Everything we can't stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. This week: - RuPaul heads to Netflix. Werk?
- Oscar predictions. (#OscarsSoWhite again?)
- Behold Kim Kardashian's refrigerator
- The Nanny!!! On Broadway!!!
- A Mariah Carey update. Duh.
RuPaul's Netflix Series Is...Unexpected For 10 hours on Netflix, you get to see RuPaul perform. It is a treat, one that fans of the world's preeminent drag queen haven't enjoyed for years, with the Emmy-winning host spending the last decade preferring to preside over the stage as younger, fame-hungry queens show off for the world on RuPaul's Drag Race.
But at least once in each episode of AJ and the Queen, which launched Friday on the streaming service, RuPaul glams up in bombshell sculpted wigs and bedazzled gowns and performs a drag number. He does the Tina Turner "Proud Mary" dance. Dripping in a Bob Mackie gown and waterfall curls, he does the Diana Ross portion of "Endless Love." He's stitched into black leather and twists his pedal pushers as Sandy from Grease: "Tell me about it, stud."  You get to watch an icon be iconic. It is one of the greatest endorsements any TV series in the tidal wave of original programming in 2020 can hope for: Sure, your show might be good and all, but does it have RuPaul performing Sia's "Chandelier" as the chandelier?
It should be said that, as an actor, RuPaul is somewhat of a revelation to (thigh-high) boot. What is unexpected, then, about AJ and the Queen is that the show is also absolutely bananas.
The press notes for the series describe it as "part Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, part Touched By an Angel." When I first read that sentence I shrieked. The thing is, that deranged pairing, as ludicrous as Elton John inviting Karen Pence to duet, is somehow an incredibly accurate summation of what in the name of Lady Bunny is happening on AJ and the Queen.
The basic plot is that Ruby Red, RuPaul's character, has a fall from grace that turns what was supposed to be a farewell tour of gigs at clubs across America into a cross-country lifeline. On the eve of signing the lease on his own New York City night club with his business partner, played by one TV's great hot idiots, The Other Two's Josh Segarra, Ruby discovers that he's been grifted. Conned. Gay Dirty John'd. The man who he thought was in love with him was using a fake identity to swindle him out of his life's savings.
So Ruby packs up his dilapidated RV and dejectedly sets off on his road trip, only to discover that he has a stowaway.
AJ (Izzy G.), the 10-year-old upstairs neighbor in Ruby's apartment building, is evicted alongside his mother, a drug addict and prostitute who has been missing for days, prompting AJ to want to travel to Texas where his grandfather lives. It's her grandfather, rather. AJ, at this point a street rat who steals to live, styles herself as a boy because she "doesn't want to be a girl" and has discovered that people tend to leave boys alone.
After begrudgingly agreeing to take AJ on the trip, Ruby helps her become more comfortable with rebutting gender norms, because if you can't love yourself then how the hell you gonna love somebody else, can I get an amen up in here? AJ teaches Ruby a capacity for kindness he didn't know he had. It's a road trip series that's literally about the friends you made along the way.
Oh, they're also being hunted by Ruby's con artist ex and his eyepatch-wearing associate (Tia Carrere, in full Bond villain drag). It's already a lot, and we haven't even gotten into the various microcultures and LGBT attitudes each episode explores at red-state gay bars around the country.
 I can't say that the show is...good. Bless RuPaul for finding gravity and soulfulness in some upsettingly saccharine dialogue, a contrast to the sassily-delivered one-liners he delivers with grade-A charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. I don't believe in criticizing child performers' acting, so we'll move on from AJ and instead discuss this Priscilla-meets-Roma Downey-glowing-as-an-angel-sent-from-God tone.
It will be a test of patience for the hive of social media gays and toxic Drag Race fans, who maybe expected something more cutting from RuPaul. It will be interesting to see how long they give it before sashaying away, maybe even angry that the public figurehead of a discipline and culture rooted in transgression, grit, and subversion is sanitizing the message for something mainstream.
On the other hand, there are those who will argue the revolutionary value in RuPaul starring in a series like this, one that sees opportunity for empathy and understanding in the simplicity of hum-drum schmaltz.
Sure, those who have followed RuPaul might cringe at the broad, base-level ways it examines gender identity, a topic that RuPaul has navigated in recent years with the grace of a toddler playing Minesweeper. But something tells me that AJ and the Queen isn't exactly appealing to those people.
It's a series that may have appeared on the ABC Family or the Disney Channel a generation ago. Raunched up a little with the freedom of Netflix, it's basically targeted to that demographic. Maybe that's good. Maybe that's bad. At least it's RuPaul performing. Everybody say love.
They Really Might Just Nominate White People Again... The Oscar nominations are going to be announced Monday morning and, have your sunglasses ready, because it's looking like there's a very real possibility that they'll be blinding. #OscarsSoWhite could happen again. If there's anything awards voters enjoy more than never learning from the mistakes of their past or evolving in anyway meaningful way...it's white people!
