Steve Pond's Blog, page 2056
November 26, 2019
Colbert Celebrates the Season With an Impeachment Advent Calendar (Video)
On Tuesday, Stephen Colbert kicked off “The Late Show” by talking about some of the latest updates in the drama surrounding the possible impeachment of Donald Trump — and introduced a brand new Christmas tradition.
The tradition? An impeachment advent calendar, modeled on the White House of course, with the White House’s windows serving as the calendar’s doors.
“Every day, you open a door and you get a piece of candy,” Colbert said as he showed it off. But when he opened the first door, he saw there was a note instead of candy in the space. Said the note: “You’ll get your candy, but I would like you to do us a favor, though,” which is, of course, a reference to Donald Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden.
Also Read: Justice Department Opposes WGA Defense in Hollywood Agency Lawsuit
After that, Colbert took issue with the possibility Democrats might be moving to wrap up the impeachment proceedings sooner than expected. “I’m surprised that [California Democrat Adam] Schiff ended it so quickly, this is the biggest congressional hearing in a generation. It’s an event. It’s ‘quid pro quo-chella,” Colbert quipped.
“And the headliners haven’t even played yet,” Colbert continued, listing off some fake band names inspired by people he thinks should still have to testify before congress. “The Mick Mulvaney Experience, Mike Pompeo Speedwagon, and Mike Pence, AKA Whitesnake.”
Watch the clip below:
TONIGHT: Is the House impeachment inquiry finishing up? #LSSC pic.twitter.com/nJ2wecg4MD
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) November 27, 2019
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Nancy Grace Joins Fox Nation With ‘Crime Stories’ Series
Nancy Grace is joining Fox Nation, the network’s streaming service, with a crime show airing in January 2020.
The series will be similar to Grace’s eponymous show on HLN, which aired from 2005 to 2016, and follow Grace as she creates her podcast and SiriusXM radio show, “Crime Stories With Nancy Grace,” five days a week.
“We spotlight breaking crime and justice news, help find missing people, especially children, solve unsolved homicides and analyze clues left behind,” Grace told the Associated Press.
Grace is a former prosecutor who has since made her name on television as a political commentator. In 2005, she hosted the “Nancy Grace” primetime show on HLN (formerly CNN Headline News), where she covered high-profile criminal cases like the Casey Anthony and Amanda Knox trials. She also made a few cameos on shows like “Law & Order: SVU,” “Raising Hope,” and the film “Hancock.”
In July, Grace premiered a new Oxygen series, “Injustice With Nancy Grace,” that examined lesser-known criminal cases.
“There’s a lot of high-profile cases that get all the spotlight and all the attention, and that’s really not fair. Lady justice is blind for a reason. She doesn’t look at the celebrity, or the education, or the wealth of a particular victim or defendant,” Grace told The Wrap’s Margeaux Sippell in July. “They are cases that just stuck with me, where an injustice was done. I really believe that these victims have the right to be heard.”
“Injustice” wrapped its first season in August.
Earlier this month, former “60 Minutes” correspondent Lara Logan also announced she was joining the streaming service with a docu-series titled “No Agenda with Lara Logan.” The show will launch in January 2020 and feature four 90-minute installments.
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‘The Proud Family’ Revival in the Works at Disney+
A revival of Disney Channel’s “The Proud Family” is in the works at Disney+, series star Jo Marie Payton said on Tuesday.
Payton broke the news on the third hour of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” telling host Keke Palmer that Suga Mama, her character from the show, is “still large and in charge” and “will be doing some new episodes come February.”
A representative for Disney+ declined to comment.
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Payton’s “Proud Family” co-star, Tommy Davidson, made a similar tease to @WhereIsTheBuzzTV back in August.
“The Proud Family” ran for three seasons on Disney Channel between 2001 and 2005. In addition to Payton and Davidson, the voice cast also included Kyla Pratt, Paula Jai Parker, Alisa Reyes, Karen Malina White, Orlando Brown, Soleil Moon Frye and Tara Strong.
