set

On the set of CBS’ legacy soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful” at the Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Hollywood, two actors were caught in a fiery exchange.

“Do you want to know where Jack was last night?” actor Skyla Lynne asked with a sly grin. “He was with me.”

From behind a monitor displaying a vertically oriented feed, the director interjected: “Could you pause a bit more in between those lines? We might want to do an episode break there.”

The scene wasn’t for an episode of the famous soap opera. It was part of the 40-episode second season of “Hollywood Starlet,” a new microdrama series from “The Bold and the Beautiful” head writer Bradley Bell and his son Oliver.

“I’ve been doing soap operas my whole life, and it felt like there’s been a buzz about microdramas, and it really felt like a natural extension to the stories that we do,” Bradley Bell said. “[On soap operas] we build two cliffhangers usually on Fridays to keep the viewers over the weekend. Here, you do it every couple of minutes. It’s like speeding up the dance routine, but it’s really right in our lane of soap operas.”

Microdramas are the scrollable, cliffhanger-heavy stories built for phone screens. They are giving audiences a new way into the kind of stories that once belonged to traditional soap operas and telenovelas. The so-called vertical format originated in China a few years ago and has drawn a growing global audience thanks to its short, addictive nature. Hollywood names, including Issa Rae and Kevin Hart, are joining in.

Now, Bell is moving into the space. The 16-time Emmy winner and his son Oliver recently launched a production company called Red Flair Entertainment to capitalize on the format.

“Hollywood Starlet,” their first production, premiered Sept. 3 on aTwist, a new vertical series app founded by industry veterans Jana Winograde, former president of Showtime; Susan Rovner, former president of Warner Bros. Television; and Lloyd Braun, former chairman of WME.

Oliver Bell, founder of Red Flair Entertainment, is producing the micro series, “Hollywood Starlet,” being filmed at Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Bradley Bell says it was Oliver who hatched the idea.

“I saw this unique format and was fascinated by it,” Oliver Bell said. “I noticed some areas that we could quite easily improve on.”

Microdramas first came across Oliver’s social media feed around a year and a half ago when he was still in college. The 24-year-old said he quickly “fell down a rabbit hole” and became so obsessed with the format that he wrote his dissertation at the University of St Andrews in Scotland on soap operas and microdramas.

After he graduated in December, he and his father founded Red Flair Entertainment and started to develop “Hollywood Starlet,” with Oliver serving as an executive producer and his father as a producer.

The series — which costs about $175,000 to $220,000 a season to produce — is being financed by aTwist. Red Flair has a backend deal, allowing it to share in subscription revenue the show generates for the platform.

After filming two seasons of “Hollywood Starlet,” Red Flair plans several more vertical series across many different genres, like horror and romance, the Bells said.

Oliver grew up visiting sets and eavesdropping on writing meetings from under his father’s desk. The family’s storytelling line runs back to his grandparents, William Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, who created “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Oliver says he’s carrying on that legacy in a very Gen Z way.

“In a way, microdramas are just the natural evolution of the soap opera,” Oliver Bell said. “You could kind of trace the legacy through that and the modernization of serialized TV.”

His father, who was working on episode 9,911 of “The Bold and the Beautiful” while speaking with The Times, said the short-form stories can reach younger viewers who might be daunted by the soap’s decades of history.

“It’s like cracking open a book, and it’s hard for people to get into it to learn the history,” he said. “So having smaller, bite-sized pieces is appealing to us.”

“The Bold and the Beautiful” has aired continuously for 39 years, but it’s now one of American TV’s last soap operas. Until the 1980s, 10 to 12 soaps typically aired at once, said Elana Levine, a media professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who studies the genre. Today, five remain: four on broadcast TV and one, “Days of Our Lives,” is on streaming only.

“It makes sense to take this storytelling form that has been super popular and enduring in the U.S. and find a way to translate that into the mobile devices that we carry around us all of the time,” Levine said.

While soap operas historically targeted a mostly female audience, microdramas reach a much broader audience, said Michael Berry, director of UCLA’s Center for Chinese Studies, who has studied the rise of vertical series.

“It gives us essentially the main beats that we would get from a soap opera format, but it’s happening in a much more compact and addictive way,” he added.

Cameramen prepare for a scene on the set of the micro series, “Hollywood Starlet,” being filmed at Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Lou Trabbie, the soap’s production designer, had never heard of a microdrama before working on “Hollywood Starlet.”

