British actor Pauline Collins, who earned an Oscar nomination for her turn as the stuck-in-a-rut housewife of “Shirley Valentine,” has died. She was 85.
Collins’ family said in a statement Thursday that the actor died peacefully this week at her care home in north London after living with Parkinson’s disease for several years. In the statement, her family said Collins “was so many things to so many people, playing a variety of roles in her life.”
“A bright, sparky, witty presence on stage and screen,” the family described the versatile actor, whose career began in the 1960s.
Collins was well into her 40s when she starred in “Shirley Valentine,” a witty but disgruntled homemaker who accepts a girlfriend’s offer to travel to Greece to bring much-needed spice back to her life. “Sex for breakfast, sex for dinner, sex for tea and sex for supper,” Shirley proudly declares in the 1989 film, directed by Lewis Gilbert.
For Collins, “Shirley Valentine” was more than just an ode to womanhood, self-love and self-discovery. It was also a chance to challenge the conventions of aging in entertainment, including by shooting a nude scene for the film.
“My only sorrow was that I wasn’t younger and thinner,” a 49-year-old Collins told The Times in 1989. “But if I were Jamie Lee Curtis, I wouldn’t have been right for the part.”
“Shirley Valentine,” which also starred Tom Conti as her on-screen Greek lover and Alison Steadman as her friend, led Collins to receive her sole Academy Award nomination, a nod in the leading actress category. The film also received an original song Oscar nomination for Patti Austin’s “The Girl Who Used to Be Me,” written by Marvin Hamlisch and husband-wife lyricist duo Alan and Marilyn Bergman.
Two years before the film’s premiere, Collins originated the role of Shirley Valentine in London for Willy Russell’s one-woman play of the same name. That led to her Broadway debut in 1989 and a Tony Award for best actress in a play the same year. She also won accolades for the play at the Laurence Olivier Awards and a BAFTA for her work in the film adaptation.
Beyond “Shirley Valentine,” Collins was also known for appearing in dozens of TV series including “Upstairs, Downstairs,” “Forever Green,” “The Ambassador,” “Mount Pleasant” and “Dickensian.” She also appeared in films including “City of Joy,” “Paradise Road” and “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” counting Patrick Swayze, Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins among her co-stars.
Throughout her decades-long screen career, Collins also continued her work in theater, including productions of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Woman in Mind” and “Cinderella.”
Collins, born in 1940, was raised near Liverpool by a schoolteacher mother and a headmaster father. She told The Times in 1989 that her dad “was one of the early feminists.”
“He had three daughters and always offered us everything that a boy would have — education and stuff,” she said. “[My parents] had a completely shared domestic situation, they both worked, cooked, did the washing. He even washed nappies [diapers] by hand.”
Her marriage to “Upstairs, Downstairs” co-star John Alderton — they married in 1969 — was not too different. “He just spent five months holding down the fort at home while I was on Broadway,” she recalled.
Alderton, 84, said Thursday that Collins’ “greatest performance was as my wife and mother to our beautiful children.”
While Collins was known for her scenic and romantic on-screen vacation to the Greek coast, she preferred a different kind of destination off-screen: St. Petersburg, Fla.
“It’s amazing, people think when you’re on your own you’re going off to have wonderful sexual adventures. Here I am, on my own, going off to Disney World,” she told The Times. “What does that say about me?”
Wolves have made an approach to Middlesbrough about appointing Rob Edwards as their new head coach.
BBC Sport reported on Sunday that former Luton manager Edwards was among the leading contenders to replace Vitor Pereira, who was sacked following Wolves’ 10-game winless start to the Premier League season.
Wolves held talks with former boss Gary O’Neil, but the 42-year-old withdrew from the running on Monday.
Former Wolves player Edwards, also 42, has always been a strong candidate at Molineux and is emerging as the preferred choice.
It is understood the relegation-threatened club have made contact with Middlesbrough, who are third in the Championship, regarding their interest in appointing Edwards.
Whether that level of contact constitutes an official approach from Wolves to discuss the vacancy with Edwards is unclear, but the wheels are now in motion towards the Premier League side accelerating their plan to make an appointment.
It is understood Wolves would be required to pay significant compensation to Middlesbrough to secure Edwards, who only took over at the Riverside Stadium in June.
Wolves are bottom of the table with only two points after 10 games – eight points adrift of 17th-placed Burnley.
BRIDGERTON’S Simone Ashley is in pole position to feature in the sequel to Brad Pitt’s movie F1.
The 30-year-old, who starred with Jonathan Bailey in the Netflix romance, was cast in this year’s flick but her scenes were cut.
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Simone Ashley is in pole position to feature in the sequel to Brad Pitt’s movie F1Credit: GettySimone wows in a barely there outfitCredit: GettySimone shot to fame after starring in the hit Netflix show Sex EducationCredit: Getty
A source said: “A script is already in the works with early plans to go into production next year.”
As well as appearing in Sex Education, Ashley has also lent her acting chops to suspense drama Thriller.
She shot to fame after starring in the hit Netflix show Sex Education.
The star developed her acting skills at the Arts Ed school in Chiswick, which specializes in Musical Theatre & Acting degrees.
Simone has spoken about coming from a traditional Indian family, who finds her acting career “quite scary and unsettling”.
She told Veylex: “My parents are incredibly protective over me, and sometimes I found it quite stifling.
“It made me want to escape and do things my own way. I’ve always been a bit rebellious in that sense.”
“I am incredibly privileged to be apart of a generation where young women from all over the world have more opportunity than ever before, where we are being less stereotyped and walls and being broken down slowly.”
Simone strikes a pose in this ensembleCredit: GettyBrad Pitt as Sonny Hayes in F1Credit: AlamySimone (as Kate Sharma) with Jonathan Bailey (as Anthony Bridgerton), in Netflix show BridgertonCredit: Netflix
FORMER Corrie actress Michelle Keegan is being courted for her first Hollywood film role.
US screen star Reese Witherspoon is keen for the 38-year-old to play the lead in a big-budget movie adaptation of her new novel.
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Michelle Keegan is being courted for her first Hollywood film roleCredit: GettyHollywood A-lister Reese Witherspoon is keen for Michelle to play the lead in her upcoming filmCredit: Refer to sourceEx-soap star Michelle became a global success thanks to mystery drama Fool Me OnceCredit: Getty
Oscar-winner Reese, 49, wrote crime thriller Gone Before Goodbye with American author Harlan Coben, who was behind Michelle’s Netflix hit show Fool Me Once.
Harlan introduced the women to each other at the launch of the book at the London Literature Festival, held at the capital’s Festival Hall last weekend.
A source said: “Harlan has been singing Michelle’s praises to Reese and she was keen to meet her. They got on really well and it was clear Reese was really taken with Michelle.
“The plan is to turn the book into a film and Michelle is their first choice to take on the role of the lead character, Maggie McCabe.
“She is a combat surgeon and Michelle previously played an Army medic in Our Girl on the BBC, so it’s a role they know she could take on with style.
“It’s early days but Harlan and Reese think Michelle is tailor-made for this role and would love her to come on board when the time is right.”
Ex-soap star Michelle became a global success after the mystery drama Fool Me Once was released last year.
The series became one of Netflix’s most watched TV shows of 2024 — with more than 107 million people streaming it worldwide in the first 90 days.
Best-selling author Harlan said of his leading lady: “I think what Michelle has, besides tremendous talent and all the other stuff, is a genuine authenticity.
“I think the audience, loves her, people want to follow her life, because they sense that there’s a kindness and a gentleness.
“And that’s really her, she’s truly authentic.”
Speaking last year, 63-year-old Harlan insisted he would be keen to work with her again and reckoned: “If we could get Michelle, we’d love to get Michelle.”
Fans of Michelle, from Stockport — who has a daughter with Heart FM DJ husband Mark Wright — will next see her on screen in ITV crime drama The Blame.
She plays Detective Inspector Emma Crane in the six-parter, which is an adaptation of Charlotte Langley’s 2023 debut novel of the same name.
Michelle is also known for her roles in the Sky One comedy drama Brassic and BBC drama Ten Pound Poms, about Brits who migrated to Australia in the 1950s.
