The Hollywood Star Making the Weirdest Career Moves

This week:

• In this house, we stan Daniel Radcliffe.
• I have THOUGHTS about The Traitors finale.
• I will never tire of this meme.
• My favorite movie is getting its due.
• Who wants to take a trip?

My New Go-To for Giggling

I have a Mount Rushmore of celebs that I think I’d be best friends with, if, like, I was famous too, ever hung out with them, and didn’t have crippling social anxiety.

I think about this a strange amount, so the names are at the ready: Sarah Jessica Parker, Molly Shannon, Jennifer Garner, and one straight man. It’s against my nature to support or encourage that behavior, of being a straight man, but I make an exception for this. It’s Daniel Radcliffe.

The occasions for meeting him have been that he’s working on yet another totally ridiculous, batsh-t project that most people who have fronted the biggest franchise of a generation wouldn’t dabble in. Beyond the fact that he is nice, gracious, and incredibly thoughtful, the fact that he is constantly doing weird things makes me love him even more.

Radcliffe’s latest project is the new NBC comedy series The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, which feels like, in shorthand, if The Comeback and 30 Rock had a baby…and that baby happened to be Tracy Morgan.

The series casts the former Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock star as a rich, but disgraced former football player, whose career ended when he, by virtue of his cluelessness, mistakenly called an ESPN-like sports TV broadcast to talk about gambling on his own games instead of the bookie he intended to ring.

Radcliffe’s Arthur Tobin, who is immediately given first-name-last-name treatment every time someone refers to him, is a documentary filmmaker with his own baggage. He sees shooting a comeback film about Reggie, who goes through life with the kind of bull-in-a-china-shop endearingness that only Tracy Morgan can pull off, as a lifeline for himself as well.

I feel like ever since 30 Rock aired, network comedies have been chasing the whiz-bang comedy speed the show perfected, where you were just clocking the previous joke’s genius pop-culture reference while the next one-liner was already in motion, like a comedy enthusiast’s version of Lucy and Ethel eating the chocolates on the conveyor belt. Reggie Dinkins is in that lineage.

Radcliffe’s Arthur, who proudly states he is a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Documentary, Anime, and Pornography, is referred to as a “bearded infant.” Morgan’s Reggie is chastised by his ex-wife (Erika Alexander): “I said don’t make a documentary. I also said don’t buy that football made out of the original Miss Piggy.” The camera then cuts to a football that absolutely looks like it was made out of a Miss Piggy. Why? It doesn’t matter. It’s just funny.

Reggie’s downfall is characterized in a list that states he was banned from playing football, his team lost the Super Bowl, he was dropped as the spokesperson for Progresso soup, and his “episode of Ghost Whisperer never even aired.” Worse, that meant continuity mistakes for fans of the show.

Reggie Dinkins is funny, that’s what I’m trying to say.

It’s also not the normal pivot for a star of Radcliffe’s fame. But, as I already mentioned, that’s his calling card. He’s spent the years after Harry Potter doing some of the most ridiculous-sounding movies and TV series (and has been excellent in all of them) and pivoting to Broadway and musical theater (won a Tony Award), where so many other people in his shoes would be using them to scale a Hollywood mountain.

In this series, he plays the straight man. Arguably more of a straight man than even Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon was in 30 Rock. And he’s so good at it. It’s a thankless type of role that requires someone really comically gifted to pull off, and Radcliffe, naturally, rises to the task.

One time, I interviewed Radcliffe on the occasion of his playing an angel in Heaven, imagined more as an Amazon factory worker, soon after he played a sentient corpse in a movie, who at one point is transformed into a motorboat propelled by the force of his cadaverous farts.

His response to playing characters we wouldn’t necessarily expect Harry Potter to play was, “There comes a point when you spend so long with something that you forget that other people are going to think it’s crazy. Then when it comes out and people have that reaction, you’re like, oh right, yes, maybe I have a strange taste.” And he was open about the luxury to do so because of his franchise past: “I’m getting a weird amount of credit for something that is ultimately selfish.”

