Latest news with #Isaacs'
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney composer Mark Isaacs records second symphony
The piano remains central to Isaacs' craft. Credit: Louie Douvis When still a teenager, he studied composition with Vincent Plush and Kim Williams at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Williams (now chairman of the ABC) later commissioned Isaacs' first symphony. Loading But the piano remains essential to his craft. He writes his symphonies sitting at the keyboard, allowing ideas to come to him through improvisation. When a theme emerges he'll jot it down with pencil and paper, perhaps with a note about instrumentation. 'When I'm sketching I might put in 'woodwind flurries', or I know there will be a cor anglais solo – and I make a note at the piano and work out the details later,' he says. 'It's like drafting something and then going into finer detail.' He used to write his orchestral scores in longhand, working at a sloping architect's table. These days he works with music-notation software when he is filling out the orchestration. Symphony No. 2 is scored for strings and triple woodwind, brass, three percussionists and harp. It also includes a piano – not as a solo instrument, but as part of the orchestral texture – as well as celesta and harpsichord. Isaacs dedicated his first symphony to his father, Saul Isaacs, a research chemist and composer whose song In a Little Moment was recorded by Petula Clark. At the time Isaacs was writing the symphony, Saul had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. His father was able to attend the world premiere of his first symphony – given by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and conductor Benjamin Northey in 2013 – before he died. The piece impressed no less a figure than conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, who suggested that Isaacs write his next symphony in a more upbeat mood. The second movement of Symphony No. 2 is an expansive adagietto. The third and final movement begins with an unusual expression marking, largo supplicando, suggesting supplication or prayer. Isaacs says he doesn't subscribe to a particular religion, but the musical direction is intended to evoke a 'sense of humility and devotion to what I would call Oneness, with a capital O'. Loading After this moment of reflection, the third movement launches into an exuberant finale, attended by emphatically affirmative chords and sweeping glissandos from the harp. Isaacs received an Australia Council (now Creative Australia) grant to write his second symphony. It was completed in 2017 and Isaacs spent the next seven years trying to find an orchestra to play it. To continue the literary analogy, it was like an author sending his novel to publishers and receiving only polite rejection slips. He is philosophical about this, but was determined that the music should at least be recorded, given the public investment in it. Recording the symphony in Prague cost $57,000, supported by $50,000 from Creative Australia. At the same sessions he recorded his suite of songs called Grace City, with Deborah Dicembre. Isaacs is not finished with the symphony. Indeed, he speaks of a possible cycle of symphonies – each instalment distinct but related to the whole, like a sequence of novels. 'I think the third should introduce a choral element, a choir or vocal soloists – or both,' he says. 'I've only just scratched the surface.' Mark Isaacs' Symphony No. 2 and Grace City are available on major music platforms. The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.
CNBC
7 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
‘White Lotus' star Jason Isaacs says he has ‘pretty much spent everything' he has ever earned
Jason Isaacs has played major roles across film and television, from Lucius Malfoy in the "Harry Potter" movie series to troubled patriarch Timothy Ratliff in season three of "The White Lotus." Despite his industry success, the 62-year-old actor's financial situation looks a bit different than most might imagine. "People will think I have huge stockpiles of money," Isaacs said in a recent interview with Vulture. "But sadly, what I've done rather immaturely is expand my outgoings to match my incomings and pretty much spent everything I've earned over the years." Financial experts have a term for this phenomenon: lifestyle creep. "Many feel as though they have to spend more as they progress through career milestones," says Matt Saneholtz, a certified financial planner in Plantation, Florida. Isaacs' habits go "against the grain of everything" he teaches, he says. Lifestyle creep is the tendency to spend more money as your income increases — a habit many people fall into without realizing it. While it may start as a few upgraded purchases and subscriptions, it can escalate into a pattern of constant spending that sinks your savings. Even for high earners, it can derail long-term financial goals over time, Saneholtz says. "You have to balance today's needs with tomorrow's," he says. "I'm not saying don't treat yourself when you get a raise or promotion, or when you get that next big job … but also treat your future self correctly as well, by setting aside some of that money for the longer term." Isaacs' limited financial cushion, despite his Hollywood success, illustrates a common trap: letting short-term wants and needs overshadow long-term wealth building. A "tried and true approach" to help address lifestyle creep is to take a raise, or a significant portion of one, and put it directly into an investment account — you "won't miss what you don't see," Saneholtz says. In other words, a bump in your income should come with a commensurate increase in how much you're saving for long-term goals. Automating that process through your bank can also help reduce the temptation to use that money elsewhere, Saneholtz added. And when your money is in an investment account, it is "working for you" — meaning it has the potential to grow over time through compounding interest, he says. Saneholtz also recommends reviewing your finances regularly and documenting what's coming in versus going out, regardless of your income or assets. By documenting your overall financial picture, you can look for outgoing costs like luxuries or recurring subscriptions that might not actually bring value to you. When you begin earning enough money to comfortably meet your wants and needs, managing lifestyle creep is ultimately about reminding yourself that "it's all relative," Saneholtz says. "Once you have attained that level of wealth," he added, "then it's about saving enough for future retirement to maintain yourself at that level that makes you happy, not what the commercials tell you [that] you need to be happy."
