Latest news with #Audition
Winnipeg Free Press
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Power, punishment parsed in surreal, challenging sci-fi
Three giants find themselves jammed into a spacecraft, hurtling through outer space. Just why or how they got there is not immediately apparent, to themselves or the reader. But one thing is clear: things are not right. So begins Pip Adam's Audition, a novel that blends science-fiction and social commentary in a surreal text which challenges readers to question both the penal system and how people can live with each other, despite cruelty, violence and past mistakes. First published internationally in 2023, the latest from the New Zealand-based Adam is now available in Canada. The first section of Audition unfolds entirely in conversation between the novel's three protagonists, as they try to piece together not only what is happening to them, but how they got there to begin with. Rebecca McMillan Photography Pip Adam Alba, Drew and Stanley weren't always giants. They're pretty sure of that, anyway. But then, they aren't sure of much at first. Had they volunteered for this mission, or had they been forced or coerced onto the ships? When had they started growing larger than their neighbours, and how did that become a problem? 'No one really understood how tall they were and whether they'd stopped growing,' Adam explains in a section titled Leaving. 'Three to one was what everyone agreed — because it made everyone feel more comfortable.' Without spoiling anything, the answers are not made clear until the ship passes an apparent event horizon, whereby there is no going back to the way, or the where, things were before. Their memories become clearer, though that in itself is problematic, as are the interconnected relationships between the three of them, which are based, in part or whole, on violence and betrayal. However, their othering from society brings them together, both literally and figuratively, as all three begin to grow and become giant. ''It started slowly,' Alba says. 'Like these things always do — aided by a healthy hope that it isn't happening at all, a hope that kept everything at bay, made orderly decisions possible and then — it happened very quickly.'' Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. There are certainly some leaps to be made by the reader throughout, and even then not everything is apparent. Apart from Alba's memories of prison, reawakened following the event horizon, little in Audition is straightforward. Indeed, a rejection of the binary is implicit to the narrative itself. Instead, Audition is frequently surreal, at times fantastic, and plays with structure, iteration and repetition. What is clear is Adam's use of metaphor to make the argument that the prison industrial complex is both inhumane and dehumanizing. Hierarchical systems of power and punishment are rejected, in the end, while fluidity, both figurative and literal, are embraced. Audition 'What is very important to the place Alba came from is who is above and who is below and because this ordering and valuing is everywhere and done by everyone, it seems inevitable that, when they were left on their own in their cells at night, it would follow them all there too. The idea of below and above seems pointless here. It's like the fall had stripped it out of them,' Adam writes. While Audition may be a challenging read, these are challenging times. The book isn't without humour or whimsy, although it deals with a heavy subject and themes. Readers who brave the journey may well find themselves the better for it. Sheldon Birnie is a Winnipeg writer and author of Where the Pavement Turns to Sand, a collection of strange stories.
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
How Barbara Walters struggled to balance motherhood with her career
Barbara Walters is best known as the legendary TV broadcaster who convinced world leaders, celebrities and controversial figures to bare their souls before audiences of millions. However, Walters' incredible career is only part of her story. Through new interviews and archival material, the feature-length documentary "Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything" puts the full complexity of this journalistic icon on display. That includes a major part of her private life: her relationship with her daughter Jacqueline (Jackie). The documentary "Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything" is streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. Walters joined ABC News in 1976, becoming the first female anchor on its evening news program. Three years later, she became a co-host of "20/20," and in 1997, she launched "The View." She retired in 2016 and died in 2022, aged 93. In 1968, after three miscarriages, Walters and second husband Lee Guber adopted Jacqueline (Jackie). She named her daughter after her sister, who was born developmentally disabled. In her 2008 memoir "Audition," Walters wrote that she wanted her sister to "feel that she, too, has a child, because I knew by this time she never would." In a candid 1977 hot mic moment, the documentary shows her whispering with musician Dolly Parton about her decision to adopt during an interview. "For me, it was the best thing I ever did," Walters told Parton. Despite the joy being a mother brought her, Walters acknowledged the toll her career took on her marriage -- she and Guber got divorced in 1976. "I don't think I was very good at marriage. It may be that my career was just too important," she said in the 2014 ABC News special "Her Story." "It may have been that I was a difficult person to be married to and I wasn't willing perhaps to give that much." Her career created parenting challenges as well. "Today, people are more accepting. You can bring your kid to the office. In those days, if I had brought Jackie into the studio, it would be as if I had brought a dog who was not housebroken," Walters said during the "Her