friend

Ozzy Osbourne tragically passed away on 22 July aged 76

Ozzy Osbourne’s family recently joined fans in paying an emotional farewell to the heavy metal star during an emotional procession in Birmingham.

Black Sabbath legend Ozzy tragically passed away on 22 July aged 76. The family statement announcing his death read: “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love.

“We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis.”

Appearing on Friday’s Good Morning Britain, Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, who has worked with both Ozzy’s wife Sharon and his son Jack, shared her condolences to the grieving family.

Ekin-Su, 30, was on Celebrity Big Brother with Sharon in 2024, where the two were friendly and bonded on the show.

Meanwhile, former Love Island star Ekin-Su is currently starring on Cooking with the Stars with Jack, 39, which was filmed before the death of his father.

Appearing on Friday’s GMB, Ekin-Su was asked about the heartbreaking news by hosts Kate Garraway and Adil Ray.

Ekin-Su said of Sharon: “She is such a motherly figure and I think she’s just so loving. Honestly, I feel like he was everything to Sharon and the family so for this to happen so tragically I just want Sharon to look after herself.”

Host Kate, 58, then jumped in saying: “She looked very vulnerable” to which Ekin-Su repeated: “Very vulnerable!” Kate continued: “We all wanted to hug her.”

Ekin-Su added: “Bless her, I’m sending all my love to their family. I mean Jack, such a sweet guy! A loss is always heartbreaking and when it’s such a known person and it’s such an iconic person that’s passed away, it hits us all.”

Host Adil, 51, then said: “It must be difficult for them as they have lived such a public life, of course all those reality TV shows that they did, suddenly these moments, these incredibly personal moments, ‘we want to see the funeral, we want to feel part of it’, but for them I wonder can you come out of that and really grieve on a personal level.”

To which Ekin-Su responded: “We are all obviously involved in it but I feel like that is quite private though and I feel like they do need some privacy and some time to grieve privately as well.”

It comes as Ozzy’s family recently joined fans in paying an emotional farewell to the heavy metal star during an emotional procession in Birmingham.

Sharon, who was married to the musician for more than four decades, became emotional as she stepped out of a car to view the hundreds of floral tributes and balloons laid around the Black Sabbath bench.

The former X Factor judge, 72, was helped out of the first vehicle in the cortege by her and Ozzy’s son Jack, who joined her at the event along with Ozzy and Sharon’s daughters Aimee and Kelly. At one emotional point, the family all raised their hands in a peace sign while paying their respects.

The family members wiped away tears at the bench as they inspected tributes, with members of the crowd shouting “we love you Ozzy”.

Good Morning Britain continues on weekdays at 6am on ITV and ITV X.

Hulk Hogan was wrestling royalty.

Born Terry Gene Bollea, Hogan was a WWF superstar in the 1980s and early 1990s, then experienced a career resurgence in the late ’90s with his Hollywood Hogan persona in the WCW’s New World Order stable.

With his passing Thursday morning at 71, many of the biggest names in professional wrestling paid tribute.

“I Am Absolutely Shocked To Hear About The Passing Of My Close Friend @HulkHogan!” WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Hulk Has Been By My Side Since We Started In The Wrestling Business. An Incredible Athlete, Talent, Friend, And Father! Our Friendship Has Meant The World To Me. He Was Always There For Me Even When I Didn’t Ask For Him To Be. … Hulkster, No One Will Ever Compare To You! Rest In Peace My Friend!”

WWE Hall of Fame wrestler and current Chief Content Officer Triple H wrote on X that the organization “would not be where it is today without the larger-than-life characters that compete in the ring … and few, if any, loomed larger than Terry ‘Hulk Hogan’ Bollea.”

“Hulk Hogan, clad in red and yellow or [New World Order] black and white, was simply put, iconic,” Triple H wrote. “As a Real American or the leader of one of the industry’s biggest factions, he transcended and elevated the entire business to heights never before seen — in every country and on every continent. There was no one like The Hulkster and there very well may never be another.”

Fellow Hall of Fame wrestler Kane, also known as Knox County, Tenn., Mayor Glenn Jacobs, said in a statement: “The Hulkster was integral in making professional wrestling, and specifically WWE, what it is today. While I join fans all across the world in mourning his loss, I am also grateful for the opportunities that he created for people like me and so many others in professional wrestling and entertainment.”

Another politician who is in the WWE Hall of Fame paid his respects to Hogan on Truth Social.

“We lost a great friend today, the ‘Hulkster,’” wrote President Trump, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame’s celebrity wing in 2013. “Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart. He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention, that was one of the highlights of the entire week.

“He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive. To his wife, Sky, and family, we give our warmest best wishes and love. Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed!”

Secretary of Education and former WWE President and Chief Executive Linda McMahon wrote on X: “I had the privilege of knowing and working with [Hogan] for over 40 years. Hulk was a dear friend and member of our WWE family. His legacy in and out of the ring will always be remembered. He was one of a kind! My thoughts and prayers are with his family, his friends, and all of his fans.”

Here’s how others from the world of professional wrestling are remembering Hogan on X:

— Jake “the Snake” Roberts: “It’s hard to put into words what Terry ‘Hulk Hogan’ Bollea meant to professional wrestling and entertainment. He may be gone, but his memory and legacy will live forever.”

— Sting: “HULK HOGAN – THE GREATEST OF ALL Can’t thank you enough for all that you did for me and for wrestling fans all over the world. I loved you and I will miss you. My friend, Terry Bollea, RIP.”

— The Miz: “When I was a kid I ate my vitamins, said my prayers because Hulk Hogan told me to. He was someone I looked up to; a larger-than-life presence I copied constantly growing up. The voice, flexing, charisma, he made you want to be bold, loud, confident. RIP, Hulk Hogan.”

— Charlotte Flair: “When I nearly lost my dad 8 years ago, one of the few people who was there for all of it was Hulk Hogan. My heart breaks for Nick and Brooke. Rest in peace, brother.”

— The Undertaker: “The wrestling world has lost a true legend. His contributions to our business are immeasurable and for that I am appreciative. Thank you, Hulk Hogan.”

— Sgt. Slaughter: “Saddened To Hear About The Passing of Hulk Hogan … I Guess God Needed An Incredible Angel. R.I.P. My Friend.”

— Kurt Angle: “R.I.P Hulkster, thank you for opening up doors for so many people in the business including myself. There would not be a Kurt Angle, without the American Made, Hulk Hogan. My heart and prayers go out to his family. We lost a real icon today.”

— Bubba Ray Dudley: “As a young fan, I’ll never forget the day Bob Backlund brought you out to help him. As an old pro, I will never forget how much you meant to my career. I appreciate every thing you did for me. And was happy to call you a friend…and Brother.”

Family handout

Family handout

‘Last phone call’

Reuters

‘No evidence of assault’

‘Off his head’

Reuters

‘Did not steal’

Warned him

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the Emmy-nominated actor who starred as Theo Huxtable for eight seasons on “The Cosby Show,” has died, The Times has confirmed. He was 54.

Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department told the Associated Press on Monday that Warner drowned Sunday afternoon on a beach on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. He was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.

First responders from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue. Warner was on vacation with his family.

Representatives for Warner declined to comment immediately Monday, but Warner’s friends and colleagues poured out their thoughts on social media.

“I love you, Malcolm,” wrote Tracee Ellis Ross, who co-starred as Warner’s wife on 29 episodes of “Reed Between the Lines.” “First I met you as Theo with the rest of the world then you were my first TV husband. My heart is so so sad. What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant. You made the world a brighter place. Sending so much love to your family. I’m so sorry for this unimaginable loss.”

Morris Chestnut, who worked with Warner on “The Resident,” was “heartbroken” to hear the news.

“He brought so much depth, warmth, and wisdom to every scene and every conversation,” Chestnut wrote. “One of the nicest in the business. Rest easy, brother. Your legacy lives on.”

“The JOY in your voice as you spoke about your daughter the last time we talked is all I can think about in this moment … Thank You for being a beautiful light. A Masterclass on the phrase ‘a class act.’ Well done,” wrote singer-songwriter Ledisi, who worked with Warner in music and on TV.

“Luke Cage” actor Mike Colter posted an all-smiles photo of himself and Warner that was taken when the two ran into each other about a year ago. They first connected during the pandemic lockdown, he said.

“I was fascinated by his depth and concern for his fellow man. His compassion for his people. His musical gifts and expressions in spoken word,” Colter wrote. “Yes of course I had watched him as I grew up on the Cosby Show but he had grown into so much more as an [artist] and a man. A father.

“I took this photo as his mother sat across from us. I complimented her on what a great job she had done with her son in this industry. He [turned] out so well,” Colter continued. “My heart goes out to her. I never heard a harsh word [spoken] about him. His legacy will live on. I’m so sorry for this loss to his family and friends. i’m in shock to be honest.”

Holly Robinson Peete said she met Warner in the 1980s when her father was a writer-producer on “The Cosby Show.” The two stayed friends over the years.

“I’m struggling to process this,” she wrote. “Malcolm was so deeply loved, respected, and a true icon of television. … He was always gracious, kind, funny and gave the absolute best hugs. I am sending my deepest condolences to his mom, Pamela and his family… We aren’t ready to say goodbye, Malcolm — but you lived with purpose, character, presence, and grace. Rest well, my friend. Your light lives on.”

“I actually am speechless!!!!! No words!,” Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis wrote. “Theo was OUR son, OUR brother, OUR friend… He was absolutely so familiar, and we rejoiced at how TV got it right!! But… Malcolm got it right… and now… we reveled in your life and are gutted by this loss.”

Niecy Nash said she had just spoken to Warner. “You were giving me my flowers for my work in @grotesqueriefx and we talked about how happy we both were in our marriages,” she wrote. “ Damn friend … You were cornerstone of The Cosby Show. We all loved Theo! Never to be forgotten. You will be missed. Rest Easy.”

Questlove said he saw himself in Theo Huxtable: being bad at football, wanting clothes he couldn’t afford, hiding edgy things from the parents.

“If you looked like me coming of age in the 80s, Malcom-as-Theo was a gps/lighthouse of navigating safety to adulthood. For those of us that didnt have ‘examples’ or ‘safe environments’ — I would like to think for anyone of age we used this entire show —and its offspring as life blueprints,” the music producer and drummer wrote.

In addition to acting on “The Cosby Show,” Warner directed five episodes over the final three years of the show. He was behind the camera for a half-dozen installments of “All That” and also directed episodes of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “The Resident,” “Kenan & Kel” and “Reed Between the Lines.”

“Part of the reason I even got into directing is because I realized as an actor you really only have so much creative control over whatever project you’re acting in,” Warner told The Times in 1991. “I felt that, as a director, I would at least have more of a voice.”

He continued, saying, “Directing, as is acting and writing, is an interpretation. And I feel that I have a pretty good sense of how to tell a story. And I think that my interpretation of things is pretty, pretty good.”

