During a Saturday interview with The Times U.K., the actress looked back on Pulp Fiction, where she portrayed the wife to Eric Stoltz’s character. Arquette noted that the film was “iconic” and “great,” though she said she believed Tarantino has been given a “hall pass” when it comes to using the word in his work.
“It’s iconic, a great film on a lot of levels,” she said of Pulp Fiction. “But personally I am over the use of the N-word — I hate it. I cannot stand that he [Tarantino] has been given a hall pass. It’s not art, it’s just racist and creepy.”
The use of the N-word in the director’s body of work has been scrutinized in the past. In particular, his 2012 film Django Unchained, which stars Jamie Foxx as the titular character of Django who is a slave, sparked debate at the time. The movie includes over 110 times where both Black and white characters use the N-word.
Spike Lee spoke out against Django Unchained in 2012, telling Vibe magazine that “it’s disrespectful to my ancestors. That’s just me. … I’m not speaking on behalf of anybody else.” The Malcolm X director also notably criticized Tarantino’s “excessive use of the N-word” following the release of his 1997 film Jackie Brown.
“I have a definite problem with Quentin Tarantino’s excessive use of the N-word,” Lee said at the time. “And let the record state that I never said that he cannot use that word — I’ve used that word in many of my films — but I think something is wrong with him.”
Tarantino responded to critics backstage in the winners room at the 2013 Golden Globes, after he won the best screenplay award tied to Django Unchained, and said the N-word himself.
“They think I should soften it, that I should lie, that I should massage,” the filmmaker said. “I would never do that when it comes to my characters.”
Ahead of the movie’s December 2012 release, Tarantino told The Hollywood Reporter that “not one word of social criticism that’s been leveled my way has ever changed one word of any script or any story I tell.”
“I believe in what I’m doing wholeheartedly and passionately,” he added. “It’s my job to ignore that.”
Django Unchained received five nominations at the 85th Academy Awards; Christoph Waltz won the Oscar for supporting actor while Tarantino won for best original screenplay (marking his second Oscar).
The Project Hail Mary actor returned to the sketch comedy series on (you guessed it) Saturday night, where he hosted the sketch comedy series for his fourth time. After beginning his monologue by recounting how March is a great time to host SNL, Gosling looked in the crowd and said, “Is that Harry Styles?”
The camera panned over to the Grammy-winning artist, which led the audience to erupt in applause and the actor to question, “What are you doing here, man?”
“Well, I’m hosting next week and it’s been a while, so I just wanted to watch, get a feel for it,” Styles responded.
“Yeah, that’s so professional, that’s awesome you’re here. I just wish someone would have told me,” Gosling added. “I have a new movie coming out, it’s called Project Harry Styles. Nope — it’d be a good movie, though. … And people are saying it’s like E.T. meets Interstellar, which is crazy because those are like, what, two of the best films of all time, so they’re kind of like saying it’s like, what, double that? I don’t know, I didn’t say it.”
“I’ve always loved making films about space. It’s just something about them gives me perspective,” Gosling continued, as he trailed off about the “perspective” making space-related films gives him, before the camera panned over to Styles instead of himself.
“I’m sorry, why are we on Harry’s side?” he questioned, to which the “Aperture” singer responded, “I don’t know, I’m just listening.”
The Oscar nominee replied: “Well, could you listen less cool? I think your coolness is becoming a bit of an issue.”
Later in the monologue, a group of dancers dressed like aliens joined the actor asking if they were still going to perform their planned number. Gosling ensured they would put on the performance, to a song from his movie Project Hail Mary. “It’s very poignant and it’s the anthem of our generation. Some have said it’s called ‘Sign of the Times,’ and oh my God, it’s by Harry Styles,” he said. “Now I gotta sing it in front of him.”
Gosling went on to perform a hesitant rendition of Styles’ “Sign of the Times,” before he began belting out, “I’m just Ken,” lyrics from the Oscar-nominated Barbie song.
Styles’ dropped his fourth studio album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally on Friday, marking his first release in four years. His cameo during Gosling’s monologue arrives just one week before he’ll serve as host and musical guest for March 14’s episode.
In the cold open, Colin Jost joined to impersonate Pete Hegseth, who addressed the press amid the United States’ conflict with Iran.
“Alright, listen up, dipsticks, OK? Cause this is actually serious, OK? As you may have seen from our epic Pentagram meme drops, we’re treating Iran like a breathalyzer in my car and blowing it the hell up,” he said. “The good news is our operation couldn’t be going better and everyone loves it.”
