All Your Questions About ‘The Idol’ Premiere at Cannes, Answered

The latest in pop-culture news, recaps, and reviews, plus close reads, profiles, interviews, and more from Vulture.com. [Brand Logo]( cannes 2023 [All Your Burning Questions About The Idol’s Cannes Premiere, Answered]( Like: Is Sam Levinson and the Weeknd’s new HBO show starring Lily-Rose Depp actually “sexual torture porn,” or nah? Photo: HBO Before the Monday night premiere of The Idol at Cannes, nobody had actually seen the HBO series, but everyone had formed an opinion on it. The dramatic, yearslong [metanarrative surrounding](the show — co-created by Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a. the Weeknd, Euphoria’s Sam Levinson, and producer Reza Fahim, and starring Tesfaye as an enigmatic cult leader sinking his claws into Lily-Rose Depp’s disgraced pop star — has been threatening to eclipse the project ever since it was announced all the way back in [2021](. In April of 2022, after shooting nearly 80 percent of the show at a rumored budget of $75 million, director Amy Seimetz dropped out of the series, and HBO announced it was [refining The Idol’s “vision” by “adjusting its cast and crew.”]( Sometime thereafter, Levinson moved his entire family into Tesfaye’s Bel Air mansion, where he [reshot the entire thing](. In March, a bombshell report from [Rolling Stone]( alleged that the show had, at Tesfaye and Levinson’s behest, evolved from a story “about a woman who was finding herself sexually” to a story “about a man who gets to abuse this woman and she loves it.” Reportedly, Tesfaye felt the show was heading too much into a “female perspective,” and as a result, the show had devolved into a “rape fantasy” — “sexual torture porn” that dialed up the nudity and disturbing content. “What I signed up for was a dark satire of fame and the fame model in the 21st century. The things that we subject our talent and stars to, the forces that put people in the spotlight and how that can be manipulated in the post-Trump world,” explained one crew member. “It went from satire to the thing it was satirizing.” [read more]( Devour pop culture with us. [Subscribe now]( for unlimited access to Vulture and everything New York. The Latest TV Recaps • Below Deck Sailing Yacht: [Down Bad]( • White House Plumbers: [The Watergate Crash]( • Summer House: [Queens of the Jungle]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Stories We Think You’ll Like [Wes Anderson Has Gone Mad His new movie, Asteroid City, brings a necessary madness to the meticulous director’s method, and it amounts to a masterpiece.]( By Bilge Ebiri [Tony Awards Are Spared a Lin-Manuel Miranda Rap WGA, you’re a ge-NIUS.]( By Jason P. 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Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty Images, Everette Collection Vulture Recommends We consume it all so you don’t have to. Photo: James Veysey/Shutterstock [James Acaster]( knows he’s just the latest in a long line of [comedians making a (semi-)serious turn toward music]( — from Eddie Murphy’s attempt at R&B in the ’80s to Steve Martin’s banjo work and Hannibal Buress’s rapper alter ego, Eshu Tune. So Acaster won’t blame you for initially writing off his new album, Party Gator Purgatory. Not that the album is fully serious — it’s still inspired by the death, afterlife, and rebirth of the Party Gator character. But it’s surprisingly polished, dynamic, and at times even poignant. [Read more from Vulture]( A newsletter of TV and movie recommendations. [Sign up]( to get it every week. 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