Kseniya Alexandrova Dead: Russian Pageant Queen Dies at 30 Just 4 Months After Her Wedding
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
How I Plan to Get in Shape: Read (and Then Maybe Exercise)
Too few people realize, the choreographer Martha Graham wrote, 'how the headlines that make daily history affect the muscles of the human body.' Perhaps you have been pummeled, like me, by the past decade's headlines as if you were a veal cutlet. Perhaps you have responded, like me, by going into a tailspin of physical indolence. Like Oblomov, in Ivan Goncharov's novel, I've often found it hard to get out of bed. In my sloth, I've felt I had literature on my side. 'How desperate do you have to be to start doing push-ups to solve your problems?' Karl Ove Knausgaard asked in one of his 'My Struggle' novels. 'Caffeine was my exercise,' declared the narrator of Ottessa Moshfegh's 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation.' In her 2020 novel, 'What Are You Going Through,' Sigrid Nunez wrote that good diet and exercise will probably only make things worse in the end — when you long to finally die of a wasting disease but your body will not let you. Writing is a sedentary trade. Perhaps Harold Pinter was right to suggest, in his play 'Mountain Language,' that 'intellectual arses wobble the best.' Writers who work out have rarely seemed like my kind of people. Take Dan Brown, the author of 'The Da Vinci Code.' He's said he programs his computer to freeze for 60 seconds each hour so he can do push-ups and sit-ups. This sounds suspiciously close to the sort of advice Timothy Ferriss dispenses in his perennially best-selling 'The 4-Hour Body,' and Ferriss weighs his own feces. With fall on the horizon, and last season's trousers to squeeze into, I've been thinking about finally shaking off my Decade of Lassitude and Lethargy and getting vaguely fit. Because I've turned to writers to justify my laziness, now I wonder: Can I turn to them for the inspiration to buff up my clerkly physique? I've always liked James Boswell's idea, in diaries published as 'Boswell in Holland 1763-1764,' to take fresh air at your window in the morning and then 'proceed to bodily exercise by dancing and capering about your room for near 25 minutes.' I picked up 'Boswell in Holland' after learning that Julia Child's husband used to read it to her while she was cooking. I like to imagine Julia capering in this manner. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
USA Today
16 hours ago
- USA Today
Russian model Kseniya Alexandrova, who competed in Miss Universe 2017, dies at 30
Kseniya Alexandrova, a Russian model and TV personality who competed in the 2017 Miss Universe competition, has died. She was 30. Alexandrova died on Aug. 12, her modeling agency, Modus Vivendis, confirmed in an emotional Instagram post on Aug. 13. A cause of death was not disclosed. "Kseniya was bright, talented, and extraordinarily bright," the agency said. "She knew how to inspire, support, and give warmth to everyone around her. For us, she will forever remain a symbol of beauty, kindness, and inner strength." According to Russian media, Alexandrova died in a car accident while she and her husband were traveling on the M9 highway, Alexandrova's spouse told RIA Novosti. The couple reportedly collided head-on with a moose that had entered the road, and Alexandrova sustained a blow to the head. Alexandrova and her husband, whose name was not disclosed, were married in March, the model announced in an April 2 Instagram post. Miss Universe 2024 crowns winner: Victoria Kjaer Theilvig becomes first Miss Denmark to win USA TODAY has reached out to Modus Vivendis and the Miss Universe Organization for comment. Born in Moscow, Alexandrova represented her hometown in the 2017 Miss Russia competition and won first runner-up. The previous year, the model graduated from Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, where she earned a finance degree. Following her Miss Russia success, Alexandrova went on to compete in the 2017 Miss Universe competition after Miss Russia winner, Polina Popova, opted to compete in the Miss World competition. "I want people all around the world to believe in themselves and to always have a dream," said Alexandrova in an interview during the competition, translated from Russian. "We should be strong and believe in ourselves and never give up on our dreams. In this world, everything is possible." In an Aug. 14 statement shared to its official social media channels, the Miss Universe Organization paid tribute to the late beauty pageant alum, offering the "deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and everyone whose life was touched by the light of Miss Universe Russia 2017." In addition to her success in the modeling world, Alexandrova continued her studies after her Miss Universe stint. In a November 2022 Instagram post, Alexandrova shared that she was a practicing psychodrama therapist. "Her grace, beauty, and spirit left an unforgettable mark on the Miss Universe family and beyond," the Miss Universe Organization concluded. "May her memory continue to inspire kindness, strength, and love in all those who were fortunate enough to know her."
