Louis Tomlinson is officially the DILFest of the One Direction guys. Swoon accordingly, Earth. The 24-year-old singer welcomed his “little lad,” Freddie Reign, on Jan. 21 in Los Angeles, and, in typical millennial fashion, the baby was introduced to the world via social media earlier this week. The mother is an L.A.-based stylist with whom Tomlinson had a rebound situation after getting out of a longterm relationship. Hey. It happens. Photo: People.com.
A little more than a year after Justin Bieber first donned his first pair of Calvins for a Calvin Klein underwear campaign, it is time for more. Because why not. Enjoy. Photo: People.com.
You guys. Such a Coldplay morning in my computer. Like, #victim. After 88 stressful minutes involving two windows, four tabs, a remote assist, and lots of waiting, I successfully secured tickets to the band’s “A Head Full of Dreams Tour” this morning. The tour, btw, kicks off on July 16 in New Jersey (I shall see Coldplay for the fourth time, if memory serves, on Sept. 3 in Santa Clara, Calif.). And speaking of Coldplay, since they had a fan pre-sale going on today, what better way to get people in the mood than by releasing the video for the Beyoncé-featuring, sure-to-be-part-of-the-Super Bowl fun“Hymn for the Weekend.” Queen B appears in the India-set clip as an alluring Bollywood queen, and Chris Martin & Co. do their rock-stars thing among lively people, lots of color, and the contagiously chill sound of their song. Check it out: Now don’t forget: Coldplay will headline Super Bowl 50’s halftime fun on Feb. 7.
Oh, there is going to be hell to pay if she gets nominated (again)! Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow has announced that her next project is going to focus on the 1967 Detroit riots. Mark Boal –, Bigelow’s go-to screenwriter (he wrote Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker) – will handle the script for a 2017 release. The riot took place late one July almost 50 years ago. Unrest resulted in 43 people dying, more than 340 getting injured, and, ahem, 7,000 buildings getting burned. That sounds like...no joke. Photo: PeliculasAFondo.com.
I. Feel. Properly Titillated. Wanna know how has gotten cast in the Fifty Shades of Grey sequel? Kim Basinger. Indeed, the Oscar winner is going to play Jamie Dornan’s Christian Grey’s dominant. Mistress? Mistress. (Fun with punctuation!). What’s the term again? Oh heck. She’s going to play Sebastian Grey’s Elena Lincoln. In Fifty Shades Darker. A business partner and ex of the guy’s, Elena, of course, will antagonize Dakota Johson’s Anastasia Steel. Because bitches. Photo: EmpireOnline.com.
I heart that Jennifer Aniston is dead-set on flirting with character-actress greatness up on that silver screen. America’s favorite Friend is in The Yellow Birds, a young-boys-and-the-Iraq-war story, and although yes, she’s also in the upcoming ensemble comedy Mother’s Day, she soon will become The Fixer, starring as Denise White, a former Miss USA hopeful who rose to the top of the male-dominated world of professional sports management by fiercely protecting her clients in times of crisis.
To be clear, she is not playing this Denise White, the black news anchor from Tampa, OK. Racial fluidity is not that in, right? (Not that it is. You know what I am saying.) Anyway. This could be L’Aniston’s Blind Side. At last. Rock it, Jen! Photo: Trendencias.com.
Clive Owen news makes me so happy. The actor is gearing up to star in Anon, a new psychological thriller from writer-director Andrew Niccol (so expect an element of sci-fi). The project will tell the story of a detective – it’s always a detective, huh – in a world with no privacy, ignorance, and anonymity. So a world kinda like ours? Ah, there is also no crime in this world. Definitely not like ours. Anyway, the drama comes Owen’s character meeting a young woman who doesn’t exist, and thus discovers that it may not be the end of crime but – gasp! – the beginning. Photo: EW.com.
There she is! Before anyone could think she was going to devote herself to making movies, Rihanna has finally gone and released her much-awaited new album (her eighth!), ANTI. The album was released on TIDAL last night. Let’s get listenin’! The album – which is conspicuously missing a few key2015 Rihanna tracks, btw – will be an exclusive of the artist-fronted streaming service for the foreseeable future. So go cry into your iTunes, folks. Photo: Cosmopolitan.com.
