Category: Новини

The Venice Film Festival celebrates its 80th edition next week, but a Hollywood strike means many stars may be missing, leaving the spotlight to controversial directors like Roman Polanski and Woody Allen.    

The festival, which kicks off on Wednesday, has become a key launchpad for Oscar campaigns, helped by glamorous shots of stars arriving by gondola.   

But an ongoing strike by Hollywood actors and writers, the biggest industry walk-out in more than 60 years, means most are banned from publicity work.  

Missing from their Venice premieres will be Emma Stone, who plays a Frankenstein-like creature in “Poor Things,” and Bradley Cooper, who directs and stars in “Maestro,” about the legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein.   

Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, who play the leads in the biopic “Ferrari” from director Michael Mann (“Heat”), have an exemption from the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG-AFTRA) because the film was made outside the studio system, but may still stay home in solidarity.  

Nonetheless, the films are still showing and many top-name directors are due to attend as they compete for the top prize, the Golden Lion, to be announced on September 9.  

Sofia Coppola presents another biopic, “Priscilla,” about Elvis Presley’s wife, while David Fincher returns to the Lido with “The Killer,” more than 20 years after “Fight Club” was loudly booed at the festival only to become a cult hit in the following years.   

The only major casualty of the strikes has been “Challengers,” a tennis romance starring Zendaya that was set as the opening night film but has been delayed to next year.

 

Don’t see the issue 

With star gossip at a minimum, a lot of attention risks being absorbed by the inclusion of Allen and Polanski in the out-of-competition section.  

Allen, 87, was investigated for an alleged assault on his adopted daughter and cleared by police in the 1990s, but that has not been enough for many in the MeToo era, and he has been effectively blackballed by Hollywood.  

Polanski, 90, remains a fugitive from the U.S. over a conviction for raping a minor in the 1970s. The victim has long since forgiven him, but he faces other assault allegations. The festival says he is not attending.  

French director Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element”), who was recently cleared of rape allegations, is in the main competition with “Dogman.”  

Festival director Alberto Barbera defended their inclusion, telling Variety that Besson and Allen had been cleared by investigators: “With them, I don’t see where the issue is.” 

He acknowledged it was more complex with Polanski but said: “I am on the side of those who say you have to distinguish between the responsibilities of the individual and that of the artist.”  

He says Polanski’s “The Palace” is full of “grotesque and surreal characters and aims to satirize humanity,” and compared Allen’s “Coup de Chance,” his 50th film and first in French, to his earlier “Match Point.”  

Meanwhile, there are also out-of-competition premiers for a 40-minute Wes Anderson film, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on a Roald Dahl tale, and a new feature from indie favorite Richard Linklater, “Hit Man.”  

“The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” the final film from William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”), who died this month at 87, is also playing out of competition.   

Hollywood actors went on strike in July after talks to reach a new deal with studios failed, joining writers who have been striking since May.  

Their demands focus on dwindling pay in the streaming era and the threat posed by artificial intelligence. 
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Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships when he nipped Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem in the men’s javelin on Sunday with an 88.17-meter effort in the final.

Chopra won Olympic gold in Tokyo but managed only a silver at the worlds in Eugene, Oregon, last year. The only other Indian to win a medal at the worlds was Anju Bobby George, who took bronze in the women’s long jump in 2003 in Paris.

Pakistan’s Nadeem, coming back from elbow surgery and a knee injury, produced his season’s best effort of 87.82 on his third attempt to win the silver medal, while the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch took the bronze with 86.67.

“This was great. After the Olympic gold I really wanted to win the world championships. I just wanted to throw further. This is brilliant for the national team but it was my dream to win gold at the world championships,” Chopra said.

“This has been a great championships for India and I am proud to bring another title to my country. I don’t think I am the best thrower here. I wanted to throw more tonight,” he said. “I wanted to throw more than 90 meters tonight, but it needs all parts of the puzzle to be there. I couldn’t put it all together this evening. Maybe next time.”

Chopra needed only one attempt in the qualification round to lead the field with a season-best 88.77 meters.

But the Indian was unhappy with his first effort in the final, deliberately stepping over the line for a foul.

Under pressure, the 25-year-old then soared into the lead on his second attempt, turning his back and celebrating in trademark fashion with his arms aloft while pointing at the sky immediately after his throw, knowing it was good.

Nadeem was competing in his first event of the year and as soon as the javelin landed on his third attempt, he broke into a wide grin as he moved up to second.

