Guilty Pleasures

By Associated Press

Nonfiction book publishing is dominated by men. A new prize hopes to help change that

LONDON | Go into many bookstores, and the nonfiction shelves will be dominated by men.

The Women’s Prize for Nonfiction hopes to change that.

“Nonfiction is still perceived to some extent as a man’s game,” said British historian Suzannah Lipscomb, who is chairing the judging panel for the inaugural edition of the U.K.-based prize. The judges announced a list of 16 contenders for the 30,000 pound award on Thursday.

An offshoot of the 28-year-old Women’s Prize for Fiction, whose past winners include Zadie Smith, Tayari Jones and Barbara Kingsolver, the new prize is open to female English-language writers from any country in any nonfiction genre.

Lipscomb noted that in 2022, only 26.5% of nonfiction books reviewed in Britain’s newspapers were by women, and male writers dominated established nonfiction writing prizes.

“In all the ways that we recognize expertise and authority — giving it exposure, giving it attention, sales, money earned by the authors — women were not featuring as highly as their male counterparts,” she said. “So I think that we do still need to close what (journalist) Mary Ann Sieghart called the authority gap. And that’s why this prize is needed.”

The company Nielsen Book Research found in 2019 that women bought 59% of all the books sold in the U.K., but men accounted for just over half of adult nonfiction purchases.

Authors from the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Jamaica, the Philippines and the U.K. are on the prize longlist, chosen from 120 books submitted by publishers.

They include author-activist Naomi Klein ‘s plunge into online misinformation, “Doppleganger,” and journalist Patricia Evangelista’s “Some People Need Killing,” a searing investigation of the Philippines’ drug war.

There are works by leading academics and books on science and technology, including Cat Bohannon’s “Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution” and Madhumita Murgia’s “Code-Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI.”

The list spans genres including travelogue (Alice Albinia’s “The Britannias: An Island Quest”), history (Leah Redmond Chang’s Renaissance study “Young Queens”), biography (Anna Funder’s “Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life”) and autobiography (Safiya Sinclair’s “How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir”).

Asked what unites the disparate roster, Lipscomb quotes a line from Funder’s book: “The project of good writing is to reveal to us the world we thought we knew.”

“There is a trend towards redressing wrongs, telling untold stories, exposing truths, revealing hypocrisies,” she said. “That sense of making good comes out of them.”

Six finalists for the nonfiction award will be announced on March 27, and the winner will be unveiled at a ceremony in London on June 13.

Affleck inspired J.Lo’s first album in a decade. She’s using it to poke fun at her romantic past

LOS ANGELES | Throughout her career, Jennifer Lopez has been hailed as an epochal, prolific and hard-working artist. One adjective not often associated with the pop icon-turned-actor and movie producer, however, is self-deprecating.

But as she readies to drop her first studio album in a decade, Lopez is performing a kind of fictionalized mea culpa about her past romantic relationships in “This is Me…Now: A Love Story,” hitting Prime Video Friday in tandem with the album’s release. Live Nation also announced Thursday that Lopez will embark on a 30-plus city tour beginning June 26 in Orlando, Florida.

The 65-minute musical film, which she self-financed, follows a hopeless romantic in search of love (Lopez) and the myriad ways she contends with repeated heartbreak, including visits to her therapist (played by Fat Joe) and sobbing through old romantic films. From a distance, a star-studded Zodiac council, played by Jane Fonda, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara and others, provide a sympathetic but mercilessly faultfinding commentary on her desperation for love, failed marriages (Lopez is on her fourth) — and rebounding relationships.

At 54, Lopez said her ninth studio album and its accompanying film were the result of a sudden burst of inspiration, a large part of which she attributes to her rekindled romance with and marriage to Ben Affleck.

Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: It’s been a decade since your last album. Does making music feel like riding a bike for you or do you have to get back into gear again?

