Latest news with #dinnerparty
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Adults' Peaks In Episode 6 With Julia Fox, Ketamine, And Charlie Cox Eating Raw Chicken
Thanks to FX's Adults, a new comedy series that follows five twenty-something roommates as they struggle to navigate adulthood, I now see life in two phases: the roast chicken phase and the raw chicken phase. While I love a good coming-of-age story that seeks to replicate Friends/Girls/New Girl vibes, the fresh but familiar series from Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw admittedly took a while to grow on me. In early episodes, the writing and deliveries of certain jokes felt-try hard to a distracting degree. As the series progressed, characters and personalities started to feel much more lived-in. And in Season 1, Episode 6, 'Roast Chicken,' everything clicked. Hilarious spoilers for Episode 6 ahead. The standout installment — written by Sanaz Toossi and directed by Jason Woliner — showed Billie (Lucy Freyer), Samir (Malik Elassal),Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), Issa (Amita Rao), and Anton (Owen Thiele) throwing their very first dinner party for special guest, Mr. Teacher (Charlie Cox), the 42-year-old high school educator Billie's been dating. On the menu? Roast chicken and a heaping side of pressure, because Billie needed the night to go perfectly so she could impress her new man and prove the roommates have their shit together. 'We are more than capable of throwing a dinner party, despite what people say about people our age — that we're neurotic, irresponsible, directionless, or that we lie about using menstrual cups,' Billie told her pals in a pre-dinner party pep talk. 'Tonight we're gonna prove them wrong. We are in the roast chicken phase of life. We can be mature. And we can be normal. And we can cook a roast fucking chicken like the goddamn grown ups we are.' Minutes before Mr. Teacher rang the doorbell, Billie was thriving. She changed into a stunning black dress, did her hair and makeup, put an apron on, and popped her chicken in the oven. The vibe she was curating? A sophisticated evening full of delicious food, good banter, and thoughtful discourse over The Atlantic articles. Did Samir's dad's suit that made him look like he 'runs Gotham City' fit in with her dream dinner decor? No. Did Anton's short velvet suit jacket and ass-less leather chaps, aka his bartending uniform, clash with the event? Yes. But like Issa said, 'There's napkins on tables. There's nuts in bowls. This is basically a gala!' Despite the early red flags, Billie tried her best to relax and convince herself perfection was within reach. When the doorbell rang in unison with the fire alarm, however, it should have been a clear sign that the night would be all downhill (complimentary) from there. Though Mr. Teacher made an A+ first impression, minutes after Samir took his coat, he revealed he was on a large, introductory does of ketamine and asked Samir to keep the secret between them. For literal seconds, Samir obeyed his former educator. Even after telling Anton 'he's tripping his balls off,' Samir couldn't stop overthinking the problem and longed to loop in Billie. With Disaster #1 in motion, Adults took a detour to introduce Disaster #2: Paul Baker's mystery dinner guest, Jules. Issa, confident in herself and her relationship with Paul, was excited to meet his good friend, 'Foxy J.' But when actress and model Julia Fox answered the door looking glam AF with an edgy black and white fit, bleach blonde hair and eyebrows, and a famous glow to her, Issa full-on spiraled with insecurity. While 'the A++ version' of Issa was 'being interesting all over the sofa,' Billie remained in the kitchen determined to conquer the roast chicken, and Samir followed a wandering Mr. Teacher into a bedroom, where he found one of Billie's old yearbooks and had a ketamine-induced epiphany. 'I have to end it with her! Oh fuck! What the fuck am I doing? This girl was a child! I'm dating a child,' Cox's sky-high character said before performing a random somersault and fleeing the room. Meanwhile, Julia Fox ate all the crab dip! And Issa went into her closet and changed into her best Julia Fox fit! Sadly, she couldn't compete with Jules' stories about hanging in Lorne's office at Saturday Night Live, her poetic toast, or Mr. Teacher's chaotic dancing to Boney M's 'Sunny.' But despite everyone's best efforts, the real star of the show was Billie's roast chicken, which genuinely looked great until Mr. Teacher carved into it and blood splattered across the table. 