15 Aug 2014

Wiz Khalifa: Blacc Hollywood review rapping and hip-hop hooks

Wiz Khalifa's modus operandi has always been simple: rap about smoking loads of weed and create earwormy tracks built on repetitive hooks. He perfected the combination on his 2011 hit, Black and Yellow, an ode to his favourite colours and the Pittsburgh Steelers. On Blacc Hollywood, he's at it again. We Dem Boyz was online months ago, and its simple call-and-response chorus and booming kick-drum was enough to start building hype.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — You couldn't miss Hollywood talent agent Sid Levin's office in the old days: It wasn't much bigger than a closet and it was sometimes filled with burglars, bank robbers and gang members, all trying to break into the movies.

These days you'll find everyone from Gulf War veterans to a 15-time world arm-wrestling champion there, and Levin didn't bring them in for protection. They're looking to be movie stars, too.

‘Red Hollywood’ Looks at Work by Blacklisted Filmmakers

“Red Hollywood” may suggest the rivers of blood that flood our screens. But the red in the title of this fascinating essaylike movie refers to the home-front Communists and other American radicals — actual and accused — who once upon a Hollywood time made socially conscious movies that took on the world and its woes. These were true believers, like the fiery Abraham Polonsky who, with films like “Force of Evil” (1948), challenged reigning ideologies and at times cast pitch-black shadows over the scene to make class, race and sexual inequality all part of the big picture.

Joe Earley has been upped to chief operating officer for Fox Television Group

Fox Television Group chairmen Gary Newman and Dana Walden have found their entertainment chief.

Mere weeks into the job, the pair has tapped Fox TV Studios chief David Madden to serve as the president of entertainment for the broadcast network. As part of the shake-up, Joe Earley will segue out of the creative role he had embraced in recent months. Instead, he has been upped to chief operating officer for Fox Television Group, where he'll be focused on such things as strategic initiatives across the company's divisions. Both executives will report to Newman and Walden and will assume their new duties immediately, with Madden's replacement at the cable-minded studio to be named soon.

A Chinese company this week made a play to become what could be likened to The Walt Disney Company of China. Steve Inskeep talks to Clifford Coonan, Asia bureau chief for The Hollywood Reporter.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Walt Disney company may have some competition in the world's most populous market. Like many film studios, Disney distributes movies in China. Not only that, the first Disneyland in China is supposed to open next year. There's already one in Hong Kong. But these moves by Disney's global empire are overshadowed by a homegrown entertainment company called the Wanda Group, which plans to build 200 children's theme parks all across China. Clifford Coonan has been closely following the story in the competition for China. He is Asia bureau chief for The Hollywood Reporter. He's in Beijing. Welcome to the program.

Another Duggar daughter is off the market.

Jessa Duggar of TLC's 19 Kids & Counting got engaged to Ben Seewald Thursday night, TLC is confirming.

The Duggars Offer Their Sex and Love Tips

Duggar, 21, is the third daughter of Jim Bob, 48, and Michelle, 47.

Entertainment Geekly is a weekly column that examines pop culture through a geek lens and simultaneously examines contemporary geek culture through a pop lens. So many lenses!

Last week, I asked a simple question: Is the DC Cinematic Universe–the Warner Bros. back-of-the-napkin plan to launch an all-out assault on Marvel Studios by unleashing a double-digit boatload of superhero movies between now and 2020–actually a thing? Will the Man of Steel-verse actually transform into a cape-ier alternative to the Avengers-verse? Or is this a Valiant-Comics-in-1992 thing–a situation where all the elaborate and ambitious universe-building plans will ultimately dead-end against the cruel capitalist realities of people just not being interested?

Netflix is two-and-a-half times more expensive than cable TV, and movies are six times more expensive than video games, if you look at cost-per-hour.

When we talk about the price of entertainment—like movies, TV and video games—it typically comes in the form of one specific complaint: "That costs how much?" But determining what media is the most expensive is more difficult than it seems, since we pay for TV by the month, movies by the ticket, magazines by the year, and mobile apps by, well, whenever.

Cisneros Media is the latest Latin American media heavyweight to target the U.S. market, setting a deal to develop an English-language comedy “American Girl Trapped on a Telenovela” with gameshow vet Jeff Sutphen.

“Trapped on a Telenovela” centers on Sarah Forlenza, a Puerto Rican-Italian actress from Brooklyn who has lands a role on a telenovela after struggling to find work. The hitch is that she doesn’t speak any Spanish.
Sutphen (pictured), host of Nickelodeon’s “BrainFreeze” and ABC’s “101 Ways to Leave a Game show,” co-created the series with Stacy Asencio-Sutphen. Gina Rugolo (“Just Shoot Me”), Guy Ecker of Amistad Prods. and Estela Sainz have signed on, as well as Bob Friedman’s Bungalow Media + Entertainment, which set a development partnership with Cisneros earlier this year to focus on Hispanic-themed projects for U.S. and Latin American markets.

