Beef premiered on Netflix on April 6 to near-universal acclaim (98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), with critics and viewers alike raving about the dark comedy series’ bold yet nuanced storytelling about two strangers locked in an escalating blood feud and the magnetic performances of stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong.
But less than two weeks later, the show is losing some of its luster thanks to a resurfaced controversy involving costar David Choe, and the lack of a response from the companies and creative team behind the A24-produced series.
In 2014, Choe, a visual artist who was then best known as the muralist who painted Facebook’s headquarters in exchange for stock (making him a reported $200 million), was co-host of a podcast with adult film actress Asa Akira. In one episode, he says that he once compelled a masseuse to perform oral sex on him. At one point, he calls himself a “successful rapist,...
But less than two weeks later, the show is losing some of its luster thanks to a resurfaced controversy involving costar David Choe, and the lack of a response from the companies and creative team behind the A24-produced series.
In 2014, Choe, a visual artist who was then best known as the muralist who painted Facebook’s headquarters in exchange for stock (making him a reported $200 million), was co-host of a podcast with adult film actress Asa Akira. In one episode, he says that he once compelled a masseuse to perform oral sex on him. At one point, he calls himself a “successful rapist,...
- 4/18/2023
- by Rebecca Sun
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Podcasts from talent including Love creator Lesley Arfin, Margaret Cho, Glow’s Kimmy Gatewood and The Good Place’s Rebecca Delgado form the inaugural slate for female-focused podcast network Earios.
Earios was set up by former UTA and Wme comedy agent Priyanka Mattoo, who also ran Electric Dynamite with Jack Black, Maria Blasucci, star of HBO’s Family Tree and Amanda Lund, who has appeared on series including Fresh Off The Boat and New Girl.
Last year, the company successfully raised money through a Kickstarter campaign and secured enough to launch 12 shows this year. It has also partnered with podcast company Acast to launch the slate, which will launch three shows at the start of July and will run new shows every couple of weeks.
It is designed to produce female-fronted podcasts after Lund and Blasucci, who previously hosted their own independent shows, failed to find podcast companies run by...
Earios was set up by former UTA and Wme comedy agent Priyanka Mattoo, who also ran Electric Dynamite with Jack Black, Maria Blasucci, star of HBO’s Family Tree and Amanda Lund, who has appeared on series including Fresh Off The Boat and New Girl.
Last year, the company successfully raised money through a Kickstarter campaign and secured enough to launch 12 shows this year. It has also partnered with podcast company Acast to launch the slate, which will launch three shows at the start of July and will run new shows every couple of weeks.
It is designed to produce female-fronted podcasts after Lund and Blasucci, who previously hosted their own independent shows, failed to find podcast companies run by...
- 7/1/2019
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Melissa Stetten, a former model who claims Donald Trump Jr. sent her creepy messages on Twitter, is telling In Touch she was "not shocked" to hear the news about Vanessa Trump filing for divorce from her husband of over a decade. On March 15, Vanessa filed for divorce in NYC, where the couple, both 40, reside with their five kids. "After 12 years of marriage, we have decided to go our separate ways," Don Jr. and Vanessa confirmed in a statement. (Photo Credit: Getty Images) Not long after the filing, Melissa revealed a creepy message that Don Jr. sent her in 2011. After Melissa wrote a tweet about removing a tampon, Don Jr. sent her a direct message: "Glad I opted not 2send the tweet asking 4pics from ur bathroom tweet." "I hope Vanessa takes all his money and moves to Bora Bora," Melissa tells In Touch exclusively. "Not shocked [they are splitting] because he's a douche bag.
- 3/21/2018
- by In Touch Weekly
- In Touch Weekly
If you don’t know who the Pistol Shrimps are, you’re going to want to very soon.
