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Anyone who has been a new parent knows it’s not easy to do on your own — it really does take a village. And in the latest season of “The Four Seasons,” which returned to Netflix last week, Ginny, played by Erika Henningsen, finds her village as she navigates single parenthood after the sudden death of Nick, played by Steve Carell. While that may sound gloomy — no, terrifying — the comedy series created by Tina Fey, Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield keeps the laughs coming, whether they involve the central friend group spreading Nick’s ashes — morbid, I know, but I promise you’ll laugh — a malfunctioning breast pump or making friends with someone who loves to dig really big holes in the sand at the beach. Henningsen dropped by Guest Spot to talk about her character and what she hopes comes next if the show gets a third season.

And if you breeze through the second season’s eight episodes, there’s plenty else to watch this weekend. For more laughs, Mindy Kaling’s latest comedy series, “Not Suitable for Work,” premiered this week with three episodes. The TV creator spoke to Times TV writer Yvonne Villarreal about how the series touches on the heightened feelings Kaling experienced living in New York in her 20s, trying to break into comedy writing. But if you are looking for the complete opposite, the first two episodes of the newest iteration of “Cape Fear” are out today on Apple TV (you may remember the 1991 film version directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, or even the 1962 version starring Robert Mitchum). The series, which inserts some modern elements and twists, stars Javier Bardem as the villainous Max Cady and Amy Adams as lawyer Anna Bowden, who our television critic says “is low-key forceful as his primary opponent.”

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our critics recommend a web short that will give you some background on “Backrooms,” as well as a horror film with a similar vibe, and a new nature documentary series. — Maira Garcia

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Chiwetel Ejiofor in “Backrooms,” which was inspired by Kane Parson’s surrealist web videos.

(A24)

“Backrooms – Presentation” (YouTube), “Buffet Infinity” (VOD)

Last weekend, 20-year-old Kane Parsons became the youngest filmmaker to hit No. 1 at the box office with “Backrooms,” a surrealistic experiment about a furniture salesman (Chiwetel Ejiofor) drawn into a maze of humdrum office space. Peek into the movie’s lore on Parsons’ YouTube channel where his eight and a half minute short, “Presentation,” hints at why Mark Duplass was running around in a lab coat. Or let the feature stand as its own work and watch Simon Glassman’s “Buffet Infinity” instead. Told through snippets of local TV commercials, this morbidly hilarious horror tale is like plopping down on one of the backroom’s couches to channel surf. The bland muzak and cinematography are spot-on, as are the familiar breeds of low-budget pitchmen: the car salesman, the personal injury lawyer, the housewife. But once two neighboring restaurateurs duel over the rights to a special sauce — and one gets defamed and disappeared — these escalating, tense ads reveal a town under siege. Things have gotta be bad when the pawn broker starts rapping about his vast selection of knives. — Amy Nicholson

A pilosaurs in NBC’s “Surviving Earth.”

(NBC)

“Surviving Earth” (NBC, Peacock)

If computer animation is good for anything, it is its ability to bring prehistoric creatures to convincing conjectural life. From Willis O’Brien‘s stop-motion dinosaurs in “The Lost World,” to “Jurassic Park,” to the BBC’s “Walking With Dinosaurs,” we are ever glad to take that trip backward, in increasingly sharp detail. “Surviving Earth,” an eight-part nature documentary cum disaster movie cum action film, adds a thematic twist: extinction. With titles like “When the Earth Burned,” “When the Seas Died” and “When the Forests Collapsed,” it is, on the one hand, a dark tour through a long history of climate crises and population collapse; on the other, per its title, its relatively cheering theme is that life, generally speaking, can handle whatever the planet (or stray asteroid) throws at it. (Humans are not left off the hook; the two episodes out for review each conclude with a visit to our destructive modern world.) As in many nature films, the animals are framed in cute or suspenseful stories that largely involve family and community; territory and travel; and looking for food and not being food. (The more adorable the animal, the more likely it is to escape uneaten, and some of those baby dinos are precious.) It premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. on NBC, and new episodes air weekly, followed by a rebroadcast of “The Americas,” the network’s earlier present-day nature series, and stream on Peacock the next day. — Robert Lloyd

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Kerri Kenney-Silver as Anne and Erika Henningsen as Ginny in Season 2 of “The Four Seasons.”

(Emily V. Aragones/Netflix)

What if you found out you were pregnant? And then your partner died suddenly. Oh, and he hadn’t divorced his wife yet, so there’s no money to support yourself and a new baby. For some people, it would be enough to cause a meltdown and an existential crisis. But in Season 2 of “The Four Seasons,” Ginny takes it all in stride. The character, played by actor Erika Henningsen, forges ahead, has the baby — fathered by the now-deceased Nick — and ends up getting help from the most unexpected person: Anne, her partner’s ex.

The comedy series once again follows the close-knit friend group consisting of Jack (Will Forte) and Kate (Tina Fey), Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani), and the new odd couple, Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver) and Ginny. This season, they take trips to the Catskills, the Jersey Shore and Italy as they try to navigate grief following Nick’s death, supporting Ginny despite the awkwardness of her situation with Anne, and an international move by Danny and Claude after they decide not to have a child.

Henningsen discussed Ginny’s arc this season and how she connects with Anne, who finds purpose in caring for baby Gino (or Eugene, depending on whom you ask), and what it was like juggling multiple projects along with filming “The Four Seasons.” — M.G.

At the end of the first season of “The Four Seasons,” viewers were hit with a big surprise: Ginny is pregnant. And in Season 2, we see her further along and eventually with a baby. What was it like to play Ginny at this stage in her life, navigating single motherhood? Did you look to anyone for inspiration?

I feel like Ginny’s character arc in this season was a tightrope walk that our writers executed flawlessly. Because, let’s be honest, the situation between Anne and Ginny is a bit bizarre. To quote our show, “there is no Beyoncé song” for what to do when your recently deceased ex-husband’s pregnant girlfriend shows up on the group hiking trip! What myself and the writers really tried to highlight, especially in those early spring episodes, is how scared Ginny feels to be entering motherhood without a partner by her side and how that fear and grief become the dominating force behind her actions. She’s just scrambling for some semblance of confidence and security, to feel like she’s going to be “ready” when the baby arrives. But, as any real mom can attest, there is no ‘“ready” when it comes to a baby. You just take it one day at a time and figure it out as you go. I love that Ginny has that realization toward the middle of the season. She may not be the perfect mom to Gino, but she’s his mom, and getting to play the beach scene where Ginny takes one tiny bold step, alone, into motherhood was super special. In terms of inspiration, I was constantly texting two friends of mine who had just had babies for ways to walk, ways to lay down, ways to stretch, etc. Also, our incredible hair department head, JT Franchuk (shoutout, JT!), was on set with me every day, and I was lucky to have her as a confidant and sounding board as she was seven months pregnant when we began shooting Season 2.

You share many great scenes with Kerri Kenney-Silver, who becomes a surrogate mother to Ginny and grandmother to her baby, despite the history between them. How did you two navigate this dynamic, and what was it like working together?

Kerri Kenney-Silver is truly the greatest scene partner an actor could have for a litany of reasons. Kerri comes from an improv background but is also a technical wordsmith. She’s constantly throwing out new line readings and physical comedy to bounce off of, but is also deeply respectful of the words Tina Fey and company have crafted, so she’s equal parts anchor to a scene as well as a playmate. Kerri and I never tried to nail down one exact “right” way to play a scene. We were constantly adjusting the levers with each take, digging into one another versus backing off, casually throwing away a sentimental line versus staring into one another’s eyes. What we did agree on was to never judge these two characters. Some people might look at our character’s choices as debilitating or selfish, but we both found that Anne and Ginny deeply needed and wanted to be there for one another. In their own little “odd couple” way, they were choosing one another to get through the next tenuous, unknown chapter of life. Oh, and working with Kerri? As I’ve said, “if you’re gonna lose a Steve Carrell, just wait til you gain a Kerri-Kenney Silver.” She is obviously so talented, but also one of the warmest and most welcoming humans I have worked with. And she makes me snort-laugh on a regular basis.

You came up in theater and originated the role of Cady Heron in the Broadway production of “Mean Girls,” based on the film by Fey. You were on Broadway in “Just in Time” last year, too. What has it been like to balance your stage work with your TV work lately?

Honestly? It’s been a lot! I say that with 98% gratitude and 2% “so tired when is vacation?” exhaustion. Last year, I was doing press for “The Four Seasons” while opening a brand-new original Broadway show, while also recording Season 3 of the hit animated series I currently star in, “Hazbin Hotel” [Prime Video]. My days were spent doing interviews in the morning, rushing to Circle in the Square theater for “Just in Time” preview rehearsals in the afternoon, recording episodes of “Hazbin Hotel” on my dinner break, all before heading back to the theater for an 8 p.m. curtain. I remember there was one night I did a SAG panel with Tina, Kerry and Marco on 55th and Broadway that ended at 7:45, and I was in pincurls and fake eyelashes, ready to go onstage opposite Jonathan Groff at 8:15. It is definitely a balancing act, and one I would not be able to navigate without my team and my husband. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love how each discipline has started to inform the other: I’ve taken my spontaneity in the voice-over booth onto set, I’ve taken my trust in stillness in front of the camera onto the stage, and I’ve taken my discipline doing eight shows a week into everything. Getting to dip a toe into multiple pools of the entertainment industry is, I think, the only way my brain wants to operate.

If “The Four Seasons” gets a third season, where would you like to see Ginny go?

In a perfect world? I’d love if Danny/Claude planned a fabulous trip to a gay destination like Mykonos that the rest of the group somehow gloms onto. I remember visiting Fire Island for the first time a few summers ago at Tina’s recommendation and loving it so much. I texted her that I never wanted to leave and she basically wrote back, “Yup. Always follow the gays.” So, maybe we will do exactly that in Season 3. Also, on a very specific Ginny note, I will hopefully have a toddler in Season 3 as opposed to a baby (our babies on set were under 6 months old so they definitely fell into the “handle with care” category!), and my dream is to be able to hold one the way Diane Keaton holds her toddler in “Baby Boom.” It’s a perfect moment of physical comedy, and I aspire to re-create it.

