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    In ‘The Other Two,’ Drew Tarver and Heléne Yorke Are Almost Famous

    What’s it like to be fame-adjacent? The premise of this dark HBO Max comedy was in some ways familiar territory for its two stars. That may not last.Drew Tarver’s room at the Bowery Hotel was bright. It was comfortable. It overlooked a cemetery, but not in a creepy way. When Tarver arrived, jet-lagged and rain-soaked after a late flight from Los Angeles, he found a Bowery-branded teddy bear on the bed and a bottle of red wine on the cafe table, compliments of the manager.The next morning, the actress Heléne Yorke, 36, took the elevator to his room. As Tarver hid his retainer case, Yorke read the manager’s note, which addressed him as Mr. Tarver. “Who do they think you are?” Yorke teased.Tarver, 35, is a star of the dark comedy “The Other Two,” which began its life on Comedy Central but returns for Season 2 on HBO Max, starting Thursday. He plays Cary Dubek, a gay aspiring actor. Yorke plays his sister, Brooke, a former dancer. Harassed by survival jobs, man troubles and housing crises, they lead lives of loud desperation until their much younger brother, Chase (Case Walker), becomes a tween sensation — or, as one newscaster puts it, “the next big white kid.”During the first season, Brooke and Cary ride Chase’s designer coattails, clumsily. In the second, each has achieved some success. Drew now presents a red carpet segment called “Age Net Worth Feet.” Brooke manages Chase and their mother, Pat (Molly Shannon), who has become a talk-show host.In some ways, this limited celebrity parallels Tarver’s and Yorke’s own lives. After years of appearing in niche fare, they are finally fame-adjacent. “We’re still not famous,” Yorke said. She looked out of Tarver’s window. The rooms next to his, she noticed, were nicer. They had little balconies.“Turns out my bottle of wine isn’t so great after all,” Tarver said.“Being in your late 20s, early 30s, watching other people surpass you, it’s really disorienting,” Yorke said. “It gives you this hunger and this thirst that is all-encompassing.”Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesEven as “The Other Two,” created by the former “Saturday Night Live” writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, is a rapier-sharp satire of the entertainment industry, it also presents an unusually warm and functional relationship between Cary and Brooke, undergirded by a real affection that the actors seem to share. (Or maybe they’re just very good actors?)During an hourlong conversation in the lobby (Henri, the failed hurricane, had scotched a planned mini-golf outing), the two discussed the show, their poor pandemic choices and their hopes for their characters. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Who was cast first?YORKE Drew was cast before me. In true sexist fashion. Drew is also No. 1 on the call sheet, two years running, which is devastating for me as a woman.TARVER I have constantly said we need to make her No. 1. No one listens to me.YORKE Drew knew Chris from the improv and sketch comedy scene. I was not a part of that world at all. I got called back to read with Drew. They were like, “Feel free to do a little improv.” And I was sweating through my clothes.TARVER In her audition, it just felt like siblings.YORKE In showbiz, if you’re a duo, it’s not always roses. But it genuinely is for us. We just have fun all day.But who’s the better actor?TARVER HeléneYORKE [Simultaneously:] Drew. Everything Drew does is so true. This is a person who is very funny and very off the cuff but also has a deep connection to what’s important. [To Tarver:] Now is when you talk about me.TARVER She just comes in and kills it.Yorke and Tarver in a scene from Season 2, in which their characters have begun to achieve some measure of success. Greg Endries/Hbo MaxSo you always related to