friend

On the night TJ McGee overdosed from a mixture of drugs and alcohol in his freshman year at UC Berkeley, his friends found him passed out in the hallway by their shared dorm room.

The roommates tried to help, but when McGee stopped breathing, they called 911.

McGee survived and, racked with guilt over what happened that night, committed to confronting his substance-use problem. Then, in the days that followed, McGee received a surprise email from campus officials that ushered in a whole new wave of emotions.

The letter said the administration would be placing McGee on academic probation for violating Berkeley’s residential conduct rules against drug and alcohol possession, use and distribution — possibly jeopardizing his academic career.

“They made me feel as if I was a villain for the choices I made,” said McGee, 20, now a junior. “I felt shameful enough already.”

Today, McGee speaks regularly in support of California State Assembly Bill 602, which would prohibit public colleges and universities from punishing students if they call 911 during an overdose emergency, or if a peer does so on their behalf. It requires schools to offer rehabilitation options and requires students who seek emergency medical assistance to complete a treatment program.

“The bill would protect students just like me from even receiving a letter like that,” and ensures that they are given care instead, McGee said.

The bill recently passed in both houses of the state Legislature; it awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. A spokesperson for Newsom said he typically does not comment on pending legislation.

Despite a recent nationwide plunge in the number of deaths stemming from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and contaminated versions of those drugs, overdose remains the leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Though numbers could be revised as new data from California come in, the CDC provisionally estimates a 21% drop in overdose deaths in the state to 9,660 between March 2024 and March 2025, compared with 12,247 in the previous 12-month period. Opioid-related deaths, in particular from fentanyl, made up the bulk of California’s overdose fatalities in 2023, the most recent year for which statistics are available on the state’s opioid-prevention website.

In response, California started requiring campus health centers at most public colleges and universities to make the opioid overdose-reversing nasal spray Narcan available to students in campus residences.

McGee said that while he hadn’t taken any opioids the night of his overdose, he was administered Narcan while incapacitated.

Advocates for AB 602 say more needs to be done to increase the likelihood that college students will seek immediate help during a drug-related emergency.

It’s important for lawmakers and college officials to realize how much fear is involved when an overdose occurs — not just with the person who is overdosing but among peers who seek to help but don’t want to get a friend in trouble, said UC Berkeley student Saanvi Arora. She is the founder and executive director of Youth Power Project, a nonprofit that helps young people who’ve had adverse health experiences use their personal stories to promote policy reforms.

“California has dramatically increased investments in school-based mental health and crisis-intervention resources and access, for example to fentanyl testing strips on college campuses and access to Narcan,” Arora said. “But one big gap that we see … is that there’s still a really low utilization rate among young people and students.”

Fear of academic probation, suspension or expulsion leads some students with substance-use problems to avoid reaching out to residential advisors, instructors or school administrators for help, leaving them feeling so isolated that they see few other options besides turning to the police as a last resort or doing nothing at all, Arora said.

Youth Power Project authored a bill to combat these problems; Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), its chief sponsor, introduced it to the state Legislature this past spring. “During an overdose any hesitation can be deadly,” the lawmaker said in a statement. “AB 602 makes it clear that calling 911 will never cost you your academic future.”

Campus discipline and legal prosecution can be counterproductive if the goal is to prevent overdose deaths, said Evan Schreiber, a licensed clinical social worker and director of substance abuse disorder services at APLA Health, an L.A.-based nonprofit that offers mental-health and substance-use services and backs the bill.

“By removing the fear of consequences, you’re going to encourage more people to get help,” Schreiber said.

Schreiber and Arora said AB 602 extends to places of higher learning some of the protections guaranteed to Californians outside of campuses under the “911 Good Samaritan Law,” which went into effect in 2013 to increase the reporting of fentanyl poisoning and prevent opioid deaths.

That law protects people from arrest and prosecution if they seek medical aid during an overdose-related emergency, as well as individuals who step in to help by calling 911. It doesn’t, however, cover disciplinary actions imposed by colleges and universities.

One difference between the 911 Good Samaritan Law and the version of AB 602 that passed both houses of the Legislature is that the latter does not cover students who call on behalf of an overdosing peer and who are themselves found to have violated campus alcohol and drug policies, said Nate Allbee, a spokesperson for Haney. Allbee noted that Haney hopes to add this protection in the future.

Even though AB 602 doesn’t include all of the protections that supporters wanted, the rule solves what Arora identified as a major problem: UCs, Cal State campuses and community colleges in California are governed by a patchwork of policies and conduct codes regarding substance use that differ from campus to campus, making it difficult for students to know where they stand when they are in crisis.

McGee said he wished he’d learned more about the support services that were available to him at Berkeley before his overdose. But he was already struggling emotionally and living on his own when he entered college in fall 2023.

McGee described growing up in an environment in which substance use was common. He never felt that he could turn to anyone close to him to work through feelings of loneliness and bouts of depression. It was easier to block it all out by partying.

McGee started using harder drugs, missing classes and spending whole days in bed while coming down from his benders. He wouldn’t eat. Friends would ask what’s wrong, but he’d stare at the wall and ignore them. His grade-point average plummeted to 2.3.

Some of the friends who helped McGee on the night of his overdose grew distant for a time, too dismayed over the turmoil he was causing himself and those around him.

McGee knew he needed to keep trying to salvage his academic career and earn back the trust of his peers. All he could think was: “I need to fix my grades. I need to fix myself.”

One day during his recovery, McGee sat his friends down, apologized and explained what he was going through.

Then in his sophomore year, McGee happened to be lobbying lawmakers in Sacramento over campus funding cuts when he overheard a separate group of students from Youth Power Project talking about a bill they authored that would become AB 602.

It was like eavesdropping on a dark chapter in his own life. McGee agreed to present the bill to Haney and share his experience at meetings with legislators and in hearings.

McGee’s disciplinary probation on campus lasts until the end of 2025, but working on the overdose bill has given him a new sense of purpose. A psychology major, McGee eventually took on public policy as a minor.

“I feel like I became a part of this bill and it became such a large source of hope for me,” McGee said. “It would be amazing to see this support and care implemented nationally. This is not just a California issue.”

My dad’s passport is among his most valuable possessions, a document that not only establishes that he’s a U.S. citizen but holds the story of his life.

It states that he was born in Mexico in 1951 and is decorated with stamps from the regular trips he takes to his home state of Zacatecas. Its cover is worn but still strong, like its owner, a 74-year-old retired truck driver. It gives Lorenzo Arellano the ability to move across borders, a privilege he didn’t have when he entered the United States for the first time in the trunk of a Chevy as an 18-year-old.

The photo is classic Papi. Stern like old school Mexicans always look in portraits but with joyful eyes that reveal his happy-go-lucky attitude to life. He used to keep the passport in his underwear drawer to make sure he never misplaced it in the clutter of our home.

At the beginning of Trump’s second term, I told Papi to keep the passport on him at all times. Just because you’re a citizen doesn’t mean you’re safe, I told my dad, who favors places — car washes, hardware stores, street vendors, parks, parties — where immigrants congregate and no one cares who has legal status and who doesn’t.

“Exagera,” my dad replied — Trump exaggerates. As a citizen, my dad reasoned he now had rights. He didn’t have to worry like in the old days, when one shout of “¡La migra!” would send him running for the nearest exit of the carpet factory in Santa Ana where he worked back in the 1970s.

Then came Trump’s summer of deportation.

Masked migra swept across Southern California under the pretense of rounding up criminals. In reality, they grabbed anyone they thought looked suspicious, which in Southern California meant brown-skinned Latinos like my father. The feds even nabbed U.S. citizens or detained them for hours before releasing them with no apology. People who had the right to remain in this country were sent to out-of-state detention camps, where government officials made it as difficult as possible for frantic loved ones to find out where they were, let alone retrieve them.

This campaign of terror is why the ACLU and others filed a lawsuit in July arguing that la migra was practicing racial profiling in violation of the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches. A federal judge agreed, issuing a temporary restraining order. The Trump administration appealed, arguing to the Supreme Court that it needed to racially profile to find people to kick out of the country, otherwise “the prospect of contempt” would hang “over every investigative stop.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed.

In a 6-3 vote, the justices lifted the temporary restraining order as the ACLU lawsuit proceeds. L.A.’s long, hot deportation summer will spill over to the fall and probably last as long as Trump wants it to. The decision effectively states that those of us with undocumented family and friends — a huge swath of Southern California and beyond — should watch over our shoulders, even if we’re in this country legally.

And even if you don’t know anyone without papers, watch out if you’re dark-skinned, speak English with an accent or wear guayaberas or huaraches. Might as well walk around in a T-shirt that says, “DEPORT ME, POR FAVOR.”

The ruling didn’t surprise me — the Supreme Court nowadays is a Trump-crafted rubber stamp for his authoritarian project. But what was especially galling was how out of touch Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion was with reality.

Kavanaugh describes what la migra has wrought on Southern California as “brief investigative stops,” which is like describing a totaled car as a “scratched-up vehicle.” A citizen or permanent resident stopped on suspicion of being in this country illegally “will be free to go after the brief encounter,” he wrote.

The justice uses the words “brief” or “briefly” eight times to describe what la migra does. Not once does he mention plaintiff Brian Gavidia, the U.S. citizen who on June 9 was at a Montebello tow yard when masked immigration agents shoved him against the fence and twisted his arm.

Gavidia’s offense? He stated he was an American three times but couldn’t remember the name of the East L.A. hospital where he was born. A friend recorded the encounter and posted it to social media. It quickly went viral and showed the world that citizenship won’t save you from Trump’s migra hammer.

Would Kavanaugh describe this as a “brief encounter” if it happened to him? To a non-Latino? After more cases like this inevitably happen, and more people are gobbled up by Trump’s anti-immigrant Leviathan?

Brian Gavidia stands in a parking lot next to East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park. A video of him having his arm twisted and held by an immigration officer against a wall despite being a U.S. citizen went viral. He’s currently a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit alleging the Trump administration is violating the 4th Amendment with indiscriminate immigration raids.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Anyone who applauds this decision is sanctioning state-sponsored racism out of apartheid-era South Africa. They’re all right with Latinos who “look” a certain way or live in communities with large undocumented populations becoming second-class citizens, whether they just migrated here or can trace their heritage to before the Pilgrims.

I worry for U.S.-born family members who work construction and will undoubtedly face citizenship check-ins. For friends in the restaurant industry who might also become targets. For children in barrios who can now expect ICE and Border Patrol trucks to cruise past their schools searching for adults and even teens to detain — it’s already happened.

Life will irrevocably change for millions of Latinos in Southern California and beyond because of what the Supreme Court just ruled. Shame on Kavanaugh and the five other justices who sided with him for uncorking a deportation demon that will be hard to stop.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor recounts Gavidia’s travails in her dissent, adding that the Real ID he was able to show the agents after they roughed him that established his citizenship “was never returned” and mocking Kavanaugh’s repeated use of “brief.”