India and Pakistan may have a heated rivalry in cricket but on a warm night in Budapest, all eyes were on two athletes competing for javelin gold.

But that was as close as Nadeem, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion, got to Chopra as he ran out of steam.

Julian Weber was very close to giving Germany their first medal in Budapest on the final day of the championships, but he was pushed down to fourth when Vadlejch saved his best for his fifth attempt.

“It was a big fight and I am afraid that Julian Weber will not like me anymore,” Vadlejch said.

Kishore Jena and DP Manu finished fifth and sixth, respectively, to give India three athletes in the top six.
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Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the best high jumper in the war-torn country of Ukraine, won a gold medal Sunday night to bring an emotional close to the track and field world championships. 

The very last person competing in the final event of the nine-day meet, Mahuchikh cleared 2.01 meters (6 feet, 7 inches) to win her first major outdoor title and set herself up as a favorite at the Olympics next year. 

Her evening came to a close moments after Femke Bol of the Netherlands, whose fall on opening night cost her team a medal in the mixed 4×400 relay, made up some 20 meters down the homestretch to win the women’s version of the race. 

But no medal packed a bigger emotional punch than the one that one Mahuchikh jumped to for Ukraine. The 21-year-old, wearing eyeliner colored the same blue and yellow as her country’s flag, has been training in Germany and other countries since being forced to leave quickly from her hometown of Dnipro shortly after the war began last year. 

She was one of 29 Ukrainian athletes competing at worlds in neighboring Hungary this week. It marked the first gold medal for Ukraine and the second overall, adding to a silver won by Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk two nights earlier in the triple jump. 

Mahuchikh sealed the win after jumping 2 centimeters higher than Australia’s Eleanor Patterson, who beat her last year in Eugene, Oregon. With the gold medal secure, Mahuchikh had the bar set to 2.07 to try for a personal best. 

After missing twice, she waited for the end of Bol’s amazing comeback to make her last attempt. With Bol and her teammates in a dogpile celebrating on the track, Mahuchikh failed to clear. Still, it was a win, and a few moments later, she was smiling, holding her country’s flag aloft and waiting for her medal.
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Popular U.S. game show host Bob Barker, a household name for a half-century as host of “Truth or Consequences” and “The Price Is Right,” died at his home in Los Angeles, said a publicist.

Barker — also a longtime animal rights activist — died Saturday morning, according to publicist Roger Neal. Barker was 99. 

“I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally,” said Nancy Burnet, his longtime friend and caretaker, in a statement. 

Barker retired in June 2007, telling his studio audience: “I thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me into your home for more than 50 years.” 

Barker was working in radio in 1956 when producer Ralph Edwards invited him to audition as the new host of “Truth or Consequences,” a game show in which audience members had to do wacky stunts — the “consequence” — if they failed to answer a question — the “truth,” which was always the silly punchline to a riddle no one was ever meant to furnish. (Q: What did one eye say to another? A: Just between us, something smells.) 

In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, Barker recalled receiving the news that he had been hired: “I know exactly where I was, I know exactly how I felt: I hung up the phone and said to my wife, ‘Dorothy Jo, I got it!'” 

Barker stayed with “Truth or Consequences” for 18 years — including several years in a syndicated version. 

Taped more than 5,000 shows

Meanwhile, he began hosting a resurrected version of “The Price Is Right” in 1972. (The original host in the 1950s and ’60s was Bill Cullen.) It would become TV’s longest-running game show and the last on a broadcast network of what in TV’s early days had numbered dozens. 

“I have grown old in your service,” the silver-haired, perennially tanned Barker joked on a prime-time television retrospective in the mid-’90s. 

In all, he taped more than 5,000 shows in his career. He said he was retiring because “I’m just reaching the age where the constant effort to be there and do the show physically is a lot for me. … Better [to leave] a year too soon than a year too late.” 

Comedian Drew Carey was chosen to replace him. 

Barker was back with Carey for one show broadcast in April 2009. He was there to promote the publication of his memoir, “Priceless Memories,” in which he summed up his joy from hosting the show as the opportunity “to watch people reveal themselves and to watch the excitement and humor unfold.” 

He well understood the attraction of “The Price Is Right,” in which audience members — invited to “Come on down!” to the stage — competed for prizes by trying to guess their retail value. 

