OTTAWA — Linus Ullmark made 23 saves for his second shutout of the season and the Ottawa Senators blanked the Ducks 2-0 on Saturday.
Michael Amadio and Thomas Chabot scored for Ottawa. Shane Pinto had two assists. It was the 14th shutout of Ullmark’s career. The Senators have won four of five.
Nick Cousins won a battle along the boards, which sprung Pinto down the ice. Pinto fed Amadio on a 2-on-1 and he made no mistake, beating Husso short-side 3:54 into the second period.
At the 9:21 mark of the second period, the Senators capitalized on a turnover. Pinto intercepted a pass and found Chabot in the high slot for his seventh goal of the season and second career short-handed score.
Anaheim challenged for goaltender interference but was unsuccessful.
Warren Foegele had a couple of chances from close range in the opening period, but just couldn’t settle a bouncing puck.
Husso then stopped Amadio on a short-handed 2-on-1 breakaway.
Amadio later drew a penalty, but Husso made a big glove save on Tim Stutzle on the Senators’ power play.
Up next: Ducks: at Montreal on Sunday; Senators: host San Jose Sharks on Sunday.
How did Jeff Shell, who is seven months into his tenure as president of Paramount Skydance, get entangled with a professional gambler with a penchant for controversy?
Now he’s facing new scrutiny after his Paramount bosses hired a law firm to investigate his surreptitious dealings with a Las Vegas high-roller and self-styled “fixer.” Investigators are reviewing whether Shell leaked sensitive corporate secrets, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment.
The real-life drama features accusations of betrayal, vengeance and an alleged promise of a TV show deal.
Paramount declined to comment. An attorney for Shell also declined to comment, citing the ongoing review.
Last week, Paramount toppled Netflix with its $110-billion deal to claim HBO, CNN, Food Network and the storied Warner Bros. movie and TV studios, a key piece of Ellison’s ambitions to create a Hollywood behemoth by combining two century-old firms.
“The timing is terrible,” said Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. “The last thing Paramount wants when closing this deal is for one of its [corporate] officers to be faced with allegations, true or false, from a professional gambler who calls himself Robin Hood.”
An unusual meeting in 2024
This account is based on interviews with nearly a dozen industry insiders who are familiar with the players and details of the increasingly ugly dispute. The Times granted anonymity to the sources, most of whom were not authorized to speak publicly.
According to these people, Shell’s dealings with the blackjack player began with an odd meeting in August 2024.
At the time, Shell was just joining Ellison’s team as the technology scion was preparing to build a new Hollywood empire.
But Shell was facing a serious problem. Someone was trying to plant unfavorable stories about him from his NBC days just as he was poised to stage his second act, two of the sources said.
Enter Patty Glaser, the high-powered entertainment litigator who represents Shell, and, as it happens, the person they suspected was behind the whisper campaign: Robert James “R.J.” Cipriani.
Patty Glaser wanted to defuse the tensions between R.J. Cipriani and Jeff Shell.
To defuse the tensions, Glaser convened a meeting at her Century City offices between Shell and her other client, Cipriani, who is a self-professed whistleblower and high-stakes gambler who goes by the handle RobinHood702 (the Las Vegas area code). Shell attended the meeting at Glaser’s recommendation.
Cipriani wanted to meet the executive. He had been angry ever since Shell sacked his friend Ron Meyer, former vice chairman of NBCUniversal, in 2020.
One of the founders of talent giant CAA, Meyer filled a unique role at NBCUniversal as the self-deprecating and beloved sage in a wool vest who was often called on to finesse frayed relationships with producers, agents and talent.
Ron Meyer, former vice chairman of NBCUniversal, remains beloved in Hollywood.
(Kevin Winter / Getty Images for AFI)
Kirk had an affair with another studio boss, Kevin Tsujihara, who resigned as Warner Bros. chairman in 2019 after it was revealed that he tried to help her get parts in movies and TV shows.
Meyer had said that after the payment was made, associates of Kirk allegedly demanded more money to keep the affair quiet.
Kirk’s associates denied any wrongdoing, but those dealings ended Meyer’s 25-year tenure at Universal.
Cipriani, according to a source familiar with the situation, was galled that Meyer had been unceremoniously dumped, particularly after it was revealed that Shell also had been engaged in an improper relationship — with a CNBC anchor.
Other Hollywood friends shared the sentiment — a form of schadenfreude — after Shell got his comeuppance nearly three years later.
Jeff Shell in 2015.
(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
During the meeting at Glaser’s office, the two men discussed their families. Cipriani appeared to have a change of heart.
He told Shell that he would be his friend and personal “crisis PR” agent helping him with damage control, one of the sources said.
It was an unlikely pairing; the two men came from entirely different worlds.
Shell, 60, is a Los Angeles native — a relentlessly driven son of a Cedars-Sinai cardiologist and a teacher turned stay-at-home mom. Although only about 5-foot-9, Shell secured a spot on the University High varsity basketball team after spending long hours perfecting his jump shot.
He earned a degree in economics and applied mathematics from UC Berkeley, then an MBA from Harvard University.
“He’s often the smartest guy in the room,” a former high-level NBCUniversal executive said.
