Arts Entertainments

Two decades after the fact, Josh Harnett has opened up about his decision to leave Los Angeles at the peak of his fame. “I just didn’t want my life to be swallowed up by my work,” the 46-year-old star of M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie “Trap” said in a Guardian interview published Sunday. “And there…

Céline Dion returned to the world stage Friday at the 2024 Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony, and the gravity of the moment was not lost on her. The powerhouse singer, who had not performed publicly for years due to complications from a rare neurological disorder, closed out the ceremony with an instantly iconic performance of “L’Hymne…

It was a big weekend for Marvel Studios. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige returned to San Diego Comic-Con’s hallowed Hall H on Saturday to hype the studio’s upcoming projects armed with exclusive footage, surprises and more. (Just a couple days earlier, the same hall in the Anaheim Convention Center was the site of revelry celebrating…

A coalition of unions representing drivers, mechanics, location managers, electricians and other Hollywood crew members has struck tentative contract deals with the major studios — closing out a long, turbulent chapter of labor activity in the film and TV industry. As of late Saturday night, the Hollywood Basic Crafts and the Alliance of Motion Picture…

When dementia becomes a principal player in any household, the ravages of loss start early. It’s in that unsettling space, in which confusion grips all parties, where Japanese filmmaker Kei Chika-ura fashions his intricately heartsick “Great Absence,” about a callous father’s dementia and an estranged son’s investigation of the past. Working from an excellent screenplay…

Video game performers are officially on strike. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called a walkout this week on behalf of roughly 2,600 actors doing voice-over, motion-capture and other work in the gaming industry. Union leaders took the step after they could not reach an agreement on artificial intelligence terms while…

France took the opening ceremony of the Olympics out of the customary arena and onto the River Seine — and into the rain — Friday in what was undeniably a bold, unprecedented and, given the security nightmare, crazy take on the event. An Olympics whose motto is “Games Wide Open” ironically came with fences, checkpoints…

Former Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is awaiting retrial on rape charges in New York, has been hospitalized again. New York Corrections Department records show that the 72-year-old was transferred from the Rikers Island jail complex in to a locked ward at Bellevue Hospital. At Bellevue, he is undergoing treatment for COVID-19, double pneumonia…

Actor Vince Vaughn has purchased a majority ownership stake in the National Pickleball League’s Coachella Valley Scorpions, one of 12 teams in the 2-year-old professional league. Co-owner Kim Jagd, who is also a member of the team, will retain a minority share, the team said in a statement. The NPL is a professional pickleball league…

Koe Wetzel is calling from Nashville, two nights into a recent visit to “a two-night town,” as this lifelong Texan describes country music’s capital. “It’s like my new Vegas, bro,” says the singer and songwriter, last night’s festivities still audible in the weary scrape of his voice over the phone. “I’ve been here since Tuesday,…

We see London, we see France, we see — the “America’s Got Talent” audience’s underpants? “AGT” broke a Guinness World Record in the episode that aired Tuesday night: the record for the most people wearing underwear on their heads for at least one minute. Nicolas “Nick” Manning, a contestant from Australia, came on “AGT” initially…

Disneyland employees said they had reached a tentative contract deal with the company, averting what could have been the first major work stoppage at the Anaheim theme park in 40 years. Members of the Master Services Council — an alliance of unions representing custodians, ride operators, candy makers, merchandise clerks and other Disneyland employees —…

John Mayall, the musician and bandleader often referred to as the godfather of the British blues — and whose long-running group the Bluesbreakers incubated some of rock music’s biggest talents, including Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Mick Fleetwood — died Monday at his home in California, according to a statement posted by his family on…

Raye Zaragoza was just a child when she first auditioned to play Tiger Lily. It was the late ’90s, yet another “Peter Pan” project was in the works, and though most adaptations had presented Tiger Lily as an offensive caricature, maybe this one would offer a dimensional, dignified depiction of a Native American. “The only…

Esta TerBlanche, the South African actor best known for her portrayal of Gillian Andrassy on the U.S. daytime drama “All My Children,” has died at age 51. TerBlanche died Friday in Los Angeles, publicist Lisa Rodrigo confirmed to The Times. The cause of death is currently pending, awaiting updates from the medical examiner. “I am…

The Toronto International Film Festival announced two of the most high-profile sections of the upcoming event on Monday, with 63 films in the Gala and Special Presentations programs. Coming alongside other prominent fall festivals at Telluride, Venice and New York, Toronto has long served as part of an inflection point for the year in movies,…

Westwood’s historic movie palaces, the Regency Village Theatre and the Bruin, are closing later this week. “The last day of operation for the Bruin & Village Theaters under Regency is Thursday, July 25,” Lyndon Golin, Regency Theatres president, confirmed in an email Sunday. Regency has managed the two theaters for 14 years, but its leases…

We know what typically happens in movies when characters go looking for missing loved ones. Surprise — they find themselves. End of quest. But something more nuanced emerges regarding our internal compasses in filmmaker Levan Akin’s “Crossing,” about a retired Georgian schoolteacher trying to track down her transgender niece in Istanbul. It’s what gives this…

Most Americans (and wine enthusiasts around the world) are no stranger to Veuve Clicquot Champagnes and their distinctive, marigold-labeled bottles signifying celebration and luxury. But non-French speakers wouldn’t understand the full name of the brand and, therefore, are missing out on the whole story. The word “veuve” in French means “widow,” and so the name…

Temperatures on Venus hover around 870 degrees, but the second-closest planet to the sun got a little bit cooler recently when NASA showered it with Missy Elliott’s hit song “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).” The feat took place at 10:05 a.m. July 12, when NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge beamed the song…

Filmmaker Osgood Perkins’ eerie, occultist serial-killer horror thriller “Longlegs” opens with a psyche-rattling sequence, barely a minute or two long, in which he crafts a chilling sense of shock, awe and humor simply through shot composition, editing and performance. It unsettles the viewer on a bone-deep level, the tension bursting like a bubble on a…

While working at Disneyland last summer, Cyn Carranza lived in her car with her dog and showered on resort property. As recently as this spring, the 39-year-old custodian scrubbed, waxed and buffed floors inside the theme park from 11:45 p.m. to 7:55 a.m. before working a 9 a.m.-to-2 p.m. shift at a nearby Goodwill and…

Eddie Rosenblatt, the longtime president of Geffen Records who signed John Lennon and built a roster of rock and alternative acts including Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana, died of pneumonia on Tuesday at a Santa Barbara hospital surrounded by family, his son Michael told The Times. He was 89. The executive, nicknamed “The Chief,” first…

The seeds of “Lady in the Lake” were planted in 1969 with the disappearances and deaths of an 11-year-old Jewish girl and a 33-year-old Black woman in Baltimore. These crimes inspired Laura Lippman to write her 2019 novel, in which multiple narrators tell the stories of aspiring newspaper reporter Maddie Schwartz, a Jewish woman trying…

