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Nergal

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  1. Days after Sean “Diddy” Combs settled rape, sex-trafficking and abuse allegations with the singer Cassie, his companies have been named in a new lawsuit that alleges a longtime executive sexually harassed and assaulted a former assistant.

    The lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court on Tuesday, accuses Harve Pierre, a former president of Bad Boy Entertainment and Bad Boy Records, of engaging in a yearlong pattern of grooming the unnamed assistant, “leading to sexual harassment of Plaintiff, and sexual assault.”

     

    “From approximately 2016 to 2017, Pierre sexually assaulted Plaintiff on multiple occasions in New York City and other locations throughout the country,” the suit stated.

    He left the company in 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile. While Pierre did not immediately respond to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Bad Boy Entertainment said the company was aware of the lawsuit from its former employee.

    “The allegations are from many years ago that were never brought to the attention of the company,” the spokesperson said. “Neither the plaintiff nor the executive are current employees of the company. We are now investigating the allegations, and our top priority is the safety and well-being of our employees.”

    The suit against Pierre was filed using the New York Adult Survivors Act, which allows survivors of alleged sexual abuse a one-year window to sue even if the original statute of limitations has passed. The law, set to expire after Thanksgiving, has cleared the way for more than 2,500 lawsuits. Combs, former President Donald Trump, actor Russell Brand, Grammy-winning music exec L.A. Reid and Academy Award-winning actor Jamie Foxx are some of the notable figures who have been sued under the act.

    The filing also names Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy Records and Combs Enterprises, which are being sued for gender-motivated violence and two counts of negligence. Combs Enterprises has been rebranded as Combs Global, a spokesperson for Combs told NBC News on Wednesday.

    The suit alleges the companies retained Pierre and did not have proper systems in place to properly vet leaders in hiring or to educate and detect possible abuse.

    The former assistant is requesting full and fair compensation for injuries and damages in an unspecified amount to be determined by the court.

    Pierre was a regular fixture on MTV’s “Making the Band” and has worked with dozens of top artists including the Notorious B.I.G., Yung Joc, SWV and hip-hop duo 8Ball & MJG.

  2. SÃO PAULO — Police in Rio de Janeiro said Wednesday that an investigation has been launched into Time4Fun — the Brazilian company that organized Taylor Swift’s shows in the city — days after a fan died and others reported unbearable conditions after having attended the Eras Tour during an extreme heat wave

    A spokesperson for the Civil Police Department of Rio de Janeiro said its consumer delegations department had launched an inquiry into “the crime of endangering the life and health” of concertgoers. 

     

    “Event organizers will be called to testify, and other steps are underway to investigate the facts,” the statement said. 

    Time4Fun did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but CEO Serafim Abreu said in a video posted to social media Thursday that the company apologized to "all who did not have the best possible experience."

    "We know the enormous responsibility we have to organize an event of this scale, which is why we did not economize in our efforts or resources to follow the best global practices in our industry to guarantee the comfort and safety of all," Abreu said.

    Abreu added that the company could have taken "alternative steps" to ensure a better experience for fans, such as adding more shaded areas during the extreme heat.

    Last week, the company confirmed the death of Ana Clara Benevides Machado, 23, at Friday night’s concert. The show was held as a record-breaking heat wave swept through the city, and temperatures in the stadium reached a heat index of 138 degrees Fahrenheit. Swift postponed her Saturday night show because of the extreme temperatures. 

    Fans complained of oppressive heat in the stadium and limited access to water. There were reports that other fans fainted in the extreme heat.

     
     

    The department said the investigation is not connected to Machado’s death. Rio’s Municipal Health Department said the woman passed out during the second song of Swift's set and experienced cardiorespiratory arrest, but the exact cause of her death is not yet known.

    Fans of the star, self-described Swifties, flooded social media with the phrase “T4F EXIGIMOS RESPEITO” after Machado’s death, which, translated from Portuguese, means “T4F WE DEMAND RESPECT.” In many posts on X, they called on T4F to make sure there was access to water for ticket holders. 

    Swift said in an Instagram story after the show that she was “overwhelmed by grief” over Machado’s death. 