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

“Beef” Season 2 and the recent Rafael Nadal documentary, “Rafa.” Both Netflix. What can I say? I’m loyal. The entire cast in “Beef” is spectacular, and I love the genre-bending the showrunner weaves throughout. You never quite know where you stand, but the twists feel earned and character-driven as opposed to gimmicky. There’s one quasi-bottle episode set in an ER that felt perfectly surreal, claustrophobic and exactly what it feels like to be in the ER on bad health insurance (speaking from 21-year-old experience). “Rafa” is just … no words. I love a sports doc (“The Last Dance” [Netflix], “Prefontaine” [VOD], “The Endless Summer” [Tubi] — you name it), probably because, in my heart of hearts, I just want to be an athlete.

What’s your go-to comfort watch, the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

I will never tire of watching “The Parent Trap” [Disney+]. It’s perfect. Chessy is a queer icon, Meredith Blake is the “villain” but also get that vineyard honey, one of Lindsay Lohan’s best performances, and what I wouldn’t give to have an ounce of the class that was Natasha Richardson. Every scene is perfect, there’s not a single “skip” on the soundtrack. Also a flawless Maggie Wheeler cameo! Nancy Jane Meyers: You outdid yourself.

ICYMI

Must-read stories you might have missed

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

It seems odd that the biggest news of the week was the fact that tickets for a movie went on sale, but apparently Christopher Nolan’s upcoming “The Odyssey” is no typical movie. Having already made tickets available for some shows a full year in advance, Universal put more of them on sale for the July 17 opening weekend of the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s ancient epic. There were reports of long online wait times, crashing ticketing systems and the kind of problems more often associated with pop stars than movie nerds.

“The Odyssey” will be playing in a variety of formats, with the Imax 70mm screenings among the most coveted. More venues than usual have also been announced as playing the film in 70mm, including the Village Theatre in Westwood. (A handy visual guide to the different fomats is on the film’s website.) While there is a hint of the ridiculous to some of this mania — popcorn buckets in the shape of Imax cameras and movie tickets going on the resale market for hundreds of dollars — there is no denying how exciting it is to see this kind of anticipation building around any movie.

Back to a ’90s phenomenon

Ewen Bremner, left, Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle in the movie “Trainspotting.”

(Liam Longman / Sony Pictures Classics)

When it first came out in 1996, “Trainspotting” was an instant cultural phenomenon, capturing the vibes of the “Cool Britannia” moment with its sparkling soundtrack, inventive, high-energy style and cast that included up-and-coming talents such as Ewan McGregor and Kelly Macdonald. It was only the second feature directed by Danny Boyle, who would go on to be an Oscar winner, mount an Olympics opening ceremony and remain a reliably exciting filmmaker all the way to his recent “28 Years Later.”

“Trainspotting” is now back in theaters in a 4K restoration for its 30th anniversary, having lost none of its brash vigor. In his original review, Kenneth Turan said of the film, “Exuberant and pitiless, profane yet eloquent, flush with the ability to create laughter out of unspeakable situations, ‘Trainspotting’ is a drop-dead look at a dead-end lifestyle that has all the strength of its considerable contradictions.”

Appearing like magic

Kathy Najimy, left, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1993 comedy “Hocus Pocus.”

(Disney)

Directed by Kenny Ortega, “Hocus Pocus” is one of those movies that has seen its fanbase grow steadily over the years — it is now much more beloved than it ever was on initial release. (It even inspired a 2022 sequel.) Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimi play the Sanderson sisters, 17th century witches who find themselves inadvertently brought to modern day by a group of teenagers messing around with casting spells.

The film will play Saturday at the Gardena Cinema, featuring a live commentary from cast members Omri Katz, Thora Birch, Larry Bagby, Tobias Jelinek and Vinessa Shaw followed by a Q&A. This is a rare appearance by Katz in particular, who has retired from acting. Fans of the movie should make the effort to attend.

The Gardena, the last family-owned single-screen theater in Los Angeles, suffered a blow last weekend when a burst pipe flooded the venue. Though they are operational, a campaign has been started to help them recoup repair costs.

Examining the life of the mind

John Turturro in the 1991 movie “Barton Fink.”

(20th Century Fox)

Ranking the films of Joel and Ethan Coen has become a cottage industry of its own. Personally, I go back-and-forth on where to place 1991’s “Barton Fink,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, as well as prizes for director and actor. The movie is by turns funny, disturbing and inscrutable (all good things), with John Turturro in the title role as an intellectual New York playwright who goes to Hollywood to write screenplays — and slowly goes insane.

The movie will play Friday in 35mm at Vidiots with an introduction from Noah Segan, who directed Turturro in one of the breakout titles from this year’s Sundance, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.” Hopefully, this will turn into a year in which Turturro gets some long-deserved accolades.

Christmas in June

Elliott Gould on the set of 1978’s “The Silent Partner.”

(Anwar Hussein / Getty Images)

There is something particularly charged about watching a Christmas movie at other times of year — an odd sense of dislocation and maybe even something a little naughty, a circuit-scrambling frisson. So it is particularly notable that as part of their salute to the independent studio Carolco Pictures (behind such films as “Basic Instinct,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Reservoir Dogs”), the Vista will be showing 1978’s “The Silent Partner.”

Just the kind of tight and gripping thriller that people pine for all year round, “The Silent Partner” has a screenplay by Curtis Hanson, who would go on to make “L.A. Confidential.” Elliott Gould plays a Toronto bank teller who tries to rip off the thief (Christopher Plummer) who robs his branch wearing a Santa costume as a disguise. Soon they are both scheming against each other.

In his original review of the film, Kevin Thomas called it “tense and ingenious.” In a reconsideration of the film some months later, Charles Champlin called it “a stylish crime-suspense story, a cat-and-mouse game between Christopher Plummer as a clever, sadistic bank robber and Elliott Gould as a bored bank teller who sees a way out of his boredom and into riches.”

So much beauty

Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard in the 1978 movie “Days of Heaven.”

(Criterion Collection)

Terrence Malick’s 1978 “Days of Heaven” is still strikingly singular: a love story told with a stirring visual style. The film’s beauty — aside from its impossibly good-looking lead actors, Richard Gere and Brooke Adams — in part comes from gifted Spanish cinematographer Néstor Almendros, who made his American debut after a career in Europe that saw him working with filmmakers such as Eric Rohmer and François Truffaut. Almendros would win an Academy Award for the film.

The New Beverly will show “Days of Heaven” in 35mm Tuesday through Thursday as a double bill with Truffaut’s 1970 “The Wild Child,” shot by Almendros in black-and-white. Writing about “Days” in 1978, The Times’ Charles Champlin called it “an extraordinary and original visual experience and a movie which is thrilling in its uncompromised purity.”

Perverse fun

Ha Jung-woo, left, and Kim Min-hee in the 2016 movie “The Handmaiden.”

(TIFF)

Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook was just president of the Cannes jury and has become a much-beloved figure on the international circuit for his wicked sense of humor and sharp sense of style. Nowhere is that on better display than his 2016 film “The Handmaiden,” which is somehow at once a period drama, a con-man thriller and an erotic lesbian romance. Vidiots will be showing the movie Sunday.

As Justin Chang wrote when the film was released, “Without sacrificing his taste for psychosexual perversity or his flair for violent grace notes, Park has given us a teasingly witty and elegant puzzle-box of a thriller whose pleasures are rooted not in visceral shock but in narrative surprise, and which wisely opts to seduce rather than pulverize its audience.”

In an interview at the time, Park said the film’s unpredictability was part of the project’s appeal. “That’s the exact kind of fun to be had with this film and the reason why I chose to make this film. Everything becomes a game of perception. Rather than to say it’s a difficult thing to navigate, it is fun to deal with. Not only for me as a filmmaker but for the audience to see that and engage in that game.”

New this week

• Amy Nicholson reviews the latest attempt to make a movie out of a popular Mattel toy with the lightly-tongue-in-cheek “Masters of the Universe.”
• Amy also reviewed the revival of the satirical “Scary Movie” franchise, with original stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall returning to make fun of such recent hits as “Sinners,” “Weapons” and “The Substance.”
• The documentary “Time and Water” looks at climate change through the life and work of Icelandic writer Andri Snaer Magnason as directed by Sara Dosa, who had a hit with her last film “Fire of Love.” Robert Abele reviews.

One last thing…

This week, our colleagues at De Los launched a podcast hosted by Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito. The interview-style video podcast will feature conversations with the people shaping Latino culture in the United States.

The first episode features singer and actor Leslie Grace, who talks about her experiences working on the film “In the Heights” as well as being the star of the canceled “Batgirl.”

THE Sidemen appeared to take a sideswipe at KSI after he announced he was splitting from the YouTubers earlier this week.

In bombshell news the Britain’s Got Talent judge revealed he had recorded his last video with his mates and was flying solo.

Today The Sidemen put up a long post on their social media which seemed to criticise the way in which KSI did it.

They wrote: “Ideally, we would have loved the opportunity to give JJ the send off he deserved, a proper farewell video, time for everyone to process it, and a chance to celebrate everything we’ve built together.

“Unfortunately JJ released the news before we had agreed on a mutual way of letting our audience know.”

KSI posted a long video on Sunday afternoon which not only caught fans unaware but seemed to do the same for The Sidemen too.

main man

Truth behind KSI’s exit from The Sidemen as ‘blindsided’ crew’s next step revealed

KS-BYE

Why has KSI left The Sidemen? What the YouTube star said about leaving the group

They said: “His exit did not happen in the way any of us wanted it to. That has understandably left lots of you confused and we feel like we owe you some clarity.

“It’s difficult for us to address the situation and has taken some time, because we’re a group and not an individual.

“We don’t have a spokesperson as such and each of our opinions and feelings differ, which is why we’re using this shared statement.”