these characters? You never saw them as monsters?YORKE I saw myself in them. Being in your late 20s, early 30s, watching other people surpass you, it’s really disorienting. It gives you this hunger and this thirst that is all-encompassing. That’s what happens to Brooke and Cary. That’s what you watch them go through. I remember riding the subway and looking at people on commutes to real jobs, being like, they have health insurance and a full collection of pots and pans. That was so beyond me.TARVER You were riding the subway with just that one egg pan.YORKE It was all I had to make breakfast! But I have a lot of sympathy for Brooke and Cary. Anything they do that is bad or crazy is out of that hunger.In the second season, they’re tasting success. Does it change them?TARVER It’s surprising how little it does for them. They’re realizing, like: “Oh, I would have killed for this last year. But now I have it. Why didn’t that fix me? Why am I already used to it?”YORKE It’s devastating to realize that you are still who you are. Success is not a magic wand. You think, “Oh, I’ll get success and all of a sudden, I’ll be this better person who’s happier and more settled in my life.” You get it, and all of your [expletive] comes with you.TARVER The third season is just them real-time in therapy.YORKE It’s “In Treatment.”You had begun the second season when the shutdown hit. How did you spend the year off?YORKE I became a five-star chef. And I started writing. I was saying yes to new experiences. I was like, I’m going to try skiing. I learned how to ski on YouTube, and I tore my ACL two weeks before going back to this job. So, yeah: cooking and being stupid.And what were your injuries, Drew?TARVER I lost both my feet. No. My two sisters live in L.A. We all packed up and went back to Georgia. I also got on YouTube. My grandma had this old Airstream trailer, all grown over with weeds, with raccoons living in it. Me and my little brother started watching YouTube videos where people get Airstreams and restore them. It’s always like, “Hey, I’m Mike.” “And I’m Diane. And we bought an Airstream.” Then the next video is like, “We’re cleaning out the Airstream, we’re throwing everything away.” The third video is like, “We’re done with this and we’re getting a divorce.”YORKE He grew his hair out so long and a full Georgia trash beard. There are pictures, a time-lapse of him shaving it into mutton chops.TARVER I shaved it a day before we started filming. It was shocking seeing my mouth again. I wasn’t convinced it worked right. The first morning I came in, I was like: “Hey, real quick, before we get out there, does this look like me? Am I my smiling right?”YORKE We came back in real rough shape.But you won. You made it onto a show that people actually watch. Are there downsides?TARVER Sometimes it feels a little scarier. When you’re coming up, you’re just fearless with your choices because you’re just like, yes, anything. Then when you have a job, you have something to lose. Fear sets in.YORKE This thing that never goes away — and it’s so sick — is that every good thing will be the last thing. So if it comes to an end, nobody will ask me to do anything.It must be nice having a low-key kind of fame, though. People recognize you, but you don’t have to flee the paparazzi.TARVER I mean, I do that. Even if it’s just one person, I will push them over and flee.If this show has more seasons, what do you want for these characters?YORKE I hope that the situations become even fancier.TARVER I want to see them continue to struggle. But in palaces.YORKE It’s so easy to say you want them to figure it out. But I don’t want them to because I’m comforted by the fact that they don’t. It makes me feel less alone.TARVER It does feel nice to come to work and play a bumbling person. Because it’s like, OK, yeah, this feels real.YORKE We want them to always feel lost and bad. That’s what’s universal. More