    T4F said on social media after Friday’s show that fans would be able to enter the next two performances with water bottles and some sealed foods. 

    Swift is scheduled to play three more shows this weekend in São Paulo, where fans will also be allowed to take some food and water into the venue. 

  3. By Diana Dasrath, Marlene Lenthang and Nicole Childers

    Sean "Diddy" Combs has been hit with a new lawsuit by a woman who alleges the music mogul drugged her, sexually assaulted her and recorded the assault without her knowledge when she was a college student in 1991.

    The suit was filed in New York Supreme Court on Thursday, one day before the expiration of the New York Adult Survivors Act, which allows adult sexual assault survivors one year to sue regardless of when the original statute of limitations expired.

    “I am so thankful for the bravery of the other women that came forward, the Adult Survivors Act which opened up the filing window to seek justice, and the unwavering support from my attorneys,” Dickerson-Neal said in a statement Friday. “For 32 years, the only people I have been able to confide in were my close friends and therapists. I’m feeling as if the darkness has been lifted and I can freely move forward in achieving my full potential.”

    The suit centers on an alleged interaction between Combs and Joie Dickerson-Neal on Jan. 3, 1991, when she was a student at Syracuse University studying psychology.

    A spokesperson for Combs denied the allegations.

    Dickerson-Neal said in the filing that she “reluctantly” went to dinner with Combs at a restaurant in Harlem in New York City and accompanied him as he ran errands. At the time, she was on winter break from school, according to the suit.

    The complaint alleges Combs “intentionally drugged” Dickerson-Neal, leaving her unable to stand or walk. The suit said she left her drink unattended with him at the restaurant and afterward, under alleged pressure from Combs, she took a hit from a blunt.

    They then drove to a music studio, the suit stated. When Dickerson-Neal couldn’t exit the car, Combs allegedly took her to a place he was staying to sexually assault her, according to the filing.

    The suit said Dickerson-Neal recalled feeling “humiliated and hurt, yet she could not escape the assault,” and because she had been allegedly drugged, she said she “lacked the physical ability or mental capacity to fend Combs off.”

    The complaint, which also alleges Dickerson-Neal was the victim of “revenge porn,” accuses Combs of recording the alleged sexual assault.

    Popular '90s singer allegedly saw recording of assault

    Days later, a male friend named DeVanté Swing, a member of the popular '90s R&B group Jodeci, revealed to the woman that he viewed a “sex tape” along with other people, according to the suit. Dickerson-Neal said Swing feared his band would lose its record deal if he spoke against Combs. NBC News reached out to a representative for Swing for comment, but did not hear back.

    Dickerson-Neal's life was thrown into a “tailspin” after that meeting with Combs, the complaint said. She was later admitted to a hospital for severe depression and suicidal ideation and eventually dropped out of college, according to the filing.

    The event left Dickerson-Neal struggling with mental health, career progression and humiliation as a result of the recording of the incident, the suit said.

    Combs had allegedly pursued her “for a romantic or sexual relationship” on “repeated occasions,” but she rejected his advances because she heard about his alleged “history of treating women badly,” according to the suit. Dickerson-Neal and Combs had friends and acquaintances in common and she had appeared with Combs in a few clips of a music video, the suit said.

    She didn’t go to a hospital or initially report the assault to police because she was confused, in pain and felt ashamed, the filing said. Dickerson-Neal tearfully told her friend about the alleged assault the next day, according to the suit.

    Authorities were contacted, woman says

    She later filed police reports in New York and New Jersey, spoke to several prosecutors with the hope of pressing charges, and reached out to friends and acquaintances to locate the video Combs allegedly recorded, the filing said.

    Dickerson-Neal was told by her colleagues that they were “terrified that Combs would retaliate against them and that they would lose future business and music opportunities if they made a statement in support of Plaintiff,” according to the suit.

    It was not immediately clear Thursday what jurisdictions she filed the reports in, when she filed them or what happened after her conversations with authorities.

    The New York City Police Department would not confirm if it received a report from Dickerson-Neal, but said it “takes sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors.”

    Dickerson-Neal went on to work in the music industry.