LOPEZ: You know, it’s a scary thing whenever you start something new again. Even when I start a movie and I haven’t done a movie in a few months or a year or whatever. But this was really different because I hadn’t been inspired to really go into the studio and write a whole album for years. I did “Marry Me” a few years ago for the movie, but that was not a Jennifer Lopez album, not a J.Lo album. I just hadn’t been inspired at all.

So, to actually get inspiration was the kind of gift, the exciting thing, and wanting to go in there. And yes, I was nervous at first, but I went in there on the first day and I said, “This is the mission.” We made ‘This is me…Then’ 20 years ago, and we’re going to make ‘This Is Me…Now.’ This miracle has happened, a second chance. And I’d love to capture this moment in time the way that album captured that moment in time.

AP: You talked about people not understanding the vision for the film initially and having to really stand your ground.

LOPEZ: Nobody wanted to make the project. There doesn’t seem to be a big appetite for musical projects from the powers that be these days, which is sad because I remember growing up and loving to see these music projects from my favorite artists, but they just don’t see it that way. I knew that it was going to be a big risk, but something was driving me to really get it done. I knew it was hard because it hadn’t been done before so it was hard to describe to people. When you see it, you’re like, “Oh yeah, I’ve never seen anything like this before” — I said, “When they see it, they’re going to get it.” And that’s what happened, thank God. It could have really turned out badly. And by the way, every day that’s how I felt, that this could really turn out badly. But I still stayed the course like the captain of the ship in the middle of the storm. It’s like “We really could die right now, but we’re going to keep going.”

AP: The star-studded Zodiac council is hysterical. Them observing your life and having that kind of commentary felt very meta of you being in the public eye for so long.

LOPEZ: Yeah. You described it perfectly. It was a commentary on that. But it was also like everybody has that in their life, right? So, it’s like kind of the Greek chorus of your own life. You know, you have your friends, your family, your siblings, your co-workers, everybody commenting like, “Oh, she’s dating this person. Did you hear she broke up with that guy?” They’re always like telling you. “Why are you with this guy?” And they’re rooting for you. It’s not that they’re not rooting for you. And for me, it’s like the media and the world sometimes that are commenting. But I think it was a really kind of humorous way to do it but also be able to get those pieces of information in there, you know?

AP: Do you feel like, because your relationships have been so public, that you’ve been harder on yourself about them?

LOPEZ: Oh yeah. 100%. It’s made me doubt myself and really feel bad about myself at times. Made me feel like I wanted to quit at times. But at the end of the day, I feel like you kind of have to do this thing where you learn how to navigate it. You take the things that could be constructive about that and use it, and the rest you kind of just throw away as kind of like haterations or, you know, other things like that and just be like, “Whatever. I know who I am, I know what I want to do.” You know? And little by little, you know, as you get older and you get more mature and you have more experience, you start realizing more what’s real and what’s like just other people’s thoughts out here, right? And you get more confident in who you are, which is nice.

AP: The film is a journey of self-love. But you shared that this album was heavily inspired by rekindling your relationship with Ben. How do those two things relate to each other?

LOPEZ: Well, I think what people would kind of assume is that this (movie) is a story about that. But the truth is, the story is not about that. Really, the story is about your journey as a person, it’s about one person’s journey and what it takes to get from heartbreak back to love. Or a hopeless romantic’s journey in their search for love. I don’t like to talk too much about like, “Here’s what you’ll get from it.” I want everybody to get whatever they get from it. But at the end of the day, what I hope is that they’re entertained and that it gives them hope.

AP: Is that why it was worth it to be so vulnerable?

LOPEZ: I think as an artist, if you can’t be honest and vulnerable, then you’re really not doing your job right. It requires that. And not just in music, but in acting and in expressing yourself. You have to kind of bare a part of your soul. That’s part of it. And that’s not easy for people. For us humans, it’s not easy. But as an artist, you have to kind of overcome that fear and go, “You know what? I think what I want to say and what I want to express here is something that’s worthy to be expressed.”

AP: Why did this feel like the right time to be so self-reflective about your past?

