The Times - UK (2022-04-05)

the times | Tuesday April 5 2022 3

News

SIOBAHN BEAVAN/SWNS

She is Hollywood’s go-to woman for
nervous executives eager to avoid fall-
ing victim to so-called cancel culture —
and Lacey Leone McLaughlin’s services
are in high demand.
While her official job title is executive
coach, McLaughlin has been described
as a specialist in advising the old guard
how to handle a new genera-
tion of workers quick to
reach for the cancel button if
they sense a line has been
crossed.
A power shift is under
way in Hollywood, an
industry infamous for
indulging toxic be-
haviour from power-
ful figures. Now,
however, the work-
force is increasingly
filled with millenni-
al and Gen Z staff
who are unwilling to
endure the same unfor-
giving conditions as their
predecessors.
Social media has given

Keiran Southern Los Angeles

I froze eggs

at 40, says

Sienna Miller

Nadeem Badshah

The actress Sienna Miller has revealed

that she has frozen some of her eggs

after turning 40 in December.

She has one daughter Marlowe Ot-

toline Layng Sturridge, who was born in

2012, during her relationship with the

actor Tom Sturridge.

Miller told Elle magazine that she felt

pressure to have more children during

her thirties. “Should I have more, and

why haven’t I, and all of that, which is a

really loud noise. Biology is incredibly

cruel on women in that decade – that’s

the headline, or it certainly was for me.

“Then I got to 40 and I froze some

eggs. Having been really focused on the

need to have another baby, I’m just like,

‘If it happens, it happens.’ That kind of

existential threat has dissipated.”

Other celebrities to have frozen their

eggs include the singer Rita Ora and

the Olympic boxing champion Nicola

Adams.

Miller’s breakout role was as Daniel

Craig’s love interest in the 2004 film

Layer Cake. She said that finding fame

in her twenties while she was dating the

actor Jude Law became “scary”.

She said: “I was just catapulted into a

totally parallel universe, while being in

love. There was a lot of magic at that

time. At first, it was kind of comical, but

very quickly it became insidious and,

yeah, scary.”

J

ohn Travolta

surprised fans in

Norfolk by

dropping in at a

Wetherspoons

pub before doing some

shopping in a Morrisons

supermarket (Kieran

Gair writes).

The film star was

spotted at the Romany

Rye pub in Dereham.

Travolta, 68, who

starred in Grease,

Saturday Night Fever

and Pulp Fiction, was

later seen buying

steak and other

groceries at the

Morrisons store in

nearby Fakenham.

He is said to be

staying locally

while filming at

Raynham Hangar

Studios on an old

airfield in West

Gary Middleton, a

security guard at the

Morrisons store, said

Travolta spent about an

hour in the shop on

Saturday talking with

customers and staff.

Middleton, 48, bumped

into Travolta near the

bread counter. “He

looked at me as I passed

him and put his hand

out to shake mine.

“We exchanged a few

words and had a little

joke together. I was so

lucky to get a picture.”

Middleton, of Little

Snoring, said Travolta

told him that he had

decided to go out

himself after sending out

runners to shop for him

earlier in the week at

Waitrose in Swaffham.

Middleton added:

“He was quite

smart looking, well

built and very

polite to all the

staff here.

“He looks a bit

different to the

way people

remember him

from the 1970s and

80s, or with his

long, dark hair from

Pulp Fiction. But you

could tell who it was

from the smile in his

eyes.”

Nicola Gee, who

works at the shop, said:

“I was going about my

normal duties and I

looked up and saw the

one-and-only John

Travolta in our store.”

She added: “I just do not

think we ever imagined

that we would see a film

star in Fakenham.”

Travolta arrived in

Norfolk after appearing

on stage at the Oscars in

Los Angeles where he

danced with Uma

Thurman to recreate

their famous scene in

the 1994 film, Pulp

Fiction. The star

revealed on Instagram

that he was in Norfolk to

work on a film. He

posted a video of himself

and his daughter, Ella

Bleu, in what appeared

to be a Norfolk country

hotel on Sunday

enjoying her 22nd

birthday.

Travolta said: “We’re

here in England having

afternoon tea to

celebrate and I’m also

here to shoot a short

film called The

Shepherd, based on a

book by Frederick

Forsyth that I’ve always

loved.”

