Actor Annie Wersching, best known for playing FBI agent Renee Walker in the series "24" and providing the voice for Tess in the video game "The Last of Us" has died. She was 45.
Wersching passed away Sunday morning in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer, her publicist told The Associated Press. The type of cancer was not specified.
Neil Druckmann, who created "The Last of Us," wrote on Twitter that "We just lost a beautiful artist and human being. My heart is shattered. Thoughts are with her loved ones."
Actor Abigail Spencer, who appeared with Wersching on the sci-fi series "Timeless," tweeted, "We love you Annie Wersching. You will be deeply missed."
Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Wersching appeared on dozens of television shows over the course of her two-decade career.
Her first credit was in "Star Trek: Enterprise," and she would go on to have recurring roles in the seventh and eighth seasons of "24," "Bosch," "The Vampire Diaries," Marvel's "Runaways," "The Rookie" and, most recently, the second season of "Star Trek: Picard" as the Borg Queen.
She also provided the voice and motion capture performance for Tess for the popular video game "The Last of Us."
Wershing was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, according to Deadline, and continued working. She's survived by her husband, actor Stephen Full, and three sons. A GoFundMe page was set up Sunday to support the family.
Just found out my dear friend, Annie Wersching, passed away. We just lost a beautiful artist and human being. My heart is shattered. Thoughts are with her loved ones.
Jay Leno has been left with a "broken collarbone, two broken ribs and two cracked kneecaps" following a motorbike accident.
The 72-year-old talk show legend was riding a vintage motorcycle in Las Vegas on January 17 when he pulled into a parking lot and was taken out by a piece of wire that had been strung across the roadway without any sign hanging off it to draw attention to it.
The injuries come in the wake of him being left with third-degree burns over his upper body and part of his face when a fire broke out during an automobile repair he was carrying out last November.
Referring to the 2022 fire in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, he said: "That was the first accident. OK? Then just last week, I got knocked off my motorcycle. So I’ve got a broken collarbone. I’ve got two broken ribs. I’ve got two cracked kneecaps. But I’m OK! I’m working.
"I turned down a side street and cut through a parking lot, and unbeknownst to me, some guy had a wire strung across the parking lot but with no flag hanging from it.
"So, you know, I didn’t see it until it was too late. It just clotheslined me and, boom, knocked me off the bike."
Leno and his friend Dave Killackey had been working on repairing a fuel line on his 1907 White Steam Car when the vehicle burst into flames. Luckily for the television personality Killackey leapt on top of his pal and wrapped his arms around Leno, smothering the fire and putting it out.
The former 'Tonight Show' host - who presented motoring series 'Jay Leno's Garage' from 2014 until 2022 - was taken immediately to the Grossman Burn Center in West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles where he was treated for third-degree burns and spent 10 days receiving treatment, which included skin grafts from a skin bank.
Recalling the terrifying moment in a previous interview, he shared: "The fuel line was clogged so I was underneath it. It sounded clogged and I said, 'Blow some air through the line,' and so he did. And suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas. And then the pilot light jumped and my face caught on fire."
Leno is recovering well from all his injuries and is set to make his return to the stage on March 31 at the Encore Theater at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas.
Josh DuhamelPhoto: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images (Getty Images)
For a film that features Jennifer Lopez dropping a grenade on pirates while zip-lining through a jungle, Shotgun Wedding is a surprisingly great showcase for a lot of what Josh Duhamel excels at. The Transformers star is no stranger to action sequences, and last year’s Bandit proved his gritty dramatic bona fides. Most importantly, he’s generated romantic chemistry with co-stars in everything from Life As We Know It to the soap opera All My Children, the actor’s first (and Emmy-winning) role.
While Duhamel emphasizes that the Jason Moore-directed, Mark Hammer-scripted action-rom-com is what its playful title promises—“a big, funny, goofy romp of a movie”—Shotgun Wedding also ably balances the high emotional stakes of a couple reassessing their relationship on their big day with outright silliness (trust us, Lenny Kravitz parasailing is already the funniest cinematic moment of 2023). The A.V. Club had to ask Duhamel about approaching those mixed genres, his thoughts on superheroes, and what it was like to have Jennifer Coolidge play his mother.