Michelle is also known for her role in the Sky One comedy drama BrassicCredit: Sky UK LimitedReese wrote crime thriller Gone Before Goodbye with American author Harlan Coben
When Charlie Sheen needed his then-13-year-old daughter taken to a hair appointment because he was too drunk to drive, he turned to his sober friend, Tony Todd.
When Sheen wanted to meet Carlos Estévez because the major league pitcher shared Sheen’s given name, he turned to his connected friend, Tony Todd.
When Sheen was in the throes of a crack addiction, fired from his starring role on “Two and a Half Men” and in need of an unwavering voice of encouragement, he turned to his non-judgmental friend Tony Todd.
“There are so many fake friends in Charlie’s life,” Todd said. “I’ve been there for him since we were little kids. The cool thing is, we’ve never had an argument.”
Thanks to the recent Netflix documentary “aka Charlie Sheen” and publication of “The Book of Sheen” memoir, Todd’s 50-year friendship with the mercurial actor has been revealed to the world. Todd’s social media accounts have since been flooded with praise from viewers far and wide.
“I had to reach out immediately to say you were and remain an angel from heaven.”
“You are the friend we would all like to have man, greetings from Spain!”
“Dear Tony, If you ever visit Istanbul, it would be our honor to host you in our hotel…. You are not only a great actor but also a true friend.”
“You … are a stellar human being [heart emoji].”
Todd and Sheen have been pals since they bonded through baseball, first on Little League fields in Malibu, then on the Santa Monica High School team, then while taking batting practice in Sheen’s posh indoor batting cage, then while putting on power-hitting displays at local high school fields and even Dodger Stadium.
And their friendship spread into their private lives, with Todd serving as best man at the first two of Sheen’s three marriages and serving as a drug-free wingman even when Sheen descended into a chaotic, self-destructive morass of cocaine, alcohol and reckless sex.
“There’s never been a call he hasn’t answered, there’s never been a crisis he didn’t help solve,” Sheen said in a phone interview. “Tony Todd has always been a friend, and a true one.”
The documentary “aka Charlie Sheen” is a first-person tell-all, with the narrative helped along by Sheen’s oldest brother, Ramon, childhood neighbor Sean Penn, “Two and a Half Men” co-star Jon Cryer and executive producer Chuck Lorre, drug dealer Marco Abeyta and ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller.
And, of course, Todd. He laughs. He cries. He exudes honesty and empathy.
“He’s just one of my favorite people to have around in any situation,” Sheen said.
All of it certainly has made Todd — not to be confused with the actor of the same name who starred in “Candyman” and died a year ago — fame-adjacent.
Although he has enjoyed a career that includes acting/stuntman roles in both “Black Panther” movies and acting roles in the movie “Little Big League,” the TV show “Anger Management” and more than two dozen national commercials, Todd is best known in Santa Monica as the dude who can’t say no to volunteer fundraisers and sports a vanity license plate that reads “NVR KWT.”
Just this summer he helped raise $10,000 for Santa Monica Little League by hosting an outdoor screening of “Little Big League” and tapping into his vast contact list of pro athletes and A-list entertainers to attract silent-auction items.
And Todd was hailed as a “real hero” by authorities after he gave $700 to a family of five who had been robbed of their rent money in Lancaster in 2018. He was “so moved by the family’s story” that he jumped in his car and drove from Santa Monica to the high desert to hand-deliver the money.
His friendship with Sheen resonates with many, in part because Todd professes never to have taken a drug or a drink. Sheen, of course, was the poster man-child of substance abuse until becoming sober in December 2017, the day he relinquished his car keys to Todd to drive his daughter Sami to a hair salon appointment in Moorpark.
When Sheen was addicted to crack, Todd moved into his friend’s Mulholland Estates house in Beverly Hills. Even then, Sheen wouldn’t smoke the drug in Todd’s presence, and they often would end evenings watching MLB Network or ESPN’s “Sports Center.”
“I didn’t do hard stuff in front of him, just out of respect,” Sheen said.
Todd wept in “aka Charlie Sheen” when he explained why he continued to live with his friend knowing the actor was often smoking crack in the next room.
“I just can’t leave him to die,” he said.
Happier times occurred when they would head to a ball field to hit. Years earlier, after suffering a shoulder injury, Sheen had learned to bat left-handed, taking a hundred or so swings a day off an Iron Mike pitching machine in his indoor batting cage.
While filming a DirecTV commercial at Dodger Stadium in 2007, Sheen stepped into the batter’s box during a lunch break and crushed a pitch over the right-field wall. Todd whooped and hollered, in no small part because he had bet a Dodgers employee that his buddy would go deep.
“I knew it was going to happen because of all the [batting practice] we’d been taking,” Todd said.
Sheen also increased his strength by taking massive doses of testosterone, which he mentions in the documentary and alluded to in a 2015 interview when he said his HIV-positive diagnosis wasn’t the reason for his epic meltdown in 2011 after he was fired from “Two and a Half Men.”
“I wish I could blame it on that, but that was more of a ’roid rage,” said Sheen, who earlier had admitted he took steroids ahead of filming the 1989 hit movie “Major League,” in which he played pitcher Ricky (Wild Thing) Vaughn.
Todd had a video shot of batting sessions at Oak Park and Santa Clarita Hart high schools around 2008. Sheen hit a home run Todd estimated traveled 445 feet at Oak Park and hit a barrage of homers at Hart in the presence of Hall of Fame slugger Eddie Murray and the Hart High team.
Todd followed Sheen’s power display at Hart with a home run of his own. Todd was a talented-enough baseball and football player to earn a double scholarship to USC, although a serious injury his senior year in high school cost him the free ride.
His baseball ability landed him the role of Mickey Scales in “Little Big League” and his astonishing speed delighted Sheen even into their 40s. During one of their batting sessions at Oak Park High, Todd was challenged to a race around the bases by an onlooker.
Sheen told the man to start the race at second base while Todd started at home plate.
“By the time they rounded third, Tony had passed him, and after touching the plate he grabbed a glove and pretended to tag the guy when he reached the plate,” Sheen said, laughing.
Todd served as a baseball coach at Santa Monica High for several years, and in 2013 he lobbied for the school to award Sheen his diploma — the actor had been 1½ credits short 30 years earlier and hadn’t graduated.
Todd reached out to his friend Ross Mark, who handled bookings for “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” and they concocted a plan to have Sheen on as a guest and for Leno to surprise him with the diploma.
Todd walked on stage with the diploma and Sheen — who had quickly donned a cap and gown — gave him a hug, his lifelong friend having effectively smoothed over one more rough patch in his life.
Lío Mehiel has been working for a moment like “After the Hunt” for a long time.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, this thorny morality play of a film set at Yale University pits well-liked professor Alma (played by Julia Roberts) against both her protegé, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), as well as her longtime friend and colleague Hank (Andrew Garfield) during a scandal that risks her entire academic career.
Amid that starry A-list cast, the actor plays Maggie’s partner, Alex. The film, which had its world premiere in August at the Venice Film Festival, is Mehiel’s most high-profile project yet.
“There is so much time as an artist where you are doing the work and nobody cares and you have to find within yourself the motivation and the commitment and the drive to keep going,” Mehiel tells The Times. “Because you know that when you are going to be able to reach people, it will be worth it.”
Such a step has been years in the making. Mehiel, who lived in Puerto Rico until they were 5 years old, began their creative endeavors almost as soon as they arrived in New York City, first as a salsa dancer and later as an actor. By the time they were in fifth grade they were attending Broadway auditions, eventually booking a role in the 2003 revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” starring Ashley Judd and Jason Patric.
(L to R) Lio Mehiel as Alex and Ayo Edebiri as Maggie in AFTER THE HUNT, from Amazon MGM Studios.
But as they began finding their own sense of self and body, they also found the kind of opportunities that led them to “After the Hunt.” That began in earnest back in 2023, when they starred in Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s film “Mutt” as Feña, a role they booked after cold-emailing the director and telling them they’d do anything to win that part. The film chronicled a particularly hectic day in the life of a young trans man in New York City, as he struggles to rekindle old relationships he’d severed since he’d transitioned. Mehiel’s soulful performance won them a Special Jury Award for Acting at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, putting them on the map as a trans Latine performer to watch.
