#this photo is from saturday and i love that the captain and his old pal were apparently just hanging out by the lake with the trophy

[krakenshipwreck]

5/19/23 (the lucas ciona/luke prokop backstory makes this photo even more endearing)

[startofamoment]

to all the WIPs i’ve loved before

rules: post your favorite parts of 3-5 fics that have been sitting abandoned in your drafts for ages. (for extra shame, throw in when you last worked on each thing.) tag 5 other writers to reflect on their life choices. 

a pen pals au of sorts in which jake and amy share a desk and communicate via post-it notes (last edited: december 2017)

Amy is going to murder her deskmate.

The literal trash heap that greeted her last Monday was one thing, the sticky orange soda stain from last month was another thing, but this – this blatant disregard of property and boundaries and the sanctity of office supplies – is the Last Straw.

Spread out across her entire desk is a good fourth of the Post-it notes from the brand new assorted set she got from her brother Tony. They’re all arranged to look like various Star Wars icons, and a few of them are filled in with marker for apparent color correction. It’s horrifying.

Grumbling, she begins taking apart Post-It Yoda, keeping the salvageable pieces in a stack and throwing out the rest. When she’s cleared her entire table, she grabs her favorite pen and a fresh sheet then writes:

Hi, Please refrain from wasting my Post-its in the future. Thank you. - Det. Amy Santiago

She stares at it for a moment and decides, since this is probably the only passive aggressive note she’s going to write her deskmate, she might as well add:

PS: I would appreciate it if you would leave our desk clean at the end of your weekend shifts.

After checking it over once more, she places it in the center of her desk, ready to be read the following Saturday.

a dianetti cake shop au in which rosa owns and runs a store called arlo’s (last edited: june 2017)

Gina takes a moment to look over some of the cakes on display before clearing her throat and leaning over the counter. “’Scuse me, can you help me get a custom cake order started?”

“Sure.” The baker wipes her hands on a dish towel before grabbing a small notebook and pen from one of her pockets. “What’s the occasion?”

“Some old geezer’s leaving our precinct to enjoy retired life, or something like that.”

“Retirement party? Cool. Tell me about this guy.”

“Oh, sweetie, I don’t know or care about him. I’m just here cause my boss told me to order a cake.”

A smirk forms on the baker’s lips. “Ha. Do you wanna just do a standard cake order then? I usually do the custom cakes for more personalized, special events.”

“That’s probably smart. Which one of your standard cakes say: ‘Congrats on being old and rich enough to never work another day in your life, but sorry you’re almost dead’?”

She snickers. “I don’t know about that first part, but how ‘bout an angel food cake as a ‘hope you go to heaven when you die’ sort of thing?”

Gina grins and fishes through her purse for her wallet. “Oh, you should know my expectations on this cake are out of this world high. I’m only here because Yelp told me you’re the Beyonce of baking.” (Actually, she’s here because at least three reviews claimed the baker-slash-owner was “terrifying” and “gorgeous.” – They were right, on both accounts.)

a sequel to i could listen to you all day // the “after ever after” story in which jake and amy navigate their first year together as soulmates (last edited: march 2017)

Jake’s phone buzzed on his desk, breaking him out of his happy daydream. He picked it up and opened a new message from Gina.

“god, quit making heart eyes at the new girl!! your conscience would be v disappointed, kiddo.”

Gina, who had been watching him like a hawk from her desk, expected him to get all flustered and to text or yell back something overly defensive. She raised a single eyebrow when his face instead broke into a goofy grin and he straight up giggled.

Across from him, Amy looked up from her case files. “What’s so funny?”

He shook his head and mumbled something about memes and the internet.

She rolled her eyes, but the corners of her lips curled up into a smile. After he redirected his attention to his computer screen, her expression morphed into the same openly adoring look he had on his face the entire morning.

And then it all clicked.

If Gina had stopped to think about it, she would have recognized the new disappointment she felt in both herself (for taking this long to put two and two together) and her childhood best friend (for not keeping her in the loop). As she had not stopped to process anything, she instead yelled across the bullpen: “OH MY GOD. JAKE AND AMY ARE SOULMATES!”

All work stopped, and everyone fell silent. For a good minute, all that could be heard was the faint snoring from Captain McGintley’s office.

“Gina,” Rosa half-snarled, half-whispered. “You can’t just say that.”

“Oops, my b. Y’all know I have no conscience now so…” She giggled, winked at the leather-clad detective, and went back to her game of Kwazy Cupcakes.

Jake let out an awkward laugh. “Well, uh, that was -”

Out of nowhere, Charles appeared right in front of their desks. “Is it true, Jakey? Was Amy the voice in your head all this time?”

“I -” He glanced at Amy for help.

She bit her lip and shrugged.

This wasn’t at all how he envisioned making the announcement, but there was no use denying it. Still looking straight at her, his face softened into a smile. “Yeah… We’re soulmates.”

