Jay Ellis is ready to be a leading man. Step 1: Kick things.
Jay Ellis was ready for action.
It'd been nearly a year since the 2021 finale of Issa Rae's much-loved HBO dramedy 'Insecure,' on which Ellis spent five seasons cementing his romantic lead CV as Lawrence. Primed for a pivot, the six-foot-three actor signed on to play a samurai sword-toting basketball player in the 1980s send-up 'Freaky Tales.' There was just one problem. Ellis hadn't done so much as a 'hi-yah' since earning a yellow belt in elementary school.
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New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Liberal comic Marc Maron who helped popularize podcasting explains why he turned down Hillary Clinton interview
Stand-up comedian and podcast host Marc Maron told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday why he decided to turn down an interview with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2017. Maron, a podcasting pioneer and host of the popular 'WTF with Marc Maron' podcast, interviewed former President Barack Obama in 2015, which helped open the door to high-level politicians willing to appear on his show, such as Hillary Clinton. When Maron's longtime producer Brendan McDonald pitched Clinton, fresh off her loss to President Donald Trump in the 2016 election, the comedian decided against interviewing the former Secretary of State. ''You're the guy to do this,'' McDonald recalled telling Maron. 'He adamantly disagreed.' Maron told The Hollywood Reporter that 'the success rate of getting to a candid place with politicians is very small,' and that his successful interview with Obama was an exception. 'And this is somebody who's divisive and controversial and has a history that's somewhat sordid, not by any fault of her own, but I just didn't see where I could go with that,' he said of the prospect of interviewing Clinton. 4 Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton walks on stage before her debate against Donald Trump at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas on Oct. 19, 2016. EPA 4 Marc Maron during his HBO show Marc Maron: Panicked. Karolina Wojtasik/HBO Although his 'WTF' podcast continues to maintain cultural relevance, Maron announced in June that he will be ending the long-running show. He told CNN on Thursday that he's just over the medium and noted that the podcast space has become oversaturated. 'I don't want to chase the cultural conversation through clickbait and garbage. You know, I don't want to be tethered,' Maron said. 'And now you're getting out just when everyone's 100% convinced that podcasts are deciding American elections and the future of mankind. Right? So why get out just when everyone catches up to you?' CNN anchor John Berman asked the comedian. 4 Maron told The Hollywood Reporter that 'the success rate of getting to a candid place with politicians is very small,' and that his successful interview with Obama was an exception. CNN 4 Hillary Clinton reacts during her concession speech after losing the 2016 Presidential Election to Donald Trump on Nov. 9, 2025. AFP/Getty Images Maron told the anchor that he never intended for the show to be about politics, and felt that it had run its course. 'And we really chose not to do politics and just do kind of profiles and sort of candid conversation,' he said, describing how he originally set up the show. 'And we were audio, and we remained audio because we believe that's the most intimate, you know, form.' He continued, noting that he's satisfied with how much content the show has produced and that he wants to get out with so many other podcasters competing on the scene. 'And also, if we stop and at this point, you know, we have a body of work that stands on its own. And in terms of, yeah, podcasts being the new medium, that means there's 10,000 podcasts. Everyone's doing one, and it's just, the environment is a little cluttered and oversaturated.' Fox News' Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
Elle
2 hours ago
- Elle
'And Just Like That' Has Been Bad, But It's Made Our Appreciation For 'Sex And The City' Even Greater
And just like that: it's over. Two weeks ago, HBO quietly announced that the Sex And The City sequel would be ending after its third season, with show runner Michael Patrick King diplomatically declaring it 'a wonderful place to stop.' Because nothing says 'creative fulfilment' like hastily wrapping up a series that's been haemorrhaging viewers and critical goodwill since its first episode aired in 2021. The announcement felt suspiciously abrupt — the kind of 'mutual decision' that screams executive intervention rather than artistic vision. Tabloid whispers about HBO pulling the plug seemed entirely plausible, especially given the show's consistently brutal reviews and the general sense that And Just Like That had become television's most expensive exercise in brand destruction. Even Jonathan Cake, who played Carrie's latest love interest Duncan in this final season, seemed blindsided by the news. His Instagram post was ostensibly jokey — 'Wait, did I JUST KILL [the series]? Duncan finally has one night of passion with Carrie Bradshaw and the shows [sic] over … FOREVER???' — but read more like the confused words of an actor who'd just discovered his character arc was actually a series finale. When your guest stars are finding out about cancellations via social media, you know things have gone spectacularly off-piste. HBO The original Sex And The City was lightning in a bottle. It gave us permission to talk about sex, to be messy, to want impossible shoes and