family

Ein el-Hilweh, occupied West Bank – Adel Daraghmeh lies on his side on a thin mattress laid straight onto the dusty ground, one arm flung out, a sandal hanging half off his foot. “We don’t sleep, we barely drink, we barely eat,” he says weakly.

Above him, a patchwork of dark tarpaulins and old blankets is tied together between a few bent wooden poles – the only thing standing between his family and a sun pushing past 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) in the early afternoon.

They are homeless again – their home destroyed days before by an Israeli bulldozer despite a court injunction they believed protected them. Beside him, his wife, Kheirieh, sits on a chair, a small plastic cup of water cradled in both hands.

About 30 metres up a slope, a settler-built fence now cuts across the hillside, cutting Adel and his brothers off from land their flocks grazed for generations. Past the fence, on the crest of the hill, an Israeli flag flies – visible from where Adel lies. “Isn’t this a disgrace, what we are living in?” he asks, more than once, over the course of an hour.

Adel manages diabetes with daily medication, but it’s been a struggle to obtain it in recent days. “They bulldozed the medication [in the house],” says Adel. “Our things, our household goods – all gone. They destroyed us. Our phones, the solar panels – no electricity, no water.”

As the family has learned in recent weeks, as Israel gears up for fiercely contested elections in October, even an Israeli Supreme Court injunction may not stop the bulldozers from coming now.

‘Five minutes to clear the whole area’

The wreckage of the Daraghmehs’ house is still scattered: clothes, a pulverised medicine cabinet, a hollowed-out mini-fridge with its door hanging open, and split cinderblocks.

Even after their son Hilal’s home was demolished shortly before without warning, the July 28 demolition of Adel and Kheirieh’s home came as a shock. With Adel a short drive away in Tubas collecting medication, Kheirieh was home with their daughter, Hanaa, when Israeli soldiers, settlers and Civil Administration officials arrived with a bulldozer and about 10 other vehicles. “They came while I was asleep,” she says.

Kheirieh walked out to meet them with the family’s legal papers – proof, she believed, that the home was protected by an earlier Israeli Supreme Court order barring demolition until the family’s case was resolved.

The court had suspended a 2022 demolition order while a case brought forward by the family progressed.

Soldiers took the documents, read them, conferred among themselves, and handed them back.

Then the bulldozer started anyway.

“Five minutes to clear the whole area,” one of them told her, she says.

“I told him: I can’t. I can’t clear the area. I’m on my own, and I’m ill,” she says. Already sick, and now seeing the bulldozers bearing down on her home with nearly everything she owned inside, she blacked out, waking up three hours later in an ambulance.

“And before I knew it, the bulldozer had started,” she says. “The whole house – all of it. All our belongings. Gone.”

“No order, no law,” added Adel weakly from the ground. “No humanity.”

‘Discriminatory’ system

“The army and the settlers demolished … despite the existence of a court order prohibiting it,” says Tawfiq Jabareen, the lawyer representing the Daraghmeh family, referring to the initial July 2 demolition of Hilal’s home. “The prosecution claimed it was a mistake by the army, and that it would not happen again – but the demolition was repeated.”

“The law and court rulings mean nothing to the settlers,” adds Jabareen, “who try to circumvent them by every means, believing that imposing facts on the ground is stronger than any law or court ruling.”

The Daraghmehs are herders of livestock who have lived along the Ein el-Hilweh spring, in the northern Jordan Valley, for generations. Four brothers and their families live in the area. “I was born here,” Adel says. “My father was born here.”

Nearby are the illegal Israeli settlement of Maskiyot and several settler outposts established in recent years, subjecting the extended family to numerous attacks, thefts and raids.

Like herding communities across Area C of the West Bank – under complete Israeli military and administrative control – the family has spent years navigating demolition orders under a planning system that leaves Palestinians almost no legal path to build.

Adel has had his home demolished before and spent significant money to rebuild it, he explains. What’s different now, they say, is that even that limited process – a warning, a demolition order, followed by a chance to appeal – has stopped applying to them at all. No demolition order was presented for either Hilal’s home or Adel’s when they came to bulldoze them despite the court injunctions.

Soldiers, settlers and Civil Administration officials arrived together during the demolitions, according to the family and activists present.

Allegra Pacheco, chief of party of the West Bank Protection Consortium and a lawyer who has represented Palestinians before Israeli courts for decades, says the irregularity of such demolitions is no aberration in an otherwise functioning system.

“This is a continuation of the deterioration of any pretence of legal protection for Palestinians,” she says. Even the ordinary planning process was built to fail Palestinians, she argues. Under a zoning system inherited from Jordanian and British Mandate-era law, Israel changed some of the laws to the detriment of Palestinians, leaving most Palestinian areas in Area C without approved building plans, while Israeli settlements – illegal under international law – are zoned and built freely.

“The Israelis set up the system to be discriminatory and to fail Palestinians,” says Pacheco. “So people build anyway, get the stop-work order, then demolition [order] – which you can appeal. But you’re appealing to the one who made the rule to discriminate against Palestinian construction.

“There’s no way for Palestinians in general to win under the current Israeli legal framework.”

As lines blur between authorities and settlers, who exactly spearheaded the demolition – soldiers, settlers, the Civil Administration – was unclear even to the family. “They’re all the same when they come,” says Hilal. “They’re all together.”

According to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), since January 2023, more than 6,200 Palestinians, including more than 3,000 children, have been forcibly displaced, including more than 2,300 people since the beginning of 2026 alone. More than 907 Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank have already been demolished this year.

Al Jazeera reached out to Israeli authorities and the military for comment on the events described in this article, but no response has yet been received.

‘Nothing is holding them back’

A short walk from the rubble of his parents’ home – and his own – Hilal sits under the shade of a tree beside the spring that sustained his family for generations, one that he and his flocks can no longer use.

Minutes earlier, he’d watched two settlers cool off at the spring, dousing themselves with water as one of them changed into a military uniform on the bank.

Hilal’s own remaining cattle – most of the herd already stolen, confiscated or sold – scrounge instead for whatever run-off is left once the settlers are gone. “We used to drink from this spring, and carry water on the donkey,” he says. “But they stopped us. The settlers fenced it off.”

Later, he rides his donkey across the road to what remains of his home. What had been walls and a roof is now a field of scorched rubble and gnarled metal piping, bent and knotted where the bulldozer dragged it. On his donkey, Hilal points to where each room had stood. He estimates the losses at 170,000 shekels ($57,000).

“Not a single thing I got to take – all of it is gone,” he says.

Next door, at the home of Adel’s brother, Qadri – which was previously demolished in August last year – several relatives, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, describe an extended family bracing for its turn.

“Nothing is holding them back now,” one son says. “They don’t even need an order any more. Of course we are scared they will come for us next.”

Prevented from rebuilding by nearby settlers and soldiers, Adel and Kheirieh now rely on relatives for help getting basic supplies. “All of our family helps each other,” says one relative, “but it is so hard when we don’t have enough, and we might be next.”

Following earlier thefts by settlers and confiscations from authorities a year and a half ago, the family had another 50 head of cattle stolen by settlers, they say.

Amid deteriorating health, an exhausted, heat-stricken Adel sits up from lying on the ground only when the topic of past weddings comes up. His hoarse voice strengthens, and he breaks into a wide smile. Softly, he begins clapping out the rhythm of a dahiyyeh – the sung, chanted line-dance of Bedouin celebrations – his wavering voice rising over the sound of his own hands.

“What beautiful times together,” he says. “Beautiful.”

Then, as if that singing expended the last of his dwindling energy, he sinks back onto the sweat-stained mattress and exhales. “Inshallah those times will return,” he says. “Inshallah.”

WASHINGTON — Calling Donald H. Rumsfeld energetic was like calling the Pacific wide. When others would rest, he would run. While others sat, he stood. But try as he might, at the pinnacle of his career as Defense secretary, he could not outmaneuver the ruinous politics of the Iraq war.

Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career in government under four presidents as well as nearly a quarter century in corporate America. After retiring in 2008 he headed the Rumsfeld Foundation to promote public service and to work with charities that provide services and support for military families and wounded veterans.

The two-time Defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate died Tuesday, surrounded by his family in Taos, N.M. He was 88.

“Rummy,” as he was often called, was ambitious, witty, engaging and capable of great personal warmth. But he irritated many with his confrontational style. An accomplished wrestler in college, Rumsfeld relished verbal sparring and elevated it to an art form; biting humor was a favorite weapon.

Still, he built a network of loyalists who admired his work ethic, intelligence and impatience with all who failed to share his sense of urgency.

From his earliest years in Washington, he was seen by friend and foe alike as a formidable political force. Bryce Harlow, an associate of President Nixon who helped persuade Rumsfeld to resign from Congress and join Nixon’s Cabinet as director of the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969, called him “rough and ready, willing to tangle” and “the kind of guy who would walk on a blue flame to get a job done.”

Rumsfeld is the only person to serve twice as Pentagon chief. The first time, from 1975 to 1977, he was the youngest ever. The next time, from 2001 to 2006, he was the oldest.

He made a brief run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, a spectacular flop that he once described as humbling after being used to success at the highest levels of the government, including stints as White House chief of staff, a U.S. ambassador and a member of Congress.

For all Rumsfeld’s achievements, it was the setbacks in Iraq in the twilight of his career that will likely etch the most vivid features of his legacy.

::

By the time he arrived at the Pentagon in January 2001 for his second stint as Defense secretary, the military that Rumsfeld inherited was in a slow-motion transition from the Cold War era to a period dominated by ethnic conflicts in the Balkans, humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa and spasms of terrorism around the globe. Among the other prominent worries: China’s military buildup and the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

But nine months into his tenure, on Sept. 11, Rumsfeld found himself facing a threat that would consume the remaining years of his tenure. When a hijacked American Airlines jetliner slammed into the Pentagon, he was in his third-floor office, meeting with nine House members. He later recalled that at the instant of impact, the small wood table at which they were working trembled.

Rumsfeld was among the first to reach the smoldering crash site, and he helped carry the wounded in stretchers before returning to his duties inside the building.

The nation suddenly was at war. U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7, and with Rumsfeld at the Pentagon helm, the Taliban government in Kabul was toppled within weeks. Frequently presiding at televised briefings on the war, Rumsfeld became something of a TV star, known for his plainspokenness.

Within months of that success, President George W. Bush’s attention shifted to Iraq, which had played no role in the Sept. 11 attacks. Rumsfeld and others in the administration asserted that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was armed with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, and that the U.S. could not afford the risk of Hussein one day providing some of those arms to Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was launched in March 2003 with a go-ahead from Congress but no authorization from the United Nations Security Council. Baghdad fell quickly, but U.S. and allied forces soon became consumed with a violent Iraqi insurgency. Critics faulted Rumsfeld for dismissing the public assessment of the Army’s top general, Eric K. Shinseki, that several hundred thousand allied troops would be needed to stabilize Iraq.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrives in Baghdad in April 2006 to meet with U.S. and new Iraqi government officials.

(Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images)

Square-jawed with an acid tongue, Rumsfeld grew combative in defense of the war effort, and became a lightning rod for Democrats’ criticism. Years afterward, the degree of blame that should be shared among the White House, Rumsfeld and the U.S. military for the disasters in Iraq remained in debate.

In “By His Own Rules,” a 2009 biography of Rumsfeld, author Bradley Graham wrote that it was “both incorrect and unfair to heap singular blame” for Iraq on Rumsfeld.

“But much of what befell Rumsfeld resulted from his own behavior,” Graham wrote. “He is apt to be remembered as much for how he did things as for what he did. And here, too, he was an internal contradiction. Capable of genuine charm, kindness and grace, he all too frequently came across as brusque and domineering, often alienating others and making enemies where he needed friends.”

In his 2011 memoir, “Known and Unknown,” Rumsfeld offered no hint of regret about Iraq, but acknowledged that its future remained in doubt.

“While the road not traveled always looks smoother, the cold reality of a Hussein regime in Baghdad most likely would mean a Middle East far more perilous than it is today,” he wrote.

He seemed unconvinced that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq poked a hole in the justification for invading, writing: “Our failure to confront Iraq would have sent a message to other nations that neither America nor any other nation was willing to stand in the way of their support for terrorism and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.”

Rumsfeld twice offered his resignation to Bush in 2004 amid disclosures that U.S. troops had abused detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison — an episode he later referred to as his darkest hour as Defense secretary.

Not until November 2006, after Democrats gained control of Congress by riding a wave of antiwar sentiment, did Bush finally decide he had to go. Rumsfeld left office in December and was replaced by another Republican, Robert M. Gates.

Defiant to the end, Rumsfeld expressed no regrets in his farewell ceremony, at which point the U.S. military’s death toll in Iraq had surpassed 2,900. The number would eventually exceed 4,400.

“It may well be comforting to some to consider graceful exits from the agonies and, indeed, the ugliness of combat,” he told his colleagues. “But the enemy thinks differently.”

::

Born in Chicago in 1932 as the second child of George and Jeannette Rumsfeld, Donald Rumsfeld wrote in his memoir that he and his father shared a favorite sports team: the Chicago Bears. He recalled that while listening to a Bears game on the radio at home one Sunday in 1941, the announcer interrupted the broadcast to announce that Japanese airplanes had launched a surprise attack on Hawaii.

Rumsfeld was 9.

“I could feel that something terrible had happened,” he wrote. “I saw it in my parents’ faces and heard it in the tense voices reporting the news of the attack.”

After Pearl Harbor, Rumsfeld’s father joined the Navy at age 38, and the family moved frequently to be near him on the West Coast.

In high school Rumsfeld met his future wife, Joyce Pierson. He attended Princeton on a partial scholarship and joined the campus Navy ROTC program to cover his other expenses. In June 1954, Rumsfeld graduated and was commissioned an ensign in the Navy. Six months later he married Joyce.

Rumsfeld launched his Washington career in 1957 as an assistant to Rep. David Dennison (R-Ohio). Soon he was serving as a congressman himself, first elected to represent Illinois in 1962. He served four terms.

One of his early acts as a member of the Nixon White House was to hire a young Dick Cheney, starting a lifelong friendship.

Rumsfeld was working as U.S. ambassador to NATO in Brussels when he was recalled to Washington to lead President Ford’s transition team after Nixon resigned in August 1974. He became the new president’s chief of staff, and in November 1975, his Defense secretary.

After leaving the Pentagon in 1977, Rumsfeld embarked on a successful business career, including as chief executive officer, president and then chairman of G.D. Searle & Co., a major prescription drug manufacturer.

He still dabbled in government service, including serving as a special envoy to the Middle East for President Reagan from 1983 to 1984. It was in that capacity that he met with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in December 1983, while Iraq was at war with Iran.

“None of us in the Reagan administration bore any illusions about Saddam,” Rumsfeld wrote in his memoir. “Like most despots, his career was forged in conflict and hardened by bloodshed. He had used chemical toxins in the war he initiated with Iran three years earlier. But given the reality of the Middle East, then as now, America often had to deal with rulers who were deemed ‘less bad’ than the others.”

Two decades later, he was again dealing with Hussein, this time overseeing a U.S. invasion that toppled the Iraqi leader — and led to Rumsfeld’s own downfall.

He is survived by his wife, Joyce; three children; and his grandchildren.

Davina McCall was visibly moved on Long Lost Family as she made a life-changing discovery

Davina McCall struggled to keep her emotions under control during the latest epsidoe of the heartwarming ITV series.

The beloved TV presenter fought back tears during an emotional episode of Long Lost Family which aired on Monday (August 10 ) after revealing to 76-year-old Christine that the search for her biological family had uncovered her birth certificate and an unknown brother.

Christine left in a train carriage at Waterloo station in 1949. She was discovered and taken into care, beginning a life in which the identity of her birth parents remained one of the greatest unanswered questions she carried with her.

She has spent much of her life wondering about her biological family and where she had come from. Although she had always questioned whether she would ever discover the truth, she admitted she never expected the moment to actually happen.

Away from the cameras, Davina had already broken the heartbreaking news that Christine’s birth parents had been found but had sadly died.

Speaking to Christine, Davina asked: “How are you?” Christine replied: “It was a bit of a shock. Oh, my gosh. It’s actually happening.” She explained that she had been struggling to process everything, saying that her mind had been “addled” since learning what the Long Lost Family team had discovered.

Christine admitted that she had never really expected to find her birth mother alive. She said: “I didn’t think my mother would be alive now. I’m 76 this year, but there’s always been that question. ‘Who’s my family?’” But Davina then revealed something that made the emotional moment even more poignant.

The presenter was visibly moved as she told Christine: “I want to show you something today. It’s the first time I’ve ever been able to do this for someone. I have a birth certificate.”

Christine was visibly overwhelmed by the discovery. “Oh, goodness. So my birth was registered,” she said. Davina, visibly emotional herself, confirmed that it was. She explained that Christine’s birth mother, Joyce, was just 22 years old when she gave birth to her.

For Christine, the information was difficult to absorb. “It is a lot to take in. Oh, my goodness. So I was born in Portsmouth,” she said.

Davina confirmed that Christine had been born in hospital. The discovery appeared to answer some of the questions Christine had carried with her for decades.

Christine began trying to piece together what may have happened to her young mother. She reflected: “So, she’s looked after, and I was looked after. She must have left the hospital and gone straight up to Waterloo. But it doesn’t have the father. Probably couldn’t look after me on her own.”

Then Christine asked the question that would lead to another extraordinary discovery. “Did she have any more children?” Davina replied simply: “She did.” Christine immediately reacted with shock. “Oh, my gosh. This just gets better,” she said.

Davina then revealed that Christine had a brother named Barry — and that he had been born just one year before her. Christine wanted to know what had happened to him and asked whether Barry had stayed with their mother.

But Davina revealed that Barry had also been fostered. Davina explained: “Barry has got a birth certificate and that’s what your birth mother’s name is on it. He was the key to everything.”

Later on in the show Christine finally reunited with brother Barry. The reunion was particularly poignant given that Christine had already learned the heart breaking news that her biological parents had both died.

Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace is available to stream on ITVX

IT is one of showbiz’s most famous moments – Tom Cruise leaping on a sofa while telling Oprah Winfrey about dating Katie Holmes.

“I’m in love,” the Mission: Impossible actor yelled, giddy with excitement as he flailed his arms about.

It was May 2005 and Tom, who divorced fellow Hollywood A-lister Nicole Kidman in 2001, had been dating Dawson’s Creek beauty Katie for just a month.

It seemed the love was mutual, with Katie revealing she was taking lessons in Scientology, a controversial religion founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard and beloved by her husband.

“I’m really excited about it,” she said, while Tom emphasised: “She makes her own decisions.”

And it seemed TomKat, as they were nicknamed, were flourishing.

Just 11 months after his dramatic declaration of love, their daughter Suri was born.

Katie and Tom wed in November 2006, but after five and a half years of marriage, she apparently blindsided her husband when she unexpectedly filed for divorce in June 2012 because of Scientology and its impact on her daughter.

And Suri, now 20, appears to have made up her own mind about her dad, dropping his surname in favour of her mum’s middle name, Noelle.

The move emerged after she publicly registered to vote in Pennsylvania, where she studies under the alternative name.

It is also reported she has been estranged from Tom, 64, since she was ten, while remaining close to Katie, 47, who is no longer a Scientologist.

Suri, an aspiring actor and drama student, is currently appearing in a re-imagined performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

And she seems to have inherited her father’s talent for acting, with critics saying the Carnegie Mellon uni student “stole the show”.

Journalist Tony Ortega, who has investigated the workings of Scientology for three decades, said of the family breakdown: “When Katie split with Tom, any normal Scientologist would be told she is an SP, a suppressive person — an enemy of the church.

“And Suri, being connected to Katie, would be considered a PTS — potential trouble source.

“Tom would be expected to disconnect from them and not have anything to do with them.”

The church says: “A suppressive person (SP) is a person who seeks to suppress other people in their vicinity.

“A suppressive person will goof up or vilify any effort to help anybody and particularly knife with violence anything calculated to make human beings more powerful or more intelligent.

“The suppressive person is also known as the antisocial personality.

“Within this category one finds Napoleon, Hitler, the unrepentant killer and the drug lord.

“But if such are easily spotted, if only from the bodies they leave in their wake, antisocial personalities also commonly exist in current life and often go undetected.”

Tom does seem to be in contact with his two other children, Isabella “Bella” Cruise, 33, and Connor Cruise, 31, who are both Scientologists.

Bella and Connor were adopted by Tom and Nicole in 1992 and 1995 respectively.

As youngsters, the pair divided their time between Sydney and Los Angeles, although they also lived in Hertfordshire for three years.

When their parents split up, the stars would initially spend their time between the children.

With dad Tom, they visited Scientology sessions at the church’s main hub in Clearwater, Florida, where followers spoke about attaining “spiritual freedom”.

In 2004, instead of seeing their mum, they were packed off to a Scientology summer camp.

The next year, they were living full-time with their dad.

In 2019, Bella told in a promotional email for Scientology how she was “drowning in problems” before training as an “auditor” — which is basically a counsellor who helps other believers shed “spiritual distress” using an “E-meter”.

The device is similar to a lie detector and delivers low-voltage electricity to the subject.

The email said: “This is what I had been searching for. The missing piece. Thank you to my dad for everything. We all need to do this. Wow. What an accomplishment. It’s hard work. It’s a lot of effort.

“It’s a few meltdowns and running to the bathroom to have a mini- episode, but it is worth everything because you will get through.

