Latest news with #Alejandro
Perth Now
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Alejandro G Inarritu teases 'brutal comedy' with Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise's next movie is a "brutal comedy". The 62-year-old actor is currently promoting 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning' but he's also been busy working on director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's upcoming film, which is tentatively titled 'July' and has just wrapped shooting in London. The Oscar-winning director teased the film is "insane" and promised audiences will be surprised. He told The Hollywood Reporter: 'All I can say is it is a brutal, wild comedy of catastrophic proportions. It's insane. "It's scary and funny and beautiful. I know comedy is not what people expect from me, or Tom, and making this film was terrifying for me, but I don't like to repeat myself, and every film should scare you a little." The 61-year-old filmmaker praised Tom for his "total commitment" to the role and compared the tone to that of his 2014 movie 'Birdman'. He added: "I felt Birdman was a comedy, a dark comedy, and this one was challenging like that. "And Tom makes me laugh every single day. He has this total commitment, this total madness.' 'July' will also star Sandra Huller and the Mexican filmmaker has admired the 'Anatomy of a Fall' actress' work for some time. He said: "'I've loved Sandra since 'Toni Erdmann'. I met her here in Cannes that year [2017] and have been wanting to work with her ever since." Alejandro plans to begin editing the film - which will also feature the likes of Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Emma D'Arcy, Sophie Wilde, Michael Stuhlbarg and John Goodman - "next week" and 'July' is scheduled for release next autumn. Meanwhile, the filmmaker's breakthrough work, 'Amores Perros' - which starred Gael Garcia Bernal - is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and it still means a lot to Alejandro. He said: 'Back then, in Mexico, we made maybe seven movies a year. 'There was no real national cinema. If you made one film, that was it. That was your shot. And I poured everything into that film. "All the contradictions, the rage, the love, the chaos of Mexico City — it's all in there. That's why it's messy. That's why it's alive.' As well a marking the anniversary with a visual installation set to exhibit in Milan, Mexico City and Los Angeles later this year, 'Amores Perros' will also be rereleased into cinemas. The director said: 'So that young people can see it on the big screen, not just on one of these [phones]."
USA Today
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Benito Skinner felt guilty for not coming out sooner. 'Overcompensating' changed that.
Benito Skinner felt guilty for not coming out sooner. 'Overcompensating' changed that. Benito Skinner knows a thing or two about trying to play it straight. For his fourth-grade birthday party, he invited the boys in his class to go see Disney's 2004 camp masterpiece 'Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.' ('I was like, 'It's because Lindsay Lohan's hot,'' he recalls wryly.) And on the high-school football team, the comedian remembers trying to pass off his pop-star obsessions as pure, red-blooded machismo. 'I was like, 'Lady Gaga is sexy!' But the guys in the locker room were like, the one from the 'Alejandro' video? She's terrifying to us,' says Skinner, who has now funneled his real-life closeted chaos into Amazon Prime Video comedy "Overcompensating" (all eight episodes now streaming). 'To be clear, Gaga is a goddess. But for straight guys, nothing could be scarier than a woman with a bob and red lipstick who's actually expressing herself.' Created, written by and starring Skinner, 'Overcompensating' is a barbed, pop culture-savvy series about a college freshman named Benny (Skinner), who's struggling to find himself as a young and confused gay man. He becomes fast pals with Carmen (Wally Baram), who after realizing they're not sexually compatible, is content to just bond with him over 'Glee" and Nicki Minaj. But not even Carmen is safe from Benny's messy crosshairs, as he tells people that they're hooking up in order to maintain his frat-boy appearance. Meanwhile, Benny is crushing on Miles (Rish Shah), his chiseled British classmate, and hiding his sexuality from his older sister, Grace (Mary Beth Barone), who goes to the same university. The show is guaranteed to be stress-inducing for queer viewers, many of whom can understand the crushing anxiety of lying to your best friends and bedfellows about who you really are. 'I want the sick stuff,' says Skinner, 31, who like his character came out during college. At that age, 'you're selfish at times, and maybe doing something really (messed) up to a friend, just out of safety and protecting yourself. It feels so true to me: I could be out in one room, but in another room, I would code-switch and do a deeper voice and find myself still hating this part of me. You're performing so much." Barone remembers dating one of her best friends before he came out, and loves how Skinner captures the bluntness and vulnerability that Benny and Carmen share. "I got to have that relationship, and I knew how special it was," Barone says. "It starts off where you have that wall between you before the person comes out. But as you really get to know each other, you can be so honest and say anything and not feel judged." 