Newsletter Tuesday, September 27, 2016

[LaineyGossip.com - Calling all smuthounds!] Tuesday, September 27, 2016 [Intro for September 27, 2016] [The West Wing] Dear Gossips, “Game on.” If you know The West Wing, you know the episode and if you know the episode you know why it’s coming up today. And The Atlantic was remembered it yesterday too, arguing [in this post] that the reason why The West Wing, and that episode in particular, was effective – at the time and still now – is because it portrayed “politics as a game”, a sporting event, treating “politics as a sport, and it revels in the moral promise that athletic events make to viewers: Sports, after all—like an election itself—feature clear winners, and clear losers”. I can see that point. And, certainly, I can see why that might be the point for many, given that in real life, rarely can we agree on the winners and the losers, from Team Clinton to Team Trump to Team Jolie to Team Aniston to Team Angelina to Team Brad. For me, though, Game On, and The West Wing overall, was never about the game. To me, it was always about the players, the team. Getting the president to the podium after the first lady cuts off his tie is the best scene in that episode. All Josh can manage is a high-pitched “WHY?” when told that the tie was cut off. CJ commenting that “No one’s done camera test on this” is both hilariously astute and hilariously futile. Sam adjusting the president’s tie from behind is exactly the way a trainer might be prepping a fighter when he’s walks out from the tunnel into the ring. And then when they safely deliver the president to the stage, we don’t see them again until they strut, like a team, all purposeful and important, into the press area to watch on the monitors. The West Wing did this a lot – showing the team show up somewhere all together – and those kinds of shots were always teamwork porn for me, like the way it’s always sexy seeing athletes arrive to the arena together, in their suits, with their headphones on, staggered perhaps, but always in the same stride. They have arrived – to work. And watching people work, to me, is sexy. Which is why while Game On always gets the glory, it doesn’t hold up without the “debate camp” episodes. I need to give more love to debate camp. F-ck, I want to GO to debate camp. One last note though about Game On – right before she cuts off his tie, there’s a moment when Mrs Bartlet tells the president, “We’ll do mushy later” and that she loves him so much (at the 0:33 mark of the video below) and the camera cuts to CJ and Toby who turn their backs, not wanting to intrude on a moment of intimacy. It reminds me of one of my favourite photos of Michelle and Barack Obama in an elevator, taken at the 2009 Inaugural Ball. It’s a photo of two people who clearly adore each other… but look at all those Secret Service agents lined up against the wall, their expressions as they try to disappear! Yours in gossip, Lainey PS. Programming note: my eye, you remember my eye? The eye that [got pregnant with a stye]? I have to see a surgeon about that today and, hopefully, will be having it removed. The procedure is happening at 945am ET. A few posts have been prepared in advance to roll out while I’m there. Apologies for any inconvenience and interruption this may cause. If all goes well, I’ll be back as soon as I can to keep blogging. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 1:01 PM [What we missed: Jakey’s bush] [Tom Ford/Jake Gyllenhaal] We missed a lot when World War Brange took over the celebrity news cycle last week. This week’s tabloid are about to drop. I suspect we might be getting another round of Brange ugly very soon. Before that happens, let’s catch up on one of the most important but overlooked issues from last week: [Jake Gyllenhaal]’s bush. Jake’s in [Tom Ford]’s new film, Nocturnal Animals. Tom [was interviewed by Vulture] at TIFF and he compared his approach to fashion and design to his approach to filmmaking: “I want a movie to be a movie! We have enough reality. I want the score to be big, I want the characters to be big, I want people to be more beautiful than they are in real life!” On that note, Jake Gyllenhaal appears half naked in Nocturnal Animals and he hasn’t shaved his chest even though his chest was shaved, most notably in Southpaw. Turns out Tom did not want Jake to get rid of his chest hair. Tom Ford is over the clean-shaven chest: “It just never occurred to me that he should shave his chest!” Ford said, aghast. “I happen to like body hair. I think people should leave it alone — I’m not a fan of all this manscaping that goes on. I don’t really get it.” Ford gestured southward. “If you like the chest, you should see what’s down here,” he said with a grin. “There is no manscaping.” Ford repeated it for emphasis: “There is no manscaping.” And