Arts

Patty Jenkins will return to direct the 2019 sequel to this year’s hit superhero movie “Wonder Woman,” film trade publications said on Monday, after she became the highest-grossing female director in Hollywood history.

Jenkins, 46, will once again direct Israeli actress Gal Gadot as the titular superhero in “Wonder Woman 2,” scheduled for release on Dec. 13, 2019, publications including Variety and Hollywood Reporter said.

Movie studio Warner Bros did not comment on the news and has not given any further details on the sequel.

“Wonder Woman,” was the first standalone movie to star a female superhero since 2005’s box office dud “Elektra,” and the first to be directed by a woman.

It rode to the top of the box office in June on a wave of good reviews and female empowerment, and with $816.4 million at the worldwide box office, it is now the second-biggest movie of the year after the live action version of “Beauty and the Beast.”

Jenkins overtook Phyllida Lloyd, who directed 2008’s musical “Mamma Mia!,” for the title of highest-grossing female director.

Gadot’s Wonder Woman will next be seen in November’s superhero ensemble movie “Justice League,” alongside Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman.

“Wonder Woman,” the fourth film in Warner Bros’ current iteration of DC Comics’ cinematic franchise, helped boost profits for Warner Bros.’ parent company Time Warner Inc.
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President John F. Kennedy’s granddaughter and Caroline Kennedy’s daughter Tatiana Schlossberg has gotten married at the family’s Martha’s Vineyard home.

The New York Times reports the 27-year-old Schlossberg married 28-year-old George Moran on Saturday with former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick officiating. The couple met in college at Yale. Schlossberg was an environmental reporter for the Times until July. Moran is a medical student at Columbia University.

Schlossberg is Caroline Kennedy’s second child. She has an older sister, Rose, and a younger brother, Jack. They are President Kennedy’s only grandchildren. He was assassinated just before Caroline Kennedy’s sixth birthday in November 1963.

Kennedy served as ambassador to Japan under former President Barack Obama until earlier this year.
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Cardi B. has a breakthrough hit with “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” and the rapper said she’s ready to follow the single’s success with an album next month.

 

“I have an album coming. It will be dropping in October. I’m an October baby,” Cardi B., who turns 25 on Oct. 11, said in a recent interview. “I’m a little nervous to put the project out, but I think it’s going to be pretty good.”

 

Cardi B. said she’s nervous because there’s “a lot of pressure on” her after the success of “Bodak Yellow,” which is currently No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, just under Taylor Swift’s comeback hit “Look What You Made Me Do” and the year’s biggest smash, Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito.”

 

“Everybody’s waiting to see what I’m going to have next and it’s like, ‘…I hope people love it,’ ” she added. “But I have confidence. I really do.”

 

“Bodak Yellow” has become a No. 1 hit on both the R&B and rap charts, and is one of the year’s most streamed songs. The New York-born rapper, who first gained attention on Instagram, appeared on the VH1 reality show “Love & Hip Hop” before the song’s massive success. The song has helped her become one of the few solo female acts to launch a major hit on the pop charts, which has recently been dominated by male performers for the last two years.

 

“It feels amazing and it’s overwhelming. It’s like, it fills me up with lot of happiness and a lot of joy,” she said. “It’s just like unbelievable. I’ve been through so many things and I worked so hard for me to be here, and it’s like I’m finally here getting what I wanted, (and getting) the respect from other artists and from everybody.”

 

One of those artists is Beyonce.

 

“I’m surprised Beyonce liked me,” Cardi B. squealed. “I met Beyonce!”

 

“It’s like, ‘Oh my God!’ That’s how it feels like. I can’t talk, I can’t breathe,” she added.

 

When asked what female rappers she’d like to work with, Cardi B. said: “Well, all of them.” She listed Lil Kim, Trina and Remy Ma as some of her idols.

 

Cardi B. said she’s been finding time to treat herself in between studio recordings, concerts and photo shoots.

 

“The first splurge that I did I bought like an $80,000 watch but that’s because I’m a rapper. I need jewelry,” she said, laughing.

 

 
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Renowned French-Lebanese film director Ziad Doueiri appeared before a military court in Beirut Monday to face questions about his role in a past movie project in neighboring Israel. Lebanon bans its citizens from travel to Israel or having business dealings with Israelis as the two nations are in a state of war.

Doueiri was briefly detained at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri airport late Sunday and his passports confiscated after arriving in Lebanon to promote a new movie that received critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival recently.  Following his release, Doueiri’s lawyer reportedly told media assembled outside the court that Doueiri had been freed following several hours of investigation and given back his travel documents.

At issue was the earlier film, The Attack, which was released in 2012.  The Attack, about a suicide bombing in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, was filmed in part in Israel and banned in Lebanon.

Profoundly hurt

In a statement to the French news agency before his appearance in court, Doueiri said, “I am profoundly hurt.  I came back to Lebanon with a prize from Venice.  The Lebanese police have authorized the broadcast of my film (The Insult).  I have no idea who is responsible for what has happened.”

Doueiri had flown from the Venice Film Festival, where The Insult, his fourth film, had won the Coppa Volpi best actor prize for Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha.  The Insult is set in Beirut and focuses on the escalation of a minor argument between a Palestinian refugee and a Lebanese Christian.

