Month: February 2021

Margot Robbie brought a little glamour to the Golden Globes tonight when she appeared on the broadcast as one of the night’s presenters. Robbie wore a belted Chanel black dress with a high-leg slit on the red carpet and accessorized with a Chanel purse.

Robbie isn’t nominated for any acting Golden Globes this year, but she has been nominated twice in the past: in 2020, she had a Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture nod for Bombshell, and in 2018, she had a Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy nomination for I, Tonya.

But Robbie’s work is still being recognized: Promising Young Woman, which she produced with her production company LuckyChap Entertainment, has four Golden Globe nominations, including one for Best Drama Motion Picture.

Robbie explained in a December 2020 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that while LuckyChap has produced films starring her in the past, the company’s goal is to elevate female stories and storytellers. “We never started a company to be a starring vehicle for me or to be a platform for me to chase my dreams,” Robbie said. “It was really that we wanted to expand what female stories and female storytellers could do in this industry, and I don’t need to be onscreen for that to happen. But it’s a wonderful position to be in since my platform can also open some of those doors. And especially at the beginning, there were a lot of first- and second-time filmmakers that we wanted to work with, and you can’t get something greenlit without a bankable name attached and I’m so lucky to fall into that bracket [of bankable names]. But I’m not right for every role. I felt that way about Promising Young Woman.”

She explained why she felt Carey Mulligan was right to star in Promising Young Woman over her: “I was like, ‘I think I’m who people would expect to be cast in this.’ But the most delightful thing about Promising Young Woman is that it takes you by surprise, and I just felt like I wouldn’t be that surprising—me doing these kinds of things with people’s perception of who I am and the characters that I’ve played,” she explained. “Carey Mulligan, however, is an actress that has this air of prestige around her. She’s in period dramas. Throw her in Promising Young Woman, and people’s minds get blown.”

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It’s hard to believe it was a little more than a year ago the Royal Family was meeting at the Sandringham Summit after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced on their Sussex Royal Instagram account that they had decided to live a more independent life as a family, with the goal of carving out a “progressive new role” within the institution and to “step back as senior members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent.”

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The Sussexes had utterly captivated the world with their fairy-tale romance and 2018 wedding, which had modernized the monarchy, yet Prince Harry and Meghan were struggling. Duchess Meghan told ITV’s Tom Bradby, following their landmark 2019 Africa tour with then-four-month-old Archie, that the intense media spotlight had been overwhelming. “It’s not enough to just survive something right?” she said. “That’s not the point of life. You’ve got to thrive; you’ve got to feel happy.”

Now, the full story is starting to be told with Prince Harry’s revealing interview with close friend and Late Late Show host James Corden in his signature Carpool Karaoke series—this time on a double decker bus, reminding Harry of his London home.

Harry told Corden that he was “stepping back rather than stepping down,” and he “did what any father and husband would do,” after admitting the “toxic” tabloid attacks in the UK were “destroying my mental health.”

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At the end of 2019, the Duke and Duchess made the difficult decision to take a six-week break and spent several months in the peaceful environs at the Mille Fleurs estate in Canada on the picturesque coast of Vancouver Island. They evaluated their future before announcing that they intended to make a future in North America more permanent. The news came after a leak in The Sun newspaper on January 7, 2020 laid bare their tentative plans, just as they’d returned to London to discuss their future.

The couple quickly released a detailed roadmap of their “half in, half out” model, catching the Royal Family off guard. But the Queen quickly ruled it out as untenable. On January 13, just days after the news broke, and Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry met at Sandringham, the Queen issued the following statement: “My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family. Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”

ELLE.com has also learned that the Queen was “sympathetic and supportive” of Harry in a recent phone call ahead of the 12-month review period. Queen Elizabeth is “delighted about her grandson’s happiness,” a source shared with ELLE.com. Harry reassured her that he and Meghan “intend to carry on their duty to the family,” and reiterated he has no intention to embarrass the family despite suggestions in the tabloids that an upcoming tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey could damage relations. The Queen remains supportive of Harry to live a more private life and as a grandmother only wants his family to be able to thrive, knowing her grandson had been struggling.

As 2021 begins, the Sussexes have achieved unimaginable success after a devastating loss when Meghan miscarried in July, and a year that started with anguish and uncertainty.

They have “no regrets about stepping back,” according to a friend of the couple. “The change from what we’ve seen from January last year is remarkable. They feel settled. They feel excited about what’s to come.”

Prince Harry told James Corden, “Whatever decisions are made on that side, I will never walk away. I’ll always be contributing. My life is public service, so ­wherever I am in the world, it’s going to be the same thing.”

After a year that was meant to be a “listening period,” Prince Harry and Meghan have taken counsel from friends and others as they established their Archewell nonprofit that will be the centerpiece for their work going forward. “They have been able to get counsel from some of the most incredible people around the world, people out there who genuinely want them to succeed and wanted to help them and see the power in what they’re able to do. They’re getting a lot of great support from friends that they’ve made over the years who are proving to be very, very generous with their time and advice,” a source close to the Sussexes shared with ELLE.com.

Already, they have cemented a successful deal with streaming giant Netflix to produce content in the future, and in 2021, we will finally see the release of Harry’s landmark mental health series on Apple Plus with Oprah after production had to be suspended due to the impact of COVID-19. The couple also signed a multi-year partnership with Spotify, which will be an additional opportunity to amplify the issues that remain so important to them: mental health, conservation, racial and gender equality, and education.

