Southern Section Agoura 46, Rio Mesa 0 Antelope Valley 12, Adelanto 0 Aquinas 32, Jurupa Hills 6 Arlington 20, Riverside North 0 Arrowhead Christian 40, Nuview Bridge 0 Arroyo Valley 31, Citrus Hill 0 Baldwin Park 40, Calvary Baptist 6 Beaumont 62, Rancho Cucamonga 12 Cajon 65, Indian Springs 0 California Military Institute 44, Rancho Mirage 0 Camarillo 34, Buena 0 Canyon Country Canyon 18, Lancaster 6 Cerritos Valley Christian 27, Glenn 12 Channel Islands 21, Newbury Park 7 Colony 8, Los Osos 6 Compton 14, Mayfair 6 Corona del Mar 20, Santa Margarita 14 Esperanza 15, Anaheim 0 Fountain Valley 36, Sunny Hills 12 Gahr 34, Claremont 0 Great Oak 21, Temecula Prep 0 Harvard-Westlake 20, Village Christian 0 Highland 22, Eastvale Roosevelt 14 Hillcrest 6, Norte Vista 0 Hueneme 26, Saugus 7 Fountain Valley 36, Sunny Hills 12 JSerra 40, Woodbridge 21 La Mirada 12, Pioneer 0 Los Alamitos 31, Costa Mesa 6 Knight 50, Rosamond 0 Miller 19, Colton 0 Millikan 32, Palos Verdes 12 Monrovia 20, San Gabriel 12 Northview 41, La Puente 8 Oxnard Pacifica 34, Valencia 12 Ramona 8, Moreno Valley 6 Redondo Union 12, Downey 6 Rim of the World 39, Entrepreneur 0 Rowland 21, Nogales 0 San Gorgonio 45, Bloomington 7 Santa Barbara 27, Simi Valley 12 Santa Monica 26, Windward 0 Schurr 12, San Marino 8 St. Lucy’s 40, Mark Keppel 0 Temescal Canyon 14, Elsinore 7 Torrance 12, El Segundo 0 Trabuco Hills 30, Portola 0 Troy 25, Orange 12 Upland 39, Rialto 26 Ventura 25, Castaic 7 Victor Valley 14, Eastside 0 Vista del Lago 14, Heritage 12 Warren 14, Sonora 6 Westlake 53, Oak Park 20 West Valley 44, San Jacinto 6 Yucaipa 47, La Sierra 18
Intersectional North County San Marcos 44, Dana Hills
Monday’s results
City Section AMIT 18, Diego Rivera 0 Eagle Rock 33, Sotomayor 0 Franklin 31, Contreras 0 Franklin 31, King/Drew 14 Granada Hills Kennedy 18, Bishop Alemany 6 King/Drew 40, Contreras 0 Monroe 19, Reseda 0 New Designs University Park 27, West Adams 0 Panorama 6, Sotomayor 0 Panorama 23, Eagle Rock 22 (OT) San Fernando 32, Reseda 0 San Fernando 24, Monroe 0
Southern Section Artesia 40, Oxford Academy 6 Ayala 12, Sunny Hills 6 Azusa 33, Alhambra 7 Baldwin Park 32, Workman 6 Bell Gardens 15, Norwalk 7 Bishop Amat d. Sacred Heart of Jesus, forfeit Cajon 68, San Bernardino 0 California 20, La Habra 0 California Military Institute 31, Nuview Bridge 0 Castaic 6, Santa Paula 0 Cerritos 21, Montebello 6 Chaparral 20, Linfield Christian 18 Chino Hills 12, Northview 0 Colony 20, Montclair 0 Corona Centennial 28, Riverside Poly 26 Covina 29, Sierra Vista 13 Culver City 33, Immaculate Heart 18 Downey 26, Aliso Niguel 7 Eastvale Roosevelt 18, Patriot 13 El Dorado 32, La Palma Kennedy 19 Etiwanda 20, Corona Santiago 12 Foothill 34, Placentia Valencia 7 Fountain Valley 18, Sage Hill 0 Gabrielino 32, Arroyo 7 Godinez 36, Garden Grove Santiago 6 Glendora 39, Alta Loma 18 Hemet 25, Desert Hot Springs 24 Hillcrest 39, Jurupa Valley 0 Jurupa Hills 26, San Jacinto 0 La Canada 20, West Covina 0 Laguna Hills 41, Katella 6 Lakewood 6, Paramount 0 Lakewood St. Joseph 34, Cypress 6 La Serna 28, La Mirada 14 Liberty 24, Vista del Lago 0 Long Beach Wilson 19, Bellflower 6 Los Alamitos 52, Loara 6 Los Altos 24, Rosemead 0 Los Osos 7, Don Lugo 0 Magnolia 14, Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary 6 Millikan 49, Santa Fe 6 Murrieta Mesa 45, Lakeside 0 Murrieta Valley 34, Elsinore 6 Nogales 12, Charter Oak 0 Oaks Christian 30, Oak Park 20 Ontario 21, Hacienda Heights Wilson 6 Ontario Christian 32, Chaffey 0 Orange 6, Irvine 0 PACS 13, Rosamond 12 Palm Desert 18, La Quinta 6 Ramona Convent 21, Rio Hondo Prep 6 Rancho Alamitos 13, Bolsa Grande 6 Rancho Cucamonga 24, Norco 13 Redlands East Valley 13, Riverside King 7 Riverside North 24, Heritage 13 Saddleback 18, Tustin 6 San Dimas 38, Duarte 0 San Gorgonio 18, Ramona 13 San Juan Hills 6, Northwood 0 Santa Ana Valley 26, Bell Gardens 18 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 20, Mayfair 13 St. Margaret’s 34, Crean Lutheran 26 Temecula Prep 47, Rancho Christian 6 Temescal Canyon 20, Paloma Valley 19 Tesoro 19, Portola 14 Valencia 12, Vasquez 0 Villa Park 20, Segerstrom 0 Western Christian 72, United Christian Academy 0 Whittier 20, Western 7 Yorba Linda 40, Garden Grove Pacifica 6
Intersectional Carson 25, Mater Dei 19 Granada Hills Kennedy 18, Alemany 16 Indio 12, Central 6 Mountain View 25, South East 14 Shadow Hills 13, Brawley 12
Addyson Waters, six, upset at Rhodes Airport after Jet2 refused to let her family board their flight home
A family was left stranded on a Greek island after Jet2 refused to let them fly home because their six-year-old daughter was sick in the departure lounge. Hayley Waters, 37, was waiting at Rhodes Airport with husband Jason, 40, and kids Addyson, six, and Xander, three, when the youngster vomited at the gate.
She said staff immediately barred the family from boarding their delayed flight to Leeds Bradford Airport shortly after midnight. They were told they could not travel with Jet2 for at least 24 hours and would have to arrange their own accommodation, transport and alternative flights – which cost them around £1,000.
Hayley, a performance analyst from Leeds, West Yorks., said: “While waiting at the gate, my six-year-old daughter was sick once. I cleaned it up immediately. She’d had no illness all holiday – she was simply exhausted after the delay, it was around midnight, and over 30C in the airport.”
The family had been due to catch the 11.15pm flight on July 31, which eventually departed at around 12.05am. They were travelling as part of a larger group of nine when a member of Jet2 staff spotted Addyson being sick.
But Hayley said nobody assessed her daughter or asked whether she had been ill during the holiday before the family was stopped from boarding. She said: “The only explanation given was ‘policy’ because my daughter had been sick.
“Nobody asked whether she had any underlying medical conditions, whether she’d been unwell during the holiday, or how she was feeling. No medical assessment was carried out – the decision was based solely on a member of staff seeing her vomit once.”
The family were forced to book an easyJet flight to Newcastle for the following day to get home. Hayley said: “We have no written explanation for why we were denied boarding, no paperwork, no medical assessment, no duty of care, and we were left stranded abroad with two young children.”
Jet2 said its team in Rhodes had followed procedures and helped the family find somewhere to stay. The airline said staff also advised them to retain their receipts so they could make a claim through their travel insurance.
A Jet2 spokesperson said: “The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our absolute priority, and our teams have processes in place to help prevent the spread of illness onboard our aircraft. We are sorry to hear that Mrs Waters was unhappy with her experience and we are in contact with her to discuss the matter further.”
However, Hayley has disputed the airline’s claim that it had been in contact with her. The airline said it had promised a response within 14 days, by August 20, and remained on track to provide one.
Hayley said the family have not had acknowledgement that their written complaint has been received – and that they have not been told about the timescales Jet2 are working to.
