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The 25 Best Taylor Swift Needle Drops 
Taylor Swift Needle Drop, Fall Guy

The best Taylor Swift needle drops will make you think about her music a little differently. A show like You might play with tone, turning an emotional ballad into comic relief, while The Buccaneers might help christen a new Swiftie classic with one pivotal scene. Some music syncs feel so seamless you may start to believe they were written specifically for a movie, while others, like Swift’s Valentine’s Day sweetheart anthem “Today Was a Fairytale,” actually was. But the most fun needle drops might be those that sound so bonkers in theory that you can’t help but tip your cap to them for making it work. (Looking at you, True Blood!)

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For this list we stuck to a few rules. The most important being: no song shall be repeated. “Welcome to New York” may pop up in lots of productions, but we narrowed it down to the one movie or TV show that we believe made best use of the 1989 single. There are TV shows that have licensed more than one Swift song throughout their seasons-long run, but we decided to narrow it down to one song per show. We did manage to choose only one needle drop from the Swift-fueled The Summer I Turned Pretty, which, we’ll admit, wasn’t easy. (Though, if you believe The Bear’s music supervisor, it’s actually not as hard to clear Swift’s discography as one may think.) We also expanded our search to include commercials and trailers that used Swift’s music to perfection. Here’s to hoping that one of our picks will keep M3gan off our back—quite literally. 

From New Girl to The Fall Guy, these are the 25 best uses of Swift’s music in pop culture.

“Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” in The Bear Season 2, Episode 7

Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) may be more of a Dick Head—thanks to his love of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick—than a Swiftie. But for one glorious night, when he nails his staging gig at a three Michelin star restaurant, he finds himself driving through the streets of Chicago belting out his young daughter’s favorite artist in celebration. Richie’s joyride turns last year’s re-recorded version of the original Speak Now track into a bighearted anthem for a local boy who finally makes good

“Today Was a Fairytale” in Valentine’s Day (2010)

Valentine’s Day not only marked Swift’s big screen debut, but the first film she ever wrote an original song for. (“Today Was a Fairytale” also appears on Fearless (Taylor’s Version).) The track can be heard in a montage that features her character Felicia, a sweet and flighty cheerleader, getting a goodnight kiss from her onscreen boyfriend (played by Taylor Lautner, who she dated offscreen after making the film). The happily ever after song is as sugary sweet as a box of chocolates, which makes it the perfect complement to the mid-aughts rom-com set on Feb. 14. 

“Look What You Made Me Do” in Killing Eve Season 3, Ep. 7

With this episode, Killing Eve’s high-fashion psychopath Villanelle (Jodi Comer) officially enters her Reputation era. Episode 7 begins with the calm, cool, and collected contract killer sitting in a room full of medieval weapons looking a bit nervous as Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” plays. But it might take a minute to register the tune, which sounds totally different than it does on 2017’s Reputation. For one thing, it’s not Swift singing the song, but her brother Austin, taking lead on this slow and sinister cover of the track. Here’s, he’s credited as the frontman of the (fake) band Jack Leopards & The Dolphin Club, of which his older sister and her long-time producer, Jack Antonoff, are members. Look what you made her do, indeed. 

“All Too Well” in The Fall Guy (2024)

Early in the action-packed romance, stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) finds himself nursing a few bumps and bruises to his ego after his old love interest and new boss, director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), puts him through the ringer on the set of her new film. Sitting in his car, he turns on the radio, hears Swift’s expert kiss-off anthem, and finds himself getting in his feelings. Gosling, who recently parodied the Red track on Saturday Night Live, admitted that shooting the scene was “very cathartic” for him. “I think I cried a little too hard,” he told UK’s Digital Spy. Gosling once again proves that he’s not just Ken, he’s a man who can do both. 

“Wildest Dreams” in Bridgerton Season 1, Ep. 6

Swift’s 1989 stunner is given an orchestral makeover to soundtrack the honeymoon of Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon (Regé-Jean Page). The new Duke and Duchess of Hastings make good on the song’s title, engaging in passionate love-making whenever and wherever they can—much to the delight of the maids. It’s safe to say, no Swift song has ever felt so climactic.

“Safe & Sound” feat. The Civil Wars in The Hunger Games (2012)

If you don’t stay to the very end of The Hunger Games credits, you’ll miss “Safe & Sound,” the futuristic folk ballad Swift co-wrote with alt-country duo The Civil Wars. After reading Suzanne Collins’ book of the same name, Swift was inspired to write a song for the Jennifer Lawrence blockbuster. She wrote the bittersweet lullaby from the perspective of protagonist Katniss Everdean (played by Lawrence) after learning that her friend Rue has died in the titular competition. “Safe & Sound” showed off Swift’s skills as a storyteller who didn’t have to rely on her own life for material, eight years before she would drop Folklore

“22” in New Girl Season 2, Ep. 16

After a devastating breakup, all Jess (Zooey Deschanel) wants to do is listen to Taylor Swift alone. But Nick (Jake Johnson) believes that he can make her feel better if he joins in on her rosé-fueled pity party. Oh, how wrong he is. The Red banger for the slightly over 21 set, however, feels like the right choice for Nick’s hilariously bad dance routine that doesn’t help Jess with her depression, but is sure to get everyone else out of their funk. 

“I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” feat. Zayn in Fifty Shades Darker (2017)

Whatever your opinion may be of the Fifty Shades films, there’s one thing that undeniably works: Swift and Zayn’s duet in the trilogy’s second film Fifty Shades Darker. The electropop ballad drops in just as BDSM businessman Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) lets his less experienced lover Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) take the wheel of his boat. (And no, that’s not a euphemism—this scene is very much G-rated.) But with Swift and Zayn’s help, the couple (and the viewers) experience a stretch of smooth sailing in the mostly turbulent film. 

“This Love (Taylor’s Version)” in The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 1, Ep. 7 & Season 2, Ep. 1

Author Jenny Han has not been shy about how much Swift’s Fearless inspired her while writing her 2009 novel The Summer I Turned Pretty. She has said it was her “number one dream” to feature Swift’s music on the Amazon series of the same name and even wrote the pop star a letter to get her approval. So it’s only fitting that Swift’s music has become like another character on the highly emotional teen show that adults can’t help but love, too. TSITP has already featured 13 Swift songs, with nine of them appearing in season 2. 

A bittersweet flashback between a bracefaced Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung) and her lifelong crush Conrad (Christopher Briney) in season 2 features “Sweet Nothing” off Midnights. “Hey Stephen” becomes Belly’s brother Steven’s theme song. (It also happens to be the character’s ringtone in the books.) “Delicate,” Han’s favorite Swift track, popped up in a lovey-dovey scene between Belly and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), Conrad’s little brother and her other crush. A choice that left members of Team Conrad shaking in their boots. But the best of TSITP’s Swift syncs has to be “This Love (Taylor’s Version),” which has become the unofficial anthem of Belly and Conrad’s tortured romance. 

The 1989 (Taylor’s Version) track first showed up in the season 1 finale, before it was even officially released, in the scene in which Belly and Conrad share their first kiss. It’s a moment of euphoria for Belly who almost can’t believe her wildest dreams are coming true. When it pops back up again in the season 2 premiere, the song takes on a more somber tone. Now broken up, Belly finds herself going back to the moment when they kissed with fresh eyes. This particular needledrop shows how Swift’s music has the uncanny ability to capture life’s highest highs and lowest lows—often all within the same song. 

“Lover” in The Bold Type Season 4, Ep. 2

For the moment in which lawyer Richard (Samuel Page) proposes to his younger stylist girlfriend Sutton (Meghann Fahy), The Bold Type music supervisors chose “Lover,” one of the most romantic songs in Swift’s discography. The co-workers-turned-lovers are in the boardroom at the Scarlet magazine offices where they first locked eyes when suddenly Richard gets down on one knee. The title track off Swift’s 2019 album comes swooning in—but not before Sutton makes a bawdy joke about why he’s going down there. Sure, “Lover” may feel a little on the nose for The Bold Type couple most likely to keep the Christmas lights up way past January. But it’s hard not to feel all lovey-dovey inside when Swift is out here writing lyrics that sound more like wedding vows. 

“Seven” in Heartstopper Season 2, Ep. 8

Heartstopper manages to flip the script on the sorrowful “Seven,” which Swift wrote about a childhood friend’s troubled home life. The season 2 finale of the queer teen Netflix series uses the tender Folklore track to score a moment in which Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) finally tells her girlfriend Tara (Corinna Brown) about her own family problems. Like Swift’s friend, Darcy’s issues are too deep to be solved by her peers. But their exchange shows how nice it is to have a friend who is there for you no matter what. The episode’s sweet scene, which ends with Tara and Darcy saying “I love you” for the first time, embraces the innocence that Swift sings of. While Swift sounds embarrassed of her youthful naïveté on “Seven,” Heartstopper shows why being too young to know any better isn’t always such a bad thing. 

“Out of the Woods (Taylor’s Version)” in Migration (2023) Trailer

The trailer for Migration begins with a flock of ducks (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, and Danny DeVito) making their way out of the woods in hopes of finding an adventure all to the sounds of, well, what else, “Out of the Woods.” Taylor’s version of the 1989 track doesn’t appear in the animated film, but whoever came up with the idea to feature it in the trailer deserves a raise — a big one. 

“Exile” feat. Bon Iver in You Season 3, Ep. 10

Just as sociopath Joe (Penn Badgley) drags the lifeless body of Love (Victoria Pedretti), his equally deranged wife, across the floor of their Nancy Meyers-esque kitchen, the evocative Folklore track starts to play. It’s undoubtedly a chilling moment; Joe is willing to do anything, even chop off a couple of toes, to get away with Love’s murder. Yet the “Exile” needledrop plays like comedy. Seriously, try not to giggle as Swift and her duet partner Bon Iver unload their anguish on one another while Joe rolls out pie dough with the intention of baking his little piggies into it. It’s not the only time that You has used Swift’s music for a bit of comic relief—the “Anti-Hero” sync in season 4 will surely make you LOL. But it’s hard to deny the brilliance of this needledrop, which will make a viewer laugh, cry, and, quite possibly, lose their lunch. 

