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  • Hating Zach Braff and Florence Pugh’s Relationship Is Sexist

    Hating Zach Braff and Florence Pugh’s Relationship Is Sexist

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    Florence Pugh has recently been the subject of much media buzz thanks to the age gap between her and her partner, Zach Braff.

    Pugh, who is 24-years-old, has been dating Scrubs star Zach Braff, who just turned 45, for nearly four years. As Pugh’s star has risen thanks to hit films like Little Women and Midsommar, media and fans alike have begun to question Braff and Pugh’s age gap. Finally, tired of all the abuse, Pugh posted the following video to her Instagram account on April 9th. Watch the video here.

    In the video, she firmly warns fans against commenting about her relationship on her posts. “I will not allow that behaviour on my page. I’m not about that. It makes me upset and sad that during this time when we really all need to be together and supporting and loving one another… a few of you decided to bully for no reason,” the star said candidly. She goes on to say that she has been working and earning money since the age of 17 and paying taxes from the age of 18 and can make her own decisions when it comes to relationships.

    “I’ll underline this fact,’ Pugh said. “I do not need you to tell me who I should and should not love and I would never in my life who they can and cannot love. It is not your place and really it has nothing to do with you. I don’t want this on my page, it’s embarrassing, it’s sad and I don’t know when cyberbullying became trendy or a points system. I don’t know why it’s a cool thing.”

    More recently, in an interview for Elle UK, the actress spoke out about the online abuse again, saying “I know that part of being in the spotlight is that people might invade your privacy and have opinions on it, but it’s bizarre that normal folk are allowed to display such hate and opinions on a part of my life that I’m not putting out there,” she said. “It’s a strange side of fame that you’re allowed to be torn apart by thousands of people even though you didn’t put that piece of you out there.” She went on to say, “I don’t want to talk about it because it’s not something I want to highlight, but my point to all this is that isn’t it odd that a stranger can totally tear apart someone’s relationship and it’s allowed?”

    While Pugh’s rebuff of cyberbullies was inspiring, the question still remains: Why do people have such an issue with Pugh and Braff’s relationship? Older male celebrities dating younger women is a tale as old as time. Think of Leonardo DiCaprio, known for dating women as much 20 years his junior, or Dennis Quaid (65) and girlfriend Laura Savoie (26). These couples don’t receive the kind of abuse Braff and Pugh have weathered, so what sets them apart? Perhaps the answer lies with Pugh’s fame. She is unquestionably the bigger star in the couple, so maybe fans’ image of who a beautiful young star should date isn’t compatible with Braff, who is cute in a non-threatening way and in no way the traditional Hollywood heart throb.

    But then why don’t people have issues with Leonardo Dicaprio dating little-known models and actresses? Well, sexism, of course. We expect a big star like Leo to date young beautiful women, and we have no issue with the age gap because we don’t feel like we know the women in the relationship; they’re just unknown, beautiful faces. Not only that, but we expect famous women to date men who are even more famous than them, in order to increase their own star power. Meanwhile, famous men can exist in their own orbit of stardom and date who they choose.

    We expect young female starlets like Pugh to date hunky heartthrobs while she’s in her prime, before she ages out of the narrow window in which women are valued in Hollywood. It makes us uncomfortable that Pugh is dating an older man who is not a massive star and not sexy in a traditional way, because it doesn’t fit with the narrative we’ve come to expect from the people we choose to bestow fame upon.

    Our response to Pugh’s relationship also reflects the way society views a woman’s personal autonomy. When Ashton Kutcher was dating much older Demi Moore, no one questioned his decision-making. But people seem to think that Pugh needs to be warned against making a mistake in dating Braff, that she isn’t capable of making her own relationship choices. Why? You guessed it: sexism. Culturally, we don’t trust women to make decisions in the same way we trust men. Not only that, but in the case of Leo and his semi-anonymous young lovers, in our eyes, the women in the relationship don’t possess the kind of personal autonomy Pugh does; we don’t know them, they’re just pieces of eye candy. Pugh, on the other hand, has become a human being in our eyes, something that isn’t automatic when we perceive women the way it is for men. But that doesn’t mean she’s free from the unfair expectations we place on all women, famous or not.

    On some level, we feel that Florence Pugh owes us a sexy, tumultuous relationship with some hot young Hollywood star. We feel that since we have decided to make her famous, to watch her movies and invest in her personal life, it is her duty to entertain us. Having a stable relationship with a 45-year-old nice-guy who doesn’t have a six pack and is known for a funny sitcom—not hit action movies—isn’t entertaining. That isn’t what we want to read about in the tabloids.

    So, summarily, while you may think that it’s anti-feminist that Pugh is dating a much older man, and you may think that commenting on her relationship is in some way proving your devotion to her, you couldn’t be more wrong. If you have a problem with Pugh dating Braff, you’re essentially saying that she can’t be trusted to make her own choices, and you’re making her relationship about you and your own prejudice, not her and her happiness.

    Just let Florence Pugh and Zach Braff be happy, okay?

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    Brooke Ivey Johnson

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  • Britney Spears endures ‘Ups and Downs’ after conservatorship, but still a survivor

    Britney Spears endures ‘Ups and Downs’ after conservatorship, but still a survivor

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    Britney Spears, one of the biggest pop stars of our time, has had a tumultuous journey post-conservatorship. In November 2021, her 13-year-long conservatorship was finally terminated by a California judge, and since then, Spears has been attempting to adjust to her newfound freedom.

    In the year and a half since the conservatorship ended, the pop star has experienced both victories and setbacks. One of her biggest wins was her Elton John collaboration, “Hold Me Closer,” which went No. 1. Spears also landed a $15 million book deal, showing that she still has plenty of commercial appeal.

    However, the road to freedom hasn’t been easy for Spears. She has faced rumors of struggles in her marriage, and those close to her have expressed concern about her well-being. In February, Spears’ inner circle had to cancel a planned intervention for her after she began acting erratically. “She is often up all night, sleeps during [the] day and has a lot of anger,” a source told PEOPLE at the time.

    Another insider in Spears’ circle told PEOPLE that things behind the scenes had been “very difficult” and “chaotic” as those close to her encouraged her to get help. “Everyone had hoped Britney could be convinced to seek treatment before things got any worse, but they knew it wouldn’t be easy,” the insider said. “She’s been going through a lot and has been increasingly combative.”

    Despite these challenges, a source close to Spears says that she is still a survivor. “She had been under lock and key for 13 years. Have there been ups and downs? Yes,” the source tells PEOPLE exclusively. “But some of the amazing things she’s done recently have all been her choice. She is a survivor. Despite whatever ups and downs she’s going through, she remains a survivor.”

    In recent months, Spears has been using social media to voice her frustrations and air grievances with family members, including her dad Jamie Spears. She has accused him of forcing her to work and spend time in a mental health facility, claims that her family has long denied. Spears has also been open about her struggles with her mental health.

    In a post on Instagram in August 2021, Spears spoke candidly about her mental health issues, revealing that she was struggling with anxiety and depression. “I haven’t spoken about it because I was ashamed to share what happened to me,” she wrote. “But honestly, who doesn’t want to capture their Instagram in a fun light?”

    In the same post, Spears also addressed her conservatorship and said that she felt “embarrassed” by it. “I didn’t want people to think that I was lying or that I wasn’t genuine,” she wrote. “I’m sorry for pretending like I’ve been okay the past two years…I did it because of my pride and I was embarrassed to share what happened to me.”

    Since then, Spears has continued to speak out about her experience with the conservatorship, and she has been using her platform to advocate for changes to the legal system. In a post on Instagram in November 2021, she thanked her fans for their support and said that she was “grateful and blessed” to have them in her life.

    “What’s next for Britney is up to one person — and this is the first time we can say this in a decade — it’s up to Britney,” Spears’ lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, stated after the conservatorship was terminated.

    Despite the challenges she has faced, Spears remains determined to move forward with her life. In a since-deleted Instagram post from December 2021, she wrote, “I’ve been looking forward to this day for the past 13 years 

    ALSO READ: Britney Spears SLAMS report on caffeine addiction: I may be a loser but I do what makes me feel most alive

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  • Michael J. Fox says he’s suffered numerous injuries as a result of his Parkinson’s

    Michael J. Fox says he’s suffered numerous injuries as a result of his Parkinson’s

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    Michael J. Fox has suffered from a number of injuries as a result of his Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 1991 at age 29, the actor revealed in an interview with Variety this week.

    The 61-year-old “Back to the Future” star opened up about his battle with the disease, explaining the injuries he has gotten from losing his balance. 

    The neurological disorder causes unintended stiffness, shakiness and difficulty with coordination, and worsens over time, according to the National Institutes of Health.

    “I broke this shoulder — had it replaced. I broke this elbow. I broke this hand. I had an infection that almost cost me this finger. I broke my face. I broke this humerus,” Fox told Variety.

    Fox said it has been difficult to manage his illness over the years, during which he has suffered through other personal losses and mental health struggles, in addition to already managing his Parkinson’s symptoms. 

    “I have aides around me quite a bit of the time in case I fall, and that lack of privacy is hard to deal with,” he said in the interview. “I lost family members, I lost my dog, I lost freedom, I lost health. I hesitate to use the term ‘depression,’ because I’m not qualified to diagnose myself, but all the signs were there.”

    While it hasn’t been easy, the “Family Ties” star said he has found comfort in the support of his family, who have been helping him to get through his health issues.

    “I just enjoy the little math problems of existence,” the actor said. “I love waking up and figuring that stuff out and at the same time being with my family.”

    And, he’s come to a point where he accepts the impacts the debilitating disease may have on his body.

    “My problem is I fall down. I trip over things and fall down and break things. And that’s part of having this,” Fox said. “But I hope that, and I feel that, I won’t break as many bones tomorrow. So that’s being optimistic.”

    Since going public about his illness in 1998, Fox has worked hard to raise money for Parkinson’s, a disease he learned was underfunded for research and treatment development. The nonprofit Michael J. Fox Foundation, which was founded in 2000, has raised more than $1.5 billion for Parkinson’s research, according to its website.

