The John Lewis Christmas advert 2025 edition is dropping today as the retail giant launches a new campaign, telling shoppers ‘If you can’t find the words, find the gift’
Great writing, even when an author sets a story in early 20th century Maine or during ancient uprisings, often sheds light on our own era. From a novel starring a sentient gale-force wind, on to a memoir from a leading African American writer, this month’s titles provide illumination as we lose daylight.
FICTION
Helm: A Novel By Sarah Hall Mariner Books: 368 pages, $30 (Nov. 4)
U.K. inhabitants of Hall’s native Cumbria region have grappled for centuries with a wind known as “The Helm.” Different eras have deemed it a measure of divine anger or human sin, and more recently, as one of earth’s vital signs. Helm’s narration alternates with chapters from perspectives including an astrologer, an astronomer, a Crusader, an herbalist and a climatologist, each adding to the strength of the immortal force.
Palaver: A Novel By Bryan Washington Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 336 pages, $28 (Nov. 4)
As in his first two novels “Memorial” and “Family Meal,” Houston-based Washington weaves scenes of Americans at home and in Japan with exquisite attention both to queer culture and to emotions. “The mother” and “the son” are never named; her Jamaican origins affect his upbringing, as well as his identity. When she makes an unannounced visit to see him in Japan, the title’s gentle irony becomes apparent.
Readers will recall Dr. Wilbur Larch from “The Cider House Rules.” Here he is the 1919 go-between for Esther Nacht, a 14-year-old Jewish refugee whom he places with the Winslow family as an au pair. Like so many women through the ages, that role results in a different kind of labor for her, one that turns this most Irving-esque (wrestling! sex!) book into writer Jimmy Winslow’s origin story.
The 1975 murder of Italian subversive film director Pier Paolo Pasolini forms the tortured heart of Laing’s first historical novel. In 1974 protagonist Nicholas Wade leaves England and lands in Venice, where he meets Danilo Donati, costume designer for Pasolini as well as Fellini and others. Their relationship reflects those auteurs’ themes, especially those of fascism’s rebirth in Pasolini’s “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom.”
Noted playwright Hudes pens a stunning debut novel that rends conventional notions of motherhood. Years after disappearing from her child’s life, April Soto writes her daughter Noelle a letter to read on her 18th birthday. Less apology than explanation, and less explanation than soul-searching screed, this novel has a huge voice, a woman’s attempt to create meaning from the depths of family trauma.
Only Margaret Atwood could write a debut memoir at age 85 and make it significantly different from her previous work while at the same time infusing it with her droll wit and many passions, literary, environmental and familial. While she has always combined public and private in her acclaimed and groundbreaking novels, essays, and poetry, this volume beautifully fuses Atwood the person, and Atwood the writer.
Barth, a freelance journalist, spent time in three different Bay Area encampments of unhoused people, including Oakland’s Wood Street Commons, and, as Gov. Gavin Newsom moves forward on a new task force targeting these areas for removal, he argues that solutions to homelessness should come from the ground up, with the involvement of those most affected.
Until the 1970s in most states, a married woman could not legally refuse to have sex with her husband. The 1978 Oregon trial of John Rideout for marital rape of his wife Greta — despite his then-acquittal — raised awareness of this legislation and led to Rideout’s conviction for rape and sodomy nearly four decades later in a case involving two other partners. Weinman (“The Real Lolita”) writes with energy about a case with present-day ramifications.
You say you want a revolution — and historian Sassoon says: Consider your predecessors. Although we focus on hot-button moments, the long tale of these uprisings can lead to long-term instability and injustice (e.g., the young United States choosing to persist with enslavement). What is the real price of transformation? Is it worth considering when people unite against tyranny and oppression?
Wideman’s 1985 essay “The Language of Home” was about the power of words to capture our foundations, so it’s fitting that his new collection covering 50 years of his powerful prose mimics that essay’s title. The new title’s plural refers to the author’s constant themes, which aren’t surprising. What does surprise is his prescience about still-relevant concerns, from a disappearing middle class to police brutality.
Mater Dei trailed 24-3. The Trinity League title appeared destined to belong to St. John Bosco, another win to cap an undefeated for the consensus No. 1 team in the nation.
Until Chris Henry Jr. emerged for two touchdowns and 214 yards on five receptions.
“He could be a track star,” said Mater Dei coach Raul Lara, referencing Henry’s 70-yard touchdown catch near the end of the second quarter.
Until Kayden Dixon-Wyatt took over alongside his teammate — both Ohio State commits — and turned on the burners for three second-half scores.
“I wish I could be the quarterback,” Lara joked about his senior wide receivers.
Testing the wide receiver corps of Mater Dei — who outpowered the Braves’ impressive trio of Division I-committed receivers — left St. John Bosco hapless on Friday night in Bellflower. Mater Dei (7-2, 4-1) finished on a 33-7 run, Ryan Hopkins tossing five touchdowns in that span to help the Monarchs defeat St. John Bosco 36-31 in comeback fashion.
Mater Dei High’s CJ Lavender Jr. leaps high to make an interception during the game against St. John Bosco on Friday night.
(Craig Weston)
Hopkins finished 13-of-21 passing for 295 yards and the five touchdowns.
All of the doubts over the Monarchs’ regular-season campaign could be close to washed away as the second-half domination confirmed another year when Mater Dei at least owns a share of the Trinity League title.
Since Santa Margarita (7-3, 4-1) also won Friday — defeating JSerra 41-14 — the Eagles, along with Mater Dei and St. John Bosco (9-1, 4-1) earned a share of the Trinity League crown.
Defensive stands set up plays such as Henry’s 70-yard touchdown grab to cut the Braves’ lead to seven with 4:12 remaining in the third quarter. Mater Dei defensive back CJ Lavender Jr. forced and recovered a fumble in the first quarter to set up the Monarchs’ first points: a field goal.
Lavender then intercepted St. John Bosco sophomore quarterback Koa Malau’ulu twice more.
One pick created a silver-platter touchdown for Dixon-Wyatt, who finished with four receptions for 46 yards and three touchdowns, while the other turnover allowed Mater Dei to seal the game on fourth and 10 from its own 10-yard line.
“Anything he threw, I was going to go get it,” said Lavender, who now has a team-high seven interceptions on the season.
Mater Dei receiver Chris Henry Jr. hauls in a pass over his shoulder ahead of two St. John Bosco defenders on Friday night.
(Craig Weston)
Before the final interception — which came with 1:34 remaining in the game — St. John Bosco was driving. An unsportsmanlike penalty even provided the Braves at first and inches from the goal line.
But a bad snap to Malau’ulu pushed the Braves backward to the seven-yard line. A run for a loss brought St. John Bosco to the 10-yard line that then led to an interception.
Henry, who hadn’t played since Oct. 10 against Orange Lutheran, said he was itching to get back out on the field to play St. John Bosco.
“It was really difficult,” Henry said of his time off the field. “But I was ready for a game like this.”
Henry will have plenty more opportunities upcoming in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, starting next week.
The trio of Trinity League teams likely will see Sierra Canyon (10-0) — which finished its Mission League-winning campaign with a 52-3 victory over Loyola — among the teams they could face off against in the playoffs.
IT’S album release day when I connect with Brandi Carlile at her Seattle home, by video call.
The US folk-country singer’s ninth album, Returning To Myself, has just been released globally and the smile across her face says it all.
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Brandi Carlile is embracing renewal in her fortiesCredit: Collier SchorrWorking with Sir Elton John has raised Carlile’s profile internationallyCredit: Refer to source
It’s already been a great year for Carlile, who in April celebrated her first UK No1 album with Who Believes In Angels? — the collaboration with her idol, Sir Elton John.
She says: “I’m lucky to have new chapters — not everyone gets to have a renewal in their forties.
“And I’m really excited about it. I want to keep going. I like getting older — that’s my favourite bit of life so far.”
The singer believes that authenticity has come with age, and that confidence shines through her new music.
She says: “I’m astounded by Elton’s generosity. He could have made an album with anyone — and choosing to make it with me was such a compliment.
“He’s the most iconic living artist on the planet but what that did for me emotionally is something I try not to put on his shoulders, so that he can exist independent of my expectations of him.
