Here are some photos of Benedict Cumberbatch entering and then leaving Trafalgar Studios (which is actually what we Yanks would call a “theater”). He was attending the press night of the play Constellations, starring his friend Louise Brealey (aka Molly on Sherlock). Press night, from what I understand, is when members of the press – mostly theater critics – get their first look at a new production. I’m guessing that the actors also invite their friends and family members to the show’s press night too, because otherwise… why would Bendy show up on this particular night?
Anyway, Benedict looks nice in these photos. Tired but nice. I wonder if The Cumberbaby is keeping him up at night? I wonder if Wanda is staying with her son and Sophie Hunter and helping them out? Hm. But yes, he looks nice. He’s growing out his hair a little bit for Hamlet and I kind of wonder if Benedict is going to go blonde. Most actors do go lighter to play the Danish prince. Oh, and the Barbican released some photos of Benedict in rehearsals – go here to see. He looks good.
One last Cumber-related piece of news: Benedict was recently spotted shopping at a feminist book shop called Persephone Books in London. Vogue had a nice write-up about the book shop and publisher – Persephone Books has spent years republishing older books by mostly women authors, books that had gone out of print but were waiting to be rediscovered. Of course Benedict would go there looking for a gift for Sophie.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
He does look good. What’s in the bag though?
I have to say that the price of London theatre tickets is bonkers- I think a couple of well known thesps raised that recently., including Mark rylance. The Bradley cooper elephant man price was bad enough – though the play was excellent – but my daughter has just got return tickets for bendy’s hamlet and it’s astronomical. I’m going to wait for the film…
Go to the cinema version where they show it live. I feel tickets in both NY and London the same almost big shows £100+ Broadway $150.
I’ve still got my ticket (which I paid something like £95) and I plan on going. I’m so happy that I purchased the ticket on a lark last summer. Not that I’m much of a Cumberbatch fan anymore (not after the whole Oscar™/baby-mama ruse), but the ticket did facilitate my October trip to London and Paris. I’ve booked my ticket, my Airbnb apartment in Paris and just have to book a room in London. The Paris appartement alone is worth the price of the entire trip! Café au Laits and croissants, here I come!
So, for that, I thank Lord Otter.
The Hamlet tickets situation is dodgy indeed and should be investigated. When we purchased tickets last year, you could buy stalls seats for £62.50 or £85, now the Barbican sells some of them (not even good ones, like row S or T) at £95 and ATG at £200. Funny as they were supposed to stamp out touting and yet… I know now who is paying for all the £10 tickets.
I bet BC doesn’t know about this.
He brought snacks?
Looks really rough.
“Oi Guvner! You got a baby in that bag, then?”
I like the glasses, and his face looks good, but I feel like he stole this outfit out of my mother’s cleaning-the-house-running-quick-errands-attire closet.
I’m delighted to see his old grey “bridge” tee-shirt. And I’m glad he’s not wearing the ratty maroon pants he is so fond of. Also, I love his hair like this.
As I pointed out on the other thread, two Wimbledon matches and a play in the space of five days and people are giving his wife flack for returning to work? Doesn’t a baby need its father too?
Shots fired.
*ducks*
I’ve got my Star Wars deflector shields in place.
It’s called Constellations, are there Avante garde operatic comets coasting through? Is he pretentious for seeing a play? lulz
As I replied in the other thread, both get the side eye from me.
**dons sanctimonious mommy hat**
How dare modern people spend time with their children! How gauche! Newborns won’t remember anything anyways. The nannies that we don’t pay very well are fabulous. Off to the tennis….
Oh lord people are allowed to actually go out without their baby. I saw my friend yesterday. She brought her 8 week out to a restaurant. The week before she met myself, and another friend for a happy hour out with the baby at home with her brother and sister in law watching.
It’s perfectly normal and healthy to have a life outside of your child. A parent doesn’t need to be with their child 24/7.
My explanation in the other thread was more detailed.
He has a full day with rehearsals. She’s apparently in long rehearsals in another country (she is the director, more time commitment) for something that she chose to do knowing it would commence directly after birth. And we’re seeing lots of party pics and tennis. They have a 4? 6? Week old? There is a reason people have maternity leave. For healing and bonding.
I totally get different strokes for different folks. But *most* people I know (and myself, tho it’s been some time since I had a newbie) who have had brand spanking new children, even those with busy careers, try to spend as much time at home as they are able to. And these people, unlike 98% of the population, have the means to do that.
My husband is a workaholic and started a brand new job 2 weeks after I gave birth. He worked a lot, but when he wasn’t, he was home.
Again, I’m sure I’m being the sanctimonious mommy. So be it. I just see someone who talked about wanting so much to be a dad for ages and going on and on about it in interviews not spending much time with his kid. Whatever. It’s their life, right? I just hope they have very attentive nannies.
