Latest news with #Lucy
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Cruise ship worker reveals whether 'all-inclusive' deals are REALLY worth it
It often seems like everything is included on a cruise. But first-timers might be shocked to learn that 'all-inclusive' doesn't necessarily mean they won't face a bill at the end of their cruise. Cruise crew worker, Lucy (@cruisingascrew), has warned cruise newbies that there are lot of things that are 'not included' in the initial package. In a YouTube video called 'Cruise Mistakes First-Times Always Make (Don't be that person'), Lucy reveals: 'An all-inclusive cruise is not the same as an all-inclusive hotel on land.' So what might not included in the price of a cruise? Food Lucy says: 'Yes, your food is going to be included in your initial cruise fare'. However, if the cruise has speciality restaurants, guests will usually need to pay extra to enjoy them. First-timers might be shocked to learn that 'all-inclusive' doesn't necessarily mean they won't face a bill at the end of their cruise Speciality restaurants are often themed and aren't included in the price of the cruise holiday. This isn't the case on every cruise line, and all speciality restaurants are included on Virgin Voyages. Drinks 'Once you're onboard, you are going to be prompted to buy a drinks package,' explains Lucy. Alcoholic drinks are rarely included in the price of a cruise package and guests can either pay as they go or opt for a drinks package. A drinks package may be better value if holidaymakers are planning to drink a lot while they're away. Wi-Fi Wi-Fi may not be included as part of your cruise package, explains Lucy. It can be really expensive to use data on a cruise as guests may cross through different countries as they sail. If you're planning to use the Internet a lot while away, it might be a good idea to opt for a Wi-Fi package. Gratuities Lucy says: 'You're also going to have to pay your gratuities at the end of the cruise which is something that a lot of new cruisers get surprised by. 'They do not even know that they're going to have to pay gratuities at the end of the cruise, but you will.' Tips are usually charged at the end of the cruise so it's important to factor in this cost to the overall price of the trip. Excursions Excursions aren't compulsory on a cruise and guests can choose whether they want to explore on their own or join a tour. Lucy says: 'If you decide you want to do an excursion in one of the ports, that's going to be extra.' Holidaymakers can book excursions before their cruise and this is sometimes advised as the most popular trips can sell out.
NZ Herald
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
How a salary figure changes everything in Materialists
By making the number explicit, Celine Song's new film reflects modern dating realities in a way rom-coms rarely have before. Almost everyone who sees Materialists, writer-director Celine Song's new spin on the old romantic comedy formula, seems to want to talk about one number: US$80,000 ($132,000). That's how much Lucy
Forbes
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Celine Song On ‘Materialists': ‘I Really Believe That Love Is A Miracle When It Happens'
Past Lives director Celine Song is back with what already feels like an all-time classic romantic drama, Materialists. 'Materialists' directed by Celine Song Song's feature debut and critically acclaimed Past Lives earned many awards and countless nominations in 2023, including a nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars. With Materialists, which features a stellar cast including Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, Song cements her work in the tradition of classic romance films by legendary filmmakers such as Nora Ephron or James L. Brooks. Song shot Materialists in 35mm which, combined with her precise and elegant writing, gives the movie a classy and comforting atmosphere. In her new film, Song questions modern dating and the impact that money -and therefore the lack of- can have on romantic relationships. I caught up with Song who was in Paris, at the Champs-Elysées Film Festival, where she was presenting Materialists to the French audience. Paris and New York can be regarded as twin cities to a certain extent and many romance movies have been shot in the city of love in the past, so I asked the filmmaker if she might consider shooting a future project in Paris. She said, 'Oh my God! That's so sweet! I mean Paris is such an inspiring city, I feel like I would love to make something here, that sounds so amazing. I know the French crew is so strong, and cinema is such a powerful center here, so I would love that, that sounds so fun!' She added: 'I was thinking about sharing Materialists here last night, and it's kind of the same concerns in the way that we have to be both so romantic and cynical just to survive here. Like, to live in a city like New York and I can imagine Paris, you have to believe