Thursday 4 December 2014
Saturday 22 November 2014
Saturday 15 November 2014
Thursday 13 November 2014
KIM KARDASHIAN LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN HER BEFORE
Kim wears Mikimoto necklaces and earrings, customized dress and vintage gloves throughout
If you know nothing else about Kim Kardashian, you know that she is very, very famous. Some would say that's all you need to know. At press time, she has 25 million Twitter followers, about a million less than Oprah Winfrey and nearly 5 million more than CNN Breaking News. Her Instagram account, where she is a prolific purveyor of selfies, is the site's third most popular. You can't walk through a supermarket without glimpsing her on a multitude of tabloids whose headlines holler about her relationships, her parenting style and the vicissitudes of her ample curves. But she has also graced the covers of highbrow fashion bibles like W and Vogue; with her now-husband, Kanye West, she appeared on the latter above the hashtag #worldsmosttalkedaboutcouple, creating a furor that made it perhaps the #worldsmostcontroversialcover.
Her millions-strong popularity and inescapable media presence have made her grist for think pieces galore. She is variously seen as a feminist-entrepreneur-pop-culture-icon or a late-stage symptom of our society's myriad ills: narcissism, opportunism, unbridled ambition, unchecked capitalism. But behind all the hoopla, there is an actual woman -- a physical body where the forces of fame and wealth converge. Who isn't at least a tad curious about the flesh that carries the myth?
Unlike most people, she looks exactly the same in person as she does in photographs or on television, with one exception: she is smaller than she appears in images, with tiny, almost doll-like ears and feet and hands. Everything else about her seems amplified, tumescent. Her black hair is thicker than any you have ever seen, her lips fuller, her giant Bambi-eyes larger, their whites whiter, and the lashes that frame them longer. If some of this is the result of artificial enhancement -- does anyone else have eyelashes that resemble miniature feather dusters? -- none of it seems obviously ersatz. But that's not to say it looks real, either. She is like a beautiful anime character come to life.
As soon as she arrives at the hostess podium of the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills, where we meet for our interview, a young fan who appears to be in her late teens or early twenties accosts her. The fan has been running to catch (keep up with?) Kardashian; she brings with her a breeze. "Will you take a selfie with me, Kim?" she pants. (This is what fans asks the High Priestess of Instagram -- autographs are so last century.) She obliges, leaning in for the picture and striding away almost before I can blink. "She's gonna post it," Kardashian says wryly. "I bet it's posted right now." Later, she will tell me that she's "not really a filter person," and that she doesn't generally use them when she publishes her many selfies. As she talks, I notice that her skin, which is the golden color of whiskey, is free of wrinkles, crow's feet, laugh lines, blemishes, freckles, moles, under-eye circles, scars, errant eyebrow hairs or human flaws of any kind. It's like she comes with a built-in filter of her own.
As soon as she arrives at the hostess podium of the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills, where we meet for our interview, a young fan who appears to be in her late teens or early twenties accosts her. The fan has been running to catch (keep up with?) Kardashian; she brings with her a breeze. "Will you take a selfie with me, Kim?" she pants. (This is what fans asks the High Priestess of Instagram -- autographs are so last century.) She obliges, leaning in for the picture and striding away almost before I can blink. "She's gonna post it," Kardashian says wryly. "I bet it's posted right now." Later, she will tell me that she's "not really a filter person," and that she doesn't generally use them when she publishes her many selfies. As she talks, I notice that her skin, which is the golden color of whiskey, is free of wrinkles, crow's feet, laugh lines, blemishes, freckles, moles, under-eye circles, scars, errant eyebrow hairs or human flaws of any kind. It's like she comes with a built-in filter of her own.With its enveloping green leather booths and twinkling white garden lights, the Polo Lounge is a setting that lends itself to intimacy. Kardashian, who is wearing a monochromatic champagne-colored ensemble (Margiela bodysuit, Chloé silk pants, Lanvin silk coat), gives off a cozy vibe herself. She leans forward while she talks, resting her cheek in the palm of her hand as though she's chatting with her closest girlfriend. She tells me that the Kardashian clan is currently a week into filming season 10 of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which she has called "the best family movie ever," never mind the rampant speculation, in early 2013, that season 9 would be her last. I'm surprised to hear that they still enjoy the process, since your typical American family would no longer be on speaking terms. "We're kind of obsessed with each other," she explains.
