Hold The Ashes posted:

Hold The Ashes posted:

Southpaugh posted:

Now we know why Bourdain just bailed on life, jesus.

Hollywood Reporter posted:

The X-Men: Apocalypse helmer, who has battled bad PR, lawsuits and continued scrutiny in the post-#MeToo era — none of which seems to have stuck — would take the reins on a big-screen adaptation of the 1970s sword and sorcery Conan the Barbarian comic book spinoff. Ashley Miller, who wrote X-Men: First Class (which Singer produced), is writing the screenplay.

Millennium is financing and producing the new version of Sonja and is hoping to start a franchise and capture the audience that turned out for Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman. Millennium’s Avi Lerner and Joe Gatta are producing alongside Cinelou’s Mark Canton and Courtney Solomon.

Sources say Millennium will pay Singer top dollar for the assignment, which is seen as a step toward rehabilitating the director's image. Singer was fired by Fox after repeatedly not showing up for work on the set of its Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, among other work offenses. In December, he was sued by Cesar Sanchez-Guzman, who accused the director of raping him when he was a 17-year-old boy in 2003. It wasn't the first time that Singer had faced such an accusation.

But Singer wound up overseeing the editing of Bohemian Rhapsody and is poised to receive full directing credit. The movie is now generating strong buzz inside and outside of the studio. While audiences and critics will be the jury on Bohemian Rhapsody when it opens Nov. 2, Millennium is willing to take a chance on Singer given that "none of the allegations seem to have merit," says an insider.

Singer was dropped by his agency, WME, earlier this year and has been negotiating the Red Sonja deal with the help of his attorney David Feldman.

Fart City posted:

Asia Argento is threatening to sue Rose McGowan after Rose went public with further information about the sexual abuse allegations being levied at Argento, including that she allegedly received nude photos of her accuser when he was only twelve years old.

So.

Everything about this is super gross as gently caress.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/asia-argento-rose-mcgowan-lawsuit-724895/

aware of dog posted:

Come the gently caress on
https://twitter.com/vanityfair/status/1045775167320981504?s=21

Wheat Loaf posted:

Has he got any big movies coming out? I'm not sure what his last project would've been - did he direct the last X-Men?

Autechresaint posted:

Directed that queen biopic..well started, then walked off and disappeared, someone else finished it, but will still gets full directors credit because who knows why.

Hollywood Reporter posted:

Two women came forward with claims of inappropriate sexual advances in a story in Patheos on Thursday. In 2014 a first accuser, a former classmate of deGrasse Tyson's at the University of Texas in Austin, accused him of rape in a blog post.

“We have only just become aware of the recent allegations regarding Neil deGrasse Tyson. We take these matters very seriously and we are reviewing the recent reports," Fox and National Geographic said in a statement.

The producers of Cosmos added in their own statement, "The credo at the heart of COSMOS is to follow the evidence wherever it leads. The producers of COSMOS can do no less in this situation. We are committed to a thorough investigation of this matter and to act accordingly as soon as it is concluded.”

Slate posted:

The New York Times got its hands on a draft version of the report produced by the independent investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against disgraced CBS CEO Les Moonves, and whatever you were imagining, it’s worse. According to the Times, which covered the story via the simultaneous publication of a reported piece from Rachel Abrams and Edmund Lee, a summary of the four main takeaways from the draft report, and an opinion piece from James B. Stewart,the lawyers that CBS hired to look into Moonves’ past not only concluded that Moonves had “engaged in multiple acts of serious nonconsensual sexual misconduct in and outside of the workplace, both before and after he came to CBS in 1995,” but that Moonves lied, misled investigators, and destroyed evidence during the course of the investigation. What’s more, the report concludes that board members, high-ranking CBS executives, and rank-and-file employees were aware of allegations against Moonves—in the case of the now-deceased board member Arnold Kopelson, since as far back as 2007—and did little or nothing about them.

quote:

Although the reporters did conclude that Moonves’ sexual misconduct came to an end in 2004 when he married Julie Chen, knowledge of Moonves’ behavior was still widespread enough in 2018 that multiple employees told the investigators about another CBS employee who was believed to be “on call” to provide Moonves with oral sex, and thus unfireable. The woman in question did not respond to investigators’ requests for an interview, but Moonves admitted to receiving what he described as consensual oral sex from her in his office, despite the fact that she was his subordinate. (The fact that Moonves’ behavior was apparently an open secret casts a terrible light on the board’s initial decision to stand by Moonves until his conduct had been investigated; Moonves didn’t resign until September, after a second round of sexual misconduct allegations.)

