There are dream clients, and then theres the young family that Michael S. Smith helped settle in at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue back in 2009. A veteran interior designer, he landed an interview to design the Obama White House through a series of connections and flashes of kismet. But he didnt officially have the job, of course, until he met the client. Thankfully, they hit it off. He said, Call me Barack, Smith tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of the Business of Home podcast. And ... that was the first and the last time in basically 10 years I ever called him Barack.

Interestingly for such a high-profile project, Smith has kept fairly quiet in the media about his experience as the first familys decoratorthere was only an initial press release, then an Architectural Digest article in the final months of Barack Obamas presidency. Now, however, hes telling the whole story with a forthcoming book, Designing History: The Extraordinary Art & Style of the Obama White House, which he previews in this podcast. In it, Smith shares everything from the advice he got from Nancy Reagan to the secret code his staff used to refer to the Obamas.

Below, listen to the show and check out a few takeaways. If you like what you hear, subscribe to the show (free of charge!) and every week a new episode will be delivered to your smartphone.

High-Stakes DecoratingMake a faux pas in a normal project, and youve got an angry client on your handsmaybe youre out a few thousand dollars. Make a mistake at the White House and it can lead to a national media scandal. (Remember the kerfuffle about Trump and the Oval Office busts?) Smith, no stranger to high-profile clients, was well prepared. What you want to avoid is creating news, he says. If youve ever been in the middle of a celebrity divorce, you absolutely understand[its] great advance training for working [in] the White House. ... Theres that old [medical doctrine]: First, do no harm. [Here, it was]: First, make no news.

Checks and BalancesEverything about the experience of designing the White House, Smith shares, is a little surreal. That includes the process itself. First, theres the challenge of keeping the project under wraps, and making sure vendors dont send out a press release announcing their trim is on a pillow in the White House. Then theres the arduous process of actually getting stuff into the building. He explains, The person you buy a lamp from has to be vetted, to make sure that they arent a violent criminal[theres] all these different things, these criteria. Then it has to be delivered to an off-site location, where its inspected by security people. Heavily inspected. Then it has to come to the physical White House, then you have to find a time when the familys not around, when you can be there, when somebody can get into the building and get into the room, with security. Thats different than [a typical decorating job]: I go to the store and buy a lamp, I bring it over, and plug it in.

Big PictureOf course, designing the White House changed Smiths lifeand for a designer already obsessed with the history of decorative arts, participating directly in that history was a dream come true. But interestingly, he says, it didnt necessarily lead to a crazy rush of new business: In the world, presumably Im better known now, but I dont know. The majority of my practice is still clients that Ive had for a very long time. Listen, it doesnt hurt.

Homepage photo: Michael Mundy

More:
The inside story of decorating the Obama White House - Business of Home

If you are now finally ready to transform your dream home into a reality, you need the right home builder for your project. Should you have fancy house ideas that include stylish premium details and finishes, then you need to work with luxury mansion buildersthat have the right team, equipment, expertise, and supplies to give you the upscale and luxurious look you wish to see in your future home.

A house is a big investment, so picking the right builder will have a huge impact on the final output. If you choose a great firm, you will have a genuine and true partner who will bring forth to life what your heart desires. With the right team, you will avoid a construction nightmare! Instead, you will have a smooth and fun time building and designing your home, which will safeguard your loved ones and precious belongings. Here are some considerations you must weigh when selecting your construction builder:

Do Your Research

It is always best to work with referrals. You can start by asking relatives, friends, neighbours, and colleagues for recommendations. Chances are someone in your network will know or will have heard of a reputable custom home builder. This will make you feel at ease knowing someone you trust can vouch for a firm.

If asking for referrals doesnt uncover any superstars, go the extra mile and search on the internet. Be very specific and search for terms like luxury mansion builders near me. List down your prospects and visit their official website to peruse their past-work. Also check ratings, reviews and testimonials because these elements say a lot about the reputation of a builder.

Narrow Down Your Prospects

After conducting the initial research, you have to narrow down your list to top two or three choices. It would be best to contact these people and conduct more thorough interviews. Schedule meetings with their team so you can see more of their portfolio. Get to know the team members, suppliers, and subcontractors. Go with someone who is very polite, confident, and responsive. This will show their willingness to help and their professionalism.

Moreover, you want a home builderthat can stick to a timetable and deliver quality work on time. Include a site visit so you can see the quality of their work, the finishes, the job site organization, and other safety measures. You want to assess how hands-on the builder is when it comes to project execution because you want an organized team to build your dream mansion.

Ask Detailed Questions

You must ask detailed questions to find out if a custom home builder is the right one for you. Ask how closely they are willing to work with your chosen architect or interior decorator. You will want to go with someone who prioritizes collaboration. Find out how long they estimate the construction project to last. You want a builder who can stay right on target, so there are no unnecessary delays.

On top of that, you have to find out if they have the necessary permits, licenses, tools, and qualifications to finish the building style that you want. Do include a reference list so they can give you names of past clients. Asking these questions will tell you if the firm has the confidence and capabilities to finish your project.

Discuss the Budget

Money talks, loud and clear. You want a builder who will make a detailed preliminary estimate based on the current market price of supplies. Once your home plans and specs are finalized, you need a detailed budget estimate. Since you are building a mansion with premium finishes, you want to scrutinize this comprehensive list to ensure that you get your moneys worth.

