Dear Gossips,
Two LaineyGossip favorites sat on a couch together, as both Kirsten Dunst and John Cho appeared onThe Late Late Show with James Cordenlast night. As Corden notes, both appear in the 1997 filmWag the Dog, though Cho is quick to clarify that he was basically an extra, while Dunst had a proper role and shared a scene with Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman. It’s an interesting contrast, the child star turned prestige actress enjoying the “work when I want” phase of her career, and Cho only just now getting leading man roles, well into his forties. In some ways different and others, the same, the industry works against them, but both have found their own ways forward. Now, Dunst is a Best Supporting Actress contender, and Cho hasCowboy Bebopon Netflix, and a novel coming out next year.
It’s calledTroublemaker(check out an excerpthere), and it’s about a boy who tries to help his dad in a misguided way during the 1992 LA riots. You can feel the exact moment Cho gets too real for theCordenaudience, who literally do not seem to know how to react to John Cho talking about anti-Asian racism and how the events of 2020 derailed his original writing plan and led toTroublemaker. I would love to see Cho talk about this with someone better equipped to handle that conversation than James Corden, hopefully we will get to next year whenTroublemakercomes out.
In the meantime, we can enjoy the mini-Dunst and Cho renaissances, as Dunst hasThe Power of the Dogcoming in December, and probably also an appearance inSpider-Man: No Way Home. And Cho hasCowboy Bebopand his novel, and at some point, that cursed fourthStar Trekmovie that keeps getting pushed back. It would be great if, by the time that movie happens, John Cho is just too busy to play fourth fiddle to Chris Pine.
Live long and gossip,
Sarah
