Writer and executive producer Lizzy Goodman calls her book and its corresponding documentary “ultimately a story about kids being young and trying to find themselves and coming of age in New York in the context of these larger cultural forces that were going on at the same time.”
In the spring of 2011, months before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Lizzy Goodman had just turned 30. In the same week, she saw the Strokes and what was supposed to be LCD Soundsystem’s final show at Madison Square Garden. She could sense the end of an era creeping in. That was when she first had the idea for what would become her 2017 best-selling oral history, Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City, which chronicles the booming music scene of downtown New York from 2001 to 2011 and the rise of era-defining bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, the Moldy Peaches, the Strokes, and LCD Soundsystem. “I felt this sense of wistfulness for what was no longer. It was a clear moment—no sadness, but wistfulness,” Goodman tells Vanity Fair. “I had that feeling of being like, Wow, we’ve kind of grown up.”
Simultaneously, directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern were making a documentary, Shut Up and Play the Hits, about that very same LCD Soundsystem show at Madison Square Garden. A few years later, an advance copy of Meet Me in the Bathroom landed in front of them.
In a full circle turn of events, Goodman soon received a text from Interpol frontman Paul Banks about someone wanting to turn her book into a documentary. After a series of meetings, Lovelace and Southern took on the project and adapted Goodman’s book into a sort of visual time capsule of the same name, Meet Me in the Bathroom. The documentary weaves together gritty archival footage and raw, reflective interviews with key figures to retell the story of a bygone era of New York City.
Vanity Fair met with Goodman, who is an executive producer on the documentary, over Zoom to discuss the early-aughts origins of her book, coming of age in New York, and the rampant indie-sleaze revival.
Vanity Fair:Your oral history,Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City,which came out in 2017, was a dose of nostalgia for those who lived it and a sort of education for a younger generation. But it also ended up being a snapshot of a crucial piece of recent American history unfolding. How did you balance telling the story of this specific scene within the larger cultural context of the political, technological, and cultural shifts happening at the time?
Lizzy Goodman: I felt like I do when I’m pitching any magazine story: the urge to put my skills to use, setting the stage for what is ultimately a story about kids being young and trying to find themselves and coming of age in New York in the context of these larger cultural forces that were going on at the same time. I worked on it for six years and interviewed over 200 people. It was this huge monster. I eventually reached a point in the middle of writing it when I started to try to assemble all those narratives, and there was this moment of realizing that I would need to solve the exact problem you just addressed: Am I writing a book about those things, those big think themes, or am I writing a book using this cast of characters, the bands, to talk about that? Or am I writing a book about these people and weaving those themes into the story? The answer very, very, very, much was the latter. I think of it very much as a story about young people coming to the city in this myth-of-New York way, something that has been happening for generations. This is the time capsule of that, and then there are all these themes that had to come through the narratives of these individual people.
LOS ANGELES — As the former captain in charge of the Hollywood Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, Cory Palka was a star himself.
The towering cop with a telegenic smile hobnobbed with celebrities getting stars on the Walk of Fame, ran security for the Oscars awards show and even landed a bit part playing himself on the television drama “Bosch” about a talented but troubled maverick LAPD detective.
But Palka’s ties to the entertainment industry and his allegiances were under scrutiny Thursday after prosecutors said he leaked a sexual assault victim’s confidential police report to the accused, former CBS leader Les Moonves, for whom Palka served as a private bodyguard for years.
The LAPD said it was conducting an internal affairs investigation into Palka’s conduct and the state attorney general was probing any criminal elements after a report said he conspired with CBS to conceal sexual assault allegations against Moonves.
The report, which didn’t name Palka, was part of a settlement announced Wednesday by New York Attorney General Letitia James in which CBS and Moonves, its former president, agreed to pay $30.5 million. About $6 million is going to sexual assault and harassment programs. The rest will go to shareholders kept in the dark while executives tried to prevent allegations from becoming public and at least one benefited by unloading shares before news broke.
Weeks after the #MeToo movement erupted with sex abuse allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2017, Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb reported to police in the Hollywood Division that she had been sexually assaulted by Moonves in 1986 and 1988 when they worked together at Lorimar Productions, the studio behind “Dallas” and “Knots Landing.”
A law enforcement official briefed on the matter confirmed that Golden-Gottlieb, who died this summer, was the woman involved in the leak by Palka. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
Jim Gottlieb said in an email to The Associated Press that he was “shocked and very disappointed” that his mother’s report was leaked to CBS. He said his mother was never looking for money, she just didn’t want Moonves to “get away with what he did” and was satisfied that her report contributed to his downfall.
“We would like to think the police are looking out for us, the victims, and not the perpetrators,” Gottlieb said. “This sounds just like what you hear about certain police departments being in cahoots with organized crime.”
Attorney Gloria Allred, who represented Golden-Gottlieb, said in nearly a half-century of legal practice, she had never heard of police tipping off a suspect to an investigation and said it could have a chilling effect on other women coming forward to report abuse.
“It’s very, very disturbing,” Allred said. “It’s really outrageous if they did that. And I have to ask, what were their motives if that, in fact occurred? Why were they, for example, trying to curry favor with CBS? Did they receive anything in return?”
Golden-Gottlieb went public with her accusations at the time Ronan Farrow reported on allegations against Moonves in The New Yorker in September 2018. Within hours of that publication, Moonves quit.
Nearly a year earlier, the ink was just drying on her police report — which was marked “confidential” in three places — when Palka tipped off CBS, the report said. Palka then met personally with Moonves and another CBS executive.
The New York AG’s report said the complainant had requested confidentiality. It cited the California Constitution, which prohibits disclosure of confidential information to “a defendant, a defendant’s attorney, or any other person acting on behalf of the defendant that could be used to locate or harass the victim or the victim’s family.”
The captain told CBS that he instructed police officers investigating the complaint to “admonish” the woman not to go to the media with her allegations. He also put CBS officials in touch with the lead investigator.
CBS immediately went into damage control mode, with an executive alerting a member of the news staff to stay close to the phone because they “have a situation.” He told another staffer not to miss any messages and added: “I wouldn’t bother you if this wasn’t serious.”
When the allegations ultimately became public, Palka sent a note to a CBS contact saying, “We worked so hard to try to avoid this day.” He sent Moonves a note saying he was sorry and, “I will always stand with, by and pledge my allegiance to you.”
From 2008 to 2014, Palka had provided private security for Moonves at the Grammy Awards, which CBS produced.
Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School and former president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, said a police officer has to adhere to legal and ethical obligations as a member of the force and can’t violate those duties when providing private security. Typically, those two roles wouldn’t be in conflict.
“The question is on a case by case basis as to whether or not it leads to divided loyalty,” Levinson said. “But the truth is, most of the time it really shouldn’t be a tough call.”
Patti Giggans, executive director of the nonprofit Peace Over Violence in Los Angeles, said she expects the scandal to have repercussions that extend beyond victims being afraid to report assaults to the LAPD to advocates reevaluating relationships they have built with detectives.