    While working at a party, she ran into Combs, who allegedly “backed her into a corner” and “inappropriately confronted her,” the suit said. It was not clear Thursday how long after the alleged assault the party took place.

    Combs allegedly got on his knees during that interaction and insisted “he did not do what she was saying,” according to the filing.

    Dickerson-Neal ultimately left the music industry and moved to California, citing Combs’ rise and success as too painful to witness.

    Woman says Cassie's suit prompted her to take action

    She said singer Cassie's lawsuit against Combs was the impetus that “forced her to face his assault again,” the filing said.

    An attorney for Cassie declined to comment on the suit.

    Dickerson-Neal's lawsuit filed Thursday names Combs, Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy Records and Combs Enterprises as defendants. Combs Enterprises has been rebranded as Combs Global, a spokesperson for Combs told NBC News on Wednesday, before this lawsuit was filed.

    The latest suit accuses Combs of assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, sex trafficking and revenge porn. Dickerson-Neal is seeking compensatory damages for mental and emotional injury, distress, pain and suffering, and injury.

    “Everyone deserves to be heard and Combs should not be immune from liability because of his wealth and public stature,” Michelle Caiola, one of Dickerson-Neal's attorneys, said in a statement.

    Jonathan Goldhirsch, another attorney, added: “Our client has not been able to escape the continuing impact of the harm Combs caused her many years ago. Through the Adult Survivors Act, she can avail herself to the courts to finally seek justice.”

    The attorneys said they would not have additional comment.

    Combs' camp rejected the claims.

    “This last-minute lawsuit is an example of how a well-intentioned law can be turned on its head,” a spokesperson for Combs said. “Ms. Dickerson’s 32-year-old story is made up and not credible. Mr. Combs never assaulted her, and she implicates companies that did not exist. This is purely a money grab and nothing more.”

    Last week, Cassie, with whom Combs once had a romantic relationship, filed a $30 million lawsuit alleging Combs raped, sex-trafficked and abused her. The lawsuit was settled one day later for an undisclosed amount of money.

  4. George C. Wolfe cuts right to the chase when explaining why most people have never heard of Bayard Rustin, despite the fact that he was one of the most important figures in America's civil rights movement and organized the historic March on Washington in 1963 that spawned Martin Luther King Jr.'s famed "I Have a Dream" speech.

    "The reason why it's taken so long for Bayard's story to be told is in large part because he was gay," says Wolfe, who co-wrote and directed the rousing new biopic Rustin, premiering on Netflix this weekend. "And I think that's been a complicated reality for people to figure out how to embrace the poetic, monumental figures, and the complexity of who he was. So all the things that make him a brilliant character for a film, I think have been historically complicated."

    "He was in the shadows of history, and that's where the keepers of history decided he live," says Colman Domingo, who Wolfe cast as his lead after working with him on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and who is drawing early Oscar buzz for his tour de force portrayal. "Because of the civil rights movement, and the optics of Rustin, they thought he would be a distraction in many ways [because] he was an openly gay man. He was also many other things. He was a Quaker. He was an athlete. He was left-handed. He was a tenor. He played the lute…. He did many, many things, and that felt disruptive to the movement."

     
    Colman Domingo (left) plays Bayard Rustin (right) in Rustin. (Everett Collection, Getty Images)

    Domingo, 53, says he related to Rustin, who died in 1987 at the age of 75, in ways that are both public and private.

    "I think one [way] in particular is the fact that we are both openly gay men navigating this world and not wanting to marginalize ourselves just by who we sleep with, but to look at our thoughts and our ideas and what we believe in, what we're passionate about," the actor says. "Who I sleep with, that's just a footnote. But that shouldn't be central. I'm much more interesting than any of that stuff. You know what I mean? But I don't want to deny that part of me either. So I think we're very similar in that way. In terms of the man that I've been able to research and figure out… I think I found someone who was charismatic and a little messy and funny and weird and spirited and truly, he was very well beloved.

