About one in eight women suffer from endometriosis, making it about as common as diabetes. Despite it recently being recognized as one of the most excruciating and debilitating medical conditions on record, it takes an average of eight doctors and 10 years to diagnose, due to the lack of awareness surrounding the disease. As a result of the untreated pain, women lose 11 hours of productivity per day. On average, one in six women lose their jobs due to symptoms, putting a burden on society of $119 billion loss in wages in the U.S. alone.
“It’s not just a women’s disease, this is a societal disease, and everybody should care about it,” “Below the Belt” director Shannon Cohn told WrapWomen during a recent Zoom interview. “I can say with 100% certainty… you either have endometriosis, you love someone who has endometriosis, or you you absolutely know multiple people who have endometriosis.”
“Below the Belt” is an inspiring documentary that follows several women battling endometriosis, shedding light on an important issue that affects a significant population of women across the world – and yet still lacks awareness. Executive producers on the film include former secretary of state Hillary Clinton as well as actress and activists Rosario Dawson, Corinne Foxx and Mae Whitman.
“[The film is] basically everything I wish I had known as a 16-year-old, so that I could start taking control of my body and my health and making good decisions,” said Cohn, who eventually received treatment for her endometriosis, but continues to suffer the long-term effects of living over a decade with the disease undiagnosed.
“A lot of times, unfortunately, media gets endometriosis wrong,” according to Cohn. This isn’t on purpose, but rather because the medical information and educational materials in circulation are outdated. Cohn describes this as “systemic misinformation.”
Besides “Below the Belt” and her one-hour educational film “Endo What?” released in 2016, the only other project Cohn could name that accurately depicts endometriosis is Hulu’s new limited series “Conversations With Friends.” With something as common endometriosis and so few projects about it, the filmmaker calls on Hollywood to use their power as a tool for change in educating the world about the condition.
Excruciating period cramps aren’t “normal” and endometriosis isn’t just a “period disease.” If you or someone you know could be suffering with endometriosis visit Cohn’s website www.endowhat.com to learn more about the film and how you can get help.
View the full interview with Cohn up top.
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Animation unbinds storytelling from the constricts of live-action. While it is true that computer graphics is improving by leaps and bounds and filmmaking technologies are constantly evolving (though some stunts surprise precisely by not involving CGI) — still, the possibilities of animation as an art form have their own merits, letting creators transcend any budget or reality limitations and convey feelings and meaning through creative visuals, with the help of colors, distortions, proportion exaggerations…
Experimental animated cinema is hard to define, as defining it sort of defeats the very purpose of the genre. Experimental filmmaking defies any conventions of traditional narrative and perspective. The one thing that unites experimental animated films is their deep expressiveness, an unapologetic and intimate aesthetic. This is the list of the best animated movies that dared to explore unorthodox approaches, combine different styles, and apply new instruments, resulting in a visceral, transformative movie experience.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
7 Klaus
Netflix
One of the darkest Christmas movies, Klaus effectively demolished the limitations of traditional animation. It is not an imitation of 2D, the production team actually invented a semi-intuitive tool that somewhat automates hand-drawn techniques, using 3D as a point solution when 2D is especially complicated and time-consuming, for example, for opening doors. In an interview with Polygon, Sergio Pablos, the director of Klaus, said: “The intention was to make this look like a piece of visual development that you would find in an art book for an animated movie, but put it directly onto the screen without getting into the grinder of the usual look”.
6 Waking Life
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Waking Life’s main character follows Dante’s journey in Divine Comedy — if it was an acid trip. He goes through an array of companions who give him an Introduction to Philosophy lecture, their conversations touching on identity, postmodernism, chaos, and existentialism. This funky, philosophical, rotoscoping venture into the phantasmagoric dream-state leaves viewers exhilarated, confused, and hopelessly entranced.
The Guardian describes it as “a wildly invigorating, unexpectedly thrilling and even moving film and the animation technique, so different from glitzy CGI stuff, couches it in a seductive hyper-reality.” Waking Life remains one of the most entrancing and thoughtful movies all time, one which uniquely unites the oneiric connection between the philosophy of dreams and film.
5 Jibaro
Netflix
Without a doubt, Jibaro, episode nine in the third season of Netflix’s darling anthology Love, Death, and Robots, is one of the most astonishing pieces of animation in recent memory. Jibaro’s director, Alberto Mielgo, is a modern animation trailblazer, who continuously pushes the boundaries of conventional cartoons from the big studios to allow for more experimental artistic expression and innovative techniques. Incredibly stylized, Jibaro resembles rotoscoping works with the flowing movement of its characters and collages with its vivid and veracious panorama; they are, however, keyframe animation, painstakingly crafted after weeks of studying video references. Jibaro is a magnificent mix of 3D models on 2D backgrounds.
4 Fantasia
Disney
Perhaps the most personal of Walt Disney’s film, Fantasia still stands as the most extraordinary and artistic feature produced by the mouse studio. Devised as an extension to the short The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, this collection of imaginative vignettes boasts fluid, psychedelic animation, accompanied by instrumental masterpieces. While this was the first major film recorded and released in stereo, it has also built a reputation as a sublime attempt to blend high art with mainstream cartoons. Instantly after its release, Fantasia secured its place as a classic in pop culture, serving as an inspiration for other creatives and a subject of many homages or parodies.
3 Belladonna of Sadness
Mushi Production
A landmark of adult animation films, Belladonna of Sadness is remarkably original. This exquisite, darkly sensual anime was a philosophical response to the sexual revolution in Japan, and to these days, remains curiously controversial. Whether it is misogynistic, a product of its times, or a radical feminist fantasy, as per revisionists’ view, its bewitching vigor grasps the audiences. The style of Belladonna of Sadness entirely depends on the pace of its narration. Depicting the hopeless viscosity of the protagonist’s impending downfall, the pacing is static, almost like a slideshow. When events begin to develop faster, the images begin moving, losing their watercolor tenderness.
Fantastic Planet is recognized for being one of the most important animated movies for adults. This eerily mesmerizing concoction is best described by Time Out: “Take the big’uns-versus-little’uns conflict from Gulliver’s Travels, sprinkle with the Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine, add a political allegory as forceful as Orwell’s 1984 and you’re beginning to grasp this unique combination of Gallic creativity and Czech production expertise.” There is some socio-cultural commentary, its erratic sci-fi political conflict rivaling the best revolutions on film, but the film’s biggest strength is its distinctly alien visuals. Fantastic Planet’s vision is stylishly grotesque, amplified by the cutout stop-motion technique, so weird it became timeless.
1 It’s Such a Beautiful Day
Bitter Films
It’s Such a Beautiful Day is a triptych of short vignettes from the ingenious Don Hertzfeldt that explore themes of depression and mortality through the complex ordeal of the existence of allegorically simple animation. The protagonist, Bill, wears a hat. That’s all that we as an audience find out about him: there is nothing to allude to his age, ethnicity, or religion. Bill is the ultimate Everyman and, as Film Inquiry suggests, “a vessel for humankind” that contemplates “humankind’s relationship with a chaotic, indifferent universe”. With exceptional inventiveness and technical finesse, It’s Such a Beautiful Day ponders existential questions and somehow makes viewers intensely empathize with a stick figure. It’s a powerful, painful masterpiece.
Jennifer Lopez, Riley Keough and Sofia Carson were among the stars who brought high-wattage style to the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards, which took place Sunday night at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. The night was hosted by Vanessa Hudgens, who wore a parade of looks including a stunning blue dress from Vera Wang Haute on the red carpet.
Spider-Man: No Way Home took home the golden popcorn trophy for best movie, while the event’s 26 gender-neutral categories included House of Gucci‘s Lady Gaga, Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s Tom Holland (the winner) and Dune‘s Timothee Chalamet up against each other for best performance in a movie. Scarlett Johansson won for best hero for Black Widow. Among the television categories, Euphoria was the night’s winner for best show, with Zendaya accepting her trophy remotely for best performance in a show. Jennifer Lopez attended the event to accept the night’s Generation Award and was surprised to learn she also won the award for best song, from 2022’s Marry Me.
Fans cast their votes online for these and a variety of non-traditional categories including best kiss, while new categories this year included best song and best music documentary.
Here’s a look at some of the night’s most talked-about fashion moments.
The winner for best music documentary for driving home 2 u wore a sleek Jean Paul Gaultier corset dress with Outhouse Jewellery’s Oh Celeste Nova spiked earrings.
Jennifer Lopez in Monot
Jennifer Lopez
Emma McIntyre/WireImage
Leave it to Lopez — who accepted the night’s Generation Award (and also won a trophy for best song, for “On My Way” from Marry Me) — to wear one of the most talked-about labels on current red carpets: Her leather vest with plunging neckline and long skirt were from Monot’s fall/winter 2022 collection. Lopez paired the look with jewelry by Candy Ice, a bag by Jimmy Choo and shoes from her collab with DSW.
Riley Keough in Gucci
Riley Keough
Vivien Killilea/Getty Images
On hand to introduce a clip from Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, the King’s granddaughter wore a look that debuted in November on Hollywood Boulevard as part of Gucci’s Love Parade collection.
Accepting golden-popcorn trophies for both best fight and best show for her work on Euphoria, Sweeney wore a cropped shirt and crystal-beaded miniskirt with buckles by Miu Miu, paired with jewelry by Candy Ice and Le Vian.
Vanessa Hudgens in Vera Wang Haute
Vanessa Hudgens
Rich Polk/Getty Images
As the night’s host, Hudgens wore a plethora of looks onstage from labels that included Versace and Valentino, but she kicked off the evening in a custom high-low dress in cobalt silk chiffon by Vera Wang Haute.
Sophia Di Martino
Sophia Di Martino
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
The Loki star picked up multiple trophies in a tailored red suit highlighted by a richly beaded jacket.
The winner for most frightened performance for her role in Scream, Ortega paired a sculpted minidress by Valentino with diamond jewelry by Tiffany & Co.
Sofia Carson in Iris van Herpen
Sofia Carson
Emma McIntyre/WireImage
The Descendants actress and singer loves a haute-couture moment, and that extended to Sunday night’s event, when Carson chose to wear a pleated gown with voluminous sleeves from Iris van Herpen’s Fall 2017 haute-couture collection, paired with tanzanite and diamond jewelry by Marli New York.
Maria Bakalova in Dolce & Gabbana
Maria Bakalova
Emma McIntyre/WireImage
The co-star of Judd Apatow’s The Bubble wore a three-piece look that included an animal-print miniskirt, all by Dolce & Gabbana.
Also among the Top Gun: Maverick stars in attendance, Ellis wore a red leather jacket over a sheer shirt and slim trousers with a side stripe, all by Dolce & Gabbana, paired with sneakers by Christian Louboutin and a watch by Omega.
The iconic English singer returns to the U.K. Top 10 with 1985’s “Running Up That Hill” (via Fish People), which is capturing the attention thanks to its prominent use in the fourth and latest season of Netflix’ hit sci-fi series.
The single races to No. 8 this week, a decade after it returned to the top tier when a new mix featured in the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games. On that occasion, the song vaulted to No. 6.
The first single lifted from the Hounds of Love album, “Running Up That Hill” strolled to a No. 3 best following its initial release.
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See latest videos, charts and news
Thanks to the good music taste of Stranger Things character Max (played by Sadie Sink), it’s sprinting up charts around the globe. “Running” hit No. 2 on Australia’s latest chart, and, in the U.S., Billboard reported that the track had spiked on Spotify, with a 9,900% gain in plays from Thursday to Monday (May 30).
Bush, who was nominated for the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame this year, is thrilled with all the attention for her classic song.
“You might’ve heard that the first part of the fantastic, gripping new series of ‘Stranger Things’ has recently been released on Netflix,” Bush wrote in a statement on her website. “It features the song, ‘Running Up That Hill’ which is being given a whole new lease of life by the young fans who love the show — I love it too!”
According to the OCC, “Running Up That Hill” shifts 48,000 U.K. chart sales during the most recent chart week.
“It is fantastic to see ‘Running Up That Hill’ returning to the Top 10 this week,” comments OCC CEO Martin Talbot, “driven by its feature in Stranger Things, introducing Kate Bush and this iconic Eighties hit to a brand-new audience.”
Meanwhile, Harry Styles leads the chart for a ninth week with “As It Was” (Columbia), while the top debut belongs to Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa with their latest collaboration, “Potion” (Columbia), featuring Young Thug.
Finally, British punk band The K*nts have a third Top 40 hit, as “Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty N**ce” (Radical Rudeness), a spoiler released to coincide with the Queen’s Jubilee, starts at No. 20.
In our third double-guest episode in a row, Kenny and Robert begin the show chatting with rockstar songwriter, musician and composer, Isabella Summers (Little Fires Everywhere, Panic, Physical) aka “The Machine” from Florence + The Machine. Isa reveals that she always wanted to work in film and even scored and directed her own horror films as a kid, explains how she jumped head first into film scoring and continues to learn as she goes and breaks down the differences between scoring with a partner and writing solo.
Subscribe to MORE SCORE on Patreon for year-round interviews, film music talk and even cool merch: http://Patreon.com/MoreScore
Later, Oscar-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal (Frida, Batman Forever, Heat, Interview with the Vampire, Alien 3, Pet Sematary, Demolition Man and so many more) joins the show to discuss growing up in Brooklyn and absorbing multiple styles of music, his working relationship with late director Joel Schumacher, how Jim Carrey’s Riddler influenced his themes for Batman Forever, why he compares a tight deadline to a car crash, and shares his secret for overcoming writer’s block.
This episode is presented by Spitfire Audio
Follow us on Twitter @ScoreThePodcast or send Kenny and Robert your questions for the mailbox at ScoreTheMailbox@epicleff.com
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Nupur Sharma, who was an official spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), made the remark on a television debate, while Naveen Jindal, who was media head of the party’s Delhi unit, had posted a tweet on the issue. The comments – especially Ms Sharma’s – angered the country’s minority Muslim community, leading to sporadic protests in some states.
