Melissa McCarthy stopped by Live with Kelly and Mark this week where the actress revealed a painful experience she had while filming in Australia. The worst part about it? No one believed it was happening.
According to Entertainment Weekly, McCarthy kept getting bit on set, but “nobody knew” what was happening. The Little Mermaid star said it was so bad that she needed ice packs at the end of the day.
“I kept getting bit by things,” McCarthy told Kelly Ripa. “And people were like, ‘I don’t think anything’s biting you.’ And I’m like, ‘No. I’m pretty confident I know when I’m being bitten.’ It’s not like I have a weird feeling. I have bite marks.”
However, the culprits were discovered when the crew realized that McCarthy’s chair had been placed over a nest of fire ants. Her doubters finally admitted that the actress was getting bit, but she won’t let the experience stop her from visiting Australia because she loves being in the country so much. In fact, she landed a cameo in Thor: Love and Thunder thanks to being in the country while the fourth Thor film was filming nearby.
We’re also pretty sure this wasn’t the “volatile, toxic set” that McCarthy opened up about earlier this year. Granted, this experience also made her “physically ill” on account of the swelling. Thankfully, the matter was quickly resolved and everyone acknowledged the problem: a whole bunch of fire ants.
Each year, the Comedy Wildlife Awards highlights photos that capture our animal friends in hilarious moments, made all the more delightful by the fact that not one of them is actually trying to be funny.
Perhaps that’s one reason we love animal and little kid videos so much. Their hilarity is so pure. And we’ve got a whole passel of funny kiddos and furry friends in this week’s list of things that made us smile.
If you’re looking for some small joys to lift your spirit, we’ve got you covered! Enjoy!
1. Kiddo steals the show at his sister’s end-of-year dance school concert
33 Days Until Christmas! We had to take a trip to the North Pole so Kohen can tell Santa what he would like for Christmas personally 😅🥹 #santaselevator #fyp #santaselevatorexpress #santa #christmas2023
The Natick Mall has taken the mall Santa visit to a whole other level. Read the full story here.
3. You think you’ve seen every cute kitten-attacks-dog-friend video and then this one comes along
— (@)
And the doggo was still so gentle. So darn cute.
4. Groom surprises his bride’s family by learning Korean in secret
6. Twins separated shortly after birth were both named Jim and led wildly parallel lives
Identical twins separated as newborns may not seem like a smile-worthy story, but the parallels between their lives are so remarkable, it’s like the universe decided to play a hilarious joke on everyone. Not only did their adoptive parents name them both Jim, they also both had childhood dogs named Toy and a brother named Larry. They both married women named Linda, got divorced, then married women named Betty. They both named their sons James—one of them James Alan and one of them James Allan. And that’s not even the end of the bizarre coincidences in their lives before they met at age 39.
In an era where sustainability meets self-care, the Boie Body Scrubber emerges as a standout hero in our daily routines. It’s not just another bath accessory; it’s a revolution in skin health and environmental responsibility. Crafted from unique, 100% recyclable materials, the Boie Scrubber redefines what staying clean and green means. As we become more conscious of the products we use daily, the Boie Scrubber promises a cleaner body and a cleaner planet.
Picture this: a body scrubber that loves the planet as much as you do. Boie’s Scrubber is a dream come true for anyone who takes recycling seriously. Made from BPA and phthalate-free thermoplastic elastomer, it doesn’t just clean your skin; it helps clean up your environmental act. Every Scrubber is engineered for longevity, drastically reducing waste from tossing out traditional sponges and plastic loofahs. And when it’s finally time to part ways? Boie has ensured their scrubbers are 100% recyclable, completing a full circle of sustainability. You can even send your worn-out scrubber directly to Boie as part of their “Send-It-Back” program, and they’ll recycle it for you. Because choosing Boie isn’t just good for you; it’s a step towards less plastic waste.
Here’s a not-so-fun fact: traditional bath sponges can be breeding grounds for bacteria. But with Boie, it’s a different story. Their Body Scrubber’s design features antimicrobial properties for keeping those unwanted bacteria at bay. This isn’t just about staying clean; it’s about staying healthy. While typical scrubbers can irritate your skin or introduce bacteria, the Boie Scrubber is a guardian for your skin’s health, ensuring a cleaner, safer wash every time. It’s also hypoallergenic, which is great news for people with acne, eczema, and keratosis pilaris.