Though they did sound a note of positivity, starting off the statement by saying: “We as the Sidemen wish JJ the best and respect his decision to leave.

“We will be forever grateful for the amazing moments and memories we’ve shared together.”

They also signed off reassuring their fans: “This is the end of an era, but not the end of the Sidemen. The rest of us will continue to bring you Sidemen content with the same commitment and optimism we’ve always had.

“We look forward to continuing the journey with you all, and thank you for always supporting us through everything. Ethan – Harry – Josh – Simon – Tobi – Vik.”

In the video KSI posted he said: “This is honestly the hardest video I’ve ever had to make in my life.

“I’ve gone back and forth on this decision for a very long time. I’ve spent months trying to figure out what the right thing to do is.

“But after a lot of thought, I’ve decided that I’m no longer be doing sidemen videos. Today, 31st of May, will be my final Sidemen video.

“Even saying those words out loud doesn’t feel real.”

KSI went on to say: “The Sidemen have been such a huge part of my life for over 12-13 years.

“For almost half my life, this Sidemen has been my second family. We’ve grown up together. We’ve travelled the world together.”

He later added: “The truth is, nothing bad has happened. This decision is completely my own.

“Over the last few years, I’ve felt myself being pulled in a lot of directions than ever before.

“Between everything else in my life, I feel like I’ve been running at full speed at 100mph.

“I’ve spent so long trying to be everything for everyone. Trying to be everywhere. Trying to do it all. Trying not to let anyone down. But somewhere along the way, I started losing the balance in my own life.”

KSI went on: “I’ve found it hard to make enough time for myself. I’ve definitely found it hard to find time for my family. I’ve found it hard to make time for the people I love. And I’ve realised that something has to change.

“The Sidemen deserve somebody who can give 100%. And right now, I know I can’t do that. It just wouldn’t be fair to the boys.

“It wouldn’t be fair to you. And it wouldn’t be fair to myself. Walking away from something you love is painful. Trust me, it’s not been easy. But deep down, I know it’s the right thing to do.

“Those boys helped shape who I am today. And I hope in some small way I helped shape who they became too.”

KSI then went on to thank each of the men behind the successful YouTube channel, before thanking the crew and the fans who supported them on their journey.

Concluding his statement, KSI signed off by saying: “But for now, I need to focus on myself, and I need to focus on fixing my work life balance, just so I can finally focus on my health, and finally make time to see my family and make time to see my partner.”

VENEZUELA Fury looked incredible as she posed in gym and branded herself a “bad b***h” after moving into a lavish static home with her new husband.

The 16-year-old has skyrocketed to new heights of fame after fans were captivated by her lavish wedding in the Isle of Man last month.

Venezuela married her man Noah Price, 19, in a stunning handmade gown with imported Italian lace and a 50ft train.

The Netflix star has been keeping fans updated on her life over on her TikTok account.

Venezuela looked amazing in a new video, where she posed for fans in an Alo gym set.

The gym set, which costs a whopping £218, was a gorgeous bright red colour complete with white detailing.

Read more on Venezuela Fury

HOUSE THIS?

Venezuela Fury gives fans a look at Mrs Hinch-style static caravan living room

HOUSE THAT?

Venezuela Fury gives fans a peek inside her static caravan bedroom

She danced around in the clip as she mimed the lyrics to Cardi B‘s ‘Pretty and Petty’.

They said: “I’m a bad b***h are you mad. You built like your dad.

“You damn near unemployed. They only book you when they can’t afford Coi, look.

“I got one album and I’m up still. Daughter cost more than your pub’ deal.”

Venezuela pouted her lips and threw up a peace sign as she ended the video.

Fans in the comments gushed over Venezuela.

One fan penned: “Diva Period!”

Another fan wrote: “This outfit is everything.”

A third person added: “OMG beautiful.”

The reality TV personality has over 1.3 million followers on the app with fans desperate to keep up with her whirlwind last few months.

Venezuela and Noah‘s wedding was one of the biggest events in May – the bash had 120 guests, a 12-tiered wedding cake, a surprise performance from Peter Andre and an all-night buffet.

Soon after their big day the loved-up pair moved into their posh new home.

The luxury caravan home boasts a stunning marble bathroom with a free-standing bath, a cream kitchen overlooking trees and greenery, and plenty of space throughout.

The living room has a huge built-in TV cabinet with a fireplace beneath.

And the bedroom has large wardrobes and plush grey carpet throughout.

This story includes spoilers for “Masters of the Universe.”

He-Man has made his way back to the big screen thanks to the power of Grayskull — and Hollywood’s love of nostalgia.

Now in theaters, “Masters of the Universe” stars Nicholas Galitzine as Eternia’s long-lost Prince Adam. Working a menial HR job after getting stranded on Earth as a child, Adam “(he/him)” dreams of reuniting with his Sword of Power in order to make his way back home.

Spoiler: He does (with a little help from his friends).

Helmed by “Bumblebee” and “Kubo and the Two Strings” director Travis Knight, the movie is “a dopey, friendly comedy about modern masculinity in crisis with a He-Man who openly wonders what kind of a man to be,” according to a review by Times film critic Amy Nicholson.

Much like the first live-action film around the popular 1980s toyline, the new “Masters of the Universe” features a couple of post-credits scenes that tease what could come in the franchise’s future. But for now, fans will have to wait to learn whether a sequel is forthcoming.

Yes, Orko is in the He-Man movie

Fans of the He-Man franchise can rejoice because everyone’s favorite floating wizard (and court jester) does make an appearance after the main “Masters of the Universe” story ends. In a nod to the animated Filmation series in which the character originated, Orko appears in a brief stinger after the conclusion of the film in order to share what lessons audiences could learn from the story they just watched.

Has He-Man seen the last of Skeletor (Jared Leto)?

(Amazon MGM Studios / Prime)

The mid-credits scene introduces a familiar hero

The most significant of the bonus scenes comes in the middle of the credits. The scene opens with Prince Adam’s mother, Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley), sharing a moment with Duncan (Idris Elba).

After the queen mentions she had given up hope for reuniting with “both of them,” Man-At-Arms replies “perhaps one day she’ll come back to us too.”

The scene then cuts to the “she” in question, wearing a red cape and holding a familiar sword.

“Force Captain… Adora?” calls out a voice.

“No, not anymore,” she replies.

Those familiar with the lore of the “Masters of the Universe” franchise will recognize that the mysterious woman is Adam’s long-lost twin sister, Adora. The most common backstory is that Adora was kidnapped by Hordak as an infant and raised on the planet Etheria as a member of his Evil Horde. She eventually learns the truth about her heritage and defects to fight for good.

The Sword of Protection gives her the power to transform into the hero She-Ra.

Is that the last post-credits scene?

Nope. The final stinger shown after the credits are done rolling involves Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) and Skeletor (Jared Leto). It appears He-Man has not seen the last of his nemesis — as long as a sequel is greenlit.

DECEASED Friends actor Matthew Perry has sold two original Banksy artworks for nearly £1million – including the iconic Girl with Balloon.

The star tragically died in October 2023 after accidentally drowning in a jacuzzi while high on ketamine, with 127 items from his estate having now been sold at auction.

A pair of iconic Banksy artworks, Girl with Balloon and Nola, that Perry owned have been sold for £975,000.

The Hollywood actor, best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom Friends, died at the age of 54.

His estate has since been put up for auction with the money going to the Matthew Perry Foundation which helps substance users to recover.

The Girl with Balloon 2005 includes two spray-painted stencils on separate canvases of a child reaching for a red heart-shaped balloon.

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Following an intense bidding war, it sold for a massive £709,674.

After including the 25 per cent buyers premium, it sold for £887,093.

The other iconic artwork, Nola 2008, is a screen print in colours on wove paper of a young girl holding an umbrella while sheltering from the rain.

It was the first Banksy Perry ever bought, according to Heritage Auctions.

The monochrome picture fetched £70,967.

Including the 25 per cent buyers premium, it sold for £88,709.

Both artworks have Banksy’s signature on them.

Other items sold at the auction included signed Friends episode scripts, TV guide displays, and a custom Chandler bobble head.

It also sold Batman memorabilia like a custom ping pong table and The Dark Knight Rises watch.

Perry’s cause of death was determined to be the acute effects of ketamine with drowning as a contributing factor. 

A year after the celeb’s tragic passing, the street dealer who supplied the ketamine, Erik Fleming, was jailed for two years.

Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, was also jailed for more than three years after injecting the actor with the drug.

Both pleaded guilty to the charges during their court appearances.

THE heartbroken girlfriend of James Handy has spoken out in anguish after her own son was accused of brutally stabbing the veteran actor to death.

Wendy Gledhill, 76, fought back tears as she broke her silence outside her home, reeling from the horror of losing her partner and the devastating allegations against her son.

“I’m just trying to make it through one day at a time, a minute at a time,” she said.

“I loved James and my son. I still can’t believe it….I can’t believe my son did it. I’m just trying to …,” she added, before retreating inside, overcome with emotion.

Her son, Michael Gledhill, 44, stands accused of fatally stabbing the 81-year-old actor multiple times in the chest  in a shocking attack at the family home in Tarzana, Los Angeles.

Authorities say the horror unfolded on Wednesday morning when police were called to the property on the 19200 block of Erwin Street following a disturbing 911 call.

A voice reportedly told dispatchers: “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin.”

When officers arrived at around 9:30am, they found Handy unconscious and bleeding out in the front yard, suffering from multiple stab wounds.

“We also need [a rescue ambulance] for a male, not conscious, not breathing, suffering from a stab wound,” a responding officer said in chilling dispatch audio.

The beloved actor was rushed to hospital but was later pronounced dead.

In a dramatic twist, Gledhill himself allegedly waved down officers as they approached, telling them he was the suspect they were looking for.

He was arrested at the scene and charged with murder. He is currently being held on a $2,000,000 bond.

Disturbing Ring doorbell footage later emerged showing a man believed to be Gledhill pacing near the home.

He was dressed in a purple or pink shirt and blue trousers, at times touching his face before returning to the property and flagging down police.

