Katherine Heigl is doing press for her new Netflix series, Firefly Lane. I started watching it before I realized it was based on a Kristin Hannah trilogy. She’s not my favorite author. I finished the series because I had theories about what the big reveal is and wanted to see if I was right (I was). It was okay. Really bad hair – both natural and wigs – seemed to be a plot point throughout, it was comical. But Katherine was good. Sarah Chalke was fine for that role, although I wouldn’t call it a stretch for her. Most of the flashback actors, especially the girls, were very good, though.

Anyway, Katherine called in to Drew Barrymore’s show to talk about the series. Katherine and Drew have been friends for years, so we learned that, like Anne Hathaway, Katherine prefers to go by “Katie” and that “Katherine” is just her professional persona. However, when it comes to being a mom, Katherine sees herself more of a drill sergeant, because she doesn’t allow technology for her daughters. Or she didn’t, until someone showed her how to use Apple’s screen time app.

Am I getting this correct you don’t allow technology?
Until yesterday. I caved. But I only caved because Apple now has that feature, the screen time feature, and my girlfriend was recently visiting and she taught me how to use it. So I have ultimate control over the devices, and I feel like, okay this I can safely do this now. They can be safe on there and I can be sure they’re safe so they have access to like books I mean.

How did you get through the pandemic are you a saint? Are you a martyr?
I was almost a murderer. No, we started out allowing them to play that Roblox game, I don’t know if you’ve heard of this. I have not played it. I don’t understand it, but they would be in their rooms playing this game together, the two girls for like, I mean six to seven hours. We were pretty lax about it and then I realized that was wrong and not healthy. So I tried to scale it back. And then it was just this addiction for them. So I kind of had to just completely take devices away. But then as soon as I would turn around, somehow, my daughter would find a device and she was like doing Tik Tok videos and just – I don’t know how to do a Tik Tok video. And she doesn’t even have her own device! So I couldn’t figure out how has she learned how to do this.

[From The Drew Barrymore Show on YouTube]

I am the last person to comment on screen time because I don’t monitor my kids at all. I think we had rules once upon a time, when they were young. Even then, I’m sure any study, doctor or parent group would tell me I was still giving them too much time. But it sounds like Katherine’s concerns were the amount of time her girls were on their devices, but also not knowing what they were visiting and that I get. I’m extremely lucky that my kids don’t show much interest in social media. So there isn’t much to monitor for us. They do socialize with their friends (who I know) online, both in games and general messaging. Right now that’s all the socializing they have so I’m very lenient on time.

I do know the game Roblox that Katherine’s girls played. My kids would play it for hours too, many times meeting their friends there. I watched them play it in the beginning to get a feel for it. Then one day my daughter came out and told us some guy had asked to “lie down in bed with her.” Unless you know how to code, all the characters can do is lie down next to each other, but we told the kids they could not go into the houses of anyone we didn’t know. The kids talked about the game constantly, so I always felt like I knew what was going on. Still, Katherine is right to at least get a feel for who the girls are interacting with.

Katherine looked good, if not a bit distracting, in a pretty floral print blouse with a floral print curtain behind her. She was weirdly out of breath for the whole interview, though. She almost sounded nervous, which was odd considering she and Drew go so far back. But it was nice to see her back as a blonde as opposed to the brunette she sported for Firefly Lane. I think she can carry brown hair, but not that brown and not that flat. There were no highlights, it was so fake. I swear, the hair person on that show hated the cast, every single one. Except for Ben Lawson at the very end.