Jeff Shell previously ran NBCUniversal.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Shell has worked in the entertainment business more than 30 years, first at Walt Disney Co., then Rupert Murdoch’s Fox, where he briefly ran its cable networks. The TV executive moved to Philadelphia in 2004 to join Comcast, when its business was selling cable channels to subscribers.
When Comcast bought NBCUniversal in 2011, Shell’s stock was on the rise. He ran NBC’s international operations in London, then moved his family back home to Los Angeles when he became chairman of Universal’s prestigious film unit.
Meyer, who previously ran the studio, was tasked with showing Shell the movie business ropes.
Cipriani, 64, knew Meyer from gambling circles. The two men are friends, the sources said, although Meyer was not involved in the current dust-up, according to several of the people.
Cipriani grew up in Philadelphia, where his dad had worked for the Uniroyal tire company, according to an obituary.
It’s unclear when Cipriani came to L.A., but eventually he became a whistleblower who frequently made contact with journalists. He’s married to a former Brazilian model and actor/musical artist, Greice Santo, who had a small role in the CW’s “Jane the Virgin.”
Cipriani’s name went from the Vegas casinos to the headlines in 2017 when he was a key player in the arrest and conviction of a USC quarterback-turned global drug kingpin, Owen Hanson, who was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison.
Robert James “R.J.” Cipriani in Amazon Prime Video’s 2025 series, “Cocaine Quarterback.”
Cipriani has publicly taken issue with his portrayal as a money launderer in the popular Amazon Prime Video series “Cocaine Quarterback,” which brought the scandal to the screen. It’s a production of Mark Wahlberg and others.
Although Cipriani is often referred to as an “FBI informant,” the moniker rankles him. He prefers being called a “confidential human source for the feds,” who “goes after the bad guys,” according to those familiar with his thinking.
And Cipriani is not afraid to tangle with powerful people.
“Jeff Shell may have [gone to] Harvard Business School but R.J. Cipriani comes from the hardscrabble streets of Philly,” Cipriani’s attorney Steven Aaronoff told The Times. “Who’s going to win that war?”
Cipriani was arrested in 2021 on the casino floor of Resorts World Las Vegas, allegedly for snatching the cellphone of another gambler who Cipriani said was recording his movements.
The charge was dropped, but Cipriani has since brought a RICO lawsuit against Resorts World that alleges the firm allowed “known criminals involved in illegal gambling” and “money laundering” while also spearheading his ban from Vegas casinos.
Cipriani alleged his arrest and subsequent treatment was in retaliation for raising his concerns with casino management and law enforcement. A former president of the casino called the claims “ridiculous,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Cipriani and Shell texted on-and-off for about 18 months, according to the knowledgeable people.
In the first half of last year, as Ellison and his team were waiting for the blessing of President Trump and the Federal Communications Commission to finalize the Paramount takeover, the group was bedeviled by press leaks.
Some were reported by Hollywood newsletters, including a scoop that Matt and Ross Duffer, who created the blockbuster horror series “Stranger Things” for Netflix, were decamping to Ellison’s Paramount. Shell was not aware of the Duffers’ deal before it was announced, said a person close to the executive.
Fallout over a TV show
But Shell and Cipriani had a major falling out when Cipriani began angling for a television show.
According to people familiar with the dispute, Cipriani worked for months without compensation but, at one point, Shell had thanked him for his efforts and offered to help him out. That’s when Cipriani asked Shell to greenlight an English version of a Spanish-language music show that streams on Roku TV, “Serenata De Las Estrellas.”
The TV project, like the Spanish-language version, would be co-executive produced by Cipriani and his wife, Santo.
But Shell failed to deliver, and Cipriani became furious.
“Mr. Shell promised to give my client, to produce the English language version of the show that was already a Spanish language hit,” Aaronoff said. “It was not something that was risky … It was not some crazy idea,” adding that Shell “did not keep his word to my client.”
Cipriani — who also has producer credits on the 2020 documentary about Vegas, “Money Machine: Behind the Lies,” and the 2015 movie, “Wild Card” — had intended to make “Serenata” as a homage to his late mother, Regina.
It was inspired by a song that Cipriani used to sing to her when he was growing up.
Jeff Shell became president of Paramount Skydance last summer.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Cipriani has threatened to file a lawsuit that makes a range of allegations, including that Shell had been slipping Cipriani sensitive corporate information, according to sources who have seen a copy of Cipriani’s draft complaint.
Shell, who officially joined Paramount in August with the Ellison takeover, immediately disclosed Cipriani’s legal threat to Paramount’s top lawyer and his previous employer RedBird Capital Partners, a Paramount investor partner.
“We were presented with a draft complaint riddled with clear errors of fact and law,” attorney Glaser said in a statement last week. “We will strongly respond.”
The lawsuit hasn’t been filed, but Paramount hired Gibson Dunn lawyers to investigate Shell’s conduct and allegations contained in the draft, which was sent to Paramount.
As a child in Newark, N.J., Narciso Rodriguez was often transported back to Cuba by the stories from his family and their friends. He walked the halls of El Encanto, a Havana department store and fashion mecca on the island — one that drew in celebrity clientele and featured haute-couture designs and fragrances from the far-flung fashion capitals of Paris and Milan.
“I don’t know that they could have afforded any of those things when they were in Cuba,” he tells De Los. “But they certainly filled my imagination with beautiful stories and laid the foundation for my work.”