Under an agreement on terms that will finalize Kathy Griffin and Randy Bick’s divorce, Bick will be allowed to visit the home he shared with the comedian in the company of a third-party “chaperone” to pick up the rest of his stuff. Their agreement — which Bick’s attorneys filed Tuesday in L.A. Superior Court —…

School’s out and streaming is in. Streaming platforms accounted for a record 40.3% of all TV usage in June, according to Nielsen data. That’s the largest share of the viewing pie for Netflix, YouTube and their ilk since the audience measurement firm began reporting the percentage figures in June 2021. Streaming viewership rose 6% from…

Lenny Kravitz had an impromptu intermission during a concert in Italy to answer a phone call from his buddy Denzel Washington. “I’m sorry, my big brother just called me up on the phone to say ‘Hi,’” Kravitz said Friday to the crowd at the Umbria Jazz Festival. “Y’all know Denzel Washington?” The “Fly Away” singer…

Filmmaker Michael Mann is known for his exacting research and exhaustive preparation, work that goes into such moody, existential portraits as “Heat,” “The Insider,” “Ali,” “Miami Vice,” “Blackhat” and the recent “Ferrari.” Mann is now giving audiences an unprecedented glimpse into his artistic process via the website michaelmannarchives.com. Launching today at noon Pacific time, the…

Holly Marie Combs gave a heartfelt tribute Monday to her late “Charmed” co-star Shannen Doherty following Doherty’s death on Saturday. The 50-year-old actor shared a post on Instagram calling Doherty “my better half of 31 years.” “There is a hollow in my chest and I can’t seem to catch my breath. A part of me…

Emmy nominations arrive Wednesday morning, and in case you’re just joining us, a couple of important programming notes. “The Bear” won the Emmy for comedy series for its first season, so yes, it is indeed still a comedy, even if you don’t find the Fak family particularly funny or wonder how a show that fills…

In the pantheon of teen characters, there was no one better suited to bring an edge to the journey of girlhood, when we’re eager to fit in and grow up, than Shannen Doherty. The actor, who died Saturday at 53, was in her late teens when she took on the role of Brenda Walsh on…

Shannen Doherty, the quintessential ’90s rebel who starred in the TV mega-hits “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Charmed,” has died after a nearly decade-long battle with cancer. She was 53. Doherty died Saturday, the Associated Press reported. Last June, the actor revealed her cancer had spread to her brain and in November, to her bones. Her…

SANTA FE, N.M.  —  The spectacular collapse of New Mexico’s criminal prosecution of Alec Baldwin in the deadly “Rust” movie shooting laid bare nearly three years of errors by state officials who were eager to prove themselves on a world stage. Legal experts had long said it was a risk to charge Baldwin with involuntary…

Director Baltasar Kormákur, who’s forged a comfortable career toggling between Hollywood tales set in far-flung spots (“Beast,” “Adrift”) and films set in his native Iceland, returns to his home country for the sweet/sad love story “Touch,” only to continent-hop again within its two-hour running time. Restlessness is built into the story, adapted from a novel…

Whether it tickles your absurdist heart or tries your sense of narrative logic, there’s one incontestable fact about the Buñuelian dramedy “Mother, Couch”: From start to finish, it’s an original, wholly unpredictable experience. It’s also, by turns, gripping, provocative, head-scratching and disturbing, and is likely to divide viewers with its dreamlike ambitions and metaphorical musings….

Oz Perkins is no stranger to the public eye. His parents — fashion model Berry Berenson and “Psycho” star Anthony Perkins — were both celebrities. He’s no stranger to darkness either: His father was forced to live a life in the closet, and his mother died in one of the planes hijacked during the 9/11…

The Beastie Boys have sued Brinker International, the owner of 30 Chili’s Grill & Bar locations in New York, for alleged copyright infringement and trademark rights violations. The suit comes after a Chili’s ad was released parodying the rap group’s 1994 hit “Sabotage” and its ’70s themed, Spike Jonze-directed video. The suit alleges that the…

Benji Gregory, who starred in the late-’80s family sitcom “ALF,” died last month in Arizona. He was 46. His official cause of death was still pending Wednesday night, according to the Maricopa County medical examiner’s office. Earlier in the day, his sister confirmed his death to the New York Times, and said in a Facebook…

Kevin Hart is being sued for allegedly botching a settlement agreement that was meant to clear the name of a former friend, Jonathan “J.T.” Jackson, as it related to the events surrounding the comic’s sex-tape cheating scandal. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Jackson accused the “Get Hard” actor of…

Hardcover fiction 1. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” 2. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Riverhead Books: $30) Two worlds collide when a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp. 3. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $29) A woman upends her…

The Hollywood Walk of Fame stars of Selena Quintanilla and Jenni Rivera were vandalized twice with black paint in the span of 24 hours. Rivera, known as “la Diva de la Banda,” was granted the posthumous honor at a June 27 ceremony that saw fans from all over the country gather to celebrate her legacy….

Judy Belushi-Pisano, an actor and the widow of “Saturday Night Live” star John Belushi, died Friday, according to social media posts shared by the Belushi estate. She was 73. Belushi-Pisano died after a years-long battle with endometrial cancer, her son Luke Pisano told the Martha’s Vineyard Times. Luke said that Belushi-Pisano — a “great mother,”…

Canadian author Alice Munro established a celebrated and award-winning career with her short stories. However, more than a month after Munro’s death, her estranged daughter says that the writer failed to acknowledge one key narrative: Her second husband was a child sex abuser. Andrea Robin Skinner, one of Munro’s three daughters with ex-husband James Munro,…

Netflix has had immense success adapting books into television series, turning the streamer into a global driving force for boosting book sales and changing how we read fiction. One of its biggest recent successes has been the “Bridgerton” series — the first three seasons rank among its top 10 most popular TV series, according to…

This story contains spoilers from “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 4, “The Red Dragon and the Gold.” The Queen Who Never Was is no more. In Sunday’s episode of “House of the Dragon,” “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) volunteers to take her dragon, Meleys, into battle at…

Sheryl Lee Ralph and her family are safe and praying the sun will come out tomorrow. The “Abbott Elementary” star on Tuesday solicited prayers from her home in Jamaica as she prepared to ride out Hurricane Beryl, which swept along the island’s southern coast on Wednesday night, bringing more than 12 hours of heavy rain….

