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Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Allen welcome a baby girl: ‘Blessed’

Hailee Steinfeld and Josh Allen have officially entered parenthood, welcoming their first little one.

“Our baby girl has arrived,” Oscar-nominated “True Grit” and “Sinners” star Steinfeld, 29, announced Tuesday in her latest Substack post. She wrote that she and her Buffalo Bills quarterback husband, 29, are “feeling incredibly grateful and blessed.”

“Savouring these early moments,” Steinfeld continued. “Thank you so much for the love and well wishes.”

The spouses married in June after two years of dating. People published photos from their outdoor California ceremony, in which Steinfeld wore a white strapless gown, mesh gloves and her veil and Allen wore a traditional tuxedo. They announced their engagement in November 2024.

Steinfeld announced she and Allen were expecting their first child in a Substack post in December, sharing photos from a snowy, bump-revealing maternity shoot. Steinfeld flaunted her pregnancy during the awards circuit earlier this year, cradling her baby bump at the red carpet for the Golden Globe Awards.

In an interview with Variety published in October, “Spider-Verse” star Steinfeld spoke about her marriage with Allen and balancing their conflicting schedules, noting “when the [NFL] offseason rolls around, it’s go-time for me.”

“I’ve gotten a lot better at understanding what it means to slow down and to share that with someone,” she said. “That’s the greatest thing ever.”



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From TMZ to Trump, pressure grows to bring Congress back during partial shutdown

TMZ built its brand tracking celebrities. Now it’s turning its attention to Congress, chasing down paparazzi-style shots of lawmakers on break from Washington during a record-long partial government shutdown.

Videos and photos posted by the tabloid website showing lawmakers in airports, Las Vegas and even Disney World have racked up millions of views and fueled a growing backlash. With travel disruptions persisting and some federal workers going without pay, pressure is mounting on Congress to cut short its regularly scheduled recess.

Beyond TMZ, President Trump also wants lawmakers to come back, even hinting he might invoke rarely used powers to call Congress into session.

Still, it’s not clear what a return would accomplish, with the 45-day partial government shutdown at a deeper impasse than ever. The Senate reached a bipartisan funding deal last week, but House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected it, and House Republicans passed their own version before heading for the exits.

“I’m not sure that we’d come,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said Monday when asked about members being called back. “And I’m not sure that there would be any difference from what’s happened so far.”

On recess — and on camera

As lawmakers headed out of Washington last week, the celebrity-gossip outlet TMZ put out a call.

“TMZ is on the hunt for photos of politicians on vacay as TSA officers suffer!” the outlet said in a social media post.

The focus from TMZ — an outlet known more for capturing unflattering footage of celebrities than digging into the nuances of federal policy — was the latest example of how politics is being fueled by viral images and populist sentiment.

Videos quickly followed, showing senators moving through airports — often attempting to shield themselves from cameras — with provocative headlines layered on top. The clips racked up millions of views.

The outlet didn’t stop there. Photos of lawmakers on vacation soon followed, including viral images of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham at Disney World with captions such as: “Lindsey Graham lives it up at Disney World during the partial government shutdown!”

Graham said that he had been in Florida for a meeting with Trump administration officials and had made a stop at Disney World with a friend. He also blamed Democrats for the shutdown.

Another widely shared post showed Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia in Las Vegas.

“Actually I don’t mind what TMZ is doing here,” Garcia posted in response, adding that he was visiting his father. “Like I said a few days ago, Speaker Mike Johnson should have never sent us all home.”

The effort grew out of frustration, said TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin, after the outlet interviewed a TSA worker struggling due to missed paychecks during the shutdown.

“It outraged us so much we wanted to use our platforms to show how Congress — Dems AND Republicans — have betrayed us,” Levin said in a statement.

He added that lawmakers shouldn’t expect the coverage to end anytime soon.

“Several months ago we decided to amp up our presence and our voice,” Levin said. “We now have a producer and a photog circulating in the Capitol, showing the intersection between politics and pop culture.”

