Carrying the mother-daughter feels from Everything Everywhere All At Once into real life, Michelle Yeoh thanked her mother during her Oscar acceptance speech, saying, “I have to dedicate this to my mom, all the moms in the world, because they are really the superheroes, and without them, none of us would be here tonight.” She also promised to bring the award back home to Malaysia.
Not only has she done it, she got a fantastic photo of her adorable mom Janet holding the Academy Award statuette to boot.
In her post, she said: “Brought Mr. O home… Without my parents love and trust and support…I wouldn’t be here today…love so much.”
Yeoh’s father, Datuk Yeoh Kian Teik, died in 2014, and she brought the statue to his gravesite to honor him as well.
Obviously, the Daniels‘ film, which won Best Picture and six other Oscars last month, revolves around a daughter’s relationship to her mother as both navigate what they mean to each other, so it’s especially touching that Yeoh has shared this achievement with her parents. No word on whether she gave her mom commemorative hot dog fingers or a big box of googly eyes, though. It might be tough to return home as an Oscar-winning movie star only to hand your mom a pet rock.
An FBI thriller with Brian Tyree Henry and Kate Mara? From one of the creators of American Crime Story? Questioning the justice of the present and the potential justice of the future? Yes, please.
Class Of ’09‘s trailer gives us a hint of the tone of this crime drama and the scope of how each of the characters joins as outsiders under the FBI banner and then spreads their wings (or plummets to the ground) after their training ends. It’s got a hint of The Recruit, but the emphasis feels squarely on the dramatics and messy human interconnectivity instead of pure twisty goodness.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“Class of ’09 follows a class of FBI agents set in three distinct points in time who grapple with immense changes as the U.S. criminal justice system is altered by artificial intelligence. Spanning multiple decades and told across interweaving timelines, the series examines the nature of justice, humanity and the choices we make that ultimately define our lives and legacy. The series stars Brian Tyree Henry as ‘Tayo,’ one of the most unorthodox agents to ever join the bureau, and Kate Mara as ‘Poet,’ one of the most successful undercover agents of all time.”
The series, which hits FX May 10th, also stars Sepideh Moafi, Brian J. Smith, Jon Jon Briones, Brooke Smith, Jake McDorman, and Rosalind Eleazar.
This movie has been a long time in the making. Bragi F. Schut wrote the first screenplay for The Last Voyage Of The Demeter in 2002, and the project has been on a cursed ride through development hell ever since. Directors like David Slade and Neil Marshall, and actors like Noomi Rapace and Ben Kingsley have been attached throughout its 20-year sailing, and it’s finally come into port under the captaining of Trollhunter director André Øvredal, who has a keen eye for outstanding visuals that blend practical and virtual effects. That’s clear here in the trailer, where it’s all too easy to feel like you’re on board the damned ship, rocking and fearing for your life.
The story is an expansion of the “Captain’s Log” chapter in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, wherein a crew is chartered to bring mystery cargo from Carpathia to London. Bad news about what’s inside one of the boxes.
It’s a sequence Dracula fans will know well that was brought to especially potent life in the 2020 British series Dracula, but it’s an intriguing idea to stretch the events further and focus so much on the people aboard as they face an unstoppable evil.
The Last Voyage Of The Demeter (spoiler right there in the title!) stars Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, and David Dastmalchian. It hits theaters August 11th.
For fantasy fans, it truly is the best of times, and the worst of times. On the bright side—there’s more magic wielding, dragon riding, caped crusading content than ever before. Yay to that.
On the other hand, have you noticed that with all these shows, something feels … off?
No, that’s not just adulthood stripping you of childlike wonder. There is a subtle, yet undeniable decline in how these shows are being made, and your eyes are picking up on it. Nolan Yost, a freelance wigmaker living in New York City, explains the shift in his now viral Facebook post.
The post, which has been shared nearly 3,500 times, attributes shows being “mid,” (aka mediocre, or my favorite—meh) mostly to the new streaming-based studio system, which quite literally prioritizes quantity over quality, pumping out new content as fast as possible to snag a huge fan base.
The result? A “Shein era of mass media,” Yost says, adding that “the toll it takes on costuming and hair/makeup has made almost every new release from Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu have a B-movie visual quality.”