“This is a gift to yourself and so many others. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t going to be an auditor or aren’t going to join staff. If you are going to make it as a being for the long run, you need this.

“That’s the truth. So stop messing around and get going.”

However, despite her support of Scientology, Bella has not stayed living near her dad. Instead, she has switched the bright lights of Hollywood  for the far less glitzy Croydon, South London.

She lives in an ordinary semi-detached house with her British husband, Max Parker, 34, an IT consultant she met through friends and married in 2015.

She works as an artist, selling trendy tote bags and T-shirts with her prints on, and posts Instagram pictures and videos of her artwork and trips to Brighton.

Previously, neighbours told The Sun: “I wouldn’t have known her if she’d come up and smacked me in the face. I don’t keep up with celebrity culture.

“They have a reptile of some kind — we can see the red light of the tank. That’s all anybody seems to know. She’s very mysterious.

“I don’t know why she’s chosen Croydon, poor child!”

Former Scientologist and US actress Leah Remini, 56, wrote a book about her time in the church called Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood And Scientology.

In it, she said she asked Bella if she saw her mum often and claims Bella replied: “Not if I have a choice. Our mom is a f***ing SP.”

Nicole, who left Scientology around the time of her divorce from Tom, has previously said: “I’ve chosen not to speak publicly about Scientology. I have two children who are Scientologists and I utterly respect their beliefs.”

She reiterated this in 2018, saying: “They are able to make their own decisions. They have made choices to be Scientologists, and as a mother it’s my job to love them.”

Bella does follow her half-sister, Sunday Rose, 18 — from Nicole’s marriage to country singer Keith Urban — on Instagram as well as both parents.

However, neither Nicole nor Keith attended Bella’s wedding reception in London, and it’s said she turned down her dad’s offer of a £324,000-a-month rented penthouse when she first moved to the UK capital.

Connor, understood to live near Clearwater, Florida, has been pictured with Tom at various sporting events.

A source told People magazine in 2019: “Connor has been able to remain close with Tom because of Scientology.”

On Instagram, he has shared pictures of him with his father, writing: “Watching the Yankees beat the Dodgers a couple years back with my dad.”

Scientology has two major centres in London, and its UK base is at the Grade II-listed Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, West Sussex.

And while Bella is in Croydon, it is unclear if she will travel north to Edinburgh to see her half-sister Suri, who is busy making a name for herself on stage.

Ruth Madeley is currently taking on lead role, Dr Gabrielle Fox, in BBC’s thrilling new series The Rapture

BBC viewers have been left hooked with new thriller show The Rapture.

The five-part psychological series is adapted from Liz Jensen’s bestselling novel. A synopsis teases of the show: “As temperatures rise, a convicted murderer foretells apocalyptic disaster – is she a manipulative psychopath or does she know the truth? High-stakes thriller crackling with danger.”

In the show, Ruth Madeley plays Dr Gabrielle Fox, who starts a new job at a psychiatric hospital where she is assigned 17-year-old inmate Bethany Krall, played by India Amarteifio.

As talented actress Ruth, 39, takes on the lead role, viewers have been keen to learn more about the actress’ life off-screen, especially as she recently appeared in BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?

Huge family discovery

On Ruth’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, the genealogy team uncovered what turned out to be a huge family secret on her dad’s side.

The family discovered that Ruth’s grandmother, Beatrice, was adopted and no one else knew, including her father, Geoff, as his mother Beatrice never told him this fact.

Talking about the discovery on the show, Ruth said: “No one knew. My dad had no idea. So that was a huge shock. As far as, like, we’re concerned, we’re all just born, raised, died in Manchester.”

Meanwhile, while talking to her father, he responded over the bombshell: “When I got that phone call, I thought, ‘what’s going on?’ You could have knocked me down with a feather” to which Ruth replied: “Wow!”

Her dad continued: “I’m dead surprised that my grandma never said anything. That’s the only thing that I can’t get my head around.”

On the show, Ruth revealed that she and her family – her parents and sister Liz – are “really close, like, shockingly close”. The actress joked: “We are quite a stubborn, determined family, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we had traits of that here, there and everywhere.”

‘Epic’ wedding

Away from the TV sets and shows, Ruth is loved-up with her husband Joe Lawrence, whom she has known since they were five-years-old.

Unlike his wife Ruth, Joe doesn’t work in showbiz or the acting world. He is the owner of a company that trains people to operate cranes and for many years he was also a motorbike racer.

In 2024, after 12 years together, Ruth and Joe made things official and tied the knot. Talking about their wedding on Who Do You Think You Are?, Ruth revealed they had their wedding reception at fully accessible theatre, 53two in Manchester, which Ruth is a patron of.

Ruth said: “It is like my special place. I feel very at home here. And the best bit, so we had our wedding reception here and it was epic. It was so good.”

The actress previously said: “We were friends forever, we were always going to end up together, and obviously now he thinks that what I’m doing for a living is absolutely hysterical. He’s not an actor, he’s very grounded, it’s nice to be able to go home and not talk about it.”

The couple have two fur children – a cat and an adorable Bulldog, who both made an appearance of Who Do You Think You Are?

Acting career

Ruth, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, underwent many spinal operations throughout her childhood. Opening up, Ruth said: “In my secondary school years, those teenage years were really, really hard, but it was never seen as a reason to not achieve or not be happy.

“I never grew up seeing anyone who looked like me on screen. I really didn’t. Oh, acting was a complete accident. I was doing some work experience at the BBC and a producer I met was casting something for, I think it was a children’s drama.

“Yeah, I landed my first role and it developed in a very wonderful way, thank goodness.”

The actress joked: “I absolutely love my job. I feel so privileged to say that I do what I do for a living. I mean, I would do it for free. Actually, don’t say that on camera!”

HOT, but not too hot. Relaxing, but not boring

A pool with heating and steps — and not just any old steps, they must be Roman steps.

Local food, but also margherita pizzas on tap. Culture, but not challenging.

Not too far from the sea, airport or supermarket. Not too expensive. Not many stairs . . . 

Trying to plan a three-generation family trip, I realised I wasn’t looking for a holiday home, but a unicorn.

The hunt took our family of five — our sons are a “lively” 11, nine and three — my 70-something parents and my godmother to a villa outside Cavtat in Croatia, a 15-minute drive from Dubrovnik airport (tick).

WAIL OF A TIME

I drove Irish Route 66 with deserted golden beaches and pirate-like islands

TEMPTED?

Tiny ‘Bali of Europe’ town with stunning beaches, €3 cocktails and £20 flights

Cavtat (pronounced Savtat, I learned after a confusing conversation with a waitress) looked lovely, but could it possibly tick all our boxes?

There were blue skies, and our gorgeous white stone villa had a heated pool, those Roman steps and enough bedrooms for the boys not to kill each other.

Add in a higgledy-piggledy garden with wild flowers and a lemon tree at the bottom of our drive — perfect for the G&Ts — and we were good to go.

After a first day splashing in the pool, we managed a pootle down to Cavtat’s main village, a ten-minute drive away.

To the whole family’s delight, you could park cheaply right on the marina, one of many practicalities we came to appreciate during this trip.

The old town lies on a pretty horseshoe bay in the middle of two small pine- forested peninsulas.

With white stone Dalmatian buildings and narrow alleyways, it looks like a mini Dubrovnik but is thankfully smaller, cheaper and significantly less crowded.

This isn’t a coincidence. Cavtat is often called “Old Dubrovnik” as it was once a prosperous Greek and Roman port which was sacked in the 7th century, sending survivors legging it to what later became Dubrovnik.

Whatever its provenance, with a smooth promenade (tick), a cluster of great-value restaurants where you could get pizza and a beer for 8 euros (tick) and a picturesque 15th century church, it was the perfect place to potter around.

The church also houses masterpieces by one of Croatia’s most famous artists, Vlaho Bukovac, who was born in Cavtat.

Bukovac’s house is just off the marina, and one day we dragged the kids inside — admittedly, largely to escape the sun.

It was a blissfully shady change of pace and with just a few rooms didn’t prompt too much whining. Easy culture? Tick.

We quickly settled into a routine: Activities in the morning, followed by naps (for both toddlers and adults) and then lazy afternoons at the villa.

By day three, we girded our loins and got up early to visit Dubrovnik and take the two-kilometre walk around the legendary city walls.

On one side of the walls, which are six metres thick in places, is the vast azure sea, while on the other you peer down into a maze of terracotta roofs, with tennis courts and allotments nestling next to incredible 15th century architecture.

It’s fair to say my three-year-old was unimpressed (despite getting the best view of all of us, riding on my poor husband’s sunburnt shoulders) but he perked up when we dived inside some of the many cool “hole in the wall” bars for a cola. Be warned, they are pricey.

If you prefer to re-energise with ice cream, Dolce Vita serves the best scoops in town. Try the dark chocolate, pistachio and hazelnut “Domino”.

While Dubrovnik deserves its reputation as a must-see, we were all happy to get back to the chilled atmosphere of Cavtat.

Its only downside as a family holiday destination? The stony beaches. But that was nothing some 5-euro watershoes couldn’t fix. When the pebbles get too much, take a boat trip to Sunj bay, allegedly the best sandy beach in Croatia.

Buckets and spades in hand, we hopped on to a speedboat stocked with beers and cans of Fanta, zooming past Dubrovnik and the most expensive villa in town, which David Beckham and Beyonce have stayed in (not together, or this would be on the front page of the paper).

When we arrived at Sunj bay, we found boats can only stop just off the shore, so the boys jumped in and waded through chest-height sea to the beach.

My poor old dad was a bit less enthusiastic. After a brief stint on the sands, we headed to the Blue Cave on nearby Kolocep Island which, as you approach, looks less like a cave and more like a crack at the base of a jagged cliff face.

Pretending to be far braver than I felt, I jumped off the boat and swam towards a gap just a few feet high, shouting for the kids to follow.

Once inside, it was well worth the claustrophobic entrance. A massive chamber opens up with a high ceiling and striking bright blue water — because the cave is lit from underneath, it filters out the red light, leaving only the blue.

Towards the end of the week, we ditched the kids and escaped on our own — just the parents. That’s the best thing about a three-generation holiday: The built-in babysitters.

A white-tableclothed dinner on the waterfront, watching the sun set, was followed by a gorgeous run to sweat out our hangovers the next morning.

The Cavtat walking trail is excellent for those into fitness, wrapping around the peninsula and deliciously shaded by the Aleppo pines.

So, how did Cavtat stack up for a three-generation holiday? My son’s verdict: 9.5/10. Apparently it lost half a point for the bracing sea water.

To be fair, a warm sea wasn’t on my checklist. 

