T Lo’s Weekend Pop Culture Reading List

Pin

Darlings, to ease you into the horrifying wasteland of the T Lo content-free weekend, here are all the posts, articles and essays that tickled us pink this week. Dive into the CULTCHA.

The ‘Harriet’ star and double Oscar nominee reveals the loneliness of being the only actor of color in the race (“to not be able to share with another black actress is saddening”) and her thoughts on British actors playing African-American characters.

Cynthia Erivo and Roxane Gay In Conversation: Inclusion, Politics and That Possible EGOT Title By Roxane Gay at The Hollywood Reporter

The singer and fashion mogul is ready to talk about sexual abuse, addiction, dating John Mayer and everything else.

You Remember Jessica Simpson, Right? Wrong By Lindsay Mannering at The New York Times

A complex figure both off court and on, the basketball star brought as much cerebral intensity to image creation as he did to his game.

Kobe Bryant’s Many Moves to the Net By Guy Trebay at The New York Times

The Good Place desperately hoped viewers were into its characters as they were its high-concept shenanigans, and personally, I never quite made it all the way there. I did love several of them — Eleanor remains one of my favorite TV protagonists from recent years and Kristen Bell one of my favorite TV performances — but when it came time for the show to insist that their existences were the most important in human history, I sorta tapped out. Normally, I’m all-in on the characters who inhabit my favorite shows, but here … I think they just got to be too darn nice.

The Good Place was groundbreaking TV. Did its finale measure up? at Vox

The Grammy-winning artist is showing young people a path to being themselves.

Billie Eilish: Gen Z’s Outrageous Fashion Role Model By Ruth La Ferla at The New York Times

My whole life I’ve wanted to make something about my mother and my grandmother. My mother’s mother lived with paranoid schizophrenia, and my mother grew up in a really traumatic situation. And I grew up with the mythology of my grandmother’s mental illness, hearing a lot of stories about my mother’s childhood and how the mental illness affected her. How it trickled down, affected my aunt and uncle and their kids — also how it didn’t affect them. It had different effects on everybody. So when I was younger, my mom would even joke about it with me: “I know you’re gonna make a movie one day about me and my mom.”

Alison Brie Based Horse Girl on Her Own Mental Health History by Rachel Handler at Vulture

“Every human, boy, girl, adolescent, and adult should have the opportunity to experience beautiful, healthy hair—and it starts from the scalp,” Henson tells ELLE.com. “TPH by Taraji isn’t just for natural hair; my sole purpose was to create a foundation for everyone but also provide products that allow you to branch off to the different groups that cater to your specific needs.”

Taraji P. Henson Is Getting To The Root Of Black Hair Care By Nerisha Penrose at ELLE

“We use the opportunity not only to humanize the process of clothing production, but to illustrate the political circumstances in how our clothing is produced, whether you are in Indonesia, India, or you’re in Palestine.”

This “Made in Palestine” Label Is Supporting Local Business and Gender Equality By Liana Satenstein at Vogue

Still, up-and-coming celebrities like Flynn use the sidewalk as a catwalk every day. “Sometimes it’s to fulfill a fashion contract obligation — you see lots of empty $10,000 handbags dangling off the arms of starlets in these cases — but more often than not, it’s just the quickest, cheapest way to get your name and face out to the public,” Tom Fitzgerald tells MEL. He’s one-half of the blogging duo Tom and Lorenzo, who, for over a decade, have documented celebrities proffering themselves before street-side paps. 

Brad Pitt Walked so Brandon Flynn Could Sashay by Joseph Longo at MEL magazine

The Sam Mendes-directed film required its hair and makeup team to pay extra attention to continuity.

‘1917’ Hair and Makeup Team: How to “Dirty Down” 7,000 Extras By Lindsey Weinberg at The Hollywood Reporter

“J.J. inspires confidence,” says the industry veteran, who’ll receive the career achievement award at Tuesday’s Costume Designers Guild Awards, as he reflects on his work for ‘Blade Runner,’ ‘Flashdance’ and more “movies I’ve done [that] have inspired fashion.”

How J.J. Abrams Convinced Costume Designer Michael Kaplan to Take on ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars’: “I Was Intimidated” By Ingrid Schmidt at The Hollywood Reporter

[Photo Credit: Ramona Rosales/The Hollywood Reporter]