Find out who the suppliers and subcontractors are because all of these have corresponding costs. You want a building team that gives you a concrete budget so that you will not get an unpleasant surprise when the invoice comes.

Final Word

Choosing a builder requires due diligence because this will have a significant impact on your life. Your custom luxury house is a place you will call home for a very long time. This house is more than a building structure, but it will also be a place where you will be building memories with your loved ones. After all, cliche as it may sound, but home is indeed where your heart is.

Go here to read the rest:
How to Pick the Right Custom Luxury Builder - Cyberockk

Concept art by Doug Chiang and John Park from Season 1 of "The Mandalorian," for which the production design team often blended the physical with the virtual to create its look. (Lucasfilm)

To reimagine the world of "Star Wars" for Jon Favreaus Disney+ series "The Mandalorian," production designer Andrew L. Jones had to build sets that could exist both in the physical world and a virtual one. The series was partially filmed in Industrial Light & Magics new 270-degree Volume soundstage, where digital environments a desert planet, say, or the infamous cantina are projected on LED screens around the actors using game technology.

Id done some work with LED screens in camera before, but not with the tracking element, on The Jungle Book, says Jones, who was supervising art director on Favreaus live-action Disney film. Jon had started a lot of the early thinking for this process on that. We were using LED panels for lighting. We were building the sets and scanning them in VR. And then Jon took that further on The Lion King. It was an evolution, and by the time we got to The Mandalorian everything had matured enough that we felt we could make it work.

The technology meant that Jones, who was nominated for an Emmy alongside art director Jeff Wisniewski and set decorator Amanda Serino, and his team needed to design and build all the sets six weeks before shooting each episode to give ILM enough time to make the virtual sets look photo-real and to add in real-time special effects.

To do that, the team filmed tangible environments, including locations in Iceland, and created realistic scans of shapes, props and scenery. In the first episode, the Clients office was scanned from the interior of a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles. Those digital backgrounds appeared on the screens of the Volume, a circular, 270-degree LED video wall housed at Manhattan Beach Studios; when it was time to shoot, Jones and Serino augmented each set with physical objects and props, including sand and dirt for the ground.

Thats a really good way to sell the illusion, to have something thats real in the foreground and then a duplicate of it in the virtual, Jones notes. If theyre lit and presented consistently, then its hard to tell whats real and what isnt.

Story continues

The set pieces also needed to be mobile, able to move in and out of the Volume quickly to keep up with the shooting schedule.

The Volume is not a huge space, and anything we want to shoot on there weve got to get it in and out easily, says Jones, who also built sets on several soundstages and on the studios backlot. For the sake of the schedule we cant build a set like you would do traditionally and spend three weeks putting it together and dressing it and painting it. Weve got to literally get that thing in overnight and do some lighting in the morning and then were shooting. Its much more like theater, where all the set pieces have to be on wheels. They have to break apart into pieces we can get through the door. As soon as ones out, the next ones coming in.

Despite having access to the latest digital technology, Jones wanted to ensure that the aesthetic of "The Mandalorian" wasnt too perfect or too manufactured. It needed to match the look of the first "Star Wars" trilogy, especially A New Hope, and Favreau was clear that the visual effects shouldnt overtake the storytelling.

When youve got ILM on board, we can do anything, Jones says. You can have the most spectacular skies and spaceships and visual effects. But then it would start not to be the world of 'Star Wars' and the language of 'Star Wars.' Those original films were really ground-breaking stuff, but it had a simplicity to it. We are definitely trying to respect the original aesthetic.

There are visual nods to the original trilogy throughout The Mandalorian, and re-creating the cantina was a particular challenge. Originally, the team wasnt sure such a small set would work on the Volume, but in the end they were able to make an aged replica of the space that was half virtual and half built set.

We wanted to be absolutely faithful to that set, Jones says. That was a bit of archaeology, finding what was there and how it was positioned and what would have happened in the intervening years that would have changed it. Its not the exact same thing its the same place but its later on. Theres going to be some storytelling in how things have changed since the fall of the Empire. Things have gone to seed a little bit.

When it came time to shoot the second season, which is set to premiere later this year, the team was able to bring in what theyd learned the first time around.

We found things that were successful that we hadnt expected and other things failed that we thought were going to be easy, Jones says. We learned a lot as we were going along. I think were starting to understand this process and get the hang of it. So Season 2 was just as difficult of a season, but I think we achieved greater things.

Link:
How 'Mandalorian' re-created its 'Star Wars' origins down to the cantina - Yahoo News

Another new set this time around is the office of the TBD Group, the investment firm known in season one at the Jammer Group. Last time, Mo Monroe (played by Don Cheadle) was at the helm, but now his former partner Dawn Towner (Regina Hall) has taken over, along with Blair Pfaff (Andrew Rannells) and a team of women. We wanted to lighten it up and make it much more inviting, says Contestabile, who looked to a book called Office Book: Ideas and Designs for Contemporary Work Space by Judy Graf Klein for this set. That meant removing the pencils stuck in the ceiling, cigarettes, and beer cans, first and foremost.

All of the chairs in the TBD Group were from this one place going out of business, says Contestabile.