Shotgun Wedding - Official Trailer | Prime Video
The A.V. Club: So, first and obviously foremost, the great Jennifer Coolidge plays your mother in this film. What was that like?
Josh Duhamel: First of all, I love that I’m getting a lot of questions about Jennifer and I’m so happy for her because she’s finally getting that recognition. I think that people have always loved her. She’s always been this lovable character. But I think they’re starting [to realize]—definitely, since she just won the Golden Globe—there’s such dimension to her work. And she’s getting to do things that are sort of outside of what she was pigeonholed to do for so long, you know? She’s really been able to expand on that and I just love to see it. I love her, she’s so fun and so sweet. Very sort of reserved and shy! She’s much more of an observer than she is an outgoing personality in real life. And it was so fun to watch how beautifully awkward she makes her performance. It’s like sometimes you can’t tell if she’s on or if she’s not, if she intended to do that or she didn’t. Everyone kind of leans in to see what she’s going to do next. And it’s a hard thing to do. It’s almost like … Andy Kaufman. You can’t tell the art from reality.
AVC: This movie seems to combine genres: romance, comedy, hostage thriller. How did you and Jennifer Lopez and the filmmakers discuss that?
JD: When I read this, I knew that it was going to be different because it was a big, broad comedy. And it does meld the action, and there’s some thriller aspects to it. But it is very broad. And I loved that Jason Moore really leaned into that. It was like, “We’re going to take the joke this far—and then a little bit further!” And he’s unapologetic about it. That sort of absurdity in the humor, the action, the beauty of the setting around us, the stakes, it just makes for what a lot of people go to movies for: It’s just a good time. And that’s really our intention behind making this, just to make a really big, fun movie.
AVC: As an actor do you approach each of those genres separately, depending on what each scene needs? Or are all the ingredients there all the time?
JD: I mean, you don’t ever want to go too far one way or the other because then you’re making different movies. So there is a balance to it. But some of them, you can definitely lean a little bit more into the physical comedy. And some of them are a little bit more serious and we’re talking about real things. But it always has to have that lightness, I felt like. And I think what Jason did a really good job of—he talked about, “You got to squeeze a little lemon on that sugar.” So if anything felt like it was getting too saccharine or sweet, he would pump the brakes with a joke or lighten it up with something else. And I think that he has a good meter on how to balance that.
(L-R:) Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel in Shotgun WeddingImage: Ana Carballosa/Lionsgate
AVC: When you say you can take a scenario to an extreme in one scene and not in another, how does that apply to action? You can’t necessarily improvise physical comedy, especially when it comes to stunt-related work, right?
JD: No, I mean, the action, especially in a stunt, has got to be very well rehearsed, very planned out. You have to know what the outcome is going to be. But everything right around that can be as improvised as possible. That, to me, is something I’ve learned over the years, to not get too locked in on a reaction, try to keep it as loose and free and like it’s the first time. You do take after take after take so you want to keep it new. “How would I react to the situation? I just killed a pirate. I just killed this dude.” I have to remember that I’m a normal dude, I’m not a military guy, I’m not a serial killer. I’m a dude who plays baseball who just killed a man. How do I react to that? And that, to me, was fun because it was like—“This guy was going to do very bad things to us! Yeah, we got him! We killed him. Wait a second, we killed him. Oh, shit. I’m going to go to jail.” You know, the rollercoaster of that is so much fun.
AVC: And Jennifer saying, “Are you dead? Are you dead?”
JD: [Laughs] “He’s very much not alive anymore.”
AVC: It speaks to this notion I’ve heard from actors that comedy is high stakes, right? To play comedy, you ironically have to take it very seriously, very committed.
JD: Right, exactly. And my favorite comedians are those who just absolutely commit. It’s something I’m continually trying to get better at, not finding the situation funny. It’s playing this shit real. What are the actual stakes right now? That is where, a lot of times, the humor lies … [Shotgun Wedding] doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is meant to be a big, funny, goofy romp of a movie.
