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      Stephen Colbert on the Chaotic Regime Change (Not That One)

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      Colbert brought “Late Show” viewers up to speed on the fallout from the search for a new “Jeopardy!” host. 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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Double JeopardyOn Thursday night, Stephen Colbert opened his monologue by addressing what he said was on his audience’s mind.“They want to hear me talk about the big story everybody’s talking about right now,” Colbert said: “the chaos surrounding the recent poorly handled regime change — over at ‘Jeopardy!’”“And for some reason, everyone is talking about this — possibly to avoid talking about everything else.” — STEPHEN COLBERTColbert recounted how the game show’s search for Alex Trebek’s successor, which included tryouts by guest hosts like LeVar Burton and Katie Couric, ended last week when “the executive producers of ‘Jeopardy!’ selected executive producer Mike Richards.”“Wow, what are the odds? Exactly the same as me getting named ‘Stephen Colbert Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive.’ Suck it, Ryan Gosling!” — STEPHEN COLBERTBut since then, Colbert continued, “crude comments about women, Jews and Haiti” that Richards made on a podcast years ago have emerged. “Ooh, looks like Richards’s job might be in … jeopardy!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“At this rate, he’s going to be the first ‘Jeopardy’ host to actually invoke double jeopardy: ‘Objection: I already got in trouble for that one. What? Oh, I’m sorry — what is ‘objection’?” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (OnlyFans Edition)“Earlier today OnlyFans announced that it’s going to block all X-rated content starting in October. What? This would be like Playboy only printing the articles, you know what I’m saying?” — JIMMY FALLON“Also just a side note, if you’re watching this with someone, and they quickly ask, ‘What’s OnlyFans?’ Trust me, they know exactly what it is.’” — JIMMY FALLON“They know that fans of OnlyFans are only fans of one thing, right?” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Reportedly, ‘OnlyFans was struggling to find outside investors because of its adult content.’ Evidently, pornography does not live up to the high moral standards of investment bankers, unless it’s them [expletive] the economy. Then it’s fine.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Now, there’s a bright side to banning shots of where the sun don’t shine, because OnlyFans says while sexually explicit material will be banned, nudity that is not sexually explicit will remain allowed. So you can only post nude images that would never turn on anyone — and, I’m sorry, I just don’t need the money that badly.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingOn “The Tonight Show,” The Roots improvised a song about the chemistry on the new season of “Bachelor in Paradise.”Also, Check This OutJeremy O. Harris and Whitney Peak during the taping of a “Gossip Girl” episode in which characters attend a new play by Harris.Karolina Wojtasik, via HBO MaxThe reboot of “Gossip Girl” featured a scene from a Jeremy O. Harris play that didn’t really exist. Now it’s been commissioned by the Public Theater. More

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      Is Jeremy O. Harris’s Play for ‘Gossip Girl’ Real? Now It Is.

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      Joshua Safran’s “Gossip Girl” reboot filmed a scene from an imaginary work by the “Slave Play” playwright. Then the Public Theater commissioned it.We hear him before we see him come across the screen: Aaron howls and barks then gallops, on all fours, onto a white, wooden thrust stage, ringed on three sides by the audience. This enraged man — the son of Aaron the Moor from “Titus Andronicus” — is stark naked and covered in blood.“What? What? Have I not arrived as you assumed I would? Like a black dog, as the saying is,” he demands, panting and sniffing, shouting into the faces of the seated theatergoers.He backs away slowly. “You do know who I am, riiight?” Aaron drawls. “The inhuman dog. Unhallowed slave.”This intense scene from a play-within-a-TV-show commands viewers’ attention in Episode 3 of HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” reboot. And it’s all courtesy of Jeremy O. Harris, the Tony-nominated playwright of “Slave Play.” Shortly after the episode dropped, though, people began to speculate on social media if the play was real or not.With a tweet, Harris recently confirmed that “The Bloody and Lamentable Tale of Aaron” is, in fact, a real play. He began writing his dream Public Theater play for “Gossip Girl” after chatting with the show’s creator, Joshua Safran (“Smash,” “Soundtrack”).The series’ showrunner, Joshua Safran, left, and Jeremy O. Harris during the taping.Karolina Wojtasik, via HBO MaxUpon seeing the play’s opening scene during the taping, Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater — who makes a cameo as an audience member in the episode — turned to Harris and asked, “Can we commission this?” Harris said he had a contract the next day.