Month: January 2023

Everyone knows about Aubrey Plaza’s signature dark humor that is so out there that you honestly can’t tell if she is kidding or not. But there is an alternate timeline where Plaza became a Saturday Night Live cast member in the early 2000s, which would have been interesting, to say the least. It’s hard to imagine Plaza standing on the stage and hugging Seth Meyers after another week of absurd impressions, and maybe somewhere out there, that timeline exists.

But Plaza did get her start there, though it was as an intern in the design department. Plaza recently told Jimmy Fallon about her experience on the infamous late-night show. “They loved me because I did not care about set design at all,” the actress told Fallon on The Tonight Show. “They wanted an intern that had no interest in learning what they did because they were moody bastards,” Plaza joked, adding that she was there in 2004 right after Fallon exited the show. “I replaced you, Jimmy.”

When it came to being a cast member, Plaza has less success. The actress admitted that she did audition for the show, but it fell flat. “I didn’t make it to the big, Lorne [Michaels] audition, the famous final audition, but I did a preliminary first-round showcase at UCB,” Plaza revealed.

“I did some characters. I remember one character I did was kind of like a Puerto Rican news reporter that was always trying to make all of the news stories like sexy, even if they were horrific news stories. I was just trying to like sex up the news or something.” Perhaps her character clashed too much with Bill Hader’s frustrated newscaster bit.

Plaza also had another character, in which she would assign different celebrities types of tails. “I was a pill-popping housewife that had my own talk show, called ‘Celebri-tails,’ where I would just name celebrities and name what kind of tail they would have if they were –if they had a tail. Like, I would say, like, ‘ Lindsay Lohan would have a bushy squirrel’s tail.’ Or, like, ‘ Bill Clinton would have, like, a polar bear’s nub.’ Or ‘Oprah Winfrey would have a dragon’s (tail)’” she laughed, adding. “I mean, I didn’t get on the show.”

She didn’t get on the show at the time, but Plaza is set to host this weekend with musical guest Sam Smith. “Now I’m gonna host it. So my master plan worked!” Check out the clip above, and see Plaza host SNL this weekend.

Dolly Parton previously revealed that her next album, Rock Star, will include covers of Led Zeppelin, Prince, The Rolling Stones, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and more legendary acts. Now, the country star has also shared some of the names that are joining her on the record.

During a recent appearance on The View, Parton shared that Pink and Brandi Carlile will be helping her tackle The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” — and there’s even more superstar surprises in store.

“But we got great artists like Paul McCartney is singing with me, and we got Stevie Nicks — we just finished our song last night — we got John Fogerty, and we’ve got Steve Perry and Steven Tyler,” Parton said. “I’m even gonna have Cher on. I’ve been getting a song for her, we’ve been trying to get the right thing together, but that’s gonna be a big thrill I think.”

She felt inspired to do a full rock album after her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, which she felt like she had to earn.

“I’m having a lot of the rock stars that I met that night be on the album with me,” she continued. “I’m doing my best to get [Mick Jagger] on, but I did his song anyway.”

This Friday, Parton is also appearing on a Diane Warren-written new song, “Gonna Be You,” alongside Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper, and more.

Watch Parton discuss her new album, Rock Star, on The View above.

This past summer, Noel Gallagher was treated to an entire restaurant singing his Oasis hit “Wonderwall” to him. Recently, though, he had a far more humbling experience out in public, when he was talking with somebody who didn’t recognize him.

In a recent Absolute Radio interview, Gallagher explained, “Every Thursday you can catch me in the West End – not on stage, usually in the Firehouse, talking nonsense to somebody, anyone who will listen. […] Somebody asked me in the Firehouse the other night, ‘What do you do?’ And I was like… I didn’t know what to say. Well, I didn’t know what to say because I’d never been asked before, ‘What do you do?’ I was like, ‘Really?’”

He then framed his face with his hands and sang a snippet of Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back In Anger.”

Gallagher continued, “[The girl said], ‘So what is it you do,’ and I was like, ‘I change people’s lives for the better.’ She was like, ‘Oh, what: you’re in the medical profession?’ I was like, ‘Of sorts.’ […] I was gobsmacked. I was like, ‘Look, Google it, love. Just put in ‘Noel Gallagher,’ ‘High Flying Birds,’ ‘Oasis.’ Put in ‘Liam Gallagher,’ you’ll probably see a picture of me.”

Watch Gallagher tell the story in the video above.

Steven Spielberg is, by far, the highest-grossing director of all-time. His movies have made over $10 billion at the worldwide box office (James Cameron is in second place — for now — with $8.2 billion), but The Fablemans didn’t do much to help the total.

Spielberg’s most recent (and personal, and good and weird) film was never going to rival the financial might of Jurassic Park or Jaws, but it’s still a disappointment that the Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director only made $20 million at the box office, half its reported budget. It also says a lot about the “state of moviegoing,” as the Washington Post reporter Steven Zeitchik put it, that the contestants on Tuesday’s episode of Jeopardy! had apparently never even heard it.

