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‘He’s very special’: Coach amazed by Tom Hardy’s love for jiu-jitsu and competition


In 2018, English movie star Tom Hardy headed to a boxing club in West London to hit pads. As he laced up his gloves, the star of The Dark Knight Rises, Venom, and other successful movies noticed people strangling each other with their white and blue gis across the room. Hardy starred in an MMA-themed movie back in 2011, Warrior, so he knew what that was about.
Jiu-jitsu coach Carlos Santos was teaching a grappling class, and Hardy decided to give it a try. However, according to Santos, Hardy’s knee wasn’t healthy, and the idea of getting into any grappling exchange on the ground and risking spending weeks or months on crutches was not ideal for a man who needs his body perfectly fit to perform in front to cameras. Santos suggested an introductory class to see what they could do, so Hardy returned the next day for his first Brazilian jiu-jitsu class — and the rest is history.

“He will never stop doing jiu-jitsu anymore,” Santos told MMA Fighting. “Jiu-jitsu is in his blood, in his soul, in his heart.”
Hardy was so hooked that he began doing private classes for three hours a day, Monday through Friday, until the COVID-19 pandemic forced gyms to close all over the world.

Hardy slowed down, but not entirely.
“He’s a great champion,” said Santos, who coached Hardy in a recent no-gi tournament in London, watching his protege clinch a gold medal with a 100-percent finish rate, his third championship win. “He’s very special. He really loves jiu-jitsu. It’s so nice to see someone dedicate like that to the art.”

A black belt under the legendary grappler Roger Gracie, Santos said he instituted a rule in his gym that photos and videos are not permitted when Hardy and other famous students are around, ensuring they can enjoy their classes with privacy.
“He wants to enjoy the art like a normal person,” Santos said. “He always does group classes too. I admire that about him. Famous people usually want private classes. He did that at first so he could understand the art, but then he asked to be on the group class too — and would continue training after the class was over.”

Hardy will be back on the big screens in the coming months and years in all manner of feature films, including Havoc, Venom 3, and The Bikeriders. Santos said the actor, a purple belt in jiu-jitsu, found a way to continue grappling when he’s away from home to film.
“His stuntman trains jiu-jitsu because of him,” Santos said with a laugh. “They practice together when they’re filming. Sometimes I send them videos with exercises, showing what we’re working on in the gym.
“I’m very happy and honored to train him. I was lucky to be on the right place at the right time to work with him. He really is expanding the art. He loves the culture.”

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‘I am officially off the market’: When Margot Robbie revealed she made the ‘conscious’ decision of not dating actors


Margot Robbie revealed her decision to not date actors because of the media scrutiny that came with a public relationship of two high-profile actors
Back in 2015, A-lister Margot Robbie made a declaration that she would not be dating any actors. The actress may have alluded to her fiance Tom Ackerley, who she married the following year in 2016. In an exclusive interview with Marie Claire, she revealed that being in a relationship as an actor herself came with its own set of challenges. She believed that dating someone who was popular would add on to the media scrutiny.

Margot Robbie opened up on why she made a conscious decision to not date actorsTalking to Marie Claire, she claimed, “I am officially off the market.” She then shared the reasoning behind her decision and added, “I made a conscious decision not to date actors.” She continued to explain, “But not because I hate actors. That’s a nasty generalization to make, and that’s not the case. People take such an interest in your love life when you have a profile, it puts a lot of stress on a relationship.”
The Barbie actress continued, “So two people with profiles, I figure it’s just double the amount of scrutiny, and I’d like to avoid that at all costs.” This came after reports of her locking lips with Tarzan co-star Alexander Skarsgard started making rounds. It was reported that she was caught kissing the actor during the Sundance Film Festival.

Margot Robbie revealed she opted for a minimal lifestyle even after becoming an actorIn the interview, Robbie also opened up about how she was adapting to fame. She shared, “I have a normal 24-year-old life. If I were a waitress, I’d probably have the exact same lifestyle. I’d go to the same clubs I go to already, live in the same house with the same housemates, hang out with the same people.”
However, Margot Robbie tied the knot with Tom Ackerley who is an English producer and actor. The duo met on the sets of 2013 movie Suite Francaise where Tom was working as an assistant director. Post marriage, both of them launched their production company LuckyChap Entertainment.

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Monica Bellucci and Tin Burton at lunch in the restaurant in Selci Lama


For All Saints’ Day, the Hollywood star from Tiferno returned to his native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and then visit his parentsOn the occasion of the All Saints’ Day celebrations, the Hollywood star of Tiferno origin, Monica Bellucci, returned to her native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and to visit her father Pasquale and her mother Brunella.Flanked by her current partner Tim Burton, she went to lunch, together with about twenty old friends, at the Osteria del Musicista, which has always been her favorite restaurant, in Selci Lama.Menu dedicated to typical dishes of the area, which includes an appetizer with breadsticks lined with coppa, duck in porchetta and grilled pork livers, polenta with wild boar sauce accompanied by the very typical cappelletti in broth.To conclude, a dessert based on fried “ciaccia” with Nutella and roasted chestnuts.
Having paid the bill and greeted the restaurant owner and lifelong friend, Roberto Polchi, Monica brought home cappelletti and broth for a family dinner.

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‘Rocky’ Was Quite Different In His Original Screenplay, Sylvester Stallone Claims


Sylvester Stallone took his friend’s advice on a rewrite of the original screenplay to Rocky. A few tweaks later, he was on his way to major success.
In the new Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone discussed how he initially conceived of the project, which had a much harder edge. In the early version, Rocky was depicted as a “thuggish” character, inspired by Martin Scorsese’s crime drama, Mean Streets.

But Stallone’s perspective changed when a friend read the script and thought the boxer was too cruel for audiences to actually care about him.
Stallone recalled her crying.

“She goes, ‘I hate Rocky. I hate him. He’s cruel. He hits people. He beats them up.’”
Stallone took it to heart, and asked what he could do to soften the character.

“I said, ‘what if you stop short of it?’ Like, maybe he almost did. He could have, that’s his job, but he doesn’t?’ ‘That’d be nice,’” he added. “I said, ‘What if he had a girlfriend or something?’ ‘Yeah, that’s nice.’ So I go back, start writing that: ‘Girlfriend. Nice.’”
$117 million in box office later, a franchise was born.

Stallone also revealed that actor Dolph Lundgren sent him to the hospital during one fight scene in Rocky IV.
“Dolph Lundgren… he pulverized me,” Stallone says in the documentary. “Later that night, my heart started to swell—which happens when the heart hits the chest—and then my blood pressure went up to 260, and they thought I was going to be talking to angels. Next thing I know, I’m in intensive care, where I’m surrounded by nuns, and I thought, ‘OK, that’s curtains.’”
Stallone was in the hospital for nine days following the incident, praying for “one more round.”
“For the first minute of the fight, it is going to be a free-for-all,” Stallone told Lundgren. The Swedish actor joked in a separate interview that all he did was “obey orders,” explaining, “[Stallone] was the boss. I did what he told me.”
Doctors allegedly told Stallone that he received a blow to the ribs that made his heart rattle around in his ribcage, a condition typically seen in head-on collisions. “I did hit a bus, of sorts,” Stallone joked.

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