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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Paul Simon Always Felt He Came in 'Second' to This '60s Folk Hero
Paul Simon Always Felt He Came in 'Second' to This '60s Folk Hero originally appeared on Parade. The music industry of the 1960s was constantly evolving, and Paul Simon was keenly aware of its shifting tides. As he found his footing as a singer and songwriter alongside musical partner Art Garfunkel, Simon fought an internal battle over coming in "second" to this 1960s folk hero, whose music helped shape the decade. In a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, Simon opened up about his insecurities regarding his legacy as a '60s folk music figure. He admitted striving to emulate the decade's defining icon, Bob Dylan, but said he could never escape the constant comparisons. 'One of my deficiencies is my voice sounds sincere,' Simon admitted. 'I've tried to sound ironic. I don't. I can't." He continued, "Dylan, everything he sings has two meanings. He's telling you the truth and making fun of you at the same time." Parade Daily🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 "I sound sincere every time. Rock and roll has a lot to do with image. If that's not your strength, people find fault with the work.' He added that the constant comparisons between he and Dylan were frustrating. 'I usually come in second. I don't like coming in second." "In the very, very beginning, when we were first signed to Columbia, I really admired Dylan's work. 'The Sound of Silence' wouldn't have been written if it weren't for Dylan." But I left that feeling around The Graduate and 'Mrs. Robinson.' They weren't folky anymore.' Simon also discussed his feelings regarding the comparisons to Dylan in his book, Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon. Per an excerpt published by American Songwriter, the entertainer revealed that despite what appears to be many similarities between them, as songwriters, they are entirely different. 'Our philosophies are different,' Simon wrote. 'He is always dumping [on] people more than I do. It's really easy to put somebody down. The biggest thing Dylan has going for him is his mystique.' Paul Simon and Bob Dylan would perform together on a co-headlining tour in the summer of 1999. The tour featured 38 shows where the two music icons alternated opening and headlining. Paul Simon Always Felt He Came in 'Second' to This '60s Folk Hero first appeared on Parade on Aug 6, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Weapons' proves Zach Cregger isn't a one-hit wonder — he's a true horror auteur
Everything that was impressive about writer-director Zach Cregger's 2022 debut feature 'Barbarian' gets multiplied in his second great horror movie, 'Weapons.' An innovative and intriguing plot, credible characters with edgy relationships navigating increasingly insane situations, plus jokes and scares built up with care or blasted out of disruptive nowhere with equal effectiveness — it's all here, and even better. Best of all, Cregger displays an even more masterful control over every aspect of the new project. From casting to pacing to reeling viewers into the movie's disorienting mysteries, the filmmaker does things his own way and makes it feel like they're happening to us. It begins eerily at 2:17 a.m. when 17 third graders leave their suburban Pennsylvania homes and run through the darkness, arms outstretched like wings, to somewhere they can't be found. The main narrative commences a month later, with no progress made on the investigation and some parents demanding more scrutiny of new teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner). All of the missing children were from her class and Alex (Cary Christopher), the only one who's still around, claims not to know anything about what happened to the others or why. Justine definitely has no clue, but that doesn't prevent aggrieved parents — led by Josh Brolin's building contractor Archer Graff — from almost lynching her at a community meeting. She responds how she knows best: by picking up two bottles of vodka on the way home. We later learn she's coming off a toxic affair with local police patrolman Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), a recovering alcoholic himself who has a new girlfriend but remains susceptible to Justine's bad influence. This troubled teacher is the best role hot commodity Garner ('Wolf Man,' 'Fantastic Four: First Steps') has played all year. Obviously flawed but wrongly persecuted and determined to find her missing students, Justine — one of cinema's most sympathetic stalkers — can indulge victimization and paranoia but still enjoy her devilish side. Garner combines all these traits and more in organic, accessible ways. When she reaches the sheer terror stage, it strikes deeper than the average scream queen. Brolin's Archer is an unusually solid genre characterization as well. Under the guise of an always-angry reactionary eager to assign blame, Archer is fixated on finding his son and, in his nightmare-haunted soul, making up for parental shortcomings. Among the subtlest of Cregger's many humorous touches is having the actor that played Marvel's Thanos, who disappeared half the universe, portray such a heartfelt searcher. As for Paul, Ehrenreich persuades us he's a nice-seeming guy who's really quite a snake. Not involved in the missing kids investigation (until he is), Paul spends too much time at work hassling homeless drug addict James, another of the film's focused-yet-layered performances by Austin Abrams ('Euphoria'). Utterly bonkers yet somehow compelling work from Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan fleshes out the often bloody ensemble. I mention blood to assure gorehounds that 'Weapons' eventually gets there — and doesn't hold back. Cregger is not just conscientious about detailing all the character and plot developments the story needs, he takes his leisurely time doing so. It's too engaging to bore, no matter what impatient thrill junkies may say. In an audacious, smoothly executed structural ploy, Cregger rewinds the narrative to show events from each of the seven main characters' points-of-view before moving the plot along. This proves ideal for dropping clues to both the overall mystery and perplexing behaviors. The filmmaker's inspirations in this regard include Quentin Tarantino, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Paul Thomas Anderson; his brilliant use of doors can be traced to the comedies of Ernst Lubitsch.