Born Aug. 18, 1970, in Jersey City, N.J., Warner was named after activist Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. He caught the performing bug by the time he was 9 and wound up attending Manhattan’s Professional Children’s School, which counts him among its “distinguished alumni.”

His parents divorced when he was 3 and he was raised primarily by his mother, Pamela, who served as his manager in the early days of his career.

“I think probably the biggest influence — and I talk about this all the time, and I will probably continue to talk about this until my dying day — my mother. I think she really made the most impact on me,” he said.

Working on “The Cosby Show” in New York instead of Hollywood was another formative experience for him when the sitcom was the most popular thing on TV.

“There weren’t really many other shows shooting in New York. We all had to grow up with friends who were not in the business,” Warner told People in 2024. “And when you grow up in New York, there’s a different exposure to reality than when you grow up on television in Hollywood.”

After getting an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in 1986, for his work on “Cosby,” Warner went on to amass dozens of TV credits. They include four seasons as the lead actor on “Malcolm & Eddie” — he directed 17 episodes on that UPN show — and six seasons as A.J. Austin on “The Resident.”

Other appearances included work on “Sons of Anarchy,” “Major Crimes,” “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” and “Suits.”

Warner also won a Grammy for traditional R&B performance in 2015 for the song “Jesus Children” and was nominated for spoken word poetry album in 2023.

His band Miles Long incorporated spoken word and funk. The band released “The Miles Long Mixtape” in 2004 and “Love & Other Social Issues” in 2007. “Selfless” dropped in 2015 and “Hiding in Plain View” came out in 2022.

“I’ve been writing all my life and playing bass came later on, when I was about 26,” Warner told Billboard in 2015. “What I recognized with poetry and music [is] that I had a different voice — there were things I wanted to express that I could not as an actor or even as a director. It was another avenue of expression that my soul needs.”

Of course, he was asked for his thoughts on co-star Bill Cosby when Cosby was accused of rape in 2015.

“He’s one of my mentors, and he’s been very influential and played a big role in my life as a friend and mentor,” Warner told Billboard. “Just as it’s painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it’s just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this.”

Warner was very happy in his own marriage, though he kept his wife and daughter’s identities private.

“When people say, when you know, you know. That’s what this feeling is,” he said on the “Hot & Bothered” podcast in May. “We’ve been together almost 10 years. We’ve never had a fight, an argument, a raised voice or a harsh word. Not that we’ve always agreed. We’re just at a point where we have a way of communicating.”

After playing clean-cut Theodore Huxtable, Warner was looking for other paths when he talked to The Times in 1987.

“In my post-’Cosby’ life, as I call it, I don’t want to be known as just the kind of guy who can play a Theo Huxtable-type character,” Warner said. “I want to be known as being able to do more things, being able to stretch. For me that was the most important thing.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Actor Kate Beckinsale is mourning the loss of her “dearest friend,” her mother British actor Judy Loe.

The “Underworld” star announced Thursday that her mother died Tuesday evening, writing in an emotional Instagram post that Loe died “in my arms after immeasurable suffering.”

Though Beckinsale in her post did not disclose a cause of death, she announced last year that her mother had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Loe was 78.

The “Pearl Harbor” actor, 51, said she felt compelled to announce her mother’s death because she had to register the “Space Island One” actor’s death certificate. She shared a carousel of photos and videos of her mother from over the years, including snaps of Loe in her youth and with granddaughter Lily Mo Sheen, whom Beckinsale shares with ex Michael Sheen.

“I am paralysed,” Beckinsale wrote in her caption. “Jude was the compass of my life, the love of my life, my dearest friend.”

Loe, born March 6, 1947, in Manchester, enjoyed a versatile career that began in the 1970s and earned her dozens of credits, mostly on British TV series. She broke out on the ITV fantasy series “Ace of Wands” in 1970s and went on to appear in numerous other programs for the network including “The Chief,” “Crown Court,” “Let There Be Love” and “Goodnight and God Bless.”

Throughout her career — her most recent credit was a minor role in the TV miniseries “Fool Me Once” in 2024 — Loe took on a variety of roles ranging from a magician’s assistant in “Ace of Wands” to a much sought-after divorcée in “Singles” to a spacecraft commander in “Space Island One.”

Prior to taking on screen roles, Loe pursued a career on the stage, including repertory theater in northern England’s Crewe, where in 1968 she met fellow actor Richard Beckinsale, whom she would marry in 1977. Though they split after two years of marriage, they welcomed daughter Kate in 1973. Richard Beckinsale died at age 31 from a heart attack.

Loe remarried in 1997 to television director Roy Battersby, who died in January 2024 after a brief illness. He was 87.

In her announcement, Kate Beckinsale praised her mother for her legacy, “huge heart” and courage in the final year of her life.

Beckinsale continued: “She has been brave in so many ways, forgiving sometimes too much, believing in the ultimate good in people and the world is so dim without her that it is nearly impossible to bear.”

Loe is survived by six stepchildren in addition to her daughter, according to the Guardian.

Of all the pop hits vying to become the song of the summer, Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” might be the most improbable: A stark and brooding ballad full of lurid Christian imagery — “Shatter me with your touch / Oh Lord, return me to dust,” goes one line — it’s about a guy seeking the kind of sexual-spiritual fulfillment not typically found on the beach or at a barbecue.

Yet the song, which has more than 720 million streams on Spotify, just logged its sixth week since early June atop Billboard’s Hot 100 — more than a month longer at No. 1 than Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild,” to name one of the sunnier tunes soundtracking the season. (Among Warren’s other competitors: Drake, who posted an image of the current chart on Instagram on Monday showing his song “What Did I Miss?” at No. 2 behind Warren’s hit. “I’m taking that soon don’t worry,” the rapper wrote.)

“Ordinary’s” somber tone is all the more striking given that Warren — whose father died when he was 9 and who grew up in Carlsbad with a single mother he’s described as an abusive alcoholic — first made a name for himself as a founding member of Hype House, the early-2020s conclave of TikTokers known for beaming out goofy bite-size content from a rented mansion in Los Angeles. Half a decade later, Warren is still a faithful user of his TikTok account (with its 18.8 million followers), though these days he’s mostly driving attention — often with the help of his wife, fellow influencer Kouvr Annon — to his music, which combines the moody theatrics of early Sam Smith with the highly buffed textures of Imagine Dragons.

On Friday, Warren will release his debut LP, “You’ll Be Alright, Kid,” featuring guest appearances by Blackpink’s Rosé and by Jelly Roll, who brought Warren to the stage at April’s Stagecoach festival to sing “Ordinary” and to premiere their duet “Bloodline.” Warren, 24, discussed his journey during a recent trip to L.A. from his new home in Nashville, where he lives not far from Jelly Roll and Teddy Swims. “I was just texting Teddy,” Warren says as we sit down. “I got off tour and immediately was like, ‘Oh, I want to buy a go-kart.’ Teddy FaceTimes me, he goes, ‘You a—hole. I’m trying to buy a go-kart right now too.’ Apparently, I bought the last go-kart in Tennessee.” These are excerpts from our conversation.

“Ordinary” is clearly drawing on your identity as a Christian. Yet there’s something almost sacrilegious about the song.
I get that criticism a lot.

To me it’s what makes the song interesting — the erotic energy in a line like “You got me kissing the ground of your sanctuary.”
I’m worshiping my wife in a way — she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You can’t just write a song like that and be like, “Oh, baby, you’re my everything.” Everyone’s already done “You’re my world,” you know? I wanted to do something different — almost Hozier-esque. I wrote into it being like, I really love my wife, and I have a relationship with God — that’s something I can compare it to.

As the song has gone out, I’ve heard a lot of Christians’ opinions on it, and some people are like, “F— this guy.” There’s also so many people who think it’s a super die-hard Christian song and don’t like it either. I have to be OK with both sides hating me.

You’ve led a peculiar life, which obviously lends context to your music for anyone who knows the details. Yet “Ordinary” is big enough now that many listeners — maybe most listeners — are hearing it without knowing anything about you.
This new song I’ve been teasing [“Eternity”] is about grief, and people are like, “I can’t wait to play it at my wedding.” It’s cool that people are making it their own. It reminds me of Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved,” where people were like, “Oh my God, this is a breakup record.” No, he wrote it about his grandma.

Are you a Capaldi fan?
I love Lewis. I don’t look like a Justin Bieber/Shawn Mendes traditional pop star, but it’s cool because Lewis kind of made it popular to not give a f—. Lewis and Ed [Sheeran], I would say — I mean, I’ve seen Ed’s closet, and it’s just nine white Prada T-shirts.

You have an unusual voice.
Thank you — I think?

It’s deeper than most pop voices right now. Does it seem unusual to you?
No. I asked my wife, “Do I have a basic voice?” She was like, “What are you talking about?” I was like, “I live with this voice, and I think it just sounds like every other bitch.” But I’m my No. 1 hater.

I went back and looked at the series Netflix made about Hype House.
I’m so sorry.

There’s some significant fluctuations in your weight, and I was wondering how working in a visual field from a pretty young age shaped your ideas about eating and exercise.
When I started making money, I didn’t know what to do with it and I just used DoorDash every second I could. As time went on, especially in Hype House, you have so many people’s opinions and everyone’s pointing out your flaws, and the weight was definitely one of them. After that I was like, “OK, how do I fix this?” I’m 24 now — I was 22, 21 at the time, and I was like, “I should be in the best shape of my life.”

But it definitely does take a toll on you. Even now, if you go look at my TikTok comments, thousands of people are loving me. You go on Twitter, the first 400 comments are like, “He’s so ugly,” “His nose is crooked,” all these things. It hits a point where you have a thousand people loving you, but those two people not — you’re like, “Wait, are they the ones telling me the truth? Is everyone else just gassing me up?”

Kind of bleak.
It’s such a strange career. I have the Kids’ Choice Awards on Saturday, and I’m like, “Should I be eating this the next few days?”

Would you say you’re in a good place in terms of how you think about your physical appearance?
Looking in the mirror, probably not. But when it comes to having to approve a photo, I don’t give a s—. I’ll approve whatever, double chin and all.

Is that true?
Truly, I don’t mind, because I don’t think people are watching my videos for my attractiveness. That being said, if I was lighter, I think I’d be happier looking at myself. But at the same time, I don’t care because these songs to me are more about what they’re about and less about how I look. Also, it gives me some leeway if someone catches me lacking at In-N-Out.

Warren’s song “Ordinary” now has more than 720 million streams on Spotify and has just logged its sixth week since early June atop Billboard’s Hot 100.

(Ethan Benavidez / For The Times)

You’ve said you don’t really drink or do drugs but that you get drunk once a year. What would be the occasion?
I just got drunk with Ed Sheeran — I drank two Modelos and I got put on my ass. This was at Santa’s Pub [in Nashville] — me, Noah Kahan and Ed Sheeran. They had just played something, and Ed was like, “Do you want a drink?” I was like, “If I’m getting drunk this year, it’s getting drunk with Ed Sheeran.” So he gave me a Modelo, and I was like, “Whoa, I’m feeling this.” He’s like, “OK, dude, I’m on my 11th.” He hands me a second one, and my wife had to drive me home.

