Sabtu, 31 Agustus 2019
Remembering Emmy-winning actress Valerie Harper - CBS This Morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwM2XHxwm08
2019-08-31 11:55:36Z
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Missy Elliott: Iconology EP | Review - Pitchfork
In the decade-plus since her last album, Missy Elliott has been trapped in a cycle of returns and retreats. Albums have been teased, then coming soon, then renamed, and later scrapped. Singles have been released and choreographed but then left at sea, never followed-up or built upon. Though Missy has remained an active producer, songwriter, and guest artist, it’s hard not to think of those efforts as busywork. When she rapped, “Thought I fell off, I ain’t quite finished,” on 2012’s single “9th Inning,” it felt like a Freudian slip more than a threat. Released the weekend before her receipt of the VMAs’ Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award, Iconology confirms what’s long been implied by these recurring starts and stops: Missy Elliott is no longer the future.
There is nothing rapped or sung on this EP that is not beholden to Missy’s past. “Throw It Back” is a tepid nostalgia trip that does little to hide its lack of inspiration. Retracing her steps, Missy recycles tired rhyme schemes and stuffs her verses with dry nods to her hits. Her allusions to her glory days are so artless and undercooked that they could be Genius annotations: “Missy still got ’em losing control/And every night is still ladies’ night.”
The production, courtesy of Timbaland, Missy, and Atlanta producers Wili Hendrix and Michael Aristotle, is a toss-up. The drum programming on “Throw It Back” and “Cool Off” is shifty and colorful, but painfully quantized. As Missy raps in staccato lockstep with the beats, the lack of bounce becomes grating. The doo-wop sway of “Why I Still Love You” fits Missy’s vocals well, but it’s damning that the a capella sounds better than the full song. The sole outlier, “DripDemeanor,” is groovy and indulgent; at one point background coos bleed into a guitar and harmonica melody that’s peppered with what sounds like hiccups. Paired with Sum1’s sultry crooning, the result is weird and charming and sensuous—but then Missy starts rapping.
There’s nothing insightful or fun about Missy looking back rather than ahead, especially when she’s already released two compilation records during her hiatus. The focus on iconography is frustrating in its neglect of Missy’s extensive influence throughout the past decade (Missy’s genes can be found in Tierra Whack, Tyler, the Creator, Azealia Banks, M.I.A., FKA twigs, J. Cole, among many others) and her lauded accomplishments (earlier this year she was the first woman rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the third rapper, period). Missy invited listeners to view her body on her terms; she condensed emotions into the perfect onomatopoeia; she befriended and supported the artists around her. Iconology could have tapped into all these dimensions. Instead, it settles for the safe and familiar. Throw it back.
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/missy-elliott-iconology-ep/
2019-08-31 05:00:00Z
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Judy Review | Movie - Empire
Movies:
Actors:
1968. With her ex-husband Sid Luft (Rufus Sewell) demanding custody of her children and struggling to pay a $4 million tax bill, fragile Hollywood legend Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) takes up a sold-out residency at London’s Talk Of The Town nightclub. Can she keep it together so the show can go on?
There is an image around halfway through _Judy_ that captures Judy Garland (Zellweger) slumped in her dressing room, head bowed, cigarette burning in hand, surrounded by wall-to-wall flowers, a depleted Garland before literal garlands. It’s a moment that gets to the heart of the last days of Garland’s life, the difference between the private and the public, despair and sadness crystallised against a rose-coloured world-view. It’s something Rupert Goold’s film doesn’t quite manage again. For, despite an imposing performance by Renée Zellweger, Judy never exposes the dark heart of Garland’s last years, creating an enjoyable backstage drama movie while failing to get under its protagonist’s skin.
Like last year’s much better _Stan & Ollie_ (it shares a character in showbiz impresario Bernard Delfont), Tom Edge’s screenplay examines Garland through the prism of a late-in-life UK engagement peppered with flashbacks to key moments in her early years as a child star. After a talk-y start in Los Angeles (Gemma-Leah Devereux is a dead spit for Liza Minnelli), things pick up when Garland arrives in London, refuses to rehearse then knocks ‘By Myself’ out of the park. Garland is paired with an assistant-cum-minder, Ros (Jessie Buckley, using a fraction of her talents), and the subsequent uphill struggle to get Garland stage-ready is entertaining. We see glimpses of other areas of Garland’s life — a brutal TV interview about her children, her lover Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock) surprising her in London — but it’s in the theatre where ‘Judy’ impresses most.
The uphill struggle to get Garland stage-ready is entertained.
The film is less surefooted when it comes to dealing with Garland’s past. Interspersed in the ’60s timeline are flashbacks to young Judy in ’30s Hollywood, being ugly-shamed on the set of The Wizard Of Oz by Louis B. Mayer, denied a French fry at lunch with Mickey Rooney to control her weight, and an act of rebellion as she jumps in a tank at a manufactured birthday party staged two months before the actual date. Yet the correlation between Judy’s brutal management by Mayer and her later-in-life troubles feels simplistic, psychoanalysis 101 that undercuts any attempts at complexity. Equally banal is a plot thread back in London involving Garland and two gay fans (Andy Nyman, Daniel Cerqueira) that feels entirely engineered to pay homage to Garland’s status as a gay icon rather than offer any sense of convincing organic drama.
