Actor KATE BECKINSALE, age 51, posted on Insta:
“[The Blake Lively case] highlights this machine that goes into effect when a woman complains about something legitimately offensive, upsetting or harmful in this industry.
On one film I was referred to over the walkie-talkie and to my face as ‘that cunt’ because I’d said: I’m finding it difficult; my co-star is drunk every day. He was going through something. I have sympathy for that but I was waiting, as was the crew, 6 hours a day for him to learn his lines. It meant I didn’t get to see my daughter in the evenings.
The studio’s response was to give me a bike to ride around the lot while I was waiting. Then of course I was called a cunt and a bitch.
On 2 sets I was put on such a strict diet and exercise programme that I lost my periods.
A certain kind of actor gets a thrill out of legally being able to harm a woman in a fight sequence. [In one] I was harmed – there were MRIs proving it. I was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem, blamed and ostracised, left out of cast dinners, not spoken to as soon as I mentioned there was a problem.
[The day after having a miscarriage] I was forced by a publicist [to do a photoshoot]. I said: ‘I can’t. I am bleeding. I don’t want to change my clothes in front of people I don’t know. I’m bleeding out a miscarriage.’ She was like: ‘You have to or you’ll be sued.’I was felt up by somebody I trusted on a crew [then told by fellow actresses that it didn’t happen].
[Harassing women on set] has been going on forever. I have about 47 million stories similar to this. What is really depressing is I see a lot of men going around saying: ‘The climate is different and so much better.’ It fucking isn’t!
Complaining about abuse should not beget more abuse. At work inviolable safeguarding should be in place. It should not be expected of women who have been harmed, insulted, hurt, shamed or in any other way abused – mostly with at least 100 witnesses – to have to be ‘one of the boys’ and take it on the chin or face retribution for having been abused”
WORDS Kate Beckinsale reveals years of abuse and sexism on set: “Forced to do photoshoot day after miscarriage” (The Independent, 31/12/24)
Actor & former model BROOKE SHIELDS, age 59, writes in her book Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old…
“My gynaecologist asked if I felt discomfort because of my labia. I said: ‘Only in tight jeans, spin classes and every romantic moment ever.’
(I apologise if this is too graphic or TMI. I’d be lying if I said I’m not embarrassed to share this very intimate information. But if we are to change the way we approach women’s health, we need to bring up uncomfortable but very real issues. Shame is not an option.)
My labia had been an issue since high school and one I’d been ashamed of forever. I joked with my best friend: ‘It’s like you’re in a boxing gym and you have 2 little speed bags between your legs.’ It hurt and it was in the way.
My gynaecologist said it was very common and labial reduction procedure would decrease my discomfort. Why should that be reduced to a cosmetic choice, as if I wanted a more photogenic labia so I could be in adult films? Like many important procedures for women, it wasn’t covered by insurance.
Afterwards the doctor said: ‘I tightened you up! Gave you a little rejuvenation!’
Wait, what?? I was shocked, speechless.‘
After 2 kids, everything is looser,’ he said. But I had C-sections and a scarred, more restricted cervix, I replied. I had never asked to be ‘tightened’ or ‘rejuvenated’ (translation: given a younger vagina). I felt numb.
This man surgically altered my body without my consent but I didn’t want talk of my lady parts on the front page of every paper.
The most intimate parts of my body had been a public focal point already. All I could think was: ‘Why can’t everybody just leave my vagina alone?’ (This will be the bit that makes headlines. Whatever. Women deserve all the information.)
I noticed a difference in my body – not a good one. My sex drive is pretty typical for my age: I like intimacy but don’t need it every day. And the procedure did not enhance my pleasure.
Fuck that guy! He had no right to do what he did. If it happened to me now I’d make my own blaring headline and blast it everywhere”
WORDS EDITED FROM Brooke Shields Got a “Bonus” Labia Rejuvenation Without Her Consent: “Why Can’t Everybody Just Leave My Vagina Alone” (People, 10/1/25)
Actor & creator of non-alcoholic beer Bero TOM HOLLAND, age 28, who is engaged to actor Zendaya, also 28, “says that when he’s not working he leads a very quiet life filled with soup, cute dogs and hobbies that include carpentry and golf.