“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” she wrote. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

I will also dissent, but now I’m going to be more careful than ever. I’m going to carry my passport at all times, just in case I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even that is no guarantee la migra will leave me alone. It’s not a matter of if but when: I live in a majority Latino city, near a Latino supermarket on a street where the lingua franca is Spanish.

And I’m one of the lucky ones. I will be able to remain, no matter what may happen, because I’m a citizen. Imagine having to live in fear like this for the foreseeable future for those who aren’t?

There’s nothing “brief” about that.

As Sonia Silva prepared to leave work on Wednesday evening, she was asked by a colleague to help with a quick task.

It meant she missed her regular funicular ride down the hill with a work friend on their commute home from the office in the centre of Lisbon.

When she arrived at the stop a short while later, the funicular had crashed and her friend was dead.

“When I got there, it was a tragedy,” she said.

Sixteen people were killed on Wednesday evening in Lisbon when its iconic 140-year-old Glória funicular derailed and crashed into a building. The Portuguese prime minister has described it as “one of the biggest human tragedies of our recent history”.

Many of those killed were foreign nationals, including three British people whose identities have not yet been announced. Police say five killed were Portuguese – and four of them worked at the Santa Casa da Misericórdia charity, located at the top of the hill.

A service was held on Friday in a church next to the charity’s headquarters, honouring the workers killed in the crash. The service was crowded, with people filling the aisles and any other available space.

As they left, colleagues wept and supported each other as they tried to make sense of what had happened. Several told the BBC that they regularly used the funicular as part of their commute.

Sitting on a bench outside, Sonia said she had worked at the charity for eight years and used the funicular each day.

“I can’t express [how I feel] – it’s very difficult. I am grateful but at the same time I’m very, very angry because my colleagues and lots of people died,” she said.

She said she would travel to and from work each day with her colleague Sandra Coelho.

“I was very fond of her because I always took the funicular with her – going home and in the morning. It’s very difficult because I’m not going to see her anymore,” she said through tears, as colleagues comforted her.

On their commute, she said the two women would gossip and talk about their days.

“We’d talk about colleagues, work, everything. We’d meet in the morning and when we finished,” she said.

Others around the church also mourned the loss of friends and tried to process what had happened.

“It’s awful, we are devastated. It’s difficult to work at the moment,” said Lurdes Henriques.

“We’re always thinking about our colleagues and wondering ‘did they suffer?’ They could be here with us now. We are deeply, deeply sad.”

“It could have been any one of us – all of us used this kind of transport and we felt very confident in it,” said Tania, another worker at the charity.

Rui Franco, a city councillor whose close friend and former colleague Alda Matias was killed in Wednesday’s crash, said he was in shock.

“She was about my age. She had a family, children and I can’t imagine if it was me what would be happening to my family. She was a great person… with a very solid way of acting in the world,” he said.

Mr Franco said he was “already angry” when he first learned of the fatal crash, “then when I understood I knew the people involved, the rage [became] overwhelming”.

While an investigation into the cause of the crash is under way, there was much speculation among mourners.

“It was always overcrowded,” one said, while another blamed poor maintenance.

The leader of the rail workers union Fectrans claimed that some workers had complained that problems with the tension of the cable that hauls the carriages had made braking difficult.

“Even planes fall out of the sky sometimes. Accidents happen,” said another woman.

Several told the BBC that whatever the cause, they could not imagine using the funicular again.

“I’ve told everyone I’m not going to use it anymore,” said Sonia before heading back into the office, flanked by work friends.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has relieved three deputies of duty while it investigates the circumstances of the bloody beating of a Valencia man outside a Santa Clarita bar last year.

Parker Seitz, 25, alleged in a federal lawsuit that off-duty sheriff’s deputies attacked him outside a bar called the Break Room last Thanksgiving Day.

He sustained multiple serious injuries, according to the complaint filed in California’s Central District federal court on Aug. 25, including a fractured jaw, a punctured lung and a bruised collarbone.

Seitz is suing the county, multiple L.A. County sheriff’s deputies, hired security guards at the Break Room, and the bar itself for unspecified damages.

“Parker Seitz was violently attacked by off-duty Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies, under the watchful eye of security guards contracted by a local business,” Josh Stambaugh, an attorney for Seitz, said in a statement. “He suffered serious injuries and, as we allege in our lawsuit, members and leaders of the LASD then attempted to conceal the truth of the attack and evade accountability on behalf of the organization.”

The sheriff’s department said in an email that it “takes these allegations seriously,” and that on Dec. 2 it “initiated an internal investigation into the incident. Three employees have been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation.”

Management at the Break Room did not respond to requests for comment.

The complaint alleges assault and battery by off-duty deputies Randy Austin and Nicholas Hernandez and an unidentified third assailant, along with a civil conspiracy by the county and a number of sheriff’s department employees accused of trying to bury the incident.

Parker Seitz, 25, alleges off-duty sheriff’s deputies attacked him outside a Santa Clarita bar called the Break Room last Thanksgiving Day. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has relieved three deputies of duty while it investigates the incident.

(Robert Hanashiro / For The Times)

About 10:30 p.m. Nov. 27, Seitz and two friends visited the bar, where Austin, Hernandez and the third assailant “began to bother and harass Seitz, including by repeatedly reaching for the sunglasses resting on” his head, according to the complaint. Minutes after Seitz left the bar about 1:36 a.m. Nov. 28, the complaint said, Hernandez knocked the shades off Seitz’s head “in a rude and offensive manner” and “an altercation broke out.”

The altercation dissipated quickly, according to the complaint, but then at about 1:46 a.m., Austin, “suddenly and without any justification,” punched Seitz and knocked him down, then Austin, Hernandez and the unidentified third person proceeded “to beat and stomp on him while he was on the ground.”

Seitz was bloodied during the beating and taken to a nearby hospital. Shortly after his arrival there, Justin Diez — who was a captain in charge of the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s station at the time of the incident and was promoted in April to lead the department’s North Patrol Division as commander — and deputy Richard Wyatt allegedly defamed him and violated his constitutional and civil rights in an effort to intimidate him and cover up the assault, the complaint said.

Wyatt, Seitz alleged, told one of Seitz’s friends that he had thrown the first punch and that he had been disruptive while at the hospital, which Seitz denies.

Later that morning, Diez called Seitz’s father, Ryan Seitz, and told him his son had “started a fight with off-duty deputies of the LASD” and “if Ryan Seitz would leave it to” Diez, he “would make sure the situation would go away,” the complaints said, describing the call as an attempt “to cover up the true circumstances of the beating … and to intimidate and dissuade Seitz from filing or pressing charges or pursuing any claims against the deputies” or the county.

The Sheriff’s Department did not directly respond to the allegations outlined in Seitz’s complaint, but it said that it “has established policies and procedures that clearly outline the standards of conduct required of all employees. … Any violation of these standards will be addressed promptly, and appropriate action will be taken if evidence is found to support the allegation of misconduct.”

Stambaugh said Seitz “was out with friends after a Friendsgiving dinner celebrating the purchase of his first home” the night he was allegedly assaulted.

“Parker Seitz’s lawsuit is a demand for accountability in response to the wrongs he has personally suffered, and an effort to ensure that the actions of these specific LASD members remain an anomaly,” Stambaugh said in his statement. “This is not the LASD that the Seitz family had supported and believed in.”

YOUTUBE star KSI has been announced as Bruno Tonioli’s replacement on Britain’s Got Talent – after Simon Cowell got advice from an unlikely source.

The head judge turned to his 11-year-old son Eric for advice about who should take over from the professional dancer who had to quit due to filming clashes with Dancing With The Stars in the US.

5

5

5

Music mogul Simon was then convinced to give guest judge KSI, 32, a permanent spot on the panel by his little boy who’s a huge fan of the influencer.

A TV insider told The Sun: “Simon’s been friends with Bruno for over 35 years and loved working with him on BGT.

“It was really tough knowing he had to let Bruno go because they couldn’t get the filming dates to work out with his commitments on Dancing with the Stars.

“Simon is always looking for new ways to keep the show evolving and loves to get the opinion of his young son.

“Eric was a big influence for Simon in choosing Bruno’s replacement. He’s obsessed with him and adores him, KSI is Eric’s favourite influencer.

“Plus, he’s been such a hit as a guest judge and Simon recognises they need to keep the show different by moving forward to keep attracting the younger audience.

“Bruno was popular with the grannies, but KSI is for the youngsters.

“KSI has a huge social media presence and Simon knows how important it is to keep the show more modern.”

KSI also showed he had a real gift for spotting talent because it was his live show golden buzzer act, Harry Moulding, who was crowned winner of BGT, bagging the £250,000 cash prize and a place performing at the Royal Variety Performance.

After being confirmed as the new full-time judge, music artist and boxer KSI said: “I’m so grateful and happy to be a part of the Britain’s Got Talent team for another season.

“I had such a good time last year and I can’t wait to see some more top talent.

“I’m full of energy, ready to go, and can’t wait to make this the most entertaining BGT season ever. Let’s do this.”

5

5

Pop superstardom, it turns out, did absolutely nothing to improve Sabrina Carpenter’s love life.

That’s the thrust of the singer’s shrewd and tangy “Man’s Best Friend,” which dropped Thursday night, just a year after last summer’s chart-topping “Short n’ Sweet.” The earlier album, which spun off a pair of smash singles in “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” went on to be certified triple platinum and to win two Grammy Awards — more than enough to transform Carpenter, now 26, from a former Disney kid into the latest (and horniest) member of pop’s A list.

Yet all that success seems only to have attracted more of the losers she sang about last time. Here she’s dealing with a smooth talker doling out empty promises, a crybaby who can’t decide what he wants, even a guy so fixated on self-betterment that he’s lost interest in the bedroom.

“He’s busy, he’s working, he doesn’t have time for me,” she trills exasperatedly in “My Man on Willpower,” “My slutty pajamas not tempting him in the least.”

It’s a veritable gallery of rogues, this LP, not least the dude in the dark suit pictured on the cover of “Man’s Best Friend” with a hank of Carpenter’s blond hair in his fist as she kneels before him. The image inspired an instant controversy when she unveiled it in June, with critics accusing her of propping up dangerous ideas about the submission of women in the age of the tradwife.

Responded the singer in a CBS News interview that aired Friday: “Y’all need to get out more.”

Indeed, to take the album artwork at face value is to miss the whole point of Sabrina Carpenter, which is not just lampooning a prudish instinct — of course she’s in on the joke — but demonstrating the limits of a dating scene — of an entire social power structure — in which this is what a girl at the top has to work with.

“I like my boys playing hard to get / And I like my men all incompetent,” she sings in the LP’s opener and lead single, “Manchild.” She swears she’s not choosing them — that they keep choosing her. Then she punctuates the claim by batting her fake eyelashes and rhyming “Amen” with a flirty “Hey, men.”

