Names and faces

Seven years after being named Esquire magazine’s sexiest woman alive, Scarlett Johansson has earned the title for a second time. Johansson, who also won in 2006, is the first woman to get the honor twice. Last year’s winner was Mila Kunis. Johansson jokingly tells the magazine she’s “gotta hustle” and “pretty soon the roles you’re offered all become mothers. Then they just sort of stop.” The 28-year-old actress recently went public with her engagement to former French journalist Romain Dauriac. It will be her second marriage. She split from Ryan Reynolds in 2010. She says jealousy “comes with the territory” with a Frenchman but she prefers being with someone “who’s a little jealous.” The November issue of Esquire will be on newsstands Oct. 15.

As a young musician, Pixies frontman Charles Thompson was determined to make it past the velvet rope at the mythical club that is rock stardom. “It inspired us even from the time before we were rock musicians,” said Thompson, who performs under the name Black Francis. “It’s how we became rock musicians … the idea of being in that club.” But even for a band as influential and revered as the Pixies, maintaining club membership means staying relevant. And that can be a tricky thing. In the case of the Pixies, who disbanded in 1993 and reunited in 2004, the last decade has been marked by what Thompson calls a “never-ending, it seemed, encore performance of our repertoire” with only one new song, “Bam Thwok”, released in 2004, to show for it. That all changed in late June, when a video for a new song, “Bagboy,” showed up online unannounced. A few weeks later, the band again surprised fans with an online collection of four new songs released under the name EP-1 along with a global tour announcement, including a 33-city, North American leg.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 10/08/2013

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