Birmingham, the home of metal, honors Ozzy Osbourne as hearse passes through
Thousands of Black Sabbath fans were paying their respects Wednesday to frontman Ozzy Osbourne as his hearse made its way through the streets of Birmingham, the English city where he grew up and where the band was formed in 1968.
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Forbes
22 minutes ago
- Forbes
Rod Stewart's AI-Generated Ozzy Osbourne Controversy, Explained
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 26: Singer Rod Stewart performs on stage at the Acer Arena on February 26, 2008 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage) WireImage Singer Rod Stewart sparked backlash after his concert featured an AI-generated tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, which struck many as distasteful. Osbourne passed away last month at the age of 76—his death inspired an outpouring of love and affection from his fans and peers, but Stewart's AI-generated tribute invoked unease. Rod Stewart has been paying tribute to Osbourne ever since he passed away, with Stewart regularly dedicating his song 'Forever Young' to the Black Sabbath star during his 'One Last Time' tour. Stewart's concert on August 1 featured a new addition to the 'Forever Young' tribute—a bizarre, AI-generated video of Osbourne taking selfies with deceased celebrities, standing before a cloudy background meant to represent Heaven. Celebrities featured in the AI-generated video include Prince, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, XXXTentacion, Tupac Shakur, Freddie Mercury, Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse. The fact that many of these late stars suffered tragic, untimely deaths adds to the ghoulishness of the display—all are shown grinning inanely at the camera, animated by the digital necromancy of generative AI. Concertgoers quickly shared their reaction on social media, along with online commentators who did not attend the show. Relatives of XXXTentacion and Tupac Shakur told TMZ that they had no problems with the AI-generated tribute, but many fans felt otherwise. One commentator described the tribute as a 'sign of stupidity'—many reckoned it was 'creepy and tasteless.' Another expressed shock at the contents of the video, and concluded, 'We truly are in the end times.' The condemnation echoed the words of the legendary Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki, whose negative reaction to a generative AI presentation became something of a rallying cry for anti-AI artists. Musing on what he had just witnessed, a dispirited Miyazaki said, 'I feel like we are nearing the end times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.' The Backlash Against Generative AI Continues Generative AI has been controversial since release—it's an energy-intensive invention built on the output of artists without their consent, threatening the livelihood of workers and polluting the internet with machine-made content. Recent concerns about AI involve the altering of real video and imagery, such as the reshaping of The Wizard of Oz to fit the Las Vegas Sphere. Lately, AI enthusiasts have been using the technology for a more unsettling purpose, posting pictures of their deceased relatives that they have 'animated' using AI, old photographs imbued with the appearance of life. Many commentators react to these re-animated clips with visceral disgust and horror, often citing works of fiction that warn against meddling with memories, or attempting to reanimate the dead. The AI-generated Ozzy Osbourne tribute feels like a step toward the normalization of such practices, trivializing the memory of the deceased with images and videos that do not feature their true self, but a machine-made echo of their likeness. It wasn't long ago that generative AI crossed a technological boundary, capable of creating convincing video of anyone, doing anything—now, it's forcing the dead to smile for the camera. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes The AI-Altered 'Wizard Of Oz' Controversy, Explained By Dani Di Placido Forbes Google's AI Passed The 'Will Smith Eating Spaghetti' Test By Dani Di Placido Forbes It's The End Of An Era For YouTube's 'Lofi Girl' By Dani Di Placido Forbes The AI-Generated Studio Ghibli Trend, Explained By Dani Di Placido
Refinery29
an hour ago
- Refinery29
'I'm Not Afraid Any More.' Joy Sunday On Wednesday & Growth Between Seasons
Joy Sunday glides into the lobby of The Whitby Hotel in New York City's midtown donning a caramel corset and flouncy Emilio Pucci mini skirt. Sunday's presence and her features are strikingly captivating, but she doesn't need the striped blazer or greenish-blue contacts she wears to suit up for her role as Bianca Barclay on Netflix's Wednesday to turn heads in real life. It's clear that Sunday's confidence gives life to Bianca, the siren with the power to mesmerize and persuade even the most strong-willed. Bianca is Sunday's first role as a main character in a TV series. And with the show being Netflix's most watched English language original series ever, she hit the ground running. Now going into a new season — the first four episodes premiere today, Wednesday, August 6 — Sunday assures you, me, and everyone else watching that she isn't stopping. At all. 'I'm being very strategic about how I'm moving forward, because I'm not losing this platform,' the 28-year-old New York native said matter of factly. 'I'm taking it to the end, and I want to take others with me. It's not a threat, but it's a promise.' ' I'm taking it to the end, and I want to take others with me. It's not a threat, but it's a promise. joy sunday on acting beyond 'wednesday' ' In Season 1, we're introduced to Bianca as a popular student at Nevermore Academy who has control over her powers, despite the mistrust she faces from others, including her ex. When Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) shows up, they share a brief rivalry before Bianca joins her investigation into the mayor's death. Season 2 goes deeper into Bianca's vulnerability, Sunday explained. Bianca's past comes back to haunt her and she begins reckoning with her relationship with her mother, a siren who uses her powers to scam and wants her daughter to follow suit. 