Washington [US], March 9 (ANI): American television network HBO recently responded to a claim made by an extra in ‘Lovecraft Country’, that her skin was darkened by the show’s makeup artists during a brief appearance on the series.
Kelli Amirah, the person in question, last month alleged in one of her TikTok videos that the make-up artist on the series darkened her skin using foundation, for her to have a closer resemblance to the older version of a character she portrayed. She appeared as a young bride in a throwback wedding photo, in the episode.
In a statement to People magazine, a spokesperson for HBO said, “We were very disappointed to learn of Ms. Amirah’s experience. This should not have happened, and we are taking steps to ensure this doesn’t occur again in the future.”
Amirah had claimed in the video that when the makeup artists working on the series’ cast, said that she looked “a little lighter” than the other actress. Later during her make-up, she noticed that her foundation was “getting darker and darker”.
In another TikTok video, she recorded her brief appearance in a photo during the episode and shared that, “as soon as we wrapped, I went right back to hair and makeup to ask for some makeup wipes because I refused to go out in the world like that.” Amirah also claimed that the show’s makeup artists darkened her hands.
Over the weekend, after her TikTok videos went viral, she addressed the controversy in a lengthy Twitter thread. She wrote, “I’ve been getting a lot of very valid critiques for my complacency in allowing Lovecraft Country to darken my skin as a photo double for some set photography briefly featured in an episode. It’s uncomfortable but it’s not wrong. I was weak and complacent in that moment.”
Amirah went on to say that she regrets not speaking up at the time and hopes her story prohibits this situation from ever happening again.
‘Lovecraft Country’, which premiered its first season in the second half of 2020, received critical acclaim and was nominated for best television series for drama at the 2021 Golden Globes.
Based on the 2016 horror novel of the same name, the series stars Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett, Aunjanue Ellis, Courtney B. Vance, Abbey Lee, Jamie Chung, and Michael K. Williams. (ANI)

Washington [US], March 9 (ANI): The Kardashians clan, who already own several business ventures, is now stepping into the world of greeting cards and calendars.
As per People magazine, the new venture will be called Kardashian Kards and the family has filed trademark documents to secure a name for it. The popular family is planning on using their name to sell greeting cards, calendars, decals, photo albums, and postcards.
According to documents viewed by People magazine, Kim Kardashian West, Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, and Kris Jenner filed trademark documents with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the brand name ‘Kardashian Kards’ on February 22, 2021.
According to the filing, the brand may sell items including “greeting cards, calendars, decals, photographs, photo albums, pictures, posters, postcards, scrapbooks, stationery, paper, notebooks, stickers and transfers, writing utensils, erasers, bookmarks, and paper gift wrap.”
Kardashian Kards is far from the first brand name the family has trademarked. In addition to being reality TV stars, the Kardashian-Jenners have a plethora of businesses under their names, most overseen by Kris.
One of the earliest was DASH, a boutique clothing chain Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe opened together in Calabasas, California, in 2006, one year before ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ premiered.
The family gained prominence after starring in their own reality series ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’, which has been on the air for over 13 years now.
Currently, Kim runs the beauty empire KKW Beauty and shapewear company SKIMS, Kourtney focuses on her lifestyle website Poosh and Khloe has her size-inclusive fashion brand Good American.
Their younger siblings followed suit. Kylie Jenner has taken the makeup and skincare industries by storm with Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin and Kendall Jenner announced earlier this year that, in addition to modeling, she was entering the spirits business, with the launch of 818 Tequila. (ANI)

Washington [US], March 9 (ANI): Singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus is using COVID-19 as a source of inspiration, channeling her energy into making some fresh music. Miley recently dropped the music video of her track ‘Angels Like You’ and it features the singer urging everyone to get vaccinated amid the health crisis.
On Monday, the 28-year-old pop star released the official music video of the song. The footage for the song was recorded on Super Bowl Sunday back in February when Cyrus headlined the NFL TikTok Tailgate event in front of a limited audience of 7,5000 vaccinated, Florida-based healthcare workers.
Miley also shared the music video on her Instagram handle writing a lengthy caption along with it.
She wrote, “Angels Like You video OuT NoW! Shot on 2/7/21 at #TikTokTailgate, the first outdoor covid compliant concert of its size since the pandemic changed our lives forever.”
In the caption, she added, “I never would have thought when I wrote “Angels” that the first time I would be performing this song or shooting a music video would be in a time like this.”
“It’s been almost a year without live music. I desperately miss the connection it brings. I miss hearing your voices ring out in harmony with my own. I miss YOU. With vaccines becoming more available the dream of us all being reunited is getting closer to becoming a reality. We just have to do our part. I hope you love what I have made for you and that you feel for just these few minutes that you were here in the crowd at the show with us. Soon,” Miley concluded.

