‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ wins best TV drama Globe

Actress Elisabeth Moss arrives for the 75th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, in Beverly Hills, California. (AFP)
Updated 08 January 2018
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‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ wins best TV drama Globe

BEVERLY HILLS, California: The dystopian series “The Handmaid’s Tale” is the winner of the best television drama Golden Globe Award.
The Hulu series stars Elisabeth Moss as one of the few fertile women left in a world ruled by a totalitarian regime that treats women as property. The show is based on Margaret Atwood’s best-selling novel of the same name.
It is the series’ second win of the evening. Elisabeth Moss won the best actress in a television drama earlier in the ceremony.

Sterling K. Brown is the winner of the best television drama actor Golden Globe Award for his role on “This is Us.”
Brown plays a family man recovering from a nervous breakdown and the complicated dynamics of the family that adopted him when he was a baby.
Brown opened his speech by remarking on Oprah Winfrey’s presence in the room — she is receiving a lifetime achievement award — before quickly saying he needed to thank his wife before he forgot. He also told his children that he would take them to school in the morning.
Brown profusely thanked “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman for engaging in colorblind casting and giving him great material to work with.

“The Handmaid’s Tale’s” Elisabeth Moss has won the Golden Globe Award for best actress in a television drama.
Moss plays one of the few fertile women left in a world ruled by a totalitarian regime where women are considered property. Moss attempts to keep her identity and humanity in the Hulu series, which is based on Margaret Atwood’s best-selling novel.
She dedicated her award to Atwood, reading some of the author’s words and saying that women are now “writing the stories ourselves.”

Rachel Brosnahan has been awarded the best television comedy actress Golden Globe Award for her role on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
Brosnahan plays a 1950s mom who decides to pursue a stand-up comedy career. The show is also nominated for best comedy series at Sunday’s Globes.
The actress won the award on her first nomination.

Sam Rockwell has won the best film supporting actor Golden Globe Award for his role in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
Rockwell won for his role as a small town cop with anger issues in the revenge tale starring fellow-Globes nominee Frances McDormand. He thanked McDormand and “Three Billboards” director Martin McDonagh, who he thanked for giving him such beautiful words to say.
Rockwell called McDormand a “force of nature” who made him a better actor.

Nicole Kidman has won the Golden Globe Award for best actress in a limited television series or movie for her role in the HBO series “Big Little Lies.”
Kidman plays a lawyer who gave up her successful career to be a full-time mom in a rich coastal Northern California town. Her life is not as idyllic as it seems — her husband frequently beats her.
She referenced her character in her acceptance speech, urging others to keep the conversation about abuse and the treatment of women alive.
The actress also thanked her “Big Little Lies” co-stars, saying she was sharing the honor with fellow nominees Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Reese Witherspoon.

Oprah Winfrey meanwhile became the first black woman to be awarded a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement on Sunday, delivering an impassioned speech in support of those who have exposed sexual misconduct in Hollywood and beyond.
Actress, movie and television producer, and chief executive of her OWN cable channel, Winfrey, 63, was celebrated as a role model for women and a person who has promoted strong female characters.

Seth Meyers has opened the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards with jokes about the sexual misconduct scandal, saying it’s the first time in three months that it won’t be terrifying for male actors to have their names read out loud.
Meyers started his monologue by saying, “Good evening ladies and remaining gentlemen!“
He also jabbed disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein who has been accused by dozens of women of sexual harassment and abuse. Meyers noted that Weinstein isn’t present for Sunday’s ceremony, but said that he’ll be back in 20 years — when he’ll be the “first person ever booed during the In Memorium” segment.
The joke was met with some groans in the ballroom.
Meyers mixed his comments about the sexual misconduct scandal with jokes about the nominees and a few barbs directed at President Donald Trump.

There’s more to occupy the Golden Globes crowd than awards.
They can get their face copied atop a cappuccino or latte. How many stars are taking advantage before the show? So far, a barista says none: they’re focusing on the alcoholic drinks.
Stars often rush into the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel at the last minute, so the Globes this year are attempting to get people in their seats earlier in the evening. Red carpet interviews are supposed to already be done, and an announcer has told the group it’s 30 minutes to show time.
— Lynn Elber in the Golden Globes ballroom.

