Aurelia Butler

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    How They Pulled Off That Wild ‘Mission: Impossible’ Plane Stunt

    Of the many storied stunts that Tom Cruise has performed over eight “Mission Impossible” movies — scaling the world’s tallest building in Dubai, riding a motorcycle off a Norwegian cliff, retrieving a stolen ledger from an underwater centrifuge — it seems unlikely that one of the most shock-and-awe set pieces in the series’ nearly 30-year history would involve two old-timey biplanes that look like they should have Snoopy at the controls.And yet many viewers have emerged from the newest installment of the franchise, “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” astonished by that scene: a 12-and-a-half-minute sequence in which Cruise’s seemingly indefatigable special agent, Ethan Hunt, hitches a ride on the undercarriage of a small brightly colored aircraft, overtakes the pilot, then leaps onto another plane midair to fistfight the film’s grinning villain (Esai Morales) — all while being bashed and batted by the elements like a human windsock.If it looks as if Cruise is genuinely getting blown sideways in the sky, it’s because he was. The actor’s well-known penchant for performing his own stunts meant that the scene was shot largely as it appears onscreen, minus the digital removal in postproduction of certain elements like safety harnesses and a secondary pilot.Most “Mission” stunts, said Christopher McQuarrie, who has directed the last four films in the series, begin with either finding or building the right vehicle for the job. In this case it was a Boeing Stearman, primarily used to train fighter pilots during World War II. Eventually, the production bought multiples: two red, two yellow — “because if you have just one plane and that plane breaks,” he explained, “the whole movie shuts down.”“The colder it gets, the faster Tom gets hypothermia on the wing,” the director Christopher McQuarrie said about the dangers of shooting the scene.Paramount PicturesAccording to the stunt coordinator and second unit director, Wade Eastwood, Cruise, 62, trained for months on the ground before the full concept took flight. “Tom’s already a very established and very proficient pilot,” Eastwood said, “but being on the wing of a plane is not something that people do. So we tied it down and put out big fans and wind machines, and we had the prop running just to see what the effects would be on the body, and it was absolutely exhausting. I mean, you’re fighting the biggest resistance band you’ve ever fought in your life.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Kyra Sedgwick Wants More Middle-Aged Sex Onscreen

    The actress, currently starring in “Bad Shabbos,” on ’90s rock, Miranda July and “PBS NewsHour.”Kyra Sedgwick can relate to the Upper West Side matriarch she portrays in her latest film, “Bad Shabbos.”“I very much have all the trope attributes of Jewish motherhood,” she said. “I really want to know that you’ve eaten, and if you’re hungry I’ll make you something. I want to make sure you’re not too cold or too hot. I want to know what you had for breakfast.”“Bad Shabbos” centers on a Shabbat dinner that goes spectacularly off the rails, but Sedgwick finds the sentiments it evokes to be universal. “Like them or not, they’re your family,” she said in a video call from Austin, Texas, where she and her husband, Kevin Bacon, and their children, Travis and Sosie, are making a comedy-horror movie about a family of filmmakers.“It is not us, but it is inspired by us,” she said before elaborating on why ’90s rock, “All Fours” by Miranda July and the meditation teacher Tara Brach are among her must-haves. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.‘Liberation’ by Bess WohlBess Wohl is extraordinary. Basically it’s about this woman who’s now in her 30s trying to figure out who her mother was in the genesis of women’s lib. And she’s imagining what that was like and asking, “What did we get wrong?” I think the message of the play is: We didn’t get it wrong. The world got it wrong.Fleur de Thé Rose Bulgare by CreedI’m just heartbroken because they stopped making it. I’m not a big perfume person, but I’ve been wearing it for 20, 25 years, and all of a sudden they’re putting it in the vault. And there’s really not much to say except that I just loved it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Smokey Robinson Faced a Sexual Assault Allegation in 2015

    No charges were filed because of what the authorities said was insufficient evidence. The singer has been accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing four women, which he denies.A 2015 sexual assault allegation against the Motown singer Smokey Robinson was presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, but no charges were filed because of insufficient evidence, the office said on Friday.In a brief statement in response to inquiries from The New York Times, the district attorney’s office said that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had brought it the allegation in 2015. It did not provide further details, citing a criminal investigation that the sheriff’s office opened into Mr. Robinson this month.News of a previous allegation comes weeks after four anonymous women filed a lawsuit accusing Mr. Robinson of sexually abusing them repeatedly over many years while they worked for him as housekeepers.Three of the four women worked for the Robinson family in 2015, according to their court papers, but their lawyers, John Harris and Herbert Hayden, said on Friday that none of their clients made the 2015 allegation.Mr. Harris and Mr. Hayden said in a statement that the decision by the district attorney’s office to not file charges that year “underscores the significant challenges victims face when reporting incidents of sexual assault, particularly when the alleged perpetrator is a powerful and well-known figure.”Lawyers for Mr. Robinson have denied the allegations against him and filed a cross-complaint on Wednesday suing the women and their lawyers for defamation. One of those lawyers, Christopher Frost, said on Friday that he and his team were “pleased” that “the L.A. district attorney has confirmed there was no basis to file charges a decade ago.”“One unfortunate aspect of celebrity is that it is not uncommon to be the target of spurious and unsubstantiated allegations,” the statement continued.A spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department confirmed it had handled a 2015 allegation in the manner described by the district attorney’s office but did not provide additional details. More

