Viraldice

It’s no secret that Heidi Klum loves Halloween.

In lieu of throwing her annual bash due to coronavirus concerns, the model instead filmed a short horror movie to keep her fans entertained.

The flick stars Klum, husband Tom Kaulitz and her four children — Leni, 16, Henry, 14, Johan, 13, and Lou, 10 — whom she shares with ex-husband, Seal.

“Halloween is different this year,” she captioned the short on Instagram, “but that shouldn’t stop us from getting creative at home 👻 Be safe, be spooky, and spend time with family. 🎃🕸🦇🧛🏻‍♀️🧟‍♀️ #HeidiHalloween2020.”

Klum also spoke to People about the movie, sharing, “With lockdowns around the world this year, no Halloween parties or trick-or-treating, I knew I wanted to do a fun project at home with my family so I came up with the idea of shooting a short horror film that we could all star in.”

She went on, “It was such a fun way to get the whole family involved and my kids really enjoyed the process. Even though they have come to visit me on set many times throughout the years, they have never been in front of the camera like this learning how to remember lines and how to create costumes and makeup for a short film.”

Klum also emphasized the importance of getting into the holiday spirit, despite the current state of affairs in the world.

“Just because we can’t go out does not mean we can’t be creative and have fun,” she said. “It is so important to enjoy the arts and keep the creative juices flowing.

“I really wanted to keep the Halloween spirit alive by keeping up with our traditions and celebrations,” she went on. “I love to entertain people and make them laugh or surprised or shocked or scared. I like to show the artistry of what these amazing people can do and I love being the canvas for them to perform.”

It was a “bad and boujee” moment, to quote Migos’ biggest hit, when Beverly Hills police stopped the trio’s superstar rapper Offset on Oct. 24 after he drove his $90,000 Jeep Cherokee Trackhawk past a Trump rally.

The 28-year-old — real name Kiari Cephus — was in Los Angeles to perform at “Every Vote Counts: A Celebration of Democracy,” a musical event hosted by Alicia Keys where Offset would burnish his new image as an activist for the voting campaign and the Biden-Harris ticket.

Offset spokesman Derrian Perry told The Post the rapper was driving to meet his wife, Cardi B, at the Hermès boutique to shop for clothes for the show.

But drama intervened, as it often does with the flashy couple, who married in 2017 and have split up twice and reunited twice since then — most recently, last month. She was charged with felony assault in an attack on a bartender she accused of sleeping with Offset, and pleaded not guilty at her 2019 arraignment. The couple have a daughter, Kulture, 2, who is the youngest of Offset’s four kids with four women.

What happened last week differs depending on who is talking: Offset’s team, the cops, or those who say rap’s power couple doesn’t do anything by accident and that Offset livestreaming the incident on Instagram was a shrewd move.

Lt. Max Subin told The Post that officers were responding to a radio call that Offset had been waving guns at Trump supporters. He refused to get out of the car at first, loudly asking the officers if they knew who he was (as he told them, “I’m a f–king celebrity” and “Offset from the Migos. They got fans”) and threatening to sue. They handcuffed him while Offset live­streamed the incident to his millions of followers.

But the man Offset considers his father, a former history teacher and local NAACP president in Georgia, disputed Subin’s version of what went down.

Michael Woodward, 50, is technically the star’s stepfather and helped raise Offset with his wife Latabia, the rapper’s mother and manager. (Despite media reports to the contrary, Offset is not related to fellow Migos members Quavo and Takeoff — who are uncle and nephew, respectively — nor did he grow up in the same home with them.)

“We find [the detainment] troubling and may take this up with the powers that be,” Woodward told The Post. “The Trump supporters attacked his car . . . Where’s the proof anyone was waving a gun? This is why the voter campaign is so important. The police drew their guns for a traffic violation. This is how black men are being killed in this country.”

Earlier that day, Cardi seemed to foreshadow Offset’s trouble in a series of Instagram videos showing the Trump rally and saying, “I really feel like we’re gonna get jumped.

“Trump supporters are everywhere. I’m scared,” she added. “Look at this . . . look at this! Look how they walking around with fake guns and covering their f–king face. I don’t like this s–t.”

Cardi was caught on video getting out of a Rolls-Royce, screaming at police to release her husband before being restrained by friends.

“We think it was a targeted attack,” spokesman Derrian Perry told the Post. “There was no reason to stop him.”

