It began as something merely conceptual, a tantalizing possibility.
Last June, immediately after the Rams traded for star edge rusher Myles Garrett, the NFL grapevine began buzzing:
Would Aaron Donald, a three-time NFL defensive player of the year, consider coming out of retirement to play with Garrett, a two-time winner of the award?
After a summer of rampant speculation, Donald signed on to join what was already regarded as a Super Bowl-favorite team.
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Gary Klein breaks down what to watch for Sunday when the Rams face the Washington Commanders.
But Donald’s ramp-up to achieve football shape precluded him from playing in the season opener against the San Francisco 49ers. And Garrett underwent knee surgery after that loss, so the two stars were unable to play together for seven games.
On Sunday, it will finally happen.
Barring an unexpected setback, Garrett and Donald will line up together for the first time when the Rams play the Washington Commanders at Northwest Field in Landover, Md.
Two players accustomed to being double- or triple-teamed — two players with a combined 236½ sacks — are eager for opportunities.
“The offenses are really going to have to pick their poison,” said Garrett, who amassed an NFL season-record 23 sacks last season. “‘Who’s going to be freed-up this play?’
“I think either of us are pretty good at winning one-on-ones, so we’ll have some fun.”
Said Donald, one of the most dominant interior linemen in NFL history: “It’s always good when you’ve got all the pieces to the puzzles out there.”
The Rams (4-4) aim to build on their modest two-game winning streak and get over .500 for the first time this season.
Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald tackles New York Giants running back Najee Harris for a loss during a Rams win on Sept. 21 at SoFi Stadium.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
But Garrett’s return should energize a team that still intends to play in Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium.
The Rams have only 12 sacks, which is tied for 26th among 32 teams. Edge rusher Byron Young has a team-best 4½ sacks. Donald is still looking for his first.
The attention the Commanders and future opponents must pay to Garrett and Donald will open play-making opportunities for others, Young said.
“I always call it art,” he said of Garrett’s and Donald’s ability to excel despite double teams. “Because it’s not easy when you’ve got four hands on you 90% of the time. And they still make it work.
“So it’s going to be fun. I can’t wait.”
Defensive lineman Braden Fiske said players are acclimating to Garrett’s skill set and play style.
“I’m sure there will be some kinks to work out early on, but it’s still pretty early in the season,” Fiske said. “He’s been playing for 10 years, so it shouldn’t be too hard to catch his stride.
“But he looks damn good out there.”
Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson played against Garrett in 2023, when the Rams defeated the Cleveland Browns at SoFi Stadium. The 6-foot-4, 272-pound Garrett’s size, speed and burst at the snap is “amazing,” Jackson said.
“He’s like a running back with skill but like a D-lineman with his power,” Jackson said. “He’s good at change of direction — like on a dime…
“He’s kind of like a do-everything kind of guy who’s seen everything as far as looks.”
Coach Sean McVay wants Garrett to “play within himself” Sunday.
“He doesn’t have to do anything other than be Myles and play one-eleventh of what the rest were asking to do for the defense,” McVay said.
Garrett said he won’t fight the excitement, the joy and all the emotions of finally getting to play again.
“You don’t try to push them back,” he said. “You open yourself to them. You accept it.
“After acknowledging it, you go out there and do what you’ve always done.”
Dwyane Wade is looking much more like himself these days.
That is, the statue of Wade outside of Kaseya Center in Miami now looks much more like the retired Heat legend than it did when it was unveiled two years ago. The sculpture’s new look, featuring a redesigned head by original sculptors Omri Amrany and Oscar Léon, was unveiled Friday.
The statue was meant to capture the iconic moment in 2009 when Wade jumped on a scorers’ table and declared, “This is my house!” Much of the public reaction, however, centered around how the piece looked less like the three-time NBA champion and more like Laurence Fishburne, Kelsey Grammer, Ken Norton Jr. and others.
“I heard the jokes. I saw the memes. I read the reactions. Everybody had an opinion about whether it actually looked like me,” Wade wrote in an essay published Friday on Substack. “At first, it was hard not to feel protective of it because I had spent so much time involved in the process. … But eventually, I had to take a step back and understand that the statue doesn’t belong only to me. It also belongs to Miami.”
He added: “I had to ask myself a pretty simple question: If people don’t feel that connection when they look at the face, why wouldn’t we try to make it better? So we listened and had honest conversations with everyone involved, and we all agreed to make adjustments to the head.”
When the statue was originally unveiled in October 2024, Wade had nothing but great things to say about it. He said it was his idea to immortalize that pose and that he had a lot of input on how the final product would look.
The original face on Dwyane Wade’s statue at Kaseya Center didn’t quite seem to capture the Miami Heat legend’s likeness.
(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)
“I was just like, ‘Dude, that’s beautiful,’” Wade told reporters after the original unveiling. “Personally biased, I think it’s one of the best statues that’s been created because of what it represents for us and for me.”
Amrany also defended the statue at the time.
“We emphasized a two-second moment of his life when he jumped on the table and was in screaming mode,” Amrany told The Times in October 2024. “And that’s what it is, that’s what happens to the face when people are doing this activity, this facial activity.
