In a year full of shit, we finally FINALLY got some good news

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

You know what? It’s been a long six months. So today we are going to start with some genuinely good news:

The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that gay and trans people are protected by discrimination laws meant to prevent discrimination based on sex. Trump Court appointee, Neil Gorsuch, wrote the majority opinion, which is CRAZY. My heart is so full right now, not just because the LGBTQ community won this, but because the message Gorsuch and Roberts sent by affirming what might otherwise be considered a “liberal” position, is that hate against the LGBTQ community is increasingly being viewed as an extremist stance that hopefully will die away one day. We can hope, at least.

And Nickelodeon confirmed what everyone pretty much already knew: Spongebob Squarepants is, indeed, a gay icon:

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤

HBO has launched a website to highlight and support LGBTQ activism and events called humanbyorientation.com.

Billions actor Asia Kate Dillion is asking SAG to drop gender-specific categories. It’s an interesting argument and one that seems to be gaining traction.

This is a wonderful piece about the inherent queerness of Byran Fuller’s Hannibal and how it actually is true to Thomas Harris’ original character.

Hey, guys, Quibi isn’t doing great.

pretends to be shocked surprised

We have some new details about The Witcher‘s second season. The timeline won’t jump around in that confusing way (there will be flashbacks and flashforwards); we will see Geralt’s and Ciri’s relationship develop; and hopefully, they will be able to get back to filming soon.

The Bachelor producers are still planning on going forward with Clare Crawley’s Bachelorette season … someday. They actually make an interesting point in this article about the casting of Matt James as the next Bachelor, and how it very well might change some of the gameplay: “‘The good news for Clare is that her cast will know from the start they don’t have a chance to be the next Bachelor. So hopefully, more will actually be there for “the right reasons,”‘ our source said.”

If you’ve been watching Insecure this past season, you know in the background of the main story there has been a story about a missing Black woman. The season is now over, but apparently, the writers created an actual true-crime podcast, Looking for LaToya, which follows the case. Love it. It’s available on all podcasting platforms.

Variety is going to host a virtual Watchmen reunion if you’d like to attend.

Jon Stewart regrets tearing Jim Cramer a new asshole on The Daily Show that one time, but not for the reason you think.

The Simpsons fans, man:

Hannah Brown is really going above and beyond to make up for that N-word fiasco:

Protest News

Another Black man was killed by the police this weekend in Atlanta. His name was Rayshard Brooks, and though his interaction with the cops was messy, including him trying to take a taser, the bottom line is, he was running away from them and they shot him in the back, twice. He was not threatening them. This led to violent protests over the weekend, and the Wendy’s where the incident took place, was burned down. This received all the news coverage, because BURNING BUILDING! but there were countless other peaceful protests all around the country this weekend. Here are just some of them. This movement has not gone away, even if the media has grown bored with it.

A brutal report in The Huffington Post by Yashar Ali came out over the weekend, detailing how Barbara Fedida, an ABC senior executive in charge of talent and — SIT DOWN FOR THIS ONE — the network’s diversity and inclusion efforts has been a racist and sexist monster for years. According to the story, she openly referred to women as “cunts” in the office; said that they spent more on toilet paper than Black anchor Kendis Gibson; dismissed the concerns of Black journalists and producers; and, perhaps most shockingly, when one of ABC News’ biggest stars, Robin Roberts, asked for a raise, Fedida said it wasn’t like they were asking her to “pick cotton.” She’s been put on suspension.

The ladies of The View discussed it this morning and Sunny Hostin is clearly PISSED, while Whoopi defended Fedida as not being a racist as far as she knows. OK.

SNL alum, Jay Pharoah, posted about being mistakenly apprehended by the cops back in April which resulted in a cop placing his knee on his neck. It’s hard to watch, but you should:

Hannibal Buress is releasing a comedy special based on his 2017 arrest by Miami police, Miami Nights, on YouTube for free in July:

Meanwhile, Fox News is out here putting out literal fake news, and being fooled by Monty Python references. Idiots.

Beyoncé posted an open letter demanding the arrest of the cops who murdered Breonna Taylor in her own home.

Craig Melvin is hosting an NBC special on Peacock and other NBC outlets tonight called Growing Up Black: Families Confronting Racism.

A film based on Eric Garner’s death, Monsters and Men, is available to stream for free right now.