impossible men. It was revolutionary television that happened to be wrapped up in designer packaging. But its sequel? It's like somebody took everything that fans held dear about the original and fed it through a content algorithm designed by people who've never actually had a conversation with a woman over 50. The finale's closing moments attempt to come full circle, with Carrie dancing alone in her Gramercy Park townhouse to a karaoke version of Barry White's 'You're The First, The Last, My Everything' before concluding her book with the words: 'The woman realises she was not alone – she was on her own.' It's a deliberate callback to the original series finale's iconic line about 'The most exciting, challenging, and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself' — except this time, as showrunner Michael Patrick King noted, 'there's no phone call' from Big waiting in the wings. The music switches to the original Sex and the City theme as the credits roll, a bittersweet reminder of everything this sequel couldn't quite recapture. Here's the thing, though — and this might be an unpopular opinion among the SATC faithful — maybe it's actually fine that And Just Like That exists in its own flawed universe. Maybe we needed to see that lightning doesn't strike twice, that some magic can't be recaptured, that sometimes the sequel teaches us to appreciate the original even more. 'Sex and the City'. Image: Getty The fact that it's disappointing doesn't diminish what the original series gave us. If anything, And Just Like That 's failures throw into sharp relief exactly what made Sex And The City special: the chemistry between four actors who genuinely seemed to like each other, writing that balanced frivolity with genuine insight, and a willingness to be glamorous and ridiculous without apology. HBO There's also something to be said for And Just Like That 's attempt — however clunky — to grapple with what it actually means to be a woman in your fifties. The original series was about women in their thirties figuring out their lives; this sequel is about women dealing with loss, aging parents, grown children, and mortality. Those are important stories, even if they're being told badly. The execution may be heavy-handed, but the impulse to explore these themes isn't wrong. HBO And Just Like That has felt like a calculation rather than a creative impulse. It exists because the intellectual property was there, not because anyone had a compelling reason to continue these characters' stories. And that's perhaps the most damning thing about it: it feels unnecessary in a way that undermines its own existence. The original Sex and the City ended perfectly. Carrie got her grand romantic gesture, Miranda found balance, Charlotte got her happy ending, and Samantha... well, Samantha got to be Samantha. That should have been enough. Sometimes the most loving thing you can do for something you cherish is to leave it alone. But for all its faults, And Just Like That has given us one valuable gift: it's reminded us why the original was so special. It's shown us that chemistry can't be manufactured, that wit can't be workshopped, and that sometimes the best sequels exist only in our imagination. We deserved better than this sequel, but maybe we got something else instead — a clearer appreciation for what we had all along. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE . There'll Be No 'And Just Like That' Season Four The Best Looks From 'And Just Like That' Season 3 Naomi May is a seasoned culture journalist and editor with over ten years' worth of experience in shaping stories and building digital communities. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard, where she worked across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Digital Editor at ELLE Magazine and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. Naomi is also the host of the ELLE Collective book club.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Sarah Jessica Parker on ‘And Just Like That …' and Carrie's Legacy
This interview contains spoilers for the series finale of 'And Just Like That …' Sarah Jessica Parker doesn't love to cry for the camera. But while shooting the final episode of 'And Just Like That …,' the three-season HBO Max show that followed three of the four main 'Sex and the City' characters into middle age, she couldn't help herself. 'Carrie's not weepy,' she said, speaking of her character Carrie Bradshaw, the dizzy, fizzy, feelings-forward, fashion-very-forward sex columnist she has played off and on since 1998. 'She is sentimental, but she's not an insipid, treacly person. But it was really hard!' The final episode, which arrived on HBO Max on Thursday, finds Carrie at home, once again in tulle, grooving to Barry White, strong enough to stand on her own in high heels. This was, in its way, a happy ending, but Parker still had complicated feelings about saying goodbye. 'I don't know what it means yet, and I'm not sure I will for some time,' Parker said, speaking by phone the day before the final episode premiered. She was gracious — even when asked about the show's more awkward moments — and appropriately wistful. 'And Just Like That …' was not an unqualified success. Four new main characters were introduced, all people of color, but they seemed often like accessories to the main characters rather than protagonists in their own right. (That was somewhat remedied in the third season, though by then two of the characters, Karen Pittman's Nya and Sara Ramirez's Che, had been written out.) Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