Gillian Anderson discussed her early relationship with ‘an older girl from high school’Credit: GettyGillian – who rose to fame as Dana Scully on The X-Files – has previously talked about her past relationships with womenCredit: Getty
In a new interview, Gillian discussed her youthful romance and the sensitivity around it.
She told The Sunday Times: “One of my first relationships was with an older girl in high school.
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“It felt secretive and illicit and wrong and we had to hide.
“Later on I had a boyfriend who found out and broke up with me.”
Among Gillian’s most recent high profile roles was as Jean Milburn in Netflix hit Sex EducationCredit: AlamyGillian has reportedly had an on and off relationship with screenwriter Peter Morgan since 2016Credit: Getty
Continuing, Gillian said she’d had “a couple of boyfriends”, so didn’t think of herself as gay.
She added: “But I definitely felt I didn’t have the language for it.
“Even later on when I had other relationships with women I’m not sure I ever thought of them as being potentially for ever.”
She concluded: “The person I consider my life partner happens to be male.”
PORTLAND, Ore. — Sophie Cunningham said she’s unconcerned that the rallies against transgender participation in women’s sports that have accompanied the Indiana’s Fever’s recent games are a distraction for the WNBA team.
Cunningham made the comments before the Fever’s game Friday night against the Portland Fire. Outside, a group rallied for the second consecutive game in support of Cunningham and her recent comments about transgender athletes.
“I think at the end of the day, I come in and I do my job,” Cunningham said. “I think everyone who knows me personally, they know that I’m full of love. I’m bubbly. I love the people around me. I love basketball. I love inspiring the next generation and doing that in a positive light. And so that doesn’t even cross my mind. Doesn’t cross my teammates’ minds.
“And again, I’m here to play basketball, but I’m also here to be me, and I’m not gonna like shadow that or hide or, you know, dim my light just because maybe people don’t agree with that.”
Portland’s rally came after a similar rally for Cunningham earlier in the week before the Fever’s game at the Seattle Storm. Both rallies only attracted about two dozen participants and a bevy of onlookers.
“I have honestly had nothing to do with them,” Cunningham said. “I think it’s people just practicing their rights of freedom of speech and doing what other fans have been doing since the WNBA has started. And so props to them, props to everyone who is able to be competent and be bold and courageous enough to to speak their truths.”
People rally in Portland to support WNBA star Sophie Cunningham after her comments on transgender athletes in women’s sports.
(Craig Mitchelldyer / Associated Press)
Another rally was planned for Sunday in Minneapolis when the Fever play the Minnesota Lynx.
In Seattle on Tuesday, two Cunningham supporters sat courtside at Climate Change Arena holding signs. A co-owner of the Storm, Celeste Keaton was later fined an undisclosed amount and suspended for five games by the WNBA for an exchange with the two supporters.
The Storm also apologized for the incident, but did not provide details about the exchange, releasing a statement that said: “We remain committed to creating a welcoming and respectful environment for anyone who attends a Storm game.”
The Seattle rally promoted statewide ballot initiative, IL26-638, that would bar transgender students from participating in girls’ athletics at Washington schools. It also praised Cunningham, who voiced support for barring transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports in recent interviews.
“I am here to be a cheerleader for Sophie Cunningham, who has so bravely put her head above the parapet to protect women and girls in our sports and in our locker rooms,” said Amy Souza, who was among those at the Portland rally. “I was an organizer of this event, I was a co-organizer of the Seattle event. I’m also here, standing in solidarity with those teen girls who, unfortunately, were harassed when they were just trying to be fans of the sport, fans of Sophie Cunningham.”
Cunningham was booed by the Moda Center crowd in Portland when she entered the game midway though the first quarter. Many waved small pink, blue and white transgender flags.
The Fever defeated the Fire 112-98 for their fifth straight win. Cunningham finished with 13 points and Caitlin Clark had her fourth career triple-double with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Coach Stephanie White said she was concerned that the controversy was distracting from the team’s play.
“You know there is a frustration, of course, because we want to we want to talk about basketball and we want to continue to work on our game and we want to continue to grow as a team.,” White said. “But I also understand this is part of our growth edge as a league, right?
“It’s part of our growth as a league, and we have to to be able to manage, we have to be able to insulate as much as we can, and then we have to be able to lead with conversation.”
Nylah Moore has been a standout flag football and girls’ basketball player at Eagle Rock High. Now comes the arrival of her freshman sister, Cinzia, which means fans in the bleachers might want to start designing and creating signs to wave each time one or the other scores a touchdown or makes a basket. It will be great exercise for the arms considering how many times the two figure to come through this season.
Nylah, who is 5-foot-11, is Eagle Rock’s versatile quarterback and scoring guard. She helped Eagle Rock to a 20-2 record last season, passing for 51 touchdowns as a junior. The basketball team went 10-0 in the Northern League. She averaged 15 points.
With the Moore sisters, Eagle Rock deserves the favorite’s role to win the City Section Open Division flag football title and compete with Birmingham and Westchester for an Open Division girls’ basketball title. Cinzia, who is 5-9, also excels in both sports.
Their mother, Christine Moore, was principal of the year at Luther Burbank Middle School in 2023 for Region 16. Coaches remember her bringing a young Nylah to sporting events years ago. Her biggest challenge will be finding time to watch her two daughters perform in two sports in her new job serving as region director for the Eagle Rock/Highland Park Network.
Official Nelson Bae explains the new rule this season in flag football that allows the losing team to get the ball after a score on the 20-yard line with one play to get a first down at the 40 to keep the ball. pic.twitter.com/EZ8K8p8JL4
Eagle Rock’s rise in flag football is no surprise. The school has been able to attract multisport athletes with speed and versatility. Basketball is where this season a surprise could happen. Coach Julie Wilkins has her biggest team ever after the arrival of 5-10 Marlborough transfer Amelie Cash. She also has a 6-1 player. Since Wilkins coaches both flag football and girls’ basketball, she’s always looking for “volunteers” to play both sports (wink, wink).
That’s how the successful teams in flag football have emerged — getting players from softball, soccer, track and field, and volleyball to join the sport. And it’s working.
Monroe had 20 players come out last season. This year, at least 36 have been practicing. Coach Jose Ruiz always asks Leo Hernandez, the track and field and cross country coach, for recommendations on his athletes as potential flag football players. Now that middle schools feeding Monroe have flag football programs, the numbers are expected to continue to rise.
JOHANNESBURG — Oprah Winfrey says she will close the school for underprivileged girls she set up in South Africa two decades ago at the end of next year.
Winfrey opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in 2007 after being inspired by conversations with former South African President Nelson Mandela about the transformative power of educating girls. He was among the guests at the school’s opening ceremony.
Winfrey’s charitable foundation ran and funded the school, but it was always part of the agreement that the academy campus near Johannesburg be ultimately handed over to the provincial education department, the academy said.
“The dream was never simply to build a school,” Winfrey said in a statement issued by the academy on Wednesday. “It was to invest in the limitless potential of young women. That mission doesn’t end with one campus. It continues in every girl whose future can be transformed through education.”
The academy said Winfrey’s commitment to educating South African girls would continue through an expanded national scholarship program supporting academically talented girls at leading schools across the country.
More than 500 girls have graduated from the academy and some have attended top universities in South Africa, the United States and Europe, according to the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation.
The Gauteng provincial government will take over the 52-acre academy campus, which has 21 classrooms, six science and computer laboratories, a 10,000-volume library and a 600-seat theater. It did not immediately say what the plans for the property were.
Gauteng Provincial Minister for Education Lebogang Maile said those currently enrolled in the school will be able to complete their education with uninterrupted financial support.
The academy drew international attention shortly after opening in 2007 when several students accused a dormitory matron of physically and sexually abusing them.
Winfrey traveled to South Africa to meet with students and parents, publicly apologized, and commissioned an independent investigation.
The matron was acquitted of criminal charges in 2010.
Last things first: Eve Babitz is a major minor L.A. writer who died five years ago at age 78. She spent nearly a quarter-century as a recluse, having suffered in 1997 a shocking and disfiguring accident while striking a match to light her Tiparillo. Her thin Indian skirt caught fire searing her panty hose into her flesh, leaving her with third-degree burns over more than half her body. She never published again, though many championed her gifts, including me. At the time of her misfortune, I was book editor of the Los Angeles Times. I had long admired her, especially the rollicking and indispensable “Slow Days, Fast Company,” first published in 1977, a charming and insightful series of stories bursting with pluck and sass. I recommended to John Carroll, the then-editor of the paper, that he make her a columnist and urged Babitz to write him directly. She did, and that letter from October 2000 is the last included in “Too L.A.: Letters Never Sent (But Some Were),” a book of letters expertly edited and chosen by Lili Anolik. Babitz tells Carroll that “what the paper needs is some writers that cause such an uproar, people will have to read it in order to stay abreast of the edge.” Babitz knew what she was talking about. She’d been living on that edge since she was a teenager at Hollywood High in the late 1950s.
