Well, I can tell you who’s NOT having the West Week Ever: Bill Cosby. My how the mighty have fallen! Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, then you know what’s going on. If not, here it is: a few weeks ago, comedian Hannibal Buress dropped a reference to Bill Cosby’s rape allegations during his standup act, which reignited public interest in said allegations. Apparently, over 13 women have claimed that Cosby forced himself on them, and most of these situations were either covered up or settled out of court. Recently, former America’s Next Top Model judge Janice Dickinson reported that she was also in a similar situation with Cosby 30 years ago. Through all of this, Cosby has remained quiet. During an NPR interview last week, he was asked about the charges, and reportedly just silently shook his head.
Even if he’s innocent, the court of public opinion has already decided that he’s guilty. First off, Cosby placed a meme generator on his website, which was probably the worst thing he could’ve done. Former fans had a field day creating memes about the charges. Then, Netflix has postponed his special, Bill Cosby 77, which had already been filmed for the service. Then, NBC cancelled plans they had for a new sitcom starring Cosby as the patriarch. In the ultimate social network backstab, the official Cosby Show facebook page changed its profile picture from a picture of Cosby to a picture of the outside of the Huxtables’ house. Finally, TV Land has yanked Cosby Show reruns for the foreseeable future. Even if Cosby is innocent, he’s losing everything by not getting in front of this.
I know he has his fans out there, but he’s been running his mouth of the past few years about what’s wrong with today’s youth. While a lot of that was standard old man rants, he always came off as holier than thou. I don’t really have a horse in that race, but I hope he either clears his name or justice is served.
Ground Floor, one of my favorite shows of 2013, comes back December 9th on TBS. If ya wanna know what the show’s about, click that link and help my stats. The part that sucks is that it’ll air Tuesdays at 10, opposite my new favorite show, Forever. Why couldn’t it air during Agent Carter? I have NO desire to watch that show. Anyway, give Ground Floor a chance, as it’s a cute show, and it’s got Pitch Perfect alums in it, for fans of that movie.
Marvel is in the midst of casting the title role of Jessica Jones for the upcoming Netflix series. At the moment, there appear to be four frontrunners testing for the role:
Krysten Ritter: love her, but don’t think she’s right for the role.
Alexandria Daddario: if you don’t know her, check out True Detective. She’s my favorite for this role.
Teresa Palmer: never heard of her. Apparently she was in Warm Bodies
Jessica DeGouw: she was Huntress in Arrow. I like her look, and she may be enough of an unknown for Marvel to put their stamp on her. I like her look, but I’m weirded out that she’ll have played roles in both Big 2 universes.
They’re also looking at actors for Luke Cage, who’ll not only be featured in several Jessica Jones episodes, but also becomes her husband in the comics. One of the frontrunners for this is Lance Gross, also known as Calvin from House of Payne (he was also on Crisis, but nobody watched that show). I really want him to get it, as I like his look, but it’d also be nice to see a Tyler Perry alum graduate to the big time (kinda like Sofia Vergara did).
The script for Ghostbusters 3 reportedly leaked, and I don’t hate it. According to Bloody Disgusting, they have a version of the script from 2009, and details have started to leak out. The main gist of it is that Ghostbusters has become a corporation (Ghostbusters, Inc), and the team members that we know have been busted down to consultant status due to an incident that destroyed the Triborough Bridge. Also, Peter Venkman is the mayor of New York, Dana Barrett’s son Oscar is a new generation Ghostbuster, and Winston’s still marginalized (he’s a mechanic for Ghostbusters, Inc). Yeah, that last sentence had a lot of doozies in it, but it all kinda makes sense. I’m not gonna copy and paste the synopsis, so click on over to blastr (Bloody Disgusting is blocked by some workplaces).
In music news, Billboard is changing the Billboard 200 in order to get inline with the times. Since folks are streaming and downloading more than buying physical music, it’s about time that the top chart reflected that. So, starting with the Dec 4 chart, 1,500 streams (whether from Spotify, Beats Music, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker, Muve Music, Google Play, Medianet and Xbox Music) will count as one album sale. Meanwhile, 10 song (paid) downloads will count as one album sale. The hope is to encourage streaming holdouts to make their music available on streaming services, since these streams will now count towards units sold.
While we’re on music, one of my favorite UK pop groups, S Club 7, reunited for the first time in 12 years last weekend for the BBC Children In Need telethon. Wanna see it? Here ya go!
The first trailer for Pitch Perfect 2 hit the web, and I’m pretty excited. That said, I’ve got feelings about that first movie. As much as I enjoyed it, I almost feel about it the way that nerds feel about The Big Bang Theory. Then I remember that we’re talking about a cappella, and nobody gives a shit. Anyway, here’s that trailer:
In the past, I’ve lamented the fact that there are no new Christmas songs. At least none with staying power. While this one might sound kind of dated in a few years, it’s new and it’s cute. I present Kristen Bell and Straight No Chaser with “Text Me Merry Christmas”:
Now that it’s the holiday season, I’m ramping back up into selling. That’s right – Will’s World of Wonder is back in full force! I’ve added a bunch of new stuff that would look great under your tree/next to your menorah/in your Kwanzaa hoodie. Looking for Agent Venom? We got it! Looking for Marvel Legends Black Widow? We got it! Buy some stuff and tell your friends! I got bills to pay, and I needs money, so start ordering today!
Things You May Have Missed This Week
-There might be a chocolate shortage by 2020
-Netflix has saved the A&E drama Longmire
-TBS has renewed the new, edgier American Dad for season 12
-Jaden & Willow Smith gave a wackadoodle interview to the New York Times
-Michael Phelps’s pre-rehab girlfriend was born with both sets of genitals.
Nothing blew up Twitter as much last weekend as Lifetime’s Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B TV movie. Apparently, nobody attached to Aaliyah cooperated, and its main executive producer was talk show host Wendy Williams. None of Aaliyah’s songs were featured and the acting was rough. The joke on Twitter is that it looked like they just cast people off the street, as none of the people looked like they were supposed to look. Williams has come to the defense of the movie, saying that she’s proud of it, but the whole thing was just kinda lackluster. Based on the tweets, I was expecting the Black Sharknado. Ya know, it’s so bad it’s hilarious. That’s not what I got, though. Since I was never really an Aaliyah fan, maybe I missed out on some stuff. Besides having a pretty crappy ending (A screen card tells us they all died, and we don’t even get a scene of people crying or a candlelight vigil!), it was a pretty serviceable biography. I may not get the jokes, but I can acknowledge the impact the movie had on social media. So, for dominating Twitter for the weekend, Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B had the West Week Ever.
It instills confidence in the GB3 script that you gave it a thumbs up. Sounds interesting, too bad it will never likely happen.
I’m really sad that it’ll never be made. It seemed like it was a good script, and it seems like it ends with Winston in a good place, which I felt he deserved. Not quite sure I dig the ending, since it kinda goes against the GB mission statement, but I’d let it slide.