeating endlessly. The acting is next-level throughout, but especially CK hits a career high as an actor playing the frightening and cruel Horace VII. The worst of the abuse is off screen, but the way VII physically dominates his wife is gut-wrenching, and his children obviously fear him, even as young Sylvie tries to stand up to him, she can’t run away fast enough. But the worst is young Pete (Nolan Lyons, Boardwalk Empire), a bright, energetic kid, but already showing signs of the mental illness that will devastate the rest of his life. We see the horrible moment that Marianne abandons Pete to VII’s brutality in order to save her children, and then after an intermission, the episode resumes in the present. Pete is still missing, but Sylvie’s prepared to move out and “go see the country, or something” with her new man (Reg E. Cathey, wonderful as always). She encourages Horace to do something, to not just waste away in the bar, but then the police come to tell them they believe Pete is dead. Horace breaks down, and this is where the episode becomes extraordinary—Amy Sedaris shows up. According to CK, Sedaris [improvised her whole scene], and she transforms the finale. As Mara, a prospective waitress for the bar, Sedaris blows in at Horace’s lowest moment, an exuberant, friendly, hugger who talks non-stop and charms Horace despite his grief. Indeed, there’s a moment where Horace smiles at Mara that is half Horace’s own amazement at her audacious kindness, and half CK’s honest delight with Sedaris. Professional admiration bleeds through and yet instead of breaking the flow, it adds to it, and you can see in that moment, Horace falls in love. And the show could have ended right there. Mara comes in and changes Horace’s life, he decides what he’s “going to do”, fade to black, and we end with the cycle of Horace and Pete’s broken. But that’s not the lesson taught in the first half of the episode. The point of the first half, driven home by the recycled casting, is that nothing changes at Horace and Pete’s, and escape comes with a cost. Marianne escaped at the expense of young Pete, and Sylvie, with her plans to leave Brooklyn, will have to pay her tithe, too, and it’s terrible. But Horace and Pete is pretty bleak, and the ending is as emotionally harrowing as anything on the show. And it’s fitting it ends on Sylvie, as the series has been a showcase for startling, amazing performances from women. If you watch no other episode of Horace and Pete—though you really ought to watch the whole thing—watch the finale. It works as a stand-alone, and it REALLY deserves to be seen. You can purchase episodes of Horace and Pete [here]. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 6:57 PM [Gwyneth, Ben, and Jen] [Ben Afleck and Gwyneth Paltrow at the 'Armageddon' Premiere at the Kennedy Space Center on July 19, 1998 ] An email with the best headline just arrived in my inbox from the National Enquirer, claiming an exclusive: Gwyneth Paltrow Plays Peacemaker To Ben Affleck And Jen Garner! It’s the National Enquirer, so by the time you read this post, there’s probably going to be a denial. And, yeah, you shouldn’t believe the story, but not just because the source is so sketch. The main reason you shouldn’t believe this story is because, well, whoever wrote it clearly doesn’t understand how this sh-t works. Would [Gwyneth Paltrow], who has expertly navigated Conscious Uncoupling and become the poster woman for amicable divorce believe that she has the experience and expertise to “coach” [Ben Affleck] and [Jennifer Garner] through theirs? Of course. 100%. It’d be another boasty moment for her, right after being friends with Beyoncé and babysitting the Blue Ivy Carter. If Gwyneth Paltrow was actually mentoring Ben and Jen, brokering peace between them, it would be GWYNETH PALTROW getting the glory for it. You think Jennifer Garner, aka Amazing Amy, would stand for that? Jennifer Garner, who has captured the heart of the MiniVan Majority, who has strategically played out of the game, would she allow Gwyneth Paltrow a bragging moment on the back of her hard work and endurance? Come on now. It’s absurd. It’s especially absurd when you consider what Gwyneth represented to Ben. In her Buzzfeed piece about [The Unbearable Sadness Of Ben Affleck] a couple of weeks ago, Anne Helen Petersen revisited the Ben-Gwyneth relationship and some of the reasons they were attracted to each other. For Gwyneth, and how she was “grooming” Ben, it was perhaps the genesis that eventually led to Goop: showing people a more aspirational lifestyle. As Anne Helen Peterson notes, “Paltrow, according to People, “wanted to show that there’s a real man inside him, a thinker and a sensitive guy. She doesn’t let him skate by on that frat-boy thing.” Put differently, she was trying to reform — re-class — him”. For middle class Ben, who was always trying to be taken more seriously, who wanted respectability and prestige, goddamn it, Gwyneth was a golden prize. She had the pedigree and the connections. She was the Estella to his Pip, the Rose to his jack, the Allie to his Noah, the Serena van der Woodsen to his Lonely Boy Dan Humphrey. Now if you’re the woman who actually ended up marrying him, would you be receptive to whatever she had to say? Attached: Some gossip nostalgia courtesy Ben and Gwyneth circa 1998/99. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 5:30 PM [Rogue One …and Rey’s mom?] [Stills from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story] The first trailer for Rogue One, the first “Star Wars Story” spin-off of the rebooted universe, is here and it’s pretty f*cking metal. From the piano breakdown of the Star Wars’ theme to the shots of the Death Star, Stormtroopers, AT-ATs, and those familiar orange flight suits, there’s plenty of recognizable Star Wars stuff to push the nostalgia button everyone is so hooked on these days. And there’s Mon Mothma! There are so few women—or there had been, before now—in the Star Wars universe that you even get excited about the ones who spend most their time standing around tables. But then came Rey, and now Jyn Erso, [Felicity Jones]’s new Rebellion heroine. She’s a rough and tumble scrapper in the Han Solo mold, who gets sucked into a Rebellion spy plot that seems to be about discovering the Death Star. Well, they had to find out about it somehow, and it looks like Rogue One is here to tell us that story. I am all f*cking in. We get brief glimpses of [Diego Luna], [Forest Whitaker], and Donnie Yen—a reader named Melanie once described this cast as “AGRESSIVELY diverse”—but if Mads Mikkelsen is in this trailer, he’s wearing a face-obstructing costume. It’s the Felicity Jones show, though, and Jyn Erso looks like a certified badass, throwing punches and firing blasters and generally f*cking sh*t up. The look of the film is great, too. It’s dirty and grimy the way Star Wars should look—part of the original trilogy’s appeal was that it wasn’t a polished, shiny science fiction vision, it was scummy and kind of gross and kicked off an era of lived-in production design for these types of films. And the action looks terrific. Director Gareth Edwards has proven he knows scope and scale for action—he directed the under-appreciated 2014 Godzilla—and there’s everything from big pretty explosions to street brawls, and all of it looks beautiful. I am 100% into this movie, based on this trailer. Everyone is speculating that Jyn Erso is Rey’s mother. I don’t really care. The mystery of Rey’s parentage isn’t nearly as compelling as what Rey will do next, and also, the universe does not need to be that small. Not everything has to be connected. But if she is Rey’s mom, great, if not, also great. It doesn’t really matter because Jyn Erso looks like a fantastic heroine to add to Star Wars’ growing collection of fantastic heroines. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 3:32 PM [The Perfect Interview starring Jennifer Lawrence] [Jennifer Lawrence covers Harper's Bazaar] Earlier this week I was preoccupied by how [Beyoncé] has redefined what an “interview” with her really means. An “exclusive” interview with Beyoncé (for ELLE) means that the writer, a family friend, is given the opportunity to observe Beyoncé at a photo shoot. And then present her with a series of (likely pre-approved) questions (that might even have been written by her) that she will answer without follow-up. This, apparently, is what constitutes a “conversation” with Beyoncé. And I’m not mad about it. Because this is all part of what it means to study Beyoncé, how Beyoncé has made herself worth studying, analysing. Beyoncé is not going to make it easy. She’s not going to give you the answers. She’s decided that she is living history, meant to be researched and analysed and learned. You know who’s not a mystery though? You know who will give you the answers? [Jennifer Lawrence]. She’s on the cover of the new issue of Harper’s Bazaar to promote X-Men: Apocalypse and, as usual, she knows how to give and what to give: just enough so that it’s an entertaining, dishy read and not tinged with reluctance (Jesse Eisenberg) and not so much that you’re like, OK, are you a reality show star now? (Kaley Cuoco), and with exactly the right tone so that it feels spontaneous, without calculation (Taylor Swift). So she’ll tell you about