In White Noise, Noah Baumbach takes Netflix’s money and runs

When books are written about Netflix’s grand investment in prestige cinema, Noah Baumbach’s White Noise may go down as the movie that finally killed the goose that laid the golden budgets. This is not to say the streaming service will never again fund an auteur’s vanity project — it still hasn’t snagged that Best Picture Oscar, and, spoilers, this film won’t be the one to win it — but it’s unlikely to do it on this scale again. The Irishman was more expensive, Blonde was more of a disaster, but for sheer hubris, you can’t beat an apocalyptic period adaptation of a supposedly unfilmable literary classic, by a director better known for caustic domestic comedies, with a rumored budget of $140 million. We certainly won’t see the like again — not from Netflix, at any rate.

You may as well go out with a bang. Adapted from the beloved 1985 Don DeLillo novel, White Noise is a baffling, uneven, sporadically enthralling movie about the collective psychosis of 1980s America and a dry run for the end of the world. It is basically three movies in one: a mannered satire of academia, consumerism, and the modern family is followed by a paranoid, Spielbergian disaster epic. The final third twists itself up into a queasy, surreal noir reminiscent of the Coen brothers at their most inscrutable. If you had to guess which one of these Baumbach handles most successfully, based on his previous work, you would almost certainly get it wrong.

Baumbach’s love for the source novel is obvious. This is a faithful, if surprisingly cheery and antic, adaptation. It misses only a handful of the novel’s beats, while the screenplay, which Baumbach wrote himself, reverently lifts great chunks of DeLillo’s dialogue and prose. But, fan credentials notwithstanding, the director is an odd fit for the book. Baumbach specializes in interpersonal dramedies, like Frances Ha or Marriage Story, written, performed, and shot in a naturalistic style. DeLillo’s book, however, is arch, stylized, and metaphorical, full of big ideas, big events, and solipsistic characters talking over and through each other.The story centers on Jack Gladney (Adam Driver), a professor at a pleasantly anonymous heartland university who has pioneered the provocative field of “Hitler studies.” At work, Jack covers up for his lack of actual scholarship (he can’t speak German) and engages in spiraling intellectual discourse with his friend Murray Siskind (Don Cheadle), who is thinking of diversifying from car crashes into Elvis Presley. At home, Jack good-humoredly manages a bustling, argumentative blended family with his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig). The besotted pair compete over which of them is more anxious about dying, but something seems genuinely wrong with Babette, and an ominous cloud is gathering on the horizon — literally. An accident unleashes a poisonous cloud known as the Airborne Toxic Event, and the Gladneys are caught up in a wave of panic.

Everything about this material, except its middle-class intellectual milieu, pushes Baumbach far out of his comfort zone. (It’s also the first period piece he has attempted, and the heightened, day-glo interpretation of the 1980s in the costuming and production design is one of White Noise’s principal pleasures.) He rises to the challenge in unexpected ways. This is his most visually dense and imaginative film by a long chalk, and he deftly constructs a series of stunning set-pieces: an opening lecture by Don Cheadle’s character, Murray, intercut with archive car-crash footage; an academic duel between Jack and Murray, prowling and pontificating around a lecture theater as they weave the legends of Hitler and Elvis together; Jack’s genuinely spooky night terrors; and a theatrical confrontation between Jack and Babette, late in the movie, as he gets her to finally open up and confess what is wrong. The latter is exquisitely blocked and beautifully performed, by an anguished Gerwig in particular.

Although the showy, CGI train crash that precipitates the Airborne Toxic Event doesn’t really work — it bluntly literalizes a disaster that, in the book, is all the more ominous for being distant and vague — what follows is an extraordinary, sustained sequence that echoes Spielberg’s masterpiece of collective madness, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It turns out that, as a thriller director working on a grand scale, Baumbach has the goods. The scenes of gridlock and automotive carnage under boiling skies have a dreadful charge, while a stop at a deserted gas station has something of the exposed terror of Hitchcock’s The Birds. Later, Baumbach shows he can mix action with comedy in a farcical station-wagon car chase that could easily hail from a Chevy Chase movie from the period in which White Noise is set. Sometimes, Baumbach seems more instinctively aligned with the pop culture DeLillo was critiquing than with DeLillo himself.