So I’ve been getting a little loose with it. But it’s always beer — I don’t really drink any hard stuff. Nothing against it, I’ve just always preferred Diet Coke. I wish I liked alcohol.

I mean, you can cultivate this. It’s easy to do.
I’ve been trying. I had a sip of my friend’s old fashioned. I thought it was interesting — sugary, but I liked it.

Your song “The Outside” on this new record talks about the illusory nature of happiness and success.
I went into it wanting to write about the things that people go through to turn to God or another power or something to get out of their own heads. I wanted to depict people finding a sense of purpose.

“Hollywood wasn’t all that she thought / City of Angels but her wings got caught / She got high enough to think she met God.”
You move to L.A. to pursue a dream and you see God after doing a hallucinogenic — that’s referencing a friend of mine who’s now a Christian buff who did ayahuasca. The other [verse] is about health care — watching my friends who don’t have it because it’s so expensive.

“‘It’s just stress,’ so the doctor says / His young heart’s beating out of his chest / Student loans and medical debt.”
The Luigi Mangione case happened around the time we wrote that record.

Luigi was in your head as you were writing?
That second verse is literally about Luigi Mangione. Not to get political, but the things that I feel are necessary in life — you have to pay for it, and it causes people to turn to something like God. The song ends with me being like, “I talk to my dad in the sky, hoping he talks to me back.” That song means a lot to me.

Your music is extremely tidy, which stands in contrast to the singer-songwriter mode of the Zach Bryans —
And the Noah Kahans, where they’re flat in some parts and it doesn’t matter because the emotion’s there.

Why is your instinct as a musician to go for something neater?
Because I don’t have the luxury of being able to make what some people view as mistakes. Coming from TikTok to music, I feel like it needs to be neat — it needs to be, “Oh my God, this guy can do this.” The next album I’m working on, it’s more rugged. I’m finding different parts of my voice. I’ve been listening to a lot of older music too, which has been really good.

Such as?
Hall & Oates — dude, “Rich Girl”? Billy Joel too.

Is there still a Hype House group chat?
I have a group chat with not all of them but the ones that — I’m not gonna name-drop them, but the ones getting popular with music. It was formative years in my life — my college experience, I guess. We’re able to look back on it and have a moment of, like, “That sucked, but it was also awesome.”

Would people in the house have called that you and Addison Rae would be the ones to break out as musicians?
No, I don’t think so — especially not me. Maybe Addison — Addison has always been cool. Everyone loved Addison, even in the house, and she’s always been so kind. Even to this day, she’s a good friend of mine. But no one would have guessed me. I don’t think anyone liked me.

In the house?
Just in general. The Netflix show — a lot of it was fake, but looking at that, I feel like I’m such a better person now.

“The next album I’m working on, it’s more rugged,” says Warren, whose debut LP “You’ll Be Alright, Kid” comes out Friday. “I’m finding different parts of my voice.”

(Ethan Benavidez / For The Times)

Are you glad that “Ordinary” happened after the influencer moment in your life — that there’s a bit of separation?
I started this in 2020, 2021 — I put out my first song then, and I was still an influencer, vlogging, doing all those things. Everyone’s like, “He came out of nowhere,” and I’m like, I’ve been doing this for five years.

But nobody cared until well after your time as an influencer — which might be a good thing, right? I’m not sure the overlap served Lil Huddy. In a weird way, you might’ve gotten lucky.
I think about that often. I made videos with my wife — I never really made videos with the content house — and those videos were successful in their own right. I think a lot of my fans today were watching me at that time, but not for the Hype House. Actually, no, that’s not true.

It’s hard to generalize about the audience for a song this big.
All I do is put my head down and promote the records. I’m not paying attention to the scope of things.

Of course you’re checking the numbers.
I’m not understanding the scope besides the numbers. My monthly listeners [on Spotify], someone told me it was 50-something million — that’s sick. But I can’t contextualize that. If I’m walking down the street, how many people have heard the song and how many people know who I am? I know the song is big, but I’m under the assumption that the record’s bigger than I am.

That seems true.
OK, so what does that mean? I can compare it to a Lola Young, or is it a Benson Boone? I think that’s two separate things right now. Also, I don’t know the age demographic. If I walk into a bingo night, are they gonna know who I am?

A bingo night?
You know what I’m saying. The song is No. 1 on Hot AC — that’s adult contemporary. Is it someone’s mom? I don’t know who’s listening to the record. But I write songs about people passing away, and most people — no matter rich, poor, whatever — it’s typically gonna be your 40-and-up who are gonna relate to that record. Kids don’t necessarily deal with loss the same way.

Is it weird to think that a significant portion of your audience is people twice your age?
No, that’s f—ing rad to me — the older audience is the hardest to grab. I think it’s safe to say that most people judge notoriety on whether their mom knows who they are, right? If that’s where I start, that’s cool.

It seems Elmo’s world recently included vitriolic racist, antisemitic and foul-mouthed social media posts.

“Sesame Street’s” perpetually 3½-year-old mascot caught his social media fans off guard over the weekend as he seemingly traded in his wholesome tweets on X for hateful posts, including calling for violence against the Jewish community and others using lewd language to demand that President Trump release Jeffrey Epstein’s “client list,” alleging he was involved in the late financier’s sex trafficking operation. The obscenity-laden posts shared Sunday went viral, with screenshots also making the rounds. As of Monday morning, the posts had been scrubbed from Elmo’s page.

A spokesperson for Sesame Workshop, the organization behind “Sesame Street” and Elmo, told the Associated Press in a statement, “Elmo’s X account was compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages including antisemitic and racist posts.”

“We are working to restore full control of the account,” the spokesperson added.

A representative for X did not immediately confirm the alleged hack or provide additional information to The Times on Monday.

In addition to the problematic tweets, the alleged hacker left a mysterious link on the beloved puppet’s page. The link, which has since been removed, redirected followers and internet sleuths to a user’s Telegram channel. On Telegram, the user appears to take credit for the hack. “Thanks Elmo,” reads one Telegram message shared Sunday, the same day Elmo’s odd posts hit the timeline.

In another Telegram message, the user praises Adolf Hitler and rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West), who has his own handful of controversies involving antisemitism and hateful comments.

The since-deleted tweets presented a very dramatic tone shift in the red furball’s online presence. Elmo, whose X activity mostly consists of photos with friends and wholesome greetings, notably broke the internet last year with an innocuous post: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?”

The tweet, which is pinned to the top of Elmo’s profile, prompted some brutal honesty from a range of followers. “Resisting the urge to tell Elmo that I am kinda sad,” replied “West Side Story” star Rachel Zegler.

Fielding online confessions of existential dread and general anxiety, Elmo responded to fans that he “learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing.”

He added: “Elmo will check in again soon, friends! Elmo loves you.”

In the wake of the viral tweet, Sesame Workshop also offered fans and followers a mental health resource guide on its website, reminding users on X that “Mental health is health!”

Clearly, the alleged hacker didn’t get the memo on Elmo’s longstanding agenda of kindness and compassion.

Former Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.

John Elway won’t be charged in the death of his business partner back in April.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco confirmed what he told the Times two months ago: His department’s investigation into the golf cart incident that led to the death of the Hall of Fame quarterback’s close friend Jeff Sperbeck found nothing criminal. Bianco described it as a tragic accident.

Bianco said in May that it appeared “nothing nefarious” happened when Sperbeck fell from a moving golf cart that Elway was driving in the Madison Club community of La Quinta on April 26 about 6:50 p.m. The 62-year-old San Clemente resident hit his head and was pronounced dead at 1:10 a.m. April 30 at Desert Regional Medical Center, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

“We have not learned anything that would indicate that this is anything other than a tragic accident,” Bianco told the Times in a phone interview May 2.

Bianco told Denver TV station 9NEWS that the investigation has concluded and that Elway will not be charged.

Elway, Sperbeck and their wives were in the Coachella Valley to attend the Stagecoach country music festival. Sperbeck was standing in the back of the cart when he fell off and hit his head on the asphalt, Bianco said.

The cart was designed for two to four people, according to Bianco. Five people including Sperbeck, Elway and their wives were in it at the time of the incident.

On April 30, Elway said in a statement that “there are no words to truly express the profound sadness I feel with the sudden loss of someone who has meant so much to me.

“I am absolutely devastated and heartbroken by the passing of my close friend, business partner and agent Jeff Sperbeck,” Elway stated. “Jeff will be deeply missed for the loyalty, wisdom, friendship and love he brought into my life and the lives of so many others.”

Sperbeck represented more than 100 NFL players — including Elway beginning in 1990 — in 30 years as an agent and business advisor. Sperbeck and Elway later founded 7Cellars winery.

Sperbeck attended Jesuit High School in Sacramento and played quarterback at Sacramento City College in 1981 and 1982 before transferring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He is survived by his wife, Cori, three children he shared with his first wife, Anne — Carly, 33, Samantha, 31, and Jackson, 27 — and granddaughters Josie and Bo.

Elway starred at Granada Hills High and Stanford before playing 16 seasons for the Denver Broncos, leading the team to five Super Bowls. The Broncos won the Super Bowl in Elway’s last two seasons, 1997 and 1998. He later served as the team’s general manager and executive vice president.

Times staff writer Chuck Schilken contributed to this story.

Bethany Clarke, 27, and her best friend Simone White, 28, met in Laos, Southeast Asia, for the trip of a lifetime, but after consuming vodka shots that are thought to have been tainted with methanol, it ended in tragedy

It was meant to be a fun-packed couple of weeks travelling through Southeast Asia for Bethany Clarke and her best friend Simone White. Enjoying free shots of vodka at their hostel, the pair couldn’t wait to find out what their adventure would bring.

Sadly, it ended in tragedy after the pair were poisoned by what they believe was methanol.

Bethany, who was 27 at the time and lived in Brisbane, Australia, and Simone, who had turned 28 just a week before the trip and lived in London, Greenwich, met in Laos as a halfway point for a holiday together. They had been best friends since the first year of primary school, and after amending their plans to include two Southeast Asia countries, they were excited to explore Laos before heading to Cambodia.

During the first few days of their trip in November 2024, they spent time in Vang Vieng, a small town on the Nam Song River in Laos, which had once been a notorious party destination for backpackers. In between activities, like tubing down the river, they stayed two nights at the Nana Backpackers Hostel after being impressed by its numerous “positive reviews”.

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At the hostel, they met one of their friends from home who had also been travelling, and on their second night, the three friends took advantage of the hostel’s happy hour, offering free vodka and whiskey shots from 8pm to 10pm. That night, Bethany and Simone drank vodka with a mixer, like Sprite, but Bethany recalled it tasting “quite weak”.

“I remember thinking ‘that’s unusually weak’, but I didn’t think anything of it. I just thought it’s happy hour, the chances are they’re wanting to cut costs, so they’re probably putting water in it,” Bethany exclusively told the Mirror. “I hadn’t heard about methanol poisoning and about how organised crime rings would add methanol in, to cut costs.”