Charles squealed loudly. “You said the S word! Does that mean it’s official?” He gasped. “Have you said ‘I love you’? Have you met each other’s parents? When’s the wedding? What are you naming your first child?”

pretty much a crack fic inspired by the media’s post-olympics obsession with tessa and scott // my spin on a vm au bc i still refuse to write jake and amy as ice dancers (last edited: may 2018)

Like many of the other bizarre situations he’s found himself in, this all started with Gina. Over the last year or so, she’d been posting random photos and videos of all of them at the precinct. (“I’m devoting my energy to my new project, Ginazon,” she’d declared to the entire bullpen. “It’s a one-stop online portal for my legions of followers. I’m just giving the people what they want!”) Given that this was Gina of all people, Jake wasn’t at all surprised to find out that each post garnered hundreds of likes, but he’d never bothered to venture into the comments section. He’d never known about the apparent niche following that had formed, the group of fans – for lack of a better word – waiting with bated breath for him and Amy to get together.

Charles had only spurred them on, what with all the various Easter eggs on his culinary blog. (“This place has everything,” he’d written once. “My co-workers Jake and Amy even gave it their stamp of approval after they’d shared a quick lunch there before a long stakeout. Make sure to ask for the winter salsa; it’s wonderful!”) He’d sworn that none of it was intentional and that he would never do anything to sell them out, but everything he’d written had still been catalogued and analyzed by the pseudo-experts of the fandom. At this point, Jake’s main regret is not reading Charles’ weekly email blasts.

Their downfall – or rise to viral glory – came when someone from the so-called G-Hive happened to be in just the right place at just the right time, catching their (second) completely-platonic, spur-of-the-moment, done-in-the-name-of-justice kiss on camera. By the next morning, “Undercover Cops Lock Lips Before Locking Up Wanted Criminal” had been viewed on YouTube over a million times.

With everything about the entire situation already being so weird, they’d decided to just ignore their newfound fame in the same way they’d pretended the kisses never happened. (“We’re a great team. We work great together. Nothing should mess that up,” he’d said, repeating nearly his exact words from the night before.)

Evidently, there was no escaping this though. A formal press conference was set up, which wasn’t too out of the ordinary for cases that caught the general public’s attention, except they’d ended up having to say more about their dating lives than the investigation or arrest. He can still feel his heart lurching in his chest at the first relationship-related question, still hear Amy loudly stammering out some vague answer about being “very professional.”

a smutty soulmate au in which jake and amy unknowingly share dreams every now and then (last edited: november 2017)

At this moment in time, Amy Santiago is undeniably, incomparably, drop dead gorgeous.

More specifically: she’s in the hot red dress Kylie convinced her to buy on their last post-trivia night celebratory shopping spree; she’s wearing a matching killer shade of lipstick picked out by her fashion-forward, shockingly sexual 13-year-old niece; and she’s got her hair swept into that one elegant yet fun side ponytail that caught her eye in a magazine a few weeks back.

Normally, she’d be proud of herself for managing to pull off such a look, except–

It’s been a good several hours since she tossed her dress into the hamper, wiped the makeup off her face, and tugged the elastic tie from her hair. She’d buried her head into her pillow and wheeze-cried herself to sleep shortly after changing into her pajamas, so overwhelmed with shame and disappointment over the night’s party-gone-wrong.

The thick haze shrouding her current surroundings tells her she’s in another one of her soulmate’s dreams, which helps a tiny bit in explaining her current appearance but really opens up more questions than answers.

tagging: @santiagoswagger​ @three-drink-amy​ @do-me-decimalsystem​ @arnie-santiago​ @sergeant-santiago

for the record, this was inspired by @disruptedvice​ and @elsaclack​’s responses [x,x] to the writing meme!! i thought it was super clever of them to feature little snippets from various works and felt this would be a good way to give unfinished/abandoned fics some love! 

[your-dietician]

Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/entertainment/entertainment-heat-wave-is-coming-this-summer-what-to-watch-for-entertainment/

Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

Remember 2019, when hot girl summer became a motto for living with confidence?

Well, with life getting closer to normal and vaccines nudging the pandemic into — fingers crossed — the rear-view mirror, 2021’s entertainment calendar for the next few months has a similar mood.

Call it a hot everything summer.

Blockbuster movies are returning to theaters. Live concerts are set to resume. Television and streaming shows are back to being a nice part of the mix, not a sole entertainment lifeline. And with travel heating up again, beach books can actually be read on a faraway beach.

To navigate this soaring heat index for fun, here is a list of recommendations that are sunny, breezy, steaming and sizzling. You get the idea.

Hot Jeff Daniels summer

Michigan’s resident acting great always keeps it real — remember his plaid dad shirt at February’s virtual Golden Globes? His latest project evokes his home state’s ethos of blue-collar endurance. “American Rust,” a nine-episode series premiering Sept. 12 on Showtime, stars Daniels as the police chief of a Rust-Belt Pennsylvania town who is feeling “ticked off and kind of jumpy” when a murder investigation tests his loyalties. If the preview looks a bit like HBO’s gritty “Mare of Easttown,” that’s a very good thing.

Hot goofy summer

In real life, metro Detroit native Tim Robinson could be a calm, collected guy. But as a sketch comedian, he’s made an art form out of wildly overreacting to life’s little embarrassments. “I Think You Should Leave,” his mini-masterpiece Netflix show, is back July 6 with a second season. Besides brilliantly making himself the butt of the jokes, Robinson always remembers his hometown friends. Let’s hope for repeat appearances by his pals like “Detroiters” co-star Sam Richardson and Troy’s own Oscar nominee, Steven Yeun.

