Heard has been mired in controversy for quite some time after the actress was taken to trial for defamation by her former spouse Johnny Depp. This came after she alleged Depp was “verbally and physically abusive” toward her during their marriage – an allegation she was unable to prove in court.
This put her role in the Aquaman sequel into question, with many wondering if her Atlantean would be cut from the film. Well, as time has gone on, it has become more and more clear that would not be the case, but what is surprising is reports revealing her role “[hasn’t been] reduced or shortened at all.”
After Amber Heard’s Mera appeared in the latest Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer shown off at CinemaCon 2023, fans took to social media to have their thoughts heard amid controversy surrounding the actress.
Most of the reaction saw audiences criticizing the decision to include her, with Twitter users like Dr. Gandalf the Grey admitting that “a brief glimpse [at Mera] is still too much!!”
Totally dumbfounded, @MEHANICH2 pondering why more liked heroes like Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman “leave,” but Heard gets to stay:
“Affleck and Cavill leave, but she stays?!”
Chonkychez called the move to keep Heard in the film “terrible:”
“Terrible to keep someone who lied about abuse in a movie.”
And a number of fans (including @_Esperanza06) even went as far as to say that they will not be watching the movie:
“Welp I guess I’m not watching ‘Aquaman'”
Feeling very much the same way, @el_yorch00 shared their hope for the incoming James Gunn DC reboot:
“I’m sorry but I’m not watching this, also Gunn is still rebooting and recasting Aquaman anyway”
@Shellys_Wellie also made it known that they “won’t be watching it:”
“and with that i confirm that i wont be watching it”
It was not all negative though, fans like @Lorenzo74209291 wondered what Warner Bros. was supposed to do seeing as they had “already filmed” the Jason Momoa-led blockbuster when the controversy emerged:
“Not that they could do anything about it, they had already filmed”
Xandra was much more positive, calling Heard their “queen:”
“The queen returns”
Sharing a similar sentiment, @cuntrss called the actress “mother” and celebrated her return:
“Don’t give a shit about this movie but we are watching for mother”
And @banter_ko tweeted asking who he needs to “talk to to get that new Amber Mera footage:”
“Who do I need to talk to to get that new Amber Mera footage”
However, that does not make it any more surprising that her character continues to remain as involved in the Aquaman sequel as she seems to be.
With all the time Aquaman 2 has been granted due to extensive delays, one would think the studio would rework the film to reduce (if not outright remove) Heard’s involvement in the film.
So, Warner sort of built its own ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, never really having to fully address the magnitude of the Amber Heard situation, while also not having to work with the actress past The Lost Kingdom.
Aquamanand the Lost Kingdom comes to theaters later this year on December 20.
In a new interview, Diego Luna talked extensively about his experience on Star Wars sets. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Luna shared his thoughts on Andor and his character’s journey and the intensity of the filming process.
“I always had a feeling that this wasn’t gonna see the light [of day] till it did. I kept going, ‘This is too perfect. This is working,'” Luna said. “So everything just kept getting better and better, and I always had the feeling that something had to go wrong. But it didn’t. We had the freedom and the support of Disney and Lucas[film]. We had the confidence of Kathy [Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm] behind the show.”
Regarding Cassian Andor’s journey towards becoming a Rebel hero, Luna explained that although his character said he wanted to be part of the Rebellion, he wasn’t sure what that meant yet. Luna said, “We’re gonna go for four years [in Season 2], and when we find him, he’s so far away from where we left him at the end of season one. He’s basically the guy to trust for something like that mission.” The second season of Andor is set to explore Cassian Andor’s journey further.
Despite Cassian Andor’s role in building the Death Star that would ultimately kill him, Luna said that he found freedom in exploring all the different ways his character could fail and what would make him conflicted and contradictory. “All the layers we didn’t get to see in the film, I get to explore them now,” Luna said. “So it’s just a perspective kind of thing. The freedom comes from knowing exactly what he does.”
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
Editors note:This review was originally published May 18 after its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival where it co-won the Jury Prize. It opens in New York theaters Friday.
After breaking out internationally in 2012 with his Oscar-nominated drama The Broken Circle Breakdown, and making his Hollywood debut in 2018 with Beautiful Boy, Felix van Groeningen makes his Competition debut in Cannes with The Eight Mountains, perhaps the most understated film of his career so far.
This is a gentle tale of a decades-spanning friendship that seems a little out of its depth in such a heavyweight showcase. With terrific cinematography and two engaging leads, it’s easy on the eye — as well it should be at two hours and 27 minutes — but it’s lackluster in its telling and pales next to Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand of God, which covered similar themes of adolescence and young adulthood last awards season.
A French-Italian-Belgian co-production, Eight Mountains (Le Otto Montagne) might have been placed more sensitively at Venice, where it would arguably have faced less scrutiny. Regardless of festival play, however, it comes with a ready-made audience, being adapted from the 2016 bestseller by Paolo Cognetti. Admirers of the book will not be disappointed, since the film captures perfectly its charming, holiday-read essence. For newcomers, though, the script —- co-written with van Groeningen’s co-director Charlotte Vandermeesch -— is disappointingly unadventurous, padded with superfluous voice-over and montage.
The first 35 minutes would make an interesting short by itself: 11-year-old Pietro is on holiday with his mother and father in the Italian countryside, taking a break from their claustrophobic life in the city. The only other boy in the area is Bruno, almost exactly the same age and living with his aunt and uncle while his father is away laboring. Their summer together is idyllic but their friendship is ill-fated. Trying to do right by Bruno, whose only foreseeable future is in his family’s struggling cheese business, Pietro’s parents offer to take him home and put him through school. In a fit of jealousy, Bruno’s father takes the boy away, and the two won’t see each other for another decade or so.
This intro, though, is simply the foundation of a strangely bloodless buddy movie that evokes the spirit of TV’s Belle & Sebastian with its scenery and homilies. Pietro, now played by Luca Marinelli, moves back to the city, where he falls out with his family and alienates himself from his father, a paradoxical creature whose hidden extremes begin to emerge after his untimely death.
To mourn his father, Pietro returns to the family’s holiday home, where he is reunited with Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) and discovers the secret bond that has formed between his father and the country boy in his absence. Both men are now bushily bearded, and their beards will do a lot of heavy lifting over the next two hours as the subtext of boys, men and their fathers becomes the dominant discourse.
The mountain setting is breathtaking, but the spectacular views of vertiginous heights and treacherous glaciers promise a tension that never materializes. There’s little sense of conflict between man and nature, and no sense of it at all between Pietro and Bruno for what seems like an age, even after Bruno moves in on Pietro’s girlfriend. It’s not even much commented upon when Pietro gets wanderlust and trades the artless rustic simplicity of the Italian alps for the artless rustic simplicity of the Himalayas, where he finally finds inspiration, becomes a writer of some repute, and learns of the “eight mountains,” a folkloric word salad that, to paraphrase profusely, pits the experience of the traveler against the wisdom of the man who never leaves his home.
Bruno, in the meantime, is struggling, and for the first time there is a crack in their now decades-long relationship. It’s a long time to wait for such a dramatic catalyst, and it comes so late that many viewers may not make it that far. For those who make the trek, however, the subsequent unraveling is entirely of a piece with the bonding, and there’s a quiet integrity to it that’s totally in keeping with the film’s defiantly low-key ambition.
Title: The Eight Mountains Distributor: Sideshow & Janus Films Release date: April 28, 2023 (NY) Director-screenwriters: Felix van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch Cast: Luca Marinelli, Alessandro Borghi, Filippo Timi, Elena Lietti, Elisabetta Mazzullo Running time: 2 hr 27 min
Mark Hamill pops by to train Cameron Monaghan’s Cal Kestis in a funny promo for the release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
It’s launch day for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the highly anticipated sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The game once again chronicles the journey of Cal Kestis, a young Jedi who survived Order 66 and remained in hiding until he became a target of the Empire. As it’s not easy being a Jedi, Mark Hamill stopped by the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor motion capture stage to give Cameron Monaghan a little advice. You can check out the fun promo video for the game above!
Picking up five years after the events of the first game, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor finds Cal Kestis beginning to feel the weight of being one of the last remaining Jedi in the galaxy as he must stay one step ahead of the Empire’s constant pursuit. Accompanied by his trusty companion BD-1, Cal will meet and ally himself with an array of unique and interesting characters on his journey. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will expand on the series’ dynamic combat in new and innovative ways. In order to survive, Cal must learn new skills and grow his connection with the Force. I found the first game to be quite enjoyable, and the sequel looks like a blast as well, particularly as the lightsaber combat has been developed even more.
Given that the in-game character model of Cal Kestis looks identical to Cameron Monaghan, there have been rumours that he could play the role in live-action as well, which the actor addressed last year. “I love this character. They’re starting to explore him through other mediums — we have a novel coming up,” Monaghan said. “It’s been really amazing doing it within the video game space because I think games are vastly under-explored and underutilized, and are only really getting their due in this moment — people are looking at games and seeing they’re incredible and moving and significant. So my priority right now is to make sure we have a satisfying arc within the games. What happens or where Star Wars wants to go from there is anybody’s guess, but I can say I love Cal and it’s been a joy finding him over the past few years. So we’ll see.“
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is now available on PlayStation5, Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC.
Elon Musk and Bill Maher found common ground on Friday’s Real Timeon HBO. Both have been damned if they do and damned if they don’t for various controversies.
After a long recitation of Musk’s various business activities, Maher said he knows that Musk is okay because he does things with a sense of humor, as opposed to Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg, of whom Maher said he’s not even sure if he’s a real boy.
In turn, the Twitter head allowed that he’s been a longtime fan of Maher, and even once sat in the show’s live audience.
“I’ve had it from both sides,” Maher said. “We’re called conservatives, but who haven’t really changed.”
Musk agreed. “I think of myself as a moderate,” he said, listing his work accomplishments with electric vehicles, high-storage batteries, and solar energy. “That’s not exactly far right.”
The problem, they agreed, can be traced to wokeness, which is “the opposite of liberal,” Maher said.
Musk noted that free speech used to be a left-liberal value. “Now we see a desire to actually censor.” He added, “We should be extremely concerned about anything that undermines the First Amendment.” Musk added that the trend goes beyond the domestic borders. “In many parts of the world that you think are similar to the US, the speech laws are Draconian.”
Free speech, Musk said, is only relevant “when it’s someone you don’t like. When it’s something you like, it’s easy.” Censorship advocates, he noted, have to realize, “at some point, it could be turned on you.”
Maher asked when the “woke mind virus” started.
“It’s been a long time brewing,” Musk said. “It’s been going on for a while. The amount of indoctrination in schools is beyond what parents realize. The experience we (now) have in high school and college is not what we had. And hasn’t been for ten and 20 years. Parents are not aware of what’s being taught, or what they’re not being taught.”
Maher said he doesn’t tweet anymore because of the mobs of “mean girls” who attack anything that moves. Musk advised to ignore it. “That’s easy for you to say,” Maher fired back. “They can’t take your job.”
They next turned to AI, or artificial intelligence. Musk has been outspoken in his calls for a moratorium on its development, citing the potential dangers. “If it’s a potential danger, there should be some regulatory body that oversees it so (developers) don’t cut corners,” Musk said.
The panel portion of the show saw Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group and author of The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats – And Our Response – Will Change The World, andKonstantin Kisin, cohost YouTube show and podcast TRIGGERnometry and author of An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West.
They discussed Tucker Carlson’s recent ending with Fox and Joe Biden’s decision to run again, which Maher strongly endorsed, much to the chagrin of Kisin.
Maher’s show-closing “New Rules” editorial focused on California Senator Dianne Feinstein, whose absence from her duties, diminished capacity, and general befuddlement is defended by some as an attack on women.
“Stop trying to turn Feinstein into a feminist crusade,” Maher said. “This isn’t about plumbing , it’s about her wiring.”
All of the Donkey Kong Lego sets have different price points. The $10.99 Rambi the Rhino Expansion Set just comes with the titular rhinoceros, a couple rocks, and a banana. The Dixie Kong’s Jungle Jam Expansion Set is $26.99 and includes Dixie Kong and a stage. The $59.99 Donkey Kong’s Tree House Expansion Set has the main Kong himself, Cranky Kong, and a hut. The most expensive one, the $109.99 Diddy Kong’s Mine Cart Ride Expansion Set, comes with Funky Kong, Diddy Kong, an airplane, a mine cart, and a whole mine cart track.
August 1 marks the release of the aforementioned Bower-focused Mario set, too. These all work together with the previous Mario sets, hence the “Expansion Set” that is one the end of each. Coincidentally, August 1 is also when the recently revealed Sonic the Hedgehog sets are coming out.
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:
Weekly Commentary: The annual Encores! series of staged concert readings, produced every year by City Center in Manhattan, is no stranger to Broadway success: After all, it’s where the current “Chicago” – now the longest-running show on Broadway – got its start.
This season, Encores! spawned two serious contenders that are sure to score nominations: “Into the Woods,” in a warm staging of the Sondheim favorite with a stacked cast of Broadway names, and “Parade,” reviving the well-regarded Jason Robert Brown musical in an illuminating new version with a strong cast led by Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond.
Both shows boast big, lush orchestras – and the same is true of “Sweeney Todd,” which brings back Sondheim’s beloved penny dreadful with a notably hefty band of musicians and an ensemble of strong singers led by Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford.
The latest staging of “Camelot,” with a new book by Aaron Sorkin, was less favorably received overall, but it’s impeccably appointed and beautifully played by another large-scale orchestra. It seems poised to nudge out the other eligible titles in this category, “1776” and “Dancin’,” neither of which were universally adored.
BEST MUSICAL | BEST PLAY | MUSICAL REVIVAL | PLAY REVIVAL | ACTOR (MUSICAL) | ACTOR (PLAY) | ACTRESS (MUSICAL) | ACTRESS (PLAY) | FEATURED ACTOR (MUSICAL) | FEATURED ACTOR (PLAY) | FEATURED ACTRESS (MUSICAL) | FEATURED ACTRESS (PLAY) | DIRECTOR (MUSICAL) | DIRECTOR (PLAY) | ORIGINAL SCORE | MUSICAL BOOK | CHOREOGRAPHY
About the Tony Awards
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, better known as the Tony Awards, is given out annually by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, recognizing excellence in live Broadway theatre. The ceremony, held annually in New York City, was founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton and is named after Antoinette “Tony” Perry, an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder of the American Theatre Wing.
