Indonesia’s National Agency for Disaster Management says 77 victims taken to hospitals for treatment.
Published On 30 Sep 202530 Sep 2025
Share
A student has been killed and dozens are missing following the collapse of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia’s East Java province, authorities have said.
Rescuers are searching for 38 people believed to be trapped under the rubble following the building collapse, Indonesia’s National Agency for Disaster Management said on Tuesday.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Eleven people have been rescued from the rubble, and 91 others managed to escape, the disaster management agency said.
Seventy-seven victims were taken to several hospitals in the area for treatment for their injuries, according to the agency.
“Efforts to assess the site, monitor the remaining building structure, and prepare evacuation routes for victims are the primary focus of the teams on the ground,” the agency said in a statement on social media.
The agency added that the incident called attention to the need for the “strict implementation of construction safety standards”.
“The public and managers of multistorey buildings are urged to ensure technical supervision during construction to prevent similar occurrences in the future,” it said.
Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, a separate body, had earlier reported that “provisional data” indicated that 100 students were caught up in the collapse, of whom all but one had been located alive.
Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School, in Sidoarjo, East Java, collapsed at about 3pm on Monday as students were gathering for afternoon prayers.
Authorities say the school’s foundation pillars gave way as crews were concreting the fourth floor of the building, trapping dozens of people under debris.
The incident is the second building collapse in Indonesia in less than a month.
At least three people were killed and dozens were injured when a community hall hosting a Quran recital collapsed in West Java’s Bogor district on September 3, according to officials.
A HUGE search operation has tragically recovered the body of an 80-year-old man from a popular UK beach.
Police, Coastguard, Lifeboat crews, and South West Ambulance Service responded to Sidmouth beach in Devon yesterday after a person was spotted on the rocks.
A lifeboat was sent to the rocky shore near Jacobs Ladder to save the person and bring them back to the beach.
Sadly, the man was pronounced dead after being recovered by emergency crews.
His family have been informed of the tragedy.
The beach was closed off while emergency services raced to save the man from the rocks.
In a statement, Exmouth Police said: “This morning officers from Exmouth patrol and Rural East Devon patrol supported Exmouth and Beer Coastguard Search & Rescue Teams, Sidmouth Independent Lifeboat, the Coastguard helicopter and South West Ambulance Service, attended an incident at Big Picket Rock under High Peak between Ladram Bay and Jacobs Ladder beach at Sidmouth.
“A person was recovered by Sidmouth Independent Lifeboat’s ‘Speedy Sid’ inshore lifeboat, and was conveyed to Sidmouth beach but unfortunately had passed away.
“The family have been informed and our collective thoughts are with them at this difficult time.
“Whilst eventually it finalised in Sidmouth, thank you for your patience and understanding around short closures and emergency vehicle obstructions on Sidmouth seafront as well as the CG helicopter landing on the seafront.”
1
The man was recovered by a lifeboat crew but tragically pronounced dead shortly afterCredit: Getty
Several people are dead or missing in Vietnam where thousands of residents were still being evacuated as Typhoon Bualoi made landfall sooner than forecast.
At least four people have been killed andseveral others injured after a gunman drove a vehicle into a Michigan church, opened fire and set the building ablaze, police say.
Officials said the attack on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, a town 60 miles (100km) northwest of Detroit, happened during a Sunday service that attracted hundreds of people.
The suspect, identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, from Burton, Michigan, was later shot dead by police in the church car park.
Authorities are investigating the incident as an “act of targeted violence”, but say the motive remains unclear.
Two victims died from gunshot wounds, Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye told a news conference on Sunday.
The fire caused extensive damage to the building and some people remained unaccounted for, Chief Renye said.
Earlier, he said “hundreds” of people were attending services at about 10:25 local time (15:25 GMT) when a gunman drove a vehicle into the building.
The attacker then opened fire with an assault-style rifle, “firing several rounds at individuals within the church,” he said.
The police responded immediately to the scene, he said, adding officers “engaged in gunfire with that particular individual, neutralising that suspect”. He was killed at 10:33 local time, eight minutes after the shooting.
“We are still trying to determine exactly when and where the fire ended up coming from and how it got started,” the police chief said. “We believe it was deliberately set, though, by the suspect.”
Investigators are conducting a search of the suspect’s property and examining his cell-phone records as they work to establish a motive.
The FBI is leading the investigation and has deployed crisis response teams, bomb technicians and others to the scene, according to Reuben Coleman, the acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office.
Michigan State Police spokeswoman Kim Vetter told reporters that officers have been responding to additional bomb threats at multiple other locations.
“We’ve responded and cleared those locations,” she said.
“We pray for peace and healing for all involved,” it said.
Grand Blanc police said that 100 FBI agents have been deployed to assist with the investigation.
President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the shooting, and confirmed the FBI will be leading the federal investigation.
Writing on Truth Social, he described it as “yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America”.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that she had received briefings on “what appears to be a horrific shooting and fire” at the church.
“Such violence at a place of worship is heartbreaking and chilling,” Bondi said. “Please join me in praying for the victims of this terrible tragedy.”
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer condemned the incident, saying: “Violence anywhere, especially in a place of worship, is unacceptable,” adding that she was monitoring the situation.
Mitt Romney, former US senator for Utah and one of the most prominent Mormon politicians, called the shooting a “tragedy”, adding: “My brothers and sisters and their church are targets of violence. Praying for healing and comforting.”
Salty sights and Caesar salads in Cape Verde, the up-and-coming jetlag-free fly-and-flop destination. Travel editor Nigel Thompson went to check then out and for a bob in the water
Don’t miss out this harbour if you go to Pedra de Lume(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
We entered the 100-yard long rock tunnel at a windswept car park on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. We exited at the edge of a vast crater, mesmerised by an otherworldly view like a scene from a sci-fi film.
Before us lay a volcanic (dormant thankfully!) landscape of ochre, pinks and whites. You feel it could be life on Mars were it not for the fact there is water in a lake below. But this is no “ordinary” water at the Pedra de Lume salt flats at Sal island in Cape Verde.
The lake is more than 20 times saltier than the sea – double the levels in the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan – and, just like its Middle Eastern cousin, it’s popular with tourists for the novelty of bobbing around on the surface unable to sink.
Locals swear blind by a dip, saying the life of brine restores the skin’s health and people look 10 years younger after leaving the water. Benjamin Button I was not, but floating is fun and it gets your attention as any tiny scratch (e.g. a paper cut or shaving nick) stings noticeably!
Entry is €6 and a freshwater shower afterwards (you will need it) is €1. There’s also a small cafe and souvenir shop with cash preferred.
Cape Verde, 350 miles off the western coast of Senegal, is taking off for Brits as a (mostly) fly-and-flop destination, with one of the main appeals – apart from pretty reliable tropical weather all-year round – being that it’s a jet lag-free destination and only six hours away heading due south all the way.
For context, that 2,700-mile journey is as far as going across the pond to Newfoundland in eastern Canada. Our base for the trip was the five-star beachfront Hilton Cabo Verde Sal Resort on the outskirts of Santa Maria, the main tourist town.
It’s an excellent, easily likeable upscale property with all you need – good service, spacious rooms, a lovely central pool area, a lush spa and watersports options in the breezy ocean.
It’s walkable to the centre of Santa Maria and its shops, bars and restaurants via a promenade alongside the vast beach, and is one of the packages on offer with easyJet holidays.
The hotel’s showstopper for me was the airy Bounty Beach Restaurant and Bar. It’s a smart but chilled venue with great sea views and served the chicken Caesar salad of my dreams (around £12.50), plus the local Strela lager (slightly sweet, but decent) and the surprisingly good Cape Verdean wines. Leave me here.