The category was “Summing Up the Spielberg Movie.” The clue for $1,000: “Young cinema lover Sammy represents cinema lover Steven Spielberg.” Contestant Katie thought it was Hugo, which is a decent guess. Especially compared to fellow contestant Vince thinking it was 8mm, a movie directed by Joel Schumacher. They did better with the other clues, including “Soldier Matt Damon needs rescuing; wait, Vin Diesel’s in the film, too?!” (Saving Private Ryan) and “Making Whoopi age several decades” (which is a very funny way to describe The Color Purple).

Maybe the contestants would have nailed the $1,000 clue if the category was about Spielberg’s non-union Mexican equivalent, Señor Spielbergo.

Taylor Swift is used to having hits. She has one on top of the charts right now: On the latest Billboard Hot 100, Midnights highlight “Anti-Hero” is No. 1 for an eighth week. That makes it the biggest single of Swift’s career, at least in terms of total weeks spent at No. 1. It turns out, though, that despite releasing the track as Midnights‘ lead single, Swift didn’t think it’d be a chart-topper.

In an Instagram Story commenting on Swift’s continued presence atop the Hot 100 yesterday (January 17), the song’s co-writer and co-producer Jack Antonoff explained, “remembering right before anti hero came out taylor saying its her favorite song lyrically and thats why its first single but its a strange and personal one and we shouldn’t expect it to ever go number 1….. anti hero 8th week at 1.. insane ..”

In an Instagram post of her own from October 2022, Swift wrote of her and Antonoff’s work on the album, “Midnights is a wild ride of an album and I couldn’t be happier that my co-pilot on this adventure was @jackantonoff. He’s my friend for life (presumptuous I know but I stand by it) and we’ve been making music together for nearly a decade HOWEVER… this is our first album we’ve done with just the two of us as main collaborators.”

Selena Gomez has announced that she will be dropping a new album soon, so fans are going crazy. The singer recently talked about her latest project — her first in nearly three years — on Instagram Tuesday. After a fan commented under a recent post from Gomez, a fan asked the former Disney star when her next album would be coming, and the “Good For You” songstress had no problem letting them know it would be coming sooner than they thought.

“Oh, it’s coming,” she wrote.

Gomez’s last album, Rare, came out in 2020, spawning two chart-toppers titled “Lose You to Love Me” and “Look at Her Now.”

No other information about the project, including the name, possible features, or release date, has been released by Gomez or her camp.

When she’s not making catchy tunes, the singer and actress keeps herself busy acting on Hulu’s Only Murders In The Building. The comedy-drama series’ third season is currently underway. Gomez recently shared a video on social media, showing the cast behind the scenes as they were filming, also revealing that Meryl Streep is expected to join the stacked cast.

Life seems to be going well for the star. She even has a new beau in her life. Gomez and Drew Taggart from the Chainsmokers were recently spotted getting cozy on a date at a bowling alley.

Fenne Lily has announced a new album called Big Picture, her follow-up to 2020’s hypnotic Breach. She unleashed the lead single “Lights Light Up,” today, a sprawling indie earworm with mesmerizing chords and stunning vocals that preview a contemplative, immersive record.

“I’d never really written about love in the present tense before this, but even though I was still in love and not thinking about the end, there was something else going on subconsciously that led to a song about moving on before the moving on had begun,” Fenne said about the song in a statement. “When it came time to record, the band and I had been playing it live for a while and it’d become something joyful and positive, but when I started recording vocals, the lyrics made me cry. By that point the song was over a year old and I thought those wounds had healed but I guess it hurt to admit I’d been letting go of something while still trying to hold on.”

The LP is co-produced by Brad Cook and features guitar work from Christian Lee Hutson and vocals from Katy Kirby. It was also mixed by Melina Duterte of Jay Som.

Listen to “Lights Light Up” above.

Find the album tracklist and artwork below.

1. “Map Of Japan”
2. “Dawncolored Horse”
3. “Lights Light Up”
4. “2+2”
5. “Superglued”
6. “Henry”
7. “Pick”
8. “In My Own Time”
9. “Red Deer Day”
10. “Half Finished”

Big Picture arrives 4/14 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order it here.

Steven Spielberg got his start in television. His first paid gig was directing an episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. His first professional film was Duel, a TV movie. He directed the pilot for Columbo, ferchrissakes. None of those jobs are featured in the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans, but TV was his first home, yet he hasn’t directed for the small screen since helming two episodes of his anthology series Amazing Stories back in the mid-‘80s. Not that he wouldn’t mind returning. In fact, he recently admitted he would have loved to have directed one of the more beloved limited series of the last few years.

During an appearance on the podcast Smartless (as caught by The Playlist), Spielberg — who’s executive produced his share of big shows, including Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, SeaQuest DSV, Band of Brothers, and the new Halo — talked about almost going back to directing television. In fact, one of his biggest hits of the last decade or so began as a TV series.

