Month: October 2022

Over the course of his promotion for the Murder Inc. documentary The Murder Inc Story, Irv Gotti received a backlash for repeatedly talking about his illicit, 20-year-old affair with former Murder Inc. artist Ashanti. In defense of himself, he argued, “You keep asking me… got paid to do a documentary on my life and on Murder Inc. If I didn’t talk about Ashanti, you’d be like, ‘What type of bullsh*t is this?’ She’s too important to Murder Inc.”

It appears that now it’s Ashanti’s turn to address these recollections in her own interview with Angie Martinez on the latter’s podcast. While she already touched on Gotti’s comments on a remix of Diddy’s “Gotta Move On,” singing, “It’s giving obsessed, it’s giving me stressed, it’s giving me pressed / It’s giving this missing the best / But it’s been 20 years / Please say less,” in speaking with Angie Martinez, she goes more in-depth, accusing Gotti of emotional manipulation.

“He would say stuff like, ‘Nobody wants to record with you,’” she recalls. “On one hand, he would make it feel like ‘family, family, family,’ and on the other hand, we would tell me, ‘Nobody likes you. You not gonna get beats from nobody. Nobody’s gonna give you sh*t.’ It was hard.” She recounts being young and gullible and falling for this shtick, but realizing that it was actually a ruse when she got older, more mature, and began working with other artists who would tell her that they “always reached out” — presumably, only to be blocked by Gotti in his jealousy.

You can watch the full interview above.

Although I’m as excited as the next person about the Brendan Fraseraissance that we’re currently witnessing, I’m also still captivated by the Natasha Lyonnaissance that began a nearly a decade ago and is still kicking. Her role as Nicky Nichols on OITNB may have included some personal touches amid the tough talking, and then Natasha fully seized control of her own destiny with Russian doll while barreling through a topsy-turvy, Groundhog Day-esque world, for which The Atlantic likened her to a “steampunk Columbo.”

Those comparisons (and the Peter Falk-like mannerisms and energy were there) led people to wonder what it might be like to see Natasha in a Columbo reboot. Well, that’s not exactly what’s going on here in Ryan Johnson’s Poker Face series for Peacock, but we can squint hard and imagine it happening because this is a mystery-of-the-week drama revolving around murder. Lyonne’s character is described as (surprise, surprise) “scrappy,” and she may or may not be an outright detective, but “Charlie” does have an uncanny gift (to tell when people are lying), as we hear from Adrien Brody’s apparent slime ball. And from there, Charlie takes off in a Plymouth Barracuda to fall into solving a series of crimes. Again, not-Columbo!

In a statement to Peacock, Rian Johnson explained the show’s inception:

Never underestimate the power of a good dinner conversation between friends. What started as a discussion over steak frites about detective shows and what made them such a reliable pleasure — the exploration of little worlds within each new setting, the guest stars playing killers and victims, and most importantly, a scrappy protagonist you were always ready to kick back with and see win — ultimately resulted in the creation of Charlie, the driving force behind POKER FACE.

Poker Face — which not only features Brody but also Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Barkin, Tim Meadows, Benjamin Bratt, Lil Rel Howery, Tim Blake Nelson (!), and the pair that Natasha can’t quit (Chloë Sevigny and Dascha Polanco) — premieres the first four of ten episodes on January 26.

If there’s one thing we have learned about Donald Trump in the past several years, it’s that he has rarely passed on an opportunity to sit down with a reporter and talk endlessly about himself. As we’ve seen with Maggie Haberman’s recent book, Confidence Man, the former president doesn’t always think too highly of what he said when it’s over. So Bob Woodward, one half of the famed Woodward and Bernstein, who blew the lid off Watergate, made the ingenious move of releasing a new audiobook that includes hours of Trump telling his own story — and dropping some wild tidbits along the way. On Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel couldn’t wait to get right into it.

The audio comes from a whopping 20 interviews Woodward conducted with Trump, one before his election and the remaining 19 during Trump’s final year as president. “According to Woodward, Trump would call him randomly at unexpected hours to talk while he was president,” Kimmel said. “‘Cause there’s nothing he likes doing more than talking about himself; it’s his version of phone sex.”