Another clip showed him walking back towards the house where Handy’s body was later found, with footage also appearing to capture him leading officers across the lawn.

Neighbours described Gledhill as acting erratically in the past, with one claiming his behaviour raised alarm.

“He looked really rugged … he looks like he doesn’t really change his clothes,” said neighbor Joheina Quibol.

She also recalled a bizarre encounter in which he allegedly questioned her father about cameras inside their home, describing him as “paranoid” and suggesting he may have struggled with mental health issues.

Other neighbours claimed the suspect and Handy had been overheard arguing overnight before the fatal attack.

Despite the brutal nature of the killing, the Los Angeles Police Department said they believe it to be an isolated incident, adding there is no ongoing danger to the public.

A motive for the attack has not yet been established.

Handy’s death has sent shockwaves through Hollywood, with his talent agent Pam Ellis-Evenas confirming the tragedy in a statement.

“With great sadness I can confirm that the gentleman who was attacked and killed on Wednesday in Tarzana was the actor James Handy.”

The New York City-born star enjoyed a glittering career spanning nearly five decades, racking up close to 150 screen credits across film and television.

He was most recently seen as bartender Jimmy in Top Gun: Maverick alongside Tom Cruise.

Handy also appeared in the 2017 superhero film Logan, starring Hugh Jackman, playing a doctor treating an ageing Wolverine.

One of his most memorable roles came in the 1995 classic Jumanji, where he starred alongside Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt and Kirsten Dunst.

His extensive television career included appearances in hit series such as The West Wing, 9-1-1, NCIS: Los Angeles, CSI: NY, The Young and the Restless, Castle, Criminal Minds, Cold Case, Without a Trace, ER and The X-Files.

He also had notable roles in Alias as Arthur Devlin, and recurring appearances in Melrose Place and NYPD Blue.

Handy’s brutal killing comes less than a year after another shocking Hollywood tragedy involving Rob Reiner, 78, who was found with his throat slit inside his Los Angeles home.

His son, Nick Reiner, 32, has been accused of killing both him and his mother Michelle, 68, while they were in bed on December 14, 2025. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

The state of California is leading an effort to prepare a possible lawsuit that could thwart Paramount Skydance Corp.’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a potential obstacle for the $111 billion deal.

The lawsuit, which could be filed as early as this month, would likely involve multiple states, according to a source familiar with the deliberations who was not authorized to comment publicly.

The litigation would seek to challenge the proposed merger on antitrust grounds, arguing it would thwart competition, lower wages and lead to widespread job losses.

“The Paramount acquisition of Warner Brothers remains an active investigation, and we do not have any updates to share at this time,” said California Atty. General Rob Bonta’s office in a statement.

In a statement, Paramount said it “will continue to fight against any attempt to derail a deal that plainly benefits consumers, creators and the industry as whole.”

“Opposing this deal means opposing expanded consumer choice, new opportunities for creators and workers, and greater competition throughout the creative ecosystem — the opposite of what antitrust law is meant to achieve,” the company added.

Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders in April approved the sale of the company to Paramount after Netflix dropped out of the auction.

Under Paramount Chairman David Ellison’s proposal, Warner investors would receive $31 a share, nearly four times the price of the company’s stock in April 2025. He also said he will keep both studios’ release schedules of 15 movies a year for a total of 30 films a year.

Nonetheless, Ellison and his team have vowed to make $6 billion in cuts following the merger, which requires regulatory approval. The combined company would have to contend with $79 billion in deal debt.

The prospect of substantial job cuts during a period of downsizing in Hollywood has ignited widespread opposition to the sale.

Thousands of people who work in the TV and film industry, including actor Joaquin Phoenix and director-writer-producer JJ Abrams signed an open letter opposing Paramount’s planned acquisition of WBD, saying it would lead to fewer production jobs and fewer choices for consumers. Others have also raised concerns about the impact it could have on content.

“The consequences would be felt nationwide, from destroying CNN the way that Ellisons have devastated CBS to entertainment industry job losses and consumers losing access to independent voices and a competitive market,” said Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, one of the groups that organized the open letter. “State attorneys general have both the authority and the responsibility to act when a transaction of this scale directly threatens the public’s interest, and I hope states across the country will join any effort to challenge this deal,” Eisen said in a statement.

The potential lawsuit, first reported by Bloomberg and Reuters, is being considered by other states, including New York and Colorado.

“Paramount and Warner Bros. haven’t cleared regulatory scrutiny,” Bonta told The Times in March. “My office has an open investigation into [the deal] and we intend to be vigorous in our review.”

Despite the potential obstacle, Raymond James equity analysts said in a note on Thursday that they “still believe the deal is likely to close.”

Last month, Paramount hired antitrust attorney Jeffrey Kessler to defend its planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Kessler recently led a case for state attorney generals against concert promoter and ticketing firm Live Nation, resulting in a win for states, including California.

“We also think there are win/win solutions to be had particularly in California given exodus of production from CA in recent years and efforts to bring production back to Hollywood,” the analyst said in their note.

Start sending out “Smoke Signals.” Phoebe Bridgers finally announced her upcoming phone-free arena tour, and it includes two spooky nights in the Los Angeles area.

Bridgers shared details about the Lost Tour on Friday morning, following a sold-out show the previous night at Madison Square Garden in New York City and a series of secret pop-up shows across the United States.

The tour will kick off in Indianapolis in September and cap off the North American run with back-to-back shows at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome on Oct. 30 and 31, fitting dates for the skeleton suit-wearing singer-songwriter. A European leg will follow in November.

All tickets for Bridgers’ surprise acoustic show at Madison Square Garden were sold for $20 or under, and proceeds were donated to the Community Justice Exchange’s Immigration Bond Freedom Fund, which provides bail support to ICE detainees. For the Lost Tour, Bridgers will donate $1 from every ticket sold for North American concerts to RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization and operator of the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

A phone ban was also instituted at the MSG show and Bridgers’ previous pop-up sets, with attendees storing their devices in Yondr bags, which physically lock using magnets. The same policy will be in effect throughout the upcoming tour.

At the Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, guests may not need their phones at all to access tickets or purchase concessions, since the arena is equipped with “GameFace ID” facial recognition technology.

The Lost Tour is Bridgers’ first full-band solo tour since Reunion Tour in support of her 2020 album “Punisher” wrapped in April 2023, though she has since toured as a member of the supergroup Boygenius. “Punisher” is her latest solo album, and her debut album with Boygenius, “The Record,” came out in 2023.

Though she debuted eight new songs at Thursday’s MSG show, she has yet to announce a new album.

Singer-songwriter Alex G will provide support on the tour’s North American leg, including the Inglewood dates, while former Black Country, New Road frontman Isaac Wood will support in Europe. The tour’s eerie imagery was created in collaboration with fine art photographer Gregory Crewdson.

In an effort to get tickets in the hands of fans, rather than scalpers or bots, there will be two days of presales before the general sale. Fans can register from now until midnight Sunday for lottery access to the Day 1 presale taking place Tuesday. There will be another presale Wednesday. Tickets go on sale to the general public June 12.

Bridgers last played in L.A. as part of a secret show at all-ages venue the Smell in February 2024, where Boygenius announced its hiatus.

In addition to touring, Bridgers has a role in the upcoming A24 feature “Primetime,” directed by Lance Oppenheim, which hits theaters in September.

Bridgers, who grew up in Pasadena and attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, told The Times in 2022 that her music taste was shaped in part by her upbringing in L.A., where she attended massive music festivals and local Día de los Muertos celebrations alike.

“I learned that there can be fun in the darkness,” she said.

ANGRY Sicilian locals hit out at Dua Lipa after two city piazzas were cordoned off for the singer’s wedding bash this weekend.

On Thursday cops tore down posters protesting “Palermo is not for rent” and “Our square is not your living room”.

But yesterday morning graffiti had also appeared on walls in the picturesque Piazza Croce dei Vespri.

The square and adjoining Piazza Sant’Anna have been sealed off for the first of three days of celebrations as One Kiss star Dua, 30, and actor Callum Turner, 36, mark their nuptials.

They officially married in London last weekend before flying to Italy this week.

Guests including singer Charli XCX and music producer Mark Ronson were in Palermo for drinks last night.

LIPA LUXURY

Dua Lipa & Callum Turner soak up the sun at £6k-a-night hotel ahead of big bash

MR RIGHT

I have seen what Callum Turner is REALLY like up close – it truly surprised me

Yesterday, it emerged Dua has paid £5,000 to residents.

The gesture is understood to compensate locals whose apartments overlook the area for parking problems.

But a marble column in the centre had last night not been cleaned of old foul-mouthed graffiti complaining of an unpaid debt.

A source said: “It doesn’t really match the idyllic love story vibe that Dua seems to be going for.”

Dua, Callum and guests have been staying at the five star Villa Igiea hotel overlooking Palermo’s marina.

The couple got a huge cheer and applause as they arrived at their party last night, with Dua dazzling in a halterneck backless dress.

Callum wore a casual suit and could not resist giving his new wife a cheeky squeeze of her bum, left.

The square was decked out with classic Italian cars and an outdoor cocktail bar.

Earlier, police moved on locals in Piazza Sant’Anna.

One resident said of the cops’ action: “It all seems a bit over the top.

“We just wanted to see Dua Lipa and wish her well.”

Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa isn’t afraid to look death in the eye. The writer-director’s 2022 feature debut, “Plan 75,” imagined an unsettling future in which the elderly are offered a subsidy by the government to be euthanized. For her follow-up, she travels into her own past, drawing from memories of her father’s battle with cancer.

But while “Renoir” features no sci-fi elements, the nearness of oblivion remains just as prominent. Shorn of sentimentality, this gentle drama follows a quietly observant fifth-grader who feels the grim shadow of mortality all around her. How the character will absorb that realization is anyone’s guess — including Hayakawa’s.