Colorwise, it was grays and browns and dark greens for season one. For season two we went with pastel pinks, mauves, and light grays, he says. I actually found a swatch book of vintage mini blinds that had a bunch of colors in there, and I went through and picked out the colors of the new TBD Group based on that. It was a funny way to pull colors. They added a pink carpet throughout, a sofa from Galerie Sommerlath in the lounge area, Vintage on Point boomerang sofas in the lobby, repurposed green chairs around a marbleized conference table, some pieces from Casa Victoria Vintage Furniture, and, of course, plants, says Contestabile. They did not exist outside of Dawns office in season one.

Though the show mainly takes place in New York, there's a brief trip to Miami this season, where Dawn (Regina Hall, right) visits Mo (Don Cheadle) at his pink-and-orange hotel room.

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Blairs office was another favorite space for Contestabile. Within the pink and feminine TBD Group, his workspace is outfitted in a palette of red, black, and gray. We had fun thinking Blair would probably make his office aggressively male. You knowjust to compensate.

Blairs office was Mos office in season onewe really redesigned it and rearranged it to make it feel like a new space, says Contestabile.

Each setlike each characteris a colorful representation of both the best and worst aspects of the decade. There's excess to a fault, sure, but as Wilson says, it is a world full of over-the-top, lush, colorful textures, which wouldnt be the worst thing in the world to make a comeback.

Excerpt from:
Black Monday Season Two Takes the 80s Aesthetic to Another Level - Architectural Digest

Last year we had the statement chair, a sleek designer number set apart from our comfy sofas as an expression of our taste in design, and quite incomplete without the essential accompaniment of a footstool.

For 2020, statement-making in interiors has expanded to just about anything we like as long as it draws the eye towards it in the way a fireplace or television dominating a room would typically have done in the past.

Fashion designer Ted Baker's Pearl Grey rug (from 479 at Rugs.ie)

It doesnt necessarily have to be a piece of furniture, nor even something outsize that draws the eye by scale alone. It could be something as simple as an accessory, a lamp, soft furnishings or some occasional furniture; even a cheeky little object picked up on holiday or while rummaging through a second-hand shop.

A little virtual shopping expedition threw up a few in vogue suggestions from the pricey to purse-friendly, but if youre worried about something not working, remember the words of the legendary American interior decorator Bunny Williams: If you love something it will work, that is the only real rule.

Once confined to crusty Scottish baronial piles, tartan is having a moment in interiors, although its hard to envisage translating it into a suitable look for the more modern and sometimes compact home without turning it into the set of Outlander.

Someone who does it with style, however, is Ralph Lauren. Famed for his chic coastal-inspired interiors, his navy blue tartan wool pocket square blanket is a sophisticated take on tartan -99 at http://www.ralphlauren.ie- but if you want drama, Jean Paul Gaultier might just be your man.

Not only does he reference tartan in his couture collections and loves to gad about in a kilt, his furniture collection for Roche Bobois includes sofas and ottomans bedecked in the print (price according to size and fabric).

Floor art Nothing pulls a room together quite like a rug which these days goes beyond traditional pattern to take on an arty finish.

Ted Baker is another example of fashion designer-turned-interior designer, producing a rug collection including the Pearl Grey (from 479 at Rugs.ie). Its an outsize floral with a contemporary painterly quality with just enough plain grey in one corner to site a table off centre.

Speaking of tables, our favourite place to site drinks and newspapers in the living room, and even to raise tired feet, tends to be the coffee table, and hasnt it come a long way from the rectangular shape which has always made it look like a mini-version of the dining table?

Eclectic yet functional design alternatives come in the shape of the covetable Bonaldo Pebble by Mattias Demacker (583 at http://www.lomi.ie) with red and white or white and black finishes combining curvaceous futuristic design with handy storage.

The ongoing love of shady tones sitting between the extremes of black and white means grey is now considered a neutral, so not much scope for making a statement with it. Or so I thought.

Spotting Made.coms Herman three-seater sofa in finch grey cotton, it comes with the surprise of an eye-catching shadowy tonal blot of dark grey on a lighter-hued back cushion (700).This chic black cane and velvet seated chair is from Interiosity (495).

But just as I thought the overexposed statement chair wasnt worth considering here, up pops a beauty made of black cane on a matching wooden frame with grey velvet seat which wouldnt go amiss in a modern home.

So, if youve ever thought cane to be outdated, this one from Interiosity (495) might change your mind.

Cushion soft Adding finishing touches to a room calls for the arrival of soft furnishings, in particular ever-useful cushions. The Foliage design from M&S (30) blends several on-trend colours - yellow, orange and pink but in muted form so they work together and make the necessary statement to draw the eye without being in your face.

IKEA has the large Nabbfly cushion cover (4) offering some tropical fun to brighten up a plain sofa or even a dated one for the summer season.

For a little fun Ikea has this eye-catching banana-shaped ornament (10).

The Scandinavian retailer, noted for its pared-back and streamlined designs, is injecting some fun into accessorising with the vivid yellow Kuperad ornament (10).

Shaped like a bunch of reclining bananas and looking particularly authentic at that, it serves no function other than to attract attention and elicit a comment, if not a laugh.

Read the original here:
How just one item can create a focal point in a room and even spark a conversation - Irish Examiner

When house hunting, in particular among uninhabited homes, it can be challenging for potential buyers to imagine what living in the space would look like. Savvy real estate agents long ago began advising homeowners how to scale down their tchotchkes and personal belongings in order to make a better impression on buyers. And then, in a stroke of genius, they started staging empty homes.