then, Tom Ford, a natural born tease, ended his Vulture interview like this: With that image of his untrammelled leading man in mind, the interview was done, though Ford wasn’t. After we finished our discussion, the provocative designer-director walked me to the door and winked. “Nice talking to you,” he said, adding, “I’ll get Jake to show you his bush sometime.” Yes, please. But also… does no manscaping mean no trimming? I have a friend whose husband does the man version of a Brazilian. Because the bonus is that his dick looks bigger. To me, this is not necessary. Like, we don’t need to bare-match down there. But I am here for a gentle trim. Just, you know, to get the weeds down to a respectable length. Is that acceptable? [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 6:56 PM [Justin Theroux on World War Brange] [Justin Theroux is seen walking in Soho on September 26, 2016 in New York City] [Justin Theroux] is currently on promotion for The Girl On The Train. A reporter from [Business Insider] (via [PEOPLE]) asked him about World War Brange and instead of being thrown out of the room, they actually got an answer: "As a child of divorce all I can say is that's terrible news for those children and that's all you can really say," said Theroux, referring to Jolie and Pitt's six children. "It's boring to sort of comment on anything else. People are having a bad time, that's horrible." The way Theroux sees it, Aniston being thrust into the marital problems of Jolie and Pitt by the tabloids is just the latest wave of what he calls "nonsense." "There's an endless appetite for trash, apparently, though everyone would say that they don't have that appetite. But I think a lot of people do because people buy it," said Theroux. "But there are bigger things to bitch about. It's shocking how much bandwidth things can take up when there are far more important things going on in the world." Ah. It’s the “there are more important things to worry about” defence, my favourite. What would happen to the celebrity ecosystem, and a celebrity’s very existence, if people actually took their advice? Or, rather, if they actually MEANT their advice? By the way, in another interview with [Entertainment Tonight] Justin revealed why his marriage with [Jennifer Aniston] works: That took up some “bandwidth” this morning. More bandwidth that Emily Blunt has taken up, and she’s the star of the movie. Attached - Justin out in New York last night. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 6:37 PM [Here come Viola & Denzel] [Viola Davis attends The Rape Foundation's annual brunch on September 25, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California] The first trailer for Fences was released today, based on the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play by August Wilson and directed by [Denzel Washington]. Both he and [Viola Davis] won Tony Awards themselves for their work on the stage production a few years ago. As you know, the Oscar race is starting to take shape. And, as you know, even though Emma Stone has the early lead, everyone’s been leaving room for Viola. Going by the preview, Viola is a lock for a nomination. Going by the way I reacted to this preview, I might not make it through the entire film. It’s hard for me not to think of my own parents who gave up everything for me when they moved to Canada. My mother cleaned toilets in hotels and then started waiting tables. My father left a comfortable government job in Hong Kong to come here and start over with nothing. The stress of all that, and family drama on top of it, led to their divorce when I was 6 years old. Theirs is not an original story. Jacek’s family’s story is similar. His father was an engineer and his mother an architect back in Poland. When they arrived in Canada their credentials were initially useless. His ma took cleaning work too and his dad took a job working on the docks. So we can both totally relate to having this conversation, as depicted in this trailer – in my case as a teenager, talking to my ma about how she felt about me. I can totally relate to having her lecture me about HOW she loved me, and where that love lived, how that love existed in spaces that I was too stupid to see and where she hoped that love would take me when I eventually became the one who saw better than she could. Only then does it become obvious: the sacrifice, the disappointment, the “standing in the same place for 18 years”. Fences comes out on Christmas Day. Not only because the studio believes it has awards potential but because this is when families, traditionally, go to the movies together. And this is a movie about families. I was just talking about movies with my dad last night when we had dinner with my parents for my birthday. He’s been renting DVDs at the library because, bless him, he won’t let me get them an extended cable package with On Demand and streaming. “It’s a waste of money.” I’m going to take him to see Fences during the holidays. He loves Denzel Washington. Attached - Viola at the Rape Foundation's annual brunch in Beverly Hills on Sunday and Denzel at Kimmel last week. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 6:13 PM [Molly Shannon and Jesse Plemons in Other People] [Jesse Plemons and Molly Shannon in Other People] The “indie cancer dramedy” is a well-established sub-genre populated by films like 50/50, The Fault In Our Stars, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and of course the granddaddy of them all, Terms of Endearment. This is such a specific type of film that if you watch the trailer and think it looks like a fake movie trailer from Saturday Night Live, you would be forgiven because this is exactly the sort of movie that would be parodied on SNL. Which is ironic because Chris Kelly, the writer/director, was recently named the co-head writer of the upcoming season of SNL. Based loosely on Kelly’s own experience losing his mother to cancer, Other People follows David ([Jesse Plemons]), a thirty-year-old comedy writer who moves back home when his mother begins chemotherapy. David is at loose ends, personally and professionally—after early success his career has stalled out, and his five-year relationship has ended, though he doesn’t want to tell his family, for fear of worrying his mother, Joanne ([Molly Shannon]). He also can’t talk about his relationship because his dad, Norman (Bradley Whitford), still can’t acknowledge his son is gay, ten years after David came out. David is the focus of the film, which is both a strength and a weakness. It’s a strength because Plemons is wonderful, capturing the doubt and depression that can follow personal and professional setbacks, but also his quiet dedication to his mother. An early scene establishes Joanne as a vibrant woman with a big smile and bigger laugh, and the glue keeping her family, already strained by David’s contentious relationship with his father, together. It’s easy to see why, even with only that one scene for context, David would be so devoted to this woman. And Plemons and Shannon have great chemistry, making the mother-son relationship totally believable. But the focus on David cuts off other promising avenues which causes Other People to stumble a bit. The beginning is slow, and though the momentum picks up as the movie goes along, the pacing overall is off which makes it inconsistently engaging. Some subplots work, like David trying to date amidst all the emotional trauma in his life, but others don’t, such as David trying to get a job writing for a sitcom. It’s clear early on that David’s professional life is in limbo, so there’s no need to reiterate that point. Time spent on the sitcom job could have gone to David’s relationship with his younger sisters, for instance, or more time with David and Joanne. Which is the best stuff in the movie. When Other People focuses on David and Joanne it shines, and Kelly nails the complicated emotional stew that comes with care-taking for a parent when you’ve only just begun to be an adult yourself. It’s not as cynical or unflinching as James White, which is also about a self-absorbed white guy dropping everything to care for his ill mother, but Other People puts together enough sincerely good moments to overcome the fake trailer feel. Though it has its moments, it’s not as funny as 50/50, and it’s certainly not as weepy as [A Monster Calls]. Other People is a solid middle-of-the-pack indie cancer dramedy. Other People is now available on demand. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 5:48 PM [Emily & John’s celebrity dinners] [Emily Blunt and John Krasinski have dinner at Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux's place in New York, September 26, 2016] [Emily Blunt] and [John Krasinski] went over to [Jennifer Aniston] and [Justin Theroux]’s for dinner last night. Emily and Justin are in The Girl On The Train together. But they’ve all been friends for a while, having been on holiday together in Mexico with Jimmy Kimmel and Howard Stern and some other famouses. On Sunday Emily and John had dinner with Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso. That friendship is well-established. So…after catching up and etc etc… what do you think they all talked about? You think they talked about World War Brange? Celebrities front like they have better things to do than gossip and that gossip is so beneath them. I am here to tell you that celebrities are the biggest gossips and gossip more than anyone else. About each other. And they are alllllll gossiping about World War Brange right now. The same way you gossip about your neighbours or whoever. Their neighbours and their whoevers just happen to be the biggest movie stars in the world. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 5:15 PM [Smutty Tingles] Heads up about the Sasha Answers podcast this week. We are a couple of days behind so it’ll post on Thursday. Thanks for listening! Would you eat this if it delivers on its promise? ([Dlisted]) Miley and Liam split up the takeout ([Just Jared]) Hate the length of Princess Kate’s red dress ([Cele|bitchy]) Even the Olsens’ swimwear is black ([TooFab]) Hilary Duff has a boyfriend ([Celeb Dirty Laundry]) Amanda Seyfried’s engagement ring ([Pop Sugar]) Scarjo looks presidential or Secret Servicey ([Popoholic]) I’m in love with Damian ([Hollywood Tuna]) Not my favourite outfit on Rihanna. It’s the skirt. ([Go Fug Yourself]) [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 4:53 PM [Luke Cage, the hero we need] “The world is ready for a bulletproof black man.” That’s what Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker said at Comic-Con in July. I would watch the show based on that statement alone but Netflix’s Luke Cage looks like it’s actually going to live up to the hype. Ahead of the show’s release on Friday, Netflix has dropped the final trailer. It’s SO good. If you need me this weekend, I’ll be on my couch mainlining episodes and ignoring real life. Don’t call me unless you’re bringing over snacks. We first met Luke Cage ([Mike Colter]) in season one of Jessica Jones, one of my favourite shows of the last five years. If you’ve haven’t seen Jessica Jones, what the eff are you waiting for? Abandon everything and start now. You have 4 days. Cage is now on his own, grappling with what it means to be a hero while he kicks ass in Harlem. In a hoodie. A black man in a hoodie is a Marvel super hero. I don’t think I need to break down why this is significant. Luke Cage is the super hero we need. See the amazingness for yourself and meet me on the other side. Yes, that was a cameo by Method Man. The trailer is set to Nas’s Made You Look, one of the greatest rap songs of all time. Every episode is named after a Gang Starr song. Hip-hop is going to play a major part in this series. Coker calls it, “the Wu Tang-ification of the Marvel universe.” This show is so black. I. Can’t. F-cking. Wait. The trailer also shows us more of a glimpse at the supporting cast. [Rosario Dawson] was wasted in Daredevil and left us wanting more in Jessica Jones. She’s supposed to have a good arc as Claire, Luke’s potential love interest? I haven’t read the comics so I have no idea but I wouldn’t mind watching Mike Colter and Rosario Dawson break a few headboards, if you know what I mean. Mahershala Ali (House Of Cards) plays villain Cornell Stokes and I’m already terrified of him. Then, there’s [Alfre Woodard], who needs no introduction. God, this is going to be so good. All 13 episodes of Luke Cage season one debut on Netflix this Friday. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 4:37 PM [Justin Timberlake shares the title] [Justin Timberlake at TIFF premiere of Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids ] Oh hey. I’m back from my procedure. It was fine at the time. But now I’m home and the freezing has worn off so this is where I find [Justin Timberlake] in the extended trailer for his concert film, Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids, premiering on Netflix October 12. Would I be more receptive to this if my eye wasn’t throbbing? I don’t think so. My hate for Justin Timberlake is consistent and independent of factors like eye pain or traffic jams. The footage was shot in Vegas on the last night of JT’s 20/20 Experience tour which ended January 2015, well before JT released that Trolls song, sparing concert audiences from having to listen to it. The song featured in the trailer is Mirrors, his last big hit. And this is fitting because JT, in the trailer, as usual, is a mirror of himself – only himself and no one else. Which is why I’m not sure why the title of this film is JT + the Tennessee Kids. Where in these two minutes is it suggested that this film is about anyone other than Justin Timberlake? Who are the Tennessee Kids? Don’t ask me, I’m asking you. Because I don’t know. We don’t get to meet them here. There is no introduction. At the very end, there are a whole bunch of people clapping and then JT walks into the frame, suggesting that the applause was for him. Is that the Tennessee Kids? A cheering section? I do love the graciousness of it though. Like generously sharing the title of the movie, as if to prove that Justin Timberlake is, indeed, a collaborative artist. Oh, OK. I guess I just wasn’t paying attention. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 4:01 PM [Disney Twitter] Yesterday Bloomberg reported that Disney is exploring the possibility of buying Twitter and adding it to the already huge pile of other corporations that they own. It’s early in the process—they’re just exploring the option—but it does feel like Disney is chasing specific pieces and that when they have the right combination of media, tech, and distribution companies they will succeed in assembling the Triforce. The reason Twitter is maybe for sale is because participation in the platform has plateaued and stock prices are stagnant/dropping as a result and we live in a society where the pinnacle is not acceptable. It’s not enough to build something millions of people become dependent on as a source of news, entertainment, and communication, you have to keep growing it even though there is a finite number of people who have both the inclination and ability to participate with social media. Plus there are several social media platforms now, each with their own distinct cultures that further subdivide the eligible social media base: Facebook is for people who still write holiday newsletters; Instagram is competitive scrapbooking; Tumblr is honor students who are also into art projects; Twitter is for people who like yelling at the news; and no one knows what the f*ck is Snapchat is about. But all of them create ad revenue, and media companies f*cking love ad revenue. So the only thing you can do when you hit that plateau is merge with a larger corporation in order to create synergy and cross-pollinating multi-platform opportunities and other buzzwords, and no corporation is better at this than Disney. You know they own Pixar, Marvel, and LucasFilm, and ABC/ESPN, but they also have stakes in the A&E networks and Vice, and they’ve invested in tech companies like GoPro and Photobucket. But probably most relevant to a potential Twitter acquisition is Disney’s stake in BAMTech, a streaming service built by Major League Baseball, which Disney bought into specifically to generate content for ESPN. It’s not hard to see them using Twitter in a similar way, to create exclusive portals for members-only content, thus creating a new advertising stream for them while driving participation for Twitter. If you thought Disney’s marketing was intense before, just wait if they own Twitter. [Source] [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 2:50 PM [Not everyone] [FKA twigs and Robert Pattinson at LAX, September 26, 2016] It's an epidemic of breaks! Who else? What's the next break? Who ISN'T breaking? Not sure if this was the answer you were looking for but [FKA twigs] and [Robert Pattinson] are still together. Here they are at LAX yesterday. It's been a while since we've seen these two. Once a week or so I'll get an email from a TwiHard trying to convince me that RP is hidden in Kristen Stewart's car or something but, beyond that, twigs and RP have managed to keep their sh-t pretty tight, especially in comparison to the way his previous relationship used to work. It's now been two years for twigs and RP. Not all love has crumbled then. Although there is a random Brange connection here. Madame Tussaud's separated the two Brange wax figures. With Robert Pattinson. Seems like a safe choice. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 2:21 PM [Please forgive Drake] [Drake performs onstage at the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena on September 23, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada] We need to forgive [Drake] for making us sit through his new “short film,” Please Forgive Me. This film has propelled his album Views back to No. 1 on the Billboard charts so he’s probably not sorry but he should be. The first thing he should be sorry for is that he chose a Rihanna knock-off as his love interest instead of Rihanna herself. All of the thoughts you are about to read would be a lot more positive if Please Forgive Me was 21 minutes and 28 seconds of Rihanna and Drake making out. It’s not. Instead, it’s 21 minutes and 28 seconds of Drake trying to convince us that he’s a badass action hero. Remember Drake’s most famous acting role? No disrespect to Jimmy from Degrassi but Rihanna is a more convincing badass any day of the week. Late Sunday night, Drake released Please Forgive Me exclusively on Apple Music. It features Drake and Budget Rihanna (I’m sure [Fanny Neguesha] is very nice and she’s stupidly gorgeous but she is not Rihanna. Period) squaring off against a South African crime boss. I only know that piece of the plot because I read it on the Internet. The only things the short film make clear are that some dude wants to pay Budget Rihanna a million dollars to have sex with him and Action Hero Drake agrees to pimp out his girl in order to steal the crime boss’s money. Whatever. The video is pretty much Indecent Proposal if it was directed by Michael Bay. I love the music by producer Noah “40” Shebib but the visual’s only redeeming