Doueiri was offered the support of Lebanon’s culture minister, Ghattas Khoury, following the brief detention.  “Ziad Doueiri is a great Lebanese director and that has been honored across the world,” Khoury tweeted, before adding, “Respecting and honoring him is a duty.”

Doueiri, however, angered many Lebanese when the earlier movie, The Attack, was released.

Unpredictable approach

According to Ayman Mhanna, director of Lebanon-based free speech NGO SKeyes, Doueiri’s appearance in court was symptomatic of an unpredictable approach within the government regarding the director’s time in Israel.

Although Mhanna “did not question” the laws preventing Lebanese visits to Israel, he told VOA that Doueiri had visited Lebanon numerous times without repercussion.

The government’s response was “chaotic” and “destabilizing,” he added, with one part of it endorsing Doueiri and another seeking to detain him. Mhanna noted that the Ministry of Culture recently backed Doueiri’s latest film, The Insult, to represent Lebanon in the foreign film category at next year’s Academy Awards in the United States.

Meanwhile, the trying of civilians in military courts has also attracted criticism.

A report by Human Rights Watch earlier this year highlighted the use of such courts to try civilians involved in protests against the Lebanese government’s handling of the country’s waste crisis.

Bassam Khawaja, of Human Rights Watch, told VOA, “Regardless of detentions being brought, Doueiri should not be tried in a military court.

“Unfortunately military courts are still used in Lebanon to try civilians on a broad range of charges, in violation of their due process rights and international law.

“These trials largely take place behind closed doors, with limited grounds for appeal, and it is difficult to see how he would get a fair trial there.”

Long history

There is a a long history of perceived moments of Israeli acknowledgment or collaboration drawing swift rebuke in Lebanon, which was first invaded by its southern neighbor in 1978.

In May, global box office hit Wonder Woman was barred from Lebanese theaters because it starred former Israeli army soldier Gal Gadot.  Last month, Swedish-Lebanese dual citizen Amanda Hanna was stripped of her title Miss Lebanon Emigrant after those behind the event discovered she had visited Israel using her Swedish passport in 2016.

Doueiri is one of the most acclaimed Lebanese directors of his generation.  He first made a name for himself with Lebanese civil war classic West Beirut, which was released in 1998.

He began his career as first camera assistant for Quentin Tarantino on the director’s films Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown.
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Kristen Bell says she’s “singing in a hurricane” while riding out Irma in Florida.

 

The “Frozen” star is in Orlando filming a movie and staying at a hotel at the Walt Disney World resort. She stopped by an Orlando middle school that was serving as a shelter and belted out songs from “Frozen.” Back at the hotel, Bell posted pictures on Instagram of her singing with one guest and dining with a group of seniors .

 

Bell also helped out the parents of “Frozen” co-star Josh Gad by securing them a room at the hotel .

 

Bell tells Sacramento, California, station KMAX-TV, where her father is news director, that the experience is her version of one of her favorite movies, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

 

 
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Rebel super-hacker Lisbeth Salander is back in the fifth book in the Millennium series, this time battling neo-Nazi prison gangs and honor killings as well as trying to uncover the secrets about her troubled childhood.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye is the long-awaited return of Salander, the small but combative computer wizard and hobby quantum physicist, that was introduced to readers in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, published in 2005.

The best-selling series, which made the “Nordic Noir” genre of gritty Scandinavian crime novels popular globally, was created by author and reporter Stieg Larsson who had completed the first three novels before he died in a heart attack in 2004.

Author David Lagercrantz was commissioned to write a fourth novel, published in 2015, and this time around he delves deeper into the mystery of her childhood where she often witnessed her mother being abused by her father.

“The big question is, of course, why does Lisbeth Salander have a big dragon tattoo on her back, and you can be sure that a girl like her wouldn’t [get] a dragon tattoo without a very good reason,” Lagercrantz said.

“I had to find something, you know, that was really heavy and mythical, and when I did, I sort of had a story. I’ve added more darkness to Lisbeth Salander.”

The book, which was released Thursday, also draws inspiration from issues Sweden has grappled with in recent years, such as a resurgent far-right movement and honor killings — both fiercely debated topics in the Nordic country.

“Sweden is now changing so quickly and that is something I have to deal with as well,” Lagercrantz said.

Sweden was shocked after members of a neo-Nazi cell conducted a string of bombings in the city of Gothenburg around the turn of the year, while the far-right Nordic Resistance Movement has stepped up its activity.

As a reporter, Larsson devoted much of his life to investigating Sweden’s far-right movement. In 1995, he co-founded the anti-Fascist magazine Expo and worked there until his death.

“That was the core of Stieg Larsson, to fight intolerance, racism and Fascism,” said Lagercrantz.

Honor killings have also been on the agenda. A recent report by Swedish public service radio showed 10 of the 105 murders in Sweden last year were honor killings. The government has launched an investigation and said it is reviewing relevant legislation.