    There's a beautiful synchronicity to Rustin's casting. On one hand, you have its subject finally given the spotlight he's long deserved; on the other, there's the man playing him, Domingo, a veteran actor whose consistently potent performances in projects like Fear the Walking Dead, If Beale Street Could Talk, Euphoria, Zola and Ma Rainey have made him one of the most respected actors in the industry — but who has rarely been the lead.

    It's why Rustin feels like the role of a lifetime for Domingo.

    "I'll say yes," the actor says of the designation. "Because I think there's a connection to my soul and to what I care about, to what I think film could be, to what I think the world could be. It's purposeful. It's something you feel like you wait a long time in your career to get, and hopefully you get one opportunity. Hopefully you get one. Some people get a few, which is awesome. But if you can get one where you feel like, if I did this film and that's all I did, if that was it, if that was it for my career, I'd be good."

    Rustin is now playing in select theaters and premieres on Nov. 17 on Netflix.

  5. Warning: Minor Saltburn spoilers ahead.

    Emerald Fennell has a pretty simple explanation for how she generates stories, be it her Oscar-winning 2020 phenomenon Promising Young Woman or this week’s new comedic thriller, Saltburn.

    “They just creep into my mind,” the writer-director (and sometimes actress) told us during a recent virtual interview. “Oliver crept in and wouldn’t go away.”

    That’s a fitting way to describe her latest protagonist. Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is an outsider at the University of Oxford, a socially awkward student from a tough upbringing surrounded by the elite of the elite. But when he befriends the charismatic, ultra-wealthy Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) and nabs an invitation to spend the summer at Felix’s titular, sprawling English manor, Oliver develops an unhealthy obsession with his friend’s lifestyle… and is not going to go away very easily.

    Saltburn has drawn early comparisons to the 1999 Matt Damon- and Jude Law-starring twister The Talented Mr. Ripley, but Fennell cites other inspirations.

    “It’s a genre,” she says. “I love the sort of British, gothic country house [where] something happens in a summer that none of us could ever forget — The Go-Between and Atonement and all of those sorts of films. So I knew I wanted to make a film like that. … But I think also it makes a lot of sense that I was writing this film during COVID and it was a time when we couldn’t touch each other. We couldn’t do anything but look, and I think this is a film about what happens when you can’t touch the thing that you want.”

    And does her new movie tie in thematically to Promising Young Woman, the acclaimed #MeToo thriller starring Carrie Mulligan as a law student-turned-barista who plots revenge against those she blames for a friend’s suicide? Fennell says that’s for critics to decide.

    One connection is Mulligan herself, who makes a brief appearance as another parasitic friend of the aristocratic Felix family.

    Barry Keoghan in Saltburn. (MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection) (©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection)

    This time around, however, Fennell’s muse is Keoghan, the Oscar-nominated Banshees of Inisherin actor and Eternals hero who is once again drawing kudos for Saltburn.

    “The thing that I want to do is find the tender points and stick my fingers into them. That’s what I want to do. That’s what Barry wants to do,” Fennell says. “We have no interest in making stuff that’s not going to provoke some kind of visceral physical experience. That’s what a movie is. The thing that I always want to do is find the most interesting relationship there. And that’s kind of what Barry’s about, too. We just want to make stuff that makes you feel something. And so he’s remarkable.”

    What will likely be the film’s most-talked-about moment involves Keoghan’s Felix taking a long, naked frolic around the opulent Saltburn estate. The scene required nearly a dozen takes to complete, but it didn’t require any extra persuasion to get Keoghan to shed his clothes.

    “I never want to convince anyone of anything,” Fennell says. “For me, convincing an actor to do something is almost [like] trying to coerce someone into bed with you, or something that always feels a bit like seedy.

    “He’s only interested in doing the thing that feels super right. And so for him, when we were talking about that scene, he just completely understood because he understood what it should feel like for him and for the audience that it needs to feel it. … Post-coital, triumphant, gorgeous, insane, tragic, lonely, pathetic and hot. It’s got to be all of those things. And that’s what he does. And that’s why it’s exciting.”

    Saltburn is now playing.

    •  
    • ive years after A Star Is Born scored eight Oscar nominations, Bradley Cooper is back in the awards race with Netflix's Maestro his sophomore effort as a director-star, as well as his second movie set in the music world. This time, the actor plays a real-life music titan, Jewish American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, whose storied career included writing the music for West Side Story and wielding the baton at the New York Philharmonic.