that it's your home and there's so much romance in it, but it's because it's so hard to live here. The quality of living is so low, and it is so hard to pay rent, so you have to believe in the dream. Living in New York is a dream, but to survive there you also have to be realistic and practical and cynical too. So, that's why I think New York was the perfect setting for Materialists, and sharing it with the Paris audience, there are so many things that resonate here because there are twin cities.' In Materialists, Johnson portrays Lucy, a New York matchmaker who finds herself in a love triangle when she meets Harry (Pedro Pascal), a charismatic and successful man. The same night, she reconnects with her ex-boyfriend, John (Chris Evans), an aspiring theatre actor. Celine Song, Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans while filming 'Materialists' Lucy sees love and marriage as a 'business transaction' and as the logical consequence of non-negotiables, such as height, age and income. In Lucy's job, all these data must be taken into account to satisfy her client's needs. And when a date doesn't go as planned for her clients, Lucy has a motto, 'Upward and onward.' There's no time to dwell or feel sorry for oneself, life goes on and so does the dating market. 'So much of the movie is about how much we objectify each other and ourselves. And one of the most important lines in the film is 'I'm not merchandise, I'm a person.' So part of this 'Onward and upwards' is the way that we are always being asked to think about ourselves as an object that has value, and we always have to improve our value. So it's a corporate language, but we're talking about a personal, romantic rejection. And when Lucy says that, she's trying to turn it into a corporate idea,' Song told me. When a movie mentions money a lot, things can soon start to feel very pragmatic, cold, and anti-romantic. However, Song's writing of those themes, especially through Lucy's point of view, which is her fear of being stuck in a relationship where money might become a problem, manages to create the most romantic lines and scenes in the movie. Song said, 'I feel like it's about the way we introduce the language of money, which is very cold. So the most romantic lines in this movie, and it's only possible because the movie is called Materialists, are lines such as 'Deal' or 'How would you like to make a very bad financial decision?' Those lines feel like they could be from The Wolf of Wall Street, but the truth is that, of course they are the most romantic lines in the film. So much of it is about the acceptance of it, how much this language has become a part of the way we talk about love.' We then talked about how much the characters in the film mention money, compared to how very little French people talk about money, especially during a date. Song said, 'We think about the fact that it is impolite to talk about money, and I always have to ask the follow up question, 'Who is it impolite for ?'' For the director, people might regard this topic as impolite because they don't want to reveal themselves with numbers. She added: 'We should talk about that thing that is a little bit taboo, like it's not really polite in the U.S. either, but because of how much economic pressure everybody is under, even the taboo things are out. Lucy offers it openly, she's like 'I make $80K a year!' And what that does, is that it put us in a position where we have to accept that we either make more than her or less. And the truth is most of us make less.' But what about true love? True connection? Those are the questions Song tries to answer regarding modern dating. Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal She said, 'This is something I learned while I was working as a matchmaker. Something that I was really shocked by is that behind closed doors, in a way that they would not speak of, in front of anyone else, clients were telling me all the numbers that they wanted and that were their non-negotiables like height, weight, age, income. There's a very specific way that people say 'I will not date somebody who is over 30.' Or 'I will not date somebody under 6 feet tall.'' She added: 'But what happened? Dating was supposed to be a game we all played in the pursuit of love. I had just got married, and it seemed to me that love or even marriage had nothing to do with these numbers. If I ask my husband, 'Why do you love me?' I don't think he will say a single number.' For Song, love 'won't have anything to do with numbers, it will always be simpler.' She added: 'It's about the way we are animals, and we are beyond numbers. In the middle of all that, we're going to completely lose sight of what it is like to actually have a proper connection and have a proper miracle happen. Because I really believe that love is a miracle when it happens, and it's mysterious as a miracle, and it's an ancient mystery.' In recent interviews, Song mentioned that she does not believe