Daily Archives: May 4, 2020

Hello people, I have just twittered with these six words, Rishi Kapoor made his debut on Twitter a little more than a decade ago on 17 January, 2010. But he hadnt warmed up to the idea of communicating on the micro-blogging site yet. That took him another five years.

According to lore, it was during the filming of All Is Well with Abhishek Bachchan that the late actor was reintroduced to the site. Thank you ABjr. Mutual admiration society. You truly are chip of the old block. See you on the sets shortly. A rush of tweets followed this from other celebrities welcoming him to Twitter, a rash of new followers and an introduction to the real Rishi Kapoor who was funny, frank, unabashedly opinionated, passionate and more often than not crotchety. In this zero-privacy age, when his fellow celebrities still managed to keep a faade of correctness, Kapoor wasnt afraid to just be himself. And, thats what quickly catapulted him to being a Twitter A-Lister.

Kapoors new public avatar coincided with his second innings in the movies. Since Bobby in 1973, he spent the next two decades being Bollywoods favourite romantic hero. It was only in the last decade or so that he began to experiment and discover my range as an actor, as he told me during an interview post the release of Agneepath. I am having a ball right now. Like I am at a party and there is a huge buffet and I can pick anything, he had added.

Rishi Kapoor. Twitter Image

He was game to play anything from a gay principal (Student of The Year), a Dawood Ibrahim-esque don (D-Day), a cantankerous old man (Kapoor & Sons and 102 Not Out), a middle-class teacher struggling to make ends meet (Do Dooni Chaar) or a pimp (Agneepath).

Even as a whole new generation discovered Kapoor has an actor, his fans old and new began to discover the person behind the actor. Soon he was firing off multiple tweets a day; in interviews he explained that he had replaced his nicotine dependence with Twitter. And, he had a point-of-view on everything from self-styled god woman Radhe Maa to the sacking of Cyrus Mistry as the Tata Sons Chairman; from the emerging trend of Pakistan-bashing in our films to newspaper design. He wasnt above calling out his colleagues for not attending Vinod Khannas funeral (Shameful. Not ONE actor of this generation attended Vinod Khanna's funeral. And that too he has worked with them. Must learn to respect.) or the appointment of fellow actor Gajendra Chauhan as the chairperson of the Film and Television Institute of India. (Advice. After all the protests and controversy, Gajendra Chauhan, the FTII Chairman should voluntarily retire. Will do good to the students.). Even as dissent became a bad word, he wasnt afraid to make public his displeasure at the beef ban in 2015 tweeting, I am angry. Why do you equate food with religion?? I am a beef eating Hindu. Does that mean I am less God fearing than a non eater? Think!!

When he wasnt ranting about the things happening in the world, there were dad jokes (Good news. After CM Phadnis cancels the DP and Hawking plan, he exempts booze too. Now Maharashtra can have TARBOOZE and KHARBOOZE freely!), film trivia (Sweaters.It was a passionate collection,over a period of time,which I used in films without repeating.This info for fans inquiring about it.), sports (Wimbledon Why do the young ball boys scramble/haste as if they have ants in their pants?Normal running to collect the ball could also do it.), self trolling (Confession.The only co star(tried thrice)with whom I did not make a successful film.And what a co star!Sorry Madhuri!), and important Ranbir Kapoor-related information (Another thing. I am Not and repeat NOT Ranbirs Post Box that you can drop messages or post them. Thank you, I remain yours truly-Rishi Kapoor).

Anyone who knew Kapoor well enough could attest to his love for food and Black Label Whiskey and this was reflected in his timeline. There were tweets about memorable crab claws at the JW Marriot, ghar ka khaana at Bombay Canteen, eating at Londons Le Petit Maison with wife Neetu and son Ranbir and a disappointing birthday dinner at Daniel Bouluds New York restaurant. Kapoor loved his foodie avatar so much he even briefly contemplated giving up acting to become a food critic (Showed my tweet to the manager. Refused to give the bill. Think I will make Food Review my profession. Adios acting and Films. This is better!)