A revival would follow in the footsteps of “Lizzie McGuire,” another Disney Channel series being revived at the streaming service with much of the original cast reprising their roles.
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Justice Department Opposes WGA Defense in Hollywood Agency Lawsuit
The Department of Justice released a legal brief on Tuesday urging the federal judge overseeing the Hollywood agency lawsuit against the Writers Guild of America to reject the guild’s defense that it is exempt from antitrust law.
The brief was filed by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, led by Makan Delrahim, and comes 10 days before Judge Andre Birotte is set to hear the WGA’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by William Morris Endeavor, Creative Artists Agency and United Talent Agency, who argue that the guild is participating in an “illegal boycott” by having thousands of its writers terminate their representation in order to pressure the agencies to eliminate packaging fees.
“The Writers Guild’s motion to dismiss is premised on the notion that as a legitimate union its judgment about what is best for its members cannot be ‘second-guess[ed]’ by this Court,” the brief read. “Application of the labor exemptions here, however, is not so facile.”
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“While any construction of the labor exemptions must allow unions to restrict competition in labor markets in pursuit of legitimate labor law goals, courts must also be careful to circumscribe the application of these exemptions lest unions be ‘giv[en] free rein to extend their substantial economic power into markets for goods and services other than labor.'”
In their own federal lawsuit against the agencies, the WGA has argued that packaging fees — payments from a studio to an agent in exchange for packaging talent on a project — are a conflict of interest that has held back writer pay for decades. The guild is looking for a federal ruling declaring packaging fees are a violation of labor law by serving as an illegal kickback payment from an employer to a representative of an employee.
In a statement, WGA West President David A. Goodman condemned Delrahim’s decision to get involved in the ongoing legal battle, connecting the Assistant Attorney General to the U.S. president who appointed him to the position, Donald Trump.
Also Read: How Hollywood's Guilds Are Bracing for Crucial Negotiations in 2020
“It’s not surprising that Trump’s Justice Department has filed a brief designed to weaken a labor union’s effort to protect its members and eliminate conflicts of interest by talent agencies,” Goodman wrote. “The agencies’ antitrust claims are contrary to Supreme Court precedent, and we remain confident that the court will dismiss them.”
This is the second time in as many weeks that Delrahim’s division has gotten itself involved in Hollywood matters. Last week, Delrahim announced that the DOJ would seek to repeal the 1948 Paramount consent decrees, a landmark Supreme Court ruling that forced Hollywood studios to give up their ownership of theater chains.
The DOJ also sided with Netflix earlier this year in an industry debate over whether films produced for streaming should be eligible for Academy Awards. Though it did not seem to have anything to do with antitrust law, Delrahim sent a letter in March to Academy CEO Dawn Hudson voicing concern that ruling Netflix films ineligible for Oscars may create a precedent that would “suppress competition” and “may raise antitrust concerns.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
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First Lady Melania Trump Booed at Teen Summit on Opioid Awareness
First Lady Melania Trump addressed the B’More Youth Summit on Tuesday and was met with boos by the young audience, as seen in a video of the event.
CNN White House reporter Kate Bennett, who covers the First Lady, wrote her firsthand account of what happened in a series of tweets, noting, “At youth opioid awareness event in Baltimore for a speech to attendees mostly of high school and middle school age, @FLOTUS was loudly booed upon introduction. Talking continued throughout her five minute remarks.”
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Bennett, who has covered Trump for three years, added “that was the worst booing she has received at a public event where she has given solo remarks.”
“Thank you to all of the students who are here. I am so proud of you for the bravery it takes to share that you have been strongly affected by the opioid epidemic in some way,” Trump said over the noise as attendees in the auditorium at University of Maryland, Baltimore County spoke loudly through her remarks.
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Trump’s “Be Best” campaign is largely aimed at children’s well-being, focusing on online safety and opioid use.
The campaign has been received negatively before, spawning spoofs and criticism since its inception.