> But *most* people I know (and myself, tho it’s been some time since I had a newbie) who have had brand spanking new children, even those with busy careers, try to spend as much time at home as they are able to.
You sound like my mother in law. Leave the 1950s alone, please. Their kid, their life, they do what they want. Nobody knows how much time they are spending with their kid.
And sacrificing career opportunities for children is not always the right thing to do. It is an individual decision.
My mother-in-law criticized me for pursing a Masters degree when my first child was 1 y.o. According to her “everybody else” (read “everybody else who is a good mother”) finished education before having children.
Well, before having children my employer wasn’t offering to pay 50K for my education.
I think people tend to project the criticism of BC and SH onto themselves a bit too much. Yes, I know tons of women who could not stay at home with their babies because they had careers that were not compatible with taking a substantial leave, and I never ever judged them, even though I made different choices personally.
However, Sophie Hunter’s career is a string of loosely related projects. And she has the financial freedom to pace them as she pleases. This particular festival is an annual thing, not once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, like Hamlet (please, don’t take that as defense of BC, I’d gladly side-eye him for Wimbledon and such).
So, while I’d refrain from judging her, given that I know next to nothing about her life, I also don’t think that it is fair to measure her by the same yardstick as most “regular” women, who depend on the continuity of their 9-to-5 jobs for a living.
Meh. Hamlet rehearsals are 10-5 Mon-Fri and he’s not needed every day. We don’t know what her rehearsal schedule is like. Besides loads of parents go back to work straight away. It’s only because she married Tumblr’s boyfriend that her every move is being obsessed over and used to tear her down. (Because if Tumblr can prove she’s eveeeel, then Ben will leave her, right?) LOL.
Agreed Timbuktu.
There’s no indication she took a month off before returning to work. “The time around the birth of her first baby has been filled, she said, with work.” The Guardian article said it’s “business as usual” and best not to refer to her maternal status. I realize this may be a misrepresentation of their situation by The Guardian. She may be spending quality time with her child and just refused to talk about motherhood (which is fine), but by making comments about her focus on opera and classical music, she projects an image of a woman getting an inconvenient child(birth) out of the way so she can get on with making her art. This may be miles away from the truth, but people will draw impressions from the little information they get online.
I think most mothers have a hard time understanding someone making the choice to work right away when they don’t need to.
Will the child be loved and cared for? I’m sure he will, by nannies and grannies and by mum and dad too when they’re not working.
So everything’s fine with the world. Wish them well and move on.
I don’t, Nutballs, but everyone is different. I got antsy fast and went back to work earlier than I could have.
Anyway, my guess is that these publications are asking to speak to her under the guise of work and then dropping marriage/motherhood questions on her instead, a bait and switch.
I think Sophie went there too. Or so I think I read somewhere. Haven’t seen any pictures though.
And no I personally have never known any first time parents with a newborn and busy careers that also go out this frequently. I’m not saying that it’s good or bad, just an observation since it’s been discussed.
You should all count yourselves very lucky that you’re not famous and not subject to public scrutiny for your parenting choices. I assure you none of you would measure up.
Frankly, I have no problem with a woman returning to work as soon as she wants after birth. Some women have no choice financially; others need to do it for their sanity. I have no problem with women who choose to take time away from careers to spend time with their babies. I have no problem with stay-at-home dads. Or dads who return to work immediately. I think it is important for couples to get out without a baby. It is up to each couple to decide what is best for their family. But if people are going to shade a woman from returning to her career a month after giving birth, as happened here yesterday, they should apply the exact same standard to her husband
I like your argument, and I agree that it’s worst when the mother is attacked more.
I am. I shade them both equally.
And I in no way am saying you can’t go out without the baby or have to spend 24/7 with a baby. Or you shouldn’t work with a baby. I haven’t said that. I’m saying between their 2 schedules, adding in quite a bit of parties and plays and tennis, there perhaps isn’t much baby time. And babies need a parent. I’m sorry, I know that’s so 1950’s of me, but babies really do better with seeing at least one parent for a few hours a day.
And if you can’t give a baby a few hours of your day, then maybe you shouldn’t have one. That’s what condoms are for. 😉
@Absolutely
“That’s what condoms are for.”
His didn’t work, apparently. 😉
I agree With you absolutely absolutely, I’m not some old fashioned “A woman’ s place is in the home” advocate, but the other stuff will always be there, babies are very young for only a very short time and mums and dads being with them for a lot of that time is time Well spent in my book. A general point, not directed at bendy and Sophie specifically.
Honestly do you know what it is? We expect women to have it all and they just can’t once kids come along (some things have to give be it less time with kid or career). There are only so many hours in the day. They have the means to hire nannies to help with this push-pull and they are lucky for that, most women do not.
