Newsletter Thursday, March 08, 2018

[LaineyGossip.com - Calling all smuthounds!] Thursday, March 08, 2018 [Intro for March 8, 2018]( [Serena Williams](Dear Gossips, Today is International Women’s Day. It’s the day that Serena Williams returns, playing in the first round at Indian Wells, her first professional tournament since she left the tour during her pregnancy – but only after winning the Australian Open in January 2017. Serena is coming into the match unranked because she’s taken so much time off. And she told [The Wall Street Journal]( that she doesn’t expect to be perfect right away. This is a warmup. Elite athletes like Serena time their peaks. We heard about that a lot during the Olympics. You build your performance schedule so that by the time the event you really want to win comes around, you’ll have the mileage behind you to be able to deliver at that specific moment. I love this about sport, and I wish we talked about it more. So much of our focus is about what happens during the game. But there’s so much work, beyond training, so much strategy that goes into it before you even step on the court, or the ice, or the ring. As I’ve always said about Serena, she’s only able to play the way she does because so much preparation and thinking has happened before her matches. What Serena wants is more slams. The next grand slam is the French Open in May. She has just over two months then to get into match shape to tie Margaret Court’s record of 24. Only three women have won grand slams after having a baby. But none of them were doing it at Serena’s age. They keep talking about how competitive the women’s game is right now, how strong the women’s tour is right now. So of course it’s going to be hard. It should be hard. She probably wants it to be hard. That’s how you get better – by competing against people who want to win just as badly as you do. Can we talk about how cute her baby is though? Those eyelashes! [A post shared by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams)]( on Mar 1, 2018 at 6:33am PST Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr is now 6 months old. And her mother is making her comeback. They’re just waiting to drop that lyric at some point, aren’t they? You know the one. Happy International Women’s Day! Yours in gossip, Lainey [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 2:01 PM [What Else?]( [Harvey Weinstein](Do you think Harvey Weinstein watched the Oscars? I do. Totally. I haven’t had a chance to screen the Oscars again yet but I’m sure there are at least several of his films shown in those montages. There were a LOT of montages. Like, at least Shakespeare In Love, right? Pretty sure I remember seeing Dame Judi Dench. Anyway, Harvey is still under investigation. So it’s possible that he’ll be charged? [And go to jail](? Imagine. One day he might be watching the Oscars from the common room in prison. Getting heckled from other inmates. (Dlisted) We talk a lot about different stories. About the need to tell different stories, or the same stories but from a different perspective, so that art and culture is not delivered through the lens of a specific group of people. Of all the stories that are waiting to be told, and should be told, [IS THIS REALLY THE ONE](? Remember when Tiffany Haddish was on Drunk History? She initially wanted to tell the story of the weave and for whatever reason, they couldn’t make it happen. But that makes me think of Marjorie Joyner. Who invented the perm machine, making her one of the first black women in history to hold a patent. Don’t you want a movie about THAT?!? (Cele|bitchy) I loved what Maya Rudolph wore at the Oscars. So of course [I love what Kristin Scott Thomas is wearing here](. Is it the same? Almost, but I don’t remember any sheer detail at the wrist on Maya’s dress. I think I might like Kristin’s a little more for exactly that – and I’m not someone who’s super into sheer. But the way it’s done here, so sparingly, the effect is … sexy. A turtleneck sack dress is sexy! (Go Fug Yourself) As Sarah [wrote earlier]( in the Chris Hemsworth post, the Avengers: Infinity War press tour is coming. And [Entertainment Weekly has released 15 covers]( featuring 22 of the characters. Ummm…. 