Ted Lasso’s third season ended in May 2023. I loved the first two seasons but I absolutely loathed the third season. It felt like Jason Sudeikis’s personal situation affected every part of the show, from the writing to the decisions about all of the characters to the way everything “wrapped up.” It was no secret that Jason was basically the only one who wanted the show to end, the rest of the actors and writers would have loved to keep going. There were rumors about a spinoff starring Hannah Waddingham’s Rebecca and there were other rumors that AppleTV+ basically went to Jason and said “name your price, we want more Lasso.” Well, now that everyone is more than a year removed from the Lasso finale, they’re deciding to do a “fourth season.” Hmm.

Ted Lasso fans, this is not a drill. In a major step toward the long-awaited fourth season of Apple TV+’s hugely popular soccer comedy, the series’ studio Warner Bros. Television has picked up the options on the three original cast members who had been contracted under the aegis of the UK acting union Equity, sources tell Deadline. They are Hannah Waddingham, who plays AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Walton, Brett Goldstein, who plays hardman Roy Kent and Jeremy Swift, who plays Director of Football Operations Leslie Higgins.

After securing the trio, the studio is expected to start reaching out to Ted Lasso cast members with SAG-AFTRA contracts whose options had expired, so they will need to make new deals, we hear. In addition to co-creators/executive producers Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) and Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard), that is believed to include Juno Temple (Keeley Jones). We hear one of the Ted Lasso OGs, Phil Dunster (Jamie Tart), has not been picked up, presumably due to a conflict with another series; he is on both Prime Video’s The Devil’s Hour and Apple’s Surface.

It is unclear which other stars may be approached about Season 4; the cast have all said repeatedly that they would be happy to reprise their roles if an opportunity arises. Many would likely pop in for guest appearances.

Getting the cast back paves the way toward a Season 4 greenlight, contingent on budget approval and scheduling as actors whose options have lapsed may have joined other series that have them in first position, sources said.

Starting the process for a Season 4 greenlight indicates that the main Ted Lasso driving force on and off-screen, Sudeikis, is on board for a new installment as the studio would not have proceeded without his consent. The fate of Ted Lasso has always hinged on Sudeikis, who’d originated the character in NBC Sports videos. While being open that they would love to extend Ted Lasso, one of the biggest and most acclaimed comedies of the past decade, Apple and Warner Bros. executives have made it clear that it would be up to Sudeikis whether the show would continue.

[From Deadline]

In the dreamlike final sequence where we saw what happens to the characters, it felt like they were setting up a post-Ted Lasso series in Richmond. That was what most of the conversations were about last year, all of the potential spinoffs now that the Ted character is back in Kansas. I wonder how they’ll explain Lasso’s potential return to Richmond? Suddenly his kid doesn’t need him anymore? His ex-wife is still banging their marriage counselor? Rebecca and Roy can’t manage the football club without him and they beg him to return? Or will Ted see the light and come to the conclusion that, actually, Richmond is his home and he needs to go home? This is why I would tune in, to see how they resolve Ted’s return to Richmond and what “happened” to everyone in the two years Ted was back in Kansas. I also wonder what happened with Sudeikis – he was so burned out on Lasso and he was phoning in his performance in the third season. Maybe he just needed a real break and now he’s ready to come back.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid, AppleTV+.

Before Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce, there was some talk that she would wait until after the Toronto Film Festival, mostly because she and Ben Affleck would likely have promotional duties together for the film Unstoppable. Ben produced Unstoppable through Artists Equity and J.Lo has a supporting role in it. According to People Mag, the new plan is that Jennifer will attend the film festival and Ben is going to skip it. Matt Damon will be there though. That should be interesting – will Matt and J.Lo pose together?

