It is a happy coincidence that our “What makes a good sex scene?” episode came out in the same week as Challengers, a film about a romance triangle in the tennis world starring Josh O’Connor, Zendaya and (not pictured) Mike Faist.

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It is a happy coincidence that our “What makes a good sex scene?” episode came out in the same week as Challengers, a film about a romance triangle in the tennis world starring Josh O’Connor, Zendaya and (not pictured) Mike Faist.

Niko Tavernise/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures

What makes a good sex scene? It can be easier spot bad sex, but Aisha Harris, Christina Tucker, Ronald Young, Jr. and I tried to focus on the good this week on Pop Culture Happy Hour. You can listen to our full conversation here. (We didn’t originally plan for this episode to run the same week as our episode about Challengers, which is out in theaters now, but it’s a happy coincidence, since that film has gotten a lot of attention — probably too much, relative to its other merits — for the sex scenes involving its three leads. It’s really very good.)

It’s often very obvious when a sex scene is bad, just like when a sex scene in a book is bad. It can get so uncomfortable to watch that you have to leave the room (and not in a way that feels true to the story). One of my personal tells for a bad sex scene is when all I can think about is how hard the actors are trying to persuade me that the characters are having a good time. For example, there has been much good discussion in recent years about Showgirls being a more interesting and competent project than it originally got credit for, but in that one pool scene (if you know it, you know it), all I can see is the effort.

It’s not always as clear which scenes are good. That’s partly because they serve so many different functions, all of which look different, and all of which can be effective. Furthermore, you don’t want to confuse whether a sex scene is used well in a film with whether it’s hot to you personally, despite the fact that there is overlap between those considerations.

Here’s what I mean: When Aisha talks about the sequence near the beginning of Magic Mike’s Last Dance, it’s not irrelevant that the scene is, to her (and to me), hot. But it also makes sense in the context of the film and the franchise, partly because of the way it sets up the power dynamic between Mike (Channing Tatum) and Max (Salma Hayek Pinault). Mike is older now, he knows more, and the way he approaches a lap dance is actually different than in earlier movies.

And not all good sex scenes are hot in the same ways. The one I mentioned in the episode, from the romantic drama Love & Basketball, is sexy, yes. But it’s also a scene between young adults (the talented basketball players Monica and Quincy, played by Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps), and as such, it incorporates a tentativeness that’s not present in Magic Mike’s Last Dance, to say the least. As Ronald pointed out during our discussion, that sex scene is quite different from one that takes place later in Monica and Quincy’s relationship, when they’re older and know each other better. That certainly feels true to real life, but it’s not always reflected in Hollywood films, where I would tentatively estimate that 90% of on-screen sex is more idealized and thus less intimate than real-life sex, in part because it isn’t allowed to change over the course of a relationship.

Even further from the hotness of the lap dance scene is Ronald’s pick: the imagination of Kitty Oppenheimer (Emily Blunt) running wild in Oppenheimer. While her husband (Cillian Murphy) is being interrogated, she pictures him having sex with his mistress, Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). It goes by quickly enough that it might seem like a Christopher Nolan flourish for flourish’s sake, but it serves the purpose of letting you feel her pain over her husband’s affair. Her relationship with Robert doesn’t look especially romantic in the film, let alone sexually charged; she finds herself consumed by the idea that he was having hot sex with this other woman, and she locks eyes with her vision of a naked Tatlock and finds herself tormented. It’s not really the intent of the scene to titillate the audience, just to give specificity to the shape of Kitty’s preoccupation with the affair.

Christina raised another really important point, which is that sex scenes also collide with viewers at very specific moments. Her example from Bound, and the scenes between Violet (Jennifer Tilly) and Corky (Gina Gershon), touches on (among other things) her own history. It’s an underappreciated aspect of the sex-in-movies discourse: representation matters in these scenes as much as anywhere else. I always wish I saw more sex scenes in movies that featured a broader variety of body types; it’s still really rare to see ones that feature anybody who is even average sized. This is one of the reasons I’m curious about the upcoming season of Bridgerton, which places its focus on the gorgeous and curvaceous Penelope (Nicola Coughlan).

Good sex scenes are like any other kind of good filmmaking, honestly: it comes down to execution with purpose and care, done relative to whatever the function of the scene might be.

Whether that’s spiciness or conflict or relationship growth or (as in the case of Bound) setting up a steamy neo-noir story that wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t hot as heck, form follows function, ideally.

This piece also appeared in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.

