fan

The Lakers’ new big man went to the free throw line. The team’s former big man was on the mind of fans.

“I miss you, AD!” a Lakers fan shouted into the silence as Deandre Ayton prepared to shoot a free throw in the first quarter Friday.

Former Lakers star Anthony Davis played his first game in L.A. since being traded to the Mavericks last season, finishing with 12 points, five assists, five rebounds and three blocks in the Lakers’ 129-119 win at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers (14-4) won their sixth consecutive game and clinched West Group B in the NBA Cup, securing homecourt advantage for the tournament quarterfinals. The Lakers will host the San Antonio Spurs, who won West Group C, on Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.

The Mavericks (5-15) lost their third straight as the blockbuster trade that sent Luka Doncic to L.A. has only become more lopsided in the 10 months since it shocked the NBA.

Doncic had 35 points and 11 assists for the Lakers. Former Laker guard Max Christie, who was also involved in the trade, had 13 points and has become a regular starter for the Mavericks.

After two emotional matchups against his former team last year, Doncic said some of the feelings have subsided, but games against Dallas will always have special meaning for him.

Friday’s game was a well-timed return for Davis, who played in his first game after missing a month with a calf strain. The injury stretched for weeks as the Mavericks fell into the basement of the Western Conference.

LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 28, 2025: Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) scores two of his 38 points against Dallas Mavericks guard Klay Thompson (31) in the second half at Crypto.con Arena on November 28, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Meanwhile, the Lakers have the second-best record in the West. Doncic leads the league in scoring with 35.1 points per game.

Doncic’s continued ascent to superstardom and Davis’ growing injury list has only made the trade more bitter for Mavericks fans. They got their form of revenge when former general manager Nico Harrison was fired on Nov. 11, but the change only signaled a new low for the franchise that went to the NBA Finals two short seasons ago.

Now the player who was supposed to help fill the void left by Doncic has been included in trade rumors. The Mavericks went 3-11 without Davis.

To ensure Davis stayed in a positive mental state during the time of turmoil for the franchise, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd encouraged him to simply stay focused on getting healthy.

“The train keeps moving,” Kidd said. “No matter of a trade or a dismissal, you got to keep moving. And so for AD, [it] was to focus on his body, come back healthy. … Can’t get everything solved in 24 minutes tonight, but as we go forward, we feel like we have a chance to win when he’s in uniform.”

Davis was on a 24- to 27-minute limit Friday. To adhere to the restriction, he had to leave the game with 6:56 left in the fourth quarter with the Mavericks down by just three points.

Leaving the court hurt, Davis said. He had gotten two blocks, an assist and a basket during the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, then the Lakers went on a 9-1 run after Davis went to the bench.

To Kidd, Davis is still one of the best in the world when he is healthy. The coach pointed to Davis’ impressive play in the Paris Olympics when he averaged 8.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks while shooting 62.5% from the field.

The Lakers didn’t need to be reminded of Davis’ talent. Coach JJ Redick said Davis would get the respect that all star players deserve because of his versatile skillset. But more than the shots he blocked or baskets he scored with the Lakers, Redick valued Davis for his support during Redick’s first year as a head coach.

“Very grateful that I had buy-in from him coming in Day 1 never had coached before,” Redick said. “So, it’s one of those things like you’re rooting for certain guys. … There are certain teammates you had, there’s always going to be guys that I coached [who] I either root for them after they are not your teammate and they are not one of your players. Just not when they play against us. Not tonight.”

The Lakers played a tribute video last year when Davis was sidelined with an abdominal injury for his first game back after the trade. Fans were showered him with cheers when he was introduced in the starting lineup Friday. LeBron James playfully bumped Davis at the center of the court before the game then they did the same intricate handshake they performed before games as teammates.

Lakers guard Luka Doncic puts up a jumper between Dallas Mavericks forward P.J. Washington and guard Max Christie on Friday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

After the game, Lakers players lined up to hug Davis. Austin Reaves, who dominated with 38 points on 12 for 15 shooting with eight rebounds and three assists, gave him a two-armed bear hug. Davis grabbed the strap of his jersey and pointed toward Reaves.

“I always liked his game, what he was able to do,” Davis said. “Just now he’s doing it on a more consistent basis, putting up elite numbers. … He’s a player who I always knew could play to this level.”

Reaves left the Lakers locker room with Davis’ blue No. 3 jersey signed by his former teammate.

“He’s one of the best players to ever touch a basketball. I don’t know why he wanted my jersey,” Reaves said. “But for me to get his, it’s pretty fun. … From Day 1, he was telling me to be myself, don’t be anybody else. Continue to work and really be myself on the court. So I owe him a lot.”

There goes West Canaan High School’s hero.

“Varsity Blues” actor James Van Der Beek donned a familiar uniform to toss around a pigskin amid his cancer battle in an Instagram video shared Monday, and his wife Kimberly was in the comments to cheer him on.

“You’re a Wizard. Bouncing back baby!!” she wrote in response to the post. Her comment was accompanied by three heart-eyes emoji. Van Der Beek revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer.

In the short clip, Van Der Beek wears a white football jersey with the number 4 and the name Moxon on the back. He played backup quarterback Jonathan “Mox” Moxon in the Texas-set 1999 coming-of-age film.

“Maybe it was all fun plays we got run in the football sequences for the away games… but I always loved putting on the varsity whites,” Van Der Beek wrote in the caption of the video featuring his “favorite jersey.” He also shared that limited quantities of the commemorative jersey are available for fans to purchase with or without his autograph. The actor sold a similar offering last year. The proceeds will “go directly to families undergoing cancer treatment,” according to his website.

Van Der Beek went on to thank his fans for their outpouring of support since he shared his diagnosis.

“Last year when I released the Blues jersey, I was blown away by the love and support I received from all of you,” he wrote. “It has meant more than I can ever express. … Thank you — for the love, the prayers, the support, and for making this jersey mean something far bigger than a movie. Endlessly grateful for all of you.”

Earlier this month, the “Dawson’s Creek” actor announced that he is also auctioning off memorabilia from his personal collection to help pay for his cancer treatments.

A Stranger Things fan has dubbed the finale as an ’emotional betrayal’ speaking out about how unfair it is that the new year will be dominated by the popular Netflix show

The first part of the final season of Stranger Things released yesterday (November 27) in the UK, and fans are already going wild for what happens in the first four episodes. Binge-watching has been compulsory for so many fans of the 80s-themed spooky show, and people are already raving about it, saying how much they’d missed it. But some are less than impressed with the decisions made by Netflix.