NYT posted:

In March 2017, Eliza Dushku, an actress known for her work on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” signed on to play a major role in three episodes of the CBS prime-time drama “Bull,” and there were plans to make her a full-time cast member.

Her time on the set began promisingly. The show’s star, Michael Weatherly — a mainstay of CBS’s prime-time lineup for 15 years — seemed friendly. And a producer and writer on “Bull,” Glenn Gordon Caron, told Ms. Dushku she would be more than a love interest.

Then came a series of comments that made Ms. Dushku uncomfortable. In front of the cast and crew, Mr. Weatherly remarked on her appearance, and made a rape joke and a comment about a threesome. Shortly after Ms. Dushku confronted the star about his behavior, she was written off the show. She believed her time on “Bull” came to a sudden end as a result of retaliation.

After she went through mediation with CBS, the company agreed to a confidential settlement that would pay her $9.5 million, roughly the equivalent of what Ms. Dushku would have earned if she had stayed on as a cast member for four seasons.

Variety posted:

Harvey Weinstein was hit with a lawsuit Friday from an actress who claims he forcibly performed oral sex on her, repeatedly masturbated in front of her, and threatened to harm her career if she objected.

According to the suit, Weinstein pushed her to the ground during a meeting in his office in 2013. He then removed her underwear and began to perform oral sex, as she started to sob in protest. He then asked, “Do you even want to be an actress?,” according to the suit.

Weinstein said he was trying to help her and that he was the gateway to her dreams, according to the suit, adding, “I slept with Jennifer Lawrence and look where she is; she has just won an Oscar.”

Lawrence issued a statement on Friday denying that they had a sexual relationship.

“My heart breaks for all the women who were victimized by Harvey Weinstein,” Lawrence said. “I have never had anything but a professional relationship with him. This is yet another example of the predatory tactics and lies that he engaged in to lure countless women.”

Variety posted:

National Geographic Channel has pulled its long-running Neil deGrasse Tyson chat show “StarTalk” off the air, at least for now, following allegations of sexual misconduct against the famed astrophysicist. “StarTalk” will remain on hiatus as a Fox Networks Group investigation into the multiple claims continues.

The timing of the allegations put Nat Geo in a tough position. Not only had it just promoted the return of “StarTalk,” but its much-anticipated 13-episode series “Cosmos: Possible Worlds,” the latest edition of the “Cosmos” revival hosted by Tyson, is set to premiere on March 4.

“Cosmos: Possible Worlds” will also air on the Fox network, premiering on March 3, the night before its Nat Geo launch. With just two months before air, it would be virtually impossible for Fox and Nat Geo to replace Tyson on “Cosmos.” Not only does he narrate the series, but he’s incorporated on-camera throughout the show. Nat Geo has touted the fact that “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” will air as a global event on National Geographic in 172 countries and 43 languages, making it an important centerpiece for the network. Should Fox and Nat Geo opt to part ways with Tyson, it would require time and effort to recut the show with a new host (such as, say, executive producer Seth MacFarlane).

quote:

Then the subject of C.K. entered the discussion. “Leave Louis C.K. alone. Enough with that. And again, there are so many issues we gotta be motivated on. He’s been my friend — and I stand by that — he’s been my friend since 1985, and I think he has suffered,” she said. “And when he performs at the Comedy Cellar and people get all irate, if nothing else, care about his daughters. If nothing else — if you can find no compassion for him, which I think you should — think about how his daughters, who hear all of this stuff, feel. Why don’t you leave him alone for them if you’re so women-empowering?”

quote:

Cause you don’t understand what it is like to be a public pariah, cause it’s not happened to you. You don’t understand what it’s like to have people in the street yell things"
[another host says "But he chose to be a public person, and then he chose to take advantage of that."]