ViacomCBS is cutting ties with Big Fish Entertainment, the company that produced Live P.D.

I’ve never ridden it, so I had no idea Splash Mountain was based on Song of the South. Huh! Anyway, rebranding it for The Princess and the Frog is a terrific idea and Disney should get on that.

Dear White People ~chef’s kiss~:

Howard Stern is being called out by Dummy Junior for doing blackface and using the N-word nearly 30 years ago and he’s apologized in his own Howard Stern kind of way. But, y’all. anyone who is shocked to learn Howard Stern did blackface and used the N-word back in 1993 wasn’t around in 1993. This isn’t Jimmy Fallon we’re talking about here.

The cast of Little Britain is sorry about the whole blackface thing.

The BBC is restoring that episode of Fawlty Towers after John Cleese, God bless him, called bullshit. Reminder: He’s on the good side.

The Killing Eve writers’ room is in trouble:

The English Premier League will replace players’ names on the back of their shirts with messages from Black Lives Matter. “We, the Players, stand together with the singular objective of eradicating racial prejudice wherever it exists, to bring about a global society of inclusion, respect, and equal opportunities for All, regardless of their colour or creed. This symbol is a sign of unity from all Players, all Staff, all Clubs, all Match Officials and the Premier League #blacklivesmatter #playerstogether,” the league said in a statement.

An X Factor UK contestant, Misha B, is accusing the show of racism and editing an “angry Black girl” narrative onto her story.

Mike Johnson, my personal choice for the first Black Bachelor, is being a class act about being passed over. Typical.

Here’s more on the casting of Matt James as the first Black Bachelor, how he had a bit of a social media tiff with Clare Crawley already, and the insistence by the producers that his casting wasn’t because of Rachel Lindsay. OK.

So, you remember that story about Lady Antebellum changing their name to Lady A in response to all this? Turns out there is already a performer named Lady A, she’s a Black woman, and SHE IS NOT AMUSED.

Barbara Streisand made George Floyd’s daughter a Disney stockholder.

Taylor Swift, y’all:

The Oscars are promising to do better. Which, great! But that would require films by and starring Black people to get made in the first place, so let’s start there.

Marta Kauffman is promising to do better. OK.

And to end this section on a lighter note, the actor Ron Perlman tweeted at President Can’t Walk Down a Ramp and his toadie, Congressman Matt Gaetz about getting their panties in a twist about the U.S. Soccer Federation lifting the ban on kneeling during the National Anthem and things took an unexpected and hilarious turn.

First, the fight was just between Perlman and Gaetz:

And then Perlman dragged Jim Jordan for laffs:

BUT THEN, OUT OF NOWHERE, TED ZODIAC KILLER CRUZ DECIDES HE NEEDS TO GET INVOLVED. AND — HILARIOUSLY — HE VOLUNTEERS HIMSELF JIM JORDAN TO FIGHT RON PERLMAN. You guys:

I will never stop laughing.

Going Viral

We are at over 117,000 deaths, according to Worldometer (Johns Hopkins tends to be a few thousand behind this measure), and will hit 120,000 by the end of the week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning that another lockdown might be necessary if cases continue spiking, while President Neurosyphilis is promising that won’t happen. Everything is GREAT.

Meanwhile, Georgia is ready to get production started back up again. This is notable because Georgia is the second biggest state for film and TV production after California, and, more importantly, their cases of COVID-19 are not trending downward. “Georgia is ready,” their dumbass governor said. NO. YOU’RE NOT.

For instance, as Ed Guney, the producer of Normal People explains, production can’t really start back up until they have more PPE and quick testing that can produce results within hours:

Those two things are going to be so important, because if there’s any delay in testing, it makes life very difficult. You can restrict the kinds of things you can do up to a point, but it’s very, very hard to see how you can make drama, be it film drama or television drama, with social distancing between actors and between the DP and the director and the DP and the cast.

To be honest with you, when this all happened eight weeks ago, I was like, “Oh, yeah, we’ll do this for a few weeks and there’ll be a vaccine and we’ll all be back to work in September.” But I really don’t think that’s going to be the case anymore. I think what we have to face up to is that if we want to shoot, we’re going to be shooting in a coronavirus world. There isn’t going to be a vaccine that quickly and there isn’t going to be a cure that quickly. There may be ways of testing and preventing and being careful and preventing the transmission of it, but that’s going to take a lot of work and that’s going to make it more expensive. Inevitably what will happen is that there will be fewer things made, and they’ll be at a higher cost.