Pressure mounts on Congress to return

The backlash playing out online is fueling other pressure as well. Trump has called on Congress to return. He spoke with Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Sunday and Monday, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he has urged leadership to cancel recess “repeatedly.”

“He’ll host a big Easter dinner here at the White House if Congress will come back,” she added.

So far, Republican leadership has not blinked, raising questions about how much pressure Trump will ultimately apply — and whether he would be willing to concede ground to Democrats to end the shutdown.

Unions are adding to that pressure.

“To leave Washington while tens of thousands of workers are going without pay shows a clear lack of respect for the essential employees tasked with keeping our nation safe,” said Hydrick Thomas, president of the American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council 100.

Although vacation snapshots have stirred outrage, recess is also an opportunity for lawmakers to reconnect with constituents back home. Some hold town hall events. Others go on trips abroad, such as joining a delegation to Taiwan.

Why the funding impasse won’t be easy to solve

Even if lawmakers return to Washington, there isn’t an easy way out of the funding impasse.

Senators already labored for weeks to try to find agreement on Democrats’ demand that any funding for the Department of Homeland Security come with restrictions on how federal immigration agents conduct enforcement. In vote after failed vote, Democrats showed they wouldn’t budge.

As the partial government shutdown extended to the longest in U.S. history, the Senate settled on a last-ditch effort to fund most of DHS while leaving out money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol.

But that deal was rejected by Johnson in the House, who instead pushed through a bill to extend DHS funding on a party-line vote. The collapse of the bipartisan agreement has soured the mood for negotiations and left lawmakers pointing fingers.

“There’s no point in calling us back because that was the result of a conscious choice by the Republican majority,” said Coons, a Delaware Democrat.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told Fox News on Tuesday that the House can come back “on a moment’s notice,” but “the Senate has to do their job and help us on this heavy lift.”

But Thune, a South Dakota Republican, has been clear that he sees no way to get a DHS funding bill through the Senate with its 60-vote threshold for advancing legislation, known as the filibuster.

Still, Thune is coming under renewed pressure to find a way past the funding impasse — with calls from Trump and some conservatives to get rid of the filibuster.

That’s unlikely to work either because of a handful of Republican senators who have made it clear they won’t vote to change the Senate’s rules. Still, Trump told reporters Sunday night that, “They should terminate the filibuster and they should vote.”

Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, agreed. He said on social media that he thinks one of the only options for the Senate is to “nuke the filibuster and pass everything.”

“Inaction is unacceptable,” he added.

Cappelletti and Groves write for the Associated Press. AP writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

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Shohei Ohtani souvenir cups for $68.99? They could be worth the price

The limited edition Shohei Ohtani souvenir cup available at Dodger Stadium concession stands this season is pretty cool.

And at a mere $68.99, it’s a real bargain too … at least for people planning on attending enough Dodgers games to make the season-long free refills worth the cost. With fountain drinks running about $11.99 each this season, those babies pay for themselves in around six refills.

It’s definitely a better deal than on Opening Day, when the same Ohtani cups were being sold for $74.99. Photos posted on social media show concession stand signs stating that free refills were available only on the day of purchase. (Here’s hoping that no one attempted to make that investment pay for itself in refills all in one day.)

Two days later, the item was discounted by six dollars. The Dodgers confirmed the price drop to The Times but declined further comment.

On Saturday, an Instagram post from Dodger Stadium Hospitality revealed that the cups actually can be refilled for free at every 2026 home game.

“Limited Edition Collector’s Cup available now! Purchase your cup and receive fountain soda refills all season long,” read the post, which also featured photos that showed off a cup made to look just like Ohtani’s jersey, complete with his name and No. 17 with textured and raised plastic for an even more realistic appearance.