Here’s the first half of Katherine/Katie’s interview with Drew:

Embed from Getty Images

Photo credit: YouTube, Avalon and Getty Images

Another week, another remake on the horizon. I know I know we are all tired of the reboots and remakes but maybe this new remake in the works could be good. HBO’s Watchmen director, Nicole Kassell, has been tapped to direct The Wizard of Oz remake. New Line will be bringing in Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, and Marc Platt to produce. I guess New Line liked how Kassell was able to adapt DC’s Watchmen comics into an award winning series for HBO. Also, in teaming up with New Line, Nicole will still be working with her HBO family. There is no word on who will be starring in The Wizard of Oz remake or how they plan to reboot the classic, however, Deadline has more on why Kassell was sought for the project:

Her selection follows an extensive director search by New Line to find a visionary filmmaker to re-imagine The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. They liked what they saw in how Kassell acted as a meticulous world-builder in overseeing every step of the Watchmen production, setting the show’s striking visual tone with no detail overlooked and weaving visual cues from the panels of the comic into the series as delicate Easter eggs for fans. Kassell also demonstrated the ability to adapt challenging material, breathing new life into DC’s revered and notoriously difficult-to-adapt graphic novel.

The project keeps Kassell in the WarnerMedia fold, after Watchmen and eps of the HBO series Westworld, The Leftovers, and Vinyl. Kassell also directed the pilot for TNT’s Claws and next directs the HBO pilot The Baby. She also has the film Silver Seas for Participant Media.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900 and inspired 13 additional Oz books. It long has been a Hollywood fixation — the book is in the public domain — and has been the inspiration of numerous project since the classic 1939 musical film The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland. That film is in the Warner Bros library, meaning the fresh take on Baum children’s novel can draw on elements like the ruby slippers, something rival projects cannot do. Previous screenplay drafts were written by Darren Lemke and the duo of Neil Widener and Gavin James.

“I am incredibly honored to join Temple Hill and New Line in bringing this beloved classic to the screen,” Kassell said. “While the 1939 musical is part of my DNA, I am exhilarated and humbled by the responsibility of re-imagining such a legendary tale. The opportunity to examine the original themes — the quest for courage, love, wisdom and home — feels more timely and urgent than ever. These are profoundly iconic shoes to fill, and I am eager to dance alongside these heroes of my childhood as we pave a newly minted yellow brick road.”

[From Deadline]

The Wizard of Oz was a groundbreaking film of its time. While it wasn’t the first film in color, it was the first film to “prove that color could add fantasy and bring people to theatres despite the failing American economy during the Great Depression.” The Wizard of Oz and its African-American remake, 1978?s The Wiz, were some of my absolute favorite movies when I was a kid. I am not sure if I want to see modern cinema butcher such beautiful memories and like I said, I am absolutely tired of all of the remakes. I really believe that there are more stories and more talent available that could create new and exciting material. However, I get that Hollywood is all about rinse and repeat which is absolutely tragic in my opinion because their avoidance of taking risks often leads to remakes that flop.

With that being said, I absolutely loved what Kassell and co. did with the Watchmen material. Every single episode was epic. HBO’s Watchmen was the best Watchmen remake in my opinion. All of the movies were crap. However, I felt the way Kassell and the team took the original Watchmen material and made it from a Black lens was brilliant. If Kassell was part of the team who decided to do that, then perhaps there is hope for her The Wizard of Oz remake. Whatever the case, I am sure there will be more remakes on the horizon. At this point, it would seem that covid will not be the only reason I stay out of the theatres over the next couple of years.

Photos credit: Avalon.red

The Oscars happened a year ago today. A year ago today Duana and I were running on 48 hours without sleep and a 15,000 word count…and exhilarated. And it’s not like we didn’t make the most of it, we always do, but if we could have known that we wouldn’t be back this year, I feel like we would have g…

Robin Wright makes her feature directorial debut with Land, a film centered on Edee (Wright), a woman in obvious pain. She begins the film in therapy and very quickly exits modern life in Chicago for a remote one-room cabin in Wyoming on the border of the Shoshone National Forest. Her new home has n…

Jennifer Lopez covers the new issue of Allure and I’m surprised at the cover look they chose for this issue for their 30th anniversary. Maybe that was the point – to surprise. Because even though JLo changes her hair all the time, it’s usually a familiar rotation: topknot, voluminous waves, volumino…