BBC News
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'The melodramatic penis': How The White Lotus reveals the hidden codes of male nudity on screen
Full-frontal male nudity in all three series of The White Lotus has provoked waves of reaction and comment. Why does showing a penis on screen still have the ability to shock? Episode four of The White Lotus season three, which is set in Thailand, saw the increasingly agitated millionaire dad Tim Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) sit down for breakfast in a loosely tied dressing robe. His family are unaware that Tim is wanted by the FBI for illegal financial dealings and will likely end up in prison – and that he's been popping tablets of anti-anxiety medication Lorazepam like sweeties. [Warning: This article contains language that some may find offensive] "Everyone at the club…!" he mutters to himself in horror, and, imagining his acquaintances finding out about his crimes, he puts his hands up over his head, accidentally exposing his genitals as a result. "Oh my god, Dad!" his three near-adult children cry out in disgust. "Your balls!" It might have been only a flash of male genitalia in this third series of Mike White's hugely successful dramedy about one-percenters on holiday, but it instantly became a much-discussed moment on social media. "Jason Isaacs I was unfamiliar with ur game," one person posted on X, while another added: "[the] full frontal made me spill my soup I wasn't ready." Others connected Isaacs' nakedness back to his other famous role as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. "Well, I didn't expect White Lotus to show Lucius Malfoy's wand tonight, but here we are…" one user quipped. But this was far from the first time the male anatomy was the focus in this series. In the first episode, Isaacs' on-screen son, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) was shown flashing his penis and buttocks while announcing to his younger brother that he was going to masturbate to pornography in their shared bathroom; and the two prior series have also been replete with naked men. In fact, it's become a running theme: every opening episode from each three White Lotus series features a penis set loose. Hawaii-set series one had Steve Zahn's Mark Mossbacher ask his wife to inspect his testicles as he believed he had cancer. In the first episode of series two (set in Sicily) cocky finance bro Cameron (Theo James) goes to his friend's partner's hotel bedroom to borrow some swimming shorts, then changes in full view, giving her and the viewers a glimpse of his penis. "What do you think? A little snug, right?" he says of the shorts to Harper (Aubrey Plaza), once again directing the gaze downwards. Back to the current series, this week's episode saw one of resort-worker Valentin's Russian friends, Vlad, stripping off and waving his genitalia around on a night out, while elsewhere across all three series there have been other nude male characters, either masturbating or having sex, such as Adam DiMarco as Albie and Will Sharpe as Ethan (both series two); while both series one and two each had genuinely jaw-dropping, bombshell all-male sex scenes. Series one saw a drug-fuelled sex session (featuring Armond the hotel manager [Murray Bartlett] and younger White Lotus staff member, Dillon [Lukas Gage]), while season two's big reveal was with two men, Quentin (Tom Hollander) and Jack (Leo Woodall) having sex, who had claimed to be uncle and nephew, but were really client and sex worker. There's no doubt that White uses male nudity and sex scenes to provoke. And it works: season three is averaging 12.2 million viewers per episode – up 78% from the same season two time frame – and it frequently trends on social media, going into overdrive when any male nakedness pops up. But the fact that these scenes still generate headlines from news outlets around the world shows that while male nakedness might be becoming a little more common, it's still seen as a taboo, and worthy of comment, which in itself, speaks volumes as to how comfortable (or uncomfortable) many feel about seeing naked men on screen. 'The exception rather than the norm' European film and TV has traditionally taken a more relaxed approach to showing full-frontal male and female nudity on screen. In the US and UK it's a very different story. Strict Ofcom guidelines in the UK have a "watershed" rule of no nudity permitted before 21:00 (BST). And while that may mean bare bottoms have occasionally appeared on TV in the late evenings, penises didn't really appear until the 1990s, with Eurotrash, a late-night magazine-style programme on Channel 4 that featured the exploits of the weird and wonderful people of Europe, and casually showed penises and vulvas; or the sexual adventures of the gay men in the groundbreaking Queer As Folk in 1999. But even now, seeing male genitalia on UK TV is still the exception, rather than the norm. In the US, the first penis on TV is believed to be a split-second shot of a naked horse wrangler in 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove, based on the Western novels by Larry McMurtry. But it was the advent of cable and broadcasters like HBO and Showtime that began to push the boundaries