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Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The battle between art and commerce makes its way to Hacks
Instead of a new equilibrium, Deborah and Ava have both reached new lows this season. One of them (Deborah) has indulged—and reveled—in more bad behavior than the other, but they've both been active participants in this race to the bottom. Ava followed up blackmail with a little more blackmail, convinced she could adopt Deborah's tactics without losing herself, or, through all the concessions she's made to her writing staff, at least achieve the karmic equivalent of carbon offsetting. But it's all been weighing on her—what she did to become the head writer of Late Night With Deborah Vance and what she's had to do to keep the job. She tried to find refuge in a sexy throuple, in being a kinder boss than Deborah, and in finding ways to smuggle the sort of humor that she wants to do into the late-night format. Ava isn't really the type to just put on a brave face and muddle through, though, a fact that 'Mrs. Table' makes clear in spectacular fashion. Ava's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day begins with balloons and cupcakes, but it very quickly descends into madness once Deborah becomes involved. Their latest truce dead (at both their hands, really), Deborah doesn't even try to be cordial, taking full advantage of Stacey's injury to ruin the staff birthday celebration and take potshots at Ava. Things aren't much better on set, as Deborah keeps shooting down the jokes for some desk bit about apologies (which started its life on the white board back in 'I Love L.A.'). What really throws Ava off-balance is the return of the ex: Deborah's latest guest is Ruby Rojas, star of Wolfgirl, the big, new DC show (maybe the Arrowverse is still alive and kicking in this timeline). It's bad enough for Ava to have to make small talk with the woman who turned down the marriage proposal she made with a movie prop in hand, who compels her to say things like 'bein' supa bi' while sporting a fake beauty mark. But Deborah sniffs out the possibility for peak emotional damage, ruthlessly cutting the desk bit to extend Ruby's interview for another act. Once she has Ruby onstage, Deborah practically licks her chops as she sets up her guest to tell the story of that mortifying proposal, shooting Ava a look to confirm she knows just what she's doing. After Ruby finishes telling everyone in the audience (and at home) the story, Deborah snarks 'No wonder she's an ex,' then adds insult to injury with 'Up next: Dance Mom!' Crossing a line is hardly new for Deborah, but turning Ava's humiliation into a punchline in such a public way is one of the shittiest things she's done. Even if no one else knows what the connection is, the late-night show is now tainted for Ava—not that it's been a dream scenario since she started the job. Ava's attempts to be the cool boss have just led to the writers walking all over her, missing work to have tooth gems installed, and ordering pricey fish meals that don't even travel well. (For $72, that branzino should have looked way more appetizing too.) She doesn't even have the comfort of knowing that they're at least making something great together. Realizing she's been picking up the tab for nonexistent people and picking up the slack for everyone else, Ava just snaps. The breakdown is, as Hannah Einbinder teased, pretty fun—to watch, at least. Ava, who's made so many allowances and endured so many slights in her new role, uncoils like some cornered animal making a last, mad dash for freedom, flinging fish, screaming 'I QUIT!,' and driving through the parking gate. The exhilaration of watching her throw off the constraints was tempered for me by the realization that she was throwing everything away, and she definitely shouldn't have screamed at the writers, especially not over being excluded from a group chat she'd eventually mute anyway. But, just as I did for the first half of season two, I've been wondering when she would decide enough is enough. Ava hasn't been having fun at work or enjoying any real prestige from the job, not since the New York Times Magazine cover story. She might as well not even be head writer, if Deborah can just cut the written bits from the episode at a moment's notice. (If Ava's subsidizing lobster rolls, though, the money has to be pretty good.) Ava has been holding on so tightly, so reflexively, that she hasn't noticed how adrift she is. But Deborah has—even if it's taken her a while to admit it—because she's the one who's been pushing her away. All of the coyote sightings this season turn out to be harbingers for a foiled (thankfully) attack on one of Deborah's corgis and the epiphany that she's essentially thrown Ava to the wolves. (Don't look at me if the animals don't line up perfectly in this metaphor; the writers said in the Bit By Bit aftershow that they chose coyotes because they're all over Los Angeles.) All so she could hang on to some Exquisite Corpse of a show tacked together with network notes, the viral star du jour, and corn chip-based sponcon. Deborah ends up on a mad dash of her own, one that has all the markings of a grand romantic gesture (though Ava/Deborah is still TBD) to find Ava. Their reconciliation is slow-going, as it should be. Director Paul W. Downs puts Deborah through her paces, giving Ava room to fully express her pain and doubts, while Deborah sits there, bedraggled and otherwise looking like she's the one who had a breakdown. 