“I was dreaming this play into existence,” Harris said in an interview. It’s a play he’s been thinking about for seven years, since he started studying “Titus Andronicus” — his favorite Shakespeare play.“Titus Andronicus,” thought to be Shakespeare’s earliest tragedy, tells the bloody tale of the downfall of Titus, a Roman general. Titus returns home from war with Tamora, Queen of the Goths, as a prisoner to the Roman emperor; her lover, Aaron the Moor, is in tow.Tamora gives birth to a child, fathered by Aaron, who then kills the nurse to keep the child’s race a secret and flees with the baby to save it from the emperor. But Lucius, Titus’s son, captures Aaron and threatens to kill the child. To save his son, Aaron confesses to a plot for revenge. Lucius, who is later proclaimed emperor, orders Aaron be buried up to his chest and left to die. The baby, however, survives.Harris’s play, then, picks up where Shakespeare left off. We meet Aaron (portrayed by Paul James in the “Gossip Girl” episode), named after his father, in his 20s. He has been raised, ironically, by Lucius Andronicus, now in his 60s. And he’s thirsty for revenge.“The thing that I think makes Aaron a complex character in literature is because he’s like, ‘I’m evil because I’m Black,’” Harris said of Shakespeare’s play. “And this time, he’s like, ‘No, I’m evil because you guys have socialized me. You have socialized rules around what Black means and what maleness means.’”When the opportunity to shoot at the Public arose, Harris knew two things: He wanted to do “Aaron.” And he wanted the director to be Machel Ross, who also directed his play “Black Exhibition” at Bushwick Starr in 2019. Lila Feinberg wrote and Jennifer Lynch directed the “Gossip Girl” episode, in which several characters grapple with what to make of the challenging work.“I loved it. But it’d be committing theatrical seppuku to transfer it,” a theater critic mutters to another at the show’s after party.The other responds: “It would close in a week, especially without a star. I just wish it wasn’t so confrontational.”In an interview, Ross said she “knew that the text was evoking a very specific sort of confrontation between audience and performer.”How could they thrust the “Gossip Girl” cast and universe into this play from the moment it begins, she wondered? Enter: a naked Paul James.“I was like, ‘All right, I’m going to have to be comfortable. I’m going to have to make other people uncomfortable, and own the stage, and be very physical,’” James said in an interview.Harris described the play to Safran, the show’s creator and showrunner, as the audience’s worst nightmare: A naked Black man covered in blood, coming up to them and asking them to touch him. It’s a confrontational idea, and one that the “Gossip Girl” character Zoya Lott — a newcomer to the world of glitz and glamour depicted in the series — can identify with.“Are you kidding me? A provocative play like ‘Aaron’ is exactly what Broadway needs after a year on pause,” Zoya (played by Whitney Peak) fires back at the naysayers. “What it doesn’t is another ‘revisal’ of — of anything. Especially one devised by white people, about white people, starring white people.“That’s why the theater was invented, right? To challenge audience members to — to think beyond their own narratives. I mean, come on, have you never read Shange? Albee? Fornés?”About that exchange, Safran said in an interview: “That’s what Zoya is wrestling with in this world with these people. Can I actually speak my mind, or do I have to fit myself into a box and just observe?”In the show, Harris sweeps into the room, playing himself. “Hey. Who are you?” he asks Zoya. “You seem very much like someone to me. Let’s find a less confrontational space and have a little talk,” he says.“Zoya is one of the only people that can look at their world and process it and call out things as they are,” Harris said. “And make a little mess along the way as she does that.”In fact, Harris will be returning as himself to the show in the second half of its first season, in Episode 10, as a fairy godfather of sorts to Zoya. As for the status of the play itself? “I think it’ll be done when it’s done,” Harris said. More

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      Seth Meyers Explains How ‘Forever Wars’ Happen

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      The Washington elite kept troops in Afghanistan “longer than it takes for George R.R. Martin to come up with a new ‘Game of Thrones’ book,” Meyers joked.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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘A Little More Time’Seth Meyers discussed the messy U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in his “Closer Look” segment on Wednesday night, blaming members of the Washington elite who he said had misled the public for years about the prospects for success in America’s longest war.“And that’s how ‘forever wars’ happen: People in charge just keep asking for a little more time to turn things around and then, next thing you know, it’s been 20 years and you’ve been in Afghanistan longer than it takes for George R.R. Martin to come up with a new ‘Game of Thrones’ book,” Meyers joked.