The Idol

“The Idol” Praise: Sharon Stone Applauds The Weeknd & Lily-Rose Depp As HBO Series Slammed For Nudity

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The Idol‘s big debut at Cannes Film Festival last week made one thing abundantly clear – not everyone is a fan of The Weeknd’s first TV series. The Canadian multi-talent stars in the new HBO series alongside 23-year-old Lily-Rose Depp, who’s pulled into the cult-like world of fame and fortune to fulfill her dreams of becoming a massive pop star. The previously released trailers have hinted that plenty of salacious content is in store, and the fact that Euphoria director Sam Levinson is also on board led viewers to go in with an “expect the unexpected” mindset.

Still, it seems many were left upset by the near-constant nude imagery of Depp, whose breasts and bottom are reportedly shown off in every episode. For the most part, the negative reactions have outweighed the positive ones. However, Hollywood icon Sharon Stone’s Instagram Story lit up with praise for The Idol and its leads. “I just watched the first two episodes of @theidol. @lilyrose_depp and Abel (@theweeknd) [are] so sure-footed,” she wrote a few days ago.

Read More: The Weeknd’s “The Idol” Reviews Are Not Favourable

Sharon Stone Shares Massive Praise for The Idol

“Sam Levinson addresses the root of crisis in entertainment,” the 65-year-old further remarked. “Which comes first, the brilliance? Or the heartache?” Obviously, not everyone agrees with her take. However, seeing as Stone has appeared in projects like Catwoman, The Quick and the Dead, Casino, and the Basic Instinct franchise throughout her career, she certainly knows a thing or two about the industry and its shadow side.

Interestingly enough, it was actually Stone’s Basic Instinct character who Depp drew on for inspiration, as the young starlet told Entertainment Tonight. Rather than directly taking influence from pop stars who already exist, she also looked at figures like Gene Tierney and Lauren Bacalls. HBO’s The Idol is set to premiere next Sunday (June 4). Will you be tuning into The Weeknd’s scandalous new series? Let us know in the comments, and check back later for more pop culture/music news updates.

Read More: Lily-Rose Depp Shows Off PDA With GF 070 Shake Following Controversial “The Idol” Premiere

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Lily-Rose Depp Shows Off PDA With GF 070 Shake Following Controversial “The Idol” Premiere

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Lily-Rose Depp’s work alongside The Weeknd in The Idol didn’t hit the mark with audiences in France. Nevertheless, the 23-year-old is still adored in the eyes of her latest lover, 070 Shake. The actress confirmed her relationship with the singer via Instagram recently. At the time, she revealed that they’ve spent the past four months getting to know each other. While they didn’t make their red carpet debut during the HBO show’s premiere at Cannes this week, Shake was waiting for her partner at LAX upon her arrival back in the US on Thursday (May 25).

As Page Six reports, the creatives shared a passionate kiss as paparazzi cameras snapped away. Depp was casually dressed for her flight, wearing a cropped white tee with no bra underneath and black sweatpants. She attempted to conceal her identity with a pair of sunglasses. Now that she’s achieved TV star status, however, it’ll be nearly impossible for the blonde beauty to blend in with the crowd. Especially once The Idol makes its world debut in the coming weeks.

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

Lily-Rose Depp at The Idol Premiere

Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp attend “The Idol” photocall on May 23, 2023, in Cannes, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/FilmMagic)

As for the “Nice to Have” hitmaker, born Danielle Balbuena, she wore an oversized denim jacket, also sporting her signature curly hair. Even with the scathing reviews slamming the hypersexualization of Depp’s pop star character, she seems far more focused on the love unfolding in front of her. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there are hardly any scenes “without the camera showing flashes of [Lily’s] breasts or ass.”

“You start to wonder if this is building to anything, and by episode two it seems likely that it’s probably not,” they further noted. Rolling Stone previously shared similar criticisms of the show, but The Weeknd and his co-star didn’t seem bothered by those either. Find photos of Lily-Rose Depp and 070 Shake’s romantic airport reunion here. Will you be tuning into HBO’s The Idol when it premieres later this year? Let us know in the comments, and check back later for more hip-hop/pop culture news updates.