Around 11 a.m. on a recent Saturday, the first of five work-in-progress comedy shows began to unfold onstage at the Elysian Theater. The audience was encouraged to provide feedback. And between the five hourlong productions, bagpipe music filled the Echo Park space. For performers Sarina Freda, Natasha Mercado, Charlie James, Miles Woods and Griffin Kelly,…

Hollywood knows a flop when it sees one. So it’s hardly surprising that some of the industry’s biggest luminaries are engaged in a collective act of hand-wringing over President Biden’s weak performance during last week’s presidential debate against former President Trump. Hollywood backers, including those who previously wrote large checks, are feeling skittish about Biden’s…

Ellen DeGeneres has abruptly canceled four of her stand-up tour dates — and didn’t give a reason why. Those who bought tickets to the former talk show host’s performances in Dallas (July 10), San Francisco (July 21), Seattle (July 23) and Chicago (Aug. 11) were informed by concert promoter Live Nation that “unfortunately, the Event…

In a show that boasts appearances by the likes of Emma Stone, Bowen Yang, Amy Sedaris and Aidy Bryant, Julio Torres’ “Fantasmas” may well make a TV star out of someone who aptly goes by a single name: Martine. “This is the biggest role I’ve ever had,” Martine, a trans visual and performance artist, says…

Audiences are going bananas for Universal Pictures’ and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4.” The latest installment in the popular family film franchise opened to $27 million Wednesday at the domestic box office, according to estimates from a studio source and measurement firm Comscore. That number is expected to rise to roughly $120 million by the end…

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal woes are far from over. The embattled rap mogul and alcohol entrepreneur faces fresh accusations of sexual assault and sex trafficking in a new lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint marks the ninth sexual assault lawsuit filed against the rapper…

In the service of digging into what the Dodgers might be doing to entrench themselves as Japan’s favorite major league team, I am interviewing an animated character. “I’m a shark-girl from the lost city of Atlantis,” Gawr Gura tells me. “I swam to the surface to hang out with you guys on land about 9,000…

Hardcover fiction 1. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” 2. The Women by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Press: $30) An intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided. 3. The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley (William…

Ann Wilson, the lead singer of rock band Heart, is battling cancer and will be stepping back from the Royal Flush Tour for the remainder of the year to focus on her health and recovery. Wilson, 74, shared the news with fans in a heartfelt post Tuesday on Instagram, detailing her health and expressing her…

Horror filmmaker Ti West steps out of the blackness behind the Bates Motel hours after the last tourist tram has made it to safety. Behind him looms the “Psycho” house where Mrs. Bates lurked in the window monitoring the movements of Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane — a shot West references in his 2022 slasher “X,”…

More than a year after he was mysteriously hospitalized, Jamie Foxx is sharing details about the health scare. Not all the details. But some. “Look, April 11 last year. Bad headache. I asked my boy for an Advil,” Foxx told a group at a Phoenix cafe, as seen in a video posted to TikTok by…

The Angelus Temple megachurch in Echo Park was the unlikely venue (and largest to date) for the Gabriella Charter Schools’ year-end dance recitals. Friends and family packed the 5,300-seat, three-story theater for two performances on a Saturday in June, which transported them from California’s redwood forests and Central Valley farms to the schools’ home of…

Two days before they’re due to play the first date of a headlining theater tour, the members of the rock band Diiv are sitting around a picnic table in the parking lot of a Burbank rehearsal studio, reminiscing about the arena shows they opened last fall for Depeche Mode. They talk about the glittery jackets…

Over the last 15 years, Blumhouse has built a reputation for success by producing low-cost, original indie horror films. Now, the studio best known for such movies as the “Paranormal Activity” franchise and “M3gan” is looking to do the same in video games. The Los Angeles-based film and TV production company recently announced its first…

For anyone lucky enough to have experienced the long arc of his career, the death of droll, dry, deadpan Martin Mull, Thursday at 80, feels like the end of an era. A writer, songwriter, musician, comedian, comic actor and, out of the spotlight, a serious painter, Mull was a comfortingly disquieting presence — deceptively normal,…

Once upon a time, the collected works of music journalists, film critics and other cultural correspondents appeared with regularity on the literary landscape. We relied on their observations to make sense not only of the art we admired and the artists who created it but of the times we lived in and the places we…

To watch “A Quiet Place: Day One” is to recalibrate your senses — not to the alien horror movie you know is in store but rather, to the intimate human drama it hangs onto, long after a lesser film would have given up. Among its lovely images, there’s the distant New York skyline seen beyond…

The doors to the Bear may be open, but the elephant is still in the kitchen. “The Bear,” FX’s Emmy-sweeping, meme-generating, kitchen-whites selling, deeply immersive experience of a series dropped on Hulu on Wednesday, and viewers are scrambling to see what kind of sweat-of-their-brow delicacies it serves up next. By exposing the world to the…

Twenty-six years after the death of Princess Diana, her spirit — and style — are as influential as ever. That much was proved true Thursday at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel, where Julien’s Auctions sold more than 50 of the philanthropist’s personal items, ranging from glittering gowns and heels to handwritten notes discussing her young…

Last summer, Jeff and Steven McDonald, the brotherly duo who founded the pioneering, sound-shifting band Redd Kross, decided to check out their longtime pals Sparks at the Hollywood Bowl. The McDonalds, long inspired by the band created by brothers Ron and Russell Mael, saw the show with friend and musical collaborator Josh Klinghoffer and Steven’s…

Jonathan Van Ness is speaking out against allegations that they were a “monster” to work with on the “Queer Eye” set. The allegations in question came from multiple members of the “Queer Eye” production crew, who told Rolling Stone that the beauty guru known for warmth on screen was actually a “nightmare,” “demeaning,” “abusive” and…

Hardcover fiction 1. The Women by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Press: $30) An intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided. 2. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” 3. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books:…

Travis Kelce isn’t afraid to share his love story. It turns out that Taylor Swift’s unexpected behavior during the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Chicago Bears in September tipped the relationship into this-is-the-real-deal territory, he said on the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast. Kelce explained that they had already been seeing each other privately…

Natasha Kline based “Primos” on her childhood summers spent with her cousins. (Brittany Bravo / For The Times) As a child, Natasha Kline saw every summer as an opportunity to reinvent herself. A self-described shy, artsy introvert, Kline would approach the extended break convinced that she would pick up a new skill or be otherwise…

Thomas Brodie-Sangster is in love — and there’s nothing he can do about it! The “Love Actually” child star, 34, married actor Talulah Riley, 38, in a 14th-century church in the village of Anstey, England, over the weekend. The bride arrived in a horse-drawn carriage wearing an elegant white satin dress and lace-lined veil, while…

This article contains spoilers for the first episode of “Orphan Black: Echoes.” Sometimes a new television show illuminates the limitless possibilities of the art form. And sometimes it reveals that art form’s struggles. “Orphan Black: Echoes” is precisely what the title implies — a far-off reverberation of an original event, in many ways mirroring the…

Jamie Kellner, a pioneering media executive who helped expand the world of broadcast television by creating Fox and the WB networks, died Friday. He was 77. Kellner also oversaw CNN, TNT and TBS as chairman and chief executive of Turner Broadcasting System. He died at his home in Montecito after a long battle with cancer,…

Ann Philbin, photographed at the Los Angeles Times in El Segundo on Nov. 6. The Los Angeles art world is still reeling — eight months after the fact — from the news that Ann Philbin, longtime director of the Hammer Museum at UCLA, is retiring at the end of this year. Philbin — who has…

Justin Timberlake knows he’s “hard to love” sometimes but thanked his fans in the Windy City on Friday for doing so anyway, addressing his recent arrest in the Hamptons and subsequent charge of driving while intoxicated in public for the first time. Apparently, his Tuesday arrest in New York did not “ruin” his world tour…

