show biz

I CRASHED Kim Kardashian’s ultra-exclusive VIP launch of her London Skims store in a £35.99 knock-off jumpsuit – and ended up sipping dirty martinis with the A-list.

Arriving at the top-secret Regent Street bash in the pouring rain after a long day at work, I was armed with nothing but a mission and the confidence to somehow convince everyone I was wearing Kim’s Skims brand.

Amazingly, it worked.

In fact, I’d bought my entire outfit, a £35.99 Bershka gym jumpsuit, on the way there — and everyone believed it was one of Kim’s £116 creations.

And, after a humbling 30 minutes in the rain, I blagged my way inside at 7.40pm on Friday.

A couple of months ago I trekked down to an MPS Body and Paint car garage in Kent to recreate Kim’s Met Gala outfit.

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Now I’d gone one step further and found myself inside her crazy world — with the crowds parting like the Red Sea as the 5ft 2in brunette bombshell stepped inside.

Security assumed I had been there from the start and began backing everyone else up behind me.

Before I knew it, I was apparently first in line for a selfie with Kim — and I certainly wasn’t about to correct them.

Kim, 45, looked incredible in a custom leather Ludovic de Saint Sernin gown and, despite my unconvincing Skims impersonation, told me: “It’s lovely to meet you, you look amazing.”

Sadly, I later heard her parrot that to every other person she met in the plush new shop, so alas the compliment wasn’t just rolled out for me.

Famed for her selfie taking, and as one of the most photographed women in the world, it came as little surprise that Kim takes this very seriously.

And as I stepped forward for my snap, I was almost blinded as one of her assistants suddenly held up a huge dazzling torch over our faces.

But after a day at work and a trek through the rain, I have never been more grateful for good lighting.

Kim had three outfit changes throughout the night and I’d already experienced one of them from the front row.

Earlier, I found myself at the front of a queue for the loo when Kim was suddenly escorted ahead of everyone.

In what felt like the longest wardrobe change in history, at least ten people were left waiting cross-legged before she eventually emerged in the same dress.

Kim later fully committed to the change and slipped into a brown leather corset and a floor-length skirt.

Her third and final look of the night was a tight-fitting, nude two-piece which drew gasps of appreciation from the seven people glued to her side at all times.

As well as two burly security guards — and her lighting flunky of course — she spent the evening with Ludovic, the man who had designed her gown, Tracy Romulus Nguyen — chief communications officer of Skims — and two other assistants who were on hand to bat away anyone trying to get more than Kim’s pre-planned compliment out of her mouth.

Three immaculate bars were dotted around the store, serving gorgeous cocktails in translucent and nude shades to match Kim’s three looks.

Staff floated around with the prettiest — and tiniest — canapes I’d ever seen, from tuna tartare to miniature potatoes smothered in caviar.

I feared I’d be starving by the end of the night, but thankfully the microscopic morsels of food were eventually replaced with much more substantial burgers and fries.

I also made good use of the bar, sipping dirty martinis with celebs including Emma Grede, Rochelle Humes, Love Island’s Lorenzo Alessi and rapper Central Cee.

Kim’s famous hairdresser and current Strictly contestant Chris Appleton was also never far from her side, checking up on her hair throughout the evening and constantly patting down stray flyaways.

Just under two hours later, Kim was whisked away to an afterparty, held in lavish private members. club Maison Estelle. She used a secret lift to escape the 200 fans who had gathered outside.

My exit was a little more down to earth and, naturally, I got my hands on two Skims goody bags before jumping on the Northern Line home.

Inside one of them was an unreleased branded tracksuit worth £220, which some cheeky party-goers have since put on eBay for almost double the price.

Given how much of an upgrade it was from my Bershka number, I’ll be holding onto mine.

Sept. 21, 2026 12:58 PM PT

The Queen of Country is being honored with a special day on Californians’ calendars.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Sunday that establishes Sept. 25 as Dolly Parton Day. The date’s significance may be obvious to fans of the late country legend: 9-2-5 references Parton’s hit single “9 to 5” from the soundtrack of the 1980 comedy film of the same name that starred Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

“Dolly Parton was an icon,” Newsom said in a video accompanied by his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, announcing the bill’s passage. “Dolly was larger than life with big hair and a bigger heart. People around the world have been touched by her music, by her philanthropy, and by her humor.”

Parton died Aug. 25 at 80 years old following a battle with cancer. The beloved songwriter, recording artist, actor and businesswoman was an honored musician, earning 10 Grammy Awards and 10 Country Music Assn. Awards, as well as two Academy Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy. She was the recipient of the National Medal of the Arts in 2005 and the Kennedy Center for the Arts Award in 2006. Parton was also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

“Her legacy goes well beyond her music,” Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), who co-authored the bill with Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), said in a statement. “Through the Imagination Library, she put books into the hands of millions of children, and throughout her life she led with kindness, acceptance, and a belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. She was also no stranger to the Central Coast, where she performed for packed crowds and spent time over the years. Now, every 9-2-5, California gets to celebrate Dolly and the remarkable legacy she shared with all of us.”

TEAM GB stars Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Keely Hodgkinson looked on track for fashion golds at Burberry’s London Fashion Week event yesterday. 

Daring heptathlete Katarina, 33, wore nothing under her blazer while 800m hero Keely, 24, teamed a silk shirt with velvet flares. 

They rubbed shoulders at the bash, held at Chelsea College of Arts, with models including Iris Law, 25, and Lila Moss, 23.  

Iris opted for a denim two-piece while Lila wore a sparkling tweed minidress.  

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 39, teamed a black Burberry mac with a £6,900 price tag, with a diamond necklace. 

She arrived with action hero husband Jason Statham, 59, before taking her place on the front row for the runway show. 

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Actress Jodie-Turner Smith, 40, turned heads in a purple all-leather outfit with long boots.  

Also at the do — which coincided with Burberry celebrating its 170th anniversary — were Romeo Beckham, 24, and girlfriend Kim Turnbull. 

Kim, 25, is a rising star of the catwalk and was sent Burberry items to show off including a £1,295 handbag and £1,460 cropped trench coat.                

Runner Keely recently put on a leggy display as she celebrated her 400m win at Athlos.

The Team GB star dominated her race as she caught people’s attention in a black catsuit. 

Hodgkinson, 24, celebrated her victory at a glitzy hotel in London.

She took to Instagram to share a post in which she could be seen wearing a mini-skirt and a pink top.

The Big Brother house has reportedly been locked down temporarily

The Big Brother house has reportedly been locked down after a huge security breach.

Tensions reached boiling point in Monday’s (September 21) episode with explosive rows breaking out and the house divide continuing. Jedward, who entered the house for a week of double trouble this week, found themselves at the centre of drama after their hot tub chat took a dramatic turn.

When speaking to Rhianna, Edward told the former Made in Chelsea star: “I don’t think you’re gonna continue on in here if you don’t just get on with the vibes, you can’t be like looking at people…”

John added: “Yous aren’t in Love Island. Just letting yous know. For real… This is Big Brother, just always remember that.” Unimpressed, Rhianna told Chelsey who also became irate with comments made, but when word got back to Lynx, he attempted to confront Jedward before things turned heated.

Their the conversation quickly becomes sour when Lynx was seen annoyed with the comments and Jedward splashed him from the hot tub. Being forced to intervene, the housemates separated the group as the heated clash continued.

Big Brother was also seen intervening, calling Lynx to the Diary Room to calm down as well as separating Jedward from the rest of the group, meaning they had to sleep in another room for the night.

Despite the chaos being crowned “TV gold” by viewers, the drama comes following a security breach which reportedly put the whole house on a lockdown.

Housemates were allegedly told to leave the garden immediately and order into the house after fans were seen throwing tennis balls over the fence and into the garden.

In an attempt to communicate with the housemates, the act was deemed a security risk with security on hand to ensure the safety of the cast.

According to The Sun, a source confirmed: “The housemates were rushed into the house as tennis balls began flying over the compound walls and into the garden. Producers leapt into action and ordered them into the house and locked the doors.”

It was branded a “huge breach” as the housemates were on a lockdown as the team secured the site. It is no the first time fans of the show have attempted to communicate with the housemates.

It it also not known whether the security breach will be shown on TV or how long the lockdown will occur, but tensions continue to rise in the iconic house,with the drama continuing in tomorrow (September 22) night. ITV have been approached for a comment.

Big Brother continues tomorrow at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.

A MUCH-LOVED BBC radio star has quit after 45 years on air.

Roy Noble, 83, revealed he would be hanging up his mic as he shared an emotional statement with his listeners about “hiccups in his health“.

The Welsh-native is stepping down from his job at BBC Radio Wales, where he has been broadcasting since the 80s.

Roy also revealed when his last day on air would be, in an emotional post to fans called “A Letter from Roy Noble”, that was shared on social media.

“My dear friends, compatriots and fellow travellers,” the veteran broadcaster penned.

“After a great deal of thought, I’ve decided that next year will be the right time for me to step away from my Sunday programme on BBC Radio Wales.

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“By the time I present my final show in March 2027, I will have spent 46 wonderful years with BBC Wales. It’s been the privilege of a lifetime.”

Continuing, Roy said: “Radio has changed enormously over the years. Wales has changed too. But one thing has remained constant and that’s the privilege of being welcomed into your homes and lives.

“The signs that retirement was approaching may have included my growing suspicion that ‘apps‘ were invented purely to confuse me. The odd hiccup in health has sent signals too.

“But the truth is I’ve simply reached a point where it feels right to begin a new chapter.

“After all, November will mark 84 of my years of yore. Apparently, 63 is the sweet spot or happiest age to retire so I’ve added a few furlongs to that.”

Roy ended by saying: “But for now, I simply want to say a heartfelt thanks to you all. It’s been an honour.”

Before finding fame on the airwaves in the early 80s, Roy was a teacher, but he left to pursue his passion for radio.

The presenter was an instant hit, and over the years hosted a number of different shows for BBC Radio Wales.

HEIDI Klum thrilled fans as she tried to contain her boobs, as she buttoned up her corset ahead of Oktoberfest.

The model, 53, has been teasing fans with snippets of herself getting ready for the famous German festival, and her latest post sent her followers wild.

The mom-of-four took to Instagram to post a short clip of herself wearing a traditional Oktoberfest dress, called a dirndl.

