Latest news with #Rosa
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Moms for Liberty goes to war with New York school over five library books
Moms for Liberty, an ultra-conservative parental rights outfit the Southern Poverty Law Center considers an extremist organization, is fighting to immediately remove five 'obscene' library books from an Upstate New York public school, insisting they are simply too dangerous to keep on the shelves. The body of work being challenged supposedly 'normalizes violence and abuse of women and children, depicts rape, equates violence and pain with pleasure, [and] encourages and normalizes early sexual activity among minors,' according to a petition filed this week in Wayne County Supreme Court by Moms for Liberty and an area evangelical pastor. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is set to appear Friday evening at an event hosted by the group. In their petition, the ardent culture warriors claim the books expose kids to 'obscene depictions of sexually explicit acts.' The books in question include People Kill People, a YA novel by bestselling author Ellen Hopkins about the deleterious effects of gun violence; It Ends With Us, a romance novel by Colleen Hoover that was made into a Hollywood film starring Blake Lively; All Boys Aren't Blue, a 'memoir-manifesto' by journalist and LGBTQ activist George M. Johnson about his struggles growing up as a gay Black man; Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold, a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood centered on female empowerment; and Julia Scheeres' Jesus Land: A Memoir, a New York Times bestseller about the author's unpleasant childhood experience at a fundamentalist church camp. Jonathan Burman, a spokesman for the New York State Education Department, told The Independent that leadership 'stands 100 percent behind' state education commissioner Betty Rosa for keeping the five books on the shelves in the face of past challenges. In April, Rosa ruled that Moms for Liberty had 'failed to demonstrate that the challenged books here lack 'literary, artistic, political, or scientific value,' and suggested they had not even read the books they said they found so objectionable. To that end, some of the passages Moms for Liberty claimed were sexually explicit in fact had 'nothing to do with sexuality,' Rosa wrote in her ruling. But Moms for Liberty now argues that Rosa's decision was 'arbitrary, an abuse of discretion, and based on a misapplication of the First Amendment,' and are seeking an injunction to rid the library of the books while a lawsuit to ban them permanently winds its way through the courts. Attorney Abigail Southerland, who is representing Moms for Liberty and serves as senior litigtation counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian nonprofit run by former Trump impeachment lawyer Jay Sekulow, did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. The case was first reported locally by the Finger Lakes Times. Local chapter head Jennifer Williams told the outlet she would not comment until the case had been fully adjudicated. Moms for Liberty's attempts to remove books from school libraries have spurred vehement backlash across the nation. The battle began in early 2023, when Rev. Jacob Marchitell, who heads up the Christ Community Church in Clyde, New York, filed a formal request with the school board to have the books removed from the Clyde-Savannah Junior/Senior High School library. A committee appointed by the board reviewed the books and found them to be perfectly acceptable, according to the petition. But when Marchitell increased the pressure, the board yanked the books anyway. The school librarian and a teacher there filed an appeal, but the board reversed itself before a decision was handed down, the petition explains. Marchitell, now with Moms for Liberty on board, appealed the move, unsuccessfully, and in April 2024, Rosa ordered the books to remain on the shelves. Moms for Liberty became involved because, according to the petition, 'at least' five registered members of Moms for Liberty have children enrolled in the district and 'will be exposed and/or have access to these lewd and sexually explicit materials when they visit the District's Jr./Sr. High School Library.' A dozen or so more parents are members of the private Moms for Liberty page on Facebook, the petition states. This week's petition, which initiated what is known as an Article 78 proceeding, runs a whopping 165 pages and includes specific examples of what Moms for Liberty and Marchitell find objectionable. In addition to sex, Moms for Liberty's petition says People Kill People 'contains at least 137 profanities,' It Ends With Us 'contains at least 105 profanities,' and All Boys Aren't Blue 'contains numerous profanities.' The petition flags no problematic profanity in Red Hood , but says it contains 'numerous' instances of pornography, and that Jesus Land contains 'several examples of sexually explicit content and profanities.' '[T]he sexual content contained within these books is excessive and severely undermines any asserted literary value for the students given access to the school library,' the petition alleges. Moms for Liberty, which last year helped ban a book about book bans, has come out in favor of Project 2025, a right-wing blueprint for a potential Trump administration that has been accused of veering into authoritarianism. In a statement issued following Rosa's April decision against Moms for Liberty, New York Library Association President Lisa Kropp said, 'The intimidation tactics used here are being repeated in classrooms and public libraries across the state and the country. As the voice of the library community in New York, NYLA will not allow this tactic to go unnoticed, unremarked, or unchallenged.' Trump, who has vowed to eliminate the US Department of Education if reelected, is making his appearance Friday evening with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice at the group's yearly meeting in Washington, D.C. It will be the second time in two years he has shown up at the annual confab.
