Category Archives: Culture

Halyna Hutchins mourned amid anger at Hollywood ‘cutting corners’ on sets

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Somber vigil charged with subdued rage over conditions that many lower-paid crew believe were linked to cinematographer’s death

A public vigil for the slain cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in Los Angeles on Sunday evening served both as an unofficial memorial event and an outlet for anger over working conditions in Hollywood that many lower-paid crew believe were linked to the 42-year old mother’s death.

Several hundred colleagues gathered outside the local union office for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) which represents workers on film and TV sets, who had been poised to go on strike to protest about pay, long hours and dangers on sets just days before Hutchins was fatally shot by Alec Baldwin on the New Mexico set of the desert western film Rust last week.

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Curb Your Enthusiasm review – Larry’s back, and funnier than ever

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The return of the angriest yet most comforting comedy on television brings the perfect formula of celebrity cameos, snark and screaming

After the 10th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm debuted in January 2020, it seemed like all anyone could talk about was Larry David’s deployment of a red Maga cap as a tool to conveniently repel people in liberal Los Angeles. Surely season 11, the first of the Covid era, would feature a spin on pandemic life no one could see coming, right? Well, there’s never been anything about this show that’s been predictable; you can practically hear Larry David shrug an “eh” at the thought of tackling such an obvious issue.

Which isn’t to say the season premiere, airing 21 years after the series premiered as an hour-long HBO special, won’t be considered an instant classic to many. Indeed, we now live in a world where Jon Hamm has spoken Yiddish on television, a true hallelujah moment for an admittedly small percentage of the world’s population, but a gift wrapped in a bow to Larry David’s most dedicated core. (We knew Hanukkah was coming early this year, but not this early.)

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Hooked on Squid Game? Here are 10 of the best K-dramas to watch next

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From a shocking drama set in the cut-throat world of Korea’s elite universities to a thriller about a time-travelling walkie talkie, here’s what to binge

Reply 1988 begins in the year South Korea hosted the Olympics and follows the lives of five friends in the neighbourhood of Ssangmun-dong in northern Seoul: carefree Deok-sun, fellow trouble-maker Dong-ryong, model student Sun-woo, grumpy Jung-hwan and Choi Taek, a reserved Baduk (Go) player.

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Six jailed in Spain for selling fakes of Goya and other artists online

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Valencia police seized 27 paintings by various artists being sold for €1.2m, 18 of which were crude forgeries

Six people have been jailed in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia after police broke up a criminal gang that was using the internet to sell crudely forged paintings attributed to artists including Francisco de Goya, José Benlliure y Gil and Nicolás Falcó.

The investigation, carried out by officers from the historical heritage group of the Valencian police, began when doubts arose over the provenance of Falcó’s The Adoration of the Three Wise Men, which had been bought for €18,000 (£15,000) and was being resold for €45,000.

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Alec Baldwin was pointing gun at camera when it went off, director says

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Joel Souza says actor was practising a scene at time of accidental shooting of Halyna Hutchins

Alec Baldwin was practising a scene that involved him pointing a gun “towards the camera lens” when it accidentally went off, killing his director of photography, according to a written statement by the film’s director.

The director, Joel Souza, said he heard what “sounded like a whip and then a loud pop”. He said he saw the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins clutch her midriff and stumble backwards. Souza noticed that he himself was bleeding from the right shoulder.

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James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther in Friends, dies aged 59

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Tributes pour in for ‘seventh friend’ who revealed he had stage 4 prostate cancer in 2021

James Michael Tyler, most famous for playing Gunther, the manager of Central Perk in the hit sitcom Friends, has died aged 59.

In an interview with NBC in June 2021, Tyler announced that he had stage 4 prostate cancer, which was diagnosed in 2018.

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Ed Sheeran self-isolates after testing positive for Covid-19

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Singer, whose new album = is out on Friday, says he is cancelling in-person commitments

Ed Sheeran has announced on his Instagram page that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating.

In the post he said: “It means that I’m now unable to plough ahead with any in-person commitments for now, so I’ll be doing as many of my planned interviews/performances I can from my house.”

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Vigil held for Halyna Hutchins as ‘super unsafe’ conditions on Baldwin film set under scrutiny

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Friends and family pay tribute to the cinematographer as some attendees at vigil call for better safety protocols

Safety procedures on the New Mexico set of the movie Rust were under increasing scrutiny on Sunday as colleagues, friends and family paid tribute to the cinematographer shot dead by the actor Alec Baldwin in what appeared to be an accidental misfire.

A vigil for Halyna Hutchins, the 42-year-old director of photography killed after Baldwin was handed a loaded revolver by the western’s production crew, took place in Albuquerque attended by industry professionals including a number of Hollywood actors including Jon Hamm and John Slattery, who are filming projects nearby.

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Succession star Kieran Culkin: ‘Just be unlikable, it’s fun’

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The actor talks to his friend Edgar Wright about rooting for Roman, his ambition to move to London and why he’d like to have a crack at being Angela Lansbury

New York-born actor Kieran Culkin, 39, made his film debut at the age of eight, alongside his elder brother Macaulay in Home Alone. While still a child he also had roles in Father of the Bride, The Mighty and The Cider House Rules. He later appeared in Music of the Heart, Igby Goes Down and Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs the World. He now stars as Roman Roy in HBO drama Succession, which returned to Sky Atlantic last week, a role for which he’s been Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated.