Book Review
Too L.A.: Letters Never Sent But Some Were
By Eve Babitz; edited by Lili Anolik New York Review of Books: 448 pages, $19
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The posthumous resurrection of Babitz’s writings is most welcome. Yet there is a risk of overpraising her merits. She was an unabashed booster of the glossy L.A. that became synonymous with a rising creative elite whose élan and narcissism she found irresistible.
Lili Anolik makes the case in her perfervid introduction: “The letters are everything you could want” and often “profound” and “frequently brilliant, invariably amusing.” She says they deserve to be put on the short shelf next to Virginia Woolf’s imperishable “A Room of One’s Own” for they are “every bit as candid, every bit as lucid, every bit as brutal, every bit as delicate as Virginia Woolf’s celebrated manifesto.”
If only.
“Too L.A.: Letters Never Sent (But Some Were)” by Eve Babitz
(New York Review Books)
Regrettably, Anolik, who is almost singlehandedly responsible for Babitz’s literary exhumation, has so fallen in love with her subject as to almost blind her to Babitz’s defects, both with respect to her writing and to the life. With two previous books — “Hollywood’s Eve” (2019) and “Didion and Babitz” (2024) — prompted by Anolik’s riveting March 2014 Vanity Fair profile, Anolik has become Babitz’s greatest champion. Now with “Too L.A.,” a title taken from Babitz’s own over-oxygenated writing, she has gathered and edited a trove of letters. They brilliantly reveal Babitz’s eye for the deep shallow as well as explore the porous boundary between the largely self-inflicted injuries of her private life and the glittering sheen of her public persona. Babitz herself, on the strength of these 197 letters, only 30 of which she ever mailed, understood in a way Anolik doesn’t the limitations of her talents, even as she strives to slip the shackles of a mansplaining culture which at almost every turn tried to blunt her ambitions, both artistic and writerly, even as her editors and admirers sought (often with her ardent encouragement) to slip between her sheets.
Eve Babitz was born in 1943 to Hollywood neo-royalty. Her Brooklyn-born father, Sol, was first violinist for both the Los Angeles Philharmonic Symphony and then the 20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra. Sol would ultimately marry Lily Mae Laviolette, a beautiful Cajun Catholic shiksa willing to convert to Judaism. Eve’s godfather was Sol’s good friend Igor Stravinsky. When puberty burst upon her at age 14, Babitz’s blossoming made her a prime candidate for induction by the fast-track girls at Hollywood High who called themselves the Thunderbird Girls and cruised the Sunset Strip in their cool cars, looking for the main chance.
From left, Sol Babitz, Mae Babitz, Mirandi Babitz and author Eve Babitz gather at a launch party for her book “Slow Days, Fast Company” in 1977.
(Photograph by Paul Ruscha; courtesy of Mirandi Babitz / The Huntington Library)
At 20, Babitz posed nude playing chess with the fully clothed Marcel Duchamp to promote Duchamp’s retrospective exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum. At the time, Babitz was having an affair with the museum’s 32-year-old married director, Walter Hopps, which perhaps explains Babitz’s reluctance to have her face photographed so as not to give the game away to Mrs. Hopps, who attended the opening. A month later, Babitz confides in an (unsent) letter: “Everything’s so fabulous for me now I can’t believe it. There’s nothing like two boyfriends to do it for you every time. There are such fabulous boys around and they take you out on dates and to movies and I feel just like a teenager. (I’m recapturing my lost youth.) I get to get dressed up and I flirt outrageously and put people on and I do things like look soulfully out the window and man it’s just too hoozie for words. … If only all of this could last forever — not that it will, but I can.”
She spent the rest of her life torn between the excitements of everyday life — cruising the hangouts du jour (Barney’s Beanery in the early 1960s where she met many of L.A.’s up-and-coming artists — Ed Kienholz, Billy Al Bengston, Laddie Dill, Peter Alexander, and the Ruscha brothers, Ed and Paul, both of whom she’d bed, Paul becoming an on-again, off-again boyfriend whose bisexuality made for a sometimes tenuous connection; and after seducing Jim Morrison before he became famous and later the Troubadour in the late 1960s which was a happy hunting ground — Steve Martin, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, J.D. Souther, Country Joe Mcdonald, Jackson Browne, to name only a few, and then Ports restaurant where she anchored a corner table) — and the seductions of drugs — uppers, acid (which she seemed to ingest with an alarming frequency), pot, of course, and then by the mid-1970s, tragically, an Everest of cocaine. She had entered what she aptly called the era of “squalid overboogie.”
Eve Babitz and her frequent companion Paul Ruscha celebrate the 1977 release of Babitz’s seminal “Slow Days, Fast Company.”
(Photograph courtesy of Mirandi Babitz / The Huntington Library)
The name-dropping is relentless and if, like me, you have an insatiable appetite for hoovering them up, this volume will not disappoint. Still, there are many pages of vapid jottings — “I cleaned the house, did the laundry, and vowed to quit smoking” — that suggest why Babitz was a failure as a novelist (see her dud “Sex and Rage”) and a superb writer of short stories and essays that stylishly plumbed the depths of her own sensibility precisely in the degree to which she was uninterested in other people.
Nearly 30 years after she stripped to please her married lover and startle the unsuspecting Duchamp, the father of Dada, and eight years after she joined AA in 1982 — the year her beloved father died of Huntington’s disease at age 70 which ultimately would also kill her — and gave up drugs and alcohol and (almost entirely) writing as well, which had always been seen by her as enabled by dope of one kind or another, she boasted that, looking back, “Everybody wanted to be me — they looked at me with yearning faces, and said, ‘Boy, you sure had fun.’ ” She was not entirely wrong. She had struck many admirers both then and now, as the quintessential California girl, a daughter of Dionysus, whose devotion to pleasure was free of misgiving or regret. She detested the East Coast avatars of apocalypse, like Nathanael West, who saw only doom and gloom in sunny L.A. Babitz, by contrast, saw things sunny side up. If Joan Didion was unsettled and made anxious by the hot Santa Anas that regularly kicked up, Babitz luxuriated in them, recalling how she and her sister would as young girls rush to embrace them, spinning madly round and round. In a 1977 unsent letter to Joseph Heller, who had championed her work when she had sent him an unsolicited fan letter after having read “Catch-22” when it was first published and she was barely 20, she declares proudly: “I’m a gossip storyteller who likes L.A. rather than hates it.” She refers to her “shallow nature,” writing that “I feel like an upstream salmon, determined to reach the shallow water, no matter how fast the river is running the other way.”
Eve Babitz, the ultimate Hollywood reveler, on Sunset Boulevard in 1980.
(Los Angeles Times)
On the evidence of these letters, she had two great loves: Ahmet Ertegun, a principal founder of Atlantic Records, and Tom Dowd, renown recording engineer and producer who worked for Ertegun. Of the two, Ertegun had the edge, if for no other reason than he came with buckets of dough, making possible assignations at his regular bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel with limo pickup and dropoff services, and the best champagne and other assorted stimulants. Ertegun was effortlessly elegant and erudite, and there was no one he didn’t know and who wouldn’t return his calls. He was married, age 45, 20 years older than Babitz, when they fell for each other in 1969. She began sleeping with him even as she agreed to profile him for Jann Wenner’s newly launched Rolling Stone. The writing didn’t go well. Wenner wanted a tougher piece than she was willing to write. Ultimately, she abandoned the assignment, claiming (not unreasonably) that she didn’t see how she could write objectively about a man she loved.
Babitz courted danger with heedless bravado and exemplary recklessness. She once had the moxie to rid herself of a would-be rapist: When told not to scream, she said with unimaginable sangfroid: “Why not?” The man bolted. It might be said of Babitz, as Oscar Wilde said of his life, that she spent her talent on her writing and reserved her genius for her life. Sculpting her natural gifts of wit and brazenness into a living artwork dazzled all who came within her orbit. Her lust for life was palpable. The letters are proof. She came at people without fear. She left them without apology. She was the boss of herself. She was the girl who seemed to have it all. The only thing she lacked was inexperience.