    Parkinson’s disease affects about 500,000 Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health, but some experts estimate that as many as one million Americans may have the disease, as it often goes undiagnosed.

    Fox retired from acting in 2020 due to struggles with learning lines and acting as a result of the disease, but he is soon appearing in a new documentary about his life, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” which details his successful career, his journey with sobriety, his battle with Parkinson’s, and his determined spirit to continue living on his own terms despite the disease’s immobilizing symptoms.

    “No matter how much I sit here and talk to you about how I’ve philosophically accepted it and taken its weight, Parkinson’s is still kicking my ass. I won’t win at this. I will lose,” Fox told the magazine. “But, there’s plenty to be gained in the loss.”

    Simrin Singh

    Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • Rob Lowe celebrates 33 years of sobriety

    Rob Lowe celebrates 33 years of sobriety

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    Actor Rob Lowe celebrated a big milestone on Thursday: 33 years of sobriety.

    The “Parks and Recreation” star opened up about his sobriety on Instagram, posting about his journey.

    “33 years ago today I found recovery and a tribe that has sustained me on my incredible, grateful journey,” Lowe wrote. “My life is full of love, family, God, opportunity, friends, work, dogs and fun.”

    The 59-year-old actor also shared a message of encouragement for others dealing with addiction.

    “If you or someone you know is struggling with any form of addiction: hope and joy are waiting if you want it, and are willing to work for it!” he said.

    Several of Lowe’s friends and family members commented on the post with words of encouragement.

    “We are so proud of you,” actress and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow wrote, “We love you so much.”

    Lowe’s son, John Lowe, wrote, “Proud of your recovery, opposite feeling about this selfie.”

    Rob Lowe’s other son, Matthew Lowe, commented, “It works if you work it,”

    Lowe has been open about his battle with alcohol addiction, previously sharing his story with Variety in 2021. He said his addiction began as a teenager and that he finally realized he needed to get help after missing a call from his mother about his grandfather being in the hospital.

    He also discussed the doors sobriety opened for him, in terms of both his career and his personal life.

    “When I got sober, who I really was came out. It turned out I was one of the first of my peers to get married and have kids,” Lowe told the magazine. “That guy was in me all the time, but the life I was leading wouldn’t let him out.”

    Simrin Singh

    Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • Lana Del Rey’s “Candy Necklace” Video Deliberately Blurs the Line Between Fantasy and Reality With Its Meta Framework

    Lana Del Rey’s “Candy Necklace” Video Deliberately Blurs the Line Between Fantasy and Reality With Its Meta Framework

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    When an artist reaches a certain point in their career, self-reference can’t be avoided. In Lana Del Rey’s case, that tends to become quite a quagmire in terms of how most of her music and aesthetics were already referencing other people to begin with. This includes not only “paying homage” visually to the “classics” of Americana and 50s-era icons like Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Elvis Presley, but also more esoteric fare, including instrumentation and intonation from Eleni Vitali’s “Dromoi Pou Agapisa” for “Video Games” (though some have tried to push back on that theory). Then, of course, there’s her signature of randomly throwing in the lyrics of musical heroes like David Bowie (“Ground control to Major Tom” in “Terrence Loves You”), Patsy Cline (“I fall to pieces” in “Cherry”), Bob Dylan (“Like a rolling stone” in “Off to the Races” and “Lay-lady-lay” in “Tomorrow Never Came”), Beach Boys (“Don’t worry baby” in “Lust for Life” and “California dreamin’” on “Fuck It I Love You”) and Leonard Cohen (“That’s how the light gets in” in “Kintsugi”), to name a few. And let’s not forget her tendency toward weaving literary quotes into much of her work, to boot (which is much easier to sneak in and have people assume is one’s own because nobody’s all that well-read anymore, are they?). Many of which take from Nabokov’s evermore problematic tome, Lolita. Hence, the Del Rey songs “Lolita,” “Carmen” and “Off to the Races.” There’s also Walt Whitman in “Body Electric,” T. S. Eliot in “Burnt Norton” and Oscar Wilde in “Gods and Monsters.” With so many people to “inspire” (read: take from), it’s no wonder Del Rey is so prolific.

    But it all makes sense because of how much Del Rey has always represented the millennial gift for pastiche. Themselves having experienced it on overload from the day of conception, thanks to being “cultivated” in a postmodern world. Where society is at now leaves potential for many more “posts” to be placed in front of that “modern” (just how many might depend on who you ask). And maybe that’s why the love of all things meta has taken root so deeply in pop culture ever since Scream came to theaters. Del Rey herself has never much favored playing with the concept too overtly, perhaps deciding it was time to do so after all this talk of her various “personas” throughout album cycles—though mainly the “Daddy”-loving one that sucks on lollipops, sips “cherry cola” and still insists, “He hit me and it felt like a kiss” (another lyric borrowed from someone else: The Crystals). So it’s only right for director Rich Lee (who previously teamed with Del Rey on videos for “Doin’ Time” and “Fuck It I Love You/The Greatest”) to commence “Candy Necklace,” the first single from Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd to receive a video accompaniment, by opening on a klieg light. Everything about such an emblem signifying the grandeur of Del Rey’s music, as well as her ongoing commitment to presenting Old Hollywood glamor as a lifestyle choice people can still choose to make.

    Lee zooms into the shot of the klieg light and then cuts to the man wielding it behind the back of the truck Lana is “driving” on set. One with a screen backdrop that plays footage of trees on a loop to make it seem like she’s actually driving though some woodsy area (“You can find me where no one will be/In the woods somewhere,” as she says on “Sweet”) when, obviously, she’s not. But it’s all part of the “put-on,” innit? That razzle-dazzle that only Hollywood—de facto, Del Rey—still knows how to achieve better than anyone. And where is she driving to but L.A.? Some small-town girl bound for the big city to do “big things.” Much like the woman Del Rey visually emulates in the video, Elizabeth Short. Better known as the Black Dahlia. Like Del Rey, Short shares a name with Elizabeth “Lizzy” Grant and also spent much of her youth on the East Coast (with some stints in Florida, also like “Lizzy”) before ending up in L.A. after various boppings around between her father and some Army and Navy men.

    Rumors of whether or not Short was a prostitute began to crop up in the wake of her murder, tying right in with another favorite topic of Del Rey’s, as explored on “A&W.” Indeed, after so much rejection in her life, it would be easy to imagine Short callously thinking to herself as she prowled the streets of L.A., “It’s not about having someone to love me anymore/This is the experience of being an American whore.” Regardless of whether or not she did prostitute herself at one time or another, there was an innocent aura about her. Which then, of course, brings us to the flowers—dahlias—Short wore in her hair. As Del Rey used to adorn her own hair with a “sweet” flower crown despite talking of subjects like cocaine, older men and being born bad.

    The dichotomy of a woman when viewed through the myopic lens of men—particularly men controlling Hollywood and the narratives that were churned out of it—is embodied by Del Rey as the vixen, the vamp and the lost little lamb throughout the video. Cutting from her in the truck as “Lana” to her as the Black Dahlia sometime in the 40s as she’s guided out of a car by a John Waters lookalike (maybe the real deal wasn’t available), Lee sets the stage for something sinister to build—only to keep taking us out of the moment with constant behind-the-scenes “asides” from Del Rey herself who, as usual, helmed the concept. As she walks into the stately mansion she’s led to by this older gentleman (Johnny Robish), she reminds one of Lana (quelle coincidence) Clarkson being led to the slaughter by Phil Spector. Eerily (and perhaps intentionally) enough, Robish actually did portray Spector in a TV series called Silenced. And yes, one could imagine Del Rey moonlighting as a hostess at the House of Blues and ending up in such a man’s abode had things gone in an alternate direction for her. In fact, one of her chief defenses against those calling her portrayal of the Black Dahlia insensitive (since, by now, everyone is desensitized to Marilyn’s image being habitually plundered) is that, “It’s not insensitive when you started the same way and you could’ve ended up that way, but that hasn’t been how the story played out and no one knows how it will. So, leave if you don’t like the idea.” But obviously, plenty will like it, for Del Rey is not without her devoted legions, even if they aren’t able to move mountains in quite the same way as Swifties or Beyhive members.

    But Taylor and Beyoncé don’t tend to go quite so niche (at least not in ways deemed as polarizing) with their visual brainchilds. In this video’s instance, a key part of the concept is highlighting “what it’s like for those in front of the camera, behind the smokescreen of fame.” Almost like what Britney Spears was doing in the video for “Lucky” as a matter of fact. But, as usual, Brit doesn’t get much credit for her profundity. Del Rey also follows the tradition of movies that serve as a “film within a film” designed to debunk the supposed perfection of it all—totally manufactured by those behind the camera as much as those in front of it. For someone mired in the debate about “persona,” it couldn’t be a more on-the-nose notion. Almost as on the nose as the various “rundowns” of the video that have come out, offering only such reductive “commentary” as, “Lana Del Rey Transforms Into Marilyn Monroe in New Video.” No shit. But, as with most Del Rey videos, there’s much more to it than the surface.

    Considering her collaboration with Lee on the merged videos for “Fuck It I Love You” and “The Greatest” (clocking in at nine minutes and nineteen seconds to make it a length contender with the videos for “Ride,” “Venice Bitch,” “Norman Fucking Rockwell”/“Bartender”/“Happiness Is A Butterfly” and, now, “Candy Necklace”), he actually alludes to it when making mention of her skateboarding down an alleyway in Long Beach for that shoot. An alleyway will factor in during this video as well, but not with such a “fun-loving” tinge. What’s more, it’s worth noting that the lyrics to “Fuck It I Love You” encapsulate the “everygirl”—like Elizabeth Short—who moves to L.A. with “big dreams” (“said you had to leave to start your life over”). Only to fall into the trap of “fast living” (yet again). This apparent in lyrics such as, “Maybe the way that I’m living is killing me/I like to light up the stage with a song/Do shit to keep me turned on/But one day I woke up like, ‘Maybe I’ll do it differently’/So I moved to California but it’s just a state of mind.” And that state of mind can often lead to a dark destiny, hidden behind the oft-repeated phrase: “the myth of California.”

