Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Personal trainer Bryant Johnson hears it all the time: Four more years. That’s how long fans of his client, 84-year-old Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, tell him he has to keep her healthy to block President Donald Trump from naming the liberal justice’s replacement on the Supreme Court if he doesn’t get re-elected to a second term. Johnson’s response: Why just four years? Why not 14? Interest in the workout of the Supreme Court’s oldest justice and in the man behind it has only grown. And it’s resulted in a new workout book written by Johnson, out Wednesday: The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong … and You Can Too! Johnson said he hopes the book will show people: “You’re never too old to do something.” The approximately 120-page volume walks readers through Ginsburg’s hourlong workout with illustrations of the justice doing each exercise. Some illustrations show her in one regular workout sweatshirt, which reads “SUPER DIVA!” on the front. Ginsburg started working out with Johnson in 1999 after being treated for colorectal cancer. As Ginsburg tells the story, her husband told her she looked “like a survivor of a concentration camp” and needed to do something to rebuild her strength. That’s when someone referred her to Johnson, the records manager at a federal court in Washington who is also an Army reservist and trainer. Their twice-a-week workouts helped Ginsburg regain her strength after her first bout with cancer and again after she was treated for pancreatic cancer in 2009. “Early on she saw the benefits of exercise,” said Johnson, who says what he does won’t necessarily make anyone live longer but workouts will improve the quality of life.
■ Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence detailed her experiences with demeaning behavior from directors and producers at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards on Monday and pledged to do more to stop such situations from happening. Lawrence detailed what she called a “degrading and humiliating” experience of being asked early on in her career to lose 15 pounds in two weeks for a role. She was then forced to pose nude alongside thinner women for photos that she says a female producer told her would serve as inspiration for her diet, she said. When she tried to speak up about the demands, Lawrence said she couldn’t find a sympathetic ear from those in power. “I didn’t want to be a whistle-blower,” she said. “I didn’t want these embarrassing stories talked about in a magazine. I just wanted a career.” Lawrence said it wasn’t until she was an A-list star that she had the power to say no. “We will stop normalizing these horrific situations. We will change this narrative and make a difference for all of those individuals pursuing their dreams.”