Latest news with #WickedWitch
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Top bone health supplements for 2025
Bones literally provide structure to your body. Without them, you would melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. Okay, maybe a bit dramatic, but partially true. While your muscles help you move your body, your bones are the foundation of your movement. They work together to help your body move and do the activities you enjoy doing. Besides movement, your bones protect vital organs, store minerals for essential bodily functions, and help produce red and white blood cells. Now that you know how important your bones are, Life Extension dives into how you can support your bone health through supplementation. Hint: calcium alone likely is not enough. A number of vitamins and minerals play integral roles in keeping your bones strong and healthy. Calcium: You probably predicted this one would be on the list. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in your body. It has various roles and makes up most of the structure in your bones and teeth. Getting enough calcium is crucial for your bone health. If you limit dairy or are dairy-free and do not plan your diet carefully, calcium supplementation could be beneficial. Vitamin D: Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium. Without sufficient vitamin D, you don't use calcium effectively to build bones. A large portion of the U.S. population is lacking in vitamin D; therefore, supplementation may be necessary. Magnesium: Magnesium helps your body absorb calcium by activating vitamin D and influencing parathyroid hormone (PTH) secretion and activity. PTH regulates calcium levels in the blood. Magnesium also supports the bone remodeling process (bone mineral resorption and formation). Vitamin K: This vitamin plays a key role in bone mineralization, helping to activate a protein that binds to calcium and helps get it out of the arteries and into the bone. This has the double benefit of protecting your bones and your cardiovascular health. Zinc: This mineral is essential for healthy bone maintenance, supporting the balance between bone mineral resorption and remodeling. A sufficient intake of zinc helps promote bone health and healthy bone formation. Zinc and magnesium have a synergistic relationship, like teammates that help each other with absorption and use in the body. Although not in the top five, trace minerals like boron and manganese also play a role in bone health, and boron supplementation may be especially advisable for postmenopausal women. The answer to this question is: It's complicated. Why? For one, there are a variety of forms of calcium that you can take, and they differ in the amount of elemental calcium they deliver. For instance, calcium carbonate has more elemental calcium (40%) than calcium citrate (21%). This means 100 mg of calcium carbonate supplementation contains 40 mg of calcium, while 100 mg of calcium citrate only contains 21 mg of calcium. But elemental calcium alone shouldn't be your deciding factor when choosing a supplement, because not all forms of calcium are easily tolerated and absorbed. Plus, calcium absorption rates can change with age and a variety of health factors, so the best form might be different from one person to the next. Case in point: Calcium carbonate may not be as well-absorbed by your body, or as well-tolerated, as calcium citrate. Another form, calcium citrate-malate, has added malic acid and has been studied as an even better-absorbed form of calcium. Overall, the best source of calcium for bone density depends on how well you can tolerate the form you choose for supplementation, while getting the appropriate dose of calcium. And the minerals and vitamins you take with your calcium make a difference. In fact, the best bone supplements offer a blend of three or four calcium forms along with vitamin D to optimize the absorption of your calcium supplementation. Although bone health is often associated with minerals like calcium and magnesium, there are two key vitamins to consider for supplementation: vitamins D and K. You can often find vitamins D and K in a multivitamin, but usually in less-than-optimal doses. The best bone health supplements include the minerals and vitamins you need at clinically studied doses to help maintain bone density, bone strength, and overall bone health. Supporting bone health is important, especially as you age. Talk with your doctor or healthcare provider about supplementation to help maintain strong, healthy bones, and consider testing your bone mineral density through a DEXA scan to get more insight into the health of your bones. When choosing supplementation, find high-quality nutrients that provide health benefits shown by clinical research studies, and products manufactured by a reliable and reputable company. You want well-studied bone health nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, and vitamin K to ensure optimal support of your support system. Absolutely. Physical activity has been shown to strengthen and maintain healthy bones as you age. Recommended exercise includes running, resistance training, and interval training, as well as other weight-bearing activities. Find an activity that you enjoy and do it frequently. Daily exercise is one of the best ways to encourage bone health, bone strength and healthy joints, as well as cardiovascular health, brain health, a healthy mood and so much more. This story was produced by Life Extension and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Book Review: 'Elphie' a psychological backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West