Wave goodbye to the endless cycle of buying and tossing out old plastic loofahs. The Boie Body Scrubber is here to break that loop. Engineered for endurance, this Scrubber doesn’t just survive shower after shower; it thrives. Where traditional sponges and loofahs deteriorate and become less effective over time, the Boie Scrubber stands the test of time. This isn’t just good news for your wallet, saving you from constant replacements; it’s also a win for reducing waste. In the long run, Boie isn’t just a purchase – it’s an investment in sustainability and savings.
Step into a shower experience that’s not just clean but comfortabe too. The Boie Body Scrubber’s ergonomic design fits snugly in your palm, so using it is a breeze. This scrubber isn’t just about ease, it elevates your daily ritual. Its flexible bristles glide smoothly over your skin, offering a gentle yet effective cleanse. Every curve and contour of your body is effortlessly reached, turning a simple shower into a spa-like experience. With Boie, it’s not just about getting clean – it’s about indulging in a moment of self care.
Let’s face it: nobody enjoys the post-shower chore of cleaning a soggy, bacteria-laden sponge. Enter the Boie Body Scrubber— the low-maintenance hero of your bathroom. Thanks to its clever design, this Scrubber is a cinch to clean and dries in a snap: no more unpleasant dampness or the accompanying worries about hygiene. While traditional sponges can become a hassle to keep germ-free, the Boie Scrubber makes maintenance effortless. It’s all about giving you more time to enjoy your shower and less worrying about what’s lurking in your loofah.
Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of Christmas creep. It should go: October is for Halloween, November is for Thanksgiving, and December is for Christmas (and/or Hanukkah). But my Grinch-like protest is for naught: Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has been terrorizing retail workers since October, and don’t even get me started on people who replace their inflatable 12-foot skeleton with a 15-foot Rudolph on the first of November.
The only good thing about Christmas creep is that it means we get to look forward to a certain commercial. Yes, it does exist.
The M&M’s commercial “Faint” debuted in December 1996 (the same year that America had Tickle Me Elmo fever). It still airs on TV every holiday season in all its standard-definition glory. The ad, as I’m sure you know, begins with Yellow, voiced by Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, asking Red (Futurama legend Billy West) if Santa Claus will enjoy eating red and green M&Ms. “I don’t know. I never met the guy,” Red answers. They never find out, because as they skulk around a living room at night, they run into the big man. “He does exist!” Red yells. “They do exist!” Santa says incredulously. Both Red and Santa faint from shock and wonder, leaving Yellow alone with his bowl of candy.
The commercial is a classic, but it also begs a lot of questions. Is Santa in Red and Yellow’s house? Why is Red so mad at Yellow for asking a reasonable question? Is it cannibalism for Yellow to serve a human being his own kind? And most importantly, who plays Santa?
That last question remains a mystery (sorry Santa), but I did learn the actor nearly got a concussion while filming the ad. This was among the many revelations during my chat with “Faint” animation director David Daniels, who is also the co-founder of Bent Image Lab and creator of the strata-cut animation technique. He, along with his co-workers at Will Vinton Studios, helped imagine the M&M’s “to be a kind of CG update to the California Raisins, with broader personalities, clear actions, and not cynical, ” Daniels told Uproxx. That’s apparent in the commercial, which has run for decades because of its wholesomeness.
Below is our interview, which has been edited for length and clarity.
How does it feel watching a 1996 commercial in 2023?
Wow. There’s a tremendous amount of different feelings. It’s amazing generally, just to know that the crew and the talent that I was directing still resonates. And that in a larger sense, it’s because the M&Ms themselves still exist as they were designed in 1994 and 1995. Having been there at the birth, I see it as a testament to all the thoughtful energy put into their characterizations and their movements and their surfaces. And then generally the humor of two myths meeting each other thinking the other is not real. It works for a 15-second spot. It’s impressive that it doesn’t need to be a 30. It still works, which is why they could play it so much.
It’s a very charming spot, because generally the M&Ms are built around their own insecurities, and how small they are or how edible they are, so they live in a world of threat. People are either going to be nice to them, or they’re going to eat them. So, we did a lot of thinking about what they could do. You could have a gag where a truck comes by and Red is in the middle of the street, and he goes, ‘Ahh,’ but then he’s still standing there, of course, because he’s so small. And the truck just went right over him. That’s just a tip of the iceberg of the theory that you take everything that’s their flaw and make comedy out of it.
I’m probably overthinking things here, but it’s weird that Red and Yellow are serving Santa a bowl of M&Ms, right? It’s candy cannibalism.
Many of our brothers had to die for this, this holiday treat experience [laughs]. I think that happens on a practical level, like, well, what are you going to do? OK, well, they’re coming in to do this. Well, we want to put more product in the spot, so therefore, they’re carrying a bowl of M&Ms. It’s not a cup of hot chocolate or something else that would be more traditional. And then the irony comes from that, but I don’t think it comes from, like, the first thing we’re going to do is make something ironic here. It’s the second thing that happens. But it’s certainly funny that way, isn’t it?
