The daily gossip: Spike Lee is making a musical about Viagra, Nicole Richie cuts her dad off from honey, and more

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1. Spike Lee is making a musical about Viagra
2. Why Nicole Richie refuses to give dad Lionel Richie her homemade honey
3. Quentin Tarantino to write a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood novelization
4. Lana del Rey defends her mesh coronavirus mask
5. Dolly Parton 'saves the world,' like you'd expect

published 17 November 2020

1. Spike Lee is making a musical about Viagra

Spike Lee is working on a new movie about the drugmaker Pfizer — but it's not exactly going to be the inspiring story of their coronavirus vaccine. The director is instead making a musical about … Viagra. Based on David Kushner's 2018 Esquire article "All Rise: The Untold Story of the Guys Who Launched Viagra," Deadline explains that the script is inspired by the "discovery and launch of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, which was hatched as a treatment for heart-related chest pain only for researchers to find its game-changing qualities occurred below the belt." In a statement, Lee added, "Finally Going Into My 4th Decade As A Filmmaker I Will Be Directing A DANCIN', ALL SINGIN' MUSICAL Spike Lee Joint And I Can't Wait." We're, uh, excited too.

It's a tale as old as time — daughter keeps bees, father falsely accuses bees of violence, daughter revokes father's honey privilege. And it happened to Nicole and Lionel Richie. After Lionel complained Nicole's bees were stinging people, she moved them from his property to hers. But two months later, he was still complaining. It turned out, a feral hive was to blame. "Those bees were the ones that were stinging people — mine took the fall," Nicole said. She defended her hive, telling her musician father, "I don't want my bees getting side eye in a place that they're supposed to call home. They're not coming back," and stopped gifting him honey. Sounds like Lionel will just have to use supermarket brands now.

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Here's some news that's as real as a donut: Quentin Tarantino is writing a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood novel. The writer and director has signed a two-book deal with an imprint of HarperCollins, under which he's set to write a novelization of his acclaimed 2019 film as well as a nonfiction book about 1970s films. Tarantino said Tuesday he has a "tremendous amount of affection" for movie novelizations, describing the upcoming book as his "contribution to this often marginalized, yet beloved sub-genre in literature." Tarantino has mused before about retiring from directing: "I kind of feel this is the time for the third act [of my life] to just lean a little bit more into the literary," he told Rolling Stone earlier this year.

After Lana Del Rey wore a sparkly mesh mask to her book signing in October, she was quickly torn apart online for what appeared to be a lack of proper pandemic protection. The singer stayed silent on the matter until an article published Sunday in The Michigan Daily rehashed the incident that led to her "cancellation." Del Rey tweeted a response, praising the article before offering context that changes the story. "The mask had plastic on the inside," she wrote. "They're commonly sewn in by stylists these days." So maybe her mask was proper after all, but we must forgive those without stylists for assuming otherwise.

In case you didn't already believe Dolly Parton is a human treasure, the country music star donated $1 million to support Moderna's coronavirus vaccine research, which has resulted in a vaccine candidate that is nearly 95 percent effective. Parton apparently decided to make the donation back in April at the encouragement of her friend, Dr. Naji Abumrad of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, which was involved in the Moderna trials; he told her the organization was making "some exciting advancements" in the search. Fans were quick to joke that Parton herself "cured" COVID-19: "So … Dolly Parton saves the world," tweeted one, "and I'm not a bit surprised."

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