Jost’s Hegseth later added, “What is happening? OK, I’ll tell you what’s happening. OK, we don’t know, OK? And that’s the whole point. If we don’t know what we’re doing, then Iran definitely doesn’t know what we’re doing.”
Ashley Padilla was also in the cold open to portray former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, with Jost’s Hegseth inviting her onto the stage, noting she’d been “reassigned under the bus.”
“I just want to make it clear that I didn’t get fired, I self-deported,” Padilla’s Noem said upon her arrival. “And though I may be leaving this job, I will not be ending my mission. As I told my plastic surgeon, the work is never done.”
Earlier in the week, Gosling and SNL poked fun at the many times the actor has stepped into the role as host. In a promo, the Barbie star mistakenly thought he was joining SNL‘s esteemed five-timers club (for those who have hosted the show five times), though cast member Mikey Day reminded him it was actually only his fourth leading appearance.
Gosling he made his SNL debut on Dec. 5, 2015; his second appearance on Sept. 30, 2017; and his most recent hosting gig was on April 13, 2024. He made one additional cameo on April 6, 2024.
Gosling is currently on a press tour for Project Hail Mary, which releases on March 20. The film is an adaptation of Andy Weir’s bestselling sci-fi book, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
The three-time Academy Award nominee served as the 14th host of season 51, where he was joined by musical guest Gorillaz. Last week, Heated Rivalry breakout Connor Storrie hosted SNL, and Styles will make his first hosting appearance on the show in six years as next Saturday’s host and musical guest.
United States President Donald Trump has posted on social media that he does not need the United Kingdom to deploy aircraft carriers to the Middle East, amid the ongoing war with Iran.
Saturday’s post on Truth Social follows a statement from the UK’s Ministry of Defence that one of its two flagship aircraft carriers, the HMS Prince of Wales, has been placed on “high readiness”.
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“The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” Trump wrote.
“That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
The post, with its reference to the UK as a “once great ally”, signals a deepening rift between the two countries that has emerged since Trump returned to office last year.
The divide appears to have deepened over the past week, as the US and Israel continue to hammer Iran as part of a war they launched on February 28.
The conflict has sparked fears across the Middle East, as retaliatory strikes from Tehran target US allies across the region.
Already, an estimated 1,332 people have been killed in Iran, and the US has confirmed the deaths of six of its service members. More deaths have been reported in countries like Lebanon, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.
The UK government has increased its involvement in the war on Iran, widely considered illegal under international law.
The UK Defence Ministry, for instance, said on Saturday that the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer had allowed the US to use its military bases for what it termed “limited defensive purposes”.
The bases include RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and the Diego Garcia site in the Chagos Islands, located in the Indian Ocean. Initially, there had been reports that Starmer had blocked the US use of the bases.
In the immediate aftermath of the initial US-Israeli strike, Starmer appeared to blanche at the prospect of joining the war.
He and the leaders of France and Germany issued a joint statement, underscoring that any actions they might take would be defensive in nature.
“We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source,” the joint statement said.
“We have agreed to work together with the US and allies in the region on this matter.”
But Starmer has had to push back on domestic criticism both for and against joining the war.
On Monday, he told the UK Parliament, “We are not joining the US and Israeli offensive strikes”, citing the need to protect “Britain’s national interest” and “British lives”.
The war in Iran remains largely unpopular in the UK. The polling firm Survation conducted a survey over the last week of 1,045 British adults, in which 43 percent of respondents called the war not justifiable.
When asked if they supported Starmer’s initial decision not to allow the US to use UK bases, 56 percent of respondents approved. Only 27 percent said it was the wrong choice.
Thousands of protesters gathered outside the US Embassy in London on Saturday to call for an end to the ballooning conflict.
The US president, meanwhile, has upped his criticism of Starmer over the past week, further fraying relations with the UK government.
On March 3, for instance, Trump held an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in which he said repeatedly he was “not happy with the UK”.
Of Starmer, Trump said, “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”
Trump has long admired Churchill, and last year installed a bust of the late UK wartime leader in the Oval Office, just as he had during his first term.
By contrast, Trump has issued a flood of criticism against Starmer, particularly for his 2024 decision to transfer control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The transfer came after the International Court of Justice found the UK acted unlawfully in 1965 by separating the islands from Mauritius to create a separate colony.
