Farmers veterans coalition

September 26, 2013 - 16:01 BST hellomagazine.com A British D-Day veteran who was personally invited to a film set by Brad Pitt had to Google him beforehand to be sure who he was A British D-Day veteran who was personally invited to a film set by Brad Pitt had to Google him beforehand to be sure who he was. Fury but admitted he had to use the search engine beforehand to find out who Brad was. "I said to him 'Until last night I didn't have a clue who you were and then I googled you and you've been in quite a lot of films'. "They all rolled about laughing when I said that," he said after his trip to the Hertfordshire film set. "I don't do modern films. I am a fan of actors like Alec Guinness, but of course he is dead now." Peter, the last WW2 survivor of the 13/18th Royal Hussars, was signed up to the Sherman tanks at the age of 21. Brad wanted to ask him what life was like inside the tanks. He landed at Sword beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944 on a day which saw 140 of his fellow soldiers killed and 350 more wounded. The Fight Club actor plays the commander of a DD Sherman tank in his new WW2 thriller. "My regiment, the Light Dragoons, got in contact with me about three weeks ago," Peter explained. "They'd been approached by an ex-officer who worked for a film company and asked if there were any old boys left. "Then Brad Pitt phoned me and said he wanted to speak about Sherman tanks for a film. "He talked me into going and, I have to say, I was extremely well treated. They wanted a lot of information to make it accurate and fired a lot of questions at me." "Luckily there weren't any questions I didn't know the answer to," the grandfather-of-six said. "The film crew got me up on the tank for a few pictures and wanted to know everything about it. "They wanted to know where we slept, where we spent a penny, the living conditions and what it was like in action, so I told them. "I … [Read more...] about A British D-Day veteran who was personally invited to a film set by Brad Pitt had to Google him beforehand to be sure who he was

This afternoon at the Toronto Film Festival, as the third season of the acclaimed Transparent premiered in a special screening, a more disreputable project debuted across town starring Michelle Rodriguez as a hit man forced into a sex change. Dubbed (re)Assignment, it may be 2016’s biggest what-were-they-thinking fiasco, and when it comes to trans issues, this throwback movie is about as woke as a coma. “What happened to me … I guess it was a lot better than what I deserved,” growls hit man Frank Kitchen at the top of (re)Assignment. Played by Rodriguez, the ostensibly macho Frank carries out a series of for-hire murders while sporting a messy ponytail, a spirit-gummed beard, and the fakest chest rug this side of Austin Powers. With her manicured facial hair, Rodriguez looks more like an unenthusiastic A.J. McLean cosplayer than a hardened hit man, and every time she appeared onscreen in her male guise, I found myself longing for the verisimilitude of The Tyra Banks Show. Butch though Rodriguez may be, even she can’t sell the effects-aided moment when Frank steps out of the shower, fake chest hair matted with water, and lets his dick swing toward the camera. Audiences have been agitating for gender equality when it comes to screen nudity, but I suspect this isn’t quite what they had in mind.protesting the film on Twitter, and I suspect they’ll soon be joined by fans of good cinema. Directed by veteran filmmaker Walter Hill (The Warriors) working in Uwe Boll mode, (re)Assignment is a mess that mixes way too many framing devices, shoots random scenes in black and white and forgets to subtitle others, and relentlessly time-stamps every moment as though it’s crucial to know that a barely glimpsed scene of Frank committing his umpteenth murder happened at 4:19 p.m.(re)Assignment merits no love. At the very least, Weaver’s overwritten, over-the-top scenes do provoke their fair share of b-movie laughs: “I’m … [Read more...] about Toronto: This Michelle Rodriguez Sex-Change Thriller Is a Total Disasterpiece

Kick-off for Super Bowl LV happened at 6:30 ET on February 7, but minutes before the Chiefs and Buccaneers took the field, the real main event of the evening happened, at least for the token poetry and culture lovers in the crowd. 22-year-old National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, who read her work “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration last month, recited a new poem that she was commissioned by the NFL to write for this event. The pre-taped segment honored three heroes of the pandemic, who were in attendance: A teacher named Trimaine Davis, a nurse named Suzie Dorner, and a Marine Corps veteran named James Martin. Davis, Dorner, and Martin then appeared live on the field, and Dorner did the honorary coin toss, receiving a slightly less poetic “thanks” from the ref. … [Read more...] about Watch Amanda Gorman Recite a New Poem Honoring Pandemic Heroes at Super Bowl LV