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    Yasunao Tone Dead: Experimental Composer and Fluxus Artist Was 90

    A Japanese-born multimedia artist whose associates included John Cage and Yoko Ono, he pushed digital music past its breaking point.Yasunao Tone, an experimental composer and multimedia artist associated with the Fluxus movement who used manipulations of digital technology to turn digital technology against itself, including a 48-minute exercise in aural endurance made up of squawks and bleeps from a mangled compact disc, died on May 12 in Manhattan. He was 90.His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by Artists Space, a New York contemporary art nonprofit that presented a retrospective of his career in 2023.Before moving to New York City in the early 1970s, Mr. Tone, a native of Tokyo, was a founding member of Group Ongaku, a groundbreaking free-improvisation ensemble, and of Team Random, an early computer art collective.He became an influential figure in the Japanese wing of Fluxus, the loose-knit avant-garde movement that began in the early 1960s, whose members included John Cage, the experimental composer; Nam June Paik, the video art pioneer; and Yoko Ono, the conceptual artist. All of those artists influenced his work.Mr. Tone, left, performing in 1976 with Suzanne Fletcher.via the Estate of Yasunao ToneWhatever the medium, the guiding principle of Fluxus was to “promote a revolutionary flood and tide in art, promote living art, anti-art,” as its founder, the artist George Maciunas, once put it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Says He’d ‘Look at the Facts’ of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Case: Latest Trial Takeaways

    President Trump discussed if he would consider a pardon for Sean Combs, while in court, an ex-assistant testified about sexual abuse. Mr. Combs denies sexually assaulting anyone.As the third week of Sean Combs’s racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking trial came to a close on Friday, the second woman to testify that she was sexually abused by him came under close questioning by the music mogul’s lawyers. The woman, who took the stand under the pseudonym Mia, spoke about eight grueling years working for Mr. Combs in an environment characterized by sleep deprivation and violent outbursts.In the afternoon, President Trump commented on the trial, saying that although no one had asked about a potential pardon, he would be open to looking “at the facts” of the case.The music mogul has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. His lawyers have acknowledged their client has a history of violence and a “bad temper,” but assert he is not a racketeer or sex trafficker.Here are some takeaways from the day in court.Mia faced her former boss’s lawyers.Mia testified that Mr. Combs threatened her, threw objects at her and sexually assaulted her during her years working for him. Prosecutors have accused him of subjecting her to forced labor — including sexual activity — through violence and threats of serious harm.During cross-examination, Brian Steel, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, sought to show the jury another side of Mia’s time working for the famous record producer. The defense displayed dozens of posts from her Instagram account, many of which showed her posing beside or celebrating Mr. Combs, whom she called a “mentor” and an “inspiration,” as well as marveling at her good fortune to be working for him — years after she says he first sexually assaulted her.“Why would you promote the person who has stolen your happiness in life?” Mr. Steel asked.“Those are the only people I was around, so that was my life,” Mia replied, describing her time working for Mr. Combs as a “confusing cycle of ups and downs.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Lorde’s Anthem of Transformation, and 9 More New Songs

    Hear tracks by Miley Cyrus featuring Brittany Howard, Thom Yorke, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Lorde, ‘Man of the Year’“I’ve become someone else, someone more like myself,” Lorde sings, somewhere between pride and astonishment, in “Man of the Year,” the second single from her album due in June, “Virgin.” It’s a crescendo of self-transformation, from quietly plucked cello to full-band stomp, as Lorde seizes the masculinity within herself. In the video clip, she flattens her breasts, taping them down with duct tape; she ponders, “Who’s gonna love me like this?” and then proclaims, “Now I’m broken open / Let’s hear it for the man of the year.”Miley Cyrus featuring Brittany Howard, ‘Walk of Fame’“Walk of Fame,” from “Something Beautiful,” the new Miley Cyrus album, turns the proverbial morning-after walk of shame into something prouder: “I walk the concrete like it’s a stage.” The song is mostly formulaic disco, thumping away. But the voice of Brittany Howard — adding little responses and wordless overlays, then promising “You’ll live forever”— gives it some gravity.Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, ‘Urges’Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, an dedicated electronic-pop experimenter, toys with and displaces dance-floor rhythms in “Urges,” from her coming album, “Gush.” She whisper-sings “I keep getting urges /What if I just let them move through me like this” while brittle programmed syncopations, disembodied voices and distant, tootling arpeggios materialize around her voice; even as the sounds disintegrate, the pulse is danceable.Santana and Grupo Frontera, ‘Me Retiro’Two generations of Mexican American musicians — the Texas band Grupo Frontera and the guitarist Carlos Santana — make a natural combination in “Me Retiro” (“I’m Leaving”), a song about trying to drink away a heartbreak. Santana sits in with the Grupo Frontera band and, rightly, takes over; his guitar slices through the clip-clop beat and accordion chords and compounds the sorrows that Adelaido “Payo” Solís III sings about.Obongjayar featuring Little Simz, ‘Talk Olympics’Obongjayar — Steven Umoh, a Nigerian musician based in London — has a new album, “Paradise Now,” that’s full of inventive, Pan-African electronic grooves like the zippy staccato propulsion of “Talk Olympics.” With an octave-bouncing bass line and the sounds of balafons, drums, synthesizers and sampled voices, Obongjayar and Little Simz take turns complaining about someone who’s far too chatty: “I let you speak, that was my mistake,” Little Simz notes; Obongjayar adds, in his sweetest falsetto, “Shut up! Shut up!”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Sydney Sweeney and Dr. Squatch Launch Soap Infused With Actress’s Bathwater

