• /FilmRise of Skywalker will debut on Disney+ on Star Wars Day, May 4th • The Verge Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) to create a female-centric Star Wars series for Disney+. There's certainly lots of room for creators there since the Star Was universe has been so largely bereft of women. • Collider boils the entire James Bond franchise down to 7 movies Hmmm.
Laura Benanti's generosity, a Love Victor clip, SNL goodies, and online film festivals after the jump...
Time for our silly aspirational Instagram fantasy game. Would you rather...
• prepare a turkey with Diane Kruger? • snuggle with Gus Kenworthy and Matt Wilkas in the morning? • live the high life with Constance Wu & Awkwafina? • reflect in the dressing room with Laura Benanti? • reminisce about Goodfellas with Debi Mazar? • bet on a football game with Sam Trammell? • visit Stonehenge with Susan Sarandon? • relaxing with Kate Bosworth? • fly first class with Jeff Goldblum? • eat leftovers with Buffy?
For today's link roundup ONLY articles that made me smile over these past few holiday-smeared days even if a few of them have that melancholy undertow.
Jezebel Rooney Mara refuses Taylor Swift's pleas to hang out Decider Joe Reid's top 16 of everything 2016 Idolator Deee-Lite's classic "World Clique" LP getting a deluxe reissue. I really cannot express how much I love that record
Adequate Man things that got stuck in people's orifices this year, via emergency room databases. LOL New York Times fascinating article about Judy Garland and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from Meet Me In St Louis which is incidentally one of my favorite movies of all time. Like ALL time. The Establishment "General Leia Organa is the Hero We Need Right Now" Playbill Adorable. Gifted Broadway darling Laura Benanti will be doing a cabaret show with her mother Linda "The Story Goes On" this summer. Want tickets. Now! Interview talks to Lucas Jade Zumann about his 20th Century Women breakthrough and auditions as a teenage actor. Ah the endearing often beautiful precociousness of goodhearted showbiz kids. Consider...
It's not that I don't plan on pursuing acting forever, it's just that my ultimate goal is to be a meditation guide and spiritual healer, along with studying plant medicine and stuff like that. I want to be able to do that without profit. I want to be able to provide medicine for people without them having to pay for it, since I think that's something that reduces the value of the medicine. I think that having an acting career and a different source of income would allow me to help people without having to charge them.
Variety Emmys are revoking Peter MacNicol's "Guest Actor" nomination for Veep since he appeared in 50% of the episodes (it's supposed to be under 50% a rule we support after years of abuse by studios and actors) but who gets his spot? Stay tuned. Pajiba reacts with glorious schadenfreude to the news that Divergent is being demoted to TV for its final film What Mama Said the best review of The Legend of Tarzan out there THR the resurgence of Dungeons & Dragons in showbiz as geek culture reigns
Interview revives an old cover story from 1991 on Kathy Bates Decider Who is the worst character on Gilmore Girls? No Film School on AMC's giant purchase of Odeon (they're going to be way too powerful for one company in terms of how you see movies) -- and China's growing rapidly growing theatrical business. Towleroad IFC picks up James Franco's latest gay endeavor, King Cobra, the true story of a murder in the gay porn industry Pajiba Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson have split up after 10 years. Sad face. So Pajiba looks back on their coupledom. The Film Stage chooses the 50 best sci-fi films this century thus far. 50 is a lot for 16 years. The top ten feels substantial but I can't forgive them for having The Lobster so low it's practically sitting alongside those terrible Matrix sequels and Ex-Machina and Mad Max Fury Road not in the top ten feels... well, these lists are made to get people riled up (and clicking) so I'll stop there. The Guardian interviews the undervalued Rebecca Hall
Today's Watch If you haven't yet seen this bit from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, you must. Longtime readers will know that TFE worships Broadway musical star Laura Benanti. Her voice is spectacular but her comic skills are just as strong. Here she is doing Melania Trump just one day after people noticed their resemblance. [Hat tip: Vulture]
And James Corden gets both FLOTUS and Missy Elliott in the car (Holla!) for some Carpool Karaoke and talk about "Let Girls Learn". Joyful. Inspiring. Just what we need right now.
Overheard whilst exiting Broadway's She Loves Me this weekend:
[surprised] That was just like 'You've Got Mail'!
Bingo, tourist ladies, bingo. She Loves Me, the 1963 musical, currently in the middle of its second Broadway revival, is adapted from the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László. It's inspired so many riffs so often you'd think it was a Shakespeare comedy. The play has already resulted in three well-known movies in the form of the touching Jimmy Stewart clasic (The Shop Around the Corner, 1940), an undervalued Judy Garland romance (In the Good Old Summertime, 1949), and the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks rom-com You've Got Mail (1998). The shop changes as does the mode by which the anonymous lovers correspond without realizing they know and hate each other in real life. Expect an internet catfishing riff on the story in 3...2...1... Anyway, in 1963 the play was adapted into She Loves Me for the musical stage...
Monday, April 27, 2020 at 6:00PM 