Additionally, TMZ and other outlets report that J.Lo has already filed to change her legal name back to Jennifer Lynn Lopez. She really did become Mrs. Jennifer Affleck after their wedding, although no one called her that. Not only did she change her name, she didn’t sign a prenup and neither did he. They really went into it thinking it would be forever. Even after Ben lost interest, Jennifer still hoped he would come around or come back to her. But, according to Page Six’s sources, Jennifer now understands that Ben has a “darkness” inside of him. Page Six also introduces another party into the equation – Kick Kennedy??

No one in the Western hemisphere was shocked when Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck this week, after months of torrid speculation. But it’s not for a lack of J. Lo trying to make the marriage work. Friends had long told Page Six that the singer and actress harbored dreams she could salvage the relationship, even though the couple had been living apart for months.

“She loves him, she will always love him, that’s the problem,” one pal told us. Friends desperately hoped that Affleck would join Lopez in the Hamptons for her 55th birthday last month, which she celebrated with friends and family at a “Bridgerton”-themed bash, but the Oscar winner never showed.

Instead, over the past few months, we’re told that the Affleck has been spotted at Hollywood haunts including the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where sources told us he was seen hanging out with friend Kick Kennedy, the 36-year-old daughter of failed presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“She truly believed this was the greatest love story she’d ever known and she was finally getting her chance at the fairy tale,” said one Hollywood source who knows the couple. “She just really didn’t stop to consider who the actual man was [in] the fairy tale.”

The source added that the kind of “big love Jennifer believes in” is “not in [Ben’s] DNA” — adding, “Ben has a darkness to him that no other person can fix. [His actress ex-wife] Jen Garner couldn’t fix it, all the success in the world couldn’t fix it. [Lopez] gave this everything she had; her whole heart. She would have done anything to make this work. She opened herself up to criticism, ridicule and countless naysayers who told her this was a bad idea, that it was doomed, that there was a reason it didn’t work the first time,” the source said. “But she didn’t want to believe it— she truly believed love would conquer all.”

[From Page Six]

This bummed me out. I know it’s coming from J.Lo’s side and that’s fine, but there’s so much truth to it, right? “Ben has a darkness to him that no other person can fix.” I believe Ben is extremely charismatic when he wants to be, and that he can convince a woman of anything. Then I think he gets bored or complacent or he just loses interest. The stuff about Kick Kennedy is definitely interesting too. This is the first mention, that I’ve seen, of a third party’s name.

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty, Cover Images.

Embed from Getty Images

Well, it happened. Robert Kennedy Jr. has suspended his “presidential campaign” and endorsed Donald Trump. Naturally. Kennedy truly was the Kanye West of this election cycle, and I mean that in the most derogatory way possible. At an early event on Friday, Kennedy suspended his campaign and dropped out of the race. Then Kennedy joined Trump in Phoenix, Arizona for a rally. I only watched about a minute of it before turning that sh-t off – Trump was very happy about this, so much so that he’s acting as if Kennedy is his new running mate. Baby Fists/Brain Worm ‘24. Poor JD Vance – outmaneuvered by a dude with a brain worm.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threw his support behind former President Donald J. Trump on Friday after suspending his troubled independent campaign for president, saying he was withdrawing his name from the ballot in battleground states and that Mr. Trump had “asked to enlist me” in his second administration. He announced his plans in a speech in Phoenix that also castigated the mainstream media and accused the Democratic Party of “abandoning democracy” and engaging in “legal warfare” against him and Mr. Trump.

Campaigning in Las Vegas, Mr. Trump expressed delight with Mr. Kennedy’s decision. “That’s big,” he said. “He’s a great guy, respected by everybody.” On Friday evening, Mr. Kennedy spoke at a rally for Mr. Trump in Arizona.

In his remarks, Mr. Kennedy, 70, said he had pledged to leave the race if he “became a spoiler” — a candidate with no path to victory who could nonetheless alter the outcome of the election. “In my heart, I no longer believe I have a realistic path to electoral victory, in the face of this relentless, systematic censorship and media control,” he said.

