lily-rose depp

Early Reviews Of HBO’s ‘The Idol’ Have More ‘Softcore Porn’ Comparisons Than They Do Praise For The Show

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Eddy Chen/HBO

Yesterday (May 22), HBO’s upcoming series The Idol premiered at Cannes. Attendees got to view the first two of the upcoming six episodes of the Sam Levinson and The Weeknd-helmed series, which is set to premiere next month.

While anticipation is high for the series — which is said to tell the story of a pop star named Jocelyn (Lily Rose Depp) who falls in love with a cult leader named Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye) — the show appears to have been panned by critics. We’ll spare some of the more graphic details, but we’ve included portions of some of the reviews below.

Rolling Stone, who published an exposé about the show’s allegedly harsh production conditions, said that The Idol was even more scandalous than they imagined.

“The double-dose the festival screened felt nasty, brutish, much longer than it is, and way, way worse than you’d have anticipated,” read the review.

Variety described The Idol as a “sordid male fantasy” and said the show’s script “seems calculated to fool audiences into thinking they’re observing how Hollywood operates, when so much of it amounts to tawdry clichés lifted from Sidney Sheldon novels and softcore porn.”

The Hollywood Reporter called The Idol “an HBO series that’s more regressive than transgressive.”

Following the Cannes screening, the series has debuted with a 20 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Idol premieres on 6/4 on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.

070 Shake & Lily-Rose Depp Confirm They’re Dating With A Passionate Kiss On IG

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Ahead of the long-awaited premiere of HBO’s The Idol, Lily-Rose Depp is doing what she can to make her presence felt. We’ve already met the raunchy pop star she’ll be playing alongside The Weeknd in his upcoming series. Now, the actress is ready to share more of her personal life with fans, revealing via Instagram a few days ago that she’s quietly been dating a famous singer for four months now.

On Thursday (May 11), the 23-year-old’s Story lit up with a snapshot of her and 070 Shake sharing a passionate kiss. “FOUR MONTHS [WITH] MY CRUSH,” she excitedly wrote over their sweet moment of PDA. While this is the first confirmation we’ve received of their relationship, as Page Six notes, rumours actually began swirling around them during Paris Fashion Week in late February and early March. Based on the timeline from Depp’s IG post, she and the “Nice To Have” hitmaker – born Danielle Balbuena – made their fling official in mid-January, and have only grown closer since then.

Read More: “The Idol” Teaser Trailer Shows Lily-Rose Depp Channelling Her Inner Bad Girl For The Weeknd

Lily-Rose Depp Reveals She’s in Love

In the past, Johnny Depp’s daughter has mostly been linked to male lovers, such as French rapper, Yassine Stein, Kylie Jenner’s new boo, Timothée Chalamet, and Elvis actor, Austin Butler. Even with her celebrity status, the young starlet prefers to keep that part of her life out of the spotlight. “I think that the value of privacy is something that’s been instilled in me from an early age,” she told Drew Barrymore while appearing on her talk show in April 2021.

As for the musician, Balbuena’s only other high-profile union was with Kehlani back in 2021, though the mother of one has since moved on. Prior to that, she dated Sophia Lodato from 2017 to 2020 and has also kept many of her romantic affairs hidden from the public eye. Do you think 070 Shake and Lily-Rose Depp make a cute couple? Let us know in the comments, and tap back in with HNHH later for more pop culture news updates.

Read More: Fans Think Kehlani & 070 Shake Have Broken Up

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The Weeknd, Future Drop Sultry New Track “Double Fantasy”

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The Weeknd has been actively promoting his new show The Idol and his single with Future, “Double Fantasy.” He recently announced on Instagram that the official music video for the song would be released along with the track itself. Abel then further piqued fans’ interest by sharing a clip of the video. It features Lily Rose-Depp, daughter of Johnny Depp, who is set to star in The Idol. In addition to this, the Weeknd is also planning to release an album based on the show that acts as its soundtrack. It seems like Abel is putting in quite a bit of work on the show and the accompanying music. But will it live up to expectations?