It’s a small film that never successfully evokes the scale of old-school Hollywood — the LA sequences feel very stage-bound — or the louche London of the ’60s. Zellweger goes some way to etching Judy’s loss — there’s a touching late-on moment when Judy phones home to daughter Lorna (Bella Ramsey) — and goes for broke on stage, barnstorming her way through ‘The Trolley Song’ or smouldering on ‘Come Rain Or Come Shine’. Yet the film really stumbles in its big climax, pulling a cheap trick, parlaying one of Hollywood’s saddest, most tragic stories into a feel-good moment. Garland — and Zellweger — deserved so much more.
Judy is an enjoyable, sincere attempt to present a multi-faceted portrait of a Hollywood legend, bolstered by a strong Renée Zellweger. Yet it never really finds the subtleties and depths to make it compelling and the ‘inspirational’ ending diminishes a sad, complex life.
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/judy/
2019-08-31 04:49:34Z
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Jumat, 30 Agustus 2019
Terminator: Dark Fate's Thrilling Final Trailer Unleashed On Judgement Day - Geek Culture
It’s finally Judgement Day, and to commemorate it, the team behind Terminator: Dark Fate has finally released the final trailer of the movie, as well as its official movie poster.
The sixth instalment in the Terminator franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate will be produced by James Cameron and Tim Miller. Dark Fate will serve as a direct sequel to the first two Terminator films. According to Tim Miller, every Terminator film that came after Terminator 2: Judgement Day happened in an alternate universe and will not affect the main canon.
Terminator fans can also look forward to the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. While Hamilton will be reprising her role as Sarah Connor, it has long been revealed that Schwarzenegger will come back as a different Terminator, with a whole new chassis number.
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New year, new Terminator, are we right?
The new trailer gives us a better glimpse at what to expect from the movie, including an older Sarah Connor that is just as much of a badass as she was in every other Terminator film, as well as several cool fight scenes including the new cast and, of course, Schwarzenegger himself.
We can’t wait to see what the full movie has in store for us.
Terminator: Dark Fate will be released in theatres on November 1, 2019.
Germaine is a fun-sized introvert who loves nothing better than sleeping in on rainy days. She can be found reading fanfiction and manga while still waiting for her Hogwarts acceptance letter. It’ll come eventually.
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https://geekculture.co/terminator-dark-fate-thrilling-final-trailer-unleashed-on-judgement-day/
2019-08-30 04:34:52Z
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Rabu, 28 Agustus 2019
Jessi Combs, TV Host and Driver, Dies in Attempt at Land Speed Record - The New York Times
Jessi Combs, a television host and professional racer, died on Tuesday in Oregon while trying to set a world land speed record.
Ms. Combs’s death was confirmed in a statement by the Harney County Sheriff’s Office, which responded to the scene of the crash in the Alvord Desert in southeastern Oregon on Tuesday afternoon. The office said it did not yet know the cause of the crash.
In a statement provided to Jalopnik, the car publication, and others, her family said that Ms. Combs, 39, had been driving the North American Eagle, a 56-foot-long jetlike car capable of generating over 45,500 horsepower. The crash occurred on a dry lake bed.
“People that loved her and followed her became family, all bonded together by adventure and passion,” the statement said. “Her fans adored her, and she lived to inspire them.”
Ms. Combs was a lifelong racing fan whose love of cars and the sport led her into television, with a short run of appearances on “MythBusters,” the popular science program, and continuing hosting roles on “Xtreme 4x4,” a show about off-roading, and “Overhaulin’,” a show about revamping cars.
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On Twitter on Wednesday, Adam Savage, a host of “MythBusters,” praised Ms. Combs as a “brilliant” builder, engineer, driver, fabricator and science communicator, who “strove everyday to encourage others by her prodigious example.”
“She was also a colleague, and we are lesser for her absence,” he added. “My heart goes out to her family.”
After graduating from a Wyoming technical college with a degree in automotive fabrication, Ms. Combs found her way onto “Overhaulin’” and then “Xtreme 4x4,” according to a biography on her personal website. In 2007, she suffered a spinal injury in an accident involving a large piece of machinery, after which she decided to leave that show. Two years later, she started appearing on “MythBusters.”
In the past decade, Ms. Combs had also participated in a number of competitive driving events. She became known as “the fastest woman on four wheels” after a 2013 attempt at breaking the women’s land-speed world record in which she reached a speed of 398 miles per hour, according to the biography.
In a run last fall, Ms. Combs was able to reach a speed of just over 483 miles per hour, according to her personal website. The current women’s landspeed record was set in the very place where Ms. Combs died, Oregon’s Alvord Desert, in 1976 by Kitty O’Neil, who reached a speed of 512.7 miles per hour.
On Instagram on Wednesday, her colleague Terry Madden confirmed her death, writing that “she was the most amazing spirit that I have ever or will ever know.”
In 2017, Ms. Combs made her way back to her home state of South Dakota to serve as the first female grand marshal of a local motorcycle rally. When asked by a local reporter about her future plans, she described them as always evolving.
“Ideas, dreams, and goals morph as we experience life, so I’m not sure I can look at it like there’s something I haven’t yet achieved since I will always be striving for something more,” she said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/us/jessi-combs-accident-death.html
2019-08-28 21:08:00Z
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Selasa, 27 Agustus 2019
Taylor Swift shades Kanye West at VMAs 10 years after infamous interruption - Fox News
A decade after Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, it appears that the 29-year-old singer still isn't quite over it.
Swift, who has feuded with the rapper ever since he stormed the stage to declare that Beyoncé should have taken home the Best Female Video moon man for "Single Ladies," shaded him on the red carpet at the 2019 VMAs.
When asked on the red carpet if she had any after-party plans, Swift told an interviewer that she wasn't sure if she'd actually take any trophies home. “You never know what can happen on this show, as I’ve learned,” Swift said. “But we’re just probably going to figure out a way to celebrate anyway.”