Dinner is served so early at the Golden Globes it can be confusing.
More than hour before the show, “This Is Us” star Milo Ventimiglia asked castmate Chris Sullivan if it was time to sit down at one of the tables already set with salads. When Sullivan said he’d been in place for a half-hour, Ventimiglia started chowing down. It’s a good thing — the three-course meal is served and cleared fast, so all the eating is done before the ceremony starts. But the wine and Champagne keep flowing throughout the three-hour ceremony.
Among the other early arrivals were the cast of “Stranger Things,” “Get Out” stars Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams, Meryl Streep and John Goodman, who enjoyed a cigarette on the terrace while he watched a live feed of the arrivals.
— Lynn Elber and Sandy Cohen (APSandy) in the Golden Globes ballroom.

Debra Messing has made her point about gender equality by calling out E! Entertainment Television on the issue while doing an interview with the network on the Golden Globes red carpet Sunday.
Messing was explaining why she wore black to support Hollywood’s whistleblowers and the Time’s Up initiative, then referenced the recent departure from E! of host Catt Sadler, who has said she learned she was making about half the pay of her male counterpart, Jason Kennedy.
Messing tells E! host Giuliana Rancic, “I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn’t believe in paying their female co-hosts the same as their male co-hosts. I miss Catt Sadler.”
Messing says it’s crucial to “start having this conversation that women are just as valuable as men are.”
— Jocelyn Noveck

Golden Globe nominee Michelle Williams says that she just wants to listen to what #MeToo founder Tarana Burke has to say, and that’s why she brought her to Sunday’s Golden Globes.
Williams tells The Associated Press, “I’m so much more interested in what you have to say than what I have to say.”
Burke says the solidarity and the support behind Time’s Up and #MeToo is something we’ve never seen before.
Williams is one of eight actresses who are attending the Golden Globes with advocates for gender and racial justice.
Burke says the actresses are generous in sharing their platform so they could highlight their causes and turn the spotlight back on the survivors and solutions rather than the perpetrators.
Williams is nominated for her role in Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World.” When asked about working with Christopher Plummer who replaced Kevin Spacey in the film after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct, Williams says she’s “not talking about that.”
— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.

Alison Brie says that the Time’s Up initiative has made her realize how powerful women can be when they all stand together.
The actress is nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in the Netflix wrestling show “GLOW.” Brie, who also appears in the Golden Globe nominated films “The Post” and “The Disaster Artist,” wore a dramatic strapless black dress with a sweetheart neckline to show solidarity with Time’s Up.
Brie says she thinks change will come when more women are in power at the top. She says a lot more listening needs to happen across all industries.
— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.

“Get Out” star Daniel Kaluuya says that the fact that the film is still in the conversation is “mind-boggling.”
He noted Sunday on the Golden Globes red carpet that the film came out almost a year ago in February.
Kaluuya wore a black tux with a Time’s Up pin on his lapel. He is nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy, and “Get Out” is up for best picture in the same category.
He says he feels privileged to stand by the women fighting against the unnecessary evils that are happening in the industry.
— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.

Alfred Molina says he feels terrible for his “Frida” co-star Salma Hayek’s experiences with Harvey Weinstein. Hayek detailed sexual harassment from Weinstein during the production of “Frida” in a New York Times essay in December.
Speaking Sunday on the Golden Globes red carpet, Molina says that Hayek is not one to exaggerate and is a serious, forthright woman and he was struck by her bravery. He says it’s saddening and heartbreaking that she had to carry that weight for so long.
Sporting all black, down to his tie and his shirt, the “Feud” star said that it was a very small gesture of solidarity but hoped that out of small gestures comes big ones.
Chris Sullivan of “This Is Us” did not wear an all-black outfit, but painted his fingernails black for Sunday’s ceremony.
— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.

The highly anticipated wear-black protest at the Golden Globes got off to an early start Sunday as soon as the red carpet opened, including Michelle Williams in an embellished off-the-shoulder look and “Me Too” founder Tarana Burke at her side.
Turning the Globes dark on the fashion front had been anticipated for days after a call for massive reform following the downfall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and numerous others in Hollywood, media, fashion, tech, publishing and other industries. The new initiative Time’s Up, backed by more than 300 women in Hollywood, doled out pins intended for those who might already have locked in more colorful looks.
Allison Williams provided a pop of orange and silver on the bodice of her black column gown.
Not everybody supports the protest. Rose McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of rape, has loudly and persistently called the effort an empty gesture.
— Leanne Italie

Michelle Williams has arrived at the Golden Globes with the first of several gender and racial activists who are accompanying actresses to Sunday’s awards gala.
Williams has brought #MeToo founder Tarana Burke to the awards show to help highlight gender inequality. Seven other actresses, including Emma Stone and Meryl Streep, are bringing activists to the ceremony, which is the first major awards show since the sexual misconduct scandal roiled Hollywood.
Both Williams and Burke wore black dresses. Many actresses are planning to wear black to Sunday’s ceremony to show solidarity for the victims of sexual misconduct.
— Andrew Dalton (@andyjamesdalton) in the fan bleachers outside the Golden Globes.

