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Fashion Line Inspired by Disney’s “Cruella” Was Made Without Designer’s Knowledge

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Designers are frequently snubbed out of licensing deals when it comes to merchandise, and now leaders in the Costume Designers Guild are calling for them to get their due credit.


Fashion Line Made Without Jenny Beavan’s Knowledge

A fashion line inspired by the acclaimed costumes in Disney’s new film “Cruella” was released without the knowledge of the award-winning designer who worked on the film.

Jenny Beavan has been a costume designer for several decades, earning 10 Academy Award nominations and winning two: one for “Mad Max: Fury Road” and another for “A Room With a View.” Prior to the pandemic temporarily shutting the industry down, she was tasked with designing the eye-popping frocks in “Cruella,” a movie where the costumes are especially important because the film itself centers around a war of fashion. 

Beavan told Variety that there had been some discussions with Disney about co-branded products for Target and Singer sewing machines, as well as talks about a possible fashion collection, but once production ended and COVID-19 hit, that moved to the backburner. She said she never heard another word about it until a month ago when a friend sent her an Instagram post where Rag & Bone advertised its new officially licensed “Cruella”-inspired collection. The friend asked if Beavan was involved, but she said she had never even heard of it until seeing that post.

“I just was sort of horrified,” she told Variety. “The thing about ‘Cruella’ is that you’ve got a film about fashion, about two fashion designers. The whole story is them almost having a war using fashion. So, that’s so disrespectful to then bring out fashion lines.”

Costume Designers Frequently Get Snubbed Out of Licensing Deals

Like she has throughout her career, Beavan worked tirelessly on the costumes for “Cruella.” She told Vogue she traveled from London to New York to Los Angeles collecting vintage pieces, ultimately putting together a total of 47 original looks for the titular character, played by Emma Stone, alone. 

Stone’s co-star, Emma Thompson, wore another 33 original outfits. On top of this, Vanity Fair reported that in some scenes, Beavan was responsible for dressing up to 150–200 background characters in some scenes with large crowds. While reviews for the film vary, the one thing critics largely agree on is that the costumes were a smashing highlight.

Despite the hard work that Beavan and so many other designers put into curating cohesive looks for their films, it is actually quite common for designers to be snubbed out of licensing agreements when the film’s outfits turn into a commercial spectacle. 

According to Variety, a licensed “Birds of Prey” collection was released by Her Universe without the involvement of designer Erin Benach. Mona May, the designer behind the famous ensembles in “Clueless” and “Enchanted,” was similarly slighted when it came to merchandise involving the costumes she made for both films. 

She told Variety she remembered seeing “Clueless” dolls in 1995 that wore her costumes “like verbatim — the yellow suit, the black suit.” She said she found it “shocking that I was not involved at all and I had no compensation for something that huge.”

She also said the princess dress Amy Adams’ character wore in “Enchanted” ended up being remade “to a tee” into children’s costumes.

“It’s such an old studio system in the sense that we basically sign [away] our life when we sign a contract, and there is no way around it,” she told Variety. Beavan likewise told the outlet that no matter how hard contracts are negotiated, “You basically do sign your life away,”

New York-based fashion writer Laurie Brookins added on Twitter that scandals like this are unfortunately “far from new.”

“As far back as the 1930s, studios worked with retailers — the Macy’s Cinema Shop was the best example — on designs that were sometimes exact copies of film costumes,” she said. “Joan Crawford’s ‘Letty Lynton’ dress sold like crazy; Adrian [the designer] never saw a penny.

Costume Designers Guild and Stylists Speak Out

While Variety‘s report noted that there are cases where designers get to be involved in lines inspired by the shows they worked on, like ones for “Mad Men” and “Gossip Girl”, more often than not, designers are not so lucky.  and more, where designers for those shows got to be involved in related lines, it is by no means a common practice, and most designers are not so lucky. 

“Historically, this is a huge issue for our membership, and for all costume designers,” the communications director for the Costume Design Guild Anna Wyckoff told Variety. “Because, as everyone knows, a costume has a long life after the project — in merchandising and toys and Halloween costumes. So there are many opportunities for the costumes to be used in an ancillary marketing fashion.”

The Guild’s president, Salvador Pérez Jr. echoed similar frustrations and called for designers to get their due credit when merchandise includes their work.

“As costume designers, our work has a life beyond the screen,” he told the outlet. “Our work is reproduced for toys, costumes, fashion collections and more. Not only are we not allowed to participate in the profits made off of the merchandising, we aren’t even credited for our work on the original designs.”

“Costume designers who help generate additional revenues from productions deserve to be compensated for the additional income earned,” he continued.

Other designers, including Mumbai-based stylist Vaidehi Krishnan, echoed his calls. Krishnan wrote that not crediting designers is “disrespectful to the art of moviemaking. Especially when characters would be naked without us.”

Some, including the Costume Designer’s Guild and designers like Kathleen Felix Hager, are starting to use the hashtags #NakedWithoutUs and #CreditCostumeDesigners in hopes of bringing attention to these issues. 

Disney did not respond to Variety’s request for comment.

See what others are saying: (Variety) (ScreenRant) (Daily Dot)

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Max to Agrees to “Properly” Credit Writers and Directors After Facing Backlash For Lumping Them in As “Creators”

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The company said the credits were laid out incorrectly due to “an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max.”


After film and television writers slammed Max for crediting all writers, producers, and directors as general “creators” on its platform, the company said it will be adjusting its credits display.

“We agree that the talent behind the content on Max deserve their work to be properly recognized,” the streaming service said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. 