Ultimately, Offset was released without being arrested or charged and Cardi’s cousin, Marcelo Almanzar, 20, was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon and brandishing it in public. He was released on $35,000 bail.

Some observers of the couple — each reportedly worth some $30 million — say they are as good at manipulating the media as they are at making music.

Cardi B’s 2017 debut single, ­“Bodak Yellow,” has nearly 1 billion views on YouTube, as does Migos’ “Bad and Boujee,” from 2016. Since then, Cardi has racked up several chart-toppers, including this year’s “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion, as well as a Grammy and a slew of other awards.

“Cardi B is one of those people I want to hate because she’s not that talented but, f–king hell, I love her,” a female hip-hop producer told The Post. “This bitch should not be famous. This is a stripper — no offense to strippers — who won a Grammy. But fair play to her. She did it. Then she got Offset.”

Just don’t mistake the pair for a hip-hop Romeo and Juliet, she said. “Love has nothing to do with it. The more they fight, the more press they get. These are not ­stupid people. Everything is a media stunt.”

Offset, who grew up in a middle-class suburban home outside Atlanta, talks so “street” in interviews, like last year on the syndicated “Breakfast Club” radio show, that it can be hard to understand him.

“No, he doesn’t talk that way at home,” Woodward said with a laugh. “But it’s part of the career narrative, being from the streets.”

He doesn’t talk that way at home. It’s part of the street narrative, being from the streets.

 - Michael Woodward, Offset’s father figure

The “career narrative” has worked. Migos formed in 2009 and since Drake’s remixed their song “Versace” in 2013, the group has soared, tying The Beatles for the most simultaneous spots on Billboard’s Hot 100. They also have a forthcoming new album to promote.

“Migos celebrates some of the very worst aspects of so-called black culture, like cars and drugs and misogyny,” hip-hop historian JayQuan told The Post. “Ironically, the rappers who were the best were really from the ’hood, like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. They were from the worst part of America at the time. But they never promoted the things that went on in their neighborhood. They told cautionary tales. Migos is the opposite.”

Offset recently filmed a voting public-service announcement in which he said a parole officer told him he could never vote after his first felony conviction at 17 — technically not true in the state of Georgia.

Cardi comes from the actual ’hood. The daughter of a strict Trinidadian mother and taxidriver father, she split time between the Highbridge section of The Bronx and her grandmother’s apartment in Washington Heights.

Now she spends a lot of her time in Offset’s world — Atlanta’s “black Hollywood” — where they hit up places like the famed strip club Magic City, but just as often hole up in one of Offset’s mansions or with his family.

“They come over here, they’re just a normal couple,” said Woodward. “They love me to make them Spanish rice, chicken, ribs. Cardi B loves my crab legs.”

Things were not always so chill between Woodward and his daughter-in-law. When Cardi first announced she was splitting from Offset in late 2018, Woodward reportedly posted a rant on Facebook calling her a “hotheaded female” with “psychological issues” who “seems to want to take everything to social media without regard to the devastation it has on others.”

Woodward denied that he posted anything like that, despite screenshots to the contrary, and said: “Everything has blown over and me and Cardi get along great.”

Despite a turbulent past, Woodward predicts great things.

“My wife is the brains and everything she and Offset do is about the future, the future, the future,” Woodward said. “They’re investing and Offset is expanding into acting, producing, you name it. Cardi B is the same way. They want careers that last and they want to hold on to their money.”

Boxer Floyd Mayweather will soon be a grandfather, as he’s confirmed that his 20-year-old daughter Iyanna “Yaya” Mayweather is expecting with boyfriend, rapper NBA Young Boy.

Mayweather confirmed the whispers on Hollywood Unlocked: Uncensored, revealing that his daughter is, indeed, pregnant, and that he simply wants what is best for her.

“Always want the best.” Floyd said. “If that makes her happy, then we’re happy — me and her mother [Melissia Rene Brim] are happy.

“What I try not to do is be in her personal business because once she’s no longer under my roof, then you know what? it’s between her and her better half,” he added.

Mayweather also addressed his potential son-in-law NBA Young Boy, who previously referred to the champ as Yaya’s “bitch ass daddy.”

“Well, my thing is this: it has to do with your upbringing,” the boxer responded. “It starts in the home first. What I’ve always taught my daughter is this: always be respectful when you’re going to anyone’s home. And whatever goes on in your home, don’t talk about it to the world.