Al Roker and Carson Daly have drawn quite the crowd of spectators as they made their way past the champagne and photographers on the red carpet and into the Golden Globes ballroom, trailed by a crew of cameras and lights.
Roker tweeted earlier that he’s never seen security like this for the Globes. He said there was checkpoint after checkpoint and that they were not kidding around.
Elsewhere on the red carpet, Mario Lopez filmed an early segment and other TV reporters fanned themselves down amid the rising temperatures.
— Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.

Temperatures pushed into the 70s in the hours before the limousines began arriving at the Golden Globes.
Security of all kinds lined the scene Sunday. Motorcycle officers cruised down the red carpet. A sniper in military attire put a large rifle on a tripod on a low rooftop of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Workers sneaked quick photos on the red carpet while they could.
Fans who crammed into a small set of bleachers stood and strained to see any celebrity bigger than the gathered reporters.
The red carpet was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Pacific, but will get busier closer to the start of the Globes ceremony at 5 p.m.
— Andrew Dalton (@andyjamesdalton) in the fan bleachers outside the Golden Globes.

Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Emma Watson and Amy Poehler are just a few of the actresses who are planning to bring gender and racial justice activists as their guests to the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday evening.
Streep will attend with Ai-jen Poo, the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; Williams with Tarana Burke, the founder of the “me too” movement; and Watson will bring Marai Larasi, the executive director of Imkaan, a black-feminist organization.
In a statement Sunday, the advocates say they were inspired by the Time’s Up initiative. They say the goal in attending the awards will be to shift focus away from the perpetrators and back on survivors and creating lasting change.
Many attending the Golden Globes will also be wearing black to protest sexual harassment.

The Golden Globes, once the stomping grounds of Harvey Weinstein, will belong to someone else this year.
The 75th Golden Globe Awards is considered wide open, with contenders including Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” and Martin McDonaugh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
But whoever takes home the hardware Sunday, the spotlight is unlikely to stray far from the sexual misconduct scandals that have roiled Hollywood ever since an avalanche of allegations toppled Weinstein. Out of solidarity with the victims of sexual harassment and assault, many women have said they will be dressing in black.
Red carpet arrivals are expected to begin around 5 p.m. EST, with the broadcast starting on NBC at 8 p.m. Oprah Winfrey will receive the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award.


Palestinian prisoner in Israel wins top fiction prize

Basim Khandaqji’s book was chosen from 133 works submitted to the competition. (Photo/Social media)
Updated 29 April 2024
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Palestinian prisoner in Israel wins top fiction prize

  • The mask in the novel’s title refers to the blue identity card that Nur, an archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah, finds in the pocket of an old coat belonging to an Israeli

ABU DHABI: Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji, jailed 20 years ago in Israel, won a prestigious prize for Arabic fiction on Sunday for his novel “A Mask, the Color of the Sky.”
The award of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.
The prize was accepted on Khandaqji’s behalf by Rana Idriss, owner of Dar Al-Adab, the book’s Lebanon-based publisher.
Khandaqji was born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus in 1983, and wrote short stories until his arrest in 2004 at the age of 21.
He was convicted and jailed on charges relating to a deadly bombing in Tel Aviv, and completed his university education from inside jail via the Internet.
The mask in the novel’s title refers to the blue identity card that Nur, an archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah, finds in the pocket of an old coat belonging to an Israeli.
Khandaqji’s book was chosen from 133 works submitted to the competition.
Nabil Suleiman, who chaired the jury, said the novel “dissects a complex, bitter reality of family fragmentation, displacement, genocide, and racism.”
Since being jailed Khandaqji has written poetry collections including “Rituals of the First Time” and “The Breath of a Nocturnal Poem.”
He has also written three earlier novels.
 