A few paintings here, a sofa and area rug there. It began minimally with just enough furnishings and accessories to stimulate a bit of intrigue. Then came full-blown staging. With todays multi-million-dollar spec homes on the market, the trend has quickly become furnishing to the hilt, including pricey artwork. And now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, home tours are going virtual, which makes staging all the more important to home seekers.

That is the niche that Walker Wright of Walker Wright Abodes hopes to conquer with its recent move to Houston from its home base in Los Angeles, where his firm continues with interior design, staging, and photographic styling. The expansion to Houston was partly motivated by business and partly by the fact that Wrights partner is a native Houstonian.

My portfolio and background from living and working in Los Angeles kept me busy in high-end, high-fashion prop and photo styling, which led me into taking on personal interior design clients, Wright tells PaperCity. I then took those skills and applied them to my advantage in the home-staging world because of the countless hours spent photo styling and working with interiors-photographers in L.A.

I learned and understand the best angles and spacing and proportions etc I know what will look in print and how to portray a homes unique and beautiful features or hide them.

Wrights plan for the Lone Star State is marrying the glam from Los Angeles with the timeless look that Houston shows so well showing beautiful spec houses with high-end design.

While working on a massive project for Cisco Home in Round Top, Wright landed the staging task for 38 Carolane Trail in Bunker Hill. Brookstone Homes built the 6,266-square-foot dwelling thats listed for $3,395,000 with Compass agent Caroline Bean.

In furnishing the public areas of the five-bedroom house, Wright collaborated with his partners mother, decorator Cindy Witmer, whose design store provided accessories and some furnishings. Among the notable brands included in the staging were Cisco Home, Kuhl-Linscomb, Noir, Kelly Wearstler, CWD Studio + Home, and many others, as well as art from Laura Rathe Fine Art.

The natural, casual California theme of the design can be seen in the study, mudroom, game room, upstairs and downstairs utility rooms, climate-controlled wine room, and home office. While theres neither staging nor fancy cars in the garage, we have to mention that there is ample space for three cars.

Read more:
The Secrets of Luxury House Staging Specialists Expand From Los Angeles to Houston - PaperCity Magazine

WORSTOFALL DESIGN

As a kid, I was always told that when I grew up, I should do what I loved. But I was also told that I needed to choose a career path that would actually make money.

Sometimes, especially when youre a kid, those two things dont seem to go together. It can feel that way as an entrepreneur, too. If you love hiking, can you really make that into a profitable business idea?

The good news is that you can find a balance between passion and profitability with practically any business idea even if it doesnt seem like it at first. Heres how you can get it done.

Finding the intersection of love and profit begins in the planning stages. Youll have a hard time making these changes later on! Think things through now so you dont get stuck in a less than ideal situation later.

Start by looking at all the things you love to do. Add to this by making a list of things youre good at, or the things that excite you. Then, take a look at possible related opportunities that you could use to earn money.

Sometimes, these lists will cross over in obvious ways. Maybe you love to paint in your spare time, thanks to talent youve already developed by working as a graphic designer. Other times, these lists wont seem to have much in common. Your mastery of Fortnite probably doesnt seem like a marketable skill, but then again, some people have made millions of dollars this way.

Dig deep and think creatively when looking at the list of your skills, interests and passions. A Google search could help you find ideas and opportunities related to these areas. The right approach can help you turn even a normal hobby into a profitable activity with a workable business model.

Still not sure how to get started? Answer these 33 questions from our Brandshrink about your business and youll be much closer to finding this intersection.

Making a list of your skills, hobbies and passions is a good start, but a jack of all trades rarely makes a lot of money in todays market. Instead of trying to funnel EVERYTHING into a single business and trying to reach a ton of different people, hone in on the ONE idea you are most excited about.

Starting your business idea with a clear focus will make your life infinitely easier. What do you want to do? What do you want to accomplish with your business? This focus informs everything you do even who you talk to, what you say and when or where you say it.

This became especially clear to me during a recent conversation with Moha Ou Said Boughazi, founder and CEO of Top Desert. Our family has a passion for our native culture that of the nomadic Berbers in Morocco. We wanted to help others understand our heritage what makes us a beautiful people, Boughazi explained.

So, when we started offering desert tours, this became a big focus of our trips. We wanted this to be a true, authentic cultural experience. Naturally, that influences what we do and say on the tours themselves, and it also affects how we market ourselves. This focus on sharing our culture guides everything we do.

While focusing on something that you love and feel passionate about is a great start, your best bet for ensuring that your idea will actually turn a profit is to spend some time in your customers shoes. You cant forget who youre selling to!

Sure, you can spend countless hours looking at what your competitors are doing, but just because everyone else is doing it, doesnt mean its the best way to figure out what your customers want.

Im talking about really getting into your customers shoes. Not just paying this idea lip service, but really doing it. Pretending that youre the customer and that youre shopping for your service will give you better insights than anything else you can do.

I had a friend who wanted to become an interior decorator, specifically with the focus of helping real estate agents stage homes attractively so they could sell faster. As part of this, she wanted to set up a website. But as Ive seen time and time again, not all websites are created equal.