“It’s all going in a different direction. You just adapt and move forward, and that’s what we see here,” Trabbie, who’s worked in the industry for 38 years, explained. “It’s really great to see how these are done with smaller crews. I feel like this is where the business is going.”

“Hollywood Starlet” shoots on the same Sunset Las Palmas soundstage as “The Bold and the Beautiful,” filming during the soap’s monthly dark week.

The first season, 45 short episodes, was shot in six days at the start of summer with a non-union cast and crew of 45. Less than a week after its release, much of the same crew was back to start working on season two.

Oliver Bell said the series used non-union crew due to “budgetary restrictions.”

At a time when major film and TV shoots are leaving the state, microdramas are one of the few areas of production that are growing locally.

Excluding China, vertical video is expected to generate $150 billion globally in revenue this year, according to consulting firm Owl & Co. Most of that comes from TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

Sunset Las Palmas Studios, where “La La Land” and the first two seasons of “I Love Lucy” were filmed, dedicated an entire sound stage in June to standing sets for vertical series. The sets include a courtroom, a bar/restaurant, an apartment, an office and a hospital.

Paxton Fuller, left, executive producer of “Hollywood Starlet,” walks with Sean Griffin, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, for Las Palmas Studios, through a courtroom set on the stage meant specifically for microdramas.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Still, the Bells don’t think microdramas will replace soap operas. The two formats, they argue, can “coexist.”

“Coming into someone’s living room or bedroom, soap operas were almost like an extension of their family that they can count on for years and decades with the same actors. The same families that have watched since day one,” Bradley Bell said. “It’s a different type of viewer for microdramas.”

Oliver Bell added: “We’re trying to grab the scroller’s attention, not necessarily ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ viewer … Microdramas are unavoidable through social media. [It’s] conditioning our brains and how we process media.”

LAS VEGAS, NV. — Metallica had a tender moment at Sphere on Thursday, just after a wretched sea monster mangled the Las Vegas skyline.

On the opening night of its “Life Burns Faster” stand, Metallica had a 16k-resolution arsenal to match the bombast of its music. While the quartet — the first metal band to perform at Sphere — tore through the instrumental deep cut “The Call of Ktulu,” that drippy leviathan swatted at life-sized fighter jets on the screen.

When the leathery beast slunk off, singer James Hetfield dedicated the track to the band’s founding bassist, who died in a tour bus crash in 1986. “In honor of our fallen brother, Mr. Clifford Lee Burton,” Hetfield said, to a bellowing crowd. “We love you, and we miss you, brother.”

Metallica, the biggest band in metal, thrives in that tension between the genre’s outrageous grandeur, grimy nihilism and outlaw camaraderie. At “Life Burns Faster,” a series of two-night engagements that stretches into March next year, they stayed fleshy and ferocious as a band beneath the digital carnage.

Metal, even when siloed off from broader music culture, has always been a commercial powerhouse. Metallica remains its flagship live act. In 2023 alone, they closed out the all-star Power Trip festival at the Empire Polo Grounds, and still played two in-the-round nights at SoFi Stadium.

They’ve been enormous for generations, and made no bones about their ambitions. The band’s ongoing “M72” tour is hovering around the 10 highest grossing tours ever. So it was only a matter of time before the band – Hetfield, guitarist Kirk Hammett, bassist Robert Trujillo and drummer Lars Ulrich – got curious about the rare venue that could go toe-to-toe with them for sheer firepower. (Onstage and at the box office – Metallica knows counterculture can be both sincere and extremely lucrative).

“We’re grateful you’ve taken the time, energy and the cash” to attend opening weekend, Hetfield said onstage on Saturday. Nice of him to acknowledge the table stakes.

By day, there was much charm in seeing nearly 20,000 metal fans swarming the Vegas strip in Metallica gear, flying in with buddies, spouses, kids and grandkids no matter the four-figure tickets and obligatory crates of merch. (The old adage that metal fans are nice people pretending to be mean held up). On Sphere’s escalators, grey-bearded lifers hugged in shredded battle jackets; tween girls in “Master of Puppets” hoodies drummed along to every fill; accents came from eastern Europe, Latin America and all the world over. My cab driver effusively recounted sneaking in to see Metallica at Ruthie’s Inn in Berkeley in 1983.