Heidi could then be seen teasing fans as the buttons to the bodice wouldn’t do up because her boobs kept trying to spill out.

The sexy star’s blonde hair flowed down her face as she tried to hook the dress together.

It’s fair to say her fans went into meltdown at the sexy video and couldn’t contain their excitement.

One commented: “Your husband is such a blessed guy!”

While another added: “Just too hot to handle!”

This fan cheekily joked: “Release the Kraken!”

In another clip, Heidi could be seen finally dressed, and with the buttons all done up, as she headed into an Oktoberfest event.

The star skipped along happily wearing the pink and white Bavarian style frilly outfit, with her blonde hair flowing.

Meanwhile, it comes just a day after Heidi and her daughter Leni, 22, shared pictures of themselves in matching white lace undergarments ahead of the German festival.

Some ITV The Chase viewers complained on X minutes into Monday’s programme.

The Chase viewers have been left asking the same question.

The ITV gameshow returned on Monday, September 21, but viewers were quick to notice a repeat episode was airing, rather than the new series, which launched weeks ago.

During the show, Bradley Walsh and Chaser Darragh Ennis put four contestants to the test, Faith from Holmfirth, George from Hertfordshire, Anne from Pontypool, and Jamie from Liverpool.

However, after noticing the episode had aired in 2025, viewers were left asking the same question, with one writing: “Why is it back on repeats already? For the coming week. Perhaps they’re really struggling with their contestant quota,” reports the Express.

“Repeats already?” another echoed. “At least repeat the decent episodes!” someone else fumed. Another fan wrote: “Is it just me, or is this a repeat I’m watching? As far as I know, this ep was first shown in January 2025! What is going on, ITV?!”

The episode saw the four contestants ultimately lose against The Chaser. “I hope you’ve enjoyed your day, all of you, it’s been lovely meeting you,” Bradley told them.

“Sadly, I’ve got to take the £4,000 away and tell you that you that Faith, Anne, George and Jamie, you have been caught.” He added: “Once more, the Menace is triumphant! Could you take him down? Get together and apply, we’ll see you on The Chase.”

The Chase’s repeat comes after spin-off series, The Chase Around The World, aired earlier this year on ITV. The six-part special saw six teams of two battling to win £100,000 as they took on the beloved quiz show in destinations all over Europe.

ITV had teased: “The Chasers – The Beast and The Governess – have set a series of quiz questions, puzzles and cryptic clues that the teams must solve in order to navigate their way across the city and find Bradley at the finish line.

“Their route could take them to some of Rome’s iconic landmarks, such as the Colosseum, the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps. The teams must answer questions correctly to complete the course but they better be correct as wrong answers have serious consequences, costing them time and taking them off-course.

“Competition is fierce as the team that finishes last in each city will face a head-to-head showdown with the Chasers themselves. In Rome, the Beast and The Governess await. The final pair will need to beat them to stay in the competition. Lose, and it’s the first flight home.”

Speaking about the series, Bradley shared: “I would describe it as The Chase… but around the world! It’s out and about. It was very different doing it on location, in these incredible places, instead of being in a studio.

“I’ve been locked in Elstree Studios for 17 years! The locations were unbelievable. I loved it, I really did, but then again, I wasn’t chasing around, literally chasing around, the cities we were in.

The Chase is available to watch on ITVX

Nearly every summer, Tove Lo finds herself itching for a change.

Typically, the sweltering season will prompt the Swedish singer-songwriter to do something new, like dye her hair black or switch up her personal style. But even in the midst of this annual metamorphosis, she tends to find her way back to the same place: a small Swedish fishing village called Torekov.

Between recovering from her first heartbreak and overcoming burnout from her debut album “Queen of the Clouds,” the remote town has offered her a seaside refuge ever since childhood. Yet, with the making of her latest studio album “Estrus,” Torekov officially solidified itself as a mainstay in the singer’s artistic process.

“It’s kind of an emotionally triggering place for me, both good and bad,” Lo said, as she sank farther into the booth at Thai Angel on a humid August afternoon. “I needed a second to be in a place without distractions, where I’m more like a person than an artist … It almost offers a creative force field that I need to enter every process now.”

Torekov, as Lo describes it, is what the neighborhood in “‘The Truman Show’ is like before they hit record.” It’s somewhat of an idyllic place where the seashore is lined with wooden houses; sheep graze along the grassy cliffsides and residents wander around the shops in bathrobes and clogs, right after their morning swims.

However, when Lo visited during the off-season, its emptiness was “ominous” — unintentionally stirring her inner want to cause chaos. In true Tove Lo fashion, the surrounding serene village made her turn to the familiar sounds of heavy club electronica, further building on the contradictory ethos that comprises “Estrus.”

“Every song feels different. It’s like every feeling I’ve ever felt condensed into 13 songs,” Lo said, in between sips of her iced tea. “[Listeners] are getting this horny, rolly, aggressive bass line, and these super intimate, knife-to-the-heart kind of emotions in a very intimate way. I feel like they’re going to be emotionally exhausted.”

Under the dim red light of the Koreatown bar, the singer exuded an air of comfort, as she’s somewhat of a Thai Angel regular. The Swede, who’s lived in L.A. for nearly a decade, hosts a secretive, recurring party at the bar called SOUP. Usually the bar is a rowdy reprieve filled with sweaty bodies and pounding bass lines, with Lo situated behind the DJ decks. But on that Monday afternoon, hours before the bar opens, she had the place almost entirely to herself.

Tove Lo outside Thai Angel, a Koreatown bar where she hosts a recurring party.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

With only the swirling sounds of an overhead air conditioning vent to cloud her thoughts, she explained that, at the beginning, “Estrus” was bogged down by an unprecedented wave of writer’s block. The singer had initially tried to get a head start on her sixth studio album at home in Los Angeles, but she felt a new kind of pressure hanging over her head.

“I had this feeling that this is my sixth album and I had something to prove, like I needed to have a message or some kind of advice,” Lo said.

She credits the newfound tension to her career’s longevity. The 38-year-old, raised in the suburbs of Stockholm, got her start in music as a songwriter in the early 2010s, earning credits on tracks including Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” and Lorde’s “Homemade Dynamite.”

She gave in to her pop-star ambitions in 2014, with the release of her debut album, “Queen of the Clouds.” The record featured her breakout hit “Habits (Stay High),” which details her getting the munchies, throwing up in a tub and going to sex clubs to get over a heartbreak. Lo said she likes to think that, with the early success of the rebellious anthem, she was “very clear from the start.”

“I’m a hot mess,” Lo remarked, between laughs. “Here you go.”

Since then, she’s continued to develop her raw pop sound by collaborating with DJs like Flume and SG Lewis, while adding to her library of cult-classic tracks like “disco tits” and “Glad He’s Gone.” But at this point in her career, she said it also felt like she “should’ve had all the answers” by now.

“I had this idea that I had to prove that I had become a better, bigger person,” Lo said. “But I’m just the same f— messy girl.”

And the sound of “Estrus” follows suit. Immediately, the opening song, “a lot of feelings, no solutions,” hits listeners with a punchy bass line and blatant lyrics about having no advice to offer. Throughout the 13-track record, she flip-flops between being vulnerable and playful while also being hedonistic and making sacrifices. For example, on “the bad one,” she takes accountability for being a “problematic” partner over staccato percussion and a cinematic synth, while also being grateful she got out of the relationship. Similarly, on “F.A.M.T,” she leans into her avoidant tendencies on top of a choir of high-pitched cyber chimes and resorts to sexual endeavors instead of looking inward.

Tove Lo is set to perform at the Greek Theatre on September 27 as part of the Estrus tour.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

“We suppress a lot to be respectful to other people, and there’s nothing bad in that,” Lo said. “But if you never let your vices drive you for a night or a day, I think you’ll go absolutely crazy. You just need to have moments where you don’t think about the consequences. Just be hedonistic for a second. Indulge.”

Like much of Lo’s music, the new project, named after a female mammal in heat, is centered around the age-old tension between the body and mind. On her previous album “Dirt Femme,” released in 2022, she opened up about being unsure if she wants children, while denouncing the societal expectations that come with being a married woman.

And it’s still something she’s trying to figure out on “Estrus.” The album’s final track, “source of life,” offers up a mantra of contradicting adjectives like “feral,” “euphoric” and “fragile,” while questioning if she ruined her chances of motherhood by “partying late.”

“My body [says] well, maybe we should just have like one baby, and my mind is like, absolutely not,” said Lo. “I don’t know who’s gonna win. But I do feel like I’m in the final boss of adventures.”

By the end of “Estrus,” it’s apparent that the tug-of-war between her body and mind isn’t over. And she’s not sure if there will be a resolution. It’s still an ongoing battle — and it’s precisely what Lo says she was aiming for.

“There’s no good advice on this album,” she playfully reiterated. “Just don’t ask me.”

Dolly Parton — the “queen of country,” benevolent ruler of Dollywood and America’s true sweetheart — died at age 80 last month. But she lives on forever at home in our living rooms, in the warm echo of a Tennessee twang from the speaker and, perhaps surprisingly (although that shouldn’t be so), in the flickering glow of our television screens.

Parton got her start on the small screen, appearing on the “Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour” when she was 10. Eleven years later, she had a down-home breakthrough on the widely syndicated “Porter Wagoner Show.” There were multiple interviews with Barbara Walters, “Tonight Show” appearances with Johnny Carson, two successive variety shows and many a guest spot, including on “Hannah Montana,” “Designing Women” and “Reba.”

At the Emmys on Monday, Reba McEntire sang a soulful tribute to Parton with a cover of her 1983 song “Appalachian Mountains,” one of McEntire’s all-time favorites. Before that, though, came a heartfelt speech by Sally Field, Parton’s co-star in “Steel Magnolias.”

“If there are truly angels on Earth, then we just lost one: Dolly Parton,” Field said. “It was my great good fortune to have worked with Dolly in a film called ‘Steel Magnolias.’ And over the years, I never stopped loving her, though we lived very far apart. I adored her from Day One; how could you not? She was genuine and humble, supportive and blisteringly funny, with a bawdy sense of humor that would send any rude guy looking for a place to hide.