It was the women in his life — the “amazing, powerful, loud, colorful dynamos,” as he describes them — who inspired him to pursue a career in fashion.
“Their stories, their lives, their power, their curves, it all influenced me,” he says. “They’re the reason I wanted to create things.”
Over the last three decades, the renowned designer has earned a reputation for sleek, flattering lines and effortless shapes, most famously seen on the career-launching dress he designed for his friend Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy to wear on her wedding day. The bias-cut silk slip has remained a source of inspiration for generations of brides since, and has been making waves again thanks to the FX series “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.”
Omari K. Chancellor as Gordon Henderson, from left, Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette, Tonatiuh as Narciso Rodriguez in FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette”
(Eric Liebowitz / FX)
“Love Story” will follow the couple’s wedding in the latest episode, out March 5. (Rodriguez is portrayed by Tonatiuh on the show.)
After designing Bessette-Kennedy’s dress, Rodriguez launched his own label and a fragrance line, and has continued to create designs that are woven into the fabric of American history — Michelle Obama wore his dress on election night in 2008.
De Los spoke with Rodriguez about his career, upbringing and memories of designing Bessette-Kennedy’s dress.
You’ve spoken about how inspired you were by the women in your life growing up. Are there any “fashion icons” from your family or neighborhood that you could point to from your childhood?
You know, I’m so lucky because I was raised in a very Cuban household in a very culturally rich community in Newark. I mean, it was Italian, Spanish, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Black. It was everything. But I always think back to when I was very, very young, there was a kind of matriarch here in the neighborhood. Her name was Concha and she was kind of this lightning rod. My dad’s sister was married to her son, so when my parents came to the U.S., she gave them a place to stay. She would teach all of the young women how to cook and gave everyone a place to stay until they got on their feet. She was larger than life, she was like “Auntie Mame.” She had these great ‘60s beehive wigs in amazing wig boxes, she made these beautiful Chanel suits for herself, and had all these gold bangles, great lipstick and stilettos. When she came into the room, she just radiated power, joy and style. I always think of her as being my first signpost on the road.
They were all beautiful, you know? My aunts and my mom were the most beautiful, glamorous women. None of them were wearing designer clothes, but they took great pride and great care in how they looked, and that really made an impression on me.
How did that impression translate into a concrete passion? How did you go about actually pursuing a career in fashion?
I loved architecture. I loved building things, so I was always drawing, sketching and sculpting. Then I would see my mom take a piece of fabric and the way she could take something flat and shapeless and turn it into a garment was fascinating. By the time I was 13, I was doing fashion illustration, and I got a job in a tailor shop. Later, I enrolled myself in Saturday courses at Parsons [School of Design], and I kind of had to hide it from my parents at first. I felt like I couldn’t be a fashion designer, you know, because of the whole “macho” idea, but I just kept going. I was lucky that I was someone who always knew what they wanted to do, and that Parsons recognized I had talent for it at a young age.
I was exposed to really great people there, too. Donna Karan was a critic, Calvin Klein was a critic, Oscar de la Renta too. I got to do projects with all of them, and then I was hired after school by Donna Karan while she was still at Anne Klein. It was an amazing experience, and then I got poached by Calvin Klein, which was a very different experience.
How so?
It was incredible, but just very different. Whereas Anne Klein was this melting pot of creativity, Calvin was much more image-driven and precision-driven. He brought in great talents to collaborate with, so on any given day, you’d be working with the most amazing photographers, stylists and art directors. It was a really great finishing school as a young person.
You arrived at Calvin Klein during a period of reinvention for the brand. This was in the era of Kate Moss, and the famous “Marky Mark” print ads. We see a version of it in “Love Story,” but what was it like to actually be there?
When I got there, I think around 1989, it hadn’t really started to change yet. And I thought, “Wow, I made a really big mistake. This is not my aesthetic, not my thing.” But it changed very quickly, and it was very exciting. [Calvin] worked very hard. He was very focused, and he appreciated that I could keep up. Like everybody, there was a rough initiation period, but afterward, he gave me the opportunity to work on some tailored pieces that sold really well at retail, so I was rewarded with more opportunities.
But it was the ‘90s, and it was New York, and it was brilliant. It felt like the whole city was reinventing itself, and Calvin was a leader in that. All the best photographers, the most brilliant artists were there. Jacky Marshall, Zack Carr, Carolyn — the talent was endless. I was really fortunate to experience it and build friendships that were lifelong.
I’m curious if you remember your first impressions of Carolyn. How did you two connect?
We were quite friendly immediately, and then we became the best of friends. We lived in the same building, so the rest was history. You know, she’s an incredible person, and she had great style. She was bigger than life.
Carolyn has been regarded as a fashion icon, and especially now, everyone is trying to re–create her look. There was something more subtle and interesting going on than just “minimalist” fashion, so how would you describe what made her style so special?
Carolyn was so authentic in so many ways, and I think that she was very pragmatic about her choices. She had a great eye. She knew what worked for her, and she knew how to present herself. She never wanted to be uncomfortable. She was very connected to herself. I think so many people have this relationship to fashion and what they think they should look like based on the ideas they see in a magazine or being sold to you by the industry, and Carolyn never fell into that trap.
