Latest news with #PLL
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Pretty Little Liars' cast and creator discuss the 'wildly inappropriate' age gap relationships in the series
It's been 15 years since Pretty Little Liars premiered on ABC Family and gave fans one of TV's most controversial couples: Aria Montgomery and Ezra Fitz. The couple, played by Lucy Hale and Ian Harding, was one of the show's most talked about couples for its depiction of a teacher-student relationship with a noticeable age-gap, but it was far from the only problematic coupling. Looking back on PLL's iconic seven-season run with the Hollywood Reporter, the stars and creator Marlene King admit that the couple is one they "probably" wouldn't include if they remade the show today. "What we know now about grooming, that was not something we talked about 15 years ago," King told the outlet. "I've always thought that if we revisit the world, we would have to deal with that. That would be a storyline we'd have to pay attention to and give focus to. But I think they can have their happily ever after because they were everybody's favorite couple." Aria and Ezra - couple name: Ezria - met at a bar right before Aria began her junior year of high school and became the show's longest-running couple despite the fact that it was fairly controversial to have a college graduate/high school English teacher kiss his 16-year-old student. King noted, "We were definitely probably crossing a line I wouldn't cross now, but I don't want to take away from what they had, either. It was very satisfying for a lot of fans." Harding has been known to give his character a hard time, once jokingly referring to Ezra as "America's most beloved pedophile" in his memoir Odd Birds, published in 2017. While he acknowledges that it isn't a pairing that would easily be digested in this decade, he hopes that the couple's "meaningful connection" is "enough to justify the deeply problematic relationship that was certainly not great at the time." "As society has progressed, we realized how wildly inappropriate it was," Harding added. "But at the same time, just because you depict something on TV doesn't mean you condone the behavior," he pointed out. "It is a story meant for entertainment, and the show was a thriller. Now that I look back on it, I see that it was just like the show, with the twists and turns, and it had some horror elements and then it also had this romance component. So I don't deeply regret it, because it's fiction. But I also realize that it did bring up a lot of harder discussions about what is actually considered abuse and what is considered love." Harding reasoned that, despite their trials and tribulations, Aria and Ezra "found happiness, and there was little collateral damage or pain inflicted by the relationship. There was plenty of pain and horror everywhere on the show, but oddly enough, their relationship seemed to be a safe haven in the storm." "There's no part of me that is feeling such great shame for having played this part. I don't have any apologies for playing this character," Harding emphasized. "I do think he was definitely icky in some knowledge, but on the whole, he's fictional." On the other hand, Hale has always been a strong proponent for the couple, even if she can acknowledge how it's a relic of "a different time." "At the time I was cast as Aria, I was 19 years old and I wasn't really thinking about the bigger themes of it all," the actress told THR. "I was just stoked to be cast in a TV show. Of course, it hits differently at my age now and I think about the bigger message in anything I play."But despite the ire it may cause with some viewers over a decade later, Hale said she doesn't have regrets about bringing them onscreen. "I stand behind their love story forever. That forbidden love story drew a lot of people in." Of course, Ezria was far from the only couple in Pretty Little Liars that had a troubling age Bellisario's Spencer Hastings got caught up with two older men during her time on the show, and star Sasha Pieterse was only 12 years old when they shot the pilot and in her early teens while shooting opposite actors considerably older than her. In Pieterse's experience, working on PLL with the awkward age gaps was something that "never felt weird in the moment." As a mother herself now, the actress said she's "very aware" of the dynamics in a different way. "When I go back [and watch] I think, 'How did I feel filming that?' I always felt protected," she recalled. "But it's a weird thing that we do because even though everybody else was over 18, those storylines are still depicting minors. I feel comfortable with it, but it's an odd thing to wrap your head around." Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
Time of India
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
"Thank you for keeping this alive for so many years," Lucy Hale looks back at 15 years of Pretty Little Liars
As the popular series 'Pretty Little Liars' turned 15 recently, Lucy Hale, who played Aria Montgomery took a trip down memory lane. As the popular series 'Pretty Little Liars' turned 15 recently, Lucy Hale , who played Aria Montgomery took a trip down memory lane. The actress, on Monday, took to her Instagram account to share behind-the-scenes moments from the hit series that aired from 2010 to 2017. In the heartfelt post, the 36-year-old gave fans a peek into life on set with a series of throwback photos and videos. Calling the milestone "15 years of PLL--the nostalgia!!", Hale reflected on how much the show meant to her and how it shaped her life. "Some of these photos are so low quality, but it really was a different time, lol. The last slide is a video I stumbled upon and didn't even realize I had. Just a small, but not uncommon moment while filming this show. This experience changed my life, and I will always be grateful to everyone involved. And to all of you, who made this one incredible ride. Thank you for keeping this alive for so many years, and I know it'll be one that people will keep discovering. I want to hear all the crazy A theories you had in the comments," she wrote in her Instagram post. Take a look According to People, Pretty Little Liars followed the lives of a group of teen girls in Rosewood, Pennsylvania, as they dealt with the mystery of their friend's disappearance--and faced creepy messages from the anonymous figure known as "A." The show was known for its twists, secrets, and devoted fanbase.