Someone took to the Reddit ‘Stranger Things’ forum saying they felt absolutely “cheated” by one thing Netflix has decided to do with the Stranger Things finale. A viewer in India said that “everything fell apart” for them when they checked the schedule for when the next episodes were out.

In the UK, episodes one to four were released on November 27, and episodes five to seven will be released on Christmas Day, with the finale on New Year’s Eve. However one Indian superfan was left devastated when she realised that they were out at a different time.

They wrote: “Right now it is Nov 24 in India and I’m really excited for season five, so I decided to check the exact release time for India, and everything fell apart.

“All this time, I kept reading the dates as November 26, December 25, and December 31. That’s the pattern my brain assumed.

“But when I actually looked it up, I realised the finale lands on January 1 in India because of the worldwide simultaneous release. And honestly, this has thrown me off completely.

“Ending my year with Stranger Things and starting my year with Stranger Things are two very different emotional experiences. The difference is huge. I was expecting to wrap up 2025 with closure, not begin 2026 with emotional chaos, anxiety, or whatever heartbreak the finale is going to bring”.

They then referred to it as an “emotional betrayal,” saying “this timing has hit me harder than I expected,” saying that they had to write it “somewhere” because they feel “bad about it”.

In the comments, however, people tried to give them a bit of perspective, saying that it was exciting anyway.

One wrote: “Bro, it’s a TV show, not the end of the world.”

“Emotional betrayal? I think that’s a bit dramatic…” somebody else wrote.

A fan shared: “This is what the US has had to deal with for all the previous releases, despite the show being based here.

“I feel bad because it does suck choosing between waking up in the early hours like 2-6am or trying to avoid spoilers until after work the following day to watch, but it’s nice to end it with us being the lucky ones the last time around”.

The original poster responded, however, saying they didn’t have an issue with time; it was “the date” they had a problem with, as they didn’t want to start 2026 feeling devastated by what is likely to be a traumatic finale.

Seasons change. Kids grow up. Monsters evolve. Beloved TV series end.

“Stranger Things’” fifth and final season kicks off Wednesday after a nearly three-and-a-half-year absence. It’s a welcome but bittersweet reunion for fans of the show who’ve spent the last decade watching a gaggle of misfit kids (now teens) weaponize their nerd skills against supernatural and mortal enemies in the fictional town of Hawkins, Ind.

Will (Noah Schnapp), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Max (Sadie Sink) and their superpowered friend Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) are now poised for a final battle against their mind-bending nemesis, Vecna, when the season’s Volume 1 arrives with four new episodes; Volume 2 (three episodes) drops Christmas Day, and the finale arrives Dec 31.

I might complain about the staggering of episodes — all timed for a holiday, of course — but the strategy gives sentimental viewers (my hand is raised) a bit more time to emotionally uncouple with the show.

The end of Netflix’s oddball-to-blockbuster series marks the end of an era, and surely the last generational touchstone to come out of series television. Gen Z, which grew up in the dawn of YouTube and, later, the emergence of TikTok, has generally favored short-form content over lengthier productions; however, “Stranger Things” became the exception. Young fans stretched their attention spans, watching entire seasons of a show where episodes might range anywhere from an hour to two hours plus. The Upside Down, a dark, gooey parallel universe of Hawkins, and its predatory demogorgons became part of their middle school vernacular, in the same way that pre-streaming generations used “isms” from their favorite shows: (“Just MacGuyver it, dude”).

“Stranger Things” takes place in the Reagan era, so from its very beginnings parents of Gen Zers could watch the series with their kids while revisiting their own fond and/or torturous memories of growing up in 1980s. My son was in the sixth grade when the show premiered, meaning I was there to confirm that, yes, tragic hairdos, pleated jeans and unchecked bullying were a thing in the ‘80s. But unlike Eleven, we did not have the power to make said bullies pee their pants in public. If only …

The Day-Glo decade still plays a pivotal role when “Stranger Things” returns this week. Look forward to a Tiffany “I Think We’re Alone Now” moment, nods to great bands like the Fall, and a well-timed mention of a flux capacitor. But Hawkins is no MTV dance party. The sleepy town is under a militarized quarantine. It’s for their own protection, and because the government is up to no good, again. Nothing comes in or out of the place without the knowledge of authorities, unless it’s smuggled in by the perpetually scheming Murray (Brett Gelman).

Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) make their way to the Upside Down. (Netflix)

Max (Sadie Sink) remains comatose as Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) attempts to reach her. (Netflix)

Last we knew, antagonist Vecna (who takes on many forms) had finally opened the gates to the dandruffy Upside Down, merging it with the real world. It was a violent event, but most of the town folk believed all that shaking and noise was because of an earthquake. Poor souls.

Hawkins’ beloved band of nerds know better. They’ve been doing covert “crawls” with the goal of locating and destroying Vecna before he turns the town, then the world, into an oozy wasteland. Joining the fight are Mike’s older sis Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Will’s big brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), friends Steve (Joe Keery) and Robin (Maya Hawke), Will and Jonathan’s mom Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) and Elle’s adopted father, Jim Hopper (David Harbour). Max is comatose in the hospital. Her consciousness is trapped in Vecna’s mindscape, no matter how much Lucas plays Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” to wake her.

Following multiple attacks on their modest home by demodogs and U.S. agents, the Byers have been living in the basement of Mike’s home with his family, the Wheelers. The unfulfilled Mrs. Wheeler (Cara Buono) has been hitting the sauce and the usually flaccid Mr. Wheeler (Joe Chrest) is finally bothered by something — they’re eating his morning bacon! The youngest Wheeler, Holly (Nell Fisher), is now approaching the age that the core cast of kids were when the series premiered in 2016. And Erica (Priah Ferguson), Lucas’s don’t-mess-with-me little sister who still delivers all the show’s best zingers, is now in Mr. Clarke’s middle school science class.

Elevating the storylines of younger characters helps bridge the age gap created when the core cast of kid actors had the audacity to grow up over the show’s run. Brown was 12 when the show premiered. She’s now 21. Critics have complained that they should not be playing high schoolers. But accepting 22-year-old Wolfhard as a teenage Mike is not a stretch — especially given everything else “Stranger Things” fans have been willing to believe in (“talking” Christmas lights, psychokinetic battles, a nefarious Soviet lab under the mall food court).

