Chris

Chris Brown is speaking out after lawmakers honored him during his concert in Arlington, Texas, then apologized for the honor.

On Sept. 12, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Democratic Texas Rep. Venton Jones appeared at AT&T Stadium for Brown and Usher’s R&B Tour, where they honored both singers for their contributions to music. The politicians presented them with a Congressional Record recognition and state proclamation.

“Right now, we are experiencing Black joy to the highest level,” Crockett said on stage. “And I wanted to make sure we document that in the Congressional Record.”

Usher was not on stage when either honor was presented.

The incident sparked public backlash because of Brown’s history of domestic violence. In June 2009, the “Forever” singer pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault for physically attacking Rihanna.

On Monday, the 37-year-old singer and dancer took to social media to apologize to Crockett for the criticism she received following the recognition, uploading a photo of the two to his Instagram story with text that read: “I apologize for any backlash you have to deal with for awarding for me. I’m not political but I move off of frequency and energy and I’m so grateful. Once again, thank you.”

But by Tuesday, Jones released a statement apologizing to his constituents for his role in presenting Brown with a state resolution.

“Over the past few days, I have listened closely to the conversations, concerns, and heartfelt feedback shared across our community following my presentation honoring Chris Brown with a state resolution,” Jones said.

Jones, who first assumed his role in 2023, said that the presentation was an attempt to reach voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election.

“First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the women, the Black women, whom my actions have hurt. In moments like these, I think it’s important to be specific and just as loud with an apology as our original actions were,” Jones added in his statement. “I apologize.”

After Jones’ statement, Brown called out the representative.

“I didn’t ask to be honored because I knew some s— like this would happen and [Venton Jones] immediately started tap dancing and apologizing because he didn’t wanna lose voters and support,” Brown wrote on Sept. 15 on his Instagram. “I have a great idea.. how about [y’all] leave me the f— alone and let me focus on the fans that spent their money to actually see and support me.”

Outside of the most widely recognized incident involving Rihanna — which occurred hours before the couple was set to appear at the 2009 Grammy Awards — there have been multiple domestic violence allegations against Brown, including by his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran. She was granted a restraining order against the singer in 2017.

Brown has been accused in several other cases of violence against women from 2018 to 2022, either dismissed, settled out of court, or the investigation dropped.

This summer, the singer pleaded guilty to beating up a man in a London nightclub with a glass bottle in 2023. There is an active $50-million suit against Brown and members of his entourage by four male concertgoers who allege they faced a “brutal, violent assault” backstage following a Fort Worth, Texas, show in 2024.

JOJO Siwa has addressed whether she’d date women again – as she lifted the lid on her relationship with Chris Hughes.

The US singer and dancer, 23, struck up a romance with Love Island alum Chris, 33, on last year’s edition of Celebrity Big Brother.

Prior to entering the House, JoJo had been in a relationship with Kath Ebbs and identified as a lesbian.

Although during her time on the show, the star later said she wanted to identify as queer.

Speaking more recently on the Wildmen podcast, JoJo refused to rule out dating women again.

She told hosts Dylan Sprouse and Brendan Columbus about her relationship with Chris: “I thought it was just another friend adding to the thing, right?

together again

JoJo Siwa strips to bikini for loved-up reunion with boyfriend Chris Hughes

HUGHE JOB

Chris Hughes lined up for huge new Big Brother job – and JoJo could join him

“Once realised I wasn’t grossed out by the thought of him being a boy, I was like “whoa.”

JoJo continued: “It was definitely… it was weird, because I’d never thought that before.”

The star explained while she had attractive male friends, she never thought of them romantically – joking her bridal party would be “all dudes.”

JoJo went on: “With Chris… it actually was fascinating because I physically thought I would never be with a dude, ever. I just never thought it was possible.

“And people always go, “What if something happened with Chris, who would you date? – boys or would you go for girls?

“At this point, I have no right to say. You can find interviews on me where I’ve sworn how gross dudes are and I’ll never be with one.

“And now I’m head over heels in love with one.

“People always ask that and it’s always just like, “I have no right to say”, but I really do think that Chris is very much so a special dude.”