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As pricey as the Ohtani cups may be, there appears to be a lucrative resale market for them. As of Tuesday morning, five of those items are listed as sold on eBay at prices that range from $199.99 to $290. At least nine others are listed for sale with asking prices that range from $185 to $339.

Seems like a crazy amount to spend on a cup, especially since one could still be purchased at Dodger Stadium going into Monday night’s game against the Cleveland Guardian. Maybe the buyers are huge Ohtani fans who live in, say, Japan and can’t quite make it out to Chavez Ravine to add to their collection of memorabilia.

Or maybe they’re local fans who have a thirst that only 20-plus refills can quench.



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The two Taylor Lautners are expecting a baby Lautner soon

The two Taylor Lautners are expecting a baby.

“What’s better than two Taylor Lautners?”

That’s what the couple — call him Taylor and her Tay — wrote Thursday in a social media post announcing that a newborn was in their future.

The couple included four photos: The first showed the “Twilight” franchise star, 34, kissing the belly of his 29-year-old wife as she stands in a field holding sonogram images. The others showed them having fun in that same field as they celebrated the news.

That last one was in black and white and a little blurry, but it showed her sitting in a low chair, hands on her belly, cracking up as he sat low by her side with a big smile on his face. The sonogram made its way through all of the baby-on-board photos.

The couple offered no further details about the baby, including the due date.

Taylor Lautner met the former Taylor Dome in December 2017, and the two went public with their couplehood the next October and got married in November 2022 after a yearlong engagement. She was a registered nurse when they met; he was a few years off playing werewolf Jacob Black in the blockbuster franchise that brought a sparkly vampire-human love story to life.

While co-stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, who played Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, have charted distinctive acting careers since 2012, when “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2” debuted, Taylor has hung back a bit. He met Tay after his sister set them up with invites to the same game night.

Tay, by the way, was Team Edward, crushing on Pattinson more than Lautner when she experienced the “Twilight” franchise. “I was too young for Jacob’s abs,” Tay told Cosmopolitan in a 2025 profile of the Lautners.

“Yeah, when I was walking around in my little booty jean shorts and ripping my shirt off and my abs were on big screens, she’s 11 years old, throwing a ‘Twilight’ birthday party,” he told the magazine. Tay was “a breath of fresh air” for him after years of dating women who worked in the spotlight.

That list famously included Taylor Swift, his co-star in “Valentine’s Day,” with whom he coupled up for several months before that 2010 movie came out.

“Now I have my priorities straight,” Taylor Lautner told Cosmo. “If I do a project and it doesn’t go as planned, I’ll still be coming home to my family that’s always going to be there.”

And soon that family will be more than two.



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Photos: Scenes from the 2026 iHeart Music Awards

You thought the Oscars brought awards season to an end? Think again. The iHeartRadio Music Awards took place Thursday night with performances and appearances by Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Sombr, Weezer, Alex Warren, Shaboozey and John Mellencamp, among other stars. Here’s a glimpse at the best looks from the red carpet and the best moments of the show itself, which took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Show

Lainey Wilson performs onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Lainey Wilson performs onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Taylor Swift accepts the Pop Album of the Year award onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre.

Taylor Swift accepts the pop album of the year award onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Miley Cyrus accepts the Innovator Award onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Miley Cyrus accepts the Innovator Award onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

John Mellencamp, right, performs onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

John Mellencamp, right, performs onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

En Vogue perform onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Terry Ellis, from left, Cindy Herron and Maxine Jones of En Vogue perform at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Red Carpet

Miley Cyrus on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Miley Cyrus on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Ella Langley on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Ella Langley on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Shaboozey and Kehlani on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Shaboozey and Kehlani on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Cheryl Porter on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Cheryl Porter on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

En Vogue on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood

Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones and Terry Ellis of En Vogue on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Teddi Mellencamp on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Teddi Mellencamp on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

'3QUENCY' on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Brianna Mazzola and Wennely Quezada of ‘3QUENCY’ on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Sublime on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Sublime on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Brent Smith and Zach Myers of Shinedown on the red carpet at the Dolby Theatre for the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Brent Smith and Zach Myers of Shinedown on the red carpet for the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Return to Dust on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Graham Stanush, Sebastian Gonzalez, Matty Bielawski and London Hudson of Return to Dust on the red carpet for the iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

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Holiday travel warning as posting this photo online could cost you £4,200

The passport system is also changing soon

Families have been warned to be careful to avoid a costly mistake when heading away on holiday. The word of warning comes as key changes to the passport system are coming in soon.