The entire press for The Idol has been kind of a mess. There have been very public disputes with Rolling Stone magazine. The extremely provocative and hedonistic subject matter of the show has caused controversy. The Weeknd, however, remains enthusiastic about the show and exploring the themes that the show embodies. He expressed his excitement about portraying his character, a cult-like leader named Tedros, explaining that he enjoyed the challenge of playing someone other than himself. Abel says that he drew inspiration from his own experiences to create the character.

Abel And Lily Rose-Depp Steam Up The Screen

In his typical fashion, Abel has made a sexy pop hit in “Double Fantasy.” Whether or not it is a good song is entirely subjective. However, what definitely can be said is that it is extremely reminiscent of everything The Weeknd has released in recent years. Coherence is good in an artist’s oeuvre, but how much is too much? If anything, it can probably be chalked up to the fact that this song was made specifically for a TV show. Therefore, it’s not something that should be taken seriously as part of The Weeknd’s “cannon.” Still, some fans may find themselves disappointed if they are expecting anything new from Abel this time around.

The lyrics on the song are very vague but overtly sexual in a way that Abel always seems to pull off. “You want me inside you / Beg me to slide in / No way we should have never met,” he croons. “Girl, when you ride it / See you decided /Don’t say those words that you’ll regret.” It feels like a shame not to mention Future’s feature on the song, but it almost feels like an afterthought. He does a great job with what he was given, but it doesn’t feel like a standout part of the track. What do you think of The Weeknd’s new song with Future? Let us know in the comments.

Quotable Lyrics:

Temperature risin’, bodies united
Now that I trapped you in my arms
No need to fight it, no need to hide it
Now that I see what’s in your heart

When Does HBO’s ‘The Idol’ Come Out?

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the weeknd after hours til dawn tour 2022
Getty Image / Paras Griffin

It feels like it’s been ages since Variety first reported The Weeknd was co-creating a forthcoming HBO series, The Idol, with Euphoria‘s Sam Levinson. Enough nonsense has happened since July 2021 — scratch that, enough has happened just today, March 1 — to satisfy a six-episode arc, making it even more confusing to identify when The Idol‘s first season will actually premiere.

The Idol was already off to a rocky start. It was reported last April that the series was undergoing “an overhaul” due to a “new creative direction,” including the departure of director Amy Seimetz.

And today, Rolling Stone published a very long bombshell report detailing some very disturbing (alleged) turmoil, which one source called “a sh*tshow.” Across interviews with 13 unnamed members of The Idol‘s cast and crew, reporter Cheyenne Roundtree learned that The Weeknd “felt the show was heading too much into a ‘female perspective.’” When Levinson replaced Seimetz as director, he allegedly threw out “the nearly-finished $54-75 million project to rewrite and reshoot the entire thing.”

Roundtree added, “With Seimetz out of the picture, HBO handed the reins to Levinson, only to have him weaken the show’s overarching message, many sources say, by dialing up the disturbing sexual content and nudity to match — and even surpass — that of his most successful show, Euphoria.”

The publication additionally provided an update on when any of us might be able to watch The Idol: “One source with knowledge of the production schedule tells Rolling Stone the network initially hoped for The Idol to premiere last fall, taking over the Sunday time slot left open by House of the Dragon, which ended in October. Yet three teaser trailers have come and gone, and HBO can still only offer a vague ‘later this year.’ (A rep for the network declined to comment on when the show will air.)”

For now, all we have is a scene shared by The Weeknd in response to Rolling Stone‘s scathing report:

And Rolling Stone‘s Editor In Chief Noah Schachtman dunking on it:

After all of that, the plot of The Idol feels like a footnote, but The Weeknd stars as Tedros, “a self-help guru and leader of a modern-day cult” who “enters a complicated relationship with a rising pop idol, Lily-Rose Depp’s Jocelyn (as noted by IMDb). Dan Levy, Suzanna Son, Troye Sivan, Moses Sumney, Jennie Kim, and Jane Adams are among those also listed in the cast.

