Daily Archives: February 15, 2020

Richard Strauss in his Ohio State College of Medicine photograph. Ohio State has filed to have three lawsuits dismissed regarding its handling of the accusations against Strauss. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State

Victims of former university physician Richard Strauss sent a letter to the Ohio inspector general Randall J. Meyer calling for a state investigation into ties among current vice chair of the Ohio State Board of Trustees Abigail Wexner, late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Ohio State.

The letter, written by five former student-athletes and Strauss victims, asked the inspector general to investigate allegations of Maria Farmer against Abigail Wexner for her complicity in helping Jeffrey Epstein assault a young woman in Ohio and cover-up that crime, as well as Epsteins relationship with the university. The victims wrote that they are primarily concerned because of Abigail Wexners position on the Board.

This letter comes two months after victims sent a separate letter to the Ohio attorney generals office calling on state and federal officials to investigate Les and Abigail Wexners ties to Epstein.

The letter states that it comes in light of a response of bureaucratic nihilism from Ohio Attorney General David Yosts office, in which Yost said he could not get involved unless the local county prosecutor asked for help. According to the inspector generals website and the letter, the office can begin its own investigations into governor appointees such as members of the Ohio State Board of Trustees .

If not you, who else can we turn to? the letter reads.

University spokesperson Ben Johnson said Ohio State declined to comment because the letter was not addressed to it. The inspector general did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

In an affidavit included in a defamation suit filed April 16 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Farmer, an artist and graduate student at the time, said she was assaulted by Epstein in the Wexner mansion.

The document states that Farmer was forced to remain on the property against her will by the Wexners security team for 12 hours until her father came to pick her up.

Although Epstein and Les Wexner L-brands owner and namesake of the universitys hospital had no known ties to Strauss, the victims asked for the attorney generals investigation because justice denied to one victim of sexual abuse is justice denied to all victims. Strauss abused at least 177 students during his time at Ohio State, according to an investigation conducted by Perkins Coie, LLP.

A Wexner family spokesperson said in a statement that the Wexners had no knowledge of Farmer before news reports in 2019, and had never met her, never spoke with her, and never spoke with Mr. Epstein or anyone else about her.

The letter also cites news reports of Les Wexners alleged creation of a culture of misogyny at one of his companies, Victorias Secret, and his reported enabling of Epsteins access to Victorias Secret models.

The victims also wrote that Ohio State has not yet completed its review of the possible donations Epstein may have made to the university. In September, University President Michael V. Drake told The Lantern that the external review of Epsteins donations would be completed in the next several weeks.

According to a university statement in July, Epsteins supposed private foundation CUOQ Foundation anonymously donated $2.5 million to support the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in 2007. Epsteins donation and a $2.5-million dollar gift from the Leslie H. Wexner Charitable Fund were applied to the naming of the Les Wexner Football Complex in fulfillment of a $5-million pledge, according to the statement.

Epstein also donated $1,000 to the Wexner Center for the Arts Membership Fund in 1990, according to the statement.

In the letter, the victims said Ohio State looked the other way in regard to the connection between Epstein and Abigail Wexner.

Ohio State has shown that, without maximum public pressure, it will turn a blind eye to sexual predators, the letter reads.

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Strauss victims call on inspector general to investigate ties between Jeffrey Epstein and Abigail Wexner - OSU - The Lantern

Brad Pitt, at 56, is an Oscar winner for the second time. His prior win came only six years ago, for helping produce 12 Years a Slave, and his victory tonight, for his performance in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is his first for his onscreen work. An entire career is a long time to wait just ask Al Pacino, runner-up to Pitt tonight, who has been nominated and lost so many times that he sometimes forgets the exact number. (Nine total is the answer, and only one win.) But Pitt, lately, has seemed to make an art of waiting and watching. Your own wins and lossesthe older you get, they don't seem like so much of a win or so much of a loss, he told me last year.

Despite 2019 having been an uncommonly good year for movies, the Academy Awards have had a kind of leaden, preordained feel to them for months now (until *Parasite*'s shocking best picture upset, anyway), as Joaquin Phoenix and 1917 marched through various precursor and guild awards shows, collecting one prize after another. Pitt, too, has been part of this march, though hes done it with flair (so much flair, in fact, that some have started speculating about who is writing his acceptance speech jokes) and, on at least one occasion, with the worlds most redundant nametag on. But there is nevertheless something satisfying, and maybe even surprising, about Pitts win.