The deal with Mauritius allows the US and the UK to maintain a military base on Diego Garcia, part of the archipelago.
However, Trump has repeatedly slammed the transfer, writing on social media that “giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY”.
Tensions between the US and UK also rose in January after Trump told Fox News that NATO allies had “stayed a little off the front lines” during the US war in Afghanistan.
Starmer had responded that he found Trump’s comments “to be insulting and frankly appalling”.
The Trump administration has signalled it is pivoting away from its traditional European allies in favour of more politically aligned countries.
At a summit on Saturday with right-wing Latin American leaders, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to praise the attendees while casting shade on other allies.
“At a time when we have learned that, oftentimes, an ally, when you need them, maybe may not be there for you, these are countries that have been there for us,” Rubio told the summit.
Tornadoes leave behind destruction in states of Oklahoma and Michigan, and authorities say more extreme weather is ahead.
Published On 7 Mar 20267 Mar 2026
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At least eight people have been killed as tornadoes lash the states of Michigan and Oklahoma in the central United States, with authorities warning that more storms are expected.
Authorities on Saturday said that four people were killed in southern Michigan and four in Oklahoma, though the death toll could still rise as rescue workers assess the damage.
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The storms carved a path of rubble, downed power lines and damaged property in the region on Friday, with local media footage showing destroyed cars and buildings in the aftermath.
The National Weather Service said that thunderstorms and flash flooding are expected from the Great Lakes to Texas, with a smaller chance of additional tornadoes in the hours ahead.
The Branch County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan said that three people were killed and 12 were injured in the Union Lake area near Union City.
About 81 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Union Lake, Cass County officials also reported one death and numerous injuries after a tornado touched down there as well.
The First Congregational Church in Union City, Michigan, was left heavily damaged following a tornado that hit several cities in rural southwest Michigan on March 7 [Bill Pugliano/Getty Images/AFP]
“Emergency Management personnel will be conducting damage assessments in the affected area as required by the State of Michigan,” the local sheriff’s office said.
At least two people were reported killed by a tornado in the town of Beggs, located in Okmulgee County in Oklahoma, according to a law enforcement statement.
State Governor Kevin Stitt also said in a social media post that two people, a mother and a daughter, were killed in Major County on Friday.
“I declared a state of emergency for Alfalfa, Creek, Grant, Major, Okmulgee, Rogers, Tulsa, and Wagoner counties to ensure Oklahomans have the support and resources they need after last night’s storms,” Stitt wrote on social media on Saturday.
Stephen Hibbert, a writer and actor who went from the Groundlings to writing for “Late Night With David Letterman” and “Mad TV” to a cult role as the Gimp in “Pulp Fiction,” died March 2 in Denver, Colorado. He was 68.
Family members confirmed the death to Rolling Stone and Fox News Digital and said the death occurred after a heart attack. In a statement given to TMZ, his three children, Ronnie, Rosalind and Greg, said, “Our father, Stephen Hibbert, passed away unexpectedly this week. His life was full of love and dedication to the arts and his family. He will be dearly missed by many.”
While Hibbert had a long career of writing for and appearing in television comedy shows and films — from writing credits on “Boy Meets World” to “Animaniacs” to small roles in an “Austin Powers” film and “True Jackson, VP” — he was best known to film fans for playing the Gimp in his friend Quentin Tarantino‘s “Pulp Fiction.” It was a part that required him to neither speak nor show his face on screen, but which was nonetheless taxing for the many hours spent on-set in a full-body leather suit.
“I’m absolutely stunned to hear that Stephen Hibbert, the gentleman who played the Gimp in ‘Pulp Fiction,’ has passed away,” said “Pulp Fiction” co-writer Roger Avary on X. “Eli Roth and I were just with him at Days of the Dead Atlanta. He was at the table next to me and was genuinely a wonderful fellow. He took my role as The Gimp when I decided that Quentin was going to punk me and lock me in that box over lunch with a ball gag in my mouth. So Stephen stepped in and truly breathed life into that latex-covered character. I’m saddened by his passing but glad to have gotten to know him, and to call him a friend.”
Hibbert told interviews that he enjoyed the unusual notoriety — including the fact that there was an action figure of the Gimp for his kids to enjoy — and he made regular appearances at entertainment memorabilia conventions to greet fans.