“Moving forward from ‘Mutt,’ I was really interested in building on that momentum to what’s next,” they say. Not just in terms of their career but in the broader cultural conversation around contemporary queer and trans representation. The following year, they returned to Sundance with Alessandra Lacorazza’s “In the Summers,” which walked away from the festival with the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury prize — the first for a film directed by a Latina director. Like “Mutt,” that sun-dappled film found Mehiel breathing life into a trans character navigating a thorny relationship with their father (played by renowned Puerto Rican rapper Residente).
Mehiel has long been building a body of work that centers on the very work of having a body. Just this past summer, they visited the Salton Sea for a performance installation titled “angels of a drowning myth.” In photos from that day, Mehiel is seen naked and half-submerged into that so-called sea, posing alongside a bust of their own chest made six months after they’d received top surgery. A portrait of a body twice represented, Mehiel’s piece stressed the solidity and malleability of their own body, and the beauty they find within and around it. Their work moves past familiar ideas of the body in transition, gleefully embracing the messiness of the queer experience and refusing the easy siren call of visibility.
“‘After the Hunt,’ is such a beautiful example of that because Alex is a queer and trans character, but we just see them getting home from a run, taking their shirt off, being with their partner, dealing with stuff that has nothing to do with their queerness,” Mehiel says.
That moment Alex first appears on screen is quintessential Mehiel. Not just because of the honeyed intimacy their sweaty, bare chest exudes. But because their appearance immediately reframes everything audiences have heard about this seemingly militant, radical social justice warrior. Alex at first appears as a figure of “woke” culture there to defy the older generation Roberts’ Alma comes to stand for. But there’s more to them than that.
“Alex doesn’t represent all queer people who have a political orientation in the world, all queer people who might attend a protest,” they explain. “I think what Luca did and what Nora did in the script was to give us all an opportunity to move away from identity politics. Instead, they gave each of the characters enough meat on their bones that they get to be complex, messy characters.”
“After the Hunt” may focus on complicated ethical questions surrounding sexual assault allegations at a university, but within that plot, Mehiel sees also a chance for viewers to catch a glimpse of characters like Maggie and Alex who may not otherwise be centered in such stories.
“I’m just excited that there is more exposure that people are having to queer and trans people and to queer relationships, and how that can fit in the context of a ‘normative’ world,” they add. “This is a movie with Julia Roberts, one of our biggest stars and crown jewels of Hollywood and of American cinema. There’s going to be a lot of folks that are going to see it because Julia is in it. And then they’re also going to get to experience a queer and trans person on screen who is likable in some moments and unlikable in others, just as much as every other character.”
That’s been Mehiel’s purpose for years now: to expand what queer and trans characters can look like on stage, on screen and, in turn, in real life. At a time when these communities are vilified by those who wish to harm them, Mehiel insists on the importance of such normalized visibility.
Lio Mehiel seen at the Los Angeles Premiere of Amazon MGM Studios’ “After The Hunt” at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 04, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo by Stewart Cook / Amazon MGM Studios via Getty Images)
“Honestly, exposure to these experiences creates connection more than anything and allows people to feel comfortable,” they add. “Because the political climate right now — for the Latine community and for the trans community — is really hard and heartbreaking and challenging. And I think so much of it has to do with people feeling like they don’t know who these people are.”
A central kernel of the premise of “After the Hunt” is that you never know what someone is going through. And, more to the point, that making assumptions about other people’s experience can be extremely dangerous.
“This movie really serves as a mirror to the people that are watching it,” Mehiel insists. The film confronts audiences with their own biases and refuses any tidy conclusions.
But for Mehiel, the film will forever be remembered as a highlight of a career that is only bound to get bigger and more exciting. Just this year, they spent the summer at the Williamstown Theatre Festival starring in Jeremy O. Harris’ new play as well as serving as head of production for “Mother, Daughter, Holy Spirit,” a grassroots fundraiser for the Trans Justice Funding Project, all while continuing to pursue their various interests as artist, writer, and filmmaker. In that context, “After the Hunt” stands now less as a calling card than as a reminder of how far they’ve come and yet how much further they want to go. That film, now playing in theaters and coming soon to Prime Video, will widen the scope and reach of their artistry.
“Watching it, I was like, ‘I fit right into the fabric of the movie,’” they say. “On a personal journey level, I feel confident that I have the skill, the talent and the experience at this point to work with the masters that I dream of working with (if the sexy French filmmaker, Julia Ducournau, ever reads this interview, she should know that I want to work with her).”
Or, in much simpler terms that echo an ethos they’ve brought to bear on and off screen: “I just feel ready and able to actualize the things that I have been dreaming about for a long time.”
Jeremy Sheffield has played Patrick Blake and his twin brother Jez in Hollyoaks, but the actor also appeared in Coronation Street
Angie Quinn Screen Time Reporter
22:31, 21 Oct 2025
Jez Blake arrived in Hollyoaks as the twin of his deceased brother Patrick(Image: Channel 4)
Hollyoaks actor Jeremy Sheffield previously appeared in Coronation Street before securing his memorable parts on the Channel 4 drama.
The 59-year-old actor is recognised for portraying Chester’s Patrick Blake between 2012 and 2016, and has recently returned to the enduring soap as the character’s twin sibling Jez.
Jeremy initially left Hollyoaks in 2016, when his character met a shocking end at the hands of killer granddaughter Nico Blake (Persephone Swales-Dawson).
Discussing his character in 2024, actor Jeremy hinted at a troubling history between Jez and his late twin, reports the Manchester Evening News.
He revealed to Inside Soap magazine: “A huge event blew the brothers apart and Jez disappeared – whatever went on was so traumatic he just had to escape. I imagine Jez was Patrick’s first victim.”
However, before the actor set foot in Chester as Patrick or his wicked serial killer twin Jez, Jeremy featured on competing soap Coronation Street and contributed to a beloved character’s exit.
In December 2011, Jeremy joined the Cobbles as Danny Stratton, who became a fresh romantic prospect for unlucky-in-love Becky McDonald (Katherine Kelly).
Danny, working as a hotel manager, initially encountered Becky at a perfect moment as she attempted to move forward from her collapsed marriage to Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson), who had swiftly begun a fresh relationship with Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford).
Becky and Danny’s romance hit a rocky start when she discovered a woman and a young lad at his house, leading her to believe he was a married man.
However, Danny quickly clarified that the individuals were his sister and son, Billy.
When Tracy accused her romantic rival of causing her miscarriage, the Weatherfield locals turned against Becky.
But, Danny, being the good soul he is, stepped in to clear Becky’s name and expose Tracy as a fibber.
Just as things seemed to be looking up for the new couple, Danny and Becky, they were left heartbroken when his hotel company moved him to Barbados, putting their relationship in jeopardy.
In a surprising romantic turn, Becky chose to join Danny and Billy in their new life overseas, bidding a final farewell to Weatherfield in January 2012.
Apart from Hollyoaks and Corrie, soap star Jeremy has featured in several other telly shows and films, including Murder in Suburbia, Hotel Babylon, Creep and The Wedding Date.
He also portrayed Alex Adams in Holby City from 2000 to 2003. In 2010, he took part in the ITV series Dancing On Ice.
According to IMDB, Jeremy’s first acting gig was as a dancer in Queen’s iconic music video for the chart-topping ‘I Want To Break Free’. He also played the man in Natalie Imbruglia’s music video Torn.
Hollyoaks airs Monday to Wednesday on E4 at 7pm and first look episodes can be streamed Channel 4 from 7am
Arsenal, who host Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday (20:00 BST), have changed their style this season to be more direct and play through defensive lines quicker, which has meant Rice moving deeper alongside Zubimendi when starting attacks.
A recruitment specialist working in top level football told BBC Sport how the signing of Zubimendi has complemented Rice’s game.
He said: “It hasn’t changed what he can do as he has done it before, but it [Zubimendi’s arrival] has given him more ability to be an all-rounder.
“He already had the ability to contribute in the holding game but now he is able to excel in attacking phases.
“His ability to take the ball on the half-turn allows his first touch to be always forward when he receives it.
“The attacking role hasn’t phased him. He has grasped it really well and you can tell it’s something he’s always had.”
Rice already has three assists and one goal in his 11 games for Arsenal this season.