    Del Rey as Black Dahlia starts to slowly uncover it as we see her atop a grandiose staircase, in the home of the creepy older man who takes her there. Another camera cut shows Del Rey overlooking the scene with Jon Batiste, her trusty piano player on the song and also, of course, a Grammy-winning dynamo in his own right. But in this context, the two both appear as outsiders looking in, heightening the meta concept of us as the outsider audience watching them look like outsiders, too. When Del Rey then descends the staircase while “acting the part,” it feels like a callback to Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard doing the same thing after retreating entirely into her delusions.

    Whatever is happening throughout the video, Lee is always sure to keep our eyes on the varying necklaces Del Rey is wearing, with the term “candy necklace” being symbolic of a lure itself. Something women use to “ensnare” by drawing the male gaze to her vulnerable neck and then up to the mouth as she sucks on the candy. It’s also a metaphor for something sweet and disposable—the way most young women are viewed, particularly by men in “the industry” who see such women as mere “perks” of being in it. Ergo, Del Rey’s dissection of yet another disappointing man who she thought she was madly in love with echoes a sentiment expressed in “Shades of Cool”: “I can’t fix him/Can’t make him better.” But by the time she—or rather, the Black Dahlia version of herself—realizes it, it’s too late.

    At the two-minute, forty-eight-second mark of the video, Del Rey is up to her old “National Anthem” tricks again by portraying Marilyn Monroe, but this time with the full-on re-creation of her blonde coif (as opposed to just wearing a replica of the Jean Louis gown that Kim Kardashian felt obliged to destroy for the sake of her vanity). Shot from a movie-within-a-movie perspective again, we hear the “real” Del Rey tell Lee, “I just don’t know, like, how to not be, like, a robot. I just need to shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.” And shoot she does…in the persona of Marilyn holding a book in her hand (there’s also a book in the background appropriately titled Handbook of General Psychology). While some would write Del Rey’s portrayal of Marilyn off as yet another tired trick in her usual playbook, it bears remarking that her putting on this particular “character” has more significance at this moment in time, with Del Rey currently being thirty-seven—a year older than Marilyn was when she died (or committed suicide, if that’s the theory you’re going with). This meaning she survived past a “scary age” for those who pay attention to the women slain by the Hollywood machine. Which harkens back to Del Rey’s mention of how when she started out as Lizzy Grant taking on the big city and finding herself in precarious situations with men-wolves, her fate might have gone down just as dark a path as Short’s or Monroe’s.

    After talking about being like a robot, Del Rey adds, “I’m not, like, it’s not, like, working anymore for me.” There are two interpretations of this line: 1) the concept isn’t working for her anymore or 2) doing the shoot no longer feels like work to her because she’s so “in it.” In this manner, as well, there is a layer of duality to everything. Transitioning back to Black Dahlia mode, Del Rey offers another behind-the-scenes soundbite in the form of, “‘Cause the whole thing about the video is, like…why it was all supposed to be behind-the-scenes is because all these women who, like, changed their name, changed their hair, like me and stuff [correction: her like them], it’s like they all fell into these different, different, like, snake holes, so the whole point is like how do you learn from that and not fall into your own thing?” Del Rey grapples with that question as she puts on another wig—this one more Veronica Lake-esque. Along with a Red Riding Hood-style cape in white. The Red Riding Hood vibe being undeniably pointed, per the mention of the men-wolves above—the ones that still run most industries. And still make them all a rather scary place to be a woman. Especially a “fragile” one (as Del Rey so often likes to remind people that she is—something Jewel was doing quite some time ago).

    Walking down a darkened alleyway in this glam-ified Red Riding Hood getup, Del Rey finds herself singing—performing—yet again in a club (as she has also done so many times before in videos such as “Blue Velvet,” “Ride” and “Fuck It I Love You”). One where the seedy Phil Spector-reminiscent character waits and watches. A wolf in no sheep’s clothing. As Batiste plays the piano next to her, Del Rey locks eyes with this foreboding male presence…yet another “Daddy” figure in her music video canon (see also: “Ride,” “Shades of Cool” and “The Greatest”). The one to lead her into the proverbial woods, rather than out of them, as she would like to believe.

    Back in the alleyway with this man who will serve as her “date” for the rest of the “evening,” Del Rey rips off the wig she’s wearing to reveal Black Dahlia curls again…or are they Del Rey’s own? As usual, she toys with viewers’ perception on the matter, with wig-snatching as yet another bid to break down the wall of artifice created by Hollywood glamor. Subverting the “real” goings-on “behind the scenes” again by flashing a middle finger at the camera in her dressing room and demanding, “Get out. Seriously.” But is she being serious, or is this a sendup of the difficult diva persona? Once more, the decision is at the discretion of the beholder.

    Close-ups on Del Rey’s necklace become more pronounced after this scene, though it’s been accented the entire time that each “character” she plays wears some kind of ornate necklace. The one lured (whether aware of the lure or ultimately uncaring that it is a lure) into the backseat of “Daddy’s” car keeps caressing the “candy” necklace she’s wearing as Lee cuts to Batiste repeating the phrase like a narrator who can only communicate her fate through this ominous pair of words. All at once, there’s a moment when it seems as though the necklace feels to her like a choking hold that she tries to remove before looking around frantically out the window. Is it too late to escape what she herself walked into? As necklaces both candy and jeweled fall against a black backdrop and into blood, we find out what the answer is…and what we knew it to be all along: she can’t escape the gruesome outcome that awaits. This shown dramatically by a shot of the car door open and her white cape strewn from the seat to the floor, covered in blood. The camera pans to the back of the car, where a trunk is attached. The perfect size for fitting a mutilated body. Partially open, the camera closes in on its blood-spattered exterior, zooming into the blackness of the trunk only to then reflect back the POV from within: a bevy of reporters letting their flashbulbs go off in a frenzy, ready to splash the horrid tale all over newspapers across the country. The girl is just a story now. Another cautionary tale. One that tells women: don’t be “loose,” don’t “ask for it.” And suddenly, among the fray of “paparazzi” (a word not yet coined in the Black Dahlia’s time), there’s Jon Batiste, who presently comes across as the A$AP Rocky of the narrative, for Del Rey does so enjoy to portray herself as the romantic fetish of Black men. And the fetish of bad men.

    Another cut made through the flashbulb and into the reality where Del Rey is just a star who was playing a tragic dead girl concludes the video. Or was this the alternate reality Del Rey wants to offer up for all the girls who didn’t survive the wolves of Hollywood? Whatever the case, she poses with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one that doesn’t actually yet exist, but maybe it will soon) with that shit-eating grin of triumph. The black-and-white scene then segues into color, indicating the falseness of it. A few close-ups on some more neck shots of Del Rey wearing her various necklaces are followed by the final frame being Del Rey’s smiling face as seen through the camera monitor. This concluding the meta blending of fiction and reality, with Del Rey happier than ever (to use an Eilish phrase) about confusing the two. For to live in the twentieth century and beyond is to never really know the difference anymore. Just ask Gloria Swanson/Norma Desmond. Or Norma Jeane/Marilyn. Or Elizabeth Short/the Black Dahlia. Or Lizzy/Lana.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Tom Holland reflects on mental health struggles

    Tom Holland reflects on mental health struggles

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    Tom Holland’s dream role as Danny, the main character of the upcoming Apple TV thriller series “The Crowded Room,” not only gave him an opportunity to grow professionally, but also forced him to take a careful look at his own mental health, he revealed in a new interview.

    The “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star reflected on the impact the challenging role has had on his personal life in an interview published Tuesday in Entertainment Weekly.

    “Learning about mental health and the power of it, and speaking to psychiatrists about Danny and Billy’s struggles, has been something that has been so informative to my own life,” Holland told Entertainment Weekly. 

    Holland’s character, Danny, is an anti-social teen who is arrested for a crime he may not have been involved in — a much more “vulnerable” role than he has played before, he said.

    “I’m no stranger to the physical aspects of the job doing the whole action-movie thing,” Holland told Entertainment Weekly. “But the mental aspect, it really beat me up and it took a long time for me to recover afterwards, to sort of get back to reality.”

    In the interview, Holland also opened up about sobriety, revealing to Entertainment Weekly that he has been sober for 16 months.   

    During filming for the 10-episode series, for which he is also credited as an executive producer, Holland found himself aligning personally with Danny’s character, unable to separate himself from his role.

    “I remember having a bit of a meltdown at home and thinking, like, ‘I’m going to shave my head. I need to shave my head because I need to get rid of this character,’” Holland explained. “And, obviously, we were mid-shooting, so I decided not to… It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”

    Tom Holland at the premiere of his movie
    Tom Holland seen February 8, 2022, in Madrid, Spain.

    JOSE OLIVA / Europa Press Entertainment / Getty Images


    The 26-year-old actor said thanks to the help and support of his co-stars, he was able to get through the struggles he faced while filming. Holland said he learned a great deal about himself from the role, including “recognizing triggers” and “things that stress [him] out,” like being on social media.

    Holland has taken breaks from social media in the past, explaining that it becomes difficult to read about himself on various platforms.

    “I find Instagram and Twitter to be overstimulating, to be overwhelming,”  the actor said last year. “I get caught up and I spiral when I read things about me online, and ultimately it’s very detrimental to my mental state.”

    He hopes viewers of “The Crowded Room” will learn the same lessons he did playing Danny — to be more sympathetic of others’ mental health issues, as well as understanding of their own personal struggles.

    “I hope that people will feel educated about the powers of mental health, the struggles, [and] our incredible abilities to survive.”

    Simrin Singh

    Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • Here’s what to know about the film and TV writers’ strike

    Here’s what to know about the film and TV writers’ strike

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    TV and movie writers went on strike Tuesday for the first time in 15 years after negotiations with film studios failed to reach a new contract.

    History suggests the walkout could last weeks or even months, meaning a hiatus in production for everything from favorite late-night shows to hit streaming series. Here’s how we got here and what could happen next.

    Who is involved?

    Some 11,500 film and TV writers belonging to the Writers Guild of America are negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents eight major studios: Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount and Sony. (CBS News and Paramount+ are owned by Paramount Global.)