'Did she forget to thaw that out?' Julia Fox, also a culinary genius, asked the group. Yes. Yes, she did. But Mr. Teacher was so high that he didn't notice he was serving everyone raw chicken drizzled with raw chicken juices. As everyone looks on in disgust and bewilderment, Cox's character chowed down on the uncooked bird in a gag-inducing, laugh-out-loud-worthy culmination of the episode's mounting chaos. Samir took the moment to free himself from the shackles of his secret and told Billie her Teach was on drugs. And rather than collapsing on his plate for the night, Cox jolted upward and kept his scene stealing streak going, dialing up his unhinged performance by shouting at the group for not saying grace, then hiding out in the bathroom, where he broke up with Billie. In a genuine show of maturity and capable problem-solving, a crushed Billie called her 42-year-old ex's ex wife to come pick him up, and after Foxy J got a car home, the friends said 'Fuck Mr Teacher!' before Billie let out one final scream into the oven in a delicious dinner party conclusion. While the chicken wasn't cooked, the episode absolutely ate. Adults delivered a wild, hilarious 24-minute ride that featured seamless writing, delightful performances, and smart callbacks that made viewers feel like they were part of the friend group — from Issa's Jane Fonda story and Paul Baker's 'weird milk,' to the boys not knowing how to waft. Cox fully embraced the chaos, delivering an amusing performance ripe with physical comedy. And Fox was perfectly cast as someone with just the right amount of fame, fashion, and influence to impress viewers while rattling Issa. As Samir said, 'she knows Sandler,' but she's not SO famous that she wouldn't believably befriend Paul Baker at Meals on Wheels. The episode unequivocally proved that Adults' core characters (and crucially, Mr. Andrew Teacher) are still in their raw chicken phase of life. But at least they're trying! They're making solid efforts to figure themselves, their careers, their relationships, and their futures out. And who among us can't relate to that journey? At the end of the day, we're all just adults hoping to successfully reach our roast chicken phases. (Unless you're vegan like Jules!) And when Adults serves up raw, relatable (occasionally heightened) moments of fear, humor, love, heartbreak, humiliation, and chaos, the show has the power to shine. Adults Season 1 is now streaming on Hulu with new episodes airing Wednesdays on FX.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
For Trans and Gender-Diverse People, Community Is a Verb (Exclusive)
It's a curious thing to come into yourself. Like a bodily homecoming – some truth you'd long forgotten – now recognized in the shimmer of a shop window, where you catch your reflection and feel a kick of excitement between your shoulder blades at the you who looks back, smiling. It's a curious thing to come into yourself, like a bodily homecoming – a returning that brings you so much joy – and to find that the more aligned and yourself you feel, the more hostile the world beyond your body becomes. There are myriad explanations for why people feel affronted by gender variance, and why trans and gender diverse communities – especially those who are racialized, and especially those who express femininity – are once again facing hatred that at best, tires and erodes the soul, and at worst, steals life through acts of depraved violence. But in a world that continues to insist on the expulsion of trans and gender diverse people not only from public life, but also from the public imagination, I am choosing to place my emphasis on the ways in which trans and gender diverse people insist on living. ! Two years ago, around a table at a dinner party in a friend's sharehouse, over full-bodied wine and empty plates still glistening with rich bolognese sauce, a friend of mine clinked their glass. We were packed like sardines into a living room that'd been rearranged to make way for foldout plastic tables that could accommodate of light from the candlesticks wedged into the necks of old wine bottles glinted in eyes and across cheeks. This friend who had quietened the group asked, when do you feel most free? Despite resonating in part with those who described feeling most free when they're on their own, devoid of attachment, I couldn't help but think of a party I'd recently been to during Pride where, for the first time, I'd taped my chest flat and taken to the dance floor without a shirt on, feeling the sun hooked into my shoulder blades. I remember how I'd realized, in that moment, that I feel most free when I am in attachment. Most free when I am bound to others. Because my friends keep talking about community, and what I think they really mean by this is freedom to feel into and fall into the arms of those willing to hold us. Freedom, in this sense, is being able to express yourself and be witnessed, relished, celebrated, called out, called in, held. I am most free when I am in connection, when I'm on a dance floor, or at a protest – arms linked – or in a cuddle puddle in the late afternoon or in the last hours before daybreak. I am most free when I am beholden to others. I am most free when a friend who's been recently evicted is snoring on my fold-out couch. Or when another friend knocks on my door, having come do my laundry while I'm nursing my broken ankle. Or when we're all together, cleaning out a friend's house in the wake of a devastating flood, cutting waterlogged furniture with a chainsaw into pieces that'll be light enough for us to carry out to the street. I am most free when I