    Netflix clearly has high hopes for Maestro's Oscar chances. The movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, followed by stops at the New York Film Festival and AFI Fest, with a theatrical release planned for Nov. 22 and a streaming premiere on Dec. 20. But Maestro's trip along the awards circuit has been trailed by controversy over Cooper's choice to wear a prominent prosthetic nose as Bernstein, which has stirred a long-simmering debate in Hollywood over "Jewface" — the term used to describe non-Jews being cast as Jewish characters, particularly when negative stereotypes are involved.

    For months, Cooper was unable to address the controversy directly due to the Screen Actors Guild strike. But the actor recently issued his first public comments during an interview on CBS Mornings Tuesday. "I thought, 'Maybe we don’t need to do it,'" Cooper said. "But it's all about balance, and, you know, my lips are nothing like Lenny's, and my chin. And so we had that, and it just didn't look right [without the prosthetic]."

    Here's what you need to know about the controversy ahead of Maestro's release.

    Bradley Cooper, portraying Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, conducts an orchestra.
     
    Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro. (Jason McDonald/Netflix) (Jason McDonald/Netflix)

    What is 'Jewface'?

    The term dates back to the age of music halls and vaudeville, but the practice of non-Jews wearing outrageous costumes to demean and insult Jews extends back centuries to medieval passion plays. Exaggerated noses — often made to look long and/or crooked — were central to those stereotypical portrayals. Vaudeville performers also layered on heavy European accents, all to emphasize and ridicule the otherness of Jews, just as blackface was used to demean African Americans.

    As vaudeville faded away and was replaced by Hollywood studios — many of which were created and run by Jewish executives — non-Jewish actors continued to be cast in Jewish roles. Think Charlton Heston as Moses in 1956's The Ten Commandments, Millie Perkins as Anne Frank in 1959's The Diary of Anne Frank or, more recently, Rachel Brosnahan in the Prime Video series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Cillian Murphy in the Christopher Nolan drama Oppenheimer.

    In 2021, comedian Sarah Silverman called that "long tradition" out on an episode of her podcast, specifically citing the casting of Kathryn Hahn in a planned Showtime series about legendary Jewish comedian Joan Rivers. (That series ended up not being made.)

    "One could argue, for instance, that a gentile playing Joan Rivers correctly would be doing what is actually called 'Jewface,'" Silverman said. "It's defined as when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with the Jewishness front and center, often with makeup or changing of features ― big fake nose, all the New York-y or Yiddish-y inflection. And in a time when the importance of representation is seen as so essential and so front and center, why does ours constantly get breached, even today in the thick of it?"

    When did the Maestro controversy start?

    Maestro started production in May 2022, several months after Silverman's comments. Netflix released a handful of on-set photos after a few days of shooting, and Cooper's prosthetic nose was noticed by several publications. But the conversation picked up in earnest when the first trailer premiered over a year later in August, and continued in the run-up to the film's world premiere at Venice.

    Critics of Cooper's decision included British actress Tracy-Ann Oberman, who wrote on Instagram: "If Bradley Cooper can't do it through the power or acting alone then don't cast him — get a Jewish actor." As others noted on social media sites like X, formerly known as Twitter, Jake Gyllenhaal, who is Jewish, was hoping to play Bernstein in a competing project that didn't move forward after Maestro actively entered production. Interestingly, Silverman appears in Maestro as Bernstein's sister, Shirley, but has yet to publicly discuss the film.

    What have Jewish organizations and Bernstein's children said about the film?

    Following the initial wave of controversy that followed the release of the trailer, Bernstein's three adult children — Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein — released a statement supporting the director and star. (Bernstein died in 1990.) "Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father," the statement reads, adding: "It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose."

