What happens when you send a Man Booker Prize-winning author to interview Brad Pitt? A surprisingly wonderful interview is what happens. The NY Times’ T Magazine sent Marlon James to interview Brad at the offices of Plan B. They apparently shot the sh-t for hours, and James seemed to come away impressed with Brad’s general coolness/wokeness. There are tons of great little details, like Brad forgets to water his office plants for months on end, and at least one of his kids is obsessed with cassette tapes. You can read the full piece here (I would recommend it) and here are some highlights:

Whether the people in third-world countries laugh at “foreign do-gooders”: “I’ve been one of those at times. But you’ve got to start somewhere. You start with your best intentions, understanding the world as you do. And then you get in and you see that it’s much more complicated than you could possibly imagine. Our failings in foreign policy have always been to think that we can place our ideas on another culture, while not really understanding the other culture.”

On Brexit: “Man, I never thought that would happen. Same way I can’t bring myself to think that Trump will be in charge. In the simplest terms, what brings us together is good, and what separates us is bad. We have this great line in ‘The Big Short.’ ‘When things are going wrong and we can’t find the reason for it, we just start creating enemies.’”

Trying to understand Trump supporters: “Coming from Oklahoma, southern Missouri, which leans more toward a Trump voice, I try to understand it…It seems that the people who suffer the most end up betting for the party that would hurt them. And so I try to understand where they’re coming from.”

Trump can’t be explained by just economics: “You gotta understand that it’s also in our DNA. Most Americans don’t have time to watch CNN and Fox and Al Jazeera. They’re trying to make the rent, get the kids fed, they’re tired when they get home and they want to forget about everything. And so suddenly when this voice comes in — and it doesn’t have to be a voice of substance — saying he’s fed up with all of this, that’s the part that hooks into the DNA… What I’m most hopeful about is that we’re a global neighborhood now, and we start to understand each other more and more — and yet, you see this reactionary push for isolation and separation again… A Trump supporter is fighting against just about everything. What does he even mean, take our country back? Would someone please explain that to me? Where’d it go?”

He’d love to make a film about Pontius Pilate: [He wants to do it] mostly because the script, which focuses on a mediocre Roman official stuck in the middle of nowhere with difficult people he doesn’t like, makes him smile. Jesus doesn’t get much screen time. “It certainly won’t be for the ‘Passion’ crowd,” he says, which reminds me that Mel Gibson’s torture-p0rn epic is one of the things that drove me out of the church. Pitt bursts into laughter. “I felt like I was just watching an L. Ron Hubbard propaganda film.” Xenu aside, Gibson movies typically do one thing really well: violence. “Oh, extremely well,” Pitt says. “?‘Apocalypto’ is a great film.”

[From T Magazine]

Marlon James also judges Brad for being too skinny, and for being too cool even though he’s the father of six kids. And it’s sort of true – Brad IS still cool. Somehow. You know he probably has a lot of dad-humor (he probably loves Tim Kaine), but he’s legit cool. As for what he says about politics and Trump… I think his parents are Republicans. His mom was a big Mitt Romney defender, remember that? Jane Pitt hated (hates?) Barack Obama. I get the feeling that Brad tries not to talk about politics when he goes home to Missouri, although his mom probably talks AT him.

Photos courtesy of T Magazine, WENN.

Lena Dunham spent days, if not weeks or months thinking about Odell Beckham Jr. They were seated at the same table at this year’s Met Gala, and according to Lena, Odell barely spoke to her and spent most of the time on his phone. As we learned in Lena’s latest Lenny interview, which was released last Friday, Lena projected a lot of sleazy, misogynistic and racist bulls—t onto Odell’s general indifference. At first, Lena tried to double down and say that it was all a joke and she’s just so insecure, you guys! But then she finally apologized, while somehow still making the apology all about herself, the most special snowflake in the entire universe.