“Our polling consistently showed that by staying on the ballot in battleground states, I would most likely hand the election to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on most existential issues,” he said.

Mr. Kennedy had been in behind-the-scenes talks with the Trump team for weeks about the possibility of suspending his campaign and endorsing the former president. Those talks were brokered in part by Donald Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson and Omeed Malik, a businessman who has supported both candidates, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Mr. Trump, taking questions from reporters at a restaurant in Las Vegas, declined to say whether he would offer Mr. Kennedy a role in his administration if he is elected in November. He called Kennedy “beloved.”

[From The NY Times]

“Those talks were brokered in part by Donald Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson and Omeed Malik, a businessman who has supported both candidates…” As I’ve said this whole time, Republican operatives were “running” Kennedy specifically to act as spoiler for the Democrats. Given Kennedy’s withdrawal, the internal numbers must have shown that Kennedy was actually taking votes away from Trump. As other reporters pointed out, Trump and Kennedy share another major donor in common: Timothy Mellon, who also encouraged Kennedy to drop out and endorse Trump.

In case you’re interested in the Kennedy family’s position on all of this ratf-cking, Jack Schlossberg tweeted out something great, as did Kerry Kennedy.

Never been less surprised in my life. Been saying it for over a year — RFKjr is for sale, works for Trump. Bedfellows and loving it.

Kamala Harris is for the people — the easiest decision of all time just got easier.

— Jack Schlossberg (@JBKSchlossberg) August 23, 2024

I am sharing a personal statement that my family and I have made in response to my brother’s announcement. pic.twitter.com/j7vTTabNYZ

— Kerry Kennedy (@KerryKennedyRFK) August 23, 2024

Trump shares a post describing he and RFK Jr as a “ticket.” Poor JD. pic.twitter.com/0kmtEytGkW

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 24, 2024

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.

Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin-Bieber have welcomed their first child. They welcomed baby boy Jack Blues Bieber on Friday. Thoughts on the name? Growing up, I didn’t know any Jacks, but that’s changed over time. People name their sons “John” and call him Jack, or they just flat-out make their son’s legal name Jack or Jackson or Jax or whatever. It feels super-common these days and I’m sure Jack Bieber will have several classmates named Jack or Jackson. People Mag says there’s an important thing happening with the initials too:

Justin and Hailey Bieber are keeping their family name alive! On Friday, Aug. 23, the couple announced the arrival of their baby boy, Jack Blues Bieber — continuing a sweet Bieber family tradition of naming him with the initials ‘JB.’

“WELCOME HOME JACK BLUES BIEBER,” Juston, 30, wrote in a post on Instagram while sharing a close-up shot of the baby’s foot. Hailey, 27, reshared the post on her Instagram Stories as she added a bear and blue heart emoji.

The family tradition of naming their son with the initials ‘JB’ is one that has continued in Justin’s side of the family for a couple of generations now, as the singer has the same initials, along with his dad, Jeremy Bieber, and some of his siblings.

Justin’s half-sister Jazmyn Bieber, 16, and half-brother, Jaxon Bieber, 14, also have the same initials. Both siblings are the children of Jeremy and his ex Erin Wagner.

The singer also named his son Jack after his father’s middle name in another sentimental tribute.

Justin’s dad Jeremy and mom Pattie Mallette, split a few months before he was born in 1994.

[From People]

Thoughts on the father giving every child his initials? The Duggars do that. Jim-Bob Duggar’s children all have J-names. If you’re stuck on choosing a J-name, why not Jacob, Julian or Jasper? I don’t know. Anyway, I’m happy for Hailey and Justin. I hope the delivery went well and mother and baby are okay. I hope Justin commits himself to being a hands-on father and a supportive husband too. I also hope he doesn’t pressure her to have another baby right away.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Justin’s Instagram.