“We are very dedicated to a very high detailed quality to deliver exactly what the exact photo is giving us. For somebody to say that this does not look like Dwyane Wade in action, they don’t know Dwayne Wade in action. Or they don’t remember that. And it’s OK for them to say whatever they want.”
Both artists explained the decision to revisit the project in a statement released to media outlets this week.
“After seeing the work at full scale and in its permanent environment, we identified opportunities to strengthen the portrait,” Amrany and Léon said. “We decided that the importance of Dwyane warranted making those refinements rather than accepting something we believed could be improved.”
According to Wade, “this isn’t about erasing the work that was already done or disrespecting the artists who put their time and talent into creating it. It’s about being willing to listen. It’s about recognizing when something carries meaning for more people than just yourself and being open enough to revisit it.”
He added: “I hope when people see it now, they see a better likeness of me. But more than that, I hope they see themselves. Because it may be my likeness, but it will always be our house.”
Based on the comments on an X post by the Heat showing off the changes, Heat fans seem to approve. As one person wrote, it’s the “first statue to have a redemption arc.”
GEORGE Ezra has given fans a glimpse into life away from the spotlight — revealing the recording studio he has built in his hometown.
The Shotgun singer has been quietly working behind the scenes on Hotel Québec in his hometown of Hertford, opening its doors to other musicians.
George Ezra has given fans a glimpse of his life away from the spotlightCredit: Getty Images – GettyThe Shotgun singer built Hotel Québec recording studio in HertfordCredit: Getty
While his own social media accounts have been silent since July 2024, George has been pouring his energy into creating a space where artists can write, record and rehearse.
Originally created for his own musical projects, the studio has since become a business welcoming other performers and producers.
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In a message on its website, George described his venture as a “truly special place” and shared his excitement about welcoming fellow musicians.
He said: “I look forward to hearing what you create here at Hotel Québec.”
George has opened the doors of his studio to fellow musiciansCredit: AFPGeorge scored three consecutive UK No1 albumsCredit: Shutterstock
Set inside a restored 18th-century listed building near the River Lea, the studio features a huge live room, control room and lounge.
There is even a roof terrace where musicians can relax between sessions.
And visiting artists can get their hands on George’s personal guitar collection, alongside an array of keyboards and recording equipment.
The studio marks a new chapter for the singer, who became a household name with breakthrough hit Budapest.
The track reached No3 in the UK, while his debut album Wanted On Voyage topped the charts in 2014 and went on to sell more than a million copies here.
He followed it with Staying At Tamara’s in 2018, scoring another No1 album and spawning hits including Paradise and Shotgun.
The latter became his first UK No1 single, cementing his status as one of Britain’s biggest pop stars.
His success was recognised at the 2019 Brit Awards, where he was crowned British Male Solo Artist.
The dad of one completed a hat trick of chart-topping albums with Gold Rush Kid in 2022, which featured the hit singles Anyone For You and Green Green Grass.
For anyone who has watched Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary about former Theranos CEO (and convicted felon) Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Billy Evans in the past week, every new think piece, funny meme, discussion thread or video parody about the film has been something to revel in. I’ve personally spent several hours messaging or speaking to friends and colleagues over the phone about the documentary, and it seems like a lot of people similarly can’t stop obsessing about it.
The film has sparked renewed interest not only in Holmes, but also in works previously released about her, including “Bad Blood,” written by John Carreyrou, the journalist who exposed Holmes and Theranos’ fraudulent practices, and Alex Gibney’s 2019 documentary “The Inventor,” which senior writer Greg Braxton rewatched and analyzed in the context of the new documentary. Also notable has been the resurgence of Hulu’s “The Dropout,” the 2022 limited series created by Liz Meriwether (“Furious”) that stars Amanda Seyfried — Variety reported this week that the series has seen a jump in viewership over the past month. And of course, there’s been lots of interest in Fielder; we’ve put together a guide to his work if you’re looking to understand him and his style.
But with all the attention on Holmes, Times culture critic Mary McNamara raises an important question: Why are we still so fascinated by Holmes, despite her track record as a con artist and fraudster? There are many answers to the question, but there’s no denying the public’s renewed fascination with Holmes, and now Evans as well.
However, if you prefer to think about lighter relationships that are less perplexing, NBC’s latest sitcom will do the job and remind you of what it’s like to be immediately swept off your feet. “Newlyweds,” starring Téa Leoni, Tim Daly and Jamie Lee Curtis arrives on NBC today. Curtis, who co-created the series, stopped by Guest Spot to talk about what inspired it and the recent changes behind the scenes.
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Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our writers recommend a documentary about a saga surrounding one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time and a cult-classic horror film that’s perfect for spooky season. — Maira Garcia
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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
Tarik Azzougarh, left, and the RZA in Netflix’s “The Disciple.”