Whether you care or not about your own college reunion, we all keep getting invited to the one for the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, whose movies are always the same thing: frat guys who never grew out of the same jokes, taunts and pranks. That isn’t to say “Super Troopers 3” doesn’t also exhibit genuine appreciation for a tight bond nurtured over time, but you need to have been there (that is, enjoyed one or two of these) to revel in tapping that aggressively overpumped keg of R-rated comedy nostalgia.

The gang’s longevity, well into late middle age, is indeed impressive, even if it’s relegated to reviving their most beloved incarnation, a quintet of adolescent-minded Vermont highway patrolmen who torment citizens, razz each other and routinely examine their stunted life choices when confronted with the noxious personality of the most extreme among them, Farva (Kevin Heffernan).

The boorish, puerile Farva — imagine an “Animal House” character its writers would have discarded as too crude — is the catalyst this time around by falling in love. His shock engagement to Sarita (Hannah Simone), the brainy, beautiful sister of de facto trooper leader Thorny (director Jay Chandrasekhar), pits brother against family and bro against bro, even if Farva doesn’t register his colleague’s disgust. Thorny will do anything to keep Farva from marrying into his family, which is admittedly one of the easier campaigns for an audience to get behind.

That’s not a sentiment against true love; it’s more a nod to strained credibility and a feeling of general exhaustion. “Super Troopers 3” hardly feels like some long-awaited third go-round in a franchise spanning 25 years. Rather, it plays like the 84th episode of a time-killing cable series that people forgot was still on the air. Whatever raw charm existed in the original underdog sleeper hit from 2001 (and found some purchase in the agreeably goofy 2018 sequel) has been hardened here into a piece of machine-stamped plastic, likely in the shape of a male organ sporting a traditional sherwani, considering the incessant swirl of infantile body humor and offensive-adjacent Indian culture gags on offer.

Besides the main storyline and a dull, time-padding smuggling operation to uncover, there’s little to do for the rest of the Broken Lizard team: Paul Soter, Eric Stolhanske and Steve Emme. Inexplicably, EV cars and food-ordering apps become running gags. Marisa Coughlan is back as a cop’s wife, and the joke must be that she never gets to be funny.

There’s good news in Brian Cox returning as their cranky superior, except it looks like two days of work, tops. The best new face is Nat Faxon as the station’s insecure captain. He gets more easy, unforced laughs than anyone, especially when it comes to a bout of “scromiting.” It still isn’t enough.

“Enough” is a good retort, though, for “Super Troopers 3” overall, except for the dispiriting promise before the closing credits that more mediocrity might be coming. But fans might want to savor this one, because according to Vermont law, highway patrol mandatory retirement age is 57, the age the youngest Broken Lizard member hits this month. Sorry, guys — can we have those badges back?

Growing up, filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke didn’t get to watch the scene in “The Breakfast Club” where the teenage characters smoke marijuana. That moment was removed from the VHS copy of the 1980s classic he’d rented because of strict censorship in Mexico at the time.

Drug use or not, that John Hughes movie, as well “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” impacted him profoundly. “Those were movies that spoke to young people, and in Mexico there wasn’t much cinema aimed at teens,” Eimbcke tells me in Spanish on a video call from Mexico City.

From his indie trench, Eimbcke, 55, has tried to fill that void in Mexican cinema — starting with his 2004 acclaimed debut “Temporada de patos” (Duck Season), about two teen boys spending a day without adult supervision. Since then, in films like “Lake Tahoe” (2008) or “Club Sandwich” (2013), the woes of adolescence have dominated his purview.

With “Olmo,” in theaters Friday, Eimbcke has adapted his career-long interest on the youth’s preoccupations to a story on this side of the Mexico-U.S. border for the first time.

Set and filmed on location in Las Cruces, N.M., his bilingual coming-of-age dramedy follows the titular Olmo (played by Aivan Uttapa), a charismatic Mexican American 14-year-old boy in the 1970s, whose bedridden immigrant father requires around-the-clock care.

The tightly written and humorously bittersweet narrative (co-penned by Eimbcke and Vanesa Garnica) unfolds over the course of a fateful Saturday. Nina Sandoval (Melanie Frometa), Olmo’s crush, invites him and his boot-wearing best friend Miguel (Diego Olmedo) to a party, with the condition that they bring a stereo. But Olmo has also been tasked with looking after dad Nestor (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), while his mother works.

Olmo must decide between fulfilling his duty or pursuing his age-appropriate impulse for fun.

Fernando Eimbcke’s new coming-of-age dramedy “Olmo” follows a charismatic Chicano teen in 1970s New Mexico.

(Andrew Bohn / Olma 2023 LLC)

It was during the six years that Eimbcke lived in Germany that Plan B, the American production company behind titles like “Moonlight,” reached out with an idea for him to write a screenplay about a Mexican American character. That project didn’t come to fruition, but Eimbcke took advantage of their initial interest to create his own story.

Eimbcke had long been interested in stories of migration, and in the dynamics that occur within “bicultural” families. His experience living abroad heightened this curiosity.

“I’m surprised to see the fear that governments and society have regarding migration today. It’s one of the best things that can happen to a culture,” Eimbcke says. “Everyone is talking about Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ and the story of Odysseus is a story of migration.”

Among the key inspirations that shaped how Eimbcke and Garnica (who have been friends since they were 14 years old) conceived “Olmo” were Dominican American author Junot Díaz’s work, as well as Kevin Bubriski’s photography book “The New Mexicans: 1981-83.”

“He photographed Mexican Americans in the 1980s in New Mexico, and that gave us many ideas,” he says. “He has some incredible, truly beautiful photos of Mexican Americans.”

While scouting locations in New Mexico, the production interacted with local Latino families. In those households, Eimbcke witnessed immigrant parents speaking Spanish to their children who replied to them in English. Similar exchanges happen in “Olmo.”

“If communication is already difficult within a family when everyone speaks the same language, the idea of a family speaking two languages struck me as absolutely fascinating. Rather than an obstacle, I saw it as an opportunity to explore their relationship,” he explains. “Language isn’t always that important. When Olmo and Néstor argue over the stereo, you never really know if they actually understand each other through words or not.”

The complex intricacies of language manifested on Eimbcke’s first bilingual set.

During a scene where Olmo and Miguel finally fix the stereo and begin dancing, Eimbcke wanted a more rambunctious reaction. He started yelling, “More caos. More caos.” The assistant director looked puzzled, thinking the director was asking for “cows.” Eimbcke meant “chaos,” but pronounced it Spanish, which sounds like the farm animal in English.

“It was very difficult for me, because my English is far from perfect, it’s actually quite imperfect,” Eimbcke says sincerely.

For Uttapa, 17, these interactions seemed authentic; he is a second-generation Mexican American whose grandmother came to the U.S. from Mexico, while his mother was born here.

“My grandma speaks fluent Spanish, and she talks to me, my brothers, and my sister in Spanish, and we answer in English,” says Uttapa on Zoom. “That dynamic and that detail in the movie really did make it real to me.”

Fernando Eimbcke’s new coming-of-age dramedy “Olmo” follows a charismatic Chicano teen in 1970s New Mexico.

(Andrew Bohn / Olma 2023 LLC )

Based in Las Vegas, the fresh-faced Uttapa started acting at 12. He shared his interest in performing with his parents, who enrolled him with acting coach Frank Parillo. “I remember telling my mom, ‘I just want to entertain. I just want to be relatable and make an impact on people.’ If you can impact one person, then it pretty much is worth it,” he says.

Eimbcke cast him solely based on his self-tape after a long search for the right actor to become Olmo, primarily in Los Angeles and New York.

Since shooting “Olmo” when he was 14, Uttapa has appeared in the latest season of the hit medical drama “The Pitt,” playing Grady Barnhill, who has an asthma attack, in two episodes. Still, playing Olmo remains the highlight of his short but burgeoning career.

“I’ve gotten some auditions here and there about Mexican American or Latino characters, but if I’m being honest, none of them really clicked to me as much as it did with Olmo. I really felt a connection with the character,” Uttapa notes.

That Eimbcke set “Olmo” in the ’70s — based on his memories of watching “Saturday Night Fever” as a child and being enamored by disco music — helped Uttapa connect with the character. At several points in their adventure, Olmo and Miguel break out their best dance moves.

His mother, Uttapa says, thinks of him as an “old soul,” given his eclectic taste in music, from Elvis Presley and Del Shannon to AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.

“I was already familiar with cumbia, because my mom would always teach me,” Uttapa says. “The disco dancing wasn’t really that hard for me because I grew up loving ’70s music, so I’d always dance in my room to it. And being able to show it on screen was really special.”

Eimbcke says he has no secret technique to obtain wonderful performances from his teen stars; the only strategy that works is to lean into fun. “Teenagers are very willing to play. They are willing to take risks,” the director adds. “And I always love combining two schools of acting: the professional and the nonprofessional.” The actors who play Olmo’s parents, Gustavo Sánchez Parra and Andrea Suárez Paz, are seasoned Mexican thespians.

And while Eimbcke may very well be the Mexican John Hughes, there are certainly uniquely Mexican, and perhaps unexpected, references that were foundational for him as an artist.

“I also grew up watching a lot of telenovelas. They were really formative for me, specifically, the telenovelas on the local Channel 2,” Eimbcke confesses. “I remember there was one I followed religiously called ‘Quinceañera,’ starring Thalia. I loved it.”

AMANDA Holden has proven once again that glamour runs in the family as she posed with her daughters in a new holiday snap.

Amanda, 55, is on vacation in Greece with her husband and their two daughters, and shared a photo with her girls next to a picture taken a decade earlier.

And the radio and TV star defied age in the side-by-side snaps, showcasing an unchanged appearance 11 years on.

Amanda flashed her taut waist in a plunging orange sun dress as she posed with Lexi, 20, and Hollie, 14.

The intricate garment featured ruffled trim detailing, sinched in at the waist with a buckle.

Amanda showcased her tan, her blonde locks falling in bouyant curls around her features.

model material

Amanda Holden’s lookalike daughter Lexi, 20, strips off to bikini in Corfu

golden holden

Amanda Holden, 55, sizzles in tiny bikini poolside in Corfu

Lexi was the spitting image of her Britain’s Got Talent judge mum, in a beige strap top and a flowing golden skirt with floral detailing.

Hollie kept things slick in a black floor-length dress for her evening out with her mum and sister.

Meanwhile, the 11-year-old photo showed the trio all dressed in white dresses, all holding hands and beaming.

“Eleven years ago today,” Amanda captioned it.

Longtime fans of visiting Greece, Amanda and Lexi received their boat licences on their current trip.

Lexi has followed her mother’s footsteps into a career in front of the camera.

Last month Amanda defended her daughter’s modelling career and hit back at ‘nepo-baby’ accusations.

Having been signed to Storm Models Management at 18, Lexi has already taken to the stage at London Fashion Week.

Amanda, however, doesn’t believe there’s any harm in helping her kids out if she’s able to.

