daughter

LIAM Gallagher has become a grandfather for the first time after his daughter Molly Moorish gave birth to a baby boy.

The Oasis frontman, 53, had Molly, 27, in 1998 following a short-lived romance with her mum Lisa.

1

The pair were estranged for 19 years but have become close and now Molly has given the rocker his first grandchild.

Molly shared the news of her son Rudi’s arrival on Instagram on Saturday, although it appears she gave birth a few weeks ago in September.

One picture featured her long term partner – footballer Nathaniel ‘Nat’ Phillips – holding their son while he wore a little red jumper with a big R initial on the back.

Another snap showed Rudi in his Moses basket facing the window with the sun coming in in front of him.

She also showed off some of the monogrammed items she had around the house for her baby boy.

She captioned the images: “a message to you, rudy.”

VICTORIA Beckham’s daughter Harper is set to follow in her footsteps and become a beauty entrepreneur.

It comes after the fashion designer, 51, hinted that 14-year-old Harper could become the next Kylie Jenner.

6

6

Earlier this month the HIKU BY Harper, the proposed name for the skincare and beauty brand, was filed under two trademark applications by the business Victoria incorporated for Harper, H7B Limited, matching the teenager’s full name, Harper Seven Beckham.

A source said: “Harper loves fashion and make-up and has already started doing make-up tutorials. 

“The plan is to create a brand aimed at the younger market, taking inspiration for pop culture and Korean beauty.

“The Beckhams are incredibly encouraging parents when it comes to their kids’ talents and exploring their hobbies and business ideas.  They’re a very entrepreneurial family.”

Harper has been increasingly popping up on mum Victoria’s Instagram feed and even set up her own account earlier this year.

Victoria said: “Harper is going to be one of two things. She’s either going to be a beauty mogul or she’s going to be a stand-up. She is hilarious.”

Last year Harper, who has been stepping out in custom-made dresses by her mother’s VB label, spoke publicly for the first time to present Victoria with a prestigious award for entrepreneurship, on behalf of Harper’s Bazaar magazine at its annual Women of the Year event.

She said: “I’m so nervous. Especially as tonight’s a school night. Hopefully this isn’t going to get me in trouble.

“My amazing mummy has built an incredible business from the ground up and has shown me the value of working hard.

“But above all, she’s taught me to always be kind and, even though she has a million things to do, she rarely misses school.”

Harper is still being made to do her homework in addition to her online make-up tutorials alongside her mum.

Victoria chooses to lead by example, instilling a work ethic into each of her four children.

While eldest son Brooklyn, 26, is forging a career with his own hot sauce company Stateside, former footballer Romeo is successfully modelling.

She told The Sun: “I mean, I feel sorry for these kids that are considered nepo-babies.

“The kids are simply the kids of their parents.

“It’s not their fault. Give them a chance.

“What matters is that people are good and kind.

“It is fine to be ambitious, but it is more important to be kind.”

6

6

6

6

First-year girls’ basketball coach Will Burr of Harvard-Westlake High has already concluded more than a month before the season begins that 6-foot-2 freshman Lucia Khamenia is going to be an impact player.

She’s the sister of former Harvard-Westlake All-American Nikolas Khamenia, who is now a freshman at Duke.

Burr said Khamenia can play different positions because of her size and versatility, go inside or make threes like her brother.

She’s not the only high-profiled freshman on the Wolverines’ roster. Valentino Collins is the daughter of former Harvard-Westlake and NBA player Jarron Collins. Her sister, Alessandra, is a junior for the Wolverines.

Senior Valentina Guerrero will lead a young Wolverines team.

Burr is a highly regarded coach, having guided Oak Park to three straight Southern Section titles after winning one at Viewpoint.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

Oct. 8 (UPI) — A newly-elected German mayor named her daughter as the suspected assailant after a knife attack left the political leader in critical condition.

Iris Stalzer, a member of Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party elected last month as mayor of Herdecke, was stabbed Tuesday inside her home in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia.Iris Stalzer

On Wednesday, local officials said the mayor-elect accused her 17-year-old adopted daughter as the suspected attacker.

Conflicting reports had also suggested the suspect was Stalzer’s unidentified 15-year-old son, who also was arrested.

Stalzer, seated in a chair with multiple stab wounds, was found inside her home living room after responders arrived and airlifted her to the hospital.

By Tuesday night, she was able to answer questions by investigators from her hospital bed.

Her daughter reportedly made the emergency call while in the company of her 15-year-old brother.

According to investigators, two knives believed to be the weapon used to attack Stalzer were gathered as evidence, and signs of a struggle were detected in the basement.

Investigators said little about a motive or the family argument that led up to the attack, which reportedly involved both of Stalzer’s children.

Stalzer, 57, won her September 28 runoff election by a 52% margin and a November 4 inaugural was initially set.

On Tuesday, the German SPD stated its party members were in a state of deep shock about the election. A rise in right-wing and anti-Semitic crimes in Germany in recent years included several deaths, including conservative politician Walter Lubcke.

Meanwhile, the Stalzer children were reportedly in the custody of German youth services.

Lauren Perlmutter is a “Gilmore Girls” superfan. She’s watched the show on a loop for the past 10 years. It’s mostly been in chronological order, and sometimes just in the background while she’s working on something else but craving the show’s comforting familiarity.

“It’s like my bowl of chicken noodle soup,” she said.

Perlmutter, 23, like many fans of the beloved series, was born after it first debuted Oct. 5, 2000 on the WB. Her mom, Joelle, had caught “Gilmore Girls” every now and then when it was airing, and she introduced it to her daughter years later, watching it more intently with her new viewing partner.

The series, which starred Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore, a young single mom, and Alexis Bledel as her teen daughter Rory, is beloved for its witty writing and the small-town charm of its fictional setting, Stars Hollow, Conn.

Fans walk through a recreated gazebo like the one in the fictional town of Stars Hollow. “Gilmore Girls” is set in Connecticut, but much of the filming took place on a backlot at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.

(Etienne Laurent/For The Times)

Like the Gilmores, the Perlmutters established a Friday night tradition, except instead of a tense (mandatory) dinner with three generations, the pair would churn through episodes of the show and enjoy spending quality time together.

Lauren said she saw herself in the bookish Rory.

“I was so academically oriented. I strived really hard, and I was valedictorian at UCLA, and [my mom] was there in the audience and we made the same faces they did during Rory’s graduation, and I had a speech very similar to Rory’s,” she said. “Being able to have this background story of two women being raised, and then translated over into my life with my mom was just so special.”

Although their busy schedules make it hard to maintain their tradition weekly — Lauren is in graduate school at Pepperdine training to be a therapist (although she once considered pursuing journalism like Rory) — the Perlmutters still get an occasional Friday night viewing party in.

In celebration of the show’s 25th anniversary, Warner Bros. Television Group hosted an immersive pop-up event at the Grove that promised to give fans “a weekend in Stars Hollow” with set recreations and fall decor abound. The Perlmutters were first in line on Saturday morning, even with their drive from the San Fernando Valley.

Despite a prominently displayed “no cell phones” sign like the one from Luke’s Diner, fans couldn’t help but take selfies and videos of the set recreations. The Stars Hollow gazebo, the famous town sign, a replica of Lorelai’s beloved Jeep Wrangler and a display of 1,000 daisies from a romantic proposal scene in the first season were popular photo spots, and visitors cycled through Luke’s to grab coffee and donuts. And plenty of themed merchandise — ranging from the typical stickers, hats and mugs to ultra-specific items like bath salts with branding from Lorelai’s inn — was available for purchase.

While the fanbase is largely made up of women, some men enjoy the show as well. As one husband and father who attended the event with his more enthusiastic wife and daughters put it, “every man had a crush on Lorelai.”

Several hundreds of fans cycled through the Grove to celebrate the show’s anniversary.

(Etienne Laurent/For The Times)

“Gilmore Girls” also starred Melissa McCarthy as Sookie St. James, Lorelai’s longtime friend and chef at the inn she runs; Scott Patterson as the curmudgeonly but lovable eponymous diner owner Luke Danes; Kelly Bishop and Edward Herrmann as Emily and Richard Gilmore, Lorelai’s (very traditional) parents; and Keiko Agena as Lane Kim, Rory’s rock music-loving best friend. It was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, who went on to make the hit series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and several other major projects.