Ha! Wouldn’t it be som’in’ if Cate Blanchett sucks on stage? You gotta admit that’d be som’in’. I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out for sure when the actress takes to stage for her Broadway debut in The Present, an update of Chekhov’s Platonov, which Blanchett’s husband, Andrew Upton, is adapting. John Crowley (Brooklyn) is directing Set in the ’90s, around the birthday celebration of an independent but compromised widow (the two-time Academy Award-winning Carol star) and the people who come to the party to wish her well, including Richard Roxburgh’s witty and acerbic character and his wife. Pleasantries soon give into an undercurrent of regret, denial, and desire, and then things get real interesting. The Present will arrive on the Great White Way early next winter. A Tony (a nomination, at the very least) should follow soon after. Photo: FabFashionFix.com.
OMG, Hollywood. You dumb. And a sucker for punishment. Joseph Fiennes – the super-white English star of Shakespeare in Love – is going to play circa-2001 Michael Jackson in a new road trip dramedy about the New York-to-California journey the late King of Pop, his BFF Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando (may they all rest) reportedly went on following the events of 9/11. Stockard Channing and Brian Cox are set to portray Taylor and Brando. But back to this bit of wacky casting news. Why would the powers that be go in this direction? Because Fiennes’ bone structure is that similar to Jackson...? Look. I get that a black actor probably couldn’t physically pull off playing the Michael Jackson of that era. We all know why. But why, oh why would anyone think it’s a hot idea to move forward with this zeitgeist-deaf project? Oy. Photo: Zap2It.com.
Golden Globe nominee Ziyi Zhang is thinking comedy again. See, the Memoirs of a Geisha star – she had a part in Rush Hour 2, don’t you forget – has been tapped for one of the lead roles in East/West, a cross-cultural comedy to be helmed by Arthur director Jason Winer. Fret not, Winer also has called the shots on lots of TV shows, including Life in Pieces, Modern Family, and The Crazy Ones. And who knows. Maybe, this internationally renowned star is a hoot and a half. You never know. Photo: PurseBlog.com.
Fresh off a she-better-get-nominated-for-an-Emmy turn on Season 5 of Showtime’s Homeland, Miranda Otto is going network. Indeed, the Aussie actress has landed the female lead on the 24 reboot that Fox is working on, 24: Legacy, opposite Corey Hawkins. Her character will have a long history at the agency, for she used to run CTU. Now married to a senator, the more-than-capable woman will be struggling with her decision to leave the counterterrorism agency that used to be the domain of Kiefer Sutherland’s indefatigable Jack Bauer. I. Love. This casting news. I mean, if we cannot get a spin-off prequel centering on Otto’s Homeland character, the duplicitous Allison Carr (that could still work!), then this will do. At least until the powers that be have her doing something really ridikolous that’s not edgy enough. Photo: HollywoodReporter.com.
This is not a drill. And it’s not another hoax, either. Abe Vigoda has died. At last. For real this time. The Emmy-nominated TV stalwart was 94, and reportedly passed away peacefully in his sleep, at home in New Jersey. Vigoda will be remembered best for his turn as Det. Phil Fish on Barney Miller and for playing the part of Tessio in The Godfather and its sequel. And, of course, for being the subject, since the early’80s, of countless premature reported deaths. Photo: TheDailyBeast.com.
And what would a movie about Tupac be without some Faith Evans? Incomplete. Right? Black Nativity’s Grace Gibson is going to portray Faith Evans in All Eyez on Me, the forthcoming Tupac Shakur biopic starring Demetrius Shipp Jr., Lauren Cohan, Kat Graham, and Jamal Woolard (Notorious) as Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G., among others. Evans, of course, was...is...a beautiful, dope singer – and Biggie’s (may he rest) influential wife. Smalls and Shakur were friends once. But then life happened. Photo: Twitter.com.
Well, five of ’em did. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer reunited last night, to take part on Must See TV: A Tribute to James Burrows, a celebration of the legendary TV director’s career (and the first sign that NBC is eventually going to turn into TV Land). Matthew Perry was unable to be there for his in person because he is working on a play in London. As you can see here, the cast of the Emmy-winning show mingled with other stars in attendance, like the cast of The Big Bang Theory. Must See TV: A Tribute to James Burrows is scheduled to air on Feb. 21. Photo: EW.com.
