The Ryan Lochte Era Is Over
Today in show business news: Ryan Lochte is no longer a TV star, BBC America cancels its first baby, and Cate Blanchett is going to direct.
.Today in show business news: Ryan Lochte is no longer a TV star, BBC America cancels its first baby, and Cate Blanchett is going to direct.
Well, that's it. He's done. Ryan Lochte, the handsome swimbo who captured America's hearts during the London Olympics last year, has run his course. Swum his course. E! has canceled his low-rated reality show, What Would Ryan Lochte Do?, after one measly season. So that's it. Once your E! reality show is cancelled after one season, you're done. Just ask the Neierses. (Actually don't, they leave deep in a thorny bramble on the outside of town and you don't want to go all the way over there, not this close to dark.) I mean, of course Lochte will be back for action in Rio in 2016, ready to swim his perky butt off, but as a Celebrity, some sort of Lochte™ brand, he is basically done. He took a gamble, it didn't pay off, and now he's just a swimmer. That's all. Nothing more. That's plenty to be, anyway! A rich, medal-bedazzled swimmer is quite a thing to be. It's enough. Let it be enough, Ryan. Don't go chasing some other dimly glinting dream down a dark road. Stick with the swimming. That's all you need. [The Hollywood Reporter]
More cancellation news. BBC America has cancelled its first original scripted program, Copper, after two seasons. Better than one season, so they've got Lochte beat there, but still. That's too bad. I mean, it's early days for BBC America as a "content producer," if you want to call it that, so some missteps are to be expected. Anyway, they have Orphan Black, much more of a breakout hit, to be excited about now. Copper was the first batch, the test round. Now they can move on to the real thing and in a few years, when they're knee-deep in hits, they'll hardly remember Copper at all. That's just how these things work. [Variety]
Hm. Fox has snapped up a pilot that was being shopped around town, a show from Lee Daniels's The Butler director Lee Daniels (that's how you gotta say it, it's the law) billed as a "hip hop drama." OK, sure, that could be a good show to gracefully transition with as Glee's run comes to an end. But here's the strange thing about this project. The writer is Danny Strong. As in, nerdy Jonathan from Buffy. Sure he's grown up and has won awards for writing things like Game Change, but that is not about hip hop! Does Danny Strong know about hip hop? I don't want to profile here, it's quite possible that Danny Strong knows everything in the world about hip hop, he could be the world's foremost expert on hip hop. But it doesn't seem that way? I've never heard him talk about hip hop before? He's never thanked Talib Kweli or DJ Yella in any of his awards speeches or anything. So it's strange. That's all. I'm sure he'll be great. But right now? I'm surprised. [Deadline]
After a four-year absence from doing drama (if you can call Funny People a drama, which I think you can), Adam Sandler is going to do a serious project again. He's in talks to play the lead in The Cobbler, from writer/director Tom McCarthy, who most recently made the wonderful little picture Win Win. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sandler would play "a shoe man who has the ability to metaphysically step into the lives of the people whose shoes he repairs." Hm. OK. Fine. But wait. Can we hold on a sec. What is a "shoe man?" Is that really what we're calling a cobbler? A "shoe man?" I don't think so. This is like the time that People magazine wrote an article about Leonardo DiCaprio using crazy water rocket shoes and said, "Though he's yet to play a waterman..." What is a waterman? Nobody knows. "Shoe man" is a little less mysterious than waterman, but still. "Adam Sandler plays a shoe man." "What?" "A shoe man." "I have to go." It doesn't really work. Anyway, good choice of director, Adam. Should be great. [The Hollywood Reporter]
What Cate Blanchett really wants to do is direct. And so she will. Even though she's the greatest actress of her generation, and arguably of all generations, she wants to try her hand behind the camera, and so there she goes, signing up to direct an adaptation of The Dinner. Based on a novel by Herman Koch, The Dinner is a "psychological thriller which explores just how far some parents might go to protect their children." Hm. Sounds interesting. Cate Blanchett directing a thriller! Sure thing. Will she be in it? We don't know. But either way. I'm immediately curious. [Deadline]