Max — the new rebrand of HBO Max that incorporates Discovery content — launched on Tuesday to much criticism. Amid glitches and app-switching confusion, the biggest backlash it faced was over the choice to lump creative roles into one credit section called “creators.” As one viral tweet noted, if a user were to select the film “Raging Bull,” the service’s display would not specifically credit Martin Scorsese as the director, rather, his name would be included at random with half a dozen other people, including writers and producers. 

The decision was condemned by many in the industry who argued it minimizes writers and directors by not properly giving them credit where it is due. Especially amid the ongoing writers’ strike, and with directors and actors starting negotiations with studios, some took it as a slap in the face. 

“The studios don’t want anyone to know our names,” writer Christina Strain tweeted. “It’s easier to pay us nothing if we’re faceless.”

“Another move from studios to diminish the role of writers, directors, actors and other craftspeople. Miss me wit this nonsense,” Jorge Rivera, the Vice-Chair of the Writers Guild’s Latinx Writers Committee, added. 

In a statement, Directors Guild President Lesli Linka Glatter said that Warner Bros. Discovery’s choice to “collapse” these roles into one credit “while we are in negotiations with them is a grave insult to our members and our union.”

“The DGA will not stand for it,” Glatter continued.

WGA West President Meredith Stiehm claimed the move was “a credits violation,” as well as an insult “to the artists that make the films and TV shows that make their corporation billions.”

On Wednesday, Max said it would rework its crediting. 

“We will correct the credits, which were altered due to an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max and we apologize for this mistake,” the platform said.

See what others are saying: (Gizmodo) (The Hollywood Reporter) (The Los Angeles Times)

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A Quarter of Young British Men Support Andrew Tate’s Thoughts on Women

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U.K. residents at large, however, do not view him favorably.


Even under house arrest in Romania, misogynist influencer Andrew Tate still holds substantial sway over young men. 

According to data from YouGov that was obtained by The Independent, 26% of U.K. men between 18 and 29 years old who know of Tate agree with his views on women. That figure was largely the same for men between 30 and 39, as 28% agreed with Tate’s opinions on the subject. 

Men in their 30s were slightly more likely to agree with Tate on his thoughts about masculinity. Three out of ten supported those views, compared to just a quarter of men 18 to 29.

Those statistics only include the thoughts of men who have heard of Tate, but per YouGov, most have. In the 18 to 29 group, 93% were familiar with him, and 86% of men in their 30s knew of him. 

The U.K. at large was less aware of Tate, with just 63% of British adults having heard of him. Of that group, only 6% held a positive view of him. 

Tate has faced substantial backlash for his sexist rhetoric over the years. In the past, he said that men should have “authority” over their wives or girlfriends, and that women should “bear some responsibility” for being raped. He was previously banned from Twitter over his extremist views on women but has since been allowed back on the platform. 

He is currently being investigated in Romania for organized crime and human trafficking. He was arrested and held in custody in December but was released to house arrest earlier this year. No formal charges have been filed against him yet and he has maintained his innocence. 

Tate currently boasts a Twitter following of 6.7 million. It has grown significantly since he was enveloped in legal controversy, and many of his supporters have demanded his release. 

See what others are saying: (The Independent) (Glamour U.K.)

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Involved in “Near Catastrophic” Paparazzi Chase

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“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety,” a spokesperson for the couple said.


“Aggressive” Paparazzi Chase Couple in New York

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were involved in a “near catastrophic” paparazzi car chase Tuesday night in New York City, according to a spokesperson for the couple.

In a statement, the spokesperson described the photographers as “highly aggressive.”

“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety,” the statement added.

“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers,” it continued. 

Details of the incident are still emerging, but BBC News reported that there are claims the chase involved roughly six cars driving recklessly by running red lights, driving on the sidewalk, carrying out blocking moves, going backward on a one-way road, and taking pictures while driving. 

The chase happened after Harry and Meghan were leaving the Women of Vision Awards with Meghan’s mother, Doria. They did not want photographers to learn where they were staying and attempted to avoid them in what turned into a 75-minute chase on a main road in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. They eventually ducked into a New York Police Department Precinct to hide out before getting into a different vehicle.

The NYPD released a statement confirming that they assisted in protecting the couple as “numerous photographers” hindered their transport. Officials said they made it to their destination and there were no collisions, injuries, or arrests. 

The couple’s spokesperson is asking the public to not share or post footage of the incident. 

“Dissemination of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous to all in involved,” the spokesperson said. 

Memories of Princess Diana

The chase evokes the brutal press hounding Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, was subjected to throughout her life. The paparazzi’s obsession with her ultimately resulted in her death in 1997, when she was killed in a car crash after being chased by photographers in Paris. 

Since marrying Meghan and later bowing out of the Royal Family, Harry has made it explicitly clear that he fears those events could happen again. Meghan has been the subject of endless tabloid scrutiny, enduring racism and harassment from the press. Part of the reason they left the Royal Family was to keep their family protected from such attacks.

Mayor Eric Adams brought up Diana’s tragic passing while speaking about Tuesday night’s chase. 

“I don’t think there’s many of us who don’t recall how [Harry’s] mom died,” Adams said while speaking to reporters. “And it would be horrific to lose an innocent bystander during a chase like this and something to have happened to them as well…I think that was a bit reckless and irresponsible.” 

Adams also questioned whether or not he believes a chase could go on for two hours in a city as congested as New York, but noted that even a 10-minute chase would be dangerous. He said he will be briefed on the exact timeline and details later. 

See what others are saying: (BBC News) (Associated Press) (Yahoo News)

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