Despite the pandemic, the Sussexes have continued with their humanitarian work, stepping in to help the community when they could. Shortly after setting up their base in Los Angeles, the couple were seen delivering meals with Project Angel Food to the vulnerable and home bound in West Hollywood in April. A few months later, they were back at it again, masks on, handing out school supplies with the charity Baby2Baby to families in need at an elementary school near where Meghan grew up. While the pandemic has had an impact on in person engagement, Prince Harry and Meghan have found alternate methods to reach young people through Zoom calls and other means to provide hope.

“They feel so much better about where they are and what their prospects are for the future. They’re looking forward to their work. Projects which were being implemented are finally being brought to fruition. Everything will start to pick up pace in 2021,” a friend of the couple told ELLE.com.

While the global pandemic has required everyone to adapt, there was also a silver lining for the Sussexes. The couple, who had initially made the decision to step back hoping to lead a more private life away from the spotlight, were able to enjoy many of Archie’s memorable first milestones. Celebrating International Day of the Girl, Meghan shared with Malala Yousafzai, “We are fortunate to have the time to watch him grow.” Harry revealed, “We were both there for his first steps. his first run, his first fall, his first everything.”

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In fact, life in Montecito, Harry admitted to Corden, is pretty idyllic! He spoke proudly about Archie, as any new father would, revealing Archie’s first word was crocodile, perfect for Harry, who is patron of a number of African conservation charities. Corden replied, “Crocodile, that’s a big word.”

“He is hysterical; he’s got the most amazing personality,” Harry said. “He’s already putting three, four words together; he’s already singing songs.”

The Duke also shared that the Queen gave them a very surprising, unique Christmas gift. “Interesting, my grandmother asked us what Archie wanted for Christmas, and Meg said a waffle maker. She sent us a waffle maker for Archie. Breakfast now, Meg makes up a beautiful organic mix. In the waffle maker, flip it, out it comes. He loves it. And now I have waffles for breakfast. A bit of yogurt, a bit of jam on top, I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do. A bit of berries, maybe, a bit of honey, a bit of syrup…Archie wakes up in the morning and literally just goes: ‘Waffle? Done.’”

COVID has not just allowed the family to spend more time together; it’s also helped the Royal family reconnect. Prince Harry was very concerned when both his father and brother contracted the virus during the spring. The Sussexes have “been keeping in touch with the family throughout the COVID pandemic. It’s brought everyone closer together,” a source tells ELLE.com.

Harry told Corden he and Meghan keep in touch with the Queen and Prince Philip so they can see a growing Archie via Zoom.

It’s too soon to tell when Harry and Meghan might return to London given the continued global pandemic, but Harry certainly has his eye on Prince Philip’s 100th birthday June 9 and the Queen’s official birthday celebration Trooping the Colour June 12, the same week, to reunite with family. With Meghan’s recently-announced pregnancy, things are in flux.

William and Harry are hoping to also come together to unveil the statue for Princess Diana on July 3 at Kensington Palace on what would have been the Princess of Wales’ 60th birthday. A friend of the couple told ELLE.com, “You have all of those signature moments, these key events that they would hope to travel for, but they will have to see what the status is of medical guidance in the next few months.”

Until then, Harry and Meghan are firmly focused on their future, Archie, and the huge strides they have have made in just nine months with their Archewell nonprofit.

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After a 12-season run of CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, Kaley Cuoco is finally able to showcase her talent outside of the long-running, quirky sitcom. On Feb. 3, the HBO Max series The Flight Attendant made her a first-time Golden Globe nominee, much to the 35-year-old actress’s delight.

She posted her very emotional reaction on Instagram:

“Thank you @goldenglobes #hfpa I will never ever forget this moment and I can’t stop crying … so proud of my entire team @flightattendantonmax ✈️ !!!!!,” she wrote.

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Cuoco is also an executive producer on the Flight Attendant, which was also nominated for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy. The show is about a flight attendant who wakes up in a Bangkok hotel room with a dead man and no memory of how any of it happened. The murder-mystery comedy series also stars Rosie Perez, Zosia Mamet, and Michiel Huisman.

The person right beside Cuoco in that celebratory, emotion-filled viral moment, was her husband, Karl Cook. On Feb. 3, he also posted to celebrate his wife’s big Globes moment. Alongside a video of Cuoco losing it over a photo of her dog, he wrote, “You can be a little crazy sometimes @kaleycuoco but I am soo proud of you and amazed at what you created with the flight attendant! You earned you golden globe nominations!! I love you so so much!”

The two have been married since June 2018 after dating for about two years. Cuoco separated from her first husband, Ryan Sweeting, in 2015.

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“I cannot wait to be in love again,” she told Cosmopolitan in a March 2016 interview, published a few weeks before she posted her first photo with Cook. “I don’t feel like I am ready yet which is so different for me. I dive into everything.”

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Here’s what we know about Cook.

He’s a big-deal equestrian

Once Cook started making an appearance on Cuoco’s social media, publications zeroed in on his impressive equestrian career. In 2016, he won the blue ribbon at the $25,500 SmartPak Grand Prix and the $15,000 UltrOz Jumper. He has an impressive ranking International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI).

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In June 2019, Cook spoke with equestrian site NOËLLE FLOYD after he and his horse had a bad accident at the Upperville Colt & Horse Show in Upperville, Virginia.