Hes been nominated three times before, twice in the best actor category; his win for supporting actor will provide even more evidence for those that like to say that hes a character actor cloaked in the seductive guise of a leading man. But Pitt has always been one of Hollywoods great reactors and scene partners, and hes a different performer now than he was even a few years agomore relaxed, more confident; his many years of living in the spotlight have, paradoxically, sanded away whatever artifice or showiness there was in his work. Hes taught himself to listen and do less. He told me that hes constantly working on finding strength in vulnerability, in life and in acting: the real confidence, as he described it, that comes from really knowing yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses.

Since briefly meeting him for a profile last year, I have tried, without much success, to explain to friends the energy that Pitt brings to a room these days. Everyone is looking at him. And yet the feeling you get is one of total freedom. Hes learned to use the space between him and everyone else to his advantage. Hes got great comic timing, but he also can depend on the fact that youll wait. In Once Upon a Time, his character, Cliff Booth, is a washed-up stuntman and a professional friend and gopher to Leonardo DiCaprios Rick Dalton, but hes accepted his lot. Hes even, like Pitt himself, found the humor in it, the silver lining, the gift of no more expectations. Its an incredibly funny performance, an obscurely sad one, and at times its also menacing and violent; it channels a kind of blithe masculinity that is right on the edge between zen and nihilism. As Booth, Pitt has your attention; he knows that for a fact. How could he not? So he lets you come to him, even as he makes no guarantees about your safety once you get there.

Its not a performance he couldve given even a few years ago, I dont think. He had to give it up, almost, to get back to it. There was just too much emphasis on finding interesting characters, he told me about his previous life in Hollywood. I went, Fuck me, man. Live an interesting life and the rest will take care of itself. Now hes got the trophy to show for it.

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Oscars 2020: Brad Pitt Won, and Its About Time - GQ

Matt Bomer is worried about sending you the wrong message.

The 42-year-old is no stranger to being in front of the camera. He booked his first commercial at 18, was the top-billed star of a hit drama series for six seasons, has been nominated for an Emmy, won a Golden Globe, worked opposite everyone from Channing Tatum to Lady Gaga, and still collaborates regularly with Ryan Murphy. In other words: Hes used to the public eye.

READ: Matt Bomer Remembers His Failed Audition to Play Tarzan on Broadway

But sit him down on a mid-November evening in New York Citys Financial District and tell him you want to talk about his acting process, from his days at Carnegie Mellon to his upcoming starring role on The Sinner, and his usual eager smile and engaged, can-do body language may veil some reluctance. Especially since hes most often asked about his sexuality and socially engaged projects since he came out as gay in 2012, his family of five with husband and celebrity publicist Simon Halls, and his dedicated (and admirable) health and fitness regimen, to talk candidly about the craft and all the different actor-y things we do, he says, feels esoteric and strange.

But, he interrupts himself, offering a winking acknowledgment to Backstages legacy, I know youre interested in that, so this is probably the place to do it! And honestly? Once he buckles in, our interview becomes an hours acting lesson that would easily run you a couple hundred dollars at any Midtown studio.

At the root of all of his acting endeavors, Bomer is just looking for the truth. And when the work allows him to run with it, hes willingand, at this point in his career, ableto do just about anything it takes to get it right.

This is perhaps most apparent in his commitment to a roles physical demands. From the sexed-up brawn required of his male stripper in the blockbuster Magic Mike and its sequel to the 40 pounds he shed for HBOs award-winning screen adaptation of Larry Kramers HIV/AIDS drama The Normal Heart, Bomer physically drags his body that extra mile when given the opportunity and the material.

On Normal Heart, I felt a tremendous responsibility to my community, to all the people who had to suffer through that time, and I thought, Well, if I have to risk my life to do it, to convey that, then its worth it to me to tell that story, he says.

To a lesser but still laudable degree, the current third season of The Sinner, produced by UCP, also called for a tangible sacrifice. This photo shoot and interview were booked months before the premiere, because three-quarters of the way through filming the anthological USA Network drama with Bill Pullman and Chris Messina, Bomer was due to make some severe alterations to his appearance that hed rather not have captured on a magazine cover. (No spoilers, but his diet was limited to 500 calories a day, and he sips a pressed juice for dinner intermittently during our conversation.)

But his role prep is more than skin deepBomer employs exacting character work for each of his performances. The Sinner, for one, from creator and showrunner Derek Simonds and casting directors Douglas Aibel and Stephanie Holbrook, has him playing Jamie, a beloved teacher at an all-girls private school, a husband, and a soon-to-be father who harbors a dark past. Upon an unexpected reunion with a college friend (Messina), his actions lead to tragic consequences.

