Category: News

The man who embodied Rocky Balboa and John Rambo surprisingly found his hardest job to date in Paramount+’s Tulsa King. That’s wild, and I’m not sure if we can blame this on the scorching summer heat, which wasn’t exclusive to Oklahoma by any means, but it sure didn’t make Sylvester Stallone’s job easier.

Stallone previously mentioned his hell-preparing experience, in which he strutted about (while playing a mob boss exiled to Bill Hader’s hometown) in jeans, suit jackets, and a giant belt buckle. Stallone lifted some tiny cups while shooting in downtown Tulsa, but it seems like we haven’t caught a glimpse of any of his heavier lifting yet.

In an Instagram video that presumably shows the Season 1 wrapping moments, Stallone penned a caption about his “very long ,difficult ,exciting, mind blowing production.” He thanked creator Taylor Sheridan (who wrote the role for Stallone), and in the footage, he can be heard declaring, “I never worked so hard in my life… and had so much fun, seriously.” He called the project “extraordinary,” and Stallone added, “Keep punching, love you guys!”

On the subject of punching, Stallone did still have the energy to recently drag Rocky producers, who he called “pathetic” and “moronic” due to the reported Drago spinoff as part of the Creed extension of the franchise. He seems to feel a lot better about Tulsa King, which is certainly a different role than we’ve ever seen him play up so far. Even though he spent a lot of time getting sweaty in Tulsa and OKC (which is considered by many locals to be an enormous truck stop, among other labels), Stallone’s rolling with the punches and headed to our small screens for our viewing pleasure.

Tulsa King premieres on November 13.

“Mommy, why do you wear makeup?”

I don’t remember how old my first daughter was when she asked me that question, but I do remember feeling unprepared for it. Such a simple and reasonable question seems like it should have a simple and reasonable answer, but as I looked at her young face, I thought about how my answer could shape her entire view of women and beauty and her own self-image.

The full truth of why I wear makeup is complicated, as I’m sure it is for most women. I started wearing makeup mainly to cover up acne as a teen, but I remember being younger and feeling intrigued by eye makeup on magazine models. I started to mess around around with eye shadow and eye liner because it was fun to “paint” my face.

I like wearing makeup and always have. It truly can be fun, but I’d be fooling myself to believe that societal standards of beauty don’t also play a significant role in my choices now. I wear makeup because it makes me feel prettier and more “put together,” even when it’s just a quick five-minute routine. It makes my skin look better and brighter and it brings out my eyes. I think of it as enhancing my beauty rather than creating it.

There’s nothing wrong or unusual about that, but everything gets viewed through a different lens when you’re explaining something to a child—especially our own child.

I’ve never wanted to put society’s arbitrary and unattainable beauty standards on my daughters. I wanted them to reject anything that told them they weren’t good enough just as they are. I didn’t want them to feel like they needed to wear makeup to feel beautiful; I wanted them to choose how to define beauty for themselves. I wanted them to feel comfortable enough in their own skin to go without makeup, but also confident enough in their own choices to do whatever they wanted with their faces.

How could I explain why I wear makeup in a way that conveyed all of that to my young daughter without prematurely planting those pressures in her mind?

If this all sounds overwrought and overthought, it is. Welcome to womanhood, where every choice we make about our bodies is a mishmosh of historical patriarchy and corporate marketing, with some constant self-judgment and overanalysis thrown in for good measure.

My husband and I wanted to do what we could to ease those pressures for our girls, so we tried to talk about beauty in a way that was authentic and healthy as they were growing up. From the beginning, we talked a lot about beauty being about your inner state, not your outer presentation. We wanted our girls to internalize that message deeply before years of ads and billboards and magazines and Victoria’s Secret told them otherwise.

That was a solid parenting choice, but I couldn’t help but wonder if me putting on makeup felt like a mixed message. Was I being hypocritical, preaching that beauty on the inside is what matters, but trying to make myself more beautiful on the outside? One could take that argument to an extreme, not engaging in any grooming at all because outer beauty is just a facade, but that just seems silly and wrong. Ultimately, I told her the truth in all its complicated glory.

“Because I think it’s fun,” I said, realizing that would probably just make her want to wear it when she was still way too young.

“And because it makes me feel more ‘put together,'” I said, hoping that wouldn’t make her view women who don’t wear makeup as not put together.