I’m absolutely stunned to hear that Stephen Hibbert, the gentleman who played the Gimp in Pulp Fiction has passed away. Eli Roth and I were just with him at Days of the Dead Atlanta. He was at the table next to me and was genuinely a wonderful fellow. He took my role as The Gimp… pic.twitter.com/ntPmu04SOi
“I think it’s one of the greatest films of all time,” he told AARP’s Tim Appelo in a 2024 profile. “I saw it again recently, and I had forgotten how funny it was, and what a great time capsule it is of Los Angeles in the early ’90s. … I’ve done a number of really fun fan fests, screenings and conventions, and I always have a blast! Hanging out with films nerds for three days? Yes, please! Lots of people are taken aback by the fact I’m such a family man, I guess. A straight guy busily cobbling together a writing career in TV and film comedies.”
Hibbert wrote for shows including “Boy Meets World,” “Tiny Toons Adventures,” “Animaniacs,” “Howie Mandel’s Sunny Skies,” “Random Play” and “The MTV Movie Awards,” along with uncredited punch-ups on a number of feature films. He was said to also have contributed as a writer on “Saturday Night Live.”
His acting roles included appearances in “The Cat in the Hat,” “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” “Dr. Ken,” “Rush Hour,” “True Jackson, VP,” “Twenty Good Years,” “Jericho” and “Just Shoot Me.”
At the time of “Pulp Fiction,” Hibbert was married to another of the film’s stars, Julia Sweeney. The two of them co-wrote the “It’s Pat!” movie, adapting the long-running “SNL” sketch, on which Tarantino did an uncredited rewrite. The buddyship with Tarantino dated back to Hibbert and Sweeney’s mutual time in the Groundlings, leading to the “Pulp” casting. Hibbert said Tarantino “would guest with the improv show on Thursday nights. He was pretty much the same then as now, hilarious, endlessly curious and passionate about film.”
Of his friendship with Tarantino, Hibbert said, “We were basically moviegoing geeks. We would go to the New Beverly Cinema [decades before the filmmaker purchased it] and see a screening of ‘Stagecoach’ or something. And at one point during the pre-production of ‘Pulp Fiction,’ he had given me the script to read… ‘Why don’t you come down and [read] for the Gimp part. He knew I was an improviser and an actor as well as a friend and writer.” In the audition, “He played my master, in a bizarre S&M triangle … We acted out this little scene where he ordered me around… By the time I got home — this is in the old days in 1993 —there was a message on the machine: ‘Hey, you got the part. Let’s do it.’ It was a three-day shoot and it was amazing to work with those actors, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Duane Whitaker and Peter Greene.” [Greene died in December 2025.]
Hibbert further quipped o his audition for the casting director with Tarantino: “He bossed me around the office and I groveled. I felt like I’d been training all of my work life for an opportunity to audition for a role like that.”
He continued, “It was a very arduous shoot, because it was a very grim theme, and I was wrapped up in this leather outfit from head to toe. And they wanted me to be a little puffier, so I wore a little mini-fat suit underneath it. Under all the hot lights, with the leather and the fat suit, I lost about 10, 15 pounds over the course of the three-day shoot. And thank God there was a little shower in my little trailer dressing room, because I would just shower afterwards for half an hour.
“I remember at the end of the three-day shoot, Bruce Willis had everyone come over to his swanky, personalized, cool, custom-built trailer, and we all had gin as the sun was going down on a beautiful Southern California evening in Culver City. We’re all just going, ‘Oh man, people are going to just freak out over the scene’ — we were all like little boys, proud of being so naughty and fun. Everyone was at the top of their game, and I still get a warm glow, remembering that day.”
Hibbert had a solution to the mystery of the character: “I played the scene as if the creeps who kept him had cut out his tongue. Quentin really liked that idea. The Gimp had been a prisoner there for a while. So he liked being in that situation, there was a Stockholm syndrome thing happening for the Gimp. Which is why I played it sort of giddy, pointing leeringly at Butch and prancing about. I think if I had played it all sullen and menacing, it wouldn’t have been as creepy.”
Stephen Hibbert attends The Hollywood Autograph Show held at The Westin Los Angeles Airport on February 2, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
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HIbbert was born in Fleetwood, England, and his family emigrated to Tustin, Calif., when he was 6; a committed Anglophile, he still maintained close ties with and liked to visit his mother’s side of the family in the U.K.
