lifestyle THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2016

The marriage advice no one gave you

By Hassan Al Mousawi effort, love itself does. There are many things we love but when they are not prominent in our mind we tend to forget arriage is a beautiful blend between science and our love for them. art. Expression is artistic yet how men and women In order to keep the marriage alive in your heart you Mthink can be analyzed scientifically. For the past must do the work and it does take effort. decade, the only advice I hear married men give is . . . don’t My favorite thing to do is to take 10 minutes a day sleep while upset and don’t involve other people in your remembering all the little things I love about my wife. Really marriage. Although I fully agree with both, there must be taking the time to appreciate her. My tone and attention more. While generic advice might save you a lot of towards her will be elevated the whole day because of it. heartache, my question is: How do you go from a good mar- This makes it easier to forgive her, let the little things go and riage to a great one? appreciate her on a whole new level, all factors that are cru- My measure of success is always happiness. Not only cial to a marriage. when you are with your partner, but a general satisfac- The rule is simple. Act the same way you did in the begin- tion with your life feeling that your partner is a true con- ning and there will be no end. While we work so hard to tributor, and no matter how hard it gets, it’s never bad ensure our spouse is happy (or at least not miserable), we because of them. miss the true potential. If we shift the focus to ourselves and Well, I may not be the perfect example but the fact that reignite our own passion in the relationship, everything else my wife and I haven’t killed each other is a good sign. will magically fall into place. The butterflies will be back, and It is so easy to get overwhelmed with work, obstacles and this level of love and appreciation will spill over into all areas all the usual life annoyances that keep our mind busy. With of your life. time we tend to forget why we fell in love with our spouse in So take the time today to really appreciate your spouse. the first place. Go back in time to all the little things that took your breath Unlike the times you first started talking, where you lay in away and the reasons why you fell for them in the first place. bed staring at the ceiling thinking of how wonderful they Seeing your spouse with love struck eyes will bring out the are. We assume that if its love we should feel it always with side of them you fell for. As if by magic you will appeal to all no effort. That is a big myth, a marriage does require a lot of the sides of them that drew you in the first place.

Snoop Dogg returns to rap roots on new

noop Dogg has returned to his rap earlier appeared on a roots-as well as his familiar love of track entitled “Kush” with his mentor, rap Smarijuana-as he released a new song mogul Dr Dre. He has previously collabo- Tuesday and detailed his upcoming rated with . The pair, along with album. “Coolaid,” which will come out on pop singer Bruno Mars, celebrated mari- July 1, will be Snoop Dogg’s first hip-hop juana on the 2011 hit “Young, Wild and album in five years, he said in a statement. Free.” Emerging from the The first song, “Kush Ups,” is driven by a scene of southern California, Snoop Dogg, bouncy beat and explores the delights of who has sold more than 35 million marijuana, of which a popular strain with , quickly found his calling with origins in South Asia is known as Kush. smoother sounds. Fellow hip-hop star Wiz Khalifa, joining His last album, “Bush,” took an R&B turn Snoop Dogg in the song, boasts of the size and featured songs with singing legends of his joints and raps, “So much weight Stevie Wonder and Charlie Wilson. In 2013, that now I’m doing Kush Ups.” he renamed himself Snoop Lion and Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa also released a reggae album entitled announced a joint 33-date tour of North “Reincarnated.” The 44-year-old-despite a America that will open on July 20 in West past that includes arrests over drug and Palm Beach, Florida. A longtime aficionado weapons possession-is also the star of a of marijuana, Snoop Dogg debuted a new reality television show, “Coach Snoop,” video for the song on Merry Jane, a that shows his side career as a youth foot- cannabis culture website he founded, and ball coach. — AFP has invested in a smartphone delivery Bollywood filmmaker challenges service for medical marijuana in his native California. censoring of drug-abuse film