Story" special. That led to challenges when Jackie was a teenager, Walters said in the 2008 ABC News special "Audition." "I didn't realize how tough it was because she had a mother who was a celebrity. We struggled through schools, and then finally at one point when she was 16, I guess, she ran away," she said. "And finally when I found out where she was, I had someone pick her up and take her to an emotional growth school, which is what it was called. She was there for three years." Broadcaster Oprah Winfrey, a friend of Walters, spoke in the new documentary about the "charged, complex relationship" between mother and daughter. "I remember her telling me once that there's nothing more fulfilling than having children, and you should really think about it. And I was like 'OK, but I'm looking at you. So no,'" she said. Winfrey said their challenging relationship that may have been part of the price Walters paid to become a legend. "You are a pioneer in your field, and you are trying to break the mold for yourself and the women who follow you, then something's going to have to give for that," she said. "And that is why I did not have children. I knew I could not do both well." Winfrey noted that Walters' ambition was a factor -- she was always chasing the next big interview. "Both are sacrifices, sacrifice to do the work, and it's also a sacrifice to be the mother and to say no, let somebody else have that," Winfrey said. "And at no time have I ever heard a story, read a story, and based on what I know of Barbara Walters, at no time has Barbara Walters ever said 'No, let someone else take that story.'" Former "Nightline" and ABC News correspondent Cynthia McFadden noted in the documentary that Walters wasn't raising her daughter alone. "It's important to say Jackie had a father. And Jackie had a governess. So it wasn't like Jackie was left alone in a playpen," she said. "Barbara articulated many times that she had made mistakes as a mother, that she had made choices for herself, for her work." Jackie spoke to McFadden about her upbringing and the challenge of fitting into Walters' for 2001 ABC special "Born in My Heart: A Love Story," which looked at families with adopted children. McFadden -- herself an adoptee -- asked Jackie which was more challenging -- being adopted or being a famous woman's child. "Oh, being the child of a famous woman, hands down," she said. In the documentary, McFadden said Walters' ambition and Jackie's noncompetitive disposition accounted for some of the friction between them. "I've said I'm sorry for so many things. I've put her through all that torture," Jackie said in 2001. "I was sorry for my whole teenage years. It was awful." Walters felt that the relationship grew "shaky" again as she got older, according to McFadden. Despite her legendary status, Walters expressed sadness about the sacrifices she made in the 2004 ABC News special "Art of the Conversation." "I have a friend for example, who's got four children and 11 grandchildren, and she says 'Look at your life,' she said. "And I said 'Look at your life. I mean, how rich you are, four children, 11 grandchildren -- that's richness.' But I don't have that. I didn't take that path."
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
Barbara Walters' success was fueled by personal struggles, documentary director says
Barbara Walters had a legendary 50-year broadcast career fueled in large part by the private struggles she faced behind the scenes, according to the director of a new documentary on her life. In the documentary, "Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything," the late journalist herself describes the struggles her family faced, particularly her father, Lou Walters, a nightclub impresario who owned the Latin Quarter, a club in New York City's Times Square. "My mother had no means of having a livelihood and my nightmare was that my father was going to lose it all," Barbara Walters, who died in 2022 at the age of 93, says in archival footage shown in the documentary. "He was a gambler by nature. He gambled on cards, and eventually he gambled on the Latin Quarter. And after years of success, he had nothing, nothing." She continued, "My father was in great despair, and he attempted suicide from an overdose of sleeping pills. I was in my 20s, and I had to support my whole family. I had to work at a time when many women of my generation were not working." Barbara Walters' forced responsibility of having to provide for her family -- which included an older sister with a disability -- was a pressure that led her to great professional success, according to Jackie Jesko, who directed "Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything." "Her dad goes riches to rags story, and then Barbara -- and this is at a time few women worked at all -- she becomes the breadwinner for the family, and I think that pressure really propels her for the rest of her life," Jesko said Wednesday on " Good Morning America." Jesko said she had 50 years of archival footage of Barbara Walters to draw from for the documentary, which begins streaming June 23 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. To begin to tell the story of the life of the trailblazing journalist, Jesko said she looked to Barbara Walters' own memoir, "Audition," as a blueprint. "Her own book, 'Audition,' was kind of our guide. I wanted to know what was important to her. What were the career highlights that really stood out to her?" Jesko said. "That was really, really helpful." Barbara Walters joined ABC News in 1976, becoming the first female anchor on an evening news program. Three years later, she became a co-host of "20/20," and in 1997, she launched "The View." In a career that spanned five decades, Walters won 12 Emmy Awards, 11 of those while at ABC News. She made her final appearance as a co-host of "The View" in 2014, but remained an executive producer of the show and continued to do some interviews and specials for ABC News.