His big break as a writer came with a 1984-86 stint on “Late Night With David Letterman.” From there he worked largely in animation before landing gigs with “Howie Mandel’s Sunny Skies,” “Mad TV” and “Boy Meets World” in the mid- and late ’90s.
Whether writing for sitcoms or animation, Hibbert said he held to the same character-driven principles: “It really doesn’t matter if it’s character in a one-off sketch, characters we know so well in a sit-com or animated little, bouncy things – stay true to them and everything generally works out.”
Hibbert’s first on-screen appearance was in 1987 as “student #3” on “Newhart,” where, just as much as he was excited to meet Bob Newhart, he was equally thrilled to meet the episode’s “actual guest star,” William Windom, whose series “My World and Welcome to It” had been one of his favorite series as a kid, he said.
Although “It’s Pat: The Movie” is generally considered ill-fated as “SNL” spinoffs go, Hibbert held fond memories of it. “Julia and I were married and writing partners, at the time, and Fox approached us to write a movie for Julia’s very popular ‘(at the time) ‘SNL character, “Pat,’” he told the website Trainwreck’d Society in a 2014 interview. “The film ended up at Disney. While the film didn’t turn out as well as any of us would have liked, I still think there are some wonderful performances: Julia’s, Dave Foley’s, Charlie Rocket, and there are lots of truly funny jokes and scenes. So I’m actually pretty proud of much of the movie, and think it’s fair to say it’s better than you remember it, that is in the unlikely event you’ve actually seen it.”
When not writing or acting, Hibbert did stints sharing his love of Hollywood lore with the public. “I’m a huge cinema buff, so I took a little part-time job as a tour guide with this tour company in Hollywood, and I just loved it… It wasn’t a movie stars homes tour… I got to share my knowledge of Hollywood history and L.A. history in general as we busted down Sunset Blvd. and Hollywood Blvd. and all of these famous places.”
His role as the Gimp, of course, gave him automatic status any time it came up in conversation. But he quickly learned he had to take measures to keep a certain kind of fan at bay. “The weekend‘Pulp’ opened, I was visiting my mom and dad in San Juan Capistrano. When I got home, there were two dozen messages on my answering machine, almost all from guys telling me they really enjoyed my performance and would I like to meet them for coffee? Yikes! These fellas had to wait for the end credits to see who played the Gimp, then find a pay phone, call L.A. 411 and snag my number. I quickly changed my number and became unlisted.”
His proudest credit was not actually as the Gimp, but as a volunteer tutor and tutor coordinator with School on Wheels.
“It was fun hanging out with Mike Myers working on ‘Austin Powers’ or something, but the stuff that is really remarkable and that I am proud of, besides my three amazing kids, is working with School on Wheels,” he said in a podcast interview. School on Wheels is a nonprofit “where tutors work with homeless kids wherever they happen to be… Unfortunately, it’s an invisible population… But I worked one-on-one with about five dozen or more kids over the course of six years, and I can say, without exception, all of them were remarkable people… iI’s a bit of a cliche, but it’s true, kids are remarkably resilient.”
Hibbert moved to Denver in the late 2010s to be closer to his children, and described himself as “semi-retired” from show business after the move. In Colorado, he took on the role of educator., including teaching improv and sketch writing at the Bovine Metropolis Theater in downtown Denver. Most recently he was teaching at the Denver School of the Arts.
“I feel very fortunate to have cobbled together a three-decade-long-plus career in show business,” he told North Palm Beach Life in 2021. “It’s an incredibly difficult trench to try to furrow, and I feel lucky that I made a living, and that I have a pension from it now… I just want to publicly state how grateful I am for all the wonderful people I met and worked with, many of whom are still a part of my life.”
Asked by AARP in 2024 if he had any advice for his younger self, he said, “My advice to my younger self: “Trust yourself more — no one really knows what they’re doing — and go to the dentist every year for a checkup.”
Hibbert was known among his show-biz colleagues for his joviality as well as appreciation of many different arts. On social media, his varied interests were evident in his frequent postings of photos of glamorous screen sirens from the golden age of Hollywood as well as classic fine-arts paintings. His Facebook profile quote was from Wordsmith: “The best bits of life are the little, unremembered, nameless acts of kindness and love.”
His last Facebook post, on March 1, was of a lovely, dusk-set Ukrainian painting — “Sunset at the Lake,” by Serhii Vasylkivskyy, from 1900 — with the caption: “Wishing all a peaceful evening.”
