What’s Up Archives

Nineteen former Misses America are calling on leaders of the Miss America organization to step down amid allegations from reigning Miss America, Cara Mund, that she was subject to bullying. Mund claimed in a letter to former pageant winners she had been bullied, manipulated and silenced by leaders within the organization since receiving the crown, which top officials have vehemently denied. Miss America chairwoman Gretchen Carlson said she was “surprised” and “saddened beyond words” by Mund’s accusations. She added that she has since reached out to Mund to discuss her concerns. Carlson previously hosted “The Real Story” and co-hosted “Fox and Friends.” She left Fox News in 2016, the same year she filed a sexual harassment suit against late Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. On Jan. 1 of this year, Carlson, a former Miss America winner herself, announced her new role as chairwoman after crude emails from the organization’s executives, some involving vulgar comments about the pageant’s previous winners, surfaced. The scandal led to the resignation of CEO Sam Haskell, COO and President Josh Randle and board chair Lynn Weidner.

Tiffany Haddish will bring her comedic talent to Netflix in an original hour-long stand-up comedy special. Haddish will tape the special in early 2019 and it will premiere globally later in the year. Haddish can currently be seen opposite Tracy Morgan on The Last O.G., and will soon star in Night School, The Oath, and Nobody’s Fool. She will also voice the character Tuca in the upcoming Netflix adult animated series Tuca & Bertie. Lisa Nishimura, VP of Original Documentary and Comedy for Netflix said:  “Tiffany Haddish is a force. Hilariously funny, brash and self-effacing, she’s an incredible artist who is winning over audiences while breaking barriers, and we are tremendously proud that she will showcase her formidable talent on Netflix.”

Romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” was No. 1 at the weekend box office in North America, raking in an estimated $34 million in ticket sales since Wednesday’s opening. The movie is being celebrated as a turning point for Asian-Americans; and it’s been a quarter century since the last time a nearly all-Asian cast starred in a Hollywood studio film, which was 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club.”  Crazy Rich Asians beat out The Meg and Mile 22. The Jon Chu-directed picture is also the first romantic comedy to rake in more than $20 million in its opening weekend in three years, and it was the best performing PG-13 rom-com since Think Like A Man, released in 2012. The film is an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name and stars Fresh Off the Boat star Constance Wu and newcomer Henry Golding.

The New York Times reported Sunday that months after publicly accusing Harvey Weinstein of rape, actress and filmmaker Asia Argento made a deal with a young actor who accused her of sexual assault. Argento was among the first women to accuse movie mogul Weinstein of sexual misconduct, and has been a leading figure in the #MeToo movement. The New York Times claimed it has lawyers’ documents showing that actor and musician Jimmy Bennett alleged Argento sexually assaulted him in 2013 when he was 17 and she was 37. Bennett said the assault took place at a hotel in California, where the age of consent is 18. Bennett played Argento’s son in the 2004 movie “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things.” The Times reported they received the documents “through encrypted email by an unidentified party,” and that they included “a selfie dated May 9, 2013, of the two lying in bed.” “As part of the agreement, Mr. Bennett, who is now 22, gave the photograph and its copyright to Ms. Argento, now 42,” the story said. “Three people familiar with the case said the documents were authentic.” Bennett reportedly asked Argento for $3.5 million in damages, a month after she spoke out about Weinstein last October. Argento later arranged to pay Bennett $380,000; the first installment was made in April 2018.

Netflix announced they have canceled The Break With Michelle Wolf and The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale; neither of the talk shows will make it to a second season. The company ended Chelsea Handler’s weekly talk show last October after two seasons. Chelsea initially aired three nights each week before moving to a once-weekly schedule. Each of The Break with Michelle Wolf’s 10 episodes debuted weekly. The show began streaming in May, not long after Wolf’s controversial and profile-raising performance as host of the 2018 White House Correspondents Dinner. McHale, the former longtime host of E’s The Soup (which his Netflix show closely resembled) also fell flat with his “The Joel McHale Show.”  Both cancelations are the result of underwhelming viewership numbers. In the talk show genre, Netflix still has Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. Netflix will attempt some new talk shows this year when it launches Norm Macdonald Has A Show, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, and panel-style talk show The Fix starring Jimmy Carr, Katherine Ryan, and D.L. Hughley.