LOPEZ: It wasn’t about like, “Here’s the right time to do this.” It was just, this is how it happened. The instinct and the creative impulse just hit me. I was just very inspired to do this. And it’s like, “Well, why put yourself out there?” Because that’s what I felt like doing. That’s what my heart was telling me to do. That’s what my creativity was telling me to do. And it would have been very easy to be kind of, you know, give it all up and go, “Okay, let’s not do this. It’s fine. Let’s not do this,” and think later, “I didn’t do that because I was scared.” I don’t know. I don’t want to be there. I don’t ever want to be there.

Berlin Film Festival jury pushes back on uninvited party

BERLIN | The head of the jury at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival pushed back on political questions as the festival kicked off on Thursday, seeking instead to shift the focus to the tough selection ahead for the best movie.

Twenty titles from around the globe will compete for the top prize, the Golden Bear, with Thursday ‘s opening marking the world premiere of “Small Things Like These,” starring man of the moment Cillian Murphy.

“It’s going to be interesting,” said jury president and Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o when asked about differing views of this year’s panel of actors, directors and writers tasked with choosing the winner.

“It’s probably also going to be spicy,” the Kenyan-Mexican actor added with a smile, speaking at a news conference in the German capital. “The beauty of bringing people together from different backgrounds is that we respond to different things. … We are having robust conversations.”

Nyong’o is the Berlinale’s first Black jury president and said she felt greatly honored to lead this year’s jury.

“This is a chance for me to learn a lot about the world of cinema and to celebrate it,” she said and added that she plans to “listen first.”

Still, as reporters hurled questions about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Ukraine and German politics, Nyong’o and the other jurors mostly dodged them.

One question she could not avoid was about the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, which the organizers last week uninvited to the opening gala. Five AfD politicians had been expected to attend since members of all parties in Berlin’s state legislature are invited to events supported with public money.

In recent weeks, Germany has seen large protests against the far right, following a report that extremists met to discuss deporting millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, and that some members of AfD were present.

“I’m a foreigner here,” Nyong’o said before continuing, “I don’t know the ins and outs of the political situation here, so I’m glad I don’t have to answer that question.”

However, other jury members were more vocal on the subject.

German director Christian Petzold appeared critical about the decision to uninvite the AfD politicians. “If we can’t stand five persons of the AfD in the part of the audience, we will lose our fight.”

“Imagine having five fascists sitting in the room, watching the cinema that Berlinale chose to tell for this reality, for this moment,” said Italian actor Jasmine Trinca, suggesting this might broaden the politicians’ horizons.

Later, when asked to elaborate, Petzold said that the fact that “hundreds, thousands of people (are) demonstrating against” AfD is “much more important than these kind of discussions.”

Among the competition entries this year is French-Senegalese director Mati Diop with her documentary “Dahomey,” exploring colonization through the return of stolen artifacts plundered by French colonial troops and returned to Benin in West Africa.

“Black Tea” from Mauritian-born Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako also focuses on the African diaspora, the story of a young Ivorian woman who emigrates to China and falls in love with an older Chinese man.

Nyong’o said she was happy Africa is featuring at the festival but added that she is “always hungry for more.”

Along with Trinca and Petzold, this year’s jury in Berlin also includes actor-directors Brady Corbet, directors Ann Hui and Albert Serra, as well as Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko. The festival runs through Feb. 25.

Cooper laments lack of public awareness

of Bernstein

NEW YORK | Gushing after the New York Philharmonic performed Leonard Bernstein’s music, Bradley Cooper talked about creating the film “Maestro “ in hopes of drawing more attention to the composer and conductor.

“Many people don’t know who he is,” the actor and director told the sold-out crowd of about 1,800 at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall on Wednesday night. “If you go to a coffee shop in New York City, let alone any other state in America, people have heard of ‘West Side Story’ but not Leonard Bernstein.”

Yannick Nézet-Séguin made his New York Philharmonic debut conducting works from the movie over an hour mixed with video and audio clips, then had an onstage conversation with Cooper, who portrayed Bernstein. They were joined by Carey Mulligan, who played Felicia Montealegre, the actor and wife of Bernstein.