Hot retro Motor City summer

The Detroit of the mid-1950s comes alive in director Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move,” available July 1 on HBO Max. The crime drama starring Don Cheadle, David Harbour, Benicio del Toro, Jon Hamm and more is about some low-level criminals given a simple assignment that draws them into a mystery that stretches to the heights of the automotive industry’s power structure. The film was shot last year in Detroit under strict COVID-19 safety measures, because Soderbergh, who filmed 1998’s “Out of Sight” here, would accept no other city as a substitute.

Hot road trip summer

Six years ago, a young waitress from Detroit created a viral Twitter thread about a bizarre journey she took to Florida with a new friend to do some freelance stripping. It was as compelling as a novel and as vivid as a movie. Cut to June 30 when “Zola” hits theaters starring Taylour Page and Riley Keough. It’s a comedy and a thriller that defies expectations and makes J-Lo’s “Hustlers” seem mild. Director Janicza Bravo and screenplay co-writer Jeremy O. Harris have created a raunchy adventure that still respects A’Ziah (Zola) King as a strong woman and original writing voice.

Hot action dad summer

Yes, Matt Damon is now old enough to play a Liam Neeson-esque outraged father out for justice. In “Stillwater,” Damon is a worker for an Oklahoma oil rig who must travel to France to try and clear his daughter (Abigail Breslin) of murder charges. Think “Taken,” if it were a serious drama directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy of “Spotlight” fame. It comes out July 30, just in time to make Damon’s fans from his “Good Will Hunting” days feel ancient.

Hot reboot summer

It has been almost a decade since “Gossip Girl” ended its run, which is way too long to be without fashion tips from impossibly beautiful rich kids. The newly reimagined “Gossip Girl” on HBO Max arrives July 8 with some notable improvements, like the inclusiveness of its cast of newcomers. But it’s bringing back the original narrator, Kristen Bell (who grew up in Huntington Woods), as the voice of the title character with the hidden identity.

Hot sweating summer

Sweating is a bodily function, but what exactly is it all about? “The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration,” out July 13, will explore the biology, history and marketing behind the moisture that makes us glow (to use a polite term). It covers everything from the role of stress in sweat to deodorant research that involves people who can sniff out, literally, the effectiveness of a product. Since the New York Times recommended the book as one of its 24 summer reads, you know that author Sarah Everts did sweat the details.

Hot Olympic star summer

The 2021 Tokyo Games, which run July 23-Aug. 8, will feature the world’s best gymnast, Simone Biles. She still enjoys competing, but quarantining gave her some time to improve her work-life balance, as she told Glamour for its June cover story (which comes with a dazzling photo spread of Biles). “Before I would only focus on the gym. But me being happy outside the gym is just as important as me being happy and doing well in the gym. Now it’s like everything’s coming together.” For the 24-year-old GOAT, the sky — or, maybe, gravity — is the limit.

Hot variety show summer

“What percentage of white women do you hate? And there is a right answer.” That was among the questions posed by internet sensation Ziwe to her first guest, Fran Lebowitz, on the current Showtime series that carries her name. Combining interviews, sketches and music, “Ziwe” deploys comedy to illuminate America’s awkwardness on issues of race and politics. The results are hilarious, so find out about Ziwe now before her next project arrives, a scam-themed comedy for Amazon called “The Nigerian Princess.”

Hot ice road summer

Take the driving skills of the reality series “Ice Road Truckers” and add one stoic dose of Liam Neeson and you’ve got “The Ice Road,” which premiered Friday on Hulu. The adventure flick involves a collapse in a diamond mine, the miners trapped inside and the man (Neeson) who’s willing to steer his ginormous rig over frozen water to attempt a rescue mission. Crank up the AC temporarily!

Hot kindness summer

There is a better way to be a human being, and he shares a name with an Apple TV+ series. “Ted Lasso,” the fish-out-of-water sitcom about an American football coach (Jason Sudeikis) who’s drafted to lead a British soccer team returns for a second season on July 23 —the date that Lasso fans will resume their efforts to be more empathetic and encouraging, just like Ted. Only there’s a new sports psychologist for AFC Richmond who seems impervious to Ted’s charms and home-baked biscuits. She doesn’t like Ted? We’re gobsmacked!

Hot podcast summer

When Michael Che guested on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” recently, his segment was interrupted repeatedly by Dave Chappelle, who kept plugging his “The Midnight Miracle” podcast available on Luminary. What Chappelle was selling is worth the listening. “The Midnight Miracle” brings him together with his co-hosts, Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, and his famous friends from the comedy world and beyond for funny and though-provoking conversations interspersed with music. If you were a fly on the wall of Chappelle’s home, this is what you might hear.

Hot series finale summer

The last 10 episodes of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” start airing Aug. 12 on NBC, a too-short goodbye to one of the most underrated comedies in TV history. You can give all the glory to “The Office,” but the detectives of the Nine-Nine could go toe to toe with Dunder-Mifflin’s Scranton branch in terms of quirkiness, humanity and office romances and bromances. It’s hard to pick a favorite dynamic among the characters, but the irritated father-incorrigible son vibes between Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) and Det. Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) are sublime.