Looking back, Bethany recalled that the whiskey was “black” and that her friend didn’t like it, but again, didn’t think much of it. When the happy hour ended, Bethany went to bed feeling tired, while Simone and their friend went across the road to an Irish bar for some more drinks.

“I just remember thinking I’m unusually tired, and I do get tired after drinking, but that was quite extreme. I don’t know whether it was the methanol already kicking in, or whether it was jet lag. Looking back, it was probably the methanol”.

She explained that being asleep could have “masked” some of her symptoms. According to the UK Health Security Agency, the substance can cause “convulsions, blindness, nervous system damage, coma and death.”

The next morning, Bethany said she felt “weak and not very well coordinated”. She added: “My brain wasn’t really able to problem-solve or think very clearly. I had no hunger whatsoever, which, again, is quite unusual if you’re hungover, but I just had no interest in food at all.”

Putting it down to being hungover, Bethany and Simone “forced themselves to eat something” and went out for their booked tour to the Blue Lagoon in the morning, before a kayaking experience in the afternoon. However, during the day out, Bethany said that they didn’t have “any sensible conversation” but instead were just talking about how they were feeling, “it was like having the brain of a five-year-old, it was really, really strange.” She also recalled Simone being sick off the kayak, which she said was “unusual”.

Later that day, they caught a bus to their next destination in Vientiane, but halfway through, Simone was sick and Bethany fainted and hit her head. “We didn’t have any conversations with anyone around us, and nobody seemed concerned,” Bethany said.

Showing no signs of improvement, they went to a public hospital after being dropped off by the bus. Still unaware of the severity of the situation, Simone and Bethany were checked over and were told that it could be “food poisoning”.

“We had different diets, so that didn’t make sense,” Bethany shared. “They put an IV in me, which I reluctantly agreed to, and eventually Simone came into the room, still walking and talking. I gave her some electrolytes once she got a bed, but she threw them up immediately.

“I checked her heart rate, and it wasn’t bad. And given that she had eaten something, I wasn’t too worried – at that point she had eaten more than me, so I thought maybe I was worse as I had fainted. We also thought that, as she had chosen to come in this last minute, she was presumably feeling a little bit better, but turns out the opposite was true.”

She continued: “Less than two hours later, she went into respiratory distress and was gasping for air. Simone wasn’t able to talk anymore or look at me, her eyes were glazed, looking in a different direction.” Simone was moved to the ICU part of the hospital before their friend suggested going to a private hospital for further care.

They arrived at the private Kasemrad International Hospital in Vientiane, around 27 hours after they consumed their drinks at the hostel. Tragically, Simone’s condition deteriorated, and she needed emergency brain surgery before being placed on life support.

Simone’s mum flew in from Kent to be with her daughter, and was given the heartbreaking ultimatum on whether to keep her on life support. Bethany said that doctors had to explain to Sue how to switch off her daughter’s life support, and she was told she’d have to do it herself, due to religious reasons.

Sue made the heart-wrenching decision to take the tube out of her daughter’s mouth and turn off her life support. The 28-year-old died on 21 November 2024, just nine days after drinking the shots at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng.

An inquest into her death earlier this year confirmed that Simone tragically died from a bleed on the brain. Simone is one of six tourists to have died from suspected methanol poisoning in Laos.

The hostel closed, but now appears to be rebranded as Vang Vieng Central Backpacker Hostel. According to Tripadvisor, it is planning to reopen and is taking bookings from August this year.

Bethany recovered, but has been left with the devastating heartache of losing her best friend. Now, she has launched the Simone White Methanol Awareness campaign to help raise awareness and prevent this from happening to anyone ever again.

She has called for the government to do more to help travellers understand the dangers of drinking alcohol abroad, including putting up warning posters in airports. In addition, Bethany set up a petition for the dangers of methanol poisoning to be taught in schools across the UK.

Bethany shared with us: “Since the poisoning, I’ve found out more information about Vang Vieng in general, because it does seem to have a history of very loose safety regulations. There were no documented cases of methanol poisoning in Laos when we were there, so how were we meant to know? It’s frustrating that these cases go undocumented because no one really understands the true extent of what’s actually going on.”

Worryingly, Bethany claims that “so many” of the hostel’s reviews had been deleted, which she found out just days after the alleged poisoning happened. She claimed: “On reviews, people were saying that people were being poisoned and to stop serving these drinks, but they’d come back immediately, saying this is slander and all that. Then, less than a day later, the review would be gone from Google.”

This led Bethany to actively share warnings and messages on social media, while they were still in hospital, about the Vang Vieng hostel in a bid to warn others about the serious risk of the drinks. “I’m so glad I did that at the time, you don’t know how many more people could have gone, it’s so scary,” she added.

Describing her best friend, Bethany shared: “She was a very caring person, she had great listening ears and if I had any problems, she would help me out. She was an organiser, and she had a very busy social schedule and so many friends. She was my best friend, and I probably won’t ever meet anyone like that again.”

A cause of death has been revealed for Aussie actor Julian McMahon, who played Dr. Doom in two “Fantastic Four” movies and Christian Troy in the TV drama “Nip/Tuck,” among other roles.

McMahon died of cancer, according to a statement from Kelly McMahon, his wife.

He had head and neck metastatic cancer, and he ultimately succumbed to lung metastasis, according to CNN, which obtained a cremation approval summary report from the medical examiner’s office in Pinellas County, Florida. An investigator with the office declined to confirm the details of the report in an after-hours call with The Times.

McMahon died July 2 at age 56. His remains have been cremated, the medical examiner’s report said.

“Julian loved life,” Kelly McMahon said in her statement. “He loved his family. He loved his friends. He loved his work, and he loved his fans. His deepest wish was to bring joy into as many lives as possible.”

A representative for the actor could not immediately be reached.

Those who worked with McMahon took to social media to mourn the loss of the actor.

Joely Richardson, who played the role of Julia McNamara on “Nip/Tuck,” shared a statement on Instagram following McMahon’s death.

“We worked together for many years, covering every possible storyline and then some,” said Richardson. “I remember the episode when we all had to age up with prosthetics — how we laughed then, and how it’s making me cry today … You lived a large life my friend, bravo.”

Alyssa Milano recounted her memories with McMahon on the set of “Charmed.” The pair’s characters — Phoebe Halliwell and Cole Turner — were married in the ’90s fantasy series.

“Julian was more than my TV husband,” Milano said on Facebook and Instagram. “He was a dear friend. The kind who checks in. The kind who remembers. The kind who shares. The kind who tells you the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable — but always with love.”

McMahon had many roles on his resume. One fan noted in an X comment that, no matter what part he played, his performance was captivating.

“Julian McMahon had that rare presence — magnetic, mysterious, unforgettable. Whether a villain or a hero, a conflicted soul or a charming friend, he pulled you in,” one user shared in an X comment.

“Julian McMahon’s legacy will live on,” another user shared in an X post. “Through Charmed, through Cole Turner. He raised many kids around the world he didn’t even know about.”

McMahon is survived by his wife, Kelly, and his 25-year-old daughter, Madison, according to People. He had Madison with his ex-wife, Brooke Burns, who played Jessie Owens in “Baywatch.” The two divorced in 2001.

Burns shared a picture of McMahon with their daughter on Instagram. The caption included only a broken heart emoji.

On Tuesday, McMahon’s family posted a picture of the smiling actor to his Instagram account.

“For all of those who loved Julian, thank you,” the caption read.

“Let it go!” one person screamed at a massive TV screen.

“Get him out of my villa!” shouted another.

“Oh, we’re voting tonight!” declared another as they whipped their index finger in a circular motion as if to say, “We need to round up the troops and get ready for war.”

It’s 8 p.m. at the Palm & the Pine and every single seat is taken, so some people have resorted to huddling outside to watch the action through a window. A small crew of bartenders are working double time to serve up wings, french fries and tropical-themed cocktails.

Attendees celebrate the start of the episode.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

On most nights at the family-owned Hollywood spot, dubbed “your girlfriend’s favorite sports bar,” patrons might come to watch tennis or basketball or soccer. But on this Tuesday evening, the guests were there to watch a different type of game. They came to the crowded bar to watch “Love Island USA” with 200 other fans who are just as invested in the reality dating show as they are.

“The decibel levels crush any Super Bowl, World Series or anything we’ve shown there,” said Colin Magalong, co-owner of the Palm & the Pine.

“This is our Super Bowl,” added Madeline Biebel, founder of the pop-up event series that screens reality TV shows called Reality Bar, which has been hosting free “Love Island USA” watch parties at the Palm & the Pine and other bars across L.A.

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While people have been gathering to watch high-profile television episodes in public spaces for years, the communal watch party has been having a resurgence, fueled in part by social media and the highly dissectible nature of shows like “The White Lotus,” “Severance” and “Traitors.” This summer, “Love Island USA,” a spinoff of the U.K. reality dating show that airs six days a week, has sparked a pop culture craze and Angelenos are flocking to coffee shops, bars, restaurants, social clubs like Soho House and arcades like Dave & Buster’s just to watch the show and kiki about it with others in person.

“This is our Super Bowl,” says Madeline Biebel, founder of Reality Bar, which hosts reality TV watch parties around L.A.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Now in its seventh season, the premise of “Love Island USA” is fairly simple: Ten singles are plopped into a lavish villa in Fiji, where they must couple up with a member of the opposite sex or risk getting dumped from the island. Over the course of several weeks, contestants (who are referred to as “islanders”) participate in extravagant challenges — many of which require them to wear revealing outfits and make out with one another — that are designed to stir up drama. At random, “bombshells” are brought into the mix to encourage the islanders to test their romantic connections. All the while, viewers at home can vote for their favorite islanders, sort of like “American Idol,” with hopes that they will make it to the end and win the $100,000 prize.

“It is so outlandish,” said Lauren Sowa, who lectures on television and pop culture at Pepperdine. “Shows like ‘The Bachelor’ try to maintain a level of decorum and something like ‘Love Island’ throws that into their ocean and their pool and their foam parties with both hands.”

Between the spicy games, the contestants’ disconnection from the world, their dorm room-style living conditions and the ultimate challenge of finding love, Sowa says, “The stakes couldn’t be higher. The drama couldn’t be more and therefore we could not be more entertained.”

The idea of bringing people together to watch “Love Island” and other reality TV shows came to Biebel in 2021 when L.A. was starting to reopen after the COVID pandemic. She wondered, “Why isn’t there a bar or restaurant that shows ‘The Bachelor’?” Biebel, 28, recalled.

At first the bartenders at her local sports bar laughed at her request to turn on the show, but when a crowd of people joined her to watch it on the patio, she knew that she was onto something.

Attendees arrive as early as 5 p.m. to secure a seat at the “Love Island USA” watch party in Hollywood. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

“Those moments where everyone is freaking out together are just magical,” said Madeline Biebel, founder of Reality Bar. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

She hosted the first Reality Bar event in 2023 at a restaurant on the rooftop of the Kimpton Hotel Wilshire and 40 people showed up to watch “Love Island USA” Season 5. She continued hosting watch parties for reality shows including “The Real Housewives” and “The Bachelor,” one in which Joey Graziadei, the Bachelor himself, made a surprise appearance.