As with “Short n’ Sweet,” Carpenter made “Man’s Best Friend” with a tight crew of accomplices — Jack Antonoff, John Ryan and Amy Allen, plus a bunch of tasty studio players — and once again they get a sound that combines the hooky splendor of ’70s-era AM-radio pop (think ELO, Wings and especially ABBA) with touches of country and dance music.

“Tears,” in which Carpenter lusts after a guy capable of putting together a chair from IKEA, is a pillowy disco thumper with echoes of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s the Way (I Like It)”; “Nobody’s Son” puts starchy palm-court strings over a bouncy reggae groove. Carpenter’s singing plays like an actor’s sizzle reel, by turns winsome, sneering, bubbly and resigned; in the twangy “Go Go Juice” alone — it’s about a woman who’s woken up at 10 a.m. and opted to spend the day drunk-dialing exes — she runs through every emotional gradient separating determination from shame.

Song for song — line for line, really — “Man’s Best Friend” isn’t quite as sharp as “Short n’ Sweet,” which offered the rare thrill of a young artist coming into her own on her sixth studio album. Occasionally, you can sense Carpenter reaching for a memeable lyric, as in the many gags about wetness in “Tears”; “When Did You Get Hot?,” meanwhile, feels like something Ariana Grande abandoned after workshopping for a minute.

When she’s on, though, she’s on: “Goodbye” is a dazzling orchestral-pop number in which she gives the boot to a hot-and-cold lover — “Arrivederci, au revoir / Forgive my French, but f— you, ta-ta” — and “House Tour” a winking sex romp whose thwacking drums and rubbery funk bass call to mind Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract.” (After Doja Cat’s Antonoff-produced “Jealous Type,” might this signal a coming Abdul-aissance?)

Near the end of the album, Carpenter dials down the comedy for “Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry,” a sad and shimmery ballad about the thin line between love and war. “Silent treatment and humbling your ass / Well, that’s some of my best work,” she sings over strummed acoustic guitar before promising oh so sweetly to “leave you feeling like a shell of a man.”

If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em.

Want to get Generation Alpha into movie theaters? Look to video games.

Kids still like to go to the movies, according to a high-profile new research report. But the franchises they care about are not the traditional Hollywood popcorn fare.

Seven of the top 10 entertainment franchises that the youngest generation of moviegoers cares about are video game properties, according to a recent study by National Research Group (NRG).

The top five titles that Gen Alpha kids, generally considered to be those ages 12 and under, say they talk most about were Roblox, “Minecraft,” “Fortnite,” “Grand Theft Auto” and “Pokémon,” all of which originated from the world of video games. The highest-ranked non-video game property was Marvel and Walt Disney Co.’s “The Avengers,” at No. 6.

Studios have started to catch on. Spring’s “A Minecraft Movie,” based on the popular game where users build and explore different worlds, was such a huge success. The film, adapted by Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment for the big screen, grossed $955 million at the global box office, according to Comscore. Young fans packed the theater, cheering during scenes important to gamers.

“Gaming is a deeply important part of Gen Alpha culture because it provides an essential venue for socialization,” said Fergus Navaratnam-Blair, NRG’s vice president of trends and futures. “Social gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite give them the opportunity to spend time with their friends, build communities, and develop a sense of their own identity.”

That could present a shift in the way theaters and studios cater to Gen Alpha, a key demographic born 2013 onward, to their future survival. Compared with millennials and Gen X, a higher percentage of Gen Alpha members (38%) said they would see a movie in a theater instead of waiting for it to come to a streaming service if their friends were talking about it, NRG said.

Nearly 60% of Gen Alpha members said they enjoy watching movies in theaters more than at home, according to NRG, which surveyed more than 6,000 U.S. moviegoers in May and June of this year. The majority of kids surveyed ages 6-to-12 said the reason why they go to the theater is to spend time with friends and family and “to make seeing the movie feel like a special event,” according to NRG.

“We are seeing the signs within this demographic that they do really value the experience of watching movies in theaters,” Navaratnam-Blair said. “The fact that they have grown up surrounded by phones, tablets, other sorts of devices, if anything, that seems to have made them more appreciative of the opportunities that they do get to switch up from all of that.”

Stories that resonate with Gen Alpha can come from franchises they are already familiar with, like “Minecraft,” or ones such as “Wicked” that inspire them to create fan fiction or show off their fandom by dressing up like the characters, he said.

Already, studios are marketing their films to reach younger consumers on platforms they frequent including Roblox and TikTok.

Movie theaters can help cater to Gen Alpha by making the viewing an experience, such as selling food that is matched to what characters are eating on screen, Navaratnam-Blair said.

Younger audiences also can still be attracted to seeing a movie in a theater if it’s a special event that happens after the title has started streaming. For example, many people attended sing-along showings of the popular animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” in theaters even after streaming it first on Netflix. The sing-along version of the film was the No. 1 movie domestically during the weekend it was briefly in theaters, with an estimated $18 million in ticket sales.

“This is a generation that does offer hope for the future of theatrical moviegoing,” Navaratnam-Blair said. “We just need to understand what it is they’re looking for, that experience, and play into it in a way that gives them what they’re looking for out of that.”

In “The Paper,” the much anticipated mockumentary spinoff to “The Office,” Alex Edelman plays intrepid accountant/reporter Adam Cooper, part of the team tasked with reviving local newspaper “The Toledo Truth-Teller.” Edelman was also a writer and consulting producer for the show, which premieres on Peacock on Sept. 4 with all 10 episodes, and says the project gave him “the thing that is rarest in Los Angeles”: routine.

“It was a really wonderful routine,” he adds.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

Of course, routines must end and new routines must be created. Edelman, who won an Obie and a Special Tony for his stand-up show “Just For Us,” about attending a meeting of Nazis as an Orthodox Jew (it became the HBO original comedy special “Alex Edelman: Just For Us,” for which he won an Emmy), is back on the road and adding new dates for his current show, “What Are You Going to Do.” In his spare time, he’s working on a nonfiction book, “I Don’t Belong Here.”

The perfect Sunday, for Edelman, is always a little bit different, with currents of consistency woven through. (He calls himself a “recommendation machine,” which feels accurate.) There’s always a hike. There are always friends involved. There’s always food. There are plenty of laughs. But for all the tried-and-true recs, novelty is important too. “I guess my headline is, Sunday’s the day to try new things,” he says.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

7 a.m.: Wake up and go on a coffee walk
On the weekends, I like to walk. The only thing left to do on planet Earth apparently is to get coffee. Do you know that our whole lives revolve around a series of silly little coffees? I only drink espresso drinks, which is a fact about me, which is very boring. I might walk between coffee stations, like a man journeying between oases. I’ll walk down and I’ll get to All Time and be like, do I want a coffee here or can I make it to Maru? And when I get to Maru, do I get a coffee here? Or can I make it to Camel? And then I’ll make it to Camel, which apparently is now called Handles? And I’m like, do I get a coffee here or do I go to Dinosaur? And then, do I do a coffee here or do I go to Tartine or LaLo in Silver Lake or Lamill, which is also in Silver Lake. It feels like a long time, but that’s only about an hour walk.

I might get some breakfast too. I like Telegrama or Friends and Family — a favorite there is the olive oil eggs. I spend a lot of my money at All Time. I like to get the thing they call “the B.O.A.T.” I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s really good.

8 a.m.: Get in a bit of writing
I like to park myself at Telegrama or Maru; you can find a little corner and really groove.

10 a.m.: Hike and have an adventure
I’m a keen weekend hiker. And I have hiking buddies. My friend [TV writer] Jenji [Kohan] and I started to do a thing in the pandemic where every weekend we would go hike somewhere and eat somewhere. I’ll hike with Jenji or my friend Rebecca or my friend Morgan. We’ll get after it. You hike with someone, you complain. It’s a lot of fun.

There are some really, really gorgeous hikes around Los Angeles. I use AllTrails to keep track of them. If we’re doing a hike out of town, we’ll go up to Santa Barbara or down into Orange County for one of the heavy beach hikes. Or any hikes with the word “Punchbowl” in them. And we’ll go to Charlie Brown Farms right afterwards.

We hike and eat and there’s always an adventure in there. We use the Atlas Obscura and go check out things, like, I heard there’s this weird store where this guy who makes things out of pop tabs or whatever it is. One of my favorite things is just getting to look at a little midcentury modern house I’ll never be able to afford. If there’s a house by Lautner or Neutra or Frank Lloyd Wright, sometimes we’ll take a schlep just for the house, to even just see from the street. One of the hikes in Malibu, Solstice, has an old Paul Williams house. It’s like a ruin.

1 p.m.: Lunchtime
We like going into the San Gabriel Valley and eating at Chengdu Taste in Alhambra or Bistro Na’s. I can’t eat pork or shellfish, so whatever falls within the electric fence, my lapsing Judaism. Whenever we drive south for a hike, we like to go to Pho 79 in the Anaheim area, or Garden Grove maybe. And I get something vegetarian or chicken or something like that.

2:30 p.m.: Thrifting and a snack
The thrift stores in Pasadena, those places are so good. Downtown, we always stop at the old mochi spot, Fugetsu-Do. They’ve been around for 117 years, even longer. I think they opened in 1903. On Sundays, sometimes the line can be long, but it’s worth waiting in. I like the regular rainbow-colored, strawberry-stained stuff. A thousand percent fruity or candy and no gelatin because of my Judaism.

4 p.m.: Catching up on books
Since we’re downtown, I’ll stop by the Last Bookstore. I also really love Skylight. And I love a used bookstore. I love a browse.

I like reading and listening to music on a Sunday. For a while, I was rationing out my friend Taffy Akner’s last book, “Long Island Compromise.” I’d read a couple of chunks every Sunday until I ran out. I just bought a couple of plays by Kimberly Bellflower and Noah Haidle. And I am reading Carrie Courogen’s “Miss May Does Not Exist” about Elaine May, who I worship and actually met once at a friend’s house.

7 p.m.: Pizza and movie night at Phil’s
I have a friend, Phil, who sometimes makes Sunday his movie night. His house has a little pizza oven. Phil will have pizza made in the style of the pizza from Mozza, which he loves. And we’ll watch movies on a projector. I watched “A New Leaf” there and enjoyed it very much, speaking of Elaine May.

9:30 p.m.: A stand-up set
Late in the day, my favorite thing to do is stand-up comedy. There are a lot of good places to perform in Los Angeles. So I’d do a late spot at the Comedy Store, the Lyric Hyperion, Laugh Factory or Dynasty Typewriter.