The original three books have been translated into 50 languages and sold more than 80 million copies while the fourth sequel, the first penned by Lagercrantz, has sold 6 million.
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The kind of breakthrough performance where it’s immediately apparent that an actor is going to be a star for years to come is a rarity in movies. Think of Emma Stone in “Easy A” or Jessica Chastain in “The Tree of Life.”

 

But that kind of thunderbolt moment is striking now for 21-year-old Timothee Chalamet, a New Yorker with the talent to speak multiple languages, play numerous instruments and take the festival circuit by storm with a handful of performances  — including one assured of ranking among the finest performances of the year.

 

The Toronto International Film Festival has been a coming out party for Chalamet, who has three films at the festival. He stars in Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age, coming-out tale “Call Me By Your Name,” he’s a supporting player in Greta Gerwig’s equally lauded coming-of-age tale “Lady Bird,” and he co-stars in the Christian Bale-led Western “Hostiles.” A Cape Cod thriller in which he stars, “Hot Summer Nights,” was also acquired here by A24.

 

But the headliner is his performance in “Call Me By Your Name,” which Sony Pictures Classics will release Nov. 24. In the film, adapted by James Ivory from André Aciman’s novel, Chalamet plays Elio, a headstrong 17-year-old living with his parents in 1980s northern Italy. When a handsome academic (Armie Hammer) comes to stay with them, Elio has a self-discovery that mingles love with art, language and natural beauty.

 

In the film, he plays piano and guitar, speaks fluent French and Italian, and indelibly captures the experience of first love. The film and its cast are considered likely Academy Awards contenders, partly because of Chalamet’s uncommon poise and wide-ranging intelligence in a deeply sensual movie.

 

“It feels like a real seminal moment,” said Chalamet in an interview. “I feel like the luckiest guy in the world that I get to share it with Luca and Armie and Michaels Stuhlbarg. I’m obviously very young and I’ve had a short career, but I’ve never been a part of anything like this.”

 

“He’s being excessively humble,” Hammer cuts in. “He’s the man of the year here at TIFF and we’re just riding his coattails.”

 

Though the two are separated by a decade in age and experience, they’ve become close friends, drawn closer by the intimacy of making “Call Me By Your Name” in the meadows, cafes and villas of Crema, Italy, where Guadagnino lives.

“He’s a very difficult dude to hate,” Hammer said.

 

What Chalamet lacks in vanity, those around him make up for in their praise for him.

 

“Not to sound pompous, but the guy is kind of a genius,” said Guadagnino, the Italian filmmaker of “I Am Love.” “He has a capacity for understanding human nature instinctively that’s astonishing. It’s also naive in a way, because he’s young, but also very focused. The cinema is at its best when it can present a new personality in the world.”

Chalamet doesn’t come out of nowhere. He’s appeared on stage, earning a Drama League Award nomination for John Patrick Stanley’s “Prodigal Son.” He was a regular on “Homeland” and played smaller roles in films like Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” and Jason Reitman’s “Men, Women and Children” — his screen debut.

 

“I have been working for a number of years,” says Chalamet. “I just graduated from theater high school in New York. I went to LaGuardia so I’m very close to the reality that lot of actors work rarely.”

 

Chalamet’s mother was a Broadway dancer and his French father works for UNICEF. He credits them for pushing him into piano lessons and taking him on trips to France.

 

He recently shot a father-son drama, “Beautiful Boy,” in which he plays a methamphetamine-addicted son to Steve Carell. After making “Call Me By Your Name,” he shot his scenes for “Lady Bird,” in which he plays the alluring love interest of Saorsie Ronan’s high-school senior.

 

“To have those films back-to-back, and they contrast so heavily, it helps you understand filmmaking,” said Chalamet. “There’s the truth to every moment that you have to bring to every scene, but you have to understand the tonality the film before you begin, which isn’t something that’s instinctual to me.”

 

Chalamet will have plenty of practice to get accustom to that adjustment. He’s also to star in Woody Allen’s next, untitled film. But whatever lies ahead for Chalamet, making “Call Me By Your Name” will remain an experience he long treasures.

 

“I miss the sense of belonging somewhere,” he says. “I miss the sense of belonging on a film as much as I did on ‘Call Me By Your Name.”’
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Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, a dark fairy tale in which a mute cleaning lady falls in love with an aquatic creature, won the Golden Lion award for best film at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

The film beat contenders including George Clooney’s Suburbicon and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing at the end of a 10-day, high-quality and star-studded movie marathon that critics said showed Venice was now on an equal footing with the widely revered Cannes film festival.

“As a Mexican, I want to say this is a first for a Mexican storyteller, so I want to dedicate and give the prize to every young Mexican filmmaker or Latin American filmmaker that is dreaming to do something in the fantastic genre, as a fairy tale, as a parable, and is faced with a lot of people saying it can’t be done. It can,” del Toro said.

The runner-up Grand Jury prize went to family tragedy Foxtrot by Israel’s Samuel Maoz, while France’s Xavier Legrand was picked as best director for his divorce drama Jusqu’a la Garde (Custody).

Charlotte Rampling received the best actress award for her performance in Italian film Hannah, while Palestinian Kamel El Basha took the best actor prize for his role in The Insult.

The award ceremony brought down the curtain on the Venice festival, the world’s oldest, which is seen as a launching pad for the industry’s awards season.