Brent Hodge’s new documentary “The Pistol Shrimps” follows the eponymous all-women recreational basketball team, led by players like Aubrey Plaza, model/actress Melissa Stetten, comedian Molly Hawkey (who you may know as “‘The Bachelor’s oldest-ever contestant”) and many other incredible players just might be one of the funnest and funniest films of the year. During the film’s Los Angeles premiere, the laughs never slowed, but it also became apparent that this documentary isn’t about basketball. It’s about what basketball means and can do for these women as individuals and as a group of friends, empowering them, inspiring them, encouraging them and much more.
After screening Wednesday night at The Theatre at Ace Hotel, the Shrimps, their coaches, their announcers and director Hodge sat down for a Q&A. Like their team name implies — and they would suggest to look up what a pistol shrimp is — each woman’s personality popped like the crack of a pistol shrimp claw. They laughed at many of the high jinks that unfolded the season depicted in the doc, but also got real about how, no matter the small scale, the team is vastly important to them. That’s something that’s also evident in the documentary, as the film makes sure to highlight many of the team members, their personalities and how the team affects their lives.
Read More: SXSW: 10 Totally Random Minutes with Aubrey Plaza
The team itself came together in a rather interesting way. According to the film, it was a bit tough to get the league together, as there wasn’t really a league at all before they came along. In the Q&A, Shrimp Amanda Lund explained how the struggles of making a web series sparked the idea in the first place. “I remember the moment when Maria [Blasucci] realized she needed to start a sports team. We had made this web series ‘Ghost Ghirls’ that no one was watching. So we made our own flyers and started flyering in the streets, saying, ‘You got ghosts? Watch this web series.’ So we were handing out these flyers and Maria was like, ‘This is so fun being out and doing an activity.’ And then she was like, ‘I’m going to start a sports team.’”
But why basketball? Recounting a rather momentous and crazy achievement in her early life, Shrimp founder Blasucci said, “I used to play in grade school and one time, I was dribbling the ball in the park league on the Pacific Palisades Sparks and I lost my shoe at halfcourt as I was dribbling the ball. And I went to shoot the basket and I made it, but my shoe was still at halfcourt. It was a real whirlwind.”
Unfortunately, the ragtag group didn’t start off with success, with only a few members ever having played the sport, let alone in an organized way, and others not entirely knowing how the sport works. Originally, they came together with a shared sense of trash talking and putting down their haters to offset this lack of success. But during the documented season, the Shrimps went on to win the championship.
This did, however, come at a cost to their original skills. One of the Shrimps said, “I think it goes to the root of self confidence and when you don’t have a lot of self confidence, it’s very easy to talk trash. So when we finally got the skills, the trash talking went away. It’s like when you don’t dress for the job you have, you dress for the job you want and so we talked trash when we couldn’t play basketball.”
Read More: The 22 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival
After seeing the original trash talking chemistry, filmmaker Hodge knew he had to make a movie about them, telling the crowd, “One of my friends went to the games and he was like, ‘Dude, this whole thing’s a film. There’s a coach with a unicorn costume on, you’ve got to film this.’ And then we just started filming.”
He even theorized that the crew is why they won, explaining that “this is the only season you guys have won, so we’re like your lucky charm. And I don’t think we would’ve had a film unless they won.” Shrimp Molly Hawkey pleaded, “I was wondering if you could come out to the rest of our seasons because we didn’t do so well this season.” This past season, the Shrimps won only three games and lost seven.
But it wasn’t always easy for Shrimps. There were a lot of antics and even drama between teams during the season, exemplified in the documentary when Aubrey Plaza tore her Acl playing undercover in a second game on her sister’s team. The recovery, which Plaza described as taking “a couple steps forward, a bunch of steps backwards and I’m trying to just get forward again,” and the taste of the other team led her to test the market.
“I’m going to be playing for the Spice Squirrels in the fall. After my injury, I had a lot of time off and I just decided to test free agency,” she said. “I had to make the best choice for my family and my basketball career. And I just felt like the Spice Squirrels have a lot to offer me.”
