CELEBRITY NEWS

The History Of That Jerry Springer [Bleeping] Bleep Sound
CELEBRITY NEWS, TELEVISION, TOP FOUR

The History Of That Jerry Springer [Bleeping] Bleep Sound

Jerry Springer and the history of that [bleeping] bleep sound. Since Jerry Springer’s death on April 27, 2023, writers have been working through the cultural significance of his eponymous daytime talk show. For 27 years, Springer’s circus of sensationalism was a remarkably durable and bankable commodity. Helping to normalize outrageousness in culture, it taught content creators that shamelessness is a lucrative industry. It’s been framed as a harbinger of “‘anything goes’ reality television” or “trash TV” and decried for setting a “new standard for tawdriness” and for providing audiences with the “guilty pleasure” of “chair-throwing.” But as a media historian interested in the ways that sound structures our experience of TV shows and films, when I think of “The Jerry Springer Show,” I t...
By Responding To Viewers Emotions Films Could Alter Plotlines In Real Time
CELEBRITY NEWS, TOP FOUR

By Responding To Viewers Emotions Films Could Alter Plotlines In Real Time

Interactive cinema: how films could alter plotlines in real time by responding to viewers’ emotions. Most films offer exactly the same viewing experience. You sit down, the film starts, the plot unfolds and you follow what’s happening on screen until the story concludes. It’s a linear experience. My new film, Before We Disappear – about a pair of climate activists who seek revenge on corporate perpetrators of global warming – seeks to alter that viewing experience. What makes my film different is that it adapts the story to fit the viewer’s emotional response. Through the use of a computer camera and software, the film effectively watches the audience as they view footage of climate disasters. Viewers are implicitly asked to choose a side. I chose to use this technology to make a film ab...
5 Experts On Winning Everything Everywhere All At Once — The Big Moments At The 2023 Oscars
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5 Experts On Winning Everything Everywhere All At Once — The Big Moments At The 2023 Oscars

Winning everything everywhere all at once: 5 experts on the big moments at the Oscars 2023. The Academy Awards in 2023 were a less scandalous affair than last year – although host Jimmy Kimmel never let us forget “the slap”, with so many jokes it was verging on a dead-horse-beating situation. In fact it was a relatively wholesome ceremony, defined by great sweeps for films All Quiet On The Western Front and Everything Everywhere All At Once. Perhaps the only “shock” was Angela Bassett losing Best Supporting Actress to Jamie Lee Curtis, and thereby being denied the chance to “do the thing”. Here, we summarise the most important moments from the 2023 Oscars. All the looks of the champagne carpet Deborah Fisher, Lecturer in Design and Fashion Studies, School of Business and Creative Indus...
A Law Professor Explains The Charge Involuntary Manslaughter Facing Alec Baldwin For ‘Rust’ Shooting Death
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A Law Professor Explains The Charge Involuntary Manslaughter Facing Alec Baldwin For ‘Rust’ Shooting Death

A prosecutor in New Mexico intends to charge Alec Baldwin with two counts of involuntary manslaughter it was announced on Jan. 19, 2023, over the deadly shooting on the set of the film “Rust” in 2021. The shooting occurred while Baldwin was rehearsing a scene with a gun that had been loaded with live ammunition instead of blanks. The prosecutor also intends to charge Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer responsible for overseeing the safety of firearms on the set, with two counts of involuntary manslaughter as well. As a professor of law, my job is to understand the nuance of the U.S. legal system. Involuntary manslaughter occurs when a person unintentionally, but still unlawfully, kills another person. And a prosecutor will need to show the unlawful nature of either Baldwin’s or Gutierrez-...
Why A Night To Remember Is The Definitive Film On The Titanic
CELEBRITY NEWS, MOVIES, TOP FOUR

Why A Night To Remember Is The Definitive Film On The Titanic

It has been 110 years since the sinking of the Titanic. Over 1,500 passengers and crew perished in one of the deadliest maritime disasters during peacetime. The story of the ship and its passengers has long since taken on mythic proportions and has been committed to film many times. James Cameron’s clunky offering from 1997 might come to mind first, but I recommend going straight to Roy Ward Baker’s highly regarded A Night to Remember from 1958 for a more measured appraisal of the disaster. The Titanic fascinates filmmakers because it has everything a dramatist could ever want: heroism, sacrifice, decency and grace under pressure. Cowardice and self-preservation are there, too. The ship offers up a microcosm of society in which class divisions are given greater urgency when life and deat...
Mixed Verdict Brings Complicated Feelings And Hope For Accountability, For Weinstein Survivors
CELEBRITY NEWS

