Categories
Widget Image
Trending
Recent Posts
Monday, Oct 19th, 2026
HomeStandard Blog Whole Post (Page 1188)

Brad Pitt landed on Forbes’ list of Top 10 Highest Paid Entertainers of 2022, thanks to the majority sale of his production company Plan B in December. According to Forbes, the actor/producer earned $113 million after all fees were paid and also earned $30 million from acting roles in “Bullet Train,” “Babylon” and “The Lost City.”

Through Plan B, Pitt has produced Oscar-winning films “Moonlight,” “12 Years A Slave” and “The Departed.”

Pitt, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” also took home a Best Picture statuette for “12 Years a Slave.”

He was outranked by Tyler Perry, who founded his own studio in Atlanta in 2015. Perry raked in $175 million in 2022 and has an estimated $1 billion fortune.

The complete top 10 on Forbes’ Highest-Paid Performers of 2022:
1. Genesis, $230 million
2. Sting, $210 million
3. Tyler Perry, $175 million
4. “South Park” creators Trey Parker & Matt Stone, $160 million
5. “The Simpsons” co-producers James L. Brooks & Matt Groening, $105 million
6. Brad Pitt, $110 million
7. Rolling Stones, $98 million
8. James Cameron, $95 million
9. Taylor Swift, $92 million
10. Bad Bunny, $88 million

Source link

Brad Pitt landed on Forbes’ list of

Disney and Comcast have been posturing about the future of Hulu for months now. They’ve got four options, and one is a real game-changer.

We now know, in great detail, what Bob Iger plans to do with Disney. What we don’t know is what in the world will Disney do with Hulu.

A fact: In January 2024, Comcast can trigger a sale of its one-third stake in Hulu, valued north of $9 billion, to Disney. Another possibility: Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts buys out Hulu from Disney. And yet another: Disney and Comcast seek Hulu buyers in an open auction. Last week, after his company reported fiscal Q1 2023 earnings, Iger again indicated he’s open to selling Hulu. “Everything is on the table right now,” he said.

Then there’s a fourth possibility: What if Disney traded its ESPN stake for Comcast’s Hulu stake? (Disney owns 80 percent of ESPN; Hearst owns the rest.) Hey, trades and sports go hand-in-hand.

The idea was first raised at last summer’s Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, the annual Idaho-based summer camp for the biggest media executives and their investment-banking friends, and revived last week by Puck legal writer Bill Cohan in a published conversation with his colleague Matt Belloni, who noted that the “valuations can be adjusted with cash and the transaction would be tax-free to all parties.”

Jeremy Allen White in FX’s “The Bear” on Hulu.

FX

Eighty percent of ESPN is worth billions more than 33 percent of Hulu, but Comcast has the cash on hand. While ESPN never quite fit the Disney vibe, NBCU already has a major sports presence with “Sunday Night Football” on broadcast and brought more live competition, including Premier League soccer and the WWE Network, to the fledgling Peacock. At a time when sports rights are incredibly expensive, Disney would get a bunch of money and offload ESPN.

IndieWire reached out to reps from both Comcast and Disney to request comment on this story, but we did not hear back.

What could derail this idea is the spoilsport anti-trust regulators, who may take a dim view of Comcast — an already-major player in sports — combining with ESPN, which still (sometimes) brands itself the “Worldwide Leader in Sports.” At issue would be the rights that ESPN holds and the free-market impact if those rights were brought under one roof.

“It would certainly merit heightened review from the regulators,” said Corey Martin, managing partner and chair of the entertainment finance department at law firm Granderson Des Rochers. “I don’t think there’s necessarily been a precedent where a company like ESPN that holds a variety of different rights across multiple sports was combined with another entity that holds rights across multiple sports.”

You may recall a similar issue when Disney acquired Fox back in 2017, when Disney had to divest itself of Fox’s large network of regional sports networks. (RSNs), As Martin explains, it was obvious that one company controlling both the national and regional broadcasts for a given sports could be a problem.

In the case of a would-be ESPN-Comcast deal, the prime concern would be the NFL. The NFL is unique in that it has rights deals across all four major broadcasters (ABC occasionally simulcasts ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” games), not to mention Amazon. What happens to the market if two of those broadcasters combine? How would it affect pricing of sports rights, or would a combo of ESPN and NBCU suddenly get an advantage?

“I think there would probably be a lot of nervousness on the parts of all the sports leagues,” Martin said. “That would probably reduce the leverage of those sports to play the rights holders off one another.”

TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 16: Matt Overton #45 of the Dallas Cowboys celebrates after an NFL wild card playoff football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on January 16, 2023 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

Matt Overton #45 of the Dallas Cowboys celebrates after NFL wild card playoff football win

Getty Images

ESPN+, which is part of the Disney bundle with Disney+ and Hulu, had nearly 25 million subscribers at the end of December. On Disney’s earnings call February 8, Iger said he’s not currently “considering” a sale or spinoff of ESPN. But, as Belloni wrote in his back and forth with Cohan, “nobody seems to believe” that, especially after Iger’s Disney reorg included the separation of ESPN from the rest of Disney Entertainment.

That reorg drew questions from the investment community about the future of ESPN; Iger said he knew they would come.

“ESPN is a differentiator for this company. It’s the best sports brand in television. It’s one of the best sports brands in sports. It continues to create real value for us,” he responded. “It is going through some, obviously, challenging times because of what’s happened in linear programming.”

“The brand of ESPN is very healthy, and the programming of ESPN is very healthy. We just have to figure out how to monetize it in a disrupting world. That’s it,” Iger continued. “But we’re not engaged in any conversations right now or considering a spinoff of ESPN. That had been done, by the way, in my absence, and I’m told the company concluded after exploring it very carefully that it wasn’t something the company wanted to do.”

Right, Chapek’s Disney looked into it and ultimately passed. But Iger’s Disney has been busy mostly undoing almost everything Chapek did.

There’s a bonus for cash-rich Comcast. The theoretical asset-swap would set up NBCU “perfectly” for a potential merger with Warner Bros. Discovery,” Cohan wrote. “These deals are going to happen,” he confidently wrote of both ESPN-for-Hulu and NBCUniversal/WBD, “it’s just a matter of when.”

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Source link

Disney and Comcast have been posturing about


Each season, the television networks introduce dozens of new TV shows and hope each will be a big hit in the ratings. Unfortunately, most are cancelled after one season. How are the new 2022-23 TV series doing? Which have the best ratings and which have the worst? How many will survive to see a second season? Stay tuned.

Here are the final season average ratings of the new 2022-23 network TV shows — through the end of week 21 (Sunday, February 12, 2023).

New ABC shows (so far): Alaska Daily, Celebrity Jeopardy!, Not Dead Yet, The Parent Test, The Rookie: Feds, and Will Trent.

New CBS shows this season (so far): East New York, Fire Country, Lingo, The Real Love Boat, and So Help Me Todd.

New CW shows this season (so far): Criss Angel’s Magic with the Stars, Family Law, Professionals, Walker: Independence, and The Winchesters.

New FOX shows this season (so far): Accused, Alert: Missing Persons Unit, Monarch, and Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.

New NBC shows this season (so far): America’s Got Talent: All-Stars, Lopez vs. Lopez, Night Court, Quantum Leap, and The Wheel.

Note: If you’re not seeing the updated charts, please try reloading the page. You can also view them here.

The averages are based on the final national numbers (live plus same-day viewing). Keep in mind that the demo numbers are typically what’s most important to advertisers. Therefore, that’s how the networks measure success. Advertisers typically pay more for ad time on a show that has a higher demo rating. Because older viewers don’t count? No, it’s because younger viewers watch less traditional TV and are harder to reach. It’s also important to remember that ratings are designed to estimate how many people watch a show’s commercials — not the show itself. That’s what advertisers pay for.

Want more? You can check out other season listings here.

What do you think? Are you surprised by any of the ratings? Which shows should be doing better?

Source link

Published: February 14, 2023Each season, the television

Fortress Investment Group just threw Vice Media a multimillion dollar lifeline as the media company continues to drown in a boatload of debt, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

On Tuesday, Vice Media secured more than $30 million in debt financing from Fortress Investment Group. The money comes as Vice owes vendors and advisers millions, with some of the entities not having been paid in more than six months, the Journal reporting, citing anonymous sources. This has led to vendors passing the issue onto collection agencies to get their money back. 

This isn’t the first time Fortress has come through financially for Vice Media. In 2019, the firm lent the media company $250 million, along with investors Soros Fund Management LLC, 23 Capital and Monroe Capital. Fortress is also one of the companies that is expected to receive payments if Vice is sold — a mission Vice is working toward after years of battling debt. 

As part of their arrangement, Fortress has extended the maturity on an existing loan that needed to be paid by Vice by the end of 2022. In the meantime, Fortress will let Vice tap some of the new debt over time in order for the company to eventually find a buyer. 

One of the Vice’s potential buyers could be Greek broadcaster Antenna Group. In 2017, Vice was valued at $5.7 billion but is now seeking a $1.5 billion valuation.   

Source link

Fortress Investment Group just threw Vice Media

Pharrell Williams has been named the new creative director of menswear for Louis Vuitton, taking over the role that Virgil Abloh held for three years before his death. The luxury brand confirmed the news, saying that Williams’ first collection will be shown at Men’s Fashion Week in Paris in June.

The job has been vacant since Abloh’s unexpected death at age 41 in November 2021. Abloh, who took on the role in 2018, did not reveal publicly that he had been privately living with cancer during much of his tenure with Louis Vuitton.

In a statement, Pietro Beccari, Louis Vuitton’s chairman and CEO, said that he was “glad to welcome Pharrell back home.” Williams previously worked with Louis Vuitton in 2008, collaborating on lines of sunglasses and jewelry. Beccari continued, “His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter.”

Source link

Pharrell Williams has been named the new

An avalanche in B.C.’s Central Interior killed two people on the weekend, say police.

RCMP say the avalanche happened around 200 km southwest of Williams Lake, in the Potato Mountain range, and that two snowmobilers were swept up in it.

Police say two were expected to return Sunday, but didn’t, with the Alexis RCMP detachment being notified on Monday.

Read more:

How to stay safe in avalanche terrain

Read next:

Part of the Sun breaks free and forms a strange vortex, baffling scientists

“RCMP, Central Cariboo Search and Rescue, along with an avalanche safety officer, began a search for the missing people and located an avalanche in the Potato Mountain area,” said B.C. RCMP.

“Sadly the two individuals, an adult man and woman were later located deceased.”

Story continues below advertisement

According to Avalanche Canada, the avalanche occurred around 40 km south of Tatla Lake, and that the two were going skiing on an east-facing slope when a slab of snow broke off.

“The skiers had accessed the area using snowmobiles, but were skiing at the time of the accident,” said Avalanche Canada. “Both victims were fully buried and did not survive.”


Click to play video: 'Avalanche Canada warns of backcountry danger'


Avalanche Canada warns of backcountry danger


Avalanche Canada says the slope was characterized as highly wind-affected, containing areas of deeply wind-drifted snow and areas where the snow cover was thin and rocky.

It also said the crown depth was between 40 and 130 cm.

Police say the BC Coroners Service has taken conduct of the investigation.

This winter, seven people have now died in avalanches in B.C.

Story continues below advertisement


Click to play video: 'Two brothers killed in avalanche near Revelstoke.'


Two brothers killed in avalanche near Revelstoke.


&copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Source link

Descrease article font size Increase article font size An

Synopsis for “Our Father, the Devil” (Mon Père, le diable)

“An African refugee’s quiet existence in a sleepy mountain town in the south of France is upended by the arrival of a charismatic Catholic priest whom she recognizes as the warlord who slaughtered her family” (IMDb).

Directed by Ellie Foumbi, Our Father, the Devil (Mon Père, le diable) is a French language film with a compelling story and exceptional cast. The film was featured at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, though it was originally released in 2021. This film serves as Foumbi’s directorial debut, and actors Babetida Sadjo, Jennifer Tchiakpe, and Souléymane Sy Savané gave raw and vulnerable performances that made the thriller an emotionally charged film.

The opening imagery set the film in an idyllic mountain range in the south of France, where Marie Cissé (Sadjo) works as the head chef at a local retirement home. Her best friend and co-worker, Nadia (Tchiakpe), is a nurse at the retirement home and tends to Marie when Father Patrick (Savané) shows up at their place of employment, which shocks Marie to the point where she faints.

Spoilers and Content Warning (mention of rape; not depicted in film)— click “read more” to continue.

Overall, the film had several emotionally intense moments that kept the plot moving, and the actors used silence to raise the stakes and keep the audience interested.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Stars

Synopsis for “Our Father, the Devil” (Mon

From fighting the Supernatural, to fighting Supes, to fighting robots.

With the release of Atomic Heart by Mundfish only days away, Focus Features has released a new trailer to tease the game’s release, and it definitely did the job, it got even non gamers excited for Atomic Heart, and why is that? Jensen Ackles. Jensen portrays the character Major Sergei Nechaev from the game. We get to see an unhinged and completely off the rails performance from Ackles for this project.

Jensen Ackles

Courtesy of Focus Entertainment

Atomic Heart is an upcoming FPS action role-playing video game developed by Mundfish and published by Focus Entertainment. Atomic Heart takes place in Facility 3826, the Soviet Union’s foremost scientific research hub in an alternate 1955. In the 1930s, scientist Dmitry Sechenov develops a liquidized programmable module called the Polymer, sparking massive technological breakthroughs that include a networked artificial intelligence called the “Kollektiv” linking robots together. The main protagonist in the game portrayed by Ackles in the trailer is a mentally unstable officer on special assignments named Major Sergei Nechaev, nicknamed P-3. He is challenged with combating robots that went haywire, failed biomechanical experiments and his own, ever-deteriorating mental state.

Jensen Ackles

Courtesy of Focus Entertainment

The teaser sees Supernatural star Jensen Ackles star Jensen Ackles wreaking havoc on different targets using weapons he has put together the way the character he represents in the game does. The combat in the game consists of shooting and slashing with improvised weapons. A wide variety of enemies may be mechanical, biomechanical, biological. There is a crafting system where the weapons can be pieced together from metal parts that can be detached from robots or taken from household appliances. One of the most popular weapons we see Ackles use in the trailer is the Polymer Glove, which grants him powers such as telekinesis, freezing, and electricity to defeat his enemies.

Courtesy of Focus Entertainment

We also see a slight bit of shade thrown at Hogwarts Legacy at the start of the teaser. Which will be one of the games biggest competitors. When a little girl dressed like a Witch tried to defeat a robot with magic, but fails, until Jensen steps in.

All we can say after this is. Someone make this into a movie.

 

Atomic Heart will be available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC on February 21, 2023.

From fighting the Supernatural, to fighting Supes,




View gallery




Image Credit: MEGA

Olivia Wilde shared a message about love on her Instagram Story on Valentine’s Day on Tuesday, February 14. The actress and director, 38, posted a quote, which speaks about both the good (and the “ugly”) sides of love, which was originally written by Of Mice And Men author John Steinbeck in a 1958 letter to his son Thom. The post comes nearly three months after she and Harry Styles, 29, split up after almost two years in November.

The post was shared by the Instagram account Letters of Note, and in the message, Steinbeck breaks down different types of love to his son. “There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind,” he wrote. “The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable.”

At the end of the quote, the author explained how the “ugly” and “selfish” love can be devastating, but the other is wonderful. “The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had,” he wrote.

Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles are seen on a date night before their split. (MEGA)

Olivia didn’t provide any other context to the quote, and simply shared it on her Story. The cryptic quote hasn’t been the only time that the House star has shared reflecting on love on social media. She posted a scene from the film Tropical Malady with another romantic quote on her Story in January. “I’d hate to die without having loved,” the line said, per Us Weekly.

Since Harry and Olivia broke up, she has kept busy and been seen out and about on plenty of occasions, whether she’s hitting the gym, shopping in Paris, or bonding with her two kids: Otis, 8, and Daisy, 6, who she shares with her ex-husband Jason Sudeikis. 

Shortly after the pair split, a source close to the situation revealed to HollywoodLife exclusively that the “As It Was” singer felt like they were “putting their relationship on pause.” The insider said that people close to the former couple weren’t sure whether they’d get back together. “No one thinks that they will resume the relationship after his tour, but Harry says that he does not know what the future holds,” they said.

Source link

View gallery Image Credit: MEGA Olivia Wilde shared a message

NBCUniversal has partnered with the Alliance for Media Arts + Culture to build on the company’s Creative Impact Lab.

The Lab, launched last September, is meant to boost diversity in the creative marketing field by giving apprentices from historically excluded backgrounds the opportunity to develop marketing assets for NBCU’s nonprofit partners, with guidance from employee volunteers. These spots are then seen on Comcast NBCU’s various networks and platforms.

NBCU will grant $119,000 to the Alliance, a nonprofit focused on cultural impact in media arts, to train NBCU volunteers on how to mentor the Lab apprentices effectively and to share best practices with the apprentices’ nonprofit creative agencies on how to create powerful and impactful spots. These agencies include Reel Works, RE:IMAGINE, PhillyCAM, Spy Hop and Youth FX. The Alliance’s grant will also be used to support its own Arts2Work workforce development program and its Accelerator Fund to help women, young adults and veterans as well as low-income, BIPOC and disabled creatives in the field.