“And every time someone suggested withdrawing, the military-industrial complex and foreign policy elite kept insisting that if we only gave them just a few more months, they could finally turn things around. It’s kind of like how as a kid you tell your parents you’d return the movie you rented from Blockbuster tomorrow because you hadn’t finished it yet, and then they’d ask you the next day, and you tell them you just have to watch the last 20 minutes, and then the next thing you know, you’re 47 years old and owe Blockbuster $60,000 in late fees for a VHS copy of ‘The Prince of Tides.’” — SETH MEYERS“There was never a good time to withdraw, which is why no president before Biden was willing to do it, kind of like how there’s never a good time at a pool party to tell someone you can see their [expletive] crack. No one wants to be the guy who interrupts pool volleyball to say, ‘Hey, Dave, pull up your swimsuit.’” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Duct Tales Edition)“Guys, I saw that United Airlines has instructed its flight crew not to use duct tape when dealing with unruly passengers. Don’t use it, yeah. Flight attendants heard and were like, ‘OK, Tasers it is.’” — JIMMY FALLON“That’s right, United isn’t allowed to use duct tape, while passengers on Frontier Airlines will now be wheeled onboard like Hannibal Lecter.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yeah, according to the memo, United is against using duct tape unless it’s holding up one of their engines. That’s where they draw the line.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingWednesday night’s guest host, Sean Hayes, played doctor on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightThe “Saturday Night Live” star Cecily Strong will visit Seth Meyers on Thursday night.Also, Check This OutBillie Jean King in 1974.Associated PressBillie Jean King’s new memoir, “All In,” is a powerful, personal manifesto from the longtime activist and athlete, our critic writes. More

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      What’s It Like to Play the Scariest Girls on TV?

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      Sydney Sweeney and Brittany O’Grady reflect on “The White Lotus” in a joint interview.After “The White Lotus” premiered, Sydney Sweeney and Brittany O’Grady were worried about the extent to which they would be linked to their characters, the terrible Gen Z twosome known as Olivia and Paula.On the show, which HBO has renewed for a second season, the college sophomores are the mean girls of the luxury resort where they are vacationing. Almost always together, they issue scathing judgments of the other guests from behind the covers of highbrow texts.They’re sharp-tongued, they’re blasé, they’re observant and they dress well. What could be more terrifying?“I’m super sensitive, so I was like, ‘Oh, gosh, we’re not that awful,’ and then I’m looking back, and I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, we really did our job,’” Ms. O’Grady, 25, said over Zoom from Long Beach Island, N.J. She was quick to emphasize that her real-life social circle is very different.Ms. Sweeney, 23, who joined the video call from Los Angeles, agreed. “Oh yeah,” she said. “Can you imagine having a friendship with Paula or Olivia?”To other guests at the five-star resort, the two women present a united front. But there are troubles within their relationship and an ever-shifting balance of power.“It’s interesting to watch people analyze our characters and say, ‘Who’s the bully, who’s the victim?’” Ms. O’Grady said.On Monday, the day after the finale aired, Ms. O’Grady and Ms. Sweeney talked about their onscreen dynamic, Gen Z representation in film and making TV during a pandemic.Are Olivia and Paula actually friends?Sydney Sweeney: Their friendship was definitely the definition of the kinds of friendships that Olivia has in her life, where she likes to feel like she is in control and she is No. 1.Brittany O’Grady: Their friendship kind of crumbles under the circumstances of the world and how they view it or their experiences in it. And it’s not necessarily good or bad. It is what it is. But I do think in the beginning that they have this emotional comfort. We kind of created that dynamic together.Sydney: Where we hide from the outside world through what we believe is our knowledge about everyone else.Is there romantic tension between Olivia and Paula?Sydney: I keep reading that. To be honest, when we were doing it, I never thought of it. I didn’t even think about doing it. And now I’m watching, going, “Oh. Oh wow, Olivia.”Brittany: Paula having this experience with someone else when she’s supposed to be bonding with her best friend, I think that totally leans into it and kind of insinuates a romantic tension. I’ve definitely had people ask as well.Sydney, you said in another interview that Mike White (the show’s creator) suggested that you both listen to a podcast to get a sense of what your interactions should be like. What was the podcast?Sydney: “Red Scare.” I mainly listened to it for the frequency of the voices of these girls and the timing and the monotone. It was so dry and drawn out and slow. I would just emulate and copy that as much as I could and then bring it into the present day, Gen Z-esque-type