Then there were the sometimes inappropriate, sometimes sexist and very often rude tweets. He mercilessly blocked trolls, accused people of not having a sense of humour when he posted tasteless memes featuring Hillary Clinton and Kim Kardashian and slid into peoples DMs to abuse them when the virtual fights got heated.

All this and more was what Kapoor was in real life as well. One of my favourite memories of him isnt from the numerous times I interviewed him on film sets or at his office in RK Studio, but from an after party at Krishna Raj, his beautiful home on Pali Hill. At a film party, Kapoor, who was in high spirits didnt want the night to end. He invited a handful of people home for one last nightcap. I wasnt a part of his inner circle but by virtue of being the last person he was talking to when he decided on hosting the after party, I was added to the group. At home, he was a consummate host and took charge behind the bar while giving very specific food instructions to the house help. He remembered what everyone was drinking, made fun of the only vegetarian in the group (calling him plant-killer and laughing at the joke multiple times) and regaled everyone with stories from the past. At some point, though, he must have decided he was done partying for the night. While everyone was in the middle of drinking, talking, eating the lights in the room went out and a booming voice said Party khatam.

If Rishi Kapoor could tweet one last tweet, hed probably say Party khatam because its just the kind of thing he would say. And Id like to believe hes taken the party upstairs and walked in to that place saying, Party shuru.

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Rishi Kapoor wasn't afraid to be himself, both online.. amid celebrities who thrive on political correctness - Firstpost

The following story contains spoilers from the Netflix series Hollywood.

Soon after presenter and screen star Ernest Borgnine takes the stage at the 1948 Academy Awards, a few attendees depart to another corner of the venue for a brief intermission from the nights nervous excitement. One is using the lull to fiddle with a crossword puzzle app on his cellphone.

Oh, this is a good one... cause here we are at the Oscars, David Corenswet says. Eight letters. The clue is snub. It ends in I-N-G.

Ignoring, Samara Weaving replies, without hesitation. (Shes right.)

This is the time- and mind-warp taking place as new has a break from the old on the set of the finale of Netflixs Hollywood.

From Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the TV drama conceives a more progressive history for Hollywoods Golden Age. The seven-episode season explores showbizs racist, sexist, homophobic past through a parallel universe in which its underdog cast of characters, who are working to get a feature film off the ground, get their fairy-tale ending or close to it.

A production shot of the stage for the Oscars ceremony featured in Netflixs Hollywood.

(Saeed Adyani / Netflix)

The series features portrayals of real-life icons like Anna May Wong (Michelle Krusiec), Rock Hudson (Jake Picking) and Hattie McDaniel (Queen Latifah) alongside fictional characters played by the likes of Corenswet, Weaving, Darren Criss, Laura Harrier, Jeremy Pope, Dylan McDermott, Holland Taylor, Patti LuPone and Jim Parsons.

In the dramas season finale, titled A Hollywood Ending, the shows central film, Meg, becomes a box office hit upon its theatrical release and, subsequently, receives multiple Academy Award nominations. A portion of the episode follows the characters as they attend the 20th Academy Awards and ultimately change the course of Hollywood history with some big wins for its marginalized characters.

I was interested in doing a piece specifically on buried Hollywood, says Murphy, whose grandmother kept him occupied as a child with books on old Hollywood. The darker, more upsetting social-injustice aspects of the town that you really cant believe. I grew up reading about Anna May Wong and Hattie McDaniel and Rock Hudson. And really how they should have had happy endings but didnt. And I wanted to write about giving them a happy ending.

Its bustling inside downtown L.A.'s historic Orpheum Theater in mid-January as crew members dart around between shots and hundreds of background actors take their seats for the episodes Oscars ceremony, the culmination of the dramas revisionist history fantasy.

The whole concept of the show is incredible to see and be a part of, says Pope, who plays screenwriter Archie Coleman, who is black and gay. Its nice to see these outcasts of the time have their moment and for the audience to question the what-if had things played out similarly then, how different things could look now.

Surviving newsreel footage of the 20th Academy Awards in 1948 including Celeste Holm accepting Best Supporting Actress for Gentlemans Agreement, Ronald Colman accepting Best Actor for A Double Life, Edmund Gwenn accepting Best Supporting Actor for Miracle on 34th Street, Francis Lyon and Robert Parrish accepting for Film Editing for Body and Soul, and Loretta Young accepting Best Actress for The Farmers Daughter.