Palka, who retired as a commander last year after nearly 35 years with LAPD, said in his LinkedIn profile that he grew up with eight siblings in a low-income housing project in the Mar Vista community and had spent most of his life in Los Angeles.
Video footage of Palka went viral during the racial injustice protests in Los Angeles in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death when he took a knee with protesters on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
He was incident commander at the Academy Awards and “numerous high profile events related to the entertainment industry,” his profile said.
In Hollywood, he was a frequent fixture on red carpets and at Walk of Fame ceremonies, posing with celebrities like Lynda Carter, Jack Black and Stacy Keach. He was personally thanked during Mark Hamill’s star ceremony and posed with Hamill, Harrison Ford and George Lucas.
The Hollywood Chamber Community Foundation’s honored him in 2019 as one of the “Heroes of Hollywood.”
“Celebrity always equates to power and influence,” said attorney Debra Katz, who specializes in sexual-harassment law. “It becomes very troubling when you have a town of celebrities that have access to the police — when they have a dual role where they provide security and they hobnob with one another.”
Palka did not return requests for comment Thursday, nor did an attorney for Moonves and CBS.
Moonves acknowledged having relations with three of his accusers, but said they were consensual. He denied attacking anyone, saying in a statement at the time that “Untrue allegations from decades ago are now being made against me.”
The Los Angeles County district attorney declined to file criminal charges against Moonves in 2018, saying the statute of limitations from Golden-Gottlieb’s allegations had expired.
———
Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed.
NEW YORK — Disputing allegations in a rape lawsuit, Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis testified Thursday that his accuser sometimes seemed “conflicted” during their initial kisses but then started taking initiative.
Taking the witness stand for a second day in a civil trial, Haggis portrayed the woman, Haleigh Breest, as a willing partner in their lone sexual interaction.
Breest, 36, testified earlier in the civil trial that she repeatedly and clearly told Haggis, 69, that she wasn’t interested in sex with him. She said the “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby” screenwriter forced her to perform oral sex and then raped her as she implored him to stop.
In Haggis’ telling, Breest — a publicist who worked at movie premieres — flirted with him at a January 2013 screening afterparty before accompanying him to his Manhattan apartment for a drink. He agrees that she told him upfront that she wouldn’t spend the night, but he said it seemed a “playful” remark.
Once they arrived, he made a pass within minutes.
In hours of testimony, Haggis acknowledged that Breest was sometimes reluctant about what he said were five different episodes of kissing.
He said he told her at one point: “If you want to do something, do it. If you don’t want to do it, don’t do it.”
“She seemed conflicted in some way,” Haggis said.
But with each kiss, he said, Breest seemed to gain confidence and reassured him by initiating the kissing when he expressed the ambivalence he was started to feel.
By the time they reached a guest bedroom, Breest seemed “confident” as they began kissing and eventually poured onto a guestroom bed, Haggis said. He recalled that she “giggled” as their physical activity became more heated and they shed some clothing.
He said that eventually, she moved him in position to receive oral sex, saying: “I’m good at this.”
“The way she said it was kind of adorable,” Haggis said.
He said he had “no knowledge” and “no memory” of vaginally penetrating her.
“I didn’t know if it occurred or not,” he said.
He said he fell asleep and eventually went to his bedroom while she was sleeping. When he discovered in the morning that she was gone, he was disappointed she hadn’t left a note with her phone number, he said.
In Breest’s account, she didn’t reciprocate Haggis’ two attempts to kiss her, once while pinning her against a refrigerator, but didn’t leave because she didn’t want to offend a frequent premiere guest. She testified that he later pushed her on a bed, pulled her clothes off, aggressively demanded oral sex and — after she took a shower — raped her.
Haggis emailed her the next day about photos from the prior night’s premiere. He said he hoped the reply would include her number. It didn’t.
When they met at another event 10 days later, she was smiling and friendly, Haggis recalled, adding that their encounter was “a little awkward,” as sometimes happens after an initial sexual experience with someone.
He said he decided two days later that she was “too emotionally immature” and stopped responding to her emails.
Afterward, Haggis said, Breest would be “noticeably absent” from her usual red-carpet post whenever he brought a girlfriend to events where she worked. But he said she was friendly and behaved normally when he didn’t have a woman on his arm during the 4 1/2 years between their sexual encounter and the filing of her lawsuit.
He said he never told anyone about his night with Breest. When his lawyer asked him how often he thought about it, he responded: “Honest to God, never.”
Haggis was also asked why he opposed providing DNA in connection with the lawsuit.
He said his only concern was that it would fall into the hands of Scientologists because he had a “growing suspicion” that they had a role in the lawsuit. His defense has suggested the case is payback for Haggis’ public criticism of the Church of Scientology, which he left in 2009.
The church and Breest’s lawyers have called that argument a bogus conspiracy theory.
Haggis’ lawyers have agreed that Breest has no ties to Scientology. No witnesses have testified that they have specific proof linking the church to her lawyers or to four women other than Breest who testified that Haggis also sexually assaulted them.
Haggis denied the other women’s allegations in emotional testimony, adding that he felt “humiliated” while testifying about the accusations as his adult daughters watched from the courtroom audience. At one point, he asked for a brief break, heading out of court with one daughter’s arm around him.
“I’m scared,” he later told the jury, “because I don’t know why women, why anyone, would lie about things like this.”
Cross examination that began Thursday was to continue Friday. One early score for Breest’s lawyers came when Haggis was confronted with the fact that DNA helped show that seminal fluid found on the interior crotch area of the tights that Breest kept from the night with Haggis belonged to him.
Haggis testified that he had no memory of ejaculating that night.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Breest has done.
Shelley Duvall is returning to the big screen, 20 years after her last film role.
Duvall, 73, is in the upcoming horror movie “The Forest Hills,” which follows a man named Rico, played by Chiko Mendez, who goes on a dark journey in the Catskills. Duvall plays his mother.
Duvall’s fame skyrocketed after sge starred in another thriller, Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film “The Shining.”
She last acted in 2002’s “Manna From Heaven,” and then announced she would be retiring from Hollywood.
The cast of “Forest Hills” also includes “The Howling” star Dee Wallace and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” star Edward Furlong.
The movie is written and directed by Scott Goldberg.
“In a weird way, I feel like it is a time capsule of things – a period of my life where I look back, and I actually feel bad for that version of myself,” Gomez told Entertainment Tonight. “I think that it was good for me to see how I was responding to my body, the way that I was acting and the way it was so irrational in moments, and I think it was really healing for me to see that and get it out.”
When asked if she had any advice for her younger self, Gomez said she wished she took a break when she needed it.
“I think my advice is to not be afraid. I never actually was afraid to tell people that I wanna take time for myself. I never thought that was a bad thing,” she said. “So, to be sharing something honest and say, ‘Hey, I’m taking a break because I need it?’ I’m being honest, and I think that’s just who I am.”
The documentary covers Gomez’s health and personal life, along with her online mental health platform, Wondermind.
Gomez also currently stars in Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.”
Out of the way, losers. The gays are coming through.