Newcomer Yui Suzuki stars as Fuki, who lives in a nondescript Tokyo suburb in 1987. Her soft-spoken dad, Keiji (Lily Franky), is suffering with terminal cancer in its final stages, the emaciated man spending as much time in the hospital as he does at home. Fuki’s mother, Utako (Hikari Ishida), doesn’t seem very despondent, though: One senses an emotional exhaustion that comes from preparing so long for the inevitable that she’s now mostly numb, her anticipatory grief having given way to frayed nerves.

Fuki’s pre-mourning process is equally complicated. Outwardly, she shows no signs of being devastated by her dad’s imminent passing, happily playing with him, almost in denial of his fate. But “Renoir” subtly suggests the impressionable girl is more aware than she lets on, surrounding her with random reminders of death. Local news breathlessly reports on random domestic murders. Even when Fuki gets away from the city, the camera lingers on her watching a campfire’s dying embers. The film derives its title from the girl’s interest in “Little Irène,” a painting by influential French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. She asks if Renoir is still alive. No, he’s dead too.

Hayakawa pulls from her childhood in multiple ways for her sophomore feature, which premiered in competition at Cannes last year. “Renoir” takes place in 1987 specifically because that’s the year she turned 11, and, like her protagonist, she was infatuated with “Little Irène.” But there’s a refreshing absence of nostalgia in Hayakawa’s conception of Fuki and her quizzical processing of her father’s fatal illness.

For school, Fuki writes an essay about her wish to be an orphan. She becomes obsessed with hypnotism and mind-reading, an unorthodox strategy to create a sense of control. And, occasionally, she wanders into daydreams that Hayakawa presents so matter-of-factly that viewers may sometimes be unsure if what they’re seeing is actually happening. In “Renoir,” Fuki’s flights of fancy are as naturalistic as her everyday life — a sharp reminder that, for children, imagination and reality are often indistinguishable.

If death has been integral to Hayakawa’s two features, it’s society’s callous reaction to aging that is her primary focus. “Plan 75” eschewed dystopian-thriller conventions to ponder how Japan might one day treat its senior citizens, viewing them as little more than a drain on resources. “Renoir” makes a similar point within a memory piece. Keiji is the one dying, but it’s telling that Hayakawa centers the story on Fuki and Utako, who each, in their own way, seem more concerned about their own personal dramas.

As Keiji’s situation grows more dire, Utako enters the orbit of Toru (Ayumu Nakajima), a workplace advisor with whom she’s instantly smitten, pondering pursuing him romantically. Ironically, Toru preaches the importance of good communication skills in the office, a lesson the film’s guarded family would be wise to heed. While Utako hides her feelings for Toru, Fuki begins a secret odyssey in which she impulsively joins a phone dating service, engaging in conversations with a creepy college student (Ryota Bando) who pushes her to meet in person. This potentially traumatic subplot is the closest “Renoir” gets to traditional suspense, but even here Hayakawa adopts a muted approach, sidestepping shock value for bittersweet commentary about young people’s confusion around love. Both Utako and Fuki chase after human connections fraught with danger, each trying to insulate themselves from the tragedy waiting at home.

“Renoir” may be a delicate wisp of a film, but it’s flecked with thoughtful questioning about whether childhood’s sorrows leave permanent scars on us as adults. Suzuki exudes the fragility and buoyancy of adolescence, playing Fuki as someone constantly imbibing the world, rarely revealing what she’s doing with that stimulus. The simplest moments resonate the strongest, such as when the moody 11-year-old holds a balloon over the balcony of her family’s high-rise apartment, casually releasing her grip so that it tumbles to the ground far below. Does it speak to a desire to jump herself? “Renoir” won’t say, but the character is so poised you feel confident she’ll survive her father’s death. Who knows: Maybe years from now, she’ll even make a touching, emotionally astute movie about it.

It’s Broadway’s time to shine Sunday when the 79th Tony Awards take New York City.

Broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall, the night promises plenty of onstage drama and hopefully some real-life intrigue. The number of new Broadway productions this year — 30 — shrunk from last year’s 42, but there are still some standout shows and performances to watch out for, from flashy revivals like “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” to Laurie Metcalf’s stunning turns in both “Death of a Salesman” and “Little Bear Ridge Road.”

Grammy Award winner Pink is hosting for the first time, and though the pop star lacks direct Broadway roots, her songs have been featured in the jukebox musicals “Moulin Rouge!” and “& Juliet.”

Here’s everything else you should know about this year’s ceremony, including how to tune in.

How can I watch?

The three-hour awards ceremony will air live on CBS on Sunday at 5 p.m. Paramount+ premium-level subscribers can also stream it on the app, while those with other membership tiers can watch the show on-demand after it airs.

The annual pre-show, “The Tony Awards: Act One,” will stream live on free service Pluto TV at 3:35 p.m. that same day. It is hosted by Tony Award nominee Laura Benanti and actor Tituss Burgess and includes the first round of Tony Award presentations.

Who is performing?

This year’s opening number, a show-stopping Tonys tradition, will feature more than 170 Broadway performers. It’s choreographed by Sarah O’Gleby and written by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Mark Sonnenblick.

As always, casts from the productions nominated for best musical — “The Lost Boys,” “Schmigadoon!,” “Titaníque” and “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)” — and for best revival of a musical — “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” “Ragtime” and Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” — will perform during the ceremony.

Rachel Zegler will pay tribute to “A Chorus Line” and Tony Award winner Leslie Odom Jr. will perform “Without You” from “Rent” to honor the show’s 30th anniversary as well as those in the theater community who have died this year.

The “Chicago” revival will also celebrate its 30th anniversary on Broadway with a performance from stars including Queen Latifah, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Matron Mama Morton in the show’s 2002 film adaptation, and Tony Awards host Pink. The entire original cast of “The Book of Mormon,” including Tony Award nominees Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells and Rory O’Malley and Tony winner Nikki M. James, will also perform in celebration of the show’s 15th anniversary on Broadway.

Who is presenting?

Notable stars of stage, screen and music presenting awards include Grammy Award winner Megan Thee Stallion, who made her Broadway debut this year in “Moulin Rouge!”; Nicole Scherzinger, who won a Tony last year for her performance in the revival of “Sunset Boulevard”; and Academy Award winner Adrien Brody.

You can find the star-studded presenter lineup here.

What is nominated?

“Schmigadoon!” and “The Lost Boys,” both nominated for best musical, lead the pack with 12 nominations each going into Sunday’s awards ceremony. The “Ragtime” revival trails with 11 nominations, and lauded revivals “Death of a Salesman,” “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” and “The Rocky Horror Show” are each nominated for nine awards.

Find a full list of nominees here.

Glaciers aren’t stationary. Immense and imposing, formed through the downward trajectory of water from mountains as it collects and freezes, they have always moved. Now, however, they’re leaving. The demise of glaciers is a fact inherent in all the bad news about the effects of climate change on what once seemed permanent. But for Icelanders, whose connection to glaciers is ancient and mythic, our human epoch has become an extended hospice for the landscape of their lives.

Somehow, though, Sara Dosa’s documentary on this matter, “Time and Water,” avoids playing like a funeral in waiting. Built around Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason’s voiced lamentations on a vanishing frozen world, along with archival footage of his family, it’s no simple howl of grief, even when it takes us to a publicly held memorial in 2019 for Iceland’s Ok glacier, the first such “death” diagnosis in the country’s history. Rather, Dosa’s film is a meditation on change — both the kind that we accept with a heavy heart and something more general. “Time and Water” is a curiously vibrant elegy, teeming with appreciation for the intimate majesty that is all life, generational and geologic.

Dosa has finessed this emotional-meets-elemental space before in her Academy Award-nominated 2022 documentary “Fire of Love,” about married volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. That was a wonderfully eccentric romance forged in molten lava. Here, she’s in a collaboration of sorts with her subjects, both human and elemental. Magnason’s opening narration over spectacular footage of glaciers — up close and from far away — gently informs us that we’re watching a time capsule, one where the bonds of family and environment are intertwined.

We learn how Iceland’s glaciers, essentially rivers of varying pace, begat their unique ecosystems, but also how they provided the breathtaking terrain upon which Magnason’s grandparents Hulda and Árni fell in love. (Grandma Hulda was the first woman to fly in Iceland, itself a very cool fact.) The onset of dementia in Árni spurs his grandson to consider what’s lost when the markers of memory depart. “Time and Water” touches on the epic verse called rimurs, passed down via chanted song by Icelandic women, their descriptive, sorrowful tales like dispatches from previous ages.

“Tone poem” is an overused term in cinema, but the humbling “Time and Water,” graced with a playful, atmospheric Dan Deacon score, earns that distinction. Naturally, it helps that you can never tire of all the air-crisped glacier imagery, captured digitally and in 16mm. Folded into the cozy slide-show vibe of Magnason’s home videos and the carefully chosen archival footage, the movie plays like a scrapbook portrait in which home just happens to boast the grandest of backyards.

How much longer will Icelanders enjoy it? The glaciers are predicted to be gone within 200 years. That’s an eternity or a drip, depending on whose survival we’re talking about. Still, “Time and Water” collapses the notion that we are somehow separate from these ancient, essential formations: an encouraging hello to the future from inside a sobering goodbye.

Countless famous faces have appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox over the years – but for some, it appears working on the Channel 4 show left a rather bad taste in their mouths

A brand new episode airs tonight.

Celebrity Gogglebox has seen several famous faces come and go over the years – and for some of them, it seems they are not exactly fans of the programme…

The Channel 4 spin-off first aired in 2019 and has since established itself as one of the broadcaster’s most beloved programmes.

The forthcoming eighth series will welcome back several firm favourites, such as Vernon Kay and Paddy McGuinness, Nick Grimshaw and niece Liv, and Denise Van Outen and Johnny Vaughan.

But for some former stars, it seems the show left a rather bad taste in their mouths, as since their exits they have not been afraid to air their thoughts on the programme.

Maureen Lipman

Coronation Street’s Maureen Lipman, who appeared on the show with friend Gyles Brandreth, spoke about her experience on the show in 2021. On Loose Women, Maureen was asked: “Are you not going to be on it any more?”