Time of India
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Liv Morgan's life beyond WWE, from relationships to Hollywood ventures
Liv Morgan (Image via WWE) Liv Morgan might be a superstar in WWE , but there is much more to her life outside wrestling. From relationships to real estate, acting, and kindness, Liv is someone who follows her passions and stands up for what's right. She's not afraid to try new things and make a difference, all while staying true to herself. Let us take a look at what Liv is up to when she's not wrestling in the ring. Relationships of Liv Morgan When it comes to relationships, Liv prefers to keep her personal life private. Currently, Liv is single and is focusing on her wrestling career. In the past, there were rumors about her dating Tyler Bate and Bo Dallas , and her relationship with Enzo Amore was well-documented during their time in NXT. Liv is also involved in a dramatic on-screen relationship with Dominik Mysterio, although he is married in real life, adding some controversy and entertainment to her wrestling story. Liv Morgan's philanthropic and giving nature Liv Morgan focuses on social justice and helps organizations that support people in need, like the Minnesota Freedom Fund. Liv is also involved in fundraising for Cancer Research UK. She's a big supporter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, where she helps make children's wishes come true. Additionally, Liv maintains a rigorous training regimen and a stylish lifestyle, reflecting her discipline and hard work, both in and out of the wrestling ring. According to Liv contributes to various initiatives across different industries, from beverage companies to casual dining and telecommunications. Liv Morgan's peaceful escape and real estate moves When Liv is not wrestling, she finds peace and happiness on her Florida farm, a place called Wonderland Ranch. This 7.25-acre ranch is home to a range of furry friends, including five chickens, two cows, a pig, two cats, and two dogs. Liv even maintains a wrestling ring in her workout space alongside a wrestling-themed walk-in closet filled with her gear, merchandise, and championship replicas. Tour WWE Star Liv Morgan's Florida Farm (Exclusive) Outside wrestling, Liv is making smart financial moves. She is currently pursuing her real estate license after enrolling in the Bob Hogue School of Real Estate in November 2020. Liv plans to start her own real estate brokerage and already owns a beautiful home in Orlando, Florida. The home includes a large pool, a well-equipped gym, and a garden, reflecting her sophisticated lifestyle. She's also made additional real estate investments, securing her financial future alongside her wrestling career. Liv Morgan's Hollywood adventure and entrepreneurial success One big step in Liv's career outside wrestling is her venture into acting. Liv is currently a part of the action thriller Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo. The film, directed by Takashi Miike, a renowned filmmaker known for Audition and 13 Assassins, is a sequel to the 1992 movie Bad Lieutenant. Liv plays a politician's daughter who is kidnapped in the story. The film, which also stars Shun Oguri and Lily James, started production in May under Neon Studios. Liv previously appeared in the TV series Chucky. Liv Morgan's Movie Role Finally Revealed! #wwe #shorts #livmorgan Liv Morgan, a WWE superstar, is also a smart businesswoman alongside her wrestling career. She owns a self-care beauty business called LiveMoreShop and is exploring real estate and acting. Her success in these ventures shows her popularity and the strong support from WWE. Also Read: Liv Morgan suffers legitimate injury on WWE RAW amidst huge upcoming feud
Time Magazine
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
The 14 Best Books of 2025 So Far
There's no better time than the start of summer to take a pause and reset your priorities. And, if we may be so bold, one of those priorities really should be to dig into one of the many great new books that have been published this year. It's only June, and yet we've already been blessed with a wealth of heart-rending memoirs, absorbing novels, and mind-expanding nonfiction. Meander through the beguiling mind of a theater actress, take a siblings road trip that challenges the very notion of family, or delve into a deep, personal secret. Here, the 14 best books of the year so far. The Antidote, Karen Russell It feels like the U.S. has lived 100 lifetimes since Karen Russell's much-lauded 2011 debut Swamplandia!, but it's safe to say that her highly anticipated follow-up The Antidote was worth the wait. An American epic that takes place in the 1930s in the fictional town of Uz, Neb., the story centers on a prairie witch who calls herself 'the Antidote.' A healer of sorts, the Antidote, like other prairie witches, is a keeper of others' thoughts—a memory vault who absorbs the heaviness of people's grief so they may have a chance at feeling lightness again. But when a dust bowl devastates the town, it takes the witch's memory deposits with it and leaves her fearful for her safety. What will happen to her when people can no longer unload their worst—and have to actually live with themselves? Told from the vantage point of multiple inhabitants of Uz, The Antidote is a sprawling yet meticulous story that implores us to see American history in its fullness, scars and all.