The daily gossip: June 26, 2020

(Image credit: LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. A female-fronted Pirates of the Caribbean is reportedly in the works
2. Will Tenet ever actually come out?
3. Kanye West to launch 'Yeezy Gap' next year
4. Christina Aguilera reveals she was pressured to change her name when she was first starting out
5. Idris Elba: 'Success has not negated racism for me'

published 26 June 2020

1. A female-fronted Pirates of the Caribbean is reportedly in the works

Maybe 'tis not frightful bad luck to have a woman aboard. Actress Margot Robbie is set to lead "a new, female-fronted Pirates of the Caribbean for Disney," according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project is apparently separate from a previously-announced reboot of the franchise, and "is not intended to be a spinoff" of the series about Captain Jack Sparrow that first began with The Curse of the Black Pearl back in 2003, "but rather a wholly original story with new characters under the Pirates moniker." Christina Hodson, who wrote Robbie's recent film Birds of Prey, is attached as the screenwriter, but all the plot details are still tightly under wraps.

There is a Greek myth about the character Sisyphus, who is doomed to the eternal punishment of rolling a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down again once he reaches the top. For the executives at Warner Bros., Tenet is their boulder. The movie, by Inception director Christopher Nolan, has once again had its release date delayed by two weeks, from July 31 to Aug. 12, a decision that comes less than two weeks after its previous two-week delay, from July 17 to July 31. "Warner Bros. is committed to bringing Tenet to audiences in theaters, on the big screen," a spokesperson for the studio said. Which seems both stubborn and — as the pandemic shows no signs of slowing — absolutely maddening.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Kanye West is joining forces with Gap for a new apparel line for men, women, and kids, called "Yeezy Gap." While the line is still in the design phase at this point, it is likely to roll out in stores early next year. Yeezy Gap is expected be much more affordable than typical Yeezy clothing, which is a staple of global fashion weeks and retails for hundreds. West notably worked at Gap while he was a teen growing up in Chicago. "It's funny that I worked at the Gap in high school," West told Paper in 2015, "because in my past 15 years it seems like that's the place I stood in my creative path — to be the gap, the bridge."

Christina Agee? That was the name that "businessmen" wanted Christina Aguilera to go by when she was new to the industry. "I remember when I was first coming up, there was a big debate around me on changing my last name because all the businessmen around me thought it was too long, too complicated, and too ethnic," Aguilera, 39, told Billboard. "'Christina Agee' was an option, but that clearly wasn't going to fly … Being Latina, it is a part of my heritage and who I am." Aguilera revealed she was also pressured as a child to change her surname to her stepfather's in order to be legally adopted "and I was again dead set against it. I've been fighting for my last name my whole life."

Coronavirus survivor Idris Elba spoke Friday on a panel for "The Reckoning: The Arts and Black Lives Matter," during which he emphasized that "success has not negated racism for me. Asking me about racism is like asking me about how long I have been breathing." Elba, 47, went on to say that experiencing racism is one of the first times Black people have "any consciousness" about their skin color and "that stays with you regardless of whether you become successful or you beat the system." Elba's wife, Sabrina Dhowre Elba, has also been outspoken about the BLM movement: "While I don't support looting or violence, the riots … cannot be deemed disproportionate in response to the loss of lives and 400 years of oppression," she's said.

Explore More

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.