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Bruce Lee’s daughter explains what people misunderstand about the icon’s legacy


Shannon Lee emphasized that her father challenged Western stereotypes around Asian masculinity not only because of his physical strength but more importantly through his emotional vulnerability.
Half a century after his death, Bruce Lee remains a symbol of physical strength and masculinity for the Asian community and an icon of cinema in the 20th century. But his daughter says there’s more to his legacy that deserves to be acknowledged.

Shannon Lee, who was 4 years old when her father died in 1973, said he rejected toxic, traditional ideas of masculinity, instead placing value on expressing emotion. As she reflects on her father’s life on the 50th anniversary of his death Thursday, Lee said she hopes others will recognize how Bruce Lee defined strength: as vulnerability.
“As masculine as he appeared physically, through the amount of strength and action of martial arts, there is actually a very inherent sort of softening of his masculinity that I think gets overlooked,” said Lee, who’s an executive producer on HBO’s “Warrior.” “He advocated for really showing up, really being present.”

Bruce Lee, who died in Hong Kong at age 32, has largely been credited with popularizing martial arts in the West, introducing the art form to new cultures and across color lines, as well as bringing it to the big screen in films like “Enter the Dragon.”
But for the Asian American community, he was seen as a resistance hero, challenging stubborn stereotypes around Asian men, who were often portrayed as weak, emasculated and deferential. However, Shannon Lee said, it was really her father’s emotional intelligence that made him a trailblazer.

“We have a letter where he wrote to the head of this studio and he says, ‘Listen, I want to deliver you the most amazing action film, but you have to give me not just your head but your heart,’” she said.
She said that since her father’s death, some have defaulted to a view of him that she sees as “patriarchal.” In Quentin Tarantino’s controversial 2021 film “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” Bruce Lee is portrayed as an arrogant, competitive character, a depiction that got significant backlash.

“His portrayal of my father was this masculine fighter guy. ‘So he must have been an a–hole. And he must have been arrogant. He must not have been sort of a vulnerable human being,’” Lee said of Tarantino. “Honestly, he didn’t believe in competition. … He didn’t believe it was a good model for personal excellence and personal growth, because you’re always pitting yourself against someone else.”
Tarantino doubled down on his interpretation at the time, telling critics who took issue with it to “suck a d—” on an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Lee said her father, rather, emphasized collaboration. It’s why, she said, he believed in making martial arts more inclusive, often risking judgment to do so.
Throughout his career, Bruce Lee accepted students from across a variety of backgrounds; one of his first students was Jesse Glover, a Black man who would go on to be his first assistant instructor in the U.S. Glover, a victim of police brutality, had taken up martial arts as self-defense. Bruce Lee’s highly publicized friendship with NBA legend and civil rights advocate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also became a symbol of solidarity and allyship across communities.
“I go back to my father’s quote: ‘Under the sun and the heavens, there’s one family. There’s one human family,’” Shannon Lee said.
“He did things that were looked down upon at the time, like teaching Chinese kung fu to non-Chinese,” she said. “But it was something he felt — ‘I want to share what I love with people who don’t have a connection to. Then I have to share it with people.’”
As open and vulnerable as he was, Bruce Lee was also firm in his boundaries, his daughter said. He refused to accept unequal treatment or take on roles that would harm Asian Americans in Hollywood, she said.
“When the systems weren’t allowing him to take those steps forward, he was like, ‘OK, gotta find a different way,’” she said. “That takes an incredible amount of inner strength.”
Over the years, Bruce Lee has remained something of a fixture in pop culture. And Shannon Lee said many have tried to dissect the events that led him to walk his own unique path or “find the wound” that motivated him. But ultimately, her father operated with a happiness and a pride for his culture — one that didn’t need to be cosigned by white, mainstream approval. And that’s what makes his legacy so profound, she said.
“He represented Asian joy, you know, because he was very proud to be Chinese, and he was very proud of what he could do, and he wanted to share it. He wanted to celebrate it,” she said. “He took those things about him that were different and unique and turned them into superpowers of his, because he loved them.”

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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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