With Melissa Kirsch — the regular writer of our Saturday newsletter — off today, we’re going to turn to another source for some life guidance: Scarlett Johansson.
Maureen Dowd, the Times columnist, has just published a profile of Johansson that covers a lot of ground, including how she became one of the top-grossing actors of all time while also confronting both Disney and OpenAI. Despite all this, as Maureen explains, Johansson manages to carve out a surprising amount of normalcy in her life.
“She goes to the supermarket,” Colin Jost, the Saturday Night Live star, who’s married to Johansson, said. “She’s just very good at wearing a hat, and she keeps moving.” She spends hours walking around New York in white Hoka sneakers.
As I read the profile, I was struck that Johansson also rejects modern normalcy in some important ways. She tries to move more slowly and deliberately, with fewer distractions, than is typical these days. Maureen writes:
At a time when everyone always seems one-half there, the other half absorbed by their fiendish little devices, Ms. Johansson is intensely present. She stays off social media; she doesn’t want to share her life with strangers, which gives her mystique in an overexposed world. Her large green eyes stay trained on me for nearly two hours, asking nearly as many questions as she fields.
Johansson likes to hang out in Central Park, she said, and she showers “a few times a day.”
So on this summer Saturday, when much of the country will be hot and humid, allow me to suggest that you find a way to slow down, too. Read a book (or Maureen’s delightful profile of Johansson). Take a walk — and an extra shower. Enjoy a leisurely last-minute meal with friends. And find a few hours to put away your fiendish little device. It will still be there, with all its sources of entertainment and outrage, when you return.
THE WEEK IN CULTURE
Film and TV
A judge in New Mexico dismissed the manslaughter case against the actor Alec Baldwin, after she found that prosecutors had withheld evidence.
Shelley Duvall, one of the biggest film stars of the 1970s, died this week at 75. See her life in photos.
“Inside Out 2” is now the highest-grossing Pixar film, surpassing “Incredibles 2.”
In “Longlegs,” Nicolas Cage plays a cheery, evil entity behind multiple murders. Read our review.
Benji Gregory, who starred as a child in the television series “ALF” from 1986 to 1990, died at 46.
“Sorry/Not Sorry,” a movie about the misconduct allegations against Louis C.K., came out. “The film’s bitter punchline is that he’s the one still selling out Madison Square Garden,” the critic Amy Nicholson writes.
“Sing Sing,” a prison drama, contains scenes that are both moving and unexpected, the critic Lisa Kennedy writes.
Art and Design
Louis Kahn designed some of the 20th century’s great buildings. His final sketchbook — which includes ideas for the Roosevelt memorial — has been published.
Guillaume Lethière, who was born into slavery, is among France’s most decorated painters. For the first time, a major exhibition provides a full view of his scenes of love and war.
Other Big Stories
Jack Schlossberg is the only grandson of John F. Kennedy, but he’s perhaps better known for his unusual TikTok videos. Vogue has hired him as a political correspondent.
“Oh, Mary!,” a campy comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln, premiered on Broadway this week. Its star, Cole Escola has become an overnight sensation — 17 years after taking up acting.
Cigarettes After Sex’s spare, crystalline ballads have become popular on TikTok.
New York City is having a “Brat” summer, inspired by Charli XCX. See the latest street style in The Cut.
THE LATEST NEWS
2024 Election
President Biden sought to go on offense, criticizing Donald Trump over his economic plans, his criminal conviction and Project 2025 — Trump allies’ plan to transform the government — at a fiery Michigan rally. “Americans want a president, not a dictator,” Biden said.
But Biden continues to struggle with some members of his party. Michigan’s top Democrats, including the governor and both senators, skipped his event. And two more House Democrats called on him to drop out.
A virtual meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus grew tense at times as Biden made his case to lawmakers who have said he should leave the race. “I’m going out and letting people touch me, poke me, ask me questions,” he said.
Major Democratic donors are withholding about $90 million in donations to a pro-Biden super PAC unless Biden ends his re-election campaign.
Democrats fear that Biden’s presence on the ballot could turn Minnesota, New Hampshire and other typically blue states into battlegrounds this fall.
Trump is leveraging a narrative of persecution to sell Bibles, sneakers and stock in his media company.
Other Big Stories
Heat waves, made worse by climate change, are causing heat-related emergencies and deaths to spike. Hospitals are struggling to catch up.
A federal judge dismissed Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, letting people he owes money — including two Georgia election workers he defamed — pursue foreclosures against him.
Eric Schmidt, a former C.E.O. of Google, had an affair with a public relations executive while he led the company. Years later, things are still messy.
Prosecutors finished their arguments in the federal corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat. The jury began its deliberations.
CULTURE CALENDAR
???? “Twisters” (Wednesday): “Twister,” the movie from 1996 starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, is just now getting a sequel. The film is directed by Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) and features rising stars Glen Powell (as an influencer-slash-storm chaser) and Daisy Edgar-Jones (as a meteorologist with a troubled past). It has all the makings of a summer blockbuster, but one — it seems — with something to say. “I would love to see more stories in which our identity is defined in relation to the Earth,” Chung told The Hollywood Reporter. “And I felt like this film was a chance to do that.”