T LOunge for April 20th, 2023

Pas d’Art Brasserie – Stockholm, Sweden

It’s THURSDAY and that calls for a LOunge with a quaintly retro charm to it, don’t you think? Grab a stool or slide into a banquette. Let’s get chatty and do nothing of consequence today.

Janelle James on Refusing to Disclose Her Age, Hoping ‘Abbott Elementary’ Doesn’t Last Forever and Why She’s Not Interested in ‘Sexy’ Roles
If you Google Janelle James, the first thing that comes up is that she got her big break from Chris Rock. Wrong!
Rock did hire her as a comedian on his 2017 “Total Blackout Tour,” but James says that’s as far as it goes. “He’s done a lot,” she says, carefully choosing words to describe someone who is credited too frequently for her rise. “He’s done enough for me. He didn’t make my career or anything.” She adds, “I was never close with Chris Rock. We went on tour together, and then I didn’t speak to him after that.”
And of course, she followed what happened to him at the Oscars, but hasn’t watched his Netflix special. She doesn’t want to be cornered into talking about him or the slap in interviews like this one. “I want to truthfully be like, ‘I ain’t seen it. No opinion!’ I don’t want to be involved.”

Taraji P. Henson Wants to Humanize Black Women
The actress teamed up with Kate Spade to build mental wellness pods on college campuses.
Taraji P. Henson wants to celebrate the strength of Black women, but not if it comes at the expense of their humanity. While the actress believes in the power of the community, she knows from firsthand experience that Black women’s mental health is often not taken seriously, and she’s on a mission to change that.

All the Rules on Bows and Curtsies for the British Royal Family
Ahead of King Charles III’s coronation next month, here’s how we can expect Prince Harry, Prince William, Princess Kate, and other royals to greet each other.
It would be an understatement to say that royal etiquette can, at times, be flummoxing.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the ascension of King Charles III to the throne, royal titles have been shuffled and changed amongst many members of the British royal family—which has understandably confused some in regards to who bows and curtsies to whom.
Now, as the royals prepare for the king’s upcoming May 6 coronation, royals like Prince Harry, Prince William, and Princess Kate are expected to at last reunite. Read ahead for everything we know about the royal rules of bowing and curtsying.

‘Twilight’ TV Series in the Works
Lionsgate Television is in early development on a series that could bring author Stephenie Meyer’s book series back to life after the wildly successful movies.
Break out the sparkle.
The Twilight Saga is getting the television treatment, as sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that a series version of author Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling book series is in early development via Lionsgate Television.
Sinead Daly, whose credits include Tell Me Lies, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Raised by Wolves, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and The Get Down, is attached to write the script for Twilight. Sources say Daly is working with Lionsgate TV to determine what the specific take on Twilight will be and if it will be a remake of Meyer’s books or a different offshoot.

The Best Men’s Makeup Moments in Met Gala History
The Costume Institute’s annual Met Gala has always been a beacon of boundary-pushing style—and it extends above the neck to powerful effect. For men, makeup is increasingly becoming one of the most powerful tools for bold self-expression. Much like it has in popular culture, it’s gained momentum on the Met Gala red carpet as the years have progressed.
In 2013, Pharrell Williams leaned into the “Punk: Chaos to Couture” theme with a rimming of kohl liner along his waterlines, while in 2018, singer Troye Sivan tapped into the celestial spirit of the “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” exhibit and upped the wattage with a golden gaze and shimmering skin.

Keri Russell Is the Ultimate Diplomat in Her New Netflix Show
Keri Russell has made a career of playing the kinds of heroines who lodge themselves in the television-viewing public’s consciousness with single-name resonance: Felicity (from, you know, Felicity), Elizabeth (from The Americans), and now Kate from The Diplomat. On this new Netflix show, which premieres on April 20, Russell plays Kate Wyler, a civil servant who has conducted her diplomatic career largely offstage while her husband, Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), a foreign policy wonk with front-of-house energy and Lawrence of Arabia hair, occupied center stage. They are moving into a new phase of their careers and their relationship: Kate is headed to Afghanistan, or so she thinks; the couple is not so amicably headed for divorce. Both those plans are upended, however, when Kate is told she will, confoundingly, be given the plum (but too soft, for her tastes) post of London; the divorce, too, is put tentatively on hold.

