A blog of recent clips, reporting and notions on what's happening in pop culture of interest to me. Written by Cynthia Wang.
My page for current articles and reporting, random thoughts on TV, music, movies, etc.
I always enjoy writing up details on the fabulous gowns worn on the Oscars red carpet and this year was no exception. Text-wise, however, I am highlighting my turn at summing up the red-carpet action, usually handled by Jennie Noonan.
Another week, another Kardashian story. Two spreads, tho!
During a difficult week for WHO, the staff worked hard to produce this issue, including our Grammys story, completed in half a day. So glad to be their colleague.
Great gowns, sure, but a great statement about diversity in entertainment — that summed up the Screen Actors Guild Awards in L.A. Glad to write about all of it for Who.
While the Screen Actors Guild Awards acknowledged diversity in Hollywood with hardware on Jan. 30, 2016, many are still looking for host Chris Rock to make a stand at the Oscars.
Following a spread featuring an interview with Jennifer Aniston, this coverage of the Critics' Choice Awards leads with Aniston and Justin Theroux. I loved being able to write from Reagan Alexander's file.
I enjoyed speaking with historian and scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to tease the latest episode of Finding Your Roots, enjoying its third season on PBS stations. I hope to include more of the interview in this post at a later date.
Title card courtesy PBS.
In "In Search of Freedom," Maya Rudolph, Shonda Rhimes and Keenan Ivory Wayans take fascinating journeys into their past and learn how to interpret their current identities. To read the story posted online, just scroll down the three images below.
To see a teaser for the episode, check out the video below, and to see the specific clip I wrote about above, click the link to the post on People here:
I was proud to work with the WHO team to put together this tribute to David Bowie. 48 hours was not a lot of time to process how influential Bowie was to music, film, fashion and the arts, and how much he meant to me personally, but I found research and writing to be a tremendous salve.
Working on the tribute for David Bowie limited my contributions to this year's Golden Globes coverage, but here are the spreads I helped to write.
This week, aside from some Star Tracks captions and Gossip to Go's, I wrote about Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin. While that was my only Hot Topic, there were two features in the magazine — the summary of great Bill Cosby reporting done by People staff and Emma Martin's portrait of Matt Kerr, Miranda's brother, and his restaurant in the Hunter Valley with fiancé Jimmy Wright. While I've included the Cosby and Kerr stories under the Who Magazine tab on the site under Telling Stories, they are also included here if you scroll through.
I had the pleasure of the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, for People and Who. Held the weekend of Aug. 14, 2015, the fan fest generated a lot of great posts for People.com. I reported two, the first of which garnered 4,500 shares. Check them out in the carousel below, then scroll down for more stories from the northern summer.
Johnny Depp got his wish and met Mickey Mouse. Photo courtesy Disney.
Sometimes observation can make for a post. The story below the photo was based on a riff Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie had onstage for the Captain America: Civil War presentation.
Anthony Mackie, Chris Evans and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. Photo courtesy Disney.
The following item almost didn't post. There was debate if George Lucas's confession about a certain prequel character would be appropriate for People or more Entertainment Weekly territory. I'm glad they went with it!
George Lucas received his Disney Legend honor from Walt Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger. Photo courtesy of Disney.
No one works in a vacuum. I got to reunite with Scott Huver to tag-team on coverage. One of our pieces was on Ellen DeGeneres and Ty Burrell talking about Finding Dory. The other involved Burrell's comments on his Modern Family co-star Ariel Winter and her breast reduction surgery (she had just revealed that she had the procedure done). Read both in the carousel below.
Ed O'Neill, Ty Burrell and Ellen DeGeneres speak about Finding Dory at D23. Photo courtesy ABC/Image Group LA.
I spoke with Dancing with the Stars professional dancer Val Chmerkovskiy. He was about to perform along with fellow DWTS pro Peta Murgatroyd (now engaged to his brother Max) but spoke about his desire to break into acting. He also spoke well of Rumer Willis, the partner with whom he won a Mirror Ball trophy.
Val Chmerkovskiy and Mickey Mouse. Photo from a DWTS blog.
I ended up attending numerous panels, covering the Legends carpet and reuniting with celebrities and publicists. I hope to amend this post with some interviews that didn't make it to People.com, namely with composer Danny Elfman. Thanks for reading!
This week, I got to write a couple small blurbs about big weight losses. This shouldn't be too tough as I used to cover The Biggest Loser in the US. Fun to do in between other bits of writing.
This week, I got to write about Kelly Rutherford's custody fight, Hugh Grant having four kids in four years, and Lamar Odom's slow medical recovery. Based on rumors of Chandler and Monica NOT dating in real life, I put together a Reel Life photo box for Backchat, too.
Some days, you have to write about Kim Kardashian's placenta. You also get to write about Australia's national treasurer (that would be Kylie Minogue) and both an engagement (Eva Longoria's) and a split (Ruby Rose's) on the same page.
Tricky to write about a singularly titled event that happens to be held in different locations over a different number of days, each event being hyped by a different radio station or ownership group and with different sponsors. Then again, it's all about the photos.
This week, Charlie Sheen continued to make news, this time because of a lawsuit filed by his ex-fiancée. I also adapted People's reporting on the San Bernadino shootings and put in some captions for Taylor Swift's Australian Instagram pics.
This week, I got to write about Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik, Mary-Kate Olsen getting married, and Charlie Sheen's former personal assistant telling (almost) all about his old boss.
Another cover tag! This week, I got to write about Brad and Angelina, and the Danish Royals.
This week, I got to write about Kim Kardashian's pregnancy, Bella Cruise getting hitched, Rita Ora and Travis Barker dating, Matthew McConaughey on the set of his latest film, and celebrity tattoos.
Always fun to write about events that do not originate in the US. The BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend story appeared in the June 9, 2014 issue of WHO. Oh, and I wrote up the Sofia Vergara split, too, so it's a spread of joy!