“But it did a lot for me, because he is my hero and we have a special chemistry as friends.“
Returning To Myself is a record that allows Carlile to reconnect with her own emotions and finds her in an introspective mood — and there’s even a solo version of You Without Me, previously a collaboration with Elton John.
She says: “It’s a song that’s pertinent to my life and age and there’s been a lot of reflection.
“My career reminds me of what happened in Bonnie Raitt’s career.
“She’d been making music for a long time, living in vans, in and out of clubs and theatres and playing with all these different bands. Then one thing changed, and suddenly it was on.
“When it happens to you, you remember how long it took for the phone to ring.
“Suddenly it’s ringing and you’re just answering and saying yes and wanting to do everything, understanding that it won’t ring one day.
“I stayed in a cycle of that mentality for many years, just attaching to everyone that ever inspired me.
“I wanted everything all at once. Then I just hit a wall. My mind and body give me no warnings. They just shut down one day. It meant I should take time off.
“But what do you do when the songs are coming? You have to listen to that and then take action.”
The songs were coming like a tap was on, and I can’t turn it off once that happens. I just don’t function — I don’t change my clothes, I don’t sleep, I forget to eat, I’m just a dysfunctional person
Brandi Carlile
On Returning To Me, Carlile teamed up with producer Aaron Dessner of The National — who worked with Taylor Swift.
She also brought in producers Andrew Watt, who she worked with on the Elton John album, and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon who helped produce the track Human.
The title track began with a poem Carlile wrote when she was dealing with loneliness while staying at the barn-house guest room at Aaron Dessner’s remote home in upstate New York.
She says: “It came from a place of contemplation, and my discomfort with aloneness. It’s me asking some existential questions.
“The songs were coming like a tap was on, and I can’t turn it off once that happens. I just don’t function — I don’t change my clothes, I don’t sleep, I forget to eat, I’m just a dysfunctional person.
“I wrote one or two out there with Aaron that were really deep and meaningful to me.”
She adds: “I was at Aaron’s the day after Joni Mitchell played the Hollywood Bowl and I was moved by her triumph there and deep in thought about the journey it took us to get there.”
Carlile had helped with the esteemed singer’s six-year journey to return to the live stage — her Hollywood Bowl performance was Mitchell’s first full show in 24 years — following a brain aneurysm in 2015 that had left the singer unable to play.
Carlile had first met the legendary singer at her 75th birthday tribute concert in 2018, then began organising monthly music evenings, called Joni Jams, at her Bel-Air house.
Carlile helped folk legend Joni Mitchell get back to performing live following a brain aneurysm in 2015Credit: Getty
She says: “It wasn’t getting through to her about how much she was loved and it bothered me. It nagged at me. If only she knew what Lana Del Rey says about you. If she knew that Gracie Abrams had her lyrics tattooed on her arm.
“She is so important to multiple generations of not just women, but all people, and so I got to have the passenger seat to watching that reality wash over Joni as she pulled herself into recovery from her aneurysm.
“I get too much credit for what happened with Joni as she got herself back on stage and retaught herself how to use those instruments.
On Returning To Myself, Joni is one of the standout songs, which pays homage to her heroine.
She says: “Writing a song about her, I couldn’t be sappy because she’s not going to like that.
“Joni has got a great sense of humour. She’s wildly intelligent but I wanted to point out the most profound things about her. I also wanted to show how wild she is and how much she loves a party because she is fun.
“She’s such a reverential character and people have so much respect for that. Some people see her as stern, and I wanted to address that in a tongue-in-cheek way in the song in a way that she would understand, yeah, and she really did understand.”
Carlile believes her work with both Elton John and Joni Mitchell has been life-changing. She says: “It’s everything when you’re growing up and when you get to meet the people that you’ve had on your bedroom walls.
“It’s more than music. I get how important it is to work with these people because I am a f***ing fan. That’s why I champion women in music. When young musicians come up to me and say I inspire them too, I get that as I am still a fan.”
Returning To Myself is a different sound for Carlile — it’s stripped back and self-assured.
She says with a laugh: “When I was younger, I would scream all the time. I was yelling and singing open-chested and I’d tell myself that when I got older, I was never going to be quiet — I was going to stay punk-rock.
‘Oppressive ideology’
“And to a certain extent, I stand by that, but sometimes the lyrics you write don’t ask that. They asked for it on the song Church And State, and at the end of Human, but they don’t ask for it anywhere else on the album.
“It just wouldn’t do justice to the poetry, so I just didn’t do it. That’s not to say I won’t do it again.”
Evangeline, our oldest, asked could we move to Canada if the United States overturned gay marriage. But Elijah, our youngest, is worried she won’t have a Mommy or a Mama — which we are called
The politically inspired Church And State is a powerful song born out of frustration and anger about US President Donald Trump and his challenges to American institutions.
She says: “Activism is important to me and important enough to never dilute it.
“That song is about the separation of the church and state and how important that is to me and my family.
“We are not living in a theocracy. There’s no wisdom creating laws and building walls based on a subjective interpretation of someone else’s faith.
“You can’t use so-called Christian values to enable an oppressive ideology. As a person of faith myself, I can tell you I feel as protective of my faith against the state as I do a quasi-secular person living in the United States.”
A mother of two daughters with her wife, Catherine, Carlile admits recent events have scared her kids.
She says: “I read this morning that the Supreme Court in the US is going to consider a case which would overturn marriage equality in November.
“It’s something I’ve been afraid of for a long time, since [former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court] Ruth Bader Ginsburg died [in 2020].
“I’ve been afraid of us going backward on that sentiment.
“It’s not me and my life that it concerns. I’ve been talking to my wife about this for a long time — and our kids listen to like everything.
“Evangeline, our oldest, asked could we move to Canada if the United States overturned gay marriage. But Elijah, our youngest, is worried she won’t have a Mommy or a Mama — which we are called. She’s worried she won’t have parents — and it made me so angry.”
Carlile also joined forces with Elton John for a joint HIV/Aids campaign earlier this year to try to offset the Trump administration’s cuts to HIV/Aids- related funding.
She says: “It’s desperately important to Elton and [husband] David [Furnish] that it’s not pushed from the sphere of public awareness and we’re able to continue to educate and alleviate the suffering of people.
“And that’s how I found Elton John as an 11-year-old, as I wrote a book report on a young boy who had died of Aids.
“I had already canonised the man as a saint, but because of this report I went to the library and checked out a CD with his song Skyline Pigeon on it because this man had played at this kid’s funeral.
“It was a full-circle moment that later I was able to lend my activism to the person who inspired me to start it.”
The US folk-country singer’s ninth album, Returning To Myself, has just been released globallyCredit: SuppliedBrandi Carlile celebrated her first UK No1 this year with Elton John collaboration, Who Believes In Angels?Credit: Getty
Carlile will have a small break for Christmas before kicking off her tour early next year.
She says with a laugh: “I hope the tickets sell. I don’t know how to switch off. I want to be cool and say, ‘I don’t read reviews, I don’t watch the tickets’. But no, I’m going to be sitting there digesting my stomach lining.
“I just want to get out and play. I love this album and am going to play it from start to finish, and I’ve got all these ideas for covers.
John Dickerson, co-anchor of “CBS Evening News,” said Monday he will exit the network at the end of the year.
Dickerson will be the first major talent departure since the arrival of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News last month.
The veteran political journalist who joined CBS News in 2009 gave no reason for leaving in an Instagram post announcing his decision.
“I am extremely grateful for all that CBS News gave me – the work, the audience’s attention and the honor of being a part of the network’s history – and I am grateful for my dear colleagues who’ve made me a better journalist and a better human being and I will miss you,” Dickerson wrote.
Dickerson became co-anchor of “CBS Evening News” in January alongside Maurice DuBois, succeeding Norah O’Donnell. The duo were part of a revamp of the program, which put an emphasis on more in-depth stories.
The format change failed to attract new viewers as it remains in third place behind “ABC World News Tonight with David Muir” and “NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas.”
There had been talk of significant changes coming to the newscast before Weiss signed on for a senior role at the division.
Weiss has reportedly expressed interest in bringing Fox News anchor Bret Baier to CBS, but his current employer has him under contract through 2028. Baier anchors “Special Report,” a nightly newscast that like many Fox News programs is closely followed by President Trump.
Anderson Cooper, whose contract will soon be up at CNN, has also been mentioned internally as an evening news anchor candidate.