“As I was falling, I could hear my grooms and my trainer yell in shock. And when I turned around my horse was on the ground. [My horse] didn’t get up,” he said. “She didn’t get up for a while. I thought she broke her neck; she was laying there shaking. Even now it’s so difficult—it’s so hard because you sit there as a rider, and you rode that horse. You picked that distance, that was your choice. And now your horse is laying on the ground shaking. The horse ambulance pulls up and people are talking about euthanizing. It was the worst experience.” In the end his horse, Kalinka “Kali” Van’t Zorgvlie, was okay.

He went on, adding that he’s always driven to do better in the future: “What drives me to be better and learn more and continue to improve is shame…I want to get better not because I want to win every jump-off or want to be clear every time, but because I never want to have that feeling. I never want to make a mistake.”

Cuoco is also a skilled and competitive horse rider, and the two met at a horse show in 2016, per Us Weekly.

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His parents are pretty accomplished, too

Per E!, Cook’s mom, Signe Ostby, is also a rider and owns several of the horses on which Cook competes. According to her University of Wisconsin bio, Otsby launched her start-up, Software Publishing Corporation, in 1982. The company made productivity software for computers. Later, she launched her own marketing strategy for IBM, HP (printers and software), Apple, Epson, Egghead, Radio Shack, Compaq, and more.

His father, Scott Cook, is the cofounder of financial software Intuit and has a net worth of $4.7 billion, according to Forbes. Cook’s own net worth is estimated to be $100 million.

He and Cuoco’s names are connected in a funny way

Cuoco is derived from the Italian word meaning “chef” or “cook.” Not to sound like Toula’s father from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but when you translate Cuoco’s last name, it’s…also basically “Cook.”

He has a fun-loving sense of humor

Cook seems to like to have fun (at his wife’s expense) with his social-media presence. On New Year’s Day 2018, he posted this groggy photo of Cuoco. “I like starting the year off with a good chuckle,” he wrote. “Here’s @normancook really trying to stay up to the new year. It was only 9:30, good effort. I love you so much honey.” Notice he tagged Cuoco’s dog Norman in that photo (Norman doesn’t currently have any posted photos).

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Here’s another goofy spouse moment:

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Yet another:

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He’s a dog dad

Cuoco and Cook are passionate about animals (kind of a requirement if you’re a horse family!), and they own 25 horses and what Variety describes as a “large pack of dogs.”

In her interview with Variety this month, Cuoco didn’t want to say exactly how many dogs she has at her home. “I’m not allowed to say how many I have, because I am afraid they will come knocking, saying that it’s an illegal amount,” she said.

Just one look at either Cuoco and Cook’s Instagram grids, and you will see many dogs. Norman, unfortunately, died in January, and in December 2020, Cook revealed that their rescue dog Petunia had died a few months after they adopted her.

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But it looks like they still have lots of furry love in their home:

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And a home owner

Variety noted last year that, nearly two years into their marriage, Cook and Cuoco still didn’t live together. But that apparently changed once they bought a $12 million Hidden Hills home.

Remember that Cuoco alone has done quite well for herself; during her time on Big Bang, she famously became one of the highest-paid actors in TV. So, yeah, they can afford to live among the Kardashians.

He’s a skilled woodworker

For her birthday last year, Cuoco received a very special gift (if you’re into horses). He made her a “mounting block” from salvaged wood embedded with her horse’s shoes.

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“For non-horse people, this is something used to help get on your horses and it’s nothing short of amazing ! 🥰🥰😭😭🐴🦄 @mrtankcook 🎁,” she wrote. Cook is a man of many talents, for sure.

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If you’ve been a fan of English folk rock band Mumford & Sons since their early days, you probably know of their lead singer, Marcus Mumford. But not everyone was singing “Little Lion Man” at the top of their lungs in 2010 or spent way too much money on tickets to their “Gentlemen of the Road” tour in 2013 (oops).

You might have, instead, been more of a fan of Mumford’s wife, Carey Mulligan, whose filmography goes back to 2005, when she appeared as Kitty Bennet alongside Kiera Knightley in Pride & Prejudice. Mulligan is nominated for a 2021 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama for her role as Cassandra in rape-revenge film A Promising Young Woman.

Mulligan, who received an Oscar nomination in 2010 for her lead role in An Education (2009), has been one of the central stars of this year’s awards season after her performance in Emerald Fennell’s directorial debut.

This awards season, of course, has been very different than in years past. Mulligan, like several other actors, did press for her film from the comfort of her own home instead of a t a big premiere with a red carpet. When she spoke to The New York Times, the 35-year-old was at the British country house in Devon that she and Mumford share with their daughters, Evelyn and Wilfred.

They’ve been together long before the COVID-19 pandemic, though. They got engaged in 2011 and were married on a Somerset farm in April 2012. Colin Firth, Sienna Miller, and Jake Gyllenhaal were among the guests at the wedding. Vogue UK reported that Firth gave a “touching speech” and Adele performed at the reception. Mulligan wore a Prada dress.

We know a few details about their wedding, which happened nearly nine years ago, but what do we know about Mumford himself (besides his music)?

Like Mulligan, Mumford is British, but he was born in the U.S.

Mumford, 34, was born Marcus Oliver Johnstone Mumford on January 31, 1987 to English parents, John and Eleanor, in Yorba Linda, California. They moved back to England when Mumford was a baby, and he grew up in Wimbledon Chase, southwest London and went to King’s College School in Wimbledon, where he met his fellow band member Ben Lovett.

His parents are religious leaders

John and Eleanor were leaders in the Vineyard Churches in the U.K. and Ireland for more than 20 years. This was an influence that traces back to Mumford’s grandparents.