11 p.m.: Late-night meal
I’m out late, especially for Los Angeles. And there’s nowhere to eat very late at night in Los Angeles, unless you’re going to venture into Koreatown, where there’s Dan Sung Sa. I love to eat late and hey, we’re four meals deep, but that’s fine. Or Canter’s is open until 11:30 on Sunday. And Same Same Thai on Sunset is open until 11. They do something called khao soi, which is really hard to find in a lot of places. So I’ll sometimes get a really late night khao soi.

12 a.m.: Scrolling, reading, maybe a phone call or two
I’m up for a bit. I watch, I’ll scroll. I’ll scroll until I drift off, which I shouldn’t. Or I’ll call friends in London who are just waking up, stand-up comics. My friend Josie Long was in Glasgow, and sometimes I’ll call her, or I’ll catch my friend Isobel, who’s a composer, who’s in Europe all the time. But in my ideal situation, I’m asleep by 1. I’ll read this book by Lizzy Goodman called “Meet Me in the Bathroom,” or I’ll listen to this podcast called “Search Engine” by PJ Vogt, and sort of drift off.

Ty Plinski, a 6-foot-3 senior receiver at Corona Centennial Hifh who made one catch all last season, became a media sensation on Friday night when he pulled off a spectacular one-handed touchdown catch in a win over Servite, landing him the No. 1 play on ESPN’s SportsCenter.

“I barely played last year,” he said Saturday.

When he woke up, he said his phone was “blowing up.” He said he received more than 50 text messages from friends, coaches and recruiters.

“I’ve been training a lot, and it’s been part of my training routine,” he said of making one-handed catches. “It was the perfect opportunity, and I just fully extended.”

Quarterback Dominick Catalano dropped the ball, picked it up and found Plinski, who also used his lacrosse skills to make the catch.

“The zip how fast that ball comes in, it’s a lot of hand-eye coordination,” he said of lacrosse.

Plinski finished with four receptions in a 42-14 victory.

Asked why he’s kept playing, Plinski said, “It’s my passion. I love it. All my teammates are amazing.”

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

AN ex-cricket star married to a Thai woman who tragically died in a Waitrose aged just 46 has paid tribute to his “loving” wife.

Duncan Pauline, 64, said he and his wife Wiyada were looking forward to retiring to her home country before her sudden death on Wednesday.

5

5

5

They had already bought a retirement home and planned to leave the UK in a couple of years, however Duncan will now have to return alone with Wiyada’s ashes.

Wiyada, who was known as ‘Lek’ to her friends – which means small in Thai – collapsed while shopping at the Waitrose in Esher High Street, Surrey.

Duncan told The Sun: “I’m absolutely devastated. She went out to Waitrose at about 5.15pm and then I got a call from one of her friends.

“I went up there expecting she’d had a knock on the head but not that she was dead.

“When I got there the police told me she had passed away.

“She had a cloth over her head and she looked very peaceful when they pulled the cloth off her head.

“She was only 46, it’s a shock that she could go so young. We’ve been married for 22 years and we were due to retire in a couple of years.

“She wanted to go back home to Thailand. We even bought a house in Thailand for our retirement.

“The sad thing is she won’t get to do that now.”

Duncan, head coach at Esher Cricket Club, said he will now have to take the ashes of his wife, who was a Buddhist, back to her family in Thailand.

Holding back his tears, he said: “That won’t be easy.

“I was the one who should have died, not her. I’m a lot older than her and I smoke and drink. I didn’t even think about her going first.”

Duncan said he and his wife had shared 22 brilliant years together.

SHE SAVED MY LIFE

She once saved his life when he ended up in Kingston Hospital with a life-threatening “flesh-eating” condition.

“I got an infection in my foot from a flesh-eating thing in 2014,” he said.

“They had to cut off my leg. I went into a coma and the doctors wanted to turn off the life-support machine.

“She pleaded with them to give me one more day. And during that last day, things started to work again in my body.

“I came out of a coma and I lived. If she hadn’t pleaded with the doctors to give me one more day I would have died.”

Wiyada helped care for Duncan, who now uses a wheelchair, after he lost his leg.

The pair lived together at Esher Cricket Club, where Wiyada would cook Thai food for members.

Paying tribute to his wife, Duncan, a former Surrey County Cricket Club player, said: “She was an all-round good person. Everyone loved her. She will be enormously missed.

“We hardly ever argued – even though we worked together all day.

“She loved cooking for people and she loved the cricket club. We have 750 kids here at the club and she really had fun with them.

“She was a giver. She was always happy and she was such a loving, generous and kind person. She had a tremendous smile.”

Duncan does not know the cause of his wife’s death.

Emergency crews had rushed to the supermarket in Esher, Surrey, at around 6pm on Wednesday after receiving calls of a “concern for safety” at the store.

Both the high street in the town and the Waitrose itself were closed as medics tried to save her life.

Tragically, despite their best efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

At the time of the incident, Surrey Police issued an update to those in the area, saying: “We are currently on scene following a call to a concern for safety in Esher shortly after 6pm this evening (August 20).

“Waitrose on the high street has been closed, and there is a significant emergency services presence in the area as we deal with this incident.”

A spokesperson for Surrey Police said: “Officers were called to Waitrose on Esher High Street shortly after 6pm yesterday evening (August 20) by the South East Coast Ambulance Service, who were responding to a medical emergency at the location.

“Despite the best efforts of paramedics, a woman in her 40s died at the scene.

“Her next of kin have been informed. There was a significant emergency services presence in the area, including police, South East Coast Ambulance Service, and the Air Ambulance Charity Kent, Surrey, Sussex.

“Waitrose was closed to allow emergency services to carry out their work, but has since reopened.”

A Waitrose spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with our customer’s family and loved ones.

“Our Partners acted quickly and offered support while the emergency teams arrived.

“We’re now making sure everyone is supported.”

5

5

Long before Zack Fox was making scene-stealing appearances in “Abbott Elementary,” releasing music and amassing millions of views on his sweat-inducing DJ sets, he was best known for his Twitter jokes.

Fox, a graphic artist and emcee for Atlanta-based indie label Awful Records at the time, was posting absurdly funny tweets under the alias “Bootymath,” raking in tens of thousands of followers. His undeniable social media presence and comedic chops are what ultimately brought him to Los Angeles in 2017 when filmmaker, artist and producer Flying Lotus tapped him to co-write and star in his body-horror comedy “Kuso.”

“Then I just got stuck and then I got married,” says Fox, who tied the knot with Mayumi “Kat” Fox, a DJ and entrepreneur who launched the popular Mayumi Market AAPI marketplace. Thankfully, he’s enjoying living in L.A., which he says has a similar Southern hospitality charm as his Atlanta hometown.

Fox’s latest adventure? Starring in writer-director Alex Russell’s “Lurker,” a gripping psychological thriller that explores the insidious parasocial bond between a rising pop star and a seemingly meek retail employee, which is out in theaters Friday.

He’s also gearing up to unleash his “creative sandbox concept” called UWAY, which is hosting its first rave in collaboration with the L.A.-based record label and jazz community Minaret on Sept. 6 in New York.

Fox takes us along for his highly caffeinated Sunday in L.A., which involves losing track of time at a Yemeni cafe, taking his dogs Kiwi and Pepper for a walk at Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area and having dinner at a plant-based Thai spot with all of his friends.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

10 a.m.: Doomscroll on TikTok
I’ll be generous to myself and say I might get up at 10 a.m. Even if I say I’m going to get up at 9 a.m., you know I’m going to do the TikTok ingestion at the top of the day so let’s pad it with 30 to 60 minutes of just doomscroll.

10:30 a.m.: A calisthenics workout at home
We have a third room in the crib where we keep workout equipment, so I’ve become a calisthenics freak. I never was like that before, but something about having it in the house makes me want to do that more. So I’m really getting into pull-ups and dips. I’m getting kind of scary good at the dips, and if you’re a fan of me you know Shemar Moore is my muse, so I’m trying to do whatever I can in life to look like that. So Sunday, it’s my free day, I’m going to get in there [and] get that work in.

11:30 a.m.: Have a guilty, delicious breakfast
Usually by that time, Kat is already up and she’s Filipino, so she’s going to start making food that you are existentially required to eat or the relationship is gonna turn bad. All I know is I just have to eat it whether I’m hungry or not, so I guess we’ll call that a guilt-trip breakfast [laughs]. A guilty breakfast that has a 100% hit rate of being delicious. That’s the cool trade off. One time she made this savory waffle with rice, eggs, green onions and other stuff. She put the sweet and savory ingredients and eggs in the waffle maker. It honestly sounds super illegal, like a way that you summon a troll or something.

12 p.m.: Walk Kiwi and Pepper
We’d probably take our dogs around the neighborhood. We like to give Kiwi and Pepper their red carpet at least twice a day. We have a very social dog network out here.

2 p.m.: Lose track of time at Jalsah
After that, I’m probably doing the thing where I pretend like I don’t have a caffeine addiction, but really, really want to go to a cafe and have multiple caffeinated beverages. I have been going to this Yemeni cafe downtown called Jalsah. Usually I’m going down there because I have a couple other caffeine crackheads in my social group and we go there. I love it because it feels like a little slice of Yemen like there’s Yemeni jazz and they have the right smells going on, the right vibe [and] the right people. You know you go to a bar and order a pitcher of beer that you’re just going to have the whole day? You can get this sort of pitcher of hot coffee for the table and pour it for yourself. It’s got cardamom and the coffee has like stone fruit notes and it’s sweet. I didn’t realize that Yemenis make coffee the way that Black moms make coffee where it’s strong but very sweet. Caffeine has a time dilation on it so it could be hours that I’m in there or 30 minutes. Who knows?

4 p.m.: Get fresh at Nepenthes
Because I’m downtown and if I’m with friends, then we might have to go get fresh. We might have to take it on down to Nepenthes and get a really expensive pair of socks that we’re gonna lose immediately. Maybe a pair of shorts or something that looks exactly like the other clothes that I already have.

5 p.m.: Take the dogs on another walk
Now that I have the bag of clothes, we gotta take that back home. We’re going to have to think about where we’re going to [take] these dogs again because they are the star of the show. In this family, Kat is the lead singer, Kiwi is on the keyboard, Pepper is the drummer and I’m way off to the side playing bass. Usually, if it’s a regular day, I would say Kenneth Hahn park would be the spot. Or we’d go to Huntington garden. It’s a ways out because once you’re there, you’re like, “Why am I not doing this every single day?”

7 p.m.: Plant–based dinner with the homies
We love going to this spot called Salaya in Thai Town. It is plant-based Thai food. Most of it is on par with what you’re going to get at a typical non-vegan Thai spot. A lot of it is actually beating the Thai spots that I love because I’m plant-based when I’m with Kat, but when I’m out in the world, I just eat whatever. I’ll eat a bald eagle if you fry it right [laughs].

9 p.m.: Go to the movies
After that, we’d probably go see a movie at Alamo Drafthouse or New Beverly [Cinema]. During Black History Month, the New Beverly did a double feature of “CB4” and “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.” We had that b— crackin’. I brought everybody I know.

