“So today, I stand here before you very, very unemployed,” admitted Harlem creator Tracy Oliver today in her speech USC School of Cinematic Arts graduates. “
“Yup, I’m this year’s Mary Pickford recipient and I ain’t got no jobs, my Apple deal was just suspended, I can’t make money as a writer for however long this strike goes on, oh and yeah… just heard Kevin Hart canceled our dinner plans,” the USC alumni added as the second week of the Writers Guild of America’s labor action came to an end.
On a day that also saw commencement remarks from Imagine bosses Ron Howard and Brian Glazer as well as Marvel Studios’ president Kevin Feige, Oliver told the grads to “expect the unexpected” good, bad, hard and rewarding – as you can see in the video above.
“Think of me as your sassy Auntie or big sister who loves you and wants you to win, but who ain’t gonna lie to you,” the Girls Trip co-writer quipped on a day that also saw Disney boss Bob Iger (spouse Willow Bay is the dean of USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism), Black Panther director and USC grad Ryan Coogler, as well as proud parents Barack and Michelle Obama (daughter Sasha graduated today) on campus for the celebrations. “No. That’s what your friends are for. No, I’m what you call a truth teller. Auntie Tracy is here to give you the real deal. Straight no chaser.”
And, with tens of thousands of scribes on both coasts on the picket lines since May 2 after weeks of talks between the WGA and the studios broke down the night before, CAA-repped Oliver handed down the real deal for all those in front of her who sought a career in Tinseltown:
The truth is that this industry is unstable. It’s volatile. It’s forever evolving and changing and shifting year after year, and sometimes day by day, or even hour by hour.
And no, I’m sorry to tell you, it doesn’t get more secure and predictable over time. Just two weeks ago, I was out here living the good life. In a writers room gearing up to shoot a third season of my Amazon show, Harlem, was working on the sequel for Girls Trip, scheduling dinner with Kevin Hart to discuss our TV show with Apple, where I have a cushy overall deal. Man, those were the days. I was really living the LA dream life. Cut to… the writers strike happened.
Still happening, actually.
With all eight episodes of Harlem‘s Season 2having dropped on Amazon’s Prime Video on February 24, Oliver’s speech today was the first official-ish word that the Meagan Good, Jerrie Johnson, Grace Byers and Shoniqua Shandai starring series would be back for a third season — granted, a season that is in suspended animation now due to the strike, which looks to have no end in sight.
Director/producer Howard, and producers Glaser and Feige did not discuss the WGA strike in their USC remarks Friday.
While the WGA and the AMPTP are apparently not talking again, the studios are in negotiations with the DGA, with talks between the parties having started on May 10.
Again, watch the nearly 10-minute USC speech from Tracy Oliver above.
Nick Jonas, 30, set the record straight about singing duets on sexy songs with his older brothers Joe, 33, and Kevin, 35—it’s not happening.
The purity rings that once defined them as teens are long gone, and the boys are all grown up now, which means their music isn’t PG-13 anymore. Their 2013 split allowed them to explore previously off-limits topics, like sex—as if Disney would ever greenlight Nick’s “Jealous” or DNCE’s “Cake by the Ocean.” When the brothers came back together in 2019, they were’»t kids anymore.
Though their music isn’t exclusively explicit, there are a few racy lines sprinkled in the mix. The brothers have worked out a system for performing sensual songs, so you won’t hear Joe and Nick singing a duet on any suggestive lyrics. In an interview with Bustle, the Jonas Brothers shared their approach: “We’re always conscious that we’re three brothers singing on stage together, so when we sing about sex specifically, it’s gotta be kind of a nuanced thing, otherwise it can be a little strange.”
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
A single from their sixth studio album, The Album, features a particular string of saucy lyrics. “Summer in the Hamptons” cuts straight to the point before the chorus—“Warm waterfalls stay falling on me. / Your body takes me to some kind of place. / Sex like summer in the Hamptons.” Believe it or not, that’s milder than what comes next: “I’m deep inside your sand, / A different kind of warmness.” Okay, boys! “Obviously we’re not duetting those songs,” Joe clarified. “Very individual singing in that.”
Seasoned moviegoers complain these days that blockbuster franchises and formulaic streaming fare have all but squeezed out the midbudget character-driven drama. But it’s worse than that. The state of the biz isn’t doing wonders for tight, low-budget, midlength action thrillers with sci-fi or supernatural plot hooks, either. So on learning that, after almost a decade working primarily in television or on movies with a strong Y.A. slant, the dynamic director Robert Rodriguez has a Ben Affleck-led suspense thriller called “Hypnotic” in theaters, even a casual genre hound might cock an intrigued eyebrow.
Affleck plays Donald Rourke, a detective in Austin, Texas, who is traumatized by the kidnapping of his small daughter several years back. On a stakeout one day, he and his crew surveil a chilly-voiced older man (William Fichtner) whose cryptic words mesmerize several hapless bystanders and compel them to carry out a bloody bank job. Beating Fichtner’s character to the safe deposit box he is after, Rourke finds a Polaroid of his own daughter, with an enigmatic message scrawled beneath.
A phone message leads him to the psychic Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), who explains the existence of “hypnotics,” powerful beings who can control others with their words and thoughts. Conveniently, Affleck has a psychic block that prevents him from being affected. His partner doesn’t, though. After a grisly scene in which Rourke’s partner, now hypnotized, tries to sever his own wrist from a handcuff in order to kill them, Rourke and Diana have to flee to Mexico.
If the movie were just these two going from action set piece to action set piece with Braga’s character pulling Jedi mind tricks along the way, it would have been satisfactory. Rodriguez, after all, has always been a way-above-average camera director and action choreographer. But he’s going for something more ambitious here. When Rourke starts seeing a Mexican street extending into the air and curving, you grok that the director — who has his own studio in Austin, where this was shot — is going for a homegrown Christopher Nolan variant.
This is, arguably, biting off more than “Hypnotic” can comfortably chew, both conceptually and for the production. When Affleck is confronted by a posse of psychics wearing crimson sports jackets, for instance, you wonder if maybe he’s wandered into a convention of Red Lobster senior managers. As the scenario veers into familial-sentimentality-with-shootouts territory, the goofiness quotient increases. But the movie is, if nothing else, ruthlessly efficient enough in delivering its crowd-pleasing bits that truly starving suspense genre hounds, at least, won’t necessarily mind.
Hypnotic Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters.
Mary Turner, considered the first lady of rock radio in Los Angeles on station KMET-FM, has died. She was 76.
Turner died Tuesday at her Beverly Hills home after a long battle with cancer, according to Jarrett Bostwick, executor of her estate.
Through the 1970s and early ‘80s, Turner was regarded as the most-listened-to female voice in radio. Known as “The Burner” — a moniker given to her by Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band — she is best remembered by Los Angeles baby boomers for her years on KMET, the iconic FM outlet that was a must-listen for rock fans in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Turner was among the trailblazing women who received opportunities behind the microphone in the early 1970s after men had long dominated the radio business. Her chance came as FM rock music formats proliferated and offered an alternative to the tight playlists and rapid-fire style of top 40 AM stations.
Turner had two nationally syndicated programs on Westwood One, the company founded by her late husband, media executive Norman Pattiz, and broadcast to troops in 40 countries through the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. She also hosted an in-flight music program for airline TWA. A Gallup research study in 1981 found that her voice was heard by 23.4 million people a week.
Turner was born in Maryland on Feb. 4, 1947. After graduating from Indiana University in the late 1960s, Turner hoped to pursue a career as a TV producer or director.
She moved to San Francisco, where she answered phones at Autumn Records, the label where Sly Stone toiled as a producer, and later landed a job in the promotion department of local TV station KNEW. She eventually moved to KSAN-FM, the station programmed by Tom Donahue, who is credited with first developing the progressive radio format that played album cuts instead of just the hit singles heard on the AM dial.
At KSAN-FM, Turner worked as an engineer and did some fill-in air shifts. She moved to Los Angeles to join KMET in 1972 and was part of its evolution from a free-form “underground” station to a more commercial album-oriented rock format. By the end of the 1970s, KMET, which called itself “The Mighty Met,” was the second-most listened-to station in the Los Angeles market.
Turner became one of the station’s signature personalities along with B. Mitchell Reed, Jim Ladd and Jeff Gonzer. Her smooth-as-glass vocal delivery had a special appeal to young male listeners, including one who tried to get into the station at night to meet her, according to friend and former KMET colleague Ace Young.
The incident led her to travel with two large German shepherds as protection. They even curled up with her in the confines of a small studio.
In a 1981 interview, Turner described her on-air approach as “let’s live it up, have a good time, let the music do the talking.”
“I’m partying every single night from 6 to 10,” she said. “What could be finer?”
Michael Harrison, the editor of the radio industry publication Talkers and a colleague of Turner at Westwood One, said she possessed the authenticity the rock audience demanded at the time.
“She knew the music,” Harrison said. “She knew the lifestyle. She knew the artists and she spoke their language, which made her a very effective interviewer.”
Turner demonstrated her ability to connect with rock stars on “Off the Record,” a short-form interview program launched in 1979 by Westwood One. The show aired on more than 200 radio stations in the U.S. and led to a long-form series called “Off the Record Special.”
Turner chatted in a casual, conversational tone that made stars such as Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen feel at ease. (Richards admitted to her he was an altar boy at Westminster Abbey and a soprano soloist until puberty kicked in and his voice dropped.)
Norm Pattiz, Mary Turner and Lou Steiner at the 46th Grammy Awards in 2004.
(Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic via Getty Images)
The success of Turner’s syndicated shows led her to leave her on-air duties at KMET-FM in 1982.
Around that time, she married Pattiz and they remained together until his death in December 2022. She shared her husband’s passion for the Los Angeles Lakers and was often seen seated next to him courtside at games.
Turner left the radio business in the early 1990s. A recovered addict, she earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from UCLA and became a certified drug and alcohol counselor. She later served as chair of the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage.
Daredevil: Born Again Set Photo Shows New Vanessa Actress
Sandrine Holt
Daredevil News Updates, via Instagram, shared the first look at Sandrine Holt on the set of Daredevil: Born Again. The actress was spotted alongside fans during breaks in-between filming:
Given that it was previously confirmed that Daredevil: Born Again halted production due to the ongoing writers’ strike, it’s possible that the first look at Sandrine Holt as Vanessa Fisk may need to wait.
Holt replaces Ayelet Zurer, the actress who portrayed Vanessa in all three seasons of Netflix’s Daredevil:
Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk
How Vanessa Fisk Fits in Disney+’s Daredevil (Theory)
It is unknown if what Sandrine Holt is wearing in the photos is her actual costume as Vanessa Fisk in Daredevil: Born Again. If it is, then there’s a plausible explanation as to why Wilson Fisk’s wife is wearing normal (and not-so-elegant) clothes.
At the end of Daredevil Season 3, Vanessa was captured by the police after the battle between Matt Murdock, Wilson Fisk, and Bullseye. While it remains to be seen if the story is canon to the MCU, it’s possible that part of it will carry over in Daredevil: Born Again.
It’s possible that Vanessa is in disguise after (presumably) escaping from prison, with the character potentially going to a meeting with her husband, the Kingpin.
The same batch of set photos reveals that Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk is sporting an American flag pin, indicating that his campaign for the New York mayoral race is in full swing in the series. There’s a chance that Vanessa is observing her husband’s campaign from afar.
On the flip side, if the events of Daredevil Season 3 are not canon, then Born Again could tell the story of how Vanessa will ultimately become Wilson Fisk’s wife.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Discovery is considering moving the Arrowverse-adjacent Superman & Lois to HBO Max (which will soon be rebranded to Max) for a potential fourth season, which would effectively save it from cancellation by The CW.
The CW’s president Brad Schwartz previously stated that he wishes to keep at least one DC-based show on the network. This could mean either Gotham Knights or Superman & Lois could stay put, but with the latter series being quite expensive to produce, this could result in The CW no longer wanting to foot the bill.
It was previously reported that the fate of this series appeared grim with the expectation being that The CW wouldn’t pick up a Season 4.
Moving Superman to the HBO Max streamer wouldn’t be out of the question, as the first two seasons currently stream there, with the third not far behind.
Will Superman & Lois Be Canceled?
There is a multitude of elements to consider when examining whether Superman & Lois would be canned.
Firstly, it is indeed a costly show to make. The visual effects, cinematography, and costuming are high-caliber and when watching a given episode, it’s clear that a good amount of money has been poured into the series’ budget.
With that in mind, and factoring in that The CW is shifting to more affordable content, a jump to HBO Max / Max might be in order. However, Max also seems to be in cost-cutting mode, so perhaps a home for the Arrowverse spin-off couldn‘t be found there either.
Superman & Lois might not be the most-watched show in the world but it does have a very solid fanbase who would undoubtedly be upset if the series was canceled. Now, fan-favorite shows get axed all the time, but there’s a possibility that HBO Max would look at Superman’s built-in audience when making its decision to pick it up or not.
And finally, there’s DC Studios CEO James Gunn’s much-publicized Superman: Legacyreboot movie. Legacy is due out in 2025 and it’s quite plausible that Warner Bros. and DC would want to streamline the live-action incarnations of the Man of Steel. This would likely ultimately result in the cinematic version being propped up and Tyler Hoechlin’s TV hero being left by the wayside.
Whatever the case may be, Superman & Lois still has a few episodes left in its third season, with new episodes airing on Wednesdays.
If you ever wanted to go fast like Sonic – but in Crocs – now is your chance. SEGA has teamed up with Crocs to release a new line of Sonic-themed Clogs and Jibbitz charms.
The upcoming collaboration takes notes from the world of Sonic, which includes Gold Rings that you can collect throughout the game, Chaos Emeralds, chili dogs, and of course, Sonic’s red shoes. The Jibbitz charms will include fan-favorite characters such as Tails, Amy Rose, Knuckles, and Shadow.
Officially announced today we’ve gotten our look at the Sonic Crocs! Red crocs with a White Heel Strap that has the Sonic the Hedgehog logo with 8 different jibitz exclusive to this pair These will be available in Toddler, Kids and Adult sizes and will drop on May 23rd https://t.co/ir8HPYansYpic.twitter.com/30w0fOUbLx
You can pick yourself a pair on May 23 if you’re in the U.S. and May 24 for everyone else. If you want to purchase the Classic Sonic the Hedgehog Clog, they’ll cost $59.99; the Kids’ Classic Sonic the Hedgehog Clog will cost $49.99; and the Toddlers’ Classic the Hedgehog Clog will be $44.99. In addition to that, loose Jibbitz charms will cost $4.99, and the charm pack will cost $19.99.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Sega has collaborated with a shoe brand before. In 2021, it partnered with Puma to make a Dr. Eggman and Sonic-inspired shoe collection. Following that collaboration, SEGA teamed up with FILA to create another Sonic-themed shoe, but this time it was to promote Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Movie.