The Spinoff
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
‘Dear Maurice, I miss you': tributes to Maurice Gee, 1931
The great New Zealand writer Maurice Gee has died. The literary community pays tribute. Maurice was one of the most honest and brave men I've known. Honest about his craft – because he saw it as craft, equal to any art; there was absolutely no bullshit about Maurice when he spoke or wrote of his job. Brave because he was unflinching in his presentation of human and social imperfections, and in his commitment to the precarious business of being a full time writer. I remember his casual mention of the fact that the year's PLL payment had been a decent one, so they could afford a decent Christmas. It was said with absolutely no affectation or pretension – just part of his stoicism and modesty. His contribution to our children's writing was astonishing. He took on topics which hardly any other author attempted at the time; respected and even honoured his young readers by showing characters and issues in their ambivalent and often disturbing complexity. The ugliness, the evil was never glossed over, but his books were permeated by such a strong moral sense. And he mythologised the NZ landscape, made it emblematic in ways which have inspired New Zealand writers since. I was lucky enough – hell, privileged enough – to be hosted by Maurice and Margareta at different times. They were warm, natural, interested as well as interesting: all that you could ask of hosts. I want to acknowledge Margareta's commitment, support and love for Maurice; she was his greatest friend and companion. And I want to mention that once when I was talking to him, Maurice thanked me for writing a small booklet for schools about him. 'It was so good of you to take the trouble.' He thanked ME for writing about him? I'd have crawled on all fours to have the chance to do so. / David Hill Dear Maurice, I was one of your very first admirers in print. In 1962, I took up the book review page in the Rotorua Daily Post, and one of the very first books to land on my desk was The Big Season by a writer nobody really knew. But of course it was you, and your book fairly sizzled with colour and vibrancy, and an immediacy about a world I had been immersed in in my teens, rugby clubs and the high dramas on and off the field. I didn't know then that you had lived for some time in Rotorua but it felt as if you did, that we had watched the same games. That book had the total ring of authenticity, a trait that followed through in all your work, even though the subject matter changed, took on an often sombre tone. But anyway, a couple of firsts: your first novel, my first book review, repeated on the back of your next, A Special Flower, a book I really really liked too. Here's what I said: 'The Big Season is a splash of colour on the New Zealand literary scene. Maurice Gee is an obviously brilliant young New Zealander, with an unerring eye for detail and a sharp ear for dialogue….it is completely fresh and natural and does more towards the authenticity of his New Zealand scene than anything else.' Well, I was young and, if it sounded a bit precious, I was trying to convey just how much I admired your work and, perhaps, how much I wanted to write like you. I mean, I wasn't wrong about your brilliance, was I, although it was something you wouldn't admit to, being, as I found you a bit retiring, almost shy. You let me through once or twice and let me see the man who blazed behind that mild exterior, I think I knew where the books came from. There were some I liked more than others and I sighed when I was shortlisted for prizes behind your winning novels yet again. I'm sorry, you would say, in that self-deprecating way, as if you hadn't quite meant to win, but you did anyway. But there was always the sense of us being part of that company of writers who learned our craft together in those early years, and went on our way, following in each other's footsteps as friends and colleagues for a long time. It's a while since we last met in person, not since you left Wellington. But dear Maurice, I miss you. Thank you for the books, thanks for the friendship, thanks for your own big season. / Dame Fiona Kidman One of the joys of placing Maurice Gee's fiction at the centre of my PhD in Creative Writing was reading all 17 of his adult novels in one intense year. Maurice was our master literary archaeologist, scraping away at the patina of Godzone, coming back at it from another angle — and another and another — until its swampy underbelly revealed its petrified secrets. We've lost one of our greatest writers; there'll never be another like him. Go well, Maurice. / Sue Orr The following is an excerpt from Damien Wilkins' 2015 launch speech for Rachel Barrowman's biography of Gee. Reprinted with permission. There's a great photo in Rachel Barrowman's essential