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    What Will Be the New Carrie Necklace?

    Jewelry designers working with the “Sex and the City” reboot hope their creations have a chance.Hardly a day goes by now without some new promotional photo or online reference to the “Sex and the City” reboot so, as Carrie Bradshaw herself would say, “I couldn’t help but wonder: What will be the new Carrie necklace?”For those of you who don’t remember — or were too young for the original series that ran from 1998 to 2004 — Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, had a gold necklace displaying her name in flowing script.“It cost, like, nothing,” the character said in one episode when she thought she had lost the piece. But the nameplate necklace became one of the show’s enduring product links, like Manolo Blahnik stilettos — and even symbolized Carrie’s rediscovery of self when, in the series finale, she found it in her vintage Dior purse.It’s early days yet as the reboot — called “And Just Like That …” after another Carrie catchphrase — doesn’t premiere on HBO Max until later this year. But Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago, its costume designers, have selected jewelry ranging from a Bulgari Serpenti Tubogas watch (as much as $50,000 in some metals) to an elastic bracelet hand-sewn from an old tablecloth and pinned with vintage rhinestone brooches by the Berlin-based design duo Rianna + Nina (450 euros, or $530).The elastic bracelet with brooches designed by Rianna + NinaMost of the creations, even customized pieces, were lent for filming, but the series production did buy some.Neither Ms. Rogers nor Mr. Santiago are doing interviews yet, as an email from an HBO media relations manager said: “August is just too early since we don’t debut until later this year.” (Although the designers do have a “live from the set” Instagram page, @andjustlikethatcostumes, with more than 54,000 followers.)But some jewelry makers are talking about their creations selected for the series.One front-runner for the next Carrie necklace could be a $595 turquoise and malachite rope “because the necklace is really visible” around Ms. Parker’s neck in the official publicity still for the new series, said Allison Fry, the necklace’s maker, who founded the Fry Powers brand in 2018.(By mid-August the necklace had sold out at MatchesFashion, according to an email from the retailer.)Ms. Parker, center, as Carrie Bradshaw, wearing the Fry Powers turquoise and malachite rope necklace, with Cynthia Nixon, left, as Miranda, and Kristin Davis as Charlotte.via HBO MAXThe Fry Powers turquoise and malachite necklace that may be a front-runner in the Carrie necklace competition.Ms. Fry, 34, said she created the rope’s shimmering pattern by mixing and matching 72 beads, comparing the process to “when you are thinking about putting an outfit together and seeing what works.” She also made two other pieces for Carrie: a violet enamel ring accented with a baroque pearl and a violet enamel cuff.Another contender, seen in paparazzi photos: a gold necklace with a charm in the shape of New York State.Not that the rest of the central characters won’t have striking pieces of their own, like the two white diamond pavé hearts on a round link chain made by Jennifer Fisher and lent to the series for Charlotte York, played by Kristin Davis.Customized on the reverse with the initials of Charlotte’s two on-screen daughters (L for Lily Goldenblatt, played by Cathy Ang, and R for Rose Goldenblatt, played by Alexa Swinton), each of the hearts has 39 diamonds and took two weeks to make, Ms. Fisher said.