Throughout the controversy, Odell didn’t say anything. He didn’t tweet about Lena, he didn’t Instagram or Snapchat about her, he didn’t release any statements. It wasn’t clear that he was aware of her existence even after the kerfuffle. I took that as Odell being classy – when someone behaves so inappropriately, why not just let them dig themselves out without offering up anything? Well, Odell did speak this week. He chatted with Complex at a GQ party – he’s in New York, having fun, catching the US Open and launching a capsule collection of Odell-designed sweatpants. So what did Odell have to say?

Odell Beckham Jr. may be the only person in the country without an opinion about Lena Dunham’s opinion about Odell Beckham Jr. When asked last night at a private party at GQ’s penthouse in Manhattan about pop culture’s latest controversy du jour—in which the creator of HBO’s Girls described how she thought the Giants’ wide receiver perceived her as, among other things, “not the shape of a woman by his standards,” despite never actually exchanging words with him—Beckham remained decidedly neutral.

“I don’t have enough information to really speak on it,” he told Complex. “We’ll see what happens from there. I never want any problems with anybody in this world.”

[From Complex]

The rest of the interview is just Odell talking about the sweatpants he co-designed with David Helwani. Helwani and Beckham are asked at the end of the piece if their sweatpants are suitable for all people, perhaps someone like Lena? Helwani says, “I’m sure she’ll look good in it.” And Odell agreed, saying: “Absolutely.” So, what do you think of Odell’s reaction? It just feels like… damn, as if we needed any more evidence that Lena Dunham is an a—hole, right? Odell is so non-controversial. He literally did nothing to Lena and hasn’t even cared enough to pay attention to the controversy. Meanwhile, Lena has constructed a five-act tragedy around their vague encounter.

Odell also spoke in the locker room about the controversy and he invokes the words “bad blood.” IT’S A SWIFTSPIRACY.

Odell Beckham responds to Lena Dunham.

A video posted by Jordan Raanan (@jraanan) on Sep 7, 2016 at 12:56pm PDT

Photos courtesy of Instagram, WENN.

Miracles From Heaven star Jennifer Garner stepped out with daughters Violet, 10, and Seraphina, 7, on Wednesday (September 7).

After picking up the girls from school, the Alias alum, 44, took her girls to karate class in Brentwood, Calif.

Last weekend, we spotted Garner’s estranged husband, Academy Award-winner Ben Affleck, and their three kids — including 4-year-old son Samuel — at the Brentwood Country Mart.

The Gone Girl actor, 44, was on daddy duty while Garner promoted her new film, Wakefield, at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado.

After 10 years of marriage, Garner and Affleck announced their plans to split in June 2015.

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Sometimes the gossip-universe has a wonderful sense of humor and a funny sense of timing. Just as the world was learning about the Tiddlesplit, Calvin Harris was attending the British GQ Awards in London. This was (I think?) Calvin’s first red carpet appearance since he and Taylor Swift split up. While no one knows for sure if Calvin got a text as he was walking the carpet (“bruh, Tay and Hiddles OVER hahahaha”), he did say some words that were interpreted as some kind of reference to Tay-Tay. But no one even needed to stretch that far, because hours after Calvin attended that event, British GQ released their October cover with Calvin. And the first interview excerpts are entirely about Tay-Tay and that Twitter incident this summer. Oh, she’ll love this! Because she’s so private. The quotes:

The very public breakup with Taylor: “It’s very difficult when something I consider so personal plays out very publicly. The aftermath of the relationship was way more heavily publicised than the relationship itself. When we were together, we were very careful for it not to be a media circus. She respected my feelings in that sense. I’m not good at being a celebrity.”

His Twitter hissy fit: “It was completely the wrong instinct. I was protecting what I see as my one talent in the world being belittled. It felt like things were piling on top of me, and that was when I snapped. I’m not good at being a celebrity, but when it ended, all hell broke loose. Now I see that Twitter thing as a result of me succumbing to pressure. It took me a minute to realize that none of that matters. I’m a positive guy.”