“CBS Evening News” co-anchors Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson.
(Gail Schulman/CBS News)
The changes to “CBS Evening News” were initiated by former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens, who was pushed out of the company amid the controversy over a 2024 interview with former vice president Kamala Harris.
Trump sued the network over the interview which he said was deceptively edited to help her presidential campaign. Although the case labeled as frivolous by 1st Amendment experts, Paramount settled the suit for $16 million to clear the regulatory path for its merger with Skydance Media.
A former writer for Time magazine, Dickerson came to CBS News as a contributor before taking on a variety of roles in the division. He was anchor of the Washington-based public affairs program “Face the Nation.” He moved to New York to join “CBS This Morning” after the network fired Charlie Rose over sexual harassment allegations in 2017.
Dickerson anchored a nightly prime time newscast on CBS News Streaming before being tapped for “CBS Evening News.” He could not be immediately reached for comment.
“I’m in a huge, massive town I don’t really know,” he says, “and I’m looking for the movie district. And inevitably all the theaters are closed down. They’re all closed down. That’s what the dream is.”
I’m visiting Carpenter at his longtime production house in Hollywood on one of L.A.’s unjustly sunny October afternoons. A vintage “Halloween” pinball machine and a life-size Nosferatu hover near his easy chair. I tell him I don’t think Freud would have too much trouble interpreting that particular dream.
“No, I know,” he says, laughing. “I don’t have too much trouble with that either.”
Nonetheless, it truly haunts him — “and it has haunted me over the years for many dreams in a row,” he continues. “I’m either with family or a group, and I go off to do something and I get completely lost. [Freud] wouldn’t have too much trouble figuring that out either. I mean, none of this is very mysterious.”
Carpenter is a gruff but approachable 77 these days, his career as a film director receding in the rearview. The last feature he made was 2010’s “The Ward.” His unofficial retirement was partly chosen, partly imposed by a capricious industry. The great movie poster artist Drew Struzan died two days before I visited — Carpenter says he never met Struzan but loved his work, especially his striking painting for the director’s icy 1982 creature movie “The Thing” — and I note how that whole enterprise of selling a movie with a piece of handmade art is a lost one.
“The whole movie business that I knew, that I grew up with, is gone,” he replies. “All gone.”
John Carpenter with John Mulaney, appearing as a part of “Everybody’s in L.A.” at the Sunset Gower Studios in May 2024.
(Adam Rose / Netflix)
It hasn’t, thankfully, made him want to escape from L.A. He still lives here with his wife, Sandy King, who runs the graphic novel imprint Storm King Comics, which Carpenter contributes to. He gamely appeared on John Mulaney’s “Everybody’s in L.A.” series on Netflix and, earlier this year, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. gave him a Career Achievement Award — a belated lovefest for a veteran who was sidelined after “The Thing” flopped, cast out into indie darkness and was never personally nominated for an Oscar.
The thing that does keep Carpenter busy these days (other than watching Warriors basketball and playing videogames) is the thing that might have an even bigger cultural footprint than his movies: his music. With his adult son Cody and godson, Daniel Davies, Carpenter is once again performing live concerts of his film scores and instrumental albums in a run at downtown’s Belasco this weekend and next.
The synthy, hypnotic scores that became his signature in films like “Halloween” and “Escape from New York” not only outnumber his output as a director — he’s scored movies for several other filmmakers and recently made a handshake deal in public to score Bong Joon Ho’s next feature — but their influence and popularity are much more evident in 2025 than the style of his image-making.
From “Stranger Things” to “F1,” Carpenter’s minimalist palette of retro electronica combined with the groove-based, trancelike ethos of his music (which now includes four “Lost Themes” records) is the coin of the realm so many modern artists are chasing.
Very few composers today are trying to sound like John Williams; many of them want to sound like John Carpenter. The Kentucky-raised skeptic with the long white hair doesn’t believe me when I express this.
“Well, see, I must be stupid,” he says, “because I don’t get it.”
“The true evil in the world comes from people,” says Carpenter. “I know that nature’s pretty rough, but not like men.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Carpenter is quick to put himself down. He always says that he scored his own films because he was the only composer he could afford, and that he only used synths because they were cheap and he couldn’t properly write music for an orchestra. When I tell him that Daniel Wyman, the instrumentalist who helped program and execute the “Halloween” score in 1978, praised Carpenter’s innate knowledge of the “circle of fifths” and secondary dominants — bedrocks of Western musical theory that allowed Carpenter’s scores to keep the tension cooking — he huffs.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Carpenter says, halfway between self-deprecation and something more rascally. “It all comes, probably, from the years I spent in our front room with my father and listening to classical music. I’m sure I’m just digging this s— out.”
Whether by osmosis or genetics or possibly black magic, Carpenter clearly absorbed his powers from his father, Dr. Howard Carpenter, a classically trained violinist and composer. Classical music filled the childhood home in Bowling Green and for young John it was all about “Bach, Bach and Bach. He’s my favorite. I just can’t get enough of Johann there.”
It makes sense. Bach’s music has a circular spell quality and the pipe organ, resounding with reverb in gargantuan cathedrals, was the original synthesizer.
“He’s the Rock of Ages of music,” says Carpenter, who particularly loves the fugue nicknamed “St. Anne” and the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. “Everybody would go back to Mozart or Beethoven. They are astonishing — Beethoven is especially astonishing — but they’re not my style. I don’t feel it like I do with Bach. I immediately got him.”
Carpenter was also a film score freak since Day 1. He cites the early electronic music in 1956’s “Forbidden Planet” and claims Bernard Herrmann and Dimitri Tiomkin as his two all-time favorites. Just listen, he says, to the way Tiomkin’s music transitions from the westerny fanfare under the Winchester Pictures logo to the swirling, menacing orchestral storm that accompanies “The Thing From Another World” title card in that 1951 sci-fi picture that Carpenter remixed as “The Thing.”
“The music is so weird, I cannot follow it,” he says. “But I love it.”
Yet Carpenter feels more personally indebted to rock ‘n’ roll: the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors. He wanted to be a rock star ever since he grew his hair long and bought a guitar in high school. He sang and performed R&B and psychedelic rock for sororities on the Western Kentucky campus as well as on a tour of the U.S. Army bases in Germany. He formed the rock trio Coupe de Villes with his buddies at USC and they made an album and played wrap parties.
He also kept soaking up contemporary influences, listening to Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” while location scouting for “Halloween.” Peter Fonda later introduced Carpenter to Zevon and he wanted the director to adapt the song into a film that never happened (starring Fonda as the werewolf, but “this time he gets the girl,” Carpenter recalls). In the ’80s he blasted Metallica with his two boys and he still loves Devo.
It’s incredibly rare for a film director to score their own films, rarer still for one to spend decades on stage as a performing musician. The requisite personalities would seem diametrical.
“My dad was a performing musician, so it was just part of the family,” Carpenter says. However, until 2016, when Carpenter first toured with his music, he was consumed with stage fright. “I had an incident when I was in a play in high school,” he says. “I went up and I forgot my lines. Shame descended upon me and I had a tough time. I was scared all the time.”
The director credits his touring drummer, Scott Seiver, for helping him beat it.
“Your adrenaline carries you to another planet when that thing starts,” he sighs with pleasure. “You hear a wall of screaming people. It’s a big time.”
He pushes back against the idea that directors “hide behind the camera.”
“The pressure, that’s the biggest thing,” Carpenter says. “You put yourself under pressure from the studio, you’re carrying all this money, crew, you want to be on time.”
He remembers seeing some haggard making-of footage of himself in post-production on “Ghost of Mars” in 2001 and thinking: Oh my God, this guy is in trouble. “I had to stop,” he says. “I can’t do this to myself anymore. I can’t take this kind of stress — it’ll kill you, as it has so many other directors. The music came along and it’s from God. It’s a blessing.”
John Carpenter is grateful but he doesn’t believe in God. He believes that, when we die, “we just disperse — our energy disperses, and we return to what we were. We’re all stardust up there and the darkness created us, in a sense. So that’s what we have to make peace with. I point up to the infinite, the space between stars. But things stop when you die. Your heart stops, brain — everything stops. You get cold. Your energy dissipates and it just… ends. The End.”
