The Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott

The Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott

Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott delivers your weekly dose of pop culture with the Parting Shot. Every week you’ll get celebrity interviews, award show coverage, and the rundown on exactly what to watch, read, and listen to in culture. Consider the Parting Shot your one stop shop for everything pop culture.

Episodes

May 29, 2026 36 mins

With The Comeback's 20-year journey now complete, Laura Silverman joined Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott to reflect on what it meant to play Jane, the documentarian who became the audience's eyes and ears into Valerie Cherish's world. Silverman opens up about her bond with Lisa Kudrow, what it was like to act with her every single day and how she found her way into a character that was never overanalyzed, just felt. Plus, the sto...

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Andrew Scott sat down with Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott to talk ‘Pressure,’ the WWII film where he plays James Stagg, the meteorologist who convinced Eisenhower to delay D-Day. We talk about his approach to complicated characters, why he's never interested in being liked on screen, his career and the kinds of projects he can't say no to. Plus he defends British people and their weather obsession and honestly? He's not wrong.&n...

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Oscar-winner Allison Janney, Andrew Rannells and writer-director Jim Rash sit down with Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott to talk about HBO's ‘Miss You, Love You,’ a dark comedy about grief, estrangement and the unlikely bond between two strangers at a funeral. Janney and Rannells break down how they prepared for the role, why they memorized the entire script before day one and what made this one of the most satisfying projects of ...

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Writer and producer Our Lady J, also known as Yona Speidel, talks The Burroughs, queer storytelling, career pivots and why she's done chasing one lane. This is a great chat if you’ve ever been interested in pursuing a career in the entertainment industry.  

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Judith Light talks The Terror: Devil in Silver on AMC+/Shudder, career reinvention and why there's nothing to get in life — only what you can give. If you grew up with her on Who’s the Boss? or were moved by her performance in Transparent, then this chat is for you.  

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Luke Gulbranson went from Summer House to the campaign trail. Now he's running for Congress in Minnesota and making his case. 

"Congress doesn't work for the people. It works for the party, it works for the president, it works with private and special interests. I'm sick of it,” Gulbranson told Newsweek.  

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Director Adam Shankman on Stop! That! Train!, bringing comedy back to theaters and why stupidity is exactly what we need. 

"I hope I did my part to drag that into our current time," he told Newsweek. "It's unapologetically queer, but I made it for everybody." 

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Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey on World of Wonder, Stop! That! Train! and why RuPaul was born to lead a disaster movie. 

In a media landscape that Bailey describes as its own disaster movie, "tectonic, seismic change" and all, Stop! That! Train! is their answer: an hour and a half of joyful, unapologetic stupidity at a moment when joy feels like its own act of resistance. "There is power in that," Barbato said. "It's ...

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Will Sharpe has been on a roll since White Lotus, and now he's taking on one of fiction's most iconic roles — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Starz original series ‘Amadeus.’ Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott chats with Sharpe about keeping Mozart grounded, the chemistry with co-star Paul Bettany and what it's like to navigate a career that just keeps getting bigger. 

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Tony and Emmy winner Laurie Metcalf reflects on her remarkable Broadway season, Death of a Salesman, co-star Nathan Lane and the enduring legacy of Roseanne’s Aunt Jackie. 

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Sally Field opens up about playing Tova in Netflix's Remarkably Bright Creatures, based on the bestselling book—a story about loneliness, loss and an unlikely bond with an octopus. (Yes, an octopus.) “It has always been hard for me to find roles that I wanted to do, even in supposedly the prime of my motion picture career,” Field told Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott. 

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Michelle Pfeiffer and Nick Offerman talk Apple TV’s Margo's Got Money Troubles, working with David E. Kelley and that infamous Catwoman Oscars snub for Batman Returns. (She was robbed!) This is one you’re not going to want to miss.  

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Richard Gadd follows Baby Reindeer with Half Man, an HBO limited series about two repressed ‘brothers’ in Glasgow. “I came up with the two characters ,and I couldn't shake them.” 

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Jessica Vosk on stepping into Bette Midler's legacy with the Broadway musical ‘Beaches’ and why she's not your typical Broadway girl. 

"There's a lot of C.C. [Bloom] in Jessica," Vosk said. "A person who is so focused, blinders on, true grit, willing to just crawl through the mud by yourself to get to where you want to go. I also base a lot of my life on self-deprecating comedy.&...

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Before Friday's MTV finale, the top three queens of RuPaul's Drag Race season 18 join H. Alan Scott to reflect on their path to the crown. Darlene Mitchell, Nini Coco and Myki Meeks talk about Snatch Game wins, lip sync battles, the now-iconic banana bag of tricks and the sensible shoes that became a season-long talking point. They open up about the friendships forged in the workroom, the breakout moments that&nb...

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Lisa Rinna has made a career out of saying yes, and it's working. The actress, author and reality television icon joins us to talk about her New York Times bestselling memoir, ‘You Better Believe I'm Gonna Talk About It,’ her reinvention on ‘The Traitors,’ why COVID dance videos changed everything, and how she knew it was time to walk away from ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.’ Plus: what's&...

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Billy Magnussen has spent the past twenty years adding diverse roles to his resume, and ‘The Audacity’ is emblematic of an actor coming into his own. Magnussen joins H. Alan Scott to talk about playing tech CEO Duncan Park in AMC's buzzy new series: why no character is a villain in their own story, how he built a man whose good intentions curdled into greed, and what it feels like to finally b...

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What’s going on with reality TV? Why is it so... bad right now? Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott is joined by Newsweek colleagues (and reality TV fanatics) Jenni Fink and Lauren Giella to break down the state of reality television. From oversaturation and the YouTube disruption to the kumbaya effect killing our favorite franchises, they get into why reality TV is at a turning point and what it's going to take t...

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This week, the internet handed conservatives two gifts wrapped in irony, and they opened both boxes with a press release and a cease-and-desist threat that didn't even exist. Druski's two-minute sketch about "conservative women" racked up over 160 million views on X alone — and the right responded with outrage instead of self-awareness. Then the Daily Mail dropped a report claiming Kristi Noem's husband...

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CBS News journalist David Begnaud has spent decades telling other people's stories. Now he's building something of his own. Begnaud joins the Parting Shot Podcast to talk about launching Do Good Crew, his new media company anchored by the podcast The Person Who Believed in Me, which has already featured Oprah Winfrey, Barry Diller and Ava DuVernay. He breaks down how he landed Oprah as his deb...

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