NICOLE KIDMAN---UNRECOGNIZABLE, DRUNK AND DISHEVELED IN DESTROYER.

  It's always a pleasure seeing Nicole Kidman, whom I first met 21 years ago on Batman Forever. A lot of water under the bridge since then for both of us. 

   We have a connection because I knew her friend and publicist Wendy Day when I was in London and later when I worked in Sydney Australia, too, and we've kept in occasional touch.

   I'm happy to have seen quite a bit of Nicole this year as she has three movies either already out or in the offing....Boy Erased, Destroyer and Aquaman  

Nicole: Unrecognizable in Destroyer

    It is Destroyer in which she is virtually unrecognizable as a drunk and disheveled cop out for revenge in a role that should earn her an Oscar nomination. Variety calls her character "dirtier than Harry and deadlier than The Killers."

 "It was such a stretch for me and so different from anything I had done," she says. "I had actually done A Boy Erased and then four weeks later I was doing this. I was like 'Oh my gosh, I don’t get this opportunity as an actor, and I never had it before and I will probably never have it again.  So it’s a once in a lifetime situation. 

  " I was in every frame of the movie and there was absolutely no faking anything, because there are so many shots where it’s just my face. So it was a commitment, but it was a commitment I was willing to make.

  "I would take her home and I am lucky because my husband is so understanding of the artistic process so he gives me space. But my children were particularly shocked with how I looked." 

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LIKE ALLY, ANOTHER STAR IS BORN

 This is Carmen Reece and if you haven't heard of her yet you soon will, believe me. 

  I met her at the home of Carole Bayer Sager where she was singing Carole's song, Living in the Moment accompanied on the piano by multi-Grammy winning composer-producer David Foster to an audience that included Diane Keaton, Ted Danson and friends of Carole. 

   Carmen, a cheery Londoner with a sparkling sense of humour, began performing at the age of 11 as the head flautist with the UK National Children's Orchestra when she wrote her first song. 

  She has been in America for eight years but is British through and through, with an affinity for roast dinners, pubs and all things English.  

  And just like Lady Gaga's Ally in A Star Is Born, singer-songwriter Carmen is heading for the top. 

 Like Ally, she has paid her dues.  She worked in Ye Olde King's Head bar in Santa Monica when she first arrived in California then toured America, singing and playing the piano in clubs and bars.

  She landed a music publishing contract with Universal Music and has written songs for Ariana Grande, Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez,  Ciara, Craig David and many others. 

  Her song I'm in Love With a Monster was recorded by Fifth Harmony and is featured in the first two Transylvania movies. 

She is currently working alongside Grammy award-winning producers Alex Da Kid, Harmony Samuels, Fraser T Smith, Kanye West, Red One, Danja, Rodney Jerkins and Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds, to name a few.

  She also has her own career as a stunning singer and pianist whose new record, Friday, is available now.

  So check it out and look out for the multi-talented Carmen Reece. 

https://song.link/i/1436731749



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COMIC BOOK LEGEND STAN LEE DIES AT 95

 Sorry to hear of the death of Marvel comics icon Stan Lee at the age of 95. He had battled a number of illnesses over the past year, including most recently a bout of pneumonia.  

   When I talked with Stan two years ago he was fit, feisty and working on movies featuring Annihilator and Realm of the Tiger, new superheroes he had created.

  But he became enmeshed in health and legal problems following  the death last year of his beloved British-born wife Joanie after 70 years of marriage.

  He had filed a lawsuit against his former manager Jerardo Olivarez alleging fraud, elder abuse and misappropriation of his name and likeness.
 
  Lee, whose creations include Spider-Man, the Hulk, Daredeveil, X-Men and Black Panther, accused Olivarez of being one of many "unscrupulous businessmen, sycophants and opportunists" who sought to take advantage of him following the death of his wife.  

   More than two million of Lee's comic books have been published in 75 nations and in 25 languages. His characters have been featured in 24 animated television series and several live-action movies.

   Lee rose to fame from ignoble beginnings to become the most famous comic author and producer in history. The face of Marvel, Lee was one of the few comic book authors recognisable to mainstream audiences largely because of film roles where he played himself and for his small on-screen parts in the major Marvel movies. 

  But he had a rocky relationship with Marvel once the company went full-tilt Hollywood. He sued the company in 2002 for royalties he said he was owed for the first Spider-Man movie. Three years later he settled the case for $10 million.

 
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CLAIRE FOY LEAVES BUCKINGHAM PALACE AND TURNS TOUGH FOR SPIDER'S WEB

   The millions who watched and loved Claire Foy as the young Queen Elizabeth in The Crown are in for a shock if they see her in Girl in the Spider's Web. 

  It couldn't be more different from the genteel world of Buckingham Palace.  

The gadget on the left is a miniature rocket for the movie First Man

  As the tattooed Lisbeth Salander she has facial piercings, sports a black mohawk, hacks into top secret data systems, dodges enemy vehicles on her motorycycle and beats up rich, powerful men who abuse their women. 

 After the Crown, The Girl in the Spider's Web was particularly gruelling for her. " I knew it was going be a really intense shooting schedule and I had to do a lot of physical work," she tells me when we talk in Barcelona. "I had to do a lot of stunts, a lot of running and generally throw myself around so I had to take care of myself physically.

   "But I loved the action because it was something so different for me. I just loved it.

 "And I loved getting the tattoos. When the water was freezing cold and they were transferring them onto my back I didn't like it quite so much," she laughs. "But I loved them. I was really involved in designing them and in the end they felt like part of my body. And very occasionally at family parties where I've looked down, I’d be, 'Oh look I've still got that one on,' which was a bit unusual. But I loved them, I really did."

 
After filming three movies in quick succession---the others were Unsane and First Man--Claire wanted nothing more than a long rest. 

  "I did nothing for the whole summer and I plan not to do anything for quite a while longer," she says. "Making the Crown and the three movies was really rewarding and amazing but quite exhausting too. I have nothing lined up. Nothing for a long time-------I'm doing diddly squat." 

 
Instagram: @beachscribe