“Being someone’s kid is not going to secure work, make a living for you and longevity in whatever career,” Amanda told the Daily Mail. “It may get a foot in the door, but then you’re on your own!”

She also revealed that her younger daughter Hollie asks her mum to drop her at school at the end of the road, because she “hates” having a famous mother.

Of Lexi, Amanda believes she’s “unfazed” and “has her head screwed on”, so doesn’t fret about her foray into the world of modelling.

Peter Katsis, a music manager who helped shepherd the careers of Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction, Morrissey and Backstreet Boys, has died. He was 69.

Representatives for Katsis confirmed his death on Thursday in Los Angeles, from complications of congestive heart failure, in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard. “To the music world, Peter was one of the most influential managers of his generation. His vision, instincts and fierce belief in his artists helped shape some of the most important careers in music for more than four decades. He saw possibilities others didn’t, inspired those around him to dream bigger, and fought relentlessly for the people and artists he believed in,” his family said.

“Peter was simply larger than life. He loved fiercely, laughed loudly and lived with extraordinary courage and conviction. Above everything else, he loved his family. He was our strength, our fiercest advocate, and the person we could always count on to believe anything was possible. The void he leaves in our lives and our hearts is immeasurable.”

Katsis’ career began in Chicago, where he managed the groundbreaking industrial rock group Ministry. He also worked with emerging regional house music acts, helming A&R for the essential label Trax Records and booked acts like Marshall Jefferson and Adonis at globally prominent nightclubs.

After moving to Los Angeles in the early ’90s, he worked with the Cramps and other experimental rock acts before joining Jeff Kwatinetz at the Firm. There he managed hard rock acts including Korn and Limp Bizkit, helping make them superstars of the “TRL” era. He also worked with 30 Seconds to Mars, rapper Snoop Dogg, and played a major role in building Audioslave, the supergroup of Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and members of Rage Against the Machine.

Katsis took on diverse pop acts like Enrique Iglesias as well, and helped turn the Backstreet Boys into a stadium act, breaking Ticketmaster records for its 1999 Into the Millennium tour.

In 2008, Katsis co-founded a new management firm, Prospect Park, with Kwatinetz and Rich Frank, building a roster that included Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction and Morrissey. Katsis also repped Liz Phair, 311, Bush, Fever 333, and pop groups Pentatonix, One Republic and 5 Seconds of Summer.

Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan wrote on Instagram that he was “Heartbroken that Pete is gone. He meant a lot to Chloe and I as a dear friend and extended member of our family. He will be missed and I’ll always cherish his intense candor and deep love of great music; which was infectious. And he deserves immense credit for helping to usher in the alternative revolution of the ’80s and ’90s and beyond. He was truly one of a kind. One of a us. And Chicago royalty through and through.”

Katsis is survived by his sister Anastasia and his son Ian.

Perez Hilton’s family has revealed that his children were home when his mental health crisis began to unfold, and now they’re asking the media for space so the family can safely return home.

In a statement published on the celebrity blogger’s website on Thursday, Hilton’s family said the events of the last several days had been “nearly unbearable.”

“Just minutes before the public livestream incident, Perez’s children, niece, and sister were inside the home,” the statement read. “When it became clear that Perez was experiencing a severe mental health crisis and harming himself, they immediately fled to protect the children from witnessing any further trauma.”

On Tuesday night, Miami police responded to an influx of calls after a disturbing video was livestreamed on TikTok in which a bloodied Hilton harmed himself repeatedly with a box cutter and knife. Frightened fans and moderators from the social platform were among those who called authorities.

After surrounding Hilton’s Miami residence, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said around 9 p.m. that he had been “safely recovered and transported by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue to a local hospital, where he is receiving medical attention.”

In the family’s statement on Thursday, they said that their highest priority right now was helping Hilton’s three children and niece “begin to heal from what they experienced.”

“An important part of that process is allowing them to safely return home and begin rebuilding a sense of security and normalcy,” the statement continued. “For the children’s safety, privacy, and well-being, we respectfully ask members of the media, paparazzi, content creators, and the public to leave the area surrounding the family’s home and not return. Please allow his children the privacy and space they need during this unimaginably difficult time.”

Hilton’s family also shared that, although very little information on Perez’s condition has been provided to them, they had been able to confirm that he “is able to communicate,” which they say has given them hope during “this heartbreaking time.”

Earlier Thursday, conservative political commentator Sean Hannity released an episode featuring Hilton that was recorded in recent weeks. During the “Hang Out” podcast episode, Hilton expressed regret over disparaging attacks he made on the celebrities he covered over the course of his career.

“I have a lot of regrets,” he told Hannity. “Attention is like a drug, and I was definitely an attention addict back then. I mean, I still am, but I think now I do a better job of keeping it in check. And when you’re an addict, you don’t care if you’re hurting people.”

The “OG influencer” said that he attempted to make amends with some of the celebrities he targeted, including Britney Spears and Khloé Kardashian, whom he said were receptive to his apologies. He also privately approached Neil Patrick Harris to apologize for aggressively trying to out him as a gay man in 2006, before the actor had spoken about his sexuality publicly. Harris also accepted the mea culpa.

Hilton said that he had changed his ways. “I realized what I was doing was wrong — that I could still be fun — but I don’t have to be so cheap, and I don’t have to be so cruel. It was cruel, and it’s something that I carry with me.

“It’s like my scarlet letter, and it’s very heavy baggage.”

In March, Hilton was hospitalized for severe sepsis for 21 days. During the ordeal, he said that God presented himself to him. Perez claimed that he’d changed dramatically since the health scare. In recent months, he’s posted about the Bible, launched a religious merch line and spoken about his religious awakening on the podcast circuit.

Aug. 6 (UPI) — The family of celebrity blogger Perez Hilton said in a statement that he is “able to communicate” following an incident of apparent self-harm during a livestream earlier this week.

Hilton, 48, was hospitalized after appearing to commit an act of self harm on TikTok on Tuesday. The Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office said he has been hospitalized under the state’s Baker Act which allows authorities to keep someone held if they pose a threat to themselves or others.

“Our family wants to once again thank everyone who has reached out with prayers, kind messages, and support for Perez,” Hilton’s family said in a statement on Wednesday. “Your compassionate humanity during this profoundly heartbreaking time has meant more than words can express. We have also been able to confirm that Perez is able to communicate, which has given our family hope.”

After the TikTok livestream, emergency responders were called to Hilton’s home. A short time later he was rushed to a local hospital.

The sheriff’s office said in a statement that they received reports of a man “livestreaming acts of self-harm on social media.” They did not identify that man as Hilton, who is renowned as one of the world’s most prominent celebrity gossip bloggers.

“We respectfully ask for your continued prayers, understanding, and grace as Perez continues to recover,” the statement from Hilton’s family reads. “We will share additional updates as we receive confirmed information and are able to do so.”

Hilton’s TikTok account has been deactivated and the livestream has been removed, though some users have screen recorded and circulated the video.

Hilton was born Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., before taking on the pseudonym “Perez Hilton.”

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, confidential, free help is available from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Camp Bestival 2026 review – Britain’s happiest family festival proves there’s still nothing quite like it

What do you get if you cross two mini ice-cream cones with Ursula and King Triton from the Little Mermaid?

The wacky and immersive world of Camp Bestival of course!

Britain’s happiest family festival once again put on a show for not just the ages, but all ages.

For one glorious weekend each summer, the stunning grounds of Lulworth Castle in Dorset are transformed into what can only be described as a giant playground.

The brainchild of renowned music specialist Rob da Bank and creative director Josie da Bank, and founded in 2008, Camp Bestival is known as the UK’s ultimate family festival, having won Best Family Festival at the UK Festival Awards six times.

Created with a vision of reinventing family time, it has gone from strength to strength, and from personal experience as a multi-time Bestivaler, 2026 delivered one of its strongest editions yet.

While Camp Bestival has never been centred on drawing the crowds solely for big name headline acts, you’d be hard pushed to get a better line up than rave DJ Fatboy Slim, De La Soul, the Cuban Brothers, Billy Ocean, Leftfield and chart-topping Bastille, just to name a few.

For sure, these acts would pull in massive crowds at any venue round the country, but the magic for 30,000 festival goers in any year is what you will find away from the main stages.

Have you ever danced to a country band in a Pig’s Big Ballroom, or raved with your kids to a grammatically correct rap MC Grammar? No, then what are you waiting for?

For our family, two big kids (me and my wife Katie) and our two small humans, aged five and two, like so many others, running around sun soaked fields, listening to music, climbing giant robot sculptures (them not us!), riding a ferris wheel or letting loose on swinging chairs at the fun fare; this was a real chance to connect.

Let’s be honest, life can seem pretty tough these days. The news cycle can be overwhelming at times, then chuck in work, school, bills, exams, kids!

But as soon as you enter into this kaleidoscope of countryside colour, where bubble machines float across fields packed with picnics, children chasing giant puppets through woodland trails, and every pathway revealing another adventure waiting to be discovered, your worries can be a distant memory.

Unlike many festivals where the music is everything, Camp Bestival’s magic lies in the moments in between.

As we gathered for the annual trolley competition – the type you either haul to the beach or the park with your camping chairs in, or your exhausted children back to your tent after a day of festival fun – we were given a glimpse into how special this place can be.

The aforementioned mini ice-cream cones were two toddlers dressed up in exquisitely made papier mache inventions, alongside parents dressed as ice cream sellers and their vehicle imaginatively turned into a mobile ice cream stall.

Dozens of families queue patiently every year to show off their creative talents, but this particular entry had an added meaning.

As people clapped and cheered their flawless construction, the mum-of-two not only announced that she was pregnant – nine months and a week in fact! – but that she had just got the all clear from cancer and the festival was the family celebration of how far they had come.

I’ve always been impressed with how, unlike many large-scale events, at Camp Bestival there is an overwhelming sense that everyone was looking out for one another, but the cheers and applause that rang out in that moment was something magical.

And what more could you want from a weekend away with your loves ones?

Scenes where parents dance with toddlers on their shoulders to TV pranksters Dick & Dom, chats with Traitors star Joe Marler and the odd appearance from kids’ favourite Bluey – even on stage with Bastille – and teenagers queuing patiently for activities alongside parents and grandparents.

This is a place where children truly get to enjoy the rare freedom of exploring a safe, welcoming environment where imagination is not only encouraged, but pretty much mandatory, at every turn.

Festival founders Rob and Josie have spent years perfecting an event that understands exactly what families need.

Every year the festival revelers such as us also get a chance to play dress up and this year’s theme played homage to the Sunday headline act, Brighton boy Norman Cook, aka DJ Fatboy Slim,.

The 2026 At the Seaside Fancy Dress Competition was a full-blown celebration of British seaside spirit: swimmers, mermaids, jellyfish, lobsters, sailors, and a Baywatch themed lifeguard flashmob.