But none of the events have been as popular as the parties for the current season of “Love Island USA.” Thanks to a TikTok that got nearly 3 million views, the watch party at the Palm & the Pine went from having about 100 RSVPs to 1,500. On Sunday, fans cheered when Austin Shepard and Charlie Georgiou, who were booted from the island, made an appearance at the event. To keep up with the growing demand, Biebel added 10 other venues to watch the show at including the Nickel Mine in Sawtelle, Roosterfish in West Hollywood and the Happy Rabbit in Sherman Oaks.

“People are just so hungry for connection and community especially post-COVID,” said Biebel, adding that it brings people together who share a common interest. “Those moments where everyone is freaking out together are just magical.”

(Clockwise from left) 1.) Fans of “Love Island USA” cheer, scream and gasp during the dramatic episode. 2.) Reality Bar’s “Love Island USA” watch parties became so popular that 10 more L.A. locations were added. 3.) Maya Suarez, left, and Reanna Davidson enjoy drinks and roses courtesy of Reality Bar. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

At the Tuesday night party, people started arriving as early as 5 p.m. to secure a seat inside the two-story bar. As pop and hip-hop music played loudly over a sound system, attendees sipped on “Love Island”-themed cocktails with clever names like the “I’ve Got a Text-ini” (a vodka martini with cranberry juice), “Bare Minimum” (an espresso martini), “Hot New Bombshell” (tequila, grapefruit and lime), “Aftersun Spritz” (Prosecco, mint, soda and lemon) and “I’m Open” (cucumber, vodka, lemon and soda).

When the show promptly appeared on the bar’s multiple TV screens at 8 p.m., a thunderous roar of cheers exploded. Throughout the dramatic episode — which involved the islanders reading anonymous letters about how their fellow cast mates truly felt about them — many patrons talked among themselves and shouted at the TV, but no one seemed bothered. The energy was high and the subtitles were on.

Branson Bond, 27, of Hollywood and six of his friends went to the watch party for the first time after learning about it on social media.

“It’s one thing to see people’s perception online, but it means so much more — whether it’s music or film — to be around people who have a common interest,” said Bond, who managed to find a booth in the upstairs area of the bar with his friends. “Especially with everything going on in the world, it’s cool to kind of decompress with something silly every now and then.”

“We love to kiki, to party [and] we need a debrief like immediately after the show, so I needed to experience this,” said Giselle Gonzalez, 27, of Hollywood.

Reanna Davidson, 26, and her sister Maya Suarez usually rotate watching “Love Island USA” together at one of their homes, but they thought a watch party would be more fun.

“I feel like we’re obsessed with “Love Island” and we go crazy at home so we wanted to see what the environment was like here,” Davidson said in between sips of a martini.

“I like the drama, but also I like the love,” she said. “Like last year, watching them all fall in love and really have relationships outside of it was so sweet.”

“I love the camaraderie here and everybody yelling,” says attendee DeVante Waugh.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

After attending one of Reality Bar’s watch parties at a different venue, DeVante Waugh, 32, wanted to come back with a group of his work friends who all started watching the show recently.

“I love the camaraderie here and everybody yelling,” said Waugh, adding that he’s still mad that Jeremiah was sent home during one of the show’s most shocking moments. “It’s fun. It’s like watching a game. And then there’s a lot of pretty women, not a lot of guys,” he adds jokingly.

While some attendees left the bar immediately after the episode was over, some stayed to do karaoke, strike a pose in the photo booth or to recap what happened on the show with their new friends. It’s this community aspect that JP Stanley, 29, of Hollywood appreciates most about watch parties.

“I think it’s the sense of being a part of something,” said Stanley as he sipped on a glass of Prosecco. He attended the event with a friend and said he hopes to see more watch parties even after the current season of “Love Island” wraps. “L.A. is really yearning for that community and I think this is something that really gives people of any age a place to connect, and it’s such an easy common denominator.”

He added, “There’s no prerequisite required. You don’t have to know anything about me and I don’t have to know anything about you. I can just be like, “So, Love Island” and you’ll be like, “Right, Amaya!”

Kelly Osbourne’s engagement to Sid Wilson wound up being a family affair.

The Slipknot DJ proposed to the former “Fashion Police” co-host backstage at Ozzy Osbourne’s final show Saturday, and she said yes. But not before papa Ozzy got a few words in edgewise.

“Kelly, you know I love you more than anything in the world,” Wilson said, holding Kelly‘s hand after family and friends crowded around them and were shushed by mom Sharon Osbourne, according to a video Kelly posted on Instagram.

“F— off, you’re not marrying my daughter!” Ozzy interjected, true to form. A big round of laughter followed before Wilson got back to business.

“Nothing would make me happier than to spend the rest of my life with you,” he told Kelly, reaching into a bag slung across his chest and extracting a small box.

“So in front of your family and all of our friends,” he said as he got down on one knee, “Kelly, will you marry me?”

Kelly‘s jaw dropped as she looked around the room in shock. The two had welcomed a son, Sidney, in November 2022, less than a year after they started dating. Kelly, 40, and Wilson, 48, met more than 20 years ago when Slipknot was part of the Osbourne family’s Ozzfest tour.

She was still in her teens; he was seven years older and better friends at the time with her brother, Jack Osbourne. Kelly said on a podcast in March 2024 that Wilson began liking her — though she had no idea — in 2013, after they ran into each other at his record store on Melrose Avenue. Around 2020, he invited her to a Slipknot show in L.A., and things progressed from there.

“It wasn’t, like, forced. Because we had been friends for so long and known each other for so long, there was a sense of comfortability that I’ve never had with anyone else,” she said on the podcast, via People. Plus, she told her mother, “I was never going to come home with anyone normal.”

But bringing Wilson home now seems like it was a good move. On Saturday, after she nodded yes, he slipped the ring on her left-hand ring finger. Then he and his bride-to-be hugged like there was no tomorrow.

Celebrity makeup artist and entrepreneur Patrick Ta admits that he is constantly falling in and out of love with Los Angeles — the place he’s called home for the last 13 years.

“[But] right now, I’m obsessed with Los Angeles,” says the San Diego native. “I feel like I am experiencing new friendship groups. For me, what makes a place magical are the people that you surround yourself with, and this entire beginning of almost summer has been the best networking and relationship building that I’ve ever had in Los Angeles. I feel like L.A. is exciting me again.”

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.

While Ta has lived in Southern California for most of his life, he got his start in the makeup industry in Arizona. After convincing his parents to help him open a tanning and nail salon (which he eventually had to file bankruptcy for), his roommate helped him get a job at MAC, where he honed his skills and became a freelance makeup artist. He eventually relocated to L.A., and with the help of social media — where he posted his work — his career took off, and celebrities like Shay Mitchell, Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande, Gigi Hadid and Camila Cabello began seeking him out to do their makeup. In 2019, he launched his eponymous beauty brand, which is known for its glowy products.

As a first generation Vietnamese American, Ta spent his Sundays at one of his mom’s nail salons in San Diego.

“Weekends were their busiest [day], so we didn’t have the weekends off to just chill, but after work I remember going to Red Lobster,” says Ta. “That was such a big treat for me and my [older] sister because seafood was so expensive, and my mom would make us share. But if we were good with her at work, she would treat us to eating out.”

These days whenever he’s not traveling, Ta tries to reserve his Sundays for spending time with friends. On the agenda is hitting up his favorite flea market, enjoying a seafood brunch at Catch and sober bar hopping in West Hollywood.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

8 a.m.: Morning workout

I wake up anywhere from 8 to 9 a.m. I have a home gym, so I’ll usually work out with my friend. He will come over and we’ll do our own circuit. I’m trying to be better and more consistent with it. Then we will either go and get a green juice from Whole Foods because it’s walking distance from my house, and we always go for a little sprint.

12 p.m.: Stop by the flea market

I will go home afterward to chill for a little bit, and then I’ll see what my friends are doing so I can start planning my day. I love going to the Grove and the Melrose flea market, especially if a friend is in town. There’s a perfume stand there that I always buy a mango sticky rice perfume [from], and it also comes in a candle. I also love wearing hats, so I like seeing what hats they have. I like the Melrose flea market because I always run into people I know, too. I also love H. Lorenzo. I always shop at the shop on Sunset Boulevard.

3 p.m.: Seafood for brunch

It’s so cheesy, but I love Catch. I love sushi. I love seafood, and it’s nice because it’s on a rooftop. I love a sugar-free Red Bull. My favorite dishes are the truffle sashimi, the mushroom pasta with shrimp added and their baked crab hand rolls.

4 p.m.: Sober bar hopping in West Hollywood

Sometimes I want to go to West Hollywood to see my gay friends and be out and about and bar hop. What’s so great about West Hollywood is you can walk around and see where everyone is. I don’t go to a specific bar, because I actually don’t drink. It’s more of a thing to do with my friends.

7 p.m.: Netflix and steak

I’ll finish off my day or any sort of socializing around 7 p.m., then I’ll go home and make myself some food. I have been obsessed with just eating a steak with avocado and A.1. Sauce, and watching whatever TV shows I like on Hulu or Netflix. Right now, I’m obsessed with the show “Sirens” [on Netflix].

10 p.m.: Do my rigorous skincare routine

I am super crazy about my skincare, and on Sundays I really try to condition my hair, my scalp, and I will always do a face mask. Then I’ll do my skincare routine. I love exfoliating my body. I have this silicone exfoliant pad that I will use to fully exfoliate my body. I’ll call it a night usually by 11 p.m. I always go into the office on Mondays and Tuesdays, so I don’t really like to stay up that late on Sunday.

SpongeBob SquarePants would, in theory, have little use for stamps. They would get soggy in that pineapple under the sea.

Neither would Patrick Star (no fingers on the ends of those arms), Mr. Crabs (claws) or Squidward Tentacles (his name says it all). One could argue that even the fans of “SpongeBob SquarePants” wouldn’t have much use for stamps. That crowd doesn’t go in for snail mail — although Gary the Snail might.

Nevertheless, the whole gang from Nickelodeon’s long-running animated show — even Sandy Cheeks, the squirrel in the diving suit — is featured on a new set of commemorative Forever stamps, according to the U.S. Postal Service.

But the point isn’t to use them but to collect them, and perhaps look at the yellow, smiling, gap-toothed face of SpongeBob when you need a quick pick-me-up.

If you happen to be in New York City’s Times Square on Aug. 1 from 8 to 10 a.m. Eastern, you can get your hands on the new stamps. The event is free, but the stamps you’ll have to pay for. (A sheet of 16 will cost you $12.48. They’re 78 cents apiece.)

That’s 40 cents more than each stamp would have cost when “SpongeBob” premiered 26 years ago.

The USPS art director, Greg Breeding, designed the stamps with Nickelodeon artwork to guide him, according to the Postal Service. He’ll be on hand for autographs.