Its not the first time Murphy, who went to the 1989 Oscars ceremony as a reporter, has featured the event in his work. His FX period drama Feud: Bette and Joan, another love letter to old Hollywood, re-created the spectacle of the 1963 Academy Awards. In fact, the Oscars get the Hollywood treatment twice in Hollywood. But its the finales 1948 ceremony that plays a major role.

The actual Academy Awards ceremony in 1948, which was broadcast over the radio, was held at the Shrine Auditorium. Securing the location for the episode proved difficult because filming landed on the same week as the SAG Awards. But the essence of the Shrine can still be felt: The venue was used for exterior shots of the arrivals/red-carpet sequence, which were filmed the following week.

To re-create the night, the shows production designer, Matthew Ferguson, relied on newspaper clippings, books and information culled online about the ceremony because the Academy doesnt typically cooperate with sharing its materials.

It was difficult, but not as difficult as you think, Ferguson says.

While the design of the Academy Awards in the modern era is often ornate and intricate the 2020 stage was decked out with more than 40,000 Swarovski crystals the ceremony of 1948 had a more streamlined look: cream-colored fabric draped around four white columns and, at the center, an Oscar statue resting on an off-white tiered base whose silhouette resembles a chocolate fountain. (Fake statuettes lining the base of the two tiers had to be destroyed within five hours of filming, at the Academys request.) The prop department even replicated the ceremonys program, which lists the order of awards and nominees.

Anytime you do the Academy Awards, if you do it in a cheap way it feels terrible, Murphy says. So we kind of have an obligation to blow it out.

The Orpheum had its lighting rigs and speakers removed from the venue to rid the space of any modern elements.

Jeremy Pope as Archie Coleman in a scene from the season finale of Netflixs Hollywood.

(Netflix)

Hollywoods take on the ceremony features many of the years actual nominees and presenters, such as Borgnine and Vivien Leigh. But instead of Loretta Young winning lead actress for her performance in The Farmers Daughter, its Camille Washington (Harrier), who had nearly been prevented from sitting in the theater for the ceremony because of her skin color. And instead of Sidney Sheldon winning for screenwriting for The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, its Coleman, proudly kissing Hudson, his boyfriend, before taking the stage.

We had a lot of repetition because in a situation like that, were getting it from every angle, Parsons says. All I will say is that that we got punch-drunk loopy by the end of the day. They were doing like a six-shot of six different people with us in that front row watching one speech that was happening. And I heard it so many times. ... I was laughing so hard I was crying. I finally had to look right in the lens and mouth, Im sorry, because I dont know that Ive ruined anybody elses shot, but mine is trash.

About 160 background actors, each dressed in period-appropriate attire, are crammed into the first dozen-plus rows near the front of the stage. (To fill in the surrounding empty seats, more were tiled into the frame in postproduction.)

Patti LuPone, left, Dylan McDermott, Holland Taylor and Samara Weaving in the season finale of Netflixs Hollywood.

(Netlfix)

The color palette of the wardrobe also was very specific. After getting a sense of the styles and designers that were worn for the ceremony, the shows costume designer, Sarah Evelyn, had to mold it to fit Murphys vision of the young casts dreamlike glow: the women in soft sherbet colors, the men in cream jackets.

For director Jessica Yu, the time at the Orpheum was frenetic. In addition to capturing the main ceremony upstairs, the crew was shooting downstairs for the green-room scenes, which feature Taylor, LuPone and McDermotts characters listening to the ceremony over the radio.

It was seven cameras going, Yu says. I was literally running up and down the stairs. And in a weird way, all the chaos felt like we were shooting the Oscars.

Laura Harrier as Camille in a scene from Netflixs Hollywood.

(Netflix)

Its the episodes acceptance speeches, though, that distinguish each characters experience of taking home an Oscar.

Wong talks of the significance of winning the award as an actress of Chinese descent for a role that wasnt a caricature. Coleman expresses his love for his boyfriend and signals that his win is proof to everyone whos been othered that their stories are important. In her tearful acceptance speech, Washington points out what the moment means for all young girls.