“I grew up in a Christian home,” John told the Vineyard Church website. “My father had become a Christian when he was at Cambridge in the 1920s. Both my parents loved the lord and served in a local church. It’s where I grew up. I served with them as we went every Sunday as a family. We prayed together, read the Bible together, and that was entirely natural. It just never occurred to me to do anything else. It wasn’t a chore; it was a wonderful heritage.”

You can hear Christian references in Mumford’s early music, especially. But the band has never taken on the identity as “Christian music.” Mumford told Rolling Stone in March of last year: “It felt like early on, people wanted to put you in a box: ‘You’re a Christian band.’ It certainly isn’t as simple as that.”

He and Mulligan were reportedly pen pals as kids

As Bustle noted, Mulligan and Mumford reportedly went to the same church camp when they were pre-teens and were pen pals after that. Neither has been public about this story, but it’s been widely reported as the way they initially met. Cute! Bustle also writes that Mumford’s parents officiated his and Mulligan’s wedding in 2012.

He went to the University of Edinburgh

Mumford went to school in Edinburgh, but he dropped out at about age 20 and moved to London to pursue his music career. It was there where he got work as a drummer for British folk singer-songwriter Laura Marling, who wasn’t quite a name yet herself. Rolling Stone reported that while Mumford was a student in Scotland, he traveled to London on the weekends to “play with Marling, Noah and the Whale, Adele and more.”

During that time, he told Rolling Stone, he wanted to be more than a drummer. “You’re kind of nervous that you might get the guitar passed to you,” he said. “But you also kind of want it to happen. It was constantly that cross between adrenaline and fear. And I still live there.”

The Guardian reported in 2012, around the release of Mumford & Son’s Grammy Award-winning album, Babel, that when Marling was away doing interviews one day, Mumford wrote “White Blank Page,” one of the big tracks on the first Mumford & Sons studio album, Sigh No More (2009).

Mumford & Sons formed in 2007 and hit it big

After blowing up as a band (especially with the popularity of Sigh No More and Babel), they met some criticism from people in England.

“England’s just very cynical. Like I am. Like we all are,” banjo player Winston Marshall told The Guardian. “I think we’re all guilty of it as British citizens,” says Mumford, “if something gets big we go. . .ugh.”

He added: “We get accused of inauthenticity because we play the instruments we play.” Their success speaks for itself.

Before Mulligan, he was with musician Laura Marling

As The Guardian noted in the profile, Mumford is private about anything other than his professional relationship with Marling, but they did have a romantic relationship that the publication said ended from some point after [Marling’s 2008 album] Alas I Cannot Swim was finished until about 2010.

He made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list

In December 2012, when Mumford was 25 years old, he was listed on the 30 Under 30 Music list alongside Adele, One Direction, Taylor Swift, Mac Miller, Wiz Khalifa, Justin Bieber, Avicii, Frank Ocean, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, and Rihanna.

“Folksy frontman and his indie rock act, Mumford & Sons, shocked the world by selling over 600,000 copies of their new album, Babel, in its opening week—the second-best debut of the year,” Forbes wrote.

He’s friends with Justin Timberlake

The Coen brothers film, Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake, Adam Driver, and more, features music from Mumford. He and Timberlake worked on the soundtrack together.

“I did work with Marcus Mumford on the soundtrack, so I became very good friends with them,” he said at the time. “Marcus and myself we all kind of worked on the music together and I don’t know any other world where we would have the opportunity to collaborate like that but it was so much fun. So not only will that be a great movie, but the music to it will be fantastic.”

He’s on Taylor Swift’s Evermore (2020) album

“There’s a really beautiful background vocal on ‘Cowboy Like Me’ sung by someone I’m a big fan of,” Swift hinted during her “Willow” live chat ahead of the album release.

Her fans, ever the detectives, figured it out pretty quickly:

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Mumford framed a note from Swift that reads, “You’re a bandit like me. Eyes full of stars.”

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He’s taking up surfing

Everyone has their quarantine hobby. Maybe this is his?

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Mulligan’s name will surely come up more this awards season, but that doesn’t necessarily mean this usually off-the-Instagram-grid couple will step out into the spotlight any more than usual. Time will tell!

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Kristen Stewart has been filming upcoming Princess Diana pic Spencer for the past couple weeks, with photos coming out here and there showing how much the actress looks like Diana on set. Yesterday, more photos were released of Stewart shooting a scene in Dülmen, Germany—and they gave a look at how Diana’s street style is going to be depicted in the film.

Stewart wears a dressy-casual look in the photos: a white blouse, red and green tweed blazer, pencil skirt, sheer tights, and black sneakers, of course. According to Daily Mail, the blazer channeled what Diana wore during her 1989 visit to Portsmouth:

Spencer, directed by Pablo Larrain, is based on the Christmas weekend that Diana spent in Sandringham in 1991, where she decided to get a divorce from Prince Charles—hence the jolly green and red tweed.

Stewart released a statement when production released the first official photo of her as the late princess. “Spencer is a dive inside an emotional imagining of who Diana was at a pivotal turning point in her life,” she said of the project. “It is a physical assertion of the sum of her parts, which starts with her given name; Spencer. It is a harrowing effort for her to return to herself, as Diana strives to hold onto what the name Spencer means to her.”