Everything seems to be going his way, but underneath all that, he is suffering from a really profound sense of loneliness and isolation, and that ultimately leads him to a kind of nihilism and terror and, ultimately, violence, Bomer teases. Hes having a romance with a philosophy that he doesnt necessarily have the psychological structure to be able to support in a responsible way.

Its a goliath role, one that brings him back to prime time after White Collar, the USA Network series that made him famous, and one that Bomer admits he was uneasy about taking on. Then again, it was that questioning gut check that let him know he had to say yes.

One thing thats always been a big lure for me is [asking], Am I going to have to get out of my comfort zone to play this part? he says. You have opportunities that come your way where youve done it before and you know you can do it in a certain way. But certainly with The Sinner, I thought, I dont know how Im going to do this; I dont know how Im going to bring this to life. That scared meand thats very appealing. People make entire careers out of just doing what theyre good at, and I respect that. But for some reason, that [fear] is what makes the process exciting to me.

The first episode alone has his character questioning his reality, toying with self-harm, and losing control of his emotions in the midst of a police interrogation, and it previews the fatal moment that sets his downward spiral into motion. All that is paired, of course, with Bomers trademark charm and charisma placed front and center.

So, how did he find his way into such a complex psyche? According to Bomer, praise is due to Simonds for giving him and the rest of the cast the creative tools and time they needed to mine the crime thrillers material. Especially in television, Bomer says, a rehearsal period like theirs is unheard of. Simonds also introduced an all-new creative process for the longtime actor: dream work.

As Bomer explains it, Simonds employed the help of creative dream work coach Kim Gillingham to help the Sinner ensemble tap into their subconscious and find authenticity beyond the page.

Without bastardizing anything, because this is the first time Ive done it, Ill try to give you the best [explanation] I can in laymans terms, Bomer says. Basically, you keep a journal near your bed at night, and you ask your psycheyour higher power, whateverto reveal certain aspects of the characters experience in a dream that night. For the first few days, nothing was really coming. And then I started to get these hugely archetypal dreams.

Then, with Kim, you bring the dream to life. You do all these exercises, you drop back into the dream; and from that, you can find gesture, physical aspects of your character, emotions that they might be going through, how the piece parlays to your life and your experience and where you are right now. Often, things from my past will become suddenly relevant to the story.

Particularly when playing opposite Messinaa man with whom Jamie is meant to have had a close, yearslong relationship on the seriesBomer enthuses that the dream work allowed both of them to break down so many walls and to really lay ourselves bare. It fostered an understanding and mutual support before getting to set that would otherwise take an entire shoot to accomplish.

I was really interested in doing dream work because I was interested in not intellectualizing everything and letting creativity bubble up from my subconscious, he says, adding, I would recommend it to anyone. Its a great way to have an experience with the piece.

READ: The Definitive Guide to the Stanislavsky Acting Technique

Beyond the preparatory dream work (I only got to do it for maybe the first three or four episodes, because then the workload just got so intense, he admits), Bomer has more practical bolts of building a character. Hell often turn to the textbook teachings of Konstantin Stanislavsky, posing, What from my life could be compared to the circumstance that [this character is] in? He also cites two influential acting coaches and mentors he trains with in Los Angeles.

In terms of how I approach every role, one of my main mentors is Larry Moss, and we always work with the given circumstances and then use the as-ifs when we need to. Noted movement teacher Jean-Louis Rodrigue is also in his rotation. Hes actually an Alexander [Technique] teacher, but he works with all different kinds of physical aspects of character. [We] do a lot of things just to get you out of your head.

On top of that, Bomer is a lover of note-taking: I could show you my reams and reams and reams of pages of notes. Im a homework nerd. He even keeps a journal titled My Split Personality Says where the left side of the page has the heading Im thinking this, while the right lists Im feeling this. Particularly with a character like Jamie, where how he presents himself may not actually coincide with who he is on the inside, such a simple tool proved invaluable while doing the day-to-day work.

Even just between scenes, I would jot down what Jamie was thinking and what he was really feeling while they were setting up the camera, Bomer recalls. I found that to be a useful exercise, and also a way to kind of maintain some isolation without being rude.