When I was eventually crowbarred out of my seat at the Bounty, another aquatic excursion beckoned. This time, an enjoyable and relaxing catamaran ride in the Atlantic with the friendly folk at Cape Verde Sailing – “marineros” Daisy and Daniel and skipper Delvi.
Much as we were enjoying just pootling around in the ocean – there is also an opportunity to snorkel at an underwater statue of Jesus – a few skipjack tunas leaped out of the water in front of us. Daisy explained that they were fleeing a dolphin hunting for breakfast (half day from €59 per person, cvsailing.com).
So, it was not without a little irony that one of my group of travelling companions ordered the skipjack tuna steak for lunch when we were back on dry land (and the land in barren Sal is very dry indeed).
Our tuna may have escaped a breakfasting marine mammal, but not all manage to elude a Cape Verde fisherman (apparently it was delicious).
That lunch en route back to the airport was at the elegant and traditional Hotel Morabeza, the oldest on the island with its origins dating back to the 1960s and also available with easyJet holidays.
Like the Hilton, it has a terrific beach club and, yes, another decent chicken Caesar salad for lunch (around £8.50). Again, leave me here (I tried hiding in the toilets but the bus driver found me and took me to the airport).
I was only there for a couple of days but it was oh so easy to develop a taste for Cape Verde. With an extra sprinkling of salt, of course.
Book the holiday
easyJet holidays offers seven nights on B&B at the Hilton Cabo Verde Sal Resort in Santa Maria, Cape Verde, from £882pp with flights from Gatwick on April 27, 2026, 23kg baggage and transfers. easyjet.com/en/holidays
Vijay, who is a well-known actor and goes by only one name, launched a political party last year.
Published On 27 Sep 202527 Sep 2025
Share
At least 36 people have been killed and more than 50 injured on Saturday at a rally held by Tamil actor Vijay, who is campaigning for election, state officials said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said eight children and 16 women were among the 36 people who died in the district of Karur in Tamil Nadu during a political rally by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, Vijay’s party.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Large crowds had gathered for the meeting, part of Vijay’s ongoing state tour for his political party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam.
Vijay, who is a well-known actor and goes by only one name, launched a political party last year and began campaigning this month in advance of state elections that are to be held early next year.
State lawmaker Senthil Balaji told reporters that 58 people were hospitalised after what he said was a stampede. He added that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will visit the area on Sunday.
“The unfortunate incident during a political rally in Karur, Tamil Nadu, is deeply saddening,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X.
Vijay, one of Tamil cinema’s most bankable actors for three decades, has drawn massive crowds to his public meetings since launching his political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, in 2024, which has targeted both the state governing party DMK and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. He is campaigning before state elections that are to be held in early 2026.
Videos from local media show thousands of people surrounding a large campaign vehicle on top of which Vijay is seen standing and speaking.
During the rally, visuals showed Vijay throwing water bottles from the top of the vehicle to fainting supporters and calling for police help when the crowd became uncontrollable.
“My heart is broken; I am in unbearable, indescribable pain and sorrow,” Vijay wrote on X.
At least 44 doctors from the nearby districts of Tiruchirappalli and Salem were sent to Karur, media reports added.
Stalin has announced 1 million Indian rupees ($11,280) each to the families of the victims who died in the incident and set up an inquiry panel.
This is not the first time Vijay’s rallies have faced safety concerns. At least six deaths were reported by media following the first meeting of his political party when it was launched in October last year.
Despite police-imposed restrictions, including limits on convoy size and venue changes, the sheer scale of public turnout has repeatedly overwhelmed local infrastructure.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
The 13th edition of Beyond Fest at American Cinematheque has already begun but lasts until Oct. 8, so there is still plenty of excitement on the way.
Japanese icon Meiko Kaji will make a series of appearances during her first time visiting the U.S. A double-bill of 1973’s “Lady Snowblood” and 1974’s “Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance” will feature a Q&A with the actor moderated by Jen Yamato, while another Q&A will be moderated by “Anora” Oscar winner Sean Baker.
Other upcoming screenings include “The Testament of Ann Lee” in 70mm, “The Secret Agent” with filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho, “It Was Just an Accident” with filmmaker Jafar Panahi, a Guillermo del Toro retrospective, Mike Nichols’ 1973 sci-fi thriller “The Day of the Dolphin” in 4K and a 10th anniversary screening of “The Invitation” with filmmaker Karyn Kusama, screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi and actor Logan Marshall-Green.
Meiko Kaji in the movie “Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion.”
(Arrow Films / Beyond Fest at American Cinematheque)
Saturday will see screenings of “Manhunter” and “To Live and Die in L.A.” with star William Petersen in attendance. I spoke to Petersen this week about going from being a Chicago theater actor to starring in two now-classic ’80s crime thrillers in the span of one year.
“It was never my intention to make any movies, it wasn’t like I was seeking them out,” Petersen said. “They kind of just came and found me.”
I also spoke to some of the team behind the festival about how they manage to harness the energy of L.A’s rep-house scene and point it toward an eclectic mix of new and old titles that increasingly includes legitimate prestige titles, including awards winners from the international festival circuit.
“It’s not just all about the films — it’s about the theatrical experience, seeing it all together,” said Grant Moninger, co-founder of Beyond Fest and artistic director of the American Cinematheque. “This does not happen online. You’re not watching a screener with a watermark at your house. You’re all together, you’re just celebrating cinema and going through all the emotions together. We put on a show every year at all these theaters because we’re thankful that everyone’s coming together and we’re going to try to give them as much as we can give them.”
‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ at 50
Tim Curry, center, as Frank-N-Furter in the movie “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
(20th Century Fox)
Tonight the 50th anniversary of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” will be celebrated at the Academy Museum with a screening of new 4K restoration and an appearance by star Tim Curry. The screening will include “a full-blown audience participation and shadow cast experience,” capturing some the feeling of the riotous fan-fueled midnight shows that made the film a sensation over decades. There will be additional screenings of the film Oct. 4 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and Oct. 15 at the Grammy Museum.
Directed by Jim Sharman, who also mounted the original stage show, from a story and songs by Richard O’Brien (who also plays Riff-Raff), the film is said to have the longest theatrical release in cinema history, thanks to its ongoing life as a cult object.
Steve Appleford interviewed the film’s star, Tim Curry at the Roxy, where the original stage show was first performed in L.A. In the film, Curry’s character, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, is a singing scientist in fishnets and high heels who introduces a young couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) to a world of new experiences.
“It was part of the sexual revolution, really,” said Curry. “Experiment was in the air and it was palpable. I gave them permission to be who they discovered they wanted to be. I’m proud of that.”
Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick do “The Time Warp” (again) in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
(John Jay / Disney)
The Times identified the “Rocky Horror” phenomenon from the very start. Gregg Kilday interviewed Curry for an article published in March 1974 as the stage show transferred from London to L.A. The feature follows Curry, then only 27, from the Roxy to Musso & Frank and on to the Chateau Marmont, a pretty enviable tour of the city.
Curry described the character at the time by saying, “He says he’s a transvestite transexual, whatever that means. I don’t play him as a transexual. But he’s a fairly complex guy. He just takes anything he can get. He’s not fussy, really. Though I think he’s something of a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am.”
In his original review of the film from Sept. 26, 1975, critic Kevin Thomas (of course, it was reviewed by Kevin Thomas) said, “All of this plays less depraved than it sounds. … This Richard O’Brien musical is simply too exuberant and too funny to be seriously decadent. Indeed, there’s an underlying quality of tenderness and even innocence in this loving send-up of horror and sci-fi flicks and celebration of post-graduate sexuality.”