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Icelandic Chinese vocalist and songwriter Laufey (pronounced lāy-vāy) has an appreciation for life’s many wonders. It’s apparent in her music, which fuses the sounds of jazz and classical giants past with romantic storytelling, punctuated by a deep vibrato and modern-day references. And it’s apparent in her enthusiasm for her current hometown of Los Angeles. Though the 25-year-old alto has been around the world — growing up in Reykjavik, attending cello band camp in Beijing and bopping around Boston as a Berklee College of Music student — she was still struck by L.A. when her burgeoning music career brought her to West Hollywood in the summer of 2021

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

“I was just running around enjoying the sunny weather,” she said. “I was really so enamored by L.A. and couldn’t believe it was real. I still to this day feel like that.”

The TikTok-savvy songstress has since settled in, even referencing L.A.’s “weeping” mountains, and Sunset Boulevard in a collaboration with the Icelandic Philharmonic called “California and Me.” Her career reached new heights in February when her first album, “Bewitched,” won a Grammy in the best traditional pop vocal categories. (The “Goddess Edition” of that aforementioned album is out today.)

In the midst of her whirlwind recording industry success, Laufey’s appreciation for the city’s little joys hasn’t waned. Now situated in central L.A., her perfect day involves picking up Icelandic catch from her local fishmonger, relaxing with a good book by the beach, practicing Frederic Chopin’s children’s tunes as a form of meditation and spending more time on her phone than she cares to admit.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

8 a.m.: Rise and sip

I’m an early riser. Even on a Sunday. I love the day. I love running around and doing things and I don’t want to miss even an hour of it. So I usually wake up at around 8, maybe 9 on a Sunday. And I’ll immediately get coffee. There’s so many fun coffee shops. I love Maru, so I go to Maru a lot. I also really like Damo in K-town, they have really good matcha. [I’ll] sit and read, sit and journal, sit and call my parents. They’re in Iceland, so morning is the best time to call them.

11 a.m.: A taste of home

Then I like to go to the farmers market. I love the farmers markets in L.A. I think it’s one of the best things about L.A. And the produce is so fresh. I love the one in Larchmont because it’s just small and sweet. Larchmont Village is like my favorite place. And I love the one at Melrose Place as well. It’s a little fancier, it feels more like an event, almost. So I also like the Hollywood one, the Studio City one. I like changing it up and getting a different vibe from each neighborhood.

Jyan Issac Bread bakery has a rye bread — like a Danish rye bread — that I always have. Because it reminds me of the bread that I had in Iceland growing up. I toast it and I put butter on it.

I think the fruit and veg vendors at Larchmont are probably my favorite. And then they always have Icelandic fish, Nordic catch, at every single farmers market it seems. At least at Melrose, Hollywood and Larchmont they have Nordic catch: salmon, cod, everything. So I like to pick up fish there every Sunday as a little taste of home. Seeing that in L.A. is always so fun — these fishies were in Iceland recently. [Laughs]

1 p.m.: Little European treats

After that I like to grab a lunch, brunch. My eating is all over the place on a Sunday because I’ll basically just get little treats. Like whenever I have a coffee I’ll probably have a pastry. Or a matcha, I’ll have a pastry.

[For] lunch, Loupiotte Kitchen in Los Feliz is my favorite. It’s so cute and it feels almost like being in Paris. But it’s so fun because the weather’s really nice all year round. And the people — there’s always cute kids there. It feels very familial.

I like sitting outside. They have really good eggs. They make this egg scramble with crème fraîche that’s very French and very yummy. They have really good toasts as well. Avocado toast. They have a summer toast that has a ton of different veggies on it. They also have good pastries. And I like having a little orange juice as well.

I’ll usually be with a friend and just yap. I’ll end up talking until 3 p.m. or something. I’ve got to get it out of my system.

3 p.m.: Tuna and books pit stop

I love the Brentwood Country Mart. I stop there on the way to the beach. There’s a really nice bookstore there called Diesel that is one of my favorites in L.A..

I go to the Farm Shop, I get another coffee. I get coffee like three times a day. I like picking up there. Specifically they have a tuna salad that is so yummy, and you can put it on bread. So I’ll sometimes pick up bread, just like a loaf of bread at Farm Shop and get one of their tuna things — I’m literally making myself hungry right now — and spread it on at the beach.

3:30 p.m.: Long walks on the beach

I’ve been going to the beach. I’ll drive either to Malibu or just out to Santa Monica. And I’ll just walk on the beach.