Gee biography. It shows Maurice in a white singlet digging a hole for his septic tank. You don't have to think for too long before coming up with its symbolic appeal. Yes, this writer has been excavating our waste systems for decades. What's especially good about the photo is that it captures the process at its dirtiest. I mean Maurice looks buggered, straddling the hole, the sun beating down on his red face and neck, piles of fresh dirt around, broken bits of concrete. It's been awful out there on the slope beneath the house but you're going to feel good once it's done and you know you haven't paid another man to do it for you. It's an image then we can savour not only for its tempting literary meaningfulness but also for its suggestion of graft, labour, commitment and self-reliance. We use the phrase 'a work of art' fairly loosely and unthinkingly, hurrying to the created thing. One of the contributions high quality literary biography can make is to remind us of how an art form such as the novel is work – a matter of showing up each morning, putting in the hours, being dissatisfied, getting it right – as right as it'll come – and signing off on it before moving on to the next job. You might even get paid. Luckily for his readers, though not always easily for Maurice Gee, the job of novelist seems to have been the only thing he was good at. Although I'm sure he did a fine job with the septic tank. Of course everyone is interested in money and writers are interested in what other writers earn. So the question is: How do you go about constructing your income stream if all you really want to do is make up stories? Read in one way this book is a sort of instruction manual for anyone with an interest in following suit or simply following how one writer did it. And I value intensely Rachel's dedication to such details. She's down in that hole with Gee, getting dirt on her shoes and working up a sweat. But of course the story is much more than royalty statements, grant applications, the odd windfall, the many setbacks . . . For a start there are all those books to read and consider in the light of the life being revealed. This biography is thoroughly engaged with Gee's fiction and Rachel's expert delineation of the family tree, the family Gee, which sets out how one book is connected to another, this is tremendously valuable. And it's never done in the niggardly way which aims to shrink everything to a neat template of correspondences – here's the real creek and here's the invented one. When Rachel tests the life against the work she wants to amplify and enrich and suggest. And I especially like one aspect of Rachel's account of the writing – that is, she always leaves in place the author's own avowals of ignorance ('I don't really know what I'm doing'), of uncertainty ('I tried to get close to that experience but who knows'), of fear ('I seem to have come to an end'). These are recurring notes. Partly, of course, they're a form of self-defence. The aw gee-shucks of Gee. But Rachel understands too that these moments communicate something about writing itself; that it always takes in the possibility of not writing, of not turning up for work. Gee may present as an unpretentious carpenter – look at the cover shot, sleeves rolled as if thinking how to tackle the skirting board – but his life story is remarkably chancy and non-compliant, made from unlikely leaps as much as from dogged toil. From the outside we discern steady progress, books written as regularly as eggs laid, but finally we see inside the life and understand something of its costs, its crises, its victories too. A small example: It's amazing to me that Gee struggled so much with Meg, a novel I think of as kind of perfect. It's amazing that Prowlers was originally called Papps. Let me finish by saying one more thing about the scope of this book. Anyone's life becomes on closer inspection a group portrait and although Maurice Gee's career must do without creative writing courses, Rachel convincingly recreates the friendships and relationships that in many ways mimic the kind of support structure available now. There's a lovely evolving set of insights into how people such as Maurice Shadbolt, Kevin Ireland, Robin Dudding, Ray Grover, Nigel Cook and others interacted with our man. Gee's friends are Rachel's friends too and therefore ours, helping us see her subject from different angles. When Gee was doing scriptwriting for television and earning better money, Shadbolt reports back to Ireland that at the Gee house there are 'hints of prosperity' – 'hard booze in the cupboard now instead of home brew.' I think Rachel's feel for the telling remark, the revelatory incident, from what must have been a large archive of letters, interviews, essays, reviews, as well as the fiction itself, lends her text not only its narrative drive but also its tone. The book