This is not exactly a peaceful thought for him.
“I mean, I don’t want to die,” he adds. “I’m not looking forward to that. But what can you do? I can’t control it. But that’s what I believe and I’m alone in it. I can’t put that on anybody else. Everybody has their own beliefs, their own gods, their own afterlife.”
He describes himself as a “long-term optimist but a short-term pessimist.”
“I have hope,” he says, “put it that way.” Yet he looks around and sees a lot of evil.
“The true evil in the world comes from people,” says Carpenter, who has long used cinematic allegories to skewer capitalist pigs and bloodthirsty governments. “I know that nature’s pretty rough, but not like men. You see pictures of lions taking down their prey and you see the face of the prey and you say: ‘Oh, man.’ Humans do things like that and enjoy it. Or they do things like that for power or pleasure. Humans are evil but they’re capable of massive good — and they’re capable of the greatest art form we have: music.”
The greatest?
“You don’t have to talk about it. You just sit and listen to it. It’s not my favorite,” he clarifies, alluding to his first love, cinema — “but it’s the one that transcends centuries.”
Music has always been kinder to him than the movie business. That business recently reared its ugly head when A24 tossed his completed score for “Death of a Unicorn.” (At least he owns the rights and will be putting it out sometime soon.) In addition to the high he gets from playing live, he is currently working on a heavy metal concept album complete with dialogue. It’s called “Cathedral” and he’ll be playing some of it at the Belasco.
It’s essentially a movie in music form, based on a dream Carpenter had. Though not one he finds scary. What scares Carpenter, it seems, is not being in control.
That happened to him in the movie world, it’s happening more and more as what he calls the “frailties of age” mount and it happens in that nightmare about getting lost in a big city and not finding any theaters.
“But I can’t do anything about it,” he says. “What can I do? See, the only thing I can do is what I can control: music. And watching basketball.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. With two weeks left in the football regular season, teams are trying to wrap up league titles. But one thing we’ve already learned: St. John Bosco’s collection of receivers are second to none.
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Carson Clark of St. John Bosco catches 62-yard touchdown pass and leaves Logan Hirou of Santa Margarita chasing him.
(Craig Weston)
When you have four top receivers and spread the ball to each, you are close to unbeatable. That’s what St. John Bosco has with receivers Madden Williams, Carson Clark, Daniel Odom and DJ Tubbs. Each caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Koa Malau’ulu in a 27-14 win over Santa Margarita last week. Here’s the report.
Upon further reflection, this has to be the best receiving group ever for St. John Bosco, which is 8-0. When Malau’ulu has time to throw and the Braves mix in a little running, their offense is something else. Williams, a Texas A&M commit, has improved every season. Odom, an Oklahoma commit, and Clark, a San Jose State commit, patiently waited their turns. And Tubbs, only a sophomore, is a future college commit.
The player drawing rave reviews is running back/defensive back/punter Lenny Ibarra, who’s committed to Army and rushed for 216 yards and two touchdowns while repeatedly refusing to go down unless tackled by multiple players. One opposing coach sent me a text: “Ibarra=Skattebo,” referring to the former Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo, known for his punishing running.
Los Alamitos closes the regular season with games against San Clemente this week and a showdown against Mission Viejo on Oct. 30.
Caden Jones of Crean Lutheran continues to be one of the best athletes in Southern California. The starting point guard for the basketball team, he’s also a terrific quarterback. He passed for 314 yards and five touchdowns in a win over La Habra.
Big high school games next week: Hart at Valencia, King/Drew at Crenshaw, Huntington Beach at Crean Lutheran, Laguna Beach at Dana Hills (battle of unbeatens), Los Alamitos at San Clemente, Murrieta Valley at Vista Murrieta, Roosevelt vs. Garfield at East LA College.
Crespi took control of the Del Rey League race with a 31-16 comeback win over Salesian. Somto Nwute had three sacks for the unbeaten Celts (8-0).
It was a big week for freshman quarterbacks. Ezrah Brown of Orange Lutheran was 17 for 17 passing for 368 yards and three touchdowns in a win over JSerra. Ford Green of Westlake passed for 287 yards and three touchdowns in a double overtime win over Newbury Park. Westlake, 0-10 last season, is 8-0. Marcus Washington of Cajon passed for 238 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Redlands East Valley.
Garfield running back Ceasar Reyes set a school record with 420 yards rushing and four touchdowns in win over South Gate
(Nick Koza)
Ceasar Reyes of Garfield turned in the greatest performance by a running back in Bulldogs history, rushing for 420 yards in 42 carries and scoring four touchdowns in a 39-28 win over South Gate that clinched at least a share of the Eastern League title. Here’s the report. It’s now time for the game that draws the largest regular season crowd: the East Los Angeles Classic. Garfield faces Roosevelt on Friday at East Los Angeles College.
Palisades improved to 8-0 and clinched at least a share of the Western League championship by holding off University 19-17. University had the ball on the Palisades eight-yard line with 49 seconds left when a lost fumble cost the Warriors a potential huge upset victory.
King/Drew defeated Dorsey 17-16 to set up a Coliseum League title decider on Friday night at Crenshaw.
Eagle Rock is going to be the Northern League champion after defeating Franklin 42-28. Quarterback Liam Pasten passed for 290 yards and four touchdowns and Melion Busano rushed for 92 yards and one touchdown, caught a touchdown pass and had an 81-yard kickoff return.
Senior Melion Busano of Eagle Rock has become one of the best running backs in the City Section after never playing football until sophomore year.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Melion Busano has become one of the best City Section running backs at Eagle Rock in his senior season, and how he even started playing football in his sophomore year is a story itself.
Loyola’s Max Meier (97) rushes against Gardena Serra at SoFi Stadium.
(Craig Weston)
Stanford-bound Max Meier of Loyola lost his home to the Palisades fire and lost his best friend, Braun Levi, to a suspected drunk driver. The lessons he has learned this year alone and his attitude of giving his all every day is something inspirational.
JSerra owns two wins over No. 2-seeded Orange Lutheran, the defending Division 1 champion. This is a much more balanced Division 1 bracket, with lots of challenges ahead for all 16 teams. JSerra hosts Trabuco Hills on Thursday and Orange Lutheran hosts Redondo Union. Nine of the 16 teams are from Orange County.
Dos Pueblos quarterback Kacey Hurley.
(Michael Owen Baker/For The Times)
Ventura County is represented by a top opener, with Oxnard playing at Camarillo. Dos Pueblos is another title contender, hosting Etiwanda.
Girls volleyball
Sierra Canyon is seeded No. 1 for the Southern Section Division 1 girls volleyball playoffs.
Newport Harbor’s water polo team won the North-South challenge championship, defeating Cathedral Catholic 15-11 in the final, avenging its only defeat during a 25-1 regular season. . . .
Wrestler Michael Kase from Chaminade has committed to Cal Poly. . . .
Kicker AJ Salo of Chaminade has committed to the University of Chicago. . . .
Junior swimmer Chloe Teger of Villa Park has committed to North Carolina State. . . .
Redondo Union will be hosting a terrific group of girls basketball teams Nov. 24-29, including defending state champion Etiwanda. . . .
Tajh Ariza (right) and Malachi Harris of Westchester celebrate after winning the City Section Open Division title on Friday night.
(Nick Koza)
Tajh Ariza, the 6-foot-9 senior who had transferred from Westchester to St. John Bosco, has now left St. John Bosco and will enroll at a prep school. Ariza is committed to Oregon and was the co-City Section player of the year last season at Westchester. . . .
Southern Section spokesman Thom Simmons has confirmed there will be new divisions for boys and girls basketball playoffs. Open, D1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. No more A or AA.
Junior infielder Sam Pink of Great Oak has committed to San Diego State for baseball. . . .
Cornerback Jayden Crowder from Santa Margarita has committed to USC. . . .
🔥ORANGE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS!🔥 Woodbridge junior Aidan Antonio (13:56) breaks the course record held by Dana Hills alum Evan Noonan and he also leads the Warriors to the team title! What a season already for Aidan and his team! Could NXN become a reality? pic.twitter.com/POg2YhYutq
At the Orange County cross-country championship, Woodbridge junior Aidan Antonio set a course record at 13:56. Irvine senior Summer Wilson won the girls sweepstakes race in 15:47.3.