For his goal against West Ham, Rice arrived late into the box to meet a bouncing ball and finish well to score Arsenal’s opener in their 2-0 win.
And the recruitment specialist believes Rice, though known for his running ability, does not get the plaudits he deserves.
“A lot of people don’t really give him the credit he is due for his athleticism,” he said. “He is extremely athletic and a good mover.
“He has the freedom to create in the attacking area of the pitch, he is excellent in holding, he is such a fluent player and performs with the freedom he has been given.
“A good player, good passing, but can also be gritty and break up play. He is a commanding midfield player.
“I like the fact that he can dictate the tempo of the game. Really good precision in his actions. He has transitioned seamlessly to a box-to-box player.”
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures held its fifth annual star-studded fundraising gala Saturday at its Wilshire Boulevard campus.
An unrecognizable Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Demi Moore and Elle and Dakota Fanning were among the celebrity guests at the event, which debuted in 2021 upon the film museum’s long-awaited opening. The gala raises funds for museum exhibitions, education initiatives and public programming.
The Academy Museum collected more than $11 million in donations at last year’s gala, which honored Quentin Tarantino, Paul Mescal and Rita Moreno.
This year’s gala honorees included actor Penélope Cruz, director Walter Salles, comedian Bowen Yang and musician Bruce Springsteen, who was presented with the inaugural Legacy Award and performed live at the ceremony. A biopic about the rock legend, starring “The Bear’s” Jeremy Allen White, hits theaters Oct. 24.
Springsteen and Cruz, the recipient of this year’s Icon Award, are both Academy Award winners, the former for his original song “Streets of Philadelphia” — which he wrote for Tom Hanks’ 1993 legal drama “Philadelphia” — and the latter for her role in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (2008).
Salles, presented with the Luminary Award for innovative filmmaking, last year gave Brazil its first Academy Award for international film with his moving family drama “I’m Still Here.” Fernanda Torres was also nominated for her role as the Paiva family matriarch in the 2024 movie.
Yang received the Vantage Award, “honoring an artist or scholar who has helped to contextualize and challenge dominant narratives around cinema.” The “SNL” darling and “Las Culturistas” podcast host will return as Glinda’s sidekick Pfannee in “Wicked: For Good,” hitting theaters Nov. 21.
Gala attendees spared no expense with their donations or their ensembles, with Jenna Ortega wearing a futuristic Grace Ling halter top, Rachel Zegler channeling Old Hollywood in Tamara Ralph Couture, Olivia Rodrigo sporting vintage Giorgio Armani Privé and Eva Longoria rocking Elie Saab.
Here are the best looks, captured by Times photographer Eric Thayer.
At 5:37 p.m. Wednesday, Michael Buble’s “Feeling Good” blared from the Dodger Stadium speakers.
Shohei Ohtani came strolling to the plate with a bat in his hands.
There was no one in the stands, of course. Nor an opposing pitcher on the mound. The Dodgers, on this workout day after returning from Milwaukee, were still some 22 hours away from resuming their National League Championship Series against the Brewers. For any other player, it would have been a routine affair.
Ohtani, however, is not just any player.
And among the many things that make him unique, his habit of almost never taking batting practice on the field is one of the small but notable ones.
Which made his decision to do so Wednesday a telling development.
Over the last two weeks, Ohtani has been in a slump. Since the start of the NL Division Series, he is just two-for-25 with a whopping 12 strikeouts. He has been smothered by left-handed pitching. He has made poor swing decisions and failed to slug the ball.
Last week, manager Dave Roberts went so far as to say the Dodgers were “not gonna win the World Series with that sort of performance” from their $700-million slugger.
Thus, out Ohtani came for batting practice on Wednesday in the most visible sign yet of his urgency for a turnaround.
“The other way to say it is that, if I hit, we will win,” Ohtani said in Japanese when asked about Roberts’ World Series quote earlier Wednesday afternoon. “I think he thinks that if I hit, we will win. I’d like to do my best to do that.”
In Roberts’ view, Ohtani has already started improving from his woeful NLDS, when he struck out nine times in 18 trips to the plate against a left-handed-heavy Philadelphia Phillies staff that, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman emphatically put it, had “the most impressive execution against a hitter I’ve ever seen.”
In Game 1 of the NLCS against the Brewers, Ohtani was 0-for-two but walked three times; twice intentionally but another on a more disciplined five-pitch at-bat to lead off the game against left-handed opener Aaron Ashby.
The following night, he went only one-for-five with three more strikeouts, giving him 15 this postseason, second-most in the playoffs. But he did have an RBI single, marking his first run driven in since Game 2 of the NLDS. He followed that with a steal, swiping his first bag of the playoffs. And earlier in the game, he scorched a lineout to right at 115.2 mph, the hardest he’d hit a ball since taking Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene deep in the team’s postseason opener.
“The first two games in Milwaukee, his at-bats have been fantastic,” Roberts said Wednesday, before heading out to the field and watching Ohtani’s impromptu BP session.
“That’s what I’ve been looking for. That’s what I’m counting on,” he added, while noting the careful approach the Brewers have also taken with the soon-to-be four-time MVP. “You can only take what they give you. So for me, I think he’s in a good spot right now.”
Shohei Ohtani puts the ball in play in the third inning during Game 4 of the NLDS.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Ohtani’s overall numbers, of course, continue to suggest otherwise. His .147 postseason batting average is second-worst on the team, ahead of only Andy Pages. His seven-game drought without an extra-base hit is longer than any he endured in the regular season.
“The first thing I have to do is increase the level of my at-bats,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “Swing at strikes and not swing at balls.”
On Wednesday, Ohtani’s slump also led to questions about his role as a two-way player, and whether his return to pitching this season (and, this October, doing it for the first time in the playoffs) has contributed to his sudden struggles at the plate.
After all, on days Ohtani pitched this season, he hit .222 with four home runs but 21 strikeouts. On the days immediately following an outing, he batted .147 with two home runs and 10 strikeouts.
His current slump began with a hitless, four-strikeout dud in Game 1 of the NLDS, when he also made a six-inning, three-run start on the mound.
And in days since, Roberts has acknowledged some likely correlation between Ohtani’s two roles.
“[His offense] hasn’t been good when he’s pitched,” Roberts said following the NLDS. “We’ve got to think through this and come up with a better game plan.”
Ohtani, on the other hand, pushed back somewhat on that narrative during Wednesday’s workout, in which he also threw a bullpen session in preparation for his next start in Game 4 of the NLCS on Friday.
While it is “more physically strenuous” to handle both roles, he conceded, he countered that “I don’t know if there’s a direct correlation.”
“Physically,” he added, “I don’t feel like there’s a connection.”
Instead, Ohtani on Wednesday went about fixing his swing the way any other normal hitter would. He went out on the field for his rare session of batting practice. Of his 32 swings, he sent 14 over the fence, including one that clanked off the roof of the right-field pavilion.
“Certainly, there’s frustration,” Roberts said of how he’s seen Ohtani handle his uncharacteristic lack of performance.
But, he added, “that’s expected. I don’t mind it. I like the edge.”
“He’s obviously a very, very talented player, and we’re counting on him,” Roberts continued. “He’s just a great competitor. He’s very prepared. And there’s still a lot of baseball left.”
Diane Keaton died in Los Angeles on Saturday at age 79, and her family says the cause was pneumonia.
Family members of the Oscar-winning actress shared a statement with People confirming Keaton’s cause of death and saying they were “very grateful for the extraordinary messages of love and support” they had received in recent days.
The outlet first reported the news of the screen icon’s death Saturday, saying the Los Angeles Fire Department had responded to her home that morning and transported a 79-year-old woman to an area hospital. Initially, the family did not disclose the cause of death and asked for privacy as they processed their grief.
In Wednesday’s statement, Keaton’s family members said the star had a deep love for animals and was passionate about supporting the unhoused community. They encouraged people to honor her memory by donating to a food bank or animal shelter.
Keaton was known for her powerful performances in iconic pictures such as Francis Ford Coppola’s “Godfather” movies and Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall,” which earned her the 1978 Academy Award for lead actress. She was also nominated for lead actress for her roles in “Reds” (1981), “Marvin’s Room” (1996) and “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003).