    WGA members work in film, TV, animation and fiction podcasts, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

    Which shows are affected by the writers’ strike?

    Late-night shows, which are written daily, are expected to stop production immediately. “The Late Show” on CBS, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC, “The Tonight Show” on NBC, “Late Night” on NBC and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” are expected to turn to reruns starting Tuesday.

    Less clear is how daytime talk shows, which tend to rely more on chit-chat by hosts and celebrity interviews, could be affected. Production on ABC’s “The View” continued uninterrupted during the last strike in the 2007-08 season, for example. 

    Meanwhile, streaming networks aren’t likely to see an immediate impact given that they work on longer timelines than late-night shows.

    Some TV show hosts have voiced support for the striking writers. On “The Late Show” Monday night, host Stephen Colbert expressed support for the union. 

    “Everybody, including myself, hopes both sides reach a deal,” he said. “But I also think that the writers’ demands are not unreasonable. I’m a member of the guild. I support collective bargaining. This nation owes so much to unions.”


    Future News Jokes Now…Just In Case by
    The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on
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    Speaking on “Late Night” on Friday, host Seth Meyers, a WGA member, also expressed support for striking writers, while saying a strike “would really be a miserable thing for people to have to go through.”

    Writers “are entitled to make a living,” he said. “I think it’s a very reasonable demand that’s being set out by the guild. And I support those demands.”

    Why are writers striking?

    At the core of the dispute is the explosion in streaming services and its effects, including the erosion of writers’ pay and job security, according to the WGA.

    Even as budgets for series have grown, writers are making a smaller share of the money, the guild said. Streaming services use smaller writing staffs, which the industry calls “mini rooms,” and also tend to have shorter seasons than broadcast shows. That leaves some writers scrambling to put together several sources of income in a single season.


    Production halted on many shows as entertainment writers go on strike

    03:07

    On average, showrunners for streaming series make less than half of what showrunners for broadcast series do, the WGA said. And because writers on streaming shows don’t get the back-end payments that have allowed broadcast and screenwriters to make a living, such as syndication and international licensing, the WGA is seeking to secure more pay on the front end for its members. 

    Since 2018, inflation-adjusted pay for screenwriters has fallen 14%, according to the guild. For writer-producers, pay has sunk 23%. 

    What are the writers asking for?

    The Writers Guild wants total pay increases for members amounting to about $429 million per year, according to the WGA, while the AMPTP’s counter would run $86 million per year.

    The number of writers working at guild minimum pay has risen from about a third to about half in the past decade. Meanwhile, writers for comedy-variety shows for streaming services have no minimum pay protections and tend to get paid less than their counterparts in broadcast. 

    The minimum pay for WGA members varies based on a writer’s title and the length of the individual’s employment contract, but the minimum for the lowest-paid writer is $4,546 per week, according to Variety.

    The studios “have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession,” WGA leadership said Monday in a statement. That has created a “gig economy inside a union workforce,” it added.

    Studios counter that they are thinking about the long-term health of the industry. The AMPTP said Monday that the primary sticking points to a deal revolved around the guild’s request for a minimum number of scribes per writer room. The group added that its offer “included generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals.”

    A key industry dynamic behind the labor dispute: Hollywood is under increased pressure from Wall Street to turn a profit. After years of lavish spending to expand streaming services, many studios and production companies are slashing spending. For example, the Walt Disney Co. is cutting 7,000 jobs, Warner Bros. Discovery is slashing costs to lessen its debt and Netflix has pumped the brakes on spending growth.

    “The current streaming services are largely not profitable. Only Netflix is turning a profit right now,” Alex Weprin, media and business writer at the Hollywood Reporter, told CBS News. “These large entertainment companies, they don’t really have a good sense of how profitable these services are going to be and how much they can afford to pay the writers.”

    What does AI have to do with it?

    Artificial intelligence is another point of contention in the labor talks, with guild writers asking for strict limits on AI use in scripts. They don’t want to rewrite material generated by AI, nor for AI to rewrite human-created scripts, and they want union-covered material to be excluded from training AI models. 

    The studios have so far rejected these demands, a position one writer described as “insulting.”

    “We are fighting for nothing less than the survival of writing as a viable career,” writer and comic Adam Conover tweeted.

    How much do Hollywood and TV writers make?

    Staff writers, the lowest-paid roles, typically work an average of 29 weeks on a network show for $131,834 annually, or an average of 20 weeks on a streaming show for $90,920. For a writer-producer, the figure is $6,967 per week, according to the trade magazine Variety. For a writer-producer, the figure is $6,967 per week.

    Advocates for the studios and producers say that pay is far from the poor-house picture writers present publicly. AMPTP leaders say their priority is “the long-term health and stability of the industry” and that they are dedicated to reaching “a fair and reasonable agreement,” according to the Associated Press.

    What are writers allowed to do during the strike?

    According to the WGA’s strike rules, writers cannot do any writing or rewriting during the strike. They are barred from attending meetings or negotiating with the studios, pitching new projects, entering agreements to option their work or even attending promotional events for existing projects.

    By contrast, they are allowed to accept payment for any writing that’s already been completed. Writer-producers, writer-actors and writer-directors are allowed to do the non-writing part of their job during the strike, but they’re banned from doing any writing no matter how minor, such as revising dialogue or tweaking stage directions. 

    When was the last writers’ strike? 

    The last time the film and TV writers put down their keyboards was in 2007-08 in a strike that lasted 100 days.

    During that labor action many shows, such as “30 Rock,” “CSI,” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” shortened their seasons while studios pumped out more unscripted reality shows. “Big Brother” and “The Amazing Race” both increased their output. “The Apprentice,” hosted by Donald Trump, got new life when a celebrity version of the shelved show was created to help fill the scripted void.

    Among the main concessions the writers won that time were requirements for fledgling streaming shows to hire unionized writers if their budgets were big enough. It was an early harbinger of nearly every entertainment labor fight in the years that followed.

    How often have writers gone on strike?

    Writers have gone on strike more than any group in Hollywood, according to the AP, with six strikes since 1960. The first strike, in 1960, lasted nearly five months; strikes followed in 1973, 1981 and 1985.

    The longest work stoppage, lasting 153 days, came in 1988.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Production halted on many shows as entertainment writers go on strike

    Production halted on many shows as entertainment writers go on strike

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    Production halted on many shows as entertainment writers go on strike – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    Thousands of writers are on strike as Writers Guild of America members demand better pay on streaming shows and better working conditions. The strike affects TV shows and movies across Hollywood. Elise Preston reports.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


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  • Hollywood Writers Just Announced They’re on Strike | Entrepreneur

    Hollywood Writers Just Announced They’re on Strike | Entrepreneur

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    Blockbuster news out of Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced late tonight that they will be on strike.

    After negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed, the union said they would start picketing tomorrow at 1 pm PT.

    “Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal – and though your strike vote gave us the leverage to make some gains – the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA said in a message to members.

    The announcement came three hours before their new film and scripted TV contract officially expired. The last WGA strike was back in 2007-2008. It lasted 100 days. More than 11,000 TV and movie writers are expected to walk off the job.

    What the WGA wants

    The Writer’s Guild is asking for several changes in their new contract, including:

    • Increases in compensation for streaming and new media.
    • Ending the practice of mini-rooms, smaller writing rooms where a showrunner and a limited group of writers develop scripts for minimum compensation.
    • Increases in contributions to health and pension benefits
    • More control over the writers’ work

    With the advent of streaming services, the writers say they need a contract that reflects the changing times.

    “Writers at every level and in every genre, whether it’s features or TV, we’re all being devalued and financially taken advantage of by the studios,” Danny Tolli, a writer whose credits include “Roswell, New Mexico” and the Shondaland show “The Catch” told The New York Times. “These studios are making billions in profits, and they are spending billions on content — content that we create with our blood, sweat, and tears.”

    The studios push back

    AMPTP, which represents studios and streamers such as Amazon, Apple, CBS, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony, and Warner Bros Discovery, said in a statement that it offered a “comprehensive package proposal.” According to the Hollywood Reporter, the sticking points included the guild’s proposals around minimum writing staff sizes and a minimum number of employment time.

    The strike has caused a mad scramble in Hollywood.

    “All over town, agents and producers are moving with last minute haste to get deals sewn up before midnight so in some cases, some scribes can get one last paycheck, we hear,” wrote Deadline.

    To date, it’s hard to know which shows and productions will be affected by a WGA strike, but the powerful Teamsters union has declared their members “do not cross picket lines.”

    Running a production would be difficult without the teamsters union, which represents workers such as drivers, location professionals, dispatchers, and caterers.

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  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 review: Chris Pratt stars in the weirdest Marvel movie yet

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 review: Chris Pratt stars in the weirdest Marvel movie yet

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    (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

    While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is the trilogy’s most “unruly and excessive” instalment, it’s also “sweetly touching”, writes Nicholas Barber.

    S

    Shortly after the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 in 2017, someone made a fuss about the tasteless jokes that its writer-director, James Gunn, had made years earlier on Twitter. Gunn was then fired by Disney, the company behind Marvel Studios’ superhero films, but because the cast and fans of Guardians of the Galaxy stood by him, he was eventually rehired. We’ll probably never know how the negotiations went, but it seems likely that one of Gunn’s conditions for returning to work was that he be allowed to do absolutely anything and everything he wanted. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is a film with the colossal budget of a typical Marvel blockbuster, but the sensibility of the low-budget cult horror comedies that Gunn made with Troma at the start of his career.

    More like this:
    –        Renfield is ‘a sloppy mess’
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    –        The horror shocker that set off a culture war

    The franchise was always on the fringes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of course. Its heroes are a ragtag band of mercenaries comprising Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), a manchild who is obsessed by soft rock anthems; Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a tough-talking raccoon; Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), a grumpy, green-skinned assassin; Nebula (Karen Gillan), a grumpier cyborg; Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), a walking tree; Drax (Dave Bautista), a hulking warrior who doesn’t understand irony; and Mantis (Pom Klementieff), a wide-eyed empath with antennae. They’re an endearingly odd bunch, by anyone’s standards. But they’re the least weird thing about Guardians Vol 3.