“Ivy” in Dickinson Season 3, Ep. 9 

The Evermore track plays over the credits of the penultimate episode of Dickinson, the Apple TV+ series loosely based on the life of tortured poet (and Swift cousin) Emily Dickinson. It’s an apt soundtrack since fans have long believed that the folk song about a woman longing for someone who is not her husband was inspired by Dickinson’s letters to her secret lover Sue Gilbert, who was married to Dickinson’s brother. Knowing Swift’s penchant for Easter eggs, it’s hard not to wonder if the song’s appearance in this particular episode, which ends with a steamy sex scene between Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) and Sue (Ella Hunt), is her way of finally confirming the fan theory. Dickinson creator Alena Smith would sure like to think so. 

“Carolina” in Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

“Carolina” is a murder ballad fit for the marshes of North Carolina where the film based on Delia Owens’ controversial novel of the same name takes place. Swift wrote the end credits theme for Where the Crawdads Sing from the perspective of protagonist Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a “marsh girl” obsessed with ecology who becomes the lead suspect in the murder of her ex-boyfriend. The haunting and ethereal Folklore-esque track provides a bit of closure for shocked viewers, and acts as a Cliff’s Notes for anyone who didn’t read the best-seller. 

“White Horse” in Grey’s Anatomy Season 5, Ep. 2

From The Fray’s “How To Save a Life” to Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars,” Grey’s Anatomy has always had the power to turn songs into hits. That is why, in 2008, Swift was brought to tears when she found out the medical series was going to feature “White Horse,” off her then soon to be released 2008 album, Fearless, on that same year’s two-part season premiere. Even better, it was the soundtrack for the steamy first makeout session between Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) and Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), which happens shortly after he gallantly removes a gigantic icicle from her abdomen. Just another day at Seattle Grace, right?

“Haunted” in True Blood Season 4 , Ep. 9

As the Speak Now track plays, vampire and noted Swifie Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) gets it on with Deputy Sheriff and werepanther Jason (Ryan Kwanten) in the back of a pickup truck. “Haunted” is a surprisingly chaste musical cue for such a racy scene, which is why Swift’s team initially said no to the sync in 2011. (The funny thing is, this episode’s sex scene is rather tame compared to most of the things in the kinky HBO series inspired by Charlaine Harris’s book series of the same name.) The fact that it was Swift, then on the brink of 22, who pushed for the angst-ridden song to appear on the show is what makes this needle drop so noteworthy. 

“It’s Nice to Have a Friend” in M3gan (2023) Trailer

meet #M3GAN. your new best friend. pic.twitter.com/5nx8rTt72y

— Universal Pictures (@UniversalPics) October 11, 2022

Sure, it’s nice to have a friend, unless that new buddy is M3gan, an incredibly life-like humanoid robot programmed to sing, dance, and, unfortunately, kill. Swift’s Lover track offers a welcome bit of kitsch to the trailer for the 2023 campy horror film that is Frankenstein for the Internet age. An army of M3gans even showed their Swift allegiance by performing a viral dance routine to the song at the film’s L.A. premiere. It’s almost as mesmerizing and terrifying as the movie itself.

“Epiphany” in The Wilds Season 2, Ep. 1

Amazon’s teen survival drama The Wilds opens its second season with several teenage girls recounting the horrors of a plane crash that left them stranded on what they thought was a deserted island. The haunting “Epiphany” plays over shots of the young women cauterizing an open bloody wound. It’s a ghastly sight, but Swift’s soothing vocals, which sound almost hymn-like, highlight their resilience to endure what life has thrown at them.

“Shake If Off” in Ballers Season 1, Ep. 8

Just like Dwayne Johnson himself, his Ballers character, retired NFL player-turned-financial manager Spencer Strasmore, gets down with the sick beat of “Shake It Off.” Spencer’s ride to work turns into an episode of Carpool Karaoke, which leaves onlookers stunned by his choice of hype song. But as Swift once said, the haters gonna hate and you just have to shake it off, shake it off. 

“We Are Never Getting Back Together” in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 9, Ep. 3

With hopes of making Paddy’s Irish Pub Philly’s newest drinking destination, the Always Sunny gang find themselves doing some reconnaissance work at the city’s most popular watering hole Sudz. This bar is well-lit, well-stocked, and playing a playlist full of pop favorites, including Swift’s “We Are Never Getting Back Together,” at full volume. After a few fishbowl drinks, the breakup anthem sounds pretty good to even the most legendary dirtbags, Mac (Rob McElhenney), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and Dennis (Glenn Howerton).

“Nothing New” feat. Phoebe Bridgers in The Buccaneers Season 1, Ep. 1

Swift opened the vault to give fans “Nothing New,” the Red (Taylor’s Version) track in which she, with help from Boygenius singer Phoebe Bridgers, calls out the music industry’s unfair treatment of women. When the song shows up in the premiere of The Buccaneers, the historical drama based on Edith Wharton’s unfinished posthumously published novel of the same name, it becomes a condemnation of the debutante balls of the 1890s. Hearing Swift sing about mistreated ingenues over shots of pretty girls all dressed in white anxiously hoping to be plucked out of the crowd by a worthy suitor, will leave you wondering how far society has actually come in 150 years. 

“This Is Me Trying” in Gossip Girl Season 1, Ep. 7 

The Folklore ballad, which Swift wrote about fighting one’s demons to little avail, feels as if it was written specifically for this episode of the Gossip Girl reboot. Wealthy do-gooder Obie (Eli Brown) finally lets his classmate, manipulative queen bee Julien (Jordan Alexander), know that he’s been doing her bidding because he’s in love with her. Of course, everyone, including Julien, already knew this, but him finally saying it out loud somehow makes it real for her. She leans in for a kiss as “This Is Me Trying” swells in the background. Unfortunately, keeping with the song’s message, trying isn’t enough to make her stay. But the despondent track feels like what Obie needs to hear as he watches her walk away. 

“Mine” in Glee Season 4, Ep. 4

Swift’s “Mine” is a love song about the one you just couldn’t let get away. But on Glee the song becomes a forlorn ballad that soundtracks the break-up of Santana (Naya Rivera) and Brittany (Heather Morris). Recent William McKinley High School graduate Santana returns to the choir room to let Brittany down gently with a tear-filled performance of the Speak Now song that will leave you reaching for a box of tissues. 

“Welcome to New York” in NBC Sunday Night Football Commercial (2023)

Taylor Made for Sunday Night. pic.twitter.com/L05AYHfSFq

— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) September 29, 2023

Days after Swift showed up at a Kansas City Chiefs game to root on her then rumored boyfriend, NFL player Travis Kelce, NBC used the Big Apple anthem to tease an upcoming game between Kelce’s team and the New York Jets. “Taylor made for Sunday night,” the official Sunday Night Football account tweeted in anticipation of the game. No surprise, the commercial featured plenty of shots of Kelce as Swift sings about the lights never blinding her. It appears that “Welcome to New York” might have helped the Chiefs take Manhattan; they won the match-up 23 to 20. 

More From TIME

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Source: Entertainment – TIME | 3 May 2024 | 3:48 pm

The Most Outrageous Met Gala Looks of All Time
Met Gala Most Outrageous Outfits

At the annual Met Gala, fashion takes center stage and the red carpet, normally seen as the precursor to a party, has become the main event. The gala, which raises funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, takes place on the first Monday in May and in the past three decades, has become a fixture for celebrity clotheshorses and a must-watch event for fashion enthusiasts and pop culture aficionados alike.

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Read more: How Do You Get Invited to the Met Gala? An Industry Insider Weighs In

While any red carpet for a formal event can summon beautiful gowns and dapper tuxes, the Met Gala is special because it champions sartorial risks like no other. The night’s dress code is determined by a theme inspired by the Costume Institute’s annual exhibition, which attendees can interpret as they please, but the most memorable looks are the ones that fearlessly and creatively reimagine the theme on their own terms. On the steps of the Met, fashion history has been made with the daring and truly outrageous looks worn by Met Gala guests over the years, from Sarah Jessica Parker and Alexander McQueen clad in matching looks made of his Scottish family’s tartan to Rihanna’s showstopping, fur-trimmed yellow Guo Pei cape.

With that in mind, we revisited 45 of the most outrageous looks from every Met Gala from 1975 to 2023 (with the exceptions of 1991, 2000, 2002 and 2020, years when the gala was not held.

Pat Buckley, 1975

Socialite Pat Buckley, who would later go on to chair the gala in ’80s and ’90s, wore an off-the-shoulder black gown with dramatic fringe to the event in 1975.

Diana Vreeland, 1976

Legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who helped to make the Met Gala as we know it today by championing themes for the annual event, wore a floral dress with fringe in 1976.

Divine in Zandra Rhodes, 1977

Drag queen Divine wore a bold Zandra Rhodes gown that mixed patterns to the 1977 Met Gala.

Lee Radziwill, 1978

Lee Radziwill, an interior designer and sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, paired her sleek white gown with a matching white fur for a monochromatic look at the 1978 Met Gala.

Berry Berenson and Steve Rubell, 1979

Berry Berenson Steven Rubell

Socialite Berry Berenson wore a sparkling red jumpsuit to the 1979 Met Gala, which she attended alongside Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell.

Diana Vreeland in Yves Saint Laurent, 1980

Diana Vreeland

Diana Vreeland cut a striking figure in a black gown and Yves Saint Laurent jacket with sculptural gold embellishment for the 1980 Met Gala; she accessorized the look with coral inspired jewelry.

Diana Ross, 1981

Diana Ross

Legendary singer Diana Ross delivered her signature glamour in 1981 with a ruffled tulle gown trimmed with feathers.

Zandra Rhodes and Diana Vreeland, 1982

Zandra Rhodes Diana Vreeland

Fashion designer Zandra Rhodes complemented her trademark hot pink hair with a matching pink and red gown at the 1982 Met Gala, while Diana Vreeland turned to bold white accessories to make her black gown pop.

Nan Kempner, 1983

Nan Kemper

Socialite and noted clotheshorse Nan Kempner, here with John Richardson, paired her black ensemble with a dramatic floor-length jacket tied with a pussy bow at the neck.

Guests, 1984

Eighties’ fashion was at its boldest and best at the 1984 Met Gala, where guests showed off daring shoulder pads, ostentatious sequins, and statement ruffles.