There are spoiler embargoes aplenty so there’s a limit to what can be said about the first four new episodes out for review. Suffice to say there’s a mega battle on the horizon. Eleven has been training hard, honing her powers. Now she can fling armored vehicles, leap atop large buildings and bend the toughest of minds with a minimal nosebleed. Dustin is fighting angry, hardened by the death of his Hellfire Club buddy, Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). Steve and Jonathan are still competing for Nancy’s attention while her focus is on perfecting her sharpshooting skills. Hopper has a distractingly long beard. And Mrs. Wheeler proves to be a formidable warrior when armed with a jagged, broken wine bottle.

Their original kids’ circumstances haven’t changed all that much, but their outlooks have, making for unpredictable twists in their powers, strengths and alliances.

In the final season of their little show that did, creators the Duffer Brothers (twin siblings Matt and Ross), lean heavily on the interpersonal feuds and friendships between all the aforementioned characters, pairing high-budget action with advancing storylines about folks that fans have come to love. It is, after all, the kids at the center of the story that kept us coming back for more. And it appears they’ll continue to do so, right up to the end.

NICOLE SCHERZINGER has revealed an audience member fell ASLEEP during one of her Disney gigs.

The ex-Pussycat Dolls star, 47, had a hilarious response to the seemingly knackered attendee, whose mid-show nap has gone viral after a clip was shared on social media.

Nicole made light of the seemingly heavy sleeper during her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut in Los Angeles on Thursday last week, where he was filmed wide mouthed as she performed.

The footage, which shows the audience member enjoying a snooze as Nicole’s belting vocals echoed around the venue, was widely shared on Tiktok.

She then jokingly re-posted the footage on her Instagram account, where she captioned it: “Lullaby album pending”.

Her post has already received over 18,000 likes on the platform.

‘I’M A PUSSYCAT’

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British singer Natasha Bedingfield chimed in on the action in the comments section, as she wrote: “I would definitely play that every night”.

While other pals and followers also left equally hilarious responses.

One wrote: “The performance of his dreams”.

While another added: “Bless him. He looks so relaxed bet he woke up for Don’t Cha”.

It comes as the star took the Royal Albert Hall by storm with a one woman show last month.

The performance, on October 6, received a stellar review from The Sun Bizarre’s Jack Hardwick, though she reportedly faced ‘diva’ allegations backstage, according to MailOnline.

She kicked off the evening by making a rude joke about hooking up with her fiancé, former rugby ace Thom Evans.

Dressed in a stunning tight black dress covered in a silver spiderweb pattern, Nicole told the crowd: “I want you to know that this little girl, this little ­Hawaiian, Filipina, Spanish, Chinese, ­Polish and Irish — that’s right, two per cent Irish, that counts — has come a long, long way.”

Smirking, she added: “I also have English in me. His name is Thom. That’s him over there.”

Lusting after her fiance may have left Nicole slightly confused, though. He’s actually Scottish.

The singer met Thom as she worked on The X Factor: Celebrity back in 2019.

The couple then went public with their relationship in 2020, as they made their red carpet debut.

NO WEIGH

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Nicole and Thom have been together for four years, and plan to get married following the former rugby ace’s beach proposal in 2023.

The pair seem loved up as ever. and regularly post cute snaps and work out clips together.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked OpenAI’s use of several monikers, including “Cameos” and “CameoVideo,” for elements of its Sora artificial intelligence video generation products and marketing.

U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee on Friday issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the San Francisco AI giant from using names that are part of an ongoing trademark dispute.

The Northern California judge also set a Dec. 19 hearing to delve further into the matter.

The lawsuit was brought late last month by Chicago-based tech business Baron App, which also goes by the name of its product, Cameo. The eight-year-old firm sued OpenAI, alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition.

In its Oct. 28 lawsuit, Baron said it has secured several U.S. Trademark Registrations for its Cameo product, which enables fans to engage celebrities to make personalized videos to wish friends a happy birthday or other greetings.

Snoop Dogg, Tony Hawk, Jon Bon Jovi and Donald Trump Jr. are among celebrities who have participated, connecting with fans through Cameo, the company said in its complaint against Open AI. Cameo said its posts have been popular, attracting more than 100 million views in the past year.

The legal dispute began after OpenAI announced an update to its text-to-video tool Sora in September. The update included the launch of a new Sora feature that it called Cameos.

OpenAI’s fall product update gave consumers on the Sora app the ability to scan their faces and allow others to manipulate their facial images in AI-generated environments. YouTube influencer and boxer Jake Paul, who is an investor in OpenAI, participated in OpenAI’s Cameos’ rollout. In less than five days, the Sora app hit more than 1 million downloads.

“OpenAI is now using Cameo’s own mark, CAMEO, to compete directly with Cameo,” Baron wrote in its lawsuit against OpenAI.

Lawyers for the two companies argued their positions in a Tuesday hearing.

Lee’s decision forbids OpenAI and its “officers, directors and employees from using the mark ‘Cameo,’ or any other mark that includes or is confusingly similar to ‘Cameo,’ ” according to her order. “Defendants are ordered to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not [be] issue[d].”

The temporary restraining order expires Dec. 22.

“While the court’s order is temporary, we hope that OpenAI will agree to stop using our mark permanently to avoid any further harm to the public or Cameo,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a Saturday statement. “We would like nothing more than to put this behind us so that we can focus our full attention on bringing talent and fans together as we head into the holidays.”

An OpenAI spokesperson responded in a statement: “We disagree with the complaint’s assertion that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word ‘cameo’, and we look forward to continuing to make our case to the court.”

The move comes as OpenAI has faced blowback in Hollywood as images of celebrities and dead newsmakers were manipulated without their consent.

McGregor’s magnificent goal papered over some large cracks against St Mirren.

Celtic have failed to score in six matches this season, have scored fewer in the league than both Hearts and Hibernian, and were blunt again against St Mirren.

It took until second-half injury time for O’Neill’s side to have an effort on target – a tame header from substitute Yang Hyun-Jun. It took a moment of magic from McGregor to turn one point into three.

For large stages of the match, it looked as though it might have been zero.

Conor McMenamin twice went close in the first half, Miguel Freckleton spooned an excellent chance over the bar, and Liam Scales put through his own goal, only to be spared his blushes by an offside flag against McMenamin.

It was put to the former Leicester City, Aston Villa and Republic of Ireland boss that off-field dramas might have affected the Celtic players on the pitch.