SACRAMENTO — California has spent millions of dollars to combat sex trafficking, and yet it can still be found in every city and town, hiding in plain sight.
Whether it’s online, on places such as Figueroa Street in L.A. or Stockton Boulevard in Sacramento, or even in the hotel rooms where our World Cup guests stayed, there are thousands of women and girls being sexually exploited in California right now, despite all that money and all the resources it has purchased.
“The reality is that few threats to a woman’s safety are as brutal or as overlooked as sex trafficking,” First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said Monday, sitting with her husband, the governor, in a tiny second-floor dance studio built for survivors of trafficking.
Siebel Newsom was there to watch Newsom sign an executive order that was driven by her work as an advocate for survivors of trafficking. On its surface, the order may not sound like much and isn’t likely to make the news. It calls for most of the major state agencies to come up with a plan within 60 days to work together to curb trafficking and help survivors.
Hardly an earth-shattering demand. But believe it or not, one of the biggest barriers that our state faces, in this great age of technology and always-on connection, is that there is little collaboration between the folks fighting traffickers.
Yes, we have about 35 task forces statewide working on this issue and sometimes they run joint operations. But more often, those fighting trafficking live in their own silos, doing their own work, and often failing or refusing to share even scant details with other jurisdictions.
The same holds true for the many organizations that work with survivors, most of which have come on the scene only in the last few decades as sex trafficking morphed from a crime in which children were viewed as complicit to one in which we understand that they are victims.
Those organizations often do great work, but they too often do it alone. A survivor — or a girl being trafficked and looking for escape — has no easy way to find someone to help her. It’s largely luck, the right outreach person in the right place at the right time, or a cop who has taken the time and care to know what the resources are.
“We are so fragmented,” Sharmin Bock told the governor. She’s a former prosecutor in Alameda County who tried the first sex trafficking case in the U.S. Now, she’s advising the first partner on how California can do a better job fighting the predators — traffickers and buyers alike — who daily trade cash for the use of a human body, willing or not.
Bock points out that while those fighting against trafficking lack collaboration, the opposite is true of the criminals. Up and down the state, they are organized. A trafficker might pick up his victim in one city, only to transport her to another city to meet buyers. Victims are moved often, and even sold or traded to other traffickers.
Once a victim crosses a jurisdictional line, everything that happened on the other side of it too often gets lost in the nowhere land of bureaucracy and red tape. A move from Los Angeles to Riverside, and the girl might as well be in Taiwan, as Bock puts it.
“We need to stop asking whose case is this, and rather ask how do we solve this case together? How do we solve the problem together?” Bock said. “Collaboration recovers children sooner, links investigation, dismantles trafficking organizations and holds traffickers accountable. A trafficker should never escape accountability because critical information was sitting in another agency’s database.”
So while Newsom’s demand for a 60-day plan might not sound like much, it goes to the heart of what ails the system.
“Traffickers collaborate every day,” Bock said. “Traffickers have built networks to exploit children. We must build stronger networks to protect them.”
Newsom drew a parallel to the plague of retail theft that captivated the state not long ago, and which the state has successfully combated. Though careful to draw the obvious line that stealing a tube of toothpaste is a far cry from sexually exploiting a child, he pointed out similarities — online platforms that turned a blind eye, a lack of coordination between agencies, criminals that knew how to exploit not just victims, but systems.
Now he’s looking for that kind of “momentum,” to solve this most stubborn of abuses.
“For the last few years, I thought I could buy my way out of this,” Newsom said with a shocking bit of honesty, pointing to all that budget money that has been invested. But, he said, he’s clear now that it’s not a money problem. It’s a people problem.
“How is that possible? “ the governor wondered. The executive order, he said, is about saying “enough of just good intentions … we’re not delivering fundamental results.”
A report at the end of 60 days isn’t results. But it’s an acknowledgment that California needs to do better, and a road map to get there.
That’s crucial. Like Siebel Newsom and the governor, I’ve got two teenage daughters and I know just how vulnerable girls are, in the best of circumstances.
With all our resources and good intentions, California can’t continue to let predators win simply because they’re more organized.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho that forbid transgender athletes from competing on girls’ sports teams.
In a 6-3 decision, the court said the federal Title IX law envisioned separate teams for girls and boys based on their biological sex at birth.
“Separate sports teams for biological males and biological females are reasonable,” wrote Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. “Given the inherent physical differences between the sexes, allowing only biological females to play on women’s and girls’ teams can reduce the risk of physical injury and ensure fair competition.”
Kavanaugh, who has coached girls’ teams for many years, said 27 states have adopted laws prohibiting transgender athletes on girls’ teams.
But his opinion does not say states such as California must change their laws that forbid schools from discriminating based on gender. Instead, he stressed states are free to make their own decision.
“Consistent with Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, we hold that the states may maintain women’s and girls’ sports for biological females. They may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex. The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women’s and girls’ sports throughout America,” Kavanaugh said.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented in part. She said the state should have considered transgender students on a case-by-case basis to decide whether they had an unfair advantage. Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented as well.
The court’s decision is likely to bolster the Trump administration’s drive to pressure states, schools and universities that permit transgender athletes to compete on girls’ and women’s sports teams.
Because the Education Department provides federal funds to these states and schools, it can require them to comply with Title IX.
The sole plaintiff in the court case was Becky Pepper-Jackson. Now 15, she has carried on a lonely legal fight to compete on her school’s track team in Bridgeport, W.Va.
Designated male at birth, she says she is the only transgender girl competing in her state and has been the target of complaints and protests.
Her case drew strong reactions on both sides of the issue.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey hailed Tuesday’s decision as “one of the most important victories for women’s athletics” since the passage of Title IX in 1972.
“We defended a simple principle most Americans instinctively understand — that women’s sports exist to provide women and girls a fair opportunity to compete and succeed,” he said.
Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, said “it is self-evident that males and females are biologically different, and the U.S. Supreme Court has confirmed this truth. It is fundamentally unfair for a male who feels like a female to demand that biological categories be ignored to accommodate his desire to compete among females.”
Joshua Block, the ACLU attorney who argued the case, called it “a heartbreaking ruling for our clients and transgender girls like them who’ve asked for nothing more than the same opportunities afforded to their peers,” he said.
“The reality is that the equality of transgender women and girls takes nothing away from, and in fact promotes, the equality of all women and girls.”
“This ruling is deeply harmful for transgender women and girls who only asked for the ability to participate in sports with their peers,” said Sasha Buchert, senior attorney with Lambda Legal. “Countless studies have demonstrated the myriad benefits that come with participation in team sports.”
The sports career of Becky Pepper-Jackson reflects some of the difficulty of the issue.
In sixth grade, she participated in cross country and described herself as slow. She “routinely placed near the back of the pack,” her attorneys told the court.
Her court appeals focused on a wish to participate in sports, not to win. But upon reaching high school, she has been winning.
In 2024, she “placed in the top three in every track event in which B.P.J. competed, winning most,” the state’s attorneys said. In the spring of 2025, “focusing on strength events, B.P.J. bumped female competitors out of the state tournament, then placed third in the state in discus and eighth in shot put while competing against much older female athletes,” they told the court.
Her ACLU attorney explained she has been winning in the shot put and discus “through hard work and practice,” not because of an advantage based on biology.
He said she “received puberty-delaying medication and gender-affirming estrogen that allowed her to undergo a hormonal puberty typical of a girl.”
“When Calls the Heart” co-stars Erin Krakow and Ben Rosenbaum celebrated one year of marriage by publicly introducing the latest member of their growing family.
Krakow, 41, and Rosenbaum, 39, revealed via People on Tuesday that they welcomed a baby girl — their first child together — in April. In a joint Instagram post with the outlet, the Hallmark co-stars shared tender photos from an intimate shoot of themselves cuddling their baby girl and posing with their dog, Willoughby. The couple did not dish additional details about their child’s birth.
“Our daughter has been the greatest gift, and we are loving getting to know her better with each passing day,” Krakow and Rosenbaum told People via email.
Krakow and Rosenbaum have starred in the hit Hallmark period drama since its premiere in 2014. “When Calls the Heart” is set in the early 20th century and follows Krakow’s schoolteacher Elizabeth Thatcher as she makes a life for herself in Hope Valley, a small town in western Canada. Rosenbaum stars as Hope Valley resident Mike Hickam.
The new parents first generated dating rumors in 2023 when Krakow revealed she and Rosenbaum had become dog parents. Months later, Rosenbaum confirmed their romance in a Valentine’s Day post. The pair tied the knot last June and revealed in November that they were expecting.