We’re sick of being the butt of jokes. The side characters. The ones that die first. The ones that die offscreen. The ones that don’t even get the chance to die because we weren’t even in the movies in the first place. We want to be the stars of the movies, and we wanna confuse the hell out of Mike Pence while we do it.
It’s coming. A new day is dawning. A glorious gay sun is rising in the east. The future is now, and thank fuck we’re doing it. We’re getting there. We’re clawing our way into the mainstream and someday we will sit atop the mountain of pop culture, laughing and weeping at how far we’ve come. There shall come a day when I don’t have to write “Best LGBTQ+ Movies” articles because we’ll be in every movie. Pride month will be every month. And people will be allowed to love who they want to love and be who they want to be in a glorious LGBTQ utopia that shall usher in a new era of peace and gay prosperity.
And no, I’m not being facetious. I actually do believe that this will happen someday. Not in my lifetime, but sooner than I think.
And so to celebrate the upcoming Rainbow Age of Cinema, I’m making a list of all the best LGBTQ movies that walked so the future of gay film could fly.
Let The Right One In
image: Sandrew Metronome
This film is one of the finest queer horror stories in existence. Billed as a “romantic horror,” the film centers on a shy 12 year old boy named Oskar, who forms a relationship with an adolescent vampire of indeterminate gender named Eli. The boy and his vampire paramour do all sorts of romantic things together! Like killing people! Well, Eli kills people. Oskar isn’t really a fan, but will defend Eli from the people who are trying to hunt the vampire down. The film is a gorgeous portrayal of friendship and first love, and features one of the sweetest and simultaneously horrifying endings in cinematic history.
Portrait of a Lady On Fire
(Image Credit: Lilies Films/Arte/Hold Up Films)
My god, the female gaze piping hot in this film. It’s a movie set in the 18th century about a young painter named Marianne, who is commissioned to paint a noblewoman named Heloise before the latter is married off to some schmuck. As Marianne starts painting Heloise, the two begin to develop feelings for each other. And lord, the painting sequences before they actually get together are kind of the best part? They spend all day gazing at each other, painter and subject, observer and observed. They get to know each other so well that they know exactly how the other is feeling based on the minute movements of their face. It’s witheringly romantic.
In a world where the emotions of women are ignored and denigrated, watching these two women find solace, comfort, and understanding in each other is beautiful to behold. It’s also deeply erotic. Go outside and stare at someone for five minutes without breaking eye contact. If they don’t run away screaming, odds are they’re probably going to fall madly in love with you. One could argue that prolonged observation of another person while they observe you is more intimate than sex itself. In the bedroom, you can always close your eyes and turn the lights out. In the cold light of day, someone looking straight into your soul through your eyeballs makes you more naked than you ever thought you could be.
Paris Is Burning
(Image Credit: Academy Entertainment/Off-White Productions)
This documentary is an invaluable exploration of the Golden Age of ball culture that was pioneered by Black and Latinx LGBTQ communities in New York City in the 1980s. It features interviews with many of the most influential performers of the time, who offer insight into their lives, relationships, struggle to succeed in what they describe as a “rich, white word.” The film explores how members of the ball community deal with homophobia, racism, the AIDS epidemic, homelessness, and poverty. While the film doesn’t pull punches in showing the grim reality of the world of its subjects, it also speaks as a testament to their strength, tenacity, and sense of humor in the face of hardship.
Angels In America
(Image credit: Avenue pictures/HBO films)
Angels In America is a movie in the way that The Irishman is a movie, it’s over four hours long. It’s technically a miniseries, but technically the word “technically” is something that only douchebags use to disqualify things. Adapted from the Tony Award winning stage play by Tony Kushner, the story is a self described “Gay Fantasia On National Themes” that were prevalent in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With all an all star cast including Al Pacino and Meryl Streep, the film explores the AIDS epidemic, the fraught relationship between left wing and right wing politics, capitalism, and organized religion. The film also features an angel with eight vaginas that bursts through the ceiling of the main character’s room and tells him that he’s a prophet. You know, typical Tuesday night kind of shit.
It is one of the best written pieces of dramatic literature of all time, and features some stellar acting performances from its cast. It’s one of my personal favorite films of all time, and the source material might just be the greatest play of the 20th century.
Brokeback Mountain
(Image Credit: River Road Entertainment)
The early ’00s were an ugly time for LGBTQ representation in cinema. Don’t even get me fucking started on the travesty that is the ending of Ace Ventura. Even though “gay” was the butt of every joke at the time, somehow this movie managed to make it through to the mainstream in what I consider to be a cultural miracle. This film is one of the few early mainstream queer films that attempted to portray a gay relationship with a shred of dignity. The story is about gay cowboys, plain and simple. Hollywood hotties Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play two tough as nails Wyoming cowhands in the early 1960s, who end up falling in love with one another. The problem is, they can’t square the love that they have for each other with the rest their lives. Be prepared, this movie will make you cry.
Carol
(The Weinstein Company)
What would this list be without the film that inspired the iconic “Harold, they’re lesbians” meme? Set in the 1950s, the film focuses on an aspiring photographer named Therese Belivet who works at a department store. One day, she meets the elegant Carol while the latter is shopping for her daughter, and the two instantly form a connection. Carol later invites Therese to her house, and their relationship deepens. If you’re a fan of stolen glances, yearning looks, and ridiculous amounts of sexual tension, this is the film for you. It also features one of cinema’s very best “I love you” confessions of all time. You cannot miss this one.
Moonlight
(A24)
Perhaps the most beautifully shot film on this list, Moonlight is a tender and painful portrayal of the struggles of queer men of color. The film follows the life of Chiron from boyhood to adulthood, centering on key moments throughout his life. These vignettes range from achingly beautiful to horrifyingly violent. We experience Chiron’s first kiss, his fights with his homophobic mother, and his journey of self acceptance. The film is regarded as one of the finest pieces of cinema of the 21st century, and was the first LGBTQ film to win an academy award.
Boys Don’t Cry
(Credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Boys Don’t Cry is a story inspired by the life and death of a trans man named Brandon Teena. The real life Brandon Teena was raped by two men after they discovered he was transgender, and they later murdered him and one of his friends while his girlfriend Lana begged them for mercy. Yes, the film is brutal. However, it is also gorgeous portrayal of queer romance. Brandon and Lana’s relationship is sweet, tender, and ultimately tragic. While some viewers may find the subject matter to be hard to stomach, the film remains a groundbreaking piece of queer cinema. It is worth a watch, even through tears.
Tangerine
(Magnolia Pictures)
Tangerine is a film about a transgender sex worker named Sin-Dee Rella who is hunting down her pimp’s girlfriend on Christmas Eve. And it’s delightful. The film itself is a comedy shot entirely on entirely on an iPhone camera, which is impressive in its own right. However, it is the performances of Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor that carry this film to cinematic glory. Their perfomances as Sin-Dee and her best friend Mya are charming, hilarious, and unbelievably tender. The film isn’t afraid to portray to cruel realities that transgender women of color face living in America, but doesn’t overfocus on it either. Primarily the film is about the loving relationship these two women have for each other. If you’re looking for a queer Christmas movie, look no further.