“And because it highlights my natural beauty,” I said, knowing that the constant questions about what counts as beauty would soon begin to bombard her.

It wasn’t a perfect answer, but it was honest and sometimes honest is the best we can do.

My daughters are 22 and 18 now, and since that initial question we’ve had many more conversations about makeup, beauty, personal grooming and how society and individuals judge such things. Thankfully, I found it easier to talk about beauty as they grew older, as they started to understand how pressures from people we know and people we don’t can impact the choices we make.

Those pressures can go both ways, they found. One of my daughters felt pressure not to wear makeup and had to navigate her way through doing what was right for her. I’m happy to say that they have grown into young women who question beauty standards and challenge people’s judgments from all sides, ultimately landing on what makes them feel best in their own skin. That’s really all I had hoped for them.

Phew. Being a woman in this world can be complicated, but raising women in this world is entirely next-level.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is the epitome of the American dream. He’s an immigrant from Austria who came to America with $20 in his pocket and wound up being one of the most celebrated people in the world. He was Mr. Olympia seven times, played the Terminator on the big screen and was elected governor of California twice.

However, even though he’s had tremendous success, he never call himself a self-made man. This is surprising being that Schwarzenegger is a member of the Republican Party, a group that has traditionally stood for self-reliance.

He explained his rationale in a moving commencement speech at the University of Houston in May 2017.

“Now, the diplomas — there will only be one name and this is yours, but I hope it doesn’t confuse you and you think that maybe you made it that far by yourself,” Schwarzenegger told the graduating class. “No, you didn’t. It took a lot of help. None of us can make it alone. None of us. Not even the guy that is talking to you right now, that was the greatest bodybuilder of all time.

“I didn’t make it that far on my own. I mean, to accept that credit or that medal, would discount every single person that has helped me get here today, that gave me advice, that made an effort, that lifted me up when I fell,” he added. “The whole concept of the self‑made man or woman is a myth.”

The former “Governator” then shared the names of a lot of people who helped him become successful, including his parents, teachers, a lifeguard, bodybuilder Joe Weider, the people at Gold’s Gym, producer Dino De Laurentiis, director James Cameron, comedian Jay Leno and, of course, the people of America.

At the end of the speech, he shared his belief that with success comes responsibility.

“The reason why I want you to understand that is because as soon as you understand that you are here because of a lot of help, then you also understand that now is time to help others,” he said. “Make sure that it is not about me. That it is about ‘we.’ Turn the ‘me’ into ‘we,’ and I guarantee you that you can change the world.”

Cate Blanchett is one of the best actresses of her generation, with seven Oscar nominations and two wins (Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator and Best Actress for Blue Jasmine), to her name. And she may have just made her “magnum opus.”

The first film from director Todd Fields (In the Bedroom) in 16 years, Tár, premiered on Thursday at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, and the reviews are near-universally positive, especially for Blanchett. “Tár is breathtaking entertainment,” Richard Lawson writes for Vanity Fair, “anchored by Blanchett’s alternately measured and ferocious performance, a tremendous (but never outsized) piece of acting that is her most piercing work in years.” IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich was equally effusive, writing, “The controlled demolition of a performance she delivers here provides a more nuanced (and cautiously sympathetic) interpretation of the social dynamics behind the #MeToo movement than any male actor or character might be able to offer.”

Here’s more:

Following the premiere, Blanchett called Tár a “human portrait and I think we have perhaps matured enough as a species that we can watch a film like this and not make [a character’s gender or sexuality] the headline issue. It just is, and I found that exciting.”

As for the official plot synopsis:

From producer-writer-director Todd Field comes Tár, starring Cate Blanchett as the iconic musician Lydia Tár. Tár examines the changing nature of power, its impact, and durability in our modern world.

Tár opens in theaters on October 7. You can watch the teaser above.

(Via Deadline)

This past weekend, allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against Arcade Fire lead singer Win Butler were published in detail on Pitchfork. After Butler issued a vague statement, the band embarked on their tour nonetheless, which prompted a lot of mixed reactions.

The opener Feist dropped off the tour today and shared a lengthy statement reckoning with accountability and her own responsibility in the situation, writing, “I can’t solve that by quitting, and I can’t solve it by staying.”

Read the full statement below.