“The Alliance is proud to launch this new partnership with NBCUniversal that strengthens our commitment to paid apprenticeships and building equitable career pathways for creative workers,” Alliance executive director Wendy Levy said in a statement. “Support from NBCUniversal will help the Alliance build a national network of community media centers, encourage employers to hire and mentor a new generation of apprentices and ensure that those often left out of the creative sector have access to the training and professional experience they need to succeed.”

The Lab and this latest $119,000 grant is part of Comcast’s Project UP, the $1 billion commitment the company pledged in March 2021 to promote digital equity.

“The creative industry needs more paid apprenticeship programs that provide career development for underrepresented communities,” NBCU executive vice president of corporate social responsibility Hilary Smith said in a statement. “Media companies like ours can help meet this challenge by extending the learning experience beyond the college classroom to on-the-job training. We are pleased to partner with the Alliance for Media Arts + Culture to help make the Creative Impact Lab a place where diverse apprentices can learn best-in-class storytelling techniques – and at the same time help shine a light on the incredible social impact work of our nonprofit partners.”

Source link

NBCUniversal has partnered with the Alliance for

This year’s Super Bowl LVII was the most-streamed Super Bowl yet, hitting an average of 7 million streams across the services showing the game. According to data Fox Sports obtained from Adobe Analytics, Super Bowl streams increased 18 percent from last year’s 6 million streams — and 103 percent over 2020, which saw just 3.4 million streams.

The 7 million streams included viewers watching the big game on NFL’s TV and mobile apps, NFL’s website, the NFL Plus streaming service, as well as on Fox’s apps and website. This data doesn’t account for co-viewing, or when multiple people watch a stream on the same device, and still represents a small fraction of the 113 million average viewers the game raked in on traditional TV.

In addition to Fox and NFL Plus, several other paid services with the Fox Sports channel streamed the Super Bowl LVII, including Fubo TV, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, and DirecTV Stream. Phenix, a platform for real-time video streaming, tracked the latency across all of these services and found that FuboTV suffered from the worst lag (compared to the on-field action) at 76.73 seconds behind the game. Meanwhile, Fox Sports came out on top with 23.76 seconds of lag, followed by YouTube TV at a distant 54.14.

As more people ditch cable, the number of people streaming the game will likely only increase in the coming years. I, for one, don’t have cable and watched the game on Fox Sports through my Xfinity Flex box. However, I quickly learned that the technology powering the livestreams still needs a lot of work. The quality of the stream wasn’t up to par with what you’d see on cable and almost buffered too much to watch. I may reconsider streaming the game next year — or at least see if I can catch the game at a friend’s house with cable.

Source link

This year’s Super Bowl LVII was the

As a Valentine’s Day gift to the fans who have embraced Jamie and Claire as their favorite fictional couple for seven seasons now, STARZ has released the newest iteration of the “Outlander” opening title sequence.

The series has adapted its iconic theme song, “The Skye Boat Song,” to each season, drawing inspiration from upcoming storylines and locations. This season’s interpretation was crafted and performed by GRAMMY-winning artist Sinead O’Connor. It was previously announced that the highly anticipated seventh season of the the romantic, time-traveling drama will return in Summer 2023.

“We are honored to have Sinead O’Connor performing ‘The Skye Boat Song.’ Her rendition is, for me, a reminder of all that’s beautiful about ‘Outlander.’ She is talented beyond measure. Hers is a voice of the ages — one which pierces heart and soul — and embodies the spirit of the show,” says Matthew B. Roberts, showrunner and executive producer of “Outlander.”

STARZ previously announced several new additions to the “Outlander” family, including Charles Vandervaart as “William Ransom,” Izzy Meikle-Small as “Rachel Hunter” and Joey Phillips as “Denzell Hunter,” joining returning fan-favorites Caitríona Balfe “Claire Fraser,” Sam Heughan “Jamie Fraser,” Sophie Skelton “Brianna MacKenzie,” Richard Rankin “Roger MacKenzie,” John Bell “Young Ian,” David Berry “Lord John Grey,” Caitlin O’Ryan “Lizzie Beardsley” and Paul Gorman “Josiah” and “Keziah Beardsley.”

The “Outlander” television series is inspired by Diana Gabaldon’s international best-selling books, which have sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, with all nine of the books gracing the New York Times best-seller list. The “Outlander” television series has become a worldwide success with audiences, spanning the genres of history, science fiction, romance and adventure in one amazing tale.

 

Matthew B. Roberts, Ronald D. Moore, Maril Davis, Toni Graphia, Luke Schelhaas, Andy Harries, Jim Kohlberg, Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan executive produce. “Outlander” is produced by Tall Ship Productions, Left Bank Pictures and Story Mining & Supply Company, in association with Sony Pictures Television.

Follow “Outlander” on Social
Twitter: @Outlander_STARZ
Instagram: @Outlander_STARZ
Facebook: @OutlanderTVSeries.starz
Join the conversation with #Outlander and #STARZ

As a Valentine’s Day gift to the

Cate Blanchett, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s honoree for outstanding performer of the year, sat down for a wide-ranging conversation on Friday, spanning her early acting beginnings to her current eighth Oscar nomination for her starring role in Tár.

In front of a sold-out crowd at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre, Blanchett looked back at some of her standout roles from the last 25 years with The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg, who served as moderator. Of 2006’s Notes on a Scandal, for which she received one of her Oscar noms, the star shared fond memories of working with co-star Judi Dench, recalling in the film (where Dench’s character is obsessed with hers), “We have a violent episode where Judi was actually looking like a Ninja Turtle — she had to have this back brace on because I had to slam Judi Dench into a dresser. And I said to Richard Eyre, the director, I said, ‘I can do a lot of things but I can’t slam Judi Dench,’ and she said, ‘Don’t worry, darling, just go for it!’”

After the watching the clip with the crowd, where she does indeed slam Dench, Blanchett joked defensively, “She’s being really mean to my character, just so you know.” She also reflected on both 1998’s Elizabeth and 2007’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and how director Shekhar Kapur has expressed interest in a third film.

“He told me about this really interesting — well, who knows if they’re facts or not — that Queen Elizabeth, before she died, was standing in front of a window for 16 hours and no one knew what she was looking at and then she eventually laid down. He’s interested in those 16 hours,” Blanchett said. She then deadpanned, “It’s a very long film, very still, a lot of voiceover,” and sarcastically teased its major box office potential.

2015’s Carol was another point of conversation, as the actress noted how an interviewer recently told her she seemed to be “forging a line in predatory lesbians” after her roles in both Tár and Carol, the latter of which she shot down as “such a reductive way to look at that story and that beautiful, beautiful film.” Blanchett also commented on Carol’s open-ended conclusion, which she called “a lesson in ambiguity”: “We knew it had to be incredibly full of possibility, and I think there had been a scene after that that would be more descriptive about what happened next, but I think it meant that the road wasn’t going to be easy but it was open.”

When asked about her shifts in between theater and film, and preserving one on screen while the other is just for a singular crowd every night, Blanchett admitted, “I don’t think a lot about legacy. I think, those of you who have seen or might see Tár, the character is very obsessed with legacy, and I think it’s a way of side-stepping the experience of living your life, and so I don’t think about those things.”

Speaking of Tár, in which she plays Lydia Tár, a renowned conductor who is accused of sexual abuse, Blanchett called it “an utterly once-in-a-lifetime experience,” partly because of the reaction it’s gotten. For example, she said, “I was working with Alfonso Cuarón in London last year and he’d seen Tár and he said, ‘I’ve seen it three times: I saw it once and I just was blown away; the second time, I was envious, and the third time I went, how the fuck did [director Todd Field] do that?’”

Blanchett learned to play piano, speak German, conduct and have correct stick technique throughout the process, and “thought a lot about her turning 50, her summiting her career as an artist and realizing that once you reach a peak creatively, that you can’t stay up there forever. If you’re going to keep evolving as an artist, you have to have failure, and so she self-immolates in a profound way, and in a way starts again with a different access point to the music itself,” she said of the film’s ending. The star also commented on the decision to have a lesbian woman at the center of a story about abuse.

“If that had been a man atop the podium, I think that’s something we would have understood; we see [that] day in and day out, and we would have had a particular relationship, perhaps a safer relationship, to the examination of power that is one element of the film,” Blanchett told the crowd. “The fascinating thing about the response that the film has had that exceeded our wildest dreams is that people have been talking about it. I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way to view the film.”

Field then appeared on stage to present her with her honor, saying, “While Cate Blanchett is many things, with accomplishments that would make Lydia Tár pale by comparison, as a practical matter let’s explore just four of those things — activist, humanitarian, working mother and the best dressed woman in the world.”

In her speech, Blanchett said the award would be “an honor in any year, but this year in particular when there have been so many outstanding idiosyncratic performances, memorable performances by women of wildly different shapes and sizes and artistic ambition.”

The star dedicated the prize to Field and their team, noting, “Tár consumed me whole and spat me out and I’m not quite sure of where I am. It shifted my sense of what is possible.”

“I think that’s the thing about being terrified — in a safe environment, of course — being creatively terrified, creatively confronted, it can go one of two ways,” she continued. “You can get defensive or you can run towards the opportunity that presents to you, and I think if you do that, whether it succeeds or whether it fails, you’ll be changed by it. So thank you, Todd, for profoundly changing me in ways that I have yet to understand.”

Source link

Cate Blanchett, the Santa Barbara International Film

Netflix and Shondaland hosted a global event for Bridgerton universe super fans ahead of the upcoming launch of “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story“. During the event Creator and Executive Producer Shonda Rhimes revealed the May 4, 2023 premiere date and a first look at new footage for the highly anticipated six-episode limited series.

 

A panel discussion with Shonda Rhimes along with cast members Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte), India Amarteifio (Young Queen Charlotte), Corey Mylchreest (Young King George), Arsema Thomas (Young Lady Danbury) as well as taped appearances with Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury) and Ruth Gemmell (Lady Violet Bridgerton) included a conversation about what to expect from the series, how it relates to the Bridgerton universe, the themes it delves into for these beloved characters and how the actors drew inspiration for their roles.

Fans were also rewarded with never before seen clips of the series and a surprise reveal of the first teaser.

Additionally, Golda Rosheuvel revealed that this Spring, Her Majesty will bring The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience to New York City. Co-produced by Netflix, Shondaland, and Fever, the waitlist is now open and guests can register and learn more about the ball at the link here.

Centered on Queen Charlotte’s rise to prominence and power, this Bridgerton-verse prequel tells the story of how the young Queen’s marriage to King George sparked both a great love story and a societal shift, creating the world of the Ton inherited by the characters in Bridgerton.

Courtesy of Netflix

“It’s very much about how do you survive in a world in which you have no power.” Said showrunner Shonda Rhimes in an interview with Collider. “Where do you find the power in that? When I think about this series and what I want audiences to take away from it, I think the most important thing is I want people to feel like this is what happens with real love, love is hard love is difficult, love has many layers, and I also want them to take away the idea that the happy ending that we always talk about for characters doesn’t have to be the obvious one.”

The complete ensemble cast sees Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte), Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury), and Ruth Gemmell (Lady Violet Bridgerton) reprise their roles from Bridgerton in this series. India Amarteifio (Line of Duty) plays Young Queen Charlotte. Michelle Fairley (Gangs of London) plays Princess Augusta. Corey Mylchreest (The Sandman) plays Young King George. Arsema Thomas (television debut) plays Young Lady Danbury. Rounding out the cast are Sam Clemmett (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – West End and Broadway, The War Below) as Young Brimsley, Freddie Dennis (The Nevers ) as Reynolds, Richard Cunningham (The Witcher) as Lord Bute, Tunji Kasim (Nancy Drew) as Adolphus, Rob Maloney (Casualty) as the Royal Doctor, Cyril Nri (Cucumber) as Lord Danbury, and Hugh Sachs (Bridgerton Seasons 1 & 2) as Brimsley (older).

The official images from the 6 episode limited series can be found below:

Netflix and Shondaland hosted a global event

Peyton Reed’s “Ant-Man” films have generally served as a kind of palate cleanser to the world-ending stakes of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang is just an ordinary dude, or so they keep telling us, who still can’t really believe that he’s part of the Avengers at all. He gets to be the wide-eyed middle-aged fanboy of the group in those films. In his own films, he’s just living a blue-sky life in San Francisco as an affable single dad and ex-con who was once fired from Baskin Robbins and who has occasional enemies to defeat.

In this third film, “ Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” in theaters Thursday, he’s coasting on his own post-Blip celebrity with a best-selling memoir out, lots of fans around town and a generally sunny disposition —when he’s not breaking his teenage daughter Cassie (now played by Kathryn Newtown, always an enjoyable presence) out of jail for civil disobedience. There is a fun, light, sitcom-y touch to these early scenes in which he and his makeshift family, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) sit around the table for takeout pizza. They use their particle technology to blow up the tiny pie. “I just saved us $8,” Pym declares proudly.

But Ant-Man is part of the larger chess board of the MCU, so naturally he’s doomed to be sucked into the multiverse mess, setting up pieces for more Avengers films to come with the introduction of a new villain, Kang (played with a maniacal sorrow by the great Jonathan Majors). And the results are mixed. Reed has returned to direct with a new writer, Jeff Loveness, who has also been tapped to write “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and it’s hard not to empathize with both for the logic gymnastics required to back Ant-Man and his gang into this conflict.

Loveness, who cut his teeth in comedy and has an affinity for comic book and B-movie absurdities, gives Ant-Man his own “Star Wars”-adjacent adventure. There’s quite a bit of unrest in the Quantum Realm, with scrappy rebels battling against a powerful ruler with an army of faceless soldiers. But he takes that conceit further and gives the rebels some personality and humor, including William Jackson Harper as the mind-reading Quaz. The villains a killing machine, M.O.D.O.K., that looks (knowingly) straight out of a “Mystery Science Theater 3000” movie and it is quite entertaining. It’s both a nod to the fun of the ridiculous in sci-fi and a reminder that Serious Superhero Films are sometimes just one crazy special effect away from being Silly Superhero Films.

“Quantumania” also gives Pfeiffer a lot more to do as we, and Hank and Hope, learn a little bit more about Janet’s 30 years in the Quantum Realm and the various compromises and allegiances she made to stay alive. Pfeiffer is an unambiguous delight and the real center of the movie despite what the title might claim. Ant-Man just finds himself in the middle of the mess, which starts to drag on in a muddle of sci-fi furnishings that individually are probably quite inspired and interesting but together just blend into a dreary mess. It’s a shame because Reed’s films are generally so crisp and styled and are best when focused on characters, not worlds and Quantum Realms. “Quantumania” shines when it is keeping things light and quippy.

But Kang, for what we can assume are bigger story needs, needs to be more serious. Majors is certainly chilling and captivating, but Kang seems like a mismatched foe for a standalone Ant-Man film and the result is a “Quantumania” that is trying to be too many things. One thing it is not is a Wasp movie, though. Lilly gets a lot to do but not a lot of, or any, character development.

And fortunately, “Quantumania” sticks the ending.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” a Walt Disney release in theaters Thursday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “some sci-fi action violence.” Running time: 122 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

—-

MPA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

___

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the Code of Conduct. The Star does not endorse these opinions.

Source link

Peyton Reed’s “Ant-Man” films have generally served

With over 200 movies premiering at the festival this week, the year in cinema is about to get a lot more complicated. Here’s a good place to start.

The movie year has already unleashed a lot of memorable work, from Sundance breakouts to “M3GAN.” But things are about to get a lot more global. Even as a new Marvel movie opens in theaters worldwide, the Berlin International Film Festival begins on Wednesday to offer a whole lot more. Nestled in between Sundance and SXSW, Berlin is like a firehose of international cinema.

More than 200 films from around the world will premiere at the festival this week, many of which are potential discoveries. Berlin premieres sometimes creep into awards consider (this year’s Oscar nominee “The Quiet Girl” premiered there last year) but can also deliver major new works from rising filmmaker talent. Some of the more promising titles from this year’s lineup speak to its versatility. It’s also a valuable European launchpad for Sundance highlights: The festival’s hit “Past Lives” plays in competition.

From its Golden Bear competition to intriguing sidebars like Encounters, you never know what you’re going to get with Berlin, which makes the opportunity to peruse the lineup all the more worthy of exploration. Here are some of most appealing premieres as this year’s edition gets underway.

Kate Erbland, Jude Dry, and Ryan Lattanzio also contributed to this article.

“Afire”

German Christian Petzold continues his post-Nina Hoss era with his latest film to premiere in Berlin, “Afire.” It’s also the second entry in his “elemental trilogy,” which launched in 2020 with Berlinale FIPRESCI winner “Undine.” That film incorporated fantasy and folklore to tell a melancholy love story set against the backdrop of water as a connective tissue for romantic connection and separation, winning Paula Beer (Petzold’s closest collaborator since “Transit”) the Silver Bear for Best Actress. While “Afire,” in which Beer returns, is set along the Baltic Sea, this one has more to do with the flames of passion erupting and fizzling between four people trapped in a holiday home that is also surrounded by forest fires. The film also stars Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt. —RL

“The Adults”

“The Adults”

Director Dustin Guy Defa may be familiar to festival audiences for his 2017 Sundance “Person to Person,” a very New York ensemble piece more contend to hang out with a memorable group of eccentric characters than to shoehorn them into a convoluted plot. Now Defa has repeated that talent on a smaller scale, re-teaming with “Person to Person” standout Michael Cera for the charming and bittersweet look at grownup siblings attempting to rekindle their fragile bonds.

