When Meryl Met Anna... and Other Stories

Salon Sandra Bullock to play Texas senator Wendy Davis, who famously filibustered an anti-abortion bill for 12 hours. Oscar #2?
Variety interviews actor/playwright Tracy Letts who is really having a good year you must admit. Lady Bird is a hit in theaters and his new play just opened in Chicago
Hollywood Reporter has a good interview with Steven Soderbergh
Instagram Lupita Nyong'o loves her natural hair and is upset with a magazine for airbrushing it away
Variety Replacing Kevin Spacey in All the Money in the World is going to cost at least 2.5 million
MNPP Do Dump or Marry: Thor Ragnarok edition

Stage
Deadline this is a surprise the Tony Awards have declared the recent production of "1984" ineligible for prizes. They have not stated why exactly.
Playbill reviews are in for Broadway's new musical The Band's Visit, based on the Ronit Elkabetz film of the same name if you remember that one
Theater Mania photos of Kelli O'Hara and Patrick Wilson rehearsing for Brigadoon. Hope it's swoon-worthy
Playbill Jake Shears (of Scissor Sisters fame) joining Kinky Boots on Broadway next year. Damn, I guess I'll have to see it a third time

Harassment Epidemic Updates
AV Club on Hollywood's long overdue moral reckoning
New Yorker Emily Nussbaum has a terrific piece on Louis CK's comedy through the lens of recent allegations
New York Times Louis CK has confessed to the claims against him "These stories are true"
Medium Actor Anthony Edwards has come forward to say he was molested by a producer when he was underage
Guardian Ellen Page has detailed homophobic remarks director Brett Rattner made to her during the production of X-Men: Last Stand
Washington Post showing their utter depravity GOP officials are now citing the bible to justify Roy Moore's sexual assault on an underage girl. And just think, last month they were slamming Hollywood for its depravity with Harvey Weinstein.

Oscar Campaigns Heat Up
Awards Daily Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) to receive Rising Star award at Palm Springs
Variety Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) to receive Vanguard award at Santa Barbara

And cheeky Meryl Streep met with Anna Wintour (who she sent up in her Oscar worthy work in Devil Wears Prada) to promote her new star vehicle The Post

Another Badass "Black Panther" Trailer!

Chris here. Okay guys, hear me out: Marvel is getting good again? Aside from business-as-usual as the Avengers arc closes, the superhero house will give us Cate Blanchett in drag for Thor, Pfeiffer in the Ant-Man sequel, and of course the most eagerly anticipated: Ryan Coogler's Black Panther.

Excuse me while I pick my eyeballs off of the floor. The goods on what Coogler has created keep getting better and better, and a brand new trailer has yours truly at a fever pitch. The amount of set pieces and plot threads already at play in this trailer suggest that it might be another bloated actioner, but there are genuine thrills everywhere, all the more rapturous for the film's existence in our current political atmosphere. Chadwick Boseman may be our star, but its most exciting element might be its celebration of black women - let's all geek out over Danai Gurira's Okoye.

This (paired with Wonder Woman) feels like the first time in quite a long while that superheroes are actually awe-inspiring on a deeper level. It pays to have an identity all your own and not retread on the diminishing returns of other retreads. It's going to be a long four months waiting for this one.

Black Panther Teases

Having recently returned from Disney World, where 'The Festival of the Lion King' earwormed that soundtrack into my brain again, I find myself frantically trying to rewrite "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" for Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) who we last saw mourning his king and proving something of a surprise moral center to the squabbling superheroes of Captain America: Civil War (2016).

Sing it with me...

It's Hard for a Good Man To Be King 🎵"

Marvel Studios has gone and made its first movie without a white guy named Chris in the lead role (kidding) and from 112 seconds of evidence we have, they made a great decision hiring exciting young director Ryan Coogler (hot off Fruitvale Station and Creed) to direct. The movie is still an excruciating 251 days away still (February 16th, 2018) but the teaser and the poster for Marvel's sure-to-be smash hit The Black Panther have arrived after the jump...

Click to read more ...

The Movie That Twitter Made Happen

Chris here. Remember a few weeks back when this tweet referencing Rihanna and Lupita Nyong'o made the rounds and gave us all a good delighted gasp?:

Rihanna looks like she scams rich white men and lupita is the computer smart best friend that helps plan the scans https://t.co/PhWs1xd3nj

— WHOOPHERASSKOURTNI (@1800SADGAL) April 18, 2017

The fun continued as Lupita and Rihanna chimed in with their enthusiasm, bringing along multi-hyphenate talents Ava DuVernay and Insecure’s Issa Rae. Well, it wasn't just playful chatter between celebs over Twitter - this project just became real...

Click to read more ...

Would you rather...?

Would you rather?

...attend Lupita Nyong'o & Dana Guira's joint Coming to America themed birthday party
... take a shower with Lena Dunham & Andrew Rannells?
... do a little ADR with Doona Bae for Sense 8 season 2
... dance with Goldie Hawn
... go a round in the ring with Jason Momoa?
... or try a swimming lesson with Sir Patrick Stewart and his foster pitbull Ginger ?

Photos to help you decide are after the jump...

Click to read more ...