Grant’s troubled inspirations

Richard Grant has no shortage of material to draw on when he plays an emotionally damaged character, said Chrissy Iley in The Times (U.K.). The actor was born in the tiny southern African nation of Swaziland, to a father who was a British colonial official—and a raging alcoholic. His father thought little of Grant’s acting ambitions. When Grant returned from watching A Clockwork Orange wearing a fake eyelash like the film’s main character, his drunken dad was so angry that he put a gun to Grant’s temple, fired once...and missed. “He was also infuriated that I’d emptied a crate of Scotch down the sink,” says Grant, 62. His mother also traumatized him. At age 10, he woke up in the back seat of the family car to witness her having sex in the front seat with his dad’s best friend. Grant re-created that scene in his directorial debut, 2006’s Wah-Wah, which was based on his childhood. The affair led to his parents’ divorce and his father’s drinking. “He died at 52 of alcoholism and a devoted love of my mother. He drank to numb the pain.” At the funeral, a Swazi priest jumped into the grave to try to raise his father from the dead. “I put that in Wah-Wah,” Grant says, but he cut it after initial screenings. “People said it was too extreme.”

The dream bridesmaid, for hire

Jen Glantz is there for women on the biggest day of their lives— for about $2,000 a wedding, said Luke Winkie in Vox.com. The 31-year-old entrepreneur has been a professional bridesmaid since 2015, working dozens of ceremonies each year around the country. She’s a dear friend for a day, not a wedding planner. “I’m not going to be able to pick your flowers or taste your cake with you,” says Glantz. Instead, she specializes in energizing the dance floor, distracting problem relatives, and above all, comforting the bride. “You’re running around putting fires out. You’ll clock 30,000 steps in one wedding.” Some clients have suffered a recent falling-out with a bridesmaid and need a quick fill-in, while others just don’t have enough close friends. About three-quarters of the time, brides ask Glantz to make up a fake name and backstory—she usually claims to be a friend from some obscure hobby. Glantz launched her company, Bridesmaid for Hire, in 2015 after serving as a civilian bridesmaid in her 20s for numerous friends. “That got me thinking that if I could do this for friends, I could do it for the wedding industry.” She now has a team of pro bridesmaids but rejects any applicants who emphasize how much they love to party. “It’s not a party,” Glantz says of the job, “it’s an emotional roller coaster.”