Cera plays Eric, a dodgy poker player who resurfaces in his upstate hometown to see his two sisters (Hannah Gross and Sophia Lillis). In a tender, finely-tuned performances that ranks among his best, Cera oscillates from maniacal card shark and passive-aggressive loner to caring older brother, as Defa’s subtle approach to dialogue once again calls to mind the inquisitive, character-based approach of another Eric — French New Wave director Eric Rohmer — as he turns the old trope of arrested development into a touching and intimate look at family bonds come undone. —EK

“Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker”

“Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker”

Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney has built out a career out of trenchant explorations of American dysfunction (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” the COVID-focused “Totally Under Control”) and absorbing portraits of famed, troubled individuals (“The Armstrong Lie,” “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine”). His latest falls into the latter camp, tracking famed tennis giant Boris Becker, who made the record books as the youngest winner of the Wimbledon Championships when he was 17.

That was nearly 40 years ago; in the ensuing time, his mounting financial problems landed him behind bars. Building a personal portrait of the complicated figure with interviews from 2012 and 2022 — before and after his recent prison sentencing — “Boom! Boom!” promises to resurrect the remarkable prowess of early Becker’s talent in tandem with the flaws that brought him down. —EK

“Inside”

Willem Dafoe stars as Nemo in director Vasilis Katsoupis' INSIDE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features

“Inside”

Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Featu

A clever inversion of the survival story — what if a dude got stuck inside, not outside, and still had to use all his wits to survive? — that also somehow manages to not feel too much like all that COVID Lockdown Cinema we’ve been steeped in for the past three years, Greek filmmaker Vasilis Katsoupis’ narrative debut “Inside” lives and dies by the strength of its leading man, Willem Dafoe. Few working actors today could be as interesting and credible in such a narrow role, but Dafoe is more than up for the task.

Set entirely in a super-fancy — and ostensibly technologically advanced — Manhattan penthouse, the film chronicles what happens after Dafoe’s art thief Nemo is trapped inside (get it?) the apartment when a heist goes awry. The film has plenty of twists and turns that go beyond watching Nemo try to survive in a mostly barren joint that’s also filled with prized art, but Dafoe is enthralling as ever, and his performance is lively enough to paper over some of the film’s biggest swings. Focus Features will release it in theaters in March, so anyone looking to catch what seems destined to become a signature role for the star doesn’t have long to wait. Just bring supplies to the theater; you never know what might happen. —KE

“Kill Boksoon”

Even the Berlinale can’t escape the long arm of Netflix, but the streaming giant has brought one of its most exciting new projects to the starry festival this year, in the form of Byun Sung-hyun’s South Korean actioner “Kill Boksoon.” The film stars Jeon Do-yeon, Sol Kyung-gu, Esom, and Koo Kyo-hwan in a twisty thriller that sees Jeon (who has enjoyed internatiaonal acclaim for years, most notably thanks to her boundary-breaking Best Actress win at Cannes for her turn in “Secret Sunshine”) as a single mother who also happens to be a skilled contract killer. Even better? She’s struggling to find balance in her fraught life, an ask made all the more complicated by her twinned desires to 1) kill people and 2) raise a good kid. Now those are some modern problems. —KE

“#Manhole”

“#Manhole”

From “The Shallows” to “Buried” and “All is Lost,” there are plenty of strong minimalist thrillers built around one person forced trapped in a challenging situation with nobody else around. Catalyzed, perhaps, by pandemic-related claustrophobia, this year’s Berlinale has two new examples: There’s Willem Dafoe as a robber stuck in an apartment with “Inside” (above) as well as “#Manhole,” which — you guessed it! — all takes place within the confines of a manhole. And this particular curious exercise holds a lot of potential.

Japanese director Kazuyoshi Kamakiri’s addition to the subgenre revolves around an enterprising young man (Yuto Nakajima) who falls down the hole in question the night before his wedding. The ensuing scramble to make his way out of the space in time for his moment at the altar promises a fresh twist on the genre and an acting showcase for Japanese singer and model Nakajima, who is said to single-handedly carry this movie on his shoulders for obvious reasons. —EK

“Manodrome”

“Manodrome”

With “The Wound,” Johannesburg filmmaker John Trengove explored a closeted gay relationship in the Eastern Cape mountains of South Africa amid an initiation ritual. That 2017 film nearly made it all the way to the Oscars — it ended up on the shortlist for Best International Feature — but also cemented the stature of an eerie and unusual new queer classic.

Five years later, Trengove is back with his English-language debut “Manodrome,” a thriller starring Jesse Eisenberg, Adrien Brody, and Odessa Young. Her character was originally played by Riley Keough, who had to decamp the project — like “The Wound,” also an interrogation of masculinity — but stayed on as a producer. Eisenberg appears to be playing almost totally against type — at least if his turn in “Fleishman Is in Trouble” is any establishment of “type” — as a pierced bodybuilder and Uber driver. He is inducted into a “libertarian masculinity cult,” according to a synopsis, and his tether to reality begins to unravel. —RL

“She Came to Me”

“She Came to Me”

Berlinale

This year’s Berlinale opens with a starry offering: Rebecca Miller’s first film since 2015’s underseen (and, we’d argue, underappreciated) Greta Gerwig vehicle “Maggie’s Plan” boasts a cast that includes Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, and Marisa Tomei. Dinklage stars as a composer suffering from writer’s block who finds himself (miraculously?) freed up after a one-night-stand with a delightful new woman, but early reports hint at something even more wide-ranging, a multi-generational rom-com that examines many facets of love. Miller is aces when it comes to finding the heart and humor in complicated, deeply human situations, and “She Came to Me” sounds like the sort of thing she excels at. Even better: Bruce Springsteen has written an original song for the movie, which sounds like it’s got complicated crowdpleaser written all over it. —KE

“Perpetrator”

The absurd resale value of JNCOs notwithstanding, ’90s nostalgia has some benefits. And the return of Alicia Silverstone, not just in Super Bowl ads but in unusual feminist horror, is definitely cause to celebrate. The “Clueless” star takes a delightful turn as the steely guardian of a mysterious family secret in “Perpetrator,” a surreal horror thriller from provocateur Jennifer Reeder (“Knives and Skin”). Silverstone delivers her lines in a hyper-stylized staccato, the comical over-enunciation evoking a mix of some otherworldly presence or a WASP-y childless aunt. Her youthful features belie her age when she’s introduced as the great aunt of teenager Jonny (Kiah McKirnan), a scrappy loner who’s trying to survive high school in a town where young women have been turning up missing.

Reeder makes amusing satire out of the pearl-clutching protection of young girls, with over-the-top active-shooter drills rolling out at a high-pitched frenzy. The missing girls, and Jonny’s unsettling ability to feel their pain, collide in a chilling conclusion with gore and guts to match. Reeder’s ability to conjure sightly askew worlds that mirror and poke fun at contemporary fears is as daring as ever, and a refreshing departure from most male-driven big-budget horror. —JD

“Tótem”

“Tótem”

Mexican director Lila Avilés’ 2018 debut “The Chambermaid” all took place in claustrophobic hotel rooms; her latest expands the space only enough to encompass one house. Set over the course of a single day, the story revolves around a family gathering for an ailing painter and father who at first attempts to hide from his relatives. The focused, atmospheric drama is said to be both somber and uplifting as it explores the experiences of a man coming to terms with his mortality, and should further cement Avilés as one of the most promising filmmakers to emerge from Latin America in recent years. —EK

“Reality”

“Reality”

The saga of Reality Winner is well-documented: In 2017, the young military contractor was sentenced to over five years in prison after she leaked evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 elections to The Intercept. She has since been released, but her story continues to be scrutinized. While the 2021 documentary “United States vs. Reality Winner” explored the circumstances that led to Winner’s capture (and the disproportionate punishment she received), playwright Tina Satter took a more ambitious report for her play “Is This a Room” the same year, using the actual FBI transcripts of Winner’s initial interrogation and arrest to construct an absorbing drama.

Now, that same material has been transformed into a remarkable chamber piece that serves as Satter’s directorial debut, with Sydney Sweeney (perhaps best known for “White Lotus” Season 1) in a gripping turn as the woman in question. The movie provides a snapshot of the strange and often eccentric nature of the interrogation process, as Winner comes to terms with her circumstances while navigating the strange linguistic hoops that the FBI agents force her to go through. Blending first-rate suspense with thematic intrigue and unexpected flashes of humor, “Reality” brings a sharp personal lens to the consequences faced by a modern-day whistleblower through the prism of the labyrinthine rituals of the American justice system. —EK

“Superpower”

“Superpower”

As Russian troops prepared to invade Ukraine in early 2021, one of the more surprising characters to show up in coverage from the country was Sean Penn, who was trailing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky long before he became a global icon of resilience. Penn’s initial interest in Zelensky revolved around his fascinating transition from famous actor (in which he had recently played the Ukrainian president on TV!) to serious politician. Obviously, things went in a different direction, and the international community has been obsessed with Zelensky’s resolve for the past two years. But Penn and co-director Aaron Kaufman got there before most people, as their cameras captured the tense evolution of Zelensky into a wartime president in closeup detail.

“Superpower” includes a sit-down with the president on the night that Russia’s invasion began, and the documentary promises to remind the world of Zelensky’s remarkable challenge just as he attempts to do the same thing. —EK

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Source link

With over 200 movies premiering at the

One of the best characters on Bridgerton is the scheming, easily bored, snuff-sniffing, and ultimately pro-love Queen Charlotte, played by Golda Rosheuvel and based on the real-life wife of King George III (you know, the dude that America revolutioned against in 1776).

And because of the series’ popularity, Netflix is giving us viewers what we want: a prequel spin-off about Queen Charlotte that will also feature three other grand dames of the ton. We can’t wait! The series is aptly titled Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming series, including a premiere date, teaser trailer, and more info:

(L to R) Adjoa Andoh as Lady Agatha Danbury, Ruth Gemmell as Lady Violet Bridgerton in episode 102 of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. 

NICK WALL/NETFLIX

What is the show about?

I’ll tell you: It is about Queen Charlotte, Lady Danbury, and Violet Bridgerton. “While the series will center on the rise and love life of a young Queen Charlotte, it will also tell the stories of young Violet Bridgerton and Lady Danbury,” Netflix said in a press release.

“Many viewers had never known the story of Queen Charlotte before Bridgerton brought her to the world, and I’m thrilled this new series will further expand her story and the world of Bridgerton,” added Netflix executive Bela Bajaria.

Here’s a 101 on the real Queen Charlotte: Lady Danbury and Violet Bridgerton are characters invented by author Julia Quinn, but Queen Charlotte was a real person! Here’s just the briefest intro to her story: She lived from 1744 to 1818 and married the heir to the English throne when she was a teenager. In the show she doesn’t seem to have kids of her own, but in real life she had more than 10 children. The thing about knowing Mozart may have been true!

As for her race, she was definitely German, but there’s a theory that she also had African ancestry. As in the series, her husband had cognitive issues later in life, though he was quite sane at the time of the revolution. You might remember him in Hamilton singing that cheeky “I’ll go mad” line. All details courtesy of this article in The Guardian, except for the Hamilton line, which I know from Hamilton, and the King George facts, which I got from an episode of the podcast Noble Blood.

Source link

One of the best characters on Bridgerton

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. Such a wonderful made up holiday for people in relationships. If you need a holiday once every 365 days to remind you to do something nice for your significant other, then you should probably be re-evaluating your relationship. Just sayin’. Anyway, don’t for the “Coming Out For Love” premiere is happening in a few hours at 3pm ET. Go to comingoutforlove.com, click “Watch” in the upper right hand corner, sign up for a bundle package, and you’ll be able to see the live pre-party and watch the first episode today. Even if you miss it, episode #1 will re-run this Saturday then be accessible whenever you want to watch. From there, a new episode will be released every Saturday for the next 16 weeks. Looking forward to watching episode #1 again today as you really get a decent look at all 16 women as the show basically gives everyone an intro video. Really hope you’ll take the time to watch this show. I know I never ask you guys to pay for anything, but at barely over $1 per episode, I think you’ll like this.

Get your “Reader Emails” in for tomorrow. Fairly low right now so good chance your email will be in tomorrow’s batch if you send it in today. Gonna talk to Kristen Baldwin from EW.com for this week’s podcast, so maybe if you have any questions for her you can throw them in there as well and I can ask before recording tomorrow around noon.

You can listen to today’s podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in by clicking the player below:


Subscribe:
Apple Podcasts,RSS, Stitcher, Spotify
Music written by Jimmer Podrasky
(B’Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)

Our friend Suzana at @BachelorData had a great IG story over the weekend. She didn’t put it on her feed so I can’t embed it here, but click on this link https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE4MzMyNzQ5MDE1MDY0MzIy?story_media_id=3035477653578673255&igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= to see a funny story about how the coverage of the Bachelor has been for 12 STRAIGHT SEASONS. Pretty amazing. Not only did she find articles on the last 12 Bachelors all calling them boring, but also, NONE of them were from the same outlet. All different websites and magazines somehow at some point during the last 12 seasons said the same thing.

In my Daily Roundup today, I talk about how I did look into possibly transcribing my podcasts for those that don’t listen. There was one service that charged $1.50 per minute. That’s out. With 5 Daily Roundups a week and another Thursday podcast, that’d be close to $1000 a month to transcribe my podcast. The return on investment is not worth it. I did find a service that only charged $13.99 a month for 25 hours of transcribing. However, below is a cut and paste job of exactly the transcription I received back from yesterday’s Daily Roundup, 2/13/23. I did not touch it because I wanted to show you guys that yes, while it does get transcribed, there’s no breaks, tons of misspellings, zero punctuation, no quotes over anything, etc. It’d take me another 30-45 minutes to go through each transcription to make it readable for you. I mean, my eyes hurt just looking at this. Having to go through and make non stop corrections might make my eyeballs bleed. Here’s what I got for yesterday’s DR:

