If any secretly wealthy ABW benefactors want to fund a field trip to LA this July, please get in contact because experiential entertainment company Bucket List are opening The Golden Girls Kitchen.
Ticketed at $50, it will be a dine-in experience that will also offer a gift store, the opportunity to chill out on the lanai, and sit at the iconic kitchen table.
The company teased offerings Sophia’s Lasagna (meat or vegan), Blanche’s Georgia Style Cookies, The Dorothy: A Miami Style Sandwich, and beverages like Tea Arthur and Rose on Rosé. Additional items and local delivery will also be available for a la carte purchase. Every ticket purchased comes with a reserved seat and guaranteed window of time to dine, choice of an entree, and “most importantly, cheesecake.”
It's still morning as I type this, but right now I just want to grab a slice of cheesecake and talk about St Olaf with my friends...
Chris Gardner
Tastes just like Coca Cola
Obi-Wan Kenobi viewers have been introduced to Lola. "She's" a little Android pal to a space princess on the show. Her actual droid name is LO-LA59 and she'll be available to buy in stores later this year. For kids 4+.
There will be two versions: a cheaper US$39 version due in Sept and a much pricier US$99 version that has sensors due in Dec. Right in time for Christmas - really, it's almost as if it was planned...
Danielle Directo-Meston
More on Star Wars racism
Yesterday ABW ran a piece a bit sceptical of Disney's calling out of racism by Star Wars fans. My contention is that the efforts they are making seem more beneficial to the marketing of the show and not actually addressing the problems.
Today Eric Deggans at NPR has a related thought, which is that Disney should be far more pre-emptive in calling this nonsense out.
Let's see prominent executives talk about the racism among fans before actors of color have to go public with their trauma. Let's see an advertising campaign directed specifically at calling out racists and uplifting non-white performers. How about social media events with fans aimed at celebrating franchise diversity before a new TV show or film even debuts?
Something I think that could go a distance would be to seed new characters that are set to be portrayed by actors of colour in the various transmedia properties. Star Wars is unique in that it is very easy to publish comics and other media to introduce these characters with limited expense and a short lead-time.
As Deggans points out, part of the friction when it comes to Star Wars in particular (but, it's not as if there isn't racist viewers of other media - Star Wars is hardly an island here), is that the films initially were incredibly white despite taking on the iconography of classic Japanese cinema. As far as the original films go, you have Lando Calrissian, but that's pretty much it. The addition of People of Colour is obviously welcome to Star Wars, but for a certain segment of the viewership, it doesn't feel natural to the universe of Star Wars.
Of course, I'd suggest that there are now more hours of live action Star Wars made post Samuel L Jackson, John Boyega, and Kelly Marie Tran joining the franchise that the idea of this friction shouldn't even still be a consideration. But here we are...
Hollywood is liberal, but are the movies?
It's cultural hot-button discussion week here at ABW...
An interesting article from AO Scott in the New York Times today where he points out something fairly obvious that I don't think a lot of people take enough time to think about: Hollywood is an incredibly liberal place, but so much of the product is incredibly conservative.
I know there are exceptions, and I’m not trying to flip the script and reveal the reactionary face of Hollywood, though it’s true that in the years of the Production Code (from the mid-’30s until the late ’60s), Hollywood upheld a fairly conservative vision of American life. Nonmarital sex was strictly policed, interracial romance completely forbidden. Crime could not pay, and the dignity of institutions had to be protected. Even in the post-Code years, what mainstream American movies have most often supplied aren’t critical engagements with reality, but fantasies of the status quo. The dominant narrative forms, tending toward happy or redemptive endings — or, more recently, toward a horizon of endless sequels — are fundamentally affirmative of the way things are. What they affirm, most of all, is consensus, an ideal of harmony that isn’t so much apolitical as anti-political, finding expression not in the voting booth but at the box office.
Not mentioned in the piece, but worth keeping in mind: Just how many Hollywood movies are made with the US military supporting them. The Marvel franchise being a highly visible modern example.
By
- CNN plans to cut back on its "breaking news" banners. Read: Axios
- June 22 is the release date for Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness on Disney+. Read: The AV Club
- Is It Cake? has been renewed for a second season by Netflix. Read: thefutoncritic
- A 60 Minutes channel will launch on Pluto TV showing current and older stories from the news magazine show. Read: Variety
- Quentin Tarantino and his Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary are launching a film/video discussion podcast. Read: Rolling Stone
- Amanda Peet will play the role of the wife in the upcoming Fatal Attraction show. Read: Variety
Irma Vep debuts June 6 on HBO. I've seen the first three episodes and it may be my favorite show of 2022.
Beavis & Butthead Do The Universe debuts June 23 on Paramount+.
More Power is a reality show that reunites Home Improvement stars Tim Allen and Richard Karn for a real-world version of the fictional Tool Time. How many times do you reckon these two men have spoken since the sitcom came to an end in 1999? It debuts June 29 on History.
When Super Nintendo World opens in 2023 at Universal Studios in Hollywood, it will be with this ride:
The final season of Animal Kingdom debuts June 19 on TNT.
The Princess debuts July 1 on Hulu. Apparently it's an R-rated action fantasy movie.
That's it for the daily newsletter this week. Thankfully - it was a quiet, quiet week. There will be more newsletter next week. And, as always, the Always Be Streaming weekly newsletter will be in your inbox later today.
