Ystyle Hit List
Headlining this week: Kiernan Shipka, The Weeknd and Penelope Cruz
1 CHARMED ONE: Kiernan Shipka is set to star in the dark remake of ’90s classic ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’
Ever since American cable network The CW brought Riverdale to life — a darkly reimagined Archie Comics, from a mass-market printed serial into a pulpy coming-of-age TV show involving mystery, murder, mayhem and a lot more teenage sex — many fans wondered online, would Sabrina the Teenage Witch ever come over from Greendale for a hex-y two-part Halloween special? Well, all that and more it seems.
Billed as a spinoff to Riverdale, Netflix just greenlit a two-season, 20-episode order for a dark remake of the ’90s classic Sabrina the Teenage Witch starring Mad Men-alum Kiernan Shipka. The source material for the show will be The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a horror comic series that is worlds apart from Melissa Joan Hart’s iconic TV role as the half-mortal half-witch living with her talking cat and two bewitching aunts. As reported in Entertainment Weekly, series writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa says, “Some people don’t even know that Sabrina is in the Archie family. There is absolutely a universe where Sabrina pops up in Riverdale or one town over in Greendale.”
A dark coming-of-age tale dealing with witchcraft, the occult, and a whole lot of horror themes, less kooky more spooky, Netflix’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch is currently in pre-production and we can’t wait.
2 CLOTHING CONTROVERSY: Grammy award winner The Weeknd splits from retail brand H&M following racist ad
In the age of @diet_prada and the prevalence of internet callout-culture, big international brands are now made to pay for their insensitive mistakes. And rightly so.
Swedish retail-giant H&M sparked social media backlash when an e-commerce image of a black boy wearing an inappropriate sweater made the rounds online. The image depicts a young black male model wearing a green hoodie with “coolest monkey in the jungle” written across the chest; two similar designs worn by white children bear the words “mangrove jungle” and “official survival expert.”
Due to the social media outrage and subsequent fallout — “some calling it disgusting and negligent,” reported The Guardian — Grammy award winner The Weeknd has announced that he will no longer work for the clothing brand. Having worked with H&M since 2016, the artist says he was “shocked and embarrassed” by the controversy surrounding the brand.
The image has since been deleted from H&M’s website and a spokesperson for the retailer has stated: “This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologize to anyone this may have offended.”
3 VERSACE, VERSACE, VERSACE: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story airs Jan. 17 on FX
As one of the more anticipated shows for early 2018, The Assassination of Gianni Versace depicts the real-life murder of Italian designer Gianni Versace, who was shot on the steps of his Ocean Drive mansion in Miami, 20 years ago. The star-studded cast features Edgard Ramirez as Gianni himself, Ricky Martin as Gianni’s longtime partner Antonio D’Amico, Darren Criss as cold-blooded serial killer Andrew Cunanan, not to mention Spanish actress and Academy Award winner Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace.
The show made headlines this week as the real-life Versace family issued the following official statement last Monday: “The Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace.”
But despite these conflicting reports, the Ryan Murphy-helmed American Crime Story creator released the following: “Like the original American Crime Story series The People Vs. O.J. Simpson, which was based on Jeffrey Toobin’s non-fiction bestseller The Run of His Life, FX’s follow-up The Assassination of Gianni Versace is based on Maureen Orth’s heavily researched and authenticated non-fiction best seller Vulgar Favors, which examined the true-life crime spree of Andrew Cunanan. We stand by the meticulous reporting of Ms. Orth.”
Non-fiction or not, we can’t wait for Penelope Cruz’s star turn in a platinum blonde wig and a sure-to-be Emmy-worthy Italian accent.
