Ex-007 star Pierce Brosnan weighs in on Bond's future after Amazon takeover
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It's almost spring and hopefully the sun is shining wherever you are - but even if not, there's hopefully plenty in this week's recommendations to brighten your days (and nights!)
From British conceptual artist Tracey Emin's raw expressions of existentialism in Italy, to late night museum visits in Brussels, a new hip-hop album by clipping., and the return of Michael Fassbender to the big screen, you could say we're blooming excited for what's ahead.
Anyway, enough Spring puns. Let's get to it, shall we?
Exhibitions
'Roma Pittrice: Female artists at work between the 16th and 18th centuries'
'Roma Pittrice'
Monkeys Video Lab
Where: Museum of Rome at Palazzo Braschi (Rome, Italy)
When: Until 4 May 2025
Rome is revered for its great art, but many of its most talented female artists have been overlooked for centuries. 'Roma Pittrice' - curated by by writer Ilaria Miarelli Mariani and art historian Raffaella Morselli, in collaboration with historian Ilaria Arcangeli - hopes to rectify this. A stunning display of 130 works, many of which have never been seen by the public before, brings attention to 56 female artists that created and studied - often with great struggle - in Rome between the 16th and 19th centuries. Their stories, much like their works, unlock an integral part of Italy's rich cultural history, never again forgotten.
'Tracey Emin: Sex and Solitude'
Tracey Emin, 'The End of Love' (2024), acrylic on canvas.
Credit: Tracey Emin/White Cube
Where: Palazzo Strozzi, (Florence, Italy)
When: 16 March - 20 July 2025
Turner Prize-nominated British artist Tracey Emin makes her Italian debut with an exhibition showcasing over 60 works under the themes of sex and solitude. Paintings, sculptures, photography, drawings, neon installations and more capture a raw narrative that's both deeply personal and universally tangible, bringing to light reflections on desire, vulnerability, love and loss. Renowned for her ability to produce audacious art that confronts the very ugliest remnants of existence, Emin's career has been shaped by an honesty that is both sad and beautiful - but always mesmerising to behold.
'Art is in the Street'
'La Rue' by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, 1896.
Credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France
Where: Musée d'Orsay (Paris, France)
When: 18 March - 6 July 2025
A defining aesthetic of the Belle Époque, illustrated posters were more than just advertisements for theatre and products; they revolutionised the public's relationship with art through accessibility. Paris' Musée d'Orsay, in collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, have brought together over 300 of these original works to spotlight the social phenomenon, including masters of the craft such as Chéret, Bonnard, Grasset and Toulouse-Lautrec. It's a fascinating dive into the history, development and impact of a culture shifting medium that's now synonymous with the ambience of Parisian culture.
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Events
St. Patrick's Festival
St. Patrick's Day celebrations will soon begin...
Canva
Where: kilkenny, Ireland
When: 14 - 17 March 2025
Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit (Happy St. Patrick's Day)! Well, almost. The annual holiday in honour of the Patron Saint Of Ireland officially takes place 17 March, but celebrations begin from Friday as shamrock-decorated revelers take to their local Irish drinking establishments for a pint (or three) of Guinness and communal merriment. While places all over the world take part, the festivities within Ireland itself can't be beaten - especially the city of Kilkenny, where costumed musicians, artists, performers and more enliven the medieval streets with creativity and charming hubbub. It's also the perfect opportunity to fully embrace the beauty and breadth of authentic Irish culture.
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Nocturnes
Where: Brussels, Belgium
When: 13 March - 24 April 2025
Twit twoo, night owls - Brussels is calling. Returning for its 24th edition, the annual Nocturnes event awakens the city's cultural gems for visitors to explore after hours. Not only handy for those that usually struggle to make events during the work week, it also provides a uniquely intimate ambience through the secrecy of nightfall. Many of Brussels' museums take part, staying open until 10pm. It's the opportunity to explore educational spaces in a new light, and a vibrant tribute to cultural heritage. Find the full list of participating venues here.
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Movies
Black Bag
Where: European cinemas
When: 14 March
When your entire identity is defined by secrecy, how can you trust anything - or anyone? This philosophical quandary sets the pulse for Steven Soderbergh's new erotic thriller, starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as married spies whose relationship takes a turn after Blanchett's character becomes the prime suspect in a plot against the UK. True to Soderbergh's style, it's slick, sexy and strongly character driven, exploring betrayal and the limitations of loyalty.
