celebrity movie archive
celebrity movie archive |
- Why That Oscars Performance of ‘Shallow’ Was So Stunning - The Atlantic
- A Leaked Explicit Group Chat Including One Of K-Pop’s Biggest Idols Has Led To A New #MeToo Movement - BuzzFeed News
- 'The Big Fella' Highlights Babe Ruth's Spot As First Celebrity Sports Star - NPR
| Why That Oscars Performance of ‘Shallow’ Was So Stunning - The Atlantic Posted: 25 Feb 2019 12:00 AM PST  Maybe what made Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga's performance of "Shallow" so stunning at the Oscars is also what spoiled A Star Is Born's Best Picture chances: It treated the dinged-up tropes of romance for romance's sake as something that can still feel new, which is like treating the greeting-card aisle at CVS as the place for the next great American novel. Taking on a third remake of a story that feels more ancient than even the 1937 original, Cooper's film insisted that intensity, great camerawork, and two perfectly mismatched leads could restore substance to mush. Which is to say, he relied on aesthetic, or on matters of taste. If many viewers drank it up, inevitably some would spit it out. The same could be said for Sunday's supernaturally intimate rendition of "Shallow," the building-then-boiling duet that would later win Best Original Song. The first brilliant thing that Cooper and Gaga did was break with the loud, fake-y, predictable rhythm of awards shows: After one acceptance speech ended, the guitar-picking began, without so much as a canned joke of a celebrity introduction. Cameras placed viewers at the back of the stage; the curtain lifted; crew members pushed a piano into place. Welding-hot lights from the stands of the theater, seen from a singer's vantage, evoked the final scene of A Star Is Born. A slow-floating lens searched as if it were God's eye, or a director's. The TV gala, it seemed, had ended. A movie was beginning. And then Gaga and Cooper got up. As in, they got out of their seats in the front row where they'd been sitting all night. It was such a simple thing, and so shocking. Naturally, the point of the Oscars is the audience itself, with each member a potential trove of speeches, GIFs, and gossip. Cooper and Gaga provided such treats in generous quantities over the awards season, with months of mutual-admiration spectacles on red carpets fueling speculation—fan fiction, really—of an affair. Last week, Gaga's engagement to Christian Carino ended, intensifying the heavy breathing among observers. On Sunday, Cooper's longtime partner, Irina Shayk, sat between him and Gaga in the front row: a theoretically un-extraordinary move that landed like a dramatic twist in the narrative. All the tabloid baggage of previous months accompanied Gaga and Cooper as they linked hands across Shayk and then ferried from seat to stage, from spectator to performer, from celebrity to artist in action. Actors and pop stars traffic in fantasy, but rarely has the alchemy by which real people morph into fiction been toyed with so powerfully. The two of them—Stefani and Bradley the humans, or A Star Is Born's Ally and Jackson?—walked up and took positions by the piano, facing each other. They wouldn't directly regard the cameras at any point, and they'd leave unacknowledged the sea of glitterati perpendicular to them—and in the background on TV—until the end. Each viewer was an intruder. Neither Gaga nor Cooper won Oscars for acting on Sunday, but they absolutely did the most acting of anyone at the ceremony. Cooper's singing voice is less an instrument than a character, one that's unsteady yet handsome, Jackson Maine writ small. His greater power, on Sunday, was in his mannerisms. As "Shallow" reached its full froth, he bolted up and moved the mic stand aside almost violently. But then he sat beside Gaga and nuzzled her with a kind of equine gentleness. In her fluttering lashes and curt finger stabs, Gaga meanwhile conveyed tamped-down, love-struck panic, as if feeling and professionalism were in a duel. The fabulous feral rage that marked her Grammys take on "Shallow" was hidden in this fancier venue, but definitely not forgotten. Indeed, the contrast between her growling in a jeweled body suit earlier this month and playing piano in Audrey Hepburn's jewels on Sunday might seem contradictory. But both the Grammys and Oscars versions of "Shallow" bear Gaga's great hallmarks. They force a reaction. They interrupt the flow. They imagine what would happen if people were allowed to act as intensely as they inwardly feel. But they also suggest that someone can act—as in perform—so well that what they really feel is incidental. At the very end, in yet another seizingly effective micro-moment, Cooper, centimeters from Gaga's face, opened his eyes and finally looked out at the audience. What was in his head? As with Gaga's death glare at the Grammys, only he can really answer that. The dream of a great romance, though, is that total understanding can be achieved between lovers, and by their voyeurs. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.  Spencer Kornhaber is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers pop culture and music.  |