Cher in Bob Mackie, 1985

Bob Mackie Cher

Cher attended the 1985 Met Gala alongside her longtime collaborator, the fashion designer Bob Mackie. The theme of the night was “Costumes of Royal India,” so Cher dressed accordingly in a gown with a sheer and crystal embellished bodice and a matching pair of ear adornments.

Lauren Ezersky, 1986

Lauren Ezersky

Television fashion journalist Lauren Ezersky wore a white and gold embellished suit dress for the 1986 Met Gala.

Mai Hallingby, 1987

Socialite Mai Hallingby, who attended the 1987 Met Gala alongside her financier husband Paul, wore a dramatically ruffled purple floral gown styled with a black rosette.

Guests, 1988

At the 1988 Met Gala, this guest wore a short dress with an overskirt and matching stole.

Anna Wintour, 1989

David Shaffer Anna Wintour

Before she became the event’s chair, Anna Wintour—here with her husband David Shaffer—attended the Met Gala as aVogue editor, donning a gold sequin and black satin dress that she paired with a pearl necklace and a bedazzled overcoat.

Naomi Campbell in Versace, 1990

Naomi Campbell Francesco Scavullo

Supermodel Naomi Campbell, who attended the 1990 Met Gala as a guest of Gianni Versace, wore a colorful Versace mini dress and a matching jacket, while partying with photographer Francesco Scavullo.

Guests, 1992

At the 1992 Met Gala, this guest’s unconventional look included a conical metal bra and a sparkling maxi skirt.

Guests, 1993

At the 1993 Met Gala, this guest wore a lingerie-inspired outfit, with a bra top, a fluffy tulle skirt, and garter stockings.

Guest, 1994

This guest took a walk on the wild side with a snakeskin sheath dress and matching blazer.

Christy Turlington in Calvin Klein, Naomi Campbell in Versace, Kate Moss in Calvin Klein, 1995

Christy Turlington Naomi Campbell Kate Moss

The supermodels Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss made a splash when they arrived at the Met Gala in 1995; both Turlington and Moss wore streamlined dresses by Calvin Klein, while Naomi went for sparkling maximalist glamour in a silver Versace dress.

Iman in Christian Lacroix, 1996

Iman

Supermodel Iman wore an intricately embellished black bustier gown by Christian Lacroix when she attended the Met Gala with the designer in 1996.

Diane von Furstenberg and Alexandra von Furstenberg in Diane von Furstenberg, 1997

Diane Von Furstenberg

Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and daughter-in-law Alexandra von Furstenberg wore DVF’s designs to attend the 1997 Met Gala, but Alexandra’s gravity-defying hairdo was the highlight of the night.

Alan Cumming in Tommy Hilfiger, 1998

Alan Cumming

Actor Alan Cumming shone at the 1998 Met Gala in a silver Tommy Hilfiger suit, which he dressed down with a pair of sneakers.

Liv Tyler and Stella McCartney in Stella McCartney, 1999

Liv Tyler Stella McCartney

Liv Tyler and Stella McCartney cheekily referenced their status as nepo babies with rock-star fathers by wearing one-shouldered statement tops, which they paired with fitted trousers for a fresh and unfussy look at the 1999 Met Gala.

Stefano Gabbana and Naomi Campbell in Dolce & Gabbana, 2001

Naomi Campbell

Supermodel Naomi Campbell and designer Stefano Gabanna took their sartorial cues from musical icons for the 2001 Met Gala. Campbell, who wore a sheer lace skirt and embellished shirt that read “Like a Virgin,” channeled Madonna, while Gabanna referenced the rock band AC/DC on his jeans for the night.

Victoria Beckham in Dolce & Gabbana and Naomi Campbell, 2003

Victoria Beckham Naomi Campbell

For her first Met Gala in 2003, Spice Girl Victoria Beckham wore a lingerie-inspired slip dress with sparkling accents by Dolce & Gabbana, while Naomi Campbell wore a playful red fringed dress.

Amber Valletta in Jean Paul Gaultier, 2004

Amber Valletta

For the “Dangerous Liasions”-themed gala in 2004, supermodel Amber Valletta committed to the theme with a towering powdered wig and a corseted ball gown by Jean Paul Gaultier.

Karolina Kurkova in Chanel, 2005

Karolina Kurkova

Supermodel Karolina Kurkova took statement dressing literally with her white and red Chanel gown.

Alexander McQueen and Sarah Jessica Parker in Alexander McQueen, 2006

Sarah Jessica Parker Alexander McQueen

When actor Sarah Jessica Parker attended the 2006 Met Gala with fashion designer Alexander McQueen, the duo arrived in matching outfits made out of McQueen’s family tartan.

Jean Paul Gaultier and Coco Rocha in Jean Paul Gaultier, 2007

Jean-Paul Gaultier Coco Rocha

Supermodel Coco Rocha attended the 2007 Met Gala alongside French designer Jean Paul Gaultier, who designed a romantic tulle gown with floral accents and a bow at the waist for her.

Kate Mara and Zac Posen in Zac Posen, 2008

Zac Posen Kate Mara

For the 2008 Met Gala, whose theme was “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” designer Zac Posen, who attended the event with actor Kate Mara, created a Superman-inspired look for the night.

Madonna in Louis Vuitton, 2009

Madonna

Madonna, no stranger to making a bold fashion statement, turned heads on the Met Gala red carpet with her daring Louis Vuitton mini dress, thigh-high boots, and matching hair scarf.

Katy Perry, 2010

Katy Perry

Katy Perry was an early adopter of wearable technology with her light-up candy striped gown at the 2010 Met Gala.

Daphne Guinness in Alexander McQueen, 2011

Daphne McGuinness

At the 2011 McQueen-themed Met Gala, socialite and fashion icon Daphne Guinness paid tribute to the late designer, one of her close friends, by wearing a sculptural McQueen dress made entirely of feathers.

Beyonce in Givenchy, 2012

Beyonce

Beyoncé helped to usher in the era of the “naked dress” with her sheer, embellished Givenchy gown with a purple ombré feather train at the 2012 Met Gala.

Madonna in Givenchy, 2013

Madonna

Madonna really committed to the theme of the 2012 Met Gala, “Punk: Chaos to Couture,” with a studded plaid blazer worn as a dress, ripped fishnet tights, and a jet-black bob.

Lupita Nyong’o in Prada, 2014

Lupita Nyongo

Actor Lupita Nyong’o turned heads when she arrived to the 2014 Met Gala in a green flapper-esque look from Prada.

Rihanna in Guo Pei, 2015

Rihanna

All eyes were on pop star Rihanna when she arrived to the Met Gala in a sweeping, bright yellow fur-trimmed cape by Guo Pei and matching tiara for the 2015 Met Gala.

Lady Gaga in Versace, 2016

Lady Gaga

Singer and actor Lady Gaga made the case for formal wear sans pants when she showed up to the 2016 Met Gala in a bedazzled leotard, matching jacket, fishnets, and a pair of sky-high platform boots.

Helen Lasichanh in Commes des Garcons, 2017

Pharrell Williams Helen Lasichanh

Designer Helen Lasichanh, here with singer-songwriter Pharrel Williams, showed the lengths she was willing to go to for fashion when she showed up to the 2017 Met Gala in a Comme des Garcons bodysuit with no arm holes.

Katy Perry in Versace, 2018

Katy Perry

Katy Perry took the “Heavenly Bodies” theme of the 2018 Met Gala seriously, showing up to the event in a gold Versace dress, matching boots, and a pair of feathered angel wings bigger than her body.

Cardi B in Thom Browne, 2019

Cardi B

Cardi B shut down the Met Gala red carpet when she arrived in a feathered and quilted hooded Thom Browne dress with a sizeable train.

Kim Kardashian in Balenciaga, 2021

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian veered into the avant garde with her simple but striking Balenciaga look at the 2021 Met Gala.

Alessandro Michele and Jared Leto in Gucci, 2022

Alessandro Michele Jared Leto

Designer Alessandro Michele (left) and actor Jared Leto made a case for twinning when they showed up in identical outfits, from matching Gucci embroidered tuxedos and pink bow ties to the crystal barrettes in their side-parted hair dos.

Doja Cat in Oscar de la Renta, 2023

Doja Cat

Doja Cat took accessorizing to the next level when she paired her hooded crystal Oscar de la Renta gown (complete with feather train and cat ears) with prosthetics that made her look like a true feline for the night.

Source: Entertainment – TIME | 3 May 2024 | 3:06 pm

Watch the Classic Stunts That Inspired the Action in The Fall Guy

Before directing Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, or Bullet Train, David Leitch was one of the most prolific stuntmen in Hollywood. He doubled for Brad Pitt in Fight Club and Troy. He executed stunts on two of the Matrix movies and one of the Bourne installments. He is a scholar of the action flick and told TIME his latest movie, The Fall Guy, is a “love letter to action movies.”

The film centers on a stunt man, played by Ryan Gosling. He had a brief romance with an aspiring director (Emily Blunt) but ghosted her after a serious injury. When she finally gets her first big break, her new movie’s star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing, so the stunt man sets out to find him and save his true love’s picture (and maybe win her back in the process). The Fall Guy depicts the meticulous preparation needed to execute stunts as well as the fantastic feats themselves. And the movie broke the world record for the number of cannon rolls—or car flips—in a movie.

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The Fall Guy also nods at the dozens of action movies that came before it. “I wanted to pay homage to the history of stunts and do really fun ones in the spirit of some of the classics,” says Leitch. When dreaming up the stunts in their various films, Leitch and his executive producer and wife Kelly McCormick keep a TV running in the background of their brainstorming meetings that plays everything from Buster Keaton’s leaps to Bollywood battle scenes.

TIME asked Leitch and McCormick to talk through the classic action scenes in movies like Casino Royale, True Lies, and Indiana Jones that inspired the stunts in The Fall Guy.

The Casino Royale Cannon Roll

A cannon roll is a classic stunt that involves fitting a cannon-like contraption beneath a car. When the car reaches a specific speed, the apparatus triggers and propels the car into a series of rolls. Before The Fall Guy, the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale held the record with seven rolls.

“David challenged the team to break the world record,” says McCormick. “He actually put it in the script.” Leitch’s team ultimately achieved eight and a half cannon rolls.

The feat is all the more impressive considering that Casino Royale’s cannon rolls were accomplished with the car moving downhill and gravity working in its favor. The Fall Guy shot its cannon rolls on a flat, sandy surface. As McCormick explains, “Sand is hard because that canon hits down into a surface, and the harder the surface, the easier it is to roll it.” Sand, by contrast, has a lot of give.

