It's Dancing with the Stars elimination night — please, let Kate Gosselin go home. It's getting worse and worse and hurts to watch. Literally.
Even Carrie Ann Inaba, who tries to find something nice in everyone, could only come up with "that was odd." Inaba ended up praised Gosselin for channeling emotion. Watching the performance, I couldn't help but wonder if her dance partner, Tony Dovolani, is having his revenge for all the grief she's undoubtedly given him.
Still, voters didn't put Kate in the bottom two last week. Instead, they placed Pamela Anderson there. It's shocking to see Pamela in the bottom two. She dances well and has sex appeal. I thought that was a reality TV shoe-in. I guess the times are changing and for Pamela, she's irritated more fans over the years than retained them.
Last night's performance was clearly to push this hurdle aside. At one point, Bruno said, "Underneath this sex bomb exterior, there is actually a very good performer" and that reveals the shift the former Baywatch pinupneeds people to make towards her.
In other news, check out Ashly DelGrosso-Costa's (Buzz Aldrin's partner) face after Pamela Anderson's dance. Everyone stood and cheered but she turned her head in a grimace, with arms folded (see picture). Clearly someone is not amused.
What's up with the sour face? Let us know your theories.
See Kate Gosselin's frightening Paso Doble below:
See Pamela's Paso Doble below. Ashly DelGrosso-Costa's grimace at 3:40:
Ashly DelGrosso-Costa has a diva moment and is clearly not team Pamela
Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.
That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.
Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.
Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.
The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.
The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.
Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.
Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.