22? Now I want to pop quiz myself to see if I can name them all. Because that will distract from me being worried that 22 is too many. And I’m an Avengers stan. But that’s a LOT of superheroes. Sorry, but do we really need Ant-Man? See? This is what’s going to happen. Having conversations about “do we really next X or Y or Z”. Ant-Man comes up for me first. (Looper) [Tom Brady shaved his head for charity](. Which is great. I’m not sh-tting here on the intention. It’s a beautiful intention. Here’s the true test of Tom Brady’s hotness though – if he’s still hot now. I feel like his hotness has come down in the last few years. And having a shaved head can really make or break hotness. (TMZ) Do you have Alexa? If so, [I need you to tell me if you’ve heard the creepy laugh](. Have you heard about this? Alexa has apparently been refusing to perform tasks. And sometimes, out of the blue, it laughs. And, understandably, people are freaking out. There’s now a fix for the laughing problem. But how did it become a problem? I’ve read that some people were downstairs when, upstairs, Alexa just started laughing randomly because it heard something that sounded like the laugh command. Why is it programmed to laugh in the first place? (The Verge) [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 8:24 PM [Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time]( [Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon and Ava DuVernay attend as O, The Oprah Magazine hosts special NYC screening of 'A Wrinkle In Time' at Walter Reade Theater at Walter Reade Theater on March 7, 2018 in New York City](A Wrinkle in Time is an ambitious movie and its scope outstrips its narrative ability, resulting in an uneven but occasionally enthralling fantasy. Meg (Storm Reid, terrific) is introduced helping her father, Alex Murry (Chris Pine, terrific) in his lab. He’s doing an experiment with sand and frequencies, and talking about how finding just the right frequency can do…something. This is as much explanation as we get regarding Alex Murry’s attempts to fold space-time, which is the mechanism that drives the entire plot. So right off Wrinkle has a problem, and that is that the script, from Jennifer Lee (Frozen) and Jeff Stockwell (Bridge to Terabithia), does not adequately establish what the f*ck is happening. Exposition is a problem in films, especially sci-fi/fantasy films that require a lot of world-building, but on the scale of “too much exposition” and “not enough exposition”, Lee and Stockwell err on the side of “not enough” and the result is that characters in Wrinkle can “tesser” across the universe through the power of believing in themselves, or something. I’m sure a book reader can explain it, but a movie is a different thing and should not require footnotes. Still, that’s not a disastrous issue. It’s just low-key confusing when all of a sudden people can just poof across the universe because they’re super self-confident or whatever. What saves Wrinkle in the early going is the strength of the characters. Meg is immediately identifiable and relatable, a girl uncomfortable in her own body, smart but not applying herself, tortured by a bully and berated by teachers because she’s too much. She’s too tall, too awkward, too angry—her father disappeared four years ago, why aren’t you over it yet, Meg? (Basically something a teacher says to her.) Her younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe, a child) is harder to relate to, being a super genius who dresses like a forty-five-year-old accountant. But he’s a little sparky, telling off teachers gossiping about what happened to his father. The characters keep Wrinkle feeling light even as the plot grinds away around them, especially once “the missus” start appearing. Mrs. Whatsit ([Reese Witherspoon]() appears in the Murrys’ backyard, already acquainted with Charles Wallace, and Meg and her mother ([Gugu Mbatha-Raw](, given very little to do) recover quickly enough to cope with the stranger marching through their home. In rapid succession we meet Mrs. Who ([Mindy Kaling]() and Mrs. Which ([Oprah Winfrey](), and Wrinkle blows through their introductions so fast their arrivals hardly feel special. There is no build or mystery to the coming of these strange women—not even when Mrs. When appearing as big as a building makes her really impressive. We’re back to the script which is already on life support. But those characters! DuVernay knows how to work with actors, and she gets solid performances from everyone, especially Storm Reid. The kids who fall in love with Wrinkle will do so because Meg is indelible. Once Meg starts traversing the universe, the worlds she visits don’t feel all that special or amazing. (No time is spent developing any one location into a real place, and the alien worlds look like screensavers.) The one world that stands out is the domain of the Happy Medium (Zach Galifianakis, good but it feels like at least half his performance got cut). The Happy Medium’s dwelling is a series of amber balancing beams, and as everyone else bounds around effortlessly, Meg stumbles and shakes and repeatedly almost falls. It’s not a particularly subtle metaphor but it’s an effective one, particularly for anyone who has ever wondered why life seems so easy for