Read More: The Weeknd’s “The Idol” Reviews Are Not Favourable

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Julia Fox Describes Her Upcoming Movie As A Mix Of “Weekend At Bernie’s” & “Spring Breakers”

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Julia Fox says that she’s working on a new feature film and compared the project to “Weekend at Bernie’s” and “Spring Breakers.” The Uncut Gems star spoke about the project with Page Six during the iconic Cannes Film Festival.

“It’s about these two girls and they are in LA. They are classic,” Fox told the outlet of the new feature. “One is an aspiring actress, and the other is a nepotism baby. But her dad had like seven kids, so the pool has been diluted. They’re drug addicts, so they are in recovery, but they are always in and out. One has a sugar daddy.” Fox added that there is a “dead body involved somewhere.” She also joked, “My friends always say I would make a great dictator. But what I am hoping they mean is that I would make a great director.”

Read More: Julia Fox’s Cannes Red Carpet Look May Be Her Most Salacious Yet

Julia Fox At Cannes Film Festival

CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 22: Julia Fox attends the “The Idol” red carpet during the 76th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 22, 2023 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)

Weekend At Bernie’s released back in 1989 and follows two young insurance corporation employees who discover that their boss, Bernie, is dead. To avoid being suspected of causing his death, they try to convince people he is still alive. Spring Breakers, on the other hand, is much newer, having released in 2013. The Harmony Korine film follows four college students who become involved in a life of crime while vacationing in Florida.

At the festival, Fox attended the premiere of HBO’s new series, The Idol. The Weeknd is credited as a co-creator of the show with Euphoria’s Sam Levinson and also stars alongside Lily-Rose Depp, Rachel Sennott, Dan Levy, Troye Sivan, and many more. Critics had mixed reactions to the premiere. In a review for The Hollywood Reporter, Lovia Gyarkye wrote: “Rarely does a scene go by without the camera showing flashes of her breasts or ass. You start to wonder if this is building to anything, and by episode two it seems likely that it’s probably not.” The show will begin airing on HBO on June 4.

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

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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.

The Weeknd’s “The Idol” Reviews Are Not Favorable

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One of the most anticipated shows of the year is HBO’s The Idol created by The Weeknd and Sam Levinson. Although information regarding the show has been rather limited until its Cannes Film Festival premiere, there were already concerns surrounding the limited series. A report from Rolling Stone detailed some of the behind-the-scenes drama with interviews from 13 members of the crew. HBO and The Idol creators faced accusations of fostering a toxic work environment while the show’s content was compared to “torture porn.”

Unfortunately, the debut of The Idol didn’t necessarily push back against these claims but instead, according to critics, reinforced them. Kyle Buchanan of The New York Times compared the show to “a Pornhub-homepage odyssey,” largely due to the number of nude scenes involving Lily Rose Depp. Meanwhile, Gregory Ellwood of ThePlaylist.net called the first episode “eh,” although admitted there were some funny scenes as well as cool stylistic choices. However, he described the second episode as “sexist, pseudo-porn.”

“The Idol” Reportedly Doesn’t Live Up To The Hype

CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 23: Sam Levinson, Lily-Rose Depp and Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye attend “The Idol” photocall at the 76th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 23, 2023 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/WireImage)

With The Weeknd’s name attached, The Idol became one of those shows that people believed could be great. However, following the Rolling Stone piece, there have been a number of people skeptical on what he has in store. During the red carpet, Sam Levinson and Lily Rose Depp provided a direct response to the allegations. “I just wanna say that it’s always sad and disheartening to hear mean, false things about someone you care about, and it wasn’t my experience shooting the show,” Depp said, per Rolling Stone. 

At the same time, Levinson acknowledged that show was intended to be provocative. Still, he was caught off-guard by some of the claims. “When I read the specifics, however, it just felt completely foreign to me. But I know who I am. There’s the work, and there’s the managing of the persona. And that is not interesting to me, because it takes away from the work,” he stated. “They’re free to write whatever they want. My only gripe is that they intentionally omitted anything that didn’t fit their narrative. But there’s been a lot of that lately.” 

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The Weeknd & Playboi Carti Collab Debuts At “The Idol” Red Carpet Premiere

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The Weeknd sought the finest talent in Atlanta to create The Idol Vol. 1, the soundtrack to his upcoming HBO series. The Toronto singer appeared on the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival where the controversial television show’s pilot premiered. As The Weeknd, Lily Depp-Rose, and Sam Levinson appeared in front of the press and fans, the singer debuted a brand new song alongside Playboi Carti. Although an unexpected pairing, the early 2000s-inspired production serves as a perfect backdrop for their combined efforts.