AVC: Last question, and it’s of course about superheroes. You’ve voiced Two-Face in the animatedBatman: The Long Halloween. Is there a superhero or even supervillain that you would love to play?
JD: I think my window for Batman is gone. That would have my number one choice. I could play a good villain! I wouldn’t be opposed to it. But it’s not my goal in my career. Two-Face would be a lot of fun, I got to do that. My son would absolutely love that because he is an absolute superhero junkie … They’ve done so much of it that it’s got to be something, you know, different and unique. What would you pick for me?
AVC: I’d be fascinated by the idea of transferring a character you’ve voiced into live action, so Two-Face would be a great fit.
JD: It’s been done a few times, though, right?
AVC: Well, I don’t know that the window has passed on Batman for you. They’ve restarted these characters so many times, you never know.
JD: What about Robin? Like … an aging Robin. [Laughs]
The limited series chronicled the three-year marriage between Pamela and Tommy Lee. In particular, the show focused heavily on the theft and illegal distribution of their infamous sex tape, which the couple privately recorded during their honeymoon.
Pam & Tommy went on to score countless awards nominations — including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Lead Actor, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the 2022 Emmy Awards.
There were many people who criticized why a series about Pamela and Tommy's sex tape was even being made, especially when it was clear that Pamela did not want to be involved in the show. In fact, the creator reportedly didn't even get permission from Pamela to make it.
While the show was airing, a source close to Pamela told Entertainment Weekly that she'll "never, never watch" the show and that she hadn't even seen the trailer when it dropped.
Now, almost a year after Pam & Tommy premiered, Pamela is opening up about how hurtful the series was and how she dealt with this horrible time in her life being replayed for people's TV enjoyment.
"Assholes," Pamela said in her recent cover story with Variety when asked about Pam & Tommy, referring in particular to the creator and people behind the scenes who developed the series.
She continued, "Salt on the wound. … You still owe me a public apology."
Pamela also reiterated that she hasn't watched a single minute of Pam & Tommy, but it was hard to escape the billboards promoting the Hulu limited series.
She described Lily and Sebastian dressed as herself and Tommy as looking like a "Halloween costume."
With Pam & Tommy, Pamela was once again thrust into the public spotlight — a place she knows all too well, thanks to her record-setting number of Playboy covers and her time on Baywatch, during which she couldn't travel anywhere without a security team.
"It was just shocking," Pamela said of the show. "Tommy probably thought it was funny."
She explained that Tommy reached out to her while Pam & Tommy was airing: "I remember Tommy writing me a note saying, 'Don't let this hurt you like it did the first time,' because he had heard through the kids that I was kind of struggling with the idea of bringing this all up again."
While Pamela still has an issue with Pam & Tommy, she was sure to let Variety know that she doesn't blame Lily for playing her in the show.
"I think it's hard to play somebody when you don’t know the whole picture. I’ve got nothing against Lily James. I think that she's a beautiful girl and she was just doing the job," Pamela explained. "But the idea of the whole thing happening was just really crushing for me."
In fact, her upcoming Netflix doc may offer Pamela a chance to connect with Lily for the first time ever.
She told Variety, "I said to Netflix, 'I'd love to invite Lily to the premiere of the movie.'"
In an interview with Net-a-Porter last year, Lily talked about reaching out to Pamela and not receiving an answer at the time. "I was really hopeful that she would be involved. I wish it had been different," she said.
"I was very hopeful that we would be in touch right up until we started filming. ... My sole intention was to take care of the story and to play Pamela authentically."
Here's hoping Pamela and Lily finally get to meet, and I'm loving that Pamela is taking back her own story and telling it in her own words, finally.
You can read Pamela's entire cover story with Variety here.
Love, Pamela and Netflix's Pamela, a Love Story will both be released Jan. 31.
Share This Article
BuzzFeed Daily
Keep up with the latest daily buzz with the BuzzFeed Daily newsletter!
