All posts tagged: skewers

SNL skewers Melania Trump over ‘insane’ Epstein statement: ‘Gonna make everyone way more suspicious’

SNL skewers Melania Trump over ‘insane’ Epstein statement: ‘Gonna make everyone way more suspicious’

Published by Sam Flores

Saturday Night Live kicked off its latest show, riffing on both First Lady Melania Trump’s out-of-the-blue Jeffrey Epstein message and the so-far unsuccessful peace negotiations between Iran and the U.S. The show’s cold open began with Ashley Padilla playing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is preparing President Donald Trump’s infamous tweet threatening to destroy the entire Iranian civilization ahead of the two-week ceasefire agreement. After dismissing the press secretary, Trump — played once again by James Austin Johnson — makes a call to Tiger Woods as played by Kenan Thompson for a quick laugh about the golfer’s recent DUI scandal. The “president” hangs up on Thompson’s Woods, after which the president’s phone rings. The number isn’t one he recognizes. “Who’s this? I don’t recognize the number,” the faux Trump says. Saturday Night Live’s April 11 cold open featured James Austin Johnson as President Donald Trump speaking to Chloe Fineman’s First Lady Melania Trump about her upcoming Epstein remarks (NBC/screengrab) Upon answering, he is greeted by Chloe Fineman’s take on First Lady Melania Trump. …

De Niro skewers Trump speech at State of the Swamp

De Niro skewers Trump speech at State of the Swamp

Published by Sam Flores

Robert De Niro sat quietly in a corner. Just 15 feet away, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was on stage speaking. “You can have democracy or you can have wealth in the hands of a concentrated few. But you can’t have both,” Johnson said at Washington’s National Press Club on Tuesday night. The audience of 500 had assembled for the State of the Swamp, an event created to serve as counter-programming for Donald Trump’s State of the Union. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had just finished speaking about how concentrated wealth destroys democracy. “Unity isn’t uniformity,” he explained. “We are a country of great debates and disagreements.” De Niro absorbed it all. While the mayors spoke, Trump was several blocks away at the Capitol in the middle of a boring diatribe that ran nearly two hours.  No one summed up the president’s speech better than CQ/Roll Call’s John Bennett. “What he did not do was ask the House and Senate to pass any new authorizations for him to use U.S. military force against Iran or to achieve …

New Film About a Viral Finger Painting Prodigy Skewers the Art World’s Cruel Optimism

New Film About a Viral Finger Painting Prodigy Skewers the Art World’s Cruel Optimism

Published by José Betancourt

A Canadian curator and sad dad is working for a Quebecois collector in Nina Roza, a film that premiered this week at Berlinale. His rich boss is doomscrolling and stops on a viral video that shows a child prodigy finger painting in a Bulgarian barn. Her abstractions, she explains to the camera, depict the cosmos; anyone who sees them as mere paint, she says, is “dumb.” The wealthy collector shares the video with his personal curator, giddy with glee and declaring that he wants to buy one of her paintings. Our depressed curator is instantly dismissive, quipping that you simply cannot trust Bulgarians. They are so poor, he says, that they have no choice but to scam. He strongly advises getting her paintings authenticated before paying a dime; the video proves nothing. What does this Canadian curator have against Bulgarians? The film tells a story of man versus self. It turns out that the curator is a self-hating Bulgarian immigrant who hasn’t been back home in 28 years. Born Mihail but known in Canada as …

Lost Lambs review: A wacky family saga that skewers modern anxieties

Lost Lambs review: A wacky family saga that skewers modern anxieties

Published by Sam Flores

Yet Cash defies the diaristic lit-girl trope with her delightfully wacky debut novel, Lost Lambs. Everything in the small-town world of the novel is made up, from the names of prescription drugs which various characters ingest to the town’s church, Our Lady of Suffering, which is suffering from a gnat infestation. In a bit of typographical experimentation, the text is blighted by gnats, too — exterminate is written as “extermignate”; natural as “gnatural”. Source link

SNL cold open skewers Trump’s obsession with winning prizes – and taking other people’s: ‘I love me!’

SNL cold open skewers Trump’s obsession with winning prizes – and taking other people’s: ‘I love me!’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Saturday Night Live mocked President Trump’s deportation campaign, his often fawning cabinet members, and his obsession with winning prizes and awards in its latest cold open sketch. In the skit, Trump was hosting The Trumps, a media awards show where he was also nominated for multiple categories, a bizarro world version of the real awards circuit, where Trump recently hosted the Kennedy Center honors at the flagship arts institution he recently renamed after himself. “It truly is an honor to be here hosting The Trumps after that lady whose name I already forgot gave me her Nobel Prize,” the president, played by James Austin Johnson, said, flanked by gold Trump statues. “I thought I needed more awards. And after what all my little freaks and psychos at ICE have been doing, I need more distractions. Look, everything’s gold and shiny.” “My …

Nikki Glaser skewers CBS News and A-listers on Epstein list in fiery Golden Globes monologue

Nikki Glaser skewers CBS News and A-listers on Epstein list in fiery Golden Globes monologue

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Nothing and nobody were spared during Nikki Glaser’s opening monologue at the 2026 Golden Globes — not the A-list crowd, and certainly not CBS, the ceremony’s broadcaster. Returning Sunday to host the 83rd annual Globes for the second consecutive year, the stand-up, 41, opened the show with a fiery, no-holds-barred monologue. “Good evening, and welcome to the Golden Globes. Yes, the Golden Globes, without a doubt the most important thing that’s happening in the world right now,” Glaser began. Directing her attention to the high-profile crowd, which included stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Julia Roberts, the comedian admitted that she couldn’t believe “the amount of star power we have in this room tonight.” “It’s insane. There’s so many A-lsters. And by A lists, I do mean people who are on,” she continued, before delivering the Jeffrey Epstein-veiled punchline, “A lists that …