    It starts with the Guardians living in the hollowed-out skull of a humongous god. Then they’re attacked by a golden superman (Will Poulter) who is both a merciless killer and a bumbling oaf. When Rocket is gravely injured in the attack, they go in search of his medical records, and the film becomes a heist caper set aboard a space station made out of pink, lumpy meat. (The security guards’ uniforms appear to be made out of bread rolls.) But Rocket is also being hunted by the insane High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), an interstellar Doctor Moreau whose animal-robot hybrids are disgustingly reminiscent of Andy’s next door neighbour’s creepy toys in Toy Story. Younger viewers might be upset by the gloomy and disturbing scenes in Guardians Vol 3, but you have to admire how wildly outlandish it is. And you can see why Disney caved in and brought Gunn back. No one else could or would make a film quite like this one.

    Still, maybe the studio should have reined him in a little. Guardians Vol 3 is two and half hours long, and it’s so chaotic and convoluted that it feels twice that long. Watching it is like flicking channels between a whole Star Trek TV series and a whole Star Wars TV series. There are always some fun aliens to look at, but you might not follow or care what’s happening. 

    Considering the name of their team, it might have helped if the Guardians of the Galaxy had done a bit more galaxy-guarding. There’s always a point in their films when they get their act together and do something heroic, but they do lots of drifting around the universe and bickering in the meantime. There’s rarely any urgency to their adventures. About half of Guardians Vol 2 consisted of Star-Lord’s origins being recounted in minute detail, and about half of Guardians Vol 3 is a succession of flashbacks explaining how Rocket went from raccoon to gun-toting tech wizard. In the present day, the team’s mission – trying to revive their furry pal – seems oddly insignificant for a space opera that zips across so many light years. Gunn, for all of his remarkable skill at juggling characters, is obviously not interested in tonal consistency or clear, compelling storytelling. He keeps inserting sitcom banter into the noisy battles, even if that drains away the tension. The cartoonish, computer-generated visuals ensure that few of the settings feel like real places. And while the potential death of one of the team is treated as a tragedy, the extinction of all intelligent life on a planet is forgotten as soon as it happens.

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

    Director: James Gunn
    Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan
    Run-time: 2hr 30m
    Release date: 5 May

    The film’s saving grace is that, just as Gunn has been allowed to unleash his gonzo imagination, he has also been allowed to pour out his emotions. Again, a touch of restraint might have been to his advantage: most viewers could have figured out his main theme even if he hadn’t put the word “friend” in every other line of dialogue. But in the final scenes, Gunn’s sincere love for his characters, and their love for each other, becomes infectious. The actors deserve much of the credit. They all sell the relationships more convincingly here than in either of the previous Guardians instalments. This one may be the most unruly and excessive of the trilogy, but it is as sweetly touching as any film with so many slimy, tentacled monsters in it could be.

    ★★★☆☆

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is on general release from 5 May.

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  • From Fast X to The Little Mermaid: 10 of the best films to watch this May

    From Fast X to The Little Mermaid: 10 of the best films to watch this May

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    (Image credit: Universal Studios)

    Including Fast X, The Little Mermaid and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – Nicholas Barber lists this month’s unmissable releases.

    (Credit: HBO Films)

    1. Reality

    On a Saturday afternoon in June 2017, two FBI agents visited the Georgia home of Reality Winner (yes, that’s her actual name), a 25-year-old US intelligence officer who had leaked a secret government document about Russian meddling in the presidential election. The interrogation was recorded, and Tina Satter used the transcript verbatim as the script for an acclaimed play, Is This a Room. Now Satter has turned that play into a gripping chamber piece starring Sydney Sweeney as Winner. The title has a double meaning. It’s Winner’s first name, but it’s also a hint that the film is as close to reality as a drama can be, even as Satter keeps reminding us of the artifice inherent in all art. “Not only is Reality inventively mounted and extraordinarily tense,” says Steph Green at IndieWire, “but across 85 taut minutes, it proves… that Sydney Sweeney is the real deal.”

    Released on 29 May in the US

    (Credit: Alamy)

    2. What’s Love Got to Do with It?

    No relation to the Tina Turner biopic from 1993, What’s Love Got to Do with It? is a Working Title romantic comedy in the Richard Curtis tradition, but with a cross-cultural twist: its screenwriter, Jemima Khan, used to be married to Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, so she knows about relationships that span cultural and religious divides. Lily James and Shazad Latif star as Zoe and Kazim, who have been platonic friends since childhood. When Kazim reveals that he is travelling to Lahore to marry a woman from Pakistan he has never met, Zoe decides to make a documentary about his arranged or “assisted” marriage. But will she realise, along the way, that she’d prefer to marry him herself? “Propelled by zingy one-liners and engaging performances, the film is an enjoyable watch,” says Mohammad Zaheer at BBC Culture. “[It] manages to colour within the familiar lines of the genre, yet still bring something unique to the table.”

    Released on 5 May in the US and 25 May in Denmark

    (Credit: A24)

    3. You Hurt My Feelings

    Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Don (Tobias Menzies) are a blissfully happy couple. Don is a successful therapist, and Beth is the writer of a well-received memoir. She might be struggling with her debut novel, but Don is a pillar of support and encouragement. But then comes the ultimate betrayal: Beth overhears him confessing that he isn’t a fan of her writing, after all. Nicole Holofcener, the writer-director of Friends with Money and Enough Said (which also starred Louis-Dreyfus) has made a “brilliantly knowing comedy”, says Alissa Wilkinson at Vox. “The film’s expertly sketched characters… portray with great affection the ways we hide the truth from one another out of love – and the resulting film is warm-hearted and rueful and hilarious in all the best ways.”

    Released on 26 May in the US and Canada

    (Credit: Kojo Studios)

    4. Master Gardener

    As the screenwriter of Taxi Driver, and the writer-director of American Gigolo and First Reformed, Paul Schrader specialises in heavyweight thrillers about “God’s lonely man”: a solitary anti-hero whose obsessively self-contained persona hides a powder keg of pain and violence. So it’s no surprise that the lonely man in Master Gardener ends up doing more than pruning roses. A horticulturalist (Joel Edgerton) who tends to the grounds of a plantation mansion owned by a wealthy dowager (Sigourney Weaver), he seems to be dedicated to his work, to the exclusion of all else. But when the dowager asks him to train her grand-niece (Quintessa Swindell), his long-buried criminal past bursts up through the soil. “For all the film’s provocations, both serious and mischievous, it’s a remarkably elegant, subtle piece, its dynamics tightly reined in,” says Jonathan Romney at Screen. “Edgerton gives an extremely fine-tuned performance, while Weaver is coolly imposing and eventually terrifying.”

    Released on 19 May in the US and 26 May in the UK and Ireland

    (Credit: Ketchup Entertainment)

    (Credit: Ketchup Entertainment)

    5. Hypnotic

    Nothing is what it seems in Hypnotic, a mind-bending conspiracy thriller from Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Spy Kids). Ben Affleck stars as a police detective who is haunted by the disappearance of his daughter. He is investigating a series of bank robberies when a mystery woman (Alice Braga) tells him about “hypnotics”: people who have the power to make others believe and do anything they want by uttering a single sentence. “Taking a page from The Matrix, Limitless and Memento – and whole chapters from sci-fi trickster Philip K Dick – this slick mix of special effects and practical ingenuity puts Affleck in a fun position, and the slightly grizzled star’s still got the clench-jawed charisma to pull it off,” says Peter Debruge in Variety. “Keeping up is like working out in a gym where gravity keeps changing. Just when things start to get heavy, the floor drops out from under you.”

    Released on 11 May in Australia, 12 May in the US & 26 May in the UK

    (Credit: Concordia Studio)

    (Credit: Concordia Studio)

    6. Still: A Michael J Fox Movie

    In Back to the Future and his other 1980s hits, Michael J Fox embodied youthful vitality, but the actor was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when he was aged just 29. After seven years of keeping the condition hidden, he went public with it in 1998, and has since campaigned for greater awareness and understanding of the disease. Fox tells that story in his own words in Still, a documentary that splices interview segments with home movies, clips from Fox’s films, and re-enactments of key moments in his career. The director, Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), “delivers the actor’s life story both inventively and with the utmost sensitivity,” says Tomris Laffly at AV Club. “Still is a work of empowerment and empathy, a celebration of Fox’s life as an actor and philanthropist… It’s beautiful stuff.”

    Released on 12 May on Apple TV+

    (Credit: Marvel Studios)

    7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

    It’s been six years since Marvel’s second Guardians of the Galaxy film came out. In 2018, the year after its release, some offensive jokes made by its writer-director, James Gunn, came to light, and the studio responded by firing him. A few months after that, they hired him again, but by then Gunn was busy working on The Suicide Squad for Marvel’s competitors, DC, hence the long delay. Still, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Drax (Dave Bautista) and their buddies are finally back for more interstellar swashbuckling – and this time they’re up against the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). It will probably be the Guardians’ last adventure, though: Gunn has now signed up to oversee all of DC’s films, and to direct a Superman reboot.

    On general release from 5 May

    (Credit: Disney Studios)

    8. The Little Mermaid

    Another month, another live-action-and-CGI remake of a classic (well, almost classic) Disney cartoon. But this one is more distinctive than most, because a black actress, Halle Bailey, is playing the title character, who was white in the 1989 cartoon. Besides, the film’s director, Rob Marshall (Chicago, Mary Poppins Returns), argues that his version of The Little Mermaid is progressive in other ways, too. “The character goes back to Hans Christian Andersen from another century,” he told Nick Romano at EW, “but at the same time, even in 1989, it felt in some ways like a very modern woman, someone who sees her life differently than anyone around her, and goes to find that dream.” She and Prince Eric, played by Jonah Hauer-King, “really teach the world about prejudice and about breaking down barriers and walls between these two worlds.” Also, there’s a singing crab.