The Weeknd Reportedly Caused ‘The Idol’ To Be Overhauled Because Of Its ‘Female Perspective’

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The Weeknd Avatar 2 The Way Of Water Premiere 2022
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The Weeknd’s breakout role in the HBO series The Idol, might not have been quite the creative environment parties were looking for. The “Die For You” singer may have broken several streaming records, including becoming the first artist to cross the 100 million monthly listeners metric; however, according to reports, his television and film career could be off to a rocky start.

The recording artist, real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye joined forces with Reza Fahim and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson to bring, in the network’s words, the “sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood” to light. While the show, slated to be released later this year, has recently undergone a “new creative direction,” Rolling Stone reports that the pivot wasn’t received well by cast and crew members.

According to Rolling Stone, the Oscar-nominated singer was not pleased that his co-star Lily-Rose Depp’s character received a bulk of the plot’s attention. As a result, allegedly, Tesfaye championed a major behind-the-scenes narrative shift to drop the story’s “feminist lens.”

A source told RS, “It was like the Weeknd wanted one show that was all about him — Sam was on board with that.” This could have supposedly played a part in director Amy Seimetz’s exit from the series back in April 2022. Another source shared, “What I signed up for was a dark satire of fame and the fame model in the 21st century,” but since the changes, “It went from satire to the thing it was satirizing.”

“It was like, ‘What is this? What am I reading here,’” said the source adding, “It was like sexual torture porn.”

The source shared that although Seimetz’s version would have contained sex scenes and nudity, production sources claim Levinson dramatically ramped up the explicit content with Tesfaye’s full support after taking over as director.

The outlet reached out to both Levinson and Tesfaye for comment. However, neither answered the request. On the other hand, Depp did provide a statement to Rolling Stone, in which she specifically sings the praises of Levinson. “[Levinson is] the best director,” said Depp before adding that she “felt more supported or respected in a creative space, my input, and opinions more valued.”

Despite the anonymous reports shared with RS, HBO shared in a statement, “the creative team has been committed to creating a safe, collaborative, and mutually respectful working environment, and last year, the team made creative changes they felt were in the best interest of both the production and the cast and crew.”

Leaked Scripts For HBO’s ‘The Idol’ Reportedly Feature The Weeknd’s Character Doing Some Disturbingly Violent And Sexual Things

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YouTube

HBO’s upcoming series The Idol is already proving to be one of the most talked about series of 2023, despite not having an actual premiere date. However, the Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye-created series seems to be proving rather chaotic and disastrous behind the scenes, not unlike the second season of Levinson’s teen drama, Euphoria.

Last April, the show was reported to go into an overhaul, with Levinson taking over as the show’s director, in place of Amy Seimetz, who was originally set to direct the series.

According to several anonymous sources, who spoke to Rolling Stone, Levinson ramped up the sexual content during the overhaul.

According to Rolling Stone:

“At various points, Levinson’s scripts contained disturbing sexual and physically violent scenes between [Lily Rose] Depp and Tesfaye’s characters, three sources familiar with the matter claim. In one draft episode, there allegedly was a scene where Tesfaye bashes in Depp’s face, and her character smiles and asks to be beaten more, giving Tesfaye an erection. (This scene was never shot, the source says.) Another proposed scenario was for Depp to carry an egg in her vagina and if she dropped or cracked the egg, Tesfaye’s character would refuse to “rape” her — which sent Depp’s character into a spiral, begging him to ‘rape’ her because she believed he was the key to her success. (This scene also was not filmed because production couldn’t find a way to realistically shoot the scene without having Depp physically insert the egg, another source explains.)”

Another source claimed that while The Idol was supposed to explore and satirize the dark side of 21st-century stardom, the show lost its original messaging amid the overhaul.

“It was a show about a woman who was finding herself sexually, turned into a show about a man who gets to abuse this woman and she loves it,” said the source.

At the time of writing, it is unclear which scenes will make it into the final show, as many of the sources say that scripts were being changed and rewritten daily. According to one source, Levinson had stopped turning in scripts to the higher-ups at HBO at one point during production.