An important film: there are no other words to describe “The Lost Boys of Mercury” (Les Oubliés de la Belle Étoile), the second documentary feature by French director Clémence Davigo, which is in competition at Visions du Réel, in Nyon, Switzerland.
Important because it reveals a tragedy hidden for more than half a century: that of the children under the care of the French social services in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s placed in the La Belle Étoile Catholic correctional center in the mountain village of Mercury, Savoie. There, for three decades, hundreds of them were mistreated, humiliated, starved, beaten, tortured with thumbtacks stuck under their nails, and some were sexually abused.
The film offers the first form of recognition to those who lived through hell there, by allowing them to be heard at last.
The research work carried out by the director, who travelled all over France to gather the words of former residents, has had an impact already: an official investigation is underway.
“The bishop to whom the protagonists speak in the film reported the matter to the prosecutor. But we shot in 2021 and, for the moment, nothing has happened,” Davigo tells Variety. “Before the premiere, I showed the film to the listening cell of the Catholic Church that is pictured in the film. Their reactions were positive and they want things to move forward. That was not the case of people named in the film who pressured me into removing parts of it and threatened to sue me.”
After the world premiere at Visions du Réel of “The Lost Boys of Mercury,” acquired by Andana Films, the main protagonists Dédé, Daniel, André and Michel, and the director received a standing ovation.
“It’s a really good documentary that recounts the terrible moments we experienced as children,” Pierre Ferrara, one of the protagonists, told Variety after the screening. “We had to get it all out.”
Davigo met one of the main protagonists, Dédé, 10 years ago, during the shooting of “Enfermés mais vivants,” her first documentary, about a former prison in Lyon, where he had spent years incarcerated. “In the end, Dédé didn’t fit into the story because I had refocused it on a couple. But when he told me how, at the age of 9, he had been locked up in La Belle Étoile, I was overwhelmed and thought this might be another story to tell.”
He then introduced her to other former residents at one of the gatherings they organize once or twice a year, close to the premises, in Mercury, since reconnecting through social networks.
“Imprisonment and justice are issues that have always been important to me, but it is above all the encounters with people who have fought for their freedom, to stay alive, and for it to never happen again, that made me want to make films. Maybe this is my way of fighting,” Davigo says.
Looking for a way to structure the narrative of the film, whose budget was around 150,000 euros, Davigo decided to recreate the environment of their meetings in a place where they could interact: “Because it were these shared moments that had first allowed them to free their speech.”
The shoot finally took place right in front of Mercury, in a house lent by a former child of the village.
To sublimate this film of words, the director put huge care in the images and music. “I wanted a cinematic aesthetic and the protagonists to be beautiful. What surprises me with them, is that they always seem to be at the border between childhood and old age. I wonder if you can become a full adult when you have been robbed of your childhood? The cinematographer captured this idea by paying particular attention to their body language, eyes, walk.”
Their interactions were also beautifully filmed, notably during the big meals they share. “Michel always cooks a lot. He wants to make sure everybody gets enough food,” Davigo says. “You can still see the trauma of their years of starvation at Mercury. They even told me of a former resident who has seven freezers in his house! Michel, himself, was a cook in a school canteen. He fed children all his life.”
Having built a relationship of trust with the director, the men were eager to tell their story. In one heart-breaking scene, the speech was freed even more: After Pierre recalls how he witnessed a priest abusing the smallest children at nights, Daniel reveals he was one of them. “I was prepared to take in those words, given the nature of the place they had been locked up,” Davigo says. “But still we were all shaken.”
Some 140 hours of rushes and 20 weeks in the editing room were necessary to put together this masterful 106-minute documentary, first planned to run for 52 minutes. “And yet, not a tenth of what they went through could make it in the film. The whole team felt a huge responsibility to be up to the task for these men who had the courage to speak up. The ball is now in the Catholic Church’s court,” Davigo says.
Clubhouse, the once-buzzy live audio app that has seen usage decline compared to its pandemic heyday, is laying off more than half of its staffers as the company’s co-founders seek to pare the organization back to a “smaller, product-focused team.”
In a letter shared publicly and with employees Thursday, Clubhouse co-founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth said the company would be “scaling back” by more than 50 percent. A spokesperson for Clubhouse declined to share the exact number of employees impacted by the layoffs, though the company had around 100 employees as of last October.
“We need to reset the company, eliminate roles and take it down to a smaller, product-focused team. We arrived at this conclusion reluctantly, as we have years of runway remaining and do not feel immediate pressure to reduce costs. But we believe that a smaller team will give us focus and speed, and help us launch the next evolution of the product,” Davison and Seth wrote.
In a tweet about the cuts, Davison, the CEO of Clubhouse, clarified that the layoffs were not a “financial decision” for the company, which has raised around $300 million in VC funding and most recently closed a notable Series C funding round in April 2021 with a16z at a $4 billion valuation.
The co-founders also acknowledged that Clubhouse’s usage has declined as COVID-related restrictions have been lifted, making it difficult for people to “fit long conversations into their daily lives.”
Though it’s not yet clear how Clubhouse will evolve, interest in live audio has notably cooled in the past years. Facebook and Reddit have both abandoned their live audio ventures; at the end of this month, Spotify is also set to shut down Spotify Live, the live audio app it had spent roughly $67.7 million in an acquisition to create as a response to the fervor around Clubhouse. Twitter Spaces still exists but has seen features disappear amid Twitter’s overall upheaval under Elon Musk.
In her relatively young career, Bel Powley has accomplished a lot. Starting with her breakthrough film role in 2015’s Diary of a Teenage Girl, for which she won several awards, and continuing with significant roles in such films as White Boy Rick, Royal Night Out and King Of Staten Island opposite Pete Davidson, she also made her mark in television with the key part of Birdy in 2022’s Everything I Know About Love and as Claire Conway in The Morning Show.
Now perhaps she has her most important role to date in the new limited series A Small Light from National Geographic that will premiere Monday. It will be available during this Emmy season not only on Disney + and Hulu, but also on Lifetime and other outlets.
She plays Miep Gies, an ordinary woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances when she is urged by her boss, Otto Frank, to help hide him and his family from being discovered by the Nazis during World War II. She did this from 1942-44, when unfortunately they were finally found and shipped off to concentration camps. They all died with the exception of Otto, and Gies continued to be key to what we now know as The Diary of Anne Frank as after the war she was the one who found it and kept it for Otto, who would go on to live with her and husband Jan for another seven years.
In this week’s edition of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side,Powley talks about this remarkable story and the opportunity to play Gies, whose story has been mostly under the radar until now; it’s not only about the pulse-pounding efforts to keep this Jewish family hidden in Amsterdam, but also a coming-of-age story of this young woman and her new marriage. Powley talks about the relevance of it for today amid rising antisemitism, and also the research, filming in front of the actual Frank house, and why this limited series could make a difference. We also talk about her thriving career and so much more.
To watch our conversation and hear the “actor’s side” from Bel Powley, click on the video above.
Join me every week during Emmy season for another episode of The Actor’s Side.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, for all the surprises they brought into the Royal family, have always had numerous constants for themselves. That the Sussexes make headlines, be it in the United Kingdom or the United States, is not short of a fact. This, when combined with the other constant of their lives, that is, controversies, often ends with a disaster. Especially now that Prince Harry is set to face the very family that he drove to ridicule on the day of the coronation. And this has led the section that demanded an apology from them to believe that the Sussexes are not arriving with the right intentions.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
With how crossed the 38-year-old Prince seemed with his family, the chances of him attending the coronation seemed slim. And even nonexistent when it was reported to be on Prince Archie’s birthday. But beating all odds, the Duke of Sussex is making a beeline to the Westminster Abbey. And you do not have to be an anti-Sussex to question his intent behind the Coronation attendance.
Do Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have malicious intentions behind their coronation appearance?
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
As the couple made accusations in the Harry & Meghan docuseries, many waited for their response to the Coronation invite to determine how much of it was true. But they left us all in a dilemma with the announcement of only one attending the coronation. As Meghan Markle made headlines while staying home and Prince Harry while preparing for his trip, Royal enthusiasts feared that the couple would overshadow the King on his coronation.
via Imago
Credits: Imago
After all, negative marketing is also marketing. They are “laughing at us,” after stealing the spotlight, said Angela Levin, Royal Biographer, on GB News. Devis is of the belief that the Sussexes are deliberately trying to steer the media’s attention toward them. Especially when they attended the Lakers game.
That Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will find both the media attention and media scrutiny directed towards them no matter what they do has now been understood. It is not often that a couple leaves the Palace and family that has ruled for decades in order to pursue a supposedly “normal” lifestyle in the United States.
via Imago
Credits: Imago
One can cite the docuseries and memoir as evidence to present in the case of them being attention seekers. However, that too would not have worked out had the media not been obsessed with them. The world has witnessed far too many episodes of the Harry & Meghan docuseries and read far too many Jeremy Clarkson columns to decide who among the two is more fond of the other.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
Do you think Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are making a laughingstock out of the King? Let us know in the comments below.
When Peter “Star-Lord” Quill, while inspecting a murky extraterrestrial region, pressed play on Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love“ in the first “Guardians of the Galaxy,” it would have been hard to imagine that James Gunn’s space opera would ultimately lead to something as sincere, poignant and kinda cornball as the trilogy-ending “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”
But as Gunn has showed over over the course of these increasingly soupy sci-fi spectacles, the genetically spliced DNA of his chaotic, cartoonish cosmic vision is a double helix of opposites. Breezy ‘70s rock papers over extreme violence. Cynical exteriors cloak sentimental emotions. A ragtag group of outcasts, more so than even the cast of “Fast and the Furious,” talk a lot about “family” and “friends.” Against the odds, “Come and get your love” has turned out to be a legit invitation.
“Vol. 3” is a messy, overstuffed finale. But you rarely question whether Gunn’s heart is in it. Sometimes it spoils some of that effect by trying too hard to juxtapose tonal extremes, and show off its brash juggling act. Yet whatever this sweet, surreal sci-fi shamble is that Gunn has created, everyone here seems to believe ardently in it. And for even a movie that sends a golden-hued Will Poulter shooting through space to the tune of Heart’s “Crazy on You,” that earnest belief goes a long way.
The song, though, that kicks off “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is not an upbeat one. Radiohead’s “Creep” casts a sour mood over the Guardians, who we find in a lethargic state of disarray in the spaceport Knowhere following their 2017 “Empire Strikes Back”-esque second chapter.
It’s time to face the music.
Whether “Guardians of the Galaxy” is best suited to strike these solemn notes, or reach for such last-chapter poignancy in “Vol. 3” is debatable. I’ve always liked these films at their most cartoonish. Donning a degree of self-importance is probably the most Marvel thing about this “Guardians.“ Gunn’s films — which, unlike most of the comic-book studio’s releases, are both written and directed by him — have always stood out for their distinct lack of Marvel house style. “Guardians 3,” unfortunately, has contracted a touch of “Endgame“ grandiosity.
The group — including Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) — is quickly sent into emergency mode. Adam Warlock (Poulter), an artificial being created by the High Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), comes careening into their lair, leaving Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper and played in motion capture by Sean Gunn) on his deathbed. To save Rocket, a cybernetically enhanced raccoon, the Guardians must hurriedly resuscitate him with his original programming.
This means traveling to the lab he was created in years before by the High Evolutionary (a sensational Chukwudi Iwuji, an all-time Marvel villain), a Doctor Moreau sort who’s been toiling to craft a “perfect” race of hybrid creatures to populate a copy of planet Earth. As the Guardians seek to infiltrate his realm, “Vol. 3” repeatedly flashes back to Rocket’s experience with the High Evolutionary: his transformation from raccoon, his joyful experience with other experimental creations and his harrowing escape.
It’s telling that in this “Guardians” swan song that Gunn centers Rocket and less so Quill, whose father-son drama dominated “Vol. 2.” (Here, he’s mostly in save-my-friend mode when not wrestling with the heartbreak of this version of Zoe Saldaña’s Gamora. Thanks to some “Avengers” events, she no longer even knows him.)
These are foremost epics of orphandom about distinctly un-superhuman characters. Mother and father figures float in and out, while the Guardians attract one forlorn figure after another. In “Vol. 3,” it’s both comical and even a little stirring just how far empathy reaches for all of God’s — and Marvel’s — creatures. Gunn has taken a woebegone B-team or C-team of comic book oddballs and cast them into a cosmic tapestry of weirdos and misfits, ranging wildly in size, shape, color and dancing ability.
In “Vol. 3,” Gunn really lets the freak flag fly, putting the Guardians in battle with not just the High Evolutionary but the notion of perfection. It’s not a coincidence that this “Guardians” film arrives, finally, in the suburbs — or at least some slightly warped version of it.
Gunn, a B-movie director at heart, fills these films with more sinewy than sleek worlds, full of florid beauty and opulent grotesquerie. (“Vol. 3,” more than the last two films, reminded me of “The Fifth Element,“ a good thing.) It’s often clear that his ambitions are sometimes just a bit too much; this, like his DC film “The Suicide Squad,” “Vol. 3” could have used a firmer editor to corral some of Gunn’s impulse for excess.
This installment, of course, nearly didn’t happen after Gunn’s firing years ago. And partially because of that forced hiatus, he’s now ruling an even larger, more mainstream superhero cosmos at DC. That surely has something to do with the sense of parting that permeates the final act of “Guardians 3.“ After so many speeches about friendship and togetherness, “Vol. 3” ends curiously elegiacally, and with one last dance.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for intense sequences of violence and action, strong language, suggestive/drug references and thematic elements. Running time: 159 minutes. Three stars out of four.
SHARE:
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)
Sign In
Register
Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the Code of Conduct. The Star
does not endorse these opinions.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk appeared for a conversation on “Real Time With Bill Maher” on Friday.
Musk, who purchased Twitter last year, discussed with the host his acquisition of the company, free speech, censorship and what he calls the “woke mind virus.”
“I think we need to be very cautious about anything that is anti-meritocratic and anything that results in the suppression of free speech,” Musk said to Maher. “So those are two of the aspects of the ‘woke mind virus’ that I think are very dangerous…. you can’t question things, even the questioning is bad. Almost synonymous would be cancel culture. And obviously people have tried to cancel you many times.”
