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Red Carpet Rundown: 2018 BAFTAS

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BAFTA Film Awards 2018 - Arrivals - London
It’s time for the BAFTAS, which are always sort of pleasantly transparent about the fact that the red carpet is Pretty Weird. (Turns out that Cirque du Soleil was there for a reason, and it was a Shape of Water aerial dance number, and you should probably see it, but it would have been just as fitting without the reason, somehow. Awards Season has become a thing that merits secondary entertainment. And why not? The carpet is always wild; let the bug contortionists have their turn.)   Normal red carpet show below. And honestly, this is just as weird. (I talk a lot about the ecosystem of all this and how those who appear are the top of an iceberg of red-carpet labor and intent, but it’s always nice to have moments like this, in which Margot Robbie is the only celebrity in this shot, to illustrate the point.)     And the BAFTAs know that. The show will do this red carpet business, because that’s an industry now, but it works so hard to be the event… Read more »

Red Carpet Rundown: SAG Awards 2018

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The SAG Awards carpet is always an odd duck. So much of the rest of awards season is about honoring the many people who work on a movie or a series; the SAG Awards is a quiet admission that we all secretly like the actors best. And they like each other best! And they like coming together to congratulate each other most of all. That’s not quite as bad as I’m making it sound. Sure, this red carpet doesn’t use a tall step-and-repeat all the way down, so half the press photos of a twenty-thousand-dollar-dress are accessorized by fifteen people milling around in the back, but we’re here to celebrate acting, and acting like fifteen people aren’t photobombing your step-and-repeat is a very useful test of your abilities. (Plus, that gives you a chance to see my favorite thing on red carpets, which is People Working the Carpet and/or Being Hustled Quickly Past the Chaos, Pretending to be Invisible Mere Inches From the Stars.) And if nothing else, the SAG Awards have awards for best… Read more »

Another Year.

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This year has been terrible. (Not the beginning of a personal essay, just an observation on everything in general. I genuinely don’t know if there’s more to say; certainly I can add nothing beyond that, except that if 2017 felt like a boulder pinning you down, you are not alone.) This is some of the work I did this year. FICTION This year involved a lot of work on projects that aren’t out (some of which aren’t even announced yet), but I had three short works come out this year. Novelette: “Intro to Prom,” Clarkesworld (ed. Neil Clarke). Four teens, prom, a city underwater, abandonment, prom, the end of the world, and prom. Short Story: “Overburden,” Infinity Wars (ed. Jonathan Strahan). A Colonel of the Glorious Forces watches a foot soldier dealing with carp, orders people killed, complains about the coffee, thinks the enemy is someone else’s fault, and learns a few technical terms about mining. Short Story: “A Comfort, One Way,” Mad Hatters and March Hares (ed. Ellen Datlow). The Duchess, Alices and Mary… Read more »

King Arthur

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In a year in which everything is absolute garbage, there was one bright light, one burst of true art: KING ARTHUR. I tweeted about why. It's a terrible movie. This is not in dispute. It is also, however, easily in the top ten of movies that made me laugh the most. Here's why. — Genevieve Valentine (@GLValentine) September 15, 2017 The opening shots of KING ARTHUR. (It's a mage's tower. The mage is busy.) pic.twitter.com/Zh1asSkYki — Genevieve Valentine (@GLValentine) September 15, 2017 Prince Vortigern (you remember him) is jealous of Uther's giant sword! All he has to stab his wife with is that little dagger. pic.twitter.com/5If0OxO6Fn — Genevieve Valentine (@GLValentine) September 15, 2017 Vortigern, obviously, has been hard at work building a new, thicker, longer Mage's tower. pic.twitter.com/v5TXqYHWmS — Genevieve Valentine (@GLValentine) September 15, 2017 But how will he pull it? "Hands on the hilt, stupid," says D. Beckham. "10 digits…Give it a tug." (Actual line, I couldn't make this up.) pic.twitter.com/0s8QadWqUP — Genevieve Valentine (@GLValentine) September 15, 2017 King Arthur (2017), oil on canvas… Read more »

Red Carpet Rundown: The 2017 Emmys

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Red Carpet Season is upon us again (known to celebrity assistants everywhere as Sweet Jesus It’s Happening), and the Emmys are the opening volley. Here begins the careful interplay of trends and personal branding that a majority of celebrities absolutely hate but has become so integral to the starmaking process that it’s a living thing by itself. (I am duly wary of the miniature ecosystem that the red carpet has become, but I am also hopelessly fascinated by it and long ago stopped pretending otherwise. If you are interested in my clothes-nerd bona fides, I can point you to my flapper novel THE GIRLS AT THE KINGFISHER CLUB, my political-pageantry duology PERSONA and ICON, and my run of CATWOMAN, where I had a lookbook for every issue, because I’m a monster.) There’s always a Marie Antoinette vibe to the red carpet that’s a little unsettling. No way around it. (Inside, things get even more unsettling, as a room full of people wearing ACLU blue ribbons in support of free speech against an encroaching fascist government… Read more »
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