The High Falls in Sharky’s Machine & Assassin’s Creed

Assassin's Creed with Michael Fassbender, 2016

High falls are another familiar if complicated stunt. One of Leitch’s favorites is a fall out of a glass building in the 1980s classic Sharky’s Machine. A stuntman on 2016’s Assassin’s Creed performed a free fall of 125 feet, the highest jump in a film in 35 years.

The height of the fall is determined by factors like the wind, which can pull a jumper away from the airbag he’s supposed to hit on the ground. The stunt man on The Fall Guy was able to fall 150 feet.

“We had agreed that 120 was the height that felt right, unless the conditions were absolutely perfect that day, and then we’d let him go to 150,” says McCormick. “And, and they were, and so we did. He hadn’t hit that number in rehearsals. He hadn’t hit that height in his life.”

Marrying stunts and romance in True Lies and Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Eliza Dushku and Arnold Schwarzenegger in 'True Lies' 1994

Leitch argues “action shouldn’t be done for action’s sake.” It should always serve the story. “The hardest stunt in the movie was the stunt of falling in love,” Leitch says of making The Fall Guy.

Few films marry romance and action well. But James Cameron may be the master of striking that balance. “True Lies is such a great movie for action and relationship, right, and the stakes involved in those sequences,” says Leitch. He specifically points to the helicopter stunt at the end of the film when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character, hanging out of a helicopter, must grab Jamie Lee Curtis’ character from a moving car headed off the edge of a bridge. It solidifies trust within the couple at the end of their journey together.

Perhaps in a wink to that film, The Fall Guy features a scene involving a helicopter in which our two protagonists have a conversation about their feelings for one another in the midst of a death-defying chase.

McCormick cites another film that melds action and romance, the 2005 Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie action comedy Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In that movie, the action scenes often morph into sexually-charged moments of romance. “Mr. And Mrs. Smith, the fight in the kitchen and the even the warehouse, it’s just so original and about their relationship,” McCormick says. “It’s really is connective and memorable.” Leitch happened to work as Pitt’s stuntman on that film.

Scrappy fights and jumping across vehicles in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones

Leitch says that the stunts of ’80s and ’90s action movies are “baked into The Fall Guy.” Gosling got to pay homage to one of film’s greatest action stars—and his old co-star on Blade Runner 2049—Harrison Ford. A long chase sequence involving Gosling hopping across cars and trucks mimics a famous scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

“There’s a great truck sequence in that where Indy is trying to transfer from truck to truck, and he’s hanging behind it,” Leitch says. Just as Indiana Jones gets dragged behind a truck, Gosling’s character surfs behind a truck in The Fall Guy. “I think we started out there, but then as the guys got into the choreography it started to become our own version of that.”

Throughout the truck scene, Gosling’s character scraps with a goon much larger than him. That fight serves as a callback to just about every Indiana Jones action scene: “He’s always overwhelmed and outmatched but somehow figures a clever way out of it.”

Big car jumps in The Fall Guy TV Show, Smokey and the Bandit, and Hooper

Burt Reynolds (top) in Hooper, 1978

Modern audiences may not know that The Fall Guy is based on old IP. The Fall Guy TV show, which aired in the 1980s, starred Lee Majors as a Hollywood stuntman who moonlighted as a bounty hunter. He drove a GMC Sierra and often made jumps over barriers and ponds while pursuing criminals. Gosling’s hero, too, finds himself chasing bad guys in a newer GMC Sierra and jumping over partitions to reach them—though in The Fall Guy movie, there’s a dog in the passenger’s seat, just to up the stakes.

The end of The Fall Guy features a car jump across a gigantic canyon. That jump honors jumps in two Burt Reynolds movies, Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper. “It was fun to figure out, ‘How can we take that to the next level?” says Leitch.

Source: Entertainment – TIME | 3 May 2024 | 11:49 am

The True Story Behind Netflix’s Unfrosted, Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop-Tarts Movie
Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story

Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted, a feature film about the heated race to create the toaster pastry Pop-Tarts, starts streaming today (May 3) on Netflix. In his directorial debut, Seinfeld also stars as Kellogg’s head of development, facing cereal mascots and milkmen up in arms because they’re afraid that a breakfast food that doesn’t require milk is going to run them out of business.

The movie, which also stars Hugh Grant and Amy Schumer, was more than a decade in the making. Seinfeld and Unfrosted screenwriter Spike Feresten, a Seinfeld writer, joked about making a movie based on the comedian’s favorite breakfast as far back as 2013. But then came the COVID-19 pandemic, when Seinfeld had to stop doing standup, and he and Feresten took a stab at turning the inside joke into a movie for the outside world. Both writers found the kids cereal business inherently hilarious, Feresten tells TIME, imagining “serious men in suits inventing silly things for kids.”

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While the movie is a total farce, it’s grounded in the historic rivalry between America’s biggest makers of breakfast cereal. Kellogg and Post were both founded in Battle Creek, Michigan, and had a long history of competing against each other. In the early 1900s, C.W. Post stole a Kellogg recipe for corn flakes, which he dubbed ‘post-toasties.’ Howard Markel, a historian who wrote a book about Kellogg, describes the companies to TIME as always “fighting like cats and dogs, like Ford and General Motors.”

A space race for breakfast foods

Fast-forward to the 1960s, when Post and Kellogg were competing to develop a breakfast food for toasters at the same time. The movie likens the race to the space race, with Kellogg introducing its “taste pilots” as if they were NASA astronauts. In reality, Post had announced that its “Country Squares” were in the works, wrapped in foil, but Kellogg beat them to the market in 1964. 

The key ingredient to Kellogg’s Pop-Tart success was recruiting Bill Post in 1963, who was managing a Hekman (later Keebler Food Co.) plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Post took home some Pop-Tart prototypes to his children, and they were a hit. His children “used to ask me, ‘Bring those fruit scones home,’” he told the Associated Press in 2003. “That’s what we called them at first, internally. Fruit scones. ‘Bring some of those home, will you Dad?’” In the movie, children do play a key role as taste-testers: Seinfeld discovers kids snacking on leftovers in Post’s dumpster.

Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts were a hit with a test market in Cleveland in late 1963. The following year, Kellogg immediately sold out of the four original flavors—strawberry, blueberry, apple currant, and brown sugar cinnamon. Kellogg’s added frosting in 1967 and then sprinkles in 1968, per Post’s suggestion. Now Pop-Tarts come in more than two dozen flavors, and factories churn out about 7 million Pop-Tarts a day. At one point, Bill Post drove a car with a vanity plate that read “Pop Tart.”

Pop-Tarts were a product of its moment. The Pop-Tarts’ website says the name—coined by Kellogg executive William LaMothe—is a play on the popular Pop-Art movement of the 1960s. And as women climbed the ranks at their jobs, empowered by the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s, they needed a breakfast their kids could eat quickly, according to Heather Arndt Anderson’s Breakfast: A History.

Tony the Tiger

Several characters in the movie are fictionalized versions of real people. Jack LaLanne, a Kellogg taste pilot played by James Marsden, went on to pioneer home exercise, and in the movie, he inspires Pop-Tarts’ foil packets by parading around in a puffy foil bodysuit. Thurl Ravenscroft (Grant) really did come up with the “Grrrrreeeat!” slogan for Frosted Flakes mascot Tony the Tiger. As he joked to the Orange County Register in 1996, “I’m the only man in the world that has made a career with one word: Grrrrreeeat!” Schumer plays philanthropist and Post executive Marjorie Post, depicted as so hungry for business that she flies to Moscow to pitch cereal ideas to the Soviets. In reality, she stepped down as Post’s corporation director in 1958, six years before the Pop-Tart came out.

The Bill Post who helped create Pop-Tarts won’t be able to see the Netflix film, as he passed away on Feb. 10, at the age of 96. The filmmakers did not work with him on the film, but Seinfeld’s Kellogg executive character Bob Cabana is loosely based on him. His name was changed because screenwriter Feresten thought having a character named Post working for Kellogg in a movie about Kellogg and Post feuding would be confusing for viewers.

Seinfeld and Feresten started writing what would become Unfrosted over Zoom after Hollywood productions stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Feresten, whose favorite Pop-Tart is frosted blueberry, describes the film to TIME as “a Seinfeld episode with a very big budget.”

Pop-Tarts may not be the most wholesome breakfast—they’re full of highly processed ingredients—but the movie is pure, wholesome fun. 

Source: Entertainment – TIME | 3 May 2024 | 8:27 am

Hacks Hits Its Stride in a Third Season That’s Even Better Than the First Two

Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels can’t seem to quit each other. For two seasons, the love-hate relationship between Hacks’ imperious, old-school comedian, Deborah (Jean Smart), and the woke, down-on-her-luck, 20-something comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) hired to update her material fueled some of TV’s funniest and most provocative humor about people who tell jokes for a living. Then, for a year or so, it seemed as though the joke was on Hacks. First, Smart needed heart surgery. Just days after she’d recovered and the Emmy-winning series had gone back into production, the WGA and then SAG-AFTRA went on strike.

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Hence the two-year wait for Season 3, whose first two episodes debuted May 2 on Max. Such a disjointed production schedule could have been disastrous for a show that relies so heavily on the chemistry of its cast—and especially between its intergenerational leads. Fortunately, the actors seem to have flourished amid adversity, just as Deborah and Ava often do. Creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky have crafted Hacks’ best season yet, one that allows the characters to grow without killing their spiky, push-pull bond. Smart and Einbinder further elevate that story arc with a rapport that feels more natural and intimate than ever.

When we last saw the divine Ms. V, her career was soaring on the strength of a smash-hit, self-released special in which she dropped her dated stand-up schtick and told the funny, sad, real stories she’d amassed as a pioneering woman in a male-dominated entertainment industry. It was Ava who pushed Deborah to push herself, and Deborah thanked her by pushing her out of the nest. In the Season 2 finale, the diva fired a protégée she’d come to respect, in hopes that the younger woman would seize the opportunity to start making her own dreams come true.

