Val Kilmer's life in pictures
Kilmer portrays Nick Rivers, an American rock star swept into an underground resistance movement, in "Top Secret!," the 1984 action comedy. Kilmer sang his own songs in the film and released an album under his character's name. Paramount/Everett Collectiion
Kilmer starred as "Iceman," the cocky but cool rival to Tom Cruise's "Maverick" in 1986's "Top Gun," directed by Tony Scott. Kilmer would reprise his character in the sequel, which came out in 2022. Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis/Getty Images
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San Francisco Chronicle
32 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sasha Velour's ‘Big Reveal' redraws the boundaries of drag and theater
Other performers might dread glitches during shows. Sasha Velour makes them her co-stars. Her 'The Big Reveal Live Show!' offers no straightforward lip sync. Phone rings, TV static and vertical colored bars, smashed dishes, recording skips, computer viruses and flickering lights constantly interrupt her drag numbers, video art, autobiographical anecdotes and mini lectures on drag history and theory. But if these on-purpose mistakes rip the fabric of the mostly solo show, which opened Wednesday, June 4, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the 'RuPaul's Drag Race' champion, author and Berkeley native widens them into wormholes and crawls inside to do battle with them. As she tries to claw back control of her bit, she might wind up on the floor in tears, but she's the winner all the same. It's partly a clown show: the garish makeup, the padded body parts, the nightmarish facial expressions, the wordless physical theater fight against absurdist forces too large to understand. But in all those gaffes, larger ideas are also at work. Imperfection is key to understanding drag and camp more generally, Velour says at one point. The art form doesn't work if you don't have self-awareness — if you don't understand your flaws but 'press on' anyway. (The implied corollary: Someone like Trump couldn't do camp even if he wanted to.) In a tough time for theater locally and nationwide, with companies scaling back or closing as funding sources dwindle, 'The Big Reveal Live Show!' suggests that institutional theater programming more drag might be one way forward. Audience members certainly showed up on Wednesday, some even glammed up in drag as opposed to the standard Berkeley Rep audience uniform of earth tones and sensible shoes. And Velour's show itself is more daring, artistic and intellectual than a lot of straight plays. Some of her patter — 'After so many years of backlash,' 'Drag serves as a mirror,' 'We are here, and we are not going away' — is boilerplate; the points might be more effectively made without didacticism. But other bits of monologue evince the scholarly yet frisky understanding of drag that undergirds her book, also called 'The Big Reveal,' with the subtitle 'An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag.' 'Queerness isn't shocking or groundbreaking at all,' she says in the show. 'It's normal. It's boring.' Cultures throughout history have had some kind of drag performance, she points out — even the American military in World War II. It only becomes threatening, she says, when it's no longer performed by straight men. Her costumes — by Diego Montoya Studio, Pierretta Viktori, Jazzmint Dash, Gloria Swansong and Casey Caldwell — are celestial wonders. One skirt hem resembles the orbit of the sometime-planet Pluto, both elliptical and noncoplanar, forming part of an outfit that looks like a bottle of pink Champagne frozen right in the moment of exploding. Another piece blurs the boundary between human and furniture. In one heart-stopping moment, she lines herself up with an outline of a human form projected on a large screen behind her. Without any perceptible change in lighting, she seems to change color, blazing in the gold of a desert sunset. Graffiti gets written on her, and ropes wrap around her; body parts metamorphose and enlarge. Your eyes search for signs as to what's projected and what's tangible. She dissolves in flames. By the end, you half expect her to be able to step through the screen and get swallowed whole, the wormholes covering their tracks like magic. As Velour finds the deviant in the familiar — talk shows, Disney princesses having animal friends, audio montages of iconic phone calls in film, the pixelated desktop of 1990s-era Windows — she makes the case that drag is available to everyone, no matter how weird or normie you are. That thing that tickles you? That you find yourself returning to again and again? Drag is a way you can talk about it, and it belongs on every stage and in every sitting room in America.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Paramount Cutting Another 3.5% Of Its Domestic Workforce, Citing Linear TV Declines And Broader Economy