'I can't trust you,' Ava says, sounding more defeated than angry. Deborah offers to run back into the ocean to make it up to her, but Ava reveals she also doesn't know if she can trust herself to do the job. 'I don't even know your voice anymore,' she sighs. 'You are my voice,' Deborah responds without hesitation, but Ava's heard that before—not the exact wording, but the sentiment, as conveyed through all the recent stop-gaps. She's always given in when Deborah's asked her to stay, but this time, with nothing left to lose, Ava sets a real boundary. 'I can't write a show that appeals to millions of people,' she tells Deborah, who admits she was wrong to focus on the masses. 'We can't make it for them; we have to make it for each other,' Deborah responds, and since they'll 'probably never make it out of last place, we should at least try to have fun.' This is a real pledge, and Ava takes it as such, bringing out the bottle of Krug she's been driving around with for months to at long last toast with her creative partner. This is part of the Hacks playbook: Ava and Deborah making up after a big fight or reaching some other kind of resolution midseason so they can take on what comes next together. But that standard move takes on a new tenor this season because Deborah and Ava are now up against something much bigger than their personal differences, or even ageism and sexism in the industry. By deciding to make a show for themselves, to make something that expresses their points of view, profit margins be damned, they're taking a side in the long-running battle between art and commerce, one that's now permeated every corner of media. For a while, it looked like Deborah and Ava might represent the different sides of that conflict in season four, with Deborah pushing the data while Ava tried to find a way to preserve the good of their original concept. Hacks creators Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky, and Paul W. Downs landed on a more compelling way to depict that struggle. It's one thing for Deborah and Ava to both lose when they're fighting each other, but seeing them lose while working together has the potential to be both more devastating and satisfying (narratively speaking). It would certainly match the real-life national mood, though it's far from the determined outcome. I have high hopes that they'll stick by each other through this. Deborah knows how to defend what's hers, and if she starts to lose her nerve, Ava will be there to remind her what they're fighting for. And their stand, fictional though it may be, can still inspire. • Deborah being drawn to an all-girl line-dancing night in her search for Ava is more proof that they get each other. • 'Listen, hey, razzle dazzle 'em.' Why does it sometimes seem like Ava has never talked to another human being before? • Sandy Honig's chirped delivery of 'Tooth gem!' as Rose is only surpassed by her grousing about how 'smiling without a tooth gem was really affecting my self-esteem.' Still, Rose should be careful. More from A.V. Club Arcade Fire and an overlong Weekend Update steal focus from Walton Goggins on SNL The Hundred Line is shameless game design in the best way John Legend addresses the Kanye in the room, calls out his "devolution"
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How 'Hacks' Landed Carol Burnett for a Poignant Season 4 Scene with Jean Smart (Exclusive)
Carol Burnett is the latest A-lister to join the long list of Hollywood cameos and guest stars on Hacks. The comedy legend appears in the season 4 episode, "I Love L.A.," which debuted on Thursday, April 24. While Burnett's cameo wasn't as fiery as some of Deborah Vance's (Jean Smart) other celebrity encounters audiences seen, it was a poignant moment on the Max original series. During a chance meeting at the doctor's office, Vance asks Burnett, 91, if she has any advice for dealing with stage fright — something that has plagued the comedian-turned-talk show host as she prepares to make her late-night debut in season 4. "You know what did? I would pick one person in the audience and I would do the show just for them," Burnett tells Vance before ending on some words of encouragement, "Listen, you're gonna be wonderful. You always are." While speaking to PEOPLE, Hacks co-creators and co-showrunners Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky shared how they landed the comedic icon on the series, especially four seasons into its acclaimed run. Related: Jean Smart Won't Cross This Line on Hacks as Deborah Vance, Show Producers Reveal (Exclusive) "We have been trying to get her on," Aniello reveals. "We've gone up to her at events and said, 'Hey, we come from the show Hacks. I dunno if you've ever seen it.' And she's like, 'I have.' And we're like, 'Great, so can you come on?' " "We actually heard that she was a fan of the show and we were like, 'Geez, that would be so perfect to have her on, especially this season with the story that we're telling,' " Downs adds, explaining that Hacks "is about telling the stories of female comedians who didn't get their due in the same way that their male counterparts had." He continues, "And so, for someone like Carol Burnett to want to do it, I mean, she's a living legend. So it was really special and really cool 'cause we were filming it at Television City, which is where The Carol Burnett Show was filmed." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. However, they couldn't have Burnett on just for any moment — they wanted to make sure it was something special and something that fit in with what was happening on the series. "It was very scene specific," Statsky says of the scene that worked best for having Burnett on. "There are so many people we're fans of that we're like, 'Oh God, that would be amazing.' But we already try to be story first and character first, so you never want to just shoehorn someone in just to have them. So this finally felt like a really lovely moment for her to come into the Hacks world." "To have her and Deborah get to sit and talk about performing and how it feels to be a performer and stage fright, it just feels like such a special moment that we're really happy to have in the show," Statsky continues. "It's an all-timer for us." The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! Related: Hacks' Hannah Einbinder Looks Back on Testing for SNL 4 Decades After Mom Laraine Newman Was a Cast Member (Exclusive) Of course, having Burnett on set did not disappoint. "She was so sweet and funny. On the day, she had her own ideas. She came in with stuff and was improvising," Aniello says, while Statsky adds, "Like, my expectations were obviously sky high 'cause she's a comedy legend and they were only exceeded." For Downs, who directed the episode, "it was a crazy bucket list moment." He adds, "I don't think Hacks would exist without her and people like her, so it was a pinch-me moment but also crazy to be like, 'I'm gonna give a note to an icon.' " "But I will say this, she takes direction very well," he says. As for what Smart thought of reuniting with Burnett after the first two worked together on-screen in a 2013 episode of Hot in Cleveland, where they played a mother-daughter duo, it was just as exactly as she hoped. "She is so sharp. She is so funny. She's so down to earth and kind and sweet," Smart, 73, said during an FYC event with reporters, which PEOPLE attended, adding, "If I can be here when I'm 91, I'll be the luckiest woman in the world." Later, while speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Smart said, "It was such a treat to have her… There's nobody like her in terms of comedy and just being an incredibly cool human being." Burnett, meanwhile, added that she was "thrilled to get in the sandbox" with Smart as Vance. is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! New episodes of Hacks season 4 debut Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Max. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Amazon apologizes to Mandy Moore after package is delivered to ruins of in-laws' California home
Amazon apologized Wednesday after actor Mandy Moore posted in anger that a delivery driver left a package at her in-laws' home, which was destroyed in the Los Angeles-area fires. Moore posted an image Tuesday of a single box in front of a pile of debris that was her husband's parents' home. The photo was posted to Moore's Instagram Stories with a caption telling Amazon to "do better." "Can we not have better discretion than to leave a package at a residence that no longer exists?" she wrote. A spokesperson for Amazon said in a statement that the company reached out to Moore on social media to apologize and ask for more information to investigate the incident. "Those who deliver on our behalf have been advised to use discretion in areas impacted by wildfires — especially if it involves delivering to a damaged home — that clearly didn't happen here," said the spokesperson, Steve Kelly. Moore's mother- and-father-in-law are among the thousands displaced by last month's Palisades and Eaton Fires in Southern California. It took more than three weeks to fully contain both fires, running firefighters ragged as they also battled a series of smaller fires that erupted in the area. The Eaton and Palisades fires were by far the largest of the blazes, together killing at least 29 people and either damaging or destroying more than 18,000 structures. Moore and her husband, Taylor Goldsmith, evacuated safely with their three children and pets in the middle of the night, before the fires reached their Altadena house. In posts on Instagram, Moore has shared details and photos of the substantial damage to their property. The studio that Goldsmith, a musician, uses burned down along with his instruments, as well as the couple's back house and garage. Moore said in a post Tuesday that while the structure of her home was still standing, the contents were considered a "total loss." She wrote that she was grateful to still have the house even if her definition of a home is "in flux." "This place, our home and the town itself, was our dream and I hope in time it will feel like that a slightly different one," Moore wrote. Goldsmith's brother, who performs with him in the band Dawes, lost his home in Altadena. The band performed a set at the Grammy's this month, leading a group of musicians in a cover of Randy Newman's 'I Love L.A." to open the show. This article was originally published on
NBC News
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Amazon apologizes to Mandy Moore after package delivered to ruins of in-laws' California home
