Pablo Larraín is turning his lens toward yet another iconic yet complicated woman in history, and this time, he’s calling upon Angelina Jolie for help. The director behind Jackie and Spencer is set to make the biopic Maria, about the world-famous opera singer Maria Callas. Jolie, of course, will take on the titular role, and if Larraín’s track record holds, Oscar

According to the film’s logline, Maria will tell “the tumultuous, beautiful, and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest opera singer, relived and re-imagined during her final days in 1970s Paris.” The film will be written by Steven Knight, whom Larraín previously collaborated with on Spencer.

Callas, an American-born Greek opera singer, was one of the most famous and influential sopranos of the 20th century, with many referring to her as La Divina, or The Divine One. The intensity of her fanbase rivaled that of modern day pop singers like Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift. Though, her accomplishments are often overshadowed by the more personal details of her life, however, like her reported temperamental behavior, her rivalry with fellow soprano Renata Tebaldi, and her affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Funny enough, Onassis would would later go on to marry Jackie Kennedy, placing Maria in a kind of Larraín cinematic universe.

“Having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream,” Larraín said, according to Variety. “To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity. A true gift.”

As for Jolie, she says she’s taking “the responsibility to Maria’s life and legacy” very seriously. “I will give all I can to meet the challenge. Pablo Larraín is a director I have long admired. To be allowed the chance to tell more of Maria’s story with him, and with a script by Steven Knight, is a dream.”

Larrain’s previous leading ladies, Jackie’s Natalie Portman and Spencer’s Kristen Stewart, both received Oscar nominations for their roles. Jolie has had a Supporting Actress Oscar since 2000 for her work in Girl, Interrupted, but has only been nominated in the Lead Actress race one single time for 2008’s Changeling. In recent years, Jolie has concentrated more on box office fare (Maleficent and Marvel’s Eternals), while creatively challenging herself behind the camera with films like First They Killed My Father. It only tracks, however, that she’d return to more prestige fare as an actress.

Last year, mid-pandemic, the ratings for the Academy Awards hit an all-time low, and the lack of eyeballs seemed to have led to a loosening of expectations, including on the red carpet. On Sunday night, Oscars fashion was characterized by a gregarious, anything-goes attitude. Many of the attendees seemed to wear exactly what they wanted. Old Hollywood glamour made an occasional appearance (Rosie Perez in stunning Christian Siriano, Regina Hall in diaphanous Vera Wang), and certain colors were heavily represented, among them emerald green and timeless red. But the prevailing theme was a youthful, playful energy, from Ariana DeBose’s punchy be-caped pants suit and Megan Thee Stallion’s gauzy, thigh-exposing mermaid dress to Lupita Nyong’o’s fanciful gold gown and Andrew Garfield’s oxblood velvet suit. The ceremony itself had several newsworthy moments, including a historic round of A.S.L. applause for “CODA” ’s Best Picture win and an unscripted onstage slap. The clothes, like the broadcast, were at their most riveting when they were wholly unpredictable, for better or for worse. Not everyone wore a shirt.

Apair of lifeless legs, seen from knee to toe, floats just under the surface of the water on a tourist-packed beach in Italy, where the flutter of mammoth, turquoise-and-white umbrellas betrays the gentle breeze on shore. What follows could be a scene from “Jaws.” A young woman, catching sight of the horror, runs out of the waves and screams for help. The officious manager of a nearby five-star resort, the Sicilian outpost of the White Lotus chain, takes a stab at nonchalance: “The ocean is not hotel property. We can’t be liable for what happens in the Ionian Sea!” But the body is only the latest of several guests to turn up dead.

It’s a rote start, if an impeccably crafted one, to the second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” a series that became a pop-cultural phenomenon last year for its fairly novel central theme—the class anxieties that can burst forth, “Alien”-like, when we shell out thousands of dollars to unwind—and for the sneering yet humane sensibility of the show’s creator, Mike White. So many dramas today kick off with a whodunnit—including “The White Lotus” ’s Emmy-fêted first season, set in Hawaii—that the most urgent question raised by the drifting cadaver relates not to murder but to franchising. How will White sustain our interest in the idling rich, especially as he reaches once more for the same character archetypes and social dynamics that lent Season 1 such zest?

