• Not everyone was initially "All About That Bass." Meghan Trainor, the 20-year-old who is having a pop culture moment with the song about body acceptance, said she initially wrote the track and pitched it to other artists but was turned away. "Labels were like, 'We love it, but you have to reproduce it. You got to get it more synth-y, pop-y,'" said Trainor, who worked with producer Kevin Kadish on "Bass." "We looked at each other like 'Man, I thought this was a hit, but I guess not.'" Things changed when record executive L.A. Reid heard the doo-wop pop song and told Trainor she should be the voice behind it. He signed the budding songwriter to Epic Records after hearing her sing "Bass" while playing the ukulele. This week, the song jumped 20 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart to No. 8. The single has sold 389,719 copies so far in five weeks, and the music video has 10 million views and climbing. "Bass" features standout lines like "It's pretty clear, I ain't no size two," "I'm bringing booty back" and "Yeah, my momma, she told me don't worry about your size." Trainor said she's ecstatic and humbled that young girls have gravitated to the song. "I tear up, and I call my mom like 'Did you see that? Did you read that one?' because some girls are like 'I've hated myself. I hated life. I didn't want to go to school. I get bullied. And then I heard your song and I cried,'" she said. "They say they cried because they're happy and they dance around the room. And I was just like, 'What?' It's crazy."
• Elisabeth Moss won't say whether she'll be joining the second season of True Detective, but she calls HBO's mystery series "a fantastic show." The 31-year-old Mad Men and Top of the Lake star is among a handful of actors rumored to appear in the next installment of the anthology series. Its second season will take place in California and is distinct from the Emmy-nominated first season starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Moss said in an interview Thursday that she's been "a fan of HBO since the get-go" and has "seen everything" on the network. But she wouldn't discuss whether she's up for a role. She was promoting her role in the indie film The One I Love, which also stars Mark Duplass and is set for limited release Aug. 22.
A Section on 08/09/2014