A Southern California music festival featuring only women musicians and created by Olivia Rodrigo? That’s not such a bad idea.
Rodrigo, fresh off the release of her junior album, on Monday unveiled her Daisy Chain Fields music festival and the roster of all-women artists set to take over Irvine’s Great Park on Aug. 29. The lineup will include Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, Katseye, Mitski, Doechii and special guests Karen O, Sarah McLachlan and Stevie Nicks.
The 23-year-old Grammy winner and vocal advocate for women’s rights said in her post that her dream festival has finally become a reality and that earnings from the spectacular will go to charities benefiting women and girls.
“The lineup is truly insane and full of my heroes and friends,” Rodrigo said in her announcement. “I firmly believe that joy, community, and music can be the drivers of meaningful change and I’m hopeful this festival will be just that.”
Artists Bikini Kill, Die Spitz, Eli, Garbage, Not for Radio, Quiet Light, Rachel Chinouriri, Santigold and the Breeders are also set to perform. Fans hoping to snag tickets can sign up for pre-sale access on the festival’s website.
Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields comes to Irvine a month before the former Disney Channel star kicks off her massive Unraveled tour, promoting her latest release “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.” She will take over Inglewood’s Intuit Dome for four nights in 2027: Jan. 12, 13, 16 and 17.
In his album review, Times pop music critic Mikael Wood writes that Rodrigo’s latest release sees the singer-songwriter approach romance and heartbreak with “new wisdom, drawing sophisticated conclusions about why people in love do the things they do (and don’t do the things they don’t).”
The blush of first love inside the glow of new friendship is where “Girls Like Girls” works its easygoing charms, but also an affecting sadness. You’d never mistake multihyphenate pop star Hayley Kiyoko’s directorial debut for a groundbreaking queer romance, but sometimes the best summer vibes require only a breezy intoxicant, something made of all the funny feelings, a few of the deeper ones and a lot of heart.
That also describes Kiyoko’s shepherding of her hit 2015 track “Girls Like Girls,” a hooky LGBTQ+ anthem that went from viral music video (which she co-directed) to bestselling YA novel and finally this feature adaptation, written with Chloe Okuno and Stefanie Scott (the original video’s star). “Girls Like Girls” may be conventionally imagined, but there’s an admirable focus on unadorned warmth in Kiyoko’s storytelling: She likes her girls and cares enough to want us to like them, too.
We’re dropped in picturesque rural Oregon, where we find bike-riding new kid in town Coley (appealing newcomer Maya da Costa), who happens upon an energetic crowd of peers at a local diner, then gets asked to join them for a lake excursion (“We don’t bite”) by confident and friendly Sonya (Myra Molloy). When Coley, a shy, watchful sort, gets thrown in the water by obnoxious Trenton (Levon Hawke), she tries to leave, but not before Sonya softens the blow by insisting on a “proper hang” and the exchange of AOL usernames. (Because, oh, yeah, it’s 2006, giving us a refreshingly nostalgic break from the tyranny of smartphones.)
Anyway, SonyeahXOXO and RollieColey87 take quickly to their obvious spark, initially sublimating that deeper attraction through scenes of laughter, teasing, the rush from shoplifted alcohol, bed-sharing and lots of deep gazing. But they also lean into a connection marked by honesty and vulnerability, particularly Coley’s grief over losing her mom and not feeling connected to her widowed dad (Zach Braff). With Sonja Tyspin’s cinematography imbuing an innocent, sensual curiosity, Kiyoko sweetly conveys the awkward thrill of fledgling emotions. One scene in particular, in which Coley explores Sonya’s room, touching everything, hums with the strange excitement of being a specially invited new confidante.
But the day after the pair’s unspoken attraction becomes physical — a scene deftly stretched to “Kiss already!” limits — a confusing tension enters the chat, triggering a tailspin of self-doubt in Coley. A lesser film might have pivoted toward assuring us of a happy makeup, but “Girls Like Girls,” which stays centered in Coley’s POV, understands that at the crux of her pain is an untended self-acceptance that must be addressed first. Da Costa realizes that journey with unforced naturalism, as if the camera just happened to be there to capture it. (Molloy betrays a more studied star wattage, but she’s nevertheless a solid other half.)
Mostly, “Girls Like Girls” wins us over with a singular type of first-film assuredness: a familiar story presented as the most personal reveal ever. If you can’t remember what it was like to try to tiptoe while swooning, your heart barely able to stay in your chest, you were never a teenager.
‘Girls Like Girls’
Rated: R, for teen alcohol and drug use, and some language
Olivia Rodrigo has officially begun her new era, and this time she invited her fans to experience it alongside her.
To celebrate the release of her latest album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” Rodrigo collaborated with American Express to re-create the set of her music video for “The Cure.” The pop-up event, which opened last Thursday and ran until Sunday at Mica Studios, featured props from the video, storyboards, exclusive merchandise and several photo ops for fans.
With a beating felt heart and lab beakers to pose with, the pop-up transformed an industrial studio space in the Arts District into a pastel-painted cardboard hospital. Ahead of the public opening, Rodrigo surprised a small group of AMEX cardholders and select fans.
“I have an album that’s coming out today in about one hour, which is crazy,” Rodrigo said, wearing a blue “Nurses Do It Better” baby tee. “I figured since we’re all here, maybe we should just listen to a few of them together? Would that be cool?”
A little over an hour before the album’s release, Rodrigo played four songs from the album as the room brewed with excitement. She began with “Maggots for Brains,” a song about being so infatuated you can’t focus when your partner is away. Although it was their first listen, the song’s catchy chorus already had fans dancing along.
Banner for Rodridgo’s pop-up event hands above Mica Studios
(American Express)
Rodrigo explained that her next song, “Purple,” paid homage to the aesthetics of her previous albums, “Guts” and “Sour.”
“Obviously, this is my first non-purple album, but I just had to shout out purple somehow,” Rodrigo joked. “This song started out as a love song and sort of devolved from there, so I’ll let you guys be the judge.”
Playing off the somber vibes of “Purple,” Rodrigo played “Less” next. The piano ballad follows the dissolution of a relationship as the couple grows apart.
“I’ve been going back and forth on what the saddest song on the record is, but I think this one might be it,” Rodrigo said.
In a room full of fans, the song struck an emotional chord with many of the listeners. To bring the mood back up, Rodrigo finished the night by playing her new single, “Stupid Song.”
“This next one is a happy one, and it actually has a music video that comes out tonight,” Rodrigo said. “I love this song so much. It’s basically about having such an intense crush on someone that it drives you totally f— insane. I feel like we’ve all been there at some point in our lives.”
Rodrigo was all smiles at her event celebrating her latest album steeped in heartbreak and romance.
(American Express)
After Rodrigo previewed her music, “The Cure” music video exhibition was opened up to the fans. The showcase ranged from interactive photo ops to gallery walls featuring behind-the-scenes photos from the video shoot and Rodrigo’s nurse costume on display. The video’s props, which were primarily designed using cardboard and felt, were displayed in glass cases for visitors to admire.
Dressed in fun fashion including light pink and polka-dot outfits, fans posed throughout the set, re-creating scenes from the music video as “The Cure” played overhead. Many had thrown on a piece of the Los Angeles-exclusive merchandise on sale at the pop-up, with shirts and hats reading “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl in Los Angeles.”
So while some fans teared up at her lyrics and others beamed with excitement, everyone was hyped to experience Rodrigo’s new album.
“I really hope you enjoy this little exhibition. It is so gorgeous, and I am so proud of it,” Rodrigo said. “Thank you guys for being here, and I really hope you love ‘You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love’ as much as I do.”
What to do after writing some of this century’s most devastating songs about the torment of breaking up? Write some of this century’s most devastating songs about the ecstasy of getting together.
With her first two albums — 2021’s Grammy-winning “Sour” and 2023’s triple-platinum “Guts” — Olivia Rodrigo proved herself to be perhaps the most gifted of the many chroniclers of Gen Z romance to emerge in Taylor Swift’s wake. She could convey the hot sting of betrayal, as in her smash debut single, “Drivers License”; she could channel the injustice of watching an ex somehow carry on, as in “Good 4 U”; she could deliver a sick burn like somebody handing out Halloween candy, as in “Get Him Back!” (Because it deserves remembering: “He had an ego and a temper and a wandering eye / He said he’s six-foot-two, and I’m like, ‘Dude, nice try.’”)
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Yet on her thrilling third LP, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” Rodrigo, 23, turns to the pleasure that comes before the pain — and, in a feat very few in pop music are ever able to pull off, ends up with a number of first-flush-of-love songs as potent as any breakup tune.