Hot musical comedy summer

Keegan-Michael Key and “Saturday Night Live’s” Cecily Strong lead a star-studded cast in “Schmigadoon!,” an AppleTV+ series premiering July 16 that magically transports a backpacking couple to a land of 1940s musicals. Until Broadway reopens in September, this parody love letter to the power of musical theater should do nicely. And the premiere episode’s song “Corn Pudding”? Catchy!

Hot nostalgia tour

Hall & Oates are criss-crossing the nation with enough 1980s hits —”Maneater,” “Kiss on My List,” “I Can’t Go for That,” “You Make My Dreams Come True,” etc. — to make you want to trade your mom jeans for spandex leggings. As if they weren’t enough top-40 goodness, their opening acts are Squeeze, still pouring a cup of “Black Coffee in Bed” all these years later, and K.T. Tunstall, whose “Suddenly I See” is immortalized as the anthem of “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Hot all-female, all-Muslim punk band summer

A British import now airing on the NBC streaming spinoff Peacock, “We Are Lady Parts” would be notable alone for defying stereotypes about Muslim women. But this sitcom about an all-female, all-Muslim aspiring rock band is a gem of both representation and laughs, thanks to characters like Amina, a shy doctoral candidate in microbiology whose complaints about a guy she calls “Bashir with the good beard” inspires a song.

Hot documentary summer

While Woodstock has become synonymous with epic music gatherings, the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 is finally about to get the pop-culture recognition it deserves. “Summer of Soul: (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” directed by the Roots drummer Questlove, will hit theaters and Hulu on July 2. It chronicles a mostly forgotten event that drew superstars like Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, the Fifth Dimension, Sly & the Family Stone and B.B. King. Using his vast knowledge of music, archival footage and interviews with performers and those who attended, Questlove has created a history lesson that’s also the best concert you’ve never seen before.

Hot Marvel summer

Once you’re all caught up with the summer streaming sensation “Loki” on Disney+, please turn your attention to two new films. “Black Widow,” the long-awaited star turn for Scarlett Johansson’s former KGB assassin Natasha Romanoff, makes its debut July 9. It’s followed by “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” set for Sept. 3 and starring Simu Liu (“Kim’s Convenience”) as the martial arts master of the title. All brought to you by the corporate global entertainment domination machine that is Marvel.

Hot biopic summer

“Respect,” starring Jennifer Hudson, arrives Aug. 13 at theaters, nearly three years to the day the world lost the Queen of Soul. Although Cynthia Erivo gave a fine performance earlier this year as Franklin in “Genius: Aretha” on the National Geographic network, the odds are good that Hudson, chosen by Franklin herself for the part, will be the definitive screen Aretha.

Hot fiction summer

Terry McMillan calls “The Other Black Girl” essential reading. Entertainment Weekly describes it as “‘The Devil Wears Prada’ meets ‘Get Out,’ with a little bit of ‘Black Mirror’ thrown in.” This debut novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris mixes office politics with suspense in its story of Nella Rogers, an editorial assistant who’s the only Black staffer at a noted publishing company. When Hazel, a new Black employee, is hired, things seem to be improving. But then Nella starts receiving ominous unsigned notes. Sounds like yet another reason to keep working from home.

Hot slow dance summer

After nearly four months on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, “Leave the Door Open” remains the song most likely to provoke a quiet storm on the dance floor. The hit single from Silk Sonic (aka Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) may sound like a cover of a long-lost ‘70s classic R&B tune, but it’s a contemporary song that can make you forget the humidity long enough for “kissing, cuddling, rose petals in the bathtub, girl, lets jump in.”

———

©2021 www.freep.com. Visit at freep.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Recent Stories You Might Have Missed

Source link

[fantasiesromancechicklits]

In Depth Thomas Doherty interview

TWO things hit home immediately on meeting Scotland’s Disney star Thomas Doherty; the first is he has the arresting good looks normally associated with boy band members, or those young men you see on giant posters on the wall of a trendy clothes shop, wearing nice tops. When Doherty later informs he has over a million Instagram followers it’s not hard to see why.

The second thing is his ankle tattoo, an inscription of sorts, but although I’m sitting a yard away I can’t make the words out. Some foreign language I’ve never come across? We talk about the tattoo puzzle later, meantime the young man from Edinburgh chats about his new Disney role.

Doherty, who is also one of the stars of Disney Channel musical, The Lodge, now stars as Harry Hook in Descendants 2, a sequel to the international TV franchise featuring the adventures of the teen offsprings of the great Disney villains such as Cruella de Vil and Maleficent.

He explains why he’s wild about Harry. “I love playing him,” says the actor who hopes his pirate Son of Hook will be the most evil villain of the past 100 years, badder than old King Kong, and meaner than a junkyard dog, (to lift from the late American songwriter Jim Croce.)

“He can be very hostile and intimidating and unpredictable, but at the same time he has a charming quality. It’s easy to see why people love him – but hate to love him at the same time. He’s such good fun to play. And his character brings a lot to the rest of the film.

Doherty seems to have natural warmth and to be entirely unassuming. As he tells of playing Captain Hook’s wicked progeny, it’s with an endearing sense of incredulity; the actor’s voice has a questioning air, wondering how he can, at just 22, be part of this worldwide franchise, be part of the offspring of the Disney parents who gave the world Miley Cyrus and Britney Selena Gomez.

