Culture – Page 2 – Newswire Report

Lena Dunham: Caroline Flacks death hit me with a sickening power

March 1, 2020March 1, 2020 NewsEditorCaroline Flack, Celebrity, Culture, Lena Dunham, Life and style, Love Island, Television & radio

I adored the former Love Island host, and wish we could have shown her a more hopeful reality: that women who err and fail are worthy of love My adoration for Cher) and the empathy she brought to a bloodless and occasionally unkind television format lent her an air of approachable glamour, a local-girl-done-good sheen, aspirational but earthy. Not since I saw Storm I C Cup, and took comfort in her durable, bounce-back brand of vulnerability. Her quotes about heartbreak (I feel at my most calm, in control and happiest…

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I knew pretty quickly I was on to something: James Ellroy on writing The Black Dahlia

March 1, 2020March 1, 2020 NewsEditorBooks, Culture, How I wrote, James Ellroy

The death of wannabe starlet Elizabeth Short became entwined in Ellroys mind with the murder of his mother and inspired his bestselling novel I had written six novels before Dahlia, but my primary income throughout this time had come not from books, but from being a golf caddy. At first, I worked at the Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, but around the time my first book, Browns Requiem, was published in 1981, I moved to Westchester County, about half an hour outside New York City. I had first heard…

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Plcido Domingo says harassment apology gave ‘false impression’

February 29, 2020February 29, 2020 NewsEditorClassical music, Culture, Europe, Music, Opera, Placido Domingo, sexual harassment, Spain, World news

Spanish opera singer says his words had been misunderstood after apology triggers backlash Plcido Domingo has rowed back on an apology he made over sexual harassment allegations just two days earlier, after his mea culpa triggered a backlash and cancellations in Spain. The Spanish opera singer, who faces multiple allegations of sexual harassment, forcibly kissing, grabbing or fondling them in incidents dating to the 80s. On Tuesday, the AGMA union said an internal inquiry found the singer had engaged in a pattern of inappropriate activity. Domingo said he was withdrawing…

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Suffrage review: epic retelling of US women’s long battle for the vote

February 23, 2020February 23, 2020 NewsEditorBooks, Culture, Feminism, Gender, History books, Law, US constitution and civil liberties, US politics, women

A century after the 19th amendment, Ellen Carol DuBois makes the familiar new and sheds light on a fight against injustice It was a decidedly anticlimactic end to a life-changing campaign. The document was sent by train to Washington in the middle of the night. A government employee met the train and rushed it to the secretary of state, Bainbridge Colby, who signed the Proclamation of Ratification at dawn, three days after Tennessee became the 36th state to vote for womens suffrage. There were no photographers to record the moment,…

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Trump reportedly calls John Bolton a ‘traitor’ and wants to block his book

February 23, 2020February 23, 2020 NewsEditorBooks, Culture, Donald Trump, John Bolton, Politics books, Trump administration, Trump impeachment, ukraine, US foreign policy, US national security, US news, US politics, World news

President reportedly told aides and media figures book shouldnt be published before Novembers election John Bolton is a traitor and his reportedly told aides and media figures. The presidents views on news of a book deal for fired in September last year. He offered to testify in the Senate but Republicans voted not to call witnesses during a trial which duly ended in Trumps acquittal, despite leaks from Boltons book manuscript seeming to show The Room Where It Happened was slated for publication in March but it has been held…

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Everything we wanted: the race to find the next Billie Eilish

February 22, 2020February 22, 2020 NewsEditorBillie Eilish, Culture, Music

The search for the new Billie is undoubtedly under way. But how will record labels attempt to replicate her success? Last week, No Time to Die a huge swoop of a song that wants to bottle a feeling of timelessness. It ratchets up what has already been quite the year already for her, as last month she became the youngest person to win best record, best song and album of the year (as well as best new artist) Sheeran and Ocean Eyes online in 2015 and signing to A&R hothouse…

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Trump’s Oscars rant? He just wants Hollywood to see he’s a star

February 22, 2020February 22, 2020 NewsEditorAsia Pacific, bong joon-ho, Brad Pitt, Culture, Donald Trump, Drama films, Film, Film industry, Gone With The Wind, Oscars 2020, Parasite, South Korea, US news, World news

The US presidents tirade against Parasites best picture Oscar, preferring Sunset Boulevard and Gone With the Wind, masks his own frustration at being cold-shouldered by Tinseltown The only real surprise was what took him so long. Nearly two weeks after Parasite became the first foreign-language film to win the Oscar for best picture, hadnt actually seen Parasite: Was it good? I dont know. Clearly he is less concerned about the movies quality than its provenance. Here he is, trying to make America great again, and a foreign movie takes Hollywoods…

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Minamata review Johnny Depp attempts redemption in heartfelt look at disaster that struck Japanese town

February 22, 2020February 22, 2020 NewsEditorArt and design, Asia Pacific, Berlin film festival, Berlin film festival 2020, Bill Nighy, Culture, Environment, Festivals, Film, Japan, Johnny Depp, Photography, pollution, World news