The format wars of ‘One Battle After Another’
Teyana Taylor in the movie “One Battle After Another.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
The new film from Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another,” features another of the filmmaker’s impressive ensembles, one that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Alana Haim, Sean Penn, newcomer Chase Infiniti and Benicio del Toro.
The film is playing in a variety of film formats, and Los Angeles is lucky to be one of only four cities in the world to be screening the movie in VistaVision. (Appropriately enough, it will be at the Vista.) The film is also in Imax 70mm at the Universal Citywalk and in Imax at multiple locations including the TCL Chinese and in 70mm at the CGV by Regency in Buena Park. (Plus, it’ll be in more conventional digital formats at many other theaters.)
A politically minded action-comedy based loosely on Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland,” the film stars DiCaprio as a former bomb-making revolutionary who has gone underground to protect his daughter (Infiniti). When a power-mad military man (Penn) comes after them, Bob must spring into action in ways he is not ready for.
Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie “One Battle After Another.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
In her review, Amy Nicholson wrote, “Paul Thomas Anderson’s fun and fizzy adaptation views its Molotov cocktail as half-full. Yes, it says, the struggle for liberation continues: ideologues versus toadies, radicals versus conservatives, loyalists versus rats. But isn’t it inspiring that there are still people willing to fight?”
Glenn Whipp spoke to Anderson in his first solo interview for the film. Despite the fact that the movie opens with a raid on a government immigration detention center, Anderson was reluctant to directly connect it to the current political moment.
“The biggest mistake I could make in a story like this is to put politics up in the front,” Anderson said. “That has a short shelf life. To sustain a story over two hours and 40 minutes, you have to care about the characters and take those big swings in terms of the emotional arcs of people and their pursuits and why you love that person and why you hate this person. That’s not a thing that ever goes out of fashion. But neither does fascism and neither does people doing bad s— to other people. Unfortunately, that doesn’t go out of style, either. That’s just how we humans are.”
Points of interest
‘A Scanner Darkly’ in 35mm
Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in director Richard Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly,” based on the Philip K. Dick novel.
(Warner Independent Pictures)
On Friday night, Brain Dead Studios will host a 35mm screening of Richard Linklater’s 2006 animated adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s “A Scanner Darkly.” A comic, deeply paranoid tale of identity, the rotoscoped film features a cast that includes Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr.
Reviewing the film, Carino Chocano wrote, “As the saying goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that everybody isn’t out to get you. In the dismal near-future of the film, when large-scale government spying has taken the next logical step into thought-surveillance, questioning the effect of shadowy forces no longer requires an overactive imagination. It doesn’t even require a drug habit (though, of course, it helps to have one). The dropouts and burnouts of ‘Scanner’ don’t have to wonder if they’re being watched; they are in every sense part of the program. … The brilliance of ‘A Scanner Darkly’ is how it suggests, without bombast or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark world of comic books.”
Much as Linklater has recently made “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague” in short order, in 2006 he had both “A Scanner Darkly” and “Fast Food Nation,” a fictional adaptation of Eric Schlosser’s nonfiction book.
“I make the joke that I’m like that British bus,” Linklater said at the time. “You wait forever and then two show up at the same time.”
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, “Teorema” captures Stamp’s otherworldly beauty as a mysterious stranger who seduces all the members of a wealthy family in Milan (played by Massimo Girotti, Silvana Mangano, Laura Betti and Anne Wiazemsky) and then disappears from their lives as suddenly as he appeared, leaving them all in spiritual crisis.
“Toby Dammit,” directed by Federico Fellini, was one section of the anthology film “Spirits of the Dead,” with the other sections directed by Roger Vadim and Louis Malle. Stamp plays a fading alcoholic actor who makes a deal to shoot a film in Rome in exchange for a new Ferrari. He begins to suffer from terrifying visions.
Writing about the anthology in 1969, Kevin Thomas noted the film’s “swirling, shimmering worlds of fantasy populated by decadent Roman society,” adding that they only paled in comparison to Fellini’s previous triumphs “La Docle Vita,” “8½” and “Juliet of the Spirits.”
In other news
Henry Jaglom dead at 87
Henry Jaglom, arriving at a premiere in Los Angeles in 2009.
(Chris Pizzello / Associated Press)
An insistently independent filmmaker, Henry Jaglom died this week at age 87. His deep love of actors led him to a loose, improvisatory style that gave freedom to his performers. Often drawing story ideas from his own life (and casts from his wide circle of friends), his films included 1976’s “Tracks,” 1985’s “Always,” 1994’s “Babyfever” and 2007’s “Hollywood Dreams.” A new restoration of Jaglom’s 1983 film “Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?” is premiering this weekend as part of the New York Film Festival.
I visited with Jaglom once at the offices he long kept on Sunset Boulevard, a warren of rooms stuffed with the accumulated memorabilia of a life dedicated to movies. In a corner was an editing machine he said belonged to John Cassavetes.
Jaglom well understood his own privilege in life and equally understood that there were those who would not respond to his work.
“I enjoy, even if I’m being attacked, knowing I’ve had an impact,” Jaglom told me. “People are looking at it, talking about it, thinking about it. And that some people are moved, feel better. It’s reaching out and trying to touch people. It’s what film can do. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Henry Jaglom, the uncompromising indie filmmaker who eschewed big-budget operations in order to preserve his creative vision, died Monday night. He was 87.
Jaglom died at his Santa Monica home surrounded by his family, his daughter Sabrina Jaglom said. The writer-director, whose filmography includes “Last Summer in the Hamptons” and “Eating,” was known for his intimate, naturalistic style and foregrounding of women’s stories in his work.
Sabrina, also a director, said in a statement that her father was “larger-than-life, and made the world a lot more colorful for those of us lucky enough to know him.”
“But, most of all, he was the most loving and supportive Dad. He will be greatly missed, but impossible to forget,” she said Thursday.
From his earliest directing gigs, Jaglom was committed to creating autobiographically inspired and emotionally resonant stories with as little studio intervention as possible. He kept costs low, cast his friends and family in his movies and pursued an improvisational production style that preceded the early-2000s film genre mumblecore.
“My movies talk about the emotional side of life,” Jaglom told The Times in 2009.
“I just try to have people do what we do, which is sit around, talk, deal with the emotions of life,” he said. “It can be touching, sad, happy, but it allows people to go through some of what they go through in life and not feel isolated and lonely.”
Jaglom’s 1985 film, “Always,” in which he co-starred with his ex-wife Patrice Townsend, was inspired by the disintegration of the couple’s own relationship. Jaglom and Townsend divorced two years before the film’s release.
Nearly a decade later, conversations Jaglom had with his second wife, actor Victoria Foyt, about parenthood were distilled into 1994’s “Babyfever,” which the couple wrote, directed and Foyt starred in.
Former Times staff writer Chris Willman called the comedy-drama “remarkable in its comprehensive documentary aspects.”
“Jaglom is, as always, big on verite and improvisation; with such a large cast milling about the airy, oceanside house, he’s managed to cover just about every conceivable baby base, with sentiments ranging from banal self-interest to self-conscious belly laughs, and a lot of very real, undeniably affecting poignancy in-between,” Willman wrote in his review of the film.
“Babyfever” was lauded for sincerely engaging with topics affecting women and for starring a mostly female cast — both of which were trademarks for Jaglom, who went on to form a women’s arm to HHH Rainbow Productions, his production company with producers Howard Zucker and Henry Lange, which for many years was located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.
“Women are the most disenfranchised people in this business,” he told The Times in 1987. “They still have to play mostly by men’s rules. And as I’ve been successfully making million-dollar movies for some time now I thought: ‘Why can’t they do it too?’”