Moviemakers will be hoping for a replay of the success of films such as musical La La Land, clergy sex-abuse drama Spotlight, space movie Gravity and backstage comedy Birdman, which all won Academy Awards after premiering in Venice.

‘Incredible day’

“This is an incredible day for Mexican film, for Mexican storytellers. The three amigos have now conquered the Lido, with Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity) and Alejandro Inarritu (Birdman) both going on to Oscar gold after dominating Venice,” said Ariston Anderson, a film critic at Hollywood Reporter.

“While there’s no sure bet at this stage, there couldn’t be a better start for del Toro’s road to Oscar gold. And it will be very interesting to see what happens in March at the Academy Awards if he can continue the trend of Venice picking Oscar winners,” she said.

The big disappointment of the night was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, starring Frances McDormand, which won only the award for best screenplay. The film, a portrayal of vengeance in small-town America, was acclaimed by critics in Venice as a prime Oscar contender.

For all the quality of the Venice film fest, this year in its 74th edition, critics said there was no clear outstanding movie.

“My thoughts after having viewed the lineup are the same — a lot of strong Oscar contenders but no clear-cut winner, unfortunately, as we had in previous years at the festival,” Anderson said.

Still, she said Venice — which not too long ago was seen as being doomed in the face of strong competition from Cannes and Toronto — had once again shown its appeal.

“Because of recent successes, we’re seeing more big studio films shift over to Venice for their international launches, so it will be interesting to see if this trend will continue over the next few years.”
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Country music singer Don Williams, one of the biggest stars of the 1970s and 1980s, died on Friday at the age of 78, his publicist said.

Williams, known as “the Gentle Giant” because of his 6-foot, 1-inch frame, mellow voice and low-key profile, had hits with Tulsa Time, I Believe in You and It Must Be Love over the course of a 50-year career.

He died on the same day as Troy Gentry, one half of the country music duo Montgomery Gentry, who was killed in a helicopter crash in New Jersey.

“2 legends lost at once. Troy Gentry and Don Williams will be missed so much. Praying for their families and may they rest in peace,” country-pop band Big & Rich wrote on Twitter.

The statement announcing his passing said Williams died of an undisclosed illness but gave no further details.

Williams was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010 and released his last studio album, “Reflections,” in 2014.

Two years later, he announced his retirement from touring, saying it was “time to hang up my hat and enjoy some quiet time at home.”

Williams was a big influence on other musicians, spanning country to rock. Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend were among those who have recorded his music.

In 2016, a tribute album, “Gentle Giants: The Songs of Don Williams,” was released featuring performances by Alison Krauss, Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks and many others.
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Troy Gentry, one half of the award-winning country music duo Montgomery Gentry, died Friday in a helicopter crash just hours before a concert, according to a statement from the band’s website. He was 50.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the helicopter crashed into a wooded area near the Flying W Airport in Medford hours before Montgomery Gentry was due to perform at a resort that is also housed at the airport.

The band’s website called Gentry’s death “tragic” and said details of the crash are unknown.

“Troy Gentry’s family wishes to acknowledge all of the kind thoughts and prayers, and asks for privacy at this time,” the website said.

Medford Township Police Chief Richard Meder told NJ.com that police got a call at around 1 p.m. about a helicopter that was “distressed.”

He said crews were able to remove the passenger from the wreckage, but he died on the way to a hospital. The pilot died at the scene and crews were working to remove his body, Meder said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Gentry was the pilot or the passenger.

Gentry was born on April 5, 1967, in Lexington, Kentucky, where he met bandmate Eddie Montgomery and formed a group based off their last names.

Montgomery Gentry had success on the country charts and country radio in the 2000s, scoring No. 1 hits with Roll With Me, Back When I Knew It All, Lucky Man, Something to Be Proud Of and If You Ever Stop Loving Me. Some of the songs even cracked the Top 40 on the pop charts.

The band mixed country music with Southern rock. It was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2009. The group released their debut album, “Tattoos & Scars,” in 1999.
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Hugh Jackman, Lupita Nyong’o, Aaron Paul and Demi Lovato will co-host this year’s Global Citizen Festival, an annual free event held in New York’s Central Park.

Performers at the Sept. 23 event include Stevie Wonder, Green Day, The Killers, The Lumineers, The Chainsmokers, Pharrell Williams, Big Sean, Andra Day and Alessia Cara.

The organization announced Friday that Frieda Pinto, Connie Britton, Deborra-lee Furness, Joan Smalls, Kal Penn, Malin Akerman, Mark Cuban and others will also co-host the multi-hour event. It will air live on MSNBC and Comcast NBCUniversal.

Fans can earn their free tickets for admission by joining the movement at globalcitizenfestival.com.

Last year, Jackman co-hosted the event with Neil Patrick Harris, Chelsea Handler and others. Performers at the 2016 concert included Rihanna, Eddie Vedder, Kendrick Lamar and Metallica.
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This is the Top Five Countdown! We’re taking aim at the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart for the week ending September 9, 2017.

You’ll be glad you joined us this week because countdown history is made – this is one for the record books.