Six weeks before Tom Girardi’s criminal trial in Los Angeles is scheduled to begin, federal prosecutors revealed that they intend to introduce key evidence: that the disgraced former attorney allegedly spent more than $25 million of client and law firm money on the career of his reality TV star wife. Until now, Erika Girardi —…

Artificial intelligence is “exciting,” but guardrails must be put in place to protect labor, intellectual property and ethics, NBCUniversal Studio Group Chairman Donna Langley said Friday at an entertainment industry law conference. During a wide-ranging, on-stage conversation at the UCLA Entertainment Symposium, the media chief emphasized that first, “the labor piece of it has to…

On the Shelf Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV By Emily NussbaumRandom House: 464 pages, $30 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson were still “Newlyweds” grappling with the chicken or tuna conundrum when…

Two climate activists in the United Kingdom threw orange paint at private jets at an airport Thursday — an action specifically targeting Taylor Swift. Alas, her jet wasn’t there. The activists are part of Just Stop Oil, a coalition of organizations demanding that the British government create a treaty that would “end the extraction and…

What constitutes variety at the Primetime Emmy Awards can be a toss-up. Is it a sketch comedy series? A stand-up comedy series? A musical? A late-night talk show? The answer over the decades has been yes and no, depending on the year. From 1979 to 1989 and then again in 1991, variety series and specials…

To quote Mick Jagger, you can’t always get what you want. But if he wanted grandkids, he got them in spades. The Rolling Stones legend is now set to welcome his sixth. Georgia May Jagger announced Tuesday on Instagram that she and her boyfriend, skateboarder Cambryan Sedlick, are expecting their first child together. “Patiently waiting…

A glance back at the nominees in the supporting actor categories at the 56th Primetime Emmy Awards proves that a modern golden age of TV was in full force. Whether it was the tail end of a remarkably stable comedy lineup, the long-awaited breakthrough for a standout drama or the ongoing domination of one show…

Production designer John Carlos and set decorator Ellen Reede found much of what they needed at a Beverly Hills estate sale, including Yvette Mimieux’s bed.

Ewan McGregor talks “A Gentleman in Moscow,” “Star Wars,” what’s in the works and playing the bagpipes. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) Ewan McGregor is swiping through his camera roll, looking for the picture that explains why he will never grow another mustache — unless a job requires it. And even then, he’d probably…

For 28 years, the annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) has served as a launchpad for aspiring and emerging Black talent across the TV and film industries. Fans from far and wide visit the festival to catch world premieres, indie screenings, contests and conversations and enjoy appearances from some of Hollywood’s most celebrated talent. Founded…

Catherine, Princess of Wales, has issued the first substantial update about her health since revealing in March that she has an undisclosed form of cancer. The British princess, said Friday in a statement that she has been “blown away” by the messages of support and encouragement she has received since announcing her diagnosis and while…

The very essence of “The Big Cigar” is frenetic. The Apple TV+ limited series, a slice-of-life biopic, follows the stranger-than-fiction story of Huey P. Newton — the co-founder of the Black Panther Party, played by a stoic André Holland — and his escape from the FBI to exile in Cuba. The whole thing, from Oakland…

Wednesday night, it turned out, was Ska Night at the Hollywood Bowl. That’s how Ezra Koenig described Vampire Weekend’s latest visit to the iconic venue in the Cahuenga Pass, where he and his bandmates arrived this week not long into a world tour behind their fifth studio album, “Only God Was Above Us.” In truth,…

Adria Arjona went skydiving to get over the heartbreak of missing out on a coveted role. “It’s a little extreme, but it worked,” Arjona, 32, says on the phone days before the crime-fueled romantic comedy “Hit Man” debuted Friday on Netflix. “While I was on the plane, I thought, ‘I’m going to leave all this…

Kevin Spacey doesn’t have “All the Money in the World.” Seven years after he was accused of sexual assault by multiple people, the embattled actor — who was famously replaced in the 2017 Ridley Scott drama — revealed that is far from the case. Spacey, hoping to jump-start his screen career, revealed in a recent…

It’s time to make midnight margaritas — again. “Practical Magic 2” is in the works, and Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are in negotiations to return as witchy sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, respectively, per Variety. Warner Bros. announced the news on TikTok, captioning a clip from the 1998 romance-fantasy classic: “It’s official… Practical Magic…

Paramount Global’s board of directors is poised to vote Tuesday on David Ellison’s proposed takeover of the troubled media company amid divisions among board members, which have raised the level of drama in an already tumultuous sale process. Two sources familiar with the sales process confirmed that the lead independent director, Charles Phillips, has long…

Live TV is always unpredictable — and so is Ryan Reynolds. “The View” moderator Whoopi Goldberg, 68, was commenting on the crowd during the show Monday when she noted, “Sometimes you look up and you go, ‘Oh, this is really great.’ And then you look over and you go, ‘Oh snap, there’s Ryan Reynolds!’” There…

Sidney B. Felsen, beloved co-founder of the seminal Los Angeles printmaking workshop Gemini G.E.L., died of renal failure on Sunday at his home in L.A. He was 99. “Richard Serra once said, ‘Sidney prefers to hurry slowly,’ and we think that captured him perfectly,” Felsen’s wife, Joni Weyl, and daughter, Suzanne Felsen, wrote in a…

Two years after his infamous Oscars meltdown, Will Smith has slapped away lingering doubts about his career comeback. A rare bright spot in the sluggish summer box office, the action-comedy “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” — co-starring Martin Lawrence — opened at the top of the box office charts this weekend with $56 million in…

Selena Gomez, photographed at Rare Beauty headquarters in El Segundo in July. (Jessica Chou / Trunk Archive) There are 428 million people who track Selena Gomez’s every move on Instagram, a legion of followers larger than those counted by Beyoncé, Taylor Swift or any Kardashian. For a performer who has been famous since she was…

“Wheel. Of. Fortune.” After those words cued the start of this historic episode, Pat Sajak made his way from behind the puzzle board, arm-in-arm with co-host Vanna White. It’s difficult to imagine another person taking his place on one of America’s most popular game shows, but that’s what will happen in September when TV personality…

Angélica Garcia has been busy finding herself. Or, rather, her selves. The Los Angeles pop singer’s new record, “Gemelo” — twin in Spanish — is a rhythmic exploration of the spiritual world and our relationship to our inner, intuitive beings. It also is a study of dualities, whether of culture, gender or language. For the…

Howard University trustees on Friday voted to rescind an honorary degree granted to Sean “Diddy” Combs, citing a recently surfaced video of the hip-hop mogul repeatedly attacking Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Trustees of the Washington, D.C., university also disbanded a scholarship in Combs’ name and terminated a 2016 “gift…

“Queenie,” premiering Friday on Hulu, is a lovely dramedy based on Candice Carty-Williams’ 2019 novel of the same name. Reviews of the London-set book described it as a “Black ‘Bridget Jones,’” but it belongs to a long line of stories of evolving young or youngish women plumbing the meaning of life and love and working…

