Smoke Eater, a short film directed by Gloria Mercer and written by Aidan West, is very subtle and poignant. It is also a disturbing look into the life of a female firefighter at a firehouse in a small town in 1981. Mercer really packs a punch into a lean 13-minute timeframe.
The film follows Barbara (Kaylah Zander), a female firefighter who brings her young daughter, Robin (Maria Frazer), to an average work shift. Apparently, an average work shift for Barbara includes gender bias and sexual harassment, as well as the other rigors of the job. Barbara, as a woman, is not only expected to work in a domestic capacity but is also subjected to frequent, daily sexually transgressive behavior and outright sexual solicitation (all in a day’s work, apparently).
“…an average work shift for Barbara includes gender bias and sexual harassment…”
The major impact of this film is demonstrated by Robin, who witnesses the subtle cruelty and tries to make sense of all that transpires. Smoke Eater depicts gender bias and sexual discrimination at its ugliest and puts it in the context of earlier decades. This works as a juxtaposition of the current strides in equality.
The acting, cinematography, and score are all top-notch. The short is more like a montage of elements that illustrate the challenges that many working-class women have faced for many years. The dialogue is minimal, but the words uttered in a low-key fashion hit full force. Barbara attempts to be a mother and a role model for her daughter and works to keep her dignity. Zander does a fine job depicting a struggling mother and the challenges she faces.
With a limited runtime, cast, budget, and crew, Smoke Eater is an inspiration to filmmakers everywhere and further defines the significance and continued relevance of the art of the cinematic short. It is a film where not much happens, yet everything does. The façade may seem tranquil, but make no mistake about it, there is striking and hard-hitting subtext. Mercer has crafted a study of minimalism that hits its target.
FORMER Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been diagnosed with blood cancer after a hospital dash.
The billionaire media mogul, 86, who has been in and out of the hospital in recent years, is currently in Milan‘s San Raffaele Hospital.
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Silvio Berlusconi is one of the most colourful characters in European politicsCredit: AFP or licensors
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Berlusconi is hospitalised at the San Raffaele hospital in ItalyCredit: Reuters
Italian media reports he was hospitalised with pneumonia after a diagnosis of leukaemia.
He was admitted into hospital with heart problems and shortness of breath.
It is reported his condition is serious but stable.
Leukaemia is an aggressive and fast-acting cancer of the white blood cells.
He is undergoing intensive therapy to fight the disease, reports Corriere della Sera.
The former Prime Minister is the leader of the Forza Italia party which makes up part of the Italy’s ruling coalition.
Berlusconi – who is worth an estimated $7billion – however currently does not have a role in government.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said: “Sincere and affectionate wishes for a speedy recovery to Silvio Berlusconi.
“Forza Silvio.”
He served as Prime Minister of Italy on three occasions, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011.
Berlusconi reportedly spent four days at the same hospital last week for treatment, according to news agency Ansa.
The politician shared a tweet thanking people for their concern alongside a snap of him smiling at home.
Berlusconi wrote: “I have already returned to work on the main themes of these days, ready and determined to commit myself, as I always have, to the country I love.”
The billionaire’s latest hospital dash comes after a series of health scares in recent years.
Berlusconi was hospitalised for Covid-related pneumonia in September 2020, but later recovered.
However, the following year he was admitted several times for complications stemming from the deadly virus.
Berlusconi was forced to undergo open heart surgery in 2016 and surgery on his intestine three years later.
The four-time prime minister, who is fitted with a pacemaker, has also overcome prostate cancer.
But his time in office hasn’t been without controversy, as the party-loving former leader is well known for his sex scandals and eyebrow-raising jokes.
Berlusconi – who is in a relationship with Forza Italia MP Marta Fascina, 33 – allegedly held lavish “Bunga Bunga” bashes at his villa.
He was accused, but later acquitted, of paying young women for “silence and lies” surrounding the infamous gatherings, which he always insisted were simply elegant dinners.
But guests claimed they were in fact wild sex parties with “orgies”, where women stripped and performed “raunchy pole dances”.
PLAYBOY PM
The ex-PM, who previously described himself as the “Jesus Christ of politics”, also landed himself in hot water in 2010.
It was alleged that the lothario had abused his position of power to protect a young Moroccan nightclub dancer who was arrested.
Police detained Karima El-Mahroug, known by her stage name ‘Ruby the Heart Stealer’, for theft – but she was released after Berlusconi claimed she was the niece of then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
He was charged with paying her for sex when she was just 17 and was found guilty, until he was acquitted in 2014.
An appeals court ruled there was no proof he knew El-Mahroug was a minor.
Berlusconi was also temporarily banned from politics after a conviction of tax fraud in 2013.
He served a community sentence and muscled his way back into the spotlight before being re-elected as a senator in 2022.
SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the first two episodes of DaveSeason 3.
“Can Dave Burd find true love in a sea of Lil Dicky fans?”
Dave co-creator Jeff Schaffer posed the question as he discussed the themes of the FXX series’ third season, which debuted Wednesday. Over the past two seasons, the comedy series has given a fictitious look at Burd’s exploration of his relationship with his own self, as well as with his friends and collaborators. Now, Dave will focus its attention on Burd’s relationship with his fans as he heads out on his first tour.
“What does his real music say about his real fans? What does it say about him? And can he change it? Does he like it? Is he now stuck in this thing that he’s made? He’s now getting more and more famous. Is he becoming famous the way he wants to be?” Schaffer told Deadline. “We’re not doing it as some sort of allegory. He’s really talking about it, which I think is remarkably brave and responsible in a weird way.”
Episode 1 dives head first into those questions as it opens on Burd hooking up with a fan. Following his half-hearted attempt to win back his ex-girlfriend Ally last season, it’s clear he’s searching for a deeper connection, only to find out this new woman is more interested in bragging about her sexcapade with Lil Dicky to her friends than she is in actually getting to know the man behind the persona.
During a tour stop in Texas, he’s once again fooled by the prospect of true love when he runs into a woman outside one of his shows who claims not to know him. After chatting in the parking lot, she invites him back to a house party, where he eventually discovers that the woman had bet her friends she could bed Lil Dicky.
“He rushes towards it with his unbridled enthusiasm. It’s like ‘Dude, nothing’s real on this tour. They’re here to see Lil Dicky. You’re not gonna find a soulmate,’” Schaffer said.
It was only a matter of time before Dave started grappling with fame. Burd and Schaffer have been holding on to some of these stories since they began working on Season 1, until the time was right to put them on screen.
“There are all these stories that were happening to him right then when he had some level of fame that made no sense to do in Season 1 and even in Season 2….because TV Dave’s level of fame is starting to approach real Dave’s [at that time],” Schaffer explained.
It takes a certain level of deftness to grapple with that story in the same episode where Burd tries out a scroguard before a sexual encounter (“Yes, Dave really does have a scroguard. Yes, that is the real ad. And yes, they are out of business,” Schaffer confirmed.) But somehow, the comedy series manages to ride a tonal line that allows it to be both hilarious and, at times, quite deep.
“Authenticity has been the north star of the show, and a lot of times he’s using things plucked from his real life, but he’s looking at them in new ways, now that he’s growing as a person too,” Schaffer said, pointing to the second episode of Season 3 as an example. “You’re seeing the character grow as a person, because Dave was willing to look at this event from a different perspective.”
The episode follows Burd and his crew as they shoot a music video in Philadelphia, primarily inside his childhood home. The song tells the story of his best friend and first love, Brittany, who he says broke his heart as a teenager. Burd’s version of events ends with him being the 33rd wheel at a dinner before a school dance. He arrives expecting to take Brittany as his date, only to find out she’s ditched him for another guy.
That doesn’t exactly hold up though, because after Brittany stops by to see the production and gets roped into starring as herself, she realizes that he’s making her out to be the villain. She calls him out on it, revealing that the pair actually did date after that school dance, though the relationship ended within a month. Brittany quits the music video, and Burd has a revelation that completely changes his perspective about that romance, prompting him to rewrite the end of the song.
As it turns out, the moment went down quite similarly in the writers room, according to Schaffer.
“Dave always wanted to do the story about being the 33rd wheel, and it was a story about how he was basically the victim and the martyr and everybody made fun of him and he felt terrible,” he remembered. “And he was talking to us about it. And it’s like, ‘Wait, you guys dated afterwards?’ It was like this revelation that he was willing to explore in the writers room, which became the DNA for the script.”
But we can’t forget who we’re dealing with here. This is Dave Burd aka Lil Dicky. The slightly self-centered and always awkward rapper who made a career out of his deficiencies. At the end of the day, he’s always willing to be the butt of a good joke, which has worked to his advantage as the series has progressed, Schaffer said.
He insisted Season 3 “probably our funniest season,” coming off the heels of a Season 2 that was riddled with tension and angst as Burd hit a creative wall.
“He was just a stress monster,” Schaffer said. “We took everybody on a pretty dark path, which I think paid off massively at the end, but it’s still a dark path. This is a much more fun season. There’s not intra-gang squabbling. They’re all in it together, going to places they’ve never been before. This is the right time to do it for his career, his art and the right time to do it emotionally for our gang.”
When asked how, exactly, they convinced someone like Usher to make an appearance on the series, Schaffer referred back to the show’s preferred punchline — Burd himself.
“I think everyone knows that when they come on, because we have two seasons of proof, they know that they’re not going to be the ones that look stupid. Dave is more than willing to pick up that slack,” he said.
It’s worth remembering, the series is inspired by Burd’s own life. Eventually, everything becomes a bit.
Case in point: Episode 1 was primarily shot in Piru, California — a small, unincorporated town in the southern part of the state that Schaffer swears has “only four buildings” on the main road. As they prepared to shoot the final scene of the episode, when a naked Dave jumps over a fence and sees the massage parlor where he goes to seek help (and a happy ending), things took an unexpected turn.
“Right before we can shoot it, we’re setting up and a guy gets pulled over by the cops. There are four buildings in Piru. He gets pulled over in front of ours. It’s the longest, slowest DUI,” Schaffer said. “We’re waiting. We can’t do anything. You can’t ask the police to just move around the shop. And he’s just drunk sitting there going, ‘I must be wasted, because it looks like there’s a film crew here.’”
Maybe that encounter will end up in Season 4.
New episodes of Dave debut on FXX on Wednesdays and will be available to stream next day on Hulu.
Underscoring the growing debate about ownership of ones likeness in the age of AI and Deepfakes, Tom Graham, CEO of generative AI tech firm Metaphysic — the company known for popularizing a deepfake TikTok account spoofing Tom Cruise — has submitted for copyright registration his AI likeness with the U.S. Copyright Office. He seeks to demonstrate how copyright laws may be used to protect against the unpermitted creation and dissemination of content in which a person’s likeness is duplicated through AI.
As Hollywood grapples with ethics and legal questions surrounding use of the tech, the U.S. Copyright Office affirmed in March that most works generated by AI are not copyrightable but clarified they qualify for protection in certain instances.
Speaking on a panel in January during CES, national executive director and chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA Duncan Crabtree-Ireland emphasized the importance of addressing this issue. He reported that the Guild is working on policies aimed at how to create opportunities — not take them away — while protecting its members from having their likenesses exploited.
In the United States, copyright laws don’t protect works solely created by machines. Various courts have ruled that copyrights can only be granted to works created by humans. An application containing AI-generated material can support a claim only if it satisfies a requirement that a human contributed to most of the work, like if a person “selected or arranged” the piece in a “sufficiently creative way that the resulting work constitutes an original work of authorship.”
In his copyright application, Graham lists himself as the author of the work. This is a crucial distinction from a copyright application by Stephen Thaler, the CEO of neural network firm Imagine Engines who listed an AI system as the creator of an artwork called A Recent Entrance to Paradise. The copyright office denied the registration, finding the work “lacks the human authorship necessary to support a copyright claim” and that “the nexus between the human mind and creative expression” is a crucial element of protection. Last year, Thaler sued the office, challenging the rejection.
Unlike Thaler’s application and others seeking protection for AI-assisted works, Graham stresses his contribution in creating the video for which he seeks a copyright. He says that he curated the dataset used to train the model and that he “added other manmade work” to successfully get the Metaphysic AI tool to produce a realistic image of himself. There was also editing and compositing work in the process, he notes.
“All of these steps are very deliberate, human-driven activities, which I believe are indistinguishable from anyone using Photoshop or VFX tools,” Graham says. “We’re using AI, but there’s a large degree of manmade work and human effort. It’s fundamentally me from top to bottom.” Perhaps most recognized for powering the @DeepTomCruise account, Metaphysic develops generative AI tools and services for talent, including through a partnership with CAA.
Viability of a copyright will depend largely on how the AI tool operates and how it was used to create the final work. If an AI tech receives solely a prompt and produces a work, for example, it’s not eligible for protection because the traditional elements of human authorship are determined and executed by the technology.
Standards for copyright protection is still up in the air. Intellectual property lawyer Suzanne Hengl, who does not represent Metaphysic, is skeptical Graham’s application will satisfy the office’s current standards for human authorship. “To the extent that there was extensive training for the AI tool to work and create an output, that won’t get you over the hump,” she says.
The partner at law firm Baker Botts notes that there may be protection if there was work completed by a human after the video was produced. She points to the copyright office’s guidance that an artist who uses Photoshop to edit an image qualifies for protection of the modified image.
While Graham’s video may not be copyrightable, the chief executive’s application highlights the lack of protection against the illicit dissemination of videos and photos in which a person’s likeness is duplicated through AI. There are no copyright laws specifically designed to combat the use of deepfakes. In fact, they permit them in some cases.
Several instances of deepfakes in Hollywood fall under the “fair use” exception to copyright infringement. The doctrine allows for unlicensed use of copyrighted works under certain circumstances, like commentary, criticism and news reporting. One of the four factors in whether a work qualifies is the purpose and character of the use, which extends protection for transformative works when the purpose of the copyrighted work is altered to create something with a new meaning or message.
The fair use exception to copyright law is why Kendrick Lamar was on legally firm ground when he used deepfakes to transform into Will Smith, Jussie Smollett and Kobe Bryant in “The Heart Part 5” music video. They didn’t consent to being in the video but the deepfakes would likely be considered transformative use to explore Black representation in Hollywood, among the music video’s other themes. They also could’ve been categorized as parodies, which is also protected as transformative use under copyright laws.
Among the reasons that Graham says he moved for registration of the AI-created video of himself is to forge a path for people to protect their identities, performances and brands against unpermitted content created using AI tools, like deepfake pornography. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a copyright holder can quickly take down material that infringes on their copyrights.
“I want to underscore the value of using the DMCA as a means to take down an infringing video within 24 hours,” says Jordan Manekin, a lawyer for Metaphysic. “That’s a much more readily available remedy for most people than just going to court and taking several years litigating.”
But even if protection is granted, Hengl says it’s unlikely Graham can use his copyright to take down AI-created photos and videos himself. “In terms of being able to use copyright as a way to enforce rights with respect to a likeness or to enforce privacy rights, it’s really trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” she suggests. “You can only enforce protection against works that are substantially similar. There needs to be more than that person’s image — their attire, expression on their face, the pose their body is in, the background they’re in — that’s similar.”
Hengl notes that the traditional avenue of action against deepfakes and similar tech has been pursuing claims for violations of rights of publicity and privacy.
As SAG-AFTRA’s Crabetree-Ireland summed up at CES, “As this technology democratizes and becomes more accessible and available, this is going to turn into a broader public policy issue.”
On Wednesday, former Donald Trump employee Anthony Scaramucci appeared on Stephanie Ruhle’s MSNBC show. to defend his former boss’ character. That’s not a surprise, but what is a surprise is way Scaramucci went about it.
In perhaps the most perfect example in recent memory of someone failing to understand even the basics of a piece of popular culture, Scaramucci — best known for working for Trump before getting fired after only 2 weeks — compared Trump to Logan Roy, the fictional media titan portrayed by Brian Cox in HBO’s “Succession.”
And to be clear, he thought this comparison was a compliment.
The oddball bit of TV analysis came just after Scaramucci described Trump as a “family guy” — which, OK — and things only got weirder from here.
“This is a family guy whether you like Mr. Trump or not. He’s sort of the Logan Roy of American Politics, you have this love/hate relationship with his Family,” Scaramucci said.
At this point a dumbfounded Ruhle interrupted to clarify some things about “Succession.”
“Oh come on a minute. Logan Roy is not a family man,” Ruhle said, correctly by the way. “Ward Cleaver is a family man.”
“No no,” a confused-looking Scaramucci said. “You’ve gotta watch the show very carefully, he actually loves those kids. It’s just this whole narcissistic web that he’s put those kids into.”
Shortly after, Scaramucci continued this, uh, novel description of Trump and his family in the context of how the impending trial might impact his presidential run in 2024.
“Mr. Trump ran the Trump organization with his children, he ran the reality show, with the children. Frankly, he ran the White House with the children. And they are noticeably absent here. Which makes me think he eventually withdraws from this race,” Scaramucci said shortly after. “I don’t think he makes it to the Iowa primary.”
“The way you describe the love of a child, and the way I describe the love of a child, are two very different things,” Ruhle said.
“It’s uh, we’ve got a lot of dysfunctional people out there, Stephanie, I’m just analyzing it for you. You know, he, you can like or dislike him but there’s something connecting him to those children no matter how dysfunctional it may be.” Scaramucci replied.
“Because they share his bloodline and, potentially, one could say he’s an ultimate narcissist,” Ruhle countered.
“They hang out with him all the time though, Steph,” Scaramucci said.
After a few seconds of Ruhle looking absolutely baffled, she brought the topic to a close and moved on.
You can watch the first part of this segment at the top of the page (via @Acyn on Twitter), and the continuation of it below:
Scaramucci: You can like or dislike him but there’s something connecting him to those children no matter how dysfunctional it may be Ruhle: Because they share his bloodline Scaramucci: They hang out with him all the time pic.twitter.com/29fwMECxfh
Suffice to say, as seen on “Succession,” Logan Roy is many things — an adulterer, a man who abused and neglected his children while they were growing up, a powerful wealthy jerk whose actions do direct harm to the American political system, a greedy sociopath — but two things he definitely is not are 1) a “family guy” and 2) someone who loves, or is loved by, his kids.
So yes, obviously it makes sense that Scaramucci would see “Succession” and be reminded of Trump. But, perhaps he could watch the show very carefully and understand why it’s not the defense he thinks it is.
John Fithian, longtime head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Variety of Southern California as he prepares to step down after overseeing NATO through decades of transition.
The award from the children’s charity goes each year to an individual who has made a significant and profound charitable impact over the course of their career.
