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| | ?The Gilded Age' Season 3 is here & people should disregard the bad reviews | | Added 5 hours ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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The Gilded Age Season 3 premiered last Sunday and I could not be any happier. Everyone loves this dumb, low-stakes show because it?s perfect. It?s full of scandals like ?what do servants do when they?re given contradictory orders? and ?what kind of soup should be served at lunch? and ?is that well-connected society woman going to murder her husband because he wants a divorce?? It?s like Downton Abbey, only American and someone weirder and crazier. Anyway, I wanted to discuss this bad review of The Gilded Age in the New Yorker, specifically this part:
But the creator of ?The Gilded Age,? Julian Fellowes?whose earlier period drama, ?Downton Abbey,? drew criticisms as a rose-colored apologia for the British aristocracy?is single-minded in his focus on the loveliness of the veneer. It?s hard to think of another series currently on the air as lavish, or as vacuous. A businessman?s quip that banks are like women?they ?panic at the unimportant and ignore the essentials??is supposed to scan as boorish but inadvertently summarizes many of the show?s story lines. Plenty of series have managed to make frivolity feel meaningful, or at least fun. But so little actually happens, episode by episode, that ?The Gilded Age? scarcely qualifies as a soap opera: by the time the Russell and Van Rhijn butlers begin passive-aggressively debating the placement of salad forks and coffee spoons, it?s clear we?re meant to feast on scraps.
Part of the problem is that there have been no real stakes to the proceedings. Other series about the ultra-wealthy, such as ?Succession? and ?The White Lotus,? illustrate how money cannot protect against emotional (or even physical) harm; if anything, the characters? riches make them more vulnerable to it. ?The Gilded Age? takes place during a time of extreme flux, and the variability of its characters? fates is meant to be central to its premise.
[From The New Yorker]
This reminds me of something Emma Thompson said about Jane Austen?s books (and I?m paraphrasing) but it was basically like: people don?t take these stories seriously because they?re about women in drawing rooms and not men on a battlefield, but lives are being changed just as drastically in those drawing rooms. Just because The Gilded Age is a soap opera set in the 1880s doesn?t mean that it doesn?t have some substance and something to say. Season 3 is already getting into some good territory a fictionalized take on Consuelo Vanderbilt, how divorces were conducted in this time period, the education of women, and the early days of the Prohibition and suffrage movements. And TGA tackles those subjects in a funny, light and enjoyable way!
Julian Fellowes also said that he had no idea if TGA will get a fourth or fifth season. I heard that HBO CEO Casey Bloys basically decided to give the show a third season as fan-service to the gay community, so I hope everyone is LOUD about the third season, because I want this to keep going!
Photos courtesy of The Gilded Age?s IG.
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| | Jessica Biel on if 'The Better Sister' will get a second season: how would that work' | | Added 5 hours ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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Last May, Jessica Biel made headlines when she suddenly cut her hair into a ?f-ck ass bob.? A lot of people assumed that it was a ?divorce bob? and started a countdown to a separation announcement. That separation announcement never happened, and people forgot all about the bob. Turns out the real reason for the drastic new hairdo was for her role as Chloe in Amazon Prime?s The Better Sister. (TBS is what Jessica was filming in both NYC and the Hamptons when Justin Timberlake?s world tour was ruined last July.)
All episodes of TBS dropped at the end of May. Jessica did a lengthy interview with Deadline recently where she talked about the series. Here are some highlights:
She relates to Chloe?s struggle to maintain the perfect public persona: That?s definitely one of the parallels that she and I share. I do know what that?s like. And there is a separation on some level of who you are at work and who you are at home, at least in my business. But I think that?s true for many businesses. I do relate to that side of her job and her life, and she has a lot more hard, extreme secrets that she?s keeping. But it doesn?t matter, I still understand that presenting in a certain way. But I also feel like everybody understands that now, with our social media lives and what we want to curate to show the world. We all do that on some level.
On using Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and Anna Wintour as inspirations: I started thinking about just those legacy New York families and those women who are effortless in that world, in those power media spaces, or fashion. Even somebody who is just born and bred in that world and knows how to carry themselves and is super smart, goes to the right school, has the great interesting job, has amazing, interesting academic friends and artist friends. In her mind that is who she needs to be. And somebody like Anna Wintour would be that person who is just New York royalty and the Kennedys are New York royalty, but they don?t have to try. That?s just who they are. They?re part of those families. They?re part of the fabric of that place. She is not part of that, so it?s a lot of effort. Those women do it effortlessly and she has learned over the years how to do it pretty seamlessly, but you scratch under the surface just a little bit. And that Ohio ? nothing against Ohio ? but that particular family in that particular Midwestern kind of feel, it?s right there under the surface that she?s just trying to push it away.