(Netflix)
“The Disciple: A Wu-Tang Fable” (Netflix)
In 2015, the only copy of the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” sold at auction for $2 million. The buyer was revealed to be hedge fund and pharma dirtbag Martin Shkreli, who infamously raised the price of an antiparasitic drug by 5,000% overnight and later went to prison for securities fraud. Joanna Natasegara‘s enchanting documentary “The Disciple” explores the long run-up to this Guinness Book of World Records event, and its aftermath, through the surprising, touching, funny and sometimes sad story of the album’s co-producer, Tarik Azzougarh, a.k.a. Cilvaringz. A Dutch Moroccan superfan whose freestyling and persistence earned him a place in the group’s auxiliary, it was Cilvaringz who first proposed the idea and brought it to fruition with Wu-Tang main man RZA — both a culmination and the beginning of an end. The film raises questions of art and ownership, friendship and business, creativity and capitalism, asking the questions who is music for, and what is it for. — Robert Lloyd
‘Highway to Hell’ (Tubi, Prime Video)
This is the perfect spooky-season flick to pop on when you don’t mind interruptions from trick-or-treaters or your buddy who treats movie night like an audition for “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” Directed by Ate de Jong (“Drop Dead Fred”), this 1992 comedy-horror cult classic stars Chad Lowe and Kristy Swanson as an eloping couple who take the wrong shortcut and wind up in Hades — basically, an even worse version of the drive to Vegas — where a young Ben Stiller works the roadside diner and Gilbert Gottfried plays Hitler. Every shot has a snort-worthy gag: a stop-motion Cerberus, a casino-bar called Hoffa’s, a cop whose handcuffs are literally a pair of severed hands. A flop at the time, “Highway to Hell’s” breakneck mix of smart and stupid was applauded by former L.A. Times film critic Kevin Thomas as “the Greek legend of Orpheus, revved up ‘Mad Max’-style.” Screenwriter Brian Helgeland would eventually win an Oscar for “L.A. Confidential.” Somehow, I never hear him brag about this goofy delight. He should. — Amy Nicholson
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Jamie Lee Curtis as Claudia in “Newlyweds,” a sitcom she co-created and executive produces.
(Nicole Weingart / NBC)
Jaime Lee Curtis has been in showbiz for a very long time. And when she sets her mind to something, like returning to a sitcom, she’s going to make it happen.
“It’ll be 50 years next January that I have been a professional actress,” she says over a video call earlier this week. “It’ll be 50 years that I’ve been driving on the lot at Universal.”
Over the course of her long career, Curtis, 67, has developed a lengthy résumé in film and television, winning numerous accolades along the way, including an Oscar and an Emmy (she’s been nominated for a Grammy too — there’s still time for an EGOT). But she longed to return to a sitcom ever since wrapping her lead role on ABC’s “Anything but Love,” a series that premiered in 1989 and ran for four seasons.
While she’s had guest appearances and some recurring roles on sitcoms over the years, including on shows like “New Girl” and “The Drew Carey Show,” NBC’s “Newlyweds” was an idea she had gestated for years, and now it’s set to arrive as part of the network’s Friday prime-time lineup. The actor, who executive produces “Newlyweds” and has a recurring role, took some time to discuss how she came up with the idea for the show, her co-creator’s firing and the political thriller series she’s watching with her spouse, filmmaker Christopher Guest. — M.G.
Jamie, you co-created this series and it’s loosely based on your relationship with your husband, Christoper Guest. Tell me how it came about and how you wanted to tell that story in this show.
It was April 25, 2019. I was in New York City … I was in a car being driven by a man in his 60s in a suit with gray hair on his temples. We were chatting, as one does in the back of a car, and I asked him if he was married, and he said he was divorced. I said, “Do you have kids?” And he said, “No.” And I said, “Well, that’s the blessing that you know you’re not dealing with divorce and children, which I’ve dealt with a lot.” And he then said, “But my new wife.” In that second, I went, “Oh, my new wife.” That’s a sitcom about people in their 60s hooking up, similar to the way my husband and I met, which was we met and married very quickly. And in fact, we would have gotten married had we gone out on our first date. We have said we would have gone and gotten married that night. So the idea popped in my head: What happens if two people in their 60s get married on a whim, and decide to just throw caution to the wind and go for it? What happens to the families and the friends and their own lives and the very routinized lives that they had led leading up to that moment? I knew it was a sitcom.
It wasn’t until years later I was put together with Gail Lerner, and we — during COVID actually — started working on the idea. But much of what’s in that script was kind of what happened to me and my husband … it’s something that’s been around for a while, and I’m just really excited finally that it has turned into this version, “Newlyweds” starring Tim and Téa.
Let’s talk about Tim and Téa. They’re the newlyweds, but they’re also married in real life. What was it like playing off their dynamic and vice versa?
When the pilot got picked up, … it was what they call “cast-contingent,” which means they like the idea, but they want to make sure that the right person gets in … so they wanted us to find Jeanie first, and it was a very short list of actresses they would bank a show on. Téa, luckily, was one of those actresses and had been looking for something on the lighter side. … and it so happens she’s married to a guy IRL who happens to have a lot of experience in the comedy space on TV shows, and all of a sudden we were like, oh, wouldn’t that make a kind of fantastic bit of pairing.
What do you think we’re going to learn about Claudia? She seems so liberated, but we’ve only seen the surface. She’s got a soft spot for Jeanie and even James.
