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'Tiger King' Review: Netflix's Latest True-Crime Doc Is the Perfect Isolation Binge


Netflix could not have dropped Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness at a better time. In this time of isolation and virtual viewing parties, this seven-part docuseries checks every box for the true-crime obsessed: eccentric characters, cults, polygamy, and more twists than you’ll be emotionally prepared to unpack. The tigers are just the bait.

Actually, “eccentric characters” is probably a massive understatement. Tiger King begins as a series about Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic: a tiger-owning, gun-slinging, country-singing, gay polygamist who ran a national campaign for president. Say that 10 times fast. Except, as directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin discover about five years into filming, this story is about so much more than an illicit zookeeper and his cast of equally bizarre enemies and friends. Suddenly Maldonado is arrested by the FBI for a tangled assassination plot, and viewers will probably come out of this with more knowledge about the various players and motives than the prosecutors.

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Tiger King is not just about the murder-for-hire accusations, though. If you’re looking for a documentary about the world of unregulated exotic animal zoos that are apparently rampant in this country, you’ll get what you came for. On one side, there are the keepers who profit off breeding and petting zoos. On the other, there are animal rights activists and sanctuary owners dead set on ending those harmful practices…while profiting off similar methods. Somehow these zoo owners and “conservationists” are also suspected cult leaders, internet savants, insanely rich, and accused murders. Some are all of the above, with followers who will do anything for them (and the chance to care for exotic animals).

There’s a scene in which one of Maldonado’s employees gets attacked by a tiger and loses her arm. She returns to work seven days later with zero indication that she even cares about her lost appendage. Reader, believe me when I tell you that this is the least ludicrous moment in the series.

Still, the deeper you get into Tiger King, the less it focuses on the lions and tigers and bears of it all. The people involved here—a big cat “savior” who’s been accused of killing her husband, another polygamist with a zoo, and a group of Vegas con artists with an affinity for tiger cubs—are real people. And they seem legitimately dangerous.

Later in the series, as Goode begins to realize the weight of the story that’s unfolding, he calls his directing partner to fill her in. “They were sorta funny when we started,” Chaikin responds. “But it’s getting really dark.” Oh my.

Stream Tiger King on Netflix, here.

Emily Tannenbaum is a contributing writer and weekend editor at Glamour. Follow her on Twitter.





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There's an Oscar-Nominated Netflix Doc You Need to See: Period. End of Sentence.


The Academy Awards haven’t always favored female directors. In the 91-year history of the show, only five have ever been nominated for Best Director, and this year, once again, the category is made up of solely men. It’s not entirely dire, though, if you turn your attention to other categories. Take, for example, Period. End of Sentence., which is nominated for Best Documentary – Short Subject and was directed by a woman: Rayka Zehtabchi, a 25-year-old Iranian-American director.

Period. End of Sentence., a documentary that tackles the stigma around menstruation in rural India, is currently available for streaming on Netflix. The 26-minute film follows a group of women who use a new machine to create low-cost sanitary pads to create financial independence while also improving feminine hygiene in their village. Now, according to TIME, their pads are being used in 40 nearby villages. The doc also gives viewers a peek into how taboo menstruation is in these communities, where 23 percent of girls drop out school when they hit puberty due to their periods.

For Zehtabchi, seeing just how ingrained period stigma was for the women was the most life-changing part of making the film. Zehtabchi tells Glamour, “Some of the craziest moments during filming would be when we talked to older women—who had gone their entire lives menstruating and should have been talking to their daughters about menstruation—but couldn’t even tell us why it happened every month, or why they got it. It breaks your heart because if they’re so afraid of the thing that makes them women, then I can’t imagine what else you would be afraid to do or talk about.”

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Zehtabchi was approached to direct the documentary by The Pad Project, the incredible organization that first brought this story to light. In 2012, Los Angeles-based teacher Melissa Burton brought students and staffers together to travel to Kathikhera, India to set up the pad-making machine that is featured in the film. But after their trip, they wanted to do more than just install a machine: They wanted to start a conversation about period stigma around the world. And thus, the documentary was born.

Even though the film has now received such incredible recognition, Zehtabchi and the Pad Project’s mission has stayed the same: to spread as much awareness about this issue as possible. “After seeing the film I hope people understand this period stigma doesn’t just effect those in India, we experience it in the United States and in other cultures as well,” Zehtabchi says. “I also want viewers to realize that empowering women worldwide really starts with beginning with opening up the conversation around menstruation. We can implement feminine hygiene, but first we have to break the taboo. I also want people to realize this isn’t just a film for women, it’s for men too. They’re 50 percent of the population and men need to be having these conversations and championing the film just as much as women are.”

As for being one of a few female directors nominated by the academy, Zehtabchi says, “Why does it have to be so amazing? Why does this have to be shocking that I’m a female director and that I’ve made a film about a women’s issue, in a country we don’t think much, and that the film is getting attention?” We couldn’t agree more.

Samantha Leach is an assistant culture editor at Glamour. Follow her on Twitter @_sleach.





