Fran Hoepfner, Vulture Journalist Profile

Articles

What Was the Real Point of the Blue Origin Flight?

1 week ago | vulture.com | Fran Hoepfner

It seems crazy that everyone wore their hair down. Remember when Olivia Munn asked, “What are you doing up there? What’s the point? Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride?” of Blue Origin’s all-female space crew?
What Happened During the Blue Origin Celebrity Space Flight

1 week ago | vulture.com | Rebecca Alter |Justin Curto |Fran Hoepfner |Zoe Haylock

10 … 9 … 8 … 7 … 6 … 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 … Swish swish, bish! At 9:30 a.m. ET, life didn’t imitate art, but it did at least imitate The Morning Show, as morning television host Gayle King was finally shot into space for the content, alongside fellow intrepid girl-bosses Lauren Sanchez, Katy Perry, Amanda Nguyen, Kerianne Flynn, and actual rocket scientist Aisha Bowe. The historic event is currently being broadcast on CBS, and Vulture bloggers are rapt.
What Should a Second Season of ‘The Baldwins’ Look Like?

1 week ago | vulture.com | Fran Hoepfner

Amid vague and unpredictable societal collapse, there is one question that plagues the cultural landscape: Will The Baldwins return for a second season? The Discovery+ docuseries followed Alec and Hilaria Baldwin, to say nothing of their myriad children and animals, for a stressful summer during which the actor sat trial in New Mexico for the 2021 shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the Rust set and then returned to New York to reckon with his life ahead.
Will We Ever Know The Drama Behind ‘The White Lotus?’

2 weeks ago | vulture.com | Fran Hoepfner

Do you know what happened here? Please contact our tip line. “Unemployed ppl be like did you see Walton Goggins unfollowed Aimee Lou Wood,” posted X user @Virg0venus (a handle Chelsea from The White Lotus would love). While the dig feels especially pointed toward those who actually scroll Instagram at their job, the joke stands. In the aftermath of The White Lotus’s season-three finale, X, Reddit, and Instagram are awash with theories about the cast’s behind-the-scenes drama.
Jack Lowden Is Your New Mr. Darcy in ‘Pride and Predjudice’

2 weeks ago | vulture.com | Fran Hoepfner

If he’s good enough for Saoirse … Into each generation a Darcy is born: Gen X has Colin Firth, millennials have Matthew Macfadyen, and now Gen Z will have Jack Lowden in a new six-part Netflix adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen’s beloved romantic comedy. Darcy is a high-stakes character — a brooding snob turned gentle softie who wins the heart of plucky Elizabeth Bennet who long thought of herself as above marriage and relationships.
Meta Wants You to Text M3gan Chatbot While Watching ‘M3gan’

2 weeks ago | vulture.com | Fran Hoepfner

This is not a face that screams “DM me to activate a unique viewing experience.” I’m 33 years old and I’m afraid of texting M3gan, the menacing robot child who stole our hearts and the box office in January 2023. M3gan can dance, play, and kill, and she’ll return in M3gan 2.0 in June. But before all that, Blumhouse hopes to rekindle interest in the series by rereleasing the first film in theaters with a new feature that encourages viewers to text with M3gan.
Lorde Is Back and She’s Teasing a New Song Ahead of Album

2 weeks ago | vulture.com | Fran Hoepfner

Lorde returns. Every four years: a presidential election, a leap year, a Lorde album. Though Lorde hasn’t exactly been off the grid since her 2021 release, Solar Power —her cameo on Brat catapulted Charli XCX’s album into instant-classic territory — she’s definitely kept quiet, as she often does between touring and releasing music.
What to Watch This April, and What to Save for Streaming

2 weeks ago | vulture.com | Fran Hoepfner

Just dudes makin’ movies. From January to early May of most years, we get a sprinkling of silliness at the movie theater. As everyone collectively recovers from their awards-season hangover, a healthy dose of schlock arrives over the first months of the year. These are the Diet Coke and French fries of movies — pure, unfiltered entertainment, often consisting of building-go-boom-type narratives in lieu of capital-T Themes-driven work.
What Is the Deal With Fabian on The White Lotus?

3 weeks ago | vulture.com | Fran Hoepfner

What’s German for “let him cook”? Christian Friedel has the range. Week to week on season three of The White Lotus, Friedel grants resort manager Fabian with a restless sense of order. He skulks around, as tense as a man in a tunic can be, shoulders sharp and uneasy. Compare that, perhaps, to Friedel’s turn in last year’s Oscar-winning The Zone of Interest, where he plays high-ranking Nazi officer Rudolf Höss with a cool, flippant menace.
ABC, Please Let Doctor Odyssey Sail On

3 weeks ago | vulture.com | Fran Hoepfner

They keep him Max but we all know his legal name is Doctor Odyssey. The Pitt has its real-time accuracy. Pulse has its illicit, post-MeToo romance. 9-1-1 Lone Star had the scene where a woman gets a harmonica stuck in her mouth. These are all well and good, but none of them depict the medical emergencies that may occur on a luxury cruise liner called The Odyssey gliding through the Caribbean.