Despite the change in location and a slew of new faces joining Jennifer Coolidge, who reprises her role as Tanya, an aging glamour-puss who can buy anything except a cure for her loneliness, the second season initially feels like a mere echo of the first. Here, again, is a boat ride to an exclusive luxury property, where guests are greeted by a choreographed display of hand waves by the brightly uniformed resort staff. Yet another wife (this time, played by Aubrey Plaza) begins to second-guess her marriage, a different hotel manager (Sabrina Impacciatore) melts down in a pique of sexual frustration, and a new batch of ugly souls fails to appreciate the eye-watering beauty before them. But the first five episodes suggest that White has undergone his own unclenching. The airless sociological fatalism of Season 1, which was matched by a claustrophobic production due to covid-19 restrictions, gives way to a more mature drama, as well as a deeper exploration of how the characters’ class concerns converge with gendered angst. “Women are kinda depressing,” Tanya tells her young assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson). “But it’s not their fault. They have a lot to be depressed about.”

Portia belongs the least at the White Lotus, though, like everyone else, she doesn’t seem much impressed by her opulent, cliffside surroundings. Her professional plight is one of the season’s strongest story lines: the amorphous nature of her outwardly cushy job means that she has to be anything and everything to Tanya, whose neediness is as much of a force of nature as the roiling sea below. Portia knows that her main responsibility is to keep Tanya company—her job is a more formal arrangement of the emotional support that Tanya sought last season from Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), a massage therapist at the hotel spa.

A living reminder of Tanya’s insecurities, Portia is resented by her boss’s husband, Greg (Jon Gries)—another character who has returned from Season 1. (Tanya and Greg met at the White Lotus in Maui.) Greg insists that Tanya send Portia home, not understanding why his wife has brought an assistant with them on vacation. But Portia, with no particular ambitions of her own, stays on out of pity for Tanya—a sacrifice that exacerbates her own quarter-life crisis. Richardson, who’s forged an indie-film career exuding rumpled sunniness in films like “Columbus” and “Support the Girls,” delivers perhaps her best performance to date, depicting the self-loathing that arises when one doesn’t, or can’t, leave a gig they know is sapping their will to live. Her character is another astute portrayal by White of a floundering sort of youthful disillusionment, where a keen awareness of the limitations of an older generation’s mores is only accompanied by a stark loss for a satisfying alternative.

The threat of sexual betrayal hangs over each room of the White Lotus Sicily, a former convent. Figurines of testa di moro, life-size sculptures of a Moor’s head cut off by his Sicilian mistress for failing to mention his wife and kids, dot the premises. Sad-eyed saints, too, leer from the walls. But the only one who seems to heed their gaze is Harper (Plaza), an employment attorney married to Ethan (Will Sharpe), a quiet, nerdy type who has recently sold his company for a large fortune, launching the couple into a much higher income bracket. The kind of woman for whom cynicism is only sensible, Harper is wary of the not-quite-friends who have joined them on vacation: Ethan’s college roommate Cameron (Theo James) and his wife, Daphne (Meghann Fahy), a ludicrously beautiful, extravagantly affectionate duo who seem to have been born to induce status anxiety in everyone around them.

Behind closed doors, Cameron, a boorish finance bro, is just as disdainful of Harper and her killjoy self-seriousness as she is of him. But he also can’t help coming on to her—less out of attraction than out of a reflexive competitiveness that has made him pursue any girl in whom Ethan has expressed interest since their college days. And yet the foursome’s most involving dilemma isn’t erotic but existential. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Harper until their stay at the White Lotus that wealth might change her husband, and that he in turn could expect her to accommodate his newfound entitlement. When Harper finally gets the confirmation she’s been seeking that Cameron and Daphne aren’t as perfectly aligned as they appear to be, she sees how integral money is to papering over their troubles. “You do what you have to do to make yourself feel better,” Daphne advises her. Fahy, who always shone a little brighter than the rest of the cast of “The Bold Type,” offers a tremendous moment here, as her character wills her eyes dead, practiced in her attempts to want a life of compromise.

A family fractured by marital faithlessness—perhaps a future version of Cameron and Daphne’s brood—makes up the season’s most compelling grouping. A multigenerational trio of Italian American men from Los Angeles make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to visit their ancestral homeland. But it’s quickly revealed that Dominic (Michael Imperioli) has been left by his unseen wife for his many dalliances, and that she has turned their daughter against him. Dominic blames his father, Bert (F. Murray Abraham), a philanderer in his own right, for neglecting to teach him how to treat women well. Dominic’s son, Albie (Adam DiMarco), a recent college graduate, informs them both that he has no interest in inheriting their issues with women. Armed with a newly minted Stanford degree, the grandson dismisses the older men’s fondness for the “Godfather” movies as nostalgia for a (more) violently patriarchal era.