DL Hughley spoke at the DNC and apologized to Kamala Harris for lying about her. She told him to do his research and he did. This was a smart way to handle the lies about Harris’s record and I’m glad his apology was as loud as his disrespect. [Just Jared]
Taylor Swift made a statement about her canceled Vienna shows. [Hollywood Life]
Madonna posed with all six children for her 66th birthday. [Socialite Life]
Sabrina Carpenter describes herself as a “freak manifester.” [LaineyGossip]
Fashion from the DNC. Michelle Obama wore Monse. [RCFA]
JK Rowling’s lawyers must have screamed at her. [OMG Blog]
Reaction to Kamala Harris’s convention speech. [Pajiba]
The proportions are wrong in this Stella McCartney collection. [Go Fug Yourself]
It’s Pumpkin Spice Szn. [Seriously OMG]
Teen Mom star has a long criminal history. [Starcasm]
Drew Barrymore is going to work on giving people personal space. [Buzzfeed]

Ben Affleck proposed to Jennifer Lopez in April 2022. He proposed with a large green diamond engagement ring, which she loved and couldn’t wait to show off. I forgot something about the ring though – Ben had it engraved with “not going anywhere” because that’s how he would sign off his emails when he started pursuing her again in 2021 (when she was engaged to A-Rod). Ben would write her love letters and sign off “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.” Just another sad piece of gossip, given Jennifer’s divorce filing this week. And it’s even more evidence that Ben and Jen really did think this was for real and the genuine endgame. Speaking of, People Magazine has more exclusive quotes from “sources.”

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck entered into a romantic partnership — for the second time — with the best intentions. After news broke of Lopez’s recent divorce filing, a source who knows both Lopez, 55, and Affleck, 52, tells PEOPLE they “really loved each other — and it happened quickly.”

“They were really going to give it a try, and they did,” adds the source. “These are two people who are in love with love, and who wouldn’t jump into that? And the world wanted it.”

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s marriage helped him “become a family man again,” a source close to both of them tells PEOPLE. Lopez, 55, filed for divorce from Affleck, 52, this week on the second anniversary of their wedding ceremony in Georgia, and a source says that their relationship always prioritized family.

“Family is very important to both of them, and together they were family people — and the connection doesn’t end,” the source says of their once-blended family.

Lopez shares twins Max and Emme, 16, with ex-husband Marc Anthony, while Affleck shares three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner: Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12.

“They are very different people,” the source adds of Affleck and Lopez. “She’s super public and wants to go out, and he’s more of an introvert and is happy to hang out at home.”

[From People Magazine]

Eh. Ben’s side is really leaning into the version of their split where Ben was just a quiet guy in a delicate place in his recovery who was focused on his kids and then this vixen came back into his life and threw everything off-kilter. And that’s not what happened. Ben had been in recovery/sober for several years when HE pursued Jennifer and he made the effort to woo her yet again. As for all of this family stuff… I feel sorry for Emme. Emme and Ben seemed tight. As for his kids, Ben has not really role modeled healthy behavior in this instance.

Photos courtesy of OnTheJLo newsletter, Instagram and Backgrid.

If you ask me, Democrats have not been hitting JD Vance enough in recent weeks. While there were plenty of Vance references during the DNC and Democrats feel perfectly comfortable mocking Vance as a weird creep, I want more. Really turn Vance into a Sarah Palin-esque referendum on Donald Trump’s bad judgment. Keep pointing out that no one f–king vetted this couch-f–king grifter. Vance is historically unpopular too – what little is known about him, people don’t like. In public polling, 43.2% of the population has unfavorable opinions of Vance. Only 33.2% of the population has a favorable view.

