Established 1961 30 T Sunday, December 24, 2017 L i f e s t y l e Fe a t u r e s Meryl Streep’s brand under threat over Weinstein denial

he started the year leading the chorus of misconduct who have concluded that those denials rang true, arguing that the rough ride opprobrium against President Donald closest to the disgraced producer must have she has had over Weinstein is nothing more STrump but 12 months on Meryl Streep, turned a blind eye. than a manifestation of the sexism inherent in multiple Oscar-winner and doyenne of the lib- show business. eral Hollywood elite, has become a target her- ‘Hypocrisy’ self. The 68-year-old is coming under fire over Rose McGowan, one of the campaign’s most ‘Viciously attacked’ her denials that she knew about the misconduct prominent advocates and an alleged victim of “Here we are, attacking a woman for what of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is Weinstein, criticized Streep in a since-deleted she may or may not have known, when every- alleged to have spent his career sexually tweet over plans for actresses to wear black to one seems to insist that everyone in the indus- assaulting, harassing and intimidating women. the Golden Globes in a silent protest against try knew,” he said. Streep has worked on several Weinstein sexual assault. “YOUR SILENCE is THE prob- “Why then, have George Clooney or Brad produced films and jokingly referred to him as lem. You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly & Pitt, not been as viciously attacked as Streep? “God” at the 2012 Golden Globes. The pre-emi- affect (sic) no real change. I despise your This file photo taken on February 21, 2017 shows nent actress of her generation, Streep has had a hypocrisy,” McGowan tweeted. Meryl Streep attending the red carpet arrivals at glittering 40-year career that has seen her play Streep responded in a lengthy statement to the 19th Costume Designers Guild awards pre- everything from a Nazi concentration camp the Huffington Post on Monday that she “did sented by Lacoste at the Beverly Hilton hotel in survivor to an ABBA-singing mother. She not know about Weinstein’s crimes, not in the Beverly Hills. — AFP photos earned her first of a record 20 Oscar nomina- 90s when he attacked (McGowan), or through Weinstein controversy “now feel negatively tions in 1979 for the Vietnam war drama “The subsequent decades when he proceeded to towards the once beloved Streep” following her Deer Hunter” and has won the coveted golden attack others.” The new denial has done little to initial denials. “Streep’s claims that she didn’t statue three times, most recently in 2012 as silence her critics, however, and on Tuesday This file photo taken on November 15, 2017 shows know are ludicrous and the kiss of death for her Margaret Thatcher in the Weinstein-distributed around a dozen posters appeared in Los actress Salma Hayek attending the Hollywood image in Hollywood,” the bestselling author of “The Iron Lady.” Angeles, depicting Streep as an enabler of Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and InStyle cele- The Kim Kardashian Principle told AFP. It was her political activism rather than her Weinstein, who has always denied nonconsen- bration of the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards He accused Streep of underestimating the acting prowess that grabbed headlines during sual sexual contact with any of his accusers. season at Catch LA in West Hollywood. intelligence of the public and the courage of the last awards season, as she received wide- Sabo, a 49-year-old rightwing guerilla artist Why not Bob Weinstein, his own brother, who’s female peers who had spoken out against spread praise, and some criticism, for a speech and former US marine claimed responsibility remained relatively unscathed from Harvey’s Weinstein, adding that Clooney also had ques- at the Golden Globes denouncing Trump. All for the posters, which show Streep with a red downfall?” Beneath the rarified air of the tions to answer over his response to the scan- eyes turned to the actress again as the stripe across her face and the text, “She knew.” Hollywood Hills, the public seems less willing to dal. “Streep needs to apologize to her fans for Weinstein controversy broke in early October, He added that he had conceived the campaign give Streep the benefit of the doubt. not telling the truth. And perhaps explain what when Streep spoke out to say she was as retaliation for Streep using her latest film Celebrity branding expert Jeetendr Sehdev pressures she was feeling to make such a public This file photo taken on January 29, 2012 shows “appalled” by the “disgraceful” news and had “The Post” to attack Trump, who is facing solicits opinions twice a year about the rich and statement to begin