T LOunge for May 22nd, 2023

Supa Fama Restaurant – Guangzhou, China

It’s MONDAY, darlings. We regret to report. We’d say the occasion calls for us all meeting somewhere that’s green and just staying there all day, breathing in the artisanal oxygen. We have a tsunami of Cannes coverage to hurl at you today, so we’re going to start a tab and dash off to dazzle you. Chat amongst thyselves.

Elle Fanning On Main Character Energy, Being More Elle Woods, And Embracing Her Eye Make-Up Era
‘The situation is totally Legally Blonde – they want to underestimate you and you have to push against it and just be you.’
When you think of the Cannes Film Festival, you think of glamorous red carpets, priceless jewellery, glittering stars in breathtaking dresses and, yes, sometimes the movies come to mind as well. It’s peak fantasy fabulousness and there’s one name that sums it up perfectly: Elle Fanning.
Like her on-screen alter ego, Catherine The Great, Fanning has an expert eye for high fashion, an unapologetic approach to hyper feminine haute couture, enviably self-aware intelligence, and a refreshing sense of playfulness not often found in an A-lister who’s attended film premieres since they were aged eight. Plus, a love of elaborate hairstyles, minus a penchant for conquering Russia.
As she returns to our screens for The Great season three, we caught up with the actor, L’Oréal Paris spokes person and beauty icon in Cannes to talk main character energy outfits, being more Elle Woods and why she’s leaning into her eye make-up era…

Why Do So Many Millennials Look And Seem So Much Younger Than They Are?
People love to say “consider it a compliment!” when you get mistaken for someone a lot younger, but I don’t at this point. I graduated from uni nearly 10 years ago. I’ve worked as a journalist and editor for almost as long, been in multiple relationships and navigated intense life experiences. I own a Hetty hoover. I’ve published a book. I remember AOL! When someone says I look younger than I am, what I really hear is: None of that counts. I still don’t take you seriously. Not that people in their twenties don’t get taken seriously, but I’m a different person to who I was at 24, 25, even 26. I want that to show, externally.

Do you have mental-health imposter syndrome?
Think your concerns aren’t worthy of help? According to an expert, “no problem is too small to see a therapist”
As somebody who has partaken in multiple therapy stints, I’m an avid believer that everybody could benefit from it – but what if you don’t believe you have reason enough to book a session? According to Dr. Jenna Vyas-Lee, clinical psychologist and co-founder of the mental health care clinic Kove, this is one of the leading misconceptions preventing people from seeking help which could greatly benefit them.

‘We Used to Treat Movie Stars Like Gods’: Hollywood Grapples With Loss of Young Star Power
The hottest package at this year’s Cannes Film Festival stars a 76-year old action star and is a reboot of a movie that first dazzled moviegoers in 1993. That’s a time, in case you forgot, before TikTok or smartphones, Facebook or Amazon, or any number of technological changes that have reshaped our world and the movie business along with them. […]
“There’s much, much, much less people in that younger age bracket who are household names by virtue of the way in which their films or TV have reached audiences because of streaming,” Hamilton added. “So, you have to maximize the value of the new generation of stars and really ensure that there is clarity of concept, clarity on genre, really knowing who the audience is so you can really appeal to distributors.”

‘Yellowjackets’: Simone Kessell on How Lottie’s Caftans Reveal Her Character’s Unraveling
Charlotte, as she calls herself, played by Simone Kessell (“Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “The Night Agent”), runs a “wellness center” or mental health retreat. She seems to be on a path to recovery after teen Lottie and her fellow Yellowjackets survived for 19 months in the wilderness. But, a closer look at Kessell’s character, who clads herself in lush silk caftans, visually reflects her descent into madness through the transition from marigolds and yellow to blue and darker shades.

Suicide-prevention charity founder Clare Milford Haven on helping men in crisis
When Milford Haven’s son died by suicide aged 21, she devoted herself to helping others by founding James’ Place, a dedicated charity offering free, life-saving treatment to suicidal men
For Milford Haven, one of those gaps is in the way suicide is typically thought of in the UK – as the desperately sad result of longstanding mental illness. “But the majority of men who come to us with suicidal thoughts and ideation are there as a result of a collision of events that have happened in their life: debt, a relationship breakdown, the loss of a job,” she says. “It creates the perfect storm, bringing someone to a place where they have given up. People who have more complex mental-health problems aren’t perhaps right for us, and may need more intense, long-term therapy; we do more crisis intervention.”