Laughing, she said: “I’ve seen all the male tackle I need to see for this lifetime to be honest. We had such a good time, but none of the clever things we said went into it. So no.”

Maureen had previously spoken to Radio Times about how being on the show was different to what she had imagined. She told the mag: “I’d seen Gogglebox and I thought, ‘Oh, [ours] is the grown-up version, is it?

“I’m going to go on, and make a lot of comment now about the oeuvre and ‘I did like his first trilogy, but then I felt in some ways that perhaps over the years…’ But it’s your reaction to 12 dangling willies they want.

“They’re searching for ways to make me go ‘Urgh!’ So I thought, ‘Well, actually, no, life is too short to watch a series of hopeless men dangle their bits and pieces in my direction. So I’m going’.”

Frank Skinner

Frank Skinner also didn’t hold back either when airing his thoughts on working on Celebrity Gogglebox. During an episode of his podcast Frank Off The Radio: The Frank Skinner Podcast in 2024, he even went as far as to liken his experience to that of tortured monkeys.

Speaking about his Isle of Man disaster and the TV show, he said: “You know when I said I didn’t enjoy doing the gig on the Isle of Man, well it was a glorious pleasure compared to filming Gogglebox.”

He continued: “There’s a place in Wareham in Dorset called Monkey World, and it’s beautiful because they’re often monkeys that have been rescued from unkindness on the continent, and a lot of Spanish, in particular, there’s a thing of having your photo taken with a monkey.” He added: “The way to make them behave – and you can see this when you get close – is they’ve got cigarette burns on their skin that they use to make them do what they want them to do. And doing Gogglebox was a very similar experience.”

When asked if he was exaggerating, he was adamant his claims were true as the show was heavily “produced.” He explained: “So you sit in a room – you only watch like ten minutes of a programme.”

Exposing the behind the scenes process further, he went on to say: “We’re sitting watching the telly and we start talking, and a voice says ‘Say something about his jacket’. Then it would stop, and they’d say ‘Can you not go into digressions, it’s funny if you keep it close to what’s actually happening’. And pretty soon I’m thinking ‘just please make this stop’. And when I left – I’d made it pretty clear in a politer way – I said ‘Sorry, I thought this was going to be like enjoyable’.”

Frank felt the constraints stifled the fun, saying: “It’s such a shame because I think we could have had a laugh and stuff. ” Despite his gripes, Frank did acknowledge the expertise behind the scenes: “But to be fair to them, they know how to make it – they’ve been making it for years.” However, it wasn’t all bad – Frank gave a shoutout to the kind team who treated him well: “The producer was a really nice guy, they were nice people, they got me fish and chips.”

Sheila Hancock

Dame Sheila Hancock first appeared on the star-studded Channel 4 spin-off series alongside pal Gyles and quickly became a fan favourite. However, she claimed in 2023 she was “sacked” for complaining about how much nudity she had to watch when Naked Attraction was the TV show of choice

The acting legend admitted she and Channel 4 bosses clashed over the racy clips which she had to comment on for the series.

She told The Mirror: “I used to love doing it with Gyles, but they sacked me from that. Well, they did not ask me back. I think it was because there were a lot of shows with penises in and because it went down [well] with the audience, they kept showing them to us.

“Eventually I phoned up the lady on the edit and said, ‘I am enjoying the show, but do you think we can have anything other than penises?’ and she was quite angry.”

Reach contacted Channel 4 for comment at the time.

Celebrity Gogglebox airs every Friday at 9pm on Channel 4.

SAG-AFTRA members overwhelmingly approved a four-year TV and film deal with major studios including Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday night, increasing minimum wages and addressing concerns about the use of AI performers.

The deal, which was expected to be approved, received the support of 91% of SAG-AFTRA members who voted on the agreement, which starts July 1 and ends June 30, 2030. The union represents 160,000 performers, including actors, stunt performers and influencers.

“This agreement builds on the foundation members fought to establish and carries that work into the next chapter of our industry,” said SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin in a statement. “It delivers meaningful gains in compensation, strengthens protections around artificial intelligence and digital identity, reinforces the long-term security of members’ benefit plans and recognizes the realities of how performers work today.”

Under the new deal, the length of the agreement between SAG-AFTRA and major studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expands from three years to four years.

It also boosts minimum wage by 3% annually, increases contributions to the health plan by 1% and expands the bonus to the union’s Success Bonus Distribution Fund based on residuals that performers get for popular streaming programs.

The contract also addresses concerns about the growing use of artificial intelligence in TV and film and its impact on actor jobs. Last year, many actors spoke out about Tilly Norwood, a computer-generated “actor” and whether synthetic characters like her could threaten their livelihoods. Some performers have also advocated for getting paid if their likenesses are used to create such characters made through AI systems.

Not all members were in favor of the contract, saying it did not go far enough in protecting performers against AI.

“It normalizes the use of AI replicas and synthetic performers rather than drawing a firm line protecting human performers and their jobs,” said Chuck Slavin, a background actor and performer.

Slavin, a former New England local board member, ran against Astin for SAG-AFTRA president last year.

Producers agreed to “a principle strongly favoring human performances” and that producers would only use a synthetic if it “brings significant additional value to the motion picture.” If a producer decided to use a synthetic in a role that could be done by a human, they would need to notify the union and bargain in good faith.

Additionally, the contract merges the pension plans of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which were previously separate but combined in 2012 to form SAG-AFTRA.

Their health plans were consolidated in 2017, but the pensions have remained separate . That was a major sticking point with members, some of whom couldn’t qualify for benefits as their contributions were split between two plans. Studios agreed to boost their overall contributions to the combined plan by 1%.

SAG-AFTRA’s deal comes after the Writers Guild of America members also approved an agreement with the AMPTP in April.

The groups were able to agree on contracts this year, without striking as they did in 2023.

“SAG-AFTRA’s leadership brought a genuine commitment to partnership, and together with the WGA agreement, these deals demonstrate what is possible when the industry works toward practical solutions that support its long-term stability,” AMPTP said in a statement.

The Directors Guild of America began negotiations with AMPTP last month, with its contract expiring on June 30.

Staff writer Cerys Davies contributed to this report.

THIS weekend, Dua Lipa and Callum Turner will say “I do” again in a lavish, three-day wedding in Sicily.

The world’s media is set to descend on the picture-perfect venue, alongside a guest list packed with the great and the good of the entertainment world.

It comes just days after the loved-up couple shocked fans by legally tying the knot in central London.

Images of the superstar singer and her hunky actor, 36, husband beaming as they left Old Marylebone Town Hall immediately went viral, with fans branding them the ultimate power couple.

Dressed in custom Schiaparelli Haute Couture, Dua, 30, looked flawless as she walked arm-in-arm with her new husband.

And while the showbiz world is no stranger to carefully curated PR moments, I know first-hand the type of man Callum really is.

After years of the singer dating the wrong guys, I know Dua has finally found Mr. Right because of how he discreetly supported me at one of my lowest moments.

Back in February 2024, I was lucky enough to attend the BAFTAs as a guest of EE at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

That year, Dua was presenting the award for Outstanding British Film, with Callum proudly by her side.

I was excited for the night ahead when, just minutes before taking to the red carpet, the guy I was seeing brutally dumped me.

I was unceremoniously blocked on WhatsApp, only to watch him put tickets we had bought for a West End show up for sale on his Instagram Stories – knowing full well I would see it.

To say it felt like a dagger to the heart would be an understatement.

Thankfully, no one was looking at me – especially as I arrived at the exact same time as Sir David Beckham – but making my way into the venue was one of the most surreal moments of my life.

I tried to hold back tears as screaming fans cheered for their favourite stars and cameras flashed all around me.

Inside the reception, Taittinger champagne was free-flowing and smiles were plastered on the faces of the rich and famous.

I quickly sank a glass of bubbles and, feeling myself getting choked up, slipped away to a secluded side corridor for a moment to myself.

I’m not entirely sure how long I stood there, staring blankly into space.

It was at this exact moment that Callum appeared, being led down my not-so-glamorous corridor to avoid the bustling crowds in the main foyer.

Realising I was unintentionally staring straight at him, I quickly apologised as we made eye contact.

Seeing how visibly upset I was, Callum stopped dead in his tracks and doubled back — leaving a member of the BAFTA press team looking thoroughly confused as to why he’d changed direction.

“Are you ok?” he asked kindly.

As I tried to mumble that I was fine, he replied: “You have tears in your eyes…”

His warmth prompted me to come clean and admit that I’d just been dumped.

By this point, Dua, surrounded by her own team, had caught up with him as they were being hurried to their seats before the live broadcast began.

“He’s not worth it,” the actor, hotly tipped to be the next 007, told me firmly, as Dua offered a warm, supportive smile.

I managed to raise a half-hearted laugh, and with that, they were whisked off into the glitzy night.

I stood there for a moment, taking stock of a brief interaction that felt like a fever dream.

While short, it made it crystal clear to me that Callum is one of the good guys.

In a self-centred, shallow industry, believe me, men like him are hard to come by.

I saw Callum a few weeks later at The O2 Arena, where our tables were located just a few spots away from each other at the BRIT Awards.

I wanted to thank him for his kindness that night, but aware I would have to out myself as a tabloid reporter, and the can of worms that might open, I decided against it.

Instead, I quietly watched as he was the first on his feet to cheer on Dua as she opened the ceremony with an epic rendition of her hit Training Season.

Aptly, the track, which featured on Dua’s third album Radical Optimism, is all about her struggle to find ‘The One’ before Callum came along.

Prior to their romance, Dua dated filmmaker Romain Gavras, 44, US TV host Trevor Noah, 42, and Anwar Hadid, 26.

Dua previously revealed on The Drew Barrymore Show: “Training Season is about when I was in my singledom.

“I went on a couple of dates. All terrible.

“I went into the studio with my friends and normally every studio session starts with a little chat and a gossip about my life.

“I just went, ‘Guys, training season is over. I am done training up these boys. No more.’”