But Hacks would not be Hacks if its stars spent all their screen time apart. Season 3 picks up one year after its predecessor left off, as the Vance-aissance continues with Deborah’s appearance on—what else?—the TIME 100. Things are going great for Ava, too. She’s secured a staff job writing for a comedy-news show in the vein of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight and is living with her actress girlfriend, Ruby (Lorenza Izzo). Then she runs into Deborah at Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival and they bond over Tom Cruise’s coveted coconut cake.

Ava misses working with a boss who can certainly be a self-absorbed pain but who also really gets her sense of humor. Deborah is surrounded by sycophants, from the two mediocre writers she hired to replace Ava to the stylist who co-signs her bad fashion choices to audiences who laugh appreciatively even when she isn’t cracking a joke, and longs for a collaborator who will tell her the unvarnished truth. So, with Deborah in the running for her dream job as a late-night host, Ava agrees to spend her show’s three-month hiatus helping her prepare.

Deborah’s new place at the center of the comedy universe gives Aniello, Downs, and Statsky an excuse to survey the strange, fragmented and often-contradictory state of that art form in 2024. There’s a roast that brings both hired-gun comics and Deborah’s aggrieved adult daughter, DJ (Kaitlin Olson), together to say the meanest things they can think of about her. Then there’s her G-rated gig cheerily co-hosting the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. At one point, Deborah’s history of insensitive humor resurfaces. While she initially vows never to apologize for any joke, Ava urges her to at least hear out a generation that wasn’t even alive when she made many of them, in what is perhaps the least hysterical “cancel culture” plot TV has produced.

For all its timely self-awareness about the industry it represents, Hacks is, in many ways, a traditional sitcom. It’s a professional will-they-or-won’t-they centered on a classic odd-couple duo: two women of vastly divergent ages, politics, and bank balances, one just starting her career and the other a battle-scarred veteran. Season 3 smartly ups the show’s focus on another well-mismatched pair, Deborah and Ava’s dangerously decent agent, Jimmy (Downs), and his flighty assistant, Kayla (the wonderful Megan Stalter, now more than just wacky comic relief), who have left the agency her dad runs and struck out on their own. (The season’s one notable flaw is the dearth of substantive storylines for two chronically under-developed characters, DJ and Deborah’s repressed deputy Marcus, played by Carl Clemons-Hopkins.)

The writers make inspired use of sitcom standbys, from the character who absolutely needs to be in two places at once to the bottle episode; Deborah and Ava are forced to spend hours alone together, as Deborah finally confesses her mixed emotions about getting everything she’s always wanted so late in life. “You know,” she tells Ava, “your whole life you say, ‘One day I’ll do this, one day I’ll accomplish that.’ And the magic of ‘one day’ is that it’s all ahead of you. But for me, ‘one day’ is now. Anything I want to do, I have to do now, or else I’ll never do it. That’s the worst part of being old.” The speech resonates whether you’re Deborah’s age or Ava’s, made all the more poignant by Smart’s gradual shift in mood, from tough to vulnerable. In this scene and others, the tumultuous love between her character and Einbinder’s has a familial authenticity. 

Like its best forerunners, from Seinfeld to 30 Rock, Hacks is hitting its stride a few seasons into its run because it takes that long for a cast and a writing staff to learn how to make each other as brilliant as they can possibly all be. Early on in the series, there was a bit of a disconnect between Einbinder’s affable performance and some of Ava’s nastier moments. Now, the character seamlessly coheres. Deborah has always been the role of a lifetime for Smart, and in the new episodes, the creators reward her virtuosity by giving her more fodder for introspection and growth than ever before. In the heyday of broadcast comedy, a sitcom that had achieved such ideal synergy could retain its audience—and the support of its network—for upwards of a decade. It’s fitting, when you consider that one of its heroines is the ultimate Hollywood survivor, that Hacks has become the rare streaming show with the potential to have the same longevity. 

Source: Entertainment – TIME | 2 May 2024 | 8:56 pm

Japanese Reality Star Nasubi Recalls ‘Traumatic’ True Story Behind Hulu’s The Contestant Documentary
Tomoaki "Nasubi" Hamatsu in The Contestant

Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Contestant.

Before shows like Survivor, Big Brother, and Naked and Afraid became American pop culture mainstays, there was Japanese reality TV series Susunu! Denpa Shōnen. Known for placing participants in extreme situations, Denpa Shōnen‘s most infamous challenge, 1998’s “A Life in Prizes,” made a star out of Tomoaki Hamatsu, an aspiring comedian nicknamed Nasubi who, for more than a year, lived alone and unclothed in a tiny apartment while surviving off magazine sweepstakes winnings.

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The twist? While Nasubi knew he was being filmed, he had no idea the footage was being broadcast to over 15 million people each week on the Nippon TV network.

In Hulu’s new documentary The Contestant, now streaming, British filmmaker Clair Titley (Britain’s Oldest Stand Up, The British Woman on Death Row) revisits the 15 months that Nasubi spent in isolation—and what happened when he emerged to find he had unwittingly become a national celebrity. Titley says she found herself drawn in by the unusual details of Nasubi’s story. “You know when you’re supposed to be working on one thing and then all of a sudden you’re like, hang on a second, this is looking a bit more interesting,” she says.

But after falling down an internet rabbit hole on the subject, Titley came away feeling like the majority of the information available online was “quite simplistic.”

“A lot of it was almost derogatory about Japanese culture,” she says. “It was a bit point-and-laugh at the Japanese, look how crazy they are, and that was it. I had all these questions. I wanted to know more about the human side of Nasubi’s story both during and after Denpa Shōnen.”

The Contestant utilizes archival footage, news segments, and interviews with Nasubi, Denpa Shōnen producer Toshiba Tsuchiya, and others close to the story to dig deeper into what Nasubi experienced and how greatly it impacted his life. “It was difficult to revisit the past because I did have a big hole in my heart,” Nasubi told TIME of reliving his time on the show. “So it was a bit traumatic for me.”

Noting that while it may seem easy to look back on “A Life in Prizes” as overtly cruel, Titley says one of her earliest meetings with Tsuchiya made her question her outlook on how Denpa Shōnen compares to today’s reality TV. “We put it to him that people are going to think this was one of the cruelest things on television,” she says. “And he said to us, ‘Well the Japanese would never do something as cruel as Love Island.’ We can sit here and judge but how far have we come really?”

Here’s what to know about the true story behind The Contestant.

What happened to Nasubi during “A Life in Prizes”?

After winning a random drawing at a January 1998 audition in Tokyo, Nasubi was taken to a small, sparsely furnished room, cut off from outside communication, told to strip naked, and challenged to enter and survive on the winnings from mail-in magazine sweepstakes until he had earned the equivalent of 1 million yen (around $8,000) in prizes.

He was told there was a camera in the room, but that most of the footage would likely never air—a ploy by producers to get him to act more naturally. Instead, a segment called “A Life in Prizes” began to run weekly on Denpa Shōnen—and quickly skyrocketed in popularity. In the first few weeks, before Nasubi had received any prizes, producers gave him crackers so that he wouldn’t starve to death. After he started winning, he survived by eating everything from fiber jelly to rice to dog food.

The Contestant

Obscuring his genital area with first a black circle and later an eggplant emoji—a nod to the childhood nickname Nasubi, the Japanese word for “eggplant” and a joking reference to the shape of his face— “A Life in Prizes” showcased Nasubi filling out countless sweepstake entry forms, celebrating with a dance each time he won a prize, and going about his daily business. They gave him a diary, which was published during his time in the room and became a best-seller in Japan.

While Nasubi could have told producers he wanted out at any time, his mental health deteriorated to the point that he felt like he couldn’t leave. Physically, he was losing weight and hair, struggling to sleep, and suffering from near-constant aches and pains. In The Contestant, Nasubi speaks about how he frequently wished for death during his time in the room.

After almost a year, Nasubi reached his goal of 1 million yen and was finally allowed to leave. However, after being taken to South Korea by Tsuchiya for a celebratory meal of Korean BBQ and a day at an amusement park, he was brought to another tiny apartment and told that he needed to repeat the process until he had earned the prize equivalent of a flight home. While Denpa Shōnen was edited to make it seem as though Nasubi agreed immediately, it actually took Tsuchiya several hours to convince him to stay.

“In my life, that year and three months was the bottom of hell,” Nasubi told TIME. “But the worst moment was when I finished the task in Japan, was taken to Korea, and Tsuchiya told me to do it again. In the show, it looked like I just took off my clothes right away. But it was actually a long process to get me to agree. Tsuchiya said that when he asked me to do it again, he saw anger come out of every pore in my skin. That’s how much hatred was inside me at that time.”

After another three months, Nasubi reached his goal and, while still naked and unaware of his fame, was brought in front of a live studio audience to commemorate the end of his time on the show. The footage used in The Contestant shows Nasubi looking completely shocked and disoriented as the audience cheers.

“One of the things I was really conscious of when making this film was the fact that I was a Western filmmaker making a film about something that happened in Japan,” Titley says of what she wanted to convey about the tone of Japanese unscripted TV at the time. “[The West] has a history of simplifying and belittling Japanese culture. So one of the decisions [producer Megumi Inman] and I made early on was that we did not want to have a Western historian as a voice of God telling viewers what to think.”

During his interviews in The Contestant, Tsuchiya speaks in what seems to be a cold and callous way about what he did to Nasubi and comes off as unremorseful about his actions. When asked how he feels about Tsuchiya today, Nasubi told TIME that his emotions are complicated. “I still have hatred toward him,” he says. “But he did agree to be interviewed for this film and helped us get footage from Nippon TV. So that was kind of an act of redemption.”

What about after the show?

The final half hour of The Contestant explores what happened to Nasubi following his time on Denpa Shōnen, delving into his struggles to re-adapt to real life and cope with sudden fame before ultimately rediscovering purpose in helping others.

Following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which resulted in a major nuclear accident in Nasubi’s hometown of Fukushima, Nasubi devoted himself to rescue and relief efforts. “I was traumatized. And the people of my hometown, Fukushima, were the people who had helped fill the hole in my heart,” he told TIME. “So when the earthquake happened, of course I wanted to help my local people. I realized the struggles of my past could be useful in a situation like that, which was a surprise to me. I came to the conclusion that maybe that’s what it all for and this was my destiny.”