The Mellon Family Jewels Are Headed to Auction
Bijoux from the storied American dynasty will be part of the Magnificent Jewels sale at Sotheby’s.
When philanthropist, horticulturalist extraordinaire, and Jackie Kennedy’s bestie Bunny Mellon—widow of Paul, a scion of Pittsburgh’s Mellon banking dynasty—died in 2014, her vast collection of art, furniture, jewelry, and decorative objects, from Rothkos and rare blue diamonds, to cabbage porcelain and the wicker baskets for which she was legendary, came up for auction at Sotheby’s. It was a five-day extravaganza featuring more than 1,500 lots that brought in $218 million.
Mellon provenance, in other words, is always something worth paying attention to. So when a small selection of important bijoux belonging to women from another branch of the family recently emerged from the family vault, Sotheby’s Jewelry SVP Frank Everett, who was closely involved in that Bunny auction, didn’t miss a beat.

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore Are Marvels in Todd Haynes’s Dangerously Delicious May December
In portraying a real, living person, how far should an artist go to get to the heart of their subject? With May December, Carol director Todd Haynes’s new film, Natalie Portman plays a woman probing those boundaries. Her character, an actor named Elizabeth Berry, is trying—with the kind of dogged determination generally reserved for hard-nosed detectives—to make sense of the woman she’s recently been cast as.
That woman is Gracie Atherton-Yoo. Now in her late 50s, Gracie’s life is simple, ordered; she is a Southern housewife who bakes cakes for a living and arranges flowers just for fun. When Elizabeth makes her way to meet Gracie at her home in Georgia, Gracie wonders aloud if she has enough hot dogs on hand. So what could she have done to warrant a film being made about her life?

If I’m Disabled, Why Can’t I Say It?
Writer Katie Baskerville knows that not all disabilities are visible – and that the debilitating pain she suffers due to PCOS and endometriosis is hampering her ability to live a “normal” life. And yet she finds herself struggling to accept her changing identity. Here, she explores the reasons why in a personal essay for Vogue.
Our understanding of disability as a society is narrow. This can mean that those with “invisible” disabilities, like myself, can be worried about coming forward and risking further experiences of oppression. As a white, cisgender woman, I have been born into considerable privilege, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t come up against systematic oppression before as a queer woman from a working-class background. Being openly labelled as disabled could call into question my capabilities, mental or otherwise.
In all honesty, I do not want to risk diminishing my perceived social value in exchange for further stigmatisation and prejudice. Especially as disabled people are among the most vulnerable in society. More at risk of abuse and domestic violence, poor personal wellbeing and mental health.

Killers of the Flower Moon Will Surely Be an Awards Season Juggernaut
After an unparalleled, more-than-six-decade-long career, there are certain things we’ve come to expect from the films of Martin Scorsese: a nerve-jangling story told on a thrillingly epic scale; shady dealings which culminate in bursts of outrageous violence and usually see our protagonist wind up in a blistering court scene; and said protagonist often being played by either Leonardo DiCaprio or Robert De Niro. In that sense, the auteur’s latest crime thriller, *Killers of the Flower Moon—*a three-and-a-half-hour-long adaptation of David Grann’s non-fiction bestseller of the same name—is quintessential Scorsese, combining all of the above while also turning its gaze away from Irish American strivers on the East Coast and towards a very different community in a starkly different part of the country: the resilient Native American women of the Osage Nation in northeastern Oklahoma.

20 Astonishing Old Photos of Donna Summer, the First Lady of Love
With her honeyed voice, huge, doe eyes, and tumbling raven curls, Donna Summer was a pop-culture presence nonpareil, producing an improbable number of disco and R&B hits in the 1970s and 1980s. (“I Feel Love,” “Last Dance,” “Heaven Knows,” “Bad Girls,” “Hot Stuff,” “On the Radio”…the list goes on and on.) Yet behind the sexy persona and 10-minute dance mixes was a fiercely private mother of three girls; a survivor of sexual and physical abuse; and an irrepressible, agenda-setting artist who did, in fact, work very hard for the money.
Summer’s riveting story—from her difficult childhood in Boston, where she eagerly sang in church, to her early break in Germany, hard-won success in the American disco scene, late-career controversies, and fatal battle with lung cancer—is the subject of a new HBO documentary, Love to Love You, Donna Summer. Directed by Roger Ross Williams and Summer’s daughter Brooklyn Sudano, it combines extensive home videos and concert footage with intimate new interviews, primarily with members of Summer’s immediate family, painting a textured portrait of a complicated star.

Cheetos’ Smoky Ghost Pepper Puffs Are Only Here for a Flamin’ Hot Minute
This pepper-shaped addition to the Flamin’ Hot family is the hottest one yet.
Cheetos Flamin’ Hot snacks are having a bit of a moment this summer, from the movie inspired by their maybe/maybe not true origin story to the launch of their hottest iteration yet: Flamin’ Hot Smoky Ghost Pepper Puffs.
This latest Flamin’ Hot flavor plucks from the upper echelons of the Scoville Heat Index: Ghost peppers rank number 7 on the list, measuring around 1,041,427 Scoville Heat Units (that’s about 400 times hotter than a jalapeño pepper and 200 times hotter than a habanero pepper).