Fithian was named NATO president and CEO in 2000 after serving as outside counsel. Last fall, he announced plans to retire effective May 1 and will pass the baton to new chief Michael O’Leary at CinemaCon in Las Vegas later this month.
As NATO boss, Fithian guided theater owners through a transition to digital projection, fighting movie theft, implementing a voluntary movie ratings system, advocating for a healthy theatrical release window and maintaining strong relationships with creatives, producers, distributors and other trade organizations, including the Motion Picture Association. He helped steer the industry through Covid, lobbying for grant programs, tax relief and financial assistance for furloughed industry workers, and developing the CinemaSafe operational health and safety protocols.
Fithian was key in launching CinemaCon in 2011 and the Global Cinema Federation, dedicated to increasing exhibitors’ effectiveness worldwide. The Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit founded last year, brings stakeholders together to promote and shape the future of the cinema industry.
Fithian and his wife Maria Gagani have been actively involved in Variety, reviving a local chapter serving families in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia with a focus on helping children with mobility disabilities. Fithian chaired Variety of the National Capital Regionfor eight years through last summer. Variety International is a worldwide charity supporting disabled, abused, physically-challenged and underprivileged children.
“I have never been comfortable receiving awards, particularly when the awards are for doing my job,” said Fithian. “But this is different. Variety’s work is so important, and so personal to me, that I accept this award humbly and gratefully. I want to thank Variety for this opportunity to draw more attention and donations to its great work for children.”
“John is a hero to everyone in exhibition not only for tirelessly guiding the industry through the recent turbulence” Variety of Southern California’s president Steve Bunnell said, “but also for his wisdom, passion and creativity for problem solving.“
Past recipients of the award include Barry Reardon, Phil Barlow, Nikki Rocco, Dan Fellman, Wayne Lewellen, Dick Cook, Tom Sherak, Rory Bruer, Bruce Snyder, Chuck Viane, Jim Tharp, Tim Warner Amy Miles, Richie Fay, Travis Reid, Clark Woods and Bob Lenihan.
Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani is shooting for Satyaprem Ki Katha in Kashmir currently. The actress has been sharing glimpses of the beautiful location.
Kiara Advani has been making headlines ever since she got married to Sidharth Malhotra. Well, the actress is currently in Kashmir shooting for her upcoming film Satyaprem Ki Katha co-starring Kartik Aaryan. She has been constantly sharing updates on her social handle. Recently, she shared a picture of her shooting in minus 3 degrees.
Taking to her Instagram handle, the actress shared a picture in which we can see her posing in the snow. Kiara is looking gorgeous in the picturesque background of Kashmir. She is wearing a silver-coloured shiny puffer jacket which the actress has paired with black pants and black puffer boots. She has left her hair open and wore grey coloured shades.
Several fans took to the comments section and reacted to the post. Fans couldn’t help but drag Sidharth Malhotra in their comments. A fan cheekily commented, “Ghar jao. Siddharth akela hai mein aa jaaungi uske paas.” “Siddharth kaha hai,” teased another.
Take a look at the post here
It is worth mentioning here that the Shershah actress and Kartik Aaryan will be collaborating for the second time after the success of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. This will also be Kiara’s first film after her marriage. The shooting is currently going on in Kashmir and the lead actors are sharing a lot of glimpses from the location.
Kiara Advani has a couple of films in her kitty as well. She also wrapped up RC 15 with Ram Charan before her marriage. SatyaPrem Ki Katha is directed by Sameer Vidwans. The title was originally slated to be Satyanarayan Ki Katha. Jointly produced by Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment and Namah Pictures, the drama is scheduled to be released theatrically on 29 June 2023.
Kartik, on the other hand, will be next seen in Shehzada, Hansal Mehta’s social drama Captain India and Anurag Basu’s musical drama Aashiqui 3. The actor will also be a part of Hera Pheri 3 with Suniel Shetty and Paresh Rawal.
Even among many who’ve grasped the scientific evidence, or experienced escalating weather extremes, climate change remains an abstraction for most — something too large and vague to trigger urgent emotional response. Not so the fictive activists in “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” inspired by Andreas Malm’s nonfiction tome of the same name. Though diverse in background and motivations, the eight individuals here drawn together to attack an oil conduit in Texas share a sense that the planetary environmental crisis is immediate, and the time for gently chiding protests past.
Whether their actions constitute “eco-terrorism” and whether violence of any kind is ever justifiable in the service of progress are questions Daniel Goldhaber’s sophomore feature duly grapples with. Still, its degree of moral self-examination is unlikely to appease climate deniers, who’ll likely decry the film (if they notice it at all) as a recruitment poster for aspiring saboteurs. It’s more nuanced than that, but this strong, straightforward drama-cum-thriller about a divisive topic will nonetheless primarily appeal to viewers on the left side of the political dial. Neon is releasing to U.S. theaters on April 7.
An opening sequence introduces us in brief to the geographically scattered protagonists, mostly working-class twenty- and thirtysomethings. We soon realize these strangers have already organized long-distance into a team, covertly planning an act of industrial destruction for which they now meet in a remote, abandoned homestead. Their target: a West Texas oil pipeline recently constructed despite all objections from affected residents and environmental watchdogs.
The rest of the film intersperses present-tense narrative with chaptered glimpses of individual backstories. Theo (Ariela Barer) has found out she has a rare, terminal leukemia contracted from growing up in a refinery town’s toxic atmosphere. Her joining this band is enthusiastically supported by best friend Xochitl (Arila Barer), more reluctantly by lover Alisha (Jayme Lawson). Dwayne (Jack Weary) is a taciturn rural Texan furious that the government appropriated property his family owned for a century in order to build the pipeline, robbing him and his pregnant wife of their home.
Native American Michael (Forrest Goodluck) rages in general at the continual violation of tribal land rights, choosing this course of protest partly to rebel against his mother’s (Irene Bedard) pacifist activism. Shawn (Marcus Scribner) thought to make a difference by working on a documentary about environmentalist radicals, then decided he’d rather join their ranks outright. The least sympathetic, most caricatured figures here are white heterosexual couple Rowan (Kristine Froseth) and Logan (Lukas Gage), who seem such irresponsible party animals we can’t quite believe the others accept them into their secretive circle.
Still, even those two are granted more dimensionality as the story provides later twists and turns. The methodologies of tactics (Michael’s bomb construction, eventual difficulties in placing the incendiary and keeping authorities at a safe distance) are credibly worked out, and credibly fallible — after all, these people aren’t criminal masterminds.
When the zero hour arrives, required tasks get accomplished amid ample suspense that arises both from the risk of arrest and their own potential for error. Knowing their act will hurt ordinary citizens (by disrupting supply, thereby temporarily spiking oil prices), they rationalize that cost in the hopes it will send a powerful message to fossil-fuel advocates. The message being that fundamental systemic change is necessary to avoid (or even just soften) a catastrophic future for humanity — and refusal will only bring more asset-damaging subterfuge.
Like the somewhat controversial book published just two years ago, this screen “Pipeline” is much less the billed “how-to” than a “why,” pondering the reasons that lead some to risk physical harm or incarceration in service of a cause certain climate scientists worry we may have already lost. It definitely helps that the actors eschew any flamboyant turns for a naturalism that makes this motley crew seem plausible enough.
While it may feel less so that these characters escape at least some anticipated consequences, “Pipeline” nonetheless evades lending them excessive heroic glamour. Goldhaber’s terse, non-hyperbolic, almost quasi-documentary tenor complements a script (co-written with cast member Barer and executive producer Jordan Sjol) that manages to balance character drama, thriller aspects and discussion of the larger ethical issues that’s well-integrated enough to avoid didacticism.
In contrast to the director’s prior feature “Cam,” an intriguing 2018 mystery about an online erotic performer’s identity theft, “Pipeline” has a fuss-free aesthetic that seldom draws attention to itself. Tehillah De Castro’s cinematography favors unshowy compositions and a measure of hand-held movement. Editor Daniel Garber maintains a taut pace that, like the action itself, stops short of standard caper/espionage genre knife-twisting. Gavin Brivik’s original score ratchets up the tension as needed with unmemorable but efficient pulsing electronica. Credited as “Technical Advisor” is “Anonymous”—presumably not the hacktivist group of that name, but you do get the sense that somebody consulted here really knows the practical details of what goes into an attack of the type depicted.
Earth-616 has always been the designation for the main Marvel Comics universe, helping differentiate it from, for instance, the Ultimate comics on Earth-1610 or Marvel 1602 on Earth-311. This was even brought up in multiple MCU projects like Doctor Strange 2, especially with the Multiverse Saga evolving so heavily.
The entire point of universe designations is to help the reader or audience understand which versions of characters are being depicted, and it gets complicated when those designation numbers become important to the plot.
Marvel Comics had established the MCU as Earth-199999, helping separate it from the comics and reinforcing that the two will tell different stories with different variants of characters.
The MCU’s Alternate Universe Confusion
Marvel
In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Mysterio actually called the MCU Earth-616, but given he was making up his Multiversal origin, fans considered that to simply be a fun comics reference for those who know that 616 is actually the comics-verse.
Interestingly, before that in 2018, Sony Pictures‘ Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse designated Peter B. Parker’s origin universe as being Earth-616.
But, in a blink-and-you-miss-it reference in Loki, and a much more prominent piece of dialogue in Doctor Strange 2, the MCU designated itself as Earth-616.
Marvel Studios
Several fans argued that the Multiverse of Madness designation was, like the Mysterio explanation, simply a reference for comics fans as Christine Palmer described her own personal designation system.
However, others interpreted this as an official classification of the MCU as Earth-616, which contradicts decades of comics continuity, including the established Earth-199999 number for the MCU.
Essentially, designation numbers becoming plot points simply makes confusing the mechanism designed to help audiences differentiate one universe from another. Luckily, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse seems to be clearing some things up.
The MCU Gets 199999 Back!
Sony Pictures
In the April 4 trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) not only references the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home — as it was rumored the movie would — but also re-labels the MCU as Earth-199999, its longtime universe designation.
Spider-Man 2099 references the MCU by telling Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy“And don’t even me get started on Doctor Strange and the little nerd back on Earth-199999,” about midway through the trailer. Importantly, this contradicts the designating of the MCU as Earth-616 in projects like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which was already a divisive revelation for fans.
Sony Pictures
It seems that the MCU is continuing to be officially designated as Earth-199999, though Christine Palmer chose 616 for her personal record and designation system, in a nice reference for comics fans.
Many took to Twitter to share their excitement, glad to see the confusing MCU designation issue beginning to be cleared up in Across the Spider-Verse.
@1Sir_Drake explained that the retconning of the MCU as 199999 allows the cinematic universe to once again occur “in the comics’ multiverse,” as it did before the Earth-616 designation was brought up.
“which to me sounds more like a retcon than anything. Back when the MCU took place in the comics’ multiverse up until Loki made it impossible, thus moving it into its own multiverse and opening up the opportunity for it to be called 616”
@Boter_Koter1 was glad to see Marvel abandon what they called “the absolute stupidity of calling the mcu 616:”
“I see this as a way to recon the absolute stupidity of calling the mcu 616, in ‘far from home’ it felt intentional, like a way to prove at the beginning that mysterio was full of shit. But in ‘multiverse of madness’ they confirmed it, which was so fucking stupid”
And, @DorianCantu expressed excitement over the 199999 designation being brought back, as the 616 one “alienat[ed] new fans for the sake of a cheeky reference:”
“FINALLY they reestablish that the MCU is Earth-199999 and not 616. That was such a big issue I had with the ‘MoM’ writers, they tried to retcon it as the real 616 not knowing that it and the comics exist in the same multiverse, alienating new fans for the sake of a cheeky reference”
But What About Peter B. Parker?
While the trailer does clear up the confusion about the MCU being given the longtime universe designation for Marvel’s comic stories, it does not address Peter B. Parker’s origin universe also being called Earth-616 back in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
There are a couple of ways to explain this away without breaking continuity, though.
First, the film included nothing major that directly contradicted the comics. This means it is entirely plausible — albeit unlikely — that Peter B. Parker is the comics version of Peter, many years down the road.
The beauty of comics is that time passes incredibly slowly, and continuities can last decades without the stories either seeming to fit so much in a short amount of time or seeming to move at a snail’s pace. As such, it could be that Peter B. Parker is in fact 616-Peter Parker, in a story that the comics timeline hasn’t, and potentially will never, catch up to.
The biggest argument against this, however, is the danger of being in another universe for a long time, as presented in Into the Spider-Verse. That danger has not been a major problem in Marvel Comics’ Multiversal stories. But, the joy of infinite universes in a Multiverse is that maybe only Miles Morales’ universe, as seen in the Spider-Verse films, poses that danger to Multiversal travelers.
Another way to explain it is simply as a retcon. The Spider-Verse franchise has modeled itself — both from an artistic lens and a storytelling lens — off of the comics industry. With slow frame rates to give a panel-like perspective, to poppy animation with bright colors, and even thought bubbles, Into the Spider-Verse utilized various tools that are typically associated with comics to tell its story.
As such, the movies could implement another comics storytelling tool, the retcon. Sometimes, things change just for change’s sake. Perhaps, the Spider-Verse films will keep with comics tradition and just retcon Peter B. Parker’s universe designation number, and clear up the confusion once and for all.
However, one way or another, this will likely need to be explained or retconned away somehow, somewhere, in order for continuity to line up, as the inclusion of the MCU as Earth-199999 in Across the Spider-Verse implies one single Multiverse for the MCU, Spider-Verse films, and comics.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hits theaters on June 2.
New Joker: Folie à Deux images reveal another look at Harley Quinn and Arthur Fleck as filming officially wraps. Todd Phillips is continuing to build out his Elseworlds franchise by telling the Joker’s next story. After the first film’s massive success in 2019, a sequel is coming, featuring Joaquin Phoenix’s return as the Clown Prince of Crime. Titled Joker: Folie à Deux, production has been ongoing for the last few months.
However, as of this week, Joker: Folie à Deux has officially wrapped principal photography. The official DC Comics account, along with Phillips, confirmed the news on their respective social media accounts.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAYSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
To celebrate filming wrapping, new images were shared of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn and Phoenix’s Joker. Joker: Folie à Deux is currently scheduled to come out in October 2024.
Joker: Folie à Deux, which translates to “madness of two,” focuses on Arthur’s life after the events of the 2019 installment. With the introduction of Lady Gaga as Harley, the Elseworld story will tell a new tale of their dynamic. While Arkham Asylum is involved, it’s unclear if Harley’s traditional role is being kept for the story. There have been rumblings that Harley may be a fellow Arkham patient.
Outside of Arthur, Zazie Beetz is the only returning Joker cast member announced so far, reprising the role of Sophie Dumond. Joker: Folie à Deux has tapped several new cast members in undisclosed roles. The list includes Harry Lawtey, Jacob Lofland, Brendan Gleeson, and Catherine Keener. The Batman villain Harvey Dent has also been referenced through banners in set photos. It’s unknown yet if Harvey will have an actual role in the film.
Since filming has wrapped, the first Joker: Folie à Deux trailer will likely drop in a few months. Whether the studio releases it online or during a major media event remains to be seen. Nevertheless, with everything that’s known about Joker: Folie à Deux, the musical sequel is looking incredibly promising.
One thing’s certain; digital storefronts have not annihilated the physical game copy production so far (and they never should). This opens up a safe space for true human nature to pop out and do its deed. What’s this all about? Well, nothing special, and nothing out of the ordinary. Just someone getting their hands on a stock of Minecraft Legends before the official street date.
Minecraft Legends should be released on April 18, 2023, but this person claims that they have a stock of physical copies of Minecraft Legends for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 and they are ready to sell them!
How Did Someone Get Their Minecraft Legends Copies Before the Street Date?
Well, the supply chain of delivery of the physical media that’s supposed to be on display on a specific date works in a way where the delivery of these sealed boxes needs to be there days (or weeks) prior to the release date so that the store owners (whether it’s a small, family-owned store, or a big corporate chain of stores that exist nation-wide) can set up a display in time for the official release date.
Now, I am not making any accusations, but this is either someone in charge of the shipment going rogue (someone from the distribution/delivery/sale chain) or just a theft of someone’s stock. For various and mostly obvious reasons, we’re not going to provide a link to this listing.
Screenshot by Prima Games
Is It True That Someone Got Their Minecraft Legends Copies Before the Street Date?
Despite the open possibility of someone snagging a stock of Minecraft Legends discs… This eBay listing may or may not be truthful. When you are making purchases from a third party, you always should be on your toes. However, we can easily see these factors that contribute to the reputation of this seller (not that we are advocating for you to make a purchase there).
The seller has had this eBay account since March 1, 2007.
The seller put a paper with the date of the listing written on it.
There is always an option that someone will ride this hype wave and photoshop fake CD case covers, and list them as real to try and scam people. I mean, I’ve seen everything in the trading world, from people sending bricks instead of iPhones, to some things that I cannot unsee.
Would You Be Able To Play Minecraft Legends Before Release If You Bought This eBay Listing?
I guess not. Because Minecraft Legends will probably require you to be online at all times (at least for the multiplayer, obviously). If we get a gameplay leak of the Single Player, we’ll update the article. Just for the record, I am against “always online” shenanigans and I am a game preservationist, and I stand by the consumer rights of people worldwide. We should be able to play single-player stuff without an Internet connection.
Prima Games will certainly try to cover Minecraft Legends as much as possible, so you can bookmark our Minecraft Legends game tag that’s right under this article. See you soon at Prima Games!
Drew Sawyer, founder and managing partner of Moonshine Post-Production, has been hooked on horror since he was 15 years old, eyes opened wide after watching one macabre make-up fx moment in Dawn of the Dead, where Tom Savini was dismembered on screen by shopping mall zombies.
By Michelle Gallina, principal product marketing manager, Adobe Creative Cloud: Premiere Pro & After Effects.
His heart palpitating, Sawyer considered the actual threat of zombies, while meditating on the metaphors of the movie,and was inspired to spice up his high school’s student news and make movies (sometimes gory) with his friends.
A few years later, Sawyer became firmly entrenched in the professional talent pool of Atlanta’s growing movie industry, while continuing to bolster the grassroots filmmaker community with allies and close collaborators. This led to his work on the original V/H/S, which debutedat Sundance, propelling his storytelling pursuits across genres and mediums, features and series, until fatefully catching the eye of Greg Nicotero, thanks to producers who were impressed with his indie-spirit and bootstrapping attitude. The famed director of The Walking Dead tapped Moonshine for post-production work on the first three seasons of Creepshow, AMC Shudder’s popular horror anthology series based on the 1982 Stephen King and George Romero film. Nicotero, one of the masters of horror that inspired Sawyer to become a filmmaker in the first place, also brought along some filmmaker friends and long-time collaborators, including the very same Tom Savini, bringing full circle Sawyer’s dream of working with the heroes who inspired his career.
