Characteristics:
- Utilizing Julia Roberts as the subject matter
- Incorporating elements from the films Homecoming, Runaway Bride, Erin Brockovich, My Best Friend ‘s Wedding, Notting Hill, and Pretty Woman
- These items are crafted into the form of pillowcases, blankets, and posters
The use of technology has drastically increased in recent years, with its presence in many aspects of everyday life. Nowadays, tech has become an integral part of society, from communication and entertainment to medical and educational services.
Its reach is far and wide, revolutionizing the way individuals interact and operate.
The way in which one can avoid plagiarism is by restructuring the text without altering the core meaning and context. This can be done by changing the format of the words and sentences, but keeping the overall concept intact.
In our domicile, there is an abundance of Julias. When we lay back, it is with a picture of Julia in view; when we catch some sleep, it is beneath the fluffy Julia; and when we greet the morning, it is to Julia: her beaming face on the wall.
The framed portrait shows a shot of Julia in an updo and with a beaded cardigan, from the scene in My Best Friend ‘s Wedding where she is not very nice to Kimmy. The ad for the photo read “Julia Signed Glossy ‘Runaway Bride.'”
It is supposedly autographed by Julia herself in blue marker, but there is no real paperwork to prove it.
Hannah and I discovered our shared admiration of Julia Roberts at some point, and that even made its way into our wedding. We had seating tiles with images on them of things that reminded us of our guests, but when it came to our own, we were stuck for ideas.
We ended up putting pictures of George and Jules from My Best Friend’s Wedding on it, as a reminder of two characters dressed up and optimistically clutching their flip phones.
As a surprise for Hannah, I put on a performance of a scene from the movie, and everyone sang along with me. At the end, people asked why we chose Julia. I was playing George in the scene.
Fleece-blanket Julia is featured on the blanket, wearing the iconic white-and-blue minidress from Pretty Woman with a silver ring at her stomach. I prefer to fold the blanket so her face and teeth are visible, not her torso or legs, to avoid objectifying her.
Pillow Julia is harder to interpret, as the image is slightly blurred. Her hair is wavy and windswept and her laughter is captured on the screen-printed pillowcase.
It is a hard, cheap, and rough pillow, almost squeaky in its plasticity – like a McDonald’s ball pit ball – but it is Julia. Still, this object might be my favorite of all.
When I published a picture of the Julia cushion, a friend of mine messaged me saying “Julia Roberts is the devil.”
They then shared some reports concerning Julia Roberts, like the moment she had a liaison with a married man and placed the married man’s partner’s name on her T-shirt, which was perturbing. “No,no,no,no,” I thought. “I don’t want to be aware of this.”
An article in ET Canada had the title “Test Audiences Hated Julia Roberts’ Happy Ending in ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’: ‘They Wanted Her Dead.'” The friend kept on by saying “She’s trash. Look for the info… it’s out there.”
Hannah and I are not too familiar with Julia Roberts the person; and, in fact, we have never desired to get to know her in that way. We fear that she may not live up to our expectations. Julia has become a part of our home and our hearts through her portrayals in movies.
We can think of her as Jules in her lavender dress, being rejected at the wedding but still dancing with her gay best friend (who among the queer has not at some point felt like Jules?). We also remember Julia as the tough Erin Brockovich with her animal-print tops and her brains.
Then there is her mysterious gesture of “snow blowing” a dude, suggesting that she knows more than she lets on. Lastly, we still love her even when she plays the villain in Homecoming, as a messed up therapist, and we still cheer her on.
All I’m really sure of is that Julia Roberts has a renowned niece who is an actor and loves to read. I have a tendency to mix up her marriage to a man with her marriage to the Coldplay frontman.
Julia donned a suit and tie when she was awarded a Golden Globe, and a black-and-white dress for her Oscar win. That’s all I can recall.
As a gay, Jewish woman of color, I have never been represented in the roles of Julia Roberts.
However, I cannot help but question when is it too late to pretend? What I do not want is for Julia Roberts to embody a negative character or to be an example of a selfish person.
Instead, I want her to be the Jules in our picture frame, with her maybe-autograph, representing a false “simpler” time of wearing headphones in a bathtub, laughing, slow-dancing on a ferryboat, drinking beer, and wearing miniskirts.
Although I have not done some of those things in a long time, Julia Roberts reminds me that I have done them and that I can do them again. Even in the terrible movie Eat, Pray, Love, her slurping of noodles is strangely satisfying.
When my mum visits, she is amazed by the vast amount of Julia and says “Whoa!” However, I always think that we can never have enough. Jo, a friend of mine, understands this concept.
On her birthday, her partner decorated the cake with a frosting message that reads: Julia Roberts has an Oscar.
It’s safe to say that neither I nor my wife have any desire to sleep with Julia Roberts. To us, she is “our Julia” – Vivian in polka dots at the racetrack, Anna at the aquarium, ready to get together with Jude Law’s character, Dan. Our admiration for her is totally platonic.
We can’t help but love her in every outfit, every tearful kiss, and that pair of tiny sunglasses she wore in Notting Hill when playing “just a girl, standing in front of a boy.” We also love seeing her eat pizza, dripping with jewels and using not-so-great accents.
Julia’s ability to simultaneously cry and smile that special Julia smile, crinkling her face, still brings tears to our eyes. We think of her as Tinker Bell and can’t help but feel sorry for her; remember the guy with the cans from Sleeping with the Enemy? My mom loves that one.
Most of Julia’s roles have one thing in common: her character is always underestimated. We want her to be successful, no matter if she’s a stepmom, sinking an 8-ball in Mystic, Connecticut, or a sex worker.
Finally, when she gets to shop on Rodeo Drive, it’s like we all get to experience a moment of glory, our own perfect redemption and perfect outfit.
In our living room, those wedding tiles have been repurposed to function as coasters. When I’m watching movies in the dark, the glasses tend to stick to them and sometimes Julia falls off the table.
Even so, these tiles are incredibly durable, having been coated with a special kind of paint to make them indestructible. In the movie, Edward tells Vivian, “You are an extraordinary and remarkable woman.”
In the most dramatic moment, she exclaimed to him, “I want more!”, revealing the lone freckle below her eye, her hair highlighted by the warm glow of Edward’s hotel room. “I want the fairy tale,” she declared.
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It is possible to avoid any form of plagiarism by altering the way a text is structured while keeping the context and the underlying meaning intact. This can be achieved by changing certain words, rearranging the order of sentences, or even rewriting the entire passage.
