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‘From Scratch’ serves up one of this week’s tastiest new shows | CNN

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‘From Scratch’ serves up one of this week’s tastiest new shows | CNN

A model of this story appeared in Pop Life Chronicles, CNN’s weekly leisure e-newsletter. To get it in your inbox, join free right here.



CNN
 — 

The temperatures are beginning to dip, so, for me, it’s time for some consolation meals.

Curling up with one thing tasty to eat or drink undoubtedly sits higher with me than going out into the chilly.

And what’s hibernation with out some enjoyable and fascinating new leisure to devour?

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‘From Scratch’

I’ve been eagerly awaiting this new Netflix collection ever since my e book membership learn the memoir by Tembi Locke on which it’s based mostly.

It tells the story of Amahle “Amy” Wheeler (performed by Zoe Saldaña), who falls in love with a Sicilian chef whereas on a study-abroad program in Italy — so you recognize it’s a scrumptious story. However the pair face some challenges as a consequence of their totally different cultural backgrounds and a most cancers battle.

Regardless that I understand how all of it ends, I’m trying ahead to “From Scratch,” which is streaming now.

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‘The College for Good and Evil’

(From left) Kerry Washington as Professor Dovey and Charlize Theron as Lady Lesso in a scene from

Might it’s magic?

On this modern-day fairy story, based mostly on the younger grownup novel by Soman Chainani, two finest buddies discover themselves pitted in opposition to one another at an enchanted college the place younger heroes and villains are skilled to guard the steadiness of excellent and evil.

The movie is price it alone for Charlize Theron, enjoying the pinnacle of the College for Evil, and Kerry Washington whose character oversees the College for Good — although I don’t assume I ever imagined both of them in a mission fairly like this. (Different notable college members embody Michelle Yeoh and Laurence Fishburne.)

“The College for Good and Evil” is in choose theaters and streaming on Netflix.

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‘Chrissy’s Court docket’

Chrissy Teigen in a scene from

Mannequin, meals maven, DJ and decide. Is there something Chrissy Teigen can’t do?

You simply must go alongside for the trip with this small claims comedy present, through which Teigen guidelines over real-life disputes. There are many arbitration exhibits on the market, however this one is unquestionably in a courtroom of its personal.

Season 3 of “Chrissy’s Court docket” begins is streaming now on Roku.

Taylor Swift performs during the NSAI Nashville Songwriter Awards at the Ryman Auditorium on September 20 in Nashville, Tennessee.

New music from Taylor Swift is at all times a trigger for celebration — and often a lot of lyrical detective work.

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However this time round, we gained’t must guess as a lot about what Swift’s songs are about; she’s been sharing the tales behind a number of the tracks on her new album, “Midnights,” on social media.

These teasers have even included the “Midnights Manifest,” which provides an inside take a look at per week in Swift’s life and schedule surrounding the report’s launch. We might get used to you spoiling us like this, Tay!

“Midnights” is out now.

Meghan Trainor attends the Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 10, 2019.

Meghan Trainor’s life has modified fairly a bit since her breakout hit “All About That Bass” got here out in 2014.

The singer gave start to her first baby with husband Daryl Sabara in 2021. She lately advised Individuals journal she suffered a “traumatic” C-section, and detailed a well being scare she and Sabara subsequently confronted with their new child’s sleep habits.

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Trainor additionally advised EW she’s channeled all of it into her new album, “Takin’ It Again.”

“In earlier albums, there can be a easy love music or an ‘I’m going to be assured immediately’ music,” she mentioned. “These songs are like, ‘Y’all, I’m struggling. That is actual, however we’re all on this collectively. Who’s with me?’ It’s simply extra actual and uncooked.”

“Takin’ It Again” can be out now.

(From left) Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez attend the second annual Academy Museum of Motion Pictures gala party on October 15.

Can individuals please cease pitting Selena Gomez in opposition to Hailey Bieber?

The pair have been photographed trying like bffs at an Academy Museum of Movement Footage gala celebration in Los Angeles this previous weekend and social media went right into a tizzy.

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Followers of every girl have attacked the opposite on social media over time. That’s as a result of Gomez was infamously in an on-off relationship with Justin Bieber earlier than the singer started courting then-Hailey Baldwin. The latter couple have been married in 2018.

Hailey Bieber most lately tried to place to relaxation hypothesis that she had “stolen” her husband from Gomez throughout a podcast look. Gomez, in the meantime, appeared to name for individuals to go simple on Mrs. Bieber after the interview aired.

Fingers crossed their latest present of unity stops people from feeling like they’ve to decide on sides.

(From left) Selma Blair and her dance partner, Sasha Farber, perform on an episode of

Selma Blair taught the world a precious lesson this week.

The actress, who has a number of sclerosis, withdrew from this season of “Dancing With the Stars” after the competitors proved an excessive amount of for her physique.

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Whereas she did effectively on the long-running actuality competitors, I applaud Blair for exhibiting that it’s okay to step again from one thing that simply isn’t working for you.