During its original run from 2000 to 2007, the series was popular among viewers but not so much among critics. The show was nominated for only a single Emmy in its seven year run — one for makeup, which it won.

Serri Ferrante and Winona Parks, longtime friends who both work in television, said they suspect the lack of critical acclaim the series got could be attributed to the small size of the WB network, where it aired, and the likelihood that its budget for awards campaigns was small.

“I always voted for it,” Ferrante said, “but it was like a throwaway vote.”

Still, as the scores of young fans at Saturday’s celebration at the Grove prove, “Gilmore Girls” found a bountiful second life through streaming services.

Brittania Chacon, a 22-year-old from Mid-City, said she discovered the series when it kept popping up on her TikTok feed a year ago. It was autumn, which she says is the perfect time to watch — and many fans agree. (The show gets a seasonal boost in streaming ratings every year, according to Nielsen.)

The young crop of fans makes Ferrante “feel old,” she said, “but then it makes me feel connected to another generation.”

While most fans said they return to the show repeatedly either because of its relatable plotlines, sharp writing or the friendly comfort of their favorite characters, for some, it also acts as a primer for difficult conversations between mothers and daughters.

“It helped me talk to her about things that are not easy to talk about — dating, relationships, growing up,” Susie Park of Glendale said. Her 13-year-old daughter Ella, who started and finished the show over the course of the summer, confidently established herself as a member of “Team Jess,” referencing fans’ different camps of support for Rory’s boyfriends throughout the show.

“I think it’s amazing that it’s intergenerational and that I can actually show my daughter and that it resonates with her. She’s at an age where she’s supposed to be taking sex education classes and it wasn’t very helpful, but this was a lot more helpful,” Susie said as Ella burst out laughing.

Emily Gilmore (Kelly Bishop), left, Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) and Richard Gilmore (Edward Herrmann) in a scene from “Gilmore Girls.”

(Mitchell Haddad / The WB)

Regardless of which team fans are on regarding Rory’s boyfriends or which of the memorable recurring characters is their favorite, most can agree that they want to see more of the Gilmores and Stars Hollow.

In 2016, many original cast members and creatives reunited to make a revival miniseries, “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” The Netflix series had four episodes representing the four seasons to continue the Gilmore family’s story several years later. While it was hotly anticipated, it was not particularly well received by critics and fans alike because some felt the characters seemed to stray from their core attributes and values that made them so loveable.

So more than two decades after the start of the story, many fans are clamoring for another slice of Stars Hollow life. Graham, who reunited with Bledel onstage at the Emmy Awards last month, said on the red carpet that she’d like the idea of a “Gilmore Girls” Christmas movie.

Regardless of whether the story continues in some shape or form, “Gilmore Girls” is regarded as one of the best series of all time and Lorelai and Rory will continue to fuel conversations between mothers and daughters for generations to come.

Eleni Zumot, who attended Saturday’s event with her sister, her mother and her 9-month-old daughter Amelia (sporting a pink Luke’s Diner t-shirt), said she hopes to re-watch the show with her daughter when the time is right.

“I think she’ll love it.”

Holiday-maker Jason Hall was heading home after a nine-day break in Cyprus with his 13-year-old daughter when they found themselves ‘abandoned’ at the wrong airport

A holidaymaker vowed to boycott an airline after he and his daughter were left ‘abandoned’ overnight.

Jason Hall, 54, had been enjoying a nine-day getaway with his 13-year-old daughter in Cyprus, and they had been due to land at Birmingham Airport at 5.30pm on August 6. But, after a small aircraft crash-landed on the runway, their flight was diverted to Cardiff Airport, arriving at 6.10pm.

Passengers on the aircraft were promised that return transport would be arranged for them – but, according to Jason, that did not take place. He has gone on to slam the company’s ‘shocking’ after-care.

Jason, of Clayton, told StokeonTrentLive: “I can’t complain about the holiday – it was lovely. Coming back was where the trouble started. We were promised that we’d be provided with coach travel back to Birmingham – I didn’t mind, these things happen sometimes.

“We spent an hour-and-a-half collecting our bags because they weren’t expecting two massive 300-passenger TUI planes in. But once we’d got our things, we couldn’t see a single member of TUI staff in the whole airport. We left for the car park, and there were around 450 people stood waiting for these coaches.”

READ MORE: Ryanair passenger ‘stunned’ to receive ‘worst food ever’ on flightREAD MORE: ‘I had to leave my son, 5, at home during my holiday after my simple admin error’

He continued: “Eventually, a member of staff from Cardiff Airport – not a member of TUI staff – came out to tell us that three coaches had already been and gone. But if you think that a coach can hold roughly 50 people, that was nowhere near enough for the 600 of us who had landed.

“There were young families, children, kids in wheelchairs, all sorts of people left with no way of getting home. We stood in the car park for around an hour waiting for some sort of direction. Then everybody’s phone went off at the same time. It was an email from TUI informing us that they could not get us home and that we’d need to make our own arrangements.”

Passengers left stranded at Cardiff Airport were told that the airline was ‘having issues sourcing transport’ and encouraged passengers to pay for their own travel arrangements. TUI promised customers it would compensate them in full for any extra costs after their journey.

“We were all just abandoned by TUI,” Jason explained. “There were students and people who didn’t have the money to pay for this up front. Some people were getting local taxis that were costing £350. Others were getting Ubers which were costing £450. Within half an hour, you couldn’t even book one. They’d all gone.

READ MORE: ‘Jet2 gave me a broom cupboard for a hotel room in holiday from hell for bizarre reason’

“I made a decision to get a nearby hotel room for me and my daughter, as I didn’t want to make her sleep in the airport. We got a little room down the road for £85. We couldn’t physically get home. There were no taxis and you couldn’t get a train until the next day.

“The next morning, we went to the station and caught four different trains. We went from Cardiff to Bristol, Bristol to Birmingham New Street, and Birmingham New Street to the airport. When we finally arrived back to the car, I’d got a parking fine.”

Jason’s disastrous journey home led him to miss a day’s paid work as well as the £85 hotel bill, £100 in train fares, and the £60 parking ticket. But he claims TUI refused to compensate his costs in full.

He added: “They only offered to pay for my train fares. I explained the rest of my additional costs, but they just weren’t interested. They made out as if I should have just gone straight back, but that wasn’t possible. The duty of care and customer service was just non-existent.

READ MORE: Mum and kids driven ‘out of our minds’ as they’re ‘stranded’ after TUI cancellation

“It was absolutely shocking. I’ll never use them again. They’re fine so long as everything runs smoothly. But as soon as there’s some kind of incident, it seems they just don’t want to look after you at all. The bare minimum is ensuring they can get you to your destination – not just abandon you somewhere else.”

TUI has since repaid Jason in full.

A spokesperson for TUI UK & Ireland said: “We would like to apologise to all customers impacted by this unexpected flight diversion, which was unfortunately out of our control. We always strive to provide our customers with the best possible travel experience, and we understand that this situation impacted the end of their holiday.

“We have been in direct contact with all customers, including Mr Hall, and have arranged refunds for out-of-pocket expenses.”

“Full House” actor Lori Loughlin and her designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have separated.

The Times confirmed Thursday that the longtime couple “are living apart” but “no legal proceedings are underway,” according to Loughlin’s representative. The news that Loughlin and Giannulli are taking a break from their marriage was first reported by People.

Loughlin and Giannulli have been married for nearly 28 years and share two daughters, including influencer Olivia Jade.

The couple were among the most prominent figures implicated in the Varsity Blues college admission scandal in 2019. Loughlin and Giannulli each pleaded guilty to fraud in 2020 for paying $500,000 to have their daughters gain admission to USC as recruits for the rowing team, even though neither had any experience with the sport. Loughlin was sentenced to 2 months in prison, while Giannulli served 5 months. (Both daughters left the school amid the scandal.)

