Dear Gossips,
A couple of weeks ago, when Disney released the cast photo for The Lion King – you know, the one featuring all the other actors and Beyoncé in the centre, where she should be? – a handful of people in my inbox and my mentions tried it; they tried arguing that Beyoncé was present for the group shoot, that she wasn’t photoshopped into the shot. As if the Queen would stand around waiting for everyone else to get their poses right when her pose, off the top, would immediately be perfect.
Not that we needed confirmation but we do now have confirmation: John Oliver was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night and he explains that, yes, indeed, at no point were he and Beyoncé actually side by side in person to take the photo. As John says, “That’s only appropriate that there’s a significant gap between me and the actual Queen”. And then he goes on to compare Beyoncé to Queen Elizabeth II, joking that, of course, Beyoncé is the true royalty. Or was he joking?
I’ve mentioned this before – John Oliver will always find a way to namecheck Beyoncé, at the Emmys, after winning an Emmy, and on talk shows. And the whole cast has found a way to talk about Beyoncé during the press tour in the absence of Beyoncé having to do any conventional press herself. The clip is below, and the whole thing is worth the watch because he and Stephen are always great together, but if you just want the Beyoncé part, it starts at about the 6 minute mark. This is what Disney signed up for when they signed John to the movie. He’s going to be the one to tell us about the photo and casually work in a bit about cocaine while promoting a Disney movie.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
July 23, 2019 – Smutty Shout-Outs
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Carolina! Happy Belated Birthday from Paula! Wishing you a GREAT decade, you will LOVE your 30s! By request, here’s Lin-Manuel Miranda at Comic-Con this weekend. Full Story
Dear Gossips,
What was the biggest story coming out of Comic-Con this weekend? Marvel. All the Marvel. Marvel popped off all the nerd boners in Hall H and beyond with announcement after announcement after announcement that dominated the convention and social media, pretty much confirming that even though there’s been an Endgame, there is no endgame when it comes to Marvel coming for our money. Read Full Intro
What Else?
Elisabetta A. Villa/ Getty Images
Most of the takes on this story about Pete Davidson wanting his ma to get some D are about how he should stay out of her love life and not talk inappropriately about the woman who gave birth to him – which I appreciate but … I have some thoughts on mothers of sons. In my experience, they’re pretty intense. Full Story
Mahershala Ali wanted it to be so
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Marvel spent most of the Comic-Con panel confirming stuff we already knew, with a couple nice surprises along the way, but right at the end they pulled out a real showstopper. Just as the panel was winding down, Kevin Feige introduced “two-time Academy Award winner, Mahershala Ali,” who then came out and put on a motherf-cking BLADE hat. Full Story
Cumberbatch & Olsen, your newest Marvel duo
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The weirdest of the Marvel TV shows, by far, is WandaVision. It’s weird mainly because Vision is dead, yet Paul Bettany is returning, and also it’s set post-Endgame. There’s a lot of “huh?” and “how?” surrounding this show. The key is that Scarlet Witch’s powers are bonkers and the movies have barely scratched the surface of what she can do. Full Story
Celebrity Social Media, July 22, 2019
Backgrid
The Hollywood Reporter has a new story about Leonardo DiCaprio, calling him a “Hollywood unicorn” and the last movie star because he is bankable without branding (he doesn’t do heavy social media promotion or superheroes). Leo isn’t interviewed for the piece but Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino both are, which means it’s sanctioned. Full Story
Black Widow Officially Exists
Kevin Winter/ Albert L Ortega/ Alberto E Rodriguez/ Getty Images
This year’s Comic-Con was strangely quiet, especially on the film side, so quiet that Marvel didn’t even have to pull out all the stops to “win” the weekend with their Saturday evening panel. All they had to do was literally show up, which is what they did. Marvel rocked up to Hall H and spent 90% of their panel confirming news we already knew, including confirming that the Black Widow movie is real. Full Story
Angelina and (The) Eternals: it’s official
Albert L Ortega/ Chris Delmas/ Alberto E Rodriguez/ Getty Images
Though it’s been rumoured for months, it wasn’t official until this weekend at Comic-Con: Angelina Jolie will play Thena in The Eternals. Or Eternals? Sorry. This is the kind of thing I fixate on. According to the poster, there is no “the”. But then in the caption of the tweet, the “the” is included in THE ETERNALS. Full Story
Big G’s Big Six
The Duchess of Cambridge/ WPA-Pool/ The Mega Agency
Today is Big G’s sixth birthday. He and House Cambridge are currently on holiday where they always go on holiday in Mustique, one of the UNmusty-est places in the world. Mustique is exclusive AF which, of course, is what makes it so attractive to celebrities and royals. Prince William and Catherine can get right into the ocean, tan on the beach, do whatever it is that they do without worrying about paparazzi or some random creeping a shot of them and posting it on Instagram. Full Story
Loki Revisited
Aleberto E Rodriguez/ Albert L Ortega/ Getty Images
Tom Hiddleston has really stepped back his public persona. Since The Swiftening, he is not as active on social media, and he is photographed much less often out and about. There has been a real change in how he approaches his celebrity. But he is still part of the Marvel machine, which means he has to turn up to places like Comic-Con. Full Story
