Latest news with #MikeWhite
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Hollywood agent reveals shock reason he tells A-listers to TURN DOWN roles on HBO's The White Lotus
HBO 's The White Lotus arguably one of the most acclaimed and culturally relevant TV shows of the last decade. The anthology series has not only been a commercial hit and lauded by critics, it's also been responsible for catapulting its cast to the top of Tinseltown. Veterans like Jennifer Coolidge and Parker Posey completely revived their careers thanks to the Mike White series, while international stars like Sabrina Impacciatore and Aimee Lou Wood used the show to crack Hollywood. So why aren't more A-listers clamoring for roles on The White Lotus? The main reason is the 'low' salary of just $40,000 per episode, which is given to each main character - regardless of how famous they are. One Hollywood agent who spoke to said that the salary is so low that most big name actors would actually lose money filming a season of the HBO show. 'Just say that the actor earns roughly $300,000 for the season, that's before taxes, then they have to pay their team, like their manager and agent,' the source said. 'They're not left with much in the end, then you have to factor in exactly how much money they're missing out on while shooting the show for months,' they continued. Season two of The White Lotus took six months to film, while season three took even longer at seven months. 'Not only are they on set for half the year, they're also on location in some random part of the world. Italy, Thailand... it's not like filming in Los Angeles where they can easily come and go to fulfill other commitments,' the agent said. 'I've had to advise some big clients not to do the show for these reasons. 'They could be taking home several million by doing a movie that might only take two or three months to shoot instead of spending six months doing The White Lotus for pennies,' they continued. Outside of acting projects, there's also the issue of missing out on lucrative brand deals. 'Every actor has commercial brand deals, it's where most of their money is made these days,' they explained. 'If I sign a client up to represent a major brand, I can't have them stuck on set in Thailand when there's promotional commitments in the US as part of their contract,' they added. However, the agent did say that things may be shifting as The White Lotus begins to benefit from more commercial tie-ins. 'The only exception is some of the big money brand deals that the cast are starting to pull in now,' they said. 'Parker Posey did a GAP campaign, Theo James is working with Dolce & Gabbana. 'There's certainly an argument to be made that The White Lotus can drive up a star's value for brands, but I still think this applies more to B-level talent,' they continued. 'A-listers can already command a huge fee, so I don't think that The White Lotus can boost their value enough to offset any losses from filming.' In April, it was revealed that three-time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson had turned down the third season of The White Lotus. While the actor claimed that the filming schedule clashed with a family vacation, there was speculation that the real reason for knocking it back was due to the salary. Jason Isaacs, who appears in the third season of the HBO series as wealthy businessman Timothy Ratliff, revealed just how much he and his castmates were paid per episode. 'That's absolutely true,' he told Vulture, confirming that they earned $40,000 per episode. 'Generally actors don't talk about pay in public because it's ridiculously disproportionate to what we do — putting on makeup and funny voices — and just upsets the public,' he continued. 'But compared to what people normally get paid for big television shows, that's a very low price.' Still, Isaacs admitted he was just as excited as fellow cast members — like Patrick Schwarzenegger and Parker Posey — to join the buzz-worthy series. 'But the fact is, we would have paid to be in it. We probably would have given a body part.' Isaacs was asked whether, given his long resume, he had any complicated feelings about earning the same as less-experienced actors like Schwarzenegger. He replied, 'Do I mind that I wasn't paid more than other people? 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.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The White Lotus' Creator Mike White and Team Break Down the Finale's Deadly Piña Colada Scenes — and Why Season 3 Made Him Feel Like a ‘Head Case'
Yes, 'White Lotus' creator and director Mike White put an implied incest scene in Season 2 — the two men turned out to be lying about their familial relation — then upped the ante in Season 3 to a hand job between real brothers. But he does draw the line somewhere: a man killing himself, his wife and his children, for example. 