Stewart opened up to InStyle in October 2020 about preparing to play Diana ahead of filming. “We don’t start shooting until mid-January,” she said. “The accent is intimidating as all hell because people know that voice, and it’s so, so distinct and particular. I’m working on it now and already have my dialect coach. In terms of research, I’ve gotten through two and a half biographies, and I’m finishing all the material before I actually go make the movie. It’s one of the saddest stories to exist ever, and I don’t want to just play Diana—I want to know her implicitly. I haven’t been this excited about playing a part, by the way, in so long.“

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Growing up, I remember a statue in the house, probably about six feet tall. Beautifully carved, it depicted a woman with a basket on her head, walking hand in hand with a child. Seamlessly multi-tasking, she was carrying, caring, and moving forward. My mother made sure her six daughters knew about the contributions women, Islam, and the African Diaspora made to the world. We lived in a household with an instinctive educational curriculum. It wasn’t overt or formal, but rather a continuous flow of love and knowledge. Because of these teachings, my sisters and I had a solid sense of ourselves. We loved ourselves.

When I was around the age of 7, my mother welcomed Shaykh Ahmad Tawfiq into our home to serve as a tutor to my sisters and me. This is probably where I first got the notion of a curriculum and the radical idea that people learn when they can identify with the characters and concepts presented to them. Shaykh Ahmad Tawfiq would teach us about Africa, telling stories that unraveled with beauty and color. He brought to life the ancient kingdoms of Futajalo, Benin, Ghana, Mali, Egypt. We learned Arabic, and of the ancient University of Timbuktu, a great center for African scholarship built long before European universities. We learned about refined and industrious African people who were scholars, priests, and farmers. I knew where I stood in the large tides of history. But when I went to school, I grew confused. What I was taught there was drastically different from what I learned at home.

The omission of Black, Indigenous, Brown, Asian, and Latinx history is not incidental. These exclusions distance people from their own heritage, their own lineage, and ultimately, their own sense of self. A whitewashed curriculum enforces the myth that there have never been scholars, thinkers, innovators, caregivers, iconoclasts, artists, and revolutionaries across these various identities. Consider, for example, the ancient African kingdoms that were full of immense progress, scholarship, and knowledge. If we learned about them in the same way we learned about ancient Greece and Rome, we would appreciate the present complexity of Black civilization and negate the teachings of biased and inherited hate and discrimination. We would teach respect.

I became a teacher because education is a natural place to channel compassion. What I’ve often seen in our young people and students, whether at the youth detention facility where I mentored or in the group home where I taught, was an emptiness and disconnect from what they were learning. There was no investment in ensuring they identified with the curriculum. In February of 1926, Carter G. Woodman launched the first Black History Week. It’s unfortunate that anyone had to do that, to create a period of time designated to think about Black history. African American history is American history. Though the initiative was first created to highlight the celebration of Black achievements, we’re in a different world today than 1926. Surely, almost a century later, Black history should not be segmented from how we think about American history. It should be baked into the curriculum.

Who are we, and what is our value system? Learning about our history prompts this sort of self-inquiry. We need to decentralize whiteness and Western versions of history from the way we conceptualize our country and our society. To learn about the flow of history—the real, not whitewashed or glossed-over history—is to learn about personal and cultural values, and from this reflection, we can identify action we can take to work towards a harmonious society. When we talk about slavery, or the Jim Crow laws, or the Tulsa Race Massacre of Black Wall Street, we need to identify these moments as just as American as the Boston Tea Party. If we do that, if that history is brought into the present, then more citizens would understand the necessity for reparations. This sort of education ensures we’re instilling a value system of truth, honesty, and human compassion into our young people. Education and justice are synonymous. We’re investing, as a country, $81 billion a year in the incarceration system. What if we invested that money into the education system instead?

Today, I teach a course at John Jay College of Criminal Justice called “Perspectives on Justice in the Africana World.” As I tell my students, our class is about encouraging critical thought and critical thinking. It’s a safe space to discuss whatever we’re experiencing; there is no right or wrong answer, and I encourage my students to push through their biases. I ask them to challenge any rigid perceptions they might hold and to see things not as black and white, but from a more flexible, complicated moral perspective—a perspective of mutual care as it relates to historical fact. It has been wonderful, beautiful, and intimate to have these students, and this year in particular has brought the material of my course into a sharper light. The prevalence of the criminal justice system in the news and media cycle has brought our history closer to us. This mass unveiling of injustice to many people—though of course, so many of us have long known this injustice—has helped young people see the challenges our foreparents endured in a real way. Historical moments easily passed over during a quick scan of an article or a class presentation are now brought alive. We must relate and react to them in real-time. They are embodied in our current moment. And if our foreparents could take a step forward, like my father did, what can we do?

What I’ve learned from my time in education is that my students are yearning for this kind of information. Wanting to learn about history is also wanting to learn how your life can be more purposeful. Education is justice because knowledge of historical fact allows for goodness. When students discover histories full of people like them, who lived full, rich, interesting lives, people who have triumphed and overcome so many systemic obstacles, it gives them an honest, grounded perspective, and the ability to view their own life within that same plane of possibility. Teaching, and specifically teaching critical thinking about history, is a way to help people find their voices. They will know the truth of their history, the accomplishments and contributions of their lineage, and how valuable they all are. A society in which people feel mobilized, centered, and invested with purpose is a society whose citizens can love themselves.

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A new haircut or shade of lipstick has the power to lift one’s mood, but Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) takes the makeover to superhero heights in WandaVision. Marvel’s Disney+ series has sent fans down a theory rabbit hole regarding the idyllic sitcom suburbia Wanda constructed as a happily-ever-after with Vision (Paul Bettany). From black-and-white hits like I Love Lucy, Bewitched, and The Dick Van Dyke Show to the recent pop culture entries like The Office and Modern Family, Wanda’s journey explores multiple era-defining TV favorites in a bid to suppress her grief.

