In this week’s Culture Catchall, we’re recapping the Emmys, wrapping our minds around J.Lo’s upcoming film, and more.
Jennifer Lopez arrives for the 2024 Golden Globe Awards.
MICHAEL TRAN VIA GETTY IMAGES
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The award for most chaotic, unserious movie trailer out this week goes to Jennifer Lopez. In a new movie-musical-danceathon (???), the singer and beloved rom-com starlet has “created a narrative-driven cinematic odyssey,” according to distributor Amazon. Named after her forthcoming ninth studio album, Lopez’s “THIS IS ME…NOW: A LOVE STORY” stars a roster of rotating love interests and includes a very strange assortment of cameos, including Neil Degrasse Tyson, Sofia Vergara, Derek Hough and (too) many others to count. I have no clue what to glean from this trailer, but maybe you can decipher it.
Speaking of musicians, the timeline was ablaze this past week with a viral clip of Yasiin Bey, a.k.a. Mos Def, on fashion designer and insider Recho Omondi’s podcast “The Cutting Room Floor.” When asked whether he considered Drake’s music hip-hop, Bey said, “Drake is pop to me,” akin to music he’d hear in “a Target in Houston.” I know how Champagne Papi Hive likes to tussle, but he’s absolutely right. Of course, they talked about much more than the “Degrassi” star — but watch the video for yourself.
While we await the forthcoming “Degrassi” documentary, the next children’s series to arrive in reboot land is Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place.” Originally airing from 2007-2012, the show followed the hijinks of a New York City teen — Alex Russo, played by Selena Gomez — raised in a family of wizards. Thanks, in part, to the cast maintaining the series’ pop culture relevance through their “Wizards of Waverly Pod” podcast, Disney has now officially ordered a sequel, with Gomez guest-starring in the pilot. Deadline has the deets.
And just like that, the lore of Che Diaz is no more. Sara Ramirez, who plays the nonbinary comedian on the “Sex and the City” revival, has allegedly been axed from the series for their pro-Palestinian views. They sounded off on Instagram about how the entertainment industry blacklists pro-Palestinian talent, the performative nature of Hollywood and Diaz, a character they “vehemently defended” last year. Meanwhile, this week, “Stranger Things” star Noah Schnapp — who seemed to endorse “Zionism is sexy” stickers in a video from November 2023 — gave a PR-contrived apology for his misconstrued beliefs online.
