• Home
  • popular
  • EVENTS
  • submit-new-event
  • CHARITY GUIDE
  • Children
  • Education
  • Health
  • Veterans
  • Social Services
  • Arts + Culture
  • Animals
  • LGBTQ
  • New Charity
  • TRENDING NEWS
  • News
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Home + Design
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Innovation
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • subscribe
  • about
  • series
  • Embracing Your Inner Cowboy
  • Green Living
  • Summer Fun
  • Real Estate Confidential
  • RX In the City
  • State of the Arts
  • Fall For Fashion
  • Cai's Odyssey
  • Comforts of Home
  • Good Eats
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2010
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2
  • Good Eats 2
  • HMNS Pirates
  • The Future of Houston
  • We Heart Hou 2
  • Music Inspires
  • True Grit
  • Hoops City
  • Green Living 2011
  • Cruizin for a Cure
  • Summer Fun 2011
  • Just Beat It
  • Real Estate 2011
  • Shelby on the Seine
  • Rx in the City 2011
  • Entrepreneur Video Series
  • Going Wild Zoo
  • State of the Arts 2011
  • Fall for Fashion 2011
  • Elaine Turner 2011
  • Comforts of Home 2011
  • King Tut
  • Chevy Girls
  • Good Eats 2011
  • Ready to Jingle
  • Houston at 175
  • The Love Month
  • Clifford on The Catwalk Htx
  • Let's Go Rodeo 2012
  • King's Harbor
  • FotoFest 2012
  • City Centre
  • Hidden Houston
  • Green Living 2012
  • Summer Fun 2012
  • Bookmark
  • 1987: The year that changed Houston
  • Best of Everything 2012
  • Real Estate 2012
  • Rx in the City 2012
  • Lost Pines Road Trip Houston
  • London Dreams
  • State of the Arts 2012
  • HTX Fall For Fashion 2012
  • HTX Good Eats 2012
  • HTX Contemporary Arts 2012
  • HCC 2012
  • Dine to Donate
  • Tasting Room
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • Charming Charlie
  • Asia Society
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2012
  • HTX Mistletoe on the go
  • HTX Sun and Ski
  • HTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • HTX New Beginnings
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013
  • Zadok Sparkle into Spring
  • HTX Let's Go Rodeo 2013
  • HCC Passion for Fashion
  • BCAF 2013
  • HTX Best of 2013
  • HTX City Centre 2013
  • HTX Real Estate 2013
  • HTX France 2013
  • Driving in Style
  • HTX Island Time
  • HTX Super Season 2013
  • HTX Music Scene 2013
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013 2
  • HTX Baker Institute
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • Mothers Day Gift Guide 2021 Houston
  • Staying Ahead of the Game
  • Wrangler Houston
  • First-time Homebuyers Guide Houston 2021
  • Visit Frisco Houston
  • promoted
  • eventdetail
  • Greystar Novel River Oaks
  • Thirdhome Go Houston
  • Dogfish Head Houston
  • LovBe Houston
  • Claire St Amant podcast Houston
  • The Listing Firm Houston
  • South Padre Houston
  • NextGen Real Estate Houston
  • Pioneer Houston
  • Collaborative for Children
  • Decorum
  • Bold Rock Cider
  • Nasher Houston
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2021
  • CityNorth
  • Urban Office
  • Villa Cotton
  • Luck Springs Houston
  • EightyTwo
  • Rectanglo.com
  • Silver Eagle Karbach
  • Mirador Group
  • Nirmanz
  • Bandera Houston
  • Milan Laser
  • Lafayette Travel
  • Highland Park Village Houston
  • Proximo Spirits
  • Douglas Elliman Harris Benson
  • Original ChopShop
  • Bordeaux Houston
  • Strike Marketing
  • Rice Village Gift Guide 2021
  • Downtown District
  • Broadstone Memorial Park
  • Gift Guide
  • Music Lane
  • Blue Circle Foods
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2022
  • True Rest
  • Lone Star Sports
  • Silver Eagle Hard Soda
  • Modelo recipes
  • Modelo Fighting Spirit
  • Athletic Brewing
  • Rodeo Houston
  • Silver Eagle Bud Light Next
  • Waco CVB
  • EnerGenie
  • HLSR Wine Committee
  • All Hands
  • El Paso
  • Houston First
  • Visit Lubbock Houston
  • JW Marriott San Antonio
  • Silver Eagle Tupps
  • Space Center Houston
  • Central Market Houston
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Travel Texas Houston
  • Alliantgroup
  • Golf Live
  • DC Partners
  • Under the Influencer
  • Blossom Hotel
  • San Marcos Houston
  • Photo Essay: Holiday Gift Guide 2009
  • We Heart Hou
  • Walker House
  • HTX Good Eats 2013
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2013
  • HTX Culture Motive
  • HTX Auto Awards
  • HTX Ski Magic
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2014
  • HTX Texas Traveler
  • HTX Cifford on the Catwalk 2014
  • HTX United Way 2014
  • HTX Up to Speed
  • HTX Rodeo 2014
  • HTX City Centre 2014
  • HTX Dos Equis
  • HTX Tastemakers 2014
  • HTX Reliant
  • HTX Houston Symphony
  • HTX Trailblazers
  • HTX_RealEstateConfidential_2014
  • HTX_IW_Marks_FashionSeries
  • HTX_Green_Street
  • Dating 101
  • HTX_Clifford_on_the_Catwalk_2014
  • FIVE CultureMap 5th Birthday Bash
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2014 TEST
  • HTX Texans
  • Bergner and Johnson
  • HTX Good Eats 2014
  • United Way 2014-15_Single Promoted Articles
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Houston
  • Where to Eat Houston
  • Copious Row Single Promoted Articles
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2014
  • htx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Zadok Swiss Watches
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2015
  • HTX Charity Challenge 2015
  • United Way Helpline Promoted Article
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Fusion Academy Promoted Article
  • Clifford on the Catwalk Fall 2015
  • United Way Book Power Promoted Article
  • Jameson HTX
  • Primavera 2015
  • Promenade Place
  • Hotel Galvez
  • Tremont House
  • HTX Tastemakers 2015
  • HTX Digital Graffiti/Alys Beach
  • MD Anderson Breast Cancer Promoted Article
  • HTX RealEstateConfidential 2015
  • HTX Vargos on the Lake
  • Omni Hotel HTX
  • Undies for Everyone
  • Reliant Bright Ideas Houston
  • 2015 Houston Stylemaker
  • HTX Renewable You
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • HTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Kyrie Massage
  • Red Bull Flying Bach
  • Hotze Health and Wellness
  • ReadFest 2015
  • Alzheimer's Promoted Article
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Professional Skin Treatments by NuMe Express