Paramount Global, which last year shed 15% of its U.S. workforce, said Tuesday it will reduce it by another 3.5%. The cuts will take effect Tuesday, according to a memo from Co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins that was obtained by Deadline. More from Deadline Paramount Global CFO Naveen Chopra Is Departing '60 Minutes' Correspondent Scott Pelley Says Trump Lawsuit Settlement & Apology Would Be "Very Damaging" To Reputation Of CBS And Paramount Shari Redstone Reveals She Is Undergoing Treatment For Thyroid Cancer 'As we navigate the continued industry-wide linear declines and dynamic macro-economic environment, while prioritizing investments in our growing streaming business, we are taking the hard, but necessary steps to further streamline our organization starting this week,' the execs wrote. Paramount is still in a protracted waiting game as it looks to close its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. The transaction was proposed last summer and needs only the approval of the FCC in order to close, but it now appears unlikely to close in the first half of the year as the companies had projected. President Donald Trump's crusade against the media (in this case CBS News) is holding up the deal despite the fact that Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and Skydance backer Larry Ellison are longtime Trump supporters. Along with filing a $20 billion lawsuit over routine business activities at 60 Minutes, Trump's appointee to chair the FCC, Brendan Carr, has slow-walked the agency's review of the merger. While mediation talks are ongoing in the lawsuit, hopes have not recently been high for a near-term settlement. While the new layoffs are targeting domestic workers, the Co-CEOs said they 'may also result in some impacts to our workforce outside the U.S. over time.' At the end of 2024, Paramount had 18,600 global employees, with Tuesday's cutbacks affecting several hundred in the U.S. As opposed to the multi-phase layoffs last year, which were announced in the summer and wrapped by year-end, the new round is taking effect Tuesday. 'We recognize how difficult this is and are very thankful for everyone's hard work and contributions,' the CEOs wrote. 'These changes are necessary to address the environment we are operating in and best position Paramount for success.' The shrinking of Paramount's workforce reflects contraction across the entire media sector, with Disney recently announcing a fresh round of cuts as companies reckon with cord-cutting's hit to their pay-TV revenues. Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media Where To Watch All The 'John Wick' Movies: Streamers That Have All Four Films Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Paramount Global CFO Naveen Chopra Is Departing
Paramount Global said Monday that its chief financial officer Naveen Chopra is departing 'to pursue other opportunities' as the company still awaits FCC approval for the merger with Skydance it announced almost a year ago. Andrew Warren, currently strategic advisor to the Office of the CEO, will assume the additional role of EVP, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Warren is the former CFO of Discovery Communications, the NBCUniversal Television Group and STX Entertainment. More from Deadline '60 Minutes' Correspondent Scott Pelley Says Trump Lawsuit Settlement & Apology Would Be "Very Damaging" To Reputation Of CBS And Paramount Shari Redstone Reveals She Is Undergoing Treatment For Thyroid Cancer Paramount Will Be A "Melting Ice Cube" If Trump Dooms Skydance Deal, Ex-FCC Commissioner Rob McDowell Says - But Even A 2-Member Agency Could Still Approve It 'We thank Naveen for his leadership role during a dynamic period of transformation and growth,' said Paramount's co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins in a press release today. 'We are excited to partner with Andy, who has been our strategic advisor, in his new, expanded role as interim CFO and we are confident that his deep financial expertise and familiarity with our business make him exceptionally well-suited to step into this position.' At Discovery, Warren was instrumental in driving strategic initiatives and growing the global business footprint, the announcement said. In his current role as strategic advisor to the Office of the CEO at Paramount, he has worked closely with senior leadership on key financial and strategic priorities. Cheeks, McCarthy and Robbins have been running the company since former CEO Bob Bakish was pushed out as Paramount Global's controlling shareholder Shari Redstone attempted to clinch a sale. It's an unusual arrangement meant to be temporary as the company ultimately passed to David Ellison's Skydance Media. But the Trump administration and commissioner he promoted to lead the FCC, Brendan Carr hasn't signaled anything happening any time soon. Donald Trump has sued CBS and 60 Minutes for $20 billion over how the newsmagazine edited an interview with Kamala Harris and that suit has caused the network, company and Redstone no end of grief as settling what many consider a specious lawsuit is complicated, but not settling it is is too with the deal under review by commission. Redstone also recently revealed she is being treated for thyroid cancer. Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media Where To Watch All The 'John Wick' Movies: Streamers That Have All Four Films Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
