Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Prince Harry visits the small mountain kingdom of Lesotho
MASERU, Lesotho | Prince Harry is visiting the small mountain kingdom of Lesotho having co-founded a youth charity there in 2006 in honor of his late mother, Princess Diana.
The Duke of Sussex began his visit Tuesday by meeting with young people and sharing experiences around an evening campfire. He paid a courtesy visit to Lesotho Prime Minister Sam Matekane on Wednesday.
Harry, who turned 40 last month, is also expected to visit Johannesburg in neighboring South Africa on the four-day trip to southern Africa, his first to the region in five years. His wife, Meghan Markle, and children Archie and Lilibet didn’t travel with him.
Harry co-founded the Sentebale charity with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho initially to help young people affected by HIV/AIDS. It works in Lesotho and Botswana and has evolved into an organization that supports children and young people as they face various challenges related to health, inequality and climate.
Sentebale means “don’t forget me” in the Sesotho language, and the princes established it in memory of both their late mothers.
“We are building a force of young advocates and when they are empowered to use their voices, the strength of their impact will be immense,” Harry said to the young people and others connected to his charity gathered around the campfire. “You might not always realise how significant your influence is, but if it changes even one person’s life, it’s worth it.”
The evening event was held at a children’s center funded by Sentebale in the historic village of Thaba Bosiu, which was once the capital of Lesotho.
Seeiso, 58, called Harry his younger brother, and reminded everyone that Harry had an African title that Seeiso had previously bestowed on him. Seeiso said that Harry was also known as “the warrior” in Lesotho.
Harry, who was dressed casually in a puffer jacket and dark pants, smiled at the compliment.
Seeiso’s father, King Moshoeshoe II, was killed in a car crash in 1996, a year before Princess Diana died in in Paris.
Lesotho, which is sometimes called the “kingdom in the sky” because of its mountainous terrain, celebrates its Independence Day on Friday and is also this year marking 200 years since the country was founded. Harry’s connection with Lesotho, a nation of 2.3 million completely surrounded by South Africa, began when he visited after leaving school and worked with orphaned children.
“Lesotho will always be a second home for Prince Harry, and we are forever grateful for his dedication,” Matekane said, inviting Harry to be part of the independence celebrations.
Harry’s older brother Prince William is planning to visit southern Africa next month, when he will travel to Cape Town, South Africa, for the Earthshot Prize, a global environment award he launched through his Royal Foundation.
Jonathan Majors’ ‘Magazine Dreams’ lands theatrical release for early 2025
NEW YORK | The Jonathan Majors -starring bodybuilder drama “Magazine Dreams” has been acquired for theatrical release after it was dropped following Majors’ conviction for assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
Briarcliff Entertainment has picked up distribution rights to the film, its chief executive, Tom Ortenberg confirmed Wednesday. Ortenberg said in an email that Briarcliff is planning a “robust” theatrical release in the first quarter of 2025. Deadline first reported the acquisition.
Before Majors’ conviction, “Magazine Dreams” had been a critical hit at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023. Searchlight Pictures had set a release for later in the year, with widespread expectations that it could land Majors his first Oscar nomination.
But that changed after a confrontation in March 2023 led to Majors arrest. Majors’ former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, accused him of attacking her in the backseat of a chauffeured car, saying he hit her head with his open hand, twisted her arm behind her back and squeezed her middle finger until it fractured.
Majors maintained he was innocent. But in December, Majors was found guilty of one misdemeanor assault charge and one harassment violation.
Within hours of that decision, Marvel Studios dropped Majors from the role of Kang the Conqueror, which was to have been a focal point in its films and TV series for years to come. In January 2024, Searchlight — which, like Marvel, is owned by the Walt Disney Co. — returned its distribution rights to “Magazine Dreams” to the film’s producers.
In April this year, Majors was ordered to complete a yearlong counseling program but avoided jail time. In sentencing Majors, Judge Michael Gaffey noted both sides in the case agreed the charges didn’t warrant jail time and that Majors had no prior criminal record.
In writer-director Elijah Bynum’s “Magazine Dreams,” Majors plays a lonely, aspiring bodybuilder prone to eruptions of rage, carrying wounds from a life filled with pain.
Briarcliff is also the distributor of one of 2024’s most controversial films, the upcoming Donald Trump dramatization “The Apprentice.”
Reese Witherspoon is teaming with Harlan Coben for novel
NEW YORK | Reese Witherspoon’s latest literary news marks a new direction for the Oscar-winning actor, producer and founder of her own book club.
Grand Central Publishing announced Wednesday that the “Legally Blonde” and “Big Little Lies” star is teaming with the bestselling thriller writer and Netflix producer-creator Harlan Coben on a suspense novel, her first work of adult fiction. The book, currently untitled, is scheduled for next fall and is being developed out of an idea — details to come — that Witherspoon came up with.
“To say I am a fan of Harlan’s body of work is a massive understatement,” Witherspoon said in a statement issued through Grand Central, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. “The fact that he found my idea for this thriller intriguing enough to want to partner with me on it as co-author is a dream becoming a reality. Scheming with Harlan on how to thrill audiences with mysterious characters and complex narrative twists and turns has already been more fun than I can describe. I can’t wait for everyone to read what we have been imagining.”
Coben has sold tens of millions of books worldwide, his notable works including the Myron Bolitar series and such standalone novels as “Hold Tight” and “Fool Me Once,” which he helped produce for Netflix. In a statement Wednesday, he praised Witherspoon for her “unrivaled” storytelling instincts.
“Once we began discussing her idea, there was no turning back,” he said. “Collaborating with Reese has been a pure joy and so creatively rewarding. I could not be more excited about putting this novel out into the world.”
Witherspoon, who recently announced she had chosen Lauren Ling Brown’s “Society of Lies” as her October book club pick, isn’t the first screen performer to collaborate with a prominent fiction writer. Oscar-winner Viola Davis is working with James Patterson on a novel about a Black female judge in the rural South. Witherspoon is directly involved in another notable pairing — she and her media company, Hello Sunshine, are set to produce a film adaptation of the Patterson-Dolly Parton novel “Run, Rose, Run.”
—From AP reports