Speaking to Vogue last December, Callum was asked: “If there is an eternity, who do you wish to spend it with?”

Without a second’s thought, he decisively replied: “Dua.”

With Callum, the singer has clearly hit the jackpot.

I wish them every success as they head down the aisle this weekend.

EXCLUSIVE: Love Island fans were shocked to hear that George Knight had quit the show just hours after arriving in the villa as a bombshell and now they reckon someone else has left

Love Island fans reckon another contestant has secretly quit the show. Just days into the new series, viewers were shocked to hear that George Knight had left the villa after arriving as a bombshell in Spain due to “personal reasons”.

Lifting the lid on his sudden exit, a Love Island spokesperson said: “For private reasons, George has left the Love Island villa. Duty of care for the Islanders is paramount so at this stage any further comment will come from George. Bosses and viewers alike had been loving his contribution.”

Viewers were left reeling by the news, however they are now convinced that another Islander has left after claiming he had gone ‘missing’ from the show.

Electrician, Sam Workman from Dudley, says he came on the show because he feels “genuinely ready to settle down.” However, he wasn’t featured once in last night’s episode, promoting some fans to speculate he’d followed George back to Blighty.

Taking to social media, one viewer said: “Wait… where was Sam in this episode? Is he still around? A second asked: “Did we even hear Sam speak once in this episode?” Meanwhile, a third mused: “Is Sam still here?”

However, the Mirror understands that Sam is still very much part of the show and will be featured in tonight’s episode. Sam also features on today’s First Look from Love Island on the show’s Instagram page.

The electrician’s ‘disappearance’ comes after it was confirmed that footballer George had left after shortly after sending Samraj and Ellie home.

George made his mark upon arrival at the villa and wasted no time in getting to know Robyn and Mica. Robyn, who quickly friend-zoned Sam, appeared keen to forge a pairing with George, after they shared a snog on the terrace.

Before leaving, George and fellow bombshell Yasmin were given the tough task of choosing one guy and girl to dump from the villa for any reason they chose.

They had only 24 hours to make the decision while everyone in the villa was completely oblivious to what was going to unfold.

The pressure left Yasmin reduced to tears, but in the end the duo sent Ellie Chadwick and Samraj Toor packing. But while tears were shed and gutted Samraj and Ellie headed for the exit, they were told that all may not be as it seemed. It left fans confused over what’s to come next in the series that has already thrown up a number of twists in the first week.

Straight off the bat, Islanders had to choose their own couples. This moved away from the public who normally picked who they thought was best matched.

Love Island All Stars winner, Gaby Allen, told us of the bold move: “The producers are doing a great job at changing things up. This has never been done before.

“A recoupling done by themselves is crazy! I would panic in this situation and hope somebody whisked me off my feet so I didn’t have the decision.”

The Mirror has contacted ITV for comment.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

AMY Childs has shown off her weight loss with a new swimsuit snap from Albania, where she is currently filming for the upcoming series of Towie.

The reality star, 35, opened up about slimming down earlier this year, admitting she had lost more weight than originally planned due to stress.

Filming herself in a new Instagram Story, Amy donned a cut-out black swimsuit which showed off her slender figure while posing in the mirror.

Tagging Albania as her location, Amy joked she “couldn’t miss out” on jetting off with her castmates to film for Towie.

It comes after she has sat out previous overseas trips on the show due to having family commitments back home.

Amy is a mum to daughter Polly and son Ritchie, whom she welcomed during previous relationships, and shares twins Milly and Billy with her husband Billy Delbosq.

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In January, she confirmed she wouldn’t be joining the cast trip to Vietnam due to mum duties.

She appears to be making the most of the welcomed break now the cast have arrived in Albania for the show’s upcoming season.

However, showing it’s not easy being away, she also shared a snap of the twins and admitted: “I miss you babies”.

It comes after Amy revealed in February that she was working to get to a healthy weight after going on a fitness journey and shedding more than planned.

Explaining she is now working with a trainer to put some more weight on, she said at the time: “So I decided to lose weight, during that process, I battled with stress and lost a little more than I wanted, and now I am working with Jon to start phase 2!! Which I am so excited about.”

With Amy often sharing her shrinking fame online, some fans have been left concerned for the star and have expressed worry underneath her social snaps.

Addressing her weight loss and the backlash, Amy explained in May that her mum suffering a heart attack led to increased stress as she was unable to eat for several months.

“When I lost all my weight, I must admit I went so skinny. At one point, I was around 6 stone 13 lbs,” said Amy.

She continued: “It was about 3, 4 months after [the heart attack], I was so skinny. I couldn’t train, I just had this anxious, anxiety.”

Amy then confirmed she is feeling much better now and says she is training and eating well again.

Sorry to rain on your all-analog parade.

It’s no secret that vinyl records’ resurgence has hit a new plateau, outselling CDs for the first time since 1987 as of 2022, according to a report from the Recording Industry Assn. of America. Three years later, its year-end report flaunts another statistic: Vinyl record sales surpassed $1 billion in 2025 — the first time since 1983.

But there’s an inevitable downside to anything that’s partially made of liquid dinosaur bones. Modern vinyl records are crafted with PVC resin, which makes up more than 75% of an average disk The synthetic polymer itself is made of chlorine and fossil fuel-derived feed stock.

To put its harm in perspective, a first-of-its-kind report from Vinyl Alliance, published in June 2024, found that 50% of a record’s carbon emissions come from this resin. The carbon footprint of a single LP was estimated to be roughly equal to the pollution a gas-powered vehicle emits over a three-mile trip. It adds up quick, considering that 46.8 million new records were sold last year.

Thankfully, it’s not all grim.

Organizations like Music Declares Emergency and the Music Climate Pact initiative are coming together to address the issue. A campaign by the groups — in collaboration with record labels and distribution teams at Secretly Group, Exceleration Music, Warp Records, Ninja Tune and Beggars Group — features titles pressed on 100% reclaimed material.

The release, set in tandem with World Environment Day on Friday, boasts marquee titles such as Elliott Smith’s “Roman Candle,” Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago” and Dinosaur Jr.’s “You’re Living All Over Me.”

“What we found talking to a lot of our artists and to customers is that … they are concerned about the environment, and they want to find ways to reduce their footprint,” says Ben Swanson, co-founder of both Secretly Group and the Independent Record Pressing plant in Bordentown, N.J., where the LPs are made. “It’s about 16% less footprint than the traditional piece of vinyl.”

Soren Smith working at Independent Record Pressing in Bordentown, N.J., on May 26, 2026.

(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)

Largely, it’s been people like Swanson who have fully committed to the cause. He says that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in an “activist moment,” several labels signed onto the Music Climate Pact, declaring their intention to reduce their emissions and be better stewards of Earth.

“It had almost no teeth to it,” Swanson explains. “A lot of people signed it, posted something on Instagram, and it sat there for a few years. For us, it was pretty frustrating … it felt very perfunctory.”

His work continued, along with a few others, thanks to support from Murmur, an organization designed to support labels and industry names, effectuating the commitments made when the Music Climate Pact was signed.

“We’re more doers than sayers,” Swanson says. “We’ve really been experimenting with what we’re calling ‘Revinyl’ — post-industrial, pre-consumer, recycled vinyl as a means to reduce our footprint at IRP.”

This is what some of Friday’s release is made of — all the trimmings, tidbits and overstock that would otherwise end up in landfills or on the factory floor. For the time being, it certainly won’t solve the climate cost of vinyl records, but it helps to mitigate it.

Between 2024 and 2025, total units produced at Independent Record Pressing increased by 41% while emissions — which also benefited from lower-carbon transportation — decreased by 34%.

“The idea is, if you can make those records 16% more efficient and also show fans of those records … that it is viable, maybe it makes it a little bit easier next year when we go out to ask other artists to jump on board,” Swanson explains. “We’re not making records that are just going to go sit on the shelf — these are records we’re continually repressing all the time anyway.”

Similarly, Ian Stanton, head of sustainability at Beggars Group, was among the first to sign the pact in 2021. His role was created five years ago to give indie labels a voice in light of minimal resources and capabilities. Though these roles do exist at larger labels, he says they have “slightly different drivers.”

When it comes to records, the pure plastic pollution that comes from them is also a concern. When old records make it to a landfill, they’re not only likely to outlive the site, but can also leach plasticizers, a Keele University report found.

“Vinyl is not like a single-use plastic; we don’t throw it away after one listen. We treasure it, we pass it on through generations, and people have a real connection with it,” he says. “But like any other product, there are ways of making it more sustainable.”

He refers to certain plastics, such as shrink wrap, as the most “visible” aspect of vinyl record pollution to consumers. From a collector’s point of view, shrink wrap can actually increase the value of a record. Though there has been discourse over the years around whether this can actually damage the sleeve, many sellers champion an “in the shrink” label as they mark up prices.

Splatter-patterned records arrive at the trim station at Independent Record Pressing in Bordentown, N.J., on May 26, 2026.

(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)

Other visible aspects, such as the paper sleeves in which the records are housed, are also harmful. However, Swanson says that swapping those for recycled materials outputs a relatively negligible difference in emissions impact, largely due to the process behind producing them.

For the time being, vinyl records made from reclaimed materials are the best that companies like Swanson’s can do, though they’re are always on the lookout for other, viable options for improving their footprint. As an example, they’re actively experimenting with how existing record material can help them.

What can the beat-up, worn-out records at your local thrift store do to dodge a landfill and keep the Earth spinning? As it stands, not much.

Stanton lists an array of challenges, including outdated materials, modern production regulations and contaminants.

“I suppose what we need with PVC for records is a really high-quality, contamination-free material to get that sound reproduction,” he explains. “When you bring in stuff from that post-consumer environment, you’ve got to make sure there’s no contamination in there, because you’re going to end up with sound quality issues.

“It’s all in process,” he adds.

For now, they look to fix the most immediate problems first, such as freight emissions, where Beggars Group has converted the vast majority of its shipping operations to sea freight, a far less harmful alternative compared with air freight.