Most Americans go back to work 6 weeks after they give birth (my one friend went back after 2). No one judges them, they need the income to support said kids.
The problem that irritates people in general is she got a golden ticket. Got pregnant to a celebrity, got her career going again and has the kid too. It is some womens dream scenario. I’m over them. I don’t care what they do; I just wish they weren’t so over-exposed.
>The problem that irritates people in general is she got a golden ticket. Got pregnant to a celebrity, got her career going again and has the kid too. It is some womens dream scenario.
I see that, but I don’t get why people get mad at somebody else’s luck or whatever you want to call it. Good for her.
Some people are going to say that other deserving people are not getting a break like hers. True, but it isn’t her fault. Cumberbatch wasn’t going to marry those other deserving people anyway. Not everybody makes it. But I see no reason to be angry at those who do.
The problem as I see it is not that she went back to work or that she has it easy or that she has help. The problem as I see it is that there is another thread here with close to 300 responses on it in which the majority of posts bash a woman for going back to work and giving an interview to a major newspaper about her work in which she doesn’t gush endlessly about her baby while giving her husband a pass. Again, look at that thread – 278 responses. This thread about HIM on his third non-work, non-baby related fun outing in 5 days and less than 50 responses, the vast majority of which say it is just fine that he not be home taking care of that kid. They brought this kid into the world together. If one of them gets a pass for going out to sporting events or cultural events or working, the other one should get the same pass. Until women are willing to give one another some slack to raise their kids in the way the choose AND expect men to be equal partners in parenting, women are not going to be treated equally in the workplace or the world.
“That’s what condoms are for.” “His didn’t work, apparently.”
His probably worked and he probably did his due diligence by flushing them down the loo, but I can totally see her keeping a plumbing snake in her overnight bag because you never know when something valuable might get flushed down the loo; that’s her motto.
I’m sorry, lilac, I love you, but I’m not seeing these responses you speak of. Most of the ones on here who are questioning her time spent at home are doing the same questioning for him and his tennis and parties on top of work.
Puffy, please perform a public service and crawl back under the your rock of choice. You’re spoiling the air here.
@ Puffy B
I second Sigh’s post. Please go back to where you came from and think about the disgusting post you made. It is wrong on all levels.
sigh, I don’t see your name on the top of this site, so I won’t be going anywhere. I was having some fun with other commenters. Something you obviously never do, judging by your comments.
Again, rock, crawl, sulfurous smell dispelled, thanks. You’re just having fun with your misogynistic little you, I get it, you can find good company, I regret to say, but perhaps not here.
Constellations is a beautiful play – I cried for most of it. As for Hamlet rehearsals, I would say he needs to be there every day!
I’m loving the hair.
Me too. I definitely like his hair better when it’s grown out a bit.
And awwww — Sherlock is supporting Molly!
Where are his shoulders in the second pic?
I ummm, really don’t have a snarky remark. He is out to support a friend. Alright, alright, alright.
And that is to the point I made on the earlier article about his Wimbledon outfit. You can just tell when Benedict dressed himself.
He looks exhausted, probably from Hamlet rehearsals. It was nice of him to come and support his friend anyway.
I prefer it when he dresses himself. Frankly, as good as he looks in a suit (and he does), I like the bohemian look better. It’s more him. I had a boyfriend who was a bit like him (same star sign, for people who believe in astrology): I had to force him to throw away shirts with huge holes in them or he’d wear them anyway. He wasn’t thrifty, he just ‘got attached to them’. 🙂 🙂
Hmm he looks good and I am laughing at people saying where is the baby? I am sure at home with it’s mother, nanny, or other relatives. A friend just gave birth and anytime I visit her and the baby there is a crowd of people there. When she has the next I am sure the appeal will wear off and the same will be said for Cumberbatch and Sophie.
Oh, hey Brooklyn Bridge (or whatever bridge) t-shirt. Haven’t seen you in forever. (Signs you know he dressed himself.)
He’s missing the teeny tiny hat!
Oh yes! Must have teeny hat for the full ‘got dressed in the dark’ look.
He used to be such a pretty boy….He lost his charisma. Hope he will find it again some day.
More than anything he’s lost his smile. He always looks like someone stamped on all his toys.
Scruffy always wins on super-slicked, at least in my book.
Casual, scruffy and with specs. Perfect.
Give us a smile, Ben, you’ve got it all!
I think the reason for the “double standard” is that Hamlet’s been planned for well over a year. That’s part of the reason people think this an oops-the timing couldn’t be worse. Phaedra, on the other hand was not really in the pipeline until the past few months. It probably was in the works a lot longer, but the publicity is more recent. And unfortunately it’s not doing her any favors.