From the archives: Miller Moss
Former Bishop Alemany quarterback Miller Moss in 2019. He led Louisville to an upset of No. 2 Miami.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
It’s been a long journey for former Bishop Alemany and USC quarterback Miller Moss. Last week, he helped Louisville upset No. 2 Miami.
Good grades and good patience have always been the impressive qualities displayed by Moss. He missed his senior year in 2020, which was the COVID season. He spent 2021 through 2024 at USC. After leaving USC, there was little doubt he’d have success wherever he ended up. Louisville offered a new beginning.
From Nebraska, a story on how transfers are changing high school sports.
From ESPN, a story about a lawsuit in Ohio trying to allow high school athletes to profit off NIL.
From Footballscoop.com, a story on a coach in Pennsylvania having to resign under parental pressure after disciplining players.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on former Loyola and UCLA quarterback Jerry Neuheisel.
Tweets you might have missed
I have to admit something. One part of my job is to point out players making a difference but each time I mention a freshman, I fear it opens the door for someone in high school to recruit them illegally. That’s world we have now. I wish it wasn’t.
Congratulations to SR QB Diego Montes on reaching the 100 total touchdowns milestone for his career! It’s been fun to watch Diego and his teammates accomplish so much on this journey!
— JFK Golden Cougars Football (@GoldenCougarsFB) October 13, 2025
Rolling Hills Prep girls coach Monique Alexander, a former UCLA player, meets with UCLA coach Cori Close. At LA Athletic Club for basketball kickoff breakfast. pic.twitter.com/W75NK11NsR
** BREAKING!** New CIF-STATE RANKINGS have dropped! The updated CIF-State Rankings are now out for this week after the big Clovis Invitational clash! There were two big upward movers as Beckman’s D1 boys and Laguna Beach’s D4 girls each improved five spots!… pic.twitter.com/SiVZhhV0k9
I’m throwing out a theory that may or may not be true: There’s lots of high school football players set to head off to college with their NIL deals and scholarships assured. Maybe they’re not as hungry as opponents who don’t have a scholarship. It’s reflective in their effort.
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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GREENBELT, Md. — John Bolton arrived at a federal courthouse Friday to surrender to authorities and make his first court appearance on charges accusing the former Trump administration national security adviser of storing top secret records at home and sharing with relatives diary-like notes that contained classified information.
The 18-count federal indictment Thursday also suggests classified information was exposed when operatives believed to be linked to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s email account and gained access to sensitive material he had shared. A Bolton representative told the FBI in 2021 that his emails had been hacked, prosecutors say, but did not reveal that Bolton had shared classified information through the account or that the hackers had possession of government secrets.
The closely watched case centers on a longtime fixture in Republican foreign policy circles who became known for his hawkish views on American power and who served for more than a year in Trump’s first administration before being fired in 2019. He later published a book highly critical of Trump.
The third case against a Trump adversary in the past month will unfold against the backdrop of concerns that the Justice Department is pursuing the Republican president’s political enemies while at the same time sparing his allies from scrutiny.
“Now, I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” Bolton said in a statement.
Even so, the indictment is significantly more detailed in its allegations than earlier cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Unlike in those cases filed by a hastily appointed U.S. attorney, Bolton’s indictment was signed by career national security prosecutors. While the Bolton investigation burst into public view in August when the FBI searched his home in Maryland and his office in Washington, the inquiry was well underway by the time Trump had taken office in January.
Sharing of classified secrets
The indictment filed in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, alleges that between 2018 and this past August, Bolton shared with two relatives more than 1,000 pages of information about his day-to-day activities in government.
The material included “diary-like” entries with information classified as high as top secret that he had learned from meetings with other U.S. government officials, from intelligence briefings or talks with foreign leaders, according to the indictment. After sending one document, Bolton wrote in a message to his relatives, “None of which we talk about!!!” In response, one of his relatives wrote, “Shhhhh,” prosecutors said.
The indictment says that among the material shared was information about foreign adversaries that in some cases revealed details about sources and methods used by the government to collect intelligence.
The two family members were not identified in court papers, but a person familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic details, identified them as Bolton’s wife and daughter.
The indictment also suggests Bolton was aware of the impropriety of sharing classified information with people not authorized to receive it, citing an April news media interview in which he chastised Trump administration officials for using Signal to discuss sensitive military details. Though the anecdote is meant by prosecutors to show Bolton understood proper protocol for government secrets, Bolton’s legal team may also point to it to argue a double standard in enforcement because the Justice Department is not known to have opened any investigation into the Signal episode.
Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that the “underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago.”
He said the charges stem from portions of Bolton’s personal diaries over his 45-year career in government and included unclassified information that was shared only with his immediate family and was known to the FBI as far back as 2021.
“Like many public officials throughout history,” Lowell said, “Bolton kept diaries — that is not a crime.” He said Bolton “did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
Controversy over a book
Bolton suggested the criminal case was an outgrowth of an unsuccessful Justice Department effort after he left government to block the publication of his 2020 book “The Room Where It Happened,” which portrayed Trump as grossly misinformed about foreign policy.
The Trump administration asserted that Bolton’s manuscript contained classified information that could harm national security if exposed. Bolton’s lawyers have said he moved forward with the book after a White House National Security Council official, with whom Bolton had worked for months, said the manuscript no longer had classified information.
In 2018, Bolton was appointed to serve as Trump’s third national security adviser. His brief tenure was characterized by disputes with the president over North Korea, Iran and Ukraine. Those rifts ultimately led to Bolton’s departure.
Bolton subsequently criticized Trump’s approach to foreign policy and government in his book, including by alleging that Trump directly tied providing military aid to Ukraine to that country’s willingness to conduct investigations into Joe Biden, who was soon to be Trump’s Democratic 2020 election rival, and members of Biden’s family.
Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a “washed-up guy” and a “crazy” warmonger who would have led the country into “World War Six.”
Tucker and Richer write for the Associated Press. Durkin Richer reported from Washington.
John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, has arrived at a federal court to surrender to authorities on charges of mishandling classified information.
Bolton served during Trump’s first administration but parted with the White House contentiously, and has become one of the president’s most vocal public critics.
The indictment makes Bolton, 76, the third of the US president’s political opponents to face charges in recent weeks. Bolton has said he would defend his “lawful conduct”.
Prosecutors have accused Bolton of using personal messaging apps and email to illegally transmit sensitive information.
“These documents revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations,” prosecutors wrote.
Responding to the charges, Bolton said he would defend his “lawful conduct.”
He added he had “become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he [Trump] deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.”
A federal grand jury in Maryland has indicted John Bolton, United States President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, over his handling of classified documents, charging him with retaining and transmitting national defence information.
The indictment, filed in federal court in Maryland on Thursday, charges Bolton with eight counts of transmission of national defence information and 10 counts of retention of national defence information, all in violation of the Espionage Act.
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Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison if Bolton is convicted, but any sentence would be determined by a judge based on a range of factors.
Bolton’s lawyer Abbe Lowell said in a statement that his client “did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
Bolton served as US ambassador to the United Nations as well as White House national security adviser during Trump’s first term before emerging as one of the president’s most vocal critics. He described Trump as unfit to be president in a memoir he released last year.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Argentina’s President Javier Milei in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Tuesday, October 14, 2025, in Washington, DC, United States [Alex Brandon/AP Photo]
The charges come two months after FBI agents searched Bolton’s home and office, seeking evidence of possible violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to remove, retain or transmit national defence records, according to partially unsealed search warrants filed in federal court.
In his Maryland home, agents seized two cellphones, documents in folders labelled “Trump I-IV” and a binder labelled “statements and reflections to Allied Strikes”, according to court documents.
In Bolton’s office, agents found records labelled “confidential”, including documents that referenced weapons of mass destruction, the US mission to the United Nations, and other materials related to the government’s strategic communications, according to court records.
The indictment levied Thursday alleges Bolton transmitted confidential information via personal email, used private messaging accounts to send sensitive documents that were classified as top secret and illegally retained intelligence documents in his home, according to the Department of Justice.
Bolton is accused of sharing more than 1,000 pages of information about government activities with relatives, according to the indictment.
The indictment says the notes Bolton shared with the two people included information he gleaned from meetings with senior government officials, discussions with foreign leaders, and intelligence briefings.