Daily Mirror
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Sam Fender's low-key romance with actress - from 'casual fling' to tour travels
Sam Fender has been dating actress Rosa Collier for more than two years, and the couple have taken their romance on tour as she has accompanied him across Europe Sam Fender, the North Shields sensation with three Brit Awards to his name, has captured hearts worldwide with his music. The star, who is set to perform at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Liverpool on Saturday, has remained private about his personal life as he navigates his success. The importance of his privacy was shaped by a difficult childhood that saw his mother, Shirley, leave when he was just eight years old. It was Sam's father Alan, an ex-electrician turned music teacher, who handed him his first guitar at the age of eight. After Alan remarried, Sam faced another upheaval when his stepmother evicted him at 17, leading him to reconnect with Shirley after years apart. Opening up about his past struggles, Sam shared with The Guardian: "I was dealing with abandonment issues. My folks split up when I was young and I lived with my dad, but then he and I stopped getting on," he said. "I was bullied in school because I had long hair and I was sensitive." He also reflected on how these experiences impacted his relationships: "You don't realise these things affect you until you're older and you don't know why you're walking around with a pit in your stomach or why you push partners away. When I had a girlfriend, I realised I couldn't surrender myself to people. I didn't feel safe in a loving relationship. I'd self sabotage to almost gain control of the situation, because that's not the person hurting you, you're leaving them, and it makes you feel like you're in control of the situation. Because you have such fear of losing them." Fans have been on tenterhooks for a while now, eager to discover the identity of his girlfriend. Earlier this year, it was finally unveiled that he's been in a relationship with actress Rosa Collier for over two years. A source spilled the beans to The Sun, revealing that Rosa first crossed paths with Sam in 2022 and they "loosely dated" before things got serious in 2023. According to the insider, Sam is head over heels for Rosa, adding: "She works as an actress and they met when she was studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. "They had a casual fling for a few months and then things escalated in 2023," the source disclosed. They also revealed to the publication that Sam and Rosa have journeyed together quite extensively and recently enjoyed a romantic getaway to the Maldives. The source hinted that the couple "seem serious," and suggested that they might be gradually going public with their relationship. Rosa was accompanying Sam on his European tour at the time, and with a slew of UK gigs scheduled for the summer, the musician's other half could soon be spotted cheering him on from the audience. The insider teased: "Rosa is always front and centre, supporting her man." Rosa, who has performed in drama school shows like Macbeth and Pains of Youth, is followed by Sam and his bandmates on a private Instagram account. Her stage credits include a part in Our Man in Havana, highlighted on her acting CV alongside her musical talents as a grade eight pianist and a grade six tuned percussionist. She boasts a repertoire of accents for her acting roles, and also possesses skills in hand-to-hand stage combat — something that might come in handy with Sam's overzealous fans. Before kindling a romance with Rosa, Sam was romantically connected to Bridgerton star Hannah Dodd. Sam was enchanted by Hannah's social media presence in 2022, prompting engagement from him online as a source disclosed to The Sun: "Sam thinks Hannah is absolutely stunning and has been liking her pictures like crazy, which is of course very flattering for her. She has also followed him back and they are getting on very well. It's a case of watch this space." The year also saw Sam at the centre of rumours involving singer Raye, particularly after their cosy interaction at the 2022 Brit Awards. Reports surfaced that the two had shared several dates, and following the Brits event, they were noticed mingling at Sam's exclusive gathering at Four Quarters in Peckham, South London, where they joined music sensation Olivia Rodrigo and a host of Sam's pals. An insider revealed to The Sun: "Sam and Raye met each other on the music scene and get on really well. It's very early days but they've spent a lot of time together over the past few weeks and have been on a string of low-key, secret dates. They really respect each other and have loads in common." After sparking rumours with Raye at the 2022 BRIT Awards, Sam's attentions seemed to drift away, and he was caught liking several saucy posts from Lottie Moss on Instagram following their shared presence at the NME Awards. Sources say Sam was "taken aback" by Lottie's stunning looks when they met during the award ceremony, leading to OnlyFans sensation Lottie engaging reciprocally via social media.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
John C. Reilly Is Buffalo Bill in Cannes Film ‘Heads or Tails?,' a Deconstruction of Cowboys and Legends