Tell me about when you started working at Will Vinton Studios.
I moved to Portland in 1992 as a stop motion and strata-cut animator. Having succeeded at first MTV during the decade of the ‘80s and then a larger sort of mixed media thing, I was doing all kinds of styles and Will Vinton Studios needed to expand beyond the California Raisins and the Noid, which were the moneymakers for them in the late ‘80s. So they hired me. I was the first director at Will Vinton Studios who was not homegrown. They went outside of their community. That was an effort to revitalize the studio, which, in a sense, the M&Ms is the culmination of that revitalization.
I brought computers with me, which they didn’t have. There was no computer animation in Portland in 1992. And I had been doing a lot of work in motion control as well. So motion control is really pivotal to elegant stop motion. It’s stuff that I had been doing that they didn’t have a knack for. So I was able to bring technical innovation to the studio. I was able to bring a lot of jobs to the studio that they wouldn’t get because I was much more different in how I use clay.
How did you land the M&Ms gig?
I had been working on a lot of other jobs. And I was taking a vacation, literally the week that the job started. The first M&Ms job with a live shoot in 1994, the director… Will Vinton is the guy the agency thought they were hiring, but as they got to know him, they wanted to work with his assistant director Larry Bafia. Will, let’s say, let his ego get in the way of the relationship. They were trying to make Seinfeld with candy, the agency, and he was trying to make Mark Twain with candy. Bless his heart, he’s a very sweet man.
It was a 12-week animation schedule, and Larry quit in week one during a live shoot after a humiliating public tongue-lashing from Will that horrified the agency in all respects during a voice record session in Los Angeles. Will wanted to have final say on the voice reads, and it is traditional for the agency to have the last word. So Larry walked off and quit. And the agency said, “Oh my God.” They threw me into it, right? It was literally, “OK,” the next day, “what do we do?” And I got on the phone and we landed that puppy.
We had to hire 16 people who really hadn’t worked at Vinton before. So it was a talent thing. It was everything. We had to buy a lot of equipment and we parallel-processed our way so every person would, in a sense, work on one shot and only one shot. I became the animation director because the agency was freaked out about not making the M&Ms into the Pillsbury Doughboy. That’s exactly what they didn’t want: nice and cute. Predictable. It went on for two years. Kirk, my technical director, we had to do a lot of hot wiring, hacking, just brute forcing our equipment to make it professionally finished in that time.
Because the ad has been playing for so long, is there a consistent paycheck, year after year? Or was it a one-time lump sum?
No, it’s like advertising. It’s one sum. Nobody gets paid after the job is done. I mean, you’d have to be celebrity status to write a contract like that, and we’re a production company. I’d be rich [laughs]. But what they did get was, of course, M&Ms ads forever. Not forever, but up until… Well, that’s a longer story I don’t want to get into. But pretty much 12 ads a year at $200,000 to $400,000 each, depending on if it was 15 or 30. It was a great baseline because it kept coming. [Advertising agency] BBDO was a juggernaut of advertising, and it had high visibility and fun character work.
I give credit to Susan Credle, who’s still highly successful in advertising, and her partner Steve Rutter. They wanted small, subtle, human acting with sarcasm and self-involved personalities. With complex thinking for the characters. The comedy was to be built from the flaws and very human quirks of each personality. To make candy not be, as they would say, “a mile wide and an inch deep,” which is what the Pillsbury Doughboy is. Very likable and completely forgettable, except for [Daniels does an impression of the Doughboy giggle]. You have your one mnemonic, but you have no personal connection with him, right? Whereas with a variety of M&Ms, the point of it is to allow personalities.
What do you think Billy West and JK Simmons brought to the roles?
It started off with, as you know, as Jon Lovitz and John Goodman [as the voices of Red and Yellow, respectively]. The braggadocio, the pompous self-importance of Red with verbal vulnerability. You know he’s bullshitting half the time or pumping himself up, or just being an asshole, but not with an edge. What Billy brought to it is charm. He’s great. It’s a great voice. And Yellow is the lovable lunk, which allows you to not think so badly about Red. Red likes having Yellow around because he likes people, let’s say, less astute than him. So he feels bigger. That’s why he’s friends with Yellow. But for the audience, it’s good to have the complement of the two. There’s a Laurel and Hardy thing, as well. Classic shapes and behaviors that are opposites. I think a lot of other people could have played Yellow. I think Red is really key.