Riley Keough, 33, made a special appearance at the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards on June 5. The actress came on stage and presented a sneak peek at Elvis, the upcoming biopic film centered on Riley’s late grandfather Elvis Presley, played by Austin Butler. Riley looked gorgeous in a sheer blue skirt and pink leather tube top as she introduced the glimpse of Baz Luhrmann‘s highly-anticipated movie.
“In 1954, a young man from Mississippi walked into sun records and change music forever. That man was my grandfather. And though I never got the chance to meet him, I grew up in a world that had been profoundly shaped by his existence,” Riley proudly announced.
“To capture an iconic figure like Elvis, but thankfully, the visual genius Baz Luhrmann was up to the task,” She added. “Seeing my family history brought to life through Austin Butler’s mesmerizing performance was an incredibly emotional experience and I feel honored to have this story in his hands.” MTV then went on to show a previously unseen clip of the film, where audiences got a close look at Baz Luhrmann’s directorial aesthetic and Austin Butler’s acting choices that made him uncannily resemble Elvis.
Riley Keough at the Cannes Film Festival on May 2022 (David Fisher/Shutterstock)
Riley already got to watch Elvis during a screening at Cannes Film Festival. She was joined by family members including her grandmother Priscilla Presley, who is played byOlivia DeJongein the film. Riley also won Camera d’Or, an award for the best directorial debut, for her and co-director Gina Gammell‘s film War Pony at Cannes.
Elvis also stars Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as B.B. King, Alton Mason as Little Richard, Yola Quartey as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur Crudup. The film will explore Elvis’ rise to fame as the “King Of Rock and Roll.” Austin, 30, won the major role over stars like Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Harry Styles. Elvis arrives in theaters on June 24.
A bipartisan group of legislators in the House and Senate struck a deal on data privacy legislation Friday, proposing a bill that would allow users to opt out of targeted advertisements and to sue Internet companies that improperly sell their data.
The legislation, though, faces a steep uphill climb to become law. Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) are still hoping to recruit more supporters, namely Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, who has advanced more liberal priorities for online user rights. Without her support, the bill is likely to stall.
Still, consumer rights advocates say, the proposed compromise legislation is the biggest breakthrough to date for efforts to pass a federal privacy law. Those efforts have been bogged down amid partisan disagreements. For years, Democrats and Republicans have remained at odds over what extent a federal privacy law should override state measures, such as the landmark California Consumer Privacy Act, and whether it should give consumers the right to bring their own lawsuits against violators.
Republicans support federal preemption of state privacy laws, fearing a patchwork of standards will make compliance difficult for businesses, while Democrats have sought a broad private right of action to give consumers legal tools if government enforcement fails. The legislation unveiled Friday seeks to strike a compromise, including a limit on when and how users can sue Internet companies and measures that would supersede most state digital privacy laws. Politico first reported news of the deal.
The bill would require companies to minimize their data collection practices to only what is necessary for the function of their business. It would also prevent organizations from charging users to access data privacy measures, except for narrow circumstances such as consumer loyalty programs or collecting financial data to complete a transaction.
The Federal Trade Commission would be required to maintain a public registry of data brokers and create a mechanism for users to opt out of targeted advertisements and other data sharing practices. Under the legislation, users would have the right to access, correct and delete their digital data, and companies would be responsible for informing third parties to make changes to the data of users who so choose. Corporate executives would be required to certify annually that their organizations are in compliance with the law.
To enforce the new requirements, the FTC would create a new bureau to protect consumer data privacy, and federal regulators and state attorneys general would be empowered to sue groups thought to be in violation of the law for punitive damages.
Individuals could also sue companies but only after a four-year waiting period from when the legislation is enacted. They are required to notify state and federal officials before pursuing a lawsuit, and they could not pursue the legal action if a government prosecutor takes up their case. The bill would also supersede most state data privacy laws, except for specific statutes on civil rights, student and employee privacy, criminal codes, and financial and health records.
“This draft shows that there is a bipartisan path forward on long-overdue legislation to protect consumer privacy,” said Alexandra Reeve Givens, president and chief executive of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit research group that receives funding from companies such as Apple and Google. “Americans want and desperately need legislation to protect their personal data and promote trust in the online world. While it’s not perfect, the draft is a hopeful first step.”
Internet trade association TechNet said the proposal “shows the engines are revving on this issue in a way they haven’t in a long time.” While the legislation “still needs further improvements, it’s an indication that leaders from both parties are committed to action and willing to compromise on key issues like a private right of action and preemption,” Carl Holshouser, senior vice president of the group, said in a statement. “Additional negotiation is needed but we’re more hopeful than we have been in years that a bipartisan privacy bill can make its way to the president’s desk this Congress.”
But major obstacles remain to get a deal signed into law. The draft bill is facing head winds from some prominent Democrats. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a lead negotiator in past privacy talks on Capitol Hill, warned panel leaders in a letter Wednesday that their latest effort to pass a law was “falling short” in protecting consumers. Schatz urged lawmakers to “refuse to settle for a privacy framework that will only result in more policies to read, more cookies to consent to, and no real change for consumers.”
Schatz urged panel leaders to advance a proposal that imposes a duty of care on companies to protect the personal data of users and said that if they cannot, they “absolutely should not preempt states from adopting consumer-first online privacy reforms.” While dozens of Democrats support creating a duty of care standard for online data, it is widely opposed by Republicans.
In response, Cantwell said in a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday, “Senator Schatz is right” and “any robust and comprehensive privacy law must protect consumers’ personal data with a clear requirement that companies are accountable for the use of that data and must act in consumers’ best interests.”
Lawmakers also face a dwindling time frame to get a deal done before the midterm elections. Wicker, who has led discussions for Senate Republicans for years, is widely expected to take over as the Republican lead on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which could set back privacy talks on the Senate Commerce Committee as new leadership steps in. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), a combative technology industry critic who has focused more on targeting allegations of “bias” by social media companies than on issues like data privacy, is in line to take over for Wicker by seniority.
Staffers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a bipartisan discussion draft for data privacy legislation in late 2019, but this is the first time a proposal backed by panel leaders has drawn bicameral support. Little progress had been made since 2019, even as a cascade of data privacy scandals have consumed industry giants like Facebook and Google and infuriated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill.
The Raise the Roof collaborators on the artists, albums, and songs that helped shape them—from Roy Orbison to Harry Chapin and more—in the latest episode of “Pass the Aux”
As Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee festivities continue, a reissue of Sex Pistols‘ infamous anarchist anthem “God Save The Queen” hit the top of the charts in the U.K. on Saturday.
The song was reissued on Friday and almost immediately launched into the No. 1 spot — 45 years to the day after it was infamously denied the top slot. The hit was originally released by the band in 1977, meant to overlap with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee that year.
However, the song earned a total ban on radio airplay from the BBC — what would normally be a kiss of death for a single, but a fitting endorsement for the Pistols and their anti-establishment rant. Despite the block, it reached number one on many other charts including the NME chart. It also reached No. 2 on the UK singles chart (The top spot was occupied by Rod Stewart’s “I Don’t Want To Talk About It”).
Originally titled “No Future,” the song was banned for containing lyrics comparing the UK to “a fascist regime” and saying the Queen is “not a human being.” However, lead singer John Lydon would later clarify: “You don’t write ‘God Save the Queen’ because you hate the English race. You write a song like that because you love them, and you’re fed up with them being mistreated.”
In a recent editorial for the UK Times, Lydon also said he doesn’t have any “animosity” toward the royal family and even wrote “God bless the Queen. She’s put up with a lot.”
He also commented on his relationship to the concept of anarchy, saying, “Anarchy is a terrible idea. Let’s get that clear. I’m not an anarchist… And I’m amazed that there are websites out there – .org anarchist sites – funded fully by the corporate hand and yet ranting on about being outside the shitstorm. It’s preposterous.”
To commemorate the reissue and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the band also released a collectible coin and NFT displaying a Union Jack design on one side and the Queen (lip piercings and all) on the other.
Jennifer Lopez took the stage at the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday night to accept the Generation Award, and she thanked everyone who helped her along the way — including some whose intentions were the opposite.
After the show played a montage of some of Lopez’s most famous performances, the multi-hyphenate began her speech with some reflections on her career.
“You know, I look at those movies and I see all the wonderful people that I’ve been blessed to know and to work with. You’re only as good as the people that you work with. And if you’re lucky, they make you better. And I have been very lucky in that regard,” Lopez said. “As an actor, I’m not any of the women that I’ve played, but there’s a part of what is deeply true to me in each one of those characters. And since you cannot create truth unless you really lived it, I have a different kind of list of thank yous tonight.”
Lopez got emotional thanking not only the people who have been a part of her life in all the good ways but also those who discouraged her from the crafts in which she has excelled.
“I want to thank all the people who gave me this life; I want to thank the people who gave me joy, and the ones who broke my heart; the ones who were true and the ones who lied to me,” she continued. “I want to thank true love, and I want to thank the way that I lied to myself because that’s how I knew that I had to grow. I want to thank disappointment and failure for teaching me to be strong, and my children for teaching me to love.
“I want to thank all the people who told me to my face or when I wasn’t in the room that I couldn’t do this. I really don’t think I could have done it without you. And I know I couldn’t have done it without the fans who saw the movies,” she continued to loud cheers from the audience.
As Lopez wrapped her speech, she turned her attention to her longtime manager Benny Medina, to praise him for being there all along and one of her biggest supporters.
“I want to thank Benny Medina. He doesn’t like me to talk about him. He likes to be in the background,” she said.
“But he’s more than just my manager. If there’s one person who believed in me from the beginning, and the first time I played him a raggedy little demo of a song that I had wrote that day — he never let me stop believing in myself — it was him,” she said.
Lopez praised Medina for being there when she was at low moments.
“And there were times so low, I think I kept going more for you than for myself because I love you,” she said praising him for being her true “ride or die.”
Before she left the stage, the superstar thanked MTV for its support over the years.
“Thank you for being such an amazing platform for all artists. Especially me over the years. I love you,” she said, telling her family at home to wait to have dinner, as she planned to be home by 7 p.m. PT.
The actor’s experience with the film largely soured him on playing characters based on real people.
Sipa USA via AP
Mark Rylance is back in theaters this weekend with “The Phantom of the Open,” a new comedy that sees the Oscar winner play famously bad amateur golfer Maurice Flitcroft. It’s Rylance’s first time portraying a real person since he played lawyer William Kunstler in “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” But the actor appears to be having a lot more fun with this movie than he did with Aaron Sorkin’s 2020 historical drama.
In a new interview with the New York Times, Rylance opened up about the difficult experience of playing Kunstler, and said he received malicious feedback from real people who were involved with the trial. Those comments, and the toll they took on his mental health, have made him more hesitant to take roles based on real people.
“I’m wary of playing very famous people,” Rylance said. “Even William Kunstler is a bit on the edge of people really knowing him. The comments from some of the real-life Chicago Seven people, when they saw the film, and the nasty things they said about us trying to portray these characters, stung. I’ve been asked to play Truman and different people like that. The shoe is a bit too tight.”
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That said, Rylance overcame his newfound aversion to playing real people for “The Phantom of the Open.” He said that the decision was made partly because he enjoys comedic acting but rarely gets the opportunity to do it.
“This is one of the few comedies I’ve been asked to be a part of in film,” Rylance said, adding that the movie has “a lot of aspects of Don Quixote, jousting at windmills, believing his own identity, not being persuaded by other people’s perception of who he is. Not sociopathic or psychopathic, where he doesn’t even hear what other people are saying — there’s a dignity to Maurice, that he honors his own truth, and I loved that about it.”
It appears that Rylance’s decision paid off, as critics have praised the casting. IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote that the actor “embodies Maurice Flitcroft with such fidgety sweetness that he seems to be simpering toward self-parody by the end of the very first scene, and yet with ‘The Phantom of the Open’ he’s found a movie that’s willing to meet the actor on his wavelength — a movie in which everything is so gently over-cranked that Rylance’s character feels more like a natural response to the world around him than he does an aberration from it.”
“The Phantom of the Open” is now playing in select theaters.
Hosted by Vanessa Hudgens, MTV tonight combined the annual Movie & TV and Unscripted award shows into one event at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica.
Additionally, Tom Holland nabbed an award for his performance in Spider-Man, while his co-star Zendaya also won, but for her performance in Euphoria.
Jack Black was anointed with the Comedic Genius award and Jennifer Lopez accepted the Generation Award, which, according to MTV, celebrates “beloved actors whose diverse contributions to both film and television have turned them into household names.”
For the combined show, MTV’s Bruce Gillmer, Wendy Plaut and Vanessa Whitewolf and Den of Thieves’ Jesse Ignjatovic and Barb Bialkowski are executive producers. Jackie Barba and Alicia Portugal are executives in charge of production and Lisa Lauricella is the music talent executive for both events.