'In Season 2, she's trying to hide herself and conceal what's going on in the background, and so she's really having to come to terms with what she really didn't want to do in Season 1,' Sunday said. 'Now she's being forced to [be a] more compassionate individual. Because that's something that she judged her mom, Gabrielle (Gracy Goldman), for so heavily in Season 1, and that now she finds herself in the same position.' Addressing motherhood wounds plays a huge part in Season 2 overall. Viewers will see most of the main characters' relationships with their moms, for better or worse. As Bianca navigates her own challenges at school, she's now faced with the task of protecting Gabrielle, a theme the teen experienced in their relationship growing up. Sunday said she appreciates the duo's redemptive arc and the opportunity to find healing for them. ' Young Black women are forced to mature faster than anyone else is to understand their relationship to the world... I think that's why it's so special to get to see Bianca need help and to eventually learn to ask for it. joy sunday ' Despite this being a fantastical world, Sunday believes that forgiveness is important to see. Especially for Black girls who often have to mature faster than others. 'Young Black women are forced to mature faster than anyone else is to understand their relationship to the world and to the family, how the world sees them and how they see themselves,' Sunday passionately stated. 'I think that's why it's so special to get to see Bianca need help and to eventually learn to ask for it. And it's also nice to see people come to her aid without her asking for it, and to see people advocate for her as well.' Though Bianca's confidence may have wavered a bit since the first season, Sunday's has only grown. Three years ago when Wednesday first premiered, Sunday was still new to doing press runs and red carpets. 'I almost felt like I needed to play a role or to fit in terms of how I was presenting myself,' she admitted. That feeling has faded as she's gotten her reps in for projects like Rise (2023) and Under The Influencer (2024). But with the writers and actors strike in 2023 and a shaky Hollywood economy, Sunday admits that work hasn't been as steady. Thankfully, becoming a global ambassador for Lancome has helped sustain her and her family. 'It's been a journey of working my way back to this feeling of confidence and this feeling of, I've got some shit to do,' she explained. 'I've been through trials and tribulations, but I think it's really an important part of the actor's journey to share that it's not always going to be the 'hurry up.' Sometimes it's going to be the 'wait.'' This isn't looking like a 'wait' season for Sunday, however. In February, Deadline announced that the actor would be joining the HBO limited series DTF St. Louis. And ahead of its Season 2 premiere, Netflix renewed Wednesday for a third season. Going forward, Sunday is prepared to show the industry more of what she's made of. She's eyeing more fantasy and supernatural roles and some action. (She's specifically manifesting Interview With the Vampire and Ghost Dog 2.) In this era, Sunday knows she's more than good. 'I feel empowered to say I am that much more extensive of an artist, and I'm not afraid to show that,' she said. 'In Season 1, I was kind of afraid of having to fit in the boxes. I wanted to make sure that everything would go well, but I'm not afraid any more. I'm excited.'
Time Magazine
an hour ago
- Time Magazine
'Wednesday' Season 2 Is Secretly a Gift to Weird Adults
When it comes to youth culture, nothing is more mainstream right now than outcasts. This is not an anecdotal observation—it's a fact, borne out by the immense popularity of the teen-focused Addams Family spinoff Wednesday, whose first season tops Netflix's list of its most-watched English-language shows of all time, with more than 250 million views. (The next two titles, Adolescence and Stranger Things 4, lag by over 100 million views apiece.) Melding horror and mystery with YA drama, it has made a global star of its 22-year-old lead, Jenna Ortega, whose cannily placed dance scene immediately broke TikTok. Wednesday Addams cracked the top 10 kids' Halloween costumes the year after it debuted, second only to Barbie among name-brand female characters. All of which might suggest to adults that Wednesday is strictly for Gen Z. Its first season certainly supported that impression. The setting—Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for paranormally gifted misfits—recalled Harry Potter's Hogwarts. The plot put a dark but too rarely novel spin on standard coming-of-age tropes, as Ortega's icy, psychic Wednesday navigated roommate troubles and a supernatural love triangle (see also: Buffy, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries). While those elements remain in Season 2, Wednesday, having saturated the Gen Z market, now feels like it's working harder to entertain older viewers—particularly those of us who fondly remember '90s pop culture. Well, it worked on this elder millennial. Parents, don't tell your tweens, but the new episodes of Wednesday are secretly a gift to weird adults. After a speed run through Wednesday's summer vacation, which she naturally spent taking out a creepy serial killer played by Y2K spooky-kid icon Haley Joel Osment, Season 2 (whose first four episodes are now streaming, with the last four to follow on Sept. 3) opens with her return to Nevermore. Having vanquished the murderous alliance of her love interest Tyler (Hunter Doohan) and