Joining a growing list of songwriters and music legends who have chosen to sell off the rights to their songs, Justin Bieber has sold his entire music catalog for a “One Time” payday of over $200 million. The valuable pop asset has been acquired by Hipgnosis Song Fund, a U.K. investment company that has been steadily buying up some of the most important and influential songbooks in modern music history.
The Biebs’ book is Hipgnosis’ biggest acquisition to date, according to Variety, with 290 titles including his most recent album Justice. This includes “publishing copyrights (including the writer’s share of performance), master recordings and neighboring rights” (which deal with public performance royalties). Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis praised Bieber and his longtime manager, the infamous Scooter Braun, in a statement, calling the artist’s impact “remarkable” and saying that the duo have cultivated a “magnificent catalog.”
Lack of touring funds during the pandemic apparently spurred a number of artists to sell their catalogs, but that’s not the only reason major artists have taken this particular plunge. Rolling Stone broke down some of the relevant factors, including tax benefits (surprise, surprise), estate planning (for older artists like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen), and the generally unpredictable nature of the music industry. With new technology like streaming disrupting how music is consumed, younger artists like Bieber can’t guarantee that their music will have an enduring legacy (at least, financially). The logic goes, better to take the payout now—at apparently multiple times the value of the catalog’s historic annual income—then wait for that catalog to become obsolete.
Hipgnosis, in particular, is on a tear to own most of the songs you’ve ever heard. In addition to Bieber, the company owns copyrights from artists like Young, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Richie Sambora, Tom DeLonge, the cofounders of Blondie, Mark Ronson, Jack Antonoff, Rick James, Barry Manilow, Lindsey Buckingham, Shakira, and more. As to why Hipgnosis is willing to pay such steep fees for these rights, Mercuriadis “wants to disrupt the music publishing industry so completely that it ceases to exist in its current capacity,” according to Complex. The idea is to “see if songs can function as investments, similar to the way oil, gold, and publicly traded companies do,” except more stable, “because music is the most predictable commodity available (according to Mercuriadis anyway).”
This evolution is supposed to benefit not just Hipgnosis and its artists, but the average person, too, if Complex’s explanation is to be believed. (Because further entangling art with commerce is always a net good for society...) Here’s to music’s bold new future, we guess!
A Venus-Saturn union on your birthday means you need to get serious about a relationship you merely toyed with in the past. Give the object of your affection the love and attention they need and they will repay you handsomely in years to come.
ARIES (March 21 - April 20):
Something that has been bothering you for ages will no longer seem such a big deal over the coming week. You may even be annoyed that you allowed it to take up such a large chunk of your time and energy. Learn from it and let it go.
TAURUS (April 21 - May 21):
Now that changes planet Uranus is moving in your favour again you will be looking for ways to make your mark, especially on the work front. Have the confidence to put yourself forward and let those in positions of authority know you are special.
GEMINI (May 22 - June 21):
There may be a few raised voices this week but if you stay calm and recognize that none of it is of any real importance you won’t be affected. A sense of humour will be a big help too. Strive to see the funny side in every situation.
CANCER (June 22 - July 23):
There is no point arguing with people who refuse to see sense, so identify those individuals whose outlook is at odds with your own and give them a miss. In time they may or may not see how foolish they’ve been but you won’t care either way.
LEO (July 24 - Aug. 23):
It’s quite possible that you will get extremely upset with a friend or colleague who has let you down or even lied to you in recent months. Don’t blame it all on them though. You bear some responsibility too for your reckless wishful thinking.
VIRGO (Aug. 24 - Sept. 23):
You may find it hard to be patient with the people you meet over the next few days but it’s important that you make the effort. In the not-too-distant future you may need their help, which you won’t get if you have been overly critical.
