The plot. We don’t know a lot about the full story yet, but FYI, Call Me By Your Name ended (spoiler alert) with Oliver making a heartbreaking call to Elio and telling him he’s engaged to be married to a woman.
There is a second novel entitled Find Me, which takes place 10 years after the novel. However, before the novel came out, Hammer had told IndieWire that Guadagnino had already pitched a sequel script to him. “Dude, he broke down the whole script for us,” Hammer said back in 2018. “I mean, it’s not a finished script, but he’s got all the ideas for it. Luca’s all gung-ho about it, and by the way, if Luca’s doing it, I think we’re all gung-ho about it.”
The release date. No one knows quite yet when the sequel might arrive—not even Guadagnino, who said that production has been put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic. “Before coronavirus, I made a trip to the United States to meet a screenwriter I love very much, whose name I don’t want to say, to talk about the second part. Unfortunately, we had to put it on hold,” he said.
Honestly, we’ll wait however long we have to for this one. We’ve missed Elio and Oliver so much!
It’s been a busy year for Jenna Dewan. She celebrated her first anniversary with boyfriend Steve Kazee, announced her pregnancy, and released a personal memoir, Gracefully You. On screen, Dewan starred in romantic dramedies The Wedding Year and Berlin, I Love You, served as a mentor on NBC’s World of Dance, and guest starred on The Resident.
As if those weren’t time-consuming enough, now she’s about to star in one of her most ambitious and creative projects to date: Soundtrack, a modern day musical that combines Dewan’s love of dance, acting, and song. It premieres on Wednesday, December 18 on Netflix.
“I’ve done dance numbers on stage, in movies, and on different shows,” Dewan tells Glamour, “but I’ve never done it within an acting scene, where the song was going to portray the emotions of the character in the moment.” So when creator Josh Safran told her about his idea—a show that includes musical numbers, dramatic moments, and intersecting love stories set in Los Angeles—she knew she wanted to be a part of it. “I didn’t even need to see a script.”
It was welcome news to Safran, who wrote the role with Dewan in mind. After a general meeting with her, Safran say, he knew she was a fit. “I fell in love with her and was like, ‘Done. That’s it,'” he explains. For Dewan, the feeling was mutual: “I signed on strictly because I love Josh and the idea.”
Here, Dewan talks about Soundtrack, making out with herself on the show (yes, you read that right), and more.
Spice World might be one of the most unsung classics of the late ’90s. The beloved Spice Girls’ musical comedy had pretty much everything: a wild plot, a Meatloaf cameo, an inexplicable scene involving UFOs, a little Gucci dress, and of, course, that iconic bus. Now it looks we could see the bus throttling through London again, because there’s reportedly another Spice Girls film in the works—only this time, it’s going to be animated.
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed this week that Paramount Animation is bringing back girl power in a big way. The studio is in the early development stages of an animated Spice Girls feature, which is slated to drop in 2020. The best part? Unlike some of their recent reunion tours, all five women—Melanie Brown (Scary), Emma Bunton (Baby), Geri Halliwell (Ginger), Melanie Chisholm (Sporty), and Victoria Beckham (Posh)—are going to have a role in the new production. The film is also going to include the band’s manager Simon Fuller, who is a producer, and Karen McCullah, who wrote the screenplay for the original Spice World.
Paramount Animation president Mireille Soria didn’t reveal too many specifics, but she told THR that the Spice Girls “had an idea that we’ve been developing” and that “they are very involved.” If you remember, Spice World was based on “an idea” by the Spice Girls and Fuller, so this second film is clearly off to a good start.
Rumors about an animated movie began swirling in early 2019, and Variety previously reported that the script might involve a superhero plot in which there would be a “‘girl power’ unique to that group member that reflects each girl’s personality.” It’s unclear if that’s still the plan, but THR does say that the flick is going to include some new Spice Girls songs, as well as all the classics. Maybe this will finally give us a chance to get that “Spice Up Your Life” lyric right….
Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law an abortion bill that would outlaw the procedure as soon as the moment of conception. The only exception to the ban would be for women whose health is at risk. Additionally, doctors who perform the procedure could be punished with life in prison. The bill was passed by 25, Republican male state senators. There are only four women in the chamber—all of whom are Democrats—and they all opposed the bill.
Prior to signing the bill Governor Ivey had not commented on the law, though her pro-life stance was known. After the signing, she released the following statement regarding her decision.
“Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, a bill that was approved by overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the Legislature,” Governor Ivey wrote. “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God.”
Governor Ivey also went on to discuss that while the new bill is likely to be unenforceable due to to Roe v Wade, their overall aim is to challenge that very decision.
“No matter one’s personal view on abortion, we can all recognize that, at least for the short term, this bill may similarly be unenforceable,” Governor Ivey added. “As citizens of this great country, we must always respect the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court even when we disagree with their decisions. Many Americans, myself included, disagreed when Roe v. Wade was handed down in 1973. The sponsors of this bill believe that it is time, once again, for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit this important matter, and they believe this act may bring about the best opportunity for this to occur.”