I have this conversation often with young designers, with people, with journalists. Today, everything that we see is inauthentic. Celebrities are paid to wear designer clothes. They’re styled by a stylist, and nothing is innate. That is the opposite of Carolyn. She was 100% real.
Narciso Rodriguez in 1997.
(Paolo Roversi)
We have to talk about her wedding dress. If you’re a bride, it’s impossible to look for inspiration without coming across her dress. What was it like to have a friend ask you to create something for such a special, important moment?
You know, until my children were born, Carolyn was the love of my life. We were very close, and she asked me, as you said, to make the dress that she would marry the love of her life in. It was very personal for me. It wasn’t a press event, it was a conversation between two people who were very close. I knew what looked good on her, she knew what looked good on her. I knew that she would never want to be bogged down with trains and lace. It wouldn’t be her.
What was the actual design process like?
It was an effortless collaboration. She came to fittings in Paris, we pulled the neckline down a bit lower, and the dress was born. I added the gloves, the veil and the shoe. It was just magical, and exactly the way it should be. It really made her the focus. You know, she was the one who pointed that out to me about my work. She always said, “You create a frame for a woman’s beauty and personality to shine through.” I’ve always thought that was a really beautiful thing that she gave me, because it’s true. I never want my work to be what you see first. I think the success of that dress is that you see her and her happiness and the purity of it all.
Everything about the wedding, including the dress, had to be kept a secret. Was it a challenge to make sure that no one knew what you were working on?
I was working in Paris, and I got approval from the owner of [Cerruti]. He was discreet about it. I worked with one pattern maker. I had a fit model who was lovely. Nobody knew who it was for. They always asked. But because I was working in Paris, they didn’t really connect me to her. I was also quite cautious when the dress was in work, I remember I had become quite friendly with Azzedine Alaïa. I asked, “Can I take this dress over to you and have you check it out to see what I’m doing?” I went over and he looked at the prototype, and said, “Why don’t you move this seam over the bum by a centimeter. I think it’ll be more flattering.” And I did, because he was the master, and he tortured me to know who it was for, but I never told him. Later, when it was all over the press, he would call and pretend he was a fancy lady looking for a wedding dress for her daughter. [Laughs] He tricked me a few times into believing some of his gags, but he was an amazing person.
It was just a magical time in all of our lives. And then I flew to America with the dress and went to the wedding, and it was that simple. You know, I’ve heard all these amazing stories about how the dress didn’t fit, and I had to sew her into it, and that she was hours late because of it, and none of this is true. But I love that people have made up all these stories.
Maybe the dress on her seems so effortless that people want to invent a way to complicate it.
[Laughs] I really have heard so many crazy stories, but when you look at the pictures, it certainly doesn’t look like it didn’t fit. That’s for sure.
As you mentioned, the dress was all over the press later. How did that moment impact your career?
Well, I went from Paris to my best friend’s wedding, and then I flew home to New York to do a pit stop at my apartment. When I arrived, there was a huge crowd outside the building with news trucks. I kind of walked through the crowd and into the building, and I said to the doorman, “What’s all that about?” And he looked at me, and he said, “They’re here to see you.”
Oh, wow.
It was a very big, kind of scary, unexpected change in my life. I remember going up to my apartment and trying to navigate that when Anna Wintour’s office called and said, “Anna would like for you to come to the Princess [Diana] benefit in Washington.” And I said I couldn’t go, I needed to be back in Paris, I didn’t even have a white shirt. And they said, “It’s Princess Di and Anna Wintour. You’re going. We’ll send you a shirt.” So I went, and I met Princess Diana, and it was really strange to be at such a big event and have so many eyes on me, because I didn’t expect that, and everyone was curious. I remember they were shady journalists trying to sit next to me and get information about where [John and Carolyn] went on their honeymoon. Life changed dramatically, but it brought great attention to the work that I was doing in Paris, and I was able to then go off and start my own business and do my own thing.
I’m sure you had an understanding through Carolyn about what it felt like to be hounded or followed by photographers and press, but did that firsthand experience in New York give you another layer of understanding for what she was going through?
It’s so funny because society today will do anything for that. But it was a very different time, and she was a very private person. I was a very private person. It’s very invasive, and I was kind of stuck in the middle, because while I needed to promote my work and my shows, and sort of be in the press, it wasn’t something that I was very comfortable with. I mean, I love doing the work more than I like the things attached to it. It can be debilitating, and it was difficult for me, but I adjusted, because I could hide behind my work, but as a private citizen, it was more difficult for her.
Narciso Rodriguez.
(Sølve Sundsbø)
You’ve been a part of fashion history on numerous occasions. Michelle Obama frequently wore your designs, but most famously, on election night in 2008, and then during her final appearance as first lady. How does it feel to have been a part of those moments?
It’s hard to put into words. You know, you spend so much time in it, and you have these amazing moments, like designing a dress that became legendary for brides, or getting to dress the first lady, and it wasn’t until COVID that I took a step back. I think about my mother and father coming here to give their son a chance to live out his dreams. And to have been able to sit with my friends on election night and watch her appear in my dress on such a historic moment — the first African American elected president of the United States — words fail. [Michelle Obama] is such an incredible human being who I admire so much, and to have been a part of that night, I feel so lucky.
I don’t talk about my work with my children, but the other day, when they were on the bus headed to school, they told one of their friends, “My dad went to the Obama White House.” They were proud of me. My parents’ dreams came true, and now I get to share that with my children. It’s very special.
