By Mark Gray
5:30pm PDT, May 25, 2023
Losing his hearing
Paul Simon is suffering from hearing loss in his left ear, and his touring days may be finished because of it. "So everything became more difficult. My reaction to that was frustration and annoyance; not quite anger yet, because I thought it would pass, it would repair itself," he told The Times. Although his hearing has not repaired itself — which makes him question whether he'll perform live again — the music icon is finding a silver lining. "The songs of mine that I don't want to sing live, I don't sing them," he said. "Sometimes there are songs that I like and then at a certain point in a tour, I'll say, 'What the f*** are you doing, Paul?' Quite often that would come during 'You Can Call Me Al.' I'd think, 'What are you doing? You're like a Paul Simon cover band. You should get off the road, go home.'"
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Gift giver
Life in plastic, it's fantastic. In order to help Ryan Gosling get into character for "Barbie," Margot Robbie left the actor a gift every day. "She left a pink present with a pink bow, from Barbie to Ken, every day while we were filming," he told Vogue. "They were all beach-related. Like puka shells, or a sign that says 'Pray for surf.' Because Ken's job is just beach. I've never quite figured out what that means. But I felt like she was trying to help Ken understand, through these gifts that she was giving." Maybe the gifts worked. Of Ryan's Ken character, Margot called it "the greatest version of Ryan Gosling ever put on screen." Coincidentally, while attending CinemaCon last month, Ryan said he wasn't sure he could do Ken justice. "I have to be honest. Up until this point I only knew Ken from afar. I didn't know Ken from within," he said. "If I'm being honest, I doubted my Ken-ergy. I didn't see it. But Margot and [director Greta Gerwig] conjured this out of me."
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Going off the grid
Josh Duhamel is preparing for the end of times. That's not hyperbole either. The actor has purchased a cabin in the woods and is learning to live off the land. "I've become a bit of a doomsday prepper, I guess," he told Inverse. "I'm building something so if things do go south, I have a place to take my family." Josh's desire to get a place off the beaten path was birthed in case "s*** hits the fan," he said. "I have a tractor. I have a skid steer. I'm changing tires. I'm changing oil. I'm fixing things. I'm moving dirt, I'm popping rocks," he said of his cabin estate. "We shaped the land. We created trails through it. I'm actually growing crops out there. This year I'm gonna grow pumpkins and corn." The "Transformers" star is taking pride in learning to live off the gird. "I have this crazy fixation on what happens if s*** hits the fan in LA and I have to take my family out there and live off the land," he said. "I believe that we could live off the land out there. I'm not very good at it yet, but I'm getting there."
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Shaking it off
With age comes wisdom. Taylor Lautner isn't letting criticism of his appearance affect him these days, even after one troll stated that he looked like "old broccoli." The "Twilight" actor shared several Instagram comments he received after his "Today" appearance. "Brooo where is his hair line running off to???" one person said. Another said he "aged like a raisin." Taylor is shrugging it off. "If this was 10 years ago, five years ago, maybe even two, three years ago, that really would have got under my skin," he said in a social media video. "It would have caused me to want to just go in a hole and not go outside, definitely [not] do press and interviews and put myself in the position where I have to see that kind of stuff." The remarks "brought up old feelings and memories," he said. "You find value where you put it. And if you put your value in what other people think of you, that's how you're going to feel. But if you put your value in you knowing who you are, what's important to you, what you love, that kind of stuff won't get to you." He captioned his video with a simple message: "Spread love. #mentalhealthawarenessmonth."
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Insta-out… again
Britney Spears' Instagram account is like a magic trick: Now you see it, now you don't. Over the years the pop star has deactivated or deleted her Instagram on multiple occasions, and she did so again this week. However, she says the whole thing is a "misunderstanding." On Tuesday, May 23, she wrote on Twitter, "Most light is always revealed in the darkness!!! Shall we go to sleep tonight ??? Psss … it was a misunderstanding on taking my Instagram down !!! OOPS !!!" After her Instagram was back up and running, she posted the same message. Earlier this year at the urging of fans, police showed up at Britney's home for a welfare check after she deleted her Instagram. It's quite possible that the "Toxic" singer felt the urge to post this week's message due to the police visit in January.
Finished filming
Nineteen months after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on the set of "Rust," filming of the indie-western has wrapped. The film's star, Alec Baldwin, summarized it the conclusion as "nothing less than a miracle," which isn't far off given everything that occurred on set. Halyna was shot and killed on Oct. 21, 2021 after Alec fired a prop gun that, unbeknownst to him, contained a live round. Filming was immediately halted and the "30 Rock" actor was eventually charged with involuntary manslaughter. Charges were later dropped against him, but they remain for the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. After the indie's movie set moved from New Mexico to Montana, filming commenced in spring 2023. On May 23, Alec, a producer of the film, announced that filming was finally finished. "It's been a long and difficult road. But we reach the end of the trail today. Congratulations to Joel, Bianca and the entire cast and crew," he wrote on Instagram. "Nothing less than a miracle."
