T LOunge for November 11th 2024

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Darlings, we are currently very far from home, on a bus tour of Ireland, pretending not to know about anything happening elsewhere. Since you can’t join us for real, take your own break from reality (needed now more than ever) by settling into today’s fabulous little LOunge and waiting to be dazzled by the frivolities we have lined up for you today.

In praise of the “middlebrow” movie
Why mid-budget, plot-driven films like Conclave and Challengers still have a place at the multiplex.
We’re used to hearing “middlebrow” used as a pejorative, a knock on overly accessible, “normie” content. But as a third path between “highbrow” and “lowbrow,” it doesn’t get nearly enough credit. It’s a relief to occasionally watch a film that doesn’t insult or overly challenge our intelligence; accessibility with some standards isn’t always a bad thing.
In our current movie landscape, “middlebrow” has become lost between the poles of big-budget IP films drowning in CGI, and Oscar bait-y, indie fare mainly discussed on Letterboxd. Worse, within this dichotomy, it’s become increasingly difficult to find movies with a wide appeal that also contain interesting, human stories. “For me, a middlebrow movie is something that I can recommend to everyone — a parent, a friend,” says Los Angeles Times film critic Katie Walsh.

‘Wicked’ Dolls: Mattel Apologizes for Mistakenly Linking to Adult Porn Site on Packaging
“We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children,” the company said in a statement.
Wicked movie merchandising turned into a nightmare for Mattel over the weekend as news broke that a web address listed on the packaging for character dolls took consumers to an adult pornographic site.
The toy company apologized later on Sunday. “Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in the U.S., which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page,” read a statement. “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children. Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information.”

The Cruel Intentions 2024 TV series is coming soon, here’s what you need to know
The legendary 1990s movie is getting a modern revamp and we can’t wait.
If there’s been a Gossip Girl-shaped hole in your heart since the spinoff was cancelled in 2023, new series Cruel Intentions might provide just the right dose of mean girl scheming and high stakes drama to keep you going.
At the centre of Prime Video’s 2024 adaptation of the iconic 1999 Cruel Intentions movie, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe and Reese Witherspoon.
The movie itself was adapted from the 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclo — is Caroline Merteuil, a sorority president with a god complex who will stop at nothing to be in control. Her collaborator-in-collusion is step-brother Lucien Belmont, whose primary weapon is seduction, and he isn’t afraid to use it. Their victim: new girl Annie Grover, an innocent good girl type who’s only just learning who she wants to become.

People tell me powdery perfumes are dated, but these 12 scents deliver unrivalled clean-girl freshness
There’s nothing old-fashioned about them
Long dubbed ‘old lady scents’, powdery perfumes have gotten a bad (and in my opinion unjustified) reputation in the past. With notes reminiscent of powder puffs, talcum powder and velvety soft flowers, they’re light and comforting and, in my opinion, offer a sexy take on clean, fresh scents. You see, while the best clean-smelling fragrances rely on notes of freshly-laundered cotton and soapy touches, the best powdery fragrances add an extra layer to this. They’re the scent of clean skin slipped into silk pyjamas, of applying your make-up before a night out or, as one reviewer described one of the fragrances on this list, like “a subtle caress, spilled face powder, lipstick on starched collars, tangled silk sheets”. When done right, powdery perfumes are anything but old-fashioned.

How to get rid of dark circles and eye bags, according to skin experts
Erase them or embrace them.
Large, Saturn-like rings and puffiness around the eyes are not unusual; some of us are just more prone to dark circles and eye bags than others.
Throw in lifestyle factors such as stress, lack of sleep and increased screen time and it’s the perfect storm for bruised-looking eyes and fluid retention. So what can be done?
If you’re keen to figure out exactly how to get rid of dark circles and eye bags, you’ll need to start by addressing the underlying cause. Is it lack of sleep or cold hard genetics?

Turns out, most of us are applying our moisturiser wrong
Here’s how to do it properly, according to a skincare formulator.
You’d think putting on face cream should come naturally, but it turns out there’s a lot of us who haven’t got the hang of applying moisturiser correctly. It means that, in many cases, we’re not getting the most out of our lotions, which in turn means our face may be suffering more than it needs to. Crazy, right?
The air-drying trend that’s currently taking off on TikTok has brought the issue into sharper focus. The hack sees users letting their skin completely air dry before going in with skincare. And while there’s logic to the method – especially if you use a towel to pat your face dry, which a) can harbour bacteria and b) can create friction on skin – it turns out, air drying is still not the best way to maximise on moisture.