Today, a day off, she spent at a pumpkin patch with West, whom she repeatedly calls Kanye -- she clearly enjoys saying his name -- and their 16-month old daughter, North. They arrived at the farm unbothered by photographers, a rarity in the circus that is her life ("literally every single day there's about ten cars of paparazzi literally waiting outside our homes"). It wasn't long, however, before the paparazzi had surrounded them. "I couldn't really pick out our pumpkins, and [North] couldn't really enjoy it," she says. After a moment, perhaps concerned that she has come perilously close to complaining about her fame, she adds matter-of-factly: "You just have to not care. You just have to say, 'This is our life, and it is what it is.'" Her delivery is Zen-like, almost affectless, as it is on the show. "All my friends tell me the world could be coming to an end, and I'm always so calm," she says, opening a packet of Equal. She empties its contents into a glass of passion fruit iced tea, then fastidiously bites granules of sweetener off her manicured nails.
***
The rap on Kim Kardashian is that she has done nothing to merit her fame. But the longer I steep myself in the ambience of her pleasantly languid manner and hologram-perfect looks, the more facile this charge begins to seem. Of course, she has cannily leveraged that fame to build, with her sisters, a beauty-industrial complex, which includes a clothing line, a makeup line, a line of tanning products and seven perfumes. (A collection of hair care implements and styling products will debut in the spring.) Her mobile app, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, in which players climb their way to A-List status under Kardashian's tutelage, has earned over $43 million since its debut in June.
The rap on Kim Kardashian is that she has done nothing to merit her fame. But the longer I steep myself in the ambience of her pleasantly languid manner and hologram-perfect looks, the more facile this charge begins to seem. Of course, she has cannily leveraged that fame to build, with her sisters, a beauty-industrial complex, which includes a clothing line, a makeup line, a line of tanning products and seven perfumes. (A collection of hair care implements and styling products will debut in the spring.) Her mobile app, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, in which players climb their way to A-List status under Kardashian's tutelage, has earned over $43 million since its debut in June.Yet her perceived lack of accomplishment is also, perhaps, an accomplishment in itself. Kardashian seems to know instinctively that, as Andy Warhol once observed, "When you just see somebody on the street, they can really have an aura. But then when they open their mouth, there goes the aura." Take the stream of small faux-confidences that she offers during the interview. They reveal very little yet foster a sense of closeness. She tells me that she is "obsessed with apps" but, when I ask her to name one, she replies, "I like all different apps." Of her 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries, one of her rare missteps that actually left a footprint, she says: "It's just one of those life lessons that you have to learn, and it's OK." Her behavior suggests that the key to total ubiquity is giving up all of one's verbal edges and sharp angles (while occasionally tossing out a memorable visual flare: a sex tape, say, or a nude photo shoot).
Social media has created a new kind of fame, and Kardashian is its paragon. It is a fame whose hallmark is agreeable omnipresence, which resembles a kind of evenly spread absence, soothing, tranquil and unobjectionable. There's an argument to be made that Kardashian has been recorded and viewed more often than any other personage in history, and while she has certainly had her awkward moments (posting a vampire facial on Instagram, announcing that she wanted to buy a stroller that complemented her unborn baby's skin color), she has also never made a truly ruinous gaffe, been caught in a Britney Spears-style public meltdown or sallied forth looking less than photogenic. As she puts it, "There's nothing we can do that's not documented, so why not look your best, and amazing?"
To mere mortals who occasionally visit the grocery store in yoga pants, her willpower and self-discipline are a marvel. Imagine being filmed and photographed constantly, yet never saying anything seriously controversial or appearing unkempt. The effort involved seems torturous, impossible. And yet, though her life requires work of a sort -- roughly two hours of hair and makeup each day, regular meetings for her assorted businesses, wardrobe fittings, photo shoots, 5:00 a.m. workouts -- you don't get the sense that she is hiding or suppressing her true, private self. "I think you've seen every side of me on my show," she says, popping a piece of pound cake into her mouth.