Jaglom was a mentee and close confidant of acclaimed filmmaker and actor Orson Welles, whose farewell performance came in Jaglom’s 1987 comedy “Someone to Love,” which screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
“He plays himself, shedding even the persona he adopted for TV talk shows,” Jaglom told The Times of Welles’ acting style in the film. “People will finally get to see him the way I knew him; it’s almost as if he was sitting there having lunch with you.”
Peter Biskind compiled conversations between the longtime friends for his popular 2013 book, “My Lunches With Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles.”
Several people approached Jaglom about publishing the tapes before Biskind came knocking, the director told The Times in 2013. But Biskind was the first one he took seriously.
“I said, ‘You want to put yourself through all this?’” Jaglom said. “And he said, ‘Yeah, on the one condition that you don’t censor me.’”
Jaglom, born in London in 1938, was the child of Jewish parents who immigrated to England to escape Nazi persecution. Later, Jaglom’s family moved to New York, where Jaglom spent his formative years and returned after attending the University of Pennsylvania.
In New York, Jaglom trained with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, acting in and directing off-Broadway theater and cabaret before moving to Hollywood in the late 1960s. The multihyphenate went on to make his directorial debut in 1971 with “A Safe Place,” which starred Wells and Jack Nicholson.
After finding commercial success with his third film, “Sitting Ducks” (1980), Jaglom told The Times in 1987 that he was pitched by several big-time studio heads who said, “‘When you’re ready to make a serious movie, a big movie, come and see me.’”
“I said: ‘If you love my films why would you want me to come and make one of your big ones?’” Jaglom said, adding that with a large studio at the helm, directors run the risk of ceding the “final cut.”
“As far as I’m concerned all the big stars and fancy limos and fine dressing rooms aren’t worth a thing if you don’t control your film creatively,” he said.
For years, Henry ate at the same cafe on Santa Monica’s Montana Avenue. He was always delighted when fans and aspiring filmmakers stopped to say hello.
In addition to Sabrina, Jaglom is survived by a son, Simon Jaglom, and ex-wives Townsend and Foyt, Sabrina and Simon’s mother.
Neighbours were left shocked after the bodies were discovered at a property in the village of Ormesby, North Yorkshire, on Wednesday, police said.
Cleveland Police are treating the deaths as “unexplained” at present with detectives carrying out investigations.
A property on Millbeck Way was cordoned off on Thursday morning after police made the grim discovery on Wednesday afternoon.
One local resident told TeessideLive that they hadn’t seen the people living at the property in “almost three weeks”.
They said: “I had a funny feeling after a week that something wasn’t right.”
Another resident said: “I was gutted when I heard, it was sad really.
“They were lovely people to speak to, they were to me, they were polite.”
There were also reports of the windows of the property being smashed or boarded up.
A spokesperson for Cleveland Police said: “At approximately 2.45pm on Wednesday, September 24, police attended to a property on Millbeck Way and located two bodies inside.
“The deaths are currently being treated as unexplained as detectives begin an investigation into the circumstances.
“A scene is in place at the property.”
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
Thesun.co.uk is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.
Boko Haram insurgents raided Wagga Mongoro, a rural community in Madagali Local Government Area (LGA), Adamawa State, in northeastern Nigeria, on Tuesday night, Sept. 23. They killed four residents, injured several others, and destroyed property, including a church, homes, and vehicles.
Cyrus Ezra, a resident, told HumAngle that several residents began fleeing when the terrorists invaded the community at about 11:40 p.m. “They killed David Mbicho, his son Daniel, Jude Jacob, and Omega Duda. They burnt churches, motorcycles, houses, and a car,” he said, adding that the local vigilante group tried to repel the attack but was outnumbered and outgunned.
“The group was heavily armed, and there was no official security presence, so our vigilante group had to abandon the fight,” he explained. “So far, we don’t know the total number of injured persons apart from the deceased.”
Cyrus said security operatives arrived only the following morning, Sept. 24, after fleeing residents had begun returning to assess the damage.
One of the vehicles that was burnt during the overnight at Wagga Mongoro. Photo: Ezra Cyrus
Residents told HumAngle that security operatives deployed to Madagali LGA are usually stationed in the town centre or in Nimankara, leaving villages like Wagga Mongoro vulnerable.
This was not the first time the community had been targeted. Barely two months ago, in July, terrorists raided the community, burning houses and forcing residents to flee to Madagali town and other neighbouring communities. They returned weeks after calm was restored. Now, after the latest assault, residents are fleeing once again.
The terrorist burnt motorcycles and other valuables in Wagga Mongoro. Photo: Cyrus Ezra
“Right now, people have packed their bags and are leaving for Yola, the Adamawa State capital, and other places to go and stay with their loved ones. Nobody wants to stay behind to witness this kind of incident again,” Cyrus said.
According to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration, Boko Haram has displaced over 200,000 persons in Adamawa State so far, most of them from Michika and Madagali LGAs.
“We are scared,” Cyrus said. “Our greatest need right now is security. Some of us don’t want to leave our homes.”
Boko Haram conducted an attack on Wagga Mongoro in Madagali, Adamawa, Nigeria, killing four residents and injuring several others, while destroying property such as a church, homes, and vehicles. The attack took place at night, and the local vigilante group was unable to repel the heavily armed insurgents due to a lack of security presence.
This was the second attack in two months on the community, prompting residents to flee again to safer locations. With over 200,000 people displaced in Adamawa State by Boko Haram, the victims emphasize the urgent need for increased security to prevent further violence.
ROME — Acclaimed Italian actor Claudia Cardinale, who starred in some of the most celebrated European films of the 1960s and ’70s, has died, AFP reported Tuesday. She was 87.
She starred in more than 100 films and made-for-television productions, but she was best known for embodying youthful purity in Federico Fellini’s “8½,” in which she co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni in 1963.
Cardinale also won praise for her role as Angelica Sedara in Luchino Visconti’s award-winning screen adaption of the historical novel “The Leopard” that same year and a reformed prostitute in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western “Once Upon a Time in the West” in 1968.
She died in Nemours, France, surrounded by her children, her agent Laurent Savry told AFP. Savry and his agency did not immediately return emailed requests for comment from the Associated Press.
Cardinale began her movie career at the age of 17 after winning a beauty contest in Tunisia, where she was born of Sicilian parents who had emigrated to North Africa. The contest brought her to the Venice Film Festival, where she came to the attention of the Italian movie industry.
Before entering the beauty contest, she had expected to become a schoolteacher.
“The fact I’m making movies is just an accident,” Cardinale recalled while accepting a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002. “When they asked me, ‘Do you want to be in the movies?’ I said no, and they insisted for six months.”
Her success came in the wake of Sophia Loren’s international stardom, and she was touted as Italy’s answer to Brigitte Bardot. Although never achieving the level of success of the French actor, she nonetheless was considered a star and worked with the leading directors in Europe and Hollywood.
“They gave me everything,” Cardinale said. “It’s marvelous to live so many lives. I’ve been living more than 150 lives, totally different women.”
One of her earliest roles was as a black-clad Sicilian girl in the 1958 comedy classic “Big Deal on Madonna Street.” It was produced by Franco Cristaldi, who managed Cardinale’s early career and to whom she was married from 1966 to 1975.
The sensuous brunette with enormous eyes was often cast as a hot-blooded woman. As she had a deep voice and spoke Italian with a heavy French accent, her voice was dubbed in her early movies.
Her career in Hollywood brought only partial success because she was not interested in giving up European film. Nonetheless, she achieved some fame by teaming with Rock Hudson in the 1965 comedy thriller “Blindfold” and another comedy, “Don’t Make Waves,” with Tony Curtis two years later.
Cardinale herself considered the 1966 “The Professionals,” directed by Richard Brooks, as the best of her Hollywood films, where she starred alongside Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance, Robert Ryan and Lee Marvin.