Below is the complete list of winners for both Movie & TV and Unscripted awards:
BEST MOVIE
Dune
Scream
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings
WINNER: Spider-Man: No Way Home
The Adam Project
The Batman
BEST SHOW
WINNER: Euphoria
Inventing Anna
Loki
Squid Game
Ted Lasso
Yellowstone
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A MOVIE
Lady Gaga – House of Gucci
Robert Pattinson – The Batman
Sandra Bullock – The Lost City
Timothée Chalamet – Dune
WINNER: Tom Holland – Spider-Man: No Way Home
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SHOW
Amanda Seyfried – The Dropout
Kelly Reilly – Yellowstone
Lily James – Pam & Tommy
Sydney Sweeney – Euphoria
WINNER: Zendaya – Euphoria
BEST HERO
Daniel Craig – No Time to Die
Oscar Isaac – Moon Knight
WINNER: Scarlett Johansson – Black Widow
Simu Liu – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Tom Holland – Spider-Man: No Way Home
BEST VILLAIN
Colin Farrell – The Batman
WINNER: Daniel Radcliffe – The Lost City
James Jude Courtney – Halloween Kills
Victoria Pedretti – You
Willem Dafoe – Spider-Man: No Way Home
BEST KISS
Hunter Schafer & Dominic Fike – Euphoria
Lily Collins & Lucien Laviscount – Emily in Paris
WINNER: Poopies & the snake – Jackass Forever
Robert Pattinson & Zoë Kravitz – The Batman
Tom Holland & Zendaya – Spider-Man: No Way Home
BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE
Brett Goldstein – Ted Lasso
John Cena – Peacemaker
Johnny Knoxville – Jackass Forever
Megan Stalter – Hacks
WINNER: Ryan Reynolds – Free Guy
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Alana Haim – Licorice Pizza
Ariana DeBose – West Side Story
Hannah Einbinder – Hacks
Jung Ho-yeon – Squid Game
WINNER: Sophia Di Martino – Loki
BEST FIGHT
Black Widow vs. Widows – Black Widow
WINNER: Cassie vs. Maddy – Euphoria
Guy vs. Dude – Free Guy
Shang-Chi bus fight – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Men end battle – Spider-Man: No Way Home
MOST FRIGHTENED PERFORMANCE
WINNER: Jenna Ortega – Scream
Kyle Richards – Halloween Kills
Mia Goth – X
Millicent Simmonds – A Quiet Place Part II
Sadie Sink – Fear Street: Part Two 1978
BEST TEAM
WINNER: Loki – Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson
Only Murders in the Building – Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, Martin Short
Spider-Man: No Way Home – Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire
The Adam Project – Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell
The Lost City – Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt
HERE FOR THE HOOKUP
WINNER: Euphoria
Never Have I Ever
Pam & Tommy
Sex/Life
Sex Lives of College Girls
BEST SONG
“Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” – Jennifer Hudson / Respect
“Just Look Up” – Ariana Grande & Kid Cudi / Don’t Look Up
“Little Star” – Dominic Fike / Euphoria
WINNER: “On My Way (Marry Me)” – Jennifer Lopez / Marry Me
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” – Encanto Cast / Encanto
BEST MUSICAL MOMENT (presented by SONIC® Drive-In) *SOCIAL ONLY CATEGORY*
Bridgerton: “Wrecking Ball”
Cinderella: “Million to One”
Cobra Kai: “The Moment of Truth”
Emily in Paris: “Dynamite”
Encanto: “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
Euphoria: “Holding Out For a Hero”
WINNER: Heartstopper: “Dance With Me”
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: “Rose Song”
House of Gucci: “Disco Fever”
Halo: “Original Score”
Last Night in Soho: “Downtown”
Peacemaker: “Do Ya Wanna Taste It?”
Tick, Tick…BOOM!: “Therapy”
Turning Red: “Nobody Like U”
West Side Story: “America”
Yellowjackets: “This Is How We Do It”
BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
JANET JACKSON.
jeen-yuhs: AKanye Trilogy
Oasis Knebworth 1996
WINNER: Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film)
The Beatles: Get Back
COMEDIC GENIUS
Jack Black
GENERATION AWARD
Jennifer Lopez
COMPLETE LIST OF 2022 NOMINEES, UNSCRIPTED:
BEST DOCU-REALITY SERIES
Jersey Shore: Family Vacation
Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta
WINNER: Selling Sunset
Summer House
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
BEST COMPETITION SERIES
American Idol
Dancing with the Stars
WINNER: RuPaul’s Drag Race
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies
The Masked Singer
BEST LIFESTYLE SHOW
Bar Rescue
Dr. Pimple Popper
Making It
WINNER: Selena + Chef
Queer Eye
BEST NEW UNSCRIPTED SERIES
Hart to Heart
Teen Mom: Family Reunion
WINNER: The D’Amelio Show
The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip
Queen of the Universe
BEST REALITY STAR (brought to you by SONIC® Drive-In)
Chris “CT” Tamburello – The Challenge
WINNER: Chrishell Stause – Selling Sunset
Lindsay Hubbard – Summer House
Teresa Giudice – The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Willow Pill – RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14
BEST REALITY ROMANCE
Joe Amabile & Serena Pitt – Bachelor in Paradise
WINNER: Loren & Alexei Brovarnik – Loren & Alexei: After the 90 Days
Nany Gonzalez & Kaycee Clark – The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies
Tom Sandoval & Ariana Madix – Vanderpump Rules
Yandy & Mendeecees – Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta
BEST TALK /TOPICAL SHOW
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
The Drew Barrymore Show
The Kelly Clarkson Show
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
WINNER: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
BEST HOST
Charlamagne Tha God – Tha God’s Honest Truth
Gordon Ramsay – MasterChef
WINNER: Kelly Clarkson – The Kelly Clarkson Show
Rob Dyrdek – Ridiculousness
RuPaul – RuPaul’s Drag Race
BREAKTHROUGH SOCIAL STAR
WINNER: Bella Poarch – @bellapoarch on TikTok
Benito Skinner – @bennydrama7 on Instagram
Caleb Hearon – @calebsaysthings on Twitter
Khaby Lame – @khabylame on TikTok
Megan Stalter – @megstalter on Instagram
BEST FIGHT
WINNER: Bosco vs. Lady Camden – RuPaul’s Drag Race
Candiace Dillard Bassett vs. Mia Thornton – Salad toss fight – The Real Housewives of Potomac
Christine Quinn vs. Chrishell Stause – Selling Sunset
Danielle Olivera vs. Ciara Miller vs. Lindsay Hubbard– Summer House
Margaret Josephs vs. Teresa Giudice – The Real Housewives of New Jersey
BEST REALITY RETURN
Bethenny Frankel – The Big Shot with Bethenny
Kylie Sonique Love – RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars
WINNER: Paris Hilton – Cooking with Paris & Paris in Love
Sher – Ex on the Beach
Tami Roman – The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles
The International Documentary Association (IDA) supports the vital work of non-fiction storytellers, championing an inclusive documentary culture. The IDA Documentary Awards celebrates the best nonfiction films and programs of the year, representing excellence in the documentary field from around the world by both emerging and established documentarians.
American Masters is honored to announce its nomination for Best Curated Series.
The 37th Annual IDA Awards ceremony will take place on February 5, 2022 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
This year the IDA received 747 submissions including 314 documentary features, 137 documentary shorts, 172 documentary series, 54 student films, 29 music documentaries, and 41 audio documentaries and podcasts. 32% of submissions were international productions or co-productions.
Best Curated Series Nominees
America ReFramed (USA / WORLD Channel. Executive Producers: Christopher Hastings, Chris White, Justine Nagan and Erika Dilday)
American Masters (USA, Canada / THIRTEEN Productions, LLC, PBS. Executive Producer: Michael Kantor)
The RCMP is investigating after an Edmonton Police Service officer’s uniform and equipment was stolen from their personal vehicle outside their home in St. Albert.
Mounties said the theft happened overnight sometime between Saturday and Sunday.
The RCMP was called at around 1:10 p.m. Sunday to investigate.
Several items were stolen from the vehicle including three EPS uniform shirts, EPS uniform pants, handcuffs, a duty belt, a blue plastic training pistol, an EPS ball cap and a traffic vest with the word ‘police’ on the back.
In a news release, the RCMP said the plastic training pistol is a replica 9mm handgun, which does not fire live ammunition.
The St. Albert RCMP is investigating and searching for the stolen equipment.
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If you have information, contact the St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700 or local police. Anonymous information can be provided to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), online at www.P3Tips.com or by using the ‘P3 Tips’ app available through the Apple App or Google Play Store.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey star married Joe in October 1999, and the pair went on to welcome four daughters: Gia in January 2001, Gabriella in October 2004, Milania in February 2006 and Audriana in September 2009.
Teresa revealed during the March 2019 season 9 Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion that she and Joe would end their marriage if he was forced to leave the country. “I’m not doing a long-distance relationship. I’m not doing it,” she explained. “You know, I want somebody with me every day. I know exactly what happens. You know, I’m sure he’ll be with other women. It happens. We do the long-distance thing, it’s not going to work. I’d be like, ‘Bye-bye.’”
Us Weeklyconfirmed their split in December 2019. “Teresa and Joe talked about their future when she and the girls were in Italy and decided it was best for them to separate,” a source told Us at the time. “Neither of them wanted to be in a long-distance relationship. Joe has been dating in Italy, Teresa is busy taking care of their girls right now. They harbor no ill will toward each other and will continue to coparent their kids.”
“I wish them happiness, and I hope everything’s great,” Melissa Gorga exclusively told Us in February 2021. “But it’s new. It’s the beginning, so you never know. He seems like a nice guy, so we’ll see what happens. … It’s been nice to be able to, like, double date with her again because we haven’t done that in forever.”
Dolores Catania, meanwhile, hinted that an engagement could be on the horizon for the couple. “I see a marriage there,” she told Us in May 2021. “I see potential for so much and a life together, and I see a lot of love between them. So, I’m really hopeful and really optimistic about what’s going on there.”
Scroll through the gallery below to revisit Teresa and Ruelas’ relationship timeline!
Amazon Kindles and Kobo tablets are some of the best ereaders you can buy and yet neither company has a single option with built-in speakers. Of course, smaller players in the ebook reader market play by different rules and are already offering ereaders that boast speakers. The latest one is the PocketBook Era.
Brought to us by Ukrainian-born but Switzerland-based company PocketBook, the Era is a 7-inch ereader that’s taking the competition right up to the likes of the Kindle Oasis and the Kobo Libra 2.
PocketBook is known for devices with a very specific look – rounded lower corners that show off a strip of metallic color, and control buttons typically below the screen. The Era, however, has its page-turn buttons on the edge of its broader side bezel – where the power button is also located – that appears to have had its corners chopped off as opposed to being rounded.
The PocketBook Era adopts the latest E Ink Carta 1200 screen technology that, while keeping the resolution at 300ppi, improves response times by 20% and page contrast by 15%. But instead of using a plastic layer on the top like most other ereaders, the Era features a glass-finished screen that sits flush with the bezels. And, importantly, the screen’s light can be controlled for both brightness and temperature, promising a comfortable reading experience in any situation.
Spoilt for choice
(Image credit: PocketBook)
Alongside the PocketBook Era’s built-in speakers for audiobook support, there’s also Bluetooth connectivity, so you can go the traditional route of pairing wireless headphones to the tablet. Additionally, PocketBook says you’ll be able to pair it with car audio systems if yours has Bluetooth support, and even portable speakers if you’re so inclined.
The PocketBook Era supports 29 different file formats that include 19 for ebooks, six audio files and four graphic formats. That’s a lot more than either a Kindle or a Kobo ereader. Plus, there are 22 preloaded dictionaries, handy if you’re learning a new language.
PocketBook promises that the Era comes with anti-scratch protection – an important inclusion when the screen is topped by a layer of glass – and its waterproofing is rated at IPX8, meaning it will be just fine in two meters of water for up to 60 minutes.
There’s a 1,700mAh battery that should give you about four weeks’ worth of reading before it needs topping up, with two colors to choose from – each with its own storage capacity.
The PocketBook Era is available in Stardust Silver that has a maximum capacity of 16GB and in Sunset Copper that comes with 64GB of storage. They’ll set you back $199 (about £159 / AU$275) and $249 (around £199 / AU$345) respectively. PocketBook devices have limited availability around the world, but you can import them from retailers in the US like Amazon and Newegg.
During the MTV Movie & TV Awards, Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” released a new teaser, featuring a golden mockingjay and a snake shedding their frozen skins. The highly anticipated prequel to the popular franchise will be out Nov. 17, 2023. Watch the teaser above.
As TheWrap previously reported, “West Side Story” breakout star Rachel Zegler has been tapped to lead the film as Lucy Gray Baird, a mentee for a young Coriolanus Snow. Based on Suzanne Collins’ novel of the same name, the plot will follow Snow pre-tyranny. As an 18-year-old, Snow is a top student at the elite Panem’s Academy, selected to train Lucy, a District 12 tribute. Unexpectedly growing closer together, he fights to make sure she wins the Hunger Games at any cost.
The visual teaser clip pans around frostbitten tree branches in a blizzard-like environment. Set to haunting vocals and dramatic piano, the video progressively shows more elements caught in the storm, including a frozen serpent and icily preserved avian creature. “You’re invited to return to the games,” the epic text reads as the bird, snake and branches gradually begin to unveil gold-plated exteriors. “In 2023, the world will discover who is a songbird and who is a snake.”
Francis Lawrence will return to direct and produce his fourth “Hunger Games” film, having previously directed the sequels “Catching Fire” and both installments of the series’ conclusion “Mockingjay.” Michael Arndt, who co-wrote the film adaptation of “Catching Fire,” returns to adapt “Songbirds and Snakes” with Collins and Michael Lesslie. Collins will also serve as executive producer with Tim Palen, with series producer Nina Jacobson returning to produce with partner Brad Simpson.
“Top Gun: Maverick” is a massive hit. It’s also the only film that grossed more than $10 million this weekend.
It’s astounding: “Top Gun: Maverick” (Paramount), then everything else.
Most box-office reporting this weekend focuses on the unquestionably stunning results for Tom Cruise’s sequel. Through 10 days of domestic play, it’s grossed $190 million ($357 million worldwide). A second-weekend drop of only 32 percent portends that it will go much, much higher and has the potential to become the highest-grossing 2022 release.
Its performance deserves all the accolades — but without the misleading reporting. “Maverick” will likely be Cruise’s biggest hit, and among Paramount’s 10 top performers. But unless one thinks ticket prices remained unchanged for the last 40 years — or ever — it’s getting undue credit for box-office records.
Its second-weekend fall is indeed very small, but not the smallest; “Avatar” (which would have grossed $100 million adjusted in its second weekend) fell less than two percent.
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“Maverick” has an advantage that made this more likely. Most films that open over $100 million are sequels, with a built-in awareness and the audience’s desire to see it right away.