“As far as NBA… I look at NBA YoungBoy as a child,” he continued. “I can’t get upset with a kid like that. It could’ve been one of those days for him.”

This will be Yaya’s first child and NBA Young Boy’s sixth.

Queen Elizabeth will hand the throne to Prince Charles when she turns 95 next year, the royal biographer claims.

“I still firmly believe when the Queen becomes 95, that she will step down,” Robert Jobson told a program on True Royalty TV, the Daily Mail reported.

Newsweek royal reporter Jack Royston agreed: “I think she won’t want to, but realistically she will get to a point where she has handed over everything to Charles and then how do you look your son in the eye and tell him he is not going to be king?”

Jobson, who is also a commentator, also criticized Prince Harry’s comments about his subconscious racial bias as “bare-faced hypocrisy.”

“I remember him making racial slurs about an Asian officer which was filmed by himself and distributed by his friends and he had to apologize for making racial comments,” Jobson said. “I find Harry telling everyone else that they are structurally racist hypocritical.”

The royal watcher was also skeptical about reports that Prince Andrew will return to royal duties, after he ducked from public sight following revelations about his entanglement with late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

“Can he come back from this? No. No way can he come back from this,” Jobson said. “He has to be cleared by the FBI. If he goes over there, he opens himself to a large can of worms. Whatever he was doing at the parties was unsavory.”

Kim Petras is pop music’s undisputed Halloween queen, having released a slew of songs dedicated to the spooky holiday over the past several years.

First, there was her  “Turn Off the Light Vol. 1” EP in 2018. The full-length “Turn Off the Light” album followed in 2019, and just last week, she added a hauntingly catchy new single to the mix, “Party Till I Die.”

“October is my favorite month of the year. I love Halloween and dressing up,” Petras, 28, told Page Six Style. “Movie villains are always my favorite characters in films. I love monsters, even from the old school like Frankenstein and Freddy [Krueger]. I’m just really obsessed with horror movies, and they inspired ‘Turn Off the Light.'”

Continued the pop star, “I always wondered why there are so many Christmas albums and no Halloween albums. I feel like it’s a very deserving holiday. We kept writing these spooky songs that all felt like they belonged in the same universe, and I thought it would be the coolest thing in the world to make a Halloween album. I’m so happy people love it.”

With its eerie synths and lyrics like, “I’mma end up dead, I’ll still be in Vetements,” “Party Till I Die” is sure to satisfy those thirsty for a ghoulish new end-of-October pop banger.

“I just wanted to give people one song as a lifeline until next year, when ‘Turn Off the Light Vol. 3’ will come,” Petras explained. “I couldn’t give them the whole thing, unfortunately, as I think 2020 is scary enough. And honestly, I didn’t feel very inspired with lockdown and the election being the same time as Halloween. It has been difficult to celebrate anything this year!”

Until it’s safe to party in public again, the “Malibu” singer wants to support NYC’s nightlife scene however she can — which inspired a colorful new video created in partnership with GLAAD and Bubly, set to her song “Close Your Eyes” and starring local drag performers like Pixie Aventura, Lagoona Bloo, Maxxx Pleasure, Rosé, Tina Burner, Zarria Powell and Merrie Cherry.

“I love and miss New York so much. I think New York nightlife and parties are some of the best in the world — they really go for the complete fantasy and I care a lot about the whole New York nightlife community,” Petras said. “I wanted to help the community in any way that I could and be a part of keeping nightlife workers and entertainers inspired, as they bring happiness to so many other people.”

And since hitting the clubs in costume isn’t exactly in the cards right now, Petras plans to host a “much more low-key” Halloween at home with a few friends instead.

“I intend on dressing up, though, and will be doing this one costume that I’ve wanted to do for a while … so let’s see how it goes,” she said.

Over the years, the pop star has channeled everyone from Miss Piggy to Sailor Moon on the holiday — and says she’s loved dressing up since her grade-school years.

“I was really proud of my Dracula costume,” she recalled of one of her earliest outfits. “I had these blood pills that I would bite and then spit out on the playground.”

We got a bizarre and unexpected glimpse this week into what a government agency thinks about various celebrities.

The Department of Health and Human Services tried to make a star-studded PSA about the coronavirus — but the since-shelved $300 million project went so awry that the House of Representatives launched an investigation into it.

