John Oliver Conducted Probably the Toughest Interview with Edward Snowden

TV Tattle

John Oliver conducted probably the toughest interview with Edward Snowden
The “Last Week Tonight” host traveled to Russia last week to grill the NSA whistleblower. And as Marlow Stern notes, Oliver didn’t pull any punches: “It took a comedian to get Snowden to crack.”

CIA tweets: “Good riddance, Carrie Mathison”
The NY Times’ Maureen Dowd wrote a column on the Homeland character titled, “Good riddance, Carrie Mathison” about how “the C.I.A. sisterhood is fed up with the flock of fictional C.I.A. women in movies and on TV who guzzle alcohol as they bed hop and drone drop, acting crazed and emotional, sleeping with terrorists and seducing assets.” The CIA’s official Twitter account tweeted a link to the column with its headline.

Did Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt lead to a doctor’s death?
Martin Short’s Botox-loving Kimmy Schmidt character Dr. Sidney Grant was believed to be based on Dr. Fredric Brandt, AKA the “Baron of Botox.” On Sunday, Brandt was found dead of an unknown illness. And according to one reporter, Brandt was “devastated” by Short’s portrayal.

Sesame Street tackles Game of Thrones
Game of Chairs is set in the world of “Jesteros.”

Doctor Who will go on at least 5 more years
Steven Moffat says he expects the BBC series to “do a minimum of 15” years, but is hopeful for more.

Orange Is the New Black‘s Lea DeLaria drops 50 pounds after diabetes diagnosis
DeLaria jokes of her weightloss: “What you need to do is, first contract diabetes. Two, take the medication that they give you for diabetes,”

Olympic gold medal gymnast Gabby Douglas lands a reality show
Oxygen’s Douglas Family Gold will follow Douglas as she vies to compete in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games.

Will Outlander fans approve of wife-spanking?
At one Startz screening, fans cheered at Sunday’s spanking scene.

Watch Queen Latifah in the Bessie trailer
She’ll play the troubled singer in an HBO movie airing May 16.

Top Gear creator dies
Derek Smith, 87, was a BBC documentary producer when he came up with the car show in 1977.