Maher responded, “And it’s interesting, you and I are both in that little group of people, maybe it’s a bigger group now, who are called conservative who haven’t really changed. I don’t think of you as a conservative.”
Musk said he “at least” thinks of himself “as a moderate.”
“I’ve spent a massive amount of my life energy building sustainable energy, electric vehicles and batteries and solar and stuff to help save the environment,” Musk said. “It’s not exactly far-right.”
When Maher asked Musk what he thinks the root of the so-called “woke mind virus” is, Musk pointed to the “indoctrination that’s happening in schools and universities.”
“The experience that we had in high school and college is not the experience that kids today are having, and hasn’t been for 10 years, maybe 20 years… Parents are generally not aware of what their kids are being taught, or what they’re not being taught,” Musk said. “Let me give you an example that a friend of mine told me. His daughters go to high school in the Bay Area and he was asking them, ‘Who are the first few presidents of the United States.’ They could name Washington, so he said, ‘What do you know about him?’ ‘That he was a slaveowner.’ ‘What else?’ ‘Nothing.’ Like okay, maybe you should know more than that. Slavery is obviously a horrific institution, but we should still know more about George Washington than that.”
The conversation then turned to Twitter, with Maher mentioning that the “mob of mean girls” on the platform has caused him not to tweet as much. “It’s so easy to get canceled, and I don’t even know what pisses them off, these kids,” he said.
Though Musk did not specifically address his controversial Twitter Blue program, which recently took away legacy verification except for users who subscribed for $8 a month, he said the platform was close to bankruptcy when he acquired it and so he had to “take drastic action.”
“I think things are reasonably stabilized right now. It was on the fast-track to bankruptcy after acquisition so I had to take drastic action, there was no choice,” Musk said.
He also mentioned censorship within the platform, saying: “My concern with Twitter was that it is somewhat of the digital town square and it’s important that there be both the reality and perception of trust for a wide range of viewpoints. And there was a lot of censorship going on, and I uncovered a lot of that with the Twitter Files, including a lot of government-driven censorship, which it seems that’s gotta be a constitutional violation, what was going on there.”
The interview ended with Maher telling Musk, “I’d love to get high with you.”
The “Real Time” appearance represents a new major stop for Musk on a media tour this month. Last week, the Twitter CEO appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” for a two-night interview on Fox News. The pair’s conversation touched on the implications of artificial intelligence and Musk’s justification for purchasing Twitter, which has since been evaluated at roughly half of the value he purchased it for.
Six days after Carlson’s interview with Musk aired, Fox News announced that the longtime anchor would exit the network. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox News’ corporate parent, had decided that he would no longer support the conservative pundit.
A longtime controversial figure, Musk’s spotlight became more intense last fall after his purchase of Twitter. Acquiring the company for $44 billion, Musk later described his takeover as facing a “constant attack” from the media.
“It’s not like I have a stone cold heart or anything. If you’re under constant criticism or attack and that gets fed to you including through Twitter – it’s rough, you know,” Musk told the BBC earlier this month. “Now at the end of the day I think if you do lose your feedback loop that’s not good so I think it is important to get negative feedback. I don’t turn replies off and I removed my entire block list so I don’t block anyone either. So I get a lot of negative feedback.”
After five movie appearances, Chris Pratt has become synonymous with Star-Lord and the Guardians and the Galaxy. Since his debut as the leader of the Guardians, Pratt has become one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars.
Pratt has subsequently starred in The Magnificent Seven, the Jurassic World trilogy, and The Tomorrow War, and become an action star in his own right.
“I auditioned for them all. I had a rough run with Marvel,” Pratt said. “I auditioned for ‘Thor,’ but not even to be Thor — but to be one of the sidekick guys, and I didn’t get a callback. Usually, they give you a little bit of feedback, and I remember the casting director goes, ‘Wow. You really made a big choice there.’ Which is code for like: ‘Hey, dial back the acting there, guy.’”
“It got to the point where I was never gonna audition for Marvel again,” Pratt continued. “I was like, ‘This is stupid, I’m never gonna be in a Marvel movie.’”
When asked what Marvel films he auditioned for, Pratt admitted “All of them”.
“I mean, all of them. Anything that came out that needed a guy that even remotely looked like me, I auditioned for in some way or another. And I would either submit a tape and they would say ‘No, we don’t need to see him,’ or I would get there and see them, they’d go, ‘No, that’s the last time we need to see you.’”
The “It Factor”
After failing to land roles in other tentpole franchises like ‘Star Trek’, ‘Avatar’ and the DC films, Pratt determined that he simply didn’t have the “it” factor.
“And it was not only just Marvel things but there have been a lot of heroic characters in various films… Not DC characters, but like, you know, ‘Star Trek’ or ‘Avatar,’” Pratt said. “Anything that was like, ‘This guy walks in and he’s got the it-factor.’ Over and over again I was like, ‘Well, I definitely don’t have that it-factor they’re looking for because they don’t even want me to come back.’”
Since that time, however, Pratt has become a clear A-list star. All three of his Jurassic World films grossed over $1 billion. So, good thing he next quit trying.
Pratt will return to Marvel for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which opens in theaters on May 5.
Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon! Also, thanks for readings.
Major sociopolitical changes obviously influence film and media writ large, but of all the historical specters haunting cinema, Watergate is one of the most interesting. The event (and the entire political milieu which surrounded it) would inspire a wave of much more cynical, paranoid conspiracy thriller classics, from The Parallax View and The Conversation to Marathon Man and Three Days of the Condor. And yet, not much actual media has focused on the event itself.
Perhaps that’s because All the President’s Men was such a masterpiece, that it seemed foolhardy to ever attempt telling the Watergate story again in any cinematic medium (though the underrated BBC docuseries, Watergate, is excellent). Even Anthony Hopkins playing Nixon in a three-hour biopic from Oliver Stone is barely remembered today. Or perhaps it’s because the actual story of the scandal is so genuinely stupid, filled with laughable men and pathetic plots. Granted, it was a big deal at the time. Men from the White House, working to re-elect Nixon, broke into the Democratic National Convention and bugged their offices before initiating a massive cover-up campaign.
Or maybe that’s it. Maybe 50 years later, it’s not that big of a deal in American politics. We’re used to Bill Clinton’s oral in the Oval, Hunter Biden’s laptop, Trump’s hush money schemes with porn stars and attempted insurrection, Hillary’s emails, Haliburton, drone strikes on innocent civilians, and so much more. Bugging your political competitor’s office? Try threatening to jail your political rival and lock her up, or having the NSA bug every civilian’s device. In a sick, sad way, Watergate just isn’t that sexy today.
White House Plumbers hears those warnings and responds with a firm, “Hold my wire-tap.” Instead of attempting to make a serious dramatic thriller out of the political scandal, or use it as an allegory for the world’s recent and more lurid scandals, White House Plumbers comes across as an extremely confident and efficient character study and political comedy. The new HBO miniseries is closer to the Coen brothers’ comedies (Burn After Reading especially, but also Hail Caesar) than it is to ’70s political thrillers like The Day of the Jackal, and that’s a good thing. With a tight five episodes and a wonderful cast, White House Plumbers is a bizarre, funny, and very entertaining history lesson.
HBO’s Watergate Comedy Dives Right In
HBO
White House Plumbers jumps right into action, never really catching the audience up to speed. That’s mostly fine, though, as the series is more interested in exploring these characters and what their ridiculous commitment to a corrupt president and system says about patriotism, government, and politics.
The series begins a bit after the leaked revelations of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the extent to which the American military had bombed and destroyed Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The free love dream of the ’60s had died, the Vietnam War was an unending nightmare, banks and lobbyists were taking over Washington, and the government was hiding things from you. This was the climate which led to such paranoid conspiracy films, and Watergate only exacerbated it.
President Nixon is worried about the upcoming election, and a clandestine task force of sorts is organized, ostensibly led by G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt. Initially called the ‘White House Plumbers’ (because they fix leaks), the two began by seeking out dirt on a reporter that Nixon hated, Jack Anderson, before becoming friends and developing a series of wild plans to help Nixon beat his Democratic opponents, becoming ‘The Committee for the Re-election of the President.’ Ultimately, the Attorney General of the United States, John Mitchell, approves a reduced version of one of their ideas — bug the DNC.
Justin Theroux and Woody Harrelson Are White House Plumbers
HBO
Hunt enlists a group of Cuban freedom fighters he knew from his Bay of Pigs days, and this ungodly mess of CIA, FBI, and mercenary misfits stake out the DNC and put their plan into action. If the suave thieves of Ocean’s 11 all had their IQs halved, they would look somewhat like these White House Plumbers. The men run into problems, hide their failures from their bosses, and hide everything from their families.
It’s fundamentally Liddy and Hunt’s story, though. Both were larger-than-life men utterly committed to the cause, but none more so than Liddy. With his thick mustache and pompous voice, the hyperbolic man’s existence is almost an exercise in self-mockery. After he went to prison for Watergate, he would become an author, an actor, and a talk radio personality for two decades. He told his listeners to shoot federal employees in the head, and said that he uses pictures of Bill and Hillary Clinton for target practice. He was a loud, proud, and possibly insane man with a deep affinity for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
HBO
Justin Theroux steals the series as Liddy. Both he and Woody Harrelson (as Hunt) are very over-the-top here in performances that could easily veer into caricatures, but they manage to humanize these men while maintaining their ridiculousness and hilarity. Harrelson is all gruff and growly, a terrible father and failed family man who’s only real passion is the vague concept of ‘for love of country.’
Theroux, though, takes the cake, and is as funny as he is intimidating. He’s a true madman, a loyalist who would die for Nixon, who happily shreds bundles of cash and plots his own assassination to further the cause. He blasts a record of Hitler’s speeches as if it was Metallica. He’s the best Coen brothers character they never created.
David Mandel and a Great Cast Make the Jokes Work
White House Plumbers inevitably gets darker and more depressing as its brisk five hours marches forward. Even if you don’t know all the manic minutiae of the Watergate scandal, one can easily surmise that it does not end well; if it had, we would’ve likely never known about it. The last two episodes of the series personifies that grim political catchphrase, “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.” Watching the walls close in around Liddy and Hunt, one almost feels sorry for them. That’s an artistic accomplishment.
David Mandel directs the series (created by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, based on the book, Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices, and Life Lessons from the White House by Egil “Bud” Krogh and Matthew Krogh), and does a phenomenal job. It moves swiftly without being confusing, and lands all its little jokes by basing them in the characters. Mandel is well acquainted with deeply cynical political comedy, as a writer, director, and producer on the brilliant Veep, but he also knows quirky, eccentric, laugh-out-loud comedy as a writer, director, and producer on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He brings both skills to White House Plumbers.
HBO
The supporting cast is excellent as well. Domhnall Gleeson, Lena Headey, Ike Barinholtz, Toby Huss, David Krumholtz, Rich Sommer, Kim Coates, Yul Vazquez, Judy Greer, and Lena Headey are all fantastic, and quick but delightful appearances from John Carroll Lynch, Gary Cole, Corbin Bernsen, and others are more than welcome. Kathleen Turner is absolutely golden as Dita Beard in a performance that deserves whatever awards they can give her. She’s only in one episode, but she dominates.
At the end of the day, though, this is Theroux and Harrelson’s show, and they own it. They make for one of the oddest buddy comedy pairings in history, but maybe this was the only real way to explore Watergate in today’s political climate. It’s kind of all a joke. A deeply human, sad, consequential, and ridiculous joke, and it lands.
White House Plumbers debuts on HBO Monday, May 1st, with a subsequent episode every Monday until May 29th, and can be streamed anytime on HBO’s platform, Max.
It is unavoidable with a game as popular as Honkai: Star Rail that there is going to be a couple of secrets seeping through the cracks. But they’ve always proven to be quite useful in helping players plan out their in-game finances in time for when the characters are actually released. As long as the story isn’t spoiled, what harm does it do? A question for another time, onto the juicy stuff!!
Character Event Warp Leaks for 1.1 in Honkai: Star Rail
The characters that will be featured in Honkai: Star Rail’s 1.1 updates will be Luocha and Silver Wolf as the main Five-Stars that will be featured individually along with a Four-Star Character Yukong. Because Honkai: Star Rail is still fresh from the oven, these Five-Star characters will not be running at the same time. Similar to Genshin Impact, we can expect to see either Luocha or Silver Wolf run for about 20 or so days and then it’ll switch to the other Five-Star. Since these leaks are still early, we won’t know yet which banner Yukong will be a part of until we get closer or once it’s verified by Honkai: Star Rail Official Twitter themselves!
Character Event Warp Leaks for 1.2 in Honkai: Star Rail
Gosh, it hasn’t been all that long since they’ve joined, but already we can expect to see Kafka and Blade join our party in Honkai: Star Rail’s 1.2 updates. Aaggghhh, I have no idea who I’m going to choose between them! Hopefully, we’ll have some events or rewards to look forward to whenever we do get closer to 1.2. This update is going to be particularly difficult. It doesn’t look like we can expect to see a Four-Star event in this banner thus far, but once we know more, we’ll be sure to let you know!
Character Event Warp Leaks for 1.3 in Honkai: Star Rail
And finally, the last of the knowledge we know up until 1.3 Honkai: Star Rail’s update is going to be Fu Xuan and what may just very well be a Five Star Dan Heng. Fu Xuan is a lovely and beautiful character that was introduced when we next see Kafka in the story. She’s sure to be a powerful unit to add to your party once her banner is officially verified! As for Dan Heng, it really should come as no one’s surprise that our mysterious friend has such an ominous past and likewise hidden power. Though to make an entire unit based on that… It isn’t entirely uncommon for Honkai, specifically, but if you’ve hailed from Genshin Impact, this will be a bit of a surprise for you. All the same, we do know his element will be Imaginary and his Path will be following Destruction. For more, be sure to check out our first cover of this news!
Leaks are subject to change and should not be expected to be the final product. Hoyoverse still owns the final say in what characters will be released and who might actually appear.
Despite the highs and lows of theatrical releases in the past year, movie theaters are recovering. Gower Street Analytics released a new study at CinemaCon this year that showed revenues in 2023 will reach $32 billion. Although that isn’t near the pre-pandemic levels of $42 billion, that number is still a significant increase from 2022’s revenue of $25.9 billion (according to Gower Street Analytics).
