From awards shows to star dropouts, it’s been a busy week in pop culture. Here’s Mark
Lieberman’s breakdown of the week’s biggest headlines.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to host a lot of Golden Globes.
After Tina Fey and Amy Poehler fueled speculation on the Emmys red carpet last month, NBC
announced Tuesday that the dynamic duo of comediennes will return to host next year’s Golden
Globe Awards. But that’s not all: Fey and Poehler will don their fanciest dresses for the 2015
ceremony as well. Although Fey and Poehler will have hosted three times in a row by the end of
this cycle, just as Ricky Gervais did before them, conventional wisdom suggests that the
beloved duo will not fall into the same lazy retread act that Gervais did.
“50 Shades of Grey” was a few shades too many for Charlie Hunnam.
Just a few weeks after he signed on to the hotly anticipated (pun intended) film adaptation of the
wildly popular novel “50 Shades of Grey,” Charlie Hunnam dropped out of the project for reasons largely unknown. The statement cited Hunnam’s busy shooting
schedule for the FX drama “Sons of Anarchy,” but skeptics would argue that Hunnam already
knew that schedule when he signed on. Either way, this dropout casts the quickly approaching
adaptation in doubt, with fans and pundits suggesting Matt Bomer (“White Collar”) and Ian
Somelhader (“The Vampire Diaries”) as appealing alternatives.
Donald Glover is struggling with more than just a budding music career.
When Donald Glover announced that he would be taking a vastly reduced role as Troy Barnes
in the upcoming fifth season of “Community,” most of the show’s fans assumed that Glover
chose his musical alter ego Childish Gambino over his beloved character on the NBC comedy
that could. A series of Instagram posts (yes, Instagram posts) complicated matters Tuesday,
when Glover revealed that he feels insecure about the future and fears “Community” creator
Dan Harmon hates him for dropping out of his full-time commitment. Fame affects celebrities in
strange ways.
Zombies, not Walter White, are the future of television.
The series finale of “Breaking Bad” finale attracted a series-high 10.3 million viewers to the
critically acclaimed drama, but those numbers pale in comparison to the truly remarkable
returns for Sunday’s season premiere of “The Walking Dead,” which managed to outrate more
than 90% of the dramas and comedies airing on the broadcast networks so far this season. With
16.3 million viewers in the finale’s first airing alone, and countless millions more catching up via
repeats, DVR and iTunes, AMC has a creepy phenomenon that shows no signs of slowing in its
fourth season.
Madonna, don’t text.
Pop icon Madonna has always been known to challenge convention, but she overstepped her
boundaries at a New York Film Festival preview event for the upcoming drama “12 Years a
Slave” last weekend. After texting consistently during the screening, a clear violation of the
Alamo Drafthouse chain’s well-publicized and strict anti-cell phone policy, Drafthouse CEO
tweeted that Madonna would not be allowed to return to any Alamo Drafthouse location until she
“apologized to movie fans.” League later admitted he was initially joking about the lifetime ban,
but now that it’s taken hold, he’s not opposed to enforcing the clearly articulated policy.