Oddly for Baumbach, who is usually very generous with his actors, the cast flounders, adrift in the surreal grandiosity of the director’s design and struggling to find the rhythm in his collage of lines from the book. Cheadle, tweedy and quizzical, fares the best in this strange world, delivering statements like, “She has important hair.” Driver has some great moments and characterful bits of business — witness the way he shoves his hand up through his academic gown to push Jack’s tinted glasses up that magnificent nose, with a private smirk — but he’s sadly miscast. At 39, he’s at least a decade too young for Jack, and even the pot belly and patina of seedy middle age given to him by the makeup and costume departments can’t hide his essential virility. You just can’t buy Driver as a thwarted academic; his body doesn’t know what thwarted means. He’s very funny, though. Driver’s intensity often leads his comic skills to be overlooked, so it’s a pleasure to find as unlikely a film as White Noise bringing them to the fore.

The thing that most annoys DeLillo purists about Baumbach’s film might be the thing that makes it most pleasurable to watch for everyone else: It’s fun. It’s a messy movie that can’t quite find the thread to make sense of DeLillo’s vision or the reality of his characters — particularly during its bewildering final third, after the Airborne Toxic Event dissipates and Jack becomes obsessed with Babette’s place in a kind of pharmaceutical conspiracy. But it has been made with wit and an infectious relish. Baumbach lunges for laughs and scares, often successfully, and splashes the screen with bright color and movement. Under the end credits, he stages a dance number in the aisles of the supermarket that DeLillo and his pretentious characters imagine as the modern American church. Is Baumbach still making a point, or just cutting loose? The latter, I suspect, and more power to him. He took Netflix’s money and ran.

 

Vivienne Westwood: Tributes for 'Queen of British Fashion' after her death

She died "peacefully and surrounded by her family" in London, her fashion house said in a statement.

Westwood, 81, made her name with her controversial punk and new wave styles in the 1970s and went on to dress some of the biggest stars in fashion.

Fellow designer Marc Jacobs said he was "heartbroken" and that she "never failed to surprise and to shock".

Paying tribute to her life and work, he wrote on Instagram: "You did it first. Always... I continue to learn from your words and all of your extraordinary creations."

Supermodel Naomi Campbell, who famously tripped while walking one of Westwood's runways in nine-inch platform heels, called the designer a "force of nature".

In a touching tribute, she recalled her own journey from admiring the designer from afar as a schoolgirl to working with Westwood and calling her a friend.

Fellow model Bella Hadid described the designer as "the sun" of the fashion industry - and said she was grateful to have been in her orbit.

"To the coolest, most fun, incredible, humble, creative, badass, intelligent, EPIC human being that has walked this earth… rest in love and Rest In Peace," Hadid wrote.

• Dame Vivienne Westwood - the godmother of punk
• In pictures: The outlandish world of Vivienne Westwood
• LISTEN: BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, In tribute to Vivienne Westwood

After the announcement, Westwood's husband and creative partner Andreas Kronthaler said: "I will continue with Vivienne in my heart.

"We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with."

Westwood came to prominence with her androgynous designs, slogan T-shirts and irreverent attitude towards the establishment.

She was also known as a staunch activist and brought causes she cared about, like climate change, to the catwalk.

The designer was made a dame for services to fashion in 2006.

Describing her outfit on the day - a black cap perched on the back of her bright orange hair, a dress with campaign badges and tiny silver horns on her head - she said she was supposed to look "a bit like Che Guevara, an urban guerrilla", the prominent figure of the Cuban Revolution in 1950s, m later became a symbol of rebellion.Derbyshire-born Westwood worked as a primary school teacher, before setting up clothing shop Let It Rock on King's Road in Chelsea with her then partner Malcolm McLaren in the early 1970s.

The business was later renamed Sex and McLaren began managing a punk rock band made up of shop regulars - the Sex Pistols. They shot to fame in 1976 wearing Westwood and McLaren's designs.

One shop worker was a young American who went on to front the Pretenders. Paying tribute, musician Chrissie Hynde said with Westwood gone, the world was "already a less interesting place".