But, in this gentler season, White saves the knottiest issues for earnest Albie, who is too “nice” to win over Portia. He soon becomes a mark for a high-end escort his age, Lucia (Simona Tabasco), who sees sex work as easy money and attempts to cajole her friend Mia (Beatrice Grannò) into working the White Lotus with her. A corrective to the first season’s depthless portrayal of the Native Hawaiian hospitality workforce, White’s matter-of-fact presentation of the role that sex work plays in the travel and leisure industries adds to this season’s fuller characterizations and gratifyingly untidy categories. In a bout of misplaced conscientiousness, Albie makes the mistake of presuming that Lucia must be a victim—and White cautions us from doing the same. There is a lot to be depressed about at the White Lotus, but not all of it is so straightforward

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly

No one does Halloween better than celebrities. Most likely, that’s thanks to their glam squads, stylists, and large budgets. While the rest of us are scouring thrift stores and Amazon to come up with a creative enough costume, your favorite stars have a team of people working with them to come up with envy-inducing looks and a photo shoot to match. Of course, not all celebrities go full glam for the holiday, and you always have the ones who throw on a dinosaur onesie or a pair of cat ears and call it a day. But if a celeb is attending an event like the Casamigos Halloween party, or Heidi Klum’s annual fete, then chances are, they’re going all out.

Halloween costumes allow for the opportunity to see a different side of even the most stoic celeb—to find out what shows and movies they watched over the year (they may dress like Vecna from Stranger Things, or a gaslit housewife from Don’t Worry Darling) or what trends and memes they tapped into (a sexy Negroni Sbagliato would make for a great topical costume). Some celebs like to go meta and pay tribute to other famous faces, like Rihanna, who won Halloween last year with her Gunna costume. So, keep checking back here as we compile all the Halloween looks celebs delivered this spooky season

Emily Ratajkowski is having fun in the New York City dating scene now that she’s single following her split from husband Sebastian Bear-McClard earlier this year. She was recently spotted out with a DJ named Orazio Rispo, but it doesn’t seem like the model is just limiting herself to men these days. Ratajkowski has been dropping hints regarding her dating preferences on social media, and her most recent comments make her thoughts on sexuality very clear.

“I think sexuality is on a sliding scale,” the model told Harper’s Bazaar. “I don’t really believe in straight people.”

Back in October, Ratajkowski shared a viral TikTok in which a woman asked, “If you identify as bisexual...do you own a green velvet couch?” Actress Shay Mitchell initially dueted the video on the platform, showing off her green velvet couch and seemingly coming out as bisexual. Ratajkowski then reposted it, adding the reveal of her own green velvet furniture.

“My girlfriend came over and was like, ‘Bitch, have you seen the green couch thing?’” Ratajkowski said. “She was laughing at me because my green couch is so big.” Ratajkowski hasn’t clarified how she identifies herself, nor does she have to, but between the TikTok and her comment to Harper’s, it seems obvious that the model doesn’t consider herself straight. (I mean, how can she identify as something she doesn’t believe even exists?)

Ratajkowski is very much in a TikTok era now that she’s single, and when she’s not seemingly coming out on the platform, she’s filming videos to Taylor Swift’s new songs, like “Karma,” which many took as a message to Bear-McClard, who cheated on the model. Either way, Ratajkowski seems to be enjoying herself, as well as Swift’s new album. One fan commented on the video, “This album was made for you. Slay,” to which Ratajkowski responded, “I honestly feel that way?!? How’d she know?” The model also got Swift’s seal approval, with the singer commenting, “Standing ovation for this” on the video.

