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Nina Metz

@ninametz

TV and film critic for the Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com/author/nina-metz/ Newsletter: Nina Watches Everything https://buttondown.com/NinaWatchesEverything

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Latest posts by Nina Metz @ninametz

I have studied greatness as a passion project for a decade. Studying and practice matter so much in the split between good and great.

Greatness is not an accident

12.03.2026 00:09 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

And the Times found a sharp partisan skew: β€œFor every dollar donated by billionaires and their immediate families to a candidate or committee associated with Democrats, five dollars went to Republicans.”

12.03.2026 00:58 πŸ‘ 108 πŸ” 35 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 3

β€œMeghan Grimm β€” the former personal assistant turned entrepreneur behind the elite entertainment staffing agency Clyde β€” is now launching a podcast where she will interview talent with their personal assistants”

11.03.2026 22:18 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
New Podcast From Elite Staffing Consultant Meghan Grimm Will Feature Interviews With Stars and Their Personal Assistants (Exclusive) Grimm will launch the β€˜Clyde Confidential’ podcast on March 12, interviewing talent like Julianne Hough and Tommy Dorfman, along with a member of their support staff.

If the premise is interviewing personal assistants to the stars WITH the star who currently employs them? Gonna be really sanitized stuff

11.03.2026 22:15 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

btw this is also in Rick's newsletter:

"Benito Mussolini’s granddaughter is going to compete in Italy’s version of Celebrity Big Brother. I’m sure everything will be fine."

11.03.2026 21:08 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm excited for everyone* who adores this show!

*(I am not one of them lol! Not sure what it was about it, but it left me cold ... )

11.03.2026 21:03 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The Battle Against Faux Discounts 'Discount' and 'sale' need to mean something real.

The Battle Against Faux Discounts: 'Discount' and 'sale' need to mean something real.

11.03.2026 20:53 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Antibiotics may mess up a person's gut for years, study finds A study in Sweden found that some antibiotics affected microbial diversity in the gut more than others

"If people use these findings as a reason to not take antibiotics when they are necessary, 'that could be a very bad consequence,' she says"

I want scientists to understand how different medications affect us! But I am very worried the current head of HHS will run with this & wanna ban antibiotics

11.03.2026 20:49 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

yep

11.03.2026 20:45 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Curtiss fast rise as a power producer has given her a front-row seat to the anxieties and
"I see
struggles of the industry she grew up in. "I see the lists of actors who are available for work, and when you start going down these lists, these are people who have starred in movies, had their own TV series β€” and they're willing to go on tape for a small part in either your movie or your TV show,, she says.
"It is a
desperate time. There is very little work available." She worries about "consolidation"
β€” referring, no doubt, to Paramount's impending acquisition of Warner Bros. β€” and recently reposted a criticism of TimothΓ©e Chalamet's viral comments about preferring to work in movies versus ballet and opera, art forms that he said are fueled by strained efforts to "keep this thing alive."

Curtiss fast rise as a power producer has given her a front-row seat to the anxieties and "I see struggles of the industry she grew up in. "I see the lists of actors who are available for work, and when you start going down these lists, these are people who have starred in movies, had their own TV series β€” and they're willing to go on tape for a small part in either your movie or your TV show,, she says. "It is a desperate time. There is very little work available." She worries about "consolidation" β€” referring, no doubt, to Paramount's impending acquisition of Warner Bros. β€” and recently reposted a criticism of TimothΓ©e Chalamet's viral comments about preferring to work in movies versus ballet and opera, art forms that he said are fueled by strained efforts to "keep this thing alive."

β€œIt is a desperate time. There is very little work available”

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

11.03.2026 20:17 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Why Black women playing villains on screen still feels controversial In the wake of discourse surrounding Teyana Taylor’s Perfidia Beverly Hills in One Battle After Another, a familiar debate has resurfaced about what happens when Black women play morally ambiguous cha...

β€œWhen Black women play characters who are selfish, manipulative or morally ambiguous, the reaction often extends beyond the performance itself and into questions about what those portrayals mean for the image of Black women on screen and off”

Via The Guardian

11.03.2026 19:45 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

lol they are not!

11.03.2026 19:38 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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YOU’VE MADE YOUR POINT, CHICAGO.

11.03.2026 18:34 πŸ‘ 220 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 3

Also his media trained pablum about the company being proud to embrace a diversity of opinions ... if any of those opinions are "some people shouldn't have equal rights/be allowed to exist" I don't know why you'd be proud of that!

11.03.2026 19:14 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Someone please tell the CEO of Hasbro that separating the art from the artist doesn’t count when you’re paying the artist (this is about JK Rowling btw)

11.03.2026 18:39 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 3

I wrote about the problematic history of the Oscars recognizing the work of Black directors.

I’m really proud of this one, so please spread it far and wide. It’s an important convo that’s been sadly absent from the Oscars discourse this year.

10.03.2026 15:35 πŸ‘ 72 πŸ” 33 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 2

"work it surfaces" is certainly one way to describe nonconsenually scraping work and using it to train an AI agent to scramble it up, vomit up some wild nonsense, and then attribute it to real professional humans with years of experience in a way that implies they agreed to be used that way.

11.03.2026 18:22 πŸ‘ 53 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

It really is!