This bill could now potentially go into effect within the next six months.
Read more about how you can help women in states with extreme abortion bans, here.
There’s controversy brewing around Netflix‘s new show Insatiable, and it hasn’t even premiered yet. The series—starring Debby Ryan and Dallas Roberts—is marketed as a satire and centers on Patty (Ryan), a high schooler bullied for her weight who has her jaw wired shut after a man assaults her. The incident causes Patty to lose weight in just a few months, and shortly after she starts exacting revenge on the bullies who tormented her. “Now I can be the ‘former fatty’ who turned into a brain or an athlete or a princess,” Patty says in a voice-over during the trailer before saying out loud, “No, I’d rather have revenge.”
As you can imagine, based on this premise, Insatiable isn’t receiving the warmest response. Hundreds of people took to Twitter to criticize the show’s trailer, alleging it has both fat-shaming and eating disorder undertones. “[I] suffered from anorexia for three years of my life, and if I had seen this type of show back then? It would’ve spurred me on even more,” one person commented on Twitter. “As an actual 20-year-old woman who was fat my whole life and struggled with bullying then just lost all the weight for myself and well-being, this is not OK. Do better please,” wrote another.
Writer and body-positivity activist Roxane Gay had this to say about Insatiable‘s trailer: “Ahhh yes, a fat girl could never stand up for herself while fat and of course she has to be assaulted and have her mouth wired shut before she becomes her best self, her skinny self. Good to know!”
Check out the trailer—and some more reactions—for yourself, below:
Both Ryan and Insatiable‘s creator, Lauren Gussis, responded to the show’s backlash on Twitter. “We’re not in the business of fat shaming. We’re out to turn a sharp eye on broken, harmful systems that equate thinness with worth,” Ryan wrote, continuing. “I hope fans will wait and watch the show before passing judgment. If you go for this ride, I think you’ll recognize both yourself and the things that make you mad about our fractured and beauty-obsessed culture.”
Gussis said something similar. “This show is a cautionary tale about how damaging it can be to believe the outsides are more important—to judge without going deeper. Please give the show a chance,” she wrote.
Alyssa Milano, who has a supporting role on the show, also tweeted a response. “We are not shaming Patty. We are addressing (through comedy) the damage that occurs from fat shaming. I hope that clears it up,” she wrote.
But it doesn’t seem like these statements are appeasing critics. There’s now a petition on Change.org to stop the release of Insatiable, and it’s garnered more than 120,000 signatures.
“For so long, the narrative has told women and young impressionable girls that in order to be popular, have friends, to be desirable for the male gaze, and to some extent be a worthy human…that we must be thin,” the petition reads.
It continues, “The toxicity of this series is bigger than just this one particular series. This is not an isolated case, but part of a much larger problem that I can promise you every single woman has faced in her life, sitting somewhere on the scale of valuing their worth on their bodies, to be desirable objects for the male gaze. That is exactly what this series does. It perpetuates not only the toxicity of diet culture, but the objectification of women’s bodies. This series needs to be canceled.”
Netflix hasn’t released an official statement on this controversy yet, but we’ll update this post when and if it does. Insatiable is expected to arrive on the streaming platform August 10.
Former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
On Wednesday Judge Rosemarie Aquilina who has been presiding over the entirety of the Nassar hearing since its inception, made the announcement in a Lansing, Michigan, court on Wednesday after hearing statements from more than 150 women and girls who have come forward with sexual abuse allegations against Nassar over the past two decades.
“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Aquilina said, while delivering the former Olympic doctor’s sentence. “I find that you don’t get it, that you’re a danger. That you remain a danger.”
Despite the staggering number of accusations and the overwhelming evidence against him, Nassar has throughout the trial vehemently defended his practices. According to a letter he wrote to the court last week, parts of which Judge Aquilina read aloud in advance of today’s sentencing, the doctor maintained that these accusations were unfounded, and that his accusers were merely lying for media attention in the expectance of financial payoff.
“I was a good doctor because my treatments worked, and those patients that are now speaking out are the same ones that praised and came back over and over,” he wrote in the letter. “The media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad. They feel I broke their trust. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” The judge tossed it aside.
The victims of Nassar’s heinous crimes—many of whom were minors at the time of assault and had been scheduled to seek Nassar’s “treatment” due to various sports-related injuries—include some of the most famous Olympic gymnasts in American history, including gold medalists Simone Biles and Aly Raisman, who read her victim statement at Nassar’s hearing, as well as athletes at Michigan State University and from USA Gymnastics.
“We, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force, and you are nothing,” Raisman said during the trial. “The tables have turned, Larry. We are here. We have our voices, and we are not going anywhere.”
