Hollywood

The curious influence of Oscar Wilde on Hollywood

23 March 2024 9:00 am

After Wilde’s visit to the US in 1882, his philosophy of life became an inspiration to early filmmakers in their revolt against corporate America, Wall Street and provincial pettiness

How The Sopranos changed TV for ever

20 January 2024 9:00 am

Peter Biskind describes how a once despised medium became the definitive narrative art form of the early 21st century. But has it now passed its peak?

‘We are stuck like chicken feathers to tar’: Elizabeth Taylor’s description of the fabled romance

21 October 2023 9:00 am

The Burton-Taylor relationship was either one of the greatest love stories of all time or a suicide pact carried out in relentless slow motion

Complicated and slightly creepy: the Bogart-Bacall romance

19 August 2023 9:00 am

Lauren Bacall was 25 years younger than Humphrey Bogart. Unlike his previous wives, she stayed – though Roger Lewis finds something creepy about their relationship

Letter from Thailand

22 July 2023 9:00 am

Many of my friends, stranded by the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes, have temporarily given up their film projects and…

Identity politics is in retreat in Hollywood

20 August 2022 9:00 am

‘Diversity is woven into the very soul of the story.’ If those words of praise from a rave review in…

Dark days in Hollywood: Mercury Pictures Presents, by Anthony Marra, reviewed

30 July 2022 9:00 am

Summer is a time for blockbusters and Anthony Marra has delivered the goods with Mercury Pictures Presents, a sweeping book…

The magic of black and white films

18 June 2022 9:00 am

He is a rich English lord with a very large house and his wife is a beautiful American with a…

The art of the witty riposte

9 April 2022 9:00 am

One hundred or so years ago, a down-in-the-dumps Joseph Roth wrote to Stefan Zweig: ‘The barbarians have taken over.’ Later…

Oscars diary: a jaw-dropping night

2 April 2022 9:00 am

Oscar week is intense – and it’s been a while since it’s been as intense. The red carpet is full…

Could today’s Hollywood stars have made it in ancient Greece?

2 April 2022 9:00 am

The Oscar frenzy spent, it is worth reflecting on how easy writers and actors have it these days. The ancient…

How to save the Oscars

26 March 2022 9:00 am

This Sunday’s Academy Awards will be a litmus test of whether Hollywood can uncouple itself from the political agenda of…

Hollywood, fist-fights and getting cancelled: Joan Collins and Taki in conversation

18 December 2021 9:00 am

Joan Collins and Taki on golden Hollywood, fist-fights and getting cancelled

Why I was labelled a bitch: Joan Collins remembers the old Hollywood days

4 December 2021 9:00 am

Readers of this magazine will have enjoyed Joan Collins’s diaries, and her Past Imperfect was one of the funniest showbiz…

Lumpily scripted and poorly plotted: Cry Macho reviewed

13 November 2021 9:00 am

Clint Eastwood is 91; Cry Macho may well be his last film. Or maybe not. He has, after all, been…

The best podcasts where girls sit around talking about ghosts

16 October 2021 9:00 am

‘I’ve actually seen ghosts.’ This statement comes less than ten minutes into the first episode of Dark House, a limited-series…

My literary heroes have led me astray

4 September 2021 9:00 am

Gstaad   Good manners aside, what I miss nowadays is a new, intelligent, finely acted movie. Never have I seen…

The genius of Basic Instinct

28 August 2021 9:00 am

Our occasional series on cinema’s most underrated films arrives at what many have considered the peak of misogynistic trash. We’re…

Return to LA Confidential: Widespread Panic, by James Ellroy, reviewed

3 July 2021 9:00 am

Even by James Ellroy’s standards, the narrator of his latest novel is not a man much given to the quiet…

A nicer side of Nero

19 June 2021 9:00 am

New York I haven’t felt such shirt-dripping, mind-clogging wet heat since Saigon back in 1971. The Bagel is a steam…

A Shakespeare play at the Globe whose best features have nothing to do with Shakespeare

5 June 2021 9:00 am

Back to the Globe after more than a year. The theatre has zealously maintained its pre–Covid staffing levels. On press…

Why Mick Jagger is an insult to rock

15 May 2021 9:00 am

New York Orthodox Easter Sunday came late in May this year, and I spent it at an old friend’s Fifth…

Audiences don’t want woke: comic-book writer Mark Millar interviewed

8 May 2021 9:00 am

James Delingpole talks to comic-book writer Mark Millar about the joy of Catholicism, our sorry lack of male action figures and his childhood superpower

Is it time to cancel Sophocles?

27 February 2021 9:00 am

Gstaad The sun has returned, the snow is so-so, and exercise has replaced everything, including romance. What a way to…