Shoe manufacturer FILA announced the Ray Tracer Evo X Sonic 2 slip-on sneakers, which are designed to look like the Blur Blur’s iconic kicks. pic.twitter.com/OO9B6r3ObA
Javier Bardem is the first recipient of San Sebastian’s prestigious Donostia Award for this year’s 71st edition.
He will accept the prize, San Sebastian’s highest accolade, granted for career achievement, at the festival’s opening gala on September 22. His image will also feature on the poster of this year’s edition, unveiled today in San Sebastian.
The only surprise about Bardem’s Donostia Award is that it hasn’t come earlier. A rugby player for Spain’s national team, Bardem first came to fame as a local village hulk playing opposite his now spouse Penélope Cruz in Bigas Luna’s 1992 flamboyant social critique “Jamón, Jamón.”
Bardem wanted, however, to be an actor, not a sex symbol. Refusing to be typecast, his full international breakthrough came in 2000 thanks to a tearaway performance as gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel’s “Before Night Falls,” and in Spain, for his role as a going-to-seed unemployed former factory worker in Fernando León Aranoa’s “Mondays in the Sun” (2002).
Following an Oscar nomination for “Before Night Falls,” Bardem has gone on to snag three more Academy Award nominations and a supporting role Oscar and BAFTA win for 2008’s “No Country for Old Men.”
A member of one of Spain’s most famed acting dynasties – his grandfather, Rafael Bardem, and mother Pilar Bardem were both distinguished actors – Bardem has won more big acting awards than any other Spanish actor alive. The only actors who come close are Cruz and Antonio Banderas.
From his family he has also inherited left wing political convictions – his uncle Juan Antonio Bardem (“Calle Mayor,” “Death of a Cyclist”) was one of Spain’s most famous director critics of the society Francisco Franco’s regime created, his mother a lifelong activist.
Bardem has channelled these convictions into doc feature production, in partnership with producer-director Alvaro Longoria, their “Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony,” championing the cause of the Sahrawi people – winning Bardem a producer’s Spanish Academy Goya Award, one of eight in a now over 30-year-old career.
Rep. Katie Porter joined writers on the picket line at the Culver Studios in Los Angeles on Friday in solidarity with the ongoing WGA strike.
Before addressing the crowd, Porter led them in a chant heard frequently at picket lines across the city over the past two weeks: “What do we want? Fair contracts. When do we want them? Now.”
“You know when we wanted it? Yesterday,” she said, as she took the megaphone. “One of the things I love about this movement is that you guys are in it to stand up to corporate power and set an example for all of your brothers and sisters who are workers, who are unionized, and who are struggling to have labor rights.”
Porter described the current movement as a “powerful, powerful strike” that has “put America on notice that we cannot continue to allow corporations to treat workers like they are disposable.”
“To all of the studio executives and to the AMPTP… You have to honor your workers and do right by them or you’re not doing right by the business and the economy that you’re claiming to be at the top of”: U.S. Representative Katie Porter tells Deadline #WritersStrikepic.twitter.com/daMridDyD4
“What is happening here is happening across the United States and across industries, which is big corporations trying to use industry transformation and technology as a weak sauce excuse to bust unions and hurt workers in order to boost their bottom line,” she said, adding: “And to that, I say ‘Bullsh*t.’”
First elected to Congress in 2018 and reelected in 2020 and 2022, representing portions of LA and Orange counties, the outspoken Porter has proven a star among progressive Democrats. In January, Porter announced that she was running in the crowded field to replace the retiring Diane Feinstein in the Senate.
Speaking with Deadline, Porter reiterated that the WGA strike could have ramifications that extend far beyond the entertainment industry.
“We are seeing across the country, industry after industry, not just in entertainment, that corporations are using innovation and technology as an excuse to bust unions, and it’s absolutely unacceptable,” she said. “So this strike is about the entertainment industry, but it’s also about so much more. These are workers here who are striking who are going to help make it easier for every worker down the line who’s gonna confront the changes that AI and other technologies are going to bring.”
Rep. Katie Porter speaking with California Senator María Elena Durazo on the picket line at the Culver Studios
She also had a message for the studio executives and the AMPTP, urging them that “it’s really important to understand: Where does the value come from that funds your salaries?”
“It comes from the workers who do the work, who are creative, who are tireless, who are professionals. And so you have to honor your workers and do right by them, or you’re not doing right by the business and the economy that you’re claiming to be at the top of,” she said.
While at the picket line, Porter also spoke with WGA West President David Goodman and negotiating committee co-chair Chris Keyser. She told them that she was particularly struck by the WGA’s concerns about the use of AI, and she felt that the AMPTP’s counteroffer for an annual meeting to discuss advancements in technology “was not a legitimate [response].”
“That’s part of the reason they want to starve you on wages, is because they’ll just go to AI,” she said.
Goodman told Deadline that Porter’s support is “very meaningful.”
“She’s always been such a strong champion of labor, and the fact that she’s here to support us obviously means the world to us, and we’re thrilled she’s here,” he continued.
Congresswoman Katie Porter, Representative of Orange County, tells Deadline at the #WritersStrike: “We are seeing across the country… that corporations are using innovation and technology as an excuse to bust unions and it’s absolutely unacceptable…” pic.twitter.com/RG1LORe5g5
Keyser added that Porter’s presence on the picket line “is a reflection not just of the existential crisis in the entertainment community for those who work [in it], but across the country for the pressures that are being put on labor by big corporations and a decision that somehow the value we create is not worth being paid for. It’s not the truth, and the Congresswoman knows that, and she’s standing with us. And everyone who’s standing with us understands that crisis in this country. We’re going to do something about it.”
Porter wasn’t the only California politician who was on the picket line to support the WGA on Friday. She was joined by California Senator María Elena Durazo, who represents parts of central and east Los Angeles.
Speaking with Deadline, Durazo said that the “sentiment of our communities is to support the writers.”
“Support the writers and their strike, because the writers are taking on these big corporations…who do nothing but abuse and refuse to share,” she said. “I’m so proud and grateful to the writers… Whatever the writers ask of us, we’ll be there to do it for them.”
Speaking to Empire Magazine, Fox said he — like the Tarantino film’s Rick Dalton character (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) — had difficulty remembering his lines while on set for The Good Fight.
“I thought of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Fox said. “There’s a scene where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character can’t remember his lines anymore. He goes back to his dressing room and he’s screaming at himself in the mirror. Just freaking insane. I had this moment where I was looking in the mirror and thought, ‘I cannot remember it anymore.’”
Fox drew strength from that moment, unlike the film character. “[I was like] ‘Well, let’s move on,’” he said. “It was peaceful.”
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 at age 29. A new film, Still, documents his battle against the disease. It premieres today on Apple TV+.
Odds are better than average that you’re reading this review on your phone. And that, once you got a smartphone, you sought out sites like this one to reflect your personal interests. You probably don’t even think about how that process came to be, as it’s just a natural part of life now. Would you want to see a movie about that? Maybe not in theory, especially if it were scrupulously fact-based and featured mostly marketing meetings. In BlackBerry, however, a movie about the first mass-produced smartphone, writer-director-actor Matt Johnson (The Dirties) is very clear upfront that he has made a fictionalized retelling. Essentially, as it plays out, it’s like a Kids in the Hall sketch version, set in the real-but-fake-sounding Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Johnson’s previous works have mostly been found footage and mockumentary, so the blending of truth and fiction is nothing new to him. For those who might go in expecting a “stranger than fiction” true story, however, here’s a quick corrective: BlackBerry inventor Mike Lazaridis, a Greek immigrant described by the Canadian Globe and Mail as “a beefy, friendly-looking guy, with poofy silver hair and an affable if supremely confident manner about him,” looks nothing like actor Jay Baruchel in successively worse white wigs and the body language of a terrified bunny. And the BlackBerry was not, in fact, named after a jelly stain on his shirt.
IFC’s slightly muddled marketing on the subject aside, the movie seems to be a bit truer than the Weird Al biopic, but quite a bit less so than The Social Network. Its point is less to document an actual product development process, and more to offer a parable of nerds colliding headfirst with cutthroat capitalism. Which is arguably the defining pop-cultural struggle of the last 20 years.
Mike and Doug’s Excellent Proposal
The movie’s Mike Lazaridis (Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (director Johnson) are old-school nerds, as in “Revenge of the…” who appear to have an ideal business, circa 1996. They sell modems for fat contracts, and their handful of employees mostly play Wolfenstein or argue on Star Trek fan boards during work hours. Mike’s the quiet genius while Doug, with his loudmouth, ever-present headband, and poorly styled T-shirts is reminiscent of Judah Friedlander’s more aggressive persona. Neither is particularly great at pitching their latest idea, an all-in-one device that combines a phone, pager, and email terminal in a pocket device.
After an awkward presentation to humorless executive Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) falls flat, Balsillie is himself fired but interested enough in the product to offer to take over Mike and Doug’s awkwardly named company, RIM (Research in Motion). Negotiating him down during a televised hockey game, Mike gets him to agree that they be co-CEOs and, from there, the fun begins. At least in this telling. Introverted Mike has all the smarts and the monomaniacal focus on making the best product. Hockey fiend Jim is a brash corporate guy who has never seen Star Wars but probably knows Glengarry Glenn Ross by heart. In between them is Doug, who imagines himself the hero of every underdog movie when he’s actually more of the real-life comic relief — to the extent that this can be called “real life,” anyway.
Cameos? As You Wish…
Mike and Doug’s posse of brilliant dorks love their movie nights, which turns some of the stunt casting here into a sly in-joke. Cary Elwes shows up as the CEO of Palm Pilot threatening a hostile takeover, which makes him a sort of dread corporate pirate. Michael Ironside in a bulked-up suit looks like Burl Ives playing the Kingpin in his role as a corporate disciplinarian. That the BlackBerry team would be among the real Elwes and Ironside’s biggest fans doesn’t require remarking upon; if you’re the target audience for this movie, you know. Balsillie, whose name feels like an obvious cheap joke set up, sees the pronunciation of it run the appropriate gamut. When he’s taking risks and rising, he insists it’s pronounced “BALLS-ly.” Later, as the company declines, it becomes “Ball-SILLY.”
In actuality, neither Mike nor Jim came away too badly, as the rich so often don’t. The rise-and-fall arc fits movie formula, but it’s more of a schadenfreude generator here. In hindsight, of course Mike’s fixation on a keypad seems pointlessly myopic, and Jim’s attempt to buy an American NHL team and move it to Canada insane. Left unsaid is the truism that these are the sorts of folks we are ultimately all subservient to, and the moment they can get rid of the classic, socially awkward nerds, they will.
Nerd-vana? Nevermind.
Nowadays, everyone from Chris Hardwick to Dwayne Johnson is a self-declared “nerd,” often based on something like the fact that they watched Saturday morning cartoons and played with Star Wars figures as a kid, just like everyone else. BlackBerry returns us to a time when it meant something else, and the folks to whom the label applied briefly seemed like they were on a permanent upswing. Instead, they became coopted, as the nouveau riche do. This may be an imaginary retelling, but it also feels like a pointed warning. However much you may love your job, it does not love you back if there’s the slightest chance it can be more profitable without you. The real Mike Lazaridis apparently understood this, always making time for his wife and kids that the movie doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of.
As a director, Johnson likes to make audiences uncomfortable, but in playing Doug with a combination of goofy mugging and real passion, he telegraphs that you can laugh both at and with the characters onscreen. After all, the real ones laughed all the way to their fat severance checks.
Grade: 7/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.
Deadline has launched the streaming site for Sound & Screen: Television, its live-music showcase featuring the musicians and their scores behind this year’s buzziest small-screen series and movies.
The event Tuesday at UCLA’s Royce Hall in front of a packed house of Academy and guild voters featured a 50-piece orchestra conducted by the composers behind their works.
The site features all 12 panel conversations from the 14 series and movies who took part in the event, with the list of participating studios and streamers encompassing the wide swath of the biz: Apple TV+, CBS, Hulu, Paramount+, Prime Video, Showtime and HBO Max.
Panelists on board for music and panel conversations were composer Bear McCreary with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; composers Tom Mizer and Curtis Moore with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; composers Brian Tyler and Breton Vivian, behind Yellowstone and its prequel 1923; composer Christophe Beck, with Up Here; composer Cristobal Tapia De Veer and The White Lotus; music producer Rachael Moore with George & Tammy; composer-conductor Stephen Barton and composer Frederik Wiedmann with Star Trek: Picard; composer-musician Tom Howe with Ted Lasso and Shrinking; and Siddhartha Khosla with Only Murders in the Building.
Chris Strachwitz, who traveled in search of the roots of American music with the eagerness of a pilgrim, discovered traditional musicians with the skill of a detective, promoted their careers with the zeal of an ideologue and guarded their work with the care of a historian, died on Friday in San Rafael, Calif. He was 91.
His death, at an assisted living facility, was caused by congestive heart failure, his brother, Hubert, said.
Mr. Strachwitz (pronounced STRACK-wits) specialized in music passed down over generations — cotton-field music, orange-orchard music, mountain music, bayou music, barroom music, porch music — stemming not only from before the music industry era but even from before the rise of mass culture.
Like other leading musical folklorists of the modern recording era — among them Moses Asch, Alan Lomax and Harry Smith — Mr. Strachwitz rescued parts of that history before they vanished.
But the extent of his devotion and the idiosyncrasy of his passions defy comparison.
Mr. Strachwitz was the founder of Arhoolie Records (the name comes from a term for field hollers). In addition to recruiting his own artists, he did his own field recordings, music editing, production, liner notes, advertising and sales. In the company’s early years, he affixed the labels to the records and mailed them himself.
He was a lifelong bachelor who said that having a family would have thwarted his career. On his journeys around the country to record new music, he had for company a manually operated orange juicer and 20-pound bags of oranges. The targets of his search included a highway grass cutter, a gravedigger and a janitor, all of whose musical talents were basically unknown at the time.
He immigrated from Germany after growing up as a teenage count under Nazi rule and went on to explore the fullest reaches of American pluralism. He took an interest not just in the standard roots repertory of folk and blues, but also in norteño, Cajun, zydeco, klezmer, Hawaiian steel guitar, Ukrainian fiddle, Czech polka and Irish dance music, among countless other genres.
To account for what united his passions, Mr. Strachwitz said he liked music that was “pure,” “hard-core” and “old-timey,” particularly if a musician had a “spark.” His language grew more colorful when he defined his type of music negatively.
“It ain’t wimpy, that’s for sure,” he said in a 2014 documentary film about him. The movie took its title from Mr. Strachwitz’s ultimate insult, which he used to refer to anything that he considered commercial, artificial and soulless: “This Ain’t No Mouse Music!”
