Innocence. Isn’t it always a mistake when your story starts with “This happened to a _____ of a ______”? A friend of a friend? Not reliable! An ex of my cousin? Not! Reliable! And a friend of my sister? Glen Powell can now confirm this: not a reliable source. While on the Therapuss podcast on May 22, Powell shared a story that purportedly happened to a friend of his sister’s (it didn’t).
The audiobook category is expanding every day, and we certainly can’t listen to everything. The goal of this column is to steer you toward audiobooks that we hope will provide the best experiences, pop-culture value, and something to talk about at your cocktail party. For December, we’re looking back at a few notable titles released earlier in 2022 that we missed along the way.
December Picks The Boys from Biloxi, by John Grisham $31 $31 Photo: Random House Audio Read by: Michael Beck
Greenleaf Meaningful Survival Season 1 Episode 5 Editor’s Rating 3 stars *** «Previous Next» « PreviousEpisode NextEpisode » Greenleaf Meaningful Survival Season 1 Episode 5 Editor’s Rating 3 stars *** «Previous Next» « PreviousEpisode NextEpisode » Lynn Whitfield as Lady Mae. In “Meaningful Survival,” Lady Mae finally gets a little more to do as she manipulates deacons and Bishop Greenleaf to get what she wants.
Even the normally poised Jennifer Aniston got flustered when Conan asked her about the “sex scene” that was cut from Horrible Bosses 2. “It was kind of, not even mutual, you know? I’m not gonna say it,” she stammers. “Charlie Day’s character is in a coma. And I exploit him whilst he’s in a coma.” Yeah, that’s Jennifer Aniston tiptoeing around the word rape. Wisely, they cut the scene, although Aniston suggests it might be in the DVD extras.
It involved broken ribs, a failed Flashdance audition, and a songwriting session in a laundry room. Photo: Alamy Stock Photo Kenny Loggins had yet to be crowned the King of ’80s Soundtracks when Dean Pitchford came calling. The Broadway vet was working on the script for Cheek to Cheek, a movie about a town that had banned dancing, and was hoping Loggins would write the music. At the time, Loggins was mostly known for his soft-rock stylings in his duo with Jim Messina as well as a handful of breakout solo hits.
Remember this whole thing? Pull out your copy of The Silmarillion that you promised yourself you’d finish one of these days and pour yourself a goblet of Elvish wine: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is returning later this summer. The second season of Amazon’s megapricey foray into J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth debuts August 29, nearly two years after its first season premiered to a major gap between critics who were mostly approving and misogynist, racist fans who were big mad.
It’s time to put on makeup / It’s time to dress up right… Polly Smith’s memories of working behind the scenes on The Muppet Show sound a lot like Kermit the Frog’s experience onscreen as the show’s emcee. The costume designer, who started on the show in 1978, four seasons into its five-season run, admits things were usually chaotic. Her workshop was right next to the green room, so the writers, puppeteers, set builders, and prop designers were always rushing through as she furiously tried to finish last-minute costumes.
Now is the winter of our Friends content. The show turns 25 this month, and because of the strange significance that our culture has attached to multiples of five, the internet has spent the past few weeks rehashing the series: debating whether Friends is Actually Bad, standing by while Meghan Trainor inexplicably rerecords the theme song, listing “ways to celebrate” the show’s legacy.
When my editor asked us if we had any ideas about how to cover Friends’ anniversary, I was briefly reminded of the chaotic meaninglessness of the universe.
Raphael Saadiq wasn’t sure a Tony! Toni! Tone! reunion would happen. Photo: David “Odiwams” Wright Inside Raphael Saadiq’s sprawling North Hollywood compound, you’ll find a bit of Oakland everywhere: An Athletics street sign resting on a bookshelf above a recording studio; a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon with vanity plates dedicated to Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton parked nearby; and, just across the way, all three Bay Area–bred members of Tony!
The Pixar rom-com was one of the year’s most crushing box-office failures — until it redeemed itself as an under-the-radar triumph after all. The critical drubbing and box-office floppage of the fire-water rom-com Elemental stood, for the better part of 2023, as one of this year’s most crushing film failures: a two-front defeat all the more curious coming from Pixar, one of filmdom’s most unfailable hit factories. Until the precise moment the opposites-attract animated romp quietly redeemed itself as an under-the-radar triumph after all.