A representative for the White House responded to TheWrap’s request for comment Tuesday afternoon with a statement from the First Lady.
“We live in a democracy and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the fact is we have a serious crisis in our country and I remain committed to educating children on the dangers and deadly consequences of drug abuse,” it read.
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‘Weathering with You’ Film Review: Cloudbursts Can’t Drown Love in Romantic Anime
Soaked with climate-altering passion, Makoto Shinkai’s new animated spectacle “Weathering With You” once again pits two young lovers against forces beyond their control, treading similar waters as his 2016 global hit “Your Name,” for a thrilling extravaganza of scintillating imagery, uproarious music, and gravity-defying stunts with spiritual panache.
Torrential rain drowns Tokyo like it hasn’t in recent memory, and with every enormous drop that reaches the ground, the city’s dwellers long a little harder for the sunshine of summer. Such inclement conditions welcome 15-year-old Hodaka (voiced by Kotaro Daigo), a small-town dreamer who’s run away from home to the chaotic metropolis.
Necessity propels him to take a live-in job transcribing for a scruffy father figure, Keisuke (Shun Oguri), whose occupation is to write engaging fake news. But his luck changes when he, gun in hand, attempts to defend Hina (Nana Mori), a “sunshine girl” with the power to momentarily stop the downpour.
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Precipitation as a connector for unlikely sweethearts was previously featured in Shinkai’s medium-length effort “The Garden of Words,” a great example of how the director harnesses the elements with evocative impetus to accentuate or externalize innermost sentiments. In “Weathering With You,” Hina’s gift (obtained from a visit to a Shinto shrine) blesses the clients for her mystical services with a respite from the downpour that permits outdoor activities. A permanent solution to this weather crisis, however, will come only with a major sacrifice that neither she nor the infatuated Hodaka can fathom.
Cityscapes overflow with superb detail so densely and exquisitely packed into every shot that even the dew on surfaces glimmers. The excellent production design reflects the obsessive care Shinkai has always displayed for the depiction of liquids and radiance in his realms.
Light beams illuminate objects and buildings whenever the clouds disperse, charging the screen with a celestial aura. Sun-dappled horizons contrast with merciless rainfall, making us and the characters appreciate more intensely the miracle of a clear day. In real life, witnessing skies as glorious as the ones the film’s team fashioned could overwhelm one with their magnificence.
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A faux-musical trapped in a quasi-music video (and that’s a compliment), “Weathering With You” reunites its maker with Radwimps, the Japanese band behind “Your Name’s” now cherished songs. For this collaboration, the tracks continue to speak for the couple with lyrics that verbalize their come-what-may type of relationship.
Thanks to the creator’s decision to subtitle these melodic messages, their significance travels across language. Rather similar to the emotional pieces created for the previous anime feature, these pop gems care not for subtly mirroring the general approach to this fantastical teen drama.
A lover of high-stakes finales, Shinkai doesn’t skimp on the setbacks he buries as landmines along his heroes’ road to happiness. Hodaka’s tears are nearly as incessant as the heavy showers washing over the Japanese capital. As the police pursue him to return him to his parents, and Hina’s body fades into transparency for the greater good, he loses sight of his own safety in pursuit of companionship.
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As a bloodied Hodaka vehemently claws and bites in the name of sincere adoration, his desperation turns infectious. We can’t help but root for his cause, even when the ending reaches peak dramatic excess with a sublime fall from heaven to earth. More grounded in true hardship is Hina’s secretive lifestyle in order to prevent being separated from her precious younger brother Nagisa (Sakura Kiryu). The awful weather she can control at least partially, but her familial devotion is a tempest she can’t dismiss with her supernatural gift.
Far from making a concrete statement about global warming and its quantifiable effects, Shinkai seems instead to make a case for an idealistic hope: Even if entire communities are eventually submerged under the ocean, having one’s object of affection close by will empower us to weather even the most apocalyptic storm. It’s not scientifically sound, but risking the fate of humanity for the sake of a beloved individual is as selfishly lovey-dovey as it gets.