Omar Apollo will embark on a world tour in support of his upcoming sophomore album, “God Said No,” the Grammy-nominated singer announced Thursday via Instagram. The God Said No tour will kick off in Melbourne on July 15, with additional international performances in Indonesia, Japan and Canada. The U.S. leg will begin in his home…

Los Angeles is not, historically, an opera city. Only in 1986 did it finally found a resident company, Music Center Opera, now Los Angeles Opera. Nor do we boast an actual opera house. The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is a multipurpose theater. Dorothy Buffum Chandler disliked opera. Yet before we became Tinseltown, we had, count ‘em,…

At Whitney Houston’s 2012 funeral, which was broadcast live on CNN, Kevin Costner delivered a 17-minute eulogy. But if the network had had its way, his remarks would have run much shorter, the “Yellowstone” actor says. Costner, who co-starred with Houston in the 1992 romantic thriller “The Bodyguard,” was one of eight speakers at the…

Fresh off the resounding success of “Barbie,” Mattel is partnering with Universal Pictures to develop another live-action film based on its top-selling dolls. The El Segundo-based toy company and the studio giant announced Wednesday that they are joining forces for “Monster High,” a big-screen feature inspired by the fashionable, plastic descendants of classic creatures. Universal…

Mandisa, the Grammy-winning Christian music singer and former “American Idol” contestant, died in April from complications of class III obesity, according to an autopsy report. Documents obtained by People listed the singer’s manner of death as natural and noted that the 47-year-old was found dead in her Tennessee home on April 18. The singer “was…

Warner Bros. Discovery is raising the cost of ad-free subscriptions to its streaming platform, Max. The New York-based entertainment behemoth announced Tuesday that the price of its monthly ad-free plan has increased by $1 to $16.99, while its annual ad-free rate has gone up by $20 to $169.99. Its monthly premium ad-free plan also has…

Actor Zachary Quinto has been banned from a Toronto restaurant after he berated staff and stormed away from his weekend brunch plans, the eatery’s co-owner said. Quinto, known for playing the unemotional and logical Mr. Spock, was apparently much less restrained than his “Star Trek” character when he allegedly yelled at staffers at Manita restaurant…

Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming subscription company, is raising its prices again for U.S. premium accounts. The price of ad-free individual plans is going up $1 to $11.99 a month, the company said Monday. Rates for group subscriptions also increasing, with duo plans increasing $2 to $16.99 a month and family plans going up…

I haven’t been to a Renaissance faire since — well, not quite since the Renaissance, but a really long time. I know from the billboards, though, that a local edition is still going strong. The one I knew — the original Renaissance Pleasure Faire — was held on the Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills, among…

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, 93, married his fifth wife in a ceremony Saturday at his Moraga winery in Bel-Air. The Fox and News Corp. chairman emeritus tied the knot with retired molecular biologist Elena Zhukova, 67. Their marriage comes a little over a year after Murdoch broke off a two-week-long engagement with former San Francisco…

The daylight hours are getting longer — which might mean you’d rather not spend all your free time catching up on the best TV you’ve missed this past year. Fear not, the Emmys BuzzMeter panelists are here to cut through the clutter with our Round 1 picks. This early round is all about the “buzz”:…

Last week two solo exhibitions bearing voluminous — and timely — insight arrived at Los Angeles museums. Each is a mid-career survey of feminist painting, sculpture and video from the past 20 years, representing two very different artists for whom women’s place in the world is key. “Mickalene Thomas: All About Love” is a vibrant…

Directed by the esteemed Italian provocateur Marco Bellocchio, the drama takes its heated inspiration from a notorious real-life incident of antisemitism.

After distance swimmer Trudy Ederle swam the English Channel in 1926, she had the biggest parade for an athlete in New York City — ever. As the first woman to swim the channel, she effectively paved the way for the future of women’s sports. So why isn’t she more of a household name? The new…

On May 7, 2022, the inaugural Netflix Is a Joke festival’s “Stand Out” show welcomed to the Greek Theatre stage 22 diverse LGBTQ+ comedians, including Eddie (Suzy) Izzard, Wanda Sykes, Lily Tomlin, Sandra Bernhardt, Rosie O’Donnell, Trixie Mattel, Tig Notaro, Sam Jay, Mae Martin, Joel Kim Booster, Fortune Feimster and Bob the Drag Queen. In…

The rollout for Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” movie was not so flawless, according the head of AMC Theatres, which distributed the concert film. Adam Aron, chief executive of the nation’s largest theater chain, told Variety in an interview published last week that the company’s distribution deal with the musician nearly fell through after news of the project…

Elizabeth “Betsy” MacRae Halsey, best known for her recurring roles on “General Hospital” and “Gomer Pyle, USMC,” has died at age 88. MacRae died Monday at Highland House Rehabilitation & Healthcare in her hometown of Fayetteville, N.C., local news outlet CityView reported and Deadline confirmed. “She had a wonderful life,” the actor’s nephew Jim MacRae…

“Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi have wed, according to father of the groom Jon Bon Jovi. The “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “You Give Love a Bad Name” singer on Tuesday addressed rumors that the couple got married, telling an interviewer that the newlyweds are “great.” “They’re absolutely fantastic,” the Grammy-winning…

The SWAT raid on singer Sean Kingston’s South Florida home last week that led to both his and his mother’s arrests can be traced to a months-long theft and fraud scheme, police say. The “Beautiful Girls” and “Fire Burning” pop star, 34, and his mother, Janice Turner, 61, face 10 charges of grand theft, fraud…

At the heart of the World War II story “We Were the Lucky Ones” is a single Jewish family fighting the odds for survival. Based on the novel by Georgia Hunter, the Hulu limited series tells the story of the author’s grandfather’s family, the Kurcs, living in Poland at the outbreak of the war. As…

Bill Walton was a proud Deadhead. The basketball great, who died Monday at age 71 following a prolonged cancer battle, was famously a huge fan of the Grateful Dead (and a tie-dye aficionado). A fixture at the band’s shows — he was hard to miss at nearly 7 feet — Walton reportedly had attended more…

Why in the world was a nice guy like Bill Pullman asked to play a monstrous killer — convicted of murdering his wife and son — in Lifetime’s ripped-from-the-headlines, two-part miniseries “Murdaugh Murders: The Movie”? “I kept thinking maybe it’s because they anticipated I’d look all right with ginger hair,” jokes the warm and genial…

NEW YORK —  Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki has spent much of the last 20 years thinking about Robert Durst, the notorious real estate heir who was suspected in multiple murders but managed to evade justice until the very end of his life. Jarecki’s Emmy-winning 2015 docuseries, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” thrust Durst…

Michael Richards, who shot to fame as Kramer on the hit sitcom “Seinfeld,” is releasing a memoir, “Entrances and Exits.” (Marcus Ubungen / For The Times) On the Shelf Entrances and Exits By Michael RichardsPermuted Press: 440 pages, $35 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org,…

When Dr. Ming Wang came to the United States in 1982 at 21 years old, he had nothing but $50 and a Chinese-to-English translation book. He had just survived the violent cultural revolution in China — including the loss of a dear friend — during which the government had shut down most of the universities…