It’s really powerful to hear you frame it that way — that these moments mean so much because of your experience being the child of immigrants. How does it feel to be in the midst of a revival right now?
It makes me want to create more. It means a lot to me that people remember these pieces, and that they’re still part of the conversation. But it also means a really great deal to me because I think it’s an important story to tell today. I think it’s important that young people hear that this kind of thing can happen to the children of immigrants, especially as I’m watching all of the horrible things happening to immigrants now.
I could never do what my parents did. When I think about it now, my parents were so much more successful than I could ever be, because they left behind their home for a cold climate, in a place where they couldn’t speak the language, and they really struggled for a long time before I was born. And now, the idea that we’re trying to take that opportunity away from people? It just blows my mind.
My parents faced so many hardships, their life wasn’t easy, but I can’t imagine if they had been put through what immigrants are put through today. I am the “American Dream,” right? I got the chance I got to do the work that I love and succeed because of them. I want that for everyone. I want that to be the world we live in.
The ending was not what Jason Crowe Jr. wanted, but he got a hug from his mother and praise from his coach/father after Inglewood’s 84-65 loss to Damien on Tuesday night in the Southern California Division I regional playoff game.
He finished with 34 points, ending his high school career with a state-record 4,718 points in 124 games, according to CalHiSports.com. He’s more than 1,000 points ahead of the next closest player. His scoring average was 38.0 points.
Jason Crowe Jr. ends his fabulous high school career with 34 points in Inglewood 84-65 loss to Damien. He finishes with 4,718 points in 124 games, the most points in California history. pic.twitter.com/O1Lqcaqwzl
“I think he’s had an amazing high school career,” said his father, Jason Sr., who will join his son at Missouri next season serving as an assistant coach. “He had to go against the best defenses every night. I’m proud of him. He brought this program to the Division I level. He was on honor roll every year.”
Damien (28-7) had too much firepower for Inglewood (28-7). Eli Garner scored 25 points and Zaire Rasshan had 24 points. Garner had a five-point play and Rasshan added a four-point play. Damien will play at No. 3-seeded Crespi on Thursday. Crespi defeated Bishop Amat 83-66. Isaiah Barnes scored 20 points. Sophomore Aiden Shaw had 25 points for Bishop Amat.
Jason Crowe Jr. of Inglewood launches three against Damien. He finished with 34 points in loss.
(Nick Koza)
“Incredible career,” Damien coach Mike LeDuc said of Crowe Jr.
Damien fans get excited in state playoff game.
(Nick Koza)
Mater Dei 86, La Mirada 79: The Monarchs came back from a 12-point halftime deficit to eliminate No. 1-seeded La Mirada on the road in Division I.
St. John Bosco 65, San Marcos 55: Christian Collins scored 30 points and Max Ellis 19 for the Braves.
Venice 61, Riverside Ramona 50: Canaan Rodriguez scored 18 points for Venice in Division IV.
Girls basketball
Oak Park 72, La Jolla Country Day 57: Karisma Flores scored 27 points, including seven of seven from the three-point line, to lead Oak Park.
From Hollywood actors to Olympic athletes and politicians, California’s newest Hall of Fame class runs the gamut in talent and achievements.
Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis and former governor/action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olympic champions Janet Evans and Carl Lewis, authors Riane Eisler and Terry McMillan, chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, groundbreaking ensemble Mariachi Reyne de Los Ángeles and former state Democratic leader John L. Burton all earned a spot into the assembly of distinct Californians, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.
This class, the 19th in state history, will be formally enshrined during a ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento on March 19 as a “celebration of their contributions to civic life, creativity, and social progress,” according to Newsom’s office.
The inductees “have reshaped our culture and our communities. Resilient and innovative, these leaders and luminaries represent the best of the California spirit,” Newsom said in a statement.
To be inducted, candidates must have lived in California for at least five years and “have made achievements benefiting the state, nation and world,” according to the California Hall of Fame website. To date, 166 Californians have been selected by three governors since 2006.
Curtis, 67, a Santa Monica native, is among Hollywood’s elite and teamed with Schwarzenegger in the action blockbuster “True Lies” in 1994. Her acting career dates to 1977, and she earned a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2023 for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Lewis, 64, is considered by many one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. The track star won 10 medals, nine of them gold, in four Olympics.
Eisler, 88, and McMillan, 74, added multiple bestsellers to this Hall of Fame class.
Eisler’s critically acclaimed “The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future” examines roughly 20,000 years of partnership between men and women and male domination over the last 5,000 years. The futurist, cultural historian and Holocaust survivor who has degrees in sociology and law from UCLA said she was informed of the honor last year by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and recently was honored by the Austrian government with its Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class.
“I am very honored at this time in my life to be inducted into the California Hall of Fame,” Eisler wrote in an email. “I have worked tirelessly to help create a better world, and firmly believe that a new paradigm, a new way of looking at our world and our place in it, is crucial.”
McMillan has written a series of smash hits, including a couple that became major studio films in the ‘90s, “Waiting to Exhale” and “How Stella Got her Groove Back,” centered on Black women’s voices.
Matsuhisa, 76, know for his iconic Japanese restaurant Nobu, which has six locations in California, owns businesses across five continents.