“When it was a continuation of not really supporting the team tonight, and it was just ‘sack the board’ the whole way through, there’s an element that it might [affect the team],” O’Neill said.

“I don’t think it helps, but the one thing we don’t lack is unity within the dressing room.”

I have to give it to Bill Plaschke when he’s right. UCLA moving to SoFi Stadium is about as smart as a typical UCLA coaching hire.

This month I was able to attend the Steelers-Chargers game at SoFi on a Sunday, followed the next Saturday by the USC-Iowa game at the Coliseum. Everything about those two places is different and only one of them feels like the college experience.

SoFi crams tailgaters in like sardines. There is no room to enjoy the experience.

The fresh air and scenery at the Rose Bowl are the best maybe in the country. People don’t show up at the Rose Bowl for a very simple reason: The program stinks. Not the venue. This proves the old adage, “the fish stinks from the head down.” Thousands of fans sat in the rain last weekend for a Trojans game because the product on the field was worth it. Simple.

Jeff Heister
Chatsworth

Who can blame UCLA for wanting to play at SoFi Stadium, the ultra-modern sports palace, not to mention great recruiting tool, a mere 15 minutes from campus? As Bill Plaschke waxes nostalgic, the rest of us slog down the 10 Freeway from Westwood, through downtown, up into the far northeast corner of L.A., to the antiquated monument that is the Rose Bowl.

Afterward, those of us sitting on the east side of the stadium, staring into the setting sun until the fourth quarter, stumble with burned-out retinas to the muddy golf course that they call a parking lot, to wait in our stack-parked cars, until everyone else is out, so we can leave, an hours-long ordeal just to get home. My only question is, what genius at UCLA signed a long-term contract to play at a place that was obsolete long before the ink dried?

Art Peck
View Park

UCLA will pay attorneys millions of dollars endeavoring to extricate the university from the ironclad Rose Bowl lease it pledged to honor. Beyond those fees, they’ll pay tens of millions more to Pasadena in order to get out of the deal.

If UCLA takes those same many millions, invests in a top-tier coach, enhances its football programs and facilities, and fills their NIL coffer, that should lead to a winning, sustainable program that brings more fans to the games. Rose Bowl revenue goes up.

Pasadena may get a one-time windfall, but over time without an anchor tenant, revenue will shrink and the stadium’s luster will fade.

Where are the sensible, honorable folks who possess the smarts and the backbone to craft a fair deal?

David Griffin
Westwood

UCLA likely leaving the historic Rose Bowl, home of a million team memories and successes, for the sterile confines of SoFi Stadium is abhorrent to any longtime Bruin fan. Terry Donahue, you have our sincerest apologies.

Jack Wolf
Westwood

Those who want to stay at the Rose Bowl describe the place as iconic, an ode to everything that’s great about college football. They say it oozes history and tradition. Just the sight of the glowing neon sign is enough to give them goosebumps.

Those who want to go call the place a dump. They say it’s old and decaying by the day, a shell of its former greatness. Why hold on so hard when a futuristic stadium in Inglewood could provide not only a home closer to campus but also an infusion of cash as part of a more favorable lease?

Going into what could be UCLA’s last home game ever at its century-old stadium Saturday night, some with deep ties to the school say they understand each of the dueling perspectives in the debate over a possible move to SoFi Stadium.

“The concern is, are you gonna lose part of your identity, which has been in peril lately already?” said Kris Farris, a former All-America offensive tackle with the Bruins who was among the more than half-dozen former greats and current recruits who spoke with The Times about the situation. “So it’s like you’re taking away another special part of UCLA, but of course everyone understands the upside financially and what the program needs to do in the arms race of college football right now.”

Officially, nothing has been decided. School officials have released two statements in recent weeks, both acknowledging the uncertainty of the situation. It’s believed that if UCLA decided to make a move to SoFi Stadium, the Bruins would want to do so before the 2026 season.

But the courts could have the final say. The Rose Bowl Operating Co. and the City of Pasadena have commenced a legal battle with hopes of forcing the team to stay. Having called the stadium home since moving in before the 1982 season under legendary coach Terry Donahue, UCLA committed to a lease that doesn’t expire until the summer of 2044.

“I just really feel if Terry was here, I think he’d say, ‘What’s the hurry?’ ” said Pat Donahue, one of the late coach’s brothers. “You have a lease, why don’t you underwrite what the issues are and if you feel you made a bad deal, go renegotiate. You know, I just don’t know what the hurry is and it seems to me that UCLA has a lot bigger football problems than the Rose Bowl, right? I mean, the building’s on fire and you wanna remodel the garden.”

Only one thing seems certain: UCLA will not play home games on campus, as so many have proposed over the years. A movement to build a football stadium on the spot now occupied by Drake Stadium died in 1965 amid opposition from students, political leaders and local homeowners. Not only did the University of California regents rebuff the stadium bid, they also decreed that no structure built on the Drake Stadium footprint could later be enlarged into a football stadium.

Thus the current dilemma. Does UCLA keep its word and fulfill a Rose Bowl lease in which it loses millions of dollars annually in opportunity costs because it does not take in suite or sponsorship revenue? Or do the Bruins head to SoFi Stadium for a new beginning flush with cash, if not tradition?

“In the long term, if you look at the UCLA program, SoFi makes a whole lot more sense whether you like it or not,” said former Bruins quarterback Gary Beban, who led the team to an upset of top-ranked Michigan State in the 1966 Rose Bowl and won the school’s only Heisman Trophy in 1967.

Beban played for UCLA teams that called the Coliseum home, long before the Bruins moved to the Rose Bowl. He said initially wasn’t a supporter of UCLA playing in Pasadena because of a 26.2-mile commute from campus, acknowledging the issue seemed to be largely offset by wild early success the team enjoyed while appearing in five Rose Bowl games between 1983 and 1999.

With the Bruins stuck in a decadelong funk, making that long commute has become more burdensome, leading to dwindling attendance at a stadium that’s roughly twice the distance from UCLA than SoFi Stadium.

“It’s a convenience issue for the people at the campus and over a longer period of time,” Beban said, “I think eventually SoFi just makes more sense than the Rose Bowl. … Right now, this is being looked at at a time when the program needs a lot of fresh air. Regardless of how big of a supporter you are, there are a list of things that need to be advanced and this is just one of them. Maybe it’s time to start all over in all directions and try to get going in the right direction.”