The part that really flabbergasted Kimmel was when the topic turned to COVID, and Trump admitted that he was having trouble talking to his own son Barron, who was 13 at the time, about it. So he asked Woodward — “the guy who was interviewing him,” remarked Kimmel — what he should do about the coronavirus. Fortunately, Woodward had a step-by-step list of how he’d handle the then-impending health crisis, which Trump asked him to read out loud to him. So… Woodward did. And Kimmel was shocked:

Can you imagine that this happened? I mean, I can’t even believe [it]. Trump also told Woodward he was hesitant to release a plan for the pandemic for fear it might not be politically beneficial…

‘Why did grandma die?’
‘Well, because the president has a super-cool ‘Bring Me a Diet Coke’ button on his desk, and he didn’t want to lose that.’

Later in the interview, a pre-presidential Trump claimed that when he won the election (which he had no doubt would happen), he would “be so presidential you won’t even recognize me… You’ll be falling asleep you’ll be so bored.”

“It’s kind of amazing that he was right about almost nothing he said,” Kimmel noted.

Trump went on to tout his abilities as a unifier — a skill be (erroneously) believed Obama was sorely lacking. Then tried to prove his own intelligence by noting that his uncle was a professor at MIT for 40 years, and that his father was even smarter than him. Which… ok.

Trump’s only recourse, of courts, was to post to TRUTH Social in an attempt to set the record straight. He railed against Woodward, who he claims never got permission to release those tapes, which Trump had “allowed only for purposes of making sure that he got my quotes and statements right for THE WRITTEN WORD. In other words, for his nevertheless highly inaccurate book. The tapes are much better than the book.”

So, does he like the tapes or not? It’s hard to tell. But Kimmel loves the idea of Trump claiming that the words that came out of his mouth are all Woodward’s fault. “Why are you agreeing to do 20 interviews on tape with the guy who took down Richard Nixon with tapes?,” Kimmel wanted to know, then concluded: “The emperor has no brains.”

You can watch the full clip above.

A new excerpt from Matthew Perry‘s upcoming memoir is making the rounds, and it appears that the Friends star either really hates Keanu Reeves or he completely biffed a very dark joke about celebrity overdoses. It’s pretty awkward. In Perry’s book, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, the actor gets candid about his decades-long battle with addiction and alcohol abuse that plagued his time on the hit NBC sitcom and beyond. However, part of that candidness seems to involve animosity towards Reeves.

“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” Perry wrote. At first, this seems like the actor tapping into some Chandler-esque sarcasm, but he repeats the sentiment while talking about the deaths of Phoenix and Chris Farley. Perry starred in films with both actors and became close friends with each before their deaths, which deeply affected him — and fueled his apparent hate for Reeves.

Via Page Six:

While battling addiction at the height of his “Friends” fame and playing Chandler Bing, Perry signed on to film “Almost Heroes,” a 1988 comedy co-starring Farley. When he found out that the “SNL” star had died of an overdose in 1997, at age 33, Perry once again seemed to think it wasn’t fair that Reeves was still alive.

“I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out,” he writes. “Keanu Reeves walks among us.”

As Page Six notes, Perry and Reeves have never worked together, which could be another sign of Perry’s animosity towards the iconic movie star. That said, the (double) mention of Reeves could all be a misguided joke on Perry’s part. The guy’s brand is dark, dripping sarcasm, and he may have gone a just little too heavy on the dark this time around.

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing hits bookshelves on November 1.

(Via Page Six)

In another sign that Warner Bros. Discovery is committed to its DC Comics franchise despite shelving Batgirl and making lots of proclamations about refocusing on theatrical releases, The Batman spinoff series centered on Arkham Asylum is moving full steam ahead. Antonio Campos has been officially hired as the showrunner for the project, and in another interesting bit of news, it appears the show did not replace the previously announced spinoff about the Gotham City PD.

Via Variety:

Although Matt Reeves had previously said that the originally planned Gotham PD series had “kind of evolved” into what is now the Arkham Asylum show, an individual with knowledge of the situation now says that the two are in fact completely separate and that the Gotham PD series remains in development. The Gotham PD series was originally announced in July 2020 with a series commitment. At that time, the show was meant to be about the inner workings of the GCPD and set within the same world as Reeves’ “The Batman,” with Terence Winter writing and executive producing.