Number 5: Charlie Puth “Attention”

Charlie Puth rebounds a slot to fifth place with “Attention,” which tops this week’s Billboard Pop Songs chart.

How did Charlie know this song was a hit? His artist & repertoire partner Mike Beard tells Billboard that they usually have other people critique their songs…but this time they didn’t need to. They knew “Attention” was a winner.

Number 4: Imagine Dragons “Believer”

Also on the upswing is Imagine Dragons in fourth place with “Believer.” 

Lead singer Dan Reynolds says therapy has made him a better person. Dan says he went through a crisis of faith, which has now led him to fight on behalf of others. Last month, Imagine Dragons headlined their own festival, LoveLoud, which works to benefit LGBTQ youths…particularly within the Mormon community.

Number 3: Cardi B “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)”

Holding in third place is Cardi B with “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves).”

Earlier this year the New York rapper signed with the Atlantic label, and now says her debut album will drop in October. She broke the news to her fans last weekend at the Made In America festival in Philadelphia.

Number 2: DJ Khaled Featuring Rihanna & Bryson Tiller ” Wild Thoughts”

DJ Khaled, Rihanna, and Bryson Tiller occupy the runner-up slot for another week with “Wild Thoughts.”

DJ Khaled tells E! News that he used to fear flying so much that he hadn’t stepped on a plane in 10 years. He says taking his infant son Asahd on tour has helped him overcome that fear. Khaled couldn’t bear to be apart from him, so he’s back in the air and feeling fine.

Number 1: Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber “Despacito”

“Despacito” remains airborne for an incredible 16th week at number one, and yes…that ties the all-time Hot 100 record, set in late 1995 and early 1996 by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. The name of their song? “One Sweet Day.”

Next week looms large: what will happen on the Hot 100? We’ll be here to tell you so don’t miss a moment!
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Graydon Carter, the longtime editor of Conde Nast’s culture magazine “Vanity Fair,” will be stepping down in December after 25 years at the helm, the publication said on Thursday.

Carter, 68, who has steered Vanity Fair through the shifting journalism landscape and expanded it onto a successful digital platform as well as print edition, will oversee the magazine’s 2018 Hollywood issue, the publication said.

“I’ve loved every moment of my time here and I’ve pretty much accomplished everything I’ve ever wanted to do,” Carter said in a statement, adding that he was “now eager to try out this ‘third act’ thing.”

Carter said in an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday that he wanted to “leave while the magazine is on top.”

“I want to leave while it’s in vibrant shape, both in the digital realm and the print realm. And I wanted to have a third act – and I thought, time is precious,” he told the Times.

The Times said no replacement has been named yet for Carter, who earns a “seven-figure salary” at the magazine, but suggested that New York magazine’s editor-in-chief, Adam Moss, and Janice Min, former editor of The Hollywood Reporter, are potential candidates.

Carter, appointed editor of Vanity Fair in 1992, and turned the magazine’s focus to crime, culture and celebrities. He nurtured revered writers such as Christopher Hitchens and Dominick Dunne, humorists Fran Lebowitz and James Wolcott, and photography great Annie Leibovitz.
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Movie fans attending a special screening of the movie It in Bangor, Maine, got a bonus: Author and local resident Stephen King joined them.

King’s radio station, WKIT-FM, sponsored the special showing Wednesday night, and King received a standing ovation. He told the moviegoers: “You’re going to be scared out of your seats anyway, so you might as well sit down.”

It is based on King’s book about a sewer-dwelling, homicidal clown in Derry, Maine. King has said the fictionalized town is based on Bangor.

The new adaptation of King’s novel will be previewed in many select theaters Thursday before it opens nationwide Friday.
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As new smartphones hit the market month in month out, one Slovak technology buff is offering visitors to his vintage cellphone museum a trip down memory lane – to when cellphones weighed more than today’s computers and most people couldn’t afford them.

Twenty-six year-old online marketing specialist Stefan Polgari from Slovakia began his collection more than two years ago when he bought a stock of old cellphones online. Today, his collection boasts some 1,500 models, or 3,500 pieces when counting duplicates.

The museum, which takes up two rooms in his house in the small eastern town of Dobsina, opened last year and is accessible by appointment.

The collection includes the Nokia 3310, which recently got a facelift and re-release, as well as a fully functional, 20-year old, brick-like Siemens S4 model, which cost a whopping 23,000 Slovak koruna – more than twice the average monthly wage in Slovakia when it came out.

“These are design and technology masterpieces that did not steal your time. There are no phones younger than the first touchscreen models, definitely no smartphones,” said Mr Polgari.

“It’s hard to say which phone is most valuable to me, perhaps the Nokia 350i Star Wars edition,” said Mr Polgari – who uses an iPhone in his daily life.
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Pop star Miley Cyrus and Oscar-winning actors Sandra Bullock and Leonardo DiCaprio pledged funds to help victims of storm Harvey, while Beyonce on Thursday said she was sending a team to her Houston, Texas hometown to help with relief efforts.

A donation drive organized by Houston Texans NFL star J.J. Watt had reached $10 million in pledges from celebrities and ordinary people by Thursday, and singer Solange Knowles, Beyonce’s sister, announced benefit concerts in Boston and New York for September and October.