One piece of information that I can’t really find out there about the ad is the name of the actor who played Santa. Do you remember?
No, but that actor also has some stunt credit credentials. It wasn’t just that he was an actor, but he also had done some stunt work. Because he has to fall, like, literally fall in that shot. And he falls behind the sofa. Well, the first take we did, he fell and he pretty much got his bell rung. That was a concussion, the poor guy. There was a moment on set we’re like, “[scared, frantic noise].” We didn’t kill Santa, but it’s like, who is going to put on the suit? It was a good 10 minutes, half hour as they were trying to shake him, shake the cobwebs out, and then they were redesigning his suit. He needed to be better padded on the back of his suit when he fell. All that stuff needed to be improved, so it just wasn’t done right. We got it on the next takes. He was a trooper and came around.
That was one of the physical challenges. What were some of the technical challenges of combining live action with computer graphics at the time?
Well, cameramen and live-action people who are generally shooting this don’t visualize invisible characters very well. So a lot of the challenge is first to set down an object that’s a yellow egg that’s three feet tall and a red oval that’s two and a half feet tall. So, we build little creatures to put into this, so they can line it up. Literally, we’re saying, “OK, they’re here, they’re here, they’re here.”
We would also shoot plates so we could get the surfaces in the lighting correct. A lot of animation matching is to see the exact lighting and the exact position, so as you get the plate back, you shoot them with it and without it so you can use the reflection on these puppet-like models that have been put in.
The longevity is crazy. I’m waiting for AI to improve that commercial. I haven’t looked at it recently, like I didn’t look at it last year. Have they finally done it?
Nope.
Usually, that’s a telltale sign, and you wouldn’t put that up in 2023. But it’s charming perhaps when people think of it like that. I know when I was young and I watched things that were made a decade or two earlier, the charm is that they’re so quaint.
Do you remember any of the rejected character designs for the M&Ms?
I want to give credit to Robin Ator, who was key to the design of these characters and their success. He was a longtime storyboard artist at Will Vinton Studios, and I really loved his ability. Those characters in a sense had already been generalized in the storyboard stage at the beginning, but manifesting them into three-dimensional objects was a completely different thing. And that’s what I was really responsible for. But he established the character stuff. The one thing I think that I really did add was the mouth shapes. I — and Chris Olgren, who sculpted the lip shapes and mouths for Red and Yellow — really went after the fact they have to have fatter lips. Yellow has to have a fatter lip at the bottom. The mouth shapes really are charming. In CG at the time, you could make very kind of pinched-looking things. And it took a lot of work.
Have you been to M&Ms World? That has to be a weird experience.
It’s odd. It’s indescribable. It’s such an epiphany. It’s amazing. One thing that runs through my mind is if it was going to last this long and be this widespread, and be so prolifically recreated in all these venues, I would have done a better job. It’s that kind of feeling. I look at it and go, “Oh, we could do better now.” But they stick with a series of original decisions. Because of course, you know, I understand that there’s their thing and why mess with something if it’s working. So that’s what goes on in my little machine, I think, “Oh, it’s still working. Like, wow, that’s crazy.” Because you’re thrown into something not knowing the length of time it’s ever going to be seen. I was just working two jobs for 10 weeks. I knew more would come if we succeeded… but you’re not thinking, 25 years out in your mind. So yes, it’s kind of really amazing.
I have mixed feelings in the sense that — this would probably be the dark version of it — they represent obesity to me in some respects. Since obesity has become such a big thing in the acceptance of culture, you know, we’re a very overweight culture, and that’s putting it politely. I’ve recently done some McDonald’s nugget characters too, recently, and I think, “Is this a gateway drug to allow people to think it’s OK to eat all this stuff and be fat, right?” That’s the dark side.
But there’s some really good stuff, too, because it brings joy. There’s a lot of people who say, “Oh, that’s such a great set of memories from my childhood.” A lot of work I’ve done that isn’t the M&Ms, they will say, “Oh, wow, you did that spot, too.” And I’ll have that mixed feeling. But I’ll be very grateful to bring a little laughter to life. It’s not the worst thing. There is a fantasy component to it, which I think is good. People should have more imagination.
You’re speaking like a true creative by finding perceived flaws in things that people love.
Especially over time. And I have a lot of not nostalgia, but a sense of cultural Gestalt. You have to always give credit to the animators and the team, and the actual CG sculptors who I was trying to direct to get these things done. The great thing about animation is you’re always working with another team each time, but you’re all in it together. And you’re all with it. There’s a humility about the achievement because it took so much to actually create an illusion of life.
We’ve been talking so much about the present but let’s change the subject to the future. Are there any upcoming projects of yours that you would like to highlight?