    On general release from 24 May

    (Credit: Universal Studios)

    (Credit: Universal Studios)

    9. Fast X

    Yes, it’s the tenth film in the unstoppable petrolhead series (or the 11th if you include Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), a franchise which started with indie thrillers about undercover cops and illegal street racers and now encompasses global science-fiction blockbusters featuring some of Hollywood’s biggest names. The new additions this time are Jason Momoa as the vengeful son of a drug lord killed in Fast Five (2011); Rita Moreno as the grandmother of Dom (Vin Diesel) and Mia (Jordana Brewster); and Brie Larson as their contact in the secret service. Still, Fast X is about action as much as it is about actors, as the film’s director Louis Leterrier told Esquire Middle East. “They went into space in number nine, and I was like, ‘Okay… there’s no way I can top that.’ But what I can do is do stuff that we’ve never done before practically, such as rolling a one-tonne bomb – an actual one-tonne metal ball – in the streets of Rome, and hope not to destroy the Colosseum.”

    On general release from 17 May

    (Credit: Pyramide Productions)

    (Credit: Pyramide Productions)

    10. The Eight Mountains

    All of the mountains in The Eight Mountains are unspoilt, idyllic and breathtakingly beautiful. Some of them are in the Himalayas, but most are in the Italian alps, where Pietro (Luca Marinelli), a city boy from Turin, befriends Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), the only child left in a remote rural village. Adapted from Paolo Cognetti’s award-winning novel, Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen’s spectacularly scenic drama is a sensitive chronicle of their friendship through the decades. “This is the rare movie that understands how tied we are to the physical and psychological spaces of childhood,” says Justin Chang at the Los Angeles Times, “how our families and the traditions they raised us with can be both nurturing and limiting. More than anything, it brings a little-seen world to life with an almost palpable physicality.”

    Released on 5 May in Japan, 12 May in the UK and Ireland, and 19 May in Spain and Finland

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  • Late Carrie Fisher to be honored with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame on

    Late Carrie Fisher to be honored with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame on

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    The late actress Carrie Fisher will be posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday. 

    The icon, best known for her role as Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” trilogy, will have her name memorialized on Hollywood Boulevard near the El Capitan Theatre on May 4, “Star Wars” Day — joining her galactic co-stars, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, who already have stars on the Walk of Fame.

    “I am happy to add that her star is just a few feet away from the star of Mark Hamill and across the street from the star of her legendary mother Debbie Reynolds,” Walk of Fame producer Ana Martinez said in a statement.  

    Carrie Fisher attending an awards event in 2015
    Carrie Fisher attends the 7th annual Governors Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center on November 14, 2015 in Hollywood, California.

    Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic


    Hamill reacted to the news on Twitter, calling the honor “long overdue & so well deserved.”

    Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, will be accepting the star on behalf of her mother, according to the statement.

    Fisher, who followed the footsteps of her star parents into show business, made her debut in the film “Shampoo” and appeared in other hits such as “When Harry Met Sally” and “The Blues Brothers.” 

    Her television credits included “Laverne and Shirley,” “Sex and the City” and “30 Rock.”

    Along with her acting credits, Fisher boasted a successful writing career, publishing three novels and two memoirs, and penning the screenplay for the 1990 Meryl Streep film “Postcards from the Edge.”

    Fisher died in 2016 at the age of 60 after falling ill on a flight.

    Simrin Singh

    Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • Hollywood-backed Wrexham Soccer Club promoted to higher level football league

    Hollywood-backed Wrexham Soccer Club promoted to higher level football league

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    Hollywood-backed Wrexham Soccer Club promoted to higher level football league – CBS News


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    Welsh soccer club Wrexham had a storybook ending Saturday as the team secured a promotion to the next playing level for next season. The club has been in the spotlight since Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over in 2021. Imtiaz Tyab reports.

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  • “Rust” to begin production again this week in Montana after fatal on-set shooting

    “Rust” to begin production again this week in Montana after fatal on-set shooting

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    The movie “Rust,” will resume production this week at Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana, Rust Movie Productions confirmed to CBS News Tuesday.

    The Western film, which will star Alec Baldwin, halted production in 2021 after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot by Baldwin on set when his prop gun discharged a live round of ammunition.

    Baldwin was pointing the prop gun at Hutchins during rehearsals when the weapon went off, killing Hutchins and injuring the film’s director, Joel Souza, on the New Mexico film set.

    In January, Baldwin and the crew armorer, Hanna Gutierrez-Reed, were formally charged with involuntary manslaughter, to which Baldwin pled not guilty in February.

    The actor and producer previously settled with Hutchins’ husband in 2022 and named him an executive producer of the movie.

    In 2021, the movie’s producers were sued by the script supervisor for repeatedly putting the safety of the crew in danger and skimping on safety measures to cut costs. The suit alleges that guns had been misfired on set twice before the fatal shooting, and that Baldwin’s gun was frequently left unattended.

    Simrin Singh

    Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • Hollywood Writers Authorize Strike Against Studios

    Hollywood Writers Authorize Strike Against Studios

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    Writers for the U.S. film and television industries have given their unions the green light to declare a strike if they can’t reach a satisfactory deal on a new contract with the major studios.

    On Monday the two affiliated unions, the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East, released the results of a strike authorization vote held among their members amid contract talks. Nearly 98% voted in favor of authorizing a work stoppage, and nearly 80% of eligible members participated in the vote — figures that the unions said were record highs.

    The vote does not guarantee screenwriters will walk off the job, but it empowers union leaders to call a strike if they don’t make sufficient headway at the bargaining table. It would be the first strike by Hollywood writers since they were off the job for 100 days in 2007 and 2008.

    “Our membership has spoken,” the unions’ negotiating committee said in an email to members. “You have expressed your collective strength, solidarity, and the demand for meaningful change in overwhelming numbers. Armed with this demonstration of unity and resolve, we will continue to work at the negotiating table to achieve a fair contract for all writers.”

    The unions are negotiating a new three-year deal known as the minimum basic agreement, which sets pay, benefits and protections for the industry’s writers. The big studios, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal and Netflix, bargain the agreement collectively as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The contract covers more than 11,000 workers.

    This year’s negotiations were expected to be contentious as writers demand a bigger piece of the streaming pie. Much like the film production workers who threatened to strike in 2021, screenwriters say the studios have used the shift toward streaming as an opportunity to push down wages for those who make the content.

    The last time Hollywood writers went on strike was 2007-2008.

    David McNew via Getty Images

    According to the unions, a growing share of writers, editors and showrunners have been receiving the industry’s minimum pay under the contract. For instance, a decade ago 10% of co-producers were working at the minimum rate, and now 59% are. The unions say median pay for writers and producers has dropped 4% over those years, not counting for inflation.

    At the same time, the unions say streaming has led to fewer episodes per season and longer production times for each episode in a series — a dynamic that has squeezed writers since they are paid per episode.

    “The companies have leveraged the streaming transition to underpay writers, creating more precarious, lower-paid models for writers’ work,” the WGAW and WGAE said in a recent memo. (HuffPost employees are represented by the WGAE.)

    In their pattern of demands, the writers also said they want to boost what are known in the industry as “residuals” — pay for the reuse of their work, such as with television reruns or feature film DVDs.

    The AMPTP said ahead of talks that it would approach the contract with “the long-term health and stability of the industry” in mind. “The goal is to keep production active so that all of us can continue working and continue to deliver to consumers the best entertainment product available in the world,” the group said in a statement.

    The current contract is set to expire on May 1. If the two sides fail to reach a deal or extend the current one by then, union leaders could declare a strike.

    In the event of a work stoppage, writers would be expected to withhold their work from any studio under the lapsed contract. A prolonged strike could stop production of scripted television shows and eventually impact film production as well.

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  • 8 of the best films of 2023 so far

    8 of the best films of 2023 so far

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    (Image credit: Lionsgate)

    BBC Culture film critics Nicholas Barber and Caryn James pick their highlights of the year so far, including John Wick: Chapter 4, Close, EO and Infinity Pool.

    (Credit: Alamy)

    1. Saint Omer

    This tough-minded, heart-breaking drama about race, class and motherhood was France’s entry to last year’s Oscar race, and I’m still mystified as to why it wasn’t nominated. Alice Diop puts her experience making documentaries to good use, as she bases her story on the real-life case of a young Senegalese woman in France charged with abandoning her baby on a beach to die. Diop invents Rama, a pregnant novelist who goes to the town of Saint Omer to witness the trial, which plays into her own doubts and fears. As Laurence, the mother on trial, Guslagie Malanda is unnaturally calm, almost frozen in resignation. Kayije Kagame as Rama lets you see her mind racing and her heart pounding as she watches, even though her face is impassive. Diop based her dialogue on court transcripts, but the results go far beyond dry facts on the page to create an enthralling film with two profound and vivid women on screen. (CJ)

    (Credit: Kris Dewitte Menuet/Cannes)

    (Credit: Kris Dewitte Menuet/Cannes)

    2. Close

    Lucas Dhont follows his award-winning debut, Girl, with another delicate yet emotionally shattering coming-of-age drama that is so naturalistic you could mistake it for a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Its heroes are Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav de Waele), two 13-year-old boys who enjoy an intimate friendship in bucolic Belgium. But when they enrol in a new school, peer pressure stretches their relationship to breaking point. Superhumanly sensitive to the pains of being a teenager, Dhont understands that it doesn’t take overt bullying to make young people feel as if they are under unbearable attack. The boys’ classmates’ casual questions are enough to change them forever. (NB)

    John Wick: Chapter 4 (Credit: Lionsgate)

    John Wick: Chapter 4 (Credit: Lionsgate)

    3. John Wick: Chapter 4

    The latest instalment of the artful action-filled franchise with Keanu Reeves as the assassin we root for has no competition for the year’s best mainstream, commercial film so far. With a multi-million-dollar price on his head, Wick channels his inner James Bond, globe-trotting through Paris, Berlin and Osaka, trying to avoid being killed. This entry is bigger and splashier than the previous Wick entries, and director Chad Stahelski makes it every bit as visually stunning and entertaining, with action full of martial arts, guns and swords. Reeves’ likeable persona helps attach us to a character who long ago lost count of the bodies he has sent on their way. Ian McShane is ever a delight as Wick’s urbane colleague, Winston, and the film gives us one more chance to see Lance Reddick, who died recently, as the concierge, Charon. (CJ)