On if she will direct: I?ve thought about it. Directing an episode or a couple episodes in a show that we?re producing that I really understand would be a really good, more safe learning environment. But I also really want to make sure that I?m not just hiring myself instead of hiring the right person for the job. It has to be the right thing. I really have to understand how to do it properly. I really want to make sure that I feel confident, so maybe. I think when my kids are a little bit older, it?s something that maybe I can engage with a little bit more. I feel like I?m just in that hot spot of time where I?m already gone from my family quite a lot and my little one?s still really young and I know parents are gone all the time, and female directors are leaving their families all the time. And I think it?s amazing. And I hope that continues to happen, and I hope we have more female directors that feel confident to do that. I just haven?t found the right thing. It hasn?t been the right moment. I haven?t had enough confidence in myself, I think, to say, ?I really understand. I?d do this better than anybody else.? You know?
Is a second season in the cards? Well, I would say that I loved the experience. I loved working with our entire cast and [showrunners] Olivia [Milch] and Regina [Corrado], they were amazing. They just made such a beautifully safe and warm set, as I know we?ve talked about before. But for me, it?s always like, ?OK, where?s the level of believability? Where do we begin again? Do we have enough to say??So, I would put a producer hat on at this point and go, ?OK, so what are the options here? How are we going to be believable? Of course, we love seeing these women together. Of course, it?s so fun. How does it work? And is it enough to be as good or better than the first season?? So, I would ask those technical questions, but it was a dream job.
[From Deadline]
I watched The Better Sister in two sittings this past weekend, and really enjoyed it. There were a few resolutions that felt forced (Nan?s and Bill?s), but it was a really fun ride. It?s murder mystery meets courtroom drama meets soap opera, and it?s the perfect summer binge-watch. The acting was also great. Jessica, Elizabeth Banks, and Lorraine Toussaint turned in particularly powerful performances. I can definitely see the Carolyn Bissette-Kennedy and Anna Wintour influence in how she portrays Chloe. What she says about directing is also interesting. It sounds like she?s basically saying, ?Nope, I?m good!? without entirely closing that door.
I haven?t read the book The Better Sister is based on, (though now I want to!) but I know that there is a pretty major change to what happens to one character at the end of the book. After learning this, I assumed that showrunners were absolutely leaving the door open for a second season! On one hand, I?m surprised that she?s kinda shutting it down, but I appreciate that they aren?t automatically going the Big Little Lies route because their second season was not great, lol. I just don?t know why they did *that* plot change if they weren?t planning on a second season.
Embed from Getty Images
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| | LeAnn Rimes confesses: Her teeth fell out in the middle of one of her concerts | | Added 5 hours ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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The other day, I randomly thought of LeAnn Rimes and how she?s being weirdly quiet these days. Everyone grows up at some point, I guess. She?s learned how to not live every part of her life on social media, and I think she?s benefited from other celebrity scandals distracting the gossip-watchers who love tacky catastrophes. So, what?s new with LeAnn? She?s surprisingly still married to Eddie Cibrian, and they just had their fourteenth wedding anniversary in April. LeAnn and Eddie rarely go out these days and rarely get pap?d, but LeAnn still performs and tours (she?s arguably still the breadwinner of the marriage). Well, LeAnn is making headlines this week for making a confession on social media. During a recent concert, her fake teeth fell out of her mouth.
Life goes on and so does the show when youre LeAnn Rimes. The country singer, 42, recently posted an Instagram video about an incident during which her fake teeth fell out while she was singing One Way Ticket during her show at The Skagit Casino Resort in Washington.
This is the most epic example of how the show must go on, Rimes said before getting into the details of the snafu, which she noticed when she felt something pop in her mouth.
If you?ve been around, you know I?ve had a lot of dental surgeries, and I have a bridge in the front,? she said. ?It fell out in the middle of my song.
While she initially began to panic, she chose to get real with the audience instead of walking off stage.
I was literally pushing my teeth in like every couple of lines and singing, she continued. It was the most epic experience ever. I dont usually have firsts in my career. That was a first and hopefully a last.
Since Rimes posted the video before another performance, she jokingly warned fans: ?The front row, get ready for something to fly out. If you catch them, please return them.
You know, good times, just keeping it real with you, as real as I had to last night. As I said, there wasn?t a f thing I could do about it except either walk off or hold my teeth in and sing.