Although a sequel 36 years later, “Maverick” is not really a franchise. And with its appeal to older audiences, it had room to grow among a wider set of moviegoers with its great word of mouth Few films get A+ Cinemascores and even fewer at this level of performance.
Another factor in its favor: Unlike most big films in summer release, “Maverick” lacked competition among holdovers or openings. That will change Friday when “Jurassic World: Dominion” (Universal) debuts. It has already grossed $55 million in 15 initial territories, and is expected to exceed the “Maverick” opening weekend.
In the meantime, it’s feast or famine. “Maverick” made up nearly 75 percent of the weekend’s business and that’s a big problem for theaters.
This is prime summer playtime. The same weekend in 2019 grossed $174 million, with this year’s only 67 percent as much.
Not only is the total much lower, but it’s an entirely different market composition. In 2019, the top 10 saw two films gross over $40 million, three over $25 million, four over $18 million, five over $11 million. This year, only one — “Maverick” — made more than $10 million.
“Maverick” is impressive and critical, but that is unhealthy. It will take more than unusual films thriving if theaters are going to get back to normal.
This will improve next weekend, and likely over the course of the summer. For now, our four-week comparison to 2019 remains at a subpar 67 percent.
No new wide release opened this week. Two multi-hundred theater openings of well-received independent films debuted at the low end of the top 10. David Cronenberg’s much-talked about “Crimes of the Future” is #9 with $1.1 million (per theater, $1,423), while “Watcher” (IFC) is #10 with $815,000. But “Crimes” dropped 35 percent Saturday from Friday. “Watcher” stayed steady. The latter is the best opening ever for an IFC Midnight-brand release (most of their titles have limited debuts and often parallel VOD play).
Of note: Our top 10 doesn’t list Paramount’s “The Lost City” since much of its total includes drive-in dates with “Maverick.” That film includes the same numbers, making “City” a double count. (It’s a common, and misleading, industry practice).
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (Disney) will exceed $400 million and is currently #1 for the year, but “Maverick” will surpass it. The Marvel film fell 42 percent and is #2. Meantime, “The Bob’s Burger Movie” (Disney) defied recent second-week play for family titles and dropped 64 percent.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24) continues to be the shining beacon for specialized titles. Ahead of its very late home availability this week, it is still #6 and now stands at over $60 million.
Few films can replicate this performance, as “Crimes” and “Watcher” indicate. Specialized is remains in flux with some new titles trying limited initial releases, others opening in many big cities. Neither guarantees success.
Terence Davies’ “Benediction” (Roadside Attractions), near the top of acclaimed releases this year, played in 91 theaters with a $47,650 gross. “The Phantom of the Open” (Sony Pictures Classics), a comedy with Mark Rylance at six prime New York/Los Angeles theaters managed $26,000 ahead of wider national release.
Of note are other nontraditional initial dates. “Deep in the Heart” (Fin & Fur), a Texas-set nature documentary, had a decent $126,000 start at 69 theaters in that state. “Poser” (Oscilloscope), set among the indie scene in Columbus, Ohio, did $15,250 in its initial theater date there. “Neptune Frost” (Kino Lorber), an African-set science fiction musical with significant previous film festival play, grossed $10,000 in one New York date.
The Top 10
1. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) Week 2; Last weekend #1
If there’s one thing you take away from the MTV Movie Awards 2022 red carpet, make it this: It’s time to start having fun with fashion again. Almost every celebrity who attended—which took place on Sunday, June 5—showed up dressed to be noticed, from Sydney Sweeney’s ab-baring crop top to J.Lo and Olivia Rodrigo killing it in fitted black gowns, to more cutouts than we can count.
In short, use these outfits for inspo the next time you’re planning a night-out mood board. Behold, in no particular order, the best-dressed stars at the 2022 MTV Movie Awards.
The “Nightmare on Elm Street” star compared the saga to something out of “Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood”
With “Obi-Wan Kenobi” revisiting some of the “Star Wars” franchise’s most iconic characters on Disney+, nostalgia for the series is a hot topic right now. The fan reaction to seeing actors like James Earl Jones reprise their roles from the films serves as a reminder of how inseparable the characters can be from the actors who played them. But it’s easy to forget that, had the casting process gone slightly differently, the films could have been altered dramatically. In a new interview with The Guardian, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Stranger Things” star Robert Englund recalled his own audition for the landmark science fiction film, and the way he inadvertently influenced the film’s casting.
Englund revealed that his “Star Wars” audition happened spontaneously, as he was asked to read for the role of Han Solo while leaving his audition for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.”
“As I was leaving, one of the producers told me they were casting across the hall for this George Lucas space movie,” Englund said. “George Lucas was my hero, so I thought: ‘Hell, I’ll go.’ At the time, they wanted Han Solo to be played older, like a cool uncle who lets you smoke marijuana at Christmas. They looked at me for five minutes, took a couple of Polaroids; I did not read. That’s all I remember.”
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But while Englund’s trip to a galaxy far, far away was never meant to be, he was able to help a friend land an important part in the film.
“But as I left, I snatched the audition sides for this much younger character called Luke Skywalker,” he said. “I went back to my apartment in the Hollywood Hills and my buddy Mark Hamill’s cowboy boots were on my front porch. He was working down the hill at the CBS studios as a very successful television actor. Mark was watching the ‘Bob Newhart’ or ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ show. We’d watch together in the afternoon and then call our agents at 5pm to see how our auditions had gone. I remember saying: ‘Guess what? George Lucas is making this space movie.’ We both loved ‘American Graffiti,’ so Mark called his agent and put her under pressure to get him an audition.”
Hamill’s agent did, in fact, get him an audition for Luke Skywalker, and the rest is history. The serendipitous saga is the kind of story that Hollywood history is littered with, a sentiment that is not lost on Englund.
“It’s a bit like the Tarantino movie ‘Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood,’” he said.
When it comes to pop country, no name is bigger than Taylor Swift. However, Kelsea Ballerini is giving her a run for her money when it comes to the beloved genre.
For years, Taylor Swift was the golden standard when it came to being the pop-country princess. It looked like she was going to be retaking her crown last year when she re-released Fearless (Taylor’s Version.) However, after re-recording Red, Taylor has pretty much left the spotlight as she usually does.
With Taylor focusing on other ventures, it’s only right for someone to step up and take up the mantle, and it’s no surprise that Kelsea Ballerini is an easy fit. Most of us already know that Taylor Swift and Kelsea Ballerini are friends. In addition, Kelsea has covered a few of Taylor’s songs in the past. Her latest single is just one example of how she is following Taylor’s lead while still being her own person.
If you’re looking for Fearless vibes, then Kelsea Ballerini is your girl.
Fearless is easily one of Taylor Swift’s most beloved works and it’s only right to feature a song that embodies those vibes. Kelsea Ballerini’s latest single does exactly that. Entitled “Heartfirst,” the song does an excellent job of showing off the newness of a relationship and the possibility of it all.
For those of us who are TS fans, we know how much Taylor loved to feature that within her first few albums. It’s only right that Kelsea would follow a similar path. Despite Kelsea being married, this song touches a lot on the excitement and fun of starting a new relationship “heart first.”
What makes this song so special is that it feels like Kelsea is blazing her trail while still paying homage to Taylor’s journey. Her first two albums held that same teenage angst as Taylor’s did, while her third and fourth albums leaned more into the pop-country genre. As for her latest single, it has the light and brightness that seemed to lack in her previous release.
Either way, it’s nice to see her returning to a happy and bubbly era. If you’re looking for a new spring listen or miss Taylor Swift, then give “Heartfirst” a try. It might be exactly what you need to help bust you out of a winter slump.
The 2022 IDA Documentary Awards Call For Entries (CFE) launches on Thursday, May 26! The IDA Documentary Awards are a crucial event in our field. Nominations can elevate a documentarian’s career and their project’s global impact. Last year’s nominees have gone on to win many accolades: Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Suave won the Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting; and nine IDA Documentary Awards nominees received Peabody Award nominations.
In this post, the people behind the IDA Documentary Awards competition, Kristal Sotomayor (Awards Competition Manager) and Eddie Hustleby (Awards & Fiscal Sponsorship Program Coordinator), share their insights about the 38th Annual IDA Documentary Awards!
Expanding Upon Achievements from 2021-22
In our last Awards season, we learned a lot about the needs of the field and the spaces where the Awards can serve to support the evolution of the global documentary form. As a team, we strive for DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in the Awards competition. Here are a few things we are proud to have achieved last year:
IDA received 748 submissions across all categories, including 314 documentary features from 58 countries, and 137 documentary shorts from 33 countries.
We reached gender and BIPOC parity:
Our Feature Documentary shortlist was 52% women directors, 55% women producers, 59% BIPOC directors and 41% BIPOC producers.
Our Short Documentary shortlist was 59% women directors and producers, 65% BIPOC directors and 53% BIPOC producers.
We assembled the most diverse and international jury committees ever:
The committees included 228 documentary makers, curators, critics, and industry experts from 44 countries, with 51% of the committee members identifying as female and 59% as BIPOC.
Providing Submitters with More Support
One of the major barriers to applying for the Awards is the limited timeline to submit materials. Last year, we unfortunately had to shorten our CFE period, but this year, the CFE will open earlier to allow submissions over two months, from May 26 to July 20, 2022.
We’re improving our customer service by having all our submissions deadlines close on Wednesdays at 12 noon PDT. This change will ensure that submitters are able to have their questions answered by our team, in time for deadlines.
The eligibility period is also being extended so that projects can submit to the Awards competition if they were completed or scheduled to premiere between September 1, 2021 and December 31, 2022. In the past, the eligibility period started from October of the previous year to the end of the current year. By extending the eligibility period by a month, we hope to provide more projects the opportunity to apply.
Evolving with the Growth of Documentary Series
In keeping up with the changes in the documentary field, we’ve found that there are more and more TV feature documentaries and mini-series being produced. Last year, a number of projects featured documentary stories consisting of one to three episodes, with the intent to broadcast or stream without a theatrical release. For this reason, we’re introducing a new category: Best TV Feature Documentary or Mini-Series. This category is distinct from our Multi-Part Documentary category, which represents a series with four or more episodes of over 30 minutes in length. We hope this new TV Feature Documentary or Mini-Series category can bridge the evolving landscape.
Our Documentary Series categories present the biggest challenges when it comes to crediting. We have four sub categories (Curated, Episodic, Multi-Part Documentary and Short-Form), and each of them has varying involvement of directors and producers. There are also other titles (i.e. Executive Producer, Associate Producer, Showrunner, Co-Producer, Supervisor, etc) that we would like to recognize. However, we are limited to two or three different roles on our submissions form, so we have chosen titles that hopefully capture as much of the work of these individuals as we can. Our three categories are “Executive Producer(s)/Showrunner(s),” “Director(s)” and “Producer(s).” The only field that is required is “Executive Producer(s)/Showrunner(s).” We hope the inclusion of “Showrunner” will help honor the work of the individual on the ground making the production happen. We hope submitters feel more represented by these changes. It is one small part of our commitment to give credit where credit is due.
Supporting Audio Documentary
We have the privilege of celebrating many different categories of nonfiction projects in our competition. However, each of these categories has different ways of representing the key people involved in their project. Each year we receive feedback from submitters and jurors over what works and what doesn’t in terms of crediting. With this insight, we have updated the credits section of our Audio Documentary categories to better represent the field.
Audio documentaries and podcasts come in many different forms, but oftentimes they center around one person’s voice, who serves as the host and/or the reporter for the project. Because of this, we have changed the required crediting information in our submissions form from “Director” and “Producer” to “Host/Reporter” and “Engineer.” The latter title recognizes the labor of sound technicians and editors who bring these auditory experiences to life. There is still a space to put the names of the “Producers” (Where would we be without them?).
Our outreach efforts to increase and diversify submissions to our Audio Documentary categories has led to some exciting developments. We are proud to announce our partnership with the Podcasting, Seriously Awards Fund, which supports independent BIPOC, Queer and Trans audio professionals in submitting their work to media/journalism awards by covering submission fees. The Fund accepts reimbursement requests on a rolling basis year-round and is committed to supporting 200+ independent producer award submissions each year. This Fund is not affiliated with the IDA Documentary Awards or the International Documentary Association. For more information and to apply for funding, visit the Podcasting, Seriously website here.
DEI & Accessibility
The increase in the diversity of our submission pools and juries last year was a direct result of the efforts we put forth to reach documentarians globally. The Awards Competition Department is scaling outreach to different countries that have historically lacked representation. To ensure that we are fulfilling our DEI goals, we’ve begun to build relationships in Central America, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Additionally, we’ve improved our internal metrics to evaluate the demographics of our submissions and juries.
We thank our submitters for answering demographic questions in our CFE. We encourage submitters to view demographic questions as opportunities to improve our understanding of the industry and to push representation forward. The individual demographic information of submitters is always kept private. The overall submissions statistics is shared to illuminate the progress we’ve made and points to the work that still remains to be done.
Accessibility has become one of our guiding principles. We are proud to say closed captions will be required of all submissions this year (except for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award category). Closed captions allow jurors with accessibility needs to be able to participate in the judging process and lend their crucial input to the documentary form. It also enhances comprehension for jurors who don’t speak English as a first language.
As a team, we are humbled and appreciative of the fact that the IDA Documentary Awards team is best positioned to celebrate the work of the global documentary ecosystem, within the organization. We take this responsibility seriously and listen to our submitters, jurors and colleagues to adapt with the field. Each change represents an effort to champion a more inclusive documentary culture and build systems to ensure continued commitment to our organizational values.
Kristal Sotomayor is a bilingual Latinx freelance journalist, documentary filmmaker, and festival programmer based in Philadelphia. They serve as the IDA’s Awards Competition Manager and Programming Director for the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival.
Eddie Hustleby is an artist programs coordinator and filmmaker who currently works in the Awards and Fiscal Sponsorship Department at the International Documentary Association.
