Modern Beauty Trends: In: Kate McKinnon

Monday, October 16, 2017

In: Kate McKinnon | Out: KonMari

SNL finally tackles Harvey Weinstein, meanwhile Happy Death Day has a happy weekend at the box office.
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“Better to be busy than to be busy worrying.” - Angela Lansbury

Happy Death Day

That Other (Sort Of) Wonder Woman Movie

There’s a reason why Hollywood churns out so many low-budget horror movies. Every once in a while they really connect with audiences and drive big business. That’s what happened this weekend with Happy Death Day, a story of a woman who has to relive the day she was murdered over and over again until she catches the killer. It brought in a very nice $26.5 million. Especially impressive considering it was made for a reported $4.8 million. In second place, Blade Runner 2049 continues to mellow with a second week take of $15.1 million. Meanwhile, Baby Boomer action flick The Foreigner, which co-stars Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, did decently with about $12.8 million, and as a Chinese co-production it can also expect to perform well overseas. Concerning this weekend’s two prestige-but-not-quite-awards-bait dramas, Marshall did alright with about $3 million, but Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (a film about Wonder Woman’s creator) flopped with just $737,000 despite decent enough reviews.

Debette Goldry

Problematic Men

The Harvey Weinstein scandal continues to make waves in Hollywood (meaning, even more victims have come forward with accusations, and Weinstein was expelled from the motion pictures academy). After last weekend’s notable silence, Saturday Night Live finally decided to tackle the scandal with some pointed jokes during Weekend Update, plus a sketch that made clever use of Kate McKinnon’s Debette Goldry character in which the veteran actress tells bizarre (but somehow believable, actually) tales of Golden Age Hollywood’s treatment of women. “Everything old is new again. Producers are abusing starlets, there’s Nazis marching in the street, suddenly nude pantyhose are on trend–I’ve never felt more at home,” the character quipped. Meanwhile, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, and, for some reason, Mayim Bialik made statements about the situation that they probably should have kept to themselves. Björk, who once won best actress at Cannes before retiring from acting, also claimed she was sexually harassed on set by a “Danish director,” hence why she decided to retire from acting.

Death Cleaning

KonMari

Feng Shui. Hygge. KonMari. We Americans sure love foreign cleaning, organizing, and decorating trends, but are we ready döstädning? Oh, sorry, to be more clear that’s Swedish for “death cleaning.” Yes, it’s the philosophy of slowly getting rid of all your possessions to the bare minimum so you don’t burden your loved ones with all your leftover junk when you pass. Swedes may be some of the happiest people in the world according to science, but damn if they’re not existential as well. Margareta Magnusson’s hit book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning will be published in America for the first time early next year, but who knows if it will catch on here? This is America, where we refuse to truly accept death and love our junk.

Voices 4 Chechnya

@Voices4_

Grassroots group Voices 4 Chechnya staged a march from the Stonewall Inn to Trump Tower over the weekend to bring attention to the plight of gay men in Chechnya. View exclusive pictures of the protest here.