LIBRA (Sept. 24 - Oct. 23):
Now that Uranus has come to the end of its retrograde phase you can break through a barrier that previously held you back from enriching yourself. You may need to remind yourself though that success isn’t just about money, it’s about self-respect too.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24 - Nov. 22):
You must make a serious effort to get the support of partners and loved ones before embarking on a project of some sort. No matter how confident you may be in your own strength and skill you are unlikely to get far on your own.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23 - Dec. 21):
If you want to change your life for the better you must stop wasting time and energy on activities that are of no relevance to your long-term goals. Social events are okay, in fact they’re a must, but don’t burden yourself with too many commitments.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 - Jan. 20):
If you act quickly and decisively over the next few days there is every chance you will reach your objective before rivals know what you are up to. You have been a bit too cautious of late, so unleash your creative spirit and build something wonderful.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 21 - Feb. 19):
Just because you feel that you can take on the world and win does not mean you have to. The sun in your sign will encourage you to take chances this week but make sure the odds are stacked in your favour. You cannot afford to be reckless.
PISCES (Feb. 20 - Mar. 20):
You need to pay a lot less attention to what other people are saying and a lot more attention to what your heart is telling you. You don’t need advice from friends and family, not when you already know, deep down, what must be done.
Buckingham Palace on Saturday revealed details of King Charles III's coronation, set to be less extravagant than his mother's ceremony 70 years ago, in a reflection of the cost-of-living crisis many Britons are enduring.
Three days of celebrations will take place, with the coronation on Saturday May 6, a "Coronation Big Lunch" and "Coronation Concert" the following day, and an extra bank holiday on Monday. The public will be invited on the last day to join "The Big Help Out" by volunteering in their communities.
The coronation itself will be "a solemn religious service, as well as an occasion for celebration and pageantry," conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the palace said.
It will, the palace reiterated, "reflect the Monarch's role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry."
That line from the palace has been interpreted by experts as a hint that Charles' coronation will be different and more subdued from the one his late mother experienced seven decades ago, with a shorter ceremony and amendments to some of the feudal elements of the ritual. Queen Elizabeth's coronation was the first live televised royal event and lasted three hours.
Charles and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, will arrive at Westminster Abbey in procession from Buckingham Palace, known as "The King's Procession," and return later in a larger ceremonial procession, known as "The Coronation Procession," accompanied by other members of the royal family.
The King and Queen Consort, alongside members of the royal family, will then appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to conclude the day's events.
At this point, the palace has not specified which members of the family will appear in the procession and on the balcony, following Prince Andrew's continued exile from public life as a result of historical sexual abuse allegations and the publication of Prince Harry's memoir which railed against his family.
"It would help Charles a lot in terms of his image if Harry and Meghan were there," royal historian Kate Williams previously told CNN. "It's particularly going to look bad for him if his son is not there because, of course, Harry still is very high in line to the throne, as are his children."
On the following day, May 7, thousands of events are expected to take place across the country as part of the "Coronation Big Lunch," while as-yet unnamed "global music icons and contemporary stars," will come together for a "Coronation Concert" held on Windsor Castle's East Lawn, the palace said.
The concert will be attended by a public audience composed of volunteers from the King and Queen Consort's charity affiliations as well as several thousand members of the public given free tickets through a national ballot held by the BBC.
They will watch a "world-class orchestra play interpretations of musical favorites fronted by some of the world's biggest entertainers, alongside performers from the world of dance...and a selection of spoken word sequences delivered by stars of stage and screen," the palace said, adding that a line-up would be released in due course.
A diverse group comprised of Britain's Refugee choirs, NHS choirs, LGBTQ+ singing groups and deaf signing choirs, will form "The Coronation Choir" and also perform at the concert, alongside "The Virtual Choir," made up of singers from across the Commonwealth.
Well-known locations across the country will also be lit up using projections, lasers, drone displays and illuminations as part of the concert.
The celebrations will conclude on the bank holiday Monday with "The Big Help Out" that will aim to "bring communities together and create a lasting volunteering legacy from the Coronation Weekend."
Kylie Jenner is officially introducing her baby boy to the world.
The Kardashians star, 25, shared some adorable photos of her and Travis Scott's 11-month-old son, revealing his name for the first time in the caption: "AIRE 🤍."
According to a source, the name means "Lion of God."
"I love you Aire Webster," grandmomager Kris Jenner wrote in the comments.