Born in Los Angeles in 1946, Keaton rose to fame through her late 1960s New York stage career, earning a Tony nomination at age 25 for her role in Allen’s 1969 theatrical production of “Play It Again, Sam.”
Later in her career, she became a muse for writer-director-producer Nancy Meyers and starred in four of her movies. She was a noted trendsetter known for her fabulous on-screen outfits and, more recently, for sharing her style on Instagram, where she amassed 2.6 million followers.
Keaton’s death was widely mourned by theater, movie and fashion lovers alike.
“She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star,” wrote actor Bette Midler on Instagram. “What you saw was who she was.”
“Diane Keaton wasn’t just an actress: she was a force,” wrote actor Octavia Spencer on Instagram, “a woman who showed us that being yourself is the most powerful thing you can be. From Annie Hall to Something’s Gotta Give, she made every role unforgettable.”
Times film editor Joshua Rothkopf contributed to this report.
THEY say an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree – and in the case of Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter it could hardly be more appropriate.
Yesterday we revealed Apple Martin’s first photoshoot, posing with a python in an ad campaign for fashion brand Self-Portrait.
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Apple Martin’s recent fashion roles have fuelled accusations she could be this year’s Ultimate Nepo BabyCredit: Gap Studio/Mario SorrentiShe recently collaborated with her famous mum Gwyneth Paltrow for a high profile Gap shootCredit: Mario Sorrenti / Gap / BEEMApple with her famous dad, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin
And last week saw her collaboration with her mum for a high-profile Gap shoot.
But the 21-year-old model, singer and socialite insists we should all forget the nepo baby label — because it’s all thanks to her parents “instilling a work mentality in her”.
“I should not be entitled to anything, I have to work,” she said in a recent interview.
But what Apple means by “work” is raising a few eyebrows in the world of showbiz.
Singing on records by her dad’s band Coldplay, cameos in her mum’s Netflix documentaries, and even a movie role — despite having zero acting experience — are only fuelling accusations that she could well be this year’s ultimate nepo baby, or the child whose success is seen as resulting from their parents’ connections.
A showbiz insider said: “Apple has all the qualities to be the new It girl.
“She’s got girl-next-door looks and has a sweet and innocent demeanour, but deep down she has a wild side.
“She’s sure to ruffle a few feathers as she makes her way in the modeling world.
“And whether she likes it or not, she’s definitely one of the nepos to watch.”
But showing she is not afraid to hit back at the naysayers, the fiery model said: “I constantly remind myself how grateful I am to have these opportunities. I know this is not a normal way to grow up, by any means.
“But my parents did a really good job of instilling in me that I shouldn’t be entitled to anything.”
Apple claims she always wanted to be a model, recalling how she “did run runway walks” in her bedroom while dressed for school, practising her version of Ben Stiller’s Blue Steel pose from the film Zoolander.
She said: “I’ve always been obsessed with fashion. I remember when my mum would do fittings for photoshoots when I was younger, I’d love to just hang out while she was getting her make-up done on set.”
My parents did a really good job of instilling in me that I shouldn’t be entitled to anything
Apple Martin
Given that dad Chris is the super-clean frontman of the world’s most inoffensive band, Apple’s personality — as well as her looks — is perhaps more aligned with her Hollywood-star mum, who knows all too well about divisive images.
Gwyneth — herself the nepo baby of film director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner — was a self-confessed party girl in the Nineties and famously bragged about loving the buzz of “doing cocaine and not getting caught” during her twenties in New York.
It’s yet to be seen how Apple gets her kicks on a night out, but her parties have certainly gained quite a reputation after police were forced to shut down one particularly raucous bash in 2022 with 50 of her pals at Gwyneth’s estate in the Hamptons — the affluent seaside resort on New York’s Long Island.
Apple insists her parents have ‘instilled a work mentality’ in herCredit: The Mega AgencyApple with mum Gwyneth Paltrow in 2016Credit: gwynethpaltrow/instagramApple’s first photoshoot was for a new Self Portrait fashion campaignCredit: Ryan McGinley
Mum was out of town at the time but according to neighbours, the revellers were “partying like rock stars” and made so much noise, angry locals had no choice but to call the cops.
Apple reportedly ended up receiving a fine for hosting a gathering without a permit. Her parents have a combined worth of £320million, so it’s unlikely she would have struggled to pay it.
Apple, who was born in London, was educated in California, attending the £30,000-a-year Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, where she graduated in 2022.
She is now studying English and history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Her taste for fashion has been evident since she got a job in a clothes shop aged 15.
I don’t think we need another celebrity child in the world
Apple Martin
She attended her first runway show in 2023, sitting front row at the Chanel Haute Couture show in Paris, and said afterwards she was developing her own style, a mix of “classic ’90s and cool grandpa”.
Apart from brief appearances in her mum’s Netflix shows and Instagram pictures, as well as singing on Coldplay songs — including 2021 single Higher Power — Apple has only entered the limelight in the last few years, when signs of her personality have begun to shine through.
In April this year she gave a bolshy take on growing up in the public eye for high-end fashion mag Interview — where she worked as an intern — in which she admitted she used to be “anxious about making mistakes”.
She added that she had been put off showbiz because “I don’t think we need another celebrity child in the world.”
She continued: “I just try to do what feels right and block out anything regarding me in the news to the best of my ability.
“And I’m getting a lot better at being like, ‘F*** it’. I’m not going to be scared. I just want to do what seems fun and figure my life out.”
But Apple’s steely approach was put to the test last year when she made her debut at the high-society Le Bal des Débutantes — a modern version of the old debutante ball — in Paris.
The bash at the $1,000-a-night Hotel Shangri-La was supposed to signal her arrival, in a stunning Valentino gown, as a new Hollywood power player.
But instead Apple suffered an online backlash after she was accused of deliberately photobombing a fellow guest and forcing her out of the frame, then pouting and posing for several photos.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin with their children Apple and Moses
After the footage went viral, social media users branded her “obnoxious”, “entitled” and “giving Regina George” — a reference to the notorious queen bee in the 2004 movie Mean Girls.
But rather than give a mature response, Apple instead poked fun at the situation, posting a video on TikTok with a pal jokingly stating that they are both “a delight” and “very funny” — which only served to earn her the nickname “Rotten Apple”.
Gwyneth was also at the ball with ex-husband Chris and Apple’s 19-year-old brother Moses, who is the lead singer in up-and-coming band Dancer.
She has previously admitted that despite Apple’s recent claims that her parents don’t want her to be “entitled”, there is little doubt that she is — but Gwyneth sees it as positive.
Talking about Apple and her pals, she said: “They have, and I mean this word in the best possible way, a sense of entitlement that’s beautiful.
“It’s not spoiled . . . I find it very uplifting and heartening that we all seem to be going in this direction together.”
Even so, Gwyneth knows Apple’s spiky side too, having received a ticking off from her for posting a snap of her on Instagram when she was 14.
Apple commented under Gwyneth’s post, ranting: “Mom we have discussed this. You may not post anything without my consent.”
Sassy response
She later deleted the remark after her mum replied: “You can’t even see your face.”
Apple also gave a sassy response when her mum posted a picture of herself making breakfast while topless, writing: “Did I steal your shirt by accident”.
And she also ripped into Gwyneth’s morning routine while trolling the TikTok account of her lifestyle brand Goop, saying: “She eats nothing except for dates and almond butter,” adding that Gwyneth had been on a cleanse “since the day I was born, apparently”.
But when asked how she stays grounded, Apple said: “Hanging out with my friends and trying to have a normal college experience makes me feel more normal.
“That’s how I like to unwind. We’ll sit down and do little guitar playing sessions, one person will play and the others will sing.
“I also love watching reality TV with my friends. There was one day we spent five hours on the couch and just watched old episodes of America’s Next Top Model.”
Normal? Or nepo? You decide.
Apple made her debut at the high society Le Bal des Débutantes in ParisCredit: tiktok/@parismatch
Israel’s government has approved “phase one” of the agreement, which will see captives exchanged and Israel withdraw from parts of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked President Trump and US officials for their role in ceasefire negotiations to end the war on Gaza.