'As dark as we go in this show, that's too dark,' White says. That's why Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) can't go through with his plan to poison his family in the Season 3 finale, even though letting them live means they'll soon learn he's lost everything they have by getting caught in a money laundering scandal. More from Variety Jason Isaacs Champions Tom Felton Playing Draco Malfoy Again, Gives His Blessing to New Lucius Malfoy Actor Johnny Flynn: 'I Can't Wait to See What He Comes Up With' Parker Posey Tells Lisa Kudrow to Star in 'The White Lotus' Season 4 as They Bond Over Sitcom Struggles and Why Phoebe on 'Friends' Was 'A Lot of Work' Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan on 'The White Lotus' Cut Scenes: 'There Are Things You Won't See That Are a Part of Our History' 'You're showing the weaknesses of human behavior and how that can lead to deadly consequences. At the same time, there's hopefully enough empathetic humanism to offset all the acid. It's got enough of everything to be palatable, and yet, you still feel like you're doing something new.' Timothy is partially based on French aristocrat Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, who was plagued by debt and allegedly killed his wife, four children and two dogs in 2011 before disappearing. A producer pitched White on writing a show about the murders, and though he found the idea too depressing, he never stopped thinking about that family. 'I kept thinking about how someone could lose the plot and kill the thing that he loves the most — this idea of somebody wanting to protect his family from hardship, and that they couldn't survive without all the creature comforts they're used to,' White says. 'I started thinking it'd be interesting to have a guy realize this at the beginning of vacation, so there's this public shaming that's going on back home, but they're ensconced in this paradise somewhere far away.' White's thought was, 'Well, that is so 'White Lotus.'' The Ratliffs' phones are taken away upon their arrival at the Thailand outpost, but Timothy eventually wrangles his back and finds out that the FBI is investigating him. Dosed up on lorazepam he stole from his wife, Victoria (Parker Posey), Timothy spends the rest of the season having visions of suicide, which broaden to murder-suicide as Victoria and their children inadvertently reveal how ill-prepared they are for poverty. 'It's not a fantasy; it's a plan,' Isaacs says of the dream sequences. 'I mean, it's a drug-addled plan, but even if he wasn't taking the drugs, there is no way to avoid the stuff going on in his head — the terror of the abyss.' Rather than Dupont de Ligonnès, Isaacs' reference of choice was disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell, who is now more famous for fraud, embezzlement and being Ghislaine Maxwell's father than for any of his business successes. Though Maxwell's 1991 death by drowning was ruled an accident, Isaacs sees it differently: 'He jumped off his yacht and killed himself rather than come onto land, and I thought about him a lot. I thought, 'You know, it's not a bad choice for Tim.' The only thing is, he starts roping in his wife when it becomes clear she can't cope. Then, my son can't. Then, my jewel, my daughter. He's such an alpha male patriarch. His daughter has a special place in his heart, and when she comes and says, 'I'm a princess. I couldn't bear to be poor,' there's a crushing disappointment knowing he has to kill her too.' While visiting a monastery, a monk (Suthichai Yoon) tells Timothy that death is like being a single water droplet falling back into the ocean, saying, 'No more suffering. One consciousness. Death is a happy return.' Unsurprisingly, Timothy takes away the wrong message, deciding he can now justify his most depraved instincts. 'He's continually trying to find some other way,' Isaacs says. 'There's always someone to pay off, something to be done. And when there isn't, and the monk paints a picture of death that seems incredibly inviting to him, that makes it all right to kill.' In their own ways, Victoria, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) all fail to prove to Timothy that they can handle a more humble life. So, in the finale, Timothy hatches a plan to blend the poisonous seeds of the resort's native pong-pong trees into piña coladas for his family to share — minus Lochlan (Sam Nivola), who isn't 21 and, crucially, is the only family member who passes Timothy's secret test and is deemed grounded enough to make it without wealth. The images on screen slow and distort as the lethal cocktail comes together on the Ratliffs' last night in Thailand. Rum and coconut milk fall gently from Timothy's hands into the blender, the camera watching from a chaotic assortment of angles that make each ingredient appear close enough to get a whiff. 'We really wanted to put the audience inside of Tim's head,' says cinematographer Ben Kutchins. 'He's lost in this nightmare where no one loves him if he's not rich, and I was using various lenses, including these very old projection lenses, to show how disturbed his worldview had become.' Each family member elegantly slides in and out of fame as Timothy distributes the poison. 'We're doing this ballet with the camera and the actors as he's passing out the drinks in floating, dreamlike slow-motion,' Kutchins continues. 'Then we hard cut. Previously, this would have been where we reveal that this is just a dark fantasy. But this time, we see that Lochlan is getting a Coke, and everyone else has the piña coladas. This is real. This is happening.' After an awkward speech about their 'perfect family' and 'perfect life,' the Ratliffs clink their glasses and take a sip. However, they notice that something tastes wrong but continue drinking anyway — until Timothy suddenly swats Saxon's glass out of his hand, shattering it. 'This was his solution, but instinctively, he bypasses his brain,' Isaacs says. 