Yes, there are headline acts capable of filling arenas, but there are also puppet shows, storytelling sessions, outdoor adventures, comedy, wellbeing activities and enough arts and crafts to keep even the busiest little minds occupied for hours.

There are hundreds of free activities for families to explore from theatre, circus skills, science explorations, sports and immersive theatre through to amazing live acts and DJs, family raves, comedy, award-winning street food, and flamboyant evening cabaret – all shared with families simply there to have the best time.

Tucked away in a haven of calm amidst the festival buzz, Slomo Wellbeing offered a three-day programme of free wellbeing session designed for all ages.

Headliners Jasmine Hemsley, Joe Wicks, Zita West, Trish Whelan, Rosie Underwood, Jonni Pollard, Carla DiMattina and Mama Shrooms lead a wellbeing programme featuring soundbaths, meditation, breath work, mindful movement, dance, yoga and food workshops, alongside a range of one-on-one treatments and, of course, Slomo Wellbeing’s hugely-popular saunas, ice baths and hot tubs.

Reflecting on Camp Bestival, presented by Debenhams 2026, festival curator Rob da Bank says: “What a ridiculously fun and sun kissed weekend we’ve had, bringing families together in proper Camp Bestival style.

“It always blows us away to see 30,000 revellers get stuck into so many activities, dancing to the beats and bands, getting arty and active with their families across our amazing site.

“There’s nothing Josie and I love more than to see all generations enjoying time together. We can’t wait for 2027 and are thrilled to announce that Early Bird Weekend Tickets go on sale this Friday! See you in Lulworth next year, campers!”

Returning for a second year as a headline partner, Dan Finley CEO of Debenhams Group added: “After such a fantastic debut with Camp Bestival last year, we couldn’t be more thrilled to return as headline partner for 2026.

“The energy, engagement, and connection we saw across families and festival-goers was incredible, it brought the heart of Debenhams to life in a vibrant way.

“We’re looking forward to building on that momentum, deepening our relationships, and delivering another unforgettable experience together.”

In an increasingly crowded festival market, Camp Bestival remains exactly what it has always aspired to be: a joyful celebration of music, adventure and family life, leaving thousands already counting down the days until next summer.

Thank you Camp Bestival. We can’t wait to come back!

============

With memories made and next year’s adventure already calling, eager fans can already snap up 2027 Early Bird Weekend Tickets from 10am on Friday 7th August 2026.

Camp Bestival by Debenhams will take place from Thursday 29th July – Sunday 1st August 2027.

Early Bird Weekend Tickets go on sale 10am on Friday 7th August.

For more information and to buy tickets visit campbestival.net.

2027 Early Bird Prices:

Adult Weekend Camping: £225

Teen Weekend Camping: £157.50

Child 10-12 Weekend Camping: £130.50

Child 5-9 Weekend Camping: £110.50

Child 2-4 Weekend Camping: FREE (but ticket required)

Babes In Arms Weekend Camping: FREE (but ticket required)

When I moved into my Leimert Park apartment about two years ago, an older woman rushed downstairs to greet me.

“I’m so excited,” she said, introducing herself as Cassandra. She had lived in the tight-knit apartment building for more than 20 years and watched plenty of people come and go. “I was worried about getting a crazy neighbor, but you seem great,” she added, hugging me tightly and handing me a tray of sandwiches to share with my friends who were helping with the move.

Over the next few days, I met my other neighbors, including Miss Rosita and Mr. Art. After a few shared meals, long conversations and traded favors, all of them became more than just the people next door — they became family.

• Share via Close extra sharing options

There’s a quiet comfort in knowing your neighbors, especially in a sprawling, sometimes lonely city like Los Angeles. That kind of connection is fading. A study by the Stanford Center on Longevity showed that the percentage of Americans who frequently interact with their neighbors — meaning they spend time with or talk to their neighbors more than once a week — declined among all age groups from 2017 to 2023.

We wanted to find people who are bucking the trend, so we asked readers to nominate the neighbors who make their corners of Southern California feel like home. The stories that folks shared are poignant, inspiring and might just make you want to walk over to the porch next door (or welcome mat across the hall) and introduce yourself immediately.

One of my favorite neighbors, Mr. Art, died last fall. He was a sweet retiree who’d tell me about his weekly fishing adventures and close my garage whenever I was in a hurry and would forget. Another neighbor called me the day he died, and we cried together, sharing our favorite memories of him. I’ll always be grateful to Mr. Art, who made my life better all because he once took the time to meet his new new neighbor.

Here are some of our favorite reader responses, edited for length and clarity. Each of the neighbors featured in this story will receive an L.A.’s Most Neighborly Neighbor certificate, illustrated by Cristina Spanó, whose art is shown above. Do you have a neighbor who goes above and beyond? Download and print your own certificate (PDF) and share it as a token of your appreciation.

He’s saved us from many, many parking tickets. She hosts the sweetest front porch chats.

Bill and Linda Melber.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Neighbor: Bill and Linda Melber

Nominated by: Corrinne Harol

When were you neighbors? 1994 to now

What neighborhood did you live in? Santa Monica

• Share via Close extra sharing options

Corrinne, on how Bill and Linda show up as neighbors:

Linda and Bill are the most generous neighbors imaginable. Bill has taken out my trash bins for decades. It started when I was living in Canada for most of the year, but he still insists on doing it. He makes it his personal mission that no one gets a parking ticket for street cleaning on our block, going up and down the block twice a week to remind anyone who forgot. One time he called me about my car, but I was too far away to get back to move it. Bill had a key to my house, but the gate was locked. He climbed over the fence, got my car keys and moved my car for me! He also makes children’s toys that he distributes to any children on the block or that he encounters out and about.

His wife, Linda, is equally neighborly, hosting regular chat sessions on their lovely front porch and checking in on me whenever I have been ill, as she does to anyone in her orbit. They are truly a gift to the neighborhood.

He made me feel welcome when I was in culture shock

Tommy Bui and Hector Chavez.

(Tommy Bui)

Neighbor: Hector Chavez

Nominated by: Tommy Bui

When were you neighbors? 1996 to 2022

What neighborhood did you live in? Pacoima

Tommy, on how Hector has shown up as a neighbor:
The greatest neighbor I ever had was my childhood friend, Hector. I’m the child of Vietnamese refugees, and when they claimed asylum in Los Angeles, we were plonked into the cultural collision that was Spanish-speaking Pacoima. I was seemingly the only Asian child in a five-mile radius. I certainly stood out among the perfectly creased khaki pants and palm combs and top-buttoned flannels contrasted with my clueless bowl haircut and Ninja Turtle suspenders.

Confounding the astronomical unlikeliness, we got along like two peas in a pod. I got a crash course on Angeleno aesthetics and the ins and outs of the rough and tumble San Fernando Valley hurly-burly. I was a regular staple at his welcoming household. Simpatico and simply siblings by circumstance. Sunday dinners and holidays and “Sandlot”-like weekend street shenanigans. My youth was alarmingly idyllic with the hopped fences, bicycle slaloms through traffic and occasional near-misdemeanor mischief. Shoulder to shoulder alongside Hector, I wouldn’t trade a single moment of it.

Though no longer neighbors, we’re still navigating life’s milestones in our own corners of Los Angeles. We’re both new fathers and hurtling toward middle age completely agog at how quickly the time gallops by.

She gave me a gold turtle to make me feel better after my breakup

Fatine Ait-Haddou and Raynette Syfu.

(Fatine Ait-Haddou)

Neighbor: Raynette Syfu

Nominated by: Fatine Ait-Haddou

When were you neighbors? Since 2021

What neighborhood did you live in? Historic Filipinotown

Fatine, on how Raynette has shown up as a neighbor:

I had just moved into my new apartment after breaking up with a long-term ex. I was sobbing every single day. During my first intro with Raynette, she gave me a little gold turtle and said it would bring me safety, luck and calmness. I named it Lucky and I still have it. Raynette brings me meals all the time and checks on me whenever she hasn’t seen me for a few days. She even gave me a huge bag of her vintage clothes. One of the most insane things she’s done for me is give me a fake baby, one that was heavy and realistic. She said that because I lived alone and didn’t live near family, it could be nice to have additional family. [Laughs] Honestly, it was a very “her” move. She’s truly amazing and looks out for me. I couldn’t be more grateful.

He taught me new chess strategies — and life lessons

Ali Ras and Jemimah Yamamoto.

(Jemimah Yamamoto)

Neighbor: Ali Ras (born Fitz Albert Thomas)

Nominated by: Jemimah Yamamoto

When were you neighbors? From 2021 until his death in 2025

What neighborhood did you live in? Arlington Heights

Jemimah, on how Ali showed up as a neighbor:
I moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2021. I was in my late 20s, and I was a bit unsure of my move. Even more so, I was unsure of the neighborhood I ended up in thanks to Facebook Marketplace. But as fate would have it, it revealed to me that I was destined to be there. I’d see an old man with his gray dreads and sing-songy voice as I would walk from parking my car on the street. One day, he introduced himself and over time we developed a relationship. Him, as my chess teacher, and me as his eager student. I’d bring over my chessboard and we’d play for hours on his porch. He’d always say I was too aggressive with my pawns and that I wasn’t afraid to lose them. He’d play slowly and deliberately. I never won a single game against him. I’d like to think that that itself was a lesson.

During my Saturn return, I was depressed and felt a bit lost. On days that felt the darkest, he would call. He would ask me how I was doing, and it would cut through all the facade of “I’m good.” It was the tone of his voice that made you want to be honest. His way of caring felt like a miracle because you don’t even have to explain anything to him, he would just know. At the time, his presence was exactly what I needed.

He was the only person I gladly let walk into my house unannounced

Eric Pendleton

(Kim Quitzon)

Neighbor: Eric Pendleton

Nominated by: Kim Quitzon

How long were you neighbors? More than 20 years

What neighborhood did you live in? San Fernando

Kim, on how Eric showed up as a neighbor:
“Uncle Eric” was more than just a neighbor; he was family. Walking through the door unannounced yelling “Hi, family!” across the living room. “I came to check on the backyard.” Every week he would mow the yards after he lost his job and took pride in landscaping the grass, but that was just the surface of what he meant to us. On the popular street of Orange Grove in San Fernando where crowds line up during Halloween, Uncle Eric was our honorary neighborhood watch. Rolling up and down the street on a new bike every day, checking in on every neighbor that would give him the time of day.

From watching the dogs when we were away to helping set up family parties, he was one of us. He just happened to live three doors down. Unfortunately, Eric passed away from cancer last year. The whole block was devastated, and we all held a potluck in his honor. We will miss him, and he truly is the epitome of an amazing neighbor.

She sat with me after my mom died while I cried

Pamela Yeh and Hilah Johnson.

