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Sunday, February 16, 2020 Lifestyle Fashion

eenage pop iconoclast Billie Eilish The song was written with her primary eight years as agent 007. Trailers feature also brought a generation of young rap- Tdropped her James Bond theme tune creative collaborator-and brother-Finneas the Bond staples that have made the fran- pers to fame. Interscope signed her at age on Friday, racking up 2.2 million O’Connell. Her Facebook page said Eilish chise so successful over the decades: car 14 — making the Californian a rare inter- views in just six hours as the teenage would perform the world premiere of the chases, gun fire, gadgets and femmes net-age pop star to win big online and prodigy continues her stunning rise. new track at next Tuesday’s Brit Awards in fatales. But Eilish’s track will guarantee then see a label invest time and money in Sharing the same name as the upcoming London alongside O’Conner, movie score interest from a younger demographic. cultivating her talent over the long term. movie “No Time To Die”, the ballad fea- maestro Hans Zimmer and former Smiths The biggest globally renowned musi- Last year she dropped a number one tures the grungy melancholic feel that has legend Johnny Marr. The 25th installment cian to emerge from Generation Z, the can- album entitled “When We All Fall Asleep, propelled Eilish to star status and caps a of the British spy saga, due out in April, did Eilish draws young fans with a personal Where Do We Go?”, led the hot songs remarkable few weeks for the teenager. sees Bond drawn out of retirement in social media presence and internet-speak chart with her single “Bad Guy” and played Last month Eilish was the breakout star at Jamaica by his old friend and CIA agent fluency. Her signature style features over- a set on a prime stage at the Coachella the Grammys, sweeping five awards Felix Leiter. sized sweatshirts and baggy pants, often music festival. — AFP including the “big four” prizes: Album of Rami Malek, who won a best actor paired with sunglasses and the garish the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Oscar for his depiction of Queen frontman extra-long nail extensions more often Year and Best New Artist. Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody”, associated with rapper Cardi B. At just 13, US singer-songwriter Billie Eilish attends the The Los Angeles-born singer, who plays the villain. Craig, 51, who had to she unveiled her debut bedroom-produced 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 92nd only turned 18 in December, is the undergo minor ankle surgery after an single “Ocean Eyes” on SoundCloud, the Oscars at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the youngest artist to record a Bond track. injury on set, is expected bow out after do-it-yourself streaming platform that has Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. — AFP

rance’s Cesar Academy, which awards its version of Fthe Oscars, was in crisis Friday after its entire board resigned, overwhelmed by a series of rows that eclusive pop phenom Justin Bieber took baby steps through-line is tenderly-articulated treatise on the have infuriated both women’s activists and industry back into public life Friday with the release of Canadian singer’s desire to evolve. R insiders. The mass resignation came two weeks ahead of “Changes,” a mellow, lovelorn album that is his first “Sometimes I’ll go to sleep early / Sometimes I can’t the their gala awards ceremony and just days after more since 2015. The R&B-tinged offering is less a defiant close my eyes / Sometimes I smile like it’s all good / Even than 200 leading film actors, producers and directors comeback than a tentative toe-dip back into the public life though there’s pain underneath it,” he breathes softly on demanded “profound reform” of the industry. “To honor the 25-year-old has largely shunned since cutting short his the title track. The vocals, at times overwhelmed by heavy those men and women who made cinema happen in last tour in 2017, weighed down by the pressures of fame. deployment of auto-tune, mark a departure from the bub- 2019, to find calm and ensure that the festival of film blegum, EDM-laced pop that fans will remember from remains just that, a festival, the board... has unanimously Bieber’s teenage years. decided to resign,” the academy said in a statement. He enlisted a cohort of of-the-moment stars to collabo- “This collective decision will allow complete renewal rate on “Changes,” which features cameos from rappers of the board,” it added. The move, which has been wel- Post Malone, Quavo and Travis Scott, and singer Kehlani. comed by feminist groups, follows weeks of controversy Roman Polanski Justin Bieber Discovered by talent scouts as a young teenager after over the academy’s attitude to women and its lack of posting videos on YouTube, Bieber became an overnight transparency. In mid-January there was anger after the sensation who would eventually wobble-and then col- academy refused to let two young actresses invite their lapse-under the weight of his colossal celebrity. mentors, film-makers Virginie Despentes and Claire In tandem with his work on “Changes,” Bieber has Denis, to a dinner organized to honor the up-and-com- been releasing his 10-episode “Seasons” YouTube ing actors. Despentes and Denis are outspoken feminists. docuseries that offers a glimpse into his musical process, The academy came under fire again at the end of his desire to shun tabloid scrutiny, and reflections on bad January after Roman Polanski’s film “An Officer and a boy shenanigans that have included accidentally striking a Spy” topped the list of nominations for this year’s Cesar Bieber-whose run-ins with the law, drug abuse and photographer with his car and throwing eggs at a neigh- awards, due to be handed out on February 28. Polanski is other celeb antics have sent his reputation into free-fall- bor’s house. Recounting stories of substance abuse, the already persona non grata in Hollywood over the 1978 returns in introspective mood, opening up about his singer reveals how close he came to gravely endangering statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. More recently he has depression, newfound joy in marriage and battle with his health. “Bro, I was like dying. My security and stuff denied new rape allegations from photographer Lyme disease. Over 17 bite-size, eminently streamable were coming into the room at night to check my pulse,” Valentine Monnier, who says he raped her at his Swiss tracks, “Changes” announces itself as an auditory comfort he says. “Like, people don’t know how serious it got. Like he Cesar film awards, France’s version of the chalet in 1975. blanket that offers love as a refuge in the all-consuming it was legit crazy scary.”