'On an animal level, he just loves them too much. There aren't completed thoughts, just terror, panic and the overbearing love for life.' Thus, the Ratliffs trade their piña coladas for chardonnay as Timothy mutters about the coconut milk being 'off,' and he eventually goes to bed understanding that his money problems are inescapable, but at least he has his family by side. But the next morning, Lochlan makes a protein shake in the unwashed, poison-ladened blender and, in a way, dies. After vomiting into the swimming pool and rolling onto his back, he begins to hallucinate that he's deep underwater and trying to swim towards four shadowy figures who are standing over the surface. At first, he sees flashes of his family's faces, but the figures turn out to be monks. According to editor and second unit director John Valerio, an earlier version of the finale script included Lochlan's body washing ashore at full moon party, where he watches a group of four monks using a flaming jump rope. White cut the scene before it was ever shot, but the idea stuck with Valerio. 'While I was shooting second unit, one of the transition shots we had for Episode 3 was this very low angle at looking up at the monks. That reminded me of Mike's original finale script,' he says. 'I was like, 'What if, when Lochlan is in the water, he can see the monks waiting to take him to the next world?' So we shot the monks standing over a mirror. We threw water on it to give it a reflective, watery surface, and I cut to it when Lochlan is dying. It was a more simple, personal, spiritual moment, rather than the wildbacchanal of a full moon party.' Eventually, while being held and shaken by a sobbing Timothy, Lochlan wakes back up. 'I think I just saw God,' he says. 'Lochlan is a kid in search of firmer footing in the world,' White explains. 'He wants to be a believer, but he needs some kind of proof. He's so lost with what happens with Saxon' — the aforementioned sexual encounter — 'that I was like, 'Well, here's some catharsis for him. He's centered in a deeper way than he was at the beginning of the week.' As the Ratliffs take a boat away from the resort, moments away from learning of their financial ruin, there's an almost-smile on Timothy's face. The water surrounding them recalls the image of death described to him by the monk. 'He thinks, 'This is exactly what we need: to be a drop of water in the ocean. To be part of common humanity,'' Isaacs says. 'It's actually the best thing that could happen. They will be humbled by this, and they'll no longer need to maintain this huge gap of superiority over the rest of the world. They'll recognize they are just like everybody else.' 'His friend Donald [Trump] could make a phone call and give him a pardon,' Isaacs continues, speculating. 'He could [evade] prison easily. Someone could change the law. But I don't think he wants to. I think he wants to embrace a new reality.' Posey, for her part, imagines that Victoria will work to find her way back to her old reality 'I think it's going to be hard for her without money, but I have no worries about her finding her own wealth, she says. Victoria and Timothy have 'known each other since the seventh grade, and it's been very locked in for a very long time. But the karma of that is over, so I would love to see her fury. I'd love to see see her wake up, because she's delusional. So it's either that, or to see her with another wealthy man.' Fans of the 'White Lotus' have their own theories about what happens next — as well as opinions about every other beat of the story. White, throughout the season, was vocal about experiencing significant anxiety over the two months that episodes of Season 3 were being released due to criticism he was receiving on the internet. 'Over time, I can digest all of that. But in the moment, sometimes it feels more than that you just didn't like this storyline,' he says. 'It feels like I came and took a shit on your lawn or I set your house on fire. The anger — it just feels like, 'Whoa.'' 'I mean, I'm 54 years old. I'm not a kid. I've been on reality shows — I know what it's like to be criticized,' White continues. (He has competed on 'The Amazing Race' twice and 'Survivor' once, and is currently filming 'Survivor' Season 50.) 'But I was so excited about the finale and getting it out there, and it made me realize that some people just can't get past that [Lochlan] makes the shake in a dirty blender.' Obviously, those feelings aren't keeping White from continuing to make the show the way he wants to; 'The White Lotus' was renewed for a fourth season before Season 3 had even premiered. 'The show is not built to win a popularity contest. It's built to be provocative, and it's not going to have a uniform reaction,' he says. 'So I need to suck it up. I'm just a combination of somebody who wants to, like, goose people, but then also you want people to embrace you. That's just human nature.' With a laugh, White concludes: 'So, whatever. I'm just a head case.'Best of Variety 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Georgia Tech vs. Georgia Basketball Rivalry Set for 2025