The first Arhoolie album, released in 1960, was “Texas Sharecropper and Songster,” by the blues singer Mance Lipscomb. It vaulted Mr. Lipscomb into prominence during the 1960s folk revival.
The first Arhoolie record, released in 1960, was “Texas Sharecropper and Songster,” by the blues singer Mance Lipscomb. Mr. Lipscomb’s music had never been recorded, and the new release vaulted him into prominence during the 1960s folk revival. Mr. Strachwitz went on to help revive the careers of other blues singers, including Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Big Mama Thornton.
As both a record executive and a record collector, he made a particularly profound historical contribution to norteño, music from the Texas-Mexico border. The Smithsonian Institution last year called his archive of Mexican and Mexican American music “the largest collection of commercially produced vernacular recordings of its kind in existence,” noting that it contained many records that are “irreplaceable.”
It was the result of about 60 years of collecting (though Mr. Strachwitz never learned to speak Spanish). Norteño musicians nicknamed him El Fanático.
He might have been considered a preservationist, but he also shaped the worlds that he documented. That was especially true of his recordings of Cajun musicians. In 2000, the rock historian Ed Ward wrote in The New York Times that Mr. Strachwitz “helped prod the culture into what is now a full-blown renaissance.”
Perhaps his most notable discovery in Louisiana was the singer and accordionist Clifton Chenier, who came to be regarded as the leading exponent of the mix of rhythm and blues, soul and Cajun music known as zydeco. During a visit to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival as an older man, Mr. Chenier discussed his frustrations with the record industry.
“They wanted you to do what they wanted you to do, and I didn’t like that,” Mr. Chenier said. “Then I met Chris.”
Mainstream musicians also saw something exceptional in Mr. Strachwitz. In a 2010 profile of him in The Times, the guitarist Ry Cooder said that Arhoolie’s second release, “Tough Times,” an LP by the blues musician Big Joe Williams, “started me on a path of living, the path I am still on.”
Christian Alexander Maria Strachwitz was born on July 1, 1931, in Berlin. He grew up on a country estate called Gross Reichenau in what was then the Lower Silesia region of Germany. (It is now a village called Bogaczow in southwest Poland.) His father, Alexander Graf Strachwitz, and his mother, Friederike (von Bredow) Strachwitz, ran a vegetable and grain farm of a couple hundred acres. The men of the family had the royal title of count.
The family lived in a manor built during the time of Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia. The Nazis appointed Chris’s father a local game warden, and during World War II he joined the military and attained the rank of captain, though Hubert Strachwitz said his service was limited to escorting troop transports bound for Italy. On the family’s bucolic ancestral property, the war seemed far away to young Chris.
That changed in February 1945. The family fled as the Russians invaded the estate. Chris and two of his sisters had left shortly beforehand on a train; his father escaped in a horse and buggy; Hubert, Chris’s other two sisters and his mother left on a tractor-trailer. Thanks to a wealthy relative in the United States, the family was able to reunite in Reno, Nev., by 1947.
Chris served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956. Soon after being honorably discharged, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He taught high school German in the suburbs of San Jose for several years.
In his free time, Mr. Strachwitz collected records, and he developed a particular interest in Lightnin’ Hopkins, whom he struggled to learn more about. There was no public information about whether Mr. Hopkins was even still alive.
In 1959, a fellow music enthusiast told Mr. Strachwitz that he had found Mr. Hopkins in Houston. When the school year ended, Mr. Strachwitz went on a road trip.
He later recalled that he found Mr. Hopkins playing in “a little beer joint,” improvising songs in a conversational style, telling a woman in the crowd to quiet down, wondering in song about the man from California who had traveled all the way to Texas “to hear poor Lightnin’ sing.”
Mr. Strachwitz believed that nobody had ever recorded a scene like that live. Following a tip from one of Mr. Hopkins’s songs, he returned to Texas the next year and found Mr. Lipscomb. This time, he brought a recorder.
Meeting musicians where they lived and recording them where they liked to play, rather than in a studio, became Mr. Strachwitz’s signature style.
He found unexpected commercial success when Country Joe and the Fish performed their “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” at the Woodstock music festival in 1969. Joe McDonald, the band’s lead singer and principal songwriter, had used Mr. Strachwitz’s equipment to record the song in 1965 and given him publishing rights in exchange. With his share of the royalties, Mr. Strachwitz put a down payment on a building in El Cerrito, Calif., near Berkeley. It became the home of Arhoolie and a record outlet he called the Down Home Music Store.
Aside from recording music, he drew attention to the artists he loved by collaborating with the filmmaker Les Blank on several music documentaries.
As the record industry declined, Mr. Strachwitz focused on a nonprofit arm of Arhoolie that digitizes and exhibits his singular record collection. In 2016, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the nonprofit label of the Smithsonian Institution, acquired the Arhoolie catalog.
In addition to his brother, Mr. Strachwitz is survived by three sisters, Rosy Schlueter, Barbara Steward and Frances Strachwitz.
There was one word Mr. Strachwitz often used to describe success in his field. When he found an aged master of traditional music playing a song at a resonant time and place, he called it, as if he were hunting butterflies, a “catch.”
Michael Neelsen’s crime documentary, Beyond Human Nature, is one of those stories that will sneak up on you from behind and make you think about the American justice system.
Beyond Human Nature revolves around the 1992 murder of Green Bay native Tom Monfils. Monfils was found dead at his job at the James River paper mill, drowned in a pulp vat with weights tied around his neck. Six of his co-workers would be eventually convicted of Monfils’ murder and given life sentences. Dubbed The Monfils Six, the case against them was based on a recorded phone call to the police accusing one of the six, Keith Kutska, of stealing mill property as motive and an eyewitness placing all six men at the location of the murder. In addition, the six claimed that Monfils had simply disappeared that day.
The story of Monfils’ murder and investigation is vast and covers many of the problems of the justice system, especially in the 1990s. At that time (and probably still today), it was more important to get a murder conviction than to uncover the truth. The lead investigator was Detective Sargeant Randy Winkler, who many accused of being unlikeable and coercing or inserting testimony from witnesses to get an indictment.
The conclusion of the documentary is the most harrowing. Neelsen sets in motion the idea that The Monfils Six were unjustly convicted of their crimes based on Winkler’s dodgy investigation, the unlikely possibility could have happened as described and without leaving a single piece of forensic evidence, and lastly, Monfils’ state of mind the day he disappeared. It’s hard not to walk away from this film believing these men are unjustly serving life sentences.
“Monfils was found dead at his job at the James River paper mill, drowned in a pulp vat with weights tied around his neck.”
There are a million crime documentaries, but Beyond Human Nature is unique. The main reason is Neelsen’s interview with lead investigator Winkler. The other subjects, including Monfils’ brother Cal, portray him as the villain. What I found fascinating was everyone’s description of Winkler versus how he presents himself in the film. Unlike the interview with the District Attorney, who has to defend his decision to prosecute, you just don’t expect this level of perceived honesty and candor from those representing law enforcement. But, in terms of being a documentary subject, he’s willing to wrestle with the tough question posed to him about his role in the matter.
Also fascinating was that the trial took place during the OJ trial. In fact, OJ’s innocence was proclaimed during the five-week trial of Monfils’ murder. The feeling at that time was that the District Attorney didn’t want to have another OJ situation, which only bolstered their case built solely on circumstantial evidence. Could the OJ debacle have skewed the jury’s deliberations?
Then there’s the aftermath. After sentencing, defendant Mike Piaskowski was separated from the other five and sent to a different prison. Strangely, during the trial, all six men were tried together as a group. Still, separation allowed Piaskowski to appeal on his own and ultimately overturned his conviction and freedom…a luxury the other five could not take advantage of.
As a documentary, Beyond Human Nature, does the best it can without much usable source material. Obviously, there were no security cameras observing the actual murder, and the trial footage comes from local Green Bay news reports. Filmmaker Neelsen makes ample use of animation and abstract reenactments to fill in narrative gaps visually. The interviewees are the stars, and as mentioned before, Detective Winkler and Monfils’ brother Cal’s insight into the case stand out the most.
If you’re a fan of crime docs or are fascinated by the grey areas of law, Michael Neelsen’s Beyond Human Nature is a sobering look at American justice at its best and its worst.
She’s been possessed by the devil, proxy murdered by the Salem Stalker, and served as a psychiatrist probing dark secrets.
But most of all, actress Deidre Hall has been a survivor, spending almost five decades as Dr. Marlena Evans on daytime drama “Days of Our Lives.” The fan favorite had a milestone to celebrate Friday, appearing in her 5,000th episode. That makes her the longest-running soap actress ever.
In the May 12 episode that marked the magic number, Evans and husband John Black (Drake Hogestyn) are seen at dinner, allegedly celebrating the good doctor’s 5,000th patient.
“I would like to propose a toast,” John Black tells his wife. “To you, doc. What an incredible career you’ve had and continue to have. You’ve provided so much care and comfort to people in need. And through your hard work and determination, your dignity, your style, your grace—the most important thing—your loving heart.
“You have made an indelible mark on not only this town but the entire world,” John Black adds, raising a glass. “So, here’s to you, Dr. Marlena Evans. You are a true legend.”
With that, he kisses his imaginary wife. She quips, “Maybe 5,000 isn’t such a crazy number at all.”
The show also saluted the 47 years of appearances with flashbacks to some of her special moments on the show. That included her first appearance in June 1976.
Hall spoke to KTLA reporter Sam Rubin about her 5,000 shows.
“It’s always my first day when you start to get a 13-week contract, and then I kept thinking, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll get more than 13 weeks, maybe they’ll like me a little bit,’” she said to Rubin.
Van Ness has struck an ad sales and distribution deal with Sony Music for Getting Curious With Jonathan Van Ness, the podcast he started hosting in 2015 prior to his breakout on Netflix’s Queer Eye. On the audio show, Van Ness explores a wide range of topics with academics, activists and other experts. (As a sampling of the show’s range, recent episodes have explored the death of the American mall, the social lives of apes and the power of AI.)
Getting Curious was previously a part of Earwolf, the Los Angeles–based comedy podcasting network that was acquired by SiriusXM in 2020. The podcast also inspired a TV series spinoff with Netflix that debuted last year with guests like figure skater Michelle Kwan and comedian Rachel Dratch.
With Sony Music, Van Ness will release two weekly episodes on the Getting Curious feed; the first will serve as the standard Getting Curious episode, while the second will alternate topics between beauty (under the name Pretty Curious) and topical news-based issues (under the name Curious Now).
“We are so excited to be making this switch. This is a whole new chapter for the podcast. It’s a whole new era for us,” Van Ness announced in a video as part of Sony Music’s presentation at the IAB Podcast Upfronts on Thursday. “We are so excited to give you even more versions of Getting Curious. I can’t wait to be at Sony. Our team is thrilled.”
Getting Curious will join other Sony Music podcasts like High Low from Emily Ratajkowski and Best Friend Energyfrom The Home Editcreators Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin. Upcoming shows in the network will include Dinner’s On Me from actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History, a series produced with Pharrell’s OTHERtone and hosted by author and journalist Michael Harriot.
Van Ness and Getting Curious are represented by UTA, which brokered the deal with Sony Music.
On the same day TheWrap broke the news exclusively that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has returned to the “Fast and Furious” franchise, the film had one of its first screenings, and you know what that means: The first reactions are in.
So how do viewers feel about “Fast X,” the latest installment of the retroactively named “Fast Saga”? Is the #Family thrilled? Or did the new Dom Toretto and Friends adventure blow a gasket?
Well to answer that question, it seems some people loved it, some people noted a lot of flaws, and as is usual for this series, often they were the same people. But everyone seems to agree that Jason Momoa is an absolute delight as the film’s villain, and that the spectacle rules.
“Jason Momoa is a high front runner for Best Supporting Actor at next years Oscars,” The Atom Review crowed.
“Jason Momoa is an utterly brilliant bad-ass, nuts and just delightful,” VAriety’s Jazz Tangcay said, adding, “see is on the biggest screen and buckle up because it’s a wildly entertaining ride.”
Gizmodo’s Germain Lussier was much more negative, declaring “Fast X to be “the worst Fast yet.” However, he adds, “Jason Momoa is God-Level in it and worth the price of admission.”
Meanwhile Collider’s Steven Weintraub said “the best part of “Fast X is Jason Momoa,” adding “Rest of the movie is exactly what you’re expecting.”
Read on for more reactions:
#FASTX Jason Momoa is an utterly brilliant bad-ass, nuts and just delightful. See is on the biggest screen and buckle up because it’s a wildly entertaining ride. Also, the ’90s Needle Drop is EVERYTHING!! pic.twitter.com/bGArW0YUeL
#FastX belongs to Jason Momoa and his decadent bad guy, Dante Reyes. Fierce and flamboyant, his perilous peacocking adds a sharp edge and some refreshing dark humor. The rest is ludicrousness with clunky elements but it is stupidly entertaining. What the Fast were you expecting? pic.twitter.com/9Xeuj2In7z
#FastX is the worst Fast yet. Yes, including [insert your least fave here]. The action is fun but it’s the 1st film to not up the ante from the last one & the trademark notion of “Family” is an afterthought.
And no this isn’t a joke, Jason Momoa is a high front runner for Best Supporting Actor at next years Oscars. The pure charisma blended with terrifying tension is a delectable combination. An all timer performance- he’ll never top it#FastX#Fast10#FastAndFuriouspic.twitter.com/X1iQKKP6wI
As someone who absolutely loves the @TheFastSaga, #FastX was the most family-focused, ridiculous, dramatic, and heartfelt movie of the franchise that elevates the action again, again, and again. Basically it screams, “FAMILYYYYYYYYYYYYY!” And the ending? SCREAMING.❤️?? pic.twitter.com/9ZNcx8zSlp
The best part of #FastX is #JasonMomoa. Loved his performance and he’s having the time of his life in every scene as he goes after Dom and everyone else. Rest of the movie is exactly what you’re expecting.