— AFP TOscars, have been thrown into turmoil after the entire academy board resigned amid calls for crucible of superstardom. Stuffed with schmoopy valen- Growing pressure tines to his wife Hailey Baldwin Bieber, the album’s reform and a row over the long-running Roman France’s equality minister, women’s groups and some Polanski scandal. Here are some key facts about the film critics condemned the inclusion of Polanski’s film annual highlight of the French movie industry and one on the Cesars’ shortlist. But president of the academy of the most high-profile national film awards around Alain Terzian said it could not be expected to take the world. “moral positions” when evaluating films. The open letter from leading film industry figures, published late Inspired by the Oscars Monday in the French daily Le Monde, called for UK rapper The US Oscars were the inspiration behind the reform of the academy’s statutes, “which have not creation of the Cesar awards in 1975, the idea of Stormzy igh Fidelity,” the series, is out-a quarter of a changed for a very long time”. century after the book and 20 years after the French producer Georges Cravenne to acknowledge “H It protested that its 4,700 members had no say on those working in France’s film industry. It takes its film, transporting author Nick Hornby’s vinyl how the academy, or even its awards ceremony, was name from the French sculptor Cesar Baldaccini, a enthusiasts into the modern realm of Spotify. Between run. It attacked its lack of transparency and the under- the book and the series-released Friday in the US on the friend of Cravenne and the designer of the Cesar tro- representation of women. Signatories included many of phy. The first award ceremony took place at the now- online platform Hulu-the music world central to “High French cinema’s brightest and best: actors Mathieu Fidelity” has undergone a revolution. Still, the London shuttered Theatre de l’Empire in Paris on April 3, Almaric and Elodie Bouchez; directors Bertrand 1976, with some 1,700 people attending the three- record shop at the heart of Hornby’s book seems to fit Tavernier and Jacques Audiard; and producer Michel comfortably in 2020 Brooklyn, even if the CDs so popu- hour event broadcast live on French television. Hazanavicius, who picked up the 2011 Best Picture More recently the glitzy ceremony has been held lar at the time have gone the way of the dodo. Oscar for The Artist. Screenwriters Sarah Kucserka and Veronica West, and at the central Paris Chatelet theatre, attracting the In response, Terzian announced reforms were on the most glamorous figures from French cinema. Winners Hornby himself dragged the story of a white man in his 30s way, including moves to remedy the under-representa- into contemporary society, replacing him with a bisexual receive a hefty bronze statue weighing 3.7 kilograms tion of women. In the end however, the growing pressure (8.1 pounds) of compressed, layered shapes-quite a woman. Zoe Kravitz takes on the role of record shop owner proved too much. Thursday night’s statement announcing Rob, a gender-swapped version of the character who first contrast to the sleek human figure of its American ritish grime star Stormzy said on Thursday he will the unanimous decision of the board to resign said this inspiration. reschedule the Asia leg of his current world tour due appeared in Hornby’s novel and was later played by John would allow for a complete overhaul of the academy at a B Cusack in the 2000 movie. While in 1995 the phenomenon to the deadly new coronavirus epidemic. The rapper, general assembly to be held after the February 28 ‘Opaqueness’, ‘dysfunction’ of the culture “nerd” was emerging, but remained at the real name Michael Omari, told his social media followers awards ceremony. Over the years the Cesar awards have been he had “regrettably” decided to postpone his shows on the margins, in 2020, it is a dominant force and present from ‘When we mobilize, things happen!’ “Star Wars” to “Game of Thrones”.—AFP dogged by criticism of elitism, often snubbing films continent starting next month due to the outbreak. The 26- French feminist groups had already demonstrated that have been popular among French audiences in year-old had been set to perform in Malaysia, Singapore, outside cinemas showing Polanski’s film. When it topped favor of more supposedly high-brow offerings. In Japan, China, South Korea and Indonesia in March and the list of nominations, they called for those with votes at 2009 director and comedian Dany Boon threatened April, as part of his “Heavy is the Head” tour. the academy to snub the film. And in an open letter to the to boycott the ceremony after his film “Welcome to “I was seriously looking forward to bringing the #HITH press on Tuesday, they called for protests outside the the Sticks”-the most successful French film of all world tour to Asia and playing some epic sold out shows,” award ceremony itself, in Paris’s Salle Pleyel auditorium. time-received just one nomination. Responding to the Stormzy wrote on Instagram. “But due to the ongoing On Thursday night, they were celebrating news of the pressure nearly a decade later, the Cesar academy health and travel concerns surrounding the Coronavirus, board’s resignation. “When we mobilize, things happen!”, created a separate