I think you’re gonna see, in fact, that she becomes not just a foil but a friend. I feel like her acceptance of Jeanie … we’re going to mine it for its comedy. I mean, I think at the end of the day, she will always shake things up because that’s just her nature. We get to meet Claudia’s mother. I can’t tell you because we haven’t announced it yet, who plays my mother. I can tell you that she’s over 90.
You’re going to have me Googling.
We get to see a little bit of the oak tree and the acorn. We definitely get the snarky oak tree and the snarky acorn.
Well, you can imagine it was a bummer. You know, network television has a whole series of requirements, way beyond … my little creative ideas. It has to do with management of scripts and the amount of early drafts of things, and it’s required within a network structure. And to run a show on television, and to consistently run a show, is a different animal than just the creativity that it takes to think of a show or to develop a show. That’s why Bruce has stepped in very quickly because Bruce has proven over and over again that he’s a guy who can make 100 episodes of a show with a much bigger worldview.
It was beautiful that Gail said the very things she said because we all felt that way too. It was joyous, fun, but there were a lot of things that were way beyond my understanding. What I’ve come to learn, I’m 67, is that creativity is a continuum. That it is not rigid and binary. That I had an idea that then Gail took and built on that idea, and now Bruce has come in and taken Gail’s idea … and is building out another version of the show.
Bruce Helford was the second in charge at the TV show “Anything but Love” when I did it back in the day, so I’ve known him.
So y’all are back together.
The only other time I was ever on a sitcom was “The Drew Carey Show” when Bruce Helford wrote me a part of this crazy hairdresser who … goes on a date with Drew Carey and ends up doing bungee jumping with him on the date. It’s a funny continuum for me to be back with Bruce, who weirdly enough was the actual first person I called when I had the idea [for “Newlyweds”]. I called Bruce because I knew him as a showrunner for sitcoms. We talked about it very briefly, and then he went off to something else. I went off to something else, and it kind of fell apart. So it’s slightly weird to me, and beautiful in that way that the person I actually called when I had the idea is now the one running the show.
It’s a full–circle moment.
Completely full-circle moment.
Has Christopher seen the show? What does he think?
I will say this: Christopher Guest is not a sitcom fan. You know, my husband is a very specific person and makes very specific, very funny movies and television shows. [Sitcoms are] not the thing that he is drawn to. But he genuinely understands that I’ve wanted to do a sitcom for a long time.
Because it’s spooky season right now, and you’re one of the OG scream queens, I have to ask you: Do you watch anything in that vein?
So I’m boring because the truth is, I don’t like scary things. I don’t like scary movies. I have zero interest in scary movies, and I think if someone ended up doing some analysis of me as a human once I’m dead, they would understand that actually my natural fear of scary things is what, in fact, made me such a good actress in them, and I don’t pretend to like them. I like the fans of [scary movies] because there’s a passionate group of people that love them. But I don’t have to love the movies, I just have to love what I do.
Is there anything else you’re watching right now?
My husband and I just started watching the [fourth] season of “The Diplomat” [Netflix], which the writing is so great. Last night we watched an episode written … by Peter Noah, who was the guy who took over “Anything but Love” … and was the showrunner. This episode last night [Episode 4, “Pagliacci”] was what Chris and I watched, and I wrote to Peter last night to say, “Bravo, bravo! Oh, the writing is so gripping.” Of course the writing leads the performances, which lead the filmmaker. It’s always the writing.
The Hotel Clark has been throwing its stately shadow across Hill Street since 1914, first as a fancy lodging in the formative years of downtown Los Angeles, then as a last-resort residential hotel for the aged and desperate, then as a vast, lifeless structure between Grand Central Market and Pershing Square (now Biddy Mason Park). The 11-story hotel hadn’t seen a paying guest for more than 30 years.
That is, until now.
Last month, downtown historian Nathan Marsak was at Angels Flight when, as he recalls, “A guy comes up and says, ‘You like the Clark? I just had drinks there.’ And he slaps his receipt down. And I lost my damn mind.”
The lobby inside Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Marsak, who admits to “a fetish for old, lost Los Angeles,” once called the Beaux-Arts hotel a “great gray monument to grinding attrition.” Since the 1990s, Marsak has kept watch on the Clark, often labeled a “zombie building” because of its long idleness. Marsak included it in his 2002 book “Los Angeles Neon,” and has looked down upon it from his part-time gig taking tickets atop the Angels Flight Railway on Bunker Hill.
In the downtown community, there had been rumors of a reopening over the years, but that seemed less likely as time went on. Kim Cooper, a close observer of downtown politics and co-owner of Esotouric tours, said that after a while, it seemed that the hotel’s owner, the Chetrit Group, “just locked the door.”
To see that structure “so dilapidated and dirty and covered in bird droppings and decades of grime, it broke my heart,” Marsak said. Still, “as long as they didn’t tear it down, there was always hope.”
A ‘zombie building’ awakes
When he and relatives bought the hotel 27 years ago, owner Michel Attias of the Chetrit Group said people assumed they would flip the building.
“I guess they know by now that’s not the case,” he said. “Many of those people have left town by now.”