Prosecutors said a “cyber actor” tied to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s personal email after he left government service and accessed classified information. A representative for Bolton told the government about the hack but did not report that he stored classified information in the email account, according to the indictment.
“These charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton’s personal diaries over his 45-year career – records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021,” Bolton’s lawyer Abbe Lowell said in an emailed statement. “Like many public officials throughout history, Amb. Bolton kept diaries – that is not a crime.”
Trump, who campaigned for the presidency on a vow of retribution after facing a slew of legal woes once his first term in the White House ended in 2021, has dispensed with decades-long norms designed to insulate federal law enforcement from political pressures.
In recent months, he has actively pushed Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department to bring charges against his perceived adversaries, even driving out a prosecutor he deemed to be moving too slowly in doing so.
Asked by reporters at the White House about the Bolton indictment on Thursday, Trump said: “He’s a bad guy.”
Bolton served as national security adviser during Trump’s first term from 2018 to 2019. In that time, he clashed with the president over Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea before getting fired in 2019.
He has subsequently criticised Trump’s approach to foreign policy and government, including in a 2020 book titled The Room Where it Happened, which portrayed the president as ill-informed on foreign policy.
The search warrant affidavit said a National Security Council official had reviewed the book manuscript and told Bolton in 2020 that it appeared to contain “significant amounts” of classified information, some at a top-secret level.
Earlier this month, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led a legal case against Trump over alleged fraud in his businesses, was charged with lying on a mortgage application, drawing accusations of political vindictiveness by the White House.
Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on September 25 on charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation, which he denies. Trump has feuded with Comey since the Russia investigation, which examined possible ties between Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Moscow.
The Justice Department has also launched investigations into US Senator Adam Schiff and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Schiff and Cook have not been charged, and both reject any suggestion of wrongdoing.
Oct. 11 (UPI) — Former National Security adviser John Bolton might be charged with federal crimes next week for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
Federal prosecutors met on Saturday to weigh potential charges that would be filed in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, which is Bolton’s state of residence, according to CNN.
Bolton served as President Donald Trump‘s National Security adviser from April 9, 2018, to Sept. 10, 2019.
He has been under investigation for several years due to how he handled classified information, and Saturday’s meeting of federal prosecutors is to determine potential charges.
“An objective and thorough review will show nothing inappropriate was stored or kept by Amb. Bolton,” Lowell said in a prepared statement and referring to Bolton’s former position as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
She said the files in Bolton’s possession had been reviewed and closed, and he intended to use them while writing a book.
“These are the kinds of ordinary records, many of which are 20 years old or more, that would be kept by a longtime career official who served at the State Department, as an assistant attorney general, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the National Security adviser,” Lowell said.
FBI agents in August searched Bolton’s home and his office in Washington as part of a national security investigation regarding classified documents.
Federal prosecutors are determining how they might pursue a federal grand jury indictment against him.
A grand jury indictment against Bolton would be the third secured by interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, whom Trump recently appointed after firing her predecessor for not pursuing such indictments.
Halligan recently obtained federal grand jury indictments against former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress in 2020.
Earlier this week, she also obtained a grand jury indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged bank fraud related to the purchase of a home in Alexandria, Va.
The sun is shining and planes are flying over the place that so many of these legends would still call home.
Eden Hazard and Diego Costa have come out on the pitch with the rest of the squad for a team photo, and Petr Cech even stays to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.
That’s what it’s all about!
Liverpool squad
Former Blue Yossi Benayoun will be returning to Stamford Bridge, but in the red of Liverpool.
The club’s all-time top scorer, Ian Rush, will return in the dugout, with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Peter Crouch not included in this one:
Ian Rush – manager
John Aldridge – manager
Phil Thompson – manager
Sammy Lee – manager
Pepe Reina
Sander Westerveld
Fabio Aurelio
Martin Kelly
Ragnar Klavan
Martin Skrtel
Yossi Benayoun
Momo Sissoko
Jay Spearing
Ryan Babel
Natasha Dowie
Robbie Keane
Gregory Vignal
Igor Biscan
Stephane Henchoz
Mark Gonzalez
Florent Siname-Pongolle
Chelsea squad
Roberto Di Matteo, the man who guided Chelsea to their first Champions League title in 2011/12, will return to the dugout as manager.
Five-time Premier League-winning captain John Terry will also be back for action.
Fan favourites at Stamford Bridge like Joe Cole, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa will also return:
Eden Hazard
Ramires
John Terry
Joe Cole
Katie Chapman
Gemma Davison
William Gallas
Carlo Cudicini
Marcel Desailly
Petr Cech
Eidur Gudjohnsen
Salomon Kalou
Diego Costa
Jon Harley
Jody Morris
Loic Remy
Florent Malouda
Tiago Mendes
Claude Makelele
John-Obi Mikel
Gary Cahill
*Gianfranco Zola has withdrawn due to injury
Good afternoon and welcome to SunSport’s live blog of Chelsea vs Liverpool legends!
A star-studded Chelsea line-up will be looking to get revenge on Liverpool after losing the previous legends clash between the two in March.
Peter Crouch bagged a double in a 2-0 win for the Reds last time out, but the legendary forward will not be playing in today’s match – to the delight of Chelsea.
Roberto Di Matteo returns to the Stamford Bridge dugout while the likes of Eden Hazard, John Terry and Diego Costa will pull on the iconic Blue shirt once again.
Robbie Keane, Martin Skrtel and Ryan Babel are among the legends representing Liverpool in the capital this afternoon.
SunSport will bring you minute-by-minute updates from this afternoon’s huge clash!
If there’s a scene that best encapsulates the tragically abbreviated career of John Candy, it’s not necessarily from his time on the sketch-comedy series “SCTV” or from movies like “Stripes” or “Uncle Buck.” It’s a moment in the 1987 comedy-drama “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” when his reluctant roommate Neal Page (played by Steve Martin) has spent several minutes berating him for his relentless storytelling.
With a lump in his throat, Candy’s wounded character Del Griffith replies that he’s proud of who he is. “I like me,” he says. “My wife likes me. My customers like me. Because I’m the real article — what you see is what you get.”
That moment proves pivotal to two new projects that retrace Candy’s life and work some 31 years after the actor died from a heart attack at the age of 43. The actor would have turned 75 this month.
A biography, “John Candy: A Life in Comedy,” written by Paul Myers (released by House of Anansi Press on Tuesday), and a documentary, “John Candy: I Like Me,” directed by Colin Hanks (released Friday on Prime Video), both rely on Candy’s friends, family members and colleagues to help tell the story of his ascent, his success and the void left by his death.
In their own ways, both the book and the film show how Candy — while not without his demons — was beloved by audiences for his fundamental and authentic likability, and why he is still mourned today for the potential he never got to completely fulfill.
A family photo of John Candy and his son, Chris, seen in “John Candy: I Like Me.” (Prime Video)
John Candy, left, and Steve Martin in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” (Paramount Pictures)
Explaining why it was still important to memorialize Candy all these years later, Ryan Reynolds, the “Deadpool” star and a producer of the documentary, said, “When it’s something people desperately miss, but they don’t know they miss it, it’s a beautiful and rare thing. John Candy is a person that they missed desperately.”
Since his death, Candy’s immediate survivors — his widow, Rosemary; daughter, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan; and son, Chris Candy — have weighed the pluses and minuses of sharing his life with audiences and the impact it might have on them (the three are co-executive producers on the film). “It’s a balancing act,” said Chris Candy. “You want to live your life and you also want to honor theirs.”
In recent years, Candy’s children said they were encouraged by documentaries like Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” about the children’s TV broadcaster Fred Rogers, as well as Hanks’ film “All Things Must Pass,” about the Tower Records retail chain.
Hanks, whose father, Tom, acted with Candy in films like “Splash” and “Volunteers,” said he struggled at first to find a compelling way to tell the story of Candy, who had a seemingly charmed and uncontroversial acting career, first in his native Toronto and then in Hollywood.
But Hanks said he was drawn into Candy’s story by a particular detail: the fact that Candy’s own father, Sidney, had died from heart disease at the age of 35, right before John turned 5. “It doesn’t take much to think about how traumatic that could be for anyone at any age,” Hanks said.