Rewatching old episodes of these classics was part of the preparation process, and Olsen told ELLE.com she did this to “understand the tones of each era.” The creative teams also needed a firm grasp of specific cultural moments (many of which were dictated by the producers and directors) and drew on personal experiences for additional research. “I used to watch a lot of these shows with my mom after school so I felt like I knew them; they were a comfort to me,” WandaVision makeup department head Tricia Sawyer tells ELLE.com. The pleasure derived from a family comedy is akin to a warm hug, which helps explain Wanda’s choice of genre for this fantasy world.

Talking from London (where they are currently shooting another Marvel project), Sawyer and hair department head Karen Bartek recount WandaVision‘s fast-paced production and their role “overseeing the look of all of the actors and keeping it in the continuity of the Marvel Universe,” says Sawyer. Neither are strangers to the superhero world or Wanda Maximoff, having both worked on Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame (Bartek was also a hairstylist on Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel). However, WandaVision is unlike any previous MCU project and worked on a shooting schedule that felt “like a tiny movie shot in one day,” Bartek adds. The pair discuss techniques used for different decades, working with Elizabeth Olsen, and spill behind-the-scenes secrets—but their lips are sealed about the final two episodes.

WandaVision in Black and White

WandaVision isn’t just borrowing its looks from television’s Golden Age; techniques ranging from floating objects on wires to the presence of a live audience add authenticity to the 1950s-set pilot,“Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience.” “We were there the whole time, running in really fast when we had a minute to touch them up—just like a sitcom,” recalls Bartek. She and Sawyer relished this challenge and soaked up the energy levels, which Bartek likened to live theater. Inside Wanda’s white-picket-fence utopia (shot on Warner Bros. Blondie Street, aka the home of Bewitched), the superhero is the picture-perfect vision (no pun intended) of the 1950s housewife ideal, with perfectly curled locks and flawless makeup.

Details down to eyebrow and nail shapes had to be considered, as well as how certain colors translate into black and white. This includes every product from foundation to eye makeup. “Her eyeshadow, to look natural, was a robin-egg blue color,” Sawyer explains of Olsen’s look. “She had a pale, pinky-red nail color.” For her lips, she wore a darker pink shade “to look natural.” Camera tests were required for Olsen, as well as dinner guest Mrs. Hart (Deborah Jo Rupp), but the biggest change for the black-and-white world belongs to Vision. His signature red was replaced by blue to convey the required tone. “We shot a lot of camera tests to get the right shade of blue to look right on camera when he was Vision,” says Sawyer.

Wigs in the ‘60s

Not only are Bartek and Sawyer seasoned in the world of Marvel, but they also drew on their own experiences working on a variety of TV genres. Sawyer’s time on the 1960s-set Mad Men proved a valuable resource from the makeup minutia to larger elements of WandaVision: “The nails, the shapes, organizing the background, all of that comes into play whenever you do a period piece,” she says. Meanwhile, Bartek called on her own experience with “a lot of sitcoms… that was an easy thing for me to go back to.” The hair department head adds, “Every job we work on, we bring into the next job. You’re always learning from other people.”

Bartek also worked on the spy series Alias, in which Jennifer Garner wore a lot of wigs during covert missions as Sydney Bristow. Subterfuge is an ongoing thread in WandaVision —though most of the Westview residents have no idea they’re in disguise—and the rapidly changing hairstyles required an extensive wig collection. Switching from retro curls to poker-straight locks followed by a tight perm is time-consuming (and potentially damaging) for any character. “I think every principal actor had wigs from the ‘50s to the ‘80s. We really couldn’t use anybody’s hair because shot a lot out of order,” Bartek says. “If we needed to do two eras in one day, that wouldn’t work time-wise. We could just pop a wig on and off.” The second episode, “Don’t Touch That Dial” gets an injection of color in the final moments, and this reinforces a Wanda constant—her red hair. “Her styles were so different from era to era, but we kept the color the same,” says Bartek. “We wanted it to stay the MCU original color.”

Bold Blue in the ‘70s

Collaborating with costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo was an important step in crafting a color palette that matched the show’s overall aesthetic. When Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) is under the control of the Hex as Geraldine, she assists with the birth of Wanda’s twins—before Wanda expels her from Westview. The ‘70s-themed episode, “Now in Color” embraces the bold trends of the decade, such as a pair of fish-print cobalt flares that we later learn are made of Kevlar. “Those pants were everything!” Sawyer exclaims. “We went up to the costume department and [Rubeo] showed us the fabric because the pants weren’t made yet. I talked to [Parris’s] makeup artist [Regina Little] and suggested a blue. She came up with that vibrant fantastic blue and it was perfect. I want to drink it—such a great color.” Little achieved this striking shade by layering “Jada” from the Jacylyn Hill Palette by Morphe and “Nile” from the discontinued Kat Von D Serpentina Palette. (Sawyer suggests “Blitz Blue” by Pat McGrath Labs as a near-identical alternative to Little’s combination).

While Bartek and Sawyer both relished the chance to design for different eras, they favored the older styles. “I find that when actors are in period, they tend to let you go there a little more than when they’re contemporary,” Sawyer says. “They have more fun with it [and] let you play more.” Both say the ‘50s episode was their highlight, but Bartek notes Olsen’s favorite wig was the unrestrained ‘80s curls.