A tearful Cyrus, 24, announced a $500,000 contribution in an emotional appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

“It just really makes me just really upset… I go home to my seven dogs and if I didn’t have that anymore, it would just be really hard. So I am really happy to help in any way I can. And I hope people understand and can put themselves in those people’s shoes,” Cyrus said.

Some 779,000 Texans have been ordered to evacuate their homes and another 980,000 fled voluntarily amid concerns on Thursday that swollen reservoirs and rivers could bring new flooding. Harvey roared ashore late last week as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in a half-century but has now been downgraded to a tropical depression.

“Gravity” star Bullock, and DiCaprio’s foundation said this week they will each contribute $1 million to organizations helping people recover from the devastating floods.

Beyonce, one of Houston’s best-known celebrities, launched BeyGOOD Houston on her website. A statement said a team from her BeyGOOD philanthropic foundation was headed to the city to help with relief efforts, and the website asked fans to make donations to two local groups working there.

The “Lemonade” singer, who now lives in Los Angeles, has not said whether she is making a personal donation, but her pastor Rudy Rasmus said she tends to keep her charitable efforts quiet.

“Beyonce is extremely private and has done a lot that she has requested we don’t announce and publicize over the years, Rasmus told celebrity website TMZ.com in an interview this week. “She has really stepped up and it has been a big blessing for us,” added Rasmus, who launched the non-profit Bread for Life in Houston in 1992 to feed homeless people.
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It’s been a year of transition for Fifth Harmony: The pop stars parted ways with member Camila Cabello, switched management teams, negotiated a new contract with their label and won greater creative control of their brand.

 

Luckily the newly-minted quartet, who released their third album last week, had the fairy godmother of girl groups to guide them through the tumultuous times: Destiny’s Child alum Kelly Rowland.

 

“We were advised by THE Kelly Rowland,” Dinah Jane, 20, said with reverence. “She just told us to, like, let the music speak for itself … and just know your worth, believe in yourself and just be there for each other. So we’ve definitely honed into that. And for her to advise that, like, that says a lot because, you know, she’s gone through the same things.”

 

“And she said that she was really proud of us,” beamed Normani Kordei, 21.

 

Destiny’s Child went through similar changes before settling on the final and most famous formation, the trio of Rowland, Beyonce Knowles and Michelle Williams.

 

Fifth Harmony said they looked to the “Bootylicious” hitmakers when deciding to fill the spot left by Cabello, who exited in December to pursue a solo career.

 

“We kept referencing that while we were in the moments of that whole thing happening. … Like people, teams or whatever, suggesting, ‘Oh maybe we get a fifth member?”’ Lauren Jauregui, 21, recalled. “Like no, dude. If we’re going to do this, it’s the four of us. Period.”

 

“It’s been us. It will be us,” echoed Kordei.

 

The group doubled down on that decision during Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, where a stand-in fifth member was quickly tossed from the stage as they began to perform. The dance-heavy performance, which came two days after the release of their new album, was well-received and boosted sales of the single “Down.” The girls also won best pop video for the song’s video, which features rapper Gucci Mane.

 

Naming their third album after the group drives the point home — though they’ve downsized, they feel stronger than ever.

 

“[The album] is more edgy and mature, of course, but the most harmonious we’ve ever been,” Jane said.

 

They say they are most comfortable now because they’re in the driver’s seat. They pushed for more creative control with their labels, Epic Records and Simon Cowell’s Syco imprint, and sought legal counsel to gain ownership of the Fifth Harmony trademark.

 

“When we hired our lawyer, Dina LaPolt, that’s when our real transformation began because she really informed us about our business and informed us about our rights as artists,” Jauregui said. “And we really, I feel, gained this sort of inner power that we didn’t have before and this control and ownership of our music, of our brand, of our business.”

 

Fifth Harmony was formed on the U.S. version of “The X Factor” in 2012. In 2015 they released their full-length debut, “Reflection,” finding chart success with the upbeat hit, “Worth It.” They reached greater heights with the slick and sexy song “Work from Home” — the lead single from last year’s “7/27” — peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

 

But behind closed doors, the girls were struggling.

 

“There are just so many crazy things that happen behind-the-scenes. So many honestly horrific situations that happen and we had to step up and say, ‘You know what? We demand the respect that we deserve,”’ recalled Ally Brooke, 24. “We need to write on this album. We need to be part of that process and that’s exactly what we did.”

 

“Fifth Harmony” delivers more of the group’s signature provocative pop/R&B sound along with an eclectic mix of messages. The women writhe on motel beds and showcase saucy parking lot dance sequences in the video for “Down.” They touch on politics and encourage inclusivity in the uplifting album-closer “Bridges.” And they issue a stern warning to those who misjudge them in the darker, F-bomb-fueled “Angel,” produced by Justin Bieber collaborator Poo Bear and grungy EDM star Skrillex.

 

“Honestly it’s a breath of fresh air,” said Kordei of the group’s new dynamic. “We’re just so grateful and we thank God, like, literally every single day.”