Swift won Video of the Year at Monday's ceremony for "You Need to Calm Down."
TAYLOR SWIFT'S CELEBRITY FEUD HISTORY: FROM KANYE WEST TO KATY PERRY, AND BEYOND
Taylor Swift, at left, performs at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. She took a dig at Kanye West for infamously interrupting her during her Best Female Video acceptance speech in 2009. (Getty)
TAYLOR SWIFT SAYS KIM KARDASHIAN FEUD WAS THE 'LOWEST' SHE'S EVER FELT
In 2016, Kim Kardashian posted a video of her seemingly approving lyrics about her in West’s song “Famous,” which Swift denied. later saying the clip was edited and pointing out that it didn't include her approving the phrase "that b—h."
KIM KARDASHIAN RILES TAYLOR SWIFT FANS BY POSTING 'FAMOUS' VIDEO ARTWORK
Swift told Vogue of the backlash she faced after the incident, “A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-unquote canceled, is a very isolating experience. When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being. You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, ‘Kill yourself.'”
“I knew immediately I needed to make music about it because I knew it was the only way I could survive it,” she continued. “It was the only way I could preserve my mental health and also tell the story of what it’s like to go through something so humiliating.”
TAYLOR SWIFT CALLS OUT KANYE WEST IN GRAMMYS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Swift held a grudge against the rapper for a decade and counting since the incident. (Getty)
KANYE WEST GOES ON TWITTER RANT AGAINST DRAKE ON TAYLOR SWIFT'S BIRTHDAY
Last Friday, Swift released her new album, "Lover," which came with diary entries. One of those was about West's interruption.
“Let’s just say, if you had told me that one of the biggest stars in music was going to jump on stage and announce that he thought I shouldn’t have won on live television, I would’ve said, ‘That stuff doesn’t really happen in real life,’” she wrote. “Well… apparently … It does.”
TAYLOR SWIFT ACCUSES SCOOTER BRAUN OF 'MANIPULATIVE BULLYING'
At the VMAs the following year, a barefoot Swift delivered a melodramatic performance of her song "Innocent," reportedly written about the incident.
At the 2015 Grammys, the pair reconciled; at that year's VMAs, West presented Swift with one of her many awards of the evening.
On Sunday, Swift admitted on "CBS This Morning" that she doesn't "forgive and forget."
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"People go on and on about how you have to forgive and forget to move past something. No, you don't," she said." "You don't have to forgive and you don't have to forget to move on. You just become indifferent and then you move on. If something's toxic and it's only ever really been that, what else can you do? You just move on."
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-kanye-west-vmas-2019
2019-08-27 15:48:47Z
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Senin, 26 Agustus 2019
VMAs 2019: Taylor Swift wins top honor, calls out White House in acceptance speech - Fox News
Taylor Swift called out the White House after she won the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards' top prize — video of the year — for her LGBTQ pride anthem, "You Need To Calm Down."
The "Lover" songstress opened the show at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., with a performance of the hit song. Swift was flanked by colorful dancers, then brought it back to her roots by bringing out her guitar to sing the title track of her new album "Lover."
TAYLOR SWIFT KICKS OFF VMAS RED CARPET IN STYLISH POWER BLAZER
Taylor Swift arriving at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center on Monday in Newark, N.J. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
The words "Equality Act" were shown over the 29-year-old pop star's performance, a reference to her support of the Equality Act legislation that would prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
After winning the top prize, the 29-year-old pop star and a number of cast members from the video appeared onstage to accept the honor.
TAYLOR SWIFT PLEDGES TO 'DO EVERYTHING I CAN FOR 2020' ELECTION: 'WE'RE A DEMOCRACY'
"I just want to say that this is a fan-voted award. So, I first want to say thank you to the fans because in this video, several points were made, so you voting for this video means that you want a world where we're all treated equally," Swift said.
She continued: "Regardless of who we are, regardless of how we identify, at the end of this video there was a petition -- and there still is a petition for the Equality Act, which basically just says we all deserve equal rights under the law.
"And, I want to thank everyone who signed that petition because it now has half-a-million signatures, which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House," added Swift while accepting the award. She then looked down at her wrist and tapped on it, seemingly referencing a watch.
The video for "You Need to Calm Down" -- which also won the video for good honor -- finishes with the words: "Let's show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally." Before the video's release, Swift announced that she supported the Equality Act.
TAYLOR SWIFT'S TRANSFORMATION FROM COUNTRY SINGER TO POLITICAL ADVOCATE
Earlier in the show, Cardi B's "Money" won the Best Hip-Hop award — the first televised award of the night.
"I can't hear myself," she said as fans chanted her name. "Let me do my speech now." The 26-year-old rapper went on to thank Jora Frantzis, who directed her "Money" clip, as well as her glam team.
While presenting Best Latin Music Video, Alison Brie and French Montana put a spotlight on immigration activism: “I’m so proud to pronounce this award because as an immigrant I feel like we are the people that make his country, and I feel like I want to be a voice," Montana said.
Added Brie: "What’s happening to immigrants in this country is unconstitutional and frankly disgusting."
Missy Elliott proved why she's one of the best and innovative rappers of all time with an incredible medley of her most famous songs and music video looks from the black puffy bag dress for "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" to camouflage for "Get Ur Freak On."
The Grammy-winning rapper, who made a triumphant return to the VMAs for the first time since 2003, was backed up by a talented group of dancers for songs like "Work It," and "Pass That Dutch" and "Lose Control."
