We will be dark tomorrow and on Monday, September 4 in observance of Labor/Labour Day. We will be back on Tuesday, September 5. See you next week!
Diane Kruger wore red to a movie premiere in France. She looks amazing, and the Fug Girls make a good point—now is the time for the non-Hollywood stars to come through with red carpet glamour. I wonder if we’ll have a new international fashion icon after all this? (Go Fug Yourself)
Meg Ryan is back for her first film in eight years. She directs and stars in a rom-com opposite David Duchovny about exes who reunite after over twenty years while stuck in an airport together. It looks cute, the talking airport speaker system reminds me of the magic billboard in LA Story. We all have positive associations of Meg Ryan and romantic comedies, but David Duchovny will always and forever remind me of The Secret, a movie in which a man’s wife’s spirit inhabits their teenage daughter’s body and they almost have sex.
That movie SCARRED ME. It’s one of those things that pops into my head occasionally like, Did that actually happen? Did I really see that? The answer to both is “yes”, unfortunately. So, while I am glad to see Meg Ryan once again, I remain suspicious of David Duchovny in romantic movies. (Celebitchy)
David Zaslav’s latest $200 million bad idea is adding a news ticker to Max, to pop up and inform viewers of what’s going on regardless of what they’re watching. It’s one thing to integrate CNN into the platform, it’s something else entirely to force people to see the news when they specifically chose NOT to watch the news. I’ll tell you what, if I’m watching Our Flag Means Death (again) and a ticker pops up to tell me what awful thing just happened, I will burn this place down. I already have social media to tell me breaking news, leave my stories alone. (Pajiba)
Speaking of David Zaslav, he has a new profile in The New Yorker. It’s hilarious, you can feel the writer, Clare Malone, doing her best to position Zaz as a sympathetic figure, a lover of cinema given charge of a legacy studio but a mountain of debt, FORCED to layoff thousands and tank projects for tax write-offs. The article also makes a meal of Zaz’s purchase of legendary producer Robert Evans’ Beverly Hills estate, Woodland. See? Zaz loves Hollywood and wants to be a good custodian of its history!
Except, once again, simply outlining the actions Zaslav has taken as CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery reinforces WHY he’s so unpopular—with his employees, with the talent he contracts with, with cinephiles. He’s not a “Hollywood antihero”, he’s a f-cking stuffed shirt who, apparently, is deeply insecure on top of everything else.
You know the thing about Robert Evans? He knew what he WASN’T. He knew how to delegate, he knew how to spot real talent, he knew when to trust the creatives to be creative. He inherited Paramount at a time when it was a f-cking mess, and you know what he didn’t do? Tank projects to save dollars. He invested in movies and trusted his investment would pay off with profit, and it did. David Zaslav might fancy himself the spiritual heir of Evans, but he doesn’t have the taste, the talent, or the nerve for it. (The New Yorker)
Shameless self-promotion! If you’re wondering what I thought of the finale of Justified: City Primeval, and the return of THAT character, check out the latest episode of Decoding TV. Let’s just say…it was a mixed bag. I’m all about want vs. need in storytelling, and this was too much want, not enough need. (Decoding TV)