Aerobics Chic

At least one villain has been unveiled, and Kathryn Hahn’s quintessential nosy neighbor Agnes is actually the witch Agatha Harkness. A triple-threat, Hahn sings her own theme song and came to the makeup trailer with an idea for an out-there makeup look for episode 4’s ‘80s theme. Sawyer’s co-department head Vasilios Tanis—“He is like my right arm”—worked with Hahn on the vibrant pink lipstick and heavy purple eyeliner look. “It was like those old aerobics videos, I can flash them in my brain right now,” Sawyer says. “That was her inspiration. Kathryn’s so fun and so game, it just fit her so much.”

Even a show with roots in a larger franchise leaves room for experimentation and collaboration with different departments. “I think actors always come with ideas,” Sawyer says. “They always have certain things they know work and don’t—they have thought about it. Karen and I have talked about this too. We take in everything: the director’s inspiration, costumes and what they’ve designed, and what the actors want. We try to meld them all together with what is actually period.”

A Nod to the Comics in the ‘90s

Episode 6, “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!” offers the chance to reference the comic book illustrations—which definitely don’t fit the look of the MCU aesthetic. “We pulled all the images from the comic when she was in that traditional costume and went off that,” says Sawyer. “And then found a red [“Forbidden Love” lipstick by Pat McGrath] that would work with that look and also with Lizzie’s skin tones.” Riffing on the ultra-revealing Wanda costume (with a suburban mom twist) keeps one foot in the source material and another in sitcom-land, which historically loves a sexy (for network) costume moment. The classic red lip is bolder than Wanda’s fresh-faced makeup and dials up the stylized element.

Layered nods to the comics and sitcoms are viewed as potential clues, but having worked on Marvel movies before, Sawyer and Bartek deftly avoid discussing any spoilers—including the movie they are currently working on. “A lot of people want to find out when it happens,” Bartek reveals when asked if friends and family try to get intel ahead of time. Even though the pair know everything about forthcoming storylines, they’ve turned WandaVision’s weekly installments into “date night” while shooting in London. Joking that they “don’t see each other enough,” Sawyer and Bartek watch the episodes together on their day off. “I can’t imagine doing this journey with anybody else besides Lizzie and Karen because it was hard. I think the first four episodes Karen and I never left set,” says Sawyer. “It was one of the hardest jobs I’ve done, and it was also one of the most pleasurable.”

Agatha All Along

The theme song that’s been playing on a loop in our heads since last week features a shift from color to black and white to accompany the witchy Agatha Harkness reveal. A collaboration between the makeup department and cinematographer Jess Hall was required to pull this transition off. “I worked with the DP pretty closely [for] that switch, and we took her a lot more vibrant, a little more pinky,” says Sawyer of Hahn’s lip color. “He was going to change it a bit in post, so I needed to know how he was going to do it to know what colors to use.” While costume elements have pointed to Agatha’s real identity—a brooch worn each week and a classic witch costume for Halloween—don’t look into the perms and lipstick for more hints. “There weren’t any Easter egg-type references,” Bartek says.

While Sawyer and Bartek don’t possess Wanda- and Agatha-style powers, they do have tricks, techniques, products, and years of experience for those fix-it-in-a-flash moments on set. “A big comb and really good hairspray” are Bartek essentials, and Alterna’s Caviar Working Spray is her go-to choice “because it holds and it’s light at the same time. I really can’t do a job without that.” Sawyer adds, “I, unfortunately, don’t travel that light. I’ve been teased about it my entire life. The one secret weapon? I don’t know. How about this…I think it’s me.”

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With each passing year, a dystopian show about the threat to women’s reproductive rights continues to be eerily relevant. That means a fourth season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, originally adapted from Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, is on its way. The Emmy-nominated series will arrive after a delay—and with a slightly abbreviated season—on April 28, 2021.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, filming on the new season was halted back in March 2020. But according to Deadline, production has resumed on a new 10-episode installment (down from its typical 13). Showrunner Bruce Miller assured IndieWire that the decision to shorten the season “was 100 percent creative,” adding, “Some storylines just seem to shake out as a 10-episode story, in my eyes. It gives us a little more freedom because you can rely more on one propulsive element.”

The last viewers saw of Elizabeth Moss’ June, she was in the fight of her life to transport dozens of children from volatile Gilead to safe haven in Canada. Ahead, everything we know about where the next season picks up, and which new cast member is joining the fold.

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The first trailer teases rebellion within Gilead.

The first footage of The Handmaid’s Tale season 4 emerged in June, compiled with a few weeks’ worth of filming and shots from previous seasons. In it, the promise of war between the government and those who seek to overthrow it looms. “I can’t rest. My daughter deserves better. We all deserve better. Change never comes easy,” June says during the teaser. “This war isn’t going to win itself.” Commander Joseph Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) similarly predicts, “What happens in the next few weeks will determine the future of this country.”

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Miller spoke to this brewing revolution during a post-season 3 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “She’s not going to leave without Hannah,” he said of June’s iron-clad motivation. He also addressed the severity of her actions at the end of the season: “As far as Gilead is concerned, those children are legally under their law. They’re in someone else’s family, they have parents. From their point of view, you’ve just taken adopted children and flown them out of the country, and some of them aren’t from people out of the country…So, I think that Gilead, from their point of view, under their set of codes, is going to be ready to go to war over this.”

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On February 25, 2021, Hulu released a full trailer for season 4 along with a synopsis:

In the 10-episode upcoming season, June (Elisabeth Moss) strikes back against Gilead as a fierce rebel leader, but the risks she takes bring unexpected and dangerous new challenges. Her quest for justice and revenge threatens to consume her and destroy her most cherished relationships.