“I couldn’t see then what a real giant Dolly was — not just as an artist, but as a human,” she added. “She was a humanitarian whose contributions have made a profound difference in the lives of so many in her home state of Tennessee, and across our country. God bless you, Dolly Parton, my friend. I am not the only one on Earth that will love you forever and ever.”

Then came an archival clip of Parton introducing “Appalachian Mountains” the year it came out. “I’m very, very proud of the fact that I had the kind of parents that I did, and grew up in the Smoky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains,” she said. “And I have written a song that touches me very deep, and I’m sure that, in your own way, that you certainly will relate to this. This song, like I say, is very important to me, and I hope you like it. And if you don’t like it, well, if you don’t mind, I would rather not hear about it later, OK? It’s a song that I call ‘Appalachian Mountains.’ ”

Nathan Mensah is making his TV debut in The Blame, alongside Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth.

Nathan Mensah has joined the cast of The Blame alongside Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth.

The actor is making his debut in the second episode of the new ITV drama, airing Monday, 21 September. He plays young police detective Lewis, set on helping Michelle’s character DI Emma Crane uncover the truth about the death of a young girl.

The six-part series dramatizes corruption and systemic misogyny in the police force, after shockwaves are sent through a quiet town when a teenager’s body is found in the woods. With officers turning on each other, DI Crane and Douglas’ character DI Tom Radley dig deeper and are left reeling at the secrets they discover within a tangled web of lies and cover-ups.

“As the clock ticks and trust fractures, Crane must navigate both a murder investigation and the treacherous politics inside her own team,” the synopsis goes on to tease.

Nathan stars as DC Lewis Brimah, which marks his first TV role after working in commercial modelling and brand campaigns. Ahead of the new series airing, he teased his role on social media, writing: “GOD IS GOOD!!! First TV Series Job. Excited to get into this one with such an amazing cast.”

“Biggest congrats Nathan,” one fan replied. Another follower said: “Congratulations!! Bravo.” A third added: “wow! such a great cast, congrats,” while someone else wrote: “Yesss Nathannnnnn.”

Introducing his role in a Q&A during a press event, Nathan shared: “Lewis is a good guy, in fact, he’s a great guy… He’s coming to the system, going through the fast-track graduate scheme which means he hasn’t had the experience that a lot of the other officers and other detectives have.

“But he’s ambitious and he just wants to do a good job, like that is his focus. He’s by the book and he wholeheartedly believes in the job.

“He believes in the system, he believes in the people that he works with, and he has a very strong moral compass. He’s a very simple man, he believes things are black and white, there’s right and wrong, good and bad.

“For me, what I found really interesting is seeing someone like Lewis placed in an environment that is morally complicated, and how he navigates those areas without losing his integrity.”

Nathan went on: “He felt like me, like the new guy coming in, not necessarily seasoned but working with the vets. He just wants to do a good job and he really cares.”

The six-part series also marks the first time Michelle has played a police officer, as she revealed she couldn’t believe she’d not played one before. She previously shared a personal link to her role in The Blame, saying: “The thing is, my dad was in the police force, he was an inspector since he was 17.

“So I used to go to him and go, ‘Dad, what do you think about this?’ And when I was doing the meeting scenes, it was quite a high-up rank, so I was like, ‘How would you talk to people in the police force and how was your body language?’ I used to go to him quite a lot for resourcing.”

Michelle elsewhere revealed she was “hooked” on The Blame from the moment she read the script, and hailed her character as being “a strong female in a male-dominated environment”.

She went on: “She’s one of those girls that will take no nonsense, and it just felt exciting. We love to see it on screen and there’s not enough of it on screen.”

The Blame continues on Monday, 21 September at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX

Two years ago, the biggest record labels took artificial intelligence music generators to court for copyright infringement. Now several of them are licensing their catalogs to those same companies, and the deals are starting to turn into products.

The latest example came earlier this month, when Suno, an AI music company valued at $5.4 billion, released its first models built with licensed music from Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe. Rival Udio has licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Warner.

The companies are pitching AI as a new revenue stream for artists. But so far, none of them have disclosed what artists will be paid, how many artists have opted in, or how much input individual musicians have over whether their work is used. And some musicians and songwriters are fearful of how these AI deals might affect livelihoods.

“It’s sort of a creepy and ominous cloud,” said Matt Evans, a 35-year-old Pasadena resident who’s played brass instruments on shows like “The Late Late Show With James Corden” and Netflix’s “Dr. Seuss’s Red Fish, Blue Fish.” “The fact that I could do something once and then it could be reused, and if that’s not negotiated in a contract, then I never got to make a choice to receive additional compensation. It all comes down to the loss of money.”

The American Federation of Musicians sued Universal and Warner in June, alleging the labels licensed recordings its members played on to Suno and Udio without paying those musicians or telling the union which recordings were involved. The labels have moved to dismiss the case.

In 2024, Universal, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner sued Suno and Udio for copyright infringement, alleging the AI companies trained their models on copyrighted songs spanning many artists, genres and time periods. The settlements began the following year. Universal settled with Udio in October and became its partner, and Warner settled with both Udio and Suno in November, signing licensing deals with each.

“The reason why they would settle this is they think they’re going to profit more from licensing music to them rather than from the outcome of a lawsuit,” said Jane Davidson, an entertainment attorney at Nolan Heimann who specializes in copyright and trademark infringement.

More deals followed. Udio signed with Merlin, which licenses music on behalf of independent labels, and with independent publisher Kobalt. Suno signed with BMG in August and with Believe, owner of the DIY distribution platform TuneCore, this month. Spotify, which wasn’t part of the lawsuits, struck deals with Universal and Merlin.

Not everyone is settling. Sony filed a second lawsuit against Udio over more than 30,000 recordings, and it is still suing Suno alongside Universal, which is licensing its music to Udio and Spotify at the same time. Sony and Universal also filed a new lawsuit last week alleging that Suno’s latest model still infringes on their copyrighted works. In July, a Munich court ruled against Suno in a case brought by GEMA, which collects royalties for German songwriters and publishers.

The deals between labels and AI music platforms — on which consumers can create full songs from text prompts — share a basic promise. Artists signed to the participating labels can opt in and will be credited and paid.

But each company is building something different. Udio operates under a “walled garden” model favored by Universal, in which songs made on the platform can’t be downloaded or distributed elsewhere. Spotify’s tool, a planned paid add-on for Premium subscribers, has no launch date. Suno lets users download what they make and release it elsewhere, with download caps and watermarks meant to curb abuse; songs made with its new models can be distributed through Believe and TuneCore.

Whether an artist opts out depends on who owns the rights. Songs typically carry two copyrights — one for the composition, usually held by songwriters and their publishers, and one for the sound recording, usually owned by the label. Every contract is different, so it’s unclear how AI products will handle music where those rights are split.

Waveforms of audio files from various instruments are displayed on a computer screen during the making of an AI musical piece at Suno.

(Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press)

“These companies are able to make deals on behalf of their artists, and their control over their music is pretty significant based on what major label contracts typically say,” Davidson said. “But I expect that we will have some artists that push back against this and say that they didn’t authorize the use of their music for this purpose.”

Warner’s agreement with Suno, for example, lets artists opt in to having their names, likenesses, voices and compositions used in AI-generated music. But Jack Brody, Suno’s chief product officer, acknowledged that labels “ultimately have their contracts in place that will have some say in what an artist can and can’t do.” It’s also not always clear whether opting out keeps an artist’s recordings out of AI training, or only out of fan-facing features.

Michelle Lewis, a songwriter and the co-founder and chief executive of the nonprofit Songwriters of North America, said the composition side of that copyright split is often the harder one to defend.

“With AI, it’s so much easier to tell if you’ve infringed on the sound recording. You know what Beyoncé and Drake’s voices sound like,” said Lewis, who wrote Cher’s “A Different Kind of Love Song,” Little Mix’s “Wings” and the music for the Disney Jr. show “Doc McStuffins.” “But songwriting is so much more nebulous, so much harder to sue.”

“From the creator side, nobody asked for this. We like our job,” added Lewis. “The job is the process and what makes it special, interesting and artful.”

Some musicians argue the deals can’t cover rights the labels don’t control. A proposed class action filed last month by Jason Isbell and other musicians alleges Suno lets users generate songs that evoke specific artists’ identities without their consent, a right-of-publicity claim the plaintiffs say belongs to performers no matter who owns their recordings. Suno disputes the claims.

Session musicians like Evans are pushing back through their union.

“By licensing our members’ performances to AI platforms like Suno and Udio without consent, credit, or compensation, companies like Universal, Warner Records, and Atlantic are bypassing the very human creators who made their catalogs valuable in the first place,” AFM International President Tino Gagliardi said in a statement.

The labels have disputed the claims and argue that these deals advance the interests of artists and songwriters.

Jonathan Wyner, head of artistic technology initiatives at Berklee College of Music’s Emerging Artistic Technology Lab, compared the AI deals to the arrival of streaming services. Wyner has advised Suno.

“It’s a good step, and I think it was an inevitable step, especially if you want to stay engaged with musicians and the creative community,” he said.

That comparison cuts both ways. Streaming grew the industry while fueling years of complaints about artist pay.

Damon Krukowski, a musician and the legislative director at United Musicians & Allied Workers, said the deals so far don’t seem to benefit working-class musicians and could be used to cut them out entirely.

“It’s a new technology, but it’s not a new corporate story,” Krukowski said. “But the tools are even more powerful. It seems within their possible reach to destroy the labor market. The major labels are just seeing dollar signs without any regard to the long-term health or sustainability of this industry, because they’re envisioning an industry without artists who can push back.”

Brody disputed that, saying Suno is building ways for independent and unsigned artists to benefit, such as its deal with Believe and TuneCore.

With terms under wraps, it’s too early to know whether any of this will pay off for artists. The tests are still ahead — whether Sony and Universal win or settle, and what the first payouts actually look like.

“A label making a deal and an individual artist having a choice are not necessarily the same thing,” said Drew Silverstein, the senior advisor for AI at music tech company BandLab Technologies. “Our music industry has a long history of new revenue streams coming into existence that benefit certain folks, and create great financial opportunities for rights holders.”

Over the years, the concept of the “song of the summer” has been well-contested: Is it merely based on statistics? Is it the song that has become so omnipresent that many have become sick of it? Does this mean that “Happy” by Pharrell Williams and “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea count?