John C. Reilly stars as Buffalo Bill in the surreal westerns- and heroes-deconstructing parable Heads or Tails? (Testa o croce?), the new feature from Italian writers-directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis (The Tale of King Crab), which world premieres in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section. French-Finnish actress Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Red Island, The Crime Is Mine) and Italian actor Alessandro Borghi (Supersex, The Eight Mountains) lead the cast of the movie that dissects such themes as fame, myths, and storytelling. More from The Hollywood Reporter The Horror Buffs at Image Nation Abu Dhabi, Spooky Pictures Love "Cool Shit" and Have Unleashed 'The Plague' at Cannes 'Highest 2 Lowest': Spike Lee on Trump, Cannes Scandals and the Knicks' Championship Chances: "We're Going to Win!" UTA's Rich Klubeck Is Juggling Wes Anderson, Kelly Reichardt and Ethan Coen at Cannes The story, which the creator duo wrote with Carlo Salsa, begins with a documented 1890 Italy trip by frontiersman Buffalo Bill to bring his popular 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show' to European audiences, and with it, the legend of U.S. frontier life. At the show, Rosa (Tereszkiewicz), the young wife of a nobleman, falls in love with Santino (Borghi), an Italian cowboy, or buttero, who wins a contest against the crew of the legendary Buffalo Bill. 'When Rosa's husband is found dead, a bounty is placed on Santino's head,' notes the synopsis. Oh yeah, and Buffalo Bill ends up on their heels. 01 Distribution is releasing the buzzy title in Italian cinemas, while RAI Cinema International Distribution is handling sales elsewhere. Rigo de Righi and Zoppis talked to THR about the inspiration for their new film, how its themes relate to our time, the gusto Reilly brought to his role, the connection of the new pope to Buffalo Bill, and the myth of America. How much is a natural follow-up or continuation of some of the themes you explored in ? Zoppis It is a continuation for sure. Our collaboration started with our interest in oral tales and legends, and we heard the story, since we were kids, of how Buffalo Bill came here, and there was this rodeo. The mother of my grandmother apparently went to the Wild West Show and saw him, so it's something that we always heard and were very interested in. I'm half-American. So, in a way, at least personally, I like the fact that [the film] had America coming to Italy and intertwining the two cultures. Rigo de Righi I just read an interesting thing. The new pope's name is Leone XIV, Leo XIV. They choose a name to follow the path of a previous pope. And in this case, that was Leone XIII, who was the pope who received Buffalo Bill and the Native Americans when they came to Rome and Italy. You mentioned your interest in tales and legends. In your new film, you two tell a story, but you also present a reflection on storytelling and how it works. And the movie constantly makes you wonder who i good and who is bad. In the social media age, it seems everybody tells a story slightly differently. How much does the movie reflect modern issues? Rigo de Righi We believe that the story very much has something about the contemporary world we live in. It was our intent, when we built the script, to start the film with a classical setup, in which you have the male character, the good cowboy, the Italian cowboy who wins and seems to be the hero. And then slowly we deconstruct that throughout the film. Also this idea of fame and how that could change your life or perception is a contemporary feeling that you live through with Santino's character. When we made the first film, we did it about a famous legend in the countryside of Rome. We were attracted by how the story would change from mouth to mouth. And so this sort of myth is created. Zoppis We are from a generation that didn't have the internet, and then we had it at a certain point. And I remember how it affected us to be able to have access to information. Back then, we didn't have so much false news, and you didn't question reality so much. So this is part of us, it's part of what's happening. It's part of our society in general. Anybody who listened to stories as a kid will know this. We were fascinated by just standing there and listening to stories, and they did change. In another film, one of the characters says: Before, we used to sit in front of the fire and tell stories. There was no television back then. That's the point. America is in the news a lot these days. How did you think about the myth of America that Buffalo Bill talks about, including his highlighting of freedom? And I found it funny that Rosa says she would like to go to America, but Santino doesn't even know where it is… Zoppis We lived together in America, in New York. So for sure, there are some of the feelings we had living there. There is this dream of possibility, but then, reality is different. Those two things can be extremely, radically different. So, I think some of the things come from personal experience. The fact that the character doesn't know where America is was just supposed to have the characters be as far apart as they can be. We wanted to portray this American cowboy stereotype and somehow deconstruct it. From the very start, he's supposed to be the hero. He didn't do anything, but gets claimed for something he didn't do, and he feeds upon it. And then you realize that the real hero is her. We worked with Alessandro Borghi to find the