The world of Bikini Bottom was introduced in May 1999, and the show began a full run two months later. Creator Stephen Hillenburg, who died in 2018 at age 57 after battling Lou Gehrig’s disease, was — appropriately — a teacher of marine biology in Southern California before switching to animation. He created colorful teaching tools as well as wrote and illustrated stories with the characters who came to populate the show, as The Times wrote in Hillenburg’s obituary.

To set the record straight, stamps have, in fact, been used in Bikini Bottom.

One example: In the Season 13 episode “Patrick the Mailman,” the starfish delivers a letter to SpongeBob and asks him, “Do you know where this Spon-gee-Boob Squir-pa-Nants lives?” He then makes SpongeBob his postal pal.

The thing about bullies is they don’t have real friends.

They have lieutenants, followers and victims — sometimes all three rolled into one.

Most of us learn this by about third grade, when parents and hard knocks teach us how to figure out whom you can trust, and who will eat you for lunch.

Elon Musk, at age 54 with $400 billion in the bank, just learned it this week — when his feud with our bully-in-chief devolved into threats that the president will have the South African native deported.

Speaking about Musk losing government support for electric cars, Trump this week warned that Musk “could lose a lot more than that.”

“We might have had to put DOGE on Elon,” Trump said, referencing Musk’s cost-cutting effort called the Department of Government Efficiency. “DOGE is the monster that … might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?”

Yes, I know. Schadenfreude is real. It’s hard not to sit back with a bit of “told ya” satisfaction as we watch Musk — who has nearly single-handedly demolished everything from hurricane tracking to international aid for starving children — realize that Trump doesn’t love him.

But because Musk is the richest man in the world, who also now understands he has the power to buy votes if not elections, and Trump is grabbing power at every opportunity, there’s too much at stake to ignore the pitiful interpersonal dynamics of these two tantrumming titans.

What does it have to do with you and me, you ask? Well, there’s a potential fallout that is worrisome: The use of denaturalization against political enemies.

In case you’ve been blessedly ignorant of the Trump-Musk meltdown, let me recap.

Once upon a time, nine months ago, Musk and Trump were so tight, it literally had Musk jumping for joy. During a surprise appearance at a Butler, Pa., political rally (the same place where Trump was nearly assassinated), Musk leaped into the air, arms raised, belly exposed, with the pure delight of simply being included as a follower, albeit one who funneled $290 million into election coffers. Back then, Musk had no concern that it wasn’t his own dazzling presence that got him invited places.

By January, Musk had transitioned to lieutenant, making up DOGE, complete with cringey swag, like a lonely preteen dreaming up a secret club in his tree house. Only this club had the power to dismantle the federal government as we know it and create a level of social destruction whose effects won’t be fully understood for generations. Serious villain energy.

But then he got too full of himself, the No. 1 sin for a lieutenant. Somewhere along the line, Trump noticed (or perhaps someone whispered in the president’s ear) that Musk was just as powerful as he is — maybe more.

Cue the fallout, the big “see ya” from the White House (complete with a shoving match with another Trump lieutenant) and Musk’s sad realization that, like everyone else in a bully’s orbit, he was being used like a Kleenex and was never going to wind up anyplace but the trash.

So Musk took to his social media platform to start bashing on Trump and the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed in the Senate on Tuesday, clearing the way for our national debt to skyrocket while the poor and middle class suffer.

“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day. Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE,” Musk threatened, conjuring up a new political party the same way he ginned up DOGE.

Musk even promised to bankroll more elections to back candidates to oust Trumpians who voted for the bill.

“And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” Musk wrote. Presumably before he leaves for Mars.

It was those direct — and plausible — threats to Trump’s power that caused the president to turn his eye of Sauron on Musk, flexing that he might consider deportation for this transgression of defiance. It might seem entertaining if Musk, who the Washington Post reported may have violated immigration rules, were booted from our borders, but it would set a chilling precedent that standing up to this president was punishable by a loss of citizenship.

Because the threat of deporting political enemies didn’t start with Musk, and surely would not end with him.

For days, Trumpians have suggested that New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018, should be deported as well, for the crime of backing policies that range in description from progressive to socialist to communist (pretty sure the ones labeling them communism don’t actually know what communism is).

On Tuesday, Trump weighed in on Mamdani.

“A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” Trump said, which of course, no one is except for Trump’s attack dogs. “We’re going to look at everything.”

Denaturalization for immigration fraud — basically lying or misrepresenting stuff on your official application — is nothing new. Obama did it, as did Trump in his first term, and it has a long history before that.

But combing the documents of political enemies looking for pretexts to call fraud is chilling.

“This culture of weaponizing the law to go after enemies, it’s something that is against our founding principles,” Ben Radd told me. He’s a professor of law and an expert in political science at UCLA.

“It is very much an abuse of executive power, but [Trump] gets away with it until there’s a legal challenge,” Radd said.

While Musk and Mamdani have the power to fight Trump in a court of law, if it comes to it, other naturalized citizens may not.

There are about 25 million such citizens in the United States — people who immigrated in the “right” way, whatever that means, jumped through the hoops, said their pledge of fealty to this country and now are Americans. Or so they thought.

In reality, under Trump, they are mostly Americans, as long as they don’t make him mad. The threat of having citizenship stripped for opposing the administration is powerful enough to silence many, in a moment when many immigrants feel a personal duty and impetus to speak out to protect family and friends.

Aiming that threat at Musk may be the opportunistic anger of a bully, and even seem amusing.

But it’s an intimidation meant to show that no one is too powerful to be punished by this bully, and therefore, no one is safe.

Darrell Wayne Lukas, known to the general public as D. Wayne and to friends simply as Wayne or as “The Coach” if you were in the business, died on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 89.

Lukas’ career, which started in Southern California in 1968, not only built a recognizable brand but helped shape horse racing for more than 50 years. He won 15 Triple Crown races among his lifetime win total of 4,953, having run horses in 30,436 races. His horses earned more than $300 million.

He died at his home in Louisville, Ky., after being diagnosed with a severe MRSA blood infection that affected his heart, digestive system and worsened preexisting chronic conditions. Lukas decided against an aggressive treatment plan that involved surgeries and round-the-clock assistance. Instead, he returned home and entered hospice care.

“It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of our beloved husband, grandfather and great-grandfather D. Wayne Lukas. who left this world peacefully [Saturday] evening at the age of 89 surrounded by family,” the Lukas family said in a statement released by Churchill Downs.

“His final days were spent at home in Kentucky, where he chose peace, family and faith. As we grieve at his passing, we find peace knowing he is now reunited with his beloved son, Jeff, whose memory he carried in his heart always.

“We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers and support from all corners of the racing community — from ractetracks across the country to lifelong friends and respected rivals, and from fans who never missed a post parade when ‘Lukas’ was listed in the program.”

His illness was announced on June 22 along with the decision that he would not return to training. All of his horses were transferred to his longtime assistant Sebastian “Bas” Nicholl.

“Wayne built a legacy that will never be matched.” said Nicholl upon learning Lukas was not returning to racing. “Every decision I make, every horse I saddle, I’ll hear his voice in the back of my mind. This isn’t about filling his shoes — no one can — it’s about honoring everything he’s built.”

Lukas was so good that he was in not one but two halls of fame. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2007 and the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 1999.

“Wayne is one of the greatest competitors and most important figures in thoroughbred racing history,” said Mike Anderson, president of Churchill Downs racetrack in Kentucky, after the Lukas family announced the severity of his illness. “He transcended the sport of horse racing and took the industry to new levels. The lasting impact of his character and wisdom — from his acute horsemanship to his unmatched attention to detail — will be truly missed.”

Lukas’ story started on a small farm in Wisconsin.

Bill Dwyre, who previously was the sports editor of L.A. Times and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, recently chronicled Lukas’ roots.

“Lukas did not grow up on some farm in Kentucky, mucking stables as a teenager and rubbing elbows all day, every day, with grizzled horsemen,” Dwyre wrote last year after Lukas won the Preakness with Seize the Grey. “Lukas did grow up on a farm, all right, but in the state of Wisconsin, where there is no parimutuel betting, and where horse racing is pretty much confined to county fairs. His birthplace, Antigo, Wis., an hour and a half northwest of Green Bay, had a fair and D. Wayne … liked the horses.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas looks on as Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey cools down after a workout ahead of the 156th running of the Belmont Stakes in 2024.

(Julia Nikhinson / Associated Press)

“But that sort of career was not foremost in his mind. He went to the University of Wisconsin, got his master’s degree in education, started teaching and soon was a high school head basketball coach. For a while, he was an assistant coach in the Big Ten for UW’s John Erickson. He stayed close to the game of basketball, even as his days were dominated by barns and backstretches. Along the way, one of his best friends became Bob Knight. D. Wayne liked the toughness and drive to win of the legendary Indiana University coach.”

Lukas decided to try his hand at training and started at Los Alamitos in 1968 working with quarter horses. It took him 10 years to realize that the real stars — and the money — was in thoroughbred racing. Before leaving the quarter horse ranks, he won 739 races and saddled 24 world champions.

He won his first thoroughbred race on Oct. 20, 1977, at Santa Anita. He won his last race at Churchill Downs on June 12 with 4-year-old colt Tour Player.

In between, he won the Kentucky Derby four times, the Preakness seven times and the Belmont Stakes four times. He has won 20 Breeders’ Cup races. He won the Eclipse Award for top trainer four times and was the leading trainer by wins four straight years from 1987 to 1990. In 1995, he won all three Triple Crown races but with two different horses; Thunder Gulch won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and Timber Country won the Preakness. It was the first time a trainer accomplished that feat.

“The most enduring and essential sports legacies can also be the most complicated,” wrote NBC’s Tim Layden, a multiple Eclipse Award-winning journalist, upon learning of Lukas’ illness. “The very best are not just driven, but obsessive. Not just creative, but ingenious. Not just hungry, but voracious. Jordan. Woods. Ali. Armstrong. Rose. One of Lukas’ favorites, and a close friend: Bob Knight. To name a few. … Transcendence demands a selfish eccentricity; because greatness and normalcy are often mutually exclusive. Lukas has lived long enough to earn a warm embrace that he would not have received as a younger man, but that embrace alone doesn’t tell enough of his outsized story and his place in racing history, where he stands very much alone.”

Lukas first made his thoroughbred mark in 1980 when he won the Preakness with Codex. It was not a popular win as Codex beat Derby-winning filly Genuine Risk and then had to withstand an inquiry to officially give Lukas his first Triple Crown win.

Bookending that win was his last Triple Crown race victory, when he won the Preakness last year with Seize the Grey.

“One of the things that was very significant to me [that day] — and maybe it’s because I’m getting a little bit older — but as I came out of the grandstand and out across the racetrack, every one of the guys that were in that race stopped and hugged me and gave me a handshake,” Lukas told The Times after the race.

“That meant more to me than any single thing. [Bob] Baffert, Kenny McPeek, right down the line.”

Lukas did not get the nickname Coach because of his days as a basketball coach but because of the coaching tree he established during his tenure.