A familiar face from various television films, Loughlin is best known for portraying Aunt Becky in “Full House,” which originally aired from 1987 to 1995, as well as its 2016 reboot “Fuller House.” She most recently appeared on the Prime Video series “On Call.” Giannulli founded Mossimo, a clothing brand once associated with Target.

Loughlin and Giannulli reportedly listed their L.A. home for sale in February.

NOAH Price and Venezuela Fury got engaged at her 16th birthday party.

Her parents, boxing legend Tyson and wife Paris approve, saying they are “in shock but very happy.”

6

6

But we are left wondering, who is this mystery fiancé?

Who is boxer Noah Price?

Noah Price is a young amateur boxer who is a 92kg East Midlands belt holder linked with Chesterfield ABC.

His age has not been confirmed, with some reports saying 16 and others 23 years old.

What we do know is the he looks head over heels for Venezuela.

The two have been Instagram official for a while, Noah has posted tributes to Venezuela calling her his “best friend.”

6

Noah has a whole Instagram highlights section dedicated to Venezuela with a heart emoji as a description.

He dropped to one knee on the dancefloor of Venezuela’s glam birthday party.

It was a quick yes to the proposal followed by a loving hug from the happy couple.

Who is Tyson Fury’s daughter Venezuela?

Venezuela, 16, is Tyson Fury’s oldest daughter.

She has 6 younger siblings:

• Prince John James Fury
• Prince Tyson II Fury
• Valencia Amber Fury
• Prince Adonis Amaziah Fury
• Athena Amour Fury
• Prince Rico Paris Fury

6

Venezuela is a fun loving girl who takes to Instagram to share her life.

On her social media she posts whatever she is up to whether that’s watching a sunset or on a yacht.

We all know her dad Tyson Fury, 37, is one of the most prominent boxers in the world.

6

Tyson has been outspoken on his proud gypsy heritage and lifestyle and is nicknamed The Gypsy King.

He is a big personality on and off the ring, the 2023 series At Home with The Furys was a big hit with audiences.

The show was an opportunity for everyone to get to know the Furys, Venezuela’s Mum, Paris, was a standout star.

Paris, 35, was hailed a Wonder Woman by fans. She came across as smart, beautiful and down to earth.

Paris and Tyson similarly met when they were young as well, he was 17 and she was only 15.

The two reconnected at Paris’ 16th birthday party and tied the knot three years later.

Paris revealed her “shock” surrounding the engagement because her daughter is “only young” but admitted “when you know, you know.”

6

Paris lovingly commented on Instagram: “Congratulations to @venezuelafuryofficial and @7noahprice on getting engaged.

“Both only young but when you know you know! Still in shock but very happy for you both.

“Me and your Dad couldn’t be prouder xxx.”

Venezuela is carrying on the family tradition and she could not look happier.

The world is a confusing and scary place right now. Many of us are anxious wanderers in the wilderness, looking for answers. Is it any wonder that the wellness industry is booming? Into this strange new world comes Jade Chang’s funny and poignant novel “What a Time to Be Alive,” whose protagonist Lola is broke and aimless — until a leaked video transforms her into an instant self-help guru.

Chang, whose first novel, “The Wangs vs. The World,” was a sharp satire on class and ambition, has now turned her gaze to the promise and peril of self-actualization through social media. I sat down with Chang to discuss spiritualism for profit, tech bros and trucker hats.

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)

✍️ Author Chat

Book jacket of “What a Time to Be Alive” by Jade Chang

(Los Angeles Times illustration; book jacket from Ecco)

This book almost didn’t make it, as you physically lost it.

I started it years ago. I was writing in longhand in a notebook, entire chapters of the book. I lost the notebook and I was devastated. Then I moved on and wrote “The Wangs vs. The World.” It took a long time to get back into writing this new book. By the time I circled back to it, the world had changed so much. I think I have become more generous about things, and the story benefited from it.

Lola, your protagonist, unwittingly becomes an online self-help guru on the basis of a leaked video that is posted on social media. She becomes a sort of accidental wellness expert.

As someone who didn’t grow up with religion, I have always been really fascinated by belief. Why do we want to believe, and how are we compelled to certain beliefs? And it was just kind of fascinating and amazing that people could find so much life in religious stories. As I was developing the story of this novel, I realized that everyone in the digital world takes a page from this book as well, using stories to convert listeners into believers. I think Lola starts out sort of thinking she is in above her head, but by the end, her sincerity shines through. She wants to believe what she is telling others to believe.

Do you think the internet breeds cynicism and has turned us all into an angry mob?

I don’t. The digital world doesn’t make us any different from who we are, but it can throw a lens on certain aspects of our behavior. I think the internet allows us to be our best and worst selves. Think about all those strangers who might contribute to a GoFundMe campaign because someone has had a serious injury and needs to pay their medical bills, which can yield tens of thousands of dollars in some cases. That’s the mob functioning at its best.

But isn’t it a little too easy to pull a con job online?

Yes, it’s easy to be inauthentic online, but it’s important to remember that online performance is a tiny percentage of someone’s life. That’s why I was so interested in writing about the rise of this self-help guru, because usually when these stories are told you only see it from the acolyte’s point of view or the skeptic’s point of view. But we all have to make money, and we all are pulling a little something over on someone at some point — it’s part of surviving in the world.

Lola cauterizes the pain in her personal life by offering panaceas to pain for strangers online, but she affects a false persona to do so.

It’s easy to assume that anything we do, whether it’s on social media or elsewhere online, is performative or fraudulent in some way. RuPaul has a great quote where he says gender is drag. Everything is drag, a performance. Every choice we make is often not reflective of our essential self. You can’t codify identity in clothes or that trucker hat you’re wearing; anything you’re going to choose is going to be influenced by the times in which you live and who you surround yourself with. I can only speak from experience, but I think it’s almost impossible to suppress your true self.

You mentioned how self-help gurus and tech bros have a similar public worldview.

As research for the book, I attended one of Oprah’s Super Soul Sundays at Royce Hall. Every single person that spoke had the same arc: “I was down in the dumps, and then I looked up from that hole and I saw a glimmer in the form of CrossFit,” or drumming, or whatever it was that pulled them up from the brink. Then I went to a TED talk, and these tech gurus are saying the exact same thing. It’s the narrative of our time. I saw that crossover, and I knew I had something to say. I was interested in this internal push and pull of, how much do you give in to this tactic, and how much do you not.

📰 The Week(s) in Books

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Hamilton Cain has mixed feelings about Patricia Lockwood’s autofictional account of the COVID-19 lockdown, “Will There Ever Be Another You,” praising Lockwood’s “rich and kinetic” prose but bemoaning her “self-indulgent and repetitious” narrative.

Steve Henson has a chat with tennis legend Björn Borg about his new memoir, “Heartbeats,” which delves into his heavy cocaine and alcohol use that began shortly after he walked away from the sport at age 26.

Karen Palmer’s harrowing memoir, “She’s Under Here,” “details forgery, a child’s kidnapping, a mental breakdown, struggles to stay afloat — and joy,” writes Bethanne Patrick.

And David A. Keeps reports on the fiscal inequities of the booming audiobook industry: “Many actors are vying for audiobook roles at a time when the talent pool is expanding and casting is becoming a growing topic of debate.”

📖 Bookstore Faves

The Book Jewel, located in the city of Westchester, is just minutes from LAX.

(The Book Jewel)

The Book Jewel is a welcome addition to the neighborhood of Westchester, an expansive bookstore with an excellent selection of fiction and nonfiction titles for locals, or those who might stop by there before catching their flight at nearby LAX. We talked with general manager Joseph Paulsen about the store.

Your store is serving a community that hasn’t had a general interest bookstore in quite some time.

The Book Jewel opened smack-dab in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic in August of 2020. Our Westchester community has supported us from Day 1, and we recently celebrated our fifth anniversary. We are the only bookstore in Westchester, and we are locally owned and independent. I live here in Westchester and have raised both of my sons here.

What’s selling right now?

Right now we’re selling tons of children’s literature and graphic novels (“InvestiGators,” Dav Pilkey, etc.). Of course, the ABA Independent Bestsellers. Lots of romantasy.