Holding her Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, she said she would try to hold back the tears, but the award meant so much to her.
She thanked Janet Jackson, calling her an inspiration for her music videos, along with Madonna and Busta Rhymes, and said she missed singer Aaliyah, who died 18 years ago in a plane crash.
She dedicated the award to the dance community as her dancers erupted behind her, saying, "Y'all are the icing on the cake, y'all are the beat to the heart."
Fox News' Jessica Napoli, Julius Young and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-vmas-2019
2019-08-27 02:18:06Z
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The Disney+ interface feels empty but elegant compared to Netflix - The Verge
Browsing through a demo of Disney’s upcoming streaming service, Disney+, the most striking thing about it is the stark contrast with its biggest competitor: Netflix. Where Netflix is overflowing with content trying to catch subscribers’ attention, Disney+ feels comparatively barren. Like Apple TV’s library of apps, Disney’s service is almost surgically clean in its design precision. But the specific ways its content is compartmentalized might be divisive.
The density difference makes sense: in 2018, Netflix had approximately 1,570 TV shows and 4,000 movies available for streaming. At launch, Disney+ will have approximately 500 movies and 7,000 individual TV episodes. But whereas Netflix can feel like disorganized chaos, every section of Disney+ is broken down into its own pocket, like Apple TV. Sitting down for a hands-on Disney+ preview at D23, Disney’s biennial convention in Anaheim, California — just across the street from Disneyland — the difference between Netflix and Disney+ couldn’t have been clearer.
In part, that’s because Disney’s upcoming service has different goals. “From a technical level or UI level, I haven’t really compared it to Netflix,” Michael Paull, Disney’s streaming services president, told The Verge.
“As a principle, we wanted a simple, elegant experience,” Paull said. “We want to make this easy. We don’t want the product to get in the way of the content.”
“Simple” may be the best word to describe Disney+. Its interface divides content into rows that people can scroll through based on personalized recommendations, new releases, and curated selections. The top row of the app has a carousel with a few priority titles to scroll through, including new theatrical releases Disney wants to highlight (Captain Marvel showed up on my demo) and Disney+ originals. There’s also a row for featured shows and movies that will be curated in-house, according to Paull. Right now, it’s mostly comprised of big theatrical releases and Disney classics, but that could change, Paull said. In the same way Netflix has started to use its featured section to primarily highlight its original content, there’s a good chance that Disney+ originals will take up a majority of that row.
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The most obvious and interesting part of the Disney+ homepage is a selection of Disney subsections: Star Wars, Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and National Geographic. It’s clear this is how the company wants people to use the app, to hone in on their favorite brands or franchises.
People “generally know what they’re interested in” when they open the app, Michael Cerda, vice president of product on Disney+, told The Verge. If you’re looking for Star Wars content like the new Mandalorian spinoff series, or the few Marvel movies Disney+ will launch with, people want them in the same space, he continued. Think of these subdivisions as almost entirely separate apps. They host collections of titles from every franchise and brand that Disney wants to highlight. The Simpsons, for example, has a huge section. People can go into that area, then scroll through each individual season to find an episode to watch. It’s similar to how shows on Hulu operate.
It’s within these collection-specific areas that Disney+’s designers really earn their due. Every movie or TV show has a beautiful back page to greet viewers. Take Captain Marvel: clicking on the movie will open a separate page with a couple of options, including the ability to read details about the movie (casting and so forth) or scroll through other recommended titles. Users can also click on an icon at the top of the page to add a title to their queue. Users on mobile devices will also be able to download movies for offline viewing directly from the page.
But what if people aren’t interested in just exploring what Marvel, Star Wars, or even National Geographic offer? Disney+ also features a sidebar that people can use to navigate between TV series, movies, and the Disney+ Originals category, which will host movies like Disney’s exclusively streaming live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp, or series like Marvel’s upcoming spinoff series Loki.
The name has already led to some confusion online, though. Take Lady and the Tramp, which Disney refers to as an “Original Film” on its official poster. People on Twitter wondered whether that designation meant the original animated movie, or the new live-action adaptation. The terminology question has come up with the Disney+ team, too, Paull says, but he couldn't comment on it further.
Fortunately, that’s the only openly confusing part of Disney+. Scrolling through separate compartments by collection might seem tedious, but it isn’t. Having different sections means it’s easier to browse without finding the content as overwhelming as the collections on Netflix and Hulu — though again, that’s partly because there’s less of it.
Disney is also investing in personalized recommendations, which get their own row on the homepage. Recommendations are necessary for streaming platforms, especially as they continue to grow. Netflix runs approximately 400 A/B tests on its service every year just dedicated to its recommendation algorithm. It’s also led to frustration among subscribers and creators alike, who have accused Netflix’s recommendation algorithm of not surfacing specific shows or movies. That’s not an issue for Paull and his team right now, but it’s something they’re thinking about.
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“We actually have been fortunate in that we have a pretty strong team focused on personalization and recommendations,” he said. “Our job is hard, but it’s not as hard, because our content strategy is about quality, not quantity. Our content’s about curation.”
The focus on curation is a big reason why the company decided to launch a separate kids’ app section inside its platform. Deciding to build a kids’ section on an app where nothing will be rated higher than PG-13 might seem unnecessary, but Paull said there are a couple of reasons the team thought it was important. Unlike Disney+’s main homepage, which is largely driven by text on top of images, the kids’ version is driven primarily by photos of characters from movies and TV shows. This is because kids, especially those under age seven, don’t really read. They associate with characters, Paull said. So the design is extremely different: the section is brighter and bubblier than the homepage, and it’s full of Disney characters.