THE CONTESTANT

Nasubi eventually decided to climb Mount Everest to raise awareness of the disaster and, despite his negative feelings for Tsuchiya, reached out to the producer for help funding the trip. “I didn’t have contact with him for more than 10 years and, during that time, he was a symbol of hate for me, someone I really despised,” Nasubi says. “But when I decided to climb Everest, I contacted him for the first time and he said, ‘I would do anything to help you,’ and apologized for all of the awful things he put me through.”

After three failed attempts in 2013, 2014, and 2015, Nasubi succeeded in summiting Everest in 2016. Today, his commitment to helping others continues to guide his life. “Twenty-five years have passed [since “A Life in Prizes], so I’ve changed and the people around me have changed as well. I’ve realized that I cannot change the past but by changing how I think about who I am today I can always change the future,” he says. “When you put energy into other people rather than just focusing on yourself you become stronger than you could ever imagine.”

Source: Entertainment – TIME | 2 May 2024 | 6:19 pm

How Do You Get Invited to the Met Gala? An Industry Insider Weighs In

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute benefit, better known as the Met Gala, is widely known as fashion’s biggest night—and one of the most coveted social invites to score. 

Held every year on the first Monday in May, the glitzy affair commemorates the opening of the Costume Institute’s annual exhibit, with the party’s theme often taking inspiration from the show.

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Though the black-tie event is ostensibly a fundraiser, earning money for the museum’s extensive fashion collection (which consists of over 33,000 dress and accessory objects from the past seven centuries), it’s also become a cultural touchpoint, largely due to the influence of Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who has helmed the event as its chairwoman for nearly three decades, transforming the charity event into a pop culture phenomenon.

Read more: Everything You Need to Know About the 2024 Met Gala

Under Wintour’s exacting leadership, the Met Gala has become a night for celebrities, fashion insiders, art enthusiasts, and society’s most powerful and influential figures to vie for the chance to strut their sartorial stuff on the steps of the Met. And an undeniable part of the allure of the event is its highly exclusive guest list. The Met Gala, which started in 1948 as a charity event for New York’s high society, has become invitation-only with a waiting list during Wintour’s tenure.

According to Amy Odell, the author of Anna: The Biography, Wintour’s transformation of the event into a star-studded soirée is parallel to how she shifted Vogue from a fashion insider’s tome to pop culture source with celebrity covers. The Met Gala’s widely acknowledged reputation as fashion’s ultimate (and most exclusive) fête is a testament to her savvy and the power she wields, especially given the Met’s status as an esteemed cultural institution. 

“If you look back at the early days of the event, it was really a society event,” Odell says. “Anna’s innovation was to make it a pop culture event, like the Super Bowl of red carpets, which is what it is today. I think it’s probably globally the most anticipated red carpet event.”

How do you get invited to the Met Gala?

There’s no guaranteed way to get invited to the Met Gala. Each year, Wintour decides who makes the guest list and who’s relegated to the waitlist. While many philanthropic galas’ only barrier to entry is a sizable donation, the criteria for the Met Gala depends on a variety of factors seemingly known only to Wintour, ranging from timely achievements to cultural clout. Odell says that when she was researching her book, she heard from former Met Gala planners that many hopeful would-be attendees have tried to buy their way into the event, to no avail.

“If they were not considered to be in the ‘in’ group, they would not be able to do that,” Odell says. “It created some strife within the society world because it’s not a society event anymore, which is not to say that socialites, in the traditional sense, don’t go, but it’s not like they can just buy a ticket and show up. I get the sense that within the social world today, there’s still some annoyance about that.”

Read more: The History Behind the Met Gala

Past attendees have run the gamut from tennis star Serena Williams to U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. An invitation also comes with its own set of expectations; just because you’re invited does not mean that you’re given a plus one (and if you are granted a plus one and bring your spouse, be forewarned that couples are never seated next to one another). The event also has a strict no-phone policy.

According to Odell, scoring an invite isn’t just a chance to attend a fancy party—it can be a valuable opportunity to network, knowing that everyone in attendance has been pre-vetted by Wintour.

“It’s really a huge signifier that you are ‘in,’” Odell said. “And that has implications for certain opportunities that they may get, especially for entertainers and models. If you go to the Met Gala, you’re gonna be in a room with people who are esteemed within the fashion industry or you might find yourself sitting next to a cosmetics executive and the seating plan is designed so that those kinds of conversations can unfold.”

Who decides the Met Gala guest list?

According to Odell, Wintour has the final say on the guest list; ahead of the event, planners compile lists of hundreds of potential guests, which Wintour reviews before deciding who makes the final cut for the party, which is often capped at a certain number. While the event once hosted 800 guests, this year, the Met will welcome just 400. Post-Covid, the guest list for the event has decreased, with the last couple galas each seeing about 400 guests as well. This has had the added benefit of making the event feel more exclusive and special. Odell also points out that hosting the event at the museum can be tricky with a larger group.

“Staging this event within the Metropolitan Museum is a really big deal,” Odell said. “There are priceless works of art everywhere, which can be tricky to navigate.”

Read more: How Anna Wintour Wields Her Power

In recent years, the attendance of social media influencers like Liza Koshy, Addison Rae and James Charles has sparked criticism, given how exclusive invitations to the gala have been even for more traditional celebrities. But Odell says that the inclusion of influencers is part of how Wintour maintains the success and relevancy of the event: “The Met Gala is content, right? All these events, including fashion shows and premieres really exist to get sprayed across social media.” She likens the influencers’ attendance to Wintour’s decision to put Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on the cover of Vogue in 2014, a controversial choice at the time. 

“She needs people with online followings and traditional entertainers are not always those people, so you need to have the influencers there. Anna is savvy…every time there’s a TikTok celebrity there or certain influencers, the online peanut gallery has a lot to say and that’s all generating conversation and coverage for the gala.”

How much does it cost to attend the Met Gala?

In the event that you are approved by Wintour and extended an invitation to attend, there’s still the cost of entry. This year, an individual ticket costs $75,000 (up 30% from last year’s price of $50,000), while a table, which is often purchased by companies, design houses or brands, starts at $350,000. Those that buy a table, however, do not get to choose who sits with them; all seating arrangements must be approved by Wintour. 

Odell stresses that though the cost contributes to the air of exclusivity around the event, Wintour’s focus on fundraising is crucial to the survival of the Costume Institute, which is the only self-funded department at the Met; last year’s gala raised over $22 million, while Wintour has raised over $223.5 million for the department during her time chairing the gala. 

Read more: The 6 Biggest Surprises From the Met Gala Red Carpet

“The money that she raises is important for the Costume Institute because preserving these clothes, these collections is very expensive,” Odell says. “The garments have to be cared for in a really specialized way. The money has done a lot for that department and I’m sure that they’ll want to keep it going so they can continue to have the best collection in the world.” 

Do celebrities actually buy their tickets?

Celebrities generally do not buy their own tickets to the event; instead they often attend as the guests of brands or designers who have purchased tables. As the guests of a designer, a celebrity is dressed by the brand and often walks the red carpet with the designer themself.

Why aren’t some celebrities invited back to the Met Gala?

Since the guest list is never revealed ahead of the gala, there’s no way to know which celebrities have not been invited back to the Met Gala or have declined to attend. Odell makes the case that it’s often not personal—for instance, an entertainer may not have anything to promote or they may be working on a different project that prevents them from attending. 

Read more: From Glambots to Tennis-Core, See Zendaya’s Best Red-Carpet Looks This Year

She points to one of this year’s co-chairs, Zendaya, as a prime example. Though Zendaya, a noted style icon, made her Met Gala debut in 2015 and attended every year until 2019, she had not returned to the event until this year, when she’ll be co-hosting the night’s festivities. 

Who’s been banned from the Met Gala?

While there are many celebrities who are rumored to be barred from attending the Met Gala, there’s only one public figure that Wintour has confirmed that she would never invite to the event again. During a 2017 appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Wintour said she would not invite Donald Trump again to the Met Gala. Trump, who was a frequent attendee of the gala since the ‘80s, even proposing to his wife Melania at the 2004 event, last attended the gala in 2012.

Source: Entertainment – TIME | 2 May 2024 | 4:50 pm

‘I’m in Menopause!’ Halle Berry Seeks to End a Stigma and Win Funding
Halle Berry

(WASHINGTON) — Halle Berry is joining a group of bipartisan senators to push for legislation that would put $275 million toward research and education around menopause, the significant hormone shift women go through in middle age.

The legislation calls for the federal government to spend more on clinical trials on menopause as well as the hormone therapy that is used to treat hot flashes and other symptoms.

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Berry, 57, shouted about menopause outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. She said it’s a word her own doctor told her he was scared to say in front of her.

“I’m in menopause, OK?” Berry yelled, eliciting chuckles from the crowd. “The shame has to be taken out of menopause. We have to talk about this very normal part of our life that happens. Our doctors can’t even say the word to us, let alone walk us through the journey.”

In recent months, the leading Hollywood actor has been candid about the painful symptoms she experienced while going through perimenopause, which occurs before menopause when a woman’s estrogen levels start dropping. Her doctor initially misdiagnosed her with herpes, a sexually transmitted disease that both Berry and her partner tested negative for.

Under a proposal by Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, $125 million would be set aside for clinical trials, public health and medical research on menopause. The remaining money would help support menopause detection and diagnosis, train doctors on treating menopause and raising public awareness around it.

“Menopause is not a bad word, it’s not something to be ashamed of, and it’s not something Congress or the federal government should ignore,” Murray said.

The bill is backed by 17 senators — three Republicans, 13 Democrats, one independent and all of them women. Several senators said Thursday they hope the bill will also encourage doctors, women and men to speak more openly about the health milestone all women experience.

Besides Berry, other celebrities have started sharing more about menopause on talk shows and in interviews, while some have even started hawking products related to it. And last year, President Joe Biden came out with a new initiative to improve the federal government’s research around women’s health, including menopause. Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health, has said that too little is known about women’s health through all stages of life. Her agency is the federal government’s leading medical research arm.

While the legislation has cleared what is typically one of Congress’ biggest hurdles — getting bipartisan support — its prospects are uncertain. It’s difficult getting bills through Congress at any time and the challenges are compounded now by the divisiveness on the Hill and the dwindling number of days on the legislative calendar before the November election.

The group of women will need to get buy-in from their male colleagues to make the money for menopause research a reality. Congress is overwhelmingly represented by men.