woke Twitter girl. When he first told us to listen to it, I was like, “What is this?” I have never really listened to podcasts.Brittany: I don’t understand it. It’s a whole world. It’s like a different culture.What was it like to work with some of the older, established actors, like Jennifer Coolidge, Molly Shannon and Connie Britton?Sydney: I felt like all of my childhood TV icons were brought to life in front of me. You walk around the resort like, “Oh my God.” I’d call my mom and freak out. I mean, every single one of them I idolize in a different way. The entire process was like this amazing comedy boot camp.Brittany: Our first scene filming with Jennifer was when we were in the buffet line. Jennifer just kept pulling things out of her.Sydney: She kept calling the waiters the funniest names ever.Brittany: Like, “Popeye over there.” And the guy is really ripped. “The guy with the khaki face” or whatever.Sydney: We were like, “What does that even mean?”You were filming in late 2020. What was that like?Sydney: We were locked in our rooms for a couple of days. And then once we got out, we weren’t allowed to leave the property, no one was allowed to come onto the property and we had to test every other day. So the entire time we were walking around wearing masks, or shields if we had makeup on.It’s really difficult for the director as well, because as an actor we get so much off of the director’s notes and facial expression, and especially someone like Mike — there’s so much that goes on, on his face, that he’s trying to explain to you. And so a lot of times we would be like, “What do you mean?”Do you think your characters were an accurate depiction of members of Gen Z?Sydney: I think we were a specific subculture of Gen Z. I don’t think every person in Gen Z is like Olivia and Paula.Brittany: A lot of feedback I’ve gotten has been from millennials, so I don’t really know if it’s an accurate depiction of Gen Z. But I have a little brother who’s Quinn’s age, and he did almost sleep in the laundry room, and there was no air conditioning in there. And he brought his PS5.Sydney: I definitely saw my little brother in the character, too.Brittany: I have an older sister, and I hung around a lot of millennials growing up. So I identify more with millennial culture. But I’m ’96, so I’m right on that cusp of being a millennial and Gen Z. My sister was saying that if you’re in the middle of the two like I am, it depends on what, culturally, you identify more with. One was, which is kind of gruesome, but if you remember 9/11, that means you’re considered a millennial.Sydney: I feel there is a name for that because I’ve talked about this before with a lot of the “Euphoria” cast, where I don’t feel like we identify as either. We’re a little mix of both.This interview has been edited for length and clarity. More

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      Late Night Anticipates the Third Shot

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      “Yep, Biden will be making the booster shot announcement as part of his Operation: Change the Subject,” Jimmy Fallon said.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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Third Time’s the CharmThe White House is expected to announce coronavirus booster shots, recommending that Americans receive them eight months after their initial round of inoculation.“And to sell Americans on the idea, the White House is hiring a movie trailer narrator to be like, ‘This fall, Pfizer completes their epic trilogy,’” Jimmy Fallon joked on Tuesday night.“Yep, Biden will be making the booster shot announcement as part of his Operation: Change the Subject.” — JIMMY FALLON“The first people to get boosters will likely be nursing home residents and health care workers, who could get the jab as early as mid-September. So these are autumn shots. The options will be Moderna, Pfizer or pumpkin spice.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“So, vaccine sites are about to ramp up again. You hear that, millions of Americans who are still on the fence about the first dose? Because the rest of us are about to go back for thirds. We’re offering you that last slice of pizza before we take it, and in this case, the pepperoni doesn’t kill you.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (One More Shot Edition)“We’re going to get a third shot, OK? So, somehow, they’re going to have to make the vaccination card even bigger. It fits in most midsize sedans.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Honestly, they should just send booster shots to your house like a cheese of the month club like, ‘Oh, honey, look — this month it is AstraZeneca. How exotic!’” — JIMMY FALLON“America can’t even agree on the first shots. We’re like a giant family dinner where half the table wants pizza and the other half wants to die of Covid.” — JULIE BOWEN, guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”The Bits Worth WatchingOn Tuesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” guest host Julie Bowen explained how she and her family recently helped an injured hiker in a national park.What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightMichael Keaton will catch up with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutJohn Shearer/WireImage for MTV.com (Conrad, Montag) ; Glenn Francis/PacificProDigital.com (Pratt)Memes about Delta are harmless fun except for those cast as the variant itself. More