Politico reported that the probe unearthed a strange list of more than 200 celebs that the department considered including in the PSA — along with various notes about them. The list, known as the “Celebrity Tracker,” notes that Bon Jovi appeals to “the elderly,” that Reese Witherspoon was, “arrested in 2013 due to drunk driving,” and that Millie Bobbie Brown “wore two political pins during the 2017 MTV Movie and TV awards” when she was 13-years-old.

It also listed who had accepted and declined the invitation to take part in the clip. Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Selena Gomez and Britney Spears all appeared to quickly decline, while it says by Morgan Freeman’s name, “Rep wants to see who else at his level signs before discussing.”

Chelsea Handler — along with several other women — has developed a bit of a crush on New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo, hilariously detailing her desires to get to know the politician in new stand-up special, “Evolution.”

Cuomo took the time to address Handler’s attempts to woo him on “The View,” Thursday, lightheartedly responding that he’s “had a lot of conversations about flattening the curve, but never quite that way!”

“I’m a big fan of Chelsea and she is great. We have fun,” he added.

The highly-sought after politico went on to joke that Handler’s California residence could prevent them from ever hooking up.

“On my dating life, you know, I am only dating, at this point, in-state residents,” Cuomo said in jest. “I’m dating New York residents. So if Chelsea changes her residence, then maybe we can work it out.”

Handler discussed her crush on “The View” days before Cuomo’s appearance, telling the panel, “First of all, he’s like a big giant. He came in like the Incredible Hulk,” she said. “We needed somebody to come on the scene, we were so dehydrated for real leadership that when he came on the scene looking like this big Italian hunk, he was like ‘wear a mask.’ I was like ‘I’ll wear a mask, I’ll put a mask on every part of my body. I wanna flatten your curve and you can flatten my curve and then we can both apex together.”

Where can you get a doorman, pool access and protection from marauding extremists?

The luxe Chelsea apartment building that has been home to Debbie Harry, Pete Davidson and Tim Gunn, among other bold-faced names, is hiring armed guards for Election Day, Page Six has learned.

London Terrace Towers sent out an email to residents which read, “As you are aware, government enforcement agencies across the country are making plans to control the possible civil unrest following the upcoming presidential election.”

“Regardless of the outcome of [Tuesday’s] election, our concerns range from isolated violent incidents to a long stretch of mass protests, confrontations between extremists, and potential property damage,” it continued.

So the management says they’re hiring extra guards to patrol the area. And insiders tell us that they’ll be carrying guns.
Other current and former residents of the building — where a four-bedroom apartment is currently on the market for $7.5million, and a two-bedroom is available for rent for $7,800-a-month — include Chelsea Clinton, Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Hader, Annie Leibovitz, Bridget Moynahan, tennis star Milos Raonic, iHeartRadio podcaster Rob Shuter and his Grammy-winning husband Bruce Sussman.

Said a resident, “It’s all a little much but this is Chelsea and with The Eagle leather bar closed due to the pandemic, no one is going to complain about seeing guys in uniform with a big gun!”

The residents of London Terrace are the only ones battoning down the hatches. The Post’s Jennifer Gould reported on Wednesday that the city’s “ultra rich are quietly preparing for civil unrest on Election Day — by hiring armed guards to stand watch over their luxury Manhattan buildings.”

A representative for the building didn’t respond to our request for comment.

Mary J. Blige was spotted at a VIP dinner for 10 to launch her new wine brand, Sun Goddess, at Brooklyn Chop House.

The eatery’s co-owner Don Pooh told us of the affair: “No celebrities attended, only business heavyweights… Mary went all the way to Italy to do research on wines,” in collaboration with Fantinel Winery.

“She is serious about this new business venture. It’s not just her name on the product.” The decor was black and gold, with yellow roses.

Seventies star Tony Orlando is getting his own late-night radio show, we’re told.

The “Tie A Yellow Ribbon” singer will be doing the 10pm to midnight slot on WABC Saturdays, and we’re told he’s hoping to have his celebrity pals like Adam Sandler and Lionel Ritchie call in.

John Catsimitidis, who bought the station in 2019, told us he brought in Orlando because, “I want to give New Yorkers, a city and people that I love, a chance to relax during these stressful Covid times. What better way than Saturday nights with six original programming hours of music with [DJ Cousin Brucie] and Tony.”

Amanda Kloots, widow of Broadway star Nick Cordero, is opening up about a family vase she had made using the late actor’s ashes. The piece also features handprints from Kloots and their 16-month-old son, Elvis Eduardo.