“18s You are listening to the Daily Roundup here as part of the Reality Steve podcast. I’m your host, Reality Steve. Thank you all for tuning in. Good Monday show for you. I got a correction to make from Friday’s podcast, of course, because I always screw up. You know that. We’re going to go over what’s happening tonight in the episode, as the women and Zach head to the Bahamas, michelle speaks on Nate a little bit more than she ever has before. We’ve got the return of Bachelor live on stage. What a 3s I also have some pop culture stories to go over with you and we will get to that momentarily.
As you know, this podcast is also sponsored by Coming out for Love, the first all female dating competition show in the US. Premiering tomorrow on Valentine’s Day. Follow the first bachelorette internet sensation Amber Whittington as she dates a diverse group of 16 women all vying for her heart. Go to comingoutforlove.com. Click the watch button in the top right hand corner. Purchase whatever bundle you’d like. Use promo code Reality Steve for 15% off your order and you’re all set for the 16 episode season pass. 1s This podcast also brought to you by Trail Mix Games. For a tasty mix of love and drama. Download love and pies for free today. That’s love and pies. Free to download in the App Store or Google Play. And also brought to you by Green Chef. Green Chef makes Eating well easy with plans to fit every lifestyle. Go to Green Chef.com slash Realitysteev 60 and use Code Realitystave 60 to get 60% off, plus free shipping. And Green Chef, the number one meal kit for eating well.
Okay, let’s get started. I wanted to cover something that I mentioned on Friday, and for those that listen, know that there was obviously no malicious intent or anything like that. When I misreported what I said in regards to Rachel recta getting a breast reduction, she had talked about it publicly that this is what she’s going to do. She had reached out on her social media to her fans, I guess, just asking questions about it, anybody that could give her any information regarding it, what to expect, stuff like that. And when I mentioned it on Friday in the Daily Roundup, the thing that I said was, I wonder if she’s reached out to Claire or Jenna Cooper, because both of them had 1s surgery to get their implants removed. And the mistake I made was. 2s That exactly. Clare and Jenna had implants that were removed. Rachel is just getting a breast reduction. So a lot of you pointed it out to me that said, yeah, Steve, I think you mixed up Xplant with reduction, which I did. It was just a stupid mistake on my part. There was one or two that did reach out to basically chastise me, and I had a good back and forth with some one who clearly did not listen to the podcast but claimed they did, because when I posted my tweet and then put that tweet in my Instagram story, I said, hey, I goofed. Clare and Jenna had EXP plant surgery. Rachel is having a breast reduction. I’m an idiot sometimes, and that’s all it was. Obviously, I just made a mistake. It wasn’t like I was going out of my way to say anything in regards to Rachel’s surgery. It was just the only reason I brought it up was to say, I wonder if she reached out to Claire and Jenna thinking that it was the same, but it obviously wasn’t. And I got a couple emails. Like I said, most of you just corrected me, but a couple kind of jumped down my throat. Maybe you should stop talking about women’s bodies inappropriately, which is just hilarious, because if you listen to the podcast, nothing I said in that podcast had anything to do with commenting on anybody’s bodies. I literally just wondered if she reached out to Clare and Jenna. 1s But someone did message me that. And I wrote back, tell me you didn’t listen to the podcast. Without telling me you didn’t listen to the podcast. And of course, we went back and forth because any troll that messages you can’t possibly be wrong. I said, okay, then tell me what I said that was inappropriate towards women’s bodies. Well, I forgot because I stopped listening. I said, well, that doesn’t make any sense. You just told me I was inappropriate by talking about about women’s bodies, yet you can’t give me what I said. It’s still there. I didn’t delete the podcast. Tell me what I said that was inappropriate towards women’s bodies. And of course they couldn’t. So I just had fun at their expense and then blocked them because they’re a troll. But it was just funny when, like I said, you can get called out for certain things. And people like to correct me all the time when I’m wrong. If I say something wrong about a season, like, I say, oh, that’s contestant was on that season, which I’ve done plenty of times where I’ve just messed up somebody on the seasons. You guys will all step up and correct me. Which I’m fine with, because for the most part, I don’t listen to the whole podcast back. I just post it and then it’s just out there. 1s But yeah, I mean, clearly, if anybody listened to the podcast, I never offered any advice to what Rachel was wanting to do. I never offered any opinion on what Rachel was going to do. I never talked about anybody’s bodies. I mean, it was clear as day. There was nothing malicious about what I said or was I even angling for anything. It was just she put it out there publicly. So it was now publicly public news that Rachel is getting a breast reduction. And I was just like, I wonder if she reached out to Claire and Jenna. And that was where my mistake was, because they didn’t have the same exact thing that Rachel is getting done. So just wanted to point out that out there. But sometimes I do have a little back and forth with trolls on Instagram who think they’re calling me out for something, and then when I literally repeat back to them, then tell me what I said that’s was inappropriate towards women. They can’t tell me, and they’re just like, well, maybe you should just stop talking about it. You don’t even know anything about it’s. Like, okay, you’re clueless. It was fun, though. It was a good five minute back and forth. 2s All right, let’s talk about tonight’s episode, which is the women and Zach going to the Bahamas. We’ve got two one on one dates. Catherine ISO is on the one on one, and Brooklyn is on the one on one. They both get roses. I’m not sure what the group date is that they actually do. And one of the things that’s being shown in the promos is 2s I can’t remember which a woman it is goes to Zach 1s to talk about Anastasia. And Anastasia had been making comments, I guess, around the women about growing her Instagram account, which is just so boring at this point, these storylines of people we all know, everyone’s going on the show 2s to grow a brand and gain followers. It’s stupid for you as a contestant to talk about it with the other contestant because that just gives them ammunition. If that’s your goal and going on the show, that is perfectly fine. Just don’t verbalize it to everybody else. It’s just dumb. Now on the spoilers. You saw me say back in November that Anastasia had to leave the show because of a friend dying. Well, a friend did die. Whether or not it’s shown that that’s how she’s eliminated tonight, or she doesn’t get a rose of the rose ceremony, that I’m not sure. But I know a friend died and she was leaving the show. Maybe it was coupled with the fact that this whole storyline came up and Zach just doesn’t give a rose. I don’t know. But I know she’s gone. This episode, I’m sure the people that follow every single word that I say will consider that something that Reality steve got wrong this season because they can’t find anything else that I did. But that’s the way it goes. Sometimes I have the episode where the person goes home, but still, that’s not good enough for people. And that’s where it kind of gets kind of funny, because, let’s be honest, people asking for that type of perfection are never going to be satisfied no matter what I do. But, yes, I do get called out for stuff. I literally tell you what episode they go home. But I will get an email tomorrow saying, I thought you said Anastasia goes home because her friend died. She went home with the rose sir. I’m like, yeah, I know, sorry. But both can be true. So whether or not it’s shown on the show, I don’t know. Maybe she does go home because of that. But. 1s It’s looking like not. And she just gets eliminated at the Rose ceremony. But, you know, this is this is another one of these things where you hear a lot of stuff before the season. You hear things about certain people and who and who they’re talking to and who are they possibly dating, and all this stuff 1s and a stage of going home. This episode is not surprising, let’s put it that way. 2s So I don’t know if you saw it at the end of last week. 1s Well, Michelle was on the almost famous podcast. And remember when Michelle and Nate broke up? Nate went on Nick’s podcast and 1s said some things. I think the biggest thing that he said in that podcast that I remember off the top of my head, I don’t have the exact quote in front of me, but it was something a little along the lines of when Nick asked him, are you upset that the relationship ended, or are you upset? Yeah, it was something along those lines. And Nate essentially said. 2s I’m upset that, 1s you know what? I probably should have fixed. I probably should have pulled up this line. But I think it was something along the lines of maybe it was around when he asked about, do you still are you still in love with her? And he said, I was in love with the Michelle from the show and not the one that I broke up with or the one at the end of the relationship. It was something along those lines. Essentially, Nate was saying the person he met on the show was not the person that he ended up breaking up with. Like, things had changed. So Michelle on the Almost Famous podcast talked about the relationship with Nate, and she said, I wanted the relationship to work. I was willing to put in the work for the relationship, and I had the person take off. That’s not something that I bluntly said before, because instagram, and there’s all these other things on you, but, like, I know what it looks like to work through a relationship, and I know how hard relationships can get, but both people have to be capable of doing that. It’s an interesting statement, to say the least. 2s And 1s she said, I feel like that was literally stripped away from me, so it pisses me off. But I’m also like, great. I can’t wait to do it, like, for real this next time with somebody who I know will be there. So, 1s again, a little bit of shade thrown at Nate, essentially. Now Michelle is saying she wanted to make it work, and he didn’t. And if you’re listen to his interview with Nick, it was more along the lines of she changed. She was not the woman I fell in love with on the show, and things were different. And I just wanted to be us as Michelle and Nate, doing Michelle and Nate things. And it sounded like it was more along the lines of, well, 1s I don’t know. He said at the time, once we left that world, I just kind of wanted to be two normal people. People. There was always this background pressure to just be as perfect as possible, where I was like, I mean, let’s just be ourselves. And I think that played a role in us not seeing eye to eye. We had conversations about the pressure. I just wanted to be Nate and Michelle. 3s And he even said, if Michelle felt blindsided, I can’t take that away from her. But I know the reality of it is, this wasn’t our first time talking about a breakup. The day I left La. After her birthday weekend, it was kind of already being said without being said. And again, it wasn’t our first time having a breakup conversation. This is our third time nearly breaking up. So again, when two people break up and look, breakups suck. They’re the worst. Very few times in the history of the world when it comes to breakups, do you find two people that were like, yeah, we both decided after time away. Especially as an engaged couple, we both decided after time together. You know what? It would be great to go our separate ways. He’s great. He thinks I’m great. It’s just not working between us. Yes, it does happen sometimes. Not very often, but when you’re talking about breakups in the social social media world, when you’re talking about breakups within this franchise, you’re never really getting two people. I mean, I guess Susie and Clayton would be the biggest, 2s the ones that would oppose that stance, just because neither of them have come close to really taking a shot. 2s Towards the other person. They’ve been honest. And maybe some people will be saying, well, being honest was them taking a shot at the other person. I don’t know. I don’t really see it that way, at least as of now. But there’s still time. Maybe later on down the line, clayton takes a shot at Susie. Or maybe later on down the line, susie takes a shot at Clayton. I don’t know. But as of right now, they seem to be the only ones who have really ever broken up in this franchise and left it as, you know, what? We tried. We’re just not meant for the other person. I wish him all the best, and he says, I wish her all the best, and everyone just kind of moves on. That’s where we’re at with both of them, really. And unless something changes, they would probably be the exception to the rule. But it looks like now as we get further and further away from the Michelle and Nate breakup, we are getting a little bit more. I mean, for Michelle to say that clearly sounds like, well, Michelle, this isn’t what you gave us the first time you talked about breaking up. And when Nate went on Nick’s podcast, it was like, okay, it’s not like he threw a ton of shade at her, but he threw some things in there that maybe us as the public were unaware of. So it’s this balance of you don’t want to take shots because that immediately puts the fans on the person you’re taking shots at side, and then it makes you the villain. And I don’t think this makes Michelle the villain, nor do I think that Nate being on Nick’s podcast made him the villain. It’s just giving a little insight. Now. If someone goes completely scorched earth on the other person and says they did this, this, and this, I’m so glad I’m out of that relationship. That person is crazy or whatever, then we’re talking major t. This is hey. 2s I maybe wasn’t all that detailed when I talked about our breakup the first time, but now that I’m a little further away and removed from it, I’ll go on the Almost Famous podcast and drop this little nugget here. If Nate responds, who knows? Although, 1s didn’t Nate post an Instagram story this past weekend, hanging out with one of Michelle’s best friends? And then Michelle put something on her Instagram story saying, completely unable, unbothered by whatever is going on in the world? And it looks like, again, that was in direct response to Nate hanging out with one of Michelle’s best friends. So I don’t know, 5s maybe there’s going to be subtle shots taken here and there, but it’s clear these two this breakup is not a Clayton Susie breakup. These two are not keeping in touch. They are not staying friends. It doesn’t even look like there’s any sort of X sex happening here. Like, it looks like they’ve completely separated from each other and not saying that Clayton and Susie talk all the time or whatever, but they’re not taking shots at each other or even throwing subtle jabs. And they say that they respect what the other has done since the breakup. So I guess we just wait and see if Michelle and Nate have anything more to say going forward. 2s So something is returning in the bachelor world that has been gone for, I want to say, at least a year, and that’s the bachelor live on stage. Now, becca posted it on her instagram account. The bachelor live on stage instagram account also posted it. There are they are returning for three weekends in April april 7 and 8th, april 14 and 15th and April 21 and 22nd in scottsdale, Arizona, at the talking stick resort. And it doesn’t have any more dates, so I don’t know if this is all they’re doing or they’re just waiting to book other venues before they put possible ticket sales up. I’m not sure. But as of right now, if you go to bachelor live on stage and you’re in the Arizona area and you’re in the Scottsdale area or an area close to it and you want to go see this travesty of the show, I you can you can go buy tickets. April 7 and 8th, april 14 and 15th, april 21 and 22nd. You know what? I’m going to click on the tickets here. What are tickets for this ridiculous show? What are they? Oh, by the way, it’s becca, 1s rodney and Andrew. 1s They are the ones that 2s oh, let’s see. Becca and Andrew are hosting the 7th, the 8th, the 21st and 22nd. And Andrew and Rodney are hosting the 14th and 15th. So let me just click on, let’s see, friday, April 7. How do we get here for tickets? What are we looking at? 1s What do they got? Okay, section three basically section three is $49 tickets. Then you got $59 tickets in row section $279 tickets in section one. Premium seats are around $100, and some for a VIP table is $125. Okay, so not ridiculous, but for some reason I want to say that when this thing first started, remember when they did like 40 or 50 of these things back in right after maybe it was pre COVID and COVID shut it down 1s or it was set to go and then COVID hit, so they had to cancel it. And then they did it, restarted it in 2021. I could have sworn I was hearing tickets were going for like 250 or $300. So maybe they realized this is ridiculous for this show and basically all it is is a whole bachelor season in one two hour show. But it’s not. 1s Serious because there was a point where I thought they were actually taking it serious, and the guy that they had as the bachelor on the stage was picking someone that he actually had to go out on a date with or whatever. It’s not it’s just locals in the area can sign up to be part of the show. They do one on ones, they do group dates, they do activities. There’s many rows, ceremonies throughout the course, there’s dance numbers that they do, and then ultimately the bachelor will pick somebody at the end of the show to give a rose to. But it doesn’t mean anything in terms of dating or whatnot, so I’ve never really quite understood the appeal of this show. It seems really, really dumb. And I’ve read reviews of people that went and look, I get this isn’t a fan of the opera here. You’re not going to see if this thing’s going to win a tony award, but it just seems pointless. Like, it almost made more sense to me when they actually did start this thing out and they were choosing local guys from the city they were in, and that local guy was choosing and had to give a rose to a woman at the end because maybe he could date them or was interested in seeing them. Kind of like that ryan guy from seattle when they went to seattle, and then he ended up being on, who was it? Michelle’s season, katie season. I forgot already which season he was on. But that’s what I mean. Like, I thought, okay, well, this makes sense. Even though he’s still only giving a rose to somebody that he’s known for a couple of hours on stage, he still might be interested and take them out. Then when it came back, it was just using all former bachelor guys, and they were using the same bachelor guy in multiple cities. So, yeah, it’s not like he had to go out with them because he was literally giving roses. If he happened to be the lead for five or six shows, he was giving roses to five or six different women in different cities. We didn’t expect him to go on dates with them. So it made a little more sense in the original version, but this version just seems kind of pointless. I don’t really understand it, but hey, not going to deter anybody from going. If you want to go see the bachelor live on stage, just go to bacheloronstage.com and get your tickets. If you’re in the arizona area in the month of april. 1s I wanted to end with this story because this is something I’ve teased, I think, three different times on Daily Roundup. I never got around to it. Did you see this Jessica Simpson story where she has come out and said in an interview that after her marriage to Nick Lache, after she got divorced, but before she met her current husband, Eric Johnson, she was having an affair with an unnamed movie star and based basically, 1s she will not name them. But she grew up thinking they were so hot they did something together. One time, she said, he eyeballed me up and down. He was undressing me with his eyes. She wrote this in an Amazon essay that was published on February 1, by the way. She said there was something very sexy and enticing about all of it but there was also something demeaning about it. I felt out like a call girl. I didn’t care if he was my teenage fantasy come to life. This was not a choice. That same girl my younger self would be proud of. And then. 2s She said that her husband, Eric Johnson, knows all about it, which I don’t doubt. However, when Jessica Simpson says something like this, that’s fairly big. Now everyone and their mother is trying to guess who this is. And I haven’t even seen any guesses out there, because the only thing I’ve seen is when the story appears on US weekly’s website. I’m sure if I did a deeper dive, there are probably things out there that have speculated names and whatnot, and 1s it’s just interesting for her to throw this out there. Is it surprising that she was with somebody having an affair with a married man in Hollywood? No, not at all. I guess I’m a little surprised that she came out and admitted this. Now. She didn’t need to, but 1s especially if she isn’t going to throw his name out there. But I also think that it’s not the least bit surprising, especially someone who, after her divorce from Nick Lachey, was about as popular as a single woman as you could find on the market in Hollywood. Like, everybody was interested in Jessica Simpson back then and. 2s Be interesting if it ever gets out. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Like I said, I’m sure there’s rumors out there. I’m sure Ducks Moy has the person figured out already, but I don’t know if we’re ever going to get the exact answer unless the guy comes out and says it. But I doubt he will because sounds like he’s married. So kind of a story that’s interesting. But again, we’re going to be frustrated because we’re probably never truly going to get the right answer. We could have guesses of who we think it might be based on timelines. And this and this. And she was seen at this event between her divorce to Nick and her meeting Eric, who knows? But she admitted it did happen, so it’s not like we’re making something up. She’s the one who came out and said it and told everybody, yeah, I had an affair with somebody who, when I was younger, I had a crush on. So be interesting to see if this ever gets out. Anyway, thank you all for tuning in. I really appreciate it. Please rate subscribe and review and Apple podcasts. Much appreciated. Once again coming out for love. The premiere episode is coming out tomorrow, but that’s only if you’re allowed to join online live at 03:00 p.m.. Eastern Time. If you can’t, that’s okay. The first episode will be replayed and repeated on Saturday, and then once it’s up on Saturday, it’s there forever. You can watch it whenever you want and you’ll get a new episode every Saturday for the next four months. I’m really excited for you guys to check out the show, especially those of you who are in the LGBTQ community. I think it’s a really good representation of your community. And Nicole Khan, my guest on the podcast last week, did such a great job on this and I think really understood the nuances of what she needed to do for a reality dating show. It’s not exploitative. It is not something like you would see on MTV. Very, very real, very more emotionally real. These contestants, these women are from all walks of life, like I said, all different shapes and sizes. It is not your typical reality show contestants. So if you’re interested, check it out. You go to Coming Outforlove.com, click the watch in the upper right hand corner on the website and then click whatever bundle you want to use. 1999 is the one where you get six months of access, which will cover you watching this whole show. And then just type in my code, Reality Steve, and get 15% off that. Really appreciate it if you would do that because Nicole was such a good guest and she wants to do more of these seasons and it certainly helps if people buy and watch this season. Thank you once again for tuning in. Really appreciate it. And we’ll be back tomorrow with yet another Daily Roundup. So until then, I’m Reality Steve. Thank you for tuning in. Talk to you tomorrow.”

Now, if there’s another service out there that transcribes better, does paragraph breaks, better punctuation, and doesn’t cost a whole hell of a lot, it’s possible I can still do this. But I just haven’t found one yet. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to upload the audio file, and get back a transcription I won’t have to do a ton of work on after the fact. But I’m all ears if you have any suggestions.

Recap begins on Page 2…






Source link

Share Tweet Share Share Email Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. Such a

If there was any doubt that Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star in Hollywood, that was eradicated on Monday afternoon at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 41st Oscar Nominees Luncheon, where the producing nominee for Top Gun: Maverick — making his first appearance of the season on the awards circuit — was swarmed by virtually everyone else in the Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom.

Awestruck first-time nominees queued up and were greeted with Cruise’s eye-contact and million-dollar smile, a handshake and a selfie. Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani Nobel laureate who attended the event on behalf of the documentary short nominee Stranger at the Gate, and might otherwise have been the biggest celebrity in the room, was escorted over to him and greeted warmly. And even veteran A-listers Steven Spielberg, a producing, directing and writing nominee for The Fabelmans, and Guillermo del Toro, a best animated feature nominee for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, made their way through the crowd in order to say hello, and received bear hugs upon doing so.

As Academy president Janet Yang said in her remarks welcoming the 186 nominees (or, in the case of four individuals, directors of Oscar-nominated international features) who were in attendance, “You are all winners” — which, she politely refrained from adding, will not be the case on March 12, when the 95th Oscars ceremony takes place across town at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and only a fraction of the nominees leave with a golden statuette. (The ceremony will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.)