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      Colbert on Afghanistan: ‘It’s Heartbreaking’

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      “Why should our soldiers be fighting radicals in a civil war in Afghanistan? We’ve got our own on Capitol Hill,” Stephen Colbert said.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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘The Right Thing Feels So Wrong’Late-night hosts addressed the news out of Afghanistan this week, with the Taliban taking swift control after President Biden’s decision to pull out American troops.“We have had troops there for 20 years — they fought, they sacrificed, their families sacrificed so that we wouldn’t have a terrorist attack in America planned in a foreign country,” Stephen Colbert said on Monday. “Why should our soldiers be fighting radicals in a civil war in Afghanistan? We’ve got our own on Capitol Hill.”“The Taliban yesterday entered the city of Kabul and took control of Afghanistan’s presidential palace. Most Americans watched in horror, while some Americans watched for tips.” — SETH MEYERS“As recently as last month, an overwhelming majority of Americans, 70 percent or more, supported Biden’s withdrawal. Seventy percent. You know how few things 70 percent of Americans agree on? I think it’s this and extra cheese, which also often ends badly and faster than you planned.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The U.S. foreign-policy apparatus should not approach Afghanistan the same way I approach trying to install a wireless router: ‘“Connect the router to a broadband gateway from your I.S.P. by inserting the Ethernet cable to the port located on the back of the TP-link extender”? I don’t have the foggiest notion of what I’m undertaking! Do you know how this works?’” — SETH MEYERS“So in the end, you can make us accept that there was no good alternative, but you can’t make us feel good about it. The only people who can feel good about this are the service members and their families who aren’t going to see soldiers sent into harm’s way for no reason that the commander in chief of either party can articulate. But there’s one more thing: For the last 20 years, four separate administrations told the American people to care about the plight of all the Afghan people, especially the women, and we did care and that’s not going to change. All that’s changed is that there’s nothing we can do about it now. So pulling out may be the right thing to do, but it’s heartbreaking; it’s humbling when the right thing feels so wrong.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (Blame Game Edition)“Former President Trump released a statement on Friday amid the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and, yeah, he’s enjoying this.” — SETH MEYERS“Pretty weird to blame Biden for withdrawing troops when this summer he was claiming credit for it.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“So you can’t put all the blame for a debacle you helped set the stage for. That’s like Andrew Lloyd Webber calling ‘Cats’ a terrible movie. You wrote a musical with no plot — how did you think this was going to end?” — STEPHEN COLBERT“You can tell things aren’t good for Biden, because today he said, ‘You know, maybe the election was stolen.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Trump made a peace deal with the Taliban to end the war, and now after Biden’s withdrawal, they’re back in power. So, on the bright side, it’s nice to have a bipartisan screw-up.” — JIMMY FALLON“I have a hard time believing Trump would have done it in a more orderly way, since nothing he ever did was orderly. He couldn’t even withdraw from an umbrella in an orderly fashion.” — SETH MEYERS“So what’s happening now is the responsibility of both parties, and the American people who voted them into office. So, children and convicts, you’re off the hook. Also, thanks for watching.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingThe country music star Maren Morris was the guest host on Monday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightCourtney Barnett will perform on Tuesday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutJan GrueNTB Scanpix Sipa USA
      Michael J. Fox reviews “I Live a Life Like Yours,” Jan Grue’s new memoir about living with spinal muscular atrophy. More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Stand Up to Cancer’ and ‘Nora From Queens’