It’s messaging that could be construed as problematic, if interpreted as Shinkai’s refusal to address a crisis; in keeping with the anime superstar’s other stories, the plot, like the protagonists, may truly be concerned only with the heartfelt goal of defeating loneliness.
As irresistibly romantic as it is awe-inspiringly gorgeous, “Weathering With You” on the whole satisfies the craving for more of what “Your Name” ignited in viewers, yet with slightly less impact. Aside from the narrative tightness missing here and at work in “Your Name,” despite how elliptically it transpires, there’s also a bias that’s sure to affect reception of any of Shinkai’s future projects.
Assuming that most audiences and critics weren’t familiar with his oeuvre prior to “Your Name,” that film has now become the barometer against which all of his subsequent directorial endeavors will be unfairly measured. But an imperfect offering from a titan of the medium still easily defeats most of the soulless cash-grabs that studios market as cinematic nannies for young moviegoers.
Keep an eye out for cameos by “Your Name’s” leads. Now that we have the certainty that both films’ realities exist in the same timeline, Hodaka and Hina should plan a double date with Taki and Mitsuha to share anecdotes on overcoming force majeure to stay together for a crossover sequel: “Weathering with Your Name.”
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November 25, 2019
Colbert Takes a Moment to Be Really Weirded Out by Trump’s Bizarre ‘Fox & Friends’ Call-in (Video)
On Monday’s “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert caught up on something he didn’t have time to deal with last week — Donald Trump’s weird, nearly hour-long phone chat with Fox & Friends on Friday morning.
During the call, Trump repeated several debunked conspiracy theories and falsehoods, including the false claim that that the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike is owned by “a very wealthy Ukrainian” (which it absolutely is not).
“For Pete’s sake, it’s 8:00 in the morning. At least let us get a cup of coffee before you start passing out the crazy pills,” Colbert said before switching to his Trump impression.
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“Look, wake up, wake up. Look, why were there chemtrails on the grassy knoll? Did vaccines cause Jeffrey Epstein? And how did we really, how did we go to the moon when once a month the moon’s not even there?” he joked.
Colbert then returned to the subject of CrowdStrike, which he noted “is an American company not owned by Ukrainians, and they’re so trustworthy that one of their big customers is the Republican party.” Colbert also noted that during the wild phone call, even “Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy expressed skepticism at some of Trump’s claims.
“I gotta say, getting fact-checked by ‘Fox & Friends’ is like the Incredible Hulk telling you he doesn’t like you when you’re angry,” Colbert said.
There’s more, and you can watch the whole thing below:
TONIGHT: Trump called into Fox and Friends and things went off the rails. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/SWXDE7r6ob
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) November 26, 2019
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‘Dancing With the Stars': And the Season 28 Winner Is…
“Dancing With the Stars” Season 28 finally has a winner, as the triumphant dancer was revealed on Monday night’s episode of the ABC show.
Of course, if you haven’t yet watched the episode and want to remain unspoiled, now is a great time to close this tab. For the rest of you, read on to learn who won the mirror ball trophy.
The Winner? “The Bachelorette” star Hannah Brown, whose dance partner was Alan Bersten.
The show celebrated Brown’s win on Twitter with a reference to her Alabama roots.
#TeamAlanbamaHannah are our CHAMPS! Roll tide, baby. ???? @hannahbrown @Dance10Alan #DWTSFinale #DWTS pic.twitter.com/TQTF3TOWKc
— Dancing with the Stars (@DancingABC) November 26, 2019
Rounding the other couples who made it to the season finale were Witney Carson, who danced with Nickelodeon star Kel Mitchell, Sasha Farber who danced with Fifth Harmony member Ally Brook, and Gleb Savchenko who danced with country music singer Lauren Alaina. Savchenko and Alaina landed in fourth place, Farber and Brooke placed third, and in second place were Carson and Mitchell.