of the naked male body; in the 1992 HBO series Tales from the Crypt, one character jumps up after having sex, displaying his penis; then portrayals of the full naked male body continued in shows like Oz (from 1997) and Game of Thrones (from 2011), all the way through to a reported 30 penises shown in Euphoria's mens' locker room scene in 2019 or a talking penis on Hulu's Pam & Tommy in 2022. "I would argue that the naked male form has become more normalised on screen over the past few years," says Santiago Fouz-Hernandez, a film studies professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University, who specialises in gender, sexuality and the body on screen. "But the audience reaction from scenes from The White Lotus proves the point that it's still not seen as 'normal', it's not something common and that's what Mike White is slightly exploiting in his decision to devote repeated screen time to it." But if there has been a rise in male genitalia on screen, why has television shied away from it in the past? "There's the idea of the 'phallic mystique'," suggests Fouz-Hernandez, "which [film studies professor] Peter Lehman wrote about in the early 90s and is a fascinating perspective. The penis and the phallus are two very different things. The phallus is not a polite way to refer to the penis, it's a concept, and symbolic; it's the idea of male power and the privilege that comes from having one. Lehman, among others, like Susan Hunt or Susan Bordo, have argued that patriarchy relies on keeping the penis out of sight, otherwise if it was visible or normalised, that idea of power could be debunked and men lose their power. The phallus is what being masculine and what being male is about." This certainly tracks with the vulnerability of two of The White Lotus men, Mark and Tim. "The penis is a very vulnerable organ in itself," Fouz-Hernandez explains – and perhaps, as older men going through some sort of trauma, they are past caring about upholding the notion of the powerful phallus. Whether accidentally or on purpose, they're exposing themselves fully to others. Faced with bigger problems, their need to uphold their status takes a back seat. The opposite seems to be true for the hyper-masculine characters of Cameron and Saxon, who actively parade their penises to others, whether they want to see them or not. They position themselves as being such alpha males, so well-endowed and overly confident with themselves that they don't need to bother to keep up the pretence of keeping the phallus covered. "What have I got to hide?" they seem to insinuate. But there's also a predatory, threatening note to these two men displaying their penises to assert sexual authority; the recipients of these full-frontal shows are a woman who Cameron has only just met, and finds herself alone with him in a hotel bedroom; and Saxon's younger and physically smaller brother, who is also in a vulnerable position as Saxon bullies him and mocks him for being a virgin, telling him repeatedly about his aim to get him "laid" this holiday. As Evan Romano wrote in Men's Health in 2022 about Cameron, they are "weaponising male nudity". All these on-screen genital reveals are set up to be a moment of "shock", something that Peter Lehman identified as a common trope when it comes to full-frontal male nudity in films, says Fouz-Hernandez. "They established the concept called 'the melodramatic penis', where when there's a full-frontal moment on screen, it's not simply just casual or 'normal' at all, as it's usually accompanied by a shock, or drama around it. There's a dualism of having it on the screen. It's normalised; but it's also not, as there's drama connected to it. This is true for the reveals in The White Lotus: when we see the genitals, it's accompanied with a case of potential cancer [in one instance], while another character fears his life is about to be exposed, and in another there appears to be a love triangle unfolding." A 'double standard'? Each case of nudity in The White Lotus helps move on-screen representations on from the male gaze, which traditionally used the camera to look voyeuristically at the female body. David Opie wrote in Digital Spy that many nude male scenes in The White Lotus were "important" as they "exist to deconstruct masculinity in relation to sex, status, and misogyny, while flipping the script in a world where women are still objectified more than men". Meanwhile, Isaacs told Decider that he thinks White is "trying to right the balance of how many naked women I've seen growing up on every television show and film. Nudity is the thing," he added. "He uses it sometimes for comedy, sometimes for sex, sometimes for manipulation. It's a good TV moment." Let's not forget White's use of nudity for comic effect: in episode five of The White Lotus season three, Vlad helicopters his penis by the pool in a way that's highly unlikely to signify anything else other than capturing a silly, drunken moment. Part of the show's appeal, says Henry Wong, senior culture editor at Esquire, is White's ability to jump from the funny to the serious in these exposing scenes: "Any redressing of the balance between male and female nudity feels like a playful side effect rather than a primary