Last year, it was likely somewhere between Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” and “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar, featuring SZA. Just based on numbers, it was Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” but this is a strong case for why metrics don’t always matter.

On Sept. 23, the autumn equinox will arrive, officially bringing an end to the summer season and countless attempts at giving it an anthem. This year, there was a plethora of choices. So much so that we couldn’t narrow it down to a definitive tune.

However, you can find our potential picks below.

“The Peace,” underscores

“I don’t speak unless I’m spoken to / And I won’t smoke unless you’re smoking too.”

Underscores, the artist that you are. After “U” dropped in March, “The Peace” was one of the first tracks to go viral across social media. It’s since maintained its cultural relevancy, with the artist performing it as part of her DIY pop-up sets, staged from the back of a U-Haul truck.

Historically, underscores hasn’t written much about her personal life, opting for conceptual work. However, “The Peace” offers a rare, intimate glimpse into the artist’s love life and the feeling of sacrificing basic boundaries in order to satisfy someone else.

Beyond its storytelling, the song’s melody and chopped vocal riff are unforgettable on this track, standing out from the rest of the album. This isn’t a jab at the project — “U” is an incredible album and the song is just that good.

“stupid song,” Olivia Rodrigo

A song from Olivia Rodrigo’s third album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” was always going to make this list, given the strong reception it’s received and its incredible replayability. As further evidence of this, within weeks of its release, the song hit 300 million streams.

The album’s third single, “stupid song,” just makes it in over “the cure,” its second single. Though the latter has one of the best bridges of the year, its undeniably melancholic and macabre nature is what put it out of contention.

Though “stupid song” has its somber moments, it’s easier to scream in a crowd without catching concerned glares. This call for catharsis is ever-present in Rodrigo’s discography, but this last album is the artist in full stride.

“Dance…,” Slayyyter

Speaking of artists in full stride, Slayyyter has been the breakout act of the summer, which is incredible considering that her debut mixtape released in 2019. She’s got skin in the game but hasn’t really been able to crack the mainstream until the release of “Worst Girl in America” and a subsequent, viral Coachella set.

“Dance…” is the opening track of that album and also arguably the best song on it. After about a full minute of pensive, progressive, electronic buildup, listeners get a taste of bliss, sewn-in synths and heavy bass.

When one individual made the bold claim on X that it was “one of the best album intros ever,” Slayyyter was quick to respond with a simple “TRUE.” Shortly after its release, it went viral on Instagram reels and TikTok as creators used the song in a trend where they’d act fatigued before bursting into motion on beat.

“Caught in a Jam,” Portraits of Tracy

This is easily one of the most fun, captivating tracks of the summer — it’s funky, bouncy, buzzy and everything in between. Solidifying its cool is the reassuring note at the end of the music video description: “No generative AI was used at any stage in the production of this material.”

It features — without a doubt — one of the best bridges and refrains of the year, and perhaps onward. Not to mention, its lyrics are equally as enjoyable as the production.

“Oh, something changed in me, I felt it instantly / I had to hit the club so they could all see / Now I’m the dancing queen / F-f-f-far far from 17”

“Caught in a Jam” would an impressive feat from any artist, but it’s exciting to hear it coming from a 22-year-old. Hopefully, the future is bright and groovy for Portraits of Tracy. Reception of the artist’s latest EP, “Q: From Where Do Our Primal Instincts Originate? A: MTV! EP,” has been overwhelmingly positive, with Pitchfork placing it a 7.6 rating.

“BbY Wow,” Karol G, Judeline, rusowsky

The 2026 Coachella headliner is back at it again. This time around, Karol G released “BbY Wow” at the tail end of July, allowing it just enough time to seep into the brains of all its listeners.

Realistically, it needed no time at all. It didn’t take long for the song to hit No. 1 on Spotify global charts, receiving over 3 million streams within a week of its release.

The song is a masterclass in production, pulling and syncopating a sample from iconic dance hall tune “Coolie Dance Riddim,” released by Jamaican producer Cordel Skatta Burrell in 2003. In this, a lot of the heavy lifting is done, and all three artists are left to ride the smooth beat.

Naturally, Karol G really shines here, but Judeline and rusowsky provide an interesting dynamic to the song, making it an instant hit.

“Girl Like Me,” PinkPantheress

“Girl Like Me” is an odd entry for potential song of the summer. The track was released back in May 2025 as part of her second mixtape, “Fancy That.” However, it didn’t receive much buzz until April 2026, when PinkPantheress performed at Coachella.

Not long after, she released the official music video for the song, which blew up almost as soon as it landed on YouTube. The video, made in collaboration with faceless director Lauzza, features buildings shuffling on beat and other excerpts of British culture.

It would soon witness the same treatment on streaming, garnering a 165% increase in streaming activity over a four-week period, Billboard reported.

But it’s not all about numbers in the world of music and, thankfully, “Girl Like Me,” delivers sonically, as well. The song flips both “Romeo” and “Always Be There” by aughts-defining electronic duo Basement Jaxx and turns it into a thumping dance pop tune.

“Dine N’Dash,” the Strokes

As plainly stated in our coverage of the Strokes’ appearance at Just Like Heaven in August, the band is “currently riding the high” of its first Coachella performance in 15 years. “Reality Awaits” is an incredibly polarizing album. What’s dividing fans is Julian Casablancas’ insistence on using Autotune, as many prefer his raw vocals.

However, Autotune or not, “Dine N’Dash” is reminiscent of the best of the band, confirming that they’ve still got the juice to make hits 25 years after their debut. The chorus is the key here, as its smooth riff pauses for Casablancas to softy wail out “We could never afford it / So we dine and dash / I would always go last.”

Hello, 2001!

“brand new chanel$,” Slayyyter

It’s always difficult to give an artist a double entry on a list, but in the case of Slayyyter, it was mandatory. “Brand new chanel$” is poised to be a song off of a potential upcoming project, which is expected to be an inverse, “brother album” to “Worst Girl in America.”

In that, it completely lives up to her promises, taking the route of a more traditional pop song, while still delivering on all fronts. Notably, her vocal ability really shines through on this track, as she belts out “I‘m holding it alone just for tonight / I wonder if you / got her in your room / I call you on the phone to start a fight” during the chorus.

The song’s outro is equally as intoxicating, referencing the lyrics and melody of its apparent brother track, “Beat Up Chanel$.”

Like “Dance…,” the song was quick to go viral on social media, and the artist revealed that the song was made to process romantic trauma. Just two days before “WGIA” dropped and during rehearsals for her Coachella set, Slayyyter found out she had been cheated on by her then-boyfriend.

“Choosin’ Texas,” Ella Langley

It’s been 22 weeks since Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” first appeared on top of the Billboard 100, tying Mariah Carey’s seasonally ubiquitous “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Whether you like the song or not, its appeal is officially undeniable.

On Spotify, it’s racked up more than half a billion streams and on YouTube, nearly 100 million. Not to mention, it’s impossible to crawl into any dive bar in the country without being ambushed by “She’s from Texas, I can tell by the way / He’s two steppin’ ‘round the room,” delivered in a Southern drawl.

Is it the “Happy” or “Fancy” of 2026? We leave that with you to decide.

In Philippe Caland’s semi-autobiographical 2003 film “Hollywood Buddha,” his mother, Huguette Caland, plays herself. Wearing her signature white smock, inscribed with a flurry of painted swirls, circles, letters and cross-stitches, the Lebanese artist makes precise gray-blue lines on a canvas spread across her dining room table as her son laments a fickle movie industry.

Filmed in her Venice home, the scene, her three children agree, was true to life. Caland worked constantly: on stretched canvas, on fabric folded in her lap, on a children’s menu, on the wall of her kitchen, or the sleeve of her smock. Whatever was at hand.

“Of course it could be frustrating,” said her daughter Brigitte, an elegant, soft-spoken scholar of Semitic languages who has managed Caland’s estate since her death in 2019.

Brigitte Caland, right, and Charley Caland — the daughter and granddaughter of the Lebanese-born painter, sculptor and fashion designer Huguette Caland — stand in Caland’s former L.A. home and studio.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Sitting in that very home, which Caland had built in 1997, Brigitte recalled the many times her mother invited her over only to continue working as they talked. “I’d go to leave, and she’d put the canvas away, beg me to come back, and as soon as I did, she’d start painting again.” Still, from early on, Brigitte understood the compulsion as evidence of her mother’s resolve. “She had this incredible drive to create.”

“Huguette Caland: A Life in a Few Lines,” opening Sunday at the Hammer Museum, traces that relentless drive across nearly 150 paintings, drawings, sculptures, garments and tapestries. Organized by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid in collaboration with the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, the show comes to Los Angeles as the largest Caland survey in the country to date. Spanning five decades and installed chronologically, it features work from the 26 years she spent immersed in Venice’s creative community even as her practice was largely ignored.

It was Caland’s generous hospitality and boisterous wit that made her custom château a gathering place for a vibrant Westside art circle. Ed Moses, who lived around the corner, visited several times a week; Larry Bell, Frank Gehry, Robert Wilhite and others joined her for long meals and even longer parties. Her work surrounded them, and her studio, the grandest space in the house, stood open just beyond the living room. Yet her guests remained uninterested. “No one,” Brigitte said, “would walk the 10 steps.”

Huguette Caland in Stone Doorway, France, 1970.

(Huguette Caland Estate)

Curator Hannah Feldman sees that tension as central to Caland’s California years. “Instead of supporting and bolstering her as a creative in their midst, she became their salon host,” she said. The lack of recognition, Feldman argues, reverberates through Caland’s heavily impastoed portraits of Moses and her enigmatic late abstractions such as the rectilinear paintings in the “Silent Letter Series.”

“To draw a line is a way to contain one’s emotion, one’s anger, one’s anguish,” wrote Caland of her challenging relations with fellow artists in “Sketchbook 2” (1990-91). “My lines tell the story of my life, of people encountered along the path, people I loved, and found and even lost.”

Caland is perhaps best known for her cheeky, erotic paintings of fulsome body parts and for a biography too often reduced to cliché: the libertine daughter of Lebanon’s first post-independence president who left her husband and children in Beirut to pursue an art career in a less repressed Paris.