"Also, I don’t think you know the full story … and nobody talks onstage in their stand-up more than him [about] everything he’s ever done throughout that whole time. I don’t want to get caught up in this, because clearly you take a strong position on this, and it doesn’t win me any friends. This is like talking about Israel. But I do believe when you’re a friend with someone, and if you think that they have suffered — I don’t believe in kicking a person when they’re down."

quote:

Garofalo goes on to note that “there’ll be nothing but vitriol coming at me about this, and it’s so easy to get mad at these things and then lose sight of other things that impact our lives.” When the hosts again note that they can juggle multiple issues at once, Garofalo tells them that C.K. has “paid heavily, heavily, and his family has paid heavily.” When the hosts take issue with C.K. performing at comedy clubs like the Cellar, Garofalo says, “Oh my God. Do you know how much offensive material goes on at the Comedy Cellar? You know what? If you don’t want to listen to him, get up and leave the room. You are acting like Mussolini has walked into the room, and it is not. This is a human being.”

quote:

“The whole point of comedy is to say things that you shouldn’t say. That’s the entire point,” he said.

Comedy is also like porn, he said. Then he made a joke about a porn star’s rear end in a top hat, and concluded that the world needs porn because it somehow keeps men from molesting their colleagues at work.

Daily Beast interviewing Brad Bird posted:

Lasseter took a six-month leave of absence, admitting to “missteps,” and in June Disney announced that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year. On January 9, the day after Bird and I meet, Skydance Animation announced it had hired Lasseter as its new head, a redemption in the #MeToo era that many of the company’s employees questioned at a contentious town hall meeting.

Bird has a hard time talking about the allegations against Lasseter. “These times are not good for nuance,” he says. “You’re either 100 percent for something or you’re 100 against something.”

He tells me a story about Lasseter coming to bat for him when Michael Eisner and Steve Jobs didn’t want to give a movie to the guy “who just did this flop The Iron Giant,” referring to Bird’s 1999 box-office misfire. They were told their script idea for The Incredibles was too much like Spy Kids—“which is beyond me”—and didn’t have enough fantasy elements, “like little blue fish or blue monsters.” Basically, they wanted Lasseter to direct another movie instead.

John kind of flung his body between us and the executives and said I think these guys are onto something and let’s give them a little more time to develop it,” Bird says. “By the time we finished our story reels, that guy was gone and the reels spoke for themselves. He stuck his neck out in a way that few in Hollywood are willing to.”

“I don’t at all put John in a category with Weinstein,” he continues. “You’re navigating a world where men have acted a certain way for thousands of years. Way too late, but all of a sudden, they’re expected to change that on a dime and it’s necessary and it’s right. But it’s a little bit a gray area. It’s not as hard of a cut as people want to make it. I’m an old friend of John’s and I don’t see him in black and white. I see him as a person like anyone else. He was a person who was very protective of us at a time when we needed it. So my feelings are a little bit more complicated.”

I ask him, aside from the experience of making The Incredibles sequel 15 years after the original, what the experience of talking about it in a different era of media has been like, when he’s been asked about everything from the film’s gender politics to the Lasseter accusations to Tom Cruise’s ties to Scientology.

“I’m an old friend of John [Lasseter’s] and I don’t see him in black and white. I see him as a person like anyone else.”

“Some ways it’s less difficult,” he says. “Some ways it’s more difficult.”

“It’s often like a pendulum,” he continues. “If people had been historically insensitive, the pendulum goes to hypersensitive. I understand where it came from and it’s fine. I just want to go to the other world where people don’t care about this kind of stuff so much. I just mean that once everybody has a fair shot, then it becomes about the work. That’s the place I want to get to. I don’t want people to be singled out because of whatever their particular slant is, or kept from opportunities because of it. I want a place where everybody gets to do everything and it’s now about the work.”

Barry Convex posted:

I don’t expect this movie to actually get made, but still, wtf

https://twitter.com/tatianasiegel27/status/1088562198740254721?s=21

GLAAD statement to Variety posted:

In light of the latest allegations against director Bryan Singer, GLAAD has made the difficult decision to remove ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ from contention for a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Film – Wide Release category this year. This week’s story in The Atlantic documenting unspeakable harms endured by young men and teenage boys brought to light a reality that cannot be ignored or even tacitly rewarded.

Singer’s response to The Atlantic story wrongfully used ‘homophobia’ to deflect from sexual assault allegations and GLAAD urges the media and the industry at large to not gloss over the fact that survivors of sexual assault should be put first.

The team that worked so hard on ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as well as the legacy of Freddie Mercury deserve so much more than to be tainted in this way. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ brought the story of LGBTQ icon Freddie Mercury to audiences around the world, many of whom never saw an out and proud lead character in a film or saw the impact of HIV and AIDS in fair and accurate ways. The impact of the film is undeniable. We believe, however, that we must send a clear and unequivocal message to LGBTQ youth and all survivors of sexual assault that GLAAD and our community will stand with survivors and will not be silent when it comes to protecting them from those who would do them harm/

Other films that involve Singer now or in the future should take note of the backlash to The Atlantic story and other previous allegations. The industry cannot let those who perpetuate harms against anyone – especially vulnerable young people – go unnoticed or unchecked any longer.