The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been a beacon of light for theaters as it kicked off 2023 with a bang by bringing in over $146 million in domestic revenue and $878.1 million at the worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing film based on a video game.
As we prepare for another year of great films at our local theaters, let’s look back and see what movies saved theaters in 2022.
‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’Credit: Universal Pictures
What Movie Saved Theaters in 2022
At the 2023 CinemaCon, Variety checked in with multiple cineplexes in the U.S. to ask a variety of questions. One of these questions was, “What movies was the saving grace for exhibitors?”
Cinemark Ceo Sean Gamble stated that Top Gun: Maverick was a film that drew all audiences to the theater and outperformed what anyone was expecting. The excitement of the moviegoing experience created momentum that followed multiple theatrical releases throughout the rest of the year, with Smile becoming a surprise hit that generated over $200 million at the worldwide box office.
“It was made for streaming, but released theatrically by Paramount and generated of $200 million in worldwide box office,” Gamble said. “It’s a small film that delivered significant results.”
‘Top Gun: Maverick’Credit: Paramount Pictures
Atlas Theaters VP and owner Gabriel Saluan and University Mall Theaters owner Mark O’Meara agree that Top Gun: Maverick saved the box office, but Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor and RagTag Cinema executive director Arin Liberman believe thatEverything Everywhere All at Oncestands out.
“it captured a diverse range of moviegoers,” Liberman said. “We had almost an equal distribution of age ranges.”
For Taylor, these “out of nowhere and surprise the heck out of everyone” types of movies are the ones that become memorable and instant classics as they stand out in a sea of tentpoles and children’s films.
‘Air’Credit: Amazon Studios
As for O’Meara, the recent success of Air has led him to believe that more mid-budget movies with great stories will always succeed at the box office. Mid-budget films have been absent from theaters for a long time. As people slowly start to return to theaters for entertainment, films that do not cost a lot to make and do not have an extremely high risk will start to do well again, just like they have always done.
What film do you think saved theaters in 2022? Let us know in the comments below!
The New York Dolls’ wildly original debut album got Martin Scorsese through the making of “Mean Streets” in 1973.
Years later, Dolls frontman David Johansen enlivened the soundtrack of Scorsese’s HBO series productions “Boardwalk Empire” and “Vinyl.” Scorsese is also a regular listener of Johansen’s Sirius XM series “Mansion of Fun.”
Finally, after Scorsese caught Johansen’s career-spanning cabaret set at the Café Carlyle, the director-producer – a storied teller of New York stories – decided that the time was ripe for a documentary on the proto-punk scion of Staten Island. “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” which debuted April 14 on Showtime, chronicles Johansen’s evolution from the Dolls to the lounge-y pop of his Buster Poindexter period through his present day life as a husband, stepfather and eminence grise of New York’s music scene.
Scorsese, Johansen, “Personality” co-director and editor David Tedeschi and executive producer Margaret Bodde gathered April 25 at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood for a panel session on the feature documentary. Also joining the session were Johansen’s wife, Mara Hennessey, also an executive producer, and his stepdaughter, Leah Hennesey, who conducts present-day interviews of Johansen for the film.
“The musicologist that he is is something that has inspired me for the past 25-30 years,” Scorsese told the crowd of Johansen.
Scorsese and his wife, Ellen, Tedeschi and Bodde were inspired to make the movie after being impressed by the range of music and styles that Johansen brought to his Café Carlyle performance.
“It’s very beautiful and moving,” Scorsese said. “The music was great, the lyrics and his presence was really something. After it was all over, we just looked at each other and said ‘What do you want to do?’ And then we said ‘Well, let’s shoot it.’ ”
“Personality Crisis” is built around the footage captured during a January 2020 performance at the Café Carlyle by Johansen. Weeks later, plans for the documentary were up-ended by the dawning of the COVID crisis. That led to the decision to have Leah Hennessey conduct interviews of Johansen while the family quarantined in their Staten Island home. Scorsese and Tedeschi quickly realized how much the inclusion of Mara and Leah in the project would add depth to the portrait of the artist.
“It’s not that David is so cantankerous. He’s just not interested in his own past. I mean – he’s really not interested,” said Leah. “When I first started doing these interviews I was really doing it as almost like anthropological data gathering.”
As a budding filmmaker herself, Leah felt the pressure of having to deliver her raw work to no less a accomplished helmer than Scorsese. “Anyone who’s been at film school knows what it’s like when you’re by yourself shooting. You have this hubris of like, I don’t need a crew. And then all the recorders stop and the cameras broke,” Leah said. “It was like that, expect that I had to turn over all of my footage to Scorsese.”
Johansen admits he took some persuading to embrace the idea of a feature-length look at his life. After seeing Bruce Springsteen’s success on Broadway, Johansen wondered if he might find a perch on the Great White Way. But the pandemic closed that outlet.
Usually when documentarians come calling, Johansen takes a pass.
“A lot of people, they do documentaries about music and they ask me to be in them,” Johansen observed. “And I normally refused. Because it’s the most horrible thing to have an opinion one day and then two years later see it [playing on TV].”
For Leah, doing interviews with her stepfather was a lesson in becoming a better listener. “I think it was the first time in our lives that I got a word in edgewise,” Johansen joked.
Scorsese also gave Leah some important guidance on shooting in the documentary form. He learned quite a bit making the 1974 documentary “Italian-American” revolving around the stories of his parents, Charles and Catherine Scorsese.
“I hit the slate and then my mother took over,” Scorsese said. “My father didn’t want to be part of it at first. But she got him to come over closer to her on the couch. And then I would ask a few questions. But I learned to just shut up and listen…And so that’s why I said [to Leah] ‘Don’t force it.’ At some point, he’s going to say something. It’s going to happen.”
“Personality Crisis” is also peppered with vintage footage of the Dolls and Johansen at various stages of his long career. During the panel, Johansen recounted his earliest memory of performing in front of an audience as a youth at a Battle of the Bands event Staten Island.
“I closed my eyes and I started singing ‘Oh baby, Boogaloo down Broadway’ and when I was done I thought, Why were they applauding,” he says. “It was a great moment. And I decided to make it my life’s work.”
(Pictured top, from right: Martin Scorsese, David Tedeschi, Margaret Bodde, Leah Hennessey, Mara Hennessey and David Johansen on April 25 at the Linwood Dunn Theater.)
First reference to New York Dolls in Variety came in a 1973 review of their performance as an opening act in Manhattan for Mott the Hoople.
90 Day Fiancé: Love In Paradise season 2 premiered on Discovery+ in June 2022, after months of anticipation, and heavily featured couple, Daniele Gates and Yohan Geronimo. Although the Caribbean-based spin-off was scrutinized when it was first announced, 90DF franchise viewers quickly became enthralled by the tumultuous relationships presented, and each duo’s challenges. The spin-off was so popular that it recently returned in April 2023 for season 3.
Daniele and Yohan were first introduced when the season 2 trailer was released in May 2022. Referring to Yohan as, “the love of my life” and, “the incredible Hulk,” Daniele explained how she met Yohan while on vacation in the Dominican Republic. With Yohan ten years younger than her, and over a foot taller, the couple’s differences tested their relationship. One scene from the trailer (as per TVLogia at YouTube) showed Daniele’s surprising reaction to seeing Yohan’s home. Meanwhile, Daniele later worried in a confessional that Yohan may,“only [be] marrying me to move to the U.S. and send money back to his family.”
90 Day Fiancé: Love In Paradise’s Daniele Was An NYC-Based Yogi
Born and raised in New York, Daniele is a public school teacher who founded her own business, LiveYinsa, in 2018. Specializing in yoga and Ayurveda, Daniele also sells Ayurvedic skincare products under the brand name, Yinsa Skincare. Daniele, described by her friends as, “the yoga fairy,” can be found, “at the beach or the farmers market.”Daniele‘s Instagram has over 27,000 followers, and contains videos involving meditations, chakras, and natural lifestyles. It’s also filled with plenty of photos featuring Yohan. She relocated to the Dominican Republic to be with Yohan, and the move prompted their appearance on 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way season 4.
90 Day Fiancé: Love In Paradise’s Daniele Yohan & Daniele Are Thriving
Yohan, who still lives in the Dominican Republic, is a self-proclaimed Christian who’s passionate about fitness and working out. Yohan opened a butcher shop in Villa Hermosa, called La Bendicion, in March 2022. Like Daniele, Yohan frequently spends time outside, particularly at the beach or nearby rivers. Yohan‘s Instagram ballooned to over 16,000 followers during his time on 90 Day Fiancé: Love In Paradise season 2, and 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way season 4.
Perhaps surprisingly, Daniele and Yohan are still married, despite controversies in their current appearance on 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way season 4, currently airing on Lifetime. Fans praised Yohan for standing up to Daniele, who tends to lie to Yohan. Despite Daniele’s difficulty assimilating to cultural differences, their marriage appears to be going strong. With the announcement of 90 Day Fiancé: Love In Paradise season 3, Daniele and Yohan will likely not participate, since they’re doing well, but that hasn’t been revealed.
HBO’s “100 Foot Wave” offers few visual clues the world outside of the compelling docuseries is in the grips of a 100-year pandemic that will kill millions of people.
The show’s hero and protagonist, Garrett McNamara, is not filmed wearing a mask despite the close quarters of many scenes that are featured in Season 2’s first and second episodes. And he is by no means alone.
But COVID-restricted plane rides to Portugal are soon required as rare early season conditions at Nazaré prompt a reunion of the world’s best big-wave surfers. They include McNamara, Ian Cosenza, Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca and Kai Lenny.
“We saw this big swell on the map,” McNamara says from his house in O’ahu, Hawaii. “It was the best-looking swell that I’ve seen, with the best conditions. And it looked like it was going to be the best waves we’ve ever seen.”
The rush to Nazaré in October 2020 as the remnants of Hurricane Epsilon approach proves worthy, indeed, with some of the biggest waves in the decade since McNamara’s discovery of the spot provide ample fodder for the sport’s biggest stars.
But the logistics tell another story. The first sign of trouble comes when McNamara’s young daughter breaks down crying at the news she won’t be allowed to accompany her mother to the traditional viewing locale for the day’s surfing, on the lighthouse at the top of Nazaré’s majestic cliffs.
The tensions mount from there.
“The hype of this swell was so intense,” Lenny says. “It was the biggest swell ever.”
Germany’s Sebastian Steudtner soon rides a wave that has the hordes drawn to the lighthouse cliffs that day roaring like a surfing crowd had rarely roared before.
Guinness World Records would eventually mark Steudtner’s wave as the biggest ever ridden at 86 feet, a record that still stands. Officials number the Nazaré crowd at 30,000.
Chianca catches a similarly massive wave, and says the reaction was unlike anything he’d experienced before.
“As soon as he got off the wave, the cliffs were like ‘YAHHH,’” says Cosenza, who was providing the tow for Chianca. “Everybody is screaming.”
“It was like Brazil versus France in the final of the World Cup,” Chianca says.
Other veterans of the Nazaré scene had never seen anything like it. But it isn’t only the crowd on the banks. The number of surfers and accompanying jet skis in the water creates a logjam at the lineups and a dangerous snowball effect for the process of swooping in and grabbing a surfer after their ride — or after they had wiped out.
“I think it surprised everyone how many people turned up in October,” McNamara tow partner and big-wave star Andrew Cotton says. “That many jet skis, that many people. And everyone’s hungry. Everyone wants it.”
Whether it was the opportunity for thrills, fame, fortune, or the anticipation and bottled up energy from lockdown, the early crests of the biggest waves have a crowd of as many as six jet skis poised in the hopes that magic is at hand. The radio channels of the teams’ walkie-talkies are also overcrowded and becoming jammed with interference.
“The energy in the water was very intense,” Chianca said. “You could see that everybody in the water was feeling a heavier, more tense energy.”
“We were in the middle of a pandemic, you know,” says McNamara’s wife and spotter, Nicole. “People were scared during that time. Now you have these big scary waves coming. So I think it just increased everybody’s fear and survival mode.”
A significant police presence grows and begins erecting barricades to limit the flow of people coming into the area, which had become an “astronomical amount,” according to Nicole McNamara.
It’s apparent the lack of social distancing in such a massive crowd has the real potential to spoil a good thing as news coverage of the event spreads globally.
“You can’t have football matches, there’s no crowds, and then you got 30,000 people on the cliff, watching people surf,” Cotton says. “So then the city hall had to juggle that.”
One week later, a surfing ban is indeed put into effect, a prohibition that lasts six weeks and empties Nazaré of many of its surfers who flock there in the colder months to catch waves that grow to reach the height of tall buildings. Even Nazaré pioneer Garrett leaves.
As “100 Foot Wave” shows, some surfers test the rules. But the local police force proves mostly up to the task, doling out warnings and fines to nearly anyone who enters the waters.
“Now the cliff looks exactly what it looked like before Garrett,” a local says.
John MulaneyPhoto: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images for The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation
John Mulaney is on something of a comeback tour at the moment, having just launched a new Netflix stand-up special, Baby J—his first, since drawing about a billion headlines with his rehab/divorce/new baby triple act back in 2021. (Which, we remind ourselves, he followed with the fun encore of bringing Dave Chappelle out as a surprise guest at one of his stand-up shows, in the midst of Chappelle’s ongoing criticisms for transphobic material; not a particularly fun time to be a John Mulaney fan, these last couple of years.) Said comeback tour includes doing press for Baby J, obviously, which brought out this weird little tidbit that’s going to be kicking around in our heads for at least a minute: It sounds like John Mulaney was almost the host of The Daily Showin the aftermath of Jon Stewart’s departure from the Comedy Central series.
Why Christian Bale just can’t quit David O. Rusell
This is per a podcast interview Mulaney did this week, telling Doug Herzog and Jen Chaney’s Basic! podcast that he was considered for, but ultimately turned down, the job that eventually went to Trevor Noah. Or, as Herzog, who used to run big chunks of Comedy Central parent company Viacom back in the day, put it, “I think we were floating your interest in that and you were very lukewarm.”