A dark cloud hovered over the upbeat gathering for just a moment when Yang referenced — without using any names — Will Smith’s on-stage slap of Chris Rock that marred the 94th Oscars ceremony. “Today, I feel it’s important to take this rare opportunity, while we’re gathered here together, to address some of the Academy’s recent challenges last year,” she said. “As I’m sure you all remember, we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars. What happened on stage was wholly unacceptable and the response from the organization was inadequate. We learned from this that the Academy must be fully transparent and accountable in our actions and particularly in times of crisis. We must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively for ourselves and for our industry. You should and can expect no less from us going forward. We are committed to maintaining the highest standards while creating the changes we wish to see in our industry.”

The first-term Academy president also delivered an implicit rebuke of last year’s controversial decision to not air live the presentation of all 23 awards on the Oscars telecast. “Our focus for the upcoming Oscars will, in fact, be on unity, partnership and the collaborative nature of cinema,” she stated. “We shall celebrate the power of entire film crews and the behind-the-scenes magic that makes movies possible and powerful.” And, she added to even louder applause, “We have worked really hard to present all awards live on the show this year — so we need to be sensitive to our running time. You’ve got to work with us. This is live television, after all. Translation: keep it [acceptance speeches] short, sweet and to the point, please.” (She noted that winners will have 45 seconds, tops” to deliver a speech before they are cut off.)

Following a montage of clips sourced from social media posts in which a handful of this year’s nominees reacted in real-time to the announcement of their nominations back on Jan. 24, Academy governor DeVon Franklin called up the nominees, one by one, to take their places on bleachers that were set up for the annual “class photo.”

From my vantage point, for whatever it’s worth, the loudest applause in the room went to the following individuals: Everything Everywhere All at Once supporting actress nominee Jamie Lee Curtis (the first name called), lead actress nominee Michelle Yeoh and supporting actor nominee Ke Huy Quan (the fact that the film was represented by nominees in a field-leading 11 categories can’t have hurt); Women Talking adapted screenplay nominee Sarah Polley; Causeway supporting actor nominee Brian Tyree Henry; Elvis lead actor nominee Austin Butler; and yes, Cruise.

Does any of this reflect the tastes of the Academy overall? We’ll find out in just 27 days!

Source link

If there was any doubt that Tom

People that love digital art have thought about animating their work at least once in their career. Based on an Animation Script, Book, Song or Comic, almost anything can be brought to real life with the help of animators. But where and how to hire an Animator exactly?

While you may find answers with a quick Google search, sometimes you won’t get exactly you want. Maybe It’s a big Animation studio or a Freelance animator. How should you make your choice? We are about to find out.

Freelance Animators

A Freelance Animator is an individual, who makes a living through work based on a per-task basis. They are not working for any Company, Studio or Agency, but rather for themselves.

Freelance jobs are mostly short-term or one time jobs, but they can also be hired indefinitely by a company or individual. Some Freelance Animators even have it as their career and are very successful doing so.

Why Would I Hire a Freelance Animator?

One of the reasons why people hire Freelancers, because they need a one-time job done and don’t need employees working for them Long Term.

The second reason is that their price for services like Video Animation are much lower than hiring Animation Studios or Agencies. Not all Freelancers are “Cheap”, but they also don’t have unreasonably high prices for their services.

Freelance Animators don’t need written contracts, everything can be done through platforms made for these things, where everybody is safe from fraud.

Where to hire Freelance Animators?

Most Freelancers can be found on freelance websites made specifically for them, where Fraud-Free systems assures everybody’s safety when it comes to secure payments and delivery.

The 2 most known and dominant Freelancing platforms are Fiverr and Upwork , where freelancers post their so-called “gigs” about Animation, Video-Editing, Graphic Design, 2D Character design, 3D Character Design etc. and then, people can reach out to them about the service they can provide.

You can also find people that fit the criteria through various Freelancing communities, for example in Facebook groups that talk about Animation. There, you can find many more people offering their services than needing them, so you can easily find someone there too, however be careful with any payments that are not contracted or secured in any other way.

How to Choose a Good Freelancer?

Choosing a Freelance animator can be exhausting at first, because you may not know what separates a bad one from a good one. Here are some key points to look out for:

1) Read Their Reviews:

Arguably the most important factor in hiring a Freelance Animator is, the number and quality of their reviews. Nobody will know their experience with the animator more than the customers themselves.

See how many reviews does the Freelancer have and READ them. What exactly do the people like about the specific service? What do they not like?

Most information that you need about the Freelancer can be found through their reviews, so never skip them.

2) Consider The Price:

As we said before, hiring a Freelance Animator can be much cheaper than an Animation studio. That is because they work for themselves, don’t have anyone to pay salaries so the animation production is cheaper, or the amounts they charge are already more than what they need

Most prices for a 2D animated video range from $150 to $1000 per MINUTE of the cartoon animation, while for 3D Animation, it can cost from $150 to 1000$ per SECOND.

3) Look at their full Portfolio and Animated Video Reel:

Before you hire an animator, you should always analyze their Portfolio (their past work) to see if the Freelancer has everything that you are looking for. Do you like the style of their Animation, do the Animated Videos meet your quality expectations?

You should also look for the size of their catalogue. The more jobs that they completed, the more experience they possess. But be careful, quality is almost always better than quantity.

4) Read the Job Description:

Before messaging Freelancers, you should always read their job description first. They usually contain the exact information that you may be looking for and their terms of working with customers.

Many people also decide who to hire based on how much they like their job post descriptions, because they can really pull someone in

5) Message before buying anything:

You should never buy anything without talking to the Freelancer first. See if they are fit for the type of work that you need done and share the details of your project to them before ordering anything.

It’s best to describe your needs as detailed and accurate as possible, so they can see if they can do it correctly. It would be a shame if a Freelancer realized they can’t to the job in the middle of the order.

Professional Animation Studios

Why Would I Hire An Animation Studio?

Animation studios have been around for decades, producing high-quality animation for television shows, movies, and video games. Everyone knows big studios like Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Pixar or Sony Pictures Animation These studios employ teams of animators, artists, and other professionals who work together to bring animated characters and worlds to life.

While freelancers can certainly create great animation, animation studios are generally considered to be better than freelancers for a number of reasons.

Resources and Infrastructure

One major advantage of animation studios is that they have the resources and infrastructure to produce animation on a large scale. Studios have access to advanced equipment, software, and technology that allows them to create animation quickly and efficiently.

They also have teams of animators who specialize in different areas, such as character animation, background design, and special effects. This allows them to produce animation that is both high-quality and visually diverse.

Experience With Large Projects

Another advantage of animation studios is that they have the experience and expertise to handle large, complex projects. Studios have worked on many different types of animation over the years, and have a deep understanding of the animation process.

They also have established relationships with other industry professionals, such as voice actors, composers, and sound engineers, which allows them to produce animation that is polished and professional.

Freelancers, on the other hand, may not have the same level of resources and experience as animation studios. While freelancers can certainly create great animation, they may not have access to the same equipment and technology, and may not have the same level of expertise in different areas of animation.

Additionally, freelancers may not have the same level of control over the final product as studios do.

In conclusion, animation studios are generally considered to be better than freelancers for animation production. They have the resources, expertise, and experience to produce high-quality animation on a large scale, and they have the ability to handle large, complex projects.

How To Hire An Animation Studio?

Step 1: Determine Your Animation Needs

Before you start looking for an animation studio, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of what kind of animation you need. Are you looking for 2D or 3D animation? Maybe just simple Text Animation or Traditional Stop Motion Animation? Will the animation be hand-drawn or computer-generated? What style of animation are you looking for?

Having a clear idea of your animation needs will make it easier to find the right studio for your project.

Step 2: Look for Animation Studios

Once you know what kind of animation you need, you can start looking for animation studios. There are a few different places to look, including:

  • Online directories of animation studios, such as the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA)
  • Social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, where studios often share their work and updates
  • Industry events and festivals, such as animation film festivals or conferences, where you can meet and network with studios and animators in person.

Step 3: Review Studios’ Portfolios and Reel

As you start to identify potential animation studios, it’s important to review their portfolios and reels to get a sense of their style, skills, and experience. Look for animation that is similar to what you need for your project, pay attention to the animation techniques, quality of animation and the overall style.

Step 4: Interview Studios

Once you’ve identified a few animation studios that you’re interested in working with, reach out to them for an interview. This can be done through video call, phone call, or in-person, if feasible. During the interview, ask the studio about their experience, animation style, and how they work with clients.

It’s also a good idea to ask for references from past clients so you can get a sense of how the studio works in real-world situations.

Step 5: Negotiate the Terms of the Job

When you’ve decided on an animation studio to work with, the next step is to negotiate the terms of the job. This includes discussing the project timeline, budget, and deliverables.

It’s essential to have a clear scope of work and to have clear communication on expectations and any contingencies. It’s also a good idea to put the terms of the job in writing, such as a contract, to avoid any misunderstandings down the road.

Hiring an animation studio is a crucial decision that will affect the success of your project. By following these steps, you can be confident that you’re working with the right studio for your needs. And remember, that communication is key to having a smooth collaboration.

Conclusion

In conclusion, hiring an animator can be a daunting task, but with the right information and approach, it can be a smooth process.

When it comes to choosing between a freelance animator and a professional animation studio, it ultimately comes down to the specific needs and budget of the project.

Freelance animators are a great option for one-time or short-term projects, as they often offer lower prices for their services. However, it is important to thoroughly research and read reviews of the freelancer before making a decision.

On the other hand, animation studios may be a better option for larger and more complex projects, as they have a team of professionals with a variety of specializations.

Ultimately, the key is to consider the specific needs of the project, and make a decision based on the budget, quality, and overall experience you are looking for.

Source link

People that love digital art have thought


Olivia Wilde and ASAP Rocky
John Salangsang/Shutterstock (2)

Olivia Wilde is a new fan of ASAP Rocky — but doesn’t want Rihanna to worry about her coming for her man.

The 38-year-old actress made waves online for complimenting the way the 34-year-old rapper supported Rihanna’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 12.

“If I thought he was hot before, this really put me over the edge,” Wilde wrote alongside footage of Rocky on the sidelines via Instagram Stories.

Amid backlash for the remark, she returned to the platform. “For anyone who got it twisted,” the Don’t Worry Darling director wrote. “It’s hot to respect your partner. Especially when your partner just did thaaaaaat.”

Rihanna, 34, performed a 13-minute set of her biggest hits on Sunday — and announced she’s pregnant with baby No. 2. The couple, who have been linked since early 2020, welcomed their first child, a baby boy, in May 2022.

“They wanted another baby and were trying, but the pregnancy came sooner than expected,” an insider told Us Weekly after the “Umbrella” singer debuted her baby bump on stage, adding that the pair were “surprised the second pregnancy happened so fast.”

The source added: “Rihanna and ASAP are so thrilled to be parents again. They love their family and are so happy to be adding another member.”

Wilde, meanwhile, is the mother of son Otis, 8, and daughter Daisy, 6, with ex Jason Sudeikis. Us confirmed in November 2020 that the longtime couple called it quits and she went public with Harry Styles in January 2021.

“Whether Harry knows it or not, he was a reason for the split and it blindsided Jason — he totally adores Olivia and is devastated,” an insider claimed to Us at the time. Another source, however, insisted that the “Watermelon Sugar” musician “was in no way the reason” for Wilde and Sudeikis’ broken engagement.

“She and Jason were having issues for a long time before Harry came into the picture,” a third source close to Wilde said at the time. “There was no cheating on Olivia’s part. She fell for someone else while the two were separated.”

Nearly two years later, Us confirmed that Wilde and Styles had split.

“Olivia is still very much upset about the breakup,” a source told Us in December 2022, adding that she’s “trying to move on” and “leaning on friends” amid the split.

Source link

Olivia Wilde and ASAP Rocky John

Following earlier reports that Samsung’s 990 Pro solid state drives (SSDs) suddenly falling into poor health had reached the company, a fix is now available.  

PC Gamer (opens in new tab) found a similar issue affecting Samsung 980 Pro SSDs was also found and fixed earlier this month, making it a bad time to be the owner of the company’s high performance M.2 NVME drives.

Given that older firmware is reportedly killing drives en-masse, users with even a suspicion that they have a 980 Pro or 990 Pro in their configuration should download the latest firmware version from Samsung’s free SSD performance tool Magician (opens in new tab).

Samsung’s SSD woes

Beyond the issued updates, which come without any patch notes, Samsung has been less than forthcoming with support for affected users.  

At the time of PC Gamer’s report, Samsung hadn’t officially acknowledged the issue for its 990 Pro SSDs in particular. This meant that, as according to Neowin (opens in new tab) editor Robbie Khan, the company could take him for a fool by claiming to have found “no defect” in his 990 Pro SSD and refusing to repair it.

Now that an official acknowledgement of the issue is here for (hopefully the only) affected drive models, users looking for outright replacements for their drives should have an easier time of getting them.

That could be crucial, given that, per Tom’s Hardware (opens in new tab), the firmware update is preventing damage to SSDs, but not reversing it.

The good news is that fixes are here and they couldn’t be easier to apply. The bad news is that the issues could go on to affect other drives (this 970 Pro owner is keeping a close eye out), and firmware fixes may not be enough for some.

Source link

Following earlier reports that Samsung’s 990 Pro

Like pretty much everyone, Stephen Colbert was impressed by Rihanna’s Super Bowl 2023 halftime performance, and like pretty much every late night TV host, he had some decent jokes about it.

But he also had some good jokes about about all the objects the U.S. military has recently shot out of the sky, a topic he introduced in his monologue Monday as “America’s other national pastime, being terrified of giant balloons.”

“Last week, a Chinese spy balloon soared across America before finally being shot down by a stealth fighter. Just a reminder: We spent almost $800 billion a year on defense, and we used it to pop balloons,” Colbert quipped.

“You could do that with a thumb tack and a straw,” Colbert added.

“Balloon doesn’t really do it justice,” Colbert noted. “It was two or three school buses in size, 200 feet across, and the debris was found to contain an antenna meant to pinpoint the locations of communication devices and was capable of intercepting calls made on those devices.”

“What? What? We can’t have Chinese balloons monitoring our cell phones. That’s what TikTok is for,” Colbert joked.

“We thought the whole thing had blown over,” Colbert continued, laughing at his pun. “But just this week the militaryb shot down three unidentified flying objects. Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking ‘Steve, you can’t possibly be suggesting these are aliens.”

“Well let me be clear about this ladies and gentlemen. I am not suggesting that, I am declaring that,” Colbert said as he began to quote a recent article about it. “Because, and this is important, according to a senior Air Force general, the military was unable to immediately determine the means by which any of the three latest objects were kept aloft or where they were coming from, adidng ‘I haven’t ruled anything out.’”

“Yeah, nothing’s off the table. It could be aliens, it could be balloons, or it could be alien balloons,” Colbert said as photo of a parade float of Grogu, aka “Baby Yoda” from “The Mandalorian” appeared onscreen.

Colbert then ran down some of the other objects shot down, include one that was flying in the direction of the North Pole. “Santa, you will be missed,” Colbert joked.

There’s plenty more: Colbert spent most of the monologue talking about this topic. And you can watch the whole thing above now.

Source link

Like pretty much everyone, Stephen Colbert was

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday hosted its annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon to celebrate this year’s crop of hopefuls.

The event, at the Beverly Hilton, culminated with the annual class photo.

This year’s list of attendees includes past winners like The Fabelmans‘ Steven Spielberg and Empire of Light‘s Roger Deakins, a 15-time nominee and double winner; and previous nominees including Top Gun: Maverick‘s Tom Cruise, Fabelmans‘ Michelle Williams, Women Talking‘s Sarah Polley, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery‘s Rian Johnson, Babylon‘s Mary Zophres and 14-time nominees Diane Warren. Newcomer nominees included The Whale‘s Brandon Fraser and Hong Chau, Elvis‘ Austin Butler and Aftersun‘s Paul Mescal.

Everything Everyone All at Once, which has a leading 11 noms this year, was well represented with the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan in attendance.

More will be coming from the lunch from Deadline’s Awards Columnist Pete Hammond, who attended.

RELATED: Movie Academy President Addresses Will Smith Oscar Slap: AMPAS Response “Inadequate”

The event kicks off a string of Academy programming leading to the Oscars, which will be held Sunday, March 12 at the Dolby Theater and broadcast live on ABC. AMPAS-hosted screenings, panels and more are being programmed and will take place at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Here’s a closer look at the photo:

Richard Harbaugh / A.M.P.A.S.

Richard Harbaugh / A.M.P.A.S.

Richard Harbaugh / A.M.P.A.S.

Source link

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and

Your heart will go on for James Cameron’s return to Titanic, rereleased in theaters, just in time for Valentine’s Day. “It’s been 84 years…” no, just 25 since its original release in 1997, the year Cameron’s blockbuster took the box office by storm, becoming the first film to reach the $1B mark. It also garnered 11 Oscars (when the movies that audiences flocked to would also be feted) and became the third highest-grossing movie of all time, right behind the celebrated director’s own two Avatar movies. The ship has sailed once more to knock off Avatar: Endgame as the current No. 1 with Titanic’s opening box office weekend of $15M.

At the heart a real love story

Revisiting the iconic film was a blissful experience, which holds up against the test of time. In fact, it made me nostalgic when stories like this were filmed on a grand scale and resonated with audiences. I was surprised by how much of an emotional punch the film makes. At its heart is the star-crossed lovers Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), “Romeo and Juliet” on the Titanic, as described by director James Cameron in the anniversary featurette.