Michel Attias at the Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Attias stood in the hotel lobby, whose design leans toward gray, black, white, earth tones and chrome. Guest rooms include zebra-print wallpaper and faux alligator-skin panels.
“We wanted chic modern but also comfortable and warm,” said Attias, noting that new artworks and rugs are still arriving. A “luxury sports bar” is due to open by Super Bowl Sunday. As of Oct. 21, general manager Adrienne Craig said, about 120 of its guest rooms were ready to rent, with others soon to follow. Rates start at about $200 nightly.
There have been at least three near-openings during his firm’s ownership, Attias acknowledged. But now, he said, it’s the right moment.
“We have a lot coming,” he said. “We have the Olympics. Downtown is starting to move again. I’m very, very confident that downtown is going to get back on its feet.”
Members of the Chetrit family, based in New York, hold extensive real estate through multiple companies, some of which have suffered legal and financial troubles in the last two years. In Los Angeles, the Chetrit Group also owns the long-idle Trinity Auditorium, also known as the Embassy Auditorium and Embassy Hotel. Also a 1914 Beaux-Arts building, it includes about 180 guest rooms along with an 1,800-seat performance space. Attias said he hopes to open the Trinity Auditorium before the Olympics.
“We’re not done,” Attias said.
Added Craig: “Hotel Clark is amazing. Trinity is out of this world.”
Vintage postcards and photographs are from the collection of historian Nathan Marsak.
(Courtesy of Nathan Marsak)
The Clark’s rise, fall and long slumber
Look closely at the Clark, including the rooftop neon and the old fire escapes with the initials “CH” in ironwork (for Clark Hotel), and you may catch hints of its tangled history, from early opulence to urban decay, international intrigue and municipal dysfunction.
Eli P. Clark made big money as a railway pioneer in Los Angeles and beyond. But by 1914 he had moved on to other investments. He built the Clark Hotel with 555 rooms, each with a private bath (a notable luxury at the time) and a bold sign outside proclaiming its “absolutely fireproof” construction.
The building’s rooftop neon signage was apparently added a few decades later, along with the rounded letters that spell the hotel’s name and run vertically down one corner of the building. Dozens of vintage photos of the Clark’s ballrooms, restaurants, ashtrays, room keys, menus, postcards, matchbooks, coat hangers and candleholders are visible at BunkerHillLos Angeles.com, having been gathered by Marsak.
A mosaic by the pool inside Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
But somewhere in the middle decades of the 20th century, as investors began to look away from downtown, the Clark hit the skids. In a 1975 classified ad in the L.A. Times, the Clark offered rooms at $75-$95 monthly, including “special waterbed suites.”
By the 1980s, the Clark had become a residence of last resort, housing many seniors and others on limited incomes. The nearby Rosslyn (built in 1914, now a mix of low-income and market-rate apartments) and Hotel Cecil (built 1924, now low-income and supportive housing) followed similar paths.
The pool inside Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
By 1989, the Clark had been acquired by May Wah International Enterprises, which was rooted in China and associated with the Chinese government, Attias said. May Wah vowed to revamp the building with a “friendship store” to market Chinese imports and hotel above that might rival the Biltmore. But first May Wah wanted the old tenants out. Twenty of them filed suit against May Wah, saying they were subjected to spells without heat or water, and won a $1.7-million settlement. But by 1992, May Wah had succeeded in evicting the last two tenants.
By 1999, when May Wah sold it to the Chetrit family, the building was empty, its historic interiors rearranged in anticipation of the Chinese hotel that never opened. (During this period, Attias said, the building’s guest-room count changed from 555 to 348.) As Attias tells the story, the hotel was close to opening in 2008 when that year’s financial crisis hit. It came close again in 2013-14, when the Chetrit family invested in another renovation but ran into opposition from the hospitality workers union Unite Here Local 11 and L.A. City Councilman José Huizar.
“José Huizar,” said Attias dryly. “We know where he is now.” (Huizar, who served on the city council until 2020, pleaded guilty to corruption charges in 2023 and was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison.)
Though the hotel’s owners eventually got the city permissions they needed, Attias said, a partnership with other hoteliers dissolved and the Clark went to the back burner again, as did the Embassy Auditorium. Another near-opening followed in 2019.
Attias said the family decided in 2025 to finally open the Clark, later retaining OTH Hotels Resorts to manage it.
And now, said Attias, “we’re here.”
‘Nowhere to go but up’
In mid-September, the Clark had begun a quiet, soft reopening. Now configured with 348 guest rooms, it includes a Mediterranean restaurant called Votana; a cocktail lounge; a 17-by-29-foot courtyard pool, poolside bar and (in homage to Chetrit family history) a pair of Moroccan tile fountains.
In addition, a ballroom with space for 600 is due to be completed soon. Craig estimated that the business, a nonunion shop, employs about 100 people now and will likely reach 200 workers in coming months.
A guest room inside Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
This rebirth may not comfort those seeking more affordable housing downtown, but for anyone eager to see more legal commerce on Hill Street or more hotel rooms in the run-up to the 2028 Games, it’s progress. This boost in room supply may also encourage travelers who have seen downtown hotel rates jump by more than 10% in the last year. Analytics company CoStar reports that downtown hotels averaged $200-$210 per night from June through September.
