MTV is clearly aware of the world’s obsession with royals: Variety reports that the network is currently in the process of creating The Royal World, a Real World spin-off of sorts that will center on different “ladies, baronesses, and counts” from around the world. The lineup, per Variety, will reportedly include “descendants of aristocratic families from the U.K., Russia, Austria, Nigeria, and Ireland, as well as a ‘royally connected American.'” (Let the theories begin for who that “royally connected American” is!)
“The Royal World is a brilliantly entertaining show that invites you into a world which is utterly closed to most of us: the world of young, titled royals and aristocrats,” Katy Manley, creative director at Initial, the production company behind The Royal World, tells Variety. “Expect headline-grabbing gossip that’ll leave palaces squirming as we get to know the real people behind the titles.”
The series will air on MTV International before the end of 2018, and be available in 180 countries. “MTV has a deep-rooted history of shining a light on original characters and unique subcultures. The Royal World brings this to a whole new level,” Kerry Taylor, EVP youth and music and cohead of MTV International, tells Variety.
This isn’t the only exciting new MTV project on the docket. The channel is also planning on releasing a Vanderpump Rules–style series based on Lindsay Lohan’s new beach club in Greece (working title: Lohan Beach Club). So it’s safe to say our DVRs will have a heavy MTV rotation for the next year.
If you’ve been awaiting the return of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ever since you finished binging season one, then the wait is almost over. The Amazon Prime series about Midge Maisel, a Jewish housewife in 1958 who discovers she has a knack for stand-up comedy after her husband leaves her, will return later this winter. “Season two is big,” co-creator and executive producer Amy Sherman-Palladino said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Saturday. “We have all of the pieces to go big or go home, and we don’t go home. [In fact, we work so much] we haven’t been home in two years.”
The series—which was just nominated for 14 Emmy Awards, including Best Comedy and Best Actress for Rachel Brosnahan—is already a favorite of critics and fans, taking home the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy Series as well as Best Actress for Brosnahan earlier this year. At the end of season one, Midge and her estranged husband Joel were in a good place, but that’s all about to change now that Joel discovered Midge has been performing stand-up comedy—his passion—and is actually quite good at it. “Eventually everybody is going to find out [about Midge’s new career ambitions],” co-creator and executive producer Daniel Palladino tells Glamour. “The trickiness of hiding that lifestyle is very, very hard to hide.”
So what else can you expect in season two? With only a few more months to go, here’s everything we know.
Season two will premiere later this year, hopefully in time for the holiday season. The show was originally picked up for 18 episodes, and eight aired as part of season one. Co-creator and executive producer Daniel Palladino confirmed to Glamour that season two will consist of 10 episodes. No official premiere date has been announced, but let’s just say that homemade latkes aren’t the only thing you’ll have to look forward to this Hanukkah.
There will be a bit of a time jump. “We do kind of jump ahead,” Daniel Palladino reveals. “We shifted some time and [just like in season one], we will jump back and forth, and we’re going to continue to do that in every season.” As for where the show picks up, Palladino won’t say much. But we do have a hint: “Midge will find out that Joel was at the club [for her stand-up act] and we’re going to deal with those ramifications,” she says.
Midge has a new job at the department store. In an exclusive clip shown to journalists at the Television Critics Assocation summer press tour, Midge has been demoted to the basement switchboard at B. Altman & Co. after her encounter with Penny on the main floor (you remember—when Penny called Midge a tramp for sleeping with her estranged husband). Midge’s new co-workers are enthralled by Midge’s can-do personality and ability to juggle 10 things at once. They also want to know more about her time working at the makeup counter, and she promises to tell them everything.
There’s trouble ahead for Midge. “We left Midge in a pretty triumphant moment [at the end of season one]. She’s finally arrived into Mrs. Maisel the stand-up comedian,” says Brosnahan. “I can’t say a whole lot about where she’s headed in season 2, but good things can’t last long.”