What I’m super excited about is that I’m going to be doing strata cuts as neural radiance fields (NeRF). Currently, there’s a form of neural radiance fields called a Gaussian splatter. That will allow your phone to capture from multiple cameras, but then it’s able to synthesize it as an inference. You can now re-cut up your strata cut from any angle. This will help stop motion. Imagine I can see the stop motion, but I can move my head around it now from any angle, and I can watch it in time from any time duration. The term is “Spatial Cinema.” That’s something I’ve dreamed about four years ago and thought maybe, you know, eventually, but I think time has finally caught up. That’s the one thing I live for because it gets beyond the two-dimensional nature of the screen finally. It’s literally a three-dimensional understanding of something over time that’s sculpturally happening in front of you. That’s my goal.
Rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert simply could not help herself. The controversy courting congresswoman (and confused Dolly Parton fan) is still attempting to make people forget about her public groping escapades, and so of course she is seizing upon every opportunity to draw attention to her not-so-inclusive agenda instead. And what better way to do so than by pulling in a very famous comedian who happened to be on Capitol Hill to visit some old friends?
Those friends do not include Boebert, although she was all too happy to lend that appearance. Here’s Boebert grinning away with Chappelle in the background along with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. And then came the brazen caption: “Just three people who understand that there’s only two genders.”
Given Boebert’s outspoken anti-drag show sentiments, her caption was clearly meant as a reference to Chappelle’s dust-up over his 2021 Netflix stand-up special. However, the truth about this photo quickly began to come out due to footage tweeted by reporter Pablo Manríquez. Boebert is shown approaching Dave and asking for a selfie, and Luna thanked him “for all you do.”
Reps. LAUREN BOEBERT and ANA PAULINA LUNA grab a selfie with Dave Chappelle. “Thanks for all you do,” said Luna. pic.twitter.com/KQku73E4GU
Additionally, Newsweek followed up by relaying reported remarks made by Chappelle at a subsequent stand-up set. He had declared, “She tricked me” while also remarking that the MAGA cheerleader was “rubbing her mitts together.” He added that he felt “blindsided” by her caption, and concluded, “It’s a shame she tricked me. I had two tickets to Beetlejuice and I was going to give her one!”
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE – The richest man in Flavortown
The Guy Fieri thing is relentlessly interesting to me. He burst onto the scene 20 years ago with blonde spikes and chain-related jewelry and people kinda dug it. Then it became a caricature and people kinda mocked him for it. Now, a lot of people have come back around and learned to kinda appreciate him for it all. And the weird thing about it is that he’s just been almost exactly the same dude the entire time. He didn’t bend and flap in the breeze to seek the public’s affection. He just kept being Guy Fieri every day and people eventually were like, “Good for him.” It’s a weird ride. I would read a book about it.
It’s also been a very lucrative ride, as we learned this week when details about his new Food Network deal trickled out. I admit that I gasped a little when I read this.
Guy Fieri has signed a new three-year deal with Food Network, which sources tell Variety is valued at more than $100 million.
This fresh pact means that Fieri retains his title as the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cable channel’s highest-paid talent and bests his most recent multiyear deal, which closed in 2021 for $80 million.
That is… so much money. I don’t know how much money I thought Guy Fieri made before I read it. It probably wasn’t nine figures, though, even if it does make sense when you think about it for a while. Like, how many other Food Network personalities can you name? Bobby Flay? That’s about as far as I got. Which means Guy is pretty much the face of an entire television channel. That’s a lucrative endeavor.
Add that to other various ventures — restaurants, a new line of spiked Fruit Punch, etc. — and you start to put together a picture of a whole empire, which is another thing I had not considered until recently but also makes sense in retrospect. Guy Fieri could be a billionaire before this is all said and done. Ruminate on that for a while.
And it gets wilder. The new contract wasn’t even the wildest piece of Fieri news that dropped during the month. There was also the thing where he’s holding a two-day Flavortown Fest in Ohio next summer. Look at this blockquote.
The Food Network star announced the launch of Flavortown Fest on Friday. Planned as a two-day festival held in the Arch City, the event promises to “fuse food and funk, bringing to life the one and only Flavortown, embodying Fieri’s larger-than-life energy and charitable spirit every step of the way,” according to a press release.
Although specific talent has not yet been announced, this description touts wild times will be had: “Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Fest will be unlike any other festival. Like Guy, it will be bold, loud, bad-ass and full of flavor with unparalleled surprises, one-of-a-kind programming and Guy-curated curveballs all weekend long.”