How the ‘trad wife’ movement turned these stay-at-home mothers into bread-winning millionaires
The domesticity-influencers who are out-earning their husbands.
“I don’t want a job, I don’t want to be the breadwinner,” a video from TikTok influencer Jasmine Dinis begins. “I want to be home, I want to be in the kitchen cooking, I want to be cleaning, I want to be cooking, I want to be making brownies, I want to be cooking dinner, making home-cooked meals every night.”
Her words overlay a series of idyllic-seeming video clips of her cradling her children, rolling around with them in verdant countryside and taking freshly-baked bread out of the oven. And thus far, nearly 7 million people have watched it. And Jasmine isn’t alone. Introducing the ‘trad wife’…

I drank chia seeds in water every day for a month – the benefits were instant
I feel so full, energetic, and clear-minded.
As someone who’s passionate about staying hydrated and eating whole foods that help keep me full, I was ecstatic to hear about the benefits of chia seeds in water.
I already knew that chia seeds were highly nutritious — and chock-full of essential nutrients like fibre and protein — but if I loved eating the superfood with things like yoghurt and overnight oats, why shouldn’t I enjoy drinking it in water like I’d seen people doing on TikTok?

A Brief History of the Jewelry Scandal That Ended Marie Antoinette
How the Affair of the Diamond Necklace changed history—and why 18th-century jewelry remains an eternal holy grail.
For a woman who has been dead for 231 years, Marie Antoinette is remarkably good at staying relevant—and moving money. Last month, Sotheby’s announced that it had acquired a necklace with 18th-century provenance allegedly featuring diamonds from the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, the infamous 1785 scandale that precipitated the queen’s demise. On November 11, that piece comes up for sale in Geneva. It has an estimate between $1.8 and $2.8 million, but, as we have learned many times before, anything with a Marie Antoinette link has a way of far exceeding expectations.

Queen Elizabeth’s Last Private Diary Entry Has Been Revealed
She wrote the “practical and factual” note two days before her death.
A royal biographer is shedding light on Queen Elizabeth’s head space just days before her death. According to an excerpt from Robert Hardman’s updated biography, Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story, the late monarch was still focused on running the Crown and keeping up with her royal responsibilities when she passed away on Sept. 8, 2022. The queen famously kept a personal diary where she recorded each day’s happenings, and her final diary entry written two days before her death was “factual and practical.”

The perils of using payment apps as your bank account
Yes, you can use an app as your checking account — but there are risks.
Some people collect coins or stamps. For a time, I collected debit cards. Not stolen ones! Each one of them had my name on them, right below the logo of the latest banking app I’d decided to try out: Venmo, Cash App, Chime, Varo, Current, Acorns.
For the better part of a decade, I did all my banking through these apps, enjoying their slick user experience and lack of fees. The problem with every one of them, however, is that they’re not chartered banks. If the company behind the app went bankrupt, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) would not necessarily come to my rescue.

Why You Should Never Use a Pop-Up Turkey Timer
Plus other Thanksgiving tips from our Test Kitchen that will make your holiday even more delicious.
Deciding what to actually cook for Thanksgiving dinner — including which appetizers and side dishes to make — is the easy part. It’s the actual cooking of the meal that causes the most stress, particularly when it comes to handling a massive piece of poultry. But no need to worry. We’re here. We’re experts. And we can help.
We’ve bought (and cooked) a lot of turkeys over the years, so we know exactly what to do (and not to do) when it comes to the star of the show. Follow these turkey tips, and your guests will be gobbling it up in no time.

Sexually lawless ‘aristocratic tart’ or socially ambitious power player? The salacious life of Patsy Cornwallis-West, mistress to King Edward VII
Only sixteen when she began an affair with the Edward VII, history remembers Patsy Cornwallis-West as nothing more than a lascivious manipulator who bedded kings and endangered the war effort – but is there more to the life of this infamous aristocrat?
Patsy Cornwallis-West was (at least) the thirteenth mistress of King Edward VII. She would not be the last. She might, however, just have been the smartest. Just sixteen when Edward, then Prince of Wales, took her virginity, Patsy was his concubine for much of her young life, living in sham marriages and leveraging her influence over the king to manipulate English social hierarchies. History has labelled her an ‘aristocratic tart’ – sexually lawless and oh so willing to weaponise her hourglass figure and English rose complexion for her own social advantage. Perhaps others might argue that she was a woman, born into the upper middle classes and groomed for hypergamy, who knew precisely what it took to secure a future for her children (some of whom might have borne a suspiciously similar likeness to the king). From violent delights to sordid ends, this Irish aristocrat is one of the most scandalous, and most maligned, paramours in British history. It’s time you met Patsy.

