On Thursday (July 26), Variety confirmed that Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska have officially joined the new Charlie’s Angels reboot as, you guessed it, the three Angels. The new movie will be directed by Elizabeth Banks, who’s also playing the Angels’ manager, Bosley.
Per Variety, this new Charlie’s Angels will focus on a new generation of Angels working for the ubiquitous Charlie. Apparently, the movie’s Townsend Agency hub is now a huge organization, with teams of agents working cases worldwide. The film will focus on three members of one of those “teams” (Stewart, Scott, and Balinska) as they work a big mission. Other details are sparse, but we do have a confirmed premiere date: September 27, 2019.The last major iteration of Charlie’s Angels happened in 2000, with Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, and Cameron Diaz stepping into the roles.
Stewart, of course, achieved worldwide fame when she starred in the Twilight series nearly a decade ago. Meanwhile, you might know Scott from her recent work in Power Rangers or future work in the live-action Aladdin (she’s playing Jasmine). Balinska is best known for her television work in the U.K., such as Midsomer Murders and Casualty. Banks told Variety she’s excited to make a movie about a “new era of modern and global Angels.”
“Charlie’s Angels, for me, is one of the original brands to celebrate the empowered woman since its debut in the ’70s,” Banks said. “This film honors the legacy of Charles Townsend and his agency while introducing a new era of modern and global Angels. I couldn’t be more excited to work with Kristen, Naomi and Ella to bring this chapter to fans around the world.” Is it next September yet?
Kristen Stewart has been slaying her way up and down the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. But after a few days, serving lewks can feel exhausting—at least, we can *imagine..How does Stewart deal? Well, she kicks off her high heels halfway through a red carpet, because why not?
Stewart was making her way into a screening of BlacKkKlansman,Spike Lee’s latest film. And as she approached the steps to the theater, the Cannes juror appeared to be over her stilettos. In front of a mass of photographers, Stewart stopped to remove her pointy-toed black Christian Louboutin pumps; she picked them up, and carried them up the steps, barefoot. The whole sequence was, of course, documented by the aforementioned photographers, and it’s honestly relatable AF.
Here’s how it unfolded.
PHOTO: Vittorio Zunino Celotto
PHOTO: VALERY HACHE/Getty Images
PHOTO: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
PHOTO: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
PHOTO: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Though the shoes certainly complemented her long-sleeve metallic mini, a customization of a Chanel Haute Couture look from fall 2013, anyone who’s ever experienced that high-heel breaking point can understand Stewart’s rationale. Plus, this instantly iconic moment is reminiscent of Emma Thompson at the 2014 Golden Globes, when she dramatically ditched her heels onstage while addressing her fellow movie makers. Hey, stilettos are no joke.
Stewart has spoken about the footwear double standard at Cannes, which, for a while, reportedly required women to wear heels: “There’s definitely a distinct dress code… People get very upset at you if you don’t wear heels or whatever,” she told The Hollywood Reporter last year, adding that “if you’re not asking guys to wear heels and a dress, then you can’t ask me either.”
Over the weekend Stewart, along with more than 80 other actresses and filmmakers (including Ava DuVernay and Salma Hayek), participated in a silent protest on the Cannes red carpet to highlight gender inequity in the film industry.
Ava DuVernay, Kristen Stewart, Jane Fonda, Marion Cotillard, and Salma Hayek are among the 82 women who took part in a powerful protest gesture at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday to highlight how difficult it is for women to climb the professional ladder in the film industry. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the group walked up the steps leading to the festival’s Théâtre Debussy, paused midway, and silently faced the central Palais building.
Actress Cate Blanchett, who is this year’s competition jury president, and Belgian film director Agnès Varda also presented a joint statement:
“On these steps today stand 82 women representing the number of female directors who have climbed these stairs since the first edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1946. In the same period 1,688 male directors have climbed these very same stairs. In the 71 years of this world-renowned festival there have been 12 female heads of its juries. The prestigious Palme d’Or has been bestowed upon 71 male directors—too numerous to mention by name—but only two women, Jane Campion, who is with us in spirit, and Agnès Varda, who stands with us today,” said Blanchett.