I grew up near the ocean in Iceland. So the smell of salt, the smell of fish and ocean really reminds me of home. That’s why I love going to the beach so much. There’s something that just makes me feel like it’s all connected. It’s all the same ocean in a way. So I like that. I like looking at the birds, the scary seagulls. I just like to sit on the bench and look out, read, eat my bread and tuna.

I am reading “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig. And I’ve also been reading “The Shards” by Bret Easton Ellis. “Midnight Library” I just started, because it’s my book club read for the month. “The Shards” I’m really excited to read because I’ve heard there’s a connection between “The Shards” and “The Secret History,” which is a book by Donna Tartt, which is my favorite book ever. I’ve heard that there’s some common threads there, so I’m excited to discover those. But I always loved some kind of dark academic thing, which “The Shards” definitely is.

6 p.m.: Cooking with Nat King Cole

After that, I’ll return back and usually cook whatever I have from the farmers market that day. It’s more often than not fish, salmon. I love picking out any veggies that I haven’t used before, and then I just challenge myself to get home and figure out a recipe, or find a recipe. But anything super colorful I’m really drawn to, so if it’s like a really purple cauliflower, I’ll be like: “I’ve gotta figure that out tonight.”

My mother, she cooks a lot. And she’s taught me a lot of recipes. She’ll teach me by FaceTiming me. I’ll FaceTime her while I’m cooking. It’s so fun, it’s like a live cooking tutorial. All my recipes are hers.

I really like just cooking for myself, honestly. I do like cooking for others but pretty much only my twin sister because I’m scared that I’m going to disgust the people I cook for. My people-pleasing can’t handle hosting too many people at once. I play music. I love playing Nat King Cole. He lived in my neighborhood, so I feel extra connected to Nat King Cole.

8 p.m.: Chopin for the soul

I’ll practice cello, piano, guitar. [On] Sundays especially I like playing classical pieces. I don’t push myself too hard to write something new or original, I just pull out sheet music to pieces I played when I was younger, classical pieces, and it just always roots me. I think it’s the best way to end the week.

[I play] these little Chopin pieces. A lot of children’s music. Classical music that kids learn first, because it’s just very simple and meditative. And it’s not hard. And it’s oftentimes really beautiful melodies that are good for the soul.

9 p.m.: TikTok time

Realistically I’ll probably stay on my phone in bed or read or watch a TV show or something until like midnight.

I’ve been seeing a lot of these TikToks of this little Chinese boy making food. Like street food kind of? He’s making these really elaborate dishes outdoors on a plate and it’s so cute. He’s so good. He’s like a 3-year-old or something. And he’s so professional when he does it. And he always hands it to his grandpa or like the old person in the village.

There’s this older Japanese couple that posts their outfits together every day. Aki and Koichi. And they’re so chic. So I’ve been following that every day. And they do live in L.A. They’re so cool.

[I scroll on TikTikTok for] longer than I care to admit. [My screen time is] not great. But, you know, a lot of my job requires being on the phone. So I see it as work.

Midnight: A strict bedtime

I have a very regulated circadian rhythm that runs from midnight to 8 a.m., and if i don’t follow it, things get thrown off, I may not fall asleep. So I try to follow it very strictly.

Joanna Smith was sentenced today for defacing the case of Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer sculpture in 2023.

National Gallery of Art

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National Gallery of Art

Joanna Smith was sentenced today for defacing the case of Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer sculpture in 2023.

National Gallery of Art

A climate activist found guilty of one count of causing injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit last year for defacing the case around a sculpture by Edgar Degas at the Washington, D.C., museum was sentenced in federal court on Friday.

Joanna Smith, 54, of Brooklyn, N.Y., got 60 days of prison time out of a possible maximum sentence of five years for smearing red and black paint on the case surrounding Degas’ Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen on Apr. 27, 2023. The 1881 artwork is on permanent display at the museum.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered Smith to serve 24 months of supervised release and 150 hours of community service, of which 10 hours must involve cleaning graffiti. Smith must pay restitution for the damage to the Degas exhibit and is also barred from entering the District of Columbia and all museums and monuments for two years. (The plaintiff did not incur a monetary fine otherwise, though the maximum sentence could have included anything up to a $250,000 penalty.)

Smith undertook the action with North Carolina-based climate activist Tim Martin. They are members of the climate activism group Declare Emergency.

According to a statement from the D.C. United States Attorney’s Office, Smith and Martin specifically targeted the artwork.

“Smith and the co-conspirator passed through security undetected with paint secreted inside water bottles,” the statement said. “The duo approached the exhibit, removed the bottles from their bags, and began smearing paint on the case and base.”