The other reason is something people might not think about when it comes to Disney content: even within the PG-13 rating, Disney has some violent films that kids might not be ready for. Avengers: Endgame, for example, has a scene where Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) uses a katana to slice a man’s throat before killing him.
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That’s where individual profiles come in. Disney+ has a profile-creation process where users navigate a selection of avatars from its movies and TV shows: heroes from Marvel movies, Star Wars characters, and Pixar favorites. Accounts can have up to seven profiles, either designated for kids or as standard accounts.
The biggest takeaway from going hands-on with Disney+ is that it feels familiar. Between Netflix and Hulu (not to mention the myriad niche services), streaming users have grown accustomed to a fairly standardized interface and set of features on streaming platforms. As the streaming wars heat up — as WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, NBCUniversal, and even Apple prepare to launch their own streaming services — it feels like apart from price and content, the user experience will be one of the biggest factors in determining who comes out on top. Paull doesn’t disagree — entirely. The “user interface is very important,” according to Paull, who says “being able to create a design that fits the brand, and that allows people to find the programming they want that doesn’t get in the way is incredibly important.” The only thing he disagrees on? The “streaming wars” label for the coming conflict between online content services.
“I don’t see this as a war,” Paull said, laughing. “I see this as nothing but a big win for the consumer.”
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/26/20830219/disney-plus-hands-on-first-look-demo-design-d23-wars-pixar-marvel
2019-08-26 16:37:12Z
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Kim Kardashian Admits Khloe Is Her Favorite Sister In Candid ‘Vogue’ Interview With Kanye West - Hollywood Life
Kim Kardashian admitted that she has a favorite sister, and it’s Khloe Kardashian! She explained why she’s crazy for Koko in a candid ‘Vogue Arabia’ interview.
Leave it to Kanye West to get Kim Kardashian to open up in one of her most candid interviews ever. Kanye interviewed his wife in a unique, honest interview for Vogue Arabia’s September issue, asking her about everything under the sun, including her Paris robbery, studying law, and the lessons she’s learned from being famous. But maybe the juiciest tidbit? She revealed who her favorite sister is! She admitted that it was an impossible decision, but she named the lucky lady anyway: her younger sister, Khloe Kardashian!
“It changes, just like friends or relationships go in and out. I think this year has been a really strong Kim and Khloe year,” she revealed to Kanye. “I’m obviously so close with Kendall and Kylie too but I’ve spent so much more time on this earth with Kourtney and Khloe – 16 and 17 years longer with them. We have more history, have been through so much together, and we have more friends in common. Kourtney and I will always be really close, but this year, Khloe and I really bonded.”
No siblings are closer than the Kardashian Jenner clan. And Kim makes it clear that she’s not trying to exclude her sisters, or her brother, Rob Kardashian. It’s just that this year, she and Khloe have clicked more than ever! After all, they had their babies,True Thompson and Chicago West, mere weeks apart in early 2018. With one year old babies on their hands, of course they’re together constantly during playtime!
The whole Kardashian-Jenner family has rallied around Khloe, actually. With the news that her ex, Lamar Odom, would be competing on Dancing With The Stars, her family is worried that he’ll start talking openly about them again. “Everyone wishes Lamar well,” a source revealed to HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “The show tends to dive deep into personal lives… it’s safe to say they won’t be tuning in.”
https://hollywoodlife.com/2019/08/26/kim-kardashian-favorite-sister-khloe-vogue-arabia-kanye-west-interview/
2019-08-26 15:44:00Z
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How MTV sucked the life out of the VMAs - The A.V. Club
If you were ever a teenager in America, there’s a good chance that, at some point in your youth, you spent at least one night of your life watching in rapt attention as MTV’s Video Music Awards unspooled in front of you, from the first moment of backstage hype to the desultory closing minutes, an ending usually defined by a musical act fighting valiantly against the collective knowledge that this fucking thing is over already. You probably didn’t care who won—unless you made a few phone calls and/or texts to vote for a particular artist—so much as you were there for the spectacle. Which makes sense; that’s always been the point of the VMAs. They’re designed purely in hopes of generating water-cooler conversation moments.
Which is precisely why there are fewer and fewer such instances actually birthed each year. As any person (or corporation, just as often) that’s tried to artificially bump something to the front page of Reddit has discovered, you can’t plan in advance what people will care about. You can’t make something “go viral.” And you sure as shit can’t engineer stunts guaranteed to get people talking. All of which is bad news for MTV, which has done everything in its power over the past 35 years to breed out any potential for spontaneity or unexpected surprises during its broadcast. MTV wants stage-managed chaos, rigorously rehearsed moments of faux controversy, and spectacle-filled wackiness meticulously planned within an inch of its life. It wants the credibility and cache of free-wheeling celebrity antics without the actual presence of such behavior. And what it definitely doesn’t want is surprises. MTV hates surprises.
This isn’t a shock, obviously, any more than it would be a shock to learn that publicly traded companies only donate to nonprofits in hopes of generating publicity and consumer goodwill. MTV is a business, and like any business, it wants to be in control of as much of its practices as possible. True, its earliest employees may have received memos instructing them to stop using their key cards to cut their cocaine, as it was interfering with the electronic security system, but the ’80s were a long time ago, and even then, the channel’s corporate heads were all about management and brand control. Like a lot of businesses, MTV would rather run smoothly than be a bit more successful, because people in boardrooms don’t like to worry about their jobs. (They prefer to leave that to the rest of us.) Launched in 1981 because American Express bought Warner Cable as a way to sell more credit cards via TV, by 1985—one year after the first VMA ceremony aired—MTV had gone public as a stand-alone entity, and its business practices soon looked a lot less like the raucous clash of money-meets-art that had so long defined the music industry, and more like standard operating procedure for any Fortune 500 company.