Vance isn’t doing much to disrupt public opinion either. First he was stalking Kamala Harris around the country, then he tried to hard-launch “I have a dog, please like me” and no one bought it. Every week, there’s some terrible old interview released where Vance said some creepy Gilead sh-t. There are literally tens of people coming to his poorly organized rallies. In person, he has the charisma of a damp, muffled fart. Speaking of, Vance tried to do an impromptu visit to a donut shop and it could not have gone worse for him:

JD Vance had a very awkward visit to a donut shop in Georgia earlier. Trust us, it’s worse than you even think. pic.twitter.com/Fnohh0bKUf

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) August 22, 2024

“I’m JD Vance, I’m running for vice president.” “Okay.” Those two employees were so over him and his eyeliner. Is this literally the first time in his life that he’s ever tried to make small talk with service employees? I love that the woman wanted so little to do with him that she was immediately like: I do not want to be on camera. Good for you, unknown lady.

Meanwhile, Vance was watching the DNC and his big takeaway was that Democrats are all gloom and doom. For real? Donald Trump is Mr. Apocalypse, selling a vision of America that is a crime-ridden hellhole. Vance said this week: “What so many of the speakers did, including Tim Walz, is basically say that if you want a better life for your children, if you want to vote for Donald Trump to change the direction of this country, you’re a bad person.… I thought it was actually a very dark and ominous tone where they attacked Donald Trump, and they attacked the people who voted for him rather than offer a compelling vision for the future.” LMAO. This guy is such a dumbass.

And finally:

The look on JD Vance’s face after Tapper plays the clip lol pic.twitter.com/ffYNfeMane

— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) August 22, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

We’ll probably get the final numbers today or over the weekend, but it definitely looks and feels like the Democratic National Convention blew the RNC’s ratings out of the water. People have been tuning in all week and the DNC organizers did an amazing job with speakers, performances and vibes. Even old-fart conservatives like Chris Wallace said that the DNC “clobbered” the RNC. It also would not surprise me at all if people tuned in just for the fourth night, to see Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech. There was curiosity even among true-blue Democrats about what kind of tone she would set and whether her speech would be more biographical or whether she would talk policy. She did it all, wrapping her biography into policy. But really, the main thrust of her speech was the Prosecution of Donald Trump. The stakes, the “prosecutor versus felon” narrative, the fact that we cannot let that f–king fascist anywhere near the White House ever again.

Even the optics felt notable – many expected VP Harris to wear “suffragette white,” but instead she wore a dark navy pantsuit from Chloe with a pussybow blouse. She looked presidential and she acted presidential – the optics were “I’m ready for this and I’m dressing like I already have the job.” The speech, as I said, was full of policy and substance. The speakers leading up to Harris’s speech were doing that too, with a focus on foreign policy, the military, reproductive rights and gun control. While Harris is wildly effective on all of that, she is (in my opinion) the most effective when she’s dissecting Trump:

Harris tagged Trump as “an unserious man,” but argued that the consequences of putting him back in the White House “are extremely serious.” Part of that involved recapping his attempt to steal the 2020 election (“he tried to throw away your votes”) and his criminal conviction (“for an entirely different set of crimes, he was found guilty of fraud”).

But Harris argued that next time could well be worse because of the Supreme Court ruling last month giving presidents broad immunity from prosecution for acts they commit as president. “Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails,” Harris said. “How he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States. Not to improve your life. Not to strengthen our national security. But to serve the only client he has ever had: himself.”

This is an important recognition that the democracy issue is bigger than just repeating that Trump is a convicted felon or that January 6 was bad. Indeed, Harris treated Trump’s conviction as a small part of a larger argument that he is a fundamentally corrupt person, unfit for the presidency, and out for himself rather than everyday Americans.

Later on, while discussing foreign policy, she was even more blunt. “Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable,” she said, “because he wants to be an autocrat.”

[From Vox]

She was brilliant last night. I’ve been a fan of Harris for years, but even I will admit that, in the past, she hasn’t always been able to explain and articulate her vision and her perspective in a concise, understandable way. That’s shifted and it’s shifted very quickly. It goes back to some reporting in recent weeks, when President Biden endorsed her and she locked down the nomination within 24 hours – she’s no longer second-guessing herself and she’s no longer simply acting as Biden’s loyal soldier. That’s freed her and now she’s running, unburdened by what has been.