tone of his character, a very simple character who has some vanity in him and a lot of pride that is hidden, and some defects that are also hidden. Rigo de Righi The film starts with that setup and it gives you the the idea of this new thing. The Wild West Show, I think, contributed to the creation of the myth of the West. And so the idea of America is portrayed there at the beginning of the film, and it's a thing Rosa understands. She listens to Buffalo Bills, so she starts dreaming. But then throughout the course of the film, you understand how the narrative is built by Buffalo Bill. You follow something with the character, and then we break that and it falls. And then you build it again, and then it breaks and falls again. That's what's interesting, because at the end you have your own conclusion. Zoppis You were talking about good guys, bad guys. There's always you with a movie. You experience and follow a human experience. You're part of that. And there are always different sides of the coin. You could say that the actors leap off the screen. How much did Nadia and Alessandro surprise you with what they brought to their characters? Zoppis There's something that happens with the characters and the interpretation of the actors, because we work a lot with them, talking about the script and about references, about our ideas, their ideas, and also giving them, of course, a lot of freedom, With all of them, there was a big surprise when we actually went shooting and saw the characters for the first time. It's a little bit different from what you imagine, but still familiar somehow. But what happened with Buffalo Bill, I think, was even more surprising for us because we had the idea in mind, we knew how we wanted the tone to be, but John brought a lot of his irony and human aspect to the character. How did John C. Reilly actually come on board? Zoppis John was exactly the same age as Buffalo Bill during his second trip to Rome. We had never worked with an American actor before. So everything was new. When he read the script and we got to talk to him, he had this long beard, and he was already proposing stuff. I remember we hung up, and we were so excited to say: 'Man, this is Buffalo Bill.' It's incredible – we saw that right away. It was not only that he resembled our idea of Buffalo Bill, but he brought to it a human aspect, understanding the tone and playing with it, including the irony aspect of it. How did you learn about Buffalo Bill and build that character and his voice? Rigo de Righi We read many, many books to start with, and then we also read many dime novels. There are so many old dime novels, and that's what the little booklet [you see in the movie] stands for. That was our way to k pull in the old dime novels that were basically stories of great adventures. We also did much research on him, and then we started how he could actually be. When John came on board, he was exactly what we were looking for, not only tonally. He also had some ideas and brought many insights into the character, including many ironic aspects, and what he could look like and what he could do. I remember John came up with how the character spoke. And he even proposed wearing the suit he wears in the second part of the film. So it was very interesting and wonderful. Did you ever find any video footage of Buffalo Bill? Rigo de Righi Yeah, there's footage. We even thought at the very beginning of using the footage. And then we said, no, this would become too historic. We wanted to focus on portraying the legend and how we imagined things. Rather than being historically accurate, we took liberties. What was the footage you found like? Rigo de Righi There's some old footage of Buffalo Bill crossing a river, and he's tracking somebody who doesn't exist. And there's somebody behind the camera, and Buffalo Bill is obviously acting. So tonally, when we saw it, we said this is exactly what we were looking for. I need to ask you about Nadia and her character. How much did you think about making it a female empowerment story? I really found myself rooting for her. Zoppis I'm happy that you say that, because it's actually what also happened to us. We were the directors and wanted to portray that character in a way that was a tricky task. Nadia played a huge role in that, because she brought a very intense performance and how do you say… Rigo de Righi Layers. And also subtle changes. She's very subtle. She did some very subtle things that we were very enthusiastic about. With the script, we wanted mostly to start deconstructing what's supposed to be the hero of the cowboy, and to lead the way for her to become the heroine of the film. How early did you know that the title would be for this one? Zoppis We never changed it. There's something strange that happens with titles. At some point, there is that title, and then it doesn't change anymore. It's how th movie goes. Rigo de Righi I think all the titles we have had in our films were there in a very early stage of the film. Zoppis The film was about fate and how things go if you flip a coin. That was the whole thing – taking control of your desires. Rigo de Righi It just resonated, this idea of the flip – not only the flip of the coin, the two faces of the same coin, but also the two characters. It just had a lot of the themes that we were trying to address. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Brilliantly Offbeat Novel of Art and Women's Wrestling in 1970s New York