Artist Tracey Emin said Westwood challenged and criticised her, but loved and cared about her too. They were friends for more than 20 years.

Singer Boy George, who first met Westwood in the early 1980s, called her "great and inspiring" and "without question... the undisputed Queen of British fashion".

And fellow fashion designer and Spice Girl Victoria Beckham said she was a "legendary designer and activist".

Actress Kim Catrall described her on Instagram as a "true genius who never lost her Northern grit". She shared a tale of Westwood's "generosity and kindness" - creating three dresses for the Sex and the City star in three days so she could attend premieres of a film, after others' designs were unsuitable.

Supermodel Claudia Schiffer wrote that Westwood's "unique voice will be irreplaceable and will be missed", while singer Billy Idol - who found fame on the London punk music scene - tweeted: "RIP it will take me a bit to take this in…".

The Victoria and Albert Museum, which houses some of her works, described Westwood as a "true revolutionary and rebellious force in fashion".Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan wrote on Twitter: "A sad day, Vivienne Westwood was and will remain a towering figure in British fashion.

"Her punk style rewrote the rule book in the 1970s and was widely admired for how she stayed true to her own values throughout her life."

In 1981, Westwood held her first proper fashion show remembered as the Pirate Collection, and she continued to use British and French history to inspire her.

She married Kronthaler, a former student of hers and 25 years her junior, in 1992. He became creative director of her company and increasingly was responsible for design work in later years.

By the 2000s, Westwood was designing wedding dresses for the likes of model Dita Von Teese, who dressed in her purple gown to marry singer Marilyn Manson, and Princess Eugenie who wore Westwood designs for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine.

Her designs also featured in the 2008 film version of Sex And The City.

As well as climate change, Westwood became a vocal supporter for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition to the US to face charges under the Espionage Act. In July 2020, she dressed in canary yellow in a giant bird cage warning over an Assange "stitch up".

Assange's wife Stella, whose wedding dress was created by Westwood, hailed the designer as a "pillar of the anti-establishment". Writing on behalf of her husband who is currently in Belmarsh prison, she said Westwood was a "good friend" and "the best of Britain".

 

Class act: Best performers of 2022 Bollywood movies

A great film is a mix of a great script, great direction, and great performances, all in appropriate proportions. Sometimes the performance weighs heavy on the film, other times the script doesn’t give ample space to actors to experiment. This year, some roles made the film and some etched in your memory even when the films remained forgetful. In no particular order, we look back at some of these commendable performances of 2022.

Alia Bhatt in Gangubai Kathiawadi
The year began with Alia Bhatt’s herculean act as Gangu in Gangubai Kathiawadi. Bhatt managed to shine like a diamond even in the canvas-like frames of Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Dressed in white for most of the film, Alia sprinkled a lot of colour in her performance. She might be a Mafia queen, but her eyes yearned for love from a parent or a suitor. Alia played the character with a balance of panache and heart.

Radhika Apte in Monica O My Darling
Radhika Apte, if not the best, can be considered the most entertaining act in Vasan Bala’s caper. Her entry in the film—marked by a guitar riff out of Mexican standoffs in Westerns—brings an absurdist touch. She revels in her bad jokes, giddies at case breakthroughs, and puts the comedy in dark comedy. “But take me seriously”, she tells both the protagonist Jayant (Rajkummar Rao) and the viewer, “Ab main itni sundar hoon toh main kya karoon?”

Akshaye Khanna in Drishyam 2
If Drishyam 2 (Malayalam) has a more subtle narrative, its Hindi counterpart has Akshaye Khanna. Since 36 China Town, Akshaye is acing at playing the role of a cerebral detective. Drishyam 2 gave him the perfect pitch and freedom to score as many homeruns. He puffs a cigarette, wears a suit, and ponders over the facts of the case like he is thinking his next move on the chessboard. Akshaye served as the perfect nemesis for Ajay Devgn’s Vijay Salgaonkar and he did it with such style, it’s tough to look away.

