Down with Love: Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger’s perfectly offbeat 60s fantasy
In May 2003, a romcom starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor seemed like a surefire recipe for success.Zellweger had just earned consecutive best actress Oscar nominations for Bridget Jones’ Diary and Chicago, and McGregor had leading roles in zeitgeist-defining hits including Moulin Rouge and Star Wars.But on release, Down with Love barely made a dent at the box office, and audiences and critics alike were baffled by its camp sensibility and embrace of artifice.In the film, Zellweger plays writer Barbara Novak, who arrives in New York City in 1962 to publish her feminist manifesto, Down with Love.Novak’s book encourages women to reject romance, embrace sex and refute the rigid gender roles of 50s America, and with the help of her publisher, Vikki (Sarah Paulson), Down with Love becomes a worldwide phenomenon – much to the chagrin of “man’s-man-ladies’-man-man about town” Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor).
Block, the star journalist at the Esquire-esque Know Magazine, suspects Novak to be a fraud and quickly plans to write a damning exposé on the author to prove that all women, despite what they say, want love.Posing undercover as the airheaded astronaut Zip Martin, Block seduces the now world-famous Novak; what follows is a delightfully deranged game of cat and mouse where, naturally, our leading nemeses fall for each other.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningThe plot of Down with Love is mostly nonsensical, hinging entirely upon a third-act twist delivered by Zellweger in a breathless “oner”, followed by a truly astounding wig reveal.Yet the zany, double entendre-laden screenplay is cheekily subversive, forgoing the traditional endings of the films that inspired Down with Love so that Barbara can get the guy without sacrificing her feminist values.The movie also has a deliciously queer thread, with openly gay actors Sarah Paulson and David Hyde Pierce playing the respective lead’s best friends.
Despite the pair’s eventual romance of convenience, the film is incredibly sympathetic to the plight of queer people hiding in plain sight, trying to survive the heteronormativity of the 60s while hilariously satirising the rigidity of traditional gender and sexual performance.Down with Love’s thematic fascination with performance is only enhanced by its synthetic, candied hues.Aping the moviemaking techniques of early Hollywood, the film uses rear projection, painted skylines and large studio sets to convey its dream-like vision of New York.The sets are laden with visual gags – from phallic telescopes to a suggestive split-screen phone call – and enhanced further by veteran designer Daniel Orlandi’s bewitching costumes.Only a few years before Mad Men would propel shift dresses and impeccable suiting into the collective imagination, Down with Love was recognising the enduring legacy of 60s attire.
In retrospect, it’s hardly surprising that mainstream audiences were less than interested in a note-perfect homage to the sex comedies of yesteryear, such as 1959’s Pillow Talk and 1961’s Lover Come Back.But as conversations about sexuality and gender grow increasingly polarised, Down with Love’s critique still remains relevant despite its 60s setting.The rise of the tradwife and redpilled men threaten to draw culture back to the subjugation of mid-century conservatism, romanticising a time when women had minimal autonomy.Down with Love, while still embracing the nostalgic fantasy, invites us to imagine a world where women and queer people can have it all – love, sex, equality – and look good doing it, too.Down with Love is available to stream on Disney+ in Australia and the UK and available to rent in the US.
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WPP to sell assets and cut jobs in radical shake-up to counter AI threat
The beleaguered UK advertising group WPP has announced a radical restructure to counter the threat posed by the growth of artificial intelligence, including plans to sell assets and job cuts.Aiming to be “a simpler, lower-cost, AI-enabled business”, the London-based company laid out plans to achieve £500m of annual savings by 2028, at a cost of £400m over two years.Cindy Rose, the chief executive who took over last summer, said the company was “unveiling a bold plan for a simpler, more integrated WPP that’s fit for the future and built to win”. It has struggled to stem a growing exodus of clients and is racing to match the AI and data capabilities of rivals, amid fears that AI will allow customers to bring more marketing functions in-house.Rose said WPP had identified several assets that it wanted to shed, without naming them
Ocado to cut 1,000 jobs in £150m cost-saving drive
Ocado is to cut 1,000 jobs as the retail technology business attempts to slash £150m in costs though a substantial restructuring programme.The company confirmed that about 5% of its global workforce will be affected. About two-thirds of the jobs are expected to go from the UK, where the company is based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. About half the jobs going are in technology, with the rest made up of support staff.The business, which provides technology for robotic warehouses for supermarket chains, said it plans to scale back research and development, helping it cut about £150m in technology and support costs in 2026
Qantas unveils major changes to frequent flyer program and a bumper $1.46bn profit
Qantas is overhauling its frequent flyer program to entice members to climb its vaunted membership tiers, in changes designed to prevent customers from switching to rival schemes.The reforms, described by the airline as the “biggest changes to status in program history”, have been unveiled during a hugely profitable period for Qantas, with revenue rising across its domestic, international and loyalty scheme businesses.On Thursday, Qantas announced planned changes to the loyalty scheme to allow members to roll over some of their status credits - the currency used to determine membership tiers - helping people reach or maintain high levels such as gold and platinum.This differs from the previous system of unused credits resetting to zero at the end of a holder’s membership year.However, the amount of credits needed to keep status levels is increasing, according to analysis from comparison site Finder
Lawyers for US cancer sufferers challenge Bayer’s $7.25bn Roundup settlement deal
A group of 14 law firms representing nearly 20,000 plaintiffs is seeking to intervene in Bayer’s proposed class-action settlement of Roundup litigation, citing concerns that the deal will not be fair to cancer sufferers.The group filed both a motion to intervene and a motion for an extension of time for court preliminary approval of the deal in St Louis city circuit court in Missouri late on 24 February.The law firms say the deal appears “unprecedented” and raises multiple “red flags”.“It is hard to escape the impression that the proposed settlement would give Monsanto everything it desires – a near-complete release of liability for Monsanto and its parent company, Bayer AG – while giving inadequate consideration to many putative class members, who would surrender their substantive rights in exchange for settlement offers that may never result in payment,” the law firms state in their motion.Bayer and a different group of plaintiffs’ lawyers filed the settlement proposal with the court on 17 February, with a provision to seek preliminary court approval within a 15-day period
Public health advocates say more transparency needed in debate over illicit tobacco as industry links questioned
A former Australian Border Force officer who has positioned himself before government inquiries as Australia’s “foremost law enforcement expert” on illicit tobacco also advises nicotine industry-linked organisations – leading public health advocates to argue that more transparency is needed.Rohan Pike, who spent more than two decades in law enforcement and now runs a consultancy, has become a prominent media commentator on the illicit tobacco trade, promoting policies that align with those supported by the tobacco industry.Those positions include opposing further excise increases on cigarettes and pushing for the legalisation of nicotine pouches.In May he was appointed as an illicit-trade adviser to the Global Institute for Novel Nicotine Products (Ginn), a UK-based trade association representing manufacturers of alternative nicotine products, including pouches and “heat not burn” nicotine products. Pike said he does not receive funding or payment from Ginn
France’s Engie strikes deal to buy UK Power Networks for £10.5bn
A French utility has agreed to buy the owner of the electricity cables and power lines across London, the south-east and the east of England in a deal worth £10.5bn.Paris-headquartered Engie said on Wednesday that it had struck a deal to buy UK Power Networks (UKPN) in a “major milestone” for the company’s ambition to become the “best energy transition utility”.Engie will buy the electricity network operator, which operates about 192,000km of power lines serving 8.5 million customers across London and southern and eastern England, from a Hong Kong-based conglomerate founded by billionaire business magnate Li Ka-shing, which has owned UKPN for the past 15 years
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