goal to me. Maybe the nudity is supposed to be threatening – I am sure that many viewers can imagine themselves in similar, sinister situations – or sexy or funny, or all of those things at the same time. White isn't too definitive about it, and that's for the better." However, Wong notes: "I do think it's interesting how the male actors often have to mention that it's a prosthetic on press cycles. Does that show a lingering discomfort or awkwardness around male nudity and specifically penises?" More like this:• 10 of the best TV shows to watch this March• How The Leopard skewered the super-rich• The wild story of London's women-only gang Indeed, each time a White Lotus actor does a nude scene, they're asked about it. "I didn't even have to do that part," Zahn told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's somebody else wearing a prosthetic. That's about as absurd as it gets, right?". Theo James also used a prosthetic, telling Variety that he asked the make-up artist: "I just wanted it not to be distracting. It needs to be 'Regular Joe'. Because the scene, you know, it's not about the pee pee, it's about power play and sex… She says, 'I got you. Yeah, I got you. Regular Joe.'" However, when he saw it, he added: "It's like she stole it off a donkey in the field! The thing is ginormous." Isaacs' on-screen children, Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola, both confirmed to TV Insider that the scene they shot with Isaac was filmed using a prosthetic in place. However, in an interview with CBS Mornings, Isaacs took umbrage at the questions around nudity. "I think it's interesting that there's a double standard for men, but when women are naked, Margaret Qualley in The Substance, no one would dream of talking to her about her genitalia or her nipples or any of those things. So, it's odd that there's a double standard… "I genuinely think it would be odd when there are characters – and some of the women are naked in here – it'd be odd if you were sitting here. And you would never dream of discussing their genitalia, not for a second." As he continued to be asked questions on the subject, Isaacs added: "What is your obsession? Mike White is a brilliant writer, it's the best series on television for a long time. And what is the obsession with penises? It's an odd thing." A few days later, Isaacs clarified his comments, telling Variety: "I said the wrong words in the wrong way. I used the phrase 'double standard,' which I didn't mean at all. There is a [different] double standard – women have been monstrously exploited and men haven't." But he added: "I had been asked so many times in the same day by journalists, 'Are you wearing a prosthetic?' Which means, 'Have I seen your actual penis? It's very important for me to know if I've seen your penis.' It just strikes me as a bit weird and slightly obsessive. I thought I could have fun batting it off, but I batted it off very poorly." There are further issues with using fake genitals on screen, says Fouz-Hernandez. "On one hand, it's great that Mike White is giving visibility and normalising male nudity," he says. "And I understand the idea of contracts and that actors might not want to show their real genitals for close-ups, but the use of prosthetics and digital effects is disappointing, because in a way, they defeat the purpose by contributing to perpetuating the very phallic imagery that male frontal nudity could debunk, creating an unrealistic representation. It would be good to see more realistic diversity of sizes and shapes... The series is therefore perpetuating the phallic mystique by revealing a penis that isn't even real, which is problematic." With two more episodes of the current season still to air, it's likely that there are a few more shocks in store for the guests at The White Lotus resort in Koh Samui. Of the sex acts – and presumably the depiction of the naked male form too – in The White Lotus, White told The New Yorker that he likes to portray them as transgressive, not to condemn them, but to connect them back to the idea of where we all evolved from: "It's not all harmless. But it's not inherently harmful. It's inherently very natural. We're animals." The White Lotus is available to stream on HBO in the US or Sky Atlantic/NOW in the UK -- For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jason Isaacs Used a Prosthetic in His Now-Viral 'White Lotus' Nude Scene, Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook Reveal