One of my favorite Instagram accounts belongs to the Meredith Rosen Gallery: Whoever runs it regularly posts videos of people being daring, random or exceptionally dumb. A woman in a bikini and a wool hat jumps into a lake that's frozen over. A little kid beats the living daylights out of an inflatable Santa in someone's front yard. The same caption accompanies all of these posts — '#artdealing' — as if the art world were so absurd as to be a metaphor for every madness, every vanity, every act of stupid bravery. Something of this zany spirit of juxtaposition governs 'To Smithereens,' Rosalyn Drexler's brilliantly offbeat novel of two seemingly unrelated subcultures in 1970s New York City: the art world and women's wrestling. First published in 1972, it begins with a strange man putting his hand on a young woman's thigh in a movie theater. She crushes his fingers, whacks his wrist and then empties her drink on him. He's into it. They start dating, and he, Paul, a middling art writer, pushes her, Rosa, sans profession but full of beans, to get into professional wrestling. It's his kink, but she's willing to give it a try. Narrated by Paul and Rosa in alternating chapters, 'To Smithereens' is a novel about a man daring a woman to do things, and the woman doing them — to test her power, to defy the straitjacket of femininity and to grow ever larger and stronger. Paul tries to give Rosa an artistic education, but she sees art in a fundamentally different way. When he shows her a picture of Magritte's 'The Listening Room' — a painting of 'a fat apple as big as the room it was in,' as Rosa puts it — she disagrees with his take that the apple is 'aggressive,' or 'crowding out the room.' Paul is a hilarious sendup of a self-serious art writer who considers it his role to 'help clarify.' As he attends a circuit of parties, exhibition openings and '60s-style 'happenings' (including one in which he receives a sexual favor in a mausoleum), he is mindful that he must make his mark by inventing some catchphrase that will cement his importance: Drexler's portrayal of the pro-wrestling scene is no less vivid. In language as deft and muscular as Rosa's team, Drexler captures the scent of the blood and the resin, every wisecrack and sob story, every flake of talc and gob of spit, every pimple and blackhead on the lady wrestlers' thighs. As Rosa tries to memorize a sequence of moves before her first fight, language hits the mat in deference to the found poetry of the ring: 'MONKEY-FLIP KICKOUT KEISTER BUMPS BABY-FACE WAIST SCISSORS HEEL WHIP KICKOUT HOT FLYING MARE COOL FIGURE-4 MURDER.' The promoters call her Rosa Rio, the Mexican 'Sizzlin' Spitfire,' though she's a Jewish American girl who's never been south of the border. Off she goes on tour with a colorful cast of women wrestlers and their assorted hangers-on: Jean Burly, 'the greatest, most beautiful ath-a-lete in America, Canada and Mexico,' according to her manager, Bobby Fox; Tommy J. Jukes ('I'm purty but I'm dirty'); Mike the promoter and his right-hand man, Shorty, a person with dwarfism who comes in for page after page of ableist invective. (I know it's 1972, but yikes.) Drexler's own biography lends the novel an irrefutable air of authenticity: Now approaching 100, she was a collage artist and fixture of the 1960s Pop Art scene who has not only managed to produce 10 plays and nine novels, but herself had a spell as a wrestler (her nom de guerre was Rosa Carlo, and Andy Warhol once made a silk-screen print of her in her leotard, crouched as if preparing to attack). Like a collage, or a fight, 'To Smithereens' is at its heart about relationships, and the conflict and contact that is their lifeblood, or their ruin. Toward the end of the novel, as Rosa and Paul try to make a go of cohabiting, Paul quotes Kafka's diary: 'The hardships of living together. Forced upon us by strangeness, pity, lust, cowardice, vanity and only deep down, perhaps, a thin little stream worthy of the name love, impossible to seek out, flashing once in the moment of a moment.' It's an apt description of his life with Rosa, he thinks. 'Two contenders. No one to rescue us from ourselves. Each other's victims.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Baird says CEO ‘well-equipped' to further Intuitive Surgical position
After Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) announced this morning that President Dave Rosa will be promoted to Chief Executive Officer, Baird said the firm believes Rosa has long been slated to take over the CEO role, given his 29-plus years at the company. The firm, which expects Rosa to be 'well-equipped to continue to further ISRG's position as a best-in-class MedTech growth story,' keeps an Outperform and $575 price target on Intuitive Surgical shares. Quickly and easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks straight to you inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>> See the top stocks recommended by analysts >> Read More on ISRG: Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue Intuitive Surgical Appoints David Rosa as CEO Intuitive Surgical announces promotion of Dave Rosa to CEO Wolfpack Research says short UFP Technologies, growth story 'in shambles' Intuitive Surgical Expands Stock Repurchase Program to $4B Intuitive Surgical announces FDA clearance of da Vinci Single Port system
