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Not knowing a thing about the new film Bad Apples, which is having its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, it took me awhile to realize “Oh wait, this is really a very, very dark comedy.” So once I got what director Jonathan Etzler and writer Jess O’ Kane were up to, I could more comfortably go with a premise that is so out there in terms of credibility and could relax and actually laugh at the absurdity of it all.

It all starts innocently enough, especially if you’ve seen the number of school-based movies as I have, so many of them highlighted with warlike confrontations between teacher and student(s) (i.e., Blackboard Jungle, Up the Down Staircase, Lean On Me, etc., etc). Thus when this well-meaning educator, Marie (Saoirse Ronan), attempts to keep her class under control and engaged while giving a lesson in the deep meaning of lyrics to Ricki Lee Jones’ “On Saturday Afternoons in 1963,” I wasn’t shocked that it failed to hold their attention. But when one of the 10-year-olds in the class, Danny (Eddie Waller), starts disrupting the proceedings, throwing things and generally creating pure mayhem, I just thought why don’t they lock this kid up and throw away the key?

When that actually happens a bit later in the film, in even more hard-to-fathom circumstances, I finally realized this is supposed to be funny, and eventually it kicks in. Before that seminal moment however, Danny goes full terrorist even to the point of attacking and breaking the arm of another student, Pauline (Nia Brown). Nevertheless, good teacher that she is, Marie actually tries to help Danny, first pleading with his reluctant and absent working single dad Josh (Robert Emms), who is too busy to even hear about it, although you just know this is a guy who has brushed off complaints about his son before. But then, during a rainstorm, Marie tries to — figuratively — rope Danny like a wild horse, resulting in a knock-down drag-out fight, and then putting him in the back of her car before speeding away. In no time they are at her house and, impulsively making a very bad judgment, she locks the kid away in her basement.

In a sane world Marie would have done something about getting Danny back to his own home and alerting the school authorities and his father, but this is not what she does. Instead, Danny is a captive in her home, for days into weeks. His absence goes from a missing person to one presumed kidnapped, but no one seems to have a clue. Meanwhile, Marie takes decent care of him as he is held prisoner, even eventually playing his beloved video games and having reasonable conversations. At the same time, as these weeks go by, there are passionate school meetings she attends where the mystery of Danny’s disappearance is topic No. 1 with the school leadership, with the other parents, with Josh, you name it, but she doesn’t say a thing. Soon parents are suddenly thrilled, as is she, that her class is improving noticeably, grades are going up up up, and things are better than ever. Marie realizes Danny was the roadblock, so why give up the goose? She’s now a star teacher! Potential trouble arises when the wily victim of Danny’s, Pauline, starts snooping around the house, hears Danny’s voice and starts to bargain for her silence. Oh yeah, things get, uh, complicated — and funnier if you go with it.

Ronan, never known for playing comedy, especially one as dark as this, perfectly underplays her new status, which is why it works. If Marie were over the top the whole cookie would crumble, but Ronan is too good an actress to let that happen and she has the comic chops. She is well matched with Waller, who was a real find by casting director Fiona Weir in the north of England and had never acted. He’s a natural, especially as a kid with pent-up frustration with the world around him, a kid who needs understanding and compassion but doesn’t get it in a society that just thinks the best thing is to make him go away. Brown as the crafty Pauline is the true scene stealer, negotiating terms of terror herself. The funniest bit was when she forces Marie to let her endlessly sing every verse of her miserable holiday song in front of a parents meeting. LOL.

The Swedish Etzler, a former Student Academy Award winner, lets the dark tone of this all, and especially its absurd nature, shine through right to the pitch-perfect ending.

Bad Apples comes from Paramount subsidiary Republic Pictures and is looking for distribution, much the same way the Oscar-nominated September 5 was last season before Paramount came to it senses and released it itself after much film festival praise. We shall see what happens with the very deserving Bad Apples.

Producer is Oskar Pimlott.