that time she and [Emma Stone] went to [Adele] and she got drunk and Emma’s the kind of friend who will rub your back when the tequila’s coming up. She’ll reveal that Woody Harrelson slept over that night and cut his foot on some broken glass. She’ll make the word “frisson” even dirtier than it already is and hint about a flirtation but will also confirm that she hasn’t had sex in a while. But she’ll also note that her parents don’t want her to be politically opinionated because they don’t want people being mean to her on Facebook and admit that she can see why people are intimidated by her even though she insists they shouldn’t be. And after all of that, none of what you read feels compromising – to either the reader or the subject. In fact, both walk away from the experience with a sense of equal exchange. Which, really, is what amounts to a perfect interview. [Click here] to read it. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 3:15 PM [Shine on Name Therapist!] [Lainey and Duana] Tuesday was a big day for us at LaineyGossip as we celebrated the release of Duana’s first book, The Name Therapist! From Duana: Tuesday night I got to celebrate “The Name Therapist” with my friends and family and all the people who made it happen, including so many people who inspired the stories in the book themselves. Everybody has a story about their name. Everyone has ideas about how the name makes the woman or man. . So many more of them came out just last night…a night where Lainey reminded me “you take pictures while the makeup is fresh”…a lesson I’m trying to remember! The book is on sale in stores and [online across Canada] and we are coming for you, United States – “The Name Therapist” will arrive in just a few weeks! I’ll keep you posted and can’t thank you enough for wanting to read it! Check out the pictures below and think…what’s your story? To help us commemorate the occasion, vitaminwater was on hand at her launch party. In addition to celebrating the launch of The Name Therapist, we’re also celebrating the launch of the newest vitaminwater flavour: watermelon pink grapefruit called shine and zero calorie shine zero (sweetened with a stevia blend). As you know, I write the stories on all the zero calorie vitaminwater flavours and here’s the latest: It’s available in a full calorie version sweetened with cane sugar and a zero calorie version sweetened with a stevia blend. Electrolyte enhanced. No artificial flavours or colours. And an excellent source of vitamin D and a source of calcium. Did you know that Canadians tend to not get enough vitamin D, and it helps in the absorption of calcium? vitaminwater’s think+drink+do is all about supporting people as they do more of the things they’d rather be doing. This is rooted in their own start-up history as pioneers of delicious hydration with the added bonus of vitamins and nutrients. Few people I know have more think+do than Duana. And vitaminwater knows this too. So much so that they invited her to write her own special edition label for her favourite flavour: multi-v (lemonade, vitamins b-zinc). Check it out here: This is not available in stores or anywhere else but here, so we want to share this with you. Penguin Random House Canada has provided ten signed copies of The Name Therapist, and we’d like to send ten of you a copy along with a special edition bottle of multi-v and a case of new vitaminwater shine and shine zero. If you’re interested in entering the draw, tweet [@vitaminwater_ca] using the hashtag #NameTherapist. We’ll draw randomly from the entries received before EOD (PT) Friday, April 8th. [Standard contest terms] apply. Good luck and think+drink+do! [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 2:11 PM [Michael Shannon in Midnight Special] [Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Nichols, Michael Shannon, Jaeden Lieberher and Joel Edgerton attend the screening of 'Midnight Special' during the 2016 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival at Paramount Theatre on March 12, 2016 in Austin, Texas] Midnight Special has something in common with [10 Cloverfield Lane]—you don’t want to know too much about this movie going in. The whole narrative is structured for discovery, and it unfolds with a real sense of wonder we don’t get to feel much at the movies anymore. Written and directed by Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud), Midnight Special has roots in the sort of golly-gee earnest filmmaking of Steven Spielberg’s Amblin era—most notably Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET—but it also owes a lot to the current trend of superhero cinema. No, this isn’t really a