Mariachi Reyna de Los Ángeles, founded in South El Monte, rewrote the rules of music, becoming the first all-woman mariachi ensemble that has entertained for more than three decades.
Burton, the former chair of the California Democratic Party who died last year at 92, boasted a political career that included time in the California State Assembly and Senate and the U.S. House.
“This year’s class embodies the very best of California — creativity, resilience and a spirit of community,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement. “These honorees remind us that innovation and courage flourish when people are lifted up by those around them.”
Harrison Ford received a standing ovation Sunday as he accepted the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award.
“It’s a little early isn’t it?” Ford joked, noting that “it’s a little weird to be getting a lifetime achievement award at the half-point of my career.”
The 83-year-old is one of the industry’s highest-grossing actors after catapulting to global stardom with his role as Han Solo in the “Star Wars” franchise, a legacy further cemented by his lead role in “Indiana Jones” movies.
Ford fought back tears, thanking his fellow actors, writers, directors and cast members. He “found a calling. A life in storytelling. An identity in pretending to be other people,” he said.
“While we’re all at different stages of our lives and careers in this room, we all share something fundamental. We share the privilege of working in the world of ideas, of empathy, or imagination,” Ford said. “Because of that privilege, I’ve come to know myself.”
Ford said he was “not an overnight success,” spending the first 15 years of his career jumping between acting and carpentry before landing an acting role.
Ford thanked film producer and casting director Fred Roos and his longtime manager Pat McQueeney, all of whom he said were integral to his success.
“They’re no longer with us, but it feels important that I think of them now. I feel them here tonight. They would be happy for me,” Ford said.
SAG-AFTRA’s recognition on Sunday is one of several lifetime achievement awards bestowed upon the actor over his extensive six-decade career, which is defined by two of Hollywood’s biggest film franchises.
A highlight reel of Ford’s various acting performances played ahead of his accepting the award.
The award was presented by actor Woody Harrelson, who lauded Ford’s varied achievements and called him a “timeless American treasure.”
“There’s too much of me in this tribute to Harrison, but I’m an actor, what do you expect?” Harrelson quipped. The actor first met Ford after following him into a sushi restaurant and the pair “sealed their friendship” over lunch, during which “at one point, we laughed — and I’m not kidding — for three minutes straight,” Harrelson said.
“This is a life achievement award and he has lived a full one,” Harrelson said.
Ford hasn’t shown signs of slowing down in recent years. The actor plays therapist Paul Rhoades in the Apple TV show “Shrinking,” which earned him his first-ever Emmy nomination last year. He also recently starred in the “Yellowstone” prequel “1923” and appeared in his first Marvel movie, “Captain America: Brave New World.”
Ford “thinks working more is the antidote to aging,” Harrelson said. The actor recently reprised his iconic role as a swashbuckling archaeologist in the 2023 sequel “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
Despite Ford’s massive success in the industry, the actor has yet to win a major competitive acting award. The Life Achievement Award is the first that Ford snagged from the guild. He was nominated last year for actor in a comedy series for his role in “Shrinking” but lost to Martin Short for his performance in “Only Murders in the Building.”
Ford said he was “quite humbled” to be honored with the award in a room full of actors, “many of whom are here because they’ve been nominated to receive a prize for their amazing work, while I’m here to receive a prize for being alive.”
“Sometimes we make entertainment. Sometimes we make art. Sometimes we’re lucky and we make them both at the same time,” Ford said.
The awards show’s highest honor is given to performers who foster the “finest ideals of the acting profession.” Ford joins a list of seasoned actors who have received the award, including Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, Morgan Freeman and Robert De Niro.
SAG-AFTRA described Ford as “one of cinema’s most enduring leading men” whose performances “have become woven into the fabric of our culture,” in a December release announcing the honor.
Aidan Turner and Lesley Manville appeared on Friday’s The One Show to talk about their new production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Lyttelton Theatre in London
Rivals star Aidan Turner left The One Show host, Clara Amfo, floored on Friday’s episode as he revealed his past career(Image: BBC)
Rivals star Aidan Turner left The One Show host, Clara Amfo, floored on Friday’s episode as he revealed his past career.
During the latest instalment, host Clara, 41, and co-host JB Gill welcomed Aidan, 42, Lesley Manville, and James Buckley to the iconic green sofa.
Aidan and Lesley, 69, appeared on Friday’s episode to talk about their new production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Lyttelton Theatre in London.
However, chat soon got onto Aidan’s career before acting, leaving Clara stunned. Clara said: “Now, Aidan, I didn’t know this until today, that you, Mr Turner…”
To which Aidan interjected with: “What are you going to say? I have no idea…” before adding: “Are you the last person to ever hear about this?
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Clara then revealed: “I was today years old learning that you had a former career as a ballroom dancer!”
To which Aidan explained: “I don’t know if you’d call it a career. I mean, I started when I was eight and finished when I was about 17. But, yeah, I danced. I was a ballroom and Latin American dancer from Dublin!”
David Tennant is set to declare war in a sneak peek trailer for the eagerly awaited second series as his character television tycoon Lord Tony Baddingham survives from series one’s cliffhanger.
The trailer opens with the Doctor Who actor, 54, emerging from a helicopter and quipping: “Sorry I’m late, darling. I’ve had a terrible headache.”