One of Beban’s teammates favors holding on more tightly to the past. Jim Colletto, co-captain of the 1966 Rose Bowl champions, said standing on that field makes one feel like he’s playing or coaching with the ghosts of legends.

Before his return to the Rose Bowl as UCLA’s offensive line coach in 2006, Colletto walked to the two-yard line, where former teammate Bob Stiles had made a goal-line stand 40 years earlier by stopping Michigan State fullback Bob Apisa on a potential game-tying two-point conversion.

“I closed my eyes,” Colletto said, “and it all came alive again.”

Which stadium do possible future UCLA players want to call home?

Kenneth Moore III, a wide receiver from St. Mary’s High in Stockton who has verbally committed to the Bruins, said he’d prefer to play at SoFi Stadium. As far as he’s concerned, the stadium that opened in 2020 is closer to campus and would create a better environment than the team has experienced at the Rose Bowl, where it’s averaging only 37,099 fans this season.

“I feel it’ll be more involvement from the fans after going to SoFi,” Moore said, “to have more packed-out stands.”

Cooper Javorsky has remained a constant presence at the Rose Bowl even after decommitting from UCLA in the wake of coach DeShaun Foster’s dismissal. The offensive lineman from San Juan Hills High who is still considering the Bruins has developed an affinity for the place based on his many weekends spent on the sideline watching games.

“I don’t think I’m really in a position to have an opinion,” Javorsky said, “but who wouldn’t think it’s cool to run out at the Rose Bowl on a Saturday?”

One widespread lament is the possible loss of unfettered tailgating on a sprawling golf course and surrounding parking lots. Farris said throwing a football on the grass and cooking food in an open space was the part of the gameday experience that his kids looked forward to most when they were younger.

“At SoFi, just having attended some professional games there, they just don’t have the tailgating experience,” Farris said. “The tailgating at the Rose Bowl is special, it’s unique. You know, it’s not a paved parking lot with a small little stall.”

Hearing that UCLA’s game against Washington on Saturday could be the team’s last one inside the stadium he once called home has motivated Farris to make the drive from Orange County. It could represent one final memory for someone who was part of the last Bruins team to play in a Rose Bowl game.

“There’s nothing like it,” Farris said of the place. “I’ve played in a lot of different stadiums and obviously the backdrop and the size and scale of the Rose Bowl, the history of the Rose Bowl, the energy coming from the fans and just the history in that building and to be able to call it your home as a program and that’s your home field and being able to dominate in that time like we were able to do as a team, I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”

Nearly everyone who weighed in the stadium debate agreed that winning would solve many of UCLA’s problems regardless of where it played, drawing more fans and revenue. But Dave Ball, a former Bruins All-America defensive end, said there was a caveat that should be attached to that sentiment.

“Yes, winning solves everything,” Ball said, “but it’s like to me, the resources are the thing, especially now, that are going to promote winning. It’s like, man, you need to have the players and to have the players you need big budgets and an environment that is like swooning over the kids and Ohio State has that, Alabama has that, a lot of the SEC schools have that, and so a great coach who starts to get the program going will instill more excitement and more money, but you do need a lot of the budget and the resources to get that top-tier coach and those top-tier athletes.

“This thing is a game of moving onto the next and what matters to everybody is, do you win football games, championships, bowl games or not?”

On the drive up to the Rose Bowl’s front door, underneath the legendary glowing sign, toward the picturesque purple mountains, there stands the most impactful symbol of the school that plays there.

It is a statue of Jackie Robinson in a UCLA football uniform.

He is cradling the ball in his left hand and warding off impending tacklers with his right, a striking bronze symbol of a university’s resilience and strength. The most formidable figure in American sports history is standing where he grew up, where his team lives and where he forever will embody the epitome of the gutty Bruin.

Nobody represents the mission of UCLA more than Jackie Robinson.

UCLA fans cheer during the game against Penn State at the Rose Bowl on Oct. 4.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Nothing is more disgusting than the thought of UCLA leaving him in the dust.

The Bruins are trying to flee the Rose Bowl, did you hear? They’re trying to break a long-term lease and leave Pasadena on the next thing smokin’. Oh yeah, they’re all but gone, it’s all there in lawsuits and court filings and mounds of legal stuff that mask the real message.

UCLA values a quick buck over enduring integrity, fast cash over deep tradition and dollars over die-hards.

The Bruins want to leave the most storied stadium in America, a place where they have played for 43 years, a living monument to Bruins icons, a tailgating paradise with a postcard backdrop … for the shiny toy that is SoFi Stadium, an amazing professional football palace that has no business being the permanent home of a college football team.

This is no knock on SoFi. It’s Super Bowl cool. But it’s an NFL stadium with NFL vibes. It doesn’t work for a struggling university program that would be a third tenant viewed as a last resort.

The Bruins don’t want to move there for tradition. When it comes to college football, SoFi has none. UCLA played there once in a bowl game that drew what appeared to be a handful of fans, the quaint gathering dwarfed by the space-age surroundings.

They don’t want to go there for the increased convenience. There is none. You can’t sell me that 14 fewer miles going south on the 405 on a Saturday afternoon would be noticeably quicker than a longer trek going east on the 134. Especially if there also are events happening at the SoFi-adjacent Forum and Intuit Dome.

They don’t want to go for the game-day experience. There is none. They would be sacrificing lush Brookside tailgating for scarce parking lot tailgating, robbing UCLA fans of their one guaranteed victory every game.

Yes, SoFi has much better seats and bathrooms and amenities but, no, the Bruins want to go for one reason only, and we’ve known what that is from the moment they admitted their athletic department was in financial ruin.

UCLA offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel walks back to the sidelines after a timeout during a game against Nebraska at the Rose Bowl on Nov. 8.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

This is all about the money. UCLA long ago agreed to a lousy deal with the Rose Bowl from the outset — the school apparently sign leases like it hires football coaches — and thus the Bruins don’t receive any cut of suite or sponsorship deals, and get just a fraction of merchandise and parking. Some estimate they can make a few multiples of their current revenue by moving to SoFi, and that’s certainly a legitimate motivation, but it’s also the easy way out.

You know how else they could make more money? Win more football games! Did anybody think of that?

Since Terry Donahue retired in 1995, the UCLA football program frequently has dumped a steaming pile of garbage on Pasadena’s prettiest doorstep, and the poor decisions by the athletic department finally are catching up to it.