Among those that were his assistants were Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, future Hall of Famer Brad Cox, Kiaran McLaughlin, Dallas Stewart, Mike Maker, Mark Hennig, Randy Bradshaw, George Weaver and Bobby Barnett.

Among those Lukas was closest to, but never worked for, is Baffert.

“I asked him for a job one time out of high school, and he turned me down,” Baffert told The Times in 2018, while he was on his Triple Crown run with Justify. “I tell him, ‘I’m sure glad you turned me down because you’d be taking all the credit for this.’ But he probably would have fired me after two weeks because he works way too hard.”

Lukas later introduced Baffert at his U.S. Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

“He told me everybody was laughing and kidding [when they heard I was inducting him,]” Lukas told The Times in 2018. “They were saying he’s not going to have Wayne do it because they thought we were rivals. Yet he came to me, and I said, ‘Bob, I’ll be honored to present you.’ And I did.”

“The media portrayed us as rivals and everything, so we would go along with you guys and then we’d go to dinner later,” Lukas said of Baffert.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. I have great respect for his ability. He’s got an excellent eye for a horse. He’s one of the few guys in the sale that when I pick one out that I like, I know sure as hell he’ll be bidding too.”

Seize the Grey’s trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, left, shakes hands with Bob Baffert, Imagination’s trainer, after Lukas’ horse won the Preakness Stakes in 2024.

(Julia Nikhinson / Associated Press)

In fact, this year at the Preakness Alibi Breakfast, an annual affair at Pimlico where trainers, owners and others tell stories and trade barbs about their career and horses, Lukas and Baffert hijacked the event with witty repartee and joking much to the delight of those in attendance. Their friendship was borne out as genuine.

“The horses were everything to Wayne,” Baffert posted on X after learning of Lukas’ death. “They were his life. From the way he worked them, how he cared for them, and how he maintained his shedrow as meticulously as he did his horses. No detail was too small. Many of us got our graduate degrees in training by studying how Wayne did it. Behind his famous shades, he was a tremendous horseman, probably the greatest who ever lived.”

Lukas’ life on the racetrack had one significant downside, when his son and assistant, Jeff, was run over and permanently injured by a loose horse at Santa Anita in 1993.

“I have a phone with one of those long cords,” Lukas told The Times’ Dwyre in 1999, “and so, I was up and walking around and right near the door when it happened. I was the first one to get to him.”

“One of Lukas’ Triple Crown prospects, Tabasco Cat, had bolted and was loose,” Dwyre wrote. “Jeff Lukas, a veteran horseman well schooled in the procedures for such situations, had stepped in Tabasco Cat’s path and was waving his arms. Horses always stop, or veer away. But this time…

“It’s like when you meet somebody in a narrow hallway,” Lukas said. “You go right and he goes right, and then you both go the other way. But eventually, one goes right and one left. Well, Jeff and the horse both went the same way.”

“Witnesses say that the sound of Jeff Lukas’ head hitting hard, compact ground after the collision could be heard several barns away. There was no blood, just an unconscious, badly injured 36-year-old man.”

The next year, Jeff Lukas had recovered enough to return to the racetrack but it proved too difficult for him to work around horses safely. Jeff eventually moved to Oklahoma and lived in a home his father bought him until Jeff’s death in 2016 at age 58.

Santa Anita issued this statement on Sunday after learning of Lukas’ death.

“Santa Anita joins the racing community in mourning the passing of D. Wayne Lukas. … His on-track success was such that it was easy to overlook his outstanding horsemanship that we were lucky to often witness back at the barn, away from the spotlight.”

Funeral arrangements for Wayne Lukas were not immediately announced.

Lukas is survived by his fifth wife, Laurie; grandchildren Brady Wayne Lukas and Kelly Roy; and great-grandchildren Johnny Roy, Thomas Roy, Walker Wayne Lukas and Quinn Palmer Lukas.

Agnes (Eva Victor) has the face of a classical Hollywood movie star but she dresses like an old fisherman. Her expressions are inscrutable; you never know what’s going to come out of her mouth or how. When asked on a written questionnaire how her friends would describe her, she puts down “smart,” crosses it out, then replaces it with “tall.” She is all of those things: tall, smart, striking, endearingly awkward, hard to read. And she is an utterly captivating, entirely unique cinematic presence, the planet around which orbits “Sorry, Baby,” the debut feature of Victor, who not only stars but writes and directs.

Agnes’ backstory, revealed in time, is a distressingly common one of sexual assault, recounted with bursts of wild honesty, searing insight and unexpected humor. Victor’s screenplay earned her the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival this year, where the film had its premiere. As a writer and performer, Victor allows Agnes to relay what happened in her own way while keeping the most intimate horrors protected.

Set in the frigid environs of the English department at a rural Massachusetts university, “Sorry, Baby” carries a literary quality, emphasized by nonchronological titled chapters (e.g., “The Year With the Baby,” “The Year With the Bad Thing,”) carefully establishing our protagonist, the world she inhabits and a few nagging questions.

Agnes is a professor of English at the university where she completed her graduate studies, but we first meet her as the best friend of Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who arrives for a winter weekend visit. Two codependent besties reunited, they snuggle on the couch and laugh about sex. Lydie delights at the mystery man who turns up on her friend’s doorstep — a friendly, familiar neighbor named Gavin (Lucas Hedges).

But Lydie’s quiet concern for her friend is also palpable. When she reveals her pregnancy to Agnes, she says, “There’s something I need to tell you about my body,” as if Agnes is a child who needs gentle explanation. And in a strange way, Agnes seems to take to this childlike role with her friend. Lydie carefully probes her about her office and its previous occupant. She presses her about remaining in this town. Isn’t it “a lot”? “It’s a lot to be wherever,” Agnes replies. Lydie requests of her, “Don’t die” and Agnes reassures her she would have already killed herself if she was going to. It’s cold comfort, a phrase that could capably describe the entire vibe of “Sorry, Baby.”

Victor then flips back to an earlier chapter, before their graduation, to a time when Agnes seems less calcified in her idiosyncrasies. Their thesis advisor, Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi), handsome and harried, tells Agnes her work is “extraordinary” and reschedules a meeting due to a child-care emergency. They both end up at his home, where dusk turns to night.

What ensues is what you expect and dread, though we only hear about it when Agnes recounts the excruciating details of the incident to Lydie later that night. The fallout renders Agnes emotionally stunted, running alternately on autopilot and impulse. Lydie fiercely protects (and enables) her friend until she has to move on with her life, leaving Agnes frozen in amber in that house, that office, that town, that night.

There’s an architectural quality to Victor’s style in the film’s structure and thoughtful editing, and in the lingering shots of buildings standing starkly against an icy sky, glowing windows beckoning or concealing from within: a representation of a singular kind of brittle, poignant New England stoicism. Victor captures Agnes the same way.

Thanks to the profound and nuanced honesty Victor extracts from each moment, “Sorry, Baby” is a movie that lingers. Even when Agnes does something outlandish or implausible — turning up on foot at Gavin’s door in a tizzy is one of her curious quirks — it feels true to the character.

But Agnes is a mystery even to herself, it seems, tamping down her feelings until they come tumbling out in strange ways. She goes about her daily life in a never-ending cycle of repression and explosion, cracking until she shatters completely. Her most important journey is to find a place to be soft again.

The only catharsis or healing to be found in the film comes from the titular apology, more a rueful word of caution than anything else. We can never be fully protected from what life has in store for us, nor from the acts of selfishness or cruelty that cause us to harden and retreat into the protective cocoon of a huge jacket, a small town, an empty house.

Life — and the people in it — will break us sometimes. But there are still kittens and warm baths and best friends and really good sandwiches. There are still artists like Victor who share stories like this with such detailed emotion. Sometimes that’s enough to glue us back together, at least for a little while.

PUT-IN-BAY, Ohio — Nearly 10 years after he changed the lives of every queer person in America, Jim Obergefell sat in a crowded bar on a small island in Lake Erie, watching the close-knit local community celebrate its third annual Pride.

Jim, 58, made history as the lead plaintiff in the landmark legal case Obergefell vs. Hodges, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 26, 2015, that same-sex couples nationwide have a constitutional right to marry.

The last decade has diminished the familiarity of his face, once everywhere on cable news, and he appeared to sit anonymously now, sipping a beer in a booth. But Jim’s legacy still resonates deeply with LGBTQ+ people all over the country, in both red and blue states and in little purplish outposts like Put-in-Bay, too — as Molly Kearney, the queer comedian on stage, would soon make clear.

Kearney spent years working at island bars and restaurants before making it big and landing a gig as the first nonbinary cast member of “Saturday Night Live.” They are something of a legend on the island about three miles off the Ohio coast, and the crowd was loving their set — which was chock full of stories about getting drunk at local watering holes and navigating life and family as a young queer person.

Then Kearney brought up Jim’s case.

The day the Supreme Court issued its decision, Kearney was working at a restaurant called The Forge alongside co-owner Marc Wright, who is gay and one of the organizers of Put-in-Bay Pride. Wright immediately told the LGBTQ+ staff their work day was done.

“I just remember that day so vividly,” Kearney said. “He’s like, ‘All right, all the straight people have to work. All the gay people, leave work — we’re going out on the town!’”

A large Pride flag is held by supporters in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on April 28, 2015. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 26, 2015, that same-sex couples nationwide have a constitutional right to marry.

(Allison Shelley / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The crowd erupted in laughter and cheers, and in apparent approval for Wright, the emcee who had just introduced Kearney.

“It was awesome,” Kearney said, recalling how the whole town seemed to come together to celebrate. “It was a magnificent day.”

Jim, caught off guard, was also clearly tickled as he quietly took in the many smiling faces around him.

A lot of people have told him over the last decade how much his case transformed their lives. Many have cried upon meeting him. Some have said his victory gave them the courage to come out to their families and friends, and even to themselves. One told him she was preparing to take her own life until his win.

Still, Kearney’s story might be his “new favorite,” he said.

For starters, it was darn funny, he said. But it also was rooted in queer acceptance in a small community not unlike the coastal town a short ferry ride away, Sandusky, Ohio, where Jim grew up — and now lives again.

It captured something Jim has observed in his own life the last few years in Ohio, something that might be his greatest legacy, especially in light of recent political efforts to push LGBTQ+ rights backward and queer people back into the closet.

Kearney’s story captured people in an average, not especially progressive American community not just accepting their queer neighbors and friends — but celebrating their right to love.

Signs mark the city limits and some of the notable residents of Sandusky.

Murals and paintings seen in downtown on a Sunday in June.

At home in Sandusky

The night before the comedy show, Jim was in Sandusky, hosting a dinner party in his well-appointed and art-adorned apartment with about a dozen of his closest friends, family and neighbors.

He served some of his own wine — he’s a co-founder of Equality Vines out of Guerneville — and ordered a bunch of pizza, including a Sandusky special: sausage and sauerkraut.

There was his older brother and sister-in-law, Chuck and Janice Obergefell, who recalled traveling to D.C. for the Supreme Court arguments. Their kids are also close to Jim.