Toward the end of the Q&A, founder Blasucci touched on an empowering point about the team, an aspect that was the documentary’s most lasting impression.
“I went to an all girls high school and I learned that girls can be the best of friends if they allow themselves to kind of let go of all the claw,” she said. “You know, ‘Ah, I need to get ahead of you!’ If you could just let that go, you can have such deep relationships with girls and I feel that with all of you girls and I, at no point, ever feel jealous or envious or anything. I just feel 100% support and I feel grateful and it’s wonderful. I suggest any girl out there that doesn’t have a tight group of girlfriends to really search for that, because as hard as it may be, you find these people that are so important to you and I feel that with all of these girls and I’m really grateful.”
Read More: Morgan Spurlock on Why Documentaries Matter More Than Ever
“Pistol Shrimps,” which is the first original feature film released by Seeso, an ad-free comedy streaming service, premieres today, June 16, on seeso.com. The film was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and was executive produced by Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker behind “Super Size Me.” Check out the trailer below!
Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Festivals newsletter here.
Related stories'Life, Animated' Trailer: Young Boy Unable to Speak Finds Words in Disney ClassicsWatch: 'Hamilton' Star Lin-Manuel Miranda Busts Out A Ramen-Inspired RapReview: 'The Witness' Throws Shocking New Light On New York's Most Infamous Murder...
Brent Hodge’s new documentary “The Pistol Shrimps” follows the eponymous all-women recreational basketball team, led by players like Aubrey Plaza, model/actress Melissa Stetten, comedian Molly Hawkey (who you may know as “‘The Bachelor’s oldest-ever contestant”) and many other incredible players just might be one of the funnest and funniest films of the year. During the film’s Los Angeles premiere, the laughs never slowed, but it also became apparent that this documentary isn’t about basketball. It’s about what basketball means and can do for these women as individuals and as a group of friends, empowering them, inspiring them, encouraging them and much more.
After screening Wednesday night at The Theatre at Ace Hotel, the Shrimps, their coaches, their announcers and director Hodge sat down for a Q&A. Like their team name implies — and they would suggest to look up what a pistol shrimp is — each woman’s personality popped like the crack of a pistol shrimp claw. They laughed at many of the high jinks that unfolded the season depicted in the doc, but also got real about how, no matter the small scale, the team is vastly important to them. That’s something that’s also evident in the documentary, as the film makes sure to highlight many of the team members, their personalities and how the team affects their lives.
Read More: SXSW: 10 Totally Random Minutes with Aubrey Plaza
The team itself came together in a rather interesting way. According to the film, it was a bit tough to get the league together, as there wasn’t really a league at all before they came along. In the Q&A, Shrimp Amanda Lund explained how the struggles of making a web series sparked the idea in the first place. “I remember the moment when Maria [Blasucci] realized she needed to start a sports team. We had made this web series ‘Ghost Ghirls’ that no one was watching. So we made our own flyers and started flyering in the streets, saying, ‘You got ghosts? Watch this web series.’ So we were handing out these flyers and Maria was like, ‘This is so fun being out and doing an activity.’ And then she was like, ‘I’m going to start a sports team.’”
But why basketball? Recounting a rather momentous and crazy achievement in her early life, Shrimp founder Blasucci said, “I used to play in grade school and one time, I was dribbling the ball in the park league on the Pacific Palisades Sparks and I lost my shoe at halfcourt as I was dribbling the ball. And I went to shoot the basket and I made it, but my shoe was still at halfcourt. It was a real whirlwind.”
Unfortunately, the ragtag group didn’t start off with success, with only a few members ever having played the sport, let alone in an organized way, and others not entirely knowing how the sport works. Originally, they came together with a shared sense of trash talking and putting down their haters to offset this lack of success. But during the documented season, the Shrimps went on to win the championship.