11 p.m.: Work on music
At this point, I’ll probably wrap up the day by working on music with friends. Maybe we’ll go to Pirate Studios or we’ll go to a friend’s home studio and make music. Honestly, I think making beats is a good way to wrap up the day. It’s very low pressure and I think it’s good to work out the brain muscles a little bit before bed.

1 a.m.: More caffeine to power through the night
If we start making beats late, sometimes I like to hit a late-night cafe if things get too social. Sometimes we’ll hit M3 or About Time in Koreatown. At About Time, we’ll sit out back by the fire.

8 a.m.: A caffeinated, low BPM rave
Drinking coffee that late ruins my week [laughs]. Everything’s messed up now. I’m missing calls. I’m missing the email. I’m panicking at the meeting Monday. I’m walking in looking like Nicolas Cage in “Leaving Las Vegas.” On this caffeine Sunday, I’m going to sleep Monday. I’m a raver and I think a group of three or more Black people talking with a substance involved does qualify as a rave. It’s a low BPM rave. It’s about 40 BPM and there’s no CDJs involved, but it is a rave.

Emmy season, we hardly knew ya!

Our last issue of the 2025 cycle is now out in the world, which means it’s time for this editor to switch from binge-watching TV at home to seeing movies in one of L.A.’s many frigid screening rooms. (Not a bad way to get through the dog days of summer, honestly.)

But before I return you to the newsletter’s regularly scheduled programming, here’s a look at some highlights from our Aug. 19 issue. Catch you in November when we open the first Envelope of Oscar season!

Digital cover story: Michelle Williams

(JSquared Photography / For the Times)

As heavy as its subject matter may be, “Dying for Sex” is the only series this season that actually left me doubled over in laughter.

My reaction stemmed from a moment early on in FX’s limited series where Molly, the kinky cancer patient at the core of the story, stumbles into a ransomware trap online. As played with slapstick brilliance by Michelle Williams, she leaps out of her laptop camera’s sight line as though it had metamorphosed into a dangerous animal — a scenario that only gets funnier when she’s joined on the floor by her friend and caretaker, Nikki (Jenny Slate).

As Williams, Emmy-nominated for lead actress in a limited series or TV movie, tells contributor Lorena O’Neil in this week’s digital cover story, those who suggest she’s only interested in serious fare are mistaken. “Dying” in particular required a sense of humor, Williams reveals: “My best friend recently lost another of her best friends to cancer, and she would tell me about the conversations they would have cheek to cheek lying in a hospital bed and how in those moments they found the thing to point at and laugh about, so [the series] felt very true to me.”

TV’s watercooler woman

Carrie Coon in “The White Lotus.”

(HBO)

Anytime I’ve seen complaints on social media about this summer’s “TV tumbleweeds,” I have thought to myself: “They must not be watching ‘The Gilded Age.’”

HBO’s delicious portrait of conniving old- and new-money New Yorkers in the late 19th century has ripened over three seasons into a reliably entertaining (if politically suspect) melodrama, thanks in no small part to Carrie Coon’s unabashedly ambitious society wife, Bertha Russell. Her cunning machinations, which this season included foisting a British duke on her reluctant daughter, have helped turn the series into a hit. Which also makes Coon responsible for not one but two watercooler successes in 2025 alone.

In her recent interview with contributor Gregory Ellwood, the (too modest) actor credits “White Lotus” co-stars Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb for her character’s final-episode monologue becoming a viral sensation this spring. (It also likely clinched her Emmy nomination for supporting actress in a drama.) But having followed Coon since Season 1, Episode 6, of “The Leftovers,” I’m comfortable saying she probably played some part in earning those big moments. You don’t capture buzz on two shows in a row by pure chance.

Words to live by

Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma in “Andor.”

(Lucasfilm Ltd.)

The stirring speech Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) delivers to the Galactic Senate in “Andor” isn’t just the culmination of the series’ long-gestating political plotline, the moment at which the senator throws in her lot once and for all with the Rebellion — at grave risk to her life.

It is also, thanks to the careful work of Emmy-nominated writer Dan Gilroy, a memorable piece of oration in its own right, drawing on real-life examples such as Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi to give a major turning point in the “Star Wars” universe genuine historical weight.

Gilroy joined me via Zoom recently to annotate the speech, from its unassuming opening line to its pointed use of the word “genocide.”

Read more from our Aug. 19 issue

James E. Silcott, a trailblazing Los Angeles architect who, thanks to many gifts to his alma mater, Howard University, became the most generous benefactor to architecture students at historically Black colleges in the U.S., died July 17 in Washington, D.C. He was 95.

Silcott’s memorial service took place on Saturday at Howard; he will be laid to rest in L.A.’s Inglewood Park Cemetery on Sept. 6.

Silcott, who started in Los Angeles working for Gruen Associates alongside colleagues like Frank Gehry, made history as the first Black project architect for both Los Angeles County and UCLA. His successful legal battles with the county — he alleged that he had been unfairly terminated because of his race, and was later a victim of retribution for his lawsuit — shined a light on the entrenched barriers Black professionals faced in public institutions at the time.

Born Dec. 21, 1929, in Boston, to parents from the Caribbean island of Montserrat, Silcott grew up in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood during a time of limited opportunities for young Black people. Living in tenements and walk-ups, and making friends of all races and ethnicities, he learned self-reliance, resilience and cultural fluency, as he recounted in a 2007 oral history for Northeastern University’s Lower Roxbury Black History Project. After graduating high school, he worked as a hotel cook alongside his father. “I didn’t know what I wanted,” he said. But an aptitude test at a local YMCA pointed him toward architecture. After being rejected from several architecture schools, he received a lifeline via Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Silcott entered Howard — its architecture program was the first at a historically Black college to receive accreditation — in 1949. He came under the mentorship of Howard H. Mackey Sr., one of the most prominent Black architects and educators of the 20th century, known for instilling a sense of architecture’s civic purpose. Silcott’s studies were interrupted by three years in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, where he rose to the rank of sergeant. Returning to Howard, he earned his 5-year bachelor of architecture degree in 1957.

Those years were marked by constant financial strain — often forcing him, as he put it, to decide “whether to buy books or buy food” — an experience that would later drive him, as a donor to Howard, to ensure that future students wouldn’t face that choice. He would never forget the role Howard played for him.

“He felt like when nobody else would take him, Howard took him,” said his niece Julie Roberts. “He really credits them for laying the groundwork and setting the path and changing the trajectory of his life.”

Silcott began his career working for architect Arthur Cohen in Boston before moving to Los Angeles — he always hated the cold, said his friends and family — in 1958. Joining Gruen Associates, one of the era’s most influential firms, he, among other efforts, collaborated with Frank Gehry on the design of the Winrock Shopping Center in Albuquerque. He would soon work at UCLA’s architectural and engineering office, becoming the school’s first Black project lead on buildings like the UCLA Boathouse (1965), with its light-filled, maritime-inspired form — including porthole windows and an upper story deck for viewing races. Also at UCLA he collaborated with Welton Becket and Associates on the Jules Stein Eye Institute (1966), with its clean-lined facade of pale stone columns and glass walls that opened to natural light while maintaining shade and privacy.

He later joined Los Angeles County’s Department of Facilities Management, where he would become a senior architect and help oversee projects like the Inglewood Courts Building (1973, another collaboration with Becket) and Los Angeles County Southeast General Hospital (1971), eventually renamed Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital. As the only Black architect working in the county, Silcott’s good friend (and fellow Howard architecture graduate) Melvin Mitchell said he was not always welcome. “None of those men could ever imagine someone of Silcott’s race or color wielding that kind of power, despite the phony smiles and benign language used,” Mitchell said in his eulogy at Howard.

At the end of the decade Silcott was demoted and later laid off during budget cuts — a move he contended was racially motivated. The county’s Civil Service Commission eventually agreed, ruling in 1984 that he had been improperly terminated in order to preserve the jobs of white employees with less seniority, and ordering that he be reinstated with full back pay. “I had to fight for my job just to make sure the rules were applied fairly,” Silcott told the Los Angeles Times.

Chief County Engineer Stephen J. Koonce, left, gestured as he discussed with James Silcott the details of the architect’s return to work, on March 15, 1984.

(Steve Fontanini / Los Angeles Times)

But the reinstatement was short-lived: within months, Silcott alleged that the county had retaliated by stripping away meaningful duties, among other retributions. “They had him working in a closet at one time,” said Roberts. Later that year, the Board of Supervisors approved a roughly $1 million settlement offer to resolve his federal discrimination lawsuit. The Times noted that his case had “become a rallying point” for those seeking greater equity in public employment. As Silcott later reflected, “This was never just about me. It was about making sure the next Black architect who comes along doesn’t have to fight the same battles.”

Silcott would later work as an architectural consultant to public agencies and universities while serving on several public boards, including the South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, the Los Angeles Board of Zoning Appeals and the California State Board of Architectural Examiners.

He built a stylish home in Windsor Hills, where he would regularly host family, not to mention mayors, council members, and, later, former President Obama, said Mitchell.

In 1995 — retired as an architect — he took on minority ownership and a board seat at Kennard Design Group, one of the largest Black-owned architecture firms in the country, following the death of its founder (and Silcott’s good friend) Robert Kennard. “He didn’t hesitate,” said Gail Kennard, Robert’s daughter, who still leads the firm, and wanted to ensure the company’s stability at a difficult time. “He was always there to help. For advice, support, anything. Without hesitation he’d say, ‘I’ll do it.’ He just had that generous spirit.”

But Silcott’s greatest love, noted Kennard, was Howard — particularly its Department of Architecture — where he would go on to become a historically prolific philanthropist, and help mentor generations of aspiring architects.

“He would tell me stories about people who were coming up in the profession,” said Kennard. “He’d say, I found this new student and he or she’s my new project.”

Silcott’s ability to support the school financially grew out of skillful real estate investments, which began with a few buildings in Boston that he inherited from his mother. He managed and expanded numerous properties both in Boston and Los Angeles.

In 1991 he helped establish the James E. Silcott Fund, now valued at $250,000, offering emergency aid to Howard architecture students in financial distress. In 2002, he established the James E. Silcott Endowed Chair with an initial $1 million, bringing architects like Sir David Adjaye, Philip Freelon, Jack Travis and Roberta Washington to teach and mentor at Howard. And with a $1 million gift he funded the T. George Silcott Gallery, named for his late brother, providing a venue for exhibitions, critiques and public lectures. Silcott also made unrestricted contributions of hundreds of thousands more to Howard’s Department of Architecture, supporting scholarships, travel fellowships and capital improvements. By the end of his life, his contributions to Howard exceeded $3 million, making him, according to the school, the largest individual donor to architecture programs at historically Black colleges and universities in the country.