“I don’t know if they’ll ever flip them over while they are shooting,” she said.The character Charlotte wears hearts by Jennifer Fisher adorned with the initials of her children.In the two “Sex and the City” feature films that debuted in 2008 and 2010, Ms. Fisher’s designs at one time or another were worn by all four lead characters, which included Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall, and Miranda Hobbes, played by Cynthia Nixon. (Ms. Cattrall isn’t participating in the new series.)But, Ms. Fisher said, she believes jewelry can have more impact on television because “people tend to rewatch episodes of a television series.”Designers say that necklaces worn by new cast members also might be contenders for Carrie-level fame.There is the chunky red polyester chain necklace by the Danish brand Monies (pronounced MON-yus) worn by the Park Avenue mother and documentarian Lisa Todd Wexley, played by Nicole Ari Parker of “Empire.”The €630 necklace has garnered more than 1,200 likes on the Instagram fan page @justlikethatcloset and prompted Grazia magazine to declare that Lisa “is going to be the show’s new ambassador for power necklaces.”Ms. Parker with Chris Noth on the set of “And Just Like That …” in Chelsea in early August.James Devaney/GC Images, via Getty ImagesThe Rosa de la Cruz ebony bracelet.It may be a Carrie bracelet that replaces the Carrie necklace as, according to the London jewelry designer Rosa de la Cruz, 51, a piece becomes iconic depending on when it’s seen as well as who wears it.And her chunky ebony and 18-karat gold chain bracelet — listed at 2,595 British pounds, or $3,590 and purchased by the production company — was worn by Carrie in the series’s official publicity photograph as well as in the first scene between Carrie and her husband, Mr. Big, played by Chris Noth.“It’s the equivalent of being on the front cover of a magazine,” said Ms. de la Cruz, adding, “her fashion choices are the ones that get the most attention.”Cases in point: Carrie’s scene with Big posted by @andjustlikethathbo on Instagram on Aug. 3 received 14,440 views within 24 hours. And on TikTok there have been almost 37 million views of #andjustlikethat. Little wonder that user @letty0531 commented: “I feel like we’re gonna know the whole story by the time they finish filming.”Social media has been stalking news about the new series, such as the Instagram fan page @justlikethatcloset that Victoria Bazalinchuk, 23, a teacher in Odessa, Ukraine, created July 10. She now has more than 80,000 followers.“There were a few brands that contacted me, saying certain characters wore/will be wearing their pieces. For instance, Carrie’s new favorite brand Fry Powers, or Lisa’s Ana Srdic rings,” Ms. Bazalinchuk wrote in an email. “And of course sometimes followers find the items and send them to me.” (She said she became a “Sex and the City” fan after watching her mother’s DVD box set of the series, as “I was quite a kid when the original series aired.”)Her site is not the only one fueling fan anticipation. For example, on Instagram, @everyoutfitonsatc has 711,000 followers for its satirical take on the series. And when Ms. Parker posted on Instagram about the first script read-through, @system_bleu commented that she cannot wait for the new show. “Just finished the series — AGAIN … for the 13th time. This is huge,” she wrote. “The show spoke to so many of us and it’s a part of who we are today.”Some designers and fans say that Ms. Cattrall’s decision not to play Samantha again is a loss, but others are looking forward to the change. “Let’s not have all the same people,” said Ms. Srdic, 63, the Johannesburg jeweler whose $1,200 unpolished citrine ring was lent for Lisa’s wardrobe.Ms. de la Cruz agreed, adding, “Maybe this frees up the plot into a different dynamic.”While the series debut date hasn’t been announced, many fans already have plans.Ms. Fisher, for example, said she will be at home in New York City. “Maybe I’ll make myself a Cosmopolitan to celebrate while we watch,” she said, referring to Carrie’s favorite cocktail. “And have some girlfriends over. It’ll be fun.” More