“My beautiful vase that Elvis and I made with some of Nicks ashes is done,” Kloots wrote Friday. “I cannot believe how it turned out.”

“Elvis and I put our handprints into the clay before it was fired and then she glazed the vase and added the heart design,” she added. “I intend to always keep flowers in this vase, reminding me of Nick every time I look at it.”

Last month, Kloots honored what would’ve been Cordero’s 42nd birthday, sharing photos taken from a friend’s party one year before the actor would succumb to coronavirus complications. 

“Happy 42nd Birthday baby 🎊 I bet you’re having quite the celebration up there, probably singing to everyone. Elvis and I will be singing here on earth to you ❤️.”

Who thought Halloween was a thing this year?

After Kim Kardashian faced backlash for surprising her “closest inner circle with a trip to a private island where we could pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time,” Kylie Jenner is off to a huge Halloween bash Saturday night, presumably to do the same, multiple sources confirmed to Page Six.

The party 23-year-old Jenner is attending has a guest list 100 people long, not including plus ones. Page Six won’t release all of the guests’ names or the location of the party for privacy reasons, but it includes Jenner’s usual crowd like best friend Stassie, Fai Khadra and more.

Though a source initially said Jenner, who already has dressed as a sexy Power Ranger with her friends, was hosting the party, her rep clarified that she was merely attending.

Not much has stopped Kylie, who was mysteriously absent from Kardashian’s 40th getaway trip to Tahiti, from partying. Earlier this month, she attended Cardi B’s blowout bash in Las Vegas, which could be why she had to miss Kardashian’s party, as she required her pals to quarantine for two weeks ahead of the trip.

Khloé Kardashian also revealed on an episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” this week that she battled COVID-19 earlier this year and said it was “super scary.”

“I just was quarantined in my room for 16 days. We had to wait until I had negative test results for me to leave. And that was the hardest part,” she reflected on “Ellen.” “I don’t care how beautiful of a place you have, being taken away from your child for that long, because I couldn’t be around my daughter, that was the most heart wrenching thing.”

Sean Connery, the first actor to portray James Bond on the big screen and one of the most popular movie stars of the last century, has died, BBC reports. He was 90.

Thomas Sean Connery was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Aug. 25, 1930. The son of a cleaning woman and a factory worker, Connery, who started going by his middle name in his youth, had a younger brother, Neil, who would also go on to be an actor. Before turning to acting, he worked as a milkman and then enlisted in the Royal Navy. He’d later receive a medical discharge because of a duodenal ulcer. Athletic in his youth, Connery started bodybuilding when he was 18 and even competed in the 1953 Mr. Universe competition.

It was during his bodybuilding days that a cash-strapped Connery started acting. His first role was in a London production of “South Pacific” in the early ‘50s. Initially cast as a chorus boy, he moved up to a full role as the production went on. Bitten by the acting bug, Connery kept working though success didn’t come easily. While he’d pick up more roles in theater, TV and, eventually, movies, he was still forced to work odd jobs to make ends meet for much of the decade, even working as a babysitter at one point.

It wasn’t until 1962 that he had his breakthrough when he was cast as James Bond in “Dr. No,” the first film adaptation of Ian Fleming’s beloved spy series. Although he was initially hesitant to commit to a franchise, the films would prove to be a massive success and make Connery an international sex symbol. He would go on to play the character six more times in “From Russia with Love” (1963), “Goldfinger” (1964), “Thunderball” (1965), “You Only Live Twice” (1967), “Diamonds Are Forever” (1971) and “Never Say Never Again” (1983). Though the character would be played by five other actors on the big screen, it’s the Scottish actor who is still most associated with the role.

As much of a success as the Bond films were, Connery soon grew tired of the role, once saying “I’d like to kill him.” He had no shortage of success when he left the franchise, though, starring in a number of the biggest films of the next three decades. Though he’d butt heads with his fellow actors, director and producers films like “Time Bandits” (1982), “The Untouchables” (1988), for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989), “The Hunt for Red October” (1990) and “The Rock” (1996) made sure he became a film icon for more than just his time in a tux.

Despite a career that stretched over five decades, a series of late career flops, and turning down such successes as “The Matrix” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, sped up the actor’s disillusionment with Hollywood, and in 2007, at the age of 77, he decided to retire from acting for good.