The wrong situation: “For both of us it was the wrong situation. It clearly wasn’t right, so it ended, but all of the stuff that happened afterwards…”

[From British GQ]

My favorite quote? “When we were together, we were very careful for it not to be a media circus. She respected my feelings in that sense.” As in, he was the one who was uncomfortable with the Swift Circus and she “respected” his choice not to become an “I Heart T.S.” t-shirt-wearing, career-destroying meme. There’s an implied judgment in that quote, that she was looking for a media circus and she found it with Tom Hiddleston. Of course, Calvin gave this interview weeks ago, when Tiddles Was Still Real.

As for his words about his Twitter hissy… his hissy fit was honestly one of the best parts of the summer, and it made me like him. His Twitter tirade came just before Kim Kardashian dropped her receipts too, so it was a nice little precursor of the Snake Emoji Backlash to come. Besides, Calvin didn’t say anything untrue in his tirade – he was pissed off (justifiably) because Tay-Tay was waging a petty little campaign against him, and he called her out and said he wouldn’t be her punching bag, a la Kanye and Katy Perry. No lies detected. Besides, why does everyone act like Taylor Swift gets the last word on everything?

Photos courtesy of WENN, British GQ.

A photo posted by Kylie (@kyliejenner) on Sep 6, 2016 at 4:22pm PDT

Trendsetter and cosmetic queen Kylie Jenner is no stranger to changing up her look, but she’s made a major change by dying her dark tresses platinum blonde. She debuted her new hue earlier this week, hitting the Big Apple for brother-in-law Kayne West’s concert at Madison Square Garden. She also may be showing off her new look at New York Fashion Week, where she’s rumored to be walking the runway for designer Alexander Wang.

The dye job is a bold move for Kylie. The 19-year-old “model” has gone through a lot of different looks and, of course, has chronicled them all on social media, but those looks were much less permanent as most of them involved wigs. In May’s Fresh Faces issue, Kylie told Marie Claire magazine, “I started wigs, and now everyone is wearing wigs. Kim [Kardashian] just used my wig guy last night…I just do whatever I want to do, and people will follow.” It’s sad, but somewhat true – remember the Kylie Lip Challenge?

If Kylie’s legion of followers – who will shell out big bucks for her lip kits and other cosmetics – want to emulate this look, they should be prepared to spend quite a bit of time in the hairdresser’s chair. Kylie documented her “blondening,” which took place on Sunday, on Snapchat. She captioned a pic taken mid-bleach with “All day” and later posted another picture captioned “The pain.” It must have taken some heavy duty bleach to get her dark hair to a platinum shade. I’m blonde (well, I was born blonde, not sure what color I really am anymore) and I get that stinging sensation when I get my roots touched up, so I can only imagine what she was going through. At least she was in good enough spirits to work that puppy dog filter to death on her Snapchat.

Kylie seems to be continuing some sort of family tradition by seeing if blondes really do have more fun. Kim went blonde for Fashion Week last year and sisters Khloe and Kourtney also lightened their locks for a time. In fact, Kylie posted a throwback pic of Kourtney rocking blonde hair to her Instagram last week with the caption, “VIBES”, which make me think this wasn’t a spontaneous decision.

VIBES

A photo posted by Kylie (@kyliejenner) on Sep 1, 2016 at 4:58pm PDT

So, what do you think? I love platinum blonde hair, but I think all of the Kardashian girls look better with dark hair. Blonde hair didn’t appear to do Kourtney any favors, that’s for sure. And platinum blonde is a pain to maintain. I know Kylie has the time and money to do it, but is she going to want to endure the pain? I’m sure she’ll be introducing some new look next week.

Day 2

A photo posted by Kylie (@kyliejenner) on Sep 7, 2016 at 8:00am PDT

Yeezy

A photo posted by Kylie (@kyliejenner) on Sep 7, 2016 at 1:25pm PDT

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photo credit: Getty Images

Empire star Taraji P. Henson covers the October issue of Redbook and opens up about raising her son Marcell, 22, as a single mom.

On being a single mother and feeling the pressure to do it all: “It depends on what women equate success with. I think we try to do our best. And yes, we can do it all, but I wouldn’t wish being a single parent on my worst enemy. It is not easy.”