Murkowski said she was looking forward to getting support from her male counterparts. “If men went through menopause we would have adequately and appropriately funded the research (into) menopause decades and decades ago.”

__

Associated Press Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.

Source: Entertainment – TIME | 2 May 2024 | 1:52 pm

Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the History That Inspired His Epic Netflix Series Heeramandi
Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. (L to R) Aditi Rao Hydari as Bibbo, Manisha Koirala as Mallikajaan, Sanjeeda Sheikh as Waheeda, Richa Chadha as Lajjo in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

In the finale of Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, Mallikajaan (Manisha Koirala), who reigns over the courtesans in the titular neighborhood in pre-Independence India, receives word that the British Army has arrested her daughter, Bibbojaan, for her rebellion in colluding with Indian freedom fighters. “All these years, we were just tawaifs [courtesans], but now we have become patriots of our homeland,” she says defiantly, tears welling up her eyes. 

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The renowned Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who created and directed the widely anticipated Hindi-language series which premiered on Netflix on May 1, says he wanted to reimagine the world of the real-life courtesans of the walled city of Lahore, now situated in modern-day Pakistan. Bhansali calls them the “unsung heroes” in India’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule in the mid-1900s. “These women were always looked upon as entertainers and seen with their diamond necklaces, but their eyes have a story to tell,” he tells TIME. 

A long-celebrated auteur of Indian cinema, Bhansali, 61, has brought grandeur and opulence to the medium for more than three decades with films like Devdas, which premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, and the more recent 2022 blockbuster Gangubai, which starred Alia Bhatt and took the audience into the world of Mumbai’s historic red light district. In many of his works, the female protagonists have the most integral roles, demanding attention and agency in their lives while laying bare their anxieties and imperfections. “I want to give dignity to women, which sometimes is taken for granted in our society,” says Bhansali.

Read more: How India Learned to Read Subtitles

Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. Sonakshi Sinha as Fareedan in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

Heeramandi similarly draws on these themes. Set in the 1920s, at the heart of the story is a biting rivalry between the powerful Mallikajaan and Fareedan (played by Sonakshi Sinha), the daughter of her old archnemesis, whom she strangled to death years ago. Fareedan returns to Heeramandi to avenge her mother, armed with a plan to dethrone the queen. Around them, the other courtesans—Mallikajaan’s daughters, siblings, and friends—grapple with their own hopes and desires for self-realization and freedom.

The concept was originally conceived by the Indian writer Moin Beg, who approached Bhansali about it nearly 20 years ago. But the director sat on the idea for a long time, waiting for the right opportunity to realize his vision. 

Finally—and for the first time—the audience will see Bhansali repurpose his maximalist approach usually reserved for the big screen into an eight-episode series for Netflix. That’s a daunting task when considering his previous works have usually revolved around one, at most two, powerful female protagonists. In Heeramandi, there are six—all of whom Bhansali describes as the “queens of Lahore”—and that’s not counting the slate of supporting characters who make up the ensemble cast, each with their wit, flair, and a story to tell.

“It was a challenge to say, ‘How do I sustain myself for eight episodes?’” says Bhansali. “But I knew this was the best vehicle to do justice to the vastness of the subject and so many characters unfolding.”

With India becoming the world’s fastest-growing market for Netflix, the streamer has also heavily invested a larger share of its $17 billion budget this year in Indian content. For Bhansali, that meant a well-funded production that allowed him to recreate the world of the courtesans in intricate detail and at a scale larger than ever before, deploying 700 craftsmen over seven months to erect a sprawling set in Mumbai’s Film City. The director, known for executing his creative vision in an exacting and onerous manner, even flew down to Delhi to visit garment warehouses with the costume designer, individually picking out ornate fabrics to dress his characters. “Every moment is a labor of love of so many beautiful, talented people: the art directors, costume designers, the makeup artists, the people who created the paintings on the walls, the cobblestone roads, the lamps,” he says.

Heeramandi

All of this meticulous costume and production design is to better serve Heeramandi’s glimpse into the historic and oft-misunderstood world of tawaifs, or courtesans, who became an integral part of Indian music, culture, and heritage during the Mughal era. The neighborhood of Heera Mandi, which still exists in Lahore, was once a thriving center for commerce, arts, and entertainment before it became a red-light district. During its peak, the courtesans were not only respected as disciplined artists in classical music and dance, but also as powerful players in elite Indian society for their refined taste, etiquette, and royal patronage. They followed a system of matrilineal inheritance by passing down their profession to their daughters and enjoyed the privileges of education and income that weren’t typically afforded to most women in Indian society. Like Japan’s geishas, their presence on special occasions was seen as a statement of class and wealth among the noble families of pre-independence India.

Heeramandi, drawing from tales of the courtesans passed down by historians, pays homage to their convictions in fighting for India’s freedom, as well as for their active contribution to India’s economy at the time. The character of Bibbojaan, the daughter of Mallikajaan, for example, echoes the spirit of Azizan Bai, a courtesan from the northern Indian city of Kanpur who donated to and supported the 1857 national uprising against the British East India Company. During anti-colonial revolts in the 19th century, many of the courtesans’ residences became hideout spots for Indian rebels. 

“Even if the world doesn’t sing their song, they have played their part in history,” says Bhansali, “and they found freedom by the end of it,” referring to the choices they may have made in the years that followed India’s independence in 1947.

India’s changing social fabric—influenced first by the spread of Western education and Victorian morality during British rule, and later by Hindu reformist values of chastity—saw a decline in the courtesans’ status in society. As the patronage dwindled, the neighborhood began to transform into a red light district and the courtesans began to work in dance bars, which led to the conflation of courtesan and sex worker in the modern Indian imagination, according to Manish Gaekwad, author of The Last Courtesan: Writing My Mother’s Memoir. Some—like the famous Gauhar Jaan who became known as “India’s Melba”—had a more fortuitous next chapter and became celebrated artists, singers, and the first generation of Indian film stars.

The story told in Bhansali’s show ends before the lives of the courtesans evolved in these ways in modern Indian society. Nevertheless, he hopes that in Heeramandi, viewers see these women in all their dimensions, including their “sometimes wicked, sometimes charming” qualities, he says. And with Netflix’s massive reach, an international audience can savor the dazzling jewels and costumes of India, as well as connect with the shades of its history, society, and culture.

“We have seen these women for their singing and dancing, and yet, we have not seen them,” he says. But if Heeramandi accomplishes what he set out to do, “we will actually see them.”

Source: Entertainment – TIME | 2 May 2024 | 10:55 am

‘This Is a Film About the Women’s Resistance.’ What Bread & Roses Reveals About the Feminist Fight Against the Taliban
Bread and Roses

When Kabul fell to the Taliban, returning the country to the fundamentalist group’s control after two transformative decades, scores of Afghan women were compelled to flee. Those who remained faced a reality in which they could no longer be who they are: journalists deleted evidence of their work, artists destroyed their creations, and graduates set fire to their degrees.

While the Taliban forced many Afghan women to abandon their workplaces and universities, some chose to fight back. Their defiance, and the dangers that have come with it, are vividly captured in Bread and Roses, a documentary that follows three women in real time as their lives become undone by the Taliban’s return. There’s Zahra Mohammadi, 33, a newly-wed dentist whose practice quickly transforms into a meeting space for fellow activists. There’s Taranom Seyedi, 39, a women’s rights activist who is forced into exile in neighboring Pakistan. And there’s Sharifa Movahidzadeh, 31, a government employee who is now confined to her home. The film, which premiered last year at the Cannes Film Festival, is set to be released by Apple on June 21.

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More than just a story about the brutality of the Taliban, Bread and Roses is “about the women’s resistance in Afghanistan,” Jennifer Lawrence, the Oscar-winning actor and producer of the film, tells TIME in a recent interview alongside award-winning Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani, who directed the film, and Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, who served as its executive producer. Ahead of the film’s wider release, the three women discuss how the project came together, the fate of its three protagonists, and what impact they hope the film will have on a world whose attention has been largely drawn elsewhere.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.


TIME: To start, can you talk about how this project came together?

Sahra Mani: When the Taliban took over the country in 2021, we saw them impose a lot of restrictions on women’s education, women’s movement. And later on, we saw extrajudicial killing, kidnapping, illegal detention, and a lot of women disappearing. I was witnessing everything happening and, as a filmmaker, I was thinking: what can I do? It was my goal to make a film about this situation and I was very lucky that Jennifer and Justine [Ciarrocchi] wrote an email telling me that if I want to make a film, they would be happy to support the project. That’s how this story started.

Jennifer Lawrence: When Kabul fell, I like the rest of the world was watching from the news and was devastated and desperate to get inside Afghanistan. And so Justine and I tried to look for an Afghan filmmaker, which was how we came to see A Thousand Girls Like Me, which was a stunning documentary by Sahra. So we reached out to Sahra, who was already collecting footage, to just try to support her as much as we could.

One of the most striking things about the film is that it gives viewers a first-person window into life under Taliban rule. How did you manage to do it?

Mani: Because I was not inside Afghanistan, it was a bit challenging in the beginning. [Mani was attending a film festival in Europe when Kabul fell, and has lived in exile ever since.] I managed luckily to train a camerawoman and a cameraman who were still left behind because so many film crews left the country. I focused on a dozen women who were willing to share their life with us and I trained them how to film themselves. We ended up with three characters in the film because somehow we decided to focus on young women, my age or maybe younger, to see how this situation affected them as modern women who were ready to contribute their talent to society but had to be in prison inside the home.

Malala Yousafzai: Afghanistan right now is the only country in the world that bans adolescent girls from completing their education and bans women from work and university education. All the Afghan women and experts are calling out that this is a gender apartheid that the women in Afghanistan are witnessing right now. I think there’s nothing more powerful right now than Afghan women and girls sharing their stories in their own voice. And this documentary is that platform for them.

What drew you all to these three women—Zahra Mohammadi, Taranom Seyedi, and Sharifa Movahidzadeh—in particular?

Mani: For me, these three women, their story is not unique, but [it’s] also important because it’s a story of a hundred and a thousand and a million other women under the dictatorship of the Taliban. Because the three of them belonged to three different categories of society, I thought each of them can represent their own category and their own field of work. That’s why I selected them.

What was the process of getting the footage from them? I imagine that, in such a dangerous environment, it couldn’t have been easy.

