Category: aubrey plaza

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Cannes: Cate Blanchett in LV; Simone Ashley in Westwood; Viola Davis in Gucci

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The Cannes Film Festival is finally over and done with, and we now have a few months to recover for the double-whammy of Venice and Toronto. First, let’s get to the Cannes Film Festival’s winners. While Jennifer Lawrence left Cannes with a lot of awards-season buzz, she did not pick up an acting award for Die, My Love. The acting awards went to Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent (a Brazilian film) and Nadia Melliti for The Little Sister. The Palme d’Or (the grand prize of the festival) went to an Iranian film, Un Simple Accident. The runner-up prize, the Grand Prix, went to Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value. The Jury Prize went to two films: Sirât and Sound of Falling. Distributor Neon has now won the Palme d’Or six years in a row. Incredible.

Now, let’s get to the fashion. The last days of Cannes were surprisingly great when it came to fashion moments, too bad that most people were already burned out from all of the Z-listers traipsing around in terrible gowns. Let’s start with the queen, Cate Blanchett, who wore a custom Louis Vuitton. Why doesn’t LV make this kind of dress for their brand ambassadors, huh?

More fashion notes: Simone Ashley’s Vivienne Westwood dress is a DREAM and all of the fashion girls are obsessed; Viola Davis stunned in Gucci; Elle Fanning’s Chanel fairy-princess look is on brand, but I think she could do better; I’m not crazy about Aubrey Plaza’s Miu Miu or Margaret Qualley’s Chanel; Halle Berry (Cannes jury member) ended the festival in Dior, which was good except for the shoulders; Gillian Anderson’s Emilia Wickstead dress is truly one of my favorite dresses ever, that shade of green, the way she styled it, the cut, it’s all perfect.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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Critics are raving about Agatha All Along, ‘Kathryn Hahn is a force’

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Mild spoilers for first two episodes of Agatha All Along


Agatha All Along, the highly-anticipated spinoff to Disney ’s WandaVision, came out on Wednesday, September 18. Marvel hasn’t had a hit movie or TV series in a hot minute, so a lot is riding on this one’s success. From early reviews, critics (and me, but more on that later) love it. They’ve called it “insanely fun,” “absolutely bats— crazy in all the right kinds of ways,” and praised lead Kathryn Hahn for nailing it. It’s also backed up by an amazing supporting cast that critics are loving as well.

Kathryn Hahn has made her grand return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the witch Agatha Harkness, and members of the press appear to be delighted. “Agatha All Along,” the nine-episode sequel series to 2021’s “WandaVision” is being called “insanely fun” and a “bewitching follow-up” in first reactions.

“The Movie Podcast” host Daniel Baptista called Hahn’s performance “spellbinding” and “deliciously devious.”

“[‘Agatha All Along’] is the PERFECT show for the spooky season and filled with BIG WITCH ENERGY,” Baptista wrote on X/Twitter. “Kathryn Hahn is iconic as ever and delivers a deliciously devious and spellbinding performance. Joe Locke is a scene stealer. This is the most fun you’ll have feasting on a show this year.”

Bam Smack Pow’s Michael Patterson said that the series is “absolutely bats— crazy in all the right kinds of ways.”

“Kathryn Hahn is a force, camping it up as Agatha Harkness like we all knew she would,” Patterson wrote on X. “The rest of the cast is also divine, and Joe Locke is a gem. Vivid, outlandish and brilliant.”

Many viewers also praised Joe Locke and Aubrey Plaza’s performances in “Agatha All Along.”

“The first 4 eps are a delightful mix of ‘Hocus Pocus’ & ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ with a hint of horror and loads of comedy,” ScreenRant’s Joseph Deckelmeier wrote on X. “This series is insanely fun and engaging. It’s got that same captivating vibe as ‘WandaVision.’ Absolutely love the ensemble cast portraying the Coven, and Kathryn Hahn is brilliant & Aubrey Plaza is outstanding.”

“Marvel has outdone themselves with [‘Agatha All Along’]!” said FanSided’s Cody Schultz. “It’s an absolutely bewitching follow-up to WandaVision with lots of fun Easter eggs along the way for fans Kathryn Hahn’s performance is perfection, Joe Locke is iconic & the full ensemble is spectacular. One of Marvel’s best!”

“Agatha All Along” picks up after the events of “WandaVision,” in which Agatha (Hahn) was left powerless thanks to Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). In a mission to get her sorceress powers back, Agatha creates a makeshift coven of her own but not every member has the same intention. Hahn is joined in “Agatha” by Locke, Patti LuPone, Plaza, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn and Debra Jo Rupp. “WandaVision” showrunner Jac Schaeffer is behind the spinoff. Brad Winderbaum, Marvel Studios‘ head of streaming, television and animation, recently appeared on the “Official Marvel Podcast” and said “Agatha All Along” will only be fun for so long until it starts scaring viewers.