Huguette Caland, “Self-Portrait in Smock,” 1992

(Huguette Caland Estate)

Feldman hopes the exhibition, which spans fine-line drawings of entangled lovers and radiant topographical tapestries, will complicate that familiar account. “There’s joy, and there’s sex,” she said, “but there’s also pathos, vulnerability. The search for autonomy is not an easy one; it comes with conflict, strife.”

Caland’s freedom was no doubt hard-won. She first picked up a brush as a married mother of three in her thirties, and only after her father’s death. In her first painting, alternately titled “Soleil rouge” and “Cancer” (Red Sun/Cancer) (1964), hazy concentric circles gather in a crimson orb at the center of the monochromatic plane. Simultaneously a tumor and a light source, the refulgent motif holds grief and release.

Soon after, Caland enrolled in art classes at the American University of Beirut, relinquished much of her constricting couture wardrobe, and adopted a uniform of loose, flowing kaftans, which she would later turn into works of art in their own right. Archival photographs show a glamorous Caland arriving at an event in a floor-length garment bearing painted breasts, a belly button and a triangle of curly pubic hair.

Huguette Caland, “Bribes de corps,” 1973

(Huguette Caland Estate)

Caland moved to France in 1970, leaving her children (then 15, 13 and 12) in Beirut with their father, a French-Lebanese lawyer named Paul Caland. In paintings from that decade, Caland’s imagery of bodies swell, split, meld and dissolve. In “Enleve ton doigt” (Remove Your Finger) (1971), lipstick-red lips receive a pale finger reaching out from a crush of fantastical profiles; two years later, in “Self-Portrait” (Bribes de corps), Caland dispersed a sensual body across a pale pink field interrupted at the lower edge by a slight, shadowed cleft — either buxom cleavage or buttocks.

The distance from her children produced another kind of line: text. Philippe recalled receiving illustrated letters almost every week, filled with drawings, doodles and notes of affection. Most of these were later destroyed when the family house was bombed during the Lebanese Civil War of 1975. “I always knew my mother loved me,” Philippe said. “The family was not torn apart. She took a break, and in the end made a home for us in Paris, where we all landed when the war was raging.”

After the death of her lover, Romanian sculptor George Apostu, whose rough-hewn wood sculptures still populate the house’s patio, Caland’s children encouraged yet another departure. Her eldest son, Pierre, a businessman and former Olympic swimmer, paid for a stay at a friend’s Venice bed-and-breakfast, all but forcing his grieving mother out of Paris and to sunny L.A. Her initial reluctance gave way to affection. The light, arid climate and mountains sloping into the sea reminded her of Lebanon. “She liked that California land sounded like Caland,” Brigitte said.

Huguette Caland works at her home and studio in Venice, date unknown.

(Huguette Caland Estate)

After making Venice her primary residence, Caland collaborated with architect Neil Kaufman on the design for her enclosed château. Its towering, mostly unbroken face and narrow swimming pool suggested a rampart and a moat, but behind the concrete exterior, Caland eliminated every door save the guest bathroom. Long vertical windows opened onto a courtyard shaded by a sprawling olive tree. Art crowded the steep stairwell; it accumulated on scattered plywood and Formica tables and unraveled across the kitchen in an intricate mural composed of tessellated marks that recall Byzantine mosaics and tatreez, a form of traditional Palestinian embroidery.

“There was no distinction for her,” Brigitte said, between the home and the studio, art and life. Caland once described her “very, very mixed media” as including “every single exchange, a look, a smile, a brief encounter.”

That original interior survives in “Hollywood Buddha” and archival photographs. Philippe now lives in the house with his family, and although the concrete exterior remains intact, the rooms and the courtyard have been remodeled around their own aesthetics and routines. Along with the technicolor mural, Caland’s singular sensibility persists in scattered drawings, a bouquet of her preferred 30-inch paintbrushes and a pair of stiff-backed pews. Her presence, too, is felt in the people who now inhabit the space, like her granddaughter Charley, 25, whose easy warmth recalls qualities long ascribed to the matriarch.

The former Venice home and studio of the Lebanese-born painter, sculptor and fashion designer Huguette Caland. The home is still occupied by Caland’s family and no longer looks how it did when she was alive, but her spirit lives on in small details.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

When the Hammer selected Caland for “Made in L.A. 2016,” the honor brought some measure of the local attention that had long eluded her. “If you had to pick one critical turning point for her career,” Pierre said, “it was the inclusion of her work in that show.” For the family, the coming survey fulfills one of her long-held ambitions.

“She told me, ‘Live your life day by day and plan it on a thousand years,’” Philippe said. Only later did he understand that the advice described her own life. “Today, her work is here,” he added. “She continues with it.”

Huguette Caland, “Le grand bleu,” 2012.

(Huguette Caland Estate)

The final painting in the exhibition, an oceanic large-format canvas titled “Le Grand Bleu” (The Great Blue) (2012), once hung high above the central hearth in the Venice house. Surrounded by undulating circles, spots and stripes, red-roofed Lebanese abodes and white-masted schooners traverse an unsettled horizon line. From the dining table below, where a young Charley often helped her grandmother fill blank planes with delicate dots, Caland could look up and see how far her line had taken her.

Simon Reeve’s popular BBC series Wilderness makes an epic return to screens as the star recounts his deadly encounters

Presenter Simon Reeve has shared some of his near-death experiences while filming his new BBC series.

For his brand new series, Wilderness with Simon Reeve, the host returns to screens with four new expeditions to some of the world’s wildest and most remote places.

From trekking deep into Papua New Guinea’s jungle-clad mountains and diving with sharks in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, to exploring Canada’s Yukon and crossing almost 3,000 miles of Mongolia by 4WD, horse and on foot, these journeys promise to be bigger, wilder and more ambitious than ever.

With such major expeditions throughout the series, Simon has shared insight into disasters that almost cost him his life. Sharing his thoughts with the BBC, the 54-year-old was asked to elaborate on his near-disasters, which he revealed he had “several”.

Explaining the hair-raising moments, he said: “In Papua New Guinea, I had a makeshift bamboo chair in our camp. It looked pretty sturdy, right up until the moment it collapsed beneath me and a sharpened length of bamboo speared straight through the side of my t-shirt. It missed me. But it was close. Definitely a near-disaster.”

He also shared insight into a terrifying moment in Canada. He continued: “Even supposedly safe Canada was tricky.

“After getting up in the night to film the Northern Lights, I was half-asleep, freezing cold and fumbling with the stove in my tent.

“A burning log tipped onto the bone-dry mossy floor and suddenly there was a trail of fire heading towards my bed. In a bit of a panic, I kicked the log out through the tent flap and then extinguished the remaining flames with the nearest available liquid: a bottle of what I’ll call ‘Trucker’s Tango’ beside my camp bed. Thankfully I have a very poor sense of smell.”

The star also said: Then there was Bear Cave Mountain in the Yukon. Every night-time trip to the outside loo involved thoughts about what if I slip on the ice in my long johns, knock myself out and become breakfast for a wolf or a grizzly? It was one of the most remote places I’ve ever been.

“We were about 100 miles, as the crow flies, from the nearest other humans. It was like being in the middle of an ocean – except the ocean had bears.”

Wilderness with Simon Reeve will consist of four episodes which are 60 minutes each. The series is produced for BBC Two and iPlayer by The Garden, part of ITV Studios and co-produced by The Open University. The series has been written and presented by Simon Reeve.

Wilderness with Simon Reeve airs Saturday at 7:45pm on BBC Two.

BBC Breakfast host Sally Nugent was left baffled as her co-star disappeared live on air while presenting

BBC Breakfast suffered a live on-air blunder during Monday’s show.

The latest installment saw hosts Sally Nugent and Jon Kay on the red sofa, where they delivered the latest news, including the death of show regular and Normandy veteran Ken Hay, who survived capture just weeks after D-Day and spent years educating children about the war. He died aged 101.

As usual with BBC Breakfast, the hosts heard from weather presenter, Matt Taylor, who gave a forecast update to viewers at home.

However, on Monday’s broadcast, Matt’s feed suddenly cut out, as he disappeared live on air and it left a blank screen on air, reading: “Weather presenter editing playlist…”

Host, Sally, 55, said: “Oh, where’s he gone? Just in time. We kept a hold of him there” to which Jon, 56, added: “He’s gone, finished for shift!”

Poking fun at the technical blunder, Sally quipped: “Need another 50p in the metre!” while Jon added: “Let’s get the news, travel and weather where you are. Hopefully they’re there!”

It comes as veteran weather presenter, Carol Kirkwood, left the BBC show earlier this year after more than 25 years presenting. The BBC favourite announced her decision to step down earlier this year on the programme, revealing she wishes to dedicate more time to her husband Steve.

When Carol announced her departure at the time, she became emotional whilst discussing the difficult choice with Jon and Sally. At the time, she expressed: “It’s really hard for me to say this because I love my job.

“I love all of you guys, my weather colleagues, every department I’ve worked with, and of course, all the viewers I’ve been so engaged with for many years.

“But it’s great! I don’t want to be coming in on my zimmer frame, going, ‘I can’t reach the Northern Isles anymore!'”.

Discussing her future plans post-departure, Carol disclosed she’ll be dedicating more time to her husband Steve.

She continued: “We only got married a couple of years ago and we’re like ships that pass in the night, so I’m so looking forward to doing that.

“I’ve still got my books, I’ve got a few other bits and pieces. I want to travel as well.”

BBC Breakfast continues at 6am on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

The In Memoriam segment at the 78th Emmy Awards opened with a tribute to Catherine O’Hara from her movie and TV kids — Macaulay Culkin, Annie Murphy and Dan Levy.

“There are all kinds of words I could use to describe Catherine,” Culkin said as he took the stage with the “Schitt’s Creek” stars. “She was encouraging, she was warm, she was funny, but the word that I think of is ‘mama.’”

O’Hara, of course, played Culkin’s mother in “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2.”

“She wasn’t just a wife and mother to [husband] Bo and [sons] Matthew and Luke. She was my mom. She was our mama,” Culkin said, looking toward Murphy and Levy. “And by extension, she’s all of our mama…. She may have forgotten me twice, but we will always remember her.”

Murphy and Levy also shared personal anecdotes about their TV mom. Murphy spoke about O’Hara’s laugh, and the many interactions she’s had with fans “that remind [her] how profoundly Catherine has impacted the world … because she brought us joy.” Levy shared what it was like to work with O’Hara and how she taught him to “always say yes.”