    Calling the requests “weird in the best way,” the actress worked with Dr. Squatch on a soap that has a manly scent and just a touch of her actual bath water.Sydney Sweeney, the actress known for her roles in “Euphoria,” “Anyone But You” and a host of other buzzy movies and TV shows, is the face of a new bar of soap, purportedly made with a special ingredient: her own bath water. The internet may take quite some time to recover from this news.The product, “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss,” is a collaboration with Dr. Squatch, a men’s personal care company that describes itself as using natural ingredients and “manly scents.”The actress announced the new soap on Instagram. Her caption referenced a previous advertisement she had done with Dr. Squatch, saying, “You kept asking about my bathwater after the @drsquatch ad… so we kept it.”In a news release, Ms. Sweeney said the requests for her bath water were “weird in the best way.”The limited-edition bar of soap, made with sand, pine bark extract and a “touch” of Ms. Sweeney’s real bath water, according to the company, will be go on sale June 6. Leaning in to the salacious nature of the product, an Instagram post by Dr. Squatch included a provocative description of the soap’s scent.“There’s no playbook for turning Sydney Sweeney’s actual bath water into a bar of soap, but that’s exactly why we did it,” John Ludeke, the senior vice president of global marketing for Dr. Squatch, said in the company’s news release. “We thrive on ideas that make you laugh.”The limited-edition bar of soap is made with sand, pine bark extract and a “touch” of Ms. Sweeney’s real bath water, according to Dr. Squatch.Dr. SquatchNearly as eye-catching as soap made from the slosh of one’s own bathing ritual are the reactions to it on social media. Users’ remarks have run the gamut, from extremely vulgar to celebratory. Others were simply asking, “Why?”In a Reddit thread that questioned whether Ms. Sweeney’s new product was preying on the loneliness of men, Meera Gregerson, 28, said she did not view selling a product to people as predatory.“I think that the fact that she’s been sexualized and made to be a sex icon in some ways as a celebrity — I think it’s fair for her to also want to make money off of that,” Ms. Gregerson said in a phone interview. “I don’t think it’s that different from her selling movies using her appearance as a selling point.”Multiple social media users have pointed out that Ms. Sweeney’s new product is reminiscent of a stunt from Belle Delphine, an adult content creator with a large social media following, who made headlines in 2019 for selling her own bath water.Chad Grauke, 39, who also took to Reddit to share his reaction to the soap, said he did not take issue with the product itself, but was more so curious about “what type of person is buying this stuff.”“I don’t feel it’s the lonely hermit as much as it’s the bro who thinks he has a chance,” Mr. Grauke said. More

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    Peter Seiffert, Acclaimed Tenor in Wagner’s Operas, Is Dead at 71

    A German tenor, he was admired for his clear, powerful voice and his exceptional stamina during hourslong performances.Peter Seiffert, a German tenor admired for his clear, powerful renditions of Wagner, died on April 14 at his home in Schleedorf, Austria, near Salzburg. He was 71.His death was announced by his agent, Hilbert Artists Management, which didn’t specify a cause but said that Mr. Seiffert had suffered from a “severe illness.”Mr. Seiffert was the archetype “heldentenor,” or heroic tenor in German, one of the rarest and most sought-after types of voices in opera. The leading roles in much of Wagner’s work — Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan, Parsifal — demand big tenor voices of exceptional strength and stamina, able to withstand the most extreme vocal demands over hourslong performances.Wagner himself wanted a tenor that was the opposite of what he had been hearing in the Italian opera of his day, which he considered “unmanly, soft and completely lacking in energy,” he wrote in an essay on the performing of the opera “Tannhäuser.”Mr. Seiffert had the sort of voice that Wagner sought, in the view of critics: It projected strength. Over the nearly five hours of “Tannhäuser,” his voice rang out clear and true, from the bottom of his range to the top. The effort was intense.“You don’t become the knight of the High C just for fun and games,” he told the online magazine Backstage Classical in 1996.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More