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      Common, Stevie Wonder and Brittany Howard are slated to perform at a fund-raiser for cancer research. And Awkwafina’s Comedy Central sitcom returns.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Aug. 16-22. Details and times are subject to change.MondayBEN & JERRY’S: CLASH OF THE CONES 9 p.m. on Food Network. While this title might call to mind the recent debate over the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s political advocacy, the series is pretty tame. “Clash of the Cones” is a reality show in which six ice cream makers compete to create new and unusual flavors, which they feed to discerning judges.TuesdayCHANGELING (2008) 5:40 p.m. on HBO Signature. Angelina Jolie stars in this period drama, which was directed by Clint Eastwood and is based on actual events. The story, set in Los Angeles in the 1920s and ’30s, follows a single mother whose young son goes missing from their Los Angeles home. Months later, authorities present her with a boy that they say is her missing son. She insists that it is not, and is painted as delusional when she tries to argue that point. “When it works best, ‘Changeling’ is a feverish and bluntly effective parable of wronged innocence and unaccountable power,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The New York Times. But taken as a whole, Scott wrote, the movie presents a “distended, awkward narrative whose strongest themes are lost in the murky pomp of period detail.”WednesdayFrom left, Awkwafina, Lori Tan Chinn and BD Wong in “Awkwafina is Nora From Queens.”Zach Dilgard/Comedy CentralAWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS 10 p.m. on Comedy Central. The actress and one-time viral video creator Awkwafina based the concept of this half-hour sitcom on her own upbringing in Queens. The first season saw her character, the fictional Nora, flitting from gig to gig — ride-hailing app driver, real estate assistant — while navigating life at home with her feisty grandma (Lori Tan Chinn), her father (BD Wong) and her cousin (Bowen Yang). The two episodes that kick off the show’s second season, which debuts Wednesday night, involve CBD and time travel. In a 2020 interview with The Times, Awkwafina discussed the show, which premiered after roles in “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Ocean’s Eight” and “The Farewell” had brought her a new level of stardom. “Nora is where a lot of us find ourselves in our 20s,” she said. “What’s next? Do you find success and suddenly it fixes everything? No, life is an open-ended question.”IN THE SAME BREATH (2021) 9 p.m. on HBO. Nanfu Wang, a co-director of the well-received 2019 documentary “One Child Nation,” about the history of China’s long-lived one-child policy, takes on another politically difficult subject in this new documentary, which looks at the Chinese and United States governments’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Wang explores the flaws in those responses, and how many of the consequences of political decisions fell on the shoulders of health care workers.WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005) 12:30 a.m. on TNT, and on TBS and TNT on-demand platforms. For an apocalyptic scenario that’s entirely fictional, skip “In the Same Breath” and watch this take on H.G. Wells’s classic sci-fi story of invaders from space. This adaptation — the third in Steven Spielberg’s 2000s run of dark sci-fi films which includes “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and “Minority Report,” — stars Tom Cruise as a New Jersey father who fights to protect his two children (played by Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) as the alien tripods descend. If you’d prefer sci-fi with a higher fashion sense — Cruise’s character navigates much of the film in a hoodie — consider instead BLADE RUNNER 2049 (2017) with Ryan Gosling, which airs at 7:55 p.m. on HBO Signature.ThursdayHaruko Sugimura, left, and Setsuko Hara in “Late Spring.”ShochikuLATE SPRING (1949) 8 p.m. on TCM. The Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu kicked off a cycle of films about families with “Late Spring,” one of his most celebrated movies. The story follows a widower (Chishu Ryu) who is convinced to force his only daughter (Setsuko Hara) to marry, despite her wishes. In 2005, the critic Roger Ebert wrote that “Late Spring” is “one of the best two or three films Ozu ever made.” TCM is showing it alongside several other Ozu movies, including TOKYO TWILIGHT (1957) at 5:30 p.m. and BAKUSHU (1951) at 10 p.m. A large collection of Ozu’s films — including EARLY SUMMER (1951) and AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON (1962) — is also available to stream online through the Criterion Channel.FridayHERCULES (2014) 11 p.m. on TNT. What happens when you take Greek mythology, turn it into a graphic novel, and adapt that graphic novel into a movie from the “Rush Hour” director Brett Ratner? You get this 2014 blockbuster, which casts Dwayne Johnson as Hercules. (He might be one of the few performers who can make the 1990s animated Disney Hercules character look like a pipsqueak.) The plot, which imagines a Hercules who leads a gang of mercenaries, takes some liberties with the traditional myth: In his review for The Times, Ben Kenigsberg labeled this movie “tongue-in-cheek revisionist mythology, pitched at classics students who prefer to attend their lectures stoned.”SaturdaySTAND UP TO CANCER 8 p.m. on various networks including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. The seventh edition of this cancer research fund-raiser will be hosted by Anthony Anderson, Sofia Vergara, the comedian Ken Jeong and his wife, Dr. Tran Ho, who is a physician and a cancer survivor. The broadcast is slated to include appearances by Jennifer Garner, Matthew McConaughey and Ed Helms, and performances by Common, Stevie Wonder and Brittany Howard.SundayCindy Adams in “Gossip.”ShowtimeGOSSIP 8 p.m. on Showtime. The life of the longtime New York gossip columnist Cindy Adams is the subject of this new, four-part documentary. The series uses Adams’s career as a way to look at the history of American tabloids over the past several decades — she started writing a column for The New York Post in the late 1970s, soon after it was purchased by Rupert Murdoch. More