| Posted: 22 Mar 2019 02:16 PM PDT Getty Images | AP Photo Korean singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young (left), Seungri, a former member of the K-pop boy band Big Bang (center), and Choi Jong-Hoon (right), formerly of rock band FT Island, have been questioned by police in relation to criminal investigations linked to leaked group chat messages. Last year saw the beginning of South Korea's #MeToo movement when Seo Ji-Hyun, a prosecutor from Seoul, spoke out after she was groped by a senior colleague. Since then, women across different industries have slowly started to talk about their personal experiences of abuse and harassment. Now, a leak of explicit group chats involving several high-profile men in entertainment has led to calls from the public to reinvestigate incidents of a similar nature where men were not prosecuted. The person at the center of the latest scandal is Seungri, a 28-year-old K-pop star who was the youngest member of the boy band Big Bang, one of South Korea's biggest idol groups and one of the first K-pop acts to start touring worldwide. However, for the first time, women in South Korea are seeing concrete results for their efforts to get their voices heard through social media, and there is the hope that perhaps, this time, the men involved — and others before them — will actually be held accountable for their actions. At the end of February, a reporter from South Korean broadcaster SBS FunE got a hold of explicit videos and messages from a group chat on South Korean messaging app KakaoTalk that involved several high-profile men in the entertainment industry allegedly arranging prostitutes for foreign investors, recording explicit videos of women without their consent, and distributing the footage in the chat. The messages had been anonymously emailed to a lawyer by a whistleblower after someone in the group chat sent their phone in for repair. It is not clear whether the whistleblower was the person repairing the phone, according to Korean news agency, Yonhap. The identity of the person who sent their phone in for repair was later revealed to be Jung Joon-young, a 30-year-old singer-songwriter, who has since been arrested. The lawyer, Bang Jung Hyun, sent an archive of the messages, which he said spanned eight months, to SBS FunE and reported the case to South Korea's Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission after he found messages related to an ongoing investigation into a nightclub called Burning Sun.
On March 10, Seungri was booked on charges of violating anti-prostitution laws and called in for questioning by police over allegations of drug use and arranging prostitutes for foreign investors at nightclubs he has ties to. Police said they had also booked three to four other people who at the time were unnamed. The same day, police also searched a nightclub called Arena, where Seungri had apparently illegally offered prostitutes in December 2015 to an unnamed foreign investor, according to the messages. Prostitution is a crime in South Korea punishable with imprisonment for three years. South Korean news outlet Sisa Press also published messages that appeared to show a conversation between Seungri and his business partner prior to a trip to Indonesia, when Seungri allegedly offered different women to the business partner and asked how much he would pay the women. The screenshots appear to show Seungri mentioning the price of 10 million won ($10,000). The next day, Seungri shocked his fans by announcing that he was retiring from music. Chung Sung-jun / Getty Images Seungri is seen arriving at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on March 14, 2019. The 28-year-old and his label, YG Entertainment, have repeatedly denied the allegations and said that the messages were fabricated. Seungri's business partner, Yoo In Suk, a co-CEO of investment company Yuri Holdings, has also denied accusations that he himself was also involved in the group chats. Seungri had already been questioned in February as part of the investigation into Burning Sun nightclub, where he was the public relations director. Police had begun investigating the nightclub after a man named Kim Sang Kyo said he was assaulted by the club's staff when he was helping a woman who had been sexually harassed there. Kim said that the assault left him with broken ribs, but he was himself also placed under arrest and further assaulted by police. At the time, police initially responded to the report by saying the man was obstructing the club's business. Kim created a petition demanding justice, which gained over 200,000 signatures.
