Shawn Cooke
Mic
Pittsburgh, PA, United States
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Past articles by Shawn:
Movie theaters just might make it after all
In the beginning, it was easy to both underestimate and overestimate the extent to which everything would change. Now that we’re one year out from the pandemic, it’s quaint to remember even the most hopeful entertainment prognosticators thinking… → Read More
7 foreign movies to stream if you miss traveling
We’re getting closer to better days — the weather’s warming up, vaccines are being distributed in the millions per day, and there’s a genuine chance that this summer could be significantly better than the last. This doesn’t mean things are going… → Read More
Even Hollywood's elite directors are freaking out over this bowling alley drone video
One generation had the “Copa take” from Goodfellas; and the next might have the Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater drone shot. This week, a short video filmed in a Minneapolis bowling alley circulated heavily on social media, and it’s the rare viral… → Read More
Prince William says the royals are "very much not a racist family," no matter what you might think
Coming into Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday night, it was hard to imagine the blast radius extending so far. In just a few short days, Buckingham Palace is still sweeping up the shrapnel, Piers Morgan is… → Read More
'Cocaine Bear' is the movie we didn't know we desperately needed
If an elevator pitch is good enough, two words are all you need. Cocaine bear? Cocaine bear! Sold. It might have taken a bit more to get this one across the finish line at Universal, but the movie is in fact happening. As The Hollywood Reporter… → Read More
Doja Cat's "Streets" video harnesses the horny power of a thousand #SilhouetteChallenge TikToks
Sometimes the TikTok trend chooses you. Doja Cat hasn’t had to tailor her songs to viral dance challenges, because they just seem to find their way back to her 2019 album, Hot Pink, anyway. After “Say So” generated billions of plays on the platform,… → Read More
The Meghan and Harry special introduced U.K. viewers to the horrors of U.S. health care
It’s hard to imagine how you might configure a Twitter feed that wasn’t inundated with posts about Prince Harry and Meghan and Markle’s splashy sit-down with Oprah by Monday morning. On Sunday, Meghan and Harry bulldozed whatever was left of… → Read More
Drake's 'Scary Hours 2' is an icy banger about banging
When it comes to enormous pop stars sending discreet messages to their fans, Drake, well, isn’t always the most discreet. So calling something Scary Hours 2 — a sequel to the EP that preceded the gargantuan double-album Scorpion and spawned "God’s… → Read More
Award shows are useless. Why don't we just get rid of them?
No matter your vantage point, there’s almost never a good reason to ascribe coherent ideology to the ebbs and flows of TV ratings. They’re usually headed in one direction — down — and that isn’t due to any lib-owning or other unified political… → Read More
What are NFTs, and why is everyone suddenly talking about them?
Let’s be clear about this much — money is fake, and can be anything to anyone. But in the wake of cryptocurrencies, there’s now an even more porous type of luxury item for fans to trade and invest in online: NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. What are… → Read More
Dr. Seuss isn't "canceled," no matter what grumpy conservatives say
After a Virginia school district and the Biden administration recently disentangled Dr. Seuss from “Read Across America Day,” which occurs on the author’s birthday, six Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published. The call came from Dr. Seuss… → Read More
The Golden Globes were basically just a messy Zoom happy hour
The Golden Globes are always the Oscars’ unbuttoned, freewheeling, tipsy cousin, so why would you expect it to go any differently over Zoom? With Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting on separate coasts and a vast majority of winners holed up in their… → Read More
Seth Rogen proudly announced his “life’s work”: a weed company
Nobody’s boiled their public persona down to the pandemic essentials quite like Seth Rogen. Refining his favorite hobbies in quarantine — making ceramic pottery, skinning Ted Cruz alive on Twitter, watching House Hunters, and smoking a ton of weed —… → Read More
Some monster shot Lady Gaga's dog walker and stole her French bulldogs
On Thursday morning, TMZ reported that an unknown sicko attacked and shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker in Hollywood last night, before kidnapping two of her French bulldogs. The doggies in question, Koji and Gustav, were also walked with a third, which… → Read More
Post Malone's Hootie and the Blowfish cover to honor Pokémon is actually kind of good?
Post Malone will forever be the most Mad Libs-y artist working in music. Post Malone raises more than $2 million for COVID relief with a Nirvana covers livestream? Oh sure. Post Malone joins the rest of the Bud Light Cinematic Universe for its… → Read More
'Jeopardy!' executive producer Mike Richards just might be The One
Before Alex Trebek was even in the ground, betting markets began to speculate on his successor. You had your obvious, long-rumored choices — Ken Jennings, who just took hosting duties for six weeks, and George Stephanopoulos — along with the more… → Read More
Meek Mill really didn't need to riff on dying like Kobe Bryant
Just days after posting that “‘attention’ is the most addictive drug known to mankind,” Meek Mill sure managed to secure some for himself. It’s been three years since his last proper album, Championships, and he’s been teasing a new project of some… → Read More
Cardi B gets interviewed by Mariah Carey, realizes she's a "real ass bitch" too
Celebrity-on-celebrity interviews tend to be soft, uninteresting fare — which makes Cardi B and Mariah Carey's phone call for Interview Magazine even more of a triumph for avoiding that fate. The pair sat down to ramp up interest ahead of Cardi’s… → Read More
Daft Punk is calling it quits after a 28-year run
After 28 years of shaking bodies in the desert and clubs around the world, Daft Punk have called it quits, their publicist confirmed to Variety. On Monday, Feb. 22, the Parisian duo posted an eight-minute video to YouTube titled “Epilogue,”… → Read More
TikTokers are trying to prove that snow is a government conspiracy
TikTok is no monolith. Within one app, you can listen to enchanting sea shanties, learn how to regain your sense of smell after having COVID-19, and, apparently, watch a bunch of people try to convince you that the snow in Texas is fake. As Texas… → Read More