Susie Myerson finds her true love. “Joel and I end up having a torrid affair,” Alex Borstein (Myerson) jokes. “I’m sorry, that’s my fantasy. No, Susie is changing this season. She’s finally found the great love of her life, which is Midge, and I mean that in a larger sense. [Managing someone of her caliber] is her passion.”
PHOTO: AMAZON
Joel’s not going anywhere. Just because Joel and Midge split in season one, don’t expect the actor that plays Joel—Michael Zegen—to go anywhere. He has plenty of story next season, and you’ll see him try to co-parent with Midge. “He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Zegen says. “He loves Midge and he saw that she’s really talented [at comedy], but on the other hand, it’s a huge blow to his ego that she’s this talented.” Still, Zegen says, there’s a lot of love between Midge and Joel, even though he slept with another woman and treated her horribly. “[We meet him] at a very terrible time in his life, but he still loves Midge.” Adds Broshanan: “They will never be able to be without one another. It creates a wonderful, dramatic tension and you get to explore the depths of their love in a lot of different capacities.”
Rose and Abe will face new challenges in their marriage. “Abe is this sort of old-fashioned man in 1959 who would have been very content for absolutely nothing to change,” Palladino says. “However, we’ve seen Rose searching and going to fortune tellers [hoping to expand her horizons]. There are cracks in her facade, and those cracks are just going to get bigger and bigger.”
Zachary Levi is joining the cast in a recurring role. Levi will recur as an eclectic Manhattan doctor who suddenly starts spending a lot of time with the Maisels and Weissmans, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Bonjour, Paris! When filming for season two began in March, some of the cast traveled to the City of Lights for various scenes. Brosnahan told Glamour that they filmed in “the most extraordinary locations” and had “the most beautiful sets.” While she remains tight-lipped on what brings Midge to Paris, Brosnahan says the only spoiler she can give is that a dog is involved in their overseas trip. “It was the best,” she smiles.
The show will give off some serious Dirty Dancing vibes. In June of 2018, Broshanan and Zegen posted various Instagram shots from upstate New York, which led to speculation that the show travels to a Catskills-esque location, a la Dirty Dancing. “A big part of the series is following the lifestyles of a Jewish family in the late ‘50s,” Daniel Palladino tells us. “That includes things like the Upper West Side, temple and vacations and stuff. Over the seasons we’re going to see the family’s whole world, and we film all over the place. There’s nothing you can derive from exactly where we film, but it could be camp, who knows?”
The series has already been renewed for a third season. Earlier this spring, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke announced the good news at the Peabody Awards. With season two set to premiere this winter, look for season three to arrive sometime in late 2019 or early 2020.
Want more about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? Read our first-ever digital cover, featuring Rachel Brosnahan here.
It turns out that Claire Foy may not be getting her due after all. In an interview with Al Arabiya English published Thursday (July 26), the actress said that she has not received the back pay supposedly promised to her for the gap between her and costar Matt Smith’s paychecks. “That was what was reported that I was back-paid. I’ve never mentioned anything about it and neither have the producers. The fact that that is ‘fact’ is—not quite correct,” she told Al Arabiya English.
To recap: In April the Daily Mail reported that Foy would reportedly receive £200,000 (around $260,000) in back pay for her lead role as Queen Elizabeth II. This news came about a month after producers Suzanne Mackie and Andy Harries confirmed that Smith, who played Prince Philip, was getting a higher paycheck than the woman who portrayed the queen.
“Going forward, no one gets paid more than the queen,” Mackie said at the time. Meanwhile, Left Bank Pictures, one of the production companies behind The Crown,apologized to both stars, while declining to mention whether anything would be done to retroactively address the gap.
Shortly after, Foy addressed the controversy: “I’m surprised because I’m at the center of it, and anything that I’m at the center of like that is very, very odd, and feels very, very out of ordinary,” Foy told Entertainment Weekly in March. “But I’m not [surprised about the interest in the story] in the sense that it was a female-led drama. I’m not surprised that people saw [the story] and went, ‘Oh, that’s a bit odd.’ But I know that Matt feels the same that I do, that it’s odd to find yourself at the center [of a story] that you didn’t particularly ask for.”
