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    Late Night Savors Steve Bannon’s Arrest (and His Photo)

    Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Welcome to the GangThe big news on late night Thursday was the arrest of the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. He’s accused of skimming funds from an online campaign that promised to help build President Trump’s border wall.“A crowdsourced fund-raiser to build a [expletive] wall in the middle of the desert?” marveled Seth Meyers, who thought it had clearly been a scam from the start. “The thing was one rung below those companies that claim to name a star after you.”[embedded content]“Hey, you guys remember Steve Bannon, the white nationalist slash giant pimple who ran Trump’s campaign, then worked in his White House and helped engineer such odious policies as the Muslim ban and publicly defended the horrific family separation policy? Often wore two shirts when one would have sufficed? You know, the dude who had a crazy-person whiteboard in his office with policies scrawled on it like ‘Suspend immigration from terror-prone regions,’ ‘implement new extreme vetting techniques’ and ‘suspend the Syrian refugee program’? I’m shocked it also didn’t include ‘Brunch with Slender Man’ and ‘Kill the Batman.’” — SETH MEYERS“You know, Steve Bannon, the gentleman who currently looks like a guy selling exotic reptiles on the Venice Beach boardwalk.” — SETH MEYERS“I can’t believe this — another Trump guy has been arrested? After the Aryan Brotherhood and Latin Kings, the largest prison gang in America might be the former Trump campaign officials.” — TREVOR NOAH”And everything about this story is insane. First of all, Bannon was arrested on a 150-foot yacht. And I know everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but I mean, let’s be real: anyone arrested on a yacht, I mean, you’re guilty.” — TREVOR NOAH“He’s accused of stealing money from people who thought they were donating to build Donald Trump’s wall — because you know, you wouldn’t want criminals sneaking into the country.” — TREVOR NOAH“This is the perfect encapsulation of the Trump era. From beginning to end, the wall was a nonstop scam. Trump scammed his supporters by telling them Mexico would pay for it, then we ended up paying for it. Then this baked-potato Fabio over here said he’d raise money for it, then scammed everyone again by allegedly skimming money from it. It’s a Russian nesting doll of fraud. I can’t wait until Bannon raises money for his legal defense fund and we find out he lost it all on the racetrack.” — SETH MEYERS“I don’t know where I stand on this story. I don’t. On the one hand, I’m angry that he defrauded these people. On the other hand, he defrauded people who were donating to build Trump’s border wall and, therefore, deprive immigrants of just seeking out a better life. I don’t know what to think. It’s a weird sensation. I’m happy about both.” — JAMES CORDEN“The money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle, which, if you are Steve Bannon, means morphing into a way too tan Russell Crowe.” — JAMES CORDEN“Seriously, Trump has enough criminals around him for a [expletive] ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ remake.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Jimmy Fallon on a Roll Edition)“I don’t know, maybe these charges are nothing. I mean, does Steve Bannon look guilty to you? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, he definitely does. Just so you know, by the way, that’s how he looked before he got arrested. He looks like someone you find sleeping in the bathroom stall at Margaritaville.” — JIMMY FALLON“He looks like an unemployed Martha Washington impersonator.” — JIMMY FALLON“He looks like a guy who yells at Little Leaguers when he doesn’t have a kid on the team.” — JIMMY FALLON“He looks like every composite photo of what Elvis would look like if he were alive today.” — JIMMY FALLON“He looks like every guy who’s ever tried to sell me a Jacuzzi.” — JIMMY FALLON“He looks like every guy at the hotel hot tub who sits way too close to your wife.” — JIMMY FALLON“He looks like every man who’s ever walked into a Ferrari dealership.” — JIMMY FALLON“He looks like his home address is the swim-up bar at the Mirage.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingIn his fourth and final night of live shows focused on the Democratic National Convention, Stephen Colbert made a passionate case for Joe Biden.Also, Check This OutImageThe Criterion Collection highlights the work of 461 filmmakers from more than 40 countries, only four of whom are African-American. The company president says his “blind spots” are partly to blame. More

