She was the stunning star who captured the hearts of millions. Then her life spiraled out of control... and ended in heartbreaking tragedy
Actress Margot Kidder's Lois Lane – a mixture of journalistic feistiness and besotted comic book–girlfriend vulnerability – became instantly iconic and recognizable. She starred in four of the franchise's blockbusters, gracing the covers of countless magazines and making shoeless appearances for TV interviews as the world couldn't seem to get enough of the ethereal Canadian star.
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The Guardian
22 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Old people are capable of more': meet the female weightlifters in their 70s and 80s
Joan MacDonald is an influencer. There's no other word for it, though she winces a little when she says it. But she is an influencer, and an extremely successful one. The fitness maven has been on the covers of magazines such as Women's Health, modeled as part of lucrative brand deals and launched her own fitness app, Train With Joan. On Instagram, where she has more than 2 million followers, she shares pictures of herself posing in bikinis in picturesque locales and training at the gym in color-coordinated workout sets. But there's one small difference between MacDonald and many other social media starlets. She is 79. 'I was 70 when I started [working out],' MacDonald says on a video call from her home in Ontario, white hair elegantly coiffed. 'I keep thinking I'm in my 30s.' MacDonald's workouts are intense, whether you're 30 or 70. She does deadlifts, weighted planks and kettlebell swings, and casually lifts dumbbells the size of fire extinguishers over her head. Her arm muscles could put professional rugby players to shame. She is arguably the most famous older woman lifting heavy, but she's far from the only one. There's Ernestine Shepherd, 89, who has more than 101,000 Instagram followers and calls herself 'the world's oldest living female competitive bodybuilder'. Nora Langdon, in her 80s, recently shared a video of herself deadlifting 225 pounds. And earlier this year, the New Yorker published a documentary about Catherine Kuehn, who broke multiple world records for deadlifting in her 90s. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Many of these lifters seem to delight in bucking the stereotype of the frail old woman who needs help carrying her groceries. 'Once you reach a certain age, it's like you can't do anything any more,' MacDonald says. 'Trainers and coaches dumb down everything for older people, but old people are capable of more than they think.' As they age, women's physical abilities are often underestimated by others as well as themselves, says Elaina Manolis, a physical therapist and assistant clinical professor at Northeastern University. Manolis says the menopausal and post-menopausal women she works with often need help unlearning the negative messages about exercise they absorbed growing up. 'This is a generation that has been wired to think women should never be in the gym,' she says. MacDonald and Shepherd remember worrying they would 'look manly' when they started lifting. 'At the beginning, I thought, 'I don't want to be lifting weights, I'll look like a guy,'' recalls MacDonald. 'But that's just brainwashing. [Women] are told that so much that we believe it.' Women who avoid strength training are robbed of its benefits, many of which are especially helpful for ageing bodies. In addition to building muscle – which one can do at any age, Manolis notes – strength training has a significant impact on bone health and cognitive function. The former is especially important for women, who have a much higher risk of developing conditions that weaken the bones, like osteopenia and osteoporosis. And it's fun. Shepherd says that as soon as she started strength training, her favorite thing about it was 'the joy and the way that you felt'. She and her sister started lifting when they were in their mid-50s, and soon they were training others and building a community. 'I would wear what my trainer would call my 'costumes',' she says – shorts, crop tops, leopard-print leggings. MacDonald says she faced some criticism from people in her life when she first started working out and posting about it on Instagram. 'I got some really awful remarks from people I thought were my friends,' she says. They commented on how she dressed – 'because I wear form-fitting clothing', MacDonald says – and her growing public profile. 'They said I didn't have to prance around and keep telling people what I was doing,' she says. 'That's not what old women are supposed to do. You're sort of told, 'Go quietly out the back door, will you?'' Sign up to Well Actually Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life after newsletter promotion Attitudes are shifting, though. Manolis says she has lots of patients coming to her saying: 'I know I should start [lifting], I've been listening to a lot of podcasts.' And this is the first year the National Senior Games – an Olympic-style, multi-sport competition event for adults over 50 that takes place biennially in the US – will include a powerlifting competition. 