Eric Bauza Talks Voicing Bugs Bunny As A Person Of Colour: ‘It’s So Nice To See Representation Not Just In Front Of The Camera’

Editor’s note: Jesse Andrews is author of the novel Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which is one of five books pulled from the library shelves of high schools within the purview of Tallahassee, Florida-based Leon County Schools superintendent Rock Hanna, after the Leon County chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty petitioned the schools to remove the book because of the frank depiction of sex and gender identity issues. The others include Push, the Sapphire-penned book that inspired the film Precious;Doomed by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk; Lucky by Alice Sebold; and Dead End by Jason Meyer. Still being scrutinized is an autobiography of tennis great Billie Jean King, because it discusses her sexuality. This has been an ongoing theme precipitated by policies passed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative Republicans. DeSantis is running for president and probably figured to ride his brawl with Disney into the White House, until Bob Iger began pushing back in ways that have cost revenue and investments it planned for the state of Florida, where Disney is its largest taxpayer and employer. What’s it like to see your book banished for, as Moms for Liberty argued in its email to the school board, violate state law and subject school district personnel to potential felony prosecution and litigation? Here, Andrews — also a screenwriter whose credits include co-writing with Mike Jones Pixar’s Luca — explains it all.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival will pay tribute to late Italian icon Gina Lollobrigida, who died in January, with a pre-opening event featuring a double bill of freshly restored works in which she stars. The Lido’s annual pre-opening event on Aug. 29 will feature a 27-minute short by Orson Welles titled “Portrait of Gina.” In 1968, Welles interviewed Lollobrigida in her villa on the Appian Way as the pilot for an ABC TV series — a U.S. version of “Around the World With Orson Welles”– that ABC rejected. Welles’ portrait of the diva remained in the vaults until 1986, when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival one year after Orson Welles’ death. This piece has been defined by Welles as a “personal essay” on Lollobrigida. Interestingly, when Lollobrigida saw “Portrait of Gina” in Venice in 1986, she reportedly tried to have it banned. The short’s restoration was done by the Munich Film Museum and Italy’s Cinecittà.

Love Island's Mitchel Taylor is not happy with Abi Moore's speech following the shock recoupling on Sunday night and said his head is "scrambled". During Love Island's After Sun on Sunday, a sneak peek was shown of the next episode of Love Island which showed Mitch's reaction to Abi's mic drop moment. In response to Abi's explosive speech around the fire pit, the clip showed Mitch telling her: "I'm not happy with your speech, that was a bit sh**ty from you." He went on to say that his head "has been scrambled" before adding "I do like Ella." Abi replied: "Look at how it looks to me, you've cuddled up in bed, I've not had any chats with you, any kind of that anything was going to happen." Mitch went on to say "I've said it before, right now no one compares".

firearms regulations, corporate diversity programs, a Florida school’s policy on a transgender student’s privacy, and the decision by credit card companies to separately classify gun purchases, to name a few issues.READ MORE: GOP Senators and Right-Wingers Freak Out Over Biden Ordering 3000 Reservists to Ready for Possible Deployment to EuropeHe or his office have also accessed the medical records of transgender people,Earlier this week anchor Rachel Maddow took a look into Skrmetti “demanding and obtaining the private medical records of trans people in Tennessee as Republicans look for ways to make the lives of trans people miserable,” MSNBC reported.Just yesterday, Skrmetti headed a coalition of 13 Republican state attorneys general “warning the nation’s largest companies — many of which have diversity and equity programs — they could face legal action for using race-based policies,” Tennessee Lookout reported. The sharply-worded letter “put Fortune 100 companies on notice they could be hit with legal action for violating the U.S.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Seven films have been selected for the 11th edition of Final Cut in Venice, the works-in-progress section of the 80th Venice Film Festival. Final Cut in Venice, which runs Sept. 3-5, provides support for the completion of films from Africa and five Middle Eastern countries: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. It is one of the programs run by the festival’s industry section, Venice Production Bridge. Over three days, the working copies of the selected films will be presented to producers, buyers, distributors, post-production companies and film festival programmers. The first two days are devoted to screenings, and then one-to-one meetings between the producers of the projects and the professionals attending the Venice Production Bridge will take place on the third day. The program will conclude with the awarding of prizes in kind or in cash, the purpose of which is to provide support for the films’ post-production.

So what film will win the coveted Golden Lion at the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival this year? Well, there’s no front-runner right now because festival director Albert Barbera hasn’t even anvnounced the in-competition line-up yet. But now we know who will choose the winners alongside jury head Damien Chazelle.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Jane Campion, Laura Poitras, Mia Hansen-Løve and Martin McDonagh are among high-caliber members of the Venice Film Festival’s main jury. The prominent directors, most of whom are Venice regulars – Poitras last year scored the Golden Lion with documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” – will be joined on the Venice jury panel by Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“Wajib”); Chinese star Shu Qi (“The Assassin”); Italian director Gabriele Mainetti, who was at Venice last year with “Freaks Out”; and Argentinian auteur Santiago Mitre whose “Argentina, 1985” also launched from the Lido last year. They will join Damien Chazelle who – as previously announced – will serve as president of the Venice competition jury. 