“At a pub in Dublin, after rehearsing with my band, I read the same headline you did. We didn’t have any time to prepare for what was coming let alone a chance to decide not to fly across the ocean into the belly of this situation. This has been incredibly difficult for me and I can only imagine how much more difficult it’s been for the people who came forward. More than anything I wish healing to those involved.

This has ignited a conversation that is bigger than me, it’s bigger than my songs and it’s certainly bigger than any rock and roll tour. As I tried to get my bearings and figure out my responsibility in this situation, I received dozens of messages from the people around me, expressing sympathy for the dichotomy I have been pushed into. To stay on tour would symbolize I was either defending or ignoring the harm caused by Win Butler and to leave would imply I was the judge and jury.

I was never here to stand for or with Arcade Fire — I was here to stand on my own two feet on a stage, a place I’ve grown to feel I belong and I’ve earned as my own. I play for my band, my crew, their loved ones and all of our families, and the people who pay their hard-earned money to share space in the collective synergy that is a show. The ebb and flow of my successes, failures, and other decisions affect all of our livelihoods and I recognize how lucky I am to be able to travel the world singing songs about my life, my thoughts and experiences and have that be my career. I’ve never taken that for granted.

My experiences include the same experiences as the many people I have spoken to since the news broke on Saturday, and the many strangers whom I may only be able to reach with this letter, or not at all. We all have a story within a spectrum ranging from baseline toxic masculinity to pervasive misogyny to actually being physically, psychologically, emotionally or sexually assaulted. This situation touches each of our lives and speaks to us in a language unique to each of our processing. There isn’t a singular path to heal when you’ve endured any version of the above, nor a singular path to rehabilitate the perpetrators. It can be a lonely road to make sense of ill treatment. I can’t solve that by quitting, and I can’t solve it by staying. But I can’t continue.

Public shaming might cause action, but those actions are made from fear, and fear is not the place we find our best selves or make our best decisions. Fear doesn’t precipitate empathy nor healing nor open a safe space for these kinds of conversations to evolve, or for real accountability and remorse to be offered to the people who were harmed.

I’m imperfect and I will navigate this decision imperfectly, but what I’m sure of is the best way to take care of my band and crew and my family is to distance myself from this tour, not this conversation. The last two nights on stage, my songs made this decision for me. Hearing them through this lens was incongruous with what I’ve worked to clarify for myself through my whole career. I’ve always written songs to name my own subtle difficulties, aspire to my best self and claim responsibility when I need to. And I’m claiming my responsibility now and going home.”

Shia LaBeouf awkwardly dropping receipts aside, the promotional tour for the erotic thriller Don’t Worry Darling is in full swing as it gets ready to open in theaters later this month. Directed by Olivia Wilde, the film stars her now-boyfriend Harry Styles, Florence Pugh, and Chris Pine, whose character is based on a real life person who’s practically the actor’s polar opposite.

While being interviewed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Wilde revealed that Pine’s character will take his cues from the highly controversial Jordan Peterson, whose rhetoric has gotten so despicable lately that even Joe Rogan is calling him out. The Peterson revelation led to Wilde explaining the incel movement to Gyllenhaal, who worked in one heck of a zinger. Via Interview:

WILDE: Terrifying. We based that character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community. You know the incels?

GYLLENHAAL: No.

WILDE: They’re basically disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women.

GYLLENHAAL: Oh, right.

WILDE: And they believe that society has now robbed them—that the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place.

GYLLENHAAL: Well, they must be psyched. Things are going really well for them.

Despite playing a character based on one of the weirdest dudes imaginable, Pine was great to have on set thanks to his “very positive force” and willingness to engage with the part.

“Chris, who I’ve known for, like, 20 years, probably agreed to do the movie at first as a favor to an old buddy, and then he really took it and ran with it,” Wilde said.

Don’t Worry Darling opens in theaters on September 23.

(Via Interview)

With the last three-day weekend of summer 2022 a mere 48 hours away, it’s time to start planning your backyard brouhaha. While shaking or stirring up some cocktails might feel like a good play, you don’t want to be stuck behind a home bar all day and night. That’s where batched or premixed cocktails come in.

Friends, the time has come to make rosé sangria.

Rosé wine is all about al fresco drinking — or “day drinking” if you’re not fancy. Add in some key ingredients and a chilled bottle of rosé goes from “nice!” to “party-ready.” It also gets a little boozier and that’s kind of what you want for a backyard Labor Day Weekend drink, right?