For fans, like me, looking to fill their 'Wicked' obsession, 'Elphie," the fifth book in the Wicked Years series, provides the perfect escape into the world of Oz, with a new look at Elphaba Thropp, the beloved green heroine, before she was known as the Wicked Witch of the West. From her struggles with familiar jealousy, her thirst for knowledge and her encounters with the marginalized talking animals of Oz, 'Elphie' explores the moments in Elphaba's life that shaped who she is. Devoted fans and readers new to the series will be able to dive in deeper to the social and political issues of Oz and gain a deeper insights into Elphaba's plight for sentient animals, a cause that will later mark her as wicked. With a subtle political distress throughout the novel and lack of love in Elphaba's life, the novel can feel melancholy at times. But, that is the core of who Elphaba is. Elphaba's progress from child to an adolescent with better understanding of the world, her wants and needs, guide Gregory Maguire's novel. As Elphaba starts her journey of discovery the novel's pace is slow and steady. But as she begins to understand herself and the joy and wonders of Oz, the novel's becomes a tad more lively. In contrasts to the rest of the series, in 'Elphie' Maguire takes to writing in short chapters with short sentences, reflecting the overall dysfunction occurring in Oz and in Elphaba. The rhythm Maguire create also make the book easy one to breeze through. Compared to previous books in the series, there is less happening to drive the narrative. Instead, 'Elphie' serves as a psychological backstory to understand Elphaba's character, explaining what made her one of the most iconic witched in literacy, theater and film. Making the novel one Elphaba fans must hold space for. ___ AP book reviews: Fernanda Figueroa, The Associated Press
New York Times
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Is ‘Wicked' Really a Resistance Musical?
I first saw 'Wicked' in 2003, when I was 22 and studying musical theater writing at N.Y.U. As a nascent musical theater writer, I was impressed by its craftsmanship and unusual premise: that the cackling, green-faced Wicked Witch of the West most of us know from the 1939 film has a name: Elphaba Thropp. We also learn that she is not wicked at all. That's just propaganda spread by Elphaba's enemies because she stood up for the rights of the enchanted land's talking animals, whom the not-so-wonderful Wizard of Oz had oppressed. At the time, the plot and its modern sensibility read very simply to me as a quirky, catchy musical fairy-tale soap opera subversion of a beloved classic. It was only in the intervening years that I learned that 'Wicked' was intended to have real world political resonance. With the election of President Trump to a second term, and the release of the first of its two parts as a film, 'Wicked' has blossomed into what the director and producer Adam McKay recently described online as 'one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made.' It is now feminist, queer and antifascist. I've even seen it suggested, however unseriously, that releasing the film before the 2024 election might have helped Kamala Harris win the presidency. 'Wicked: Part One' is up for 10 Academy Awards on Sunday. If it wins Best Picture, I can only imagine that will be a signal to some on the liberal left that the roundly defeated Trump 'resistance' is not so dead after all, and that the time has come to levitate on their brooms and take to the Western skies for battle in the 2026 midterms and beyond. But are assertions like this reading too much into this film? Does Elphaba have anything at all to do with this or any political moment in America? Or are we engaging in what I call progressive magical thinking — a mode of reasoning that takes existing texts and then tries to reclaim or reimagine them for the purpose of imbuing them with socially correct attitudes or critiques? As a musical and a film, 'Wicked' falls squarely in the middle of this trend that has been exacerbated over time and by the internet's obsession with current events and 'timeliness.' But the inclusion of these references and themes does not paint a convincing portrait of any real-world political parallels in either 2003 (when 'Wicked' opened on Broadway) or today. As one example, progressive magical thinking makes it reasonable to suggest that because of the fact that L. Frank Baum, the writer of the 1900 novel 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,' upon which all of this is loosely based, had undeniably racist attitudes toward Native Americans, his judgment might have been too compromised to compassionately portray the true character of the Wicked Witch (a character he created), and thus, like child protective services, Gregory Maguire, who wrote the novel that the musical is based on, and later Stephen