In a 2002 interview with the Guardian, she explained that the Hollywood studio “wanted me to sign a contract of exclusivity, and I refused. Because I’m a European actress and I was going there for movies.”
“And I had a big opportunity with Richard Brooks, ‘The Professionals,’ which is really a magnificent movie,” she said. “For me, ‘The Professionals’ is the best I did in Hollywood.”
Among her industry prizes was a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement that she received at the Venice Film Festival nearly 40 years after her initial appearance onscreen.
In 2000, Cardinale was named a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for the defense of women’s rights.
She had two children. One with Cristaldi and a second with her later companion, Italian director Pasquale Squitieri.
Simpson, the principal writer of this obituary, is a former Associated Press writer.
1 of 3 | The remains of Colombian musicians Bayron Sanchez, known as B-King, and DJ Jorge Luis Herrera Lemos, known as Regio Clown were found Tuesday, days after Colombian President Gustavo Petro pleaded for their return. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Sept. 23 (UPI) — Mexican authorities said Tuesday they had found the bodies of a pair of Colombian musicans days after the country’s president pleaded for their return, blaming drug cartels and the United States for their disappearance.
Prosecutors in Mexico City announced they had found the remains of Bayron Sanchez, known as B-King, and DJ Jorge Luis Herrera Lemos, known as Regio Clown, after they had been missing for a week, reported El Pais.
Officials have not offered any explanation for the deaths of the musicians who had just played one of their first international concerts. But Colombia President Gustavo Petro suggested in a post to X Sunday that “multinational mafias” had a role in their disappearance.
Petro also wrote that the mafias are growing in South America because of the “rampant drug consumption in the US,” which he called a “decadent society” lacking in love.
The Trump administration has had a fraught relationship with Colombia under the leadership of Petro, a former Marxist guerilla turned left-wing politician. President Donald Trump has accused Petro of not fulfilling his country’s counter-narcotic obligations. Trump administration officials also raised concerns about the assasination of conservative Colombian politician Miguel Uribe Turbay.
“It is a source of second-hand embarrassment to see a Head of State behaving in this rude manner, blaming the United States for the disappearance of two of his citizens in Mexico,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote in a response to Petro on X.
In his post, Petro appealed to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for help and stated that the musicians disappeared after a performance in the Mexican state of Sonora. However, the artists were last see at a gym in Mexico City’s upscale Polanco neighborhood, reported Parriva.
Sheinbaum, for her part, said Monay that the Mexican Foreign Ministry had been in touch with Colombia and that investigations into the musicians’ deaths were underway, the news outlet reported.
From his home, Idowu Usu can tell when someone has died in the lagoon. Among fishermen in Ago Egun, a community in the Yaba area of Lagos, South West Nigeria, there is a belief that the dead announce themselves with a sudden wind. Even in the stillness of the dry season, such a wind may rise without warning, and soon word spreads that a body is adrift. It could be a fellow fisherman, or a passenger thrown into the water by a crash on the Third Mainland Bridge. Sometimes, it is suicide.
The body drifts to shore, where it sinks into sand and sediment until it vanishes. On the occasions when relatives come searching, fishermen and local divers begin hunting for the dead.
Ago Egun’s floating houses are visible from the bridge, which connects Lagos Island to the Mainland. The occupants, descendants of fishermen who migrated from Benin Republic and the Badagry axis of Lagos, still live largely on fishing.
From a few shelters built to relieve fishermen from sailing for days at a stretch, the community has grown into hundreds of bamboo houses stretched along the lagoon’s shore and standing on wooden stilts. With the Third Mainland Bridge only a few metres away, residents have become the first responders during suicide emergencies.
“When someone jumps into the water,” said Alaba Usu, a 35-year-old fisherman, “they don’t just sink. They resurface after a few moments. If there’s no help by the second drift upward, they finally sink.”
On one fishing trip through the lagoon to Ebute Ero, a bustling community in the Isale Eko part of the city, Alaba spotted a man struggling. The waves were strong that day, but the man clung to something afloat.
“As we sailed closer, we told him not to let go,” said Alaba.
From about 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., the fishermen stayed as the man recovered on the shore. He later narrated how he had resorted to begging for alms to claim the corpse of his wife, who had died in the hospital with their baby. After trekking 24 km from Ajah to Ebute Ero, he begged but failed to gather enough. Despairing, he moved near the bridge and eventually landed in the lagoon.
A dead body may be found dressed as if on their way to work – suit, tie, wristwatch, even shoes – but always swollen, said 32-year-old Joseph David, who was born into fishing in Ago Egun. In Lagos’ warm tropical lagoon, a submerged body usually resurfaces within three days. During this time, gases from bacterial decomposition and the water inhaled at death cause it to rise. To handle such a disintegrating corpse, fishermen often steel themselves with shots of Eagle Schnapps, a potent Nigerian gin, after which they cut into the bloated flesh. Some families claim the body for burial, while others insist it be laid to rest on the shore in line with local traditions.
The Third Mainland Bridge as seen from the canoes of Ago Egun fishermen. Photo: Damilola Ayeni/HumAngle
Across the globe, suicide is a leading cause of death, particularly among young people. In Nigeria, modelled estimates suggest that thousands die by suicide each year, though many cases might go unreported because of stigma and cultural taboos. In Lagos, the country’s sprawling commercial capital of over 22 million people, the Third Mainland Bridge has become a notorious site for such deaths.
Rising several metres above sea level, the bridge offers a sweeping, unbroken view of the lagoon on both sides. Countless weary residents, including foreigners, have been reported to leap into the waters below.
Earlier this year, a video emerged of a woman who leapt into the lagoon moments after alighting from a commercial bus. While passengers quickly alerted nearby fishermen, who managed to pull her out, reports later suggested that she did not survive.
In March this year, the body of yet another woman believed to have jumped from the bridge was recovered near the University of Lagos (UNILAG) waterfront.
Fishermen say drowning may not always be the cause of death in such cases. The sheer impact of hitting water from the bridge’s height, they explain, can be as devastating as landing on a hard surface.
Hardly a week passes without someone ending their life on the Third Mainland Bridge, according to the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA). While fishermen recall encountering more male bodies, several cases involving women have been documented.
Some are rescued alive. But pulling a drowning person to safety can itself be a brush with death. Fishermen say such victims often thrash wildly in their desperate bid to survive, or, in the case of suicide, violently resist rescue. Idowu remembers the day his uncle dived into the lagoon after a man who had jumped in. Instead of clinging for life, the drowning man fought to be left alone, nearly dragging his rescuer under with him.
“We kept waiting for him to resurface,” Idowu narrated. “We started seeing bubbles of air. We were wondering what was going on and had started contemplating sending one of us after him when we noticed his hand. We quickly held him.”
To rescue someone attempting suicide, Joseph explained, a rope is fastened around the waist of a highly skilled swimmer, who dives in after the victim. Once contact is made, colleagues haul them both out together. Fishermen then press on the victim’s swollen belly to expel water or give them a medicine that induces vomiting.
Silence
I arrived on the Third Mainland Bridge before dawn. Fishermen’s boats drifted gently in the distance, as if paddled by the careful unfolding of morning. The sudden realisation of the bridge’s height and the lagoon’s vastness pressed against my balance behind the guardrails. As the deck trembled under the weight of speeding vehicles, the haunting loneliness that shadows suicide on the bridge began to unfold.
Neither motorists nor the police officers stationed just a few metres away questioned my motive in the 30 minutes that I stayed there, sometimes wandering along the rails. There was no evidence of a working alert system, despite earlier claims by the federal government that it had installed surveillance cameras on the bridge.