 

“Even in those times where the storm was really, really heavy and we didn’t know if it was going to end … now I recognize what goodness actually feels like,” she added.
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Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water is an aquatic Beauty and the Beast, a transgressive fairy tale about a young woman’s love for a scaly creature from the Amazonian depths.

Like the best fables, it’s also rooted in the real world: the story of a migrant from the south facing a hostile reception in a security-obsessed United States.

“I think that fantasy is a very political genre,” del Toro said Thursday at the Venice Film Festival, where The Shape of Water had its red-carpet world premiere. It’s one of 21 films competing for the coveted Golden Lion, the festival’s top prize.

“Fairy tales were born in times of great trouble. They were born in times of famine, pestilence and war,” he added.

Part monster movie, part noir thriller, part Hollywood musical, the film defies categorization, though Del Toro took a stab, suggesting it’s “like Douglas Sirk rewriting Pasolini’s Theorem with a fish.”

Some critics are calling it del Toro’s best film since Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006. The Daily Telegraph summed it up as “an honest-to-God B-movie blood-curdler that’s also, somehow, a shimmeringly earnest and boundlessly beautiful melodrama.” Screen International called it “exquisite … del Toro at his most poignant and sweet.”

Set in early-1960s Baltimore, the film stars Sally Hawkins as Elisa, a mute orphan who works as a cleaner at a high-security lab. She forges a bond with a captured creature who is at the center of a Cold War tug-of-war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

“It’s a movie set in 1962, but it’s a movie about today,” del Toro told reporters at a Venice news conference. “It’s about the issues we have today. When America talks about America being great again, I think they are dreaming of an America that was in gestation in `62 — an America that was futuristic, full of promise … but at the same time there was racism, sexism, classism.”

Del Toro said the creature — played with fittingly fluid movements by Doug Jones — is the only character in the film without a name, because he represents “many things to many people.”

For lonely Elisa, “it’s the first time somebody, something is looking at her, looking back the way you look back at the person you love.” For Michael Shannon’s ruthless U.S. government agent Strickland, the creature is “a dark, dirty thing that comes from the south” and must be eliminated.

“I am Mexican, and I know what it is to be looked at as `the other’ no matter what circumstances you’re in,” the director said — and the character of the creature embodied that otherness.

The film features warm performances from Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins as Elisa’s friends — and a mesmerizing turn from Hawkins, who creates a character of depth, passion and compassion without saying a word.

Hawkins said that when del Toro first told her about the movie, she was working on her own project about “a woman who doesn’t know she’s a mermaid.” Some of those ideas fed into the character of Elisa.

“It was just synchronistic,” she said. “It was very odd. Those things rarely happen and when they do you know it’s something special.”

The Shape of Water features del Toro’s usual rich mix of ingredients: everything from Russian spies to musical interludes. Its overriding message, the director says, is “to choose love over fear.”

“We live in times where fear and cynicism are used in a way that is very pervasive and persuasive,” del Toro said. “Our first duty when we wake up is to believe in love.

“It’s the strongest force in the universe,” he said. “The Beatles and Jesus can’t be wrong — not both of them at the same time.”
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Downsizing has generated jumbo-sized buzz at the Venice Film Festival — not least as viewers debate how to describe it.

Is it a science fiction film, a romantic comedy, a political parable, an apocalyptic thriller? Alexander Payne’s movie mixes all those elements in its story of a man, played by Matt Damon, who tries to solve his problems by shrinking himself.

Damon and co-stars Kristen Wiig and Hong Chau joined Payne on the red carpet for the film’s Venice premiere Wednesday — the first of 11 days of galas that will bring stars including George Clooney and Jennifer Lawrence to the canal-crossed Italian city.

The Venice opening-night slot has become coveted by filmmakers hoping to make a splash come awards season. Several recent Venice openers, including Gravity and La La Land, have gone on to win multiple Academy Awards.

Downsizing has ingredients that could help it strike a similar chord with audiences and awards voters: a likable, bankable star in Damon; a strong supporting cast that includes Wiig and Christophe Waltz; and an imaginative story laced with compassion and humor.

Payne says despite its sci-fi premise and international canvas, Downsizing is not so different to the films he’s best known for — funny-sad stories of middle-aged or Midwestern strugglers such as About Schmidt, Sideways and Nebraska.

 “It has the same sense of humor and basically the same tone,” Payne told reporters in Venice on Wednesday.

The movie applies Payne’s wry eye for human foibles to a plot that explores the power and limits of science and the threat of environmental catastrophe.

The script by Payne and Jim Taylor opens with a Norwegian scientist making a breakthrough he thinks will save humanity: a technique that can shrink people to 5 inches (12 centimeters) tall. That means they use a tiny fraction of the resources they once did — and need to pay less, allowing people of modest means to grow instantly rich by becoming small.

The movie has fun imagining what the miniaturized world would be like, as Damon goes to live in a luxury micro-city, a sort of retirement community for the tiny.

Then it takes a serious turn to ask whether science could be humanity’s salvation, or whether stubbornly fallible human nature is likely to be our species’ undoing.

Along the way, a movie that started in the familiar Payne territory of Omaha, Nebraska, takes viewers all the way to an underground bunker in a Norwegian fjord.