The best part? You can prep this the day before and have everything prechilled and frozen. That means your actual time making jugs of sangria this weekend will be about 30 seconds. Seriously, it’ll probably take longer to pull the cork from the bottle than make this drink if you’re prepped.

Also Read: The Top Five Cocktail Recipes of the Last Six Months

• Our ‘Perfect Whisky And Coke’ Recipe Uses The Last Brand You’d Expect
• The Hemingway Daiquiri Is A Deeply Refreshing Summer Cocktail — Here’s The (Very Simple) Real Recipe
• The Godfather Is A Simple Scotch Cocktail To Power You Through Winter
• Recipe: The Amaretto Sour Is The Ideal Cocktail To Close Out January
• The Tom Collins Is A Classic Cocktail That’s Perfect For The Hotter Days Ahead

Rosé Sangria

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of pre-chilled rosé wine
• 1 cup triple sec
• 1 cup brandy
• 1 can of blood orange soda
• 1/2 cup frozen berries
• 1/2 cup frozen peaches
• 1/2 cup frozen apples
• 1/2 cup frozen lemon wedges
• Fresh mint
• Pinch of salt
• Ice

This is a very fast and loose recipe. I used Hennessy VS because it was around on my shelf. I like Pellegrino Blood Orange soda but you can use any orange or lemon soda you have around — even Squirt (this is where the bulk of the sweetness comes from so don’t skip it). The rest is pretty standard stuff.

As for the wine, I used Leslie Reserve Rosé of Pinot Noir. It’s a little spendier but delicious. Remember the cardinal rule of cocktail mixing: The better the base alcohol, the better the final product. It’s a nice, zesty, and spritely wine that works well as a sipper (without too much sweetness). It’s a nice wine on its own but really shines as a sangria. The best rule to follow is to use a wine you actually like to drink.

What You’ll Need:

• Large pitcher
• Highball glasses
• Paring knife
• Measuring cup
• Large spoon
• Straws

Method:

• Slice all the fruit into wedges and place in the freezer until frozen through.
• Add the wine, triple sec, brandy, soda, and all the fruit to a large pitcher with a big pinch of salt (about the size of a large pea). Stir until well integrated.
• Add ice and mint to a fresh glass and pour the sangria over. Scoop some fruit on top of the drink and serve.

Bottom Line:

This is as delicious as it’s refreshing. The rosé is light and has a thin line of leathery body underneath all the fruit. It also isn’t overly sweetened. A lot of American sangria recipes call for syrup of some sort — definitely not necessary. The fruits leech sugars into the drink gradually and the orange soda adds more than enough sweetness.

The brandy is just there with a hint of dried grape and maybe a whisper of vanilla. The triple sec adds some orange vibe but those two additions are tertiary to the wine and fresh fruit. That said, this has a bit of punch thanks to that brandy and triple sec — it’s grown up fruit punch in the literal and metaphorical senses with a real wine base that’s light yet well-rounded.

This is fun. It’s very fun. What more could you possibly crave at the end of the summer?

Pinhead sure is raising hell once more for a modern audience! Actress Jamie Clayton will be bringing the character back to life (or… death?) for Hulu’s “reimagining” of the classic 80s thriller Hellraiser. Clayton has shared a first look at the infamous Cenobite, complete with soulless black eyes and, of course, pins.

The 2022 version follows a “young woman struggling with addiction who comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.”

Director David Bruckner is hoping that Clayton brings new life to the character as a trans woman. “We felt a kind of anticipation around the fans to reimagine the character,” says Bruckner. “We knew we wanted Pinhead to be a woman. Jamie was just the right person for the role. A person’s identity can be really exciting for a role in many ways, but I have to emphasize that Jamie absolutely killed, that’s how we got there.” Killed literally and figurately, probably.

The reimagined movie will be produced by Barker, and feature Odessa A’zion, Adam Faison, Drew Starkey, Brandon Flynn, Aoife Hinds, Jason Liles, Yinka Olorunnife, Selina Lo, Zachary Hing, Kit Clarke, Goran Visnjic, and Hiam Abbass.

Hulu’s Hellraiser will hit the streamer on October 7th, just in time to be spooked for the whole month!

(Via EW)

Believe it or not, whipped cream is all over the news right now. After some confusion over a new nitrous oxide law in New York state, local shop owners erroneously thought they had to card people buying whipped cream cans to make sure they were 21 years or older. The national news cycle picked it up, thinking the story was legit since shop owners were seemingly carding people buying Ready Wip. Eventually, the state Senator who wrote the law had to step in and clear everything up.