Your holiday photos could cost you a lot of money and could invalidate your home insurance. Karishma Darji, from storage group Ready Steady Store, said: “Posting holiday selfies while you’re away might seem harmless, but it tells the world your home is empty. Insurers could view that as poor security.”

She said this mistake could land you a large bill if the worst happens.

Ms Darji said: ” If your property is burgled and investigators find public posts showing you were away, they may argue you didn’t take ‘reasonable care’ to protect your home.”

If your insurance is invalidated due to you posting a holiday snap while you are away from home and you are burgled, you will be responsible for covering the costs of any loss and damages yourself. Ms Darji said this could mean you end up with a four-figure bill to pay.

She explained: “The annual Crime Survey for England and Wales, published by the ONS in April 2025 shows that the average loss from burglary equates to £4,269. The average value of stolen items sits around £2,800, whereas damage from forced entry averages at £1,400.

“However, every house differs based on the value of possessions they own, so the total cost to replace items could be significantly higher.” In light of this danger, her simple word of advice is: “Save the snaps until you’re back to avoid invalidating your claim.”

Passport changes

This update comes as the cost of applying for a passport is soon to increase. Application fees are increasing by 8 per cent, with the new fees coming in from April 8.

The proposed increases, which need to be approved by Parliament, will include the following:

  • The standard online application submitted from within the UK will rise from £94.50 to £102 for adults
  • This will go up from £61.50 to £66.50 for children under 16
  • Postal applications will increase from £107 to £115.50 for adults and £74 to £80 for children under 16
  • The charge for a Premium Service (one-day) application submitted from within the UK will rise from £222 to £239.50
  • The charge for a standard online application for a UK adult passport when applying from overseas will rise from £108 to £116.50
  • This will also increase from £70 to £75.50 for children under 16
  • Standard paper applications for overseas passports will see a rise from £120.50 to £130 for adults, and from £82.50 to £89 for children under 16.

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Why I’m not taking down my César Chávez photo

The framed photo of César Chávez and Dolores Huerta sits in my personal office on a bookshelf crammed with volumes about California and the American West.

The two are at a 1973 United Farm Workers convention, presiding over the union they co-founded. After years of victories in the name of campesinos, the group and its charismatic leaders seem ready for what’s next.

A UFW banner emblazoned with the group’s famous black Aztec eagle logo hangs in the center of the picture, making Chávez and Huerta look like equals.

But they’re not.

He’s speaking from a podium, looking down and appearing cast in darkness due to Chávez blue vest melding into his black hair and brown skin. She’s by his side clasping her hands, wearing a colorful blouse that pales in radiance to Huerta’s hopeful face as she looks at the crowd before them.

It’s the only picture of historical figures that I display at home, and it’s in a place where I’m guaranteed to look at it. It has long served as my secular version of a prayer card, a daily reminder to fight for the good in the world and a reminder that giants before me faced challenges far more daunting than mine. It was also a testament to teamwork — when I acquired the photo a few years ago, it called to me in a way a solo Chávez never would have because I always knew el movimento was more than just one man.

Their portrait can never mean just those things ever again after the New York Times reported last week Chávez sexually assaulted two teenage girls in the 1970s and Huerta in the 1960s.