This did, however, come at a cost to their original skills. One of the Shrimps said, “I think it goes to the root of self confidence and when you don’t have a lot of self confidence, it’s very easy to talk trash. So when we finally got the skills, the trash talking went away. It’s like when you don’t dress for the job you have, you dress for the job you want and so we talked trash when we couldn’t play basketball.”
Read More: The 22 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival
After seeing the original trash talking chemistry, filmmaker Hodge knew he had to make a movie about them, telling the crowd, “One of my friends went to the games and he was like, ‘Dude, this whole thing’s a film. There’s a coach with a unicorn costume on, you’ve got to film this.’ And then we just started filming.”
He even theorized that the crew is why they won, explaining that “this is the only season you guys have won, so we’re like your lucky charm. And I don’t think we would’ve had a film unless they won.” Shrimp Molly Hawkey pleaded, “I was wondering if you could come out to the rest of our seasons because we didn’t do so well this season.” This past season, the Shrimps won only three games and lost seven.
But it wasn’t always easy for Shrimps. There were a lot of antics and even drama between teams during the season, exemplified in the documentary when Aubrey Plaza tore her Acl playing undercover in a second game on her sister’s team. The recovery, which Plaza described as taking “a couple steps forward, a bunch of steps backwards and I’m trying to just get forward again,” and the taste of the other team led her to test the market.
“I’m going to be playing for the Spice Squirrels in the fall. After my injury, I had a lot of time off and I just decided to test free agency,” she said. “I had to make the best choice for my family and my basketball career. And I just felt like the Spice Squirrels have a lot to offer me.”
Toward the end of the Q&A, founder Blasucci touched on an empowering point about the team, an aspect that was the documentary’s most lasting impression.
“I went to an all girls high school and I learned that girls can be the best of friends if they allow themselves to kind of let go of all the claw,” she said. “You know, ‘Ah, I need to get ahead of you!’ If you could just let that go, you can have such deep relationships with girls and I feel that with all of you girls and I, at no point, ever feel jealous or envious or anything. I just feel 100% support and I feel grateful and it’s wonderful. I suggest any girl out there that doesn’t have a tight group of girlfriends to really search for that, because as hard as it may be, you find these people that are so important to you and I feel that with all of these girls and I’m really grateful.”
Read More: Morgan Spurlock on Why Documentaries Matter More Than Ever
“Pistol Shrimps,” which is the first original feature film released by Seeso, an ad-free comedy streaming service, premieres today, June 16, on seeso.com. The film was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and was executive produced by Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker behind “Super Size Me.” Check out the trailer below!
Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Festivals newsletter here.
Related stories'Life, Animated' Trailer: Young Boy Unable to Speak Finds Words in Disney ClassicsWatch: 'Hamilton' Star Lin-Manuel Miranda Busts Out A Ramen-Inspired RapReview: 'The Witness' Throws Shocking New Light On New York's Most Infamous Murder...
- 6/16/2016
- by Kyle Kizu
- Indiewire
Justine became semi-famous on Dec. 20 when her extremely offensive tweet went viral, and stars and fans began to weigh in on the latest Twitterstorm. See what they had to say!
Justine Sacco, who works as a communications director for the media conglomerate Iac, likely wasn’t the only one to tweet something extremely foul and racist on Dec. 20, but nevertheless, she and her tweet became the center of a viral Twitter trend, with fans and stars like Alyssa Milano and Piers Morgan commenting on her ignorance.
Stars & Fans React To Justine Sacco’s Racist Tweet
After she tweeted (and deleted), “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” and then deleted her Twitter account altogether, celebs started expressing their disgust:
We all saw that awful tweet, Justine.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 21, 2013
I think someone’s been sent to the naughty chair… @justinesacco
— Piers Morgan...
Justine Sacco, who works as a communications director for the media conglomerate Iac, likely wasn’t the only one to tweet something extremely foul and racist on Dec. 20, but nevertheless, she and her tweet became the center of a viral Twitter trend, with fans and stars like Alyssa Milano and Piers Morgan commenting on her ignorance.