It sounds an awful lot like he looks forward to retiring from the spotlight to be a trad dad.
Holland says: ‘When I have kids, you will not see me in movies anymore. Golf and dad. I will just disappear off the face of the earth.’
[On set there’s] ‘that perfect thing when a director will give you a note you don’t agree with – or I know that [Zendaya] doesn’t particularly like – and it’s just that familiar glance at each other of like: Can’t wait to talk about that later.’
He’s more than happy standing in @Zendaya’s shadow, especially at her film premieres: ‘Because it’s not my moment, it’s her moment and if we go together, it’s about us.’
Heterosexual men, are you reading this??? Listen to Spiderman”
WORDS Tom Holland Sounds Psyched to Be a Trad Dad (Jezebel, 3/1/25)
MORE FROM HOLLAND
• [In 2021] “I’ve spent the last 6 years being so focused on my career. I want to take a break and focus on starting a family and figuring out what I want to do outside of this world.
If I’m at a wedding or party I’m always at the kids’ table hanging out. My dad’s been such a great role model for me. I’ve got that from him. So I think I’d be a primary school teacher or something.I love kids. I can’t wait to be a dad. I can wait and I will – but I can’t wait!”
• [On giving up drinking in England, where socialising and alcohol are intertwined] “I couldn’t go to the pub and have a lime soda or go out for dinner. I was really struggling. I said to myself: ‘Why am I enslaved to this drink and obsessed by the idea of having this drink?’
[Getting sober] was the best thing I’ve ever done. Things that would go wrong on set and normally set me off I could take in my stride. I had such better mental clarity.I’m happy to say it: I was definitely addicted to alcohol. I’m not shying away from that”
• “I was doing a show with Zendaya. I thought: ‘I’ll have to do something incredibly bold.’ So naturally I decided to dance in the rain in fishnet tights”
Actor KIERAN CULKIN – age 42, dad to a girl & boy aged 5 and 3 – would like to be a full-time dad…
“Kieran got in trouble with his wife for asking if they could have more kids as he picked up his Emmy on live TV. Their first was a surprise: ‘We’d been together for 8 years and never took precautions.
A friend with kids said: “Your quality of life goes in the toilet.” There’s no avoiding that at first. Now it’s obviously easier. My quality of life is not in the toilet anymore.
Another friend was like: “You’ll think back to your parents and how they did it.” I haven’t.’
His dad, an actor, was a bully, a drunk, ‘physically and mentally abusive’ to his brother Macaulay ‘Home Alone’ Culkin. He left when Kieran was 12.
Kieran is conscientious. His wife Jazz Charton posted: ‘Considering he didn’t grow up with a good example of what a dad is he’s really quite good at it.’
He laughs at the idea that they might have done family therapy: ‘Us siblings, we’re already cooked. We’re baked.’
He credits his mum with bringing them up. It was a childhood of extremes: 7 kids sharing bunks in 1 bedroom, then being on movie sets and flying by helicopter to Michael Jackson’s Neverland.Kieran’s career decisions are weighed against whether it’s worth being away from his kids: ‘I’m not good at being separated from my family. I’m very much terrible at it.’ Once he tried to put on a brave face saying goodbye at an airport then broke down.
Even the worst days with the kids are the best in his life: ‘One day the kids will get older and not want to be with me.’
He embraces the chaos. His son gets car sick so Kieran brings vomit bags, extra clothes. At hotels he loves setting out their teddies, toys, ‘the diapers, stuff like that’.
He’ll switch on the news ‘and go: “We’re all fucked.” It’s hard enough just having a job, raising kids as closely as I possibly can, managing a marriage.’ So he stays sane by getting through life ‘moment to moment’ – taking stuff out of the dryer and folding it, putting it in a pile. That’s how he copes? ‘That and alcohol’”
WORDS Kieran Culkin on pranks, parenting and why his famous family doesn’t need therapy: “Us siblings, we’re already cooked” (Guardian, 28/12/24)