The daily gossip: Celebs get saucy during virtual reading of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Maya Rudolph finally won an Emmy, and more

The Fast Times at Ridgemont High table read.

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube)

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1. There's a lot to unpack from the Fast Times at Ridgemont High virtual table reading
2. Maya Rudolph wins a long-overdue Emmy
3. Tatiana Maslany joins the Marvel 'family'
4. Lady Gaga's latest music video has a gut-punch of an ending
5. Michelle Obama takes a stand on the Hollywood Chrises

published 18 September 2020

1. There's a lot to unpack from the Fast Times at Ridgemont High virtual table reading

Thursday night, a crew of A-list celebs gathered (virtually) for a charity table read of the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In addition to raising money, the video raised a lot of eyebrows. Exes Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt got their flirt on and read a sexy scene while Morgan Freeman read screen directions, eliciting a mixture of laughter and blushing from the rest of the cast. Shia LaBeouf may or may not have been smoking a real joint, proving his dedication to his role as a stoner. Jimmy Kimmel nailed his role as various teenage girls — oh, and Julia Roberts, John Legend, Matthew McConaughey, Henry Golding, Ray Liotta, Dane Cook, and the film's original star Sean Penn were there, too.

At long last, Maya Rudolph is an Emmy winner. The actress officially picked up her first Emmy ever at Thursday's Creative Arts Emmys, snagging the Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance prize for her role as Connie the Hormone Monstress on Big Mouth. Rudolph has been nominated for six Emmys, including two others this year for playing Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live and the judge on The Good Place. In an Instagram video, Rudolph mouthed along apparently as one of her children said, "I'm so grateful because I never won an Emmy before. It's a very wonderful feeling. I think that it will be better if I won more Emmys." We couldn't agree more.

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Tatiana Maslany is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and you wouldn't like her character when she's angry. The Orphan Black star has reportedly been cast in Marvel's Disney+ series She-Hulk as the title character. She'll be starring as lawyer Jennifer Walters, who, like in the comics, is the cousin of Bruce Banner with similar abilities as her famous relative, though as Variety notes, she can mostly retain her personality while hulking out. Banner star Mark Ruffalo quickly celebrated the news, tweeting, "Welcome to the family, cuz!" Following Maslany's mind-blowing work playing a whole line-up of clones on Orphan Black, we can only hope Marvel will fully utilize her skills by casting her as about 10 other MCU characters as well.

Eat your heart out, M. Night Shyamalan. Lady Gaga on Friday released the music video for her song "911," which ends with an unexpected gut-punch: a major twist revealing that (spoiler alert!) the entire, surreal video seemingly set in the desert was taking place inside her character's mind while on a stretcher after a horrifying car accident. Gaga said the video is "very personal to me," reflecting her "experience with mental health and the way reality and dreams can interconnect to form heroes within us and all around us." The video might not leave you quite as much of a blubbering mess as the end of A Star Is Born, but it sure comes close.

Thank God for Phoebe Robinson. On the latest episode of her podcast, Black Frasier, she hit her guest Michelle Obama with one of the most difficult questions of our time. Robinson put a g-rated- and pandemic-themed spin on the game "f--k, marry, kill," asking which "Hollywood Chris" Obama would rather "quarantine, vacation, or Zoom" with. Since there are an infinite number of Hollywood Chrises, Robinson narrowed it down to Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, and Chris Rock. After clarifying which roles Evans had played, the former first lady declared she would quarantine with Hemsworth, vacation with Evans, and Zoom with Rock. Before you read into her choices, know that Obama clarified there was no shade involved in her decision.

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.