Even if the GCPD show never sees the light of day, the forward momentum on the Arkham series shows a surprising commitment from WBD, who seemed reluctant to dump money into streaming projects on HBO Max. However, The Batman director Matt Reeves was the first filmmaker that the newly-merged company signed to a first-look deal, and according to a recent report, he’s developing solo movies based on Batman villains.

The Battinson Universe is looking strong as DC Films enters a bold new age under the watchful eye of James Gunn.

(Via Variety)

The beauty of Supernatural is that, when it comes down to it, paranormal stuff is always happening, no matter what year it is. Sure, the prequel series takes place before the iconic Winchester brothers were even born, but that doesn’t mean some fan-favorite characters can’t make an appearance! Or character(s) depending on which iteration is!

After being teased earlier this year, a familiar archangel face is returning to the Supernatural universe. Richard Speight Jr., who played Gabriel/sometimes Loki, will return to the universe in the spinoff series The Winchesters, which follows Dean (Jensen Ackles returns, mostly to narrate) and Sam’s parents as teenage paranormal enthusiasts.

Showrunner Robbie Thompson said that the idea came together organically. “We were shooting Episode 2, so I wasn’t in the writer’s room, obviously,” he told TVInsider. “But I was reading their notes and was like, ‘Hey, wait a minute … and then I just got really, really excited because it felt like [they’d come up with] an opportunity for us to welcome a friend that we’ve seen before, but maybe not in a way that folks [are expecting].” Speight Jr. will appear in episode eight of the series, which currently airs on The CW.

Due to the slightly confusing timelines of the supernatural series, it seems like Speight Jr. will still be Gabriel disguised as Loki in the prequel. But who knows! Archangels can probably exist beyond typical timelines, right? If there is anything we have learned from Supernatural, it’s that nobody is really dead. Maybe Jeffrey Dean Morgan will pop by again, now that he has some free time.

The Winchesters airs Tuesdays at 8 pm on The CW.

(Via Yahoo!)

Over the past few days, Kanye West has lost just about every single one of his partnerships. Adidas, Balenciaga, CAA, and Vogue are just a few of the entities that have disavowed Ye and have stated their intentions of not working with him in the future. Additionally, the amount of streams and airplay his music has received has dropped drastically.

Despite the fact that many are renouncing any sort of relationship they had with Ye, his music will still be available to stream.

In an interview with Reuters, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek criticized Ye’s antisemitic remarks, however, noted that his music will remain on the platform.

“It’s really just his music, and his music doesn’t violate our policy,” Ek said. “It’s up to his label, if they want to take action or not.”

Ye’s label, Def Jam, dropped him from the roster, saying, “Def Jam’s relationship with Ye as a recording artist, Def Jam’s partnership with the GOOD Music label venture and Ye’s merchandise agreement with Bravado all ended in 2021. There is no place for antisemitism in our society. We are deeply committed to combating antisemitism and every other form of prejudice,” in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

Def Jam has not indicated any plans to remove his music from any streaming platforms.

Beyoncé’s groundbreaking album, Renaissance, dropped earlier this year. However, in a new piece from The Hollywood Reporter, her record is allegedly sparking some debates among the Recording Academy regarding Grammy nominations.

Originally, Renaissance was submitted for Best Dance/Electronica Album at the 2023 Grammys. The split comes from the voting committee for Dance believing it is more of a pop record, which would have Beyoncé nominated alongside potential acts like Harry Styles, Adele, and other major pop stars. If Beyoncé wins her respected nominations, she could become the most awarded artist this year.

The article notes that her possible nomination as a Dance album was so divisive that it ended up going to the National Screening Committee, which consists of “a group of music industry experts including songwriters, producers, musicologists and more.” After breaking down the album over several listens, it appears they decided that Renaissance has the potential to compete for Best Dance/Electronica. This would mark Beyoncé’s first nomination in that category, if she receives one.

Still, Beyoncé isn’t the only artist whose work has caused a debate in terms of Grammy submissions. In recent years, the Recording Academy has gotten more divisive regarding categorization. For example, Kacey Musgraves’ 2021 album, Star Crossed, was deemed ineligible for Best Country Album at the 2022 Grammys. This year, Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” was also deemed Pop, rather than appearing in the Rap category — sparking more conversation online.