“Hart to Heart” “Teen Mom: Family Reunion” “The D’Amelio Show” (Winner) “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip” “Queen of the Universe”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 17: In this image released on May 17, Chrishell Stause attends the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards: UNSCRIPTED in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
BEST REALITY STAR
Chris “CT” Tamburello – “The Challenge” Chrishell Stause – “Selling Sunset” (Winner) Lindsay Hubbard – “Summer House” Teresa Giudice – “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” Willow Pill – “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 14
BEST REALITY ROMANCE
Joe Amabile & Serena Pitt – “Bachelor in Paradise” Loren & Alexei Brovarnik – “Loren & Alexei: After the 90 Days” (Winner) Nany Gonzalez & Kaycee Clark – “The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies” Tom Sandoval & Ariana Madix – “Vanderpump Rules” Yandy & Mendeecees – “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta”
BEST TALK/TOPICAL SHOW
“The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” “The Drew Barrymore Show” “The Kelly Clarkson Show” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (Winner)
BEST HOST
Charlamagne Tha God – “Tha God’s Honest Truth” Gordon Ramsay – “MasterChef” Kelly Clarkson – “The Kelly Clarkson Show” (Winner) Rob Dyrdek – “Ridiculousness” RuPaul – “RuPaul’s Drag Race”
BREAKTHROUGH SOCIAL STAR
Bella Poarch – @bellapoarch on TikTok (Winner) Benito Skinner – @bennydrama7 on Instagram Caleb Hearon – @calebsaysthings on Twitter Khaby Lame – @khabylame on TikTok Megan Stalter – @megstalter on Instagram
Gottmik attends the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
BEST FIGHT
Bosco vs. Lady Camden – “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (Winner) Candiace Dillard Bassett vs. Mia Thornton – Salad toss fight, “The Real Housewives of Potomac” Christine Quinn vs. Chrishell Stause – “Selling Sunset” Danielle Olivera vs. Ciara Miller vs. Lindsay Hubbard – “Summer House” Margaret Josephs vs. Teresa Giudice – “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”
BEST REALITY RETURN
Bethenny Frankel – “The Big Shot with Bethenny” Kylie Sonique Love – “RuPaul’s All Stars Drag Race” Paris Hilton – “Cooking with Paris” & “Paris in Love” (Winner) Sher – “Ex on the Beach” Tami Roman – “The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles”
In his new documentary “A Sexplanation,” Alex Liu travels across the United States and Canada to unpack the failures of modern sex education and attempt to discover what proper sex-ed looks like. According to Liu, a freelance science reporter, making the film was the result of him reflecting on his own experiences and hang-ups about sex, particularly as a gay Asian man.
“I’ve lived many careers, and a lot of it has been around science, communication, health reporting, but ultimately what drove me to those fields was helping me understand who I was as a queer person. How do I understand my biology in a way that makes me happy, fulfilled, have a meaningful life? Because what I was being told by the culture at large was the opposite,” Liu said. “The first time I came out of the closet, I literally would’ve rather killed myself than do it, but it was a life-or-death thing. And now, 20 years later, saying ‘I’m gay,’ I don’t even think twice about it, it’s very natural to me. I thought coming out of the closet was the end of that process, but I think it was just the beginning when I look back. Ultimately there are a lot of things we all need to come out about if we want to be fully expressed, not just in terms of in the bedroom, but in the world.”
Liu spoke to Variety deputy editor Meredith Woerner for Variety’s “Doc Dreams” series, presented by National Geographic. When asked how the film changed his own perspective regarding sex education, Liu said it caused him to broaden his understanding of what purpose sex education serves, and who the audience for sex education is.
“Sex education can really start from birth to death,” Liu said. “It is not a one class, one-talk thing. Your body is always changing, your relationships are always changing, your understanding of the world is always changing. It’s something that you should be checking in with all the time.”
In the film, Liu visits a family sex education class, one that featured very young children. Although he admitted that he found sitting in on the class to be initially uncomfortable, Liu said the experience was revelatory for his own views on sex-ed.
“In the beginning, I was so tense and uncomfortable being there, but that was really my own problem,” Liu said. “These kids already were having tons of questions that they just kind of already understood that none of the adults in their lives were comfortable asking. So when they had the opportunity to, it was like rapid-fire questions. This is something we all think about very early, so we do ourselves and our culture and our society a disservice if we don’t answer these questions as early as possible.”
“A Sexplanation” originally aired on Fuse TV and is available for streaming on DirecTV.
Jennifer Lopez got emotional while being honored with the Generation Award at the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday.
“I look at those movies and I see all the wonderful people that I’ve been blessed to know and to work with. You’re only as good as the people that you work with,” Lopez said during her acceptance speech after a montage of clips from her films played. “And if you’re lucky, they make you better. And I have been very lucky in that regard. As an actor, I’m not any of the women that I’ve played, but there’s a part of what is deeply true to me in each one of those characters.”
She added: “And since you cannot create truth unless you’ve really lived it, I have a different kind of list of thank-yous tonight. I want to thank all the people who gave me this life. I want to thank the people who gave me joy. And the ones who broke my heart. The ones who were true and the ones who lied to me. I want to thank true love. And I want to thank the way that I lied to myself, because that’s how I knew that I had to grow. I want to thank disappointment and failure for teaching me to be strong and my children for teaching me to love. I want to thank all the people who told me to my face or when I wasn’t in the room that I couldn’t do this. I really don’t think I could have done it without you! And I know I couldn’t have done it without the fans.”
She then went on to thank her manager, Benny Medina, who she said was “the true meaning of ride or die.”
The Generation Award celebrates “beloved actors whose diverse contributions to both film and television have turned them into household names,” according to MTV. Past recipients include Scarlett Johansson, Dwayne Johnson, Chris Pratt, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Wahlberg, Sandra Bullock, Jamie Foxx, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Tom Cruise, Jim Carrey and the Fast & Furious franchise, among others.
Lopez has established herself in film, music, TV and business, with a cumulative worldwide box office gross of more than $3 billion and 75 million records sold. She was named to the TIME 100 list and Forbes’ Most Powerful Celebrity list and was the first to be on the cover of People Magazine for the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.
Most recently, she starred in Marry Me opposite Owen Wilson and Maluma, which set record-breaking viewership numbers on Peacock. Her next film, Halftime, a documentary about her career, will premiere on Netflix on June 14.
The MTV Movie & TV Awards were hosted by Vanessa Hudgens. Click here for a full list of winners. And check out the red carpet arrivals here.
Every film cannot be turned into a endless franchise. Some, like the Bond adventures, have managed to keep us gripped, largely because they have a totally different story to tell every time they come by. In the case of the Mohanlal starrer Malayalam film Drishyam, the second part seemed watered down and weak. Admittedly, the actor, who has managed to keep afloat his star status as well, was as brilliant in part two as he was in one. Both one and two were directed by Jeethu Joseph.
Now, Drishyam 2 has been remade into Telugu – as Drushyam 2 (helmed by Joseph, and now on Amazon Prime Video) — with Daggubati Venkatesh reprising the character that Mohanlal played. The star from Andhra Pradesh was also seen in the 2014 first edition, which was directed by Sripriya. At that point, a producer-writer friend of mine said that Venkatesh was really not as good as Mohanlal.
In fact, when the Tamil version of Drishyam 1 released – titled Papanasam, also helmed by Joseph – Kamal Haasan, who reprised Mohanlal’s part, fell a little short of the Malayalam hero, a humble cable operator whose ideas to fool cops came from the innumerable films he kept watching.
One might then ask why is it that Papanasam directed Joseph, who had done the Malayalam Drishyam, was not as good. I remember Joseph telling me that Kamal had wanted strong emotions built into his character. This robbed the core value off Papanasam, I felt.
Mind you, Georgekutty (Mohanlal) was a cunning guy, and knew how best to play his game of chess with the police. Mohanlal fitted this man to the T. Not quite Kamal. Similarly, Venkatesh in Drushyam 2 in Telugu comes nowhere close to the brilliance of Mohanlal in the Malayalam version of Drishyam 2.
Be that as it may, even Drishyam 2 in Malayalam, despite Mohanlal’s amazing performance (but of course) — as a cable operator who had graduated to being the owner of a cinema theatre, with a good house and a swanky car — was not as compelling as part one.
So, what is the story all about in Venkatesh’s Drushyam 2? Here Rambabu (Venkatesh) has started to drink, having made some money from his new business. This annoys his wife, Jyothi (Meena), but the man never falters when it comes to protecting his family with two daughters, Anju (Kruthika) and Anu (Esther Anil).
He nurses an ambition. He has a story and script ready, and is seeking to produce a movie. The plot has been published in the form of a book, and later, this will turn the tide in his favour. The old case of Varun’s (Inspector General’s son) disappearance, with his body never being found — although audiences would remember that it was buried under the newly constructed police station, a place that the men in khaki would never dream of looking – is still a subject of local gossip, Rambabu’s rising prosperity fuelling jealousy as well.
When a new police chief takes charge in Rambabu’s town, the case against him is reopened, and the cat-and-mouse game begins with Varun’s parents flying down from the US, where the retired police chief and her husband had migrated to.
Rambabu’s peaceful family life once again comes under scrutiny, with Anju having developed epilepsy following the traumatic police interrogation in part one of Drushyam. Her condition, pushed by new fear, worsens, but Rambabu had taken a pledge that, come what may, he would protect his folks.
Drushyam 2 narrates how he does this, but this part lacks the pulse-pounding excitement we saw in the first edition. There are a couple of situations that are somewhat hard to believe, and the courtroom scene is terribly dull and monotonous. The fire we saw earlier is missing. This is a clear sign that both Georgekutty and Rambabu have outlived their charisma. Yes, Mohanlal sparkles in both, not Venkatesh, who seems a little lost sans his melodramatic moments.
(Gautaman Bhaskaran is an author, commentator and movie critic)
It’s bound to come true when you wish for something hard enough and on magical stars.
Disney Studios released the first look trailer for the Disney+ upcoming live-action remake, Pinocchio, which holds a magical introduction and a peek at the Blue Fairy, portrayed by Cynthia Erivo. The woodcarver and clockmaker Gepetto (Tom Hanks) unknowingly invites her in by wishing upon a star.
While Jiminy Cricket’s version of “When You Wish Upon a Star” will always remain an iconic treasure, Erivo’s take of the classic Disney tune is spine-tingling and creates a melodic atmosphere that gives the visuals and characters more depth.
As the trailer streams, we get peeks of Jiminy Cricket voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Figaro the Kitten, the Coachman (Luke Evans), “Honest” John (Keegan-Michael Key), Senor Stromboli (Giuseppe Battiston) new character Sophia the Seagull (Lorraine Bracco), and Lampwick (Lewin Lloyd). If that is not enough, a key sequence from the 1940 Pinocchio is highlighted: Geppetto searching high and low for his wooden son while holding Cleo the Goldfish amidst a storm.
Finally, the Blue Fairy is fully revealed in her shimmering gown, granting Gepetto’s deepest wish with only a quick glimpse of Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth).
You can watch the trailer below:
Pinocchio is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who in the past directed Forrest Gump, The Polar Express, and Castaway, which Tom Hanks also headlined. The film is also an inspiration for the 1940 animated feature that grabbed Academy Award nominations and won for Best Original Song and Score.
Lastly, aside from being given this amazing trailer, Disney also released the premiere date for the film. Pinocchio will be available to stream on September 8th to kick off Disney+ Day. The premiere is also one day before the D23 Expo in Anaheim.
What did you think of the trailer? Let us know in the comments.
Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will begin streaming exclusively on Disney+ on June 22. The film’s jump to Disney+ is somewhat surprising, as it made its theatrical debut in the U.S. less than a month ago, on May 6.
In the film, the Marvel Cinematic Universe opens up the Multiverse and pushes its bounds further than ever before. Along the way, Doctor Strange crosses mind-bending and dangerous realms with the help of old and new mystical allies. But when it comes to the Multiverse, there are endless possibilities. And even some of your closest relationships can become, well, strange.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez,Michael Stühlbarg and Rachel McAdams.
Welcome to your end-of-week recap of what’s been added to Netflix in the United States and take a look at what’s been trending in the US top 10s over the past week.
Looking ahead, this is going to be an extremely busy week for Netflix. Not only are they announcing a boatload of new stuff via their Geeked Week offerings they’re also releasing titles like First Kill, Hustle, and Peaky Blinders.
Now let’s get into some highlights and the full list of all 62 new movies and shows added.
New on Netflix This Weekend and What You May Have Missed This Week
Straight Up (2019)
Genre: Comedy, Romance Director: James Sweeney Cast: James Sweeney, Omar Guazzelli, Brendan Scannell Writer: James Sweeney Runtime: 95 min Awards: 1 win & 2 nominations
Returning to Netflix this weekend is Straight Up, a movie with an impressive 93% on RottenTomatoes. The LGBTQ story is a romantic comedy about a gay man who has OCD entering a relationship with a woman only to not engage in the more intimate stuff.
The Departed (2006)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller Director: Martin Scorsese Writer: William Monahan, Alan Mak, Felix Chong Runtime: 151 min
One of the unannounced additions to Netflix US this week was the return of The Departed which features an all-star cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson.
The movie has recently dominated Netflix top 10s in the United Kingdom so it was surprising to see it wasn’t able to replicate that success in the United States so we’re giving it a nod here.
Winner of 4 Oscars, the Martin Scorsese flick (who has been in the news this week with regards to Netflix) is perhaps one of the director’s finest and a welcome re-addition.