Amazon issued an apology Wednesday after actor Mandy Moore posted in anger that a delivery driver left a package at her in-laws' home that was destroyed in the Los Angeles area fires. Moore posted an image of a single box in front of a pile of debris that once made up her husband's parents home. The photo was posted to Moore's Instagram Stories on Tuesday with a caption telling Amazon to "do better." "Can we not have better discretion than to leave a package at a residence that no longer exists?" Moore wrote. A spokesperson for Amazon said in a statement that the company reached out to Moore on social media to apologize and ask for more information to investigate the incident. "Those who deliver on our behalf have been advised to use discretion in areas impacted by wildfires – especially if it involves delivering to a damaged home - that clearly didn't happen here," the spokesperson said. Moore's mother-and-father-in-law are among the thousands displaced by last month's Palisades and Eaton Fires in Southern California. It took more than three weeks to fully contain both fires, running firefighters ragged as they also battled a series of smaller fires in the area that erupted in that time. The Eaton and Palisades fires were by far the largest of the blazes, together killing at least 29 people and either damaging or destroying more than 18,000 structures. Moore and her husband, Taylor Goldsmith, evacuated safely with their three children and pets in the middle of the night, before the fires reached their Altadena house. In posts on Instagram, Moore has shared details and photos of the substantial damage to their property. The studio that Goldsmith, a musician, uses burnt down along with his instruments, as well as the couple's back house and garage. Moore said in a post Tuesday that while the structure of her home was still standing, the contents were considered a "total loss." She wrote that she was grateful to still have the house even if her definition of a home is "in flux." "This place, our home and the town itself, was our dream and I hope in time it will feel like that a slightly different one," Moore wrote. Goldsmith's brother, who performs with him in the band Dawes, lost his home in Altadena. The band performed a set at the Grammy's earlier this month, leading a group of musicians in a cover of Randy Newman's 'I Love L.A." to open the show.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sweet Spot: Compartés Celebrates 75 Years in L.A.
This Valentine's Day, many in Los Angeles are choosing to show love and affection for their hometown as well as each other, especially in the wake of the California wildfires. Which makes Compartés gourmet chocolatier the sweetest choice in town. From its uniquely beautiful packaging to its delectable flavors and recipes, the chocolatier's 75-year history and growth is a true local success story.'We're a homegrown L.A. brand, here since 1950,' owner and CEO Jonathan Grahm says of his company, which built its local fanbase in beloved retail stores in Brentwood and West Hollywood (they closed during the pandemic) and its profile as a national brand via collaborations with fashion houses and pop culture figures. 'Our chocolate factory in Culver City is still standing and I'm happy we're able to come to work and make chocolate, which makes people happy. It's kind of a nice thing in this moment of not-so-nice things.' Grahm, who started at the company at the age of 15, designed a special new bar, called 'I Love L.A.,' while watching the fire coverage on TV last month. He's donating 100% of its proceeds to wildfire relief.'As an L.A. brand, it's so important,' he says. 'People see our packaging not only all over town, but all over the country and worldwide. We're sold in 3,000 shops all over the U.S. Compartés is really emblematic of Los his signature dark chocolate with a sprinkling of gourmet sea salt, the new vegan, gluten-free L.A. bar joins his other hometown homage, the popular 'California Love' bar, which he created 15 years ago. Boasting a pink-hued sunset and swaying palm trees graphic, it's become famous for its design as well as the rich dark chocolate and San Francisco sourdough pretzel candy inside. Graham was 21 when he bought the family company and rebranded. Driven by a fashion-forward, artisanal approach, his confections now stand out amid other more typical boxed chocolate offerings on the market. Compartés is a special and luxurious choice to give loved ones for birthdays, anniversaries and holidays, both for its aesthetics and its flavors — which whimsically blend creamy smooth cocoa in dark, milk and white chocolate with a variety of other ingredients, like strawberries, potato chips, coffee and donuts (an ode to Grahm's favorite L.A. donut shops). Just in time for Valentine's Day, Compartés offers new bars packed with pieces of red velvet cake and strawberry cheesecake, the latter featuring a tie-dye heart design. The brand also boasts decadent new collections, in boxes adorned with florals, swans and peacocks. Try chocolate-covered fruit; pink chocolate-covered Oreos and hearts; and its popular take on the classic heart-shaped box, a sumptuous crocodile-textured design available in shades of crimson red and dark green. While Grahm's goals to transform Compartés into a chic, elevated chocolate brand have been achieved, he hopes that his commitment to using local ingredients and printing facilities convey the deep connection and community that have inspired him since he took the company's helm.'I've been in L.A. my whole life,' he says. 'I went to Beverly High and I grew up on the Westside. I love L.A; it's my inspiration. It's my heart and it's my home. All of those things come through when you look at the brand.'5735 W. Adams Blvd., Culver City,