Right as his career was about to take off in 1962, Connery wed Australian actress Diane Cilento. They’d divorce 11 years later in 1973, but not before having a son, Jason, who’d go on to become an actor himself. Two years after his split with Cilento, Connery wed Moroccan-French painter Micheline Roquebrune, who he remained married to until his death.

A proud Scot — he had a tattoo that read “Scotland Forever” — Connery was a member of the Scottish National Party, which pushed for the country’s independence from the UK. His political beliefs are rumored to have stopped him from being knighted in 1997 and 1998, though Queen Elizabeth II would eventually bestow the honor upon him in 2000 in his native Edinburgh.

Oscar-winning actor Sean Connery has died, the BBC reported.

The Scottish actor, best known for his portrayal of James Bond, was 90.

His acting career spanned decades and his many awards included an Oscar, two Bafta awards and three Golden Globes.

This is a developing story.

In 1986, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, a micro-budget horror film from first-time director John McNaughton, disturbed critics and audiences so much that it challenged the paradigms for on-screen violence. Loosely based on real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, whose crimes spanned 1960 to 1983 (he was convicted of the murder of 11 people but confessed to hundreds more), the film debuted at the Chicago International Film Festival and gained infamy on the festival circuit where it was championed by Roger Ebert.

The Motion Picture Association classified Henry with an ‘X’ rating, normally reserved for pornographic films. They advised McNaughton the rating would not change no matter what edits were made. Even its poster, by outsider artist Joe Coleman, was deemed too disturbing and outré, and was promptly withdrawn.

Alongside Pedro Almodóvar’s erotic farce Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and Peter Greenaway’s grotesque gastro-satire The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Henry was responsible for the creation of the NC-17 rating. It eventually received a theatrical release in North America in January 1990.

In the UK, the road to release was even more protracted and drawn out. After insisting on a series of edits to remove images of a dead woman with a broken bottle embedded in her face, and another woman being groped as she is murdered, the BBFC agreed to release the film as an ‘18’ in 1992, but then in 1993 they requested the removal of two additional murder scenes.

It was not until 2003 that the film was available in the UK in its uncut form. All this worrying about the fragile sensibilities of the British public eventually served to frame Henry as being emblematic of a moral panic at the centre of society, and the BBFC’s finicky excisions served the adverse effect of turning the film into a cause célèbre. It even became a mainstay discussion point of Media Studies classrooms across the country.

Watching it now, it’s hard to see the justification for such outrage from the state authorities. The violence and gore onscreen is not particularly gratuitous; milder than any of the films in the Saw franchise and many episodes of serialised prestige television such as Game of Thrones, Hannibal or American Horror Story. But while those shows can shield the viewer from violence with veils of fantasy, style or camp, there is something in Henry that is inescapably bone-chilling.

The film’s title is misleading as it evokes the kind of artistic gentleman killer that Anthony Hopkins would win an Oscar for in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. This is a film with a comparable level of violence and murder to Henry, and to which the BBFC had no objection, having since downgraded its classification from ‘18’ to ‘15’. It begs the question, why are we more accepting of violence when it is committed by an ingenious criminal mastermind than a mundane everyman?

Henry (Michael Rooker) is barely literate and has none of the style, intelligence or integrity of Lecter. He is a paragon of purposeless, mundane evil. As Lecter delights in his recollections of murdering a man and eating his liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti, Henry cannot remember whether he shot or stabbed his mother. His modus operandi is simple; change your weapons, change your method of disposing of the body and don’t stay in any one place for too long. With that alone Henry is able to continue on as an apex predator with an unquenchable thirst for misery.

Unlike The Silence of the Lambs, Henry does not have a typical narrative: there is no investigation; no vengeance in the works; no prison to escape from. Instead it tells the story of the outwardly unremarkable Henry over a few weeks, as he stays with his friend Otis (Tom Towles) and his sister Becky (Tracy Arnold), and calmly goes about his business of murder. There’s not even a particular pattern that he follows: sometimes he kills out of anger; sometimes out of a dispassionate, obscure compulsion to do so.

He tentatively begins a relationship with the sweet and oblivious Becky but there is no true redemption to be had. Otis and Becky also have real-life counterparts in murderer and arsonist Ottis Toole, who was convicted of six murders but, like Henry Lee Lucas, confessed to hundreds more. Becky is based on Ottis’ 12-year-old niece Frieda “Becky” Powell but casting a child in this role was a step too far even for this film.