“I was willing to do Lincoln as a six-hour [show] because I couldn’t raise all the financing for it,” Spielberg revealed. “No one believed in it…I went around town and everyone turned me down.” He wasn’t sure if he could have gotten Daniel Day-Lewis to do six hours of TV, but he was “on the brink” of asking him.

It’s absurd that anyone would have turned down, although maybe it’s less strange that people haven’t confronted him, big-time director of blockbuster big screen motion pictures, to do a lot for a smaller budget. But he has it in him.

“I do have an appetite for long-form, and someday, I will direct a long-form series,” Spielberg said. He even named a show he would have done had anyone bothered to ask. “I mean, if someone would have brought me Mare of Easttown, I would have done that.”

No offense to the person who did direct it, Craig Zobel, though, with Spielberg adding, “That was a beautifully directed story.”

What would a Spielberg-directed Mare of Easttown looked like? Would he have been able to draw upon spending part of his childhood in Jersey to handle a show set outside of Philly? Would it have still spawned a top shelf SNL parody?

Anyway, some hot shot TV honcho get Spielberg on the horn and get him back to directing TV. Anyone who’s seen the Columbo pilot or Duel knows he doesn’t need a billion bucks or even lots of time to make something look a beaut.

(Via The Playlist)

Sylvan Esso has finally announced they will be going on tour for their fourth album, No Rules For Sandy. The project was released this past August. Their North American tour will include pitstops, including the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. The No Rules Tour will kick off this summer on June 14 in North Carolina.

The duo, whose real names are Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, 23-city tour will feature artists like GRRL, Dehd, and Indigo De Souza as openers.

The tour will also have some international dates in Toronto, the UK, and Amsterdam. Tickets for the highly anticipated event went on sale early last week.

Here are the tour dates below.

06/14/2023 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit *
06/15/2023 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit *
06/16/2023– Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
06/18/2023 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
07/01/2023– Gdynia, PL @ Open’er Festival
07/02/2023 – Berlin, DE @ Metropol
07/03/2023 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
07/04/2023 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street
07/06/2023 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton
07/07/ 2023 – Lisbon, PT @ Alive Festival
07/08/2023 – Madrid, ES @ Mad Cool Festival
8/04/2023 – St. Charles, IA @ Hinterland Festival
08/08/2023 – Toronto, ON @ History %
08/09/2023 – Shelburne, VT @ Ben & Jerry’s Concerts on the Green %
08/11/2023 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem %
08/12/2023 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall %
08/14/2023 – Indianapolis, IN @ TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park #
08/15/2023 – Columbus, OH – KEMBA Live! #
08/17/2023 – St Louis, MO @ The Pageant #
08/18/2023 – Kansas City, MO @ Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland #
08/19/2023 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory #
08/22/2023 – Ogden, UT @ Ogden Twilight
08/24/2023 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield #
0825/2023 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre #
08/27/2023 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater #
08/30/2023 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley #
08/31/2023 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre #
09/01/2023 – San Diego, CA @ The Sound at Del Mar #
09/07/2023 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl #
09/08/2034 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren #
09/09/2023 – Santa Fe, NM @ Santa Fe Opera Theatre #
09/10/2023 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre #

* w/ GRRL
% w/ Dehd
# w/ Indigo De Souza

On Tuesday, after weeks of one alarming/unexpected/weird revelation after another, George Santos was “punished”: He was only named to two lesser House committees. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was disturbed but not that disturbed by him misleading and outright lying to voters to score a sweet government job. It’s likely not even this new claim will change his mind: On top of everything else, Santos is now being accused of stealing from a veteran’s GoFundMe to save his dying dog.

As per the New York rag Patch (as caught by The Daily Beast), Richard Osthoff, a former member of the U.S. Navy, said that when his beloved service dog was diagnosed with a life-threatening form of stomach cancer, he got some help from a stranger. Osthoff said his name was “Anthony Devolder.” If you’ve been following all the many Santos stories, you know that that was one of Santos’ aliases.

Santos/Devolder promised Osthoff he could raise $3,000 on a GoFundMe. In 2016, when the fundraiser closed, eh did, “and then some,” Osthoff said. Santos/Devolder then abruptly disappeared, along with all the money they’d raised to save the dog’s life. The dog died the following year. Osthoff, who had been out of work for a year by that point, had to turn to panhandling to pay for the dog’s euthanasia and its cremation — what he called “one of the most degrading things I ever had to do.”

The GoFundMe was deleted and no archival record of it exists. But contemporaneous Facebook posts by Osthoff mention this Anthony Devolder character — a name Santos even used with certain former roommates.

Santos was sworn in a week-and-a-half ago, after the four chaotic days it took for the House to elect McCarthy to his Speaker position. And now he’s on committees, his fingers on the lives of over a million New York constituents.

(Via Patch and The Daily Beast)