Stars & Fans React To Justine Sacco’s Racist Tweet
After she tweeted (and deleted), “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” and then deleted her Twitter account altogether, celebs started expressing their disgust:
We all saw that awful tweet, Justine.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 21, 2013
I think someone’s been sent to the naughty chair… @justinesacco
— Piers Morgan...
- 12/21/2013
- by Andrew Gruttadaro
- HollywoodLife
Celebrities like 'Scrubs' star Zach Braff and comedian Roseanne Barr have taken to Twitter to discuss the Chris Brown scandal where he got into a verbal altercation with Jenny Johnson on Nov. 25. See what celebs are saying below. The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg, model Chrissy Teigen, actor Zach Braff and Roseanne are just some of the celebs Tweeting about Chris Brown's recent behavior. They join the list of fans tweeting strong feelings against Jenny Johnson, who engaged in a twitter war with Chris. Zach Braff tweeted, “Incendiary Chris Brown tweet that yields death threats!!!” Rosanne tweeted, “When Chris Brown hears himself called demeaning names, he is triggered into anger, & the need to strike back against the powerful female. Chris Brown could benefit from some meditation courses -it really helps people who have problems with self control issues once triggered. Chris Brown is only 23 yrs old. He can be helped.
- 11/27/2012
- by Dory Larrabee
- HollywoodLife
Actor Brian Presley has denied claims by model Melissa Stetten that he drank beer and flirted with her on a flight. Stetten posted a number of messages on Twitter on June 6 suggesting that Presley, who is married and claims to not drink alcohol, "had 3 heinekens and is wasted" and "said he was engaged for 6 months but broke it off". "Who opens the windows on a redeye flight? Brian does. F**king Brian....Did I just ruin Brian Presley's life via twitter?," she concluded after posted a photograph of the sleeping actor. Presley countered on Facebook: "I love that I took a red eye flight to NY, had a 10 minute friendly conversation with the person sitting next to me, had some food, and went to sleep! "I learned today this person has been tweeting about me drinking beer in the airplane bathroom, and trying (more)...
- 6/8/2012
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
Model Melissa Stetten did more than just make idle conversation with her seatmate during a recent L.A. to New York redeye flight: She live-Tweeted what she painted to be a major (and drunken) flirtation at 30,000 feet. One wrinkle, though: the guy, later identified as soap actor Brian Presley, is married with kids. And he says he's sober. Throughout her series of Tweets, Stetten offered colorful commentary for her thousands of followers as she seemingly rejected his advances. "No thanks, Brian, the actor sitting next to me on this flight talking about his role with Kurt Russell and his spiritual beliefs,...
- 6/8/2012
- by Liz Raftery
- PEOPLE.com
Model Melissa Stetten was on a flight with actor Brian Presley (General Hospital) when the married actor began hitting on her, even going so far to remove his wedding ring in a clumsy fashion. Little did he know she was tweeting the whole thing to her 13,000 followers. He was evidently drinking beer and was wasted, which is a no-no for someone who's appeared on The View talking about kicking addiction. It's also worth noting Presley's final tweet before the flight.
We now have a supercomputer that can simulate a nuclear explosion down to the molecular level, giving us insight into how our arsenal is holding up, or possibly how we can turn Mark Ruffalo into The Hulk for real.
A six-year old heard that the Giants might not be able to afford to keep Brandon Jacobs on the roster. So he sent Jacobs his savings of $3.36 with a note saying...
We now have a supercomputer that can simulate a nuclear explosion down to the molecular level, giving us insight into how our arsenal is holding up, or possibly how we can turn Mark Ruffalo into The Hulk for real.
A six-year old heard that the Giants might not be able to afford to keep Brandon Jacobs on the roster. So he sent Jacobs his savings of $3.36 with a note saying...
- 6/7/2012
- by lostinmiami
- The Backlot
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