The investigations into the messages from the group chat also revealed the existence of group chats where men were sharing sexually explicit videos of women who appear to be unaware that they were being filmed. In South Korea, there has been a growing problem of tiny hidden cameras that are used to record people in changing rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, and in various private spaces. The explicit videos — known as "molka" — are often distributed across the internet on porn websites. On March 11, Jung, who would later be revealed as the owner of the phone sent in for repair, was named as a participant in the group chat. He has been accused of sharing 10 videos of women over a 10-month period. Ahn Young-joon / AP Jung Joon-young arrives at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on March 14, 2019. His agency initially denied the allegations. Jung had been out of the country at the time but apologized at the airport upon returning to the country on March 12. He released a statement later that day admitting to the allegations. A day later, South Korean media outlets named another member of the group chat as Choi Jong-Hoon, 29, a member of South Korean rock band FT Island. Choi reportedly sent a message to the group chat talking about being caught drunk driving and allegedly asking a police officer to deal with it without the public knowing. Choi's label later said that, after checking with him, Choi did pay a 2.5 million won ($2,500) fine for drink driving and had his license suspended for 100 days in February 2016. His label said that he would cooperate with the police in their investigation and while the investigation is taking place, he would halt all activities with the label. Jung and Choi appeared to be involved in an exchange where Jung said, "Let's all meet online and go to a strip bar and rape in a car." Someone only named as Park then responded, "We do that in real life too, you know." Choi agreed, and Park added, "This is a movie. Think about it for five minutes. We just didn't murder, a lot of bastards have gone to jail for that." All eight members of the group chat have now been identified. They are: former Big Bang member Seungri, Yoo, Jung, Choi, and four noncelebrities. All of the people in question have now retired from their respective businesses and have been questioned by police. Han Myung-gu / WireImage Choi Jong-Hoon, arriving at a Seoul police station for questioning over a sex video scandal among multiple celebrities on March 16, 2019. On March 14, Yong Jun-hyung, a member of the K-pop group Highlight, also announced that he was retiring from the entertainment industry, even though he was not involved in the group chat. Yong said that he had started talking to Jung at the end of 2015 and admitted to taking part in "very inappropriate conversations." CNBLUE member Lee Jong Hyun has also admitted that he also viewed explicit hidden camera footage, despite not being in the group chat. He is currently still in the military.
Following the scandal, the South Korean public has been shining a spotlight on previous cases where men have been said to have abused their power, such as the death of Jang Ja-yeon, an actor who killed herself in 2009. Jang had left a note where she accused her agent of forcing her to give sexual favors to 31 high-profile entertainment figures and journalists. Her agent was not identified but was arrested in July 2009 and charged for coercing her. He was given a one-year prison sentence. Some of the 31 people Jang accused in her note were investigated by the police at the time but were acquitted, according to the Korea Times. The names of the 31 people were withheld by SBS TV out of privacy concerns. As the statute of limitations on Jang's case runs out at the end of March, people campaigned on social media to get Jang's case retried by getting South Korea's president to extend the time.
The campaign received support from actor Yoon Ji-oh, who said she had seen some of the names on the letters in question. She posted to Instagram saying she believes the late actor was sexually assaulted and testified at a trial of a reporter who was accused of sexually assaulting Jang on March 18.
Concerns about police corruption in Seungri's case also led to growing support for a petition that was started on March 12 as a last-minute campaign to ensure that Jang's case was not forgotten about before the statute of limitations ends. It now has more than 670,000 signatures.
On March 18, South Korean President Moon Jae-in responded by putting in an emergency order, which will allow prosecutors two more months to investigate Jang's case. The president also said there will be thorough investigation into another case involving former vice justice minister Kim Hak-ui.