Mikey Madison in the movie “Anora.” (Festival de Cannes) In a main competition light on laughs, Sean Baker’s uproarious firecracker of a romantic-action-crime comedy, starring Mikey Madison (“Better Things”) as a stripper who becomes embroiled in a Russian family drama, landed like the left hook I never knew I always wanted. When an oligarch’s high-rolling…

Since 1978, cartoonist Jim Davis has explored the quotidian dramas of pet ownership via the daily travails of beleaguered Jon Arbuckle, his eager dog, Odie, and the titular tubby orange tabby, Garfield. If the comic strip (the most widely syndicated in the world) is the weekly sitcom version of their story, then “The Garfield Movie,”…

Kabosu, the Shiba Inu known worldwide as “Doge” and whose side-eye expression was captured in innumerable memes, died Friday in Sakura, Japan, according to a blog from her owner. The onetime rescue pooch was in her late teens, according to her owner, daycare worker Atsuko Sato. The picture of the dog giving side-eye and raised…

Charlie Colin, a bassist and founding member of the rock group Train, has died. He was 58. Colin’s sister Carolyn Stephens confirmed his death to the Associated Press. No cause of death was given, but TMZ reported that Colin died after slipping and falling in the shower. Train wrote an Instagram post confirming his death….

For Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who sued ex-boyfriend and embattled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs for alleged assault and abuse, “it takes a lot of heart to tell the truth out of a situation that you were powerless in.” The 37-year-old singer on Thursday opened up about her experience with domestic violence and the support she…

A judge on Tuesday dismissed a defamation lawsuit that former United Talent Agency partner Michael Kassan had filed against the Beverly Hills-based agency’s legal counsel. Kassan sued UTA’s attorney Bryan Freedman in March over comments Freedman made in news outlet Deadline, in which he was quoted calling Kassan a “pathological liar.” The remarks were made…

Los Angeles police arrested two members of the mini-bike group that allegedly attacked “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Ian Ziering in Hollywood late last year. Police announced Tuesday that detectives and officers identified and detained two suspects — a 20-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman — in connection to the public brawl. In January, the Los…

Princess Catherine will be staying out of the public eye for a while longer — but her philanthropic work isn’t slowing down. “The princess is not expected to return to work until it’s cleared by her medical team,” a Kensington Palace spokesperson told the BBC at the release of a new report by the Royal…

The founding drummer of rock band Staind, Jon Wysocki, has died at age 56. Wysocki died Saturday night, according to his band, Lydia’s Castle, which posted on Instagram that the drummer “passed away surrounded by family and friends that loved him dearly.” The post included an earlier photo of the bandmates in a group hug,…

Jerry Seinfeld’s week of difficult appearances continues, this time in Virginia. As soon as Seinfeld took the stage for a stand-up comedy set at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk on Saturday night, a man in the audience jumped up and yelled, “Free Gaza,” TMZ reported. The audience immediately began booing the heckler and chanting “Jerry! Jerry!”…

For 17 years Lauren Halsey has dreamed of creating a monumental work of installation art for — and about — her South Los Angeles neighborhood, and on Monday she released the first renderings for the project, which has grown into a public sculpture park scheduled to open next spring. Construction has already begun on the…

CNN paid tribute to longtime Republican political commentator Alice Stewart who was found dead Saturday in the Belle View neighborhood in northern Virginia. Law enforcement told the network they did not suspect foul play in the death of Stewart, 58, whose body was discovered outdoors. CNN said police believe she suffered a medical emergency. Stewart’s…

Embattled hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs issued an apology Sunday for his 2016 assault of his former girlfriend that was captured on a hotel security video. The video, released Friday in a CNN report, shows Combs chasing, kicking, dragging and hurling a glass vase at Casandra Ventura, who filed a lawsuit against Combs last year….

Disneyland Resort employees who portray costumed characters such as Mickey Mouse or Cinderella have voted to unionize under the Actors’ Equity Assn. The unit, which consists of 1,700 people, voted 953 in favor of unionization and 258 against, Actors’ Equity said Saturday night on the social media platform X. Of the votes tallied, 79% were…

Advertising executives who entered Radio City Music Hall on Monday for NBCUniversal’s upfront presentation were greeted by an orchestra playing the familiar themes of the network’s landmark shows, such as “Law & Order” and “NBC Nightly News.” It was a nod to broadcasting’s rich history, which for the rest of the week would be relegated…

The New Orleans-based filmmaking brothers Bill and Turner Ross have made a name for themselves over the past 15 years with their lyrical, poetic documentaries. But with 2020’s “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets,” they blurred the line between fiction and nonfiction, setting up an imaginary scenario in an actual dive bar on its last night of…

Chris Stapleton teamed up with Dua Lipa at Thursday’s Academy of Country Music Awards, harmonizing on a surprise, cross-genre duet of the country star’s “Think I’m in Love With You.” Stapleton and Lipa said it was the “Dance the Night” singer’s idea to collaborate and she reached out to the country superstar’s team to make…

If this story began with a narrator, it would go something like this: Seven years ago, just a few weeks from making his debut as the face of “Young Sheldon,” the prequel to CBS’s blockbuster comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” Iain Armitage was a spirited, baby-faced 9-year-old dangling upside down on a pair of gymnastic…

Somebody needs to explain to me why Pamela Adlon’s “Babes” is being released the weekend after Mother’s Day. If ever a film stood a chance of becoming the “Love Actually” of Mother’s Day, it’s “Babes.” Sure, it’s rated R for sexual material, language throughout and some drug use. But how surprising is that? It’s written…

CANNES, France —  When Australia’s George Miller came here in 2016 to serve as jury president, just months after his “Mad Max: Fury Road” won six Oscars, he swept in like a conquering hero. His movie was undeniable: a reinvigoration of both his career and the action genre. Often, the relationship between Cannes and the blockbuster…

New York police are searching for a man they allege punched Emmy-winning actor Steve Buscemi in Manhattan last week. Police named 50-year-old Clifton Williams as the suspect behind the alleged assault that left the “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Big Lebowski” star’s left eye bloodied and bruised, The Times confirmed Wednesday. Police responded last week to…

Bill Burr says cancel culture is over. Bill Maher isn’t so sure. The one thing the two Bills in comedy can agree on? Louis C.K. should be welcomed back into their industry. On Sunday’s episode of Maher’s podcast, “Club Random,” the political commentator and comic had a nearly two-hour conversation that touched on everything from…

Alice Munro, the Canadian short story writer who lent mythic proportions to the lives of ordinary people from small, rural towns like those in the Ontario countryside where she spent most of her life, has died. She was 92. A spokesperson for the author’s publisher confirmed the death of Munro but did not immediately provide…

A longtime and beloved studio grip died early Saturday in a car accident after pulling a 14-hour overnight shift on the TV series “9-1-1.” Rico Priem, 66, who worked on productions including “Six Feet Under,” “Deadwood” and “American History X,” was driving home from the Pomona set of “9-1-1” when he was involved in a…