     

    (1/6) From Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein:
    Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father. pic.twitter.com/y9xZWDotJe

    — Leonard Bernstein (@LennyBernstein) August 16, 2023

    Appearing at a press conference following a New York Film Festival screening attended by Yahoo Entertainment, Jamie Bernstein reiterated her praise for Cooper. "We felt like we were in unusually good hands," she noted, later adding: "Once we gave him permission to make the film ... he could have never consulted with us again. We saw so much being developed: He sent us pictures on his phone and showed us assemblies of footage. Seeing the final version ... was overwhelmingly thrilling and also very surreal."

    Meanwhile, Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League also defended Cooper. "Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in antisemitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large, hooked noses," the ADL said in its statement. "This film, which is a biopic on the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is not that."

    It's worth noting that Bernstein's religion plays only a small role in Maestro; in an early scene, it's suggested that the young composer would improve his career opportunities by changing his last name. And later on, he appears wearing a shirt with Hebrew letters, something he was known to do in real life. The film focuses more attention on his bisexuality and the complications that causes with his wife, Felicia Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan. Otherwise his Judaism isn't front and center — apart from Cooper's nose.

    Maestro premieres Nov. 22 in theaters and Dec. 20 on Netflix.

    Editor's note: This story was originally published on Oct. 25, 2023. It has been updated to include Cooper's comments.

  6. Disney is not lying when the studio bills its latest animated adventure, Wish, as being from the makers of Frozen.

    The new film is a veritable reunion of the key players responsible for the 2013 pop culture phenomenon and its 2019 sequel: Frozen writer and co-director Jennifer Lee is one of the writers of Wish (she also now happens to be the head of Disney Animation); co-director Chris Buck returns in the same role (this time tag-teaming with Fawn Veerasunthorn, who worked in Frozen’s art department); and lead producer Peter Del Vecho is back (here with Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster-Jones, who worked on development of Frozen II).

    After the massive success of two Frozen movies — a worldwide box-office tally of more than $2.7 billion, and one, possibly two more installments on the way — why wouldn’t Disney run it back with the same team?

    Inevitably, Wish, which follows a 17-year-old girl named Asha (Ariana DeBose) who rebels against the tyrannical wish-suppressing ruler (Chris Pine) of the Mediterranean Kingdom of Rojas, shares more in common with Frozen than its Arendelle-powered pedigree.

    “I think all the things that have mattered to us with Frozen, this big epic fairytale, strong heroine character, incredible music, those are the things that are goals for us,” Lee tells Yahoo Entertainment of the film, which was also inspired by the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney Studios and contains more than 100 Easter eggs and references to past Mouse House movies.

    “And what’s exciting about this movie though is it’s sort of a bridge, because there are a lot of folks [from] the Frozen team and in combination with a lot of new filmmakers and new songwriters [like] Julia Michaels, who is of a new generation, fresh and brilliant. ... So it’s not Frozen, it’s its own thing, but it is [similar] in the love and the playfulness of our spirit in it.”

    Illustration: Yahoo News; Photos: Everett Collection
     
    Illustration: Yahoo News; Photos: Everett Collection

    “I think the DNA is basically a love of Disney, a love of all the movies that we grew up on, all the great storytelling that Walt did that Walt was just a master at,” says Buck. “And I think that’s where Frozen came from. That’s where Wish comes from. So I think that’s in sort of the Disney DNA.”

    “They do have a similar energy,” adds DeBose, who won an Oscar in 2022 for West Side Story. “But the stories in and of themselves, I think stand in their own world, which is great. I mean, who knows if one of our songs will become the next ‘Let It Go.’ But I think the important part is that no matter how you want to deem success, this story to me, it’s just as epic as the story of Frozen, and you have every single element of Disney classics instilled in our film, and so that to me is very exciting.”

    Where Wish also very noticeably departs from Frozen is its characterization of the heroine, Asha. For years Disney has been grappling with how to balance the studio’s storied tradition introducing new “Disney princesses” (and all the marketing tie-ins, apparel, dolls, etc. that come with it) while simultaneously recognizing the conceit as increasingly antiquated.

    In recent years, Disney animators have been making females increasingly stronger and with more agency, no longer damsels in the distress but warriors willing to battle. Mulan, Merida (Brave) Moana and Raya (Raya and the Last Dragon) are not your grandmother’s Disney princess. Some, like Moana, even went out of their way to refuse the title.

