Last week at LaineyGossip, we played “Leave Room For” in the Oscar race. Sarah wrote that award season has to leave room for 1917 and in my post about leaving room for Queen & Slim, I mentioned that we also have to leave room for Bombshell. Bombshell comes out December 20 but there was a screening this weekend for press and guild members – early but strategic, as they know they have a contender on their hands and they clearly want to start building momentum and driving Oscar buzz, make sure it’s part of the awards conversations. And it looks like it’s delivered because film Twitter was all over Bombshell all weekend ….

… and following up on that excitement, a new trailer was just released today, exclusively on Ellen:  

I love the tactical moves happening here, layering these drops one on top of the other to secure a lane in the race. The Bombshell teaser back in August already set the tone for what Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie will be bringing in this film. And, on the heels of the Matt Lauer scandal that broke open again last week, when everyone was thinking about powerful, gross men in network news rooms, here they come with the true story of the sexual harassment that was going down at FOX under Roger Ailes, told from the womens’ perspective. I can’t f-cking wait to see it. I’ve already been begging to be assigned to the junket. 

Note too the decision to premiere the trailer with Ellen, on daytime. This is who they’re reaching out to, the women who watch Ellen – is there a Venn diagram that intersects a certain segment of Ellen’s audience with FOX News’s audience? If there is, I think we probably found that out last week, and that’s who they’re targeting. 

To promote the trailer, Charlize, Nicole, and Margot showed up together for an interview during which Ellen gets Nicole and Margot to join her as matchmaker to set Charlize up with someone famous. Excellent decision to include Lenny Kravitz in there. There’s no way Ellen didn’t know about Lenny and Nicole which is what makes that moment so funny. But what’s also really great about this segment is how into it Nicole gets when she’s advocating for Harry Styles…and then the look on all their faces when Michael B Jordan’s photo comes up. Same.

Charlize and MBJ interviewed each other last year for Variety’s Actors on Actors series. Their outfits kinda matched. I’m feeling it…aren’t you?