Artist Hayal Pozanti Embraces a Language All Her Own
As a graduate student at the Yale School of Art, Hayal Pozanti vowed that she would invent nothing less than a new visual language. She had arrived in 2009, directly from Istanbul, where she was born, and had been caught up in post-­internet art—art that uses the internet as its medium. “I was feeling overwhelmed and bombarded by images and information online,” she tells me. “I made a radical decision to not get the internet installed at my house. I needed to wean myself off the computer so that I could go back to the hand and make something new.”
The visual language that she developed over the next decade, called “Instant Paradise,” came from 31 invented, hieroglyphic-like characters, which correspond to numbers and letters in the English alphabet. Her mastery of this language has recently matured from a rigid system of abstract shapes into a joyous world of color and movement.

The World’s First Wearable Gin Smells Like Honeydew, Forest, and Fresh-Cut Grass
Tamworth distilling created the scent which can be spritzed on your cocktail… or even yourself.
If you’ve ever breathed in the heady scent of a floral gin cocktail and thought it would make a perfect perfume, you’re in luck. Tamworth Distilling just unveiled Sylvan Mist, the world’s first wearable, drinkable perfume gin.
The fragrant innovation is the brainchild of Steven Grasse, the craft distillery’s founder.

Ancient Romans Watched People Stomp Grapes in a Luxurious Winemaking Theater
Archaeologists say the builders of opulently-decorated winemaking facility chose form over function.
Apparently, some ancient Romans were into a bit of spectacle with their meals too, but their idea of an entertaining production was watching other people make wine.
For almost a decade, archaeologists carefully excavated the site of a circa-third century Roman winery discovered less than five miles south of Rome, and another group of experts have finally started to interpret those findings. According to an academic analysis published in the journal Antiquity, this complex at the Villa of the Quintilii was a ridiculously ornate wine production facility where the upper classes would watch as others stomp grapes. “The complex illuminates how ancient elites could fuse utilitarian function with ostentatious luxury to fashion their social and political status,” the authors wrote in their abstract.

Jonathan Majors’ Issues Worsen as More Alleged Abuse Victims Cooperate With D.A.’s Office
As Jonathan Majors prepares for a May 8 court appearance on domestic violence charges, his PR problems are about to get bigger.
Sources familiar with the matter tell Variety that multiple alleged abuse victims of Majors have come forward following his March arrest and are cooperating with the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The prospect of more women waiting in the wings would mark a dramatic turn in the case and comes on the heels of Majors’ publicists and management firm cutting ties with the embattled actor earlier this week.

The Crown Season 6 to end in ‘true celebration’ with Charles and Camilla’s Royal Wedding
Amid controversy over the upcoming depiction of Princes Diana’s death, a source has indicated that Netflix is keen to conclude the show’s final season on a ‘really happy moment’: the 2005 wedding of the future King and Queen Consort
There’s just one more season in the pipeline for Netflix hit The Crown, expected to span late 1990s until the early 2000s. As the period that includes the tragic demise of Princess Diana, who died following a car accident in Paris in 1997, there has been some controversy over how the incident will be dramatised in the show. Now, however, it’s been reported that the show’s creators are seeking to end the final series on a positive note with the marriage of the then Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, now the King and Queen Consort, played by Dominic West and Olivia Williams.

5 Nail Trends That Are Huge In 2023
Last year was a big one for nails, with celebrity nail designs going viral, and the most in-demand manicurists becoming fully-fledged influencers. So what does this year have in store? From low-maintenance styles to elevated nail accessories, these are the five nail trends to know about in 2023.

One Of The White Lotus’s Original Breakout Stars Is Returning For Season 3
Alas, Jennifer Coolidge’s wonderfully deranged Tanya McQuoid may not be reappearing after she – spoiler alert – fell to her death in the Ionian Sea, but fans of The White Lotus will be soothed by the fact that Mike White’s juicy satire will indeed be back for a third instalment, with at least one other familiar face in tow.
On 27 March, Variety revealed the show’s new setting: following its two seasons centred on resorts in Maui in Hawaii, and Taormina on the east coast of Sicily, the action will be moving to Thailand. Although HBO has declined to comment, multiple sources close to the production have confirmed the news to the publication, adding that White has been spending time in the country scoping out sites.