This follows a suspenseful cliff-hanger at the end of the previous series, which left audiences questioning the fate of Lord Baddingham after Cameron Cooke (Nafessa Williams) struck him on the head to prevent him from assaulting her, leaving him lying motionless in a pool of his own blood.
Elsewhere, Irish actor Aidan – playing journalist Declan O’Hara – can be heard commenting: “It’s entertaining. In the most delightful way.”
Billy Idol’s Mony Mony provides the soundtrack to the trailer, giving viewers a taste of the drama to come, which includes updates on Danny Dyer’s character businessman Freddie Jones, Alex Hassell’s character Rupert Campbell-Black and Bella Maclean’s Taggie O’Hara.
The One Show continues on weeknights at 7pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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Having triumphed in his first 10 races under jockey Nico de Boinville, Constitution Hill’s falls – including at Aintree and Cheltenham – had left Henderson mulling over his future.
The successful switch to Flat at Southwell last Friday showed his potential.
Starting 6-4 favourite and with five-time champion jockey Oisin Murphy in the saddle, the move paid off as he took to the front well before the line and held firm to win by nine-and-a-half lengths from Square Necker and Gambino.
Henderson said: “He showed on Friday night that he has another career in front of him that could possibly take us all to new playing fields.
“It was a terrific night for both him, us, and I believe British Horse Racing and we are very aware of the public perception and the possible consequences of running over hurdles and feel it is not fair to ask him and Nico to do it again.
“Cheltenham have kindly invited Constitution Hill to parade on Champion Hurdle day to give all his National Hunt supporters the opportunity to say goodbye.”
The Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, who rose to fame on the 2015 series, has spoken out about her change of career and experiences of working as a teaching assistant
Nadiya Hussain has spoken about her difficult career choice(Image: Getty)
Winner of the Great British Bake Off Nadiya Hussain has spoken out about the television industry and the difficult choice she made to leave her agent and her manager.
Nadiya, 41, who won the Bake Off in 2015, spoke about the industry just days after it was announced that she was leaving her teaching assistant job, as she continues this next phase of her career.
Speaking about the matter, she discussed the “overwhelming whiteness of TV and publishing” and admitted she was tired of working in what she described as a broken industry.
She told the Guardian: “It’s broken. This last year has been really important for me to realise that, really accept that, actually, I can’t fix a broken industry.”
Nadiya also talked about what 2025 was like for her, and how it gave the renowned baker an opportunity to think about the next decade of her life after admitting that she felt like she had “started to feel like a caricature of myself”.
She added: “It has been really enlightening at the same time. I’ve had the opportunity to sit back and look at how I see the next 10 years…It’s been scary, but I’ve also really enjoyed figuring out what that looks like for me.”
Last year Nadiya released a cookbook titled ‘Rooza’, one containing dishes inspired by important elements of the Islamic world and culture, including Eid and Ramadan. She also created another volume titled ‘Nadiya’s Quick Comforts’.
With her decision to take back control of her career has come new freedoms and new locations, with Nadiya announcing earlier this month that she was leaving her teaching assistant job.
However, in a post on Instagram, Nadiya said she was leaving the role because of the negative impact it was having on her health. Nadiya has a weakened immune system and lives with fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that causes musculoskeletal pain and fatigue, among other symptoms.
In the social media post, Nadiya explained why she had to leave a job she had been in for only three months: “I’ve always wanted to work with children in younger years as a teaching assistant and I applied for a few jobs, which in itself was difficult for lots or reasons.
“I applied and got a job as a TA (teaching assistant) at a primary school and I’ve got to say, apart from raising my own children, it was one of the best jobs I’ve ever done.
“I loved every second of waking up in the morning with a spring in my step for these beautiful children. I just loved every second of doing that job.
“But unfortunately doing a job like that as somebody with a weakened immune system it just played havoc with my health…. I was sick all the time and it got to the point where it was affecting my mental health and I just wasn’t performing, giving my best because I was always sick.”
She added: “But unfortunately with a weakened immune system working as a TA in a primary school was just proving impossible and it was one of the hardest decisions I had to make to step away for it.”
Teddy Riley took to social media late Thursday to walk back earlier comments he’d made about wanting to work with the disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly.
In an interview with The Times published on Wednesday, the veteran producer and musician — widely known as the architect of the New Jack Swing sound that dominated Black pop in the late 1980s and early 1990s — said he’d “talked a few times” with Kelly, who’s serving a 30-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him of racketeering and sex trafficking charges, and that he’s “bringing in investors” to help release some portion of the 25 albums Kelly has said he’s recorded in prison.
“Everybody deserves a second chance,” Riley told The Times. “Everyone deserves to repent, and everyone gets forgiven by God when you come to him. People miss [Kelly’s] music. I’m the messenger to bring R&B back.”
Yet Thursday he appeared to changed course.
“As a producer, I’ve always been excited about the possibilities of music and creative collaboration,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “That excitement has defined my career. But I also understand that words carry weight, and I never want my passion for music to overshadow the very real pain that many people have experienced.
“If my comments caused hurt, I sincerely apologize,” he added. “That was never my intention. I take seriously the impact that abuse and misconduct have had on survivors and their families. Their experiences matter, and they deserve to be acknowledged with care and respect.”