In the article published Thursday, Foy elaborated on those thoughts: “Yes, it’s Netflix, but it’s a British production company. It happened at the same time as it was coming out with a lot of other people that there was a lot of pay inequality across the board—in the music industry, in journalism, in every industry,” she told Al Arabiya English. “It’s across the board that it became part of a bigger conversation, which is an odd place to find yourself in.”
“I realized early on that me being quiet about it or me not thinking about it in any way, and not associating myself with it, would be harmful to me and also lots of other people,” she continued. “It’s taught me a lot, and I’m still learning about it. I have not come out the other side and know exactly what I’m talking about. I’m still learning as much as anybody else is.”
Glamour has reached out to Foy’s representative, Netflix, Left Bank Pictures, and Sony Pictures for comment, and will update this story accordingly.
Rashida Jones is no newcomer to social justice. She attended her first-ever protest as a teenager and, to this day, remembers what she was opposing (the Gulf War), what she felt (a sense of unity with other demonstrators), and even what she wore (her cheerleading uniform, having come straight from practice). Since then, she’s directed a Time’s Up-related video on sexual harassment in the workplace, launched a line of eyeglasses to raise money for the ACLU, and worked with the International Rescue Committee to help Syrian refugees.
Now, the actress, 42, is putting her skills to familiar use in front of (and behind) the camera with “The Last Weekend” project, a progressive coalition’s push to get people to the polls in the November midterms—and she’s doing it in a way that pokes fun at traditional celebrity PSAs that demand viewers take action.
“Hopefully we created something that people will share with each other,” Jones told Glamour in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s national “Last Weekend” kickoff. “People are fatigued. And I’m certainly fatigued of celebrity PSAs, so the joke was sort of [that] we ourselves are fatigued with our own PSA-ness.”
A still from “The Last Weekend” promo featuring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Rashida Jones.
“The Last Weekend” is exactly what it sounds like: In the days before the November 6 midterms, it’s an attempt to mobilize a volunteer army to hit the phones—and the pavement—to make sure people actually show up to vote that Tuesday.
Jones, known for comic turns on Parks and Recreation, The Office, and I Love You, Man, is part of a team that’s using humor to send a message about a dead-serious subject: An election that will determine who controls Congress and what happens to women’s rights.
Working with the organization Swing Left, which wants Democrats to wrest control of the House from the GOP, Jones helped write and direct a lighthearted call to action video co-starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda—two women with their own history of both funny film roles and serious political engagement.
“They’ve managed to take things that can be heavy and super political and difficult to understand and create levity around it so that people can really digest it and see it,” she said in praise of Fonda and Tomlin, whose teamwork spans projects from the 1980 hit 9 to 5 to the modern-day series Grace and Frankie.
The video features the three women urging viewers to avoid becoming complacent and to not only vote, but get others to do the same by volunteering in the run-up to the election. But, there’s a comic twist.
A promo video for “The Last Weekend” project.
“I just think [that’s] how you really get people—you make them laugh… You make them see themselves in something you’re talking about. You don’t treat it with a heavy hand. You don’t make it a chore.”
That’s a point worth remembering: Non-presidential election years don’t typically get Americans voters fired up; 2014 was particularly bad when it came to turnout. Despite the marches and the hashtags, some early analyses suggested a significant percentage of voters, including the young, might not show up.
Jones knows the history of underwhelming midterm turnout, but says this year could be different: “We’ve never lived in a time like this before, where we’ve all been kind of forced into civic engagement in a really kind of new and visceral way, where every single day, [we’re] seeing the kind of deconstruction of our democracy,” she said.
“I think people now understand more about how American democracy has been set up to function — because it’s not functioning in that way.”
Rashida Jones promotes “The Last Weekend” drive.
