Charles Bramesco
Bear Witness to ‘Trumped,’ Jimmy Kimmel’s Very Trumpy ‘Producers’ Parody
Last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live pulled back the curtain on a five-minute rework of Mel Brook’s Broadway tour-de-farce The Producers called Trumped: the Musical.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Acceptance Speech Was the Most-Tweeted Oscar Moment Ever
Each year’s ceremony usually yields a handful of viral moments, little unexpected happenings that catch the public’s interest and make their way around social media platforms. Last year, the surprise selfie taken by host Ellen Degeneres quickly set Twitter ablaze, racking up millions of retweets and favorites in a matter of minutes.
This year’s ceremony re-set that bar, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s long-awaited Best Actor win now the most-tweeted Oscar moment of all time.
USC Study Exposes Hollywood as Overwhelmingly White, Sky Blue, Grass Green
If you’ll believe it, and all it takes is a quick jaunt into the comments section on any major entertainment-news web site (except this one, whose commenters are perfect and good-looking) to make you believe it, there are some folks out there who remain unconvinced that there’s a problem of homogeneity in Hollywood. These folks stuck to their convictions, unswayed by this year’s all-white slate of Oscar nominees that the American film industry has been giving actors of color the short shrift. But even if we concede that there were no performances from black actors deserving of a nomination this year, which is false and not true, what of the fact that a minuscule percentage of annual studio releases feature black performers in headlining roles? Black-fronted films aren’t moneymakers, and a movie studio is a business above all things, comes the factually inaccurate and vaguely racist reply. (See: The Force Awakens.)
Two Original Song Performances Cut From Oscars Broadcast
In a Variety exclusive late on Friday, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences announced that they had dumped two of the five scheduled performances of the Best Original Song nominees from this Sunday’s upcoming telecast. Ordinarily, the news that the notoriously lengthy Oscar ceremony would be shortened in any way at all would be cause for celebration, but the particulars of this decision should give readers pause. It’s true that the song performances can be the most time-consuming parts of the show, and though they’re definitely the least necessary, it’s some real bull-tonky that the show would appear only to cut the performances without adequate star-power behind them.
‘Police Academy’ and ‘Punky Brewster’ Actor George Gaynes Dies at 98
Surrounded by family at his daughter’s home in North Bend, Washington, Gaynes died on Monday. He was 98 years old.
‘Star Wars: Episode 8’ Unveils New Cast Members, Teaser, Oh God, It’s Happening
Good morning, happy Monday. Have you settled in at work, shaken the snow off your boots, maybe had a cup of coffee? Good, now hold onto your goddamn hat, because Star Wars is happening again.
Watch Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders Play a Rabbi in a 1999 Indie Comedy
In the 1999 indie comedy My X Girlfriend’s Wedding Reception, Senator Sanders made a cameo appearance as Rabbi Manny Shevitz (which, for all you readers who pronounce the “ch” in Chanukkah, is a wickedly clever pun on the traditional kosher wine of Manischewitz).
Pro-Wrestling Documentary ‘Nine Legends’ Is Magic, For the Children
Just because professional wrestling is staged, that doesn't make it any less real. This is the paradoxical koan at the heart of Nine Legends, an officially WWE-sanctioned documentary chronicling the life and times of the sport’s greatest icons...
‘Mission: Impossible’ Breakout Star Rebecca Ferguson to Lead Sci-Fi Film ‘Life’
The root cause behind the relative longevity of the Mission: Impossible franchise is how each installment adds new delights to the familiar formula. Ethan Hunt and the IMF do pretty much the same thing in each of the five films in the series — recon, planning, Tom Cruise runs somewhere, sex scene, Tom Cruise drives a car off a cliff, Tom Cruise runs somewhere else except now he’s shirtless, you ge
The New ‘Angry Birds’ Trailer Is Urine-Drinking Fun For the Whole Family
Even as video games go, the mobile app Angry Birds is pretty conceptually thin. There are birds. They are angry, ostensibly because green pigs have constructed elaborate castles all over their bird-world, and nobody likes developers. The birds live only to slingshot themselves at high speeds into said castles, destroying them and hopefully eliminating all pigs in the process...
Washington Woman Accidentally Shot During ‘13 Hours’ Showing
The gallant paramilitary contractors of Michael Bay’s Benghazi film 13 Hours risked life and limb to defend our American way of life — our freedom to speak our minds, to worship as our souls move us, and most importantly, to carry fully loaded firearms into public spaces. And so it is with a dark, tragic irony that we relay the news that a Washington state woman sustained a gunshot wound during a screening of 13 Hours last night.
Charlotte Rampling Claims Oscar Diversity Controversy is ‘Racist to Whites’
British actress Charlotte Rampling was one of the lower-profile performers to secure a nomination at this year’s Academy Awards, impressing voters with her devastating and controlled performance in Andrew Haigh’s relationship drama 45 Years. Ms. Rampling is currently sixty-nine years old, which is to say she was born in 1946 and came of age during the ’50s and ’60s — a different time, to be sure. Like many individuals at a relatively older age, she reflects the social norms of her era, many of which society has since advanced past. Older folks sometimes express opinions that younger generations find objectionable, and while such comments ought not to be excused outright, they also must be considered within the cultural context from they originated.