The daily gossip: Lizzo wanted to 'make Ursula a THOT' in Little Mermaid remake, Tom Brady will star in a road trip comedy, and more

We poor unfortunate souls may never get to see Lizzo play Ursula, but she's opening up about what could have been. The "Truth Hurts" singer discussed auditioning for the villain role in Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid. "I didn't get it," she told Variety. "But you know, I'm fine as hell. That has nothing to do with Ursula, but I was down to make Ursula a THOT, shaking ass." The role of Ursula ended up going to Melissa McCarthy, and Lizzo recalled running into McCarthy and noting that she auditioned. "She was like, 'Well, why the hell did I get the part?,'" Lizzo said. "I was like, 'Girl, because my audition was terrible." Actually, though, Lizzo told Variety "my audition was good," and we'll have to ask Disney why they went another way. Lizzo was previously open about wanting the part, posting a video of herself singing "Poor Unfortunate Souls" while dressed as Ursula in 2018 and writing, "I'M URSULA. PERIOD." It sounds like she would have been good as hell, but alas.

It's a tale as old as time: an NFL legend retires, then pivots to starring in road trip comedies with Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field. Tom Brady is set to do just that by both producing and acting in 80 for Brady, a comedy about four best friends and New England Patriots fans who go on a road trip to see their hero, Brady, play in the Super Bowl in 2017. The legendary actresses will play the friends, and Brady is producing the movie through his company, 199 Productions. Just a few weeks ago, Brady confirmed he would retire from the NFL after 22 seasons, teasing, "The future is exciting." The movie, The Hollywood Reporter says, will depict "the chaos that ensues" as the friends "navigate the wilds of the biggest sporting event in the country," perhaps leading them to learn that the real Tom Brady was the friends we made along the way. 

Those who shell out the big bucks to listen to Kanye West's new album will be treated to the sound of his estranged wife praising him. West held a listening party in Miami for Donda 2, and at one point, he sampled Kardashian's Saturday Night Live monologue. He included Kardashian saying she "married the best rapper of all time," and calling West "a talented, legit genius," but unsurprisingly left out the part when she says she divorced him because of "his personality." West also raps that he's going to "beat Pete Davidson's ass," continuing his public attacks against Kardashian's current boyfriend, and he appeared to reference Davidson hiring additional security with the lyric, "Never stand between a man and his kids. Y'all ain't got enough security for this." Vice President Kamala Harris also makes an appearance on the album — her famous "we did it, Joe!" exclamation was sampled. Somewhat surprisingly, Donda 2 did actually drop on Wednesday after the listening party — if you bought his $200 Stem Player, that is. 

An announcement last week that the cast of Star Trek will return for a new movie apparently came as a surprise to … the cast of Star Trek. During Paramount's recent investor day, director J.J. Abrams declared "we are hard at work on a new Star Trek film that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast." He seemed to be indicating stars like Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are returning. But The Hollywood Reporter says "most, if not all" of the actors' representatives had no idea Abrams was going to announce this, and "certainly not that their clients would be shooting a movie by year's end." In fact, the script is still in the works, and the actors don't actually have deals in place — meaning, the Reporter notes, Paramount may have to pay them more since they forfeited their leverage by promising investors the cast would be back. Most illogical. 

The Academy is now so desperate to boost the Oscars' ratings, they're reviving old ideas everyone already hated the first time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that during next month's Oscars, eight awards won't be presented live. Instead, these awards (for crafts that are clearly completely unimportant to the art of filmmaking such as "editing," "score," and "sound,") will be given out prior to the telecast, then edited into the show. The Academy floated a similar idea in 2019, but it sparked such widespread outcry that they backed down. The disastrous ratings in 2021, though, apparently prompted the Academy to try again. The decision again drew significant backlash, leading #PresentAll23 to trend on Twitter. "This is a dumb and disrespectful move," comedian Patton Oswalt tweeted, arguing, "You're giving in to short-term ratings panic and forgetting what The Oscars are all about." Stay tuned for a potential rare example of the exact same dumb idea being walked back twice.