At this point, there’s no additional information surrounding their collaboration. However, HBO confirmed The Idol will debut on June 4th, which signals that the soundtrack could arrive around the same time. Prior to the debut of the Playboi Carti collaboration, The Weeknd shared “Double Fantasy” ft. Future and previewed a cover of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.” Between Future and Playboi Carti, it’ll be interesting to see the other artists The Weeknd collaborated with for the soundtrack of his upcoming series.

The Weeknd Debuts Playboi Carti Collab

As fans anticipate new music from Playboi Carti, his upcoming collaboration with The Weeknd seems like it could be the first taste of his next project. Throughout the past few months, there have been a number of updates from his inner circle, including DJ Swamp Izzo, who stated that the project was complete. Carti himself hasn’t confirmed a release date but Izzo stated that it would see a summer release. Meanwhile, he debuted a single titled “Rockstar” at Rolling Loud earlier this year. 

The upcoming series on HBO, The Idol, has already spurred divisiveness on the Internet. The provocative nature of the show led to criticism online due to allegations of sexism and “torture porn.” Many of the television critics who attended the premiere seemingly reaffirmed these claims. Still, the debut at Cannes Film Festival proved to be a success for the most part. There have been reports claiming that the show received a five-minute standing ovation after the pilot premiered. We’ll keep you posted on anymore updates surrounding the show. For now, check out The Weeknd and Playboi Carti’s snippet above. 

The Weeknd Slammed A ‘Ridiculous’ ‘Rolling Stone’ Article About Alleged Issues With His HBO Show, ‘The Idol’

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The Weeknd (aka Abel Tesfaye) did a new interview with Vanity Fair, ahead of his upcoming HBO show, The Idol, premiering at Cannes this week. However, the series, which Tesfaye stars in, has encountered some controversy along the way.

A few months ago, Rolling Stone came out with an article that alleged it had gone “wildly, disgustingly off the rails.” Sources also claimed that there were tons of rewrites and reshoots from showrunner Sam Levinson (Euphoria) that turned it into “twisted torture porn.”

“It was like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show, and then the woman comes back for more because it makes her music better,” one source claimed.

Just a few hours after the piece gained traction, Tesfaye pushed back on social media, using a clip from The Idol where his character calls the publication irrelevant. During his Coachella appearance at Metro Boomin’s set, he skipped over the Rolling Stone lyric of “Heartless.” Now, he’s continuing to make his thoughts clear.

“I thought the article was ridiculous,” Tesfaye said in the Vanity Fair interview. “I wanted to give a ridiculous response to it.”

“I actually really loved working with Amy [Seimetz],” he added, touching upon a claim about tensions with Seimetz, who departed the show during the early production process, “and I’m sure she’s reading all this being like, ‘Why am I being thrown into this?’”

Tesfaye’s The Idol is set to begin airing on Max starting June 4.

The Weeknd And Future Divulge The Dirty Details Of Their ‘Double Fantasy’ In The First Taste Of Music From ‘The Idol’

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The first taste of HBO’s upcoming series The Idol is finally here. Tonight (April 21), The Weeknd and Future have teamed up for a sexy new single, called “Double Fantasy.”

Over a scorching beat featuring a seductive saxophone, The Weeknd channels his charismatic cult-leader character, Tedros, while sharing his dirty secrets.

“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 / Baby girl, I’m the only one who knows this side of you / And baby, you know that I can pull out what’s inside of you,” he sings, in what are probably the cleanest lyrics of the song.

Future kicks it up a notch with a verse of his own, detailing his duality, which is brought out by the woman of his affection.

“I sent you an envelope, came with a poem / You possess venom, that came with a charm / You get the good out me when I perform / I know the bad in you, that’s just what I want,” he raps.

The song’s accompanying visual features footage from The Idol.

In an interview with Interview, The Weeknd revealed his inspirations for The Idol‘s companion album.

“I’ve been inspired by The Wall and Purple Rain…But I want to take it to the next level,” he said. “I want to challenge myself and I feel like, as a musician, I’m the best I’ve ever been. But I have ADD. I can’t focus on just that. It’s like, how do I throw a wrench in it?”

You can listen to “Double Fantasy” above.

The Idol premieres June 4 on HBO. Episodes will be available to stream on Max.