teacher Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci), who had been conspiring against the school's outcast denizens, she's hailed as a hero. Which only makes her grumpier than usual. Adding to Wednesday's foul mood is her family's increased presence on campus. Her little brother, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), has matriculated as an awkward underclassman. And Addams matriarch Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has been recruited to raise funds for the academy—meaning, of course, that Morticia's adoring husband, Gomez (Luis Guzmán), won't be far away. Eventually there's a spectacular grandmother in the mix. More on her later. Although Wednesday's perky werewolf roomie Enid (Emma Myers) inherits the love-triangle plot, while Pugsley and his roommate Eugene (Moosa Mostafa) get wrapped up in a deeply silly storyline involving a pet zombie, the family stuff is a nice respite from a Nevermore social scene that was always the show's least inspired element. It also gives the wonderful Ortega, whose deadpan yet somehow tender performance carried the first season, a chance to play off of many talented older actors. This isn't an entirely new thing for Wednesday, whose executive producer and director Tim Burton helped discover so many offbeat Gen X-ers. Season 1 also featured Zeta-Jones, Guzmán, and Ricci (a previous generation's Wednesday Addams in two cult-classic '90s movies), as well as Fred Armisen in the role of Uncle Fester and Gwendoline Christie as Nevermore's principal. But this time, the adult Addamses are more integral to the story. Now that it is, by many measures, the biggest show on TV, Wednesday creators and showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have the clout (also the budget) to really go wild with their casting choices. So Christie's disgraced administrator is replaced by Steve Buscemi's Principal Barry Dort, an outcast-pride advocate who craves Wednesday's approval. Buscemi is, of course, famous for playing weirdos and alternative types; in one of his most beloved roles, he starred opposite Ricci as a lonely record collector in the 2001 film adaptation of Daniel Clowes' sardonic coming-of-age comic Ghost World. The fantastically versatile Billie Piper, who has charmed geeks in Doctor Who and goths in Penny Dreadful, makes an intriguing foil for cello phenom Wednesday as the school's new head of music. Her relatively minor role in the early episodes of the season seems likely to anticipate an increased presence in its second half. Gough and Millar have moved to liberate the show from teen-drama clichés by expanding its world beyond the dating woes and questionable authority figures of Nevermore. Tyler's imprisonment at the nearby Willow Hill Psychiatric Facility—whose grimy environs recall Batman's Arkham Asylum, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and so many other fictional houses of psychological horrors—is the site of a promising new (but easily spoiled) subplot. There, Wednesday meets the unorthodox doctor overseeing his treatment, Rachael Fairburn, played by Westworld standout Thandiwe Newton. Appearing as Dr. Fairburn's officious assistant, Judi, is none other than Heather Matarazzo, who entered the oddball hall of fame in 1995 with her portrayal of Welcome to the Dollhouse's middle-school reject Dawn Wiener. It's all pretty delightful for those of us who are old enough to appreciate not just the referential casting, but also the just-campy-enough performances that Buscemi, Matarazzo, and the rest deliver. In that respect (and with apologies to Lady Gaga, who's slated to appear in the back half of the season), no guest star is more apt than Joanna Lumley. Best known for her long-running role as the debauched, aging fashion victim Patsy Stone in the era-defining '90s British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, Lumley turns the diva dial to 11 as Morticia's mortuary-mogul mother, Hester Frump. (Fun fact: Her Burton connection dates back to his 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl's ooky children's book James and the Giant Peach.) Not that the performance is pure fluff. One of the season's more resonant themes is mother-daughter strife; Grandmama's estrangement from her daughter and affinity for Wednesday adds another layer of intergenerational mess. Also? For Patsy fans, it's also nice to see Lumley back in a beehive. Speaking of camp, the most enjoyable of the four episodes that dropped this week is one big Addams Family Values Easter egg. Riffing on Wednesday and Pugsley's gloriously destructive journey to sleepaway camp in that 1993 movie, 'Call of the Woe' sees Principal Dort shepherd his students to an overnight wilderness retreat he dubs Camp Outcast. (Gomez and Morticia are also present, as chaperones. You have never seen a tent like the one they construct.) The Nevermore kids soon encounter their ideal nemeses in a troop of normie paramilitary Boy Scout types who've reserved the camp for the same days. The only possible resolution to the double booking—because the two groups have no intention of sharing space—will be obvious to anyone who's ever seen a summer-camp movie from the late 20th century: a color war. I have no doubt that plenty of Gen Z Wednesday viewers have already devoured Addams Family Values and its predecessor and will get the callback. I'm sure they'll also eat up all the new characters and settings, whether they recognize them or not. At the same time, I don't think the new season quite resolves Gough and Millar's confusion about what they want their series, which has its fingers in crime and horror and teen soap and family drama and dark comedy, to be; with such an overcrowded surface, it's hard to achieve much depth. In its second season, however, what was once a show that relied almost exclusively on Ortega now has many more things going for it—one of the most welcome of which is genuine cross-generational appeal.