Classic rock and jam bands like the Eagles and Dead & Co. largely use Sphere’s A/V capabilities as a psychedelic background to stately tunes. Metallica is larger-than-life as is — they need little more than a Hetfield snarl or Hammett solo to feel tectonic. On Thursday and Saturday nights, they were nasty and resonant as a live band, even beneath 160,000 square feet of LED mayhem.

Metallica has one of the deepest catalogs and intensely-attached fandoms in rock. Sequencing the first Sphere shows would be a global statement, and the band played stellar ones on Thursday and Saturday. From the howitzer of opener “Battery” through the white-knuckle turns of “Creeping Death,” they knew they were still playing to the faithful, albeit in a whole new sort of arena.

As with all Sphere acts, that visual wattage can absolutely grip you, or it can feel using a flamethrower to grill. (I texted some “Ktulu” footage to a serious metalhead friend, who replied “Lol,” then “Sick,” which seemed apt).

Some backdrops were creepy set dressing, while others had tactile brutality — Sphere often had the rumble-seat effect blaring. Metallica locked into the martial imagery around “The Shortest Straw,” “Sad But True” and the MTV-era hit “The Memory Remains.” “Wherever I May Roam” used gulp-inducing hairpin turns, and fans flinched when the statue from “…And Justice For All” collapsed in pieces (an apropos image, these days!)

While the band surely didn’t intend this coincidence, for anyone watching the Christa Pike saga, it was surreal to hear Hetfield scream ”Death in the air, strapped in the electric chair / This can’t be happening to me” on “Ride The Lighting” inside a gigantic execution chamber.

The set snaked through freewheeling Hammett and Trujillo jams, the recent single “Lux Æterna” and the ballad “Nothing Else Matters” (Metallica writes aching melodies and forlon guitar lines, too). They closed Thursday with “Seek & Destroy,” a roiling cut from their 1983 debut “Kill ‘Em All,” and “Master of Puppets,” given new life as a major plot point in the horror-thriller series “Stranger Things.”

On Saturday, the band reprised its recent two-nights/no-repeats gambit with a completely different setlist. Equally rangy, if perhaps more ruminative.

Peeling out of the gate with “Blackened,” framed as massive silhouettes on a white field, they roared through “Fuel” and lurched into “Leper Messiah” and “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” each great, grinding cuts from “Puppets.” “Devil’s Dance” and the reicide-themed visuals of “King Nothing” framed their controversial “Load”/”Reload” period as a core transition. Newer cuts “72 Seasons” and “Hardwired” channeled the old viciousness.

They played a lovely “The Unforgiven” and dedicated an exploratory take on “Orion” to Cliff Burton again, followed by Thin Lizzy’s “Whiskey In The Jar,” a major influence on their riffing. But the set came into its full power with a duel of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “One,” framed around WWI-era bombing footage and parades of mangled skeleton soldiers. Metallica’s always been more existential than topical, but haven’t we all scrolled our feeds recently and muttered – “Darkness imprisoning me / All that I see, absolute horror.”

They closed on “Enter Sandman,” the only real choice for their inaugural Vegas weekend. Two perfectly-tuned sets, retrofitted for this decadent monolith.

Is it a little weird that metal is now welcome as an elite Las Vegas entertainment commodity? Perhaps. But the genre’s been a cunning spectacle since Ozzy’s first crucifix (or Venom getting in league with Satan). Metallica’s generations of disaffected dirtbags — this writer among them — were primed for this gig. Metal’s always been escapist, even at its grittiest. Now it’s a five-star vacation destination too.

Reigning world champion Wu Yize won six consecutive frames to beat Judd Trump 6-1 in the Shenzhen Open semi-finals.

Yize, who will leapfrog Trump in the rankings and move second in the world after the final, bounced back in dramatic fashion after losing the opening frame to set up an all-Chinese final against Yuan Sijun at the Bao’an Sports Centre on Sunday.

Yuan, 26, endured a much more difficult route to his maiden ranking final, battling through 6-5 against Englishman Jimmy Robertson.

World number two Trump, who won the Shanghai Masters in August, had gone into the Shenzhen semi-final in fine form after beating Mark Selby 5-0 in the last eight.

But after clinching the opening frame with a break of 77, the 2019 world champion handed the initiative to his opponent with a string of errors.

Wu, 22, capitalised to avenge a defeat by Trump at the last-four stage in Shanghai earlier this year, making three breaks of 50 or more in a scrappy encounter before clinching victory with a break of 110.