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There’s a Doc About Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton's ‘Feud’—and We Learned A Lot


Pollard, however, thinks the move has to do with the fact Meghan and Harry are expanding their family. “Now you’re making new babies—new families—to yourself,” she says. “It would probably be healthier to have a bit of space.”

Author and historian Kate Williams adds privacy could have something to do with it, as well: “Harry is obsessed with privacy, and he’s seen what’s happened to William’s children every time they go out to the park inside Kensington Palace. Someone takes a snap of them.”

6. On how honest the British media is. Rumors come out about the royal family almost daily, but should we believe them? “I think that a lot of rumors about Kate and Meghan are manufactured to sell newspapers,” Paul Burrell, Princess Diana’s former butler, says. “An editor in Canary Wharf (a hotel) actually said to me, ‘We’ve never let the truth get in the way of a good story.’ And I think there’s an element of that with Kate and Meghan.”

Malone, who has decades of tabloid experience, offers a different take. She says the Kate-Meghan rumors are likely coming from inside Kensington Palace. “The media, contrary to popular opinion, do not make up stories,” she says. “The fact of the matter is we hear things. We get told things. People will say, ‘You haven’t named [the sources].’ Of course we haven’t because you can’t name some of the people who are saying derogatory things about Meghan. They would be fired.”

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7. So who is leaking these stories? “Disgruntled people do the leaking,” Malone says. “People who think stories should be out in the public domain do the leaking. People who get upset that one picture is being portrayed and it’s not the whole picture.”

8. Prince Harry and Prince William’s strained relationship. This is yet another narrative that’s dominated the royal family for quite some time. “I was told that the underlying tensions—the riff—was actually between William and Harry,” Nicholl says. “They were a brilliant team together, but they were also fiercely competitive.”

Nicholl also addresses her Vanity Fair article alleging Prince Harry was upset Prince William didn’t “roll out the red carpet” for Meghan when she first met everyone. “William was quite concerned that the relationship [between Harry and Meghan] had moved so quickly,” she says. “And being close to Harry—probably the only person close enough to say to Harry, ‘This seems to be moving quickly, are you sure?’ I think what was meant as well-intended brotherly advice just riled Harry. Harry is hugely protective of Meghan. He saw [William’s comment] as criticism. He interpreted that as his brother not really being behind this marriage—this union—and I don’t think things have been quite right ever since.”

Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle
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9. The queen reads “every newspaper” in the morning. This comes from Burrell (a.k.a Princess Diana’s former butler). “If there’s something which disturbs her, she’ll mention it to her children,” he says.

10. The people who will make Meghan Markle’s life “hell.” Burrell has an opinion on this—though it’s only his opinion. “There are two different elements to Buckingham Palace: the royal family and the royal household. I personally think the royal household is far more difficult than the royal family,” he says. “They’re what Princess Diana called ‘the grey suits.’ They’re the ones that made Princess Diana’s life hell. They’re the ones that are going to make Meghan’s life hell, too.”

11. Meghan will have to curtsy to Kate when William becomes king. According to Burrell, at least. “Whenever there’s a precession, Meghan will be down the line with Harry,” he says.”Kate will always be in front. This is going to be alien to her: going into this world and having to curtsy to everybody, including her sister-in-law in public. Meghan has to understand that’s protocol.”



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Asia Argento Just Tweeted a Google Doc of Over 100 Harvey Weinstein Accusers


Following yet another bombshell Harvey Weinstein report published in The New Yorker—this one chronicling the producer’s alleged “army of spies” meant to silence sexual misconduct allegations—actress Asia Argento tweeted a Google document of over 100 women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault on Tuesday afternoon.

The list spans more than three decades, with the first alleged incident dating back to 1980. A former employee named Paula Wachonak said she was harassed by Weinstein, who once “answered the door wearing nothing but a hand towel.” Among the 100+ stories, over a dozen alleged instances of rape are highlighted. The document makes note of women who reached settlements with the producer and notes, in some instances, how their experiences with Weinstein cost them their careers.

In an investigation published last month, Argento told The New Yorker about an alleged incident that occurred with Weinstein when she was 21. She had been invited to a hotel party on the French Riviera and attended, thinking it’d be a studio-wide celebration. When she arrived, she was greeted by only by Weinstein. The producer asked for a massage and after she hesitantly agreed, Weinstein then “pulled her skirt up, forced her legs apart, and performed oral sex on her as she repeatedly told him to stop.”

According to the latest report from The New Yorker, as Weinstein hired private investigators to track the women who planned to bring forward sexual harassment allegations, he contacted the actress to give testimony on his behalf. Argento ultimately refused to do so, and in a Tweet posted Tuesday she referenced being tracked by ex-Mossad agents.

Argento’s story is just one of numerous sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein—a growing list that has now reached triple-digits. Sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood is nothing new , but the recently-released list further reinforces how pervasive this type of predatory behavior is—and how women will no longer stay silent to this deplorable conduct.





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