You are pretty close to LAX. Do you sell a lot of books to travelers?

The travelers give themselves away with their roller bags, and we catch ’em heading out of Los Angeles on the reg! They like long books for long flights. Lots of souvenirs too! We have some unique, local non-book items as well and offer a better vibe than the international terminal.

The Book Jewel is located at 6259 W. 87th St, Los Angeles, CA.

There’s precisely one surprising moment in Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut “Eleanor the Great,” written by Tory Kamen. It’s the impetus for the entire drama that unfolds in this film, and it feels genuinely risky — a taboo that will be hard for this film to resolve. Yet, everything that unfolds around this moment is entirely predictable.

Also unsurprising? That star June Squibb’s warm, humorous and slightly spiky performance elevates the wobbly material and tentative direction. If Johansson nails anything, it’s in allowing the 95-year-old Squibb to shine in only her second starring role (the first being last year’s action-comedy “Thelma”). For any flaws or faults of “Eleanor the Great” — and there are some — Squibb still might make you cry, even if you don’t want to.

That’s the good part about “Eleanor the Great,” which is a bit thin and treacly, despite its high-wire premise. The record-scratch startle that jump-starts the dramatic arc occurs when Eleanor (Squibb) is trying to figure out what to do with herself at a Manhattan Jewish community center after recently relocating from Florida. Her lifelong best friend and later-in-life roommate Bessie (Rita Zohar) has recently died, so Eleanor has moved in with her daughter, Lisa (Jessica Hecht), in New York City.

Harried Lisa sends Eleanor off to the JCC for a choir class, but the impulsive and feisty nonagenarian pooh-poohs the Broadway singing and instead follows a friendly face into a support group — for Holocaust survivors, she’s alarmed to discover. Yet put on the spot when they ask her to share her story of survival, Eleanor shares Bessie’s personal history of escaping a Polish concentration camp instead, with horrific details she learned from her friend over sleepless nights of tortured memories.

Eleanor’s lie could have been a small deception that played out over one afternoon, never to be spoken of again if she just ghosted the regular meeting, but there’s a wrinkle: an NYU student, Nina (Erin Kellyman), who wants to profile Eleanor for her journalism class. Eleanor initially makes the right choice, declining to participate, before making the wrong one, calling Nina and inviting her over when her own grandson doesn’t show up for Shabbat dinner. Thus begins a friendship built on a lie, and we know where this is going.

Nina and Eleanor continue their relationship beyond its journalistic origins because they’re both lonely and in mourning: Eleanor for Bessie, and Nina for her mother, also a recent loss. They both struggle to connect with their immediate families, Eleanor with terminally criticized daughter Lisa, and Nina with Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), her TV anchor father, paralyzed with grief over the death of his wife. And so they find an unlikely friend in each other, for lunches and bat mitzvah crashing and trips to Coney Island.

Eleanor decides to have a bat mitzvah herself, claiming she never had one due to the war (the reality is that she converted for marriage), but it feels mostly like a device for a big dramatic explosion of a revelation. It also serves the purpose of justifying Eleanor’s well-intentioned deception with lessons from the Torah.

It’s hard to stomach her continued lying, which is perhaps why the script keeps her mostly out of the support group — where the comparison to the real survivors would be too much to bear — and in the confines of a friendship with a college student far removed from that reality. Johansson also makes the choice to flash back to Bessie’s recounting of her life story when Eleanor is speaking, almost as if she’s channeling her friend and her pain. The stated intent is to share Bessie’s story when she no longer can, and surprisingly, everyone accepts this, perhaps because Squibb is too endearing to stay mad at.

Johansson’s direction is serviceable if unremarkable, and one has to wonder why this particular script spoke to her. Though it is morally complex and modest in scope, it doesn’t dive deep enough into the nuance here, opting for surface-level emotions. It’s Squibb’s performance and appealing screen presence that enable this all to work — if it does. Kellyman is terrific opposite Squibb, but this unconventional friendship tale is the kind of slight human interest story that slips from your consciousness almost as soon as it has made its brief impression.

Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

Rihanna and ASAP Rocky have welcomed the latest addition to their growing family: their first baby girl.

The “Love on the Brain” singer announced the arrival of her daughter with the “Highest 2 Lowest” star on Wednesday, sharing a photo of her newest bundle of joy to Instagram. In the picture, Rihanna cradles her newborn, who is wearing a baby-pink jumpsuit.

“Rocki Irish Mayers,” she says in the Instagram caption, which also reveals the date of birth, Sept. 13.

Baby Rocki is the third child for the celebrity pair, who began dating in 2019. They also share sons RZA, born in May 2022, and Riot, who was born in August 2023. Rocki’s name is a twist on her father’s stage name, but it also continues the stars’ tradition of choosing names that begin with the letter “R.” Notably, Rihanna’s and ASAP Rocky’s birth names also begin with that letter: Robyn and Rakim.

The Fenty Beauty mogul shared the first public photos of her daughter months after her splashy pregnancy reveal at the 2025 Met Gala in May. At the event, the singer cradled her baby bump as she posed for photographers in a custom-made Marc Jacobs suit. She walked solo down the red carpet. ASAP Rocky, who was one of the co-chairs of the annual event, had arrived earlier in the evening. Even before hitting the carpet, the “Umbrella” and “Don’t Stop the Music” hitmaker publicized her pregnancy on social media.

“It feels amazing, you know,” ASAP Rocky told CBS News in May, confirming the pregnancy on the red carpet. “It’s time that we show the people what we was cooking up.”

For Rihanna, 37, and ASAP Rocky, 36, the arrival of their baby girl is the latest event in a busy year that also included a legal victory for the “Sundress” rapper and Hollywood projects for both.

In a 2024 cover story for Interview magazine, the singer expressed her desire for a large family, saying that having children with ASAP Rocky “was the best thing that ever happened to us.”

Rihanna also said at the time that she wanted as many kids as “God wants me to have.”

OPENING the thick, posh envelope with an embossed school logo in her council house, single mum Sophie Goffin was shaking and unable to catch her breath. 

This was no ordinary mail delivery. The contents of the letter would decide whether her little girl had been offered a life-changing place at a top-ranking private school for FREE.

5

5

5

Sophie says: “It was a nerve-wracking moment. I was about to learn if my daughter was going to get a free private school education.

“When I read Sienna had been offered a full bursary, I screamed with joy. I will never forget the sense of pride I felt and the huge smile on my daughter’s face.

“It was like winning the lottery. Even today, I cannot believe it happened. She’d received a private education for free.”

Sophie, who runs her own cat care business, The Purry Godmother, and lives in Uxbridge, West London, could never have afforded the £30k a year plus expenses it costs to send a child to school. 

But she believed that a private school would help support Sienna better.

Sophie said: “Sienna started reception in September 2016 at a local government school. She was extra bright and, in the first two years, hit her milestones early.

“I asked the school to give her extra work, but with large class sizes, she was held back slightly. She ended up helping other children instead of moving forward herself.

“If I didn’t act, she would have been bored and frustrated. So I focused on securing a fully funded bursary.”

Private schools, also called independent schools, are run outside government control and paid for by parents, while Grammar schools are state-funded but selective.

Applying to a private school can feel intimidating, Sophie admits, but she knew it was the right move for Sienna and so set about applying.

She added: “It can feel overwhelming, but really it’s just about proving what you earn and showing your child is the right fit.”

Sophie contacted the Independent Schools Bursars’ Association and the Boarding Schools’ Association for guidance, then checked schools’ websites to see who still had bursary places.

She says: “Most scholarships are awarded on merit and achievement. They usually mean only a small discount.

“Bursaries are the golden ticket to elite private schools. They are means-tested, with bigger awards for lower incomes. Some schools also factor in talent in music or sport.”

Finding the right setting

Sophie and Sienna visited Maltman’s Green Girls School in Gerrards Cross, which was within commuting distance for them.

The school takes girls from as young as two up to 11 and has been operating for more than 100 years.

Fees range from £3,210 a term for nursery up to over £8,000 a term, or £32,000 a year for Year 6 pupils.

Sophie says: “Sienna’s eyes lit up when we visited. It was an educational wonderland.