    (Credit: Profile Pictures/One Two Films/Nordisk Film Production/Wild Bun)

    (Credit: Profile Pictures/One Two Films/Nordisk Film Production/Wild Bun)

    4. Holy Spider

    Ali Abbasi’s grisly Holy Spider is based on the true story of a married builder (Mehdi Bajestani) who murdered 16 sex workers in Iran’s holy city of Mashhad in 2000 and 2001. Starring Zar Amir Ebrahimi (winner of the best actress award at Cannes) as the determined journalist investigating the crimes, it seems at first to be an atmospheric companion piece to Silence of the Lambs and other big-screen serial-killer dramas. The provocative twist is that some citizens and politicians see the murderer as a local hero on a moral crusade. Behind the generic thrills, Holy Spider is an examination of society-wide misogyny that seems all the more astute in the wake of the Mahsa Amini protests. (NB)

    (Credit: Pyramide Distribution)

    (Credit: Pyramide Distribution)

    5. The Worst Ones

    Sometimes non-professional actors can seem extremely unnatural on screen, but the opposite is true in this sharp, serious yet light-handed fiction about children and adolescents in a run-down neighbourhood in northern France. The conceit of the meta-drama is that real students are being recruited to play fictional variations of their own stories on screen. That is exactly the process the directors Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, former casting directors, employed in making The Worst Ones, whose ironic title refers to the bad reputation of the kids who are cast. The two children and two adolescents who star here are captivating, with built-in screen presence, as they deal with and laugh at the callous, middle-aged man directing them. Winner of the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last year, The Worst Ones has an unpretentious ease yet becomes a thoughtful look at the exploitation and voyeurism of filming real lives. (CJ)

    EO (Credit: Skopia Film)

    6. EO 

    When a Polish circus is shut down, one of its performers, a donkey, is sent to live in an equestrian centre. But he doesn’t stay there for long. Instead, our long-eared hero trots across Europe, through a series of different episodes in different genres, as if he is guest-starring in a variety of other films. What unites his picaresque adventures, which were inspired by Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar, is their anguish at man’s inhumanity to man (and man’s inhumanity to donkey), and their startlingly psychedelic camerawork, editing and music. Jerzy Skolimowski, the director of EO, might be 84, but he has never been more engaged or energetic. We won’t see another film this year that is so extravagantly bizarre, yet so sweet, loving, and mischievous. (NB)

    (Credit: Mubi/Sony Pictures Classics)

    (Credit: Mubi/Sony Pictures Classics)

    7. Return to Seoul 

    Davy Chou’s small-scale film is deceptively ordinary in its premise. Freddie, a Korean woman in her mid-20s who was adopted as an infant and raised in France, travels to Seoul and reluctantly looks for her birth parents. But as it goes on, the story leaps ahead two years, then five, and depicts Freddie’s morphing sense of identity in unexpected, thoroughly convincing turns. Is she French or Korean; is her look that of a grunge student or a glam businesswoman; does she want to find her mother or not? Park Ji-Min is vibrant and keeps us off-guard as Freddie, and Chou offers a fresh and bracing style. He sets the story in ordinary spaces – narrow streets, offices, restaurants – with a polished look and intimate feel. The original English title better captures the film’s exciting swirl of identity: All the People I’ll Never Be. (CJ)

    (Credit: Neon)

    8. Infinity Pool

    The latest entry in the burgeoning “rich people have a bad time on an island” sub-genre, Infinity Pool shimmers with reflections of Triangle of Sadness, Menu and Glass Onion, although it’s murkier and more toxic than any of them. Alexander Skarsgård stars as a struggling author who visits an exclusive beach resort with his wealthy wife. He discovers too late that the country has a policy of immediate execution for certain crimes, and his holiday from hell gets bloodier, and more jaw-droppingly strange, from then on. It’s true that both the character and the film lose their way, but this whirlpool of extreme cinema proves that its co-star, Mia Goth (who is just as impressive in Pearl), is one of the most extraordinary actresses of her generation, and that its writer-director, Brandon Cronenberg, is talented enough in his own right that we should probably stop comparing him to his dad, David Cronenberg. (NB)

    Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world.

    If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

    And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

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  • Céline Dion announces first new song since sharing about her neurological disorder

    Céline Dion announces first new song since sharing about her neurological disorder

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    Céline Dion diagnosed with neurological syndrome


    Céline Dion announces diagnosis of stiff-person syndrome

    00:28

    Superstar singer Céline Dion on Thursday announced the release of her latest single, “Love Again” — the first song she has put out since sharing publicly about her rare neurological disorder.

    “Love Again” was made for the upcoming movie of the same name starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan, and is just one of five Dion tracks that will be featured in the film.

    The full soundtrack, which features those five new Dion songs, will be available to listeners on May 12, according to the Instagram announcement.

    The movie, which releases on May 5, is a romantic comedy/drama about a woman who is coping with the death of her fiancé, and the new and unexpected connection she makes with a journalist through texting.

    Dion is also making her acting debut in “Love Again,” where she plays herself getting profiled in a journalistic piece. The lyrics music video for the track shows snippets of Dion’s acting in scenes with Heughan.

    In December, Dion announced she had to postpone her spring 2023 shows and cancel eight summer 2023 concerts after being diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome.

    The unusual disorder causes the body to become rigid and sensitive to touch, noise and emotional distress, which can cause muscle spasms, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

    Simrin Singh

    Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • Writing ‘Air’ Meant Untangling the “Rashomon of Shoe Deals”

    Writing ‘Air’ Meant Untangling the “Rashomon of Shoe Deals”

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    In the spring of 2020, Alex Convery was feeling stuck—and not just because he was trapped in his home like the rest of us. Despite landing two of his scripts on the celebrated Black List, he was struggling to find any traction in his career. Everything changed when he watched The Last Dance, the highly anticipated documentary that chronicled the historic run of Michael Jordan and his six-time NBA champions, the Chicago Bulls. But Convery was most intrigued by something that was barely addressed in the 10-hour series. 

    “I saw that little two-minute segment on Nike and Air Jordan, and how the deal never should have happened, and all these strategic missteps by Adidas and Converse. And I had this eureka moment of, ‘Man, that would be such a cool movie,’” he says. “Everyone has their own version of the deal, but there’s only one guy who said, ‘Jordan’s the guy—go sign Jordan.’ And that’s why, to me, it was always worth taking [Sonny Vaccaro’s] point of view.”

    And thus Air took flight. Written by Convery and directed by Ben Affleck, the charming sports drama stars Affleck BFF Matt Damon as Vaccaro, who puts his career and reputation on the line in the hopes of landing Jordan—a then 21-year-old who was far from a lock to be the league’s next star. The A-list cast also includes Viola Davis as Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan; Jason Bateman as Nike’s former director of marketing, Rob Strasser; Chris Tucker as Nike executive Howard White; Chris Messina as Jordan’s powerful agent, David Falk; and Affleck as Nike cofounder Phil Knight.

    Vaccaro had made his name in high school basketball circles, starting the first national all-star game as well as an elite camp that became a showcase for future stars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. But his true claim to fame came in 1984, when he managed to sign Jordan. Nike originally thought the debut Air Jordan would earn $3 million over its first three years on shelves. Instead, it earned $126 million…in year one. 

    Convery approached Air as a heist or caper film. “For a movie like this where you don’t have the benefit of explosions and action scenes, you have to find other ways to inject tension into it and find that conflict,” he says. He found plenty of that conflict as he pored through Vaccaro interviews on YouTube and read ESPN writer Wright Thompson’s stories about Michael Jordan; Knight’s memoir, Shoe Dog; and Swoosh: The Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There, cowritten by Strasser’s widow, Julie Strasser.

    While Convery chose to follow Vaccaro, others have claimed to be the Jordan deal’s true MVP. “They call it the Rashomon of shoe deals for a reason,” Convery says. “In success, everyone wants to go back and take a piece of that credit. And look: Who’s right, who’s wrong, that’s not necessarily for me to say. We’re just trying to capture, maybe not the capital-T truth, but the essence of the moment.” Convery says Vaccaro told him, “‘All of these conversations happened.’ Did they happen in this order, at these locations, at this exact timing? No. But we’re making movies so there’s always going to be dramatic liberties.”

    After Convery finished his script, he got in touch with Vaccaro and drove to his home in Palm Springs for a daylong visit. “We went through the script and talked about what I got right, what I got wrong, what was important to them, and the stuff that wasn’t necessarily important,” he says.

    But the real game changer was Affleck coming on board as director, producer, and actor in the supporting role of Knight. Unsurprisingly, the decorated filmmaker arrived with his own ideas about what would happen in Air—and with Matt Damon. The Good Will Hunting duo took their own pass at Convery’s script, which both thrilled the young writer and worried him. Affleck’s next request was also a tall order: “From day one, he said, ‘I want Michael’s blessing. I won’t do it unless he’s okay with it,’” Convery says.

    Thankfully, Affleck got Jordan on board—though not in the film. While Damian Delano Young acts as a stand-in for the athlete, Jordan isn’t a character in Air; his face is shown only in archival photos and footage, and Delano Young has only two lines (“hello” and “Bulls colors”). Why? “The minute you cast someone as Michael Jordan, that’s going to be the headline around the movie, and sets a whole different expectation,” Convery explains. 

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  • 11 of the best films to watch in April

    11 of the best films to watch in April

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    (Image credit: Universal Pictures)

    Including the Super Mario Bros Movie, Renfield and Evil Dead Rise – Nicholas Barber lists this month’s most exciting releases.