“They do not patrol,” said Joseph of the police officers. “They don’t do what they’re posted there to do.”
He explained that officers often turn to fishermen whenever a body needs to be retrieved from the lagoon, only to take the credit afterwards. Suspecting that some of them might have even extorted grieving relatives in the process, Joseph stressed that fishermen never demand money to recover a corpse.
“We do it for free,” he said, “knowing it could have been us.”
At the marine police post near the UNILAG end of the lagoon, Adiku Solomon, an officer, said they could not be everywhere at once. He explained that their primary duty was to protect the university, though they could be called upon in an emergency.
“When something like that happens,” he said, “they can then contact us through the Commanding Marine Officer.”
A marine police post stands in the distance, near the University of Lagos waterfront. Photo: Damilola Ayeni/HumAngle
However, some believe the burden of surveillance should not rest on the police alone. Olamide Felix, the chairperson of Yaba Local Council Development Area, said integrating fishermen, local divers, and other members of the fishing communities into a surveillance team could be more effective in curbing suicide on the bridge.
As a teenager growing up in Ayetoro, a fishing community near Ago Egun, Olamide encountered dead bodies during fishing expeditions with friends. He recalled once seeing a man soliloquising on the bridge, as if in prayer or some spiritual trance. Suddenly, the man plunged into the water. Olamide and his friends got to him before he drowned, and with help from adults transporting timber on the lagoon, they pulled him out alive.
Relieving instances of questioning suspicious movements around the bridge, he said formal collaborations with locals would not only prevent deaths, but also empower youths of the communities, some of whom are graduates but without gainful employment.
A fisherman displays his catch from the lagoon. Photo: Damilola Ayeni/HumAngle
While acknowledging the value of grassroots surveillance, Lagos-based clinical psychologist Isiaka Balogun worried about the toll repeated exposure to traumatic recoveries could have on local fishermen.
“They would need structured care and debriefing,” he said.
In conversations with HumAngle, several fishermen admitted they often could not continue the day’s work after encountering a dead body. Their accounts echoed Isiaka’s concern.
As a child, Joseph and his friends suffered nightmares following such encounters. Today, he believes that only the installation of tall barbed-wire fences along the guardrails could effectively curb suicide in the area.
Isiaka, who attributed Lagos’ suicide numbers to urban pressures, economic hardship, and social isolation, said the Third Mainland Bridge offers a grim certainty to residents seeking to end their lives.
The involvement of fishermen and local divers, he said, must be seen only as part of larger systemic changes that make psychological support more accessible.
“A synchronised alarm system linking fishermen, emergency services, and mental health professionals could cut down on reaction times and save lives,” he said.
HumAngle reached out to LASEMA, the Lagos State Waterways Authority, and the National Emergency Management Agency, but messages went unanswered. For those who live by the lagoon, this silence is all too familiar.
Idowu has saved lives, pulled out corpses, and even helped lay one to rest. But he has also stood helpless as people drowned who might have been saved. He believes that with financial and material support for fishermen and local divers, many deaths on the bridge could be prevented.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Robert Redford died this week at age 89 at his home outside Provo, Utah. The actor, producer and director had been a star for more than 60 years, going back to the 1963 comedy “Barefoot in the Park” and covering an enormously long list of performances in films such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Hot Rock,” “Downhill Racer,” “The Way We Were,” “The Candidate,” “The Sting,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “All the President’s Men,” “The Electric Horseman,” “The Natural” and many more.
Redford was also an accomplished director, winning an Oscar for his debut “Ordinary People” and going on to make films such as “A River Runs Through It,” “Quiz Show,” “The Horse Whisperer,” “The Conspirator” and others.
In a survey of his career, Amy Nicholson wrote, “To appreciate Redford fully, we have to applaud not only the work he did but the simple, feel-good roles he rejected. He could have become a celebrity without breaking a sweat as the war hero, the jock, the husband, the cowboy, the American ideal made incarnate. Yet, he had the rare ability to sidestep what audiences thought we wanted from him to instead give us something we didn’t know we needed: selfish victors (‘Downhill Racer’), self-destructive veterans (‘The Great Waldo Pepper’) and tragic men who did everything right and still failed (2013’s ‘All Is Lost’).”
Robert Redford at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York in 2015.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / AP)
Nicholson added, “Lately, the Redford roles I’ve been thinking about are the ones where his all-American appeal makes us examine all of America, good and bad. The two that instantly jump to mind are his pair of political thrillers: ‘Three Days of the Condor,’ in which he plays a CIA agent on the run from his own co-workers, and ‘All the President’s Men,’ in which he doggedly uncovers the Watergate scandal. Both films believe in the power of getting the truth out to the press; neither is so naive as to think the truth alone will save the day.”
And then there is a whole other side to Redford: his extensive work as an activist on behalf of environmental causes and his founding of the Sundance Institute, which lead to the creation of the Sundance Film Festival.
I took a look at Redford’s work with Sundance and how he did nothing less than transform Hollywood, carving out a space for independent artists and opening doors for those who had been previously shut out by the industry.
“Mr. Redford was a shining example of how to leverage success into community building, discovery and empowerment,” filmmaker Ryan Coogler said in a statement. Coogler’s own career was launched via Sundance.
“In these trying times it hurts to lose an elder like Mr. Redford, someone who through their words, their actions and their commitment left their industry in a better place than they found it.”
Robert Redford and Lauren Hutton in 1970’s “Little Fauss and Big Halsy.”
(Steve Schapiro / Fahey / Klein Gallery)
I personally met Redford only once, when I moderated a Q&A in 2013 for “The Company You Keep,” in which he starred as a former ’60s radical. It would be the last feature film he directed. I was introduced to him shortly before we were to go in front of an audience together and he wanted to sit and talk for a moment. He immediately asked me about myself, where I was from and how long I had been a journalist.
It was thoroughly disarming to have someone so famous engage with me in a way that felt so genuine. Suddenly he was not a movie star, though he did indeed possess an otherworldly grace, charm and rugged beauty, but rather something even larger, someone who engaged with the world from a place of true curiosity. He leaves a lasting legacy, having touched countless lives.
There will surely be many more tributes and events to come, but Vidiots has already announced a screening of Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 “All the President’s Men,” starring Redford and Dustin Hoffman, on 35mm for Friday, Oct. 3.
‘Mysterious Skin’ in 4K
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, left, and Brady Corbet in the movie “Mysterious Skin.”
(Tartan Films)
Seeing the ongoing revival of Gregg Araki’s filmography in restored versions as fans wait for his upcoming film, “I Want Your Sex,” has been very gratifying. Tonight, the Academy Museum will present Araki’s 2004 “Mysterious Skin” in a new 4K restoration followed by a conversation with Araki, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt and novelist Scott Heim, moderated by “Anora” filmmaker Sean Baker.
“Mysterious Skin” is a delicately told, crushingly disturbing tale of two young men (played by Gordon-Levitt and future “The Brutalist” director Brady Corbet) who each process an incident of sexual abuse from their childhood in different ways. The cast also includes Elisabeth Shue, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Michelle Trachtenberg, who died earlier this year.
Reviewing the film at the time, Kevin Thomas wrote, “The most mature work by the idiosyncratic and gifted Araki, ‘Mysterious Skin,’ based on the book by Scott Heim, highlights the director’s talent for inspiring the most demanding of portrayals from actors and for richly evoking the world his characters inhabit. The film has a mesmerizing floating quality, heightened by Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie’s deceptively serene score, and it has considerable offbeat, deadpan humor to offset its dark undertow. … it’s hard to imagine a more serious or persuasive indictment of the horrors inflicted on children by sexual abuse than ‘Mysterious Skin.’”