Long story short (too late), the law is for nitrous oxide canisters that one would use in manual whipped cream dispensers (like the ones you see at Starbucks or other fancy bars/restaurants/dessert shops). People like to buy the little silver tubes of nitrous, crack them into a ballon, and have a zipping good time (or so I hear). To quell this misuse of rote kitchen equipment amongst New York’s youth, New York state enacted an ID law to buy the nitrous canisters, and shop owners misread that as all whipped cream cans. So, no, you don’t need your ID to buy Ready Wip in New York.

That did remind me, though, that whipped cream is about the easiest thing to master ever in the home kitchen. It’s also far better from scratch than any emulsifier-filled can of whipped cream. Hell, you don’t even need nitrous to make it at home (unless you’re using a snazzy whipped cream dispenser). In fact, my record to make whipped cream in a bowl with a whisk (back when I was working in kitchens) was just shy of 30 seconds. It’s really that fast and easy.

It also gives me an excuse to dust off this old GIF!

Let’s jump in and I’ll show you how to do it.

Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

Technically, you don’t need vanilla extract. The cream should have enough flavor on its own to be a nice accent to whatever you’re serving it with, though I like a dash of vanilla to give it a tiny bit more depth. Some folks add a pinch of sugar. I find that detracts from the natural flavor of the cream. It’s also likely you’ll be using this on something that’s already very sweet anyway. You don’t need extra sugar on top of that.

What You’ll Need:

• Large bowl (chilled in the freezer)
• Large whisk (also chilled)
• Measuring cup/spoon

Chilling your bowl and whisk helps speed the process up. Everything just comes together faster when ice cold. Keeping things super cold also lets the cream’s temperature stay stable.

Method:

• Add all ingredients to the pre-chilled bowl and whisk unit stiff peaks form (about one minute or so). Focus on moving your wrists with your arms close to your body in large motions through the cream, basically like you’re manically folding in the air. Always stir in the same direction. I stir away from me, basically pushing the whisk through the cream on the bottom of the bowl and pulling it back toward me over the top of the cream.
• Serve immediately.

Bottom Line:

And look at that, folks! Whipped cream and it only took one minute to make. Which was still way off my record of just under 30 seconds.

Still, this was perfectly good whipped cream in a minute. It’s really that fast. There’s basically no prep besides putting a bowl in the freezer and measuring some cream. All told, this was crazy easy for a whipped cream that’s far superior to anything out of a can. It was so airy and soft and you could taste the fat in the milk with a near butteriness to it. The vanilla adds a smooth underlayer that helps the cream really shine. Give it a shot!

Rudy Giuliani just can’t win — though he’s only got himself to blame. The man once widely known as “America’s Mayor,” who was named TIME’s Person of the Year in 2001, has devolved into an international laughingstock, for reasons far beyond confusing Philadelphia’s Four Seasons Hotel with a small landscaping outfit. His utter (and some might say misguided) devotion to Donald Trump and his election fraud lies could very well land the former New York City mayor in prison. But for now, they’ve seen Giuliani be stripped of his license to practice law in both New York and Washington, DC. Also revoked? The honorary degrees he was given by several colleges and universities, with only five of them still in place — though all that could soon change.

For more than a year, mortified students, faculty, and alumni at Syracuse University — which is one of those five schools — have been pressuring the administration to rescind Giuliani’s fake degree, to no avail. Now, The Daily Orange is reporting that the university’s Board of Trustees is currently discussing the possibility of finally distancing themselves from Giuliani for good. On Monday, during the first University Student Association meeting of the semester, school chancellor/president Kent Syverud told the students in attendance that he had again brought up the topic of Rudy’s honorific degree, and whether it should be invalidated.

The Student Association sent a formal request to the University Senate back in April, requesting that Giuliani’s degree be erased. Though no official decision was made at the time, Syverud was asked to research how other universities go about making these decisions, as this would be the first time in Syracuse University’s history that an honorary degree was revoked. As Sarah Wells wrote for The Daily Orange:

Following his research, Syverud said he plans to present his draft recommendation for standard practices to the board at the executive committee meeting in September. Following the meeting, he said he hopes the full board will vote on the matter in November.

(Via The Daily Orange)