“There’s nowhere to go but up,” Craig said. “The possibilities here are endless.”
A few weeks ago, Craig’s team gave Marsak a tour of building (and bought a batch of Angels Flight tickets to distribute among guests. The historian declared himself mostly delighted.
“Having the Clark open, facing Hill Street — which can get rough — is so brave of them,” said Marsak. “I can’t applaud it enough.”
As for the inside and that zebra-print wallpaper, it’s “not what I would have done,” he said. “I believe that Beaux-Arts buildings should be Beaux-Arts inside and out. But you can’t have everything.”
MOVE over St Pancras – there’s a new kid on the block for rail services to Europe.
Lord Sadiq Khan has revealed plans to launch trains to Europe from Stratford International Station within the next four years.
Stratford International Station could get new rail services to EuropeCredit: Alamy
Despite its name, the station has never had international services, but according to The Standard, the station is set to undergo a £20million project to launch trains to France by 2030.
One in three trains to and from France could stop at the station under the new plans – being a stop on services, rather than a new origin or destination station.
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It’s predicted that the stop would add five to eight minutes to the overall journey time.
Sadiq Khan told The Standard: “We’ve been working closely with the Government to make Stratford International truly ‘international’ for the first time – opening up new opportunities for jobs, investment and tourism, while connecting one of the UK’s fastest-growing economic centres directly to Europe.
“It’s time to unlock the full potential of this station and help write the next chapter in Stratford’s remarkable success story as we continue building a better, greener, more prosperous London for everyone.”
If trains to Europe did launch at Stratford International Station, around five million people in and around London would have better access to international rail services.
Services would initially be to France with plans to expand to other destinations in the futureCredit: Getty
Services could run to Paris, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
And eventually, there could be trains to Germany and Switzerland as well.
The current plans are also backed by a number of businesses as well as the train drivers’ union Aslef.
Stratford International finished construction in 2006 with four platforms.
However, the two platforms for international services as well as the area for international passengers have remained abandoned for the past two decades.
In order for the area to open, more work would need to be done including making the flow of passengers through security more efficient.
The station would be able to handle around 250 to 300 passengers at a time.
Meanwhile, Virgin is set to launch services from London St Pancras also by 2030, competing with Eurostar.
Thanks to Google Earth, we can finally put this one to bed. Since the B-21’s unveiling, people have made wild claims about its wingspan, specifically how tiny it is. This was never the case, as we have reported continuously since we first set eyes on it. Many AI-generated and enthusiast-made B-21 fact sheets have gone viral on social media showing wingspans under 130 feet, which only helped propel the nonsense. Now we can definitively say, give or take a few feet, the B-21 spans 152 feet and is 61 feet long. This puts it at about 12% smaller in terms of wingspan than the B-2, and about the same — 12% smaller — when it comes to length.
The image in question, taken of Edwards AFB and dated June 20, 2026, was recently uploaded to Google Earth. While we have seen satellite images of the B-21 going about its business before, this one was published in the public domain and had enough resolution, when paired with Google Earth’s excellent measurement tools, to get conclusive measurements.
B-21 taxiing between Edwards AFB’s parallel runways. (Google Earth)
Since we first saw the B-21 at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, during its unveiling, which TWZ attended, we put the top-end size at 155 feet wingspan-wise. That analysis has only narrowed over the years. I have had many emails, social media threads, and other engagements with folks claiming the aircraft was in the sub-130-foot wingspan range. Now we can finally put those battles behind us.
B-21 span nowhere that number. Bizarre people think this. Around 150-155 best estimate
So what does the size tell us? Nothing we don’t already know. The B-21 was always going to be smaller than the B-2. Our analysis from many years ago has stayed the same — the aircraft would be designed with a premium on range and affordability, as well as very low observability, over massive payload. This resulted in the aircraft you see today. It is smaller, but with design priorities that have shifted from its predecessor’s, and 12% smaller in pure dimensions makes total sense considering what Northrop Grumman was trying to achieve. Above all else, it points to the B-21 having an extreme unrefueled range, with improved aerodynamics for high-altitude cruise, more gas for its size, and two efficient engines instead of four.
Official photo of the B-21 in close pre-contact position behind Edwards AFB’s ‘Ghost’ test tanker. (USAF)
As for its length, the B-21 is nearly the same length as an F-15 fighter, which sounds bizarre for a large bomber. However, flying wings are visual transformers, looking like compact UFOs side-on and massive head-on or from the planform view.
What’s even more fascinating is that this thing is probably about the same length as an F-15 or close to it. Flying wings are transformers. From flying saucers side-on to massive flying wedges in the bank to huge boomerangs head on. pic.twitter.com/0UXOK0uVVN
As far as what else we can discern from the Google Earth image? Not much. We get a bit of a better view of the B-21’s exhaust configuration, but nothing is really revelatory there. The exhausts are deeply buried with large planar exhaust exit ‘ramps’ and have a large chevron trailing edge over the exhaust aperture itself. We have seen some pretty detailed images of this general arrangement from the rear that have been posted on social media. We do see the exhaust pathway as black in color, a feature that was edited out in the official top-down photo of the B-21 seen above, which was released in April, and this is something we mentioned at the time.