(Pamela Yeh)

Neighbor: Hilah Johnson

Nominated by: Pamela Yeh

When were you neighbors? From 2017 until mid-2020 when she and her family moved to Austin, Texas. Over the years, we’d become close friends, so I was gutted by their move. The most amazing thing happened, though. In 2022, they moved back to L.A., just a few blocks away from us. They live about 10 minutes away from us now, but we still see each other all the time.

What neighborhood did you live in? West L.A.

Pamela, on how Hilah has shown up as a neighbor:
Hilah has shown up for me and my family in hundreds of ways over the years, but I want to tell you this one story. In September 2025, my mom, who had been living in an ADU we built in our backyard, died. She was my heart, and I was utterly crushed. I lived in a fog of grief and shock. Hilah came over and just sat with me while I cried and cried. She made the video montage of my mom for her memorial, which was extra difficult because a family member had all sorts of unreasonable demands. Eventually, she got me to go to a dance class, and we’re still dancing, one step at a time, at the wonderful local Flow Motion.

He’s the beloved ‘Fairy-Car-Father’ on our street

Rodrigo Mangrobang

(Leigh Ann Jackson)

Neighbor: Rodrigo Mangrobang

Nominated by: Leigh-Ann Jackson

How long have you been neighbors? Since I moved to Northeast L.A. 15 years ago

What neighborhood did you live in? Northeast L.A.

Leigh-Ann, on how Rodrigo has shown up as a neighbor:
Rod, as most of the block calls him, is a retiree who lives with his wife across the street from me. He spends a lot of time outside gardening and working on his cars and can seemingly sense whenever a neighbor is having car trouble. He’ll stop what he’s doing, bring over his tools and get to work, no questions asked. He’s not very chatty, but he speaks auto fluently! He saw me pull out of my driveway once and flagged me down to tell me I was headed for a blowout soon. He then instructed me to pull back into the driveway and patched the tire for me on the spot. I even watched him go outside to help a stranger whose car had broken down in the middle of the road. He’s our street’s Fairy-Car-Father.

She had the best local recs. Yelp couldn’t come close.

Sofie Ringold and Eileen Ogle

(Sofie Ringold)

Neighbor: Eileen Ogle

Nominated by: Sofie Ringold

When were you neighbors? From 2020 to 2025

What neighborhood did you live in? Sherman Oaks

Sofie, on how Eileen showed up as a neighbor:
When my husband and I bought our first home, the COVID vaccine hadn’t been released yet, and we didn’t meet any of our neighbors. A few days later, an older woman wearing a mask knocked at our door. She said that a package had been delivered and she didn’t want it to get stolen. The package had arrived only minutes earlier, so it was pretty clear she wanted to scope out her new neighbors, and during a time of social distancing, this was the perfect excuse. She introduced herself as Eileen. She lived next door with her partner, Judith. We exchanged numbers and said a friendly goodbye.

As the world slowly became more comfortable with social interaction, Eileen began introducing us to everyone on the block. Soon, while we were walking our dog around the neighborhood, people would stop us and ask if we were new. When we told them we lived next to Eileen and Judith, their eyes lit up. It was clear they were local legends. Like all first-time homeowners, we quickly ran into our share of problems. But who needs Yelp when you have neighbors who have already vetted every home service you could possibly need? Need a gardener? Call Eileen. HVAC needs maintenance? Call Eileen. Going away for the weekend and need someone to check on your cats? Call Eileen.

Sadly, Eileen passed away in December. A cloud hung over our street for weeks. Then on Christmas morning, the sun broke through and a rainbow appeared. My husband took it as a sign from Eileen.

He went from my flirty neighbor to my husband of 16 years

Brett Boyd and Sara Mortimer-Boyd.

(Sara Mortimer-Boyd)

Neighbor: Bretton Boyd

Nominated by: Sara Mortimer-Boyd

When were you neighbors? We became neighbors in 1996 until 1997, when we moved in together

What neighborhood did you live in? Silver Lake

Sara, on how Bretton has shown up as a neighbor:
Bretton would come to my door asking for things (cigarettes, food, etc.) while trying to flirt. I was very intrigued by him, but I didn’t think he was “my type” at the time. It was confusing at first. One day, he invited me upstairs to his apartment for coffee and breakfast, which became a regular thing. He got me addicted to coffee and to his amazing cooking. He started coming over to my apartment more and we became really close friends before becoming romantic. I remember one time he left for a few weeks to visit his parents, and I realized in his absence that I loved him and wanted to spend every day with him. We moved in together in 1997, got engaged in 2002 and have been happily married with children for the last 16 years. He still cooks dinner for our family every night at our home in Highland Park.

He helped organize a food train when my son was diagnosed with leukemia

Scott Marshall-Miller

(Scott Marshall-Miller)

Neighbor: Scott Marshall-Miller

Nominated by: Mev Blount

When were you neighbors? From 2006 to 2017

What neighborhood did you live in? Studio City

Mev, on how Scott has shown up as a neighbor:
My husband and I moved next to Scott and his husband when I was pregnant with our first child. Scott welcomed home his daughter nine months after mine was born, so we were new stay-at-home parents together. His husband is an incredible baker, and he and Scott were always bringing over plates of deliciousness. The chocolate croissant bread pudding is legendary! I was raised that you never return a plate empty so I’d bake something or add some homegrown veggies to the plate. That plate went back and forth through the hedges between our houses for years.

Both of our husbands traveled for work a lot, so Scott and I spent hours together, especially before bedtime and during the “witching hour” with our little ones. We’d sit on my front lawn, nursing half-glasses of Trader Joe’s finest Two Buck Chuck wine while his daughter and my two kiddos rolled around, wearing themselves out. Scott and I would knock on each other’s doors when the parenting was too much. He and I would always answer the door with an “Oh, it’s you. Come in. No one else can see me as a hot mess.”

When my youngest got leukemia at 7, Scott was part of my core group who ignored me when I said we didn’t need help. They organized a food train, and Scott was the one who set up a cooler on my front porch and insisted people drop food without knocking, knowing we were overwhelmed. He was always there when I needed to laugh or cry, and he made our L.A. suburb feel like the small Ohio town where I grew up. I still find glitter ground into our kitchen tiles from the Halloween when he made his daughter a purple witch costume. Sadly, Scott died suddenly in his sleep a few years ago. Tiny bits of glitter are embedded in our tiles, a bright reminder of Scott and the beauty and joy he brought to even the most mundane tasks. He made L.A. feel like home.

PEREZ Hilton is “able to communicate”, his family shared – in a health update one day after the celebrity blogger’s distressing TikTok video.

Hilton, 48, was rushed to hospital on Tuesday after a disturbing livestream appeared to show him self-harming at his Miami home.

Police received multiple 911 calls from concerned fans who reported that the TV star was naked, covered in blood, with several marks on his body.

Hilton’s family have now provided an update on the blogger’s condition, while thanking well-wishers for their “compassionate humanity during this heartbreaking time”.

Their statement continued: “This has been incredibly difficult and emotional for us, made even harder because very little information has been made available to our family.

“While we continue to wait for further updates, we remain hopeful.

Read more about Perez Hilton

FAILED TO ACT

TikTok under fire after Perez Hilton ‘self-harm’ vid stayed live for 15 MINS

“We have also been able to confirm that Perez is able to communicate, which has given our family hope.

“We respectfully ask for your continued prayers, understanding, and grace as Perez continues to recover.”

Hilton, whose real name is Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., sparked alarm after going through a mental health crisis in front of thousands of viewers.

Emergency dispatch audio revealed the tense hours leading up to his rescue as police tried to negotiate with him.

In one dispatch recording, two men are heard discussing a “man down call” involving a “live streamer” who was broadcasting himself while in severe distress, which left viewers “upset.”

Police are believed to have arrived at Hilton’s rental home at around 7.10 pm and spent several hours trying to make contact with him while also speaking with concerned family members.

A second dispatch recording, obtained by The U.S. Sun and timestamped at around 10.41 pm, shows operators later classifying the incident as a reported “suicide attempt” as they requested additional assistance.

The audio captures the urgency of the response, with dispatchers sending multiple police units to the property and warning responding officers that it was an “active police scene.”

Other units were placed on standby as officers worked to safely resolve the crisis before Hilton was ultimately transported to hospital.

At around 11 pm, officers revealed they were entering the home and minutes later Hilton was transported to hospital.

A source close told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that Hilton was injured and was placed under a psychiatric hold under the Baker Act.

Officially known as the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, it allows a person to be taken to a receiving facility for an evaluation of up to 72 hours.

It does not mean the person has been arrested or charged with a crime.

Earlier this year, Hilton spent three weeks in hospital as he battled sepsis, one of a series of health problems – including an ulcer and blood clot – apparently triggered by taking flu medication on an empty stomach.

Following his medical drama in March he said: “My stupidity landed me in hospital for 21 days.

“It was the worst and best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

But the star found religion while he was recovering, and even claimed God told him to sell his $4 million mansion in Las Vegas and move to Miami.

He started urging his army of social media followers to pray for him. 

In one bizarre post he wrote: “I feel like I should be scared right now, but I’m not. I definitely am worried though. God, show me the way!

“Perez Hilton is GOING THROUGH IT right now. He asks for prayers and for Christ to intervene – sooner rather than later. Working on patience!”

Hilton found global fame in the early 2000s for his blog where he spoke about celebrity gossip and commented on the latest viral showbiz stories.

He was known for his big, often controversial, opinions on the stars of the era.

This led to him rubbing shoulders with some of Hollywood’s top names such as the Kardashians as well as starring in several TV shows.

In 2007, he featured in several episodes of The View and created his own TV show over in the UK called Perez Hilton Superfan in 2012.

His success with the show in Britain also saw him land a spot as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2015.

Despite being the seventh celebrity evicted from the reality TV show, Hilton had several major moments throughout the season and is known as one of the show’s most memorable cast members.

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.

Comedian and podcaster Christina Pazsitzky just dropped the “divorce episode” of “Your Mom’s House” and addressed her split from Tom Segura after 20 years as a couple: “Mom’s drinkin’ and smokin’ on this episode.”

Pazsitzky told guest host Duncan Trussell that she wanted to formally address the news after word got out that the comedy power couple had separated this year. “Yes, Tom and I are divorcing, and it is extremely sad,” she said, beginning to cry.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to cry this soon. It is very sad. That being said, we have tried to work it out for several years for the sake of our children and our family, and we gave it all we could, but we just couldn’t work things out. We are no longer a couple.”

Pazsitzky said the former couple were trying to make their two children a priority as they navigated the split.

“Look, we had 20 amazing years together, and that’s a really good run, I think, in a marriage,” she said, noting that the two had built their comedy careers, podcasting empire and a family over the course of their relationship.