sounds like Maurice Gee without being his mouthpiece. It's intimate but also pitched at a crucial remove. This poise allows the book to be fundamentally sympathetic to its subject without sacrificing loyalty to facts which emerge that the hagiographer or even simply the fan might baulk at. I mentioned at the start this business of secrets, new things about Gee's life that will alter how he's read. I'm sorry but I'm not telling. Rachel's biography needs to be read to learn these things. Obviously you'll want to read it to know how the Plumb trilogy came to be written. Or Prowlers. Or Going West. That would be enough. But such is Rachel's achievement that gradually you feel something else going on. Through scrupulously attending to this remarkable individual, the biography's single focus starts to do that wonderful thing: it expands, it blossoms, and somehow captures the broad view of a society in motion; it lets us see not just how he lived but how we lived too. That also feels fully in tune with the working art of Maurice Gee. / Damien Wilkins, 2015 I interviewed Maurice in 1976 for the Nelson College literary magazine. I was 16 and we talked in my bedroom (!) next door to Trafalgar Park in Nelson. He was so gracious and patient even though I'm sure my questions were fairly predictable. I remember his advice to young writers was simply to keep doing it. I've read almost all his books and, in them, I always hear his quiet careful voice. And I still dream of being able to write with his elegance and power. / Darryl Carey There are some artists whose work gives you a way to look at your ordinary life and see something deeper, wider, richer than what you might think is there if you're only glancing; work that is mind-altering really. If we're lucky, these artists can do this over a long career. As a child, Maurice Gee's Under the Mountain and Halfmen of O series opened up a space in my imagination that I'm still trying to extend into as an adult, and I thank him for that. / Kirsten McDougall I feel a huge sadness to hear of the death of Maurice. He has always had a very special place in my heart. I loved his books, especially Meg. I recognised bits of us in some of the books!! Maurice came into my life when he met my half-sister Margareta in 1967, and married a few years later. He had a huge influence on my (part-time) writing life, and I write a bit about him in my new memoir My Father's Suitcase. I'll never forget how he and Margareta supported me with my first book The Serpent Rising (published in 1988), when the rest of my family had turned against me, or were disinterested. I've still got the long letter they wrote after they read the draft manuscript. An excerpt: 'Maurice says it must be published because there is so little written about your experiences. He found it gripping, interesting, very moving and beautifully written in parts. That's high praise from him. We both ‒ at separate times ‒ flew from page to page, chapter to chapter.' I had huge doubts about my writing and could have easily burnt my work, but their validation meant everything to me. I'll always appreciate his help and enthusiasm during all the long years I worked on the biography of my father, his father-in-law. In 2007, he wrote a glowing letter to support a grant for a research tour of the South Island, said this book must be written and I needed all the help I could get. Here is an excerpt from the Author's Note of my book Sundowner of the Skies, the story of Oscar Garden, the forgotten aviator (2019). 'When he [Dad] was alive the idea that someone might write a book about him came up in conversations. He seemed quite keen on the idea, although he was adamant that his son-in-law, Maurice Gee, should not write it. Maurice, an acclaimed New Zealand author, is married to Margareta, my father's daughter from his first marriage. My father reckoned there was too much sex in his books. Not that Maurice could write much about the sex in my father's life. According to Mum, they only had sex a few times and after she became pregnant with my younger sister, Anna, that was it.' Also, a snippet of Maurice's long review, part of which ended up as an endorsement in the book 'An important piece of aviation history and a courageous personal story, vividly told. I found it enjoyable in every way. Beautifully told and bravely too, the width of research is astonishing. Sundowner of the Skies should find enthusiastic readers, grateful readers in the aviation world, and thoroughly engaged ones in the wider one. The way the personal story has been woven into the public one works without a hitch and provides a dimension that any other approach would have missed. I read it like a novel – a what-happens-next story, in both the aviation and the family parts. The sad and tortured final years must have been hard to write. Thank God for the bits of humour, 'Where's the