'Overcompensating' began as a standup show, which Skinner performed across the country in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he frequently went viral with his online persona Benny Drama, donning makeup and wigs as he impersonated celebrities ranging from Kim Kardashian to Billie Eilish. Those sketches ultimately helped him to hone his hyper-specific voice on 'Overcompensating,' which references many of Skinner's favorite touchstones as a kid growing up in Boise, Idaho. (The series opens, for instance, with a young Benny watching 'George of the Jungle,' whose nearly naked star Brendan Fraser left a lasting impression.) 'The more specific, the funnier,' Skinner says. 'Even if 'George of the Jungle' wasn't your queer awakening, you can immediately slot in the thing you know. But also, coming up on the internet helped me realize that an attention to specificity is what people really responded to. If I did this tiny little thing where I put a Pepsi can in the back of a Kendall Jenner (video), that's what all the comments were about.' Baram admired Skinner's strong vision: "He brought everything with every hat that he wore: as a boss, as a friend, as an actor," she says. "I've never met anyone with more poised energy. My brain is exhausted looking at him." The acid-tongued comedy features myriad guest stars including Charli XCX, Bowen Yang and James Van Der Beek. Kyle MacLachlan and Connie Britton also pop in as Benny's well-meaning parents. Most memorably, Megan Fox appears as a poster on Benny's dorm room wall, which springs to life during irreverent confessionals. The image is modeled after Fox's lingerie-clad 2008 GQ magazine spread, which Skinner often feigned attraction to among his friends but really just found "so iconic." During college frat parties, 'I remember being in these bathrooms and seeing these posters of Sports Illustrated models, being like, 'Girls, what are we doing here? This sucks. I'm so sorry, darlings, I love you all,'' Skinner says. When it came time to write similar scenes for the series, he wanted Fox to be the fantastical embodiment of Benny's heteronormative angst: 'She is my idol. She's brilliant, and people haven't really allowed her to be as funny as I think she is in the show.' For Skinner, who has been dating photographer Terrence O'Connor since 2016, "Overcompensating" was a chance to revisit a very tumultuous period of his life, but with newfound humor and understanding. 'It was so cathartic,' Skinner says. 'I was able to forgive myself for not coming out sooner or feeling like I couldn't. I always judged myself for that throughout my 20s, but then being able to perform this and feel like I had some power over it, I finally gave myself a little bit of grace. For so long, I was like, 'Man, I wasted so much of my life,' but I don't think I did. I had my reasons and I'm proud of my experience as a queer person. Hopefully, other queer people see themselves in the show.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Brazilian police arrest two over alleged bomb plot targeting Lady Gaga concert
More than 2 million Lady Gaga fans rocked up at the Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night to join the singer in what was the largest show of her career as of yet, and it was free. Meanwhile, authorities arrested two individuals in connection with the alleged plot — a man, identified as the group's leader, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul on charges of illegal weapons possession, and a teenager in Rio on charges relating to child pornography. Police did not provide further details about their specific involvement in the plot or how the group came to focus on Lady Gaga's concert. Rio de Janeiro's state police and Brazil's Ministry of Justice outlined what they described as a plot involving a group that spread hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community and others, and had intended to set off improvised explosive devices at the event. On Sunday, a spokesperson for Lady Gaga said the pop star and her team 'learned about this alleged threat via media reports this morning. Prior to and during the show, there were no known safety concerns, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Lady Gaga regarding any potential risks.' The Mother Monster, as she is known, kicked off the concert at around 10:10 pm local time with her 2011 song 'Bloody Mary'. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder to shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Lady Gaga performed her classic hits, including 'Poker Face' and 'Alejandro,' switching between an array of dresses, including one with the colours of the Brazilian flag. Related Lady Gaga becomes third artist to have multiple #1 hits in three different decades Lady Gaga's 'Mayhem': Euronews Culture's verdict Madonna also turned Copacabana Beach into a massive dance floor last year. The large-scale performances are part of an effort led by City Hall to boost economic activity after Carnival and New Years' Eve festivities and the upcoming month-long Saint John's Day celebrations in June. Rio's City Hall said in a recent report that around 1.6 million people were expected to attend Lady Gaga's concert and that the show should inject at least 600 million reais (some €93.8 million) into Rio's economy. Similar concerts are scheduled to take place every year in May at least until 2028.