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    Chi Chi DeVayne, Popular ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Contestant, Dies at 34

    Chi Chi DeVayne, the self-proclaimed Southern bayou princess who dazzled viewers of RuPaul’s drag show competitions with impassioned lip-sync performances and head-over-heels dance routines, died on Thursday in a hospital in Shreveport, La. Known offstage as Zavion Davenport, he was 34.His sister, Brittany, said the cause was scleroderma.RuPaul Charles, the host of the shows, whose contestants often use male and female pronouns interchangeably, said in a statement: “I am so grateful that we got to experience her kind and beautiful soul.””I am heartbroken to learn of the passing of Chi Chi DeVayne.I am so grateful that we got to experience her kind and beautiful soul.She will be dearly missed, but never forgotten. May her generous and loving spirit shine down on us all.” –RuPaul (1/2) pic.twitter.com/iN3oT3R2dG— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) August 20, 2020
    Chi Chi DeVayne competed in Season 8 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in 2016, and on Season 3 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” in 2018, gaining a following for delivering splits and high kicks on the runway and for candid, revealing moments away from the stage.During her season on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Chi Chi told fellow contestants backstage, “I wish that I had the guts to stand up for gay rights.” In response, one contestant, Bob the Drag Queen, smiled and said, “Go do it — you can start anytime.”That prompted Chi Chi, in full makeup and a fuchsia ball gown, to shake her head and say, “You can’t do it in Shreveport,” her hometown. “They’ll blow your head off.”The moment captured a paradox, Jenna Wortham wrote in The New York Times. “Queer and gay culture has been so widely co-opted and incorporated into mainstream popular culture that it can feel commonplace, embraced by default,” she wrote. “Yet pop culture has barely started grappling with more complex and ugly contemporary narratives, ones that make clear that universal acceptance is still a fantasy.”Zavion Michael Davenport was born in Shreveport on Sept. 24, 1985. His mother, Alberteen Wyandon, works as a dispatcher at a hospital. His father is Zan Davenport III.In his young years there were dance lessons — ballet, West African, modern — and gymnastics, Mr. Davenport told The Shreveport Times in 2017. There were also days spent with friends in empty fields doing “turn flips all day long,” he said.“And once I started doing drag I had to incorporate that into my act,” he said, “because everybody likes a dancing queen.”Zavion began dancing in earnest after he graduated in 2003 from Fairpark High School, where he had been a drum major. Soon afterward, he started performing in drag at a nightclub and gaining wider attention.Chi Chi DeVayne found her biggest audience with “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” attracting fans with a combination of Southern charm, acrobatics and candor about her hardscrabble upbringing.“Girl, I’ve seen people shot,” she said on the show. “I’ve smelled, like, the smell of brains. When I tell you I come from the streets, I’m not kidding.” In another interview she recalled joining a gang and carrying a gun.“‘Drag Race’ definitely helped me heal from a lot of things from my past,” she told The San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender News.In addition to his parents and sister, Mr. Davenport is survived by a brother, DaRico Wyandon, and two half brothers, Zachary and Zamien Willis.Chi Chi DeVayne finished in fourth place on Season 8 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and soon began performing around the world. “Outside of the United States, the fans are wild,” she told The Shreveport Times.She returned to compete in “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” in 2018, and though she was more experienced by then, so were her competitors. She finished eighth.“I’m so sorry,” she tearfully told the judges in one episode, admitting that her competitors’ skills made her question her worth. The guest judge, Constance Zimmer, a life coach, replied, “Chi Chi, you’re worth it.”Julia Carmel contributed reporting and Jack Begg contributed research. More