everyone else (so, basically, everybody). Meg just can’t get the hang of balancing, and this whole scene sings as her self-consciousness and self-doubt are played out within the context of the world she’s in. If only more of Wrinkle operated like this one scene, but it doesn’t. Character development for everyone but Meg gets short shrift, as does plot development. The result is that Wrinkle feels like a series of interconnected happenings and not one cohesive narrative. A Wrinkle in Time is okay. It’s not great. It’s not bad. Some parts of it are fun/cool/delightful. Other parts are clunky/slow/confusing. It might be unfilmable. It might be better suited for television. It’s definitely a movie with big ideas, a broken script, and some visuals that are neat and others that are spawned from the uncanny valley. It’s not perfect, it’s not totally a mess. It won’t be the defining young adult movie of a generation, but there is a pocket of kids who will latch onto A Wrinkle in Time HARD, who will love it as passionately as earlier generations love other strange fantasy movies like The Phantom Tollbooth, The Neverending Story, The Last Unicorn, or more recently, Stardust. It’s an imperfect movie with a big heart, and though it will have its detractors, it will also have its fans. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 8:12 PM [Chris Hemsworth reporting for duty]( [Chris Hemsworth arrives in Vancouver, March 7, 2018](Here are some photos of Chris Hemsworth at the airport in Vancouver, returning to work on Bad Times at the El Royal. That’s the movie I [name-checked previously]( as an interesting project Hemsworth is working on, reuniting with his Cabin in the Woods director, Drew Goddard. I can’t tell if Hemsworth is trying to keep a low profile here or what, wearing that hat that screams “I don’t know how to hug women without creeping them out”. (Fedoras have been ruined forever by the Nice Guy brigade, sorry everyone.) Also, we can now have a debate about whether or not the beard is an improvement or a distraction. I think we’ve all agreed that the Lesser Hemsworth, Liam, is better with a beard, as is Chris Evans. But is Chris Hemsworth improved by a beard? He was hot in Thor: Ragnarok, but Thor is a whole aesthetic. [Chris Hemsworth]( is hotter with a beard: Discuss. Are you ready for Hemsworth and the rest of the Avengers to hit the promotional trail in just a few weeks? I feel like we’re still in the Black Panther moment, but Avengers: Infinity War comes out at the end of April, so it’s about to be a team moment. For Chadwick Boseman it will be a victory lap, coming off the record-breaking success of Black Panther. It’s also a celebration for Hemsworth, who revitalized his character and hit a franchise high with Ragnarok. And I’m curious to see who emerges as the press tour star this time out. We already saw former press tour star Tom Hiddleston take a back seat during Ragnarok promotion, as Hemsworth reengaged with his own franchise and fans latched onto Tessa Thompson and Taika Waititi. With this Infinity War tour fans will have the main cast of Black Panther to obsess over, plus Spider-Man 3.0, Benedict Cumberbatch, and new faces not yet named. It will be interesting to see how the group dynamics shift, with new leaders coming to the fore and new fan favorites dominating fan attention. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 7:14 PM [Smutty Social Media, March 8, 2018]( [Lionel Richie's Hand And Footprint Ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, March 7. 2018](OK my Beyoncé guess was wrong – Gwyneth’s first podcast guest is Oprah. Major, for sure. A-list, absolutely. But – and we can start fighting if you want – it’s not a jaw-dropping scoop. Oprah is, among many other things, [an orator](. She enjoys speaking as much as we enjoy listening to her. Which is why (especially as she is in promotion mode for A Wrinkle In Time) she has been very vocal and open to interviews. Listening is on my to-do list because I want to hear how G dealt with interviewing an interviewer. [A post shared by Gwyneth Paltrow (@gwynethpaltrow)]( on Mar 8, 2018 at 3:02am PST Lionel Richie’s handprint ceremony at the Chinese Theatre happened this week. His family was sitting front row to support him and he looked super excited. But my smutty focus is on sisters Nicole and Sofia. I’ve wondered about their relationship for a while because there’s not a lot of interaction on social media (even though they are both fairly active). I looked through as many photos as I could find and they are not speaking or sitting next to one another in any shots. It doesn’t look like Joel had a lot of interaction with Nic’s siblings either. [A post shared by Sofia Richie (@sofiarichie)]( on Mar 