Arts News
Director Paul Mazursky dies at 84
Tammy review - Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon play gran theft auto
Is there a sororpack to go with Hollywood's fratpack? Since her supporting turn in Bridesmaids, that smart comic Melissa McCarthy is emerging as a key equivalent (along with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig and others); her latest movie happens to be co-produced by comedy's alpha-males Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.
McCarthy stars and co-writes with her husband Ben Falcone, who directs. That round, pretty face with its poignantly muppety nose and chin is well suited to a classic type of pre-emptive ironic disdain which fails to protect against life's humiliations: the tears of rage of a clown. It also expresses vulnerability and intelligence and those who remember McCarthy's performance in the cult movie The Nines with Ryan Reynolds will know that the same face can be sexy too. It's tempting to call it a female version of Seth Rogen's face or Jonah Hill's face: that is, their earlier, less sleek faces. Perhaps if Hollywood success exalts McCarthy in the same way, she'll get to glam up as well.
She is Tammy, a character whose name may be intended to convey, subliminally, the bluecollar trials sung about by Tammy Wynette although she is also, perhaps a bit worryingly, slightly similar to the sociopath crook she played in the ropey and far inferior comedy Identity Thief opposite Jason Bateman.
From Austin Powers to documentary maker
Monty Python return to mixed reviews
Man vs Food star has show taken off air after 'thinspiration' rant
Adam Richman, the US TV host whose former show Man vs Food has become a cult hit in recent years, has seen his new series Man Finds Food "postponed indefinitely" after he sent abusive comments during an argument on Instagram.
The furore began when Richman posted an Instagram photo with the caption: "Had ordered this suit from a Saville Row tailor over a year ago. Think I'm gonna need to take it in a little " He added the hashtag #thinspiration.
Continue reading...ITV sorry as Benidorm refers to Rolf
Oklahoma! musical memories 70 years on
'Revenge pornography' could soon be outlawed, says Chris Grayling
Publishing sexually explicit pictures of former partners known as "revenge pornography" could soon become a crime, the justice secretary has said.
Responding to calls for the practice to be outlawed, Chris Grayling said the government was very open to having a serious discussion about the practice with a view to taking appropriate action when parliament returns from the summer recess.
Continue reading...Robbie receives Freedom of Stoke
Upstairs at the Party by Linda Grant, review: 'straight-talking and subtly cynical'
VIDEO: Morph: The terracotta terror returns
The Fault in Our Stars bench missing
Shia LaBeouf treated for alcoholism
Radio comedy's constant innuendo makes me wince
Clare Presland - New Music
Author Natalie Haynes on the glory of knitting
Poet Lavinia Greenlaw: Why I love the artist Eva Hesse
I had known about Eva Hesse's work for years, but the moment I really paid attention was when I visited an exhibition of what she called "test pieces" in Edinburgh in 2009. Hesse, who was German-Jewish, emigrated with her family to New York in 1939 when she was three. She died from a brain tumour when she was just 34. "I would like the work to be non-work," she once wrote. "This means that it would find its way beyond my preconceptions."
The "test pieces" (also known as studioworks) are difficult to describe. They are small objects that initially appear to be offcuts, or abandoned starting points. They seem unrealised and unsustainable, not least because Hesse often used perishable materials such as latex, wax, string, cheesecloth and plaster, which she made luminously strange. This sense of incompleteness is amplified by the fact that many look as if they ought to contain something. They are almost envelopes, bottles, boxes or bowls things we usually discard on our way towards what matters.
Continue reading...VIDEO: Fans' verdict on Monty Python show
Classic books become London benches
Pages