Johnny Depp plays real-life US photojournalist W Eugene Smith who travels to cover the story of mercury poisoning that caused horrendous disfigurements Minamata is not a masterpiece and there are one or two cliches here about western saviours and boozy, difficult, passionate journalists who occupy the perennial Venn diagram overlap between integrity and alcoholism. This movies producer-star Johnny Depp has form on this score, with his W Eugene Smith whose glory days were in the second world war and the decades following, working for Life magazine in that now-forgotten era…

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The diehards of doom! Why Doctor Who is the show fans love to hate

February 20, 2020February 20, 2020 NewsEditorCulture, Doctor Who, Fantasy TV, Television, Television & radio

For 56 years and counting, Whovians have been railing against the wheres, whys and, well, everything about their beloved series. Will anything quell this rage? WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE MAGIC OF DOCTOR WHO? This was the question posed in full caps by the president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society in its magazine, TARDIS. The year was 1977, and the story under scrutiny was The Deadly Assassin. Today, this Manchurian Candidate-riffing conspiracy thriller is regarded as one of Doctor Whos all-time greats, from the height of Tom Bakers stripy…

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The Lost Boys review a bloody, ingenious reflection on youth

February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 NewsEditorComedy films, Culture, Drama films, Film, Horror films, Kiefer Sutherland

Joel Schumachers vampire romp endures for its wonderfully grown-up treatment of being young This sprightly and satirical 80s spin on JM Barries lost boys from director Joel Schumacher is now rereleased in UK cinemas. Screenwriter Jeffrey Boam was reportedly drafted in to sexngoth up a story that was originally much more innocently Peter Pan-ish, and yet this version probably has more to say about the concept of staying for ever young. The film is certainly an amazing time capsule for the 80s and arguably one of the great 80s kids-heroism…

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Billie Eilish: No Time to Die review a Bond theme befitting the Craig era

February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 NewsEditorBillie Eilish, Culture, Film, James Bond, Music, Pop and rock

The pop sensation sidelines her trademarks for a tasteful track that matches the haunted solitude of its leading man the Beatles without earmuffs. The Beatles had the last laugh 007 presumably had to reach for hearing protection when Paul McCartney was commissioned to write the theme song for Live and Let Die but for years, the Bond themes pandered to their heros tastes, invariably coming from artists who were more likely to be found playing the Talk of the Town than the Marquee club. That changed dramatically in the 80s.…

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Real censorship: Roxane Gay responds to American Dirt death threat row

February 14, 2020February 14, 2020 NewsEditorBooks, Culture, Fiction, Internet safety, Publishing, Roxane Gay

The author argues the debate around Jeanine Cummins controversial novel shows how people are threatened for daring to have opinions As writers and critics reveal the death threats theyve received in the wake of the uproar surrounding Jeanine Cummins novel, American Dirt, the cancellation of Cummins tour for her controversial novel American Dirt, over concerns for her safety. The novel has been widely criticised for its stereotypical portrayals of Mexico and Mexicans, with tweeted Stephen King, an early fan of American Dirt, in response. But the had admitted the author…

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Banned, snubbed, and saved by Colin Firth my life in Oscars parties

February 10, 2020February 10, 2020 NewsEditorAwards and prizes, Culture, Film, Life and style, Oscars

The 2020 Academy Awards will be my seventh. Ive yet to win one but Ive brought home some great stories When you read this, I will be in Los Angeles, which is nice. I love LA, which is not a sentence you hear often, especially in Britain, where the city is often derided as too shallow, too full of celebrities and too hot, none of which are negatives in my book. The British antipathy to LA is rooted in a suspicion that anything that pleasant cant be good for you,…

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Katy Perry offers no respite for the embattled royals

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 NewsEditorCelebrity, Culture, Duchess of Sussex, katy perry, Life and style, Meghan, Monarchy, Music, Prince Andrew, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Television, Television & radio, UK news

Another blundersome week for the royal crew who, still reeling from Harrys exodus and revelations about Andrew, now find out that the singer has no Asian heritage Over the past few years, the royal helicopter took off comparatively infrequently from the field by Kensington Palace. Over the past month, however, it has been like an Oliver Stone movie out there. Its the Platoon of ribbon-cutting, the Nam of nursery visiting. Since Harry and Meghan decided to step back from their royal duties, the general stepping forward of other royals has…

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Beyond American Dirt: the best books to understand Latinx culture

February 1, 2020February 1, 2020 NewsEditorBooks, Culture, Fiction, Fiction in translation, Young adult

Mexican ghosts, a Splanglish coming of age saga, and trauma on the US border Myriam Gurba picks books exploring the Latinx experience I believe the publishing industry made a profound mistake publishing Jeanine Cumminss wannabe narco-novel Juan Rulfos Pedro Pramo is often hailed as the great Mexican novel. TheHouse of Broken Angels, evokes Rulfo in both style and content, even down to the opening line: Big Angel was late to his own mothers funeral. Urreas prose style is pure chingn: confident, sleek and funny. Like Pedro Pramo, House of Broken…