So, I gave her a tip Ive shared with others: look at your competitors websites as if you were a customer trying to buy their services. And she did. What she found was that a lot of interior designers basically fill up their website with portfolio pictures, but dont offer much in the way of useful information like rates and specific services offered especially since not all interior designers focus on real estate staging.

This helped her realize that to get customers, she needed to make it easier for them to know if her business was a good fit. Cutting down the number of photos on her site, providing short (but detailed) explanations for her services and listing rates helped her own her niche and get more contacts from potential clients.

Still think you cant balance passion and profitability? The pathway to success might be challenging, but its far from impossible. By putting in the necessary work early on, youll be able to do what you love, and actually make a living from doing it.

Originally posted here:
How To Find Your Passion AND Profitability In Your Small Business - Forbes

Once In A LifetimeIn Once In A Lifetime, Katie Rife charts the many melodramatic ways things can go awry in a Lifetime Original Movie

Husbands are but one star in the firmament of people who will betray you in a Lifetime movie, but as far as relationships go, marriage is possibly the most fraught. Its an intimate relationship, making the violation all the more profound when the inevitable deception is revealed. You can sense this vulnerability just in the titles of Lifetime films about spouses hiding horrifying secrets: Stranger In My Bed. In Bed With A Killer. The Familiar Stranger. The Stranger Beside Me. And then theres the sobering reality that husbands are a leading cause of death for their wives, making an abusive partner a far more visceral threat than, say, a homicidal interior decorator.

Domestic violence as TV-movie kitsch floats in the same problematic pool as all murder-for-entertainment propertiesspecifically, the deep end also occupied by Dateline and your various Investigations Discovery. Those shows so often turn out the same way that The Husband Did It T-shirts are all over Etsy. And theres a similar inevitability when a younger man with Ken-doll good looks, or an older man who has everything except for love, is introduced in the first act of a Lifetime movie with the words stranger, secrets, or betrayal in the title. (Theyre not all as forthright as I Almost Married A Serial Killer, which gives you the plot of the movie up front.) But given the real-life ubiquity of family violence, these films have to go way over the top to vault over squirming discomfort into howling camp.

This is especially true of 1995s The Stranger Beside Me, not to be confused with Ann Rules famous true-crime book about working at a suicide hotline with Ted Bundy. This ones also based on a true story, about a Texas housewife named Linda Bergstrom whose repeated attempts to report her husband as a serial rapist were ignored by both the U.S. Navy and local police. Opening with the title in yellow cursive script over generic country-western twang, the movie embodies the wholesome mid-90s aesthetic of delicate floral prints and pearl chokersand thats before Alyson Hannigan shows up in a bridesmaid dress that looks like its made out of Fruit Roll-Ups.

Tiffani Thiessen stars as Lindas stand-in Jennifer Gallagher, who at the beginning of the film meets what seems like a nice young man at a church picnic. Over the next hour or so, Jennifer gets married, moves to California with her husband, Chris (Eric Close), squirms uncomfortably at the other Navy wives sex talk at a bustling honky tonk, and ignores a series of glaringly obvious red flags that include Chris petulant response to Jennifers very valid anger at him for missing the birth of their first child. (I was busy, he says, unable to make eye contact.) That last offense is dramatized in the form of a montage whose combination of self-seriousness and low-budget ineptitude would normally prompt a derisive snort. Which it does, but not without a heavy undercurrent of guilt, given that the film juxtaposes Jennifer in the delivery room with Chris attacking a woman in her bedroom.

As a viewer, the feeling you get watching all these warning signs pile up is a lot like the frustration of seeing a co-ed go into the woods alone in a slasher moviewhich isnt entirely coincidental. The Stranger Beside Me was director Sandor Sterns 20th TV movie, but aside from co-writing the 1979 basketball comedy Fast Break, when his work did make it to the big screen, it was in horror: He wrote the screenplay for The Amityville Horror (1979), and his sole feature-film output as a director was 1988s Pin. Stern shoots Chris like a slasher villain, lurking in shadows with a beam of light shining over his beady eyes and letting his face fall from a fake smile to an evil scowl when Jennifer turns her back. (Think of the lead performance in Silent Night, Deadly Night 2, and youre in the ballpark.) Not only that, but the last third of the film transforms Jennifer from a helpless victim into a final girl, sticking around just long enough after learning Chris is a predatory sociopath to collect evidence damning enough that even Chris buddies on the police force cant protect him anymore.

Another parallel between Lifetime movie abusers and slasher villains is the overwhelming sameness of these menin looks, personality, and tactics. Theyre all clean-cut, which makes them appealing to all but the most intuitive friends and relatives. Theyre all able to put on a superficially charming act, further isolating their victims when those they tell about the abuse respond with, But hes such a nice guy! Theyre possessive, defensive, moody, belittling, and skilled at making themselves out to be the victimall strategies of mental and emotional abuse. Most of all, theyre crushingly mediocre, and deep in their narcissistic hearts, they know it.

Fatal Honeymoon (2012) offers up a relatively specific, but perfectly emblematic version of the phenomenon. Its cold-blooded killer, Gabe (Billy Miller), is a marginally good-looking, muscle-bound Alabama frat boy whose interests include football, deep-sea diving, and badgering his fiance, Tina (Amber Clayton), about whether shes signed the life insurance paperwork yet. Gabe is a model of abuser logic throughout the film, gaslighting Tina, isolating her from her friends and family, and pressuring her into doing things shes not comfortable with. Tina is afraid of the water, and isnt even that good of a swimmer. But Gabe presses her into going diving on the Great Barrier Reef for their honeymoon anywayone of many reasons why its suspicious as hell when she drowns mid-dive.