This season was notable for featuring former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who was eliminated Nov. 12 after several weeks scoring low with the judges (and lots of vocal viewers on social media). Before his elimination, Spicer had the lowest judges scores for four consecutive weeks, but when combined with the viewer vote, managed to avoid getting cut, thanks in part to Donald Trump, who used his vast Twitter following to encourage viewers to vote for Spicer.
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Hosted by Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews, Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli served as “Dancing With the Stars” judges.
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‘Watchmen': Check Out the HBO Show’s Version of That Minutemen Group Picture (Photo)
(Major Spoilers ahead from “This Extraordinary Being,” Sunday’s episode of “Watchmen”)
Tucked into Sunday night’s astonishingly good episode of “Watchmen” was a brief reference to one of the most iconic scenes from the comic book miniseries on which the HBO show is based. But while that scene wasn’t actually depicted, on Monday HBO released an image of what it would have looked like.
Before we get to the image, a brief recap: The episode, “This Extraordinary Being,” examines the story of Hooded Justice, the “Watchmen” universe’s first costumed vigilante. In the original comics miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, by 1985 the true identity of Hooded Justice is a mystery. All we know for sure is: 1) Hooded Justice emerged in 1939 and inspired a wave of imitators who then formed a team called The Minutemen; 2) He joined them soon after; 3) Not even the Minutemen seemed to know who he was; 4) He might have been gay; 5) He stopped The Comedian from raping Sally Jupiter, and 6) He disappeared without a trace in the early 1950s.
But in a gripping and merciless exploration of America’s history of racist violence and cultural co-opting, HBO’s “Watchmen” establishes that Hooded Justice was a much younger Will Reeves (played in the show’s present-day by Louis Gossett Jr. and in flashbacks by Jovan Adepo). As a child, Reeves survived the 1921 Tulsa massacre and later moved to New York, where by the late-1930s he became one of the city’s few black police officers.
Also Read: 'Watchmen': Here's How the HBO Series Ties Into Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Graphic Novel
After discovering (and nearly being killed by) a secret KKK cabal inside NYPD, Reeves creates the Hooded Justice costume in order to fight them without being identified. We also finally see Hooded Justice’s experience in the Minutemen from his own point of view, as he learns that his fellow crimefighters have no interest in saving black citizens.
Throughout the episode, the Minutemen scenes primarily focus on Hooded Justice’s relationship with another member of the team, Captain Metropolis, with the other Minutemen mainly seen as blurry background players. But one scene references an iconic moment from the comics, which the group assembles for their first publicity photo. We don’t actually get to see the photo (or a non-blurry look at the other Minutemen) in the episode, but on Monday HBO released an image of the group modeled on the comics scene.
Here’s the image:
HBO
And for comparison, here’s how it looked in the original comic:
DC Comics; art by Dave Gibbons
We’ll have to wait until next week to see how this huge reveal affects things for the show’s present day. Until then, read more about how the reveal came together here.
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‘A Bright Room Called Day’ Theater Review: Tony Kushner Revisits His First, Flawed Play
Tony Kushner is in rewrite mode. He tinkered with his “Angels in America” for the recent London and Broadway productions. His rewrite of Ernest Lehman’s screen adaptation of Arthur Laurents’ book for “West Side Story” will hit movie theaters next year. And now he has revised his first play, “A Bright Room Called Day,” written in 1985.
A revival of “Bright Room” opened Monday at Off Broadway’s Public Theater, and the production’s director, Oskar Eustis, calls it “a radical rethink.” The operable word here is “radical.” We’re told from the stage that Kushner’s first play “never worked.” Jonathan Hadary plays the writer and apologizes, “I didn’t trust the play,” and he’s there to do rewrites, especially on a problematic character named Zillah (Crystal Lucas-Perry), who calls the original work a “dramaturgical boondoggle.” (Although this is not mentioned in “Bright Day,” the name Zillah comes from the Bible; he’s the son of Methushael, a descendant of Cain. Hadary’s character is named Xillah, and it rhymes with Zillah. None of this is pertinent to watching or understanding Kushner’s rewritten play.)