He even had some pictures to prove it.
Yost first addressed the Amazon Prime Series “The Rings of Power.” One of the many, many things that makes Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy so iconic is the costumes. But that legacy was the direct result of dedication to detail.
“The production spent years hand-making every single piece of armor with real metal, hand-dyeing all-natural fiber fabrics, and designing distinct embroidery and hairstyles specific to each race in Middle Earth that had continuity through the story,” Yost wrote.
He added, “the natural dyes and dedicated layers of fabrics for elves, for hobbits, wool/dyes, and for men had a much more muted/medieval look, yet ethereal because of the slight detail you don’t really notice, but the depth draws your eye to every inch of the costume regardless.” This, he says, is why those three movies stand the test of time.
Compare this to the two images from “The Rings of Power,” below. In one photo “they barely scrapped together an unnaturally gilded scale mail breastplate and just screen printed a stretched long sleeve shirt to match underneath, all over a skirt in a single layer of a warped poly skirt.”
The other image shows “they just saved money on an Elven wig altogether for a 2022 pompadour, with a velvet pleated priest smock (with crushed parts not even steamed out), and a neckline that isn’t tailored to fit like we’ve seen previously with Elrond or Celeborn.”
Yost then moved onto HBO’s “House of the Dragon.” Arguably even those who have never seen a single episode of its predecessor, “Game of Thrones,” would still recognize Daenerys Targaryen for her platinum white hair—an attribute that Yost notes was quite expensive.
He explained that for the show’s final season alone, Daenerys’ wigs most likely cost tens of thousands, requiring human hair to be custom made into multiple wigs.
Luckily, there was only one character with that signature look in the show. For “House of the Dragon,” however, with a cast almost entirely made up of silver-haired brooding powerhouses, Yost surmises that due to budget constraints, the creators opted for synthetic wigs.
You can see below the problem this cost-cutting decision makes in terms of authenticity.
“Synthetic hair reflects light throughout the whole hair shaft and it tangles extremely easily,” Yost writes. “With any shot where a character isn’t actively moving or is performing dialogue and the hair isn’t being actively smoothed down every couple of seconds between shots, each flyaway is going to show up on camera if there’s any indirect lighting and look messy. Not only that, synthetic hair is also twice as thick per strand than human hair, so regardless of that the wigs are going to look bulky in an uncanny valley sort of way.”
This affects not just sci-fi and fantasy, but other genres meant to transport viewers into other worlds, like period pieces, which Yost points out with a picture from “Bridgerton” by Shonda Rhimes.
“It’s obviously not meant to be historically accurate, which is totally fine,” he writes, but without important details or embellishments or even proper undergarments to make the clothes fit well, everything looks like a slightly more expensive Halloween costume.
Yost’s insightful post really shines a light on what audiences are having to trade off for the sake of constant output. The phrase “done is better than perfect” takes on a new meaning altogether as studios race to meet a deadline with whatever is easiest to mass produce. But if viewers are so easily taken out of these stories because of noticeable corner cutting, then perhaps it’s a sign that what we really want and need are stories worth waiting for, ones that truly pull us in and leave us captivated. This is no easy ask, for studio execs or customers alike (I too am a voracious binge-watcher), but as we can see in these examples, the most valuable experiences rarely, if ever, come from rushing.
Jessie Ware has dropped the third single from her forthcoming new album, with “Begin Again.” The dreamy, disco-influenced song was inspired both by Ware’s recent work and her time in Brazil. It was also one of the first things written for her record.
“‘Begin Again’ is where this album started,” she shared, according to Line Of Best Fit. “On a miserable afternoon during lockdown, James Ford zoomed Shungudzo and Danny Parker in Los Angeles. They were just waking up, it was already dark in London. Frustrated yet completely focused, we set about writing in a new – and unnatural – way over the internet.”
“Dreaming of human touch, escapes to Brazil, beach bodies, holiday romances, all of it!” she added. “I absolutely adore this song and I’m so excited for you to hear it, to hear the beautiful production by James and horns by Kokoroko, it’s the song that I knew I wanted to make as soon as I finished ‘Remember Where You Are.’”
