In which I talk about sportsball for a hot minute. (Don’t worry, this won’t become the norm.)

Team USA’s exciting win against England yesterday in the Women’s World Cup was not only delicious …

(BY THE WAY, SUCK IT, PIERS MORGAN! The only way his tweet from last week could be tastier is if Megan Rapinoe had been playing yesterday:

LOL X INFINITY)

the game also broke records in the U.K., becoming the most-watched show of the year. Which brings me to a bit of news that I missed while I was overseas: while being interviewed by the soccer magazine Eight by Eight, Megan Rapinoe was asked if she would go to the White House of Team USA wins the whole shebang, and she replied, “I’m not going to the fucking White House,” instantly turning women like yours truly into lesbians and sending MAGAites everywhere into white-hot frothing rages:

She went on to say that they probably wouldn’t be invited, which, had this not become an issue would have probably been true. But because a woman had the temerity to insult President Misogyny, he couldn’t help but respond:

SO MANY THINGS.

First of all, in his original tweet which he eventually took down, he tagged the wrong Megan Rapinoe, so just IMAGINE what that poor woman had to deal with in her mentions once his followers and the Russians got a hold of her handle. Second of all, why is he dragging the NBA into this and what does criminal justice reform and Black unemployment have to do with Women’s World Cup soccer? Third: Go ahead and guess how many WNBA championship-winning teams he’s invited to the White House. Go ahead. Fourth, this obviously led to Fox News and others howling for Rapinoe to be fired from the team as if she’s the only Women’s Team player who can’t stand Donald Trump. LOL.

From a Time Magazine profile of co-captain Alex Morgan:

“I don’t stand for a lot of things the current office stands for,” Morgan says. She’s particularly upset about the Administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the southern border, noting that her husband’s family is from Mexico. Indeed, if Trump invites the team to the White House after the World Cup, Morgan says she won’t go. If that turns anyone off, so be it.

“We don’t have to be put in this little box,” Morgan says between sips of red wine at dinner. “There’s the narrative that’s been said hundreds of times about any sort of athlete who’s spoken out politically. ‘Stick to sports.’ We’re much more than that, O.K.?”

Finally, Rapinoe wasn’t disrespecting the United States, the flag (and yes, I know about her kneeling) or the White House itself, she was disrespecting one person: Donald Jenius Trump. But this is him, once again, trying to conflate his person with the United States in general, arguing that if you insult him, you are insulting the country. Not normal and not OK.

Megan Rapinoe went on to score two goals against France in the next round and Team USA won the game. After beating England yesterday, they are headed to the final on Sunday. Goddamned national heroes, these women.

And on a note that has nothing to do with Donald Fucking Trump: my husband, who is a huge soccer fan (his team is the Tottenham Hotspurs if you were curious), spends a great deal more time on ESPN.com’s soccer page than I do, which is exactly zero minutes per day. While we were traveling over the last couple of weeks, he would check the page periodically and would point out to me that the Women’s World Cup — literally the BIGGEST THING HAPPENING IN THE WORLD OF SOCCER RIGHT NOW — was never at the top of the page. In fact, it was a rare thing for the tournament to even be featured on the front soccer page — even in the throes of this Rapinoe/Trump fight. Just checked it a minute ago, and despite Team USA’s exhilarating win, it is still only the second story beneath articles about the 2019 Copa America. What the fuck, ESPN?

And I promise that is all the sportsball we will discuss here (for a while).

The comic book world is rocked by the news that the issue of The Walking Dead that comes out today is the last one ever for the series. If you’re a reader, obviously be careful out there, spoilers be everywhere. As for the TV series, AMC insists that the show will live on “for many years to come.” Considering that today’s issue is #193, and the show is somewhere around #150, there is still at least a couple of seasons left for the show, and the spinoffs aren’t based on the comic, so I’m thinking this is no reason for show fans to be freaking out. Meanwhile, this is Kirkman’s original idea for the end of The Walking Dead (the comics series) — which I assume is not how #193 ends. Personally, I dig it.

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul seem to be hinting that the Breaking Bad movie could be happening even sooner than we expect:

View this post on Instagram

Even sooner

A post shared by Bryan Cranston (@bryancranston) on

And apparently, Jeffrey Katzenberg is a bigger Breaking Bad fan than you.

So, Meghan McCain on The View. For those of you who don’t watch (and truly, there is no reason why you should) McCain is an interesting character to me. She is on the show as one of the ostensible “conservative” voices there to represent Red America, but thanks to her family’s feud with Donald Trump, she is not a supporter of the President or most of his policies. This creates a strange tension where she feels the need to defend things the Administration has done or things that Trump has said that she doesn’t personally agree with, as a means to “explain” Red State voters’ perspectives to the rest of the liberals sitting at the table. And as an idea, this is fine, we all need to be exposed to other points of view. But when the other women disagree with the arguments, McCain always acts as though she personally is being attacked, instead of the positions themselves, which she doesn’t even agree with. Anyway, this is a long way to go to say that there have been a lot of stories floating around out there about what an asshole she is to her co-stars, producers, and other crewmembers, so it shouldn’t be entirely surprising that there’s now talk that she might leave the show. That, or her contract is up and these are the negotiating tactics coming from both sides. (This is entirely what is happening, btw.)

Netflix can’t make talk shows work because talk shows are timely and streaming services are not. Duh. Now make me a Netflix executive.

Despite some hiccups and some very serious questions as to whether or not it was going to happen, Wynonna Earp is officially filming the fourth and final season after all.

Louis Tomlinson did not approve of THAT scene in Euphoria. You know the one.