scene is the dance sequence set to One Dance in Johannesburg and that’s basically a 4-minute music video. Why waste our time with the rest? The short film is supposedly inspired by Views. That album is a love letter to Toronto. How does a short film inspired by Views, an album where Drake is literally sitting on the CN Tower on the cover, turn into a crappy action movie starring Aubrey, the gangster? What is happening? Drake’s best video – hands down— is Hotline Bling. The reason that video is so amazing is that Drake is being goofy, nerdy and unequivocally himself. I get that he’s trying to flex his dramatic acting chops here but I just don’t buy it. Views is a great album. Drake is a good actor. This short film was completely a missed opportunity to do something fresh and authentic. Budget Rihanna, the female lead, is basically a prop who DIES in the end. This glorified music video feels like it should’ve been released in the early 2000s when so many hip-hop videos denigrated, disregarded women and had sh-tty plot lines and terrible acting. Please Forgive Me doesn’t feel like it deserves to exist in 2016. As [The Atlantic points out], “the music video is dead, long live the music movie.” The last visual album Apple gave us was Frank Ocean’s Endless. Before that, TIDAL gifted us with Lemonade, the mic drop of visual albums, the visual album to end all visual albums. I wasn’t expecting a Lemonade-calibre mini movie from Drake but I was expecting more than this. Next to Lemonade and Endless or even Kanye’s 2010 music short film Runaway, Drake’s Please Forgive Me is embarrassing. You can stream the full short film [here]. Attached - Drake performing at iHeartRadio Music Festival on Friday. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 2:03 PM [Naomi & Liev are over] [Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber attend the premiere of 'The Bleeder' for the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival at Princess of Wales Theatre on September 10, 2016] [Naomi Watts] and [Liev Schreiber] announced yesterday that they’re over [releasing a statement] confirming the end of their romantic relationship: "Over the past few months we've come to the conclusion that the best way forward for us as a family is to separate as a couple. It is with great love, respect, and friendship in our hearts that we look forward to raising our children together and exploring this new phase of our relationship. While we appreciate your curiosity and support, we ask the press to be mindful of our children and respect their right to privacy." It happened exactly a week after Brange. And under much different circumstances. Brange is dominating the celebrity breakup landscape. That was already a bonus for Naomi and Liev. And there was another spectacle happening last night. Most of the headlines today are about the debate. It was the most ideal time for them then to reveal a not-so-ideal piece of news. Naomi and Liev were together earlier this month in Venice [and at TIFF] to promote their film The Bleeder. Liev then attended the Emmys with their son. You can see the calendar marks now about how this would roll out, right? They waited out the festivals and the award shows, avoiding speculation about their relationship while they were in front of the media. And then took advantage of all the attention being paid to Brange and the political arena to ensure that their split would receive as little scrutiny as possible. With, maybe, some advance notice. Liev, by the way, is represented by entertainment lawyer Robert Offer. That name might sound familiar to you. Because he released a statement last week on behalf of another client, Angelina Jolie. Coincidence or conspiracy? Earlier this year Naomi and Liev’s NY apartment was [featured in Architectural Digest]. Someone wrote to me at the time wondering if this meant that they’d be listing the place soon. Like a pre-sale promotion for the property. It’s an excellent observation, in hindsight, and props to the person who sent that in. What, though, could be different now from, you know, before? For years there have been rumours about Liev. I remember he was shooting a few years ago in Montreal and people there were always seeing him with a not-Naomi. Those sightings could never be substantiated. So, of course, there’s nothing slamdunk to suggest that they are connected to the separation. And they did a great job fronting closeness and affection when they were together in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. Whatever it is, then, they’re playing like they’re over it. And anything resembling civil, right now, in the wake of Brange, doesn’t invite a lot of digging. Attached - Naomi on the set of Gypsy in New York yesterday. [Click here for the rest of the photos.] Posted at 1:38 PM [Privacy Policy] - [Unsubscribe]