Schwartz, its composer, and Winnie Holzman, who wrote the musical's book, rightly took custody of Mr. Baum's abused child with their revisions. But if Mr. Baum's racism is so objectionable, isn't any attempt to reimagine his work just striking a complicit and corrupt bargain with a bigot? Shouldn't his underlying intellectual property be condemned in its entirety? And why not scrutinize 'Wicked' with even harsher eyes? To that end, I could very easily rebuke the Elphaba of the musical for choosing a love affair with Fiyero, a prince whom she met at the prestigious Shiz University, which the children of Oz's elite attended together, over her duty to the more urgent cause of animal liberation. Is that because Mr. Schwartz and Ms. Holzman were too corrupted by a crypto-conservative agenda to do the braver, more radical storytelling that would empower Shiz University's oppressed talking animal professors as well as those of us in the audience to revolt against our various fascist leaders? While I am being facetious, in our world, progressive magical thinkers are spreading their own kind of propaganda. For them, the casting of Cynthia Erivo, a Black woman, as Elphaba (a role not typically played by a Black actor) affirms the fact that 'Wicked' is also telling a subtextual story about racism (I wish I were making this up) because being Black is like being green. Talk about defying gravity. But what's maddening is that in 'Wicked,' Ms. Erivo's casting is neither 'colorblind' nor 'color conscious,' it's just color-coded into whatever the magical progressive thinker wants it to mean. For being Black to be like being green to work, 'Wicked' would have to capture the systemic oppression of other green and Black people in Oz, which it cannot do because there are none. Then there is the fact that Elphaba's skin is only green because of a magical elixir the Wizard gave to her mother the night of her conception. Then there is the fact that Elphaba is the privileged and magically empowered daughter of the governor of Munchkinland so her green skin is a temporary social barrier at worst. But also, the discrimination Elphaba faces is nothing compared with that faced by the animals, which I've seen no magical progressive thinkers resonate with as strongly as with Ms. Erivo as Elphaba. Progressive magical thinkers strongly want Ms. Erivo to win an Oscar. I believe that is not just because of the power of her performance, but because they conflate representation, 'inclusion' and awards with political relevance. But in my view, color-coded casting is one of the most superficial incantations in the magical progressive thinker's book of spells. It also does a disservice to an actress like Ms. Erivo by suggesting that when she plays Elphaba, it is primarily her Black racial identity, and the assumption of her innate Black suffering, that makes the journey of the character worth following. Ironically, this is a pretty timeless and popular belief about Black actors, though mentioning it is never considered relevant, convenient or timely. In the introduction to 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,' Mr. Baum writes: 'Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.' The clarity of that is so satisfying. Mr. Baum may have been a flawed messenger with an authorial intention that is old-fashioned by today's magically progressive standards. But as an author and audience member, I greatly prefer it to attempts to promote a piece of art's timeliness over its timelessness.
CBS News
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Behind the scenes with the best actress Oscar nominees at the 2025 Academy Awards
Watch scenes from the performances nominated in the category of best actress at the 97th annual Academy Awards, as well as interviews with the nominees below. The 2025 Oscars will be presented on Sunday, March 2. Cynthia Erivo, "Wicked" "Wicked," the film version of the long-running Broadway musical (which was itself based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel), is a prequel to "The Wizard of Oz," and tells of the friendship and falling-out between Glinda (the most popular student at Shiz University) and Elphaba (an outcast who would go on to become the Wicked Witch of the West). This tale of frenemies is anchored by best actress Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo, whose performance echoes the pain of being seen as different (she was born green) and of being targeted by an authoritarian power (which she has dared to stand up to), resulting in her using her new-found power to thwart capture. In this scene, having decided that she must leave the Emerald City as the nefarious forces of the Wizard close in on her, Elphaba parts ways with Glinda (best supporting actress nominee Ariana Grande), and expresses her wish for freedom, with the song "Defying Gravity": Asked what she brought to the role of Elphaba, Erivo told "Sunday Morning,""The vulnerability, her humanity." She described that vulnerability for herself, personally, as "always wanting to do well and not wanting to fail, not wanting to let family down. Those are the insecurities. Finally owning how I look." What do you mean?"Well, I think we're not necessarily told that, you know, dark-skinned Black girls are the