The statement said the National Gallery had to remove the sculpture from public display for 10 days, and that gallery officials said it cost over $4,000 to repair the damage.

“On April 27, 2023, the protective sanctuary for this beloved girl [Degas’ “Little Dancer”] was battered. She is one of the most vulnerable and fragile works in our entire collection. I cannot overemphasize how the violent treatment of her protection barrier, repeated slamming, and vibrations, have forever jeopardized her stability,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art, in a statement to NPR. “With increased frequency, institutions – overwhelmingly non-profit museums for the public benefit – have suffered collateral damage at the hands of agendas that have nothing to do with museums or the art attacked. The real damage that these acts of vandalism pose must be taken seriously to deter future incidents that continue to threaten our cultural heritage and historic memory.”

“The ‘Little Dancer’ is a depiction of a vulnerable, 14-year-old girl who worked at the Paris Opera. Degas’ depiction of her is beautiful and has been viewed by millions, but the ‘Little Dancer’ seemingly disappeared after she posed for Degas,” said a statement on Declare Emergency’s Instagram page explaining the action at the museum last year. “Like the ‘Little Dancer,’ millions of little girls and boys won’t have a future because our leaders didn’t act decades ago when they should have and continue to drag their feet to stop the fossil fueled climate catastrophe that is engulfing us all.”

Smith and Martin were taken into custody following an indictment. They were charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit.

Smith pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington D.C., last December.

Martin’s jury trial case is scheduled for Aug. 26.

A cause célèbre

Popularly known as “The Degas Two,” Smith and Martin have become a cause célèbre in climate activism circles.

Colleagues from other climate groups have spoken out publicly about the case.

Last June, around 20 members of Extinction Rebellion NYC and Rise and Resist protested the charges against Martin and Smith at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Extinction Rebellion climate activist Lydia Woolley interrupted a Broadway performance last month, yelling, “Don’t forget about Joanna Smith. Don’t forget about Tim Martin. Don’t forget about the truth tellers. This play doesn’t end when you leave the theater.”

And more than 1,000 people signed a petition ahead of the sentence hearing urging judge Amy Berman Jackson to show leniency on Smith.

“Smith and Martin placed their hands in water-soluble paint and left their handprints on equipment supporting the Degas sculpture ‘Little Dancer,’ which portrays a child. They willingly allowed themselves to be arrested for this symbolic act of civil disobedience, which caused no harm to any person and did not result in the destruction or damage of any property,” the letter to Jackson accompanying the petition states. “The right to protest in the U.S. and the history of symbolic, nonviolent civil disobedience actions are well-documented. However, these charges and this case appear to disregard past precedents and respond to these recent acts in an excessively severe manner.”

Increasing penalties

Penalties against climate protest have been increasing over the past couple of years — and not just in the U.S.

Last year, for instance, two protesters from the climate activism group Just Stop Oil each received sentences of more than two-and-a-half years for scaling a bridge over the River Thames in southeast England, causing a public nuisance. (Both men ended up serving partial sentences — Morgan was released last December and Decker, this past February.)

And just this week, British physician Sarah Benn, who spent more than a month in jail after a series of climate protests, was suspended by a medical tribunal for misconduct.

In Germany, police launched raids against climate activists with the Letzte Generation (Last Generation) group last year. According to an article in The Washington Post from May 2023, seven suspects “were accused of organizing a fundraising campaign to finance criminal activities, advertising them on their website and collecting at least $1.5 million in donations so far.”

Broader implications

Some climate change activism experts are considering how the ratcheting up of penalties against protesters will impact the movement more broadly.

“It is putting people off for sure,” said James Özden, the founder of Social Change Lab, a nonprofit that researches climate activism and other social movements. “I think it’s meaningful that only a small number of people who are willing and able to take these kinds of risks are taking these kinds of actions.”

But Özden also said the severity of governmental pushback could potentially galvanize activists towards taking even more risks.

“Even though the sentences increase, so does people’s desire to actually do something about climate change and make a change and try help wherever they can. So I expect people will keep taking these actions because they don’t see a viable alternative,” he said.

Martin of “The Degas Two” said the inability of many people to grasp the severity of the climate change crisis is the biggest hurdle obstructing the momentum of the climate movement.

“Until the climate and social justice emergencies become more of a clear and present danger to Americans, we won’t have nearly the number of supporters we ought to have who are willing to risk arrest,” Martin said.

Jennifer Vanasco edited this story.