Congratulations are in order for President Trump. He said he would bring home Israel’s hostages and end the horrific fighting in Gaza, and that appears to be exactly what he is doing with this week’s deal. While many of the ideas that went into Trump’s 20-point peace plan predated his reelection, he and his team deserve a standing ovation for translating those ideas into a practical proposal, defining a first phase that was both big and digestible and putting together all the pieces that made its agreement possible.
Success, however, does have its downsides. Remember the Pottery Barn rule of foreign policy, made famous during the Iraq war? “You break it, you own it.” We now have the Trump corollary: “You patch it, you own it.”
Despite coming to office eager to shed America’s Middle East commitments, Trump just took on a huge one: responsibility for a peace plan that will forever bear his name. On Oct. 6, 2023, the day before Hamas’ assault, Arab-Israeli relations were poised for the historic breakthrough of Saudi-Israel normalization; two years later, Arab-Israeli relations — including Trump’s first-term Middle East peacemaking achievement of the Abraham Accords — are hanging on by a thread. By offering a plan that promises not just an end to fighting in Gaza but building a full and enduring regional peace, the president has taken on the task of repairing the damage wrought by Hamas’ unholy war. In other words: fixing the Middle East.
How Trump fulfills this not inconsequential responsibility has major consequences for America’s role in the region and in the world. The Chinese are watching whether, when the going gets rough, he will have the mettle to maintain a broad alliance. The Russians are watching whether the president will strictly enforce the letter of the deal or let certain unpleasant aspects slip. The Iranians will be watching whether Trump will find himself so drowning in the details of Gaza reconstruction that he won’t be able to stitch together a repeat of the highly successful Arab-Israeli coalition that protected Israel a year ago from Iran’s barrages of ballistic missiles and drones. And all these adversaries — and others — will wonder whether the intense U.S. focus needed to ensure implementation of this deal will distract the president from their own areas of mischief.
Those are some of the international stakes. There’s a difficult road ahead in achieving the deal itself. Some of the most vexing challenges will include:
Implementing a highly complex Gaza peace plan that, in its requirements for disarmament, envisions Hamas to be fully complicit in its organizational suicide — or at least its institutional castration;
Having the U.S. military orchestrate the recruitment, deployment and management of multinational forces to police the territory just as the Israel Defense Forces are withdrawing from it, a tricky maneuver fraught with risk;
Creating and supervising a transitional administration that will oversee everything from humanitarian relief to rubble and ordnance removal to massive reconstruction projects, all the while preventing what’s left of Hamas from stealing goods to divert to underground weapons factories, an art that it perfected after previous ceasefires;
Securing buy-in from the United Nations and its specialized agencies, which need to play an essential role in delivering food and medical services, without buckling under pressure to rehabilitate the deeply flawed U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, an organization that bears special responsibility for keeping the Palestinian-Israeli conflict alive for decades;
Preventing Qatar and Turkey — longtime friends of Hamas who have emerged in recent weeks as diplomatic Good Samaritans — from translating their current status into a malign influence over the direction of Palestinian politics, which can only be worrisome to Israel and the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and a long-term detriment to the cause of peace;
And dealing every step of the way with an Israeli prime minister of a rightist coalition who will likely view every decision, great and small, through the lens of a fateful election he is expected to call very soon that will show whether the Israeli people want to punish him for the terrible errors that left Israel unprepared for Hamas’ 2023 attack or reward him for the impressive victories Israel’s military achieved across the region in the two years that followed.
Getting this far was a huge achievement. Ensuring effective execution — never a strong suit for a “big idea guy” like Trump — is a thousand times more difficult. This can’t be done with a small team of White House officials chatting on Signal. It will require an army of — please excuse the term — experts: experts in military command and control, experts in ordnance removal and disposal, experts in civilian rehabilitation and reconstruction, experts in communication and community engagement. Corporate subcontracting can address some of this, as can the impressive talents of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, but don’t be fooled into thinking that a consulting company or a former foreign official can pick up the slack of the entire U.S. government. This plan, after all, has Trump’s name on it, not Deloitte’s or Blair’s.
The president has at least one more vital task in this matter. He must explain to the American people why we are doing this. For nearly 20 years, American presidents of both parties have said they wanted to pivot away from the Middle East, but they continually find themselves entangled in the region’s often byzantine conflicts and politics. Americans deserve to know why the “America First” president has decided that American interests are intimately bound up in the success of this peace plan. Our domestic divisions notwithstanding, fair-minded people on both sides of the aisle will be rooting for Trump’s success in this peace deal.
For now, sure, the president should enjoy the accolades and celebrate the coming release of Hamas’ hostages. The morning after will come soon enough.
Robert Satloff is executive director of the Washington Institute.
Billionaire Larry Ellison ponied up the money for his family to acquire the controlling stake in Paramount two months ago, and the tech titan would need to write another huge check should Paramount buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
So, in Hollywood circles, the question has been: How involved is the elder Ellison in Paramount’s strategy and operations?
Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison said he speaks with his father every day, but he drew an important distinction:
“Look, I run the company day to day. Make no mistake about that,” David Ellison said Thursday at Bloomberg’s Screentime media conference in Hollywood, adding that his father had been a “phenomenal” mentor and “we couldn’t have a better relationship.”
“He is the largest shareholder in the business,” Ellison said. “What’s important for everybody to know is the way he approaches this is: How do we maximize value for our shareholders? … I think he’s best in the world for doing that.”
Since the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners acquired Paramount in August, its stock is up more than 50%. Much of the run-up came last month after news leaked that Paramount was interested in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN, TBS, Food Network and one of Hollywood’s most prolific film and television studios.
Ellison refused to comment on Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery or whether his team had already made a bid.
But he did shed light on the business strategy behind any pursuit, while trying to tamp down fears that another big merger would result in more cost-cutting, more job losses and a reduction in content spending.
“The way we approach everything is, first and foremost: What’s good for the talent community, what’s good for our shareholders and value creation, and what’s good for basically storytelling at large?” Ellison said. “We’re looking at actually producing more movies [and] more television series … because you need that content.”
Paramount staffers are bracing for a massive workforce reduction next month, part of the company’s goal of finding more than $2 billion in spending cuts.
The company also invested in the construction of a Texas-based production hub for prolific “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan and agreed to pay $1.5 billion over five years for streaming rights for “South Park,” the Comedy Central cartoon. And Paramount lured Matt and Ross Duffer, who created “Stranger Things,” away from Netflix with an exclusive four-year television, streaming and film deal.
Warner Bros. Discovery, led by Chief Executive David Zaslav, also has declined to discuss Paramount’s interest, although people close to the company have suggested Zaslav would like to see bidding war.
No other studios have publicly expressed interest and, on Wednesday, Netflix Co-Chief Executive Greg Peters downplayed such speculation.
“We come from a deep heritage of being builders rather than buyers,” Peters said during a separate appearance at the Screentime conference, adding the track record for big mergers was not great.
But Wall Street widely expects more consolidation among entertainment firms.
“Ironically, it was David Zaslav last year who said that consolidation in the media business is important,” Ellison said, adding “there are a lot of options out there.” But he declined to elaborate.
Analysts have speculated that, beyond Paramount, few other media companies have financial firepower to pull off a bid. And Paramount has an “in” that several other media companies, including Brian Roberts’ Comcast, lack: a good relationship with President Trump and his administration.
Trump has called Larry Ellison a good friend. After David Ellison spoke with Trump at a June UFC fight, the previous managers of Paramount got traction in their efforts to settle Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview last fall with Kamala Harris. Paramount paid $16 million in July to settle the suit and weeks later the Federal Communications Commission approved the Ellison takeover of Paramount.
“We have a good relationship with the administration,” David Ellison said.
“Kiss of the Spider Woman,” a sexual and scatological dazzler about an inmate‘s obsession with a favorite musical, sounds like the kind of thing some folks won’t watch even if they, too, were locked in a prison for years. Their loss. In the spirit of the film, I’ll try to change their mind.
It’s 1983 Argentina, the last days of a militarized dictatorship under which 30,000 people have been disappeared. Scraggly, severe Valentin (Diego Luna) is a political prisoner with ties to the revolutionary underground. His new cellmate is a brazen chatterbox named Molina (Tonatiuh), a gay window dresser serving an eight-year sentence for indecency in a public bathroom. They have zero shared interests. But to pass the time — and, more importantly, to get Valentin to put down his biography of Lenin and talk a little — Molina recounts the plot of a Golden Age spectacular starring the fictional movie star Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez), a red-lipped, pineapple-blond beauty whose vintage posters brighten their wretched gray walls.