Places left and right — colleges, cities, classrooms, even states that mark Chávez’s birthday as a holiday — are now deleting his name and image from the public sphere. It’s not going to be a quick, easy task even if the cancellation is starting to take place with startling speed: Chávez’s presence is as ubiquitous in Mexican American life as the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Just this weekend, a friend acknowledged that he and his wife had just started reading a book about him to their 5-year-old daughter, a book they now plan to trash.

I thought of doing the same to my photo of Chávez and Huerta. But I’ve decided not to.

I don’t fault folks for wanting to scrub any hint of Chávez from their daily lives and neither does the Cesar Chavez Foundation, the nonprofit headed by his descendants that recently announced in a statement, “We support and respect whatever decision[s]” may come in the weeks and months to come. Communities are entitled to decide whom they should and shouldn’t publicly honor.

But to eradicate Chávez’s civic presence so fast — to tear down his statues, relabel streets and parks named in his honor, paint over his image on old and new murals, to throw away artwork that has adorned homes and offices for decades — doesn’t remove the fact that millions largely saw him as a champion of the downtrodden until last week. It can’t rescind the positive influence Chávez had on generations of Latinos and non-Latinos who saw in him the hopes of a people and now must reconcile their memories with his horrible deeds.

Historians, educators, activists and politicians for far too long elevated Chávez above Huerta in the name of a simplistic narrative that should’ve never been constructed. The public at large bought into those efforts with little skepticism in the understandable desire to have Latinos star in the American story. It’s a culpability we should all interrogate, not immediately purge.

That’s why not only am I keeping up my photo of Chávez and Huerta, I’m going to put it in a more prominent place from where I can’t look away.

The statue at Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Park in San Fernando is being covered.

Workers for the city of San Fernando cover the statue at Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Park on Thursday.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

It will serve as a memory of a tragic, tremendous moment in the history of Latinos in the United States, where we should be focusing our attention on a presidential administration that wants most of us gone but instead must deal with the fallout from the downfall of one of our own. It will challenge me anew to look past the big names of the past and highlight those whose stories aren’t nearly as known by the mainstream.

Seeing Huerta next to her abuser will forever remind me about how the now-95-year-old sacrificed her own mental health and safety in the name of something bigger than the two of them — a choice no one should ever have to make but one that she nevertheless did.

The photo will stand as the manifestation of the old newspaper adage that if your mom tells you she loves you, go check it out. No one should ever be above skepticism no matter how sanctified and righteous they may seem — that’s why the New York Times investigation crashed into the Chicano collective sense of self like a meteor. No one could’ve imagined that Chávez could’ve possibly done things so monstrous, but maybe we shouldn’t have built him up so much while he was alive and after his death in the first place.

My framed Chávez-Huerta memento will make me think of how the stories of sexual abuse survivors are still not heard enough or even believed. Even now, some Chávez defenders are casting doubt on the claims of Huerta and the three other women named in the New York Times story, questioning their motivations to come forward after decades of silence and decrying how their decision to do so has permanently tarnished the reputation of one the few nationally known Chicano heroes. In Huerta’s case, critics just don’t buy how someone who carried Chávez’s torch decades after his death could all of a sudden supposedly turn on him.

But as a Catholic who has long covered the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, I know that every sexual assault survivor has their own journey of recovery. I also know that we must always seek the truth instead of living a lie.

And turning Chávez into a historical footnote is a lie. He long served as a moral exemplar; he should now serve as a cautionary tale known to all.

Erasing historic figures from the public sphere is an exercise in power going back to the pharaohs, a way rulers ensured future generations couldn’t learn about their enemies. The push to nix Chávez comes from the trend in recent years by progressive activists to remove monuments that hail problematic figures under the pretense that someone’s sins trump any good they might have done no matter how influential they were.

Again, all communities have that right to reexamine the past. But we can’t and shouldn’t disappear the full story of Chávez, as painful as it is. It’s the easy way out — and remedying wrongs is never easy.

If the photo in my book shelf was only of Chávez, I’d still keep it up. The good he did was really good — the bad he committed was as terrible as it gets.