That film is also based on a true story, which accounts for the specificity of the characterization. By contrast, however, the paint-by-number nature of director Nadia Tass filmmaking gives Fatal Honeymoon a kitsch quality that not even co-star Harvey Keitel, who did this Lifetime original in between shooting Moonrise Kingdom and the Romanian WWII drama A Farewell To Fools, can overcome. Generally, its a mothers intuition that saves the day in a Lifetime movie. But in Fatal Honeymoon its Keitels grouchy, Sinatra-loving father-in-law who uncovers Gabe plot to murder his daughter, following a trail of clues from Alabama to Australia in an attempt to prove that the son-in-law he never liked anyway is actually a murderer. Keitel puts on his best Alabama accent, but the movie around him is so lackluster that he comes across older and more ineffective in Fatal Honeymoon than he does in films shot years later. As for why he did a movie so cheap that most of the exposition takes place in cars and sparsely furnished living rooms, well, free trip to Australia, maybe?

But for all its flaws, Fatal Honeymoon offers such a clear-cut lesson in how abusers behave that it points to the socially redeeming qualityif youre interested in that sort of thingof this particular variety of made-for-TV trash. Even otherwise forgettable Lifetime movies, like the recent A Boyfriends Deceit (2018), are full of melodramatic dramatizations of things to look out for if your daughter, friend, coworker, cousin, or neighbor is in a new relationship with a guy who your gut says is bad news. Confronted by his girlfriend, Annie (Emily Rose), after shes detained and questioned by police who find a bloody knife just chilling in the backseat of his car, the boyfriend of the title pouts, I can only say sorry so many times! An absurd thing to say in response to a reasonable question about why the hell you have a bloody knife in your car, to be sure. But its also a great example of weaponized guilt and denial.

That being said, Lifetime movies are less emotionally intelligent when it comes to dramatizing why victims stay in abusive relationships. Presented with horror-movie flourishes and delivered in an over-the-top acting style, the abuse in these films is obviousunlike the more insidious machinations of real life. When we fast-forward through the grooming and the gaslighting to get to the dramatic stuff, our sympathy gets tied up in the victims eventual wish-fulfillment triumph, not her all-too-realistic suffering. Such is the case with the reverse-Misery tale Her Perfect Spouse (2004), directed by Lifetime staple Douglas Jackson. Co-star Michael Riley bears such a strong resemblance to Twin Peaks villain BOB that you know his character, mystery novelist Ty Kellington, is going to bring radio producer Lisa (Tracy Nelson) nothing but misery. And indeed, Ty does turn out to be another generic Lifetime narcissist, whose only distinguishing quality is that hes jealous of his wifes success at work.

Over the past 30 years, careers have become increasingly important for Lifetime heroines, who tend to have the same types of jobsarchitect, newspaper columnist, bakery owneras their rom-com counterparts. That reflects changing social mores, of course, but it also adds a narrative shortcut to a Lifetime screenwriters quiver; when a concerned parent or sibling doesnt make sense for the plot, a loyal employee or trusted coworker will do. And even housewives in these movies may find an ally in their husbands assistant or at a volunteer gigtake Janice Mitchell (Judith Light), who proves that men are a bad idea even when youre not married to them in perhaps the most entertaining movie discussed herein, 1995s Lady Killer, which premiered on CBS before making its way to Lifetime.

Although the movie came out in 1995, the specific variety of aspirational identity Light representswhite, blond, thin, moneyed, into jogging and sophisticated cultural markers like classical musicis a hangover from the decade of Dynasty and Polo Ralph Lauren. She should be irritatingly perfect, but Janice is actually a sympathetic and likable character. Lights hair does a lot of the dramatic heavy lifting in this film, sitting neatly pinned into place or falling out in messy chunks depending on her mental state at the time. But Light, best known either for her runs on One Life To Life and Whos The Boss?, also has more dramatic chops than some of her Lifetime peers. She brings a certain poignancy to moments like the scene where her husband leaves her alone at her own birthday party, or the dramatic monologue where she lays out the aimlessness she feels now that her daughter, Sharon (Tracey Gold), is away at college.

That rootless feeling is what drives Janice to begin a passionate, soapy (literallythey take a lot of baths together) affair with Guy (Jack Wagner), a much younger plastic surgeon. Guys sociopathy and narcissism are, again, utterly banal, save for one distinguishing characteristic that drives the plot. This time around, its a mommy complex. Things begin to go bad when Janice cancels a weekend getaway with Guy because her husband, Ross (Ben Masters), returned early from a business trip, prompting him to express his fury by drawing a sad face on a prescription pad. He retaliates with a mid-movie sexual assault that, to both Lights and director Steven Schachters credit but not to the audiences pleasure, is actually quite disturbing. But after this sobering brush with reality, the plot gets outrageous once again after Janice and Ross retreat to the family lake house so Janice can recuperate.