Georgia Tech vs. Georgia Basketball Rivalry Set for 2025 originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Mark your calendars, Jacket Nation. Georgia Tech's basketball team will make the short but heated trip to Athens on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, to face off against in-state rival Georgia in what will be the 201st edition of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate on the hardwood, and it's happening earlier than usual, adding a fresh twist to one of college basketball's longest-standing rivalries. Advertisement The matchup, which returns to Stegeman Coliseum, is part of a massive sports weekend for Georgia fans, who will also host Texas in football the following day. But Tech fans are eyeing the Friday tipoff as an opportunity to reset the tone of the rivalry and stop the Bulldogs' recent surge. Georgia has taken the last two meetings, including a 77-69 win in Atlanta last year, and has won seven of the last nine contests. Despite that, Tech still holds the all-time series edge at 107-93, a history that adds weight to every possession when these two collide. But this year's game has more than tradition riding on it. For head coach Damon Stoudamire and the Yellow Jackets, Nov. 14 is more than a rivalry, it's a benchmark. After flashes of promise last season and an offseason focused on identity and development, this early test against an NCAA Tournament squad gives Georgia Tech a chance to make a national statement and spoil Georgia's momentum under Mike White, now entering his fourth season. Duke's Cooper Flagg (2) blocked by Georgia Tech forward Baye Ndongo (11).© Bob Donnan-Imagn Images White guided Georgia to a 20–13 finish and the school's first NCAA Tournament berth since 2015. Their non-conference slate includes Maryland Eastern Shore, Morehead State, Western Carolina, and West Georgia, solid but winnable games. But the real fire starts with the Jackets. Advertisement Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate is always personal, but with Georgia aiming for back-to-back March Madness runs and Tech hungry to reclaim bragging rights, expect an edge. Expect intensity. And expect Jacket fans to travel well and loud. From the first tip to the final whistle, this Nov. 14 showdown will be more than a game, it's a litmus test for Tech's toughness and a chance to change the script. So circle the date. Wear the gold. And remember: rivalries don't start at tipoff, they live in every practice, every film session, every fan's memory. This is the one you can't lose. Georgia Tech vs Georgia basketball rivalry 2025, Clean Old-Fashioned Hate game photo, Stegeman Coliseum matchup, Yellow Jackets vs Bulldogs basketball showdown Advertisement Related: Georgia Tech Football's CFP Odds Leaves Fans in Disbelief Related: Georgia Tech Hits Home Run Hiring James Ramsey as Coach This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.
Business Upturn
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Upturn
The White Lotus Season 4: Release date speculation, cast and plot details – Everything we know so far
By Aman Shukla Published on June 10, 2025, 19:00 IST Last updated June 10, 2025, 12:40 IST HBO's The White Lotus has captivated audiences with its biting social satire, luxurious settings, and shocking plot twists. After the explosive Season 3 finale set in Thailand, fans are eagerly awaiting news about The White Lotus Season 4. From potential release date to cast rumours and plot hints, here's everything we know so far about the next chapter of Mike White's Emmy-winning anthology series. When Will The White Lotus Season 4 Release? While HBO hasn't announced an official release date, the production timeline offers clues. Season 1 premiered in July 2021, Season 2 in October 2022, and Season 3 in February 2025, with delays due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes. With production eyed for 2026, and considering Season 2's nine-month turnaround from filming to release, The White Lotus Season 4 is likely to debut in late 2026 or early 2027. Fans should expect a wait of at least 18–24 months, aligning with the gap between Seasons 2 and 3. Who Will Star in The White Lotus Season 4? As an anthology series, The White Lotus typically introduces a new ensemble cast each season, with a few recurring characters. Only three characters have appeared in multiple seasons so far: Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge, Seasons 1–2), Greg Hunt (Jon Gries, Seasons 1–3), and Belinda Lindsey (Natasha Rothwell, Seasons 1 and 3). With Tanya's death in Season 2 and the resolution of Greg and Belinda's storylines in Season 3, their return seems unlikely, though Rothwell and Gries have expressed openness to reprising their roles. Mike White has teased the idea of an 'all-star season' featuring returning fan-favorite characters. Patrick Schwarzenegger (Saxon Ratliff, Season 3) recalled White joking about uniting 'all the douche guys' like Saxon, Shane Patton (Jake Lacy, Season 1), and Cameron Sullivan (Theo James, Season 2). Other potential returnees include: Sydney Sweeney (Olivia Mossbacher, Season 1) Connie Britton (Nicole Mossbacher, Season 1) Meghann Fahy (Daphne Sullivan, Season 2) Simona Tabasco (Lucia Greco, Season 2) Haley Lu Richardson (Portia, Season 2) What Will The White Lotus Season 4 Be About? While specific plot details remain under wraps, The White Lotus follows a consistent formula: a group of wealthy vacationers and resort staff navigate privilege, desire, and dark secrets, culminating in at least one death. Season 4 is expected to maintain this structure, with White hinting at a new satirical theme. He's considered exploring the art world, film industry, or a film festival setting, which could offer a lighter yet incisive commentary compared to Season 3's spiritual focus. Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at
Globe and Mail
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Is ‘immersive reading' the ideal new way to experience books?
