l i f e s t y l e TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2016 FEATURES Hollywood A-listers honor comedy prize winner Bill Murray S comedian Bill Murray is on cloud nine, and it’s not just because his beloved Uhometown baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, are advancing to the World Series for the first time in 71 years. The “Caddyshack” and “Lost in Translation” star got a major salute Sunday from America’s top comedians and Hollywood A-listers, who presented him with one of the nation’s top comedy awards. “I’m confused and I feel like I’m in a hurricane,” Murray told a crowd in Washington after receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor-quickly goading the audience to pass around his trophy, a small bust of the 19th century writer and humorist, to “see how far back it can get.” The 66-year-old was feted at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington by comedy’s finest-Aziz Ansari, Bill Hader, a fully bearded David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel. They turned out to share anecdotes and jokes about the US comedian, whose appeal spans multiple generations. Bill Murray is honored with the Mark Twain Prize Jimmy Kimmel, left, and Molly McNearney for American arrive at the Kennedy Center. Humor at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday in Washington, DC. —AP photos “He’s a man who travels around the world rife. But Murray, who wore a black tuxedo and Hollywood’s biggest comedic stars through spreading joy and foolishness wherever he Cubs-blue bow tie, said he had not had plans such roles as an oblivious groundskeeper in goes,” Kimmel told the audience. to skip the award. “Caddyshack” (1980), a supernatural investiga- “Bill Murray could shove you over the side tor in “Ghostbusters” (1984) and a doomed of the Hoover Dam and you’d be like, ‘Hey, Bill Dinner with Sotomayor, weatherman in “Groundhog Day” (1993). Murray!’ all the way down,” Kimmel said of the meeting with Obama In recent years, Murray’s roles have taken a comedian. Murray is known for his notoriously Murray took full advantage of his time in more serious turn, including in a handful of bizarre antics, such as crashing a recreational Washington, dining with Supreme Court Wes Anderson films such as “Rushmore” (1998) kickball game in New York in 2012 or joining a Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and stopping by the and his Oscar-nominated performance as a couple as an uninvited surprise guest in their White House press briefing room Friday worn-out movie star in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in engagement photos in South Carolina. Singer decked out in Cubs attire. “He was wearing a Translation” (2003), for which he won a Golden Miley Cyrus paired with musician Paul Shaffer Cubs jacket, which for a White Sox fan is a little Globe. Born in 1950 in a Chicago suburb, to perform a musical tribute to Murray, and troubling,” US President Barack Obama, who Murray was the fifth of nine children. He first actresses Sigourney Weaver and Emma Stone met with the comedian despite their opposing got involved in comedy when he followed his recounted their favorite memories from work- baseball allegiances, told reporters. Asked older brother Brian Doyle-Murray onto the ing on set with Murray. about what the pair of golf enthusiasts talked cast of Chicago’s famed Second City improvi- Had the Cubs not clinched a win Saturday, about, Murray told AFP: “Putting.” sational comedy troupe. “The only reason I’m however, the evening could have been for Murray first rose to fame in 1977 on the here is because of my brother Brian,” Murray naught, as the Major League Baseball team cast of “Saturday Night Live,” playing smarmy told the crowd. Former recipients of the Mark would have been playing game seven during crooner “Nick the lounge singer,” before land- Twain Prize include Whoopi Goldberg, Tina the ceremony. Speculation as to whether avid ing his first major big screen role in the 1979 Fey, Jay Leno and last year’s winner Eddie Victoria Lily, left, with her father Paul fan Murray would show for the award ceremo- hit “Meatballs.” By 1980, Murray had quit SNL Murphy. The award ceremony will air on public Emma Stone arrives at the Kennedy Center. Shaffer arrive at the Kennedy Center. ny or head to the game-had it happened-was and over the next two decades became one of broadcaster PBS on Friday. — AFP ‘Real-life Cinderella’ Screen legend Streep says film delves into plight of Hong Kong maids singing badly required work yril Goliava cut an elegant figure in her yellow scar-winner Meryl Streep had to the nice word, screwed around with them,” evening gown as she won a beauty pageant in Hong learn how to “screw around” with she said. “Somehow I pulled it off,” the 67- CKong, smiling to cheers from the crowd as she was Osongs when she played a tone-deaf year-old said of playing Foster Jenkins. presented with a tiara and trophy. But the euphoria faded socialite, she told reporters in Japan yes- American socialite Foster Jenkins craved as the Filipina beauty queen removed her purple eyeshad- terday. Streep, whose latest work “Florence fame as a diva but instead gained notori- ow and fake eyelashes on a bus ride home, and thought of Foster Jenkins” opens the Tokyo ety for her terrible singing voice. her week ahead. “When I go home, it’s sad all of a sudden International Film Festival, has an enviable The strained warbling of her latest film because your time with friends is over,” Goliava said. “It’s musical pedigree, but had to tamp down is a far cry from the musical talents Streep another week of work. Six days of stressful work, I’ll be eat- her skills when she took on the lead role. “I showed off in “Mamma Mia!” in 2008 and ing alone again and a full day of a repetitive job.” The story did try to learn how to sing these arias “Into the Woods” in 2014. of Goliava, a Filipina domestic helper, and her fellow work- properly, so I got a very, very good, true The 29th edition of the Tokyo ers is the subject of a new documentary that seeks to shat- opera coach and he taught me the arias International Film Festival will screen 16 ter stereotypes about the millions of women employed in correctly,” Streep told journalists. films in competition chosen from some households across the world. “And then in the last two weeks of a 1,500 works sent in from 96 countries and US actress Meryl Streep poses for photos following a press conference for her latest Directed by filmmaker Baby Ruth Villarama, “Sunday two-month preparation ... we just, what’s regions. — AFP movie “Florence Foster Jenkins” in Tokyo yesterday. — AP Beauty Queen” follows five domestic workers