The panic button was slammed with the force of an elephant falling off the Empire State Building earlier this week when BAFTA voters did just that: Nominating not a single performer of color in the acting races.
That's jarring for several reasons. Major contenders Cynthia Erivo (Harriet), Awkwafina (The Farewell), Lupita Nyong'o (Us), Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory), Eddie Murphy (Dolemite Is My Name), Song Kang Ho (Parasite) and Jamie Foxx (Just Mercy) were all uniformly passed over. When a pattern can be described as uniform, it is purposefully impossible to ignore. For White God's sake, Margot Robbie was nominated twice in Best Supporting Actress, rather than a slot going to Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers) or Zhao Shuzhen (The Farewell).
 There's only a thin argument for coincidence when a blind spot like this is so institutional that the organization has ordered a major review of its membership and voting after the embarrassing and shameful lack of diversity in its nominations. As Kyle Buchanan noted at The New York Times, BAFTA has never nominated Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman, two men who have 13 nominations and three Oscar wins between them.
Considering how much voter overlap there is between BAFTA and the Academy, and looking at the contenders who have showed up in precursor ceremonies, it's a real possibility that an all-white lineup could repeat in the Oscar nominations. And after it was the case with BAFTA, the Golden Globes, and the Directors Guild of America Awards, an all-male directors slate is likely, too, something that's baffling in a year that included Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), and Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers).
This matters not because of "unwoke" optics. Systemic bias against racial and gender diversity and the stories and craft that reflect those identities matters in institutions that are the standard bearers of what is deemed worthy and influential in a multi-billion dollar global industry that drives cultural conversation and change. Also, freaking hell! Nominate Banderas, Murphy, Kang Ho, Lopez, and Shuzhen. They deserve it!
In any case, I am not the best at predicting Oscar nominations, as I do not have much in common with the sensibility and whims of old straight white men. But ahead of Monday, here are my best guesses, tinged with a little bit of pipe dreaming, at what will be nominated.
Best Picture: 1917, Bombshell, Ford v. Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, Parasite
Best Director: Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Sam Mendes (1917), Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood)
Best Actress: Awkwafina (The Farewell), Cynthia Erivo (Harriet), Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story), Charlize Theron (Bombshell), Renée Zellweger (Judy)
Best Actor: Christian Bale (Ford v. Ferrari), Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood), Adam Driver (Marriage Story), Taron Egerton (Rocketman), Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)
Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern (Marriage Story), Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit), Nicole Kidman (Bombshell), Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers), Margot Robbie (Bombshell)
Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes), Al Pacino (The Irishman), Joe Pesci (The Irishman), Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood)
I Only Want Content About Kim Kardashian's Refrigerator I have never felt like I had more in common with Kim Kardashian—scratch that—I have only ever felt like I had anything in common with Kim Kardashian when she posted a photo on her Instagram standing in front of her refrigerator, revealing a barren wasteland of a few containers of milk, a mostly empty jar of unidentifiable liquid, and a smattering of vegetables that have yet to be eaten/possibly may never be eaten.  People were horrified! I felt seen!
Social media and the blogosphere lit up. Sure, all Kim Kardashian has to do is wink and this will happen, but of all silly Kardashian Kontroversies, this is by far my favorite. All about an empty refrigerator! Kim, I get you, girl! (My colleague, Alaina Demopoulos interviewed food psychologists about what we are to glean from all this, a piece of journalism I will cherish forever.)
All of the fun was ruined (or was it dialed up—one can never be sure with this one) when Kardashian responded to the hoopla by offering a tour of her actual, palatial, restaurant-grade, open-plan pantry, complete with a frozen yogurt machine. I am shocked to learn I have less in common with Kim Kardashian than I thought.
I Manifested a Broadway Musical in My Dreams Again Watch out, CC! From a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens, to the GREAT WHITE WAY, it was announced this week that a Broadway musical version of The Nanny is in the works, with the sitcom queen herself, Fran Drescher, producing and—this is so good—Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Rachel Bloom working on the score with her music partner from the show, Adam Schlesinger. Harry and Meghan heard that they were doing a The Nanny musical and came running. Mariah Carey Broke Another Record... Another, perhaps final update on Mariah Carey's record-breaking "All I Want For Christmas Is You" run. This last week, it set another record...for being the first song to ever fall completely off the chart from number one on the Billboard 100. (Duh, it's not Christmas anymore.) Carey's response was perfect: Grace and Frankie: It's my favorite show and I don't care who knows it.
Underwater: It's cuckoo and fun. Would watch again!
The New Pope: Or just wait for screenshots of the Jude Law speedo scene. Medical Police: What does "medical police" even mean? Like a Boss: Rose Byrne deserves better. How dare they. © Copyright 2020 The Daily Beast Company LLC
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