Regardless, at least we can say with total confidence that the B-21 is smaller than its progenitor, but not by all that much — about 12% to be more exact.
ONE UK airport which closed in 2022 is taking another step closer to welcoming passengers back.
Doncaster Sheffield Airport closed after becoming “commercially unviable” and has been left empty since, but it has now announced it’s set to come under public ownership.
Doncaster Sheffield Airport is set to reopen to passengers in 2028Credit: AlamyNow, it’s been announced that the airport will come under public ownershipCredit: Alamy
South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard called the deal a “major milestone” towards reopening the airport.
According to reports, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) will buy the airport becoming the freehold owner and landlord to the City of Doncaster Council lease.
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Oliver Coppard said that the airport being bought by SYMCA would also “provide long-term control, certainty and flexibility” and attract private investment too.
Before it closed, the regional airport acted as a gateway to Europe for those living in the north of England.
It had airlines like TUI and Wizz Air and flew to the likes of Spain and Portugal.
When it reopens, it’s possible certain routes could be reinstated, as well as longer ones too.
The airport is home to one of the longest runways in Europe, measuring 2,893 metres, which means it could host big jets for long-haul journeys.
As of yet, no airlines have been confirmed for when the airport reopens.
Designs for the revamped terminal have been revealedCredit: City Of Doncaster / Mayor Ros Jones
Christian Foster, Director of FlyDoncaster – the company set up to manage the airport – told Sun Travel: “It does feel like the world has changed post-Covid, whereas people were focused on two weeks in Spain or Greece, nowadays we’re seeing a lot of people keen to take city breaks.”
“We’d love to fly to places like Croatia, and other destinations that are a bit more quirky like Azerbaijan.
“We’re keen to look at emerging places to visit as well, like India.“
Another plan for the airport is that when it opens, it will have local businesses rather than chains like Costa or Starbucks.
There would be a mixture of restaurants, bars and shops as well as seating.
Nestled a short stroll from the Griffith Park Ranger Station, near some tennis courts and not far from the remains of the park’s original zoo lies a gem that is on most days behind lock and key. The Griffith Park merry-go-round, which turned 100 this year, stands motionless, many of its 66 wooden horses weathered and caught mid-ascent.
But the effort to ensure that they once again rise, fall and spin around a spherical base has begun. The Griffith Park merry-go-round is being resurrected by a group of passionate supporters and volunteers, some of whom are veterans of the theme park industry. Collectively, they argue that this isn’t simply a relic from another era, but a place of multigenerational connection, a reminder of the beauty of handmade art and a statement piece of Los Angeles.
Tracy James, who works in the Department of Recreation and Parks and focuses on Griffith Park, is helping to lead the plans to refurbish the Griffith Park merry-go-round.
Visitors ride the Griffith Park merry-go-round, a favorite haunt of Walt Disney and his daughters, on Aug. 24, 1951.
Shuttered since the COVID-19 pandemic, save for a brief but limited run in 2022, the Griffith Park carousel is now under city control, purchased last year for $1 million. That’s a veritable bargain for such a museum piece, argues Tracy James, who is leading the efforts to restore the project, one that’s expected to take at least two years and cost millions.
“This is the jewel in the middle of the city,” says James, who works in the Department of Recreation and Parks and focuses on Griffith Park. “The ornamentation and the craftsmanship represent a bygone era.”
There was a real fear, James says, that the merry-go-round would fall into the hands of a private collector, as the carousel, if not officially, has long symbolically belonged to L.A. A piece of whimsy, artistry and play in the middle of a natural wonderland, it is where Walt Disney is said to have dreamed up the vision for what would become the Disneyland Resort and a site that has withstood Civil Rights actions and ’60s-era love-ins. To some, it’s a beacon of hope in the midst of an imperfect urban fabric that has long prioritized the fantastical.
“I got teary-eyed when I walked up,” says Wendy Osmundson, who approached the carousel during a recent open house while on a stroll around the park. Osmundson reflected on a day, decades ago, when the merry-go-round saved the family’s Christmas.
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1.Details from the Griffith Park merry-go-round, which is in need of refurbishment.(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)2.The horses of the Griffith Park merry-go-round are known for their flowing manes.3.Each horse at the carousel is outfitted with jewels.
“I was 21, and my mom’s kitchen burned down,” Osmundson says. “We couldn’t have Christmas at my mom’s house. Everyone came to my one-bedroom apartment in Los Feliz, and me and my three sisters came here and rode the carousel. We were adults, but it was really great. I’d love to see it restored.”
Joining the project to do just that are some of the brightest minds in the theme park and amusement industry, and they’re doing so without pay and on their own time. Kurt Sawitskas has already spent weeks analyzing the carousel’s innards, marveling at its antique nature, but also being amazed that it’s still mostly intact.
“Honestly, I don’t think carousels were ever intended to last 100 years,” Sawitskas says. “And now here we are with a carousel that’s 100 years old. We want to honor it and make it run again.”