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    Jimmy Fallon: Americans Care More About New ‘Spider-Man’ Than Covid’s Origins

    “In the trailer, Spider-Man visits Dr. Strange and asks him to turn back time. Then President Biden shows up and asks for the same thing,” Fallon joked on Tuesday.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Keeping Up With CovidLate night gave a few Covid-related updates on Tuesday night, including the U.S. intelligence agencies’ announcement that they had finished their review of the virus’s origins.“Then the Americans said, ‘Hold that thought — there’s a new ‘Spider-Man’ trailer, y’all,’” Jimmy Fallon joked. “In the trailer, Spider-Man visits Dr. Strange and asks him to turn back time. Then President Biden shows up and asks for the same thing.” — JIMMY FALLON“Well, guys, as I mentioned, today the report on the origins of Covid was completed, and an unclassified version will soon be released to the public. And like everything with this pandemic, I’m sure Americans will fully accept the truth and they’ll put all conspiracy theories to rest.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yep, the unclassified report will come out in a few days, or sooner if Sony accidentally leaks it early.” — JIMMY FALLON, referring to the leaked “Spider-Man” trailer“President Biden yesterday encouraged Americans who have been waiting for the F.D.A. to approve the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to go out and get the shot. But I don’t know, something tells me they’re going to find a way to move the goal posts again: [imitating anti-vaxxer] ‘Sure, it’s F.D.A.-approved, but is it farm to table, something that’s suddenly very important to me?’” — SETH MEYERS“Following the announcement that the F.D.A. has officially approved the Pfizer vaccine, President Biden is now calling on companies in the private sector to adopt a shot mandate. If you ask me, this is just further proof of a giant conspiracy between the government and the corporate elite to infringe on Americans’ God-given right to get infected by a deadly virus.” — JAMES CORDENThe Punchiest Punchlines (Formerly Known as the Pfizer Vaccine Edition)“Following the full approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, the company revealed it would start marketing the drug under the name Comirnaty, so now people will start referring to the Pfizer vaccine as ‘the Pfizer vaccine.’” — SETH MEYERS“It’s too late for a rebrand. This is like when your friend comes back from vacation and is like, ‘Actually, everyone calls me Turbo now.’” — SETH MEYERS“Listen, if they really want people to take it, they should have just called it White Claw.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Jimmy Kimmel Live” guest host, Niall Horan, announced a new name for his fan base: “Horan Dogs.”What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightThe country music artist Chris Stapleton will perform on Wednesday’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”Also, Check This OutRosie Perez with Kaley Cuoco in “The Flight Attendant.” Perez used her own experiences with menopause to shape her performance.Colin Hutton/HBO Max, via Associated PressAfter a lengthy film career, Rosie Perez is up for her first Emmy with her supporting role in “The Flight Attendant.” More

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    Review: In ‘Islander,’ the Puck Stops Here