Mixed Verdict Brings Complicated Feelings And Hope For Accountability, For Weinstein Survivors

Survivors of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual violence have complicated feelings about the mixed verdict issued Monday in his Los Angeles trial. Weinstein was found guilty on three of the seven counts he faced for assaulting women in Los Angeles County: forcible rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object and forcible oral copulation. All of those convictions related to the allegations of one woman, known as Jane Doe #1 during the trial, as part of the wave of allegations that first broke against the producer five years ago. He was found guilty on two felony sexual assault charges in a separate criminal trial in New York in 2020; at this same trial, he was also acquitted on two counts of predatory sexual assault. In Los Angeles, Weinstein was acquitted on one count of...
For US Negotiators Brittney Griner’s Case Was Difficult For One Key Reason: She Was Guilty
CELEBRITY NEWS, LGBTQ, SPORTS, TOP FOUR

For US Negotiators Brittney Griner’s Case Was Difficult For One Key Reason: She Was Guilty

The release from Russian prison of WNBA star Britney Griner has been greeted with general delight in the United States. Announcing the deal that saw her freed on Dec. 8, 2022, President Joe Biden lauded the “painstaking and intense negotiations” that made it happen. Others may have legitimate concerns over the equivalence of the exchange, which saw convicted arms merchant Viktor Bout returned to Russia. As a longtime scholar of Russian law, I believe the episode prompts a reflection on the application of Russian law in Griner’s case, and more broadly consideration about such exchanges in general. The problem American negotiators face in such situations is that it matters whether the U.S. citizen is guilty of committing the crime alleged under foreign law or whether there has been a misc...
A Masterclass In Unfaithful Adaptation: Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman
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A Masterclass In Unfaithful Adaptation: Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman

Whether it’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Call the Midwife or, more recently, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, most of us will have enjoyed a book-to-TV adaptation. In the process, we might also have had to endure a family member or friend smugly informing us that what we’re watching is, in fact, “nothing like the book”. Before we get into this, full disclosure: when it comes to comic books, and especially Sandman, I am that guy. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to catalogue for you every minor way in which the new Netflix series about Morpheus, maker of dreams, differs from the original comics, which started in 1989. Sure, you all loved the episode in the diner, for example, but honestly, it bears only a passing resemblance to the comics version. Think The Corinthian – the bad guy – is scary...
‘House Of The Dragon’ Inspired By A True Medieval Struggle Over A Female Ruler
CELEBRITY NEWS, TELEVISION

‘House Of The Dragon’ Inspired By A True Medieval Struggle Over A Female Ruler

In three decades of teaching medieval European history, I’ve noticed my students are especially curious about the intersection of the stories told in class and the depictions of the Middle Ages they see in movies and television. Judged by their historical accuracy, cinematic portrayals are a mixed bag. However, popular fantasy, unencumbered by the competing priority of “getting it right,” can, in broad strokes, reflect the values of the medieval society that inspires it. “House of the Dragon” is one of those TV shows. A king, lacking a male heir to his throne, elevates his teenage daughter to be his named successor, and a complex dynastic drama ensues. This storyline reflects the real obstacles facing women who aspired to exercise royal authority in medieval society. The queen as a c...
Angela Lansbury – A Storied Career Sure To Touch People For Years To Come
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Angela Lansbury – A Storied Career Sure To Touch People For Years To Come

I never met Angela Lansbury, but she was one of those icons that felt like a trusted friend and family member. Every Sunday evening, I devoured Jessica Fletcher’s activities in Murder, She Wrote – catching the bad guys and saving another poor victim from eternal damnation. The younger generation discovered her as Mrs Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and more recently as the balloon seller in Mary Poppins returns (a role created as a cameo appearance for Julie Andrews, who turned it down so attention was not taken away from Emily Blunt). Disney considered Lansbury for the original casting of Mary Poppins, so it is fitting that one of her last film appearances return full circle to her earlier Hollywood career. Lansbury, who died on October 11 2022, was a constant presence in film, st...