Singer-songwriter Noah Kahan performed a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” as images of actors, writers, directors and other industry figures who died this year were projected onto the stage.

Among those honored in the segment were James Van Der Beek, Hayden Panettiere, Eric Dane, Vincent Pastore, Hal Williams, Tim Curry, Shelley Fabares, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Anthony Head, Diane Ladd, Sid Krofft, Ted Turner and Bob Mackie.

The segment closed with tributes to James Burrows and Rob Reiner from Jamie Lee Curtis.

“For over 1,000 episodes of television, the great James Burrows set a standard of comedy directing that will be cherished and studied for generations to come,” Curtis said. “And sadly, last year, we lost another cherished legend. Our beloved Meathead, Rob Reiner.”

Reiner won a posthumous Emmy for guest actor in a comedy series for his work on “The Bear” earlier this month. Curtis said Reiner broke the record set by his father, Carl Reiner, for the longest gap between acting Emmys.

“He was generous and kind and funny as hell and a friend to all,” Curtis said. “We all miss Rob and Michele [Singer] and all those we lost this year.”

The ceremony also featured a tribute to Dolly Parton earlier in the evening with Sally Field and Reba McEntire.

Every so often, an aspiring screenwriter wanders into the dim red glow of Jumbo’s Clown Room hoping to interview one of the dancers. “They’re like: ‘I’m writing a screenplay. Can I interview you?” says Cecilia Fairchild, one of the longtime dancers at the renowned East Hollywood bikini bar.

Her response is usually some version of this: “I’m like, ‘Why are you writing about that? Don’t you know we are all writing that too? Leave us alone,’” Fairchild says with a mischievous laugh. What bothers Fairchild is the assumption behind it — that the dancers are voiceless and helpless. Worst of all, they’re presumed to have stories worth mining but not the ability to produce literature themselves.

Jumbo’s has a longstanding reputation of being part of L.A.’s literary lore.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Charles Bukowski — L.A. nightlife’s debaucherous poet laureate — was rumored to haunt the bikini bar in its early days. David Lynch wrote his classic screenplay “Blue Velvet” at the bar. (According to local legends, the iconic opening shot of “Blue Velvet” came to Lynch when he spotted a dancer with only one ear.) Writer and director Quentin Tarantino reputedly wrote at the bar. But while Jumbo’s has garnered a mythology as a magnet for filmmakers, writers and musicians who collect impressions, the dive’s dancers have shifted from being the subject to the artists.

Many of Jumbo’s dancers write fiction and memoir, host literary salons across Los Angeles and find ways to tell their own stories rather than serve as muses. “It’s funny because I wish that male auteurs would tell the story of customers. I want a sniffer’s memoir. I think that’s a real point of view,” Fairchild says. (Speaking of alienation and horniness, the dancer has been meaning to crack the Marcel Proust canon.)

Honey Ryder (Claudia Musikul) types on the bar inside Jumbo’s Clown Room. (Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

Fairchild is a playwright, poet and memoirist. Her recently completed memoir, “The Poison + The Spit,” traces a life of tumultuous love affairs and a stint dancing in New Orleans, rendered in prose that is whimsical, surreal and deeply emotional. The dancer also hosts the Downpour, a popular monthly literary salon at Bar Covell, and recently directed “Fool in the Pool,” a play that premiered at El Condor in Silver Lake this summer.

Her writing style mirrors her dancing: kinetic, wild and unpredictable. She sometimes takes the stage in roller skates, dancing to David Bowie. Her memoir achieves that same sense of hypnotic motion. “The memoir is so heavy,” she says. “Everything was so sad that I needed some lens to look at it that was fun, zippy and crazy.”

For Fairchild, dancing and writing possess the same need to expose oneself. “Vulnerability is one of the most interesting things about dancing,” she says. “There really is the potential to look into people, and they look into you, and you wordlessly share something with them that is half sexual and half this other thing.”

Meanwhile, Danielle Henderson — another dancer and aspiring novelist at Jumbo’s who writes under the pen name D.M. Faulk — has been working on a science-fiction novel titled “Meridian.” The book imagines a dystopian American wasteland where pregnant women are surveilled and controlled. She has been a longtime science-fiction fan since she and her father watched “Jurassic Park” and “Planet of the Apes” when she was a child.

Long treated as passive muses by visiting writers, Jumbo’s dancers — from left, Caroline Blaike (Caroline Moyer), Honey Ryder (Claudia Musikul), and Cecilia Fairchild — are reclaiming the narrative as active poets, memoirists and screenwriters.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

Unexpectedly, the Jumbo’s comically tiny dressing room became the inspiration for her novel. In 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, conversations between dancers about reproductive rights ignited in the dressing room, which in turn informed her novel.

“A lot of those conversations happen in the dressing room. I’m incredibly inspired by the women I’m with who are incredibly sex positive and strong.” That ethos informed Henderson’s protagonist, Zayla.

In recent years, the bar has become a local author hangout. Allie Rowbottom, the author of the recent buzzy adult film novel “Lovers XXX,” discovered the bar in 2011 on the occasion of writer Elizabeth Hall’s birthday party. “I recall sitting front row on novelist Jon Lindsey’s lap, raining dollar bills on dancers performing intricate, beautiful athletic feats,” Rowbottom says. “I spent more than I could afford that night and have been back often since.”

Increasingly, Jumbo’s has cemented itself as a watering hole to the local writing scene. “Two years ago, I rented out a few tables for Jon Lindsey’s birthday, attended by Los Angeles literati like Tea Hacic-Vlahovic, Sammy Loren, Morgan Krantz, Tex Gresham and Nada Alic,” she adds.

According to Rowbottom, Jumbo’s is rife for literary inspiration. “To me, Jumbo’s feels uniquely dedicated, as a venue, to intersecting sex and art, despite the obvious dissonance of selling either,” she says. “I suspect such is what has historically made it a rich spot for writers, dissonance and tension being of utmost importance to good literary work.”

From left, Caroline Blaike (Caroline Moyer), Honey Ryder (Claudia Musikul), Cecilia Fairchild and Stephen (Aaron Laughton) inside Jumbo’s Clown Room.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

A charged scene in L.A. writer Aiden Arata’s critically-acclaimed 2025 essay collection, “You Have a New Memory,” features a night out at Jumbo’s Clown Room. “The dancers are starlets, athletes, artists; the theme is clown, and also longing — longing is a high form of physical comedy,” says Arata. “It possesses that heady mix of scuzz and glamour that can trick you into thinking your life is about to change.”

Jumbo’s burgeoning literary interest revives a hotly debated question: Who gets to tell the stories of sex work? For decades, the club has inspired celebrated writers and filmmakers, but Claudia Musikul — a dancer at Jumbo’s and a screenwriter herself — hopes its literary legacy will increasingly belong to the people at its core: the dancers.

“I hope that everybody can actually get their work out there because I feel it’s much deserved,” says Musikul. “You’ve probably heard about Bukowski, David Lynch doing ‘Blue Velvet’, or Anthony Bourdain. That’s all really cool, but in a way, it’s the actual dancers’ turn to have that kind of recognition.”

Musikul primarily writes screenplays about strippers, a subject she believes is seldom represented authentically. She has been in writing partnerships and workshops while developing scripts centered on dancers. In a sea of films depicting sex work, she cites Paul Verhoeven’s “Showgirls” as a film that resonates with her experience.

“‘Showgirls’ is my very favorite movie,” she says. “It’s my very special place in my heart movie.”

For Caroline Blaike, a poet and dancer at Jumbo’s, the connection between dancing and writing lies in observation. Years of performing have made her acutely attentive to the people who pass through the club, a voyeuristic habit that carries over into her poetry.

“When you’re a dancer, you’re very observant. You watch every person that walks in,” she says. “I feel like the way dancing makes you observe people helps you write from a perspective that other people can then relate to.”

Blaike has been working on a poetry collection that explores love, queerness, desire and personhood. “It’s gotten a little sexier over time, which is kind of fun,” she says. “I also just write about love, being gay, just existing. It can be a little aggressive, but people seem to like it, so that’s good.” She writes these poems from her prized typewriter — a “1951 Olympia typewriter that is my child.”

Among Blaike’s earliest literary touchstones was Maya Angelou. She still remembers encountering Angelou’s line in her poem “Still I Rise,” “I dance like I have diamonds at the meeting of my thighs,” and being stunned by it.

“I was like, ‘Oh, you can write that? That’s amazing,’” she says.

The literary ambitions at Jumbo’s extend well beyond the stage. Stephen Laughton, one of the club’s security guards, jokes that he leads a double life. By night, he keeps watch at the door; by day, he is an award-winning playwright. He’s recently been named the new associate artistic director of the Echo Theater in Atwater Village, and Laughton’s served as the writer-in-residence in the astrophysics department at the Natural History Museum in New York. Last November, his latest play became the first in the world to be staged in a planetarium.

“It’s this crazy, beautiful science play about two guys who meet in a club that explores mental health in the LGBT community, human interaction, time and astrophysics,” Laughton says.

Like many of his co-workers, Laughton has found himself turning Jumbo’s into copy. The club, he suggests, has a way of compelling everyone who works there to write about it.

“I think that probably what we’re all going to realize is that we’re all writing a version of the exact same story,” Laughton jokes.

Blaike argues that the dancers’ diverse talents are a key reason why Jumbo’s Clown Room has become such a beloved institution in the city. “It attracts confident, creative women who work there,” says Blaike. “Our community of women is supportive of each other and each other’s endeavors. … It really does facilitate that.”

Is President Trump holding the Kennedy Center hostage? The allegation has been made at least twice, most recently by John F. Kennedy’s niece Kerry Kennedy, and earlier by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex-officio member of the board, who has sued to keep Trump’s name off the building.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “hostage” as, “a person taken by force to secure the taker’s demands.” Swap, “person” for the “Kennedy Center” and “taker” for “Trump,” and you have a pretty straightforward “yes.”

The ongoing Kennedy Center dumpster fire points to an unusual presidential obsession with the nation’s premier performing arts venue that dates back to Trump’s first term when he became the first sitting president in history to twice miss the annual Kennedy Center Honors.

