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    THE BLONDE IS BACK

    Jessica Simpson grows up (sorta) with The Price of Beauty

    Sarah Rufca
    Mar 15, 2010 | 6:43 pm

    It was way back in 2003 when Jessica Simpson first became a household name with such pearls of wisdom as thinking buffalo wings were made of buffalo and not knowing the difference between chicken and tuna on Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica.

    And while her turn as one of the decade's most high-profile ditzy blondes earned her millions in album sales, movie roles and countless magazine covers, it also made her a tabloid target ready for backlash. After years at the top of the A-list, Jessica's career stumbled, and recently she's been famous more for her high-profile relationships and supposed weight battles than any of her own projects.

    What a difference seven years makes.

    Older — she's now pushing 30 — and demonstrably wiser, she's going back to reality TV with The Price of Beauty. It's a brilliant vehicle for her: partly a travelogue to exotic global destinations — France, Japan, Morocco, Thailand and more — and partly a sincere exploration into the cultural concept of beauty and what women go through around the world to feel beautiful.

    There are still plenty of Newlywed-isms. In tonight's premiere episode, set in Thailand, Simpson compares an elephant's hair to a "scrotum" and gets a bad case of the church giggles about 40 minutes into a Buddhist meditation set.

    Dropping a blonde around the world to see what dumb things she does has been tried before (think Taradise and Bridget's Sexiest Beaches), without much success. Simpson succeeds because of her natural likeability, and seems more ready to make fun of herself than to be just a punchline. In her commentary after she's been twisted and tossed around like a rag doll in a traditional Thai massage, the Newlyweds Jessica might have said something along the lines of "I thought? Thai massages? Had like, a happy ending?"

    But now she can express the same joke with more confidence: "I thought Thai massages had happy endings. And now I'm wondering where mine is!"

    While most of the show is watching Jessica and her friends Ken Paves and CaCee Cobb react to weird things the producers put in their path (Thailand offered a snack of fried grasshoppers in addition to elephants and Buddhist monks), Simpson seems sincere in wanting to learn about how different cultures perceive beauty. She is introduced to a Thai woman whose face is disfigured from creams meant to lighten skin to acheive the Thai ideal of paleness, and is visibly upset by the woman's story.

    She also travels to remote northern Thailand to talk to a tribe of women who elongate their necks by wearing brass coils starting around the age of five.

    There's an easy tendency to cast judgements on these foreign beauty practices, but the show seems more interested in a balance of celebrating the different and interesting traditions while showing that the dangerous lengths women go to achieve the beauty ideal. After all, while I might not be lining up to have coiled brass rings stretch my neck, is it any crazier or more dangerous than high heels or injecting poison into our foreheads?

    As for other adventures, an episode in the French fashion world seems to bring out Simpson's every insecurity, and another in India introduces a little girl with a cleft palate getting a new smile, a somewhat tangential issue that comes in because Simpson has been an ambassador for Operation Smile since 2003. It seems like Simpson is determined to become a role model again — this time for all the right reasons.

    While the ditzy blonde was never really my cup of tea, I kinda adore the new Jessica Simpson.

    Still a silly, loud-mouthed and undeniably gorgeous Texas girl, she's learned from her experiences and grown into a woman who has an interesting perspective on the cult of beauty, and who wants to know and explore more about the world.

    The Price of Beauty airs on Vh1 Mondays at 9 p.m. Central Time, starting tonight.

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    Movie Review

    Tom Cruise goes all out in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

    Alex Bentley
    May 22, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
    Photo courtesy of
    Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

    Over the course of 30 years and eight films, the Mission: Impossible series has proven to be the most reliable of any action movie franchise. Not all of them are equally good, but with Tom Cruise in the lead as Ethan Hunt, they can be counted on for at least a couple of mind-blowing stunt sequences per film, enough to keep fans clamoring for more.

    Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has the feel of being the last film in the series, and not just because the 62-year-old Cruise is getting up there in age. Following up closely on the events of 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One (Part Two changed to The Final Reckoning for unknown reasons), the film has Hunt trying to stop an A.I. villain known as The Entity from taking over the world’s collective stash of nuclear weapons.

    To do so, Hunt and his cobbled-together team — Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), and Paris (Pom Klementieff) — must hopscotch around the world, tracking villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) and trying to figure out a way to get The Entity’s source code, which is located on a sunken Russian submarine. Oh, and they also have to evade capture by a disgruntled U.S. government, led by now-President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett).

    Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and co-written by Erik Jendresen, the film might just be the most convoluted one in the series so far. The filmmakers layer on tons of exposition, with lots of flashbacks to previous events in the series to explicate the events of the present, as well as providing unexpected connections to previous films. The plan for stopping The Entity and the references to the past are so dense that the first half of the film is relatively boring.

    Things pick up in the final 90 minutes of the three-hour film, mostly because that’s when the majority of the action takes place. More than other entries in the series, the film considers the geopolitical implications of Hunt’s actions, and he has to negotiate with a variety of high-powered people to do what he deems best. While his efforts are somewhat preposterous, even by the standards of the series, they lead to a bunch of fun sequences that provide levity among the world-changing drama.

    Ultimately, what makes the film succeed are its action scenes. Cruise has done stunts on planes/helicopters before in the series, but what he does during a biplane sequence toward the end of the film is almost beyond belief. Yes, he’s attached to the plane with harnesses that are digitally erased, but he’s still doing it hundreds of feet in the air at great bodily risk considering. While the series has always featured spectacular stunt sequences, this one deserves to be near the top of the list.

    The flashbacks to scenes from throughout the series underscore just how much Cruise has changed in the past 30 years, but also emphasize how amazing it is that he’s still willing to sacrifice his body as much as does to make these films. No other actor goes as far as he does to entertain the masses, and the events of the story even give him opportunities to show off his dramatic acting skills.

    The supporting cast is more packed than usual, and all of them enhance the film. In addition to Hunt’s team, the President has a group of advisers that includes actors like Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, and Janet McTeer. Other recognizable faces like Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Trammell Tillman (Severance), and Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding) show up for impactful roles.

    Whether or not this is the last film in the current incarnation of the series, The Final Reckoning has a lot to offer longtime fans, with action set pieces that remains some of the best Hollywood has to offer. The story may be completely baffling, but with Cruise and other appealing actors leading the way, there’s more than enough great entertainment to go around.

    ---

    Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning opens in theaters on May 23.

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