    This verbatim hockey drama considers issues of masculinity and the peculiar ownership that fans feel toward a team and its players.The 2017 season didn’t start too badly. The New York Islanders, a National Hockey League team with a new coach and a newish berth at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, might have allowed a few too many shots on goal, but they still won most of their games. A couple of months later, in December, it all began to go wrong. Then it went more wrong. The defense fell apart. The team missed the playoffs. John Tavares, the Islanders’ captain and star player, departed for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Fans revolted.The director Katie Brook and the playwright Liza Birkenmeier, hockey fans both, have scraped some of that bad ice into “Islander,” a verbatim piece at HERE. Presented by Tele-Violet and supported by New Georges, the play borrows commentary from the season and puts it in the mouth of a bearded, sweatpants-clad, aggressively average dude called Man (David Gould). (The sources aren’t listed, but Man’s language suggests live broadcast commentary, postgame interviews and fan forums.)Additional text is culled from the celebrity academic and men’s rights stan Jordan Peterson. Imagine a snow cone that’s part obsession, part self-justification, part masculine fragility, sweetened with self-pity and sweat, and you’re mostly there.Brook and Birkenmeier (“Dr. Ride’s American Beach House”) are interested in questions of identity, identification and form. They have structured “Islander” a little like a game. It begins with the national anthem and pauses for a halftime dance break. A bare stage, carpeted in rubber tiles, stands in for the rink. (The set and lighting design are by Josh Smith.) But there’s just one player — and then toward the end, a second (Dick Toth) and a third (Aksel Latham-Mitchell, a child actor who also provides a drum solo). If you’re looking for the nail-biting narrative propulsion of a proper game, look elsewhere. A buzzer beater, “Islander” is not.It does, though, probe some fascinating ideas, like the peculiar ownership that fans feel toward a team and its players — a level of mimetic engagement that theater rarely achieves, Broadway musicals excepted. No man is an island, but a lot of men, recliner-bound and alone with their Wi-Fi, seem to consider themselves Islanders. And fan forums and postgame debriefs provide the rare spaces in American life where men are actively encouraged to talk about their feelings. In these homosocial arenas, they confess their self-doubt, their disappointment and their feelings of low self-worth.Gould, air guitaring away self-doubt and disappointment in “Islanders.”Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“I’m very arrogant,” Man says. “I’m very lost within myself. I’m as sick of me as you are.” (Less helpfully, these are also spaces for some men to justify their mediocrity.) But the script — a latticework of unconnected observations — has a way of flattening out these ideas, compressing them like the air mattress that Latham-Mitchell’s John Tavares cheerfully deflates.“Islander” isn’t long, just 75 minutes, about the same as a hockey game. But since it offers so little in the way of plot or character, it feels longer. The language of commentary isn’t particularly interesting, though there are blazes of figuration (“He makes them as uncomfortable as a beached whale”), a few snappy neologisms (“Sneakery: Is that a word?”) and the occasional metaphor melee.While Gould is a charmer — precise, inexhaustible, brave enough to dance with his shirt off — there is only so much an actor can do when stringing together disjointed fan forum posts and meditations that only an extremely concussed Marcus Aurelius might write: “Good is the enemy of great. No more good; it’s time to be great.”Maybe “Islander,” like many N.H.L. games, is better experienced via a highlights reel.IslanderThrough Sept. 4 at HERE, Manhattan; 212-647-0202, Here.org. Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes. More

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    Watch This Fun Australian Drama and a Dark HBO Max Comedy

    If you like juicy gossip or watching suburban parties implode onscreen, our TV critic has some shows for you.This is a preview of the Watching newsletter, which is now reserved for Times subscribers. Sign up to get it in your inbox four times a week.Dear Watchers,“Succession” will be back in October. Finally!Have a beautiful week.I like when parties in the suburbs take a turn.Miranda Otto in a scene from “The Unusual Suspects.”Hulu‘The Unusual Suspects’When to watch: Now, on Hulu.The meaner fancy-schmancy characters are to their nannies, the more we root for their comeuppance, and there’s plenty of that in this light Australian drama. Sara (Miranda Otto) treats Evie (Aina Dumlao) shabbily, but everything goes topsy-turvy once they become enmeshed in a jewelry heist of sorts. While this show covers some of the same “rich people handle parenting like this” territory as “Big Little Lies” or even “The Slap” do, “Unusual” has a lot more fun. Its serious moments, particularly around Evie’s ache for the young daughter she sends money to in the Philippines, have a full sense of place and purpose, but the overall tone is more mimosa than whiskey.It is also only four episodes, and while I could have indulged in more of the real estate pornography, it’s thrilling to see a show like this actually keep things brief. If you spend a lot of time thinking about Shiv’s clothes on “Succession,” watch this.If you don’t have anything nice to say … come sit by me.Drew Tarver and Heléne Yorke in a scene from the new season of “The Other Two.”Zach Dilgard/HBO‘The Other Two’When to watch: Now, on HBO Max. The first two episodes of Season 2 arrive Thursday.This acerbic comedy returns for its second season more than two years after the end of its first, and it seems “The Other Two” used this time to sharpen its claws. In Season 1, Brooke (Heléne Yorke) and Cary (Drew Tarver) were total outsiders to their little brother’s pop-star success; this season, they’re seemingly further along in their own goals but are still not finding what they’re looking for. The jokes are even cattier, and more wonderful, though sometimes that festive gossipiness bumps up against the show’s secret, tiny earnest streak.The biggest issue this season is that Cary’s story is a light-year more interesting than Brooke’s. His tortured self-loathing provides a much richer plotline than her lust for fame adjacency, though both arcs lead to plenty of good material. The show is its best, though, when the two characters are together, using their embittered shorthand but also (shhh) genuinely supporting each other. Absolutely start with Season 1 to get the lay of the land; two episodes of Season 2 debut each Thursday for the next five weeks.Also this week:Adam Kingman competes on the season finale of “Making It.”Evans Vestal Ward/NBCThe 10th season of “American Horror Story” premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. on FX.“Archer” returns for its 12th season Wednesday at 10 p.m. on FXX.The season finales of “The Good Fight” and “iCarly” arrive Thursday, on Paramount+.The season finale of “Making It” airs Thursday at 9 p.m. on NBC. More