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Horror bomb attack on Lady Gaga concert attended by 2 million fans is foiled by police
Police thwarted a bomb attack planned for Lady Gaga 's historic concert that drew over 2 million people to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. Local police said the plot was orchestrated by a group promoting hate speech and the radicalization of teenagers, including self-harm and violent content as a form of 'social belonging.' According to official data, 2.1 million people attended the American pop icon's free show. 'The suspects were recruiting participants, including minors, to carry out coordinated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails,' the police said in a statement. The Justice Ministry said the recruiters identified themselves as members of Gaga's global fan base, known as the 'Little Monsters.' The operation was based on a report by the ministry's Cyber Operations Lab following a tip-off from Rio state police intelligence, which uncovered digital cells encouraging violent behavior among teenagers using coded language and extremist symbolism. A man described as the group's leader was arrested in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul for illegal possession of a firearm, while a teenager in Rio de Janeiro was detained for storing child pornography. Authorities carried out over a dozen search and seizure warrants of 15 suspects across the states of Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Sul and Sao Paulo. 'The plan was treated as a "collective challenge" with the aim of gaining notoriety on social media,' police said. contacted the singer's team for comment. The 39-year old singer's concert was paid for by the city in an attempt to revitalize Rio's economy as it's estimated it could bring in nearly $100 million. 'Tonight, we're making history. Thank you for making history with me,' Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, kicked off the show at around 10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly-packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Lady Gaga performed her classic hits, including Poker Face and Alejandro, switching between an array of dresses including one with the colors of the Brazilian flag. Some fans - many of them young - arrived on the beach at the crack of dawn to secure a good spot, armed with snacks and drinks. They spent the day under a blazing sun, while others perched in trees, determined to get a panoramic view. She followed in the footsteps of Queen of Pop Madonna. Madonna played to a then record-breaking 1.6 million fans at the same location last year. Now Gaga has surpassed that record with 2.1 million fans. Lady Gaga previously posted to X: 'It's a great honor to be asked to sing for Rio - for my whole career the fans in Brazil have been part of the lifeblood of the little monsters. 'I've been dying to come perform for you for years and was heartbroken when I had to cancel years ago because I was hospitalized. 'Your understanding that I needed that time to heal meant the world to me.' Similar concerts are scheduled to take place every year in May at least until 2028. More than 500,000 tourists poured into the city in the days leading up to the show, more than double the initial forecast. Rio officials have a history of organizing huge concerts on Copacabana Beach. Madonna's show drew an estimated 1.6 million fans last year, while 4 million people flooded onto the beach for a 1994 New Year's Eve show by Rod Stewart in 1994.
BreakingNews.ie
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Lady Gaga's team say they learned about foiled bomb plot ‘via media reports'
Lady Gaga's team have said they learned about a plot to bomb her gig on Copacabana Beach in Rio De Janeiro 'via media reports this morning'. Brazilian police claimed to have worked with the country's justice ministry to stop an attack allegedly planned by a group spreading hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community, according to reports by the Associated Press (AP). Advertisement According to the AP report, police said the group sought to radicalise and recruit teenagers to carry out attacks using Molotov cocktails and improvised explosives. In a statement first issued to The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson for Gaga said: 'We learned about this alleged threat via media reports this morning. 'Prior to and during the show, there were no known safety concerns, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Lady Gaga regarding any potential risks. 'Her team worked closely with law enforcement throughout the planning and execution of the concert and all parties were confident in the safety measures in place.' Advertisement In an earlier post on Instagram, the singer praised her Brazilian fans after 2.5 million watched the free concert. In a post on Instagram following the Saturday concert, Gaga – whose real name is Stefani Germanotta – did not address the incident, but said: 'Nothing could prepare me for the feeling I had during last night's show — the absolute pride and joy I felt singing for the people of Brazil. 'The sight of the crowd during my opening songs took my breath away. Your heart shines so bright, your culture is so vibrant and special, I hope you know how grateful I am to have shared this historical moment with you. 'An estimated 2.5 million people came to see me sing, the biggest crowd for any woman in history. Advertisement 'I wish I could share this feeling with the whole world — I know I can't, but I can say this — if you lose your way, you can find your way back if you believe in yourself and work hard. 'You can give yourself dignity by rehearsing your passion and your craft, pushing yourself to new heights— you can lift yourself up even if it takes some time. 'Thank you Rio for waiting for me to come back. Thank you little monsters all over the world. I love you. I will never forget this moment. 'Paws up little monsters (Gaga's nickname for her fans). Obrigada. Love, Mother Monster.' Advertisement According to reports, authorities arrested two people in connection with the planned attack — the alleged leader of the group on illegal weapons possession charges in Rio Grande Do Sul, and a teenager on child pornography charges in Rio. Police are reported to have raided the locations of 15 suspects in Brazil and confiscated phones and other electronic devices. The show saw the 39-year-old perform hits such as Poker Face and Alejandro, with a number of costume changes including a dress with the colours of the Brazilian flag. Brazilian authorities have been contacted for comment. Advertisement