Fox News
11 hours ago
- Fox News
Sharon Stone has new take on infamous 'Basic Instinct' scene that made her legendary
That scene. Looking back on her infamous "Basic Instinct" leg-crossing scene, Sharon Stone says she wouldn't take it out, despite having had the legal right to do so at the time. "It made me an icon, but it didn't bring me respect," Stone told Business Insider of the controversial moment. She added, "I very much believe that none of us knew at the time what we were getting in regard to that shot, and when [director] Paul [Verhoeven] got it, he didn't want to lose it, and he was scared to show me. And I get that." She said once she calmed down, "I didn't make him take it out of the movie when I had the legal right to. So I did have the chance to do it differently, and I didn't because once I had the chance to step back, I understood, as the director, not the girl in the film, that that made the movie better." Stone went into more detail about her reaction in her memoir "The Beauty of Living Twice." "First, at that time, this would give the film an X rating," Stone explained. "Remember, this was 1992, not now, when we see erect penises on Netflix. And, Marty said, per the Screen Actors Guild, my union, it wasn't legal to shoot up my dress in this fashion. Whew, I thought. After the screening, I let Paul know of the options Marty had laid out for me. Of course, he vehemently denied that I had any choices at all. I was just an actress, just a woman; what choices could I have?" "I very much believe that none of us knew at the time what we were getting in regard to that shot, and when [director] Paul [Verhoeven] got it, he didn't want to lose it, and he was scared to show me. And I get that." She wrote that before she had been called in to see the shot, she had been told "'We can't see anything – I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on.'" Stone wrote that she eventually decided to let it stay in because "it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it." In fact, Stone told Insider that she almost didn't get the part of villainess Catherine Tramell because Michael Douglas, who played the detective investigating her for murder, didn't want to work with an unknown. "Everyone they went out to would turn it down," she explained. "But the thing was, Michael Douglas did not want to put his bare a-- out on the screen with an unknown — and I understood that. He wouldn't even test with me, but that was also for a different reason: We had an argument prior to that." Stone said at the Cannes Film Festival before she was cast in "Basic Instinct" she called him out for talking about someone she knew. "So I said something and he responded to me, saying, 'What the f--- do you know?'" she said. "So he screams this at me across a whole group of people. And I'm not the person who goes, 'Oh, excuse me, superstar.' I pushed back my chair and said to him, 'Let's step outside.' That's how we first met." The pair did indeed go outside, Stone claimed, and she said she explained to him what she knew of the person he was talking about. "And then we parted," she said. "I wouldn't say as best friends, but amicably. So, fast forward to casting 'Basic Instinct,' I don't think he wanted me to be his costar." Reps for Douglas told Insider that he didn't remember seeing Stone at Cannes until they were promoting the film together. Allen Burry, a rep for Douglas, told Fox News Digital, "Michael Douglas has nothing to say beyond what was reported yesterday by People magazine online." Burry told People on Monday that Douglas was "very surprised [by Sharon's quotes]," as "he doesn't remember any argument in that timeframe" between them. "He actually only remembers seeing and meeting Sharon for the first time when he saw [director] Paul Verhoeven's screen test of her for 'Basic Instinct' and [Michael] said, 'Absolutely, she's the one,'" he continued. While Douglas "definitely spent time with" Stone at Cannes, "that was later, when they were promoting 'Basic Instinct' in 1992," Burry said. "And by the time they'd done the movie, they were friends." Stone said the tension helped their onscreen chemistry. "It worked great because I was not rattled if he yelled at me," she said. "That was interesting for the character because Michael has a temper, and I didn't care. That worked very well in our dynamic. Eventually, we became the greatest of friends, to this day. I admire him tremendously."