Zillah is less a character than a deux ex machina from 1985 that Kushner drops into a play-within-the-play about German communists living in Berlin, circa 1932 and 1933. Zillah is there to alter what is inevitable regarding Hitler’s rise to power.
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The best scenes in “Bright Day” are when Zillah and Xillah show up to stop the action and riff on their respective roles as theatrical device and playwright. They also link what happened in Nazi Berlin to the Reagan Revolution and the Trump presidency, which comes as a complete shock to Zillah, since she’s from 1985. “The clown from Queens?” she wonders.
Zillah and Xillah dazzle with their long rant on the power of absolute stupidity in high places. Also very entertaining are the multiple ways in which they tear down the fourth wall. Xillah apologizes, “I know (the play) is long. I’m keeping you from Chris Hayes and Rachael Maddow.” Those two MSNBC names are not coincidental. Xillah/Kushner knows he’s preaching to the choir at downtown Manhattan’s Public Theater, and the revised “Bright Day” may be the first play to chastise us for thinking we’re doing anything meaningful by listening to speeches we already agree with and feeling morally superior in the process.
Lucas-Perry is beyond enthusiastic in her role as the would-be Nazi exterminator from 1985. Hadary comes off as a benign Bernie Sanders. These actors are a brilliant two-hander waiting to be freed from much of what surrounds them.
That said, “Bright Day” needs another character. Let’s call him/her/their Yillah, or The Dramaturg, who could cut at least 30 minutes from this three-hour play. First cut: Hadary gives us a long account of how the title “Bright Room” came to Kushner one day when he visited an exhibition on Agnes de Mille, who choreographed the original “Oklahoma!,” among other works. Her first name is Agnes, just like Kushner’s lead German character here. Is Kushner saying that de Mille is relevant because she refused to speak out against her rabid right-wing uncle Cecil B. deMille, the movie director? Second, third and fourth cuts would be much of the Berlin storyline. Kushner gives us an almost daily, sometimes hourly, account of what happened in Germany from 1932 to 1933. Factoids about the Hitler’s rise to power are projected on the upstage wall of David Rockwell’s handsome apartment set. These statements of horrible political facts are simple and riveting. Some of the communist characters in “Bright Room” are not.
The exceptions are Linda Emond’s intellectual communist Annabella and Michael Urie’s gay communist Gregor. Urie manages to be campy and still exude supreme strength. Emond grounds every scene she’s in with her quiet, focused intensity.
Eustis has less success with his other actors. Michael Esper, cursed with an impenetrable Eastern European accent, can’t make his firebrand Hungarian communist Vealtninc anything other than obnoxious. Grace Gummer’s excessive mannerisms squelch the comic effect of her dilettante communist actress Paulinka. And at the center of it all, Nikki M. James’s wannabe communist Agnes is almost not there. Which is Kushner’s point, probably. Agnes never joins the party, never takes a significant position on any issue and never grabs our attention. If whiny inertia is a note, James keeps hitting it over and over again in Act 2. Zillah is there to push Agnes into action, but we know it’s a waste of time long before the play ends.
Since he’s on the subject of Hitler, Reagan and Trump (and sets the play in the land of Goethe’s “Faust”), Kushner throws the Devil into “Bright Day,” and Mark Margolis delivers a most memorable one. He’s alternately gross and debonair, and Rockwell’s fiery set-design adds considerable heat to an already sizzling cameo. Even more theatrical is Estelle Parson’s walking nightmare, a scary old beggar woman who haunts Agnes’s conscience. Parsons shows up in the Nazi Germany sections of the play to goose the action whenever Hadary and Lucas-Perry are off stage doing something else. Hadary even admits that Parsons is something of a needed distraction. She’s kind of like that flying lady with big wings in “Angels in America: Perestroika.”
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