“Howard and its school of architecture was at the very center of his life,” said Mitchell, who noted Silcott’s gifts also helped keep the school afloat during difficult periods.

Silcott received the Howard University Alumni Achievement Award, the Centennial Professional Excellence Award and the Howard H. Mackey Dean’s Medal, named after his mentor. He also received the Kresge/Coca-Cola Award for philanthropy to HBCUs. In 2020, he was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows.

After a stroke in 2020, Silcott moved to Washington, D.C., to be under family care. He was placed in hospice in 2022, and put on a feeding tube, but lived three more years against the odds, noted Roberts, one of seven close nieces and nephews who called him “Uncle James.”

“He would not acknowledge that he wasn’t going to live forever,” said Roberts. Silcott remained engaged with Howard until his death.

CAT Deeley has taken off her wedding ring as she was seen for the first time since her split with Patrick Kielty, and trip with a male friend. 

Cat and Patrick – who share sons Milo, seven, and James, five – announced that they were separating last month. 

6

6

6

6

Now photos show This Morning host Cat, 48, without her ring on her wedding finger. 

The TV presenter has instead swapped it onto her right hand, in a nod to this new chapter of her life. 

Cat was spotted without the bling on her left hand while stepping out to run errands in a very chic outfit. 

She had a crisp white shirt on and denim jeans, and wore her hair down in loose waves. 

The mum-of-two clutched onto her purse while out and about near the former couple’s marital home. 

Cat looked sunkissed following her recent trip to Spain with a hairdresser pal. 

The star was seen out for dinner with a male friend in Sitges, Spain on August 2 – just days after she and Patrick, 54, split. 

Onlookers told the Daily Mail how the presenter looked “crestfallen” during the “difficult time”. 

The snaps obtained by the publication show Cat without her wedding ring as she and hairdresser pal Ben Skervin tucked into dinner at restaurant Chiringuito de Garraf.

Ben is a celebrity hairstylist and has worked with the likes of the Spice Girls, Mariah Carey and Madonna. 

A fellow diner said: “Cat looked a bit down and a touch crestfallen, not her usual spritely self, which is understandable given her marriage split.

“Her accent was recognisable to a number of Brits at the restaurant, which is popular with celebrities, and she had interacted with a few British kids also dining there

“She clearly needed to be around her nearest and dearest during such a difficult time.”

Cat was a no-show at the funeral of Patrick’s mother in March, his family “knew the marriage was over”. 

One said: “Whatever rockiness was going on in the marriage, something as momentous as his mother’s funeral, you would make up even temporarily and just put your ‘best face’ on as we say in Northern Ireland.

“Cat obviously knew how close Patrick was to Mary and she should have come to be by his side, a hand on his shoulder as he buried his mother. 

“The fact that she stayed in London and presented This Morning on the day, it’s not been forgotten.

At the time of Mary’s funeral, Cat insisted she’d stayed in London to be with their sons Milo, seven, and James, five.A spokesman for Cat told the Mail: “Cat remained at home to be there for her two young children before and after school on this very sad day.”

6

6

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who struggles with setting boundaries in any type of relationship.

That sound you hear is the lingering sigh of relief — or is it sadness? Confusion? The frustration over what could have been? — as “And Just Like That” completed its last sprint in heels this week. The “Sex and the City” sequel concluded its three-season run with a Thanksgiving from hell and an epilogue for Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, Lisa and Seema that will surely generate plenty of TikTok analysis to occupy us all weekend. The decision to end the series was surprising, sure, but hardly shocking — even if it still feels like a fever dream that’s not quite over. Our crew of dedicated watchers unpacked some of what they’re feeling — grab a slice of pie, pull up a chair and join the attempt to process it all. It’s a safe place.

But don’t fret, there are some other peeps you can add to your friend group to help ease the loss. Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen prove that men and women can be strictly (incredibly co-dependent) friends in Apple TV+’s “Platonic.” The comedy returned earlier this month for its second season, and creators Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller dropped by Guest Spot to discuss the challenges of making opposite-sex friendship more compelling than a romance, plus the story behind the perfectly pathetic pet name they have Rogen’s character saying all season.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations include a crime drama that sees a “Clueless” star enter her sleuth era? That’s right, TV critic Robert Lloyd tells you about a new Acorn series that stars Alicia Silverstone as an L.A. divorce lawyer who hightails it to Ireland after receiving a mysterious message from her estranged father. If you’re in the camp of people who prefer shows with a lighter touch on death, culture columnist Mary McNamara drops in to suggest an old-fashioned workplace/fish-out-of-water comedy set in the world of probate law — Huh, you say? Trust us! It’s funny!

ICYMI

Must-read stories you might have missed

Daniel Dae Kim is the star and executive producer of Prime Video’s “Butterfly.”

(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)

Daniel Dae Kim hopes ‘Butterfly’ can be the ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ of spy thrillers: The actor discusses bridging Korean and American culture on his new show, how “inclusive” isn’t a bad word and good allyship in action.

Developing ‘Alien: Earth’ was all about building suspense — and getting classic ‘Alien’ lore just right for TV: Noah Hawley leaned into the ‘Alien’ franchise’s retro-futurism when making ‘Alien: Earth,’ adding Peter Pan mythology and Easter eggs.

How John Slattery and Milo Callaghan learned to spar (and put on an accent) in ‘The Rainmaker’: The veteran actor and newcomer star in USA’s adaptation of the bestselling John Grisham novel.

Hollywood takes a wrecking ball to Los Angeles: Filmmakers seem to take a special pleasure in depicting an apocalyptic future for Los Angeles — how come?

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Alicia Silverstone as Fiona Sharpe in Acorn’s “Irish Blood.”

(Szymon Lazewski / Acorn TV)

“Irish Blood” (Acorn)

Alicia Silverstone stars as Fiona Murphy, an American divorce lawyer — no husband for her! — whose unsuspected past comes calling in form of a photograph mailed from Ireland, showing a picture of a locker with a phone number written on the backside. Not being me, she calls it right away and so begins a dark treasure hunt that brings her to Wicklow, Ireland, where she discovers the father (Jason O’Mara in flashbacks) who left on her 10th birthday was living, and is now dead, under possibly suspicious circumstances. She also discovers a briefcase full of clues; family she didn’t know she had; an inherited house; potential romance with the local owner of a boxing gym (Leonardo Taiwo); and a quirky policewoman (Ruth Codd), excited to help when Fiona is mysteriously attacked. As in many, or most, stories in which a city person travels to the country — “I Know Where I’m Going” or “Local Hero,” just to be Celtic about it — Fiona will experience a feeling of renewal, notwithstanding the threat of death. The mystery keeps you guessing, the characters are appealing, and Silverstone gives a lovely, lived-in performance. — Robert Lloyd

“Fisk” (Netflix, Season 3 premieres Wednesday)

I can’t say I was looking for a comedy that revolved around Australian probate law, but one found me and now I’m hooked. Co-created by and starring Australian comedian Kitty Flanagan, “Fisk” is an old-fashioned workplace/fish-out-of-water comedy that follows recently divorced Helen Tudor-Fisk (Flanagan), who has fled the shining lights of Sydney for the more sedate Melbourne where her father, a retired Supreme Court justice, lives. And she needs a job. After a disastrous interview with a legal recruitment firm — Fisk only wears brown, has no references and “is not a people person” — she lands at Gruber & Gruber, a small firm dealing mostly with wills. Ray Gruber (Marty Sheargold), an easily distracted schlub, is thrilled to hire the daughter of a Supreme Court justice; his sister Roz (Julia Zemiro), a woman so tightly wound she controls the key to the firm’s one restroom, is not. But Roz has been suspended; hence the need for Helen. Misanthropic and quietly contentious, Helen has little patience for client hand-holding, social niceties and, well, patience; but, as time inevitably tells, she is a good lawyer and her heart is not nearly as hard as she wants everyone to believe it is.

With a revolving cast of clients, and the requisite Gen Z assistant (here played to great effect by Aaron Chen), “Fisk” is a deceptively small show — “The Office” seems hectic and flashy by comparison — but it deftly mines the mundane and often quiet absurdities of life to laugh-out-loud effect. Flanagan, too, plays it close to the vest (or in this case, an over-large brown suit), making Helen the queen of the raised eyebrow and muttered aside. She is neither savior nor saint — many of her problems are of her own making — but anyone who has ever wondered why ordering a smoothie, or renting an Airbnb, or having a straight-forward conversation about just about anything has to be so complicated these days will find a “but that makes no sense” advocate in “Fisk.” — Mary McNamara

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen in Season 2 of Apple TV+’s “Platonic.”

(Katrina Marcinowski / Apple TV+)

In “Platonic,” the only will-they/won’t-they tension is about whether two longtime friends with co-dependency issues can avoid a breakup of their friendship. The Apple TV+ series stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as formerly estranged besties who, in the first season, rekindled their friendship at pivotal junctures in their lives — Sylvia (Byrne) is a married mother of three children who feels unfulfilled, while Will (Rogen) is a middle-aged hipster and brewer going through a divorce — and help each other in their quest to get back on track. The series returned earlier this month with Will experiencing cold feet at the prospect of marrying his fiancée (and boss), while Sylvia, who is helping to plan the ceremony, gets caught in the crosshairs just as she must contend with developing sore spots in her own marriage. Creators Delbanco and Stoller stopped by Guest Spot to discuss how platonic friendships can be love stories, too, and the story behind this season’s embarrassing pet name.

What is the challenge in depicting a platonic friendship between people of the opposite sex when viewers enjoy character shipping? How do you make “just friends” something to root for?

Stoller: It’s definitely a challenge to break story as almost all TV show plots involve either sex or murder. But the funniest comedies explore human relationships honestly. Our artistic project with “Platonic” is to delve into the complications and rewards of male-female friendships. We think anyone who’s ever had this kind of friendship will find the show relatable. While “Platonic” is a hang-out show, we also are invested in the show having a strong story drive. We think we have figured out series arcs for our characters that go deep on midlife and hopefully will make you laugh out loud.

Delbanco: In a way, platonic friendships are love stories too — not exactly the same kind of love stories, of course, but they do have certain similar preoccupations: Can we survive our disagreements? Are we ultimately good for each other or not? Is our relationship going to last through all of the phases of our lives as we change and grow? Ultimately, we’re hoping we can make viewers feel the same degree of investment in “will they make it” as friends that we’re all accustomed to feeling in rom-coms. It’s definitely a creative challenge, but we all know how important friendships are to our overall emotional health, so it stands to reason that they deserve some exploration onscreen too.

This season provides an opportunity to explore the intimidation factor of a new significant other experiencing the Sylvia-Will dynamic. How did that make you think about Will’s fiancée, Jenna [Rachel Rosenbloom]?