The music video for Ware’s latest song was directed by Charlie Di Placido. It finds her and various background dancers just having a great time to keep with the carefree energy. Oh, and there’s also some fun costume changes throughout.
Actor and rapper Jaden Smith is partnering with Samsung for a good cause. For the third iteration of their sustainable collection initiative, Samsung and Jaden have teamed up for a collection of limited-edition mobile accessories collection to celebrate Earth Day.
In Jaden and Samsung’s collection are an array of environmentally conscious cases for the Galaxy S23 Ultra, Galaxy Z Flip4, and Galaxy Buds2 Pro. The collection also features eco-friendly watch bands for Galaxy Watch5.
The Samsung Galaxy x MSFTSrep Eco-conscious Accessories Collection comes as part of Jaden’s MSFTSrep fashion and art brand. The designs draw inspiration from the interconnections of humankind, and the accessories are made with renewable resources and ethically sourced material.
According to Jaden, the arrival of the new accessories could not be more timely, as more consumers are becoming more conscious of their habits and their purchases.
“I think the public shift towards sustainability is amazing because people are waking up and realizing what we actually have to do to change the world,” said Jaden in a statement. “We have to change the way that we produce and the way that we consume, and everyone is waking up.”
Fans can purchase these stylish and eco-friendly new accessories here.
Back in a 1996 episode of The Simpsons, Cypress Hill made a cameo at Hullabalooza, a music festival that Homer had attended. During their appearance, the band was also part of a funny joke that involved them hiring a live orchestra.
After Homer and the rest of the Simpsons family went backstage, they encountered a crew member trying to find out which act booked the London Symphony Orchestra. “Cypress Hill, I’m looking in your direction,” he said.
“I think we did,” Cypress Hill replied, asking the orchestra, “Do you know ‘Insane in the Brain’?”
Cypress Hill and the London Orchestra then performed that song live on stage, in cartoon form. Now, fans will have the opportunity to hear it in real life. The band replied to an Instagram throwback video of The Simpsons scene to announce the news.
“July in Denver with the Colorado symphony we are playing Black Sunday in its entirety to celebrate its 30 [year] anniversary. After that, we plan to make the gig with the London Symphony a reality. Salut to The Simpsons for birthing the idea,” they wrote, according to NME.
Over the years, they’ve been trying to put something together, teasing in a Twitter conversation from 2017, “Let’s make something happen for real.”
— London Symphony Orchestra (@londonsymphony) April 25, 2017
While it’s unclear when the London Symphony gig will be taking place, Cypress Hill fans have something to look forward to, and The Simpsons lovers have another show-to-reality prediction in their books.
Indie-pop duo Magdalena Bay is making their Coachella debut tomorrow (April 14). Ahead of their upcoming performance, the two have shared a third installment in their mini mix series.
Over the course of 15 minutes, Magdalena Bay delivers a trippy whirlwind of sounds. The mix opens with the jazzy, thumpy “Slug Song,” before it transitions into the percussion-heavy, ’80s-inspired “Exo.” The mix’s accompanying music video sees the two dancing, singing, and playing music while moving against hypnotic visual effects.
The clip for the breezy “2 Wheel Drive” features scenes of Magdalena Bay’s Mica Tenenbaum riding her bike into a forest, juxtaposed with images of aliens. The song then transitions to poppy, electronic “Top Dog,” which sees Tenenbaum and producer Matthew Lewin playing with animated dogs in a cartoon dog house.
“Our mini mixes delve into eclectic sounds, sometimes pastiche,” said Magdalena Bay in a statement. “We feel less pressure while making them than with a more serious release so they naturally have a fun spirit to them. The mini mix knows no bounds in terms of genre or stylings. The only rule is we try to keep the songs relatively short, but we don’t really enforce that all too much.”
You can watch the video for “Mini Mix Vol. 3” above, and find the EP’s cover art and tracklist below.
Technology has become such a big part of daily life, it’s easy to forget that using it doesn’t come easily to everyone, especially senior citizens. While there are certainly elderly people who have no problem picking up on how new technology works, that isn’t always the norm. It seems every person under 50 has received a phone call from an elderly loved one asking them to show them how to use a computer or their new cell phone.