He later reveals however he isn’t an innocent abroad. But for the moment we continue talk of Harry Hook. Did he channel anyone in particular when he became bad boy Harry? “I did,” he offers. “I thought of Heath Ledger when he played the Joker in Batman. His performance was amazing. He showed how you can totally immerse himself in this huge character, yet make him truthful. It’s such a shame we’ve lost him.

“When I play Harry I want that sort of truth.” He adds: “There’s a real dichotomy about him and it’s important to understand he’s still a kid, which means there’s a lot of teenage angst and frustration in the mix.

“You forget he’s the son of Hook, and don’t think about the pirate ship. What I want to come across is he’s a young man with a lot of problems – peer pressure, father pressures, and loss in his life. And this manifests itself in anger and aggression.” He laughs: “But it’s all good fun.”

Doherty clearly brings an intelligence to the role (his mother, who works in a bank – his dad is a financial adviser – made sure he finished his Highers before she agreed on him taking off to musical theatre college) but you discover there’s also an innate toughness about him which the model looks don’t suggest initially.

“I grew up hoping to become a professional footballer,” he says, revealing a world far removed from fairy princesses and camp.

His talent was such it led to professional trials with the likes of Berwick Rangers, but not quite enough to land the big leagues. “My brother was also a footballer and went to America on a footballing scholarship, so I guess I was following in his footsteps.”

Yet, while Doherty tackled and twisted his way over East Lothian grass he kept a dark, or rather a colourful, secret from many of his school chums.

“While I was seen as a football player, no-one was aware I also did musical theatre,” he says in mock conspiratorial voice. “I’d have my books and packed lunch at the top of my bag but at the bottom I’d hide my tap shoes.

“On Saturdays, for example, I’d go to musical theatre from nine ‘till one and then rush off to the game.” He adds, laughing: “Then during the week I’d turn up for musical theatre with my knees all cut and bruised. It was all a bit Billy Elliott. But I loved both.”

His very close friends accepted his leanings: “Yes, but any 13-year-old boy who wears leotard and tights two days a week is going to get slagged off,” he says, grinning. “Young boys were wary of acting. There was a sense it was all a bit effeminate. And I’d get teased. but it’s part of the banter. And my friends were fantastic and so supportive when it came to seeing my shows.”

Doherty had been attending a local drama group from a young age, but aged 13 he “really began to enjoy it". When the football dream was kicked out of the park, he decided to focus on performing and applied to the Academy of Performing Arts to study musical theatre. “I always wanted to work in TV and film but didn’t feel I was mature enough to go to acting school. And I could sing a bit, and dance as well because I had already done a lot of musical theatre shows.”

At the end of his three years, he performed his showcase and landed an agent. Now, landing representation is every young performer’s dream. But when you coax it out of Doherty there’s a realisation agents were almost queueing around the block to sign him up.

You would imagine they saw him as a cert for a role in EastEnders, a teen heartbreaker shoe-in for Hollyoaks?

“Yes, I met a few agents and some of them suggested they would get me into the likes of Hollyoaks. But it didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel passionate about the idea and felt I would be cheating a little bit.”

What happened was he worked in theatre for a short time, appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in a play about the Black Death, boils and all. Then he landed some film work in the likes of Hercules before being cast in teen musical The Lodge as Sean, filming in Northern Ireland.

He switches conversational channels to offer a bigger picture. “I don’t thinking living two steps ahead in life as being in any way productive. I like to live in the moment. That’s why there isn’t a big career plan mapped out.

“In the six months before leaving college I had the idea I’d get an agent and move to Hollywood and land films and do the red carpet thing. And then I got a little taste of it and I realised I was trying to fill my life with stuff. But I also realised if that was my intent it would never really be filled.”

What? These days actors talk of career moves as if it were a board game strategy. What made Doherty so different? What happened to bring about this epiphany?

Seems he has gone down the way of modelling after all.

“While I was doing The Lodge I was also meeting these modelling agencies, and at the same time I was going to acting auditions. But I wasn’t really thinking about the auditions; I was thinking about what the auditions would bring me. Then I went to LA and did the photo shoot for Teen Vogue and came back and thought ‘That was so much fun’ and people were saying to me it was amazing, yet at the same time it all felt very hollow, a bit vacuous.”

Doherty realised he was being judged for his looks alone. It didn’t sit well. “Old friends or people who didn’t know me were giving lots of attention, and it was weird when girls would scream or ask for photos but it wasn’t fulfilling.”

He felt lost, unsure of the road to take. “I began reading Eckhart Tolle a lot, (the spiritual teacher and author of books such as The Power Of Now) who has been asking why we are trying to fill our lives with stuff. You know; you get the car or the big house or whatever and then you ask yourself what you did to deserve it.

“You wonder if life is all about getting two million followers on social media.”

He has in fact just a million. The actor grins and then takes on a serious look: “But the thing is it doesn’t mean anything, except that ... well, it doesn’t define me.”

It’s quite unusual to find a young man aged just 22 who has been self-aware enough to examine the very point of his being. He could have gone the Bieber route and created minor drugs/alcohol mayhem. But of course, he’s also contained to a certain extent by the demands of Disney. The corporation Disney expects a lot of its young stars, in terms of how they represent themselves to the public, displaying a clean cut wholesomeness.