    Asha (voiced by Ariana DeBose) encounters Star in Wish. (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
     
    Asha (voiced by Ariana DeBose) encounters Star in Wish. (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection) (©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection)

    And unlike Elsa and Anna, Asha is not royalty, the filmmakers will tell you, inherently clearing her of the princess moniker — even if she’s already being considered part of the sisterhood by fans.

    “What's interesting [is] if you look at the original fairy tales [many] were based on like Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, princess was a different concept,” Lee says. That was sort of the reward. And I think how we evolved is where you look at Frozen, to be the princesses put a lot of pressure on them, and to be a queen, you hold the responsibility. … That was part of why we made Anna and Elsa royal, because of the princess legacy, but because that put everything on them. With Asha, what I was really excited about was the ordinary hero’s journey, [and] still being up against extraordinary circumstances.”

    “She’s common and we think that makes her incredibly relatable,” says Del Vecho. “I think there’s parts of her we can all see ourselves in. Certainly our heroines have evolved over time. We’re trying to make these movies feel timely and timeless. So it both has to feel of the world that we live in, but also stand the test of time. And I think Asha does that.”

    Says DeBose: “I think Asha takes us into uncharted territory, which is really cool. It opens the door for a completely new chapter for Disney animation. … She starts out on what I think we would say is a traditional Disney path for princesses or heroines, and then she decidedly chooses her own path, and I think that’s what should be modeled for young people, don’t you?”

    Wish opens nationwide Nov. 22.

  7. <em>Periodical</em> features some familiar faces, including actress Naomi Watts and American soccer icon Megan Rapinoe. (Getty Images/Bianca Cline/Periodical)

     

     
     

    When Periodical director Lina Plioplyte set out to make a documentary about periods, she knew that having some star power would help. So she put together a list of the celebrities who'd ever spoken or posted about it, and she optimistically began reaching out.

    "No one replied to us. Absolutely no one," Piloplyte tells Yahoo Entertainment. "So we literally tried every way... 'My childhood friend who's now their stylist'... any way possible. And it took us a year and nothing was happening. They just do not get back to you. So, like, forget it."

    Then Megan Rapinoe came in for the save.

    "[She] was the first one we got," Piloplyte says, "and it was a freak, lucky accident, because someone sent me an article saying the U.S. soccer team won a World Cup and had tracked their periods… And I literally just emailed the football association out of the blue, by myself... a guy gets back to me two weeks later and says, 'It's your lucky day. Come to Dallas in two weeks.' Boom. Wow. OK."

    Rapinoe and her teammates had strategized to work with their cycles while training for the 2019 World Cup, which they won. They did this by, for example, "giving themselves more time to recover between workouts during the lower-energy phases," according to the New York Times. They tried to figure out if they needed more sleep or food or iron?

    "We try to do every single thing that we possibly can to be the best, and I think tracking our periods was a big part of that," Rapinoe says in the doc. "Any little gain that you can have puts you in a better position to win."

    Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Allie Long celebrate their win of the FIFA Women's World Cup on July 7, 2019 in Lyon, France. (Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images)
     
    Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Allie Long celebrate their win of the FIFA Women's World Cup on July 7, 2019 in Lyon, France. (Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

    She candidly explains in Periodical that her period is something that she thinks about regularly, rather than one week out of the month.

    The athlete's "yes" was one of what the director considered "nods from the universe" that she received while making the movie over four years. The project began out of curiosity: the story of periods, including how they happen, how they affect our lives and, perhaps most importantly, why everyone treats it as a taboo subject.

    'Who told us not to talk about it?'

    A uterus holds a glass of wine in the documentary. (Periodical)
     
    A uterus holds a glass of wine in the documentary. (Periodical)

    "Who told us not to talk about it? Where did this start?" Piloplyte says the filmmakers asked. "And so we started peeling layers in the film, and as well as in research. And, you know, once you start poking around the internet about menstruation, I started seeing that there is a movement actually. And there are women that are pushing for menstrual rights. There are women who are running marathons, free bleeding. There is a whole conversation about menstruation online. And this was 2016."