Hibbert is survived by his former wives Sweeney and Alicia Agos, and his three children with Agos, Ronnie, Rosalind and Greg.
The original title of “Heel” was “Good Boy.” The new title is probably more accurate, though an even more accurate title might be “Painfully Annoying Punk Idiot.” I jest (a bit), since the title of “Heel” is actually a verb. The film wants to tell the story of a budding hooligan who needs to be brought to heel. That said, does anyone seriously want to see a movie about a 19-year-old British sociopath who gets chained up in a basement so that the weird upper-middle-class couple who’ve kidnapped him can modify his behavior? “Heel” is like “A Clockwork Orange” remade as the year’s worst Sundance movie.
The opening sequence is actually promising. It depicts, in rapidly edited documentary-like montage, a reckless night out on the town by Tommy (Anson Boon) and his friends. They’re hopped-up club kids, and Tommy is their snarling, curly-haired, sexually coercive wastrel ringleader, living in the moment, pouring drinks down his throat, snorting coke and popping pills, dancing and carousing and puking and rutting in the bathroom, pushing himself to a higher and higher high, until he winds up collapsed on the sidewalk — a ritual, we gather, that has happened many times before. Only this time his crumpled body is gathered up by a mysterious stranger.
When Tommy wakes up, he’s in the basement of a stately stone house somewhere in the British countryside. He’s got a metal collar around his neck, and it’s chained to the ceiling. The film has barely gotten started, and already it’s cut to the second half of “A Clockwork Orange”: Can this monster delinquent be rehabilitated? Theoretically, that’s an interesting question, except that the way this happens is so garishly contrived that we can only go with the movie by putting any plea for reality on permanent hold.
Who are the people who have kidnapped Tommy? Chris (Stephen Graham) is a mild chap in a toupee who goes about his mission with a puckish vengeance disguised as gentility. His wife, Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough), is so neurasthenic she’s like a ghost. (She has suffered some trauma that isn’t colored in.) The two have a cherubic preteen son they call Sunshine (Kit Rakusen). And why, exactly, are they doing what they’re doing? We have no idea. Trying to make a bad person into a good person is not, in itself, a terrible notion, but the conceit of “Heel” — that Tommy is locked in a dungeon, being treated like a dog, because that’s what it willtake to change him — is like a toxic right-wing fantasy that the film somehow reconfigures into an implausible liberal “family” allegory.
Ah, plausibility! How unhip to gripe about the absence of it. Yet watching “Heel,” I found it impossible to suspend my disbelief for two seconds. The entire movie, directed by the Polish filmmaker Jan Komasa (“Corpus Christie”) from a script by Bartek Bartosik and Naqqash Khalid, is just a grimy monotonous conceit. It’s been thought out thematically but not in terms of recognizable human behavior. It’s like a film-student short stretched out to an agonizing 110 minutes.
Anson Boon, a charismatic actor who did an okay job of playing Johnny Rotten in Danny Boyle’s TV miniseries “Pistol” (though he never conjured Rotten’s homicidal gleam), infuses Tommy with a loutish energy that in the early scenes, at least, makes him a convincing candidate for either prison or the contemporary equivalent of shock therapy. And yet the character is exhaustingly obnoxious. As a filmmaker, Komasa doesn’t dramatize — he uses one-note traits to clobber the audience. Stephen Graham’s Chris is as quiet and circumspect as Tommy is abrasive. He tries to train Tommy by showing him motivational tapes, and by subjecting him to Tommy’s own depraved TikToks. He then rigs up an elaborate system of gutters on the ceiling so that Tommy, in his metal leash, can wander around the house, a sign that he’s been housebroken.
Tommy has to grow and change, since there wouldn’t be a movie otherwise. In the process, he gets less annoying but also less interesting, because “Heel” sentimentalizes his transformation. Komasa seems to have missed the key irony of “A Clockwork Orange”: that the behavior modification of Alex is as brutalizing as his original state of punk anarchy. In “Heel,” Tommy’s evolution is singularly unconvincing — by the end, he’s practically ready to be the suitor in a Jane Austen drama. But that’s all of a piece with a movie so false it puts the audience in the doghouse.
Share on PinterestMenopause may be associated with the onset of new mental health conditions, yet many females remain unaware of the connection. Image Credit: mapodile/Getty Images
A new position statement from the Royal College of Psychiatrists discusses the link between menopause and the onset of new mental health conditions.