“‘Agatha’ is really fun, but it’s really scary. And it gets quite dramatic,” Winderbaum teased. “She’s an amazing anti-hero. It lures you in with the fun of Halloween, and before you know it, you’re crying. It’s a Marvel brand of scary. It’s a Halloween show. There are deadly stakes in this series. It’s a fun ride, but it’s a dangerous one.”

[From Variety]

Y’all, I watched the first two episodes, and they’re really good. I wish I could binge the entire series at once because I have a feeling that we are not going to be disappointed. Kathryn Hahn is absolutely killing it as Agatha. She understands the campy-wicked-witch assignment and all Marvel fans really should be here for it. I’m also so intrigued by the backstory of each witch that Agatha recruited and especially want to know what the deal is with Joe Locke’s character, simply known as Teen. The Internet has theories, but I don’t think they’ve come together around one just yet.

I absolutely LOVED the scene where Agatha’s ragtag team of outcast witches sang together in harmony to unlock the door to The Road. Pump those Patti LuPone vocals into my veins, all day, every day. And what about Debra Jo Rupp’s Mrs. Hart? Is she under the same type of memory-affecting spell that Agatha was and Teen possibly is under? Aubrey Plaza kicked ass, too. After watching the first two episodes, I’m really excited for this show and just love how female-centric it is! I hope the rest of the season, which fittingly ends on October 30, is just as much fun as these first two episodes were.

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Photos credit: Dave Starbuck/Future Image/Cover Images and Getty, PA Images/INSTARimages

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Patti LuPone would rather eat a ‘death wing’ than apologize to Madonna

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Seven years ago, while appearing on Watch What Happens Live, three-time Tony award winner (and national treasure) Patti LuPone called Madonna “a movie killer” who “cannot act her way out of a paper bag.” Good times. The backstory between the ladies was that Patti originated the role of Eva Perón on Broadway in Evita, while Madonna was cast in the part for the movie adaptation. So why are we rehashing seven-year-old news? Because our candid Ms. LuPone was just on Hot Ones Versus with former roomie and Agatha All Along costar Aubrey Plaza (the show premieres September 18 on Disney ). The two squared off in a battle of truth-or-eat-the-hot-wing, and one of the challenges Aubrey laid down was for Patti to apologize to Madonna on camera… or eat a “death wing.” I swear, Patti dove in for that death wing before Aubrey even finished her sentence.

Patti LuPone is taking the Madonna lyric “please don’t say you’re sorry” to heart.

The Broadway icon joined Aubrey Plaza on a recent episode of Hot Ones Versus, where she refused to apologize for incendiary comments she once leveled at the pop star. Plaza directed LuPone to “look into the camera and apologize to the pop icon” for calling her a “movie killer” who “can’t act her way out of a paper bag” on Watch What Happens Live, or else eat a “death wing” — the show’s spiciest offering.

Want to guess what the legendary diva chose to do? Eat the wing down to the bone in a matter of seconds, stare straight into the camera, and then throw the wing at it.

“I’ve seen her on stage and I saw her in a movie and I went, ‘Um, okay,’” the actress and singer told Plaza. “There’s just some things some people can’t do, and you just gotta admit you can’t do it, that’s all. Or don’t even try it! Everybody can’t do everything.”

That seemed to be the end of LuPone’s feelings on the matter, but actually, she had one more right hook waiting. “Like Kim f—ing Kardashian. Can we go there? Or shall I eat another wing?” This isn’t the first time LuPone has critiqued Kardashian’s acting abilities.

Madonna and LuPone both have their fair share of beefs (Sandra Bernhard recently spoke about how “sad” she is that Madonna abruptly ended their friendship 30 years ago; LuPone also recently spoke about her regrets over her own 30-year feud with Andrew Lloyd Webber). But in this case, the beef in question appears to be entirely one-sided, in LuPone’s direction.

The American Horror Story star first fired shots at Madonna when prompted by a viewer question on a 2017 episode of WWHL. She said she hadn’t spoken to the singer after she took on the role of Perón in the 1996 film adaptation. “The only thing that Madonna has ever said to me was ‘I’m taller than you,’” she recalled.