Know what else Hollywood has gotten real good at? Other than celebrating whites for the (same) jobs that a lot of blacks and browns and more won’t be? Remakes and reboots, natch. Kiefer Sutherland’s 24, for instance. It is getting rebooted sans the Emmy winner, thankyouverymuch. And in a twist of fate, a black actor is taking over for a white one. Yes...progress! Straight Outta Compton’s Corey Hawkins is going to headline 24: Legacy, a new entry in the franchise that will revolve, in part, around a military hero who turns to CTU upon his return home to the United States, for help in saving his life and stopping what could be a massive terrorist attack on America. The new show also will have a strong female lead, and the character will have a long history at the agency, for she used to run CTU. I wonder if we have met her before.... Photo: TVLine.com.
Oh, Hollywood.... You get kudos for stubbornness, I’ll give ya that. Currently embroiled in a sociopolitical and PR race nightmare, Hollywood has decided that Charlie Hunnam can pass for Mexican. See, evidently, the (blond, blue-eyed) Brit – who is totally chasing It status in the wake of the lukewarmly received Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim and his solid seven-season performance on FX’s Sons of Anarchy– is set to portray Mexican-American drug lord Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a.k.a. La Barbie, on account of his fair complexion. Because who else. #SMH, alright. Photo: PHOTOCOUTURE-SHOW.com.
Gay-ish (maybe?) Colton Haynes has gone and gotten himself one heckuva daddy. No, really! Haynes is going to play Rob Lowe’s son on TV’s The Grinder. On the show within the show. Which the show – The Grinder – has. As a gimmick. I should On Demand that to understand, huh. My head hurts now. The Grinder ep featuring Haynes is set to air early next month. Photo: Yahoo.com.
I must admit I missed the Key & Peele train. Don’t you call me a racist, OK. It took me a minute to get into Amy Schumer, too. (No, not like that.) Everything’s about to change, though, because of pussy. Of a pussy. A pussy named Keanu. See, both Key and Peele are starring in Keanu, a new big-screen comedy about a couple of friends (played by the stars of the Peabody Award-winning Comedy Central show, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele), who must enter a world of crime in order to retrieve the adorable stolen kitten one of them recently adopted. Needless to say, hilarity and cuteness ensue. Check out Keanu’s red-band trailer now, and pencil in its April 29 opening if you know what’s good. Photo: EW.com.
Fresh off his turn in The Danish Girl, Matthias Schoenaerts is looking ahead at...Dakota Johnson? No, the Belgian Brando hasn’t gone after a part in the Fifty Shades of Grey sequel and gotten it. He is, however, set to explore The Sound of Metal with the How to Be Single actress, his Bigger Splash co-star. The drama from Darius Marder (he co-wrote The Place Beyond the Pines) will center on the members of a band led by Johnson, and how the hearing loss its drummer (Schoenaerts) begins to experience affects their rhythm and, of course, his future. Production is expected to get underway late this summer. Photo: Express.co.uk.
That Brooklyn girl is going to partner up with Ms. Mistress America! Now that is a loaded sentence. What I mean to say is that Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan is going to headline Lady Bird, the (solo) directorial debut of Greta Gerwig. Ronan will play a Sacramento high school senior, who, more than likely, will be absolutely completely totally verbose. Hey. Gf is 22. She can still get away with the high school part. Photo: GotCeleb.com.
He may have gotten snubbed by the Academy for his amazing turn in Room, but 9-year-old Critics’ Choice Award winner Jacob Tremblay is not one to like, want to stay in his room crying. The young actor’s got to work! And that’s just what the next RyGos (IMHO) is gonna do. Tremblay is set to play a young Phil on TV’s The Last Man on Earth later this season. Grown Phil/Tandy, of course, is portrayed by Emmy nominee Will Forte. You can expect to see the kid in action on what is sure to be a flashback-heavy episode of the show when it comes back on the air this spring. Photo: Zimbio.com.