MUSICAL ROYALTY

This is a bittersweet moment for me. After more than a decade on interviewing some of my favorite and most inspiring creatives in the world. I’ve decided to take a break from the platform. I am learning to disconnect more and more from the digital world and wanting to go back to basics, like turning a page of a book with my hands, an action I have not done in a long time. That said, this is not goodbye, but just a break. I leave on a high note with an incredible interview with the following band that absolutely blow my mind! So excited for this opportunity and super happy to share the following with you my lovely audience. Meet the Afro -Psychedlica band SISELABONGA. When the three of them met for the very first time at a project called Forest Jam in Madagascar – a fellow musician who happened to be listening in on their conversation finally interrupted them and asked, “What is this ‘Siselabonga’ that you guys are constantly talking about?” What they were actually saying was “si, c'est bon”, which simply means “yes, it’s good” in French. They immediately fell in love with this strange new word and started to use it whenever something that called for a joyous exclamation would happen.

How did you guys meet and begin this musical journey.
Fabio: In 2016 we recorded our first EP called Binta. We were in Dakar, Senegal. A year later, we released it DIY style. Then three tours followed, two in Switzerland and one in Senegal. We spent our time shuttling back and forth between Senegal and Switzerland. We chilled with each other’s families, discovered each other’s cultures, jammed a lot, wrote songs, recorded demos, fought, reconciled and even shared mattresses. Now, we are ready to drop our new EP Warnama, which marks an upgrade from an acoustic trio to an electric, amplified quartet. We call this new incarnation of our sound Afro-psychedelic. 

Tarang: Or Kora Rock’n’Roll! I first met Fabio Meier in Senegal, back in 2014, when he came to Dakar to study the Djembe. I met Glauco in 2015, in Madagascar. Together with Fabio, we were involved in a music project called ForestJam. Fabio knew Glauco from his teenage years in Switzerland. Glauco had a very tiring flight behind him, roughly fifteen hours, and popped into our hotel room in the middle of the night. I took the kora and started to play. Glauco joined me, he took his guitar and started to play along. Man, from that point on I knew that this guy likes to play for real!

Greatest inspirations or influences? 

Tarang: I love calm places close to nature. There, I’m able to connect properly to my heart. Our music comes from the heart. I build up a connection till it comes out as music. 

• I love the music of Habib Koité. The way he puts the musical tradition of West Africa into a modern context, this is very inspiring.  

• The Zimbabwean Band Mokoomba is a big inspiration. We shared the stage with them on our first tour, and we listened a lot to their music when we were on the road. The way they perform on stage is so disarming. How they move and how they sing. Man, that's somethin’ else. Our music is very different to theirs, since they are rooted in the Zimbabwean tradition. But energy-wise they are a big example for us.

Fabio: Dakar and Senegal, in general, are a big inspiration for us. The music, talkin’ about the Mbalaxa and the chants of the Bay Fall, which you hear sometimes all night long, from far away. How proud the people are, and with how much dignity they do their thing. The hospitality of Senegalese people humbled me. As a European, I never got so deeply confronted with the importance of sharing and building communities, like I was when I first came to Senegal. 

• I love BKO Quintet from Mali. How they take the Donso tradition and put it into a contemporary rocky aesthetic – it’s mind blowing to me! I love how earthy and raw their productions sound. 

What is the band's creative process like?

Tarang: My inspiration comes from strong emotions. If something feels heavy I can transform it into an idea  and then into a song. It’s a way to cope with it. Also, my ancestors inspire me. A lot of ideas that come out of me were already planted as a seed into my spirit. Infiltrated by my ancestors, who also played the Kora and sang. I don't need like to settle in a comfort zone with a new song. Inspiration can hit me anywhere, any time.

But at the same time, I can't force it. It comes when it comes.

Fabio: Mostly, it’s Tarang who comes  up  with an idea and then we jam it till it’s vibin’ with us all. Tarang penned all of the songs on our new EP, except for Namou, which was written by Glauco aka Blind Boy De Vita. When the idea vibes, we try to put some structure in it, arrange it if it calls for it. By the time it feels smooth, we play it till it’s ready to be recorded.

Sometimes, we just start to record something that pops up spontaneously. Then, we go from there. Add layers, remove some of them again, till we have something vibrant. 

Our creative process is rarely the same, as the circumstances are rarely the same. The process can be as vast as also our songs are diverse. We have these cute unplugged lullabies in our set as well as full blown badass rock songs. 

How has the pandemic affected the band?

Tarang: Covid made us lose lots of nice shows. Which is not only a financial disaster, but also bad for us because we can’t reach new listeners, the way we would like to. These days, we have our release tour in Switzerland and Germany, to promote the EP. But, since Switzerland made a “visa-stop” against Senegal, I can't travel to Switzerland. This hit us really hard. Luckily, my older brother Sankoum Cissokho is also based in Switzerland and he can help us out and sub for me on this tour.

