Q

Channing Tatum goes from Magic Mike to man-fish

q's pop culture panel weighs in on the worthy, contentious, and mind-boggling stories from the week in arts and entertainment.
Magic Mike star Channing Tatum is set to 'play a mermaid' in an upcoming remake of the 1984 classic Splash. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

q's pop culture panel weighs in on the worthy, contentious, and mind-boggling stories from the week in arts and entertainment. Opinionated and irreverent, our panel takes pop culture seriously (but not too seriously).

Today's panellists are Emily Keeler of Little Brother magazine and PEN Canada, Esquire columnist Stephen Marche, and Film and TV director Charles Officer. Up for discussion: 

  • Just months ago, people were laughing at this surprise Donald Trump mockumentary on the comedy website Funny or Die. Now the 50 minute feature has landed on Netflix for more to see.



    Given a host of troubling headlines about the Republican presidential nominee this week — calling Hillary Clinton "the devil," insulting the family of a dead soldier, suggesting that the election may be rigged — we ask: is it time to stop laughing? 
  • Constance Wu, star of the ABC comedy Fresh off the Boat, recently expressed her frustration with Hollywood's hero bias — or in her words "the racist myth that only a white man can save the world." Her post is a response a big new action film set in China, The Great Wall, which has Matt Damon in the lead role.

     

    The controversy around Asian erasure has flared up around several recent casting decisions; for example: Tilda Swinton as a Tibetan character in Doctor Strange, Scarlett Johansson as the lead in the Japanese anime feature Ghost in the Shell, Emma Stone as an Asian woman in Aloha

  • Channing Tatum is set to star in a gender-swapped remake of the 1984 romantic comedy Splash — and without so much as a production still, the movie is already making waves.

    (Watch the original trailer below.)