Three things here in conclusion:
The majority of the proceeds of this sucker are going to charity, because Guy Fieri is a good dude through and through and that’s probably one of the reasons he’s stuck around so long
There is a big part of me that wants to drive to Ohio and cover this with a documentary film crew like it’s Woodstock, maybe with Kristen Stewart
I need to know what a “Guy-curated curveball” entails
Really just a lot to consider here. Guy Fieri fascinates me. I want to study him like he’s an exotic creature. Maybe I will.
ITEM NUMBER TWO – Yes, I will watch it
This is the first trailer for Griselda, a new show coming to Netflix in January that stars Sofia Vergara as real-life drug queenpin Griselda Blanco. It’s made by the team that made Narcos and the trailer looks cool and there’s one part where she’s just walking around with a baseball bat that she just got done bashing some dude with. Between her and Juno Temple in the new season of Fargo, this is gonna be a big winter for ladies smashing dingers on people’s faces. I support this.
Here is the official description.
From creators Eric Newman, Doug Miro, Ingrid Escajeda and Carlo Bernard, the six-episode series chronicles the life of Colombian-born Blanco, who created one of the most profitable cartels in history. In 1970s-80s Miami, Blanco’s lethal blend of unsuspected savagery and charm helped her expertly navigate between business and family, leading her to become widely known as “the Godmother.”
Great. Wonderful. Exactly the type of thing I would watch. And I will watch it. My only request is that everyone involved step up their promo photo game before January. I scrolled through a bunch of them and was not blown away, which would be a weird complaint about any other show from any other production team, but not this one. This is the Narcos crew. These are the people who gave us “Pablo Escobar sitting in a cocaine-filled room with a little smirk on his face like Dennis the Menace”…
Netflix
… and “a stylish lady Narco in front of a huge truck filled with cocaine”…
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… and “a character played by Diego Luna walking away from an airplane with a brick of cocaine in his hands and a look on his face that makes it seem like he just found the cocaine on the airplane and was like ‘well, I guess I might as well sell some drugs now’”…
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… and multiple pictures of Pablo Escobar looking like the saddest little boy you’ve ever seen.
NetflixNetflix
I do not ask for much. But I do ask for this. Give me, like, Sofia Vergara on a speedboat in a fur coat. Or something like that. Just one. Please. I need it.
ITEM NUMBER THREE – Tell me more about the sharks
Background, quickly: There’s a movie coming out next year called Anyone But You that stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell and is loosely based on Shakespeare and which I have been referring to as Attractive People: The Movie. That’s the trailer for it. It will probably be, at worst, fine, if only because putting very good-looking and charismatic people on a screen together for a couple of hours is a pretty solid place to start. Maybe it will be great! I don’t know! No one does yet! This is, generally, how it works with things that will happen in the future.
More importantly, to me, for now, writer and director Will Gluck talked to Entertainment Weekly about it all recently and revealed that the filming was apparently shark-adjacent enough to be… a thing.
“Initially they wouldn’t give us permission because it’s a huge shark area and people get hurt by sharks all the time there.” That meant every time an actor or stunt double filmed in the water, they had to do so with a huge shark tank around it.
Two things:
It’s really kind of funny that they risked maiming via shark to make a silly lil rom-com
I would also watch a movie about Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney battling bloodthirsty sharks
Moving on.
The production employed shark consultants to advise on best practices, only to learn that the more activity in an area, the more sharks it will draw. Thus, the longer they shot and the more that was happening in a scene, the more sharks they had to contend with. But no actors (or sharks for that matter) were harmed in the making of Anyone but You — and the only bite we’ll see on screen is the edge that comes with the “enemies to lovers” banter of its leads.
Two more things:
Giving us this whole lead-up about sharks and then closing with “but none ever showed up and everything was great” is like spitting on Chekhov’s grave
I am so proud of everyone at EW for getting that preposterous last sentence into print
I am glad Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell did not get eaten by sharks.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR – Go Birds
My beloved Philadelphia Eagles are currently in first place in the NFC East and coming off of a few big wins and my editor is a nice man who will let things like “Brian will use any stupid excuse to talk about his favorite football team in his entertainment column again” slide and so, yes, it is time to talk about the Philadelphia Eagles. And Hollywood. But mostly the Eagles. For two reasons.
REASON NUMBER ONE: Bradley Cooper, star of the upcoming Oscar contender Maestro and lifelong Eagles fan, appeared on the Howard Stern show this week and said, well, this…
“Here’s the big question, and I really want you to answer in a serious manner,” Stern told Cooper. “Sophie’s Choice for 2024. You win the Oscar, not only for Best Director but also for Best Actor and Carrie wins Best Actress. Or, an Eagles Super Bowl victory.”