with,” Sehdev said. “Many producer Harvey Weinstein and actress Meryl no idea about the allegations. accusations of his own by as many as 16 women famous from 2,000 randomly-selected adults people assume that Weinstein reaches out to Streep attending the 18th Annual Screen Actors Her denials over Weinstein have sparked who say he sexually assaulted them. across America as part of an ongoing study his close friends to see if they could speak out Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium in Los incredulity, particularly among activists in the Entertainment writer Ira Madison III wrote in a established in 2012. He said 58 percent of those on his behalf and try to damage control. Were Angeles, California. #MeToo social media movement against sexual commentary for the Daily Beast that Streep’s surveyed in October on attitudes to the Streep and Clooney part of this pact?” — AFP

Iranian director The French ‘Romantic’ facing jail for film pianist adored in China is name may not be immediately rec- melodies have been broadcast on the radio attacking corruption ognizable but his music certainly is: since the mid-1980s, when economic t is not easy to lead Hbest-selling French pianist Richard reforms opened China up to cultural prod- a good and virtuous Clayderman’s tunes are ubiquitous in public ucts from the West. “His music arrived at the Ilife in Iran if the spaces, particularly in China where for perfect moment,” music critic Hao Fang told film-maker Mohammad decades, his blond hair and blue eyes have AFP. “People in China were coming out of a Rasoulof’s latest film, earned him the title “Prince Charming”. period where they heard only Communist “A Man of Integrity”, is Although his celebrity status has faded in revolutionary songs-they were thirsty for anything to go by. Its the West, he remains adored in the Asian lighter melodies.” downtrodden hero For the Chinese at the time, the piano struggles to make an was synonymous with European classical honest rial from his music, viewed as a more sophisticated genre goldfish farm, caught in than the love songs and simpler tunes from a nightmarish, distort- Hong Kong, Taiwan or the United States. ing fish bowl of cor- “The melodies of Richard Clayderman ruption at every turn. seemed easily understandable, beautiful and The film, which won the emotionally rich from the first listen,” said malls and hotel lobbies, elevators and in gyms with poor acoustics have been prestigious Un Certain Du Jian, Clayderman’s Chinese promoter. ringtones. Many young pianists also contin- replaced by elegant and beautiful concert Regard prize at the “His tapes could be found in practically ue to study his songs. His current tour in halls.” Clayderman’s enduring popularity is Cannes film festival in every home.” Xiao Kang, a 30-year-old China, “The Splendor of Romanticism,” a partly due to his “gentlemanly image”, con- May, is a damning Beijinger, said her father used to tape the label often associated with France, includes sistent with the Chinese perception of a indictment of how the “daily reality of graft” is sapping pianist’s music by sticking a recorder beside 31 dates, with tickets priced between 380 Western Prince Charming, promoter Du the Islamic Republic. the radio. “Many Chinese people grew up and 2,018 yuan ($58 to $307). said. “His blond hair and blue eyes are seen “Corruption has penetrated every layer of society,” nation, where he has played for 25 years. with his music,” she said. “In 25 years of concerts here, I have seen as complementary to his music, and in East Rasoulof told AFP by Skype from his home in Tehran, “No one is a prophet in his own country,” Today, Clayderman’s music can still be China grow at an incredible speed,” Asia he has immediately attracted the public where he is effectively under house arrest since his pass- Clayderman told AFP ahead of his Christmas widely heard in China: online, in shopping Clayderman said. “Uncomfortable, dirty with this dual advantage.” — AFP port was confiscated when he returned from the Telluride Day performance at Beijing’s Great Hall of film festival in the US in September. The dark thriller tells the People, the ruling Communist Party’s the story of Reza, who refuses to pay a bribe for a loan state building on the edge of Tiananmen that would save his business, and finds himself con- Square. The 63-year-old pianist is known fronting a rotten array of officials and businessmen who worldwide for his 1976 “Ballad for Adeline.” run a small town in the north of the country. “Corruption In his more than 40-year career, goes from the bottom of the social ladder right to the top Clayderman says he has sold 60 million of the pyramid of power,” said Rasoulof, whose earlier records internationally, making him one of