“These facts are stark and undeniable. Women are not a minority in the world, yet the current state of our industry says otherwise. As women, we all face our own unique challenges, but we stand together on these stairs today as a symbol of our determination and commitment to progress. We are writers, producers, directors, actresses, cinematographers, talent agents, editors, distributors, sales agents and all involved in the cinematic arts. We stand in solidarity with women of all industries,” they continued.
They then read a list of powerful demands:
“We will expect our institutions to actively provide parity and transparency in their executive bodies and safe environments in which to work. We will expect our governments to make sure that the laws of equal pay for equal work are upheld. We will demand that our workplaces are diverse and equitable so that they can best reflect the world in which we actually live. A world that allows all of us behind and in front of the camera to thrive shoulder to shoulder with our male colleagues. We acknowledge all of the women and men who are standing for change. The stairs of our industry must be accessible to all. Let’s climb.”
PHOTO: Gisela Schober/Getty Images
The dramatic gesture was organized by 5050×2020, a French equality movement, and took place just before the premiere of Girls of the Sun, a film by Eva Husson. Husson is the only French female director in the competition this year, and she told Vanity Fair that it’s critical to initiate conversations around gender inequality in film.
“It’s high time. It’s healthy. It’s scary. It’s exploding in the face of a lot of people,” she said. “The patriarchy has not seen it coming so they feel really threatened by it. It’s a huge paradigm shift.”
But many people have pointed out that Cannes still needs to figure out its own gender gap issues. This year, only three of the 21 directors competing for the prestigious Palme d’Or prize are women. The festival also faced backlash for including a film by Lars von Trier, the Danish director who had been banned from the festival for seven years after making anti-Semitic remarks and whose production company has been accused of sexual harassment.
After Saturday’s dramatic statement, women will continue staging acts to call attention to gender disparity. On Monday, Vanity Fair also reports that women are planning to ask members of the Directors’ Fortnight and Cannes Critics’ Week panel to sign a pledge that calls for more inclusion and diversity.
Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn and her ex-boyfriend, golfer Tiger Woods, are the latest celebrities affected by a nude photo hack—along with Miley Cyrus, Kristen Stewart, Katharine McPhee, and Stella Maxwell.
TMZ reported on Monday that private photos of these stars starting popping up on a porn website, which was later identified as Celebrity Jihad, the page responsible for the nude leaks in 2014 that involved Jennifer Lawrence and Gabrielle Union. (That incident is now known, unfortunately, as “The Fappening.”) According to TMZ, Woods and McPhee had already hired legal counsel to fight against these leaks. As for Vonn, a spokesperson for the athlete released a statement to People condemning the group who published the photos.
“It is an outrageous and despicable invasion of privacy for anyone to steal and illegally publish private intimate photos,” the representative said. “[Lindsey Vonn] will take all necessary and appropriate legal action to protect and enforce her rights and interests. She believes the individuals responsible for hacking her private photos as well as the websites that encourage this detestable conduct should be prosecuted to the fullest extent under the law.”
And it looks like the hacker(s) received this message. According to the Los Angeles Times, the photos disappeared from Celebrity Jihad at around 7:30 A.M. PDT Tuesday morning (August 22).
This situation is eerily similar to what happened to Emma Watson in March and, of course, “The Fappening” from three years ago. In November 2014, Lawrence told Vanity Fair that her photo hack was a “sex crime,” and she’s absolutely right. These pictures were never intended for public consumption, which means even looking at them is wrong. Taking a quick glance at a celebrity’s nude photos is the equivalent of a creep watching you undress from your closet. It’s a private moment, and invading someone’s intimate space is never OK—even if it’s from your iPhone.