While much of this transformation played out behind the scenes at the company (some of it detailed in the book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story Of The Music Video Revolution), you can see a longer, more drawn-out version of the channel’s increasing commodification and corporatization play out on screen by watching the VMAs over the years, from its rough and ramshackle first iteration to its hollowed-out, gimcrack recent years. It’s important to note this isn’t about the transformation of popular music from largely white-guy-dominated rock to the hip-hop- and R&B-derived pop that now drives the mainstream music industry—MTV’s institutional racism and prejudice against black artists in the ’80s was certainly an issue, but glossy pop artists were just as often the leading insurrectionaries back in the day, and image-conscious rock bands were conversely extremely willing to take orders about their look, behavior, and even musical endeavors.
No, what it’s about is the difference between surprise and stunt, between disruption and deliverables, between the playful spirit of combative performers and the stringent guidelines of producers intent on smoothing out any televised hiccups. It’s about the efforts of MTV to run a tight, well-orchestrated ship of performances against the efforts of the people who actually make the music people tune in to see pushing back against such straitjacketing. This is perhaps best symbolized by the moment in 1992 when Nirvana, angry that MTV had threatened retaliation if the band refused to play one of its hits instead of a new song (the channel suggested it would fire band friend and MTV employee Amy Finnerty were they not to fall in line), began a performance of “Lithium” with Cobain strumming a few bars of “Rape Me” instead. Then-MTV President Judy McGrath reportedly let out a shriek and ran into the production booth, ready to cut to commercial. Yes, MTV would rather torpedo arguably the biggest act of the night and generate a ton of bad press for itself than allow a song that wasn’t pre-approved from going out over the airwaves. Control over all else.
But the channel has never seemed to understand that letting the seams show was one of the most endearing (maybe the only endearing) things about MTV, generating a sense of relatability that was more valuable with a deeply profitable youth demographic than all the polished “Check it out, young people!” ads they could produce. And the very first Video Music Awards, hosted by Bette Midler and Dan Ackroyd (which was as weird as it sounds), saw the final presentation of the night hijacked by Eddie Murphy, who impulsively decided to bring out the guy responsible for blowing “festive” amounts of confetti into the crowd and promising him an ass-whooping. It was a glimpse behind the scenes, and a moment that showed an awards show that could deviate from the playbook in honest and hilarious ways.
Cut to one year later, with Murphy even more famous than he already was, and MTV asked him to host the entire endeavor. The comedian said yes, and brought his freewheeling, improvisational attitude with him. This is maybe best demonstrated in a lengthy and random bit where Murphy decides to nab presenter Morris Day and Best Concept Video award winner Glenn Frey—both of whom were obviously unprepared for Murphy’s impetuous grab—and ropes them into an impromptu live trip downstairs to the press lounge. What follows is extended periods of silence and/or just-out-of-mic-range comments from the two guests, as they wend their way through the audience, downstairs, and eventually reaching their destination, before Murphy detours into the women’s lounge area outside the bathroom, surprising at least a couple women heading back upstairs. Watching the cameras scramble to keep up with the host as he follows his muse is almost as good as the strange slice-of-celebrity-life study contained in the unrehearsed segment.
These scenes of unexpected and awkward moments are what gave the awards show its reputation as the anything-goes hot ticket of live televised ceremonies, a cutting edge element of unpredictability hotwired into one of the most bland and stolid of TV traditions. Naturally, the channel took the exact wrong lesson from this: MTV started thinking that over-the-top was what got people talking, as opposed to the unexpected. One is obviously preplanned and can be seen coming a mile away, and the other is that dangerous sense of frisson generated by seeing something you know hasn’t been set up ahead of time, a feeling of danger that stems from the possibility for anything to happen.
This is likely one of the main reasons you don’t see stand-up sets like the one Sam Kinison performed in 1988 any more. MTV begrudgingly allowed the controversial comedian to take the stage after Guns N’ Roses insisted on having Kinison introduce them if they were to perform, and unexpectedly—or rather, wholly to be expected, if you knew anything about Kinison—the comic seized control of the show and preceded to perform nearly five minutes of stand-up, including lambasting the G-rated nature of the live TV event, scorning the restrictions MTV tried to impose upon him, and (best of all) mocking some of the evening’s biggest names, including MTV faves Huey Lewis And The News. (It also allowed Kinison to very publicly deliver the best Lewis burn ever conceived: “‘It’s Hip To Be Square’? Must be the same town where it’s hip to be called ‘Huey.’”)
From then on, MTV started progressively exercising more and more control over every facet of the awards show. It still wanted to be the topic of conversation the next day, of course, but was operating under the mistaken impression it could generate such moments from a team of producers and an office whiteboard. That’s not to suggest that stunts can’t be attention-getting hits—far from it, in fact. Elements of cultural zeitgeist were certainly captured by Madonna’s tongue-kissing Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears back to back in 2003, or Lady Gaga wearing a dress made of meat in 2010, or (shudder) Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley staging a painfully clumsy kiss to try and prove their love to the world. MTV would love nothing more than for its own pre-approved stunts to be the water-cooler discussion throughout America—and it gets really pissed off when, as I recall from 1994, the Beastie Boys use their pre-show interview time to reveal that MTV stuck them in a “punk rock ghetto” with Green Day backstage to lower the odds of any mischief-making from either band. (I have searched the internet for this clip to no avail, so here’s Green Day’s performance of “Armatage Shanks” from that year.)