prettiest girls," Erivo said. "And the only person that really is telling you, thankfully, is your mother. It's up to you to figure out that for yourself, and to start owning what beauty is to you." Erivo, who won a Tony Award, a Grammy and an Emmy for her role as Celie in the 2015 Broadway revival of "The Color Purple," was previously nominated for two Academy Awards, for best actress and best original song, for the 2019 drama "Harriet," about abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Erivo's performance as Elphaba is notable not just for her singing, which is astounding, but for singing live on set, rather than acting to pre-recorded vocal tracks. She said it allowed her to play, and change her performance, moment to moment: "It means that you can act on impulse. … You have more breath, more space." She told "CBS Mornings" that she did change the character slightly from the original Broadway show (which was originated by Tony-winner Idina Menzel), in order to inform Elphaba with her own experience. "I definitely felt like I had a responsibility to the character and to the piece because I didn't want to remove it so far away that you just didn't recognize her anymore," she said, "but I also wanted to find out what the truth was for me playing this character. So, I knew it would feel different, but I wasn't trying to make it different. I just knew that if I told my truth, it would end up being different anyway. There's no need to force the difference in. Just happened." Nominated for 10 Oscars (including best picture), "Wicked," from Universal Pictures, is in theaters and available via VOD. See also: Karla Sofía Gascón, "Emilia Pérez" The operatic crime film "Emilia Perez" leads this year's Oscar nominations, with 13, including best picture, director and screenplay. Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the title character, became the first transgender woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for best actress. Gascón is introduced in the film as Juan "Manitas" Del Monte, a Mexican drug lord who kidnaps Rita, an attorney (best supporting actress Oscar nominee Zoe Saldaña), to hire her for an unusual task: Manitas wants to become a woman. A fake death is staged, Manitas' wife and children are relocated to Europe, and Manitas becomes Emilia Pérez. Flash forward to London, where, in this scene, Rita and Emilia are reunited: Emilia's desire to reconnect with her wife and children leads to an arrangement whereby Emilia pretends to be a distant relative. Tragedy follows. Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, the film is a highly theatrical musical that earned its four leads (Gascón, Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz) a shared best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. In May, Gascón told the Associated Press, "I want to get to the point where trans actresses are not limited to only playing trans characters. Just because you're trans doesn't mean you can't also play a lady going to the bakery. Just because you're trans doesn't mean you can't play a philosopher. Trans people are normal and ordinary just like anyone else. Not every trans person is engaged in prostitution on the street and if they do pursue it's because society rejects them, not necessarily because they wanted to do it. So, the opportunity for me to play these two roles is a gift from the universe. … It's marvelous to be able to find myself with roles like these." After Gascón's Oscar nomination was announced (she was also nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe, César, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards), she received backlash over a series of offensive and racist social media posts she'd made several years earlier. In one, from 2021, she slammed the Academy Awards ceremony as something akin to "an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or [International Women's Day]." Other posts attacked Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, and George Floyd. Gascón apologized, and deleted the posts. But she was dropped from Netflix's promotional tour for "Emilia Pérez," was absent from Spain's Goya Awards and Britain's BAFTAs, and had a book cancelled. The film's director disavowed her, telling Deadline, "I haven't spoken to her, and I don't want to." On February 9, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Selena Gomez commented on the controversy swirling around "Emilia Pérez" and Gascón's posts: "Some of the magic has disappeared, but I choose to continue to be proud of what I've done, and I'm just grateful. I live with no regrets," she said, adding, "I would do this movie over and over again if I could." "Emilia Pérez" is streaming on Netflix. Mikey Madison, "Anora" Sean Baker's "Anora," which won the top prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival, is a sly and at times uproarious comic-drama of a Brooklyn sex worker who enters into a Cinderella romance and marriage with the flighty son of Russian oligarchs. Mikey Madison portrays Anora (preferred name: Ani) as a woman older than her 25 years, but still young enough to believe in the sanctity of elopement, when she and her immature lover, Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), decide to tie the knot in Las