“When I was preparing for the evening match, I saw that Yuan had shed some tears,” Wu told World Snooker Tour.

“I believe it is his first ranking final. Hopefully, we can put on a great match for everyone. Of course, I hope I can take the trophy home, but we will both give it everything we have.”

An emotional Yuan found it much more difficult to get over the winning line, with the lead continually changing hands throughout the best-of-11 encounter before his opponent forced a deciding frame that took 50 minutes to complete and saw a total of 177 points scored.

Robertson put Yuan in a difficult snooker on the final red and clawed back 41 penalty points before himself being put in a snooker, with Yuan finally clearing to the pink to earn his place in the final of the inaugural event.

“I feel that my first ranking final has come a little bit late,” said Yuan, who started the tournament as the world number 33 but will move to the cusp of the top 16 with victory on Sunday.

“Since the pandemic in 2020, the years in between have been quite difficult, and I feel it hasn’t been easy. So after all these years, I just hope I can give myself something to show for it.”

OUR Spotlight On column shines a light on the best things to see and do in popular holiday destinations, and some spots that are relatively under the radar.

This week we head to the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic and the coastal town of Miches.

Often said to be one of the cheapest islands in the Caribbean, it is also 30C in winter and beers are under £1.80.

eurochange has predicted where Brits will be jetting off to in 2026 thanks to recent money transactions – and it’s the Dominican Republic.

Laura Evans Fisk, Head of Digital & Engagement at eurochange said: “As we’ve seen transactions for the Dominican peso surge this year ahead of any other currency, we can definitely expect to see the Dominican Republic at the top of travel bucket lists for UK tourists in 2026.”

Direct flights make it easy to get to as well, taking around nine hours from London (both British Airways and TUI fly there) so here are some of our top tips.

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MUST SEE / DO

Playa Esmeralda is Miches’ showstopper. This vast ribbon of golden-white sand on the Dominican Republic’s northeastern coast stretches for miles, backed by coconut palms.

The water shifts from turquoise to deep emerald blue, giving the beach its name.

Unlike busier Caribbean resorts, it’s entirely possible to walk for half an hour here without seeing more than a handful of people – no fight for the sun loungers here!

Nature lovers shouldn’t miss Laguna Limón. This peaceful freshwater lagoon surrounded by tropical vegetation is home to dozens of bird species.

Boat tours glide through the wetlands while guides point out herons, pelicans and other wildlife.

Nearby, the crystal-clear pools of Caño Hondo offer a refreshing alternative to the beach, with natural pools cascading through lush forest.

HIDDEN GEM

The town itself and surrounding coastline – a place where emerald mountains tumble into palm-fringed beaches, humpback whales cruise offshore in winter, and brand new luxury hotels sit alongside sleepy fishing villages.

Unlike many Caribbean destinations, Miches still feels wonderfully undiscovered.

You can spend the morning hiking to panoramic viewpoints, the afternoon kayaking through mangroves and the evening watching the sun disappear over miles of virtually empty sand.

In recent years new resorts have arrived, but developers have taken a more low-key approach than elsewhere in the Dominican Republic, keeping much of the coastline untouched and embracing the natural surroundings.

BEST VIEW

But the Instagram-worthy swings of Montaña Redonda have become one of the Dominican Republic’s most recognisable photo spots.

Perched hundreds of metres above sea level, the hill offers spectacular 360-degree views over lagoons, rainforest and the Atlantic Ocean.

Take a seat on the swing that stands at the end of the viewpoint and push out over the incredible green landscape.

RATED RESTAURANTS

Away from the resorts, Miches town offers a glimpse of local life. Small family-run restaurants serve freshly grilled fish, lobster, coconut rice and sancocho, the Dominican Republic’s famous hearty stew.

Try out Rajanoris in town, it’s an unassuming spot not often visited by tourists but it’s a good bet for meeting the locals and tasting mofongo, a savoury pork and plantain dish with lots of garlic!

BEST BAR

Rancho Lounge Miches has a casual atmosphere and lively music and serves up ice cold beer and of course, lots of rum!

WHERE TO STAY

The Zemi Miches All-Inclusive Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton is set on it’s own 800-metre stretch of sand, with nothing but palm trees and mountains for company.

Even though it’s secluded, there’s a wealth of things to do.

There are four different pools, including a kids pool, 11 bars and restaurants, and a swish spa for some pampering.