On holding out for the right kind of romantic relationship: “If I was going to get married, it had to be for love, because I wanted [my son] Marcell to see that real kind of love — the kind I yearn for. That old couple crooked and bent over but still holding hands. I know that kind of love exists and I’m not going to stop until I have that.”

On how being overprotective of children isn’t doing them any favors: “These days we’re so busy protecting our kids, when we really should be pulling back the blinds and showing them that we live in a world that’s not always fair and moral. Sometimes we try to protect our children so much that when something doesn’t go right in their lives, they’re unprepared to deal with adversity. I don’t think that does our kids any favors.”

For more from Taraji, go to Redbook…

Ashley Graham covers the October issue of Elle Canada. I’m okay with the photoshoot – some of the shots are gorgeous and striking, some are rather plain. There’s already a minor controversy about one of the shots, the one where you can see all of Ashley’s legs. There are claims that Elle Canada was a little bit overzealous with the airbrushing/Photoshop on her thighs. I can see where they airbrushed the hell out of her cellulite, but it seems like Elle didn’t “reduce” the size of thighs, you know? They just smoothed everything out, but she’s still the same size. As for the interview, I learned some new stuff about her, like how she decided not to have sex with her husband before marriage. You can read the full piece here, and here are some highlights:

Her appearance in DNCE’s music video: “I didn’t think the video would have the impact it did. I just thought it was going to be cute. But the comments have been so positive. These girls are like, ‘OMG, thanks for putting “real women” in a music video.’ I don’t believe in that term, but, you know, bravo to DNCE for stepping out of the box and really taking it there by having a girl who typically isn’t represented.”

Unapologetic about her body: “You know what’s so funny? I think women think I’m inspirational because I’m unapologetic. I have cellulite. I have back fat. I’ve got a thick stomach. But I work my body like I don’t because I don’t know any other body. I don’t know how to feel thin. I just know how to feel like Ashley.”

She married her husband when she was 22: “I was a baby! But in Nebraska, everybody is married by 22. By the time we met, I’d been travelling the world by myself [for modelling] since I was 12. I had also dated half of New York City. In other words, I had seen and done, like, a lot. And then all of a sudden I met this hot guy at church.”

What she believes in: “I believe that what goes around comes around. That kindness gets you further than anything else. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. When I was growing up, my parents always told me ‘Don’t have sex until you’re married,’ so I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to go out and have a ton of sex.’ But then an ex-boyfriend made me realize that I need to respect my body and I need to have a man respect my body. It’s not for everybody, but, in order for that to happen for me, I needed to not have sex [again] until I was married. My husband and I waited; call me crazy, but it worked. Our sex is amazing! It made me feel like I had the power back in my dating life. He respected me more because I wasn’t willing to just give it up. I tell my friends to wait three months. Just see if he can wait. If he can, he’s a good guy. And, again, it’s not for everybody, but for me it was great. It’s something I’m actually really proud of.”

Beefcakes like bigger girls too: “Those were muscle guys, and those are the types of guys you don’t think like curvy women, but they love them. Girls my size are like, ‘Oh, I could never get a guy like that.’ Actually, you could, girlfriend! I’m living proof that you can have whatever you want in spite of what people say is a ‘flaw.’ Whether it’s a race thing or not being smart enough or pretty enough—there are so many things that are hanging over women’s heads, but you have to fight through it.”

There’s no such thing as the Perfect Body: “I’ve been a size 12, and I thought I was so hot. But now I’m a 14 to 16, and I honestly couldn’t be happier—I’m just content. Of course, I look at my body and think ‘Oh, I want to tighten up my arms a bit, or I wish my ass was lifted higher.’ But nobody has the perfect body. There’s no such thing.”

[From Elle Canada]

I’ll say this about Ashley: she has made me a believer, and whenever I read her interviews, I feel better about myself and my own body “flaws.” It is genuinely inspirational to see a “bigger” woman (bigger than the usual body-archetypes held up as aspirational) who is comfortable in her own skin, and wants the same thing for all women. As for Ashley having a come-to-Jesus moment about not giving away the cookies to every dude she met… I think it’s worth noting that she had a lot of fun before that and she “sowed her oats” and then decided to wait. Plus, she says it’s not for everybody, and it was her choice. It’s not like she’s telling all women to “save themselves” for marriage.