Well, yes https://t.co/uaTfz7yo20 pic.twitter.com/YCgufHSDwr

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 23, 2024

Screencaps from YouTube.

The past week has been full of royal drama. There’s one small part of me which wonders if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Colombian tour would have been such a major gossip story if the British media wasn’t hellbent on screaming and wailing about it for an entire week. Not only that, it was clear that the Colombian trip bothered the hell of Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. BP was issuing talking points about the trip, encouraging royal reporters to downplay and obscure the purpose of the visit and then complain about how they had zero access. Meanwhile, Prince William has been raging and lashing out at reporters – first Roya Nikkhah (who wrote that horrible piece in the Times) and then Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast. I wonder if the palaces had stayed radio silent in the past week, if the Colombian tour would have been several days of good media coverage and not much beyond that. There’s absolutely an element of Streisand-Effect-by-royalist. Anyway, it looks like Vanity Fair got the palace talking points and didn’t feel like playing along. VF subtly pushed back on the royalist narratives in this summary of the trip: “Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Have Reinvented the Royal Tour.”

The Duchess of Sussex connected earnestly with a group of regular people in a country other royals might not have been able to visit, at least not in an official capacity, and the scenes were a reminder of what the Windsors are missing now that she and Harry have set up their own court in Santa Barbara. Still, it’s hard to get the images of their days as representatives of Queen Elizabeth II off our minds, and that might be why their recent international travels—including a February trip to Whistler, Canada and a May tour of Nigeria—have felt so familiar.

These recent trips were made at the invitation of government officials, but, as the British media is quick to point out, they are not “official royal tours.” Even though there isn’t a cut-and-dry definition of an official tour, it generally refers to the fact that when working royals travel on the public purse, they are often representing the head of state at the request of the Foreign Office. The traditional royal tour is about diplomacy—managing relationships with the heads of other countries.

The Sussexes return to the road in 2024 is a sign of just how much their ambitions have broadened since they left the royal fold. Over the last few years, they have been collecting experiences and making connections on issues that include veteran’s advocacy, mental health, online safety, and women’s empowerment. Now, they are beginning to call attention to just how important those issues are to people around the world. Call it the next step in their plan for world domination—or at least their path to global policy change.

… But the main focus of the trip was connected to their recent Archewell Foundation push to raise awareness about the harms that children might encounter online and provide support to victims. The centerpiece was a panel where they spoke about their work, and it had a similar format and topics to the one they hosted in New York City in October 2023. In his remarks, Harry mentioned the couple’s shared belief that “information integrity is a fundamental right.”

Over the weekend, The Sunday Times published an in-depth look at Harry’s life and career, with commentary from some of the friends and employees he left behind in the UK who worry that his California lifestyle might not be enough to sate the prince’s ambitions. “What is the purpose of Prince Harry and what is Prince Harry’s purpose?” a former aide told the newspaper. “The work with Invictus is great and fatherhood was the role he most wanted, so perhaps those are enough for him. But everything else is a bit woolly. I always thought he wanted more from life. I can’t help but think he must be wondering, ‘Where do I go from here?’’”

In Colombia, Harry’s answer to that question was on display, and if his former confidants were able to see it up close, maybe they wouldn’t be so confused. In their post-royal work, Meghan and Harry have tried to change up the old royal routine. In May, Afam Onyema, the CEO of GEANCO Foundation who accompanied the couple on their Nigeria trip, told Vanity Fair that their goals are about doing, not just looking. “I was really touched when they said, it’s not just going to be a speech and a photo op. They want to leave something, leave a legacy,” Onyema said. “That’s very important to them, from my experience with them and their team—leaving a legacy and impact and really helping people in direct, tangible ways.”