She opens the album with “Drop Dead,” in which she compares a guy in line for the bathroom at a bar to an “angel on the walls of Versailles” — an early sign of how high the emotional ceiling is here. In “Stupid Song” she cycles through a series of metaphors to describe her lovesickness — she’s a car without a brake, she’s a heart made of melting wax — before finding a simpler but infinitely more vivid way of getting her point across: “You should feel how I feel when somebody says your name.” (Chills.)
“Maggots for Brains” is a song about how useless she becomes “when my baby goes away,” and let’s just take a second to savor the fact that Rodrigo is putting that title into the world less than four years after she was still a working Disney kid. The album’s next tune, “U + Me = <3,” is its high point: a euphoric promise of devotion that sounds like Sixpence None the Richer reborn as a Midwestern emo band. It’s got two young lovers carving their names into car seat leather, and it’s got a girl trying to impress her boyfriend’s older sister with her cynical humor and her taste in yacht rock.
More important, it’s got these lines of pure poetry: “They say modern love’s a cruel endeavor / And to that I say, F— it, whatever.” Kurt Cobain would be proud.
Working with her longtime producer, Dan Nigro, Rodrigo has expanded her stylistic palette to accommodate these new emotions; “You Seem Pretty Sad” pulls in chiming folk-rock and synthed-up new wave and even has a gorgeous wine-bar piano ballad, “Less,” that might put the scare in Rodrigo’s pal Laufey.
The cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s new album.
(Geffen Records)
The album is structured to trace the arc of a relationship, which means that the second half dips into the heartbreak we’re used to getting from Rodrigo. But she’s writing about familiar scenarios with new wisdom, drawing sophisticated conclusions about why people in love do the things they do (and don’t do the things they don’t).
In “The Cure,” which rides a strummed acoustic-guitar pattern that strongly recalls Smashing Pumpkins’ “Disarm,” she realizes a boyfriend can’t fix what’s broken inside her; “Begged” examines the limits of one partner’s willingness to look past the failings of the other. After hearing these songs, the happier ones at the beginning of the album reveal bits of shadow that Rodrigo has built into them to presage what’s to come — to presage what always comes.
It’s fitting, then, that Robert Smith of the Cure — perhaps pop’s most jubilant gloommeister — hovers over this LP like a patron saint: nodded to in “The Cure,” of course, but also “Drop Dead,” where Rodrigo name-checks the Cure’s classic “Just Like Heaven.” Smith himself turns up in “What’s Wrong With Me” for a duet with Rodrigo in which the two learn to accept that love, in the end, might be what kills them.
“My head is spinning and my stomach is sick,” they sing, and neither sounds like they’d have it any other way.
DECEASED Friends actor Matthew Perry has sold two original Banksy artworks for nearly £1million – including the iconic Girl with Balloon.
The star tragically died in October 2023 after accidentally drowning in a jacuzzi while high on ketamine, with 127 items from his estate having now been sold at auction.
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The Girl with Balloon which belonged to Matthew Perry was sold for £975,000Credit: AC News / Heritage AuctionsThe Nola artwork went for £88,709, with the proceeds going to the Matthew Perry FoundationCredit: AC News / Heritage Auctions
A pair of iconic Banksy artworks, Girl with Balloon and Nola, that Perry owned have been sold for £975,000.
The Hollywood actor, best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom Friends, died at the age of 54.
His estate has since been put up for auction with the money going to the Matthew Perry Foundation which helps substance users to recover.
The Girl with Balloon 2005 includes two spray-painted stencils on separate canvases of a child reaching for a red heart-shaped balloon.
127 items from Perry’s estate that were sold at the auctionCredit: GettyThe actor rose to fame from his iconic role as Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom FriendsCredit: Getty
Following an intense bidding war, it sold for a massive £709,674.
After including the 25 per cent buyers premium, it sold for £887,093.
The other iconic artwork, Nola 2008, is a screen print in colours on wove paper of a young girl holding an umbrella while sheltering from the rain.
It was the first Banksy Perry ever bought, according to Heritage Auctions.
The monochrome picture fetched £70,967.
Including the 25 per cent buyers premium, it sold for £88,709.
Both artworks have Banksy’s signature on them.
Other items sold at the auction included signed Friends episode scripts, TV guide displays, and a custom Chandler bobble head.
It also sold Batman memorabilia like a custom ping pong table and The Dark Knight Rises watch.
Perry’s cause of death was determined to be the acute effects of ketamine with drowning as a contributing factor.
A year after the celeb’s tragic passing, the street dealer who supplied the ketamine, Erik Fleming, was jailed for two years.
Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, was also jailed for more than three years after injecting the actor with the drug.
Both pleaded guilty to the charges during their court appearances.
Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa isn’t afraid to look death in the eye. The writer-director’s 2022 feature debut, “Plan 75,” imagined an unsettling future in which the elderly are offered a subsidy by the government to be euthanized. For her follow-up, she travels into her own past, drawing from memories of her father’s battle with cancer.
But while “Renoir” features no sci-fi elements, the nearness of oblivion remains just as prominent. Shorn of sentimentality, this gentle drama follows a quietly observant fifth-grader who feels the grim shadow of mortality all around her. How the character will absorb that realization is anyone’s guess — including Hayakawa’s.
Newcomer Yui Suzuki stars as Fuki, who lives in a nondescript Tokyo suburb in 1987. Her soft-spoken dad, Keiji (Lily Franky), is suffering with terminal cancer in its final stages, the emaciated man spending as much time in the hospital as he does at home. Fuki’s mother, Utako (Hikari Ishida), doesn’t seem very despondent, though: One senses an emotional exhaustion that comes from preparing so long for the inevitable that she’s now mostly numb, her anticipatory grief having given way to frayed nerves.
Fuki’s pre-mourning process is equally complicated. Outwardly, she shows no signs of being devastated by her dad’s imminent passing, happily playing with him, almost in denial of his fate. But “Renoir” subtly suggests the impressionable girl is more aware than she lets on, surrounding her with random reminders of death. Local news breathlessly reports on random domestic murders. Even when Fuki gets away from the city, the camera lingers on her watching a campfire’s dying embers. The film derives its title from the girl’s interest in “Little Irène,” a painting by influential French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. She asks if Renoir is still alive. No, he’s dead too.
Hayakawa pulls from her childhood in multiple ways for her sophomore feature, which premiered in competition at Cannes last year. “Renoir” takes place in 1987 specifically because that’s the year she turned 11, and, like her protagonist, she was infatuated with “Little Irène.” But there’s a refreshing absence of nostalgia in Hayakawa’s conception of Fuki and her quizzical processing of her father’s fatal illness.
For school, Fuki writes an essay about her wish to be an orphan. She becomes obsessed with hypnotism and mind-reading, an unorthodox strategy to create a sense of control. And, occasionally, she wanders into daydreams that Hayakawa presents so matter-of-factly that viewers may sometimes be unsure if what they’re seeing is actually happening. In “Renoir,” Fuki’s flights of fancy are as naturalistic as her everyday life — a sharp reminder that, for children, imagination and reality are often indistinguishable.
If death has been integral to Hayakawa’s two features, it’s society’s callous reaction to aging that is her primary focus. “Plan 75” eschewed dystopian-thriller conventions to ponder how Japan might one day treat its senior citizens, viewing them as little more than a drain on resources. “Renoir” makes a similar point within a memory piece. Keiji is the one dying, but it’s telling that Hayakawa centers the story on Fuki and Utako, who each, in their own way, seem more concerned about their own personal dramas.
As Keiji’s situation grows more dire, Utako enters the orbit of Toru (Ayumu Nakajima), a workplace advisor with whom she’s instantly smitten, pondering pursuing him romantically. Ironically, Toru preaches the importance of good communication skills in the office, a lesson the film’s guarded family would be wise to heed. While Utako hides her feelings for Toru, Fuki begins a secret odyssey in which she impulsively joins a phone dating service, engaging in conversations with a creepy college student (Ryota Bando) who pushes her to meet in person. This potentially traumatic subplot is the closest “Renoir” gets to traditional suspense, but even here Hayakawa adopts a muted approach, sidestepping shock value for bittersweet commentary about young people’s confusion around love. Both Utako and Fuki chase after human connections fraught with danger, each trying to insulate themselves from the tragedy waiting at home.
