‘Overachiever” barely begins to describe Chelsea Handler, the blunt and fearless comic who has always boogied to the beat of her own drum regardless of societal norms and conventional expectations.
She’s also the kind of girl who has scads of questions on a wide range of subjects – and has begun her quest to travel the globe to get the answers she craves.
"I like to be really challenged. I like to be nervous when I do stuff. I don't like to get too comfortable," she says on the eve of her new talk show, Chelsea, which begins streaming on Netflix tomorrow.
"It's a mix of all kinds of things," says the 41-year-old. "I'm basically treating it as the college education that I forgot to get, which Netflix is funding. It's what you would want college to be once you turn 40 and you realise what you're actually interested in ... [I'm] getting answers to questions, but also keeping my sense of humour about everything – so you can get information in a fun, cool way. Like, imagine if 60 Minutes were funny."
To her credit, Handler has been nothing but trouble – hurling barbs of the most entertaining and enjoyable variety – since we first noticed her as a practical joker on the hidden-camera show Girls Behaving Badly (2002-2005).
Later, as the host of E!'s Chelsea Lately, her alternative talk show that wrapped up its successful seven-year run in August 2014, Handler proved that a female could break into the otherwise male-dominated late-night arena.
World is her comic oyster
With Chelsea, she'll travel far and wide to offer up unfiltered opinions on topical entertainment and cultural issues.
She’ll tap everyday folks and celebrity guests to help her explore alternative lifestyles and international cultures, education, health, sports, parenting and politics.
Basically, whatever spins Handler’s crank is grist for each half-hour show – with three new shows weekly – and that’s exactly how she likes it.
While Handler has gained a cheeky bit of notoriety for her penchant of posting nearly nude selfies on the internet – either as a way to wish her friends a happy birthday or to protest politicians she despises, such as Donald Trump – overall her résumé is to die for.
She's been honoured as one of Glamour magazine's Women of the Year and was also featured in TIME magazine's annual TIME 100.
Her multiplatform success as a best-selling author, talk show host, and stand-up comedian proves the actress is no fluke.
As a non-fiction author, she has five best-sellers currently in print; her recently released fifth book, the travelogue Uganda Be Kidding Me, was her fourth book to debut at No 1 on the New York Times best-seller list.
On top of her new show, which is being produced in Los Angeles with executive producer Bill Wolff (The View), her landmark Netflix deal also includes a stand-up special and a four-part documentary series, Chelsea Does – on marriage, racism, Silicon Valley and drugs – which is now available on Netflix.
Money no object
Money has never been much of a motivator for Handler, who says she turned down pots of gold before deciding to do her own thing on Netflix.
After Chelsea Lately ended, "I looked at my life. I thought: I'm bored. I'm not being as smart as I am. I want to do a show that's smarter than me. I want to make my mother proud, my family proud. I want to take chances. I want to set an example."
“I could have gotten paid US$10 million [Dh36.7m] a year for the next five years, [but] that is never a reason to make a decision,” she adds.
“I had planned on just quitting, indefinitely, and not doing anything. But as soon as everybody heard I was quitting, I got all these offers and people were throwing ridiculous amounts of money at me.
“And I just kept hearing the voice in my head saying: ‘Don’t do something for money. Don’t ever fill somebody else’s shoes. Don’t go into that network environment where you’re told what to do by a man who thinks he’s doing you a favour by giving you a job.’
“At the end of the day, I said to my manager, ‘I want to meet Netflix.’ I met with an amazing team of really intelligent people. I said, ‘I want to do this’. And they said, ‘let’s do it’.”
In a memo to herself, she also offered up another nugget of advice: “You’ll be streaming in 196 countries, so remember to keep a deeper, more culturally sensitive perspective. Especially towards the Germans; they’re still touchy about everything they did.”
• Chelsea streams on Netflix starting on Wednesday, May 9, 2016. New episodes will stream every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
artslife@thenational.ae
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
The bio
Favourite food: Japanese
Favourite car: Lamborghini
Favourite hobby: Football
Favourite quote: If your dreams don’t scare you, they are not big enough
Favourite country: UAE
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
SHAITTAN
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Where to buy art books in the UAE
There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.
In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show.
In Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has a beautiful selection of catalogues and art books, and Magrudy’s – across the Emirates, but particularly at their NYU Abu Dhabi site – has a great selection in art, fiction and cultural theory.
In Sharjah, the Sharjah Art Museum sells catalogues and art books at its museum shop, and the Sharjah Art Foundation has a bookshop that offers reads on art, theory and cultural history.
The specs: 2017 Lotus Evora Sport 410
Price, base / as tested Dh395,000 / Dh420,000
Engine 3.5L V6
Transmission Six-speed manual
Power 410hp @ 7,000rpm
Torque 420Nm @ 3,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.7L / 100km
Leaderboard
64 - Gavin Green (MAL), Graeme McDowell (NIR)
65 - Henrik Stenson (SWE), Sebastian Soderberg (SWE), Adri Arnaus (ESP), Victor Perez (FRA), Jhonattan Vegas (VEN)
66 - Phil Mickelson (USA), Tom Lewis (ENG), Andy Sullivan (ENG), Ross Fisher (ENG), Aaron Rai (ENG), Ryan Fox (NZL)
67 - Dustin Johnson (USA), Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (ESP), Lucas Herbert (AUS), Francesco Laporta (ITA), Joost Luiten (NED), Soren Kjeldsen (DEN), Marcus Kinhult (SWE)
68 - Alexander Bjork (SWE), Matthieu Pavon (FRA), Adrian Meronk (POL), David Howell (ENG), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR), Sean Crocker (USA), Scott Hend (AUS), Justin Harding (RSA), Jazz Janewattananond (THA), Shubhankar Sharma (IND), Renato Paratore (ITA)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Yuki Means Happiness
Alison Jean Lester
John Murray
