This Week in Gossip (May 31)

Is Tom Hardy in or out of MobLand? Fjord wins Cannes. Brad Pitt’s kids still hate him. Homelander fans are dumb.

Did Tom Hardy Quit MobLand or Was He Fired?

I really should watch MobLand. It's my duty as a Guy Ritchie apologist, but it's also a surprisingly big hit, one of the most popular things on Paramount+ that isn't part of the Taylor Sheridan cowboy universe. The gangster drama stars Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and, at least for the first two seasons, Tom Hardy. He was the headliner when the show began, but his older co-stars got the better reviews. And now, Hardy is apparently out. A third season is in development, and Hardy has quit. Or he's been fired. Or everything is fine. Who knows?!

Puck reported that Hardy had “friction” with showrunner and writer Jez Butterworth, and that his chronic lateness had created numerous tensions, particularly between himself and his co-stars. The Daily Mail then claimed that Hardy had pissed off Mirren with his “arrogant” behaviour. Hardy wanted out so, reportedly, Paramount sacked him. “You can’t quit, you’re fired,” indeed. But then Variety reported that Hardy was "not fired" and discussions were underway for his return. Mirren then shared the most hilariously half-arsed Instagram post in support of Hardy, wherein she clearly googled his name and picked the first image available.

A lot of the reports on this feel like a power play from Paramount. Stuff this messy is typically kept as secret as possible unless something really awful happened. The Hollywood Reporter added to the heat by claiming that Hardy had not officially been let go, and his fate was still up in the air. A third season hasn’t officially been greenlit yet, so there’s a solid chance that Hardy could return to MobLand. But they also alleged that he'd refuse to come out of his trailer for hours at a time, which his co-stars described as career-killing sh*t.

It's no surprise to anyone who knows anything about Hardy that he's an arse to work with. The production of Mad Max: Fury Road was notoriously a mess in part because Hardy was an obstruction. It got to the point where Charlize Theron was all but ready to off him, just to get the movie done. Hardy may have been the top name on the call sheet when MobLand began, but it was clear that the fans and critics were with Brosnan and Mirren first.

White dudes in Hollywood can get away with a lot when they’ve got power. It’s, alas, the way of things, and not much has changed, even though we were promised something of a reckoning with #MeToo. But it’s also true that we’re in a recession, that making TV shows is expensive, and if your costly star is making those bills go up and he wants out, you’ll be highly incentivized to open the door and tell him to leave. If Hardy really has been a nightmare on this set, as he has a history of being, he shouldn’t be surprised when things fall apart. That Venom clout only goes so far, babe.

I wonder if all the leaks were a way for Hardy to go against Paramount and see who the audience sided with. From what I’ve seen online, people aren’t explicitly anti-Hardy, but they’re not excusing his history of lateness either. I’ve also seen people theorize that this was a smear against Hardy because he’s been vocally pro-Palestine while Mirren is a notorious Zionist. We know that Paramount and the Ellisons are very pro-Israel, and there have been discussions of a blacklist to cut out talent that has expressed outrage at the genocide. I wouldn’t put that past anyone because the Ellisons are awful, but I would also need to see more thorough receipts for that allegation to stick.

Whatever the case, this whole thing has been a fascinating insight into how far “sources” can get a story, and how it can shape the outcome of industry drama. Don’t worry, Tom. My mum still fancies you.

Cannes Ends With a Win for Fjord (and Bald Sebastian Stan)

Another year, another Cannes Film Festival comes to a close. I, being un-fancy and broke, was obviously not there, but that didn’t stop me from speculating wildly on the fest’s big releases and what to expect over the coming months. The jury, headed by Park Chan-wook, chose Fjord, a drama by Romanian director Christian Mungiu, for the Palme d’Or. It’s the director’s second Palme, and it’s Neon’s seventh Palme win IN A ROW as a distributor. A lot of people thought they wouldn’t pull it off in 2026, given that they hadn’t bought up every movie in competition, and a lot of Fjord’s reviews were mixed, but here they are.