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      Jake Lacy Says Aloha to ‘The White Lotus’

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      In an interview, the actor discusses the HBO social satire, Sunday’s season finale and the possibility of his returning for Season 2.This interview includes spoilers for Sunday’s season finale of “The White Lotus.”Before Jake Lacy landed in Hawaii to shoot “The White Lotus,” he had only received the first script of what was at the time a six-episode limited series. (HBO recently renewed it for a second season.) He knew a character had died — a cardboard coffin of human remains was loaded onto a plane. But who was it?“Mike White [the show’s creator, writer and director] was like, ‘All these limited series start with a body,’” Lacy said. “So there’s an element of narrative satire along with the social satire. It’s like, If a dead body is what you want, then we’ll start with a dead body. We’re making fun of the device that is part of this very popular narrative format.”“The White Lotus” doesn’t deal with its opening mystery right away, and only gives us a few clues at first. Before a backward time jump to a week’s events at a Hawaiian luxury resort called the White Lotus, we see that Lacy’s character, Shane, seems disturbed both by the dead body and by a friendly question put to him regarding the whereabouts of his wife Rachel, (played by Alexandra Daddario). Hmmm.“I kept asking myself, ‘When do I kill my wife?’” Lacy said. He assumed he was the killer, and she would be his victim. From the character’s perspective, the couple’s honeymoon had gone off the rails the minute they failed to get the prized Pineapple Suite they booked, and the hotel manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) put them in the Palm Suite (no plunge pool, but a nicer view) instead. Things soured further thanks to Shane’s temper tantrums and Armond’s odd responses to them.“Either one could back down,” Lacy said, “but they both keep upping the ante.”The actor recalls reaching the last pages of the final script — the scene in which Armond slips into Shane’s room to leave a parting gift in his suitcase — and pumping his fists with glee. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is it!’ How did I not see this coming four episodes ago? I can’t believe we’re going to have a guy defecate in my suitcase and then I murder him!”During a phone conversation, Lacy, who was in Vermont, discussed the series’s social satire, male Karens and Season 2 possibilities. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.HBO just announced a renewal of “The White Lotus” for a second season, to focus on a new location, new staff and new guests.This is the first I’m hearing of it! I’m thrilled. I hope I get to have Shane in the background at the pool, complaining about his daiquiri.You think he would go back to a White Lotus resort? He wouldn’t rather avoid the chain entirely?I don’t think shame or embarrassment are in his wheelhouse. He might be haunted by what happened and make up some excuse why he’s not going back, but it would be out of paranoia. I think he assumes people are whispering, “That’s the guy who killed the guy.” The more brazen Shane move is to play the victim: “I should be able to stay at any one of these places for free, anywhere in the world, for the rest of my life, because of what they put me through! I should have sued them for this!” That might actually be his mentality, to think he’s got the short end of the stick as a multimillionaire 30-year-old. He doesn’t know he’s the villain, not the victim.Shane appears to escape all accountability and just walk away from the death he caused. On the other hand, Kai (Kekoa Kekumano) will likely be severely punished for stealing the Mossbachers’ jewelry.I think that’s intentional. In this “White Lotus”-reality, here’s how one class of person is treated by the criminal justice system and here’s how someone with access, money and privilege is treated. Yes, you would normally be told, “Don’t leave the island,” or “Don’t leave the state.” But Shane’s dad probably called in a favor — a senator? a judge? That’s how at times a certain level of this world operates. Kai will be a felon, but Shane will not have to serve any time — and Shane will still paint himself as a victim, because he might become a social pariah. He might not be invited to summer parties in the Hamptons because of this.How replicable do you think the show’s concept is as it continues as an anthology series? How many oblivious rich people can we take?If Mike White didn’t have more to offer at this same level, he would go do something else. But you could do something more like “Upstairs, Downstairs,” with the