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
‘Nobody 2' Review: Bob Odenkirk Faces Off Against a Scenery-Chomping Sharon Stone in Entertaining Sequel
Imagine National Lampoon's Vacation crossed with First Blood and you have some idea of the delirious action comedy that is Nobody 2. This sequel to the 2021 surprise hit brings back the suburban family you've come to know and love, and like many a loving clan, they've got their share of problems. In particular, Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) and wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) are drifting apart, mainly because he's working all the time to pay off their debts, and kids Brady (Gage Munroe) and Sammy (Paisley Cadorath) feel neglected. Sounds perfectly ordinary, except for the fact that Hutch is a professional assassin with a special set of skills, and the debt he owes is $30 million dollars to the Russian mob after he made the mistake of burning their money in the last film. He's tired, especially after an assignment goes harrowingly wrong in the film's entertainingly over-the-top opening, in which he's forced to face down not one but three sets of lethal opponents. More from The Hollywood Reporter Sharon Stone Says It "Means the World" That Eric Dane Got 'Euphoria' Role Before ALS Diagnosis After Crediting 'Nobody' Workouts for Saving His Life, Bob Odenkirk "Never Stopped Training" for Sequel RZA On His New Film 'One Spoon of Chocolate,' And His Growth As a Filmmaker: "I Honestly Feel Like I Have Arrived" A family vacation seems in order, and Hutch knows just the place. It's Plummerville, the summer resort town featuring an amusement park that he has fond memories of going to as a kid. So he picks up his elderly father (Christopher Lloyd) at the old age home and brings them all to the now run-down town for some innocent fun. Except if you've seen Nobody, you have a pretty good idea that innocent fun doesn't come easily to Hutch. Much of the first film's pleasure came from the gradual reveal that its unassuming, middle-aged central character was in fact the sort of badass who can overcome gangs of lethally armed men half his age. That element of surprise is inherently missing in the sequel, to its detriment, but screenwriters Derek Kolstad and Aaron Rabin's simple but ingenious premise provides plenty of amusement. After all, who can't relate to someone desiring a simple vacation with their family only to have work issues get in the way? It all begins innocently enough, with an altercation at an arcade between Brady and another boy who accuses him of hitting on his girlfriend. In the ensuing melee, an overly aggressive security guard makes the mistake of whacking Hutch's young daughter on the head. Hutch manages to get his family out before claiming he's forgotten his cell phone and returning to the arcade to get medieval on the employees. This arouses the ire of the town's belligerent sheriff (Colin Hanks, playing against type) and crooked theme park owner (John Ortiz) who decide to get revenge on the apparent family man causing them trouble. And that, of course, is when all hell breaks loose, as Hutch learns that the town is the center of operations for female crime boss Lendina (gleefully played by Sharon Stone). She's the sort of psycho who owns a casino where the penalty for cheating is death, which she administers personally. Director Timo Tjahjanto (May the Devil Take You, The Night Comes for Us), taking over from the previous film's Ilya Naishuller, stages the mayhem-filled proceedings expertly, perfectly realizing the franchise's blend of bone-crushing violence and slapstick humor. The stunt team and fight choreographers deserve tremendous credit as well. Not to mention Odenkirk, who one-ups Liam Neeson in not only becoming an unlikely action movie star at a mature age but also displaying an impressive physicality in the elaborately staged fight scenes. Much of the fun comes from the incongruity of this seemingly mild-mannered figure suddenly springing into violent action, making inventive use of whatever random objects happen to be nearby that he can transform into lethal weapons. There aren't many actors, after all, who can convincingly play both sad-sack real estate salesman Shelly Levene in a Broadway production of Glengarry Glen Ross and a lean, mean killing machine. The formula admittedly wears thin over the course of its running time, especially in a well-staged but familiar-feeling climactic battle between Hutch plus several collaborators, including his elderly father and adopted brother Harry (RZA), and Lendina's heavily armed minions in a booby-trapped amusement park. But the filmmakers keep things moving at such a brisk pace (the film clocks in at a mercifully brief 89 minutes) that you go along for the ride, and there are so many terrific action sequences and injections of mordant, deadpan humor that it proves wildly entertaining. 'Plummerville is not as friendly as I remembered it to be,' a bone-weary Hutch comments at one point. That's especially true when it comes to Stone, who seems to be having the time of her life hamming it up as a Cruella de Vil-style villain, who at one point performs what can only be described as an evil dance. Her work here is not subtle, but subtlety isn't what you're looking for in a Nobody movie. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 25 Best U.S. Film Schools in 2025 The 40 Greatest Needle Drops in Film History The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Solve the daily Crossword