“I like that it was a real departure for me and that people didn’t expect it,” said Araki. “I really appreciate that aspect of it, that I’ve never done a serious drama before. I do think that the film totally makes sense with all my other movies. There is a thematic similarity and the sensibilities of Scott [Heim] and myself are really attuned to each other. It’s not as if I’ve directed ‘Chicago.’”
J. Hoberman’s avant-garde NYC
An image from Ken Jacobs’ 1961 “The Whirled (aka Four Shorts of Jack Smith).”
(The Film-makers’ Coop)
On Thursday at 2220 Arts + Archives, Acropolis will present an evening in celebration of J. Hoberman’s inspiring and vivid recent book, “Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde — Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop.”
Hoberman, formerly the longtime film critic for the Village Voice and an insightful cultural chronicler, will be present for a signing and Q&A along with a program of short films from the era surveyed by the book, when New York was a bubbling cauldron of creativity and restless energy. Titles screening will include Ken Jacobs’ 1961 “The Whirled (aka Four Shorts of Jack Smith),” Ron Rice’s 1962 “Senseless,” Michael Snow’s 1964 “New York Eye and Ear Control” and Jud Yalkut’s 1966 “D.M.T.”
In the introduction to his book, Hoberman explains his thesis of creating a snapshot of a time and place — he pays incredible attention to actual addresses, mapping out what was happening where — by saying, “Cultural innovation comes from the margins and is essentially collective. … New York City in the 1960s was one such cradle of artistic innovation. Boundaries were transgressed, new forms created. A collective drama played out in coffeehouses and bars, at openings and readings, in lofts and storefront theaters and ultimately in the streets.”
Points of interest
Joe Dante’s ‘Pirahna’
A scene from the 1978 movie “Piranha.”
(New World Pictures)
It is always heartening to see longtime local hero Joe Dante celebrated. He will be appearing at Vidiots on Friday, this time with his 1978 film, “Piranha.” Made for producer Roger Corman, the movie was obviously one in a series of films intended to capture the excitement and scares generated by “Jaws,” and it certainly accomplishes that, but it is also so much more.
From a screenplay written by John Sayles, who would go on to an illustrious career as a director himself, and with sharp, smart direction by Dante, “Piranha” is about a mutant strain of killer fish engineered by the military and accidentally released into a small community’s waterways.
Writing about the film in 1978, Charles Champlin said, “‘Piranha’ is what it is: a swift, efficient program picture which squeezes the most out of its dollars to squeeze delicious chills from the audience. But it also plays to the attitudes as well as the emotional needs of its young customers. The bad guys are scientists, the military, the police, the politicians (what were we doing in Vietnam?), authority in almost any uniform.”
Writing about the film in 2012, Dennis Lim added, “This was Dante’s first solo directorial outing after several years at Corman’s New World Pictures, where he got his start editing trailers, and it establishes a distinctive tone that he has sustained throughout his career, right on the line between homage and parody. The actors — several, including [Dick] Miller and [Kevin] McCarthy, who would go on to become frequent Dante collaborators — give performances that are once committed and tongue-in-cheek and the effects, in contrast to the sophisticated animatronics of ‘Jaws,’ are charmingly rough and ready.”
Aaliyah x2
Jet Li and Aaliyah star in “Romeo Must Die.”
(Kharen Hill / Warner Bros. Pictures)
As part of an ongoing Y2K Fridays series, the Gardena Cinema is showing a double-bill of movies starring the late singer and actor Aaliyah, with Andrzej Bartkowiak’s 2000 “Romeo Must Die” and Michael Rymer’s 2002 “Queen of the Damned.”
Riffing on “Romeo and Juliet,” the story of “Romeo Must Die” revolves around Jet Li and Aaliyah as members of warring crime families in Oakland who fall for each other.
Kevin Thomas wrote, “Body counts run high in this genre, but ‘Romeo Must Die,’ which marks Li’s first English-language starring role, tries for some depth and sophistication. … The film is a new step for both Li, who hopes to break out with it, and for recording star Aaliyah, in an accomplished film debut.”
Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah in “Queen of the Damned.”
(Jim Sheldon / Warner Bros. Pictures)
Based on one of the novels from Anne Rice’s popular “Vampire Chronicles,” “Queen of the Damned” stars Stuart Townsend as the vampire Lestat, here taking on the guise of a rock star, and Aaliyah as Akasha, the first vampire.
In his review at the time, Kenneth Turan wrote, “As directed by Michael Rymer and with the late rock star Aaliyah in the title role, ‘Queen of the Damned’ turns out to be a muddled limp biscuit of a movie, a vampire soap opera that doesn’t make much sense even on its own terms. Though the previous film based on Anne Rice’s popular novels, the Tom Cruise-starring ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ was far from a success, this brain-dead venture makes it look like a masterwork by comparison.”
Singer-songwriter Brett James, who penned country music hits for stars including Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean, was one of three people who died Thursday in a plane crash in North Carolina. He was 57.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced in its preliminary report that three people were on board in a Cirrus SR22T that “crashed in a field” Thursday at around 3 p.m. local time in Franklin, N.C. There were no survivors, the North Carolina State Highway patrol confirmed in a statement.
According to additional information from the FAA, the songwriter was on the plane, which was registered to him under his legal name, Brett James Cornelius. It’s unclear whether he was piloting the plane during its crash, which the FAA said occurred “under unknown circumstances.” The state patrol confirmed the musician’s death, adding that his wife, Melody Carole, and Carole’s daughter Meryl Maxwell Wilson were the other two people on the plane. Wilson celebrated her birthday this week, according to a post on Carole’s Instagram page.
The aircraft had taken off from John C. Tune Airport in Nashville. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board said they are investigating the crash.
The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame shared the news of James’ death Thursday in a social media post. “We mourn the untimely loss of Hall of Fame member Brett James (‘Jesus Take The Wheel’ / ‘When the Sun Goes Down’), a 2020 inductee who was killed in a small-engine airplane crash on Sept. 18,” the post said.
James, born June 5, 1968, is best known for co-writing the 2005 Underwood hit “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” The ballad, also co-written by Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson, helped propel the careers of “American Idol” winner Underwood and James: It won the country song prize at the 2007 Grammy Awards and was dubbed ASCAP’s country song of the year in 2006.
The Missouri-born musician began his music career in the early 1990s after leaving medical school behind. He signed as a solo to Career Records, a subsidiary of Arista Nashville, but found his calling writing for Chesney, Billy Ray Cyrus, Martina McBride, Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw and other country music acts.
“A brilliant songwriter and amazing man. He was the pen behind ‘Summer Nights,’ ‘Love You Out Loud’ and countless songs we’ve all sang along too,” Rascal Flatts said Friday in an Instagram tribute. “He will be greatly missed.”
Aldean also remembered James during his show in Lincoln, Neb., performing their song “The Truth.” The singer said he had “nothing but love and respect for that guy and he helped change my life” in a social media post of that performance.
James also penned Cheney and Uncle Kracker’s “When the Sun Goes Down,” Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova” and Rodney Atkins’ “It’s America.” As a solo artist, James released several singles, a self-titled album in 1995 and the 2020 EP “I Am Now.” ASCAP named James its country songwriter of the year twice, first in 2006 then in 2010.
Coronation Street’s Betsy Swain discovered that her mum had ‘come back from the dead’ in Wednesday night’s episode of the world’s longest-running television soap
21:00, 17 Sep 2025Updated 21:08, 17 Sep 2025
Coronation Street’s Betsy Swain discovered that her mum had ‘come back from the dead’ in Wednesday night’s episode of the ITV soap(Image: ITV/Coronation Street)
Coronation Street’s Betsy Swain discovered that her mum had “come back from the dead” in Wednesday night’s episode of the ITV soap. Over the course of the last year, viewers have watched as the relationship between DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) and Carla Connor (Alison King) has blossomed, but their recent engagement was blighted when Becky Swain (Amy Cudden), whom Lisa thought was killed in the line of duty four years ago, walked back into number six alive and well.