The statement notes that only 21% of females knew that menopause was associated with mental health conditions like depression and bipolar disorder.
It further notes that research is needed to increase awareness of how hormonal changes during menopause can impact mental health.
There are various symptoms that people can experience before, during, and after menopause.
One of the lesser-known symptoms is the effect that menopause can have on mental health.
“I believe this is a much-needed conversation that I have been seeing in my clinical practice for years” said Menijie Boduryan-Turner, PsyD, licensed psychologist and founder of Embracing You Therapy in Woodland Hills, CA.
“There has been a significant increase in insomnia, depression, anxiety, changes in concentration, memory impairment, and body image issues correlated with menopause. As suggested, most women are unaware of this link because for decades we have treated menopause as a medical condition, given the obvious reasons, and have been ignorant of the impact it has on women’s mental health,” Boduryan-Turner told Healthline.
This is a major contrast to the number of females who are aware of other associated issues, such as hot flashes and reduced sex drive.
“Menopause can have a significant yet often overlooked impact on women’s mental health and well-being. Women account for 51% of the population, and all will experience menopause at some point,” Lade Smith, president of the RC Psych, told The Guardian.
“This is a societal issue for everyone. Simply put, we must do better,” Smith said.
According to the RC Psych, only 21% of females were aware that menopause can be associated with mental health issues.
This is in contrast to 81% who were aware of hot flashes due to menopause, and 64% aware of a reduced sex drive.
RC Psych published its position statement with certain key aims in mind, such as:
More training and education for the psychiatric workforce.
Promoting a wider understanding and awareness of the association between menopause and mental health.
Enhancing equity in the identification of, and access to support and appropriate treatment for, females with menopausal symptoms and pre-existing mental health needs.
Advocating for comprehensive, interdisciplinary approaches to menopause support and treatment across health systems.
Considering how a female’s experience of menopause and mental health can impact their relationships with children and family.
Setting out key evidence to illuminate existing knowledge and treatment gaps about menopause regarding its interplay with mental health.
“I think it’s important to know that mental health challenges that occur or are exacerbated by menopause are common,” said Amy Roskin, MD, JD, board certified OB-GYN and Chief Medical Officer at Seven Starling, a women’s health platform.
“It’s essential to be aware of this and have support from your healthcare providers in order to best diagnose and manage these issues,” Roskin told Healthline.
The position statement points out the mental health effects that perimenopause can have. Anxiety and low mood are fairly common side effects of hormonal changes associated with menopause. However, for some females, menopause can significantly increase the risk of developing a serious mental health condition.
The physical and hormonal changes during menopause can also lead to relapse or trigger eating disorders. The report also notes that suicide rates are higher among those of menopausal age.
“With greater public awareness, there is more conversation and dialogue. There is more compassion and willingness to seek help. When mental health experiences are normalized, we are more likely to seek support and not suffer alone,” said Boduryan-Turner.
“I have worked with clients who struggled with severe depression with suicidal ideation; therefore, it is extremely necessary for us to have more education, information, and awareness on this topic.”
The statement notes that for females with a history of mental illness who are entering menopause, hormone therapy can be a key treatment to address both their physical health risks, as well as their mental health symptoms.
Some experts may recommend a combination of hormone therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) rather than antidepressants for perimenopause-associated anxiety and low mood symptoms.
There is some older evidence to show that females experiencing depressive episodes during menopause may not respond as well to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a common type of antidepressant. It also shows that there may be significant discontinuation rates associated with adverse effects.
“A healthy diet, exercise, work/life balance, psychotherapy, psychiatric medications, and HRT can all be important parts of strong emotional health for women in midlife,” said Nissa Keyashian, MD, board certified psychiatrist and author of “Practicing Stillness.”
“I recommend finding a psychiatrist with expertise in women’s health who has expertise in HRT and menopause,” Keyashian told Healthline.
“There are many different formulations of HRT that can minimize risks and side effects and maximize benefits to your emotional health and well-being.”
Roblox has launched a feature powered by AI that can rephrase inappropriate language in real time. The online game has been using AI filters to block out any language that goes against its policy for a while now, but it has been replacing censored chats with a series of hash signs (####). Roblox admits that encountering too many hashmarks can be disruptive and make conversations hard to follow. This new feature will instead replace words and phrases with what the AI deems as more appropriate substitutes.