— Rachel Sonis Audition, Katie Kitamura's taut and incisive follow-up to Intimacies, begins on a rich premise. The narrator, a successful actress navigating a difficult new role, goes to a Manhattan restaurant to meet a younger man, Xavier, who claims he's her son. It's impossible. The actress, who goes unnamed, has never given birth or been a parent. But the strange encounter isn't their last; Xavier begins working on the same play, and his bold assertion prompts her to unravel the many choices and performances that have brought her to this particular moment, on stage and in life. Halfway through, Audition changes realities, completely redefining the relationship between the two. Kitamura's tantalizing novel asks a lot of the reader, offering multiple versions of the same life that circle around an idea raised by the protagonist herself:'As you get older things become less clear.' —Mahita Gajanan In his second novel, Ocean Vuong sheds the epistolary conceit of his acclaimed debut, 2019's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. The result is a more sprawling yet direct coming-of-age tale animated by the specificity of its characters. When we meet 19-year-old Hai, he's standing ominously on a bridge in his depressed hometown of East Gladness, Conn. His first love is dead of a fentanyl overdose and his mom believes the flimsy lie that he's at medical school, leaving Hai with a craving for opioids and nowhere to go. Before he can do anything drastic, he's spotted by a dementia-stricken elderly woman, Grazina, who must sense his fundamental gentleness, because she says he can move into her place if he'll care for her. Along with his misfit coworkers at a fast-food joint, Grazina anchors the lost boy, even as her own mind drifts from its moorings. A premise that a lesser writer might churn into inspiration porn becomes, in Vuong's hands, a vivid, funny, emotionally realistic case study in the life-altering potential of community.— Judy Berman There are many debut novels about young people finding love and seeking purpose, but few are as perceptive about the connection between those pursuits as Naomi Xu Elegant's ruminative Gingko Season. Stubbornly fixated on a college boyfriend who broke her heart, 20-something narrator Penelope Lin works at a Philadelphia museum, pores over the city's history, and maintains a modest social life, largely disconnected from her family. When she meets a guy, Hoang, who has just confessed to freeing mice marked for death at the lab where he works, their excruciatingly slow-moving courtship pushes Penelope to think harder about her own principles and priorities. Elegant's writing is as unassuming as her heroine, yet the questions she raises about how to live with integrity in a compromised world can be startlingly profound.— Judy Berman The argument that flows from this book is simple: rivers, for all of the essential nutrients, biodiversity, and transportation possibilities they provide, deserve to be treated with the same respect as other living organisms. Robert Macfarlane visited three rivers, starting with the River of the Cedars in an Ecuadorian cloud forest, recently threatened by mining companies. He surveyed waterways in Chennai, India, which flood streets with crocodiles and catfish after cyclones. And he visited Mutehekau Shipu in Quebec, the first Canadian river to be given rights, including the right to be pollution-free. The author of Underland lends his expertise to raise awareness about a part of nature that is often taken for granted. Readers see that while rivers can be easily wounded, they can also quickly heal—if given the right care.— Olivia B. Waxman Ron Chernow, the author of the best-selling tomes Alexander Hamilton and Grant, offers a frank assessment of Mark Twain, the first major literary celebrity in the U.S. and a leading pundit of the Civil War era whose writings helped Americans make sense of life after slavery. While his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn became classics, Twain made poor financial decisions that bankrupted him and forced him to flee the country and spend nearly a decade in exile. Chernow's biography gives the encyclopedic treatment to the writer, boasting about 1,200 pages based on his books, letters, and unpublished manuscripts. —Olivia B. Waxman In this dystopian speculative fiction novel, Vietnamese Americans are shipped to internment camps following a terrorist attack, with their civil rights and dignity stripped in the name of national security. While the premise could result in an overly dour or preachy book, Nguyen's novel zips forward with page-turning suspense, humor, and nuance. The book revolves around four half-siblings as they each confront difficult ethical choices and navigate their relationships with an oppressive state, cultural expectations, and each other. While parts of the novel are carefully grounded in history—especially in the experience of Japanese-American incarceration during World War II—the book also crackles with modern culture and proves gaspingly relevant in an era of division and heightened surveillance.