They’ve had losing records in seven of the last 10 years. They’ve gone through five coaches and endured countless disappointments. Not surprisingly, increasingly fewer fans want to devote their Saturdays to cheering for a team that too often finds itself plopping into a Brookside bunker.

The Bruins’ five worst attendance figures have come in the last five seasons not interrupted by COVID-19. They’ve ranked around the bottom of Big Ten attendance, and the hole just keeps getting deeper.

They’re averaging 37,099 this season entering the Saturday night’s home finale against Washington, a pace which would set the record for the lowest UCLA season attendance at the Rose Bowl.

And all this is the Rose Bowl’s fault? Not since Roy “Wrong Way” Riegels has someone in the Arroyo Seco been so misguided.

The City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Co. have lived up to their part of the lease, which still has 19 years remaining on it. Pasadena officials say taxpayers have invested more than $150 million in stadium renovations and they’re ready to write a check on an additional $130 million for improvements.

It shows. The Terry Donahue Pavilion is magnificent. The grounds are pristine. There are plans for a cool field club beyond the south end zone.

The Rose Bowl folks have done everything they agreed to do. That UCLA still is trying to walk out the front door smacks of an entitled, oafish spouse who demands their significant other improve themselves, then leaves anyway.

I’ve been covering UCLA games at the Rose Bowl for nearly 40 years, and I can confirm there’s no better place to watch college football in this country. It’s the Augusta National of football stadiums, a place where they should hold the national championship every year, with its breathtaking skyline and deep green surroundings and that crisp fall breeze that sneaks through the Arroyo Seco like an old friend reminding you of home.

UCLA tailback Derrick Williams celebrates with a cheerleader’s megaphone after defeating the USC 13-9 at the Rose Bowl on Dec. 2, 2006.

(Stephen Dunn / Getty Images)

No, it’s not on UCLA’s campus, but there’s no more room, that ship has sailed. And, no, UCLA doesn’t make an appropriate amount of money in the deal, but the school signed the lease, and those lost dollars can appear in other ways.

By playing at the Rose Bowl, the Bruins are paid in majestic beauty, timeless tradition and a sense of family that their alumni and fans can’t get anywhere else.

I was on the sidelines in the final seconds on that first Saturday in December 2006 for quite possibly UCLA’s greatest Rose Bowl moment. You remember. How could you forget?

The John David Booty drive, the Eric McNeal interception, the stunning 13-9 UCLA victory that denied USC a spot in the national championship game while giving the Bruins their only win over the Trojans in a 13-year span.

What stays with me from that afternoon is the deafening noise that seemed to fill every corner of Pasadena before morphing into arguably the loudest Eight Clap in Bruins history.

“U-C-L-A! Fight! Fight! Fight!”

The Rose Bowl was magical that day. Shame on UCLA for not believing it still can be.

The chants never let up at American Airlines Arena.

“Fire Nico!”

They started in February after Dallas Mavericks general manager and president of basketball operations Nico Harrison initiated a trade that sent superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers and continued to occur at home games throughout the end of last season and into the 2025-26 campaign.

On Tuesday morning, those vocal fans got their wish, as Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont announced that Harrison had been let go weeks into his fifth season with the team. Dallas went 182-157 under the former Nike executive, including a 3-8 start to this season.

Assistant general managers Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi were named co-interim general managers to oversee basketball operations.

“This decision reflects our continued commitment to building a championship-caliber organization, one that delivers for our players, our partners, and most importantly, our fans,” Dumont said.

Harrison spent nearly two decades with Nike before being hired by the Mavericks in June 2021. The team made it to the Western Conference finals the following season and to the NBA Finals in 2024, with Doncic as its undisputed star.

Then came Feb. 1, when the Mavericks traded Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round draft pick. Harrison reportedly approached Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka about the possibility of the trade, and Dumont is said to have approved the deal before it was finalized.

The move shocked most people involved with the NBA, and Dallas fans felt blindsided. That’s when “Fire Nico” started. The words appeared on signs and T-shirts in addition to being yelled at home games, including the Mavericks’ 116-114 loss Monday to the Milwaukee Bucks.

During that game, Dumont was seen sitting courtside having a lengthy conversation with a fan in a Lakers jersey featuring Doncic’s name and number. That person, 18-year-old Mavericks fan Nicholas Dickason, told The Athletic that he had initiated the conversation to apologize to the team governor for yelling curse words at him and giving him the finger at a game earlier this season.

According to Dickason, Dumont accepted his apology and added an admission of his own.

“Basically Patrick was like, he feels horrible for the trade. And wants to make it up to us,” Dickason said. “That’s basically what he said. He accepted my apology for it as well.”

In April, after the Mavericks finished the 2024-25 season with a 39-43 record and missed the playoffs, Harrison admitted he underestimated the level of outrage the trade would cause.

“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”

He added: “When you have 20,000 people in the stadium chanting ‘Fire Nico,’ you really feel it. … But my job is to make decisions I feel are in the best interest of this organization, and I gotta stand by the decisions, and some of them are going to be unpopular. This was clearly one that’s unpopular.”

An end to the shutdown?

Not for the Chargers, whose defense put the clamps on the Pittsburgh Steelers with a 25-10 victory before a sea of black-and-gold-clad fans and a national TV audience.

Neither team had many offensive highlights — or first downs, for that matter — but the Chargers did enough to win their third game in a row, something they hadn’t done since the first three games of the season.

You might call the Chargers inhospitable, seeing as the Steelers came into the game averaging 25.3 points. You might call the Steelers inhospitable for filling SoFi Stadium with Pittsburgh fans.

The Terrible Towels were everywhere, but there were precious few opportunities to swirl them. By the fourth quarter, thousands of those fans were streaming for the exits. The Steelers were held to 11 first downs, converted two of 11 third downs and generated 221 total yards.

Aaron Rodgers looked every bit of his 41 years. He was sacked three times, intercepted twice, brought down in the end zone for a safety and he finished with an anemic passer rating of 50.6.

The Steelers looked nothing like the team that forced six turnovers against Indianapolis the week before and handed the Colts just their second loss.

In the waning moments, Keenan Allen caught a pop pass and ran seven yards to become the Chargers’ all-time receptions leader (956), surpassing Hall of Fame tight end Antonio Gates.

Rodgers couldn’t establish anything close to an offensive rhythm, and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert took an all-too-familiar beating, playing behind an offensive line that has had 19 different combinations this season.