Its all a testament to the fact that even 20-plus years into his careerone that he readily admits saw leaner periods of catering, bellhopping, and survival job hustling to make rentBomer is continuing to learn, grow, and navigate new parts of himself and his process. Even at the height of his abilities, hes still looking to better his previous best.

Our conversation eventually takes him back to his first film, the Jodie Fosterstarring Flightplan in 2005, and one particular lesson gleaned from his days on set. Recalling how the makeup of the seta literal airplaneallowed for everyone to look on during Fosters rehearsals, Bomer says that someone advised him point-blank during that downtime to take every job thats offered to you. Hes never forgotten it.

Im really glad that woman told me that, because I took her advice and I just started taking, pretty much, whatever gigs came my way, he says, citing bombed auditions for Tarzan on Broadway, his unlikely day player stint on soap opera Guiding Light, and his much-reportedbut sadly never realizedcasting as the Man of Steel.

You get out of theater school and you start to think, Hmm, I should really be doing Hamlet at the Delacorte. And its like, Yeah, good luck, kid! We dont all have that charmed existence, you know? So sometimes the best thing you can do is take the job. And no matter what that job is, bring your work ethic, bring your collaboration, be on time, and bring a sense of enthusiasm and commitment and dedication to the work. We can be overly precious, and sometimes its good just to make sure youre exercising your instrument. If its an opportunity to work and get paid for it in a production that you feel like you can expand your craft on, do it.

This story originally appeared in the Feb. 13 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.

Ready to get to work? Check out Backstages TV audition listings!

Photographed by Chad Griffith on Nov. 18th in NYC

Benjamin Lindsay is a senior editor at Backstage, where if youre reading it in our weekly magazine, hes written or edited it first. Hes also producer and host of our inaugural on-camera interview series, Backstage Live, taking informative deep-dives with actors across mediums to discuss their craft, their work, and their advice for others getting started in the field.

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Matt Bomer's Acting Education Is Only Beginning - Backstage

Not so Donald Trump. The day after the Senate vote, he gave a rambling speech in which he insisted that he had done nothing wrong, that the Russia investigation had been bullshit, and that his political opponents are evil and sick. He waved newspapers that read Trump Acquitted. His approval ratings have risen. Meanwhile, his Republican allies in the Senate are pushing forward with an investigation into Hunter Bidenexactly the subject on which Trump demanded dirt from Ukraine. The president did indeed learn a lesson (though not the one Maine Senator Susan Collins suggested)he learned that he is, for all intents and purposes, immune to oversight and criticism, that he can do whatever he wants and get away with it.

Impeachment was always a Democratic pipe dream, a doomed act of idealism destined to be squelched in the Senate. This was also its power: an assertion of constitutional value in the face of nihilism. This came through clearly in lead House impeachment manager Adam Schiffs closing argument for the Houses case, which ended with an appeal to justice. I do not ask you to convict him because truth or right or decency matters nothing to him, he said, but because we have proven our case and it matters to you. The Senates response, in acquitting, was clear: Nothing mattered.

The trouble with doomed acts of idealism, of course, is that theyre doomed. If the country has any luck, the impeachment of Donald Trump will be seen in the long term as the right thing to have done. In the meantime, though, we all have to live in the short term.

The temptation at this point is to give up and accept the presidents belief that he will be able to get away with anything. And indeed, much of the press coverage of the acquittal and Trumps promises of vengeance amounted to a shrug: Well, what can you do, really? Until the voters render their verdict, in November, Susan Glasser wrote in The New Yorker, Trump will be the President he has always wanted to be: inescapable, all-powerful, and completely unaccountable. The New York Times described how the self-described counterpuncher appears eager to prosecute his case against his prosecutors Conciliation and acknowledging mistakes are not in his nature. Perhaps a Washington Post headline best captured the sense of deflation: Yeah, Trump didnt learn any new lessons from impeachment.

An exhausted shrug is a fair response to the bleakness of everything that has taken place over the three years of the Trump presidency, and especially to a week like this one. There is always a feeling of loss in the wake of a failure. The compelling way forward is to accept the inevitability that there will be other failures and keep pushing anyway.

Grappling with how to be in the world in this moment, I turned to the German sociologist Max Webers classic 1919 lecture Politics as a Vocation, which describes political life as torn between the voice of conscience and the practicalities of getting things done in an ethically irrational world. At a certain point, Weber wrote, a moment of crisis arrives: The irrationality becomes too much. The politician reaches the point where he says: Here I stand; I can do no other.

Excerpt from:

How to Avoid Despair - The Atlantic