Riley, whose long career has included collaborations with Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown and Keith Sweat, described his plan to work with Kelly as “a creative idea discussed in passing. It is not something that will move forward. Loving music and recognizing its cultural impact does not mean condoning harmful behavior, and I want to be clear about that.
“I have spent my life building a legacy rooted in innovation, integrity, and love for the art form. That remains my focus. I appreciate the dialogue, and I remain committed to moving forward with intention and accountability,” said Riley, who this month published a book, “Remember the Times,” about his life and work.
“Thank you to everyone who continues to support me, my memoir, and the journey,” he wrote on Instagram.
Frederick Wiseman, a preeminent documentary filmmaker, has died. He was 96.
The filmmaker’s death was announced by his family Monday in a statement released by Zipporah Films, Wiseman’s distribution company.
In a career that lasted nearly 60 years, Wiseman produced and directed 45 films beginning in 1967 with “Titicut Follies,” a documentary on the the patient-inmates of Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Massachusetts, through 2023’s “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros,” a documentary on the Troisgros family’s Michelin three-starred restaurant in Ouches, France. His final film earned universal critical acclaim, and was recognized as the best nonfiction film of 2023 by the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. Awards and the National Society of Film Critics.
“Wiseman, whose observational approach has often been mischaracterized as objective or omniscient, here drops any pretense to neutrality, so potent and overpowering is his sense of kinship with a fellow artist,” wrote Justin Chang in his 2023 review. “The marriage of sensibilities in front of and behind the camera is the stealthiest meeting in ‘Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros,’ and the most unexpectedly satisfying.”
A scene from Frederick Wiseman’s “Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros.”
(PBS)
The filmmaker considered both Cambridge, Mass., and Paris his homes. His films, to an extent, reflected that transatlantic residency in their freshness of perspective. They display an innate curiosity and astonishing degrees of empathy, intelligence and perceptiveness, with subjects ranging from public and social institutions to cultural and specialized spaces and the minutiae of human interactions.
Wiseman’s other films included “High School” (1968), “Welfare” (1975), “Juvenile Court” (1973), “Public Housing” (1997), “La Danse” (2009), “National Gallery” (2014), “Ex Libris — The New York Public Library” (2017) and “City Hall” (2020). The varied body of work earned three Emmy Awards and an honorary Academy Award. Wiseman was also awarded Guggenheim and MacArthur Prize fellowships.
Beyond documentaries, the director also made three fiction films, “Seraphita’s Diary” (1982), “The Last Letter” (2002) and “A Couple” (2022). In reviewing the last, Chang wrote, “I suspect [Wiseman] is no more likely to impose himself on one of his fictions than he would on one of his documentaries, which ‘A Couple’ may resemble more than it appears. Wiseman has spent a career probing the complex inner workings and painfully human errors of America’s establishments, but in marriage itself, he may have found the most fraught, mysterious and unreformable institution of all.”
Nathalie Boutefeu in the movie “A Couple.”
(Film Forum)
Frederick Wiseman was born Jan. 1, 1930, in Boston. He graduated from Willams College and Yale Law School before embarking on a filmmaking career in the mid-1960s. He remained staunchly independent, establishing Zipporah Films, named for his wife, in 1971, in order to maintain control over distribution of his work.
In addition to his filmmaking career, Wiseman worked as a theater director and actor, including a recent appearance in Rebecca Zlotowski’s 2025 film “A Private Life,” starring Jodie Foster.
Wiseman’s wife of 65 years, Zipporah Batshaw Wiseman, died 2021. He is survived by his two sons, David (Jennifer) and Eric (Kristen Stowell), and three grandchildren, Benjamin, Charlie and Tess, as well as his friend and collaborator Karen Konicek, with whom he worked for 45 years.
Mike Trout says he would prefer to return to center field for the Angels, and the star slugger says he will skip the World Baseball Classic because of insurance issues.
The 11-time All-Star who been plagued by injuries since 2021 says his familiar position isn’t as physically demanding as the corner outfield spots, contrary to traditional thinking.
Trout played his most games since 2019 last season, finishing at 130. The three-time American League MVP started 22 of his first 29 games in right field before a knee injury sidelined him for a month. The 34-year-old was exclusively a designated hitter when he returned in late May.
Trout had 26 home runs but hit just .232, by far the worst average of his career when he had at least 400 at-bats.
He spent time in left field early in his career but was a center fielder for 11 consecutive seasons before the switch to right. Injuries limited Trout to 111 games the previous two years.
Trout said conversations with first-year manager Kurt Suzuki have included the idea of a return to center.
“I feel like I’m at my best when I’m in center,” Trout told reporters at the club’s spring training facility Monday. “If I have to go to the corner, I’ll go to the corner.”
Trout said a return to center will be good for his health.
“When I was in center, it was less on my body than the corners,” Trout said. “To be honest, in right field I felt I was running a lot. Talking to some other outfielders and they’re saying that they feel the same way sometimes, center is less on your legs. I just feel … confident in center.”
Trout, who played in his only WBC three years ago, had said he was interested in playing again before insurance issues arose.
“It’s disappointing,” Trout said. “I wanted to run it back with all the guys.”
Promising young Boston outfielder Roman Anthony has been named as a Team USA injury replacement for Arizona’s Corbin Carroll, who has a broken bone in his right hand.