am in connection, because I know my liberation is bound up with yours. Once, I wrote the sentence: I find myself wondering, more and more, if being trans will always feel this humiliating. When I find this quote in an old journal, I think back to when I was young, when I was lean muscle and all limb, before my body swelled and became something like a shadow, outside and beyond, stalking the edge of me. Back in that beautiful before, when I first learned how to hold my breath through the pearlescent belly of a wave, bursting out its broken shoulder, into the light of day. I think about the boys I hung out with, in the back alleys of my youth, bombing hills so steep my heart got stuck in my throat. How once I got death wobbles and jumped off my skateboard and landed so hard on my left leg, I threw my pelvis out of place. How I thrashed my body, over and over, injury after injury, so that by the time I was 15 I had a file at the emergency department three inches thick. How maybe I thrashed my body to stop it changing. Or, maybe I just liked moving. That's how I describe being trans. For me, it's all about movement. The walking and the running and the flying and the swimming. Because, even now, I don't know where I'm going, only that I am going. It therefore makes sense to me that the people who've taught me community is a verb, are, first and foremost, my trans siblings. Learning community as a thing that is made through ongoing actions – housing friends, meal drops, carpooling, helping with rent, sharing work, information and resources, showing up to protests and direct actions in support of and in solidarity with all marginalized communities – is something my friends have taught me through their own ongoing doings. I've come to understand 'queer,' too, as a doing, predicated on its ongoing actions. 'Queer,' to me, is visionary and imaginative ways of caring that ultimately carves out space for futures in which all of us live. I consider myself especially indebted to the First Nations friends in my life where I live in what we now call'Australia' who, in the face of ongoing colonisation and systemic oppression, embody community as a way of being, as a way of moving, as a way of resisting, and as a way of surviving. is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! I think of that quote again – I find myself wondering, more and more, if being trans will always feel this humiliating – as institutions render us illegible and illegal, and JK Rowling celebrates her losses with a cigar. And I take, instead, to the water with my friends, and we let the water carry what we can't, because it's in the water, with them, all of us together, that I swim through humiliation and learn humility. My lover glides up against my chest and I feel an explosion of futures being felt as I feel myself. I dive under the surface and open my eyes, even though the saltwater stings, just to watch my friends. They kick and glide through pillars of yellow light, and I grin and shake, because it feels so good to be in the water, swimming with these people who know, like I do, that our survival has always depended on our movement. I start to laugh underwater, and my love for them escapes me in bright blue bursts. Against all of it. I love, I love, I love! 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. A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle comes out June 3 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dinner party faux pas? Ina Garten says this common gift is a big mistake (and what to bring instead)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. If you're ever fortunate enough to have Ina Garten on your dinner party guest list, you shouldn't expect loose flowers when she walks through the door. The Barefoot Contessa, who has set the standard for hosting from her East Hampton home, is no stranger to sharing formal dinner party advice. However, her most recent pearls of wisdom address a lesser-known area: Being the perfect guest. During a recent interview with Today's Willie Geist on May 19, the pair discussed the importance of not bringing 'a gift that messes with the plan of the evening,' and, surprisingly to some, loose flowers are on Ina's banned list. 'There are two things that I don't think you should ever bring to a dinner party, and they're so common, is something that the host feels like they should serve. I mean, starting with Jell-O salad,' Ina says in the footage. 