acclaimed films “Manuscripts Don’t Burn” and “Iron the best-selling French musicians in history, Island” were banned in his homeland. alongside Mireille Mathieu, Jean-Michel Jarre and late Johnny Hallyday. ‘Country exhausted by graft’ According to Clayderman’s website, he “A Man of Integrity” is unlikely to see the light of day has 70 Platinum discs to his credit. At the there either despite being praised by Variety and the height of his celebrity, he was a television Hollywood Reporter as a “compelling... tense, enraging regular. In 1985, former US First Lady drama”. Rasoulof, 34, already has a suspended 12-month Nancy Reagan crowned him the “Prince of prison sentence hanging over his head after he was Romance.” He had more modest success in arrested on set in 2010 with his friend, the “Taxi” direc- his motherland. “At the end of the 1980s, I tor Jafar Panahi, who was subsequently banned from neglected France a little to meet the many making films for 20 years. requests I received from Japan, Southeast Initially jailed for six years, Rasoulof’s sentence was Asia and Latin America,” Clayderman said. reduced on appeal. This time he faces similar charges of “Now, French people between 20 and 40 “propaganda against the regime” and “endangering years old don’t know me, even if I haven’t national security”. But the threat of prison did not stop been forgotten by older generations.” Rasoulof squaring up to the uncomfortable truth he insists is undermining the country from within. Iranians ‘Thirsty for lightness’ are exhausted by graft, he said. “They want to leave it China is now the country where behind but they cannot, because corruption has become Clayderman performs the most. His first a system. “This system forces you to be both corrupted, Chinese concert dates back to 1992, but his and a corrupter yourself. Even my friends are repulsed by it but cannot get away from it,” he added. “People become oppressed and oppressors at the same time,” Rasoulof argued.

No free pass In the film, no one gets a free pass, not even Reza’s Tissot Femini-T: It’s time to be inspired long-suffering wife Hadis, the head of a secondary ince its foundation, Tissot has created school. She does nothing to stop a girl being excluded ladies’ watches. The Tissot Femini-T is because she comes from a religious minority. Nor is the inspired by one of its gold women’s fact that Reza is a goldfish farmer without significance. S Iranians traditionally display goldfish on their tables for models that dates back to the sixties. This Persian New Year, Norouz, to symbolise renewal and re-edition stays true to the original watch perpetual life, and release them into ponds and rivers with its distinctive cushion-shaped case afterwards, where they inevitably perish. design, which is echoed in the indices set President Hassan Rouhani tried to suggest a more with Top Wesselton diamonds. This gives the humane alternative last year by putting an orange in his piece a true jewelry allure. Adding to the fish bowl. For now, Rasoulof’s own fate is not dissimilar bracelet feel, is a beautiful pendant, com- to that of his character’s goldfish. “I am completely in the posed of a chain and gorgeous natural water dark, I do not know what is going to happen,” he told pearl, that can be found on the diamond- AFP. “But I will not allow myself to be beaten by it.” “I shaped lugs of certain models. This was a cannot see my film being shown in Iran while I am wait- feature of the original watch’s case design. ing to be tried,” he added, lamenting how the country’s “intellectuals had either left, were in prison, or had been Character reduced to silence.” The Tissot Femini-T stands out with class His French production company ARP has launched a thanks to its originality. The collection offers petition on Change.org demanding that he be allowed to multiple versions from a steel or rose gold work and travel freely. “If people were not supporting PVD coated case matched with either a through the Tissot Femini-T. • 316L stainless steel case • Pendant with a natural water pearl me outside Iran... my situation would be a lot worse,” creme, black or red leather bracelet, all the Technical features • Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal depending on the model Rasoulof added. “What keeps me going is that people do way to all steel bangle versions with Top • Swiss Made • Water-resistant up to a pressure of 3 • Leather strap with standard buckle not forget me, and that my film will be seen.” — AFP Wesselton Diamonds around the dials. It’s • Quartz movement with battery end-of- bar (30 m / 100 ft) • All rose-gold execution is PVD coating time to let your personality express itself life (EOL) indicator • Top Wesselton Diamonds • Dimensions : 24.80mm. — 22.58mm