Shout! TV ‘Double Take' Book Lovers Day Giveaway
And that means that Shout! TV has an additional treat for our readers: a giveaway! One lucky reader can win a physical media bundle featuring The Decline of Western Civilization Part II Blu-ray, The Company Of Wolves 4K, Ginger Snaps Blu-ray, Natural Born Killers 4K, and Mallory's book Girls Make Movies .
For a chance to win, simply fill out the form below. Entries will run until 11:59 pm PDT on Tuesday, August 12th, after which time a winner will be randomly drawn. Sorry, U.S. residents only.
And don't forget to tune into Shout! Movies on 8/9 for a new episode of Double Take hosted by Mallory O'Meara in celebration of Book Lovers Day! Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
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National Post
2 hours ago
- National Post
Colby Cosh: The atomic bomb through Oppenheimer's eyes
Can it really be two years since Christopher Nolan's film 'Oppenheimer' became the old-school box-office sensation of summer 2023? Well, there you go, it must have been two years: even a journalist can do that much math. 'Oppenheimer,' which is reasonably scrupulous in its accuracy by cinema standards, continues to be fertile ground for discussion and memes. People will go on talking about the war and the command decision to bomb, but the drama of Los Alamos, N.M., is a distinctive, important historical phenomenon, a little nugget of uncanny magic rearranging human history at the outset of the Jet Age. Article content Article content A cult of wizards was assembled (on a mountaintop, loosely speaking) by a great empire: it was told to come up with a method to drop a sun on its enemies, and they succeeded. As Nolan's movie implies, almost every other thing that happened in the 20th century, including the actual use of the weapon, might be a footnote. Article content Article content Article content If you are suitably mesmerized by these events, one thing to remember is that the record of them is still incomplete. 'Oppenheimer' was made even though documentary material about, and by, J. Robert Oppenheimer is still becoming available to the public, as a new National Security Archive (NSA) release reminded us on Tuesday. The NSA maintains a 'briefing book' of primary sources on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and it makes periodic updates with newly declassified or rediscovered materials. The briefing book itself, built up over 20 years, is extensive enough to fertilize graduate-level papers on the decisions surrounding construction and use of the bomb. Article content Article content There are some fascinating new declassified documents in the 2025 update. One is a letter written in September 1944 by William S. Parsons, the navy officer who headed the ordnance group at Los Alamos. Parsons led the creation of the 'gun' design used for Little Boy, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and he would fly on the mission that delivered it. But he also had an administrative role as a voice of, and pair of eyes for, the professional military among the civilian boffins at Los Alamos. Article content Article content Parsons' letter is addressed to Maj.-Gen. Leslie Groves, overall boss of the Manhattan Project, and was delivered by Oppenheimer, which is why it sits in a file folder among the Oppenheimer Papers at the Library of Congress. Article content The letter is Parsons' rambling argument, extraordinary in historical retrospect, against any mere testing of a nuclear weapon. Plans for what became the Trinity test in the New Mexico desert were already coming into view, and the American high command was then still wondering whether to invite representatives of the Axis governments. Parsons points out morbidly that the most impressive test, the most convincing demonstration, would be to detonate the bomb 'one thousand feet over Times Square.' Short of that, he did not see the point of setting one off in the desert amid a few unoccupied temporary structures when it could just be dropped on an enemy. 'Even the crater would be disappointing.'
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Globe and Mail
Inside the style legacy of fashion magnate and former Ontario lieutenant-governor Hilary Weston
There are many examples of the grace and elegance that Hilary Weston displayed in her years as a fashion model, Holt Renfrew executive and lieutenant-governor of Ontario. But one that stands out to her friend and colleague Mario Manza, divisional vice president of VIP services at Holt Renfrew, happened when the two got a flat tire on New York's Fifth Avenue in 2005. 'The driver, a gentleman who was a little on the older side and had a leg problem, was slowly getting out of the car and trying to make his way to open the door for Ms. Weston. Drivers were honking their horns and yelling obscenities, so I got out of the car and was greeted with equally colourful language, and the horns were getting louder and louder. Then the honourable Hilary Weston, dressed in a floral Oscar de la Renta dress, got out, looked at them, smiled and gave a royal wave. Well, the horns stopped and people started waving back.' The story says so much about Weston, who passed away at age 83 in England on Aug. 2. She was calm, cool, collected and, of course, always perfectly clad. She was the first Canadian to land a spot in Vanity Fair's The International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame and was an asset after her husband, W. Galen Weston, purchased Holt Renfrew in 1986. Designers were charmed by her fashion savvy, which helped the retailer score exclusive lines and launches. Holt Renfrew was the first to carry many hot international brands, such as Jo Malone, in Canada. Philanthropist and former Ontario lieutenant-governor Hilary Weston dies at 83 I remember Hilary Weston Weston counted Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Karl Lagerfeld, Victoria Beckham and Pharrell Williams among her fashion friends, according to Manza. 'Sarah Burton and Alexander McQueen would drop everything to answer the phone when she called,' he says. Weston wore McQueen to three major life events: son Galen Jr.'s 2005 engagement party in Toronto, daughter Alannah's wedding in 2007 and her husband's 75th birthday party in 2009, the latter two taking place at Fort Belvedere, the former home of King Edward VIII, which the Westons lease from the British Crown. 'Hilary's influence was profound, from eyeing the next big designer ahead of the pack to sharing her favourite pieces for our private label collection,' says Bonnie Brooks, who held various roles at Holt Renfrew, including executive vice president, from 1980 to 1991. 