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The Ugly Stepsister
'The Ugly Stepsister'
Shudder
Where: Norwegian cinemas (and theatres near you soon)
When: Now
One of our Top Ten Films at this year's Berlinale, this sinister re-telling of Cinderella focuses on the perspective of the princess's stepsister via a gruesome deconstruction of fairy tale values and female beauty standards. In a similar vein to Coralie Fargeat's body horror hit The Substance, it's a no holds barred squirm fest, including feet mutilation, eye surgery and the ingestion (and excretion) of tapeworms. In his review, Euronews Culture's resident film critic David Mouriquand called it 'a fully-formed triumph that heralds a bold and ambitious new cinematic voice'. We also had the pleasure of interviewing its director, Emilie Blichfeldt, whose fascinating insights you can read here.
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Television
Adolescence
When: 13 March
Where: Netflix
Anything starring Stephen Graham (Boiling Point, This is England) is sure to be gritty, compelling and absolutely nerve shredding. This new four-part series stars the actor - who also co-wrote it with Jack Thorne - as a dad whose teenage son (Owen Cooper) is accused of murdering a school friend. Much like Boiling Point, every episode was filmed in one long continuous shot, offering no reprieve from its sense of all-consuming panic and claustrophobic tension. While admittedly not one to wind down to after a long day, it's powerful viewing with incredible performances that tackle the insidious societal issues affecting young men.
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Music
clipping.: Dead Channel Sky
When: 14 March
American experimental hip-hop band clipping. are due to return with their fifth full-length album, a follow-up to 2020's darkly conceptual 'Visions of Bodies Being Burned'. Early release singles like 'Change the Channel' suggest ear-drum dizzying sonic bedlam ahead, the band taking inspiration from William Gibson's sci-fi novel "Neuromancer" in a collection set to be imbued with fizzling dystopic, cyberpunk vibes. Stay tuned for our full review on Friday (14 March). In the meantime, check out our interview with clipping. for their previous album.
Album anniversaries: March 2025
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Album anniversaries – March 2025: Kendrick Lamar, M.I.A., Céline Dion.
Copyright Top Dawg Entertainment, XL Recordings / Interscope Records, Columbia
...And finally, what better way to begin the week than with a re-visit (or discovery) of some brilliant albums. Every month we handpick a trio celebrating milestone anniversaries, with March featuring a modern hip-hop masterpiece, Canada's greatest export since maple syrup and some UK dancehall-grime-funk. Grab your headphones, settle in, and find out more here.
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Though the wellness industry is booming — it is expected to reach 9 trillion dollars worldwide by 2028, and the full-throated embrace of supplements and 'doing your own research' has become official US policy under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Goop's business has stagnated. Last year, the newsletter Puck reported that Goop sales have been flat since 2021, and, in 2024, the company laid off about one fifth of its 216-person workforce, including several employees in the content department. As a result, the site has significantly reduced its editorial component, and amped up e-commerce. And Odell reports that there is talk inhouse of selling the company. (Paltrow did say in a March 2025 interview that she's 'not thinking about an exit right now.') Is it worth anything without Paltrow? She is the reason most consumers patronise Goop. Will she stay? Hard to say, though her commitment to the company is clearly less ardent than it once was. 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Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Gwyneth Paltrow was the platonic ideal of the It Girl and Hollywood nepo-baby, dating Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck and winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Shakespeare in Love. Then, in 2008, Paltrow engineered a career detour nobody quite saw coming: She launched a website and free weekly newsletter recommending her favourite restaurants, travel destinations, luxury hotels, fashion boutiques and day spas- a Gwyneth Hot List, you could say. Thus was the birth of Goop, a trailblazing platform in wellness, style and beauty that in less than a decade grew into a sprawling media and e-commerce enterprise. It has, at various times, sold clothing, beauty products, vibrators, homeware (including a headline-making vagina-scented candle) and a meal delivery service, and produced travel guides, cookbooks, a newsletter, a podcast, conferences and a Netflix series. Built on Paltrow's 'beauty, charm and pedigree,' Goop became 'the authority on what we put in our bodies (supplements), how we treat our bodies (sleep, detoxes and exercise), and what we put on our bodies (serums and creams),' writes journalist Amy Odell in her new book, Gwyneth: The Biography, published by Gallery Books this week. Paltrow gave wellness a narrative, and a beautiful, tasteful aesthetic. She repositioned it as a luxury, and showed that it could be monetised beyond charging for facials, massages and beauty products. She spearheaded the transformation of what was known as the 'global spa economy' into Big Wellness, a 6.3 trillion dollar global industry rooted in pseudoscience and specious health claims. Along the way, Odell writes, Paltrow became 'one of the biggest and most polarising cultural influencers of the 21st century.' In Gwyneth, which is based on more than 220 interviews with Paltrow's childhood pals, film colleagues, close friends and former Goop employees, Odell shows how Paltrow 'helped bring the wellness movement and