[From People]
I always wonder about this when celebrities get those big, fake-looking veneers or, as LeAnn has, a whole interconnected front bridge. I have one crown on a back molar and it?s never popped off, so how often does this happen to a bridge or veneers? It would explain why so many celebrities are constantly having dental work too the sh-t is popping off on a regular basis. Anyway, yeah, it happens and I imagine LeAnn?s performance was a doozy. At least she?s being real about it and trying to get ahead of it, in case a video ended up coming out.
PS? I spent a few minutes on her IG, looking at her posts for the first time in years. She still posts a lot about Eddie and his sons, but it?s not the constant daily IGs anymore. And Eddie is still disturbingly handsome, I?m sorry to say. If anything, the salt-and-pepper hair really suits him.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by LeAnn Rimes cibrian (@leannrimes)
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| | Kristin Chenoweth on her anthem performance: I just wanted to make Oklahoma proud | | Added 5 hours ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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Y?all had a lot of thoughts about Kristin Chenoweth?s rendition of the National Anthem the other day, and I loved it! Quick replay: the NBA Finals came down to the Indiana Pacers vs the Oklahoma City Thunder, with the game held Sunday on the Thunder?s home turf. Kristin, who hails from Broken Arrow, OK, got the ball rolling by singing ?The Star-Spangled Banner? ahead of the proceedings, clad in her own Thunder t-shirt and bedazzled knee-high boots. I think for many people tuning in for the basketball, this was an introduction to Tony Award-winning Kristin and her classically-trained voice. This is the good witch who originated the role of Galinda on Broadway ? she?s got soprano pipes and she knows how to use them! Fresh off the triumphant night, Kristin spoke with The Oklahoman about the preparation she put into singing the anthem, her pride in the team, and a few Wicked thoughts:
How was it seeing the Thunder?s championship scene play out at Paycom Center?
I was so happy. We had great seats, and people asked if I was nervous about the anthem. No, I was nervous about the team. I wanted us to win.
Did it go through your mind before you sang that you wanted to set the tone or get the team off to a smashing start?
You know, sometimes when I get asked to do the anthem, it?s by either the NFL or the network or something. But this one was the Thunder, and I took it very seriously.
And I always take singing that song very seriously, because of the beautiful words, the lyrics of the song. So, I just wanted to make Oklahoma proud.
And, yeah, I guess I did want to set the tone (and) just get everybody ready to really cheer their brains out to, hopefully, win. (chuckles)
Was that an extra fancy version of the anthem for the Thunder?
Yeah, I went up to the High C. It?s the night to do it, you know? I?m an Okie. The Thunder is my favorite team. It?s the very final game; we?re at home; we want this championship. We?ve never been there. It?s our turn. All of those things are going through my mind. So, that?s the time to really sing it.
What are your thoughts on how many more people have embraced ?Wicked? since the first movie came out and with the second one coming?
Oh, I love it. But I knew when we opened in San Francisco, before we hit Broadway, that we were going to be a hit. I just didn?t know (how big).
What, 23 years later, ?Wicked? is still relevant. So, it?s been a good year. It?s just been a good year.
And now you?re getting ready to debut ?The Queen of Versailles? on Broadway?
Yeah, we start (rehearsals) in August, and we open in November. But I?m an athlete, too. I?ve got to get my mind, body and spirit ready. ? I?ve got to get focused on my own game. That?s what I?ve got to do. (laughs)
[From The Oklahoman]
?And I always take singing that song very seriously, because of the beautiful words, the lyrics of the song.? That?s why I wanted to cover this little interview, because so many of you noted in the comments the other day about how well, and distinctively, Kristin told the story of the song through her performance. And then heck yeah she hit that High C! Some people may just not like opera, but I think the NBA and the Thunder knew what they were getting when they asked Kristin to perform, and in the end, the pride went both ways.
True story: growing up in San Francisco, my mother and I got season tickets to a ?Best of Broadway? series, to see touring productions and shows in previews. And yes, that package included the pre-NYC debut of Wicked, in the short period before Robert Morse was replaced by Joel Grey as the Wizard (Bob booked Mad Men not long after, don?t worry). But guess who?s the munchkin-headed idiot who gave up her seat at the last minute? Me, that?s who! My reason for backing out was vague (though in my defense, I was a teenager at the time). Anyway, my mother and her friend thoroughly enjoyed it and saw the hit it was destined to be. For my part, I picked up the book and was instantly under its spell. We got the first Wicked: For Good trailer recently, and everyone was excited about hearing parts of the titular song. Personally, I can?t wait to see and hear Part II?s opening number, ?Thank Goodness.? I never saw Kristin perform it live (again, because I?m a boob), but her command of that song, the subtleties and character arcs she conveys through her voice alone, even just listening to the cast album she always gave me chills.
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