“The Last Weekend” coalition includes groups ranging from MoveOn, Indivisible, and the Democratic Attorneys General Association to the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Latino Victory, and Resistbot. Depending on who you ask, their work might fall into the category of making “good trouble,” a phrase Jones borrows from Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis.
“The first thing with making ‘good trouble’ is exercising your right to vote,” Jones said.
“Listen, there’s a lot of reasons to be disillusioned. The country’s divided. There’s evidence of interference in our voting process. There’s so much voter suppression. There’s a lot of reasons to feel like you can’t be heard,” she said. “But there’s not enough reasons not to encourage people to push through.”
I’ll admit it was a little harder than usual to sit on my couch and snark about things like Blake’s dancing given that tonight’s episode of The Bachelorette was interrupted by President Trump’s Supreme Court nomination. Like, no big, this is a person who will influence our country for generations to come. But I’ll let our very intelligent and hard-working news and culture team tell you all about Brett Kavanaugh’s qualifications—read that here—and channel all of my feelings about it into this recap instead. Spoilers ahead.
We’re in the Bahamas this week, and Becca tells Chris Harrison she’s looking forward to “no drama.” LOL, we’ll see how that turns out. She also admits she’s starting to catch feelings for a few of the guys, though she’s afraid something will ruin it. Something like…a social media controversy coming to light right as the season airs? Maybe?
Anyway, Becca tells the guys that this week’s format is a little different: There will be three one-on-one dates with roses and a group date with one rose, and no rose ceremony. Colton gets the first solo date of the week, and the reaction from the other guys is awkward. “None of us can see her with Colton,” Blake confesses. Then we learn a bombshell: Colton’s a hiding a “big” secret from Becca. He’s a virgin.
Cut to a million soundbites from Becca about how hunky Colton is and how their relationship is full of “passion” and how he can “pick me up and do whatever he wants.” Editors, I thought you were supposed to be on Becca’s side? What gives? It gets worse: Right as Colton is about to tell Becca that he’s a virgin, a man rolls up in a yellow boat to tell Becca she needs more “conch” in her life. Yes, Colton and Becca are going diving for conchs solely so The Bachelorette can make a bunch of penis jokes.
“I’m hoping Colton dives deep for that conch.” – Becca
The two learn that the conch’s pistol is considered “Bahamian Viagra”; they try it but Becca, still ignorant about Colton’s sexual history, assures us they don’t need an aphrodisiac. That night, Colton finally—finally!—tells Becca he’s a virgin. She responds by excusing herself from the table, leaving him to sweat it out alone. When she eventually returns, Colton explains that he’s not waiting for marriage—he’s just waiting for “the right heart”—and Becca assures him she’s not one to judge. For her, the fact that it’s not a “marriage thing” but rather “a heart thing” is a good sign. TBD if Becca’s the “right heart” when it comes time for the fantasy suites, but Becca gives Colton a rose.
Garrett gets the next one-on-one date: a seaplane to a private island, but instead of looking out at the gorgeous views they just make out. When the plane lands, Becca yells “wooo!” and confirms something I’ve long suspected: She’s a total woo girl.
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On the beach, Becca and Garrett do that awkward pose where she stands in front of him and cranes her neck around to kiss. Just turn your body around!
They stop kissing long enough for Garrett to admit that it’s been tough seeing the other guys go out on dates with her. He opens up a little more about his divorce later that night. According to him, his ex was “hot-headed” and he felt like he had to change who he was to make her happy. Becca admits this makes her nervous—that he wouldn’t be his real self around her—but he claims he’s learned by now not to let a red flag linger. They do not talk about his social media history, which is a red flag I would like to not keep lingering. Anyway, he says he’s falling in love, and she gives him a rose and calls him a “stand-up man.” Hmm.
