Alexis Bledel decided to “step away” from The Handmaid’s Tale “after much thought.” What happened? I genuinely wonder. [Dlisted]
Matthew Morrison left So You Think You Can Dance under a cloud too. It sounds like he was biased towards certain contestants? [Seriously OMG]
Gemma Chan wore a much better Louis Vuitton in Cannes. [RCFA]
Harry Styles wore a big purple jumpsuit. [Just Jared]
Jodie Foster will star in True Detective Season 4? [LaineyGossip]
Obi Wan-Kenobi was always overhyped, huh? [Pajiba]
Cannes Film Festival street-style photos. [Go Fug Yourself]
A reminder: don’t pregame before your Memorial Day parties. [Gawker]
Texan women are going to Mexico for abortions? [Towleroad]
Bella Hadid wore so much vintage stuff in Cannes. [Tom & Lorenzo]
The difference between having money and being wealthy. [Buzzfeed]
Paulina Gretzky is on vacation. [Egotastic]
No actor leaves a paying gig unless there’s something major going on in their life.
I wondered if it was related to Elizabeth Moss coming out hard for Scientology.
She’s been given a lot of slack because she was born into Scientology. She is now a bigger star than she was and they want her to recruit. And she is. She speaks out against a lot of injustice, but never against the notorious cult she belongs to.
Maybe years ago it was easy to be sheltered from the truth, but now lots of actor members are leaving and a few speak about what is really going on.
Seth Rogan had a funny story on Tom Cruise constantly trying to recruit. And it’s scary how persistent he was.
June being June. I can see that as the reason why she’s exiting. The show has moved so far from the premise. I dislike June at this point.
I haven’t been following the later series but from what I can tell its pretty much the June show – the other and just as important/interesting characters got shoved to the back or made into props for June and her one woman revenge plot. I know a lot of what’s happening in the series lead up to events in the book sequel (Atwood has said this) but it def seems a bit overkill.
The June Gets Other People Killed Because of her Stupid Mistakes but Shows No Concern and Deliberately Keeps Making Stupid Mistakes Show
Want to Believe she realizes the people participating in and watching watching this nonsense is normalizing some frightening BS, but she’s a scientistologist so who knows
I also dont think Elisabeth is a good enough actress to play this character with any subtlety or nuance which it desperately needs.
I agree. I always find her whole affect so flat and monotone, the same in every role. It kind of worked for Peggy but it doesn’t work for June, at least not after the first season.
Right? It should have been a short series. Stick to the material, and then end. I laughed so hard when I found out they have like 5 seasons now.
If it was 4 seasons it would have been really good. Now it’s dragging.
I can’t look at Matthew Morrison without seeing him in the gross, creepy grinch costume.
I stopped watching last season because it’s just torture porn with no ending in sight. Maybe Alexis feels the same way.
100% agree with you!
This from season 1.
Especially with the Supreme Court leak. This is not something that is pleasurable to watch for me. I can’t imagine acting it.
It’s torture porn where we are supposed to believe June is the hero, while watching her recklessness and selfishness get better people killed regularly – and it’s often women of color who suffer the consequences when June goes rogue. I’d move on from that too.
All of this. Maybe she didn’t see any interesting arcs for her character? Maybe she really wanted new opportunities? I can imaging playing characters set in this world would be beyond emotionally exhausting. Or maybe she wanted more time with her family?
June’s recklessness would be frustrating in an of itself, but what makes it worse for me is the feeling that these writing choices are being made to drag the series on longer, not to actually contribute to the story in a meaningful way.
Yeah, if it’s not anything happening in her personal life, I can imagine leaving just because the story arc for all characters seems like a downward spiral into suicidal depression or getting killed directly or indirectly by June. No glimmer of hope in sight.
I thought they would be ending this after the last season which was as good a time as any to end it. It’s unfortunate that they are filming again. Especially since I truly believe there are too many men who would LOVE a Gilead-style world and too many women who would be happy to have their rights taken away as long as they felt like they had some sort of sorority standing in society. This is a utopia for them.