'And don't ever bring flowers that aren't in a vase. Everyone's arriving and then all of a sudden, you've got these flowers and you have to figure out what to do.' What is the alternative? Ina isn't saying you can't gift flowers; she's just saying they shouldn't be loose. Therefore, buying a stunning vase for your host to hold their new flowers is the natural choice. To help, we've rounded up some of our favorites below. They're all beautiful in their own right, and ready to be decorated with anything from a simple stem to a bountiful bouquet. Esteemed designer Jonathan Adler drew inspiration from Gala, wife and muse of Salvador Dali, to create this matte porcelain vase. It's truly a one-of-a-kind piece that deserves the most beautiful flowers. From $350 at Saks Fifth Avenue La DoubleJ enlisted the help of historic Verona-based porcelain maker Ancap to craft this statement pineapple-patterned vase. It's a vibrant way to upgrade any stem. From $650 at Net-A-Porter This large vase is a simple and elegant way to integrate glass into your entryway or coffee table. Add a single branch for an elevated, modern feel. Was $32.99, Now $29.99 at Amazon This may be named the 'fall vase,' but it looks beautiful at any point of the calendar, thanks to its unique textured design. The golden hue is reminiscent of leaves, consequently adding a touch of nature to every table setting or windowsill. From $6.46 at Walmart This decorative vase (handmade in Sydney) is made from 100% high-quality porcelain, perfect for housing your favorite flower. Poppies, peonies, or billy buttons look particularly beautiful in this vessel. From $135 at Net-a-Porter This simple, quietly luxurious vase comes from Ralph Lauren's 'Hudson' collection, defined by a carved plaid pattern that beautifully refracts light. It's designed with weighty, lead-free crystal and has a generous size perfect for holding long-stemmed flowers. From $425 at Net-a-Porter In a similar vein, Ina has previously shared dining table styling advice that helps hosts get the most out of their new flowers (and vessels). To create a stunning centerpiece, she recommends choosing one single flower type (in her case, pink roses), and filling your vases with this one consistent bloom. On her dining table, she avoids using larger vases and opts for small water glasses to keep things effortless. ''An easy tip for stylish centerpieces – choose one flower and use lots of them! And one more thing – instead of finding lots of matching vases for my flowers, I just use water glasses! Simple and elegant - my favorite combination,' Ina says. However you style them, and whatever vase (or container you use), remember that, as long as the flowers aren't loose, you'll likely have Ina's approval.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ina Garten's Strict Rule When Bringing Flowers To A Dinner Party
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Dinner parties are a timeless way to entertain, gather, and enjoy a delicious meal with people you care about. Hosting one provides a great opportunity to get creative with the type of cuisine you serve, how you set up or decorate, and even activities or conversation topics you'd like to try out. If you're a guest at a dinner party, some planning ahead should be involved as well — even when it comes to bringing a bouquet. Ina Garten, the famed host of "Barefoot Contessa" herself, says that one of the few major don'ts when it comes to showing up for an evening meal is bringing flowers without a vase. According to Garten, this small misstep can sometimes cause undue stress for the host. "Don't ever bring flowers that aren't in a vase," Garten said during an appearance on Today's "Sunday Sitdown." "You're there. You're like, everyone's arriving and then all of a sudden, you've got these flowers and you have to figure out what to do." Taking one extra step to make sure your host feels appreciated and considered ahead of time can do a world of good. Read more: 14 Dolly Parton Baking Mixes, Ranked Worst To Best There have long been a few unspoken "rules" of etiquette as it pertains to dining at someone else's home; never arrive empty-handed, for one, and try not to overstay your welcome. More specifically, Garten warns against bringing along a gift or side dish that is too niche. One particularly silly offering Garten says to leave behind is something like a Jell-O salad, or anything else you think the host would prefer to serve themselves. Instead, you can wow those welcoming you into their home with a nice bottle of wine (be sure to avoid these common wine shopping mistakes) or a flower arrangement. Even if you take the time to build a customized bouquet yourself or order a lovely arrangement from your local florist, the beauty of the flowers will likely be overshadowed by the panic your host feels once they realize they have nowhere to put them. You can make things easier on yourself and your host by keeping a variety of vase options on hand, using a set like this Beahot 22 pack of clear flower vases. Your host will appreciate the forethought, and you'll always be ready for even the most impromptu get-togethers. Read the original article on Tasting Table.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
I was a successful single mum when I fell hopelessly in love. After six months he moved in... and changed in the most horrific way imaginable. My story should be a warning to every woman: SARAH ANDERSON
It all started 15 years ago at a dinner party. I was single, in my mid-30s, a mother of two children aged six and eight. My marriage had ended two years before, at my instigation, and it had been very difficult and painful. Now that I look back, I can see that I was worried about being on my own and feeling vulnerable.