There have been several versions of the 1912 sinking told on the big screen, but what set James Cameron’s epic depiction was the love between the two witnesses to the ship’s massive destructive scenes, Rose and Jack, from two vastly different classes. As tensions rise from the development of their emotional connection, it forms the foundation of the harrowing disastrous events that transpire all around them. It’s Rose’s and Jack’s passionate narrative that propels the action forward, transforming a disaster movie into a masterful story with greater depth and where the stakes couldn’t be higher: for survival, for enduring love, for freedom. It’s why it justifies the three+ hours where every minute counts.

First-rate all along the way

But it’s not just the two main stars—who would later become household names, thanks to the enormous success of Titanic—but seeing it again reminded me how impeccably cast the films was. As the villainous Cal Hockley, Billy Zane plays it to the hilt, while scene-stealing Kathy Bates’s ‘Unsinkable’ Molly Brown still remains such a fun, fantastic character. But it’s the moment when “the violins kept playing” the poignant “Nearer, my God, to thee” still remained the breaking point for me (the musicians perished along with the ship), along with Captain Smith (Bernard Hill) and ship designer Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber) shockingly resigned to their fates to go down with the ship. And here, the film is so well served by two wonderful actors bringing home the devastation of the last few hours of the ship’s demise.

The transition scenes between the young Rose and the 100-year-old version, portrayed by the gifted actress Gloria Stuart, centering on their similar irises, serve as a clever device to connect the tragedy for modern audiences. The ‘flashback’ method serves the movie so well. This is after all Rose’s journey, really, giving the narrative a positive spin that ties Jack’s impact on Rose’s life, which is seen through pictures that demonstrate how she took the lessons learned during their time on the Titanic to live life to her fullest potential. The unanticipated bittersweet twist turns the tale from one of absolute catastrophe to a hopeful one, and why this version has endured so successfully.

A new lease of life in 4K and 3D

If there’s one movie that should be seen in theaters, it’s Titanic. This a larger-than-life story that should be experienced on the large screen, plain and simple. Seeing it in theaters once more had me marveling at the glory of storytelling at its finest. The sweeping romance unfolds amidst the spectacular scenes of the ship’s glorious heyday and much later, the traumatic events of the ship’s end. The allure of Rose’s and Jack’s romance gives the audience a chance to celebrate the glory of the legendary ship, while the last hour of the film turns into a true disaster account buoyed by their emotional bond, creating even greater impact as the remaining shocking events transpire. Seeing all this take place on the big screen—seamlessly restored in 4K and 3D—left many in the audience in tears (myself included).

The 4K conversion gave Titanic a clean, beautifully enhanced feel. I’m not sure how much 3D served it, to be honest if I had one criticism. For example, it would have been fun to see the iceberg that brought the ship down pop out a bit more on the screen. Not every movie makes a smooth transition to 3D. But no matter, Titanic is worth seeing in the theaters again, and the restoration efforts make it even more worthwhile. It will remind you of the glory days of cinema (before Marvel and action heroes took over).

Believe me, your heart will go on.

Source link

Your heart will go on for

Pararmount+ has renewed the Yellowstone prequel 1923 for a second season.

This is unsurprising given that the debut of the Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren-fronted TV series attracted more viewers than any other Paramount+ original, breaking the previous record by nearly 80%.

The show centers on the Dutton family in 1923, a time of many difficulties including the Western Expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression, which had its roots in Montana ten years earlier.

The show is the third series in the Yellowstone universe. It is a prequel to Yellowstone, which focuses on the Dutton family in present-day Montana, and follows 1883, which looks at the post-Civil War generation of the Dutton family.

Two other Yellowstone projects are also in development: 6666 and 1883: The Bass Reeves Story.

“Taylor Sheridan continues to tap a cultural nerve that has proven irresistible to viewers from across the country and around the world, with this newest installment showing no signs of slowing down–proving yet again the power of our franchise strategy to fuel the future of Paramount+,” Chris McCarthy, president/CEO Paramount Media Networks & MTV Entertainment Studios, said in a statement, in December.

Source link

Pararmount+ has renewed the Yellowstone prequel 1923

The following post contains major spoilers for All American‘s Feb. 13 episode. Proceed with caution!

The All American cast and crew has been keeping a whopper of a secret for nearly a year, and viewers were finally let in on it Monday night: Billy Baker is no more.

TVLine can confirm that Taye Diggs, who has co-starred as the reliable football coach and father figure since All American‘s pilot episode, has exited the CW series, with Monday’s episode serving as his formal sendoff.

During the sentimental hour, titled “Time,” Billy and the South Crenshaw football players participated in a combine that allowed the Crenshaw men to show off their skills for college coaches. On the way home from the event, the bus carrying Billy, Asher, Jabari and the other Crenshaw players blew a tire, causing a crash that left the bus teetering dangerously on the edge of a cliff.

Billy initially got out safely and helped the rest of the passengers climb out, too — but when Billy later realized that Jabari was still trapped on the bus, he went back to help him, and that good deed ultimately led to Billy’s demise. Viewers didn’t see the actual moment that Billy perished, though: Instead, Grace and Jordan (who were at the scene of the bus crash) came home and broke the devastating news to Laura, Olivia, Spencer and Coop, just as Spencer was listening to a sweet voicemail from Billy that aimed to resolve their current discord over Billy potentially leaving Crenshaw for GAU.

Below, in separate interviews that have been combined and condensed, Diggs and All American showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll walk us through how Billy’s exit was crafted, including the possibility that he’ll return in some capacity during Season 5’s remaining episodes.

Source link

The following post contains major spoilers for

The annual Oscar nominees luncheon was back at the Beverly Hilton, and back just like the old days (well, 2019) before the pandemic changed everything. But if the vibe and attendance at today’s lunch is any indication the Oscars themselves could be in for a very good night as the Academy seems bound and determined to bring the show back to its old self, and that means a more traditional kind of Oscar experience after the surreal pandemic-affected ceremony at Union Station in 2021, and last year’s Will Smith Slap edition. We can use a little comfort food from the Oscars and I just get the feeling, with Jimmy Kimmel back as host, it might be just what the doctor ordered for the Academy’s big night.

Set to begin at 11:30 AM today for the reception, the ballroom at the Hilton filled up quickly with lots of mingling and networking going on, with nary a mask in sight. Clearly owning the place was Top Gun: Maverick Best Picture nominee Tom Cruise, making his first appearance at an awards event this season and literally being mobbed. And this was a guy being mobbed by some very famous people themselves as well as industry stalwarts like former Dreamworks executive and AMPAS Board member Bonnie Arnold who told me her day was made. “I just got a photo with Tom Cruise!” she happily exclaimed.

Pete Hammond/Deadline

Guillermo del Toro made a beeline for the star too, as he approached Cruise, “I must talk to Tomás. I must talk to Tomás,” he said as he made his way down the steps. Cameras were clicking constantly and Cruise looked like he was having a blast, welcoming everyone who wanted a piece of his stardust. Top Gun: Maverick producer Jerry Bruckheimer was right nearby as well, basking in the glow of the luncheon which was his first ever since, believe it or not, the film’s Best Picture nomination is the first for any of his blockbuster movies.

Steven Spielberg Pete Hammond/Deadline

On the contrary, Steven Spielberg has been around this block more than a few times with The Fabelmans representing his 12th nomination for Best Picture (a record for a producer) and his ninth for Directing but you wouldn’t know it by the level of giddy enthusiasm he was showing. That is because it also represents only his first Oscar recognition for screenwriting as he and co-writer Tony Kushner are nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category. When I ran smack into him at Will Call where we collected our badges, Spielberg proudly showed off his badge to me, pointing out the three categories it listed for him. “This is the first time I have ever personally had three nominations for the same movie,” he said clearly over the moon. The movie got 7 nominations but inexplicably not one for Film Editing which I told him it richly deserved if only for the scene where Spielberg’s altar-ego Sammy is editing the family film he shot only to discover his mother in a disturbing embrace with a family friend. It is all played silently, and masterfully shot and cut. Spielberg told me he learned long ago to be thankful for what you do get.

RELATED: Oscar Nominees 2023: The Class Photo

Diane Warren, Bill Kramer

Pete Hammond/Deadline

I pointed out a famous moment in the 1976 TV special TVTV Goes To The Oscars which chronicled that particular season when Spielberg’s Jaws was a Best Picture nominee, but its director missed out on a nomination. The camera was on the then-not-nominated director as nominees were being revealed for the first time on television in his category. The name Federico Fellini for Amarcord was the first one called out and Spielberg dejectedly and instantly said, “I didn’t get it.” He knew right then it wasn’t to be for Jaws, and he says it taught him a lesson in how to roll with the punches of all this. Incidentally, he told me he actually met Fellini four years earlier when his 1971 ABC TV Movie, Duel was being released in Italy, and the master Italian filmmaker took him under his wing and gave him a five-hour tour of the iconic Cinecitta movie studio. When he was nominated over the young director, Spielberg now simply says “it was an honor” to lose that nomination to Federico Fellini.

14-time nominee Diane Warren caught up with new AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer in one corner of the Hilton. I asked her if she has also been to 14 nominee lunches. “I don’t quite remember all of them. Were they being held when I first got nominated?” she asked me, and I told her ‘yes’, so then she was sure. “If they invited me to this lunch I definitely would have come every time.”

Malala

Pete Hammond/Deadline

The remarkable Malala was there due to being an Executive Producer on Joshua Seftel’s nominated Documentary Short Stranger At The Gate for the first time and greeting lots of admirers. I asked if she had attended the lunch for her 2015 feature documentary He Named Me Malala but she didn’t. “We were shortlisted but didn’t make the final list of five nominees,” she said. This time she is going to the Oscars.

Jamie Lee Curtis

Pete Hammond/Deadline

Jamie Lee Curtis, another first-time nominee, had told me during the taping last week for my Deadline video series, The Actor’s Side which will run on Wednesday, that she would be wearing the string of pearls from her godmother, Edie Wasserman, and when I caught up with her as she was exiting, indeed she was, a sentimental gesture that seemed perfect for this day. This nomination is a huge thrill Curtis says, ranking right behind her marriage to Christopher Guest and her two daughters (I spotted Annie Guest at the luncheon as well).

Curtis was the first name called for the class photo, and she got hearty applause from the crowd as she made her way up on the risers before 181 other nominees, a record turnout for this lunch, would be called to take the iconic photo, a staple of every one of these Oscar nominee lunches. Among the other acting nominees being called up by AMPAS Board member DeVon Franklin were Cate Blanchett, Michelle Yeoh, Colin Farrell, Austin Butler, Ke Huy Quan, Judd Hirsch, Brendan Gleeson, Brendan Fraser, Paul Mescal, Hong Chau, Michelle Williams, Bill Nighy, and Angela Bassett, the latter getting some of the biggest applause upon her name being called. There was also lots of enthusiasm coming from the upper left corner of the room for everything Everything Everywhere All At Once, but if you are filling out your Oscar predictions based on applause in this room, think again. It was hard to gauge just who was the most popular this year, pretty evenly spread around, although after about the 150th name, it gets a little tiring to keep clapping.

Oscars Class Photo

Nominees for the 95th Oscars pose for the annual class photo at the Beverly Hilton

Richard Harbaugh / A.M.P.A.S.

Hong Chau, Ke Huy Quan

Pete Hammond/Deadline

As new Academy President Janet Yang said in her welcoming speech (where she also was very stern about AMPAS’ shortcomings when it came to dealing with the Will Smith slap last year – see separate story) “You are all winners here,” she said. She also got the crowd to repeat in unison that they understand they have 45 seconds to make their Oscar acceptance speech. “How long do you have?” Yang asked. “45 SECONDS!” the packed ballroom yelled back.

Here is my first prediction for the 95th Academy Awards. Come March 12th at the Dolby Theatre, not every winner is going to do what they just promised Janet Yang they would do.

Source link

The annual Oscar nominees luncheon was back

Married people like to think that they know their spouses. They spend more time with them than any other person, so how could they live an entirely separate life without their significant other’s knowledge? Sure, there may be some small things that are kept from our partners, but what if it’s something so huge that it completely reorients what we once thought of them? These are the questions at the heart of writer/director Aleem Khan’s After Love, a slow-burning and meditative query into the deeply buried secrets of those we love.

British couple Mary (Joanna Scanlan) and Ahmed (Nasser Memarzia) are spending what looks to be an uneventful night at home after a social outing. In a matter of seconds, though, Ahmed dies suddenly when sitting down in his chair while Mary is making tea. This jarring development sends her life into a tailspin, amplified by the discovery of an identification card belonging to a French woman in her husband’s personal effects. Why would Ahmed have a woman’s ID in his wallet? Mary’s questions are soon answered as she goes through texts on his phone, whereupon she finds conversations with the woman in question.

“…Mary uses the mistake as a means to insert herself into the lives of Geneviève and Solomon…”

It turns out that Ahmed had a long-standing affair with a woman in France named Geneviève (Nathalie Richard). His job sent him on the road frequently, seemingly giving him ample opportunity to mask his affair from view. Seeking answers, Mary travels to France to confront her, only to be mistaken by Geneviève as her new cleaner. Unable to find the right words, Mary uses the mistake as a means to insert herself into the lives of Geneviève and Solomon (Talid Ariss), the adolescent son of Ahmed. It’s undoubtedly invasive, but how does Mary even begin to broach the subject of her dead husband and his life with Genviève?

The strength of After Love lies in its lack of unnecessary exposition. Khan lets the subtle and restrained performance of Scanlan do most of the talking, avoiding the histrionics that most filmmakers would attach to a film in this vein. Nor does he dwell upon the obvious racial dynamic at play between Ahmed, a Pakistani, and his English wife. Mary readily adopted her betrothed’s culture and converted to Islam but never is this dynamic treated with anything other than refreshing matter-of-factness. Any forced emphasis on the novelty of Mary being a white Muslim would have served to distract from the crux of the narrative. So, the director wisely eschews it from view.

While it’s hard not to appreciate how Khan approaches the plot, I couldn’t help but find After Love to be in need of a jolt of vibrancy at times. Scanlan and Richard are excellent, but the staid rhythm of the story can make it a slog for those wanting a bit more dynamism. For many, this will be too understated. It’s a mature story, and with maturity comes a subtlety that goes beyond exposition. But filmmakers must balance tones effectively, and Khan is unable to shake his film’s monotone nature.

Source link

Married people like to think that they

Over a six-week period, as part of the ‘Out of Pocket’ series, Global News is examining how inflation is impacting Canadians from coast to coast.

Chantel Greene, 29, flips through her wall calendar showing a detailed ⁠— and bleak ⁠— breakdown of expenses each month.

The single mom works full-time managing the car wash and laundromat at Fisher River Cree Nation, 200 kilometers north of Winnipeg.

On that income she supports her father and her 12-year-old daughter Chantay, who has unique needs associated with autism.

Greene has a budget of $1,800. After a truck payment, car insurance, gas, and groceries ⁠— she’s in the hole $1,200 to $2,200 each month.


Chantel Greene, 29, flips through her wall calendar showing a detailed breakdown of expenses each month.

As Canadians are feeling more stretched with their budgets, the shock of tough economic times really sinks in when it comes down to necessities like food.

Many are forced to make tough choices in the grip of inflation but for some, like Greene, it means skipping dietary essentials such as protein and fresh vegetables.

“My diet is horrible. I basically eat stuff from a can ⁠— like ravioli ⁠— or freezer section.”

“I don’t have much fresh food,” Greene said.  “Whatever fruits or vegetables I buy I try to get them into my dad.”

Her freezer would be bare if not for a meat package given out by her band at Christmas. It will only last a few weeks.

“With the two adults in the house we made the sacrifice thing,” she said. “We can sacrifice meat, we can sacrifice milk.”

Read more:

10 year study finds ‘extremely high’ rates of First Nations food insecurity

Read next:

Part of the Sun breaks free and forms a strange vortex, baffling scientists

That sacrifice has come with a toll on her and her dad’s health, she believes.

“I definitely think so, because my dad is a renal cancer patient and he also has diabetes and I’ve had my own health issues too, but not as much as the two others in my house,” she said.

Greene adds her daughter has food sensitivities and will only eat a certain kind of brand-name soup.

“That’s the only way I can get her to eat meat and vegetables, so I buy it buy the case,” Greene noted.

There are only a few grocery stores in a one-hour radius from her, so shopping around for bargains on the soup isn’t realistic because she’d be spending those savings on fuel to get there.

Chantay is also lactose-intolerant and two liters of her milk is $7 or more.

Read more:

Inflation has ‘squeezed’ Canadian wallets dry. What happened?

Read next:

Exclusive: Widow’s 911 call before James Smith Cree Nation murders reveals prior violence

Greene says her grocery costs in recent months went from $150 or $200 every two weeks, to $400 or $500 and there’s nowhere in her budget to cut.

A truck is a necessity in the winter to get around where she lives and she says it’s “a struggle” to keep it on the road. All she can do is juggle which bills to pay.

“I can’t remember the last time I bought myself a new sweater ⁠— like splurged on something for myself like a sweater,” she said.

“I have no problem buying something for my dad or my daughter or my mom but when it comes to me, I ask is it something I need, or something I want.”

Read more:

Canadian workers’ wages are on the rise

Read next:

Google AI chatbot Bard gives wrong answer, sending shares plummeting

While inflation has had a heavy toll, she is thankful she’s not worse off. She lives in band housing, so doesn’t have rent on top of her expenses. Greene also points out that those on social assistance in her community are struggling even more ⁠— living off of as little as $235 a month.

