Lifetime Exec Reacts to Network’s First Sex Scene in a Christmas Movie: ‘There’s an Audience Hungry for Grown-Up Romance’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Ari Aster and Yorgos Lanthimos, who helmed “The Favourite,” have each developed an unmistakable filmmaking voice. But this year, both stretched into brand-new cinematic territory. With “Beau Is Afraid,” Aster crafted a nearly three-hour fever dream chronicling the mental unraveling of its profoundly neurotic title character, played to the hilt by Joaquin Phoenix.

Netflix has become a go-to staple for Christmas entertainment.The quality of its Christmas-themed output, however, is far from merry. Between the exquisitely naff identikit rom-coms and bad adaptations of Charles Dickens’ classics, digging around to find any modicum of decent will likely end your relatives before they’ve even sniffed the sherry.So is it worth bothering at all? In its vast library, there are several (at best) worthwhile Christmas romps – so let’s cut straight to the search bar.As noted in a rundown of the streaming service’s best Christmas movies on Rotten Tomatoes, Klaus is easily the best festive film on the platform.

Paul Mescal has described sex scenes in his latest film All Of Us Strangers as “both really moving and also really sexy” as well as “healing”.Mescal was speaking to Natalie Portman as part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series and opened up about the scenes in the film alongside his co-star Andrew Scott.Both play lovers in Andrew Haigh’s film, which is based on the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada.Mescal explained: “I think sex in film, or any form of media, when it can be healing and sexy at the same time, that’s when it’s at its best.”Portman asked Mescal why tender depictions of love are so rare in Hollywood sex scenes, to which he replied: “I think films like this are an indication of a distance that we’ve traveled, but ultimately there’s quite a ways to go.”He went on to say filmmakers “make something that felt really hot, and sexy, but I think also that doesn’t work in a narrative context if it’s not motivating character.“You have Andrew Scott’s character, Adam, who is in his mid-40s, who has a difficult relationship to sex. Then you have Harry come in, who is much more comfortable.

Natalie Portman and Paul Mescal are actors whose craft inspires as much admiration as the finished product on-screen. Portman, whose career now spans more than 30 years, including films like “Black Swan” and “Thor: Love and Thunder,” keeps us enthralled — this time, with her simmering performance in Todd Haynes’ psychodrama “May December.” The Oscar winner portrays an actress preparing to play a tabloid fascination (Julianne Moore), who became romantically involved with her husband (Charles Melton) when he was 13.

Jennifer Aniston is opening up about that buzzworthy sex scene she had with Jon Hamm in season three of The Morning Show.

raunchy Jon Hamm sex scene. Viewers of “The Morning Show” went wild in October when an episode of the AppleTV+ series, now in its third season, featured a steamy scene with Jennifer Aniston, 54, and Jon Hamm, 52. In a new interview with Variety, Aniston opened up about the steamy moment with the “Mad Men” star.

Julia Roberts is looking back at her long list of hit movies!

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, wrapping Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, felt like a direct response to a burning question from executives and investors present at the festival’s market arm last year: Could Saudi Arabia step out from drama and comedy and head into genre filmmaking? The answer offered by the festival, it turns out, was a resounding yes. “Arabs are closer to fantasy than the Western world,” director Yasir Al-Yasiri told Variety of this year’s Red Sea Film Festival opening film, “HWJN.” The film, a sprawling fantasy about the Arab Jinn culture set and shot in Jeddah, comes at the “right time,” according to the director.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor From internet memes to a slew of movies, this is the Age of Cage, but Nicolas Cage himself revealed that as he approaches his 60th birthday he is taking stock. He told a sold-out audience at the Red Sea Film Festival that he was winding down his film career after 45 years and over 100 films: “I want to do television; maybe Broadway.” His decision – inspired in part by his son Kal-El showing him “Breaking Bad” — won’t be final, as he has several film projects in the pipeline, including “Sympathy for the Devil,” co-starring festival jury member Joel Kinnaman and a sequel to 2005’s “Lord of War” — “My character’s son grows up and becomes a rival.

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star in the debut trailer for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, their new series at Amazon’s Prime Video!

In an intriguing move, yet retro, move for Disney on the 2024 theatrical release calendar which is starving for product, three Pixar movies –2020’s Soul, 2021’s Luca and 2022’s Turning Red –which were sidelined on Disney+ during the pandemic, are getting special engagement theatrical runs. We hear all three will receive moderate to wide theatrical runs. The titles will remain in play on Disney+ during their new theatrical window.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Christmas is not about money,” says Pepper (Jillian Bell), the passive-aggressive Christmas store elf in “Candy Cane Lane.” “Except that it is.” She could almost be describing Christmas movies. From the start, they’ve paired a celebration of the Christmas spirit, in all its enveloping toastiness, with a theme of raw economic desperation. You can trace this right back to the original Christmas movie — “A Christmas Carol,” and by that I don’t even mean the assorted film versions (though I grew up with them and especially loved the 1951 version with Alastair Sim) but the Charles Dickens novella, published in 1843, which essentially invented the modern Christmas.

Two stories from the entertainment industry made it onto Saturday Night Live‘s “Weekend Update” with Colin Jost and Michael Che taking on the Frozen sequels and the Lifetime movie sex scene.

The Serial Killer's Wife star Annabel Scholey has opened up about the intimacy rehearsals required for "athletic sex scenes" in the Paramount+ thriller.The 39-year-old, who is best known for her roles in The Split and The Sixth Commandment, plays Beth - the titular Serial Killer's Wife whose life unravels when her husband is arrested for murder. Speaking to OK! an in exclusive interview, Annabel revealed what it was like rehearsing sex scenes with an intimacy coordinator with her co-star, Poldark 's Jack Farthing (Tom). "When we got on to set for the more athletic sex scenes, it was a dance," she said.

its third season.Despite there being no release date yet for the next episodes, the production is one of the streamer’s most-watched projects.The period drama, which debuted on Christmas Day in 2020, is mostly known for its wild sex shots and its NSFW content.The popular series even launched a spinoff earlier this year based on the life of a young Queen Charlotte.But even the prequel wasn’t safe from the amount of sexy time on screen!“Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” actual had one for the most outlandish sex scene of the entire franchise — with a man keeling over in death while doing the deed.Keep reading for a rundown of the show’s raciest scenes — so far.Episode 1: Anthony and Siena at the theatreAnthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and his mistress/opera singer Siena (Sabrina Bartlett) secretly got it on during a play backstage — just moments after they made lusty eye contact from across the room. Episode 3: Daphne’s self-pleasure In a moment of solace, a curious Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) decides to masturbate for the first time in bed.And to no surprise — she enjoys it!Episode 5: The Hastings’ first nightSimon, the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), and his new bride Daphne are fresh off of their wedding.

Michigan fought its way to a victory over Ohio State on Saturday and, in the process, blew the rest of the college football season out of the water.

The iconic Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony is here and will be telecast live on television!

have to evolve eventually, it turns out. I mean, not the part where a workaholic city slicker returns to her small hometown where she meets a handsome single dad who teaches her the meaning of Christmas and they fall in love. That hasn't changed.

The love pairing of flirty, late-era Millennial Harry (Paul Mescal) and the shy, fringe Gen X-er Adam (Andrew Scott) isn’t what you’d necessarily expect in most contemporary gay love affairs, let alone in Andrew Haigh’s sublime new drama, “All of Us Strangers.” But, lonely living in a barely occupied London apartment tower can make for unexpected and literal bedfellows. In the context of the film, it also leads to several intimate cinematic scenes that are both emotionally moving and, well, quite erotic.

Ooh, look at Jana Kramer, breaking down taboos!