Photos courtesy of Elle Canada.

Anna Gunn was on The Late Show last Friday and I’m reporting it because I just love her and I want to support her career. She got dragged for playing a character on Breaking Bad who necessarily called her drug kingpin husband on his sh*t, while helping him launder his money and run his empire. I still don’t get why people disliked Skyler and I think a lot of the criticism was due to sexism and the fact that Anna is a very convincing actress. Anyway Anna, 48, is promoting her new movie, Equity, a financial thriller where she plays an investment banker. It costars Alysia Reiner of Orange is The New Black as a white collar crime prosecutor and it’s nice to see a film featuring two female executive as leads. You can watch the trailer here, it looks excellent and has an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

On The Late Show, Anna and Stephen bonded over the fact that they were both waitstaff at the same restaurant (at different times) in Illinois as they both went to Northwestern University. They even had the same manager and Stephen did an impression of the guy! Stephen is four years older than Anna so they must have just missed each other, which is crazy. Anna also told a self deprecating story about how she fell trying to walk in heels on her movie and ended up with a foot injury that required she be shot from the ankles up for most of production. As for the Skylar hate, she didn’t understand it at first, like a lot of us, but gradually came to the realization that it was similar to the barriers a lot of women face, particularly Hillary Clinton. She made so many salient points and came across so well that I would recommend you watch the video, which is below. Here are highlights of what she said:

She fell while trying to walk fast in heels like the women at Goldman Sachs she shadowed
I’m a bit of a heel wimp and I slipped after the first week of shooting, totally landed on top of my left foot, thought it was broken (it wasn’t). I had to wear a cast, then a boot, then an air cast. So they shot me knees up for 14 days out of a 24 day shoot.

What do these women say about what it’s like to be a woman in finance?
It’s a psychological enterprise really. You have to really know the client’s needs you have to read what they want whether they need a firm strong hand [or] gentle. You have to balance that against the investor’s needs. They talked a lot about how you have to pay attention to what color you’re wearing, pay attention to how your hair is.

Wall St. has a likability problem? Do you mind playing someone who’s not likable?
I certainly got blowback for Skyler and there was that whole sort of Skyler hate as they call it on the Internet. That was a really tough thing to deal with because at first I didn’t really understand – was it the way I was playing the part? Vince Gilligan and all the writers [were] really confused. After a while I realized that it’s… that people can say whatever they want anonymously over the internet – nobody every came up and said ‘boy I hate your character she’s an awful woman.’

I wrote an op-ed for the New York Times because I’d been asked about it so much. It seemed to me that it was reflecting how we still are perceiving gender roles. They loved the anti-hero and they did not like the woman standing in his way, she was the killjoy.

There was a kind of a Hillary Trump thing there too.
It’s also that likability factor again. When you’re looking at Hillary Clinton you have to look at her policies, intellect, track record, at the fact that she’s been in public service for all these years, not whether or not you like her hairstyle or the color of her outfit. I think that’s something that women really do have to deal with. I think the fact that we speak out about it, we keep pushing at it, we keep knocking on that door then I think progress is being made.

[From Video of The Tonight Show]

I was kind of fist pumping at the end there when she said that gender bias is still happening but at least we’re recognizing it, talking about it and making progress. That’s one thing I want our country and the world to take away from a Hillary Presidency, I want to have more awareness and understanding of gender bias and how it affects women in all facets of life. I want to have a woman running the country who is evaluated on her competency and ability, but you know that’s not going to happen consistently when you consider how Hillary’s been smeared for decades and how she’s being held to different standards than Trump. Then I look at where we are with racism and systemic discrimination after eight solid years under Obama and it just makes me sad. As Anna said we’re noticing it and pushing back and there’s still a lot of resistance to get through. We’re knocking at that door but it’s still closed – for so many women, for so many minorities, for so many people who don’t have the same access to power.