VENICE, Italy — When Skyler Gisondo turns up in “Primetime” as “Decoy Dan” Plum, an aspiring 23-year-old actor cast to play teenage bait for an unsuspecting pedophile, the camera can’t take its eyes off him.

The second trap set in director Lance Oppenheim’s lurid sweeps-ploitation drama about “To Catch a Predator” follows Gisondo’s face, most often in extreme close-up, as Dan processes what he’s gotten himself into, attempts to make small talk with the predator and finally flees off set, where he sits down, steadies himself and sheds a shaken tear. The suspect, meanwhile, is an afterthought, or more accurately a punchline: He only truly captures the camera’s attention when he drops trou, rips the top off a canister of whipped cream and sprays.

It’s an arresting formal choice, repeated from the opening sequence — that of the viral “You see how this looks, right?” moment from the trailer — to the climatic suicide of Rockwall County, Texas, Assistant Dist. Atty. Bill Conradt Jr., whose case is explored in the Esquire magazine article on which Ajon Singh’s screenplay is based. With rare exception, “Primetime” doesn’t have the guts to look its predators in the eye.

And perhaps it doesn’t need to. The film directs its most gleeful energies instead to taking “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) down a peg. The former “Dateline NBC” correspondent, who turned a newsmagazine segment about men soliciting teens for sex online into a hidden-camera sensation in the mid-aughts, comes off here as a self-serious showboat who’s mistaken tabloid trash for accountability journalism. (As one audio technician complains, “Guy thinks he’s f— Mike Wallace.”) It’s not just that stentorian voice, either. Envy of “Dateline” co-anchor Stone Phillips provides as much motivation as ratings pressure from TV executive Jeff Zucker (playing himself), with Hansen micromanaging his crew, insulting his producer, Andie (Merritt Wever), and neglecting his wife and kids in the process.

At least in the film’s early going, this yearning for adulation is played for cringeworthy comedy, and effectively so; my hardest laugh came when Hansen screens the rough cut of a new episode for his young sons and brags to them about “To Catch a Predator” being moved to a better time slot. As the tone moves toward horror, though, the decision to make the host the story quickly stops paying dividends. Indeed, though the real-life broadcaster may not find all the ego-deflation very funny, even Hansen — who told my colleague Stephen Battaglio that he objects to the film using his name and likeness under the label “inspired by true events” — would have to admit that “Primetime” avoids the thorniest questions about the true-crime empire he built.

Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen in “Primetime.”

(A24)

Compared with David Osit’s superb 2025 documentary “Predators,” a kaleidoscopic examination of the phenomenon from the perspective of Hansen, the decoys, the suspects, law enforcement, journalistic ethics and the filmmaker’s own experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse, “Primetime” seems remarkably incurious about “To Catch a Predator” and its consequences. It would probably be too much to ask a scripted feature to explore the challenge of achieving convictions against defendants ensnared on an episode of “Dateline,” or to delve into the legal niceties of surreptitious recording. But the suspects here are so anonymized — seen in profile or steep angles through a hidden camera lens, spied at a distance on a monitor in video village, heard as a disembodied voice on a phone or read via text in an instant message — that there’s not much to argue over anyway. The predators are reduced from people to “perverts,” of scarcely more interest to “Primetime” than to the bloodthirsty viewer Hansen meets on a plane.

When an entrapped rabbi attacks Hansen during a sting, screaming in his own tight close-up, “You don’t have the right to do this. Who do you think you are?” the film briefly, mercifully breaks this pattern, and generates an electric moment of moral uncertainty. But it doesn’t last. Instead, in its depiction of the Conradt case — ostensibly meant to underscore “To Catch a Predator’s” worst extremes — “Primetime” stumbles into some of the very same gutter sleaze tactics as the original series, transforming what was in reality a grim mid-afternoon standoff into a tense, pitch-dark operation punctuated by lightning strikes, power outages and night-vision cameras.