Mulaney says that he largely passed on the show because he’d just gotten his ass kicked with Mulaney, his single-season Fox sitcom, now mostly notable for its persistent inability to make John Mulaney or Martin Short seem funny. “I was extremely flattered that y’all were asking me about it,” Mulaney says in the interview, noting that the job was floated to him by then-Comedy Central president Kent Alterman. “It wasn’t the right thing at the moment. I remember saying to Kent, ‘I wish it was five years from now.’ He went ‘Yeah, but it’s not.’”
Mostly, we’re just trying to wrap our heads around what the world would have looked like after seven or eight years of The Daily Show With John Mulaney. Mulaney’s not a political comic, for one thing; it’s hard to imagine what the perspective of his version of the show would have been. (Sillier, certainly, not that Noah couldn’t get pretty silly at times.) Seeing him pointing his observational material in a more topical direction would have been pretty fascinating, true, while seeing him interview political figures and other typical Daily Show guests would just have been weird. (Mulaney can gab, but he’s not necessarily a “give focus to the other participant” type.) In any case, it’s a bizarre counter-factual that we’re (mostly) glad to have missed out on—but one we’re going to be thinking about all day, nevertheless.
Yadhu Krishnan’s feature-length debut, Crossfire, tells an oft-told tale. But the dramatic thriller stars the underrated Louis Mandylor and Kevin Gage, which instantly ups its appeal. Can the writer-director add enough twists and character depth to make the narrative feel fresh?
F.B.I. agent Mark Patson (Mandylor) is quite accomplished in his career. He’s taken down some of the most notorious domestic and international terrorists threatening the security of the United States. His most recent mission sees Mark taking down the notorious Gorilla Gang. But unfortunately, the surviving member of the gang kills his wife, which sends Mark on a downward spiral.
Years on, Mark wants to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Alicia (Samm Wiechec). She’s reluctant but does stay with him during school break. Alicia and family friend Maryam (Lori Pelenise Tuisano) quickly hit it off, though the daughter is still cold toward her father. However, all three are unaware that the same killer from years earlier is back to finish the job. In order to survive, Mark and Alicia must learn to trust one another again and fight for their lives.
“…all three are unaware that the same killer from years earlier is back…”
Crossfire is ostensibly a thriller, though, for the first hour or so, one won’t know that. Krishnan takes his time to develop Mark, Alicia, and their dysfunctional dynamic. For example, Alicia’s stipulation for staying with her dad is that they do not bother each other. Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story if both of them stayed true to that, but its inclusion clues audiences into Alicia’s mindset regarding her living parent. Maryam takes Alicia out and introduces her to several people who owe a debt to Mark. It’s an interesting little scene recontextualizing what Alicia and audiences thought they knew about the lead character.
But what of the action beats and thrills? Once the killer reemerges, the film ably transitions from the drama to the more tense beat ’em up the poster is selling. The fisticuffs and gunplay are pretty exciting.
But it is the cast of Crossfire that really anchors the proceedings. Mandylor is excellent, conveying his character’s brokenness and eagerness to mend things well. Wiechec plays the frustrated daughter gracefully, plus she and Mandylor play excellently off each other. Tuisano is tons of fun, bringing some needed levity as the straight-shooter Maryam.
Crossfire is not particularly original, but it makes up for that in several ways. Krishnan’s focus on character over action adds depth. The cast is solid, with Mandylor delivering a career-best. While those hoping for a hard-hitting actioner might be disappointed, anyone who prefers their genre picks with characters to root for will be highly entertained.
A Russian navy vessel specialised in submarine operations was photographed near the sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines just prior to mysterious blasts in September, Danish daily Information said Friday.
The newspaper said the submarine rescue ship SS-750 was photographed in the Baltic Sea four days before the still-unexplained explosions on the pipelines that link Russia to Germany.
The SS-750 has its own mini-submarine, called the AS-26, which can reach depths of 262 feet (80 metres) and carry loads of up to 50kg.
‘The Danish military confirmed that 26 photos of the Russian vessel were taken from a Danish patrol boat in the zone located east of Bornholm on September 22, 2022,’ Information said.
The Danish military has not responded to a request for comment.
The newspaper said the submarine rescue ship SS-750 (file image) was photographed in the Baltic Sea four days before the still-unexplained explosions on the pipelines that link Russia to Germany
In this file photo taken on September 27, 2022 this handout picture released by the Danish Defence Command shows the gas leak at the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
Seven months after the spectacular blasts on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, it has yet to be established who was responsible despite criminal investigations in the countries bordering the damaged part of the pipelines – Germany, Sweden and Denmark.
The New York Times reported in March that US officials had seen new intelligence indicating that a ‘pro-Ukrainian group’ was responsible, without the involvement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
German prosecutors subsequently said that, in January, investigators had searched a ship suspected of having transported explosives used in the blasts.
The prosecutor leading Sweden’s probe said in March it was ‘still unclear’ who was behind the sabotage, calling it ‘a complex case’.
‘Our primary assumption is that a state is behind it,’ Mats Ljungqvist said.
‘The people who did this have probably been aware that they would leave clues behind and probably took care so that the evidence would not point in one direction, but in several directions,’ he added.
A former Danish intelligence officer turned analyst, Jacob Kaarsbo, told Information that the presence of the SS-750 in the zone ‘sheds light on what was going on in the region in the preceding days.’
The confirmation was of particular interest ‘because we know it is capable of carrying out such an operation,’ he said.
Earlier this month, it was claimed that Russia is using ‘ghost’ spy ships that are disguised as fishing trawlers off the UK coast to map out wind farms and communication cables for sabotage attacks in case it goes to war with the West.
The fleet of Russian ships, disguised as fishing trawlers and research vessels, are reportedly sailing through the North Sea to collect data on where wind farms, gas pipelines as well as power and internet cables are located.
The vessels carry underwater surveillance to map out how the infrastructure is connected with the aim to plan sabotage attacks against the West, a documentary aired by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland has claimed.
Russia is aiming to plan the sabotage attacks in case it goes to war with the West, with their goal being to paralyse the power supply in Europe, intelligence sources warned.
‘In the event of a conflict with the West, they are ready and know where to intervene if they want to paralyse the Danish society,’ counterintelligence chief Anders Henriksen from the Danish Police Intelligence Service told Denmark’s DR.
‘This is a strategic capacity for Russia, which is considered very important and is controlled directly from Moscow,’ Nils Andreas Stensones, head of the Norwegian Intelligence Service, added.
Intercepted radio communications from the Russian navy reveal Russia is using ‘ghost ships’ in the North Sea. These vessels have turned off their transmitters and are therefore untraceable in international waters.
Russia is using ‘ghost’ spy ships that are disguised as fishing trawlers off the UK coast to map out wind farms and communication cables for sabotage attacks in case it goes to war with the West, a probe has claimed. Last November, Admiral Vladimirsky (pictured) sailed around the Kattegat sea between Denmark and Sweden without sharing its location for a month
Video shows a man wearing a mask while holding a Russian military semi-automatic rifle stepping forward on the top deck as a DR journalist approached the Admiral Vladimirsky in a rubber boat. Several other men stepped forward also
The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed the media claims as a ‘mistake’ and ‘without basis’, reiterating its appeal for ‘a transparent and impartial international inquiry’ into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson meanwhile deemed the documentary’s claims ‘serious’.
‘This just goes to show that we have a very risky situation in our immediate vicinity,’ he told reporters at a navy base in southern Sweden.
Broadcasters DR in Denmark, NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden and Yle in Finland pointed to how the Russian naval vessel Admiral Vladimirsky is being used to collect intelligence – rather than conduct oceanic research as Russia says it does.
Since the pandemic began, Lyft employees have been able to work remotely, logging into videoconferences from their homes and dispersing across the country like many other tech workers. Last year, the company made that policy official, telling staff that work would be “fully flexible” and subleasing floors of its offices in San Francisco and elsewhere.
No longer. On Friday, David Risher, the company’s new chief executive, told employees in an all-hands meeting that they would be required to come back into the office at least three days a week, starting this fall. It was one of the first major changes he has made at the struggling ride-hailing company since starting this month, and it came just a day after he laid off 26 percent of Lyft’s work force.
“Things just move faster when you’re face to face,” Mr. Risher said in an interview. Remote work in the tech industry, he said, had come at a cost, leading to isolation and eroding culture. “There’s a real feeling of satisfaction that comes from working together at a whiteboard on a problem.”
The decision, combined with the layoffs and other changes, signals the beginning of a new chapter at Lyft. It could also be an indication that some tech companies — particularly firms that are struggling — may be changing their minds on flexibility about where employees work. Nudges toward working in the office could soon turn into demands, as they have at companies like Disney and Apple.
Bob Sutton, an organizational psychologist and a professor at Stanford, said that although in-person collaboration could help with creativity and some other parts of work, companies pushing for a return to office might be doing so to have greater oversight of their workers.
“When top executives feel financial stress, the classic ‘threat-rigidity’ effect kicks in, and beyond possible benefits for communication, collaboration and creativity, they feel compelled to increase their own illusion of control,” Mr. Sutton said.
Mr. Risher, a veteran of Microsoft and Amazon who also served on Lyft’s board of directors, has laid out a plan to streamline the business, cut costs and focus on improving the quality and lowering the price of Lyft’s core product: rides for customers.
Lyft employees have complained that divisions outside the ride-hailing business, like units that offer rental cars to its gig drivers and rent bikes and scooters to consumers, seemed to be disproportionately affected by the layoffs. Mr. Risher said the cuts were across the board.
He said the cost savings from the layoffs would go toward lower prices for riders and higher earnings for drivers.
The next phase of his plan, he said, is to remind riders that Lyft is a viable alternative to Uber. In the summer, Mr. Risher said, he will gradually introduce products to increase interest in the platform. That may include teaming up with companies to offer Lyft rides to their employees who are commuting to offices, he said.
The next steps for the company will be difficult. Many Lyft employees have gotten used to working from home, and some were already bristling at the possibility of returning to the office. Lyft continues to trail Uber, which has a global ride-hailing business and also offers food delivery.
Lyft’s stock price is trading at $10 a share, down from $78 at its peak, and some have speculated that it could be an acquisition target. The company will report financial results for its most recent quarter next week and expects $975 million in revenue, lower than the $1.1 billion investors had hoped for earlier this year. It is not yet profitable.
Mr. Risher announced a handful of other changes on Thursday. He ended products focused on car rentals, as well as shared rides and luxury rides, and he promoted Kristin Sverchek, the head of business affairs, to president.
Lyft also planned to tell employees that it would reduce their stock grants this year, according to a person familiar with the decision.
The return to office plan, Mr. Risher said, would require workers to come in Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Tuesdays recommended, beginning after Labor Day. People will be allowed to work remotely for one month each year, and those living far from offices would not be required to come in.
Mr. Risher said he saw the moment as an opportunity to have a “cultural reset, particularly around decision-making.”
He said that Lyft was successful with its early ride-hailing business, but that Mr. Green and Mr. Zimmer’s idea to build a transportation network, with products focused on scooters, bikes, parking and rental cars, “didn’t really resonate with people.” The company has pared back those offerings but does still have bikes and scooters.
“So now, my focus is saying, ‘Gosh, in ride share alone, there’s an enormous amount of innovation left.’ People desperately want to get out and live their lives, and we can help them,” Mr. Risher said. “And then maybe, over time, we can build some things back on top of that.”
Lemon and Tucker are “far from” a friendship, but their respective sackings had so many similarities, that it got them talking, Stelter wrote Friday for Vanity Fair. Carlson’s exit was announced late Monday morning, and not even an hour later, Lemon announced his own ouster on Twitter.
Beyond just timing, Stelter writes that “the similarities between the two situations are stacking up. Carlson and Lemon know it: They have been texting back and forth in the past few days, according to two sources with knowledge of the relationship.”
Gee, wonder who Stelter’s two sources could be?
“By ‘relationship,’”’ I do not mean friendship,” Stelter continued. “Far from it. The two men have never met, and they likely didn’t have much to discuss until recently.”
Needless to say, Carlson and Lemon have been hurling flaming fireballs at one another since time immemorial, with their frequent on-air invectives limited only by the tolerance of FCC censors. But anyone who’s duked it out with a worthy opponent for any length of time knows the kind of bond that dynamic can eventually create – especially if a shared adversary emerges one day, in this case, “management.”
For now, Stelter says it’s just texting – but he also released a thought-balloon that has surely crossed the minds of many media-watchers this week:
“I know this is crazy, but I’m just going to write it anyway: Could the two men team up? I can imagine some hotshot producer selling a new ‘Crossfire’ like it’s for the good of the republic,” he wrote. “In fact, some are already floating the idea. Cable news can make for strange bedfellows. Former CNN star Chris Cuomo now regularly brings former Fox star Bill O’Reilly onto his NewsNation show.”
By no means is Stelter suggesting that such a joint project is in the works – Stelter also threw in the new detail that Carlson’s current contract runs through 2024, meaning that if Fox keeps his reportedly $20-million-per-year paychecks rolling, he might be sidelined until immediately after the next presidential election.
January Jones showcased her sexy dance moves while rocking out to Ed Sheeran‘s 2019 track Antisocial, featuring rapper Travis Scott, on Friday afternoon.
As she took advantage of the the spring sunshine in the backyard of her Los Feliz Mediterranean home, the Mad Men star, 45, sported a barely-there white string bikini, with a flirty scallop design on her top and bottoms, from Marysia.
She styled her tiny two-piece with a pair of oversized beige sunglasses over her blue eyes, a gold necklace and a matching bracelet.
In the footage, the two-time Golden Globe nominee can be seen swaying her hips and arms as she playfully stuck her tongue out to the side.
While busting a move, the actress flipped her shoulder-length platinum blonde hair and smiled.
Sexy! January Jones showcased her sexy dance moves while rocking out to Ed Sheeran’s 2019 track Antisocial, featuring rapper Travis Scott, on Friday afternoon
Beaming: As she took advantage of the the spring sunshine in the backyard of her Los Feliz Mediterranean home, the Mad Men star, 45, sported a barely-there white string bikini, with a flirty scallop design on her top and bottoms, from Marysia
Within an hour, her post received more than 21,847 likes and received hundreds of comments, with many fans rejoicing that ‘it’s January Jones bikini season again.’
Her post comes just over a month after revealing she was fed up with self-taping auditions for casting directors to her more than 1.1 million Instagram followers.
On March 6, the performer wrote a ‘note to Hollywood on her Instagram Story, which read: ‘It’s time for casting directors to come back into the office like everyone else. To audition actors in person.’