Stoller: We originally conceived of “Platonic” as an anthology series where we were going to explore a different platonic friendship each season. While shooting the first season, we had such a great time making it that we asked Seth and Rose if they wanted to do more of the show together, and luckily for us they said yes. The Jenna character had been created to give Will a happy ending. We knew that to make more episodes of the show we would have to give Will a new conflict. We knew that Sylvia needed to understand Will in a way Jenna just didn’t. But we also wanted Jenna to be a legitimate partner for Will. So in the Season 2 writers’ room, we reconceived Jenna to just be operating at a slightly different wavelength than both Will and Sylvia. We worked with Rachel Rosenbloom, who plays Jenna and is super funny, to figure out a character that was just a little out of step with both Will and Sylvia.

Delbanco: We really wanted to write Jenna as a human, relatable character rather than a one-dimensional “lame girlfriend” type of comedy villain, because at its core, the insecurity that Jenna feels about Sylvia is a feeling most of us have had before: Who is this woman my boyfriend/fiancé/husband spends so much time with, and how can I be sure he isn’t actually in love with her? Likewise, we didn’t want Jenna to be someone Sylvia could easily dismiss: In many ways she’s good for Will, and intimidating in her own right. There have been so many amazing comedies about introducing a significant other to your parents, and your family, but there’s a lot of great dramatic tension to mine when new love interests collide with old friends.

What is the backstory with the “penguini” pet name? What were other iterations before you landed on that one?

Stoller: We just tried to think of the most embarrassing thing that Will would have to say in front of Sylvia. And so “penguini” was born. Hilariously, one of our locations where we shot this season turned out to be right next to a restaurant called Caffe Pinguini.

Delbanco: It made us laugh so hard to imagine Seth having to use a private baby-talk, lovey-dovey voice — it just doesn’t suit his character, and it’s so mortifying to be overheard in that mode. It felt like a strong way to announce that something new was going on with him this season.

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

Stoller: I just watched the Billy Joel documentary [“Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” HBO Max]. I’ve always been a fan of his, but the documentary uncovers a lot of pain and history I was unaware of. It made me revisit his music and understand it in a whole new light. I also just saw the film “Sorry, Baby” [VOD], which is hilarious, beautifully-shot, moving and even, at times, slightly scary.

Delbanco: I recently finished the second season of “Wolf Hall” [PBS.org], and I can’t stop thinking about it — I loved the novels and was floored that they were adapted for the screen with such incredible depth and power. The finale is still haunting me even though I watched it weeks ago. Main takeaway: I am so freaking glad I wasn’t born during the reign of Henry VIII.

What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

Stoller: I watch “Rushmore” [Hulu, Disney+], “When Harry Met Sally” [VOD] and “The Shining” [VOD] once a year. The endings of both “Rushmore” and “When Harry Met Sally” never fail to make me cry. Every time I watch “Rushmore,” I notice a new detail. And “The Shining” casts a hypnotic spell that makes me want to revisit the Overlook [Hotel] again and again.

Delbanco: I guess we’re an early Wes Anderson household, because “The Royal Tenenbaums” [Hulu, Disney+] is the movie I see on repeat when I close my eyes. It makes me laugh and also cry in all the right ways, and I love its desultory, romantic mood. I don’t think any scene has ever worked for me as well as Gwyneth Paltrow’s walk towards Luke Wilson when she gets off the bus. The bus station! Her fur coat! Nico! What could ever top it?

Before Chris Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2011, he had a stereotypical view of the city.

“When I came as a visitor, we always stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in the Marina, and every player, all [we] did was go to Rodeo Drive the day before the game or whatnot,” says Paul, who began his NBA career playing with the New Orleans Hornets in 2005. “That was all I thought L.A. was. I thought it was all very Hollywood, glitz and glamour, so I never wanted to come out here to live.”

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

But once the veteran point guard and his family found a home with a pool — a nonnegotiable for the North Carolina native — and got settled into their new environment, they grew to love the city. So much so that his wife, Jada Crawley, and his now-teenage children continued living in L.A. when he left to play for the Houston Rockets in 2017.

When the news hit last month that he would be returning to the L.A. Clippers — a dream that he says he “manifested” — Paul was buzzing with excitement.

“Over the years, L.A. became home,” says Paul, whose fans lovingly call him “CP3.” He was sitting in a conference room at the Intuit Dome, the Clippers’ arena, during our Zoom call. “My family being here is all good and well, but also my community. If you live somewhere and call it home for a while, you make friends that are like family, so being away for a long time, I just missed those relationships.”

Below is a game plan for Paul’s perfect Sunday in L.A. It involves going to a soul food brunch spot after church with his family, practicing his swing at a driving range and hosting a game night. Here’s the play by play.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

6 a.m.: Hit the gym
I’m an early riser. I’m up at like 6 a.m. in the gym on the daily. I’d do a home gym workout. That’s a nonnegotiable. Then I’d have a small breakfast afterward. I’d probably have some french toast. That’s my favorite. I’d also have some scrambled eggs, sautéed spinach and some fruit on the side.

8:30 a.m.: Church with the fam
I actually had the perfect Sunday [recently]. I got dressed and went to church. It was me, my wife, my daughter, my son and two of his friends who spent the night, my brother and his wife’s family, and my two little cousins who brought their friends. There were 16 of us. We decided to go to the 8:30 a.m. service at Believe L.A. Pastor Lindsey is great. I love the people there. Obviously given my schedule, I don’t get to go every Sunday, but just about every time I’ve been there so far, it’s like the message is something that I needed to hear.

11 a.m.: Soul food brunch
After church, the place we’d go to is Harold and Belle’s. I know the family that owns the restaurant and it’s just very soulful. They do these fried mushrooms that I definitely gotta have. It really just feels like home.

2 p.m.: Practice my swing at the driving range
It’s funny because it’s going to be one of two things. My wife and my daughter will definitely want to go to Century City or the Topanga mall. They like to shop. So if they went to the mall, I would probably go to the driving range and hit some golf balls. I’m a member at a couple of courses, El Caballero Country Club and Sherwod Country Club. I’ve been playing golf since around 2009. It is the coolest thing ever. I grew up playing basketball with my brother and my dad, and now obviously we can’t hoop together, so for years, that’s how we’ve spent time. We go out and play golf together. I got a chance to play with a couple of friends out here in L.A. that I hadn’t played with in years. [I appreciate] the camaraderie and the time you get to spend out there on the golf course.

7 p.m.: Dinner at Nobu
After that, I probably gotta chill at the house for a little bit and get ready for dinner. I’m probably going to go to Nobu in Malibu with my family. I always have my crew with me. If I’m not at Nobu, I’m at BLVD Steak. I like the crispy rice and the salmon avocado, which is like sashimi, but they do it with avocado. At BLVD Steak, they have this chopped salad that is amazing. You know my favorite food that I cannot say no to at any time? French fries. I’m a french fry connoisseur. I like for the edges to be a little bit crispy.

9:30 p.m.: Invite everyone over and play Onze
After dinner, everybody will come back to my house and we’ll play this game called Onze. Everybody gets 11 cards. There’s six rounds and for every two players, you need one deck. We play this game nightly.

Since I got into the NBA, on every flight, we play this game called Booray [also known as Bourré]. It’s almost like spades. It’s like the NBA game. Onze is amazing because sometimes we’ll have 15 or 20 people at our house and we’ll just set up different tables. So no matter what happens throughout the day, that’s going to be the nightcap. We’ll have Good Eat’n snacks. [Editor’s note: Good Eat’n is the plant-based snack company Paul launched in partnership with GoPuff after changing his diet to be primarily plant-based.] We got drinks. I’m definitely having a few glasses of red wine. We’ll have music going. It is literally the best time.

12:30 a.m.: Get some shut–eye
At the end of the night, I’ll see everybody out. Hug my kids — I would say kiss my kids, but I don’t know if my daughter will still let me kiss her — and then I’ll go to bed.

Jennifer Aniston just came out with an unexpected, wistful comment about her “Friends” co-star Matthew Perry’s death: Part of her, she said, thinks it might be “better” for him that he died.

“We did everything we could when we could,” the “Morning Show” star said in an interview published Monday by Vanity Fair, talking about Perry’s friends’ attempts to help him when he was struggling with addiction. “But it almost felt like we’d been mourning Matthew for a long time because his battle with that disease was a really hard one for him to fight.”

Indeed, Perry discussed his friends’ efforts to help him in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” which recounted his decades-long struggles with substance abuse as well as his numerous recovery efforts.

“Although he asserts he was never high while filming ‘Friends,’ he’d often be sick or hungover,” former staff writer Christina Veta wrote in The Times’ review of the memoir. “Once, Perry passed out on the Central Perk couch and [co-star Matt] LeBlanc had to nudge him awake to say his line. Later, Aniston called him out for drinking again, telling him, ‘We can smell it.’”

Perry told Aniston, “I know I’m drinking too much, but I don’t exactly know what to do about it.”

“In nature, when a penguin is injured, the other penguins group around it and prop it up until it’s better,” he wrote in his memoir. “This is what my costars on Friends did for me. There were times on set when I was extremely hungover, and Jen and Courteney [Cox], being devoted to cardio as a cure-all, had a Lifecycle exercise bike installed backstage. In between rehearsals and takes, I’d head back there and ride that thing like the fires of hell were chasing me — anything to get my brain power back to normal. I was the injured penguin, but I was determined to not let these wonderful people, and this show, down.”

Aniston told Vanity Fair in the new interview, “looking solemn and out toward the ocean” as she spoke about Perry’s death, “As hard as it was for all of us and for the fans, there’s a part of me that thinks this is better. I’m glad he’s out of that pain.”

Perry said in his memoir that amid all his drinking and drug use, he was never suicidal.

“In the back of my mind I always had some semblance of hope. But, if dying was a consequence of getting to take the quantity of drugs I needed, then death was something I was going to have to accept,” he wrote about the period after “Friends” ended.

“That’s how skewed my thinking had become — I was able to hold those two things in my mind at the same time: I don’t want to die, but if I have to in order to get sufficient drugs on board, then amen to oblivion.”

Almost exactly a year after the memoir came out, on Oct. 28, 2024, at 4 in the afternoon, Perry was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home. The drug ketamine would later emerge as his official cause of death, with drowning a contributing factor.

New York City native Kevin Mares was killed Sunday in the La Perla neigborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 25-year-old was visiting the island to see a Bad Bunny concert.

Mares was fatally shot in the early morning hours, outside of a nightclub called Shelter for Mistreated Men. The shooting took place when several people near Mares began arguing and one pulled out a gun and shot at least three people, the Associated Press reported.

Homicide detective Sgt. Arnaldo Ruiz told the AP that Mares was an innocent bystander in the situation and that a pair of siblings from La Perla remain hospitalized after being shot. No arrests have yet been made.

Mares was joined by his girlfriend and two friends in Puerto Rico. It was his partner who ended up delivering the news of his death to Mares’ parents.