 


Mexican doctor claims victory in $28 Cartier earrings battle

Updated 28 April 2024
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Mexican doctor claims victory in $28 Cartier earrings battle

MEXICO CITY: A Mexican man has claimed a victory over French luxury brand Cartier, saying an error allowed him to buy two pairs of earrings for $28 that were supposed to cost nearly $28,000.
After a four-month struggle, doctor Rogelio Villarreal said he had finally received the jewelry, which he accused the company of refusing to deliver after his online purchase in December.
According to Villarreal, he came across the low-priced earrings while browsing Instagram.
“I swear I broke out in a cold sweat,” he wrote on the social media platform X.
Cartier declined to recognize the purchase and offered Villarreal a refund, as well as a bottle of champagne and a passport holder as compensation, according to a company letter shared by the doctor.
But Villarreal refused and decided to take the case to Mexico’s consumer protection agency, which ruled in favor of the doctor.
Cartier accepted the decision, Villarreal announced.
“War is over. Cartier is complying,” he wrote.
 

 

 


French barber still trimming at 90

Updated 26 April 2024
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French barber still trimming at 90

  • “I love this job, it’s in my bones,” he said
  • Even with arthritis, he is on his feet from Tuesday to Saturday, tending to his customers’ hair and beards in his shop in the small southern town of Saint-Girons

SAINT-GIRONS, France: French barber Roger Amilhastre, 90, could have hung up his clippers decades ago but he said his passion for hair gives him a reason to get up in the morning.
“I love this job, it’s in my bones,” he said, leaning on one of his cast-iron barber’s chairs from the 1940s.
“And despite my age, my hands still don’t shake.”
Even with arthritis, he is on his feet from Tuesday to Saturday, tending to his customers’ hair and beards in his shop in the small southern town of Saint-Girons in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
“I would have liked to retire at 60, but my wife was sick and I needed to pay for the care home,” he said, which cost more than 2,000 euros ($2,150) a month.
Even after his wife died in January, he kept going to work to stave off the sad thoughts.
“I’m not grumpy getting up” to go to work, he said.
France’s national hairdressers’ union believes Amilhastre may be France’s oldest active barber.
“We have a few who continue late in life, but 90 years old is exceptional,” union president Christophe Dore told AFP.
“I’m not sure if he is France’s oldest barber, but if not, he can’t be far off,” he added.
According to the national statistics institute INSEE, a little more than half a million people over 65 still work in France.
In the southern region of Occitanie, where Amilhastre lives, only 1.65 percent of people older than 70 years old still work, including 190 79-year-olds. But statistics do not go beyond that age.
Many of Amilhastre’s customers call him Achille, after his father who founded the barber’s shop in 1932, giving it his name and then teaching his son the profession.
The shop witnessed the German occupation of France during World War II.
“During the war, German police came to find my father to groom a captain who had broken his leg,” Amilhastre said.
German troops had taken over a large stately home in town called Beauregard.
“We were scared because they used to say that anyone who went up to Beauregard never came back,” he said.
“Luckily he did.”
The 90-year-old said he remembered a “tough period” for businesses when he first picked up the scissors in 1947 a few years after the war ended.
But then the town rebounded, he said, with its men following a flurry of new hair trends from greased back quiffs in the 1950s to 1970s bowl cuts.
The barber’s shop survived an economic downturn as local paper mills closed in the 1980s sparking mass layoffs, and supermarkets pushed small shops out of business.
“People started looking for work further afield, so we had to adapt and stay open later in the evening,” Amilhastre said.
That same decade, the AIDS epidemic sent customers into a worried frenzy.
“People were scared. They no longer asked to be shaved and when we did, we were petrified there’d be a cut, that someone would bleed and the virus would be passed on to the next customer,” he said.
Jean-Louis Surre, 67, runs the nearby cafe where Amilhastre once taught him to play billiards as a young boy.
Behind his bar, Surre said he still remembered his mother taking him across the road to see Amilhastre for a haircut every month as a child.
“He’d pump up the chair to reach the mirror, use his clippers and then at the end perfume you with some cologne — you know, squeezing those little pumps,” he said.
He is one of several old-timers to regularly drop by Achille’s — even just to read the newspaper or have a chat.
Inside the barber’s, Jean Laffitte, a balding 84-year-old, said he no longer really needed a haircut.
“With what little is left up there, these days I come out of friendship,” he said.