Sawitskas’ day job is at Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative arm of the company responsible for theme park design. Beginning to think ahead toward retirement, Sawitskas says he was looking for a project in which he could volunteer his time and expertise. He found it.
The painted panels at the Griffith Park merry-go-round will also need to be restored.
Built in 1926, near the end of what many consider the heyday of the American carousel, the Griffith Park merry-go-round began its life in San Diego and was relocated to Los Angeles in the depths of the Great Depression in 1937. It is the showcase product of the Spillman Engineering Co., whose carousel horses were known for the flowing, wind-blown manes and heavily detailed secondary carvings on the portion of their bodies that face viewers, known as the “romance” side.
A few, for instance, have lion heads extending from their chest. Others have cherubs reaching toward the horse’s face. All are adorned with jewels and tails made of real horse hair, many of which have been eaten by squirrels or other critters. Griffith Park’s carousel is especially unique in that it also has horses from master carvers Charles Looff and Charles Carmel, considered the finest carousel craftsmen of the era.
The few carousel companies that survived the Depression largely did so by switching to a cheaper, mass-produced product, such as transitioning from wood to aluminum. An art was lost.
“It’s brought to me a real appreciation of the deeper aesthetic,” Sawitskas says. He mentions this as he’s giving a tour of the horses, emphasizing how the thickness of the paint created a sense of depth in the figures — a saddle, for instance, of a crisscrossing chessboard-like pattern, or elsewhere an aged leathery toughness. “I recognize what is attractive about an amusement like this, and that’s the ability to return again and again and still see something different.”
Horses and a mural at the Griffith Park merry-go-round.
Sawitskas has recruited a pair of co-workers, Troy Leverton and Pim Renting, who work in various aspects of ride engineering, to help in the task. For Leverton, restoring the carousel is important in bringing a piece of history back to the city, one centered on affordable outdoor entertainment.
“I brought my nieces here 10-plus years ago, and rode it and it was really cool,” Leverton says. “Unfortunately, since my daughter has been born this has been shut down. So it was like, you know what, I live in the city, and it’d be really cool to be a part of something that is doing something for the city. I want to bring my daughter back here when it is running.”
It’s also not lost on them that there’s an association between the company they work for and the carousel, although it’s important to stress they are not volunteering their time as representatives of the Walt Disney Co.
The organ inside the Griffith Park merry-go-round.
“There’s obviously a connection with Walt Disney and what we do,” Leverton says. “There’s a lot of history here. The industry was born out of Disneyland, and Disneyland was born out of this place.”
The story goes that Disney would bring his daughters to the merry-go-round, sit on a bench and dream of a place where adults and children could be entertained together. Both Disney and the company have long told this tale, and a bench, as well as one of the original horses from the carousel, can be found on Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. (There were initially 68 horses, but one, says James, is at Disneyland, and another is with a former owner.) With Disneyland’s King Arthur Carousel, which itself dates to the 1920s, Disney requested a number of modifications that closely match the Griffith Park attraction, such as wanting all its animals be “jumpers” that look like they’re galloping.
James, along with Sawitskas and his pals, want the carousel to be restored to its original glory, a magnificent, gleaming merry-go-round that inspired Disney to dream. On a recent Saturday, Sawitskas hopped on a ladder to analyze the condition of the mechanisms that raise and lower the horses and started poring over carousel history books to match the horses with their original paint colors. In the 1920s, lead paint was used, which must be stripped away.
Wendy Osmundson takes a moment to appreciate the memories of riding the Griffith Park merry-go-round.
“There’s no way to just keep painting over this and hiding the problem,” Sawitskas says. “We really need to get down to the bottom. A lot of the horses have small fractures in the wood joints that need to be repaired as well. You can’t do that on top of paint. You need to be at the wood. We have some very nice ways to get down to the wood without destroying the wood itself, just lifting the paint off. We want to restore all the worn wood and reintroduce the carving lines.”
And that says nothing of the mechanical adjustments and efforts to make the carousel ADA accessible. The Griffith Park carousel has one speed — 14 mph — and the hope is to update it with some modern controls to create a smoother ride. All of this is why James is estimating the tally to restore the carousel will top $3 million or $4 million. An assessment is expected in the coming weeks, and fundraising will occur via the nonprofit Friends of Griffith Park. James will be hosting open houses on as many Saturdays as she can, posting updates on the Griffith merry-go-round project Instagram page.
As the world turned, so did the carousel. In 1961, for instance, a riot erupted at the merry-go-round when police officers alleged a 17-year-old Black rider failed to pay for his admission. Onlookers leapt to the teen’s defense, and it took 75 officers to quell the disturbance. Later that decade hippie love-ins were held regularly at the base of the carousel, occasionally drawing the likes of the Hells Angels or law enforcement. The merry-go-round also became a gathering spot for a candlelight vigil when the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia died in 1995.
And today, even in its shuttered and bruised state, it stands defiantly — a testament to handmade art at a time the world is spinning toward all-digital everything.
“One of the biggest challenges here is making it look new again,” Sawitskas says. “But I think if we do that, it’s going to be a treasure.”
One that, by the time it’s operational, will twirl gallantly into its next century.
