Two Handfuls of Link

• The Guardian Isabelle Huppert has really outdone herself with her answers in this new Q&A
• Variety Roseanne cancelled at ABC after Roseanne couldn't help herself and went on yet another round of racist remarks. Still, that's quite a move by ABC given the success and profitability of the show (and their past indifference to her statements). Corporations aren't really known for not letting money do the loudest talking.
• Variety interesting buiness related follow up: In the very recent upfronts ABC had basically built its whole Tuesday schedule around Roseanne as ratings savior. What will they do now?
• Slate an oral history of The Muppets
• Coming Soon Uma Thurman to star in Netflix's supernatural drama series Chambers. Let's hope she has better luck than Naomi Watts did with Gypsy.
• Pajiba Let's talk about Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Solo)

Much more after the jump including Jake Shears new song, George Takei exonerated, Interview magazine, Mean Girls album, a Spawn reboot, and what to do when stars disappoint us...

Click to read more ...

Would You Rather

Time for a favorite celebrity social media game. Pictures after the jump to help you decide your answer.

Would you rather...

... go to Disneyland with Michelle Dockery?
...snuggle with Bianca Del Rio & Latrice Royale?
...smush faces with Juliette Lewis & Alicia Silverstone? 
...or pay homage to George Takei with Westworld's Leonardo Nam? 

Click to read more ...

John Cho's Sulu Comes Out

In a fun bit of refreshing happy news, it has been revealed that John Cho's Sulu will be gay in the upcoming Star Trek Beyond. What a heartwarming nod to the series's original Sulu George Takei, who has been one of the loudest and proudest out performers advocating for LGBT rights for some time.

This is also a welcome alternative to the after-the-fact revisionism granted to franchise icons like Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series, though Takei himself disagrees. But Sulu hasn't previously had any romantic backstory in the canon, so any grousing of opportunistic pandering isn't quite fair either. Reintroducing the character as gay without a "might be" or "actually was" asterix is something else entirely while the series is running, especially without definitively being drawn as straight in his history.

The reported nonchalant introduction of Sulu's same-gender partner is a hopeful sign that gay visability in mass entertainment to moving toward characters that that don't shy from queerness but don't require it to solely define them. Cho commented on the reveal:

I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicise one’s personal orientations...

While the unfortunate obvious truth is that we are not at that point with LGBT acceptance, having a beloved character who now happens to be gay is a necessary step towards wider visibility that has been missing in franchise entertainment.

This is a step in the right direction for franchise entertainment as a whole, but one that seems long delayed for the historically progressive series. Toss in that original Rihanna track and Beyond is starting to look like a gay old time at the movies - but Sulu, honey, you're supposed to come out during Pride month, not after!

Do you find Sulu's outing exciting or revisionist?

Bye Instant Watch: United 93, Star Trek, and a Dutch LGBT Gem

Here's another batch of movies leaving Instant Watch services on Netflix of Amazon Prime if you'd like to catch up with them. It also provides us with an excuse to talk about a handful of random movies so why not. We've freeze framed randomly. Let's begin...

UNITED 93 (2006) ends February 11th on Netflix

United 93, Cleveland. Verify your altitude." 

This freeze frame is about 45 minutes in. The terrorists have just taken the cockpit when air traffic control tries to reach them. God this movie is upsetting. 

WERE THE WORLD MINE (2008) ends February 11th on Netflix

-Jonathan. You look luminous.
-I'm in love.  

I dont remember this well beyond its silly everyone straight becomes gay through magic plot. But I think there was a good musical number?  [More films after the jump...]

Click to read more ...

Links

BuzzFeed Netflix not legally responsible for your 'viewing history' - it's so funny that people thought they were
The Hairpin Mission: Impossibly Silly "I Still Don't Understand How Tall Everyone Is"  
Interview Director Marielle Heller talks about the ratings and sexuality of her daring debut The Diary of a Teenage Girl 

Towleroad George Takei once asked Gene Roddenberry about including gay characters on Star Trek. Interesting historical response but what's their excuse now since that franchise is still alive?
IndieWire How to apply for a Women of Color directors and screenwriters 10 day retreat
This is Not Porn Cute. Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg take a break during Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 

Tim is the Best
Antagony & Ecstasy revisits Dog Day Afternoon... (great films often generate great writing about film)
Antagony & Ecstasy also revisits the very first unreleased Fantastic Four (1994) and claims its still the best adaptation of Marvel's first family (bad films often generate great writing about film) 
.... moral of combining them: Timothy Brayton often generates great writing about film.  

Off Cinema 
Laughing Squid a feline feeding machine to let your cat be more self-actualized indoors
Gothamist sad news: Annie Lennox's daughter's boyfriend has gone missing after a tandem kayak accident 

"Clobberin' Time"
There's a lot of handwringing going round about what exactly happened between Josh Trank and the studio and the source material to make Fantastic Four so bad. Film School Rejects even felt it needed a six-year timeline. But there's also post-mortems about the opening weekend which are lower than usual for superheroes.Variety argues that audiences are getting wise to money grabs (with tanking reboots like FF and diminished returns for Spider-Man) and studios need to think harder about repackaging known brands. But I personally don't know if that's the case -- I mean audiences are still putting up with needlessly padded "part 1 and part 2" finales which everyone knows are not artistically motivated decisions aimed at providing them with the best possible movie. So until audiences start bailing on those, I'm not eager to give them too much credit for protecting their wallets against Hollywood's 'screw-quality / make another billion quick' tactics.