Hey, if you have $12 million laying around, you could host your own Fyre Festival. You’ll have to provide your own cheese sandwiches.

Fox News and CPSAN will broadcast Trump’s celebration of tanks tomorrow. CNN and MSNBC have decided to decline to air it live.

Older News

Mitch McConnell’s social media team used a gif of Adam Scott’s Parks and Rec character smirking in a tweet, and he asked them to FUCK RIGHT THE FUCK OFF. 

The McConnell team thought they were clever and shot back with, “remember that time you, an actor, played a failed politician?”

So he fired back with, “remember that time you, a real politician, associated with real racists?”

CHECKMATE, BITCHES. 

Here are the Game of Thrones kids cringing while watching younger versions of themselves:

Whoever came up with the idea of a Jason Momoa/Peter Dinklage remake of Twins is a Goddamned genius and deserves the Nobel Prize for Movie Ideas (That Will Never Be Made). 10/10 Would Watch.

Oprah has considered reviving her talk show — but don’t hold your breath.

Sex Monster News

Carice van Houten, the actress who plays Melisandre on Game of Thrones, credits #MeToo for the series reducing the amount of nudity in the show over the final seasons. Personally, I think it has a whole hell of a lot less to do with #MeToo and everything to do with the success of the show and both HBO and Benioff and Weiss realizing they didn’t need to include gratuitous nudity.

Disney has removed a casting couch joke in one of its fake bloopers on Toy Story 2 in the wake of #MeToo.

The co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, Sterling Van Wagenen, has been sentenced to six years for child sexual abuse.

The ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Planned Parenthood are officially suing Georgia over this heartbeat abortion bill.

Older News

The NXVIM guy, Keith Raniere, has been found guilty on all counts including sex trafficking and racketeering.

Max Landis has FINALLY faced some consequences for being an accused serial rapist: his agents have dropped him and MGM has shelved one of his upcoming projects.

Renewals

Older News

Cancellations

Older News

  • The Rain has been ordered for a third and final season on Netflix.

In Development

  • Cash Cab is being revived by Bravo.
  • Anna Karenina is being adapted for TV by BBC.
  • Ju-On is being developed as a series for Netflix.
  • Ticket to Ride, an adventure competition series based on the board game, is being turned into a TV series.
  • Unrelated, a comedy from Kenya Barris, has been shelved by Freeform.

Older News

Casting News

Older News

Mark Your Calendars

ABC announced their fall premiere dates:

Monday, September 16

  • Dancing with the Stars

Monday, September 23

  • The Good Doctor

Tuesday, September 24

  • The Connors
  • Bless This Mess
  • mixed-ish
  • black-ish
  • Emergence

Wednesday, September 25

  • The Goldbergs
  • Schooled
  • Modern Family
  • Single Parents
  • Stumptown

Thursday, September 26

  • Grey’s Anatomy
  • A Million Little Things
  • How to Get Away With Murder

Friday, September 27

  • American Housewife
  • Fresh Off the Boat
  • 20/20

Sunday, September 29

  • America’s Funniest Home Videos
  • Shark Tank
  • The Rookie

Sunday, October 6

  • Kids Say the Darndest Things

 

  • STRANGER THINGS TOMORROW.
  • The Affair‘s final season will debut on Showtime on August 25.
  • The Righteous Gemstones will debut on HBO on August 18.
  • Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein will debut on Netflix on July 16, in case you didn’t get enough David Harbor in your life through Stranger Things tomorrow.
  • Aziz Ansari: Right Now will debut on Netflix on July 9.

Older News

I was going to embed the Watchmen teasers they’ve recently(ish) posted on Instagram, but I suggest you just go to their Insta page yourself and see them all. They’re very cool and creating quite the vibe.

R.I.P.

Lee Iacocca, Former chairman of Chrysler, constant presence on 80s television

Justin Bodle, Producer and creator of Power Television

Sid Ramin, Oscar, Emmy and Grammy-winning composer

Milton Quon, Disney animator from the golden age; worked on Dumbo and Fantasia

Older News

Beth Chapman, Co-star of Dog the Bounty Hunter

Susan Bernard, Actress best known for Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Bryan Marshall, British actor known for The Spy Who Loved Me

WATCH THIS

The Last Czars: This look at the Romanov family is part period drama, part documentary.  Netflix

The English Patient: The moment when I fell in love with Naveen Andrews — long before Lost. 5:55 p.m., Showtime Showcase West

 

WEDS. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Press Your Luck
(repeat)
Card Sharks
(repeat)
Match Game
(repeat)
CBS Big Brother
(new)
NCIS: The Cases They Can’t Forget
(new)
NCIS: The Cases They Can’t Forget
(new)
CW Penn & Teller: Fool Us
(repeat)
Jane the Virgin
(repeat)
Local
FOX Masterchef
(repeat)
First Responders Live
(repeat)
News/Local
NBC Ellen’s Game of Games
(repeat)
Songland
(repeat)
The InBetween
(new)

2 thoughts on “In which I talk about sportsball for a hot minute. (Don’t worry, this won’t become the norm.)

  1. 1. Good for Pinoe and the entire USWNT.

    2. Good for NatGeo. I would enjoy an anthology based on The Hot Zone, especially if they get Julianne Margulies back. Imagine a series showing the benefits and success of science.

    3. Also good for NG, did you see the last part of that article? The next subject for Genius will be Aretha Franklin.

    1. Yeah — I think I mentioned the Aretha thing when they first announced it sometime shortly after her death. They had been looking for a female “genius” for a while and acting like it was nearly impossible. 🙄

      – T

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