Dear Gossips,
Oh did you think I wasn’t going to be mentioning Crazy Rich Asians this week? There was no CRA content yesterday because I’m hitting you up with so much of it today, tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday for its five-day opening weekend. Not only because, as director Jon M Chu said, there are so many other projects featuring diverse casts that are depending on CRA to do well so that they can be greenlit, but because, quite simply, it’s a fun summer movie that just happens to star Asians.
Box office projections still have CRA opening at around $20 million but, as I’ve been saying, I think we can do better. I tweeted the other day that Crazy Rich Asians was sitting at a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s now come down to 97%, so slightly less than perfect but also really, really perfect. Because many of us growing up with immigrant Asian parents know what the parental response would be if you brought home a test score of 97%: “what happened to the other 3%?”
As Jiayang Fan wrote of the film in her beautiful essay for The New Yorker:
In this sense, we can’t help but become emblematic of another stereotype: the overbearing Asian parent, demanding the best of our creation, endowing it with our greatest hopes and, like any good tiger mom, our fiercest criticisms.
After all, if we don’t ace every test and hit every mark, how will we ever prove our worth?
Tonight, Michelle Yeoh, Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Awkwafina, and Kevin Kwan will be in New York for a TimesTalk Q&A. Of all the cast members, I feel like it’s Henry Golding who’s been out there the most. Not a household name, yet. But you’ll get it as soon as you see Crazy Rich Asians, why he was booked and shot two other films, including A Simple Favour with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, even before the movie came out. As you know, he’s not the only CRA breakout. Awkwafina is also rising. And Captain Marvel is Gemma Chan’s CRA follow-up. This is what CRA has already done for so many members of the team: increased visibility within the industry. Hopefully more of that to come.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
Dear Gossips,
We are not talking today about Meghan Markle’s father. Because there’s nothing new to say. It’s the same, my views on it have not changed: there is nothing loving about repeatedly harassing your child in the media. Read Full Intro
What Else?
This beautifully gay performance has reminded me of one of my regrets: I do not talk about Carly Rae Jepsen enough on this site. I love her. And I love Emotion. So much. How has it already been three years since it came out? Why didn’t I shout at you more to listen to it when it did? Because I’m a f-cking asshole, that’s why. Full Story
Justin Timberlake’s “Hindsight”
It was announced on Friday that Justin Timberlake is coming out with a book. What’s it about? WHAT DO YOU THINK IT’S ABOUT? His favourite topic: himself. If there’s anyone who can reliably be a cliché, it’s Justin Timberlake. Which is why the title of the book is as derivative as you’d expect: Hindsight & All The Things I Can’t See In Front Of Me. Full Story
Angelina Jolie keeps losing
Backgrid
Angelina Jolie was photographed at the supermarket in LA with three of her kids this weekend. We’ve seen her often with her kids since she and Brad Pitt broke up. We have not seem him with his kids. And he can’t see his kids without the presence of a supervising therapist. That used to be a bad look on him. Full Story
Smutty Social Media, August 13, 2018
Frazer Harrison/ Kevin Mazur/ Fox/ Getty Images
Back in June, Lainey wrote about the summer of Awkwafina. We are fully immersed now, with Crazy Rich Asians just a few days away -- and she is now one of the most recognizable names in the movie. Full Story
Insecure is back
Backgrid
Lawrence who? That’s the only thing I’m going to say about Lawrence for the rest of this post about the Insecure Season 3 premiere. Like I’ve BEEN saying, this show does not need Lawrence Full Story
Chris Pratt, a year later
Backgrid, Kevin Mazur/ Fox/ Kevin Winter/ Getty Images
Chris Pratt and Anna Faris announced their separation pretty much exactly a year ago. They did it during Game of Thrones. You remember the episode, right? Daenerys and Drogon swoop in behind the Dothraki army to burn the Lannister forces. Full Story
Choice Hottie
Kevin Mazur/ Fox/ Kevin Winter/ LISA O'CONNOR/ Jon Kopaloff/ Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images
This is still a category that exists at the Teen Choice Awards. I learned that and so many other important things while watching the show last night. I learned that the teens’ Best Chris may be Pratt – or at least he’s the one who shows up for them (Chris Pratt was also at the MTV Movie and TV Awards and at the Teen Choice Awards last year Full Story
Joe goes public
Joe Alwyn will star in several films confirmed for the festival circuit this fall, and many of them could be award contenders. So it’s his first major promotional tour since Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk which came out before we found out that he and Taylor were together. As I’ve been saying, it’s going to be interesting to see how Joe handles it, and what topics will and won’t be allowed to be brought up during interviews. Full Story
Top Chrises Walk
Dimitrios Kambouris/ Alberto E Rodriguez/ Getty Images
The gears have been grinding slowly but surely on a fourth Star Trek movie, which was to star Top Chrises Pine and Hemsworth as a father-son Captain Kirk duo in, presumably, some kind of timey-wimey scenario that would resurrect Hemsworth as Captain Kirk the Senior. Full Story