    Aftershocks

    A Real Housewives wedding and the hottest eye candy yet: Meet the Cuban BradPitt

    Joseph Campana
    Theodore Bale
    Mar 23, 2011 | 10:05 am
    • Who wouldn't want to photograph the Cuban Brad Pitt?
    • Marysol found snowy wedding bliss on the Real Housewives. Until the Frenchhusband moves in with the tacky wine fridge.

    Memories. Thanks, or no thanks?

    This week on The Real Housewives of Miami it was a mixed bag of bitter recollections, uncomfortable reminders and utter fabrications. Where does this show take place, Miami or the land of myth?

    If there’s a character making some authentic memories in this show, certainly it is tender Marysol. She and French beau Philippe are alone in Aspen for the spontaneous wedding of their dreams, and they have just that right mix of nerves and confidence as they wait for the Silver Queen Gondola to take them to the mountain top.

    A sensitive piano melody plays in the background, and Marysol ruminates only briefly that the cables could snap and they could plummet to their death before completing the ceremony.

    What a transformation! When last we left our blushing bride, it seemed the snowy Rockies were giving her cold feet. Philippe must have warmed her right up. The two trudge up a mountain to exchange rings.

    At the peak, Marysol is stunning in her white gown, strolling hand-in-hand with Philippe through the snow drifts. There are no witnesses to the union but the camera crew as an elderly Justice of the Peace, his hands shaking, reads the vows they’ve written to each other.