In late 2022, Sawyer was the keynote speaker at Adobe Video World in Atlanta where he outlined the Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects workflow that Moonshine used for Creepshow S1-3. I caught up with him and his co-editor Patrick Perry for more insights on how they brought the show’s comic book archetype to life.
Tell me a little bit about yourselves and how you met.
Sawyer: I initially worked mostly on indie films with my friends as part of an Atlanta-based collective called Studio Outpost. We made a lot of fun and bad movies that, in time, improved enough to sell at festivals. I took my time in college, but eventually earned a film studies degree from Georgia State University (GSU) with some extra film studies at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. I met Patrick through my indie film network. When I founded Moonshine in 2012 with my partner John Petersen, Patrick quickly became employee number one.
Perry: I was obsessed with movies as a teenager and studied film at GSU. It was tough to find work right after graduation, so I moved home for a couple years. A friend eventually convinced me to come back to Atlanta to look for projects. I met Drew, who was looking for help with Stuff You Should Know. I started as an intern, worked my way into a first assistant editor role, and have been helping him grow Moonshine ever since.
Why did you choose to cut Creepshowin Adobe Premiere Pro?
Sawyer: Creepshow is framed within a comic book style and features virtually every visual storytelling element under the sun, from stop motion to small and giant puppets, traditional animation, extreme stunts, more extreme make-up fx, comic book illustrations, motion graphics, special fx, as well as a healthy visual effects (VFX) pipeline, so there were a lot of moving pieces to say the least. Adobe Premiere Pro gave us a platform that really streamlined the workflow. We knew we were going to need a special cutting room with a dirty dozen of editors, assistants, motion graphics, and VFX teammates who would need to access these sequences around the clock and simultaneously. With Productions in Premiere Pro, we were able to organize multi-project workflows and collaborate using off the shelf shared storage. It was a game changer.
Perry: At this point it doesn’t matter what project I’m working on—I’m always in Productions. It keeps projects stable and allows for extreme collaboration across the team. I love it.
Premiere has been my go-to NLE for years, and using Productions in this environment improved our workflow and efficiency that much more. That’s where Premiere Pro really stands out—it was designed for speed. We had the flexibility to deal with whatever was thrown our way on any given day. And we did it in a way that was transparent to the network and viewers. I mean, there were times when production would grab temporary iPhone video of a monster when it was halfway constructed. We’d do a quick comp, throw it in the edit, and turn it around that same day just so everyone could be comfortable with what it was eventually going to be.
Patrick Perry, Editor, Moonshine Post-Production
It sounds like Premiere Pro helped keep a complex project moving quickly. What did you do with your newfound time?
Sawyer: The speed creates a ripple effect. The efficiencies and freedoms gained with our tech, allowed more time to collaborate and be more creative with Greg when shaping and building the world. We weren’t stuck in the old slow pipeline approach to post-production – especially considering the breadth and depth of all the mixed media involved – and editors could comfortably riff with Greg. We went from fixing, to form and function. I remember seeing Greg so excited that we could do so much in-the-box and create more freely in real time. The show’s storytelling was more than traditional scene work, and this freedom was crucial for establishing the crazy comic-book format in the first season, and doubling down on it in future seasons.
The freedom to create on a dime with all of these visuals in Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects allowed us to quickly make these codified pieces of stylized Creepshow storytelling, like a kit of parts. They eventually evolved into a language in the cutting room, giving Greg more flexibility to build out his rich and unique universe. Greg was the delightful mad scientist, and we had found the ultimate laboratory in post.
Perry: We could only do this because we had the time. And we had the time because of Premiere Pro. It was nice to bring creative concepts to the table, and to life. It really changed the way we made the show. And it also improved everyone’s quality of life. We went home earlier!
I’d love to know more about your workflow, especially as it relates to Adobe After Effects. How did integration with Premiere Pro impact the project?
Perry: Native use of Adobe Creative Cloud apps like After Effects was a no brainer. We knew we needed After Effects because we had a lot of 2D motion graphics and VFX. And we knew we needed the flexibility to turn around new versions quickly, whether it was a temp to show the network a proof of concept or running out the final versions of certain shots.
Sawyer: Once we had season one under our belts, the scripts became even more complex. We had more VFX and more creatures in seasons two and three, which were shot in quick succession. The show just kept growing but we were able to scale because we could duplicate the workflows in Premiere Pro. It was a lifesaver on a show with so many moving pieces.
Perry: A good example of those moving pieces is creature design and the various ways one is brought to life. You start out looking at concept art, the crew builds it and shoots it, and then you cut it. This is all challenging enough, but something we strove for during the edit was to always build our soundscapes out as much as we could. We were always asking ourselves: what do these things sound like? Are they vocalizing? Does the ground shake when they walk? Luckily the sound tools in Premiere are very robust, and the Essential Sound Panel continues to get even better. We had so much freedom to just try things out and arrive at ideas to present. And a lot of those ideas would make it into the dub stage!
Creepshow in Adobe Premiere Pro timeline
To what extent has Adobe Premiere Pro helped Atlanta-based Moonshine stand out from post-production houses in traditional filmmaking cities?
Perry: As we built the business, we took almost every job that came in—whether it was a commercial, a docuseries, scripted television, or a feature film. Premiere Pro has given me the flexibility to work on all of these. It’s just as viable for a 30-second spot as it is for a big studio environment. I feel lucky, because I don’t think my career has been pigeonholed to a particular type of job or genre. The Atlanta market keeps me on my toes.
Sawyer: Exactly. It’s a smaller market, but with a lot of variety of stories for the editorial, color, and sound talent. It creates a different mentality and cultivates a unique type of storyteller in the Atlanta market that you don’t necessarily see elsewhere, because we can’t be easily pigeonholed across a wide diversity of storytelling needs. We can grow careers locally with high caliber shows and a first-class operation, and the artists are growing leaps and bounds across all of the genres. It really keeps the artists on their toes but it pays dividends. We’re watching this core strength in the artists, played out in the quality and variety of network and studio jobs we’re being asked to work on.
You’ve certainly been keeping busy, and it sounds like Adobe Premiere Pro is your tool of choice. Are there any features you’re looking forward to trying next?
Sawyer: We’re really thankful for all the opportunities that have come our way. Patrick recently cut two holiday movies—A Waltons Thanksgiving and Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas. We also just worked on a Netflix comedy called Saturday Morning All Star Hits! All of these were done in Premiere Pro. I’m looking forward to using Frame.io and Camera to Cloud to take collaboration to the next level and reduce the time between production and post and its stakeholders.
Perry: I’ve noticed the text panel is becoming more robust. I have an upcoming project that’s interview-based and am looking forward to trying out the transcription feature. Having that built directly into Premiere Pro sounds amazing. I’m also excited about a future release that will allow me to create rough cuts from a transcript. Both features will amp up our efficiency.
Creepshow in Adobe Premiere Pro timeline
In hindsight, what advice would you give your younger selves when you were starting out?
Sawyer: Stay humble. Don’t get stuck in your ways. Try new and different ways of doing things. Make more bad movies with your friends so you know what’s good and what you like.
Perry: Get—and stay—organized. When you start editing no one tells you how important this is, and you eventually learn the hard way if you don’t understand how your media is set up.
It’s also critical to have a consistent, proven workflow. You’re not going to approach a 30-second commercial the same way you approach an episode of Creepshow. But you do need a roadmap that everyone can follow.
And finally, learn how to collaborate early on. I certainly have my opinions as an editor but when someone says, “can we do this?” the answer is never “no.” The answer is always, “let’s try it.”
Indian filmmaker Subhrajit Mitra’s latest venture “Bandit Queen of Bengal” (aka “Devi Chowdhurani”) will start principal photography in the final quarter of the year.
The film is based on Mitra’s own research into the the advent and invasion of the British East India Company in India, the battles of Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764), the great Bengal famine of 1770, the Sannyasi and Fakir rebellion (1770-77) and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s 1884 Bengali-language novel “Devi Chowdhurani,” which features a female freedom fighter protagonist.
The film will follow the journey of a villager who eventually becomes the first Indian woman freedom fighter. It will also tell the story of the Hindu monks who had no other option but to take up arms against their British colonial rulers to save the country and their people. It was the first armed revolution by the Indians, led by Bhavani Charan Pathak, against the British East India Company. The film will hew close to the novel’s plotline but some 80% of it will be closer to actual history.
Mitra, who takes on the roles of researcher, writer, production designer and director on the project, conducted his research from the archives of the East India Company in London, several texts and manuscripts from Asiatic society, the British Library, Victoria Memorial and Indian Museum.
Mitra’s last film “Avijatrik” (“The Wanderlust of Apu,” 2021), which completed the story of Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, won two prizes at India’s National Film Awards.
Mitra told Variety: ” Devi Chowdhurani’ gives me the opportunity to get me out of my comfort zone. It is a much bigger canvas than my last film, it is actually a part of our lesser-known history. After winning my National Award for my last film ‘Avijatrik,’ I wanted to tell this story. The urge was intense. I wanted to make a very realistic film on this novel and the time period which portrays a plausible historical reconstruction. I am fascinated by the films of similar genre by the master directors such as Akira Kurosawa and Ridley Scott. ‘Seven Samurai,’ ‘Rashomon,’ ‘Ran,’ ‘Throne of Blood,’ ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Robin Hood,’ to name a few. We have a dearth of these kinds of films in Indian cinema, barring a few such as ‘Junoon’ by Shyam Benegal or ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’ by Satyajit Ray. We Indians tend to go overboard with historical fiction and lack the cinematic approach which can fetch international appreciation. I wish not to delve into that path.”
Srabanti Chatterjee (“Lockdown”) will play the titular character in “Devi Chowdhurani” and Prasenjit Chatterjee (Prime Video series “Jubilee”) Bhavani Charan Pathak. The film will be made in the Bengali language with several different local dialects and will be dubbed into the Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam languages.
Prasenjit Chatterjee told Variety: “When Subhrajit first narrated the script to me, I was fascinated with its mounting and visualization. This is a very ambitious project. He is very sorted in his mind what he wants and it is written clearly in the scripts as well. With my involvement in this film as the main male protagonist I wish to see Bengali films to scale a new height.”
Srabanti Chatterjee added: “This is a dream come true character for every actress and I am grateful to the director Subhrajit Mitra for casting me in this epic film as the titular character. I always wanted to work with such a renowned National Award-winning director like him. This film will be a milestone in my career and I am ready to give my hundred percent to portray this historic character.”
At $2.5 million, the film is one of the highest budgeted in the history of Bengali-language cinema. It is being produced by Los Angeles-based ADited Motion Pictures, formerly known as Star Synergy Entertainment, which was established in 2016 and has distributed acclaimed films including “Lipstick Under My Burkha” and “Newton.” In 2018 it co-produced “Yours Truly,” which premiered at Busan.
Studio owner Aparna Dasgupta told Variety: “We believe that this has the potential to be a milestone film. As a woman I am thrilled too for getting an opportunity to highlight the story of the first woman freedom fighter from India and her fascinating journey from a common girl to a fearless leader, which can inspire women of present days too. Historical stories like this can appeal to both national and international audiences and we want to fully support Subhrajit’s vision of bringing the story to life.”
The “Last Thing He Told Me” actress revealed that following her 2003 appearance on the hit sitcom as Charlie Wheeler, Ross’ (David Schwimmer) love interest, she is still identified as the singular recurring Black character on the series.
“To this day, people come up to me and go, ‘Charlie, Charlie,’ or they just go, ‘Black girl from “Friends,”‘” Tyler told Entertainment Tonight.
The series has come under fire in recent years for its lack of diversity, with co-creator Marta Kauffman pledging a $4 million donation to her alma mater Brandeis University to establish a fund to support scholars studying Africa and the African diaspora.
Kauffman, who created the series with David Crane, revealed that she originally thought the criticism over a lack of representation was “difficult and frustrating,” but the events of 2020, namely the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police force, shed new light on her understanding of the series.
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“Friends” ran from 1994 to 2004 and starred Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, and Matt LeBlanc as the core friend group. Kauffman added, “I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years. Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago.”
Breakout cast member Aniston recently shared that the modern generation finds the series “offensive” through a modern lens.
Guest star Tyler remembered how the cast was “incredibly kind, incredibly welcoming” when she joined, citing how co-stars and series leads Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, and Matt LeBlanc welcomed her with open arms.
“We walked out, and we did a curtain call [where] everybody [does a] bow to the audience at the end of the show. As we’re backstage, Matthew Perry just leans in and goes, ‘Get ready for your life to change,’” Tyler recalled. “It was a really sweet, kind thing to say to someone who’s just petrified and just trying not to pee on herself a little bit from fear…My knees were knocking. I was shocked you couldn’t hear my teeth chattering the entire time I was on set.”
Tyler added that the series was “was the biggest show on television when I got that job.”
“Sometimes you don’t really know what a job is going to do, how it’s going to change your life. You don’t know if it’s going to be a hit,” Tyler said. “You don’t even know if it’s going to be good. You’re just there to do your best work. But I knew when I got ‘Friends’ that it was a big deal.”
She added, “The show had a tempo. It had a way of kind of turning things on their head and emphasizing words in different ways [than] you would in normal conversation…They just had a way with wordplay and a way with them with delivering lines. It just felt unique to the show.”
Tyler told InStyle in 2022 that there wasn’t any discussion over the fact that her character Charlie and Ross were part of an interracial relationship.
“There was no commentary on the show about my character being Black, and I think they had just written this character as this kind of love triangle between Ross and Joey,” Tyler said. “They happened to hire a Black woman, which — I don’t know that I’m advocating for colorblind casting any more than I’m advocating for people doing a better job at making shows diverse.”
Actor Schwimmer said in 2020 that he pushed for character Ross to date women of color.
“I was well aware of the lack of diversity and I campaigned for years to have Ross date women of color,” Schwimmer told The Guardian. “One of the first girlfriends I had on the show was an Asian-American woman, and later I dated African-American women. That was a very conscious push on my part.”
TV show dates: September 4, 2019 — April 5, 2023 Series status:Ended
Performers include: Ashton Sanders, Shameik Moore, Dave East, Siddiq Saunderson, Marcus Callender, Julian Elijah Martinez, Zolee Griggs, Erika Alexander, TJ Atoms, and Johnell Young.
TV show description: A drama series, the Wu-Tang: An American Saga TV show was created by Alex Tse and The RZA. It is inspired by The Wu-Tang Manual and Tao of Wu and is based on the true story of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Based on one of the most influential and important groups in hip-hop history, the series is set in the early ’90s in New York City, at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic. The show tracks the Clan’s formation, a vision of Bobby Diggs aka The RZA (Sanders), who strives to unite a dozen young, black men torn between music and crime but eventually rise to become the unlikeliest of American success stories.
Looking for his own way out, Diggs turns to rap to carve out a path to fame and going against his older brother Divine (Martinez), who favors the drug trade as the means to giving their family a better life. The Diggs’ group battles against the forces that hold them down, including their occasional impulse to give up the fight.
Series Finale: Episode #30 — Triumph RZA pushes his musicianship to new heights as he creates “Wu-Tang Forever” with a studio orchestra, but the recording process strains the Clan; as tensions boil over during their biggest tour yet, RZA is concerned about Wu-Tang’s future and legacy. First aired: April 5, 2023.
What do you think? Do you like the Wu-Tang: An American Saga TV show? Do you think it should have ended or been renewed for a fourth season?
EXCLUSIVE: Alfred Hitchcock won the AFI’s Life Achievement Award in 1979, but now there is another Hitchcock moving up in the organization.
The American Film Institute on Wednesday named Todd Hitchcock to oversee the national programming team tasked with programming the 37th annual AFI Fest in Los Angeles. Hitchcock also was recently named to the position of Director of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. The AFI says this move unites all of the institute’s exhibition and programming activities under his leadership.
Hitchcock began his career at AFI in 2003 working on the inaugural edition of Silverdocs before joining AFI Silver’s year-round programming team. As Director of Programming at AFI Silver and the Associate Theatre Director, he oversaw numerous international film festivals, retrospectives, first-run engagements and special events including planning, programming and producing the Silent Cinema Showcase, the AFI Latin American Film Festival, the AFI European Union Film Showcase and the New African Film Festival.
Additionally, AFI said Ethan Caldwell has been named to the newly created position of Director of Operations, AFI Productions. A veteran of cinema exhibition and operations, Caldwell most recently served as the Director, Theater Operations at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. In his new position, he will be responsible for overseeing the planning and execution of AFI’s exhibition activities including AFI Fest.
“Todd’s expert knowledge in programming – combined with Ethan’s deep appreciation for the art of exhibition – makes them a dynamic duo to forge the future for AFI Fest,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI President and CEO. “This fall, we look forward to launching the 37th Annual AFI Fest – and, once again, shining a light upon stories that uplift and inspire us all.”
This year’s AFI Fest will take place in person from October 25-29 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The five-day festival will again include a curated selection of red carpet galas, special screenings, world cinema, documentaries and short films.
“It is an incredible honor to be programming AFI Fest,” said Hitchcock. “Throughout my time at AFI, it has been a joy to be able to connect audiences with the best in world cinema, both past and present, through our programs at AFI Silver. I’m thrilled to now lead the team that will create that experience for the AFI Fest audience.”
Hitchcock will oversee a national programming team including Director of AFI Programming Abbie Algar, Senior Programmer Malin Kan, and programmers Josh Gardner and Javier Chavez.
“The history and impact of AFI and AFI Fest is unparalleled. I am excited to join this storied institution and to work alongside people who are just as passionate about creating unique and powerful events as I am,” said Caldwell.
As previously announced, entries for the AFI Fest 2023 Short Film Competition program open today and filmmakers are invited to submit fiction, documentary, experimental and animated short films. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes AFI Fest as a qualifying festival for the Live Action, Animated and Documentary Short Film categories at the Oscars.
If you’re feeling less than fresh after a workout or a particularly hot day, one solution (other than good ol’ ventilation) is using the best feminine wipes. Or whatever you want to call them: vaginal wipes, vulval wipes, personal wipes—you get it. There are plenty of reasons vulva owners like to carry various types of disposal cleansing cloths: If they’re on their period and experience leakage, if they’d like to use one post-intercourse, and even if they’ve been wearing one of their best sweatpants or workout leggings (you know the ones). Whatever the reason is—and that’s between you and your vulva—if you choose to use wipes, there are a few important things to know. So we spoke to gynecologists about the need-to-know info when buying and using feminine wipes.