The story opens on the aftermath of the violence – the camera slowly glides over mutilated corpses as the agonised screams of a victim play out on the soundtrack. In contrast, Henry is un-phased — almost childlike in his comportment. Otis is comparatively grotesque, with rotting oversized teeth and a penchant for molesting teenage boys, corpses and his own sister.

Otis is pure id, his gleeful violence stemming from the same place as his insatiable sexual dysfunction. He is a more familiar genre presence and would have not been out of place sat at the dinner table in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Henry, on the other hand, is an unfeeling, cold-eyed psychopath, taking no joy in the tangled mass of decomposing limbs he leaves in his wake. Rooker, with a storied career as a character actor and a devoted genre following is probably best known for his scene-stealing turn as perma-screaming alien mercenary Yondu in the Guardians of the Galaxy films.

Even with the hindsight of his acting prowess and range, that this performance was his debut is miraculous. He is at once subtle and intensely physical, playing Henry with an understated menace and accomplishing an almost metaphysical impossibility of conveying a void. The scene where Becky tells him that she loves him is among the most terrifying. Rooker’s skin grows taut across his bones and eyes recess into dark sockets as he replies, slow and unblinking, “I guess I love you too,” before another unspeakable act.

The film reaches its apex (or nadir, depending on whether or not you work for the BBFC) in its infamous videotape scene. Henry and Otis, having recently acquired a camcorder and a colour television, record themselves massacring an entire family and later watch back the results. The entire sequence is shown with uncut blunt force realism via their television set. The scene, that the BBFC cut down to a fleeting few seconds, is the film at its most powerful and uncompromising. By framing this intense brutality through a television set, the film confronts us, the audience, with our motives for watching.

For all of the cannibalism, severed heads and skin suits in The Silence of the Lambs, nothing in it penetrates your skin quite like these screams for mercy and snapping of necks. There is no flair or stylisation to shield you from the bleak reality of a sadistic home invasion. While much horror trivialises murder this scene unflinchingly confronts it. Our role as voyeurs of violence and sexual assault is made explicit and uncomfortable. It establishes Henry as both an exceptional entry to the horror canon and a chilling commentary on it.

Although this film’s use of violence can be contextualised, its infamy is deserved. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer doesn’t seek to entertain so much as delve into the depths of human depravity. In portraying this man, unadorned, unemotional, cold and callous, the violence on screen retains a brutal purity that shocks and repulses. What the critics and censors saw in 1986 is the rare power of raw sadism on screen, made all the more terrifying by its mundane familiarity.

Paula Jai Parker and Taraji P. Henson once put their heads together — literally — to help a woman avoid a suitor they thought was bad news.

“Taraji and I actually bumped heads warning this one chick like, literally, on the dance floor,” Parker said of a night out in Los Angeles. “We were literally telling her, ‘Don’t dance with that man right there! Don’t do it!’ ”

But during the dance-floor intervention, “we turned around and bumped heads and we were a little dizzy.” Henson advised Parker after the collision, “ ‘Don’t act dizzy, don’t act dizzy!’ We were like, ‘Stay cool, stay cool.’ We hoped nobody saw us.”

She said of the incident: “Let’s put our heads together . . . We warned that girl … She kept dancing for a minute with him, but then she stopped. So I think she heard us … It worked out very well for her now.”

Parker — who’s had roles in the films “Friday,” “Hustle & Flow” and “Phone Booth” — is now starring in the TV series “Family Time” on Bounce.

When Ariana Grande surprised fans by announcing the release of her sixth studio album, even one of her producers was caught by surprise.

But music whiz Tommy Brown told WSJ. Magazine that Grande’s a “guru” at knowing when to drop new material. Her latest, “Positions,” was recorded over the past few months at Grande’s and Brown’s home studios, and Brown said the coronavirus lockdown helped the creative process.

“I mean, if you ask me, I’ve been quarantining for the last couple years,” he said. But, “There weren’t meetings, there wasn’t a tour, there weren’t deadlines … There was a lot of, I don’t know what’s happening.”

He said of his preference for using live instruments: “Somebody told me once, it would be better if I knew how to play the guitar … I was like, yes, but I know the best guitar player in the world and I’ll never be better. Like, where’s he at? Let’s bring him in.”

Grande’s 2019 hit album “Thank U, Next,” was recorded by the star with Brown and other songwriters amid a sea of Champagne, but last fall Brown got sober. “I just realized, you don’t have to always drink,” he said.