When host Andy Cohen pressed on to ask what LuPone thought of Madonna’s Evita, she held nothing back. “I was on the treadmill when MTV used to have videos, and I saw, I believe it was ‘Buenos Aires’, and I thought it was a piece of sh–,” she said. “Madonna is a movie killer. She’s dead behind the eyes. She cannot act her way out of a paper bag. She should not be in films or on stage. She’s a wonderful, you know, performer for what she does,” LuPone conceded, “but she is not an actress.”

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

If you have to ask who won the hot wing battle, then you don’t know Patti LuPone. Granted, Aubrey Plaza entered the fray already compromised with “an open wound” in her mouth. But still, Patti barely seemed phased by the heat. Her matte bright red lipstick didn’t even smudge! Hilariously, the only thing that seemed to get to Patti was Aubrey turning to use a spit bucket for what she couldn’t handle. That she could not stand! So yeah, nobody f–ks with Patti LuPone. Not rude theater-goers, and not deathly hot wings. The one bone I’ll throw to Madonna is that she did not manage to kill A League of Their Own; that movie is too good to be tanked by supporting role stunt-casting. But that film notwithstanding, I look forward to the inevitable drag queen impression of Patti LuPone saying, “There’s just some things some people can’t do, and you just gotta admit you can’t do it, that’s all,” with extra points for having Madonna’s and Kim K’s images emblazoned on the costume.

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Photos credit Getty and via YouTube

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Simona Tabasco wore a colorful Marni to the Emmys: fun & cute?

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Behold, the women of The White Lotus’s Season 2. For my money, Season 2 was so much better than Season 1! I loved almost all of the actors in the second season, especially the two Italian hookers/con artists/party girls, played by Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Grannò. They were so much fun! Simona even got an Emmy nomination for her role! She decided to go all out and wear this Marni dress straight from the runway. Beatrice wore Armani – a more traditional Emmy look. Simona and Beatrice just seem like they’re having so much fun with their newfound fame!

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Meghann Fahy wore this “sweet” Armani – it looks like something Margot Robbie would wear. It’s pretty, but it reminds me of a bridesmaid’s dress.

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Aubrey Plaza wore Loewe – I know I’m not stylish enough to “understand” Loewe, but jeez, this is such a weird look.

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Jennifer Coolidge wore Etro and she won an Emmy for her role in The White Lotus. I actually kind of like this? It suits her.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Instagram.

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Aubrey Plaza: ‘Sofia Vergara is not the only Latina personality. There’s other ones!’

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Aubrey Plaza covers Vanity Fair’s Awards Insider supplemental. This is basically supposed to be an Emmys preview, because Plaza got such great reviews for her turn in The White Lotus Season 2. I preferred Season 2 to Season 1, but it had little to do with Plaza and everything to do with those two magnificent Italian actresses, Simona Tobasco and Beatrice Grannò. Personally, I have never been an Aubrey Plaza “fan,” but I’m not a hater either – she’s fine, she has her monotone shtick and she does it well. Except that Plaza wants people to know that she’s more than just a monotone-voiced actress with a dark energy. That’s just acting, she claims. Some highlights from her VF interview:

Plaza hates streaming apps: “I get really angry. I was trying to watch Top Chef season 20. Couldn’t figure out how to f–king get Hulu Live. I give up! I can’t. I just can’t. And so what I like to do is go on iTunes and buy movies that are old. Or I’ll go on iTunes and just, like, buy the whole Sopranos series, and then my husband will be like, ‘You literally can watch that for free on HBO Max.’”

The deadpan thing: “The deadpan thing wasn’t, like, my thing. I could do it, but it wasn’t like, ‘There goes the deadpan girl.’ I like to think that I’m such a good actor that people just thought that was literally me.”

Her deadpan persona is a defense mechanism: “You can see all the colors of my psychological state on display in any of these [late night] interviews. It’s a struggle for me every time. It’s a struggle to not quote-unquote ‘give people what they want,’ which is—I don’t even know what they want—and try to have fun for myself without coming off like an asshole. I think it all just stems from—I’m scared. I prefer to be a character. I mean, that’s literally what I am doing.”

Her parents: “They’re not in that billionaire world at all…but the idea of coming from nothing and, you know, working your way up—I think that’s why the [White Lotus] character felt very personal to me. I grew up navigating different worlds and different communities where I was like, Oh, now all of a sudden we’re living in a bigger house and a more fancy neighborhood.’ But I always felt like an outsider.”

