Unfollowed: Why it feels like such a snub when someone stops following you on Instagram

With more of our lives now spent on social media platforms, what happens online can have real world impact for both individuals and celebrities
Today at 21:30
It's easy to create a narrative in your head when you notice it happens to you or to someone else – especially celebrities. Have they fallen out? Are they no longer speaking? Did their thumb just slip when they were scrolling and they got too embarrassed to rectify it?
Aimee Lou Wood and Walton Goggins captivated audiences in season three of The White Lotus, which aired earlier this year, as they played doomed lovers at the five-star Thai resort. By all accounts, the actors grew to love each other too – platonically, at least.

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Irish Independent

3 days ago

• Irish Independent

‘We Were Liars' review: Clandestine affairs, failed marriages, scandals and secrets – the TV adaptation of the wildly popular YA book is here

That changed in 2005 when JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels were reissued with so-called adult covers, presumably to spare the blushes of people who might be embarrassed to be seen in public reading the same books their children or grandchildren read. The Potter books were reissued a second time in 2013 with a new, even more sober cover design. It might have been a cynical marketing exercise by a publisher eager to squeeze every last cent out of a successful property, but it had the effect of dissolving the line between adult and young adult (YA) fiction. Television has been taking notice. Any bestselling YA novel judged to have the slightest crossover appeal to an older audience is now likely to be snapped up and given the lavish miniseries treatment. We Were Liars (Prime Video, streaming from today) is based on a wildly popular 2014 YA book by E. Lockhart. It has all the hallmarks of what you'd expect from a story about filthy rich, privileged, cosseted, mostly white people – in this case the Sinclair family – enduring the agonies associated with being filthy rich, privileged, cosseted and mostly white people. There are clandestine affairs, failed marriages, scandals and secrets, closet alcoholism and drug use, and three bitchy, backstabbing sisters, all of them useless screw-ups who, despite the best education and opportunities money can buy, are unable to stand on their own feet without the cushion of inherited wealth. It's difficult at first to tell who's who among the three generations of Sinclair women, since they all have identikit long blonde hair. This is no Succession or The White Lotus. If there's any satirical intent towards the one-per-centers, it's completely undetectable. Aside from a few concessions to adult viewers (a bit of mild sex and a smattering of swear words), this is very much a routine YA mystery. It centres on Cadence (Emily Alyn Lind), the eldest of the Sinclair grandchildren, who tells us in an incessant voiceover that the family are regarded (most probably by themselves) as 'American royalty'. Every summer, the clan gather at the palatial vacation home on a private island near Martha's Vineyard, owned by formidable patriarch Harris Sinclair (David Morse, lending some undeserved class to the whole thing). Harris spends a lot of time glowering through his binoculars at the party boat full of 'drunk, trashy tourists' that's spoiling the lovely view. For Cadence, however, summer on the island is an idyllic time. She gets to hang out with her cousins Johnny (Joseph Zada) and Mirren (Esther McGregor), who are both blonde, naturally, and their best friend Gat (Shubham Maheshwari), who's Indian. His uncle is the partner of one of Cadence's aunts. She's been doing this every year since they were kids and named their happy little group 'The Liars'. One summer, something terrible happened in which Cadence was involved. The trouble is, she can't remember what it was. The brain trauma she suffered during the incident has wiped out her memories. The novel's teenage readers will no doubt eat up this adaptation The story toggles between two summers: 'summer 16', the one when the awful thing happened, and 'summer 17', two years later, when Cadence, who was whisked away to recuperate in Europe for the summer, returns to the island, her hair now short and dyed black, to try to piece together the mystery. Strangely, none of the adults will tell her what happened, while Johnny, Mirren and Gat haven't been responding to her messages for the last year and appear to have been cold-shouldering her. She's dismayed to discover that the splendid old Sinclair house has been knocked down and replaced by a grim, modernist eyesore. What's going on? All is revealed in the finale. You see, We Were Liars comes with – drum roll – A BIG TWIST. How much you're surprised by it will depend on how many of the numerous clues, some very obvious, scattered throughout it you pick up on during the eight drawn-out episodes. The novel's teenage readers will no doubt eat up this adaptation, but with so much more substantial TV drama out there to choose from, the rest of us might prefer to put away childish things. Rating: Three stars

Irish Independent

3 days ago

• Irish Independent

‘White Lotus' stars were paid ‘very low' salaries, Jason Isaacs reveals

Jason Isaacs as Tim Ratliff in 'The White Lotus'. Photo: HBO The Harry Potter star (62), who featured in Mike White's Emmy-­winning anthology as the ­manic Ratliff patriarch, Timothy, revealed that compared with other big-time TV salaries, the actors received a 'very low price'. In a new interview with Vulture , Isaacs was asked about the $40,000 (€34,850) an episode pay cheque each actor had collected. 'I didn't know that was public knowledge,' he said. 'That's absolutely true. Generally actors don't talk about pay in public because it's ridiculously disproportionate to what we do putting on make-up and funny voices – and just upsets the public. 'But compared to what people normally get paid for big television shows, that's a very low price,' he added, insisting that the entire cast 'would have paid to be in it. We probably would have given a body part.' Given there were eight episodes in the third season, each actor would have made about $320,000 for their time. What's more, every actor in the main cast received the same compensation, regardless of star power or experience. When asked if he had any complicated feelings about making the same amount as his younger co-stars, such as Patrick Schwarzenegger, who played his on-screen son Saxon, the prolific British actor said: 'I never work for money. 'I mean, I've done all right. People will think I have huge stockpiles of money but sadly, what I've done rather immaturely is expand my outgoings to match my incomings and pretty much spent everything I've earned over the years.' The subject of The White Lotus cast salaries became a headline in April, when producer David Bernard revealed that each actor is 'paid the same,' and it's 'not negotiable'. 'So you're getting people who want to do the project for the right reasons,' he told The Hollywood Reporter . 'It's a system we developed in the first season because there was no money to make the show.' Season three of The White Lotus starred an ensemble cast of Isaacs, Schwarzenegger, Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Natasha Rothwell, Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan, Aimee Lou Wood, Jon Gries, Sam Nivola, Sarah Catherine Hook, Christian Friedel, Tayme Thapthimthong, and Charlotte Le Bon.

Irish Independent

4 days ago

• Irish Independent

Unfollowed: Why it feels like such a snub when someone stops following you on Instagram

With more of our lives now spent on social media platforms, what happens online can have real world impact for both individuals and celebrities Today at 21:30 It's easy to create a narrative in your head when you notice it happens to you or to someone else – especially celebrities. Have they fallen out? Are they no longer speaking? Did their thumb just slip when they were scrolling and they got too embarrassed to rectify it? Aimee Lou Wood and Walton Goggins captivated audiences in season three of The White Lotus, which aired earlier this year, as they played doomed lovers at the five-star Thai resort. By all accounts, the actors grew to love each other too – platonically, at least.