Does the vagina need to be cleaned?
First thing’s first: You don’t necessarily need wipes to keep your vulva and vagina clean. As you may already know, the vagina is a self-cleaning organ, and inserting any kind of cleansing product could mess with its pH balance, Jennifer Conti, MD, an ob-gyn and a medical adviser for the women’s health company Modern Fertility, tells Glamour: “Your vagina is naturally pH-balanced and doesn’t need products to do that for it.”
Additionally, while we may experience sweaty or musty smells on occasion, these odors are totally natural (if the odor is more pungent or you’re experiencing unusual discharge, it’s advised you make an appointment with your ob-gyn or health care provider). Dr. Conti tells Glamour that our culture has perpetuated the idea that women’s genitals are “dirty,” which is absolutely not true. “Society teaches us to believe that our natural vaginal scent and discharge is abnormal such that we have created entire industries that perpetuate this harmful belief. Your vagina is not supposed to smell like geraniums or fresh laundry,” she says.
Are feminine wipes safe?
The terms vagina and vulva are often used interchangeably, but they’re actually totally different body parts. The vagina is the canal that leads to your uterus, while your all-encompassing vulva contains all your external organs like your labia, clitoris, the opening to your urethra, along with your vagina. When health experts say you shouldn’t use products such as douches, it’s because they’re inserted in your vagina. Whatever you use internally should always be body-safe and vagina-friendly, and douches are neither. If you use products internally, you run the risk of getting a yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis, which is a condition that’s brought on by a pH imbalance (BV symptoms include white or gray discharge, itching and burning, and a fishy odor).
Using a product externally, however, is considered safer (just FYI, we’re using the term safer since all bodies are different and react to certain ingredients in different ways)—which is why gynecologists recommend feminine wipes over items like douches.
What should I look for when shopping for feminine wipes?
Online health care provider Medzino’s resident ob-gyn, Kim Langdon, MD, advises Glamour that the best feminine wipes are “hypoallergenic, fragrance-free, paraben-free, pH-neutral, and don’t contain oil or alcohol.” And don’t let marketing fool you: Beware of anything that says “odor-control” on the label. “Anything that say ‘odor-control’ is bogus if it has special chemicals to allegedly fight off odor,” Dr. Langdon says. With all that in mind, here are some ob-gyn-approved wipes for feminine care.
Directed and produced by Ray Spivey, The Pro Bono Watchman is a feature-length dramatic thriller about a criminal defense attorney caring for his dying wife. He divides his remaining time serving as a supervised monitor to a 6-year-old girl and her unpredictable father with a violent past. The premise is promising, and there is entertainment value to be found, but how much you’re willing to suspend disbelief determines the enjoyment level.
Hank Cassidy (Mike Gassaway) is what one might call a “good ole boy.” He’s a loving husband and father of five kids (and has twelve grandchildren). As a criminal defense attorney, he sometimes took on cases pro bono, and his colleagues lovingly referred to him as “Cutthroat Cassidy.” Unfortunately, his wife, Lilian (Kelli Ball Grant), is in hospice care, dying of cancer. While caring for her, another responsibility comes Hank’s way.
Hank’s friend, Clay Bertram (screenwriter/composer Ralph Cinque), asks him to supervise the visits between his granddaughter, Bonnie (Kariana Karhu), and her father, Lemarcus (George Welder). Lemarcus is a violent man, having beat his ex-wife, Evelyn (Bobbie Grace), but is granted supervised visits with Bonnie. Hank accepts and goes about becoming a “watchman” between the two. The visits prove to be a positive experience for Bonnie, but behind the happy times, trouble is brewing. Evelyn has suspicions that Lemarcus is putting on an act as a good father while Hank finds himself in the middle. What no one realizes, however, is that Lemarcus, along with his girlfriend Chloe (Jennifer Gunderson), has plans to keep his daughter in his custody.
“…Lemarcus, along with his girlfriend Chloe, has plans to keep his daughter…”
The Pro Bono Watchman is a mixed experience. The actors, especially Gassaway, are likable and do a decent job. The picture is also well-produced, featuring nicely composed shots. It all starts promisingly enough but slowly begins to fall apart.
One of the biggest downfalls is its writing. The dialogue resorts to too much exposition. For instance, in an early scene, Hank lies in bed with Lilian, recounting their life together. The problem is they don’t merely reminisce but reveal details such as having five kids, twelve grandkids, etc. It comes off as unnatural. Many scenarios like this, where characters spill out backstories or facts rather than Spivey showing them, occur throughout. The problematic writing also leads to directorial and editorial issues. Most of the scenes are characters sitting and talking. A little movement and blocking with the actors and camera could improve the finished product. Alternatively, unnecessary scenes such as these could have been trimmed or cut.
I mentioned earlier how you might have to suspend disbelief to enjoy this film. I say that because some characters’ behaviors border on the unbelievable. For example, in one of the critical plot points, there are two moments in which Lemarcus and Chloe go to criminals to assist in capturing Bonnie. In both scenes, the criminals are given large sums of money for their services. Both criminals are told to count the money but refuse by responding, “No, I don’t need to.” I found myself shaking my head in disbelief at moments such as these.
Despite its problems, The Pro Bono Watchman is sometimes entertaining, and the attempt is earnest. However, to bring more believability, it needed more action to show the characters’ motivation rather than explain them. Still, the cast is quite strong.
It’s a last-ditch effort by a group of Calgarians to save to save a heritage building set for demolition as part of the Green Line LRT expansion in the city’s southeast.
The 110-year-old Ogden Block building currently sits vacant, but the hope is to find a tenant to make use of the city-owned building to give it new life.
Residents with the Millican Ogden Heritage Group rallied outside the building on Tuesday to try and drum up support and raise awareness of its looming demolition.
“We want this building to be the cornerstone of community revitalization in Ogden,” Millican Ogden Heritage Group chair Bonny Warveck said.
The City of Calgary purchased the site in early 2021 and the building was scheduled to be torn down to serve as a staging area for construction crews on the Green Line LRT project, which is slated to run behind the Ogden Block.
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Two consortiums shortlisted for 1st phase of Green Line LRT project
An LRT station is planned to be built just north of the site as part of the Green Line.
However, demolition was temporarily halted due to public outcry, with calls for studies into the building’s past.
Ogden Block was built in 1913 by two men of Chinese descent and was used for a commercial laundry business.
“Which was extremely rare at the time for people of Chinese descent to be in a small village like Ogden was at the time,” Warveck said.
“There was a lot of racism, of course, but many people who were here from the Chinese community tended to be in Calgary.”
The building was also used as a boarding house, a polling station in the vote on prohibition, and additional space for the Ogden Military Convalescent Hospital for injured soldiers returning home from the First World War.
Apartment units were opened upstairs in 1919, and the building was used for rental units in more recent years.
After several assessments, Ogden Block was found to be historically significant and structurally sound, and it was added to the Calgary’s Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources.
“It has been found to have historic value,” Heritage Calgary CEO Josh Traptow said in a statement.
“It would be great to see it either retained or commemorated through the Green Line and the Ogden station that is set to be built near the site.”
City of Calgary reveals updated plan for stage one of Green Line LRT
While there has been formal acknowledgement of its heritage value, the building does not have the legal protections of being designated a Municipal Historic Resource.
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“I’ve told the Green Line team, I will chain myself to the bulldozers,” Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra told reporters.
Carra is supporting the group rallying to save Ogden Block, and has a proposal which he hopes will see the building spared from demolition.
The area councillor has floated the idea of offering tenancy of the building to a non-profit profit or developer at no-cost until 2030, which opens the door to have it as part of plans to revitalize and redevelop the area when the Green Line is complete.
“We can take this building off the Green Line’s hands until 2030, get a good use in there, and then post-2030 have a thoughtful conversation about what comes next,” Carra said.
“Either this building continues to stand, or it gets amalgamated as an adaptive re-use into a larger building lot.”
According to Green Line officials, a structural assessment determined the building could be moved to a different location, but found it was too expensive of an undertaking.
The first stage of the Green Line LRT project from Shepard to 16 Ave N.
Global News
Adam Noble-Johnson, a community relations lead with the Green Line, said officials have heard safety concerns from the community about the vacant building, but the project team is open to hearing proposals about its future.
But the building’s fate depends on the plans of the to-be-selected developer of the future LRT line.
“There’s been a noted interest in trying to find an interim use for the building, we don’t know what that’s going to look like, Green Line is open to that,” Noble-Johnson said.
“Ultimately, we don’t know what our eventual contractors plan is going to be for staging and construction.”
Noble-Johnson said the land where Ogden Block sits would be sold to a developer when the Green Line is complete with the hopes it becomes a “transit-oriented development” project.
He also noted that nobody has come forward to Green Line officials with interest in the building besides the residents trying to preserve the building.
“Regardless of what the outcome is, we’re committed to making sure that we’re honouring the history of that building and finding some way to commemorate it,” Noble-Johnson said.
King Charles III is the current ruling British monarch of the United Kingdom.
He is married to Queen Camilla Parker Bowles.
The king was previously married to the late Princess Diana.
The couple will both be officially crowned at the Coronation ceremony on May 6, 2023.
King Charles III, now 74, and Camilla Parker Bowles‘ love story is one that has spanned decades. Camilla, now 75, was King Charles’ first great love, and their connection to one another could never be severed despite royal duties and marriages. As The Crown season 5 sympathized with them over their forbidden romance, some fans of the show called Queen Camilla the “villain”, per Newsweek. Both King Charles and Queen Camilla married other people, with Charles marrying Princess Diana in 1981. Through scandal and tragedy, their bond could never be broken. They finally got their happy ending 35 years after they first met.
King Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles have a complicated love story. (AP Images)
Most recently, King Charles and Queen Camilla posed for a new official portrait at Buckingham Palace ahead of their Coronation ceremony set to take place on May 6, 2023. “As the countdown to the Coronation continues, a new photograph of The King and The Queen Consort, taken last month in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, has been released,” the official Instagram account for The Royal Family captioned the new snapshot, which was also shared via Twitter on Apr. 4, 2023.
At the Coronation ceremony, Camilla will officially be crowned Queen. The late Queen Elizabeth II, who passed on Sept. 8, 2022, had decreed that Camilla’s title be changed to Queen Consort upon the time her son ascended to the throne. Charles was officially named King on Sept. 10, 2022. The late Elizabeth II was known as “queen regnant”, which meant she claimed the throne via her bloodline. Consort is typically a title given to the spouse of a reigning monarch, however, Camilla will not actually have any ruling rights.
Take a look at the royal couple’s complicated relationship timeline that covers 50 years ahead of their Coronation, below!
The Beginning Of Charles & Camilla
King Charles III & Queen Camilla’s 2023 portrait. (Hugo Burnand/WPA Poo/Shutterstock)
King Charles and Camilla met for the first time at a polo match at Windsor Great Park in 1970. They begin dating and develop deep feelings for each other. However, when Charles goes off to serve in the Royal Navy, their romance fizzled.
When Charles returned, Camilla was engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles. They married on July 4, 1973. Andrew had previously dated King Charles’ sister, Princess Anne. Camilla and Arthur had two children: Tom and Lauren. Charles and Camilla remained close during this time, with Charles even becoming Tom’s godfather.
Diana Enters The Picture
Lady Diana Spencer and Charles met through Diana’s sister, Sarah, in 1977. King Charles and Sarah actually dated for a brief period. He and Diana began dating in 1980. They got engaged in Feb. 1981 and married in a lavish royal wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on July 29, 1981.
King Charles and Princess Diana on their wedding day. (AP Images)
Camilla attended the wedding, and Diana admitted that she looked for Charles’ ex in the audience. “I knew [Camilla] was there, of course. I looked for her,” Diana later told biographer Andrew Morton in audiotapes, which were later transcribed for his book, Diana: Her True Story — In Her Own Words. “So walking down the aisle, I spotted Camilla, pale gray, veiled pillbox hat, saw it all, her son Tom standing on a chair. To this day you know — vivid memory.”
Princess Diana and King Charles III welcomed their first son, Prince William, in 1982. Prince Harry was born in 1994.
An Affair Ignites
After the birth of Prince Harry, Princess Diana and King Charles’ marriage continued to deteriorate. He and Camilla reportedly began having an affair in 1986, according to Sally Bedell Smith’s biography of Charles, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life.
King Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles’ love story spans five decades. (AP Images)
Princess Diana revealed to Morton in interviews that “something inside me closed off” after Prince Harry’s birth. “By then, I knew Charles had gone back to his lady,” Diana told Morton.
Diana Confronts Camilla
Princess Diana claimed to Morton that she confronted Camilla about her affair with Charles. The alleged confrontation took place in 1989 at a birthday party for Camilla’s sister.
“Camilla, I would just like you to know that I know exactly what is going on between you and Charles. I wasn’t born yesterday,” Diana reportedly told Camilla. Camilla allegedly responded, “You’ve got everything you ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world to fall in love with you and you’ve got two beautiful children. What more do you want?” Diana said, “I want my husband.”
Camillagate
Andrew Morton’s bombshell book, Diana: Her True Story — In Her Own Words, was published in 1992. That same year, intimate phone conversations between Charles and Camilla that took place in 1989 were leaked to the press and dubbed “Camillagate.” In the tapes, Charles and Camilla talked openly about their feelings for one another. After the tapes leaked, Diana and Charles announced their separation in Dec. 1992.
Charles Admits He Was Unfaithful To Diana
Charles sat down for an explosive interview with journalist Jonathan Dimbleby in 1994. He called Camilla a “great” friend and said that he did try to stay faithful to Diana “until it became clear that the marriage had irretrievably broken down.”
King Charles’ interview about Camilla Parker Bowles and Princess Diana sent shockwaves around the world. (AP Images)
Charles & Diana Divorce
Diana took part in a shocking interview of her own in 1995. During her BBC interview with Martin Bashir, she talked openly about Charles’ relationship with Camilla.
King Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage officially ended in 1996. (AP Images)
“There were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” Diana famously said. Charles and Diana’s divorce was made official in 1996. Camilla and Andrew’s marriage ended in divorce in 1995.
The People’s Princess Dies
In July 1997, Charles hosted a 50th birthday party for Camilla at his country home. The next month, Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car accident in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. She was only 36.
Charles, along with Diana’s sisters, flew to Paris to bring Diana’s body back to England. Charles and Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, were devastated by their mother’s death. The world mourned the loss of Princess Diana.
A Rekindled Romance
By 1998, Charles took a big step by introducing Camilla to his sons. The next year, Charles hosted a 50th birthday party for Camilla’s sister in London. Charles and Camilla were photographed leaving the party together, which was a sign they were going public with their romance.
King Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are photographed leaving a party in 1999. (AP Images)
Charles and Camilla went on vacation to Greece with William and Harry in 1999. In 2003, Camilla officially moved into Clarence House, King Charles’ residence.
Finally Married
King Charles and Queen Camilla announced their engagement in Feb. 2005. They married on April 9, 2005. Prince William was his father’s best man. While Queen Elizabeth II did not attend the wedding, she did go to the reception.
King Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles on their 2005 wedding day. (AP Images)
Camilla was given the title Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall. Prior the late Queen’s wish for Camilla to be named Queen Consort for when Charles was to become king, Clarence House announced prior to their 2005 wedding that “it is intended that Mrs. Parker Bowles should use the title HRH The Princess Consort when The Prince of Wales accedes to The Throne.”
Clarence House reconfirmed in March 2020 that Camilla will be the princess consort when Charles takes the throne. “The intention is for the duchess to be known as princess consort when the prince accedes to the throne,” a spokesperson for the couple told The Times. “This was announced at the time of the marriage and there has been absolutely no change at all.” As mentioned earlier in this article, Camilla will now simply be referred to as Queen Camilla.
Samsung’s rumored Galaxy Watch 6 might bring some significant design changes to the series if the latest rumors are to be believed. The news this time around is that the device’s watch face will have a smaller bezel to increase the display’s size.
This information comes from renowned industry leaker Ice Universe on Twitter (opens in new tab) who claims the screen size on the Galaxy Watch 6 is “100 percent confirmed” to be 1.47 inches, up from the Galaxy Watch 5’s 1.4-inch display. As a result, the resolution will subsequently be “improved”, leading to a better “screen proportion”. When asked on Twitter if there will also be a better-performing Pro version, Ice Universe stated there will be Galaxy Watch 6 Classic model but didn’t elaborate.
You may be wondering, “Does seven-hundredths of an inch really make that big of an impact?” It kind of does, actually. Bigger screens mean easier interactivity, after all.
We also have reason to suspect Samsung is taking a page out of Apple’s smartwatch playbook. For example, if you compare the now-aging Apple Watch 6 and 2021’s Watch 7, you’ll notice both devices are fundamentally the same, at least internally. The biggest difference is the latter has a 20 percent larger screen at 1.9 inches versus the Apple Watch 6’s 1.78-inch display (the Apple Watch 8 also has a 1.9-inch display). A relatively minor difference; however if you compare the two side-by-side, the Watch 7 display is noticeably larger and apps look less squished on it.
Hardware upgrade
Granted, the size difference between the two Apple Watches is greater than the purported Galaxy Watch increase. But it’s still, potentially a decent upgrade and you can’t beat having better resolution. Our main concern is the battery life, though Samsung may have a solution for that. According to recent reports, the Galaxy Watch 6 will have either a 300mAh or a 425mAh battery to feed the more power-hungry screen. As for other design changes, Ice Universe stated back in February (opens in new tab) that the Galaxy Watch 6 will have a curved glass screen similar to the Google Pixel Watch.
Samsung, so far, has yet to reveal anything official about its new smartwatch so take this information with a grain of salt. Hopefully, the company resurrects the rotating bezel as seen on the Galaxy Watch 3. A release date for the Galaxy Watch 6 remains a mystery; although if history is any indicator, expect an August launch.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is coming to the big screen and into people’s homes to terrify everyone over Halloween weekend.
Universal Pictures announced the horror film will simultaneously hit movie theaters and stream on Peacock Oct. 27. This is Blumhouses’s fourth movie to release day and date on Peacock after “Halloween Kills,” “Halloween Ends,” and “Firestarter.”
Producer Jason Blum also made the announcement on Twitter, on Wednesday night.
As promised:#FNAF FANS: You asked and we delivered. #FNAFMovie is coming this Halloween on October 27. 2023!!!!!
“#FNAF FANS: You asked and we delivered,” Blum said. “#FNAFMOVIE is coming this Halloween on October 27, 2023! 205 day until the party, and that is the big news.”
Universal’s official logline for the movie reads: the film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.
Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, and Kat Conner Sterling are starring in the horror film alongside Mary Stuart Masterson and Matthew Lillard.
Emma Tammi is directing “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and help co-write it with Scott Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback.
The film’s executive producers are Bea Sequeira, Russell Binder and Christopher H. Warner. Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse production, in association with Striker Entertainment.
“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Stranger Things” and “The Last of Us” led all nominees as the MTV Movie & TV Awards announced this year’s nominations for the upcoming 2023 awards show. Also earning noms this year were first-timers the Cocaine Bear, from “Cocaine Bear,” and creepy murder doll “M3GAN” from “M3GAN.”
The MTV Movie & TV Awards returns to Santa Monica’s Barker Hanger for a live telecast on May 7 at 8 p.m. ET. Drew Barrymore, also nominated for an MTV Movie & TV Award this year, will host.
This year’s awards show includes 26 gender-neutral categories. Fans can vote on the show from now until April 17 at 6 p.m. ET.
Other top nominees include “The White Lotus” and “Wednesday,” with four nods each. Meanwhile, in unscripted, “Jersey Shore Family Vacation,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Vanderpump Rules” all have two nods each.
New categories to the MTV Movie & TV Awards this year include Best Reality On-Screen Team and Best Kick-Ass Cast.
Besides the Cocaine Bear and M3GAN, first-time nominees this year include Anna Torv, Austin Butler, Bad Bunny, Beatrice Grannò, Bella Ramsey, Cara Delevingne, Courteney Cox, David Dawson, Doja Cat, Emma D’Arcy, Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jennifer Coolidge, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Joel Madden, Joseph Quinn, Justin Long, Keke Palmer, Madison Bailey, Maya Hawke, One Republic, Quinta Brunson, Rachel Sennott, Riley Keough, Rudy Pankow, Simona Tabasco and Sosie Bacon.
BEST MOVIE
“Avatar: The Way of Water” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” “Elvis” “Nope” “Scream VI” “Smile” “Top Gun: Maverick”
BEST SHOW
“Stranger Things” (Netflix) “The Last of Us” (HBO) “The White Lotus” (HBO) “Wednesday” (Netflix) “Wolf Pack” (Paramount+) “Yellowstone” (Paramount Network) “Yellowjackets” (Showtime)
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A MOVIE
Austin Butler — “Elvis” Florence Pugh — “Don’t Worry Darling” KeKe Palmer — “Nope” Michael B. Jordan — “Creed III” Tom Cruise — “Top Gun: Maverick”
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SHOW
Aubrey Plaza — “The White Lotus” Christina Ricci — “Yellowjackets” Jenna Ortega — “Wednesday” Riley Keough — “Daisy Jones & The Six” Sadie Sink — “Stranger Things” Selena Gomez — “Only Murders in the Building”
BEST HERO
Diego Luna — “Andor” Jenna Ortega — “Wednesday” Paul Rudd — “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania” Pedro Pascal — “The Last Of Us” Tom Cruise — “Top Gun: Maverick”
BEST VILLAIN
Elizabeth Olsen — “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” Harry Styles – “Don’t Worry Darling” Jamie Campbell Bower — “Stranger Things” M3GAN – “M3GAN” The Bear — “Cocaine Bear”
BEST KISS
Anna Torv + Philip Prajoux – “The Last Of Us” Harry Styles + David Dawson – “My Policeman” Madison Bailey + Rudy Pankow – “Outer Banks” Riley Keough + Sam Claflin – “Daisy Jones & The Six” Selena Gomez + Cara Delevingne – “Only Murders in the Building”
Bad Bunny – “Bullet Train” Bella Ramsey – “The Last Of Us” Emma D’Arcy – “House of the Dragon” Joseph Quinn – “Stranger Things” Rachel Sennott – “Bodies Bodies Bodies”
BEST FIGHT
Brad Pitt (Ladybug) vs. Bad Bunny (The Wolf) – “Bullet Train” Courteney Cox (Gale Weathers) vs. Ghostface – “Scream VI” Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna) vs. Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) – “Stranger Things” Keanu Reeves (John Wick) vs. Everyone – “John Wick 4” Escape from Narkina 5- “Andor”
MOST FRIGHTENED PERFORMANCE
Jennifer Coolidge – “The White Lotus” Jesse Tyler Ferguson – “Cocaine Bear” Justin Long – “Barbarian” Rachel Sennott – “Bodies Bodies Bodies” Sosie Bacon – “Smile”
BEST DUO
Camila Mendes + Maya Hawke – “Do Revenge” Jenna Ortega + Thing – “Wednesday” Pedro Pascal + Bella Ramsey – “The Last Of Us” Simona Tabasco + Beatrice Grannò – “The White Lotus” Tom Cruise + Miles Teller – “Top Gun: Maverick”
BEST KICK-ASS CAST
“Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” “Outer Banks” “Stranger Things” “Teen Wolf: The Movie”
BEST SONG
Demi Lovato – “Still Alive” (“Scream VI”) Doja Cat – “Vegas” (“Elvis”) Lady Gaga – “Hold My Hand” (“Top Gun: Maverick”) OneRepublic – “I Ain’t Worried” (“Top Gun: Maverick”) Rihanna – “Lift Me Up” (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) Taylor Swift – “Carolina” (“Where The Crawdads Sing”)
BEST DOCU-REALITY SERIES
“Jersey Shore Family Vacation” “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” “Family Reunion: Love & Hip Hop Edition” “The Kardashians” “Vanderpump Rules”
BEST COMPETITION SERIES
“All-Star Shore” “Big Brother” “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars” “The Challenge: USA” “The Traitors”
BEST HOST
Drew Barrymore – “The Drew Barrymore Show” Joel Madden – “Ink Master” Nick Cannon – “The Masked Singer” RuPaul – “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Kelly Clarkson – “The Kelly Clarkson Show”
BEST REALITY ON-SCREEN TEAM
Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Vinny Guadagnino, Pauly D (MVP) – “Jersey Shore Family Vacation” Tori Deal and Devin Walker – “The Challenge: Ride or Dies” RuPaul Charles and Michelle Visage – “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney, Scheana Shay, LaLa Kent – “Vanderpump Rules” Garcelle Beauvais and Sutton Stracke – “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”
BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
“Halftime” “Love, Lizzo” “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me” “Sheryl” “The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s American Pie”
Executive Producers for the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards are MTV’s Bruce Gillmer, Wendy Plaut and Vanessa Whitewolf, along with Den of Thieves’ Jesse Ignjatovic and Barb Bialkowski. Jackie Barba and Alicia Portugal are Executives in Charge of Production and Lisa Lauricella and Mike Ostolaza serve as the Music Talent Executives.
Or so the tag line for the new Barbie movie goes, echoing the squealing excitement of our inner seven-year-olds when we saw that a new trailer had dropped.
While it’s been hyped since it was first announced way back in the misty days of 2017, the actual movie isn’t out until July 21 — an interval almost as torturous as waiting for your birthday to see if your relentless petitioning for the Barbie Jeep has been successful.
The newly dropped trailer grants us one minute and 45 seconds of shiny fuchsia, plastic perfection. The shot of Barbie’s foot, stepping out of her Maribou-feathered heeled mules but maintaining her signature perpetually tippytoed form, promises to be worth the price of admission alone.
In less than a day, the trailer got over six million (and rapidly counting) views, shooting it to the top of the YouTube trending list. “Barbie movie” was the top search term on Google in Canada yesterday, with over 50,000 of us typing those words into the search bar. Among the cast, it was searches for Michael Cera, who the trailer reveals to be in the film as a long discontinued character named Allan, that spiked in Canada, rather than, say, Ryan Gosling who we already knew plays Ken.
Within hours of the trailer release, “Barbie” is absolutely everywhere, thanks in part to a clever marketing stunt from Warner Bros. Pictures: a “Barbie Selfie Generator” that allows you to turn yourself into a barbie. It’s particularly relevant because this movie’s cast seems to include all of Hollywood — from Helen Mirren to Nicola Coughlan — to play lower-case-b barbies, the noun used to describe the generic dolls, while Margot Robbie is capital-B Barbie herself.
Here’s everything else we know about the “Barbie” movie so far.
Aren’t there already tons of Barbie movies? Why is this one such a big deal?
You refer, of course, to the films Barbie herself has starred in, including such classics as “Barbie in the Nutcracker” (2001) and “Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia” (2006).
This 2023 film is a bit different: not quite a biopic, but close, in that it’s a story about Barbie herself and what appears to be a rather nasty experience in “the real world,” outside of Barbie Land. That would be the enchanted kingdom where the sand is pink, the rocks are pink, the lifeguard stations are pink and, OK, everything is pink, and pesky things like glass ceilings don’t prevent a woman from having over 200 careers, including presidential candidate, chief sustainability officer and, uh, cat burglar. (Reformed, of course.)
What’s the plot of the“Barbie” movie?
While plot details remain thin, the trailer offers some hints about where this tale takes us: Barbie, with Ken and his roller blades in tow, is expelled from Barbie Land, apparently for being imperfect, and goes in search of happiness among humans before returning to save her home. While this might sound like it’s going to be a kids movie, there’s a sense of darkness and winking self-awareness brewing in the background that suggests otherwise.
Who is the director of the “Barbie” movie?
None other than Greta Gerwig, which is the biggest pink flag that this movie is going to be a subversive delight. Gerwig, an actor-turned-director who specializes in nuanced, intellectually ambitious films such as “Lady Bird” and “Little Women” (both garnered her Oscar nominations) took over this movie after it had already been in the works for several years.
In fact, there was once a world where Amy Schumer was set to star in the Barbie movie, but she dropped out because she specifically wanted Barbie to be “an ambitious inventor” whose breakthrough discovery was a high heel made out of Jell-O.
Gerwig’s Barbie is likely to go off-piste in its own way. Just ask Issa Rae, who plays a barbie too. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter last year, she recounted Gerwig explaining her idea for the film. “I’ll be 100 per cent honest: When she was talking, like, it was entertaining, but I didn’t get it,” Rae said. “I was like … ‘whatever it is, I’m excited she’s behind it.’” Upon reading the script, Rae reported that she loved Gerwig “even more.” Seems promising!
Another interesting note: Gerwig co-wrote the script with her husband, Noah Baumbach, most famous for the heart-rending film “Marriage Story.” So buckle up for a thoughtful, complicated portrait of Barbie and Ken’s relationship, tackling the effect their lack of, uh, parts has had on their ability to truly know each another.
Who stars in the “Barbie” movie?
How long do you have? As revealed in the cast posters that dropped yesterday, Barbie is one connected woman.
The titular character, of course, is played by Robbie, who is also producing the movie through her own production company, Lucky Chap. Speaking to British Vogue last year, she acknowledged that Barbie comes with “a lot of baggage and a lot of nostalgic connections,” but said she sees this as an exciting prospect, especially with Gerwig on board. “People generally hear ‘Barbie’ and think, ‘I know what that movie is going to be,’ and then they hear that Greta Gerwig is writing and directing it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe I don’t …’”
You can’t have Barbie without Ken (or can you? The film seems to hint it’s a possibility …) and that role, in all its swim-trunked, bronzed-to-the-gods glory, falls to Canada’s own Ryan Gosling, lending the role a daffy charm.
Who are the Canadians in “Barbie”?
One of Barbie’s lesser known career pivots was to Mountie in 1987, so naturally there are plenty of Canadians in this film. Ryan Gosling, of course, plays Ken, Simu Liu is “another Ken” and Michael Cera plays Allan, a long discontinued character revived for the film.
Who’s in the supporting cast?
There are plenty of barbies and kens in the Dreamhouse! “Sex Education” star Emma Mackey plays a doll with a Nobel Prize, while new “Doctor Who” Ncuti Gatwa is a guitar-strumming doll. Pop star Dua Lipa is Mermaid Barbie, “Bridgerton’s” Nicola Coughlin is a diplomat doll.
Speaking of comedic heavyweights: Will Ferrell stars as a toy company executive, while Kate McKinnon is a barbie who “is always in the splits.” (No toy chest is complete without one.)
We could keep going — Hari Nef is Doctor Barbie, “Umbrella Academy” actor Ritu Arya is Pulitzer Prize-Winning Barbie, Emerald Fennell is a pregnant Midge — but if there’s a takeaway, beyond how stupendously fun this looks, it’s that this casting represents a diverse, inclusive Barbie Land.
Sarah Laing is a Toronto-based freelance contributor for The Kit, writing about celebrity and culture. Follow her on Twitter: @sarahjanelaing
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Pym actually had quite a lot to do in his third MCU outing. He somehow even managed to keep ants relevant in a story where one would think they’d have no place.
But would he come back for a fourth go?
According to the man behind the original Ant-Man, Michael Douglas recently admitted, he’d be up for another bout, so “long as [Hank Pym] could die.”
Hank Pym Almost Died
Marvel
In a new interview with Backstory Magazine, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness revealed that at one point, Michael Douglas’ character was going to meet his end by the time the franchise’s third film rolled its credits.
Not only were they “going to kill Hank at one point,” but the character’s “consciousness was going to live on through the ants:”
“We were going to kill Hank at one point, and I was going to have him be, like, reanimated. His consciousness was going to live on through the ants, and he was going to be like mentally controlling them. Yeah, he was going to be almost like this hive mind of the ants, and I like that… that didn’t go too far.”
Another cut sequence would have been “a psychological sequence” in Paul Rudd’s probability storm scene that would have included “a Cronenberg The Fly-like Ant:”
“There was a psychological sequence in that probability storm, or that quantum nexus, there was more of a dream sequence element to it. I had like a big, like man-sized ant that was going to be almost like a ninja turtle, the way they looked in that 90s movie, not CGI, make it almost like a Cronenberg ‘The Fly’-like Ant. And it was like in his head. I wanted it to be voiced by Werner Herzog and give it some sort of Holy Mountain kind of advice, some Vision Quest thing. That didn’t get in.”
Was Pym’s Death a Good or Bad Idea?
Like any movie, there will always be ideas that don’t make the cut. But, when it comes to these tidbits for Hank Pym, it’s probably best they never made it into the threequel.
Fans weren’t too keen on many parts of Quantumania, so it’s hard to see audiences reacting too well to an undead Hank Pym hive-mind. But his army of ants was pretty great, at the very least.
While Pym’s undead consciousness and a human-sized ant won’t ever be seen, hopefully, fans will get some fun deleted scenes when the project releases on home media.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is now playing in theaters worldwide.
Review: Fables #158 [Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Bill Willingham Art: Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha Colors: Lee Loughridge Letters: Todd Klein
Reviewed by: Matthew Lloyd
Summary
In which a nesting doll is revealed, an aerial dogfight occurs, and too many pay the price for living in an interesting world.
Positives
With Fables #158, things become more clear, and what I mean is that we can clearly see that Peter Pan is up to no good! Sure, it was obvious that was Tinkerbell since she first showed up in this series, but even now it’s hard to imagine Peter Pan as a villain. He’s clearly doing villainous things as he kills the magical creatures in Black Forest and even attempts to kill Connor Wolf. What’s not clear is how Peter Pan got this way. He mentions Geppetto in a manner that signifies that he knows Geppetto was The Adversary. Now, there’s no reason that this couldn’t be a fake Peter Pan, or someone in disguise, etc, but it’s even harder to believe villainy in Tinkerbell. Could she be under someone else’s control?
Positives Cont’d
In some ways it feels like there’s been a lot of set up for the first seven issues of “The Black Forest” arc. Thankfully, a lot of it comes to a head in Fables #158 as a clear dividing line is established. Green Jack’s sojourn into “our” world ended somewhat oddly last issue, and it seems to be pointless right now, but there’s always the chance things could develop as the arc concludes. For now, it’s gratifying to see Bigby come face to face with Green Jack.
Connor’s fight with Peter Pan demonstrates how powerful the Wolf children are. It was effective as it established some comparative power levels while not racing to the final showdown immediately. The development at the end of this issue with the introduction of the “spirit of the Black Forest” also ups the ante, not only introducing another player, but expanding the scope of the story.
Negatives
It’s a shame that the biggest negative for this issue and indeed, all the issues is the publication delays. The creative team is doing an outstanding job on the execution and it’s unfortunate that there have been these delays. It’s also not clear if this run of Fables ends with this story arc or if the series will continue on. Some evidence seems to suggest it’s a 12-issue arc, while others don’t. I do recommend a quick re-read of the previous issues to put one in the right mindset before reading Fables #158.
Verdict
Despite the two month wait since issue #157, Fables #158 does a solid job of catching the reader up on the state of events. Furthermore, the issue is a pretty important plot mover. There’s a culmination of plotlines that get the story to point where it feels like things are about to take off. A refresher will do the reader some good as there’s a lot to consider concerning the ever expanding cast. There’s just got to be more to Peter and Tinkerbell being villains, right?
The Festival international du film ethnographique du Québec (FIFEQ) is back in Montreal for a 19th edition! The only ethnographic film festival in Canada will take place from May 4 to May 11, 2023, in several cinemas in the city.
All the programming will be offered free of charge, with the exception of the opening night. The festival invites moviegoers to Cinéma Moderne, the Cinémathèque québécoise, Cinéma du Parc, and Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts’ cinema. An outdoor screening will also take place on the roof of the Rialto Theatre on the occasion of the closing night.
The festival will establish its headquarters at URSA, an intimate community and performance hall in the heart of Mile-End (5589, du Parc Ave.). There will be various activities, including performances and meetings with the public.
OPENING NIGHT
The opening night of the 19th edition of FIFEQ-MTL will take place on Thursday, May 4. It will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a screening of two films at Cinéma Moderne. Festival-goers will first be able to see the short film Inuktitut Languages in the 21st Century, produced and distributed by Wapikoni, in which director Ulivia Uviluk explores what is accessible on the Internet in Inuktitut, and how technologies can become allies of endangered languages. This will be followed by the presentation of the feature film Huahua’s Dazzling World and its Myriad Temptations by Daphne Xu, produced by Harvard University’s Sensory Ethnography Lab (SEL), which focuses on Huahua, an eccentric and exuberant woman from Xiong’an New Area who records herself live on the social network Kuaishou, creating a world with her own image.
The festivities will continue at Headquarters starting at 8:30 p.m. A meal will be offered to those present, who will then be able to enjoy an artistic performance and a DJ set. The only paid event of the festival, admission to this evening will cost $15 with film screening, or $12 without screening.
ETHNOGRAPHIC FILMS
A cinematic genre in its own right, the ethnographic film aims to apprehend reality and human experiences. It is not intended to explain a reality factually, but rather to illustrate it, or to make it felt. It can thus take the form of a documentary, fiction or an experimental work. The films carefully curated by the FIFEQ-MTL present everyday experiences from a fresh perspective: humanity, in all its diversity and universality.