second season being more about the service end of things.People have been talking about how the show is about entitlement, but Mike says it’s more about how money corrupts the dynamics of every relationship, whether it’s a business relationship, a friendship or a marriage. Tanya [Jennifer Coolidge] unfairly dangles this hope to Belinda [Natasha Rothwell] of having her own spa, and it’s messed up how quickly she snatches that hope away. But you also see how Belinda changes in the face of this opportunity. Nobody’s free from it, except maybe Quinn [Fred Hechinger] and the guys in the outrigger canoe, because none of them are making money from the ocean. There is a certain equality in that relationship.The story also seems to be about complicity. When Rachel joins Shane at the airport, she is essentially accepting his objectionable qualities in exchange for the benefits he provides. But since she spent the night in another hotel room, do you think she knew that Shane killed Armond?Oh, man! I always assumed that she knew, but maybe she just heard through the hotel, “Oh, somebody killed somebody.” Or maybe Shane’s mother Kitty [Molly Shannon] called her and told her. But it would be a wonderful scene to show her finding out after they get on the plane. He’d be like, “I killed that guy,” and she’d be like, “What are you talking about?! Oh no, no, no, no! I thought you were just rude to waiters!”But yeah, she’s giving Shane a get-out-of-jail-free card with her decision to stay. It’s just short of being in abusive relationship. The conclusion she’s come to is that having money is better than not having money in a capitalist society, but that’s not a healthy choice. You want to see her follow her heart, but that’s not what happens here. She makes a pretty pragmatic choice as to what she wants her life to be. Maybe she regrets it later. Maybe she walks away. But for the moment, she is settling, essentially, and the cost is the loss of some sense of self.“She’s giving Shane a get-out-of-jail-free card with her decision to stay,” said Lacy, with Alexandra Daddario in the season finale of “The White Lotus.”HBOOne of the things Shane and Rachel fight about is having sex on their honeymoon. Isn’t that when you’re supposed to have the most sex of your life?Some of what we shot didn’t make it in. We had one scene where Shane wanted to have sex, and Rachel wasn’t quite saying no, but she wasn’t in the mood. It’s not assault, but they took it out because it ended up looking far more aggressive than what they had intended. The purpose of the story wasn’t meant to be that Shane sexually assaulted his partner as much as he was not reading when she was in the mood or not.Some of those references about how sexed up he is maybe made more sense with those kinds of pieces in there. I think there is a multitude of things happening under that, too. She’s saying, “My concern is that is all you want from me.” She’s not saying, “This is too much sex.”If it were a white woman trying to get Armond fired, we’d have a name for her: Karen. I don’t know if we have a male equivalent of that name, but here it seems like “Shane” might work.I hope it does! The Karen thing is like, “I won’t stand for this,” as if they’re taking the side of justice. And Shane’s thing is, “Don’t make me make this ugly.” There is this aggression there, like, “I won’t be treated this way!” It’s the same in Shane as it is in a Karen.At the same time, Armond gave him the wrong room. I mean, these rooms cost $26,000 a night. It’s as if you bought a car, and they were like, “Oh, we just know this is the one you wanted,” and you’re like, “This is definitely not the car I paid for.” He booked a room, and he feels they should give him that room. Even if his behavior is increasingly inappropriate, and the way he treats people is terrible, what he wants seems pretty fair: “I want what I paid for.” Not that that excuses his behavior. In a perfect world, he would chill out and let it go.Who do you think was the worst?I feel like people are going to say Shane, but that’s my guy! I still have a little empathy for him. I feel like most of these characters are pretty unpalatable. In actions alone, Shane is the worst, for sure. No one else kills a guy. But Paula [Brittany O’Grady], as honest and progressive as she claims to be, is an accomplice to a felony, and when the rubber meets the road, she gets back on a plane. She doesn’t say anything. And Rachel will put up with Shane if it means she gets the nice dinners.To me, a lot of the show is saying is, “How clean are you? How innocent are you? How free of guilt are you?” Whether it’s the opportunities you’ve had that others haven’t, or your privilege, or money, or the way you look, or the color of your skin — if you’re in a transactional world, how clean are you?The hope is that all this gets reflected back to the audience: “You probably do some of the same things, don’t you? On some level?” Whether it’s at the Four Seasons, the carwash, in line at McDonald’s or at Starbucks, how much expectation do you have for what the world owes you and how you deserve to be treated?That is the part of the show that most intrigues me. It’s less about who’s worse, and more about who’s kidding themselves the most. More