Natalie Portman Shares Her Experience of Sexual Terrorism at 13, After Her First Film Was Rele

Natalie Portman speaking at the Women’s March in Los Angeles. While speaking at the Women’s March in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, actress Natalie Portman described her experience of “sexual terrorism” after the release of her first film, Léon: The Professional. Portman was 13 when the film came out and remembered being excited to open her first fan mail, only to find a “rape fantasy” written by a man. She recalled a local radio station starting a countdown to her 18th birthday, when she would be “legal,” and how critics commented on her “budding breasts” in reviews. [Read More]

Nate Bargatze - Vulture

best of 2023 Dec. 6, 2023

The Best Comedy Specials of 2023The best hours reached for transcendence — through gravity and sheer goofiness, often at the same time.

By Kathryn VanArendonk

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NBC Renews A.P. Bio and Adds Comedies from Mike Schur and Amy Poehler

There’s a lot of comedy news happening at NBC this week. According to The Wrap, the network has given a season 2 renewal to freshman comedy A.P. Bio starring Glenn Howerton and handed out series orders to two new comedies – Abby’s from Mike Schur and I Feel Bad from Amy Poehler. Schur’s Abby’s has been in development at NBC since last year and will star Natalie Morales alongside an ensemble cast including Nelson Franklin, Kimia Behpoornia, Jessica Chaffin, Leonard Ouzts, and Neil Flynn. [Read More]

Neil Patrick Harris on Hedwig, Dressing Rooms, and Getting All That Glitter Off Every Night

Neil Patrick Harris’s stage chops have been well known to the Broadway community for years — mostly for his Über-charming Tony-hosting duties (and a memorable supporting turn in the 2004 revival of Assassins) — but as of Tuesday night, he’s officially proven his ability to carry an entire show on his shoulders. Starring as the East German transgendered would-be punk rock star Hedwig in John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Harris prances around stage in platform heels, goes through a formidable collection of wigs, and shreds like Iggy for 90 minutes straight. [Read More]

Netflixs New Heist Movie Lift Wastes a Fun Cast

Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Kevin Hart in Lift. The secret to making a good heist movie isn’t really the heist itself but the chemistry among the actors. While the mechanics of breaking into this or that vault or stealing this or that precious object can be pleasurable, if it’s not being done by people we sort of care about, then it’s useless. Do you remember the actual heists from any of the Ocean’s movies? [Read More]

Netflixs Spinning Out Trailer Goes Big With Drugs, Sex, Ice-skating, and Johnny Weir

Kaya Scodelario may have been an apex predator in the water for this summer’s gator thriller Crawl, but on the ice, she’s an almost-washed former elite skater trying to train her way back to glory. In Spinning Out, Scodelario plays Kat Baker (oh, what could have been, Emma Roberts …), a solo figure skater who is traumatized after an apparently severe head injury sustained on the ice, and who — like other fictional skaters before her — becomes a pairs skater in order to compete again with a chill guy partner who thinks she’s too uptight. [Read More]

New Amsterdam Is Very, Very Dumb

From left: Freema Agyeman as Dr. Helen Sharpe, Ryan Eggold as Dr. Max Goodwin. NBC’s new medical drama New Amsterdam belongs to a familiar type. There’s a Bad Boy Outsider who comes to Shake Things Up, questioning the conventional wisdom and breaking all the rules in order to do the right thing. On New Amsterdam, that’s Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold). He’s got “good” right in the name! [Read More]

New York Comedy Institution The Creek & The Cave Shuts Down Permanently

The Creek & the Cave. Another New York City institution has closed after the city shuttered comedy clubs amid the coronavirus pandemic. Rebecca Trent, the owner of The Creek & The Cave in Long Island City, revealed on Thursday that the venue would not reopen after 14 years in business. Trent announced the closure in a Facebook post. “I wanted to wait until the election before I let you all officially know something that I’m sure most of you already know,” she wrote. [Read More]

Nicole Byer Is Loosely Exactly Nicole

Nicole Byer, of MTV’s Girl Code fame, has appeared on Netflix’s Lady Dynamite, NBC’s 30 Rock and Fox’s Party Over Here. Her web series, Pursuit of Sexiness, co-stars Saturday Night Live’s Sasheer Zamata. Now Byer has an opportunity for something new: her own scripted series. Loosely Exactly Nicole is based loosely/exactly on the life of Byer herself, and the experience of writing and taping was truly grueling. I recently got the opportunity to sit down with Byer to talk about the experience, the highs and the lows, and what it is she really wants. [Read More]