    “I’m feeling like I am walking in a dream,” Marysol has written for Philippe. “I have loved you more each day than the day before,” the Justice reads from Philippe’s vows.

    The magic lasts at least until the pair returns to Miami and have their first quarrel over Philippe’s tacky wine refrigerator. He’s moved it to Marysol’s apartment without first asking. “That comes with the French husband,” he says, as if it shouldn’t be a surprise to her.

    While Marysol’s marital bliss could cause glaciers to melt, Alexia clearly hasn’t got much heat with hubby Herman. No wonder she resorts to telling herself self-aggrandizing stories to distract her from the seven-year-itch she’s feeling.

    Alexia claims to have discovered the “Cuban Brad Pitt,” William Levy, who has to be the hottest thing to show up on any branch of the The Real Housewives family tree. Levy appeared on the cover of Venue earlier in his career, and this week she’s doing him again.

    Photographing him again, that is. Clearly Levy’s not only hot but a real sweetheart. How much fake flirting is one man expected to perform? How many of Alexia’s jokes about underwear left on her bedroom floor can he take? It’s hard being beautiful.

    Alexia may be the most boring blonde ever to grace the Housewives, Even her car wreck this week was a snooze. But she has no lack of ambition.

    “My long term objective,” she announces, is that, “I want Venue to be everywhere.” Since the March/April issue of Venue features The Real Housewives of Miami on the cover, we suppose Alexia just wants to see herself everywhere.

    The crass Lea Black doesn’t seem to have any viable memories of her own, so she’s off to the decidedly low-brow Everglades Camp to create some memories for teenage girls moving out of foster care. She’s chosen a lovely outfit for her motivational speech to the troubled gals: light blue leopard-print trench coat and a pair of tight slacks.

    The girls stare her down with utter contempt, some of them chewing gum. One is wearing a T-shirt that says “I’m Kind of a Big Deal.” Lea admits that she’s prepared cheat notes, even if she’s been doing motivational speaking for years. She begins by saying, “Your thoughts actually create things in the universe that create things in your life.” How motivational!

    Without warning, Lea’s speech veers into tough-love territory. “I’m not Tinkerbell, you’re not going to wake up tomorrow with a great life,” she says. She imagines out loud what she clearly assumes they’re thinking, chanting “I’ve got acne, I’m overweight, I don’t have any friends,” and the girls look like they’re planning to corner her in the classroom and stone her to death. They have already explained their aspirations to become surgeons and cosmetologists.

    Here our memories turned to the pretentious LuAnn de Lesseps, a New York Real Housewife who made a brief trip downtown one episode to give interviewing tips to recovering addicts out of work. Why do so many Real Housewives, who married in order to avoid their own careers, think they are such a resource for those less fortunate?

    “We’re on a tight schedule,” she tells the girls suddenly. “I’d love to hang out, but I gotta run.” No you woudn’t, Lea. You can’t wait to get out of the crappy Everglade Camp and get a glass of Grigio.

    In reality, Lea’s off to yet another installment of the Miami wives’ tedious, if sometimes memorable, cooking parties. Who thought it was a good idea to have that many knives around? Larsa makes it clear she’s out to outdo her castmates.

    “Cooking parties aren’t supposed to be competitive,” she says, “but everything should be competitive. Otherwise, what’s the point?” It’s as if it was she, and not husband Scottie Pippen, who won all those championships and got himself admitted to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

    Larsa picks marinara meathead Steve Martorano to whip the girls into shape. He looks more like he’s from the WWF than the Cordon Bleu, but he does manage to get them all to work. By the time Leah arrives, the girls are squeezing mozzarella and discussing the finer points of balls. Cristy arrives late, as usual, and as the girls finally eat and toast Marysol’s nuptials, we could already sense a fight looming on the horizon like a Florida hurricane.

    Leah grandstands by thanking everyone elaborately for contributing to her charity, in that way that people thank you so as to remind you of how great they are. The girls got the message and Adriana picked up her cue in what seems the most obviously arranged fight in Housewife history. Adriana turns to Cristy and says, “I hear you weren’t happy about paying for your tickets.”