But not everyone has a younger person to call, so when a group of teenage boys showed up at an assisted living facility, the residents were excited to get help. The teens are from Canterbury School in Fort Meyers, Florida, and belong to a program called CLEO, which stands for Computer Literacy Education Outreach, one of the teens explained to CBS News.
The idea came after the kids were all joking about how their grandparents always call to ask them for help with their technology. This sparked a conversation on how to make helping elderly people beyond their own grandparents a reality.
The three boys attempted to partner with the facility next door to their school, but they seemed to be having some…technology problems.
“Initially we tried emailing but I think maybe we got put in spam,” one teen told CBS. “I mean it’s right next door…it was before we could drive, so we just walked over after school.”
From teaching the residents how to text pictures to helping them set up their email, the teens have proven to be quite patient and helpful. One elderly woman had over 122,000 emails that she needed help clearing, which she was thankful to learn could be done with a quick click of a couple of buttons.
Watch the residents beam while talking about the teens’ weekly visits:
Drew Barrymore is the master of delivering raw, intimate and thought-provoking interviews in a refreshingly sincere way. But across the board, folks are feeling like her discussion with actress and model Brooke Shields hits a little different.
Both former child stars got their own personal glimpse into the darkness of Hollywood at an early age—Barrymore being introduced to drugs at only 9 years old, and Shields’ entire career being ignited by a role in which she was an object of sexual desire when she was 12.
Now, at age 48 and 57 and in their full autonomy, the two women reflected on those experiences on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” in what people are hailing as an “intense,” yet ultimately “powerful” and “healing conversation.”
One particular gem occurred when Barrymore asked Shields how being sexually exploited during childhood affected her feeling toward the #MeToo movement.
“This is gonna seem like a very weird turn,” Barrymore said in her signature move of sitting close to Shields on the couch. “But how did you feel about the Me Too movement, in the sense of, I didn’t feel like I had a dog in that race.”
She continued: “I didn’t feel like I could speak to it, because I experienced things that were so inappropriate at such a young age…We were children. How did that movement affect you? Did you feel like you could speak to it?”
u201cRemarkable how Drew is facilitating so many open conversations that only ever happen behind closed doors, if at all https://t.co/ObSl1kVlgPu201d
Similarly, Shields felt like she didn’t know where she “fell on the spectrum of it,” adding that “being made to feel culpable” made it additionally hard to interpret her experience.
“You know, you victim-shame yourself,” she shared.
Shields also added that this behavior towards children was so commonplace in the industry that it even felt “appropriate,” causing her to deny much of what she was going through at the time.
This, of course, is not a feeling exclusive to only celebrities. As someone wrote in response to the clip, “When things happen to us as children it’s easy to bury it, brush it off, put it in the back of your head. Sometimes questioning if it happened because as adults it’s hard to remember and often too painful.”
Thank you. When things happen to us as children it’s easy to burry it, brush it off, put it in the back of your head. Sometimes questioning if it happened because as adults it’s hard to remember and often too painful. There is also shame. You are both strong and inspiring women.
For both women, it wouldn’t become clear that something wrong had happened to them until they became mothers themselves, a kind of hindsight that many parents can probably relate to.
This prompted Barrymore to ask, “What do we say to young girls who are out there on Instagram, on social media, doing the same things we did?”
Shields’s answer is both astute and wise.
“They’re not gonna listen,” she says. “But, you know, they’re gonna have to process it on their own. Because they think they’re in control…So you’re gonna have to try to balance it. But, you just keep talking. Keep talking to them.”
It’s worth noting, as many viewers pointed out, that having those difficult conversations is much more achievable when in a safe and sensitive environment. This is why people are praising Barrymore for creating this sort of intimacy that other talk shows sometimes fall short of.
“Remarkable how Drew is facilitating so many open conversations that only ever happen behind closed doors, if at all,” one person wrote.
Kudos to these two women for having the courage to speak openly. Indeed, it’s not always easy, but transparency often helps others not feel alone, and it helps to keep history from repeating itself.
“Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” a documentary which documents the actress’s journey from a sexualized young girl to a woman who embraces her identity and voice, is now available to watch on Hulu.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