As for activities, there’s everything from a bowling alley to a padel court! See hilton.com.

Seven nights’ all-inclusive is from £1,569pp including flights from Manchester on November 17, 20kg luggage and transfers. See tui.co.uk.

PARENTS will no longer be stung with rip-off fees just to sit next to their children on flights.

Airlines will be forced to seat under 14s beside a mum, dad or an accompanying adult for free.

It could save families up to £104 on a return trip.

Passengers will also be able to fix simple spelling mistakes on bookings without being hit with charges of up to £40.

PM Andy Burnham said: “People are fed up with these little charges that add up.

“So I’m putting a stop to them.”

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“This is what our everyday fixes are all about.

“Giving people room to breathe by tackling the small irritations that catch people out.

“They waste their time and cost them money.”

Ministers are also drawing up a system to help airlines identify repeat troublemakers.

It comes after more than 1,000 serious disruptive incidents were logged last year.

It could make it easier to extend bans on passengers who repeatedly cause issues.

GLASTONBURY punters have fumed over the ‘s*** show’ website chaos after the first set of 2027 tickets went on sale tonight.

Those who have managed to get their hands on them will travel to Worthy Farm in Somerset and dance away to their favourite tunes between Wednesday 23 June to Sunday 27 June next year.

Festival-goers logged online just before 6:00pm this evening (Thursday 1 October) to try and get their hands on ticket + coach passes for the five day music event.

They were told to enter the website at 5:50pm, and those who were on the page were given a place in the queue.

This was followed by a progress bar which showed how close you were to purchasing.

It comes as no surprise that they sold out within 30 minutes – meaning that loads of people have sadly gone without.

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Those took to X, formerly known to Twitter, to complain about the system which made them miss out.

One fan fumed on the social media app: “Shit show.”

Another wrote: “Think I would have preferred to be stuck on two bars than get right to the end as they sold out.”

A third chimed in: “These 2 bars are going to give me nightmares for the rest of my life I fear.”

A fourth asked: “Anyone even get past 2 bars? On to Sunday.”

“TRAPPED at the abysmal two green bars…,” a fifth tweeted.

Hopefuls will be able to log back on this Sunday to try and purchase general admission tickets at 9:00am.

In 2008, Drogheda went into examinership, Ireland’s equivalent of administration, and were deducted 10 points in the league.

Trabzonspor fans heard of their plight and sent letters to the club with cash inside.

Two years later, their relationship was made official when they became sister clubs and there were plans for a ceremonial friendly in Dublin in 2013.

“They travelled over here to play and there was a freak deluge of rain that fell within an hour of kick-off,” explains Wogan.

“We had our staff in the turnstiles waiting to scan tickets in, but the game was deemed unplayable and Trabzonspor went home without playing the fixture.”

So Thursday’s match has been a long time coming.

When Drogheda announced the friendly on social media on 2 September, Trabzonspor fans reacted in their droves. The post on X has been seen well over half a million times.

About 30% of Drogheda’s social media following is from Turkey. More than their share of followers from Ireland.

And it is not just online where the crossover of fans is being seen.

Trabzonspor shirts and flags are commonly spotted at Drogheda matches and Turkish fans sometimes visit the club during the week just to see the stadium.

One Trabzonspor fan, Cafer Bektas, lives a couple of miles outside Drogheda and attends every game.

When he first moved to the area, wearing a Trabzonspor jersey caught the attention of locals and got him discounts in shops.

Fishlock, who has said this will be her last year playing club football, will be on duty with Reign when Wales go to Albania on Friday, 9 October and then again in the return leg in Llanelli four days later.

Should Wales overcome a side who are 36 places in the Fifa rankings – and one they beat twice in the group phase of World Cup qualifying – they will play either Norway or Romania in a two-legged play-off final in December.

Wilkinson has revealed that another recently retired former player, Kayleigh Barton, will be part of her staff for the Albania ties and then Fishlock will have a role should Wales reach the final.

Fishlock previously worked as a technical assistant for Wales’ opening game of this qualifying campaign, against the Czech Republic in March.

Wilkinson explained that Fishlock had been in touch before she named her semi-final squad on Tuesday, adding: “I didn’t appreciate her saying ‘call me up coach, I’m ready’, which I thought was mean, but [she was] a wonderful player and a great leader for us.

“If we are able to get past Albania, she’ll be coming in as a coach for us for the next round.”