“The school had a pool, science labs, 3D printers, art and drama rooms, small class sizes and an amazing Special Educational Needs department. I knew she would flourish there.”

Sophie and Sienna’s father, a chef, 32, had to complete forms because the full bursary is awarded to parents with low incomes who could not normally afford to send their child to the school.

As part of the means testing, parents must provide earnings information, tax forms, and bank statements and are assessed regularly once their child receives a place.

She says: “Having all your financial information up to date is critical to your application.

“Sienna had to do a written assessment for English literature and maths, which helps the school assess her level.

“We also met with the school head, and Sienna had a chance to explain why she wanted to attend.

“Bursaries are highly competitive, and the final decision is made by a specialist committee.

“Waiting for the letter was a roller coaster. Everyone wants the best for their child. It all rests on the letter. 

“Sienna wanted to go to the school, and I knew it would change her life dramatically.”

After three months, Sophie says the confirmation letter’s arrival in March 2021 was a “game changer.”

Sienna joined the Year three class in the 2021 summer term, proudly wearing the school’s distinct straw hat and its blue and green check uniform.

Sophie added: “Within ten minutes of arriving, another girl had said hello and invited her on an afternoon play date.

“A free private education can happen. Sienna is proof that the impossible is possible, no matter what your income is.”

Sienna’s mum Sophie

“The school pushed her abilities, and she started to thrive and shine.”

Sienna’s bursary included school trips in Year 4 and Year 5, and in Year 6, an overseas trip.

Sophie says: “That even included her spending money. School meals are included, free after-school care is offered, and you receive all-round support.

“For parents like me, it’s an education we could never afford but one our children deserve.

“During her three and a half years there, Sienna got to use an amazing computer kit, do photography, use the school pool, learn about coding, AI technology and use their 3D printer.

“I was amazed at the facilities and the friends she made.

“The smaller class sizes helped her learn at an even faster rate.”

5

5

Sienna has now finished Year 6 and is being home-educated for her secondary education, but remains in contact with all her private school pals.

Sophie said: “I had only ever dreamt of her having access to that standard of education, and when it became a reality, I had to pinch myself.

“I was also shocked at how many parents are not aware that bursaries exist or that they may be eligible.

“It has been life-changing, and it proves that it isn’t always some other family that gets the gold ticket.

“Government schools suit many people, but for Sienn,a the system wasn’t working.

“I was also stunned that many of my friends had no idea bursaries existed or that they would be eligible.

“It is possible to win a bursary place. If you don’t get one the first year, keep trying. 

“It’s the golden ticket to helping a child like Sienna learn at the speed she needs to and thrive.

“Many children do that at standard schools. I was lucky enough that Sienna secured a bursary place.

“A free private education can happen. Sienna is proof that the impossible is possible, no matter what your income is.”

A SCHOOLGIRL has tragically died at her home, as friends and family pay heartbreaking tributes.

Emergency services attended a property on Manor House Lane, Preston, on Monday morning after reports of a sudden death.

1

Nina Papierniok, 13, who was a pupil at Archbishop Temple Church of England High School, was found dead.

Lancashire Police have confirmed her death is not being treated as suspicious.

A report will be handed to the coroner in due course.

A spokesperson for the force said: “We were called to Manor House Lane, Preston, at 7.04am on September 15 following reports of a sudden death.

“Emergency services have attended and tragically found a 13-year-old girl deceased.

“Our thoughts are with her loved ones at this extremely distressing time.

“The girl’s death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be passed onto HM Coroner in due course.”

Friends and family have rallied round to launch a fundraiser in the Nina’s memory and as a way to support her loved ones.

It has already raised more than £9,500 in just a few days.

A post on the GoFundMe page says: “13-year-old Nina, the beloved daughter of our friend Justyna, passed away suddenly in the United Kingdom.

“Justyna is a single mother, and during this unimaginably difficult time, she needs our support to cover the funeral costs and to say a dignified farewell to her daughter.

“If you can – please support the fundraiser or share it with others.”

Bella Hadid offered her social media followers an apology and an inside look at her recent hospital stay, sharing photos of herself wearing an oxygen mask and in bed with tubes hooked up to various parts of her body.

“I’m sorry I always go MIA I love you guys,” the 28-year-old model and activist captioned her Instagram carousel, shared Wednesday.

She posted snaps of quaint scenes of calm skies, golden sunsets and blooming flowers. But the photos posted in between captured a different tone: In one photo Hadid crouches on the floor in the corner of an elevator. Dark red fluid can be seen coursing through medical tubing in another, and in a selfie Hadid’s eyes are puffy and teary.

Though she did not reveal which ailment landed her in the hospital, her mother Yolanda Hadid left a hint in the comments section, where she praised her daughter as a “Lyme warrior.” In a separate post of her own, mother shared much more about her youngest daughter’s health.

“As you will understand watching my Bella struggle in silence, has cut the deepest core of hopelessness inside me,” the elder Hadid said on Instagram. She shared photos of her daughter’s hospital stay.

The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star and former model has also been vocal about her own battle against Lyme disesase, notably in her 2017 memoir “Believe Me: My Battle With the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease.”

She added: “To my beautiful Bellita: You are relentless and courageous. No child is suppose to suffer in their body with an incurable chronic disease.”

Bella Hadid, sister of model Gigi Hadid, previously disclosed her battle with Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses in 2023, when she shared photos from another hospital stay.

At the time, she shared photos of medical documents dated February 2014 that disclosed her struggles with numerous of health problems, including fatigue, attention deficit disorder, memory disturbances, depression, sleep disorders, headaches, disequilibrium, nightmares, muscular weakness, chest pain and palpitations. The visit summary notes that Bella, then 17, “feels ill all the time.”

Lyme disease is a bacterial illness that people can contract if they are bitten by an infected tick, according to the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms can include joint stiffness, muscle aches and pains, fever and headache. Antibiotics are used to treat the infection, which according to the Cleveland Clinic is curable if diagnosed and treated early but can also lead to chronic or recurring symptoms. In addition to Hadid, celebrities who have gone public with the disease include Amy Schumer, Justin Bieber, Ben Stiller, Kelly Osbourne and Riley Keough. Earlier this year pop star Justin Timberlake revealed his diagnosis.

Yolanda Hadid concluded her post with words of encouragement for her daughter: “This disease has brought us to our knees, but we always get back up.”

“We will continue to fight for better days, together,” she continued. “You are a survivor…I love you so much my badass Warrior.”

Former Times staff writer Christi Carras contributed to this report.

When Elaine Del Valle was in the sixth grade, she starred in the lead role of Sandy in her school’s production of “Grease.”

Decades later, she would return to that same school in Brownsville, Brooklyn, to shoot scenes for her autobiographical film “Brownsville Bred” — which will debut in select theaters nationwide on Friday.

Tethered to the people and places that shaped her into the person she’s become, Del Valle, 54, has been working on this intensely personal project for over 16 years. Now a filmmaker, she began her entertainment career as an actor and later as a casting director.

Before reaching its final cinematic form, “Brownsville Bred” first had other iterations: a one-woman stage show, a novel, and a TV pilot doubling as a short film.

“I knew all along that I wanted to make ‘Brownsville Bred’ into something that people could see visually on screen, and that it could be shared more widely. But I never really had the resources,” she says from her home in New York during a recent video call.

The feature film fictionalizes Del Valle’s childhood and adolescence during the 1980s in the titular underprivileged Brooklyn neighborhood, where crime and drug use were just as quotidian as the sounds of salsa music and memorable family moments.

Central to this heartfelt coming-of-age story is Del Valle’s complicated relationship with her vivacious but troubled Puerto Rican father, a musician struggling with addiction who, after a stint in prison, returned to the island while she was still young.

For the scenes depicting Elaine (played as a teen by Nathalia Lares) visiting her father Manny (Javier Muñoz) in Puerto Rico, the writer-director chose to shoot on location in the town of Cataño where her father, the real-life Manny, was from. Bringing the film there reinforced Del Valle’s sense of belonging in her Boricua identity.

