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Melissa McCarthy

Film

Contrary to Sexist Oscar Blogger Opinion, Movies About Women Make Money

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You’ve gotta feel bad for Oscar bloggers. First of all, they’re Oscar bloggers. (Hahaha, I kid.) Second, due to the very definition of their job description, they have to spend something like the next six months basically twiddling their thumbs, waiting for awards season to begin anew at Toronto and Telluride. Some are coping by writing desperate “Wait, wait — what about next year” Oscar 2015 prediction posts. (Only a schmuck would attempt such a fool’s errand.) But at least one, Gold Derby’s Marcus James Dixon, decided the way to keep getting post-Oscar clicks was to pat Cate Blanchett on the head and assure her that no, sweetheart, people don’t want to see movies about ladies. … Read More

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Film

Melissa McCarthy Clumsily Robs Fast Food Restaurant in ‘Tammy’ Trailer

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Unlike most super-spliced movie trailers and all-too-brief teasers, this trailer for Melissa McCarthy’s upcoming Tammy focuses on one central scene,… Read More

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Television

The Best and Worst of Last Night’s ‘SNL’ with Melissa McCarthy

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Three-time host Melissa McCarthy joined the SNL crew for Seth Meyers’ last episode. Meyers has been part of the Studio 8H family since 2001 and has been a head writer for the series since 2006. The soon-to-be Late Night host wrote most of those Tina Fey/Sarah Palin bits you love. His presence as co-anchor for “Weekend Update” has helped the audience fully appreciate the carousel of characters that joined him at the desk — even the stinkers. McCarthy has the energy and comedic chops to make this an episode to remember. See how she performed after the jump. … Read More

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Pop Culture

25 Women Poised to Lead the Culture in 2014

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Look: I don’t like writing these lists either. I long for the day in which I will no longer have to write them, when women will just be the people participating in the culture as full human beings like everyone else, because the culture will have quit giving disproportionate airtime to the other gender. In the meantime: Don’t listen to the old fogeys who insist that the reason women don’t make a lot of noise in the culture is that they do unremarkable work. You just don’t hear enough about the remarkable work. Here are 25 women who will do great things this… Read More

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Media

The Year’s Most Controversial Magazine Covers [NSFW]

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Observation: Now that we’re all focused on the aggressive stupidity of say, the average Upworthy headline or the listicle about Syria presented entirely in Jurassic Park GIFs, the magazine cover is no longer such a great vehicle for shock delivery. That did not, however, keep some outlets from doing their level best to shock America out of (what they perceive to be) its bovine complacency. Here are 2013′s most memorable examples. … Read More

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Media

Fashion Magazines Still Not Ready For Fat People, Film at 11

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When Bridesmaids came out, Melissa McCarthy became the newest flashpoint in public discussion of all things fat. The latest evidence of that is November’s cover of ELLE, where the magazine has swathed her in the largest trenchcoat imaginable. Longtime decipherers of women’s magazine jargon will recognize this as a maneuver by evil fashion stylists to “flatter her strengths.” In this particular frame, as June Thomas points out at Slate, it’s obvious that these purported strengths were not her body as a whole. So the result is this: ELLE runs a fat-positive cover that seems afraid of its subject’s actual, well, fat. … Read More

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Film

It’s Time to Fire Rex Reed

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Let’s get this out in the open: being a movie critic is a pretty easy job. It’s not all fun and games and popcorn — you have to deal with publicists, for one thing, and coming up with new and intelligent things to say about cookie-cutter studio movies is a challenge, and you often have to sit through movies you’re not all that excited to see. But, to be clear, we’re not breaking rocks here. You get to see movies for free before they’re released, often in the comfort of private screening rooms, and you get to pontificate about them for (hopefully) lots of readers. It’s a pretty cushy gig. And that’s why it’s so maddening that the New York Observer’s Rex Reed continues to fuck it up — and why it’s time to take the job away from him. … Read More

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Film

10 Great Female Buddy Comedies

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Hollywood has never been short on buddy cop movies. Lethal Weapon and 48 Hours are just a few of the films featuring bonded lawmen. There’s even a fairly substantial subgenre of buddy cop films with dogs, including Turner & Hooch and K-9. It’s mind-blowing that Paul Feig’s The Heat is one of the only films in the bunch starring women as agents on a mission. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy play the typical odd couple (with guns). One’s an uptight FBI agent, the other a zany cop from Boston. … Read More

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Film

‘The Heat’: Heavy on Laughs, Light on Agenda

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Modern cinema can be broken down into two specific distinctions: pre-Bridesmaids and post-Bridesmaids. In the former era, we had female-driven comedies like Outrageous Fortune, Sister Act, and Miss Congeniality — all considered box-office hits (the latter two warranted sequels). In our current era, when every six months or so there’s a debate over the comic abilities of women, it seems that any major release is a major coup for feminism. This year’s contribution to the cause of solving sexism in film is The Heat, directed by Paul Feig (who was at the helm of Bridesmaids), penned by Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold, and starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. … Read More

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