Paris Hilton on sexism, #MeToo and Y2K fame

The Independent’s entertainment newsletter [SUBSCRIBE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( March 25, 2023 [View in browser](   Happy weekend! The bad news: the clocks are going back and we’re all going to lose an hour of snoozing in our beds. The good news: we have a bonanza of treats for you to read in the Indy’s Culture section today and tomorrow. You don’t want to miss [Indy editor-in-chief Geordie Greig talking to mischievous art legends Gilbert and George](, and today’s [Saturday Interview]( – well, all I can say is… it’s hot. One of the week’s big talking points has been the BBC’s sweary, sexed-up new Great Expectations adaptation. It doesn’t even start until tomorrow, but it’s already stirring up controversy, thanks to all the swearing, spanking and opium-smoking. Louis Chilton writes in [this week’s State of the Arts column](that it’s time to stop dragging Miss Havisham out of the attic, while our TV critic Nick Hilton[found Steven Knight’s version a bit wearing](. Personally, I quite liked it; I slogged through the book at uni and found the idea of another adaptation very draining, but the sheer audacity of it had me engaged straight away. Tomorrow, you can read my interview with Fionn Whitehead, who plays Pip – he says he’s happy for it to be divisive. Meanwhile, hot on Miss Havisham’s heels comes the fourth (and final – sob!) series of Succession, which[Nick is much happier to recommend, awarding it the full five stars](. Tom Wambsgans stans, unite. Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham in 'Great Expectations' (BBC) Elsewhere this week, [Adam White’s interview with Zach Braff is unmissable](. The Scrubs star talks honestly about starting the weird manic pixie dream girl trend in his film Garden State, a film it was illegal not to own on DVD if you grew up in the Noughties and liked writing your feelings in a journal. And why write one great interview when you can write three? As well as speaking to director Neil Jordan about his incredible oeuvre, Adam wrote [this week’s Saturday Interview](, more of which below. Annabel Nugent [talked to filmmaker Ti West]( about why Mia Goth should have been Oscar-nominated for her performance in his film Pearl, and Mark Hudson [gave his verdict]( on the National Gallery’s new After Impressionism exhibition (great paintings, stating-the-obvious curation). Check back with us tomorrow for a bumper Sunday line-up, including Ellie Harrison’s interview with Succession star Justine Lupe (AKA reluctant bride Willa), my chat with Fionn Whitehead and Martin Chilton’s brilliant look back on the life of Noel Coward, to mark 50 years since the playwright’s death. Coward once said, “Don’t go c***ing about saying nothing is worthwhile, because we all know bloody well that it isn’t, but there’s always an apple and a good book.” And isn’t that a good thought for the weekend? Have a great one, Jessie [@jessiecath](   What to do this weekend Exhibition | [Barbara Hepworth: Art and Life](//link.e.independent.co.uk/click/30954256.15354/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5kZXBlbmRlbnQuY28udWsvYXJ0cy1lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L3R2L2ZlYXR1cmVzLzY1LXNjcmVhbS02LW9zY2Fycy1saXp6by1taWxleS1jeXJ1cy1iMjI5NzUwMi5odG1s/583d2887487ccd777a8b7489Ba261d410 There are just a few weeks left – extending over the Easter holidays – for this insightful overview of the great British sculptor’s life and work at Tate St Ives. Having Hepworth’s hugely atmospheric studio and garden just around the corner, and the sea and moorland that inspired her visible through the gallery window, makes for an irresistible package. Mark Hudson | Chief Art Critic   Theatre | [Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead]( Complicite’s adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk’s novel, about a small community in which men seem to be dying in strange circumstances, has been long anticipated – but the London press night hit the buffers earlier this week, when its star, [Kathryn Hunter](, was taken ill. The role has been taken on by understudy Amanda Hadingue while she recuperates, but word from its early run at the Bristol Old Vic is that Hunter is magnificent in the three-hour show. An added poignancy to the production is that it’s Hunter’s first major stage role since her husband, Complicite co-founder Marcello Magni, passed away last September. Jessie Thompson | Arts Editor [@jessiecath](   Film | [John Wick 4]( Four films in, the John Wick franchise is now so convoluted in its mythology that it’s easy to get lost. When you have Keanu Reeves’s luxurious locks flapping in the wind as