“People say to me, ‘Elaine, you’re so happy all the time. You’re so energetic, you’re so willing, what is that?’ And I would say, ‘I don’t know, that’s just me. And after filming in Puerto Rico, I feel strongly that it is part of the culture there, because I felt that in every single person that was on set with me.”

Still from Elaine Del Valle’s Brownsville Bred, opening Sept. 19, 2025.

(Benjamin Medina)

Growing up in a low-income community, Del Valle couldn’t fathom a path into the performing arts. She married at 18 years old and had a daughter not long after. Around that time, she attended an event put on by the Hispanic Organization of Latino Actors. There, she learned she needed headshots to start reaching out to agents and going out for roles.

“I knew that I wanted more out of life, and I would take my daughter with me in her baby carriage to auditions,” she recalls. A determined Del Valle quickly found success as a bilingual actor for commercials. Eventually, Del Valle also landed the voice role of Val the Octopus, a motherly figure in the now-beloved animated series “Dora the Explorer.”

In the late 2000s, as she studied acting at Carnegie Hall, she started writing down her most significant childhood memories encouraged by her instructor Wynn Handman. She wrote about 10,000 words before deciding to adapt the text into prose that she could speak out loud in front of an audience. Recounting her foundational experiences became a cathartic, healing process. That’s when “Brownsville Bred” took the form of a one-woman stage play.

In 2009, Del Valle started performing the inspirational account numerous times at schools and corporate events; by 2011, it was off-Broadway.

“The audience reception made me understand how important this story was, not just to me and my artistry and my ability to heal as a human, but also to other people who needed those things as well, and to see themselves reflected on screen,” she recalls.

It was thanks to one of those performances that Del Valle got offered a job as a casting director. Her credentials: “I had been to every casting office in New York as an actor.”

To support her intention of one day turning this personal narrative into a film, Del Valle decided to turn it into a book so that she could own it as an intellectual property. These days, that’s become common practice in Hollywood: turn the story into a book, so that the screenplay is no longer an original creation, but an adaptation of an intellectual property.

The audiobook version of the tome, published in 2020, was narrated by Del Valle herself.

Del Valle first stepped behind the camera when she couldn’t find a director to helm her 2013 web series “Reasons Y I’m Single.” She had written the project, cast the actors, scouted locations and was ready to serve as producer — but in the end, “by default,” as she says, she had to direct it.

“That is where I really found my passion to work with actors and to get them to where I thought that they could get to,” she explains. “I do like directing more than acting, because I still get to act,” she says. “I am a scene partner as a director.”

Director Elaine Del Valle poses with her brother, Benjamin Medina, who also worked on set.

The road to finally bring “Brownsville Bred” to the screen was in motion when Del Valle received funding from WarnerMedia OneFifty, an artist development initiative, to produce a pilot that could serve as proof of concept for an episodic series. With that grant, the filmmaker would shoot the first 15 minutes of narrative, which played at multiple festivals as a short piece.

Del Valle’s experience as a casting director proved an advantage when she needed to cast the young woman who would play her in most of the film. Her search came down to two finalists, and ultimately Lares reminded her more closely of who she was at that age.

“The other girl is who I wanted to be when I was growing up, because she was so cool and tough,” Del Valle says. “And Nathalia was actually who I was growing up, which was very vulnerable.”

Muñoz, in turn, convinced Del Valle he could play Manny because of his musicality and talent for singing, qualities her father had. It was an Instagram video of Muñoz singing inside an empty New York subway car that solidified her belief in the actor. That Muñoz is an HIV activist also made him an ideal candidate, since Del Valle’s father lost his life to AIDS.

For the most part, reliving some of the most painful experiences of her early years while shooting didn’t affect Del Valle. Yet, she still needed to tap into her lived experience to guide the actors as they navigated this fiction constructed from her former reality.

“Leaning into the emotion a lot of the times was for them, always healing, but definitely for them, so that they can feel secure in the choices they were making to honor my story,” she says. “Sometimes they needed that more than I did. But every time I shared with them I was able to grow from that experience as well, to give them what they needed, but also feel it.”

Film still from the movie ‘Brownsville Bred,’ directed by Elaine Del Valle.

To produce the rest of the film, Del Valle invested her own savings, and utilized any cost-effective opportunity. At a party, she met the owner of a disheveled building in Queens, and asked if she could film there before they renovated it. On the corner near that building she found a Latino-owned pizzeria, and after explaining the significance of the story, the owner let her shoot there. She was cleverly frugal to bring it to fruition.

Through all the transformations from one medium to the next, the unchangeable essence of “Brownsville Bred” is “showing the contradictions in who we are, because so many times Latinos are seen as one dimensional,” Del Valle thinks. “This very much shows the layers of who made me who I am. I am urban, I am American, I am Latina, I’m Puerto Rican, I’m a daughter and a mother,” she adds.

“Brownsville Bred” ends with a quote by Del Valle for her father: “I made it mean something, Papa.” For the multihyphenate, the film is the culmination of a lifelong dream to honor him in all his complexity, both the joy and pain that they share in their time together.

“This film made his life mean something,” she says, barely holding back tears. “It made his experience mean something. It made his death mean something. I got to give him a legacy.”

Simultaneously, “Brownsville Bred” bears witness to what she overcame to accomplish this feat. “We all have our struggles and I’ve always believed that it is up to us to turn those struggles into triumph,” she explains. “We don’t have to wallow in the misery that people expect us to be wallowing in. We can use those obstacles and stand on them. And I did.”

THE grief-stricken parents of the woman who died with her fiancé of methanol poisoning have revealed they bought the toxic Limoncello that killed them.

Newly engaged couple Greta Marie Otteson, 33, and Arno Els Quinton, 36, were found dead in their Vietnamese villa on Boxing Day last year.

10

10

10

10

Cops immediately launched an investigation into the deaths and tests later concluded both died of methanol poisoning, believed to be linked to the tainted limoncello, according to Vietnamese police.

The barman who allegedly made the deadly drink was charged in February and remains detained while investigations continue.

Greta’s parents Paul, 71, and Susan, 70, visited the pair in Vietnam in November 24 – where they had been running a villa and renting rooms out to travellers.

During their stay, they ate at Good Morning Vietnam and enjoyed free shots of Limoncello at the end of their meal.

When they returned home, they decided to order a few bottles of the drink and have them delivered to the couple’s home as a Christmas gift – a decision they would later regret for the rest of their lives.

It was not long before Greta messaged her parents complaining she had the “worst hangover ever” and was suffering from “black spots” in her vision.

The couple reportedly tried to “sleep it off” instead of going to the doctors despite being urged to by pals.

They were found dead three days later in separate rooms of the villa by a cleaner.

The family said the wait for answers has been “unbearable”.

They have received no further update from police nor an apology from the restaurant.

Paul told the BBC: “It’s about accountability”, adding “we can’t move on”.

Greta and Arno’s ashes are currently stored in two bags in the Ottesons’ home in Rhandirmwyn, Carmarthenshire – one has a pink bunny on top of it, the other a blue bear.

Parents, Paul and Susan, heartbreakingly revealed they can’t face laying them to rest until they have “received justice”.

They said: “Justice for us would be naming the people responsible and prosecuting them.”

TOXIC DRINK

The pair are said to have gone out for dinner on December 24, before returning back to the holiday villa which they own at around 10pm.

Two bottles of limoncello were waiting for them at the reception desk after being delivered earlier in the night by a different restaurant.

The business is said to be popular in the area and a photo of their menu online shows they offer the lemon liqueur at a cheap price.

They advertise a shot as costing 85,000 Vietnamese dong (£2.70) and, according to the menu, it is homemade.

It is unclear how methanol could have been inside the drinks.

The highly toxic industrial chemical is found in antifreeze and windscreen-washer fluid but also appears in some home-brewed or counterfeit alcohol.

HEARTBREAKING TRIBUTES

Greta and Arno Els Quinton passed away less than a month after the pair got engaged.

They had moved to Vietnam together and settled in Hoi An.

The happy couple had taken out a lease out on the gorgeous red-roofed Silverbell Villa where they were later found dead.