in love at first sight, but in love at first conversation. Watching Materialists, I saw Pascal's character, the 'Unicorn' as Lucy's love at first sight and Evans' character as love at first conversation. When one of Lucy's client is assaulted during a date, the only person Lucy wants to talk to is John, even though she is dating Harry. She calls her ex-boyfriend in tears, while he sits on the ground, listen to her and is simply there for her in the moment. I asked Song about the writing of this scene, and particularly the heartache and longing that emanates from that moment. She said, 'Harry and Lucy, they do in a way, fall in love at first conversation, but as business partners, right? When you think about the way that they meet, and Harry undresses her and her job, to really assess her value as a working person, that really speaks about the way the two of them connect. And of course, with Lucy and John, what you realize is that there are a couple of kids or something. There is a part of that where there is no reason, it's 'I just like hearing your voice, I just like talking to you and that's it. I don't have anything to offer beyond that. But when I think about you, I just want to spend time with you. I just know I could do this forever.' So it's a very different thing, but it's the only thing.'' Song added: 'When Lucy says, 'Love has to be on the table,' sometimes, the response to my movie is 'I am single, are you saying that in order for me to not be single, I have to lower my standards?' and my response is that I would never ask anyone to lower their standards when it comes to a thing that you are entitled to. And the thing that you are entitled to, it's not height, it's not weight, it's not age or income. The only thing that you're entitled from the person who loves you, is that they love you. Love is the only thing you're entitled to from the person who loves you.' Song shared how concerned she is that love or the idea of a romantic relationship and the value of it all might be questioned. She said, 'I feel like the value of love is constantly questioned in the way that no one seems to question the value of a Birkin bag. No one seems to be asking 'Why does this bag cost five times someone's salary? How can that be?' No one asks that question, but the thing that people are constantly wondering is 'Well, is love even worth it?' And to me that's the most heartbreaking thing. And I think, the way we're moving away from love is the way we are moving away from being humans. That's why the line 'I'm not merchandise, I'm a person' is such an important line in the film. And it's a line I'm always going back to.' 'Materialists' In Past Lives, Song wrote about the Korean term 'Inyeon', which is a word used to describe providence, fate and the connection we have with each other, even with a stranger on the street. So are Lucy and John each other's 'Inyeon'? During a gorgeously shot and perfectly paced sequence where Lucy and John crash a wedding, they start dancing to Baby Rose's original song for the film, That's All. The connection between the two characters is so palpable and we are so completely immersed in this romantic scene that we almost forget that it's not actually their wedding. 'Oh my God, Baby Rose is the best! What a completely romantic song, you know, it's just that, 'That's all!'' Song also explained that she wanted to ask the question, 'What is love worth?' She said, 'The less we talk about it, the less we're gonna feel like human beings and that's when we start losing our value, just like love is. That, to me, is really the impulse behind this movie.' She added: 'A person might be able to experience the miracle, which is to love someone. The movie is so much about the objectification and qualification of each other. And what we know about the objectification of a human being, is that it's always going to be dehumanization. That's also connected to what Harry does to his body. That's just something I really wanted to talk about, I'm very concerned about it, and it's worthy of a conversation.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Digested week: It's summer, and I am a burnt smorgasbord for every bug
Peak bear performance was attained today, at Wildwood Devon near Ottery St Mary (also peak British placename performance, but that need not detain us here). Two five-year-old European brown bears, Mish and Lucy (no relation), escaped from their enclosure at the park and headed straight for its cafe's food stores, where they happily ploughed their way through a week's worth of honey before being gently lured back home with a bell and some other snacks, whereupon Mish promptly fell asleep. It's perfect. The Teddy Bears' Picnic (what a big surprise in the woods it must have been, especially to whoever was responsible for keeping the enclosure secure!), Winnie-the-Pooh, a suggestion of Paddington in the eminent reasonableness of it all, plus European brown bears being by far the cutest and