#FastX is an entertaining thrill ride. It’s a visual spectacle with some truly incredible stunts and some wildly outrageous moments you’d expect from the Fast franchise, but what Jason Momoa brings to the film as Dante is magic! His performance oozes charisma. pic.twitter.com/UjOlR77aEF
— Joseph Deckelmeier (@joedeckelmeier) May 12, 2023
Fast X gets the Fast & Furious series back on track, and reason #1 is Jason Momoa, who plays Dante like F&F’s version of The Joker. He’s a gleeful psychopath, and it’s delightful. Along with a story that avoids what made Fate Of The Furious and F9 feel stale, it’s a win. #FastXpic.twitter.com/fgZy6gjYTR
Caught #FastX last week! It’s a wild, non-stop action thrill ride that delivers the most shocking ending of the franchise, so far. Not perfect (end may divide fans), but it’s been growing on me & I can’t wait to see it again. Universal’s def trying to make this its Infinity War. pic.twitter.com/0EWbLNezOi
#FastX is up their with fast 7 and 5, fast X is the infinity war to the fast franchise. Yes it even has the exact same beats. So I do hope fast X part 2 is the endgame and they don’t stretch it out. Side note I hope captain marvel is more like @brielarson in this movie. So cool
“Functional” is a dirty word in dance music. No one wants to be merely functional, nor find themselves on the receiving end of utilitarianism. You don’t want to be invited to a “function,” either—you want to go to a party. Yet culture has been tacking in the direction of the functional for a while now. Music is composed to study or sleep or chill to. Algorithms anticipate our desires. Any creative act can be made into content, which computers then sell ads in front of. There are brand “activations,” which is just another word for functions. All this matters rather a lot for the state of dance music, which, at its core, is meant to serve a specific purpose. Even its name issues a command: Dance.
But the best dance music knows all this and blithely ignores it. Instead, it deftly undercuts function with surprise, or pairs it with emotion in sweet harmony. The brothers Overmono have garnered a reputation as both virtuosos of the functional (see the Pavlovian hooks of 2020’s “Everything U Need” or the following year’s “Bby”) and explorers of what lies beyond it (just listen to those plush plucks disintegrate on 2019’s “Le Tigre”). Occasionally these two modes meet, and deliver something like the heart-bursting “I Have a Love” remix. It’s in these moments, when Overmono bridge the gap, that you grasp what they’re all about. The pair grew up on either side of the same small Welsh town, Monmouth, 10 years apart in age, split between separated parents but tethered by a shared upbringing in music—under their dad’s professional tutelage, in the choral and mining band traditions of Wales, and then digging through record bins and banging out rave tapes in the woods. Good Lies, their debut album, inhales the vapors of dance music’s countercultural emergence and steers against the functional course in search of transcendence.
There’s something almost unnerving about the precision with which Overmono operate: The scant palette they draw from—globular basslines, glassy percussion, an array of disembodied vocals—is unerringly clean. Even seeing two brothers teaming up after successful solo careers (Tom Russell as techno titan Truss, younger Ed as breaks magician Tessela) feels uncannily symmetrical. But there’s grit, too, and the tension between the rough-edged and the machine-tooled makes the whole exercise all the more vivid and enveloping. It’s in the straining vocal chops and bit-by-bit build of “So U Kno,” and the glossy, luminous, Frank Ocean-on-acid swirl of “Walk Thru Water.” Not a drop of Smerz’s syrupy, breathless delivery is wasted on the title track as it rattles along with all the tumult of falling in love. They’re happy to take things slow, too. “Vermonly”—one of a handful of more sedate tracks here—sits like a mottled antique mirror in the midst of the album’s energetic closing run, as if inviting you to pause and take a more considered look.
Indie trio Muna isn’t yet a household name, but judging from a roaring reception at the first of two sold-out shows at New York City’s Terminal 5, they’re already a must-see live band on the rise.
The group — consisting of singer Katie Gavin, lead guitarist Josette Maskin and multi-instrumentalist Naomi McPherson, as well as touring drummer Sarab Singh and bassist Geo Botelho — has put in plenty of time on the road, opening for huge touring artists such as Harry Styes, the 1975, Lorde, Kacey Musgraves and dates on Taylor Swift’s massive Eras Tour. All that time on major stages has made the group’s chops exceedingly tight, even brighter than their records.
Touring in support of the pop dynamite of its self-titled third album, the group bounded through the bulk of their new material and a healthy serving of their back catalogue. Although a few of their deeper tracks had Gavin grabbing an acoustic guitar, the group felt most comfortable in the warm synths of their ’80s-inspired jams.
Opening with “Muna” banger “What I Want,” the trio immediately jumped into their rockstar poses, with Maskin swinging their guitar around like a glam hero, Gavin’s leather duds giving Sunset Strip power, and McPherson as the quiet mastermind, conjuring the music through numerous guitars and synths.
As impactful as their dancefloor-filling hooks on “Solid,” “The One That Got Away,” and “So Special” were live, a certain electricity went through the crowd with inclusive singalongs like “I Know a Place” and “Kind of Girl.” Muna’s songwriting often touches on the joys and complexities of finding yourself in the queer community, and the celebration of self carried the audience through the evening.
Ending with their biggest hit to date, the sunny and sensual “Silk Chiffon,” which Maskin once perfectly described as “a redemption song for young, queer makeouts,” fans piled out of the venue still singing their favorite songs, bringing Muna’s positive vibes into the streets of New York, looking for the next party.
A Better Look at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s Post-Credits Scene
Following Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3′s official release, TV and movie character concept artist Christian Cordella shared new looks at the threequel’s post-credits scene.
Posting on his personal Instagram page, Cordella revealed a trio of character concept pieces he did for the new Guardians team seen after the Guardians 3 credits rolled.
These pieces see three members of the intergalactic team (Kraglin, Adam Warlock, and Cosmo) of misfits wearing their new official Guardians uniforms.
Will Poulter’sAdam Warlock traded in his traditional Sovereign garb for the Guardians’ uniform, ready to save the galaxy rather than destroy it.
Christian Cordella
And the last of the three images posted was one of Maria Bakalova’s lovable labrador retriever Cosmo the Space Dog. In the images caption Cordella remarked he “really enjoyed adapting it for [a] dog,” calling the whole experience“very rewarding.”
Christian Cordella
After having joined the team officially toward the end of Vol. 2, Sean Gunn’s Kraglin looks more like a member of the Guardians than he ever has, sporting the blue and red fatigues just like the rest of the squad.
Christian Cordella
Meeting the New Guardians of the Galaxy
Warning – The rest of this article contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
For months before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hit theaters much had been made about this being one last go-round for this particular team.
It was never said this would be the definitive end of the franchise, but more the ” “end of the chapter … [for] the Guardians of the Galaxy family.”But who could have guessed this meant fans would get a whole new lineup of Guardians to close out Vol. 3, especially one that looks to include Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Raccoon as its leader.
Of all the Guardians characters, many would have agreed that Rocket was the surest bet to bite the dust and end his time in the MCU. Yet, one could argue he has never been a bigger part of the franchise as he leads the team shown off in the post-credits scene into new horizons and a potential Guardians 4.
And despite the likes of Star-Lord, Gamora, Mantis, and Drax going their separate ways at the end of the film, fans can rest assured they are in good hands thanks to some of the new team members highlighted above.
All three of these heroes had their moments to shine in Vol. 3, which was surely an intentional move from Gunn as he passes the torch of the franchise to whatever comes next.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now playing in theaters worldwide.
A new teaser trailer for the second season of Dark Winds has been released. The teaser is brief, lasting less than a minute long, though it does tease some of the tense moments that will be coming early on in the new season. Also revealed is the release window for season 2, which the teaser touts as coming to AMC and AMC+ in July. You can go ahead and check out that new teaser below.
Per Deadline, season 2 will follow Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and private eye Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) reuniting when in pursuit of the same suspect. The two “find themselves in the high desert of Navajo Country chasing a killer who’s turned his sights on them to protect a secret that rips open old wounds and challenges Leaphorn’s moral and professional code. With the help of Sgt. Manuelito (Jessica Matten) and Valencia County Sheriff Gordo Sena, Leaphorn and Chee must thwart their would-be assassin and restore balance not only to their own lives but to the reservation that depends on them.”
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAYSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
“After putting his son’s death to rest, season 1 ends with Leaphorn parting ways with Chee, but season 2 brings them back together along with Manuelito to solve a spree of murders on the Navajo Nation,” McClarnon also teases of season 2.
Some of the guest stars set to appear in season 2 of Dark Winds have been revealed. Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Picard) will play Rosemary Vines, a “femme fatale” who leaves a “trail of bodies in her wake.” Meanwhile, Nicholas Logan (Dopesick) will play the character Colton Wolf, an assassin who encounters Lt. Leaphorn.
Along with McClarnon, Gordon, and Matten, the series also stars Deanna Allison, Rainn Wilson, Elva Guerra, Jeremiah Bitsui, Eugene Brave Rock, and Noah Emmerich. Created by Graham Roland, the show is executive produced by Roland, McClarnon, George R. R. Martin, Robert Redford, Anne Hillerman, Tina Elmo, Vince Gerardis, Vince Calandra, and Chris Eyre. The series is based on the Leaphorn & Chee book series by Tony Hillerman.
“This once-in-a-lifetime creative team and cast have delivered something truly special with Dark Winds,” an AMC statement read when the show was renewed for season 2 last summer. We can’t wait to share the rest of this thrill ride of a first season with the fans and follow Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee into a second season on AMC and AMC+ next year. Overwhelming gratitude to our entire production team and a special thanks to executive producers Robert Redford, George R.R. Martin, Chris Eyre and of course Zahn McClarnon, who also leads the cast and brings humanity, authority and the wisdom of richly lived experiences to everything he does.”
The second season of Dark Winds will premiere on AMC and AMC+ in July with an exact date yet to be announced. Given how we’re almost halfway to June, a full trailer is likely to be coming soon.
An indie studio called Crusader Games has decided to make a Game Boy-like version of Halo: Combat Evolved. However, instead of calling it Halo Combat Evolved, the studio decided to have fun with it and call it Halo: Combat Devolved.
The game was made using software called GB Studio. The official website describes the software as “a quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for your favorite handheld video game system.” Halo: Combat Devolved can be played on a Game Boy Color, Analogue, or straight from your web browser.
You’ll need to visit their website to play this unofficial version of Halo. A message from the developers can be found on their website, reading, “As a longtime fan of Halo: Combat Evolved, I’m creating a faithful demake for the Game Boy Color using GB Studio.” Currently, the only playable level is the Pillar of Autumn, but Crusader Games has stated that it “plans to continue adding levels to the project as time allows.”
You’ll also have the option to download the ROM or .pocket files to play it on other hardware. According to Crusader Games, downloading either game file actually offers a better experience due to “sound limitations with the in-browser emulator.”
As for the gameplay itself, it’s quite impressive. Once you start a game, it loads, opens up with a pixelated version of Master Chief, and jumps right into gameplay. The game’s movement and action resembles The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, but instead of using Link’s trusty Master Sword, you’re using a gun. On top of that, an awesome 8-bit version of the original Halo song plays in the background as you play the game.
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Christopher Nolan certainly knows how to get his reader in the mind of a character.
When you’re reading a screenplay, all the parts written in the action are usually in the third person. That means you read things like: “James walks across the room,” or “She pours herself a coffee.” You’re on the outside imagining what’s happening on screen.
But for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming movie, Oppenheimer, Nolan took a different route.
We’ll get to that.
In a new conversation with EW, Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy spoke about working on Oppenheimer together and the unique script. But before that could all happen, they had to meet.
Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow in ‘Batman Begins’Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
At the time of Batman Begins, Nolan was meeting actors to play Batman. When he met Murphy, there was a kinship, but both of them knew he wasn’t going to play Batman. Still, Nolan was so impressed with him that he made sure the executives came to his screentest and then suggested he play Scarecrow. After that, he made sure Murphy showed up in all three of those movies, and he kept an ongoing friendship with the actor, collaborating with him in Inception and Dunkirk.
When it came time to make Oppenheimer, Nolan knew who to call.
He says, “To be able to pick up the phone and call you, and be like, ‘This is the one where you carry the movie and really get to show what you can do,’ it’s honestly one of my favorite moments in the movie business when I had that conversation with you.”
In reading the script, Murphy elaborated on what made it unique.
He said, “That’s the only script that I’ve ever read that’s been in the first person. It took me a minute, maybe a bit more than a minute, to figure that out. But then it became clear that you wanted it to be completely subjective, that everything was to be seen through the character’s eyes as it were, and, again, yeah, that added massively to the terror. [Laughs] But when it’s Christopher Nolan, you just have that confidence. You believe 100 percent in his vision, as I have always done. So it was terribly exciting.”
I find this to be such a fun leap for a director to make. Doing this, especially if you’re trying to woo an actor who knows you have talent, can help them see the world from your perspective and understand the entire perspective of the character.
It’s such an interesting and exciting experiment.
I wonder if Nolan wrote in different points of view in the story for other actors or if they all got the same sides written from Oppenheimer’s point of view.
Either way, this makes me even more excited to see the film and know a little bit about how it was created.
Hollywood came to the Colosseum on Friday as “Fast X” held a star-studded “Road to Rome” premiere, featuring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, John Cena, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno and a host of other talents prancing on a red carpet rolled out in the Forum’s Temple of Venus, with the historical landmark as a backdrop.
The social media embargo expired after the Rome premiere, and people who were lucky enough to see “Fast X” a week ahead of its stateside theatrical debut on May 19 are calling the movie “stupidly entertaining,” a “visual spectacle” and declaring that it puts the franchise “back on track.” Others praise Jason Momoa’s performance as the main villain, but admit there are also some “clunky elements” to the movie.
The choice of the Italian capital as the first city in the world where the 10th installment in the “Fast & Furious” saga would screen honored the fact that some of the film’s most high-octane action scenes were shot in Rome and its surrounding cities. (The production also shot on location in Turin in Northern Italy.)
“All the action scenes we did in Rome were real. When we rolled that ball in the streets of Rome, that was a real one-ton ball that we set on fire,” “Fast X” director Louis Leterrier told Variety on the red carpet.
Diesel also waxed enthusiastic about returning to the Eternal City on this balmy Italian evening. “I could not believe that there was a [Dodge] Charger and we were shouting: ‘Action!’ in front of the Colosseum,” he added. “I never would have dreamed that happening 20 years ago.”
The action star, who also produces the “Fast” films, walked the red carpet in tandem with Gibson, posing for photographers and camera crews flown in from all over the world.
“Where would be all be without your cameras rolling?” Gibson exclaimed, “We love you all so much!”
“Fast X” stars Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Scott Eastwood, Daniela Melchior, Alan Ritchson, Leo Abelo Perry, Brie Larson and Jason Statham and Meadow Walker — daughter of the late Paul Walker, who makes a cameo in the film — were also on hand on the spectacular catwalk ahead of the film’s public screening held in Rome nearby The Space multiplex.