Somewhere in between stands the story of us.

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Commentary: The grief behind the cascade of online Dolores Huerta photos

The photos currently flooding my social media stream are like a highlight reel of the life of Chicana civil rights icon Dolores Huerta.

The famous 1960s-era black-and-white shot of her looking like a bohemian in sweatshirt and black paints while she holds up a sign proclaiming “HUELGA” in the grape fields of California’s Central Valley.

Chanting at the front of picket lines, strands of gray in her hair, in the 1980s.

Beaming as President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 for a lifetime of good work that expanded beyond the United Farm Workers union she co-founded.

What’s especially popular is admirers posting pictures of themselves with her — at protests, during art gallery openings, in classrooms, even dancing. It’s the type of public outpouring one usually sees when a celebrity dies. Sadly, there is grief involved in people sharing their encounters with her right now.

Someone didn’t die. But something did.

Earlier this week, Huerta’s disclosed to the New York Times that fellow Chicano civil rights icon Cesar Chavez raped her during the 1960s. It was part of a story that also interviewed two women who claimed the United Farm Workers co-founder sexually abused them when they were young teens in the 1970s.

One of the posts I saw soon after the story’s publication was an Instagram portrait Maricela Cueva took when the two met a few years ago during a conference in Burbank.

“Standing with Dolores Huerta,” said Cueva, president of the public relations firm VPE Communications, “means honoring her legacy in the farmworker movement as well as the victims who had the courage to come forward and acknowledging the personal sacrifices behind it.”

Former West Covina Mayor Brian Calderón Tabatabei shared on the platform formally known as Twitter a photo of him shaking hands with Huerta in Berkeley at a Working Families Party gathering for elected leaders in 2024, where she joined breakout sessions and listened to the next generation of leaders.

“I look at the folks who posted pictures and we are all children of the movement,” said Tabatabei, who’s also an El Monte High ethnic studies teacher. He kicks off each school year with a shout-out to Huerta. “She lived with that pain so we could be in these spaces. So we don’t have to be quiet.”

Together, the photos stand as a communal family album. It’s a show of love and solidarity to Huerta — but also a challenge to ourselves. Many of us immediately believed the longtime activist not just because of her stature, but because we’re sadly too familiar with the script playing out in real time.

A Latina abused by a trusted, powerful man. A terrible secret kept to not make him look bad and ruin his life. A need for the victim to consistently praise the abuser to others no matter what. A life of service in the form of sacrifice. Eternal grace masking an unimaginable pain.

Her story is the story of too many women I know and you know — and maybe the story of you.

Steely resolve in the face of suffering is not new in the Huerta story. For decades, reporters, activists, historians and others who formed the narrative of Chicano civil rights treated her as a modern-day Mary Magdalene — a woman who found purpose by following a man. Chavez was positioned as the Christlike figure who toiled for all of us at great personal cost and thus anointed the face of the farmworkers movement. Meanwhile, he and others relegated Huerta to sidekick status, both in the trenches and in the public — and the image makers followed his lead.

She found more prominence after his death in 1993, but Chavez’s shadow loomed over her for too long. Huerta became one of Chavez’s fiercest defenders even after revelations about his autocratic ways became public — but what else was she supposed to do when people tied so much of her identity to him?

Through it all, Huerta showed up not just for la causa but for those of others. People in Bakersfield, where Huerta lives, know she’s a supporter of arts and live music — she was seen dancing with family members at a Mardis Gras party just last month, gladly taking photos with well-wishers. I have run into her at my wife’s restaurant in Santa Ana, at movie theaters in Los Angeles, during online fundraisers for museums. My favorite memory is the time we both spoke to students at a high school summer conference. Afterward, the organizers told me her speaking fee was a pittance compared to that of a famous Latina author who demanded $25,000 for an hour-long chat.