most childhood-teddy-like of all. This is the good news story we need. Enjoy it. The year is shaping up … badly. Mish and Lucy were originally rescued from an Albanian snow drift. I am on my way to Devon to ask them for directions back there. Summer, the vilest of all seasons is properly here. Once again I appear to have neglected to get my air-conditioned bunker built in time and so I am stuck on this boiling isle, whose architecture, culture, working and retail hours are designed to cope only with temperatures of 'brisk' and below. I was born in a cardigan. That is how I need to live. Not least because when I am forced to expose skin to sun it not only burns but makes me an instant smorgasbord of haemo-delights for any and every passing bug. I say passing – I'm pretty sure some of them fly in specially, a date on their little bug calendars saying: 'Mangan meat feast begins'. Bastards. Venomous little bastards. From now until the end of August, I am an ambulant mass of swellings, slippery with hydrocortisone cream and stuporous with anti-histamine meds. 'Does not cause drowsiness' they say. They do if you take them by the boxful, fools. This year I plan to pay my child to rub me lightly with sandpaper all evening to relieve the itching, and to invest in a mosquito net while I draw up the bunker blueprints and break ground for 2026. People of Britain. *shakes head sorrowfully*. People of Britain, you are upsetting the brave asset management companies of this country. News breaks that we are saving too much. In cash, of all things! Instead of investing in stocks and shares – thereby helping the economy, and asset management companies – we are insisting on having ready access to a certain and definable store of our money so that we can ride out personal and professional crises as well as the boring, ongoing one apparently without end known as 'the cost of living'. Will no one think of the global funds and their traders (I hope I'm using these words correctly – could a rich person check)? If we all just keep hold of our cash and use it to pay for basic goods and services, where's the excitement? Where are the ecstatic highs and perilous lows of playing the markets? Is the economy just supposed to manage without our contributions? We're there to serve it, remember, not the other way round! I love the world of finance, in which everything is turned upside down and everyone looks at you as if pound coins are sentient and that this is exactly the way things are supposed to be. It enables me to look at the nugatory balance in my determinedly current account paying no interest and feel that at least I am by my simple absence from the FTSE 100 sticking it to The Man. 'What do you want for your tea when you come on Friday?' Mum asks me on the WhatsApp family chat because my sister and I taught her how to use the app after Dad died, heedless of the consequences because we weren't thinking straight. 'Chicken and mushroom, please.' 'No.' 'But you said you'd made some last week?' 'That was for the freezer.' Sensing the need for back up approaching, my sister joins. 'Are you saying – that it can't come out of the freezer? Does it have to stay in the freezer for ever? I remind you that we have power of attorney come the day we have proof your mental faculties have deteriorated to dangerous levels.' 'Not for ever. But it hasn't been in there long.' 'So – like not being able to sit on the sofa for two hours after you've plumped the cushions, we can't eat food from the freezer until it's been in there long enough for you to revel in the results of your labour?' 'Also, I've only done portions for three. There'll only be two of us.' '…' says my sister. '…' say I. We're having a Co-op fish pie. Break out the bubbly and throw on your glad rags – the wedding is about to begin! Jeff Bezos and his money have arrived in Venice to join with fiancee Láuren Sanchez in holy matrimony, at an estimated cost of between £34m and £41m, or about two hours and 40 minutes of the Amazon founder's earnings. It has everything a wedding should have. The Kardashians, a newly-single Orlando Bloom, and widespread protests at the multi-billionaire essentially renting the entire city for the three-day nuptial event. You have to hope, though, that at its heart it is the same as every other wedding. And I do believe that money cannot buy certain things. It cannot buy, I suspect, guests who truly want to take three days out of their busy lives and in uncomfortable shoes to watch two people say some vows in a church, however garlanded, and then be forced to celebrate their bliss for hours and hours thereafter, no matter how free-flowing or top quality the booze. Money can't buy an absence of boring relatives or freedom from the fear of being seated beside one. Above all, of course, money can't buy love. Though I am sure this precious state of grace is absolutely at the core of this extravaganza. The rest is noise. Especially from the Kardashian table, I suspect.