She and Scott, 31, welcomed their son last February and initially named him Wolf Jacques. However, she shared on her Instagram Story on March 21 that her second child's name "isn't Wolf anymore."
https://ift.tt/FYRiS4g. Kylie Jenner/Instagram
Kylie Jenner/Instagram
"We just really didn't feel like it was him. Just wanted to share because I keep seeing Wolf everywhere," Kylie added, along with a prayer hands emoji. She did not say whether his middle name Jacques was also being changed.
Caitlyn, 72, told PEOPLE the news while at Steven Tyler's Janie's Fund event ahead of the 2022 Grammys. "Those are her decisions to make. I learned a long time ago don't put your two cents in, I go with whatever they come up with. But now she has Knight, and I like that, with a K, like a knight in shining armor. I like that," she shared.
"I've spent 34 years carpooling. I've changed 10 million diapers over my lifespan. It's so great when you have grandchildren, because you just pick them up and hand them back. They got a dirty diaper, it's yours," Caitlyn continued.
The initial name-change announcement came just hours after Kylie premiered a new YouTube video dedicated to her newborn, titled To Our Son.
The sweet clip featured footage from all throughout Kylie's second pregnancy journey, from when mom Kris found out about the happy news, to her giraffe-themed baby shower, to the delivery room just before her baby boy was born on Feb. 2.
The Kylie Cosmetics founder also revealed the first look at her newborn son's nursery.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
In the video, viewers are given a walk-through of her son's neutral-colored nursery, which is filled with children's books, stuffed animals (including a Louis Vuitton teddy bear) and a closet stocked with baby sneakers.
A source recently told PEOPLE that Kylie's pregnancy with her son was "very different" than when she was pregnant with daughter Stormi Webster, 4.
"After she had Stormi, she bounced back quickly. She was also resting more and took a huge step back by keeping her pregnancy to herself. As a working mom with a toddler, her pregnancy with Wolf was very different. She experienced more stress trying to balance everything," said the insider.
The source also noted that Kylie is "surprised that her recovery after Wolf has been more of a struggle" and she "expected it to be easier."
"She wants to be honest about it though. She has help and is still exhausted," the source continued. "She has a great support system and is focused on taking care of herself too. She loves being a mom and wants to be the best possible."
The mom of two is "slowly starting to work out again" and has been "on a few work calls, but is also taking time off from work," noted the insider. "She has realized that she doesn't have to do it all and that it's okay. She is human and wants to be kind to herself."
Alice, Darling premieres Jan. 20 exclusively in AMC Theaters.
Films about psychological abuse within relationships run the gamut of effectiveness. The scale goes everywhere from the lowkey cheesy Lifetime movie approach to the recent The Invisible Man (2020) kind of terrifying. But sometimes the more intimate approach can pack the biggest emotional wallop, as is the case with director Mary Nighy’s debut feature, Alice, Darling. Essentially a character study of the impact that gaslighting and manipulation by one partner over another has over time, writer Alanna Francis, Nighy, and star Anna Kendrick, as Alice, together paint a raw portrait of what being under a quietly conniving thumb in an isolating relationship looks like. While at times uncomfortable and bleak, Alice’s story is ultimately hopeful and important in portraying what a victim of mental abuse goes through inside and out.
Unlike other abuse stories that often feel compelled to hang their narratives on dramatic inciting incidents or heinous acts, Alice, Darling instead tracks the minutiae that takes up so much space in Alice’s life with her artist boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick). In an established relationship, it becomes immediately clear that Alice is driven to distraction by their dynamic. There are plenty of subtle tells from Alice twirling her hair with painful intensity around her index finger to her immediate Pavlovian response to his constant texts during a rare dinner with her best friends from childhood, Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophia (Wunmi Mosaku). There’s almost an invisible weight that sits on Alice’s pinched shoulders that she casually blames on work stress, or her own copious flaws to deflect the increasingly piercing glares of her concerned friends. She agrees to go on a girl’s week away to the woods at Sophie’s family cabin to celebrate Tess’ birthday, but we find out that Alice has to conjure a sudden “work trip” to get Simon to agree to time away from him.