That’s why Huerta’s recent revelations hit particularly hard — unlike the long-sainted Chavez, she always seemed more like one of us. Huerta has cycled through the stages of life in the public eye in a way that has seen Latinos relate to her over the decades as our daughter, our sister, our aunt. Our mother, grandmother and now great-grandmother in the winter of her years.

We all know women in one of those roles who suffered the same violations Huerta did. The same dismissals and insults. Who never spoke about their ignominies because they were afraid we wouldn’t be there for them.

Huerta was once one of them.

“I believed that exposing the truth,” Huerta wrote in a short essay, “would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”

By coming forward now, she’s speaking up for every woman who has kept their abuse private, every woman overlooked in favor of a man, every relative told to keep secrets lest they embarrass the family, every woman attacked for finally speaking up. By posting all those photos of Huerta — by herself, in a crowd, with others — people are publicly and unconsciously saying:

We can do better for the girls and women in our lives. We must do better.

“I have kept this secret long enough,” she concluded in her essay. “My silence ends here.”

May we all hear the Dolores Huertas in our lives. May we finally stand by them.

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Call me mommy! Carly Rae Jepsen, Cole M.G.N. welcome baby

Carly Rae Jepsen is officially in her mother era.

The Grammy-nominated “Call Me Maybe” pop star and her husband, music producer Cole M.G.N., welcomed their first child together months after tying the knot last fall. Jepsen, 40, revealed the arrival of her little one on Instagram.

“Last 2 weeks have been the best of my life,” the Canadian singer-songwriter captioned a photo shared to her Instagram story on Tuesday. The photo, a mirror selfie, shows Jepsen all smiles in a leopard-print bucket hat, white shirt and black shorts as she cradles her child, who wears a green-striped onesie.

“Welcome to the world little one,” Jepsen wrote.

“Run Away With Me” singer Jepsen and music producer Cole M.G.N. — whose full name is Cole Marsden Greif-Neil — exchanged their vows in late October at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, three years after striking up a romance in 2022. A month later, Jepsen announced she and her husband were expecting.

“Oh hi baby,” she captioned a set of baby-bump-baring photos shared to Instagram in November. In the tender maternity shoot, Jepsen cradles her bump in bed alongside Marsden Greif-Neil. Jepsen continued posting on Instagram about her maternity journey with fans, in January posting photos from the beach, from home and from fitting rooms as she spoke about finding a lullaby for her child-to-be.

On Tuesday, she channeled a Frankie Valli classic to express her “Emotion” about being a mother: “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

Last year, Jepsen celebrated 10 years of her cult-favorite album “Emotion,” the follow-up to her 2012 smash hit “Call Me Maybe.” She celebrated the milestone with a lively anniversary concert in August at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, featuring celebrity guests and moments of reflection.

“I had brought a little suitcase, and I kept calling my parents and saying, ‘Send more clothes!’” Jepsen said, recalling her move to Los Angeles from her native Canada when she was 26. “Five years later, I was like, I think I live here now. I’m very happy to say L.A. has become my home.”

Pop music critic Mikael Wood contributed to this report.



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Zendaya spills the tea on pics of ‘wedding’ to Tom Holland

Zendaya and Tom Holland exchanged their vows in a luxurious ceremony off the Italian coast attended by previous “Spider-Man” duos Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst and officiated, obviously, by Robert Downey Jr.

At least that’s what one improbable image fantasized in a recent slew of AI-generated “wedding photos” circulating online.

“Tomdaya” (Tom + Zendaya) fans in recent weeks took it upon themselves to conjure up photos from the “Spider-Man” co-stars’ supposed nuptials, further stoking speculation that the betrothed stars, both 29, had said their vows. The phony wedding photos began making the rounds on social media after Law Roach, Zendaya’s longtime stylist, claimed earlier this month that “the wedding’s already happened.” Zendaya broke her silence on the photos and wedding rumors on Monday, telling late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that “many people have been fooled by them.”