    She wanted recognizable faces like Rapinoe to ensure that the film was backed and, once it came out, seen.

    "So that really opened the doors for us to have Megan and to have the soccer team's story," she says, "which is a very important story."

    Celebrities including activist Gloria Steinem, Pen15 executive producer and star Anna Konkle and actress Naomi Watts eventually came on board, too.

    "We got the most silence, interestingly, from celebs," Piloplyte explains of the new MSNBC Films documentary. "It was literally the 11th hour that, through my wonderful journalist friend, we got a Naomi Watts contact."

    The timing was perfect for Watts, who was ready to share her story of early menopause — she began experiencing it at 36, though it often starts a decade or more later — as she launched Stripes, a beauty and wellness brand focused on menopausal symptoms.

    'What makes it difficult is the suffering alone'

    "I was just sick of keeping it secret," Watts, who's now 55, says in the film.

    She later reveals that, early on, she had joked about having "estrogen dips" in front of her friends, in the hopes that that would prompt them to volunteer their own experiences, but they didn't.

    "My friends were clearly either not there in that phase of their life or they weren't willing to talk about it," Watts adds. "What makes it difficult is the suffering alone and not knowing, waking up one day and not feeling yourself. You don't know whether that self is returning. You don't know if you're losing your mind. Suddenly the way someone turns their pages. Suddenly the way someone speaks. The perfume that they're wearing. You know, all of these things, your sensory overload is [high]. And then there's no one to talk to."

    In addition to celebrities, Periodical features activists, like Anusha Singh, who are campaigning to have the so-called "tampon tax" removed in the 21 states where it remains, arguing that products needed during periods are a necessity and should be treated as such. Activists earned a victory on that front in November 2021, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill exempting tampons, pads, menstrual cups and more from the state's six percent sales tax.

    Activist Anusha Singh advocates for elimination of the tampon tax. (Bianca Cline/Periodical)
     
    Activist Anusha Singh advocates for elimination of the tampon tax. (Bianca Cline/Periodical)

    Interspersed between these women's stories is information about how periods have been treated throughout history, which is, of course, dismal. In the vein of When Harry Met Sally, menstruators of all ages pop up to share their (sometimes hilarious) honest observances, wisdom and questions about periods.

    It's noted that, in just the past 20 years, we had the movie Superbad, in which Jonah Hill plays a character who's disgusted when he gets period blood on him from a girl he's dancing with, and former President Donald Trump saying derisively that journalist Megyn Kelly had "blood coming out of her wherever" when she questioned his treatment of women during a presidential debate.

    All of these factors — the uprising of a younger generation demanding that periods are talked about and treated differently than they have been, more women speaking out about their own experiences, a film like Periodical — seem to be leading to a world where periods are no longer a thing you dare not discuss. Take this summer, when clips of men using a period simulator — and experiencing serious pain from it — flooded the internet.

    Piloplyte found that fascinating.

    'Our bodies have a lot to tell us'

    "Thank God it went viral," she says, because people saw it. They saw how badly those men were in pain, as it dropped them to their knees. "I think, for me, what was beautiful is we had this rare moment where we could put men in our shoes, right? And that does not happen very often."

    In her next project, she plans to examine the opposite sex.

    "To really apply an empathetic and curious lens on everything that's happening with men's bodies," Piloplyte says. "Also, how patriarchy is not helping men to be free... because it's telling them what kind of square box they have to be living in to be masculine enough, manly enough."

    But first, she wants to make sure people first lay their eyes on Periodical, so they can better understand what's going on in their bodies.

    "It's like, 'Oh, our bodies have a lot to tell us. We just never were told to listen to it," she says. "We've been told to bandage it, you know, just stick a Band-Aid on it. Take a pill, kind of ignore the pain. Put yourself on contraception instead of [thinking] like, 'What's really happening there? Can I understand it better? That takes a much longer time, and that takes time to be with it and listening to it and being more uncomfortable with it."

    After all, knowledge is power.

    "That's what we've been saying in the film. The more you know about yourself, the more agency you have," Piloplyte says. "And I think that's what we really need in this country today."

    Periodical is currently streaming on Peacock.

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