Such poetic license offers little new insight into a topic that has already been picked over for two decades, but it might be forgiven were Hansen as easily dramatized as he is made fun of. Alas. “Primetime” itself seems to know this — why else hire Gisondo to play Jimmy Olsen to Pattinson’s unlikable Man of Zeal — yet proceeds to construct its second half around Hansen’s unraveling: an extramarital affair, about to be exposed in the National Enquirer; ratings losses to ABC competitor “Lost”; desperation to reel in a “whale” and willingness to cut corners to do it. By the time the film again confronts the specter of something wicked under “To Catch a Predator’s” glossy surface, it comes in the form of Hansen’s own phantoms, introduced in a grueling flashback to India in the 1990s and carried through to the film’s conclusion. Why we’re to care about this apparent flash of horror, if not of conscience, remains unexplained. What about the faintly ludicrous figure of the foregoing 100-plus minutes was supposed to make me care about his moral compass?

In the final estimation, then, “Primetime” isn’t a Chris Hansen hit piece. In fact, it’s so in love with its flawed protagonist that it can’t see he’s the least compelling character in the movie, an ambitious, arrogant, grasping, unscrupulous man we’ve met countless times before. Which may explain the film’s final bit of poetic license. The last we last see of Hansen, muttering lines from his script as the police process the Conradt crime scene, suggests a man disturbed, perhaps even chastened, by what he has witnessed. But of course the real-life Hansen continues his sting operations to this day under the banner of “Takedown,” a series on his streaming service TruBlu, and both there and in “Predators” he appears utterly unshaken, unhaunted, unbowed. So for all the tension between the film and its subject to come through in the press of late, the gulf between them is not so wide as one might suspect.

Maybe they deserve each other.

Chris Hansen has not seen “Primetime,” the A24 film in which Robert Pattinson plays him, and he probably won’t anytime soon. He walked out of an Aug. 20 screening arranged for him at the studio’s Manhattan offices after refusing to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which he believed would prevent him from raising any legal objection to the way he is portrayed.

But Hansen’s company has purchased preshow advertising in theaters showing “Primetime,” which opens Sept. 25. The spots promote TruBlu, the subscription streaming platform where the former “Dateline NBC” correspondent presents his current sting operations under the title “Takedown.”

“It’s a movie that uses my name, image and likeness,” Hansen told The Times in a recent interview. “Why not direct people to what the real Chris Hansen is doing? Here’s where you can see it.”

Moviegoers, in other words, will be asked to have a seat twice.

The film revisits one of the most provocative and scrutinized franchises in the history of TV news. “To Catch a Predator,” which ran as a periodic “Dateline” investigation from 2004 to 2007, exposed men who used online chat rooms to solicit sex with minors. It accelerated the popularity of the true crime genre while raising lasting questions over journalistic ethics.

Directed by Lance Oppenheim in his narrative feature debut, “Primetime” is based on Luke Dittrich’s 2007 Esquire article “Tonight on Dateline, This Man Will Die,” about the suicide of a Texas prosecutor targeted by one of the stings. It premieres Sept. 5 at the Venice Film Festival.

Hansen, 66, is ready to ride the wave of notoriety the film is bound to generate. He is still pursuing online predators and a new generation of fans have found him on TruBlu, his YouTube page and on social media. “I’ve got to be the only 66-year-old man in America with 1.1 million TikTok followers,” he said.

Hansen first heard from A24 regarding “Primetime” when an executive reached out to him in late May to ask whether he would participate in promoting the film, according to emails obtained by The Times. Over the two months that followed, the journalist and his business partners repeatedly asked to see the film or a script before making any commitment. They also raised the possibility of compensation or a production credit, although Hansen said no formal request was made.

Hansen and his partners repeatedly raised concerns that he had never been contacted about the use of his name and likeness, even as a courtesy, before production was completed. The studio said it wasn’t necessary.

“Chris’s work was an important inspiration for ‘Primetime,’ which is a dramatized film inspired by true events,” according to an Aug. 8 email from A24. “While the film didn’t require individual consultation or permission during production, we’d love to have Chris’s support of the film to the extent he feels comfortable. If not, we certainly understand.”

An A24 representative declined to comment for this story. A person involved with the film who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said the nondisclosure agreement Hansen was asked to sign is standard for a movie screened ahead of release, so that viewers do not reveal plotlines or spoilers.

The trailer, released earlier in August, has generated buzz in media business circles for the appearance of Jeff Zucker, former NBCUniversal chief executive, who appears as himself in a small role as a ratings-hungry network executive. Pattinson’s Hansen is later seen in the trailer screaming, “I’ll be bigger than ‘Lost’!” in reference to the ABC hit.