Cooper didn’t pause even for a second before choosing the Eagles Super Bowl win.
“You’re lying,” Stern replied.
“I don’t think so, bro,” Cooper said.
Two things once again:
I respect this greatly
I too would rather the Eagles win the Super Bowl than Bradley Cooper win an Oscar
No offense, obviously. But go Birds.
REASON NUMBER TWO: So there was this big auction to raise money for charity and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney kept bidding on this cool green Eagles jacket that was worn by Jason Kelce’s wife and he kept getting outbid and he ended up losing and then he found out who he lost too and explained it all to the Kelce brothers on their podcast…
“I couldn’t believe that someone was immediately jumping on every time I bid, and so my final bid was going to be representing my favorite player on the Eagles, 62. [$62,000], I thought that was a good number,” McElhenney told brothers and football players, Jason and Travis Kelce.
“And then I got a text from somebody I know who said, ‘I’ve been the one bidding against you, bozo.’ And it did not even cross my mind that this was a possibility, and it turned out I live with this person,” he continued, referring to his wife and It’s Always Sunny costar [Kaitlin Olson].
Two notes once again:
This is extremely funny and great for charity and I like it a lot
I don’t have any facts to prove this but I suspect marriages where the spouses call each other “bozo” last many years longer than marriages where they do not
In conclusion, again, Go Birds
ITEM NUMBER FIVE – NOM NOM NOM
PBS
The New York Times did a big fancy piece of journalism about the Cookie Monster this week. That’s a fun thing to say but it’s also true. Look, you can read it here. And you should. But I want to talk about this part of it: the cookies the Cookie Monster eats are actually real food, kind of, but not real cookies. This passage is going to stick with me for years.
The recipe, roughly: Pancake mix, puffed rice, Grape-Nuts and instant coffee, with water in the mixture. The chocolate chips are made using hot glue sticks — essentially colored gobs of glue.
The cookies do not have oils, fats or sugars. Those would stain Cookie Monster. They’re edible, but barely.
“Kind of like a dog treat,” MacLean said in an interview.
I must have one.
I also need Guy Fieri and the Cookie Monster to go on a road trip together.
Maybe they can drop some of these disgusting cookies off at my house on the way.
I must have one.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
From Lynn:
Brian, I’m curious as to your thoughts on the movie Labyrinth. I searched your tweets and found nothing, but I’m certain you have a strong opinion as it:
– stars David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connelly
– is Muppet-adjacent
– features a Bog of Eternal Stench!
– has an animated dog riding a real dog like a horse
– brought us the song Magic Dance which is an absolute bop
Please share your thoughts on the original and I’d love to hear your pitch for a sequel.
Wow. I had not thought about this movie for maybe 5-8 years. Then Lynn emailed me and I googled “Magic Dance” and I watched this video 100 times. Look at David Bowie sing with these creepy little fuzzballs.
As to the other part of the question: I really need the world to focus a little harder on putting megastar musicians into weird little musicals with Muppets or Muppet-adjacent creatures. It doesn’t have to be a straight Labyrinth sequel. Give me Olivia Rodrigo and the Muppets in space. Give me Dua Lipa doing a duet with Fozzie Bear on a haunted cruise ship. The people deserve this at least once every four years, like the Olympics.
Police are investigating after Big Boy statues were stolen from two Frisch’s restaurants in Kentucky.
Two notes here:
A reader named Nick sent this in and I am very grateful and would like to encourage more of you to be like Nick
BIG BOY STATUE HEIST RING
I need to know more.
The restaurant’s manager said this isn’t the first time the statue has been stolen.
God yes. I’m gonna go ahead and believe there’s a massive black market for these and they get auctioned off at black-tie underground galas where the world’s wealthiest criminals get together and bid on them like they’re exotic animals. You can’t take this from me. I hope there’s a whole episode of Griselda about it.
And police in Georgetown are also investigating, after thieves there made off with another Big Boy statue. Customers noticed right away.
Yes, sure, fine. But I need you to see this quote coming up. I need you to see what Linda said.
“Monday morning, I came in and it was like something’s missing,” Linda Allen said. “And I looked around, and everybody is saying ‘where’s the Big Boy? It was like oh my gosh, somebody took him!’”
This is absolutely the opening scene in the trailer for the movie about the Big Boy statue heist ring that I am quitting my job to write in 2024. Linda talking to the local news reporter about the theft. I’m picturing, like, Kristen Wiig with a menthol cigarette. And now you are, too.