Its here, draped in homespun quilts and framed by rustic wood paneling, that Lady Killer accomplishes what many Lifetime movies about bad men cannotclearing the bar of real-life trauma and ascending into high camp. Not long after Janice and Ross arrival, Sharon arrives with her new boyfriend in tow. Its Guy, showing a dedication to revenge that would make Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction proud. Ross likes him, inexplicably; Janice is within her rights to hate the guy based on the age gap alone (seriously, its mortifying), but when he hisses to her, Youre much better in bed than your daughter, Janiceand the audienceknow its time to take care of this psycho for good. Its a torrid tale with a simple, satisfying ending, and any lingering guilt over the affair is burned away when Janice pushes that asshole off of a lighthousesomething more than a few moms in the audience would probably like to do to their daughters boyfriends, even if they hadnt had sex with them first.

Next time: Unless its an issue film about coming out, the Lifetime channel tends to be, to paraphrase Edith Massey, sickeningly heterosexual. But that doesnt mean a woman cant ruin another womans life.

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If youre ever tempted to trust a man, Lifetime movies can fix that for you - The A.V. Club

Netflixs Say I Do is a celebration of love that transcends all societal boundaries. It is a testament to couples who overcome their obstacles and decide to have a dream wedding. The best part is that they dont have to do any of the planning. Three experts, Gabriele Bertaccini, the chef, Thai Nguyen, the fashion designer, and Jeremiah Brent, the interior decorator, ensure that everything goes to plan. Naturally, the couples we see are all over the US, and different splendid destinations are chosen for the ceremonies. However, Say I Do was filmed quite a bit in secret, which might make you wonder about the locations. Weve got you covered.

The best part about Say I Do is that the wedding destination is the primary filming location. Among the places we see in the series is the Drees Pavilion at 790 Park Ln, Covington, Kentucky. It is one of the most popular wedding destinations and offers a fantastic view overlooking the skylines of Cincinnati and Covington. Marcus and Tiffany tie the knot here.

Some of the dream weddings also take place in Cincinnati, Ohio. For example, Nikko and Amber get married at The Phoenix on 812 Race St, Cincinnati. Besides being equipped to handle intimate ceremonies and larger gatherings, the venue is perfect with multiple rooms to choose from, and hands-on event staff to ensure that the wedding takes place without a hitch. Joe and Kerrys Gatsby themed wedding also takes place at the same destination. Of course, the romantic balconies and the Archway Ballroom makes it popular among couples looking to start a new life together.

Mattie and Melvin get married at The Summit in Madisonville. We see the wedding taking place on the rooftop. The Vice President of operations spoke about it, saying that it is one of the hotels highest honors to help a couple celebrate love, via a wedding ceremony. The Summit is a part of the Preferred Hotels and Resorts network and opened in 2018. It is at 5345 Medpace Way.

Jason and Jonathan have a beautiful wedding in a rustic setting, which is theStone Creek Lodge at Crawfordsville, Indiana. Everyone who saw the property when it was starting, commented on how it would make for a great wedding venue. The proprietors decided to capitalize on the popularity of barn weddings and even added a building so that other events can be hosted at the location as well.

Essie and Bruce also have their unique barn wedding at the 3 Fat Labs Estate Wedding & Event Barn in Greencastle, Indiana. The venue offers a sophisticated country-style retreat where couples can enjoy perfect views with the vibrance of nature and backdrops that make the day truly special for lovebirds.

Say I Do has made use of picturesque locations, which have been turned into something magical, thanks to the experts. With everybody pitching in, the weddings are perfect, and the couples can start a new chapter of their lives with hope and love in their hearts.

Read More: Best Wedding Movies

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Where is Say I Do Filmed? Where Are the Wedding Venues Located? - The Cinemaholic

Although having enjoyed a varied career, India Hicks is perhaps best known for two things: her eponymous lifestyle brand (now defunct), and being Prince Charles goddaughter and the bridesmaid to Princess Diana at the 1981 wedding, watched by 750 million people. Second-cousin to the Prince, she is the daughter of David Hicks renowned interior decorator and Lady Pamela Hicks, daughter of Louis Mountbatten 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who was assassinated by an IRA bomb in 1979.

Raised in Oxfordshire and attending boarding school in Scotland, Indias was an upbringing more traditional than her perhaps unexpected later relocation to the Bahamas, where she has lived for the past 24 years with her husband and their five children. Since closing her lifestyle brand in 2019, India has become increasingly dedicated to charity work, presently supporting her Bahamian community following a devastating hurricane in early September and of course the more recent outbreak of coronavirus, which has overwhelmed the area she calls home.

Speaking with India on Skype, she tells me that from a young age she was taught the importance of supporting those less fortunate in both the local and global community: Ive always done as much as I can; we were brought up to give back. I have grandparents who set a very good example of that. India took with her this proclivity for charitable work when she relocated to the Bahamas in 1996: Every year here, I would bike a hundred miles in a bike race, raising money for breast cancer in the Bahamas which is very prevalent here in the Bahamas because of a gene in Black African women to have this predisposition to have breast cancer. Indeed, India and her husband adopted their child Wesley after his Bahamian mother and aunt died from the disease.

It was in September 2019 that a devastating hurricane hit the surrounding islands and destroyed two neighbouring communities. Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 hurricane, was the most intense cyclone on record to have struck the Bahamas, and is estimated to have cost almost $3.4 billion in damage. Sitting on the advisory board of the Global Empowerment Mission, India says that she following the coinciding closure of her business had the ability and the time to get very involved in the efforts to support her fellow islanders in the wake of the disaster.