superhero movie but like 10 Cloverfield Lane uses the tropes and visual language of invader films, so too does Midnight Special use our cultural awareness of superhero stories to frame its own narrative. [Michael Shannon] and Nichols have a rich partnership among the great creator-muse relationships in American cinema. They’ve already done extraordinary work together—Take Shelter in particular—and Midnight Special is another rewarding outing for the pair. Shannon is a volcanic screen presence who is often directed to violence and rage, but Nichols always finds refreshing ways to channel Shannon’s energy. Here, he directs all of Shannon’s energy into the fear and desperation of a father trying to protect his child. I enjoyed Midnight Special a great deal, but I suspect fathers will get more out of it than anyone. Shannon stars as Roy—Spielberg reference #1—and when the film opens we’re in media res, as Roy is mid-flight with his son, Alton (Jaeden Lieberher, St. Vincent), and Lucas ([Joel Edgerton], continuing to defy expectations). There’s an Amber Alert out for Alton, and it’s not immediately clear whether Alton has been kidnapped or what. Midnight Special begins by setting up a series of questions and then slowly answering them, bit by bit. Not every question is answered by the end, but what’s left open-ended doesn’t detract from the resolution. Nichols is less interested in “solving” the movie for us than he is in capping off the story of a father and a son. Alton is very much part of the Spielbergian “Special Boy” trope, but the way Nichols teases the boy’s reality is unique. There are moments where Midnight Special feels hobbled by a slightly too-small budget—this is Nichols’ first studio film but it obviously didn’t get a studio budget—especially at the end, where Nichols isn’t quite able to stick the landing. But a wobbly finale doesn’t detract from all the other wonderful things about this film, such as the performances from [Kirsten Dunst] and Sam Elliott in supporting roles, and Adam Driver’s unexpectedly sympathetic “bad guy”. The production design from Chad Keith and cinematography from Adam Stone—both Nichols collaborators—are great, and creates a view of the rural South as emptiness relieved only by the detritus of long-gone industry. And Julie Monroe’s editing is sharp and revealing as her cuts often are the answers to Nichols’ questions. Nichols is a meticulous craftsman who surrounds himself with other meticulous craftsmen. Midnight Special is perhaps best described as a fantasy film, albeit, a low key, minor-tone one. It borrows from chase films, superhero films, invader films, and family dramas, but feels entirely its own. This might be a bit hard to find in theaters as it’s in limited release and slowly rolling out, but it’s well worth seeking out, or renting on demand sometime. Nichols has yet to make a bad movie, and Midnight Special is not only within his usual style of excellence—despite that semi-wonky ending—it’s also his most accessible film to date, thanks to its shared language with Spielberg movies we all know. This is a great movie, and the less you know about it going in, the better. Just give it a shot. I dare you to not be charmed. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 2:01 PM [Tom Cruise gives cake] [Tom Cruise and Kirsten Dunst, 2004] That is not a euphemism for anything, although I wish it was. Starting with this today because a reader called Cecile sent it over and she’s right in that even though it’s not super insidery dirty gossip, it’s one of those insightful little stories that also spins off so many follow-up questions. [Kirsten Dunst] is currently promoting Midnight Special (Sarah’s review of the film will best posted next) and when she was on Graham Norton he asked her about working with [Tom Cruise] on Interview With The Vampire and whether or not they stay in touch. Here’s her response: Cruise Cake! It’s an endearing little gesture, non? Or maybe not? Is Kiki Dunst the only person who gets Cruise Cake? I feel like the answer is no. I feel like there’s a Cruise Cake List. And now I want to know who else is on it. How is the Cruise Cake List managed? Does he do it himself? Does he walk around like Truman Capote with his little black book for the infamous Black & White Ball, cackling about someone who got a cake last year but won’t get a cake this year? For sure Emily Blunt gets a Cruise Cake. And Paula Patton. Does Jeremy Renner get one though? Leah Remini definitely not. But if she used to, who’s getting her Cruise Cake now? Julianne Hough, probably. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 1:45 PM [Privacy Policy] - [Unsubscribe]