Okay, sorry for the fake out. Although the video above and the image for this post both depict a Rick And Morty character named Water-T, this character is not actually played by 22-year Law & Order veteran Ice-T, on whom it is based. The character appeared in the season two episode “Get Schwifty,” where it was revealed that Ice-T is actually an alien recruited by the titular adventurers to help save the Earth from the talent-obsessed Cromulons. At the end of the episode, he returns to his home planet, where his original form is restored — hence, “Water-T.”
However, contrary to popular belief, the character was not voiced by the “6 In The Mornin’” rapper; instead the series’ co-creator Dan Harmon did a vocal impression. But, thanks to an upcoming episode, Ice-T will finally voice a character on the show, albeit a different one from the same alphabet-based planet. This Sunday’s episode (December 3), titled “Rise Of The Numericons: The Movie,” returns to Alphabetrium, with Ice-T voicing Magma-Q. This brings the rapper’s relationship with the show full circle after he initially voiced his approval for his “guest role” on Twitter in 2015.
This isn’t the first time the show has secured a guest role for one of Dan Harmon’s favorite rappers. In 2017, Logic appeared in an episode as himself, while the next year, the show’s stars appeared in the video for Run The Jewels’ song “Oh Mama.” Noise-rap group Clipping. appeared on a soundtrack for Rick And Morty, contributing the song “Stab Him In The Throat.”
It’s the beginning of December, and you’ve settled down after a long week of being cold, and all you want to do is watch an elderly man propose to a woman he met just a month ago, is that too much to ask? For Hulu, it might be.
The season finale of the acclaimed and unparalleled dating series The Golden Bacheloraired Thursday night on ABC, but if you have the bedtime of a 72-year-old perhaps you missed the final reveal.
For most Bachelor shows, the episode lands on Hulu “the next day” (normally around 3 am ET, but they like to be ambiguous about it). As if right now, though, the finale of The Golden Bachelor is not on the streamer, which is why you might hear several old ladies in your neighborhood yelling in frustration at their remotes, or millennial women threatening to murder over it. But it’s not their fault!
The finale of The Golden Bachelor is expected to find its way onto Hulu today, Friday, Dec. 1st, but there has been no comment from the streamer as to why it’s been delayed. Perhaps they are trying to stretch out the drama? There is enough off-screen drama to hold you over until the episodes finally lands, whenever that will be.
Are you ready for the renaissance? If you’re not, you will want to steer clear of all AMC theatres. Today (December 1), Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé hit the cineplex in all its glory, and the Beyhive will surely attend in droves.
From the massive final setlist of songs, breakouts showcasing Beyoncé’sRenaissance World Tourrobust featured dancers, the Mute Challenge spotlight, and plenty of cameos of Blue Ivy Carter (a.k.a. her mother’s unofficial manager), you’re going to want to make sure your commemorative popcorn bucket is filled to the brim. The Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé’s runtime is a doozy. According to the details listed on the AMC Theatres webpage, dedicated to the concert movie, the official runtime is 2 hours and 48 minutes.
Before you rethink getting a ticket to the film, Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay took to Instagram to praise the visual. “The woman is a director in every sense of the word and beyond,” she wrote. “In the film, the performances are spectacular for their entertainment value but also as a gorgeous spectacle of craft – from the art direction to the costumes to the editing and lighting design. It’s stunning.”
Gen V delivered the first live-action spinoff in the increasingly popular and wildly expanding The Boys universe, so you better believe a Season 2 is happening. Thanks to the strong reaction from both fans and critics, plus high viewership numbers, Amazon renewed Gen V weeks before the Season 1 finale started streaming.
Set at Godolkin University, Gen V follows a diverse group of young Supes as they learn to control their powers, and hopefully, become world famous heroes like The Seven. However, this is the world of The Boys we’re talking about, and things spin out of control, which is bound to happen when you mix destructive powers with horny college kids. Not to mention, young people are adept at spotting bullsh*t like the carefully curated public persona of Homelander and The Seven.
Here’s the official statement on Gen V Season 2 via Variety:
“Expanding the universe of ‘The Boys’ with a series as bold as ‘Gen V’ has been an incredible journey for us and our wonderful partners at Sony,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon MGM Studios. “From our first conversation with showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, along with Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen, we knew ‘Gen V’ would push the boundaries. Their unapologetic approach is exactly what audiences love, and it has helped ‘Gen V’ become the No. 1 series on Prime Video in over 130 countries. ‘Gen V’ is Prime Video’s most acquisitive new Original series of 2023, and we’re excited that our incredible cast and crew are going to continue telling brave and bold stories from ‘Gen V’ to our customers.”
Gen V Season 1 is available for streaming on Prime Video.
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