Siobhan Beavan, a

lifelong fan of Grease,

said it was “great to

meet Danny Zuko” as

she got a selfie with the

star in Norwich. She

said: “I was in my local

pub and we were talking

about him being seen

around Norfolk. Then

he appeared across the

road with his entourage.

so I said there is no way

I’m letting this

opportunity pass!

“So I ran across and

said ‘Hi John, what are

you doing here?’ like I

knew him.

“He said ‘I’m making

a movie’ so I asked for a

selfie and he said, ‘Sure!’

then he was on his way.”

Travolta thrills are

multiplying as star

films in Norfolk

“ s b p s d w r

fr

8

Worried Hollywood bosses

call in the woke whisperer

not a bad thing at all, right?” she said.

“Making sure people understand that

their intentions and how people per-

ceive those behaviours need to be

aligned. And if not, they need to do

some things a little bit differently.

“Now, the fear that I think those

words [cancel culture] create or drive in

people, I don’t think that’s great. But I

think in any environment, holding

people accountable for how they show

up in a very real way isn’t a horrible

thing. And doing it in a way that recog-

nises that we’re people, we grow, we

change, we develop and we’re all work

in progress? Not a bad thing at all.”

McLaughlin, whose clients include

Krista Vernoff, executive producer of

the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy,

believes that the new wave of workers

view their careers in a fundamentally

different way to the older generation.

Entry-level jobs in Hollywood are

fiercely competitive and as a result the

lucky few who were welcomed into the

industry traditionally used to put up

with whatever was thrown at them.

However, McLaughlin has spotted a

sea change, partly driven by Covid-19,

which means that lowly assistants are

no longer desperate to cling on to their

jobs.

She said: “They’re coming to a place

where ‘I’m going to make life choices,

and I’m not going to do something that

isn’t rewarding, isn’t fun, where I’m

treated disrespectfully, and my boss

doesn’t give a damn about me’.

“I’ve seen more people walk away

from really, really good, coveted jobs in

the past two years than I’ve ever seen in

my career. I will also say that we

probably saw a little bit of that before

the pandemic and then it was ampli-

fied.”

McLaughlin, who hosts the Unfold-

ing Leadership podcast, said that a

marker of Hollywood’s progress could

be seen in how she was welcomed into

offices, when just a decade ago she

would have been smuggled into the

building.

She said: “Now it’s ‘hey, I’m a show-

runner or I’m a director or I’m a pro-

ducer, or I’m one of these things and I

want to be really good and I want to do

it better and I want to create future

generations and I want you to help me

along that journey’. Awesome.”

dissenters a voice and Hollywood’s cul-

ture of silence has begun to crumble,

meaning previously unimpeachable

figures such as the producer Scott Rud-

in, the television presenter Ellen De-

Generes and the film-maker Joss Whe-

don have been publicly shamed for

their treatment of staff and colleagues.

Rudin and Whedon have been all but

ostracised by the industry while

DeGeneres’s cheerful image, encapsu-

lated by her “be kind” mantra — has

been irretrievably damaged.

Grammy judges were criticised

yesterday for handing the award

for best comedy album to

Louis CK, who admitted

in 2017 to masturbat-

ing in front of fe-

male colleagues.

McLaughlin,

who has 20 years’

experience as an

executive coach

working with senior in-

dustry figures, believes

that what many label

“cancel culture” — she

does not use the term

— has in fact been a

welcome develop-

ment in Holly-

wood.

“Accountability is

Lacey Leone

McLaughlin helps

to handle a new

generation of

workers

Siobhan Beavan grabbed a

selfie with John Travolta in

Norwich. The star

celebrated his daughter’s

birthday, far left, and went

shopping in Fakenham

where he was snapped by

Gary Middleton, inset

Raynham. Jamie Salter,

20, who talked to

Travolta in the pub on

Thursday said it had

been “a surreal

experience”.

“Dereham doesn’t

usually play host to

some of the most

famous Hollywood stars

on the planet,” the

student said. “He told

me how he was over

here for a week filming

for a Christmas movie at

a local airstrip.”

Louis Székely, known
as Louis CK, exposed
himself to women