It featured a nine-bedroom guesthouse with a swimming pool and sat just ten minutes from Hoi An Ancient Town – a Unesco World Heritage site.

A heartfelt Instagram post on December 3, saw the pair officially announce their engagement to the world.

Days after their bodies were discovered the pair were featured in a touching engagement video posted to YouTube.

A filming studio posted a montage they had made of the pair to celebrate their marriage.

The video shows Greta and Arno, wearing white, dancing, walking hand-in-hand, and expressing the love they shared.

Greta’s parents, Susan and Paul, also paid a touching tribute their only child as they called her “beautiful”.

10

10

10

The statement continued: “Both Greta and Arno were experienced worldwide travellers.

“They found their perfect home and were incredibly happy with their life in Vietnam, planning for the future.”

Paul, originally from Swansea, added: “We were so happy she picked Arno. He was such a lovely boy. Arno was a great musician, composer and lyricist.

“They bought a second-hand bike and were so proud. Susan told Greta, ‘Make sure it’s red for Wales’.

“They were a loving couple with their life ahead of them. The tributes we have had from around the world are unbelievable.”

Travel lover Greta had previously lived in Dubai and backpacked around different countries in Asia before settling more recently in Vietnam.

She was a digital strategist who ran a social media and content marketing agency called Not Sorry Socials.

Arno was a barista, musician, and streamer.

10

10

10

Magnificent.

The concert version of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s celebrated production of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish had its West Coast premiere at the Soraya last weekend, and anyone who was lucky enough to attend one of the three performances will long cherish the memory of this stunning musical experience.

Performing “Fiddler” in Yiddish returns the characters to the language of Sholem Aleichem’s stories, the fictional world from which they sprung. The musical has been translated but in a way that moves Joseph Stein’s book, Jerry Bock’s music and Sheldon Harnick’s lyrics closer to an authentic Anatevka, the village in which Tevye the milkman lives with his wife, Golde, and five daughters.

The one concern I had about a Yiddish “Fiddler” was the loss of Harnick’s piercingly simple lyrics. Harnick had a way of expressing deep universal truths in the most natural, folksy manner possible. But, fortunately, his words weren’t absent from the production. English supertitles, spotlighting Harnick’s unmatched skill, were projected prominently behind the orchestra.

The language was often comprehensible even for non-Yiddish speakers. The rich man in “If I Were a Rich Man” was translated as a variant of Rothschild, the name of a well-known European Jewish banking dynasty. And even if that reference eluded anyone, Bock’s bouncing, daydreaming, old world melody, practically encoded into our cultural DNA, assured perfect understanding.

Yael Eden Chanukov (Hodl) and Drew Seigla (Pertshik) in “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish at the Soraya.

(Luis Luque/Luque Photography)

Joel Grey, the Oscar and Tony winning Master of Ceremonies of “Cabaret,” directed both the concert and the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s production, which began in New York in 2018 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage before opening off-Broadway at New World Stages in 2019. In 2022, the show returned for another run at New World Stages, satisfying the demand for one of the most talked about musical revivals of the last few years.

The 93-year-old Grey was in attendance at Saturday’s opening at the majestic Soraya. He was also a presence on screen, providing both the introduction and epilogue of what was an artfully conceived hybrid experience, a concert version of the musical focused on the songs but contextualized sufficiently to bring the audience emotionally into the story.

The orchestra, conducted by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene artistic director Zalmen Mlotek, gracefully guided the flow of scenes. The superb company of actors, led by Steven Skybell’s Tevye, performed musical selections arranged around brief narration and dramatic excerpts.

A commanding presence, Skybell isn’t a barnstormer but an Obie-winning actor who illuminates the humanity of whatever role he happens to be playing. His Tevye, a patriarch trying to hold his family together amid the double assault of poverty and pogroms, was especially touching in his appeal to the Almighty to ease up on the litany of suffering.

A violinist (Sara Parkins) shadowed Tevye with the haunting strains of cultural “tradition” — a loaded word. But he is forced to adapt to changing times. It’s 1905, and Anatevka isn’t the shtetl that it once was.

Revolution is in the air, and Tevye’s daughters have their own minds about their marital prospects. How does “the papa,” the upholder of tradition, as the musical’s opening number spells out, maintain his self-respect, if not his authority? The only way he can — by balancing out fits of temper with the sympathetic humor of a father’s loving heart.

“Fiddler” can sometimes occasion a flood of overacting. Not here. The daughters were too wrapped up in the most consequential decision of their lives — their choice of husbands — to chew scenery. Rachel Zatcoff as Tsaytl, Yael Eden Chanukov as Hodl and Rosie Jo Neddy as Khave channeled their ardent emotion into their singing.

Jennifer Babiak (Golde) and Steven Skybell (Tevye) in “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Soraya.

(Luis Luque/Luque Photography)

Zatcoff’s Tsaytl embodied the mature conviction that Kirk Geritano’s Motl, the poor tailor, is the only man for her. Chanukov’s Hodl, more anxious but no less resolved, made clear that her future could only be with Drew Seigla’s Pertshik, a revolutionary student. And Neddy’s Khave revealed that she was prepared to sacrifice everything to be with Griffith Frank’s Fyedka, a Russian Christian, no matter the effect on her family or herself.

What’s remarkable for a concert is how much of the production’s character work came through. In the musical number “Do You Love Me?,” when Tevye asks his wife what turns out to be a not-so-simple question, the history of an arranged marriage that has stood the test of time was laid bare. The way Jennifer Babiak’s no-nonsense Golde refused to spit out an easy answer was as telling as the gentle way Skybell’s Tevye kept prodding her to admit a truth that was perhaps too complex for words.

The humor of “Fiddler” was well accounted for in Lisa Fishman’s Yente, the matchmaker involved in everybody’s business. Samuel Druhora’s Leyzer Volf, the prosperous widower butcher eager to marry Tsaytl, played the heavy but with a soft human touch that allowed him to join in the laughter.

The Hebrew word for Torah was projected across the rear of the stage, summoning part of the original production design. The defined religious and social world, rooted in a cultural specificity, was all the more universal for its vivid particularity.

This version of “Fiddler” in Yiddish elicited in me a poignant longing for an America that once understood itself as a nation of immigrants, bound together by the dream of a better life, regardless of creed or national origin or accent.

“Fiddler on the Roof,” perhaps the most unifying American musical of the 20th century, reminds us of the long, hard road many of our ancestors traveled to arrive at a country founded on (however imperfectly realized) democratic ideals. I’m thinking now of my parents and grandparents, but also of my students, whose families come from different parts of the world but whose paths follow a similar trajectory.

It’s a pity that this concert had such a brief run. But how lucky to experience at this fragile moment the values of generosity and empathy underlying this classic American musical — values that once made it possible to transcend our political differences and find ourselves in each other’s stories.

Like all great crime writers, Lou Berney knows that a ripping story is only as good as the characters that make it rip. With his new novel “Crooks,” Berney has created a family saga about a small-time operator named Buddy Mercurio, his pickpocket wife Lillian and their five children.

As Buddy’s brood leave the nest and stake their claim in the world, his patriarchal shadow looms large, and the sins of the father are hard to kick. I chatted with Berney about his sixth novel, crime and why smartphones are his worst enemy.

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)

✍️ Author Chat

Lou Berney, author of “Crooks: A Novel About Crime and Family.”

(Lou Berney)

How did you come to crime novels?

The writers I love tend to be crime writers. I really got turned on my freshman year of college to Flannery O’Connor
and that just kind of blew my mind. To me, she’s the greatest crime writer ever. “Wise Blood,” “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Everything that Rises Must Converge.” Every one of her books has elements of a crime novel in them that she does really interesting things with. 


But you started as a more traditional literary writer.

My first story was in “The New Yorker” when I was in grad school. I was writing straight literary fiction. Then I started writing screenplays and learning more about plot and storytelling. I just kind of settled into this idea of crime, which to me is the one genre where you can do almost anything you want. It’s such a big tent. And so it was a great way for me to embrace the limitless, essentially.

What about traditional crime writers? Who moves you?