The Matrix
(Image Credit: Warner Bros)
Hot take incoming! While on the surface the 1999 sci-fi blockbuster The Matrix doesn’t seem like a queer film, it totally is. The directors of the film, the Wachowski siblings, have formally stated that The Matrix is a transgender allegory. And it checks out. As a transgender person myself, I get it. The cisnormative world is essentially a “matrix.” It is a flimsy representation of reality, where everyone fits into a neat little package marked “boy” or “girl” that is decided by chromosomes and genitalia. HOWEVER, there are people in this “matrix” that know that something doesn’t quite add up. When one discovers one is transgender, it is not unlike taking the “red pill” and seeing that this cisnormative matrix is not “natural” or “real” but was actually carefully designed by those in power (the machines in the case of the film). The Wachowski siblings knew that the culture of the late 1999s was nowhere near ready for an idea like this, so they cleverly packaged it in a film that audiences were ready for: one about a straight white man fighting robots. Genius.
Rumor has it, Adele isn’t just a great singer – she’s also great at career advice. That is, at least, according to Jennifer Lawrence.
In an interview with the New York Times published on Wednesday, the Oscar-winning actress reflected on her career and some sage advice the superstar singer once gave her that, in hindsight, she wishes she’d heeded.
Regarding her 2016 movie “Passengers,” which co-starred Chris Pratt and stands as one of the less acclaimed films of her decorated career, Lawrence said, “Adele told me not to do it! She was like, ‘I feel like space movies are the new vampire movies.’ I should have listened to her.”
“Passengers” recounts the journey of two interstellar travelers who wake up from hypersleep aboard a ship a full 90 years ahead of schedule and are forced to live out their lives alone, unlike everyone else, who will wake when they reach their intended destination.
In addition to only receiving a 30% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, ranking among her five worst-reviewed films on the site,“Passengers” brought up some pretty challenging issues with consent, as Pratt’s character actually opens his female companion’s sleep pod deliberately, out of his loneliness and frustration at his predicament.
In this week’s interview, Lawrence mentions “Passengers” as one the movies in her post-“Hunger Games” career that ended up not being the best decision, eventually prompting her to step away from the limelight out of worry that she was being overexposed to her fanbase.
“I was like, ‘Oh no, you guys are here because I’m here, and I’m here because you’re here. Wait, who decided that this was a good movie?’” the actress told the Times.
After last appearing in big budget franchise film “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” in 2019, Lawrence starred in last year’s Oscar-nominated dark ensemble comedy “Don’t Look Up” opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep.
She’s next set to appear in “Causeway,” out this week on Apple TV+, portraying a veteran from the war in Afghanistan who comes home after a traumatic brain injury and tries to reintegrate back into daily life.
One really has to work at it to dislike “Weird Al” Yankovic. The accordion-wielding musician who somehow became an icon of the 1980s and 90s with his moronic parody versions of popular songs is largely impervious to criticism. He’s annoying, you say? No duh, would be the appropriate response. And after decades of delighting fans (and wrenching begrudging chuckles out of others) there are few performers more deserving of a career-topping victory lap.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a light and amusing romp very in much in tune with the dorky-and-proud aesthetic that has made its subject an unlikely household name. It’s also about as real of a movie as a “Weird Al” album is real music. I mean, sure, there are images on screen, just like instruments were put to tape, but for heaven’s sake let’s not scrutinize the craft in this too heavily. It’s a collection of jokes, some a little more clever than others, but when that’s done well, it’s well enough. Plus some polka.
Co-written and co-produced by Yankovic himself (his first significant exercise in motion pictures since his daffy 1989 sketch collection UHF) the low-budget faux-biopic has two tremendous aces up its sleeve. Firstly, it has zero interest in telling you the actual Al Yankovic story; any honest-to-polka facts about the parodist’s life that made it into the movie seem to be purely coincidental. (It only takes a few minutes before that’s abundantly clear, with Toby Huss as Papa Yankovic beating the snot out of a traveling accordion salesman for trying to bring “the devil’s squeeze box” into his home.) Second, there’s Yankovic passing the signature Bermuda shirt, enormous glasses, and shag of curly hair to Daniel Radcliffe.
Radcliffe’s zeal for the role is contagious. He’s basically doing an extended Saturday Night Live appearance, but he commands your attention as the driven song parodist who becomes a multi-platinum-selling artist with the ego and platinum jewelry to match. Many of the story beats follow typical musical biopics (indeed, this whole project began as a fake trailer that Yankovic used to psych up the audience on tour) so there’s an added level of parody here. Alas, one can not help but compare Weird at times to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, but the fact is that occasionally Weird tells the truth. “My Bologna,” Yankovic’s parody of The Knack’s “My Sharona” was, indeed, recorded in a bathroom for its good acoustics.
While Weird (and Yankovic’s career) has one foot in the extremely popular—Evan Rachel Wood is very funny as Madonna, who, in this version of reality, becomes Yankovic’s lover/puppet master/eventual…well, you’ll see—it maintains a tight connection to its MAD magazine roots. Like this year’s Funny Pages, which reminds viewers that, until only very recently, comic books were for outcasts only, Weird is a nice window into a pop culture freakshow of a mostly gone era. Yankovic’s real-life mentor, Dr. Demento (a DJ, not a doctor), played by Rainn Wilson, is hilarious as the ringleader of a band of social reprobates. A party scene is a who’s who of comics and celebs portraying legends: Conan O’Brien as Andy Warhol is just one of about a dozen.
While Weird goes down easy (and has a few out-of-nowhere zings that really kill) it does drag at times. I mean, has anyone listened to an entire “Weird Al” album in one sitting? The polka medleys are great, but eventually, they get tiresome. A tangent in which “Weird Al” and Madonna race off to fight Pablo Escobar is a great moment to head into the kitchen to see if there’s any leftover rocky road.
It’s also perfectly “Weird Al” that this movie should be released by The Roku Channel, current home to all the orphaned Quibi content. (Seriously.) At first blush this may sound quite limiting—as if Yankovic’s 1984 breakout In 3-D were only available on 8-track—but this is apparently not the case. A publicist has assured me that one need not have a Roku device to watch the movie, all you need to do is go to their website. You don’t even have to set up an account if you don’t want to. (And there will be ads in there either way.)
To be honest, that’s a shame. You should need a special talisman of sorts, like a decoder ring, or knowledge of the secrets from a MAD fold-in, to gain access. Like the young Alfie Yankovic secretly tuning in to Dr. Demento on his transistor radio, the idea of misfit moths working a little extra-hard to find this weird flame is the effort that’s missing in a lot of comedy these days. And it’s what drove “Weird Al” to become the … whatever the heck it is that he eventually became. You don’t need to be a fan of the accordion-toting Yankovic to get some enjoyment and laughs out of the gleefully absurd Weird, but it sure wouldn’t hurt either.
Radcliffe, 33, walked the carpet at the New York City premiere of his new film, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”, at the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn on Tuesday, and he spoke with ET about the beloved actor, who played Rubeus Hagrid in the celebrated series of films.