Jaideep Ahlawat in An Action Hero
One must be tired seeing Jaideep Ahlawat play a Jat from Haryana on screen. His Bhoora Solanki in An Action Hero, however, still left us wanting for more. He is a tour de force in the film and invokes dread whenever he appears on screen. Jaideep interludes the brute force action bits with his matter-of-fact comedy. His chemistry with Ayushmann Khurrana leads to a lot of fun explosions in the film.

Jitendra Kumar in Jaadugar
Fan-favourite Jeetu bhaiyya plays a confused, lovelorn youngster in this homely comedy. His Meenu (raato ki neendein cheenu) flips the Bollywood hero trope. Meenu is flawed, timid, and frequently embarrasses himself. Jitendra exudes an affable school boyish charm while playing the character. He tames the common man irritableness most his characters have and both him and Meenu come of age in 
this film.

Mona Singh in Laal Singh Chaddha
While a lot of things were said against Laal Singh Chaddha, even the vilest of trolls couldn’t spot a flaw in Mona Singh’s performance. She plays Laal’s mother Gurpreet Kaur Chaddha and every time she appears on screen it feels like a warm hug. Singh plays the role with a lot of conviction and feeling. A scene where she waits outside on Laal’s first day at school, is wonderfully enacted. If Laal’s antics are the running theme of the film, Mona is definitely its soft, beating heart.

Vijay Varma in Darlings
Vijay Varma and Darlings might have been part of enough Year Ender lists already. But his act left such a lingering impact that it couldn't be ignored in a list of notable performances. Varma’s alcoholic Hamza Sheikh is evil but still human. He might be entitled as a man but suffers as a minority. Even though he is a ticket examiner, he is made to clean toilets by his superior. He projects this harassment at the workplace in the form of rage onto his wife Badrunissa, played by Alia Bhatt. Varma played the character with an underlying menace. You will love Varma and hate Hamza’s guts at the same time.

 

     Steven Tyler Accused of Sexual Assault of a Minor in New Lawsuit Over a Decades-Old Claim

A woman who claims to have had an illicit relationship with Steven Tyler in the Seventies when she was a minor has filed a lawsuit against the Aerosmith singer, accusing him of sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit was filed following California legislation that temporarily waived statutes of limitations for childhood sexual abuse allegations.

In the suit filed in Los Angeles and obtained by Rolling Stone, the plaintiff Julia Holcomb alleges that Tyler convinced Holcomb’s mother to grant him guardianship over her when she was 16 years old, which consequently allowed her to live with him and engage in a sexual relationship. She claims they were together from 1973 until about three years later. The suit itself doesn’t name Tyler, naming the defendants as Defendant Doe 1 and Does 2 through 50. But Holcomb — who Rolling Stone mentioned in a 1976 profile of the band in reference to Tyler’s romantic life — has been public about her experience with Tyler in the past, and the lawsuit directly quotes from Tyler’s own memoir. In his book, without stating a name, Tyler similarly says he “almost took a teen bride” and that “her parents fell in love with me, signed a paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state. I took her on tour with me.”

In the suit, Holcomb alleges that she “was powerless to resist” Tyler’s “power, fame and substantial financial ability, and that Tyler “coerced and persuaded Plaintiff into believing this was a ‘romantic love affair’”. Holcomb alleges that she met Tyler (who would’ve been 25 at the time of their meeting) just after her 16th birthday when Aerosmith played a concert in Portland, Oregon, in 1973. Tyler, according to the suit, took Holcomb back to his hotel room, where they discussed Holcomb’s age. After he allegedly asked why she was out all night by herself, Tyler and Holcomb talked about her troubles at home. He then “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon” her before sending her home in a taxi the next morning, the lawsuit states.

Tyler also allegedly bought Holcomb her own plane ticket to his next Aerosmith show in Seattle since she was a minor and could not legally travel with him across state lines, the suit says. After the Seattle show, Tyler allegedly performed more sexual acts on her, and Holcomb flew back to Portland the next morning.

By 1974, as the suit alleges, Tyler convinced Holcomb’s mother to allow him to become her guardian, which would allow him to more easily travel with her without criminal prosecution — a timeline that matches Tyler’s own comments from his 2011 memoir. Tyler allegedly told Holcomb’s mother he would provide better support than she was getting at home, promising to enroll her in school and give her medical care. Tyler “did not meaningfully follow through on these promises and instead continued to travel with, assault and provide alcohol and drugs to Plaintiff,” the suit claims.