Here’s Anna’s interview.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Tom Hanks is promoting his Clint Eastwood directed film, Sully, about Capt. Chesley Sullenberger who successfully landed his plane on the Hudson River. It opens this Friday and looks good. The part seems to call for all the conflict, gravitas and depth that Hanks can bring to these roles.

While being interviewed about Sully at the Telluride Film Festival, Eastwood spoke to wanting to do more original content after which Hanks interrupted his own interview to proclaim the brilliance of Damien Chazelle’s new film La La Land, which had been shown the day before. Hank’s remarks were part trumpeting the film’s brilliance and imploring support for original content.

“I like to think we approach movies the same way we approach being members of the audience in that you just want to see something you have never seen before. It’s funny. Who saw La La Land yesterday?” Hanks said as members of the audience clapped in response. “When you see something that is brand new, that you can’t imagine, and you think, ‘Well, thank God this landed,’ because I think a movie like La La Land would be anathema to studios. Number one, it is a musical and no one knows the songs.”

Hanks then made a quip about Warner Bros., the studio distributing Sully, likely being thrilled that he interrupted an event for the film to praise another studio’s movie before elaborating on his initial sentiment.

“This is not a movie that falls into some sort of trend. I think it is going to be a test of the broader national audience, because it has none of the things that major studios want,” he said. “Pre-awareness is a big thing they want, which is why a lot of remakes are going on. [La La Land] is not a sequel, nobody knows who the characters are…But if the audience doesn’t go and embrace something as wonderful as this then we are all doomed.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Only Tom Hanks could get away with pausing a Warner Bros. press interview to promote a Lionsgate film. Technically Hanks was just citing an example of what Eastwood had discussed but most outlets are running with the narrative that he encapsulated our frustration for unique content. However, Sully is original in that this story has not been made into a film before (the film is adapted from Sullenberger’s autobiography, Sully: My Search for What Really Matters). And yet Hanks didn’t cite it for it’s originality because let’s face it, a conflicted-hero story is not exactly foreign in Hollywood. I think Hanks was hyped about a very different type of film but I also think he was reminding the movie-goers to put their money where their mouths are. Most indy films make their way to my neck of the woods. I don’t go see half the ones I should but I complain about the “same old thing” all the time.

However much we claim to dislike remakes we do love reunions. Such was almost the case yesterday on Good Morning America when both Tom and Meg Ryan were promoting their films (she is promoting Ithaca, in which Hanks has a cameo). Alas, they were not in the same place at the same time – Tom saw Meg outside the window and yelled “I love you sweetie! I’ll find you. I’ll wait for you. I’ll meet you in the park.” He also pointed out the Bubba Gump Shrimp company restaurant in the background and said that in 1977 it was a bank where he had to cash a $47 check. “I wish I could have said ‘Hey, this is going to be a restaurant based on my movie.’” Tom then invited everyone for free appetizers.

WATCH: “I love you sweetie!” – @tomhanks and @RealMegRyan on @GMA the same day!? Love it!! https://t.co/WRSZlQL3vF

— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 6, 2016

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Photo credit: Fame/Flynet and WENN Photos and Getty Images

During a Wednesday appearance on Live! with Kelly, new dad Ben McKenzie dished on family life with his costar beau Morena Baccarin and their 6-month-old daughter Frances.

The Gotham star said they are “finally sleeping” thanks to their night nurse. “It’s so great,” The O.C. alum, 37, admitted.

What does a night nurse do?

“They stay up with the baby the first couple of weeks when the baby is really up all the time,” explained McKenzie.

He added: “They’re basically — they wake up my lady to get her to feed the baby — but between times when the baby can be cranky and fussy, they’re on it.”

Although nighttime feedings are not his thing, McKenzie said he’s into diaper duty.

“It’s pretty magical,” he said of fatherhood.

The actor and Baccarin welcomed their daughter on March 2. Baccarin is also mom to son Julius, 2, with ex-husband Austin Chick.