'And because she was also a customer, she brought a perspective on service that would influence me throughout my career.' At Ms. Weston's suggestion, Holt Renfrew hired Krystyne Griffin, former president of Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche in Canada, who spearheaded designer outreach. 'In a few short years we opened Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton shops with their own environments inside the stores — a first in Canada,' Brooks says. Weston herself told me in a 1995 interview for The Toronto Star how proud she was that she had pushed to bring in American labels such as Donna Karan and Calvin Klein. 'We've become headquarters for those designers, and it's a huge business,' she said at the time. 'My mother was part of all the big creative moves we made,' says Alannah Weston Cochrane, former creative director of Selfridges and former chair of Selfridges Group. 'We'd work for months on a concept, and she was always able to spot the one thing that we hadn't quite nailed.' For major flagship events, like Holt Renfrew's $4.5-million Viva Italia celebration of Italian culture and style in 2002 that was attended by members of the Etro, Pucci, Ferragamo and Bottega Veneta families, Weston weighed in on the guest list, party flow and press opportunities. For smaller luncheons and dinners, Manza ran every tablescape detail by her. 'Paying homage to the customers gave her great joy. She wanted each one to walk away feeling that they had experienced something wonderful and magical, so they knew they were appreciated and valued. She created that magic at her homes, as well.' Air Mail founder and co-editor Graydon Carter recalled via e-mail a dinner the Westons gave for him in Toronto years ago. 'Honestly, it was the most remarkable setting I had ever seen. Things at their place were done to perfection. It was during the Toronto Film Festival, and the guests from Los Angeles were goggle-eyed at the whole set up.' Carter, who presided over The International Best-Dressed List and its Hall of Fame when he was editor of Vanity Fair, lauds Ms. Weston and her husband for bringing Canada to the global stage. 'Hilary and Galen were true Canadian internationalists and unofficial ambassadors. With their looks and style, they touted the best of our country to the world.' One of Weston's final public appearances was at a dinner at the Art Gallery of Ontario in November 2023. She was hosting the intimate event to welcome Carolina Cucinelli, daughter of Italian designer Brunello Cucinelli. Many of the guests honoured the brand by dressing in creamy silks and cashmeres. But the hostess? She strode in wearing a red satin Alex Perry gown with a giant heart cut out of its back. Bold and sexy, it was basically the opposite of Brunello Cucinelli. But it was also 'typical Mrs. Weston,' Manza says, in that she never felt she had to wear a designer's clothes when spending time with them. Though Weston was quick to embrace hot new designers, she wasn't a fashion victim, and she had the stature and poise to carry almost anything off. 'She loved adventurous styles with plunging necklines, side slits and back details,' Manza says. And she wasn't shy about showing skin, even into her '70s and '80s. 'She was proud of her model-like body.' Weston shifted to more conservative dress when she became lieutenant-governor in 1997. 'She would sit with homeless people, squeegee kids under the Gardiner [Expressway] and other marginalized people because she was very keen to know their lives,' Manza says. 'So her wardrobe was not flashy.' Brooks recalls the fun they had transforming Holt Renfrew from dowdy to daring. 'She charmed her way through any challenge with a unique sparkle, grace and a wicked wit,' Brooks says. Including flat tires.
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Tom Hanks, who portrayed Jim Lovell in ‘Apollo 13,' pays tribute to the late astronaut
Tom Hanks is honoring the real-life hero that he once portrayed in a popular, Oscar-winning film. After the death of astronaut Jim Lovell was announced on Friday, Hanks shared a poignant social media post to his Instagram, writing, 'There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to places we would not go on our own.' 'Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy,' Hanks added in the post. The actor portrayed Lovell in the 1995 Ron Howard-directed film 'Apollo 13,' which told the story of Lovell's failed lunar space mission which almost cost him and his crew their lives in 1970. Apollo 13 would have marked NASA's third successful crewed moon landing, but during the ill-fated mission – which carried Lovell as well as astronauts John Swigert Jr. and Fred Haise Jr. on board – an oxygen tank located on the crew's service module exploded when they were about 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometres) away from Earth. Lovell famously delivered the news to mission control, saying 'Houston, we've had a problem.' The exchange was later immortalized by Hanks in the 'Apollo 13' movie, which costarred Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris, Kathleen Quinlan and the late Bill Paxton. With the damage effectively taking out their power source and other life support supplies, the Apollo 13 crew had to abruptly abandon their trek to the lunar surface and use several engine burns to swing around the far side of the moon and put themselves on a course back toward Earth. The three-person crew made a high-stakes splashdown return in the South Pacific Ocean about three days after the tank explosion, marking the conclusion of what has come to be known as the 'successful failure' of the Apollo missions. 'His many voyages around Earth and on to so-very-close to the moon were not made for riches or celebrity, but because such challenges as those are what fuels the course of being alive – and who better than Jim Lovell to make those voyages,' Hanks wrote in his tribute on Friday. Lovell died at age 97 on Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois, according to a NASA news release, CNN previously reported. The cause of death was not immediately clear. He made a brief cameo in the movie as the captain of the USS Iwo Jima, the Navy ship that recovered the Apollo 13 crew after splashdown. 'Apollo 13' was nominated for nine Oscars, including best picture, and won two, for best film editing and best sound. By Jackie Wattles, Ashley Strickland.