Chris Candy, from left, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan and Colin Hanks, who directed the Prime Video documentary “John Candy: I Like Me.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Myers, a musician and journalist who has written books about the band Barenaked Ladies and comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall, said he was drawn to Candy as a fellow Canadian and an embodiment of the national comedic spirit.
“If you’re Canadian like I am, you never stop thinking about John Candy,” Myers said. Growing up in the Toronto area, Myers said he and his siblings — including his brother Mike, the future “Shrek” and “Austin Powers” star — were avid fans of sketch comedy shows like “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and “Saturday Night Live.”
But “SCTV,” which launched stars like Candy, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy, meant even more to them. “We watched it from Day 1 and we cheered a little bit harder for them because it was like they were shooting the show blocks away from our house,” Myers said.
Reynolds, who was born and raised in Vancouver, said that Candy’s essential Canadian spirit was crucial to his success as a comic actor.
“In comedy, Canadians typically don’t punch down,” Reynolds said. “It’s more of a self-effacing humor. Their favorite target is themselves. And John did that. On screen, I felt his willingness and joy in self-effacing humor that never really veered into self-loathing humor.”
Ryan Reynolds at the Los Angeles screening of “I Like Me” earlier this month. The actor was a producer on the film.
(Todd Williamson / January Images)
Candy parlayed his repertoire of “SCTV” characters — satirical media personalities like Johnny LaRue and real-life celebrities like Orson Welles — into supporting parts in hit films like “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “The Blues Brothers,” “Brewster’s Millions” and “Spaceballs.”
His penchants for drinking and smoking were well-known and hardly out of the ordinary for that era; they rarely impeded Candy’s work and, in at least one notable instance, seem to have enhanced it: Both the documentary and the biography recount how Candy indulged in a late-night bender with Jack Nicholson before rising the next morning to shoot a scene in “Splash” where his character fumbles, flails and smokes his way through a round of racquetball.
“That’s his work ethic, right there,” said Candy-Sullivan. “He showed up and he did the scene.”
Candy graduated to lead roles in comedies like “Summer Rental,” “The Great Outdoors” and “Who’s Harry Crumb?,” and he found a kindred spirit in the writer and director John Hughes, who helped provide Candy with some of his most enduring roles in movies like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “Uncle Buck” and “Home Alone.”
But offscreen, Candy was contending with anxiety and he was sensitive to people’s judgments about his size — remarks which often came directly from TV interviewers who thought nothing of asking him point-blank whether Candy was planning to lose weight.
When he and his sister watched archival footage of these interviews in the documentary, Chris Candy said, “It was, for both of us, uncomfortable. I wasn’t familiar with what he was putting up with and how he would mentally jujitsu in and out of those conversations. He got more and more curt about it as time goes on, and you can see it in the interviews.”
But these psychic wounds didn’t make Candy a cruel or nasty person; he simply absorbed the hurt and redoubled his efforts to be a genial performer.
“If you’re looking for darkness in the story of John Candy, a lot of it’s just internalized pain,” Myers said. “His own coping mechanism was radical niceness to everybody — making human connections so that he would have community and feel like he’s making things better.”
In the early 1990s, Candy seemed to be working nonstop. He appeared in five different feature films in 1991 alone, a year that included duds like “Nothing But Trouble” as well as a small but potentially transformative role in Oliver Stone’s drama “JFK,” where he played the flamboyant attorney Dean Andrews Jr. He was preparing his own directorial debut, a TV film called “Hostage For a Day” in which he starred with George Wendt. Candy also became a co-owner and one-man pep squad for the Toronto Argonauts, the Canadian Football League team.
Eventually, the many demands and stresses in his life came to a head. Amid a grueling shoot for the western comedy “Wagons East” in Durango, Mexico, Candy died on March 4, 1994. He had a private funeral in the Los Angeles area, followed by a public memorial in Toronto that prompted a national outpouring of grief in Canada.
“He represented the best of us,” Myers said. “He was a humanity-centric person. He brought vulnerability and humility to his characters, which is not something you usually see in broad comedy.”
Candy’s films continue to play on television and streaming — both “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “Home Alone” have become year-end holiday staples. But for the people involved in chronicling Candy’s life, there is a creeping sense that the actor’s legacy will not tend to itself, and that the generations who did not grow up with Candy might need reminders of what made him worth remembering.
Hanks recalled a story from the making of “I Like Me” where he and some colleagues were dining at a restaurant where the hostess asked them what they were working on.
“We said we’re making a documentary,” Hanks said. “ ‘Oh, really?’ she goes. ‘Who’s it about?’ It’s about John Candy. She goes, ‘Oh, who’s that?’ No idea who it was. I said, well, have you seen ‘Home Alone’? Remember the polka guy that picks up the mom and takes her in the van? ‘Oh, I loved him. He’s great.’”
Part of his interest in making a film about Candy, Hanks said, is “wanting to showcase the man that people love and remind them why they loved them.”
But there is also the simple pleasure in introducing Candy’s work to people who haven’t seen it before. “If you’re lucky,” Hanks said, “you get to hopefully have them go, ‘God, I want to see those movies. I want to go watch ‘SCTV.’”
Oct. 3 (UPI) — Officials at Long John Silver’s are replacing the chain’s former logo that featured a fish with one that features a chicken to share its “long-held secret.”
The new logo is designed to inform consumers that the seafood chain also offers chicken entrees.
“Guests have been telling us for years that our chicken is a best-kept secret,” said Christopher Caudill, senior vice president of marketing and innovation at Long John Silver’s, in a news release on Friday.
“Our hand-battered chicken strips — known as Chicken Planks — are every bit as crave-worthy as our legendary fish,” Caudill added. “It’s time we let that secret out.”
The Louisville, Ky.-based restaurant chain announced the change on Friday that will include a new wrap on the Long John Silver’s Front Row Motorsports car during the South Point 400 NASCAR race in Las Vegas on Oct. 12.
The restaurant chain tested its chicken-based products at its flagship restaurant in Louisville and received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from its customers.
That feedback helped prevent the restaurant’s leaders from chickening out on the logo change following the recent uproar that occurred when Lebanon, Tenn.-based Cracker Barrel recently tried to change its longtime logo.
Cracker Barrel’s logo briefly removed an image of a seated elderly man resting his left elbow and forearm on a wooden barrel from its logo.
The change generated unexpected pushback from consumers and others, including President Donald Trump, who criticized the move on social media.
Cracker Barrel officials soon after announced they were canceling the logo change.
First, he dedicated his life to fighting for a cause that earned him only personal satisfaction and absolutely no political gain: the powerless poor, particularly the aged, blind and disabled.
These aren’t folks with any money to donate to political coffers. They’re not members of unions harboring large piles of campaign cash. They don’t volunteer to walk precincts before elections. Many can barely walk. They’re not organized. More likely they live lonely lives. And they never heard of John Burton.
Burton — and only Burton — had these peoples’ backs in Sacramento’s halls of power for many years. And no one has taken his place.
Second, this bleeding-heart San Francisco liberal instinctively liked and befriended many political opposites with whom he developed working relationships to achieve his and their goals. He’d loudly denounce their conservative positions on issues but not them personally — in contrast to today’s ugly, click-driven, opportunistic American politics.
Right-wingers? “I never held that against anybody,” Burton writes in his recently released autobiography, “I Yell Because I Care: The Passion and Politics of John Burton, California’s Liberal Warrior.”
“Like, you never know when you might need a right-winger for something. And when you do, it’s best to give them something in return. And it’s even better when what they want is something you don’t really care about. Sometimes, that’s the way s— gets done in politics.”
When it gets done, which is almost never these days in Congress. Things might get done in Sacramento — for good or bad — because Democrats wield ironclad control over all branches of government, unlike when Burton was a legislator during decades that required bipartisan compromise.
Burton was infamously foul-mouthed and often rude. But colleagues, staffers, lobbyists and reporters rolled their eyes and adjusted. OK, so you couldn’t always quote his exact words in a family newspaper or on TV.
At heart, Burton was a softie and extrovert who genuinely liked people of all political persuasions. And they liked him because he was a straight shooter whose word was golden — the No. 1 asset for most anyone in politics.