We're accustomed to our performers having onstage and backstage registers, but for her there is no division between the two. This is, indeed, the definition of a reality star. She's not performing, that is -- at least not visibly. She is being, and being is her act. Her appeal derives from her uncanny consistency, as does that of her show. It's relaxing to watch the sisters sprawl on each other's beds and talk about nothing, to see them discuss constipation cures or their preferred way to eat Nilla Wafers. Like Warhol's screen tests, Keeping Up With the Kardashians has a disarming purity. It invites us to glory in its stars' mundanity, which permits us to enjoy our own.
***
"My makeup artist said to me the other day, 'You haven't taken a selfie in a while,'" Kardashian says, as the afternoon slides into evening and the light turns magic-hour blue. To remedy this, she posted one of herself in full makeup and a white terrycloth robe, with the literal caption, "It's been a while since I've taken a selfie." It garnered more than a half-a-million likes. Selfies have been on her mind lately. She is putting together a collection of her oeuvre, called Selfish, to be published by Rizzoli in the spring. She has spent hours sifting through her vast, meticulously organized digital archive. "The book company edited them, and I was like, 'Wait a minute! There are like 300 here that you're not adding!'" she says. I remark that I am surprised she can remember and differentiate among a bunch of near-identical photos of her face. She can, she says; she is organizing them chronologically, dating them by what she wore to specific events. "I know what I wore, what accessories I wore, where I was, who I was with," she tells me. "I remember everything." Her mind, it seems, traps the minutiae most of us forget. For her, though, it's not minutiae; it's her life, and her life is her career.
"My makeup artist said to me the other day, 'You haven't taken a selfie in a while,'" Kardashian says, as the afternoon slides into evening and the light turns magic-hour blue. To remedy this, she posted one of herself in full makeup and a white terrycloth robe, with the literal caption, "It's been a while since I've taken a selfie." It garnered more than a half-a-million likes. Selfies have been on her mind lately. She is putting together a collection of her oeuvre, called Selfish, to be published by Rizzoli in the spring. She has spent hours sifting through her vast, meticulously organized digital archive. "The book company edited them, and I was like, 'Wait a minute! There are like 300 here that you're not adding!'" she says. I remark that I am surprised she can remember and differentiate among a bunch of near-identical photos of her face. She can, she says; she is organizing them chronologically, dating them by what she wore to specific events. "I know what I wore, what accessories I wore, where I was, who I was with," she tells me. "I remember everything." Her mind, it seems, traps the minutiae most of us forget. For her, though, it's not minutiae; it's her life, and her life is her career.I ask her whether Kim Kardashian would exist without social media. "I don't think so..." she says, slowly, then reconsiders. "I don't think social media was that heavy when we started our show, but I think we really evolved with social media." The next day, as I scroll through Instagram, I come across a photograph of her, taken the night of our interview, wearing the champagne getup at a restaurant in Venice. I also find two photos of North toddling around the pumpkin patch in a tiny fringed cape and Baby Vans. One of these pictures has more than a million likes. "I love sharing my world with people," Kardashian tells me, and I detect no hint of falseness. "That's just who I am." No more, no less.
Styling by Alex Aikiu
Hair by Laurent Philippon at Calliste Agency
Makeup by Mario Dedivanovic
Manicure by Tatiana Sery at Aurelien Agency
Photographer assistants: Philippe Baumann, Franck Joyeux and Nicolas Premoli
Digital imaging: Helene Chauvet for Kilato
Digital: Christian Horvath For D-Factory
Producer: Virginie Laguens for Belleville Hills
Assistant producer: Gråce Salemme
Styling Assistants: Vanessa Ntamack and Ben Depinoy
Culled PAPERMAG.COM
Monday 3 November 2014
Thursday 16 October 2014
Saturday 6 September 2014
Tuesday 19 August 2014
Thursday 24 July 2014
Tuesday 15 July 2014
Friday 11 July 2014
Saturday 14 June 2014
Saturday 17 May 2014
Wednesday 7 May 2014
Tuesday 4 March 2014
LUPITA WOULD NOT HAVE MADE IT IN NOLLYWOOD BECAUSE OF HER BLACK SKIN,ASK GENEVIEVE NNAJI.