The next day, Becca takes Blake to a beach party where the Baha Men are performing. This is much more my speed—way better than conch jokes or spending more than 20 minutes with Garrett. They’re having a good time, until Blake confesses that he’s gotten in his head this week thinking about her with the other guys. Over dinner, he opens up about his parents—his mom had an affair with his basketball coach/English teacher when he was in high school—and how it’s made him realize he wants his family to be better at communicating. Then he tells Becca he’s in love with her. They kiss, and he gets a rose.
In the morning, Wills, Leo, and Jason meet Becca for the dreaded three-on-one date. Her time with Wills and Jason goes well, but when she sits down with Leo he admits that he feels like he needs more time with her to get to where some of the other guys are at in their feelings. She agrees and says it’s better if she doesn’t bring him to hometowns. So with that, Becca, Wills, and Jason get in the boat and leave poor Leo wandering around alone on the island. Luckily, if there’s anybody capable of swimming back to the Baha Mar, it’s Leo.
“I can’t freaking wait for you to come to freaking Buffalo.” – Jason
That evening, Becca calls Jason out for moving a little slower than the other guys, but he says he does feel strongly about what they have. Wills, meanwhile, gets emotional as he describes his love for Becca. Apparently that’s not enough though, because she dumps him moments later—in front of Jason, no less. So rude! Wills deserves better, and also his shirt is excellent tonight.
Next week: It’s hometown dates! “He’d be a hot dad.” “I don’t want you to pick him.”
If The Bachelorette had a drinking game—Watch What Happens Live style—tonight’s word would have been “Richmond” and I would have been too drunk to finish this recap. Seriously, I’ve been watching this show for nearly a decade and can’t remember a city ever getting so much promo. Can you?
It starts right at the top, with Becca swaning around Richmond talking about how it’s the complete opposite of Las Vegas because Richmond has “fresh, clean air.” Even Chris Harrison has traveled to Richmond to experience this amazing fresh, clean air! But first, he has a quick sit down with Becca to call her out for looking at wedding magazines on the flight there. Cut her a break, CH—it’s a little extra, sure, but it’s not Tinsley-trying-on-wedding-dresses-for-her-mom-even-though-she’s-not-engaged extra.
Meanwhile, Jason gets a date card for the week’s first one-on-one. Chris, never one to miss an opportunity to be the worst, declares he wants the other one-on-one date but would settle for a two-on-one. For some reason, Lincoln takes issue with this and the two bicker and fight while the camera weirdly zooms in on their legs touching. (What is that about?)
It’s all so, so dumb that even Garrett, a man who once “liked” a post implying a Parkland survivor is a crisis actor on social media, is starting to seem like a better pick than Chris. Meanwhile, Chris declares he can “destroy” Lincoln, even though Lincoln’s the one reportedlyconvicted of assault and battery.
“It’s very apparent that the wheels on the bus have come all the way off.” – Colton
Happily, it’s time to move on to Jason’s date with Becca. They take a trolly to the place where Patrick Henry gave his “give me liberty or give me death” speech, and Jason does a half-decent job pretending like this interests him. They head to a doughnut shop next, followed by an Edgar Allen Poe museum tour. The real, uh, excitement comes at the “unhappy hour,” a gathering that a man dressed all in black says is for “those who tend more toward the gothic realm of things.” As Stefon would say, this party has everything: a sad man playing an accordion, a sad man playing a mandolin, drinks that look like blood, interpretive gothic dancing, and ice breakers like, “Do you enjoy life or death?”
“May you be unhappy evermore.” – An actual toast
Becca claims there’s an even bigger surprise ahead for Jason, though I can’t imagine what could possibly top this delightful gothic cocktail hour. Turns out it’s his best friends, who have traveled all the way to Richmond in a fun twist. The bros serve as excellent wingmen, telling Becca that Jason’s a good catch. That night, Jason opens up about his grandmother’s Alzheimer’s—it taught him not to take any moment for granted—and gets a rose.
The next day is a group date with Colton, Garrett, Wills, Connor, Blake, Lincoln, and Chris. They’re greeted by “George Washington” and “Abe Lincoln,” who tell the guys they’re going to have a debate. Or, rather, Beccalection 2018.