Buzz Feed
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Why Celine Song's Authentic Love Stories Matter
Materialists, directed by Celine Song, has hit theatres—and it has audiences split on love and modern-day dating. I saw it and fell in love. Because no matter what the audience says, Celine Song's movies are a thing of beauty, and they evoke something so human, that they make you feel again in the age of desensitization. The film starts with Dakota Johnson's character, Lucy, a matchmaker, trying to find the perfect person who 'checks all the boxes' for her clients. Her clients come up with ridiculous, far-fetched requirements for their person, and Lucy is almost always positive that she can find THE one for them. But over the course of the film, the notion of checking all these requirements breaks down when Lucy realizes that in the search of the soulmate, she never considered love to be a non-negotiable on the table. Lucy is torn between Harry (Pedro Pascal), the wealthy 'unicorn' with a $12 million penthouse, and John (Chris Evans), her kind but financially unstable ex. Though her non-negotiable is that her partner be wealthy, she's unsure of who truly fits for her. She dates Harry, who doesn't put more effort into loving her, but takes her out to luxurious places. However, in the toughest of moments, she finds herself relying on John, who always answers when she calls. The film explores how modern love is heavily influenced by materialism and consumerism. Harry uses his wealth to shower Lucy with luxuries, presuming it was a replacement for genuine affection. Lucy ultimately breaks up with him, realizing that love was never on the table—his money was. In this moment, Celine Song offers us a quiet salvation through her film—reminding us that our worth isn't measured by materialistic values and how we sell ourselves, but by our ability to engage in heartfelt conversations that expose our vulnerabilities. Looking for love that makes us feel seen for who we are, instead of what we are, is the point. And John was the one who saw Lucy as who she was, and not for what she was: a matchmaker. Harry liked her and assumed she knew love because she was a matchmaker, but didn't dig deeper than that. Materialists brings back honest conversations about navigating love—about letting ourselves be vulnerable, even foolish, in love, instead of trying to control it. And it's a wake-up call. Appearing on NYT's podcast Modern Love, Celine Song shared on the recurring theme of the film: "Dating is very difficult and love is very easy, and that's the hardest thing about it. Love when you are in it, it's something you can't help and can't control, and it's just something that happens. And in that way, it's so easy but that's what so difficult about it, and that's you don't have control. And in the modern world, all we want to do is control. Go to the gym, botox—everything is there to increase your value in the stock market of dating." Song believes that love demands complete surrender —a letting go of sorts. Lucy clung to the checkboxes of her ideal match, tethered to worldly expectations. It wasn't until her client confronted her—pointing out she'd matched her with someone she never truly knew, leading to the unfortunate event—that Lucy realized the man she was building for her clients never existed. And if he never existed, how could love ever exist in that relationship? Trust me, I get it—no one wants to face the discomfort of love becoming a marketplace. We've grown numb, treating potential partners like products to be sold. Gen Z and millenials are holding onto standards and expectations from people before even attempting to know the person they are meeting. Having high standards is good, but not from the get-go. Given that, the internet is claiming that the film is serving the 'broke man propaganda'—where the girl chooses love with the broke guy over the rich one. This narrative feeds into the idea of giving less importance to love and entirely focusing on material aspects, supporting the idea of love as a capitalist commodity. And for those who saw the film, the plot clearly goes against this notion. "It's quite fashionable to be classist to each other..." is what Song has to say about the 'broke man propaganda' allegations. Song believes in "love at first conversation." To her, love is about being humbled as well as adored, and being totally fine with all of it. Letting go is allowing yourself to feel love and not avoid it by trying to control your emotions. Love is a language, many say. Between Lucy and John, it was the lingering gaze, the unspoken understanding, and the quiet pull toward what felt like home—a connection where few words were needed, yet everything was heard. It was their own language of love, which was natural and easy. It was why Lucy always found herself relying on John, all the way till the end. Sure many fans were let down expecting the How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days romantic comedy, but I strongly belief alongside Song, that this kind of film was much needed for us. The film is messy, uncomfortable, raw, romantic, sad, hopeful—a mixture of emotions which threw audiences off. And that's why its so beautiful—it is what love is really like. It's something we all had forgotten, before Materialists came along.