In an interview with The Associated Press before the concert, Cooper recalled how he got into character during the 55-day shoot in 2022, when he had time for only a brief nap at the end of each day. Bernstein’s voice was the key.

“When I would be in the makeup chair before crew call, when I put that wardrobe on,” he said, “I had to make that leap of faith to stop talking like this and start talking and breathing like him, with a deviated septum and asthmatic and all the things that he had to deal with.”

“Maestro” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last September and has since been nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, Cooper for best actor in a leading role and Mulligan for best actress in a leading role.

Nézet-Séguin, a 48-year-old Canadian who is music director of the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra, served as a consultant to Cooper on conducting.

Bernstein, who died in 1990 at age 72, was an exuberant conductor known for occasionally leaping off the podium while calling for triple forte playing.

“We feel that sometimes we’re not as well known as Beyoncé, let alone Taylor Swift,” Nézet-Séguin told the crowd. “Bradley Cooper is our hero in the world of music.”

Bernstein’s children, Jamie, Nina and Alexander, were all in attendance and given a huge ovation when they took to the stage.

Among the performers during a program titled “Orchestrating ‘Maestro:’ Music and Conversation,” 14-year-old Malakai Bayoh got his own 25-second ovation for “Pax: Communion (“Secret Songs”) from “Mass,” and Psalm 23 from “Chichester Psalms.”

An emotional high point was the film’s six-minute segment of Cooper at England’s Ely Cathedral conducting the finale of Mahler’s Second Symphony — a work Bernstein led 19 times at Lincoln Center from 1963-89, including his 1,000th performance with the philharmonic in 1971.

There were chuckles in the audience when a clip was shown of Mulligan as Montealegre in a 1955 interview with Edward R. Murrow that mentioned Bernstein’s collaboration with “a wonderfully talented young lyricist, Stevie Sondheim” — who went on to revolutionize musical theater.

Cooper didn’t attempt to learn technique for a podium career.

“We’re doing a specific piece of music and an individual, so it’s not like I went to conducting class,” he said. Speaking in third-person about himself, Cooper said: “The actor is only trying to conduct Mahler’s Second. But he’s doing it as the character Leonard Bernstein in the film. That brings with it the joy, the utter abandon, the intoxication of the music and being able to draw the orchestra in a way that other conductors hadn’t, his uniqueness.”

Moving across Lincoln Center from the Met after rehearsing Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette,” Nézet-Séguin led an orchestra of about 60% of the philharmonic’s regular players. They were most impactful in an excerpt of the fourth movement of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony and the overture from Bernstein’s “Candide.”

For the onstage conversation, Nézet-Séguin changed from his formal conducting outfit into a more casual look — a gray double-breasted suit with no shirt and trousers with elasticized cuffs. Cooper wore a tuxedo.

Nézet-Séguin called for reevaluating Bernstein’s classical compositions, most of which were not enthusiastically received. He cited his 2015 performance of “Mass” with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

“Why does ‘Mass’ have jazz and Hebrew and rock and choral?” Nézet-Séguin said. “That was the 1970s way of embracing it. But of course, sure enough, Bernstein was this visionary. … I don’t think the music world would be where it is at the moment if it were not from him, Lenny, opening all those doors.”

Cooper focused the movie on the drama of Bernstein’s open marriage as a bisexual man and brushed off criticism he didn’t devote sufficient screen time to the lukewarm critical reception of Bernstein’s classical scores and his struggle to allocate time between conducting and composing.

Cooper, who is not Jewish, also faced scrutiny for wearing a prosthetic nose as part of his transformation into Bernstein, who was.

“This is everything I could have ever hoped for in the film,” he said.

What’s next for Cooper, a biopic of Herbert von Karajan, the iron-willed leading conductor of the second half of the 20th century?

“No, no. That would be hilarious,” Cooper said. “We’re a polar opposite.”

Nézet-Séguin laughed.

“You can play them all now,” he said.

—From AP reports