11.03.2026 17:51 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Bleak House serial numbers

Bleak House serial numbers

hard cover volume of Bleak House

hard cover volume of Bleak House

These are the same "book"

11.03.2026 16:57 πŸ‘ 229 πŸ” 57 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 6

Worth forever reiterating that most of the "long" novels of the 19th century were not received as long at the time, but generally as subdivided shorter works, sometimes something we would consider more like a comic book than a terrifying doorstop.

11.03.2026 16:56 πŸ‘ 303 πŸ” 67 πŸ’¬ 19 πŸ“Œ 15
Preview
Sean Penn, Please Don’t Skip the Oscars Leonardo DiCaprio's 'One Battle After Another' costar may be a no-show on Oscar night. Here's why that would be a mistake

This is a weird column!

Via Variety

11.03.2026 16:26 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Always weird to me when a set of researchers swoop in to do a study on an area and then disappear in a cloud of smoke while the rest of us just keep chipping away at projects trying to better understand the issue

11.03.2026 14:44 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

I find Ryan Murphy’s preoccupations deeply boring. It’s a shame he’s responsible for so much TV getting made right now!

11.03.2026 14:11 πŸ‘ 57 πŸ” 16 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Capturing famed Chatham cleaners is a point of pride for some artists "I've always been inspired by the building and the sign," artist Brandon Breaux said. "It tells the South Side story."

Today's architecture column. "Pride Cleaners is the kind of attention-grabbing roadside modernism found in places like Palm Springs, California, and not often in broad shouldered Chicago. A building like that is bound to fire-up an artist’s imagination."

11.03.2026 12:05 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
media deals set a benchmark, and the NFL, which controls the most popular programming on TV, wants its piece. The result will be billions more dollars flowing annually from the entertainment giants to the NFL.

"It does not appear that anyone will
emerge from the process unscathed" Bernstein analyst Laurent Yoon wrote Feb. 26.

The impact will be felt across Hollywood. A senior agency source says that they are preparing for "significant" pullback in entertainment content spend. Stars "will get paid, but the fear is that it will be harder for anyone not already established to break in, and middle-class talent could be hit hardest of all.

media deals set a benchmark, and the NFL, which controls the most popular programming on TV, wants its piece. The result will be billions more dollars flowing annually from the entertainment giants to the NFL. "It does not appear that anyone will emerge from the process unscathed" Bernstein analyst Laurent Yoon wrote Feb. 26. The impact will be felt across Hollywood. A senior agency source says that they are preparing for "significant" pullback in entertainment content spend. Stars "will get paid, but the fear is that it will be harder for anyone not already established to break in, and middle-class talent could be hit hardest of all.

I have a lot of issues with football β€” a league predicated young men getting ruinous brain trauma while a handful of rich people get even richer β€” but now add in that the NFL is likely gonna result in fewer TV/film projects made, screwing over everyone in Hollywood who isn’t a big name/wealthy star

11.03.2026 14:05 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
David Zaslav Gets the Last Laugh The Warner Bros. mogul’s $111 billion deal with David Ellison reveals the next stage of the business: The rich get richer, the big get bigger and everybody else is left in the dust.

David Zaslav Gets the Last Laugh: The Warner Bros. mogul’s $111 billion deal with David Ellison reveals the next stage of the business: The rich get richer, the big get bigger and everybody else is left in the dust.

Quits a headline

Via THR

11.03.2026 13:57 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Her image β€” how she styles herself β€” is so consistent that this idea that she’s doing something artistically creative with her look each time is very lol!

It’s hard to write something interesting about profoundly uninteresting people. But a good journalist should at least have a point of view!

11.03.2026 13:47 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Roseberry tells me. "I imagine her playing with her beauty like a producer in a recording studio. She's turning the bass up, the treble down, cranking the volume at this part, adding distortion in this moment. But whatever it is, it's drop-dead dialed-in gorgeous. We are watching a woman at play with herself and her own image."

Roseberry tells me. "I imagine her playing with her beauty like a producer in a recording studio. She's turning the bass up, the treble down, cranking the volume at this part, adding distortion in this moment. But whatever it is, it's drop-dead dialed-in gorgeous. We are watching a woman at play with herself and her own image."

Even by celebrity puff piece standards this profile of Kylie Jenner is pretty incurious and the photos are dull but this quote is actually embarrassing for all involved β€” Kylie, Roseberry, the writer of this piece …

www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/st...

11.03.2026 13:39 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
A photo of the Chicago skyline at night with a tangle of bright lighting lignite gap the night sky during a thunderstorm

A photo of the Chicago skyline at night with a tangle of bright lighting lignite gap the night sky during a thunderstorm

Boom! Had a great ight show over the skyline tonight. Here’s my first big lightning shot of the season.

This is a 2-frame composite. Best as I can tell, two large, branching bolts struck the eastern antenna mast of the Hancock. #wxsky #ilwx

11.03.2026 03:36 πŸ‘ 861 πŸ” 245 πŸ’¬ 23 πŸ“Œ 27
triptych of multiple lightning photos

triptych of multiple lightning photos

Yes! Each one could have stood on their own, but I figured...why post two similar photos next to one another when I can make one haha. Blend is in the middle, hopefully obviously. =

11.03.2026 04:02 πŸ‘ 46 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0