“I hate musicals,” Valentin complains.
“Then I pity you,” Molina says breezily, charging into the first scene.
Through beatings and starvation, poisonings and betrayals, all under the gaze of the oppressive warden (Bruno Bichir), Valentin and Molina escape into Technicolor in a desperate need for distraction. The writer-director Bill Condon (“Chicago,”“Dreamgirls”) has savvily, unabashedly reworked the 1993 Broadway extravaganza (already a bold adaptation of the 1976 experimental novel and 1985 Academy Award-winning drama). He’s double-cast Luna and Tonatiuh as the film-within-a-film’s leads and changed the imaginary tale from a Nazi propaganda flick to a melodramatic but moving South American romance between a glamour queen and a noble photographer. Its themes of love and sacrifice come to mirror Valentin and Molina’s own relationship.
The songs themselves are the same rather-forgettable numbers by John Kander and Fred Ebb who did a zingier job mixing fascism with feathers in “Cabaret.” “Live inside me on a movie screen,” Lopez’s Ingrid sings, luring Molina to get lost in daydreams. Behind her, dancers gyrate like victims being electrocuted. (I wouldn’t have minded more jolts of morbid humor.) Unhummable as the music is, its message has a spark: In the war for liberation, it’s OK to take mental breaks.
In fact, pleasure is necessary, especially for the regularly tortured Valentin who seems to have been numb for a long time. (Communist memoirs don’t stir the soul.) A hardline ascetic, Valentin won’t even alert the medics when he’s sick, in case they give him morphine.
The two roommates comically bicker about what scant pop culture Valentin knows, taking shots at “Raging Bull,”Meryl Streep and his own crass insistence that Ingrid’s character, Aurora, is frigid due to some kind of childhood trauma. (“Oh, God, let her be,” Molina sighs.) Yet, their conversation always pirouettes back to the gap between the real world and the movies.
“I hate to break it to you,” Valentine says, “but nobody sings in real life.”
“Well, maybe they should,” Molina huffs.
Maybe in confinement they can’t.
Condon smartly limits who sings and why and when. In the 1985 drama, which starred Raul Julia and William Hurt (who won the Oscar for Molina), both men remained trapped in this horrible dungeon and never sang a song. On Broadway, all of the characters — even cranky Valentin — crooned numbers the whole way through. But Condon draws a thick line between reality and fiction to highlight how much his leads need the freedom for radical self-expression.
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is about a lot of things: Valentin reconnecting with his emotions, Luis discovering that he’s more than a self-described trivial sissy. (“I cringe every time you make fun of yourself,” Valentin growls.) But it’s fundamentally about those scenes in which the palette and polish of the film shifts and cinematographer Tobias A. Schliessler switches from handheld to Steadicam. The putrid chamber drama becomes a fantasia, befouled rags turn into tuxedo pants and it’s finally safe to belt how they feel.
Earlier incarnations of this story had activism as the end goal, Valentin for his principles and Molina for his new friend. Condon is more focused on their humanity. Caring for each other makes this bleak world worth fighting for. Without joy, we’re already in chains.
People will come out of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” gushing about Tonatiuh and with good reason. Striding confidently into his first starring role, the L.A.-born breakout talent is a bright new discovery with shining eyes and brash exuberance. He needs to be excellent for the movie to succeed and he’s pretty darned close, even pulling off a glib beat where Molina recoils from a battered man and quips, “If I looked like that, I’d want a bag over my head too.” There are scenes where he comes off arch and a little telegraphed, although in fairness, that’s also just who Molina is — performance is protection. And when Tonatiuh cowers from the guards, we get a hint of what Molina has suffered without Condon ever having to show the abuse.
To keep things faithful to 1983, Tonatiuh’s Molina doesn’t identify as transgender — the character sticks to the limited vocabulary of the time. But you see Molina’s subtle disappointment when Valentin, trying to be supportive, insists, “You’re not a monster, you’re a man.” And Condon has tweaked a climactic refrain, changing the pronoun to “Her name was Molina.”
Playing Ingrid-as-Aurora — the heroine of a film that, even its biggest fan admits, is “no ‘Citizen Kane’” — Lopez is shellacked under two layers of diva artifice. But at this point in her career, she’s suited to being an icon. She’s long since given up pretending she’s still Jenny from the Block, and Condon has shaped the role of Ingrid to her like a corset. You hear it in the line, “No matter how hard Hollywood tried to make her all-American, she never stopped being Latin” and more than that, you see it in Lopez’s delight as she flashes her legs and tosses her hair. She knows she can nail this role and she really hoofs it. There’s a wide-angle shot of a nightclub where Condon gives her and a dozen background performers a full, uncut minute to twirl. Most impressively, Lopez grabs a martini, slowly does a one-legged spin to the ground and then uncoils herself to stand back up and cheer.
She has a harder time commanding the screen in a third role, when Ingrid also acts the part of the sinister Spider Woman, a spiky-haired, taloned jungle goddess who smooches her prey to death. The movie’s stiff Spider Woman set pieces are a relic of the ’90s musical that put Chita Rivera in a massive web. Trapped in them, Lopez can’t do much more than a predatory grin. But it’s still better than how Condon’s “Chicago” chopped up its choreography into close-ups (and here, there’s still a few gratingly askew camera angles). The new film is the director’s penance: an apologia to musical lovers who want to see the star do every inch of the dancing.
Still, my favorite performance has to be Luna’s, whose Valentin is at once strong and vulnerable, like a mutt attempting to fend off a bear. He’s the only one who doesn’t need to prove he’s a great actor, yet he feels like a revelation. Watching him gradually turn tender sends tingles through your heartstrings. For his second role as Ingrid’s onscreen boyfriend, Condon resurrects a discarded number from the original musical where Luna croons about being “An Everyday Man,” his warm voice perfectly imperfect. Even when he’s grouchy and filthy, you get why Molina would imagine Valentin as the ideal romantic lead.
I don’t want to spoil the ending other than to say that Condon adds an exclamation point to his insistence on music as emancipation with a new scene set after the fall of the junta and its right-wing abduction squads. The camera looks down at the jail as the inmates spill into the courtyard. Then it pulls up for an aerial shot of the entire block. We see citizens flood the streets. We hear honking horns and spontaneous street music. The whole country is free to sing.
‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’
Rated: R, for language, sexual content and some violence
French President Emmanuel Macron urged full support for the US plan to end the Gaza war, calling for a permanent ceasefire, release of all captives, and humanitarian access. Macron, however, blasted expanding West Bank settlements, which he said threaten Palestinian statehood and regional peace.
Comedian and TV star Paul O’Grady was set to be the host of Britain’s Got Talent and even have the show named after him until things got very heated behind the scenes
13:47, 07 Oct 2025Updated 13:47, 07 Oct 2025
Paul O’Grady was set to be the host of Britain’s Got Talent before Ant and Dec(Image: TV Times via Getty Images)
Former Britain’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan has revealed Paul O’Grady was meant to be the host for the hit talent show, until things went very wrong. The controversial broadcaster was part of the original line up on Simon Cowell’s talent show back in 2007.
Music mogul Simon was inspired by former talent shows including Opportunity Knocks and New Faces as he wanted to create a competition for people of any age and location to enter. He wanted a range of personalities on the judging panel with him, and first settled on Piers and Fern Britton.
Piers admitted: “I owe him a lot actually because I would not have had any career in America without him. He has been great for me. He said ‘I am going to bring back an old all-round talent show like New Faces, Opportunity Knocks and The Gong Show in America. It can be any talent’.”
The broadcaster explained: “We did a pilot at ITV. Paul O’Grady was the host. The judging panel was Simon Cowell, me, and Fern Britton. It was about to be greenlit as a prime-time ITV show.”
Piers said he was ready “to get back in the game” but things quickly took a turn and the production was halted. He said: “Then Paul O’Grady had a massive falling out with ITV, told them to shove it and went to Channel 4.”