Since the pandemic, it has become customary for actors to self-tape their auditions and send them to casting directors rather than auditioning in person.
She continued, ‘And if anyone asks for a FEE to audition please know that this is criminal and PATHETIC. I personally have had to self tape several times since the pandemic began and there is zero benefit to it for anyone involved.
The star added it is time consuming, expensive, and a ‘drag to whomever you have to drag in to read with you (sorry Mom), and is often done with zero direction/notes,’ the mom-of-one added.
‘I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for an actor just starting out if an established actor has to beg for a Zoom [meeting] when an in-person audition is “unavailable,”‘ the Anger Management actress concluded. ‘Please do better.’
The model is mom to Xander, 12. She has never publicly revealed who her son’s father is.
Several years ago, the actress revealed that she relishes single parenting, and doesn’t feel like she ‘needs’ a partner.
Springtime: She styled her tiny two-piece with a pair of oversized beige sunglasses over her blue eyes, a gold necklace and a matching bracelet
Having fun: In the footage, the two-time Golden Globe nominee can be seen swaying her hips and arms as she playfully stuck her tongue out to the side
In 2017, she told Red: ‘I just don’t feel I need a partner. Do I want one? Maybe. But I don’t feel unhappy or lonely. It would have to be someone so amazing that I would want to make room.’
‘Someone who would contribute to my happiness and not take away from it. I realize I have very high expectations and will probably have to compromise – but my life is so full. It’s not like, “Aww, I wish I had a man.”‘
‘After I had Xander, I went on a couple of dates and I was like, “I’d rather be at home sleeping, or watching TV or hanging out with my kid,”‘ she continued.
January gave birth to Xander on September 13, 2011, and many fans at the time questioned who the father of her child was.
There had been rumors at the time linking January to Matthew Vaughn, who directed her in X-Men: First Class, though it was strongly denied.
Tired of virtual auditions: Her post comes just over a month after revealing she was fed up with self-taping auditions for casting directors to her more than 1.1 million Instagram followers
Fed up: Since the pandemic, it has become customary for actors to self-tape their auditions and send them to casting directors rather than auditioning in person (seen in 2020)
She was also briefly linked to Jason Sudeikis, but there was no confirmation of a romance. January previously dated Ashton Kutcher in the 1990s, Jim Carrey and Josh Groban.
The Emmy nominee got her start in films including Anger Management, Love Actually and We Are Marshall before landing Mad Men in 2007.
She played Betty Draper from 2007 to 2015.
The Golden Globe nominee is net set to star in God Is A Bullet.
Development on the Nick Cassavetes-directed feature was first announced in 2022.
The feature is based on the 1999 novel of the same name, which was written by Boston Teran.
The story is centered on a detective who infiltrates a satanic cult with the help of one of its former members in an effort to save his daughter, who has been kidnapped by the group.
The film co-stars Jamie Foxx, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Andrew Dice Clay.
A party game becomes the source of dramatic tension in “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” the screen adaptation of Judy Blume’s beloved novel about adolescence.
In this sequence, Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) attends a party at the home of one of her classmates. Things get rowdy when Nancy (Elle Graham) proposes a game for the group: Two Minutes in the Closet. The girls are all given numbers. The boys draw those numbers from a bowl. The two people whose numbers match retreat to the closet, or in this case, a guest bathroom, for two minutes.
The director and screenwriter Kelly Fremon Craig staged the scene in a heightened way, creating a thriller-like intensity while also playing key moments for laughs.
“Where I placed all of the actors was a conscious decision,” Craig said in an interview, “because it was important to me how far they had to walk to get to each other, how far Margaret had to walk to get to the bathroom, all of those things.”
In addition to the blocking, the scene comes together through a combination of performance, lighting and song selection, with the Dusty Springfield hit “Son of a Preacher Man” helping to further elevate it.
“This was the luckiest I’ve ever gotten on a needle drop,” Craig said, recalling that she and her editor haphazardly added the song during the editing process. “It wound up that it scored the moment so perfectly that we couldn’t believe it. And actually, we have never moved it, even a single frame from that very first time we dropped it in.”
According to a new rumor, Frozen star Josh Gad is set to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in an upcoming project.
Many likely know him thanks to his role as Olaf in both Frozen and Frozen II. He’s been in far more, however, including Avenue 5, Central Park, Little Monsters, and more.
Given the actor’s popularity, it was only a matter of time before his talents were acquired by Marvel Studios in some capacity.
Josh Gad Joins the MCU
Josh Gad
While speaking on The Hot Mic podcast, industry insider Jeffery Sneider claimed that actor Josh Gad will be appearing in the MCU.
No further information was given. Marvel did not comment on the rumor.
Gad Joins Wonder Man
Not much is known about the plot of the upcoming Disney+ series, so it’s hard to make an educated guess on who Gad could be playing.
Given how Wonder Man is meant to be a little satirical in its take on Hollywood, it wouldn’t be shocking if Josh Gad played himself. If that does happen, he’ll likely be one of many celebrities to cameo in similar ways.
This would also make sense since the actor excels in his comedic endeavors, so it would be a perfect fit.
We’ve known that a Blade movie is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2019. Who can forget with the film’s star—Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali—put on a hat that said “BLADE!” and caused an excited uproar in San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H?! Though there have been some ups and downs with this movie, hopefully, we’ll only see smooth sailing for our favorite vampire from here on out.
Here’s everything we know about the upcoming Blade movie–including the latest behind the scenes update with True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto joining as a writer.
Title
Marvel Studios
The title of this movie is simple: Blade.
Blade‘s Plot
Right now there are no plot details for Blade. But, we can imagine the film will borrow from the character’s comic origins. Blade debuted in the tenth issue of Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula comic back in 1973, from writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan. He quickly became a supremely popular character, a half-vampire killer of vampires and other occult baddies. Blade first made it to the big screen in 1998 starring Wesley Snipes. Two sequels followed—one of them good—but eventually, that franchise sort of fell by the wayside.
All of this leads us to wonder how dark the movie could get. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was a horror movie, so Blade will probably go full scary. Even if it doesn’t get as bloody as the Wesley Snipes movies did, a dark and scary PG-13 Blade could be, forgive the pun, marvelous.
Behind the Scenes
Playwright Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen) wrote an early draft of the script. In 2021, Bassam Tariq confirmed he will direct the film via The Playlist podcast. However, Tariq has since left the project.
The director offered a brief statement about his experience with Blade.
Now Lovecraft Country‘s Yann Demange has come aboard as Blade‘s new director. In addition, Michael Starrbury wrote a new script for the vampiric movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has recently joined the project to work off of Starrbury’s script.
Blade‘s Cast
Marvel Studios
As mentioned above, two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali will play the daywalking half-vampire badass in the upcoming Blade movie. Meanwhile, it has now been confirmed that Delroy Lindo is joining Ali in film. While we don’t formally know who Lindo is playing, we think he could be Jamal Afari, who in the comics raised Blade and taught him all about vampire slaying. (In the Wesley Snipes films, he was called Abraham Whistler and was played by Kris Kristofferson.) And, as we saw (or rather, heard) at the end of Eternals, Kit Harrington will cross paths with Blade, reprising his role as Dane Whitman.
“[T]he role itself was one of the more highly coveted parts in Hollywood since Tariq was tapped as director last fall. Execs on the project always had their eye on Lindo for his secret role but insiders add Feige, Tariq and others took their time finding the right person for this part, meeting dozens of up-and-coming actors for the role with Pierre becoming the favorite in recent weeks.”
This, to us, implies a character like Dracula who might have a much larger presence in the coming horror-tinged phase of the Marvel movies. More on that when it happens.
In April 2023, Deadline reports that X and Pearl star Mia Goth will join the cast in an unspecified role. She seems like a great choice to join the MCU’s flagship horror-tinged film given her cred in that specific genre. In addition to those Ti West movies, Goth has been in Suspiria, Infinity Pool, A Cure for Wellness.
Marvel Comics
Blade‘s Release Date
The Blade Marvel movie will arrive in theaters on September 6, 2024.
Looks like a great release. Available today, Walt Disney Records releases the Star Wars™: Jedi Survivor Original Video Game Soundtrack, featuring score by composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab. Sounds from the Galactic Skylanes features music from in-game characters.
Editors note:This review originally published May 22, 2022 after the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It opens in theaters Friday.
Longtime Cannes Film Festival favorite Cristian Mungiu has returned to the competition once again with a potent look at multi-ethnic strains and divides in a small Transylvanian town in R.M.N. As ever, the writer-director works intimately and close to the ground with his handful of characters who struggle to keep themselves and their barely-getting-by community afloat in changing times. It’s a kind of close-up-and-personal look at contemporary issues in an area not often dramatized or in the news, which adds to the film’s fresh and urgent feel.
Mungiu signals at the outset that things are not right in town through the character of a young boy, Rudi, who has stopped speaking and seems afraid of everything. Things scarcely improve when the boy’s tough father Matthias (Marin Grigore) returns from working elsewhere, brutishly throws his weight around and making life more difficult for the fearful lad and the latter’s mother, Ana, than it already was.
The women in the tiny town would seem to represent its best hope, led by Csilla (Judith State), a resourceful, can-do type who used to be Matthias’ lover. A nagging problem with the film is that Matthias is a one-dimensional reactionary jerk seemingly more attached to his gun than to any of his intimates; he stalks around everywhere with a rifle and a bad attitude, likes to intimidate, gravitates toward threats and violence, and effectively makes any situation more unpleasant than it already was.
The little community’s true nature is revealed when Csilla, who runs a small food factory, hires a couple of dark-skinned immigrants from Sri Lanka to work in menial positions. The general complaint is that things are bad enough without outsiders turning up to take their jobs, but the racism at the core of the villagers’ attitudes is unmistakable, and it’s not too much of a jump to connect what’s happening here to Germany in the 1930s.
It might all seem hopeless were it not for Csilla, a no-nonsense dynamo with a fine soul and boundless energy who more or less shows everyone else how it ought to be done. She would no doubt succeed anywhere she went, but she’s committed to keeping her town on the map, bringing it into the modern world and making a go of things if at all possible.
But the reactionaries won’t have it, especially after they find out that the imported workers are handling their baked goods.
This is the last straw, and it precipitates a town meeting that is, to put it mildly, quite raucous and revealing of deep, centuries-old prejudices on the part of the locals, particularly the older ones. Curiously, however, Mungiu shoots this climactic scene from one stationary position that allows only a partial view of the large, jam-packed room, which oddly reduces the emotional impact of the scene. Didn’t he have enough extras to fill the hall? The scene could have been much more dynamic with some cutting and takes of the many people possessed of their own heated emotions and points of view.
This is a welcome, rational, but still hot-headed picture about aspects of European politics and prejudices not so often heard about, at least in the United States. The fresh, front-line perspectives about life in towns like this are provocative and keenly welcome, even as the film still possesses the calm, observant feel of all the director’s previous work. On top of that, Judith State is a very strong center who provides both the dramatic and emotional pivot for this fine and unexpected contemporary drama.
Title: R.M.N. Distributor: IFC Films Release date: April 28, 2023 Director-screenwriter: Cristian Mungiu Cast: Marin Grigore, Judith State, Macrina Bârlădeanu, Orsolya Moldován Running time: 2 hr 8 min
This week on The Treatment, Elvis welcomes back Emmy-winning actress and comedian Alex Borstein, who’s currently starring in the fifth and final season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and her own comedy special “Corsets and Clown Suits,” both on Amazon. Next, director Timothy Scott Bogart discusses his new film “Spinning Gold” based on his father Neil Bogart’s career as a music industry titan. And for the Treat, comedian Marc Maron talks about comedy inspirations, past and present.
Mahershala Ali and True Detective creator Nic PizzolattoPhoto: Araya Doheny (Getty Images)
We don’t normally associate Marvel Comics character Blade with a lot of serious detective work. If someone dies and Blade’s on the case, then the culprit is almost always—to quote an acclaimed poet—“Vampires! Vampires! Vampires! Vampires!”
Matthew Mcconaughey thinks he might be Woody Harrelson’s brother
Nevertheless: The long-in-the-works Marvel Cinematic Universe debut of the character is turning into a real True Detectivereunion, with news breaking today that that show’s creator, Nic Pizzolatto, has now been tapped to write the film. That, in turn, transforms the upcoming film into a sort of reunion project for Pizzolatto and Ali, who previously collaborated on the third season of the HBO crime series.
Bladehas been a big question mark on the Marvel calendar for a damn long while at this point; the movie was originally announced back in 2019, and got the standard post-credits tease (with Ali voicing a single line of dialogue) at the end of 2021’s Eternals. But the film has run into a few problems in pre-production, most notably losing original director Bassim Tariq, who was replaced with Lovecraft Country’s Yann Demange last year. At the same time, writer Michael Starrbury was brought on to write a script; Pizzolatto is reportedly working from that template for his own draft of the film, which he’s been working on for the last several weeks.
Blade—which recently cast Mia Goth as, we’re guessing, some extremely creepy vampire lady—is currently set for a September 2024 premiere, so Pizzolatto at least has some time to work on his version of the story. We have no idea what direction the new film is set to take, but this latest hire certainly suggests we’re not in for a kinder, gentler, less-gritty Blade movie whenever Ali’s version eventually makes its way to theaters.
The cast of actors can make or break a movie. It’s all well and good having a fantastic script, but if the actors can’t convey the required emotions, it’s likely you’ll find the project dead in the water. It would also be naive to deny that actors with a certain level of star power are going to be bigger draws and entice more viewers to the movie. Obviously, it’s not the only contributing factor to a movie or franchise’s success, but it certainly helps.
Updated April 282023: This article has been updated to include new and fresh content.
Regardless of the motive — whether to utilize the actors’ star power or if they’re genuinely the best for the role, or both — assembling impressive casts of A-listers is nothing new in Hollywood. Perfect examples of such can be seen if we look back to the days of The Rat Pack, which saw the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr, among others, appearing in multiple movies together or to the Great Escape which starred megastars Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, and Charles Bronson.
Below is a list of 10 movies that feature the most impressive casts ever assembled. (Please note: despite pretty much every actor active at the time appearing in it, Movie 43 has been omitted from the list, because it’s hard to justify its existence as an actual feature film).