Herbert was sacked five times, a week after the Tennessee Titans got to him six times.

Chargers linebacker Bud Dupree dances after sacking Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Steelers scored first with a 59-yard field goal by Chris Boswell in the opening quarter, but after that it was virtually all Chargers. Cameron Dicker had three field goals, and Ladd McConkey and Kimani Vidal scored touchdowns.

Rodgers threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Roman Wilson with 2 minutes 57 seconds remaining, but that was merely a cosmetic score that made the game appear a bit closer.

Herbert took a hit from behind in the second quarter, was slow to his feet and got both ankles taped on the sideline.

According to NBC, he came into the game having been pressured an average of 17 times per game, more than any other quarterback this season, and having absorbed an average of nine hits per game, second-highest for an NFL quarterback in the last 20 seasons.

The Chargers were coming off a win at Tennessee in which they lost left tackle Joe Alt, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury. The team traded for New Orleans offensive lineman Trevor Penning last week.

Even though they leaned into a bunch of quick-developing pass plays to get the ball out of Herbert’s hands quickly, the Chargers still saw their quarterback knocked down time and again. His passes were batted down at the line of scrimmage too, with one winding up back in Herbert’s hands for a reception (although that was wiped out by a Pittsburgh penalty).

The Chargers’ defense got to Rodgers as well, putting the first points on the scoreboard for the home team by sacking the future Hall of Famer in the end zone.

The Chargers next head to Jacksonville. The Jaguars, who got off to a 4-1 start, have lost three of four.

Jacksonville is the site of a horrible memory for the Chargers, who blew a 27-point lead there to suffer a one-point loss in a January 2023 playoff game.

Remember when soccer was being touted as the next big sport in the U.S.? Well, it looks like that moment has finally arrived.

Or not. It all depends on who you ask and how you interpret what they tell you.

On one hand, there’s the recent Harris Poll that found 72% of Americans profess an interest in soccer, a 17% increase from 2020. A quarter of those are “dedicated” fans and 1 in 5 say they are “obsessed” with the sport.

On the other hand, there’s the stark decline in attendance and TV viewership for the country’s top two domestic leagues, MLS and the NWSL, and the underwhelming crowds that showed up last summer for the FIFA Club World Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

LAFC fans lift up a banner honoring Carlos Vela during a ceremony to honor him before a match against Real Salt Lake at BMO Stadium on Sept. 21.

(Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)

These contrary findings — a growing fanbase at the same time attendance and viewership numbers are falling off a cliff — come at an important inflection point for soccer in the U.S., with the largest, most ambitious World Cup kicking off at SoFi Stadium in fewer than 200 days.

“The short answer is yes, the World Cup will be a watershed moment for soccer in America. However, it’s unlikely to immediately lead to a significant increase in ticket sales for MLS and NWSL. Soccer fandom in America develops differently from that of other sports,” said Darin W. White, executive director of the Sports Industry Program and the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University, which next year will launch a major five-year study to explore how soccer can become mainstream in the U.S.

“The World Cup will bring millions of new Americans into the pipeline. Over the next few years we expect these new fans to progress through the pipeline, giving soccer a substantial enough fan base to tip the scales and help make soccer part of the ongoing mainstream sports conversation. I am confident that the World Cup will enable soccer to reach that critical mass.”

Steven A. Bank, a professor of business law at UCLA who has written and lectured extensively on the economics of soccer, isn’t as optimistic.

“The risk isn’t that U.S. soccer will be in the same place in 10 years, but that it will have regressed,” he said.

“For the World Cup to benefit domestic leagues’ attendance, ratings, and revenue, as well as youth and adult participation rates in playing soccer, it will have to be the catalyst for more domestic investment in the game. The question isn’t whether the World Cup will convince enough people to become fans or to move from casual to dedicated or obsessive fans. It’s whether it will convince enough wealthy people and companies to risk the kind of money necessary to compete with the top leagues for the top talent.”

U.S. captain Christian Pulisic drives the ball during an international friendly against Ecuador at Q2 Stadium on Oct. 10 in Austin, Texas.

(Omar Vega / Getty Images)

That investment could be a boost to both first-tier domestic leagues, which saw their attendance and TV rating fall dramatically this year. After setting records in both 2023 and ‘24, MLS watched its average attendance fall 5.4% — to 21,988 fans per match — this season. According to Soccer America, 19 of the 29 teams that played in 2024 saw their attendance drop; more than half saw declines of 10% or more.

The TV audience also appears to be relatively small, although the fact Apple TV, the league’s main broadcast partner, rarely releases viewer data has hampered efforts to draw any firm conclusions. MLS said last month that its games attracted 3.7 million global aggregate viewers a week on all its streaming and linear platforms, an average of about 246,000 a game on a full weekend. While that’s up nearly 29% from last year, the average viewership figure is about 100,000 smaller than what the league drew for single games on ESPN alone in 2022, the last season before Apple’s 10-year $2.5-billion took effect.

NWSL also saw overall league attendance fall more than 5%, with eight of the 13 teams that played in 2024 experiencing declines. And TV viewership in the second year of the league’s four-season $240 million broadcast deal was down 8% before the midseason July break, according to the Sports Business Journal.

That follows a summer in which both the expanded Club World Cup and the Gold Cup struggled to find an audience. Although the 63-match Club World Cup drew an average of 39,547 fans per game, 14 matches had crowds of fewer than 20,000. The Gold Cup averaged 25,129 for its 31 games — a drop of more than 7,000 from 2023. And five matches drew less than 7,800 people.

“There’s a danger of taking this year’s decline out of context,” said Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sports management at the University of Michigan and author of several books on soccer including “Money and Soccer” and “Soccernomics” (with Simon Kuper). “Last year was a record year. It’s really about the diminishment of the Messi effect.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a moment of crisis. And the way MLS is looking at this strikes me that they’re entirely focused on a post-World Cup [bump], which they think they’re going to get. I’d be skeptical myself about that. I don’t think it will do that much for them.”

Szymanski said the World Cup could hurt the league by underscoring the huge difference in the quality of play between elite international soccer and MLS.

“Americans are not dumb,” he said. “They know what’s good quality sport [and] not good quality sport. And they know that MLS is low level. The only way, in a global marketplace, you can get the top talent to have a truly competitive league is to pay the salaries.”