Starbucks Is Slowly Switching to Pebble Ice
Goodbye cubes, hello nuggets.
We’re pretty sure that nobody had this one on their May Bingo cards: it has been a really big month for… water at Starbucks. Just last week, the Seattle-based coffee chain announced that it would start charging $1 extra for any Refresher drink made without water, and now the company is changing things up with its frozen water, too.
Starbucks is rolling out new ice machines to its U.S. locations, and the upgraded equipment will now produce “nugget ice” (often called “pebble ice”) instead of the chunkier style of ice it currently has. “As we continue to innovate and make investments in the Starbucks Experience for our partners (baristas) and customers, we are introducing new machines that make nugget ice to select stores this year,” a Starbucks spokesperson confirmed to Food & Wine.

The Great’s Costume Designer on Dressing Modern Characters in an 18th-Century Setting
Being the new kid is never easy, but being the new kid who needs to design historically accurate yet uniquely modern 18th century Russian costumes for an already hit show can understandably feel like an almost impossible task. That was the predicament Sharon Long, costume designer of Hulu’s The Great, found herself in when she joined production at the start of season two. “You never know how you’re going to be received,” she tells W. “You’re walking into something where everybody knows each other and you don’t.”

The Story Behind the Lady Dior Bag, a Princess Diana Favorite
For a compact handbag, the Lady Dior packs a lot of history. Created in 1995 and named after Diana, Princess of Wales, it was gifted to her by Bernadette Chirac, the first lady of France at the time. She was so attached to it, in fact, that of all of Diana’s contributions to style, from her Fly Virgin Atlantic sweatshirt and cycling shorts combo to the off-the-shoulder “revenge dress” she wore after news broke of her husband’s infidelity, this may be her most enduring one. It’s a quintessential example of how a celebrity and a brand can come together to create a best-seller.

Have you no shame?
Maybe the world doesn’t need to know every thought you’ve ever had.
Somewhere over the course of the past 10 years, we decided everything should be normalized; that to be cringe was to be free; that you should not only wholly accept but also share every thought or experience you ever have, no matter how embarrassing or repulsive. Why not take to Twitter to loudly and proudly announce that you have never made a woman orgasm or that you don’t wash your ass in the shower, with absolutely no prompting? The dominant culture of the internet has endeavored to convince us that all our emotions are valid, with increasing numbers of people further affirmed in their wrongness by therapy-speak they apply selectively to make themselves look and feel better. Shame, for its part, has come to be regarded as an inherently toxic, destructive emotion: a stand-in for self-loathing and unaddressed childhood trauma.

My Husband Flies First Class and Puts Me in Coach. Is That Fair?
My husband loves to travel and always either pays for, or gets an upgrade into, the first-class cabin. When we travel together with our children, he buys himself a ticket in first class and puts us in economy or economy plus. He even did this recently on an overnight flight to Paris. He justifies flying alone in first class because of the cost, and the fact that our kids (12 and 16) might feel alone if I were to travel in first with him and leave them in the rear cabin. I feel that this is unfair.

What Is a Gratin? Why We Love This French Take on the Casserole
It’s so much more than potatoes and cheese.
For a simple and inexpensive way to elevate vegetables, look to the French, who have been giving potatoes, squash, and other produce the royal treatment since, well, the days of French royalty. A gratin, a dish of layered vegetables, is their brainchild—and it’s adaptable and delicious through all seasons.
While often misunderstood as just cheesy potatoes, the world of gratins is vast and varied. It’s both a dish that you eat, and the name of the physical dish that you bake the gratin in. Once you master the slicing and timing, the ease and affordability of a gratin will push this classic into your regular rotation.

How to Drive the Road to Hana, One of the World’s Most Scenic Drives
Beautiful hikes, waterfalls, and beaches await, plus homemade banana bread.
Of all the great road trips in the U.S., Hawaii’s coastal Road to Hana is among the most scenic. The 64-mile route on Maui connects the towns of Kahului and Hana. It only takes about three hours from point A to point B if you don’t stop — but stop you must, as the sights along the way are part of the adventure. Dense rainforests, waterfalls, lava tubes, colorful tropical flowers, pristine beaches, and epic waves await along the Road to Hana. It’s also where you will find some of the tastiest homemade banana bread in the world.

The Best Times to Visit Copenhagen for Great Weather, Lower Prices, and Fewer Crowds
These are the best times to visit Copenhagen for every type of traveler.
Copenhagen is an enchanting Scanvidian city that’s well known for its grand palaces, gardens, and colorful canalside district of Nyhavn. The Danish capital does experience a pretty drastic weather swing with almost 18 hours of sunlight in peak summer and a long, cold, dark winter season. Though, with Christmas markets and a whole lot of hygge (the Danes invented the concept), many travelers are more than happy to brave the dreary, frosty conditions in December for a festive, cozy trip.

[Photo Credit: birdhousedesign.net]

• T LOunge