In his second term, Trump turned that snub upside down by firing the board and strong-arming his way into being named chairman. If he expected to be welcomed into the arts community with open arms, he was gravely mistaken. His takeover resulted in a wave of high-profile cancellations that ultimately led to a massive dip in ticket sales. The exodus became even worse when the Trump-appointed board voted to add Trump’s name to the building late last year. The reaction, it seems, injured the president’s fragile ego and incurred his wrath.

By early February the president announced he would close the center for a two-year, $257-million renovation. Calling the historic venue “dilapidated,” Trump said he would be the one to restore it to glory. Behind the scenes another story was unfolding, and six months later the Washington Post reported that “ticket sales and fundraising collapsed” after Trump’s name was added to the building, “even as the center’s leaders publicly touted a financial turnaround.”

This week saw chaos at the venue that even the most seasoned journalists struggled to keep up with as the board voted to close the building on the same day that a federal judge upheld an order that Trump’s name could not be restored to its facade after he ordered it removed in late May.

Trump took to social media to decry the decision, threatening to withhold his support for the renovation and noting that the center could be “ripped down” if he wasn’t formally honored with his name on the building. Despite a preliminary injunction barring the venue from closing, people were kicked out of the building and barricades erected in the name of public safety that same day.

Those prone to hyperbole might be tempted to call this presidential tantrum disguised in procedural clothes a constitutional crisis. Or you could just say that Trump has taken the Kennedy Center hostage. The taker wants his name on the building, and the center will not be released for renovation or reopening if that doesn’t happen.

In the meantime an image of Trump on Air Force One was captured that shows him holding a large placard that reads, “Kennedy Center DEMO[LISHED],” leaving concerned parties to wonder just what exactly the chairman of the board has in mind. Is he using a Sharpie at this very moment to slash a line through the image at the center on that board, or is it just a prop to be trotted out in a cruel bit of future social media hazing?

Getting lost in all the drama: a beloved arts venue has gone pointlessly dark, and the people who loved it are heartbroken. If no one is inside to hear the wind whistle, does it make a sound?

I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt, willing to rustle up a ransom. This is your arts and culture news for the week.

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

Oliver Lee Jackson: Form Follows Feeling
The Bay Area painter, sculptor, and printmaker’s work, created over decades, is inspired by the human figure in its composition and structure.
Opening reception, 6-8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Lisson, 1037 N. Sycamore Ave. lissongallery.com

“Vitruvian Figure (Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum),” 2026, 3D model by Paul Pfeiffer.

(Paul Pfeiffer/Perrotin)

Paul Pfeiffer: Olympia
In new work focused on Los Angeles, the artist explores the intersection between media, spectacle, architecture and the body ahead of the city hosting the 2028 Olympic Games.
Opening reception, 6-8 p.m. Friday; Pfeiffer in conversation with Britt Salvesen, 3 p.m. Saturday; exhibition, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Nov. 7. Perrotin, 5036 W Pico Blvd. perrotin.com

SATURDAY

“Couple walking, Park Avenue,” 1960.

(Estate of Roy DeCarava)

Roy DeCarava: the sound i saw
The exhibition presents more than 130 images created between the late 1940s and 1960s, depicting the photographer’s intense interest in the relationship between the visual and the aural. Accompanying the exhibition, in the gallery next door, will be “SIDE B: the sounds,” a listening room featuring DeCarava’s personal playlists and favorite jazz album.
Opening reception, 6-8 p.m.; exhibition runs through Oct. 31. David Zwirner Gallery, 606 and 6166, N. Western Ave. davidzwirner.com

Sutton Foster
The two-time Tony winner and TV star performs Broadway hits and standards with Pacific Jazz Orchestra, featuring new arrangements by conductor Chris Walden.
8 p.m. The Soraya, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org

Mia Middleton: Summoning Cleo
New work by the artist explores interpreting familiar forms through a surreal lens.
Opening reception, 5-7 p.m. Saturday; exhibition runs through Oct. 24. Roberts Projects, 442 S. La Brea Ave. robertsprojectsla.com

Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Real-life mother and daughter Cyndy Fujikawa and Nell Murphy star in this production of George Bernard Shaw’s 1893 play about a Victorian woman coming to terms with how she built a business empire. Directed by Michael Rothaar.
Opening night, 8 p.m. Saturday; 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays (check website for exceptions), through October 25. Pacific Resident Theatre, 707 Venice Blvd, Venice. pacificresidenttheatre.org

Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Arturo O’Farrill and Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra open the Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ Jazz series.

(John Abbott)

Arturo O’Farrill & Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
The pianist and composer, a six-time Grammy winner, and his ensemble kick off the Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ 2026-27 Jazz series with Afro-Cuban rhythm, modern jazz harmony and big-band sounds.
8 p.m. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org

Other Places
An alternative art fair devoted to contemporary art spaces and projects, plus workshops, readings, talks and performances.
Noon-7 p.m. Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro. opaf.info

Karma
The gallery presents solo exhibitions by painters Randy Wray (“Hothouse”) and Felipe Suzuki, one featuring vivid abstractions, and the other, work created through the lens of memory .
Opening reception 6-8 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Oct. 24. Karma, 7351 Santa Monica Blvd. karmakarma.org

SUNDAY

Alexander Apóstol
“Regime: Dramatis Personae” (2017), a series of black-and-white portraits of archetypal figures in both populist and authoritarian governments, uses photography to analyze the intertwining of art and political power in Latin America.
11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; through Jan 3, 2027. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. moca.org

Textile Alchemy: The Art of Reiko Sudō and NUNO
More than 100 limited-edition textiles, along with numerous objects, including drawings, sketches, raw materials, tools, mock-ups, and prototypes, are part of the largest retrospective ever of the Japanese designer’s work created with her textile collective and other collaborators from throughout Japan,
Through March 7, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Resnick Pavilion, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org

TUESDAY

The entrance of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles in Exposition Park.

(Ron De Angelis/For The Times)

Lucas Museum Of Narrative Art
Where else will you see Luke Skywalker, Vincent Van Gogh, Norman Rockwell, Gordon Parks and Charles Schulz under one roof? The new museum officially opens Tuesday, featuring 100,000 square feet of space spread across more than 30 galleries, exhibiting a mind-bending range of visual storytelling. Check out our full coverage.
Public opening, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday; regular hours, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays. Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Exposition Park, 3800 S. Vermont Ave. lucasmuseum.org

THURSDAY

Bilal
The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter delivers a blend of soul, funk, and jazz. Queens-born R&B musician Yaya Bey is the opening act.
8 p.m. Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. carpenterarts.org

Each Other’s Hands: Trans Mutual Aid, 1966—1996
Oxy Arts, Occidental College’s community-based arts hub, presents an exhibition featuring the work of six L.A. artists. curated by Umi Hsu. The opening reception marks the launch of the 2026 CIRCA Queer Histories Festival hosted by One Institute.
Opening reception, 7 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Oxy Arts, 4757 York Blvd. oxyarts.oxy.edu

Arts Anywhere

Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars
The newly remastered 4K version of Howard Brookner’s 1987 documentary, the essential yet long elusive film about the 1984 L.A. Olympics Arts Festival, can finally be streamed courtesy of Criterion Channel. It is everything LA28 doesn’t want you know. criterionchannel.com

— Mark Swed

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Christian Barillas, Melinda Page Hamilton and John Lavelle in “The Visit” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Pasadena Playhouse opened a new production of Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s revenge tragicomedy “The Visit,” and The Times got in on the action. Contributor Jenelle Riley wrote a preview about how the new show features more than a dozen creatives behind the Playhouse’s production of Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” earlier this year, including director Darko Tresnjak and actor Jefferson Mays. “Amadeus” was a major hit, so Artistic Director Danny Feldman welcomed the team back with open arms.

Meanwhile, Times theater critic Charles McNulty attended opening night and declared the play a refreshing success (with a few caveats), and expressed “gratitude for the high-level production, gratitude for making the case for why the play still matters, and gratitude for the opportunity of allowing us to make up our own minds about whether the work earns its designation as a modern classic.”

Castulo Guerra as Tlahtoani Klion in a dress rehearsal ahead of its premiere of “Antigone: In the Language of the Kings” by the Latino Theater Company at the Getty Villa.

(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)

McNulty also headed to the Getty Villa for its annual outdoor theater production. This year, the Villa’s outdoor stage marks its 20th anniversary with a co-production with Latino Theater Company of Sophocles’ “Antigone,” reimagined to take place in pre-conquest Tenochtitlan and performed in English, Spanish and Nahuatl. “If the drama is oversimplified, it nonetheless makes for a gripping spectacle,” McNulty writes.

Finally, a very busy McNulty checked out out a revival of José Rivera’s “Marisol” in an Open Fist Theater Company production at Atwater Village Theatre. The play originally opened in the early 1990s around the same time as Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” and McNulty says this new staging is gratifying because it allows a new generation to “embrace the play’s kinetic freedom.”

There are as many acrobats as actors in “Water for Elephants,” which is running at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through Sept. 27 before heading to Segerstrom Center for the Arts (Nov. 10-22, with stops in Portland, Seattle, Reno, Sacramento, Tempe, Fresno and Eugene in between). Contributor Jenelle Riley headed backstage before opening night to watch the high-stakes performers warm up with poles, hoops, ropes and more. When the curtain raises, there’s a real circus onstage.

Long Beach Opera will perform its 2026-27 season aboard the Queen Mary.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Long Beach Opera announced its 2026-27 season, which is slated to be performed aboard the historic Queen Mary. First up: three works by composer Georges Aperghis, with vocal performances from coloratura soprano Habin Kim. Next: soprano Amanda Forsythe and Opera Prima in a performance of “Tormento Seicento.” Four additional productions include: an Anna Schubert recital, Peter Brook’s “Impressions of Pelleas,” Handel’s “Tolomeo” and Ana Sokolović’s “Svadba.”

The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Daniel Gryczman, the federation’s board chair, sued Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum for the return of the diptych “Adam and Eve,” a pair of 16th century masterpieces by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The suit was one of two filed in the state “since California and Congress passed a pair of laws bolstering U.S.-based claims to Nazi-looted artwork around the world,” reports the Times’ Kevin Rector.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

The Food section got the skinny on Skywalker Grill at the Lucas Museum, which is already booked through the end of the year.

Presley Gerber, the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and her husband, businessman Rande Gerber, died Sunday at a rehab facility at age 27, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner.