LUPITA WOULD NOT HAVE MADE IT IN NOLLYWOOD BECAUSE OF HER BLACK SKIN,ASK GENEVIEVE NNAJI.
Lupita Nyong'o
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lupita Amondi Nyong'o (/ˌluːˈpiːtə ˈnjoʊŋoʊ/; born March 1, 1983) is an actress and music video director of dual Kenyan and Mexican citizenship.[2] She identifies as Mexican-Kenyan.[3] Nyong'o made her feature film debut in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013) as Patsey, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, among numerous other awards and nominations. She is one of the few actors who has won an Academy Award for their debut performance in a feature film
| Lupita Nyong'o | |
|---|---|
Nyong'o at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival
| |
| Born | Lupita Amondi Nyong'o[1] March 1, 1983 Mexico City, Mexico |
| Residence | New York City |
| Ethnicity | Luo |
| Citizenship | Kenyan, Mexican[2][3] |
| Alma mater | Hampshire College Yale School of Drama (MFA) |
| Occupation | Actress, film director, music video director |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Parents | Peter Anyang' Nyong'o (father) |
| Relatives | Isis Nyong'o (cousin) Tavia Nyong'o (cousin)  |
Personal life[edit]
Nyong'o was born in Mexico City, Mexico,[4][5][6] to Dorothy and Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, a politician inKenya.[7] It is a Luo tradition to name a child after the events of the day, so her parents named her Lupita (adiminutive of "Guadalupe" Our Lady of Guadalupe).[8] She is of completely Luo descent on both sides of her family, and is the second of six children.[9] Her father was the former Kenyan Minister for Medical Services. At the time of Lupita's birth, he was a visiting lecturer in political science at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City,[9][10] and her family had been living in Mexico for three years.
Nyong'o moved back to Kenya with her parents when she was less than one year old,[8] when her father was appointed a professor at the University of Nairobi.[9] She grew up primarily in Kenya, and describes her upbringing as "middle class, suburban".[10] At age sixteen, her parents sent her back to Mexico for seven months to learn Spanish.[8][11] During those seven months, Nyong'o lived in Taxco, Mexico, and took classes at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico's Learning Center for Foreigners.[11]
In 2013, her father was elected to represent Kisumu County in the Kenyan Senate.[8] Nyong'o's mother is currently the managing director of the Africa Cancer Foundation and her own communicationscompany.[12][13] Her cousin Tavia Nyong'o is a scholar and professor at New York University. In 2012, her older cousin, Isis Nyong'o, was named one of Africa's most powerful women by Forbes magazine.[14][15] Her uncle, Aggrey Nyong'o, a prominent Kenyan physician, was killed in a road accident in 2002.[16]
Nyong'o currently resides in Brooklyn. She is fluent in her native Luo, English, Swahili and Spanish.[11].