    It quickly becomes one of those interminable “she said, she said, she pretends she never said” kind of events. Couldn’t someone flip a table, yank off a wig or tear an extension from someone’s head? We’re not suggesting any actual choking, like in Atlanta, and besides, NeNe Leakes must be busy enough fighting with Star Jones on Celebrity Apprentice.

    Still, no one talks trash like that rapid-fire spitfire Cristy. After the luncheon, she and Larsa chat by their cars. “Who is Adriana anyway?” Cristy Rice demands. “She has to kiss Leah’s ass because she introduces her to men with money, and all she cares about is men with money.”

    Cristy roars off in her red Porsche, and we’re left briefly to wonder if the shame of Ticket-gate will force her into a fiery Butterfield 8-style cataclysm.

    Cristy? Never. But watch out Adriana, she just might be rolling up behind you.

    unspecified
    news/entertainment

    Movie Review

    Reminders of Him taps into grief, grace, and the power of moving on

    Alex Bentley
    Mar 13, 2026 | 10:30 am
    Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers in Reminders of HIm
    Photo by Michelle Faye / Universal Pictures
    Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers in Reminders of HIm.

    Texas author Colleen Hoover has gone from being a popular writer to a full-on celebrity in the 2020s. The new film Reminders of Him marks the third adaptation of her books in just 19 months (a fourth, Verity, is scheduled for release in October 2026). All of her books that have been adapted so far — most notably It Ends With Us — are female-led stories that feature elements of romance and trauma, catnip for studios looking to appeal to the underserved demographic of women.

    Leading the way in this film is Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe), who returns to her hometown of Laramie, Wyoming after spending years in prison for killing her boyfriend, Scotty (Rudy Pankow), in a car accident. That relationship resulted in a daughter, Diem (Zoe Kosovic), whom Kenna gave birth to while imprisoned and is now being raised by her grandparents, Patrick (Bradley Whitford) and Grace (Lauren Graham).

    Yearning to be a part of Diem’s life, Kenna tries to reconnect with Patrick and Grace, only to be rebuffed by Scotty’s best friend, Ledger (Tyriq Withers), a former NFL player who now owns a local bar. In running interference, Ledger starts to become closer to Kenna, discovering that her tragic mistake shouldn’t be the only thing that defines her.

    Directed by Vanessa Caswill and written by Lauren Levine, the film features mostly surface level examinations of its themes and average performances, yet it winds up being effective thanks to a willingness not to rush through its storytelling beats. The filmmakers take the slow and steady approach toward the coupling of Kenna and Ledger, setting up their bond through a series of heart-to-heart conversations that makes any romance feel earned.

    The majority of the focus is on Kenna reclaiming her place in the world, and on Ledger coming to terms with the fact that the person who killed his best friend is not inherently a bad person. The film definitely could have gone deeper in its explorations of grief and anger, but the sheer amount of time it takes in addressing the characters’ doubts and fears turns out to be sufficient for a film that’s not aiming to be considered a dramatic masterpiece.

    It also helps that Caswill and Levine do a solid job of establishing the variety of characters that inhabit the film. Kenna and Ledger don’t always feel like fully-formed people, but they become so through their interactions with each other and the other townspeople. Lady Diana (Monika Myers), a girl with Down syndrome who lives in Kenna’s apartment complex, and Roman (Nicholas Duvernay), Ledger’s co-worker at his bar, help to broaden the appeal of the two leads.

    Monroe has, to this point, been best known for starring roles in horror films like It Follows and Longlegs. While she does somewhat well in this role, her delivery is often more flat than you’d expect for a character going through what she does. Withers thankfully doesn’t remind viewers of his recent bomb Him, demonstrating a crossover appeal that should serve him well in the future. Whitford and Graham don’t get to do much, but their combined experience gives their roles exactly what is needed.

    It may sound like damning with faint praise, but Reminders of Him is a competently made film that knows how to serve its core audience without insulting anyone who may not automatically be all-in for such a story. The filmmakers don’t try to force any of the key moments down the audience’s throat, and that stands out in a genre that’s not always known for its subtlety.

    ---

    Reminders of Him opens in theaters on March 13.

    moviesfilm
    news/entertainment
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Houston intel delivered daily.
    Loading...