Puerto Rican father, Irish-Scottish mom: “I feel very much like there’s some kind of ancestral, generational thing going on, just in my DNA. There are a lot of people in my family that are just so creative. It makes me wanna cry. And I got lucky. I have the means to somehow do it. It feels like a weight, almost. Not a bad weight, but like it was meant to be or something. I make so many of them so proud, and it feels personal, because they all had a hand in raising me. Nothing fazes me, I’m very malleable. I grew up around a lot of people pulling me in different directions, but there was an overarching theme of family on both sides. Doesn’t matter who f–ked up or what’s going on. So many crazy things were always happening, but we all have each other’s back at all times. And you know where you came from.”

New York comedy background: “All I was doing when I was living in Queens at that time was just scheming. I always wanted to do dramatic roles. Once I figured out, okay, I can do comedy, I’m funny, I was very calculated about my career. The people I admired most were people like Adam Sandler, who would do broad comedies and also go do Punch-Drunk Love.”

She’s introverted: “I’m way more socially, like, anxious and introverted than people would expect, I think. I’m just as insecure as anybody, and I’m probably way more shy than people think. But obviously the way I deal with that is, like, extreme behaviors… I try to maintain some authenticity, for better or for worse. That’s the goal. If all else fails, at least be authentic.”

When she & Jenna Ortega were called a “Moody, Deadpan Latinas.” “I loved that. That sh-t is important to me, because that’s my whole thing. Even with April Ludgate, it was like, Come on. Sofia Vergara is not the only Latina personality. There’s other ones! A lot of the characters I play, even with White Lotus—it’s important to normalize that there’s all kinds of different Latina people. I mean, all my Puerto Rican cousins are, like, morbid. Morbid sh-t is going on over there!”

[From Vanity Fair]

I think she’s good at the deadpan thing when she has a script, if that makes sense. When there’s purpose and she’s part of an ensemble. But when she’s solo, that persona just reads as someone who gets off on being awkward and unfunny, someone who makes people uncomfortable in the name of comedy. I think that’s why I was never really a fan. But it’s fine, people grow up and figure out different ways of existing and it sounds a lot like she went through a moody goth phase and now she’s looking to show people that she’s a well-adjusted, well-rounded woman.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and cover courtesy of VF.

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Which director took home the big prize at this weekend’s DGAs?

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It’s pretty late in the awards season for so many categories to be so unsettled. Most people believed that the Best Actress race would be the biggest question mark, but Cate Blanchett keeps picking up all of these awards for Tar. Is there a consensus on Best Picture or Best Director? I don’t think so, although the Directors Guild Awards seemed to clarify some things. The DGAs were also held this weekend in LA. The big winners: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once. But… most of the talk at the event was about Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans and Top Gun: Maverick. I could totally see the Daniels feeling like the consensus pick for the directing Oscar, but then Spielberg ends up picking up his millionth Oscar. I really don’t know!

So, I’m including some photos from the DGAs. Lots of celebrities avoided the trip to London for the BAFTAs and just went to the DGAs. I’m including photos of Michelle Williams, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Bateman (and his wife Amanda), James Marsden, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, Anna Kendrick, Christina Ricci and the Daniels. It wasn’t a huge night for fashion – Michelle’s dress is meh (that is one sad peplum) and I thought Anna and Christina looked the most pulled-together.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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Elle Fanning in McQueen at the Critics’ Choice: glamorous & cute?

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Here are some photos from last night’s Critics’ Choice Awards in LA. There weren’t many “wow” looks because – obviously – women are saving their biggest looks for more important award shows. If I was a nominee, I would probably show up in a simple suit or comfortable sack dress and just call it a day. Some women do make a bigger effort though, like Elle Fanning. Elle loves to get dressed up! Elle wore this deconstructed ball gown from Alexander McQueen. She looks like a dream. Genuinely, I love this on her.

People were going on and on about Aubrey Plaza in this bespoke Louis Vuitton and… I don’t get it? It’s not a bad dress but jeez. Also: some women shouldn’t go blonde and Aubrey is one of them.

Viola Davis in custom Valentino. It’s sparkly and flattering, although I feel like there are too many design elements. I was too busy looking at the half-sleeve and half-cape instead of taking in the whole dress.

I think Daisy Edgar-Jones is really pretty but I’m starting to wonder if her stylist is undermining her. This is Gucci and it’s way too much. Like Viola’s dress, too many design elements.

Claire Foy in Prada. It looks like she’s wearing a repurposed sarong. I kind of enjoy it and whatever, it’s different.

Kaley Cuoco in Dior, a custom maternity dress. I’m shocked this is Dior! The cutouts at the neckline are kind of terrible, they should have just lowered the neck on the dress. It feels very Sister Wife, very Country Music Awards.

Jennifer Coolidge in Dolce & Gabbana. Simple, fine. It’s amazing to see Coolidge get all of this recognition for The White Lotus.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.