    (Credit: Amazon Studios)

    1. Air

    A decade after Ben Affleck’s Argo was pronounced best picture at the Oscars, and seven years on from the release of his gangster saga, Live By Night, Affleck has finally directed another film… and it’s about a shoe. But not just any shoe. Written by Alex Convery, Air is the Moneyball-style story of how Nike changed the world of sportswear in the 1980s with the creation of the Air Jordan sneaker. Affleck plays the company’s boss, Phil Knight, while Matt Damon stars as Sonny Vaccaro, an executive who persuades Knight to spend his entire basketball marketing budget on one young, untested player, Michael Jordan. Now all he has to do is persuade Jordan’s mother, played by Viola Davis, to go along with the deal. “Sports movies that concentrate on the actual playing of the game are pointing the camera the wrong way,” says Richard Whittaker at the Austin Chronicle. “The back office is where the real action is… As always, Affleck remains one of the directors who can disguise a powerful parable as giddy, crowd-pleasing entertainment.”

    On general release on 5 April

    (Credit: Toho)

    2. Suzume

    Makoto Shinkai has been hailed as the new Hayao Miyazaki, meaning that his painterly science-fiction cartoons, such as Your Name and Weathering with You, bear comparison with the masterpieces made by Studio Ghibli’s legendary co-founder. Shinkai’s latest mind-bending anime epic features a teenage girl who discovers a portal to another world where a monstrous alien force is lurking. It’s up to her to save the universe, with the help of a magical cat, and a boy who’s been turned into a walking, talking chair. “It is an absorbing, intriguing, bewildering work,” says Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, “often spectacular and beautiful, like a sci-fi supernatural disaster movie or an essay on nature and politics, but shot through with distinctive elements of fey and whimsical comedy.”

    Released on 14 April in the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Spain and Austria

    (Credit: Lionsgate)

    3. Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret

    In Judy Blume’s classic coming-of-age novel, an 11-year-old girl moves from New York to the New Jersey suburbs, where she deals with puberty, and struggles with her religious identity. The book was published in 1970, but it’s only just been made into a film, with Abby Ryder Fortson (Cassie in the first two Ant-Man movies) as Margaret, and Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie as her parents. Why did Blume wait so long to let someone adapt it? “She was very nervous that someone would turn the film into something very glossy and pretty, where all the edges were sanded off,” the adaptation’s writer-director, Kelly Fremon Craig, told Maureen Lee Lenker at Entertainment Weekly. “When I sat down with her, she had just seen my first film, The Edge of Seventeen, and she expressed that that made her feel confident that I was going to embrace all the flaws and nuances … [with] the same honesty that she is so known for.”

    Released on 28 April in the UK, Ireland, the US & Canada

    (Credit: Disney Plus)

    4. Peter Pan & Wendy

    Yes, this is another live-action remake of a classic Disney cartoon, which might not seem too enticing after last year’s dismal Pinocchio (the Robert Zemeckis one, not the Guillermo del Toro one). But Peter Pan & Wendy is directed by David Lowery, who made the boldest of the Disney remakes, Pete’s Dragon, and whose other projects, such as The Green Knight and A Ghost Story, rank as some of the strangest, most haunting American films of recent times. “I think, personally speaking, it’s my favourite thing I’ve ever made,” Lowery told Jeff Sneider at Collider. “I went into it thinking that my entryway into this movie was that I’ve got a classic case of Peter Pan syndrome. I don’t want to grow up. Who does? And I thought that was what was going to appeal to me about it, but in making it… I’ve realised that this is a movie about me letting go of that… It’s the first movie I’ve made from an adult perspective, if that makes any sense.”

    Released on 28 April on Disney Plus

    (Credit: Universal Pictures)

    (Credit: Universal Pictures)

    5. Renfield

    Chris McKay, the director of The Lego Batman Movie, takes on another type of batman in Renfield, a romantic horror comedy. Nicolas Cage plays the swaggering Count Dracula, who is alive and well (or at least undead and well) in present-day New Orleans. Nicholas Hoult co-stars as his long-suffering, insect-eating servant, Renfield, and Awkwafina plays the traffic cop who convinces Renfield that hunting down innocent victims to feed to a vampire isn’t the ideal career. The trailer looks fun, but the exciting part is the prospect of seeing Cage sinking his teeth into such a juicy role. “The concept of Dracula, in itself, is a challenge,” Cage said in Total Film. “It’s been done so many times already… I certainly admire Christopher Lee and Frank Langella and Bela Lugosi and Gary [Oldman]. But I wanted to see if I could bring something fresh to the character. And I always knew I had to do it at some point.”

    On general release on 14 April

    (Credit: A24)

    6. Showing Up

    Films about artists tend to choose world-renowned geniuses (Mr Turner, Surviving Picasso) or outsiders who struggled to get the recognition they deserved (Maudie, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain). Kelly Reichardt’s comedy drama, Showing Up, looks instead at those artists who get on with the job, day in and day out, even though they’re unlikely ever to become rich or famous. Michelle Williams stars as Lizzie, a sculptor who is hurrying to complete a batch of clay figures for a solo show in Portland, but keeps getting distracted by her friends and relatives, an injured pigeon and a faulty boiler that her landlady (Hong Chau) never gets around to fixing. Showing Up is “an absolute, wry joy of a little comedy about making art and living life,” says Alissa Wilkinson in Vox. “The film feels pulled from familiar reality for anyone who’s ever tried to make creative work – and it’s quiet, clever, and a whole lot of fun.”

    Released on 7 April in the US and on 14 April in Canada

    (Credit: Les Films Pélleas)

    (Credit: Les Films Pélleas)

    7. One Fine Morning

    Best known for playing James Bond’s on-off girlfriend in Spectre and No Time to Die, Léa Seydoux is a somewhat different single mother in One Fine Morning (Un Beau Matin), a bittersweet romantic comedy drama written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. Seydoux’s character is a widowed interpreter who lives in Paris. She spends half her free time looking after her eight-year-old daughter, and the other half looking after her father (Pascal Gregory), a retired philosophy professor who now has dementia. When she has an affair with a married friend, Clément (Melvil Poupaud), it’s the first time in years that she has thought of her own needs, rather than those of others. “Hansen-Løve’s work is heartfelt yet profound, emotionally and mentally engaging in ways few films dare to balance,” says Monica Castillo at RogerEbert.com.

    Released on 14 April in the UK and Finland

    (Credit: Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

    (Credit: Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

    8. Little Richard: I Am Everything

    Little Richard was never given his due. The pompadoured, pencil-moustached Richard Penniman, who died in 2020, was one of the founding fathers of rock ‘n’ roll, but his record company kept most of his royalties; white singers recorded sanitised copies of Tutti Frutti and his other piano-pounding hits; and commentators saw him as too camp to be taken seriously as a revolutionary performer. But now a documentary directed by Lisa Cortés redresses the balance, with the help of such fans as Mick Jagger and John Waters. According to Owen Gleiberman in Variety, it’s “the enthralling documentary that Little Richard deserves. It’s a movie that understands, from the inside out, what a great and transgressive artist he was, how his starburst brilliance shifted the whole energy of the culture – but also how the astonishing radical nature of what he did, from almost the moment it happened, got shoved under the rug of the official narrative of rock ‘n’ roll.” Fabulous soundtrack, too.

    Released on 21 April in the US and 28 April in the UK

    (Credit: Alamy)

    9. Evil Dead Rise

    It’s appropriate that the Evil Dead franchise keeps roaring back to life. Sam Raimi made three gory horror comedies starring his friend Bruce Campbell between 1981 and 1992. Then came a version from a different director in 2013. And that was followed by a TV series, Ash vs Evil Dead, that ran from 2015 to 2018. Now comes a new chapter, written and directed by Lee Cronin. Lily Sullivan stars as a woman who is visiting her sister, Alyssa Sutherland, when a sinister book unleashes all sorts of demonic nastiness. “Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise is a blood-soaked blast,” says Marisa Mirabal in IndieWire. “He summons all of the best aspects of the franchise, while still creating a beast all his own that can boldly stand apart from the series. This is the kind of horror film that makes audiences fall in love with the genre all over again.”

    On general release on 21 April

    (Credit: Universal Pictures)

    (Credit: Universal Pictures)

    10. The Super Mario Bros Movie

    Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros is one of the best-selling and most highly acclaimed video games ever made. The spin-off film wasn’t quite so successful. Starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, it was a notorious box-office flop when it came out in 1993, which could be why it’s taken 30 years for someone to attempt a reboot. But here it is at last, a cartoon from the directors of Teen Titans Go!. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day provide the voices of the Italian-American plumbers who are zapped to a planet of intelligent mushrooms and turtles. Anya Taylor-Joy voices the heroine, Princess Peach, Jack Black voices Bowser, who is intent on conquering her realm, and Seth Rogen voices an arcade icon, Donkey Kong. Pratt’s casting upset some fans, as he doesn’t have any Italian heritage, but, if nothing else, this Super Mario Bros. film is sure to be an improvement on the last one.

    On general release on 5 April

    (Credit: A24 / Alamy)

    11. Beau is Afraid

    Be afraid, be very afraid, as Ari Aster follows his arthouse horror dramas, Hereditary and Midsommar, with a film that appears to be just as unnerving but even more bizarre. Joaquin Phoenix stars as a middle-aged man who promises to visit his clingy mother. But when he steps out of his apartment, he finds that people are rioting in the street. He is then run over by a couple played by Amy Ryan and Nathan Lane, who go on to trap him in their house. His efforts to escape take him through several different decades and dimensions – or so the trailer suggests. The plot details are still tantalisingly mysterious, but the film’s eerie surrealism, sprawling scope, and existential gloom recall the work of Charlie Kaufman.

    Released on 21 April in the US and Iceland, 27 April in Greece, and 27 April in Spain, Norway and Sweden

    Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world.

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  • Reese Witherspoon, husband Jim Toth filing for divorce

    Reese Witherspoon, husband Jim Toth filing for divorce

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    Academy Award-winning actress and producer Reese Witherspoon and her husband Jim Toth announced their impending divorce Friday on Instagram.

    “It is with a great deal of care and consideration that we have made the difficult decision to divorce,” the pair said in a signed Instagram post. “We have enjoyed so many wonderful years together and are moving forward with deep love, kindness, and mutual respect for everything we have created together.”

    The announcement comes days before what would have been the couple’s 12th anniversary.

    The couple said their “biggest priority is our son and out entire family as we navigate this next chapter.”


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