The daily gossip: October 29, 2019

HBO kills a Game of Thrones prequel, Taylor Swift fans get mad at Selena Gomez, and more

Naomi Watts.
(Image credit: David Livingston/Getty Images)

1. HBO doesn't want that Naomi Watts-led Game of Thrones prequel after all

Whether or not you were thrilled with the final season of Game of Thrones (it's probably safe to say the consensus is "not"), fans are no doubt as excited about returning to Westeros as HBO is excited about having a new, Scrooge McDuck-style pool of money to swim around in. That's why it's so surprising that the network has decided not to pick up a new Game of Thrones prequel, starring Naomi Watts, which already shot a pilot over the summer. Of course, the network is still developing a second, totally different prequel series, which will be set around 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones — because when you have a franchise that lucrative, it's as unkillable as Jon Snow.

2. Taylor Swift fans are mad Selena Gomez wore Kim Kardashian's new shapewear line

Speaking of epic, globe-spanning political rivalries: Taylor Swift fans are mad at Selena Gomez for a recent Instagram post in which she praised SKIMS, the new shapewear line by Kim Kardashian. The problem stems from a longstanding enmity between Swift and Kardashian and Kardashian's husband Kanye West, which would require a Tolstoy-esque epic to explain in full but essentially boils down to "they don't like each other." In response to the haters, Gomez deleted the post and replaced it with a picture of her and Swift, adding — in what is not at all an insane overcorrection to some stupid criticism on the internet — "I would die for this one."

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E! Online

3. The Game of Thrones guys aren't making a Star Wars trilogy anymore

What's west of Westeros? Apparently not the Star Wars universe. 18 months after the project was announced with much fanfare, Game of Thrones co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have suddenly dropped out of plans to helm a new Star Wars trilogy. "There are only so many hours in the day," the duo explained, canceling a project that wasn't even supposed to hit theaters until December 2022.

The Hollywood Reporter

4. Something weird is going on with Lady Gaga's Golden Globes dress

Lady Gaga wore a lot of dresses during the awards-show run for A Star is Born (none of which, sadly, were made out of meat). But nearly a year after wearing her Golden Globes dress, it's at the center of an unexpected controversy. The dress is up for auction, with a starting bid of $8,000, after a housekeeper at the hotel where Gaga stayed discovered it and turned it into the hotel's lost-and-found, where it was eventually given back to the employee after going unclaimed. The hotel is now trying to reclaim the dress and give it back to designer Valentino, saying it wasn't meant to be sold. One simple solution: Buy the dress at auction. At $8,000, it's a steal!

Page Six

5. Kanye West says marriage should be counted in dog years

The Kardashian-West marriage remains a source of fascination — if only because it's hard to imagine two larger-than-life personas under the same roof. How does the couple make it work? Kanye West has an answer: Treat each other like dogs. As part of a segment with James Corden on Carpool Karaoke, West said "marriage years are different than human years," adding that they're more like "dog years" and that "every marriage is like 100 years." Sounds like things have been ruff.

US Weekly

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.