“Renoir” may be a delicate wisp of a film, but it’s flecked with thoughtful questioning about whether childhood’s sorrows leave permanent scars on us as adults. Suzuki exudes the fragility and buoyancy of adolescence, playing Fuki as someone constantly imbibing the world, rarely revealing what she’s doing with that stimulus. The simplest moments resonate the strongest, such as when the moody 11-year-old holds a balloon over the balcony of her family’s high-rise apartment, casually releasing her grip so that it tumbles to the ground far below. Does it speak to a desire to jump herself? “Renoir” won’t say, but the character is so poised you feel confident she’ll survive her father’s death. Who knows: Maybe years from now, she’ll even make a touching, emotionally astute movie about it.
‘Renoir’
In Japanese, with subtitles
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes
Playing: Opens Friday, June 5 at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre
A BOND Girl has been spotted on rare outing 50 years after her sizzling scenes aired in one of the most iconic 007 movies.
Former Bond Girl Gloria Hendry, who played CIA agent Rosie Carver, was seen out and about looking amazing this week while running some errands.
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Former Bond Girl Gloria Hendry, who appeared opposite Roger Moore in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die, was recently seen out and about in Las VegasCredit: BackGridShe wore a casual outfit for a lowkey outing to run some errandsCredit: BackGrid
50 years after starring opposite Roger Moore in the iconic flick Live and Let Die, Gloria, now 77, was spotted in Las Vegas.
The model and actress wore a casual brown and black top with some black leggings and slip on shoes for the low-key trip.
Looking youthful and content, Gloria wore her hair in a short light brunette bob, which was very different to the afro she sported in the movie.
Florida-born Gloria shot to fame in her 20s when she became 007‘s first African-American woman to become romantically involved with James Bond.
Gloria, seen above in her heyday, shot to fame in the Live or Let Die James Bond flickCredit: Rex FeaturesShe starred alongside Roger as she became the first African-American woman to become romantically involved with 007Credit: InstagramIn one photo from her recent outing, Gloria was seen beaming as she went about her dayCredit: BackGridShe chatted on the phone at one point as she walked along the sidewalkCredit: BackGrid
In the 1973 movie, she was fresh-faced and vibrant, showcasing a voluminous afro that framed her face.
The model-turned-actress played the part of Rosie Carver, who famously gets shot and killed in Bond’s arms.
Her steamy scenes with Roger Moore catapulted her into the spotlight in the Ian Fleming classic.
Gloria began her career as a Playboy bunnyCredit: BackGridRoger Moore wrote about Gloria in his memoir and noted how their on-screen chemistry caused issues in his marriageCredit: BackGrid
The movie theme of Live and Let Die was famously written by Paul McCartney.
In his memoir, 007 star Roger described how the passion between himself and Gloria impacted his marriage.
“As Bond, I make love to Rosie Carver, played by the beautiful black actress Gloria Hendry, and my wife Luisa has learned from certain Louisiana ladies that if there is a scene like that they won’t go to see the picture,” he penned.
He added: “I personally don’t give a damn, and it makes me all the more determined to play the scene.”
Before her Bond Girl fame, she was a model and spent time at the Playboy Club.
She worked as a Playboy Bunny at the New York Playboy Club from 1965 until 1972.
Her model past led to her acting debut in Sidney Poitier’s For Love of Ivy, which then led to her bagging the James Bond role.
Following her Bond Girl fame, she has maintained a relatively low profile in Hollywood.
However, she did enjoy a moment in the spotlight as the writer and director of Glamour Girls, which was showcased at the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles in October 2011.
Away from the screen, Gloria was married to Phillip W. Wright from 1995 until his passing in 2022.
Love Island bosses had yet another twist up their sleeve with the latest bombshell and fans have been left stunned
21:34, 04 Jun 2026Updated 21:35, 04 Jun 2026
Love Island bosses have landed another twist(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
Love Island viewers were treated to another huge twist in the latest bombshell action. Following hot on the heels of a double eviction – sort of – the villa was getting ready to welcome two new islanders.
And it turns out one already knows a fellow love hopeful very well. In fact, he is his brother! Aidan’s sibling, Kavan, has made a big impression – both with Ellie and online.
Electrician Kavan, 21, is the younger brother of 23-year-old property broker Aidan. One user on X, formerly known as Twitter, said: “Bringing in a brother Love Island are you mad?!” Another added: “Love Island are seriously running out of ideas LOOOOL tf you mean Aidan’s BROTHER? #LoveIsland.”
A third wasn’t keen on the idea, either, saying: “Eww imagine being on Love Island with a sibling. Could not be me. #loveisland.”
A fourth enjoyed the twist, though, writing: “Two brothers in one villa is brazy. Fairs, Love Island, fairs #loveisland.”
And a fourth agreed: “imagine going onto love island and fumbling the hottest girl in there and then ur brother comes in and dates her. sunday dinners gonna be awkward when they get back #loveislanduk
Ellie having a date with Kavan left her stunned and she gasped “f*** off” when he revealed Aidan is his brother.
It comes after Yasmin and Aidan caught up in the Snug to discuss Yasmin’s decision to dump Ellie. She told him: ““I’m sorry it’s put you in a sh*t situation.”
Comforting her, Aidan said: “I’m just shocked, that’s all. I didn’t expect it.” He pulled her in for a hug as the pair got closer.
The pair continued to share a closer bond the next day. On the terrace, Aidan told her: “My attention is of course with you. I think I made a bold statement yesterday and I stick by it… But I feel like you also made a bold decision which was nice.”
Yasmin questioned if her choice was bad and Aidan flirted by saying: “Nah, it was sexy…” As Yasmin joked she did it “all for you” the pair leant in for a kiss, with Ellie appearing to be the last thing on his mind.
But despite their early exit, Ellie and Samraj were in for a twist. Following a shock text informing them that their Love Island journey isn’t over, they were snuck off to somewhere much closer to home than the airport. The duo headed to The Hideaway.
Samraj joked to Ellie: “I didn’t think I’d be spending my first night in the Hideaway with you Ellie, as much as I love you!”
LOVE Island’s Millie Court has stepped into her “hot girl summer” era with a series of sizzling new bikini snaps after her split from All Star boyfriend Zac Woodworth.
The Essex girl and the American hunk shocked fans when they called time on their romance last month, having been one of the villa’s big success stories earlier in the year.
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Millie Court looked white hot in a bikini on holidayCredit: InstagramMillie is newly-single after splitting from Zac WoodworthCredit: Instagram
Millie hasn’t resigned herself to the sofa eating ice cream since the split, instead she’s looking better than ever.
Just days after wowing on the catwalk in Miami, she showcased her toned body in white swimwear beside a pool.
Unsurprisingly, the comments were packed full of compliments, with pals like Sophie Piper and Chloe Burrows championing her.
Another follower said the pics gave them “goosebumps”, while another urged a man out there to “wife her up”.
Millie sent her Instagram followers wildCredit: InstagramMillie and Zac couldn’t overcome long distanceCredit: Instagram
Just days ago, Millie and Zac came face-to-face for the first time since ending their relationship, supposedly due to the transatlantic distance keeping them apart.
They crossed paths during a group gathering with fellow Islanders, and fans believe their body language was telling.
Love Island‘s Yamen Sanders captured the moment the former couple reunited and shared a hug, joking that they were “back together” and his girlfriend Whitney Adebayo agreed with the tease.
However, Millie looked far from impressed by the joke, appearing awkward as she briefly hugged Zac before turning to her friends and asking them to “stop”.
Her reaction caught fans’ attention, with many claiming it suggested Millie was the one who dumped Zac.
One wrote: “Millie’s like no thanks”.
A second said: “Millie said hell nah ahahahahaha.”
A third shared: “Millie looks less than impressed”.
CLOVIS, Calif. — Jurupa Valley senior AB Hernandez stood on a hillside overlooking Veterans Memorial Stadium, a booklet of encouraging letters tucked under one arm and two gold medals hanging from her neck.
She rolled the medals between her fingers.
“I still feel like I’m gonna be here next year,” she said. “I guess I’ll process it overnight maybe, then tomorrow, I’m going to Disneyland.”
For most high school seniors, a state championship marks the end of a season.
For Hernandez, it marks the end of three years spent competing as a transgender athlete under a spotlight few teenagers could imagine.
On Saturday, she won state titles in the high jump and triple jump, capping her career as a four-time state champion. Days earlier, she had graduated from high school.
AB Hernandez leaps in the air during the CIF state track and field championship finals in Clovis on Saturday.
(Tomas Ovalle/For The Times)
Away from the spotlight, Hernandez likes swimming, spending time with friends and working on her makeup routine. During the past two years, politicians and activists stoked by President Trump have turned her into a symbol in the national fight over transgender athletes’ right to participate in girls’ sports.
