Pop Culture Fix: Aubrey Plaza’s Sexy Disaster Reporter Was Too Weird Even for SNL

My cat Socks is in a cone today due to getting one of our other cat’s claws stuck in his butt! He’s glaring at me and telepathically asking me to ask you to come get this cone off his head! While you’re contemplating that black ops operation, please enjoy your mid-week Pop Culture Fix.


+ Aubrey Plaza’s Saturday Night Live audition was too strange to get her cast. This Aubrey Plaza press blitz for Emily the Criminal is a hoot. Last night she talked to Fallon about how she tried out for the show a million years ago but didn’t make it to the Lorne Michaels try out. It worked out for the best, of course, and Parks and Rec launched her into the stratosphere, but I wouldn’t mind seeing her Sexy Disaster News Reporter character when she takes over the show later this month.

Update: It’s shaping up to be a good episode!!!

+ One of Valerie Anne’s favorite parts of this season of Ginny & Georgia was the performance of Marriage Is a Dungeon — and here is TV Line’s look behind the scenes of the theatrical hit.

+ This isn’t gay but it’s very cool and is of interest to many gays: Sarah Michelle Gellar’s profile in The Hollywood Reporter is her being as candid as she’s ever been about her time on Buffy. She won’t even say Whedon’s name in the interview and GOOD FOR HER.

+ Supergirl’s Dreamer has a comic book on the way and it looks awesome.

+ The Woman King, Till, and Black Panther were the big winners at the African American Film Critics Association Awards.

+ A rundown of all the LGBTQ+ shows Netflix cancelled after only a few seasons.

+ Tár Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir believes the movie’s ending was a positive one. (Hey! It’s a nice link about Tár!)

+ Brittney Griner appears at Phoenix MLK Day march. (So many smiles in this video!!!)

+ How The Last of Us turned its terrible outbreak day into a “period piece.” And speaking of The Last of Us, it was HBO’s second biggest debut in a decade.

+ This year’s GLAAD Media Awards include lots of your faves.

+ Fans, rejoice! Boygenius return with three new songs! 

+ Disney Junior’s firetruck fantasy cartoon, Firebuds, has a pair of lesbian moms that have, of course, got conservatives screeching.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

3 Comments

  1. That was SUCH a great SMG profile – thank you for sharing it! I just want the best for her and I’m so glad that she is talking about Buffy in a way that honours her work and also acknowledges what she’s comfortable sharing about JW. That show truly had such a cliche impact on me and I still comfort watch it regularly.

    • Agreed, such a great piece – thanks for linking to it. Also this:

      > “I’m not chasing anything anymore, and that makes this so much more fun,” says Gellar. “I grew up wanting to be a working actor in New York City — a guest spot on Law & Order was the pinnacle of success to me. Now I’ve played more than one character that people dress up as every Halloween. Everything else is gravy.”

  2. On the one hand, SMG and Buffy defined so much for so many, I don’t know if it was one of the first mainstream television shows to include a queer couple but it was most certainly one of the first I can recall. It meant SO MUCH to so many.

    On the other hand… f**k JW.

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