as they gear up for the annual Miss Philippines Tourism Hong Kong, a pageant organized by the maids in the Asian financial hub since 2008. The 94-minute documentary, which took four years to make, attempts to tell the women’s story from a different angle instead of the usual “depressing” way, Japan animation auteur Hosoda Villarama said, “I want to break the stereotypes and the usual approach when it comes to how we tell the story about them,” the filmmaker said by Skype from Manila. “Along the way I learnt that it’s not about escaping from sees beasts in child’s growth the world they have, but it’s about making something out of their struggle and finding their own happiness. It gives them a sense of purpose.” Barred from sitting on sofa The documentary premiered this month at Asia’s largest film festival, the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. There are over 300,000 foreign maids in Hong Kong, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, In this image released who live with their employers and typically toil 16 to 20 by 2006 Tokikake Film In this image released hours a day, six days week. Sunday is their only day off. For Partners, Kazuko by 2012 “Wolf Goliava and fellow Filipina helpers, Sundays are filledwith Yoshiyama, a junior Children” Film catwalk coaching and rehearsals, giving them respite from high school student, Partners, Hana, center, tough jobs by taking part in the annual contest and the events leading up to it. jumps in a scene from holds her half-wolf The film shows their exhausting daily routines, their Japanese animation children, Yuki, left, and relationships with their employers, and the hardships they director Mamoru Ame in a scene from face. These range from exploitation and strict employment Hosoda’s animation Japanese animation rules that discourage helpers from reporting abuse, to film “The Girl Who director Mamoru their treatment, such as being barred from sitting on the Leapt Through Time.” Hosoda’s animation sofa or forced to sleep in the kitchen. One maid compet- — AP photos film “Wolf Children.” ing in the pageant lost her job after she failed to get home one Sunday by her 9 pm curfew. “It’s a real-life Cinderella ime warps, half-bestial children and par- the 2015 “The Boy and the Beast,” focuses on frustrated, even insulted, when he gets asked referring to the legacy of Oscar-winning story,” Villarama said. allel worlds are, for Mamoru Hosoda, a a boy’s evolving relationship with a why he simply doesn’t change with the times Hayao Miyazaki, of Ghibli Studios’ “Spirited Tnatural way to pursue the universal disheveled but well-meaning bear-father, and use computer graphics. Hosoda’s first fea- Away” and “Ponyo.” “There are as many angles Anti-migrant sentiment coming-of-age story that has driven all his complete with video-game-like martial-arts ture, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” por- are there are directors, and we must enjoy Although Hong Kong’s foreign maids have better pro- movies. “A child growing up is fascinating and fight scenes. trayed a schoolgirl who finds herself suddenly that diversity,” said Hosoda, irritation clear in tection than their counterparts in other parts of Asia, stunning, a true wonder of the world,” the able to go back and forth in time, a take on his voice. Hosoda, who sees Disney’s 1991 social exclusion and mistreatment in the city have come burly but friendly Japanese animation direc- A real struggle that common wish of having done or said “The Beauty and the Beast” as the film that under scrutiny since the 2014 case of Erwiana tor said recently in an interview at his subur- All the films feature the trademark hand- something differently. The scenes in which influenced him the most, stressed it’s impor- Sulistyaningsih, an Indonesian maid beaten by her ban Tokyo Chizu Studio. “There is struggle in drawn style of the art-school-trained Hosoda, she gets thrust through time are dazzling. tant for artists like him to be aware of their employer and burned with boiling water. A study released growth and change, between that wolf, that especially stunning in the depiction of rural Hosoda, honored internationally, including at position in international filmmaking, while in March found that one in six foreign domestic workers in blood, that drive within you and order or rea- landscapes below cloud-filled skies that the Brussels International Fantastic Film staying true to the storytelling of Japanese Hong Kong is a victim of forced labour and that a signifi- son needed to live as a human being. I want evokes luscious paintings. A decade into his Festival, as well as at home, winning the settings, situations and characters that are cant proportion have been trafficked. to keep looking at this child, standing alone feature-animation career, Hosoda continues Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the close to his every day. Like the characters in Meanwhile, anti-migrant sentiment surged after two in the middle of all that.” to defy the time and cost-saving technologi- Year, is also recognized for his collaboration his film, Hosoda as creator is also being asked Filipina helpers launched a failed legal battle in 2013 for A retrospective of Hosoda’s works, starting cal advantages of computer graphics, now on animation with acclaimed visual artist that same question of identity, he added. “It the right to permanent residency in Hong Kong. But not all from his early shorts, is highlighted at this the standard at studios like Pixar and Disney. Takashi Murakami, who designed manga-like may feel like a tiny corner of the world, but it Hong Kong residents are prejudiced towards foreign year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, which “We are really barely hanging on,” he said, motifs for Louis Vuitton luxury bags. is about the eternal,” he said, stressing that domestic helpers, as the film shows. Jack Soo, a 67 year old the answer is not about the gimmick of local- who lived alone with his helper Mylyn, one of the beauty opens Tuesday. People think his films are stressing that given the time and costs pageant contestants, said in the film that Hong Kong about family, which they are, but it’s the child required for drawing, rather than switching Japanese settings ization. “To face up to this with sincerity is would “be in trouble” without foreign maids. — Reuters in the middle of that framework that fasci- completely to computer graphics, his work But Hosoda isn’t at all happy about the what allows a work to reach people on the nates him the most, Hosoda says. His latest, has been a real struggle. Sometimes, he is title he has earned of “the next Miyazaki,” other side of the planet.” — AP