Softie? Longtime Burton spokesman David Seback recalls this incident when the lawmaker was Senate president pro tem, the No. 2 most powerful office in the Capitol:
“There was a guy who was pretty severely disabled who would go with difficulty using crutches from office to office delivering copies of these multi-page conspiracy theory laden packets he put together to all 120 legislators. There were some typewritten parts, some handwritten, some xeroxed photos.
“One day John stopped him and said, ‘From now on, you deliver one copy to my office.’ After that, all the legislators got a copy of these packets stamped, ‘Compliments of John Burton.’”
Most Capitol denizens — if they noticed him at all — probably dismissed this packet-carting conspiracy theorist on crutches as a sad kook. But he’s the type who was Burton’s purpose in life to help.
Burton, 92, died Sept. 7 at a hospice facility in San Francisco.
Burton was integral to a powerful political organization founded by his older brother, U.S. Rep. Phil Burton, that included two of John’s closest pals: future San Francisco mayors George Moscone and Willie Brown. The organization kick-started the political careers of future U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
John Burton left Congress in 1982 to fight cocaine addiction and remained clean and sober the rest of his life. He was reelected to the Legislature in 1988, ultimately chosen as Senate leader and termed out in 2004. Then he became state Democratic Party chairman for the second time.
When Burton died, I was recovering from an illness and missed out writing about him. That bothered me. So I’m doing it now.
I got to know Burton when he was first elected to the Assembly with Willie Brown in 1964. Both were fast learners about how the Capitol worked and ultimately each was elected leader of his house.
“Sometimes all it takes to succeed in politics is to make sure somebody has a nice view of Capitol Park and an extra secretary,” Burton writes in his autobiography of rounding up enough of Senate votes to become leader.
In the entertaining book, co-written with journalist Andy Furillo, Burton writes extensively about “the neediest of the needy…. My district included a ton of single-room occupancy hotels south of Market Street that were filled with people who cooked off hot plates and had to go down the hall to the bathroom. They survived on their federal and state assistance checks.”
Governors and legislative leaders of both parties routinely ripped off these poor folks’ federal aid increases to help balance the state budget in tough economic times. Or they’d try to until Burton blocked them.
“For some people,” Burton once told me, “it can be the difference between tuna fish and cat food for lunch.”
Without calling up local TV — as most politicians would — Burton bought blankets and drove around San Francisco by himself handing them out to the homeless.
“We were brought up to be that way,” Burton told me. “My old man [a doctor], he’d do house calls in the Fillmore, a Black area, at 2 in the morning. And if the family looked like it didn’t have money, he’d say, ‘Forget it. Go buy the kid a pair of shoes.’”
Thanks to Burton, the state was forced into buying lots of tuna fish lunches for the neediest of the needy.
I worked with John Stapleton at Good Morning Britain and every single person loved and adored him, from make-up artists to editors
14:26, 21 Sep 2025Updated 14:26, 21 Sep 2025
Kevin Maguire is Associate Editor of the Mirror and a politics columnist. He is a frequent contributor to Good Morning Britain and other TV shows. He also writes a column for the New Statesman and earlier in his career was chief reporter for The Guardian. He is a Sunderland AFC supporter.
John Stapleton was loved by everyone he worked with(Image: PA)
EVERYBODY, absolutely everybody, who met or worked with John Stapleton absolutely loved the TV sleuth and presenter.
That’s a rare accolade in an often cut-throat trade occasionally marred by monstrous egos yet Stapes was above all else a wonderful bloke
From the make-up artists who’d powder his nose and camera crews framing his face to powerful editors and famous co-stars, Stapes was adored.
And in turn the ultimate professional was encouraging, generous and gracious to all of them including walk-on players like myself and Tory Boy.
Slim and dapper, I never ceased to be impressed how we’d turn up bleary-eyed for Good Morning Britain and its predecessors and Stapes would be bright eyed and bushy tailed, immaculately dressed as if he’d just stepped off Savile Row.
I worked with John at Good Morning Britain(Image: S Meddle/ITV/Shutterstock)
Never one to brag or stand on ceremony, Stapes enjoyed chatting politics and a good gossip.
He didn’t wear a glorious career on his smart sleeve and the easiness of a journalist with much to boast about was central to his appeal.
Oldham born, Stapes remained a Northern living in the South who’d regularly punctuate our conversations with references to what he’d recently read in the Manchester Evening News.
After his family, the great love of his life was Manchester City, a football team supported through thin and thinner before glory arrived to finally overshadow giant neighbours United.
Stapes buying home and away season tickets to follow City around the country and Europe, cheering unprecedented success with son Nick as the titles and cups rolled in, was him living the dream.
The fortitude and good cheer he adopted when first diagnosed with Parkinson’s, vowing to try not be miserable, was the positive outlook of somebody determined to confront adversity.
“In often cut-throat trade occasionally marred by monstrous egos, Stapes was above all else a wonderful bloke,” says The Mirror’s Kevin Maguire(Image: ITV)
But the truth was his eyes beamed less brightly and he looked a few inches shorter after the 2020 death of wife and onetime co-presenter Lynn Faulds Wood.
Understandable when what defined Stapes was his engaging warmness. He was a TV success because of who he was rather than a person forged by broadcasting triumphs
The wave of heartfelt tributes are genuine for a genuine man. Sorry I never had you back to my place for dinner as promised, Stapes. He once joked I should email the invitation after I pretended it must be lost in the post.
Veteran broadcaster John Stapleton has died at the age of 79 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, his agent has said.
The presenter, who featured widely on programmes including the BBC’s Watchdog and GMTV’s News Hour and began his career at the Oldham Chronicle, died in hospital on Sunday morning.
His Parkinson’s disease was complicated by pneumonia, his agent said.
Jackie Gill said “his son Nick and daughter-in-law Lisa have been constantly at his side and John died peacefully in hospital”.
Stapleton revealed his diagnosis in October 2024.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he said: “There’s no point in being miserable. It won’t ever change.
“I mean, Parkinson’s is here with me now for the rest of my life. Best I can do is try and control it and take the advice of all the experts.”
Emmerdale’s John Sugden sneaks into the home of his siblings Robert and Victoria Sugden next week, armed with a filled syringe as he plots revenge on the ITV soap
00:00, 20 Sep 2025Updated 00:02, 20 Sep 2025
A spoiler video for next week’s Emmerdale hints at killer John Sugden’s next plan as he remains at large.
A first look for Monday shows the moment he sneaks into the home of his siblings Robert and Victoria Sugden, armed with a filled syringe. He looks as though he’s preparing to use it on either Robert or Victoria, no doubt the former.
It’s no secret that John hates his brother Robert, knowing his husband Aaron Dingle loves his ex Robert over him. It was this jealousy that made John drag Aaron off a cliff, nearly killing him.
But when Aaron woke from his coma, he was able to alert everyone about killer John’s crimes and the fact that poor Mack Boyd had been kidnapped. At the end of this week the truth about John was made clear and he seemed to have a new target.
Fans noticed that as Victoria and Robert hugged it out and Robert vowed to stay around, John was watching them intently. Now, a new preview hints John will plot revenge.
A spoiler video for next week’s Emmerdale hints at killer John Sugden’s next plan(Image: ITV)
John sneaks into the house and is in the kitchen, listening in as Victoria and Robert discuss the situation and Aaron. John is keeping low, and suddenly takes a syringe out of his pocket as if he’s preparing to use it.
It’s filled with something no doubt to drug either Vic or Robert, and our money is on his brother. It’s not clear if he manages to use it, but it certainly confirms someone is in danger.
But will John be caught by his siblings, and will he go through with it? As Victoria shares her sadness over how things panned out, John appears remorseful and as though he could change his mind.
The chat outside sees Robert admit that Aaron is pushing him away, with him being accused of using the John situation to get back in his good books. Victoria suggests this is a fair comment to make knowing what Robert’s like.
A first look for Monday shows the moment he sneaks into the home of his siblings(Image: ITV)
But Robert insists he’d do no such thing, but that it’s clear Aaron is in no rush to reunite with him. Robert then appears sad, as he tells Victoria how much he “hates” John for what he’s done to him, to Aaron and to everyone else.
It’s then that Vic gets emotional, blaming herself over John. She shares how she was the one who asked him to stay in the village, as she questions if her brother even loved her or if it was all a lie.
Robert does his best to comfort his sister, unaware that his killer brother is behind the wall – so what happens next?