HEY. GEORGIA. DO YOU HAVE QUICK TESTING? YEAH, I DIDN’T THINK SO, DUMMIES.

Also, the ban on travelers from the United Kingdom will last for months, not weeks, according to Dr. Fauci, so that’s going to make some projects all but impossible for a while.

Filming on Jurassic World: Dominion is set to begin in London on July 6. Universal is reportedly spending $5 million on safety procedures alone.

The release of the Christopher Nolan movie Tenet has been pushed back to July 31. We’ll see.

Unhinged has been pushed back from July 1 to July 10. We’ll see.

Wonder Woman: 1984 has been pushed back to October. We’ll see.

The Personal History of David Copperfield will debut in theaters on August 14. We’ll see.

Disney is pushing the release of the Beatles documentary The Beatles: Get Back to August 2021. And The One and Only Ivan will now be released on Disney+. 

College athletes are being forced to sign COVID-19 waivers indemnifying the schools ahead of summer training. Oh, this country is stupid.

Meanwhile, a bunch of Texans and Cowboys players has tested positive, so that’s terrific. Y’all, I wouldn’t be counting on the NFL season to proceed as normal, and I would really be looking sideways at college athletics right about now.

Sesame Street and CNN tackled coronavirus for kids this weekend. What a terrifying time to be a little kid …

Game of Thrones actors, Daniel Portman, Gemma Whelan, Iwan Rheon, Kristian Nairn, and Natalia Tena, are going to play Dungeons and Dragons to raise money for virus-related charity.

So what are you guys binging on Netflix during quarantine? Apparently, Ozark. Yeah, that tracks.

There won’t be a winter edition of Love Island for Brits, either. Sadface.

The Emmys’ post-ceremony Governors’ Ball has been canceled, and the Creative Emmy Ceremony is going virtual.

And this just in: The Oscars have been pushed back two months to April 2021. WE WILL SEE, I GUESS.

In Development

  • Jason Katims’ adaptation of the Israeli series On the Spectrum has been ordered at Amazon.
  • The Perfect Find, starring Gabrielle Union, has been bought by Netflix.

Casting News

  • Ben Whishaw has been cast in the BBC Two and AMC’s This is Going to Hurt.
  • New Orleans Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins has been hired by CNN as a contributor.

Mark Your Calendar

  • The Politician will return on Netflix on June 19.
  • Crazy Delicious will premiere on Netflix on June 24.
  • Babies will return on Netflix on June 19.
  • Animal Crackers will debut on Netflix on July 24.

R.I.P.

Denny O’Neil, Batman comic book writer and editor

Sushant Singh Rajput, Bollywood actor

Colo Tavernier O’Hagan, French screenwriter

Ricky Valance, Singer

Katherine Williams-Dunning, Daughter of Hank Williams Jr.

WATCH THIS

The Talk: Race in America: This documentary about how parents of color have to talk to their kids — especially their sons — about how to behave if they are stopped by the police, so as to stay alive, came out in 2017, and here we are, having to dust it off again. Ugh. 9 p.m., PBS

Roswell, New Mexico: Oh no! A deadly threat has infiltrated CrashCon! Season finale. 8 p.m., The CW

Songland: Usher shows up to the season finale. 9 p.m., NBC

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Martin Short, Bashir Salahuddin, Diallo Riddle, Randy Newman
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers: Pete Davidson, Matthew Rhys
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: John Dickerson, Black Pumas
  • The Late Late Show with James Corden: Josh Gad, Anuel AA
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live: Bill Burr
  • The Daily Show: The Daily Social Distancing Show
  • Watch What Happens Live: Capt. Sandy Yawn, Malia White

 

MON. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart
(new)
CBS The Neighbor-hood
(repeat)		 Bob Hearts Abishola
(repeat)		 All Rise
(repeat)		 Bull
(repeat)
CW Whose Line is it Anyway?
(repeat)		 Whose Line is it Anyway?
(repeat)		 Roswell, New Mexico
(new)		 Local
FOX 9-1-1
(repeat)		 9-1-1: Lone Star
(repeat)		 News/Local
NBC The Titan Games
(new)		 The Wall
(new)		 Songland
(new)

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