The season 3 finale ended with an escape to Canada.

June’s journey in season 3 was driven by her desire to locate and care for her daughter Hannah. That goal ultimately led her to helping a group of Gilead’s children and Marthas escape the regime for refuge in Canada. But in the process of fleeing, June killed Commander Winslow (Christopher Meloni) and was shot herself. Badly wounded, she was escorted back into Gilead’s clutches by a few of her fellow handmaids.

For those dismayed that June wasn’t able to escape Gilead at the end of the season, showrunner Miller says that’s never been in the cards. “Everything June’s been told was impossible is still very possible and she’s just proven that again by doing this thing that is hitting Gilead exactly where they hurt,” he told THR. “I don’t think she has much hope that she’s going to get out alive. I think she’s more there to fuck up Gilead.”

Meanwhile, Alexis Bledel’s former handmaid Emily made it to Canada with June’s new daughter, Nichole. Although she reunited with her wife and son, she still experienced aftershocks from her time in Gilead. Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) also faced unforeseen obstacles at the end of the season. After convincing her husband, Fred Waterford, (Joseph Fiennes) to head to Canada (where she knew he would be charged with war crimes), she ended up under arrest herself. Serena also found out Nichole’s father is not Fred but June’s lover, Nick (Max Minghella). Nick’s whereabouts are also unclear after his last appearance in episode 6 of season 3.

Moss will direct a season 4 episode.

While much of the season is still shrouded in mystery, it’s been confirmed that series star Moss will make her directorial debut. She’ll helm the third episode, at least part of which was shot prior to the shutdown, per Moss’ Instagram.

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“I am thrilled to be given this opportunity by my partners Bruce [Miller] and Warren [Littlefield] and to have the support of all of our producers and Hulu/MGM,” Moss said in a statement, via The Hollywood Reporter. “It means so much to me and I do not take the responsibility lightly. Leading and executive producing this show the past three years has been such a joy and I’ve had the incredible gift of learning so much from the directors we’ve had on this show. I can’t wait to try my hand at working with my collaborators from this new perspective because I am lucky to have the best cast and crew in the world. My only hurdle may be working with the lead actress who I hear can be incredibly demanding. Wish me luck.”

Season 4 will welcome at least one new cast member.

Several cast members have been confirmed to return for season 4. They include Moss, Bledel, Fiennes, Strahovski, Minghella, Whitford, Samira Wiley as Moira, Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia, O-T Fagbenle as Luke, Madeline Brewer as Janine, and Amanda Brugel as Rita. After playing a pivotal role in the season 3 finale as American representative Mark Tuello, Sam Jaeger (The Politician, Parenthood) will be a series regular this season.

Mckenna Grace (The Haunting of Hill House, Gifted) has also joined the cast, Deadline reports. She’ll play Mrs. Keyes, the much-younger wife of a Commander, who “rules her farm and household with confidence,” per the outlet. Keyes is also described as having a “subversive streak” and ability to put on a calm front while chaos reigns inside.

The next season will premiere in 2021.

The Handmaid’s Tale was one of many shows impacted by COVID-19. Production on the fourth season was halted after about two weeks of filming in March. Variety reported in the months afterwards that season 4 would not premiere in fall 2020, as originally planned, but instead in 2021.

“Human life is not worth making a TV show for,” Moss told Collider of the schedule shift, adding, “Everyone wants to go back to work because we love what we do, and there’s also people that need to support their families and themselves. The producers contributed to a fund for our crew, that is out of our own pockets and has nothing to do with our larger corporation. We put a lot of money into it, and we’ve been keeping our crew going through that and supporting them being out of work. But we’ve gotta do it safely, and we’re just trying to figure that out. It’s all new territory, and we’re all in the same boat here.”

Sources told Deadline in mid-September that filming on the fourth season resumed two weeks ago in Toronto.

During the Television Critics Association press tour in February, showrunner Bruce Miller revealed one of the biggest challenges of season 4 was getting the cast into Canada to shoot after the country instituted 14-day quarantine rules for essential travelers entering provinces like Ontario, where Handmaid’s is shot. “We had to keep people out of episodes simply because they didn’t have enough time in their schedule,” Miller explainer, per Deadline. He also discussed some of the logistical issues the show faced. “We reduced the number of people in scenes and locations, like where we decided to shoot was a very big question because sometimes we couldn’t get things,” he said. “Sometimes we had five people in front of the camera, sometimes we could have 20 people in front of the camera. So, we were constantly, the entire season, making adjustments to the script and the story.”

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Elisabeth Moss will direct three episodes this season.

The actress behind June took on the directing mantle this season for episodes 3, 8, and 9, Deadline reported at TCA.

Season 4 won’t be the last.

While the fourth season has seen some delays due to the pandemic, even more Handmaid’s Tale is on the way. The show could even have a spinoff at some point, inspired by the publishing of Atwood’s 2019 sequel, The Testaments. (Hulu has already secured the rights to the novel.)

“We have not planned Season 4 to be the end, but we also look to Margaret [Atwood]’s book The Testaments and know that that story takes us 15 years into the future,” Executive Producer Warren Littlefield told TV Guide. “We don’t see ending it in [season 4], and I can honestly say to you, we don’t have a definitive out. But I think we want to keep the bar high, and it would not be a bad thing to leave the audience wanting more and then we could ideally shift into The Testaments.”

WATCH SEASONS 1-3 OF THE HANDMAID’S TALE

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