alternative medicine into the mainstream — to the horror of doctors and academics,' who regularly debunked Goop's declarations in print and on camera. For a long time, both Paltrow and Goop were able to slough off the medical community's criticism like so many dead skin cells, because the brand's customers would buy what she was selling no matter what. Paltrow was Goop's superpower: the company's founder, chief executive and ambassador, who claimed to practice what it preached, and embodied all that it promised. Paltrow connected to her customers and subscribers with her 'straight dope' talk — one of her Goop Gift Guides, for example, was called 'Ridiculous but Awesome,' and she told her 'goopies' that she likes her wrinkles — and assured them that if they bought her message, and the products she hawked on Goop, they could live, and even look, like her. As Odell posits, Paltrow used her fame 'to commodify her taste and lifestyle, and sell it back to us, even though her life is the very definition of something money can't buy.' At the same time, in the business community, the former It Girl came across as the ultimate zeitgeist channeler, able to swiftly adapt to cultural shifts and bail on initiatives that didn't work. She refashioned herself as the Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart of the clean living space, creating a new template for celebrity entrepreneurs, such as the Kardashian/Jenners, Rihanna and Hailey Bieber, to follow. With Goop, Odell writes that Paltrow gave 'a master class in commanding the attention economy that now rules culture.' (Her appearance in a video this week as a 'temporary spokesperson' for Astronomer, the company at the centre of the Coldplay kiss-cam scandal, only underscores this point.) But all was not well at the wellness brand. Employing the same dogged reporting she brought to Anna: The Biography, her 2022 bestseller on long-time Vogue editor Anna Wintour, Odell discovers that under the veneer of quiet perfection and rarified taste, Paltrow's erratic, aloof and, at times, wicked behaviour created a toxic work environment of epic proportions. What was seen from the outside as flexibility and adaptability was, in fact, Paltrow's dizzyingly short attention span, resulting in zig-zag decisions that confounded and exhausted employees. Her queenly demands — like having her test-kitchen chef prepare her lunch daily, and expecting employees to respond to her internal communications instantly — further alienated the people who worked for her. When her orders or standards were not met, she'd turn snippy and cold. 'I can be mean,' Paltrow has admitted. 'I can ice people out.' Perhaps not surprisingly, Goop burned through staff. While Goop churned internally, its outward appearance largely remained as flawless and smooth as Paltrow's complexion. She'd meet with potential investors, and, by expertly playing the role of a steady, hands-on chief executive, convince them to give her millions for Goop. She'd pose for selfies, too, which no doubt helped seal the deals. Odell reports in the book that in 2018, Goop was valued at an astounding 250 million dollars. Yet, she writes, it has never experienced sustained profitability. As Paltrow's father, the director and producer Bruce Paltrow, once told her about the difference between the public perception of her and her true self: 'You've got the whole country fooled.' Until she didn't. Eventually, government authorities cracked down on Goop for spurious health claims regarding products it sold on its site. Like the Egg, an ovum-shaped stone in jade or rose quartz that Goop expert Shiva Rose recommended inserting in the vagina to 'increase orgasm' and 'invigorate our life force.' The medical community condemned the Egg, warning it could lead to bacterial vaginosis or toxic shock syndrome. California district attorneys sued Goop over its unproven statements, and the company was fined. The site continued to sell the Egg without those claims. Once it became clear that Goop was not the unicorn that investors initially thought it would be, they began to turn away. They weren't the only ones. Though the wellness industry is booming — it is expected to reach 9 trillion dollars worldwide by 2028, and the full-throated embrace of supplements and 'doing your own research' has become official US policy under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Goop's business has stagnated. Last year, the newsletter Puck reported that Goop sales have been flat since 2021, and, in 2024, the company laid off about one fifth of its 216-person workforce, including several employees in the content department. As a result, the site has significantly reduced its editorial component, and amped up e-commerce. And Odell reports that there is talk inhouse of selling the company. (Paltrow did say in a March 2025 interview that she's 'not thinking about an exit right now.') Is it worth anything without Paltrow? She is the reason most consumers patronise Goop. Will she stay? Hard to say, though her commitment to the company is clearly less ardent than it once was. She's spoken publicly about wanting to slow down and the toll that being a CEO has taken, and she has pivoted back to film full time, with two new movies out later this year, including one with Timothée Chalamet. Which begs the question: Who does Gwyneth Paltrow really want to be: America's Sweetheart? An It Girl? Influencer? Entrepreneur? Tycoon? Maybe, as with her film career, all have simply been roles, and once she plays them, she moves on. Despite Goop's longevity, Paltrow still defies comparison. She's not, after all, very much like Oprah or Martha. (They both made billions.) And she's not much like the Kardashians either — her Beverly-Hills-by-way-of-Spence sangfroid means she's never been accused of vulgarity or dismissed as 'famous only for being famous.' What's certain is this: Whatever she does next, we'll be paying close attention.