See some of the reactions from journalists who saw “Fast X” below:
Caught #FastX last week! It’s a wild, non-stop action thrill ride that delivers the most shocking ending of the franchise, so far. Not perfect (end may divide fans), but it’s been growing on me & I can’t wait to see it again. Universal’s def trying to make this its Infinity War. pic.twitter.com/0EWbLNezOi
#FastX belongs to Jason Momoa and his decadent bad guy, Dante Reyes. Fierce and flamboyant, his perilous peacocking adds a sharp edge and some refreshing dark humor. The rest is ludicrousness with clunky elements but it is stupidly entertaining. What the Fast were you expecting? pic.twitter.com/9Xeuj2In7z
#FastX is an entertaining thrill ride. It’s a visual spectacle with some truly incredible stunts and some wildly outrageous moments you’d expect from the Fast franchise, but what Jason Momoa brings to the film as Dante is magic! His performance oozes charisma. pic.twitter.com/UjOlR77aEF
— Joseph Deckelmeier (@joedeckelmeier) May 12, 2023
#FastX is utterly ridiculous (I loved every second). Action sequences and one-liners left my face hurting from smiling so much. Momoa is hilarious. Ensemble rocks. Cinema? Please. Peak summer blockbuster? Hell yes. Built for a popcorn-filled big screen experience. @ComicBookpic.twitter.com/5XWLT4daQO
Fast X gets the Fast & Furious series back on track, and reason #1 is Jason Momoa, who plays Dante like F&F’s version of The Joker. He’s a gleeful psychopath, and it’s delightful. Along with a story that avoids what made Fate Of The Furious and F9 feel stale, it’s a win. #FastXpic.twitter.com/fgZy6gjYTR
#FastX has a needle drop I’ve been waiting yrs for. Almost lost it in the theater when it came on. A Jersey staple (of every party/club ever?), crowds are gonna lose it when it plays. Can’t believe this was somehow never in the Fast Saga. They know their audience.
ABC has canceled the drama series “Alaska Daily,” “Big Sky,” and “The Company You Keep,” Variety has learned.
Hilary Swank starred in “Alaska Daily” series as Eileen Fitzgerald, described as “a fiercely talented and award-winning investigative journalist who leaves her high-profile New York life behind after a fall from grace to join a daily metro newspaper in Anchorage on a journey to find both personal and professional redemption.”
In addition to Swank, the series starred Jeff Perry as Stanley Cornik, Matt Malloy as Bob Young, Meredith Holzman as Claire Muncy, Grace Dove as Rosalind “Roz” Friendly, Pablo Castelblanco as Gabriel Tovar, Ami Park as Yuna Park, and Craig Frank as Austin Teague.
McCarthy served as creator and executive producer on the show, and also directed the pilot. Swank, Melissa Wells, and Bert Salke executive produced along with Kyle Hopkins and Ryan Binkley of the Anchorage Daily News. Peter Elkoff served as showrunner and executive producers. 20th Television was the studio.
The drama ran for one season and was a high-profile get for ABC when it was first announced in 2021, due to its Oscar-winning talent attached. In addition to Swank as its star, the series hailed from fellow Oscar winner Tom McCarthy. Through the end of April, the series was averaging around 5.3 million viewers and a 0.4 rating in adults 18-49 in the Nielsen Live+7 ratings.
“Big Sky” ran for three seasons before its cancellation. Season 3 of the drama series, which was subtitled “Deadly Trails,” debuted on the broadcast network back in September. The series was based on the books of C.J. Box.
The official description of Season 3 states, “Private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury), undersheriff Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) and newly appointed sheriff Beau Arlen (Jensen Ackles) maintain order in Helena, Montana, with their unparalleled investigative skills. But when a local backcountry trip led by charismatic outfitter Sunny Barnes (Reba McEntire) goes awry, the trio faces their most formidable mystery yet – in which no camper can be trusted and where danger lurks around every jagged rock and gnarled tree.”
The cast for the season also included Dedee Pfeiffer as Denise Brisbane, Jamie-Lynn Sigler as Tonya Wallis, and J. Anthony Pena as Deputy Mo Poppernak.
“Big Sky: Deadly Trails” is executive produced by David E. Kelley, Elwood Reid and Ross Fineman. Elwood Reid (“The Chi,” “Hawaii Five-0”) serves as showrunner and executive producer. “Big Sky: Deadly Trails” is produced by 20th Television in association with A+E Studios. 20th Television is a part of Disney Television Studios.
“The Company You Keep” has been canceled after one season.
The drama was a high-profile launch for ABC at midseason, as it was the first post-“This Is Us” TV starring role for Milo Ventimiglia. But the series failed to find much of an audience upon its debut, with the show averaging under 4 million viewers per episode in the Nielsen Live+7 ratings through the end of April.
Based on the Korean Broadcasting System format “My Fellow Citizens,” the series follows “con man Charlie and undercover CIA officer Emma, who are unknowingly on a collision course professionally.”
Along with Ventimiglia, the series also starred Catherine Haena Kim as Emma, William Fichtner as Leo, Tim Chiou as David, Freda Foh Shen as Grace, James Saito as Joseph, Sarah Wayne Callies as Birdie, Felisha Terrell as Daphne, and Polly Draper as Fran.
Julia Cohen wrote the pilot for the series and served as executive producer and co-showrunner, with Phil Klemmer serving as co-showrunner and executive producer. Ventimiglia and Russ Cundiff of DiVide Pictures also executive produced along with Jon M. Chu and Caitlin Foito via Electric Somewhere, and Todd Harthan and Lindsay Goffman via Gratitude Productions. Deanna Harris of DiVide was a producer. 20th Television was the studio.
A key Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 plot point was set up in Avengers: Infinity War, according to James Gunn. It is the end of an era for one of Marvel Studios’ most iconic franchises, as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 marked Gunn’s final Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. For the trilogy finale, the story saw the heroes deal with the High Evolutionary, who was the man responsible for Rocket Racoon’s existence. As Gunn finished his time with the MCU, he is now moving on to his full commitment at DC Studios, as he gave the Guardians a proper send-off in his final movie.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAYSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
In a new interview with The New York Times, Gunn talked about seeding ideas for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 through other MCU films. According to Gunn, the kiss scene between Star-Lord and Gamora was something he initially wanted to put in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. But because of the story beat, Gunn ended up convincing Marvel Studios to get their kiss scene into Avengers: Infinity War, which obviously became important for Peter later on as he tried to convince the other Gamora through Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, that they used to have a special relationship.
QUESTION: Well, Gamora’s death is the big one, but even her first kiss with Quill comes in “Infinity War” after the first two “Guardians” movies appear to be building to it.
Gunn: I begged them to have that kiss in the movie, because it was necessary to really cement their relationship. I had a kiss in “Vol. 2” that I cut — it was awesome, but it came in a weird time. At the end of “Vol. 2,” you establish the fact that they have feelings for each other pretty distinctly, but in “Infinity War,” we needed to establish that they were now boyfriend-girlfriend and this was a normal thing for them. It wasn’t really about the kiss, it was about showing that they were now a couple.
Will The Guardians Of The Galaxy Be In More Avengers Movies?
With the completion of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, the bigger question that has been raised is the future of the beloved heroes. Despite taking part in Phase 5, the film didn’t really flesh out The Multiverse Saga any further and focused more on its own central plots. But with so many Guardians still around, it begs the question if they will be part of any more Avengers movies.
Given the large scope of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, it would be shocking if the Guardians of the Galaxy weren’t part of it at all. These are the type of films where most of the MCU come together, and having the Guardians crew absent would be a big throw-off, as well as potentially out of character. Neither Avengers film has even started filming yet, meaning that time will tell if the Guardians of the Galaxy characters are in it or not.
Since the Guardians of the Galaxy heroes are so popular with the MCU fandom, it is only a matter of time until when they are back, as opposed to if they will be back. There may already be appearances lined up in other MCU projects that Marvel Studios are keeping a surprise for now. Hopefully, as Phase 5 goes forward, it won’t be long until they pop up again after Guardians of the GalaxyVol 3.
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.
Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:
2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
The White Lotus
Variety
Weekly Commentary: “Succession” writer Jesse Armstrong is the first solo writer to win this category three times, and he could extend that record with the “Connor’s Wedding” episode (and whatever the finale brings). The challengers come from his HBO counterparts, “The Last of Us” and “The White Lotus.” AMC could also get traction for the final episode of “Better Call Saul.”
Emmy Nominations voting runs from June 15-26. The Primetime Emmy nominations will be announced on July 12. Check back every Thursday for the latest updates. All information is preliminary and is subject to change.
And the Predicted Nominees Are:
“Yellowjackets” (Showtime) — “Qui” by Karen Joseph Adcock, Ameni Rozsa
“The Last of Us” (HBO) — “Look for the Light” by Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
“Stranger Things” (Netflix) — “Chapter Nine: The Piggyback” by The Duffer Brothers
2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series
Patrick McElhenney
Weekly Commentary: Quinta Brunson won this category last year for the first season “Abbott Elementary” and she faces stiff competition once again with an onslaught of critically acclaimed shows like “The Bear,” “Shrinking” and “Ted Lasso.”
Emmy Nominations voting runs from June 15-26. The Primetime Emmy nominations will be announced on July 12. Check back every Thursday for the latest updates. All information is preliminary and is subject to change.
“Reservation Dogs” (FX) — “The Curse” by Sterlin Harjo, Dallas Goldtooth, Ryan RedCorn
“Call Me Kat” (Fox) — “Call Me Uncle Dad” by Britté Anchor, Jim Reynolds, Maria Ferrari, Chelsea Myers
“The Rehearsal” (HBO) — “Orange Juice, No Pulp” by Nathan Fielder
2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series or TV Movie
Jesse Eisenberg and Lizzy Caplan in “Fleishman Is in Trouble.”
Warrick Page/Prime Video
Weekly Commentary: With the combination of limited series and television movies, this race is a bit more interesting with “Weird” and “Fire Island” making plays for their comedic elements, and poignant shows like “Black Bird” and “Fleishman is in Trouble” looking strong for recognition.
“Swarm” creator Janine Nabers could also make history as the first Black woman to be recognized in this category for a show she created and produced.
Emmy Nominations voting runs from June 15-26. The Primetime Emmy nominations will be announced on July 12. Check back every Thursday for the latest updates. All information is preliminary and is subject to change.
And the Predicted Nominees Are:
“Beef” (Netflix) — “The Birds Don’t Sing, They Screech in Pain” by Lee Sung Jin
“Fire Island” (Hulu) — Film screenplay by Joel Kim Booster
GUEST ACTOR (DRAMA) | GUEST ACTRESS (DRAMA) | GUEST ACTOR (COMEDY) | GUEST ACTRESS (COMEDY) | VOICE-OVER | SHORT FORM | DOCUMENTARY | MUSIC | ANIMATED |
About the Primetime Emmy Awards
The Primetime Emmy Awards, better known as the Emmys, are given out by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). Since 1949, the awards have recognized excellence in American primetime television programming. They are divided into three classes – Primetime Emmy Awards, the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (honors artisan achievements), and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards (recognizes significant engineering and technological contributions). The typical eligibility period is between June 1 and May 31 of any given year. The Television Academy comprises over 25,000 members, representing 30 professional peer groups, including performers, directors, producers, art directors, artisans, and executives.
About the Primetime Emmy Awards
The Primetime Emmy Awards, better known as the Emmys, are given out by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). Since 1949, the awards have recognized excellence in American primetime television programming. They are divided into three classes – Primetime Emmy Awards, the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (honors artisan achievements), and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards (recognizes significant engineering and technological contributions). The typical eligibility period is between June 1 and May 31 of any given year. The Television Academy comprises over 25,000 members, representing 30 professional peer groups, including performers, directors, producers, art directors, artisans, and executives.
If you’re thinking of heading out west, it’s well worth spending a few days in the Land of Enchantment. Fly into Albuquerque, then make your way north to Santa Fe, an hour and change drive to New Mexico’s capital. Nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, Santa Fe is a popular destination for creatives and adventurers of all stripes, with a big local arts scene, unique pueblo-style adobe architecture, and tons of skiing, hiking, and mountain biking available throughout the year. For a weekend trip, stay at the charming Bishop’s Lodge, which is located just outside the downtown area in Tesuque. It’s the perfect place to appreciate the rich cultural history of New Mexico and reconnect with nature. Spend the morning swimming, horseback riding, or hiking around the property, then arrange for a pueblo tour for after lunch, followed by a massage in the spa. Book dinner at Sky Fire, which specializes in wood-fired dishes with local, seasonal ingredients. For a day trip, make time to visit Georgia O’Keeffe’s home and studio in Abiquiú, which is open for private and public tours throughout the year.
Miami
Courtesy of The Four Seasons Hotel at the Surf Club.
Miami is an understandably popular destination: sunny skies, sexy cocktail bars, and plenty of beaches. But not every hotel screams romance when music from the rooftop bar is pounding until 2 a.m. That’s why we’re huge fans of Surfside, a more peaceful and elegant enclave due north of the debauchery of South Beach. And one of our favorite hotels there is one you’ve probably seen on Instagram: The Four Seasons Hotel at the Surf Club. A veritable oasis in the middle of the buzzing city, it boasts oceanfront rooms, some of Miami’s best restaurants, and a historic lobby bar that is as sultry as they come. They offer plenty of ways to pamper your significant other, including private poolside cabanas for some surreptitious canoodling, and personalized cocktails from the cocktail trolley at The Champagne Bar. Pro tip: You can even ask for a custom picnic basket to set up a romantic dinner on the beach. The Setai is another perfect place if you’re there more to soak up the sun than the tequila. The entire property is dimly lit to exude all the calm energy, and that’s nothing compared to visiting the five-star Valmont spa (get the Luminosity of Ice facial, trust us). There are also three different pools all set at different temperatures so you can swim year-round, and there’s private beach access, too. As for dining, the Setai’s options are unmatched. We’re partial to Jaya which has a selection of Asian-fusion dishes and evening entertainment like fire dancers and contortionists.
The border is a false division, a line on a piece of paper or a map.
Look across it and you’ll see that the earth is still in one piece, the same from one side to the next, where one should be able to move back and forth with ease, like our ancestors did, and theirs, and theirs too. The good writers straddle the lines, searching across the two worlds, while the great ones destroy and decimate them, reshape them.
Here, I have a home. Where I am. Looking out onto the backyard there is the kitchen. There I am quiet. There I am loud. There we dance. Tilt our heads back, wide mouth open accepting the communion of spices in the air.
There I do not know gender. No roles to fill.
Excerpt from “Garden, Kitchen, & Memories” by Alejandro Jimenez
IN THE MAKING
Alejandro Jimenez exists beyond borders, beyond binaries. He speaks English, breathes Spanish, and wields words and weaves worlds. Alejandro is magic with the pen, spitting hot fire, forging and creating spaces, taking you and me to worlds that we’ve never imagined, taking us to places that we know all too well, taking us in a time machine; taking us to a place called home. He is the color of life that refuses to be confined by any man-made boundary.
The words flow from Alejandro like the wind on a fall morning, flow from him like the earth, water, the air. It’s the same way when he runs, he moves across mountains, across borders, across waves, peaks and valleys. He moves, fast as lightning, feet like the ancestors, paisa poder1; he moves across borders and mother tongues. Borders bend, and move, and weave, and are rendered irrelevant. Alejandro’s words on the page, from his mouth, into my heart, remind me, wherever I go, I belong, that I am home.