Few details were available late Sunday.

Gerber worked as a model, including in 2018, at age 18, as the face of Calvin Klein Jeans’ global advertising campaign, along with his sister, Kaia Gerber.

A year later, he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, according to USA Today. He was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to complete a DUI program, TMZ reported.

Kaia, left, and Presley Gerber in Paris in 2017.

(Kamil Zihnioglu / Associated Press)

The death was confirmed to the Associated Press by Allie Jenkins, a representative for Crawford and Rande Gerber, who were married in 1998.

“The family is asking for privacy during this very difficult and painful time,” Jenkins said.

In an Aug. 11 interview with Vogue, sister Kaia, a model and actor, spoke of her older brother struggling with drug addiction, which he described in a since-deleted Instagram video in December.

She told the magazine that she was proud of him.

“My parents … were very, very private,” she said. “Now we have this absolute teacher, my brother, who said, ‘I’m gonna be very human for everyone.’”

Duncan Sheik, who earned a Grammy nomination for his ubiquitous 1990s hit “Barely Breathing” and won a Tony Award for composing the music for “Spring Awakening,” died Thursday. He was 56.

“It is with profound sadness that we confirm the passing of Duncan Sheik,” a statement posted Friday on Sheik’s Instagram account read. “The world has a lost a singular talent, and deeply influential voice in music and theater…. Duncan’s artistry touched many and leaves an indelible mark on the cultural landscape.

“Duncan was a father, husband, son, brother, and friend. He will be remembered for his sensitivity, wit, inteligence, and depth of spirit he brought to those who knew and loved him.”

The statement added that “Duncan passed away last night surrounded by love.”

His mother, Suzanne Sheik, told the New York Times that her son died of organ failure. A statement posted to his Instagram account Thursday said that Sheik was “receiving medical care and remains in critical but stable condition.”

Sheik, a New Jersey native, went to Brown University, where he played in an early band with singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb. His 1996 self-titled debut LP was a hit on the strength of “Barely Breathing,” an exemplar of the upbeat coffeeshop rock that emerged in the wake of grunge on the pop charts. The single stayed on the Hot 100 for over a year, and the album went gold, earning earned him a Grammy nomination for male pop vocal performance.

Sheik’s followup, 1998’s “Humming,” featured rich orchestration, but he already had an eye on Broadway (his sister Kacie Sheik is a stage actor who has appeared in “Hair,” “American Idiot” and “Because of Winn-Dixie,” for which Duncan wrote the score).

He wrote his 2001 album “Phantom Moon” with poet and playwright Steven Sater, whom he’d again collaborate with on the score for the musical “Spring Awakening” — based on the play by German Expressionist Frank Wedekind, which won him a Tony Award — and “Alice by Heart.” His 2009 album “Whisper House” yielded a companion musical of the same name. He also composed the score for the 2004 film “A Home at the End of the World.”

While Sheik sought treatment for alcohol addiction after canceling a tour in 2011, his stage and studio career never slowed. Other major stage credits include hit productions of “American Psycho,” “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” the thriller “Noir” and “The Secret Life of Bees,” along with Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “The Taming of the Shrew.” His last album, “Claptrap,” came out in 2022.

Sway Dasafo, a pioneering British Ghanaian rapper known for his lyric storytelling and championing of British music, has died. He was 44.

The rapper and producer’s death was announced Thursday on social media by the Mobo Awards, which celebrates music of Black origin. Dasafo’s friend Kash Ahmad confirmed to the BBC that he died at his home in Ghana. No cause of death was provided, but the outlet reported that Dasafo had been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2010 before going into remission later that year.

“We’re deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Sway,” Mobo wrote on Instagram. “Sway will always hold a special place in MOBO history.”

In 2005, Dasafo became the first unsigned artist to win the Mobo award for hip-hop act before he released an official album. He won over other established artists including 50 Cent and the Game off the strength of his mixtapes, “This Is My Promo” volumes one and two.

“Mixtapes effectively provide a diary of my life,” Dasafo told the Guardian in 2005. “They feature skits and interviews of me on radio. When people follow your story, they feel closer to you — it’s like a soap opera. People want to know what’s going to happen next.”

“It was a huge moment,” Mobo’s Instagram statement said of Dasafo’s win. “Not just for Sway, but for UK Hip Hop. At a time when British rappers were still fighting to be recognised alongside their US counterparts, his win made a real statement about the talent, creativity and potential coming out of the UK. … [W]e will always be proud that he was part of the MOBO story and of the history we shared together.”

Born Derek Andrews Safo on Sept. 5, 1982, in Hornsey, north London, to Ghanaian parents, Dasafo grew up primarily in England where he developed a love for literature and music. He started rapping as a hobby when he was 10 and was making beats on his computer at 13.

The versatile rapper got his start in groups such as Phynix Crew and One before going solo and releasing his series of mixtapes. Among his early hits were “Up Your Speed” and “Little Derek,” from his debut alum, “This Is My Demo,” which he released from his own label, Dcypha Productions.

“I’m a positive person and this positivity comes out in my music,” Dasafo said in his 2005 Guardian interview. “I don’t go round holding guns to people’s heads, so I won’t rap about holding guns to people’s heads. Trouble attracts trouble. If you rap about trouble, it will come to you.”

From early in his rap career, he expressed his desire to become a producer so he could sign and nurture other talent. Dasafo has collaborated with artists including Riz Ahmed, Ed Sheeran, Lupe Fiasco and Chamillionaire.

BBC Radio 1Xtra broadcaster Remi Burgz called Dasafo a “UK Rap pioneer” and “one of north London’s finest” during her program, according to the BBC.

“He was mine and many others’ first experience of U.K. rap [and] hip-hop in mainstream media,” she said. “He was a literal example of paving the way and showing that U.K. rap can take up space in music.”

Dasafo is survived by his two sons, Jalil and Ammar-Joseph, and twin daughters, Queen-Inaya and Queen-Imara.

The staging is simple. A circle of nine stately wood chairs on a bare stage. Four actors, affixed with in-ear monitors, occupy different seats as testimony is elicited, provided and undermined.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is back in session in “The Ford/Hill Project,” now at REDCAT through Saturday. What follows is some of the most riveting and distressing testimony ever delivered in such a setting.

Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford are called back to testify under oath about the Supreme Court nominations of Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, respectively. This documentary drama, created by Elizabeth Marvel and director Lee Sunday Evans, is composed from the verbatim transcripts of these painful proceedings.

In 1991, Hill testified that Thomas had repeatedly sexually harassed her when he was her supervisor at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Education. In 2018, Ford testified that she had been sexually assaulted in 1982 by a 17-year-old Kavanaugh when she was 15.

Marvel and Evans create a double helix from excerpts of these two hearings, which are separated by nearly 30 years yet reveal highly entrenched patriarchal patterns. Two women, summoning the courage to tell what they know about two men who are about to be entrusted with the most consequential governmental power, are put through the wringer as the political machine shifts into gear.

The actors wear in-ear monitors that feed them edited clips from the real audio of the hearings.

(Angel Origgi / REDCAT)

Marvel, one of the treasures of New York theater, takes on the role of Ford at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a run that ends Sunday. (The piece premiered at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in 2024.) At REDCAT, the superb Rosemarie DeWitt assumes Marvel’s place, standing in for Ford but never attempting anything as crass as an impersonation.

The production, under Evans’ precise direction, manages to find a tone that might be paradoxically described as emotionally resonant neutrality. Those in-ear monitors that the actors are wearing feed them edited clips from the real audio of the hearings.

Ford, a psychology professor with an expertise in biostatistics, answers prosecutorial questions about a life-altering trauma in a manner that leans on her scientific training for security. Hill, a Yale-educated lawyer asked to elaborate on the prurient conduct she was chronically subjected to at work, never loses her professional composure.

“Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter,” Ford tells Sen. Patrick Leahy when asked about the strongest memory she has of the incident. (Ford’s voice, resounding at the start of the production, keeps the brutality of the assault at the forefront of our minds.)

Hill, played by Betty Gabriel, describes the threatening nature of the unwanted advances that created such a toxic work environment. Aware of the damage that Thomas could inflict on her young career, Hill was determined to do what she could to salvage an extraordinary legal opportunity.

At times during Thursday’s performance, Gabriel appeared to stumble on her lines, but it was hard to tell because Hill is speaking extempore in the most difficult of public forums and she doubles back on her sentences, carefully parsing out her words. What both DeWitt and Gabriel honor exquisitely in their performances is the quiet integrity of these women as they willingly expose themselves to political attacks for the sake of causes greater than themselves — the truth, first and foremost, but also gender equality and the Senate’s advisory role as a cornerstone of American democracy.

The actors change not only their seats but also their roles.

(Angel Origgi / REDCAT)

Dulé Hill channels the presence of Thomas, who eventually theatrically hijacks the hearing by referring to the experience as a “high-tech lynching for uppity Blacks.” Rich Sommer gives us the voice of Kavanaugh extolling the pleasures of beer and barking at senators who pointedly ask about the extent of his drinking.

The actors change not only their seats but also their roles. The interrogated become the interrogators in a way that gets a little blurry when the focus initially shifts from Hill and Ford to Thomas and Kavanaugh. But the murkiness doesn’t last long in a production that achieves an admirable balance between objectivity and emotion, abstraction and representation.

The restraint imposed by the production adds to its power. There’s no need to editorialize. The proceedings skewer themselves.

When Sen. Alan Simpson quotes from “Othello” in defense of Thomas, he uses Shakespeare’s lyrical authority but fails to realize that he is in fact invoking the false words of the tragedy’s villain, Iago. Not that the easily impressed senators, eager to exculpate a favored man, took note of the irony.

The patriarchy cares mostly about shoring up its own power. Thomas and Kavanaugh were part of the Supreme Court majority that voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

The ending, the only time when Evans’ direction loses its poise, blares “make it right,” performed by the Tune-Yards, as Thomas and Kavanaugh, adorning themselves in black robes, find their seated place according to seniority among the nine chairs. The theatrical flourish seems jarring, but so too is the historic moment.

“The Ford/Hill Project” filled me with sadness but not despair. The bravery of Hill, who educated a nation on sexual harassment, and the emotional strength of Ford, who bared her trauma for public enlightenment, live on in the American consciousness as it progresses, in fits and starts, toward justice.