In a short time (literally by year No. 2), the biennial Olympics of laughter known as Netflix Is a Joke has shined a global spotlight on the L.A. stand-up scene. Whether it was shows at our biggest venues, most respected clubs or a pop-up fun zone in the Palladium’s parking lot, the streamer-backed festival put…

Rudy Moreno, a popular comedian who was often referred to by fans and colleagues as “the Godfather of Latino comedy,” has died. He was 66. Moreno died Friday at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena from complications due to a stroke and sepsis, his son Nathan said Sunday. Born July 24, 1957, and raised in Lincoln Heights,…

More than five decades since a group of astronauts led by Charlton Heston took a ill-fated journey to a strange world, moviegoers are still ape over the “Planet of the Apes” franchise. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the latest entry in the series of films about a planet ruled by talking apes, made…

Sam Rubin, the KTLA entertainment journalist, died Friday at 64. Rubin became a fixture of Los Angeles television after joining the station in 1991 as a reporter on “KTLA Morning News.” He worked alongside Carlos Amezcua, a co-anchor of the innovative morning show. In his own words, Amezcua remembers his friend and longtime colleague. Sam…

John Mulaney, a Chicago native and former New Yorker, is a recent transplant to L.A. In his latest project with Netflix, “Everybody’s in L.A.,” the stand-up comedian explores the city he describes as a place that simultaneously “confuses and fascinates” him. The show, which has a pseudo-late night format and features actor and comedian Richard…

Christmas could be coming early for Netflix. The NFL is considering a bid from the streaming behemoth for two football games to be played on Dec. 25, which falls on a Wednesday this year. The games would be the first major professional league sports events carried by the streaming giant. An NFL representative had no…

The most epic era of influential rock girlfriends was surely the late ’60s. When viewed from a perspective that kicks off the sexist dust — as done in the propulsive new documentary “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” — it becomes possible to think of the Rolling Stones as the ones living in her…

Democratic mega-donor and Hollywood media mogul Haim Saban slammed President Biden’s decision to put a shipment of weapons to Israel on hold because they could be used in an offensive against a densely populated city in southern Gaza. “Let’s not forget there are more Jewish voters who care about Israel than Muslim voters who care…

Steve Albini stood for a sound. But he also stood for an ethos. Famous among rock fans for his work in the recording studio with the likes of Nirvana and the Pixies — and for his own bands Shellac and Big Black — Albini was known for harsh guitars and booming drums presented with none…

When Gustavo Dudamel stepped on the stage of Walt Disney Concert Hall last week to conduct his Los Angeles Philharmonic for the first time in three months, a big smile was on his face and the usual cheers came from the large audience he invariably attracts. It was, also as usual, a terrific concert. The…

Susan Buckner, whose TV and movie career included a memorable turn in “Grease,” has died. The actor “died peacefully” in Miami surrounded by loved ones on Thursday, Melissa Berthier, a publicist for Buckner’s family, confirmed in a statement shared with The Times. A cause of death was not revealed. She was 72. “Susan will be…

TikTok, the popular social video app, sued the U.S. government on Tuesday, saying the country’s new law that could ban the app violates its 1st Amendment right to free speech. President Biden last month signed a law that would effectively ban the service in the United States if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell…

In certain circles, the words “the first Monday in May” and “the Met Gala” have become synonymous with a parade of the most glorious, outrageous couture fashion worn by a hand-selected slice of innovators and image makers. The event is also the annual fundraiser for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute and signals…

Prime Video’s “Gen V” is looking for a way forward without one of its young stars, who died unexpectedly in March. Producers behind the college-set superhero drama updated fans about Season 2 in a social media statement posted over the weekend. “As we continue to navigate the tragic loss of Chance Perdomo, everyone at ‘Gen…

Kim Godwin, who made history as the first Black woman to run a broadcast TV news division, is leaving ABC News after a turbulent three-year run. The Walt Disney Co.-owned network announced Godwin’s departure Sunday in a memo from Debra OConnell, president of News Group and Networks. Godwin joined ABC in May 2021 from CBS…

Singer and songwriter Dua Lipa has performed her music on “Saturday Night Live” before, but for the first time, she pulled double duty as guest host and musical act. The sketch-heavy show didn’t try to surround her with a bunch of cameos or five-timers jackets or anything gimmicky this week. Except for a “Weekend Update”…

Tommy Dorfman married partner Elise Williams in a secret Santa Monica ceremony in 2023, but the couple’s adorable love story was nothing the actor expected. “I was eager to clock in for my Samantha Jones era,” the “13 Reasons Why” veteran wrote in a Vogue essay published Thursday. “I wanted to explore my newly minted…

Time is running out for Paramount Global and Skydance Media to reach a deal combining their entertainment empires within the 30-day exclusive negotiating window that closes Friday, and it appears likely that the week will pass without an agreement on a transaction. Paramount, controlled by Shari Redstone , and Skydance, helmed by film producer David…

Jeff Landry is between a rocker and a hard place. Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger took a jab at the conservative Louisiana governor during the rock band’s sold-out performance Thursday at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. “We’re a welcoming crowd, aren’t we?,” Jagger said to the thousands of festival attendees, per NBC affiliate…

Rumer Willis, the eldest daughter of action star Bruce Willis and actor Demi Moore, says her father is “great” as he continues to battle dementia. “Yeah, yeah, doing OK. Thank you so much for asking,” Rumer Willis told Fox News Digital at the Wednesday night premiere of her new film, “My Divorce Party,” during the…

Dua Lipa’s “Radical Optimism” has a hilarious album cover, two songs about illusionists and what may end up the year’s most succulent bass playing. What it doesn’t have is the kind of detailed celebrity meta-narrative that’s come to define — and to propel — the superstar pop LP in music’s parasocial age. The 28-year-old London-born…

I must confess that before seeing the crowd-pleasing “The Fall Guy,” I had no idea that the movie takes its title from the niche of stunt performers who specialize in leaping from great heights and was only dimly aware that it was based on an ’80s TV series that I didn’t see because I was…

Fox News anchor Bret Baier’s teenage son Paul says his recovery from open-heart surgery is “going pretty smoothly.” The 16-year-old was forced to undergo the emergency surgery last week after an MRI revealed a golf ball-sized aneurysm had formed off of his heart. It was his fifth open-heart procedure since birth. “Tonight, @AmyBaier1 and I…

Paul Auster, the bestselling postmodern author, noir novelist and screenwriter behind “Smoke,” “Lulu on the Bridge” and “The Inner Life of Martin Frost,” has died. He was 77. “The New York Trilogy” and “4 3 2 1” author’s death was confirmed Wednesday by his literary representatives at Carol Mann Agency, according to the Associated Press….