China’s Shenzhou-18 mission docks with space station

Updated 26 April 2024
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China’s Shenzhou-18 mission docks with space station

  • The astronauts took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s northwest at 8:59 p.m. local time Thursday
  • The astronauts will stay at the Tiangong space station for six months, carrying out experiments

JIUQUAN, China: A spaceship carrying three astronauts from China’s Shenzhou-18 mission safely docked at Tiangong space station Friday, state-run media reported, the latest step in Beijing’s space program that aims to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.

The crew took off in a capsule atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s northwest at 8:59 p.m. local time 1259 GMT) Thursday.
By early Friday the spacecraft had “successfully docked” with the space station, state-run news agency Xinhua reported, citing the China Manned Space Agency.
The mission is led by Ye Guangfu, a fighter pilot and astronaut who was previously part of the Shenzhou-13 crew in 2021.
He is joined by astronauts Li Cong and Li Guangsu, who are heading into space for the first time.

Onlookers cheered as the rocket blasted off into the night sky, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
Xinhua said the launch had been declared a “complete success.”
The astronauts will stay at the Tiangong space station for six months.

There they plan to carry out experiments “in the fields of basic physics in microgravity, space material science, space life science, space medicine and space technology,” the China Manned Space Agency has said.
They will also try and create an aquarium onboard and seek to raise fish in zero gravity, according to Xinhua.
“Not only will the taikonauts find joy in the space ‘aquarium,’ but it may also pave the way for their future counterparts to enjoy nutritious fish from their own in-orbit harvests,” it added.

They will also conduct experiments on “fruit flies and mice,” a researcher quoted by the agency said.
The new crew will replace the Shenzhou-17 team, who were sent to the station in October.
Plans for China’s “space dream” have been put into overdrive under President Xi Jinping.
The world’s second-largest economy has pumped billions of dollars into its military-run space program in an effort to catch up with the United States and Russia.
Beijing also aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030, and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.
China has been effectively excluded from the International Space Station since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from engaging with the country — pushing Beijing to develop its own orbital outpost.
That station is the Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace” — the crown jewel of a space program that has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and made China the third country to independently put humans in orbit.
It is constantly crewed by rotating teams of three astronauts, with construction completed in 2022.
The Tiangong is expected to remain in low Earth orbit at between 400 and 450 kilometers (250 and 280 miles) above the planet for at least 10 years.
 


Algeria’s first KFC restaurant reopens without logo following Gaza protests

Updated 25 April 2024
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Algeria’s first KFC restaurant reopens without logo following Gaza protests

  • Protesters gathered outside outlet last week in solidarity with Palestinians
  • KFC parent company Yum! Brands has faced backlash for its ties with Israel

LONDON: Algeria’s first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet has resumed operations after a temporary closure prompted by a series of pro-Palestinian demonstrations last week.

However, the restaurant, situated in the Algiers suburb of Dely Ibrahim, reopened its doors without the familiar Col. Sanders logo on its exterior.

It remains unclear if the outlet has had a change of ownership or remains under the umbrella of Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC.

Demonstrators gathered outside the eatery on April 16, calling for a boycott and expressing solidarity with Palestinians amid the Gaza conflict.

Protesters draped in Palestinian flags voiced support for “Palestinian martyrs” while obstructing access to the storefront.

The restaurant has faced a backlash due to its perceived ties to Israel, with Yum! Brands having made investments in Israeli startups, including TicTuk, a company that allows customers to order food on social networks and message apps, and Dragontail, a system software company specializing in food processing.

In response, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement designated KFC’s sister company, Pizza Hut, as an “organic boycott target,” due to the “brands’ complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians.”

While the temporary closure of the KFC outlet was hailed as a success by demonstrators, its reopening sparked disappointment among some Algerians.

The incident underscores challenges and employment ramifications stemming from boycotts related to the Gaza conflict.

Since the start of the war, regional franchises of McDonald’s, one of the key boycotted brands, have distanced themselves from the parent company, arguing that they are 100 percent local.

The opening of a KFC branch in Algeria was noteworthy given the nation’s historical aversion to Western food chains, as well as its stringent foreign investment regulations, which typically prohibit the establishment of foreign food or beverage franchises.

Previous efforts to establish outlets without official approval, such as the brief appearance of a counterfeit “Starbucks,” have been met with swift action and closure.