“I can’t wait to make 10 more movies,” Kristen Stewart told AFP the morning after making what Rolling Stone called “one hell of a directorial debut” at the Cannes film festival.Nor can film critics judging from the rave reviews of “The Chronology of Water”, her startling take on the American swimmer Lidia Yuknavitch’s visceral memoir of surviving abuse as a child.All the producers who Stewart said passed on her script, saying its subject matter made it “really unattractive” to audiences, must now be crying into their champagne. Variety called it “a stirring drama of abuse and salvation, told with poetic passion”, while Indiewire critic David Ehrlich said “there isn’t a single millisecond of this movie that doesn’t bristle with the raw energy of an artist”.The fact that she has got such notices with what is normally a no-no subject in Hollywood — and with an avant-garde approach to the storytelling — is remarkable.”I definitely don’t consider myself a part of the entertainment industry,” said the “Twilight” saga star, dressed head to toe in Chanel.And those looking for something light and frothy would do better to avoid her unflinching film.Stewart has long been obsessed with the story and with Yuknavitch’s writing, and fought for years to make the movie her way.”I had just never read a book like that that is screaming out to be a movie, that needs to be moving, that needs to be a living thing,” she told AFP.That Yuknavitch was “able to take really ugly things, process them, and put out something that you can live with, something that actually has joy” is awe-inspiring, she added.- ‘Book is a total lifeboat’ -“The reason I really wanted to make the movie is because I thought it was hilarious in such a giddy and excited way, like we were telling secrets. I think the book is a total lifeboat,” said Stewart, who also wrote the screenplay.It certainly saved Yuknavitch and made her a cult writer, with her viral TED Talk “The Beauty of Being a Misfit” inspiring a spin-off book, “The Misfit’s Manifesto”. “Being a woman is a really violent experience,” Stewart told AFP, “even if you don’t have the sort of extreme experience that we depict in the film or that Lidia endured and came out of beautifully”. Stewart insisted there were no autobiographical parallels per se that drew her to the original book.But “I didn’t have to do a bunch of research (for the film). I’m a female body that’s been walking around for 35 years. Look at the world that we live in. “I don’t have to have been abused by my dad to understand what it is like to be taken from, to have my voice stifled, and to not trust myself. It takes a lot of years (for that) to go.”I think that this movie resonates with anyone who is open and bleeding, which is 50 percent of the population.”Stewart — who cast singer Nick Cave’s son Earl as the swimmer’s first husband and Sonic Youth rock band’s Kim Gordon as a dominatrix — told reporters she was never really tempted to play Yuknavitch herself. – ‘We are walking secrets’ -Instead she cast British actor Imogen Poots, who she called “the best actress of our generation. She is so lush, so beautiful and she’s so cracked herself open in this”.”She has this big boob energy in the film — even though she is quite flat-chested — these big blue eyes and this long hair.”She described her movie’s fever-dream energy as “a pink muscle that is throbbing” and that Poots was able to tap into, channelling Yuknavitch’s ferocious but often chaotic battle to rebuild herself and find pleasure and happiness in her life.”Pain and pleasure, they’re so tied, there’s a hairline fracture there,” Stewart told the Cannes Festival’s video channel.Yuknavitch’s book “sort of meditates on what art can do for you after people do things to your body — the violation and the thievery, the gouging out of desire. Which is a very female experience.”She said “it is only the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive”, and that art and writing helped liberate Yuknavitch and find a skin she could live in.Stewart said Yuknavitch discovered that the only way to take desire back was to “bespoke it… and repurpose the things that have been given to you in order for you to own them.””I’m not being dramatic, but as women we are walking secrets,” the actor said.

George Wendt, the American actor best known for his role as the curmudgeonly Norm Peterson in “Cheers”, has died, a representative said Tuesday.Wendt, who was 76, was nominated for six successive Emmy awards for his role as the perennial barfly opposite Ted Danson in one of television’s most successful ever sitcoms.”George’s family confirmed the news of his death early Tuesday morning, announcing he died peacefully in his sleep while at home,” the family’s representative, Melissa Nathan, told AFP.”George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him.”He will be missed forever.”Wendt was also uncle to “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis.The heavyset Norm was one of the regulars who sat at the bar in “Cheers”, swapping banter with postman Cliff (played by John Ratzenberger) and psychiatrist Frasier Crane (played by Kelsey Grammer), among others.The three had beers served to them by head barman Danson and his younger — and somewhat dimmer — sidekick Woody, played by Woody Harrelson.Wendt’s character was famously greeted by a unanimous shout of “Norm!” from every patron in the bar every time he walked in, followed each time by a witty one-liner in response to Danson or Harrelson’s “What’ll you have?”Fellow cast members paid tribute to Wendt after news of his death broke, with Danson saying he was “devastated to hear that Georgie is no longer with us.””It is going to take me a long time to get used to this. I love you, Georgie.”Ratzenberger said he was “heartbroken.””For 11 years on ‘Cheers,’ we shared a stage, a lot of laughs and a front-row seat to one of television’s most beloved friendships. “George brought Norm to life with a subtle brilliance — the kind that made it look easy. That was his gift.”Rhea Perlman, who played hard-nosed waitress Carla said Wendt had been the “sweetest, kindest man.” “It was impossible not to like him.”

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristie Noem on Tuesday misstated the meaning of “habeas corpus” — the right of a person to challenge their detention in court — during a Senate hearing, claiming instead it was the opposite.Noem, who oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and plays a key role in implementing President Donald Trump’s hardline migration agenda, was questioned by a Senate committee regarding comments made by White House adviser Stephen Miller involving habeas corpus.Miller on May 9 said the White House was “looking into” suspending habeas corpus, which would prevent migrants targeted for mass deportations to appeal for their right to appear in court.Maggie Hassan, a Democratic senator from the northeastern state of New Hampshire, asked Noem: “What is habeas corpus?””Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, to suspend their right to…” Noem responded, before she was interrupted by Hassan.”Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people,” Hassan said, correcting Noem.”If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason.”Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea,” Hassan continued.Noem rephrased her response, saying “I support habeas corpus,” but said the president has the right to decide whether it should be suspended.Nevertheless, Noem said the Trump administration would comply with any court ruling on habeas corpus.Trump has made deporting undocumented immigrants a key priority for his second term, after successfully campaigning against an alleged “invasion” by criminals.But his mass deportations have been thwarted or slowed by multiple court challenges, including by the Supreme Court, often on the grounds that individuals targeted for deportations should be given due process.