One of the many reasons I love Succession is that I always think I’m watching “Evil Kieran”…
[Laughs] That’s good to know. Roman might be the most acerbic of the Roy siblings but I still root for him and am willing him to step up. That’s true for a lot of the characters. I really feel it with Tom [Wambsgans, played by Matthew Macfadyen]. I desperately want him to tell Shiv to go fuck herself and show the family his true self but Tom never does, he just rolls over. It’s so deliciously dissatisfying.

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Diana Rigg remembered: ‘Ma didn’t suffer fools: she exploded them at 50 paces’

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Rachael Stirling recalls her mother’s last months – and remembers her enormous sense of fun, whether pulling pranks on stage or dancing until dawn on her 80th birthday

When Ma found her cancer was malignant, all the theatres went dark.

“Normally, when one gets bad news like this, one becomes the focus of attention, but in a pandemic, no one gives a fuck!”

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Mummy’s older than we thought: new find could rewrite history

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Discovery of nobleman Khuwy shows that Egyptians were using advanced embalming methods 1,000 years before assumed date

The ancient Egyptians were carrying out sophisticated mummifications of their dead 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new evidence which could lead to a rewriting of the history books.

The preserved body of a high-ranking nobleman called Khuwy, discovered in 2019, has been found to be far older than assumed and is, in fact, one of the oldest Egyptian mummies ever discovered. It has been dated to the Old Kingdom, proving that mummification techniques some 4,000 years ago were highly advanced.

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Crew on Baldwin film raised prop gun concerns before fatal shooting

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Text message warning of ‘super-unsafe’ conditions was later followed by a walkout by camera operators

A picture of chaos and concern on the set of Alec Baldwin’s new western, Rust, has emerged from fresh accounts of the lead-up to the fatal shooting during filming on Thursday.

Only days into the three-week production schedule, new reports suggest that a worker had been so worried about weapon safety he had sent a text message to his manager warning of “super-unsafe” conditions.

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Alec Baldwin: Taking back control … until tragedy struck

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The actor’s turbulent life has rarely been out of the headlines. Now he faces a new crisis after a tragic accident on set

Alec Baldwin was the tough screen face of blue-collar America in the 1990s. And it suited him. His best early roles were gritty ones in brutal films such as Miami Blues, or the screen adaptation of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, where he gave a showstopping performance that won him many fans. Baldwin had the manner and look of an ordinary man who wanted to survive at all costs.

Now, in the saddest of media storms, following the accidental shooting of a colleague on the set of his latest movie, the actor will need every ounce of the self-preserving grit he once accessed so easily on film.

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‘We planted a seed’: the Afghan artists who painted for freedom

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The Taliban has whitewashed Kabul’s political murals – and those who created them have fled into exile

Negina Azimi felt shock and fear like never before when she heard that Taliban fighters had entered Kabul on 15 August. As an outspoken female artist in Afghanistan, she knew they would come for her.

“We heard reports that the Taliban might raid houses. I was scared because I live in a very central neighbourhood and every room in my house is adorned with the kind of art the Taliban won’t approve of,” she says, referring to paintings that feature messages about women’s empowerment and are critical of the Taliban’s atrocities.

Negina Azimi, who is now in a refugee camp in Albania with others of the ArtLords collective. They are now planning an exhibition

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‘You can sense Selim the Grim’s anger’: portraits of Ottoman sultans go on show

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Set of six copies of portraits first produced in 1579 in Venice are going up for auction in London next week

They were powerful rulers of perhaps the mightiest empire the world has ever seen, and their portraits oiled the wheels of diplomacy. Six sultans of the Ottoman empire, which spanned more than six centuries and dominated a great swathe of the world, gaze out beneath magnificent, bulbous turbans, a symbol of their wealth and status.

An original set of 14 portraits was produced in Venice in 1579, and copies were made later. The only surviving intact set is in Munich, but a set of six goes on display at Christie’s in London this weekend before being sold at auction on 28 October.

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‘Secret piety’: new show reveals Andy Warhol’s Catholic roots

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Known for his wild parties and proud queerness, he went to church, met the pope and prayed daily with his mother

He is celebrated for his Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s Soup prints, legendary parties, proud queerness and worship of celebrity.

But Andy Warhol was raised by a devout Catholic mother with whom he prayed daily throughout the two decades in which they shared a New York home. The wild prince of pop art went to church, met the pope and financed his nephew’s studies to become a priest.

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The not so cursed child: did Harry Potter mark the end of troubled young actors?

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As we reach the 20th anniversary of the magical British blockbusters, the real magic lies in the way its young stars have stayed on the rails – unlike many before them

There are many magical things about the Harry Potter film series, which marks its 20th anniversary this month with a re-release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Perhaps the most miraculous one, though, is that its three stars – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint – are still alive, apparently content, and not noticeably addicted to class A drugs.

Each continued acting, occasionally even starring in bona fide hits: Radcliffe in The Woman in Black; Watson, who is also a UN women goodwill ambassador, in Beauty and the Beast. Grint, star of the M Night Shyamalan series Servant, also became a father last year – his partner is another former child actor, Georgia Groome of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging – and celebrated by joining Instagram. Even there, he has shown a characteristic level-headedness by posting a mere six times in 11 months.

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