Since its creation in 2003, the festival has been happy to give pride of place to Indigenous, Quebec, Canadian, and non-Western film productions. Through the discussions that follow the screenings, the festival team builds bridges between different backgrounds: academic, cultural and associative.
The complete program for the 19th edition of FIFEQ-MTL will be unveiled on Thursday, April 20, 2023.
About FIFEQ-MTL
The only festival of its kind in Canada, the FIFEQ-MTL aims to give a place to ethnographic film, a cinematic genre still little known, in the cultural sphere of Montreal, Quebec and Canada. The FIFEQ-MTL wishes to become a benchmark festival for auteur ethnographic cinema in North America and internationally.
The 19th edition of FIFEQ-MTL will take place from May 4 to 11, 2023.
Lady Gaga and Todd Phillips on the set of Joker: Folie à DeuxPhoto: Gotham/GC Images (Getty Images)
In what has become a strange little tradition for the supervillain sequel, Jokerdirector Todd Phillips—who was once “Hangover director Todd Phillips,” before he had one very good day (at the box office) several years back—has celebrated wrapping filming on his new movie Joker: Folie à Deuxby releasing a few more pictures of his stars, the returning Joaquin Phoenix and newcomer Lady Gaga.
Gordon Ramsay takes us behind the scenes at MasterChef
Phillips (who previously released a similar photo, just of Phoenix, back when filming began) released the pictures on his Instagram, along with a note thanking both Gaga and Phoenix, along with the rest of his cast and crew, for their hard work on the movie. Among other things, this is pretty much the clearest official look we’ve gotten at Gaga in the movie, where she’ll be playing the Joker-verse version of psychologist-turned-murder-clown Harley Quinn. (Last month, an outdoor shoot of the film produced plenty of pictures of Gaga descending a courthouse staircase in character, too.) Phoenix, meanwhile, doesn’t look that much different than he did in the first movie, although maybe a tad more put together than Arthur Fleck at his worst.
In addition to the photos, Phillips announced that he’ll now be locking himself away in the editing bay, completing the final cut of the movie, which is still, we hate to remind you, a damn long way away from coming out: Current release date is October 24, 2024, meaning you’ve still got 18 months to wait before you’ll get to see these two wacky lovebirds embrace their romance/killing spree. In addition to the duo, the Joker sequel will also star Zazie Beets, returning from the first film, alongside newcomers Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, and Harry Lawtey—no word as of yet on who any of those fine folk will be playing in the sequel.
Swiftie in her heart, sweatpants on her legs, Selena Gomez is still in her Eras era.
Less than a week ago, Gomez attended longtime friend Taylor Swift’s show in Arlington, Texas, wearing a Folklore-inspired outfit, along with her younger sister Gracie, who wore the Speak Now dress. And it seems like they stopped by the merch table. On the set of her Hulu mystery-comedy Only Murders in the Building, the actor was spotted wearing Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour sweatpants, presumably before shooting (Mabel Mora…swiftie? Seems like a stretch).
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 04: Selena Gomez is seen filming “Only Murders in the Building” in Washington Heights on April 04, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)Gotham
The Rare Beauty founder reflected on her Eras experience on Instagram, writing, “Thank you bestie for having me and my sissy transport into your mystical, euphoric and special world. Proud to know you! love you forever and always.” (“Forever & Always”…track from Fearless…real ones know.)
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In Wednesday’s A Million Little Things, Rome and Regina find a fantastic facility for Rome’s dad, Walter, whose struggle with dementia grows greater by the week. But once Walter is settled at his assisted-living center, Rome’s guilt kicks in, hard.
If the episode feels authentic to those who’ve had loved ones suffer from the disease, that’s because Marce Clarke — who penned the script — has lived it: Her father has vascular dementia, and when she wrote the hour, she was his 24/7 caregiver.
Read on to hear what Clarke has to say about how the ABC drama’s final season makes use of her bittersweet personal experience.
TVLINE | I’m really, really interested to talk to you, because both my mother and my grandmother who lived with us for most of my childhood had dementia. So I feel like I feel you on a certain level — so you have that background. Talk to me about plotting out how Walter’s illness was going to progress this season, what kind of input you gave and how you wanted to pace it. For me, the pacing was extremely important generally from the start to finish because we didn’t want it to go too quick and we didn’t want it to go too slow… I was living with my dad at the time, as well as writing. I took the brave step of moving in with him, which was kind of — yeah, I think I took too much on, but I wanted to do the right thing. I’m sure you empathize with, with that. You just want to do what’s right for your parents.
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But in terms of the show, I kind of was trying to parallel that with my journey as much as I could. So things like the [urinary tract infection] of it all. That was my input, because my dad had a UTI and I remember DJ [Nash, series creator] not wanting it to not be believable.. He wanted that story to be real when Walter goes into the school [in Episode 7], and stuff like that. And, I just said, “Look, my dad got a UTI, and it sent him bananas.
…I was also thinking about my family dynamic, the brother, sibling situation, I had the same situation and just trying to keep everyone happy but taking control, I was very much the person who was taking control. I had an input in that kind of storyline. So I was just trying to mirror my own life and A Million Little Things’ [writers’] room is so great for that because they really listen to you. It doesn’t matter what level you are as a writer. They allow you to bring your personal stories to the table and you’re really respected and heard. People were kind of looking for answers in that way. DJ is so sweet. Even though his father had dementia, he would always be, you know, “Does that ring true to you? Does that seem authentic?” And they really cared, as well. The person running the room, [co-executive producer] William Brown, was exactly the same.
TVLINE | This process sounds like it could be incredibly cathartic but also really painful. I don’t want to turn into your shrink, but how was it for your insides as you were doing this episode?
That’s a really good question, and that’s a really fair question. It was good for me because I was living in a house with my dad at the time, very much alone. [Laughs] Sorry to get the violins out, but it was. So I had the room to look forward to. They were kind of like my only source of company for quite a while. And because DJ — and Bill Brown and [consulting producter] Susan Jaffee — had been through that journey like yourself, I could talk to someone like you about it, because you’ve been through it as well. So we can empathize with each other. None of my friends have been through this, you know. My dad’s only 65.
Their parents are going along and living their lives and enjoying retirement. So I went from feeling very isolated to actually having a little family.
TVLINE | Is your dad still with us? How is he doing? He is. He’s in the moderate to severe stages. I had to move out in the end. I feared he was going to get aggressive. But we still go in… My family is so much more involved now, and it’s been great to have.
What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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:
The Screen Actors Guild Awards, hosted by SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), is an annual award show that has become one of the most important and key indicators for the Oscars.
The nominations are chosen by two committees, one for film and one for television, each numbering 2,100 randomly selected members from the union each year. The entire SAG membership of over 165,000 votes for the winners.
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Harry Shum Jr., Jenny Slate, Michelle Yeoh
Director: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Distributor: A24
Other nominees: “Babylon” (Paramount Pictures); “The Banshees of Inisherin” (Searchlight Pictures); “The Fabelmans” (Universal Pictures); “Women Talking” (MGM/United Artists Releasing)
Synopsis: A middle-aged Chinese immigrant is swept up into an insane adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” became the most awarded movie in SAG Awards history with four — ensemble, actress (Michelle Yeoh), supporting actor (Ke Huy Quan) and supporting actress (Jamie Lee Curtis) — all of which went on to win the Oscar in their respective categories.
In addition, “Everything Everywhere” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” tied the record for the most noms ever with five apiece, joining “Shakespeare in Love” (1998), “Chicago” (2002) and “Doubt” (2008). Losing all five of its categories, “Banshees” set the record for the most losses by a film.
Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan became the first Asian film winners in their respective categories.
A24 became the first studio to sweep all the televised awards for cast ensemble, actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress.
Other nominees: “Belfast” (Focus Features), “Don’t Look Up” (Netflix), “House of Gucci” (MGM/United Artists Releasing), “King Richard” (Warner Bros)
Synopsis: As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music by wanting to go to Berklee College of Music and her fear of abandoning her parents.
Eventual Oscar winner: “CODA”
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “CODA” became the first movie with primarily a deaf cast to win the SAG Awards’ top prize.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Niko Tavernise/Netflix
Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, Jeremy Strong
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Distributor: Netflix
Other nominees: “Da 5 Bloods” (Netflix), “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (Netflix), “Minari” (A24), “One Night in Miami” (Amazon Studios)
Synopsis: The story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Nomadland” (Searchlight Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: The four acting winners — Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) and Yuh-Jung Youn (“Minari”) — is the first time all four acting winners were POC. It’s also the first time both lead categories went to Black actors. In addition, it’s the third time both leading winners were from the same film after Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt for “As Good as It Gets” (1997) and Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening for “American Beauty” (1999).
Davis also became the first Black woman to win any of the SAG film categories more than once. She’s also the second person to win best actress twice after Frances McDormand (“Fargo” and “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”).
The fourth SAG winner for best cast ensemble to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars and failed to win a single statuette, following “American Hustle” (2013), “Hidden Figures” (2016) and “The Birdcage” (1996).
With his win for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Michael Keaton becomes the first actor to be part of three cast ensemble winning films along with “Birdman” (2014) and “Spotlight” (2015).
Parasite (2019)
Image Credit: CJ E&M
Cast: Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Jang Hye-jin, Jung Hyun-joon, Jung Ziso, Lee Jung-eun, Lee Sun-kyun, Park Myung-hoon, Park So-dam, Song Kang-ho
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Distributor: Neon
Other nominees: “Bombshell” (Lionsgate), “The Irishman” (Netflix), “Jojo Rabbit” (Fox Searchlight Pictures), “Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood” (Sony Pictures)
Synopsis: Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Parasite” (Neon)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Parasite” is the second non-English language film to be nominated for ensemble and the first to win the category. Bong Joon-ho is the first Asian director to helm a winner for cast ensemble. It’s the third movie to win cast ensemble and not be nominated in any other category after “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003) and “The Full Monty” (1997).
Emily Blunt won supporting actress for “A Quiet Place” and became the first female performance and second actor overall to win SAG and not receive an Oscar nomination. Eventual Oscar winner Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”) was not SAG nominated.
Cast: Angela Bassett, Chadwick Boseman, Sterling K. Brown, Winston Duke, Martin Freeman, Danai Gurira, Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker, Letitia Wright
Director: Ryan Coogler
Distributor: Marvel Studios
Other nominees: “BlacKkKlansman” (Focus Features), “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Paramount Pictures), “Crazy Rich Asians” (Warner Bros), “A Star is Born” (Warner Bros)
Synopsis: T’Challa, heir to the hidden but advanced kingdom of Wakanda, must step forward to lead his people into a new future and confront a challenger from his country’s past.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Green Book” (Universal Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Black Panther” became the first superhero movie to win best cast ensemble. “Black Panther” also has the record for the most Black actors awarded in its cast with 10.
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Image Credit: Fox Searchlight / Everett Collection
Cast: Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage, Woody Harrelson, John Hawkes, Lucas Hedges, Željko Ivanek, Caleb Landry Jones, Frances McDormand, Clarke Peters, Sam Rockwell, Samara Weaving
Director: Martin McDonagh
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Other nominees: “The Big Sick” (Amazon Studios), “Get Out” (Universal Pictures), “Lady Bird” (A24), “Mudbound” (Netflix)
Synopsis: A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter’s murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
Eventual Oscar winner: “The Shape of Water” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: Best actress winner Frances McDormand (“Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”) became the first person to win the category twice. Her first was for “Fargo” (1996).
Hidden Figures (2016)
Image Credit: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Cast: Mahershala Ali, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Taraji P. Henson, Aldis Hodge, Janelle Monáe, Jim Parsons, Glen Powell, Octavia Spencer
Director: Theodore Melfi
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Other nominees: “Captain Fantastic” (Bleecker Street), “Fences” (Paramount Pictures), “Manchester by the Sea” (Amazon Studios), “Moonlight” (A24)
Synopsis: A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Moonlight” (A24)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: The third SAG winner for best cast ensemble to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars and failed to win a single statuette, after “American Hustle” (2013) and “The Birdcage” (1996).
Spotlight (2015)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Open Road
Cast: Billy Crudup, Brian d’Arcy James, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci
Director: Tom McCarthy
Distributor: Open Road Films
Other nominees: “Beasts of No Nation” (Netflix), “The Big Short” (Paramount Pictures), “Straight Outta Compton” (Universal Pictures), “Trumbo” (Bleecker Street)
Synopsis: The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Spotlight” (Open Road Films)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Beasts of No Nation” ties the record for smallest nominated cast with three, alongside “Million Dollar Baby” (2004). “Beasts” supporting actor winner Idris Elba, also became the first person to win SAG and fail to receive an Oscar nomination.
Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Licensing/Merchandising / Everett Collection
Cast: Zach Galifianakis, Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Other nominees: “Boyhood” (IFC Films), “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (Fox Searchlight Pictures), “The Imitation Game” (The Weinstein Company), “The Theory of Everything” (Focus Features)
Synopsis: A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Birdman” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Birdman” is the first film directed by a Latino filmmaker to win cast ensemble.
Cast: Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Louis C.K., Bradley Cooper, Jack Huston, Jennifer Lawrence, Alessandro Nivola, Michael Peña, Jeremy Renner, Elisabeth Röhm, Shea Whigham
Director: David O. Russell
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Other nominees: “12 Years a Slave” (Fox Searchlight Pictures), “August: Osage County” (The Weinstein Company), “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” (The Weinstein Company), “Dallas Buyers Club” (Focus Features)
Synopsis: A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild F.B.I. Agent Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and the Mafia.
Eventual Oscar winner: “12 Years a Slave” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: The second SAG winner for best cast ensemble to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars and failed to win a single statuette (“Hustle” was nominated for 10 Academy Awards). The first was “The Birdcage” (1996).
Cast: Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, Kerry Bishé, Kyle Chandler, Rory Cochrane, Bryan Cranston, Christopher Denham, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Victor Garber, John Goodman, Scoot McNairy, Chris Messina
Director: Ben Affleck
Distributor: Warner Bros
Other nominees: “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Fox Searchlight Pictures), “Les Misérables” (Universal Pictures), “Lincoln” (Touchstone Pictures), “Silver Linings Playbook” (The Weinstein Company)
Synopsis: Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Argo” (Warner Bros)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: The first SAG winner in history that had the director part of its winning cast.
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Sissy Spacek, Octavia Spencer, Mary Steenburgen, Emma Stone, Cicely Tyson, Mike Vogel
Director: Tate Taylor
Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
Other nominees: “The Artist” (The Weinstein Company), “Bridesmaids” (Universal Pictures), “The Descendants” (Fox Searchlight Pictures), “Midnight in Paris” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Synopsis: An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids’ point of view on the white families for which they work and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Eventual Oscar winner: “The Artist” (The Weinstein Company)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: Viola Davis (“The Help”) became the second Black woman to win best actress. In addition to Davis’ co-star Octavia Spencer winning supporting actress, it was the first time two Black women won film prizes.
Cast: Anthony Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush, Timothy Spall
Director: Tom Hooper
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Other nominees: “Black Swan” (Fox Searchlight Pictures), “The Fighter” (Paramount Pictures), “The Kids Are All Right” (Focus Features), “The Social Network” (Sony Pictures)
Synopsis: The story of King George VI, his impromptu ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
Eventual Oscar winner: “The King’s Speech” (The Weinstein Company)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: The second time all nominated films for cast ensemble translated to best picture nominees at the Oscars after 2001. It’s the first (and still only as of 2023) in the expanded best picture era (after 2009).
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Image Credit: Francois Duhamel
Cast: Daniel Brühl, August Diehl, Julie Dreyfus, Michael Fassbender, Sylvester Groth, Jacky Ido, Diane Kruger, Mélanie Laurent, Denis Menochet, Mike Myers, Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, Rod Taylor, Christoph Waltz, Martin Wuttke
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Other nominees: “An Education” (Sony Pictures Classics), “The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment), “Nine” (The Weinstein Company), “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate)
Synopsis: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner’s vengeful plans for the same.
Eventual Oscar winner: “The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment)
Cast: Rubina Ali, Tanay Hemant Chheda, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, Madhur Mittal, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto
Director: Danny Boyle
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Other nominees: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount Pictures), “Doubt” (Miramax Films), “Frost/Nixon” (Universal Pictures), “Milk” (Focus Features)
Synopsis: A Mumbai teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”
Eventual Oscar winner: “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Slumdog Millionaire” currently holds the record (as of 2023) for the most Asian actors awarded as part of its cast with 11, followed by “Parasite” (2019) with 10.
Kate Winslet won best supporting actress for “The Reader” but was nominated and won best actress at the Academy Awards. She became the second performer to win both SAG and Oscars in two separate categories. The first was Benicio del Toro for “Traffic” (2000).
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Miramax/Everett Collection
Cast: Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Garret Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Kelly Macdonald
Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Distributor: Miramax
Other nominees: “3:10 to Yuma” (Lionsgate), “American Gangster” (Universal Pictures), “Hairspray” (New Line Cinema), “Into the Wild” (Paramount Vantage)
Synopsis: Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
Eventual Oscar winner: “No Country for Old Men” (Miramax)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: With only “No Country for Old Men,” it’s the first (and as of 2023, the only) cast ensemble lineup to only have one Oscar nominee for best picture.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Searchlight/Everett Collection
Cast: Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Greg Kinnear
Director: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Other nominees: “Babel” (Paramount Vantage), “Bobby” (Metro-Goldwyn Mayer), “The Departed” (Warner Bros), “Dreamgirls” (Paramount Pictures)
Synopsis: A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
Eventual Oscar winner: “The Departed” (Warner Bros)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Little Miss Sunshine” is the first film by two directors to win cast ensemble. It’s also the first (and as of 2022 only) film to be directed by a woman to win cast ensemble.
Marked the first time three Black actors won film awards — Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland”), Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”).
“Bobby” holds the record for the largest cast ever nominated with 24 credited actors.
Crash (2005)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate
Cast: Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate
Director: Paul Haggis
Distributor: Lionsgate
Other nominees: “Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features), “Capote” (Sony Pictures Classics), “Good Night, and Good Luck.” (Warner Independent Pictures), “Hustle & Flow” (Paramount Pictures)
Synopsis: Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Crash” (Lionsgate)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: Ziyi Zhang from “Memoirs of a Geisha” became the first Asian nominated for best actress. She did not receive an Oscar nomination.