Bollywood film producer took his row with regretted that the censor board was putting pres- India’s censor board to a court yesterday, sure on the film producer to accept cuts or whatev- Achallenging dozens of cuts and changes to a er it suggests 10 days before its release. film that depicts the menace of drug abuse in the Punjab state borders Pakistan, and most of the northern state of Punjab. drugs trafficked in the region originate from Censor Board Chief Pahlaj Nihalini said in a Afghanistan and are processed in Pakistan’s tribal newspaper interview that the movie wrongly areas. The Taliban control cultivation of opium pop- depicts 70 percent of people of the state consum- pies and smuggling routes, particularly in the south ing drugs and defaming them. He told reporters of Afghanistan. that the censor board has approved the movie for Kashyap said on Twitter: “There is no film more screening in theaters with the cuts ordered. He honest than ‘Udta Punjab’,” and that opponents of accused producer Anurag Kashyap of whipping up Producer of Bollywood film “Udta Punjab,” or the film were promoting drugs. The controversy a controversy to create interest in his film. “Flying Punjab” Anurag Kashyap gestures dur- took a political twist with state legislature elections Compared to Hollywood, movie norms in India ing a press conference, in Mumbai. — AP due early next year. Opposition Congress and Aam are extremely strict. Censorship authorities often Admi Party accuse leaders of the ruling regional order filmmakers - both Indian and foreign - to It could reject the matter or order reconsideration. group, the Akali Dal, of providing patronage and chop scenes deemed offensive. Films with graphic Kashyap said the censor board chief Nihalini shelter to the drug mafia in return for money. Prime content can be barred completely. Last year, India’s demanded 89 cuts to the film and even asked him Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist censor authorities ordered that kissing scenes in the to drop the name of the state from the title, “Udta Bharatiya Janata Party is an ally of the regional Punjab,” or “Flying Punjab.” James Bond movie, “Spectre,” be shortened before it group. Modi’s government appointed Nihalini as This file photo taken on May 16, 2016 shows Calvin Broadus Jr, better known as Bollywood producers and directors rallied was released in the country. the censor board chief last year. — AP Snoop Dogg, poses on arrival for the LA Premiere of AOL and First Row Film’s Docu- behind Kashyap in his fight with the censor board. Kashyap asked the Mumbai High Court to over- Series “Coach Snoop” in Hollywood. — AFP rule the cuts ordered by the censor board. The court “The job of the censor board is to certify films and is expected to take up the petition later Wednesday. not suggest cuts.” Producer-director Kabir Khan The uphill battle for female-driven comedies ridesmaids” was supposed to change the game for screenwriter Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith was one leading the charge. “I stop using the excuse that men won’t show up,” Feig said. The bottom line the female-driven comedy. But each new movie is sent out a mass email saying ‘please support the endangered He disproved the old box office myth that female-led movies Hollywood, however, is not governed solely by the bottom “Bstill treated like a beta test for the genre and the next species of the female-driven comedy,’” Smith said. “don’t travel” by creating “Spy,” a movie with all the elements of a line, but also by “comps.” It wants proven stars and proven proper- unwitting subjects are “Ghostbusters,” out July 15, and “Bad As with most things in Hollywood, the effects of the film’s marketable action-comedy that just happened to have a ties. That limits the talent pool and leaves less room for originality, Moms,” out July 29. Isn’t it supposed to be summer? phenomenal success were complicated. Feig and his stars did woman, McCarthy, as the lead. But, again, it seemed to only ben- and it’s forcing those in this genre to get creative with existing “Let’s wait and see how Ghostbusters does” has become a well. “Pitch Perfect” got off the ground. But Smith’s peers weren’t efit his circle. “My end game wasn’t ‘OK, Paul Feig will make all properties, whether it’s gender swapping like the new common phrase in the press and the industry - as if the future of seeing an uptick in project sales. the female-led movies,’” Feig said. Now he’s dismayed that every “Ghostbusters” or just expanding a current universe like “Sister female-led comedic blockbusters depends on Melissa McCarthy, “It was like, ‘no, wait, this isn’t supposed to be happening. The summer there only seem to be a few, despite continued proof Act” (Smith and co-writer Karen McCullah recently turned in a Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. movie’s a hit. Now we’re supposed to be able to sell all our that they’re just good business. draft for a third installment in the franchise). “This is a means to an It all sounds eerily familiar to director Paul Feig, the high female-driven comedies,’” she said. “It didn’t happen.” She thinks For instance, in the summer of 2015, the so-called “summer end and the most important thing is putting more films out there priest of female ensemble comedy. He heard the same thing some thought “Bridesmaids” was an anomaly. Feig, meanwhile, of women,” four female-led studio comedies (“Pitch Perfect 2,” that feature smart, funny, strong and fiery women,” Smith said. with “Bridesmaids.” “It’s unfair that women have to be put continued to do his thing. “I was hoping that I’d be able to show “Trainwreck,” “Spy,” “Hot Pursuit”) made over $715 million at the There’s also the box office lore that movies targeted toward through litmus tests all the time. What if ‘Ghostbusters’ doesn’t Hollywood that these movies are profitable and that they can worldwide box office. The price tag: $164 million. men generally get a pretty even distribution of gender into the- work?” Feig said. “If a giant tent pole starring men doesn’t do aters, whereas movies targeted at women can sometimes have well, people don’t go ‘oh well, we can’t have guys in movies an exaggeratedly female audience. Just last year, “Magic Mike anymore.’” XXL” attracted an opening weekend audience that was 96 per- Kay Cannon, who wrote the a cappella comedy “Pitch cent women. Perfect” and its sequel, which together cost $46 million to make Yet films like “Bridesmaids” have, of course, proven other- and earned $402.9 million worldwide, has had similar experi- wise and most in the industry are hopeful for the future. After ences. “I feel like with every movie, we’re auditioning to be mem- her series “” wraps, Cannon is going to direct her bers of this business,” she said. Former Universal Pictures first feature, “The Pact,” about three teenage girls hoping to Chairman Adam Fogelson, who greenlit “Bridesmaids” and “Pitch lose their virginity and the parents who try to stop them. She Perfect,” sees it differently. did have to spend some time tweaking the script, which was “I think it is true that the movies are discussed that way. I’m written by two men. not sure I think it’s true that in fact each movie carries that And there are a few studios that have more female centric weight. People tend to forget just how many success stories films on their roster, like 20th Century Fox’s Amy Schumer comedy there are,” Fogelson said, rattling off titles like “9 to 5,” “The First “Mother/Daughter” and Universal’s “Pitch Perfect 3,” “Girl Trip” and Wives Club,” “Bring It On,” “Clueless,” “Mean Girls” and “Baby “Bridget Jones’s Baby.” Beyond “Ghostbusters,” Sony has a “Charlie’s Mama.” In his mind, if “Bridesmaids” was breaking any new Angels” reboot, a live-action “Barbie” comedy, and the bache- ground, it was around the R-rating. lorette party comedy “Rock that Body.” But for Feig, it’s still the same old issue. “It’s nice that there are any ... there just need to be Frustrations and challenges more,” he said. “Nobody should be celebrating or patting them- Fogelson’s company STX Entertainment is behind “Bad selves on the back right now.” — AP Moms,” starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn, which he guarantees will have an R-rating, too. “There is no honest PG- 13 expression of the frustrations, the challenges and the hilarity In this image released by Sony Pictures, from of pursuing perfect parenthood,” Fogelson said. He also recog- left, Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen nizes that beyond its R-rating, “Bridesmaids” took on an added Wiig and Kate McKinnon from the film, significance that snowballed externally. “Legally Blonde” co- “Ghostbusters”. —AP