The Departed is a fine film. One of the greatest ever, in fact, and remains to date legendary director Martin Scorsese‘s only Oscar win for Best Director. It also won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. Aside from a brilliant director and script, it also benefits from a fabulous cast.
The brash Boston-based gangster romp saw a number of actors on the cusp of legendary status, including Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, and Leonardo DiCaprio, sharing the screen with true icons of cinema like Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, and Ray Winston. Featuring Scorsese’s trademark violence, rocking soundtrack, and epic, twisting plot, The Departed is a movie that works on so many levels and deserves all the success it achieved.
12 Tropic Thunder
DreamWorks Pictures Releasing
Tropic Thunder received numerous accolades, including an Oscar nod for Robert Downey Jr.’s performance and Golden Globe nominations for both him and Tom Cruise. It has also gone down as one of the most controversial movies of all time as well, with some finding Downey Jr.’s use of blackface, Ben Stiller’s portrayal of the mentally handicapped, and Cruise’s overly stereotyped Jewish character, particularly offensive and insensitive.
Controversy aside, the premise is certainly intriguing. It follows a group of actors, who, while shooting a Vietnam War film in a jungle, encounter real danger and have to rely on what they’ve learned from acting to survive. In essence, the movie acts as a parody of the Vietnam War epic of the past. The movie also features what is probably the greatest cast ever put together for a comedy movie, including Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise, Steve Coogan, Bill Hader, Matthew McConaughey, Danny McBride, Nick Nolte, and more celebrity cameos than you could shake a stick at.
11 Shark Tale
DreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation movies have a long history of compiling huge casts of Hollywood mega stars to lend their voices to its animations in order to give them that extra character. Most of the time, it tends to pay off as they’ve developed a strong reputation for creating some of the most enjoyable and financially successful animated movies in the business. Although it’s not always the case, Shark Talefeatures what is arguably their most impressive cast, yet it was met with lukewarm reactions from fans and critics alike.
Will Smith plays the entrepreneurial lead shark, Oscar. Alongside Smith were two of Hollywood’s most sought-after leading ladies at the time, Renée Zellweger and Angelina Jolie. It also stars Jack Black, Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, Ziggy Marley, and Doug E Fresh, as well as musical cameos from Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliot.
10 A Street Cat Named Bob
Stage 6 Films
A Street Cat Named Bobis based upon the true story of Bob and his friend, James Bowen, played by Luke Treadaway in the film. It’s a touching tale about finding hope and redemption through love. The human cast did a wonderful job of respecting their real-life counterparts and bringing them to life on screen.
However, the true star of the cast was Bob the cat, playing himself.
9 Role Models
Universal Pictures
Role Models is a raunchy comedy filled with non-stop laughs. When two friends, Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott), get into trouble, they are given the choice to go to jail or participate in a community program where they have to be role models for troubled kids. The premise promises enough comedic moments on its own, but the cast plays off of each other and the circumstances to add a ton of charm to the movie. Not only do Rudd and Scott’s performance styles complement each other perfectly, but they each made a connection with their younger co-stars, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bobb’e J. Thompson.
With other great comedians working beside them, like Jane Lynch and Ken Jeong, it is hard not to laugh the whole way through.
When it comes to a cast of pure talent and industry legends The Lord of the Rings is rivaled only by The Harry Potter Series. The Return of the Kingbrings together the likes of Ian McKellen, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen, Christopher Lee and casts them alongside a slew of talented young actors on the cusp of superstardom, including Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, and Liv Tyler.
Although it is easy to miss this Netflix drama, TheDevil All The Time is a dynamic and suspenseful film worth watching. The structure of the film is unique to most other films, as the dark secrets of several seemingly unrelated strangers come to a head in a twist finale. While the writing and directing is clever and fantastic, the cast elevates the material to make every character, no matter how small the role, intriguing and fun to watch.
For those who only know Robert Pattinson from movies like the Twilight saga, this film is the perfect example of how great an actor he is, and how he has so much more range than just playing a grumpy teenage vampire. In The Devil All The Time, he plays a snobbish Tennessee preacher with an unholy secret life. In a scene between him and leading man Tom Holland, the two British actors play off of each other perfectly. Their subtle acting choices and fierce concentration on each other take a scene that is already tense and transform it into a heart-racing showdown. The cast is filled with other stars that completely dedicate themselves to their roles, like Sebastian Stan (Marvel franchise, Black Swan), Bill Skarsgård (It, John Wick), Harry Melling (Harry Potter franchise, The Queen’s Gambit), and Mia Wasikowska (Crimson Peak, Alice in Wonderland).
6 Ocean’s Twelve
Warner Bros.
The original Ocean’s Eleven featured an impressive ensemble cast starring some of the biggest names of the time, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. The sharp and stylistic 2001 remake from Steven Soderbergh blew our collective minds by managing to assemble the most impressive (and glamorous) cast of A-listers Hollywood had ever seen consisting of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy García, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck and Julia Roberts.
The sequel Ocean’s Twelve managed to retain the cast and the fun and energy of the original, and turn it up to, well, 12. Catherine Zeta-Jones joined the main ensemble along with Eddie Izzard in a supporting role. There were also cameos from Topher Grace, Robbie Coltrane, and Bruce Willis himself.
5 The Outsiders
Warner Bros. Pictures
This iconic coming-of-age drama directed by Francis Ford Coppola boasts one of the finest casts of all time. What makes The Outsiders special is, at the time of its release, none of the actors were at the level of A-list superstardom they found themselves at in the following years. Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, and Rob Lowe, later branded as the “Brat Pack,” would soon find themselves the subjects of posters adorning the walls of millions of teenage girls across the globe.
A sterling performance from Diane Lane also helped set her career trajectory. Interestingly, Nicolas Cage also made a very early and uncredited appearance in the movie.
4 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Warner Bros. Pictures
The Harry Potter film series was unfathomably successful, which obviously has a lot to do with the beloved source material, but it certainly didn’t hurt that the cast was made up of a who’s who of the finest actors the United Kingdom has to offer.
Classically trained thespians and industry legends, like Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith, Warwick Davies, Lenny Henry and Timothy Spall (to name but a few) appear alongside the young lead cast of Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Tom Felton, who by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had established themselves as stars in their own right.
The Expendables is the brainchild of action mega-star Sylvester Stallone, which brought together every major action star of the last 40 years and put them in a load of high-octane action sequences. There are currently three movies in the series, and in all honesty, any one of them could have made the list. Unfortunately, The Expendables 3 does lack the amazing Bruce Willis appearances of the last two, as well as Jean-Claude van Damme and John Travolta’s from the second and Chuck Norris and Danny Trejo’s from the first.
There is, however, the addition of legends Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson, and professional fighter Ronda Rousey. Once combined with the existing cast of Sly Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, you’ve got the most impressive cast of action stars ever seen!
2 Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Paramount Pictures
It quickly became apparent that the outrageous and irreverent humor of Anchorman had led to more than just another frat boy party flick. The movie garnered praise across the board and still remains one of the most quoted movies to this day. A decade later, Will Ferrell and co had the unenviable task of trying to create a sequel that could match its predecessor’s success and impact. While Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was entertaining enough, it seems their solution was to focus entirely on trying to get every single celebrity they could think of to appear in the movie. The fantastic news team from the original (Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, and Christina Applegate) all make a triumphant return with additional supporting cast members James Marsden and Kristen Wiig.
While the first movie did have its fair share of high-profile cameo appearances, The Legend Continues went all out with Will Smith, Harrison Ford, Sacha Baron Cohen, Drake, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Carrey, Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Amy Poehler, Vince Vaughn, and Kanye West all making brief but memorable appearances. This movie could have easily been number one on this list but given that the movie’s cameo appearances are so minor, it didn’t seem fair.
1 Pulp Fiction
Miramax
Pulp Fiction is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time and for good reason. Pretty much every aspect of the movie is delivered to perfection, from the punchy dialogue littered with pop culture references, still quoted by movie buffs over 25 years later, to the twisty-turny non-linear interweaving storylines to the ironic combination of humor and strong violence.
Although most of this is down to the writer/director and his unique vision, it couldn’t have been executed as successfully as it was without one of the finest casts of actors ever assembled. The audience is treated to a masterclass in quality acting from the likes of Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, Samuel L Jackson, Harvey Keitel, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames, Tim Roth and John Travolta. Travolta and Jackson, in particular, have been praised for their cooler-than-cool portrayals of a pair of calm, collected, and mass-murdering hitmen.
Aaron Sorkin, whose adaptation of the classic Lerner & Loewe musical Camelotopened on Broadway earlier this month, will be eligible for Tony consideration in the Best Book of a Musical category, the Tony administration committee ruled today.
The Camelot book was originally written by Alan Jay Lerner (Frederick Loewe composed the music) but Sorkin’s revisions for the new Lincoln Center Theater production were apparently substantial enough to merit consideration for a Tony Award.
Among other changes, Sorkin vastly revised the dialogue, changed the Morgan Le Fay character from a sorceress to a scientist, and generally did away with the supernatural elements prevalent in the original book. (Camelot was adapted by Lerner and Loewe from T.H. White’s 1958 novel The Once and Future King.)
The Tony committee’s decision was one of a number of rulings that came out of today’s third and final eligibility meeting. Tony nominations will be announced Tuesday, and the awards ceremony is set for Sunday, June 11.
Among its other rulings, the committee determined that both Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht will be considered eligible in the Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play category for their performances in Summer, 1976.
The former first lady was joined by Steven Spielberg’s wife Kate Capshaw
Michelle Obama took the stage at Bruce Springsteen’s concert in Barcelona’s Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Spain on Friday. The former first lady was joined by Steven Spielberg’s wife Kate Capshaw and sang along as Springsteen and the E Street Band performed “Glory Days.”
The night before, former President Barack Obama, Spielberg, and Springsteen dined at the Amar restaurant in the Palace Hotel, per Reuters. A photo of the trio posing with the restaurant staff was uploaded by employee Pol Perello with the caption, “the pleasure this job brings you!”
Springsteen campaigned for Obama in 2008, and performed “The Rising” with the Joyce Garrett Singers, a gospel choir, at his Inaugural Address in 2009. He returned to Washington DC to play a private show for Obama and the White House staff as they prepared to depart and make way for the Donald Trump administration. During the Obama years, Springsteen received both the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
After touring Europe this summer, the E Street Band will heading back stateside in August for a stadium run, followed by a string of arena dates in the fall. It wraps up on Dec. 8 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California.
“While the Green Grass Grows” by Peter Mettler won the Grand Prix of the International Feature Film Competition at the 54th edition of Visions du Réel, in Nyon, Switzerland, on Friday.
The Swiss-Canadian director was competing with an unusual project: made in the form of a diary filmed from 2019 to 2021, “While the Green Grass Grows” is in fact a series of seven episodes with a total duration of about 11 hours. It was the finished parts one and six of the series, totalling 166 minutes, that were unveiled in world premiere at Visions du Réel and running for the Grand Prix.
The whole project was also presented in the Work-in-Progress section in order to find other financing and distribution platforms to finalize the remaining parts, which have already been widely edited. This is the second time that Mettler has won the Grand Prix at Visions du Réel, after his victory in 2002 with “Gambling, Gods and LSD.”
“A complex and moving work of assembly, a circular film that searches, annotates and remembers. An imposing virus, rivers and ashes that echo one another in a cycle of life and death, brought together in a long diary of great formal freedom,” said the jury, composed of Florence Almozini (U.S.), senior director of programming of film at Lincoln Center and member of the New York Film Festival and Rendez-Vous with French Cinema selection committees, David Epiney (Switzerland), co-founder of production company Alina Film, and filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil).
It was a win that delighted the festival’s artistic director, Emilie Bujès, who was also very touched by the project: “For me, these two episodes are already essential, and I have no doubt that the seven episodes together will become a very important work in film history, so I am happy they have been unveiled and awarded at Visions du Réel. It’s a very personal project, probably more intimate than most of Peter Mettler’s other films, it adresses simple and at the same time universal themes, like the loss of a parent. It’s also a very solid work from a cinematic point of view.”
It is the second time in a row (and the fourth overall) that a Swiss production has won the trophy. Last year, Swiss director Tizian Büchi was awarded for his first film “The Island” (L’Ilôt), due to be released in Swiss cinemas next month. “At one point, Visions du Réel had been more an international festival, so, symbolically, these two prizes are emblematic of the fact that today we are both an international event as well as there to launch Swiss films, to give them the echo and the boost they deserve,” said the festival director.
The runner-up Special Jury Award went to “Defectors” by Hyun kyung Kim (South Korea, U.S.), while the special mention went to “In Ukraine” by Piotr Pawlus and Tomasz Wolski (Poland, Germany), which had its world premiere this year in Berlin.
In the international competition Burning Lights, dedicated to new and adventurous perspectives in cinema, “Knit’s Island” by the French trio Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, shot entirely in the survival video game DayZ, was rewarded by the jury composed of Leonardo Bigazzi, Italian curator and producer, Michelle Carey, programmer (Germany/Australia), and Swiss-Spanish filmmaker Elena López Riera, who stated: “Lastly, a film distinguished by its visceral aesthetic adventure. It plunges us into a parallel universe that, despite being virtual, unbounded by geography and common law, addresses the violence of the present times. Where brutality, satiric humor and a sometimes tender sense of community comingle, often in the same frame.”
The jury added the film was awarded “for its committed interrogation into today’s visual language from an exciting new cinematic perspective.” The French directors were also awarded the International Critics’ Award – FIPRESCI Prize, given to a first feature film entered in the International Feature Film Competition or the Burning Lights Competition.
“We’ve seen films shot in video games before, but not in such a radical way,” Bujès commented. “It is a feature film and it really raises a lot of questions about cinema. How do you frame, cut, edit it? The directors spent 963 hours in the video game, it’s a spectacular job! Their win sends out a strong signal and shows that the jury really understood what we want to do with this section.”
The Special Jury Prize in the Burning Lights section went to “This Woman” by Alan Zhang (China) and the Special Mention was awarded to “Guián” by Nicole Chi Amén (Costa Rica).
The National Competition awarded “Chagrin Valley” by Nathalie Berger, a first feature recording the daily life of residents of a retirement home. Jurors, Swiss programmer Anne Delseth, Italian filmmaker Francesca Mazzoleni, and French producer Eugénie Michel-Vilette, were impressed “by the youthfulness of the director, her masterful direction, and by the modest and generous way she introduces us to memorable characters around the sensitive issue of care.”