he shoots, slaps and drop-kicks hundreds of anonymous hitmen, [well… who cares](? Then again, the movie’s nearly three-hour runtime may be a bit of a turn-off to some. When did everything become so achingly long? Adam White | Film Editor [@__adamwhite](   TV | [Great Expectations]( The latest iteration of one of Charles Dickens’s most adapted books arrives this weekend, starring Olivia Colman as an opium-smoking Miss Havisham and Fionn Whitehead as effing-and-blinding orphan Pip. Purists are likely to be shocked and appalled, as Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has got the reins on this one and [he’s sexed up the Victorian tale quite a bit](. Whatever your position, it’s Sunday night viewing that will get the country talking, that’s for sure. Ellie Harrison | TV Editor [@Ellie_Harrison](   Books | [The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard]( This weekend marks 100 years since the birth of novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard. This surely calls for us all to dive back into the warm hug of a family saga that is the Cazalet Chronicles. (If you’ve yet to read the books, your life is not yet complete.) The series begins on the cusp of wartime, with a teeming cast of characters who are invariably posh, emotionally tortured and having either affairs or children. The kids are naughty – and when they grow up in later books, they are also emotionally tortured and having affairs or children. Escapism at its best. Jessie Thompson | Arts Editor [@jessiecath](     [The Saturday Interview – Paris Hilton]( [Oscars image]( Paris Hilton's memoir is now in bookshops (Kevin Ostajewski) She was an heiress, a reality star, and arguably the first influencer; now Paris Hilton has written a memoir about her rollercoaster life. Talking to Adam White, she lifts the lid on why she felt she needed to play a character in the media for so long, parenthood, her political causes, and why she kept some of her traumas hidden. A must-read. Hilton and Nicole Ritchie in Noughties reality show 'The Simple Life' (Shutterstock) Read an extract from our Saturday Interview below… “It’s definitely been a lot,” Hilton whispers, her voice deep, husky, and worlds away from the sexy-baby squeakiness she’d put on for the press years ago. “But I’m also really proud of my story.” I ask because a few days earlier I’d seen the hosts of The View – think an American Loose Women – rattle through her various traumas to her face, far too matter-of-factly. I can’t imagine that having been easy. “People have been so respectful, though,” she says. “And kind, and understanding. People just understand me more now because of the book.” And so begins a gentle tussle between us, over fame and the entertainment industry, which never quite lets up. Hilton tends to skirt around specifics. Rather than grappling with, say, the idea of celebrity and how it’s affected her, she prefers to deal in absolutes. Broach the possible drawbacks of public self-mockery, for instance, and she retreats, blaming the media for “controlling my narrative for over two decades in this industry”. It makes for a dizzying interaction. [Read the full interview here](   Weekend Shelf-Care Weekend Shelf-Care Hannah Rose Woods If you want to know why the British psyche is so fixated on nostalgia, you need to read Hannah Rose Woods' acclaimed (and very accessible) book all about our history of looking back. Named a "book of the year" by a number of publications from The Guardian to the New Statesman, it might also explain why I've been wanting to listen to the Sugababes all week. A book I recently read and loved is… I’ve been re-reading Helen Macdonald’s collection of nature writing, Vesper Flights. She writes with such kindness. I have the audiobook too — her voice is wonderful. My three fantasy literary dinner party guests would be… Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, who dined with almost every eighteenth-century eminence and charmed them all. Peter Freuchen, Arctic explorer and author, among his other hats, can provide the anecdotes. Thomas Cromwell (Hilary Mantel version) can be my date. Not finishing books: my stance is… In favour. It’s a gift, not a commitment. My writing routine is… Variable. At best, an early morning walk in the countryside around my little town (or gentle yoga if it’s raining) to wake my brain, then candles, coffee and a comfy jumper in an effort to make my desk too cosy to leave. If I’m on a big deadline, all bets are off — it could be wotsits for breakfast. The first kernel of a draft usually starts in my iPhone notes; I read the final draft to myself aloud. 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