Which brings us back to Bank’s conclusion that fixing soccer in the U.S. isn’t about the soccer, it’s about the money being spent on the sport. For next summer’s World Cup to have a lasting impact, the “bump” will have to come not just from an increase in attendance and TV viewership but in investment as well. And, as Szymanski argues, that means additional investment in players as well.

“If all it does is attract eyeballs for this competition,” Bank said “I’m not sure it does more than the Olympics does every four years when it temporarily raises the profile of a few sports for some people who were not casual fans before.”

LIAM GALLAGHER let rip in fury yesterday at a fan who fired a flare into the crowd during an Oasis concert.

The band were kicking off the Australian leg of their world tour, at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium in front of a 55,000-strong audience, when the incident happened.

The flaming missile landed on a packed moshpit as Oasis belted out 1996 hit Champagne Supernova.

Liam continued singing but later called out the disruptive act from the stage, wagging his finger at the crowd and telling fans:  “That was naughty — naughty, naughty, naughty.”

Brother Noel is also reported to have been not at all best pleased — looking “concerned”.

The band were then fuming backstage, as Liam took to X yesterday and blasted: “To the massive C* who launched that flare into the crowd last night at the gig in Melbourne, you are one seriously f**d up individual and you will get yours, trust me.”

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‘A bit intense’

One member of the crowd revealed: “People were scared as they didn’t know what was going on.

“No one expects to see flames in the crowd at a gig.

“It was all a bit intense for a few split seconds.”

A venue spokesman said: “Security acted quickly, but the patron involved in throwing the flare wasn’t found. Thankfully no one has ended up getting injured.”

Earlier on in the evening, Liam was in high spirits as he told an anecdote about a kangaroo that had the audience laughing.

Meanwhile, Liam’s sons Lennon and Gene had been enjoying the Asian leg of the tour last month.

A source tells me: “When they were in Japan last week they went all out and did a tea ceremony, they went to a temple and got blessed by a monk, and they had Samurai lessons.

“They are living the dream.”

With their dad laying low after a few too many parties on tour,  I’m glad his lads are having fun.

JACOB’S COFFEE DATE

HUNKY actor Jacob Elordi is wasting no time after splitting from his glamorous YouTuber girlfriend after four years.

The Aussie, who stars in new Netflix film Frankenstein, was spotted grabbing coffee with model Kristen Kiehnle after the movie’s premiere in Los Angeles.

Kristen, who has 83,000 Instagram followers, is often seen flaunting her svelte physique on her holidays.

A source said: “Jacob and Kristen have been hanging out in LA. His romance with Olivia Jade has fizzled out and Jacob is concentrating on the film.”

Jacob and Olivia, were first linked in 2021, but called it quits after rekindling their relationship two months ago.

Olivia, the daughter of actress Lori Loughlin supported Jacob at the Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of Frankenstein in September.

He may be playing Frankenstein’s monster, but it sounds like Jacob won’t be single for long.

BRIT OF LUCK FOR LILY

SHE’S already announced a 13-date UK tour next year, but I can reveal Lily Allen could be gracing us with a live performance before then.

I hear that the star, whose record West End Girl came out last month, is on the most wanted list to sing at the Brit Awards in February.

A well-placed music source tells me: “Lily’s album has gone stratospheric.

“Not only will she be a shoo-in for a gaggle of nominations, but bosses think she’d be ideal as a centre-piece for the performers on the night.

“She epitomises British talent and deserves to be on that stage being celebrated.

“It’s early days, but planning has already begun.”

Lily last performed at the Brits – which take place at the Co-op Live in Manchester for the first time next year – in 2010.

Back then, she belted out chart-topper The Fear.

Over the years, the star has been nominated for nine Brit Awards, but has only taken one home.

I’m sure that will change, though, with her latest musical offering detailing the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour.

Despite the exposing compilation, Lily – who dressed up as kids’ book character Madeline for Halloween in a nod to the name she gave David’s alleged mistress on the album – says she doesn’t want “revenge”.

She told Interview magazine she now feels “differently” about their marriage breakdown, adding: “I wrote this record in ten days in December, and I feel very differently about the situation now.

“We all go through breakups, and it’s always f***ing brutal.

“But I don’t think it’s that often that you feel inclined to write about it while you’re in it.”

I think Lily crooning Pussy Palace on stage at the Brits would be iconic British behaviour . . .

IT’S NOUGHTIES BUT NICE, LADS

THE BUSTED vs McFly tour served up a dose of Noughties nostalgia as it hit London’s O2 arena.

The two groups are going head to head on a shared series of gigs around the UK, in a battle of the bands to finally settle their rock rivalry.

McFly – Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter – opened the London show with Where Did All The Guitars Go? before they had the whole room swaying with 2005 hit All About You.

Next, it was time to welcome their older brothers, in the form of Busted’s Matt Willis and Charlie Simson.

The pair paid tribute to bandmate James Bourne who has quit the tour for health reasons.

Matt said: “James Bourne, our best friend, is not with us right now – it sucks, we miss him and we love him. James is really fing sick so we are playing without him. It has been so fing weird but thank you for supporting us.”

After Busted reeled off their hits Crashed The Wedding and What I Go To School For, they belted out Year 3000 – joined by McFly. That song may be about the future, but I was happy to be back in the Noughties.

HE may pocket £500,000 as host of This Morning, but Ben Shephard has got a nifty side hustle on the go.

The presenter, who co-hosts the ITV daytime show with Cat Deeley, has set up an enterprising firm called Sweet Spot, which matches celebs with commercial opportunities.

Featured celebs include Joel Dommett, Gemma Atkinson and Love Island stars Will Young and Jessie Wynter.

Sweet Spot is actively looking for investors to help celebs create their own brands.

A source said: “Ben saw a gap in the market and doesn’t want to rely on telly work forever.”

Clever clogs.

ARGGH MAYA HEARTIES

CELEBS love to dress up for the cameras and Halloween gave them the perfect excuse.

Olivia Attwood went as Toy Story’s Jessie the cowgirl to a bash hosted by Heidi Klum, who was in full scare mode as Medusa.

In Manchester, Maya Jama and her footballer boyfriend Ruben Dias dressed up as characters from Pirates Of The Caribbean, while his Man City team-mate Erling Haaland appeared as The Joker.

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Paris Hilton sprinkled some Tinker Bell magic, while Sabrina Carpenter opted for a Fred Flintstone look.

Mariah Carey threw on a long pink wig, Hailey Bieber dressed as one of The Incredibles and Simon le Bon sang on stage with Duran Duran as a zombie.