Like an addict, Alice initially doesn’t fare well sequestered away from Simon. It’s apparent this is the first time she’s been away from him for any extended period which gives her the opportunity to think about the everyday casual grievances that Simon does to chip away at her self-esteem, her own desires, and any sense of peace she has about herself. Nighy uses some highly effective techniques to get us under Alice’s skin, framing everything in close up, with an almost disarming intimacy that puts us in her hyper fixated space. As Alice allows herself some bucolic peace, Nighy disrupts it by deftly inserting snippets of memories where Simon consistently takes his disappointments out verbally on Alice; sexually coerces her in overbearing ways that she can’t reject without repercussions; or nudges behavioral changes regarding her weight. Each has quietly shifted Alice to orient her whole self to Simon’s needs, and the managing of him becomes her 24/7 existence.
What ensues is Alice’s slow unpeeling by Tess and Sophia. Their once close relationships have suffered from Simon’s imposed isolation, and they serve to remind Alice who she used to be. All three women are exceptional in portraying the realness of these long-term friendships, with all its history and hurts. It’s a testament to their talent that nothing that ensues amongst them is explosive, aside from Alice’s panic attacks. Change and truth happens via talks while chopping wood, or paddle boarding or during the morning after a night of drinks and dancing. It’s in these commonplace moments that Alice comes back to herself, as her friends become increasingly appalled realizing exactly how much they’ve missed what’s happening right under their noses. It’s those quiet epiphanies that the film does best, exposing what a gradual pulling away does to a person and their circle.
Less successful is a side story involving a missing girl that Alice finds herself drawn to helping find. It’s never fully fleshed out as necessary to the story, aside from serving as an on-the-nose cautionary tale and a resource for future manipulation Simon tries to use against Alice. The film would have been fine without it and perhaps benefited from pruning it altogether to spare the scattered focus that doesn’t quite fit. But overall Nighy has a firm hand with the rest of the story, capturing incredible tension in the mundane that is made menacing by Simon’s intensity and brazenness. You walk away from Alice, Darling with the sobering certainty that watching someone fall apart in the wake of that relentless focus, and their scramble to navigate it, is as chillingly effective as any showy horror film out there right now, and will linger just as effectively.
When Italian sleaze-rock band Måneskin won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021, an image went around the world of frontman Damiano David spraying his bandmates with champagne.
He was later investigated, and cleared, of taking drugs during the live show - an incident that irritated the band, while solidifying their credentials as rock rebels.
"I got a bit angry about it but actually it was very, very funny," David later said. "It was also like free advertising."
The irony is that David has actually been teetotal for two years.
Guitarist Thomas Raggi once joked that his bandmate always goes to bed "at 11pm with his chamomile tea".
David tells the BBC: "I don't drink alcohol because I just don't like it."
But the charismatic frontman took a temporary break from sobriety when Måneskin made their new album, Rush.
They were recording a song called Kool Kids, "a huge middle finger" to their critics, whose lyrics drip with scornful sarcasm: "I am scum, real scum, but I'm good at this".
"We wanted to make it super-gritty and to sound like a bar anthem," explains David. "So I got drunk on purpose and I shouted as hard as I can."
In his drunken state, the singer gained what can only be described as a London accent, turning him into an Italianate version of Johnny Rotten.
"I was in this punk state of mind," he says, adding that British voices generally sound "more aggressive" than his native tongue.
"Sorry, UK!" he laughs, "but also, it was hard to pronounce the words because my mouth was very high on things."
Getty Images
Kool Kids has been a highlight of the band's live shows in the run-up to the release of Rush, and contains what might be considered the Måneskin manifesto (Månefesto?)
"We're not punk, we're not pop, we're just music freaks."
"We are, of course, a guitar band," says David. "A power trio with a singer. But we're not just that and we don't want to be labelled as that because it closes our perspectives.
"We like being influenced by other music and we like being inspired. And we'd like things to constantly change and evolve."