A big influence was Elmore Leonard. Also Jim Thompson, who was a fellow Oklahoma writer. Those are two guys that really, really affected me. But the current state of crime fiction is just awesome. I love so many contemporary crime writers right now. Sara Gran,
Kate Atkinson, Megan Abbott, S.A. Cosby. This is a golden age in some ways for weird, interesting crime fiction that takes you to different places. 
Everybody’s kind of doing their own thing, which I really love.

Are you a Walter Mosley fan?

A huge fan. I got to work with Walter this year. I wrote for a TV show called “The Lowdown” which was created by Sterlin Harjo, who created “Reservation Dogs.” Walter and I were the two novelists in the writers room, six hours a day for 20 weeks, and I just got to hear Walter Mosley talk. The guy is a genius. His thoughts on writing are just mind-blowingly good. So I got paid for an education.

I love the Mercurios. I feel like part of the appeal of a family like this is that they are everything most of us are not: They are bold risk–takers who dive into things without fear.

In writing about the Mercurios, I was getting to vicariously live these lives that were enormously appealing to me. You know, I don’t want to be a criminal and I would probably make a bad criminal, but it’s sure fun to sort of live without rules and live without fear and be reckless and do whatever you want.

“Crooks” is set in the pre-camera phone era, when life had an entirely different texture, and information traveled slowly.

I was walking through the airport yesterday, and it was so demoralizing to see every single person on their phone, with literally no exceptions. Everyone walking, sitting and standing were on their phones, and I thought, “Man, I’m glad I’m old enough to remember when none of that existed,” because that was way, way more interesting to me as a writer.

I love the chapters that are set in ’80s Los Angeles. How did you conjure all of that up?

I read a lot of old magazines. Los Angeles magazine was great. I got all the old issues on EBay. And I have a friend who grew up in the ‘80s in L.A., so I ran some stuff by him. I just love research. I wasn’t into homework as a kid at all, but now I’ve discovered that if it’s homework I need to do for a book, I’m all about it.

The novel is divided into six parts, and every section is so deftly plotted. How difficult is the plot for you?

I do extensive outlining so I can get a sense of plot. But I end up probably changing 75% of it as I go. With this book, the Jeremy chapter worked perfectly, whereas Alice took me like three times as long as any of the other chapters, because I had to keep figuring out how she was going to outsmart this guy, and nothing was working or wasn’t fitting right. It really depends on the particular kind of plotline.

📰 The Week(s) in Books

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Julia M. Klein thinks Daniel Pollack-Pelzner’s biography of Lin-Manuel Miranda does a fine job of probing the inner artist, a “joyous, charismatic, well-meaning, occasionally imperfect man.”

Samantha Fink sat down with Elizabeth Gilbert to discuss her new memoir “All The Way to The River.”

With Oasis and Pulp on the road, Dave Rowntree makes sure his group Blur gets a hand in the Britpop Revival with a book of band photographs.

And finally, our reviewers pick 30 Fall books that everyone must read.

📖 Bookstore Faves

A book-loving cat wanders through the aisles of Small World Books located on the Venice Boardwalk.

(Adam Lipman)

Small World Books is the grandaddy of indie book stores in L.A. Established in 1969 on the Venice Boardwalk, the store has always been well-curated and loaded with a diverse array of titles. We spoke with manager Adam Lipman about what customers are snatching up.

What’s selling right now?

The new RF Kuang, “Katabasis,” is selling really well, as is the new Taylor Jenkins Reid, “Atmosphere,” and it’s been hard to keep in stock “Daughter Mother Grandmother and Whore” by Gabriela Leite.

What are some popular genres that your customers like?

Romantasy, horror and architecture are getting snatched up right quick these days.

And those that love poetry are always impressed with our poetry section. But we are selling all types of books right now! From bestsellers to books about lo-fi cassette culture, sextrology, and Charles Oakley. Anything important or interesting to us we try to get in store and keep in stock.

Why are books still necessary in a wired world?

Susan Orleans wrote in “The Orchid Thief”: “There are too many ideas and things and people, too many directions to go. I was starting to believe that the reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size.”

Part of why we are called Small World Books is because we believe books are an excellent way to “whittle the world down to a more manageable size,” small enough to not seem so overwhelmingly exhausting, and hopefully, then making it easier to expand our circle of empathy.

In “Am I Roxie?,” a world premiere one-woman-show at the Geffen Playhouse, Roxana Ortega, a working actress and alum of the Groundlings Theatre’s Sunday Company, revisits the period in her life when she was the caregiver for her mother, whose memory was unraveling.

When Ortega’s father died of a sudden heart attack outside the post office, she was unprepared for the consequences. He had been protecting the family from her mother’s decline.

An immigrant from Peru who had relinquished her dreams of acting to raise a family, Carmen had a special bond with Ortega. When little Roxana was growing up in Fullerton, her mother would improvise operas while fixing breakfast. Together, they dreamed theatrical dreams.

Carmen has many sisters — “Picture the Housewives of Beverly Hills, but in Canoga Park” — but none were able to take her in. Ortega’s siblings, married with children, were similarly unable.

Not having kids of her own deprived Ortega of the one excuse her family would have recognized. Yet she still wanted to have kids, though not before she found the right husband and made some headway in a career marked by small triumphs, such as booking commercials and webisodes. Was she really going to put her life on hold for a few years?

Finding a painful compromise, she decides to move her mother to an assisted-living facility near her in L.A. Taking this step requires her to go to war with her “inner Latina critic,” who reminds her of the code of her blood: “We take care of our own.” She adds an expletive to the end of this pronouncement, but no emphasis is needed for a daughter who has already indicted herself for selfishness, the one unpardonable sin for a Latina.

“Am I Roxie?,” performed by Ortega with unflagging ebullience in an athletic-wear jumpsuit designed for comfort rather than style, brings to the exhausting, guilt-inducing grind of eldercare her own cultural spin. The subject is relatable, as lifespans have extended while health insurance only seems to contract. Ortega is an agreeable guide through the thicket of problems, such as choosing between senior facilities that resemble “sad Marriotts” or “sad La Quinta Inns.”

The show is more of a personal essay composed for the stage than a deeply imagined performance work. Ortega’s approach is friendly and wryly conversational. She’s bearing witness to a human dilemma our culture would prefer to keep under wraps, but Ortega might just as easily be doing an audio essay or podcast. The one character who comes vividly to life is her own.

There’s a rich tradition of performance artists bringing difficult personal stories to public light. “Am I Roxie?” seems disconnected from the work of Lisa Kron, Deb Margolin and Marga Gomez. Soloists who can populate the stage with uncurtailed ambition.

Thematically, “Am I Roxie?” is structured around the “Circle of Life” song from “The Lion King.” Ortega knows this reference is corny, but it’s also inescapably apt. The person who gave her life now needs her help as she nears the end.

Roxana Ortega in “Am I Roxie?” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Birth and death weigh heavy on Ortega’s mind, as she ponders her own lifespan, the diminishing window for motherhood and the confused and sometimes angry helplessness of Carmen, who comes to believe that her daughter is her sister. Eventually, Carmen will wonder if she herself is Roxie, an existential dilemma that Ortega refuses to understand as a mere symptom of Alzheimer’s disease.

She’s reluctant at the start to name her mother’s condition. How can she reduce a loved one to a medical diagnosis? Even at Carmen’s most exasperating, she could still surprise Ortega with a simple, poignant question: “How are you doing in your life, Roxie?”

Ortega begins to understand that, though her mother has been transformed, she can still connect with her if she accepts her as she is. By speaking to her mother in the nonsense language she falls into and by playing games of pretend as if they were back in her childhood home, Ortega reaches her mother, if only for fleeting moments.

The production, directed by Bernardo Cubría, seems to have adopted a medical oath of first doing no harm. A set piece is every now and again mechanically (and somewhat quizzically) moved in or out, and there are projections offering illustrations of Fullerton and Ortega’s mental health adventure scaling the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

But “Am I Roxie?” doesn’t depend on scenic frills. Ortega is the show — not just her story but her rapport with the theatergoers, with whom she confides as if to old friends. She shares her fears that she might have occasionally failed her mother, but this confession is just another example of her generous humanity.

’