“I wanted to address the audience specifically because we’ve been through a lot together — for those of you that have listened to us since the very beginning — we’ve been through Tom and I getting married and living in Silver Lake and being two broke comics. We’ve been through births and deaths, tragic accidents, cancer, COVID, all the things, and I want you to know that I’m still your mom, and I’m still here, and we will survive.”

The comedian reassured listeners that she and Segura were amicable and that there was no need to take sides. “This is not an ugly divorce,” she continued. “Like, we’re cool, dude.”

The two became a couple in their 20s while working as stand-ups on the Los Angeles comedy scene. Pazsitzky said the two were “kids” and that people change over the course of multiple decades. She looked back on the “wild ride” of being poor together, living in Silver Lake and getting married with $200 between the two of them.

“Cancer couldn’t kill me, you think a dude’s gonna f— take me out?”

SAN DIEGO — High on the to-do list for the Chargers offense is juicing up the ground game, a pressing priority for a franchise whose last 1,000-yard rusher was Melvin Gordon in 2017.

Max McCaffrey is the team’s new running backs coach, and his last name should be familiar. His younger brother is Christian McCaffrey, All-Pro running back for the San Francisco 49ers and reigning comeback player of the year. Their father is longtime NFL receiver Ed McCaffrey, a favorite target of John Elway in Denver.

So Max knows his stuff about building a running attack, even though he was a receiver at Duke and had only fleeting stints with five NFL franchises, more often on the practice squads than the active rosters.

Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel noted with a half-smile that because Max is “definitely not the most athletic in his family,” his work ethic is “astronomically higher” than most.

Max , 32, chuckled Wednesday when informed of that wisecrack, conceding that he’s got some pretty stiff competition in his family. His dad has three Super Bowl rings — one with San Francisco, two with Denver — and mom, Lisa, was a standout soccer player at Stanford. In addition to Christian, 30, Max has brothers Dylan, 27, a former quarterback at Michigan and Northern Colorado; and Luke, a receiver and return specialist for the Washington Commanders.

They might not be quite as prominent as the Mannings or Kelces, but when it comes to football’s royal families, the McCaffreys are in the conversation.

Chargers running backs coach Max McCaffrey, left, works with running back Keaton Mitchell at training camp in El Segundo on Aug. 1.

(Los Angeles Chargers)

“I love my brothers,” Max said. “I’ll do anything for them, and I just want to see them succeed and chase what they’re passionate about.”

That certainly doesn’t quell his competitive nature, however, and he’ll have more than one chance in his current role to see brother Christian up close. The Chargers and 49ers will hold a joint practice at the Bolt on Aug. 18, and the teams will meet again in a Thursday night game on Dec. 17 at SoFi Stadium.

“My brother’s been my best friend and one of my biggest mentors my entire life,” Christian told The Times Wednesday. “We’re always bouncing ideas off each other. Obviously, he played receiver, but he has such a massive knowledge for football in general. He’s been a coordinator. He’s coached different position groups. Now that he’s got the running back job, it’s so fun just bouncing ideas off of each other.

“I never think I have it all figured out, so getting tips from him feels very familiar.”

Likewise, Max said that while Christian doesn’t share trade secrets with him, he does tap into the running back know-how of his younger brother, collecting tidbits on how best to train and prepare players for the rigorous job.

The eldest McCaffrey son called the 49ers star “the most intentional person I know.”

“He wakes up with a purpose,” Max said. “His day is planned from the second he wakes up to the minute he goes to sleep.”

That’s the kind of laser focus that can help a young running back such as Omarion Hampton, selected 22nd overall by the Chargers in the 2025 draft.

Ed McCaffrey was head coach at Northern Colorado from 2020-22 and had Max on his staff all three seasons, first as receivers coach, then as offensive coordinator for the final two seasons.

“I think it’s tremendous,” Ed said of his son’s play-calling experience. “It’s tremendous for the whole process because it allows you to set your vision as to how much you need to own at the NFL level running an offense.

“He got to really invest into the details across all positions, getting a firm, tangible example of what he needs from position coaches. So to be prepared to be a position coach, I think it directly helped him in that process.”

When McDaniel was head coach of the Miami Dolphins, he brought on Max as an offensive assistant from 2023-25. When McDaniel got the Chargers job, he brought Max with him, giving him a key position to oversee.

Chargers running backs coach Max McCaffrey, working with running back Kimani Vidal in offseason workouts in May, said, “I love my brothers. I’ll do anything for them, and I just want to see them succeed and chase what they’re passionate about.”

(Los Angeles Chargers)

Joked McDaniel: “For fantasy owners out there, if you’re not liking your output, you have Max to blame.”

Max got his name from a since-closed restaurant at the Stanford mall called Max’s Opera Cafe, where Ed and Lisa had their first date.

Since, he has worked hard to make a name for himself, and the spotlight is only growing.

Dory Funk Jr., a pro wrestling icon and one of three members of the Funk family to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, has died at age 85.

Marti Funk, Funk’s wife of 40 years, told Florida’s Ocala Gazette that her husband died Tuesday while in hospice care. No further details were given.

Born on Feb. 3, 1941, in Hammond, Ind., Funk was the oldest of Dory and Dorothy Funk’s two sons. Spending most of his childhood in Amarillo, Texas, Funk grew up admiring his father, a professional wrestler and promoter who once wrestled in Canada as a heel named the Outlaw who hailed from the fictitious location Double Cross Ranch. As wrestlers, Funk and his brother, Terry, often were billed as being from there as well.

“As a kid, I used to dream I could do all the things my father could do,” Funk said during a 2007 interview for World Wrestling Entertainment. “I wanted to be just like him.”

Funk played offensive and defensive line on the West Texas State University football team (now West Texas A&M) from 1959 to 1962 — he was inducted into the university’s athletics Hall of Fame in 1990 — and went straight into professional wrestling. His 50-plus years in the business included stints in a number of associations across the U.S. and Japan.

He was the National Wrestling Alliance heavyweight champion for more than four years uninterrupted (February 1969 to May 24, 1973). In 1986, Funk and his brother joined WWE (then known as WWF) as a team and defeated Tito Santana and Junkyard Dog at WrestleMania 2.

Funk’s involvement in wrestling also expanded into promotion. In addition, he and Marti owned and operated the Funking Conservatory, a wrestling school where he trained a number of future WWE superstars including Kurt Angle, Christian, Edge, the Hardy Boyz, Mark Henry and Mickie James.

“He was such a good guy,” Marti told the Ocala Gazette, “such a good guy!”

The Funk brothers were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009. Dory Funk Sr., who died in 1973 at age 54, was inducted posthumously to the hall’s Legacy Wing in 2025. Terry Funk died in 2023 at age 79.

WWE chief content officer Triple H announced Funk’s death Tuesday afternoon on social media.

“From the Double Cross Ranch to the @WWE Hall of Fame, Dory’s style inspired countless performers in our industry” Triple H wrote. “Whether it was at WrestleMania 2, WCW, ECW, or the dozens of NWA-affiliated promotions, his travels across North America and Asia were a part of the early blueprint that helped build this business into a global phenomena.

“A hard-nosed and fierce competitor, his rugged in-ring style was only eclipsed by the decades he spent training athletes to perform in the squared circle he loved so much. My thoughts and those of the entire @WWE Universe are with his loved ones during this difficult time.”

A funeral was held for the victims of last week’s US strike on Iran’s Qeshm Island, where a couple and their two-year-old child were killed. Iran’s chief negotiator and parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, vowed the US would “pay the price” for their deaths.

Patti Scialfa’s cancer battle has taken a turn for the better. Take it from the Boss himself.

Bruce Springsteen announced the improvement in his wife and longtime E Street Band member’s health over the weekend in a video message for the Pan-Mass Challenge, a bike-a-thon fundraiser that benefits cancer research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In the video, shared Tuesday on Facebook by Pan-Mass Challenge, the 76-year-old rocker praised the organization’s ongoing commitment to advancing cancer research and spoke about Scialfa’s battle with blood cancer.

“As you know, Patti’s been living with her multiple myeloma for over eight years but now thankfully she is in remission,” he said in his video message, which played during the PMC 2026 opening ceremony in Worcester. “Like millions of families facing cancer, we’ve learned what every patient learns: Hope has a face.”

Scialfa’s cancer battle became public in 2024 when she shared the health revelation in the world tour documentary “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.” Scialfa, now 73, said in the film that she was diagnosed in 2018 with multiple myeloma, a condition that occurs when cancerous plasma cells build up in bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In the film, Scialfa said touring with her husband and the E Street band was difficult because of her disease and she has had “to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go.” She has been part of the E Street Band since 1984 and is its only woman member.

Scialfa, who provides backing vocals and plays tambourine and guitar, married Springsteen in 1991.

Scialfa was absent from the video message, but Springsteen said her health journey offers a lesson he hopes “every American can understand.” “Medical research isn’t an idea. It isn’t politics,” he said, “it isn’t a line in a budget. It’s the reason why families find hope when hope seems hardest to find.”

Times staff writer Mark Olsen and former staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.

Brazilian UFC flyweight Allan Nascimento has died after suffering an apparent heart attack in his sleep, the organization announced. He was 34.

Nascimento was found unresponsive Monday morning, according to the UFC, and was pronounced dead at the scene “despite the efforts of the responding medical team.”

He is said to be survived by his wife and two children.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Allan’s family, friends, teammates, and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” UFC wrote on social media.

At 5 foot 9 and 126 pounds, Nascimento built a reputation “as a skilled competitor and consummate professional,” according to a tribute posted on the UFC site, while compiling a 4-2 record in the Octagon and 22-7 overall (16 wins by submission).

Nascimento started training at the famed Chute Boxe Diego Lima academy in his hometown of Sao Paulo, Brazil, at age 15. It was there that he was given his nickname, Puro Osso, which is Portugese slang for “skin and bones.”

“When I joined my academy, I was extremely thin,” Nascimento told the website Sherdog in 2021. “I weighed nothing. As soon as people saw me, they called me ‘Puro Osso.’ The nickname stuck.”

Nascimento’s first MMA fight was in 2011, with his UFC debut coming 10 years later. His final bout was a split decision loss to Mitch Raposo at UFC Fight Night 279 in Las Vegas.

On Monday, former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira posted several tributes to his close friend and Chute Boxe Diego Lima teammate on his Instagram Story.

“Today I lost a brother that fighting gave me,” Oliveira wrote in Portugese. “Thank you for always being there, for sharing the mat and the corner, and for your words. I’m just so grateful for having you by my side, brother, in training, in the corner and when hanging out. I love you, kid.”

Fellow Brazilian UFC fighter Caio Borralho commented on UFC’s Instagram post about Nascimento’s death: “He was one of the most kind fighters that’s I’ve ever met! Polite, good energy and always in good spirits! He will be missed.”

UFC Brazil reporter Evelyn Rodrigues wrote in the comments: “One of the kindest souls I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing through MMA. Rest in peace, Allan.”