Nyong'o grew up in an artistic family, where family get-togethers often included performances by the children in the family and trips to see plays.[12] She attended an all-girls school in Kenya and acted in school plays, with a minor role in Oliver Twist being her first play.[10] At age 14, Nyong'o made her professional acting debut as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in a production by the Nairobi, Kenya-based repertory company Phoenix Players.[10][12] While a member of the Phoenix Players, Nyong'o also performed in the plays "On The Razzle" and "There Goes The Bride".[13] Nyong'o cites the performances of Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple with inspiring her to pursue a professional acting career.[17][18]
Nyong'o attended college in the United States. After graduating from Hampshire College with a degree in film and theatre studies,[19] she worked as part of the production crew for many films, including Fernando Meirelles's The Constant Gardener, with Ralph Fiennes, Mira Nair's The Namesake, and Salvatore Stabile's Where God Left His Shoes.[20] She cites Fiennes as another individual who inspired her to pursue a professional acting career.[10]
She starred in the 2008 short film East River, directed by Marc Grey and shot in Brooklyn, New York.[21] She returned to Kenya in 2008 and starred in the Kenyan television series Shuga, an MTV Base Africa/UNICEF drama about HIV/AIDS prevention.[20] In 2009, she wrote, directed, and produced the documentary In My Genes, about the treatment of Kenya's albino population,[9] which played at several film festivals and won first prize at the 2008 Five College Film Festival.[20] Nyong'o also directed the music video The Little Things You Do by Wahu ft. Bobi Wine,[20] which was nominated for the Best Video Award at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009.[20]
She subsequently enrolled in the acting program at the Yale School of Drama. At Yale she appeared in many stage productions, including Gertrude Stein'sDoctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, and Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter's Tale.[6] While at Yale, she was the recipient of the Herschel Williams Prize "awarded to acting students with outstanding ability" during the 2011–2012 school year.[1]
Nyong'o landed her breakout role[22] when she was cast in 12 Years a Slave immediately before graduating from Yale with an MFA in 2012.[10][12] The film was released in 2013 to great critical acclaim. Nyong'o received rave reviews for her performance,[23] and has been nominated for several awards including a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and two Screen Actors Guild Awards including Best Supporting Actress, which she won.[24] She co-starred in Liam Neeson's 2014 film Non-Stop.[9] On March 2, 2014, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the sixth black actress to win the award.[25]
In 2014, she was chosen as one of the faces for Miu Miu's Spring 2014 campaign, with Elizabeth Olsen, Elle Fanning and Bella Heathcote. She has also appeared on the covers of several magazines, including New York's Spring 2014 fashion issue[26] and UK magazine Dazed & Confused.[27] She has also been a regular on Harper's Bazaar's Derek Blasberg's Best Dressed List since Autumn 2013.[12]
Filmography[edit]
Films[edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | East River | F | Short |
| 2013 | 12 Years a Slave | Patsey | |
| 2014 | Non-Stop | Gwen Lloyd |
Television[edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Shuga | Ayira | Miniseries |
Awards and nominations[edit]
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | African-American Film Critics Association | Best Breakout Performance | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Austin Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | BAFTA Awards | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Nominated |
| 2013 | Boston Online Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Boston Society of Film Critics | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Nominated |
| 2013 | Broadcast Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Central Ohio Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Nominated |
| 2013 | Chicago Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Best Supporting Actress | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Florida Film Critics Circle | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Georgia Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | 12 Years a Slave | Nominated |
| 2013 | Hamptons International Film Festival | Breakthrough Performer | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Hollywood Film Festival | New Hollywood Award | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Houston Film Critics Society | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Iowa Film Critics | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Kansas City Film Critics Circle | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Las Vegas Film Critics Society | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Los Angeles Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | National Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Nominated |
| 2013 | New York Film Critics Circle | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Nominated |
| 2013 | Online Film Critics Society | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Palm Springs International Film Festival | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Phoenix Film Critics Society | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | 12 Years a Slave | Nominated |
| 2013 | St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2013 | Toronto Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Nominated |
| 2013 | Washington DC Area Film Critics Association | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
| 2014 | Academy Awards | Best Actress in Supporting Role | 12 Years a Slave | Won |
Source:Wilkipedia.
The question is,Nollywood,Nigerian version of Hollywood and Bollywood.Or even Gollywood as the Ghanian version is known due to addiction to lighetr skin or mainly bleached skin would most likely never cast Lupita in leading or supporting role.No matter how talented she is.Ivy league education might not help either.Genevieve Nnaji,about the most talented in Nollywood would tell you how tough it was for her to get lead roles eariler in her career because of her dark skin.Any arguement or defence to this only needs the Critic to point at the Leading Ladies in Nollywood.Many applaud Lupita now but how many will cast her favourably or even accept that talent comes across more to the Audience.Not fakes who get roles for lighter skin,bigger boobs/back sides and so on.And it is back to the case where the outside world has to tell Africans what is good,somehow Alec Wek comes to mind.
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