'Over the last three or four years, more and more people have been asking me when we're going to add [powerlifting],' says Sue Hlavaseck, president and CEO of the National Senior Games Association (NSGA). Roughly 12,400 athletes are expected to participate in this year's National Senior Games, which are taking place in Des Moines, Iowa, at the end of July. Of those, 187 will be participating in the powerlifting competition – 99 men, aged 54 to 95, and 88 women, aged 50 to 82. The oldest female competitor, 82-year-old Faith O'Reilly, says a friend took her to a powerlifting meet in her late 30s. 'I was watching everybody and I thought, 'Well, I can do that,'' she says. O'Reilly has been lifting ever since. 'It suits me,' she says. She likes setting goals for herself, and enjoys the camaraderie of gyms and meets. And she appreciates the independence and confidence it has brought her. 'I've always liked being able to do things,' she says. 'And that's what powerlifting can do for you – you can handle your grandchildren, and your sacks of groceries.' Regardless of age, if you've never picked up weights before, it's best to start by working with a trainer or physical therapist who can help with form and individual needs. 'In most gyms that I've been in, people are happy to help,' says O'Reilly. Total beginners can see significant improvements in strength fairly quickly, says Manolis. She's had patients say that after four to six weeks of training they were able to get out of a chair without using their hands, walk up a full flight of stairs, vacuum the whole house or load a dishwasher for the first time in years. 'As we age, what we really want to do is to keep our independence and remain functional,' Manolis says. Strength training facilitates both of these things. That doesn't mean it's a cure-all. 'Being healthy and living life to the best of your ability doesn't mean you're going to be happy every day, or that you're going to be without pain or accidents,' MacDonald says. 'These things happen, but that's life. You've got to keep pushing forward.'
The Guardian
42 minutes ago
- The Guardian
From punk rock to gardening classes: the cemeteries getting a new lease on life
Rodney Anonymous, lead singer of the punk rock band The Dead Milkmen, has performed in venues around the world. His favorite place to play live is filled with the dead at the Laurel Hill cemetery in Philadelphia, where he used to ride his bike as a kid. The acoustics are great, and when there's a full moon, there's no place like it, the singer said. The band, whose songs include Punk Rock Girl and Bitchin' Camaro, have played at the burial grounds at least five times since 2012, and have plans to appear again next year. 'My wife and I were there for movie night and a lightbulb went off and I thought: 'Well, let me write them and ask. What's the worst that could happen? They say no and then they bury me alive?'' said Anonymous, who described the cemetery as the 'happy place' for the couple. Cemeteries nationwide are coming up with creative ways to liven up – sorry – their wide-open green spaces. From a beekeeping collective in Seattle to 'Night of Grief' karaoke in Washington DC, cemetery owners say events help them reconnect with the local community and sometimes bring in some much-needed funds. Visitors say they enjoy the cool vibe, family- and dog-friendly areas and innovative ideas. Cemeteries have always been community spaces in the United States, said David Sloane, author of Is the Cemetery Dead? and professor at the University of Southern California. Because many were public green spaces, families would come on Sundays to picnic on the grounds or take walks along the paths, he said. In the late 20th century, that collective use faded. Sloane remembers that his father, who was superintendent of Oakwood cemetery in Syracuse, New York, got a lot of backlash from the community for letting people jog through it. Sloane sees the resurgence of cemetery culture as part of a larger shift as people move away from traditional burials to cremation, and a way to bring in some income. According to the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), 61.8% of Americans chose cremation in 2024, up from 56.2% in 2020. The Canadian rate reached 76.7%, up from 73.7% in 2020, respectively. 'There's a move from a very restrictive idea to a broader sense of what's OK [to do in a cemetery],' he said. 