category for the highest grossing I’m regrettably having to reschedule this leg. “Information feminist collective Nous Toutes (All Of Us) wrote on regarding the rescheduled dates will follow in due course... film of the year. Twitter. But the Cesar has been further weakened by its I promise I’ll be back,” he added. Concern is growing that Another group, Osez Le Feminisme (Dare Feminism), the COVID-19 epidemic, as the World Health Organization embroilment with the affair involving filmmaker said: “Imagine what’s next. A new voting panel without Polanski, a fugitive from the US since he was convict- has formally named it, is worsening. China, the source of male self-confidence, opacity and sexism. Will we finally the outbreak, said Thursday the official death toll had ed for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old in 1978. In stop applauding rapists and paedophiles on the run?” spiked dramatically. The virus has so far claimed 1,367 2017 Polanski was forced to decline the academy’s In this file photo Zoe Kravitz attends Hulu’s ‘High Fidelity’ But feminist groups are still calling for the protests out- lives and infected nearly 60,000 people, the vast majority offer to lead the jury, following outrage from women’s in China, as it has spread around the globe.—AFP New York premiere at Metrograph in New York City. — AFP side the Cesars ceremony to be maintained. — AFP groups and government officials. Two years later, with the release of his latest film “An Officer and a Spy”, feminist groups protested when it topped with 12 picks the list of nominations for the 2020 Cesar ceremony to be held on February 28. The shortlisting of Polanski’s film was condemned by France’s equality minister, women’s groups and film arvey Weinstein was a “predator” than 80 women. He denies the allegations Viewed ‘differently’ appear to show Mann on friendly terms critics, but the academy said it could not be expected Hwho used his status as a powerful against him. The trial has raised complicated issues with Weinstein. “The truth leaves a paper to take “moral positions” when awarding films. Hollywood producer to take advan- Six women took the stand to say the surrounding consent and abuse of power trail,” said Rotunno in her closing argu- And in a broader swipe in open letter published on tage of the women he attacked, prosecu- ex-Miramax Films boss had sexually for the jury of seven men and five women. ments on Thursday. February 11, more than 200 actors, producers, direc- tors said Friday as his sex crimes trial assaulted them, but the jury is consider- Under cross-examination, both Mann and But Illuzzi-Orbon argued that Mann tors and movie personalities denounced the “dysfunc- drew to a close. The disgraced movie ing charges related to just two: ex- Haleyi acknowledged at least one consen- has shown her moral character, even if she tion” at the academy, the “opaqueness” in its accounts mogul, 67, faces life in prison if convicted actress Jessica Mann and former produc- sual sexual encounter with Weinstein after made a “bad decision” in the past. and the lack of change to its founding statutes. Three of predatory sexual assault charges in the tion assistant Mimi Haleyi. Mann says the alleged assaults. “By going to Harvey Weinstein faces five counts, including days later the entire board of the Cesar academy high-profile trial that marks a watershed Weinstein raped her in March 2013, while Weinstein’s home, did she deserve what she predatory sexual assault, rape and engag- resigned. moment in the #MeToo global reckoning Haleyi alleges he forcibly performed oral got? Was it her decision?” asked Illuzzi- ing in a criminal sexual act. Jurors will against men abusing positions of power. sex on her in July 2006. Illuzzi-Orbon Orbon, referring to Halleyi’s accusation that begin deliberating Weinstein’s fate on Honoring foreign stars Weinstein believed he was “the master argued that the six women who testified Weinstein assaulted her in his house. Tuesday and must reach unanimous ver- In 2015 US actress and “Twilight” star Kristen of his universe, and the witnesses here had “no motive to lie.” “They sacrificed “If you go on a plane, should you dicts on each count. If they are unable, Stewart became the first American actress ever to win were really ants who he could step on their dignity and privacy and peace for expect to be hijacked?” she said in com- the judge may be forced to declare a mis- a Cesar, for her supporting role opposite Juliette without consequences,” said assistant dis- the prospect of having that voice” heard, parison. “But we view the victims of sex trial. A split verdict is possible, where Binoche in “Clouds of Sils Maria”. This was the same trict attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon in the she said. crimes so differently than the crimes that Weinstein is convicted of some charges year US film star received an honorary final day of closing arguments. “He had a On Thursday, defense attorney Donna are committed against people on a regular and cleared of others. Weinstein faces a Cesar, the only category along with Best Foreign Film surefire insurance policy: the witnesses Rotunno argued the women had used sex basis.” Testimony during the trial from separate sex crimes investigation in Los that awards international talent. , were standing in line to get into his uni- with Weinstein to advance their careers, Mann, a former aspiring actress, was Angeles and is the subject of several civil , and Scarlett verse,” she added. Weinstein, the first man saying they only decided they had been often-confused and she recalled having a complaints. — AFP Johansson have all been previous recipients of the accused of abuse in the #MeToo move- assaulted after Weinstein became a global relationship with Weinstein for several honorary Cesar. — AFP ment to face a criminal trial, has been pariah when allegations against him ignit- years after he allegedly raped her in 2013. accused of sexual misconduct by more ed #MeToo in October 2017. The defense has presented emails that