“Honestly, just Robbie was incredibly funny, and when you’re a young kid on a set you can get bored, and I think Robbie just recognized that we needed to kind of be entertained a little bit, at first,” recalled Radcliffe — who was just 12 when filming the first Harry Potter film.
“He was incredibly funny, with accents, impressions, and just, he was lovely with us,” Radcliffe added with a smile.
While speaking with ET on Tuesday, Radcliffe also opened up about his new film, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”, in which he portrays a largely fictionalized version of the famed accordion-toting parody musician.
Radcliffe admitted that, while he’d heard some of Yankovic’s iconic comedy songs in his childhood, he didn’t really get into them until he was truly introduced by his girlfriend, Erin Darke, and her family.
“I probably heard some of his songs when I was a teenager first, but when I really got into it was when I started dating my girlfriend about 10 years ago,” he shared. “Her and her whole family are like devoted and obsessed Weird Al fans.”
Given that, it seems like Radcliffe playing the musician would get him some real points with his girlfriend’s family, but the actor cautioned, “They haven’t seen it yet, so we’ll see.”
‘But if they like it, then yeah! That’ll be great,” he added. “I got genuinely nervous when I was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna have to tell them I’m playing Weird Al.’”
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” — which also stars Evan Rachel Wood and Rainn Wilson — premieres exclusively on Roku Nov. 4.
NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash said Monday that he hopes the organization will grow together in the aftermath of Kyrie Irving sharing the link to an antisemitic film on his social media platforms.
The star guard for the Nets posted a link for the film “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” on Twitter on Thursday. The synopsis on Amazon said the film “uncovers the true identity of the Children of Israel.”
Irving has been criticized for sharing the link by the NBA, the Anti-Defamation League and Nets owner Joe Tsai, among others.
During his pregame availability Monday, Nash said he has not been involved in the discussions between organizational decision makers and Irving regarding his handling of the situation and whether there was internal consideration to enact disciplinary action.
“We know there’s always an opportunity for us to grow and understand new perspectives,” Nash said. “And I think the organization is trying to take that stance or they may communicate through this, and try to all come out in a better position and with more understanding and more empathy for every side of this debate and situation.”
Irving said Saturday he embraced all religions and defiantly defended his right to post whatever he believes.
“I’m not going to stand down on anything I believe in,” Irving said. “I’m only going to get stronger because I’m not alone. I have a whole army around me.”
Irving took down the tweet Sunday night.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports
Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving said that he is “not going to stand down on anything I believe in” after he was condemned by the owner of his NBA team for tweeting a link to a documentary deemed to be antisemitic.
The star guard tweeted a link Thursday to the 2018 movie “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” which is based on Ronald Dalton’s book of the same name. Rolling Stone described the book and movie as “stuffed with antisemitic tropes.”
In a fraught post-game press conference after the Nets lost to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday, Irving defended his decision to post a link to the documentary.
“In terms of the backlash, we’re in 2022, history is not supposed to be hidden from anybody and I’m not a divisive person when it comes to religion, I embrace all walks of life,” he said.
“So the claims of antisemitism and who are the original chosen people of God and we go into these religious conversations and it’s a big no, no, I don’t live my life that way.”
Several organizations have condemned Irving’s tweet, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the NBA, the Brooklyn Nets, and Nets’ owner Joe Tsai.
“I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation,” Nets owner Joe Tsai tweeted Friday night.
“I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”
Tsai added, “This is bigger than basketball.”
Irving said in the press conference that he “respects what Joe [Tsai] said,” but claimed that he had not tweeted something harmful.
“Did I do anything illegal? Did I hurt anybody, did I harm anybody? Am I going out and saying that I hate one specific group of people?”
“It’s on Amazon, a public platform, whether you want to go watch it or not, is up to you,” Irving said. “There’s things being posted every day. I’m no different than the next human being, so don’t treat me any different.”
CNN has asked Amazon for comment but, at the time of publication, had not received a response.
At the same time, Irving acknowledged his “unique position” to influence his community, but said “what I post does not mean that I support everything that’s being said or everything that’s being done or I’m campaigning for anything.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, in a tweet on Friday called Irving’s social media post “troubling.”
“The book and film he promotes trade in deeply #antisemitic themes, including those promoted by dangerous sects of the Black Hebrew Israelites movement. Irving should clarify now.”
The Nets also spoke out against the star guard’s tweet.
“The Brooklyn Nets strongly condemn and have no tolerance for the promotion of any form of hate speech,” the team said in a statement to CNN.
“We believe that in these situations, our first action must be open, honest dialogue. We thank those, including the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), who have been supportive during this time.”
The NBA issued a statement saying, “Hate speech of any kind is unacceptable and runs counter to the NBA’s values of equality, inclusion and respect.
“We believe we all have a role to play in ensuring such words or ideas, including antisemitic ones, are challenged and refuted and we will continue working with all members of the NBA community to ensure that everyone understands the impact of their words and actions.”
Rolling Stone, meanwhile, said the movie and book include ideas in line with some “extreme factions” within the Black Hebrew Israelite movement that have expressed antisemitic and other discriminatory sentiments.
During the press conference, Irving was also asked about his decision to share a video created by far-right talk show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was recently ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages to Sandy Hook families for his lies about the massacre.
Irving clarified that he did not agree with Jones’ false claims that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged but stood by sharing Jones’ post in September “about secret societies in America of occults,” that Irving believed to be “true.”
SEOUL, South Korea — As he watched a dozen or more unconscious partygoers carried out from a narrow backstreet packed with youngsters dressed like movie characters, an overwhelmed Ken Fallas couldn’t process what was happening.
Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in Seoul for the past eight years, said Saturday’s Halloween festivities at the city’s nightlife district of Itaewon were a long-awaited occasion to hang out with fellow expats following years of COVID-19 restrictions
Instead, the 32-year-old became a front-row witness to one of the most horrific disasters South Korea has seen.
The smartphone video Fallas took following the deadly crowd surge shows groups of Halloween revelers carrying out their unconscious peers, one after another, from an alley near Hamilton Hotel, passing by throngs of people dressed in capes and Miyazaki movie costumes. Some people are seen administrating CPR to injured people on the pavement while others shout for help above blaring dance music.
Fallas said police and emergency workers were constantly pleading with people to step up if they knew how to give CPR because they were overwhelmed by the large number of the injured laid out on the street.
“I saw a lot of (young) people laughing, but I don’t think they were (really) laughing because, you know, what’s funny?” Fallas said. “They were laughing because they were too scared. Because to be in front of a thing like that is not easy. Not everyone knows how to process that.”
Fallas said he and his friends were trapped among the huge throngs of people pushing toward the alley when police officers began breaking the lines from behind to approach the injured. He said people near his group didn’t initially know what was happening.
“We were we were unable to move back. The music was loud. Nobody knew what was happening. People were still partying with the emergency happening in front of us,” he said. “We were like, ‘What’s going on from here, where we can go?’ There was no exit.”