Rajiv Bhatia, Roblox’s Chief Safety Office, said the game is starting with profanity. For instance, if a user sends “Hurry TF up” in chat, the system will replace it with “Hurry up!” Everyone in the chat will see a note when a message has been rephrased, and the sender will see what language was edited out. A user who keeps cursing in chat will still be penalized for breaking Roblox policy even if the AI rephrases their messages. “As these systems scale, they create a flywheel for civility, where real-time feedback helps users learn and adopt our Community Standards,” Bhatia said in a blog post.
Rephrasing has been rolled out to chats between age-checked users in similar age groups and in all the languages the game’s translation tool supports. Roblox introduced a mandatory age verification system back in January after reports came out that it has a “pedophile problem,” with adult players allegedly using the game to groom children. Kids under 13 can no longer use in-game chat outside of certain experiences, while everyone else can chat with players around their age. Age check, however, hasn’t stopped authorities from suing Roblox: LA County, in a lawsuit filed in February, said Roblox knows its platform “makes children easy prey for pedophiles.” Louisiana’s AG has also just filed a lawsuit, saying Roblox “created a public park and filled it with sex predators that are preying on… children.”
Crypto analyst Luke has drawn attention to an $XRP bull flag breakout, which could send the price to $11, which would mark a new all-time high (ATH) for the altcoin. This comes as the altcoin faces further downside amid the U.S.-Iran war, which threatens to drag on for a long time.
$XRP Eyes Rally To $11 Amid Bull Flag Breakout
In an X post, Luke stated that a bull flag breakout is forming on the $XRP weekly chart, with the target being $11. The analyst noted that this is a textbook bull flag after the 8-month consolidation. A pole height measured move points to a rally to exactly $11 while the altcoin could reach $11.20 based on the 1.618 Fib extension.
An $XRP rally to $11 from the current price represents an upside of almost 700%. Luke indicated that such a rally is possible, with institutions also accumulating, a development that shows a “parabolic leg” is incoming. However, it is worth noting that the $XRP ETFs have seen daily net outflows in the last two days as tensions between the U.S. and Iran intensify.
SoSoValue data shows that the funds recorded outflows of $6.15 million and $16.62 million on March 5 and 6, respectively. As a result, the net assets of these $XRP ETFs have dropped below $1 billion. The altcoin, alongside the broader crypto market, is currently facing downside pressure, with the U.S.-Iran tensions pushing oil prices to multi-year highs.
Crypto analyst CasiTrades predicted that $XRP could drop to as low as $0.87, as it remains below the $1.67 resistance level. Crypto analyst Egrag Crypto also stated that $XRP could drop to as low as $0.85 after facing rejection at the $1.55 level.
Insight Into the Current Price Action
In an X post, crypto analyst JB stated that all previous wicks, including the one on October 10, have been filled down into the demand zone. The analyst opined that there isn’t much additional downside fuel left if $XRP is still in a higher timeframe (HTF) bullish environment. JB also mentioned that the first attempt to reclaim $1.61 failed, so a retest of the $1.25 and $1 level are now back on the table.
For an invalidation of this bearish structure, $XRP needs to reclaim $1.61 and break the diagonal resistance. JB noted that this would significantly increase the odds of resuming the broader uptrend after about 15 months of correction. “The current area offers one of the strongest R:R setups for HTF spot longs, with invalidation below the gray demand zone,” the analyst added.
At the time of writing, the $XRP price is trading at around $1.36, down over 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Featured image from Freepik, chart from Tradingview.com
Following in the footsteps of Australia, Indonesia will be the latest country to limit social media usage for children under 16. Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s communication and digital affairs minister, announced that a new government regulation will require “high-risk” platforms to delete any accounts from Indonesia that are under 16, starting on March 28.
Hafid said in the announcement that the implementation would be done in stages, starting with major platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Roblox and Bigo Live, a live-streaming platform based in Singapore. The minister added that all platforms will have to fulfill compliance obligations from the Indonesian government, but didn’t specify what they were. In response to the ban, a Meta spokesperson told The New York Times that the company hasn’t received an official regulation from the country yet and was awaiting details.
While Australia was the first country to implement such a sweeping ban on social media, many other countries are currently in the process of doing the same. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced last month that the country is also ready to ban social media for users under 16, while Malaysia‘s cabinet approved a similar ban that will reportedly go into effect sometime this year.