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    Sara Bareilles on the Lessons of Pema Chodron and the Joy of 10-Mile Walks

    The 41-year-old singer-songwriter is back on Broadway in September for her fourth starring turn in “Waitress.”Sara Bareilles is not finding her return to “Waitress” as easy as pie.Yes, this is her fourth time starring in the show on Broadway. Yes, she still has many of the lines memorized. Yes, she’s mastered the singing-while-sifting-flour drill.“But I realized how little I was doing over the past year and a half,” the 41-year-old singer-songwriter, who wrote the book and lyrics for “Waitress,” said in a phone conversation from an upstairs rehearsal room at New 42 Studios on a recent Friday morning. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.”Her return to the show in the starring role of Jenna Hunterson — a baker and waitress trapped in an abusive relationship who sees a pie-making contest as a way out — for a six-week run that begins Sept. 2 will be especially poignant, she said, after the loss of Nick Cordero, an original Broadway cast member who died in July 2020 after a monthslong battle with the coronavirus.“Coming back to this was intense in ways I hadn’t anticipated,” she said. “The story is so rooted in resilience and community, and the discovery of self-worth and self-love, and those are also themes in the real world right now.”In a phone conversation, she discussed how she prioritized her mental health during the pandemic, revealed her favorite spots in New York City for long walks and spoke about a place she considers a wonder of the world. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. “When Things Fall Apart”The first time I read it, I was going through a bad breakup. Pema Chodron is one of my favorite spiritual leaders, and I’ve read many of her books and listened to many of her lectures and done retreats. It’s really just about simplicity and acceptance, because the more we resist what’s in front of us, the more we create our own suffering. Right now, for instance, I’m tired; I’m exhausted. I wish I was in better shape — but the question is how I can adjust to support myself in the truth of what is rather than spending energy on blaming myself and punishing myself for it not being different.2. Ten Percent Happier AppI’ve struggled with anxiety and depression since I was in my early 20s — and probably, if I’m honest with myself, before that. I’ve been in weekly talk therapy for many years, and meditation is one of the things that I do as just a bare-bones maintenance of my mental health. I’ve been a meditator on and off for around six years, but I’ve been meditating every day for about a year now, so I give the app credit for making it easier to become more consistent. I love the teachers, the teachings, the layout, the whole interface. The great takeaway from my meditation practice is that you can be happy in a day and then sad in a day, in an hour, in a minute — our experience as humans shifts and changes incessantly.3. Good News Movement Instagram PageWhen you take in so much of the news cycle and what we’ve all been going through, to shine a light on people just spending energy being kind to each other makes me happy. It reminds me that while we might be careening off a cliff collectively, there’s some good people. And it’s a contrast to the rest of social media, which breeds narcissism. It’s probably turning us all into zombies, but I’m going to watch cute dog videos, I guess, as I morph.4. “Free to Be … You and Me”“Free to Be … You and Me” came into my life as a child, and it’s still one of the great radical accomplishments of a community of artists. The stories they were telling to young children in these very fun and subversive ways were avant-garde and progressive. They were talking about gender and stereotypes and emotions and things that weren’t traditionally fed to the child psyche. It rocked my world, and I listened to it over and over and over again. And then I got to revisit it just last year and sing the theme song for a benefit I did with Seth Rudetsky. There was a song called “It’s Alright to Cry,” and I am a self-proclaimed crier. I have a friend who said, “There are two kinds of people in this world: There are wet people and there are dry people,” and I am very much a wet person, so I really loved that song.5. “Waitress”The arts have been told for the last year and a half that we’re not essential, and I’ve seen how devastating that has been to the community and how many people have left the industry completely. But I’ve also now witnessed how the last year and a half has galvanized the community to be more intentional and to come back to work with a deeper commitment to taking care of our members, and it feels like it’s a space where you can actually see tactile change. Getting to step back into “Waitress” is a way for me to process what has happened with people that I love so much.6. Big SurIt’s been a place I’ve gone to over the years for respite, for connection, to get to stand among the redwood trees on rocky beach cliffs. Big Sur, for me, is one of the seven wonders of the world, so it’s devastating to now see it threatened by wildfires. Sadly, I think we’re only at the tip of the iceberg of watching things in places that we love change because of our actions. It’s time to wake up and do something about it.7. “Where Should We Begin? With Esther Perel” PodcastEsther Perel is one of my spiritual teachers, although she probably wouldn’t call herself that — she’s a psychotherapist. She’s a brilliant mind who walks through difficult spaces and does a lot of couples therapy, and now she has a new podcast about workplace dynamics and relationships. The “Where Should We Begin?” podcast is something I’ve found so much solace in. The instability and concentrated time brought a lot to the surface that needed to be dealt with. She has some helpful reframing tools that have really opened up spaces for me.8. Antique StoresWhenever my boyfriend, Joe Tippett, and I are on a road trip or in a new place, we always gravitate toward the antique stores. I love imagining the stories of all these items that have had previous lives. I’ve been thinking a lot about not buying as many new things as an act of love for our planet — reduce, reuse, recycle. I’m trying to populate my life with things that have already been made.9. Nina Simone’s “Little Girl Blue”This is a desert island album for me. It was Nina Simone’s first record, and knowing where she was headed in her life as an artist and activist, there’s something so resonant and intimate about the simplicity of this record. You feel her youth, but no insecurity; she’s such a powerful performer, even at such a young age. It’s a newer discovery, within the last 10 years — I attach it in my mind to when I moved to New York.10. 10-Mile WalksIf I could choose to do one thing on a day off, it would be a super long walk in Manhattan. During lockdown, I would take these 10-mile walks because there was nothing else to do. I would just walk the length of the island — I’d go up and down West Side Highway or Riverside Park or through Central Park or on the east side, all the way down to the Seaport and Battery Park. And then as people started creeping back out, I got to see the best parts of the city: the resilience, the scrappiness, people making those pop-up places with outdoor seating that cropped up everywhere. I just love that spirit of New York City. More