Kim was accused of raping women and receiving sexual services that were arranged for by a developer who was looking for business favors from the then–senior prosecution official. Kim went on to become the vice justice minister and later resigned when the allegations surfaced. He was cleared in 2013, but there have been doubts by the Justice Ministry if the prosecution had properly investigated his case, according to the Korea Herald. The president has assured the public and said that thorough investigations would not only be carried out in the old cases, but also in the one involving Seungri. Despite the government's announcements, people are still encouraging the public to continue signing the petition about Jang in order to get even more time and to keep the discussions going.
On Thursday, Jung was arrested after appearing in court and admitting to all the charges. He has been dropped by his management company. Choi's management company also said it was terminating its contract with him. Seungri has continued to deny the allegations, with his lawyer going on TV and saying that the text messages were out of context and that the singer wasn't arranging for a sexual escort but rather a woman to accompany the business partner. Seungri was questioned for the fourth time by police on Thursday, March 21, regarding a violation of the food sanitation act at one of his clubs.
People have also been calling on Netflix to take down a show featuring Seungri on Netflix titled YG Future Strategy Office. A Netflix spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that they have been informed of the allegations and "take the issue seriously." "We have no plans for doing active promotion of this show," the spokesperson said. ● CORRECTIONLee Jong-Hyun has not retired. A previous version of this post said he had. UPDATEThis story has been updated to state that Jung Joon-young was the person who sent their phone in for repair.  |
| 'The Big Fella' Highlights Babe Ruth's Spot As First Celebrity Sports Star - NPR Posted: 18 Oct 2018 12:00 AM PDT  As the New York Yankees prepared to play the Boston Red Sox in the first round of this year's playoffs, the staff at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, N.Y., braced for cleanup duty. The grave in Section 25, Lot 1115, gets plenty of traffic. But the playoffs are always extra busy and, as The New York Times reported, a Yankees-Red Sox playoff series sends the visits to George Herman Ruth's grave into overdrive. And standing at Babe Ruth's grave apparently isn't enough — people feel compelled to leave not just bats, hats, balls and gloves but also a lot of alcohol and food. "People leave them all the time — a hot dog in a bun," the cemetery superintendent told the Times. At the modern peak of the Yankees-Sox rivalry, the 2004 American League Championship Series, someone delivered a pizza to Ruth's grave. Why does a baseball player who retired 83 years ago and died 70 years ago inspire such a personal connection in 2018? Because, as Jane Leavy details in her new biography, The Big Fella, Ruth wasn't just the first baseball superstar. He was also a movie star, a vaudeville performer, a barnstormer, a pitchman for every conceivable product, and a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. He was the first celebrity of the mass media era. Early in the book, Leavy rattles off 58 different nicknames Ruth went by. There are the usuals, of course: the Babe, the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat. There's also the Bizoo of Bang, the Mastodomic Mauler and — my new favorite — the Swattingist Swatter of Swatdom. But as global an icon as Ruth was and remains, he is also a one-dimensional figure. Just like early American icons such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, most people know only a couple of real facts about Ruth's life — and those facts are very likely oversimplified or outright untrue. He grew up in a Baltimore orphanage and reform school, where Xaverian brothers taught him how to play baseball. A young Ruth became a star pitcher for perennial World Series contenders the Boston Red Sox, then suddenly shifted gears to become the best hitter in the game. The Red Sox sold him to the New York Yankees, only to see Ruth shoot even further into the stratosphere. As Ruth belted home run after home run, the Yankees blossomed from a second-rate team into the center of the baseball universe, winning World Series after World Series. The Yankees drew so many fans they had to build Ruth his own ballpark, Yankee Stadium. Everything about Ruth was excessive: his home runs; his weight; his appetites. And the Red Sox, of course, had to wait until 2004 for another World Series win, after cursing themselves for generations by selling Ruth. All that is accurate — and covered by Leavy — but what's missing is the human element. Leavy documents a