“I said, ‘What happened?’ She said, ‘I’m sorry. We lost him,’ ” Hector Mares, Kevin’s father, told CBS News New York.

“Whoever did this, took from us a piece of us, you know?” Kevin’s mother, Sandra Mares, added.

A longtime Bad Bunny fan, Mares and his friends were consistently in attendance of the “La Mudanza” singer’s concerts and had been prepping for their San Juan trip for months.

“Every time Bad Bunny comes here, they go to most all of his concerts,” Sandra Mares said.

Mares — whose parents are originally from Mexico — was born and raised in the East Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens and was studying to be a veterinarian at LaGuardia Community College.

“He got a lot of dreams. He was working as a vet technician. And at the same time he was studying,” his father told ABC 7 New York.

“He was about to propose to [his girlfriend] this fall. Yeah. He wanted to do something special. He shared that with us,” his mother added. “He was a lovely son. He cared about all of us, his family, friends. He has a lot of friends who’s really going to miss him, too.”

Now, the Mares family is asking for anyone with information about the shooter and more specifics about the incident to please step forward.

“What we’re asking the people is, if anybody knows what happened, who did this, [to say something],” his mother told CBS. “We don’t know [anything]. We want justice.”

The family is currently making efforts toward having Mares’ body returned home, but it remains in Puerto Rico as the investigation into his death is still ongoing.

Kevin’s father started a GoFundMe to raise enough money — the campaign’s target is currently $50,000 — to plan Kevin’s funeral arrangements.

“Kevin Mares was a deeply loved son, devoted friend, and a source of inspiration to everyone who knew him. His wholehearted kindness, adventurous spirit, and unwavering commitment to family made him a pillar of strength for his loved ones,” the GofundMe page states. “Family was at the center of everything he did, and his sudden passing has left an unfillable void in our lives. … Your support will help us honor Kevin’s memory and give him the farewell he deserves.”

President Trump once called Rupert Murdoch “my very good friend.”

But the 94-year-old media baron, whose fortunes have risen in tandem with Trump’s political ascent, has turned into an unlikely foe.

Trump has bristled over a Wall Street Journal report that he allegedly sent a suggestive letter to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. Trump denied sending the message, calling it a “fake,” and last month he filed a $10-billion defamation suit against Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co., Murdoch and others.

The billionaire — who sits at the top of the world’s most prominent conservative media empire — has become the focus of the president’s fury.

“I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, a nod to “Fox & Friends,” one of his favorite TV programs. The Journal, he wrote, is a “Disgusting and Filthy Rag,” and Murdoch’s “‘pile of garbage’ newspaper.”

Trump’s attorneys applied more heat last week in a startling bid to force Murdoch to promptly appear for a deposition. In a motion, Trump’s lawyers cited the mogul’s age and health complications, which they said includes a recent fainting episode, and over the last five years, a broken back, a torn Achilles tendon and atrial fibrillation, which could make Murdoch “unavailable for in-person testimony at trial.”

Through a spokesman, Murdoch declined to comment.

The tussle provides a rare glimpse into the tangled relationship of two titans whose dealings date back a half-century when the Australian-born Murdoch arrived in the U.S. and bought the New York Post, a punchy tabloid with screaming headlines. Trump forged his reputation as a New York real estate tycoon, in part, by dishing scoops to the paper’s celebrity-hungry Page Six.

And Fox News would become one of Trump’s biggest champions. The network has long heaped on positive attention that helped Trump transform himself from reality TV star to the political hero of his Make America Great Again base.

The cable network gave Trump a platform for his unfounded “birther” conspiracies about former President Obama. And Trump’s political rise helped build Fox News into a ratings and financial juggernaut. This summer, Fox News ranks as America’s No. 1 network, according to measurement firm Nielsen, attracting more viewers in prime time than broadcast leaders NBC and CBS.

What’s more, a string of Fox News personalities have joined Trump’s administration, including former weekend host, now secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

Murdoch and Trump “feed off one another — they’ve had this relationship since the ’70s where they kind of benefit from one another,” said Andrew Dodd, a journalism professor at the University of Melbourne. “But they also have these turns where they’re against each other.”

Gabriel Kahn, a USC journalism professor and former Wall Street Journal reporter, said the tension is real.

“As much as Rupert has pumped up Trump World over the last 10 years, Rupert really sees himself as the kingmaker — not the lackey,” Kahn said.

Trump’s social media posts over the years reveal bouts of frustration with Murdoch and his media properties.

The two men have different political philosophies: Murdoch is known to be a small-government Reagan Republican, “not a true conservative populist” in the MAGA vein, according to one Republican political operative who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Insiders and observers point to a series of slights, including a 2015 remark Murdoch made on Twitter a month after Trump descended on the golden escalator at Trump Tower to announce his first presidential bid, and then ignited a firestorm with anti-immigrant comments.

“When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?” Murdoch asked a decade ago.

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch and his father, Rupert Murdoch, in 2018.

(Adrian Edwards / GC Images)

Murdoch, at turns, tried to recruit or boost rival presidential hopefuls. Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis received flattering coverage on Fox News early in President Biden’s term.

By that time, Trump was back at Mar-a-Lago after losing the 2020 election and Fox News was navigating treacherous terrain. The network was the first major outlet to call Arizona for Biden on election night, riling Trump and his supporters who viewed the move as a betrayal, one that short-circuited their claims the election had been stolen. Fox News witnessed an immediate viewer exodus.

To win back Trump supporters, the network gave a platform to Trump surrogates who suggested machines flipped votes for Biden, despite the fact that Murdoch and others knew such claims were false, court filings revealed.

Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic sued for defamation. Discovery in the Dominion lawsuit revealed that, two days after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, Murdoch wanted to carve some distance, writing a former executive: “We want to make Trump a non person.”

In a 2023 deposition, Murdoch conceded missteps of spreading the unfounded theories. Fox that spring agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million — one of the largest payouts ever for a U.S. libel suit. The Smartmatic case is still pending.

“They promulgated the ‘Big Lie,’” Dodd said of Fox News’ post-2020 election coverage. “Now, in the twilight years of his life, Murdoch [may be] thinking: ‘Well, this man really is not worth supporting any longer.’”

Such a shift would not be out of character. Murdoch, in the past, has promoted political leaders and governments, only to pull that support.

In the 1970s, after initially backing Australia’s then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, Murdoch allegedly directed his editors to “Kill Whitlam,” in a political (not violent) sense. Twenty years later in Britain, Murdoch abandoned the Conservatives after being a close ally of former leader Margaret Thatcher. He famously threw the weight of his tabloid, the Sun, behind Labor’s Tony Blair.

After years of backing Tories, the Sun shifted back to Labor and Keir Starmer last year, saying that “it is time for a change.”

“Murdoch has a long career of breaking what he makes,” Dodd said.

His vast empire, divvied between News Corp. and Fox Corp., allows his outlets to have different leanings. The Journal has lent more skeptical coverage to Trump. It broke stories about Trump’s hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy bunny Karen McDougal. This year, its editorial board called his high tariffs “the dumbest trade war in history.”

Fox News, however, remains staunchly in the president’s camp. Murdoch is “putting one part of the organization in attack mode while keeping the other [Fox News] in reserve while it benefits from the base of the person that he’s attacking,” Dodd said.

The media baron has long relished his proximity to power. He attended Trump’s second inauguration in January and participated with business leaders in an Oval Office meeting a few weeks later.

Murdoch was reportedly among Trump’s circle of VIPs in New Jersey on July 13 for the FIFA Club World Cup soccer championship match.

Two days later, a Journal reporter emailed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, advising that the paper was preparing to publish a story about the Epstein birthday letter, according to Trump’s lawsuit. Trump’s lawyers pushed back, saying the allegations were false.

Trump called Murdoch, according to court filings. “Murdoch advised President Trump that ‘he would take care of it,’” Trump wrote in a July 17 post on Truth Social, the day the story published. “Obviously, he didn’t have the power to do so,” Trump wrote.

Trump sued the next day. A Dow Jones spokeswoman responded: “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”

The legal dustup comes after a string of controversial wins for the president.

Last month, Paramount Global agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a dispute over “60 Minutes” edits of a Kamala Harris interview, a lawsuit that 1st Amendment experts said had no merit. In December, Walt Disney Co. paid $16 million to end a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump over inaccurate statements by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos — an outcome derided by some 1st Amendment experts who thought Disney would eventually prevail.

“President Trump has already beaten George Stephanopoulos/ABC, 60 Minutes/CBS, and others, and looks forward to suing and holding accountable the once great Wall Street Journal,” Trump wrote. “It has truly turned out to be a ‘Disgusting and Filthy Rag.’”

Murdoch watchers don’t expect him to capitulate.

“In this bizarre world that we live in, Rupert is actually one of the few people who might be willing to stand up to Trump,” Kahn said. “Remember, Rupert loves newspapers, he loves the scoop and he loves to stir the pot.”

Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.

“And Just Like That …” it’s over.

The current third season of the “Sex and the City” sequel will be its last, showrunner, writer and director Michael Patrick King said in a statement on social media Friday. And it’ll wrap in an exaggerated fashion that would suit Carrie’s style: a two-part finale on HBO Max, taking the season’s original 10 episodes to 12. Episodes 11 and 12 will air on Aug. 7 and 14, respectively, according to an HBO Max spokesperson.

“While I was writing the last episode of ‘And Just Like That …” Season 3, it became clear to me that this might be a wonderful place to stop,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “SJP [Sarah Jessica Parker] and I held off announcing the news until now because we didn’t want the word ‘final’ to overshadow the fun of watching the season. It’s with great gratitude we thank all the viewers who let these characters into their homes and their hearts over these many years.”

The original “Sex and the City” series, which followed the lives of four friends — Carrie Bradshaw (Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) — premiered on HBO in 1998, ran for six seasons and was the springboard for two subsequent theatrical films. The sequel series reunited Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte and let viewers tag along on their midlife adventures in New York City.

But from its premiere in December 2021, the sequel to the popular HBO series was like a situationship viewers could never fully get a handle on. A crucial member of the friend group was absent (Samantha) and some viewers questioned the cast additions — ahem, Che Diaz — and changes to the characters’ personalities that felt inconsistent to fans who had journeyed alongside them .

Parker, who is also an executive producer of “And Just Like That …,” posted a lengthy, poem-like tribute to Carrie and the show on her Instagram account.

“Carrie Bradshaw has dominated my professional heartbeat for 27 years,” she wrote. “I think I have loved her most of all … MPK and I together recognized, as we have in the past, this chapter complete. AJLT was all joy, adventure, the greatest kind of hard work alongside the most extraordinary talent of 380 that includes all the brilliant actors who joined us. I am better for every single day I spent with you. It will be forever before I forget. The whole thing. Thank you all. I love you so. I hope you love these final two episodes as much as we all do.”