Vegas. In this scene, Ani takes a stand about the working conditions at her club – she will not countenance rudeness from the DJ! (Note: Graphic language): In this scene, Ivan makes his proposal, to a young woman not quite sure whether to believe the guy (Note: Graphic language): Madison told Variety that it was a long, engaged process for her to get into the world Ani inhabited: "It was a character that felt so far away from home in every single way. It was very intimidating at first; how do I empathize with her? I was like, I just need to start small. I did quite a bit of pole training. I did this stripper boot camp where I was taught how to give lap dances, how to twerk. And I would know everything about her — what cigarettes she smokes, what her school life was like." Madison, whose credits include Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood," "Scream," and the TV series "Better Things," told "CBS Mornings" that she "absolutely fell in love" with Ani when she read the character. "She's such a complicated woman. There's so much nuance to who she is. She's so vulnerable on the inside, but she presents herself as this very fierce, tough person. And she has such a fighting spirit, and I was excited to explore all the different parts of what that would be." Baker, whose past films include "The Florida Project," "Tangerine" and "Prince of Broadway," told Madison he would write the character of Ani expressly for her if she agreed to be in his movie. "It's very surreal, and I am very lucky, because I dreamed of working with someone like Sean my entire career as an actress," she said. Madison's accent in particular was key to her getting the character. She moved into the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn a month before shooting, in order to absorb the sound of the locals. Luna Sofía Miranda, who plays Ani's best friend, Lulu, and who is herself a stripper, also instructed Madison on the vernacular of the world of "gentlemen's clubs." "She is amazing and was so sweet, and made me [two] PowerPoint presentations," Madison said. "One of them was just stripper memes, and then another one was lingo and slang." What was some of the slang? "Brick. Oh, it's brick outside, which means it's cold. And then another one, I think, was a whale, which means a very wealthy, powerful person who comes into the club, someone who has a lot of money." Madison told the Hollywood Reporter that one of the lessons she learned from Baker was, "He really made it clear that he cared about my ideas and what I was bringing to the film. The most important thing I learned from him is that my opinion and my voice matter." She returned to Brighton Beach since the film was released and found everything to be exactly the same. "That's one of the things I love about Brighton Beach, is that it's such a time capsule. It's basically been the same for 30 years," she told "CBS Mornings." This is Madison's first Academy Award nomination. She won the BAFTA, was nominated for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, and received best actress honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (tying with Marianne Jean-Baptiste for "Hard Truths"). "Anora," a Neon release, is now playing in theaters and is available via VOD. Demi Moore, "The Substance" In the darkly comic body horror film "The Substance," Demi Moore plays an aging TV star who discovers a sinister-looking potion that can give her a younger, more perfect version of herself, but at a terrible price. Moore, who has been a Hollywood fixture – and a target of the tabloid press – since the 1980s, told "Sunday Morning" that she recognized the story's message about the pains those in the public eye would go through to meet supposed social standards. "I put so much pressure on myself," she said, when discussing the value she had placed on her attractiveness in the past. "And I did have experiences of being told to lose weight. And all of those, while they may have been embarrassing and humiliating, it's what I did to myself because of that." In this scene, Moore's character, preparing for a date, looks in the mirror, applies makeup, then purposely smears it. She said the process of shooting that scene was difficult. "Emotionally, that idea that I think many of us have been where we're trying to make something better, and then we just keep making it worse," she said. "For me, it's one of the most heart-wrenching moments in the whole film. And it was at least 15 takes each time. And so, by the end, my face was raw." Asked what she thinks when she looks in a mirror, Moore replied, "Uhm, it fluctuates. Some days I look and I'm like, Wow. That's pretty good. And some days, I catch myself dissecting, hyper-focusing on, you know, things that I don't like. "The difference is, now I can catch myself. I can go, Yeah, I don't like that loose skin. But, you know, it is what it is. So, I'm gonna make the best of what is, as opposed to chasing what isn't." Moore endured hours of body prosthetics, and spent much time naked on-screen. She told "CBS Mornings,""The interesting thing for me was the exploration of that violence we have against ourselves, the harshness of how we can sit in judgment – that heavily comparing and dissecting. That for me was something that