Reese Witherspoon eats snow and some people aren’t happy
Reese Witherspoon has defended herself after receiving some words of warning online over eating snow.
Yes, you read that correctly. Hollywood A-lister, Oscar winner and multimillionaire Witherspoon likes to eat snow.
Earlier in January, the Legally Blonde and Morning Show star shared a TikTok video showing herself enjoying a “Chococinno” made of snow collected from outside her home, topped with cold brew coffee and chocolate and salted caramel syrups.
Yum.
The internet’s reaction, it’s fair to say, was mixed. We’ve all heard “don’t eat yellow snow”, as one follower commented, but apparently innocent-looking white snow has its own hidden dangers.
“No no no… snow is not made to eat,” one user commented. “U can get seriously sick.”
“I love you Reese, personal anecdote: As someone who grew up in Minnesota, our teachers would always melt snow to show up how dirty it was and not to eat it! Be careful out there,” replied another.
“Am I the only one concerned that she scooped it off of her car?” questioned one follower – although Witherspoon replied to say that actually, the snow was scooped from a cooking grill – “but is that bad?”
And then there was the big question: “What if birds pooped in that snow?”
However, some Tik-Tokers were won over.
“Fallen snow can be very dirty from the air and wind but who cares,” replied one former snow eater. “You only live once. I remember eating snow as a kid.”
“I do this same thing every time it snows, I make snow ice cream, but I grew up eating snow and drinking tap water and drinking out of a hose,” said another.
The star pictured at the Golden Globes with her son Deacon earlier this month. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
‘You only live once’
Since sharing her recipe, Witherspoon, 47, has posted three further videos answering her concerned followers’ questions.
“There’s so many people on here saying snow is dirty so we went and took snow from the backyard and we microwaved it and it’s clear,” she said. “Is this bad? Am I not supposed to eat snow?”
In another clip, she said: “Okay so we’re kind of in a category of, ‘You only live once’ and it snows maybe once a year here. I don’t know! Also, I want to say something. It was delicious. It was so good.”
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In a final post, Witherspoon addressed her lack of filtering before making the frosty snack.
“I didn’t grow up drinking filtered water,” she said. “We drank out of the tap water. We actually put our mouths on the tap and then sometimes like in the summer, when it was hot, we drank out of the hose, like, we put our mouth on the hose, growing up.”
She then joked, “Maybe that’s why I’m like this”, adding: “So what you’re saying to me is I have to filter the snow before I eat it? I just can’t. Filtered snow. I don’t know how to do that.”
What does science say?
A snowflake begins life as a tiny droplet of “supercooled water” which freezes in the sky to create an ice crystal, the Met Office explains.
“The droplet becomes frozen either because temperatures are sufficiently cold (it would have to be -35C or lower) to freeze to other droplets, or in clouds above -35°C, they can form around a nucleus such as a dust or pollen particle.”
Once the ice crystal has formed, if the conditions are right it will grow to form a snowflake. Scientists say they may also pick up other elements in the atmosphere, including pollutants.
One study led by chemistry professor, Parisa Ariya, from McGill University in Quebec, Canada, in 2016, found that snow absorbs toxic compounds emitted from car exhausts.
But some scientists agree the trace amounts of chemicals found in snow – even in cities with lots of traffic – do not reach harmful levels.
In 2017, a study in Romania found it was safe to eat clean snow that was half a day old, and that it was safer to eat it in the colder months. But by two days old, the snow is not safe to eat, Istvan Mathe, a professor at the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, said at the time.
So there you have it. Assuming she’s not snacking on homemade snowy Choccocinos for every meal, it sounds like Witherspoon is safe for now.
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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