“ Black Adam,” the Dwayne Johnson-fronted DC superhero film, kept its hold on the No. 1 spot at the North American box office in its second weekend in theaters. Down 59% from its launch, and facing little new competition, “Black Adam” added $27.7 million in ticket sales, bringing its domestic total to $111.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Johnson spent a decade trying to bring the character to the big screen and has visions for follow-ups involving Superman. But the future of “Black Adam” is not written quite yet, though it’s earned $250 million worldwide. The Warner Bros. film carried a hefty price tag of $200 million, not including marketing and promotion costs, and a sequel has not been officially greenlit.
But big changes are afoot at DC—the studio just announced a new leadership team of Peter Safran and James Gunn, whose love for propping up little-known comic book characters is well-documented. And on Sunday, Johnson posted a note to his 344 million Instagram followers about the end of the world press tour, thanking those who worked behind the scenes to launch “our NEW DC FRANCHISE known as BLACK ADAM.”
Bucking recent romantic comedy trends, moviegoers remained curious about “Ticket to Paradise,” Universal’s Julia Roberts and George Clooney destination romp, which fell only 37% in weekend two to claim second place. The genre has not been the most reliable bet at the box office lately, with films like “Bros” stumbling in theaters, but the star power of Roberts and Clooney is proving hard to resist. “Ticket to Paradise” added $10 million from 3,692 North American theaters, bringing its domestic total to $33.7 million. Globally, it’s grossed $119.4 million to date.
Horror movies, meanwhile, claimed spots three through five on the weekend before Halloween on Monday. Lionsgate’s “Prey for the Devil” opened in third place with $7 million from 2,980 theaters. Notably, it is the only of the three horror films that carried a PG-13 rating. The others were R-rated.
Paramount’s “Smile” took fourth place in its fifth weekend with another $5.1 million, bringing its domestic total to $92.4 million (on a $17 million budget), while “Halloween Ends” landed in fifth place in its third weekend with $3.8 million. “Ends,” which has grossed $60.3 million in North America, was released simultaneously on NBC Universal’s streaming service Peacock.
“This is just another mandate in favor of horror,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst. “It’s not just about being in October, horror movies have played well throughout the pandemic. It’s a genre that continues to kill it at the box office time and again.”
Chinonye Chukwu’s Mamie Till-Mobley film “Till” went wide this weekend, adding $2.8 million from 2,058 locations to take seventh place. Boasting a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, the United Artists Releasing film has gotten good word of mouth with much of it centered on Danielle Deadwyler’s performance.
This weekend also saw the expansion of several notable films, like Todd Field’s “ Tár,” which expanded to 1,087 theaters nationwide where it grossed $1 million and landed in 10th place. Cate Blanchett’s performance as a renowned composer and conductor won her a top acting prize from the Venice Film Festival last month.
Another Venice-winner, “The Banshees of Inisherin” widened to 58 theaters and 12 new markets over the weekend. The Martin McDonagh film starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson earned $540,000. The Searchlight Pictures release will expand to around 800 locations next weekend.
Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” expanded to 17 locations where it earned $75,242, bringing its cumulative grosses to $166,030. The A24-released father-daughter film starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio will continue to expand throughout awards season.
James Gray’s “Armageddon Time” opened in six theaters in New York and Los Angeles, to $72,000. Gray mined his own childhood to tell the story about an 11-year-old in Queens in the fall of 1980. The film, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year, stars Banks Repeta, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong and Anthony Hopkins.
But as far as blockbusters are concerned, things will be somewhat slow-going until “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” arrives on Nov. 11.
“That’ll get the box office going again in a way that feels more like summer,” Dergarabedian said.
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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Black Adam,” $27.7 million.
2. “Ticket to Paradise,” $10 million.
3. “Prey for the Devil,” $7 million.
4. “Smile,” $5.1 million.
5. “Halloween Ends,” $3.8 million.
6. “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” $2.8 million.
7. “Till,” $2.8 million.
8. “Terrifier 2,” $1.8 million.
9. “The Woman King,” $1.1 million.
10. “Tár,” $1 million.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr.
Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving on Saturday tweeted that he “meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs” after the owner of his NBA team condemned him for tweeting a link to a documentary deemed antisemitic.
“I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”
Tsai added, “This is bigger than basketball.”
Irving wrote in a tweet on Saturday: “I am an OMNIST and I meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs. The ‘Anti-Semitic’ label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday. I embrace and want to learn from all walks of life and religions.”
An omnist is someone who believes in all religions.
The star guard tweeted a link Thursday to the 2018 movie “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” which is based on Ronald Dalton’s book of the same name. Rolling Stone described the book and movie as “stuffed with antisemitic tropes.”
Irving has made controversial statements and decisions in the past, including his absence from most of his team’s games last season because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“The book and film he promotes trade in deeply #antisemitic themes, including those promoted by dangerous sects of the Black Hebrew Israelites movement. Irving should clarify now.”
The Nets also spoke out against the star guard’s tweet.
“The Brooklyn Nets strongly condemn and have no tolerance for the promotion of any form of hate speech,” the team said in a statement to CNN.
“We believe that in these situations, our first action must be open, honest dialogue. We thank those, including the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), who have been supportive during this time.”
Prior to the team’s game Saturday night, Nets head coach Steve Nash said he was aware of statements made on the issue by Irving and the team.
“The organization has spoken to Kyrie about it, Nash said. “Clearly, I think we all represent values of inclusiveness, and equality, and condemn hate speech.”
The NBA issued a statement saying, “Hate speech of any kind is unacceptable and runs counter to the NBA’s values of equality, inclusion and respect. We believe we all have a role to play in ensuring such words or ideas, including antisemitic ones, are challenged and refuted and we will continue working with all members of the NBA community to ensure that everyone understands the impact of their words and actions.”
Rolling Stone said the movie and book include ideas in line with some “extreme factions” within the Black Hebrew Israelite movement that have expressed anti-Semitic and other discriminatory sentiments.
“Black Negro people of ‘Bantu’ descent in the Diaspora and in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot be labeled ‘Anti-Semitic’ because we are the True Ethnic Bloodline Israelites of the Bible,” the author Dalton said in an emailed statement to CNN. “If Kyrie Irving or any Black Celebrity needs ‘back up’ to prove that we are the True Israelites … i am available to assist them on or off the camera so that the world can finally see and receive the TRUTH.”
Jacqueline Byers as Sister Ann and Lisa Palfrey as Sister Euphemia in ‘Prey for the Devil’ Photo Credit: Vlad Cioplea/Lionsgate
Vlad Cioplea/Lionsgate
With the big Halloween movies already in play and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever two weeks away, it is another quiet weekend for newbies at the domestic box office. The one new wide release is Lionsgate’s long-delayed Prey for the Devil. The PG-13 horror flick earned $660,000 in Thursday previews and grossed another $2.83 million Friday. That suggests an over/under $7 million opening weekend in 2,450 theaters, about in line with cautiously optimistic forecasts. Considering the relative lack of buzz, expectedly lousy reviews (17% and 3.6/10 on Rotten Tomatoes), star-free cast and harsh scary season competition, this is a moral victory even if it’s not remotely a barnburner. The film got a C+ from Cinemascore, which is almost good for a low-profile horror flick, but I would expect it will be ancient history by the time it pops up on PVOD in a few weeks.
