She paved the way for Bridgerton, lit up Black Mirror’s most joyful episode – and now she stars in a grisly supernatural horror about slavery. The Belle star talks about Possession, partying with Prince and why she loves to shake things up
Emma Loffhagen
Friday 24 July 2026
Malia wears MIU MIU
words by Michelle Malek
With the current state of celebrity being tethered to social media presence, Malia Pyles says that her style is more vintage when it comes to technology. Fresh off of just replacing her 2012 MacBook, a contrast to her tech-savvy role as Mouse in the MAX original Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin and its follow-up season Pretty Little Liars: Summer School, she says all celebrities need a “How-To” crash course in social media.
Malia Pyles has spent the last few years building a career on the promise of what’s next, moving between the FX cult favorite Baskets and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. In Cape Fear, Apple TV+’s starry reinvention of the Scorsese classic, that promise finally pays off. Pyles plays Nevaeh Valentine, the enigmatic and often terrifying young woman who slips into the Bowden family’s orbit and wreaks havoc, holding her own against Javier Bardem and Amy Adams in the process. It’s the kind of decadent role that introduces an actor to a whole new audience. Ahead of the show’s final batch of episodes, Pyles took our questionnaire to talk trans rights, Twilight, and what happens when we die.
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Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland is one of those films that dashes the festival circuit with a prewritten destiny attached. An official selection of Telluride, Venice, Toronto, and New York, this is the film the industry is pushing for Big Oscar Energy, and with good reason: it’s a classic American road movie with a moral sheen, a showcase for Zhao’s willingness to immerse herself into an off-the-grid culture as much as for her lucid, unblinking direction. But more than that, it’s a vehicle for the bulletproof Frances McDormand, one of the most compelling and amusing actors of her generation, who could probably read a Reddit thread out loud for two hours and millions of people would spectate without complaint.
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| Actress Marisa Abela and actor Eddie Marsan film a scene for the Amy Winehouse biopic ‘Back to Black’ in London. Neil Mockford |
Like Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black,” the new biopic about the late British singer, has been no stranger to controversy.
In the case of the film, opinion has been fiercely split about director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s decision to have actress Marisa Abela sing – instead of lip-sync to – Winehouse’s recordings.
The camera slithers over a pair of prostrate legs that glimmer with sheen. Her white fingernails trace a kneecap, tickle a tan thigh. She flips the side of her thong panties to reveal smooth, hairless skin. A belly chain twinkles underneath her breasts, which she’s tucked into a black crochet bra.
Among the personalities known to frequent Fire Island Pines, none stood out quite like Robin Byrd. Robin Byrd is a former American porn actress and host of “The Robin Byrd Show,” a show that appeared on commercial-use cable television in New York City for over 30 years.
National Portrait Gallery, London
The actor’s life in pictures, from mousey-haired teen to American icon to her shocking death at 36, beams with the charm that defined a century. But why aren’t we shown more of what lay behind the smile?
Iwanted to hate the National Portrait Gallery’s new blockbuster show, Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait. It represents two things that really should be binned: anniversary exhibitions (it marks Monroe’s 100th birthday) and exhibitions of celebrity portraits. Anniversaries rarely signify anything other than the passing of time, which is an inevitable and uninteresting fact of life. As for exhibitions of celebrity photographs – they’re like anniversary shows, only with faces.
Elizabeth Weinberg; courtesy of Katherine Applegate
The new book from the author of the 'Animorphs' and 'Everworld' series follows a dog who's displaced by wildfires and looking for her person
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