Britney Spears is once again the center of the pop culture conversation. Yesterday Lainey wrote about her, and our, complicity in the framing of Britney Spears. There are snippets of that conversation happening online but a lot of it is focused on media. At the time of the Britney uproar, I was not …

One of the great films of the 21st century is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a film that unpicks a major piece of American folklore by focusing on the grubworm who betrayed a beloved but largely fictionalized figure in Americana. Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah …

CAA is “taking a break” from representing Shia LaBeouf, but they’re not terminating his contract. Shia has also checked into in-patient treatment for five weeks. [Just Jared]
Hailee Steinfeld is so beautiful but… she got her lips done? [Tom & Lorenzo]
Review of The Lady and the Dale. [Pajiba]
Klan leader is sentenced to three years in prison. [Towleroad]
This Nicole Kidman-Keith Urban story is so bizarre. [Dlisted]
Do you enjoy Valentine’s Day whimsy? [Go Fug Yourself]
Review of Minari, which is getting all kinds of nominations. [LaineyGossip]
Again, the terrorists laying siege to the Capitol knew that Donald Trump ordered them to do what they did. [Jezebel]
Republicans are mocking Donald Trump’s lawyers opening statements. [Buzzfeed]
Carrie Underwood uses the “old” filter. [Seriously OMG]
This is the first Stella McCartney ensemble which I have truly loved. [RCFA]

An early Lunar New Year present – here’s Keanu Reeves, who is part Asian, in LA out for a ride, all smiles and pleasant, as usual, while talking to some friends. I don’t have much more to say. All I wanted to do with this post is to share the Keanu pics and trust that there would be no problems, bec…

Olivia Wilde keeps getting so much attention for being a director. I mean, good for her, and Booksmart wasn’t a disaster (it was annoying and way too white, but whatever). She’s currently directing Don’t Worry Darling with an assortment of actors including her new boyfriend Harry Styles. She took a break from filming to chat with Emerald Fennell for Variety’s awards-season interview series recently. They’re both actress-directors, and Fennell directed Promising Young Woman. I don’t really care about this piece, but you can read the transcript here. Olivia once again seems to believe that she’s the only person in Hollywood with a “no a–holes” policy. When really she just stole that entire concept from Shonda Rhimes and now Olivia is getting credit for it (plus, Olivia would have cancel herself if she truly had a no a–holes policy).

Anyway! If you’re here because you’re curious about Olivia and Harry Styles, good luck! After not much news about them for a few weeks, People Magazine had an update over the weekend. For some reason.

The romance between Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles is going strong. The pair “seem very serious” and “spend all their time together” as they continue to shoot their upcoming film, Don’t Worry Darling, in Los Angeles, a source tells PEOPLE. The film is Wilde’s highly-anticipated sophomore directorial project which she also stars in.

“She is also very happy with Harry,” adds the source. “Olivia and Harry continue to film in L.A. Filming has been tricky because of COVID. They have shut down the set several times for testing and breaks. Olivia is amazing to work with though. She stays calm and very focused despite all the breaks.”

The “Golden” singer, 27, and the Booksmart director, 36, were seen holding hands at a friend’s wedding in Montecito, California, in early January. A source confirmed to PEOPLE at the time that they had “dated for a few weeks,” at that point.

Sources also previously told PEOPLE that Wilde struck up a close friendship with Styles last fall as they began work on Don’t Worry Darling. As they spent time together on-and off-set, their friendship “quickly turned romantic,” said an insider, who added: “Their chemistry was very obvious.”

[From People]

I crack up every time I read quotes from an unnamed source who is absolutely Olivia’s publicist. You can really tell when it’s Olivia’s publicist because they have certain “tells.” Tells like “Olivia is amazing to work with though. She stays calm and very focused despite all the breaks” and “She was also busier than him at times…Olivia has a very promising directing and producing career” and “He has been really hurt and somewhat jealous that Olivia has moved on with Harry.” Olivia always comes out like a beautiful, sexy saint who is supremely talented and in-demand and also supremely competent, even though her ex is jealous of her and her current boyfriend is obsessed with her.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.