Listen to his poetry, and you’d actually believe that you could do whatever you wanted to, that you could be more than that construction worker that your third-grade teacher told you that you would grow up to be; that you can be more than a stereotype, more than the fears of white imagination.
He is a lover of language, his heart overflowing with a passion for the power of words. He writes with a dedication and persistence that is both inspiring and humbling, never giving up on his dream of sharing his art with the world.
I used to see Alejandro daily, each of us on our morning run. Like his writing, Alejandro in motion is effortless, is humble, is bold, is athletic, is peace; seeing him could make you believe that you could be a great runner.
Brown runners, these streets used to be full of us, before there were streets, valleys and peaks, and roads that had been carved by the feet of the elders. In that way, Alejandro is like the land, ageless; in that way, Alejandro is like the wind, free and wild, and cool and calming.
His poetry reminds me of who we used to be, of who we are, of Latine pasts and Latinx Futures.
Our families were forced to assimilate, were stripped of mother tongue, as we moved north, with each progressive generation, before we settled, in Denver, Chicago, Oregon, before we became Mexican-American, before we became Chicano, Hispanic, Latinx and Latine. We still gather and tell stories aloud, laugh, lloramos, y gritamos, and feel it deep in our souls.
The universal, the things that connect across times, across boundaries, across borders, is specific. It’s deeply personal, but reveals a truth that multitudes can feel. Such is the same with the work of Alejandro, my favorite paisa poet.
He has a language love affair, and when I read his work, I, too, remember what it is to be in love with lengua, remember what it’s like to see and hear and feel in another language, remember what it is like for my grandparents and my parents and my tios and tias and mis primas y primos y primxs to be seen. No roles to fill; here I have a home.
“Brown Boy Run Club” For Alejandro Jimenez, on a morning run, when we run into each other
We lace up our shoes, a double knot for extra protection. We of the morning, noon, and late evenings, adorned in Running costumes All the colors of the rainbow Skittles, We of all shapes, all sizes, but still, scary. We have been running, our whole lives, since elementary school, since I was a boy, since the white neighbors moved in and questioned my existence. We have been running, because it’s the only place where I can see and be me, We have been running, because they have been running after me. We of the names Alejandro, Felipe, and multitudes, Don’t call us ghosts, just because you fear us. We step out that door, We float on air, our times faster A reflective blue jacket, illuminating me in the dark I see you and I nod, a little extra hard You are fire, streaking across the ground, through the air, the Flash I am, too I nod, harder, just hard enough for you to See me Like I see you Acknowledge you and me so that when our space is compromised And we are forced to no longer exist You and me Remember that we were seen.
by Manuel Aragon
Images from Alejandro Jimenez: The Ground I Stand On, a film by Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana & Alan Domínguez.
1Editor’s Note: #PaisaPoder is Alejandro Jimenez’s hashtag for his online presence, used as a celebratory phrase to celebrate and uplift fellow Mexican and Latinx voices.
Two northern spotted owls that had been released into a British Columbia forest last year have been found dead, potentially reducing the known wild population in the province to a single female.
Spuzzum First Nation Chief James Hobart says in a joint statement issued with the government and Jasmine McCulligh, facility co-ordinator for the Northern Spotted Owl Breeding Program, that the two male birds’ remains were found with their GPS trackers in early May.
Nathan Cullen, minister of water, land and resource stewardship, says the cause of the released birds’ death is unknown, but could include physical injury, predation, disease or starvation.
Month of Giving Back: Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC
Hobart calls the deaths “devastating,” and says efforts will be made to retrace the birds’ final days to work out what could have been done differently.
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A third male owl that had been released with the others last August was found injured near train tracks in October after potentially colliding with a train. It has since recovered but remains in the breeding program’s facility in Langley.
McCulligh says that despite the birds’ deaths, her team would use the experience to help move the breeding and release program forward.
She says “countless hours” had been spent nurturing the owls, as she recalled the “exciting and rewarding moment” of their release near the Spuzzum First Nation, about 200 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.
“Although this is clearly not the result we had wished for, we are committed to learning as much as we can from this experience,” she says in the statement issued Friday.
B.C. wildlife rescue centre hopes California visitor will help local population of spotted owls
McCulligh had said in February that the release of the male trio had brought the confirmed wild population to four, with a single female known to exist.
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Cullen says in Friday’s statement that the government and its partners were doing everything they could to help spotted owls recover, supporting the world’s only captive breeding and release program.
Protection of spotted owls has fuelled decades-long disputes between environmental groups and the forest industry as their future is often tied to saving old-growth forests where the birds live.
When the birds were released last year, the Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship said it was a “historic milestone,” crediting a partnership between the breeding program and the Spuzzum First Nation.
Matthew Perry starred in Friends for a decade, but his battle with drugs & alcohol nearly took his life.
He has been battling his addiction for over 25 years.
The Hollywood hunk was once told he had a 2% chance of survival due to his drug use.
Matthew opened up about his struggles with opioids & alcohol in his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, in Nov. 2022.
Although many know Matthew Perry, 53, from his work on Friends, Fools Rush In, and more, the Hollywood heartthrob has not had a perfect life. Nearly two decades after his time playing Chandler on the hit sitcom came to an end, the Massachusetts-born actor wrote a tell-all memoir titled, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, about his ongoing struggles with abusing drugs and alcohol throughout his life.
Matthew Perry, who starred on ‘Friends’ for a decade, recently opened up about his drug & alcohol battles. (Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock)
Now that he went public with his addiction battle, Matthew admitted he went to rehab over a dozen times following multiple near-death experiences. Keep reading to learn more about his drug and alcohol abuse, his recovery journey, and how Matthew is doing today.
Matthew Perry Reveals Drug Addiction
Nearly three decades ago in 1997, Matthew suffered from jet ski accident and soon became addicted to Vicodin, a Narcotic drug known to treat pain. After the accident, his Vicodin addiction led to abusing alcohol, per US Weekly, and he checked himself into rehab in Minnesota that year. Despite his attempts to get sober, Matthew was only able to stay sober for a short period of time before he would relapse again.
Three years after he went to rehab for the first time, Matthew was hospitalized in 2000 for alcohol-related pancreatitis, according to the same outlet. After his two week hospitalization, Matthew later began “detoxing” on the set of Friends, with a notably different physical appearance in Season 6 and 7. The popular TV star would eventually break his sobriety multiple times and go to rehab over 15 times throughout his journey.
What Has He Said About His Recovery?
It was not until 2002, that he spoke to The New York Times about his struggle and admitted he needed help. “When [fame] happens, it’s kind of like Disneyland for a while. For me it lasted about eight months, this feeling of ‘I’ve made it, I’m thrilled, there’s no problem in the world.’ And then you realize that it doesn’t accomplish anything, it’s certainly not filling any holes in your life,” Matthew told the outlet, one year after getting sober again. “I didn’t get sober because I felt like it. I got sober because I was worried I was going to die the next day.”
Matthew would also battle alcohol abuse throughout his life and admitted that he would show up to work hungover many times. ”I had this odd rule that I would never drink on a set,” the 17 Again star said. “But I went to work in extreme cases of hangover. It’s so horrible to feel that way and have to work and be funny on top of that.” By 2011, Matthew would find himself back in rehab.
He issued a statement to PEOPLE at the time, declaring he would be taking time off work to focus on his health. “I’m making plans to go away for a month to focus on my sobriety and to continue my life in recovery,” his statement read. “Please enjoy making fun of me on the World Wide Web.” Two years after that, the successful entertainer opened up a sober living facility in Malibu called, Perry House, according to Page Six.
How Long Has Matthew Perry Been Sober?
The 53-year-old’s recovery has been an ongoing one. He most recently became sober in 2021, according to Entertainment Tonight, just months before he filmed the viral Friends ReunionHBO Max special. Just a few years prior to that, in 2018, Matthew was hospitalized for three months for a gastrointestinal perforation. He took to Twitter at the time to announce the difficult moment in a humorous way. “Three months in a hospital bed. Check,” he wrote at the time.
How Is Matthew Perry Doing Today?
Most recently, in 2022, Matthew published his tell-all memoir in which he wrote about his addiction, recovery, and moments on Friends. In Nov. 2022, he appeared on The Viewand told co-host Whoopi Goldberg that he is “doing really well” today. “I’m doing really well. Things are going great in my life,” he told the comedian at the time. “I wrote a book so that’s why I’m wearing glasses because I’m an author.” In the memoir, Matthew revealed he began drinking alcohol at 14 years old and soon began drinking “every day” by age 18, per ABC News.
Around the same time, Matthew appeared in a candid interview with Diane Sawyer and told her all about his struggles amid promoting the memoir. He detailed that he was once taking 55 Vicodin pills per day, in a coma for two weeks, and had over 14 surgeries. “One of the things I have to deal with is that my family rushed to the hospital and were told that I have a 2% chance to make it through the night,” he told the reporter at the time. “And, you know, my mom heard that, and my dad heard that.” Matthew added that he is now on the “winning side” mentality in his recovery journey. “I’ve surrendered, but to the winning side, not the losing,” he penned in the book, via ABC News. “I’m no longer mired in an impossible battle with drugs and alcohol.”
She had previously expressed admiration for Twitter, calling the platform “the single, No. 1 biggest” content distribution partner for NBCUniversal at an ad industry event soon after Mr. Musk took over the company. At the time, she added that she did not plan to “bet against him” and that she believed he could “learn advertising.”
“I think we can teach him,” she said.
This week, Ms. Yaccarino was in attendance when Mr. Musk spoke at an advertising conference in California’s Napa Valley hosted by WPP, three people familiar with the event said.
Ms. Yaccarino would be a rare female chief executive in technology, as top executives like Meta’s Sheryl Sandberg and YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki have recently left their roles. Throughout her career, Ms. Yaccarino has often said that she has been the only woman at the table and has described incidents of bias, such as the time a male supervisor complained in an otherwise flattering performance review about her aggressiveness: “I only wish she would stop using her high heels as a weapon.”
While Ms. Yaccarino is active on Twitter, her habits are sedate compared to Mr. Musk’s, though in recent weeks, she has liked dozens of posts by and about him.
Still, the differences between Mr. Musk and Ms. Yaccarino were clear last month at the media conference in Miami. A polished Ms. Yaccarino came with prepared comments. An unshaven Mr. Musk spent a few moments wrangling his toddler son, X Æ A-12, before joining her and offering sometimes halting answers to her questions.
Ms. Yaccarino returned repeatedly to worries that her industry colleagues have voiced since Mr. Musk took control of Twitter, emphasizing several times that the audience of ad executives was crucial to the company’s financial success.
Mr. Musk said that “there’s legitimate concerns that advertisers have that I want to hear.” He recounted a complaint he had heard from David Zaslav, the chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, who was frustrated that he was unable to place ads for “White Lotus,” the hit HBO show, next to discussions of “White Lotus” on Twitter.
The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Every installment asks the same five questions. Today’s subject is Robert Rodriguez, the tall Texan who charmed his way into a major A-list directing career by becoming one of the first breakout filmmakers to emerge as a Sundance Film Festival winner. Rodriguez came with a fun action film, El Mariachi, and tales of running up credit cards and even selling his own blood to raise money to make his first film.
Success quickly followed, and aside from turning that film into a franchise, he’s hatched the Sin City and Spy Kids films. His mix of fun and high-octane action and gore distinguished films from his Quentin Tarantino collaborations From Dusk Till Dawn and Grindhouse.
Rodriguez today opens Hypnotic, the Ben Affleck thriller that took Rodriguez a long time to see through. It will also be in the program of next week’s Cannes Film Festival. Here, he discusses formative influences that infused his distinctive style.
“I auditioned him. They’d been looking for this character for some time … They didn’t want a dark-haired guy, they wanted a Latino actor. So I had auditioned every Latino actor in the city and around the city and then California,” Ripa detailed during a SiriusXM interview in August 2018. “Then all of a sudden, Judy Blye Wilson, who was the casting director in All My Children, said, ‘I found him’ … [Judy] showed me his picture and … when I saw him, the photograph of him, I saw my entire future with him flash before [my eyes]. Like, I saw it. I [didn’t] believe in any of that and now I do because of that moment.”
“[Riverdale creator] Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa] called me and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a question to ask you. Do you think she’d want to do it?’ And I said, ‘You know, yeah. Give her a call!’ They spoke and they figured it out,” the Spain native, who played Hiram Lodge on the hit CW series, exclusively told Us Weekly in 2019. “Roberto’s awesome, man. No one knows this world better than him. He just made it happen. I definitely did not ask for him to do that. I think he thought it would be so much fun.”
“We figured that since we started our careers together, we might as well finish them together,” the duo told Usabout the decision to work together again. “We figured the idea ‘what could possibly go wrong?’ is something we’d definitely like to explore. Now, we have the chance.”
“37 years (and a day) of dogs and daughters, horses and houses, friends and family, ups and downs… and love. ❤️❤️❤️,” the actress captioned an Instagram post in April 2023. “Happy Anniversary to the one I’m so lucky to be living my life with.”
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The Jonas Brothers’ 12-track project, executive produced by Jon Bellion, arrived Friday. (Image: Jonas Brothers/Twitter)
The latest album pays heartfelt tribute to the wives of Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas: Danielle Jonas, Sophie Turner, and Priyanka Chopra
Jonas Brothers’ Highly Anticipated Album ‘The Album’ Arrives with 12 Tracks, Executive Produced by Jon Bellion
“The journey this record has taken us on has been a one of a kind experience and finally getting to share these songs with you means the world to us. Thank you to the incredible @jonbellion for helping us bring this body of work to life,” the group said in a statement on Twitter.
The journey this record has taken us on has been a one of a kind experience and finally getting to share these songs with you means the world to us. Thank you to the incredible @jonbellion for helping us bring this body of work to life. We’re so proud of these songs and hope you… pic.twitter.com/7RN8fy0js3— Jonas Brothers (@jonasbrothers) May 12, 2023
“We’re so proud of these songs and hope you love it as much as we do. THE ALBUM is yours now,” the band added.
The latest album pays heartfelt tribute to the wives of Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas: Danielle Jonas, Sophie Turner, and Priyanka Chopra, according to Page Six.
In their album, the Jonas Brothers serenade listeners with melodic tales of love’s discovery, blossoming, and the euphoric moments that ensue, with eight tracks barely exceeding the three-minute mark, the report said.
While drawing inspiration from the Bee Gees, the Jonas Brothers’ latest album, “The Album,” ventures into a Laurel Canyon-esque sound that leans more towards the laid-back vibes of “California Dreamin'” rather than the disco energy of “Stayin’ Alive.”