Mani: I trained them how to take the camera, how to make a frame, how to send me the footage, and, after they sent me the footage, how to clean the camera of their video. If they’re arrested, I didn’t want everyone to know that they’re involved in filming. And then I trained one camerawoman and one cameraman. I stayed on the border of Afghanistan for some time to be able to get the hard drive. I watched the video that the women took and then we would take and I’d [ask] them to correct the framing or the voice or whatever. I think they did a great job, and I really appreciate all those women who shared their lives and the really genius way they found out that this is a way we could raise our voice.

Malala, you understand better than most—having faced the Taliban in your native Pakistan—the situation that Afghan women and girls find themselves in today. What risks come with taking a stand like this?

Yousafzai: I could fully understand how brave these women were, that they took their phones and started recording their lives under the Taliban. What I went through in Swat Valley from 2007 to 2009, in a small part of Pakistan, is very similar to what Afghan women have witnessed, but for a very long time and not just once, but twice. Afghanistan fell to the Taliban back in the late 1990s as well and, around 2001, people were hoping that things were changing. Women who are in their 20s, who were still young, for them that was a story of the past. They were hoping that Afghanistan would be a much better country for women where they could go to school, they could go to work, they could be part of their political parties and their governments, which was the case.

Afghanistan had changed significantly in the past 20 years. And when you listen to the stories of Afghan girls and women, that’s what you hear—that they are so shocked that the past is repeated. But one thing which is very different this time is the resistance of Afghan women. You see it in the documentary how, each and every day, they’re coming together, writing slogans on posters, and collectively—in front of the Taliban, in their faces—calling for freedom, work, and the right to education.

If you experience your life under terrorism, the only thing you wish is that it never happens again; that it stops. And this is exactly what Afghan women wish for. 

Read More: The Women of Afghanistan Won’t Be Silenced Anymore

I told my story because I was hoping that people will realize what it is like for a girl or for a woman to live under that. And today, when millions of Afghan women are facing this, I want the world to connect to them, to see their story closely, and to realize that this is not OK. We cannot let this happen.

What can you tell us about the fate of the three protagonists now?

Mani: Our three characters left Afghanistan. Most of the women I knew managed to leave to Pakistan or Iran. But there are still a lot of women inside Afghanistan who couldn’t find any way to leave. Going to Pakistan or even Iran is not easy for them. They can’t afford it. Being able to leave Afghanistan is a kind of privilege that not everyone has.

Lawrence: It’s devastating, and I remember Malala’s book resonated this feeling so well: that the Taliban comes and takes over these people’s homes. Afghanistan and Pakistan, this is where these people live, this is where their families are, and the Taliban not only comes in and takes away all of their rights and their freedoms, but they steal their homes. Having to leave your own country, to leave your own family behind, in order to be safe is just a nightmare that I can’t even fathom.

What impact do you hope this film will have ?

Mani: Our hope is to [show the] international community that the human rights crisis in Afghanistan, it’s a crisis in human rights everywhere, every corner of this world. Afghan women are really hoping that the feminist community, the women’s rights community, the human community [will be] supporting them and raise their voice and don’t leave them alone. From this platform, I’m calling for all artists, filmmakers, writers, activists, researchers, and women’s communities to come together and to support women of Afghanistan because if we don’t stand against the Taliban right now, maybe tomorrow will be too late. Because they are international terrorists and we can find them everywhere and they can go everywhere and destroy our world. And remember: Afghanistan is part of our world.

Lawrence: These women need our advocacy and they need our attention. This resistance cannot be ignored, the crisis cannot be ignored because, like Sahra said, this is our safety. Children that are born from educated women are less likely to be manipulated into being soldiers for the Taliban. This is an international crisis.

Yousafzai: We also should support the activism led by Afghan women who are running campaigns to raise awareness and also pushing countries and world leaders to take action against the Taliban. There are legal ways to hold the Taliban to account, including the Crimes Against Humanity Treaty and other options. At the same time, we can also support alternative education and environment programs for Afghan women that are led by Afghan activists in the country and outside the country and it’s so important to look around in your own country and see where those Afghan communities are and how you can help them in their activism and support the Afghan girls. I have seen how brave and strong they are.

Three women have risked their lives to tell their story really powerfully to us, and they are not doing it just for themselves but they are doing it on behalf of the millions of Afghan women who may not be able to make it to the screen.

Source: Entertainment – TIME | 2 May 2024 | 10:21 am

Chanel Metiers d'Art: Fashion A-list to descend on Manchester street
A road is being transformed into a catwalk for one of fashion's most prestigious annual events.

Source: BBC News - Entertainment & Arts | 5 Dec 2023 | 7:08 pm

Jamie Foxx makes first public appearance after illness
The actor has been missing from the public eye since April 2023, as he battled an undisclosed life-threatening condition.

Source: BBC News - Entertainment & Arts | 5 Dec 2023 | 7:03 pm

Turner Prize: Jesse Darling wins for 'delirious' art using tattered flags and barbed wire
Jesse Darling wins the prestigious £25,000 award for art making a comment on modern British life.

Source: BBC News - Entertainment & Arts | 5 Dec 2023 | 4:15 pm

English National Opera chooses Manchester as new home after relocation row
The historic company was controversially told to leave London or lose its Arts Council funding.

Source: BBC News - Entertainment & Arts | 5 Dec 2023 | 4:08 pm

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The guitarist and singer worked alongside Sir Paul McCartney and co-wrote the hit Mull of Kintyre.

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News Group Newspapers agrees 'six figure' phone hacking pay out
Claims against News Group Newspapers by ex-Spice Girl Melanie C and actor Keith Allen were also settled.

Source: BBC News - Entertainment & Arts | 5 Dec 2023 | 12:15 pm

Golden Globes 2024: How to watch the awards-tipped films
Ahead of the Golden Globe nominations, here are the ways you can watch the contending films.

Source: BBC News - Entertainment & Arts | 5 Dec 2023 | 11:57 am

Breaking down the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer...in 79 seconds
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Source: BBC News - Entertainment & Arts | 5 Dec 2023 | 10:28 am

Jonathan Majors: Opening statements begin in Creed III actor's assault trial
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Rockstar Games releases the trailer 15 hours earlier than expected after it was leaked online.

Source: BBC News - Entertainment & Arts | 5 Dec 2023 | 8:04 am

Chelsea Handler, Leslie Jones and John Leguizamo among guest hosts to step in for Trevor Noah on 'The Daily Show'
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Source: CNN.com - RSS Channel - Entertainment | 6 Dec 2022 | 9:22 am

Neil Diamond surprises audience with 'Sweet Caroline' performance at Broadway opening of 'A Beautiful Noise'
Neil Diamond sang "Sweet Caroline" at the Broadway opening of his musical" A Beautiful Noise," five years after retiring due to his Parkinson's diagnosis.

Source: CNN.com - RSS Channel - Entertainment | 6 Dec 2022 | 8:41 am

Kirstie Alley, 'Cheers' and 'Veronica's Closet' star, dead at 71
Actress Kirstie Alley has died after a brief battle with cancer, her children announced on social media.

Source: CNN.com - RSS Channel - Entertainment | 6 Dec 2022 | 7:59 am

K-pop band Blackpink selected as Time Entertainer of the Year 2022
Global pop sensation Blackpink have been chosen as Time magazine's 2022 Entertainer of the Year, making the four-woman band the second K-pop artists to earn the title, after BTS in 2020.

Source: CNN.com - RSS Channel - Entertainment | 6 Dec 2022 | 6:18 am

Gabourey Sidibe reveals she's been secretly married for over a year
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Source: CNN.com - RSS Channel - Entertainment | 5 Dec 2022 | 4:53 pm

Jill Scott announces 'Who is Jill Scott? Words & Sounds Vol. 1' 23rd anniversary tour
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Adam Sandler still gets emotional singing sweet Chris Farley song
Adam Sandler will always Chris Farley.

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Vera Lynn, voice of hope in wartime Britain, dies at 103
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Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 18 Jun 2020 | 12:36 pm

Lebanese film director keeps faith after COVID-19 dashes Cannes dreams
Many directors would have been devastated when their plans to show their first feature at the Cannes Film Festival were wrecked by the spread of COVID-19.

Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 18 Jun 2020 | 10:52 am

DC superheroes coming to your headphones as Spotify signs podcast deal
Podcasts featuring Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman will soon stream on Spotify as the Swedish music streaming company has signed a deal with AT&T Inc's Warner Bros and DC Entertainment.

Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 18 Jun 2020 | 10:44 am

Grief over virus deaths sets Hungarian artist on darker course
Hungarian artist Jozsef Szurcsik lost four of his friends in a matter of weeks to COVID-19 and the tremendous pain and grief he feels has transformed his art.

Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 18 Jun 2020 | 8:51 am

Locked-down puppeteer brings her characters to life in Madrid flat
Madrid-based Colombian actress and puppeteer Yohana Yara has been using her time in lockdown filming puppet shows on her balcony and creating an online fan base for her characters.

Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 18 Jun 2020 | 7:36 am

Hong Kong's Disneyland reopens after five-month coronavirus break
Hong Kong's loss-making Disneyland theme park reopened on Thursday to a limited number of local visitors and with enhanced health measures after the coronavirus outbreak forced it to close in late January.

Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 18 Jun 2020 | 5:34 am

From Asia to Africa, 'Sesame Street' special tackles coronavirus pandemic
Elmo, Cookie Monster and Muppets from Asia and the Middle East are joining forces for a special episode of "Sesame Street" aimed at helping kids cope with a world turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 18 Jun 2020 | 5:11 am

Mexican street musicians bring melodies to people stuck at home
After the coronavirus outbreak prompted the normally bustling streets of Mexico City to empty out, out-of-work musicians looking to make ends meet have been filling roadways with the melodies of their marimbas, trumpets and güiros.

Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 18 Jun 2020 | 3:35 am

Kim Kardashian West to host criminal justice podcast for Spotify
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian West has reached a deal with Swedish music streaming company Spotify Technology SA to host a podcast related to criminal justice reform, a representative for West said on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 17 Jun 2020 | 8:02 pm

Kristen Stewart to play Princess Diana in new movie
Kristen Stewart will play Britain's Princess Diana in an upcoming movie about the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles, Hollywood trade publication Deadline reported on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters: Entertainment News | 17 Jun 2020 | 7:34 pm