culture lane

‘Sorry for working with Woody Allen’

Mira Sorvino has penned an open letter to Woody Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow to express regret over starring in his 1995 comedy, Mighty Aphrodite. The actor, who won an Oscar for her role as a prostitute in the film, has confessed to being “terribly sorry” for taking on the part and has stated that she will never work with him again. “I cannot begin to imagine how you have felt, all these years as you watched someone you called out as having hurt you as a child, a vulnerable little girl in his care, be lauded again and again, including by me and countless others in Hollywood who praised him and ignored you,” Sorvino wrote for the Huffington Post. “As a mother and a woman, this breaks my heart for you. I am so, so sorry!”

Last year, Sorvino was one of the many women in Hollywood who spoke to Ronan Farrow about her experiences with Harvey Weinstein. “I told him I wanted to learn more about you and your situation,” she wrote. “He pointed me toward publicly available details of the case I had ruefully never known of, which made me begin to feel the evidence strongly supported your story. That you have been telling the truth all along.”

In December, Dylan Farrow wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times about her frustration with the hypocrisy of an industry that is now recognising victims of sexual abuse yet refusing to validate her claims that Allen sexually assaulted her as a child.

Leo to star in Quentin Tarantino movie

Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star in Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, set around the time of the Charles Manson murders. According to Variety, the Oscar winner will play an aging actor in 1969 Los Angeles and his life will intersect with the murders. Reports have suggested that the structure will resemble a Pulp Fiction-esque ensemble piece. Vanity Fair claims the script follows a TV actor who wants to make it in the film business after one hit series alongside his sidekick, who also acts as his stunt double.

The film marks the second collaboration for the pair after 2012’s Django Unchained. Tarantino is reportedly keen to secure Margot Robbie to play Sharon Tate, while Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are said to be circling two major roles. A role has also been written for Al Pacino, who is yet to sign on.

The as-yet-untitled drama will see Tarantino breaking away from his longstanding relationship with Harvey Weinstein. Sony has picked up the project after a heated bidding war.

“I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard,” Tarantino said on Weinstein. “If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him.”

The release date has been set for August 9, 2019 — the 50th anniversary of Tate’s death at the hands of members of the Manson family.

Defying Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric

In the movies, Mexico is a place where bad things happen. From the car bomb in Touch of Evil to the drug gangs with their scary dogs in No Country for Old Men, it’s where outlaws go to lie low and bozos go to party with impunity. It’s the place of Donald Trump’s “bad hombres” nightmares. Even in animated form, Mexican characters have not come off well. El Macho, the villain of Despicable Me 2, for example, was a compilation of stereotypes: Chubby, hairy chest, medallion, exaggeratedly romantic, wears wrestler’s mask, er, owns a Mexican restaurant. So it’s a relief to report that Hollywood has finally redeemed itself. Coco, the new Pixar animation, genuinely gives Mexico a good name. Like the best of Pixar’s movies, it reaches emotional depths few live-action films do, especially as the story takes our guitar-playing boy hero into the afterlife on el dia de los muertos, the Day of the Dead, where he meets his skeleton ancestors. Coco is not only steeped in Mexican culture and tradition, it gets it right, from the dance steps to the twine around the tamales. Latin critics have lauded it and it’s now Mexico’s highest grossing movie ever.