Still Freddy After All These Years
With the release of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” 40 years ago, the horror villain Freddy Krueger clawed his way to becoming a pop culture phenomenon.
When “A Nightmare on Elm Street” hit theaters 40 years ago this month, few would have predicted a pop culture phenomenon in the making. Yet it would become one of 1984’s most profitable pictures and spur a lucrative franchise.
The success of the series was due primarily to two factors. The first was the thoughtful approach Wes Craven, a humanities professor-turned-filmmaker, took to the material, drawing inspiration from the terrifying stories of Southeast Asian refugees in America who died in their sleep under mysterious circumstances in the 1980s. He fused those stories with the contemporaneous satanic panic and accusations of widespread child molestation to create the character of Fred Krueger, a high-school janitor accused of sexually abusing several children in the small town of Springwood, Ohio. After the man was freed on a technicality, the parents of Springwood took the law into their own hands, burning Krueger alive. A decade later, the undead Freddy haunts the nightmares of Springwood’s teens, murdering them in their dreams.

Painting by A.I.-Powered Robot Sells for $1.1 Million
The portrait depicts the British mathematician Alan Turing as the god of artificial intelligence. Its creator is a robot named Ai-Da that resembles a woman with a bob haircut.
A portrait of the British mathematician Alan Turing sold at auction for nearly $1.1 million on Thursday, a surprisingly large sum for a painting whose creator wasn’t an artist in the traditional sense, but rather a humanoid robot powered by artificial intelligence.
The experiment was the brainchild of Aidan Meller, a former gallerist living outside Oxford, England, who has worked with a team of nearly 30 people to build the robot. In most recent appearances, the robot is dressed like a woman with a bob haircut and is referred to as Ai-Da in honor of Ada Lovelace, the 19th-century mathematician who has been recognized as the world’s first computer programmer.

58 Movies to Watch This Winter: Bob Dylan Biopic, ‘Moana 2’ and More
From life stories (“A Complete Unknown,” “The Fire Inside”) to animated tales (“Moana 2,” “Mufasa”), these are the films we can’t wait to see this season.
‘FLOW’ In the wake of a flood, a cat, a lemur, a bird, a dog and a capybara(!) board a boat for destinations unknown in this animated festival breakout, Latvia’s submission for the international-feature Oscar. (Nov. 22; in theaters)
‘GLADIATOR II’ Ridley Scott’s belated sequel to “Gladiator” brings sharks and a rhino to the Colosseum — along with a new cast, including Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington. (Nov. 22; in theaters)
‘JOY’ This film tells the story of how the pioneers Robert Edwards (James Norton), Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighy) and Jean Purdy (Thomasin McKenzie) completed the work that led to the birth of the first I.V.F. baby in 1978. (Nov. 22; Netflix)

Elizabeth Olsen and Callum Turner on Siblings, Letterboxd, and the State of Indie Film
Last month, when Elizabeth Olsen got on Zoom with her friend and soon-to-be Eternity co-star Callum Turner, she’d just taken the morning flight from London to New York. “They call that the CEO flight,” Turner joked. “Because you wake up, get on the plane, do your work, then you’re in London and you have dinner and you go to bed.” Olsen, in fact, was in London to promote her latest film His Three Daughters, a wrenching and deceptively small family drama written and directed by Azazel Jacobs, who hand-delivered the movie’s melodic script to its three stars, Olsen, Carrie Coon, and Natasha Lyonne. The trio hadn’t met prior to filming, but an abbreviated production schedule —and the demands of a script that called for extreme intimacy—allowed them to fast-track their chemistry. “Carrie and I shared a two-bedroom apartment instead of a trailer because we had no money to make this movie,” explained the WandaVision star. “All three of us came out super honest and vulnerable knowing we only had three weeks to shoot this thing.” The result is one the year’s most touching and well-acted films, following the sisters as they convene in New York at the bitter end of their father’s life. When Olsen and Turner got together to discuss the film, the conversation naturally touched on sibling dynamics, the state of independent film, and their favorite directors, from Todd Haynes to Catherine Breillat.

The Difference Between Christmas Cactus and Thanksgiving Cactus—Plus, How to Care for Each
Learn what sets these holiday cacti apart.
What better way to welcome the holiday season than with a cactus? There are a few different types of holiday cacti, two of the most popular being Christmas and Thanksgiving. Both cacti flower during their respective holidays, hence their names, and are beautiful to keep in your home for the season.
To learn the difference between these plants and their needs, we chatted with a plant expert. While both cacti look somewhat similar, each requires different care. Below are some important differences and how to keep each plant looking brilliant throughout the festive season.

These Are the Top 10 Food Cities in the World, According to T+L Travel Advisors
From Michelin-starred restaurants to local food stalls, these cities have something for everyone.
What is the best food city in the world? There are plenty of strong opinions, but few can claim to have eaten in as many different places as Travel + Leisure’s trusted travel advisors. They are regularly called upon by clients to recommend the best places to eat — not just the most celebrated, but also hidden neighborhood restaurants favored by locals. Below, 10 advisors share their favorite cities for dining out.

[Photo Credit: b3designers.co.uk]

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