“Everyone can identify with prices, even the president of the United States. Viewers at home become involved because they all have an opinion on the bids,” Barker once said. His own appeal was clear: Barker played it straight — warm, gracious and witty — refusing to mock the game show format or his contestants. 

“I want the contestants to feel as though they’re guests in my home,” he said in 1996. “Perhaps my feeling of respect for them comes across to viewers, and that may be one of the reasons why I’ve lasted.” 

Promote animal rights

As a TV personality, Barker retained a touch of the old school — for instance, no wireless microphone for him. Like the mic itself, the mic cord served him well as a prop, insouciantly flicked and finessed. 

His career longevity, he said, was the result of being content. “I had the opportunity to do this type of show and I discovered I enjoyed it … People who do something that they thoroughly enjoy, and they started doing it when they’re very young, I don’t think they want to stop.” 

Barker also spent 20 years as host of the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Universe Pageant. A longtime animal rights activist who daily urged his viewers to “have your pets spayed or neutered” and successfully lobbied to ban fur coats as prizes on “The Price Is Right,” he quit the Miss USA Pageant in 1987 in protest over the presentation of fur coats to the winners. 

In 1997, Barker declined to be a presenter at the Daytime Emmy awards ceremony because he said it snubbed game shows by not airing awards in the category. He called game shows “the pillars of daytime TV.” 

He had a memorable cameo appearance on the big screen in 1996, sparring with Adam Sandler in the movie “Happy Gilmore.” “I did ‘The Price Is Right’ for 35 years, and they’re asking me how it was to beat up Adam Sandler,” Barker later joked. 

In 1994, the widowed Barker was sued for sexual harassment by Dian Parkinson, a “Price is Right” model for 18 years. Barker admitted engaging in “hanky panky” with Parkinson from 1989-91 but said she initiated the relationship. Parkinson dropped the lawsuit in 1995, saying it was hurting her health. 

Barker became embroiled in a dispute with another former “Price Is Right” model, Holly Hallstrom, who claimed she was fired in 1995 because the show’s producers believed she was fat. Barker denied the allegations. 

Neither uproar affected his goodwill from the audience. 

Born in Darrington, Washington, in 1923, Barker spent part of his childhood on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where his widowed mother had taken a teaching job. The family later moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he attended high school. He served in the Navy in World War II. 

He married Dorothy Jo Gideon, his high school sweetheart; she died in 1981 after 37 years of marriage. They had no children. 

Barker was given a lifetime achievement award at the 26th annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 1999. He closed his acceptance remarks with the signoff: “Have your pets spayed or neutered.” 
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Oliver Anthony, the previously unknown singer whose Rich Men North of Richmond went viral and topped the charts over the past week, hit out Friday at politicians, particularly on the right, for co-opting his message.

In a more than 10-minute clip posted on YouTube, the songwriter from Virginia reflected on his breakout success, and said that “the one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up in this.”

“It’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me like I’m one of them,” he said. “It’s aggravating seeing certain musicians and politicians act like we’re buddies and act like we’re fighting the same struggle here, like we’re trying to present the same message.”

Rich Men North of Richmond overtook megastars Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Olivia Rodrigo to snag the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, with 17.5 million streams and nearly 150,000 downloads in less than a week.

The track invokes the argument that Americans in the south and rural areas have been left behind by rich elites farther north.

In his lyrics Anthony leans into issues of long hours for little pay with high taxes.

He also picks up talking points that have persisted since the business-friendly, pro-austerity Ronald Reagan years, namely against the welfare state.

Anthony had previously insisted that his political views are down the middle.

In his clip posted Friday he scoffed that his song was used during the opening of this week’s debate between Republican presidential hopefuls.

“I wrote that song about those people. So for [the Republican candidates] to have to sit there and listen to that, that cracks me up,” he says.

“That song has nothing to do with Joe Biden. It’s a lot bigger than Joe Biden. That song was written about the people on that stage — and a lot more, not just them, but definitely them.”

Anthony also spoke to critics on the left who accused him of ridiculing welfare and the poor.

He said his stanza about the “obese milking welfare” spoke to an article he read about individual food subsidies going toward snack foods.

“If we can fuel a proxy war in a foreign land, but we can’t take care of our own, that’s all the song is trying to say,” Anthony said. “That the government takes people who are needy and dependent and makes them needy and dependent.”

In the video he choked up while saying he cares about connecting with people, not topping charts.

He also promised more music to come: “I’m going to write, produce and distribute authentic music that represents people and not politics.” 
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