“We want to look at the full life cycle … not only thinking from the cradle to the grave, but from the point where the raw materials are extracted at the beginning,” Stanton says. “This life cycle analysis now looks at all different environmental indicators on this — the chemical usage, the water usage, and the end-of-life impacts on that side of things.”

When Nick Antosca was a kid, he didn’t like having good dreams.

“With good dreams, I’d wake up and think, ‘Well, that didn’t happen’ and be disappointed,’” he recalled in a recent video interview. “But with a nightmare I’d wake up with my pulse racing and think, ‘I’m OK, I survived.’ I loved nightmares.”

Chasing that excitement and “healthy” catharsis in his daily life, Antosca has built a career on telling crime and horror stories: “Channel Zero,” “The Act,” “Brand New Cherry Flavor,” “Candy” and “A Friend of the Family.”

His newest project is a 10-episode remake of “Cape Fear” for Apple TV, starring Javier Bardem as Max Cady along with Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson as Anna and Tom Bowden.

“I think everything I’ve done is kind of a psychological horror story about the characters and their relationships,” he says, noting that this is true of the best horror tales like “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Shining” and “Cape Fear.”

Antosca was a fan of both the original 1962 “Cape Fear” starring Robert Mitchum and Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake starring Robert De Niro. But he felt it was time for a modern revision, a Southern Gothic fever dream that reflects the complexities of life today.

“The terror in ‘Cape Fear’ is about the destruction of the family,” he says. The story was originally about Cady, a rapist released from prison stalking Sam Bowden, who had interrupted his crime and testified against him. In Scorsese’s version, Bowden had been Cady’s defense attorney who, knowing Cady was guilty, had hidden evidence about the victim’s promiscuity to ensure a conviction and long sentence.

The original features “an all-American archetype of a virtuous family pitted against a monster,” while Scorsese depicted a “broken and dysfunctional family and the monster is even more extreme, he’s like a swamp creature.”

“The previous versions of ‘Cape Fear’ are pretty cut and dry,” Antosca says.

The Bowdens are portrayed by Amy Adams as Anna, Patrick Wilson as Tom and Lily Collias as daughter Natalie.

(Apple)

The new iteration features a sexting scandal, social media eruptions and drones — “there’s more ways to terrorize a family in 2026 and the world is scarier today than it was before” — but that’s not what makes it feel different.

“In our version the truth is more complicated, the past is more mysterious and both the family and the monster are more complicated,” he says. “The truth is murkier and that feels current.”

In this adaptation, Anna Bowden had been Cady’s defense attorney, and he’s no longer an illiterate rube but a successful restaurateur who was convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son. After the trial, Anna scandalously married Cady’s prosecutor Tom; he became stepfather to her newborn daughter Natalie (Lily Collias) and they later had a son Zack (Joe Anders).

“The foundation of their happiness is Max’s suffering,” he says, adding that while the crime was local in the previous versions, Cady’s conviction had been a national sensation in this one.

On the surface, the Bowdens are a perfect family, but cracks are rippling with increasing intensity just beneath, a fragility that will soon be exploited by Cady.

“In the first episodes, the family is permeable and a threat could be coming from anywhere,” he says. “Even if in your gut you think it’s Max Cady, it feels like it’s seeping into the family from all different directions.”

When Cady is suddenly exonerated and set free, he shows up to insinuate himself in the Bowdens’ life. Anna, ironically, works for a nonprofit that seeks to exonerate the wrongly convicted.

“All the versions ask, ‘What would you do to protect your family?’ but this also asks, ‘If an injustice was done to somebody, then what are they justified doing in return,’” he says. “I don’t want the audience rooting for Max, necessarily, but I want to trick them into having sympathy for somebody they didn’t expect to have sympathy for.”

To pull that off, “Cape Fear” needed a star as charismatic as Mitchum and De Niro.

Antosca always dreamed of Bardem as Cady: “When I’d pitch networks before there was a script, I’d say, ‘Picture Javier Bardem in this role.’” But this time, his dream came to vivid life.

The two developed the character together, everything from the explanation for Cady’s Spanish background to his exposure to Santería and prison and his “mutated version of the real religion” to the tattoos adorning Cady’s body to an early scene with a panther and the idea of the “psychological jungle,” which inspired Bardem to incorporate a panther’s physicality into his movement and his eyes.

Antosca always dreamed of Javier Bardem as Max Cady: “When I’d pitch networks before there was a script, I’d say, ‘Picture Javier Bardem in this role.’”

(Apple)

“Javier also asked questions about Max’s emotional history that was useful in shaping his character,” he says. “We wanted to show a little more authentic vulnerability, which we see very much in the previous versions intentionally.”

To make this series, Antosca first approached Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, who had initially developed the 1991 version. “They were incredibly generous and quite involved,” Antosca says. “They encouraged us to forge our own path.”

The one place they urged some fidelity to the past versions was in the score. “They said the Bernard Herrmann score is part of the DNA and feels like a character in both movies,” says Antosca, noting that Elmer Bernstein adapted the original in Scorsese’s version and Jeff Russo used the same starting point this time around.

Scorsese discussed episodes over FaceTime and Zoom, spending time dissecting a vicious fight scene while Antosca was editing it; shot in color but shown in black-and-white, the blood splattering may make you think of “Raging Bull,” but Antosca says the visceral violence was meant to call up “Casino’s” vise scene.

It may be nearly too much to handle, but Antosca is from New Orleans and says he found it easy to exploit the Southern Gothic sensibilities. “Everything is heightened in the Deep South and we were going for that energy, where something is adjacent to the real world but more saturated, sweatier, more feverish,” he says, noting that while the first episode is “cinematically pretty grounded and traditional, when the family gets shocked out of their comfort zone, things get a little crazy.”

That meant handheld cameras, flares, saturated colors, distortions, negative imagery and odd angles to reflect the growing sense of terror. Antosca promises that in the back half of the series, the show will get even wilder and more destabilizing.

“It just feels like there’s violence in the humidity in the South,” he says.

Subconsciously hearkening back to his childhood sleep experiences, he adds, “I wanted this story to feel like a nightmare that just keeps getting worse and worse and worse and worse.”

True crime fans are eager to learn more about the case explored in Netflix’s The Crash

Netflix fans are still hooked on the chilling case of Mackenzie Shirilla.

The inmate’s story is explored in viral documentary The Crash, which takes viewers through the tragedy that put Mackenzie behind bars.

Mackenzie was just 17 years old when she crashed her car into a brick wall at 100mph. Passengers Dominic Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19, sadly died at the scene. The driver survived, but she was left seriously injured.

What originally seemed like a devastating accident, though, soon turned into a murder investigation.

During a trial in 2023, prosecutors argued that Mackenzie intentionally crashed the car, ultimately killing her then-boyfriend Dominic and their friend Davion.

The teenager was later found guilty on all counts and received two 15-to-life sentences with the possibility parole.

While the documentary offers an in-depth look at the case and trial, fans have been left wondering when exactly the crime took place.

When did the Mackenzie Shirilla crash happen?

Mackenzie crashed her vehicle into a brick wall in the early hours of July 31, 2022.

Her bench trial, which means a trial ruled by a judge instead of a jury, took place a year later. She was found guilty on all counts on August 14, 2023 and later handed two consecutive 15-year sentences. She will not be eligible for parole until 2037.

The documentary explores Mackenzie’s relationship with the victims, as well as her wider friendship circle. Viewers also hear from her loved ones as they try to paint a picture of the days leading up to the tragedy.

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This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Stranger Things and The Last of Us.

Netflix’s synospsis states: “A car carrying three young adults slams into a brick building at 100 miles per hour in Strongsville, Ohio, leaving two lives lost and one sole survivor. The driver, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, was driving her boyfriend, Dom, and his friend, Davion, home from a party when the unthinkable happened.

“But as detectives comb through the wreckage, what first appears to be a tragic accident begins to look like a calculated crime scene. The Crash takes a deep dive into the volatile relationship at the centre, examining the shifting narratives of that fateful night to explore where a fatal mistake ends and cold-blooded murder begins.”

The Crash is streaming on Netflix

A BOND Girl has been spotted on rare outing 50 years after her sizzling scenes aired in one of the most iconic 007 movies.

Former Bond Girl Gloria Hendry, who played CIA agent Rosie Carver, was seen out and about looking amazing this week while running some errands.

50 years after starring opposite Roger Moore in the iconic flick Live and Let Die, Gloria, now 77, was spotted in Las Vegas.

The model and actress wore a casual brown and black top with some black leggings and slip on shoes for the low-key trip.

Looking youthful and content, Gloria wore her hair in a short light brunette bob, which was very different to the afro she sported in the movie.

Florida-born Gloria shot to fame in her 20s when she became 007‘s first African-American woman to become romantically involved with James Bond.

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In the 1973 movie, she was fresh-faced and vibrant, showcasing a voluminous afro that framed her face.

The model-turned-actress played the part of Rosie Carver, who famously gets shot and killed in Bond’s arms.  

Her steamy scenes with Roger Moore catapulted her into the spotlight in the Ian Fleming classic.

The movie theme of Live and Let Die was famously written by Paul McCartney. 

In his memoir, 007 star Roger described how the passion between himself and Gloria impacted his marriage.

“As Bond, I make love to Rosie Carver, played by the beautiful black actress Gloria Hendry, and my wife Luisa has learned from certain Louisiana ladies that if there is a scene like that they won’t go to see the picture,” he penned.

He added: “I personally don’t give a damn, and it makes me all the more determined to play the scene.”

Before her Bond Girl fame, she was a model and spent time at the Playboy Club.

She worked as a Playboy Bunny at the New York Playboy Club from 1965 until 1972.

Her model past led to her acting debut in Sidney Poitier’s For Love of Ivy, which then led to her bagging the James Bond role.

Following her Bond Girl fame, she has maintained a relatively low profile in Hollywood.

However, she did enjoy a moment in the spotlight as the writer and director of Glamour Girls, which was showcased at the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles in October 2011.

Away from the screen, Gloria was married to Phillip W. Wright from 1995 until his passing in 2022.