I think the thing that we were trying to get into speeches was they were shocked that they won, Murphy says. They were not entitled to anything. And when you dont think youre entitled, I think youre speaking in a much more raw, emotional way.

Its a bittersweet reality, Murphy says, to imagine where Hollywood would be today if gains in representation, and recognition of that representation, had been made sooner. He refers to what happened with Wong as an example. In 1937s adaptation of Pearl S. Bucks The Good Earth, about a family of Chinese farmers, Wong was passed over for the female lead, O-lan. Instead, German actress Luise Rainer won the best actress Oscar in the role.

Through the lens of todays political correctness, Murphy says, you literally cannot believe that a white woman played the greatest Chinese part of all time with her eyes Scotch-taped in yellowface, and yet thats exactly what happened.

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'Hollywood' on Netflix: How they made the Oscars episode - Los Angeles Times

Felix Kjellberg, better known as Pewdiepie and owner of the most popular individually operated channel on YouTube, has signed an exclusive deal with Google's ubiquitous video platform to promote its live streaming service, a clear competitor to the Amazon-owned Twitch.

On the one hand, this is a no-brainer. Getting the most popular creator on YouTube's platform and one of the most famous personalities in video games globally to promote YouTube's live streaming service is an obvious choice. On the other hand, much like YouTube itself, Kjellberg has been mired in controversy for years, all of it self-inflicted and easily avoidable. And while YouTube and Kjellberg have often been publicly at odds, with Kjellberg taking shots at the company in his massively popular videos and YouTube previously distancing itself from its most popular creator for numerous controversies, both sides are now doubling down on each other and ignoring many of YouTube's most harmful aspects in the process..

In 2018, Motherboard wrote about the way in which he taught his fans to harass women streamers (we still get hateful emails and tweets from his fans about this story today). A year earlier, he apologized for using the n-word during a live stream, much like the one YouTube just announced they enlisted him to promote. Earlier that same year, YouTube famously canceled an original series featuring Kjellberg over an anti-Semitic joke video he made. The press release announcing the exclusivity deal obviously doesn't mention any of this.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It's not as if Kjellberg has spent time since then rehabilitating his image, or making overtures to YouTube. He's had plenty of controversies since, and has started his "Pew News" series of videos, many of which focus on needling YouTube and the media for political correctness.

YouTube has been my home for over a decade now and live streaming on the platform feels like a natural fit as I continue to look for new ways to create content and interact with fans worldwide, Kjellberg said in a statement. Live streaming is something I'm focusing a lot on in 2020 and beyond, so to be able to partner with YouTube and be at the forefront of new product features is special and exciting for the future.

YouTube, in the past, has made supposedly principled decisions regarding Kjellberg, and Kjellberg in turn has spent much time detailing YouTube's failures in treating creators like himself. But, as we can see, neither side is all that principled when it comes to the bottom line. YouTube can't not use its most powerful creator if it wants a chance in hell in competing with the already-dominant Twitch, and Kjellberg can't walk away from a YouTube channel with more than 100 million subscribers, and whatever YouTube is paying him for this exclusivity deal.

YouTube is Pewdiepie, Pewdiepie is YouTube, and neither will change because they need each other too much.

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YouTube and Pewdiepie Can't Afford to Quit Each Other - VICE

As Ive stated in this column many times before, stand up comedy, for many reasons, is a much different breed of cat than other art forms. Unlike film, music and visual art, comedy especially stand up comedy doesnt often get the same pretension of subjectivity that these forms do. For one, people tend to think of themselves as intuitively good judges of comedy because its the one art form they participate in every day by telling jokes, even when theyre not that funny.

However, there is another equally important factor for why stand up comedy can be so difficult as both a performer and consumer. The work of comedians is almost entirely judged by the audiences immediate, in-the-moment reaction to it. Audiences are the ultimate judge of whether or not a joke works because theyre who its meant for.

Sure, sometimes a comic might get a bad crowd that seems more inclined to judge than enjoy a performance, but for the most part, the consumer is always right. Its why the notion of political correctness has been such a hot-button issue in comedy its a perceived battle between the audience and the performer.

