Links: Nina, Natalie, Sebastian, and Shang-Chi
Friday, March 4, 2016 at 4:05PM THR profiles the last living silent star: Baby Peggy who is now 97 years old and at peace with the lost fortune her parents spent
The Cut talks to the immortal Bernadette Peters about her diet and exercize regimen. Takeaway: never aging in the past 30+ years is strictly regimented work!
Decider Today in TV History looks back at that great Natalie Portman episode of SNL
AV Club Steven Spielberg's career in 30 iconic shots
Angry Asian Man the nonsense Asian actors have to deal with for bit parts
MNPP The Sebastian Stan Strut
THR Have you been keeping up with this Nina biopic drama? The Nina Simone estate is NOT having it with the new biopic starring Zoe Saldana (opening in April). But Simone's daughter feels bad for the backlash against Zaldana
Variety R2-D2's model builder Tony Dyson dies at 68 years of age
i09 More diversity blunders/handwringing: Marvel is adding an Asian character to Iron Fist but Iron Fist himself they still cast with a white actor (Finn Jones) despite everything about his history screaming to correct the character (the 1960s were a lot different people. You don't have to adhere to fear of creating ethnic heroes now!
Gayness
The Advocate Caitlyn Jenner continues to reveal that she's one dense trans woman and hasn't absorbed all the wisdom the LGBT community has been trying to give her. She's supporting virulently anti-gay Ted Cruz for president
Towleroad Mark Hamill "Of course Luke Skywalker might be gay". Oh my. Despite being a big 'mo I have to say that I am entirely unamused by this retroactive teasing that's becoming popular from storytellers -- like JK Rowling's thing with Dumbledore. If storytellers are going to have a gay character just have a gay character. Stop being so coy and don't try and take credit for having gay characters when you don't actually have them.
Playbill Luke Evans tweets out a picture from a recording session of Disney's upcoming live action Beauty and the Beast (2017) - a 93 piece orchestra! (the movie's getting three new songs)
Reader Comments (15)
THANK YOU Re: Retroactive teasing
"If storytellers are going to have a gay character just have a gay character. Stop being so coy and don't try and take credit for having gay characters when you don't actually have them."
The Cylons destroyed most of the human race, evidently in an attempt to eradicate all homosexuals, since not a one of them was ever seen on the television show (one of my all-time favorites).
Except wait! Evidently, on some DVD extra, it turns out that one of the characters was, in fact, gay the whole time. This was a dead character, of course, but still, what a wonderful opportunity to retcon one of those rascally litte gays into the story!
As you can guess, I totally agree with you, even in regards to my beloved Ms. Rowlings. If a character is gay, you don't have to feature them in a QAF montage of sexual escapades, but at least you could MENTION that the character is gay within the context of the work. Afterwards doesn't count for squat.
That Nina Simone movie looks like such a hot mess. First of all, blackface, really?? Darkening her skin with makeup is entirely offensive. And aside from that, it just looks like a shit movie. I mean, that was such a caricature. She didn't act like a human once in that entire trailer
I have no problem with Luke Skywalker turning out to be gay. He never had any romantic interested in the original trilogy ( yes besides that kiss from Leia but it was just for good luck)
I had never heard about Baby Peggy. Thank you for the link, Nathaniel!
I'm Baby Peggy!
Saldana as Nina Simone is the worst casting choice in a while.
P..S. Hi Kathleen!
Yes, the retroactive homo thing is so frustrating. Like, if you didn't have the balls to do it in the first place, don't try and convince us now. And, yes, it is completely different to having queer readings of texts. We know for a fact that there's nothing in Luke Skywalker that was meant to be taken as queer. It's kinda what I kept feeling was going to be a problem with Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds going around saying "he's pansexual" to appease queer audiences, yet not actually putting anything in the movie to suggest it.
Poor Zoe Saldana. She probably thought "finally! a juicy role in a biopic for a black woman" and then womp womp.
I am so excited to see the Beauty and Beast live action film, but I'm disappointed that they aren't using any of the songs from the stage musical. I feel conflicted about it. How does anyone else feel about this?
Glenn Dunks: They'll hopefully play around with that, as far as Deadpool goes, next time. After all: Cable's going to be in the sequel. As far as Luke? Yeah, this has always been squirrelly.
Asian Bit Part Nonsense: Yikes. Crap like that needs to change. Like...Immediately. Not only badly researched, but forcing actors to be translators is just unfair.
Non Asian-American Iron Fist: Not watching that. Not for a billion dollars would I waste my time. Hopefully enough people skip it that he gets slid out of The Defenders. Also: If they were going for a second white guy anyway, why not Moon Knight over Iron Fist? After all "son of a rabbi who gets powers from Egypt" is less questionable (there's at least history there, some of it within the last 100 or so years) than the modern understanding of Doctor Strange or Iron Fist.
Brian -- since i hated the stage musical (but love the movie) i am okay with this.
People better give Zoe a chance to play Nina. Judge the film and performance for yourself. Don't decide what you think based on the trailer or the snap judgments already building around it.
Same for Ghostbusters earlier. These are big roles for African American actresses. Don't jump to condemn. I'm sure the actresses themselves want their performances to be seen in the full films, not just these few seconds.
First the Oscars were too white now a "woman of color" gets a leading Oscar bait role but she is not "black" enough- let's make up our minds people.
Zoe thought she could Diana Ross / Kidman her way through the part. Nina Simone is unapologetically black. Non-black people will never completely comprehend what that means. The producers of the movie wanted a star. And Hollywood is not in the business of making non-white women stars. Zoe books high profile genre vehicles usually where she is under heavy alien makeup. I know she meant no disrespect in taking the role but the footage shows how foolish the filmmakers were in augmenting Zoe's appearance to match Simone's. The movie looks unwatchable to me and I'm better off watching documentaries on Simone's life than this burnt mission of a biopic.
Do you really expect someone to make the main character of your film in 1977 to be gay? I mean...REALLY? What is the retroactive teasing besides this and Dumbledore? Especially considering the homoerotic subtext with him and Grindelwald in the books? Nobody is trying to take credit for having a gay character that "always existed" but merely trying to show how the climate wasn't great for gay characters when they debuted.
Ryan -- of course i dont expect that in 1977. i'm just tired of the 2010s teasing about this topic with longstanding characters. it;s especially galling in the context of star wars since this is never going to happen and also it would be a weird fit since star wars has never been about the sex lives of its characters (except that awkward courting trilogy which is itself something that never fit).
Just create new characters. I don't like retroactive nonsense