The daily gossip: KFC's Colonel Sanders mascot to be the subject of a Lifetime movie, Bob Dylan sells a lot of songs, and more

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1. Lifetime and KFC teamed up to make a steamy romance about Colonel Sanders, starring Mario Lopez
2. Bob Dylan sells entire music catalog to Universal for an estimated $300 million
3. Logan Paul is going to get beat up by Floyd Mayweather next year
4. 'Let's get aggressively centric,' says Matthew McConaughey
5. Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle emotionally honor Chadwick Boseman at MTV Movie & TV Awards

published 7 December 2020

1. Lifetime and KFC teamed up to make a steamy romance about Colonel Sanders, starring Mario Lopez

There is no way to unread this, so consider yourself warned: Lifetime has teamed up with KFC for a steamy romance about the fast-food chain's mascot, Colonel Harland Sanders, called A Recipe for Seduction. Mario Lopez will play Sanders in the "original mini-movie," which airs Sunday, Dec. 13, at noon ET. The story concerns a "young heiress whose devious mother has hand-picked her suitor, but finds herself falling instead for Lopez's Sanders, a new chef with a secret … fried chicken recipe," AdWeek explains. Truly, that's bad enough, although the real crime is that it's almost certainly made a McDonald's ad agent out there somewhere snap his fingers and jot down, "what if Ronald McDonald, but sexy???"

The times, they are a-changin! Universal Music Group has acquired the entirety of Nobel Prize laureate Bob Dylan's 600-song catalog, the company announced Monday. Financial details of the deal haven't been disclosed, but estimates put the purchase at "a lot" — probably in the ballpark of $300 million, The New York Times reports. Over his past 60 years in music, Dylan has sold more than 125 million records globally. All those songs, including classics like "Blowin' In The Wind" as well as the weird new 17-minute one about the JFK assasination, will head to Universal. The Times says it will likely be the "biggest acquisition ever of a single act's publishing rights." Dylan — who didn't even show up for his own Nobel Prize speech — unsurprisingly had no comment, per the Times.

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The notion of YouTube star Logan Paul fighting retired, undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather is exceedingly dumb: Paul will be destroyed when the two meet on Feb. 20 for an exhibition bout. On the other hand, it's a smart business decision: to quote The A.V. Club, "people would very much like to see the internet's most punchable face get punched." Still, this is all very embarrassing, as summed up by UFC president Dana White: "When people ask me, 'What's the state of boxing right now?' That's where it's at," he said. "Didn't that kid get beat up by the f--kin' video game kid from England, and now he's going to fight Floyd Mayweather?" (To be clear: Paul indeed got beat up by the f--kin' video game kid from England).

Here's a concept that's excited exactly no one ever: "aggressive centrism." It may even be an oxymoron? But speaking on Russell Brand's podcast Under the Skin, actor Matthew McConaughey slammed the "illiberal left" for being condescending, patronizing, and arrogant "towards the other 50 percent," and hit the right for "absolute denial" over the election results. The comments extended McConaughey's recent public musings about politics, though he's apparently not running for Texas governor! "The left will have to understand the science of 'meet you in the middle,'" McConaughey lectured, before adding this confusing string of words: "I almost feel like it's a move to say, 'Let's get aggressively centric. I dare you.'"

Chadwick Boseman received a tribute fit for a king at the MTV Movie & TV Awards "Greatest of All Time" special. The late Black Panther star, who died in August following a battle with colon cancer, posthumously received the Hero for the Ages award at the Sunday ceremony, an honor for someone "whose heroism onscreen was only surpassed by the true hero they were off-screen." Marvel's Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle presented the award. "Mr. Boseman truly embodied what it meant to be a superhero," Downey Jr. said. Cheadle also reflected that Boseman "had an incredible power to unify people," and his legacy will be that "the way he lived his life united people behind a higher purpose."

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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.