'Instead of just a choral group in a chapel, now it's a rock group in a mausoleum.' Brian Heinz, director of horticulture and arboriculture at Spring Grove, an 180-year-old, 750-acre (300-hectare) cemetery and arboretum in Cincinnati, Ohio, said they offer community horticulture tours, container gardening and lantern-lighting ceremonies. They also collaborate with the University of Cincinnati's horticulture program, teaching plant-identification classes. Heinz said the approach of using cemetery spaces for cultural opportunities started changing in the 1980s, and then really expanded in the 2000s. At Spring Grove for 26 years, he said that as an operating burial ground, it's sometimes a delicate balance between community and cemetery. Spring Grove operates a four-car tram to give tours, and it's critical to adjust the route to accommodate the burial schedule. 'It's a little more of a challenge for the docents, because they're more structured with their script, and they have mausoleums and people and their history – the stories that they want to talk about,' he said. 'It almost pains them a bit if they're not able to get by certain people, but the drivers and the docents will check in before the tour to our office and look at the daily schedule and adjust.' In Washington DC, Laura Lyster-Mensh is the death doula-in-residence at the 33-acre Congressional cemetery, where thecformer FBI director J Edgar Hoover and former DC mayor Marion Barry are buried. As people started moving to the suburbs, it became harder to keep up the cemetery and it became unkempt and dangerous, she said. In 1997, neighbors formed the K9 Corps, whose members pay $400-$500 a year to be able to walk their dogs off-leash during specific hours. At one point, the group had a three-year waiting list, and now dues cover 25% of the cemetery's operating costs, according to the website. It saved the cemetery, Lyster-Mensh said. Now, the cemetery offers several events, including tours, death cafes and a book club entitled Tomes and Tombs. One of the biggest events is an outdoor theater night in October called Soul Strolls, where people walk by lantern light through the grounds, and people 'appear' at the graves to tell stories. Most events are free, but the Soul Strolls tickets were $40 for general admission in 2024. 'One of my favorite activities was Bad Art Day … a lot of people are weighed down by their stuff and the things that they didn't get done, their art supplies and their aspirational crafts kind of really weigh on people,' Lyster-Mensh said. 'So we had a day where we invited people to come in and dump all their drawers and boxes of craft and art supplies, and that we would all make bad art with it.' Nancy Goldenberg, CEO of Laurel Hill in Philadelphia, said the income from ticketed events like Market of the Macabre bring in some money, but it's only a small portion of the budget. The craft show, which costs $5-$10 to attend, offers vendors selling dollhouse-sized caskets and zombie Sesame Street characters. The aim of the tours and programming is to introduce people to Laurel Hill and build visibility and awareness, particularly for first-time visitors. 'It may be really cool to go see Eraserhead in a cemetery. That was such a cool event, let's go back and go to the market,' Goldenberg said. 'It's about building affinity and building an audience and having them understand the importance of this historic site in the region and to the community.' Some cemeteries have opened up to non-paying residents. At the 145-acre Evergreen Washelli in Seattle, the Catacomb Bee Collective tends to 20 beehives on site, said Madison Opp, a beekeeper and beekeeping educator. It started in 2021 with a simple phone call to the main office, she said, adding that the grounds are particularly attractive because of the flowering trees and the longer grasses. The hives are located near a bird sanctuary, far enough away from the active part of the grounds that people sometimes have a hard time finding them, she said. Beekeepers help tend the grounds and check on the hives every other week, harvesting honey once a year, she said. The hope is to offer beekeeping classes and offer honey to those saying goodbye to loved ones, a little something to offset the sadness. 'We've actually had families who specifically request a gravesite near the bees,' said Opp. 'It's really sweet.'
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Billy Joel says Christie Brinkley ‘was a muse' for his music
The HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes delves into the relationship between Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley, from their 1983 meeting to their 1994 divorce. Joel described Brinkley as his muse, stating she inspired many of his songs and made him feel like a teenager experiencing romance again. Brinkley initially found their romance 'just so much fun' but noted a turning point in 1989 with Joel's 'I Go to Extremes' single, which reflected his internal conflict as a family man and 'tortured artist'. A significant $90 million fraud lawsuit filed by Joel against his former manager in 1989 further strained their marriage, as it necessitated extensive touring that kept him away from his family. Despite their separation, the former couple maintain a close relationship, with Brinkley considering Joel a 'soulmate' and naming her memoir after his hit song 'Uptown Girl,' partly inspired by her.