But there’s a reason such stage-managed moments are rare when it comes to memorable VMA situations. Instead, scroll through any collection of wild VMA moments, and it’s inevitably largely made up of unscripted, unplanned scenes of spontaneity that MTV could never, and will never, control. All the effort the network put into arranging for Katy Perry to sing “Roar” from a boxing ring under the Brooklyn Bridge, and it can’t generate one-tenth the attention garnered by Courtney Love stumbling her way into an interview with Madonna. The amount of planning and money it must have taken to coordinate a single extended tracking shot of Nick Jonas wending his way through multiple choreographed sets en route to the VMAs stage in 2016, and it couldn’t muster an iota of the interest created in 2002 simply by having Triumph The Insult Comic Dog unintentionally give Eminem the opportunity to be an asshole.
Hell, even back in ’92 when MTV was still getting a handle on how to efficiently minimize the potential for unapproved interruptions, more people were talking about Krist Novoselic accidentally smacking himself in the face with his bass than nearly any other live performance from that decade’s worth of VMAs. (Hell, more people probably talked about the Red Hot Chili Peppers miming fellatio during their Breakthrough Video acceptance speech that same year than any performance.) Honestly, watch Beastie Boy Adam Yauch bum-rush the stage after R.E.M.’s video win in ’94 and declaim the proceedings while in character as “Nathaniel Hornblower,” and just try to imagine anyone at MTV actually managing to come up with something more worth talking about than that. It’s nigh-impossible:
These moments become fewer and further apart as the years go by. But the ne plus ultra of VMA moments not only demonstrates the undeniable value of the very thing MTV wants to quash, but that doing its best to limit such moments means there’s been almost nothing worth discussing from the ceremony in the decade since. The 2009 Video Music Awards featured Taylor Swift performing in the New York City subway system—but you almost certainly don’t remember that, or any of MTV’s other exhaustively plotted sequences, because that was the year Kanye West decided to interrupt Swift’s acceptance speech with an impromptu testament to Beyoncé. Nothing as noteworthy has happened in the ensuing 10 years. A more interesting channel might take note of that fact.
It’s bizarre that the difference between stunt and subversion never seems to be acknowledged. There’s a plethora of “Greatest VMA moments” lists on the internet, and not one distinguishes between the two. “32 Most Outrageous MTV VMAs Moments of All Time” thus lists Miley Cyrus twerking alongside Rage Against The Machine bassist Tim Commerford climbing a pylon in disgust at the predetermined, manufactured nature of the “awards,” as though the two were one and the same. (And as though MTV didn’t do everything in its power during the actual broadcast to pretend the disruption wasn’t happening: Even in the channel’s subsequent news recaps of the event, it tellingly omits the impetus for Commerford’s actions—namely, that he saw winners Limp Bizkit approaching the stage, cameras in tow, before the band’s name had even been announced, triggering his anger at the complete farce viewers are led to believe is genuinely uncertain beforehand.) By sacrificing the latter on the alter on the former, MTV has unsurprisingly chosen obsolescence over opportunity, and stamped out the very fires that once drew curious viewers to its spectacle.
People used to know the tightly harnessed reins of live TV production might be upended by the Video Music Awards, and they would get a glimpse of the absurdity behind the splash. It wasn’t just part of the appeal; it was most of the draw. The smartest thing MTV could do would be to recapture a bit of that old freestyling Eddie Murphy spirit by opening up the possibility for disruption. The old ad slogan “I want my MTV” always meant something a little more than the channel realized: What people were really saying was, I want my MTV, despite the channel’s best efforts to keep it from them.
https://music.avclub.com/how-mtv-sucked-the-life-out-of-the-vmas-1837379778
2019-08-26 11:00:00Z
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Minggu, 25 Agustus 2019
You Can Still Watch New Marvel Spidey Adventures - On Disney Junior - Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Feeling bummed about the whole Sony/Marvel Spider-Man rift? The tug of war over the beloved character has led to statements from Sony and Marvel president Kevin Feige, as well as reassuring comments from Tom Holland. It might not be enough to assuage fan concerns about the future of Peter Parker on the big or small screen, but there are other avenues to see him.
One of them is through the new Marvel animated Spidey show on Disney. An announcement was made at this year’s D23 Expo during the Marvel Animation & Family Entertainment panel on Friday.
The show isn’t about Spider-Man as you know him
Set to air on Disney Junior, the series is titled Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends and is geared toward preschool audiences. It won’t hit Disney Junior until 2021, but it’s at least one new Spider-Man project on the docket after the Sony disagreement. According to Marvel, here’s what the new series will be about:
“Our favorite neighborhood web-slinger is used to working solo, but now Peter Parker must discover what it takes to become a truly amazing super hero: being a spider friend who works well with others. Together with his friends Miles Morales and Gwen AKA Ghost-Spider, they will team up with heroes such as Hulk, Black Panther and Ms. Marvel, to defeat evil foes and learn that teamwork is the best way to save the day.”
It will be first full-length Disney Junior series ever for Marvel
The team behind the program is excited about its creation and launch, with Marvel Animation’s SVP Cort Lane stating,
“Everyone at Marvel is thrilled to launch our first preschool series on Disney Junior, the gold standard platform for the audience. We believe parents and kids will be excited about these stories filled with themes of friendship, cooperation, solving problems and using your abilities to help others.”