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As one of the most instantly-recognisable women in the world, The Princess of Wales is on her way to becoming a true royal icon.The once-quiet and reserved Kate has been replaced by an assured, playful - and occasionally forceful - figure, commanding as much respect from the public as King Charles or Prince William could ever hope for. Kate certainly began her royal journey in William’s shadow, and was shy at times in the early days.

Campaigners say a new rat control service being provided to Falkirk Council tenants should be made more widely available.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The upcoming Asian-American feature film “Chopin,” starring Eddie Liu (“Kung Fu,” Never Have I Ever, “Silicon Valley”) and Violett Beane (“God Friended Me,” “The Flash”), officially wrapped a 25-day shoot on June 4. Announced last year, the film is now in post-production and scheduled for an early 2024 premiere. The film is the feature directorial debut of Vincent Lin, a successful commercials director and co-founder of Valiant Pictures. The film, written by Lin, also stars Golden Horse Film Award winner Leon Dai (“Your Name Engraved Herein,” “Cannot Live Without You”) and Taiwanese legend Wu Min (“The Queen!”).

Jess a mom thing — no kidding. Jessica Simpson frequently has to tame her temper when it comes to her kids catching flights with the Kardashians to see the likes of Katy Perry perform — mostly because her brood has yet to ever see their “Irresistible”-crooning mom hit the stage. “They’ve never seen me do this,” said Simpson, 42, as the cover girl of Bustle’s July issue, referring to tots Maxwell, 11, Ace, 10, and Birdie Mae, 4, who she shares with husband Eric Johnson, 43.While wowing in eye-catching couture for the piece, the “Take My Breath Away” chanteuse candidly addressed her Ozempic-free weight loss, a sorely missed opportunity to work with Beyoncé’s songwriters due to her bout with alcoholism and regaining ownership of her eponymous “Jessica Simpson” fashion imprint for over $54 million in 2021. She also casually laughed off the recent wave of viral vitriol ex-hubby Nick Lachey, 49, has amassed on TikTok for criticizing her in resurfaced clips from MTV reality series “Newlyweds,” which chronicled their brief marriage in the early 2000s.But for Simpson, her daughter Maxwell’s enchantment with “Fireworks”-singing Perry is no laughing matter. “I have my daughter taking a private plane with North West to go see Katy Perry in Vegas,” she said.

After delivering a blisteringly saucy trailer, Luca Guadagnino’s latest film “Challengers” will set the Venice Film Festival ablaze as their opening night film, screening out of competition, TheWrap has confirmed. The film follows Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a successful tennis champ drawn to two men, played by Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor.

Well, it’s official: Variety reports that Luca Guadagnino‘s latest, his tennis love triangle film “Challengers,” will open the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival. No surprise there, as Guada has premiered five of his seven feature films on the Lido.

While many of us like to think of ourselves as pretty smart, it can often be a difficult point to prove.

Chris Jericho almost quit wrestling.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Greta Gerwig revealed in a new interview with Rolling Stone that some “Barbie” set visitors made Margot Robbie feel “self-conscious” during filming when they interacted far more with her co-star, Ken actor Ryan Gosling, than they did with her. Gerwig was talking about the time the crew spent filming a rollerblading scene in Venice Beach. Set photos from the scene, featuring Robbie and Gosling in neon outfits, exploded on social media last summer during production. “How Barbie operates in Barbieland is she’s entirely continuous with her environment,” Gerwig said. “Even the houses have no walls, because you never need to hide because there’s nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed of. And suddenly finding yourself in the real world and wishing you could hide, that’s the essence of being human. But when we were actually shooting on Venice Beach, with Margot and Ryan in neon rollerblading outfits, it was fascinating because it was actually happening in front of us.”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 10th edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market, organized as part of the Venice Film Festival’s industry program Venice Production Bridge, has selected 62 projects in the final stages of development and funding. Filmmakers taking projects to Venice include Jim Sheridan, an Oscar nominee with “In America,” “In the Name of the Father” and “My Left Foot”; Annemarie Jacir, whose credits include Cannes’ “Salt of This Sea,” Berlin’s “When I Saw You” and Locarno’s “Wajib”; Aisling Walsh, who directed “Maudie” with Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, and “Elizabeth Is Missing” with Glenda Jackson; and Kim Mordaunt, who won best debut at Berlin with “The Rocket.”

Eric Nam has announced his massive 66-date ‘House on a Hill’ world tour for 2023 and 2024.Eric Nam will kick off his ‘House on a Hill’ world tour with a 39-date trek across the US and Canada that will run form September to the middle of November. It will feature concerts in over 20 states, as well as four shows in Canada.The Latin American leg of the ‘House on a Hill’ world tour will take place in the latter half of November.

Back in 2019, Chris Jericho emerged with a new pro-wrestling persona dubbed Painmaker, a deranged and violent character inspired by serial killers that he debuted for New Japan Pro Wrestling.