“I feel like I’m always going to be in the public eye,” Hernandez said. “It’s never going to go away and that’s weird. But maybe someday it’ll be for something else.”
At the state championships, that fight was visible everywhere except where Hernandez seemed most comfortable: among the athletes competing in the stadium.
At the end of Friday’s preliminary competition, Hernandez and five other high jump contenders sprawled on their stomachs beneath the high jump tent, cheering on West Ranch junior Avery Prestridge and La Jolla junior Anastasia Volkov in a jump-off for the final qualifying spot.
AB Hernandez, second from right, laughs while standing on the first place podium alongside Monta Vista’s Leilani Laruelle after the CIF state track and field high-jump finals on Saturday.
(Tomas Ovalle/For The Times)
When Prestridge secured the berth, she and Hernandez exchanged a high-five and a smile.
“That’s what will stick with me,” Hernandez said. “Laying on the field, cheering for other girls, everyone being sweet.”
It was a stark contrast to the image detractors tried to paint earlier in the day.
While Hernandez warmed up on the track, anti-trans activists and politicians gathered across the street in an area marked by a CIF sign reading “free speech area.”
There, organizers who have protested women’s athletic events involving transgender participants across California delivered speeches demanding that the CIF prohibit Hernandez and other transgender athletes from competing. They were unmoved by CIF’s policy requiring that any transgender athlete who advances in track and field playoffs or places in competition be joined by the next cisgender girl in the rankings, with both advancing or receiving the same medal.
“The message being sent to female athletes is clear — your opportunities, your records, your placement and your hard work comes second to males,” former NCAA soccer player Sophia Lorey said during the rally.
California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton spoke alongside the protesters.
“The first thing we have to do is overturn the law that set all this in motion, AB 1266, that was passed in 2013, that’s why we’ve been living with this for so long,” Hilton said to Fox News. “That law violates the California state Constitution. … I will immediately suspend the law while we begin legal proceedings to overturn it.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton held a news conference outside the state track and field championships in Clovis denouncing CIF for allowing transgender athletes to compete alongside girls.
(Tomas Ovalle/For The Times)
Earlier in the day, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer posted a video on X with Hernandez.
“I’m so proud of you for what you’re doing,” Steyer told Hernandez. “So proud of you for succeeding. So proud of you for competing. That’s really the point. … And I’m going to hope like heck that you don’t just make state but you do really well there. Deal?”
Last year, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that, “As a Male, he was a less than average competitor. As a Female, this transitioned person is practically unbeatable.”
He also threatened to withhold federal funding from California if the CIF allowed Hernandez to compete. That came after he enacted an executive order in February 2025 barring transgender women and girls from participating in sports according to their gender identity.
Transgender participation in sports has become a central Republican talking point in recent years and it is impossible to separate Hernandez’s story from that political context.
Focus on the Family, Family Research Council and California Family Council have invested years and millions of dollars into messaging, advocacy and legal efforts surrounding the issue. According to ProPublica and public filings, those organizations collectively reported hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue in 2024.
Transgender athlete AB Hernandez, center, poses with other athletes at the CIF state track and field championships in Clovis on Saturday.
(Tomas Ovalle/For The Times)
As a result, a California athlete who confirmed her transgender status became the focus of a national political fight.
“The voice of the kid who’s been targeted gets lost,” said activist Daisy Gardner, who spoke at a news conference supporting Hernandez before Saturday’s meet. “We’re up against a million[-dollar] machine on the other side who has launched the ‘Protect Girls’ Sports’ campaign, and we need to have a little ray of sunshine pushing through the darkness.”
The Trump administration’s Executive Order 14201, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” was issued on Feb. 5, 2025, and was followed the next day by an NCAA ban on transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.
AB is not sure whether she will find a way to continue competing in college.
“I don’t think any child should have to go through this,” AB’s mother Nereyda Hernandez said. “These are adults willingly doing this to a minor child. This is a kid, a breathing human, a child. It’s not what people are making this out to be.”
For the first time during Friday’s preliminary competition, the clouds broke and the Clovis sun beat down on the field.
AB, who had posted the top regional mark, needed only one jump to qualify for the next day’s finals. She went last in the second flight.
As she prepared for her attempt, the public address announcer’s voice echoed through the stadium.
“In girls’ long jump, here comes AB Hernandez.”
A ripple of applause spread through the crowd from those who recognized the name. Nereyda and family friend Trevor Norcross were among the loudest.
Transgender athlete AB Hernandez won the high jump title during the state track and field championships in Clovis.
(Tomas Ovalle/For The Times)
Two hours later, after completing her triple jump qualifying leaps, Hernandez headed to the high jump, where she again found herself among the final competitors remaining.
During the long wait between events, Nereyda was interviewed by ABC30. At the same moment, AB was preparing for a high jump attempt.
Gardner, the activist, hurried over, tapped Nereyda on the shoulder and pointed toward the pit.
Nereyda quickly turned her phone sideways and hit record.
“Let’s go AB!”
The night before qualifying, AB, Nereyda and friends sat in a hotel room making bracelets. At first, they strung rainbow-colored beads. AB shook her head. Her colors were pink and gold.
“I know what looks good on me,” she said. “I want something that represents me. People see a flag, and that’s not me in my entirety. I want something that is me personally, me entirely.”
While Nereyda felt the familiar butterflies about what the next day might bring, AB focused on what mattered to her. She decided how she wanted to wear her hair and prepared the custom-made letterman jacket she got last year with money donated by supporters.
Transgender athlete AB Hernandez wears a letterman jacket funded by her supporters and waves during the CIF state track and field championships in Clovis.
(Tomas Ovalle/For The Times)
AB Hernandez’s mom, Nereyda, shows a friendship bracelet she made alongside supporters of her daughter that reads “I stand with AB.”
(Tomas Ovalle/For The Times)
“She said, ‘I want my letterman jacket,’ and I was like, OK,” Nereyda said. “And she said, ‘I want that to be a reminder every time I wear it, I want it to be a reminder of the people who supported me,’ and that’s what she did.
“It was a daily reminder that she wasn’t alone.”
Those are the memories Nereyda says will stay with her more than the vitriol she and her daughter have faced during the past two years. AB is a reluctant transgender athlete pioneer who prefers to be known for so much more than just her gender identity, but the prospect of hiding because she was relentlessly attacked didn’t feel right, either.
“I’m always going to think about how hard she tried to be here,” she said. “She didn’t quit. Despite all the pressure, you can’t change my kid.”
The night before AB’s final competition, Nereyda felt sick. She suspected it was stress over what the next day might bring.
But Saturday passed with minimal disruption.
AB’s long jump did not meet her usual standard. She finished third with a mark of 20 feet, 2 1/4 inches, a result she described as “bittersweet.”
“It was a little nerve-wracking,” Nereyda said. “I could see it was a different vibe when she got into the high jump and triple jump.”
In those events, Hernandez delivered the top performances of the day to repeat as a state champion.
She leaped 42-8 3/4 in the triple jump, comfortably ahead of Los Altos senior Daniela Hughes, who finished at 41-1 before sharing the podium. Standing together atop the first-place position, the two posed for photos with Hughes’ arm draped around Hernandez.
“I’m just happy with my performance,” Hughes said when asked about sharing a podium. “I wanted to win a championship.”
Transgender athlete AB Hernandez clinches her fists and reacts after completing a high jump during the CIF state track and field meet in Clovis.
(Tomas Ovalle/For The Times)
About 30 minutes after the high jump medal ceremony, AB walked toward her mother.
Nereyda spotted her and threw her hands into the air.
“My baby!”
The two embraced, away from the crowd, the cameras and the ire.
“She did it,” Nereyda said. “With everything else, it didn’t matter, she did it.”
Three Clausen brothers who were quarterbacks — Casey, Rick and Jimmy — have created a fall flag football league for boys and girls in an effort to help youth players learn the game. There also will be six Clausen children playing in the league.
Flag football continues to grow, with the Clausen brothers behind a fall league.
(Los Angeles Times)
Casey is a former head coach at Bishop Alemany. Rick is head coach at Westlake. And Jimmy is a former NFL quarterback.
Casey said the Rising Stars is a 7×7 league that will take place in the fall with focus on rising participation of girls playing. The breakdown of divisions for boys and girls ranges from third grade to eighth grade and will be played on Sundays beginning Aug. 16 at Agoura, Oak Park and Westlake.
Get ready for lots of Clausen cousins, brothers and sisters playing football in the coming years. The oldest is a sixth grader.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