Robert Pattinson in a scene from A24’s “Primetime.”

(Sinna Nasseri / A24)

Hansen said he is not looking for a payout from the filmmakers. But he would like a clearer statement that the film is fiction rather than “inspired by true events,” as it says in the trailer, and perhaps a financial contribution to organizations for victims of child predators.

“I want some recognition that they used my name, image, and likeness in a largely fictional story,” he said. “They used my name, my colleagues’ names and some family members. Based upon what I know about this, it’s an insult to the thousands of people who work diligently, often at great risk, every day to protect children from predators.”

The conflict is hardly the first involving a living celebrity objecting to a fictional depiction. But legal challenges are often futile.

“You don’t own your life story,” said Domenic Romano, managing partner at Romano Law. “If you’re a celebrity, the filmmaker doesn’t need your permission to dramatize it. Even if you’re alive and you don’t like how you’re being portrayed, the 1st Amendment gives broad protection.”

Actor Olivia de Havilland went to court in 2017 over the FX series “Feud: Bette & Joan,” claiming the portrayal of her as a vicious gossip damaged her reputation. The court ultimately ruled in FX’s favor.

Actor Daryl Hannah took a different route, publishing an opinion piece in the New York Times in March objecting to her depiction in FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.” Hannah, who dated Kennedy before he married Bessette, wrote: “In the weeks since the series aired, I have received many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual.”

“When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation,” Hannah wrote.

The rise and fall of “To Catch a Predator” provides enough drama for a big-screen treatment.

During his run at NBC News, Hansen was an Emmy Award-winning correspondent delivering hidden-camera investigative stories on such topics as identity theft and sex trafficking. But his “Predator” franchise, which used online decoys in chat rooms to draw men seeking sex with minors into police stings turned him into a global sensation, albeit a polarizing one.

NBC News conducted the investigations with the help of a civilian watchdog group called Perverted-Justice and local police in the towns and cities where the stings were set up. The suspects arrested and convicted included a rabbi, a teacher and a doctor.

Decoys posing as young teens lured the men to sting locations, mostly set up at private homes in quiet communities. Hansen would then enter and confront the men with his signature line: “Have a seat.” After a chat with the correspondent (“You see how this looks, right?”), the men were arrested by local police, while a camera crew captured it all.

The tableau of Hansen going face-to-face with suspects seated in suburban kitchens became so familiar it was spoofed in a comedy sketch that opened the 2006 Emmy Awards.

“Predator” remained a giant hit until a November 2006 sting in Murphy, Texas, went awry. Bill Conradt, a Rockwell County assistant district attorney, had been exchanging online messages and photos with a decoy posing as a 13-year-old boy. Unlike other targets, he never came to the sting house. Police obtained warrants and a SWAT team came to his home with a “Dateline” crew in tow. He shot himself to death after law enforcement entered.

Conradt’s family sued NBC, which settled out of court. The incident sharpened the debate over Hansen’s tactics, and as the “Predator” franchise became more popular, he was criticized in journalism circles for collaborating with police and an outside group of private citizens in his investigative work.

There have been many accolades as well. Law enforcement organizations credited the program for shedding light on a new form of criminal activity in the then-emerging internet age. Over the years, Hansen has helped promote advocacy groups and legislation protecting the rights of sexual abuse victims.

“Dateline” continued producing “Predator” investigations for another year after Conradt‘s death, airing its final installment in December 2007 before NBC retired the franchise in early 2008. Hansen has long maintained that the show simply ran its course. The library of his episodes continued to air on cable news channel MSNBC, now called MS NOW.

Hansen left NBC News in 2013 after the network declined to renew his contract. He continued to orchestrate the sting operations on a short-lived syndicated series, “Crime Watch Daily.” He also became one of the first well-known TV journalists to use a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to produce his own work to present on web platforms, which eventually led to the TruBlu site he has now. He also has a podcast series distributed by Red Seat Ventures called “Have a Seat,” a true crime podcast where he interviews figures in law enforcement.

ATLANTA — The Dodgers’ recent offensive woes were punctuated Thursday by a shutout by Atlanta Braves left-hander Chris Sale.

“We ran into a buzz saw,” manager Dave Roberts said after the 1-0 loss.