If your lasting image of The White Lotus, Mike White's serialized travelogue about the titular luxury resort, was one of murder, romance, betrayal or intrigue, then you may have missed one of the subtler character portrayals at the series' onset. Piper Ratliff, a college student whose interest in Buddhism has brought her wealthy southern family on a trip to Thailand, reads on the boat ride into the resort. Much has been speculated on White's literary choices for the characters – in a LitHub interview props master Michael Cory describes books as getting 'right into either who people are or who they want to be.' But what was notable about Piper's reading choices wasn't the particular spiritual screeds Piper was reading so much as how she was reading them: simultaneously with an audiobook, otherwise known as 'immersive reading' (and occasionally 'immersion reading'). What does how people read say about who they are, or who they want to be? The market for audiobooks is on a rapid rise; Global Newswire predicts what was a US$7.21-billion industry in 2024 will reach US$8.32-billion in 2025 and US$17.18-billion by 2030. Now, readers are using their audiobooks to follow along with the same text. The phenomenon has been making waves on 'BookTok,' the literary subcommunity on TikTok. 'It adds to the feeling of watching a movie in your head,' says BookTokker Sarah Jenkins (@sarahjenkinsxo) about trying immersive reading in a video that has more than 37,000 likes. 'I don't want to read a book any other way,' the user behind @whereismylibrarycard, a bookfluencer, says in her introductory video to the trend. 'Especially for all my ADHD readers, my easily distracted readers, you need to hop on this.' Her post has more than 20,100 likes and over 500 comments, some of them from users agreeing with her and sharing tips on how to find the best accompanying audio versions. Tech companies have jumped on the trend too: Microsoft offers an immersive reader feature that allows users to customize text by colour and spacing for a 'comfortable and easy-to-process experience'; Apple Books has a Read Aloud feature; and there are apps available that convert text to speech (Speechify, for one, allows the text to be narrated in your own voice or even that of your favourite celebrity). The introduction of technology to help with literacy is hardly new; Robert Savage, the dean of the faculty of education at York University, has spent the better part of his career researching children's early reading and finding technologies to improve literacy. 'There's a place for technology,' he says. 'I think anything that gets people reading is a good thing.' Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, where he applies the principles of cognitive psychology to education, cautions that immersive reading has not been proven to offer any particular benefits. 'When I first came across the literature on [immersive reading] five or six years ago, it was not a promising technique,' he says. 'The thinking was, this will provide some support to struggling readers. The reason it didn't really work is that readers just don't read the text. They've got a way of opting out.' Moreover, the audio component means that reading is no longer what psychologists call a 'self-paced' task. There are moments while reading when one needs to backtrack, to revisit sticky syntax or a difficult sentence, which becomes more difficult to do while toggling between audio and text formats. Want to read more books? There's an app for that – but there's a catch Willingham is not opposed to audiobooks as a whole; in fact, he says, the process by which we digest audio content engages the same mental processes as reading comprehension. One might even benefit from what linguists call prosody, that is, the intonational phrasing of a text read aloud, which can enhance our understanding (or why so many high-school teachers wisely insist on reciting Shakespeare). But because the audio format makes it difficult to readily backtrack, and easy to drift off, Willingham recommends saving it for easy, leisurely reading. 'If immersive reading is capturing an audience of people who haven't read in a long time, then, as someone who loves reading, I think that's marvellous,' he says. 'But if it's used by people who are supposed to be reading and practising that effort of creating a world, then it's obviously not so marvellous.' So I tried to read immersively. I opened a chapter of my novel and set an audiobook to 1.5 speed before bed one night, and indeed, it felt quite frictionless. A soothing British voice corrected my mental pronunciation of the Italian names I had never encountered before, adapted something of a falsetto to indicate female spoken dialogue and spoke with a compelling drawl that stopped me from drifting off. But this movie that the narrator created for me, while pleasant, was ever slightly so different from the scenes I had previously imagined, which was replete with its own voices and cadence. I felt the experience robbed me of what is most special about reading a novel; that it took all that is challenging in a text and sloughed off the bumps so that it was as smooth and nutritiously deficient as a gumball. 'If I'm reading visually, then it's 100 per cent up to me to create that world,' says Willingham. 'If I'm listening, I'm getting someone else's interpretation of it.' It reminded me of using ChatGPT, and so I asked Savage about the attendant decline in reading comprehension that has reportedly accompanied the uptick in the use of AI. 'We can be a bit reliant on technologies, and they can take away capacities that we might otherwise have,' says Savage. 'It's a balance. We don't want to be endlessly practising things that are obsolete. On the other hand, we don't want to be so dependent on technologies that we can't think. These are complex days, and we don't have simple answers to these kinds of big questions.'