Rush delivers on that promise. Whittled down from the 60 songs they've recorded since Eurovision, it spans multiple genres, from the glam slam stomp of Baby Said and the frenetic rap-rock of La Fine, to the genuinely touching ballad If Not For You.
On Gasoline, they take aim at Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, as David snarls: "The whole world is waiting for you to go down".
Then, on Bla Bla Bla, the singer taunts his critics with droll ennui: "You said I'm ugly and my band sucks/But I just got a billion streaming song/So kiss my bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-butt."
"That song kind of reminds me of Britpop [during] Blur's Parklife period," he laughs. "I love that side of us - this very ironic, British kind of comedy."
With its host of expensive producers and co-writers - including Max Martin (Taylor Swift, Britney Spears), Savan Kotecha (Lizzo, Katy Perry) and Sarah Hudson (Dua Lipa, Camila Cabello) - Rush is an unashamed grasp for stadium rock status.
It's also the album that, ultimately, will decide Måneskin's fate.
After emerging as runners-up on Italian X Factor in 2017, Eurovision gave them a global platform - but by a strange twist of fate, their biggest hit wasn't their winning song, Zitti e buoni. Instead, it was a four-year-old cover of The Four Seasons' Beggin', which exploded on TikTok and gave the band a US top 10 hit.
The new material will test whether the fans who streamed that track are willing to stick around for their original material.
Getty Images
So far, the signs are good. The band have racked up more than 6.5 billion streams and received a best new artist nomination for next month's Grammys; while critics have given Rush a warm reception.
But for all their ambition, the quartet have found success complicated and confounding.
Last year, they told the BBC they'd only slept in their own beds 10 times in 12 months; and David's new lyrics frequently reference the alienating effects of fame.
Supermodel is populated with superficial, cocaine-fuelled hangers on, and Gossip is a withering portrayal of LA as a "city of lies" where "you just see the surface".
On Timezone, the singer pines for his girlfriend while he's stranded on a tour bus, 7,000 miles away. Later, he confides in her: "If not for you, I wouldn't sing any more."
"The dark side of stardom has to be told because people don't really know how how hard it is," he says.
"This kind of life, it's very fast and it's always rushing," adds drummer Ethan Torchio. "We've had to learn what to do if something is not fair, or it doesn't feel good."
"And sometimes it's very hard to say no to things," David continues, "but lately, we're talking more about it between us, and we're getting better."
"I will say also that, especially in the last two years, we've done lots of amazing things and it felt weird saying no, because we grew up dreaming of these opportunities," rationalises guitarist Thomas Raggi.
Among the band's highlights are recording with Iggy Pop and supporting the Rolling Stones on tour.
"Mick Jagger was like a walking statue. It didn't seem real," says David. "He is so young, his skin is so beautiful. He's flawless.
"He gave me hope to become an old rock star. A really happy, old rock star."
Tommaso Ottomano
Like the Stones, Måneskin enjoy provoking their audience (or, more likely, their audience's parents). Their songs continually reference sex and submission, drug use and even erectile dysfunction.
"These things exist and ignoring them is not going to make it disappear," protests David.
"Singing about it helps to normalise it - and when you normalise something, it's even easier to see if it's a bad thing or a good thing or just... a thing."
He notes that fans respond to those songs differently, depending on where they play.
"In countries where it's more open, you can feel that its more open," he says. "And in a country where it's not, there's a feeling of, 'Yes! Finally, I can express myself.'"
For all the outrageous outfits and sexually-charged lyrics, Maneskin are, at heart, a tight-knit gang of friends. There's a telepathic synchronicity on stage and a tangible intimacy to their interactions, that can only be rooted in deep, personal chemistry.
"We're not just friends or colleagues, we're something more," says Raggi. "We have to share the songs together, so there's a very important connection, inside of ourselves."
"We see each other more than our blood families," agrees David. "But it's also larger than the four of us. There's 20 people that follow us all around the world, who work just as hard, but don't go on stage or on TV.
"It's like we've created this huge southern Italian family."
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/4FNSFH22L5FAPKFSNCT2OZQTHU.png)