Ahead of his stint at the Hollywood Bowl and the release of his Netflix comedy about Pop-Tarts’ origin this week, Jerry Seinfeld reflected on the “Seinfeld” storylines that wouldn’t be aired today and other ways “the extreme left” is influencing comedy. In an interview with the New Yorker, the comedian said some of his jokes…

Alex Hassilev, the singing, songwriting, guitar and banjo virtuoso who was the last surviving original member of the 1960s folk trio the Limeliters, died of cancer April 21 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. He was 91. Hassilev was the youngest member of the Limeliters, whose other original members were bassist and comic…

“Vanderpump Rules” exes Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval fired back at former co-star Rachel Leviss, denying her allegations that they distributed sexually explicit videos without her consent. Last week, Madix and Sandoval filed separate responses in Los Angeles County Superior Court to Leviss’ February lawsuit, which accuses the former romantic partners of eavesdropping, revenge porn,…

In a departure from the labor rebellions that roiled Hollywood last year, the latest set of contract negotiations between a major entertainment union and the top studios has unfolded about as smoothly as could be expected. So far. The various West Coast studio locals that make up the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which…

It’s official: Center Theatre Group is reopening the Mark Taper Forum in the fall. The prominent Los Angeles theater organization announced Sunday night that the historic downtown L.A. venue, which abruptly paused its season last year because of a significant budget shortfall, will resume programming in October. One of the first productions to play the…

INDIO —  Post Malone’s presence on the lineup of the 2024 Stagecoach Country Music Festival — where he was billed as performing a set of country covers — may have seemed odd at first glance. But it’s actually a good fit for the Texas native and musical Renaissance man. The rapper-singer-songwriter-producer is almost a Kevin Bacon-esque…

Paramount Global Chief Executive Bob Bakish is expected to be ousted from the company, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Bakish’s departure comes as Paramount’s future hangs in the balance. The company is currently in a 30-day exclusive negotiating period with tech scion David Ellison, whose Skydance Media has teamed up with investment…

Taylor Swift didn’t hold back on calling everyone out on her newest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” and the reactions are rolling in. The surprise double album was released in two parts on April 19, giving exuberant Swifties plenty of material to analyze — including multiple celebrity call-outs. Kim Kardashian (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)…

Indio —  After back-to-back weekends of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, with performances from a reunited No Doubt, Tyler, the Creator, Lana Del Rey and Doja Cat (complete with an entourage of sexy Yetis), sister event the Stagecoach Country Music Festival has rolled into Indio’s Empire Polo Club. Stagecoach, which will feature performances by…

Poppy Harlow, the journalist who co-hosted CNN’s ill-fated morning program, has decided to leave the news network. Harlow announced her departure Friday in a note to colleagues. She has been off the air since February, when the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network scrapped the format of her program, “CNN This Morning” Harlow, 42, has about 18…

Mike Pinder, the keyboardist and last surviving original member of the rock group the Moody Blues, has died. he was 82. Moody Blues bassist John Lodge posted a statement from Pinder’s family to Facebook. “Michael Thomas Pinder died on Wednesday, April 24th, 2024 at his home in Northern California, surrounded by his devoted family. Michael’s…

The French monks who invented tennis nine centuries ago must be blushing that Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” exposes their sport (jeu de paume, or “game of the palm”) as one reeking of sexual frustration. The eroticism starts with the racquet. Firm on one end, yielding on the other, its very parts — the shaft, throat, head,…

A recent bombshell from Anne Hathaway may not have the detonation radius some people think. In a V Magazine story published Monday, the “Devil Wears Prada” alum said she was regularly asked to participate in uncomfortable chemistry tests while auditioning for roles in the 2000s. “It was considered normal to ask an actor to make…

Country music waxes and wanes in its influence on the broader industry, but this year, it’s been absolutely dominant. For instance: Morgan Wallen topping streaming charts, Beyoncé’s landmark “Cowboy Carter,” Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman’s tearjerker Grammys set — and that barely scratches the surface. Since debuting in 2007, Stagecoach — Goldenvoice’s “Country Coachella” —…

This column is the latest in a series on parenting children in the final years of high school, “Emptying the Nest.” Read the previous installment, about relearning how to be alone at home, here. I recently saw a headline in the New York Times that I thought was the answer to my prayers: “Anxious Parents…

In the late 1950s, Charles “Chuck” Dederich started a drug rehabilitation program out of a storefront in Santa Monica. A recovering alcoholic who’d gotten sober through Alcoholics Anonymous, Dederich offered free treatment to self-described “dope fiends” desperate to kick their deadly habit and go cold turkey. Over the next decade and a half, the group,…

When David Ellison, the mega-rich aerobatic pilot and Ferrari-driving son of multibillionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison landed in Hollywood, he was viewed as yet another trust fund scion with Klieg lights in his eyes and an enviable bank account. Unlike most Hollywood neophytes of his ilk, however, Ellison did not flame out in ignominy or…

David Mamet is not done lambasting the liberal establishment in Hollywood. “DEI is garbage,” said the Pulitzer Prize-winning author to a packed house at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. “It’s fascist totalitarianism.” The playwright and director did not shy away from his trademark expletives or controversy as he spoke about his tell-all memoir,…

After last week’s emotional “Bluey” special “The Sign,” fans of the animated preschool series are getting a special treat — a surprise, if you will. On Saturday, Disney+ announced that a new episode of “Bluey” titled “Surprise” will premiere Sunday, beginning at midnight Pacific time. It comes just a week after the premiere of the…

The 29th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books returned to USC with a first ever live stream of activities. Many of the participants and guests stopped by our portrait studio: John Green, Henry Winkler, Sophia Bush, Max Greenfield, Lois Lowry and more poets, artists, chefs, journalists, celebrities and musicians. Here are some of the best…

The spotlight shined on great literature Friday night at the 44th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes ceremony at USC’s Bovard Auditorium, where 13 winners took the stage to celebrate their honors and, in some cases, call attention to the free speech controversy unfolding on campus. A political undercurrent ran through the night’s speeches following the…

Taylor Swift wrote so much “tortured poetry” over the past two years that she didn’t know what to do with it all. In true TSwift fashion, the pop star surprised fans with 15 bonus songs two hours after releasing “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday. The second installment, titled “The Anthology,” was not a true…

Perhaps never before have so many been so eager for something so steeped in heartbreak. Taylor Swift‘s legions of devotees have eagerly anticipated her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” in hopes of gaining insight into her notoriously private six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn — particularly her perspective on its demise. Swift delivers. In…

Sony Pictures Entertainment is in talks to join Apollo Global Management in its $26-billion bid for Paramount Global — a partnership that would boost the private equity firm’s efforts to wrangle the prize. While the talks are preliminary, the two sides have been hashing out the contours of a deal that would have the Culver…

Guy Ritchie’s latest, the cumbersomely titled “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” is at once his “Inglourious Basterds” and his “Dunkirk.” With his adaptation of the 2016 nonfiction book “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops” by historian and war reporter Damien Lewis, Ritchie…

Hardcover fiction 1. Table for Two by Amor Towles (Viking: $32) A collection of stories from the author of “The Lincoln Highway.” 2. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron Books: $30) A magic-infused novel set in the Spanish Golden Age. 3. The Women by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Press: $30) An intimate portrait of coming…