By prioritizing her well being — even over collaborating in a present she clearly liked being part of — Blair continues to set a robust instance. Generally it’s simply as courageous to stroll away as it’s to point out up.

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Movie Reviews

The Last Republican movie review (2024) | Roger Ebert

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The Last Republican movie review (2024) | Roger Ebert

The documentary “The Last Republican” follows the final months in office of Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who represented two districts in Illinois over the span of 12 years. Kinzinger was one of a handful of Republicans who stood against President Donald Trump, refusing to support him in 2016, then going after him more straightforwardly after Trump lost the election of 2020 and tried to overturn the results by inciting a mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, causing multiple deaths. Unlike other Republicans, including then-Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, Kinzinger never walked back or even softened his position on Trump’s role in Jan. 6 in order to help position Trump for re-election and stay close to the party’s power center. Kinzinger instead made his opposition to Trump the defining part of his identity.

He started a podcast titled “Country First Conversations”” and a political action committee to fund anti-Trump candidates and later supported President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris for president and spoke at the Democratic convention. After voting against Trump’s first impeachment, Kinzinger voted for his second impeachment and later said he regretted not voting for the first one.

He also became one of 35 Republicans to support the formation of a committee to investigate the attacks on the Capitol and served on the committee himself. There’s grimly funny segment showing House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, announcing that Kinzinger was going to serve on the Jan. 6 committee before actually asking him, and a snippet of McCarthy casually referring to Kinzinger and another Trump critic, Wyoming Republican senator Liz Cheney, as “Pelosi Republicans.” When Cheney lost her primary in Wyoming to her former advisor Harriet Hageman—who briefly opposed Trump, then supported him again—Kinzinger accused conservative pastors of “failing their congregations” by encouraging support for Trump. He is now a CNN commentator.

The title telegraphs the point-of-view of the movie’s director, Steve Pink (“Gross Pointe Blank”). Pink is progressive who disagrees with most of what Kinzinger stands for politically (the movie opens with Kinzinger baiting Pink by calling him a “communist”). Pink positions Kinzinger as one of the last true or real Republicans, primarily because Kinzinger consistently advocated for the rule of law where Trump was concerned and, in Kinzinger’s words, put “country over party.”

This is, of course, a questionable framing, good for branding and sparking arguments on podcasts but not much else. There are plenty other examples of Republicans positioning themselves above the law at various points in the last 50 years, and it’s not as if Democrats have a spotless record in that regard either. In any given era of American history, the “true” Republicans are whichever ones define the identity of the party, and at this particular juncture, it’s not people like Kinzinger.

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“The Last Republican” also mostly elides Kinzinger’s positions on various issues, seemingly to make him more palatable here as a Capra-esque hero who is exclusively defined by standing up to corruption, and against a politician that the filmmaker also opposes. (Kinzinger had a much more progressive record on anti-discrimination legislation than most Republicans, but still voted with Trump 90% of the time, blamed China for spreading COVID, and voted in 2017 to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act.)

This is not to say that Kinzinger’s opposition to Trump isn’t evidence of integrity and a willingness to sacrifice power for principle. That’s plainly the case, and it’s driven home in a scene where Kinzinger and his wife Sofia Boza-Holman sit on a couch in their house cradling their newborn son while watching the House vote to censure Kinzinger and Cheney for serving on the Jan. 6 committee. But there’s a more nuanced movie that could’ve been made covering the same period in Kinzinger’s life, one that took fuller measure of the ancient proverb “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”—though, to be fair, the very end of the movie humorously acknowledges what strange allies Pink and Kinzinger are, at least as far as this project is concerned.

The movie also gives a strong sense of Kinzinger as a person walking against the winds of change and dealing with tendencies in the American character that elude party definitions. “Everybody’s self-centered,” he tells Pink. “That’s the fight now of my next part of life, fighting against that cynicism.”

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Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari drops defamation lawsuit against the actor

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Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari drops defamation lawsuit against the actor

Jonathan Majors and ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari are moving forward from yet another legal battle, nearly a year after the former Marvel star’s high-profile assault and harassment criminal trial last winter.

“Creed III” actor Majors and movement coach Jabbari mutually agreed Thursday to dismiss the latter’s civil lawsuit that accuses her ex-boyfriend of battery, assault and defamation. According to court documents reviewed by The Times, the two parties entered a “stipulation of voluntary dismissal” that did away with Jabbari’s suit with prejudice — meaning that she cannot refile the same complaint in New York federal court.

Jabbari filed her lawsuit in March. The complaint had also accused Majors of intentional infliction of emotional distress and malicious prosecution. Jabbari’s lawsuit was a result of Majors’ alleged “pattern of pervasive domestic abuse that began in 2021 and extended through 2023,” legal documents said. The lawsuit echoed allegations that were central to the “Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania” star’s domestic violence criminal case.