7, 2018 at 5:47pm PST [A post shared by Miles Richie (@milesrichie)]( on Mar 7, 2018 at 11:58am PST NME is folding its print edition after 66 years. I still remember the [Kurt Cobain cover](. [A post shared by Courtney Love Cobain (@courtneylove)]( on Mar 8, 2018 at 1:13am PST As long as I’ve followed Chrissy Teigen on social media (pre marriage and babies), Puddy was always there. She took a lot of time yesterday celebrating him, and letting her friends know they are moving on too quickly. [A post shared by chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen)]( on Mar 7, 2018 at 1:13pm PST [A post shared by chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen)]( on Mar 7, 2018 at 1:48pm PST Puddy would have wanted this [pic.twitter.com/UVSbsSCrAz]( — christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) [March 8, 2018]( It’s interesting that the entire Modern Family cast (minus Manny and Lily) has created a video in support of March for Our Lives. Some of it was filmed on set and it’s a very clear message that mentions not just the march but specifically gun laws, the NRA and voting. After 9 seasons of popularity, they probably didn’t ask permission from the network. Now, if ABC freaks out and wants it taken down so as not to alienate any fans, the cast has already accomplished their goal. Is the Modern Family team badass? [A post shared by Sarah Hyland (@sarahhyland)]( on Mar 7, 2018 at 2:51pm PST Sharon Tate’s sister is not down with Quentin Tarantino’s Manson family project because she does not want Sharon’s memory exploited more than it already has been (read Sarah’s thoughts on how Tarantino will probably frame the story [here](.) Debra Tate is also not a fan of Hilary Duff playing her sister. But she does approve of Kate Bosworth and Michael Polish’s project, and has agreed to become a producer on Tate, which will reportedly be about Sharon’s life and [not her death](. But I wonder if Sharon’s story, which is so steeped in sensationalism and gruesome true-crime voyeurism, can ever do her justice. [A post shared by Kate Bosworth (@katebosworth)]( on Mar 7, 2018 at 3:54pm PST Tom arriving at the office on Monday morning. [A post shared by Tom Cruise (@tomcruise)]( on Mar 7, 2018 at 12:52pm PST [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 6:37 PM [Meghan Markle on International Women’s Day]( [Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit Nechells Wellbeing Centre to join Birmingham's Coach Core apprentices, designed by The Royal Foundation in Birmingham, March 8, 2018](Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – in pants! again! but with extra deliberateness today! – were in Birmingham today, International Women’s Day, visiting with students and future changemakers, and they also spent time with [Stemettes](, encouraging girls and women to pursue careers in STEM. The [Kensington Palace Twitter account]( has several videos and photos from their day, including this tweet that features primarily Meghan. Thank you for such a fantastic day celebrating [#IWD2018]( and the work of [@Stemettes]( and [@WeAreCoachCore]( in Birmingham! [pic.twitter.com/tWKPm3aeCO]( — Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) [March 8, 2018]( I’m highlighting that post in particular because it shows how “official” Meghan is, a reflection of her status with the family, to be the primary feature on what’s essentially one of the royal family’s communication outlets. Well of course she’s official – they’re engaged. But you know how it is. How some people, some institutions, are tight-asses about tradition and formality. Technically, they might say, she’s not part of them, yet. Not until they are married in church, before God. Well, we’re one stop closer to that now too. [Meghan]( was reportedly baptised and confirmed this week by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was a “secret” ceremony. [Prince Harry]( was there with her. I’m pretty sure Kate Middleton did the same. I mean, at least the royal family isn’t a member of the Church of Scientology, you know? PS. Look! It’s Harry and a puppy! Thank you to everyone (dogs included!) for the warm welcome to Birmingham this morning. [pic.twitter.com/f6E3gbGfiP]( — Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) [March 8, 2018]( [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 5:53 PM [Usher’s crush on Tessa Thompson]( [Tessa Thompson and singer Usher at the Los Angeles World Premiere of Marvel Studios' BLACK PANTHER at Dolby Theatre on January 29, 2018 in Hollywood, California](Usher is getting a divorce. He and his estranged wife, Grace Miguel, confirmed this week that they are ending their marriage. Now [Page Six]( is reporting that Usher’s been over it for a while. And that he’s