It’s such a serious event that the Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, shows up to ask the first question. I’m too distracted to hear it what it is, though, because he pronounces idea “idear.”
PHOTO: Paul Hebert
“Marvel: Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover event in history. ABC: The Bachelorette x Governor of Virginia.” – Ana Colon
Anyway, the debate goes pretty well until Lincoln—the contestant, not the president—calls Chris out for that time he threatened to leave. Chris hits back by hinting that some of the guys are “playing” Becca and ranting about Lincoln’s “nasty” side. The audience, including Gov. Ralph, looks shocked—probably because everyone’s surprised Becca hasn’t told Chris to leave yet. She does admit that she’s not happy with Lincoln or Chris’ behavior and calls the whole thing embarrassing.
“It’s childish and immature.” Says the one who’s being childish and immature.
That night, at an after party at a mansion Becca describes as “creepy,” Lincoln asks for some alone time. Instead of, I don’t know, forming a connection, he uses that time to shit talk Chris, telling her he’s scared to be around him. Before he’s able to say too much more, Chris interrupts.
Becca confronts Chris about what Lincoln said and admits she’s freaked out about the whole thing. He denies it all, but Garrett comes in before they finish their conversation. Annoyed by all the drama, Becca asks if she can have five minutes alone to herself instead.
Meanwhile, Chris and Lincoln fight again and it’s so, so, so, so stupid. The only bright spots: Connor’s glasses and the face Wills makes when he has to listen to Chris’ nonsense. Garrett eventually tells Chris he needs to shut up and get over it because he’s ruining the mood for everyone—for Becca, for the other guys, for whatever ghosts lurk in that creepy mansion, and for us viewers at home, who are tired of this shit.
Later in the night, Becca perks up after she spends some alone time with Garrett, Colton, and Wills, and the group date rose goes to Colton.
The next day is Leo’s solo date, but Becca admits she’s still in her head about the night before. Leo’s very sweet about it—he just listens to Becca vent and says he’s happy to just do nothing, whatever makes her feel comfortable. She appreciates it, and her mood improves even more after he puts his hair up into a luxurious man bun while they catch oysters. Later, at dinner, Leo opens up about his insecurities—he’s always felt like he let his father down, which carries over into other aspects of his life. Becca likes seeing a vulnerable side of Leo, so he gets a rose.
The date ends with a concert from Morgan Evans—and, wait, I actually know this one! He’s a country singer married to Nashville It Girl Kelsea Ballerini.
Back at the hotel, I’m loving this Bachelorette horror movie montage that involves Chris sitting alone in his dark hotel room writing…things…while Jason and Connor gossip about how much he’s “changed.” When Leo gets back from his date with a rose in hand, Chris huffs out of the room without saying a word.
He stalks through the dark parking lots of Richmond complaining that Lincoln eats too many eggs in a day until he gets to Becca’s hotel down the street. She does her best to pretend like she’s not bothered by his surprise appearance, though we all know she’d rather have a hot bath and a face mask than hang out with the guy who looks like crazy Eddie. The conversation is tense and awkward, and it ends with Becca dumping Chris. It’s the best call she’s made all season. He reacts very Chris-like, whining about how he doesn’t need her to walk him out, and drags his ass back to the hotel to pack his bags.
He’s such a mood killer, in fact, that Becca decides to skip the cocktail party the next day and head straight to the rose ceremony. This leaves guys like Connor, who hasn’t had a one-on-one date yet, shook. But I’m shook by Becca’s gorgeous dress and old-timey car arrival. Stunnnnnning.
Anyway, roses go to Garrett, Blake, and Wills, and we say goodbye to Lincoln, Connor, and Connor’s glasses. Next week the crew heads to the Bahamas!
PS: I hope you stuck around to watch that kicker scene of Becca trading bad puns and Arie burns with “Abe” and “George” like, “It really warms my heart to know that you emancipated yourself from that Arie.”