United Artists expanded Till into semi-wide release in its third frame. The acclaimed and Oscar-buzzy drama earned $1.03 million in 2,058 theaters. That suggests a $2.78 million (+665%) weekend for a mediocre $1,351 per-theater average and $3.607 million 17-day total. Unless it truly becomes a must-see film for Oscar watchers and related general audiences, and that could happen if Danielle Deadwyler gets a Best Actress nomination, we are looking at an under-$10 million domestic finish. With all due respect, audiences wanting a big studio flick for/from/by/about empowered Black heroes will flock to the MCU sequel opening in two weeks. To be fair, and I say this with zero judgment, we saw likewise in 2016 when Nate Parker’s much-discoursed Birth of the Nation was ignored in favor of Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington’s popcorn-y but righteously angry The Magnificent Seven remake.
‘TAR’
Focus Features
Likewise, rave reviews and social media discourse aside, Cate Blanchett’s TÁR isn’t exactly mainstream entertainment, and I would have said that in 1994 as well. I am old enough to remember critics and pundits decrying the lack of theatrical business for Quiz Show and Ed Wood, even if back then, at least folks were showing up for Pulp Fiction. The 2.5-hour melodrama about a world-famous and top-of-her-field conductor dealing with skeletons in her closet and/or chickens coming home to roost, expanded to 940 theaters on weekend three and earned $340,000 on Friday. That positions the Focus Features release for a $1 million weekend. That gives the Best Actress frontrunner (for now) a mere $920 per-theater average and $2.5 million 17-day total. Searchlight’s The Banshees of Inishin expanded to 59 theaters for an over/under $440,000 (+139%) weekend and $7,458 per-theater average.
Focus Features’ Armageddon Time debuted in five theaters yesterday to indifferent results. James Grey’s mostly acclaimed 80’s set melodrama stars Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong and Anthony Hopkins and at least tries to be a little less nostalgic than is usual for the sub-genre. However, I imagine if any such (loosely autobiographical) coming-of-age drama is going to break out commercially, it will be Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans over Thanksgiving weekend. Armageddon Time earned $35,000 on Friday for an over/under $78,000 weekend and a $13,000 per-theater average. Nobody is expecting big bucks from films like Triangle of Sadness ($2.24 million in 24 days) or Decision to Leave ($794,000 after 17 days). Still, I will be curious to see which of this season’s awards contenders can at least make as much as David O. Russell’s mega-bomb Amsterdam ($15 million) or even Terrifier 2 ($7.7 million and rising).
Shelley Duvall is making a comeback, more than 20 years after her last movie role.
According to Deadline, the star of such big-screen hits as “The Shining” and “Nashville” has joined the cast of “The Forest Hills”, an indie horror-thriller from writer-director Scott Goldberg
Also starring Edward Furlong, Chiko Mendez and Dee Wallace, the film is about “a disturbed man who is tormented by nightmarish visions, after enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill Mountains.”
Duvall will play the mother of Rico (Mendez), the disturbed man at the centre of “The Forest Hills”.
“We are huge fans of ‘The Shining’ and it’s honestly one of my favourite horror movies of all time, up there with John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ and George A. Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead’ with the dark tones they delivered in their movies, along with perfect scores and elements that make them my personal favourites,” Goldberg said in a statement. “Shelley contributed to ‘The Shining’ being an absolute masterpiece by giving her all, and performing in a way that really showcased the fear and horror of a mother in isolation.”
During her heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, Duvall starred in such films as “McCabe and Mrs. Miller”, “Thieves Like Us”, “Annie Hall”, “Three Women”, “Time Bandits”, “Popeye” and “Roxanne”, and has won a Peabody Award, the Cannes Film Festival’s prize for Best Actress, two Emmy nominations and a BAFTA nomination.
In 2002, Duvall made her final film appearance in “Manna From Heaven”, starring alongside Louise Fletcher and Cloris Leachman, before announcing that she was retiring from acting.
In 2016, Duvall made a controversial appearance on “Dr. Phil”, revealing her struggles with mental health. “I’m very sick,” she said at the time, adding, “I need help.”
In a subsequent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Duvall admitted she regretted her “Dr. Phil” appearance, and appeared to agree with critics who blasted host Dr. Phil McGraw for allegedly exploiting her during a low point in her life.
“I found out the kind of person he is the hard way,” she told THR.
MOUND BAYOU, Miss. — The tiny, all-Black town of Mound Bayou became a safe haven for Emmett Till’s mother as she traveled to Mississippi to testify in the murder trial of two white men who lynched her son in 1955.
Hundreds of people — a good portion of Mound Bayou’s 1,500 residents — turned out Thursday evening to watch the movie “Till.” The feature film is going into wide release across the U.S. this weekend after being in limited release since Oct. 14.
“This place, this city, is very sacred to the story of Emmett Till,” one of the filmmakers, Keith Beauchamp, told the mostly Black audience in the gymnasium/auditorium of Mound Bayou’s John F. Kennedy High School.
The screening happened days after a bronze statue of Till was unveiled about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) away in Greenwood, Mississippi.
Beauchamp is one of the producers and writers of “Till,” which largely focuses on Mamie Till-Mobley’s reaction to the loss of her only child and her evolution into a civil rights leader. Her 14-year-old son had traveled from Chicago to Mississippi to visit relatives in August 1955, and white men kidnapped, tortured and killed him after accusations that he flirted with Carolyn Bryant, a white woman working in a country store.
Till-Mobley, who was named Mamie Bradley at the time of her son’s death, insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago so the world could see her son’s brutalized body. Jet magazine published photos.
An all-white, all-male jury in Tallahatchie County acquitted the shopkeeper’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother J.W. Milam just weeks after Till’s body was pulled from a river. The two men later confessed in an interview with “Look” magazine.
Mound Bayou was founded by formerly enslaved people in the cotton-growing Mississippi Delta in 1887 as a freestanding community where Black people could thrive amid the hostility of the Jim Crow era.
NAACP leaders, including Mississippi’s Medgar Evers, coordinated with Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a physician and entrepreneur in Mound Bayou, to provide safety and security for Till’s mother in the town. Mound Bayou also provided shelter for Black journalists who covering the trial 35 miles (56.3 kilometers) away in Sumner.
The lynching of Till galvanized the civil rights movement, and it has reverberated for generations with Black parents who tell their children to be careful in a country that has not shaken racism.
One of the Till relatives who attended the screening Thursday was 65-year-old Joe Stidhum, born two years after Till was killed. He said his grandfather and Till’s mother were brother and sister.
Stidhum said his mother was always strict on him as his 10 siblings as they were growing up in Mound Bayou, but “she didn’t tell us her side of it until we got older.” He said he was about 12 or 13 before he learned about Till’s violent death.
“Once we got up into teens, that’s when my mom kind of explained to us why she was so protective of us,” Stidhum said after the movie.
The closest cinema to Mound Bayou is more than 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) to the south, in Greenville, Mississippi.