Still, as Ive discussed in earlier columns, the concept of political correctness means many different things to many different people. Why shouldnt comedians joke about marginalized communities? Why is it that some comedians are able to talk about certain things but others arent?

One of the most obvious, if sometimes unfortunate, rules in stand up comedy is that half of a jokes success depends upon who is telling it. Reputation plays a pivotal role in how well an audience receives a joke from a comedian in the moment. A live audience is much more predisposed to laugh hard at a half-baked joke from Whitney Cummings than a meticulously conceived joke from Joe Schmoe.

Theres no way some of Dave Chappelles material from his recent specials would be lauded as brilliant if he wasnt already grandfathered in as an all-time talent. Some of his jokes especially those about alleged rape victims and the LGBTQ+ community have received a fair amount of backlash from critics and viewers. Yet, audiences were overwhelmingly pleased with what Chappelle put out. Hell, he even won a couple of Grammys for it.

Would these jokes get the same kind of reception coming out of Shane Gillis mouth? Almost assuredly not. We know Chappelle; thats just the kind of humor hes always done and we continue to praise him for it. Audiences and critics obviously love him enough for him to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2019.

Are these jokes bad? Is someone a bad person for laughing at them? Thats certainly up for debate. Whats not debatable, at least to me, is that they definitely sound a lot funnier coming from Chappelle than they do from many other people.

In addition to reputation, context also matters in why we laugh at some jokes versus others. Its always been my belief that certain, darker types of comedy operate on a suspension of belief. When Anthony Jeselnik jokes about dropping a baby, the audience laughs because of their fundamental understanding that hes not being serious.

Its for this reason why I believe Louis C.K.s attempt to come back to stand up has been an ill-conceived dumpster fire to watch as a consumer. Some Louis C.K. diehards might claim that, no matter how he went about it, there was no avenue for him to convince certain audiences to forgive him and allow him to continue performing comedy, and theyre probably right. Many people would not forgive him after he admitted to sexual misconduct.

However, there was a large number of fans and nonfans willing to let the disgraced comic at least try to demonstrate that he had truly learned from his mistakes through his material, which is as dark and self-reflective as one can get.

Unfortunately, his comic response, which is included in his new special titled Sincerely Louis C.K., was so tonedeaf and irresponsible to not only his career but the notion of dark comedy in general.

Again, dark comedy thrives on the suspension of belief you know that the people joking about these subjects arent actually bad people. You wouldnt be laughing at Jeselniks dead baby jokes if he had a history of clumsiness around infants. Its the same reason why Louis C.K.s once-brilliant darkness seemed rebellious, groundbreaking and strangely comforting when he didnt have the reputation of being a real-life scumbag. Its strange that the man whose whole stage persona once revolved around his fragile self-esteem now seems so eager to protect it.

In the special, C.K. does pull out some classic Louis-isms, including one bit about how he understands how one could be attracted to teenage boys, but these jokes that once seemed unbelievably dark and hilarious now seem strange and sinister. His act used to be so effective because it seemed to be him talking earnestly about his worst demons, the ones you never act on and are scared to talk about.

The jokes hit differently when you know hes the type of person to actually act on some of the disturbing things he talks about. Add the fact that he wont apologize for the horrible things hes actually done, and it becomes difficult to still find his material all that funny.

These situations are obviously all very different, and I am not the ultimate judge of comedys moral line. If I was then Id be killing the open mics (in 2021). Though, if there was any purpose in writing this column, it was to spread one gospel that comedy is an incredibly nuanced and legitimate art form, and it must be treated as such. Its not just the jolt of haha that you get from consuming a funny TikTok (although it can definitely be that as well). Its an art form built upon analyzing the missteps of life and finding truth within them. When it is done well, comedy is as important of a reflection of our culture as any creative interpretation. When it is watered down and weaponized, it only corrodes the medium for everyone who wants to participate in and enjoy it. Its not that serious, but take it seriously ya know?

Matthew Philips is a senior writing about comedy. He is also the wellness & outreach director for the Daily Trojan. His column, Waiting for the Punchline, ran every other Thursday.

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Waiting for the Punchline: There is nuance in who gets the power to tell what jokes - Daily Trojan Online