Many will find the journey unexpected, but reviewers in Venice were mostly happy to be swept along for the ride. The Guardian called the film a “spry, nuanced, winningly digressive movie,” while the Hollywood Reporter said it was “captivating, funny” and “deeply humane.”

Ultimately, the film rests on Payne’s knack for depicting human relationships. Damon’s Paul becomes friends with a louche European neighbor, played by Waltz, and develops feelings for Ngoc Lan, a former Vietnamese political prisoner working as a house cleaner.

Actress Hong Chau (Treme, Inherent Vice) is already being talked of as a potential awards nominee for her performance as the spirited, complex character.

“This is a character that is normally in the background, that is low-status character in the culture, and not one that you typically see in the forefront of a story,” she said.

Downsizing is the latest ordinary-Joe role for Damon, who exudes a likable everyman-under-duress quality whether he’s action hero Jason Bourne or a stranded astronaut in The Martian.

Damon said he thinks movies “are the greatest tool for empathy that we have.”

“What I love about this — what I love about a lot of these stories that I get to help tell — is it shows a relatable character whose life is different from our own but who we find common cause with,” he said. “This is a beautiful and optimistic movie. A journalist said to me, which I thought was really great: `This is Alexander’s most optimistic movie and it has the apocalypse in it.”‘

The film has been in the works for a decade, but in an AP interview, Damon said its environmental theme felt “torn from the headlines.”

“Though the [U.S.] administration wouldn’t say that,” he added. “They’re not acknowledging climate change as a reality.”
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The U.S. is playing a World Cup qualifier in the New York metropolitan area for the first time, a critical match against Costa Rica on Friday night at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey.

The Americans have played plenty of matches in and near the Big Apple, mostly in the CONCACAF Gold Cup and exhibition games. Until now, the closest to New York a qualifier has been played was in 1989, a 2-1 win over Guatemala at Veterans Stadium in New Britain, Connecticut.

“This was a pipe dream, this stadium in Harrison,” said goalkeeper Tim Howard, who played for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars when the team was based at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford. “For it to be there and to actually be playing games, you know, there’s no crowd like playing in front of your home crowd for me.”

Howard spoke Tuesday during a news conference in Manhattan, joined by coach Bruce Arena, captain Michael Bradley and teenage star midfielder Christian Pulisic.

After the U.S. opened the final round of the North and Central American and Caribbean region with losses to Mexico and Costa Rica, the U.S. Soccer Federation brought back Arena to replace coach Jurgen Klinsmann. The U.S. has recovered and is in third place with eight points, trailing Mexico (14) and Costa Rica (11). Panama (seven), Honduras (five) and Trinidad and Tobago (three) follow.

The top three nations qualify, and the fourth-place team advances to a playoff against Asia’s No. 5 nation.

Perhaps no one understands the role fan support can play in an outcome more than Arena, a member of the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame. The U.S. had a 16-year home unbeaten streak in qualifying going into a match against Honduras at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 1, 2001. The majority of the sellout crowd of 54,282 backed Honduras, which won 3-2.

“Only in America, I guess, we’re fighting for a home-field advantage,” Arena, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Long Island, said at the time.

Costa Rica played a Gold Cup match at Harrison in July, but Arena expects a different crowd.

“We’re playing at home and I don’t care what anyone says. We have a home-field advantage,” Arena said. “My experiences in the short time that I’ve been here back with the U.S. team is that we have great support and I really believe that we’ll have great support on Friday, and hopefully the fact that Costa Rica played here in the Gold Cup is not going be a factor.”

At a venue with a 25,000 capacity that was built for Major League Soccer, the USSF and Red Bulls can control ticket allocation with pre-sales to Red Bulls season-ticket holders and national team regulars.

“We understand the challenges of playing at home versus going on the road in CONCACAF and we’re willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that in five or six weeks’ time we’ve punched our ticket to Russia,” Bradley said. “It’s on us to make sure that we can finish the job and allow ourselves the chance to look forward to playing at a World Cup next summer.”

The U.S. plays Honduras at San Pedro Sula on Sept. 5, and then closes the hexagonal against Panama on Oct. 6 at Orlando, Florida, and at Trinidad four days later.

“All the work that we’ve put in this year was for these next four games, to make sure that we can find the right ways in the biggest moments when the lights come on brightest to make sure that we get the job done,” Bradley said.

Reality check

U.S. players also have their minds on teammates and their families affected by Hurricane Harvey.

“I’ve heard DaMarcus (Beasley) speak of it. I haven’t yet had the chance yet to talk with Clint (Dempsey),” Arena said. “Hopefully his family’s safe. I know they’re in east Texas. I know it’s a tough week for them. I know for DaMarcus in particular it’s been very challenging. For him personally, for his friends and family ties to the Houston area. It’s difficult but all we can do is hope that the conditions improve in the Houston area and that everyone is safe.”

Added Bradley: “Some of the images and videos that have come out of Texas have been heartbreaking, and for all of us now as human beings, as fellow Americans, to find the right ways to show support and help that part of the country as they find the right ways to move on from this. That’s very important and obviously in our own very little way playing and representing the country in a really strong and proud way on Friday night is a little part of that.”
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