The Dodgers (80-54), who were swept for the third time this month, are clinging to a one-game lead over the Braves (79-55) for the second-best record in the National League. They are three games behind the Milwaukee Brewers (83-51) for the best record in baseball.

“I wish we’d played better,” Roberts said. “I wish we’d have won the game. I wish we’d won the series. It didn’t happen. But right now, there’s nothing we can do but just go out there and keep trying to get better and win a baseball game [Friday].”

What was expected to be a pitchers’ duel between Dodgers rotation leader Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Sale lived up to the hype.

Yamamoto gave up a home run to Drake Baldwin on his first pitch, but he quickly settled in and gave up just three more hits while striking out eight over 6⅓ innings.

Sale was even better. He mowed down the Dodgers with 11 strikeouts, limiting them to five hits in nine innings.

The Dodgers went up against an even crisper version of Sale. His velocity was up, and the 100.1-mph fastball he threw to Shohei Ohtani the second time through the order was his hardest-thrown pitch since 2018, according to MLB.com.

“That guy, he’s doing things no one’s ever seen,” Sale told reporters after striking out Ohtani and holding him hitless in four at-bats. “Tit for tat, he’s probably the best I’ve ever seen. When you’re facing the best, you gotta bring your best. Tonight it worked out.

“You can’t hang your hat on that kind of stuff. You never anticipate or expect that because of who he is and his talent and what he brings to the table. This is a game of small battles. He’s going to win some, I’m gonna win some. When you’ve got a guy like that, you gotta step on the gas a little bit.”

The Dodgers have struggled at times since the All-Star break, but Will Smith’s return from injury and Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching should help.

Sale got a standing ovation when he walked out for the ninth inning. And Braves fans booed when a safe call at first withstood replay review instead of ending the game on a double play. But Sale remained and had an even bigger final moment of the game: one more strikeout.

“Sale had it, and we didn’t have much of an answer,” said Mookie Betts, the only Dodger with two hits. “We’ve been able to score runs [the last couple of months]. We might not score 10 a night, but we’re scoring runs and giving ourselves a chance to win games. We just got to figure out other ways to win and be able to push a couple more runs across and whatnot.”

Thursday marked the 13th one-run game the Dodgers have played this month. And the small margins seem to be taking a toll, as the Dodgers’ bullpen and defense have wavered.

The solution would seem to be to get the offense back to scoring in bunches. But that’s not a simple button the Dodgers can press, especially against pitchers of Sale’s caliber.

The Dodgers lost all three games in Atlanta by one run.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning Thursday.

(Erik S. Lesser / Associated Press)

“It seemed like we were always chasing,” Roberts said. “It’s hard to play from behind. Your margins are much thinner, smaller. And when you don’t capitalize on opportunities, then you come up on the short end. But like I said, they’re a good ballclub. They do things the right way. And we’ll look forward to seeing them in October.”

The Dodgers entered the series riding a six-game winning streak built against the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates. But it’s been a long time since they’ve beaten a good team. In fact, they haven’t won a series against any team that entered Thursday in playoff position since taking two of three from the Philadelphia Phillies from July 20-22.

In the interim, the Dodgers have gone 1-12 against teams in a playoff spot.

“I was thinking about it tonight: The game tests you,” Roberts said. “August is that third leg of a mile, and it’s the hardest leg, and you know we’ve got to get through it and grind. And there’s a new series, a new team. We’ve got [Tarik] Skubal going [Friday against the Detroit Tigers]. We’ve just got to flush it.”

Tucker takes day off

Roberts sat slumping right fielder Kyle Tucker against Sale.

“I didn’t want to feel like I’m piling on against a really tough starter,” Roberts said. “Get him ready for the weekend.”

But Roberts said that wasn’t a reflection of how he’d approach the postseason. If the Dodgers face the Braves in the playoffs, Roberts would expect to start Tucker in right field against Sale.

Roster move

As expected, the Dodgers put right-hander Roki Sasaki on the 15-day injured list because of a blister on the middle finger of his right hand and recalled hard-throwing reliever Seth Halvorsen.

“He’s probably our most rested reliever, and it’s going to come in hot,” Roberts said. “So I’m going to run him out there if the situation calls for it.”