Full List of New Releases on Netflix US (May 29th – June 5th)
Mighty Little Bheem: I Love Taj Mahal (2022) Netflix Original
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Mr Bean’s Holiday (2007)
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special (2022) Netflix Original
Plastic Island (2021)
Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Soul Plane (2004)
Steel Magnolias (1989)
Story of Dinda: Second Chance of Happiness (2021)
Straight Up (2019)
Takers (2010)
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
The Boy (2016)
The Departed (2006)
The DUFF (2015)
The Fighter (2010)
The Girl Next Door (2004)
The Hurt Locker (2008)
The Players Club (1998)
The Space Between Us (2017)
Titanic (1997)
Troy (2004)
Vegas Vacation (1997)
We Are Marshall (2006)
We Die Young (2019)
Yuri Marçal: Honest Mistake (2022) Netflix Original
14 New TV Series Added This Week
A Nation of Broth (Season 1)
All American (Season 4)
As the Crow Flies (Season 1) Netflix Original
Bashar Shorts (Season 1)
Borgen – Power & Glory (Season 1 – Power & Glory) Netflix Original
Change Days (Season 1 – New Episodes Weekly)
Floor Is Lava (Season 2) Netflix Original
LEGO Ninjago (Season 5)
Mr. Good: Cop or Crook? (Season 1) Netflix Original
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Season 1)
Surviving Summer (Season 1) Netflix Original
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Season 1)
The Perfect Mother (Season 1) Netflix Original
Two Summers (Season 1) Netflix Original
Most Popular Movies on Netflix US This Week
Our movie of the week from last week takes home the top spot narrowly beating out the Netflix Original Rebel Wilson movie Senior Year for top spot.
Perhaps most impressive is the performance of RRR which has been making the rounds on social media this week. The Indian-produced movie has been doing well across the globe and it performing well in the US is particularly impressive.
A number of the June 1st additions have also been performing well since their addition with The Amazing Spider-Man taking home the most points so far.
Disappearance at Clifton Hill (59 points)
Senior Year (57 points)
A Perfect Pairing (51 points)
The Amazing Spider-Man (38 points)
RRR (34 points)
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (31 points)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (31 points)
Top Gun (29 points)
Jackass 4.5 (28 points)
We Die Young (22 points)
Interceptor (20 points)
Ben Is Back (12 points)
Our Father (10 points)
Toscana (7 points)
Home (4 points)
Dumb and Dumber (1 points)
Most Popular Shows on Netflix US This Week
No surprise here. Stranger Things takes home all the points on offer this week. Elsewhere, we’ve seen kids’ titles do particularly well in the US TV top 10s this week with The Boss Baby and the recent addition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles all doing well.
Stranger Things (80 points)
The Lincoln Lawyer (67 points)
Ozark (56 points)
Wrong Side of the Tracks (48 points)
All American (45 points)
The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib (31 points)
CoComelon (21 points)
The Circle (20 points)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (20 points)
Love on the Spectrum U.S. (18 points)
The Perfect Mother (12 points)
Floor is Lava (8 points)
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman (6 points)
Who Killed Sara? (6 points)
Surviving Summer (2 points)
What have you been watching on Netflix this week? Let us know in the comments down below.
“Now it officially gets dark,” Bill Hader says of the opening sequence in “Barry” Season 3 Episode 7 – as if this season hasn’t already been dark enough. But as the HBO series’ third season nears its conclusion, the story is barreling towards levels of darkness and intensity it hasn’t hit before.
That’s all by design, Hader said in TheWrap’s latest episodic interview with the co-creator, who also directed these final two episodes of the season. Barry finds himself in the custody of the father of Ryan Madison, the man he was originally sent to Los Angeles to kill in the show’s first episode. And while the Chechens actually did the dirty work, Fuches (Stephen Root) has told Ryan Madison’s dad that Barry was responsible for his son’s death, and it culminates in an emotional confrontation at the end of the episode.
“It’s painful, it’s really emotional,” Hader said. “I feel it, and it also just hits home of what I’ve always wanted to do with the show, which is you take this premise of hitman becomes an actor, and how funny, and this will be very glib — the amount of people who heard that pitch and went, ‘Oh, I know what that’s going to be’ — and you go, ‘No, you play it real.’”
Of course, reality doesn’t quite extend to a dreamlike hallucination as Barry’s on death’s doorstep. In one of the series’ most striking directorial flourishes, Hader channels his inner David Lynch and imagines Barry happening upon a beach filled with every person he’s ever killed. And no, he doesn’t quite know what it means either.
“I don’t know what it is,” Hader said when asked if we’re witnessing purgatory or a dream. “The ocean had always been a thing within the show that was kind of about freedom, and the desert was always about this place where death happens. But then I thought, ‘Oh, it’d be interesting if you have it on the ocean, so what he thought was freedom was actually just purgatory or something.’”
Hader also revealed the original iteration of this sequence was even more Lynchian (and “creepy”), but in the editing phase they decided to pare the sequence down to the emotional crux of Chris not recognizing Barry.
And if you think Episode 7 is dark, just wait until next week’s season finale.
“I will say that the finale is incredibly intense,” Hader warned. “There’s not a lot of jokes in it. A couple of the actors have seen it and called me crying (laughs). Our colorist, very sweet guy, said, ‘It usually takes me a day to do one of these episodes.’ He said, ‘Episode 8 took me a couple of days, because I kept on having to take breaks.’ I showed all the episodes to the writers, and one of our writers in the middle of Episode 8 had a full-blown panic attack. So, I just want to warn people (laughs). Episode 8 is very intense, but I personally really love it, and I didn’t see another place the show could go.”
Read on for our full interview in which Hader also talks about Gene’s masterclass, Janice Moss’ father, that Fuches interrogation scene and taking Noho Hank in Bolivia.
The opening of this episode is unexpected in light of how last week’s installment ended, as we instead open on a church revealing Ryan’s dad. How did you hit upon that image?
I think everybody was waiting to come right back to where we left off, and I remember thinking, “Oh, this should start with Ryan’s dad.” The initial idea, again, is what we tend to do is we end up writing things much more didactic and much more on the nose, and then you start to peel back. The version that we had of this was Ryan’s dad was at a church, and Ryan’s mom basically believed that Ryan had been influenced by the devil in a way, so she had written him off, and then Ryan’s dad still very much loved his son and he has Fuches’ card with him, he keeps his card. So he’s looking at the card, and then we were going to match cut to the card being in Sharon’s house and all that stuff. I was like, “We already kind of did that in Episode 4, match cuts with the cards. It just becomes a thing of you rehearse it, you think about it, and then it’s really that you get to the set, you find the church and you’re at a tech scout and you’re looking at it. Then I go over to [cinematographer] Carl Herse and go, “What if everybody’s standing and we’re just pushing in, and then everybody sits down revealing him?” And that’s it. And Carl went, “Oh, that’s great, man.”
It’s really striking, because I was like, “Where are we, and who are we following?”
Yeah, “What’s about to happen?” It gives you a tension of is someone going to come through those doors? And instead it’s, “Oh, right. This guy.” I felt like it was very important for the audience to start with, “Remember this guy?” He’s coming back. The clock’s ticking with this guy.
Then we finally go back to Barry on the floor, and then the cut to the credits with no music, which I think again is a mission statement that “fun times with Barry” are over for this season.
Yeah, we’re done (laughs). We did the motorcycle chase. It was fun. We had Mitch, the beignet guy. Okay, now we’re done (laughs). Now it officially gets dark.
Well, there’s a tiny respite in this episode, and that is Gene’s masterclass with his line readings of famous quotes, which was incredibly funny. But even that, because of the way this episode starts I was bracing for something terrible to happen at the beginning.
It’s good to be on your toes the whole time. We did that all in one, and Henry did a great job. The cop from Serpico. “Serpie.”And I like the, “Hey, I’m acting here. Ratso Rizzo.” And I love the two kids in the acting class, the two students. “A ghost?” “Wrong.” “Embarrassed?” “She’s right.” (laughs)
And then Annie comes up and gives her direction and she’s great.
She’s amazing.
I love the scene in which Annie seems confident, but then confesses she has no idea what she’s doing, and doesn’t seem to know. Did that come a bit from experience when you started showrunning or directing?
You know what? That came from Laura [San Giacomo]. We were rehearsing, and she said, “I just feel like she doesn’t know what she’s doing, and she’s out of practice.” And I went, “Right.” She was like, “I’d be interested to see what that was like,” and as we were talking about it I realized, “Oh, yeah. She can’t be a prop for Gene to get his forgiveness.” Gene’s viewing it that way, as like, “Look, I gave you everything you want, so you can’t be mad at me anymore.” He’s still doing it for himself. You know what I mean?
HBO
He’s very happy about it and pleased with himself.
He’s very happy, and feeling great about himself, but he’s still doing it for himself. He doesn’t really care. So, it was important to show what is her little arc in the episode, which is, “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I can’t let him know it.” I like that idea. She was just saying, “I just would never want him to know that I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m so angry with him.” I just thought that was really interesting. So we came up with the idea of her and the script supervisor becoming pals. And then at the end, where the guy’s going, “You’re amazing,” and now her career is back on track, it’s not Gene that’s like, “Good job.” It’s the script supervisor.
Yeah Gene doesn’t care.
That’s what I mean, though. It’s like, just because he is doing it, he’s like, “I’ll give you all the money,” and everything like that, he still doesn’t really give a sh-t. He’s doing it so he can feel good about himself.
When we cut back to Barry he wakes up, walks outside and the ocean is encroaching on the road. It has this dreamlike quality to it as he enters – what do you call that? Purgatory? A dream?
Yeah, I don’t know what it is. The ocean had always been a thing within the show that was kind of about freedom, and the desert was always about this place where death happens. But then I thought, “Oh, it’d be interesting if you have it on the ocean, so what he thought was freedom was actually just purgatory or something.” I don’t know. But they’re all waiting to be either taken some place or denounced, or… I don’t really know what’s happening. But I will say that there were various versions of that sequence, and it was much longer, of Barry getting there. He notices everybody initially, and we introduce that he’s there with all the people that he’s killed, and he’s hanging out with them. Then it was a thing where you saw the clouds, and he’s looking at the clouds, and then you could see within the clouds a face, the way that you would see a face in the clouds. And then there would be heat lightning within the clouds, and when that would light up, it would really illuminate that there is this face looking down on him.
It was supposed to be very creepy. There was a shaking guy, there was this guy that we shot in fast motion. It was all very David Lynch. Then we started putting it together, and as we were putting it together, because it wasn’t animated or anything yet, the only part of the sequence that moved me was when he saw Chris, and Chris didn’t recognize him. And Barry does that little half-wave to him. That was the only moment that really moved me, and everything else was like, “Well, how do we get this to work,” you know?
Then I just said, “It doesn’t want to work. This isn’t leading with emotion, this is leading with a big idea. The emotion of the scene is about Chris, so let’s just make it about Chris.” Once we did that, it cut together incredibly quickly.
Where did that idea come from initially, this idea of going into his mind essentially and having him confront all the people that he’s killed?
I can’t remember. I wrote those last two episodes during the pandemic, and I remember writing it and just sending it to the writers and saying, “What do you think of this?” And everybody went, “Wow, okay.” I think because he had been poisoned, you just took it, “Well, he can’t just be staggering around all episode. Maybe go into his head,” and this fear of… or what is his version of where does he think he’s going to end up? Does this poisoning give him a chance to think about, “I’m doing all these things,” in his mind to better himself and to be a better person, while he might already be f–ked. It doesn’t matter what he does.
They’re all just waiting and looking at the sky.
Yeah, they’re just waiting for him. And he’s f–ked. So, it’s done. You giving the money to Cousineau, you getting back together with your war buddies, becoming an actor, all this stuff he’s trying to do to atone or make himself better. You’re done.
The sound that emanates felt very “2001” to me.
Yeah (laughs). That’s Matt, our sound mixer, who came up with that on the stage. He just started doing different sounds for that. “What do you think of this? What do you think of that?” “Well, that sounds great.”
Then Sally’s storyline, we meet her and she’s writing on the Medusa show, and it’s just kind of a rough room.
Yeah. That is very much a thing that I’ve heard from people who have these great younger writers’ rooms, but the only people they can get to lead them are people who have a lot of experience. So, someone who’s been on a big sitcom. That guy was on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” but I hope no one thinks that’s us bashing on “Everyone Loves Raymond.”
No, it’s just those guys have been around for awhile and get assigned to run these shows since they have so much experience.
Yeah, those guys are just around, and that’s a guy who was in the room of that show. All they do is look at a resume and go, “Wow, look at all this experience.” And they don’t see eye to eye with what Sally’s saying. But the idea in general is kind of insane. The guy doodling next to Sally in that scene is [“Barry” writer] Duffy Boudreau. That’s Duffy’s little cameo.
I’ve heard you talk so much about him over the years. That’s cool.
He’s my best friend. He and Liz Sarnoff are huge writers on the show, really crazy helpful. The three of us are doing season four right now. Liz had a cameo as the woman who says you have too many dogs, and Duffy is the guy who’s doodling next to Sarah.He was so nervous (laughs). He didn’t know I was going to put him right next to Sarah. He thought I was going to put him way in the background.Then when I put him right next to Sarah, he went, “I don’t know what to do.” And I said, “Just start doodling on this piece of paper.” He was good.
Then of course, Sally sees Natalie running her own show, and the way you shot it feels like a horror movie, almost Ari Aster-ish. And when she confronts her in the elevator it’s all in one shot.
That was supposed to be a lot of coverage, and then as we were setting it up in the elevator and I got in the elevator and I was watching the actors, I said, “Oh, Sarah, why don’t you get her in a corner and get in her face?” And then I heard Gavin Kleintop, the first AD, say to Carl Herse, the DP, he went, “This is going to be a oner.” (laughs) He watched it and he went, “Oh, man, this is going to be a oner.” And then I go, “Everybody, don’t get too excited,” because that meant, you know, we were going to get out of there early. Then I said, “Just hold on. Everybody relax.” And then as we started walking through it I went, “Okay, let’s do it.” And man, were they great. We only did three takes of it.
I think the most important line for me in that scene is her saying, “That’s not a story, that’s a math equation.” Because I’ve been pitched math equations before. But in my opinion math equations, that’s before algorithms. That’s always been around. I’m reading Sam Fuller’s book right now, and he’s talking about making movies in the 30s and what was hot. That’s what you do. “This is the formula.”