A Fresh History of Lactose Intolerance
In “Spoiled,” the culinary historian Anne Mendelson takes aim at the American fallacy of fresh milk as a wonder food.
Six decades ago, Pedro Cuatrecasas, a fledgling resident at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, was studying the lives of impoverished residents of Baltimore when he noticed an unsettling trend. In interviews, a number of his Black patients would confess that they found milk repellent. The consistency of their laments alarmed Cuatrecasas. He suspected, after some digging, that they suffered from lactase deficiency, a condition that precludes one’s body from digesting fluid milk. Cuatrecasas corralled two of his colleagues to conduct a study that would measure the different responses Black and white subjects had to lactose, and the findings confirmed Cuatrecasas’s hunch: the majority of Black patients had trouble processing lactose, whereas the problem was far less pronounced within white test subjects. These Black patients even told Cuatrecasas that they often avoided milk altogether, for fear of the pain it would exact upon their bodies.

Next Big Thing: Abby Ryder Fortson Takes on the Role of a Lifetime in ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’
The 15-year-old actress stars in the long-awaited Judy Blume adaptation; here, she tells THR about her path to the big screen.
Abby Ryder Fortson’s first starring role was many lifetimes in the making. After a worldwide search, she’s fronting the long-awaited adaptation of Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, the 1970 novel that has endured as one of the definitive coming-of-age tales of young-adult literature; the eponymous protagonist has been a beloved reflection of the adolescent experience for generations of children. But for all that history, she feels no pressure. “The minute I walked out of the audition, I felt like I was Margaret,” she says.

‘Doctor Who’ Heads To Swinging 60s As First-Looks Of Ncuti Gatwa & Millie Gibson Unveiled
‘Doctor Who’ Heads To Swinging 60s As First-Looks Of Ncuti Gatwa & Millie Gibson Unveiled
Doctor Who is headed to the Swinging 60s.
The BBC has in the past few minutes teased a first-look image of Ncuti Gatwa’s 15th Doctor with companion Ruby (Millie Gibson) as filming continues on the new series.The pics come one day after the BBC similarly unveiled a first-look of RuPaul’s Drag Race icon Jinx Monsoon, who will play a villain in the highly-anticipated upcoming season.

The earliest surviving British royal wedding dress, worn by Princess Charlotte of Wales, is to be showcased in new Buckingham Palace exhibition
The royal wedding dress will be displayed in ‘Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians’ at Buckingham Palace
The earliest surviving British royal wedding dress, worn by Princess Charlotte of Wales in 1816, will go on public display at the Queen’s gallery this Friday. Part of an exhibition on Georgian fashion, titled ‘Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians’, the silk gown features delicate silver embroidery and a long, sweeping train, along with puffed sleeves and intricate flower details along the hem and around the collar.

Coronation Quiche Is King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Signature Dish for Their Crowning Celebration—Here’s How to Make It
The dish will be served during the Coronation Big Lunch, a traditional royal event that brings communities together to mark the momentous occasion.
On Monday, Buckingham Palace shared the recipe on its website, along with a step-by-step video of a palace chef preparing the meatless dish packed with spring vegetables. The special quiche will be served during the Coronation Big Lunch, which is part of the weekend’s festivities taking place from May 6 to May 8. The lunch is a tradition that brings neighbors and communities together to celebrate the coronation and share friendship, food, and fun, according to Buckingham Palace’s website.

After 4 Years, California’s Wildflower Superbloom Is Back—and It’s So Big, It Can Be Seen From Space
After a winter of heavy rainfall, California’s influx of wildflowers is on full display.
A superbloom is a stunning phenomenon that happens when an unusually high amount of wildflowers blossom around the same time. The event typically occurs from February to April in various regions of California. According to the National Park Service, visitors can spot a handful of flowering varieties during a superbloom, including California poppies (the Golden State’s regional flower), buck brush, fiddleneck, peppergrass, monkeyflower, and baby blue-eyes.

6 Garden Ideas That Will Boost the Value of Your Home
These simple outdoor upgrades can benefit your home’s curb appeal and resale value.
There’s compelling data about interior design upgrades that can instantly boost the value of your home. These range from single-day projects—like switching up the color of your front door—to more in-depth home renovations that require a longer lead time, such as removing carpet, updating the kitchen, and giving your bathroom a makeover. But this concept of boosting home value translates to outdoor spaces, too.

Looking for the Best Deal on Airfares? Consider a Price Freeze.
Google Flights is joining other booking platforms that aim to assure travelers they’re getting the best price.
To buy or to wait? Given the wild fluctuations of airfare prices, that is a frugal flier’s persistent dilemma. A fare found today may tick up tomorrow, double next week or fall.
Now Google and other online travel platforms aim to take the uncertainty out of the equation by offering guarantees or freezes, often on fares they predict won’t shrink.

[Photo Credit: pasdart.se, mbds.com]

• T LOunge