ready to move on… with Tessa Thompson? Usher and his second wife, Grace Miguel, confirmed this week that they’re ending their marriage of two years. But sources tell Page Six that following the LA premiere of runaway hit “Black Panther” in January, Usher looked to be on the prowl. A guest at the extravaganza told us that after Usher posed for pics on the red carpet with singer Janelle Monáe and “Thor: Ragnarok” star Tessa Thompson — “they were talking to Janelle and he and Tessa had flirty body language . . . then he seemed to be following [Thompson] around like a lost puppy.” The witness related that when Thompson “walked away, he followed like a puppy looking for more attention.” In these times, when everyone has a camera on them, WHYYYYY is it that someone couldn’t have taken video of it? Wouldn’t you want to see Usher trailing Tessa around “like a puppy looking for more attention”? F-ck yes. Because it confirms that he was doing the trailing and she was trying to escape. Nobody here is asking for a [Usher]( + [Tessa]( possibility. If there is one person in the universe who wants this to happen, it’s Usher, period, the end. I can think of at least 30 people I’d rather see Tessa with than Usher. Here’s a short list: Janelle Monae Kristen Stewart Garrett Hedlund Michael B Jordan (if he and Lupita Nyong’o can’t make it work) Awkwafina Chris Pine FKA twigs Please, let’s not have Usher be part of this conversation, OMG just the idea of it is ruining my day. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 4:36 PM [MOST BAE Jordan]( [Michael B Jordan on Instagram](I can only assume Kathleen has fallen down a well and is incapacitated at the moment because Lainey assigned me a Michael B. Jordan story in which her Forever Bae MBJ is being the MOST BAE. Remember Frances McDormand’s Oscar speech in which she shouted out inclusion riders and everyone was like, huh? And then we all learned about the [equity initiative]( outlined by Stacy Smith, PhD, in The Hollywood Reporter a few years ago. In short, it’s a clause meant for A-listers to insert into their contracts, ensuring onscreen demographics match the real world’s demographic distribution. The first on-the-record adopter of the inclusion rider? Michael B. Jordan, aka MOST BAE Jordan. Jordan has a production company, Outlier Society, because he’s [driven]( and smart and any actor with ambition should start their own company (see also: Margot Robbie), as a development farm if nothing else. In an Instagram post, Jordan pledged to add an inclusion rider to the projects produced by Outlier Society. That is not a small commitment. Currently Outlier Society has two projects listed, but Jordan is only just hitting his stride as a star. Even though Black Panther is a tremendous success and Killmonger is an instantly iconic role, Jordan hasn’t peaked yet. With the kind of clout he’s gaining, can you imagine how busy his production company could get? In a few years, we could easily talk about MBJ the way we do Mark Wahlberg—except we actually like MBJ. It’s not a small thing for someone like MBJ to commit to the inclusion rider. He’s just at the start of his producing career, so this will be the way his company operates, essentially, from the beginning. This is what will define him as a producer, that at the start, he pledged to use his power to promote an inclusive hiring process and equality on set. And since he is so publicly on the record supporting the initiative, it raises the bar for other actor-producers to follow his example. Frances McDormand threw down a challenge, and Michael B. Jordan was the first to pick it up. Now the question is, who’s next? [A post shared by Michael B. Jordan (@michaelbjordan)]( on Mar 7, 2018 at 3:03pm PST [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 4:01 PM [Mimi, the songwriter]( [Mariah Carey covers V Magazine](Mimi covers the new issue of [V Magazine](. It’s a great shoot. The shoot wardrobe is basically underwear. Which means she’s feeling herself, feeling herself so good, especially since every shot is taken from her extra skinniest angles. This interview is making headlines because Mimi talks about winning Grammys and why that isn’t important to her. What’s interesting about this is that, after the last couple of years in particular, the relevance of the Grammys is under scrutiny. But it turns out, Mimi was way ahead of that curve. I didn’t realise it until she mentioned it: Mimi hasn’t been involved in the Grammys proper in 10 years. She’s attended Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy party but Mimi doesn’t go to the Grammys. And it’s not like they wouldn’t want her there. She’s one of the most accomplished artists of our time. She could present. She could perform. She could collaborate-perform. But she hasn’t been a Grammy presence. And now she’s explaining why: “In the music business, if you care about the Grammys and submitting your stuff before a certain time frame, you want a single out in the summer, and then you want to have your record [out] before the Grammys [consideration] deadline, which has changed. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. I mean, I have five Grammys. That’s cute. There’s people that have been doing this half the time that have twice as many [Grammys]. I won two Grammys the first year I started, but after that, [the Grammys] are like, “We don’t go with the people that are selling a lot of records and are popular; we’re gonna go the opposite way.” So I got screwed out of certain years. I wasn’t bitter about it. I was just like, okay, well, I guess I’m not standing here barefoot onstage singing and trying to go a certain way. I’m just me.” “That’s cute.” LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Mimi so f-cking great at pettiness, I wish someone would come up with an award to honour her for this skill. As Mimi reminds us though, she doesn’t get enough credit in other areas too. She insists that she’s a songwriter first, and then a singer. And she’s right about not being adequately acknowledged for her songwriting abilities. She wrote the most popular modern Christmas song, the song that you can’t escape between November and January. She holds the record for #1s with 18, the most of any solo artist – and she wrote 17 of those songs. And, as she notes in this interview, with those #1s, she changed what pop music sounds like and who gets to participate: “I remember writing “Fantasy,” then watching it evolve, and being able to sneak Ol’ Dirty Bastard onto the song [laughs]. Now, still hearing it and having people walking down the street going, [deep voice] “Me and Mariah,” saying ODB’s raps for me...Now, everybody’s like, “Oh, it’s so innovative, a pop artist working with rappers!” I’m like, are you serious? Do you know how much shit I had to go through just to be able to work with anyone in hip-hop? It wasn’t done because I thought it was cool. Yes, I thought it was cool in the sense of enjoying myself, but it wasn’t like I was trying to be something I wasn’t. Now, every genre is mixed together. Back then, the rap category had just started.” Mimi is a trailblazer, a big f-cking deal. So if she wants to do interviews in lingerie, what’s the f-cking problem? Mimi brings up her lingerie – and her hair and makeup – a LOT. She thinks that’s why people don’t take her seriously. Here’s what she says when she’s asked what she wants people to know about her songwriting: “It’s something that I think a lot of people don’t give women enough credit for, unless they are known visually as someone strumming a guitar, or they’re behind a piano most of the time. I also have that diva thing attached to me; I mean, I’m sitting here doing an interview in lingerie. But I was just like, you’re totally gonna understand that this is what I’m gonna wear! Why should I wear something uncomfortable? This is what I like.” You can write hit songs in a negligee, OK? Got it. This is why some of Mimi’s answers are so amazing. Because the journalist is there asking questions about her work process, and suddenly we’re talking about outfits. What she’s trying to say about her outfits though, her style, is that it’s part of her presentation as a legend, part of her standard, the Mimi standard, but also a standard of music, a measurement of consistently high quality. She is declaring then that she is a constant of excellence. And image is one way of conveying that message. Mimi’s hair will always be a certain way, her clothes, when she wears them, will also be a certain fit. For her, it’ll always be glitter and dazzle and sparkle and sequins and gowns and hair, hair, hair, and lashes, lashes, lashes. When you see all that, you’re supposed to remember that all of that represents an icon of music. Why would you ever want her to change? To read more of Mimi’s interview with V Magazine and to see all the really skinny photos, please [click here](. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 3:24 PM [Silicon Valley has a gender problem and no one misses TJ Miller]( [Silicon Valley covers The Hollywood Reporter ](That’s the takeaway from The Hollywood Reporter’s cover profile of Silicon Valley, ahead of the show’s fifth season launch. TJ Miller, of course, got [caught up]( in Hollywood’s sex pest infestation, but that’s not why he left Silicon Valley. [According to Miller](, he left as a magnanimous gesture to the other cast members, graciously stepping aside so that they may have their chance in the sun. He left to set the show free and allow it to grow in new directions. He left because he’s a hero comedian who doesn’t take his acting career seriously enough to nurture it. But according to this new interview with the remaining cast and creator Mike Judge and showrunner Alec Berg, Miller left because he became a broken spoke. They talk about Miller arriving late to table reads and set, if he showed up at all, falling asleep when he was there, and generally disengaging from the whole process. The only thing Miller and the others agree on about his exit is that he was doing too much and basically was too tired to function as part of the show. It just sounds like TJ Miller “[f*cksh*t](” to me. (And in case you’re wondering about the state of his career, he was not replaced in either Deadpool 2 or Ready Player One. Consequences: They’re not for everyone.) The interview seems a little bit geared toward reassuring people that Silicon Valley will be fine without Miller—which it will, because that ensemble is STRONG—and they get into the state of satirizing the tech industry when everything has spun so out of control in the real world. (We are living in a world so insane it almost defies satirization.) The real tech industry is wrestling with its own responsibility for a successful disinformation campaign orchestrated by a foreign power taking advantage of tech blind spots to directly affect the outcome of a US election. The fake industry of Silicon Valley now has to deal with an echo of this. Showrunner Alec Berg says, “Our protagonists are dreamers […] and instead of dreaming of monetary success, there’s actually starting to be a morality to what they’re fighting for—in a silly way, they’re actually trying to save the world.” Another real-world change Silicon Valley has to grapple with is the increased demand for more gender equality in shows. This has long been an issue with Silicon Valley, which only prominently features one woman, Monica Hall (played by Amanda Crew). It has long been the position of Silicon Valley that the show best satirizes the gender gap in tech by echoing that reality on screen, a sentiment repeated in this interview. But with #MeToo and Time’s Up reaching the tech industry, it’s hard to keep ignoring the shift. But Berg says that “The lack of hitting it head-on just comes down to the fact that we haven’t done a great job of finding the definitive satirical take on it.” Have you tried asking a woman? Silicon Valley has had women in the director’s chair and in the writers’ room. They are not unfamiliar with the concept of women as part of the creative process. But perhaps they are unfamiliar with the concept that a woman might have a better take on a topic than the all-male creative honchos, headed up by Berg and Mike Judge. Perhaps, if the men of Silicon Valley feel unequal to the task of satirizing tech’s toxic bro culture, the answer is not to carry on as always, but to take a step back and invite someone else to tell the story. Maybe you can’t effectively satirize sexual harassment in tech because it’s not YOUR satire to create. In writing about the “[male glance](”, Lili Loofbourow discusses how we have been conditioned by centuries of art to value the masculine perspective over the feminine, and the way Berg and Judge talk about the changing expectations of entertainment, and the show’s attitude toward the same, reeks of the “male glance”. They cannot see beyond their own centered perspective, and so we’re missing out on some funny women’s brilliant and scathing take down of tech’s gender gap. TJ Miller is grabbing all the headlines, but this is the most important part of the profile, because it reveals the deeply ingrained bias that literally shapes the shows we love. Berg and Judge are aware of their shortcomings but completely blind to the most obvious solution—hire a woman. Trust her to tell that particular joke better than they can. [Source]( [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 2:52 PM [March 8, 2018 – Smutty Shout-Outs](�€“-smutty-shout-outs) [Smutty Shout-Outs](In 2012, Margaret was hit and run over by a truck and almost died. Though she recovered physically, she struggled with her mental health. So she started a support group for trauma survivors at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, the first in Canada, developing resources that she needed when she was in crisis. Last month, she and her team presented at the national trauma conference. If you have time today, please watch the video below. On International Women’s Day, we celebrate Margaret and how she turned her personal pain into a program that can help others. Thank you, Margaret. You are a star. [Click here for the rest of the photos.](�€“-smutty-shout-outs) Posted at 2:31 PM [Privacy Policy]( - [Unsubscribe](