Title: Bad Apples
Festival: Toronto (Special Presentations)
Director: Jonathan Etzler
Screenwriter: Jess O’Kane
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Eddie Waller, Nia Brown, Jacob Anderson, Rakie Ayola, Robert Emms, Sean Gilder
Sales agent: Republic Pictures
Running time: 1 hr 40 mins

Imagine this mash-up of modern pop culture: Heather Graham’s Boogie Nights disco queen Rollergirl, 70’s early athleisure wear, hip hop royalty, rock ‘n’ roll, punk, dance and snappy dressed pro skaters decked out for an after-hours club. They all came together for a kinetic night of fashion at Dover Street Market downtown on Thursday, Sept. 4, for the release of Flipper’s, a new line of skating and clubbing clothes by Liberty Ross.

Surrounded by Dover Street’s wares — exalted avantgarde luxury clothes by Comme des Garçons, Margiela, Phoebe Philo and more, with exalted prices to match — were roller girls and boys decked out in Flipper’s shorts, slip-sliding through designer racks with their serving trays of canned Gin & Juice like something out of a 60’s outdoor movie with a hip-hop twist.  Not your usual clothing launch; you rarely see a reasonably priced sporting line (with most items ranging from $200 to $500) in this kind of store.

Then again, not everyone’s Liberty Ross. The famed British model was discovered at age 13 by Mario Testino, and has appeared in many issues of Vogue, walked many runways and been the face of Givenchy. Not to mention her grandfather was Lord Killearn, and her father, Ian “Flipper” Ross, founded pirate radio with his creation of Radio Caroline, changing the tune of British radio — British music itself — forever.

These days, the U.K. transplant and her husband, mega-mogul producer Jimmy Iovine (co-creator with Dr. Dre of billionaire dollar headphones brand Beats), are active art collectors and philanthropists. But Ross’s true passion? Roller skating. “Ask any of the serious skaters here,” she said at the release soiree of the line that she has planned for years, with input from business partner Usher. “Why do you love skating?’ — they’ll say one word: freedom.” A purposeful choice of words from a woman named Liberty?

She and Iovine built a full rollerskating rink in their home, a sort of private club where they welcome mostly VIP friends and skater pals. “It’s really about community,” explains Ross. “Though people come over, see it and say, ‘I thought I’d seen everything in L.A.: in-house theaters, basketball or tennis courts — but never a roller rink!’ My favorite date with my husband is skating. We have so much fun. We feel like five-years-olds. Skating is like the fountain of youth.”

The party really got cooking with the arrival of Iovine’s megawatt music pals, including Dre, plus Benny Blanco, Swizz Beats, will.i.am, all imbibing Gin & Juice. Also in attendance were Liberty’s fashion friends RSVP’d, as well as her brother, Atticus Ross, Oscar-winning co-composer, with Trent Reznor, of numerous soundtracks including The Social Network.

Piles of her colorful, nostalgic coffee table book Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace sit on shelves. It tells the story of her dad “Flipper” Ross and his notorious Hollywood club of the same name, which burned hot and fast for just three years, 1979 to 1981 — the same duration of another cult club Studio 54. Flipper’s Boogie Palace at LaCienega and Santa Monica was also the A lister’s night spot of its time, the roller disco home of the trendy (including a young Laura Dern), many in glitter hot pants ready for the rowdy rink.

On Thursday, waiters and skaters wear Flipper’s pieces, as, naturally, does Ross: the line’s black net tunic, cropped-tube top, to which she added black leggings and six-inch tight black boots, your not-so-average skater punk/rocker chic, with some requisite goth eyeshadow for cool measure. “Everything’s about layering,” she explains. “You can wear Flipper’s on wheels or not, it works with everything. The skating community has really taken to it. I’m so close with them all now,, after doing Flipper’s pop-up rinks all over we’ve created (New York’s Rockefeller Center, London, the Hollywood Palladium). So the clothes have been a very natural evolution. First, we put out our book in Dover Street in 2021. Then we did the Hollywood Palladium pop up, NYC, London. I actually got Rockefeller Center to “lend” us their ice rink, which we covered — I don’t know how I pulled it off for two summers.”

Now, following international pop-ups, a book, the clothing line, would Ross and husband Iovine build a permanent L.A. roller rink, in addition to their own?

“I never expected to do a clothing line or any of this,” she laughs. “So, maybe. Skating is clearly in my blood. And for some reason, it’s always been a minority sport. I’m trying to change that, champion it.”

Across the store, we spy some super cool pro-skater gal friends donning Flipper’s best piece: the Night Spin Crop nylon bomber ($257), looking like something straight out of a Loewe campaign. A re-do of her parents’ 1979 original roller skates design is already selling at Dover and Flipper’s website: blue suede, red laces ($500).

