Pop Culture Fix: Tig Notaro and Emma Watson to Play Pickleball Together on TV

It’s a beautiful fall day! Y’all got us to our fundraiser goal in less than a week! And I was able to get one of the cats in my feral colony in for some much needed vet care this morning! It’s shaping up to be a good Wednesday! Here’s your mid-week Pop Culture Fix!


+ The other day Tig Notaro posted a photo of herself in a whole pickleball get-up, including a green 80s headband! I just thought she was doing a bit — but no! She has joined this whole entire pickleball tournament of celebrities that’s going to air on CBS and be hosted by Stephen Colbert. Also playing? Emma Watson, Aisha Tyler, June Diane Raphael, and Kelly Rowland. (Plus a whole lotta boys, boring.) I, for one, will be watching this thing like it’s the World Series! Here’s CBS’ official description: “‘We laid down the Thunderdome of pickleball and made the biggest deal of the smallest sport we could find,’ says exec producer K.P. Anderson. Colbert sings the national anthem with Kenny Loggins (they rehearsed harmonies at a cantina the night before), then eight teams of two battle it out for the Colbert Cup.”

16 celebrities in pickleball gear surround Stephen Colbert who is wearing a green suit and holding a pickleball

+ Netflix’s The Ultimatum: Queer Love is a thing that exists! It’s a spin-off of a reality show that’s hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey — but the queer version will be hosted by JoAnna Garcia Swisher (who is straight, as far as I can tell from the Personal Life section of her Wikipedia). Huge missed opportunity to have Niecy Nash-Betts and Jessica Betts host a reality show imo!

+ Keke Palmer and Javicia Leslie’s X-Men cosplay was legendary this Halloween.

+ Even The Weather Channel was impressed. (Natalie: “Aww cute. But get in line, Weather Channel!)

+ Apparently the role of Mr. Schue on Glee was written for Justin Timberlake? Is this show going to keep haunting us until the day we die??? (Related: Ryan Murphy is mad Netflix removed the “LGBTQ tag” from Dahmer.)

+ Alia Shawkat has joined the cast of Severance for season two.

+ Apex Legends set to release Catalyst, game’s first playable transgender woman.

+ The AV Club has ranked the 20 best Arrowverse characters. I can’t wait to see what y’all think of this list.

+ Danielle Radcliffe says that speaking out against JK Rowling was important to him because he wants queer and trans people to know that everyone in the franchise does NOT agree with her horrifying slide into an anti-trans radicalism. He says he wouldn’t have been able to look at himself in the mirror if he’d stayed quiet.

+ Vulture chatted with Sue Perkins about her new travel special.

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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.

13 Comments

  1. This Pickleball show is reminding me of the old Battle of the Network Stars back in the 80s. I will watch this Pickleball with the same enthusiasm I had as a kid I’m sure 😁

  2. I’m glad other Potter people have spoken out against she who shall not be named. Disappointingly, Ralph Fineness defended her recently. Think a few other alumni may have too 😞
    This may be because I know what she is like, but every time I see her face, she looks so smug.

    • Quite a few of the older actors in the franchise have stuck up for her. Ralph Fiennes has been consistent of his support of her since this all started as if the things she’s saying are mere disagreement and not completely dangerous, bigoted rhetoric. Accusing trans people of bullying her and threatening her life as if she is not one of the most insanely wealthy women on the planet who lives in a literal castle surrounded by a moat and continues to amass that wealth because people refuse to give up that franchise. A woman who still has access to her social media to spew her hate and misinformation and the entire UK media in her corner. He can miss me entirely with that BULLSHIT! JK will always be fine. It’s the trans community who are far more at risk for their lives than she ever will be.

    • Valerie Anne and Nic, can you please make a list of all of the queer (and should’ve been queer) people in the Arrowverse and rate them on arbitrary but very important qualities? There weren’t enough queer people on this link.

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