It all turned out that she had been in a form of witness protection, having been undercover in a crime gang and the force had used the death of Tia Wardley to ship her off to supposed safety in Spain. But on the nation’s favourite street, things never stay secret for long and, despite Lisa’s best efforts to keep the news from teenage daughter Betsy (Sydney Martin), it all came out in the latest instalment of the Manchester-based serial.
Carla had begged Lisa to tell Betsy the truth, but she would not be swayed. From a distance, Becky watched Betsy as she made her way to the precinct with her headphones on. When Ryan Connor (Ryan Prescott) ran over to Betsy with his hood up, Lisa misread the situation and barged over. No longer able to hide, Becky simply said: “Darling, it’s me…”
Betsy, who recently celebrated her 18th birthday, was left reeling when she discovered she was the last to know (Image: ITV/Coronation Street)
Through tears, Betsy was convinced she was dreaming, but Becky assured her that was not the case. Betsy stormed back over to number six with Ryan in tow to tell all to Lisa and Carla, but soon realised that they already knew. Once Becky was back in the house, Lisa explained to Betsy: “I didn’t want to tell you until I thought she was being honest, but she obviously hasn’t got it in her. She’s been lying for so long she doesn’t know how to stop.”
Betsy wasted no time in labelling all of her family as liars, and once she had stormed upstairs, Becky said: “The only reason I showed myself was because I thought he was part of the gang.” Carla was immediately suspicious, given that she and Lisa were both aware that the gang’s ringleader, Curtis, had been killed several weeks ago.
As viewers will know, the teenager was almost hit by a car being driven by Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne) on her 18th birthday, all part of a dodgy deal set up by Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard). Instead, Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) was run over and is currently coming to terms with a potentially life-changing spinal injury.
Becky warned: “The more I’ve been thinking about it, that car nearly hitting Betsy, it can’t be a coincidence. I didn’t want to say anything; I’ve freaked you out enough. But it doesn’t feel right keeping from you.” Hinting to Lisa and Carla that they could still be in danger, she explained that she had stuck around to make sure that they were all safe.
Carla had clearly had enough of the bizarre situation and told Becky to leave, but not before she warned them all that they could be in more danger (Image: ITV/Coronation Street)
Carla, clearly having had enough of the bizarre situation, shot back: “Well, we’re not, are we? Not with you here! So if you wanna make sure this family stays safe, you need to stay as far away as possible. Starting now!” Lisa echoed this and told her not-dead wife not to bother coming back, but allowed her to spend some time with Betsy, and she begged Lisa not to let her mum go. Lisa agreed, but on the condition that she kept quiet about the whole situation. Later on, when Betsy slept on the sofa, Lisa said she would be staying in the hotel and simply announced: “I’ll see you soon,” as she walked back out.
DI Costello has helped cover up her fake death for the past four years, with he and Becky telling Lisa what really happened in 2021 in scenes that aired in recent days. Lisa was told where her ‘dead’ wife Becky had been all this time, and why she and the others faked her death. When Lisa confronted her boss Costello on Monday, she demanded answers and threatened to leak the cover-up to the press. It was clear Costello was scared about this, and was determined to keep a cover on things.
There was so much emphasis from both Costello and Becky about needing to protect her family. But fans were not buying what he was saying at all, believing both of them or even just Costello were spinning a fake version of events.
Fans now think Costello is hiding even more, and there could be so much to the story that is yet to be confirmed. So is Becky being in hiding and Costello’s involvement all linked to something much darker than they have let on?
Viewers certainly think so, with one fan posting on social media: “‘Otherwise what was she protecting this whole time?’ Well Costello I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough because this Becky lass is evil, selfish and manipulative.”
A second fan said: “Something doesn’t add up to me it feels like it’s more than just protecting Becky, protecting her family, and Costello is hiding something even bigger. Maybe Becky is in on it too, maybe not.”
Police in Berwyn are investigating a shooting that occurred outside a middle school in the Chicago suburb. File Photo by Justin Lane/EPA-EFE
Sept. 16 (UPI) — Three people are dead in the aftermath of a shooting Tuesday that occurred near a middle school in a Chicago suburb.
Berwyn police described the incident in a press statement as a “domestic-related” that occurred outside of a Lincoln Middle School. Police have released few other details about the incident that comes less than a month after a gunman opened fire near a school in Minneapolis.
Officers in Berwyn responded to the shooting after hearing gunfire shortly after 4 p.m. CDT near Lincoln Middle School, where they saw a man firing a rifle into another vehicle, according to the press statement.
The man then opened fire on the officers, who took cover and did not return fire, police said. The nearby middle school went into “an immediate hard lockdown” to protect students and staff, police said.
Police did not identify the three people who died in what they called “an isolated incident” or other details about them. Police said that “all parties involved are accounted for” and the incident is under investigation.
Berwyn police Cmdr. Michael Fellows said during a news conference later that day that the gunman fatally shot himself after shooting two people in the other vehicle, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Fellows called the incident “a very rare occasion.” He said police were still working to identify victims and that no students or staff were hurt “in any way.”
The school’s assistant principal said in a note that most students had already left for the day and those remaining in after-school programs were safe, reported CBS Chicago.
He earned notable world title wins over Kostya Tszyu and Jose Luis Castillo, before defeats by Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Hatton inspired a devoted following during his glittering career.
More than 30,000 fans travelled to Las Vegas for Hatton’s title fight with Mayweather in 2007, and a chorus of “there’s only one Ricky Hatton” echoed around the MGM Grand even after he was stopped.
Those same chants were heard in his final professional fight in his home city of Manchester five years later.
In July Hatton announced his return to the ring. He was due to fight Eisa Al Dah at middleweight on 2 December in Dubai.
Organisers said the contest would be a professional bout, but it was unclear whether it would be fully sanctioned.
Hatton made an unsuccessful professional comeback in 2012, when he lost to Vyacheslav Senchenko in Manchester, and fought Marco Antonio Barrera in an exhibition in 2022.
After agreeing to fight former rival turned friend Barrera, Hatton spoke about his battles with depression.
In 2023 he was the subject of a documentary ‘Hatton’, in which he discussed his personal life and mental health issues.
Firefighters control a fire after a gas truck explosion in Mexico City, Mexico, on Thursday. Photo by Mario Guzman/EPA
Sept. 11 (UPI) — At least three people are dead and 90 are injured following the explosion of a gas tanker in Mexico City, officials said.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada Molina announced the casualty toll online, listing all 90 people who were injured and the hospitals where they were being treated. Ages of the victims ranged from 6 months to 60 years old.
At least 10 people have been discharged from the hospital, she said.
Earlier, before any fatalities had been reported and when only 57 people were known to be injured, she said 19 were listed in serious condition.
The tanker exploded under Concordia Bridge, resulting in a fire.
“The roadways remain closed to traffic and there are disruptions in public transportation of the area,” she said on X, while posting pictures showing victims being loaded onto police helicopters and the smoking wreckage of the tanker.
President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo of Mexico expressed her “solidarity and support” to the families of the three deceased victims and to those of the injured.
“Likewise, I express my recognition to the emergency services that are supporting in this unfortunate incident,” she said in a statement, adding federal agencies were responding to the explosion.
Informo que, por la volcadura de la pipa en Puente de la Concordia, el incendio que provocó y su onda expansiva, tenemos al momento 57 personas lesionadas, de las cuales 19 se encuentran graves. No tenemos hasta ahora registro de personas fallecidas.