really resonated, because I felt that was so human." She broke out in such films as "St. Elmo's Fire" and "No Small Affair," and starred in "The Seventh Sign," "Ghost," "A Few Good Men," "Indecent Proposal," "Striptease," "G.I. Jane," and "Margin Call." "The Substance," which marks her first Oscar nomination, won Moore a Golden Globe for best motion picture actress (musical or comedy) and the Screen Actors Guild Award. "Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a popcorn actress," she said, accepting her Golden Globe. "And at that time, I made that mean that this wasn't something that I was allowed to have. And so today, I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me. And for the gift of doing something I love and being reminded that I do belong." "The Substance" is in theaters and available on Mubi and via VOD. Fernanda Torres, "I'm Still Here" Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres won the Golden Globe for best motion picture actress (drama) for her performance as Eunice Paiva, the wife of politician Rubens Paiva, who opposed Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1960s and '70s. In 1971 Rubens was kidnapped by the military, tortured and killed. The film, directed by Walter Salles ("Central Station," "The Motorcycle Diaries"), is based on the 2015 book "I'm Still Here," written by Marcelo Rubens Palva, about his parents. "[The book is] when we really discovered Eunice," Torres told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "The book is about the son in his adulthood discovering that the real hero of the family was not the father, not him, but it was this amazing woman called Eunice Paiva." It was a story almost lost to history. Following her husband's murder, Eunice – a housewife and mother of five – not only fights to protect her children, but also fights to confront a repressive system. She returned to university and became a lawyer, and eventually led efforts to protect the rights of Indigenous people in Brazil and for protection of the Amazon rain forest. But her contributions were never fully acknowledged by the public. "It's like a woman who always fights the right fight, and she never had the will to be recognized by this, which is kind of strange nowadays," Torres said. "She was a woman who never felt like it was important for [herself] to be recognized." In this scene, Eunice – alerted to the death of the family dog in front of their home – confronts two mysterious men parked across the street, who have been spying on her: Torres has appeared in more than 60 films and TV productions, including "Love Me Forever or Never," "The Invisible Woman," "Foreign Land." She is the second Brazilian actress to be nominated for an Academy Award. The first? Her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, nominated for "Central Station." Torres told W Magazine, "I was raised in the wings of theaters. My father, Fernando, is also an actor and producer. And they named me Fernanda. So, I couldn't escape, you see? I paid a lot of hours in shrinks, and I really don't know how I did it, but I did it. I started working as an actress from the time I was 13 years old. … I find it a miracle. Isn't it a miracle? Even now, to be here with this film. The other day, I saw Judi Dench saying that there is a lot of luck involved in this business, and I think she's right." "My mother reminded me a lot of Eunice – the intelligence, a kind of woman that is down-to-earth and courageous," she told Interview Magazine. "It's a form of femininity. It has so much to do with my childhood that I think it became universal because of that. "It's a tragic story," she said. "In tragedy, you face the unfaceable. You restrain, and you endure. That was very clear, and I never worked in anything like that, where I have restraint and change through the restraint. She was just like a sketch of what she could be, and after the disappearance of the man, she becomes herself, which is a beautiful tale." "I'm Still Here" has become a sensation in Brazil, where the nation's collective memory about the hundreds who disappeared under the dictatorship, and the 20,000 estimated to have been tortured under military rule across two decades, is being revived through the story of Eunice and her family. But the film also met with universal acclaim outside of Brazil, and earned Torres the Golden Globe for best motion picture actress (drama). Commenting on the packed category of actresses, Torres talked with "Entertainment Tonight" about her "Cinderella night," at the Golden Globes, saying, "Everybody deserves it. Everybody. So I don't know why they choose this street dog that speaks Portuguese, but I'm so glad!" Like Gascon, Torres has been made to address her past, in her case a performance from 2008 in the Brazilian sketch comedy series "Fantastico," in which she appeared in blackface. She told Deadline, "At that time, despite the efforts of Black movements and organizations, the awareness of the racist history and symbolism of blackface hadn't yet entered the mainstream public consciousness in Brazil. Thanks to better cultural understanding and important but incomplete achievements in this century, it's very clear now in our country and everywhere that blackface is never acceptable."