[From Vanity Fair]

The reference to that Kensington Palace-sourced hit piece masquerading as a “Harry’s 40th birthday” piece is smart – Nikkhah’s piece was an obvious piece of ham-fisted manipulation from the wrathful egg, timed to drop during the Sussexes’ Colombia tour. William was the one who wanted quotes like “Harry’s an angry boy” and “I always thought he wanted more from life.” That’s William beside himself with anger that his favorite punching bag moved out of the country with his beautiful wife. Anyway, “the scenes were a reminder of what the Windsors are missing now that she and Harry have set up their own court in Santa Barbara.” That too was why BP was issuing talking points and furiously trying to diminish Harry and Meghan’s tour. What would happen if people genuinely started asking why the Windsors were incapable of accepting and nurturing Meghan and all she brought to the table. What would happen if people genuinely wished Harry was the heir?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

A few weeks ago, Joaquin Phoenix suddenly pulled out of a Todd Haynes-directed film which was already deep into pre-production. Joaquin pulled out just a few days before he was due on set to begin principal filming. It is an especially crazy thing to do, even more so considering the fact that Joaquin brought the story and concept to Haynes and they developed it together. The story is something like “a closeted gay detective story” and it’s a period piece and the love story was supposed to be very explicit. Joaquin’s sudden withdrawal has left Haynes in an awful spot, not to mention the production companies which already invested millions. The Hollywood Reporter has already done some reporting about the studio/executive outrage over Phoenix screwing over Haynes and the film. Now THR asks: “Can Joaquin Phoenix Be Replaced, or Is Todd Haynes’ Gay Love Story Doomed?”

Joaquin Phoenix has pulled this sort of stunt before. In 2019, he tried to back out of The Joker at the last minute. He did it again in 2021, with Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon, and again in 2023, with Ridley Scott’s Napoleon. But in those cases, Phoenix ultimately settled down and the movies ended up getting made. Which raises an obvious question: Is there any way the explicit Todd Haynes gay love story that Phoenix supposedly got cold feet over and abruptly exited Aug. 9 — just five days before shooting was scheduled to begin in Guadalajara, Mexico, where sets were already being built and crews were waiting for the Oscar-winning actor to arrive — might somehow also end up getting made?

Rambling Reporter has been hearing all sorts of rumors about eleventh-hour attempts to salvage the untitled project, including reports that Haynes had been contemplating recasting Phoenix’s part. Pedro Pascal’s name has been bandied about, though sources tell THR he’d be an unlikely choice given that Pascal’s schedule is packed until the end of the year with Fantastic Four and The Mandalorian shoots and also because Haynes had already cast Top Gun: Maverick‘s Danny Ramirez as Phoenix’s love interest in the film, which centers on a corrupt L.A. cop in the 1930s who has a torrid affair with a nonwhite male character. “Having two Latinos in the roles doesn’t make a lot of sense,” one talent rep tells THR.

Meanwhile, Rambling hears that Haynes’ producers have been considering hitting Phoenix with a lawsuit to cover lost costs, said to amount to several million dollars. Might that entice Phoenix back to the set? Anything is possible, but it’s unlikely, given that money doesn’t appear to be a problem for the actor these days; he got paid $25 million for the Joker sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, which bows at the Venice Film Festival in September.

[From THR]

As I said weeks ago, the reason why there’s not more full-throated, on-the-record backlash against Joaquin right now is because Joker: Folie à Deux is coming out soon. Studios are waiting to see if that film is successful with the powerful neckbeard incel demographic before they completely write off Joaquin. It’s crazy that no one has sued him yet, which makes me wonder if Haynes does feel like there’s a shot at getting Joaquin to change his mind. But it’s also been weeks since he exited – are they still waiting around in Mexico? As for recasting the role… I get that there’s a Hollywood hive-mind and that currently, everyone wants to hire Pedro Pascal for every role, but there are other actors around? It’s completely f–king weird to be like “We should recast this, is Pedro available? Oh, he’s not, well, nevermind.” And of course this all would have played out differently if a woman had pulled this kind of stunt.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.