The 2023 Grammy nominees will be announced on November 15, with the live ceremony airing February 5, 2023.

Kanye West has been running his mouth off more than usual lately, including during a bizarre interview with new BFF Tucker Carlson in which the rapper, now known as Ye, casually dropped a bunch of antisemitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories without a second thought. He did the same on Twitter, and was temporarily banned as a result (a move that has the notorious rapper looking into purchasing Parler, a sort of Twitter for right-wingers). Fortunately, that Fox News sit-down proved to be the final straw for many individuals and brands who collaborate with Ye — especially when edited outtakes began circulating around the web.

Among those who condemned, if not fully turned their back on the rapper, are: ex Kim Kardashian, A​​nna Wintour and Vogue, Balenciaga, Gap (which has just removed all is Yeezy products from stores and shut down its website), and Adidas. Amidst all this personal and professional toil, Stephen Colbert decided to join in the pile-on, but in a way that is far more personal for Ye: by talking about Pete Davidson’s reportedly huge schlong.

On Tuesday night, Colbert announced that Adidas had finally parted ways with Ye, and noted that “it’s about damn time Adidas did something.” Especially when, just a little over a week ago, Kanye bragged that he could say all the antisemitic sh*t he wanted and “Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”

“So, no more shoe,” Colbert noted. “If you want something as fashionable as Yeezys, you’ll have to microwave a Croc.” But The Late Show host wasn’t done with Ye quite yet. “Even worse for West, Adidas is now teaming up with Pete Davidson. They’re making a new 10-inch shoe,” Colbert said, referencing a recent news story that painted West as kind of freaked out about his ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s brief romance with Davidson. According to Charlamagne tha God, Kanye called him up last year and “screamed” at him about how “My wife is out here f*cking a white boy with a 10-inch penis and you won’t help me?”

You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 9:15 mark.

While some of the most consequential midterm elections, including the senate races between Mandela Barnes and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin and John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, are seemingly too close to call — creating anxiety for both Republicans and Democrats nationwide — Oscar-winning documentarian and surprisingly accurate political prognosticator Michael Moore doesn’t think Dems should be worried.

Way back in July 2016, when many people saw the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as nothing more than a joke, he warned Americans that Trump was on track to take the presidency — and, unfortunately, was right. Now, despite the anxiety-inducing poll numbers, Moore has been predicting a blue “tsunami” in the midterms for months. But even as some key races have seemed to tighten, the Bowling for Columbine filmmaker is sticking to his original prediction.

As The Guardian reports, Moore is continuing to send out a daily email titled “Mike’s Midterm Tsunami of Truth,” which each day offers the filmmaker’s latest dose of reasoning and encouragement to get out and vote. While Moore himself refers to his daily newsletter as “a brief, honest daily dose of the truth—and the real optimism these truths offer us,” The Guardian contends that these positive briefings “fl[y] in the face of most political punditry, which sees a Republican win on the cards.”

In one of his newsletters, The Guardian notes, Moore broaches the idea of “political fatalism,” or the belief — largely pushed by the media — that the party currently in power often doesn’t fare well in midterm elections. “The effect of this kind of reporting can be jarring,” writes Moore. “It can get inside the average American’s head and scramble it. You can start to feel deflated. You want to quit. You start believing that we liberals are a bunch of losers. And by thinking of ourselves this way, if you’re not careful, you begin to manifest the old narrative into existence.”

In case you thought that this was possibly just a publicity stunt to rile up support for an upcoming movie or book, Moore set the record straight: “I’m 68 and I don’t have time to mess around,” he told The Guardian. “I’m deadly serious.”

Moore does warn, however, that his positive prediction does have at least one important naysayer. “The biggest hurdle to what I’m doing with the series is the Democratic party,” he says, especially if you’ve ever witnessed a debate that did not exactly go your candidate’s way. “It’s very disheartening and it would make even me question how we’re going to pull this off. The Democratic party consultants are feeding lines that are so lame and weak. They don’t go for the jugular like a Republican would. It doesn’t inspire people at home.”

“We stand here on the precipice of a very important election and our greatest enemy could be the Democratic party itself,” Moore concluded. So: Don’t be that guy.

(Via The Guardian)