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
In ‘Wicked,' they're silver. But at Academy Museum color show, the ruby-red shoes take center stage
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the hit movie 'Wicked,' those famous magical shoes are silver. But if you want to see them in all their ruby-red glory from 'The Wizard of Oz,' there's no place like home — their current home, that is, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. There, Dorothy's shoes, worn by Judy Garland, are now on display as part of a sweeping exhibit on the history of color in cinema. It's a history in which the sequined slippers play a key role. While the 1900 novel by Frank L. Baum described them as silver, filmmakers in 1939 wanted to pack as much color as possible into the scene where Dorothy steps from sepia-toned Kansas into the shimmering color of the Land of Oz, where Glinda gives her the shoes off the feet of the Wicked Witch of the East. They were showing off a new technology: Technicolor. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. The exhibit, 'Color in Motion: Chromatic Explorations of Cinema,' running through July 13, is timely not only because everything Oz is new again. It also highlights the largely unsung role that women played in the development of color in Hollywood, not only on screen but off, where labor-intensive jobs like hand-coloring and stenciling gave them a foothold in a male-dominated industry. There's also a fanciful interactive installation where your own body creates cinematic explosions of color, on the spot. Here are some highlights: People always ask to see the shoes Those glistening slippers nestled against a wall — rather unobtrusively, given their iconic status — began their life as white silk pumps. 'The Wizard of Oz' costume designer Adrian (known by his first name) dyed them red and embellished them with nearly 5,000 sequins. One of four known pairs used for the film that still exist, they were secured with great fanfare and help from luminaries like Leonardo DiCaprio, and were displayed when the museum opened in September 2021. 'They're certainly one of the biggest treasures we have in our collection,' says Jessica Niebel, curator of the color show. 'Ever since they came down, we've gotten regular visitor feedback asking to see the ruby red slippers back on display. This was the perfect opportunity.' The shoes are silver in both Baum's 1900 novel and in Gregory Maguire's 1995 book 'Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,' on which the Broadway show and movie are based. Actually, these aren't the only important red shoes Some nine years after 'The Wizard of Oz,' another movie put a pair of red shoes front and center. They were ballet pointe shoes, and the film, fittingly, was 'The Red Shoes.' The sad story of a young ballerina forced to choose between her career and a romance, the movie , by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starred Moira Shearer, a real-life ballerina. Its tragic 17-minute dance sequence tells a story within a story — a young woman who dances in the red shoes until she dies. Curators placed these prized red pointe shoes front and center because, Niebel says, 'The Red Shoes' highlights both the magical nature of red and the role color plays in the expression of physical movement through dance. Poignantly, the pointe shoes are not perfect, but worn — just as the character's white dress turns gray and dirty as she is gradually consumed. Color where you don't expect it Silent films were in black and white, right? Well, no, actually. In this gallery, silent film excerpts show that many were in color. 'In the 1920s, most films, 80-90%, we think, were in color,' Niebel says. 'They only became black and white with the arrival of sound.' Before that, the majority of films where were tinted and toned, curators say, meaning an entire filmstrip is submerged in one color, often a bright one like yellow or pink or red or blue. Curators went to four film archives in Europe and the U.S. and scanned their filmstrips. 'In this gallery, for the first time, you can see how these colors authentically looked in the 1920s without any digital manipulation,' Niebel says. The complicated story of Hollywood's 'leader ladies' Another section describes a phenomenon many know nothing about: leader ladies. These were women who appeared in the lead frame of a film reel to be processed in a color lab. They were invisible to audiences, but used to calibrate and process the color in a film. The display raises the issue that this process, which has disappeared with the digital age, largely excluded people of color. 'Predominantly they used to be white women,' Niebel says. 'So film stock and film materials were calibrated towards white skin predominantly. We wanted to tell this story as well — the story of these women who are never named, who the public never saw, but also the story of how film stock was developed particularly to depict white skin.' The role of women, on screen and off The show begins with images of Loïe Fuller and the Serpentine Dance she invented, where colored light was reflected onto a flowing costume, changing the colors. An American dancer, Fuller experimented in the early 20th century with fabric, movement, and color techniques like gels and chemical salts. But many other women toiled in obscurity. There were, for example, the women at Disney, as the studio made a transition to color. We learn that under the leadership of Walt Disney's sister-in-law Hazel Sewell, the studio's ink and paint department became the animation industry's first all-female unit. And the French production company Pathé employed young women to hand-paint films — frame by frame — early in the 20th century. These young women earned less than their male counterparts. Still, it was more than they were able to earn in other professions. Almost as good as finger painting As kids know from finger painting, there's nothing more fun than making color yourself — especially color that moves. That's the takeaway from a final gallery in which your own physical movement creates cascades of color. 'Body Paint,' by artist Memo Akten, allows you to stand in front of a screen, spread your arms, jump up and down or move any which way you want as a camera translates the moves into color. 'Now it's time for visitors to become animators of colors themselves through their own bodies,' Niebel says. She's seen people stop and perform full-on dances at the installation. 'It seems to bring people together,' she says.
