Can pop stars paint? Why A-listers long to be taken seriously as artists - Financial Times

‘Don’t fear the dead – and don’t fear me.” An exact facsimile of a young Val Kilmer, not quite dead and not quite alive, utters that baiting line in the trailer for the new western As Deep as the Grave. Director Coerte Voorhees knows exactly what he is doing – this is an AI-created version of the late actor, approved by his family but bringing with it a heap of controversy about whether such technology could make flesh-and-blood thespians redundant. Not just yet, judging by the extended glimpse of the film released earlier this year: it looks like a thirtysomething Kilmer, if a robot version had been sent back to the 1920s American wilderness by Skynet and, as well as being strangely rigid, had forgotten to download his voice, let alone his signature air of spacey shrewdness. Kilmer’s estate signed off on it, citing his enthusiasm for new technology that expands storytelling, but surely he would have been dismayed by this freaky doppelganger. Many reacted with revulsion to last year’s unveiling of AI “starlet” Tilly Norwood.

Pick of the weekStreet You Grew Up OnScandal star Kerry Washington’s web series is now a podcast, with big-name guests talking about the places they were raised. Cambridge, Massachusetts local Ben Affleck is the first to have a frank conversation on his parents’ divorce, and the things he didn’t tell his mum – such as being mugged at knifepoint at 14. “I loved hearing everything he shared,” says Washington. “Even though he tried to interview me at times.” Hannah J Davies Widely available, episodes weeklyDeep SecretsAfter becoming a father, comedian Hunter Hill decided to make a parenting podcast. Until, that is, an attempt to research his dad threw him down a rabbit hole that made him question everything he knew about his family – including whether his goat-farming grandad was really a secret CIA operative. It’s a wild, detail-packed listen told in highly hooky fashion. Alexi Duggins