So I’m grateful that Radcliffe is in this big swing to make a new 30 Rock on NBC. He’s so funny in it. And, thankfully, as strange as ever.

More Like Mur-meh, Amiright?

The season finale of The Traitors was the exact sequence of events (murders, banishments, betrayals) that I predicted the second last week’s penultimate episode finished.

That’s to say it wasn’t exciting in the least bit. OK, I’m human, so I’ll acknowledge a feral moan when Rob jumped out of the helicopter and being entertained by how cinematic Maura’s realization was, expected as it may have been. Maybe hinging an entire finale on what Maura was going to do…I tink that wasn’t the most promising production choice.

There were silver linings to Thursday night’s finale and reunion, though. Andy Cohen, congratulations on whatever you’re doing. You pulled off that overall look.

We confirmed that Lisa Rinna is, in fact, the best person who has ever been on television. I was impressed that they actually aired the segment about Colton Underwood’s backlash. And the fleeting moments of Porsha Williams and Tiffany Mitchell being hilarious only highlighted what these not-one-brain-cell-among-them Faithfuls took from us.

Hilariously, I was at a Top Chef dinner, sitting next to Kristen Kish (brag), when the finale was airing. So we were gossiping about the show when the winner was announced.

Some of the most fun tidbits that I think would be OK to say: She has reached out to executives at Bravo about off-camera helping with the food next season, that’s how bad it was. She brought her own outfits and had two extras, so she was confused how some contestants ran out.

She knows the Housewives through Bravo, but has never watched the shows. So she didn’t think anything of how quiet Lisa Rinna and Dorinda Medley were during shooting. (I had to tell her that Dorinda was only operating at half-power, not having access to four martinis before a roundtable.)

She gravitated most towards Candiace Dillard Bassett and Marc Ballas, and Michael Rappaport was as annoying as it seemed. She doubles down on the fact that it’s not outrageous if you’re not extremely online to not know that Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir are best friends. And she seems very tired of talking about buttering her bread.

Anyway, my take is that it was a frustrating season, but still a blast to gossip about with all my friends. Bring on the next round of murder.

America’s Next Top Meme

I can’t open my phone now without “you wanna be on top?” from the opening of the America’s Next Top Model theme song blasting.

Some of the disturbing revelations in the Netflix documentary concerned how contestants suspected that production mined their deepest traumas for photo shoots. (The most egregious example was a woman who said on her application that her mother was paralyzed as a result of gun violence, who was later forced to pose as a person who was just shot in the head…but make it fashion.)

Inspired by that, people have been posting comedic videos of things that “Tyra” (or production) would make them do after confessing their own traumatizing experiences. I have watched and laughed at each one.

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The Most Underrated Movie…Ever?

The world, once in a while, gets things right.

A reporter asked Rose Byrne on a red carpet what the “hidden gem” of her film career is, and she rightfully said Spy, which is not just one of the best comedies ever, but is firmly on my Top 10 list of best movies of all time. Her saying that sparked a round of social media posts echoing the sentiment, spotlighting some of the movie’s funniest moments, and making the (correct) argument that Byrne should have been Oscar-nominated for her performance.

There is never not a good time to watch Spy. Go do it now.

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Heated Rivalry, In Real Life

Who wants to take me to the cottage?

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

I can’t stop swooning over the stars who play JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette in the new Love Story series. Read more.

I kept an unhinged diary while being unhealthily obsessed with the Olympics. And then I published it. Read more.

I am so, so heartbroken for Real Housewives star Mary Cosby. Read more.

What to watch this week:

DTF St. Louis: There is very funny life after Stranger Things. (Sun. on HBO)

Man on the Run: Turns out that Paul McCartney is a captivating guy. (Now on Prime Video)

Pillion: The BDSM biker gang gay romance is now in wide release! Bring the grandparents! (Now in theaters)

What to skip this week:

Scream 7: Catching up on the behind-the-scenes drama is a better use of your time. (Now in theaters)

Scrubs: Revivals are hit or miss. This one flatlines almost immediately. (Now on ABC)