The Mighty Boosh star’s first solo series was a flop, but self-awareness (and a hammer) are saving series two from sinking under the weight of its surrealism

The biggest problem with the first series of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy (E4) was its title, which was so wildly off the mark that it almost certainly contravened some form of trade-description legislation. It was more self-indulgent than luxurious, focused only on pushing Fielding’s hepcat Izzard shtick further up his own backside than ever before. And since the whole thing contained approximately zero jokes, the “Comedy” part was a bit iffy, too.

Feminists are the new comic book geeks, and the women-led Ghostbusters remake will dominate the box office. If only Hollywood would make more than one female-driven comedy a year.

Here’s a scintillating prediction: Paul Feig’s recently announced women-led Ghostbusters remake is going to be a hit. I’d feel guilty for hyping, but at this point, it’s just logic. In the last five years, mid-budget studio comedies led by female casts have dominated the public imagination and the box office with an ease seemingly only afforded nowadays to superheroes and sci-fi. Feminists are the new comic book geeks, and each new woman-centered film that makes it to the multiplex is awaited with anxious hope and breathless anticipation.

Cymbeline is usually considered one of the late Romances or so-called problem plays. The production playing in Withrow Park, though, is a comedy, pure and simple.

By William Shakespeare, adapted by Andrew Joseph Richardson

Directed by Brendan McMurtry-Howlett

Tuesdays through Sundays, 7 p.m., until Aug. 31 in Withrow Park

Shakespeare’s First Folio classified it as a tragedy. Nowadays, however, Cymbeline is usually considered one of the late Romances or so-called problem plays.

Robin Williams made me cry. Like his mentor, the late Jonathan Winters, Williams, who committed suicide Monday, made me laugh so intensely tears would come to my eyes.

Williams’ death made headlines and led TV newscasts. His comedic genius diverted us from stories about terrorism and other sadness in the world. That’s what comedy does. It makes us forget our troubles — national, international and personal — and for a moment, embrace happiness.

Do you like belly laughs, or does giggling 'contaminate the aesthetic experience'? Academic research finds audiences torn betweeen low and high culture

Do the comedians you like indicate who you are? Or indeed – how good a person you are? I went to a fascinating presentation the other morning on "the rise of the comedy snob" – the subject of a book by Sam Friedman, the sociologist (and publisher of the excellent Fest magazine. Friedman offered up a short precis of his research: an absorbing – and sometimes shocking – overview of the schism between "highbrow" and "lowbrow" comedy, and the assumptions people make about what our comedy loyalties say about ourselves.

When two famous people get paid to talk about how much they love one another, it’s the written equivalent of a selfie

I am usually woefully out of the loop with almost all things in modern celebrity: I don’t watch reality TV; I rarely follow gossip sites; I can only name one Kardashian (Kristie, right?). I mean, I’m not saying I’m immune to celebrity crushes – I just know that Maggie Gyllenhaal and I would be besties – and I do love watching two smart, famous people talk to each other, but there are only so many hours in the day and too many gifs of shrews to look up.

It happens time and time again. Two celebrities — like Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall — die within a couple days of each other, and people start holding their breath. “Celebrities always die in threes,” they say, post and tweet. “Who’s next?”

Probably nobody, if history is any guide. Despite the all-too-human desire to find patterns in life, there really are none here.

The 36-year-old reportedly wanted to enter the house in the latest series, which starts next week, but was forced to pull out because of her pregnancy

Katie Price is reportedly being lined up to take part in Celebrity Big Brother next year.
The former glamour model, 36, apparently planned to take part in the latest series, which begins on Monday, but was forced to pull out because of her pregnancy.

Today's pop-culture roundup includes a really hot rumor, box-office news, another Duggar engagement, our mystery music video and much more.

‘THE EXPENDABLES 3’: Of tepid reviews, per the Los Angeles Times, “Fine wine or a favorite pair of blue jeans may get better with age, but the same can't be said for '80s and '90s action heroes — at least not according to reviews of "The Expendables 3," the latest installment of Sylvester Stallone and company's testosterone-powered film franchise.

From the ridiculous and fashionable to bizarre and fascinating - there's more amazing photos from the land of showbiz

It's that time of day again when we dish you up a generous plate of celebrity pictures.

We've no doubt whatsoever that today's batch of weird and wonderful snaps will surely quench your appetite for a showbiz fix.

GUO MEIMEI had often featured in Chinese media, but her appearance on China Central Television (CCTV) on August 4th was different. A gifted self-publicist, the 23-year-old had once liked to flaunt designer handbags, pose by Maseratis and post selfies from tropical locales on social media. The broadcast showed Ms Guo wearing an orange prison-vest. She is the latest in a string of high-profile figures to confess crimes on CCTV, a state broadcaster, before standing trial.

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