At the time, the Paul O’Grady Show moved over to Channel 4 and ITV stopped him being able to rent their studios. Paul decided to refuse all work with the network following the row.
He explained years later: “I did the pilot for Britain’s Got Talent – which was originally going to be called Paul O’Grady’s Got Talent. But I told the producers they were having a joke if they thought I would front a show with that title.
“The original panel of judges was going to be Simon Cowell, Fern Britton and Piers Morgan. I was the host. Then when I had the row with ITV I was banned from the studios.
“I remember I rang Simon and told him he had a huge hit on his hands, but there was no way I could do it. I said, if I am banned I have to be banned from everything. I can’t be a hypocrite and come in and do this. I had to bow out.”
Paul added: “I don’t regret what I did. Not in the slightest. Good luck to them.” He did also manage to patch things up with ITV and returned years later with Paul O’Grady Live!.
Paul’s decision to boycott ITV meant Britain’s Got Talent was hit with a huge delay and Simon decided to kick off with America’s Got Talent first. Simon enlisted Piers again as he wanted “someone who is judgmental, opinionated, obnoxious and arrogant” as him.
Britain’s Got Talent hit screens a year later with Simon, Piers and Amanda Holden as judges and Ant and Dec as hosts. Piers said on The Overlap and Betfair’s Stick to Cricket show: “He had literally come up with the entire concept of Got Talent on a napkin at the Ivy in Kensington.
“Bring back a talent show. Have a tough mean judge, a mother hen figure, a funny person and any talent goes. Now the Got Talent franchise is in more than 60 countries around the world. It changed my life.”
Amanda Holden has stepped up on Britain’s Got Talent after Simon Cowell’s illness forced him to miss the Birmingham auditions, with Stacey Solomon drafted in as a temporary replacement on the panel
Amanda Holden’s major role shake-up on BGT amid Simon Cowell’s health woes
Producers turned to Holden, 53, as the natural choice to lead the panel, given that she is the only judge who has remained on the show since its launch in 2007. Although Stacey Solomon was drafted in at short notice to replace Cowell during this week’s auditions at the Hippodrome, insiders stressed that Holden had earned the senior role.
A source revealed: “The producers were hugely grateful to Stacey for stepping in, particularly as it was at such short notice. What she did helped ensure the hundreds of audience members were not disappointed.
“But they also thought she shouldn’t just go straight into Simon’s seat as head judge and that Amanda had very much earned that right. And she seamlessly filled the role during the first batch of auditions on Friday, with Stacey slotting right in with fellow judges KSI and Alesha Dixon,” they told The Sun.
It is not the first time Cowell’s sudden departure has led to a reshuffle. When the music mogul left the panel last year after learning of the tragic death of former One Direction star Liam Payne, the then-newcomer Bruno Tonioli stepped in as head judge.
Tonioli has since departed from the programme altogether, replaced this year by KSI, after filming clashes with his role on Dancing with the Stars. Cowell’s absence was first confirmed on Thursday when production cancelled the initial day of auditions.
There were hopes he might recover quickly enough to return on Friday, but he remained unwell. Instead, Solomon took his seat on the panel – a full-circle moment given that Cowell himself auditioned her on The X Factor back in 2009. She finished third in that series but has since become a well-known TV presenter.
And Stacey has shared her excitement after her dream of becoming a judge on Britain’s Got Talent has come true. The Sort Your Life Out star took to Instagram on Friday to share a glimpse of the iconic set of the long-running ITV show after she was asked to step in as a guest judge last minute.
The mum-of-five, 35, took to her Instagram stories to post a picture of the iconic BGT stage with her name in lights. Instead of Simon Cowell’s name, Stacey’s name could be seen on the iconic stage. Alongside the picture, Stacey wrote: “What in the alternative universe is going on. A dream.”
Cowell’s condition has not been disclosed publicly, and it remains uncertain whether he will be fit enough to appear on the third and final day of Birmingham auditions.
Filming is scheduled to resume next week in Blackpool, with producers optimistic that Cowell will be well enough to reclaim his place at the judging desk.
Until then, Holden is firmly established as the figure leading the panel in his absence.
After five years of holding, I’m way behind where I thought I’d be.
In June 2020, I happily invested in one of my favorite consumer brands: Coffee giant Starbucks(SBUX -0.36%). But after it’s underperformed the returns from the S&P 500 by a wide margin over these five years, it’s high time I reconsidered its role in my portfolio.
I believed that Starbucks stock would provide my portfolio with a blend of growth and income. For growth, I was quite optimistic that the company’s business in China would quickly rebound from the pandemic and unlock much higher earnings. That hasn’t happened. With it now looking for strategic options for its China business, it’s time for me to wave the white flag here.
Regarding income, Starbucks didn’t disappoint. It’s increased its dividend payment every year that I’ve held it, and is currently on a 14-year streak of doing that. And as of this writing, the dividend yield is approaching 3%, which is close to the highest it’s ever been.
Therefore, I can’t really complain when it comes to dividend income from Starbucks stock. But growth has been lacking. Going back to just before the pandemic started, Starbucks has averaged a single-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for revenue. This often isn’t good enough to propel market-beating stock performance. So the question is: Can I find a comparable dividend-paying stock that offers better growth? Indeed, there are some options.
1. Academy Sports & Outdoors
With only 300 locations, sporting goods retailer Academy Sports(ASO 1.77%) is easy to overlook. But if management has its way, the company could put up better top-line growth than Starbucks from here.
Perhaps the biggest way that Academy Sports is driving revenue growth is by opening new stores. This year, it hopes to open up to 25 locations. It had already opened eight of these by the end of the second quarter of 2025. Past guidance suggests that the company intends to open around 150 additional locations by the end of 2028.
These new store openings could allow Academy Sports to deliver a double-digit growth rate in coming years. Management is also known for methodically returning cash to shareholders. It buys back stock, and its quarterly dividend has grown at a nice pace in recent years.
With a dividend yield of only 1%, Academy Sports won’t necessarily attract income investors today. But those with a long-term view hope to ride the company’s growth plans to much higher earnings in time, which could result in much better dividend income down the road.
2. Arcos Dorados
Restaurant chain Arcos Dorados(ARCO -0.15%) owns the rights to the McDonald’s brand in 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, allowing it to own and operate franchised locations and sub-franchise to other operators. With over 2,400 locations, it’s the largest independent McDonald’s franchisee.
Differences in currency exchange rates are masking double-digit revenue growth for Arcos Dorados. For the second quarter of 2025, the company reported just 3% year-over-year growth. But adjusting for currency fluctuations, it grew by 15%. This includes both same-store sales growth and the contribution of new restaurant locations.
With a 3.5% dividend yield, Arcos Dorados stock is more attractive than Starbucks stock as an income investment. The company also pays out just a small portion of its earnings as a dividend, leaving plenty of room for future growth.
About one-third of Arcos Dorados’ locations are sub-franchised. And like McDonald’s itself, Arcos Dorados generates some revenue from its franchisees via rental income — it owns the land and buildings at nearly 500 locations. This real estate layer to the business can make it a stronger investment compared to other restaurant companies.
3. Stick with Starbucks?
Over my investing career, I’ve learned to only sell a stock after taking plenty of time to think it over. So while I’m thinking about selling Starbucks stock and buying a replacement that’s growing faster and still offers income, it’s not a done deal. In fact, I see some reason to continue holding Starbucks stock.
It’s been just over one year since Starbucks hired new CEO Brian Niccol, and he’s still trying to reinvigorate the brand. That starts with bringing back the more inviting coffeehouse atmosphere. The company just announced that it will close hundreds of locations that don’t fit its vision.
Niccol’s plan comes with an expensive price tag of around $1 billion. But investors’ expectations are now low, and Starbucks can start bouncing back as difficult decisions pay off.
For now, I believe the downside risk for Starbucks stock is low because it’s still a top consumer brand and Niccol has a good reputation as an operator. Academy Sports and Arcos Dorados are on my radar as potentially filling the role in my portfolio currently filled by Starbucks. But I see no reason to rush this decision today, so I’ll keep holding Starbucks stock for now.
Jon Quast has positions in Academy Sports And Outdoors and Starbucks. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Starbucks. The Motley Fool recommends Academy Sports And Outdoors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
