It’s no secret that working at Saturday Night Live is really hard. From the pressure of performing live and delivering a new show every week to waiting and waiting to see if you get on to the next season, there are tons of reasons why it causes anxiety. Now, Conan O’Brien has opened up about that, how it was worse years ago, and how Adam Sandler helped change the vibe to make work more fun.
This conversation came up when Conan O’Brien was talking to Andy Samberg about how stressful SNL 50was and the digital short he made for it about anxiety (which you can stream with a Peacock subscription). It’s a topic that cast members aren’t afraid to talk about, and many have gotten candid about just how stressful and grueling the gig is.
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, the podcast’s host got real about the anxiety he experienced while working on one of the best sketch comedy shows of all time, explaining:
Brooklyn Nine-Nine star asked if that generation was the last to face the really “intense and gritty” energy, and he confirmed that it was, which is how Adam Sandler comes into all this. O’Brien said:
I was in that state of mind, and I think, you know, [Robert] Smigel and [Bob] Odenkirk and Greg Daniels were like, ‘It’s life or death.’ And it feels like that’s kind of how everyone feels. And this guy named Adam Sandler showed up one day and he’s like, he kept talking about ‘Let’s go get a milkshake.’
During their chat, O’Brien also confirmed Samberg’s assumption about the NBC show being more “competitive and grimy” during that time. However, things started to change when the Happy Gilmore star showed up, as he joked:
He was like, ‘This is so much fun to be at SNL. Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it. Yippee!’ And he had that, ‘I’m going to do Opera Man. I’m going to do this. I’m going to do that. This is great, guys!’
There’s no question, Adam Sandler is an SNL legend who made a huge impact in the five seasons he was there. That’s evident in his sketches; however, this story from Conan also illustrates how his positive attitude played into it too. Ultimately, it at least helped the former writer realize that working at this show could be a good time. And while talking about how his colleague had fun on the NBC series and his own movies, he explained:
This is a possibility? You can like this?
Overall, I think two things can be true at the same time. You can love the work, and it can be extremely hard. That’s a mentality that’s seemingly been maintained on SNL since day one. Samberg noted that too in this episode, as he explained that while he adored working on the show, the intensity of it didn’t make it sustainable long-term.
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Saturday Night Live truly is a beast of a production, and working on it is no easy feat. However, it can also be a grand ol’ time, which is what Adam Sandler made it. And it seems like he helped change things for the better for the folks who followed in his footsteps.
The Final Reckoning may have wrapped the Mission: Impossible franchise with its 2025 movies release, but not before the movies produced a slew of iconic scenes in which Tom Cruise hung onto the sides of moving planes, avoided lasers, scaled the Burj Khalifa, chased and got chased on motorcycles and so much more. Amidst these, the Burj Khalifa scene has always been a standout for me personally, and I just found out it was basically written on the fly by Christopher McQuarrie himself.
That Burj Khalifa Scene Was Not Fully Scripted When Ghost Protocol Went Into Production
Paramount’s CinemaCon rundown earlier this year, Cruise apparently talked about McQ showing up on the set of Ghost Protocol while they were trying to figure out the particularly challenging scene, one he called a bit of a “Rubrik’s cube.” Christopher McQuarrie wasn’t helming the movie, Brad Bird was, and he wasn’t credited as a writer on the film, either, but Cruise brought him on board without even getting a greenlight first.
At this point in the film I’d already shot most of the action but I knew I did not have the structural foundation yet. … You’re constantly challenging your story… Films aren’t just on the page, they’re a living, breathing thing. You just have to constantly stay on top of and discover. So we’re a good way though filming and I called McQ and I said, ‘Hey please you gotta come help me.’
Though he would later basically become synonymous with the franchise, then-director Brad Bird and co-star Simon Pegg apparently didn’t even know who McQuarrie was during his first trip to the set. Yet, Cruise knew the famous scene where he was expected to climb the Burj Khalifa wearing only a pair of gloves was not working and he knew McQ could write them out of this pickle. As he told crowds at the event:
well-reviewed The Final Reckoning, which Tom Cruise confirmed marks the final outing in the franchise as a whole.