Since you’re really never too old for cartoons, there’s no reason for Spidey fans to skip checking out the show, whether preschoolers are around to watch it with or not. The family-friendly series could be the perfect introduction for Marvel fans-to-be.
Behind the Spider-Man split with Sony and Marvel
If you’re wondering how this new series is possible based on the “divorce” and custody rights over Spider-Man, it’s because Sony has ownership over the character’s film rights. In the past, Sony worked out arrangements so that the hero could appear in the Avengers films and the MCU Spider-Man movies led by Tom Holland.
Now, negotiations are said to be stalled but ongoing over which company—Disney or Sony—will get to make more Spidey films moving forward. Fans and critics of the split believe it all boils down to money, but it remains to be seen if Disney (Marvel’s owner) will budge.
The timing of the announcement for Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends seemed a little awkward to some, but as ScreenRant notes, it can give fans something to look forward to while the other Spider-Man disconnect is being ironed out. And with that, Tom Holland wants fans to know that “he loves you 3000!” Don’t give up hope just yet.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/you-can-still-watch-new-marvel-spidey-adventures-on-disney-junior.html/
2019-08-26 00:07:45Z
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Taylor Swift has security cameras pointed at her backside following sexual assault - Fox News
Taylor Swift now has security cameras aimed at her butt at meet-and-greets after being sexually assaulted.
The superstar singer, 29, successfully sued a DJ who groped her “bare a— cheek” under her skirt in 2013.
TAYLOR SWIFT SAYS SHE WAS 'ANGRY,' 'TIRED' IN GROPING TRIAL
And she has upped her security so that “if something happens again, we can prove it with video footage from every angle.”
Swift said she never wanted the “traumatizing” assault made public.
DJ DAVID MUELLER 'NOT PLEASED' WITH TAYLOR SWIFT SEXUAL ASSAULT VERDICT
But DJ David Mueller, 59 — fired after she reported him for groping her — sued for defamation, so she countersued for sexual assault.
Swift, in an interview with The Guardian, said: “You’re supposed to behave yourself in court and say ‘rear end.' The other lawyer was saying, ‘When did he touch your backside?’ And I was like, ‘A—! Call it what it is!’”
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Swift, who released new album Lover on Friday, won the 2017 case two months before the #MeToo campaign took off.
This article originally appeared in The Sun.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-sexual-assault-security-cameras
2019-08-25 18:44:24Z
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Why Tom Holland's Spider-Man Might Not Be Dead in the MCU After All - Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Fans felt a great disturbance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe this week when media outlets reported that Sony and Disney had reached an impasse on their arrangement with Spider-Man, and going forward, Spider-Man would no longer be a part of the MCU.
Fans cried out in terror, bitterly complaining that only Disney has done right by Spider-Man, with the hashtag #boycottSony going around on social media. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story. This may not be a done deal yet.
How did Sony and Disney get together?
Disney owns Marvel Studios, and some people think that means Disney owns all the characters, but this isn’t the case.
Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man and his associated characters such as Venom and the Green Goblin. Sony made the mostly well-regarded Spider-Man movies of the 2000s directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire.
After that, Sony started to struggle with the Spider-Man movies, with Spider-Man 3 being a financial success but widely regarded as an artistic disappointment. Then came the reboot movies with Andrew Garfield directed by Marc Webb, and those suffered more or less the same fate.
By this time, the MCU had hit the ground running, so to bolster their most valuable property, Sony would let Disney put Spider-Man in their Avengers-related movies, starting with Captain America: Civil War.
Sony in turn, would still have control over the live action Spider-Man movies, although Marvel President Kevin Feige would be the guiding hand on Homecoming and Far From Home, both of which were huge hits and were well-liked.
Why did the deal fall apart?
According to Variety and other Hollywood trade papers, the Sony/Disney deal would expire after Far From Home, and it was time to renegotiate. With Homecoming and Far From Home, Disney got 5 percent of the box office gross, plus the merchandising revenue, and Sony got the rest.
Disney wanted to up their stake to 50 percent, which would effectively give control to them. Sony said no way. Cue the uproar.
Generally speaking, fans said, “Ack! Only Disney and Kevin Feige are capable of making successful Spider-Man movies! They need to be involved or the character is ruined again!”
That doesn’t take into account Sony made Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse without any input from Disney. Both of those were hits, with Spider-Verse winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
Sony isn’t about to give all that up. Kevin Feige or no Kevin Feige, no reasonable studio would want to give up so much control of their most valuable property.
There’s still hope for Spidey in the MCU
As Forbes points out, the story isn’t necessarily over, writing that Sony and Disney “know that public opinion matters too. Neither studio wants to be known as the ones who ruined Spidey after fans finally got the in-universe version they’ve wanted for decades.”
This impasse could well be a negotiating tactic to get Disney to come back to the table with a more acceptable offer for Sony.
A Tumblr user named Waluigi notes, “Also, they’re probably still negotiating, so Sony might end up taking a deal, especially since idiots everywhere are berating (Sony) for not letting Disney be greedy (which is what Disney wants).”
If worse comes to worse and the partnership does end here, it’s not the end of the world. Disney has more than proven it can make good movies without Spider-Man, and Sony seems to be on its own good track with Venom and Spider-Verse.
That said, Forbes notes, “Both sides are better together. Spider-Man is an integral part of Marvel’s story universe and brand identity. He can survive as a standalone property given the right creative team, but his five-film run in the MCU showed that he also benefits from – and complements – a bigger pantheon.”
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-tom-hollands-spider-man-might-not-be-dead-in-the-mcu-after-all.html/
2019-08-25 08:54:30Z
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