The clip, which the singer co-directed alongside Alana O’Herlihy, has Cyrus dressed in her Super Bowl pre-game concert look, with the glittery No. 25 black and pink jersey and shoulder pads she rocked during her TikTok Tailgate show in Florida for this year’s big game.
The footage of Cyrus lying in a field, chilling backstage and belting the tearjerker in front of a crowd was filmed on February 7, when Miley performed at the first major COVID-19-compliant live show since the start of the pandemic last March.
The video includes shots of the audience, which was made up of fully vaccinated, mask-wearing healthcare workers and other frontline workers. The music video concludes with a heartfelt message handwritten by the singer, in which she urges viewers to help prevent the spread of the virus.
The handwritten message read, “Nearly a year after the world shut down because of COVID-19, this video was shot at the first concert of its size since the pandemic changed our lives.”
She continued, “The audience here is fully vaccinated healthcare workers who have been fearlessly + tirelessly fighting COVID-19. We all look forward to being together again + this can happen sooner than we may have thought with vaccines becoming more available.”

“Each of us can help stop the pandemic by being vaccinated. Together we can make the experience of live music a reality again,” added the songstress.

During her roughly 90-minute pre-game concert, which included surprise appearances by Billy Idol and Joan Jett, the singer repeatedly thanked health care and frontline workers in the audience and watching at home for all they had done during the global pandemic, reported Billboard.
“All of us have a purpose. My purpose is to sing on stage but my purpose can never be achieved without you, you are essential,” she said at one point.
On Super Bowl day, the singer expressed her gratitude for healthcare workers, at one point saying, “The dedication of this song could never repay you for your services.” (ANI)

New Delhi [India], March 9 (ANI): Disney+ Hotstar on Tuesday unveiled the trailer of ‘OK Computer’, which is a first-of-its-kind sci-fi comedy thriller series in India, starring Radhika Apte, Jackie Shroff, and Vijay Varma.
The official Twitter handle of Disney+ Hotstar dropped the news of the trailer release along with a tweet that read, “Kitna hi control kar loge future ko jab future hi aapko control karne waala hai? Watch the Trailer now.”

The nearly two-and-a-half-minute-long trailer opens in 2031 Goa, where a self-driving taxi named NKHL, crashes into a human pedestrian. The cyber cell agent Hari Kundu, played by Vijay Varma, thinks that it is attempted murder, while Laksmi, played by Radhika Apte, who is the head of a private organisation called PETER, which is there for the ethical treatment of robots, believes that AI is incapable of harming humans.
The ensuing chaos then includes Mickey Mouse as a possible suspect, and a hippie Jackie Shroff as Pushpak Shakur, the boss for whom being under arrest is a psychological and not a physical state of being. It mostly focuses on the dark comedy around solving the philosophical puzzle of who is to blame.
This unconventional six-episode series that focuses on the battle between ideologies, is being directed by Anand Gandhi, the man behind critically-acclaimed movies like ‘Ship of Theseus’ and ‘Tumbbad’, along with Pooja Shetty and Neil Pagedar. It is slated to release on March 26 on Disney+ Hotstar. (ANI)