The biggest question facing Marvel is not what superheroes will join the Avengers or whether or not the Guardians of the Galaxy will return, it is what the future of Jonathan Majors looks like.
Majors has portrayed Kang the Conqueror in both Loki and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, with the expectation that the villain would permeate the next two phases of MCU films.
Majors is facing three counts of third-degree assault, second-degree aggravated harassment, three counts of third-degree attempted assault, and second-degree harassment. Police cite that Majors allegedly struck “[the victim] about the face with an open hand, causing substantial pain and a laceration behind her ear.” Additionally, he allegedly grabbed her hand and neck, “causing bruising and substantial pain.”
While Marvel has largely remained silent as the actor’s legal proceedings have played out, all eyes are on the studio.
What we do know is that Major will portray Kang again at least one more time. The second season of Loki has already been shot and is expected to be released later this year.
After that, Majors’s future with Marvel remains closed. Insiders report that while no decision has been made, the studio “has already started preparations” on recasting the role of Kang should they need to.
Photo: D23
As always, continue to check back with MickeyBlog. We will continue to update you on all the happenings surrounding Marvel Studios.
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Fast X was supposed to be the beginning of the end for the Fast & Furious franchise. The film was announced as the first of a two-part finale for the series. But buckle up, because Vin Diesel just turned on the NOS. At the Fast X premiere in Rome, Dominic Toretto dropped a blockbuster. Diesel said Fast & Furious might actually say farewell with a trilogy, and that would mean the high-octane franchise will race to the finish line with Fast 12.
Universal Pictures
Variety reports Vin Diesel unexpectedly turned Fast X‘s red carpet into a red press conference. He said Universal Pictures’ reaction to the film is so good they asked about extending the franchise for one more installment than is currently planned.
Diesel said, “Going into making this movie, the studio asked if this could be a two-parter. And after the studio saw this one, they said, ‘Could you make Fast X the finale, a trilogy?’”
Diesel and his longtime co-star Michelle Rodriguez then refused to confirm a twelfth film was definitely happening. Diesel walked away from the follow-up question saying he was going to get “in trouble.”
Universal Pictures
If, like me, you’re a fan of this franchise both on-screen and off, you know this is the most Vin Diesel Fast & Furious moment ever. He absolutely, 100% might be talking entirely out of his tailpipe. This whole “here’s some major news I won’t actually confirm” could simply be a ploy to pressure Universal into making another film. Or that might be exactly what the studio wants and now has planned. Maybe Fast X really is so good they want to make an extra film and he just couldn’t help himself from announcing it.
Both options are totally in play. I don’t actually care which one is true, though, because all I care about IS GETTING THAT TWELFTH MOVIE! Twelve is better than eleven! I don’t even know they’re going to stop them in the first place! The franchise is more absurd than ever and I mean that in the best way possible.
The last one sent a normal car to space. A normal car drove in space. But there’s still so many more ridiculous roads to travel on: aliens, time travel, the multiverse, other movie franchises. Forget ending with Fast 11 or 12. I want to see what happens with Fast 37. Could that movie take place inside Fast 5?!
The possibilities are endless. So you keep up the pressure, Vin Diesel. Don’t hold back on the proverbial NOS. Not now, not ever. Not while the family of Fast & Furious fans wants you to keep going.
Sci-fi thriller Slave (Abed) by Mansour Assad and Raven Song by Mohamed Al Salman took the top prizes at theninth edition of the Saudi Film Festival, running from May 4 to 12 in the city of Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Slave (Abed) won the festival’s Golden Palm for best film, while Raven Song clinched the jury prize.
Mansour Assad’s Slave revolves around a couple who make a movie that results in anger and backlash from society. They are given the option of staying in the present or going back in time to rectify the action that enraged their community.
Raven Song follows a man who is wrongly diagnosed with a brain tumor after he starts having hallucinations. The film also walked away with Golden Palms for best screenplay, best cinematography and best actor for Asim Al-Auad.
Read the Deadline review for the film and watch a Deadline Studio of the director here and here.
Best actress went to Aseel Omran for her performance in Valley Road.
Slave also best editing while The Abandoned Place by Gigi Hozimah won best sound design.
Iraqi films The Woodman by Koutaiba Al-Janabi and The Last Postman by Saad Al-Essamy shared the prize for best film out of the Gulf region.
The Saudi Film Festival is organized by the Dammam Culture & Arts Society in partnership with the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture – Ithra, in collaboration with the Saudi Cinema Association and with the support of the Saudi Film Commission of the Ministry of Culture.
The film jury was composed of French producer Daniel Ziskind, Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha and Saudi filmmaker and producer and Hisham Fageeh.
This edition included a film competition and a script development laboratory with an improvement in its structure and prizes, and an expansion of the film screening programs to include curated films from the international, Arab and the Gulf region.
So that’s why Jeremy Strong used the word “dramaturgically”
61st Street, “the dramatic story of a promising high school athlete who gets swept up in a corrupt Chicago criminal justice system” (per the show’s synopsis), originally aired last year on AMC. The network ordered two seasons and both of them were filmed, but the series was canceled after the first season in a cost-cutting measure. Signaling its strategy for its new chapter, the CW has now swooped in to dust the show off and put it on the air. The first season will air in Fall 2023, with the handily completed second season set for Fall 2024.
“There was a lot of love and hard work that went into making 61st Street,” Vance said in a statement. “I’m thrilled that The CW has enthusiastically given all 16 episodes of 61st Street a network home. With The CW, I’m confident that we will engage a universe of viewers who will celebrate the series with us. My cast, crew and I can’t wait!”
61st Street heralds the next phase of the CW (under its new ownership Nexstar) in multiple ways. For one, it targets an older, more serious demographic than its previous teen soaps and superhero fare was meant to attract. For another, it’s an easy acquisition for the network which is looking to make itself profitable on the cheap. The new programming strategy is “focused on acquisitions and co-productions” (per Deadline), as reflected by the summer slate which includes Canadian series Run The ’Burbs, Moonshine, and Family Law as well as the second season of Australian dramedy Bump (also per Deadline). Peace and love to those shows, but it’ll be a sad day when the Riverdale finale tolls the bell for the CW’s golden era. If you’ll excuse us, we’ll be over here mourning the Good Old Days.
Over the course of television history, there has been a slew of unforgettable fictional couples that have been both loved and loathed by audiences. While the small screen has introduced viewers to iconic and universally beloved romances such as Lucy and Ricky, Ben and Leslie, and Edith and Archie, there have also been some not-so-cherished unions.
Whether it’s a failed attempt to transform friends into lovers like George and Izzie in Grey’s Anatomy, or the highly turbulent and downright toxic relationship between Carrie and Mr. Big throughout the course of Sex and the City, not all romances have knocked it out of the park and have unfortunately aged like milk.
With all that in mind, while many of these relationships on this list have their redeeming qualities, there are just too many flaws and faults that can’t be overlooked and have prevented frustrated viewers from rooting for them. Let’s dive into some of the worst TV couples of all time.
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11 Dawson and Joey (Dawson’s Creek)
Sony Pictures Television
Despite the name of the ’90s teen drama being Dawson’s Creek, some fans were deeply frustrated over the titular character’s tumultuous relationship with his childhood best friend Joey and their constant rollercoaster romance. While their love affair began as a slow burn, with Dawson initially completely oblivious to Joey’s true feelings, the pair eventually share a kiss and begin dating.
Not only did Joey give up a summer internship in Paris to stay with Dawson, but she felt overshadowed by his filmmaking ambitions and struggled with establishing her own identity outside their relationship. Dawson and Joey were much better as friends than they ever were as lovers, as their personalities were far too different, and they lacked the true romantic chemistry that she would later share with Pacey.
10 Jackie and Fez (That’s ’70s Show)
Carsey-Werner Distribution
Longtime viewers of the groovy sitcom That ’70s Showwere completely caught off guard when Point Place’s resident diva Jackie Burkhart ended up with the lovable but hilariously perverted Fez at the conclusion of the popular series. Despite harboring a major crush for the sassy brunette throughout the course of the show, Jackie showed no signs of reciprocating his feelings until the very last season
After having memorable romances with both Kelso and Hyde, seeing Jackie end up with Fez left much to be desired for devoted fans of the comedy. Not only did their pairing feel unauthentic, but many were also holding on to hope that she would reconnect with Hyde, as the duo truly helped each other grow and mature. Jackie and Fez getting together definitely felt like a major letdown.
9 J.R. and Sue Ellen (Dallas)
CBS
The trailblazing ’80s soap opera smash hit Dallaswas an iconic and groundbreaking TV show for a plethora of reasons, having famously posed the question “Who shot J.R.?” and causing the world to fall into quite the tizzy over the epic cliffhanger. Centering on the quarrelsome Texas family the Ewings, the romance between the scheming oil tycoon J.R. and former beauty queen Sue Ellen became the focal point of the drama and their stormy marriage caused quite the buzz.
From extramarital affairs to blackmail and their constant schemes and scams, the dysfunctional on-and-off duo were absolutely thrilling to watch but were not exactly the couple’s goals. J.R. was a notorious womanizer and his mistreatment of Sue Ellen caused her to turn to the bottle and embrace her own conniving side, resulting in their spectacular demise.
8 Rory and Dean (Gilmore Girls)
Warner Bros. Television
After first being introduced as the sweet and protective boy next door and Rory’s first boyfriend, Dean swiftly evolved into a controlling and extremely possessive partner on the 2000s comfort show classic Gilmore Girls.The character showcased his immaturity when he became jealous over aspects of Rory’s personality and life he used to admire, with things like her intense dedication to her studies and her unbreakable bond with her mother becoming a source of contempt between the two.
The couple reached their boiling point when on their anniversary Rory failed to return Dean’s “I love you,” causing him to unfairly lash out and break up with her over his own perceived embarrassment. Though they went on to reconcile, their relationship was never the same and Rory found herself attracted to town newcomer Jess. The pair later shockingly had an affair when Dean was married, garnering outrage from fans.
7 Izzie and George (Grey’s Anatomy)
ABC
When shows try to implement the often tricky friends-to-lovers trope, it can either be a sizzling triumph (looking at you, New Girl‘s Nick and Jess) or a massive trainwreck just waiting to happen. Unfortunately for close pals Izzie and George on the groundbreaking medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, their short-lived romantic pairing crashed and burned almost as fast as it began. It was bad enough that George was married to Callie at the time when the affair occurred, but their hook-up also affected the dynamic of their friendship which made it difficult for it to recover from.
Izzie and George are the perfect example of characters who are way better off as friends than lovers, and their ill-conceived romance lacked any true chemistry and seemingly came out of nowhere. While their relationship was eventually able to be repaired, it nonetheless left viewers perplexed as to why it ever happened in the first place.
6 Alex and Piper (Orange Is the New Black)
Netflix
Getting your former significant other thrown into prison as part of a plea deal doesn’t make for the healthiest foundations for a relationship, which is just one of the many reasons the romance between Orange Is the New Black’s Alex and Piper was so turbulent and toxic. Former drug cartel worker Alex was the reason Piper was incarcerated nearly a decade after helping her smuggle drug money, and after being reunited in prison the couple pick up where they left off (with unsurprisingly complicated results).
They constantly exhibit jealous and possessive behavior, cheat on one another, and are so codependent that they can hardly function without each other. The constant back-and-forth between Alex and Piper was tiresome for audiences, and they attempted to pass off their relationship as romantic when it was downright dysfunctional and extremely unhealthy.
5 Ross and Rachel (Friends)
NBC
While strong cases can be made for both sides as to whether or not Rachel should have gotten off the plane, many diehard fans of the juggernaut ’90s hit Friendscan agree that their romance was an arduous ten-year affair that truly tested the patience of audiences. While their love story began as something sweet and endearing, with Ross having been in love with Rachel since high school, their relationship ultimately soured due to Ross’ immaturity and jealousy over her desire to have a career.
Not only did Ross go out and sleep with another woman the second he and Rachel were controversially “on a break,” but he ran all over the city trying to cover his tracks and keep her from finding out. The pair would frequently exchange jabs and insults despite still having romantic feelings, and duo often brought out the worst in one another; they even sabotaged prospective relationships for the other. By the time they officially reunited in the finale, fans were relieved for the “happy ending” but still believed Rachel got the short end of the stick.
4 Ted and Robin (How I Met Your Mother)
CBS
After revealing to audiences early on that the ambitious and witty Robin was not in fact the mysterious mom to Ted’s children in the enduring sitcom How I Met Your Mother, fans were still forced to endure their constant and very frustrating relationship throughout its 9 seasons. It became glaringly obvious that the pair simply were not compatible, as Robin wanted to focus on her career while Ted was eager to settle down and find “the one,” thus putting them at a crossroads.
Ted was borderline obsessive when it came to Robin and was deeply infatuated with her (even when he was in relationships with other women), and she made it abundantly clear that romance came second to her career aspirations. Their overall dynamic was very unhealthy, and they often lied and weren’t honest when it came to their feelings and desires. The show’s universally loathed series finale also infuriated audiences, who felt their reunion was a cop-out and wasn’t true to the message and meaning of the sitcom.
3 Aria and Ezra (Pretty Little Liars)
Freeform
Undeniably one of the most problematic pairings in recent television history, the romance between Aria and Ezra on the teen mystery drama Pretty Little Liarsdefinitely incites a generous dose of cringe and disgust. While their relationship was strangely romanticized despite the fact that Aria was 16 and a minor when they first hooked up at a bar and Ezra was in his twenties, their dalliance became even more complicated when he was revealed to be her high school teacher.
Though they would break up and make up multiple times throughout the show and kept their romance a secret while he was still her teacher, the series continuously attempted to make Ezra come off as swoon-worthy and passionate when he was really just a predator. Somehow the couple rode off into the sunset and were married, despite Ezra’s deceitful actions and behavior.
2 Carrie and Mr. Big (Sex and the City)
HBO
Another controversial couple that has had their fair share of both passionate supporters and detractors, Carrie and Mr. Big in the cutting-edge classic Sex and the Citybecame the poster romance for the series even though they truly brought out the worst in each other. Big refused to commit to Carrie despite her being head-over-heels for the businessman, and she became obsessive and insecure while trying to desperately hold on to him.
Between engaging in a crushing affair while he was married to Natasha, and she was with the far-too-good-for-her boyfriend Aiden, to Carrie lying to her friends and constantly stewing over her own love life and not being present, their dynamic was simply just too toxic to root for. Their constant back-and-forth grated on fans of the show, and when they ultimately got together in the final episode audiences were in agreement: the dysfunctional couple truly deserved each other.
1 Cersei and Jaime (Game of Thrones)
HBO
Where does one possibly begin when describing the abhorrent and downright disturbing incestuous “relationship” between twins Cersei and Jaime Lannister on the epic series Game of Thrones? The taboo couple is willing to kill for one another to protect their disgraceful secret, and their unholy union led to the birth of the sadistic and passionately detested Joffrey.