Then we cut to Hank, and Hank is in Bolivia. Again, we get a brief comedic respite where he gets shot in the neck. He’s so funny.
And he’s very polite about it (laughs). “That’s what I thought you were doing, but I didn’t want to be rude.”
It’s very funny, but then we cut to him in the cell, and the score in that scene is telling you this is not funny.
No, this is bad.
Where did Hank going to Bolivia come from?
Well, initially he was going to come to Bolivia at the end of Episode 6. When I was talking about how we came up with Beignets by Mitch was because we had Barry talking to his roommate, Sally was talking to Lindsay, and then Hank was talking to an old man at a park. That is true. But the initial thing before that, which I couldn’t say because I didn’t want to spoil this, was it was initially Hank at the airport not at a park. He was at the airport, and he was going to go to Santa Fe. He was going to get out of Dodge. Then he thought, “I can’t do this. I’ve got to get to Cristobal.” Then we had a joke where he said, “I need to go to Bolivia,” and the guy went, “That’s way on the other side of the terminal,” and he had to go walk this long distance to it. So, at the end of Episode 6 you went, “Oh wow, Hank’s going to Bolivia.”
It was one of those things where you think you need something, and then you get in the edit and you go, “We don’t need any…” This wasn’t even the edit. This was, you get to writing it and you go, “We really don’t need that.” You just cut to him in Bolivia, and he still has his Dodgers hat. He’s still dressed the same way as he was at Mitch’s. He literally just went straight to Bolivia (laughs). He didn’t change his clothes, and he’s wearing that stupid LA Dodgers hat. And we did what we called the “Silence of the Lambs” shot, which was him coming into frame and then booming up and losing him in the crowd. That is at Santee Alley in Los Angeles, and then VFX put in all the mountains and stuff.
He’s having this conversation with Akhmal, and it’s just not funny. It’s very scary.
I find that conversation very moving, where they’re there kind of because of him, you know? And we don’t see them, and they’re hurt and they’re trying to get out.
Then we have Fuches. He goes to Moss’s dad’s house and he drives him right to the police station, which is great.
(Laughs) I like that scene with them in the car. He says, “Wait, you got your interrogator to kill himself?” And then Jim Moss says, “Yeah, the other guys said I had an aptitude for it, but I just thought they were being nice.”
Then he says, “Was there a history of mental illness in there?” It’s similar to the parable scene where he’s stuck on this one thing and can’t want to move on.
He can’t really move past one thing. He’s not a very deep thinker (laughs). He just goes, “Wait, what?” And it just became a scene of two people just talking past each other.
Once you get Fuches to the police station, and then we follow Jim who talks to Gene. I really love the way you shot that scene with the high angle on Gene and low angle on Moss’s dad, you have that zoom-in on the sweat, and he just gets everything he needs to know without pressing, really.
Yeah, you’ve now established that he is an amazing interrogator, and that he can figure out things, and you just try to show it visually. That was a hard shot to get, that zoom-in on the sweat. You would think that would be simple, but it was a tough one to get, because just making the sweat so you could see it. Henry was very patient that day. He had to sit through a lot of takes, and we kept going, “We’re so sorry, Henry. You’re doing great. The sweat. We’re not seeing the sweat.”
When you introduced the idea of bringing Janice’s dad into the mix, how soon did you figure out how he was going to fit into the puzzle of this at the end of the season?
It was early on. But I knew it once we went through, “So, who’s Fuches going to go to?” He’s got to go to someone in Janice’s family. At one point it was going to be a sister, and then it was a brother, or there was a brother and a sister. We talked around and around, and then we landed on a father, because I like that, and how that also at least for this episode it parallels Ryan Madison’s dad, that idea of parents losing children. And to really get home these people have gone through trauma, and Barry’s trauma has now affected their trauma. And it doesn’t matter even if you’re the toughest guy on the planet. Making the dad formidable was really interesting to us.
Well, Sally’s rant goes online, and she puts on an apology, but I love her apology because it’s not an apology.
No, it’s damage control. You watch everybody apologize more to make themselves feel better rather than actually meaning it.
Right. And she and Natalie have had a really sweet arc this season, and now in hindsight I remember telling you how much I loved their arc, and knowing where it goes, it’s upsetting.
It’s funny when you were saying that to me, because I was like, “Well…” (laughs) Because if you watch Episode 5, when Sally’s show is being canceled, Natalie is behind them taking notes. She’s taking notes for what will become “Just Desserts,” her show.
I think what Sally says is correct. Her agent cares about her commission and her relationship with BanShe more than she cared about Sally.
It’s like both things are true. She does that, but then she’s also going, “Sally, what you did here totally negates what you were trying to do with your show.” Both things can be true. Her agent is being honest like, “You should have waited for me to get here, and I would have told you not to do this, because this is just embarrassing.” And then Sally fires back with another truth. “You don’t care about me, you just care about your commission.” I like that shot, because this idea of Sally backing into darkness. That was something that we worked on, and Sarah Goldberg did that, and that’s an incredibly tough thing to do. And that’s the first take. We said, “Let’s just try it, to see if we can do it. This is going to be tough, because you have to back up and everything.” And she did it perfect.
So, Barry in the car with Ryan’s dad, is a very unsettling conversation. And what you have to say about these parents who have lost children is the common thread here. What was it like putting that together?
That actor, Michael [Bofshever], did a great job. I just had to lay in the back and listen to him, and we did the third take. The first two takes were good, but I said, “Why don’t you do one where you just say it? Just say the words. Don’t give it anything, just say the words. We’ll see what happens.” And then he did it. Midway through he got really emotional. It was really great. And we said, “Cut,” and I said, “Hey, that was great.” And I was squeezing his arm from the backseat going, “That was great, Michael.” Then Gavin Kleintop, the first AD, stuck his head in the car and he went, “That was money.” (laughs)
But actually, the close up of me in the back seat, that is a pickup on stage. We shot that shot of me on stage. It literally was lay down, did that for one minute, and then got up and went to another stage and shot another scene. But they went, “Bill, we need to go to another stage,” whatever it was, “to shoot this real quick shot, this pickup.” So, that was that.
But initially I had pitched, which was a bad idea, that Ryan Madison’s dad shows up at Barry’s apartment and the roommates are having a party with the acting class. He shows up into the acting class, and a shooting happens, and some of the acting class ends up dead. The idea was that Barry’s community that he’s trying to get back together, his past comes back and destroys it.
The writers unanimously were like, “No. Let’s not do that.” I got defensive and, “No, I think it’ll work,” and then I remember driving home and calling Duffy Boudreau and him saying, “No, man, it needs to be about Ryan Madison and Barry. Ryan Madison’s dad and Barry. It doesn’t have anything to do with the class. It should be the two of them.” Then when I started talking about him saying, “When I had Ryan, I never thought I could hurt anything, but if anything happened to that child…” It went, boom, we got it. That’s it. And then it all came together very fast: He drives him to the hospital, he sits there, he doesn’t know what to do.
HBO
My first kid was born in September and it really gets you.
It’s painful, it’s really emotional. I feel it, and it also just hits home of what I’ve always wanted to do with the show, which is you take this premise of hitman becomes an actor, and how funny, and this will be very glib.” The amount of people who heard that pitch and went, “Oh, I know what that’s going to be,” and you go, “No, you play it real.”
The funny thing is, you think of Ryan Madison, Ryan Madison is just a dope. He’s just this dumb, good-looking actor guy, but that guy had someone out there who loved him and cherished him, and he was the most important person in the world to his dad. I think Duffy and I, as we talked it through were like, “That’s what it is.” To show that guy meant something. Again, the party idea was me leading with an idea, leading with a big idea of “Oh, my gosh, how awful would that be?” And everybody going, “I feel like that has nothing to do with what we’re saying, though.” They were right. So, I went back and then I was like, “Well, what if it’s this…” And then when it became an emotional thing that I could relate to, we got it. Then it just becomes, “There’s no other choice. It’s got to be this.”
I love that dissolve into Fuches in the interrogation room.
That’s a straight lift from “The Godfather,” man (laughs). That is a straight lift from The Godfather, those long cross-dissolves.
Yeah, and Fuches is the manager of this pain, essentially. He tapped into this. And I love that interrogation scene where he opens up and he’s almost bragging about what he was able to do with Barry.
What he’s good at is manipulating people. That was very early on when we brought Albert in and said, “Oh, what if Albert comes back, and then somehow Fuches tells Albert that Barry killed Chris?” So, Albert’s going to go after Barry. That was very early on. That was the whole pitch on bringing Albert back.
Then I just think Stephen Root, again, he’s one of my favorite actors. He’s so amazing in that scene, and that was, again, one where I had the over on him, which were in for a second, just wider with the Coke and the chips in the foreground and him. Then we did one take of that and I went, “Man, Stephen is hot. He doing good.” Not that Stephen isn’t normally good, but he had a real read on how to do this scene, and I was really digging it. We did it once and I went, “All right, go into the closeup. We should do the closeup now,” you know?
And we went in a closeup, and Gavin was even ahead of me. He went, “Dude, I think…,” and I was like, “Go in a closeup?” He’s like, “Yeah, man, holy sh-t. He’s on fire right now.” And then he did it just what you see. When we had finished his take we all applauded, and that was it. He went, “Really?” and it was like, “Yeah, man, that was it. That was amazing.” And we kept the whole thing in. I just went to Frankie [Guttman] the editor and said, “That take, just leave the whole thing in. I just love it.”
Then it sets up a very fun finale, which I’m sure will be hilarious.
The finale is very intense. I will say that the finale is incredibly intense. There’s not a lot of jokes in it. A couple of the actors have seen it and called me crying (laughs). Our colorist, very sweet guy, said, “It usually takes me a day to do one of these episodes.” He said, “Episode 8 took me a couple of days, because I kept on having to take breaks.” I showed all the episodes to the writers, and one of our writers in the middle of Episode 8 had a full-blown panic attack. So, I just want to warn people (laughs). Episode 8 is very intense, but I personally really love it, and I didn’t see another place the show could go. But there’s very little laughs. It’s very intense.
Chris Evans, Sophia Di Martino, Olivia Rodrigo, Sydney Sweeney Photo: Rich Polk (Getty Images)
The 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards were held in Santa Monica, California at the Barker Hangar, and some of the biggest names in Hollywood turned out for the fan-voted event made for movie lovers and TV aficionados. After being cancelled in 2020 due to COVID, the ceremony returned last year and was hosted by Leslie Jones. This year’s ceremony was hosted by Vanessa Hudgens.
Taking home one of the biggest awards of the night—Best Movie—was, of course, box office behemoth Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film made over $1 billion at the theater and was undoubtedly the biggest movie of the year.
If you didn’t get a chance to tune into the MTV Movie & TV Awards, though, never fear because The A.V. Club has compiled a quick roundup list of some of the evening’s biggest moments.
The Okanagan Nation Alliance is taking the next step in raising awareness of suicide and violence in the community with their 14th Unity Run.
The 288-kilometre run started on Friday at the Kamloops Indian Residential School and ends at the Syilx Indian Residential School monument on the Penticton Indian Band reserve.
“We did a ceremony first to let the spirits of those kids know what we’re doing (to) bring their spirits home,” said Louis.
Another goal for the Unity Run is to inform people about issues impacting people in the community. Westbank First Nation council member, Andrea Alexander says she hopes this will inspire people to take action.
“We raise awareness for suicide and violence. As a residential school survivor, I think it’s just awesome to be a part of this. My mother went to residential school, so I’m an intergenerational survivor. I think it’s just great to raise awareness for these sort of initiatives.”
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Jennifer Lewis, a wellness manager with the Okanagan Nation Alliance says the run was originally started by young people and they’ve carried on the tradition over the past 14 years. Lewis says this gives them a chance to connect with themselves and the nature around them.
“As our young people run, they put footprints on their territory and when they do that they breathe the air and see everything around them. They really get into a relationship with their land, so for sure it brings them closer to their land,” said Lewis.
Throughout their three-day journey, each runner carried an eagle feather with them, which Louis says serves as a connection to the creator.
“That eagle feather represents our spirituality and so when they carry that eagle feather, that eagle feather hears their prayers while they’re running,” added Louis.
The alliance is looking forward to the 15th annual run next year while continuing to spread awareness in the community.
MTV is creating an award for Bethenny Frankel at the MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted, and she was on the red carpet talking with “Extra’s” Rachel Lindsay about receiving the Reality Royalty Award before the big night!
“It’s making me reflect,” she said of the honor, “on this nontraditional journey. I just wrote a book, ‘Business Is Personal,’ that is literally the example of what this award is — being honest, your nontraditional path, do it your own way — and MTV has done it their own way, they are untraditional. I like that they’re honoring me because they get it.”
Rachel asked, “When you started this unconventional journey, did you ever think that you would be doing all the things that you’re doing now? I’m talking off-camera, I’m talking to the philanthropy, the business, all of that?”
“I really didn’t. I overshot the mark,” Bethenny said, “but a good career is one step at a time. It’s trusting the process and making good decisions.”
“Is that the business advice that you would give?” Rachel continued.
“As I’ve been talking about this book, I’m really living and thinking about this journey… It’s been making good decisions, long-term decisions versus just taking the smash-and-grab money or the low-hanging fruit.”
Rachel said, “I come from reality TV, and I think that a lot of people have a misconception about reality TV and the people that are on it. What would you say is the biggest misconception?”
“Reality TV has changed a lot since I started,” Bethenny said. “I mean, we were not wearing makeup and I was in a sweater out of my drawer, like, so it’s changed. I don’t know it as well as I did then, but if you can find a few people who are willing to be truthful and authentic, which is not as easy as it was befor,e then those are the horses to bet on.”
Her advice for other reality stars who want to surpass reality television and redefine themselves, Bethenny said they should, “Play chess and not checkers.”
Frankel got her start on “The Real Housewives of New York City,” but she is not watching the series. Why? “I don’t watch, but that’s just because I am so busy… not that I don’t wish them the best, which I do.”