“The minute we heard you were going to Washington, we just thought, ‘Wow, this is too cool,’” Janice told Jim. “We’re awfully darn proud of you, but you know that.”

Chuck had worked his whole life in local plants, and had known a few gay men there — regular blue-collar guys who also happened to be the “friendliest people I’ve ever met,” he said. So when Jim came out to him in the early 1990s, it didn’t bother him much, though he did worry about HIV/AIDS.

“I just told him, ‘You’re my brother, I love ya, just be careful,’” Chuck said.

“Then he brought John around,” said Janice, of Jim’s late husband John Arthur.

“And I liked John more than Jim!” Chuck said with a wry smile.

There were several of Jim’s oldest and dearest friends, including Kay Hollek, a friend since they were 4; Judi Nath, a friend since 7th grade; Jennifer Arthur, his 1984 prom date; and Betsy Kay, a friend from high school chorus.

There were also newer friends from town, including Marsha Gray Carrington, a photographer and painter whose work adorns Jim’s walls, and from Jim’s “gayborhood,” as he called it — including neighbors Dick Ries and Jim Ervin, a married couple who briefly employed Jim as a Sandusky segway tour guide, and Debbie Braun, a retired Los Angeles teacher who, like Jim, decided to move back to her hometown.

The conversation ranged freely from Jim’s personal legacy to local politics in Sandusky, which is moderate compared to the red rural towns and bigger blue cities nearby. The talk jumped to national politics and recent attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, which have made some of them worry for Jim’s safety as “an icon of a movement,” as his former prom date put it.

An oil painting hangs on the wall of Jim Obergefell’s parents’ home in June.

Ries and Ervin, who started dating about 17 years ago, drew laughs with a story about learning of the Supreme Court decision. Ervin was bawling — tears of joy — when he called Ries, who was driving and immediately thought something horrible had happened.

“I think the house has burned down, he’s wrecked the car, the dog is dead,” Ries said with a chuckle. It wasn’t until he pulled over that he understood the happy news.

The couple had held off having a marriage ceremony because they wanted it to be “real,” including in the eyes of their home state, Ervin said. After the ruling, they quickly made plans, and married less than 8 months later on Feb. 6, 2016.

“To me, it was profound that once and for all, we could all get married,” Ervin said.

Jim Obergefell, left, and John Arthur, right, are married by officiant Paulette Roberts, rear center, in a plane on the tarmac at Baltimore/Washington International Airport in Glen Burnie, Md., in 2013.

(Glenn Hartong / The Cincinnati Enquirer via Associated Press)

The group talked about what kept them in or brought them to Sandusky: family, the low cost of living, small-town friendliness. They talked about the other queer people in their lives, including some of their children. They mentioned how the only gay bar in town recently closed.

In between the heavier discussions, they chatted in the warm, cheeky patterns of old friends catching up over pizza and wine. At one point, Jim and several of his girlfriends gathered in the kitchen to discuss — what else? — Jim’s dating life.

Just the week before, Jim said, he had realized he was “ready to let go” of John’s ashes, to spread them somewhere special as John had requested, and finally ready to date again.

“I’m open,” he said, as his girlfriends’ eyes lit up.

The case that landed Jim before the Supreme Court started during one of the hardest periods of his life, when John was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The couple had been together for decades, and in July 2013, three months before John’s death, exchanged vows in Maryland, one of the states that recognized same-sex marriages at the time.

However, Ohio refused to acknowledge that marriage, meaning that, when John died, Jim would not be listed as the surviving spouse on his state death certificate. So they sued.

For years after John’s death and the subsequent court rulings in their favor, Jim kept busy co-writing a book, traveling the country giving speeches and attending Pride events and LGBTQ+ fundraisers as a guest of honor. He was mourning John, too, of course, but amid so many other draws on his focus and attention, he said.

“It’s almost like you didn’t get to do it right away,” said Betsy. “You had it delayed.”

After living in Cincinnati from 1984 to 2016 — most of that time with John — Jim moved to D.C. for a few years, but “missed Ohio,” he said.

In 2021, as the COVID pandemic raged, he found himself increasingly lonely, he said, so he decided to move back to Sandusky to be closer to family and friends. Since then, he has been happier, rekindling old connections, making some new ones and even running — unsuccessfully — for office.

Betsy, a mother of nine — some queer — and a ball of energy, said it’s wonderful to have Jim back in town. The one catch, she acknowledged, is the gay dating pool in Sandusky, population about 24,000, is not exactly deep.

To make matters worse, Jim is hopelessly oblivious when it comes to flirting, she said. The other women in the kitchen nodded.

Taking the cue, Jim went to his bedroom and returned with a small pin Betsy had given him, which read, “If you’re flirting with me, please let me know. And be extremely specific. Seriously, I’m clueless.”

Jim looked around his apartment, in his hometown, brimming with fiercely loyal friends and family who not only love him, but want him to find love.

Thanks in part to him, it was a scene that lucky, happy queer people might find familiar nationwide.

A “Greetings from Sandusky, Ohio” sign.

The Ceiling Art Company and a row of buildings on West Market Street downtown.

Jim Obergefell holds a button with a message that reads in part, “if you’re flirting with me please let me know.”.

Back on the island

Shortly after Kearney’s set at Put-in-Bay Pride, Kristin Vogel-Campbell, a 45-year-old bisexual educator from nearby Port Clinton, approached Jim at his booth.

Her friend had just pointed Jim out — told her who he was — and she just had to thank him.

“You’ve done so much for our community,” she said. “You put yourself out there, and did the work that was needed to get the job done.”

Jim, not anonymous after all, smiled and thanked her.

A few moments later, Kearney came through the crowd, high-fiving and hugging old friends. When they, too, were told who Jim was, their jaw dropped.

“Are you serious? … Hold on.”

Marc Wright, left, and Molly Kearney snap a picture together at Put-in-Bay Pride on June 9.

(Courtesy of Marc Wright)

Kearney ran over and grabbed Wright out of another conversation and explained who Jim was. Wright’s eyes went wide — then he reached out and touched Jim on the chest, as if to verify he was real.

Kearney, sticking their arms out to show goosebumps, said, “I have the chillies.”

Kearney doesn’t often include the story of the Supreme Court ruling in their sets, they said, but thought the local crowd would get a kick out of it, because they knew that day had meant a lot to so many people.

“That day — thanks to you — was a very big day for me,” Kearney told Jim. “I didn’t feel fully comfortable — I still don’t — so that day was really important, because everyone was, like, cheering!”

Wright nodded along.

He first came to Put-in-Bay from Cleveland when he was 21 — or a “baby gay,” as he put it. And initially, it was intimidating. “It’s easy to feel like an outcast in a small community, because you’re living in a fish bowl,” he said.

Soon enough, however, the town made him one of their own. People on the island “knew I was gay before I knew, and everyone was like, ‘Yeah, it’s OK,’” Wright said.

He said such acceptance, which has only grown on the island since, is thanks to pioneers like Jim — and like Kearney, whose own success has increased understanding of nonbinary people.

“Just to have Molly go out and live their life so unapologetically, it’s so validating,” Wright said.

Introducing Kearney that afternoon, Wright had thanked the crowd — many of them locals — for proving that Put-in-Bay stands for love and equality, especially at such a difficult time for the LGBTQ+ community.

“Put-in-Bay is for everyone — one island, one family,” he said.

Now, as Jim praised the event, saying it was just the sort of thing that’s needed in small towns all across the country, Wright beamed.

Sabrina Carpenter divided fans earlier this month with her choice of cover art for her forthcoming album, “Man’s Best Friend.” Playing on the title, she poses on all fours like a dog while a faceless man pulls her hair.

While some interpreted the cover as cheeky and ironic — especially given the themes of the album’s first single, “Manchild” — others accused the former Disney Channel star of promoting sexist stereotypes and setting women‘s rights back decades.

Carpenter has addressed criticism by releasing an alternative cover “approved by God,” the singer revealed Wednesday on Instagram.

The black-and-white image seemingly channels Marilyn Monroe as the singer, dressed in an elegant beaded gown, leans against a man in a suit. Carpenter is front and center while the man‘s face is partially hidden.

This isn’t the first time Carpenter has ruffled some feathers.

In 2023, she received backlash from the Catholic Church after she filmed parts of her “Feather” music video at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church. The Diocese of Brooklyn said it was “appalled” by the nature of the video and the priest who allowed her to film there was removed from his administrative duties.

When asked about the incident in an interview with Variety, Carpenter responded, “Jesus was a carpenter.” She doubled down during her Coachella debut in 2024, wearing a shirt with the same phrase.

The singer has also raised eyebrows on her Short n’ Sweet Tour, which returns to North America this fall. During her sultry performance of “Juno,” she acts out a different sex position every night.

Carpenter addressed the criticism that she’s shaped her entire brand around sex in her June cover story with Rolling Stone.

“It’s always funny to me when people complain,” she said. “They’re like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’ But those are the songs that you’ve made popular. Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it. It’s in my show. There’s so many more moments than the ‘Juno’ positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can’t control that.”

In a since-deleted post, an X user shared the first “Man’s Best Friend” cover and asked, “Does she have a personality outside of sex?” Carpenter responded, “Girl yes and it is goooooood.”

Among those who came to Carpenter’s defense of the original album art was “You’re So Vain” singer Carly Simon, who received backlash for the cover of her 1975 album, “Playing Possum.”

“She’s not doing anything outrageous,” Simon told Rolling Stone. “It seems tame. There have been far flashier covers than hers. One of the most startling covers I’ve ever seen was [the Rolling Stones’] ‘Sticky Fingers.’ That was out there in terms of sexual attitude. So I don’t know why she’s getting such flak.”

“Man’s Best Friend” will be released Aug. 29, a little over a year after Carpenter’s last project, “Short n’ Sweet.” Signed editions and copies with the alternative cover are available for preorder on her website.

D. Wayne Lukas, 89, who has been a staple in horse racing since 1968 when he was training quarter horses at Los Alamitos, is leaving the game after contracting a potentially life-ending illness.

In a note to owners and friends on Sunday, Lukas Enterprises announced: “We regret to inform you that D. Wayne Lukas will not be returning to racing. A severe MRSA blood infection has caused significant damage to his heart, digestive system, and worsened pre-existing chronic conditions. The doctors proposed an aggressive treatment plan, involving multiple surgeries and procedures over several months. Even with the best-case scenario, Wayne would require 24/7 assistance to manage daily activities.”

The note goes on to say that Lukas declined the aggressive treatment plan and would “return home to spend his remaining time with his wife, Laurie, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”

It also says that he will be under home hospice care.

Lukas is a member of both the U.S. Racing and Quarter Horse Halls of Fame. He has won the trainer Eclipse Award five times, and his horses have won 25 Eclipse Awards.

In his career, Lukas has run 30,436 races, winning 4,953. His horses have earned over $300 million. His last significant win was in last year’s Preakness Stakes, which he won with Seize the Grey.