Nobody has ever been convicted in Till’s lynching. The U.S. Justice Department has opened multiple investigations starting in 2004 after receiving inquiries about whether charges could be brought against anyone still living.
The Justice Department reopened an investigation in 2018 after a 2017 book quoted Carolyn Bryant — now remarried and named Carolyn Bryant Donham — saying she lied when she claimed Till grabbed her, whistled and made sexual advances. Relatives have publicly denied Donham, who is in her 80s, recanted her allegations. The department closed that investigation in late 2021 without bringing charges.
Deborah Watts, another cousin of Till and co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, was among the people who found an unserved 1955 arrest warrant for “Mrs. Roy Bryant” earlier this year in a courthouse basement. In August, a Mississippi grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict Donham. Watts said Thursday that she still wants officials to serve the arrest warrant on Donham.
“Justice delayed since 1955 is justice denied,” Watts told The Associated Press. “Without any hate, malice or violence, we want the same thing any victim’s family would want, and that is that those that were responsible be held accountable. No one should be above the law.”
In March, President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. After the movie screening, Beauchamp told the audience that he is all for honoring Till’s memory, but he wants more.
“If we’re looking for racial reconciliation in this country, it’s not going to happen with a statue or a law,” Beauchamp said. “We have to have truth and justice.”
Some in the crowd, sitting on blue plastic chairs and bleachers, nodded and said: “Alright. Alright.”
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Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.
ATLANTA — A Georgia man and his family “have faced threats of violence and live in fear” since the movie “2000 Mules” falsely accused him of ballot fraud during the 2020 election, according to a federal lawsuit.
The widely debunked film includes surveillance video showing Mark Andrews, his face blurred, depositing five ballots in a drop box in downtown Lawrenceville, a suburb northeast of Atlanta. A voiceover by conservative pundit and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza says: “What you are seeing is a crime. These are fraudulent votes.”
In fact, a state investigation found, Andrews was dropping off ballots for himself, his wife and their three adult children, who all live at the same address. That is legal in Georgia and a state investigator said there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Andrews.
D’Souza’s film uses research from the Texas-based nonprofit True the Vote and suggests that ballot “mules” aligned with Democrats were paid to illegally collect and deliver ballots in Georgia and four other closely watched states. An Associated Press analysis found that it is based on faulty assumptions, anonymous accounts and improper analysis of cellphone location data.
State and federal officials have repeatedly confirmed that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election that could have changed the outcome of the presidential race.
The lawsuit names D’Souza and True the Vote, as well as the organization’s executive director Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, who has served on its board. Both Engelbrecht and Phillips appear throughout the film and served as executive producers and producers, the lawsuit says.
D’Souza did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment submitted through his website. Engelbrecht and True the Vote have not responded to emails seeking comment, and contact information for Phillips could not be immediately located.
“At all times, Defendants knew that their portrayals of Mr. Andrews were lies, as was the entire narrative of 2000 Mules,” the lawsuit says. “But they have continued to peddle these lies in order to enrich themselves.”
Their social media accounts and website continue to promote the film using Andrews “as an example of a criminal ‘mule,’” the lawsuit says. While Andrews’ face was blurred in the film, video shown when the defendants were interviewed sometimes clearly showed his face and the license plate on his SUV, the lawsuit says.
The false accusations have caused distress for Andrews and his family, the lawsuit says.
“They feel intimidated to vote and have changed how they vote because of that fear,” it says. “They worry that again they will be baselessly accused of election crimes, and that believers in the ‘mules’ theory may recognize and seek reprisal against them, and that they may face physical harm.”
Andrews, who is Black, grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, before federal voting rights laws were passed and his “family taught him that his community and ancestors had fought, marched, and died for the right to vote,” the lawsuit says. Because of the “conspiracy to defame and intimidate him,” the suit says, “he will never again be able to vote without looking over his shoulder.”
Among other things, the lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages and asks that false and defamatory statements about Andrews be removed from any website or social media accounts that the defendants control.
LOS ANGELES — A dancer in a film produced by Harvey Weinstein testified Thursday that she was “freaked out” after meeting the movie mogul on the Puerto Rican set but the presence and reassurance of his assistant convinced her it was OK to go with him to his hotel, where she was later sexually assaulted.
The woman, who went by her first name and last initial Ashley M. at the Los Angeles trial where Weinstein is charged with rape and sexual assault, said she was a 22-year-old in 2003 when she was acting as a dancing double for one of the stars of “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” a film produced by Weinstein’s company Miramax.
She said Weinstein’s assistant at the time, Bonnie Hung, told her that she would remain with the two of them the entire time, and that he just wanted to talk about future projects.
As they walked down the hall of Weinstein’s hotel toward a door, she said, “I started to get more worried, but Bonnie was there with her clipboard.”
“Harvey opened it and then he went in and I went in,” she said, pausing as she began to cry. “And then Bonnie shut the door behind us. I was like, ‘oh no, what do I do?’”
She said Weinstein quickly became aggressive, pushing her on to the bed and taking her top off before straddling her and masturbating while on top of her, despite her telling him to stop.
The woman was the second Weinstein accuser to take the stand at the trial, and the first of four who are not involved in the charges against him but are being allowed to testify to show a propensity for such acts by Weinstein.
Judge Lisa B. Lench told jurors before the woman’s testimony that they would receive instructions later on how to consider it.
Weinstein, already serving a 23-year sentence for a New York conviction that is under appeal, has pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles to four counts of rape and seven other counts of sexual assault. He has repeatedly denied engaging in any non-consensual sex.
Ashley M. appeared rattled as she walked to the stand late in the day Thursday, and began crying before any questions were asked.
“I’m sorry,” she said repeatedly to Judge Lisa Lench, who replied that she had nothing to be sorry for and called for a short break.
She gathered herself and began her testimony, saying she had been a professional ballet dancer who had just shifted to dancing in Hollywood.
She said that Weinstein appeared on the set while they were filming in a ballroom, and asked her to step outside.
Ashley M. said Weinstein talked about her giving him a naked massage, and she tried to assuage him by saying she was engaged, and that she was needed on the set.
She said Weinstein told her he was the boss and got to decide who needed to be on set.
The woman called her mother and her then-fiance, who told her to seek help from others on the set.
Then someone said it was time for a meal break.
“I thought, ‘whew, saved by the bell,’” she testified.
During the break, she asked the films choreographer and a producer what to do, but got the sense that they didn’t want to upset Weinstein.
“Did either of them give you any sort of help?” Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez asked.
“No,” Ashley M. said.
“How did you feel then?” Martinez asked.
“Freaked out,” the witness answered.
Ashley M. said when the returned to the set Weinstein was waiting there with a limo, and Hung.
“I felt better just knowing I wasn’t alone,” she said.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they have come forward publicly.
Ashley M. told her story to the New York Times in October of 2017, when the newspaper’s accounts of women who say Weinstein sexually assaulted them put the movie executive at the center of the #MeToo movement.
Thursday was the first time she has told her story in a courtroom.
Ashley M. is expected to return to the witness stand for more questioning from prosecutors Friday, followed by cross-examination from Weinstein’s defense.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