As for Bravo bringing back some of the original “RHONY” Housewives for a new series, Bethenny told “Extra, ” “Bring them all back… They can be economical about it, because anybody who’s left is dying to come back.”
The MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted airs tonight, Sunday, on MTV at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Sheryl Sandberg, who has been chief operating officer at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has announced that she will be stepping down from the role after 14 years.
“When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years,” Sandberg wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. “Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life. I am not entirely sure what the future will bring – I have learned no one ever is. But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women.”
Sandberg will work with Mark Zuckerberg to transition out of the role, and she will officially step down this fall. She will continue to serve on Meta’s board of directors.
Sandberg was fundamental in helping Zuckerberg turn Facebook into the global tech phenomenon that it is today. When she joined Zuckerberg’s team in 2008, she helped convert the platform into an advertising juggernaut and one of the most powerful companies in the tech industry. Now, Meta owns numerous social media platforms and is a leader in the tech industry.
“I am beyond grateful to the thousands of brilliant, dedicated people at Meta with whom I have had the privilege of working over the last 14 years,” Sandberg wrote. “Every day someone does something that stops me in my tracks and reminds me how lucky I am to be surrounded by such remarkable colleagues. This team is filled with exceptionally talented people who have poured their hearts and minds into building products that have had a profound impact on the world.”
Javier Olivan, who currently works as the company’s chief growth officer, will become Meta’s next COO, Zuckerberg announced in a Facebook post of his own. According to Zuckerberg, Olivan will take on a more “traditional” COO role, focusing on helping the company internally and in its business operations.
Zuckerberg explained this change, writing, “Looking forward, I don’t plan to replace Sheryl’s role in our existing structure. I’m not sure that would be possible since she’s a superstar who defined the COO role in her own unique way. But even if it were possible, I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products.”
Queen Elizabeth II shared marmalade sandwiches with the bear as part of a video introducing her Platinum Jubilee.
“Paddington 3” is gearing up to begin production later this year, but this weekend, fans got to see their favorite Peruvian bear sharing the screen with an unexpected co-star: Queen Elizabeth II. Her Royal Highness is currently celebrating her seventh decade on the throne in England, and Saturday’s festivities included a massive concert featuring the likes of Elton John, Diana Ross, Queen with Adam Lambert, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys, and Hans Zimmer.
The star-studded concert was preceded by a pre-taped video featuring Queen Elizabeth II having tea with Paddington, the beloved protagonist of two eponymous films from Studiocanal. The short film saw the bear (with Ben Whishaw reprising his role from the films) offer the Queen a marmalade sandwich, before she revealed that she always keeps one in her purse. The video ends with Paddington wishing the Queen a happy Jubilee, and thanking her for her service to the nation.
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“Her Majesty is well known for her sense of humour, so it should be no surprise that she decided to take part in tonight’s sketch,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement. “There was an interest in the filming and animation process and the opportunity to invite a famous bear to tea was just too much fun to miss. While The Queen may not be attending the concert in person, she was very keen that people understood how much it meant to her and that all those watching had a great time.”
Studiocanal, the company behind the “Paddington” films, was equally excited about the opportunity.
“It is a great honour and genuine privilege for all of us at Studiocanal and Copyrights to have been able to create this special moment,” said CEO Anna Marsh. “A fitting tribute To Her Majesty The Queen as the UK celebrates The Platinum Jubilee weekend. Filming with Her Majesty and Paddington Bear at The Palace is a memory we will all cherish; Her Majesty’s warmth and generosity was a joy to behold. And who better to thank Her Majesty than Paddington, over a pot of tea, a marmalade sandwich, and with a touch of chaos. Aunt Lucy would be proud.”
Lionsgate is starting its engines for The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, the highly anticipated Hunger Games prequel coming November 17, 2023.
Though first released at CinemaCon more than a month ago, the studio has formally released the teaser on YouTube to stoke the flames of fans worldwide.
Collins’ Songbirds and Snakes, the prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy published in 2020, finds 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow as the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy’s race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird, and who is a snake.
Lionsgate said during CinemaCon 2022 that it has set a November 17, 2023 release for the prequel, the same pre-Thanksgiving corridor where Hunger Games sequels Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part One and Mockingjay Part Two opened. The sequels were directed by Francis Lawrence, who returns to helm the new pic. The latest draft of the screenplay is by Michael Lesslie (Macbeth, Assassin’s Creed).
Mother India, directed by Mehboob Khan, is one of the biggest films in the Hindi film industry.
Sunil Dutt Birth Anniversary: Along with having a successful run in the film industry, he also had a successful tenure in politics
SUNIL DUTT BIRTH ANNIVERSARY: One of the most complete artists belonging to the Indian film industry was the late Sunil Dutt. Originally named Balraj Dutt, he became a powerhouse actor, director and producer. He was born in Khurd village, Jhelum, British India (now in Pakistan) on June 6, 1929. During his career in the film industry, he gave his heart and soul to the craft.
Some of the most memorable films of Sunil Dutt are:
Mother India (1957) The legendary film, directed by Mehboob Khan, is one of the biggest films in the Hindi film industry. In this melodrama, a poverty-stricken woman raises her sons against all odds, facing all the hardships in life, including death, hunger, and natural calamities. She was guided by her strong principles and followed them at all costs. The film starred Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar Tuli and Raaj Kumar.
Mera Saaya (1966) Directed by Raj Khosla, the film is a courtroom drama where after a lawyer’s wife dies in his arms, another woman who has an identical appearance claims to be the wife of the lawyer in order to seek protection from an accusation of aiding a gang of bandits. Actors Sunil Dutt, Sadhana Shivdasani, Jagdish Sethi, K.N. Singh played pivotal parts in the film.
Kurbaan (1991) This Deepak Bahry directorial talks about family dynamics relevant to those times. Maan Singh and Prithvi Singh’s families are in front of each other in court over a dispute. Upon the court’s verdict in favour of Prithvi, Maan seeks revenge and hires a bandit named Panna Singh to kill Prithvi and his entire family. The film starred Sunil Dutt, Kabir Bedi, Salman Khan, Ayesha Jhulka
Padosan (1968) Directed by Jyoti Swaroop, the film is about a simple man belonging to a village. He falls in love with his new neighbor and tries to woo her with his friends from the music and theatre background. Sunil Dutt, Saira Banu, Mehmood, Kishore Kumar and others were the stars of the film.
Waqt (1965) The plot revolves around the members of a family who get separated after a natural disaster. After several years, they cross paths in circumstances in a completely different scenario. The film starred actors Sunil Dutt, Sadhana Shivdasani, Raaj Kumar and Shashi Kapoor.
Sunil Dutt married actress Nargis in 1958, just after their blockbuster hit film Mother India, in which they played mother and son. Along with having a successful run in the film industry, he also had a successful tenure in politics as the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports of India.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made the trip with three-year-old Archie and one-year-old Lilibet in order to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’sPlatinum Jubilee, which marks her 70th year on the throne. The other goal was to introduce the Queen to her great-granddaughter for the first time.
However, if spectators expected to see a lot of Meghan and Harry during the four-day-long festivities, they were likely disappointed. The pair were only briefly spotted behind the scenes at the Trooping the Colour on June 2, as well as attending the National Service of Thanksgiving.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were not seen interacting with Prince William and Kate Middleton during the Platinum Jubilee festivities.
Getty
According to People, the royal brothers had not “crossed paths” publically during the first few days of the Platinum Jubilee, and it appears that trend has continued through the final day.
Though the Cambridge family returned to London for the evening’s Platinum Party concert at Buckingham Palace, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reportedly skipped the event in favor of celebrating their daughter’s birthday.
This brings us to the final event of the Platinum Jubilee. According to People, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry did not attend the pageant parade on June 5, though the event did feature a surprise attendee. Queen Elizabeth pulled out of many of the weekend’s festivities after experiencing “discomfort” at the Trooping the Colour, but decided to make an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the national anthem, “God Save the Queen.”
I love TV. I love all kinds of TV. I haven’t cut any cords, I subscribe to all of the streamers. I have NBA League Pass. I am in two different fantasy leagues pertaining to MTV’s The Challenge. I also have a 3-month-old, so lately there’s a lot of time to kill while feeding the baby in the wee hours of the night. I am a consumer who loves content. And as a creator, I also relish the opportunities to be had in longform storytelling, be it in a limited or ongoing series.
Having said that, as a creator, it’s terrifying. In a landscape so rich with content, I’ve had to ask myself: Is there an opportunity to break through? I hope so. I think so.
I say this acknowledging that I’m part of the “oversaturation problem.” I’m an executive producer of two and a co-showrunner of one of the true-crime shows to debut amidst the trend of this genre lately. It wasn’t planned that way. The Dropout, about fraudulent techpreneur Elizabeth Holmes, was supposed to shoot in 2020, and then the pandemic happened. And so somehow it and The Girl From Plainville, which centers on the “texting suicide case,” premiered within a few weeks of each other, at the same time as a swath of other shows that fall under the same genre.
I think dismissing any of these shows as simply “true crime” is ignoring the intricacies and differences that make them special. It’s a challenge to work in a genre that has somewhat set rules. There could be expectations from an audience of what this kind of series will deliver. But within those expectations, I found a surprising pocket of freedom. Because there’s no way to satisfy everyone. There’s no way to deliver the perfect telling of a story to every individual.
With Plainville, we consciously embraced these differences. We loved the challenge of telling a story about a very internal character and unraveling how we could tell it in a way that challenged us as writers. Our room leaned into “out there” ideas. We called it “crazy idea hour,” where no idea was a bad idea. No idea had to be fully baked. And that is how some of the most special moments of Plainville came to be. [Protagonist] Michelle Carter’s fantasies became an opportunity for us to express her interior monologue that was elusive in the straightforward storytelling we lived in for the majority of the show. Without this weekly hour, we wouldn’t have gotten a choir taunting Michelle with a rendition of “Teenage Dirtbag” or the majority of the finale.
With Plainville, we were confronted with the challenge of depicting text messages onscreen in a medium that has been playing with different ways to do this for decades. And a lot of those ways are great, but here we had the added challenge of two characters who had only met three times in person in real life, who constantly texted the most intimate details of their lives together, and who were the emotional and dramatic crux of the show.
My co-showrunner, Patrick Macmanus, pitched early on the idea of depicting these texts as in-person conversations. And we then spent a year deciding how that looked: Are they in a dark void of technology? Are they at the same location every time? How are they dressed? Ultimately, we decided that the perspective of whomever started the conversation brought their scene partner into their space. With this, and with the presentation of the real texts, it offered both a solution to our texting onscreen problem, but also a deeper question as to how texts are intended, read and interpreted and the miscommunication that happens at every point.
It’s the fear of inundating audiences with the familiar that I think pushes all of us to find a way to be different, to challenge ourselves to look for a new way in. I love tuning in to watch how my colleagues have tackled this challenge and am more than a little jealous when I see a brilliant answer to this dilemma that I would have never come up with. And because of that, it pushes me to go further. To think more outside of the box. To stretch my crazy idea hour into a week.
I love TV. And now that my kid finally passed out, I’m going to go catch up on it.
This story first appeared in the June 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Every year, the CBS television network airs new and continuing TV series. Many are cancelled and many are renewed by the season’s end. Although everyone understands that Nielsen ratings usually play a big role in TV cancellations and renewals, most fans do not get to participate in that system. So, we are offering you the chance to rate CBS TV shows here, instead.
CBS TV series that have aired (so far) during the 2021-22 television season: The Amazing Race, Beyond the Edge, Big Brother: Celebrity Edition, Blue Bloods, Bob ♥ Abishola, Bull, CSI: Vegas, FBI, FBI: International, FBI: Most Wanted, Ghosts, Good Sam, Magnum PI, NCIS, NCIS: Hawai’i,The Neighborhood, Survivor, SWAT, Tough As Nails, Undercover Boss, United States of Al, and Young Sheldon.
Here’s a ranking of how the CBS TV shows from the 2021-22 season (roughly September 2021 through August 2022) stack up with our readers. Rate the TV series you watch via the “Vote Now” links, below. (You can see how all of the 2021-22 network shows rank here.)
What do you think? Which CBS TV series do you rate as wonderful, terrible, or somewhere between? If it were left up to you, which CBS TV shows would be cancelled or renewed for another season? Don’t forget to vote, and please feel free to share your thoughts, below.
Awkwafina introduced the comedian before debuting a sizzle reel of Black’s greatest moments on screen. “He’sactuallysomuchmorethantheguythatmakesuslaughtillwecry,” said Awkwafina. “He’salsoagiantgamer, a facialhairaficionado,aGrammywinner andtheonlypersonwhoseInstagramactuallymakesyoufeelbetteraboutyourself,becausehe’soneofthenicestguysontheplanet.”
Black then appeared onstage donning a panda hat that immediately fell off during his somersaults around the platform, with the crowd going wild.
He joked, “Comedic genius? C’mon, are you kidding? For what?” He then listed his credits that include School of Rock, Kung Fu Panda, Nacho Libre, Goosebumps and Jumanji. “My sweet dance moves on TikTok? What are we talking about? It’s ridiculous! I don’t deserve this, but I will take it! Thank you MTV! This is for all the School of Rock-ers out there and for all the Tenacious disciples and most of all my amazing wife Tanya and our two incredible boys. I love you, I love you, I love you.”
Black is the fifth recipient of the award that honors actors who have made significant contributions to the comedic world. Sacha Baron Cohen received the award in 2021, while Melissa McCarthy (2016), Kevin Hart (2015) and Will Ferrell (2013) also received the award.
Black is also a musician and part of the folk-rock comedy group Tenacious D, which he formed with his frequent collaborator Kyle Gass. Additionally, Black’s YouTube channel, Jablinksi Games, launched in 2018 and has since scored 5 million subscribers.
In 2018, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He will next star in Lionsgate’s Borderlands, based on the popular video game.
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