It’s wild to think about Mission: Impossible stunts not being carefully crafted at the start, but even since the Brad Bird era, a lot was being done on the fly. The scene worked, and Cruise told crowds his newfound pal would later do punch up scripts for other movies, including infamously World War Z, but also other Tom Cruise flicks Edge of Tomorrow and Top Gun: Maverick.
The two clearly work well as a duo, with Cruise admitting sometimes he pushes McQuarrie to make M:I changes too, and with Ethan Hunt getting a mostly happy ending, I’m interested to see where their partnership goes next.
Spoilers for Season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty are ahead! You can catch new episodes every Wednesday on Prime Video.
The third and final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty is now airing for those with an Amazon Prime subscription, and even though we’re just four episodes in, there has been a lot to talk about. One of the biggest points of conversation revolves around if Belly and Jeremiah were really on a break during his trip to Cabo, a la Friends. The love triangle between Conrad, Belly, and Jeremiah is always a hot topic, and Team Conrad and Team Jeremiah have been debating this situation specifically since the books came out. And now, Belly actress Lola Tung and the books’ author Jenny Han have shared their takes.
they were on a break.
This situation has caused a huge stir online, especially in recent weeks since the season premiered on the 2025 TV schedule, and fans aren’t the only ones putting in their two cents. Tung, who plays the aforementioned Belly Conklin, told The Spill Podcastwhat she thinks, and she’s siding with her character:
I don’t think they were on a break. I don’t think there was enough of a conversation. But again, what happened, whether or not they were on a break, it was still hurtful, and I think Jeremiah knows that.
I certainly agree that there wasn’t enough communication. The reason for the break or not break in the first place was that Belly got upset Jeremiah didn’t tell her that he was going to Cabo not just with the fraternities, but with the sororities. He then got upset that she was upset and, in the heat of the moment, broke things off.
It’s a case of miscommunication, and Han, who wrote The Summer I Turned Pretty books that the series is based on and serves as the showrunner on the series, shared a similar take:
I think that Jeremiah did think that they were broken up. I think she didn’t. But even if they were broken up, I think it would be very hurtful if your partner of several years and someone that you’ve known your whole life, then hooked up with somebody else like a few days after broke up, that’s still isn’t great.
Both Han and Tung make good points, and I am right there with them. While they were technically broken up, Jeremiah still went and hooked up with somebody else just days after their supposed breakup. Then, he returned home and gave Belly a gift like it never even happened. She had to hear it from someone else accidentally that he had hooked up with a girl in Cabo. At this point, Belly just needs a break from everything.
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In my own opinion, it wasn’t technically cheating since they were broken up, but again, Belly doesn’t think they were actually broken up, and Jeremiah thinks they were. Regardless, he still got with someone days after their fight, then kept it a secret, and that is a pretty awful thing to do. It just proves that communication is the biggest part of the relationship, and Season 3 has definitely been showing how important it is.
The scales have tipped on The Summer I Turned Pretty, and as a Team Conrad girl who has also read the books, I cannot be more excited for what’s to come. Even though I’m worried about how the final season will go, especially since Han has previously said the ending is different from the book, there will probably still be a whole lot more to look forward to…as long as there isn’t more miscommunication.
Grieving Mother Fever Dream Horror ‘Lilly Lives Alone’ Official Trailer
by Alex Billington August 1, 2025 Source: YouTube
“Unfolds like a series of distant memories asking to be dissected by the viewer.” But does that make for a good film? Dark Sky Films has debuted the official trailer for an indie horror film titled Lilly Lives Alone, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Martin Melnick. It’s set to arrive to watch in August this summer including on VOD right away. Ten years after her daughter’s tragic death, Lilly’s world is tearing apart so she hides in a corner of her town. The traumatic ghosts of her past are waking up and tonight she must face the depths of her manic madness and a haunting she won’t soon forget. The film stars Shannon Beeby as the titular Lilly, with Jeffrey Combs, Ryan Jonze, Erin Way, & Karla Mason. This initially premiered at the 2024 Brookyln Horror Film Festival last year, though reviews aren’t great – and it doesn’t look like there’s much to see in this anyway. Yet another horror about grief without anything unique to offer.
Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Martin Melnick’s horror Lilly Lives Alone, from YouTube:
After the death of her child, Lilly (Shannon Beeby) runs away to hide in a lonely corner of her small town. Living alone, she struggles to cope with the traumatic memories of her own upbringing. Ten years after her daughter’s death, the fabric of Lilly’s world is tearing apart. The ghosts of her past are waking up and tonight she must face the depths of her manic madness and a haunting she won’t soon forget.Lilly Lives Alone is written and directed by the indie genre filmmaker Martin Melnick, making his feature directorial debut after many other short films previously; he also works as a colorist on indie films. Produced by Sarah Johnston. This first premiered at the 2024 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival last year. Dark Sky Films debuts Melnick’s Lilly Lives Alone film in select US theaters + on VOD starting August 22nd, 2025. Look scary?
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Arriving on Disney+ on August 1st, ‘Eyes of Wakanda’ represents both the latest animated offering from the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe and another spin-off from Ryan Coogler’s successful ‘Black Panther’ movies.
The series, directed and executive produced by close Coogler collaborator Todd Harris (‘Sinners’, features the voices of Cress Williams (‘Black Lightning’), Winnie Harlow (‘The Perfect Find’), Anika Noni Rose (‘The Princess and the Frog’), Steve Toussaint (‘House of the Dragon’) and more.
If ‘Ironheart’ was a decently entertaining spin-off featuring the character of Riri Williams, a comic character who got her MCU big screen introduction in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ but got lost in the shuffle of that busy sequel, ‘Eyes of Wakanda’ goes further and broader in a way only animation can achieve.
This series presents as an anthology show set across different time periods, but is ultimately linked by the presence of the Hatut Zaraze –– the “War Dog” operatives who undertake special covert missions outside of Wakanda’s borders (you might recall Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia as one such agent in the original ‘Black Panther’.
The links go deeper than that, but we won’t spoil anything here.
Under the guidance of Harris (with Coogler on hand to offer input) and lead writer Geoffrey Thorne, the series is an entertaining, ambitious look at the War Dogs through different chunks of history, from ancient China to the battle of Troy.
While the stakes are high, the scripts are leavened with wit and lighter touches, and even offer an intriguing new avenue to one character whose legacy is not exactly beloved by Marvel fans. We won’t specify who exactly, but suffice to say they made their screen debut back in the Netflix days, and are presented in very different form here.
‘Eyes of Wakanda’s stories hang together well, and the battles features are exciting. The style of the show certainly fits with ‘Black Panther’s existing design framework and expands the look to include historical touches and inventive tech.
Highlights from the voice cast including Winnie Harlow as Noni, a rebellious former Dora Milaje whose mission is effectively her job interview for the War Dogs, and Cress Williams, who plays a few characters, with the focus on The Lion, a former Wakandan warrior who has turned to the life of a pirate.
Elsewhere, there is good work from the likes of Steve Toussaint and Jona Xiao –– but again, we can’t talk about her character.
Though the major link between the stories aren’t immediately apparent, there is enough connective tissue and watchability within the separate episodes to make them all worth watching.
You don’t really have to have seen anything beyond ‘Black Panther’ to enjoy it, and it’s a healthy dose of diversity within the MCU.
“Every mission shapes a legacy.”
What’s the plot of ‘Eyes of Wakanda’?
Follow the adventures of brave Wakandan warriors throughout history in this globe-trotting adventure where they must carry out dangerous missions to retrieve Vibranium artifacts from the enemies of Wakanda.
They are the Hatut Zaraze and this is their story.