Cast: Thomas Haden Church, Paul Giamatti, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh
Director: Alexander Payne
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Other nominees*: “The Aviator” (Warner Bros), “Finding Neverland” (Miramax), “Hotel Rwanda” (MGM Distribution Co), “Million Dollar Baby” (Warner Bros), “Ray” (Universal Pictures)
Synopsis: Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment embark on a week-long road trip through California’s wine country just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Million Dollar Baby” (Warner Bros)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Sideways” holds the record for the smallest winning cast with four.
The first time the cast ensemble lineup recognized six films due to a tie. “Million Dollar Baby” set the record for the smallest nominated cast nominated with three.
Catalina Sandino Moreno became the second Latina nominated for best actress after Salma Hayek for “Frida” (2002). She’s also the first lead actress recognized for a non-English language performance.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Cast: Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Bernard Hill, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, John Noble, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, Elijah Wood
Director: Peter Jackson
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Other nominees: “In America” (Fox Searchlight Pictures), “Mystic River” (Warner Bros), “Seabiscuit” (Fox Searchlight Pictures), “The Station Agent” (Miramax)
Synopsis: Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron’s army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.
Eventual Oscar winner: “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (New Line Cinema)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” becomes the second movie to win cast ensemble after “The Full Monty” (1997).
Cast: Christine Baranski, Ekaterina Chtchelkanova, Taye Diggs, Denise Faye, Colm Feore, Richard Gere, Deidre Goodwin, Queen Latifah, Lucy Liu, Susan Misner, Mýa, John C. Reilly, Dominic West, Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Director: Rob Marshall
Distributor: Miramax
Other nominees: “Adaptation.” (Sony Pictures), “The Hours” (Paramount Pictures), “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (New Line Cinema), “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (IFC Films)
Synopsis: Two death-row murderesses develop a fierce rivalry while competing for publicity, celebrity, and a sleazy lawyer’s attention.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Chicago” (Miramax)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Chicago” becomes the first (as of 2023, the only) musical to win cast ensemble.
Salma Hayek became the first Latina to be nominated for best actress for her performance in “Frida.”
Cast: Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Tom Hollander, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Geraldine Somerville, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sophie Thompson, Emily Watson, James Wilby
Director: Robert Altman
Distributor: USA Films
Other nominees: “A Beautiful Mind” (Universal Pictures), “In the Bedroom” (Miramax), “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (New Line Cinema), “Moulin Rouge!” (20th Century Fox)
Synopsis: Set in the 1930s, this movie brings a group of pretentious rich, and famous together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.
Eventual Oscar winner: “A Beautiful Mind” (Universal Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: The first time the five movies nominated for cast ensemble matched the Academy Award nominees for best picture. “Gosford Park” has the largest cast to ever win cast ensemble with 20.
Halle Berry became the second Black woman nominated for lead actress for “Monster’s Ball,” and the first Black woman to win the prize. She went on to become the first Black woman to win the Oscar in the same category.
Cast: Steven Bauer, Benjamin Bratt, James Brolin, Don Cheadle, Erika Christensen, Clifton Collins Jr., Michael Douglas, Miguel Ferrer, Albert Finney, Topher Grace, Luis Guzmán, Amy Irving, Tomas Milian, D. W. Moffett, Dennis Quaid, Peter Riegert, Benicio del Toro, Jacob Vargas, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Distributor: USA Films
Other nominees: “Almost Famous” (DreamWorks Pictures), “Billy Elliot” (Universal International Pictures), “Chocolat” (Miramax), “Gladiator” (DreamWorks Pictures)
Synopsis: A conservative judge is appointed by the President to spearhead America’s escalating war against drugs, only to discover that his teenage daughter is a crack addict. Two DEA agents protect an informant. A jailed drug baron’s wife attempts to carry on the family business.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Gladiator” (DreamWorks Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: Benicio del Toro won best actor for “Traffic” but was nominated and eventually won best supporting actor at the Oscars, becoming the first performer to win both awards in separate categories.
Cast: Annette Bening, Wes Bentley, Thora Birch, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, Kevin Spacey, Mena Suvari
Director: Sam Mendes
Distributor: DreamWorks Pictures
Other nominees: “Being John Malkovich” (USA Films), “The Cider House Rules” (Miramax), “The Green Mile” (Warner Bros), “Magnolia” (New Line Cinema)
Synopsis: A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter’s best friend.
Eventual Oscar winner: “American Beauty” (DreamWorks Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “American Beauty” is the first (as of 2023 the only movie) to win cast ensemble and the two leading prizes for Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening. It’s the second time in SAG history the two leading winners were from the same film after Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt for “As Good as It Gets” (1997).
Cast: Ben Affleck, Simon Callow, Jim Carter, Martin Clunes, Judi Dench, Joseph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Antony Sher, Imelda Staunton, Tom Wilkinson
Director: John Madden
Distributor: Miramax
Other nominees: “Life is Beautiful” (Miramax), “Little Voice” (Miramax), “Saving Private Ryan” (DreamWorks Pictures), “Waking Ned” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Synopsis: The world’s greatest-ever playwright, William Shakespeare, is young, out of ideas, and short of cash, but meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Shakespeare in Love” (Miramax)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “Shakespeare in Love” became the first (as of 2023, the only) film to receive a nomination in all four acting categories for Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush and Judi Dench.
“Life is Beautiful” is the first non-English language film nominated for cast ensemble.
Cast: Mark Addy, Paul Barber, Robert Carlyle, Deirdre Costello, Steve Huison, Bruce Jones, Lesley Sharp, William Snape, Hugo Speer, Tom Wilkinson, Emily Woof
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Other nominees: “Boogie Nights” (New Line Cinema), “Good Will Hunting” (Miramax), “L.A. Confidential” (Warner Bros), “Titanic” (20th Century Fox/Paramount Pictures)
Synopsis: Six unemployed steel workers form a male striptease act. The women cheer them on to go for “the full monty” – total nudity.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Titanic” (20th Century Fox/Paramount Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “The Full Monty” became the first film to win cast ensemble without receiving a nomination in any other category.
Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt became the first lead acting winners to come from the same movie, “As Good as It Gets.”
The SAG best actress lineup had six nominees for the first time, due to a tie — Hunt, Helena Bonham Carter (“The Wings of the Dove”), Judi Dench (“Mrs. Brown”), Pam Grier (“Jackie Brown”), Kate Winslet (“Titanic”) and Robin Wright (“She’s So Lovely”).
Grier became the first Black woman nominated for lead actress. However, she did not receive an Oscar nomination.
Cast: Hank Azaria, Christine Baranski, Dan Futterman, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest, Robin Williams
Director: Mike Nichols
Distributor: MGM/United Artists
Other nominees: “The English Patient” (Miramax), “Marvin’s Room” (Miramax), “Shine” (Fine Line Features), “Sling Blade” (Miramax)
Synopsis: A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée’s right-wing moralistic parents.
Eventual Oscar winner: “The English Patient” (Miramax)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: “The Birdcage” is the first film (and as of 2023, the only) to win cast ensemble without being nominated for best picture. Furthermore, it’s also the least nominated SAG winner at the Oscars with one for costume design.
SAG nominee for best actor Billy Bob Thornton (“Sling Blade”) is the first person to receive an acting nomination for a movie he also wrote and directed.
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, Bill Paxton, Kathleen Quinlan, Gary Sinise
Director: Ron Howard
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Other nominees: “Get Shorty” (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), “How to Make an American Quilt” (Universal Pictures), “Nixon” (Buena Vista Pictures), “Sense and Sensibility” (Sony Pictures)
Synopsis: NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.
Eventual Oscar winner: “Braveheart” (Paramount Pictures)
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: Jocelyn Moorhouse is the first woman to direct a film nominated for cast ensemble with “How to Make an American Quilt.”
Ang Lee is the first Asian person to direct a film nominated for cast ensemble.
Category Not Active in 1994
Image Credit: Courtesy of Paramount
The inaugural Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony did not have the category for best cast ensemble. However, they did have the television equivalent of the category for drama and comedy series.
Notable facts and superlatives from the ceremony: The first-ever SAG ceremony aired on NBC from Stage 12 at Universal Studios in Hollywood. The acting winners were Tom Hanks (“Forrest Gump”), Jodie Foster (“Nell”), Martin Landau (“Ed Wood”) and Dianne Wiest (“Bullets over Broadway”). Only Foster failed to go on to win the Academy Award.
SAG Notable Facts and Figures
Image Credit: Getty Images
Thirteen winners for best cast ensemble have won the Oscar for best picture.
Four films have won the Oscar for best picture without being nominated for cast ensemble: “Braveheart” (1995), “The Shape of Water” (2017), “Green Book” (2018) and “Nomadland” (2020).
Only one film has won cast ensemble without being nominated for best picture: MGM/UAR’s “The Birdcage” (1996)
11 women have directed films nominated for cast ensemble: Jocelyn Moorhouse (“How to Make an American Quilt”), Valerie Faris (“Little Miss Sunshine”), Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”), Lone Scherfig (“An Education”), Lisa Cholodenko (“The Kids Are All Right”), Dee Rees (“Mudbound”), Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), Regina King (“One Night in Miami”), Siân Heder (“CODA”) and Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”). None have done it a second time. Faris and Heder are the only winners to date.
The directors whose movies have been nominated for cast ensemble the most: Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Peter Jackson, David O. Russell, Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott’s films have been nominated three times.
No director has helmed a SAG ensemble winner more than once.
The record for the most nominations for cast ensemble solely is Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt with seven each.
The studio that has won the most cast ensemble prizes – Fox Searchlight Pictures (now Searchlight Pictures) with six: “The Full Monty” (1997), “Sideways” (2004), “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006), “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008), “Birdman” (2014) and “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017)
A24 is the only studio to win five film awards in one year: 2022 with “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and its actors Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, and Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”).
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” holds the record for the most wins with four — cast ensemble, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress.
Five movies have received the most SAG Award nominations in one year, with five apiece: “Shakespeare in Love” (1998), “Chicago” (2002), “Doubt” (2008), “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” “Banshees” is the only film not to win any of its categories.
The studio with the most nominations for cast ensemble: Fox Searchlight Pictures (now Searchlight Pictures) with 16.
Two studios have had the most films nominated for cast ensemble in a single year – Netflix in 2020 (“Da 5 Bloods,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) and Miramax has done it twice: in 1996 (“The English Patient,” “Marvin’s Room” and “Sling Blade”) and 1998 (“Life is Beautiful,” “Little Voice” and “Shakespeare in Love”). 1996 is the only year that all three of its nominees lost, coincidentally, to a film that wasn’t nominated for best picture, “The Birdcage.”
Despite working in a notoriously revved-up genre, Ohio pop-punkers the Sidekicks tended to sound cheerful and laid back during their 14-year run. After the band broke up in 2020, frontman Steven Ciolek further opened up his songwriting with his solo project Superviolet, this time using breezy acoustic guitar to match the relaxed mood. “Big Songbirds Don’t Cry,” the latest single from his upcoming album, Infinite Spring, centers around a hypnotic, nimble guitar refrain that’s like Elliott Smith covering “Dear Prudence.” Ciolek hints at his own jealousy and suppressed sadness, bringing up songbirds as a way of indirectly speaking about himself; his lyrics are tongue-in-cheek and affecting, balancing calculated wordplay with the humor of understatement. “Tell Trevor or whatever that his time is up,” he jokes from inside a low-lit sports bar, before delivering a double entendre: “And if he walks through that door/I’m sure I’ll clean his clock.” The song ends in an indie rock crescendo of electric guitar echoes, cooed vocal harmonies, and a roving bass line. Ciolek laments how the metaphorical songbirds “couldn’t quite hit that note right,” but everything seems perfectly pitched on this tenderhearted song.
In Jonathan Becker and Anthony Pitsilos’ short film, Hermie, an ocean scientist, Henry (Mike Schminke), is nervously rehearsing his speech in the hotel restroom. Appearing mysteriously from the restroom plumbing is Henry’s pet hermit crab from childhood, Hermie (Ron E. Rains), with dire news. Hermie’s natural habitat is being destroyed to build some beachfront development. Hermie has an important ask of Henry.
“…Hermie’s natural habitat is being destroyed to build some beachfront development.”
Hermie is about as simple and efficient as you get with a short film. It takes place inside a hotel restroom, and directors Becker and Pitsilos navigate the angles masterfully. Yet, the spotlight of Hermie is the animated crab, and the little guy is impressive. I’m still guessing whether it’s a stop-motion animation puppet or if he’s completely computer generated. Suffice it to say, Hermie looks great, and the voice acting from Ron E. Rains brings him to life.
Running at eleven minutes, Hermie gets in and quickly hits on the theme that can apply to almost any crisis…the environment in this case. Henry is the guy who would rather talk about a crisis rather than do something about it, which leads to an interesting and even heartbreaking ending. Take heed, if you’re going to make me think deeply about myself, then make it fun, and that pretty much sums up Hermie.
If you see smoke coming from the Gallaghers Canyon area, don’t be alarmed.
Westbank First Nation (WFN) is conducting a prescribed burn in the area this week and they’re doing more than clearing up potential wildfire fuel.
WFN members are carefully setting fire to grasslands east of Kelowna, B.C., which they say is in critical need of a burn.
“Fire’s been taken out of the ecosystem for way too long. Natural grasslands are sort of overgrown with weeds and grass from actual trees, which it’s not healthy for a natural grassland,” said Ntityix Development Corporation CEO Mic Werstuik.
WFN in partnership with BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) is setting this land ablaze, a tradition dating back to when Indigenous firekeepers used to perform the same task.
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“The fire is really good to replenish. When we practice the burn there’s a good opportunity for animals to have and us to have nutritious foods,” said Syilx knowledge keeper Spaxwawlm Krystal Lezard.
WFN is planning to burn 18 hectares throughout the next couple of days, a practice they haven’t done in a few years.
“It used to happen every year but for years and years and years, the use of fire was taken out of our toolkit as Sylix people because of the fear of fire getting away, but we’ve utilized fire as a tool for thousands of years,” Werstuik said.
The cultural burn teaches young Indigenous people the generational traditions, while they provide rejuvenated land to animals and clear away any debris.
“The things that we’re doing is taking fuel that’s built up over years and burning it off, so when the fire does come through, it’s just gonna be like this, a grass fire,” said Werstuik.
The burn creates collaboration between WFN and BCWS, however, some say they would’ve liked to see it happen earlier.
“I know it took a lot to plan this and get everybody together, but these conversations and this work has been long overdue for our people because we’ve wanted to do this forever,” Lezard said.
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The burning should be completed by the end of the week.
Oh, baby! Hollywood stars including Brody Jenner, Logic and more are expanding their families by welcoming new babies in 2023.
The former The Hills star announced on January 1 that girlfriend Tia Blancopregnant with their first child. “To start off this new year, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish all of our friends, family and followers health, happiness & an abundance of love,” Jenner and the pro surfer captioned a joint Instagram video of Blanco getting a sonogram. “We truly appreciate & love you all. We are excited to share with you the blessing of a new life in the new year.”
The pair, who were first linked in spring 2022, added: “Our little angel is on their way ? Happy new year!”
In the social media footage, the Mamitas founder seemed to be in awe as he looked over the little one’s features during the ultrasound. “Honey, look at that little heart,” Jenner said in the video. “What?!?”
The Princes of Malibu alum is the younger son of Caitlyn JennerandLinda Thompson, who were married between 1981 and 1986. Thompson commented on the post that she was “so happy” the big secret was finally out.
Brody wasn’t the only one with a New Year’s Day announcement. Logic and his wife, Brittney Noell, also shared a video of an ultrasound to announce that they’re expecting a little bundle of joy.
Noell, who founded a clothing line called Sweet Cream with her husband, captioned the clip, “Baby Hall #2 coming 2023.”
Logic (real name Robert Bryson Hall) and Noell said “I do” in 2019 and quietly welcomed son Bobby in 2020. “Privacy with family is something that is very important to me,” the “1-800-273-8255” performer wrote in a July 2020 Instagram post. “However my fans have been my family since this all started so I wanted to share with you a glimpse into the life I am now diving into head first. I would like you to meet LB as we call him, Little Bobby.”
He continued: “And my beautiful wife Brittney who is an incredible mother. These two make me the happiest man in the world and it’s a happiness nothing else has ever been able to fulfill.”
On March 14, Lindsay Lohan confirmed to Us Weekly that she is pregnant with her and husband Bader Shammas‘ first child. “We are very excited for our new family member to arrive and we are looking forward to this next chapter of our lives!” the Freaky Friday star said in a statement.
The Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen actress also shared the exciting news via Instagram by posting a picture of a baby onesie that reads, “Coming soon.” She captioned the post, “We are blessed and excited!”
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Scroll down to see all the stars who announced in 2023 they are expecting little ones:
WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Wednesday night’s episode of “The Masked Singer”
Wednesday night marked the end of the road for Doll on “The Masked Singer” but, as it turns out, we almost met him on that stage much sooner — like, eight seasons ago.
Despite coming in as the reigning champ on Wednesday, Doll couldn’t extend his streak into another week. At the end of the night, it was revealed that Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider was the man behind the mask (which, admittedly, a whole lot of fans figured out pretty early on). Turns out, Snider was actually asked to be part of the show’s inaugural season in the U.S.
“Well, OK, I’m gonna tell you a little secret. They asked me to be on the first season. I said, ‘No, this show will never work,’” Snider told to TheWrap with a laugh. “Cut to nine seasons later, and they call and go, ‘Are you ready to be on now?’ I’m like ‘Yes! I was wrong, I admit it. You were right, it’s a big show, people love it. Yes. Thank you for asking me again!’”
And Snider will be the first to admit that he’s had bad judgement on other projects in the past.
“I did the same thing with ‘Sharknado,’” he explained. “They asked me to be in the first one, I go, ‘This will never work!’ Cut to six movies later, there I am in Romania, dressed as a cowboy, going, ‘I was wrong, you were right, this was a big movie.’ So anyway, yeah, it’s pretty funny.”
Of course, Snider admits that both his wife and his management teamed also made sure to yell at him this time around to get him to go on the show. But, he also wanted to show people that he could be more than just the hardcore singer of “Twisted Sister.”
“I was really anxious for people to see me, you know, not just going, ‘We’re not gonna –.’ You know, doing that,” Snider said. “I mean, I did a show on Broadway called ‘Rocktopia.’ And in the show, I had sang Led Zeppelin, I sang Aerosmith, I sang opera. And every night, outside the sage door I’d sign autographs. People come up going, ‘Dee, I didn’t know you could sing!’”
“I’d go, ‘What?’ They’d go, ‘I didn’t know you could sing!’ I’d go, ‘Well what do you think I’ve been doing the last 40…?’ And they go, ‘Oh, but that’s Twisted Sister.’ … They were blown away because they didn’t expect that from Dee Snider. So I was hoping to get more opportunity to show that [with ‘The Masked Singer’].”