So how does Doherty balance out the Disney deal with the need to be a young man and have fun – and take a few risks? “Just don’t get caught,” he says, grinning. “But what you don’t do is overthink your status and let it get into your head because it will be a bit restrictive. What you have to do is just see yourself as a you are, which is a normal 22-year-old boy. And don’t let a couple of screaming girls sway you in any way.”

Does he read the tabloid tales of those who have lost the plot? Clearly he’s aware that celebrity is the mask that eats from within. Just think Heath Ledger.

“Yes, and I’m aware if you don’t be careful you crash and burn. Jim Carey once said he wished everyone could spend a week being rich and famous, to see what it’s really like. Attention can bring problems. But I’ve got it under control.”

What helps, apart from Eckhart Tolle and a few pages of natural common sense, is Doherty has a regular girlfriend, who happens to be his Descendants 2 co-star. “Her name is Dove Cameron and she lives in Los Angeles.” His voice becomes more animated as he expands: “She was here for the Edinburgh Festival for the first time and she loved it. She’s great. She’s like my pal, and a really good laugh. The plan is I’m going to head over to LA to live. We’re going to get a place together and live on Venice Beach.”

You tell him he’ll love it. And you’re sick with envy. “Thanks,” he says, smiling. “I think I’m making the right move. London’s great, and so is Edinburgh but it’s too cold.”

Doherty is relaxed about the future. He may be doing another season of The Lodge, and “hopefully a Descendants 3". But thanks to his Instagram success he has a regular income stream, independent of what he earns from acting. “I want to test the water,” he says of work possibilities in Tinseltown.

But gently.

“It’s good to have goals and a career and all the rest of it, but at the same time I want to enjoy life.”

He means it. The actor becomes truly animated when I tell of a young Scots actor, Declan Laird, currently making his way in Hollywood, who plays for a showbiz football team. Declan will get him a game.

“That sounds fantastic,” he says, breaking into a wide smile. “Although I’ll have to watch I don’t get kicked. But of course I won’t tell anyone I’m playing.”

We say goodbyes, but the ankle tattoo questions has to be answered. What the hell language is that? “It’s Elvish,” he declares, as if I should have known it’s Tolkien tongue.

“I’m a huge Lord Of The Rings fan, and it’s a quote from Gandalf: ‘All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that’s given to us.’ Good, eh?”

Perfect line, Thomas. Just perfect.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/15597316.Hook_lines_and_thinker__meet_the_rising_Scottish_film_star/

[latestnews2018-blog]

There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than Joy Behar Embracing Socialism

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/there-were-zero-things-better-this-week-than-joy-behar-embracing-socialism/

There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than Joy Behar Embracing Socialism

Welcome to Good Stuff, HuffPost’s weekly recommendation series devoted to the least bad things on and off the internet.  

The other morning on “The View,” we watched the seemingly eternal 1990s of our politics die in a heap next to Joy Behar’s coffee mug. It was something to see — morning TV chatting merrily about democratic socialism, Sunny Hostin reading the bullet points from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s platform, Joy Behar nodding along and smiling as if she were hearing the most sensible stuff in the world, Meghan McCain looking like the death mask of Marie Antoinette.

People had a lot of fun with McCain’s panicky reaction, and there are definitely pleasures to be had in the way she’s reduced to burbling about Venezuela and Margaret Thatcher. But pay attention to Behar, to the little shrugs, to the call-and-response with Hostin. Liberals have spent the better part of three decades building their program on the turf of the right, but here is Behar, in the soft heart of network TV liberalism, listening to a straightforward blueprint for a robust commonwealth and liking what she hears. No cringing. No nervous talk of the deficit. No crap appeal to the smallholding yeoman spirit of America as embodied in a low top marginal tax rate. Just a benediction: “Sounds like a really successful country.” ― Tommy Craggs

This American Soccer Star Rescuing A Young Fan From The Long Arm Of The Law

Grant Halverson/International Champions Cup via Getty Images

A young fan is stopped by security as he tries to talk to Christian Pulisic of Borussia Dortmund after an International Champions Cup game against Liverpool in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Sunday.

We didn’t get to see Christian Pulisic make his much-anticipated World Cup debut, but this week we got to see something infinitely more precious: the young Borussia Dortmund and U.S. Men’s National Team star rescuing a young fan from the arms of the authorities.

The boy had run up to Pulisic as he prepared for an on-pitch interview, apparently seeking an autograph. The star barely had time to react before security staff seized the kid and started carting him away. With speed and grace, Pulisic gave chase, extricated the boy and took a photo with his fan.

“I don’t like bullies. I don’t care where they’re from.” – Captain Americapic.twitter.com/akAzzmuFhw

— Across the Pond (@ATPradio) July 24, 2018

If you think this “encourages bad behavior,” please keep it to yourself because I don’t care. All through the week, I would remember this moment and it would bring a tearful smile to my face: one bright spot in a relentlessly grim existence. ― Claire Fallon

“Godzilla: King of Monsters” Is Coming

I thought my favorite part of the “Godzilla: King of Monsters” trailer was going to be Godzilla shooting its minty fresh breath into the sky, or Kyle Chandler playing Millie Bobby Brown’s dad. I was so wrong.