— Andrew R. Chow At the center of Nicole Cuffy's O Sinners! is Faruq Zaidi, a Brooklyn-based journalist grieving the recent death of his devout Muslim father. After learning about a cult called 'the nameless,' whose followers abide by teachings like "create beauty" and "do not despair at death," Faruq—a skeptic who has felt disconnected from faith and religion since he was a teenager—travels to their compound in the California Redwoods to report a story. But as he grows closer to the group's inscrutable leader, a Black Vietnam War veteran called Odo, Faruq begins to question more than just the secret inner-workings of the cult itself. O Sinners! is driven by three alternating narratives: Faruq's present day work trip, Odo's tour of duty in Vietnam, and the screenplay of a documentary about a legal battle between the cult and a fundamentalist church in Texas. In weaving together these stories, Cuffy explores the varying shapes that grief, belief, and belonging can take. —Erin McMullen In late October 2023, Omar El Akkad started to outline his feelings about the war in Gaza, and how it feels to be a person unanchored from home. In his urgent nonfiction debut, the writer—who was born in Cairo, grew up in Doha, moved to Canada, and now lives in rural Oregon—wrestles with his disillusionment with the West and its institutions, particularly given the indifference he's observed in so many as the war rages on. This memoir-manifesto could be seen as hopeless, and there is certainly no shortage of carnage in its pages. But, in the determination of those standing up for their beliefs, El Akkad manages to find hope amid the fantasy of Western liberalism.— Meg Zukin In Kevin Wilson's latest novel, Mad spends her days working on a farm with her mom. She hasn't seen her dad in two decades and she's settled into a routine that's not particularly fulfilling, but she's made her peace with that. Then, a stranger appears at her front door and announces that he's her older half-brother, and that their father pulled a disappearing act on not just him and Mad, but other families too. He convinces her to join him on a cross-country road trip to round up their other siblings and find their father. What ensues is an often hilarious and sometimes devastating exploration of what really makes a family. Like Wilson's other fiction, including Nothing to See Here and Now Is Not the Time to Panic, Run for the Hills gently tugs at the heart.— Annabel Gutterman Sky Daddy is a love story, but one we're willing to bet is unlike any love story you've previously encountered. Drawing inspiration from Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Kate Folk's debut novel revolves around one woman's pursuit of her own white whale: finding her aircraft 'soulmate.' That's really the premise: our eccentric protagonist, Linda, wants to fall in love with a plane—and, in a morbid twist, she wants to 'consummate' that relationship by dying in an aviation accident. Linda is a San Francisco transplant who makes $20 an hour moderating hate comments for a video-sharing platform and devotes as much of that meager salary as possible to exploring the aircraft dating pool by catching flights. Linda is determined to keep her unusual proclivities a secret, but after her work friend, Karina, invites her to a monthly 'Vision Board Brunch' with some old college friends, Linda's attempts to manifest her idea of romantic bliss end up setting her on a path to radical self-acceptance. Sky Daddy is as poignant as it is bizarre— Megan McCluskey The Tell, Amy Griffin Rarely, if ever, has a book been endorsed by all three titans in the celebrity book club world—Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, and Jenna Bush Hager—but Amy Griffin's The Tell is no ordinary memoir. For readers of Tara Westover's Educated or Chanel Miller's Know My Name, The Tell is one of those deeply personal stories that manages to feel universal at the same time. Griffin was thriving as a businesswoman and happily married mother of four in New York City when a session with an MDMA therapist flooded her mind with long-buried memories. Suddenly, she remembered the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of a teacher starting when she was 12 years old. Shattered and enraged, Griffin struggled to reconcile her past with her carefully constructed self-image and grappled with the weight of carrying such a harrowing secret. Her memoir retraces her steps through her private grief and isolating pursuit of justice, and, ultimately, her powerful realization that to tell is to heal.— Lucy Feldman After her teenage son James dies by suicide, Yiyun Li begins writing. It's what she knows how to do. The prolific author has, tragically, been in this position before. Her older son, Vincent, died by suicide in 2017. In her transcendent new book, she writes that she does not ruminate on grief, because to grieve suggests a process to which there is an end. She knows that to continue living is to accept that she will be a parent to her children for the rest of her life. In sparing prose that cuts deeply, Li examines the relationship between language and loss, honoring the sons who she carries with her, always.— Annabel Gutterman Emma Pattee's Tilt is an apocalyptic nightmare come to life. Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping at Ikea when Oregon is hit with 'the big one'—the earthquake that people in the Pacific Northwest have been anticipating for years. Pattee's thrilling debut tracks Annie's journey through rubble, chaos, hope, and despair as she searches for her husband amid the disaster. Tilt is a propulsive account of survival, and how humanity shows up under the pressure of a catastrophe. As she treks across Portland, Annie flashes back to moments that shed light on her life choices thus far. Her marriage and career are thrust under a microscope as she encounters others in crisis: the wounded, the searching, the lost, and the desperate. Best read in one sitting, Tilt is a raw examination of motherhood and its most extreme demands.— Meg Zukin