February 02, 2021 - 16:33 GMT Danielle Stacey Buckingham Palace released a statement following the news of Captain Sir Tom Moore's death on Tuesday The Queen has sent condolences privately to Captain Sir Tom Moore's family following the announcement of his death on Tuesday.The 100-year-old war veteran, who became a national treasure for his incredible fundraising efforts, died after contracting COVID-19. The monarch, 94, knighted Captain Sir Tom during a special ceremony at Windsor Castle in July last year. BREAKING: Captain Tom Moore dies aged 100 following COVID-19 battle Loading the player... WATCH: Captain Sir Tom Moore dies after contracting Covid-19 A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "Her Majesty very much enjoyed meeting Captan Sir Tom and his family at Windsor last year. "Her thoughts, and those of the Royal Family, are with them, recognising the inspiration he provided for the whole nation and others across the world." MORE: Captain Tom Moore's final family photo revealed before his heartbreaking death pic.twitter.com/4QHUcwrHiH — Captain Tom Moore (@captaintommoore) February 2, 2021 The news of Captain Sir Tom's passing was confirmed on his official Twitter page, with a photo of him being posted alongside the caption: "Captain Sir Tom Moore 1920 – 2021." The army veteran raised more than £33m for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday last April. Captain Sir Tom with the insignia of Knight Bachelor at Windsor Castle After meeting the Queen at the investiture ceremony, Captain Sir Tom said: "She did mention the money and she thought it was a magnificent sum to raise." Speaking about his months of fundraising, he said: "When you think that about four months ago I was just Tom Moore, now I'm Sir Tom Moore, no one could ever have believed that, in that time it would happen to me. "I've been really honoured that this … [Read more...] about The Queen’s touching message to Captain Sir Tom Moore’s family

From stem to stern, it was a night of keeping up appearances, a simulation of normalcy in a year where normal doesn’t seem possible. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TW Ten winters ago, a trove of snaking, lascivious R&B tracks appeared seemingly out of thin air, credited to someone or thing called the Weeknd. They were studies in stark contrasts: “Loft Music” floated gossamer samples of Brooklyn indie rockers Beach House over trap drums, and “What You Need” sunk a sample of Aaliyah’s voice under gauzy synths, her whisper bubbling up through the watery mix like a lover emerging from a warm bath, all of this in service to an angelic voice uttering the most devilish advances. The singer, an East Toronto native and recent college dropout named Abel Tesfaye, gave voice to our darkest late-night moods, to the allure of pushing a body past its limit in pursuit of pleasures both psychedelic and carnal. In March 2011, the Weeknd released House of Balloons, a mixtape sequenced like a journey through the highs, lows, and lonesome aftereffects of a wild night out, setting the scene by advising the listener in the first song that “You’ll wanna be high for this,” then wandering through strip clubs, parties, and after parties to the inevitable anxieties and pangs of withdrawal that surface as you sweat everything out the next day. The Weeknd turned R&B on its head without showing his face. Without glossy videos or a lively social-media presence — this in the days before Instagram caught on — Abel lingered in your head like stifled urges. In the intervening years, Tesfaye has evolved from an invisible man into a ubiquitous one, careful pivot by careful pivot, logging increasingly successful hits increasingly removed from the chunky, post-genre soup of his early mixtapes. The sound got cleaner. Tesfaye sought out pop and dance music veterans like Daft Punk and Max Martin and duetted with Ed Sheeran and … [Read more...] about So Now the Weeknd Is Our Collective Escape From Hell?

It’s important for people who do valuable work to know they are valued. Photo: United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection King. That’s the middle name on your birth certificate. February 8, 1941. Nicholas King Nolte. The King. That’s you. Embrace it. Since you’re turning 80 today, I thought you should know that a lot of folks, myself included, consider you one of the finest actors this country has produced. You don’t have an Oscar yet, though you’ve been nominated three times — for The Prince of Tides, Affliction, and Warrior. I’m sure it felt good, that official recognition. But you never seemed like somebody who got hung up on that kind of thing. You’ve lived a big life, and most of it we’ll never hear about. You’ve struggled with addiction and made it through. We’ve heard the stories, we’ve seen the mug shot, we’ve read the arrest reports and rehab accounts, we’ve heard you talk about your demons in interviews. You always seemed like a weird fit for Hollywood. You clean up nice, but let’s be real: When people think of Nick Nolte, they think of wild hair and stubble. There was a long stretch when you wore surgical scrubs everywhere because they felt good. In his review of Nick Nolte: No Exit, a documentary in which you interview yourself — what a Nick Nolte thing to do! — Roger Ebert said, “I’ve interviewed him several times, including at Telluride, which he attended in a bathrobe, and at Cannes, where we did a Q&A that was light on the A’s. I enjoyed his company. Can’t say that he confided many secrets.” Nevertheless, it’s important for people who do valuable work to know they are valued. I hope sometime soon the Academy gives you an honorary Oscar or a Governors Award or whatever the hell they see fit to substitute for the recognition they should’ve given you a long time ago. But who cares, … [Read more...] about A Letter to Nick Nolte on His 80th Birthday