LividLiquid posted:

No.

If I found out my friend was a rapist, they wouldn't be my friend anymore and if I stayed friends with a rapist once it became known, I deserve to be dragged for enabling a rapist.

It's not "complicated." It's super loving simple.

Sucrose posted:

Can’t we just accept entertainers as just...........entertainers? They are generally stupid about things not in their area of expertise. They have bad takes. It just further backs up my opinion that absolutely nobody should be looking to these people for moral guidance.

Sarah Paulson posted:

The story of Rosanna Arquette is a triumphant one- but it’s also disturbing. She was one of the first women to publicly speak out about Harvey Weinstein.

I was stirred by several of her recent interviews where she was quoted as saying she couldn't find work -or representation -this seems a direct consequence of her bravery.

I am producing a new Netflix show, RATCHED, with Ryan Murphy- and we decided this could not stand.

Her body of work -from Desperately Seeking Susan to Pulp Fiction and beyond, has always been deeply inspiring to both of us. So there will be a multi-episode arc for this extraordinary actress. Ratched starts shooting Wednesday and I say with great pride- welcome to our family, Rosanna. I am thrilled to be in a position, due to the empowerment of my friend and collaborator, Ryan Murphy, not to just act in a piece, but hire the talent showcased in it, as well.

Deadline posted:

Millennium Films’ Red Sonja film with Bryan Singer is being put on the back burner. After the movie was on the slate last year at the American Film Market, the prolific U.S. mini-studio has told us, “the project is not on the slate at the moment and is not for sale at the EFM in Berlin.”

Embattled Bohemian Rhapsody director Singer has not been formally removed from Red Sonja, but Millennium’s statement seems to at least acknowledge the filmmaker may not be the right fit for the movie at this juncture.

The big-budget action-fantasy film, which has been on the The Expendables outfit’s slate for more than a decade, was expected to shoot this year in Bulgaria, but that won’t be happening. Cast has not been set.

quote:

He began by saying that he loves being back in New York. He recalled a guy on the street telling him he loved his Netflix show, only to realize he was talking about Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act. The guy quickly realized his mistake. “‘Oh, no, Aziz, right?’ Yeah, yeah, that’s me. ‘Master of None!’ Yeah, yeah, that’s me. ‘Parks and Rec!’ Yeah, yeah, that’s me. ‘Treat yourself!’ Yeah, yeah, that’s me. ‘And you had the whole thing come out last year — sexual misconduct?’ No, no, no, no, no, no, that’s Hasan!”

From there, Ansari sat down, and his voice turned somber. He told the audience that there are two reasons he hasn’t really talked about that “whole thing” much, referring to the story that came out last year on Babe.net accusing him of sexual misconduct. First, he said, he wanted time to process and determine what he wanted to say. Second, “it’s a terrifying thing to talk about.” “There were times I felt really upset and humiliated and embarrassed, and ultimately I just felt terrible this person felt this way,” he continued, his voice wavering. “But you know, after a year, how I feel about it is, I hope it was a step forward. It made me think about a lot, and I hope I’ve become a better person.” Ansari recalled a conversation in which a friend told him it made him rethink every date he’s been on: “If that has made not just me but other guys think about this, and just be more thoughtful and aware and willing to go that extra mile, and make sure someone else is comfortable in that moment, that’s a good thing.”

quote:

In summer 2018, as preparations were being made to record the dubbed vocals for Dragon Ball Super: Broly, two people connected to the project met with Funimation executives to suggest Mignogna be recast due to some improper conduct allegations making the rounds in the voice acting community, according to someone present at the meeting. This person, who asked not to be named, said that Funimation later told them the company was conducting an investigation into Mignogna’s conduct—but it was inconclusive, so Mignogna was kept on the project.

Snowman_McK posted:

It is interesting how many people immediately decided "a gay black man was attacked? Obviously a self staged hoax, it's the most likely explanation"

Basebf555 posted:

Out of necessity though. You don't just sit by allow Nazis to take over, you punch them and keep punching them until they get tired of it and go back into their holes.