Majors was convicted last December of assault and harassment but also acquitted of an additional assault charge and aggravated harassment. Moments after the verdict, Marvel swiftly fired the “Last Black Man in San Francisco” breakout — another major blow to his professional career.

Majors’ then-attorney Priya Chaudhry, in response to Jabbari’s civil suit, told The Times in March that the complaint came as “no surprise.” In April, a New York judge decided that Majors would not serve jail time and ordered the actor to complete a 52-week in-person batterer’s intervention program and continue with his mental health therapy.

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Jabbari’s attorney Brittany Howard on Friday praised her client for her “tremendous courage,” adding in a statement to The Times that the case “has been favorably settled.”

“We hope that [Jabbari] can finally put this chapter behind her and move forward with her head held high,” Howard added.

A legal representative for Majors did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

Since his sentencing, Majors has kept a relatively low public profile — weighing in on Marvel’s newest chapter in brief paparazzi exchanges and occasionally appearing alongside actor Meagan Good at Hollywood events.

Days before agreeing with Jabbari to dismiss her civil case, Majors and Good revealed they are engaged. They announced their betrothal Sunday at Ebony’s Power 100 Gala. “We met here two years ago,” Majors told E! News.

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Good, the “Divorce in the Black” star who accompanied Majors during his New York trial last year, said he made two proposals and she was “very shocked and it was wonderful.”

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Wicked movie review: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande waltz into our hearts in this gravity-defying extravaganza 

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Wicked movie review: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande waltz into our hearts in this gravity-defying extravaganza 

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film ‘Wicked’
| Photo Credit: UNIVERSAL PICTURES

She did not eat grass as a child nor is she seasick, insists the green-skinned Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) in Wicked, the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical which in turn was inspired by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, ‘Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’.

After Maleficent, which looked at the Sleeping Beauty story from the antagonist’s point of view, here is another revisionist look at the famous wicked witch from the other side of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’.

For those who came in late (like in all those Phantom comics), director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) provides a précis of events where Dorothy liquefied the Wicked Witch of the West and went home to Kansas down the Yellow Brick Road with her dog Toto, The Cowardly Lion, The Tin Man and The Scarecrow. As the people of Oz celebrate the death of the Wicked Witch, the Good Witch, Glinda (Ariana Grande), joins in.

When one of the good people of Oz asks her about the Wicked Witch, Glinda admits to knowing her and it is time for a flashback. Elphaba was the daughter of the Governor of Munchkinland, Thropp (Andy Nyman). The colour of her skin, thanks to her naughty mum (Courtney-Mae Briggs), meant Elphaba was always rejected and made fun of by those around her.

Wicked 

Director: Jon M. Chu

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Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum

Runtime: 160 minutes

Storyline: The story of how a misunderstood little green girl became the all-powerful Wicked Witch of the West

She feels responsible for her paraplegic younger sister, Nessarose’s (Marissa Bode) condition too. When she comes with her father to drop Nessarose at the stately Shiz University in Oz, her father insists she stay to see Nessarose is properly settled in. The Dean of Sorcery, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), sees Elphaba’s power and proposes to teach her to control her magic. Glinda or Galinda as she is known then, is pretty, pink and popular. While she wants to study sorcery under Madame Morrible, she is not prepared to have Elphaba as a roommate as suggested by Morrible.

Despite the initial hiccups, the two very different girls become friends, bonding over a wild party at the Ozdust Ballroom. Elphaba is sensitive to the undercurrents at Oz including the fact that animals are being excluded and losing their voice as the history professor, a goat named Doctor Dillamond (Peter Dinklage) reveals. The campus is in a tizzy when the handsome and determinedly shallow Winkie prince, Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey) joins Shiz. Though Elphaba dreams of meeting and impressing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), so that she can ask him to change her skin colour when she finally does meet him, that is not what she asks for.

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Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film ‘Wicked’

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film ‘Wicked’
| Photo Credit:
GILES KEYTE

Wicked works wonderfully well on so many levels. It is a study of what makes people do the things they do, or think the way they do. It is a look at what is considered normal and what creates a villain, all the while celebrating the joys and tears of being different.

Wicked is a musical, with gloriously choreographed songs and an action film with breathtaking stunts. The sets, physical and CGI, are eye-popping, especially the library with its books (rare and medium rare as Glinda helpfully points out) stacked in gigantic wheels — wish Fiyero did not step on books though. The girls’ room, the Ozdust Ballroom, the Emerald City, the weird and wonderful train that takes Glinda and Elphaba to Emerald City, and many more, are all glorious sonnets to the imagination.

Erivo and Grande own their roles, singing, dancing and dueling with gusto while Bailey is delightful as the callow, charming Prince. Yeoh is grandly inscrutable and there is special joy in watching Goldblum do a jig. The 160 minutes of Wicked slip by in a Technicolor flash and the fact that there is Part II, coming out in 2025 puts a jolly song in one’s heart.

Wicked is currently running in theatres

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