“I take it day by day,” she said, hoping but not expecting inflation relief is in sight. “I grew up budgeting so I’ve been preparing for this my whole life kind of.”

First Nation households ‘struggling’

A 2019 report First Nations Food, Nutrition & Environment Study found 48 per cent of First Nation households in Canada were having difficulty putting enough food on the table, four times above the national average.

The more remote those families were, the worse it would get, with 75 to 80 per cent of families food insecure in some areas, said Malek Batal, Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Health Inequalities, and one of the lead researchers of the report.

The study found those with children were suffering even worse.

It’s been four years since the report, and with skyrocketing inflation, Batal said in an interview today’s reality would be best described as dire in many communities.

“Things haven’t improved, they would have deteriorated,” he said. “We don’t have those numbers but we’ve heard from communities saying they’re struggling more.”

The study urged the federal government to “urgently address systemic problems relating to food, nutrition and the environment” affecting First Nations communities. A key recommendation was to help improve access to traditional foods like fish and game, which have health, environmental and cultural benefits.

Read more:

Osoyoos Lake sees historic sockeye salmon harvest

Read next:

Netflix Canada begins its password-sharing crackdown. Here’s what to know

Batal points to the success of the Okanagan Nation Alliance which last fall, saw a record salmon harvest after the First Nations restored salmon stocks depleted by development.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance fed eight bands in that B.C. region alone, and Batal said there’s much to learn from this food security and sovereignty success.

 

Source link

Over a six-week period, as part of

It felt like old times at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday, as the Oscar Nominees Luncheon returned to the same room where it took place for decades after its beginnings in the 1980s. There were actors sitting next to sound mixers and directors with production designers, a record 182 nominees taking their seats in tables across three levels of the hotel’s ballroom and a “class photo” memorializing the event.

There were stars galore among the attendees, from Cate Blanchett to Ke Huy Quan, Paul Mescal to Bill Nighy, Brian Tyree Henry to Kerry Condon to the biggest movie star of all, Tom Cruise, who was in the room not as an acting nominee but as the Oscar-nominated producer of “Top Gun: Maverick.” And all of them managed to fit onto the big, multilevel riser for the photograph that serves as the event’s most notable souvenir.   

In other words, the afternoon was full of everything that has been missing for a few years.

Last year, in contrast, brought a tentative nominees luncheon, taking place for the first time in a larger room at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel, with COVID tests for everybody in attendance and smaller, socially-distanced groups instead of the big class photo.

The year before, the event was canceled completely because of the pandemic.

And in 2020, the luncheon had been moved to the equally vast Ray Dolby Ballroom at the Hollywood and Highland Center because the accelerated Oscar schedule meant it was happening less than two weeks before that year’s Academy Awards ceremony. The Academy didn’t want the show’s execs having to drive across town when they were already deep in preparations at the Dolby Theatre.

So Monday’s event was a welcome throwback for those who remember what the Oscar Nominees Luncheon used to be – which didn’t include most of the acting nominees in attendance, since this year’s crop of nominees consists of 16 first-timers and only four past nominees, with Cate Blanchett being the sole past winner.

“It’s hard to wrap my mind around it,” first-time nominee Austin Butler said. “These are all my favorite filmmakers and actors and people I’ve looked up to and admired and studied for years, and suddenly I’m in this room with them.”

The room reached critical mass quickly on Monday, with the crush of people moving depending on what luminary was where. Jamie Lee Curtis talked to Cruise, and photographers surrounded them immediately. Steven Spielberg, one of the few to wear a mask, hugged his “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” star Ke Huy Quan, and lenses pointed in their director. Cruise met Butler, and the room pretty much had a meltdown: Gawkers backed up as if to give them room, while a ring of cameras encircled the pair to document every embrace and grin.

Cruise was clearly the room’s center of gravity, which is unusual for a Nominees Luncheon that also includes Spielberg. At one point, a woman on the outskirts of the crowd that surrounded the “Top Gun” poster boy laughed and said to a friend, “Let’s face it, we’re just all at Tom Cruise’s wedding.”

But this was a wedding without vows, a celebration of 15 dozen film professionals and their guests, plus a lot of Academy officials. AMPAS President Janet Yang was the only one in that last camp who got to talk: where previous luncheons had found the Oscar show producers telling nominees to please keep their speeches short if they won, Yang handled that chore briskly this year, giving the group a 45-second limit on speeches and adding that every category would be presented live during the telecast, “so we need you to work with us.”

It fell to Academy Governor DeVon Franklin to read the list of names of the 182 nominees in the room, which included all the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress nominees, all the Supporting Actor nominees except Barry Keoghan and all the Best Actress contenders except Andrea Riseborough and Ana de Armas. The roll call began with Jamie Lee Curtis and ended with Guillermo del Toro, with lots of applause for the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” contingent, particularly Michelle Yeoh, but few clear winners in the always-suspect Nominees Luncheon Applause Meter.

One interesting sidelight: Cruise was one of the last nominees called to the stage – and despite his status as the room’s clear star, the acceptable round of applause he got wasn’t even as loud as the hand for cinematographer Roger Deakins, who followed him.

After the class photo, the room quickly broke up into a crowded group of mutual-admiration societies: Sarah Polley and Michelle Williams over here, Ke Huy Quan and Hong Chau over there. Guillermo del Toro gushed to Charlie Mackesy, the author of the book “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” and the nominated director of its animated-short adaptation. “Your film was amazing,” del Toro said. “I’m a filmmaker – when you show me a film, it’s hard to surprise me. Your film surprised me.”

Nearby, 84-year-old Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski grabbed TheWrap. “My favorite directors are Steven Spielberg and Guillermo,” said the legendary director whose “EO” is one of the boldest films in this year’s Oscar race. “I would love a picture with them. Can you set that up?”

For the record, we tried – but Spielberg had already left and del Toro was heading for the exit with a parting “Time for me to get out of Dodge.” Even at an Oscar Nominees Luncheon that was back in its old stomping grounds, not all dreams can come true.

Here is the Oscars’ 2023 class photo:

Nominees for the 95th Oscars® at a luncheon held at the Beverly Hilton, Monday, February 13, 2023.

  

Source link

It felt like old times at the

The first red band trailer for Kurt Wimmer’s redo of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn has dropped and it is filled with bloody images, murderous children and, of course, ominous corn fields.

Based upon the short story by King as adapted by Wimmer, Children of the Corn follows a 12 year old girl in Nebraska who is possessed by a spirit in a dying cornfield. She recruits the other children in her small town to go on a bloody rampage and kill all the adults and anyone else who opposes her. A bright high schooler who won’t go along with the plan is the town’s only hope of survival.

The tale was originally brought to the big screen in 1984 in a version more faithful to King’s short story. It centered on an adult couple who wander into the town, discover the massacre and become the next adult targets of the pre-adult mob. It starred Linda Hamilton and Peter Horton starred.

Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice was released in 1992. Subsequent installments — there were at least five — went directly to video, and bore little to no narrative continuity, beginning with Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest in 1995. In 2009, a second adaptation of the short story aired on the Syfy network. A third adaptation, titled somply Children of the Corn, was released in 2020.

Wimmer’s film was picked up last month by RLJE Films and AMC network’s horror streaming service Shudder. The movie will hit theaters on March 3 in an 18 day theatrical window before hitting demand and digital on March 21.

Pic stars Elena Kampouris (Before I Fall), Kate Moyer (Station Eleven), Callan Mulvey (The Gray Man) and Bruce Spence (The Road Warrior).

The movie was executive produced by Digital Domain and produced by Lucas Foster (Morbius), Doug Barry (FML) and John Baldecchi (Point Break). Its visual effects were all produced in-house by Digital Domain.

Source link

The first red band trailer for Kurt

The intimate Rolling Up the Welcome Mat follows the singer-songwriter’s 2022 album Subject to Change

Kelsea Ballerini has a Valentine’s Day surprise for the lovers and brokenhearted alike, as the singer-songwriter just released her new Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP and an accompanying short film. The project follows Ballerini’s 2022 album Subject to Change.

The intimate, six-song collection doesn’t explicitly mention her marriage and 2022 divorce from fellow artist Morgan Evans, but it’s clear those life-altering events have shaped these songs in numerous ways. In a song called “Just Married,” she notes, “It felt like forever that December 2,” her and Evans’ real-life wedding date, while “Penthouse” makes mention of shared living space on 8th Avenue and having to separate household items. By the EP’s end, she’s wishing the other person well, but giving herself a gentle reminder to never lose track of who she is again.

“Rolling Up the Welcome Mat was how I processed everything,” Ballerini said in a statement. “It’s the way I got my feelings out of my body and heart and put them to music, which is the purest way I could’ve handled it.”  

Trending

The 20-minute short film, which Ballerini wrote and co-directed with Patrick Tracy, gets at the mood of these new songs instead of trying to be a literal reenactment. Ballerini has dirty dishes stacking up in her arms as she describes the weight of a relationship, then feels the widening gulf in her shared bed. In the end, she’s alone with a guitar in a half-packed closet, singing one more before she heads out. It’s moving and intimate in a way that feels almost private. The film will also air commercial-free Tuesday on CMT.

Ballerini has a handful of North American headlining tour dates lined up for 2023, beginning with a March 6 stop in Toronto. Later this spring, she joins up with Kenny Chesney for the I Go Back Tour, with dates running through May.

Source link

The intimate Rolling Up the Welcome Mat

There’s no time like the present to invest in one of the best vibrators on the market. Whether you’re riding solo, or hoping to try a sex toy for couples, sexperts and our editors all agree: Vibrators are not only for everyone, but they’re also for multiple body parts (we’re looking at you, nipples.)

Genital nerve endings literally “developed to feel vibration,” says Carol Queen, PhD, a sex educator and author of The Sex & Pleasure Book, making vibrators the perfect tool to help you “explore sensation and arousal, get creative, and develop sexual interests and confidence.”

Whether you’re learning how to use a vibrator or you’re purchasing your tenth toy, these are the best vibrators, according to our very enthusiastic testers (yes, we tried them ourselves!) and reviewers.

What type of vibrator is right for you?

There are so, so many kinds of vibes out there, each tailored to specific body parts and erogenous zones. When you’re on the hunt for the best vibrators for vulva stimulation, you’ll encounter four main categories: bullet vibrators, which are slender, handheld toys for external use; wand vibrators, which have soft, bulbous heads for total-body massage; suction toys, which use air pulses to stimulate the clitoris; and rabbit vibrators, which offer both internal and external play at the same time.

If you don’t have a vulva, there are plenty more vibrators to try. Some toys, like cock rings and male masturbators, focus on the penis. On the other hand, anal vibrators like butt plugs are incredible sex toys if you have a prostate (also known as a P-spot). Any toy can work for you as long as you use it in a way that feels good, the experts explain, so keep an open mind and imagine how you or your partner might enjoy the toys on this list, regardless of gender.

What features we considered

Materials to look for: Body-safe silicone, ABS plastic, stainless steel

Features to look for: Waterproofing, long battery life, easy-to-grip handles, app or Bluetooth connectivity for long-distance play, hands-free design

Vibrator cost: Cheap sex toys and smaller, single-motor toys like bullets range from about $10 to $70; mid-size, single-motor options like wands and suction toys range from about $30 to $150; more complicated, multi-motor vibrators like rabbits range from about $50 to $200. Luxury sex toys that offer supercharged battery life, the widest range of sensations, and guaranteed longevity, are over $100.

Our top picks

Source link

There’s no time like the present to

When the Golden Globes were handed out on Jan. 10, Kevin Costner was not seated inside the Beverly Hilton’s international ballroom due to extreme flooding that cut off the freeways near his home in Santa Barbara. As such, the Yellowstone star was not able to make it to the stage to accept a trophy for best actor in a TV drama series when presenter Regina Hall announced his name.

But Costner, seated on his bed, offered up a belated acceptance speech on Monday by posting a heartfelt video on his social media accounts during which he thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of his career and shares a bit about what it was like to watch the ceremony from home in their den with wife Christine and their children.

“Because of the flooding, we got cut off in Ventura and up here in Montecito,” he said, adding that his wife had a dress picked out and he was black-tie prepped with a tuxedo. “We felt so horrible about that and there was just nothing we could do, and we watched the time, like a sand in a bottle, go out as our chances dimmed of getting there.”

They watched from home and while the experience “wasn’t the same,” Costner said his wife made the most of their situation by taking $30 down to the local store to purchase 30 balloons in an effort to make it feel celebratory nonetheless. “I never liked to be too cool for school. I wanted to be there and Chris realized that my heart was a little bit low,” he explained of missing a moment that he described as a dream come true to be nominated as an actor. “We watched the whole doggone thing and my kids heard our name be called, and we weren’t at one of the greatest parties in the world. We wanted to be but we found ourself together as a family. My children heard my name called and they stood up and they cheered.”

Costner then unboxed his award that presumably had just arrived in an oversized white box with fragile stickers on the outside. “Believe me, when you’re at a night like that, you all want to win, and it’s kind of a long night when someone doesn’t call your name,” he said, looking at the envelope with his name on it. “And I’ve been lucky enough to have it called, but here it is. I’m so glad I have this. I wish I again could have been there.”

He made no mention of Yellowstone or of his Paramount+ family including creator Taylor Sheridan amid reports that he may be exiting the series — one of the most successful shows currently on television and one that helped launch a franchise — but did close with a heartfelt message of how acting has impacted his life.

“When you first come to Hollywood, you’re just wanting to get your first job. You’ve seen these things and you even wonder if you’re ever gonna get in a room like that,” he explained. “Now I’m holding it, and for everybody who supported me, for the Hollywood Foreign Press for thinking enough of what I did this year, I’m so glad I’ve found the movies in my life that made a difference. I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if I hadn’t found the movies. Thank you to everyone.”

Source link

When the Golden Globes were handed out

“Black Mirror” – When two Vermont teens are kidnapped on their way home from a basketball game, the team is led to a wayward pastor and his brother. Also, Remy attends a hearing for his brother’s murderer, on the CBS Original series FBI: MOST WANTED, Tuesday, Feb. 14 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+*.

WRITTEN BY: Richard Sweren

DIRECTED BY: Jean de Segonzac

Source link

“Black Mirror” – When two Vermont teens

Janet Yang, the current president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), admitted at the start of the 2023 Oscars Nominees Luncheon that the organization did not properly handle the fallout over Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony.

“I’m sure you all remember we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars,” Yang told attendees, which included the likes of Tom Cruise. “What happened onstage was fully unacceptable and the response from our organization was inadequate. We learned from this that the Academy must be fully transparent and accountable in our actions, and particularly in times of crisis you must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively for ourselves and for our industry. You should and can expect no less form us going forward.”

Smith took to the stage during the 2022 Oscars and slapped Rock across the face while the latter was presenting the best documentary feature category. Rock cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head. After the slap, Smith returned to his seat and repeatedly screamed at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!” The ceremony continued with Smith remaining in attendance as he won the best actor Oscar for his performance in “King Richard.”

The 2022 Oscars aired at the end of March. Smith resigned from the Academy on April 1, writing in a statement, “I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. I am heartbroken.”

It took several more days for the Academy to announce it was revoking Smith’s AMPAS membership and banning him from attending the Oscars ceremony for 10 years.

“The 94th Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year; however, those moments were overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr. Smith exhibit on stage,” the Academy said in an April 8 statement. “During our telecast, we did not adequately address the situation in the room. For this, we are sorry. This was an opportunity for us to set an example for our guests, viewers and our Academy family around the world, and we fell short — unprepared for the unprecedented.”

VIP+ Survey: Will Smith’s Post-Slap Q Scores Revealed

Smith apologized again for his actions in a July 2022 video post in which he revealed, “I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is he’s not ready to talk, and when he is, he will reach out.”

In the months since the Oscars slap, Smith has headlined Apple’s slavery drama “Emancipation” and confirmed that a fourth “Bad Boys” movie is in development at Sony.

Source link

Janet Yang, the current president of the

Chris Stapleton absolutely killed it with his stirring rendition of the National Anthem at Super Bowl LVII between the Chiefs and the Eagles. It was so good, it moved several to tears.

We need Troy Kotsur for every Super Bowl

If that wasn’t inspiring enough, how about the pure poetry expressed by CODA’s Troy Kotsur, one of three ASL translators for the song? Kotsur said he was “honored” to perform the service in his home state. The other two ASL interpreters were Colin Denny and Justina Miles at the State Farm Stadium event in Glendale, Ariz.

“The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) invited me here and it’s so great to see this diversity representing different types of deaf communities,” said the Mesa, AZ native during a Feb. 9 press conference, according to E News. “When they asked me, ‘Hey Troy, would you mind signing the national anthem at the Super Bowl?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure. I’m in.’”

But what the 54-year-old Kotsur performed was lyrical poetry on a big stage, with several commenting on how emotionally resonating his interpretation was.

Kotsur also paid homage to the anthem’s writer, Francis Scott Key, saying “I’m adding a little salt and pepper that will make it even more poetic, even more delicious. It’s a visual art,” he added, via The Independent.

“He actually witnessed what happened during the Revolutionary War and seeing that the flag was still there, and the smoke and the fire and even through it all, the flag had remained,” Troy said. “I’m becoming Francis and put myself in his shoes and tell it from his perspective.”