That said, another part of him was totally fine with being eliminated after just two episodes.
“It’s very difficult. And I can’t express that to you,” he said. “When you’re in that, you’re just so disconnected from the outside world. You’ll you have the earpieces in and you just — it’s weird. So on that level, you can’t wait to get that thing off.”
“The Masked Singer” airs on Wednesdays on Fox at 8 p.m. ET.
A drug dealer who sold the deadly fentanyl-laced heroin packet to “The Wire” actor Michael K. Williams pleaded guilty Wednesday in New York, according to multiple media reports.
Irvin Cartagena was accused of selling the drugs to Williams on Sept. 5, 2021 in Brooklyn. He appeared Wednesday and pleaded guilty to one count of “conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl analogue, fentanyl, and heroin.”
Cartagena will be sentenced later this year, and faces a mandatory minimum of five years in state prison. He was arrested in February of last year after an extensive investigation that used camera footage and other forensic sources showing Cartagena and accomplices continued peddling powders after hearing of Williams’ death.
Williams had been shooting “Lovecraft Country” for HBO when his body was discovered in his New York apartment. It was determined that he died from an accidental overdose from the combined effects of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.
When Rolling Stone broke the news back in January that Boygenius — Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker — had reunited and made their first full-length album, it felt like the first time in ages that young music fans were truly excited about a band. The album in question, The Record, more than lives up to expectations, with Rolling Stone‘s Rob Sheffield giving it an “instant classic” rating.
The new episode of our weekly Rolling Stone Music Now digs deep into the band and the album, with Angie Martoccio, who wrote the cover story, joining host Brian Hiatt. Find it here at the podcast provider of your choice, go directly to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above. In the episode, we go track-by-track through the album, and look back at the solo discographies of each member as well.
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One highlight from The Record, “Leonard Cohen,” has already sparked some mild social-media backlash from Cohen fans due to one hilariously cheeky verse: “Leonard Cohen once said ‘There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in,’” Dacus sings. “And I am not an old man having an existential crisis/At a Buddhist monastery writing horny poetry/But I agree.” While defending the line, we also point out that Cohen was only 48 when he wrote the “Anthem” line in question, and that he didn’t make his sojourn to a monastery until well after it was released. (Also, there’s discussion of the fact that Lana Del Rey also pays homage to the very same line in the very same Cohen song on her just-released track “Kintsugi,” as discussed on last week’s episode.
Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone‘s weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). Check out six years’ worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth, career-spanning interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Halsey, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Rick Ross, Alicia Keys, the National, Ice Cube, Taylor Hawkins, Willow, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Dua Lipa, Questlove, Killer Mike, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Liam Gallagher, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, John Legend, Donald Fagen, Charlie Puth, Phil Collins, Justin Townes Earle, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Eddie Van Halen, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, Gary Clark Jr., and many others. Plus, there are dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates, and explainers with Rolling Stone’s critics and reporters.
Stephen Curry will star in and produce an upcoming NBC comedy series about a struggling sports memorabilia dealer, according to reports.
In “Mr. Throwback,” which is described as a mockumentary, actor-comedian Adam Pally will play the troubled dealer. He looks to rebound by joining forces with a teammate from his sixth-grade basketball team, played by the Golden State Warriors star, according to Deadline. Curry’s Unanimous Media will executive produce the show with Universal Television.
The show’s creator, David Caspe, was behind other comedy shows, such as Showtime’s “Black Monday,” NBC sitcoms “Kenan” and “Marry Me” and ABC’s Pally-starring “Happy Endings.”
“Making the natural transition from behind the camera to center stage opposite Adam Pally, we can’t wait for the world to see what we have in store,” Curry told Deadline.
The two-time NBA MVP has worked in entertainment as a producer — for ABC’s sports competition show “Holey Moley” and the Apple+ docuseries “Underrated,” which is about Curry’s career. He also had an acting role, a brief scene during the third season of HBO series “Ballers,” which stars Dwayne Johnson, and he has voiced himself in “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy.” Curry also appeared in an ad for Jordan Peele’s 2022 sci-fi thriller, “Nope.”
Curry’s new co-star, Pally, took to Twitter to celebrate the announcement of the new show, writing: “have been telling you for years that me, Caspe and @StephenCurry30 are best friends forever and now look what happened?!?!?!?!?!?!”
“Looks like the splash bro’s were triplets?!” Pally said in a separate post to Instagram, referring to Caspe and the show’s writing duo, brothers Matthew Libman and Daniel Libman. Curry and his Warriors teammate Klay Thompson are referred to as the Splash Brothers due to their record-setting ability to splash three-point shots.
Curry’s Warriors are days away from heading into the NBA playoffs, where they hope to defend their championship after defeating the Boston Celtics in 2022.
The first trailer for the upcoming Disney + series Secret Invasion finally dropped last week, and it is a doozy.
The six-episode series has been called a “crossover event” by Marvel President Kevin Feige, and will tie in heavily to future MCU films, particularly the The Marvels.
Photo: Marvel
Secret invasion will pick up an underlying story line from Captain Marvel. That film ended with the revelation that Skrulls had infiltrated Earth and were masquerading as humans.
When a rebel Skrull faction is discovered to harbor plans to launch a full scale infiltration of Earth, Nick Fury joins allies Everett Ross, Maria Hill and Talos (a Skrull) to thwart the invasion.
Photo: Marvel
“One Last Fight”
The trailer for the upcoming series begins with Fury returning to Earth after a long absence.
“Since you’ve been gone, things have gotten much worse,” Talos warns him on his arrival.
Photo: Marvel
“Why do you think I came back?” Fury retorts.
In what seems like a very personal battle for Nick Fury, the master spy is hellbent on fighting the upcoming invasion alone.
Photo: Marvel
Amidst scenes of public violence, shapeshifting Skrulls, and battered allies, Nick Fury remains resolute.
Even when James Rhodes warns Nick Fury that he is the most wanted man on the planet, Fury is not deterred.
Photo: Marvel
The Next Marvel Series
In addition to returning stars Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, and Ben Medelsohn, the series will also introduce Emilia Clarke as Talos’ daughter Abigail Brand.
Image: Marvel
Secret Invasion will hit Disney + on June 21!
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If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, what are you waiting for!
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods may be the titular character’s last adventure; if it is, it will be an epic goodbye full of surprises for DC Comics fans. Four years after the release of the first movie, the World’s Mightiest Mortal is back, now with a whole family of superheroes behind him to defeat evil.
The upcoming sequel will see Asher Angel and Zachary Levi´s Billy Batson face the fierce daughters of Atlas in the form of Helen Mirren as Hespera, Lucy Liu as Kalypso, and Rachel Zegler as Anthea, who will arrive on Earth to reclaim a power that was stolen from them. To protect their planet, Billy and his powerful brothers and sister will team up to stop them, but it won’t be easy.
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The David F. Sandberg-directed sequel will bring an epic battle between good and evil but will also feature a few unexpected surprises, as a recently leaked scene shows. Via House of DC, we get a new look at the film that includes the participation of a fan-favorite actor:
The video teases the appearance of Diedrich Bader, who has been voicing the iconic DC hero in various animated projects for years. He seems to be playing a school teacher who stops a bully from attacking Jack Dylan Grazer’s Freddie. The scene also shows new content of Rachel Zegler’s character disguised as a student.
The long-awaited sequel is part of the four films from the franchise that will premiere this year, all conceived under the previous administration. Now, everything could change with James Gunn and Peter Safran in charge.
The Flash will work as a reboot for the whole universe, meaning some of the characters we met could change with new actors playing them or even not being part of the franchise at all. The only one that seems to be safe is Xolo Mariduena’s Jaime Reyes, who will debut in the Blue Beetle movie in August.
Apart from him, Zachary Levi, Ezra Miller, and Jason Momoa’s continuity are up to the new CEOs of DC Studios and the performance of their movies. For now, the new DCU will officially kick off in 2024 with the premiere of Waller, the previously announced series that will follow Viola Davis’ character and include the participation of some Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad characters, so some familiar faces will be part of the future.
AI normally needs to be trained on existing material to detect objects, but Meta has a way for the technology to spot items without help. The social media giant has published a “Segment Anything” AI model that can detect objects in pictures and videos even if they weren’t part of the training set. You can select items by clicking them or using free-form text prompts. As Reutersexplains, you can type the word “cat” and watch the AI highlight all the felines in a given photo.
The model can also work in tandem with other models. It can help reconstruct an object in 3D using a single image, or draw from views from a mixed reality headset. Effectively, Segment Anything can limit the need for additional AI training.
Both the AI model and a dataset will be downloadable with a non-commercial license. That is, creators can’t use it for products. This is primarily for research and expanding access to the technology. Right now, Meta uses somewhat similar tech to moderate banned content, recommend posts and tag photos.
The developers acknowledge that the existing model is flawed. It might miss finer details, and isn’t as accurate at detecting the boundaries as some models. And while Segment Anything can handle prompts in real-time, it bogs down when demanding image processing is involved. Some more specialized AI tools are likely to outperform this model in their respective fields, Meta says.
You aren’t about to see this AI in robots or other devices where fast, accurate object detection is (usually) vital. However, models like this may still help in situations where it’s impractical to rely exclusively on training data. A social network could use the tech to keep up with a rapidly growing volume of content. If nothing else, this shows that Meta wants to generalize computer vision.
Meta is no stranger to sharing AI breakthroughs, such a translator for unwritten languages. With that said, there’s pressure on the company to show that it’s as much of a powerhouse in the category as tech heavyweights like Google and Microsoft. It’s already planning generative AI “personas” for its social apps, and inventions like Segment Anything show that it has a few advantages of its own.
Editors note:This review was originally published March 19 after its world premiere at SXSW.
Did you know that Michael Jordan makes $400 million a year in passive income due to the percentage he gets from the sale of Air Jordans? To understand how this came to be, we must travel back to the 1980s and the campus of famed sneaker label Nike. The story is the subject of Ben Affleck’s newest film Air. Written by Alex Convery, the movie stars Affleck, Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, Jason Bateman and Julius Tennon.
Sonny Vaccaro (Damon) likes to gamble — i.e. he likes to take risks. He works for Nike CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) as the company’s basketball division expert. He looks for up-and-coming b-ball players and offers them shoe endorsement deals, and currently he has his eye on an 18-year-old Michael Jordan. Sonny thinks Jordan is worth the full price they’re offering ($250,000), and so does Vaccaro’s advisor Howard White (Tucker). Knight and VP of marketing Robert Strasser (Bateman) think it’s a liability to do so. He tries to get a meeting with Jordan by talking with his agent David Falk (Messina), but the athlete is more interested in signing with Adidas.
Vaccaro steps over the chain of command and flies to North Carolina to talk to Jordan’s parents Delores (Davis) and James (Tennon). With two shoe endorsement meetings coming up with Adidas and Converse, Sonny asks Jordan’s mother to reconsider talking to Nike, and warns her about what to expect when speaking to the other companies. With the Nike CEO, Falk and Strasser breathing down his neck to close the deal or lose his job, Vaccaro deploys clever maneuvers to secure the client and stay employed.
In his fifth feature film, Affleck’s talents exceed expectations. He’s grown as an actor and director but is best when doing both. Not sure how he does it. The organization and patience needed to balance all of those elements must be stressful, but I couldn’t tell because he never breaks a sweat. In Air, Affleck makes great use of aerial shots showing just how large some of these company campuses are. A staple of his visual style is desaturated scenes that utilize a mix of green and blue, which fits the tone of his earlier work. But he changes it up here by upping the brightness and color, offering a sense of hope.
Every castmember gives an award-worthy performance; it’s hard to choose one, and it’s a rarity to watch such good acting across the board. I’ve seen two Affleck performances at SXSW, and you can just tell when he’s enthusiastic about a project and when he’s phoning it in. Convery’s script has all the elements to invoke the energy needed to pull this off.
One thing the film makes clear: Delores Jordan is responsible for the career her son has today. Despite resistance from Nike, she was able to negotiate a deal where Michael gets a global percentage from every Air Jordan shoe sold. Her stance was that she knows her son’s worth, and that “A shoe is just a shoe…until my son steps into it.” The goal was to create footwear that reflected his persona and give fans something that will make them feel closer to the soon-to-be NBA legend.
Seeing Air, and how the world’s most popular sneaker came into existence, makes me think about the fact that people are now stealing, killing and dying for a pair. It’s crazy to think about this trajectory: It started off innocently and eventually tured customers into rabid consumers. Of course that’s not Jordan’s problem, but this story puts things in perspective. So many white men were in control of his career, I am glad to see some type of on-screen advocacy for athletes like Mike and others like him as this deal with Nike has changed the sneaker and basketball industry in monumental ways.
Title: Air Studio:Amazon Studios Release date: April 5, 2023 (March 19 SXSW premiere) Director: Ben Affleck Screenwriter: Alex Convery Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Matthew Maher, Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, Gustaf Skarsgård, Julius Tennon Rating: PG-13 Running time: 1 hr 52 mins
HBO Max is starting to populate the town of Derry, New Hampshire.
The streamer has cast the first four actors in its It prequel series Welcome to Derry. Taylour Paige (Zola), Jovan Adepo (Watchmen), Chris Chalk (Perry Mason) and James Remar (Dexter) have all joined the project, from Warner Bros. Television and It filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti. Details on the roles they’ll play are being kept quiet for now.
HBO Max ordered Welcome to Derrystraight to series in February. The show is a prequel to the two films — which are based on Stephen King’s novel — and “expands the vision” of the two films. Jason Fuchs, a co-producer of It Chapter Two, is writing the first episode (based on a story by Fuchs and Andy and Barbara Muschietti) and will serve as co-showrunner with Brad Caleb Kane. Andy Muschietti is set to direct several episodes, including the first.
The Muschiettis executive produce via their Double Dream banner along with Fuchs, Kane, Shelley Meals, Roy Lee and Dan Lin.
Of note: Adepo will be entering a Stephen King-based world for the second time with Welcome to Derry. He also starred in Paramount+’s (then CBS All Access) adaptation of The Stand.
Paige is repped by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Granderson Des Rochers; Adepo, by Powerline Entertainment, WME and Hansen Jacobson; Chalk, by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Paradigm and Jackoway Austen; and Remar, by Gersh and Lighthouse Entertainment.
10:00-11:00 p.m. EDT – The Good Doctor: “Blessed” (618)
Logline: Dr. Marcus Andrews introduces some of the team to a patient whose optimism and faith seems to cause Dr. Asher Wolke the most skepticism in light of his own relationship with religion.
(TV-14) Watch episodes on demand and on Hulu the day following their premieres.
Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, and James Remar will star in the”It” prequel series, HBO Max announced on Wednesday.
The Max Original, which was developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, currently has the working title of “Welcome to Derry.” Character details have not yet been released.
The Warner Bros. drama serves as a precursor to the Muschietti-directed theatrical films about Stephen King’s killer clown, which starred Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. Muschietti will also direct multiple episodes of the series, including the pilot.
According to the logline, the series “expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti” in 2017’s “It” and 2019’s “It Chapter Two.”
Taylour Paige, an Independent Spirit Award winner for “Zola,” is represented by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Granderson Rochers. She appears opposite Jonathan Majors in Sundance hit “Magazine Dreams.”
Jovan Adepo of “Babylon,” who was Emmy-nominated for the HBO series Watchmen, is represented by Powerline Entertainment, WME and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
Chris Chalk, who plays Paul Drake on HBO’s “Perry Mason,” is represented by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Paradigm Talent Agency and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
James Remar of “Sex and the City” and “The Warriors” fame, is among the all-star casts of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” and Francis Ford Coppola “Megalopolis.” Hei represented by Gersh Agency and Lighthouse Entertainment.
Logline: Set in the world of Stephen King’s “IT” universe, “Welcome to Derry” (wt) is based on King’s “IT” novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films “IT” and “IT Chapter Two.”
The series is produced by HBO Max and Warner Bros. Television. Jason Fuchs will write the teleplay for the first episode, based on a story by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Fuchs. Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane will serve as co-showrunners on the project. Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti (through their Double Dream production company, which has an overall deal with WBTV), Fuchs, and Kane are executive producers. Shelley Meals, Roy Lee and Dan Lin also executive produce.
Last December, a woman suedAerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, alleging that he sexually assaulted and sexually battered her when she was a minor in the 1970s. Now, Tyler has issued a denial of all of the allegations, Rolling Stone reports and Pitchfork can confirm.
Tyler’s response was filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, and includes claims that plaintiff Julia Misley (previously known as Julia Holcomb) consented to their sexual relationship at the time, and that Tyler had immunity as her legal guardian at the time the allegations occurred. Misley claimed in the original complaint that Tyler convinced her mother to grant him guardianship over her when she was 16. Tyler also requested that the lawsuit be dismissed.
In the original lawsuit, Misley alleged that she met Tyler in 1973 when she was 16 years old and he was 25. The two apparently had a relationship that lasted three years, and Misley alleged that she “was powerless to resist” the singer’s “power, fame, and substantial financial ability,” and that he “coerced and persuaded Plaintiff into believing this was a ‘romantic love affair.’” Misley sued Tyler for sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The age of consent in California is 18.
At the time of her filing, Misley also released a statement regarding the lawsuit that mentioned Tyler: “I want this action to expose an industry that protects celebrity offenders, to cleanse and hold accountable an industry that both exploited and allowed me to be exploited for years, along with so many other naïve and vulnerable kids and adults,” she wrote. “Because I know that I am not the only one who suffered abuse in the music industry, I feel it is time for me to take this stand and bring this action, to speak up and stand in solidarity with the other survivors. I hope that from this action, we can make the music industry safer, expose the predators in it, and expose those forces in the industry that have both enabled and created a culture of permissiveness and self-protection of themselves and the celebrity offenders among them.”
Following Tyler’s denial, Misley’s attorneys issued a statement calling Tyler’s behavior “astonishing, galling, and arrogant,” and saying that the singer is “gaslighting” their client. “Tyler’s statement is more than a weak attempt to shift blame—it is a real and dangerous public safety threat to any vulnerable child who is currently in any kind of legal guardianship,” they wrote. “Assuming care for a child—whether that child is 16 months or 16 years—does not and has never implied any type of consent to sexually abuse that child. To say any different is morally and legally repugnant.”
Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Steven Tyler for comment and more information.
If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual assault, we encourage you to reach out for support:
RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline http://www.rainn.org 1 800 656 HOPE (4673)
Crisis Text Line SMS: Text “HELLO” or “HOLA” to 741-741
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