The Weeknd’s HBO Show ‘The Idol’ Is Reportedly A ‘Sh*tshow’ Due To Drastic Changes, Production Issues, And So Much More

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When it was reported that the buzzy upcoming HBO show The Idol was undergoing massive production changes last April, all anyone could do was speculate on the supposed “new creative direction” it would take. Interest in the show was high, given its all-star cast consisting of co-creator Abel Tesfaye (better known as The Weeknd) and Lily-Rose Depp and the involvement of high-profile producer Sam Levinson of Euphoria fame.

However, a new report from Rolling Stone suggests that the changes have mostly been for the worst, with the show going from “a dark satire of fame and the fame model in the 21st century,” according to one production member, “to the thing it was satirizing.”

The show, which was to follow Depp’s character as she became involved in a cult led by Tesfaye’s character, was overhauled as The Weeknd apparently felt it was focusing too much on the “female perspective” and wanted to highlight his character more. This reportedly led to director Amy Seimetz (She Dies Tomorrow, The Girlfriend Experience) dropping out and Levinson replacing her as director, then promptly throwing out everything she’d already shot — 80 percent of the six-episode series.

The new material has been described as “any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show,” with lurid depictions of sexual encounters between Tesfaye and Depp’s characters in scripts, ramped-up explicit nudity, and even a violent scene in which Tesfaye’s character beats Depp. While some of these scenes were never shot, one source described the scripts as “sexual torture porn.”

Many of the sources say they don’t even know what will make it into the final show because so many scenes were reshot, scripts were changed daily, and the shoot went wildly over budget and time. High-profile castings such as Blackpink’s Jennie amounted to inconsequential storylines, with a crew member saying, “Her job was to sit there [and] look pretty, basically.” Meanwhile, other actors were “wiped from the show” entirely after thinking they’d gotten their big breaks.

With so many issues, there’s no telling how the show itself will actually turn out, but HBO continues to promote it with multiple trailers, even though a release date has yet to be determined (it’s still aiming for sometime in 2023).

We’ll see if Levinson, The Weeknd, or any of the cast have anything to say, but for now, things aren’t looking great. Still the show is already shaping up to be another hit for HBO — the real question is, will it be worth it?

Lily-Rose Depp On Working With The Weeknd For “The Idol”

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Lily-Rose Depp discussed her upcoming role in HBO’s The Idol during a new cover story for i-D. In the piece, Depp discussed starring alongside The Weeknd, who plays her love interest on the show. She says that the singer helped her feel “so empowered” on set.

“Talk about trust and comfort. I had to go to a lot of really vulnerable places in the show. Abel was the best partner that I could have ever asked for. He has my back and I have his,” Depp told the outlet. “I just felt so free and liberated, so empowered.”

Lily-Rose Depp For “i-D”

As for her role, she explained that Jocelyn was the role of her dreams. “I’ve dreamt of roles like this for forever. I just don’t think that you could give an actress a greater gift than a role like this,” Depp said. “This has been the most meaningful and important project that I’ve ever done, and the thing that I’m the proudest of. I don’t know where to begin. Jocelyn is the most wonderfully complex character. She’s so fascinating. A mystery. After a year of living with that character, I’m still obsessed with her. I just want to keep digging deeper.”

Depp also explained that The Idol was a learning experience for her. “I was gaining so much from just being present in the moment, even in between takes or when they’re changing the camera setup. Just watching our DPs set up these shots and the lighting. I gained so much from really having my eyes open,” she said. Elsewhere in the interview, she discussed growing up as the daughter of celebrities, something she says gives her imposter syndrome.

In addition to Depp and The Weeknd, The Idol stars Jane Adams, Hank Azaria, Hari Nef, Dan Levy, Troye Sivan, and Jennie of K-Pop supergroup Blackpink. The Weeknd is credited as a creator alongside Reza Fahim and Euphoria’s Sam Levinson. The show doesn’t have an official release date but is scheduled to hit HBO at some point in 2023. Check out the second official teaser trailer for The Idol below.

“The Idol” Trailer

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