“I’m going to show you all what I’m seeing and what he wrote, which was pure poetry,” he added. “I’m going to add in my personality as an artist, and put it all out there to show you all my work.”

You can read a full interview in Interview with Troy Kotsur and his interpretation process.

Rihanna returns in an ultimate way

Since it had been about seven years since the live performance and her last album, anticipation was huge for the halftime show featuring musical artist Rihanna. Considering that she had given birth to her nine-month-old son last year, it only generated more excitement about her long absence and subsequent return to the stage.

Suspended high above the 50-yard line, resplendent in an all-red, almost-operatic ensemble—which she elaborated had been inspired by Andre Leon Talley—she steadied herself with a steely gaze and launched into her hit “Bitch Better Have My Money.” Even if she was securely attached to the seemingly floating platform, the image was nothing short of spectacular, and as she continued with her greatest hits, including “All of the Lights,” “Where Have You Been,” “Only Girl (in the World),” and snippets of “Work,” “Rude Boy.” “Umbrella” (my personal favorite), and “Diamonds,” the effect was nothing short of astonishing. She was also accompanied by an awesome ASL interpreter:

Rihanna performed the set in a relaxed manner, flanked by energized dancers, never upstaging them and acting more like a cheerleader. Whether it was due to her second pregnancy (confirmed the day after) or precautions due to the elaborate costumes and/or staging of moving/floating platforms, it didn’t really matter in the end. The overall spectacle was a marvel of performance art and set the stadium on fire. As far as halftime shows go, it was a huge success (although Lady Gaga still sets the standard, and is one of the few who insisted on not lip-syncing).

If there’s one criticism, as much as I love Rihanna’s music, it seemed obvious that she was lip-syncing, at least some of it, although the performance vision was still phenomenal.

What a night for the Chiefs, what a night for MVP Patrick Mahomes, and what a night for our beautiful national anthem and its poetry. Until Super Bowl LVIII.

Source link

Chris Stapleton absolutely killed it with

A wildly entertaining visual feast and last year’s highest-grossing film at the domestic box office ($719 million and counting), Top Gun: Maverick­ has been lauded for giving theatrical a jolt of life in the long-gestating streaming vs. theatrical battle of the post-COVID Hollywood landscape. This is thanks in no small part to the groundbreaking aerial photography in the film shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Claudio Miranda, ASC.

Miranda’s fifth collaboration with director Joseph Kosinski (Only the Brave, Oblivion, Tron: Legacy), the legacy sequel picks up some 30 years after we last saw our favorite rule-flouting ace naval aviator. Now a Captain in the United State Navy, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is called back to Top Gun—the Navy Fighter Weapons School—to train “the best of the best” for an upcoming perilous mission that requires “nothing less than two consecutive miracles.”

With stellar word-of-mouth and a 96% Tomatometer score, the spectacular cinematic love letter to aviation boasts a high repeat customer factor: according to Paramount, 16% of Maverick viewers have seen the film more than once, with 4% going as far as seeing it more than four times. So why have moviegoers flocked to this one film over and over again?

Claudio Miranda, ASC

With the Paramount/Skydance Media release sitting pretty atop six Oscar nominations—including a spot in the coveted Best Picture race—we sat down to chat with Miranda, one of the film’s key architects, to unpack the secrets behind its astounding success.

 

Commitment to Authenticity: Capturing Practical Effects In-Camera

If you ask Miranda, he’ll tell you that one of the reasons Top Gun works so well for audiences is its “all-in” commitment to practical action, capturing the gravity-defying aerial sequences in-camera from inside the cockpit of an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet–a first in filmmaking history. “Why I think people are reacting so strongly to this movie is because you’re really going on the ride. It’s not a synthetic background where people are acting like they’re pulling g’s,” says Miranda.

Much has been written about the intense five-month flight training program that Cruise—also a producer on the film—created to prepare his younger colleagues for what is to come. “It was hard on the actors, with their bodies being stressed and their faces being stretched back with the g-forces that they’re pulling, getting close to blacking out and pushing their bodies to the limits,” says Miranda. “It’s really an amazing testament to the actors’ commitment that we could keep this in-camera.”

“An aviation film like this has never been done before, and chances are, will never be done again,” adds producer Jerry Bruckheimer, in one of Paramount’s behind-the-scenes featurettes. Along with his late producing partner Don Simpson, Bruckheimer also produced the original Top Gun almost four decades ago. As Miranda alluded to earlier, green screens and CGI simply won’t do for this decades-in-the-making legacyquel, as Cruise stood firm on the need to put the audience where they have never been before—in the pilot’s seat of an F-18 soaring in the skies. “It’s very important to me that it be [shot] practical, that we actually put the camera right in there and shoot the sequences for real,” shared Cruise, in the featurette.

 

Revolutionizing Aerial Cinematography with Help From the Navy

That tall order fell on Miranda’s shoulders, as he worked closely with Kosinski, Cruise and NAVAIR (the United States Naval Air Systems Command) to come up with a way to take aerial cinematography to previously unimaginable heights. Even before he was attached on the project, he started working with Sony to develop a next-gen camera that would be durable and solid enough to endure almost any environment. “The result was Sony’s Rialto Camera Extension system, which allows the remote sensor and lens to be separated from the body of the camera.” This turned out to be the key that made placing six Sony Venice IMAX-quality cameras inside the already-crammed cockpit of a fighter jet possible.

“First, I tested cameras and lenses on the L-39 [CineJet] to show the Navy a proof of concept,” Miranda recalls of the long pre-production process. Then, NAVAIR provided him with two Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets—a single-seater and a two-seater—which were on loan at the cost of over $13,000/hour. “It was important to find the right model of the F-18 that could hold all the cameras. We got two older versions of the jet that didn’t have all the electronics in it, so there was more room on the glare shield to mount the cameras.”

Miranda’s crew needed an approach that would ensure safety, first and foremost, as the jets had to execute hypersonic low-altitude swoops and nail-biting aerial maneuvers while flying in excess of 500-knots (approximately 575 mph), especially when it came to the climactic Daggers mission in the Third Act. The cameras had to be bolted safely in place, steer clear of the ejection path in the event of a midair emergency, run on batteries to avoid straining the aircraft’s power system, and safely endure the stresses of pulling up to 7.5g in-flight (7.5 times the force of gravity). Sometimes, the proposed camera mounting set-up would take three months to get approved while the flight paths needed to execute the filming runs also had to be cleared by NAVAIR before they could go up with any actors.

The unprecedented cooperation from the Navy included a team of artisans, engineers and staff from Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW), who devoted 1,000 hours to the production of the film. Their crucial contribution included painting the F-18s used in the film, installation and design of the A/V equipment in the cockpit, and stress testing to ensure airworthiness of the aircrafts.

The production’s commitment to maximizing authenticity when it comes to military details is second to none. In addition to enlisting the help of six Navy technical advisors on production and incorporating story ideas from active-duty F-18 pilots, the film was shot on two active-duty aircraft carriers – the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Theodore Roosevelt – and five naval air stations around the country from 2018-2019.

 

The Cinematic Language of Speed

Miranda’s team captured the equilibrium-blasting aerial sequences in several ways to intensify the visual energy on-screen: cameras mounted inside the cockpits; cameras mounted externally to a second F-18 (a single seater without any actors) by ground crews filming from the desert or the mountains; and finally from veteran aerial coordinator and pilot Kevin LaRosa II, whose team captured footage from an L-39 CineJet and a helicopter. LaRosa’s team also included aerial cinematographers David B. Nowell, ASC and Michael FitzMaurice.

Monica Barbaro plays ‘Phoenix’ in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ from Paramount Pictures, Skydance, and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. (Source: Paramount Pictures)

To capture every stomach-churning orthogonal roll and every inverted vertical dive from inside the cockpit, Miranda’s team came up with the six-camera setup. “There were two existing forward-looking mounts that were already in the cockpit for some other video that they were doing, so we were able to use those. Then, we mounted four rear-facing Venice cameras over the glare shield.” To minimize the profile of these cameras as much as possible, they used light, compact and wide-angle E-mount primes. In addition, due to the g-forces when executing certain aerial maneuvers—10 pounds becomes 50 pounds when you’re pulling 5g—they also needed lightweight lenses with close focus.

How fast each F-18 could push and what type of maneuvers could be performed were influenced by where the cameras were mounted. While the two-seater F-18 flying with the actor has six cameras mounted internally, the second F-18 has up to four cameras mounted to the exterior—one rear-facing Rialto on top behind the cockpit, two front-and-rear-facing cameras in the underbelly, and another on the underside of the wing. As a result, they were able to shoot over the actors’ shoulders to capture the sensory and visceral rush in-flight from the POV of the pilot and the WSO (Weapons Systems Officer) in the backseat.

Since the onboard computer system automatically throttles down to 3.5g when it detects something on the wings to protect the aircraft, the jet with externally mounted cameras was limited to maneuvers up to 3.5g. “When we were doing runs with the actors, including Tom, we wanted to be able to do 7.5g at the ready. So, when we did actor runs, we couldn’t have any external mounts, which was handled by another pilot who grabbed the external footage.”

 

Lensing the Emotional Landscape of Maverick

For all the buzz about Maverick’s adrenaline-inducing propulsive action in the skies, its emotional threads are surprisingly resonant for a kinetic action film, with much of the thematic undercurrent propelled by loyalty, duty, friendship and love. As Maverick tackles his new mission at Top Gun, he also reunites with old flame and single mom Penny (Jennifer Connelly), who owns the beachfront bar—The Hard Deck—near the base. But this time around, the romance is handled in a gentler manner, and in doing so, intensifying the emotional scope of the story.

The night before he leaves for the likely fatal mission, Maverick visits Penny at the bar to say goodbye. As she processes the gravity of the news, even without any dialogue between them, we can sense the emotional heft in the moment as they stand next to each other on the beach.

“We were very intimate with the cameras and how we shot it. I tried to keep the light as real as possible to make them feel connected to the scene. In terms of lighting, I kept it very tender on them. We kept some shallow focus, so when they are hugging on the beach, you see the Hard Deck in the background with some twinkling lights,” recalls Miranda of the emotionally-charged scene before Maverick goes to battle in the climactic sequence. “I was playing it like they were lit by the bar from far away. It felt like that set up the emotion for this farewell.”

This is what movies looked like, once. And this is what they can look like again, writes Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday in her review of Maverick. After over a decade of caped superheroes trudging through multiverses to save humanity, it is nice to be reminded that sometimes, old-school practical action with real people and real stakes is all the superpower you need to deliver an enthralling cinematic thrill ride.

Miranda’s long list of accolades for Top Gun: Maverick includes the upcoming BAFTA Film Awards on February 19th and the American Society of Cinematographers Awards (ASC) on March 5th.

 

Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.

More Film Independent…

[Header: Academy Award-winning cinematographer Claudio Miranda, ASC (right) and director Joseph Kosinski (left) on ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ Source: Paramount Pictures]

Source link

Marne Levine, who currently serves as Meta’s chief business officer, is leaving the social media and tech company after 13 years.

According to Meta, Levine will step down from the CBO role on Feb. 21, 2023, and will remain an employee until she departs in the summer. She informed the company of her decision to resign from the post last Thursday.

During her tenure at Meta, Levine served as VP of global public policy for Facebook before becoming Instagram’s first chief operating officer in 2014. She subsequently was named VP of global partnerships, business and corporate development for Facebook. In June 2021, Levine was named Facebook’s chief business officer, replacing chief revenue officer David Fischer.

With Levine’s exit, Nicola Mendelsohn, Meta’s head of global business group, and Justin Osofsky, head of online sales, operations and partnerships, are taking on expanded roles as Meta’s most senior sales and partnership leaders, reporting to COO Javier Olivan. The company said the new structure “continues to bring our business and product teams closer together.”

“From running global policy, to growing our Instagram business as the first COO, to leading our ads and business partnerships teams, Marne has been an incredible leader at Meta over the last 13 years,” Olivan said in a statement. “I’m grateful for our partnership, her commitment to Meta and the energy she brought to the company every day.”

Prior to joining Meta (then Facebook) in 2010, Levine served in the Obama White House as chief of staff of the National Economic Council and special assistant to the president for economic policy. Before that, she was head of product management for Revolution Money, a startup working on person-to-person online money transfers. She began her career at the U.S. Department of Treasury under President Bill Clinton.

Mendelsohn’s expanded role will now include overseeing Meta’s global partnerships and engineering, and she will lead a single, global client-facing organization for the company. She will also continue to lead the global business group, which manages relationships with top marketers and agencies for all of Meta’s family of apps.

Osofsky will now oversee revenue generation, leading Meta sales and operations focused on growing small and midsize businesses across the company’s platforms. He will continue to oversee the content partnerships team across Facebook and Instagram.

Source link

Marne Levine, who currently serves as Meta’s

NBC has given a comedy pilot order to Amber Ruffin’s “Non-Evil Twin,” which the late-night host will star in, write and executive produce. The multi-cam series is part of NBCU’s ever-expanding relationship with Ruffin and producing partner Jenny Hagel’s banner, Straight to Cards.

The logline for “Non-Evil Twin” is as follows: “A woman is forced to step into her sister’s role as the leader of a Fortune 500 company despite knowing little about business and even less about the way her sister has been running the corporation.”

Hagel serves as EP along with Kenny Smith. Olivia Morris is co-executive producer.

“I’m frigging thrilled to partner with Universal Television to work on my favorite projects with my bestest friend!” Ruffin said.

Hagel added, “Straight to Cards is such an exciting opportunity to create new shows that highlight points of view that are underrepresented in the TV landscape, like those of queer writers and writers of color. And it’s an extra bonus that I get to do it with Amber Ruffin, the absolute funnest person I know.”

Ruffin became the first Black woman to write for a late-night network talk show when she joined the staff of “Late Night With Seth Meyers” in 2014. “The Amber Ruffin Show” premiered on NBCUniversal’s video streaming service, Peacock” in September 2020 and, that first season it received nominations from the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Writers Guild and many others.

Last year, Ruffin and Hagel signed an overall deal with Universal Television, where Smith is also under a partnership since 2021. Under the deal, the duo co-launched Straight to Cards.

Source link

NBC has given a comedy pilot order

Rihanna made a triumphant return to the world stage wither her Super Bowl Halftime show performance on Feb. 12 — her first solo appearance in seven years.

The megastar delivered a spellbinding set as she floated over the football field and zoomed through a dazzling set list that ranged from radio hits like the unapologetic “Diamonds” to her hooky “Work,” and unsurprisingly, the performance has led to significant increases in streaming and Rihanna-related searches.

In fact, ever since Rihanna was announced as the halftime performer last September, three of her songs (“Umbrella,” “We Found Love” and “Love on the Brain”) crossed the billion-stream mark on Spotify. The streaming platform ramped up listeners and heightened anticipation in the days leading up to the big game by promoting the Halftime performer’s “This is Rihanna” playlist, a megamix containing her most beloved hits.

Her overall streams on Spotify spiked more than 640% across the United States, according to streaming data observed between the Halftime performance on Feb. 12 and Feb. 5 (6-7 p.m. ET). The set’s opening track, 2015’s “Bitch Better Have My Money,” got an increase of more than 2,600%. Several other tracks from Rihanna’s career-defining set also experienced streaming bumps: “Diamonds” increased by more than 1,400%; “Rude Boy” saw an increase of more than 1,170%; and “We Found Love” increased by over 1,160%.

Naturally, game day was also Rihanna’s biggest day on both Apple Music and Shazam. According to Apple, Rihanna’s concurrent listeners on Apple Music worldwide rose by a staggering 331% and the hour following her Halftime performance was Rihanna’s personal best by both concurrent listeners and streams.

Shazam, a song recognition app, cited 8:31 p.m. ET as the most-Shazamed minute of the show, and also the most-Shazamed minute in the U.S. since the 2022 show with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige. They additionally noted that “We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris)” was the most-searched song from the performance.

Not to mention, all 113 million viewers were also treated to a mini Fenty Beauty ad by the music and business mogul who made sure to check her makeup about halfway into her performance.

After Rihanna left the stage, the Kansas City Chiefs went on to win the Super Bowl, beating the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35. Meanwhile, Rihanna keeps winning.

Source link

Rihanna made a triumphant return to the

Aditya Chopra. Releasing on Netflix in the afternoon, the series will feature never-before-seen memories from iconic romantic films released under the YRF banner, interviews by several celebrities, including Shah Rukh Khan and Rishi Kapoor’s last on-camera appearance, and much more.

A Valentine’s Day wedding is also making the headlines. If reports are to be believed, Hardik Pandya and Natasa Stankovic are getting married again on V-Day. Reports claim that they are tying the knot in Udaipur. While the couple is yet to address these claims, they were spotted at the airport leaving Mumbai on Monday with their family.

Meanwhile, pictures have surfaced online showing Samantha Ruth Prabhu visiting a temple amid her Myositis recovery. The actress recently visited the Palani Murugan temple in Tamil Nadu and offered her prayers. She was joined by her friends and her team.

On Monday, fans of Bigg Boss 16 expressed their shock and disappointment at MC Stan taking home the trophy. Several social media trolls called him an ‘undeserving’ winner. Reacting to the backlash over his win, Stan told The Indian Express, “I honestly don’t care about them, mujhe fark nahi padta mama. I actually like people who get jealous. It’s a very natural emotion in a human being. One just needs to accept that this wasn’t meant for them. Just like most fans, I am also shocked but I do feel I deserved to win.”

Read all the Latest Movies News here

Source link

Read more Aditya Chopra. Releasing on Netflix