In the national competition, all three prizes were awarded to women directors, with the Jury Prize going to “The Wonder Way” by Emmanuelle Antille and the special mention to “La Maison” by Sophie Ballmer.
“Eleven of the 18 films awarded this year are the work of female directors,” Bujès told Variety. “We don’t have quotas and are of course dependent on the films that are sent and their quality, but we have a strong desire to have the best possible balance between the genres. The 2023 edition was really marked by the presence of women, also with our guest of honor Lucrecia Martel and special guest Alice Rohrwacher, alongside special guest Jean-Stéphane Bron.”
The rest of the awards list included:
International Medium Length and Short Film Competition
Jury Prize for the best Medium Length Film “Self-Portrait Along the Borderline” by Anna Dziapshipa (Georgia)
Jury Prize for the best Short Film “Losing Ground” (Myanmar)
Special mention “Vampires, It’s Nothing to Laugh At” by Kinga Michalska (Canada)
Special Youth Jury Award for a medium length film “La Ricerca” by Giuseppe Petruzzellis (Italy, U.S.)
Special Youth Jury Award for the best Short Film “Voices of November” by Lam Can-zhao (China)
Interreligious Award “Pure Unkown” by Valentina Cicogna and Mattia Colombo (Italy, Switzerland, Sweden)
Zonta Award “This Woman” by Alan Zhang (China)
Perception Change Award “Against the Tide” by Sarvnik Kaur (India, France)
Guests at the Coaldale Inn have been able to try their luck on video lottery terminals (VLTs) since November.
Owner Ken Schmidt had been asking the Town of Coaldale, Alta., to allow the machines since he took over the business in 2016.
“There’s lots of them within a short driving distance of Coaldale, but why would people have to drive away to entertain themselves in something that’s totally legal?” Schmidt said.
“For the business, it’s kind of a necessary stream of revenue. Now that we have them, we’re in that game.”
Coaldale was one of ten Alberta communities to decide against introducing the machines in 1998.
Story continues below advertisement
Last year, town council reversed that decision, passing a bylaw permitting VLTs in a 5-2 vote.
Town of Coaldale bets big on VLTs
In a statement to Global News, town director of growth and investment Cameron Mills said the bylaw is intended to create choice.
“By adopting the new bylaw allowing for VLTs, the town created an environment where individual business owners decide for themselves if they want to include VLTs in their operations,” it reads in part.
According to Mills, two businesses were “realistic” candidates to install the gaming machines.
One is the Coaldale Inn. The other is McLennan’s Pub, which hasn’t applied for VLTs.
“I kind of polled a lot of my customers to see what they felt about it and nobody was really up on it,” said owner Tim McLennan.
Story continues below advertisement
To VLT or not to VLT: Coaldale discusses bringing back machines after nearly 25 years
McLennan isn’t ruling them out entirely, but doesn’t see VLTs as part of his establishment right now.
“If at some point in time, we need that additional income — regardless what it might be — maybe we’ll apply for it,” he said.
So far at the Coaldale Inn, Schmidt says the VLTs are a winner and he wants to expand.
“(We’re) hopefully in a position to get more in a short period of time. That depends on performance of the machines and the decision of the government.”
The WGA East and Hearst Magazines Media have reached a tentative agreement for a first-time contract covering some 500 of the publishing giant’s writers, producers, and editors at 28 brands, including Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics, Car & Driver, Oprah Daily, Seventeen, Elle, Redbook and Woman’s Day.
The deal, which averts a threatened strike, comes after more than two years of on-again, off-again bargaining and “is a shining example of the WGAE’s commitment to bettering the lives of those working in the media and entertainment industry,” the guild said. “This landmark contract was hardfought since Day 1, and is testament to what can be achieved through the power of solidarity.”
Only Thursday the guild said that there was “growing supermajority support” among members employed by the company for an unfair labor practices strike “if a fair contract cannot be reached with management when the two parties head back to the bargaining table on Friday.”
The guild had filed four unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Hearst since the negotiations began, and last month hundreds of the guild’s members employed by the company staged a half-day walkout and rally to demand a fair contract.
Terms of the agreement have not yet been made public, but the guild has said that it was seeking “fair wage increases, better severance and strong anti-harassment protections,” among other demands.
The WGA East and West are currently involved in the final stages of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for a new film and scripted TV contract, and guild members have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if they don’t get a fair deal. A strike, if it comes to that, could take place as soon as Monday night at midnight PT, when the current contract expires.
“Guild members understand the immense value they bring to companies – whether it’s Hearst or Discovery Warner Bros – and that they deserve and will fight for fair compensation and workplace protections,” the WGA East said in a statement. “Right now, we are negotiating a transformative contract for guild members who write film and television. In addition, in the last few months, the WGAE has secured contracts in the film/TV/streaming sector at nonfiction television companies Jigsaw and Sharp, and organized podcast workers at Crooked Media. Further, we are negotiating contracts at MSNBC and CBS News Streaming in the broadcast/cable/streaming News sector.
If you’ve been tempted to upgrade your home theater by adding one of the best OLED TVs in a huge size, you may have found yourself rapidly rethinking that idea once you saw the price of them. OLED TVs at 77-inches, 83-inches and 97-inches are much more expensive than most LED TVs at the same sizes. For example, the 97-inch LG G2 costs a cool $25,000 / £25,000 / AU$48,000, though that’s obviously the most extreme of the bunch.
And sadly, it looks like that isn’t going to change any time soon. LG Display, which is the sole supplier of OLED panels used in the majority of OLED TVs sold, has just confirmed that it’s delaying its plans to launch a ‘10.5G’ OLED manufacturing facility to FlatpanelsHD (opens in new tab). The next-gen ‘10.5G’ factory tech is supposed to be able to produce larger OLED TV panels more cheaply, bringing the price of biiiiiig OLEDs down.
However, as reported by Korea Bizwire (opens in new tab), the new facility has reportedly been delayed until 2028, though LG Display hasn’t confirmed anything. That’s a big delay for something that was originally supposed to arrive around 2021/2022, then was pushed to 2025/2026. As a result of the hold up, the absolute earliest that we can expect to see results is 2029.
On the other hand, the other thing that ‘10.5G’ OLED factories may be able to do is go even bigger than 100-inches – at least, that was the claim back in 2017, when all this was first announced. And LG Display is still hinting at “super-sized” OLED TVs to come, so that’ll be fun, if/when it eventually happens.
The 77-inch LG C2 is a spectacular beast – if only it were affordable to more people. (Image credit: Future/TechRadar)
While the price of OLED TVs has generally been coming down pretty steadily in recent years, those price deductions have stalled due to rising inflation. There’s very little difference in price between the new LG C3 and the launch price of the LG C2, for example.
So it looks like something else is needed to help spur price drops on the more expensive models, and the new factory with more efficient manufacturing capacity was going to be it. Without it, it means that the best 85-inch TVs might be dominated by mini-LED models, which are getting more and more affordable.
What is ‘10.5G’ anyway?
At the moment, LG Display makes its TVs using 8.5G facilities – these enable it to introduce the bigger range of sizes we have now, from 42-inch OLED TVs up to the 97-inch monster LG G2 model.
OLED TV panels are produced in huge single panels, then the individual smaller screens that get used in TVs are cut from these big panels. The huge original panels are known by the awesomely sci-fi name ‘motherglass’.
When we talk about 8.5G or 10.5G manufacturing, we’re essentially talking about the size of the motherglass. A higher number means a larger motherglass, which has two advantages: it’s more efficient (you produce more TVs at once) and it gives you more flexibility over sizing.
With a 10.5G facility, maybe you’re able to produce four 77-inch OLEDs per motherglass instead of the two per motherglass from 8.5G, bringing the cost of each 77-inch screen down as they go through the process faster. Or, maybe that bigger motherglass means you can make a single 113-inch OLED, which you couldn’t do at all before.
With more and more people buying larger sized TVs for their home theaters, from 75-inches up to 98-inches, being able to stay competitive on prices will be important to OLED. I hope the technology doesn’t get left behind by this delay.
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 Kelly Fremon Craig, who ends the 50 year wait for the movie adaptation of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, the Judy Blume novel that has been a coming of age handbook for young women heading into their tumultuous teen years. Fremon Craig got her first taste in that territory with Edge of Seventeen, and she once again re-teamed with producing legend James L. Brooks after the two of them enticed the author to entrust them with Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. Blume had been turning down overtures to transfer her work to the screen, but she sparked to both Brooks and Fremon Craig’s script. Here, the latter explains the influences that led to her biggest career moment.
This year, we are focusing on student-athletes. Not even 21-years-old yet, the likes of Angel Reece and Flau’jae Johnson from the Louisiana State University women’s basketball team, are dominating on the court and bringing attention to women’s collegiate sports across the country.
This year, Glamour is highlighting student-athletes, taking advantage of the ideal timing in the year of college athletics, with players like Angel Reece and Flau’jae Johnson from Louisiana State University’s women’s basketball team dominating the court and bringing attention to women’s collegiate sports across the country.
“At Glamour, we’ve always been passionate about championing women in sports, and this year is no exception. We’re seizing the opportunity to celebrate the year of college athletes,” said Ruhama Wolle, Glamour’s special projects editor.
John Matlosz
With over 80 RSVPs, primarily from students interested in fashion, journalism, and marketing, the conversation covered a wide range of topics and offered an extensive outlook from the Glamour team. The panelists continued their engagement with students even after the event, exchanging ideas and valuable insights.
To bring the Glamour team to your school, simply use #glamouroncampus and let us know where to head next!
Sunny Hostin Responds To Meghan McCain The View Criticism
I think it’s safe to say that Meghan McCain’s tenure at The View can best be described as, um, rocky — as she often times went viral.
And whether or not you liked her on the show, you have to admit she did at least spice up the series.
Well, recently, Meghan wrote a column in the Daily Mail in which she talked about her time on The View, where she said, “With the clarity of a few years away from ‘the ladies’ and having welcomed two beautiful daughters into my life, I am at peace with that part of my professional life.”
She then went on to say she’d never come back, saying, “There is nothing on God’s green earth that could convince me to ever walk on to that set again.” Meghan then added, “Rosie [O’Donnell], Jenny McCarthy, and I have chosen to speak out publicly about our stints on the show. But here’s a secret, behind closed doors I’ve never actually heard an ex-host have anything positive to say. As for me — may the bridges I burn light the way.”
Meghan then went on to heavily criticize the show and speak about specific situations where she felt wronged. She also in particular called out her fellow co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar.
Well yesterday, The View host Sunny Hostin — who worked with McCain while she was on the show — was on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen where she was asked by a viewer what she thought of the column, and of Meghan saying, “That show is just getting worse.”
Sunny started off by saying, “Let me take a drink.” She then said she hadn’t read the piece, but had heard about it. Sunny then added, “Our show is a wonderful place.”
To which Andy responded, “The ratings are great!” Sunny, quickly shot back, “They’ve always been great,” and added that they’re the No. 1 talk show in the country.
Overall, Sunny said she was surprised that Meghan was choosing to speak badly about the show, but then pointed out that, “Her husband [Ben Domenech] likes to mean tweet about me…which is shocking, but Meghan and I have always been friendly. We’ve remained friends.”
Sunny also pointed out that Meghan isn’t on TV anymore and told Andy he should hire her for Housewives, saying, “She’d be great on Potomac or any of them. I…I just wish her well… God bless.”
So there you have it, even though the column bashed the show, Sunny continues to want nothing but the best for Meghan.
Michael J. Fox had recently been thinking about the mortality associated with Parkinson’s, the disease he’s dealt with for the last 30 years.
“It’s banging on the door,” Fox tells Jane Pauley during a “CBS News Sunday Morning” interview that airs this weekend. “I mean, I’m not gonna lie. It’s getting hard … it’s getting tougher. Every day it’s tougher. But that’s the way it is. I mean, you know, who do I see about that?”
Fox, 61, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s when he was 29, a moment he recalled as “scary” when he was still fresh off the successes of the “Back to the Future” franchise and sitcom “Family Ties.”
But Fox’s health has deteriorated since he underwent a risky spinal surgery in 2018 to remove a tumor, unrelated to Parkinson’s. He had to learn to walk again. The process has been rough and has led to scary falls in recent years.
“It messed up my walking … and then, started to break stuff,” Fox said during the CBS interview. “Broke this arm, and I broke this arm, I broke this elbow, I broke my face. I broke my hand.”
During the interview, he explained how falling “is a big killer with Parkinson’s,” along with “aspirating food and getting pneumonia.”
“All these subtle ways that get ya,” he said. “You don’t die from Parkinson’s — you die with Parkinson’s.”
Such day-to-day challenges have had him “thinking about the mortality of it.”
“I’m not gonna be 80,” Fox said. “I’m not gonna be 80.”
In November, Fox received an honorary Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his advocacy of research on Parkinson’s disease.
“Michael J. Fox never asked for the role: Parkinson’s patient or disease advocate,” said fellow actor Woody Harrelson, who presented the award to Fox during the Governors Awards ceremony in 2022. “But make no mistake, it is his greatest performance.”
Three-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone is joining the MCU for Agatha: Coven of Chaos.
The actress recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter, where she discussed her upcoming role in the WandaVision spinoff, and gave an insight into what fans can expect.
Photo: NBC News
In the series, LuPone will be playing a 450-year-old Sicilian witch. According to the actress, her character is part of a coven led by Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and her power will be divination.
“Our lead singer is Kathryn. I’m singing backup, and the songs have been written by Kristen and Bobby Lopez.”
Songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Bobby Lopez are perhaps best known for their work on Frozen, Frozen II, and Coco. The duo penned the mega-hits “Let it Go” and “Remember Me.”
Photo: Marvel
The duo also wrote and produced music for WandaVision, including “Agatha All Along.”
“This Show Is Craft”
When asked what it was like to sing backup, LaPone talked about the fun of being on the show and its lack of CGI.
“Listen, I don’t harmonize. I’ve always been a soprano. I’ve always been on the top line. But it’s just been great fun. There’s no CGI either. What I am seeing on this show is craft.”
While there has still been no release date set for Agatha: Coven of Chaos, the show is expected to debut sometime in late 2023 or early 2024.
Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon! Also, thanks for readings