Holcomb further alleges that she was pregnant with Tyler’s son in 1975 when she was 17 years old but got an abortion after Tyler insisted she terminate the pregnancy following an apartment fire. In making the argument, he cited smoke inhalation and lack of oxygen to the baby. Though the suit claims a medical professional told her the unborn baby was not harmed by the fire.

According to the lawsuit, Holcomb was hesitant about going through with the abortion, but Tyler had threatened to stop supporting her if she didn’t proceed with the procedure. After the abortion, she allegedly left Tyler and went back to Portland to change her life. She became a devout Catholic, met her husband, and buried her previous experiences with Tyler until he wrote about them in his book.

Holcomb says in the suit that her life was further disrupted with the publication of Tyler’s memoir, which, without Holcomb’s consent, referenced his time with an underage girl and subjected her to “involuntary infamy” while framing the alleged abuse as a “romantic, loving relationship,” the suit says. Tyler has also spoken of a relationship with an underage girl both in his own memoir and in Aerosmith’s autobiography. The Aerosmith autobiography, published in 1997, references the relationship, the apartment fire, and abortion, but Tyler refers to the girl as Diana and said she was 14 at the time they met. In his memoir, however, he says she was 16, and he writes about the fire but not the abortion. In the suit, Holcomb says she’s mentioned in the memoir’s acknowledgments which further removed her anonymity. (The book’s acknowledgments include Julia Halcomb, which could be amisspelling of her name.)

“She was sixteen, she knew how to nasty, and there wasn’t a hair on it,” Tyler wrote in his memoir before saying he became the girl’s guardian to avoid getting arrested if he took her out of state before detailing their sexual endeavors a few pages later. “With my bad self being twenty-six and she barely old enough to drive and sexy as hell, I just fell madly in love with her. She was a cute skinny little tomboy dressed up as Little Bo Peep. She was my heart’s desire, my partner in  crimes of passion.”

The lawsuit isn’t the first time Holcomb has shared these details about her alleged experience with Tyler. Prior to the complaint, she detailed many of the same allegations in 2011 for the far-right, anti-abortion website Lifesitenews, and she has gone on programs like Tucker Carlson’s show to share her experience as fodder against pro-choice advocacy. Holcomb also spoke of the experience in the 2021 documentary Look Away, which focused on sexual abuse in rock music culture.

“I became lost in a rock and roll culture. In Steven’s world it was sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but it seemed no less chaotic than the world I left behind. I didn’t know it yet, but I would barely make it out alive,” Holcomb wrote in 2011. “I could not believe he was even asking me to have an abortion at this stage. He spent over an hour pressing me to go ahead and have the abortion. He said that I was too young to have a baby and it would have brain damage because I had been in the fire and taken drugs. “

Holcomb’s suit comes in the final days of California’s Child Victims Act, a 2019 piece of legislation that lifted the statute of limitations and granted a three-year lookback period for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to come forward with their allegations. The deadline to file a lawsuit is December 31, 2022. 

 

Nick Cannon Welcomes Baby No. 12, His Second with Alyssa Scott: 'Our Lives Are Forever Changed'

Nick Cannon and Alyssa Scott welcomed their second baby together, a daughter named Halo Marie on Wednesday, Dec. 14

Nick Cannon and Alyssa Scott have welcomed a new little one into their family.

The Masked Singer host and the model welcomed their second baby together, daughter Halo Marie Cannon, on Wednesday, Dec. 14, Scott shared on Instagram Thursday. The new addition marks the arrival of Cannon's twelfth child and Scott's third.

Sharing an emotional video that reflects on welcoming their daughter just a year after the death of the pair's son Zen — who died at 5 months old as a result of brain cancer — Scott celebrated the significance of her daughter's arrival.

"December 14, 2022. Our lives are forever changed ❤️," she wrote in the caption. "Zen is in every breath I take. I know his spirit was with us in the room that morning. I know he is watching down on us. He shows me signs every day. I will hold onto this memory forever."

