This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.
This week:
- The year that comfort TV made us more uncomfortable.
- The should-be Oscar nominees.
- Abolish The Masked Singer.
- Still reeling over Oprah’s Meghan/Harry interview.
- The on-set photo of the century.
In hindsight, maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised that the coronavirus became such a harrowing global pandemic. Months before Tom Hanks confirmed he had it, Hollywood revealed that it had lost its sense of taste entirely when the Academy failed to nominate Jennifer Lopez’s performance in Hustlers for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. (I swear it’s been days since I brought this up.)
ADVERTISEMENT
That is to say, I’m not as interested anymore in predicting what this nonsense body of voters will choose when this year’s nominees are announced on Monday morning. It’s all too random and illogical; why are (very) great yet (very) small films Sound of Metal and The Father major contenders, but (very) great yet (very) small films First Cow and Never Rarely Sometimes Always not?
So I am going to preemptively course correct. Here’s what should be nominated in the major categories. Feel free to disagree, though you would be wrong.
Best Picture: Da 5 Bloods, First Cow, Judas and the Black Messiah, Let Them All Talk, Minari, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Nomadland, Palm Springs, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal
Best Director: Lee Isaac Chung - Minari, Emerald Fennell - Promising Young Woman, Spike Lee - Da 5 Bloods, Kelly Reichart - First Cow, Chloé Zhao - Nomadland
Best Actress: Nicole Beharie - Miss Juneteenth, Sidney Flanigan - Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Vanessa Kirby - Pieces of a Woman, Frances McDormand - Nomadland, Carey Mulligan - Promising Young Woman
Best Actor: Riz Ahmed - Sound of Metal, Chadwick Boseman - Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Anthony Hopkins - The Father, Delroy Lindo - Da 5 Bloods, Steven Yeun - Minari
Best Supporting Actress: Maria Bakalova - Borat Subsequent Movie Film, Candice Bergen - Let Them All Talk, Olivia Colman - The Father, Valerie Mahaffey - French Exit, Yuh-Jung Youn - Minari
Best Supporting Actor: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II - The Trial of the Chicago 7, Daniel Kaluuya - Judas and the Black Messiah, Alan Kim - Minari, Paul Raci - Sound of Metal, Glynn Turman - Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Best Documentary Feature: 76 Days, Collective, Dick Johnson Is Dead, Time, Welcome to Chechnya
Given what our society has endured following the night Sarah Palin was unveiled as the spastic rapper underneath the trippy bear costume on The Masked Singer a year ago, I shudder to think what lies ahead after what just happened on The Masked Singer season premiere, 365 days later to the day.
Charging through a looking glass we can never return from—we all permanently reside in the permanent horror dimension now—the episode ended with the revelation of the celebrity who had been singing from inside of a snail costume.
As is customary, host Niecy Nash assisted in removing the costume’s headpiece. There was a long, eerie pause—the deafening silence of the Earth settling onto its new axis. Finally, Kermit the Frog popped out. The “person” inside was a puppet...controlled by a person...whose hand was inside a puppet...inside a snail costume.
I screamed “no!” as this happened, furious that, in such uncertain times, The Masked Singer chose further chaos. And that was before I even realized this, the most ridiculous part of this whole circus, staged in the midst of a pandemic:
What a thrilling TV week it has been in the wake of Oprah’s Meghan Markle and Prince Harry interview. Whoopi Goldberg gave us the reaction shot of the century following a cuckoo Meghan McCain monologue about revolutionaries defeating the Brits, Sharon Osbourne practically canceled her own self live on my very television, and Piers Morgan finally seems to have been swallowed by his own neckfolds.
I don’t flatter that man enough to ever try to understand him, but I did learn this bit of clarifying information this week in regards to his batshit anti-Markle vitriol: Evidently, she once met him for what he assumed was a date, and then never contacted him again. Suddenly, everything clicks.
I have woken up each morning and gone to bed each night this week thinking of nothing but this photo Lady Gaga posted of she and Adam Driver in costume on the Italy set of their upcoming film House of Gucci.
Waffles + Mochi: Michelle Obama’s new kids’ show is really cute! (Tuesday on Netflix)
Operation Varsity Blues: Even if it didn’t earn its place, this college-admissions scandal doc is at the top of our must-see list. (Wednesday on Netflix)
Keeping Up With the Kardashians: The final season! The end of an era/nightmare! (Thursday on E!)
Grammy Awards: The Grammys are a disaster! We should stop validating disaster things! (Sunday on CBS)
Cherry: Tom Holland deserves better. (Friday on Apple TV+)