personal life marked by tragedy: Four siblings died as children; Ruth's parents effectively abandoned him to an orphanage at age 7; and Ruth's first, estranged, wife died in a fire, among other hardships. But Leavy doesn't write about how these terrible moments shaped Ruth's personality and life, because it's simply unknown. Ruth never really told anyone, and the hagiographic sports reporting of his era never delved into it. That makes it hard to write a thorough biography like Leavy's last book, The Last Boy, which was centered on moments of Mickey Mantle's flawed humanity and vulnerability. Leavy responds by doing the next best thing: painstakingly re-creating the mythical, larger-than-life role Ruth played in American culture at the height of his fame. She does this by framing the book around a national barnstorming tour Ruth and Lou Gehrig took at the absolute peak of Ruth's powers: the weeks immediately following the 1927 baseball season. Ruth had hit an astonishing 60 home runs that year, then led what is widely considered to be the greatest baseball team of all time (with apologies to the 1998 Yankees) to a World Series title. After that, Ruth and Gehrig hit the road on a publicity tour orchestrated by Ruth's publicist and manager, Christy Walsh. They traveled by train from New Jersey to Missouri to Colorado to California, pulling into small towns to wow crowds with exhibition baseball games against local teams. Each stop was a whirlwind, and so, at times, is the format of the book. Using headlines from the tour as jumping-off points, Leavy skips from year to year, elliptically covering the rest of Ruth's life and career. For example, after describing a photograph Ruth took with a record-setting Nebraska chicken — the Babe Ruth of egg-laying! — Leavy details how Ruth and Walsh pioneered product endorsements and publicity campaigns. A visit to a Kansas City orphanage for African-American children leads to a chapter on the persistent rumors that Ruth was part black, as well as his willingness to play exhibition games against Negro Leagues stars at a time when most baseball players were happy to enforce and follow segregation. The structure takes some getting used to, but it perfectly captures the swirl of attention that followed Ruth everywhere he went. Most of the exhibition games were delayed or ended early when children rushed onto the field to touch or be near Ruth. Glancing encounters Ruth had with people along the way — a drive to the train station, a dinner at someone's house, even just a quick picture or meet-and-greet — became defining moments in their lives. Photographs, autographed baseballs, and scorecards from the exhibition games became family heirlooms, or auction items later sold for tens of thousands of dollars. Today, celebrities and professional sports are omnipresent. No matter where you are in the world, you can watch your favorite baseball player live on your phone or TV. In the U.S., you can very likely see him play in a city near you. Beyond that, you can read every single one of his thoughts on Twitter, or about his downtime hobbies on Instagram. And if he goes out in public, rest assured a fellow fan will film him with a phone and post the moment online. That's not how life was when Ruth was playing. He was the first mass media celebrity, sure, but radio broadcasts were still rare in 1927, and no team played west of St. Louis. For all the people in the Midwest and Western towns that Ruth and Gehrig rolled through that fall were concerned, the two men were Olympian gods whose exploits they could only read about in delayed wire reports. But here they were, shaking hands, hitting home run balls, then waving as they rode out of town on the train! The scenes of these encounters — especially the amazed and breathless local newspaper articles Leavy liberally quotes — captures the beginning of the shift from faraway, mythical figures to modern media celebrities. When you read how people spent the rest of their lives telling everyone who would listen how they once watched Babe Ruth, or how he once patted their heads as they worked as the bat boys for his team, you might understand how, half a century later, someone could feel compelled to send a pizza delivery to the Hall of Famer's gravesite.  |
![[1/2] Lawyer Bang talks about #Seungri #BurningSun #JungJoonYoung Please read till the end #김현정의토크쇼 https://t.co/wRiFDzg9xf](https://abs.twimg.com/sticky/default_profile_images/default_profile_normal.png)
![[only translating some part] In this chat, Seungri gives out the female 'choices' (from 1 to 5) to the client. E.g. #1 likes a little bit of money, charming, + good visuals, #3 has good visuals, fun, talented, but there's a downside when she's drunk.](https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1107674539452854277/yUszA1Ju_normal.png)
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