To the foreign eye, India acknowledges that poverty and the effects of such disasters are masked by sunshine and pink sand beaches, whereas in England its grey skies. She tells me that people are distracted by the beauty of the idyllic island the foamy coastline, leaning palm trees, cloudless blue sky. But 60% of the homes in Abaco were damaged or destroyed; the power grid serving the entirety of the islands was ruined. For several days, much of the island including its airport was underwater.

I went out with them first [relief workers from the Global Empowerment Mission] to Abaco, and they were doing very interesting things; for example, taking batteries so that people couldactually get their phones charged in order to call people to let them know that they were still alive Disaster relief work is very immediate. Theres the immediate horror of whats happening and then it disappears off, and people get very distracted by the next thing: its a bushfire in Australia, or there is a flood in India, or there is an earthquake in Sri Lanka. I wanted the attention to stay on the Bahamas because the work had hardly even begun. Were coming up to a year later and people are still living in tents; there is still no power; the government is still fairly ineffectual when it comes to those hurricane victims.

Though India built a social media following (some 223k followers) promoting her branded fashion items and sharing aesthetic glimpses of her life flitting between England and the Bahamas, she recognised immediately that her platform could and should be utilised to promote her charitable efforts: I realised that I was lucky enough to have built some following from a social media standpoint, and suddenly there was some point to the social media which was being able to tell these stories I think people were ready to listen, so I was able to raise money as well as get a message out.

If were living in an age where social media has such an importance, then lets use it if we can. The disappointing part of this, of course, is that people are much more interested in my dog, and my daughter making donuts than they are in the charity work we do so I try to come at it from a slightly different point of view. Im now trying to think more creatively about the messaging of it all but you have to be very careful that its not all me, me, me. And, yet, the way that were able to raise moneyis through me talking about it. So I feel slightly conflicted there.

By experiencing first-hand the effects of the hurricane on her community, India describes feeling that she had been given a new job a new purpose; she tells me about the importance of communicating stories when asking for peoples donations, emphasising the significance ofhow requests for help are conveyed in relation to securing contributions: Its finding ways of finessing stories in order to keep coming back to the same audience and asking for more.

While the Bahamas might sound an exotically far away location to the British reader, the desolation of the hurricane couldnt have been closer to home for India, who described the aftermath as happening right on my doorstep literally. At the end of my drive, there are families who have been so affected by the tourism economy closing down overnight that there are a staggering amount of families who can no longer feed themselves.

But as the devastation caused by the disaster are localised, so too are relief efforts: India leads a team which was drawn from residents of the community, each contributing skills to the operation of a wide-spread aid effort. India herself sits-in on discussions with their local MP, church and school authorities, and the local councils.

Indias close involvement in the organisation of efforts to rebuild the island and support its inhabitants, she says, is crucial: If Im asking someone to donate money whether it be $20 or $20,000 I am able to assure that person I can hear the decisions that are being made; I get out at 6:30am on a Saturday and Im there packing the bags; I see the church vehicles going out; I see the recipients I see the process from beginning to end When you give us your dollars, I can account for it. I know where every cent is going theres transparency from beginning to end.

However, being so intimately affiliated with the community her and her team work to restore, she has come across the moral complexities of charity work: It becomes really difficult when it comes down to the need versus the want who wants the food bag, who needs the food bag. A fair means of decision seems to be that the leaders of the islands churches decide who most urgently needs the food and supplies provided by Indias team.

The recent wake of COVID-19 added to the Bahamian devestation: with a significant proportion of the island relying on the profits from tourism and travel, the necessary halt of tourist footfall to the islands is perhaps a lesser-considered effect of the pandemic: Im daily having conversations with people about when the borders will open; when the tourists will be back; when do we think the food bank needs to be teamed until?; when will life get back to normal?

While the residents of the islands are keen to see tourists return, bringing with them much-needed revenue, India reflects on her own situation amidst the uncertainty of travel. Considering herself a global sort of person, India has children at school in the UK, the US, and a mother and family in England. Suddenly, I feel much more remote, she says; much more isolated than I have for the twenty-four years [of living in the Bahamas] it makes me very nervous that I may have to make tougher decisions about when I get to see my mother and if Im able to freely travel and come back and forth.

Reflecting on her childhood in Oxfordshire, India considers how it might be if she were isolating with her family back in the UK: If I lived in Oxford, I wouldnt have this innate fear, because I would be in a much bigger country, my mother would be two fields away, my kids could possibly go to college somewhere in England. But, because weve built a global life for ourselves, I am fearful what the future holds My fear is that I have taken travel for granted. Ive taken the fact that I live in the Bahamas, but can nip on a flight at a fairly reasonable price over to England. Ive seen the world like that that it is so global, that it is so easy to travel. And now, suddenly, that is probably going to be removed the luxury of being able to travel when I want.

India spoke of the precariousness of the situation how she feels that shes blindly finding [my] way forward, because nobody knows when the effects of the closures will ease-up. Really, weve been doing a lot of work in raising awareness and raising money. The challenges are there, of course as its global, its very hard. But she continues to work hard to alleviate the twofold devastation of the hurricane and COVID-19 on her community, and she along with her fellow Bahamians will undoubtedly celebrate when travel resumes.

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In Conversation with India Hicks - Cherwell Online