Toward the end, Tywin Lannister himself (Charles Dance) shows up like he just rolled out of bed at Casterly Rock and says, “Long live the king.” This dude could’ve said, “Winter is coming,” and I wouldn’t be happier. I don’t know how this happened, and I don’t care. But if Godzilla is enough of a baller to make Tywin Lannister bend the knee and spew lines straight from “Game of Thrones,” all I gotta say is, “Long live the king.” ― Bill Bradley

This Week In Beautiful Male Friendships

“&IF MY BROTHER FALL YOU KNOW WHAT IMA DO 💁‍♂️” pic.twitter.com/ySmZnzX2z1

— ;🕊 (@GottahGogh) July 22, 2018

This has been on my mind all week. The tweet text, the photos and the spirit exuded by such a combination captures the true essence of friendship. This photographic evidence of love between friends signifies the importance of holding one another down — or up — when it’s required. I see this tweet and I wipe tears from my eyes. It pushes me to think about the people in my life who would do such physical labor for me. You gonna make sure I don’t fall, don’t drop my drink AND catch that twerk? ON YOUR WEDDING DAY??

Wow. I’ve just never seen such a solid friendship on the timeline before and I am deeply moved. God bless these men and their friendship. I pray they never argue or fall out. ― Julia Craven 

“Terrace House” Twitter

I’ve written before about “Terrace House,” the liltingly mesmerizing Japanese reality television show that now lives on Netflix. But this week, mere days before the most recent installment of “Terrace House: Opening New Doors” drops, I discovered that there are two Twitter accounts that exclusively post screenshots of “Terrace House” scenes devoid of context. And it turns out that “Terrace House” frozen in time may be even more profound and entertaining than “Terrace House” in action.

The world is burning and the only good thing is “Terrace House.” ― Emma Gray

All The Tributes To Jonathan Gold

Charley Gallay via Getty Images

The most wonderful thing I saw in the last week was the outpouring of appreciation for Jonathan Gold after he died on Saturday at the age of 57. Nationally, Gold will be remembered as one of the best to ever describe food’s many tastes and tingles, and the first food critic to win that most unreachable of honors: the Pulitzer Prize.

Those living within the city limits of Los Angeles will always appreciate Gold’s reviews of the city’s nooks and crannies as well. But what made Gold more than a food critic to the people of Los Angeles was that he showed the rest of the country what the city actually is. For as long as I’ve been alive, people not raised here have told people who were that they are any collection of words ― vapid, vain, superficial, uncultured, isolated and on and on. But Gold was our most lyrical defender. Los Angeles, he said, is not a collection of 4 million Paris Hiltons. It is diverse, enormous, multilayered, unique and, most of all, delicious.

Only in the last few years have people around the country started to catch on. That’s in no small part because of Gold, and it’s a more memorable achievement than any prize. ― Maxwell Strachan

My Friend Jen’s Role On “Orange Is the New Black”

Netflix

“Orange Is the New Black” is back for a sixth season, relocating to a maximum-security facility and triaging some of its umpteen-bajillion characters in the process. Old favorites had to go to make room for Alicia Hutton, a Boston felon played by none other than my dear pal Jen Keefe, the girlfriend of HuffPost’s deputy social media editor, Melissa Radzimski.

I remember when Jen was shooting the show earlier this year. She didn’t even complain about waking up before the sun had surfaced, and she raved about working with Laura Prepon, who directed the 11th episode. Jen (on the left in the photo) was worried her scenes would get cut, because what rising superstar doesn’t have horror stories about scenes getting cut? Lo and behold, there they are! In Episode 2, Jen calls Piper (Taylor Schilling) a meth head. In Episode 11, she’s a sidekick to Nicky (Natasha Lyonne). Go watch my friend Jen before she gets a big-shot Tinseltown agent and starts pondering the nature of fame in her Hollywood Hills compound! ― Matthew Jacobs

Whoever Set Betsy DeVos’ Yacht Adrift in Lake Erie

Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Cheers to the bold and brave who took one for the team and faced potential indictment for the unadulterated joy of causing harm to Betsy DeVos’ property. While teachers around the country are estimated to be paying up to $500 for school supplies out of their already meager salaries, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has at least 10 boats and two helicopters. Does that leave an icky feeling in your guts? Me, too. If only the boat had been along the coast and just floated out to sea. ― Anna Krakowsky

The ‘Sharp Objects’ Soundtrack

Jean-Marc Vallée got a lot of praise for the mixtape that was the “Big Little Lies” soundtrack. (Martha Wainright’s “Bloody Motherfucking Asshole”!) His new project, “Sharp Objects,” is steeped in carefully curated music, too. But Vallée preserves his show’s cinematic ether by seamlessly lacing the soundtrack into his scenes; Amy Adam’s character is constantly tuning the world out by blaring music on her headphones or in her car, while her stepfather, an eggheaded audiophile, is always tinkering with his record player. From Sylvan Esso to Engelbert Humperdinck to Led Zeppelin, the potpourri of hits is a part of Vallée’s dark universe. It all amounts to a gorgeous macrocosm almost as beautiful as Chris Messina’s sweaty little body. ― Katherine Brooks

The Amazing Interiors Of “Amazing Interiors”