Aside from this, Covid gave me a lot of time to work on my musical weaknesses, it got me diggin’ deeper into some ideas, and writing new stuff. So it’s also a boost to my inspiration, playin’ and singin’. 

Fabio: Same same. The lockdown made me practice more and gave me more focus. I had time to concentrate on figuring out some new approaches and solutions. At some point, where the frequency of the daily life kinda raised back up to where we were before the lockdown.

I missed the calmness and the slow pace of the lockdown. I wish the world would have learned more about swinging, not always staying at these high frequencies. Also, I wish people who are in power would react faster to other problems like the climate change, the refugee crisis, neocolonialism, racism, hunger and patriarchy, like they did when Covid hit. 

Concerning our tour, it’s a real pity that Tarang can’t get a Visa. We feel blessed that Sankoum Cissokho can help us out. But people are not going to concerts as they did before, and it’s hard to plan things. There is no information about when Switzerland is going to terminate the “visa-stop” against Senegal. 

You guys fascinate me, please tell me more.

Fabio: Tarang comes from a griot family. Griot is a French word and it means storyteller. The original name for it is Djeli. This tradition is rooted in the Mali Empire that stretched over West Africa during the middle ages. Before there was the Songhai Empire and afterwards the Ghana Empire. Kings like Soundjata Keita or Mansa Mussa were known even in Europe. Their stories are famous even today. The Djelis worked at the royal court to amuse and advise the king, accompany feasts and transmit the history and social rules to the people. At that time, West Africa was flourishing. They had lots of gold. The first European travellers were astonished by the moral courage, the safety and the hospitality of the region. Tarang has more than 20 siblings. They all make music and are scattered all over the world. Their family House in Dakar is like an institution for their kind of music and dance. People from all over the world travel there to learn about their heritage. Tarang’s grandfather was crowned as the king of the kora, his name was Soundjoulou Cissokho. Same for me, I got into this music when i met Sankoum in Switzerland, and he took me there and introduced me to Tarang. 

Tarang: I’m born as a Senegalese into a royal griot family. You could say, that I am a kind of a prince. But that’s all secondary to me. What pays off is what I work for. My mother is a griot, my father is a griot. So I’m a sora. Which means both parents are from a Griot lineage.

Thank you so much guys, these interviews are what has kept me so dedicated to continue writing and interviewing wonderful people like you guys, your story, inspirations, and music inspire me and I hope they will be enjoyed by music lovers all over the world! .

When Meghan Markle got her start as a working royal back in 2018, some of her roles were given to her by Queen Elizabeth II, but other patronages she researched on her own and chose because of her passion for the organization. In January 2019, she signed on as the patron for Smart Works, a UK charity that helps women find jobs and dress for job interviews, and she continued to be involved with their work even after she and Prince Harry made their royal exit and moved to California. This week, Meghan is announcing a new Smart Works partnership with the accessories brand Cuyana to give 500 tote bags to Smart Works clients to mark Giving Tuesday.

The duchess explained the partnership in a statement. “Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the magic of Smart Works—womens’ confidence and lives transformed.” she said. “Smart Works invests in women so they know they can thrive in any workplace, and Cuyana is a company that is by women and for women, so this feels like the perfect fit.” Meghan also mentioned the 2019 capsule collection Smart Set, which brought together retailers to donate a collection of workwear basics to the organization. “This collaboration will support women in the UK as they mobilize back into the workforce. I am proud to bring these two together to further our shared mission of uplifting and empowering women all around the globe.”

One of Smart Works’ main initiatives is a one-on-one coaching session, where a volunteer helps a woman who needs help getting a job find an outfit to keep from the organizations’ donations, and gives feedback on their job interview skills. The organization notes that 72% percent of their clients find a job within a month of their session. The organization was founded in 2013, and has supported 25,000 women over the years.

“At Smart Works we believe in fashion as a force for good,” Smart Works CEO Kate Stephens said. “We know that when a woman looks and feels great about who she is, she can change her life. These wonderful bags from Cuyana are the perfect addition to the Smart Works wardrobes and will bring joy and confidence to hundreds of the women we support setting them up for success ahead of their interviews.”