Washington [US], March 9 (ANI): The highly-anticipated Zack Snyder’s cut of the ‘Justice League’ on Monday made an accidental early debut on HBO Max, for some subscribers of the streaming service.
The upcoming film titled ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ arrived 10 days early for some users of the streamer, as per Variety.
Some HBO Max users due to a glitch got an unexpected preview of the four-hour-long superhero movie, which is slated to release on March 18, when they hit play on the new ‘Tom and Jerry’ film.
This error first came to light when Doug Bass, a realtor and digital marketing analyst based in Charlotte, N.C., shared a screenshot of the issue on Twitter before it was fixed.
He told Variety that he was “just looking for some background TV while I worked, and when I clicked on ‘Tom and Jerry,’ the Snyder Cut started playing.”
He then posted a screenshot from the movie featuring the back of Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), and jokingly wrote that someone at HBO Max was “getting fired.” Bass then explained that about an hour into the feed, he noticed the definition of the image began to degrade, then an error message appeared on his screen and the film disappeared.
As per Variety, a spokesperson from WarnerMedia, in a statement, said “‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ was temporarily available on HBO Max and the error was addressed within minutes.”
Despite the statement, the film was available for at least an hour. HBO max subscribers were able to view almost an hour of the comic book flick on accident while trying to play Tim Story’s new ‘Tom and Jerry’ movie.
Some users shared screenshots of ‘Justice League’ before Twitter sent takedown notices on behalf of Warner Bros. to those who shared screenshots.
Snyder’s cut of ‘Justice League’ was confirmed last year after a long campaign by the director’s fans, who decried the theatrical version released in 2017. Snyder had to leave the original film due to a family tragedy. Joss Whedon was then brought in by Warner Bros. to finish the post-production and do reshoots of a few scenes.
While Snyder’s cut will release in the US on March 18, it is not clear if it will be made available to audiences outside the country as HBO Max is unavailable everywhere else right now. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], March 9 (ANI): Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana, whose career-graph has shown that he gravitates towards newer story-tellers, recently revealed his reason for doing so.
The ‘Bala’ actor, also sometimes called the ‘the poster boy of content cinema’, has mostly provided a sense of freshness to viewers with the choice of his scripts.
Speaking about what makes him gravitate towards newer story-tellers and directors, he said, “I have always looked to collaborate with new storytellers because they are looking to bring a fresh voice and a different vision to our cinema.”
He added, “First time or young film-makers are looking to make their mark in the industry and they are always coming up with high-risk content decisions which appeals to me a lot because I have always gravitated towards being super risky with my film and character choices.”
During his career in the film industry, Ayushmann has worked with debutant directors like Sharat Kataria, Hitesh Kewalya, Raaj Shaandilyaa, R.S. Prasanna, Akshay Roy, Vibhu Puri and also collaborated with younger directors like Nupur Asthana, Ashwini Iyer Tiwari, Amit Sharma and Amar Kaushik.
Lauding these newer set of filmmakers for expressing their opinions boldly he said, “I have always strongly felt that we need to be bold in our approach because audiences, who are exposed to brilliant content from across the world, only want to watch new stuff. I laud these film-makers for expressing their views and opinions boldly and freely through their cinema.”
The actor further said, “They have the sheer talent and they want to explode in the world of entertainment and as an artiste, who is constantly looking for clutter-breaking and disruptive content, such people are always on my radar.”
Talking about his constant pursuit for looking to discover new and brilliant filmmakers, he added, “I want to creatively collaborate with as many of them as possible because they are massive risk-takers, they are visionaries who want to change the way people are consuming content. I have always believed that without risks, nothing new or exciting can come out. Our industry needs more disruption and these film-makers are bringing this out brilliantly. Their talent is exceptional and I’m always awed by them.”
Ayushmann thanked these new directors for giving him some of the most intriguing projects of his career and said, “It’s a privilege to have collaborated with the brilliant minds and I think I have been fortunate that they were excited to collaborate with me too. Without them I would have never had Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Bareilly Ki Barfi, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Dream Girl, Badhaai Ho, Bala, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Meri Pyari Bindu.”
“I’m again collaborating with a first-time director, Anubhuti Kashyap, for Doctor G and I can’t wait to start working with her. She is a restless story-teller who has an extraordinary vision with this film and I think we will be able to present something unique, engaging, and immensely entertaining for audiences,” the actor concluded.
Ayushmann was last seen in Shoojit Sircar’s ‘Gulabo Sitabo’, alongside Amitabh Bachchan. He will soon be seen in ‘Anek’, set to hit the big screens on September 17. It is being directed by Anubhav Sinha and marks the filmmaker’s second collaboration with Ayushmann after the critically-acclaimed 2019 film ‘Article 15’.
Apart from ‘Anek’, he will also be seen in ‘Doctor G’ and ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’. (ANI)