As it turns out, we don't know Jason Isaacs as well as we thought. Days after Isaacs' White Lotus character flashed his family in a now-viral full-frontal moment during the March 9 episode, his costars dished on what it was like to film the scene. In a recent interview with TV Insider, Isaacs' onscreen children, Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook, revealed what fans really saw beneath his robe. 'That wasn't his real penis!' Nivola, 21, divulged. 'It was a prosthetic,' Hook, 29, added, before noting, 'It was really funny. He was very excited to do it. I think he took pride in the prosthetic. He gave that guy a nice shot.' 'He's like, 'It's my fake d--- scene today!'' Nivola recalled. Related: Sam Nivola Reveals Mike White 'Modeled' His Family in The White Lotus After Bravo's Southern Charm (Exclusive) In a March 9 interview with Decider, Isaacs addressed how creator Mike White came up with the 'great moment,' although he admitted that nudity is 'not something I'm keen on doing in my social life or in my professional life.' 'I don't remember filming those scenes — I think it's digital. I wasn't there that day,' he joked. 'Look, [White] is trying to right the balance of how many naked women I've seen growing up on every television show and film,' Isaacs went on to explain. 'Nudity is the thing. He uses it sometimes for comedy, sometimes for sex, sometimes [for] the manipulation. It's a good TV moment.' Related: The White Lotus Cast By Season: See the Actors and Their Characters Side-by-Side (Including a Familiar Face Heading to Thailand for Season 3!) The actor is right — White does not shy away from nudity when it comes to The White Lotus. In fact, the season kicked off with a glimpse at Patrick Schwarzenegger's nether regions in episode 1. At the Feb. 10 premiere, PEOPLE asked his mom, Maria Shriver, how she reacted to the explicit scene. She said she simply turned a blind eye. 'My kids were like, 'Did you see that?' And I was like, 'No. What?' " she told PEOPLE exclusively, indicating that she was only focused on her son's face and never looked any lower. "So that shows you — a mother's eyes are always on the kids' eyes,' she quipped. His father, Arnold Schwarzenegger, had a slightly different response. 'What a show! I could claim to be surprised to find out he has a nude scene, but what can I say - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree,' the former California governor captioned an Instagram post of him and Patrick. Related: Patrick Schwarzenegger Is Bringing Swagger to the New Season of The White Lotus — and Beyond The Ratliff family has captured the attention of viewers since the season premiere last month as Isaacs' Timothy Ratliff attempts to hide the news that his multimillion-dollar business dealings might land him in jail when they return from their Thai vacation. Victoria Ratliff, played by Parker Posey, is his seemingly oblivious wife with a lorazepam dependency, while their three adult children, Lochlan (Nivola), Piper (Hook) and Saxon (Patrick), grow suspicious of their father's behavior. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The White Lotus airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and Max. Read the original article on People
The Independent
28-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Betting giants up against player-friendly sports results after NFL wins
Two of the world's largest gambling groups will shed light on how bookmakers have fared after a string of player-friendly sports results and major events like the NFL Super Bowl. Entain will publish its full-year financial results on Thursday, while Flutter Entertainment will also share its earnings on Tuesday. London-listed Entain, which owns betting shops Ladbrokes and Coral, is expected to report underlying earnings, before tax, interest and other costs, of £1.1 billion. This would mean generating earnings at the higher end of what analysts had previously been forecasting, after the group reassured investors in January that it was set to withstand 'customer-friendly' sports results in the US. Matches that go in the favour of many punters mean betting companies have to pay out more winnings to customers. This mainly affected BetMGM – Entain's tie-up with entertainment group MGM Resorts International. Sports events like NFL American football matches and the Super Bowl, which Nielsen estimates was watched by some 128 million viewers, drive a flurry of activity with people betting on the winning team as well as hundreds of details about the games. On the other hand, Flutter Entertainment, which owns the like brands including Paddy Power, Betfair and FanDuel, warned last month that the NFL season had been more favourable to punters than any other time in the last two decades. It revealed that one game in December, when the Detroit Lions won against the San Franciso 49ers, cost the group 74 million US dollars alone (£59 million). It therefore warned its shareholders that revenues and profits would likely come in considerably lower than previous forecasts thanks to the player-friendly results. Meanwhile, Entain has kick-started a fresh search for a new chief executive after announcing boss Gavin Isaacs had left his position after less than five months. The company has faced a turbulent few years in terms of its leadership with its previous boss resigning at the end of 2023 following reports that shareholders were unhappy with her leadership. It is understood that Mr Isaacs' departure was not related to Entain's strategy or performance, but linked to cultural differences within management. Investors will be hoping to hear an update from chair Stella David, who is running the business on a temporary basis, on the search for a new permanent chief. It comes in the middle of a turnaround for the company, which has been working to strengthen its finances after being hit with a £585 million penalty in 2023, agreed with HM Revenue & Customs to settle charges related to alleged bribery offences in Turkey.