While their twisted relationship was horrendous for a never-ending list of reasons (obviously with the whole brother/sister thing being the most skin-crawling aspect), Cersei and Jaime nonetheless loved one another deeply and would do anything for each other. Their character arcs throughout the course of the fan-favorite fantasy drama were lauded and exciting to watch, but there’s simply no getting past the unnatural nature of their vile coupling.
Though their styles are distinct, Ana Roxanne and Brian Piñeyro have a shared predilection for drifting melodies and dreamy moods: Roxanne makes a kind of ambient pop, graceful and ethereal, while Piñeyro, better known as DJ Python and Luis, channels the snap of dembow and the lushness of deep house in slow-motion club (and club-adjacent) tracks. Now they’re working together as Natural Wonder Beauty Concept, with a self-titled album on the way. You can hear Pineyro’s handiwork in the lurching machine beat and Roxanne’s signature in the vocals’ crystalline soprano coo, while a bittersweet harpsichord pattern distills the melodic traits they share in common. But the collaboration has also brought out a new side of both of them: The song filigrees Roxanne’s voice with sharp-edged harmonics, and throws unpredictable tempo shifts into the rhythm. “You me you/Falling in deeper blue,” Roxanne sings, underlining the suggestion of two close confidants finding a new way forward.
NOW IN THEATERS! Definitely meant for the younger set, Ross Venokur’s animated feature, Rally Road Racers, teaches kids to dream big with race cars and cute animals.
Zhi (Jimmy O. Yang) is a small and lovable loris goat that dreams of one day becoming an auto racer like his deceased mother. Fearful that he might befall the same fate, Zhi’s grandmother, Granny Bai (Lisa Lu), insists that he finds a new hobby and teaches him to slow down in many aspects of his life.
Meanwhile, the evil toad, Archie Vainglorious (John Cleese), is about to tear down Granny Bai’s home turning it and the surrounding loris homes into a muddy resort. Desperate to save his Granny’s home, Zhi bets Vainglorious that if he beats him in the upcoming four-day Silk Road Rally, Granny can keep her home free and clear. But if he loses, Zhi becomes that spokes-puppet for Vainglorious when he takes over the loris’ land.
As far as an animated film for kids goes, Rally Road Racers is pretty basic. I’ve already mentioned the cute animals and race cars. There’s also the standard cartoon slapstick and other car-racing schtick. With the high-speed antics, much of the action reminds me of the Looney Tunes hilarious-yet-dangerous toons of my childhood. Also safe for the kids are the film’s themes of following your dreams, taking things slow, and finding discipline in one’s ventures.
“…if he beats him in the upcoming four-day Silk Road Rally, Granny can keep her home free and clear.”
The overly eager Zhi must turn to racer-turned-mechanic Gnash (J.K. Simmons) to teach him to become a professional driver on this grueling course. Gnash observes not only Zhi’s flawed techniques in driving but also his tendencies that prevent him from becoming a true driver. Then there’s the girl in Shelby (Chloe Bennet), who is also a racer and takes an instant liking to Zhi…surely there must be something more here…
Running with this “basic” theme, the animation is good, but not precisely Pixar-level quality. The simple 3D characters have a Blue Sky and Dreamworks animation style to their character designs. In addition, much of the 3D action is set against a 2d backdrop. All this to say, the film is inexpensive compared to the incredible detail you associate with Pixar.
One thing that stuck out as original is that the film’s setting is in China. In fact, the Silk Road Rally ends in Shanghai. The loris are all played by Chinese-English actors Jimmy O. Yang, Lisa Lu, and Chloe Bennet. The rest of the animal kingdoms are played by the likes of J.K. Simmons, John Cleese, and Katherine Tate.
Rally Road Racers may not change the world or elevate the art form of animated features. Instead, it’s one of those films my kid would watch over and over again. It is good, wholesome fun, with some classic actors to help appease the parents looking for things to do with their kids.
OUR busy lives can lead many to find solutions to stress, such as hobbies and therapy, but this man is one of many beginning to administer a unique solution.
Nate Howard is one of the first licensed “shamans” who is helping administer magic mushrooms to help those struggling with PTSD, depression and anxiety.
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Nate Howard is one of the first licensed shamans in OregonCredit: Inner Trek
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He will help administer magic mushrooms to those looking to find a solution to many mental health issuesCredit: Getty
Oregon began issuing licenses this year for those looking to guide others through their “trips”, but Nate says the interest in psilocybin is nationwide.
Consuming the drug can be done one-on-one with a guide, or in a large group, like ancient shamans did.
And those looking to try the drug come from all walks of life – “depressed hedge fund managers”, “empty nesters” and more.
Nate says the responses to the trips are varied – some prefer to hug a stuffed animal, others prefer to talk, and some are silent.
He said: “You can be sitting with somebody for eight hours, and they barely move.
“There’s also the other side of the coin, where you are working with someone who may want to yell, or scream.”
After Oregon passed legislation allowing the consumption of magic mushrooms, they put strict rules in place: they must be facilitated by a state certified supervisor, like Nate.
He told The Telegraph: “The demand is actually outrageous.
“Whatever it is, people want to come to Oregon and see if this will offer some insight.”
Those attending the sessions are required to fill out a ten page form and have an appointment with the guide before they are given the drug.
He said: “The highest dose of psilocybin had the greatest impact on people’s depression.
“This suggests that psilocybin has a true pharmacological effect, a finding that is critical for it to be recognised as a new treatment option in the future.”
The novel treatment could be available to Brits with severe depression in as little as three years, scientists predict.
Psychological therapist, Liam Modlin, said the drug puts people in a “dreamlike” state for six to eight hours, which gives therapists and patients the opportunity to make “emotional breakthroughs”.
If deemed safe, and approved for use on the NHS it could offer a ray of hope for some 2.7million Brits suffering treatment-resistant depression – meaning they have not responded to at least two antidepressant drugs.
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The small mushrooms have a powerful effect on the mindCredit: Getty
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They’re legal in Colorado for medicinal useCredit: Getty
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Sessions can be done individually or in groupsCredit: Inner Trek
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There’s an “outrageous” demand for the therapyCredit: Inner Trek
Cooking up a connection. The Bear cast has had more success in their dating lives than their fictional counterparts.
The Hulu series, which premiered in June 2022, explores talented chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) as he returns to Chicago to run his older brother Mikey’s (Jon Bernthal) restaurant following his death. Season 1 focused on Carmy’s attempts to help keep the sandwich shop afloat while dealing with his own grief over his brother’s suicide.
“They got a lot of trauma on both sides. Like if even that [was explored] — I don’t think that window is open,” Edebiri exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2023. “But if it were, there would need to be like two seasons where it’s just them doing therapy individually before that would even be an option.”
The Abbott Elementary star noted that the series didn’t initially plan to explore the coworkers as a couple. “I think when we were making it, neither of us [me nor Jeremy Allen White] were thinking about that,” she shared with Us at the time. “It did feel really nice to get to do something that felt different. There aren’t that many platonic male [and] female relationships.”
“You’ve still got this tension, with Carmy and Sydney, and this power balance that they’re still gonna be struggling with. Yes, he apologized, kind of. Yes, she sort of accepted it. Yes, they both have a shared passion for this thing,” the Shameless alum told Collider in July 2022. “But there’s certainly a lot for them to sort out with one another still left.”
“I love you deep in my bones,” the actor gushed about his wife in his acceptance speech for best actor at the 2023 Golden Globes. “Thank you for all that you do, thank you for everything that you’ve done.”
“When we were 14 years old and I saw you perform for the first time in drama class, I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. When we’d run your lines for Shameless I’d be so tickled knowing before hand what everyone would get to witness the next day on set,” she wrote via Instagram in January 2023. “When I watched the pilot for The Bear, I cried my fucking heart out. I think somewhere I must’ve known how much life was about to change, but mostly I just knew that the world was about to discover what I’ve known all along.”
She added: “What a privilege it’s been to know first. I love this picture so much because you look 14 and 31 at the same time- watching you win on Tuesday was one of the most overwhelming dimension hopping moments of my whole life, watching you win last night while holding our two babies was pretty out of this world too. Daddy winned [sic] another trophy winners cup. We’re so proud.”
Don’t get me wrong, I love my iMac 24-inch. I adore it. It’s gotten me through my busiest workdays, and I do not regret my decision to spend money on it – even though there are more affordable options I could have gone for.
But would I give up my life to defend it? Not even sorta. Not to throw shade at Apple… actually, yes, throwing shade at Apple… the iMac 24-inch (2021) may have been an attractive piece of kit, and it is one of the best Macs and without a doubt the best all-in-one PC right now. But for a pricey one, Apple’s engineers could have done a better job at designing it.
Within my first week with mine, I already noticed some of the glaring flaws it had, flaws that I really doubt not one single person from Apple had noticed and said anything or sent a memo about. The omission of any semblance of height adjustments, for example, was a bizarre decision – it is, after all, a basic feature that most displays have. Don’t even get me started on the base configuration. Heck even my mid-range model sometimes struggles with multitasking or batch exporting edited high-resolution images on Lightroom.
But, rumor has it that a new iMac 2023 is coming, with the upcoming WWDC 2023 conference serving as its launching ground. If those rumors are true, I truly hope that Apple has taken advantage of those two years since the release of the last-standing iMac to get it together.
Here are seven things I expect to see on the rumored iMac 2023.
More ports, accessible ports
(Image credit: Apple)
While I realize that AIO computers are about minimalism, there’s no excuse for the way Apple took that to the next level with its ports. The base model of the iMac 24-inch (2021) only had two Thunderbolt 3 ports. Two. And though it did add two USB-C ports to the mid-range and high-end models, that still isn’t enough especially for consumers who want to use it for work or content creation.
In theory, it makes sense, especially since both the Magic Keyboard and the Magic Mouse connect to it wirelessly. However, in the real world, Apple just couldn’t make Thunderbolt 3 happen, despite its best efforts. Not yet anyway. It’s why it brought back the SD card reader and HDMI port to its Pro laptops, and it’s why it needs to bring more ports (and an SD card reader) to the desktop computer it’s been pushing to professionals as well as casual everyday users.
I would also love to see at least two of them situated in the front or on the side. I also get why Apple put the ports away and out of sight at the back – it’s all about presentation, after all. But they’re also so annoying to access. It would be good for Apple to make two of them easily accessible so users won’t have to reach over and feel their way around if they want to quickly connect another device or a peripheral.
Better ergonomics
(Image credit: Apple)
The lack of ports I can be forced to overlook, especially since the best USB hubs are on hand to alleviate the issue. The most annoying thing about the iMac 24-inch (2021) is its lack of adjustments and articulations.
The display has some up and down tilt, but that’s pretty much it. The only way for you to adjust the height is by investing in a monitor mount – or stacking some textbooks under it, if you’re cheap, and when you’re swiveling, you’re turning the entire damn computer. The latter part is by design, but it’s still pretty ick especially if you’re borderline obsessive-compulsive like me.
I cannot stress this enough: if Apple wants people to keep buying its products, it needs to help minimize workplace-related injuries by enhancing its products’ ergonomics. If the iMac 2023 is indeed coming, I want to see at the very least proper height adjustments built-in.
Speedier performance even at base configurations
Woof! For a computer Apple is touting as a tool you can use for studio work, content creation, and other intense workloads, the iMac 24-inch (2021) really isn’t all that powerful unless you spring for the high-end model or upgrade that RAM to 16GB.
I’ve got the mid-range model with the 8-Core CPU, 8-Core GPU and 8GB memory, and it sweated enough through my usual photo editing needs in Lightroom, which is typically editing 10-15 high-res RAW images and exporting them as high-res JPEGs, that I harassed Apple’s customer service about it within a month of purchase. When I do the same editing workload while streaming a show, it’s even worse.
If you wanted to use this for more intensive workloads, it seems like you have to pay a little more and upgrade to a 16GB RAM or just get the highest configuration possible, which is almost $2,000/£2,000 – not exactly consumer-friendly.
For the next iMac, I would love to see Apple actually deliver what it’s promising without forcing people to upgrade. Give us speedier performance at lower configurations; we’re already paying a lot for it.
A more affordable price
Or at least make it more accessible. The 2021 model starts at $1,299 / £1,249 / AU$1,899, which is for rich people, and in this economy paying that much for a not-so-powerful kit isn’t really ideal. I paid $1,499 for my mid-range model, and it did not feel to me like I was getting the performance I expected for that price.
People want the best value for their money right now, prioritizing that over getting the latest and most attractive device. If Apple isn’t going to give us speedier lower configurations, at least make it so that we’re getting a lot of bang for our buck. Instead of an over $1,000/£1,000 starting price, why not follow Lenovo and Dell’s examples and make it under?
Face ID
Both the mid-range and high-end models of the iMac 24-inch (2021) come with the Touch ID version of the Magic Keyboard, but that is another sore point for me because the damn thing worked only half the time. If your finger is even slightly damp, it won’t work. It’s the most unreliable fingerprint reader I’ve ever used – but that’s a whole new topic for another time.
What I really want to see on the next iMac is the Face ID. It seems like many of the budget Windows laptops are beating Apple to the punch when it comes to face recognition login, and that’s not good. Even Apple’s Pro-level MacBooks do not have it, which almost feels like an atrocity.
If Apple wants to keep up with its rivals, it needs to stop screwing around and get its act together by bringing Face ID to its Mac family, including the next iMac.
A mouse you can charge and use at the same time
(Image credit: Apple)
I don’t even know what Apple was thinking when it rolled out the Magic Mouse. It’s a fantastic mouse, to be clear, but it’s got a ridiculously massive flaw that for some strange reason, no one at Apple ever vetoed.
If you haven’t used a Magic Mouse before, I am talking about the charging port that’s located on the underside of the mouse, which essentially renders the mouse useless when charging. I find it hard to believe that during the entire process of creating this mouse – from when they drew up its design to when they did quality control, nobody ever said, “Hey, there’s a better location for this charging port. Let’s fix it.”
I would love for Apple to overhaul both the Magic Keyboard and the Magic Mouse, especially since they’re long overdue for one. But, more specifically, I want it to fix that port placement and make the keyboard’s Touch ID reader more reliable.
A bigger display
This is just a bonus, really. I am quite happy with the 24-inch display on my iMac – and I’m saying this as someone who switches from that to 40-inch displays on their Windows setup. However, I also wouldn’t mind an extra bit of screen real estate especially if Apple largely sticks to the current size of the AIO – though there are whispers that the manufacturer is also planning on reviving its larger 27-inch model.
I’m sure a lot of iMac users would prefer a larger display, however, and it would behoove Apple to see to their needs. Especially since in terms of new tech in general, it seems to be eating its competitors’ dust.
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