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    in Theater

    The Tour Is Off, but That Won’t Keep ‘Romantics’ Apart

    Sandra Marvin had just dropped her plants off with a friend in March, in anticipation of a three-month U.S. tour performing in the musical comedy “Romantics Anonymous.” She checked her phone and got a message that there might be what she called “a small hiccup” in the company’s travel plans owing to growing concerns over the coronavirus. Within days, the tour was called off.Almost six months later, “Romantics Anonymous” is on the road again. Sort of.But instead of the production traveling to its original tour destinations of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Charleston, S.C., audiences in those cities and others will take turns coming to the Bristol Old Vic in England — virtually — over five consecutive nights.The livestreamed performances, which begin Sept. 22, will feature the creator/director Emma Rice’s original 2017 staging in its entirety, complete with sets, choreography, a seven-member cast and even onstage kissing. The only modifications to the script, Rice said this week, will stem from the absence of an audience in the theater.“We are all nervous,” said Rice, who first presented “Romantics” (which features music by Michael Kooman and lyrics by Christopher Dimond) at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London during her time as its artistic director. (“Sweet-natured and giddy” was The New York Times verdict on the show, a Gallic romance centered on two timid chocolatiers and the titular support group.)“The thought that we might all get to be together again and make music together again and forget what’s happening for a few hours is intoxicating,” Rice added. “Let’s see what we can make happen safely and joyously.”In the latest of several attempts to replicate, or reimagine, the live experience when many countries have severely curtailed and even forbidden indoor theatrical productions, the “Romantics” cast, musicians and crew will spend the first 10 days sheltering in place at their respective homes.They will then be transported in private vehicles to an apartment block around the corner from the Old Vic for the last two weeks. Everyone involved will be tested for Covid-19 at the beginning and end of their first quarantine, then weekly while together in Bristol.“On the whole, we haven’t been looking at theater all that much for ideas because there aren’t that many examples,” said Poppy Keeling, executive producer of Wise Children, the Bristol-based company that Rice created after leaving the Globe. “We’ve really been looking at what TV and film have done in this country, with very clear, government-ratified guidance for getting that industry back up and running.”Simon Baker, the production’s technical director and Rice’s partner, performed in a similar capacity on the popular June livestreams of the Duncan Macmillan play “Lungs” at the Old Vic’s London theater. Its popularity may have had a lot to do with the starry two-person cast — “The Crown” co-stars Claire Foy and Matt Smith — but that modified production demonstrated the possibility of guerrilla filming.“We realized that the technology had really come down in price and we could do it ourselves,” said Baker, who plans to use a camera crew of just four.As with the virtual cinema model, where audiences choose which of several movie theaters to support with a home ticket purchase, “Romantics Anonymous” viewers in the United States can select one of six presenting organizations as their venue.Joining the original three U.S. destinations — the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the Shakespeare Theater Company and Spoleto Festival USA — are St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, Berkeley Rep in California and Chicago Shakespeare Theater.In each case, the selected theater will split the proceeds with Wise Children. Tickets will cost 15 pounds (about $20) in advance and go up to 20 pounds (about $27) the week of the performances. Information can be found at wisechildrendigital.com or at the individual presenters’ websites.With no limit on tickets, it is hard to determine the financial prospects of the five-performance run. “We’re taking a huge risk,” Rice said. “We know how many tickets we have to sell to break even, but we have found underwriters in case it’s a disaster.”In keeping with the idea of a touring production, the first four performances are exclusive to specific regions of the United Kingdom, beginning with a Sept. 22 show sponsored by seven theaters in Scotland and the north of England. The sole U.S. performance will be the final one, at 4 p.m. E.D.T. on Saturday, Sept. 26. And the creative team hasn’t ruled out the possibility of additional performances, although that would require the entire cast and crew to quarantine longer.The series of livestreams will give everyone the chance to learn from the previous performance’s mistakes, according to Rice. “The experience will be like a typical theater show,” she said. “We’ll all meet at the end of the night and talk about what can be done better.”While Keeling lamented that those nightly talks won’t happen at a local pub, Marvin — who plays three characters in “Romantics” — is looking forward not just to being on the stage after almost half a year, but also to sharing that stage with so many colleagues.“I live by myself,” she said. “This will be the most people I’ve been around since March.” More