@lemons – there is a rather large Facebook group for people who wished they lived in Gilead and it is mostly women
Lisa
I’m sure they all see themselves as wives and not slaves. A little weird they’d want to assist their husbands in assaulting other women. Or they must be picking and choosing what to idealize.
That show is becoming too much of a reality.
Jfc. It’s billionaire syndrome. Everyone thinks they’re the ones who will come out on top.
I thought they tried to show the shift in power dynamics. The victim from being powerless and abused, has now her agency back, she has power. After all that trauma, she abuses power herself. June was an imperfect character from the beginning. Not always likeable, sometimes reckless. But Alexis’ character was much more interesting to me, had more depth and I was really looking forward to seeing where she would go. I am disappointed that she left. Also I am super curious to why??
That Gawker article was hysterical. I laughed out loud.
I clicked on it based on your comment and it did not disappoint! Hilarious!!!
I read the book and saw the movie years ago. I haven’t watched the series, but doesn’t it look like it normalizes the mistreatment of women? Torture porn shouldn’t be a thing.
I’ve never watched this show.
I’m guessing that like a lot of us in IRL, after the last 2-3 years she decided that she can’t waste anymore time being unhappy at my job.
Mr Schu was always so creepy, I’m very curious to know how Morrison got himself in trouble before the live shows started. Are they gonna try to edit him away like Sherry Pie on Drag Race?
SYTYCD protocols —> judges can’t sleep with contestants
Exactly what I thought. He’s been dating/romantic with a contestant so of course he can’t judge the finalists.
probably or he tried to date one (or more) and they refused
Her husband-who played Pete on Mad Men-got in trouble last year on the set of some HBO Max show. It was reported in Deadline, and it was “inappropriate behavior” or something like that which could mean anything from sexual harassment to more…but it was apparently bad enough he got multiple warnings.
Might have something to do with that if she’s getting ready to divorce him…maybe she doesn’t want to be on set away from home for a relatively tiny, thankless role at this point.
Actually, someone who worked on set came on and explained what it was and it was not sexual harrassment, but I believe over jocularity. It was brought up, he listened and apologized and was it was done and there were no other complaints.
Meanwhile, Paulina Gretzky Johnson is disrobing again for a selfie in yet another skimpy bikini. What is wrong with people who need attention so bad that they drop their clothes at the sight of a camera? Her children must be so proud. Was always a Wayne Gretzky fan from his hockey days. I wonder if he cringes at the sight of her relentless almost nude posing. She won’t always have this body, then what? Off my soapbox now.
That’s all she can do. She has zero talent, zero education and is as dumb as a brick. Just like her Mother, who I’m sure is proud that her daughter married a rich, professional athlete, just like she did. Actually I think that Janet is a lot more cunning than her daughter. All of the Gretzky kids are supposed to be complete assholes. Plus the family are all Trumpers. Paulina had Kid Rock play at her wedding. You can’t get lower class than that.
Paulina and her family are Trumpers. Figures.
Handmaids tale came to us in the #Metoo era, when it really had something to say. But there is a time and place for a show like this, and i feel like it lost momentum with the gap year between seasons 3 and 4, and the writing and plot arent as good anymore. It feels only bleak and angry now, do you really want to watch something so absolutely devoid of hope in a time when you are facing real world issues with taking care of basic needs?
“…for some reason…”
Pretty sure the reasons are likely quite clear. The show stopped being impactful or really even interesting (I honestly had to look and see that it’s still around, because I’ve been wholly unaware of it for a decent while now.
Plus, Elisabeth Moss seems like….a lot. I know a lot of people like her, but she just seems so up herself that I can’t even watch full interviews with her. It’s like she looks at everyone through a lens of “*sigh* You silly little thing I’m having to talk to, I’ll come down to your level for a bit.”
I think Elisabeth is a good actress, but not someone I’d really want to hang out wtih.
I was impressed with Alexis’ work early in the series, I haven’t watched the last season or 2, but perhaps she’s simply tired of it, it’s heavy subject matter, and she’s ready to move on.
Wow, I thought the Obi-Wan show was excellent and have mostly heard the same from friends who are fans. Not a letdown at all thus far, and this is coming from 1) a massive Star Wars fan and 2) someone who has been mostly unimpressed with the Disney+ Marvel offerings.