Scott added, "I will remember the sound of Nick's voice saying 'it's a girl' and the look of everything we've been through flash across his face. I will remember the sound of her crying out with her first breath and feeling her heartbeat against mine."

"My sweet girl, I got my surprise!! We love you Halo Marie Cannon! 🤍."

Last month, Scott shared photos from her maternity shoot on Instagram, which showed her posing nude in a bathtub with Cannon as they celebrated the pregnancy.

In an exclusive photo shared with PEOPLE, the two shared a kiss in the tub. The photo was taken over Cannon's shoulder with Scott holding her chest as she leaned in. In one of the other photos, Cannon kissed Scott's bare bump as they sat in the sudsy tub. She held her chest and looked down at him in the shot.

Another photo showed Scott — who is also mom to 4-year-old daughter Zeela from a previous relationship — standing over Cannon, who reached up and held her bump from below, writing, "This is a MIRACLE & a BLESSING 🤍."

One day after Scott announced she was expecting her third baby, the model thanked her followers on Instagram for the outpouring of "love" sent her way.

Thank you for all the LOVE 💫," she captioned a series of black-and-white photos of herself showing off her bare baby bump.

The model shared two additional posts on Instagram from her maternity shoot with daughter Zeela, noting in one of the captions that she did not plan on finding out the sex of her baby on the way until the infant's arrival.

In addition to Zen and Halo, Cannon also shares sons Rise Messiah, 10 weeks, and Golden Sagon, 5, as well as daughter Powerful Queen, 23 months, with model Brittany Bell.

He is also dad to daughter Beautiful Zeppelin, 6 weeks, and twins Zion and Zillion, 18 months, with Abby De La Rosa, as well as 11-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan with ex-wife Mariah Carey. He also shares son Legendary Love, 5 months, with model Bre Tiesi and welcomed daughter Onyx Ice Cole, 3 months, with former Price Is Right model LaNisha Cole.

Millie Bobby Brown Enjoys Scuba Adventure in Green Bikini With Jake Bongiovi

The couple's tropical vacay continues!

The beachy adventures continue for Millie Bobby Brown and her beau Jake Bongiovi!

The adorable duo has apparently been on a prolonged tropical vacation this winter, with sunny snaps galore posted to the Stranger Things actress' Instagram account.

This time, they're taking things under the sea as the couple scubas about a coral reef.

Though posted today, Dec. 29, a filter on the photos indicates they were taken yesterday on Dec. 28—despite the timestamp actually reading Dec. 28, 1998.

The first photo is an underwater selfie of the happy couple, each donning oversized goggles and mouthpieces with their Oxygen tanks strapped onto their backs.

The next photo found the two back on their boat after the exploration. Bongiovi wore an open button-up shirt with swim trunks while Brown wore a bright green daisy-patterned bikini which tied over her hips.

Bongiovi wrapped his arm around her waist while her hand rested on his shoulder, the two dissolving into giggles during the shot.

The final photo was an exciting sighting for the pair: a wild stingray in the water.

"just keep swimming," Brown captioned the photo set, and between that and the dreamy ocean pics, we're manifesting a Disney adventure role for her, STAT! 

"Stingray is a paid actor," another follower joked.

Most other fans were excited about a potential It Ends With Us reference from the star, but whether that was the series she was drawing from or not, we all know it originates with Finding Nemo.

 

The Rookie’ Actor Tyler Sanders’ Cause of Death Revealed

Tyler Sanders, who played Logan Hawke on ABC’s “The Rookie” and Leo on “Just Add Magic: Mystery City,” died “from the effects of fentanyl,” according to an autopsy report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.

The report listed his death as accidental. He was found dead on June 16 at his home in Los Angeles.

According to the full report, which was obtained by TMZ, Tyler texted a friend the night before his death that he was using fentanyl and did not reply to the friend’s phone calls after sending the text.

Sanders also appeared in an episode of “Fear the Walking Dead” as young Jake Otto and on FOX’s “9-1-1: Lone Star.” He received a Daytime Emmy nomination for his role in the “Just Add Magic”spinoff.

He also appeared in the 2019 Kevin Sorbo film “The Reliant.”