Netflix is pumping up their home improvement TV game with another series, “Amazing Interiors,” which introduces us to eccentric homeowners whose seemingly ordinary spaces are full of design surprises. From a unique boat in London to a fallout shelter in an undisclosed location, this show, and its homes, are completely basic on the outside and utterly magical on the inside. Miss “Fixer Upper”? “Amazing Interiors” will surely be a new kind of addiction. ― Leigh Blickley

A Nice Little League Home Run

Generally speaking, I watch sports to see athletes do amazing things that neither I nor anyone else I know are capable of doing. That is not what happened in the Angels-White Sox game on Thursday when Andrelton Simmons hit a line drive to center field that should have been easy enough to field. Instead, the centerfielder whiffs, the ball rolls to the wall and Simmons is off to the races around first and then second base. As he heads toward third, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson sails a throw over the catcher. Simmons jogged home for a nice Little League home run.

Every now and then, sports is fun, not because of the great moments but because watching talented people have momentary lapses of ability that turn them into the sort of baseball player I was as a child is funny as hell. ― Travis Waldron

A Heartbreaking Graphic Novel About Love And Grief

Amazon

This week, Vanity Fair’s Amanda Fortini published an epic profile of actor Michelle Williams (featuring a “delicious” cameo by HuffPost’s own Matt Jacobs). In it, Williams revealed she had secretly wed singer-songwriter Phil Elverum, also known as Mt. Eerie. Like Williams, Elverum lost a partner under devastating circumstances: His first wife, cartoonist and musician Geneviève Castrée, died of pancreatic cancer in 2016.

In the weeks leading up to her death, Castrée worked tirelessly on a graphic novel for her 2-year-old daughter called The Bubble. The tiny children’s book depicts Castrée and her daughter protected from the world by a bubble’s gentle membrane until it pops. Castrée died before the book ― a heartbreaking meditation on love, grief, memory and innocence lost ― was completed. It was recently published by Drawn & Quarterly. The Paris Review described it as “the saddest children’s book in the world.” After reading that VF article, it’s all I can think about. ― Priscilla Frank

These Puppet Show Reviews

My editor argues that I shouldn’t be on the culture team because I’m not engaged enough in “pop culture” — so here’s a 7-year-old series of articles that I think is funny.

Back in the heyday of The Brooklyn Paper, there was a column called “Dooley Noted” in which the self-described “foremost critic of puppetry and mime,” Thurston Dooley III, would attend “disastrous” children’s puppet shows in Brooklyn, New York, and then tear them to shreds in semi-regular reviews. From his article titled “The Wizard Of Blahs”:

Scholars say that the Golden Age of Puppetry — the mirth, the magic, the majesty — was in early 18th-century Vienna, a period when Austro-Hungarian craftsmen, artists, and musicians came together in an epic burst of collaboration and created something great.

It was an era when puppets became legends and puppeteers became gods. I mention those happy days as a way of introducing this mildly controversial thought: the Golden Age is dead.

The thought first occurred to me midway through the first act of Puppetworks’ disastrous production of “The Wizard of Oz” last week.

I know that local children’s show organizers were pissed about these reviews, because I worked at The Brooklyn Paper alongside Dooley at the time. I still don’t know his actual identity, but a lot of people believe him to be none other than the paper’s former editor, Gersh Kuntzman, who went on to work at the New York Daily News, Newsweek and now Streetsblog. ― Andy Campbell

Stickers!

Yumi Sakugawa is the goddess of illustrated self-care. I found out the other day she recently made a sticker pack to use in texts that features an adorably drawn person and a four-legged bat-squid-esque demon who meet for tea, inspired by a favorite section of her book Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One With the Universe. Something about Sakugawa’s art feels so calming, so accessible and universal; its simplicity belies a deep understanding of human desire for connection. Now I can use her illustrations to convey my deep, twisty feels to everyone in my Contacts — or just send a teacup without context. At 99 cents, it’s an artist-supporting wallet-friendly win-win. In a tweet announcing the pack, the artist wrote, “Oh hi, been thinking a lot these days about shadow integration and loving your inner demons,” which really says it all. ― Jillian Capewell

Read last week’s Good Stuff.

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’); fbq(‘init’, ‘1621685564716533’); // Edition specific fbq(‘init’, ‘1043018625788392’); // Partner Studio fbq(‘track’, “PageView”); fbq(‘track’, ‘ViewContent’, “content_name”:”There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than Joy Behar Embracing Socialism”,”content_category”:”us.hpmgarts” ); fbq(‘trackCustom’, ‘EntryPage’, “section_name”:”Culture & Arts”,”tags”:[“@health_gad”,”@health_pain”,”@health_depression”,”@health_adhd”,”@health_models”,”@health_hiv”,”@health_erectile”,”@health_ibs”,”baseball”,”joy-behar”,”christian-pulisic”,”jonathan-gold”],”team”:”us_enterprise_culture”,”ncid”:null,”environment”:”desktop”,”render_type”:”web” ); waitForGlobal(function() return HP.modules.Tracky; , function() /* TODO do we still want this? $(‘body’).on(‘click’, function(event) HP.modules.Tracky.reportClick(event, function(data) fbq(‘trackCustom’, “Click”, data); ); ); */ );