ink?' What a great comic line, in its context. Standing further off I can laugh, but Oscar, in a much smaller way, is part of my life too. The little bit I've written about him comes nowhere near the real man that Mary has put down here. Many years ago, I stole one of Garden's flying adventures and gave it to an invented character in a novel I was writing, Emerson in Plumb.' Again, his validation was important as some family members were not happy about me writing about Dad's flaws. Maurice loved that I told it all. Maurice and Margareta represented, for me, a healthier branch of the very dysfunctional Garden tree. I'd visit them when I was in New Zealand and spent time with them in 2022. I've got a box of letters and emails and memories that I will treasure. Thank you Maurice for everything: your extraordinary gift of writing, your kindness and gentleness. / Mary Garden When I was 16 I discovered worn Penguin paperbacks of the Plumb trilogy on my parents' bookshelf and since then have carried them with me like talismans across rentals and oceans. For me, Maurice Gee is Peacehaven – his work a place of nostalgic, pastoral New Zealandness that feels like home and which I'll return to again and again. / Holly Hunter
News18
03-05-2025
- Automotive
- News18
Maharashtra To Mandate GPS-Enabled Digital Locks For Liquor Transport From July
Last Updated: The new system will equip liquor tankers with GPS-enabled digital locks, allowing real-time tracking of their movements In a significant move to enhance the security and transparency of liquor transportation, the Maharashtra government has announced the implementation of GPS-enabled digital locks on vehicles transporting liquor and spirits. This initiative, set to commence on 1 July 2025, aims to curb theft, prevent illegal diversions, and modernise the state's liquor supply chain. Historically, the monitoring of liquor transport in Maharashtra relied heavily on manual methods, including physical escorts for vehicles carrying spirits, particularly during interstate movements. Despite being a sensitive commodity, there was no digital surveillance system in place. Recognising the need for modernisation—and inspired by similar initiatives in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal—Maharashtra has decided to adopt this technology-driven approach. The new system will equip liquor tankers with GPS-enabled digital locks, allowing real-time tracking of their movements. This will enable the State Excise Department to monitor the vehicles' routes, detect unauthorised deviations, identify prolonged halts, and receive alerts in case of tampering. Geofencing technology will also be employed to notify authorities when a tanker enters or exits designated zones. Initially, the project will be rolled out as a pilot with selected license holders. It will cover tankers transporting pure spirit within the state and for export purposes, as well as vehicles ferrying beer from licensed facilities such as Proprietary Label Licence (PLL) and Bottling & Rectification Licence (BRL) units to ports for international shipping. Excise officers will have access to live data via mobile devices and desktop applications, ensuring constant oversight. Officials from the Excise Department believe that the digital lock system will revolutionise liquor transportation by improving safety, reducing theft, and enhancing compliance. The model is akin to safety mechanisms used in the petroleum industry, where tamper-proof systems and real-time tracking are already standard. A formal government resolution has been issued mandating the rollout of this system by July 2025. Published on the official Maharashtra government portal, the resolution marks a decisive step towards adopting smart technology for regulatory purposes. With this initiative, Maharashtra positions itself as a forward-looking state in the regulated liquor trade, aiming to ensure accountability, efficiency, and security across its transport network. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from politics to crime and society. Stay informed with the latest India news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! First Published: May 03, 2025, 12:14 IST
Barnama
23-04-2025
- Business
- Barnama
PETRONAS Powers Vietnam's Energy Future with its First LNG Cargo Delivery to PetroVietnam Gas
KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 (Bernama) -- PETRONAS, through its subsidiary, PETRONAS LNG Ltd. (PLL) successfully concluded the delivery of its first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargo to PetroVietnam Gas (PV Gas) recently. This delivery signifies the beginning of PLL's cooperation with PV Gas, a subsidiary of PETROVIETNAM (PVN), paving the way for future collaboration to support Vietnam's energy security needs and the country's energy transition masterplan towards a more sustainable future.