The “Challengers” and “Dune” star, promoting her upcoming film “The Drama,” told Kimmel that the viral AI images caused people to approach her and congratulate her for the “gorgeous” ceremony and had even duped people in her close circles.

“Babe, they’re AI,” she recalled telling loved ones. “They’re not real.”

“Odyssey” co-stars Zendaya and Holland were first romantically linked in 2021, years after first sharing the screen in 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” Zendaya memorably teased her engagement to the British actor at the 2025 Golden Globes, when she stepped out on the red carpet with a ring on that finger. At that awards show, when former Times columnist Amy Kaufman asked the actor if she was engaged, Zendaya flashed her ring, smiled coyly and shrugged her shoulders.

Earlier this year, eagle-eyed fans had their eyes on another ring. Tomdaya wedding rumors began gaining traction when Zendaya was spotted on Feb. 18 with a plain gold band on her left ring finger in place of her engagement diamond. Weeks after that, stylist Roach made his bold claim, one he danced away from at the 2026 Academy Awards on Sunday.

When the Hollywood Reporter asked Roach about his comment during the Oscars red carpet, he turned his attention elsewhere. “I think the weather’s really amazing today, it’s so sunny it’s a little warm but it’s beautiful,” he said.

During her late-night spot, Zendaya did not confirm or deny whether she and Holland had tied the knot but instead offered a video to “clear the confusion.” The video, a wedding scene from “The Drama,” shows Zendaya’s character posing alongside co-star Robert Pattinson’s, though his face is obscured by a picture of Holland.

“That was real footage,” she quipped. “That was real, I was there.”

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Lakers’ Luka Doncic in a custody battle for his two daughters

Luka Doncic is attempting to bring his daughters to the United States from his native Slovenia after separating from his fiancée, according to reports.

His former fiancée, Anamaria Goltes, 28, has filed a petition in California seeking child support and attorney fees from Doncic. One of Doncic’s daughters was with him for three months in 2025, and his other daughter has never been to California. Doncic, 27, told ESPN that he had “no idea” Goltes filed the petition.

“I love my daughters more than anything, and I’ve been doing everything I can for them to be with me in the U.S. during the season, but that hasn’t been possible, so I recently made the tough decision to end my engagement,” Doncic said in a statement. “Everything I do is for my daughters’ happiness, and I will always fight to be with them and give them the best life I can.”

Doncic and Goltes were engaged for nearly three years. Their oldest daughter, Gabriela, was born in November 2023, and Olivia was born in December. Doncic traveled to Slovenia for Olivia’s birth, missing games against the Toronto Raptors on Dec. 4 and Boston Celtics on Dec. 5.

During his visit, Doncic told Goltes he wanted to bring Gabriela to the United States when he returned to rejoin the Lakers, according to reports. Goltes objected, and Doncic departed without his daughter.

“I don’t even know how to describe it,” he told reporters of being present for Olivia’s birth. “It was a lot. I was there for the birth of my daughter, so that means everything to me. But it was definitely a roller coaster.

“I got to see my daughter again, my newborn. Coming back, it was kind of hard to leave them behind. But it’s a job, so I got to do it. So hopefully I’ll see them soon.”

Doncic posted a photo on social media of Olivia wearing a pink sweater with a heart emoji covering her face. In his first game back, he inscribed a G and O with a heart on his shoes.

“Two girls, they’re going to make my life hell for sure, I know that,” Doncic said, half-joking. “I’m going to be their security after I retire. All jokes aside, it’s the best thing in the world. I’m just blessed.”

Goltes deleted photos of her and Doncic from her Instagram account last week, and Doncic acknowledged that they had separated. Two weeks ago, he filed an injunction with a Slovenian court seeking immediate contact with his daughters, ESPN reported.

Doncic, who was traded to the Lakers from the Dallas Mavericks for Anthony Davis in February 2025, leads the NBA with a 32.5 points-per-game average. The guard also averages 8.4 assists and 7.8 rebounds.



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