“Many many skaters all have my number,” Ross laughs. “They come and stay with me; I invite the whole community over to skate every month. Our rink events are like L.A.’s best kept secret — an amazing sound system. Skating a moving meditation. I say: “less scroll, more roll!”

Yeah, it would be hard, yacking on an iPhone while you’re roller skating. Social media was hardly a distraction in 1979. Clearly, skating at that time was the distraction.

“A lot of what we do is reimagining, rehashing what my parents did. The graphics, the iconography. I’m so honored to do the launch here — my favorite store in the world. This was a great place to start.”

The U.S. Open women’s finals are here, with Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova facing off for the final Grand Slam title of the year. The stars have been in the stands of Arthur Ashe Stadium all tournament long, and this rainy afternoon in New York City was no different.

Among those who walked the U.S. Open’s blue carpet before the match include actress Naomi Watts, who wore a white halterneck dress, accessorizing with a Panama hat and oval-shaped sunglasses. She carried a Ralph Lauren Collection cotton bucket bag to complete her outfit.

While it’s hard to tell what exact dress Watts is wearing, this Sandro dress has a similar neckline:

Sandro Paris Wrap maxi dress

Inside the staidum, Watts sat with Chelsea Handler and Retta to watch the championship match.

Naomie Watts, Chelsea Handler, and comedian Retta attend the Women’s Singles Final match. Behind them is Shonda Rhimes.

This is her third time attending the U.S. Open in recent years; she was also at the women’s singles finals in 2023, when Coco Gauff beat Sabalenka, and in the audience for the men’s quaterfinals in 2022.

Watts waves an Australian flag at the the 2022 U.S. Open quarterfinals, cheering for an Australian player.

Billy Crudup and Watts at the 2023 U.S. Open women’s finals.

Watts has been in New York City lately as she films American Love Story, the Ryan Murphy show about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. Watts plays Jackie Kennedy, and has been pictured filming in Central Park and on the Upper West Side.

Watts and Paul Kelly in character as Jackie and John Jr.

Last week, however, she and husband Billy Crudup were in Venice for the premiere of his film Jay Kelly.

Billy Crudup and Naomi Watts on the Jay Kelly red carpet during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.

“I love fashion. I’ve always been into clothing; it’s something I notice,” she shared a few years ago about her style choices. “Overall, I want to feel comfortable, and I don’t like it when people say, ‘Oh, that’s not age appropriate.’ Look at some of the greatest style icons around — Vivienne Westwood, for example. She wears exactly what she wants and totally owns it.”

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Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.

EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick has been axed from the soap after 19 years, the BBC has confirmed.

Borthwick, 31, portrayed the character of Jay Brown and was one of the show’s longest-serving cast members, having arrived on Albert Square in 2006.

Earlier this year, he was suspended by the BBC after using a slur against people with disabilities on the set of Strictly Come Dancing.

A BBC Studios spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Jamie Borthwick will not be returning to EastEnders. We do not comment on individual matters.”

BBC News has contacted Borthwick’s representatives for a comment.

According to the Mirror, Borthwick had been due to return to set this month to restart filming after the suspension.

But he has now been dropped altogether.

In June, the BBC said his language on the set of Strictly was “entirely unacceptable and in no way reflects the values or standards we hold and expect”.

At the time, Borthwick – who took part in Strictly’s 20th anniversary series last year – apologised for “any offence and upset”.

Disability charity Scope said Borthwick should reflect on what he said and educate himself.

“We hope he takes the opportunity to get to know the reality of disabled people’s lives,” said the organisation’s media manager Warren Kirwan.

Borthwick rose to fame for his portrayal of Jay Brown (previously Mitchell) in BBC soap EastEnders.

He has starred in it since 2006, making him one of the longest-serving actors on the show.

Borthwick has won a British Soap Award for best dramatic performance from a young actor, and an Inside Soap Award for best actor.

The actor took part in the latest series of Strictly, where he was paired with professional dancer Michelle Tsiakkas.

It marked a return to the ballroom for him, after he won the 2023 Christmas special.

He made it through to Blackpool week – seen as a key milestone in the contest – but was voted off later in November, making him the ninth celebrity to leave the show.