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    Jimmy Fallon Celebrates the F.D.A.’s Full Approval of a Covid Vaccine

    “It’s about time,” Fallon said. “Their statement started with, ‘Hey, sorry, I just saw this.’”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Big Day for PfizerAfter several months and intense pressure to speed up the process, the F.D.A. approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid vaccine on Monday.“It’s about time,” Jimmy Fallon said. “Their statement started with, ‘Hey, sorry, I just saw this.’”“Yeah, it was approved by the real F.D.A., the Food and Drug Administration, which is not to be confused with the fake F.D.A., the Facebook Doctors Association.” — JIMMY FALLON“Approval also offers an opportunity to clear up substantial public confusion. And, look, I’ll admit, it can be confusing to follow. We all wish the F.D.A. and C.D.C. could be more like the S.C.F., which is an organization where people Speak [expletive] Clearly.” — SETH MEYERS“Yeah, this is great news. Although, if it didn’t get approved, I’m not really sure what the options were: Pfizer store credit?” — JIMMY FALLON“It must be weird working at the F.D.A. One day you’re approving a lifesaving vaccine, the next you’re approving new s’mores-flavored Oreos.” — JIMMY FALLON“Exactly what paranoid anti-vaxxers have been waiting for: a stamp of approval by the federal government.” — JAMES CORDEN“The Pfizer vaccine is now fully approved by the F.D.A., which sounds like a big deal, until you remember that so is Mountain Dew Baja Blast.” — JAMES CORDEN“Get this: The new name of the fully approved Pfizer vaccine is Comirnaty. Comirnaty, which sounds more like a drunk person trying to say ‘community’: [imitating drunk] ‘You can’t arrest me; I’m a valued member of the comirnaty.” — JIMMY FALLON“This is amazing news that will hopefully convince more people to get vaccinated, and we should all be thrilled. But, also, huge news that, I guess, we finally ran out of pharmaceutical names.” — SETH MEYERS“Did the approval catch Pfizer so off guard that they yelled out a name before they were ready? ‘I vote Comirnaty!’” — SETH MEYERS“Meanwhile, the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines don’t need F.D.A. approval. They spent lockdown learning to love themselves.” — JAMES CORDENThe Punchiest Punchlines (From the Horse’s Mouth Edition)“But the vaccine isn’t the only thing keeping the F.D.A. busy. They recently had to tell people not to treat Covid with a drug that’s given to animals with worms. This is real. They tweeted: ‘You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously y’all, stop it.’ Meanwhile, the people taking it are like, ‘Laugh all you want, but I don’t have Covid, and the worms are almost gone.’” — JIMMY FALLON“They are absolutely right. You are not a horse, you are not a cow — you’re a jackass, though.” — STEPHEN A. SMITH, guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”“By the way, if the drug you’re about to take has a horse on the box, you probably shouldn’t take it.” — STEPHEN A. SMITH“Do you eat your meals out of a bag that has been strapped to your mouth? Are you led around by a carrot or a stick? How about: Do you sleep standing up? Do you sleep in a stable? No? Then take people medicine, OK? Try that.” — STEPHEN A. SMITH“On Friday, the Mississippi Health Department said incidents of people taking this horse medicine accounted for more than 70 percent of recent calls to the state’s poison center. That’s shocking, and I’ll tell you why: I had no idea Mississippi had a health department.” — STEPHEN A. SMITHThe Bits Worth WatchingOn Monday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Snoop Dogg paid tribute to his late friend Kobe Bryant in honor of the former basketball star’s birthday.What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightLorde will continue her four-night residency on “The Late Late Show.”Also, Check This OutLike everyone else in Easttown, Julianne Nicholson’s Lori holds some devastating secrets beneath her sensible parka.HBO, via Associated PressThe Emmy-nominated Julianne Nicholson was as surprised as anyone to find out the killer’s identity in “Mare of Easttown.” More

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    Virus Fears Prompt a Major New York Theater to Postpone Its Return

    As the Delta variant spreads, Signature Theater delayed its planned October opening of “Infinite Life,” a new play by Annie Baker.Signature Theater, a prominent Off Broadway nonprofit, has postponed its return to the stage over concerns about the persistent coronavirus pandemic, becoming the first major New York theater to take such a step.The theater’s leadership announced the postponement Friday afternoon, just days before rehearsals were to begin for “Infinite Life,” a new play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker, who was also planning to direct the work. The production was supposed to run from Oct. 5 to Nov. 7.“Due to ongoing health and safety concerns, Signature Theater and Annie Baker have decided to postpone the upcoming production of ‘Infinite Life,’” the theater said in a statement. “Signature will continue, in discussion with artists, to evaluate on a case-by-case basis how to proceed with other programming planned for this season. The company and artist agree that this is the best choice for this show at this time.”Around the country, there have been a number of cancellations and postponements of pop music tour dates and festivals because of the rise in coronavirus cases caused by the spread of the Delta variant. There have been several theater postponements in California, including at Berkeley Repertory Theater, which recently cited the Delta variant in delaying until next year a Christina Anderson play that had been scheduled to begin in October.It is unclear whether the postponement of “Infinite Life” is an outlier or a first indication that the theater industry is getting cold feet about the many reopenings planned in New York this fall, on Broadway and off. Two Broadway shows, “Springsteen on Broadway” and “Pass Over,” are already running, and 15 more plan to start next month; there are also some plays already running in commercial and nonprofit venues around the city, and many of the city’s larger nonprofits plan to resume presenting shows during the fall.Broadway theaters are requiring audience members to show proof of vaccination and wear masks. And Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared that all performing arts theaters must require proof of vaccination as part of a mandate that applies to indoor dining, entertainment, and fitness.Signature said it was still hoping to stage a revival of Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” in October. Although “Infinite Life” would have been its first stage production since the start of the pandemic, it would not have been the first use of its building: This summer, the nonprofit featured an installation called “The Watering Hole,” conceived by Lynn Nottage and Miranda Haymon, in its Frank Gehry-designed home, the Pershing Square Signature Center, a few blocks west of Times Square.Baker, who won a Pulitzer in 2014 for “The Flick,” writes plays that are sometimes hard to describe, and very little has been released about this one, but a spokesman said there was a six-person cast. In news releases, the theater has described “Infinite Life” as “a play about no end in sight” and “a new play that tackles persistent pain and desire.” More